Week Two - MTC

4/10/12

Alright second P-day and counting! This week has gone by incredibly fast I can hardly remember what has happened!  We committed our first investigator to Baptism only to find out he was going to become our new teacher, His name is Hermano Schofield and he is a nice guy. We knew he was a memeber and wasn''t really a Peruvian because he was white as all get out. So the days following my first P-day were really just normal days, study, eat, study, eat, study, eat, then gym then study then sleep. Typically how the days go here. The oldest district in our zone is leaving tomorrow and its weird to see them leave even though its only been a few weeks. Elderes Oliver and Russell were both very good to us as we struggled to get through our first few weeks blindly because we never got our orientation because of conference. Easter was fantastic, I missed you guys so much but was so blessed to be here. Our Sacrament meeting consisted of every missionary in el CCM which is about 1800 to 2000 of us and so passing the Sacrament was a feat but after our wonderfully spiritual and reverent sacrament we got to hear from Boyd K. Packer and he gave us a wonderful message about Easter and it's importance. As christians we like to focus so much on the suffering and death of Christ sometimes we forget the most important part, that our Savior lives! That he broke the bonds of death and because of him we can follow in that example and have eternal life. That night we had a musical fireside where the BYU mens chorus came and performed! They brought the spirit so strongly through their music. How powerfully music can convey the spirit will never cease to amaze me. Oh by the way there is no music in el CCM entonces no puede usar mi iPod. The past few days we have been focusing a lot on how to begin teaching someone. How important it is to establish a genuine relationship with those that we teach, in our case we now have two investigadores, Anderson de Peru, y Gabriel de Argentina. They are just our white teachers acting as some of the investigators that they taught on their missions, so far we have only taught Gabriel and it was hard cause he didn't have any real knowledge of Christ or his Priesthood or his Atonement or Jose Smith and since my companion cannot speak spanish to save his life I have to try to wing it. That is one of our goals is to help him learn spanish, not that mine is perfect but his is nonexistent. I see the other companionships improving and at times it is disheartening to think that we aren''t making progress. But, then i remember why i''m here on my mission, to serve others and I think that there is a reason I got put with the person having the hardest time with the Spanish. I have been praying a great deal to know how to best help him and have faith that prayer will be answered soon. My roomates have got to be some of the smelliest people alive, our room smells constantly.... Elder Holley definitely contributes his fair share to that and I wish there was more I could do to help rid our room of the odor. 

 Sleep is also a luxury that I have lost a lot of. Elder Holley sleeps on the bunk next to mine with his teddy bear that his girlfriend Jessie that I never stop hearing about sent with him. On the first night here I found something out about this bear. It talks....She recorded a message that says, "Elder Holley I love you soooooo much!!! Muaah!" and the first time I heard it I thought we were all gonna get sent home cause there was a girl in our residence! Also this bear wears a tux and shoes, these shoes love to kick metal things and Elder Holley throws himself around at night. Did I mention that he yells in his sleep? No? well he does all the time, and then he complains that i snore. Elder Paulsen is a good guy, I call him sunshine cause he is always happy.  Elder White, his companion, is my sanity. I can talk to him and he and I see eye to eye. Elderes Vosters y Woodford are headed off to Spain next week for the Madrid MTC and i am incredibly jealous. The Hermanas tend to be a bit disruptive especially Hermana Van Dyke who is a tiny brunette. Hermana Richards is pretty cool, she and I can speak and have a conversation that isn't an argument. Hermana Ready however rarely speaks unless you say bad things regarding Eve, then she yells. The Lord has given me plenty of challenges since I''ve been here, staying studious for sixteen hours a day is hard but luckily things like gym break the monatony. I have been riding the stationary bike for twenty minutes or so a day at gym to prepare. Four square is also HUGE in the MTC because we arent allowed to be too competitive so we play four square.

I''m sorry it isnt in spanish, it woulda taken too long,

I love you all so much

Elder Bassett