Big Email

President & Sister Bussey 

Hello everyone!
Well, it has been a very interesting week to say the least. I remember that last week my email was super short, but I don´t remember what exactly I talked about. Ha, so I will try to fill you in on a lot of good details from this week to try and make up for it. 

So after p-day, we had a normal Tuesday in the office working on well...office stuff. That night, we went to the train station to pick up all of the zone leaders who would be attending the Mission Leadership council the next day. That night, 8 elders came to our piso to spend the night. Being in the office, we have a lot of extra mattresses for this exact reason. The most I´ve ever seen in our piso was 14 missionaries who were going home plus us 3. 

The next morning, we went off to Concilio; we arrived early and helped get everything set up. We ended up setting up the tables in a big U in the gym to have more of a council like setting. Not going to lie, it felt really cool. I laughed a bit when one of the elders said that he felt like we were in a huge Jedi Council. 

Normally, the office elders help with transportation and setup and then head out, but right as we were about to get started, we realized that they needed someone to translate. So Elder Liza and I stayed to translate while Elder Jäger and Elder Keffer went to the office. Downside of the situation, Elder Liza’s English is pretty decent but not to the point where he could translate very easily. So I ended up translating the entire meeting....10:00-5:00 with an hour lunch break. I downed maybe 6 water bottles, but my throat was still feeling a little hoarse by the end. 

But I really did enjoy being able to attend; it was a very amazing experience. We talked a lot about making sure that we are centered on Christ and that we do all we can to be examples to the other missionaries. A big section was also focused on setting goals as a mission as we progress forward together. It was really cool to see all of the leaders from both the north and the south who used to be from different missions working together and having good open discussions about how we can all improve and get better. I lot of good goals were set, and it was cool to see it all.

Busy!!

Man it's been crazy week!

So the week started out, and we had almost nothing to do. We had a bunch of training meetings at the beginning of the week, and we didn't know when our new companions would get in, so we weren't really able to set up any appointments. One day was super fun. We had a couple meetings that we had to attend through Skype, so we went to the church and brought a pizza that we ordered and ate pizza while watching this training and taking notes. It was pretty relaxed. An even cooler bonus, I learned a lot from the training video. A lot of my goals for this next transfer are on making sure I'm setting a good example for my companion, that we get along super well, and that we have good district unity. 

In the end, our new companions didn't get into the mission until Thursday. My new companion is Elder Hill. He is a super cool guy; he is from Fresno California and played water polo back home. Really cool guy. I'll make sure to send a pic. 

So, the downside was that because nobody got in until Thursday, everything got pushed until the weekend. Because of that, this weekend we all had district meeting, weekly planning, correlation, a bunch of 12 weeks, and all the setup we had to do technology-wise for Elder Hill. Basically, it means we have been inside a lot and doing all kinds of studies. At least on that note, we have been busy. 

Then being district leader and have 10 missionaries means I'm even busier! One thing that missionaries do is ‘weekly calls.’ This is where the missionary talks to his or her district leader, reports on the week and tells him how they are doing. Then the district leader writes a report on that and sends it to the zone leaders. So I need to talk to all of the companionship Saturday night. That was good, but it took literally all night. These past 3 nights I haven't even had time to write in my journal. It's great though. It’s nice to be this busy.

This week, I want to share a message on charity. One thing I have been focusing a lot on these past couple of weeks is really loving my companion and every member of my district. What I've seen from it is that even though we sometimes have disagreements, sometimes we have hard times, but a Christlike love can help us find joy and peace in every situation. A scripture that I really love is Moroni 7:45-47 where charity is described and explained really well. Like it says, without the pure love of Christ in the last days we will be nothing. We need that love, that feeling in our lives, but sometimes it's hard to find it. That's why it's important to follow the advice given in the next verse, number 48. I invite you all to follow it's advice and to pray to have charity more in your lives, so that we all can be more purified and joyful through Christ.

I love you guys, have a great WEEK!

- Elder Bassett