Mission Life and Earth Life

This sisters with their plachards for announcing tours after Music and the Spoken Word.

Dear Family and Friends

Wow what a week, so many ups and downs ins and outs.

T was baptized a couple weeks ago, I don't think I mentioned that. She has a job now, which is good but it makes her miss church every other Sunday. :P  P my recent convert took us out for dinner. It was nice to catch up. V is getting baptized on SUNDAY! Hopefully we can get Skype all set up so we can see the baptism.  We are also trying to get in touch with a RM from that area so they can help us teach his parents who speak Creole (A Frenchish language.), and get them to a branch there :D 

We went to the temple this morning and I really needed it. Sometimes it is really hard to stay focused. I compare mission life and experiences to Earth life experiences. Just go with me for a minute, okay.

Kilroy was here.

See we are all here on Earth; but its not REALLY where we belong. We are here to learn and be better, gain a body and learn from trials. But we really belong with our family in heaven where we can do so much. We don't even really understand what we can do. 

I feel the same about a mission. As missionaries we are here for a cretin amount time to learn and grow, become better; but its not really where we are meant to be for a long time. We have certain restrictions that we agreed to, but we are capable of so much, on and off a mission.

Sister B signing that she is offering tours in ASL.

 Don't get me wrong I love my mission, its the best/hardest thing I have ever done and I can say the same about my Earth life. I can't remember much about my pre-earth life (God knew it would be much harder if I could). I mean being able to remember my pre-mission life is hard enough. Not that I'm going back to a lot of that, I hope I don't go back to how I was in my pre-earth life. We have trials for a reason. We came here for a reason. No one said it was going to be easy; In fact I'm pretty sure we all knew it was going to be really really hard. Same thing with a mission…

I love my mission. Everything I go through here is making me better. Making me want eternal life more. I have had such a desire to be better this week and maybe thats why I have been so down is because its really hard to live up to what your mind wants you to be. I don't want to waste this time. Its going to be a long time before I get a chance like this again. I know RM's say its so hard to not be a missionary any more. I wonder if we will say that same thing about being mortal? Hmmm food for thought.

Girls just wanna have fun.

I hope you all have a great week, I love you and wish you all the best

Remember you are Braver than you Believe, Stronger than you Seem and Smarter than you Think.
Sister Bascom

Zone Conference, Repentance and Temple Blessings.

The sisters that returned to the square mid May from outbound missions. 

WOW another week just flies by! I can't believe we are halfway through this transfer! This morning I was studying about Abraham for our LA, to help her see she is not the only one with parents that don't follow the example of our Saviour. I started getting all caught up in trying to understand who beget who, who married, how they were related and where they went to live. I love learning about that stuff. I need to see it on a big chart though so my mind can figure that out. Maybe one of these P days or when I get home. The scriptures are just so great! Chalked full of goodness! Understanding our family history is also really good and I look forward to doing so much when I get home. Especially bringing the names of my ancestors to the temple. Goodness knows I want reasons to go over and over and over again! My mom sent this to me this week "This week to celebrate the anniversary of grandma's passing (Celebrate seems like the wrong work. Honour his memory is more appropriate.) Dad , Grandma and I went to the temple and did 21 sealings. There were several that I was flooded with the spirit with a confirmation that they were waiting and accepting those ordinances....Elizabeth and Hyrum are going to the temple to do baptisms They each have half a dozen family names to do."I love how family history and temple work is becoming a family event at my home. I know the spirit will be with my family even more now. It is such a blessing to have the temple so close by. I hope we all utilize it and the blessings we gain from it.

Okay so funny, Funny story!

Last night while I was at one of the desks. I saw a man with a IPad that had the temple on it, so I went up and started talking to him. He told me he was from Cal. and was with his brother who he introduced me to saying  "He is deaf." I said "Oh, AWESOME!." and we started signing away to each other. I told him a lot about myself and the work on TS. He told me he was from Riverbend ASL branch and I said "Oh I was talking to the president of the branch a little while ago about one of the investigators there, it started with a C..." He said "Oh you are the sister missionary that called me I thought I recognized you!" Hahhaha we laughed so hard and long about that. We had talked like a week earlier and hadn't recognized each other . :P He knew Pres. Born who was my MTC president. They were in the same branch and Bro Born was his MTC teacher :P

Love how small the ASL/LDS world is :D

 We had zone conference this week and it was SO GOOD! I loved ZC (zone conference) because during testimony meeting I was trying to feel the spirit but I was having a hard time. I have been lacking in purpose in my personal studies and in my prayers and of course this is the foundation to your whole day. Last week I also missed the sacrament while I was helping Sis Talatoka (A sick sister in my zone.) get to church, so all of these things combined made me not feel as spiritually prepared as I should have been. So I have rededicated myself and felt a difference already.  Sis Briggs made me cry at the end. She is just so sweet and just loves so deeply. Her love of the Savior, the way she talks about him always inspires me to learn more about him. I have several friends like that and I feel blessed to know them.

Sister Yeung and I have been having a great time together. She is just so sweet and I have learned so much this transfer, mostly about how to teach effectively and how to love others and feel the spirit more. We are both striving to be our best and so we are really working together, learning on each other. Sister Yeung has been fighting a cold this last week as I think we all are. Trying to stay healthy can be so hard sometimes. Especially when people keep giving you candy and you have a sweet tooth… Anyways

Remember you are Braver than you Believe, Stronger than you Seem and Smarter than you Think
Love Sister Bascom

Yep NO Time! I LOVE You.

Dear Family and Friends

I'm out of time again so I will again sum up what I have been emailing other people:

I have been reading this amazing story about an Elder that served in England (Where Elder Ruttan is.) He is from Italy and baptized over 100 people on his mission. He literately "Feared no man." and was so in tune with the spirit, he said "It was like I was talking to another person". Elder Clake of the 70 gave told us about him and then gave the story to one of the sisters in my zone.

Yep that is about it for time... sorry I will make up for it next time. 

Remember you are Braver than you Believe, Stronger than you Seem and Smarter than you Think.
Love, 
Sister Bascom

Pray He Is There. Speak He is Listening

Dear Family and Friends

Sorry I am short on time again so (please for give the spelling and grammar….)

TRANSFERS, were this week and my new P day is Friday. Sister Peters is now a DL or our district and is with Sister Mashbat from Mongolia! They will be great together. They are still in West Gate Sister peters is the only one that stayed out of both West zones so she has to train her whole district on WG! ( West gate handles getting the sisters to take drop in tours.) BTW we had a great b-day party for her. She has joined the 20's club :D

I am now serving with Sister Yeung from Hong Kong. I joined her as a ZL in N3. This zone is on square a lot and  and with sister Yeung speaking Mandarin, Cantonese and German we are really really busy! :P But its been great!  We are teaching really well together. I know most of our zone really well. Sister Crazy Kennach and I are going to have SO much fun! More picture to come I promise!

T is getting baptized tomorrow!!!!! So here is her story! T was passed to me by a sister going out bound. First time I talked to her she wasn't really interested. Her friend and some of her family had really been just pressing her to learn and she wasn't ready. I called her a few times, she said she just wanted a friend to talk to. It was always hard to get a hold of her with her being in school and taking care of her dad. I went outbound and we lost contact. She was one of the first people I called when I got back and I invited her to really learn and let it change her life. She said she wanted that structure in her life. We have been teaching her ever since. At one point she didn't know if she could be baptized because her mom didn't really approve of the church... We suggested she should talk to her and than text us. We waited a week and she texted saying she wanted to talk.  She said she was a grow women and didn't feel like she needed to get her moms approval for anything and now she is getting baptized!!!!!

Also Amy (Amy is a recent convert that Sister B shared the gospel with.) is coming to SLC next week and I FINALLY get to meet her in person! I am also excited to start teaching her son this transfer :D

Last thoughts: I have really been thinking about how to act like Jesus in situations when you just want to slap people and say "you are wrong this is the ONLY way!!!".... not very Christ like. I constantly have to think about  Victor Garcia and how he said before he joined the church how he couldn't understand why the members were so Christlike. I want people to look at me that way, whether or not they join as long as they see that I am Christian and I am happy.

This morning I got to share my favorite primary song, that really helped me growing up, with a member or pour faith that is struggling: 

"Heavenly Father are you really there? And do you hear and answer ever child's prayer?"

I still ask him this question a lot, but than I get to answer my own question in the second verse:

"Pray, he is there. Speak, he is listening. You are his child, his love now surrounds you. He hears your prayers, he loves the children, of such is the kingdom the kingdom of Heaven"

Remember you are Braver than you Believe, Stronger than you Seem and Smarter than you Think
LOVE Sister Bascom

Service, Use Time Wisely, Share

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been really good, I'm sad this transfer is coming to a close so quickly but I look forward to my new callings with the new transfer. So I don't know when my next Pday will be so you will all have to sit tight. For all I know it could be Wednesday or next Tuesday... now that would really suck. 

I was studying about service the other day and we have been talking about pride with our less active recently. I think President Monson is an excellent example of unselfish service. Last night Sister Peters and I both thought we needed to spend our square time more wisely. We usually plan 3 places to go and as soon as we get to the square we feel we need to get there as fast as possible. We pass so many people as we rush from place to place looking for those waiting for the gospel. It reminded me of what I read in PMG (PMG is Preach My Gospel it is the Missionary gaining book.) in chapter 9 is states "While the Prophet Joseph Smith was traveling with a group of missionaries on the Missouri River, the Lord revealed, “It is not needful for … mine elders to be moving swiftly … whilst the inhabitants on either side are perishing in unbelief” (D&C 61:3)." 

We set a goal for today to not plan places to go but to just follow the spirit. I'm happy to say we now have a new investigator that lives here in Utah and has lots of questions. She has lived here her whole life but never really investigated the church! I feel so blessed and so stupid at the same time as I strive to be better I see all these great results. I can't help think to myself "Why didn't I do this sooner!? I am the one stopping myself from receiving all these blessings". I see that in my investigators too, and all the people around me. Our Father is SO amazing and wants to bless us, but we stop him from doing so. Because he cannot bless us when we aren't willing to put in a little work of our own. 

Sister Peters and I watched an amazing video this morning, the churches newest mormon message. I hope that you will all share it with your friends and family. I was just so so so blown away by it! I love the gospel and how it really does change lives to drastically.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3701964025001&cid=HPTH073114368

Have a great week everyone and know that I love you!

Remember you are Braver than you Believe, Stronger than you Seem and Smarter than you Think
Love Sister Bascom