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| District leader training....they aren't capable of taking a normal picture so I figured why not? |
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| The waterfall hike this morning..about an hour to get up then we went up the side and hiked up on top which will be the next picture I will send. |
Ok, first before I forget...Mom, most of the time I send
pictures home. Other missionaries send them to me, and I send them to you. Can
you make sure to save them all in a file on your computer or something since I
don't have a copy of all of them except on my email? I'm sure you are already
but just checking.
So, my first question: is correlation even a real thing? or
is it supposed to be coordination and everyone mispronounces it? That is a big
concern of mine. Do we get together to correlate? Because that's what everyone
says, but it always says the word coordinate in preach my gospel. I figured
that would be something Dad would know the answer to.
So this week has been better than last week; that's the good
news. We went to Goodwood BBQ one night. I haven't had food like that in a while;
that was awesome. We went for Elder Plowman and I's hump day mark, a little
late, but we needed an excuse. Last week, somebody bought us four short sleeve
white shirts which I had wanted some more of, so that's pretty cool.
Happy father's day to all of you fathers I didn't get a
letter out to. There are a lot of good fathers that have influenced my life,
and I appreciate all your hard work to be better fathers. I even got a father's
day shout out from my son, Elder Senn. Last week, he called me one day to see
how I was doing, and if I was being sad. What a great missionary! He is always
worried about me even if he has the hardest life in the world. I don't know if
I have mentioned this, but Elder Senn's mom and like six siblings got baptized
last month, and his dad has a date for this coming month. He is beyond excited
and tells everyone who will listen.
We had exchanges with one of the assistants, Elder Lew, this
week. It went pretty well. It was actually the best day of work we have had in
a while. That's actually too bad, because they go on exchanges and that one
impression of the area helps them decide if the area should be split or not. We
definitely aren't normally teaching several lessons a day like we did when he
was there. We talked way too long that night, so of course we were exhausted
the next day. That's never worth it...sleep is way too valuable in the mission
field.
On Sunday, we realized it was father's day and decided to
make some brownies for some fathers. So before that, I will give you the Ana
and Angel update. Last week at night on p-day, we went by to talk to Ana to let
her know we weren't coming by since the last thing we talked to her about was
her getting baptized on Sunday. She said in those last couple days they had
prayed together and read The Book of Mormon, but yes he was drinking. She said
she still didn't know what happened, but at one point, when he was praying he
asked for forgiveness if baptism really was what he was supposed to do. I guess
we didn't teach repentance very well otherwise he would have realized that he
needed to actually be baptized to fully repent for not having been baptized. They
will figure it out. She said they even planned on coming back to church, but
they didn't come this Sunday. Anyways, she knew why we couldn't keep coming by
and understood, and I guess explained to him. So Sunday we made them brownies
and a card and left it on their porch. They texted us that night and said thank
you, so I guess at least they don't hate us.
We also made brownies for the bishop. That's really hard to
do with how difficult he can be with us, but he is a hard worker and does care
about the work and has good reason to not trust missionaries at all. Then that
night we went to the mission office and picked up Elder Pyne! Elder Pyne left
for Argentina the next morning after spending the night at our house making
brownies and red velvet cupcakes that no one ate. We just made them I guess,
because we had them so now we have tons of extra dessert. Oh yeah, and we have Butterfinger
bars! Actually they might be gone by now, but they were soo good; thanks Jess
and Tyson.
SO anyways, we went to go make the brownies and got our eggs
out. It turns out if you put the eggs in the bottom shelf in the back of the
fridge, they will freeze and crack. That's what happened to all of them. So we
went to the old people next door and borrowed an egg and had an interesting
experience with them. While the brownies were cooking, instead of studying, we
went to go talk to him in honor of father’s day. He and his lady friend are in
their 70's. They own both apartments next to each other. They have separate
apartments and are what they call companions. They were married when they were
young but then got divorced later down the line for something and then got
back together to be companions/best friends. So we always see them
together, but technically they don't live together. The way he put it was he
said she went from his wife to his mother. She takes good care of him, I guess,
but at this point, she wasn't home. She is a member, and he is not. We sat down,
and he talked to us mainly. He used to be a philosophy, speech, and theology professor
and is a big fan of C.S. Lewis and talked about him and his job the whole time.
He said the one thing he could never get people to understand in teaching was
ultimate sacrifice and how everyone spends so long deciding who is right that
they forget about God. We gave him a copy of The Book of Mormon which he has
read several times, and he agreed to read it. He has thousands of books he has
read and is really smart. He also used to be a professional pool player. He
told us to come by any time to talk and that "we could count it as a visit
to our leaders since he isn't a member." Ha-ha, I guess he knows how it works.
SO we had ward council this Sunday. I didn't go, but Elder Plowman
was pretty frustrated with it. Bishop still wants us to teach people outside
the ward area, and you can't say much since half the members of the ward
council live out of the ward boundaries; they just like going to Jefferson 2nd.
We talked to our high councilman about it, and he just said he used to be a
bishop, and it’s ok to do if the bishop wants. I don't know where to draw the
line between telling leaders how to do their job and just letting them do
whatever they want against church policy, so we don't really say anything since
none of the leaders think that it matters to do that here. We talked to
President Reyna about it, and he is aware and has been trying to fix it for
years, but no one cooperates. I guess it’s
a good thing they are going to church at all. In Utah, people don't really seem
to care that that's a rule and just go to whatever ward they want. What are we
even supposed to do or say to that? Especially if in ward council they tell us
not to teach people in our boundaries that want to go to other wards. Of
course, we aren't going to listen to that, but it's hard to have the ward
completely against you. Some feedback for this would be good.
We went to Buffalo Wild Wings yesterday for unlimited wings.
We were going strong. I had 18, but then needed to stop once we ordered the
habanero ones. After eating four of those, we felt sick. Elder Crook killed it,
though, with a whopping 38 wings; good zone bonding, ha-ha.
Vanessa and Liz should get baptized two Saturdays from now.
Vanessa has been solid with the word of wisdom and praying, but Liz has been
slacking and hasn't kept any commitments, but says she wants to get baptized.
She still just talks about going out dancing and laughs about it, kind of a
like a teenager does when they tell their parents something that they think
they will get mad about. We asked her if she wanted Vanessa to be a 35-year-old
mother one day and still be going out drinking and partying and sleeping
around. She got that sad face she always does and said sorry, but then she
always manages to go out again the next weekend. Either way, Vanessa is
progressing, and at least, she will get baptized for sure. I hope Liz follows
her and sets an example as her mother.
We had an awesome day with six less actives attending Sacrament
Meeting. We have never had any before in this ward. We got all the Ortuno
family to come-who were convinced they wouldn't for a long time. I guess they
managed to ignore the mom’s comments and even brought her with them. They left
after first hour but promised to stay for all three next week. Even Eduarda
came. She is the one that said she had a dream of her mom being mad at her. So
I guess that got her. The person that brought her is Juana. Juana is not a
member, and she is the one who always goes to a different ward and who the
bishop told us not to invite. Well she lives in the ward, so we brought her
anyway, and she brought a less active, so he can't be unhappy about that. We
taught Juana another lesson. She still can't wrap her head around one true
church and on top of that her husband still has another marriage in Mexico so
she won't get baptized for a long, long time, but at least, she goes to church.
Then Berlai also came, but he slipped out during the prayer before we could get
anyone to go say hi to him or before we could even talk to him. So the good
news is this Sunday was infinitely less stressful than normal.
I kind of have felt like the last few weeks I’m lazy-ish. We
are still working, but I don't feel excited all the time like when I first came
out. Maybe that is normal around this time of the mission, but I feel like I
should be more driven and excited to get out and work. Like I said, we are
still working, but I feel like I am moving slower. Maybe I'm just becoming an
old man.
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| Add caption |
The waterfall hike today was good. It took about an hour to
get up then after that a few of us climbed around back to get on top of the
waterfall and ended up overshooting and climbing like 200 feet above the
waterfall. It was bien padre though to be able to see all of Ogden from there.
Elder Gancho has been awesome this transfer. He still is Elder Gancho, but he
seems to trust us a lot more and not always be mad at us. I know he still doesn't
respect us, but that's ok. We have come a long way with him, and I think he is
doing a little bit of missionary work sometimes so that's better than what we
expected. There I go again with the lack of faith!
I think the biggest thing that I have learned this week is
about trusting the Lord and leaving things in His hands. I need to be better
about that and not trying to change the will of the Lord in my plans. I took
the attribute activity this week, and I have big news. For the first time ever,
charity is in the top four of my highest attributes. Patience still takes last
place, but that's expected, ha-ha. So Elder Plowman and I have been working on
virtue and being focused on our purpose and investigators.
I got overly stressed for a solid hour once Elder Plowman
told me that BYU changed all the prerequisites for the business school and all
the ones I took pre-mission are no longer required and are just "suggested."
UUGHGHHHGHHHH. Good thing I don't have to worry about that for a while.
Well I think that's all for now. I love you all and hope
everyone had a great father's day!
Take care,
Elder Bassett
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| Elder Ward cleaning 'the sink'. He did it in less than 12 minutes. He is serving in Logan. The next week he did the buffalo wild wings challenge...12 of their hottest wings in six minutes pulled directly out of the oven so the first one burns off all your taste buds...he is tougher than me I guess. (Dad noticed the guy in the background and Taylor commented-How did an Ogdenite get up to Logan? |
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