El momento de ir vino ya...

Well it's really weird to think about but it's here. I had my last pday today, and tomorrow I will be getting on a train up to Madrid. I'll spend the  night there, and one more day visiting old friends we have taught and going to the temple. The next morning I'll be on a plane flying home.

It's a surreal experience, those who have been in my shoes understand how it is. I have a lot going through my mind and my heart. I've come to love the people of Spain and the people that I have come to know. 

I just want to bear my testimony that this church is true and that this is a divine work and mission. I haven't been perfect, but I've done what I could. I have seen the power of God in my life and the life of those I teach. I'm grateful to those who have supported me along the way. I really do love you all. Thank you for your examples and your devotion to follow God in your own lives. God be with you till we meet again!

- Elder Bassett 

Hey everyone!

It's transfer pday, so there isn't a lot of time. We are saying bye to a couple people in the zone, and there isn't a lot of time left in the day. Things here have been going pretty good. We have been keeping really busy, and we are still finding some more people. We have been having trouble meeting with some of the people that we have found recently, so we are trying to work on having more daily contact. 

We received the transfer news. We are both staying, and we are getting a new missionary, too! Elder Kohlström will be training; we will be trio training for the next couple of weeks before I head out. It's super exciting, and I'm looking forward to working with a new missionary. Other than that, Hermana Strand from our district is heading out, and we will be getting Hermana Cushcagua.

The people we are teaching are doing good. Like I mentioned, we haven't been able to meet with a lot of them, so in every case we haven't gotten past the next couple of lessons. We have been doing a lot of Facebook finding recently; we have found some people through it. I feel like we have been relying on it a little too much recently though, so we are going to be striving to get out a little more and talk to people in the street. 

One cool experience from this week was that we went and met with a family that has been having a hard time recently. The mom is a member, but her kids aren't, and we are trying to teach them right now. This past lesson, we talked with them about the atonement and shared gracias a el with them. You could really see that the spirit had an impact on them. The daughter talked to us a little more and opened up a lot. She said part of her believes that the church is true, but in her heart she hasn't and doesn't want to ask because she was worried that if she finds out that it's true then it might cause divisions in her marriage. She was really sincere, and I really feel like someday she will join the church. At this point, we really focused on helping her have the desire to pray. I'm excited to see how it goes with her.

I love you all, and I hope that you have a great week. Take care till next time!

- Elder Bassett 

Hey everyone! 

It's been a pretty good week here in the Cadiz zone and the Cadiz area! We have kept pretty busy! We found 2 new people this week. One was a street contact from about 2 weeks ago, but we got to meet her for the first time this week. It was a quick conversation in the doorway because there wasn't a man home, but we were able to set up an appointment to meet up with her in the park tomorrow. So we are super excited.

The other guy we actually found through online proselyting. We started talking online, and then we met up with him this last Friday. The appointment went pretty well, and we are excited to see his progress as we keep meeting with him.

This past Saturday, light the world started! I'm super excited to see how things work out this year! I hope everyone had a good time for the worldwide day of service the first of December. In Cadiz, we went with a couple of other members and collected a bunch of food to give to those in need. I was a little worried about the activity (that it wouldn't work out), but we got a lot of help from the members in the area. 

That morning, we messaged all of the members and reminded them about the day of service. Then we invited everyone to pray to have an opportunity to have an unplanned act of service that day apart from what they already had planned. We did the same. That night while we were visiting members’ houses collecting food, we had a cool experience. It was super simple, but we walked by an old man unloading his car. We asked him if he wanted help. He said yes, which kind of surprised us because they never say yes, ha. We were able to help him unload his car, and he was grateful. It was a cool experience and a testimony to me about the power of prayer. 

On Sunday, we presented more about light the world to the different organizations during third hour. We had already mentioned it before, but this time we gave them a printed calendar and 2 pass along cards. The calendars were for them, but we invited them to take the pass along cards and with a spirit of prayer, think about 2 people that they could invite to the special sacrament meeting the 23rd of December. There were a lot of members who were excited about it and I'm excited to see how it goes. 

I love everyone, and I just want to say how grateful I am to you all! Things here are going well. I'm excited for the Christmas season and for the opportunity that we have to focus on the lives of others and to give as Christ gave. Take care everyone!

- Elder Bassett 

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone had a great week! Things here have been going pretty well. We have kept pretty busy. We are starting to find a couple of cool people who we are trying to meet with. We have been able to set up a lot of appointments, but we have been getting failed a bunch recently. But we have also been seeing a couple of cool miracles. One day, we had the goal to teach the restoration in the street 4 times. Ha we gave a good effort, and it didn't look the best. Literally everyone told us that they weren't interested until the very last person. We taught her, and she said she was actually trying to find God more in her life. It was right at the end of the day; it was a cool little miracle to keep us going. 

Amongst other things that happened was zone conference. It was super good; the focus was on baptism and the restoration/The Book of Mormon. I really loved it to be honest. I feel like I learned a lot about more ways to improve the invitations that we extend. This was actually the last zone conference that I will have before going home, too, so some other elders and I plus the hermanas from my group gave their final testimonies. Not gonna lie, it felt pretty weird; never thought that that day will come. Still have a decent amount of time left; though, so it's all good. I also got to see a bunch of old mission friends, which was a lot of fun. It was good to see them all. Zone conference just so happened to coincide with Thanksgiving, so we had a Thanksgiving meal that was a lot of fun. Ha on the train ride back right before we all got McDonald's together too which was kinda like the second thanksgiving. 

On Saturday, we got to go and do a cool service project. Apparently, it was the día del niño. We went to this organization and helped the little kids plant flowers in a public park. It was a really fun service, and we got to meet a couple of new people. We invited some of them to church, and we taught the restoration to one, but he left before we could get his number. 

We are starting to get light the world started here in Cadiz. We announced it to the different classes during 3rd hour on Sunday, and everyone is pretty excited. For the day of service, we are going to meet up at the chapel and then go around in groups of 2 to the houses of other members to collect food to donate to local organizations. We are still trying to get it organized a bit more but other than that it's all-good.

I hope you all had a great week take care and talk to you next time!

- Elder Bassett 

Hey everyone!

Things here in Cádiz have been going really well! We are having a good time and keeping super busy. This past week we had a couple new things happen. On Thursday, we met with the ward council and talked with them about Light the World. We started brainstorming ideas and stuff that we could do. I'm super excited to see how it goes. Other than the main service project, it looks like we are going to try and do a ward choir and go to a couple public places to sing Christmas songs. Other than that, the ward missionaries and our companionship are going to be trying to visit as many of the families as we can and share with them the calendar and the family home evening activity. We are also organizing a big Christmas dinner, which will be exciting. 

Another day, we went and did service for an older family who are super great. We are helping them build a garage. It went pretty well; we made a lot of progress. There is a man that always comes and works with us named Vicente who is super great. He is a member but hasn’t been to church for a really long time. He is from the countryside and is so hard to understand, ha, but he is super great. He is 80 years old but is such a hard worker. We were given gloves to work with, but he said, “No. A cat with gloves on can't catch the rat.” He is super funny. 

Other than that, we were able to meet a couple new people this week. One is Angelic and is a friend of a less active member we have been meeting with. She is from Colombia and is super nice. I'm excited to keep meeting with her. Another is named Johanz, he is also pretty new here. He is from Peru. We met him talking in the street. He is a super nice guy and is going through a pretty rough time right now. 

I hope you all have a great week talk with you next time!

- Elder Bassett