Buena Vista South

I guess I didn't have anything to do with my hands so I did this awkward prom pose with elder coronado and didn't realize until I saw the picture.

So I am going to Buena Vista South with Elder Larsen! Elders haven't served there in a couple years; it has always been sisters due to an incident with some elders in the ward...I am very excited. It will be an exciting time and great way to finish off strong speaking Spanish. I will be district leader over an all Spanish district. There are only two Hispanics and the rest are Americans, so we will need to just force the Spanish all the time in district meetings. I think it'll be more like Spanglish, but that's ok; it's better than nothing.

The members are planting seeds...

This is Jarron...he is 8; we taught his family, and he got baptized last week with the other 8 year old stake baptisms. His family will be on the road to the temple!

Yesterday we had MLC (a new version of zlc with the sisters involved). We had a round robin with three different trainings from some zone leaders. We were trained on retaining converts, using the scriptures, and planning. The idea is we receive those and then bring them back to our zones in a zone study this week. So that's what we will do along with Sister Noel (our STL in our zone). We also had our accounting on our zones goals and goals for next month. Our zone set a goal of 10 and had 8 baptisms, so we set another goal of ten for next month. Things are accelerating, and missionaries are picking it up, so I really think it'll happen this month. Lots of good things are happening in the zone.

And of course there are good things happening in West Point as well. We haven't picked up anyone new to teach; still just trying to get people to squeeze us into their schedule. I think I have finally narrowed down what I have been talking about the past few weeks. I think I just want to be more diligent, because we don't really know what to do during the day. So I want to feel overwhelmed, but right now we feel kind of stuck in nightly planning about what to do the next day. It is a good thing, because it gives me a chance to be a better planner which I will need once I get home and have nothing to do to feel productive and will have to do the best with what I have.

I am really working on love. I need to have more love for the people I teach. I mean, of course I do love them, but I just have room to grow. I hope to end my mission more lost in the work than I ever have been rather than slowing down to the finish line. I think the key to doing that is love, and that's what I am pushing for.

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.

Time moves swiftly

Another p-day! This week has been great as always. Elder Coronado and I love serving together and are working hard in West Point. Today we got our suits dry cleaned, and it was definitely time.

So, recently I have been dragging out planning to be way long, so I wanted to get it done more quickly, in 30 minutes. So we started to do abs every night to motivate us to finish planning, so we can get to abs. It's funny how often it actually happens, and how often we get caught up calling missionaries in the zone, or fall asleep planning on the couch. I think it has only actually happened once in the past week. I guess that means we are working hard enough to be exhausted at the end of the day, or we are just very out of shape, because we ride in a car all day.

The no sugar thing has been good, we get offered dessert 1-3 times everyday and most people are ok with it, but they always need an explanation of why we are saying no. Some say good for you and others just seem unhappy that we said no to their dessert/candy. We ate with the Facers twice this week, and she hid all sweets in her house for us; she is the Kristiansen fellowshipper (one of them) and the ones we killed the turkey with at thanksgiving.

Our overabundance of vegetables with our chicken. Sorry, this is about the only picture I have on my iPad. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Well, last week I got to Skype my family! It was a great day. So, it started out with a night on Christmas Eve. We went to the Larsen’s house with Elder Harper and the assistants and ate a TON of snow crab legs...thanks Larsen family! Then we played a couple games and went home. In the morning, we did studies like normal. For companionship study, I think we ended up making Christmas cards for bishops. We went to the Larsen’s for breakfast, and I couldn't eat! I wasn't sure why; I don’t think I was nervous. I just couldn't sit still. I was so excited to see my family! Then we talked for a while with a few technical difficulties, but it was great. I got to see Emma laugh a few times, and my mom smiling so much, so it made me happy. We talked a lot about things that needed to be talked about like signing up for school, summer plans and things like that, but as soon as I hung up and realized that was my last call. I was so so trunky. I have never really felt that way, but for some reason I just had no desire to really do anything. Realizing that the next time I would see them was at the airport made me sick to my stomach.

We then went to an assisted living place to sing to some of the people that stay there. I was not in the mood at all. But I learned, once again, the importance of service. Only about half of our zone showed up (the Hispanic ones showed up, the white ones didn’t. Just increases my love for Hispanic people). We started to sing and visit with the people there, and after about 20 minutes, I had a big smile, and I didn't feel trunky or unmotivated at all. One woman told us that we made her whole day, and she started to cry she was so happy to see us. Me and one other elder stayed behind and talked to her about life for a while, and everyone else moved on to keep singing. SOoo, just like that, the trunkiness was gone! I was back to normal and forgot about going home and have been loving missionary work more than before ever since.

They got baptized!

So Elder harper will be leaving me. We got leadership calls on saturday telling us what leadership positions we would have but not where or who with. So on saturday elder harper was called to be told he was going to be a district leader. Elder Coronado got called to be a zone leader so I was really really hoping it was with me. I had talked to the assistants earlier in the week they called to ask me for some feedback for transfers and I had suggested he go with me and was really hoping it would happen and I guess they prayed about it and it did happen! We found out monday (yesterday) at the lealdership training we always have right before a transfer. SO yesterday's training went well. We just kind of had a discussion for most of the time about some new standards of excellence. THe standards of excellence were changed for the mission and they are much much lower. This is so that everyone feels like it's doable and once people hit it we will re evaluate and adjust it to make it higher. Then the zone leaders went to the chapel and we got envelopes passed out with the tranfer news for our zones. So our zone is getting two other areas and losing sisters (so no more sisters in our zone..only zone in the mission like that). We will have one english district and one all spanish district! That'll be awesome since elder coronado and I are both spanish missionaries so we can help them out a lot too. I am pretty excited about our zone this coming transfer. Today we had tranfser breakfast and announced everything and there were a lot of unexpected changes so people were pretty surprised. THe kristiansen family got baptized this weekend! Early in the week we brought niklas to see the font so he could decide and a couple days later, thursday, they called and said he wanted to get baptized with his family so we got him interviewed and the four of them were baptized saturday and confirmed sunday! I confirmed the two boys and elder harper confirmed finn and kristina. THe service was good, we were very packed in the font room and a lot of people were supporting them it was exctiing. After the baptism finn just couldn't stop crying because of the good feeling he felt. It was a happy time. We had asked them if they wanted to get up at theend to share their feelings a couple days ahead of time and they said no way but we asked them to come up anyway and put them on the spot and they did great. They told everyone how grateful they were for their support and how good they felt. THey had been fasting as a family that day so when we asked anders how he felt he said hungry. Other than that things have been pretty normal. We taught gavin a couple times and he has been struggling to get his reading done so we are going to start texting him to remind him because he says he just forgets about it so I can definitely understand that especially as a kid. Well there is not much to report on this week..merry early christmas!

Elder bassett

Merry almost Christmas

WELL, this week I forgot to take any email notes on what to write home about, so I am drawing a blank already.

The Kristiansen’s are doing well. Pray really hard this week, and if we are blessed then Nicklas will be baptized with his family. The language barrier is tough, and he has no desire right now.

Theresa is still good on her date, but she doesn't know how she feels about coffee. Her husband will not stop drinking it (he is a member) even if we promised it would improve his health. It's sad to see how much they need it; no wonder it is against the word of wisdom!!!

Joshua was set to get baptized this coming Sunday as of last Saturday night. He lives with his anti grandparents but was going to spend the night with his parents to go to church with them. Somehow that didn't happen, and it looks like he is backing out now because of his grandma. I don't get it; his grandma watched her daughter and son-in-law change their lives, quit drinking, smoking, and fighting, they go to church every week, serve others during the week and are happy. And the grandma still won't let her grandson do this...even if she doesn't believe, how can she not see that this is the greatest thing that has ever happened to them. It is pretty ridiculous. The worst part is his parents have custody, but Joshua wants to live with his grandma, because she will give him a ride to school, buy him things, and he doesn't have to have any chores. So for a 14 year old, it is an easy choice to live with grandma and just not get baptized if that makes her happy.

A few other people have dropped off the list. We started teaching the son of a recent convert. His name is O'Ryan, and he is the craziest eight year old I have ever met. He has SUCH a short attention span. He forgets things within five seconds after you say them so it will be tough to teach him. I am not sure how we are going to do it. So last Friday, president called and said we were doing the Spanish training the following Monday, and he wanted Elder Martinez and I to train for 45 minutes on teaching skills. So the two of us got together. It took us about 1 and a half hours to decide what we were going to train on, but we agreed on asking questions in order to help people have more real intent with their commitments, like the way that Jesus Christ did with Peter.

Saturday night, it started to snow really badly, and president decided to not let the north half of the mission drive down to the training, so we just did the south half. We are lucky President Hiers cares about us so much. So this Wednesday, we are driving to Cache Valley to train the north half of the Spanish missionaries. We were also going to go to the temple today, but the pass up to Logan is snowy, so president asked us not to go; oh well. We are going to go bowling with the Kristiansen’s instead.

Well, I don't think much else has happened this week. Sorry I have been bad about taking pictures. Everything is snowy and cold. Yesterday it was negative two degrees when we drove to the gym, so that is pretty awful.

On Sunday, we went to a ton of ward councils, so we saw a lot of members, so that increased our visibility which our stake president is a big fan of. Other than that, we are still trying very hard to find new people, but it is not easy. Kind of just doing what we can and praying for miracles to fall in our lap. There are obviously lots of nonmembers but not ones that haven't been invited in the past couple months. Hopefully, something will change soon.

BUT…things are good. I am working still on being more grateful. I work on things for like two days, and then forget I am working on them. Last night, we shoveled snow, and I couldn't feel my chin when we are done; it is so cold. I do not like the cold right now, but once summer comes, I am sure I will want it back. I went on exchanges with Elder Cable last week, and it was 10 degrees outside. He wasn't wearing a jacket and wanted to turn the air conditioner on, because he thinks it feels good to be freezing cold. I eventually just started to slap his hand away and wouldn't let him touch it; I was going to be warm while we drove. I am not sick, so that is good news.

Love you all!!!! Merry almost Christmas!

Elder Bassett

PS This is from a conversation with one of our investigators:

Sister Kristiansen: What are you up to today

Elder Bassett: Haha; we are emailing our family…my mom said to tell you hi!

Sister Kristiansen: That is so kind of her. Tell her back that we are so happy about having you in our life. You two really know how the change people’s life to the better.

Elder Bassett (to us): Mom, they are the family I was always praying for…they really, really love us! Their entire countenance has changed since we started teaching them. They are the best…so much happier now. We are like their best friends. We get to their house and jump on the couch, put our feet up, and the kids run over to play with photo booth on our ipad, and we joke around like family. It is fun; we love them.

From Mom: That is so sweet. Thank you for sharing it with us. I'm so happy. I am off to go visit teaching but so glad I 'talked' to you before I left!  Can't wait to read your email. And beg your companion for a picture for your mom. Or just lots of you and the K family. 

From Elder Bassett: Sorry, I will do my very best for more pictures next week.

From Mom: Love you anyway! Really have to go now! Late!

From Elder Bassett: Can someone email me an update on Grandpa Gene?

From Mom: Hi. I'm with grandpa right now!  He got checked into the hospital again last night for a little pneumonia, and they are trying to figure out what's wrong. He's telling me naughty jokes and says he's fine, because his sense of humor is still good.

From Elder Bassett: Good to hear he is still joking around. He should get a short note from me in a couple days. Thanks for the package for my companions. I don't know what I was supposed to do with all of it, but I kept two ties and gave the other two to them. They were just too great. I guess I'm seflish. Thanks though!

From Mom: Haha. You're so bad!  You can keep the ties for now, but after you open your present on Christmas, give those to them or someone else that needs them. Haha. 

From Elder Bassett: OK I already wore the red one yesterday. There was no instructions in the box; it's not my fault! I am bringing them by the office today.

From Mom: I'm just teasing. It is my fault.  I mailed everything and got home and found the instructions for your package, and the card for Loretta's package that said who it was from. Are there any pictures this week?  I'm talking to grandpa and haven't scrolled through all my emails. 

From Elder Bassett: daang you sent just kidding too late...I gave all four ties away. That's ok, I have plenty and sorry no picture last week or this week. It just never comes up, and I don't have a companion that likes to take pictures.