El Campo! Y Milagros

Hello to my friends and family who I love so dearly! How are ya?

Ha, things here in Cadiz are going great. I know it still hasn't even been a full week since I got here, but it is just so awesome. It feels really good to be back in the field again. I'm going to try and fill everyone in a bit on what's been going on, so have patience with me!

We have been working on visiting as many of the members as we can for 15-20 minute each to try and get to know them and gain their trust. Our plan is to go in and get to know them and then we have been starting to share the lesson of the restoration with them in about 5 minutes. So far, we have only been able to get a couple of families, but we are seeing a lot of miracles from it. 

It feels super great to be out in the field again. I've been missing my past area a bit, but it's really nice to be fully dedicated to the work again. Noemi and Daniela weren't able to get baptized this past Saturday, and they are probably a little stressed, so if you can keep them in your prayers. 

My new companion is named Elder Kohlström. He has been on the mission for about a year, and he is from Sweden. His last area before this was actually La Laguna which was his we do d area and mine as well. He came into this area and has been doing what we call in missionary work “whitewashing”. He got here and then, instead of their being a missionary to train him in the area, he entered with another missionary who was new to the area. Basically, it's like coming in to a new start and learning everything from ground zero.

He and his last companion have been doing a great job, and the Lord has really been blessing the work here. Yesterday, there was a baptism that came with a miracle of a story. If you’re a missionary or future missionary listen to this! 

The woman's name is Olga, and she is 82. She is from Chile but has lived in Spain for the past 30 something years. About 29 years ago, she was at the bus station in A Coruña, Spain. There she met the missionaries. She met for them for a couple of months but for a variety of circumstances was never baptized in the church. Flash forward to a couple of months ago. Olga is walking in the streets of Cadiz looking for a jewelry store. She enters a couple and isn't decided on which one she wants. Finally she decided to go home.

On the way home, she passes one more jewelry store and for some reason she feels like she should go inside. She goes in, starts looking around, and eventually starts up a conversation with the man behind the counter. They talk for a bit and eventually the topic goes onto religion. Olga mentions that over 29 years ago, she was meeting with some missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. That worker then responds and tells her that he is the bishop of that same church here in Cadiz. 

The bishop invited her to the church again, and she started to meet again with the missionaries. With time, she decided to be baptized. She wrote and told the missionary that had first found her who had stayed in touch all those years. That returned missionary, who is now married and the father of 4 children, decided to come up with his wife and this past Sunday, was able to baptize the same woman that he found almost 30 years before.

That is just such an incredible miracle to me. It's a witness to the seeds of faith that are planted into the hearts of people. It's also such an incredible witness to the importance of staying in contact with those we have taught and are teaching. Some people are ready when we are with them, some aren't. The Lord knows His children and is preparing the path for them to return unto His Gospel. How incredible is that to know?! 

I love this gospel, and I know it's true! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

- Elder Bassett 

Hello Again

zone conference

Hey everyone!

So as you can see and have probably noticed, my P-day was changed again and is on Tuesday this time. This time, it was because we had a lot of office work to do yesterday that couldn´t wait, so we moved it to today so that we could get everything done in time. Well, Last P-day was on Thursday, so not a lot of time has gone by, but I will try and fill you in as best as I can. 

On Friday, we went and helped a member move to a new apartment. Unfortunately, she told the ward really last minute, and she started right in the middle of the day when most of the members had work, so nobody was able to come. We also had Zone Conference the same day, so we weren´t able to come until the very end, unfortunately. We were able to make it to help with the last load that she did. She had such a great attitude about it; though, and she is the nicest lady. 

We did stay at her place though to help her set up the Bunk Bed for her kids. She said it was the simplest one that IKEA had, but I have never been so confused in my life. Ha. it is all finished now; though, so the confusion is past, I am calm, and the family is getting settled. 

Zone Conference went pretty well. We had a lot of tech problems which made things a little stressful. (Biggest of those being the projector going haywire at every possible second.) Then half way through the conference, the front lens kind of melted; so that was rather unfortunate. Ha! The majority of the morning half of conference was President and Hermana Bussey doing training while I sat next to them fidgeting with the projector. It all worked out in the end though, and it was a pretty good conference. 

The focus this time was on Exact Obedience and how to exercise the Power and Authority of our calling as missionaries. There was also a big focus on the Holy Ghost. There were a lot of things that stuck out to me that I really enjoyed. One thing that was talked about was the importance of completely dedicating ourselves to the work at which we are about, keeping our focus on our missions and letting ourselves be changed to help us become true disciples of Christ.

The people that we are teaching are doing well. On Saturday was the baptism of a man named Jorge who was being taught by the sisters. Daniela and Noemi came early to the baptism, and we were able to teach them a little bit before. They also came to church the next day and even though they had to head out afterwards pretty quickly, we were able to still teach them later that day through a video call, "YAY for the blessings of technology!!!". They are both doing great and are on track to be baptized the week after General Conference. 

Hasta luego!

I don't know if I've ever mentioned, but it's kinda of a thing to say bye here in Spain as a greeting. Most of the time, they just keep walking though. As crazy as it sounds, it's true. 

Thus past week has gone well. It was transfers so we were super busy. They have been finished though, and there weren't too many problems. It's always a huge relief when transfers end. Not gonna lie, that is always a stressful 2 weeks. 

With this transfer, we said bye to one of my companions, Elder Keffer. He has been in the office since last November, and he was definitely ready to head out. He has been my companion for the past 6 months, and I'll miss him, but I think he will have a good time in his new area. 

In other words, I also received another new companion named Elder Sullivan. I've only been with him for a couple of days, but I'm excited. He seems like another great missionary. I will be training him, and he will replace me in the office, so I can leave soon as well.

So right now, my companionship consists of Elder Sullivan, Elder Sure, Elder Kraut, Elder Gergov, and myself. I will try and send a pic today as best I can.

The best I could get

In other news, this past week we had the open doors activity of our chapel. The members put in a lot of work, and it was geared up to be a pretty big event. Unfortunately, only about 10 nonmembers came the whole day. Some members were a little sad, but those ten people who came had a good experience.

I love you all, and I hope that you have a great week. Talk to you next time!

- Elder Bassett 

Baptism Day!

Hello my family and friends!

Things here are going pretty well! This past week has been really great and super busy. The office has been keeping us super busy. The biggest thing that has been keeping us busy has been prepping for transfers. It's been super crazy, but it's working out. (Our office credit card isn’t working correctly, so we can’t buy travel tickets.)

This past week Vilma was baptized! The service was super great! Afterwards, Vilma shared her testimony; the Spirit was there so strongly. I think that was probably my favorite part. I love being able to see and hear the testimonies of the people we meet here in Spain. She was super happy, and it was a special experience.

We have started to meet with Vilma’s family, too, which has been great. When we first met them, they were a little cold with us and didn't want to talk too much, but they have opened up a bunch since that first time. They are still opening up little by little, but this last week after the baptism, we were able to share the restoration with them. The message seemed to touch them. We are going to be passing by to drop off some Books of Mormons for the rest of the family. 

Busssssyyy!!!

Hey everyone!!!

So I have zero time to write today. Reason for that? Well, transfers, Packs’ farewell, Busseys’ arrival, mission merge, and normal office work. So yeah, we are kept super busy; we’ve had several late nights of working. This past week was good though. Biggest downside is how tired we are; we've been running all over the place for a bit, and we are running a little low on sleep. It's all good though, because things are going well. We are a little behind, but we should be caught up by the time President Bussey comes tomorrow.  We were able to talk to them on a phone call last week and introduce ourselves. He recognized my name form his connection to Dad.

One of the things keeping us busy is going back and forth to the airport to drop off and pick up missionaries. There is a big group leaving and a big group coming. One day we were at the airport waiting for a missionary from the Chile MTC. We had been waiting for him over 3 hours. We were getting worried about him. His connecting flight had been delayed. It’s a really big airport. This was a new missionary, and we had no way to contact him. I was getting panicked and stressed. Maybe he was lost or scared or didn’t know what to do. I worried that maybe we had somehow missed him and should go look in another part of the airport. I said a little prayer for him and asked that I would know what to do to help him. When I opened my eyes I saw a group of pilots. I thought maybe I should go talk to them. But then I realized we’d passed dozens of pilots, and there were hundreds of people all around us; chances were he wouldn’t know anything about him. Then I felt like I should talk to him again, so I wove through all the people and went to talk to him and asked him if he’d seen another young missionary dressed like me. He responded that yeah, he was on his way and just behind him. I felt an amazing sense of relief. I said a prayer of thanks. I was so grateful that we hadn’t lost him.

Jose's baptism went super well. He is a super cute kid, and he was super happy. One drawback, the water was cold. Our chapel is a little strange. When the water heater is on, the air conditioner turns off. With the heat of summer, our leaders decided to opt for cold water and an air-conditioned building.  But it was still a great baptism. There were two children, one from the hermanas and Jose. All the talks were from children their age. It was a super special experience, and there was a really sweet spirit there. 

I’ve been thinking recently on how special it is to be with people and see the change in them as they accept the gospel of Christ. To see them feel what we are sharing and connect to that same Spirit that guides us each day. It's something that really can't be replaced.  I’ve mentioned our investigator Naomi. I found her by going through my cell phone history. She was an old contact that hadn’t gone anywhere with the other missionaries. I decided to call her and see how she was. She responded that she was horrible everything was going really bad. Her husband had just been in a car accident and was in the hospital, and she could use some support. We started talking to her about the peace that comes through Christ and accepting His will and finding strength in Him. Since then, her husband has gotten better and is home in a wheel chair. Ever since then she has been meeting with us and wants to know more about the Gospel. Our lesson with her this week was about the Plan of Salvation. In that lesson, she told us she had been thinking about baptism before we met. She gave the closing prayer and said that she felt the Spirit. There are a lot of ways as a missionary I can improve. There are lot of aspects of missionary work that I love, but most of all I love teaching. I love being in a lesson with people and being able to see the way the Spirit can influence their lives and help them to be better. It’s an irreplaceable feeling. I love being a servant of the Lord and be a conduit of His Spirit and help people feel the love of God. It’s not something I do perfectly, but we do our best.

Hey everyone!

So today I have even less time then usual today so I'm going to have to be very quick.  Last week was good. Transfers ended up going pretty smoothly and there weren't any big problems so that was nice. 

So the big reason I don't have a lot of time is that we moved our pday to Tuesday today, so we could go to the temple with a recent convert from La Laguna. My companion, Elder Johnson and I, found her back in October. Then after we left she kept meeting with the hermanas and eventually got baptized.

President gave us the permission to go with her today to the temple so we could do baptisms with her in the temple. It was a very special and spiritual experience. She asked me to be baptized for the men in her family, so I did that, and it was a very special experience. The Spirit was there so strongly, and it was very beautiful. Lucia started to cry as she was being baptized. She said that she just felt so happy. It was a really humbling experience that really reminded me about the power and beauty of the plan of salvation. It is something that is so special and powerful to know that all those we love who are seperated from us now will be united with us again one day. 

I love you all! Sorry I didn't have more time have a great week!

- Elder Bassett

Hey everyone! 

So life is going pretty good here in the office. We have been keeping pretty busy, but we have made sure to have some time to go out and proselyte, so that has been pretty great. I have finished a lot of my bigger projects, so my workload is starting to die down a little, which is nice. Based on what Elder Tarver, the last secretary, around weeks 3 and 4 of the transfer things start getting a little more tranquilo letting us focus on normal missionary work for a bit. Then comes the business of weeks 5 and 6 and transfers starting everything up again. 

I don't remember if I mentioned it last week, but we had a really cool miracle happen to us about 2 weeks ago. On Sunday 2 weeks ago, a woman came to church who is a member, but hasn't been active for over 20 years. She just recently felt like she should come back to church, and so she came to church that Sunday with her 13-year-old son. Their names are Leandro and Carolina, and we have started to teach Leandro. He is a super cool kid and has a date to be Baptized for the 12 of May, so keep him in your prayers guys!

Other cool news, I recently found out that 2 of the investigators that I was teaching in Ferrol (my last area) got baptized. That made me super happy. It's the sister and daughter of the other woman (Militza) that we baptized while I was there in Ferrol. It makes me so happy to see that the family is all coming together and being unified in the church; it is such a testimony to me of the blessing and beauty of eternal families. 

This past week or so, I have been thinking and studying a little bit more about gratitude. I think that a lot of times in my life I've taken for granted all of the blessings that God has given to me and to my family. One thing that I have come to see and that has really opened my eyes on the mission is really how much some families in the world struggle. 

In every family I have met who are struggling to put food on the table or clothes in the closet, the happiest have always been those who openly talk about and acknowledge how many blessings from God that they have. That is just so incredible to me, to see the faith of some of these families. It's something that really motivates me. 

One thing I have been trying to do recently is every night when I say my prayers, I make a list in my head of all of the things that I was sincerely grateful for that day. It always helps me have a positive end of the day, and I wanted to invite everyone else to do it as well. I love you all and am so grateful for your prayers and examples!

- Elder Bassett 

I got a package!! It had a lot of candy in it...the candy disappeared very quickly. I also got a tie, which is very beautiful. Also a box of poptarts! All things were awesome and for all of them I have no idea who they are from. Early birthday? I'm 99% sure it's mom and dad, so thanks a bunch! It is always fun to get packages! 

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. 

Militza and her Mom

Hello,

Well, end of another transfer here in the vineyard of the Lord. It's been pretty great. This past week we have kept pretty busy, and it's been good. Our investigators are still doing well. It's awesome to see their progression and the ways that they grow in the gospel.

This past week we were able to have the baptismal interviews for Maicol and Militza, that’s the next step towards baptism. It’s an interview to make sure they understood and were prepared to get baptized and didn’t have any questions or concerns. They did so awesome and both passed. I love that family so much, they are so kind, and it's so fun meeting and talking with them. Maicol is the biggest ball of energy you have ever seen. Every time we pass by, he just wants to go and play futbol. 

He also just had his 8th birthday so we went over for that which was a lot of fun. They had some family friends there so we were able to talk to them, too, which was really cool. They live in another city, but maybe with time they will be willing to meet with the missionaries, too...we're working on it.

Transfers came and our district has changed quite a bit. Both Elder Brock and Elder Lopez have finished their missions and are headed home. The new elders coming to replace them are Elders Ward and Santa. My companion, Elder Jordan, also got transferred and he’s headed off to the city of Cuenca. My new companions name is Elder Henrie who is also from mesa Arizona. Turns out he and Elder Jordan are best friends from back home, so I already feel like I know him a little.

Elder & Sister Bitton have the missionaries over after district meeting

Mari's Baptism!

Hey everyone!

So it's been a pretty busy week! Life is good up here on the cold shores of Ferrol. Even though, to be honest, it isn't that cold....just a lot of rain. Like I said, this past week we have kept pretty busy, and we have been doing pretty good. Also want to shout out a big thanks to the ward! I got the poster you guys sent, and I loved it! It was super sweet to read all of your awesome messages.

So here is some stuff that happened this week!

We went and met with some members this past week. They are a super fun family. It's the one that I was talking about in a previous email that is going through a hard time and the parents have to live separate for a bit. Well some awesome news is that the father was just able to receive the Aaronic priesthood this past Sunday. It was super cool and just one more step towards their goals of being sealed together as a family for eternity. 

So, I mentioned in last week's big email the big event of this week was Maria’s baptism! On Thursday we built the font, then of course on Saturday, we filled it and did all of the final preparations. Of course, there were all kinds of little last minute mishaps that occurred with things like the programs, musical number, and the prayers, but the Spirit was there through it all so strongly!

It was a super special experience, and we are super happy for her. She was baptized this past Saturday by another member and then was confirmed as a member and was given the gift of the Holy Ghost in church the next day. It was a really cool and humbling experience. 

The covenant that we make when we are baptized is something that is just incredible. As we come out of the water, we promise to take upon ourselves the name of Christ. We do our best to follow him and his chosen servants. We look to him for help in the rough moments, and he is always and will always be there. Jesus Christ gave his life so that each one of us could have the opportunity to be born again through him. He did it all for the love that He has for us, and for the love that our Heavenly Father has for us. 1 John 4, go check it out!

I love you all! 

- Elder Bassett 

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.

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