Another week has flown by

Another week has flown by. I lose track of time so easily as a missionary. I still love West Point.

We had zone conference last week, and it went well. It was from 8-4 so it was a very long one. The assistants trained on contacting, which a lot of missionaries needed, so that was great. It made me miss being in Ogden. We hardly ever get TTI's in West Point, and when I say hardly ever, I mean hardly ever. Since it's all neighborhoods, and it's winter, no one is ever outside. It's not like we can go to the convenience store since we don't have one in our area. So I want to apply that training more than I am.

President and Sister Hiers trained on faith and the atonement. It was fantastic. President Hiers is a powerful speaker as is his wife. I love them both; they are definitely a huge, if not majority of the reason I was called to this mission.

Then after lunch, we had our strength’s training. We were all really excited for it, and it was kind of cool. The guys from ldsbc came and told us that our strengths don't decide what to do; they tell us how we are going to do it. Darn, I was hoping they would tell me what to major in in college, and what to do for a living just to make things easier. They did some activities where we had to use our strengths with other missionaries to solve problems that come up in our missions. It was interesting, and I know it helped a lot of missionaries out.

We went on three-day exchanges last week in an area that needed. I left West Point and went to the Clinton Central Stake with our missionary. He has been getting down lately, and we had some really good talks. I helped him realized what things make him happy (obedience, hard work), and he set some goals to improve. In district leader training the week before, we had trained on the belief pyramid in leadership, and how to help people set their own goals. (Pyramid is: experiences, beliefs, actions results; the only way to change beliefs is to create new experiences). President Hiers is big on this. People don't typically accept when you just tell them what to do and force them to change their beliefs. All that does is force action and not change their beliefs. So you have to use lot of questions to allow them to set their own goals for new experiences. You can't set expectations for what goals you want those to be since everyone's best is different, and a good goal for me wouldn't be a good goal for someone else. Anyway Elder Coronado and I both got to apply what we had trained on, and it worked very well to help these two missionaries.

His companion, who is very, very prideful and hates working hard, opened up with Elder Coronado and set some goals to improve and start living the morning schedule. The next day, they even invited us over for lunch so I think they trust us. It was a good learning experience for me.

 

Still really struggling to find. We have lots of potentials and got dropped by a couple of them for pushing too hard to get things started. Keep praying for us to find new people!

The Nielsen’s came to church again so it is probably about time for us to switch them over to the ward and their home and visiting teachers. We have taught what we can and got them doing some good habits, now the ward just needs to keep that momentum moving. They are in the eight ward which is my favorite ward. Their ward councils are phenomenal. The ward all just gets together and really focuses all their efforts on families they want to help. It all starts with just having a really driven bishop and wml, and everyone else seems to follow and catch on to their enthusiasm. 

Elder Coronado and I are doing well; we like working together even if we would prefer things move a little quicker, but I guess that's always the case. Today we are going to Logan to go to the temple and see Elder Plowman, so that’s going to make it a great day. I can't really think of much else...

I know my emails are getting weak, and I am getting worse at taking pictures. I know I will want them one day, but it's so awkward to get people to take pictures, and it always take like five minutes to get everyone to just stand in front of the camera! But I will try to do better this week. I just told Elder Coronado to remind me to take pictures this week, so if we don't, then it's his fault. 

We spoke in two sacraments this Sunday and will speak in two more next week. So the members are getting to see us. I would love if they could see us in another setting though, because I don't smile and seem so depressing when I speak, but maybe at least, they will feel the Spirit.

Well that's all for this week. Love you all!

Elder Bassett

The Kristiansen's before they left.