Elder Jeffrey Bassett: Let's Eat Pasta

All right! *cracks knuckles* Let's do this.

The District!

Tuesday:

We had a lesson with a new guy, Algace, and it went AMAZING. It might have been the best lesson we ever taught. He was asking questions and engaging. It ended with him agreeing to read the Book of Mormon and pray about whether it's true. Then, immediately after, we had a lesson with Devanir. The lesson was another great one. It lasted about an hour. We covered the plan of salvation, the restoration, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was so interested, and said he wanted to come to our church. He pointed out that our church was different from others; it has actual doctrine to learn. We asked when he gets out of the hospital and... he got out two days earlier!!! Which means we can drop off a Book of Mormon. We are so excited to talk to him more. He loved the lesson, and said he believes there is more that God has prepared us to learn. We spoke about baptism and covenants as well. From there, we went straight to get flu shots, and that was the day.

Wednesday:

When we got back, we had a lesson with Augosto, and it also went great. We asked him about his experience reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. He told us that his faith was growing, that he felt better spiritually, and that he found himself drawing closer to God in his desires. It was an awesome experience, and we invited him to attend church. He wasn't able this week but wanted to next week. After that lesson, we went to the Hortas to get back a plate we had given them and drop off more cookies. We left with a bag of apples, peaches, two cases of wet wipes, two slices of cake, a guitar, and our plate. They are just the best; there is no other way to put it. We have a hard time getting in contact with the members over here, but when we do, it's such a fulfilling experience. From there we went to a food kitchen to offer service for a couple hours. It was there that I got Bible bashed for the first time haha. An older guy was talking to me while I filled bags. He asked why I was there, and I responded I was on a mission for my church. He was impressed and asked what church. I responded "The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints"... "some people call us mormons." He wasn't that happy anymore, and he wanted us to go with

Cookie Grease stains on my journal.
Whoops!

him to his church. I asked for his number so I could get the address, and he said he would just show me. He gave us the most Bostonian directions you've ever heard of. *in Boston accent, "All right, so what you're gonna want to do is take this street right here; this is called main street. And you're gonna drive it that way until you get to a stoplight and turn right. From there you'll follow the road until you see an old building with a sign called the foundry. If you get to the train station you've gone too far." After that, he left us alone to go back to doing service. All in all an interesting experience. When we got home around 3 hours later, we ate some of the peaches the Hortas gave to us. They were AMAZING. I walked around the apartment with a peach in each hand, cause ya, I'm living the high life. After that we had some time to exercise, so I asked Elder Bodily I'd he wanted to do it with me. He responded "Naw, I'm just gonna go eat pasta." We both started laughing just cause he said it completely unironically. And that was our day.

Thursday:

I know what you're thinking, weekly planning. Actually, no. Not at all this week in fact. We never ended up having time. What we did do is give the Haitian Creole elders our car. They share one with the Zone Leaders but can't always use it. So they always need us to drive down, pick them up, drive home, then give them the keys. We finally got home and were gonna call Devanir when the fire alarm went off! It was nothing, but 20 minutes later we got back and the unthinkable happened, it didn't ring. Just went straight to unavailable. This is what happens when you're blocked, so we were kinda sad. During our last lesson I had a STRONG prompting to ask for his address to write it down, but ignored it because I didn't want to interrupt Elder Bodily. He has a brother-in-law who is a preacher for another church. We are afraid he made Devanir block us, as that's something that happens. We found out later when we tried to call on a different phone that it did the same thing, which means that actually his phone is probably just dead. We hope we can get back in touch with him.

Friday:

100 days as a missionary!

Started off with District Leader council, which is where the District leaders in our zone meet with the zone leaders to coordinate the efforts in our areas. From there, we went to district council to relay the information back to our district. After that we had a call with Deborah. When we called and said it was the missionaries, she immediately hung up. That stung a lot; I can't lie. We spend so much time preparing and talking about how we can help each person, praying about it as well. And we've been building a relationship with her for months. Then out of nowhere, she starts ignoring us the past couple weeks. It's a part of the missionary experience though, patience and faith.

Saturday:

Naturally, I woke up and made cookie dough, because why wouldn't I. We then had a lesson with a member named Ana Maria, which I'm only bringing up, because it's so hard to get in touch with members; so it's always exciting. From there we had a normal day, until our devotional on facebook with Brad Wilcox. It was AWESOME! I learned a lot about my own life, and how I can be a better missionary. Anyone who wants to watch it is welcome to, it's on my Facebook profile. From there, we had an interested woman that we called to see if she wanted to meet. She said she was busy, as her mother was having an operation on Monday, and she had to take care of her at home. That's when we thought of a good idea for that cookie dough, haha. So we brought a plate of 15ish cookies to her house and apparently they liked them cause they asked for the recipe. The only problem is that I do not know how to convert recipes from English to Portuguese, haha. It's a lot harder than you'd think.

Sunday:

Woke up with two referrals for interested people! However one of them spoke English, and the other one lived in New Hampshire so we sent their information to the appropriate missionaries. To this day, out of the dozen or so referrals I have received, they've all been for other areas, haha. Sunday we had normal church services, and ended with a devotional by Elder and Sister Rasband. After that we got a text from the Assistant Missionaries that our Districts Pday, the day once a transfer that we are allowed to hang out in person other than district council, was gonna be Monday. We were pumped, but had to figure out what to do. Planning transportation and activities was a bit of a chore, but we figured it out.

Monday:

And here we are, district p day. We went to the park, ate, and walked around. From there we went to a bowling alley for a bit and just talked and got to know each other. It was great, and a much needed chance to get some fresh air haha.