Week 3-Rock Springs, WY

I'm running short on time so I will only tell you about some of my experiences! I am serving in Rock Springs, Wyoming! It's a dry barren wasteland. But its AWESOME! 

My trainer is a guy from Nashville, Elder Clark! We get along great! And he's an awesome guy. He's taught me a lot and continues to do so.  

A lot of what we do is work with part member families, visit inactives and less actives, and try to find and teach people! Umm lets see. My first day we had a few cool experiences. We committed someone to baptism in a ghetto apartment. In the same apartment a few weeks earlier some guys on drugs beheaded someone in the very apartment we are teaching! 

Also the same day, we stopped by someone's house who are inactive. Apparently that day their daughter partially fell into a fryer at work. Ouch! She said that we were meant to stop by there and she was very emotional. Her mom asked us to give her a blessing since the father was inactive and stuff. So that was Great! 

There's been a few more but I still need to email President Eberhardt! Hopefully everything's going well with you guys!

-Elder Bass

Later Notes: I remember that my first lesson was with a girl named Heather. She would play a major role in my first area. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. Elder Clark had some cards that we would use that was laminated cut outs of each part of the plan of salvation.

My transition from MTC teaching to actual teaching was quite natural. I immediately started to teach 50% of the lessons. 

I remember many times being super exhilarated and saying," I love being a missionary; this is so exciting."

My first few days we worked diligently with MLS lists and would block off large portions of time to do so. Usually in the afternoon or morning.

Afternoons there was always almost no one to see and Elder Clark and i would get very tired. It would always be hard to make it to dinner.

Alex's study area

New apartment in Rock Springs

Week 2-Arrival in the Salt Lake City-East Mission

Because Alex missed his p-day when transferring from the MTC to his mission, his mission mom (Sister Eberhardt) sent us an email with this message and picture.

"Welcome to the Utah Salt Lake City East Mission! We wanted you to know that your missionary arrived safely.  We assure you that we will love them and take care of them.  Attached is a photo of their arrival."

Later Notes:

I remember going to the mission office on 1300E and 3487S in Salt Lake City. They had all of the incoming missionaries sit on the stage to bear their testimonies to all the companionship who attended transfers (1/3 of the mission). I remember i got up and bore my testimony. I cracked a joke about our mission quote: "This is the Place; Now is the Time"

Some temple pictures from the MTC:

Week 1-The MTC

The MTC has been SOOO amazing! I love every aspect of it: the food, what's taught, the people here, and etc etc etc! I love everybody in my district and we've grown really close together in such a short amount of time. Its hard to say that there's been miracles in other people because we haven't been teaching real investigators but I have definitely seen miracles in my district including myself. Jesus is the Christ. God is our loving heavenly father. The gospel of Jesus Christ can help everyone in every aspect of their lives no matter where they stand. These things I have come to know with more surety than ever before. The miracles I have seen have been how I've become more converted to the gospel and focused on whats really important. The MTC is sacred. The spirit fills its building and halls at all times. Some of the ways God has shown his love for me is by leading me and guiding me through revelation (direct, pure and simple), giving me comfort in times of uncertainty, and providing me grace that I might become the missionary the people need and the Lord desires me to be. Bottom line, I have learned so much here and I am trying to figure out a way to keep that up with all of it once I enter into the mission field.

Alright now for some more personal stuff! My first companion's name is Elder Freebairn. He is a native from Hawaii although his genealogy traces back to most the Pacific Islands. He's a really good guy and we get along really well. He has such a simple and powerful testimony. As we work together more and get to know each other better, our teachers say that we've become really powerful teachers. We recently were chosen to be zone leaders of our respective area which has been a great blessing. New missionaries are coming tonight, so Elder Freebairn and I will have the opportunity of welcoming and showing the new guys around. We share a room and I don't know, its all really been a blast. I've learned so much. Im convinced we have the best teachers in the MTC! One of the activities that we do is our teachers act like an investigator they taught on their mission and we in companionships teach them. They are supposed to act exactly as the investigators they taught do. We've already committed "chris" to baptism which has been a great teaching experience! My companion and I have had minimal problems but it has been a good learning experience. Elder Ballard talked to us last night and I felt like he was speaking directly to me! The most changing experience that I've had is an interview that I had with a member of the branch president. He told me exactly what I needed to hear. I have to go. Time is short. I love all you guys!

-Elder Bass

Later notes: The MTC kind of peaked for me. I vividly remember looking up at the top bunk from the bottom bunk when we had laid down for bed. I remember thinking two years is a long time. I remember wondering what experiences could possibly await. 

I remember after we had finished talking for the night and had been laying in bed for a little bit (Elder Freebairn and I had the room to ourselves), he said, "is it alright if i fart im pretty congested" He then proceeded to give off a few loud farts. 

The experience with Chris was pretty fake looking back. The lesson that we invited him he had not been receptive at all and his concerns werent really dissolved at all. It was our last lesson with him so out of pity i assume he just said yes when we invited him.

I remember i ate a lot the twelve days that i was in the mtc. By the end, i was ten pounds heavier. I remember getting on a scale and being 140lbs.

I remember that God gave me a vision of myself in the mission field in my companion in the MTC. Elder Freebairn emanated love and understanding and i seemed to immediately recognized thats something that i severely lacked in. 

I remember that our zone had a squabble. We were assigned to teach a lesson on Alma 32. Elder Freebairn and i were planning it and Elder Alvarado came in and tried to reason and take control a little bit. I remember everyone was frustrated in the zone and we were all divided. Some wanted to teach alma 32 using a jack and beanstalk parable invented by one of the sisters and the other half of the group wanted to have an in-depth lesson on the symbolism of the tree of life. It resulted in contention and arguing and Elder Williams curled up in a ball because of stress. We took a walk and sung disney  and lion king songs to calm him down. I realize now that i didnt listen to the other side really at all and more loving and would have listened there probably wouldnt really have been any problems.

We had frequent interviews with each of the members of the branch presidency. One of the interviews i was chastized for being prideful. He admonished me to forget about trying to impress and please others with my knowledge and told me to focus on charity.

Elder Bass and Elder Freebairn

Elder Freebairn

Saying Goodbye

The last day before Alex went into the MTC, we (his parents) flew out with him to Salt Lake to spend his last day together.  We shopped for last minute mission stuff, got him a haircut, dined at all our favorite Utah places, watched Ephraim's Rescue, and visited BYU.

Later Notes: I remember feeling a strong desire to be the best missionary ever.

I remember I was in tears after watching Ephriams rescue. I was so amazed at the sacrifices of the pioneers and i believe the spirit confirmed to me the reality of the priesthood power and healings.