Week 27-Holladay, UT

Zone conference picture with my new companion, Elder Thompson

Another zone conference pic

I cover the Valley View Stake in Holladay now. It was really awesome being able to see Brother and Sister Tennyson and it was sad to see Sister Tennyson leave. It has been a very big shift for me. Rock Springs was an amazing area and Elder Hanks just emailed me and said that another girl I was working with was baptized. It is really cool. In Rock Springs, they should have baptisms for the next four weeks! I can't wait to go back and visit.

Salt Lake is like an entirely different mission. First of all, its kinda crazy covering a whole stake! I don't think that I will be able to get to know the members as well as I did in my last area though. There is some great people here! They absolutely spoil us! Everyone is doing things for us and leaving us gifts and writing things to us. It is great. My new companion is Elder Thompson from Texas. He has only been out three months, so he just barely got done with training. He is an awesome missionary. We can teach really well together. He is in reality training me how to be a missionary in Salt Lake. Each ward has like a 2 block map of their area. On the map, the names of all the member and non members are written. First impressions are critical and with a lot of these people you only get one chance to make it or brake it. All the non members have a set view of the church and almost always it is a negative one. I actually came into this area on the verge of explosion. This past week we were able to set a date for baptism for 4 of the investigators. I am so happy and honored that God has entrusted me with this area. Elder Thompson and i get along really well together and we are able to do a lot each day. I am already starting to love the area.

Having a district is tough. I don't like giving trainings and having more people to worry about. My district is awesome though. There are some great missionaries in my district. The district is on the verge of having a lot of success in a tough area which is really awesome! I'm always tired and my time is getting more and more limited but my joy has been very full! I love participating in Gods work of salvation. I think the most amazing part of missionary work is doing your part and then watching God do His. Then seeing how little you actually do!

I guess a miracle this week is there is a group of skater kids who run around and terrorize people. The missionaries in the area have always hated them. Recently we started talking to them. We had a lesson with them in the Church. We are starting to have BoM readings with them every Thursday. We commit them to invite their friends to the lessons and gave them BoMs. Most of them are non members which is unheard of. We also talk to a group of girls the same age. They said the guys were all gathered around reading the BoM at school one morning. Its just kinda cool to hear about that stuff.

Anyways I love you all and thank you so much for the letters! I wasn't able to reply today but I will the following week!

-Elder Bass

Later Notes: I remember thinking on my way from Rock Springs to Salt Lake that the baptisms and success i would have would significantly decrease when i went to Salt Lake because i thought everyone was Mormon. Little did i know that i would baptize more in a shorter time than in Rock Springs.

I remember being called as a district leader. When i got the call, i had a lot of trouble sleeping that night. I was thinking of all the things that i could do to faithfully fulfill my calling.

Baptism in Rock Springs,Wyoming of a girl I taught