Thanks for the love you send

Thanks for the love you send. Email's Letters, packages.  They are all really appreciated.  Te amo.

So this week was a great one.  A lot going on but it really turned out to be a great end to the transfer.  With transfer news, I will be staying as a Zone Leader and Elder Worthington is moving to be a Zone Leader AND a District Leader.  He is a little stressed about the extra load but hey, the Lord leads his work how he wants to. This transfer is going to be the craziest I have had.  We have had 8 missionaries either end their missions or get sent home in the past 6 weeks not to mention all the missionaries who are finished serving.  Long story short everything is going to be flipped upside down.  Plus we are moving pads.  But I am ready for some changes.  It's about time for something new :)  OH,  also the first wave of new Spanish elders is coming since I came in.  Yay.  I think Elder Spears is going to be training too!  It's a possibility he can come to our zone.  We'll see.  Fun fun fun :)

Wow, Mom this week was great.  We taught so much, found a ton, had great morning studies, member dinners, and baptized Francisco!  YAY!  I loved it all.  To start though, teaching was so good this week.  I finally feel like I have control over the doctrines I am teaching.  Plus Spanish isn't a barrier anymore but rather a really great tool to explain myself and the lessons even better.  We have had a lot of great members involved in our teaching too.  They help so much to understand the investigator and give them instant support and love with commitments.

We found a lot of great new investigators this week as well.  We have a few baptismal dates set up for September which is great.  In the Lords work you really have to be looking 1 to 2 months in advance if you want to make good goals.

My studies have been really, really strong lately.  Every morning I just get re-driven and revived. I have been getting a lot out of Nephi's quoting of Isaiah.  There is so much there that I always skipped over because "Isaiah never makes sense".  Ha-ha but now there is so much to learn about covenants, gathering of Israel, and the character of the Savior.  I love it all…can't wait till I can study with my iPad :)

So this week we had MLC (missionary leadership council, basically the Jedi Counsel) and ZTM (zone training meeting). Both went really well. I am pleased to look back and see how I use to handle and train with ZTM and how I am working with it now. I have grown a lot.

ZTM was great.  I'll send pictures but we had a great training on "Lesson Plans" and "treasuring up doctrine". Plus the Hermanas reminded us about how much we love the people we serve by dressing like Mexicans and talking about our favorite Latino things. It was great.

"Dressing like Mexicans and talking about our favorite Latino things"

So Francisco got baptized!  And it was just perfect.  Everything flowed perfectly and the ward was so supportive.  Honestly it couldn't have gone better.  A bunch of non-members showed up as well, including his family.  It was the best baptismal service I have seen and I'm not trying to be bias.  Francisco loved it.  He leaned over to me and said, "I wish this could last longer."  It was great seeing how the ward just soaked him up.  Hermana Moran calls him "mi amor, and mijo".  He truly does have a second family here.  Before the actually ordinance I sang a duet with Hermana Hudson.  It was "A Child's Pray" in Spanish.  It was really out of my character but after she asked me to do it I felt like I would regret it if I said no.  So it was really cool to do that.  After that we had the actually ordinance and it was so great!  He's baptized :) YAY.  It was all so perfect. I loved it.  And I love him.  Sadly we haven't broken the news yet that Elder Worthington is leaving.  We are doing that tonight.  Not looking forward to that.  Not one bit.

All is well over here. I was studying the other day and I fell in love with 1 Nephi 20:10 "For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction."  I really feel like I am getting refined.  Sure I have afflictions but more than anything I have growth and refinement.  I have given up a lot to be a missionary: my family, my job, school, friends, girlfriend, my music, long-boarding.  But all those things were blessings that I have already received from the Lord, I'm just giving them back.  If I truly want to be more than just a good missionary I need to give my heart, and my will.  My agency is not God's.  He doesn't already have that.  But if I can learn to surrender my will, my wants, dreams and desires, then take up his.  I will be more than a good missionary; I'll be a good servant, a true tool in the Lords hands.  Without that kind of consecration, these 2 years will benefit me nothing.  Gosh I love this work Mom.  I really do.  Every day is just wonderful and full of good..pure, loving good.

Te amo

Elder Bagley