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