Happy 20th Birthday, Elder Bailey

Dear Elder Bailey,

Happy, Happy Birthday!  Hope you had a wonderful day.  Did you get the package we sent?  Are the pedals the right ones?  Do they work on your bike?  Matthew chose them and I ordered and sent away for them.  Hope they got to you by your actual birthday.  It was such a rush job, I think I forgot to wrap them in wrapping paper.  Please forgive me for not giving you a wrapped present to open.  

We stayed up last night watching the total eclipse of the moon.  Did you see it at all where you were?  It was unusual because it was a Harvest Moon (closest position to the earth, so it seemed larger than usual) and it was a Full Moon.  This is what we saw and we had to get down towards the lake to see it because of the mountains.  It looked hazy red because of the refracted light it continued to get through the earth's surface when earth blocked the sun.  It was called a Blood Moon by superstitious ancient peoples.  They thought it was an omen of strange and awful things shortly to happen.

Pretty cool, huh?

In a little while I will be going up to the Tabernacle to sing for Elder Richard G. Scott's funeral today.  He was such a fan of the choir.  He would come up to the choir loft after each session of Conference to shake hands and thank us for the beautiful music.  We loved him so much.  I think most of the choir will be in the loft today.

Should be an historic Conference this weekend with having three new Apostles being sustained in one meeting.  I don't think that has ever happened before.  Could be wrong. I understand that whenever Apostles are called on the same day, they have seniority by their age.  Interesting.

Michael got the walkways poured this week in his front yard.  Don't they look great?  Unfortunately, they may have tamped too hard on the pipes below the cement while they were pouring because it caused a flood in their basement.  Too bad.  Now they have to do some excavating to fix the leak.

Just an update about Elder Race Acheson:  He has had a rough time with pneumonia.  He even lost 15 pounds.  He seems to be doing better now.  He is not back to work yet, but the outlook is good.  He appreciates all of the prayers on his behalf.

Well, have a wonderful week.

Love, Mom

From Elder Bailey:

The new pedals are awesome and exactly what I wanted.  Thank you so much, Mom.  I saw you in the broadcast of the funeral and pointed you out to everyone that was there.  I’m sorry to hear about Race and hope he gets better.  We saw the moon last night and as we were riding home we met a lady and were talking to her about it.  Then she tried to argue with us about how we were wrong about thinking we were the only true church.  I’m the kind of person that can’t let them have the last word.  She was that way too.  I proved her wrong out of the Bible over and over and over,  but she just wouldn't drop it.  Afterwards my companion says to me "you were casting your pearls before swine" and I said "... I know."  But we had a couple miracles on Saturday where we found some people that are prepared to hear the message.  And a girl I helped reactivate got her mission call, but I haven't found out where she is going yet.

What I Really Want for My Birthday

September 14th, 2015

From Elder Bailey:

Here are the specs for what I’d like:

Metal white pedals. Trek 3700 bike. Pedals come in 2 sizes so if you got the wrong one then I could get the adaptor.  I really like these pedals made by Specialized but they were like $80 and I am not willing to spend that much, that's why I wanted Matt to pick them out because he knows more than me.  But what I am looking for is something sturdy, metal, and can grip my shoe in the rain, and preferably thinner and looks like a normal pedal. Nothing with screwed on pieces, as well.

FHE with Bishop Marble's Family

Sister Marble says:

"Look who is our new missionary!  
Elder Ralph and Elder Bailey 
are the coolest.

Love, the Marble Family

At Sister Janice Law's house eating while she makes clothing alterations.

Got a text message from Sister Janice Law who says: "Elder Bailey got a new companion yesterday, Elder Ralph from Lehi, Utah.  We love having Elder Bailey in our area!  Your son is training Elder Ralph.  I have been altering a bunch of Elder Bailey's clothes, so I've gotten to know him well!  He is very hard-working and obedient!  He thinks about the challenges and then gives me ideas for how we can fix them.  He's so cute because he's interested in how I stitch everything.  He makes the clothes fit better...That's great!"

Thanks for sharing him. 

Sincerely, Janice Law

This week was long and tiring.  But we had a couple miracles this week.  The most profound of all was going to the house of a less active guy and he pulled up in his Hummer behind us and invited us in.  We had not met with him in 9 weeks (that was our fault) but he told us that he was praying that we would come.  He said that we really needed to help his girlfriend he is living with to change because she is going through some hard stuff and she needs the gospel.  So that was cool.

Did you know that Chase is working at the MTC? His job is to translate instructional materials into Albanian. Pretty cool, huh? 

Here is a picture of Chase with a girl from Albania.  I think she was a house guest for 

a couple of weeks with Barbara and David 

until her apartment at BYU was ready for 

the Fall semester.
Chase labeled the picture on Facebook as 

"Two future American and Albanian Diplomats working to make American/Albanian relations better." So typical of Chase.

Tell Chase I said hi and that Elder Zeqiri of Albania says "Hi" too.  And Elder Z said he knows the Albanian girl in the picture.  Make him email me or give me his email!

Nice to Get Added Information from Arizona Spies

Dear Elder Bailey,

Hope your week went well.  That is exciting that your investigator is looking forward to baptism.  Hope things work out for her and that her father's heart is softened.

We watched the opening game for BYU -- all of its ups and downs and bad injuries and wondered if BYU had any chance at all.  Poor Taysom Hill literally gave his all to the game.  He suffered an injury to his foot in the first half that no one knew would be as bad as it was.  Anyway, it came down to literally the last second and a "Hail Mary" throw to the end zone.  That 6'6" receiver jumped up and caught it right at the end zone line but miraculously came down just inside the end zone.  What a rush for BYU fans.  What a let down for the Nebraska fans.  They had been winning until that last second.  And then, came the realization that Taysom Hill would be out for the season and possibly end his football career.  Bitter sweet.

On another note, Britton Covey did well playing for Utah in their opening game.  He got some some good play time and furthered the Utes on to their win against Michigan (I think).  Pretty good for a freshman.

Your birthday is coming up and I would like to send you a package.  Do you need anything new -- socks, garments, white shirts, slacks, shoes, exercise shorts, T-shirts, gift cards for lunch at Subway?  If you need clothes, please send me your sizes.  If you need anything else, please let me know!!!!!  I will also need to know where to send the package.  Do you think you will still be in your same address in two weeks?

Y Mountain at Sunrise

Thought you might like this photo Chase shot of sunrise coming up over Y mountain.  I love how the white Y shows up against the dark mountain.  Pretty cool, huh!!  And those clouds are gorgeous!  Have a great week.

Love, Mom

From Elder Bailey,   

I am making T-shirts for my Zone and the silk screen will be coming soon. We set up weekly splits with Ward Missionaries and that was fun.  We got a lot of work done.  We have some people that we are trying to teach that want to give us skateboards, so we will get those this week.  We didn't get to meet with the girl we put on date last week but hopefully she comes to church this week.  A girl I helped reactivate just put in her mission papers this past week and I’m so excited, and so proud of her.  I don't know what I want for my birthday, maybe bike pedals.  But you would need to get with Matt on that because I would want BMX pedals because those are the toughest and nicest (or just what I like).  If I’m going to replace parts it might as well be an upgrade. 

          

Working on T-Shirts?

At FHE with Marble Family.

This next email is from Sister Kamberlynne Washburn via her mother Catherine Washburn.  So nice to have information from spies:

My Arizona spy sent great info this week! !! Here you go!!!

“We also had a long choir practice this week. It was an eternity long. I was in charge of putting together a musical number, and I am playing the piano for it. Guess who I asked to sing with the group! ELDER BAILEY! Yep, he is awesome! I finally got to talk to him, and he is SUCH a good elder. I wish that we were serving in the same area! He is funny and righteous. Also a good singer so that made a difference. Especially when he learned both the bass and tenor parts in like fifteen minutes! HALLELUJAH! He's cool.”