We need to take the first step

The Best-Alvaro's baptism

Sup! 

I greet the people who read these letters. Man, it's been a crazy week! We have been super busy this week, but not really in the best ways. By that, I mean we haven't had a lot of time to talk to people this week, which was a little frustrating sometimes. But we'll have more time this week, so I'm excited. Things are good here; just pushing forward.

And it’s another big day for the family, Happy Birthday Jeffrey. Man, I can't believe that Jeff is already 16. Is he still tiny or is his working out starting to build him up? He really only needs to eat more, if he does then he can get huge like Taylor.

So, last week we had zone conference, which was nice. Because we are in the islands, a couple groups had to be video conferenced into the meeting. That's part of why we had no time last week. Since everything was being broadcasted from our island and capilla, we were put in charge of the video conference. We had a member of the ward helping us out while we were getting that set up and tested; that took about a day. Then, as always, when the time for zone conference came around, everything failed. Ha! The tech was a little all over the place. Zone conference was good though; the emphasis was on teaching simply and using our time wisely.

Heading out to work from our piso in Puerto de la Cruz

After zone conference, we had interviews and piso checks. That was kinda crazy, too. Piso checks are when President and Hermana Pack come and check out our piso to make sure we are taking care of it and keeping it clean. The downside is that they couldn't have come at a worse time. We had it super clean on p-day, and then we left Wednesday and went to Puerto. We got back Thursday night, and two other elders arrived to spend the night to be there for zone conference the next day. The next day, we had to leave super early to get the tech set up, so we didn't have anytime to clean a bit. Then the Packs came back with us, so we walked in all together. Ha- it was a disaster; the other elders’ clothes were everywhere; we hadn't even finished unpacking; and there were a bunch of dishes in the sink left over from breakfast. Luckily though, the Packs gave us the benefit of the doubt in the situation. 

Puerto de la Cruz-Not a bad view!

So yeah, that was my week. The other good news is that when the Packs got into the islands, they were able to give me back my tablet. That was nice; I can be more productive now. 

So this week I wanted to share a message about faith. This past couple of weeks, I have been reading in the Bible a bunch, more specifically in the New Testament. I want to talk about my favorite story in the Bible. It's the one about the woman who suffers from a blood disease. As Jesus is walking past, she reaches out through the crowd to touch His garment. When she does, she is healed instantly. When Jesus finds out, He calls her daughter and tells her that her faith has healed her. That's is such a common theme in every one of the miracles that Jesus does. Almost every time when He heals someone, He tells them that their faith has made them whole. I love that so much; Heavenly Father and Jesus want to help us so much, but so much relies on us. If we don't reach out like the woman, then they can't help us. If we don't have the faith, they can't heal us. We have to make the first step; we have to choose to follow them. Even if it may be hard, we can't ever let something stop us from following Christ. The opposite of faith is fear and doubt. We never need feel those emotions when we are reaching out to our Saviour.

I love you all, till next week.

- Elder Bassett