BIG Changes!

Hey everyone!

Our view Mt. Teide from our apartment in Puerto-no clouds! It's the highest point on the island.

So transfers came in this weekend....and nothing changed, the subject of the email is a lie. Ha! So Elder Johnson is still over here in La Laguna with me and the hermanas. Our district is staying the same. So yea, that was transfers. 

Our week was pretty good. As always, we spent 5 days in La Laguna and 2 days in Puerto. We had a lot of time to talk in the street this week, and we were able to get a couple references, so that was great. We are going to be trying to meet with them this week so that we can start getting some new investigators. What's hard is that for some reason it seems like the people in Puerto are just more willing to talk. Because of that, most of our references are from Puerto. It's hard, because it means we only have a 2-day window to try and meet with people. We think though that we might start staying in Puerto Saturdays to fit in more people. 

Oh man, I just remembered we got some big news! So this last week, President sent out a message to the whole mission to tell us all that he had been working with the missionary department and that our mission has just been officially approved to begin online proselyting. So this means that we can start using sites like Facebook, Instagram, and google hangouts to help further the work. On top of that we will soon be getting new phones that will allow us to use whatsapp. These are both huge steps for our mission. The online proselyting opens so many new windows for finding new investigators, and it is so exciting. On top of that, having whatsapp will help us to stay in touch with our investigators so much more. I can't even begin to describe how many investigators we can't get into contact with, because we don't have whatsapp. This is super big! 

And with any big changes and added blessings, there are also added responsibilities and temptations. To help us prepare for this change, President gave us 2 talks to read, both by Elder Bednar. The first is titled "Things as they really are," and the second is titled "To sweep theearth as with a flood". Both are really interesting and good talks. I want to invite everyone to read the second if they haven't done so before, and if you, have read it again! It talks about how to share the gospel online and many different ways that the light of Christ has been shared online. I thought it was super awesome. It was really cool to see all the different ways that people have used social media to help bless the lives of others. The technology we have been given by God is such a blessing, and we all have a personal responsibility to use it for good. I want to challenge everyone to take an idea they get from that talk and put it into action. Or just share a message online in a social media page. Now, I don't know how many people actually read this, but I imagine if everyone contributes we can add another stream to the flood that Elder Bednar wants.

So, I was in this thing called the Tranvia one day which is like the San Francisco rail cars. I started to talk to a lady. I started the conversation asking about her bracelets. I told her I was looking for something that I could send to my mom while I was here, and I was wondering where she got her bracelets. So turns out, the bracelets were just from a chino, which is just a super cheap Chinese store. We started a conversation about the importance of motherhood and the love from being a parent. After that we started, to talk a little bit about the love God has for us. In the end, she didn't want anything, but it was a very nice conversation, and she was a very nice and sweet lady. She gave me those two bracelets; I tried to give them back, but she was very insistent. So I got some bracelets to send you, Mom! I'll send them eventually. The bracelets are nothing special, but I figured you would appreciate the message and memory that comes with them.

I love you all! Thank you for your experiences. I hope you have a great week!

- Elder Bassett