Elder Brandon Bassett

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Hey everyone!

Man, it really feels like it's been a busy week; a lot has gone down. So starting from last p-day after emails and the temple, we went to a museum that was pretty cool.

The next couple of days were pretty good. My park companion was Elder Pierce from Alaska. We did pretty well and had a bunch of good conversations, some weird ones, too. Like the one old guy who wouldn't stop talking about capitalism, and how it's ruining the world; at least, that's what I think he was saying. He was talking pretty fast and had a thick accent.

After the park we had an experience that I'm still I little frustrated about. We were on the metro back to the MTC. Elder Pierce and I kept getting looks from this one guy. I kept telling myself, “No, he's on the opposite side of the train; there's no need.” Finally, we decided to go talk to him. Immediately, I could tell he was super receptive; he definitely seemed eager to listen to us. But as soon as we said we were missionaries, we reached our stop and had to get off. I was so annoyed at myself and wished we had gone and talked to him sooner. He took a copy of The Book of Mormon, and it had a pass along card inside. I just hope that he calls to find out more.

But moving on to the more positive! That day we played some soccer again. Those kids from before came back. It was definitely a better experience this time. I had a lot more fun with them, and they weren't as disrespectful as before which was nice.

On to Sunday! There is only one thought I want to share that was special. When we pass the sacrament, we have a man named Julio who passes with us. He has cerebral palsy, so we have to wheel him around in a wheel chair. He is always so happy to help. It really brings the Spirit.

On to Monday/Tuesday! We had the Brazilians leave which was pretty hard. I say Brazilians, but it was two elders from Brazil, an elder and a sister from Portugal, an elder from Canada, and a sister from California. They are all amazing people and are going to be fantastic missionaries. It absolutely feels empty here without them even though we did get 8 more elders and sisters who are going to Russia. We were going to get another 7-8, but they had visa problems and couldn't come, which is rough. One cool thing- one of the new elders is Elder Knowles from Draper, Utah. He says he knows the Minnicks. That was kind of cool.

Elder Queresma in the grey suit (our MTC zone leader, from Brazil) Elder Masudiso and Sister Domingas from Portugal

So I’m running out of things to talk about, so here are just a bunch of random things. Everyone here except me and 4-5 other missionaries has been pretty sick at one point or another. As the president keeps saying, we are dropping like flies. Hopefully I won't get sick. Another kind of rough thing, our new zone leader, Elder Bodhaine, is having a really rough go of it. A couple weeks ago, he broke his toe, and he was only just getting better until ago couple of days ago when he sprained his ankle. He is such a great elder; I'm really felling for him.

I can't really think of anything else to write right now. The only other big thing is that I was called to be a district leader for the last couple of weeks. It's middle of week 4 here, and we have 6 weeks total. We leave March 27, so it’s not exactly 3 weeks, but that's how we count time here.