Jessica- wow it feels like a long time since I’ve done this. Lets see… well I don’t know if I ever mentioned Jane and Ashley but they are two adorable super nice girls that came over a few weeks ago to introduce themselves.(Jane just moved here about a year ago and she is so much fun. Ashley dated the old missions presidents son so he told them to come talk to me and be friends with me ‘cause he knew what it was like) but anyways I spent about a week with them and had a blast. They like to go out to eat a lot though so we’ll see how long I can keep that up without a job. When school started, they introduced me to a bunch of people from school that are all very friendly. We met a girl that just moved here from
Taylor-Hello again everybody!! This first week of school compared to the summer before it felt like a year!! My teachers are pretty weird and the only one I really like is Mr. Bailey (Spanish). He is this old, white guy that looks like a Santa clause without a hat but with a longer beard. He has white fuzzy hair sticking out all over his head. Geo/Trig class is really hard and the basic impression that she is giving me is just give up you can’t get an A anyway so you might as well not try. She gives lots of homework, but she seems like she is a nice person, but not a nice teacher. Biology honors is really boring, but the teacher isn’t really that bad…she is just…. over-organized. Symphonic band is pretty good….there is this one kid that plays the trumpet that will get mad if you sit at the end of the row because he wants to pretend like he is first chair so that is always fun. In English it is really easy, there is not a lot of homework and I think that will be the easiest class this year. There are really good lunches…but they are waaaayyy expensive. Since they are building new buildings there is construction everywhere. Oh and I almost forgot about P.E. basically you get dressed and use whatever locker you feel like and go and stretch out your neck then play your basic no rules volleyball for the rest of the time. We never go outside because it is too hot so they don’t want us to get dehydrated and we just play whatever and nobody really cares because you basically get an A whether you sit on the side of the gym and talk to friends or play whatever game they are offering that day. The volleyball nets are about six feet high and the balls are made of rubber. That explains the schools well organized P.E. program in just a few sentences. So anyway seminary started on Tuesday. There are about thirty people in the class and there is only one class. Our teacher is really smart and knows a lot about the bible. (We are studying the Old Testament this year). I sit next to the boys my age in the back and they just try to act cool and talk the entire time. Yesterday I taught a couple lessons with the assistants. We taught about faith for one of them and gaining a testimony. Oh and to finish up I am running out of pictures to look at so send me some of all of you guys!! willtay93@gmail.com
Amanda-this first week was a great school week. I have lots of classes and I’m trying to meet new people. (Jessica is taking over now cause Amanda is too embarrassed to tell) a boy came up to Amanda the other day and asked her if she would go out with his friend because he likes her. She said she was scared to death. (back to Amanda) I miss you. Hope you come and visit soon. Amanda
Brandon-Hey guys, how is everybody doing? Hope you can visit sometime. So far I’ve made 8 friends. My teacher name’s is Mrs. Jones, and she’s really nice. She likes to know about us. A funny thing about Mrs. Jones is that she likes monkeys. At my school, there’s a new kind of wall ball. One time I threw the ball. Then I caught it and threw it again and caught again. No one got a turn for about 10 x’s because I kept catching it. I’m pretty good at it. It feels like it’s only been a few days since I’ve moved here and already I’m starting school. Last night I went outside I could hear some crickets. They were really loud and only just in our back yard. I got real close so I could catch one, but it was too dark to see him. There are some quails that live in our backyard. There are some babies and they are so cute. They are really really, really tiny, but we have to be careful that Lucky doesn’t chase them or eat them. They hide in the bushes so it’s hard to see them. We put out bird seed so they would come out and we made a trail to the door so they will eat it and get closer and closer to the door. Elder DeCesare bought the bird seed and he has a big bag in his office. I am learning to play the trumpet at school. It is one of my specials classes. We learn to play the drums, to sing and play an instrument. I wanted to learn the saxophone, but it is expensive and
Jeffrey-dear everyone, I miss you very much. I hope you guys are having a nice time. I am having a nice time. At my new class there is mice and a black spider (a tarantula-and he forgot to mention the pet rats, hermit crabs and giant turtles) and the one I like the most died. I am having a great time. When I go to the office my dad gives me chocolate if I tell him I love him. I am learning the piano. My teacher is Ms. Ila. She has lots of treats. I am really good. It is my birthday in 3 more days. I’m so excited! Love, Jeffrey
Mark –
They caught me at a weak moment and convinced me that I should be a more active participant this week. I’m sure the rest of the family has been filling you in on the details. We are healthy and happy and very, very busy. Frankly, I don’t know of a time in my life when I have been busier and more tired. It is, however, a very fulfilling exhaustion. The love we have developed for these missionaries is amazing. We are very attached and they seem to be putting up with us well enough. We just finished a week of zone conferences where we split the mission up into 5 groups and met with one group each day, Monday through Friday. We met at 7:30am and finished at 1:00pm. By the end of the week Angie and my assistants were really tired of listening to me speak for hours. I don’t feel that bad for them, imagine how I feel? I have to be with myself every hour of the day! Stake conferences have begun and we are speaking every weekend in these meetings. Last Sunday I spoke at a 7:30am priesthood meeting, at 10:00am stake conference, and a 12:30 new member conference. Tomorrow we will leave here at 5:30am travel to Taylor, AZ speak there, then travel to Heber, AZ for another speaking assignment and then race back to Mesa to speak at a fireside for a Spanish speaking group. It might not sound like much on paper, but it keeps us moving (7 hours of driving in one day makes me a little grumpy). Interviews begin next week with each of the missionaries and this will take me about 10 days, then decide how to rearrange the mission with 5 missionaries going home and 17 arriving the next day. It is exciting work and we begin each day enthusiastic about what lies ahead. Today I have a meeting with Elder Fluckiger who is the Area Seventy from
Angie-
OK-this time I’m holding everyone up. I had hoped to get this off on Saturday, but it was not to be. We survived our first week of school and our first week of zone conferences. It was a little crazy, but we got through it. I went to back to school night at the high school and it was so strange not to recognize one single face! Not a teacher, parent or student. It just felt….new-with all that that implies. We spoke at our first stake conference* last week while back home in Antelope the new stake presidency was holding its first stake conference. (I heard it was fantastic by the way.) It made for some nostalgic moments. We had the ‘opportunity’ to speak, & it went great. The stake building was filled and there were rooms all around the building with translations going on in Spanish and Tongan. It was that stake presidency’s 1st conference as well. Kind of fun. Mark had already spoken earlier that morning at a stake priesthood meeting, so he was all warmed up and did a fantastic job. I felt good about what I said and was so grateful for the promptings of the spirit. We had a meeting with new members after conference that was mostly in Spanish.
I don’t feel like I’m getting any better at Spanish, but we spoke last night at another mission president’s fireside and the elders said I had done better. I think they were being very generous and don’t want to discourage me. But I also know that what I can’t express in words, the spirit can teach through feelings. That is the remarkable aspect of all of this. I can talk-and know I can barely get the sentences out, but what I feel, I feel so powerfully. I can tell that the people who are listening are receiving the message they need to hear. I can tell by the looks in their faces. All of the missionaries expressions are encouraging, “It’s OK Sister Bassett, keep going, you can do it, a little more, that’s it, good job….” like if you were encouraging a small child who’s learning to read. But the expressions of the people who have come to learn more about the church are different. They reflect what I feel inside, what I’m trying to say in their language. That at least is comforting, even if I have hardly a clue to what they say and what to say back when we talk with people one on one afterwards. It was a long day yesterday. Mark I had to leave the house at 6:00 to go to a stake conference in the northern areas of the mission. It’s just over a 3 hour drive (through absolutely beautiful landscapes! I tried to take pictures through the moving car window-but they weren’t so hot.) We spoke at one session at 10:00 and another at 2:00. Then we raced home to get to the fireside at 7:00. By the time we came home we were so tired (and hungry! We didn’t prepared well and only had some water bottles, apples, nuts, carrots and lunch meat for the whole day-we’ll do better next time-actually it’s probably a good thing since we’re both gaining weight like crazy. We’re fed by the sisters at each zone conference-and they always over feed us with incredibly delicious and fattening food. Dessert everyday! It’s hard to resist when your hungry. And if it’s not zone conference, it’s something else.). But anyway, when we came home Jessica had already pit the kids to bed. They had been playing hide and seek and other games and had just settled them down. (It was 8:30). But of course, as soon as they heard us, one by one they filed into the kitchen and we visited and talked about our days. Of course-out came the rest of Mark’s birthday cake, so we all had dessert once again-at 9:00! Oh well. It was fun to be together. Even with all the racing around-we still work hard to be around when the kids are home. Most of the things I do, I’m trying to do while the kids are school. Last week, I was able to beat them home most days with a few exceptions. And then I try to just focus on them. It’s really nice actually. Of course, with Mark’s office right in the backyard, they see him all the time, either going over to visit with hum during the day, or him coming back to fix us all breakfast or get reports on the days events at school. That part of this has been such a blessing. They get to see dad a lot more now.
We did take one day to visit in the north and spent the night up there. It was Mark’s birthday, so we planned to drive up, have a nice dinner, stay at a hotel (a beautifully restored hotel along the railroad designed as a blend of Mexican-native American cultures.) On the way up, one of the Monsoons started to roll through the area. It was awesome. The sky was layered with white against the horizon and big black storm clouds. We actually saw a huge black cloud and guess what-it had a silver lining. I always thought that was just an expression. I tried to take a picture, but we’ll have to see how it turned out. Anyway, there was lightening everywhere where few seconds. Straight down, side ways, different bolts connecting and intertwining with each other, even bolts that went parallel with the ground way above our heads. Mark saw two huge bolts crash to the ground with terrific explosions up ahead of us. When we arrived at the town, we went to meet a stake president. The rain had started to come down in huge torrents. The power was out at his home, so we met with him and his wife over a camp light. It was fun-they were such a great couple. Then we went to find one of our missionaries apartments, but there was so much flooding in the streets, and it was so dark, we couldn’t find it. So we decided to get to our hotel and have dinner at the restaurant there. We drove to the next town, and the power was out there, too. Those lightening strikes/explosions were the two transformers for the towns getting hit. There were police cares everywhere, redirecting cars through the flooded areas (it’s illegal here to drive through flooded streets, big fines, and you have to pay for any emergency vehicles used to get you out.). It was so black everywhere, and it was raining. We finally got to our hotel and the power was out. No restaurants, they were trying to find batteries for flashlights…Mark had his pilot’s flashlight so we were OK. But we were hungry, it was 9:00 pm, and we hadn’t eaten since lunch. We started driving around to look for some food somewhere, but it was like a maze to find anything. When we finally reached the highway, we headed towards lights somewhere in the distance. We finally found a KFC (my favorite?). When we came back, power was back on everywhere in the town, except our hotel. We went to bed, only to be awoken at 2:00 when the power, and ALL the lights, came back on. Happy birthday Mark! Jeffrey’s birthday is tomorrow, and I think it will be a much better experience. I have to figure out where to buy a piñata, but we’ll get it done! We love you all. Thanks for your support!
angie
*Stake conference happens in each area twice a year-leaders in the stake address all 6-10 congregations at one time.
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