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

Oct. 28th, 2013

Alright so real quick here is what went down this week. First of all I hit my year mark and I hate it because that means I am old and that means that time is moving too quickly. My Companion Elder Newland went around telling the members that it was my birthday and they wouldn't believe me when I said that it wasn't and so when I was on exchanges for a couple days this week the members went nuts. Especially Sister Calvo, she is a great lady, and she loves to do stuff for other people so she told all the members to bring stuff to the Book of Mormon class we hold every week and man they definitely did. Most of it was tuna though so I had to force it all down. I couldn't tell them no after all the work they put into it for me. Luckily Sister Calvo baked a very very delicious chocolate chocolate cake and I loved every second of it. When she found out that it wasn't really my birthday and that it was my "Mission Birthday" she just laughed and thanked me for my service and stuff. She still has my number 20 birthday candles she was going to use. I am turning 21 this year not 20 but we don't tell her stuff we just let her do her thing.

 

Misael didn't come to church although he did read to Jacob 5 in his BoM reading which is by far the most I have ever seen an investigator read before baptism. Then we found out he felt as though he had a learning disability because he didn't understand it so he read it about 4 times. Elder Newland told him, "Misael, I don't even read Jacob 5 that often, nor do I understand it." It was hilarious but it really is good to see that he is reading and progressing. We just need to get him to understand the Sabbath Day and come to church. Then it'll all be smooth sailing.

 

Derek moved out of our area this week and into Harlingen so he is no longer our investigator but he is truly a great man and he is trying to change. When we were talking he told us the stories about how he was before he moved down to Raymondville and how he and his 2 pitbulls, Red and something else, fought a lot of people and, "Messed them up." He also told us his kill command for Red, who is ridiculously well-trained, and really I doubt it is appropriate for the email. After story time about Derek and Red and their adventures in the streets of illinois he told us that he has had to work really hard not to explode on some people here because and I quote, "Raymondville ain't ready for that, it just ain't ready for that." Derek did ask if we could still be his missionaries and it sucked to tell him no but he will do great we just gotta get him to church.

 

Matthew is 12 and progressing real well. He is just kind of shy and we can't seem to get his family on board. Luckily Matthew stays every weekend with the Quinteros and so he is always at church and stuff so he is progressing a lot. we played some 10 commandments uno with him yesterday he liked it.

 

And here it is, the news I am sure you have all been waiting for about Vanessa. Man she just wants to kill me but after the longest most stressful week I have ever had. She was baptized with her daughter Emma, Eryn decided that she didn't want to be baptized after all but the others did. There was literally a problem we faced with her every single day this week and she showed up to church about 40 minutes before her baptism but it finally happened. I can't tell you the relief it was to stand in that font and say those words and baptize that Lady. Monday we almost lost her to coffee luckily when I was praying I got just this strong impression to text Vanessa and tell her no Coffee no tea. After a few seconds I got a response and she said, "That is weird. Did someone tell you that I woke up super early this morning to go have some coffee with my Mom?" I replied, "Yes Vanessa, the Holy Ghost. Don't drink coffee or tea please." Then her son was sick, then she had more doubts about the church, then her son was sick again and then Sunday morning she texted us and said that she wasn't coming to church she would have to wait until next month. So we stopped by and had to persuade her with the Spirit to come to church. She finally did after playing just a horrible trick on us at 2 she said she was still in Raymondville and trying to leave. Turns out she was already in the Parking lot she just thought she would make us sweat bullets for a few more minutes. Not a funny joke. But it felt great to finally be through that trial. Elder Newland and I finally got some sleep last night after a week or so of next to none.

 

This week I learned about the importance of Baptism, and how much God will do to prepare the way for us if we just are willing to see it and take it. Satan on the other end is a lot less subtle and sucks a whole lot and tries to destroy everything. However, Our Heavenly Father loves us way more than we can imagine and he is also more powerful that Satan and as such always wins, if we cast the right vote. After receiving countless promptings for Vanessa this week I realized how much God loved her and how much I needed to be willing to love her and that I needed to be willing to go to any length to help her out. That is how life should be always, we need to be willing to go to any length so that we can fulfill all righteousness. As we show our faith then the miracles come we learn that in Ether 12:12. I also learned the love God has for the Elders in my District as I worked with Elder Zavala who has a pretty serious speech impediment. He is such a boss and is a much braver than I am. I would invite you all to make a list of all the times this week God shows his love for you and for those around you. I love you all and am outta time. Till next week

 

p.s we also went to the prison

 

Elder Bassett

Nov. 11th, 2013

Man so this week there isn't a ton with our investigators so I would instead like to spend some time just sharing some experiences I have had this week. So first of all we had 3 day leadership training and I had to go live in McAllen for 3 days and sleep there and work there and stuff with a super young missionary named Elder Knighton. Most of the day however we spent in a chapel receiving training after training and doing role play after role play so that we can learn stuff about being missionaries and stuff. It was nuts and although being in a chapel pew from 9 am to 5 pm isn't the most fun thing in the world we learned just a ridiculous amount of things from our leaders. Each set of ZL's and the AP's and the Mission President spent time teaching us about something and I think the one that hit me the hardest was the AP's. They did this thing where they took a big thing of yarn and stretched it from the pulpit all the way to the back of the gym so it was long. Then they took an expo marker and marked a tiny dot on the yarn to represent our lives in eternity. They then spoke of the pre-existence and how God presented his plan to us and how we were called to find certain people and help them in this life etc. They told this fictitious story of this guy named Tommy who was going to come to the world and not receive the Gospel until he was 24. God told Tommy who was going to come and find him and help him and then 24 years later the missionaries plan they pray they go to the place where Tommy is going to be. Tommy walks out of his house to his car....and the missionaries walk right past him and he never gets the Gospel and that decision affects him for all eternity. Like a sledgehammer to my soul man, I thought of all the people that I walked by without teaching something because I was scared or they looked "too busy" or whatever and I felt bad. So I promised myself that I would do better. Well, that night I was with Elder Knighton and we tried talking to everyone and then it came to be like 8:45ish and we were walking back to the car and then this young man comes out of his house and to his car and I told Elder Knighton that we had to go talk to him. Elder K had no idea why he wasn't at the training but I insisted and we spoke to him. His name isn't Tommy, it's Guillermo remember we are in South Texas. However Guillermo has been looking for Gospel answers and there we were. How sweet was that!?

Second cool experience happened Saturday. The area had been dead because I was out of the area for most of the week and we hadn't found a new soul to teach and we caught wind from a member that there was someone in Lyford who was talking about wanting the missionaries to come and teach her. So we took the last name we had, because we didn't have a first name, and we had a little town and nothing else but it was the lead that we had to we planned to be there and we told God we were going to be there and that we needed his help and that we weren't leaving until we found the Family we were supposed to find. So we start walking and it is already dark here at 6 and everyone shuts down at dark here and we start knocking doors and talking to people and asking about the Martinez family. Now no one seems to know the freaking Martinez family but we kept going until we came to a fork in the road. I had been left once so we decided to go right and we stopped in front of this dark house and decided the worst thing that could happen was a big pitbull attack so we knocked. And, well pitbulls attacked us....just kidding what happened was this young girl like 19 I think opens the door. Snake bite piercing but earrings, tattoos, a bob marley shirt and a baby in the oven with a big knife in hand. I was scared and at first I thought to myself, Here we go again. Her name is Karen and her and her mother Abigail and her sister Rosa and her brother Luis want to be baptized on the 8th of December....It was incredible. We were able to tell them that we had asked God to take us to the family that needed us and that they were to first to let us in. The spirit bore witness to me that they were who we were there to find. They didn't know the Martinez family either. So when we left the house the family thanked us genuinely for having come by and asked that we come by Tuesday. Then we left the home and a police officer stopped us while we were walking and asked us to leave. So we did, but not a moment too soon for we had found the prepared family. It was nuts.

This week I learned about a few things. About obedience and how obedience is what brings blessings but more that anything I learned about how when we make plans to do something or we make a decision we must take it to the Lord and ask for his help. As we do this the Lord can show us his will and bless us with the things that we need. Had we told God we were going to be in Lyford at 6 and that we needed his help there but then went to San Perlita we wouldn't have been blessed the way he blessed us. The Lord is awesome and wants to help us so we should be sure we keep him "Up to date" on our plans. I love this mission a lot. I love you all and Miss you.

Elder Justin Bassett

Pics from Nov. 4th, 2013

Halloween 2013.  Andrew Jacob as a missionary

Goats

Nov. 4, 2013

Alright so I don't have a ton to report but I don't want it to sound as though I am discouraged so just a quick disclaimer on that. This week we had Halloween and such and so Elder Newland and I almost had to get put on Lockdown at 6 because we didn't have miles to get to Harlingen for the Ward function. Lucky for us the Zone Leaders love us and had miles and the actually came and got us which was really cool of them to do. The party itself wasn't too terribly exciting just like a ward party but you're a missionary and can't really do most of the stuff and you work 30 minutes away from everyone so no one knows who you are and so you feel like that awkward guy who invited himself to a party that wasn't his. I did get donuts though, I had to eat them without my hands and it was a competition so I didn't get to enjoy it but I got a donut nonetheless. Other than that Halloween was just like any other day except everyone had fake bodies and all sorts of good stuff all over their homes. People go all out for Halloween here, like all out it is disturbing.

 

Vanessa and Emma were confirmed members of the church which is good because I stress about that family a lot and just like they always do they made me worry up until the last second. They showed up late to sacrament so we had to do their confirmations at the very end which made me feel really silly cause that is just backwards. Her other 2 kids that are of age to be baptized are giving us a bunch of trouble one of them is 12 and doesn't like church because she doesn't know anyone but won't let the young women come and try to befriend her. The other is 9 and likes grandmas church better because they get candy and watch movies. We are trying to help them understand the eternal family and the requirements to have that but now that Vanessa is on our side things should go better.

 

Misael, he disappeared, he is avoiding us and so we are no longer teaching him.

 

Everyone else we were working with save Matthew has also disappeared and he has been hard to stay in contact with. so not a whole lot there.

 

We have been talking to like everything that is human this week and have found some good potential but nothing solid as far as investigators.

 

This week we have a 3 day leadership training and so I will be out of the area for at least 3 days because I am staying somewhere in McAllen to work and stuff we won't be driving home. I have been studying a lot of obedience especially because we have revised the mission baptisimal goal and we have to try our best now to hit it. It is going to take everyone and a lot of miracles and I know that we have to be obedient to expect anything by way of divine help. I really really hope there is more to report next week about all the spiritual knowledge I gain and stuff but this week although not bad just wasn't the most exciting. We did see goats though, and Andrew Jacob, Vanessas son was a Missionary for Halloween I included a photo of that. And Brother Ford and Igor his iguana (It is real).

 

I love you all a lot.

 

Elder Bassett

Photos from Oct 21, 2013

Oct. 21st, 2013

Man this week has been crazy nuts, the Lord has just blessed us like mad and it has to be because we decided that we were just going to go "Hard in the Paint" That is what my district has decided is our motto, I dunno if I had mentioned that or if it is the most appropriate missionary motto. Elder Lloyd explained to me that it was a Basketball phrase though and so nothing terrible or profane thank goodness. Since the beginning of the week we have just been working super hard. Tuesday we had interviews with President and they just got us pumped up like they always do and we just left determined to have a good week. And we finally did.

 

First off we threw down an exchange with the Elders of Stuart Place and I got to bring Elder Jones to Raymondville and Heavenly Father just blessed us a ton that day. We found a few people to teach, some more solid than others but we really had a great day. The Highlight being when we went to visit Sotero, the man we have just recently reactivated. After some devastating news that he was moving to Houston and that our count of Priesthood is dropping back down to 6 he called his provider over and she sat with us and had questions and since then we have been teaching her. She is a very humble lady with great desires and we are stoked to teach her. At the end of the exchange Elder Jones decided to go and try to smash a gnat on the inside of the windshield of the car and he cracked it pretty good....That is not a good thing. But the office didn't care too much.

 

Then we found this man who is new here in the United States, he just came from Mexico not long ago to try and raise some money for his wife and Son back home. His brother is a bishop and his wife got baptized but he never did. He asked us to "Sell him the Gospel" because he has Joseph Smith doubts and we told him that we didn't sell the Gospel the Holy Ghost did all the work and he accepted a BD. While we were talking to him this young man named Matthew approached us mid contact and asked us to teach him too. He was apparently at church and saw us and wants to be baptized and he accepted a date as well. I was just super surprised by the whole thing. Really the Lord has just showered us with Blessings. He is a good kid and now we just have to teach the Family, they are former investigators so they know the drill that just means we have to show them that we are the Elders that are going to Baptize them.

 

As for Vanessa, man we set a BD for the 27 of October and I haven't seen a person with so many excuses to not come to church. However after not giving up and a lot of prayer she came. We got the text Sunday morning that she wasn't going to come and our hearts sank. Elder Newland went and laid on his bed to read the Liahona for Spanish study. Shoutout to Elder Newlands mom if she is reading this. I just didn't feel right giving up. So I went and knelt down and said a prayer right after telling her to find a way to church. Immediately at the close of my prayer, she texted back and said she had found a car for church. I was just incredibly happy to hear that the Lord responds do quickly to prayer. She is going to be baptized this Sunday with her daughters. She has also received many blessings towards getting her own vehicle. God just loves us a lot.

 

So Elder Newland has decided that he is going to tell all the members here my birthday is the 24th of Oct because that is when I hit my year mark. When I deny it the Members all say something like, "Now we know you can't hide it from us." SO I should be getting a cake on Thursday. I will send photos. Also Super sorry we didn't get the Hat photo, we don't have to miles to go to the pony that we want to take the photo with. I will get it though I promise. There are some in the Email to hopefully distract you all.

 

As I have been out working this week I just realized the amount of work God expects from each of us and the amount of Faith it takes to work miracles. I feel as though for the first time in a long time I have truly fulfilled my duty as a missionary and that I now know what I have to do for the next year of service. Don't worry I don't think much about the whole time thing yet. Everyone else sure does though. I just know without any doubts that God will bless us with miracles if we just expect them to happen. The only difference between us and the children of Israel in the Old Testament is that they expected those things. They weren't surprised to see the Lord move mountains or stop the sun or part a sea or summon she-bears to eat young people. (I have been reading the Old Testament, it is crazy). The Lord works through our faith in him and our trust. As we love him and truly give our will to him he can make us instruments of power and of Christ-like love. I know that this is true with all my soul. Y Se que tenemos un Padre Celestial quien nos ama bastante y que esta es la obra de mi senor. We should all be partakers of this work. Don't ever be afraid of what you know, others need it if they are to ever attain salvation. In the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

I love you all

 

Elder Bassett

Oct. 14th, 2013

Well, so, um, well, pues...this week was good. We had transfers and I got my step-son. Elder Newland is his name and he is pretty great he has great Spanish for a greenie he studied Spanish for 7 years in school or something and it shows. It is nice to not have to fly solo up here even though we don't use Spanish here in Raymondville. He is 18 and really honestly I didn't think it mattered but you can tell, that is how it was with Elder Casteel. He was just a giant kid and sometimes it feels like babysitting but he is doing great. I am blessed to get to train it is really fun. He has some skin problems a.k.a he is VERY white and as such the sun destroys him poor kid but he doesn't let it get to him. It does mean he gets a very special mission president authorized exception to the no hat rule. He gets to rock a cowboy hat, the only catch is that President Maluenda says his companion needs to match....so yupp when we go tracting I get the privilege of wearing a cowboy hat. I will send a picture I promise but it has to be the right picture I will get one this week.

As for the work down here we are still at it. We inherited an investigator some other Elders found and set a Baptisimal date with but he lived in our area so we just got handed it. His name is Derek and we will be officially meeting him tomorrow. I am excited to meet him, we need some fresh blood in the teaching pool. We also found a family of 5 but they were mostly interested in finding some help from the church and so we had to go over and assess the situation and see what was up. Then they met with Bishop and they handled it from there. They are baptist/catholic and the Dad is okay with us coming by but he isn't too sure about the whole baptism thing. We will see if a little bit of restoration will change that. More on them maybe next week.

As for Vanessa, she hugged Elder Lloyd and then asked me later if that was against the rules...I told her it most definitely was so that should mean that I will be out without any weird Vanessa hugs. She is moving out of her house and told us she wants to start coming to church more often so hopefully things pick up with her soon. We haven't been visiting her much because we can't be spending time with those who refuse to progress but if she comes to church we will baptize her in a jiffy.

Tiffany might be avoiding us and the baptism so that kind of sucks. However we did meet a friend of a member in the area just yesterday when she just showed up randomly and church. Her name is kimberly and she has lots of member support and stuff already and a ride to church and desires to come so hopefully we will be able to teach her and help her progress.

John and Norma that white couple we were trying to teach are leaving for Mexico for a month this next week so that throws a stick in our spokes and makes teaching them an impossibility. However we are going to throw down some conference at them and see if they can't spark some interest. We are going to show them conference over some whataburger and milkshakes.

Joe Angel is doing just about the same, he cried when Elder Lloyd left it broke my heart in two.

So get this, this Sunday I am just kicking it at church getting ready to give a young man the Aaronic priesthood when I am told someone wanted to see me. As I step out I see Regina and Josue and as I round the corner, there is Mayra. I about died of excitement. Harlingen from Mercedes isn't too far it is about 20-25 minutes and they decided they were going to come visit me and I was so happy. I can't begin to tell you how much I needed just that simple visit from a family I love with all my heart. I remembered in that instant why I am a missionary and what I am here to do. The Lord knew I needed to be reminded so he reminded me and I am super grateful for that. It reminded me of something that I have been studying/praying for, humility. As I spoke with that family I realized what happens when we are humble and are always doing Gods will. Lives are changed and miracles happen. It brought me back to the first words Mayra ever spoke to us, "Do you take demons out of kids?" and the worst first lesson I have ever had. I realized in that moment that while we were teaching that family I would have done anything I needed to to help them come to Christ. If I am not always willing to be that humble and do my best I will not find success like that. What a wake up call that was for me. They even told me they were going to come see me next weekend.

I love you all and will send pictures next week I promise.

Elder Bassett

Oct 7th, 2013

Transfer number 8 esta a punto de aparecer entre los hijos de McAllen. We got calls this morning and it looks as though I am going for at least 3 here in good ol' Raymondville. I am receiving a new companion named Elder Newland, he is a greenie that is halfway through training which means I am going to be in charge of the Area. I am super sad to see Elder Lloyd leave we had a great time together but I wouldn't want to keep him here he really wants to leave so it is probably for the best that he does. Really though other than that not a lot has been going down, I will try to make my letter exciting but if it isn't my best work you will have to forgive me.

 

So this last week we had an interesting week. With the loss of out investigators we had to go on the hunt to find some new ones. We did everything in a missionaries arsenal of finding and tried to keep our efforts "Rounded" which I think helped us a lot to stay sane. Weeks of strictly finding are hard on the mind and soul. But we had some interesting finds this week Starting with Norma and John who are polar opposites to what we usually find. They are educated and sophisticated and super old and white. Man what a surprise for us to sit down with someone who was educated that was almost hard to believe. However they are pretty stubborn and shot down our invitation to conference because they believe in the teachings of St. John, whatever that means. So we are going to have to go back and teach the Restoration and hopefully get them with the Spirit.

 

The other couple we met are the uncle and aunt I guess of a member family in the area. Their names are Simon and Yolanda Vasquez. They are Catholics and don't go to church but our church doesn't believe in the saints and so they aren't too sure about it. "God is first of course, we know that. So we pray to him...through the saints. So they can present our prayers to the Father."    -_-" They also can't understand why we don't drink coffee, if they don't have their coffee their heads hurt and they can't see, it is their "drug" in their words. They have potential they just need to understand the importance or reasoning behind it all, especiall the Word of Wisdom and the idea of Saints being idolatry. more on them hopefully soon.

 

SO good news, Vanessa came to church, pues to conference this last weekend just in time to hear president Monson speak which was a huge blessing because that has been the doubt she claims is holding her back, that of a living prophet. She said it made the idea less weird so we will see tonight if she is going to really give it a shot, if not unfortunately we will have to drop her for good. That makes me sad because I love that family but we can't be wasting the Lords time with those who are unwilling to act.

 

So not so good news, as missionaries we have a mileage allotment for the month and if we go over that we get into trouble. For at least the past 6 or 7 months the missionaries here have claimed 2000 miles a month because our area is huge and because we make 4 to 5 trips to Harlingen a week and Harlingen is about 52 miles round trip. So Elder Bassett for the last few months has been doing his best to stay within the alloted 2000 miles and last month just barely made it by with about 1972 miles used. Well, yesterday we get a call from the A.P's, which is never, ever a good thing. They proceeded to tell us that we had gone about 500 miles over our monthly miles and that we had really hurt the mission and that they were going to park the car and so forth. We were super confused when they told us that we have only 1500 miles a month especially because no one has made any mention of us using 1800+ miles for the time I have been here and the time before that. So I guess that we only get 1500 miles a month and not 2000 which is really bad because are area is about 50 miles across and we have to drive 25ish miles to church and to district meeting and for exchanges and for P-Day zone activities and right now, on the 7th we are already at 300+ miles. It would appear that me and my new greenie will be biking a lot. That is not good considering the nearest city that we work outside of Raymondville is over 5 miles away and the farthest is 23 miles to the east of us. Hopefully I at least lose some weight in all of it.

 

I loved conference and learned a ton from it. Like a lot, especially Uchtdorfs shout out to those less-active members of the church. Really it was wonderful and we will be using it a lot on those members here in the area that are offended, or have lost the faith or have just let laziness set in. "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith" I want that tatooed acrossed my forehead or something so that everyone can read it and realize how ridiculous they tend to be. To question is normal, questions brought about the first vision and consequently the Restoration. Joseph Smith received the Doctine and Covenants revelations because of questions. However we should never let questions unanswered take away from what we know. God has given us anchors in our testimony and has sealed them all together in a nice package. If Joseph Smith was a prophet, then the Book of mormon is true and vice versa. If those things are true then this in Gods kingdom on the Earth today. If those things are true then we really have the Authority of the Holy Priesthood to carry out the ordinances of salvation and truly the most important thing is that if these things are true, Christ is our savior and loves us just as much as he loved those before us and that he suffered the price of our sins so that we could be free. I love how simple God made it all, it makes our little doubts and fears seem like nothing in comparison. Never let the faith falter, never doubt what you know and never turn your back on the Savior. Really it is just a silly thing to do. I loved conference and hope all of you found revelation just like I did. I know that we have a prophet and that God has given us the restored church of Christ so we can live with him again and it is our duty to share that with others. I love you, God loves you, so share that love with everyone. If every member brought one person to the Gospel we would be 30 million strong. That is amazing, and all it takes is each of us doing our part. Think about that, one person, and you get to partake in the building of Gods kingdom.

 

Elder Bassett

Sept 30th, 2013

Man, another week has gone by and it has been an interesting one to say the least. A lot of trying things have been happening and we are doing our best to keep our heads high and our faith burning and I feel as though we have finally made a resolution that no more. This is a Gospel of miracles, God is a God of miracles and that if we need to call down angels we can. Really I am just tired of having weeks that I am not just excited to talk about. I mean, I am a missionary, I have the best job that ever was and this time is extremely precious and man it is short. It is already October and that is nuts I can't believe it. Enough Trunkiness about time I have just learned a lot this week about how important every single moment is and how we should never malgastar a single second. When we do all we can and when we do it with Faith, then the miracles come, but never before.

 

This week we had a lot of bad news, I guess starting with la hermanita Tiffany. She texted us on Thursday or Friday night to tell us that she no longer felt she was committed to being a Mormon. That her family had spoked to her and they didn't quite approve and so she was going to go ahead and start checkin' out other churches. Man, that was like a punch to the mouth especially because she was to be baptized yesterday. Luckily for us we were able to catch her at home Saturday after she stopped responding to our texts and we had a great lesson and review on the resoration and it's importance and the importance especially of the Priesthood authority that our church possesses. The spirit was there just super strong and she mentioned out of nowhere that she felt like someone was standing next to her and had placed a hand on her. What a spiritual confirmation that was to her and she was able to decide that being a "Mormon" is what God wants her to do. So we told her that Sunday was still a possibility for Baptism and got her pumped and then come Sunday morning she texted us that something had happened to her eye. Something called STI I have not sure what that is but it was pretty ugly I guess. It was sucky to hear but we know that there is still a lot of hope for Tiffany here in the next week or so and that the Spirit has told her this is what she needs.

 So we are praying for a miracle.

 

Our homeboy Larry was all pumped for church and we had him a ride set up and I guess Saturday night he had a meltdown of sorts. Larry suffered from Bi-polar disorder and I guess something happened Saturday and his mother has kindly asked us that we don't return and teach Larry anymore because she feels as though our lessons were the cause of the episode. This was sad for me because Larry in our lessons had been focusing a lot more, the Spirit had been helping him a lot and the family was pretty opposed to him studying with us and I think the stress of it all got to him. So no more Larry. Hopefully someday soon he will move out of his home and find the Elders again.

 

Joe-angel is still around his grandmother is still being a huge obstacle and so we have decided that we will just have to wait and see what goes down. The Bishop wants to come with us to a lesson so he can talk to abuelita and see if he can't persuade her to stop being so difficult.

 

Really after this week our teaching pool is just about shot, so this week we will be focusing a lot on finding and teaching the prepared we are just going to go "Hard" as Elder Lloyd puts it, I keep telling him I am not sure that should be our motto but he loves it I guess. As for the District things are about the same, I am going to keep working with the Elders to get them pumped or something. Hopefully more on that next week.

 

There is a man whose names is Sotero Rodriguez who has officially become our number 7 on our list of Active Priesthood holders, that is just awesome for us because it has put us over the halfway mark. This branch is going to open and we are going to keep working super hard with the Members here to get the ball really rolling. This branch could be opened so soon it's crazy. All it takes is faith. Faith is the catalyst for all miracles.

 

Also this week, working with a member family we helped them share the Gospel with their friends and family and they set up a picnic with the Elders. In that picnic we were able to teach a very very prepared woman, she accepted the missionary visits and knows this it what she needs right now to save her marriage and find true happiness. To top it all off...she lives out of our area -_-'. So we have handed her off to another set of Elders and she has already accepted a Baptisimal date and is just super ready.

This weekend is conference, how cool is it that we have a prophet who talks to us and stuff. If everyone knew and understood this principle the world would go nuts for conference. I mean it is like a holiday really. I can't wait to hear what our leaders have to say this week hopefully no one announces the end of the world cause that would be pretty sucky. I invite all of you to do all you can to find time to watch all sessions of conference. Even priesthood is being broadcast to homes now and stuff. Take notes, not on what the leaders say but what the spirit teaches you. There is a huge difference and it is one that I have been learning a lot with the new mission president. You can keep the notes in your revelation journals I hope you all got yourselves. If not, go get one I promise you'll love it. Invite people who are less active or non members to come watch conference. Let them know that there is a prophet and that God still speaks to man. That is the coolest thing ever. I love you all.

 

Elder Bassett

Weekly Challenge - September 23rd, 2013

 I want to leave you all the invitation to get yourselves a journal, mine was a dollar at walmart and to use it to record revelation during your prayers. This means really making your prayers meaningful so that is like a side committment and then when you wake up every morning review the things that you learned at night and what it is the Lord needs you to be doing and then go and do those things. The Lord then can trust you with his precious secrets and more importantly his precious children. I pray that this challenge is one that you will take on. Lo Haran?!

September 23rd, 2013

Alright so another week has gone by here in Raymondville and we didn't get hit by that hurricane I was hoping would hit us. They apparently hit Mexico pretty good and we got some rain but that is it. Still got some hope until November 1 so fingers crossed!! This week was pretty good, not the best week for us but not the worst. I didn't really get to spend much time in my own personal area because I had to see what was happening in the District. The fire seems to be gone and I had to go find out why. So I threw down 3 exchanges last week, that is 2 more than I normally do in a week and I think I have a bit of an idea as to what is going on. With time sometimes we as human beings become complacent. When we get to a point we sometimes plateau and are just content with whatever and that isn't really acceptable. God's plan is that we are always increasing, in the scriptures we learn that when we decide we have enough God then starts to take away and I have seen that in the work of the Elders in the District. They aren't progressing so they are in fact regressing. Not good but all is well. I am going to do all I can to get them breathing again.

 

So real quick, we have been working with a young girl named Tiffany she is 15 and she came out of nowhere and she is looking great to be baptized this Sunday assuming all goes well. Sunday when we went to get her for church, no one answered the door. So we asked her Friend Alma what we should do. Alma said to go knock on her window. That didn't go too well. Her Grandma was pretty unhappy and we felt really really stupid and embarrassed so we left...Raymondville. Needless to say we need to go apologize to the family for having upset them. Other than that things have been going well with her. She likes the church and we made her a little journal to take notes in and write questions in and such to help her stay focused at church and stuff. We are praying for a miracle there with her.

 

We met this week a young man named Larry. Larry is 21 and wants to be baptized he feels it is the next step. Now Larry came to church and loved it and we are excited that he wants to progress and go back but Larry is an interesting Fellow. He is pretty easily distracted and so he goes off on tangents about some biology theories he has and things he wants to accomplish in his life. One being using the regenerative tissues and cells in his Knee, apparently his knee has some disease that makes it heal crazy good, to trick other parts of the human body into regenerating or aging in reverse. Like Benjamin Button. So that man doesn't have to die. Hopefully knowing Gods plan will help him put that idea to rest and he can go live a good life. He also thinks Obama is the Anti-christ...but he is a good guy.

 

Joe Angel still is struggling with his Grandma, she doesn't want to let up and in fact apparently when he asked if she would pray with him she said no. He is 10 so you can imagine that made him pretty sad. Luckily for him the Missionaries had a good ol' chastity lesson planned for him in all it's awkward splendor to make it all better. We taught him about the "No-No square" and found out he likes ladies and wants to treat them nice so we are hoping to see a miracle with him as well. He has understood all we have taught and is always at church so we know that he is ready.

 

As far as reopening the branch we saw our first step towards success when one of our priesthood Holders, Sotero, came to church!! It was in English and he doesn't know English but he came! Luckily my companion has been talking about wanting to be a translator so I just told Sotero Elder Lloyd would translate the meeting for him. He loved it a lot and it looks like we are at 7 of 12 now! We will keep it up and hope to see a lot more success there. We have at least the English Bishop on board and the Stake President and are now just waiting to talk with the Spanish ward Bishop. We will keep things moving there.

 

This week on one of my exchanges I learned a lot about receiving revelation as that was the focus. I was able to learn from section 138 of D&C the pattern of receiving revelation, it is the same as set forth in Moroni 10 3-5. I was left with the committment to start a revelation journal which just means that when I pray and as I ask questions and such that I have a notebook to record my impressions and thoughts and such. I realize that that has helped me to focus my prayers a lot more and has really let the Lord teach me with his spirit. It has been interesting for me to do my best to listen for the words of the Spirit and grow in my understanding of how he works. As I ask questions I wait until thoughts come and feelings flow and then I write. Then I repeat. It has worked with all sorts of things and I know that is because the Lord has set forth the instructions for receiving revelation. I want to leave you all the invitation to get yourselves a journal, mine was a dollar at walmart and to use it to record revelation during your prayers. This means really making your prayers meaningful so that is like a side committment and then when you wake up every morning review the things that you learned at night and what it is the Lord needs you to be doing and then go and do those things. The Lord then can trust you with his precious secrets and more importantly his precious children. I pray that this challenge is one that you will take on. Lo Haran?!

 

Love you all

 

Elder Bassett

Enchilada Party Pics Sept 16

Tons of Enchiladas

Enchilada party fun!!

Weekly Challenge - September 16th, 2013

I would Invite you all to spend this week and try to live the scout motto and, "Do a good turn daily" Share your testimony of the Savior with your actions. Not your words.

September 16th, 2013

Hola mis queridos,

 

This last week has been pretty interesting for us here in South Texas. Apparently some huge Butterfly hatching/migration takes place around this time of year because on Thursday there were just tens of thousands of Butterflies everywhere and it was just an amazing sight to see. I know that is random but it was incredible, nunca he visto algo asi en mi vida. Also it has been raining like mad here on our end. We have had pouring rain on and off for the past 2 weeks or so and it has become a muddy ordeal. Apparently there may be a storm hitting us soon which could be interesting. I hope that opens up a lot of doors to our service because the people here can be pretty hard at times. On top of it all, Elder Lloyd managed to catch some sickness which I was able to avoid for about 4 or so days and then I woke up this morning and to my dismay I am a bit stuffy and such now. That is very unpleasant especially at the start of a P-Day. We are supposed to play ping pong today.

 

So last week we went to Brownsville with a Member to go to a bodega and to go tie digging. We bought 5 pounds of ties for 5 dollars and out of the 50 or so ties we got we found about 5 that were of pretty good worth and that are pretty nice and we made a purchase for 5 dollars of ties that easily equal a value of 200 plus dollars. It was fun and that is one of the great things about the south of Texas. We also had delicious tacos, but that is almost a daily ordeal down here. We also had an Enchilada Party which was a lot like our Alfredo Party which was a blast! I will send Pictures

 

This week was rough on the District, I am not sure what happened but things didn't go too terribly well for some of mis ovejas. I am going to go ahead and spend a bit of time with the Other Elders this week and see what I can't do to pump them up. As a leader I have learned the importance of really giving all you can to those under your stewardship. If anyone goes unattended chaos follows and it really falls back on the leader.We did see some pretty great miracles though, one family the other Elders met and havent even taught that came to church. That is huge because it shows real intent and desires to find the truth. It is a family of 7 and they seem like a great family and I was excited to see the Lord bless us so greatly. The Lord is trying to teach me a lot and I have been doing my best to do all required of me but I feel as though there is a lot more I can do and so I am going to kick it into high gear and go serve mis queridos Elderes.

 

Elder Lloyd and I were invited to a funeral of one of the members in our area. That of JJ Reyna, who I never got the chance to meet. He was a great man by the sounds of things and he touched many a life with his genuine care for those around him. It really caused me to reflect on the kind of legacy I want to leave and the importance of using every second of our lives for good. We always have the chance to change a life, we just always have to be willing to do it. The Spirit took its chance to teach me a great deal of things about the power of our decisions and our dealings with others, and how our example says a lot of who we are.

 

As for Little Joe Angel he wasn't able to be baptized his abuela doesn't believe he is old enough or mature enough to make that decision for himself. It saddens me a great deal because he has great desires to be baptized and he understands and remembers everything we teach him. He is at church 90% percent of the time and he definitely understands more than I did when I was baptized so we are going to keep praying for him and talking with Grandma to see if we can't ablandar su corazon.

 

Vanessa and her family have been pretty much M.I.A. this week and that has made it hard. Their fire is dying and we don't want that at all. She and her kids are great and are this close to joining Christ's church and being recepients of one of the greatest gifts ever, The Holy Ghost. We are going to go and do our best to help them continue to pray and progress, we are planning on going over to visit Tuesday and dropping a spirit bomb on her and the family to remind them of the importance of this decision. A lot rests on it and we would hate to see them lose those bendiciones.

 

We really only found one solid investigator this week, her name is Tiffany and she is a young woman who is a friend of a less active member of the church. She has a lot of potential but the girls have been involved in some illegal drug use and that would be the only thing that holds this girl back from being adopted into the church of Christ. Last night we had a great opportunity to speak with her Friend Alma, the less active, and us the spirit to persuade her to get rid of her "Stash". It was a good sized stash by the looks of it but we won't have to worry about it anymore. Thank goodness. Yesterday getting her to church was the hardest thing ever because all of our members leave for church about an hour and a half to two hours early and the church is 30 minutes away so we had to call a member from a place near the church to come help us out and the poor sister got lost. Luckily Heavenly Father always helps those in need and was able to get them to church, even if it was an hour late.

 

As far as reopening the branch is concerned we are still working on it. The Stake President is really who we are waiting on. More on that as we hear more.

 

This week I have been thinking about how important it is that we as members of the church constantly strive to reach out to those around us and to serve them. Service opens lots of doors especially in regards to the Gospel. I would Invite you all to spend this week and try to live the scout motto and, "Do a good turn daily" Share your testimony of the Savior with your actions. Not your words. The power of Members in the missionary work is profound and it is necessary so I would pray that we all are constantly doing are best to "Abound in good works" I know that as we do that hearts will be softened and lives can be changed. I love you all and hope to hear from you soon.

Elder Bassett

Weekly Challenge - September 9, 2013

Pick someone you know, someone you love and make a list of their strengths, like 3 or 4 will be plenty and sneak that list into a place where they will find it. Make that list from your heart, make it anonymous. The reason being is that I realized this week the importance of focusing on finding the good in others as well as ourselves and sometimes it takes an outside source to help us find a strength we didn't know we had.

September 9, 2013

Hello Everyone,

This week was pretty uneventful but I did learn a bunch about the power of prayer. I figured I would start there, this may be a little bit of a silly story but here goes. A few weeks back I was to receive a package that was a package of a bit of sacrifice and I wanted very badly to receive it. Well time went by and by and it never came and as you may imagine I was a bit worried but I prayed and prayed and asked God to not let the sacrifice go to waste and I prayed and prayed and I officially gave up worrying about it when I found out it had been marked delivered and felt that worrying was a waste of my time and energy. One night, my Zone Leaders just came up to me and said, "Hey we have a package for you, someone loves you a lot." I realized in that moment that someone really does love me lots. God had heard me and though it seems trivial and silly to worry so much or look so much into the receiving of a package, having received it made me realize that I hadn't just received some snacks and shirts and whatnot but that I had received an answer to my prayers. I feel like God takes times like this to teach me just plain and simply because that is how I learn best. It just made me feel great to know he cares even about the little things in our lives even silly packages.

Other than that we had a pretty standard week, we had tons of rain and that meant mud and that meant no one outside which makes meeting people interesting. Rain here just sucks the life out of the world it seems, people don't like it because it makes it humid as sin and that just makes it like a rainy sauna. Like a shower kind of and that isn't fun. However Elder Lloyd and I worked pretty hard to make things happen and we saw some miracles even among a lot of trials.

George didn't come to church and I feel as though we are going to have to let George know we won't be going by anymore, that until he is ready to act we really can't help him. That is a hard part of missionary work but it is a huge part of it is knowing when you can do no more and I think unfortunately we have reached that point with George. He is a good man and I am confident one day he will accept the Gospel in it's fulness but not right now.

Joe Angel needs grandmas permission and she isn't giving it yet, I need all the faith for that miracle I can get so feel free to add your prayers to mine that Joe Angel can and will be baptized this week.

Vanessa seems to be distancing herself from us which is hard because she was doing so well. We aren't too sure what is happening but we are going to work our hearts out to get her back. She has had a few questions about the living prophets and that plus all the anti seems to have turned her off a bit to the church but we know that the Lord can help and that he will if this is her time. More on that as we can.

This week amidst all the trial we found a light, there is a less active 16 year old named Alma, and her and her friends were doing some not so good stuff and she wanted to change. So she and her friend Tiffany decided that they were going to start going to church and start being better and she told us all about her plans. Then they never went through, this was all about a month ago. So after trying and trying to meet tiffany we just kind of gave up, Alma wasn't helping things were looking bad. Then all of a sudden yesterday they showed up at church and now we have a lesson with Tiffany on Tuesday. She seems like a good girl that has a lot of potential and that makes us happy. Kind of like a light in a dark room that we were in. We hope she will progress and that she will be baptized.

We spoke with the Stake president and have officially set some things up to get work going to open this branch back up. Elder Lloyd and I have been working hard to make specific plans and we feel that it will be open very soon. We are hoping 6 months, neither of us will really be here to see it but we want to make sure it is at least happening. We just need to meet with all the bishops that would be involved and get the members doing their part. If they do that and we do ours we know the Lord will bless them.

Other than that there has not been a ton. Sorry it is short and seems rushed, I had some emails that needed sending. I hope you all know that I love you and want to leave you a challenge this week. Pick someone you know, someone you love and make a list of their strengths, like 3 or 4 will be plenty and sneak that list into a place where they will find it. Make that list from your heart, make it anonymous. The reason being is that I realized this week the importance of focusing on finding the good in others as well as ourselves and sometimes it takes an outside source to help us find a strength we didn't know we had. If you really want, make several lists and be sure to extend the committment to all those you make the lists for in writing. I hope that makes sense.

 

Dale!

 

Elder Bassett

Weekly Challenge - September 3, 2013

 This week my challenge for all of you is to start reading from the New Testament. Simple but very important. There we find the life of our savior and all that he did for us and we read about the way his apostles shaped the history of the world and laid the foundation for the restoration of the Gospel

September 3, 2013

So happy Labor day to all, this week I get to email Tuesday because no libraries were open. Things here are going well there hasn't been a ton of special progress as far as our investigators but I will give some information on that. Elder Lloyd and I are doing great still and he and I have some high hopes for the area this transfer and have actually decided to shift our focus just a bit from finding and baptizing.

But first, Vanessa and her daughters did not come to church and as a result we will have to move their baptismal date to later in the month, that is definitely not ideal but you do what you gotta do right?

George didn't come to church either because of work. That has been the biggest struggle with him since the first time the Elders came by. That he is a single parent trying to provide for the 6 of his kids that live with him at home. He is a hard working man but his job doesn't quite provide a lavish lifestyle and it forces him to work on Sunday but we have promised him that if he keeps the Sabbath Holy and comes to church that the Lord will take care of him and he has committed to talk to his employer about Sundays.

El Hermanito Joe Angel doesn't have permission from his grandmother to be baptized which makes things hard for us because she is his guardian. I feel as though a testimony from him is going to soften her heart and so we are going to be sure we help him to develop one. He is a great kid and he has a great desire he just needs to have some support from his family.

So Elder Lloyd and I were praying the other day and it seems that we both feel as though our focus has been a bit misplaced and that we need to focus on the branch here and getting it back open. We realized that this area will be one of the strongest in the Mission if we can just get the people active in their church again and can get this little branch running again. Before I got transferred I asked God if he would send me to a place I could be more effective. Lots of members, my own ward, a church building close by where I could give church tours and bring investigators for lessons and for sunday meetings and so you can imagine my disappointment when I heard about the state Raymondville was in. I will be honest in saying that I was a bit discouraged and that for maybe that reason I didn't give the Lord the gratitude I should have. However, just like everything else in our lives worth having the Lord expects us to work for it. Raymondville is exactly what I want in an area but I won't be able to receive it until, "After the trial of my faith". The Lord wants me to have these things but he wants them to be important to me and he is expecting a show of my faith and a show of how hard I am willing to work to have those things. I realize fully as well that just like Moses that great prophet of old I may not get to step foot in the Promised land and that I may just get to see it from a distance before I depart from this place. Either way I have come to the conclusion that I need to help the area reach it's full potential. As of right now we would need 12 active, tithe paying, melchizidek Priesthood holders and we have currently 6. There are 8 inactive members in our area that have the priesthood and there are about 4 that don't have it that could work and get it very soon. I know that the Lord needs us to work to bring his church back to this little place and that once it does, the work will skyrocket.

On an exciting note, this lady that lives next door to the church waved us down the other day and told us that there are people going in and out of the Branch building at all hours of the night and that they bring stuff and take stuff and meet with other people and stuff and it all sounds pretty shady. Elder Lloyd and I have donned our detective caps and have set a few little traps to see if people really are going in and out and so we may be involved in what could be the greatest case of all time and we are going to solve it Sherlocke Holmes style. On the other hand the woman next door may just be a little off her rocker, either way, it is super exciting and if all goes well we will be heroes and receive a key to the city and they may write a novel about us someday or maybe make a film depicting the true events.Worst case scenario we don't find anything and still ended up having some fun doing some detective work. Unfortunately for us, we have a bedtime so we don't get to do any late night snooping but you bet we would be if it were possible without being apostates.

We may also start a class on being member missionaries. More on that as it develops.

Anyway this week my challenge for all of you is to start reading from the New Testament. Simple but very important. There we find the life of our savior and all that he did for us and we read about the way his apostles shaped the history of the world and laid the foundation for the restoration of the Gospel.

Les Quiero

Elder Bassett

Weekly Challenge August 26, 2013

My challenge this week is to be sure you tell all those you love, that you love them.