So last p-day was pretty good. The three Cache Valley zones
all ended up going to one park, and we played volleyball, football and ultimate
Frisbee. Elder Ward was there, and he is doing very well in Idaho. They had
four baptisms last week and have three this weekend and a lot more coming. He
has so much work he doesn’t even have time to cover his zebra Spanish work
which I would guess the Preston Branch is pretty unhappy about.
The next day we had our first district meeting, and it went
fine. There are some young missionaries in my district, so it will be a lot of
practicing and role-playing. I went on exchanges for the next two days. The
first day, I went with Elder Coronado, and it went ok. We didn't teach at all,
but we worked the whole time. The next day I went to Elder Mark in his area. We
went to go tracting in the trailers. They have been telling me how their area
isn't good enough since we started to find people in ours, and they want to
trade and all this stuff. So I was determined to find some work for them in
that 24 hours. The first door we knocked was an old man named Ramon. We taught
him a lesson, and he accepted a baptismal date and volunteered to come to
church. It was the most fun lesson of my whole mission except maybe Robin's law
of chastity lesson. So Ramon is deaf; the only way he can hear is if you yell
as loud as you can. So we taught him in the front yard the whole first lesson
in ten minutes yelling at the top of our lungs. As we approached the first
vision, I wondered if he would feel the Spirit since we were yelling and half
laughing because he kept saying "what?!, what?! what?!". But we
screamed the first vision too and he kind of jolted and said it gives him the
chills. We connected it, invited him, and he will get baptized in three weeks.
I had so much fun with him; I made sure to schedule their next appointment for
the next morning so I could teach him again before we ended exchanges. We found
him a fellowshipper and brought him to the lesson, so hopefully that should get
them started on some work to do. I hope everything works out with Ramon.
So one day last week, we were waiting for our dinner to pick
us up, but we didn't know what they looked like, because we just call them the
night before. So they come get us and after about five minutes of driving, we
realized that he picked us up instead of the zone leaders who live up the block
and had to go home and switch with the other guy that went to the zone leader's
house; it was kind of funny.
So we found a new lady this week named Ana Moto. She is a
new investigator but is really shy and unsure right now. She is worried a lot
about us pressuring her and doesn’t want to go to church just yet. So Sunday
night we kind of tricked her a little bit into coming to an FHE. We said since
there is no man in her house we wanted to a lesson at someone else’s house, and
so she came and then there happened to be 15 other members there. We did and
FHE, and I think she actually liked it even if she wouldn't have agreed to it
in the first place. (Before I forget, Liz was supposed to get baptized on Sunday.
Everything was set up and then the night before she went out dancing with a guy
and never came home until Monday and then lied to Elder Plowman about it. The
good news is that Angel and Ana invited them over for dinner.)
So we have kept doing splits with members every single night
which I can't tell if it is completely worth it when we don't have lessons.
It's so much faster contacting referrals with them driving us around, but they
talk SO much. It's hard to kind of cut it off and move on, but at the same time,
they are getting to know them and doing their job it just makes our job slow
down a ton. I have learned from the members that I need to be more persistent,
though. When people aren't interested I usually just ask for referrals and move
on, but the members get so worried and ask why and invite them to all the
activities and ask them three or four more times to let us teach them. It doesn’t
ever work, but I guess at least the nonmembers see how important the message is
to them.
We have one guy in our ward that is really hard to take,
because we want him to come since he knows every Hispanic in Logan, and they
all absolutely love him, but he talks more than anyone I have ever met. We went
to one house, and the lady was nice and said she had taken the lessons and been
invited. We talked about the Spirit and getting an answer, and she was just
like, “Sorry elders; it’s not for me, please go…” then he went off for fifteen
minutes about archaeology, and we just didn't really know what to do but sit
there and smile and nod.
We had an English musical number this Sunday that was very,
very interesting. It was an opera version of Oh My Father and there were
several points where I jumped, because she got so loud singing. It was English,
but I didn't understand one word, because there was so much vibrato. It was
funny to see the way all the Hispanics were reacting when I am sure they were
all thinking, "Do all white people sing like this? This is awful."
The talks were also both in English that day. One of them, the guy gave a five
minute summary of the movie Karate Kid; he never connected it to his talk, and
I still have no idea what he meant by sharing that.
We had a very interesting ward council. It was 2 and a half
hours and the last 20 minutes was missionary work. The first part was about
scout camp and refreshments, mainly. After all that work in Jefferson 2nd, now
I’m back to square one. We talked to the bishop, and he will start doing
missionary work first before everything else so we can leave after. The worst
part was when the bishop turned the time over to missionary work, the relief
society president, young woman's president, and primary president all stood up
and walked out. So we will need to work on that somehow.
We had one investigator come to church named Miguel. He is 8,
and his parents are not members. We tracted into his family, and his mom said
she wants him to do it, because it’s good for him. So she will drop him off at
church every week, but she won't stay because it's not really her thing. That's
really interesting. It worked out well, though. As soon as we walked him in, we
grabbed another eight year old and he put his arm around him and brought him
over to his family. Miguel had a good time.
I was nominated as the primary pianist...no idea how they
found out that I play the piano. It will be interesting; it has been a long
time. I stumbled a lot, but I know they can't tell the difference.
I can't remember if I talked about Lenny. He is a nonmember,
so is his wife and kid. He lives with him mom right now, and she is a less
active who was baptized a year ago. Lenny and his wife and kid are all interested
in getting baptized; although, we still haven't met his wife. They slept
through church which is too bad...people have a really hard time with 9:00
church on Sundays. But his mom and sister did come so we had two less actives
at church. His mom didn't know he wanted to come, so she didn't wake him up (he
blamed it on her). We have picked up a couple other new investigators, but no
one that looks too promising. We are still working on lots of offended people
and things like that, but things are quickly progressing.
 |
| Four distinguished older men waiting for the bus to zone conference. |
We had zone conference yesterday, and it was fantastic.
President taught for more than the first half of it which I have always wanted
him to do rather than have the assistants do all of it. He came up to me after
to make sure I recognized he took my feedback. He did a good job and said it
would be more like that from now on. They didn't tell us anything about the
dress code, President hadn't even looked at it yet and said to wait until they
let us know which probably means they won't. Ok so one thing...backpacks aren't
professional enough, but closed toed sandals are? I really hope he says we can
wear backpacks still and not wear sandals, because closed toes sandals on
elders look awful.
We got to go to the temple this morning. It was Elder Salazar's
second time ever going through. We are eating very well this week thanks to
Aunt Laurie and the huge box of meat and potatoes she had shipped to us, thank
you Aunt Laurie! The other two elders are apartment searching right now so
there is a chance they could be moved out by next week.
 |
| Not even sure what we're doing here; they just told me to do it. |
12 week training is fine. I don't know if you know
this, but I think I am the only one in this mission who has never been through
a transfer without doing 12 week. My first two transfers I was trained and since
then I have been training. So I get to do 12 week a lot which I actually really
like. I think that's all for now.
I love you all!
Elder Bassett
PS Hey I got your package…thank you so much it was all
perfect. I didn't get the thank you cards.
The chocolate wasn't melted so I'm not sure how, but they are great! And
the hair stuff is perfect, thanks again for that. Oh…and I don't even know what
gangnam is they just told me to do it..what is it?
 |
| Our landlord had a grill....wow. It was so good! Thanks Aunt Laurie |
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