Week 40--Holladay, UT

I got both of these pictures below texted/emailed to me this week from members who were feeding them dinner.:) It was a lucky week. 

Life is good! I love being a missionary! We have a baptism this weekend. His name is Ki. His family is inactive but he likes church! I had a thought come to me about him. Some people are unsure about younger baptisms. I got the impression that with Ki we would be saving generations. It came to me with power and with the Spirit. Ki is really smart and picks up on things very quickly. He has more knowledge and retains more than most of the adults we teach! There was a lot that happened this week but it is very time consuming to explain all the situations. I'm going to talk into my Ipad and see if that speeds up the process.

Thank you for the pictures. I'm excited to move to South Carolina. South Carolina looks like a very nice place. We have had an exciting week. We've been able to teach a lot of people this week. We have a lot of investigators who will hopefully be baptized in the upcoming weeks.

I love the opportunity to train. I am learning so much so fast. Elder Baldry is adjusting fast. We went on splits yesterday for the first time with a couple of priests from the ward. It was the first time that Elder Baldry was by himself as a missionary. He said he had an experience where there was a man trash talking the church and accusing them of crazy things. Haha! I sent him to the drug dealer and I went to a few lesbians. Our visit actually turned out really well. We had to walk in front of their window to get to the door. It was the kitchen window and there were about six people that were in the kitchen. We just kept our head down and walked past. We knocked on the door and they answered. We asked if we could share a message and they said that would be good. We asked if we could share a message right then and there. They said that would be fine too. We sat down on their porch and started to answer some of their questions. Originally it was just two people we were talking to. Eventually everyone who had been in the kitchen came out and started talking to us. We asked them what their beliefs were.One of them was an atheist, another was a Jew, another was a ex Mormon, and the last one was a witch. It was an interesting conversation. They tried to question us about our beliefs, but I sensed that they were sincere to some degree. We talked about a lot of things. And we told them that our job as missionaries was to give people opportunities. We told them that this is something that we've tried and has made huge difference in our life and has made us
happy. We said that if they try, they can experience joy and feel the same way that we feel. We set up a time to teach the first discussion and we will be having dinner with them Thursday. The priest had an exciting experience which he probably won't forget. I couldn't believe that she was actually a practicing witch.

We came into our apartment last night and it smelled like gas. We tried to trace the source of the gas and we found that it was the stove. We called the zone leaders and we left that night and stayed the night at their house. The stove has been around for a long time. The
house is really old. I hope we can still live there.

It is very stressful training someone new. I always forget that he doesn't know about missionary work and how to be a missionary. Sometimes it tests my patience, which is good. I have learned and grown so much in the time that I've spent in Valley View. Sundays are always the most stressful days. We go to many hours of church, but in a way, it is relaxing. One of the principles we teach our investigators is that they can receive revelation through attending church. I have come to know that this principle is true. I know that the sacrament is a saving ordinance and is necessary to our salvation.God talks to me a lot on Sundays. Church is one of the ways that God speaks to us.

Something I was thinking about the other day was about fear. Fear is a feeling that comes when your mind makes assumptions of possible, negative, future consequences from a situation that you are currently in or in which you are reflecting.

 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."         - 2 Timothy 1:7

When you have trust in God you aren't afraid of what happens because if you do your part you know that it's part of his plan and because of God's love you will be taken care of. It doesn't matter what happens because "all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good." (D&C 122:7) and "all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things." (2 Nephi 2:24)

These are some of the things that have happened in the past 24 hours.Sorry if some of the language is sloppy. This whole thing was dictated.I love you and I greatly appreciate your support.

--Elder Bass

Later Notes:
I remember when we got iPads. It really was a good thing the mormon messages that we could share were an amazing resource to the people that we taught. There were some negatives. I feel i didnt know and use the scriptures as much as i should have. It was less convenient to use the scriptures. Overall, i appreciated the experience.