Elder Taylor Bassett: Life is Great

Last week was great, it's not all about numbers but last week we had a ton of appointments, more than ever in a my mission and it just felt great. Things are moving well, and we are loving it. I guess this week I can just move on down the list of the people we are working with.

The temple this morning

The first would be Hernan Zavala. He got back, and the worst of all his work is over with so no more big trips that he knows of. If all goes well, he will get baptized this Sunday. He is kind of iffy about the time, but knows it's something that he needs to do. He went to church on Sunday, and in elders quorum, he was introducing himself again and someone called out asking when he was getting baptized. He laughed and said, “Probably next week if I can't convince these elders otherwise.” They all laughed, because that was them in his shoes within the last five years or so. He is great; he has read all of the Nephi books and is in Mosiah I think now.

The other people we are teaching that should be getting baptized for sure are the Morales family. They are less-actives, but their nine-year-old daughter hasn't been baptized. So we are teaching her the lessons, and she will get baptized on the 21st. We had it set for a week earlier, but a member family found out and called them to move it. They wanted to go, but weren't going to make it because of an Enrique Iglesias concert…priorities? Either way it's fine. We aren't sure why the family was less active, but all of the sudden they are excited about going to church and willing to go. On Sunday morning, they texted us an hour before church and said their kids were sick and couldn't go. I was disappointed, but we just said ok that's fine. Then they showed up to church anyway! The kids started to feel better, and we gave them a blessing right after church. There are three kids Paula, Karen, and Christian, and Paula is the oldest of nine.

Thanks Mom! I am using them to help a couple of kids with commitments.

Another family is one that I have mentioned is the Hernández family. They are the ones I sent pictures home about with the parrots and the three kids from Guatemala. They are a little tougher to work with mainly, because they always, always leave unexpectedly and never answer their phone. The only time they talk on the phone is when they call us to cancel, ha-ha. We did teach them a lesson last week; the three kids all really want to get baptized and both parents are ok with it, it’s just hard to get them to church. The dad has lost his testimony and wants more evidence of The Book of Mormon. He also had some random concerns about who created the earth, who Jehovah is, and random details like that. We tried to get him to think about the foundation of a testimony of Christ through The Book of Mormon, but it didn't really satisfy him. It will be a lot of hard work for him.

Sacrament meeting was a good experience. We had been having such a good week, when we realized the Hernández family had slept in and everyone else may not come once the meeting started. I decided we had done all we could, and I wouldn't be sad about it and just choose to be positive. Then the Morales family walked in, so that was pretty cool. It made seeing them a lot happier for me than it would’ve been if I had been in a bad mood that no one showed up.

I have been a lot more positive this transfer. I think I already mentioned that, but there is a big difference. Life is just great. Elder Salazar is still growing a lot and will be a fantastic missionary. There was a mission leadership conference yesterday about another mission culture change, and honestly, I wish I could have gone just to see what was happening.

Last week, I did an exchange bringing Elder Olsen into my area. He didn't get to teach too much since his Spanish is still in the beginning phase, but we got to learn a lot together during studies. I mainly just taught him about being above the line, looking at things in a positive way, and not blaming situations on others, but rather taking ownership and changing it yourself. It has helped him so far to enjoy things more the past week. He and his companion have been struggling to get along, and we are trying to encourage his companion to be more obedient, but that doesn't always happen overnight.

So on our car we have a bike rack, and it turns out that is the worst thing ever; everyone calls us to come drive them around with their bikes. I have gotten worse at saying no to people.

We taught a family this week last week who have a two-year-old that is blind. It was a lot of fun to play with her; it's amazing how smart and alert she is, and how she knows where people her are, and she throws her toy around and then picks it back up. She is too scared to walk, but she is supposed to learn fine. Her dad is a member and her mom wants to get baptized, but the problem is they both have to get divorced from different people and then married; so that'd just be a huge process. They went to the English ward in the past, but want to switch to Spanish, so they can go with other Hispanics and because they said white people are boring.

On Sunday, we picked up a new investigator named Cesar that wants to get baptized. He is 19 and is very interested. The only problem is he moved in with a 17-year-old girl in our ward that is still in high school. Bad example and disqualified for baptism. That will be a fun one to handle.

I think that's just about it for now. I feel like this is a short letter, but I just can't think of anything else. I hope all is well.

Take care!

Elder Bassett