Okay, So week number one in Raymondville. Forgive me because my
email will need to be short because we are in a library and you only get
time in 45 minute increments and then they kick you off and with Key
indicator reporting and letters to the President I don't have a ton of
time. Raymondville is quiet. It has a population about half the size of
Mercedes but it is a good place. We also work 4 other little towns with
like 400-600 people in them, the area itself is huge but the area worked
is very small and very spread out. We drive about 30 minutes to church
and so you can imagine that we don't really see other missionaries much,
not like in Mercedes where you always had someone else to talk to. It
is nice though, there is more English than I would like, it is like 95%
English. At the present time I am the District Leader over 3
companionships including my own and I will be honest in saying the
District is really struggling pretty hard. I have my work cut out for me
which is good because I don't mind having stuff to do and what better
thing to do than help other Missionaries bring people to Christ. I have
realized that is the joy of Being a Leader is getting to see those
around you succeed. We are already on the up and up, one companionship
brought their first investigator to church in about 3 months, that is a
long time to have no one at church. Apparently our District used to lead
the Zone in Baptisms and I think it is about time to get that back the
way it was. I am excited to have my first exchange this week in the new
District with Elder Dance and his greenie Elder Smith.
My companion is named Elder Lloyd if I remember I will attach a
photo. He is a great Elder, he has been here in Raymondville two
transfers and so he is probably out this next one but for now he and I
have the great priviledge of working together. He is pretty funny, his
humor is really dry and we spend a lot of time laughing at the stuff
that goes on in our daily mission lives. So far the best joke we have is
about this man we talked to, he is less-active. Last week we had
invited him to church because he has 2 young step daughters who haven't
been baptized and figured that would be a good place to start looking
for potential. He told us that he would definitely be at church and that
we didn't need to worry. Even when we tried to set plans with him for
it he assured us, that he would be at church it was fine. Well Sunday
came around and he wasn't there so we swung by his home to see what had
happened because sometimes legitimately bad things happen on Sundays
that keep people from church, trust me as a missionary you see lots of
stuff. So we walked up and were greeted almost immediately as we exited
the car by his live-in girlfriend who told us that they hadn't been able
to come to church because the piece of the toilet that lets it flush
properly had broken and so they couldn't come. She then told us that her
boyfriend wasn't home which we are pretty sure wasn't true, can't be
sure but we have plans to go by and see why the toilet kept him from
church. We hadn't heard an excuse quite that bad for a while so we had a
good laugh about it.
Monday night as I spent my last night in Mercedes I got to spend the evening with all the converts in the area that I had the blessing of working with in a giant FHE. Man it was awesome, I am gonna miss them all so much. Some of them had a good cry but I reassured them I wasn't dying, I don't know if that made a huge difference but we had a blast. I have a few photos I will attach so you can see some of the great members of the Mercedes Ward here in South Texas. I think my time in Mercedes taught me a lot and now that I am gone I really kind of miss it. The Mission has a lot of bitter-sweet moments in it like getting transferred. You are excited to go and serve someplace else but you are sad because you have to leave all those people you love. It reminded me of how life works that way and how we need to do all we can to enjoy all the moments of our lives because unfortunately the come to an end and when they do we miss them. The Lord is constantly trying to teach us things, in all the good moments as well as the hard ones we just need to be willing to learn. Be teachable and try to look for the Lords hand in what you do I promise he works all situations for good if we let him.
This week I want to challenge you all to keep a prayer in your heart. The scriptures tell us that when we do that, we will wax strong in our confidence in God and that we will have the Holy Ghost as a constant companion. As you let your mind wander, let it wander into prayer and the promise I received is that you will notice the difference. We are starting this challenge together as I just received it yesterday and am working on it currently. I would love to hear how it all goes and how you all feel so if anyone actually reads this blog and does the challenge please feel free to send an email or something to me telling me how it goes.
Elder Bassett
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