Changes

Hey everyone.

So it's only been a couple of days and normally that would mean that not a lot has happened, but it's actually been a pretty busy weekend. So I'll start where I left off last Thursday afternoon.

So that night we received our new companion. His name is Elder Liza, and he comes from the office in the south. He came up with Elder Hernandez who is one of the AP’s from the south. They are both really great guys and missionaries. I'm looking forward to working with them both.

A little more info on Elder Liza. He has been on the mission for about 19 months, and he has been serving in the office for the past 4-5. He is from Peru but has spent most of his life here in Spain in a city close to Pamplona which is part of the Barcelona mission. He is a really great guy and a hard worker. I'm really excited to be with and learn from him as we are companions in this transition. I'm also really loving only talking in Spanish with him. It helps me a lot with my Spanish, which isn't the best, and he helps me out a lot.

So that Thursday night we stayed up a little late preparing a contact list to have ready for President Bussey for when he came into the mission to have a way to get in contact all of the missionaries whenever he needed. The next Friday morning, the Busseys came!

The Packs, the office Elders, and the AP's all went to pick them up that morning from the airport. It was super exciting to welcome them off the plane and say hi to them. After that, we went over to the office so the Packs could brief the Busseys on a few things. So we were there working while the Packs, and the Busseys were talking, and then the Packs came out and said "OK time to go; this is goodbye".

It was pretty abrupt, and not gonna lie, it was pretty hard. We were all getting pretty emotional, and it was rough. I know realistically that we will see them again some day, but it felt for a bit like we were saying goodbye forever. Hermana Pack started to cry, and I was having a hard time holding it back. I'm so grateful for the Packs and all that they have done for me and the mission. 

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 family!!!

This past week has been very good. We are currently getting ready for transfers and the merge of the missions, and it's keeping us ocupado. President was planning on finishing transfers last Thursday, so I could get started on buying the tickets, but he hasn't been able to yet. So it looks like I will get them on Tuesday, and then I'll be able to get started. 

Our investigators are doing pretty well. Jose will be baptized this Saturday if all goes according to plan. He is a super great kid and is really excited to be baptized. He will be baptized the same day as Liz, an investigator of the hermanas who is also 8. I love hearing the simple testimonies of little kids. They are so accepting, and it's awesome to see how sweet they can be to their family, and how excited they get when they are learning more. 

We are getting closer and closer to the Packs going home. We are going to be missing them a bunch. It's really weird to think about a mission without the Packs. This past week we went to their house to have interviews and at the same time we had a last dinner before they left their house. It was a lot of fun and a great experience. Well, I got to go. Have a great week everyone!

- Elder Bassett 

El fin viene ya

Hola mis amigos queridos!!!!

Greetings from Madrid Spain! Life here is going very well, and I'm keeping very busy. This past week we had a lot of cool experiences. As always, I'll go about it in sections.

One big thing that happened is that we had the last zone conferences of the Packs. That was very emotional; I even started to tear up a bit at one point. It's going to be very sad to say goodbye to the Packs. Of course, we are excited to welcome the Busseys, but the Packs are going to be very missed. This past conference we talked about the importance of obedience and being the best missionaries that we can be. It really impacted me. One part I really liked was Hermana Pack’s section on our purpose. She talked about the 2 action words of the purpose, "invite” and “help". It was a good conference; it left me with a lot of renewed desires to be a better missionary.

We also had an intercambio with the zone leaders. We ended up going to their area, which is called Torrejon. That was a really good intercambio. We ended up getting pretty busy, but we were able to find a little bit of time to talk to people. We went to another area for a baptism, which was really cool. While I was there, I started talking to this random girl. It turns out she is from Chicago and is here for an exchange program. That was just a funny little thing, finding a 20-year-old girl from Chicago in Alcalá, Spain. Then again, I guess it's about as weird as finding a 20-year-old guy from California there, too.

I had one really cool conversation this past week that comes to my mind. We were on our way to Torrejón to start our intercambios; while we were on the train, I sat down next to a guy who looked really tired. So I started to talk to him, and he is a super cool guy. He moved here about 8 years ago from Venezuela. He works in a little supermarket; he usually does about 11 hours a day which explained a bit why he was so exhausted. We talked a bit about his country and all of the hard stuff that was going on there right now. 

One thing I've noticed, and that I mentioned to this man, is that despite all of the trials and difficulties that many people in South America and his country face, as a people they have a very powerful and strong faith. I think in part it's due to some of those trials. This man and others I've met are just some of the most humble and faithful people you will ever find. 

Our investigators are doing pretty well. They are all moving at their own paces, but they are progressing pretty well. We currently have 3 people on fecha. 1 for the 23rd and 2 for the 14th. The 1 on the 23rd is an 8-year-old boy named Jose who is part of a less active family that has started coming back to church He is very prepared and right now his only obstacle would be his church attendance. His family lives a little far away, and they don't have enough money to buy a bus pass. So, we are currently working on organizing rides from the other members so that they can get to church.

The other 2 are named Noemi and Daniela. I don't remember if I mentioned them last time, but Noemi is the mother and Daniela is her young daughter. Noemi' s husband was in an accident a while back and has been in the hospital. We have been meeting with them and helping them get through it. They are doing a lot better now. We have started to teach them about the gospel, and they are really seeming to enjoy it. Daniela is being a really great example for her mom and is starting to read a lot in The Book of Mormon. She even looked up and watched the restoration video on her own free time.

Well fam, sorry, but I have to go. I hope you have a great one and that you enjoy your week, wish me luck for transfers! I start working on them this next week.  It’s a little early for that, but we are preparing to merge the two missions.

- Elder Bassett 

Hello family 

Man, it's been a pretty crazy week. So, we have been keeping very busy this past week, and we have had little time for everything. But it's been good to be this busy. The investigators are doing well, and we are currently working on finding more, so that when the current ones are baptized, we don't find ourselves with nothing to do.

One of our investigators, Maria was going to be baptized next week, but last minute, she told us she didn't want to next Saturday.....since her sister is going to be out of town. Instead, she now wants to be baptized this Saturday so her sister can be there. Ha! So she has her interview tomorrow, and if she she’s prepared, then she will be baptized this Saturday. As of right now, she really wants to be baptized this Saturday, and we are just making sure that she is completely 100% ready. Better to wait if we have to, to make sure that she is ready. 

So other big news, we haven't been able to say anything up until now, but there are big changes going down in Spain. We received news about our new mission president. His name is President Bussey! I'm excited to meet him when he comes, but I will be sad to say bye to President Pack. He has been such an incredible president, and he has helped me so much. I will be sad to see him go.

The other big change is that there is mission consolidation happening in Spain. Starting in July I believe, there will only be 2 missions in Spain, Barcelona and Madrid. Malaga will be combing with us. It kind of caught us by surprise, but our president explained to us that it is very normal. It's actually happening in a lot of other missions around the world. It’s going to be interesting to see how it all works out. Who knows? I could be serving in the Straits of Gibraltar or in Seville.

Well, I'm sorry guys, but I got Prisa and need to go. I'll see you all next time!

- Elder Bassett 

Hey guys!

It's been a pretty good week here in La Laguna. So we don't have a lot of time to write today, so I gotta be quick, but I do have some cool experiences to share. So first thing that happened at the beginning of the week that was super cool was that we had a cita with an investigator named Alejandro. He is trying to give up smoking right now and has been having a hard time recently, so we taught him about priesthood blessings and asked if he wanted one. He said yes, and so we gave him one. Afterwards, he couldn't stop smiling, and he described to us how he felt a warm feeling traveling through his whole body that started from our hands. That was a really cool experience. 

We have also been trying to knock on doors recently to see if we can find people that way. We spent one day just touching doors. Unfortunately, nothing came of it, but while we were doing it, this pregnant woman and her daughter got stuck in a ditch on the side of the road. So Elder Johnson and I went and helped push her car out. That was pretty cool; she was super grateful, and it was a cool thing to go in the journal and memories. 

We also had stake conference here in the islands. Because it's an island, it had to be done over a broadcast system. President and Hermana Pack spoke in it. Their talks were centered on the restoration; I wanted to share with you guys what I learned while I was there. 

President spoke about Joseph Smith's experience in the sacred grove and the moment when Satan stopped his tongue and held him back from speaking. He went on to talk about how that is one of Satan's greatest powers, to stop us from speaking. We have our testimonies and our experiences, and we need to share them- any impression not to share comes from Satan.

Hermana Pack then spoke about how the message of the Spirit that we need to share is the restoration. A message that God is our loving Heavenly Father, and He sent Jesus Christ to establish a church and to help each and everyone of us overcome our sins through the atonement. Then with time, that church was lost, and the world fell in a state of confusion and darkness, but the church has been restored. The evidence of that restoration is The Bookof Mormon. We can each read it for ourselves and and pray to God to know that it is true, and He will answer us. I testify of this with every fiber of my being. I love you all, till next week.

- Elder Bassett