"You guys are awesome. I'm glad you are here to make things better.”

Another week has gone by. It was a crazy week. Right off the bat, I went on exchanges with my district leader. He is fantastic. He talked to me all day about looking from others’ perspectives and being a good companion. He is just such a nice guy and really cares about other people. Before bed, we were laying down falling asleep, and he said every night he says something he loves about his companion, and then he said something (I can't remember what it was), but it just shows you he is a good guy. Maybe I will try that one-day.

Our new apartment

Then we moved last week. There are four of us in one apartment. It is a two-bedroom place, which means we have no office/desks and no storage. There are just boxes of stuff sitting in the front room. We have to study sitting in bed, which makes it harder to stay awake and means the other missionaries have an excuse to sit all in the front room together and not study. The other missionaries were told by our housing coordinator to look for another place and this is just temporary, but they want to live together: mostly because Elder Saldaña doesn’t want to be just with me. Anyways, they aren’t looking for a place and just plan on staying with us.

Going Private

Hi everybody...thanks for reading Elder Bassett's letters and supporting him through prayers and letters. Some of the missionaries in his area have been going on the internet and searching out names and people. Since he shares so openly about his experiences, we decided to open the blog to invited guests only. If you would to continue reading his letters, please send me an email and I will send you an 'invitation." Sorry for the inconvenience. We're still learning and trying to figure out how best to share his letters.
Angie

That really encouraged me...

Sorry...no pictures this week...and this keyboard has the backspace in the wrong spot, so sorry if there are a few extra type-o's.

Anyway, this week has been better; mainly it’s just my perspective, but I am doing well. So, I made a big decision...Jessica keeps asking what I want her to send, and I never tell her, but I just want to say NOT candy…dessert is different obviously J but no candy. I already eat unhealthy enough here, so yeah, no need to send candy while I am on my mission after watching how much candy other missionaries eat. Ha-ha.

Last p-day, I was feeling a little discouraged and overwhelmed. The next morning I prayed to be able to see some love from the Lord…then I got five letters that day! It was great; three letters the next day, too. Lots of support from some awesome uncles and old mission friends that really encouraged me...it also made me wake up a little bit and realize how small my problems are especially compared to other's in their missions. It definitely changed my perspective about my mission, and I know it'll get better. 

So, we are moving this week! They finally found a new place, and it is an apartment next to the trailer park where all of our work is, so we will save tons of miles. We ended up 450 miles over this month; our vehicle coordinator was aware, though, well ahead of time. Before I got into the area, Elder Saldaña’s old companion pretty much used all of ours up going around the mission, so things should be better this month.

So anyways, just about my Spanish: I haven't reported in awhile. Most people that I talk to are surprised that I speak ok and tell me I don't have a bad accent, which is good. Most missionaries here that learn Spanish don't ever practice, so most people's reaction in the ward is surprise, because Elder Saldaña’s last companion has been out a year and can't really speak it still. I still have a ton to learn, but at least I can communicate fine. I am working on doing flashcards for all the words in the small red book, all the grammar reviews in the medium red book and just reading the Book of Mormon the rest of the time. I couldn’t believe Tyson finished the whole Book of Mormon in Spanish in a transfer, so I have been kicking it into gear and trying to do it a little faster. I have been lazy about it and doing other Spanish things that are probably easier and won't help as much.

So, we have this talk called ‘Feed My Sheep’ by Elder Holland. We have it on video. It was given a year ago in the MTC. If you can find it then watch it. It's like Remember the Titans, but with the Spirit. It is awesome. Basically the whole time, it is really good, but then at the end he finishes with talking about the exact moment that Peter became the great apostle when for the third time (acknowledging the three times he denied the Savior) he says he loves the Savior more than anything. And in that moment, Elder Holland says you can forget the denials, the confusion, the not knowing what to do but go feed sheep, because in that moment he becomes the great apostle and "to that response the Savior of the world said then Feed my sheep! (while pounding the podium)" and he talks about how the Savior was conveying "I have asked you before to leave your nets, and I am asking you a second time and don't want to ask you a third time, when I asked you to follow me it was forever, when I asked you to be an apostle it was forever, when I asked you to see this through to the end. it was because it’s not over till its over, so go feed my sheep." Anyway, I can't do justice over email, but it is seriously so awesome, and he gets very passionate and talks about how awful it is to serve a mission then go home and go inactive, and that this mission marks the hour that we will feed His sheep FOREVER. Not just two years…anyways. So at random times during the day, I will yell out FEED MY SHEEP just because we love it so much. In fact, it is about an hour long. It’s what Elder Saldaña does for personal study a lot of the time. Ha-ha. (The referenced talk isn't posted here yet, but if we keep checking, I'm thinking it might get added to the list.)

"...these 2 are different; they have the Spirit, they work hard..."

So a few stories for this week. The first one is pretty different. It was 9:30 and Elder Saldaña wanted to go to McDonalds. I said, “No, we need to stay in right now...you should've eaten dinner earlier when I did. We had time...” He wasn't giving in and said, “Fine, I'll call the zone leaders,” and I said, “Yeah, they will probably say yes to anything you ask them.” So he said, “I'll call President Hiers.” Of course I didn't think he was serious, so I said, “Yeah, go for it; call him.” So he did, and I thought he was just pretending. Then ten minutes later president called and said, “Hey Elder Bassett, I am bringing McDonalds over to your house to feed your companion. Do you want anything?” I couldn't believe it. So president came over at 10:30 at night (because he got lost coming to our house) to give my companion dinner. I felt pretty bad, but he taught us a good lesson about obedience and how he would rather go out of his way to help us be obedient than have us break a rule. He went upstairs, and our bedroom was clean, but the other missionaries’ was pretty bad, so he talked to them about cleanliness and then went on his way. Elder Saldaña didn't quite understand why that was rude of us to call when he has other things to worry about besides him being hungry, so I hope he doesn't try to do it again.  

So things have been better this week...well not really…just my perspective has been better, and I have been happier. Personal study is tough with all the noises the other missionaries are making, but I usually just go to the office and try to focus. It is still a struggle to have effective companionship study. I drew the line when he wanted to role-play bashing...ha-ha.  I am learning to be patient and just listen and learn from him. I can't say this without sounding snobbish, but there are just some things that I know are important and he doesn’t. He really doesn't like to leave commitments or talk about The Book of Mormon in the first lesson. And when we contact people he ALWAYS says, “We aren't here to convert or baptize you, just talk about Jesus,” because he says it helps get close to people, but it's just not the truth. He thinks we should avoid talking about the restoration when contacting, so that's been tough. I try to talk about how we need to follow preach my gospel, but his attitude about preach my gospel is that just like the old lessons that they had to modify, one day they will realize some things are wrong with preach my gospel and change it...so, basically that he knows better about how to teach people than the first presidency since we are some very intelligent 19 year old boys… Anyways, that's frustrating..

First week in Hyrum, 5 weeks in the field

The Logan Utah Temple

Ok, so this was my week first week in Hyrum.. Lots of stuff in this email, so this will be random and unorganized.

The Hyrum house is huge: two story house, four bedroom, three bathroom. I'll send pictures next week. It has not been taken care of at all, really. Things are just really unorganized. I was doing dishes and asked where the plates go, and they said anywhere. You open the cupboards and plates from about a hundred different members that haven’t been returned are everywhere, and nothing is really organized.

Elder Woodward (new from MTC), Elder Isla, Elder Saldaña, & I

Ok so, I'll tell you about Hyrum. Right before I left, Elder Isla said, “Hold strong. Hyrum is known as apostate land, because nobody works at all, and it’s easy to be lazy.” That was encouraging. He is definitely right, though. Right off the bat in the car, I told my new companion I didn't want to listen to music that wasn't "churchy," and he was not happy. It took a while, but eventually he agreed. He keeps trying to push it, but I am not giving in. He is a worker though. He told me right off the bat that he wants to work. His last companion was lazy and just flirted with girls, so he wants to change and work. I am happy with that; we work very hard. He doesn't like some of the small rules and is very against changing at all. But we do work. There are a couple things like at lunch instead of eating he will take a nap, so I can't do anything about that, but he has a good attitude about helping the other missionaries. The two others we live with sleep in everyday and hang out all day pretty much, and we are trying to encourage them by going tracting with them, inviting them to study with us, things like that. Rather than be frustrated and judge them, he tries to help them which is a good example for me. Oh, and we work out at the high school gym: none of the tv's, music, or anybody else there like the other area. The janitors let us in, so that is pretty nice.

Even if I don't baptize everyone I teach, I can help them remember...

Ok. So another week...and my last week in East Ogden! This week has been good.

So the costco story...

I went last week for p-day...and had about 33 dollars worth of stuff..and went up to pay with the members I was with. I thought my missionary card was debit so I tried that, and it didin't work; apparently, it runs as credit. Then I said no big deal and used my US Bank debit card. It didn't work; it said my pin was wrong. I kept trying and was getting frustrated and said to put a few things back, because I only had 17 dollars cash. The lady at the register was a member and said, “No, I'll pay for it.” It's one thing for someone to choose to do that, but she was kind of forced into the situation, and I felt bad, so I said, “No, absolutely not. I'll put it back.” She said no, and I tried a couple more times and said please don't, but she did anyways. I could feel myself turning red and getting frustrated, because I felt bad and don't like putting people out paying for me. Anyway, I called US Bank and tried to blame it on them, because I was frustrated with myself and anyways then I got home and realized I was using my ATM number instead of my debit card number. Stupid...Anyways, I felt pretty dumb. On top of that, I have to figure out what I'm going to do with this bulk food I now have to bring with me up to Hyrum.

So this week I remembered things that I had to do and wrote them down. I remembered in Arizona Mom asked me to make her a playlist probably at least ten times, and I never did it. Anyways...I just wanted to say sorry Mom...I remembered and was just lazy and selfish and never took ten minutes to help you. I ask members to give us their friends and do all these hard things, but I couldn't even "commit" to helping my mom for five minutes. I don't know why, but that has really been bugging me this week, so I am sorry I never did that. Hopefully my mission will teach me to be a little less selfish and lazy.

The Spirit or a Righteous Hunch

Another week in the mission field,

This has been an interesting week. It started off that last p-day was not too great on my quest for more charity, and I decided I needed to try a lot harder. He hadn't cleaned all day and his companion, Elder Isla, and I had. We argued for a little bit, and I just kind of lost it on him for not even cleaning up after himself and that I was sick of telling him to clean up his own messes and then doing it myself. We yelled for a little and got nowhere, and I was mad. Later that night, I pulled him off to the side and apologized and said I needed to do better and not get so worked up about things. I was hoping he would have the same type of attitude, but he just said, “Yeah, as a district leader I have a lot of responsibilities that you don't know about, and I don't have time to clean up after myself, because I am so busy worrying about others.” He talked for about fifteen minutes about how he has a lot more on his plate than I do, and I think that was his way of apologizing. I just said, “Ok, you're right,” and decided I would just lead by example and ignore the fact that he won't really help clean up. The frustrating thing is that if he were so busy with his "district duties" he wouldn't spend so much time during the day sitting on the couch or out to eat with other missionaries. But I think in his mind he is doing well. Even if he isn't, oh well, I'm just going to worry about myself.

So, that night I decided I needed to start doing better. We read a talk about purifying and getting rid of things that don't seem like a big deal, but you need to do it to feel the Spirit strongly. We made a list of things as an apartment. Among them were singing non-missionary songs, quoting movies, not starting studies on time, leaving out dishes (that was my input), and a few other things. For the punishments for breaking our rules, I had a really good idea that you had to clean something if you broke a rule. That only lasted the first day before our district leader said it was dumb, and he didn't want to clean stuff anymore, but at least I tried ha-ha.

The one thing Elder Isla and I started to do together was not going to the gym. We both felt the same after reading the talk. Then we prayed about it and decided we won't go to the gym anymore. I know it sounds dumb, but it was a really hard decision, because I really like going to the gym. It's how I relieve stress, but I know I'll feel the Spirit better without that type of influence every morning. The other missionaries ask why we don't go anymore, and we don't really say, but at the same time, our zone leaders decided to stop going, too so that made me feel more confident about it. I have just been doing workouts at home in the morning instead. I really have no reason to complain, because that's what people in other missions do, so that'll be ok. Unfortunately, this means Elder Isla doesn't exercise anymore, but it was his decision, too.  I can't force him to exercise in the morning.

Grandma sent me some 3-2-1-cake mix that is making staying healthy difficult. I love it. I try to avoid cake everyday at lunch but it's hard. ha-ha, thanks grandma! (Don't stop sending them!) Our district leader started ‘unifying our district’ this week, and he says we need to have more district lunches. I am really the only one who doesn't want to do it, because I don't want to waste money. There is this place they like to go; it's outside our zone, and the hamburgers are like seven dollars (but you get free fries). They go occasionally, and I just don't eat lunch that day. It kind of bugs me, because they don't have enough money, so they email their parents and say the mission doesn't give them enough, so their parents send more money. I have a pretty interesting district.

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One thing I have grown to love here is Tampico. I have had more of it since I have been here than my whole life combined. EVERY Hispanic house has some. It's kind of funny. Oh, about the gym, I was battling at one point whether or not it was actually the Spirit and not just in my head that I couldn't go. Then Dad's ‘righteous hunch talk’ popped into my head, and I realized it was inviting me to do this for a better cause, so who cares if it was a righteous hunch or the Spirit? I should follow it regardless. After deciding that, I felt a lot better about it.