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