"Keep a Revelation book"

Side street in Califorina--I really miss the  mountains and nature.

Tu eres mi Madre?

HI MOM :) I am glad to hear that your New Year is starting off strong with some great goals.  I know you can complete them all and receive the blessing and growth you want. You sound like how we sound when we weekly plan!  If it's not too much to add I would love to suggest you keep a "revelation book".  It doesn't have to be big or fancy, mine is just moleskin from target that I carry around, but every time you receive guidance, revelation, or see a tender mercy in your life, write it down!  This shows the Lord you treat revelations as sacred and He will trust you in giving more.  I have already seen this in my own work and I can't wait to come home and show you my revelation book!  It is a
goal I want to keep for the rest of my life.


Well, on the topic of Ano Nuevo ours was pretty normal.  We had a curfew to be in by 7 so I got a lot of extra time to study and relax.  Weird that study and relax are in the same sentence.  But, it was not a quite New Years.  Latinos love to party. That's their thing...so all night (I mean the whole 8 hours I was trying to sleep and the early hours in the morning) they had music playing all over the valley.  Side note--I have yet to find Latino music bareable.  All of it is, tubas, trumpets, accordions, and someone trying to sing...Its the dumps.  SO that was a night of little sleep.

New favorite thing--Study time

We have been dropping a lot of our investigators this week.  It has been hard but they are just not progressing.  I wrote a small note in my revelation book about it all.  I said "I taught you how to oar.  I found you floating alone and I taught you.  I showed you the paddles and the direction you needed to go. I stood on the shore shouting and crying "Please come this way there is joy and safety."  I leaped when you said you wanted to come, that you would paddle and try.  But I fell to my knees in sorrow as you just held the paddles and drifted away.  Still yelling back to me "Ya I will try", "I want this",  "Show me the way".  But nevertheless drifting further and further away."

We give our investigators paddles (scriptures, pray) and show them how to use them.  But ultimately we cannot paddle for them.

Nevertheless we have found success in finding new people who will accept our message. One story which was just great happened while we were riding our bikes.  We saw a man with a bunch of tools around his car.  It turns out he had a flat tire.  "If only we knew a missionary who was a certified tire expert...rats. OH WAIT!"  So anyways I changed his tire and he gave us lunch and listened to our message.  It was such a tender mercy to actually use the skills I have from my past to help those who are ready to hear the gospel.

Spanish is really coming along.  I am reading everyday in my Libro de Mormon and can already see the blessing of showing the Lord I am serious about becoming fluent.  I want to master this language and use it as another tool for my work here. Sorry if there are spelling errors and stuff.  The bad thing about learning another language is I now have twice as many words to misspell!

Everything is well here. I honestly wake up every day with so much joy and optimism. I can't wait to have this sense of purpose for the rest of my life. I can't pretend to be a missionary for these 2 years if I don't truly intend to serve as one for the rest of my life. I love this work. I am not perfect at it but I love it. Thanks for the support and love Mom. You mean the world to me.

Con Amor
Elder Bagley

Elder Speth with our landlord's dog.

Old favorite thing...cold ceral and Star Wars