You Won't Believe it!

Hi people!

So, when I was sick, before the decision was made to send me home, I received a transfer call that told me I would be moving to an area called "Singal" (pronounced: Sheengar). However, because I ended up getting on a plane and going home, I never had the opportunity to serve in that area-- until now! This week we received transfer calls and I am now serving in Singal! It's just cool to see how everything has come full circle. I always wondered what it would be like to serve in this area but now I have the opportunity to actually serve here. And, as if that isn't exciting enough, guess who my new companion is...

I am serving with Sister Brocious! We're both from good ol' American Fork and we played high school soccer together for four years. I had to introduce myself in sacrament meeting this week and the whole ward was probably more excited about the fact that we knew each other before the mission than we were (which is hard to do because we were pretty excited). 

When all the men in the ward heard that we were both soccer players they practically had a heart attack. There's supposed to be a big soccer activity this upcoming weekend with all the young men and we got invited to it at least twelve different times. So, to say I am incredibly excited would be an understatement. 

This week a lot of the thoughts bouncing around my head were about the Holy Ghost and "timing." Sister Brocious and I were talking about the importance of the Holy Ghost and we decided that one of the most valuable gifts we can obtain is the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. When we get confirmed after we are baptized, we are promised to always have the spirit with us as long as we remain worthy of its company. So I made it a personal goal to really work on living in such a manner that I am worthy of that constant companionship. Everything we do will either welcome the spirit into our day-to-day lives or drive it away. When we are making a conscious effort to keep that spirit with us, I believe that we will be blessed beyond anything we can even imagine. As a missionary I feel an extra desire to have that spirit with me so that it can guide me and direct me in the work that I am doing. As long as you have the spirit with you, you can know that you are doing exactly what the Lord wants you to do exactly when He needs you to do it. (Now I just want everyone to take the time to go read 2 Nephi 32:5!) 

As for timing-- we had several different minor incidents this week where we were late for something or where we changed the game plan up a bit and because of the change in plans, we were able to meet people that we needed to meet. We were absolutely amazed by the little miracles we saw just because we were at the right place at the right time. I definitely have a testimony of trusting the Lord and trusting His timing. He's the one in charge, He's the one pulling all the strings--  it's our job to merely constantly confide in Him through prayer and to receive instruction from Him through diligently studying. He wants what is best for us and sometimes our idea of "what's best" is very different from His. But He is perfect and all-knowing, so it only makes sense that what He has in store for us is far greater than we could ever imagine. 

This is His work. I know it with all my heart. And I know that He loves each and everyone of us. He listens to our prayers, He knows our hearts, He's constantly giving us opportunities to learn and to grow, and He blesses us every single day. I'm seeing His blessings pouring down on my life right now and I really cannot even express how grateful to know that He lives and that He loves me! 

I hope everyone had a good week. Wish Sister Brocious and I luck as we work on our lacking soccer skills for the upcoming week. ;) 

Love you!

xoxo,

Sister CaLea Bagley

Another Week Has Passed... How?!

Hi everyone!

Okay, so this past week was really sneaky and managed to slip by without us even noticing. On Saturday night when Sister Tovar asked, "Is tomorrow Sunday?" I think my head almost exploded. 

We had an exchange this week with the Sister training leaders in our zone and that was a really cool experience. Sister Tovar went to their area and Sister Holdaway came here to Boondong with me. I was actually really nervous about it too because we had a couple of  appointments scheduled back-to-back and I wasn't 100% sure how to travel from one appointment to the next. (This was also my first time taking the lead in the area.) 

Anyways, long story short, we ended up making it to the first appointment on time, but I was exceptionally more nervous about navigating our way to the second area from the first. (It required a couple of bus transfers and some walking to get to the place we intended to go...) Anyway, I managed to get us on the first bus that we needed to be on and we were able to transfer to the second bus we needed to be on pretty easily. At that point, however, I was really stressed about getting off the bus at the right stop. I was worried because I couldn't exactly remember where the members lived and I couldn't seem to put all the pieces of the puzzle together to the point where the map of that particular area was making sense in my head. At one of the bus stops we passed, I had a distinct impression to get off of the bus... I even vocalized that thought to Sister Holdaway-- BUT I didn't listen to the prompting. I thought, at that point, that I had everything under control. Big surprise: I most certainly did not! A couple of bus stops later, we realized that we had passed the stop we were trying to go to. We frantically pushed the "stop" button on the bus, got off, crossed the street, decided that waiting for another bus would take too long, then began to briskly walk/run back in the direction that we had come. At that point I was pretty frantic and confused-- and what made it worse was the thought that we were likely going to be late to our appointment. It was all pretty hectic for a bit before I finally found enough common sense to stop where we were at, say a prayer, and then check the map again. 

As soon as we did that, we knew exactly where we were and exactly where we needed to go to get to our desired destination. I think "the importance of prayer" is one of those life-lessons I'll never stop learning. How often do we wander down dark, unknown streets relying on our own limited knowledge when all we have to do is remember to turn to the Lord through prayer so He can guide us to where we need to go? That's a lesson I learned this week. 

We got to go to the temple this week! It was my first time getting to go since being back in Korea. I love that place so much. I have been worrying about lots of little things over the course of the past couple of weeks, so being in the temple was a big blessing to me because it brought so much peace into the hectic whir of thoughts and emotions that have been cluttering my mind. How lucky are we to have so many temples? Pretty lucky, I'd say. 

My MTC district hit their in-country- year-mark this week. Isn't that absolutely crazy? They all still consider me a part of the family even though I am a couple of months behind. It's so crazy that all my mission friends are now starting to be considered "older" missionaries. I swear, we were all just barely at the MTC and we'll probably feel like brand new missionaries right up until the end. There's just so much to learn still, I suppose. :)

Well, I'm doing well. Spring officially started in Korea this week-- it's been  pretty warm here up until the last couple of days. (We're in the middle of a cold spurt but I'm sure it will warm up again soon.) I am so grateful for the opportunity Heavenly Father has given me to be one of His full-time missionaries. I've said it before and I'll say it again: this is the greatest adventure I have ever been on... and what a BLESSING it has been (and continues to be) in my life!

I hope all is well with you, wherever you may be this week.

xoxo, 

Sister Bagley

Hello February!

See ya, January. 

My heavens. Can you belive that a whole year ago I was stepping off a plane into the land of Korea for the first time? SO MUCH has happened since then... and yet I swear it hasn't been a whole year already. It's funny to look back to the Sister Bagley then and remember the expectations and plans that used to be dancing through my brain-- things happened much differently than I expected but I wouldn't change it for the world. I am one of those people who fully believese that EVERYTHING happens for a reason and that there are no such things as coincidences. 

I also am a firm believer that we are blessed with extra strength, knowledge, and capabilities when we need them in order to help those around us. We had an english member in the hospital this past week. Thanks to my many experiences in the hospital on my own behalf, I have a little collection of hospital vocabulary that I was able to offer to them as an assistance. Sister Tovar and I were down at the assistance desk trying to figure out an interpreter situation for them when I was struck with this overwhelming sense of gratitude for the help that Heavenly Father gives us in every aspect of our missionary work. Like, yeah, I have a LOT to work on when it comes to getting this language down, but there are always moments in which He helps the words come to mind and when He helps us to understand the things that are being said to us so we can more fully help those who are around us. It's so humbling to see how much He helps us on a day-to-day basis. I'm grateful to know that I have a Heavenly Father who not only knows me and loves me, but who gives me opportunities every single day to grow, improve, and become more like the Sister CaLea Bagley that HE knows I can be. 

Time is passing fast and slow all at the same time. I'm not sure how I feel about that. But I guess the advice I keep giving myself is this: make the most out of every moment you're given. If you think about it, with every passing moment, things change. So if you want to enjoy every moment, you've got to enjoy it as it is. 

I'm grateful for this gospel! I know that it blesses me every single day and that it has influenced every aspect of my life since the day I was born. For that, I will forever be grateful. I love being a missionary. I hope everything is well with you, wherever you may be. 

xoxo,

Sister CaLea Bagley

Being a Missionary is SO COOL.

I'm not sure if there are words in the English vocabulary that are adequate enough to even begin explaining what has happened this week. In fact, I'd even be bold enough to say that I doubt there are words in any language that could do the trick.

As a mission, we've really been focusing on increasing our number of teaching opportunities each week. Our mission goal for a given week is to get at least ten different opportunities to teach-- whether they are lessons with investigators or practice lessons with members. This week we were blessed with the numerous opportunities to teach. The actual number of lessons is not important, but what really stood out to me was merely the fact that by teaching more, we saw a significant difference in the way that our lessons went as a whole. 

I can't tell you how many times I ended up with tears poking at my eyes and threatening to slip down my cheeks this week. I guess that by really striving to reach the goal we set for the number of lessons we wanted to teach this week, we were showing Heavenly Father how much we trusted Him. We began the week by prayerfully setting goals with Him and by merely putting forth our best effort to accomplish those goals, we were able to invite the spirit into our lessons in a way I've never really experienced before. I can honestly say that on several different occasions I heard a voice in my head telling me exactly what I needed to say. There was one experience, in particular, where one of our sweet ward members met us at the church so we could teach her a practice lesson. We'd taught two back-to-back lessons that day already so we handed her the three lesson pamphlets and asked her to pick what she wanted us to teach. After careful consideration she turned to the page in the third lesson's pamphlet that had the title, "Sacrament Meeting." 

When we teach lessons to people I think it's really important to meet each individual's needs. We don't just teach the same lesson to every person we meet. We make lesson plans, but more often than not we end up straying from those plans when the spirit directs us to do so.

It was really interesting because we hadn't exactly prepared to teach for that specific principle and so neither of us was really sure what we were going to say... or what we should say... but my companion just looked at me and said, "You lead." I had no idea how I was going to lead into the lesson, but as we offered the opening prayer, I just got the feeling that it was going to be okay. 

The lesson ended up being the best lesson we'd taught all day. We shared personal experiences and a couple of scriptures, and right at the end of the lesson, I was overcome with this feeling of love for this woman and all that she is doing to help build up God's kingdom here in Korea. And as suddenly as that feeling came, the thought, "Tell her that her Heavenly Father loves her and that He is so proud of her." Also came to my head. I couldn't ignore it and I couldn't hold back the tears as the words left my mouth. None of us could.

It's so cool to get to be a missionary and to see how the gospel has blessed the lives of others. It's also just really cool to get to be doing the Lord's work. He's sharing the fruits of HIS labors with us as missionaries by giving us opportunities to teach, learn, grow, and witness the miracles that He brings to pass. I love this work. 

One of the lessons we prepared for an investigator this week was focused on scripture study and prayer. It's funny because these two things are so frequently mentioned and yet I feel as if we could never be reminded enough of their importance. I always refer to prayer and scripture study as our way of communicating with our Heavenly Father. In every person's life there is a plethora of relationships-- friends, family, coworkers, neighbors-- you name it. I personally think that the most important aspect of any relationship is communication. If you're not communicating with someone, your relationship fades. I've had way too many friendships in my life kind of just slip away just because we lost contact. And the relationship in my life that are still prominent are prominent because we've stayed in close contact.

I think that our relationship with Heavenly Father, in this sense, is no different than any other relationship in our life. If we want to strengthen our relationship with Him, we've got to communicate with Him. If we want to keep our relationship with Him from fading, we've got to communicate with Him. He doesn't command us to "Pray Always" and to "Study the Scriptures" just to give us more stuff to do, He gives us those commandments as tools that we can use to enrich every aspect of our lives. Because He loves us, He gives us a way to always keep in touch with Him. 

So I am grateful for the opportunity that our Heavenly Father gives me every single day to communicate with Him. And I'm grateful that He takes the time for me. Even though He's got a million other people to worry about, He worries about me. 

My thoughts are all over the place, but like always, I'm a happy missionary. There is nothing else in the world I'd rather be doing right now. There's nowhere else I'd rather be. During those months at home I prayed for the ability to not only be a missionary again, but for the opportunity to be a BUSY missionary. And goodness gracious, I got my answer. The Lord is blessing me in this work every single day and I don't think I am even capable of recognizing all the ways in which He is blessing me. 

I have a testimony of this gospel! I know that it is true. I know that it changes lives. And most of all, I know that it helps us to draw closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ, as we strive to abide by the things that it teaches us.

Sister Bagley is happy here in Korea. 

I'm sending lots of prayers your way. 

xoxo,

Sister Bagley