Monday, September 23, 2013

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

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