Elder Jeffrey Bassett: Atabaia

Zone Conference at the temple!

Atibaia City

This week I was with Elders Ashton and Bryan in a city called Atibaia. The week started off a little rough. We spent the night in Ouro Verde, and the elders got home after 10, because they were calling their families at the chapel. So, we talked to the zone leaders whom they lived with, and told them they would have to talk to them and make sure it doesn't happen again. Then we learned that they do that every week and the zone leaders say nothing. While we were resolving that, they got a text from another companionship saying, "Hey we'll get there in 20 minutes"... This is at 10:40. Keep in mind that as missionaries we need to be in our house at 9:00. It's a big rule. If you're teaching, and only if you're teaching, you can be get home before 9:30. You can call your family on Mondays until 6. The amount of thoughtlessness in this night shocked me. So around 11 these other elders get there. They had planned an exchange with the zone leaders, and decided to leave their house at 8:30 and get there at 9:30, 30 minutes late. That’s assuming every single bus arrives on time, and they don't miss any, which has never been the case. Then we told the zone leaders to go talk to them and see what happened and let them know it wasn’t ok. It’s hard to give corrective feedback, but this frustrates me. So we were the bad guys of the night. I guess all’s fair in love and war.

The exchange was good, but we definitely needed more time. The elders are both new to the mission and have one transfer each in Brazil. So, while they're good elders, they are in way over their head. They don't speak the language, and they’re taking care of what used to be 3 areas last transfer. Their area book had about 50-100 people marked as being taught, but most of them hadn't been contacted in over a month and some of them more than 5 months. And every single person was taught, "God is our loving heavenly father" and that's it. Then there were 100's of people marked as interested who also had basically never been contacted. It wasn't their fault; they inherited 3 sloppy area books that turned into one big mess, but wow. Elder Ashton is so much fun, he was with Elder Lima. In the first 5 minutes I met him, he said the word ‘healthy’ at least 20 times. And he has this perfect laugh that kinda sounds like he's faking an evil laugh, but it’s genuine and warm. The first 5 minutes, "Ya, I'm REALLY healthy, ha ha ha." "I love being healthy ha ha ha." "My favorite food is spinach, I know I know haha, I'm really healthy." It became the joke of the week, he's so fun haha. Elder Bryan was my companion. He has 4 months on a mission and 1 transfer and a half in Brazil. He's working really hard on his portuguese and is trying his best. We had a lot of fun calling people on area book, making ‘healthy’ jokes and rich laughs to each other. I knew he hadn't eaten anything other than spinach and kale for 4 weeks, so I let him know that wouldn't be a problem with me. We ordered a large pizza that was half 4 cheese and half bacon turkey. Then a large dessert pizza that was half strawberry with nutella and half caramelized bananas. We ate the entire thing together then the next day got all you can eat sushi.

We were able to put two people on date this week. One was with Elder J Lima and I! The first time we've taught together. It was my dream lesson. He had no concept of religion. He didn't have any belief about God, had heard about Jesus Christ but didn't know anything, didn't know what the Holy Spirit was etc. For the past two weeks I've been studying the ministry of the Sons of Mosiah, so I was perfectly prepared for the lesson. It’s a dream I always had, and he agreed to get baptized if he got an answer about the Book of Mormon. The other person who accepted a date was Cita. Elder Bryan and I went to her house on Saturday and taught her about the restoration. While I was teaching, I had no idea, but I felt like I needed to talk about ordinances. So I spent 5 minutes explaining the ordinances of the gospel, and that its by them that the power of God is made manifest. I don't know why I needed to talk about that, but I'm positive it’s something that God told me to teach. And she accepted the invitation to be baptized on the same day as Fábio when she receives an answer about the Book of Mormon.

Church was a little rough, in the entire ward 4-6 people were paying attention. Everyone else was turned around talking and laughing including the branch president and his counselor. It was like those 15 minutes before church when the prelude is playing but the bishop hasn't gotten there, only during testimony meeting. And I didn't hear anything, because I was fixating on the noises. So I got up and bore my testimony on the importance of our testimony, and how the difference which our church is it’s one where each and every member can testify that they're here because they received an answer from God... And that's a sacred thing that separated our church from others. And I talked about how in other churches people yell and shout but we don't. Then I talked about Elijah and how the voice of the Lord wasn't in the earthquake or the fire or the wind, but it was a still small voice. And I said that still small voice speaks to us but only when we listen carefully. It was essentially a mini talk. And I'd love to tell you everyone was immediately stopped the side conversations but sadly no one even heard me, haha. My bad. anyways.... that’s the week.