I have a new companion!!!

Elder Senn and I got a new companion! His name is Elder Ireland, and he is from Lincoln, CA. He is headed to Mendoza, Argentina which means he knows very well my friend from my MTC district as well as some of my uncles, friends in common in Lincoln, and even a couple people from Antelope. It is kind of cool to have that connection. He will probably be here for a while. Visa's take a while. He is a nice guy; I am happy to be with him. He has been a member a year, and he likes to sing. He wrestled all four years of high school. He has been dating a girl from Peru for four years who will graduate from BYU-Hawaii next year. He understands lots of Spanish, a little more than he speaks, but we will work with him and help him be as prepared as possible once his visa issue works out.  Go pay his parents a visit....neither of them are members of the LDS church, but his mom is taking the lessons!

So Ignacia...lots of news on her. I will start with district meeting. We talked about going back to basics: basic spirit sandwich, why we are there, and committing people to baptism. Our zone leaders told us they had prayed about a promise; they said if we updated our area books every night, we would each have a miracle baptism by the end of the transfer. We set three baptismal dates that day…well kind of. The first one was Ignacia. We had already been doing our area books everyday so the miracles came quick when we agreed to keep doing it. We taught a lesson to Igancia just about baptism and the answer to her prayer. She had kept her reading commitment and felt the Spirit testify of its truthfulness. She was convinced that’s exactly what it was. She used to live in Orem with her four kids. Her husband left her and her kids for another woman; this is pretty recent. She had very bad depression and wanted to leave her kids. In her head, she was convinced that leaving her kids would be better for them, because she just wasn't a good mom and didn't know what to do. So she left...and I don't know how far away...but at some point a voice told her to go back to her kids. The voice said that her kids wouldn't be better off without her, and that they needed her. Then the voice told her to move to Preston with her brother. That was about four weeks ago. She is getting baptized either this week or next.

Ok, so wipe those tears away, and I will tell you a little more about our other investigators.

Two more dates we have are Maria (17) and Rosa (14). They live in Grace. They speak perfect English, but their mom doesn't. I'll try to summarize. The English missionaries were teaching her and got them a date for next Saturday. Then the bishop called President Heirs and said that these two girls' uncle (nonmember) was mad, because the two missionaries were over at these girls' house alone watching an R-rated movie. (It turns out it was only pg-13 and the 19-year-old  brother was in his bedroom...and they were teaching a lesson kind of.) Anyways, they aren't allowed to talk to them anymore, so we are taking over and baptizing them. The relationship there was just not good, and I guess they would always sit with them during sacrament meeting, and it looked weird.

Anyways, so we are starting to work more in Grace. The two girls are hard to work with. I have only met them once, but they can't have a conversation with us without flirting, so it’s a little uncomfortable. So we won't be going over there without the ward mission leader who speaks Spanish. We will also start teaching their mom who doesn't know they are getting baptized next week. Anyways, so we went up to Grace, and we visited all the ward mission leaders and that bishop to explain to them we would try to take care of it and hoped the relationship with the missionaries wasn't damaged. We ended up with some referrals, so that is good assuming we can manage our miles enough to spend some time up there.

Natalie Hale's ranch house in Grace!

Black one! I just thought this was cool.

I got a package from Jen and Sherm this week! Love getting packages…and two awesome new ties were the highlight. I have a great family. Sister Davis' seminary class wrote me this week and asked me to write back. I’ll work on that later today and tell them all to be good missionaries. .  I also had a letter from a girl I don't know, Cami's friend. I got a letter from Cami this week, and that made me happy. I am glad that she is doing well.

We had exchanges this week. Elder Senn went with our zone leader, and I went with Elder Torres. He is a good guy, but I don't like teaching by myself since he just speaks English...but it went well. We did service over at the community center for a while, and I met some people with family from Sacramento. Those connections are always fun. We spoke in Preston fourth ward on Sunday (Hatch's ward). Elder Senn left me about 25 minutes, too; that was fun, but it was English, so that’s ok. I talked about being grateful and when we are grateful to our mommy's then we clean our room to show that we are thankful…. Then I talked about how the Savior commented on the faith of the tenth leper who said thank you. I talked about how gratitude was related to faith, and true gratitude brings repentance and ended up talking about the doctrine of Christ for the last part since I was left with more time than expected. I still can't smile when I speak, ha-ha.

So ward council was funny; we had one guy get a revelation that just made me laugh. We were talking about our struggles getting people to church. (Every week we ask for members to invite them.) He says, “OK...I have an idea. How about we as members start visiting them and invite them to church?” GENIUS...almost like I have been saying that everyday! I didn't say that. It reminded me of that one commercial years ago that dad liked...maybe Geico? The guy on the committee says an idea and everybody looks at the boss to see his reaction and goes “ehhh” and aren’t really excited about it. Then the boss says the exact same thing and everyone starts cheering, and the guy on the committee says, “I just said that!” And the boss says, “No, you said it like this.....” Anyways you may not remember it, but it reminded me of that, ha-ha.

The Ricaldi family came to Sacrament meeting this Sunday. He just started getting work off every other Sunday which is awesome. He reads The Book of Mormon with his two young kids to help them practice their Spanish, and they love it. He wants to increase his faith, and he had lots of good plan of salvation questions, but he is all about making this a really, really, long process to make sure...I really like them. The hard thing was/is that in Sacrament meeting there were three out-loud conversations going on the whole meeting. I almost lost it...like two forty-year-old guys talking…not even sitting on the same row…about just whatever, and they weren’t whispering. The kids were walking around…the teenagers were all just talking and sitting together walking in and out. I was ticked. It has never been that bad, so we talked to the branch president, and he gave us permission to go to the young men’s in third hour and ask them to grow up. I was a little nicer about it when I said it to them. It’s just that we are trying to make this a good experience for people that have never been here, and the priesthood holders that are giving them the Sacrament aren't acting at all how priesthood holders should act. I think the young men’s president was happy we said something, but I hope it fixes itself next week, but there is obviously nothing we can say to the members, but to the young men I didn't feel like it was a big deal since they are all younger than us. The branch president though it would be good.

Mom you mentioned that having the same New Year’s resolution every year is frustrating. It was good timing, because this week I was getting angry that I have the same goal every transfer and I feel like I never complete it. I am glad I am not the only one. With the couple days in Grace...and cancelled lesson…there wasn’t too much going on this week, but I can feel things picking up. I am hoping they will continue to accelerate rather than hit a plateau. I felt bad. We had three lessons last night, and they all cancelled...bad way to start out Elder Ireland’s first day. We have three tonight. Hopefully one of them follows through at least.

Anyways...not much to report on this week, I guess....I went grocery shopping while hungry last week and as a result have food for the next month, so that’s great. I learned my lesson. We are still working and still trying to figure out what we can change to improve. I hope all is well at home. It sounds like Amanda had a good birthday. I am writing her right now explaining my little mail mishap and not sending her a birthday letter.

Love you all,

Elder Bassett

Mail Issues: They tore my letter in half and just said, "Sorry." to make it better...and they only sent me one half of the letter! I want my money back post office...