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

Week 87--Murray, Utah

Teaching a lesson after a member dinner

I am now in Murray UT. I cover half of the Murray South Stake which is 4 wards. It is a great mixture of wealthy and poor in the area. I love my companion, Elder Archer. He is a great missionary. We lived in Evanston together for a little bit. We have so much fun together! We are making a lot of progress in our area. I love the opportunity to contact people on the street all the time because the car is no more. I am determined to go out hard my last 4 months.

This stake does something on Tuesday night called finding night! It is amazing. All the ward missionaries and ward mission leaders in the stake gather together at the stake center. We go out in a total of about 15 companionships and contact and tract! It is amazing!! This stake is a model for the world how missionary work should be. Everyone is excited and always thinking about who they can invite to meet with the missionaries next. I'm trying to figure out how they implemented this program and got everyone to do it. These people legitimately care about the people we teach and take personal responsibility for them.

I love walking! It's my first walking area haha

-Elder Bass

Zone Conference

Week 86--Evanston, WY

I am leaving. I will be a district leader. I am happy because weight is taken off my shoulders! Bruce didn't get baptized. He is still hesitant. It was very weird for him to go back and forth like that. Other than Bruce shutting down a little bit and said he needed to review the Book of Mormon a lot more when I asked if he would set a date, yesterday was good. I got to visit all the families and recent converts that I love. I am excited for my new area. Love you! 
-Elder Bass

Week 85--Evanston, WY

This week has been great! I feel my time in Evanston is drawing to a close. It has been amazing though. We found many new investigators this week including a family of four who has accepted the commitment to be baptized late February. They are very prepared. I am learning more tips and tricks to missionary work. One is the importance of not holding on to investigators that aren't ready. Once we figure out they aren't ready it is easy with the iPads to leave a note for future missionaries to stop by and check up on them. God always provides more people to teach it seems. 

One event that happened was my companion changed my password Saturday night. Sunday morning I tried to get in and it wouldn't work. With the iPads if you try 9 times and it fails the iPad completely shuts down and wipes the memory clean. So all pictures, notes, and everything else you saved is no longer there. I tried a few times to open it and my companion must of typed the password in wrong because it wasn't the one he though it was. Anyways, the iPad shutdown and wiped all of my memory. We were giving talks in one of our wards and my talk was on the iPad. So Sunday morning I rewrote my talk. Elder Fallin felt pretty bad. Everything was saved on iCloud so it's ok.

We also had a lesson with Bruce this week. Bruce is someone I've been working with the entire time that I've been here. We thought going into the lesson on Saturday that he would commit. After we talked for a little bit, he told us that his best friend has died the day before. He also told us that one of his wife's relatives had died and there was a funeral being held in CA. At that point we had given up hope of him getting baptized before transfers on Feb 2nd. We read Alma chapter 40 with him and had a discussion about some of the verses. We eventually were talking about being cremated. We invited Bruce the lesson before and others. He said that he would be going to both funerals the coming week. As a side comment at the end, he said, " and I'm going to try to do it before you leave, I find out the funeral time on Monday for my friend." I was super excited. Written, the words he said don't sound very convincing but Bruce is a country guy which when he says he'll try it actually means he'll do it. It will be a very good ending climax. The closing of the first presidency message in the beginning of PMG says, "More happiness awaits you than you have ever before experienced as you labor among his children." It really is true. Driving home that night from Bruce's lesson, the sky was dark and gloomy, snow was falling in big clumps everywhere, and the roads were snow covered and terrible, yet my heart was filled with more joy than I had ever before experienced and a love for God.

Also the zone will baptize more than it has in recorded history of the mission for the month of January. 

Love y’all!