 |
| Matching ties before conference... |
As everyone knows already, conference was last weekend. And
I bumped into fifteen people that I knew including half my family! The
highlight of the weekend was getting to meet my niece Emma, though. It was a
little weird and unexpected, but I am still working hard and being a
missionary.
The week started out awesome having two people pay for us at
Farr's ice cream, our new favorite place. Across the street from our house is
the original Farr’s! Then at Costco, two people offered to pay, but we only
accepted one, because we were too full to eat anymore. As always, it's a hard
life. (I bet y'all think I am just so obnoxious from the way I write these
letters, ha-ha. Well I guess I am). We drank six gallons of milk this week...Costco
milk was too cheap to pass up. We got sick of cooking and now live off of
leftover pizza, toast, milk, and lots and lots of cookies.
We taught Robin a couple times this week, but teaching him
the law of chastity was the funniest lesson of my mission. A few quotes "Woah,
woah, woah. I don't know you guys that well to be discussing this."
"Men have needs; you have to understand." "Sometimes you got to
do what you got to do," and a lot of other ones that are not rated g that
we had to just flinch through and try to bring the Spirit back. He is such a
weird guy, but we love him. We have sent Elder Pyne to do lessons by himself
(just with the member present who is an 18-year-old kid) to Robin which is the
best way to train: having to let the Lord teach you to do it yourself while
Elder Ward and I make visits or tract. He set him up with a baptismal date for
the 21st, and we haven't even trained him on that so Elder Pyne is
still the best visa waiter ever.
We laugh even more than we did before. We had a really funny
companionship inventory last week. Essentially, in a full functioning
companionship with prideful people you just sit down and make subtle jabs at
the things you find annoying and are forced to bite your tongue and take it. So
Elder Pyne very UNsubtly told Elder Ward he isn't allowed to talk longer than
30 seconds ever again, ha-ha. So that’s been the joke this week.
I had a new skill I was trying to work on this week on bringing
the Spirit better. I was reading about how to invite the Spirit in preach my
gospel, and it said to express love for the Lord. I realized I never do that
directly to people. I just say the Lord loves them and me which is kind of
unfair and one sided. So I started trying that, and it is the best. We were
walking and talking to everyone we saw one night, and the three of us were with
one guy talking, and I saw Jane like forty feet away packing up her stuff to go
in since it was getting dark. (I didn't know her name was Jane yet.) I went
over and had her sit down and talked to her. She was a member and very active,
but I could feel the loneliness in her voice when she talked about how she
lives with her dog and cat, and it just hurt to hear. So I got out a Restoration
pamphlet and taught her a five minutes restoration while my companions talked to
other people walking by. The best part was when I showed her the picture of
Jesus holding the lamb. I talked about her finding that peace that the Savior
can bring and said how much I loved Jesus Christ, and it brought the Spirit so
fast it surprised me. So I have stuck with that. It made me love her to talk
about that. She has leukemia and not a lot of friends. I hope she is ok.
I went on exchanges this week with one of our district
leaders, Elder Harper. He is from Vegas and has been out a little longer than
me. He started his mission with not the best examples and over the past few
months has done a complete 180 and is one of the best missionaries I know
(which is why he was put in Jefferson1). He is very obedient and works hard. He
is one of those that is disappointed with himself when he comes home with anything
less than exhausted from a hard day's work. Seeing turn around like him is
inspiring to the rest of the mission. Elder Graham is similar. He is the other
travelling trainer along with Elder Ward (starting next week) and was one of
the worst at obeying rules and is now a spiritual giant and has no tolerance
for not taking your mission seriously.
So Elder Ward is leaving next week. I am not sure who my new
companion is, but if we can petition for Elder Plowman to join me here, I would
be one happy missionary. Elder Harper showed me how to work harder at talking
with everyone and counseled me to spend less time getting to know members and
just asking for referrals and knocking the next door. That will help me. Spending
even three to five minutes can be time consuming when 7 out of 10 houses are in
the relief society presidency and want you to come in and try their homemade
jam they just made. As much as that is easier, there is a smarter way to work.
We talked to three kids one of which was thrown out of the
state of Georgia for seven years (he is 18). I was surprised how well he
connected and set up a lesson with them after church on Sunday. I have been
recently slacking on talking to everyone, so seeing that and remembering Elder
Mackie or Elder Hamilton gave me motivation to cross the street even to talk to
the white people. Sister Ramirez should be getting baptized this Friday. We go
on lots of lessons alone now with member splits since there are three of us. I have taught her two lessons by myself, and she
is sure about baptism now. It took some coaxing, but she is there and will stop
worrying about drowning in the font. She is still kind of borderline crazy, but
she is great. Her two kids are as frustrating as ever and refuse to help us set
up lessons even though she doesn’t have a phone. We were supposed to have one
last night, but we got there, and she was still at work. So tonight we should
have one and get her interviewed tomorrow when we go on exchanges with Elder Ardaya,
one of the assistants.
We had a zone blitz last week. Basically it is when all the
missionaries of a zone (except the stubborn ones who refuse to participate in
anything that won't help them) go for two hours into one area setting up
lessons and visiting people. So we had 10 people in the sisters’ area last week
on Friday afternoon. (These don't happen too often, but they are an idea being
tried out to build zone unity.) I went with Elder Burke. He is a new missionary
that is working on being confident at qgc's. So I helped him out with that. The
best way to force someone to talk is go up to apartments and knock on two doors
at the same time. It kind of results in the greeny freaking out, but assuming
they both open, they are forced to take care of it on their own. So he got lots
of practice talking that day with me, ha-ha. We found four potentials in two
hours- which isn't too great, but with all the combined efforts, I think it
will help the sisters out. Elder Burke is a good guy. He is an 18-year-old from
Florida that has been out like two months.
My companions were very happy about their new pens they got
from Dad, as well as Dad giving us money for dinner so thanks again Dad!
So a cool thing happened while we were at conference. We sat
in the back row and an old lady doing security came up to Elder Ward and showed
him the pamphlet they carry around. It has several pages of the anti-people
that they can't let in to the conference center. It had the layout for every
speaker of all the sessions. So that was cool. We knew who was speaking in
every session on Saturday morning.
We wanted to go to Chipotle but were misinformed about the
location and had to go to chik-fil-a instead ruining my New Year’s resolution
of no fast food. We stood on the corner for all three Saturday sessions and got
tickets since we gave all the ones we could find in our stake to less
actives/recent converts.
So this week is good. Luis had a lesson last night and is
iffy about baptism, but he is praying about an answer to see if this is the
true church. Our youth fireside is this Sunday quickly followed by the
departing missionary fireside where Elder Isla will be sharing his testimony
before he goes home on Monday. Crazy, crazy. Love you all and hope all is well.
Elder Bassett
PS Sorry again I couldn't see you mom. Miss you and love you!
*Side note from Mom...I thought I'd include part of this letter he wrote to Mark.*
Dad,
I hope one day I get the necessary skills to be such an
articulate letter writer, ha-ha.
Thanks Dad. I still look to my Arizona Mesa mission trainers
as the ones who taught me how to be a missionary. I still feel like I didn't
once get trained out here until Elder Martinez, which is why I loved being with
him so much, and it also shows how important Arizona is. I have always noticed
how much people value their missions and the experiences that it gave them. I
have always wanted that from this mission. Being out a little bit longer, I
have begun to learn that MY mission (it was OUR mission, but I had different
things to learn there than the rest of the family) in Arizona was just as
valuable as mine in Ogden. Granted, the difference I make will be greater here
I am sure, and they are two completely different experiences, but 20 years from
now I will value both my missions as the learning experiences that they were.
I don't know if I have made a huge difference in other
missionaries’ lives, but I certainly hope so. I have wondered if that was my
"job" out here, and maybe the Holy Ghost is communicating that to me
through you as His way of confirming that. Regardless, I am happier than I have
been in my whole mission even without big numbers. I don't know if big numbers
will ever really be my thing, and it's disappointing to the natural man in me,
but not to the man that I am trying to become. I will keep the faith and keep
doing what you taught me. I am pretty lucky to have been raised by two people
that value obedience to the Lord and His gospel as much as you and Mom do. I
wouldn't be the missionary I am without having seen the way that you acted with
your Arizona missionaries.
I'm always reminded that my example
coupled with my words will cause many to come unto the Savior and receive His
blessings. I guess that can apply to fellow missionaries. It's not what I
expected, and it's a little/lot disappointing that I probably won't ever see
those other kinds of results, but again I guess that's the natural man in me. Sometimes I
forget I am not even halfway done with my mission though and still have so many
experiences to create. You were more right than I can ever say about how
the mission would have different trials than I'd expect, VERY different. But I
know I will value them one day. Thanks for everything Dad (and Mom, I'll copy
this to you). Keep working hard and inviting others to come unto Christ!
Love,
Elder Bassett
No comments:
Post a Comment