Alex's Mission: 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.