Dec. 16th 2013

So it is nine days till Christmas that is pretty rad!!! I am pretty happy for Christmas to be here and for the spirit of Christ to permeate Edinburg we have been cathing glimpses of it here and there but there is something different as Christmas comes closer and closer. This last week for us has been pretty interesting because this month the mission has been talking a ton about the need for miracles and how we get them and all that good stuff and the Lord is definitely testing our faith. But I will get there eventually.

We will start with Tuesday it was a pretty good day my District told me that for lunch they were going to treat me to Mongolian Grill which was delicious and I made sure my bowls were just stuffed before they made my stirfry. I have pictures! after that was District meeting and the Zone Leaders came and sat in on it which always sucks but after wards they gave me donuts. I like donuts so that was good the only problem is that Sister Stevenson is allergic to gluten which caused some crazy problems later that night. Other than that it was a normal day some members texted me and a less active family gave me bluebell Ice Cream and Fresh baked cookies. After the cookies we went to the church for something I don't remember what only to find out that poor Sister Stevenson had had an allergic reaction to the Mongolian grill food, Cross contamination I guess and that she hadn't left the chapel after District meeting and no one decided it would be good to let their District Leader know or anything so I had no idea. So one of the STL's who is into this weird oil stuff came and put all these witch oils on my sister and I guess it helped her. I don't know how I feel about the weird Oil Voodoo but whatevs.

Other than that I think the week went pretty standard for the most part we met some super cool people like Ruben. We talked to this guy who didn't want to talk with us so he gave us a bogus referral to get rid of us lucky for us there was this kid outside a house cleaning up dog destroyed trash so we stopped him and talked with him and he asked us if he could be baptized. He is our Christmas Miracle I know he will be baptized he is super humble and his first Sunday and church just so happened to be the week Tad R. Callister came so there was that. The Lord really does put us where he needs us if we just follow our plans and work hard.

We also talked to some drunk outlaws who have read the book of mormon and know that in the first chapter Joseph Smith gets the plates and they are delivered by some alien named moroni. That was interesting. He had a hard time believing I got to go inside the big secret Salt Lake church where no one is allowed and we keep all our Gold. He was very drunk. It was fun though. The next time we were in the neighborhood this car pulls up and this drunk lady was with one of the drunk outlaws and they told us they were going to bring us Guacamole. Then she blew us kisses and left....I love being a missionary.

This week was mission tour and Tad R. Callister Came it was super super cool I learned a lot about the Atonement and he gave a Sunday School Lesson in the YSA where he just tore to shreds other churches in the most graceful and respectful way I have ever seen. Like anyone who would have tried to argue with him would have had 0 game because he destroyed all of it it was just super incredible to me to hear. After Sunday School he and Presidente Maluenda were just kicking it in the halls and I was too with Elder Sanders and they asked us to come with them and then they interviewed us both one at a time! It was super intimidating. At the end of the interview Tad R. Callister hugged me real close and then stared deep into my soul like deep. He definitely discerned my being and then told me to tell my parents I was a good missionary and then I left. I wonder what he saw in there! I hope he liked it. He didn't like my planner too much I have gotten a little lazy some days when I do follow ups so my companions do the planning and stuff he just told me I needed to do better.  

This week should be a good week we just need to keep pushing forward and not give up. We need prayers and we need miracles and I can definitely use all of your prayers. Remember this is the season of miracles and we need to be willing to go to our limit and then even more just like Abraham and Isaac! I love you all a ton

Elder Bassett

Dec. 9, 2103

Okay so ends another week in the great TMM for Elder B as in Bassett. Fun fact, no one knows what a Bassett hound is so I can't tell them that is what my name is like. Some cool stuff has happened this week as well as some not so cool stuff and this week should just be rad! Elder Callister is coming this week to destroy our minds with the spirit. It should be just incredible and I hope that we learn a ton about being better missionaries because of course the goal is to always be better. More on that mind blowing experience next Monday if my mind still functions that is!

So this week we got the new mission goal for baptisms in December. Originally it was 98 and last month was 110 and we hit 113 which was nuts because that is a pretty high number for this mission so we were all pretty pumped and knew that God blessed us with miracles because we had started the month looking like we had a solid like 70 peeps and God blessed us with 43 miracles! So all the ZL's and the Presidente got together to talk about our goal of 98 as a mission and they decided that it should be raised. So they threw around numbers like 120 and that just wasn't quite enough. The mission high for the TMM is 140 in one month. That is the record and so they decided that we wanted to shoot for that and more. 150. That is the number they decided and that is a lot of baptisms. Now please don't think for 1 second it is about the number, we as missionaries set goals so we have a vision these numbers are children of God that we love and truly cherish but we wanted to show the Lord that this month we have the faith to change the game here in the TMM. We have the faith to work with the Lord to find teach and Baptize 150 of our brothers and sisters and help them find their way to salvation. The thing is, we need the faith of all we can to hit this goal and change this mission forever. All the missionaries are praying to hit this goal, our active members are praying to hit this goal and I want to ask all of you to pray to bring to pass this great mission miracle. Pray that the TMM will be able to bring 150 of our brothers and Sisters to the waters of baptism. There are missionaries in this mission that need the boost to their faith. We need this. So, we need your help.

Throughout this week we have seen a lot of miracles including when the Lord hears and answers our prayers as a District Leader I get to see or at least hear about all the cool stuff that happens to my missionaries and so I will share with you a couple of stories. First off in my area we had been praying super hard for a family of at least 4 people and one night we were out and it was dark and the people here are like chickens. They go to bed when the sun goes down which is like 6 so that makes the hours of 6-9 really not too effective for finding. So we are outside walking in this neighborhood and we walk past a building where this woman is standing with a kid but she is on the 2nd story. Now let me tell you how awkward it is to contact someone who is on the second story when you are not. Very awkward and so we almost let ourselves walk right past. But I stopped my companions because the Spirit had stopped me and I told them we had to be willing to talk with all if we were ever going to deserve a family. So we talked to the woman and eventually she called out 3 of her kids and we though awww yeah family of four so we taught them. Come to find out at the end of the lesson, there were actually 8 in the family......rad! Bad news is we set BD's with all of them and Saturday night she texted and dropped us. But the lesson learned is that God Provides if we ask in Faith.

Second experience. We had a blitz with the Sisters because they have been struggling with their faith and stuff so the whole district worked their area for a few hours the other day and before we got out of the car they told us that they wanted a family of six and a ton of other details about this family that they wanted. Well long story short I was with Elder Gilmore and we found and taught a young woman and when we asked her how many people were in the family she said....6 it was awesome and it helped the Sisters a ton. I love being a missionary.

With This goal we have as a mission of 150 we have been speaking a lot about Sacrifice to show the Lord we are serious about wanting this goal and so I have been studying and pondering sacrifice and what I can sacrifice for the Lord. Now in all my studies I have learned a few things. Some may seem obvious and for times sake I will share only one. Sacrifice, true sacrifice has to mean never looking back. I think as missionaries we sacrifice 2 years or think we do intending fully to go back and pick up our old lives. Sacrifice is forever. When people offered sacrifice in the OT they never got their offerings back. They were burned and gone forever and that is how it needs to be with us. As we sacrifice for the Lord we can never go back. If we do then our sacrifice meant nothing. Sacrificed time can never be regained sacrificed efforts can never be brought back. I realized now more than ever the importance of sacrificing our sins especially to the Lord. He wants them, and he wants them for good. Think about the people of Ammon they buried their weapons deep in the Earth and never took them up again. We need to be that same way. I love you all so much and invite you to look for things you can sacrifice. Be good I will speak with you soon.

Elder Bassett

Dec. 2 2013

Okay so first off, Happy Thanksgiving. I didn't say anything last week about it because I had forgotten all about the holiday I will be straight honest. As a missionary holidays are just normal days just less people want to be bothered by you so the members take you and stuff lots of food down your throat. In case you were wondering, we ate a total of four times. We had 5 appointments but by the 5th one we just couldn't handle it anymore and we had to turn down the food, which they ended up just sending us home with anyway. However we couldn't get out of eating the pie which just about ended my life. 4 huge meals, like huge, like imagine a normal Thanksgiving meal and then imagine it is a Hispanic person serving you and then on top of that they think that the more you eat as a missionary the more blessings they receive. Just for future reference, blessings don't work that way there is not a correlation between quantity of food in missionaries and the amount of things heaven blesses you with. Other than that it was a pretty good day, only that the whole zone got sick and they blame me for it because I was the first one down. I don't feel too bad for it though they all have cars and stuff. Only problem has been that with sick missionaries comes the need to babysit them while they nap. At first I was like, "Oh sweet I can actually just sit down and relax for a while because Elder Tew is going to nap. I love that idea." That excitement lasted through like 2 or 3 chapters in Alma and then I realized that I hated it. Sitting around is like what every missionary says they want until it actually happens then you find yourself staring at the clock like you did when you were in High school and realize time doesn't like to move when you want it to. However I think we are all over the sickness thing and so Christmas should be a sick free holiday which is good because Christmas is a great Missionary holiday because everyone is thinking of Christ at least a little bit and you can make them realize how important he is.

Other than Thanksgiving not a whole ton has been happening here for us we have been working really hard on finding but it isn't coming and I think the reason we aren't finding is because our companionship has lost sight of the little things. I notice that sometimes, unfortunately more often than not certain members of the district and stuff are getting up at like 6:35 or sometimes even 7 and those little things cost the district. I was reading in the Old Testament and there is a story in Joshua after Israel has gone and destroyed the City of Jericho and they are all hyped and pumped and ready to go get their land and they go to the next city, this little city of Ai and they just get worked by these people. Now Joshua is pretty distraught and goes before the Lord and asks him what was going on. He received a promise from the Lord that the children of Israel would go unopposed in claiming there land. Well the Lord had told Israel that none of them were to take spoil from Jericho or else they'd be punished and after an investigation Joshua finds that only one man had broken the rule. He had taken a Babylonian garment and some gold and hid them in his tent. Because of this one guy and his disobedience all of Israel was punished and I realized that sometimes the Lord makes the innocent suffer the consequences of the actions of others. When a missionary is disobedient everyone feels it. The same goes for our families and such, we are all in this together and so we all go down together. I came to the conclusion that that has been happening in this district because a few of the Elders aren't quite consecrated enough and tend to be a bit disobedient and it is killing us so that has been one of our focuses. It is hard to break a missionary of his habits and so sometimes there is some butted heads but they are just going to have to get over that because I am here to have success.

We did get a surprise Tuesday Morning in the form of Elder Sawyer. I realized why it was they cancelled our original Trio and it was because they were going to send us Elder Sawyer from the Mexico City mission because he couldn't get his Visa so he couldn't stay for more than 90 days in Mexico. Now there are 3 of us which makes things interesting. Biking in 3 is not the most fun thing and I think when we approach doors people thing they are getting repo'd or like bounty hunted or something because 3 guys are just crowded around their door trying to shake hands and get in their houses and stuff. He is also pretty green so I am claiming him as my adopted son, so that means I have a son, a step-son and now an adopted son in the mission. Hopefully I have lots of posterity because I want to see great grandchildren in the mission that is a goal I have. Also at times in the trio I feel like a babysitter who is trying to make sure everyone knows they are pretty and then trying to dish out scoldings and stuff when they are necessary all while trying to make sure everyone is disfrutando la mision.

Our investigators are on ice right now and we are looking branch out in our finding ideas we have lots of our members committed to finding us people to teach and stuff that just sometimes takes time to bear fruit so we are being patient. This transfer seems to be all about patience. When the Lord wants to teach you something he has a tendency to lay it on pretty thick so I am learning all about it.

As this Holiday season approaches or I guess Christmas I want a birthday/christmas gift from all of you. It is very simple. Well I guess they are cause I want 2. First I want all of you to find someone to reach out and minister to. I want them to feel the Love of Christ through you. Second, I want to hear about it. I am going to be selfish and request it in the form of a written letter. If I don't receive a letter from you I will do what I do with investigators who don't keep committments and drop you for a while and then we will see from there what goes on. No I won't drop you but I would like letters and such. If necessary an email will suffice but just remember it's my birthday and stuff. I love you all very much. Make this a holiday season to remember. Door bell ditch someone and leave them a basket of things they need or surprise someone with a lunch trip or something. Be charitable, learn to give and learn what it means to truly be Christlike, that is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Elder Bassett

Nov. 25th 2013 - Pics

Us and a local Pastor and his family in Raymondville

Elder Gallman, Elder Tew and Elder Gilmore

My Comp Elder Gallman

Nov. 25th, 2013 - Transfer to Edinburg, TX

So I am officially in Edinburg!! The Smallest zone in the mission! I am a DL over the University District and we cover the college dorms here so that is weird to teach people like my age and stuff. We are also blessed to have the church in our area and for the first time I have members which is super rad I was like in tears when I found out! The challenge now is going to be getting the members involved in the work and on board to help the missionaries. As of now they just invite us over and want to kick it with us for way too long and we can't have that so I have to train them on member missionary relations. Seems like things have been way too lax for a long time and the district I am in is struggling because of it.

Now we ourselves haven't seen a lot, I have just one companion Elder Gallman and he is younger than me in the mission and he and I are working hard to get things moving and get the comp unity up in action. He has a ton of potential now i am just trying to help him find it. However. I am next to no help because I am new to the area and am trying to learn it, and about my district and our investigators and stuff.

Right now our investigator pool is non-existent. We have a few that listen to us but won't accept BD's and stuff so they aren't really progressing too well. We spent some time finding this last week but we didn't really have a ton of luck. That is going to have to change I have a whole College at my disposal and so we are going to try and just go nuts and get the crazy kids on board.

So in our zone we only have 12 missionaries and so we are basically just a big district and we are working on building zone unity because we have none. So the DL's and the ZL's got together and we were thinking and brainstorming and thinking of ways to get the unity, we decided we needed a zone name, so I suggested the Dirty Dozen. The ZL's loved it so now we have a gang sign and we are making shirts and now we are trying to make everyone nicknames and stuff it is pretty rad and I am excited to see how that goes.

This week we got slammed with 40 degree weather and rain and we are the only companionship in the zone without a car and I got super sick. Like I was not ready for it at all I am dying but I will be fine it is just la gripa.

Also now I have sisters in my district and that is rough. Sister missionaries are different and follow ups and stuff with them are hard because they are sisters and they cry and stuff and our sisters have been struggling a lot so hopefully I can help them out.

Really next week I will have more to report but I will send pics today!!

The family in the photos is some pastor who came to my last FHE in Raymondville he uploaded it to FB I think to show that there is love between us and his church I think....

Elder Bassett

Nov. 18th, 2013

Okay, so first things first. I am getting transferred to Edinburg to be the DL there. I am super excited and scared at the same time because gaining the trust of a District can be tough at times considering they have no idea who you are or what you are about but I survived it twice now so I can definitely do it again. I am going to miss this little place here in Raymondville. If you had asked me if I was going to miss it 2 transfers ago I would have laughed I didn't think I could miss it. However, the Lord has taught me many a lesson here some fun and others not so fun but my testimony has grown a ton in my time in this tiny little place. I think the greatest lesson I have learned here has been to never, ever give up. Any soul worthy of baptism is a soul worth saving, or at least I think that is how it goes. I have battled harder here with these investigators than I ever did in Mercedes and though they have been struggles they have been worth every stressful moment, and this Sunday to finish off my stay here God gave us a miracle.

 

So we have been working with Matthew the 12 year old who has been going to church faithfully since July with a member family. He is a great kid and wants to be a deacon and go to the temple so Badly we couldn't help but teach him. So for the past few weeks we have been teaching him and his Baptisimal date was the 17 of November and so about 2 weeks ago we started trying to get permission from his mother to let him be baptized. The mother in atheist or Catholic we aren't sure she has told us both and isn't the biggest fan of the missionaries. However, Matthew told us that she was okay with him learning and stuff and that Baptism wouldn't be a problem. So we gave him the record to sign and he took it and well he kept giving us excuses for not having it signed. Obviously this was a red flag so we kept asking him. Matthew does your mom know? Yes elders she does. Okay so go get the paper signed. So come Saturday morning the paper still wasn't signed so we went to talk to Mom, well mom lied to us through her daughter who told us that she was at work. Now we know mom doesn't work because she is in a wheelchair and never leaves the house. However, we can't force anyone into anything so we sent Sister Quintero by because they are really good friends and Sister Quintero got the record signed! Best news ever right? Well so we called the ZL's and they drove the half hour to Raymondville to give Matthew his interview and well, Matthew never ever showed. His older Sister threw a fit when she found out he was being baptized and so she and her mother kept him hostage in the house and wouldn't let him leave....Truly it was devastating. We had grown to love this boy a lot, he is a quiet kid and not the most popular but his heart and his desires are pure. Unfortunately, there just was nothing more we could do, nothing at all.

 

So we went on with the rest of our plans and we got straight owned. Nothing came through no one was home, it was one of those days that makes you just want to lay on the floor and just nap forever. Not even the cheesecake we baked for a member in our areas birthday worked out as well as we hoped. We were working super hard not to let desanimo get the best of us. What was worse was that we had promised the Lord we were going to have a baptism that week. Now Please remember, we understand that we deal with people not baptisms and that it isn't some game of numbers but when you set a goal and promise the Lord you will hit it you are accountable to that goal and not hitting it sucks. So after all our plans fell through we went to see Vanessa, we sat with her and her kids and just started talking a bit. I then looked over at Elder Newland and then at Eryn, Vanessa's unbaptized daughter and started just  nonchalantly asking her the baptisimal interview questions and Elder Newland followed my lead. We made it through all the questions and she had answered them all right and with a lot of understanding so Elder N and I looked at eachother again and I looked Eryn right in her face and just asked her, "Eryn, do you want to get baptized tomorrow?". Now it caught her off guard for sure but then she thought about it for a few moments and she responded, "Sure!" It was awesome. She came to church the next day and fought with us all day about stupid things like that the Jumpsuit was ugly and stuff. Then she blackmailed me into telling her my middle name. She told me, "I won't get baptized until you tell us your middle name." I wanted to punch her but she is 12 and just loves giving the missionaries grief and I have never met another person who is as good as Eryn at giving grief. Long story short she got baptized and we hit our goal and we received a miracle from the Lord and it was just super rad. God knew someone was going to be baptized we the missionaries just didn't know who. He led us to her though.

 

Lesson learned : God knows what's up all the time and we don't really know much. That is why we have to make sure we give him our trust.

 

I love you all and miss you

 

Elder Bassett

 

P.S. Elder Newland didn't bring his camera cord so it is definitely his fault I can't send pictures I will send them though I promise.

More Pics

Year Anniversary "Birthday" cake

Hombres

Bro. Ford and his iguana Igor