Week 77--Evanston, WY

This week was alright there were many people who were out of town. We ate with a family who lives in Almy for Thanksgiving. It was a little bit of a rougher week. We had an investigator family drop us because the Dad who we are mainly teaching (because he needs the most help) has no time or rather is unwilling to make time. We are refreshing our teaching pool and looking for more people to teach.

I don't have a lot of time to email today sorry.

-Elder Bass

Week 76--Evanston, WY

Sorry its been such a stressful week Mom. Hope things start looking up soon. When baby is sick no one is happy..

Elder Hutchinson and I get along very well. I love being his companion and we have a lot of fun together. He is a stud. We are super happy to start teaching a kid named Sandy. He came to church yesterday and the ward just engulfed him. A family picked him up since his car broke down and the kid who picked him up and Sandy now are good friends. He is reading the Book of Mormon and praying. He is excited about the gospel and we love working with him. 

I am super happy to be a missionary. I was thinking about gratitude this weekend and I wanted to share this thought. I know that all good things come from God. Therefore, every good thing that we receive must be given of God. I also know that by physical nature we are definitely inclined more towards sin and bad things. I think about gifts and I feel a lot more inclined to give good gifts to those that are grateful. I have realized that gratitude is part of being humble. I know that as we humbly and gratefully accept and receive the things of God, he is willing to grant us more gifts and more of his Son's grace. Let us all recognize the good things that we have been given and seek more of those good things that can only be given of God.

Love you all; thanks for the birthday wishes and love!!

-Elder Bass

Monica's Baptism

Birthday package with eyes closed

Snow!!

Week 75--Evanston, WY

My new companion, Elder Hutchinson, and I at transfers

Zone leaders at transfers

Another zone leaders picture

I got a new companion; his name is Elder Hutchinson. He is a great missionary who I really get along with. He's a really fun person and very knowledgeable about the gospel. We work and teach well together. We have seen a lot of improvements in the zone and we are super-excited! He comes from Las Vegas.

We have been teaching Monica for a few weeks and she was scheduled to be baptized a few days ago. She texted us the day before her baptism and the text said, "I can't do the baptism." It gave us a little scare. We asked her, "why not?" She responded, "My ex husband wants to have a word with Justin (the guy that she is dating now). I don't know how he found out where and when with the baptism."  We paused for a second and tried to determine what to do. A few minutes later she texted back with this response before we were going to call her, "You know what, nevermind I can't let satan win." So the baptism happened and really ran pretty smoothly. She is very ready for the ordinance. I think will all can take a stand compelled by faith like Monica every once in a while. We always tell people before they get baptized that Satan is going to work super hard on them to not go to church and to stop doing the little things that build their faith. I am so happy that she saw clearly what was going on behind the scene. And when she exercised her faith, her ex-husband didnt even end up going to the baptism and she had a wonderful experience! I am so happy for her!

We have been teaching this man named Bruce. He has been attending church for over 20 years and has a family that are active members. He lives on a ranch out in Almy which is the more rural part of our area. Elder Smith and I and Elder Smith's companion before Elder Wilson, were able to help Bruce start reading the Book of Mormon because he had never read the Book of Mormon before. Anyways the last lesson Elder Christensen and I had together was with Bruce. The lesson before we committed him to fast about the Book of Mormon. We stopped by a few days later and he had people over and said that it wouldn't be a good night. We quickly asked him how fasting went and he said that he was "none the wiser" for it. We stopped by Monday night and we talked to him a little bit. He opened up about how before we had gotten there, he sat down and read the BoM for like three hours. While he was reading he had a verse hit him that changed his perspective on everything that he was reading. He said that he had been focused on the nitty-gritty logistics and timeline throughout history and he had a thought hit him that he needed to focus on the doctrine instead. I think that he will be baptized very soon. It would be great to see that because I have worked with him the entire time that i have been here.

We also fasted yesterday that we could help more people come unto Christ through baptism. After church, we finally met with a high schooler named Sandy. He is an awesome kid and a less-active kid invited him to meet with us. We taught him at the church and he expressed interest in being baptized. So fasting once again works!!!

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Bass

Week 74--Evanston, WY

I love that Alex's mission presidents wife takes individual pictures of them every 6 months or so. It is great to have these!

This week was pretty sweet. I am staying in WY another transfer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy! Evanston I think has been my favorite area. Elder Christensen is leaving. He was one of my harder companions. I hope he does well in his new area. I did grow to understand him a lot better after a few weeks of open communication. He really is a good guy and he is trying to be a good missionary. One of the big things he taught me was how to be more consecrated. That helped me a lot. I can say with confidence that Elder Christensen is a consecrated missionary. I do love the guy and I hope that he finds happiness and success in his next area.

We have a baptism this weekend for which i am very excited. Her name is Monica. She is currently trying to find somewhere else to live because the lady that she is staying with temporarily (because of her divorce) hates the church and doesn't want her to live there. I am so impressed by Monica's faith. I know that she will be taken care of. We are continuing to work with a lot of the youth. 

I went on exchanges with Elder Fallin this week. He is a good guy. We got along really well and everything kind of fell into place that night. We were able to teach and find a new investigator. We were able to get in contact with some people that he had been trying to for a while. We didn't know what we were going to do at one point during the exchange so we decided to pray. I felt like we should go to Maverick and talk to someone in there. We did and we talked to this guy that wasn't really interested. It felt good to accomplish God's will. Whenever you don't know what to do, say a quick prayer and see if God has any ideas he's willing to share. I find that the more we seek and follow his counsel on important things the better we feel and we receive a greater portion of the spirit. It feels good to do Gods will.

Love you all; have a wonderful week!

-Elder Bass

Wyoming zone mission tour

Before the formal pic

Another Wyoming zone picture (Alex in back middle)

Week 73--Evanston, WY

Things were pretty good this week. During the middle of the week, Elder Christensen and I sat down and talked about things. We both thought the work could be going better and the area had a lot of potential but we are never quite reaching it. We talked about things we could do to gain God's trust. We came up with a plan and the next lesson we went to was with a guy named Brett. We taught him once and we weren't sure how interested he was. We followed up with him and he said that he read the chapter and felt peace so he decided to keep reading it. I think he said he was in 2 Nephi. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted the invitation. He came to church for the first time yesterday and seemed to have a really good experience. He said he loved,"people coming together and sharing their feeling together." He mentioned how he was used to a world where everyone fended for themselves. He mentioned how it was nice to feel somewhat unified and apart of something.

Halloween was fun. After 6pm we went and hung out with other missionaries. We played some basketball and a few group games. 

I had a wonderful time fasting this week. I was able to receive a lot of personal strength. Something that really helped me was me making a conscious choice in my mind to choose to believe that fasting works. I said quite a few prayers about my purpose and all in all it was just an uplifting experience. I know that fasting is something that is of God. I know that it actually works and brings happiness and peace in a powerful way! 

Love you all take care

-Elder Bass