Crazy Transfers - McMinnville, Tennessee

Hello!

Guess what. Elder Carlson and I are staying here together in McMinnville. However, we will be moving to a new house. The Spanish sisters are leaving and their area is closing. We will be taking over their house and receiving Elder Villanueva. This will be my second time in a trio and my second time being in an area speaking Spanish.

All on top of my second time with Elder Carlson and his second time in McMinnville. All in all this will be a busy week. We have to move everything from our house to the next one and then completely clean out the one we have been in. So far P-Day has been pretty adventurous.

We have been helping out the local nursing home with their activities and visiting the patients so they aren't cooped up alone all day. This last week we had a pretty funny activity to do for them.

By the way. Everyone in McMinnville pronounces my name Bass Ham. There are actually a lot of Basham's around here that I run into at the stores and see names on mailboxes. The only problem is they all say the name weird. Anyway, Hermana Reynolds thought she was really clever this week. 

Bye y'all!

Elder Basham

Back to the Mountain - McMinnville, Tennessee

Hello everyone,

This week we got to go on exchanges with the zone leaders up in Altamont. It was quite a fun experience. Elder Watt and I enjoyed getting to work together again. We had no set appointments so we spent the whole day finding. We got to see all sorts of different scenery and meet tons of cool people. There is a whole road way back on a mountain path that is full of a whole family of Japanese people. They just have houses all over the land and each of them take care of a different part of the farm. I wish I had pictures but it was too dark then. They had a series of lakes and dams in terraces and each house was on a different terrace. (I like the word terrace.) they had beautiful gardens of flowers and amazing towers of rocks all stacked by hand. It is absolutely something I never expected to find up in Altamont.

Altamont

Altamont

We also had a dog follow us tracting to several houses.

Video: Elder Basham and his Canine Companion

Also that old church has a cool bell

Video: Ringing the Church Bell

We have a rule as missionaries that we have to work out for 30 minutes every morning. Honestly this is probably the most difficult rule for me. However it can be nice if you make it fun..

I suppose running a mile to a waterfall counts as a good enough work out

Rocking the shorts and dress shoes!

Anyway I hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Basham

Charity - McMinnville, Tennessee

Hello everyone!

This was an exciting and a happy week, but there really aren't many stories to tell. Most of the great things that happened came in the form of lessons learned. Here is one of my favorites I learned from General Conference.

I learned a lot all throughout conference, but I definitely learned a lot more afterwards as I stopped and thought about all of the teachings together. After looking back there is one thing that really stands out to me and that is the importance of being Christ Centered. They talked about a lot of different gospel topics and brought up many different ways to improve. However, if we see all these things as separate and individual points to be achieved one at a time then we will be probable become overwhelmed by the vast array of things yet to do. In order to experience the true power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we must learn how all things become one in Christ and how "in Christ there should come every good thing." Principles such as the atonement, faith, repentance, and covenants only have power when they are connected to our savior Jesus Christ. All of our goals and pursuits in life will only have power to change our hearts when centered on Christ. 

The biggest way in which this has helped me is in understanding Charity. For a very long time I have sought after charity as if it were some sort of independent entity or power of its own. I was praying and working for charity as if it were an object that could be just handed to me or obtained through effort, but this is all wrong and doctrinally incomplete. "Charity is the pure love of Christ." That love exists in him, because of him, and through him. We seek this attribute in order that we may love as he loves, serve as he serves, and see others as he sees them. Most importantly we seek it that "when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure." 

If we pray and strive to be filled with the pure love of Christ and to love and serve as Him, we will have a miracle. We will come to a greater understanding of His perfection, character, attributes, and mission as our Savior and the Son of God. "And [Jesus Christ] suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not [His] own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." We will come to deeply "Know ... the one true God and Jesus Christ whom [He] hath sent." We will have our hearts changed and our desires made pure through the love of God. We will grow an unshakable Faith in Him. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you find ways to center your life and your goals on Christ. Definitely start by reading Moroni 7 and John 17

Love

Elder Basham

New Car - McMinnville, Tennessee

Hello Everyone!

Today we are in Nashville getting a new mission car. They have to take the Tiwi box off our old car and install it in the new one. They just started working on the car that was scheduled for 10:30. So we may be here a little while. We only get 36 kilo seconds of P-Day and so far 7 of those have been spent driving. I'm not quite sure how much we will actually get done today but at least I get to see lots of old missionary friends at the office.

This week has been exciting. Mostly the weather is exciting. We have had no shortage or rain or lightening storms. Probably the best storm I have seen here in Tennessee happened this week. We were out to dinner with our bishop and the power went out in the restaurant. We ended up eating the rest of our food with a flashlight. Outside the wind was blowing about 70-90 mph. Fortunately that only lasted for a few minutes and then we were free to drive through the aftermath.

Rain and Flood video part 1
Rain and Flood video part 2

On a positive note, we got to go to the temple this week. That was such an amazing experience.

However the Nashville temple isn't open all day like the ones at home. There is only a session in the morning and then another one several hours later at night and it closes in between. So unfortunately Elder Wadsworth and I were kindly asked to leave the celestial room because we had spent too much time asking questions and reading answers in the scriptures. I've never had that experience before. I am very grateful though for the temple and what a blessing it is to go and find knowledge and answers there. I learned so much about prayer and I keep learning more. I am not sure I will ever fully understand what a great blessing prayer is.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you

Elder Basham

For some reason there is a grill on our porch. I don't think
 missionaries or anyone have used it in years, but it cleaned up pretty well
. My first attempt grilling anything ever was actually quite delicious.

Have you ever seen a car that has its own wifi? Well now I have. I can send an email while going 70 mph down the interstate. Of course when Elder Carlson is driving but still awesome. The car practically drives itself with auto braking, auto lane centering, and cruise control.
Anyway this is exciting. Have a nice day y'all.

Elder Basham

2017 Chevy Malibu

I am a Child of God - McMinnville, Tennessee

Hello everyone

Yesterday in church, we sang the song I am a child of God. I was really impressed by the idea that each and every person, though singing as a group, is offering this same plea and cry for help. All of us really are children of God and need Him. Many people may not know he words, but there are millions all over the earth with this song in their hearts. 

I am a child of God,

And he has sent me here,

Has given me an earthly home

With parents kind and dear.

Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,

Help me find the way.

Teach me all that I must do

To live with him someday.

I am a child of God,

And so my needs are great;

Help me to understand his words

Before it grows too late.

Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,

Help me find the way.

Teach me all that I must do

To live with him someday.

I am a child of God.

Rich blessings are in store;

If I but learn to do his will

I'll live with him once more.

Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,

Help me find the way.

Teach me all that I must do

To live with him someday.

We had an amazing experience last night and it is shifting the way I think about missionary work. Instead of looking for people who are available for me to teach and who are willing to listen to me, I realize this work is so much different. There are hundreds of God's children who need His help. He wants to teach and bless them. I want to make myself available to them so God can help them through me. We taught a woman last night. You might call her a golden investigator or say we had an awesome lesson. But I think I would rather say that she needed her Heavenly Father and He sent us there to help her. He knew who the right missionaries were and when the right time would be. I know His hand is guiding us in the work. I know that there is nowhere I would rather have been in the entire world than that house last night. No family event, friend, job, school, or calling would have been more important to Heavenly Father than me being there. I am so grateful to know that and feel that. I want to approach the rest of my mission this way. 

I love you all. Thank you so much for all you do and the sacrifices you have made to help me be here. Have a wonderful week. 

Elder Basham 

PS. Here are the pictures from Josh's baptism. His daughter and niece and nephew were there. 

- McMinnville, Tennessee

Hello everyone!

This has been a great week. Last Sunday, president Crawford bore his testimony about the atonement in sacrament meeting. He read from hymn 185 which we had sung before the ordinance. All of the testimonies had been about the atonement and people expressed a desire to understand it more. He gave us all a promise and an invitation. He asked us to always be reverent and meek and promised that we would understand the atonement more. I have learned so much this week from doing that.
Every day I have gained a much larger understanding of and love for the Doctrine of Christ as I have sincerely prayed. Since watching the face to face, I have decided to take as much time as I need to be pray and be quite at the beginning of the night and then getting ready for bed instead of praying last minute before I crawl in. My prayers and my mind have been expanded so much. More importantly I suppose my heart has been touched. I have begun to understand that being reverent and meek is an attitude in my heart and mind. It doesn't just mean being quiet during the sacrament on Sunday. I can also be reverent and meek when I am working out in the morning, talking with my companion
or playing games with missionaries on preparation day. I am still learning how to do that, but I am grateful for all the progress that has been made.

McMinnville is amazing. This area is really picking up. I am so grateful to be here to see it. We have a family getting baptized next Saturday. It will be so amazing. The father wants to be baptized in a
creek. There is a wonderful spot here where generations of members have been baptized while the church was still new here. After the spot was announced so many people have come up to us sharing their baptismal stories with us. It is definitely great to see the whole ward excited together about something.

Have a great week everyone
Elder Basham

- McMinnville, Tennessee

Hello everyone

This has been one of the best weeks ever. I have had so much fun with Elder Carlson. We have also gotten so much amazing work done. We had zone conference! It was awesome.

Zone Conference

We didn't end up leaving until 7 because of interviews with President Stone, but we ended up talking with the other missionaries for four hours while we waited. I told every story from every children's picture book I could remember. I think our favorite was the story of Punchinello and the Wemmicks.

I love it because it reminds me that all of us are special and have value because we are children of God. Sometimes as people we try to determine our value based on the things we have or the way others think of us. It is good to remember that Heavenly Father loves all of us and he doesn't see us the way other people do.

I love you all!

Elder Basham

We won the golden hubcap for having the best car. Two transfers in a row. Go us!