Once upon a time, I was hungry

That moment is now. Like right now. I want food so badly. 

This week we had temple day, so that was fantastic! We woke up super early to go to the temple; though, and didn't have time to eat. Now we are on the train back to Móstoles for another hour until we eat, so it's just the waiting.....I'm pretty pumped though, because we are going to hit up Dominoes when we get back.

It’s been a while since I wrote last, and unfortunately again, I don't have a lot to write about. Last week was pretty standard, no big meetings, no service projects nothing unusual, just a bunch of walking, talking, and teaching. I can update you on the weather here: it's getting HOT. Now, I'm sure my friends serving down in Malaga our probably laughing at me right now, but it's getting up there. I can deal with the heat during the day, but what is really starting to get me is that it's still super hot at night before we go to bed. There have been a couple of nights where I just lay in bed sweating unable to sleep for an hour or so.  

Plus another bit of info, the piso we have here in Móstoles is the biggest one in all of the Madrid Mission. I have heard there is another one that gives it a run for its money, but I've been told by many that ours is biggest. So the reason that the mission has such a big piso is because the utilities are included-like air-conditioning, water, etc. So that’s great, right? One downside, the air-conditioning in this piso doesn’t work. So yea, it gets pretty hot. We have 2 fans that we all fight over, so we get some coolness every once in a while. I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually, but for now it’s a little crazy.

One thing that did stand out is that we did intercambios with the zone leaders. That was pretty fun. I was with Elder Jepson. He is a pretty good guy, a real máquina when it comes to talking. I learned a lot from it. I have been trying to get better at my conversations throughout the day.

We were super busy last transfer and for most of this transfer, too, but the last week we had a lot of time in the streets. For all that time, I decided I want to get better at having good conversations with people I talk to. It can be so much more fun, too, when you can come to get to know people from all over the world. I've had some pretty cool conversations, some weird ones, too, but that is always bound to happen.

I want to share a scripture this week that I really liked from when I was studying diligence. It's in D&C 58:26-28. Our agency is a very special and important gift that has been given to us. God has given us commandments to guide and protect us and to help us to have happiness in this life and in the next. Then He let's us choose how, when, and to what extent we follow them. He hopes we follow them all and that we do our best, because He knows that that is how we can be happiest, but He doesn't force us. We have to take the initiative. We can always improve, and we can always become better. One of the things I have been striving to be better at is being diligent with my time. In the short amount of time I have been working on this and trying to make improvements, I have already felt and seen the increased blessings it has brought me. God let's us be free agents, and when we are diligently following and obeying Him, we can be so much happier. He wants that for us, and He is always going to be there to help us along the road.

I love you all, and He loves you, too. Until next week!

- Elder Bassett 

Sorry I don't have any pics this week. I am trying to get that nametag background pic, Mom, but there aren't a lot of pretty scenery options. I'll send it when I can. 

Greetings from the land of Spain

It's been a pretty good week. We had zone conference this week, which was good. There were only 2 zones this time so not as many missionaries. Elder Brasher was there again; it was so good to see him again. There were some elders from the MTC days, too. It’s always fun to see them. After zone conference we had intercambios with the Alcorcon elders. That went pretty well; I was with Elder Ferguson. We had a good time, some good teaching visits, and English classes.

OK so this week I wanted to tell you guys about one of our investigators. His name is Marios, and he is a pretty cool guy. We met him in the street with his 10-year-old stepson Julio. He's a super great guy, really wants to know more about the gospel, and set a good example for his son, Julio. Right now he has a baptismal date for the 24th of June. So another cool thing happened; we were able to meet with Juan Carlos again. It looks like we will be able to keep meeting with him, so we are pretty excited about that.

So another big thing happened this week; we came back one day to find that we have no water. Something had to be fixed in our building and the city shut off our water. That went on for two days. Not gonna lie, it was getting a little rough towards the end of it. But that first shower after we had water again felt better then any other I've had in my life. We had a bunch of water bottles in the Piso that we emptied out into all the bowls that we had. Then we went and filled up the bottles from a fountain down the street. We were having a pretty fun time with it.

Hello Everyone!

Happy Mother's Day!

It's been a super good week. I don't have a bunch of time, so the email is going to be a little shorter then usual.

So a bunch of things happened. We had our interviews with President for this transfer; that went pretty well. We also had a district meeting that was pretty cool. We had a bunch of members join, and we practiced teaching the Restoration while the natives corrected our Spanish. That was a lot of fun. The zone leaders also had a baptism this week. His name is Kiesling, and he is from Haiti. He is a really cool guy. He speaks French and Spanish and is also learning English. He is a pretty smart guy, studying to be a doctor; he is also bombing at futbol.

So one other cool thing that happened this week, this Sunday we had 4 of our investigators come to church. That was super awesome. To give some reference, in the amount of time that I have been here in Móstoles, we have had 1 investigator come to church and that was pretty recent. It was super exciting.

OK I'm going to be done for the week, before I finish writing I wanted to share a scripture that I read earlier this week that I really loved. It's John 14:21, the scripture is talking about keeping the commandments and the part I loved is the very last phrase. It's says that if we love Christ and obey His commandments that He will manifest Himself unto us. We may not always be able to see Christ's influence in our life, but if we follow Him and obey His commandments, then we will be able to see it more and more. 

I love you all! Till next time!

-Elder Bassett 

Hola a todos!

Elder Bassett, Elder Phillips, Elder Jepson, Elder Simmons

It's been a pretty good week; keeping super busy which is awesome. So going back to the beginning of last week. Elder Chabot and Hermana Quispe left, and we got Elder Jepson and Hermana Moyle who is just entering the field. They are both pretty cool missionaries; it's been fun getting to know them a little more.

The shell of one of the snails we ate

So on to the rest of the week. Like always, I can't remember a lot of what happened so just a bunch of stuff that stood out. So to start out, we had a challenging eating appointment. A sister from Africa, heard that Elder Phillips likes fufu, so she decided to make it for us. Now, as I have stated in a previous email, fufu is pretty interesting, kinda different, but the crucial part to a good fufu is the soup. And this member made us a very typical African soup made by her tribe. This was a soup made of spinach, chicken, bones, fish, a black mystery sauce, and huge chunks of caracól. For those who don't know, caracól is Spanish for snail. Now, I love trying new foods, and when I heard what we were going to eat, I was pretty excited, but it wasn't what I expected. It was pretty hard to eat. What made it even worse was that due to the festival a couple days earlier on p-day all of the stores were closed, so we couldn’t get groceries, so by this point we had almost nothing to eat. I was pretty queasy for the rest of the day. Ha, but that was a little fun, too.  

1 transfer down, a whole lot more to go

So yea, already one transfer down! Kinda crazy. The transfer changes kinda drowned out all of the other small things that happened, so I'm having trouble remembering a lot of the other stuff that happened. So, some things I remember:

 

Elders Merrill and I had intercambios this week. (An intercambio is when you switch companions and areas to learn from someone different.) It went great; he is a cool guy and has read Brandon Sanderson and is a fan which makes him even cooler.  Elder Merrill also gave me this map of all the areas in the mission. I thought you might want to see it. But, Elder Merrill was transferred and will be leaving our district.

So further information on our investigators: one great thing that happened this week we were able to commit both Vivian and Carlos to a Fecha for a baptism. I'm still a little worried about Carlos; though, because we still have trouble meeting with him, and he is constantly failing us for our appointments. He seemed sincere when we asked him, but I'm getting the feeling that he isn't taking it serious enough. It's like we are more of an afterthought. We are going to keep working with him though and try to get him to commit a little more. I'll keep you updated. Vivian, however, is doing awesome. She has a lot of desires to learn and understand, and she is praying to receive an answer which is great, and she really wants to know. I'm really excited for her. She even gave us a couple of references to check out, too, which was cool. Normally when we ask if people know someone else who would be interested, they just say I don't know.

That also reminded me, another cool thing happened. We had our first investigator in church; her name is Carmen.  That’s really great news. Unfortunately, although we have been trying we cannot get into contact with him, we have called Juan Carlos, and we keep passing by his house, but he isn't there. If we ever find him we will try and teach him again, hopefully. We will see. At this point though, we think it's time to take a break and focus more on our investigators right now. But yea, that's the update on the people for this week.