Week 94--Murray, UT

Hey! Life is great! Brittany was baptized this past week and it was
such a sweet experience. The last song was "Families can be together
forever". When we were singing that at the end of the service, all
four of them were holding their hands and crying. Things don't get
much better than that on a mission.

We are excited about Trent getting baptized tomorrow. He decided not
to do it in the Jordanelle Lake because it was too cold. Haha. There is
still ice on a lot of it so it was a pretty good decision.

I have thought a lot about the atonement of Jesus Christ. I know it
happened. It can be very real for each of us if we use it!

Week 93--Murray, UT

This week....hmmm.....

I went to a Christians United Choir performance this week. This is a group that represents a number of different Christian churches. One of their goals is to promote friendly relations between all religions through the praising of our Savior. They get together every Easter season to perform their program, “Jesus is the Christ”. It was really good. There were pictures of Christ up everywhere. I remember looking at one during the performance and thinking the words, “Learn of me". We have a book called "Jesus the Christ" written by James E. Talmage. It is a very deep and insightful book, close to 800 pages. This one of the books in the approved missionary library. I have avoided it most of my mission, but I decided to go for it after the concert and the thoughts I had. So far, so good!

We started teaching this lady named Raquel. She is 23 and living with her boyfriend and they have a few kids. Their lives are kinda broken up and there is a few drug problems. We are trying to help them piece things back together. So far they are keeping commitments and striving to follow the gospel, so I am very happy and hopeful for them.

I am staying with my companion for one more transfer so another 6 weeks. I'm pretty excited; he's a great kid. Here's a picture of him and then us during one of our study sessions in the mornings!

Love y’all!

Later Notes: One of the things i tried to do in my areas was get to know everyone and know people at each residence. Get to the point where I had established a presence in the community there. I feel like by the end i really had accomplished that goal. 

Week 92--Murray, UT

This week has been pretty sick. After a whole transfer of going out of our comfort zone and working our butts off, we are seeing some fruit!

Trent, a person who has been working with the missionaries for a year now, set a date this week! We watched Joseph Smith the prophet of the restoration with him. He picked a date. He said "I want to be baptized the 29th". We thought he was going to say the 29th of September or something. Haha! Then he clarified by saying the 29th of March! He wants to do it in a lake. Hopefully we can find a semi warm lake for him. We just have to get it cleared through a few people but we should be good.

We also picked up a new investigator named Brittany. She recently moved back from Chicago. We went over and asked her where she stood with everything. She said, "I believe it all." We asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she responded, "yeah." She is planning for the 26th of March. 

We also were able to pick up another investigator. Her name is Raquel. This was pretty cool. We met her a few days ago. While I was thinking about her I felt like I should bring up something that she had done. Anyways, when I saw her again, I said, “Thank you for her not going a little ways off to smoke." She then opened up and we started to talk to her and get to know her a lot better. We shared a Mormon message and opened up a discussion about spiritual experiences. She shared an experience of how she came to know that the God was real. She talked about the feeling she felt when she came to that realization. We told her about the things we teach and invited her to look for those same feelings as she listened to the things that we said in the first discussion. We are planning on seeing her this Tuesday.

I am very grateful for the opportunities and experiences that I have had this transfer. They have made me grow and stretch a lot. I know that there is no growth in the comfort zone. I know that God is real and that his son Jesus Christ lives and the power of his atoning sacrifice is available to "all men if it so be that they repent and come unto him." (1Nephi10)

Love yall!

Week 91--Murray, UT

Life is good. Murray is good. I don't think I'm getting trunky. The bike is working good and locked up most of the time. My companion is good and is helping me out a lot. I'm excited to use my bike to be biking around Provo at BYU.

Our teaching pool is alright. We were supposed to have a baptism this weekend but things come up, like always. We are taking some people to temple square this coming Tuesday. We'll see if it works out! We are teaching people who are on drugs and recently returned from prison or jail. I get home June 14th. 99days left!

Love you!

-Elder Bass

Later notes: Im not sure the exact time that it happened but i started keeping a little notebook of all the things that i learned and some of the inspiration i received. 

Week 90--Murray, UT

This week was good. I went on exchange with some elders this week. We found a lot of potential investigators on exchanges and a few investigators. 

We knocked on this one door when I was on exchanges with Elder Leaaetoa.  He is a Tongan elder who goes home this transfer so I’m just trying to keep him going. Anyways, the only information we had was it was a new move-in. We initiated small conversation with the lady and we started talking for like 2 minutes. Elder Leaaetoa pipes up and tells this story just out of the blue. It wasn’t related to the conversation at all. He starts and 10 minutes later he is still telling the story. The lady's sister came out and said, “Hey, I need you to do something for me”, in an effort to get her away from the conversation. Surprisingly, she told her sister that she wanted him to finish the story. He speaks for another 5 min. The story was about this guy who originally rejected the missionaries but eventually accepted them. It got very spiritual toward the end of the story when the guy in the story reconciles with God. I felt the spirit and I knew that she did. They said that we could come back and teach their family. I walked away from the door humbled.

Another story that was pretty funny happened. Ask me about a drunk guy named Caleb when I get home. I know that I will remember.

Another cool story. An Armenian guy named Hyke moved here a few years ago. He told us about an experience that he had where he has recently been praying for more direction in his life. He said he’s prayed twice and after his prayer each time he walked outside to take a smoke. Both times, he saw missionaries passing by. He took that as a sign. He agreed to meet with us. The other guy that I was on exchanges with at the time served in this area last year. He said he remembered talking to that guy and he was the furthest thing from interested. 

Love ya’ll bye

P.S. As far as the career goes, I have been informed through the spirit that I will be a small pastry baker.

Week 89--Murray, Utah

Gosh I don't like emailing.... I only have a few more months though!

I don't know what to email today..... Life is good we have like three investigators. The area is super small. They're all going to be baptized hopefully. Things are hard with walking but I thoroughly enjoy it. I don’t know what else to say... I'll keep y'all in my prayers. 

I think that I discovered my career. God told me and you'll never guess what it is. Thanks for the bike I got a really good deal. $200 dollars off. I'm excited to go bike contacting. I'll try and take some pictures this coming week and remember some stories.

We had a lesson where I had to choose fearing God over fearing man. I did it and the lesson turned out well! Oh yeah and we met elder Ballard. It was nice to shake his hand.

Week 88--Murray, UT

Hey everyone!  

Thanks for the package! Ya'll are awesome!

This week was good. A lot of my thoughts this week were directed toward greatness. I read an article in the Ensign. It was written or paraphrased from Howard W. Hunter and it talked about true greatness. It talked about how greatness is perceived very differently in the world compared to the Lords view. President Hunter talked about how Gods view of greatness is the small acts of goodness and kindness that make up who we are. 

Serving here I have seen so many different types of families: Families that work, Families that don't work, and every thing in between! I have such a testimony that greatness and happiness in a family setting is dependent upon how well the principles of the gospel are applied. Everytime. God is real. Jesus Lives. This is his work. 

-Elder Bass