Week 54--Holladay, UT

Only have about ten minutes to write this. We had a meeting with president this past week. He called because he wanted to meet with me. Elder Baldry has still been acting kind of weird. He was joking around one morning about going home relentlessly. I asked why he always joked about it and if he was serious about it. That opened up a long conversation. We talked about a lot of stuff. Eventually, I realized and he told me that he was troubled because he had something big that he had never confessed of before his mission. He said that the stake president came up to him and asked him the direct question that was what he had done and because he was afraid he lied.  He loves the area and doesn't want to go home. I testified to him the importance of complete repentance by forsaking and also confessing. I told him all you can do is your part. Once you have repented you can just leave it into the Lord's hands. I shared my conviction that president was inspired and would be guided by God to do what was the very best for him. Since we were already meeting with him I asked him if he would tell president about it privately. He said he would. At that moment, I realized why I had been here with him another transfer. He has been so much better ever since he told president. It took 4 months to build a relationship of trust with him. I know that God is so very aware of each of his children, no matter who they are or where they came from or their current circumstances or status' in life.
-Elder Bass

Week 53--Holladay, UT

Putting up the "shakas". Apparently that's what they call the hang loose sign in Australia and Hawaii

This week has been good! and yes my life is awesome Uncle Aaron!!!!! Thanks for the package; it was very refreshing to be reminded of my loving family. Thank you so much for your support and the individual experiences I've had with each of you.

That actually kind of takes me to the things that I wanted to share this week. Elder Baldry has been struggling a little bit. For awhile I didn't really understand why. I realized that with me I thought
subconsciously that every one had the same strengths and weaknesses that I did. There was a talk given in sacrament meeting a few Sundays ago that has really stuck with me. She is a professor of history at a college in Utah. She talked about the concept of multi-perspectivity. What it means is that as far as historical figures go, the more witnesses or accounts you have of one person the more accurate the picture is of that person. If you only can see a small part of their life and you only have an account of someone who hated that person it's going to be very different then what the person was actually like. Anyways, I only have the perspective of Elder Baldry on his mission and how he is when I see him. There's a lot more to his story. He was inactive for most of his life. His Dad was excommunicated and is anti. Literally all he did when he was in Australia is surf and play rugby. His view of life and the rules and everything else is different from mine. I've lived with him for four months now which is a long time to spend 24/7 with the same dude. We've had to work out some things and come to agreements to make things work. The area has slowed down a lot because my focus is much more in him and on the district than anything else.

One of the days this week, I tried really hard to show him that I cared because I could tell something was wrong. He got up really late one morning and I thought about kind of chastising him and getting
irritated with him but instead I had a thought to wait til comp study to talk to him. He eventually got out of bed and got ready. When it was time for comp study, I asked if everything was alright. I told him that things seemed like something was wrong. I told him that I loved him and wanted him to be happy and that if he needed to talk I was here. Then I we continued comp study like normal. Later that night, he talked about leaving and going home a lot. He doesn't think that he can finish his mission. He said he didn't feel like he was doing any good here. We stayed up very late Saturday night talking about all this stuff. It is extremely hard to get people to open up sometimes. I'm very grateful God helped me. I think he is doing a little better. I am very grateful for this wonderful
opportunity to love him by showing kind gestures and to build his faith in himself and in the Savior!

-Elder Bass

Later notes:
Elder Baldry was an amazing companion for me. In order to really connect with him and help him, I needed to love him and i also needed to show him that i loved the work and i loved the gospel and i loved the people i was working with. It really helped me. One of the profound experience that changed my mission was Elder Baldry's birthday. I called him lazy i think. I was just so sick of me doing most of the work. I thought that he needed to do more of the work. He was being lazy and not helping me so i just decided to turn 360 and play devil's advocate. I was extremely sarcastic. I said everything i could think of that a lazy disobedient missionary would say and do. We went out for a little bit, but we ended up going home and i said i was going to take a nap. I did. When i woke up, Elder Baldry's stuff was packed up. I think he had gone to play basketball at the church. I apologized to him and after that i really tried hard to be his friend and help him. He is one of my good friends now.

Week 52--Holladay, UT

In front of our house

Elder Baldry with me making copies in the background

Wow a lot has happened! I am happy and content with life. I am try to more earnestly rely on God. I am trying to help and to lift and encourage those around me! I love the gospel. Recently we met a lady named Claire. We saw her in one of our apartment complexes and started talking to her! She said that she was a Christian missionary in Hong Kong! We gave her our number and said if she ever needed anything to call us! Fast forward to Saturday and we received a call from her. She was crying and she said that her husband and her got in a big fight and the neighbors called the police. Because of this incident their kids had to stay with someone else. They recently moved in and didn't trust the people in the apartment so they called us and asked for a bishop. We got in contact with one of the bishops and he came over. He said when he picked up the kids for 24 hours that they told him that they were open to religion and ready to make changes in their life! They are a family of 4. I am very excited to work with them!

Also in one of our wealthier neighborhoods, there is a recently married couple who is interested in learning the Gospel. We will meet with both of them this week.

We met with Martha this week and set a tentative baptismal date for her. She is very lonely and she would greatly benefit from all of the blessing that the restored Gospel has to offer. She is slowly coming to see the marvelous light of the gospel!

I love God. I love His work. It is very exciting for me to do it everyday! I love to find the miracles and opportunities God makes available to us each and every day!

I love you all!!!

-Elder Bass