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| Diana and her children. Her one-year-old was asleep and missing from this picture. |
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Diana was baptized this week. Diana's baptism was ok. It was disappointing the turn out; only
like 20 people went, because there was a huge snowstorm. And of course,
president came and got to see how great of a job we did inviting people to her
baptism, ha-ha. But it’s ok; it still went all well. Hermano Rubio got to
baptize her, and everyone showed up about 30 minutes late, but at least those
20 people got there at all. There were no issues leading up to it. She is
awesome. One lady came up to us on Sunday and said we shouldn’t baptize her,
because she saw her at Wal-Mart walking around with her kids and a guy. We
explained to the woman that talking to a guy isn't breaking the law of chastity,
and she could still get baptized. It's no wonder that so much gossip spreads
around in these branches!
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| WHERE is his coat? |
Well, it turns out Utah is a weird place. It rained this
week when it was 20 degrees and created an ice storm. I didn't even know those
existed, but it’s the first time Utah has had one in over ten years. Basically
what happened was all the snow/roads were covered in a layer of ice. So it was
just black ice everywhere. Tons of people just stayed in their house all day,
because it was hard to walk without slipping. I don't think I met anyone out
here that went outside without falling. It was sooo slippery. Even a couple
older people in our ward slipped, but no one was hurt so that was good. They
are thinking it might happen again in the next couple months. It was funny; you
saw lots of people sliding around on the ground in parking lots, because they
didn’t want to slip and fall.
So this week we had exchanges right off the bat. I went with
an elder from Mesa, AZ. He is training another elder right now, and I just
found out they are both staying this coming transfer again. They have both have
struggled to get to work this transfer, and it’s hard for me to know what to do
to help get them motivated. I think it’s safe to say I failed this transfer at
helping them get to work since it never really happened. But they are here
again, so maybe it will happen this transfer. I took him to my area, and we
just had a few lessons where I taught by myself. Elder Martinez came back
pretty frustrated with some of the shopping activities they had planned from him
in their area instead of missionary work. It was a hard week. That district
meeting the day before, I had mainly talked about wasting time and not doing
things that aren’t going to influence key indicators. It didn't stick I guess,
so I addressed that in district meeting this week.
District meeting was rough. I wasn't too happy. Our zone
needs to quadruple its numbers before we even begin to compare to the other
zones of our mission. I feel like I need to do my part but am still lost on
how. I guess I will just learn. I need to train on lots of finding this next
transfer since no one has any investigators. Both our zone leaders are staying,
and we planned zone study together to get started this transfer a little
better. A lot more focus on Preach My Gospel and no more wasting time. I hope
things change for this zone; it really needs to pick up. I trained yesterday on
the 8 fundamentals. I had asked each companionship to prepare ten minutes to
talk about one of the fundamentals. First they wouldn't choose, because they
didn’t know what they were. So I gave them one to talk about two days before.
Then we got to district meeting, and they hadn’t prepared and talked for about
two minutes and sat down. The other companionship didn't even show up for
district meeting. So, I just wasn't too happy, and I didn't yell or anything,
but I made it pretty clear to the one companionship that was there that we need
to stop wasting our time and the Lord’s and step it up next transfer. I haven't
really been that bold in any meetings but being subtle hasn't worked either, so
I'm not sure how to do it. They gave me feedback and said that I need to be
more loving and all that mushy stuff, so I guess I saw that coming. So I need
to be better about loving people, and then maybe they will be more likely to
apply the trainings that I give. That's what I will work on this transfer.
So I had a dream that will probably make my family laugh. I
had a dream I looked in the mirror, and my teeth had gotten crooked from not
wearing a retainer, and I woked up and ran to the bathroom to check, and they
were still ok. It was just kind of funny afterwards that it scared me that much
that my teeth were crooked.
So we were planning for zone study, and I found a district
meeting in the scriptures. In Alma 31, they discuss the concerns of their
investigators, then pray together, and go get to work. Then they all clap their
hands on each other to get the Spirit. So I am not sure how we can apply that
yet, but it was just cool to see district leader Alma preparing his fellow
elders.
We taught the Carrera family this week, and the mom still
can't comprehend getting baptized again. And the husband still works too much
for lessons, so the three kids are where we are going to try with now. They
said they aren't sure yet, but they might come to church. Well they wouldn’t
open the door for Hermano Rubio so we will see what happens in our lesson with
them tonight.
We found one woman tracting from Argentina. She is a returned
missionary and has a nine-year-old that isn't baptized. We taught her. I guess she
got offended once, and now she doesn't want to come back. I need to be more
sympathetic, because once we talked about it, I really didn't get why she
didn't just come back, because she got offended in the English ward so she can
just come with us. and it'd be fine. WE told her we won't baptize her son like
he wants to be unless she gets active again. I think she understood why. Hopefully,
the next lesson when we bring the bishop, he can help her find a job.
We got one referral we were excited about. We got the call
that the family was in the hospital, because the 17-year-old daughter blew out
three disks in her back. So we went in and talked to the dad, and he said, “Yeah,
she was picking up a bottle of water, and that’s how it happened.” So it
sounded a lot more dramatic on the phone. We were prepared to hear about her
falling out of a building or something. Then we asked him how we could help.
The dad asked us to pay for his gas and to bring him dinner, because he was
sick of the hospital food. We told him we would get in touch with him, so that
was needless to say disappointing. We were really excited to start teaching a
family, but they just wanted us to give them money.
Miguel Salpa is nine years old and getting baptized on February
14th, his birthday. He lives with aunts/cousins/and his dad so they
are all members but his dad. His dad is at the point where he has no interest because
of some arguments he got into with his sister-in-law. So he won't talk to us,
but Miguel really likes church/scouts/The Book of Mormon and wants to get
baptized. His 16-year-old cousin will baptize him once we teach him. Teaching
kids isn't my favorite; if we don't ask a simple question every 10 seconds,
then he loses interest. So that will help me learn how to teach simply; which
is good, I really do need that.
I met the most frustrating man I have ever met in my life
this week. He was on some paper work we had, and he invited us in and sat us
down then just started going off. I think he was trying to bash with us, but he
didn't know anything. Basically summed up what he said was that he is catholic
and respects and adores Mary but is an atheist and doesn’t believe in god, but
he believes in Jesus as more than a human. He thinks that we are awful people,
because we won't pay for his daughter’s college, and we are hurting the world,
because we are making people waste time on religion rather than get an
education which is the only thing that matters in life. It was kind of funny he
said that no religious organization encourages or helps pay for education, and we
told him that yes ours did. Then he said our church doesn’t give any money to
help people after natural disasters, and we said yes we did and told him a few
specific examples. Then he kind of just ran out of things to yell about and
started yelling about Obama, and how we are just supporting him, and we just
walked out. It was really weird. Elder Martinez and I talked about it after and
had absolutely no idea what he was trying to say.
We met some interesting people this week. But we are excited
to stay. We have big goals as a zone. It will take work, but we are going to do
it. I love you all and hope all is well!
Elder Bassett
FYI: To get us back on track with the new MTC rush we only
have a five-week transfer this time just.
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