December 12, 2011

So the cambio just ended. I've been on my mission for six months as of 3 days ago? I forgot about it but at the end of that day I said it and my companion was like "What!? You didn't tell me? That's a big deal!" And I said "..... Really? Because I totally forgot I'd been out that long. No Big." So yeah that was that. haha.

This last week was pretty good. Our ward baptized 3 people this weekend. And yes. Por Fin (Finally) Diego got baptized. Guess who baptized him? Me! It was pretty sweet. Just saying. :D So yeah it was pretty sweet. I almost confirmed him as well but in the end the bishop did it. Whatevs though. And then President called me yesterday and told me that I am being transferred. This time I'm really going to the farthest missionary sector in the world. I told you the arguements we've had about that before But I'm really going to the farthest place where there are missionaries working. Supposedly the sector is a test of patience. But as long as I'm cool with my new comp (which I think I will be, we've met before He's pretty chill) I think I'll be good in the middle of nowhere. They called us last week and told us about the most exciting part of their P-day. They said "I'm on top of a mountain and I just saw a goat!!" Bahaha so we'll see how it goes.

Alright so Last week I added both Mom and Dad to skype and this week I logged in to the account and neither of you were contacts, So I re-added Dad because he told me his skype name and He just logged on so I know it worked BUT about the test call I think my mamita's daughter is going to try to call you guys this week which will be interesting. I think Ethan or Devin maybe could talk to her because Brandon is at his Army Dealio. That'll be funny for you all ¿right? oh but if she calls after the 15th brandon will be back. So I'll tell them to do that one day like the weekend around 12:00 your time. and Christmas day I think we're planning on doing the call so we will call around 1 or 2 depending on if my companion wants to call first or not so I'll verify that and let you know for sure next week.

So yeah That sucks about my bank account. But whatever. It just means I can't buy anything for myself in the next few weeks, which isn't a big deal because I don't think there is anywhere to go shopping in Por Venir (my new sector) so no big. And I'll manage with a card with Brandon's name because we just go to ATM's and pull out money it's the easiest thing to do.

Besides that I don't really know what to put in this email. Oh yeah. the other day when President was here they pulled up a video of my new companion opening his mission call and I thought it'd be fun to see mine. So mom should put that in my email next week :) just for fun. But I think that's all. Now I'm going to put pictures that my companion took of the baptisms of Diego and Allan. Diego has 2 sons but the other one didn't want to be in the picture with us. But it's okay My comp took a picture of him another day haha. Everybody here are Me (obviously), My comp. Diego, his wife Monica, His 1 or 2 year old Adolfo (called Toto). Allan, and Diego's other son David

Love you all. Talk to you next week. I'm excited for my Christmas Package!!

Elder Bassett

December 5, 2011

Hola todos. I almost thought about sending you all an email in spanish. Baha. Wouldn't work for all of you. but whatever

Okay so this last week was pretty good. We baptized our 12 year old investigator and I confirmed him yesterday and gave him the gift of the Holy Ghost. Pretty cool stuff.

Besides that.... Well we finally got Diego to say he'll get baptized and he chose me to baptize him. So that's awesome. Our ward has 3 baptisms next week because we're awesome and there are 4 missionaries working in the same ward. It's pretty cool. Just saying.

Oh hey good news. We are going to be allowed to call you on christmas through skype. Therefore I need to know somebody's info to add them to my contacts or whatever. I'm working on it right now actually because they told us all to try and work it out. And I talked to our Mamita who said we could do the call at her house (If i'm still in this sector because Cambios are next week) but we wanted her to test it and see if it will work so we are going to figure that out and she can talk to Brandon or something because it'll be easiest for him to understand her haha. So that is going to be fun stuff. haha. I just sent dad a contact request thing? So he should get that soon and respond. But it is asking me for his phone number and I don't know which one to put. I'm going to sit here for a little bit and see if you send me an email with information but I can only send one email to you all and I basically told you everything exciting that is going on down in the end of the world. Oh except I have some stuff to send home like beanies that are cool. And I still don't know if my card works.... and I got sunburnt lol. 

That's really about it. If you send me your phone numbers and info for skype I will make sure I have it and am ready for Christmas. :D

Love you all. Have a great week. and thanks Britt for emailing me at 2:48 in the morning hahaha. I'm excited for the package. I hope you didn't put beef jerky in it because they fine for jerky and dried stuff like that. and the mission won't pay for it. But I didn't ask for jerky so I don't think we should be worried about that.

Talk to you  next week. I'm waiting for your info. I know this is short but... that's how it is haha

Elder Bassett

November 28, 2011

Hey everybody! Thanks for all the emails this week! I think Brandon's had some Portuguese in it because I didn't understand it.

Ummm so this week nothing really new has gone down. We found some new people to teach which is good. We're working hard and stuff which is always important.

Sounds like everybody is doing really good up there in the northern hemisphere... Down here it's still cold. Oh hey thought. Last week I tried to see if my personal card had any money on it but it got denied and spit out. I don't know if they have locked it up or what But I don't really think so because it denied my comp's card too but he went to a different box and it worked. But I tried it because everybody in my zone is out of mission money (including me) So we're short on food and all that good stuff... Pfft. So yeah it is what it is, today for lunch we bought bread and spread some kind of cheese cream on it. It's not cream cheese though. Because that doesn't exist here. Haha.

So, Yes dad you got Pierson's name right (But I feel weird saying his first name. Haha.) and Pierson, My dad wanted you to know he was serious about you going to see my family some time. And, to answer all the question's at once, Yes Gracie I know where Trevor is serving he's in Concepcion, Chile. Ironic right. I'm pretty sure he recieve's these letters too but he's never sent me anything to verify that. He might say it in the letter that he said he was working on like a month and a half ago that I haven't gotten haha.... I think that was everything that I was supposed to reply too.. If I've missed any questions just let me know. I'll do what I can.

Thanks for the advice from Dad and Brandon. I'm trying to be good at everything I can. There are just some things that make me a little miffed.... Like how I lost my camera in a car last week (I believe) So everybody should pray to help me find it. Because I just need to talk to all the colectivo (taxi-ish) guys and see if they've found it and it'll come back to me. But it still is buggin me. Also, I have talked to my companion about stuff we had like 3 comp inventories last week, one because he thought we needed and 2 because he read the steps in how it should be done then 3 because it was weekly planning day when it was supposed to be done. Baha. I told him it's a good thing I have more patience than Britt because she may kill him if they ever eat in the same room.... Just saying. Britt i'm sure knows why. But. We're all good and working well together.

Oh yeah about Diego. At this point we just need to throw him in the font because he knows everything and we've just been making stuff up when we visit him but on the 25th he hung out with his friends and drank some so we're still working on him and he's still changing because he said he thought about drinking and like thought about not doing it, in his words (translated obviously :P) "I doubted doing it which I have never done before" So it was good and he's still moving forward. We are actually going to baptize another investigator this week who is 12 so we haven't had many issues with him, except figuring out how to make him understand the lessons. Pfft. He is ADHD so yeah. It took a bit. But we got him there and I guess he had some dream that included him in the chapel but I wasn't really explained the dream so I couldn't tell it to you but he had it and then afterwards knew the church was true. So it was cool. Now we're gonna work more on his dad Victor.

We have another investigating family who we have seen changes in which are good. There are four of them, Gma and Gpa are named Eloisa and Arnoldo, the mom = Claudia and her daughter is Darlyng. Pronounced darling. Eloisa and Darlyng have been the most accepting but we have gone over to their house randomly to find Claudia reading the stuff we leave behind and we FINALLY got Arnoldo to come to church but from what we understand of his speach (baha) he is commited to continue coming. Eloisa we want to baptize first and Arnoldo has never seemed to be interested in being baptized so after that we'll work on Claudia so that she can support Darlyng. Because Darlyng will get baptized as soon as she has all the lessons she accepted right away.

Ummmmmmmm what else. today for Pday we have just played Ping pong in our chapel with the other missionaries that work in our ward. It's been pretty awesome. That's what happens when we don't have money. Oh and I'm writing more letters home for people but I won't be able to send them... Again. No money. so yeah. People just have to be patient for their letters :P

I think that is all though. Love you all. Talk at'cha next week. Oh. We put up a christmas tree haha.

Elder Bassett

November 21, 2011

So another P-day. I know you all just woke up like an hour ago so ¡Good MORNING!

Things are going well down here, It's raining again. This is like the 3rd time this week I think? But it's cool I like the rain down here. Nothing extremely exciting happened this week. Well actually something did we had an activity last friday with the mission president! It was cool because it was like the 3rd time I've seen him... Not including when we met at the MTC haha so yeah, it was cool. We had an interview and it was pretty chill he asked how I was doing and stuff and then was like "Have you had any crab yet? I love crab" And I was like :O I thought we weren't supposed to have crab and stuff but he basically gave me permission to have crab and sea food and stuff as long as it's for sure from an approved place because for people who don't eat sea-food there are a lot of different types here and they try it and get sick but... I don't think I'll have that issue. Because we all know I love sea food [baha, almost said see food ;)]

Me and my comp are doing well. It helps growing up in our family and learning things like patience. He is a little immature sometimes but so be it. I can't complain too much. Kus i'm not supposed to. BUT ya know. I'll leave it there.

Anyways. that was about as cool as it got. Nobody got baptized. we're working on that. But the other day we were talking with Diego and he said " I think about it every day and I want to get baptized and I know I need to. And I really don't know why I haven't done it yet or what is stopping me" So we're all like JUST DO IT but only in our heads... I'm pretty sure his wife is on our side also. Baha.

Oh yeah I totally forgot this week was thanksgiving. You all kept talking about it and I was like "That should be coming up soon....." Yeah. Time flies right? But check it out I'll only miss one more Thanksgiving after this week haha. :P

Everything is going well for me, I'm healthy and stuff. I think i'll have enough food this month :/ haha so we should be good. If not, I'll fast a lot. There's nothing wrong with that though!

I'm adding photos of A really ugly dog that looks like chewbacca and a picture of me with Patrick Star (from spongebob) but he's a special Patrick... You'll see why!

anyways. I think that's really all... Oh mom. I like Crunchy Peanut Butter. :D

Love you all. Talk to you next week!

Elder Bassett

November 14, 2011

So this is another week gone by! crazy stuff time keeps flying. Thanks for the emails, sounds like some good stuff going on with everybody, Sounds like there are very few reasons to go to california anymore haha geez! But life moves on eh? I'm glad Kinleigh has so much fun with herself in mirrors and stuff that sounds like a riot. There's a little baby girl in this ward and she reminds me of Kinleigh sometimes, mostly because I met her when she had about 2 months and I left when Kinleigh was about the same age. so yeah I know this little girl more than Kinleigh, that's kinda sad. Oh well as long as she recognizes me when I come home all will be well.

All is well here in Punta Arenas. Working hard all the time and trying to find some good people to teach and learning to teach them better. I've finished Alma in the Book of Mormon in Spanish and in the English one I'm in Alma 26 about. I read a lot faster in English than Spanish but I'll probably finish both of them before Christmas. I also started reading the Bible and Jesus the Christ, of which I have like 50 pages remaining. That book is awesome and gives "palos" (which means sticks but the phrase "to give sticks" in spanish means.... something.... I don't know but it makes sense okay... But no I didn't make it up) anyways it gives a bunch of facts that people don't know that I can use in conversation to prove stuff against Jehovah's witnesses, catholics, and other people if I want. It's basically awesome.

My mission president wrote me an email last week and said I've progressed a lot. What do you guys think? Because I dunno. Food for thought.

Ummmmm oh yeah I actually am going to see President this week. That's cool I forgot about that for a second. Spanish is still doing good. For language study we're supposed to learn more about grammar and stuff or memorize scriptures so we can speak better... I just read the dictionary... Baha. Later in life I've decided I'm going to get Book of Mormons in different languages to read them because Basically if you read all the way through a Book of Mormon in a different language I've heard that you will be able to speak that language. So that's what I'm going to do. Later. Because right now I can only get more in spanish and maybe english but we tried to do that once and I think we still haven't recieved it... Pfft

So yeah. I'm good. Happy. Healthy. Working hard, losing weight. Actually I think I lost a bunch and now am stuck at about 165 ish? the scale is in Kilos so I'm at 82 kilos if the scale is correct. I don't know if people have tried to add me on facebook Britt but if you told me they have and said some names I could tell you whether or not I know them and if you should add them or not. Just thought about it because a good friend I met here went home a week and a half ago so he may have added me. Anyways.

We have found a few good people to teach, a family of 4 (except their dad works on boats or something so he's gone for 15 days and home for 4 which sucks) but the mom and 2 sons are way good and Her and the older son accepted a baptism like right off the bat basically, she did but we had to explain to him about being baptized as a baby versus how Jesus did it, after which he was like "yeah I'll do it, if my dad is okay with it." and we're going to talk to them all today including their dad so I'm hoping he's as cool as the rest of his family. we'll see. All of the good stuff happens right after I write you guys and then I forget them haha. But I'm keeping my journal so I've got the good stuff written down.

How was Green Lantern? I know dad didn't like it but what about the rest of the family? Did anybody go see capitan america? I'm not really worried about it or anything because I know when I get home I can watch them with their sequels so no big haha but it's fun to be in the loop. I feel secluded from everything else in the world so ya know. Oh yeah, A few video games came out recently too, those you aren't allowed to tell me about (Ethan and Devin and Matt. Because they're probably the only ones who care :P) so don't mention the new assassin's creed or halo or Gears of War or anything!  Geez.

Sooo I think that's it. There are some letters in the mail home to some friends. We've had like 3 holidays on mondays so the mail place has been closed but I got stuff sent still.

I hope all is well with those who I don't know about. I'm gonna go play soccer with my zone now.

Talk to you all next week!

Love - Elder Bassett

November 7, 2011

Hey Fam! (and everybody else who reads these emails!)

So this week nothing super exciting happened, I got my new comp, we taught some people, had a barbecue as a zone, people left, and we did an activity at the cemetary with the youth in one of the wards here. That was pretty cool because I sang most of the time, yeah... Bassett thing right? always gotta show off the singing voice. Did I tell you we sang at the baptisms last week too? Yeah me and one of the sister missionaries did a duet haha. Anyways though, enough showing off.

Sounds like things are going pretty well back home, I hope that you are all happy and healthy, because that's what is really important. We don't have too many super commited investigators but Diego decided that he really needs to get baptized and he just needs to stop being stubborn about it. So he said "whats the last saturday this month?" and I said "the 26th" and he laughed because I answered right off the bat and said "he's got them memorized" But then said that we could do his baptism that weekend. I would have tried to get it sooner but they are celebrating their son's birthday the week before so he's not gonna replace that, but oh well. His kids are hilarious. I am going to have to get a picture of them actually. I have pictures of Sebastian and his family so I'll get those sent home. Oh yeah, The picture I'm sending in this email is the sun almost setting. I didn't zoom in at all so the sun is all the way to the left in the photo but when I got here it was setting all the way to the right. If not farther to the right than is shown. crazy stuff right!?

The second picture i'm sending is what I took about a minute after I woke up. The sun is already up and shining over the roof next door to us.... Yeah... That's all I have to say about that.

Everybody here says that it's warm... I told them it's probably the same tempurature in utah that it is here and it's winter in utah. Baha.

I don't know if there's anything else to say. My new comp does stuff differently than I do.... Obviously. Because every missionary is different. But he is the new district leader here too and has 7 months in the field. I think i'm doomed/destined to be a district leader at some point if this keeps going with DL's as my companions. :/ about that. Oh well though I know that whatever I need to do I can do. And i'm just going to have to get used to my new comp.. Because as of yet i'm not used to how he does things. and so inevitebly some things don't suit well with me. but you all know how I deal with things so I'm just gonna suck it up and try to follow the spirit in dealing with his quirks and the things that don't go well together. Because that's all you can do sometimes. I'm sure he is my companion so that I can learn something from him. I just don't know what it's going to be. We'll see.

That's all though family. Talk to you next week. Love you all!

Elder Bassett

October 31, 2011

Morning! Hey all. How's it all going? Happy Halloween!

I hope you are all doing well, I know it's early for you all but it's 11:15 here so.... It's not my fault :P

This last week was pretty intense. We were called and told I'd change companions and my companion went to Osorno to a Zone leaders conference with the one zone leader while I stayed with the other zone leader who wanted to stay here because he's finishing his mission tomorrow, so he's not really a zone leader anymore. So yeah I stayed with him and it was cool he's super funny. I'm sending a picture home of him with the family of the stake president. I took this picture because his son looks a lot like Johnny (my cousin) and his daughter looks like Selena Gomez haha so yeah I thought it was funny and got the same picture with Elder Pierson's camera and theirs so it's not like I just asked them for a picture with my camera. Anyways.

Oh yeah. Nothing big.... but... Sebastian got baptized!! Yeah it was sweet. I don't have any pictures though I was super busy the whole time trying to figure out the schedule and doing the prelude music (which they replaced soon after I started playing it was retarded but whatever) and then I was one of the witnesses for all 9 of the baptisms we did (for the whole stake, it was pretty sweet) so I'm pretty bummed about that but they didn't even get any pictures for their family either his wife just said "we'll just keep it in our minds and hearts" and I said "you're dumb..." .... but not out loud promise. Anyways!

That's about it really nothing very exciting happened this week.... But hey i'm done with my second transfer! That's insane.. Time flies when you're having fun eh! so I'll see you all in about a year and a half.... Wow. yeah I'm gonna look through my camera for more pictures to send now. I'm going to send them starting from last going to first so Dad can save them and I can delete them. Alli estamos. (said "A-yee-eh-tah-mo")

So i'll work on that and talk at'chy'all next week.... I love how I never use full words.

Love you all!

Elder Bassett

October 24, 2011

So my second cambio is almost over now, I'm in the last week which is crazy because that means I have spent more time with my companion than I have spent with anybody else.... like ever. Including my companion in the MTC. Which has taken it's tole... There is nothing wrong with my companion but he lives in a different way than I do, and after 11 weeks together, I have noticed differences that just are weird and get on my nerves... But whatever, the joys of living 24-7 with another person right? The weather has changed from cold, rainy, and dark to being cold, light, and windy.... That's about all of the change we will get. Well actually it will still be brighter but regardless. I am going to have to get a picture of the sun one of these days because yesterday we left the house at 9 to call people to come to church and the sun was really high in the sky, so the sunrise photo I sent a few weeks ago I took at 10 that day so if I wanted to get a sunrise picture these days I would have to wake up probably around 5:30.. Because my companion woke up the other day around 6 and told me (after we had both woken up later) that there was already sunlight coming through the window at that point in time... :O insanity.

Well Diego decided he's not ready yet to take the step towards baptism but he is still progressing, learning, he just says that he wants to know more so that he knows what not to do because if he makes a commitment he wants to know what it entails and how he can keep to it. He's really good but I think he is trying to learn too much. But then again he had a beer the other night and said "I know the word of wisdom says not to do it but I was with my friends and I didn't feel bad about drinking it so I have to change that" so that is him for now. Sebastian though flew through his interview and is definitely being baptized. But he may have had more preparation that Diego didn't, I dunno. But whatever. The service is for the stake of Punta Arenas and we are going to have 9 baptisms that day. Wasn't what we wanted necessarily but it's better than... less.

Glad to hear everything is going well with work and birthdays and cars and stuff. I hope Britt's back stops hurting soon because that's not cool that it still is bugging her. And it's good to hear Kinleigh already wants to say the prayers haha! The daughter of our Mamita does that too, she actually starts to cry if they don't let her say the prayer... Pretty funny haha. ummm... I think I thought of something else. But I forgot. Oh hey I think I remembered! Well I just thought about the haunted train thing and yeah I hope that's going well even though only Ethan and Devin are doing it haha! I hope you all find something fun to do on halloween anyways... We here are gonna have a "Pijamada" i.e. sleepover. Baha. We're awesome ;)

Okay so I always knew I was a slacker but I've realized that I should have known a lot sooner the importance of the principles the Gospel teaches in our lives. Preach My Gospel talks about things that help us even more than just teaching other people. Like about how the only way to have a Really happy home is to grow it around the principles taught by Christ, and how "heaven is the continuation of the ideal home" so we should remember that. Reading the scriptures everyday makes me want to continue to read them more. I wish I had more time to read them (which is saying something because we have extra study times being the new guy haha).

Umm so I don't really know what happened this week, we taught a few lessons, and talked to a lot of people on the street. Most of the people on the street usually just say "I'm in a hurry can't talk bye!" so it's sometimes pretty lame but once in a while you get the good one and it's sweet. I just would like the ratio to be better haha.

This week I had a couple of days where I just didn't have a good attitude, and it bugged me that I didn't have a good attitude so that just made it worse, but you know me so you know that I didn't say anything or show it. Just got to work. But I would LOVE it if I didn't have a bad attitude about the work or anything... I know there are those days but I don't want to have any of them. If I could always want to do as much as I could and actually get up and do it, that would be excellent. But ya can't have everything you want right? So I do what I can and forget about what I can't change.

I think that's kind of all I have to say... SO talk to you all next week! Oh and I've written letters to send home... But haven't had the time to send them yet so I apologize! BUT I'm going past the post office today and definitely sending them. Because I have 3 to send. and like 3 more to write :/ haha but yeah. That's all!

Love you all. Talk to you next week!

Elder Bassett

October 17, 2011

Well hi!

So uhhhh I don't even know where to start with all the information I got! First, I looked at the photo's of the wreck, looked intense. But dad thought Britt may have sent pics of her new car, she didn't haha but no big. Nice story about ex pres. Rodgers being the only one who knows where Punta Arenas is (btw we found a place here that is names Sandy Point... Which is Punta Arenas in English. Ha) But to answer the common question I am in the most southern ward in the world BUT it is split in half and I'm in the northern half of the ward. there are other branches farther south in the world BUT they don't have missionaries. SO I am one of the 4 most southern missionaries in the world. and I haven't seen any penguins... In the street. BUT we went to a Pinguinera today and saw some :P So I'm gonna put some pictures in another email to Britt so she can put them on the blog!.

Ummm okay so i'm glad everybody is doing good, I hope work and stuff is all good for everybody and I hope the house shindig is going well for Britt and Matt kus that's pretty intense stuff especially with a car crash at the same time :\ (you won't believe how long it took to look for the "\" on this keyboard...) moving on! So okay. Happy Birthday tomorrow mom!!!! I'll try to find some winter stuff for you. even though now it's the beginning of summer.. :P in fact I started sweating today it was weird!

OH hey! So this last week we saw a cultural presentation for the celebration of the 50 years of the mission Chile and it was awesome and a little nostalgic (how do you spell that?) for me because they danced a bunch of dances that we danced in elementary school HAHA! I was like "HEY I have home video's of me dancing to that exact same thing!!!" It was pretty funny. My companion said "I should have told my family about this!" but then thought about it and said "Oh... they wouldn't have understood it." haha so yeah it was cool. they were cool dances. and yes they did better than we did (Obviously)

In the package uhhhh oh the pictures you can print are the boys, girls, fam 1 and 2, and I thought we had one with all of us including grandpa and sarah didn't we? I forget. and yeah I have a lot more pictures that I could put in the drop box... But if you figure out how to download them to a home comp and I can just replace them that would work out cool because then I could also delete the ones on this memory card and have more room to take pictures. and I guess a memory card in the package would be a good idea. I don't know what I want for christmas especially since I don't know if I will still be here in Punta Arenas at that point and will have to figure out what to shove in my suitcases when I leave on the plane and will have a weight limit. So I dunno. Just a pair of drumsticks like I asked last week and Possibly the drum pad especially since ethan isn't doing marching band. and some snacks :) because american food is different (obviously) than food here.

ummm um um um I don't know what else.. Well about this week uhhhh It was pretty good we found some cool people, one who we taught, as the first lesson, the word of wisdom because he asked us to pray for his health when we started and then we taught him a couple more times super short lessons and challenged him for baptism and he was like "well if God answers my prayers yeah!" so it was cool. We also found somebody who doesn't believe in God but is going to continue listening to us. In fact we're going to teach him again today. so it'll be interesting teaching him.

We Probably will be baptizing Sebastian on the 29th and Hopefully Diego. He knows everything he needs to and has a testimony his only thing is that he wants to know more about what we believe so that he doesn't break a commandment without knowing it, but we want him to be sure on a date and if it's the 29th that's awesome because after that my companion will probably be in another sector. Plus on the 29th we're planning on doing all of the baptisms in Punta Arenas on that day in one chapel. We're pretty sure we have 10 people who are sure about doing it on that date so we're super stoked for that day.

Ummm I think that's kinda all.... I'll send those pictures to Britt. But i put one here :)

Love you all! Talk at'cha next week!

Elder Bassett

October 10, 2011

Hello everybody! How is everybody doing? Well okay I got a couple emails so I know a little bit, but Britt hasn't emailed me yet about the accident so I don't know what happened there really or have pictures but I'm sure that they'll be here by next week right? :P so yeah anyways.. Haha I guess I can't buy your car from you when I get home now.... Bummer. No but seriously I hope that you really are all doing good, not just the car.

Umm I'm thinking if I need to remember anything outside of questions you've asked. Umm in that package you are thinking of sending I would like that John Schmidt music book I played out of (not the same one that Brandon had on his mission) and maybe some sunglasses, because I might get permission to wear them down here because the sun is SOOO bright! It's ridiculous. Actually in the rules this zone is allowed to have hats to help with the sun but I would rather use sun glasses as well or instead or whatever word works there. I'm thinking about drum sticks too But I don't think that there are really any drumsticks at home that are in good condition... If you find some you're willing to send that'd be cool but if not then it's no issue. I'll continue to use my ruler and pens. Oh yeah and the pictures that you're planning on sending, if they could be printed out that'd be cool. And any american food you want to send haha. (Cream cheese wouldn't go well in the mail probably but it doesn't exist here :O and neither does Peanut Butter.... :O)

The weather is getting warmer, it's pretty crazy I noticed yesterday that the sun has moved sooo far towards the south, I would have liked to take pictures of the difference in the sun sets but I didn't think about it when I got here, and usually to the west there are clouds on the horizon, like 95% of the time actually. The wind hasn't stopped since I got here though. Seriously.

Oh hey this week was pretty cool we celebrated 50 years of missionary work in Chile. I thought it was interesting. Also about that, Diego and his family is from Concepcion so I was thinking if somebody could figure out what ward aunt Jackie was in while she lived here I could see if it's familiar to them. Also I remember in the MTC dad said Johnny wanted my address so if you could get that to him or just get his and tell it to me I'll write to him and that could work.

Oh hey I am still trying to get something for birthdays because they don't allow some kinds of jewelries and stuff to be sent by mail, but I'm working on it for Britt and Mom. We've got a member in the ward who sells jewelry so I'll get something cool :)

ummmm This week wasn't super exciting. Yesterday everybody had work or got sick so nobody came to church (actually a lot of the members were missing as well...) so it was kind of lame there. Sebastian and Diego are both giving up coffee and are basically for sure getting baptized it's awesome, but we've got to find more people to have progressing. We found just a couple of people recently even though I feel like we worked really hard this week walking through the streets trying to find people. But yeah nothing really happened super exciting that I could talk about... The week went by really fast. I only have 3 weeks left of training... Crazy stuff!

But here's something cool that happened about ohhhh an hour ago. We were going to the internet place we usually go to (except its closed today because its a holiday) so we get out of the "colectivo" which is basically a taxi but here the "taxi's" are different so anyways we get out of the car and cross the street and this old guy hangs up his phone and gets our attention and starts talking to us and tells us he's a member since 1980 and his wife is at home by herself sick at 76 years old and his only daughter is in Texas, also sick, so he feels really bad and worried (obviously) and wants a blessing of comfort. Coincidence? I think not! So long story short we got the keys to the nearest chapel and walked there (5 blocks away) and us and the other companionship do the blessing and the guy bears his testimony and talks about how he knows God had us cross his path for a reason. He is an awesome guy really he said he is going to one day buy 300 Books of Mormon, 300 Bibles, and 300 Hymn books and give them as gifts to new converts or investigators with his picture and a testimony in front. :O Yeah he's great. and now we're here in this internet place because the Elders of this sector were just like "hey the usual internet place is closed but we know one that's really close lets go." So here we are.

And that is basically all I have to say this week. It's getting warmer but still in Punta Arenas it never gets hotter than 70 degrees. Baha! so yeah. That's all. Talk to you next week!

October 3, 2011

So this week was pretty boring. I can't really remember most of it to be honest... But whatever. Oh hey! I know mom asked for my address like two or three weeks ago but I've forgotten to give it to you all until today... But it is as follows

Elder Preston Jay Bassett

Chile Osorno Mission

Casilla 7-0

Osorno

Los Lagos

Chile

So there you all go you can put that in the ward thing and all that jazz. Which makes perfect sense right? ummm so thanks for the info on the dropbox I can finally show people my family! But it is not working for me to upload photos so I will have to work that out later. Anyways

Oh here's something for everybody who didn't watch the first session of General conference. President Monson announced some new temples right? I don't remember most of them but guess what. They are going to build a second temple in Provo! Baha! I think they are going to put it in place of the Provo Tabernacle but I'm not positive, we all started talking at the same time as soon as he started talking about it so Yeah I'm not sure about where they are going to build it but how awesome is that! I guess Provo is just that cool.

I hope the funeral all went well. Tiff said it went well enough with musical numbers and such so that's really good. The most exciting thing that happened for me was General Conference. They were some pretty relaxing couple of days we've had listening to the apostles and people. We watched it live so they started at 1 and 5 so they took up the whole day pretty much. it was pretty awesome. I got a lot of notes and it was really cool.

So I don't know anything about what's happened for all of you so I have no comments about life in utah.

About life here... Still pretty cold, but warming up. The days are getting longer. this last week flew past. We still have some of the same investigators, we've found a few new ones but nothing really exciting happened last week. It wasn't a bad week by any means... Just nothing super awesome. So I don't know what else to talk about... So for now... I'll try to work out the drop box thing and get some pictures sent home with that!

Love you. Talk to you next week!

Elder Bassett

September 26, 2011

Hey everybody! So another week come and gone. Everything is going well down here. The weather is changing pretty fast, when I got here it stayed pretty dark until around 8 or 9 but now when we wake up there is light coming through the windows. I keep hearing that eventually it will stay light here for about 22 hours of the day generally. That will be interesting definitely but anyways!

(We lost our Grandma Bassett on Sept 22nd) So about Grandma. Wow. That's kind of all I can say about that, but she's definitely not suffering anymore. We just have to remember we can't stop the hand of God from calling people back to him. I hope Grandpa B is holding up well during this time. And I hope the funeral goes well!

I don't know what else to say about that subject so moving on! This week was a pretty tough one, we had a LOT of teaching appointments that fell through so that was dumb. I lost count of how many but one day we had every single thing fall through and just walked around the street all day, like until we went home again, trying to find people to teach and to see if the next appointment would work out. So yeah. Lame. But we do have two investigators who are really progressing a lot. The people we find who are the best are the ones who have members in the family. One of them (Sebastian) is married to a member, their whole family are members, his father in law used to be bishop, their cousin is our mamita... So basically he's been being prepared for years. Which is awesome. Even though every time we go to their house they give us loads of food and if we keep going there we are going to get fat... But yeah it's pretty great. (The situation and the food haha) So we're excited for him.

There are a few other people we are teaching but none of them really are as close as Sebastian or Diego (who I've talked about before) but still good. Today after P-day ends we have an appointment assigned for every half hour until we go home. It's gonna be intense. But one of the people we are teaching tonight totally had a change of heart in the last couple of days and it's seriously a testimony builder of the Book of Mormon because he didn't want to listen to us for weeks so we've just been teaching his wife and son but the other day we went to teach them and he sat in the room listening while changing contacts to his new phone and we read Mosiah 2 and talked about how to hold the family together and stuff. Anyways so the next time we passed by their house the wife (Gloria) was gone but he (Victor) was sitting at the table and we knocked on the door and he said "Hey how are you guys come in, take a seat!" and we were like "uhhh... Yeah definitely!" So he told us about how he feels about their family and the issues they have been having so we talked to him for a little while about what we thought could help bring the family together and shared scriptures with him and he prayed at the end of the lesson, which is basically amazing because we had asked him like 4 times previously if he wanted to pray and he said he didn't feel ready or he didn't want to and all that jazz so we were super excited that he prayed. And we almost got him to go to church, he said "I would go today but I have to work" So we were close. Stupid work. But it's cool because my companion told me that the first time he walked into that house he got a feeling like "one day everybody in this family will be baptized" so we're seeing the hand of God working on him, softening his heart through the scriptures and stuff. So it's pretty sweet.

Ummm Besides that what else has happened this week... We discovered that our gas heater probably has something wrong with it and that if you leave it on over night you will get sick. Hence, I'm kind of sick. Baha. But whatever. Oh, if you ever decide to send me a package I'd like it to include my piano music and a new journal. I have like a month and a half left to write in my journal (I think, I counted like 50 pages... Give or take. Anyways) So that would be cool. And I'm including pictures in this email and I will send one more email to Britt with more pictures so she can put them on my blog or whatever. And Everybody has asked for pictures of the family soooo.... Yeah that'd be cool haha.

I think the letter I sent took longer because the president and all them had to work out getting those pictures printed out because I have recieved one hand written letter that took (I believe) three weeks. The date on the envelope says the 25th of august and I got it on the 15th of Sept. so yeah Letters still take a long time but I don't think they will all take 7 weeks like the one that was sent to the family... Haha. But regardless I'm glad that you got it.

Umm to answer questions to Ethan, it is different being down here in the cold all the time: It's not as cold as Utah can get on the coldest day but still pretty cold. I knew that you would have Mr Clark and It's not really surprising he calls you Bassett and that everybody calls you mini Preston. Baha. But why didn't you do marching band ya putz!? Oh well, I'm over it. Your schedule looks pretty fun how it is so keep it up.

Yeah I think that's all really. Hope you enjoy the pictures. I had like 130 to choose from so they should be decent ones. But Britt will get more in about 5 minutes

Love you all.

Talk at'cha next week.

Elder Bassett

September 17, 2011

First off Thank you dad for getting the money thing taken care of I should have been more specific last week about that but I can't even remember if I knew it would be today that we had our replacement p-day (which is why I am now writing because we figured it was the best time and we wouldn't have a productive day if we went home and changed and went out prostelyting for half an hour)

So yeah I wasn't planning on sending this email right now so you will all have to wait another week for those pictures unfortunately. But I will talk about it right now. This place was absolutely amazing! It's called Las Torres Del Paine it is a huge national park that is pretty well known (at least here in southern america) and so we were immensely blessed with being able to go there and also that it was (relatively) good weather. Which we were not looking for because when we woke up to head out there it was a blizzard. so yeah. (btw about the weather, It may not be like subarctic tempuratures right now but I it's like the beginning of summer, as if it were 30 degrees in march. and wet. I would never have to wear this much clothes to stay decently warm in march in utah)

I took probably 80-90 pictures so you won't be able to see them all for a while because the emails only will let me put like 4 ish pictures but whatever I'll choose the best ones. Next week.

So yeah the Torres were HUGE like easily 3 times bigger than the rocky mountains. They talked about how people have tried to climb up it, only 3 people have reached the summit so it's like insane. Also I took a video and tried to do a kind of documentary but, it didn't work because the wind was absolutely ridiculous. I leaned into it and it held me up pretty far it was insane we were all almost falling down just trying to walk. We first stopped at a couple lakes and got some cool pictures of the sunrise then the second lake we went to and got pictures of the glaciers there and then just the huge mountains. But they are cool pictures.

So yeah that's about today, I'm sure I could tell more about it but... That's all for now and i'll get those pictures sent and just try to imagine the immensity of these mountains because pictures just don't really cut it.

Okay so to answer a few questions we had our baptism for the guy with the smoking problem yesterday which was super awesome! We did it yesterday because tomorrow is their like independance day or something so their parties and celebrations started today (there was an activity in the chapel that we didn't go to, obviously) but he will be confirmed tomorrow. WOOT! okay and I won't get into trouble reading my friends emails. But I can't respond directly to you so if I have your address I will write you letters, if not... Send me your address :D and I will write to you.

Our mission president is basically awesome also he is allowing us to watch a movie (like a regular one) on monday. I think it is because it is a holiday But nobody knows. I think we have chosen to watch Rango. My vote was Kung Fu Panda 2 but whatev's. (the choices besides those two were toy story 3 and Avatar, which I don't think is really missionary appropriate but we didn't vote for it anyways so no worries!)

So I hope that everything is going well at home! Happy birthday tuesday to Brandon!! You're so OLD!! Jk but anyways (actually my zone leader is older than you haha) Oh question! In Chile the first presidency sent a letter out allowing the young men to go out on their mission at 18. Did they send that out in the states too? Because if they did it would be the same situation for Ethan and I when I get home and I think that would be pretty funny for everybody involved.

Okay about this whole week, it was awesome! We didn't really talk to a whole bunch of people on the street BUT we found 13 new people to teach! That is huge to be able to find those people. And they are all like super receptive and awesome! So it's cool. We did good this week I think. But that's really all! oh hey Britt, I found out that Dear Missionary allows the letters to be sent through email too. Which is interesting although in my case slightly unnecessary But if you wanted to post something on facebook to tell people I guess that'd be cool... Just sayin.

So yeah. Awesome week. Amazing day. Lots of pictures waiting. I'll get on writing those letters to my friends. Sorry this is completely irregular and y'all didn't prepare to write me and await for a response but it is what it is. Thanks again dad for taking care of the money it REALLY helped. Love you all. Talk to you next week!!

Elder Bassett.

September 5, 2011

Hola everybody. First off HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRITT! You need to tell me what you want so I can send something home. (and brandon and tiff and matt... And mom so I can get you all cool stuff!)

So I have added people to the list of people to email because I found out and clarified this week that although I am still only allowed to send one email home per week I can send it to people that aren't part of the family. So Britt when you add this to the blog you can tell peple that they can send you their emails and I can add them to the list of people to send this email to! I thought it was a good deal. And logically they can all email me back because... Well obviously nobody can stop them. SO yeah that's cool news.

This week wasn't like amazing by any means. But I think I told you last week about the guy we found whose wife is a member and we challenged him to be baptized? Because he is basically awesome. I'm not sure if they had talked about going to church before hand but when we asked him to come with us they were worried their son would be like an annoyance to everybody. Which is not true but we were glad we had our bishop with us to tell him that there are small children running around the chapel every week (which reminds me, his son is one of them and this last week he was giving his testimony and had to pick up his son because he ran up on the stand. Haha.) So they came with us and it was awesome because He is going to get baptized. For sure. Yesterday wasn't the greatest though in terms of the work because NOBODY is outside on sundays. Seriously we saw probably 30 people outside of church the whole day. It was ridiculous.

Umm besides that nothing huge this week... I don't know what it is about my hand but when people shake it they like to grab it with both of theirs and rub it... It's awkward. And another old lady kissed me the other day. She knows the rules and that we don't kiss but everybody kisses everybody (except the male missionaries, the sister missionaries kiss other girls but yeah anyways) so at the end of the lesson with this lady she was like "I'm gonna kiss you, because that's not a bad thing" and we were like whatever you say as long as you get baptized. Baha jk we didn't say that... Out loud. ;) so yeah anyways I think she will accept a baptismal date in our next lesson but her husband is gonna have to gain a testimony that he needs to because he was baptized previously.

What else has happened.... Nothing really.... We had some lessons. Found some new people to teach... 

There were some questions asked last week that I don't really remember... I do remember though that Britt asked the average temperature... I don't know what it is but I wear my jacket 24-7 and rarely see anybody else without theirs. But it's getting warmer. Apparently I'm in the part of the world where the o-zone has a hole in it though so I will probably get sunburnt sometime soon. While freezing probably.... Yeah I don't know how that'll work either.

But yeah I love it here, my shoes are doing good so far, i'm keeping healthy (I think) and all is well. I have started writing down the few words in spanish that I don't recognize so I can look them up later. but I speak it well enough to communicate and if the other people don't mumble it's easy enough to understand.

It was good to hear from everybody who wrote me. Brandon yes last week you were supposed to have recieved two emails.... Everybody last week should have. To clarify though I sent two emails and 9 pictures.. I think. Sounds right. I'll put some more photos because I can. haha. So here goes.

This is the Elder who lived in the ward where my cousin Spencer served in Oklahoma

Elder Robinette on the bus to the airport haha

Probably my favorite picture in the MTC of Christ walking on the water. :O

Sunrise on Punta Arenas, Chile

Well that's about it. Hope to hear from y'all next week! And I hope everybody's emails work and you all recieve this email.. Otherwise... that'd just be disappointing.

Oh yeah. Just for fun (and while the pictures are still loading) My zone basically loves me. It's because one day I said "Mister Anderson" Just like Agent Smith in the matrix and because I beat box and stuff.. It's been pretty fun. Because ya know.. I'm me. :D

Talk to you all next week!

With love

- Elder Bassett

August 29, 2011

Alright so I finally had the presence of mind to remember to bring my camera and the usb thingy to send you guys pictures. so ´this email will be slightly shorter but it'll have pictures! and I'll just put like a list of what they all are on the bottom.

So nothing really exciting happened this last week. It was really busy but still not super awesome. I think I told you we had a guy who is going to be baptized soon, he was supposed to have his interview saturday but he smoked again and you can't get baptized unless you haven't smoked for at least 2 weeks so that's a no go. But he's working on it and he's got the desire but he's been smoking for like 30 years give or take so that's gonna be tough. We lost a family we were teaching... because they're catholic and didn't want to commit to anything. But, we found a new family who is part member, the wife was baptized but is inactive and they've had a lot of missionaries at their house... Can you say PREPARED!? Yeah so we taught him once, and commited him to be baptized sept 24th. Kus we can. ;)

Alright I think that's it so I'll throw in pictures now! and I hope they all are sent in order... I don't know why they wouldn't be but ya never know.

me and my first MTC comp Elder Pugh showing off our mission on the map. I'm pointing out how far north and south it goes. But it may actually even go farther north... I'm not positive.

Comp #2 Elder White and I in front of the temple on a cloudy day

2nd District in front of temple (I don't have a pic of the first district) left to right Elder Shields, Elder Arocho, Elder Rees, Elder Hawks, Sister Hales, Elder White, Sister Gibson, Me, Elder Jones, Elder Perez

The residence hall. A couple Elder's dressed up and acted like they were royalty. It was hilarious. 

The district pointing to where they are serving. (the Elder all the way to the left really isn't going to asia. There just wasn't room for him to point at california where he is at. Baha

The hot air balloon that almost landed on one of the buildings.

My new friend from Brazil. Elder Marçao

Aug 22, 2011

All is well here. I love the work and speaking in spanish and all that jazz because it's the best.

Still no penguins. I guess I have to wait like another month. My second p-day so far has been pretty boring but we are going to go shopping and have an activity and stuff later. so that should be fun.

Umm okay so stories. We have a few really good investigators and some that aren't as awesome but still good. We found a family of 5 that live right next to us and they are all able to be baptized, they aren't to that point yet because they haven't gone to church or anything but they are living the right way and all of their kids are older than 8 and they all were present for our lesson so it was pretty cool to have that happen. Besides them we have a couple who are named Andres and Rachel, she is from seattle so speaks english and was part of some religion previously so it's cool teaching them she says she's curious about learning more about our church and they both came to church yesterday so that was cool. She asks some super deep questions too we were just teaching our first lesson with them but had to pull out like all of our information to answer the questions she had. Obviously we weren't able to answer all of her questions in that amount of time so we have more lessons set up for them. I just decided to change the saying "curiousity killed the cat" to "curiosity baptized the cat" because that's usually how it goes from conversion stories like "yeah I was curious and wanted to see what it was like and they got me!" so hopefully that's how it goes with Rachel and Andres. We taught him before her so we had a baptismal date set up (which is not going to happen but it was a goal for his preparation and we're working on it) but when I commited her to baptism she said "But I don't want to like set up a date" and she said it about two seconds before my companion would have tried to commit her to a date. But it was cool and they are good people.

We've found some other people as well and there is going to be a baptism in two weeks for a guy who's name is Mario Varas and has been taught for a long time (so it's not my baptism) so we're super excited for him because he had to stop smoking to be baptized and they did some Preach My Gospel activity with him and he has quit smoking cold turkey but doesn't feel anxiety about it or anything so it's cool stuff.

There's a recent convert here that I think Dad would like. His name is Ian and he is basically hilarious, yesterday he gave a talk and used a quote from the song Imagine (the one by John Lennon) and he plays the guitar and stuff so yeah he's cool. ummmm other stories. Ohh yeah so basically like the things you don't want to happen on your mission have happened already to me. Like being bit by a dog or having awkward contacts like the one I told you last week or being rained on all day... All that fun stuff has happened to me and my companion like everytime has said "That didn't happen to me for the longest time!"  (Okay so side note this country is soooo stuck in the 90's. It's hilarious. With the Dragon Ball Z and Simpsons and all of this music like styx playing right now) Okay so yeah uhhh My mission is awesome.

Okay so another story. Last night we contacted this old guy and we started talking but he interrupted us and said "you want to know why I go to church?" and we were like well yeah and he told us this story about how in jail he saw a spirit (he thought it was Jesus but it wasn't and you'll see why now) and the spirit reached out to shake this guys hand but their hands passed through each other and then in some other experience the clouds opened and he saw another spirit come out of the sky with a beard like waist length and he said he told people the story but they never believed him and we were like "we believe you but we know that Jesus has a body so we believe you saw SOMEbody but it wasn't Jesus" but we didn't explain all of that to him but got his address and stuff but it was like ¿Whaa!? and it was awesome because we talked about it afterward how you can tell whether apparitions are from God or the Devil by asking to shake their hands and if they are Angels they will decline to shake your hand, if they are devils they will try to shake your hand and you won't feel it, and resurrected people (like Jesus) you'd be able to feel their hands so yeah. It was pretty cool. I think we're going to work something out to send you pictures but I totally forgot my camera (fail) so We're going to figure something out with my companions camera. and it'll work well. Because I said so. Besides that I don't really know what else to talk about. I've felt like I could go throw up if I chose to basically since I got here but I don't feel sick... So I don't know what's up but I think I'm fine. Hopefully there is money in my bank account because I am going to go try and get some to buy a scarf... because I need one. So yeah. Heads up on that because I need to go work that out today in a couple hours... But hopefully nothing has been taken out since our phone call in LA so I should (key word should) be okay. =)

So I have been told by a member here (and I won't lie I just looked) that my Blog hasn't been updated since June 14th.... Just saying. Haha. I guess people would like to see that. The guy who told me is basically awesome. He should have gone to the MTC a while ago because he's been called to serve in Mozambique but he hasn't gotten his visa to the states so he spends his time going to teach with the missionaries, watching tv in english (because he speaks basically perfect english) and checking out facebook. His name is Oscar so if I have recieved friend requests from any oscars you can accept it haha. He also complimented me on my spanish because I speak it super good (apparently.... everybody says that.) he heard like a contact or something the first time he came with us and his first response was "Really Elder? You ONLY had spanish in school?" and I was like "yeah for 9 years" and he said "well everybody here has 12 years of english but does anybody speak it? No!" And then I was like ohh... well dang. But it's just the gift of tongues. Stake pres said I would see it so yeah. I'm rockin the gift of tongues! Baha.

Okay really I think I have told you everything interesting. But wait. I've had a revelation (not really but you should think that) I think as a family we've kinda sucked at keeping the sabbath day holy. especially the last few years. And since i'm a professional testimony bearer at this time I think it's important for you all to know that I think that is something we can all do better because Preach My Gospel teaches that when people don't sanctify the sabbath day Every part of their lives are negitively affected. So yeah... I think if that is made better things will work out better with everything (like axiom and money and all that) so yeah.

I hope everything is going well for all of you. I hope the Grandparents are all well. I love you all and hope that you are all safe, happy, and healthy.

-Elder Bassett

P.S. My companion thinks I'm an agent from the matrix. Because I can quote the "Mister Anderson" really well... So yeah. I'm awesome. And I will work on getting you pictures today and next week!