Conference was stunning

Mother dearest,

Conference:  Oh it was so great, so comforting and so spiritually tailored to me.  I feel bad that the rest of the world had to listen to "my" conference but maybe we can all learn something ;)

I didn't bring my notes with me so I can't make too much commentary on the talks but I do remember some very powerful moments.

• ·       Elder Holland bringing the heat as always…"Man creating God in his own image."

• ·       Elder Scott teaching very simply how we can teach the doctrines of Christ with power and simplicity.  The moment when he raised his hand and just said "Simple!"

• ·       Elder Christofferson’s power and descriptive testimony about the resurrection of Christ. When he quoted from Jesus the Christ I really felt like I was there.

• ·       Elder Oaks in priesthood blew my mind when he mentioned the "priesthood keys of creation and resurrection."  Really inspires some great thought about the sanctity of marriage and procreation powers.

• ·       Elder Ballard and his call to "follow-up".  He is a great missionary and has done so much to help this mission, through counsel and personal letters to President.  Crack open Preach My Gospel and study with me!  I am reviewing Chapter 2 trying to learn how to study better :)

• ·       I also thought the Spirit was so strong when President Monson thanked Heavenly Father in his closing address of the fourth session.  It felt so personal and sincere.  I learned a lot in that simple giving of gratitude.

All in all it was wonderful.  I can't wait to review and learn more in the months to come!  But one special moment really stuck out to me that I want to share.

In between the first and second Saturday sessions we got transfer calls and I learned I will be transferred to a bike area:(  and Elder Spears we be staying to serve as a district leader (I am so happy for him!). I started kind of freaking out.  I am going to have a new area, companion, form of transportation, members, District, house…the list goes on.  I was starting to get scared. I went into the second session with fear in my heart and was praying that it would leave me.  That I could see the good and that God would help me see all of this as the blessing it truly is.  After my short plea to the Lord, Elder Nelson got up to speak. Never in my life have I felt so personally cared for.  So powerfully comforted and aided.  Throughout his talk he addressed the question of fear and faith. “Who or what are we tied to?”  I love Elder Spears, I love the members, and I even love our apartment. Am I tying myself to those things?  “Who am I putting my faith in?”  Then after all had been said and I thought that I could not physically handle any more spiritual impressions, Elder Nelson mentions Jordan's mom.

I have never met Emily but I have heard a lot about her.  Out of all the farewell talks I have been to, Jordan's sticks out in my mind.  He was the first person that I knew and felt personally involved with that would serve a mission.  I remember how I felt when he bore his testimony about the faith of his mother.  I don't remember the words or the subject but I remember that feeling.  I have always looked up to Jordan and now in this moment of fear and doubt I was blessed to hear of his mother and her testimony of faith.  That in turn bringing back such strong spiritual memories of someone I look up to.  How loving is our Father in Heaven?  That in my moment of weakness and pride he would bless me with a tender mercy I will never forget.

Conference was stunning.

But in terms of the week things are going well.  We had ZTM (zone training meeting) and turns out we found 203 new investigators the month of March.  That is a mission record.  It was very good to hear that many people choose to investigate.  I am getting some packing done today and am enjoying the last bit of time I have to serve with Elder Spears.  He has been a wonderful companion and I am so grateful for him.  I have to dust off the bike and get back into the mindset of pedaling around.  It will be fun and kind of a flashback!  I am also headed to Target today to buy a new bike lock...just to be sure ;)

This next week we will be having Kent F Richards come to personally trains our mission and I am so excited!  These weeks are just packed with spiritual fuel right when I needed it!  I hope my hand can keep up with all of the note taking.

Love you Mom.  I too smiled during Conference to know that we were doing the same thing at the same time.  Conference brings the family together.  Tune in for details about the new area!  Talk to you soon.

Elder Bagley

Packing up lunch/treats to watch conference at the stake center.

Eating lunch out on the lawn of the stake center.

More snacks...

Preaching Dan Jones style

A cop told us this was a bullet hole from a shoot out in October...cool.

Happy Birthday Caesar Chavez

Hello Mom,

Well it’s me again.  I feel like I was just on this computer yesterday.  I love it but man time is flying.

Sorry we didn't email yesterday, it was Caesar Chavez' birthday so the library was closed. We not 100% sure who that is but somewhere along the lines of giving Mexicans more rights it’s what we've decided.  Who knows?  We can't read up on him or anything so that's what we are going with.  Long story short; blame him for getting a late email ;)

This email is going to be a spacey one so prepare.  I am not really in P-day mode.

We had interviews with President this week.  I love that man.  He has some great advice and nothing but love.  He was really impressed with the work of Elder Spears and me.  He kept congratulating us on the success and it felt good to hear his happiness in our work. It helps give me a small picture of what God thinks of what we have done.  Finishing up March we were proud to say we gave 903 people the chance to hear the Restored Gospel. We are happy with it.  1000 won't be too far off ;)

We had a cleaning check on our apartment and received an A!  The Dalton's never give A's and they asked if we were the Zone leaders because of how nice our pad looked ha-ha.  I just thought you would like to know about that part of your son…the clean part. 

"A" on cleaning check!

"ZOTE" Mexican soap that is awesome for anything ha-ha

I am getting "Area fever".  It’s like cabin fever but for an area.  I have been here a very long time and I am starting to be a little too involved in people’s lives here.  I know their names, their apartment codes, their pets, when they are moving, their work schedules.  I know it all.  One of the drunks here even said "Man I see you guys everywhere, we're practically family!"  For this reason I think I will be transferred this next week.  We'll see ha-ha

Missionaries are perfect inspirations for exercise.  People see us and start running.  It’s hilarious.  We might not be inspiring repentance but at least people are getting moving. We watched this guy play frogger with a busy street just to get away from us ha-ha.  It’s a delight…a bitter sweet delight. 

Calling on investigators

Stuffing our faces because we didn't have time for dinner in our pad.

We had a second little earthquake.  Again it was while we were praying...coincidence?  I think not!

One of our investigator's kid asked Elder Spears if he had seen "300" and his brother said "Marcos!  Do you really think people of God watch movies like that?"  I died laughing. They are the cutest kids and their parents are super prepared for the gospel.  The Mom told us they are looking for something more but don't know where to find it.  She asked if we could help because they always feel happy and joyful when we are around.  Gabe, the dad, said for some reason he thinks something big is going to happen in his life when he turns 30 (he's 28).  I just started tearing up because even though he doesn't know, all I could think about was his family being sealed in the temple.  I know that's the big thing God has planned for Gabriel's family.  I hope God lets me teach them more...

Salvadora is doing great!  She went to the women's broadcast and has been chipping away at her book of Mormon.  Her eyes really don't allow her to read a lot but she is doing what she can.  We are teaching her slowly but the love from the ward and our prayers are really making a difference in her.  She knows this is good, she knows the book of Mormon is where she can find answers, but most of all she knows that God listens to her prayers.  We are very blessed to know her and teach her.  She will make a great member.  We can't wait till her eye surgery because when she heals she is going to tear through the book of Mormon.  It will be great!

We are so pumped for conference.  We even bought some snacks yesterday.  It’s a big deal buying things that aren't super healthy so that's the scale of excitement we are dealing with here.  Also MoTab has been what we are listening to just to build the anticipation.  Gosh, I am so excited.  I need conference so bad ha-ha I am running dry and the Liahona from lasts conference is a little used.  We will watch conference in the stake center down the road…in English too.  So that will be really nice.  It will be great.

Love you Mom.  Things are well here.  Sorry you had to wait a day.  I hope you weren't freaking out and calling the President ;) (he knows me to well) Talk to you next week!

Elder Bagley

Cooking beans

Making breakfast...he still doesn't look like much of a morning person.

I bought these Mexican leather sandal shoes. They are awesome...tan comodo!

Overload of love

Hello Mum

 

Wow what can I say?  Every preparation day is just an overload of love.  I get out of the library and need to take a breather sometimes.  Its the greatest :)

 

Thanks for the snail mail.  It was all gone by the end of nightly planning!

 

And just a quick note with headaches.  They are chill.  I repeat, they are chill. No need to worry.  I mean I get them sometimes but everyone does.  Turns out we found that MSG was the culprit on that one.  The day that the headaches became super bad and I went to the hospital I ate like 4 easy macs (bad decision, oh such a bad decision) turns out they are basically straight MSG.  SO after that OD, you could say, my body was just trying to catch up to being normal with normal levels of sodium.

 

So long story short, all is well :) No more MSG.  Which is a piece of cake!

 

Sorry if my grammar is still super bad, but I am now trilingual.  Soak it up.  Keeping it all straight in my head is rough.  I don't mean to brag but its pretty awesome!  Ha-ha but really I just know how to speak a little Armenian.  It's a very hard language but we have a lot of Armenian people here so we were trying to learn from them when we met on the streets.  Turns out the only Armenian missionaries that our outside of Armenia are in the mission next to us.  So they came over and taught us how to communicate really basically with the people.  Nothing shows someone you love them then speaking to them in their tongue.  Serious. Armenians are hard, rough people but the second you say breve zez!  They just light up.  I love it.

 

I may not show it through my email, but I really do read and soak up what I read.  Sorry I can't respond to all the little details but that doesn't mean that I don't cherish them.

 

The work here is moving along.  We are working hard to exercise our faith.  And God is working hard to bless us.  I can't remember if I already told you about Salvadora.  We found her after we had been fasting and praying for someone to baptize.  Turns out she was praying too.

 

But anyways, SUPER long story short.

 

Fasted after 3 week of no investigators.

 

Started to break mission records of people contacted.

 

Picked up 14 new investigators in the past 2 weeks.

 

One of which is going to be baptized on the 13th.

 

My faith in finding has never been stronger.  Faith is power.  Faith makes men steadfast and makes things happen.  Nephi used faith to gain knowledge.  Moses used faith to save the children of Israel.  And I will use faith to move God's work forward.

 

Sorry this email is kind of light.  I don't have a lot to say more then I have.  I wish I could just share every contact, every lesson, every miracle with you, but sadly I don't have the time or the brainpower.  These 2 hours are already too short.  But I can share with you how much I love you.  How much you mean to me.  And how much I will forever be giving thanks to God for the chance I have to be your son.

 

Elder Bagley

 

So I'm sorry if this one is a little scattered.   You know how it goes.  But I wanted to share a little story with you before I go.

 

Salvadora our investigator with a baptismal date has super bad eyes and can't read very well.  We got her a big font Book of Mormon and she just held it to her chest like is was a baby all lesson.  When we got to the point where we would read some of it I was praying and praying that she wouldn't struggle to hard and that the Lord would help her see and understand.  She struggled.  Oh it was hard to watch.  My heart ached watching it.  Here is this woman, who prayed the missionaries to her door, just so she could be baptized and she can't read the Book of Mormon.  As I was thinking and praying how I could help I was reminded.  "Mitchell, you know how to read.  What are you doing?!" I felt so stupid and selfish.  So I ran over to her and knelt by her seat and pointed and read each word to her pausing to explain and teach.  She understood the doctrine and was confident she could reread the chapter by herself.

 

It took us 20 minutes to get through Moroni 6 which is like 9 verses.  But I have never been so touched.  It was so precious to me to be next to her teaching her to read a book I don't fully understand, in a language I am very new at all so she could realize her goal of being baptized.  God knows his tools perfectly.  We just have to trust that he does.

Earthquake central, but all is well

WELL HEEELLOOO (read it like Mrs. Doubtfire)

So great to hear from you my dear Mother. Your words are such a refreshing break!

First off, thank you so much for the birthday package. Man it was great :) Every package I get I am reminded how thoughtful and creative you are. We love the CD. It is beautiful. The jam also is golden. Elder Spears appreciates it. Sometimes he is more bear than human. The Cake in a Can (that’s what I’m calling it) was a swing and a miss. I think it might have been because I got the package a little late. But I loved the effort! Means a lot.

So I read Lu's email about the earthquake concern so I will share with you what I sent to her.

Words of our dear President:

"Yesterday morning there was a 3.9 magnitude earthquake centered at the north end of our mission by Castaic Lake and this morning there was a 4.7 magnitude earthquake centered just beyond the southern boundary of our mission.  Welcome to California!"

Earthquakes are awesome.  We are expecting a 7.7 aftershock pretty soon here. So down to contact with "the end is near" scriptures.  It reminds me of D&C 38:30, “if ye are prepared ye shall not fear.”

We all have the proper preparation to be safe. Emergency preparedness packs, water, and safe havens. The Lord will not let us be hurt.  BUT California might just slip into the ocean...bunch of wicked sinners over here ;) All is well. The work goes on :)  No damage.  We actual had the earthquake while we were praying.  Unfortunately we weren't the cause of it, although that would have been awesome.

Thanks for all the news about the family!  I love hearing about all the going ons :)  I actually see a lot of you in my dreams all the time.  Sometimes you are helping me contact and then times you're speaking Spanish.  It always takes a couple minutes to shake it off in the morning.

I don't know what I could say to sum up this week.  We were 8 shy of talking to 300 people which makes us really happy to see.  But most importantly we picked up 9 new investigators.  The Lord has finally rewarded a portion of our faith and work and we now have people to teach again.

One Hermana in specific sticks out.  We found her knocking doors and had a lesson with her.  We found out she has been to church various times in Utah, Salvador, and California.  She told us she was praying that the missionaries would find her so that she could be baptized like her son was.  We set a fecha with her on the 30th of Marzo and are excited for the opportunity to be a part of her progression to that amazing life step.

This week was a little weird to be honest.  I realized that I don't know how to react to seeing miracles.  All I know is the work part.  It is a humbling experience to receive the signs of your faith even though you pray and work for them.  My nightly prays are very humbling.  I work every minute to find people to teach and I expect those prepared people to surface, but when you actually find them...it reveals a lot about the character of our Father in Heaven.  His love and power to bless his children with the miracles they need.  I told God I was going to work. I am just happy he lets me.

Love you Mom.  Thanks for preparing me with your example to be the kind of missionary God needed at this time.  I am constantly reminded of precious moments growing up that didn't hold value then but now become power beams for my testimony.  Give the family my love.

Verdadero y fiel

EB