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.