I am an uncle!

I am an uncle...I don't even want to write this email. I just want to look at more pictures. I am sure everyone will feel the same way about reading it, ha-ha.

Well, this week was good. We have a new companion. His name is Elder Shaw from Salt Lake City. He is waiting for his visa to go to Monterrey, México. OK, so the story on that is Saturday they called and said our area was splitting. Ten visa waiters are coming into the mission on Monday. They will split our area so we can each train one. We got there on Monday (yesterday) and then we realized they had 12 trainers there. So there are ten visa waiters here, but next week two missionaries are coming that are permanent (non-visa waiters). They didn’t get here on the transfer, because of the new MTC schedule being next up.

Elder Martinez, Elder Shaw, Elder Bassett

But anyway, I am training one of them so I will get my son next week...mom and dad will be grandparents, again! I am excited. One of them is Elder Martinez's cousin so that would be cool. Me and Elder Martinez weren’t very happy about not being companions anymore, but I guess its ok. I am sure training will be good.

Elder Shaw is awesome. He has pretty good Spanish for not knowing anything beforehand. He only has a day here, so I am sure he will get more used to the hang of things, and how obnoxious I am. We introduced him to Faye, so that was fun for him.

I really can't even concentrate. I keep minimizing this window to go look at pictures of Emma again.

Uhh, what else happened this week? I was sick all week. We took one day off or at least I did. I slept on Faye and Jerry's couch with a lot of Nyquil while Elder Martinez went out with a member split. The Nyquil was very necessary, because of how loud Faye turns up Doctor Phil and Judge Judy. You know how it says, “Do not exceed such and such amount” on the Nyquil bottle? Well, I exceeded such and such amount, and it worked great. I slept for fourteen hours. The next few days after that, I just worked through it. I am getting better now on, like day six. I am sure a cold isn't as bad as going through labor, so maybe I shouldn’t complain.

I wish I could see her! Send pictures to me this week, please..and videos some how. I have a dvd player, so send videos of her; lots of them. I really can't think of ANYthing. I am too distracted...

Well....we taught a lesson to a guy named Roger. He is 20 years old. His wife is less active, and his brothers and sisters and parents just got baptized like four months ago. So his dad used to be a pretty rough guy, and it made Roger's childhood really hard. But since his dad (Hermano Pena) got baptized, he has been a lot better and doesn't get mad at his kids and doesn’t drink, of course, So, Roger has noticed that it is something good, but he doesn’t want to stop praying to Maria Guadalupe. So we taught him, and he had lots of questions, but if he reads then that should be good.

We had a zone study to start off the transfer, and I taught part of it about planning. That was my really sick day so I wasn't too enthusiastic, but I got it done. We have a new method that I will send you a picture of about keeping investigators appointments organized with weekly planning. Our focus for the zone is effective Preach My Gospel style planning with new finding ideas to baptize 40. So for district meeting tomorrow I am talking about how to ask questions and applying it to finding activities. I am trying to help Elder Shaw out with all of the Spanish tricks I know. I remember how it feels to be lost. He is quiet for the most part, and I keep trying to get him to tell us what his worries/expectations/weak-points are, but I guess they will come out with time. I will only be his companion for a week, though.

So we played basketball today as a zone, and I got only a little bit frustrated. I hate feeling like the only mature one there. First everyone wants to play full court, so I have to tell everyone no. Then people say, "Well, I don't want to play. Then I want to go play rugby." So I got everyone together and convinced them to play basketball half court for an hour, and then we could all play touch rugby at the end. People only want to do one thing though and won't compromise at all. It’s frustrating; especially when the zone leaders are the worst ones. Maybe I am practicing to be a deacons quorum advisor one day. Zone sports are tough to get people to agree. That’s why it was so nice in Idaho; everyone agreed to just play basketball or soccer, and we all played without anyone getting mad.

We are trying to get the zone more unified. It didn't start off too well. Someone got mad in zone study, and we had to settle them down from hitting another missionary. Again with the deacons quorum advisor thing...but this transfer should be better than the last one as far as the zone goes.

Church was good. Diana got confirmed. Her kids were in Salt Lake City with her uncle so they couldn’t make it...but that went well. She got there five minutes early rather than late for the first time, so that was really good. It made my stress level about half of what it usually is.

I really liked Mom's story from her letter about stake conference and that girl that she met. (Speaking of which, I couldn’t help that you kept mentioning 20-year-old girl who is "gorgeous" and has this awesome story...keep an eye on her) just kidding. Mom asked me in my letter if I knew what podar meant. It’s all over Jacob 5, so yes Mom, I did know to answer your question. I can't remember the other questions you asked me…sorry!

More about Elder Martinez. He was born in Guatemala and came here when he was ten years old. His parents are divorced. His dad lives in Guatemala so he hasn’t seen him in ten years. His step-dad is Mexican, and they all live in Caldwell (close to Boise). He has one brother and three sisters, I am pretty sure. His step-dad here does roofing, and his dad in Guatemala is the manager of the national bank of Guatemala. I think he is sending us some scripture covers and stuff from Guatemala, so that is pretty cool.

We taught Evelyn this week. She is the less active lady from Argentina who has a 9-year-old that isn’t baptized. She told us she would come to church but didn’t so we need to double check on that. It helped that Elder Martinez had the story about how his mom could have given up but didn’t and brought all her kids to church every week by herself even when it was hard, and her husband wouldn’t help. I think that helped Evelyn. She is a return missionary; so she knows better but she got offended by someone. She just needs to swallow her pride and come back, but we are worried about it, because our bishop isn’t very nice to people. We don't want him to offend her too since Argentines get offended so easily. So we are figuring out what to do. One of the counselors is from Argentina so maybe he can come and fellowship her back to church.

We heard about the MTC, so that is pretty cool. That will probably take away a ton of visa waiters; I would imagine. Or maybe not I guess. That’s probably for the people that are already in those countries maybe? I am not sure we haven’t heard too much. Faye always makes sure to update us about what going on in the news. She made us pray for the five-year-old kid that was locked in the bunker with the pyscho guy.

Manuel is good. He is making us shrimp and habanero ceviche tomorrow so I am beyond excited for that. He still won't read. I don't know why we haven’t dropped him. We keep feeling like we should just teach him more. We are starting over with the lessons; he still has infinite amounts of questions. He told us last time that he thinks we will stop showing up soon, because he hasn’t been going to church and that’s what happened the last time misisonaries came. Then why won't he just come?!?! It’s frustrating.

So that's it. I really can't concentrate. I am just homesick right now. I just want to see Emma. Maybe you can call the mission office and get permission to come up here. Just kidding...

Love you all, especially Emma.

Elder Bassett