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| We pulled over in Soda Springs to play in the snow for just a few minutes. |
Let it snow; let it snow! It looks like it will be a white
Christmas this year. Everyone says that the amount there is right now is
nothing, and we should expect a ton more. I personally think they're all talk,
but I guess we will see. Driving in the snow for the first time has been quite
the adventure, especially in a two wheel drive Malibu with completely worn down
tires. The first day that it snowed really hard we drove 45 minutes up to Soda
Springs. It was like 10 degrees up there. We turned into one house/driveway,
and I kept sliding and came within probably two inches from hitting the mailbox
before the car caught traction and turned. Pretty crazy. We looked at the tire
marks, and it was soo so close; we got lucky. Then on the way back, it was
nighttime and while crossing a bridge we started to slide out and almost hit
the edge of the bridge (50 foot drop) like three times as we slid back and
forth..but we didin't...so whoever is praying for us keep it coming! ha-ha. I
don't get why they give the other missionaries up north trucks except for us.
There are a lot of people in the hospital from wrecks; the roads are soo so
slippery. WE will be careful though, sorry to scare you, Mom.
So we started working with the Ventura family this week.
They are less active. We have been by just to see if they are home several
times a week for about ten weeks and never found them at home (or never gotten
hem to answer), but the ward wanted us to go by so we would always keep trying.
So we went in and the mom was crying talking about how she needs to come back
to church, and her kids (all older, 17, 18,20) don't want to go anymore. So we
taught something and invited her back. They didn't come to church. I can't
remember the excuse, but it wasn't a very good one. But the big change was her
18 and 20-year-old boys. We met them several times, and they were always kind
of annoyed we were there and weren't at all helpful. But while we were there, I
gave her oldest son a blessing, because his hemophilia has been pretty bad
lately, I guess. So now the boys are really nice to us. We haven't had a follow
up appointment; the mom has flaked out every time; but now her kids are nice to
us. In fact they gave us a present after we left the first time...50 presliced
pieces of American cheese, delicious.
So Ignacia...well, we don't have the best news with her.
I’ll run you through the story. So we go by for a lesson, and her husband opens
the door. The guy who left her and the kids for another woman a couple months
ago that we supposedly would have never met. So we didn't teach, the next day
we went by and he was gone. She said he had jus come to see "his"
kids and went back to his other woman. The next day we go back for a lesson,
and he is there. He left his other girlfriend and moved in with Ignacia. We
talked to Ignacia, and she is looking for a job for him and probably won't have
too much time for lessons in the next little while, because she is so busy now.
HE really doesn’t like us and he think he probably suggested that we aren't allowed
over anymore. That was an awful day. I was just depressed and angry all day.
All Elder Ireland and me could talk about was how we wished he had gotten mad
and hit one of us so we could have Jack Bauer-ed him. So we have been back
several times to give them food.
The senior center sent us home with 15 loaves of bread and 8
dozen eggs and ten pounds of ground beef the other day..."You're young
growing boys; you can eat it!” so we gave some away to some of the families
that are looking for work right now.
Ok, so the cool part of the Ignacia story. Brother Mariscal
is familiar with Ignacio’s situation. I think I have mentioned before he is the
Mexican tom sellek...well over six feet tall...and well over 200 pounds but he
doesn’t have a belly just big shoulders. Ok, so we told our branch president
the situation, and he immediately called Brother Mariscal to go have a
"talk" with Ignacia’s husband. I think he was nice to him from what
we heard. But he did sit him down and make sure that her husband understood the
way Ignacia and her kids needed to be treated if he wanted to stay alive. I
think he was a lot more subtle than that, but Brother Mariscal is a very
intimidating guy. I would've been scared so hopefully he got that message,
because us and the branch president are pretty worried about him living up
here. I guess Ignacia finally broke down and called him and said she needed him
and told him to come to her. So we will see what happens there, but it doesn’t
look good.
So another really good story of the week was letting Maria
and Rosa’s mom know that her daughters would be baptized into the Mormon Church
in two days. Let's just say I have some mad skills, because I buttered that
lady up and some how managed to break it to her without her killing us. So we
are in Grace all day getting everything figured out. Maria and Rosa refused to
give us their cell phone number so the only way we can talk to them is by
driving up. So we finally got the program almost figured out. It was tough not
knowing anybody, but Bishop Stoddard really helped us out. So we were driving
back and thought I would have Elder Senn call Maria’s mom to remind her to be
there (we told her about it last week, and she was mad because Maria and Rosa
had never told her). And she flipped. She was yelling and saying she had no
idea even though I am positive I told her last week. Anyways she was confused
and said that she thought it wasn't for several more weeks. She said they were
going to Salt Lake City for the day and couldn’t' do it. I took the phone from
Elder Senn and said yes that’s fine we will reschedule it even though I knew we
wouldn’t be able to, because the whole ward was already invited. So I told her
we were coming to see her, and we flipped the car around and went to her house.
For like thirty minutes, I just talked to her about how pretty her house was
and her decorations and tried to butter her up as best I can. She really likes
us, because we speak Spanish so it wasn't too hard. Then finally we broke it to
her that the whole town pretty much already knew, and it was planned, and it
needed to be that Saturday (in two days). She was furious with her daughters
for not telling her (they weren’t home yet), but she wasn't mad at us,
thankfully. While we were talking, Maria got home and her mom stopped smiling
and gave her the dirtiest look I have ever seen. I just said ok well we are
leaving now and the mom said no sit down; she needs to understand what she did
wrong. So I sat down and we watched Maria get screamed at in Spanish for ten
minutes. Some of the favorite sentences: "wipe that pretty smile off your
face!" "Sit down little girl I am not finished!" "You will
speak when I ask you to speak!"...So she was just mad that she invited all
of Grace except for her mom. Elder Ireland and I were scared to death and Elder
Senn just sat there laughing the whole time, because he laughs when he gets
scared. That was a pretty interesting experience. So anyways they cancelled
their trip to Salt Lake City and got baptized. Her mom was fine with the
baptism; she was just mad that her daughters don't tell her anything. But we
got it all figured out, and her mom came and made lunch for everyone. Hopefully
her mom being at the baptism will make her have more of an interest, but she
just isn't a big Joseph Smith fan, and the problem she had in Preston when she
took the lessons several years back was she would have to give up her
boyfriends. I guess we will see what happens.
Mission conference was this week. That was awesome! It is so
weird that people in Idaho are like another mission. It made me sad to leave at
the end and not be around all the other missionaries I know so well. Maybe that
will change in transfers. That is next week, I am already having nightmares
about what type of companion I will get...I hate transfers; it is so stressful.
There was a talent show that lasted for about 3 and half hours and everyone was
dying at the end of it. The trainings were all really good and every single
missionary went home with a Christmas package. (Thank you Grandma! Elder senn
loved his package.) I didn't participate in the talent show, but Elder Pali did
so that was fun for everyone. He did the Hakka at one point with a couple other
missionaries and got the crowd warmed up for the Samoan sisters to do their
dance...he is a lot like the chief in Hawaii when he does his ko olina presentation…
the way he talks in front of crowds. It was good to see everyone down there.
Elder Plowman and Elder Ward are both doing well. I hope I will get to serve
with at least one of them at some point.
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| Elder Plowman and Elder Woodward that I meet in the MTC plus a visa waiter! |
This week has been tough...I have two boxes of Christmas presents, and I have to wait..it hurts to see them...but I did open both grandma's presents and loved the homemade fudge, granola, and hot chocolate! (Grandma Bassett) Peanut butter and granola sandwiches are my new favorite thing...I will get a thank you card out to grandma bassett but you can mention to her how much I loved her package...and the tie she sent me is awesome! I didn't have any green ones before so it's perfect.
So we almost had another really bad day last week. We came
out of our lesson, and our car door was open, and the glove compartment and
center console were left home. I had forgotten to lock my door. My GPS and cd's
were gone, but they left my sunglasses, jacket, and camera so obviously they
didn’t search the backseat very well. I was angry all day, and we even drove
around a bit to see if we could see some motab cd's thrown on the ground since
I knew whoever stole those probably wouldn’t be interested in them…but nothing.
We went through the day with me in a bad mood for my own stupidity. I never
thought that was even possible in Preston, ID. So at the end of the day our
zone leaders called and met up with us, and it turns out it was them who took
my stuff. We lock the car all the time now, lesson learned.
WE went to an English correlation this week where the
missionaries were given five names of people who called and said they wanted to
be baptized. Soooo depressing...the English missionaries are spoiled, but I
guess we are in a lot of ways, too.
We met up with brother Silva our ward mission leader this
week. He said I don't know what to do really, but I want to work hard and do
whatever I can to help you. I know it won't be easy, but I am excited. That is
EXACTLY what we wanted to hear. More people in the branch need that kind of
fire. I hope he can get the branch a little excited about missionary work.
Roberto agreed to be baptized last night. The fifth of
January. I should be more excited, but I know how tough it is to get him to
church on his only day off when shopping in Logan is just so tempting for him.
He has a lot of desire just not a whole lot of fire to act. We will see how
things go with him; usually his lessons fall through so maybe things will start
changing now that he has that goal in mind. Well, I think that's it for this
week. I hope everyone is having a great almost-Christmas season! Ciao!
Elder Bassett
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