June 10, 2013

Holy freak this week has been nuts! Satan is working doble time aqui en la gran ciudad of Mercedes. So I guess first things first I will start with the departure of Elder Ellsworth or I guess now...Taylor, super weird. Tuesday Morning we all got into the car and packed his things and headed off. As we got to the Mission Office I was nervous about who the heck my companion, my son, was going to be. Well, his name is Elder Casteel and he is a giant. Six foot five inches and he looks like Superman, so things could probably be worse. He doesn't speak the best spanish but he manages to let people kind of know what he means. Luckily for us people down here kind of understand english. The weirdest thing about that day was that our Permagator Juan called us and asked us to baptize him that morning. After Explaining that that isn't quite how it worked we told him Taylor would be back down in a few weeks and he agreed to be baptized then. Woohoo! Well, almost, he didn't come to church so we can't baptize him that day that he wants to be baptized.

Also, I dunno if I mentioned this, we can't knock anymore here in McAllen at least for the month of June so our focus is to work with the members. Well we have very few members and most of them are our recent converts so we had plans to go by them to get them excited to share the Gospel, here is just a brief rundown of what happened to each of these appointments. First, Mayra's son broke his foot as we walked up to the door so naturally they went to the hospital. The next day as we went to go by, Mayra's step son wrecked the car so we weren't able to go by. Maria Guerrero has a husband who is some sort of monstrous heathen who loves to cause problems so he took her away from her home and we couldn't have an appointment, Mayra then got sick for church and Maria didn't show either for who knows what reason. Frank and Kayla can only meet Monday and Tuesday but this last weekend her friend gave birth and so they had to take her to the hospital where they stayed till 6 a.m. so they weren't able to come to church because they were tired. I hate Satan. He uses everything everything everything to ruin stuff. I wish I could punch his face. We are praying really hard that this week will go better because it is kind of hard to find back ups when you can't just go knock some doors when all else fails.

As for our investigators currently we have Maria Lopez, she is a boss. She decided that she didn't care if her family wasn't going to come she found her church and that is where she was going to stay, she proved that to us and the Lord this Sunday as she attended church by herself. She was tired as was bobbing a bit in Sacrament but she came and she loved it. She just needs to start reading more in the Scriptures, I don't know what it is with people down here and not reading man, no one does it. It's weird.

Then we have Quetzali who we are currently working hard with. She is a bit stubborn and gets angry easily and isn't married, but we did find out why she wouldn't accept a BD. She hears a voice that tells her not to do good stuff and she listens to it. So we will be rebuking it or something soon, more on that probably next week.

Things here are doing okay we are struggling a bit in some areas I won't lie but I have faith that the Lord will help us out. This whole new list of responsibilities I now have can be a bit overwhelming at times but I am surviving. If you can survive one follow ups with the Zone Leaders you can survive them all right? I do have to give my first training tomorrow, that'll be fun. Hopefully I can help this district hit is potential and realize the miracles it deserves. Being a Missionary makes you learn a lot of stuff, especially what it is like to have tons of responsibility. Also what it's like to get door contacted by Jehovahs Witnesses during you morning study and then to make them super uncomfortable. Kinda Awesome.

I wanna leave a challenge to go through this last conference and read at least one talk this week by our Leaders. Share what you learn with someone who doesn't have the gospel or is struggling. I promise you that you will find personal revelation and you will learn a great deal and that your testimony will grow. Those talks are scripture and they are inspired. Just don't be afraid to Open your mouth, as you do so the spirit will bless you and those that you teach. Also, if you don't have a subscription to the Ensign or Liahona para los que hablan espanol, get one. I love you all and wish you a great week.

Elder Bassett