Diana is getting baptized on Sunday!

Mom requested icicle pictures. There are thousands of them here.

So we are emailing later today, because we just got to Layton! It's outside of the mission, but we had permission. We were with President Reyna (counselor in mission presidency), and I was talking about how I tried to get my pants tailored and the lady ruined them and cut off the excess fabric so they really can't be fixed. Then I said how the only way to get them fixed was really going to Men’s Warehouse, because they could do it for free. So he called president and asked to take us to Men’s Warehouse in Layton, and we went. I walked in with a Men’s Warehous tie, suit, and jacket, so they really liked me and did the best they could to fix my suit pants right there in about ten minutes. And the manager gave me his card and said they are opening a store up in Ogden and if I ever come buy a suit from him on my mission he will give me some free ties. So that’s cool that we will have one closer. Then Pres Reyna took us out to a place. I think its called Famous Daves. It was bbq...probably the first time I have had bbq on my mission so it was really good.

So Diana Robles has been pretty good. She is getting baptized on Sunday. She has changed a lot since she started meeting with us. She just looks happier and talks about how she doesn’t worry or think about her past anymore and just feels more tranquil (tranquilidad?). She is excited about it. We taught law of chastity and word of wisdom this week to her and she didn’t have any issues. She already has good standards about how to raise her kids and knows this will help her. It’s weird teaching her, because she has pretty much no concerns. We are teaching tithing tonight so hopefully that goes all well. She almost didn’t come to church this week. We were in ward council, and she texted us and said she can’t come. Elder Martinez went straight outside and talked to her and came back and told me that she was babysitting other peoples’ kids and had her own so she couldn’t come. So I wasn't satisfied with that and went outside and called her. Anyways I talked to her a few minutes using a few scriptures, and she ended up getting to church with two car loads full of kids. It was hard to keep them quiet during sacrament, but I don't care…she was there! So that went well. She ended up being really happy that she came.

Hermano Salpa and his son came as well and both really enjoyed it, but they hit a road block this week. They were both excited about baptism, but you remember that comment I said our bishop made at the fireside? Well Hermano Salpa didn’t like that he was making fun of Catholicism and now is hesitant about getting baptized. We will see what happens. Bishop wasn’t there on Sunday so maybe that’s a good way to ease him into coming to church with us with the bishop not being there for his first week.

So I did relearn one hard thing about being in Utah missions. The people that aren’t members are very convinced that they hate us and know a lot of anti things that I wish they wouldn’t tell us. We knocked one guy’s door that invited us in, and we stayed too long listening to him tell us a ton of half truths about church history. It’s just not good things for us to hear. I hate it. So we got away after he warned us of our fate and where we were going and all that good stuff. We run into those people a lot here. Then his neighbor was bad. He had a dog, and it bit me! It was a Chihuahua, and it jumped out as soon as he opened the door and bit my finger. Luckily, I was wearing gloves so it didn’t pierce the skin; it just pulled my glove off and left a bruise where it bit me. It's a good thing the owner pulled the dog away so fast though, because I wasn't very happy with it. The owner felt really bad that it bit me and was probably scared I would sue so he accepted missionaries: sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven? 

This is Gus

So, we have a new pet cat...kind of. We are trying to make her not our pet, but I think she decided she lives outside of our house. Our landlady, Faye, has a cat named Gus. He doesn’t have a tail. Anyways, he come over to our house (the other side of the duplex we live in) and visits occasionally. Gus has visited the missionaries for years and years. So this new cat came over and meowed at our door one day. I assumed it was Gus coming to see us, and I let it in, and it was a girl cat a little bit smaller. So I made the mistake of feeding her some arroz con leche, because she was really skinny and now she won’t stop meowing at our door everyday. We don’t know who the owner is but Faye feeds her everyday now (we named her Mindy), and she sleeps under a heat lamp behind Faye’s part of the house, but she wants to come in all the time so we just leave her out so she doesn’t think that she lives here. She would just go inside with Faye, but Mindy and Gus really don't get along. I prefer cats over dogs now. Dogs come up and rub against you and get hair all over your suit and cats leave you alone and keep their fur to themselves, so I like that better. 

District meeting was pretty good. The other district leaders are going home in a week so they are kind of not into missionary work anymore. So they didn’t come to district meeting. So I taught district meeting to the whole zone this week. The zone leaders were nice enough to let me know ten minutes before hand. It was a little tougher to keep that many people quiet, but it went fine. We really need to kick it up a notch this transfer. Our zone has the lowest key indicators in the mission by a lot and that shouldn’t be the case. Several sets of missionaries turn in zero's week after week after week...all of the key indicators for our zone come from us and the zone leaders. It has been tough trying to get people. So the plan is to get a bunch of new missionaries in and make them think this is the best zone in the mission and turn things around.

The AP's told me that I am for sure staying so that is a relief, but PRAY that Elder Martinez stays, too. I really want to keep a good companion. The problem is that there are NO new Spanish coming in. Where is the influx of new missionaries at?! So no posterity for me this transfer. Elder Ireland left so he is only kind of my son and Elder Senn is adopted since his dad got sent home and never trained him on anything. Maybe next transfer some new Spanish will come in. 

So our zone leaders extended a challenge for the whole zone to read all of Preach My Gospel this week. And I extended to my district an additional bit that they need to apply one new thing a day that they aren’t already doing from Preach My Gospel. Only one companionship kind of said no to that, so that should help us out. The ones that said no said that they are already doing everything in Preach My Gospel so basically they have nothing to work on...and they were serious! 

So I found out something awesome this week! My GPS can speak Spanish! It even pronounces the streets with a Spanish accent so that’s kind of a fun new thing we figured out. It’s still pretty cold and snowy which is awful. We are ready for some heat, but that probably won’t happen for a couple months especially with the inversion. Hopefully next week is supposed to warm up to be 30 degrees as a high during the day, but for now it doesn’t get past 18 ever during the day. 

The Carrera family is still being taught. The husband wasn’t there again, but they started reading together in the Book of Mormon! The mom is finally reading and slowly but surely, she is starting to grasp that the Catholic church is NOT the same thing as our church. She thinks we teach the same thing, and that’s why she doesn’t need to get baptized so we are trying to show her the difference.  They still won't come to church. That will be the next beast to tackle. Her husband needs to finally be home for a lesson so we can tell him to get a new work schedule. So pray that Denny's can find a new cook for Sunday's! Other than that, we tracted a lot of apartments this week and found just a lot of Ogdenites. Transfers are next week. That is very stressful, but hopefully it all turns out well. 

I love you all and hope life is great! Take care,

Elder Bassett

PS A few comments from your letters: Yes, I am taking a multi, but it has no iron in it. I just checked. That’s kind of weird. I probably don't get enough iron. Utah has the flu virus really, really bad. EVERYone is getting it except us (I guess I already had it once this year). So I will try not to get it...and YES, there are thousands of icicles everywhere. I will send you some pictures in a second. It made me laugh that you were happy that I was safe from the storm being in Brigham...we weren't. I had to drive on the freeway back to Ogden THROUGH the storm. You could barely see in front of you, and there were cars stuck everywhere. We actually got to one hill and there were probably 15 cars that didn’t make it up, but we had to get home so we went for it and made it! (Probably my mad driving skills.) So yeah, we drove through the storm…kind of the opposite of being safe from it. There was so much snow that day.

Jessica! If mom and dad haven’t already sent one ask if they are going to send me a gorro...My ears are cold and they seriously don’t have any normal looking ones here at the store.  I went tried to. We are going to Ross later to day, though. It’s my new favorite store. Everything’s so cheap! I never actually buy anything; we just look around, ha-ha. Just buy me one. You can ask mom and dad to pay you back for it....tell them I gave you permission since I am the new favorite being a missionary and everything...SHOOT I will be the second favorite after Jessica junior comes! I didn’t even realize that!