Week 72--Evanston, WY

It's been a pretty awesome week. I realized this past week that one of the deepest desires of my mission was fulfilled. I remember thinking in high school back home, "Man, when I'm on my mission, if there was some way I could learn of the youth's friends that are prepared and build a good relationship with them, it would be more successful than any other place that I could look." I remember some of the experiences that I have had with my friends. I remember how dumb I was for not sharing the gospel and how prepared they were at some points. I know that every high schooler has a friend that they are pretty close to that they could share the gospel with. I would just think how cool it would be if, as a missionary, I could somehow get all the youth excited about it and willing to share. It was never a conscious thought that this was one of my deepest desires on my mission, but it is. I am not sure why it is, it seems kind of weird or whatever but it is! 

Anyways, after teaching seminary we obtained almost 100 youth referrals, the past few weeks we have been contacting the youth fellowshippers and encouraging them to invite their friends. It has worked with crazy amounts of success. Almost all of them say yes to invitations their friends extend. We met with one of the first people yesterday and true to what I had thought he is super prepared and open. Youth are bearing their testimonies of missionary work in seminary and school and everyone is getting excited. They love having us come over and everyone is sharing the gospel! Things are just turning out so good! We just put in a little effort and God just magnifies our efforts 100-fold to accomplish his purposes. It was just a crazy realization the other day that one of my deepest missionary desires has been and is continuing to be fulfilled. I love the youth and going over and talking to them.

A cool miracle that happened this week. I wasn't sure how God would take it so I thought I would test it out. I recently have been praying that we would find investigators that were begging to be baptized. (When I pray for investigators who are prepared to be baptized, we find them and then we always seem to make a few mistakes and can't get them quite there.) We received a call this week of a lady named Monica who wanted to meet with us, change her life, and be baptized. We met her on friday she came to church on sunday and is planning to get baptized the 14th of November! It is a wonderful birthday present from God!

I don't really know I have anything that I want for my birthday... just fast so I can find more people who realize they want to be baptized.

-Elder Bass

Later Notes:

I thought it was like the worst thing ever when i was with Elder Christensen. He later became a great friend. He was perhaps one of the few missionaries that helped me understand what it felt like to be my companion. He helped me understand what Elder Baldry felt. I was always so focused on the rules and on diligence. However things changed with Elder Baldry where i started focusing more on others. Elder Christensen was very much focused on the rules and making sure i followed all of them. I learned so much from being on the other side.

There's trees!(responding to Jarem's pics). This is my view everyday!

Elder Christensen's Birthday

Yes, I bought the hat! :)

My signature meal: namely elk and eggs

Week 71--Evanston, WY

This week has been good! Elder Christensen's birthday is today. The other Elders in the apartment and I bought him a cake and bought him a little Frozen doll. He loves Frozen. He loves Motab and musicals and singing and anything to do with the arts. He doesn't care about too many other things. I have definitely over my mission felt an increase in love for other people. I have prayed many nights for it. Now, someone suggested that I pray for ways I can show that love. 

I went on exchanges this week with a missionary from Oklahoma. His name is Elder Moe. He has been on his mission for like 9 weeks. We started the exchange with a prayer and we then said about 30 more prayers the rest of the night. Elder Moe LOVES to pray. We set a goal in the beginning of the exchange and said that we would find 3 new investigators. We would go somewhere and then pray to find out where we were going next and we did that the entire night. We also found 3 new investigators which was awesome. There was one guy who walked in the door while we were teaching, we got up and introduced ourselves. He shook our hands and then gave us the peace sign and went in another room. We continued teaching one of the new investigators. At the end, we asked them if they had a Book of Mormon. They said no. We said we were going to grab one from the car. Chris walks in as we say that and he says grab 2! He had been listening the whole time. We gave him a chapter to read and invited him and them to pray about it. It was a cool experience. As a result of the exchange I find myself praying a lot more and seeking God's will instead of just doing what my routine is. It was just funny how I was prideful and wasn't expecting to really learn too much from him, and I learned a lot!

Another cool thing that happened was we said a prayer as to what places to visit and then a house came to mind that I had never before seen and the location. We went there and they invited us in and they are now investigators. I had the thought come to me where I wondered how many more blessings are available to those who simply ask for what they need and desire righteously.

-Elder Bass

Week 70--Evanston, WY

With the Bros before we were split up

At transfers with my buddies

In the apartment

These are some photos we use to motivate the zone! One of the missionaries made the first one. The hashtags are on our apartment. We use these as wallpapers

Elder Christensen and I get along fairly well. We have to work through some things. So far he has been one of my harder companions. He is a great motivation to be a good missionary which is a huge blessing! All of my companions have had that and I am so blessed because of it. As I try to love him and pray for it, God blesses me with his grace. Looking back on my mission thus far, I realized this week that I have had an increase of my love for my fellowmen. It was happy realization and a generous blessing from the Almighty! Those were some great insights about love in your email mom! Thanks! I think that it is so true!

We had a pretty cool lesson this week!The people we taught are named Charles and Danielle. They are nice and always let us in if they are there. I've really tried to focus on listening lately. I swear the longer I've been out the more I realize that missionary work is all about listening. Anyways, we were teaching them and they just weren't understanding the need for any of the commandments. They said they were looking for a church. They used to go to this other one but then they moved to Evanston. I felt like I should ask the question,"What motivated you to go to the other church?" In a nutshell, she said she just feels good when she goes. She talked about it for a little bit. She stopped and nothing was coming to my mind. She started talking again and said some of the same things and she briefly mentioned healing. I paused for a second and I was about to ask another question, then this questioned popped into my head. I responded, "You talked about how you needed healing, healing from what?" It felt pretty uncomfortable to say. She then opened up to us about a lot of stuff and talked about how she carried around guilt because of her mistakes. I explained that a remission of sins takes that feeling away and that she doesn't have to cover it up or hide from it. Since, she has been a bit more motivated!

Today in my studies I thought about Mosiah 3:19. I thought about yielding to the enticings of the Holy Spirit. I realized that the Spirit only prompts us to repent, do good, and live the gospel. The natural man prompts you to do wrong. When we follow the Spirit not only do we put off the natural man by not doing things that are bad and replacing them with things that are good, but we live Christ's gospel which gives us access to the Atonement which changes our nature to become a saint! Truly we are "sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost"! I will continue to resolve to clean up my life and follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost so that I can truly receive the Holy Ghost and "be purified even as he is pure." The gospel is soo sick!!!

-Elder Bass

Week 69--Evanston, WY

It has been a wonderful week for me with General Conference and the sweet spirit that accompanies it. We were able to watch conference with someone new each session. We watched conference with an investigator, recent converts, and less-actives. Each session we had a good experience. My questions I take to general conference are always specifically answered which bears witness to the divinity of their authority. That was a pretty spiritual experience.

We had a couple of really good experiences with some of our investigators this week. We taught a lady named Jennifer who receives her answers to prayers in dreams. She said that she felt like the theme of the dream until the night before the lesson had been focused around learning more and continuing to put effort into things and study. The dream she had the night before the lesson she said she couldn't understand. She described a large and capacious building she was stuck in and she was trying to get out because she didn't like it in there. She said that there was a lion guarding the door and she took the lion to represent fear. After a spiritual lesson, we shared a scripture in 1 timothy that talks about fear is not a feeling from God that the feelings that God gives us are uplifting, loving, and inspiring. She is now working toward a baptismal date. I have found significantly less enjoyment teaching lessons, and I have found significantly greater joy in teaching people. I love the moments when the people we teach recognize answers they received from prayer, when they understand a true principle, or receive the blessings from living that true principle and desire more principles to apply and understand. I love the promptings of the spirit that lead and guide the people we teach if we are humble.

My fingers are tired:( Love you all take care!

-Elder Bass