New Address

Hello everybody,

I don't know if you saw this, but there is a new address for the mission... just in case you might need it 😉

Misión España Madrid
Avenida de Tenerife, 11
28703 San Sebastián de los Reyes
Madrid, España

PS Brandon's birthday is coming up! April 24th

Surprise, surprise!

Hey y’all!

So this has been a pretty crazy/surprising week. Things in Ferrol are going pretty good, and our investigators were starting to progress. It was a looking out to be a pretty normal week until we got back to the piso on Tuesday, and I saw that I had 3 missed calls from President....😓 never a good sign. He proceeded to tell me that he needed me to come serve in the office. That's the story about how I got emergency transferred for the second time.

I got the call at 13:15 on Tuesday. President told me that I needed to come down and fast. I packed as quickly as I could, and at 14:30, I was on a bus headed to the train station in A Coruña. I said bye to my comp and a couple elders from the district, and then got on a train and headed to Madrid arriving in my new apartment around 23:00. I was a little sad to not have time to say bye to the members and our investigators, but I'm confident that they are in the Lord's hands, and that Elder Henrie and his new Companion will take care of them.

So, our situation in the office is kind of interesting. Normally, the office Elders are a trio, right now we are 5 missionaries....very interesting. So there are 3 different jobs in the office: residency, secretary, and pisos. Residency deals with orders and residency in Spain; secretary is miscellaneous, and piso deals with buying and selling apartments. I will be coming in as the new Secretary; I'll be trained by Elder Tarver. Elder Jäger from Germany is the residency elder, and he is just finishing his training by Elder Brasher. Then there is Elder Keffer who is the piso elder. We are 5 right now because 2 are getting trained at the same time, but both Elder Brasher and Elder Tarver will be out in about a week.

Hey everyone! 

Things are going pretty good here in Ferrol, Spain! Not a lot has happened since my last email, but I'll try and keep you filled in on the big stuff.

So like I mentioned last time, we had our big Conference with Elder Sabin. That was super great. A big focus of what he was teaching was on the plan of salvation and the importance of sharing it with others and helping them realize the way it has an impact in their lives. Even that is such a small generalization of what he taught. He ended up covering so much and talking about so many different things. He is a very spiritual and impressive man. I enjoyed the meeting, and I could really feel the Spirit there.

We are starting to teach this one family who is super awesome. We have been meeting with them for a while practicing English with the kids as a service, and we have been teaching them doctrine a little bit as we go. This past Saturday though, we had the opportunity to teach them the Restoration. It was super awesome, and I was really happy to share with them the beauty of that simple message. Their names are Ramón, Magdalena, and their mom, Cristina. Their dad lives in another country as an engineer working on projects, so we haven't been able to meet him yet. They were all pretty excited to start reading The Book of Mormon, so I'm excited to show you guys how things go with them.

That's pretty much all that happened that stands out. This week I wanted to share something that Elder Sabin shared in the conference that really stuck with me. But first I want to talk about something else. In a talk by Elder McAllister, he talks about what it means to be a consecrated missionary. One thing that he mentions is the Lord's command for his servants to "open their mouths in every moment". Basically to always be talking to people about the gospel and to never miss an opportunity to share the gospel. That’s something I try to do be good at, but is one of my biggest struggles.

One thing that Elder Sabin shared was the story of Nephi in The Book of Mormon, that being the son of Helaman not Lehi. In Helaman 10, after becoming discouraged, the Lord comes to Nefi and blesses/praises him for endearingly declaring the doctrine. Basically, what Elder Sabin taught was that Nefi wasn't praised, because he reactivated a certain amount of people, or because he has this many baptisms, but because he kept going, kept trying.

One of my problems, or something that will hold me back sometimes from "opening my mouth in every moment" is my own fear of failure or not being good enough. What Elder Sabin shared was that as missionaries and members we can never fail as long as we keep trying. As long as we don't give up, as long as we make the effort to get out there and do it, we will be successful. That's something that really stuck with me, and I thought could even apply to everyone back home.

One things members have shared with us every once in a while is that they are hesitant to share the gospel with their friends, because they feel like their friends they won't accept it. Maybe that might be true. But it never hurts to try, and every time that we try, every time we make that effort, we are successful and our efforts are consecrated for the Lord.

I Love you guys! Have a great week!

- Elder Bassett 

Mission Tour

Hey everyone!

This week our mission is being visited by Elder Sabin from the area presidency, so we are down in Madrid for a couple days for a big conference that we are going to have tomorrow. That-s why I have p-day today instead of yesterday. 

This morning I had the opportunity to go to the temple again for the first time since I left Mostoles. It felt so good to be there again to feel that special spirit that is there. It made me think about all the members in the world who live so far from or don't have access to the temple. I only had to wait 8 months, but there are members who have to wait and sacrifice so much more than that. So much sacrifice goes into temple work, but the blessings and joy we can receive from those sacrifices are so incredible and always worth it.

Being in the tour, I've also been able to meet up with some old friends in the mission, which was really cool. I got to say Hi to Elder Simmons, my trainer, who I haven't seen in a super long time. I also got to see Elder Brasher again and a lot of old friends. It's been really cool.

Craziness

Hey Fam and friends!  

Ok this week maybe hasn't been the busiest of the mission so far, but it for sure has been one of the craziest I've had up till now. We had 2 big things happen this week that I wanted to mention. First and foremost, the accident.

Maybe you might have already seen it on Facebook or heard it from others or church news, but there was a car accident in the Malaga mission which is right next to ours. In the car were 4 missionaries and an investigator; they crashed head on with a semi truck. Miraculously, they have all survived; although, the investigator, Jose Luis, is still in bad shape. The four missionaries are stabilized, and it looks like they will be fine. Of the 4, Elder Heninger will have to go home to recuperate, but from what I have heard the rest are staying in the mission. Like I said, it's a miracle that they survived, let's keep them all in our prayers. On Facebook, Elder Heningershared his testimony. It was super powerful, and I would definitely recommend looking it up and reading it, but a warning there are some graphic images of the crash. (Elder Heninger was MTC companion.)

Also of note was the baptism of Maicol and Militza. It was a super special experience, and I will never forget the spirit that was there. We had an issue of the font overflowing before hand, but thankfully, we were able to get it all cleaned up in time. After the baptisms, Militza got up and shared her testimony. It was so special, and I felt the Spirit so strongly. At the end, we sang Families Can be Together Forever to close. It was really sweet to see Militza singing while her son Maicol laid his head in her shoulder. It was a very special night, sorry to everyone, but because of all the craziness before we weren't able to get a pic with them. I'll send one another day.

Other then those 2 things and some other random stuff here and there, it was a pretty normal week. We started to teach a new woman called, Esnaider, who is from Cuba. She is a super nice woman and genuinely interested in finding out if the church is true. I'm excited to see how she keeps progressing. The rest of our investigators are still doing well. Elizeta is still in France, but we continue to teach her through video calls, and she is doing well. We met some other new people, but we haven't been able to start teaching them yet. 

In an email this past week, my mom asked me to talk about what kind of struggles a missionary faces when he reaches a year, and what it is that I'm looking forward to in this next year. From my own experience, I would say that my struggles right now are with making sure that I'm consistently doing what I can to exercise my faith and be the missionary the Lord needs me to be. For me, that consists of a lot of constant self-reflection and pushing of myself to improve. Ha, sometimes a struggle for me is staying focused on improving one trait before thinking of something else I need to improve.

The biggest thing that I'm looking forward to in this next year is really seeing what the Lord has planned for me and seeing who it is that He wants me to bless, and where I can go to find them. That's one thing that always seems to impress me. As a missionary during these 24 or 18 months, so much of our life is guided directly by God. He tells us right where to go, for how long we need to be there. When we coordinate and work with Him, He will even put the people in our path who need us the most. I've experienced that in my mission, and it's something that I'm really looking forward to this next year as well.

This week, I really just wanted to testify that God's hand is in each one of our lives. The fact that each of those missionaries is still alive, the fact that Militza and Maicol are in Spain and not in their home of Venezuela right now, the fact that I-along with thousands of other missionaries-was sent to a place thousands of miles away where people would need me, is all testimony to me that God influences our lives. Maybe we don't always see His hand, but I can promise that it is there. I love you guys. Keep up the animo!

- Elder Bassett 

Pictures from our pday at the castle, a lighthouse dating to the time of Christ, and last a picture from the car crash. Warning, it's graphic.