This week has been awesome! It started with a lot of people
dropping off the face of the earth, and then finding a ton of new people at the
end of the week. The first thing to report on is that we did a special musical
number in sacrament meeting. There are seven elders in the ward. The bishop had
asked us to sing, and then he told the other elders, too, which is kind of
where the problem was. It so happens that two of the elders in our ward are the
most tone-deaf people I have ever met, ha-ha. So we sang, and it was pretty
awful. I may have said this story last week, but I couldn’t remember so I threw
it in because it was funny. It was hard for the three of us not to laugh...it
was really, really bad. So they probably won't ever ask the missionaries to
sing again, ha.
So we had exchanges this week. I went to my greeny area with
Elder Norton. Elder Norton used to be my zone leader in North Ogden. He is an
awesome planner and a very smart worker. It was good to show him around to some
of the people I used to teach, so that he could have some where to start since
they are in the processing of white-washing still. It was weird to see all
the familiar faces and roads. I realize more and more, though, how much I
dislike exchanges. Something about not sleeping in my own bed just drives me
crazy and being away from "home". Maybe it’s just because I have such
good companions and don't want to get away from my area, but I always get so stressed
the whole day before exchanges. But it ended up being ok; so that’s good. While
I was on exchanges though was the really stressful thing.
Elder Plowman called me and said they went by to see Angel,
and he told them that he was kind of second guessing meeting with us. He said
that he didn't like how we never really used the Bible as much as he liked, and
when he went to church, everyone was on their phones and ipads rather than
listening. He said he wanted a few days just to think about it. But I went by
with our ward mission leader yesterday on splits. I started giving him a
spiritual thought using six scriptures from the Bible just to make sure he
couldn't use that excuse again then asked him why he was meeting with us, how
he had been feeling, if he had been keeping his commitments. Anyways, kind of
got it sorted out with him and now he understands he needs to keep his
commitments and then going to church he needs to focus on the Savior not what
others are doing. So that was a close one; although, it really did slow down
their progress.
Yesterday Karina texted us and basically told us to leave
her alone since she is so busy and really doesn't want to change religions. We
really can't ever find her at home, so that one had been coming for a while.
We went to Kneaders one day this week for an early lunch,
and I had six pieces of french toast. I just couldn't let Elder Plowman beat me
otherwise I would have just eaten five. I think I could’ve gotten one more;
maybe next time. My ability to eat lots of sweets is increasing…good thing we
have the gym in the mornings!
Oh speaking of that: we went to play basketball, and I hurt
my upper back. I had hurt it the first transfer on my mission dropping a bar on
my shoulder after squatting, and it has bugged me off on for the past few
months. This time it hurt pretty bad to move, so we went to a chiropractor. He
said that I sprained my back…didn't even know that was possible…so he laid me
down and twisted my shoulder blade back into place that had gone sideways,
because I let it heal wrong. So that's why my left shoulder hurts occasionally,
too. So that was cool. He is a member, so he just lets missionaries walk in to
get adjusted. Even Elder Plowman and Elder Pyne did it while we were there. So
he put it back in place, and after a few days, it doesn't hurt anymore; so that’s
good, no more dropping weight on myself.
So something we have been struggling with, or maybe just me,
is goals. I know I have brought this up before, but I feel like we NEVER
accomplish our goals. And I feel like as soon as we set a high goal is when
things get harder, and it always makes me wonder what the point of goals are. I
mean I know what it says in preach my gospel, but I don't really get it all the
time.
So we found a lady named Liz this week. She agreed to a
baptismal date in first lesson. She wants to change her life so that her son
trusts her; he is in jail in Mexico. She has been taught by a lot of
missionaries before but never gone to church really. So she seems like she is prepared
now. She couldn't go to church, because her daughter got pink eye Sunday
morning. I had been fasting for her that day, and I was kind of frustrated. I
was quickly rebuked with another miracle, though, that happened and remembered the
result of our fast isn't always what we want or expect. So anyways, I was
standing at the doorway after sacrament started guiding people to open seats
(almost everyone shows up after it starts) when a guy walked up behind me. I
stepped out into the foyer and started talking to him. His name is Francisco,
and he is not a member. I talked to him for like ten minutes while they did
announcements and stuff, and then after the sacrament brought him into the back
row to sit by me and my companions. So anyways, five years ago he took all the
lessons and was about to get baptized. Then he got deported for a while, then
moved to California with some bad habits. He had come back to Utah wanting to
change. As of that day (Sunday), he had been kicked out of the place he was
staying with no money and just some stuff in a local storage unit. He told us
he got a job working at Five Guys, but wouldn't get a check for fifteen days.
So it looked almost too good to be true. He whispered to me that one day he
wanted to be one of the ones to get up and give his testimony about the peace
he felt that day. He has had two lessons since then and should be getting
baptized in two weeks, but we aren't sure if he just wants money or not yet.
It’s a pretty big issue in Ogden. So for the past couple
nights, he has just been sleeping on the street I think, and he is hard to get
ahold of. He just meets us at certain times at the chapel. On Sunday, he went
with a member to his house, and they fed him a ton of food. We did some fbi
work yesterday and went to Five Guys to confirm his story, and it was true; so
he isn't lying about having found work. He will come to the church on welfare
night, but there isn't much they can do. On top of that, he may not even get a
place in our area, but as long as he is homeless we can teach him since he is
in everyone’s area.
So we went tracting this week and something kind of funny happened.
We knocked one door and set up an appointment, and then we went to knock what
looked to be like the door of the next door duplex and set up an appointment.
Then we realized we knocked the front and side door of the same house and got
return appointments with the mother and the daughter on completely different
days, so that was kind of funny.
We have two other new investigators with dates named Jairo
and Maria. They are cool, but she works on Sunday, so that will be a struggle.
One other 40-year-old guy that is iffy about baptism, because his parents might
say no (they live in Mexico).
We have eaten a very unhealthy amount of Costco muffins this
week. Elder Plowman always tries to get me to split one…he just doesn't
understand. If I am going to eat one, I need the WHOLE thing not just a half
muffin or any of that nonsense. He has learned to deal with me and just eat
whole muffins, too.
Things have been good. We played soccer again this week, but
this coming week there is service so it is cancelled. In two days, we have
Spanish council with Elder Fallabella and all our Spanish leaders. We are
pretty excited for that. We had president's interviews yesterday, and it was
probably my best one so far. He took a long time, and we just had like a five
minute conversation which is pretty good for how busy he is. We always wish we could
spend more time talking to him, then I think back to how busy Dad always was
and how difficult that really is. But things are great; loving the work and
keeping stress to a minimum. Elder Plowman says that I am too negative, so I am
working on that right now...but yeah that's no surprise. I just get frustrated
easily when we set such high goals and get low results, but I guess that is
selfish.
I love you all, take care!
Elder Bassett
 |
| Now that's an ice-cream sandwich! |
No comments:
Post a Comment