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! 

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.

Me gusta comida!

Elder Phillips was mocking me for starting every single email the same way, so I decided to change it up a bit with something unexpected.

Man this has been a really great week. So one thing that happened, we had a district meeting and the ap's came, and they brought that package that the family sent me so I was able to open it. That was great. It was fun to read all of the letters, and the candy was very much appreciated. At that meeting, we went and got kebab for the first time since I've been here. For all of the missionaries reading this that have served in Spain and are amazed at how long it's taken me, remember, that we eat with members a lot.

 

My rocking birthday package

We also had this specialized training for the new missionaries that was really great. I learned a lot and a lot of stuff for was cleared up. We also had interviews with President last week, which was great. It was really good to sit and talk with President and resolve some questions that I'd had. It is crazy how busy mission presidents are. Just to give some perspective, there are 8 zones and 200 missionaries. President has to organize and attend a conference for ever zone and do an interview for every missionary every transfer, which is each month and a half. He also has random meetings throughout the transfer that he has to organize plus transfers, too, which is a huge responsibility, plus a whole bunch of other stuff that I probably don't know about. It's honestly crazy. I always knew that mission presidents were super busy from when Dad was one, but I never realized exactly how much stuff that they did. I'm super grateful for him. He is a very wise man and a great blessing to all of us serving in the Madrid Mission.