I joined you in the fast, and so did Elder Coronado!

Elder Coronado and I will be staying another transfer together in West Point.

In the home stretch, I am working harder than ever. Sometimes, I am disappointed I am not more physically exhausted; I wish our work was more physically demanding to make me feel more accomplished. Maybe they should take our car away! JK, then I would just wish we had a car all over again.

This morning we had transfer breakfast to let everyone know the changes in our zone. For the most part, things are staying the same. We are losing Elder Clarke and Elder Singleton, though, and gaining an area with sisters in it. President wants every zone to have sisters. The new sister is an stl (sister training leader... like a girl zone leader) and is white-wash-training. She is a great missionary; we are excited to have her in the zone. Numbers in the zone have not improved at all from last week. We had a zone study last Thursday to set baptismal goals for the month of February and gave everyone a wake up call about what needs to happen for us to meet our goals. Our new goal for this month is ten as a zone. It is very doable; that is one baptism per companionship. Elder Coronado and I re-evaluated and set a goal of two for this month. I felt like we weren't pushing hard enough, but then again, I pushed last transfer, and we didn't hit our goal, so it needs to be one step at a time.

Things are picking up in West Point. We have more people we are working with now and are teaching more lessons total than West Point ever has, but still not as many baptisms as West Point has had, and that’s really what counts. SO there is lots of work to be done! The sisters in our zone will probably help us out. In the zone study people were kind of enthusiastic, but not as much as I would've liked. There was a companionship that refused to set goals. I’m still not exactly sure why, something about it being just a way to brag or change the Lord's will (apparently the Lord doesn't approve of goal setting; why didn't anyone tell those guys who wrote Preach My Gospel?), but we can't force them.

Today we got a hair cut after some quick studies. We took Elder Salazar; most people don't like to cut their hair once a week, so he finds someone to go with every week that he can, ha-ha. Then we went to Costco and bought a TON of vegetables and chicken to last us the transfer. So we are all stocked up and made it a goal to never go out to eat this transfer. It was working so well saying “no” to sweets by saying we had made it a goal, so we just figure if missionaries ask us to go out to eat with them we can say we set a goal not to do it.

So Teresa had a surgery on her knee. It has been a rough recovery, but she is doing well. We checked up on her last week, and she asked about me going home, but I said I would come to see her and Garland get sealed next year.

I met a guy in our area from North Highlands. I also met a family from Antelope. I can't remember their names, but they were in the ward with Bishop Elmer. They lived there from ‘98 to 2006, I think, so we would've been there at the same time. They recognized Dad's name, so that was cool. I’ve never meet anyone from Antelope out here.

The Billman family is great. This is the week the boys are in Layton, so we can't teach them which is too bad. Taegan is also with his dad this coming weekend, so he can't come to church (and he didn't make it last week). We need to get the primary involved with him. The new wml in that ward is excited about things getting going. Hunter is loving the lessons and progressing fine.

Lots of great dinners every day. They always, always offer dessert so we need to get a memo out that the current missionaries are lame.

Leadership training was good on Monday. There are a ton of new leaders including Elder Salazar as a district leader. The majority of leadership last transfer all will be going home at the same time, so they had to release a lot of people, so there won't be such a major change after we leave. In the summer time, about fifty missionaries will go home within two months of each other, a huge change to the mission culture! There will be a lot of younger missionaries needing to step it up. We went to Olive Garden with the assistants before leadership training, and someone paid for us so that was cool.

I’m glad to her Grandpa Gene is doing better. I will keep praying for him.

Love you all!

Elder Bassett

PS Mom Do you have the cough that is going around up here? It's a miracle I have avoided it. I have injured both my trap (trapezius muscle) and my shoulder blade in the past two years and had to see a chiropractor about it. Maybe it runs in the family. And yes, if you send a package, no sweets for me, but I have a few kids that would love sweets...not a ton, just a few of them. Don't send anything too delicious to tempt me, ha-ha. But honestly, if you just send me a letter in the package I'll be happy. The only other thing I buy is lots of vegetables. A Walmart gift card to go buy more vegetables? Ha-ha..but sorry it makes sending packages hard. I feel GREAT though. I already am starting to lose my desire to eat sweets at all. How was insanity? I love it, and I am feeling good, not great. I have some pounds I need to lose. Not having these huge dinners every night will help a lot, I think

I joined you in the fast, and so did Elder Coronado! thank you...anything you need from me? I got a couple pictures this week! Ha-ha

Mom, can you do another 35-40 thank you cards with our picture? You can do the last one or the one of us in winter gear; it’s up to you. Let’s do pictures on the inside again. I liked those better and which ever temple you like better that is close by...Ogden, Brigham, Logan, or even Salt Lake if you want.

Once again, the members love it. The few that we go back to always are expecting it and say how much they love it! Thank you!

m

By the way, this is the Palmer family. If we are having a stressful day, we come by, and they feed us Captain Crunch.;.open invitation...they are a good family.