DL, white-wash, training, Montevista!

DL, white-wash, training, Montevista. It's in the middle of Logan and known as the best area of the mission. I get my son and head out tomorrow. I have mixed feelings. I will miss being a zone leader because of the great companions and all that other stuff. I am nervous about training.  I'm sure it will all work out. I will do my best! I'm sure it will all turn out great. Please pray hard for me...I need it this transfer.

Back row..red shirt is elder barnes..then elder torres..elder gray is next to him then the insanity picture is elder gancho..the blue shirt brown guy is visa waiter elder ruiz..elder plowman is right in front of them..

front row is elder harper..he is awesome..he will be going zone leader in clinton north.then elder macpherson...he will be one of the the ap buddies..(one of the guys that is just serving with the ap's but isn't an ap)...then elder jorgensen who will be going dl..then elder young who is going to huntsville, then me, the elder kelley..then sister lolofie and sister tsifnay

So it is finally time for me to train again.  I am pretty excited. Montevista will be a good area. I am splitting it with another missionary named Elder Coronado and the visa waiter that he will get. It is a two English stake area and is supposed to be really good, but I don't know much about it. It covers a lot of area, and the car just got taken out to be given to another missionary that accidentally stabbed himself in the leg with a ninja sword. So we will be walking/riding bikes/taking the bus. I am praying hard for my son that he is ready to work hard and things go differently than last time. I will be a district leader, too, over the other ones in my ward and two other sets of missionaries. One of the sets is Elder Sutherland who is going home next transfer. He will be with a visa waiter and Elder Ward's son, Elder Larsen. Then there are also a set of English sisters in my district which is too bad, because now I can't do district meetings in Spanish. I have some really good zone leaders. Elder Ward got switched to the English program to be the Idaho zone leader. (At the last minute, they decided to keep just the Preston area...everything north of Utah went to another mission.) Elder Plowman got a Hispanic companion that has been English his whole mission. His name is Elder Escobar, and he is one of the highest baptizing missionaries in the mission. So the assistants told us that they are sending him to Spanish to show us how to baptize since Spanish numbers are so low compared to English. I don't if they realized how disrespectful that was, but we are kind of used to those comments. There are a lot of good changes happening in the mission including two new zones. They still haven't switched any Spanish people to English which is too bad. Elder Senn was just called to be a district leader in Alpha. They finally split Omega into thirds which is really good; that has needed to happen for a while.

So this week has been good, though it’s been hard to stay motivated. For the fourth of July in the morning we went to a stake parade and breakfast. Out front everyone in the stake is seated in the grass with flags up listening to speakers from the army. We were looking around and couldn’t find any Hispanics, so we asked someone. They said, “Oh, they are out back.” So we went out back and the whole Hispanic ward was out back cooking the breakfast. They were cooking breakfast and going to raise money for five dollars a plate. They had all the missionaries stand at the door and be the bodyguards. It must have been like ten people that came up and told us the white people are going to try and steal or go in without paying and to stop them. They were very concerned, but luckily we didn't have any rogue members. They gave us food, too, for free at the end. Vanessa even came and helped cook and hang out with the youth which was the real reason we went.

So things are finally changing in Jefferson 2nd ward. This week the young woman's president went to Vanessa’s house with us, and we walked her and her three little siblings to the church so Vanessa could go to mutual. Then later on we found out that the young woman's president will start coming to every activity to start babysitting the kids so that Vanessa can enjoy young women's without babysitting. That made us so, so, so happy to hear. The walk to mutual was rough…three year old girls walk SOOOO slow! I found out quickly if I took her bottle and held it like two feet in front of her, she would run as long as I kept it there in front of her and kept walking faster.

We went to a baptism for Weber Heights this week. A few months ago Salt Lake sent someone to emphasize how the first presidency wants the baptismal programs to be and very specifically said the last thing needs to be the converts sharing their testimony and immediately end with a song and no comments from the bishop until Sacrament Meeting when they get confirmed. Whatever the reason is, the first presidency told us specifically to change that.  Elder Kelley told his bishop at the beginning, but the bishop wasn't ready to listen and got up at the end to talk about temple work for fifteen minutes. That was really frustrating. Presidnet has had such a hard time getting all the bishops in the mission on board with that, but at least they had a baptism.

We contacted the funniest drunk Mexican guy I have ever seen before. He was hilarious; he just kept laughing with his tongue straight out and pointing to the sky talking about seeing god. We asked him what he was doing, and he was going to the store to buy more beer. He was walking his bike and kept almost tipping over. So that wasn't a very effective contact, but it was funny.

Ward council this Sunday was absolutely amazing! They finally changed things. It really was such a blessing that the Lord let me see the changes are happening even if it is right before I leave. The bishop only spent like one minute on calendaring, and the rest of the time was dedicated to missionary work. The ward mission leader talked about the ward mission plan that he is starting for a long, long time and a couple excuses were thrown out in the category of "that's not our job, that's for the missionaries to do" and for the first time ever, the bishop was on our side and said from now on everyone had to help with missionary work. By that point, it was my last week, and I knew it, so I really encouraged the ward council. We are all disciples of Christ and have been asked to leave our nets and feed sheep, and we can't if we aren't even willing to talk to people or be their friend. Then I busted out the secret weapon...the quote by President Smith about how we can only go to the celestial kingdom if we are trying to do missionary work. I think everyone got the message from me, the bishop, and the ward mission leader pretty clear and things will finally pick up in Jefferson 2nd.

 

my zone leader in hyrum..the one that helped me out and took me on splits several times when i was with elder saldana

Elder isla and elder woodward are on the right..on the left are elder valdivia and elder trujillo..they are elder woodwards two sons (my nephews)...so luckily I can add to the posterity picture this transfer!

my zone leader in idaho..he was the assistant for his last transfer

elder bess is elder ward's dad and elder ardaya has been assistant for a long time..the two best spanish missionaries just left the mission

Yesterday, we had a training for all the new leaders, and I got to go to the training portion. I have kind of mixed feelings about not going to mission leadership council anymore. It is nice to be in the loop, but I always, always leave them feeling so frustrated; so maybe it's a good thing. The assistants told me they ran into Kelsey Barney this week, small world I guess. The departing missionary fireside was huge, because such awesome missionaries were leaving. It was double the amount of people that normally go. Unfortunately, I never got a picture with Elder Crook, but I will see him again soon, anyways. He is moving back into the mission next month and is from Northern California. Well, this is a quick week because of transfers. I hope all is well at home. 

Love you all!

Elder Bassett

PS Mom, can I ask you to send me something that is definitely a want and not a need? :) I would buy it myself, but you can only get it online. It's called KMS California Hair Play. It’s in a yellow cylinder bottle, and you can buy it on amazon. They only make it in California that's why I can't get it here. I will send you my address in just two seconds once they give it to me, and next letter can you send more stamps? I don't even know where to get stamps besides Costco; you have always just sent them to me, ha-ha. Getting off now...love you, Mom! Have fun on your trip and make sure everyone is relaxing and enjoying it! 

SO this is just the end of our p-day...almost done packing. Just a last minute update on all that's going on while Elder Plowman finishes his emails.

What else?  I am stressed, because I don't exactly know how to react to another new missionary. I'm praying that he is ready to work. ALSO transfers give me huge amounts of stress...moving houses for me is worse than exchanges. I just get really, really, stressed…especially having to buy new food. I have no idea why, but starting over on food and having to leave some food behind stresses me out. And the two other missionaries in my apartment (Elder Ward just told me) are waking up at ten everyday, so I need to go in and build some trust before I crack down but at the same time setting a good example of what is and isn't ok for my new companion. So those are the negatives; the positives, I really am happy to get to train again. I needed another try. Elder Senn is a district leader and will do awesome. Elder Senn had a rough last transfer. He was training a kid that almost punched Elder Senn a few times. Anyone who even considers punching Elder Senn is crazy. Elder Plowman will learn a lot this transfer, I think. The missionaries in my district are all ones that really struggle with obedience except Elder Ward's son, but they have good areas so that should keep them busy. Walking-I am being positive about. I think it will be good. It will make me feel like I am working harder, and we will learn to contact people really well. I am excited about 12 week and teaching another companion how to do feedback. People always seem to be shy about feedback at first for some reason…don't want to hurt feelings I guess. I have an old lady in Preston that likes me and will tailor my clothes for free, so I will pay her a visit. And I think that's all the random thoughts I have for now...take care!