Portugal!!!

Elder Bascom arrived in Portugal on January 17, 2013. He is already in love with the country! He is currently serving on the Azores Island. (google it, that place is amazing!) His companions name is Elder Leonard and is from Texas!

A snippet from his latest email::

"So it doesn't feel weird to me to be on a small island. I actually love it. It is such a beautiful place to be. And the people are all really nice here. The language is slowly coming. But i have gotten a few comments from the Americans that can speak Portuguese and also natives that have all said that i can speak really well for only being here for 11 days and 9 weeks in the MTC. So i was really excited about that and it gave me a little bit of hope! So i can actually understand a lot more that i could before. I can stay caught up in a conversation with about half of the people. But the other half speak really weird and usually are missing most of their front teeth! haha."

"Oh ya Elder Leonard and I marked our first person for Baptism. His name is Miguel. Great guy but he has a little problem with smoking still but i think that we got it all taken care of. We are working alot and had a great Zone Conference yesterday! I love it here and am doing my best to speak as much as i can. But i get nervous at times and a little frustrated at others because i cant speak or say the things  that i want to. But i cant complain because i have already made a lot of progress and just need to keep working!"

We are so proud of this Elder and all the progress and work he is doing!! Already having his first baptism?? Way to go Elders! We love and miss him everyday. Til next time, Brittany.

 

Elder Bascom and his Portugal District!

The Last Week

This past week has been Elder Bascom's last week in the MTC. He recieved his VISA and is leavin on Tuesday to Portugal!! It's SO crazy how fast time has been flying!! I can't believe that the 9 weeks are alread over! He is doing so well from all of his letters! He told me that he doesn't get homesick, which is definitely a good thing, but it's wierd to think that as well, when all of us here are missing him. Ryan is honestly so stinkink excited to go serve the people of Portugal. His letters are full of strength and enthusiasm as he prepares to go. It's gonna be hard not having him just down the road, but we are so extremely proud of him and all that he is doing. This past Wednesday, January 9th, our cousin, Elder Mitch Karr, went into the MTC. He is going to the Canada, Vancover mission. Here's a cool experience that happened that day::

We had an awesome experience with Mitchell as we dropped him off at the MTC yesterday.  We timed everything just perfectly to arrive and have time to take pictures, hug, etc and when we reached the canyon road Mitch noticed he didn't have his backpack with all his books, id, passport, important papers, etc.  The rules at the MTC now are that you can't drop anything at the front desk.  Security reasons.  We pulled into the parking lot across the street and they suggested we go back and get it, which we did.  We all had a good laugh and it definitely lightened the mood from somber to fun.  When we arrived at the place to take pictures Mitch was anxious to get to the MTC because by now he was an hour late (Yes...have a laugh.  Typical Karrism) so no tears as we loaded back up and drove across the street.  Now they have "host" missionaries that greet you and take your missionary to get settled.  There were probably 30 missionaries on the curb waiting.  Some groups tried to get us to stop while the group ahead was waving us forward.  We pulled to the front spot and who was there but Ryan Bascom, Mitchell's cousin who entered the MTC in November and leaves next Tuesday!!  He had the biggest smile on his face when he saw us and one of the Elders in his group said "I think our group prayer this morning was heard!"  Mitch was supposed to forget that backpack.  We were too organized for that to happen and yet.... We hugged, we took pictures, and when he left it was just him and Ryan.  It honestly felt like he was going to off to hang with his cousin.  I'm not saying it wasn't hard but it wasn't the trainwreck of emotion that I was prepared for.

Ryan had talked about seeing his cousin at the MTC since Mitch had gotten his call. He never thought that he would get to see him very much, let alone be his first companion as he entered the MTC. What a special experience for the both of them!

 I'm not sure why the pictures arent able to load, but here is a link to Ryan's facebook page with lots of pictures!
https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.4400153009417.2160809.1456295599&type=1

 

Christmas in the MTC.

Hello everyone!
I'm so sorry that I haven't updated this in a long time... Life has been crazy! But I promise I will update it every sunday from now on!

Elder Bascom is doing extremely well! He has gotten the language down a lot better and writes short things to us in Portuguese in every letter he writes. Christmas was quiet without him, and everyone else to say the least. We weren't able to talk to him on Christmas day because he is in the MTC, but we were extremely lucky to have hand written letters delivered to us by a member in our ward from Elder Bascom. We all opened them Christmas morning and many tears were shed, by far the best Christmas present that we could have gotten. We did the 12 days of christmas for Elder Bascom and his companion. We put some random gifts in as well as some needed things. I hope that they enjoyed it just as much as we did getting it ready for them. He sent home a bunch of pictures of Christmas and them working hard, but still having fun doing it. I tried to upload them, but i couldn't get them to work, so I will try again next week!

In Ryan's most recent letters he told us that he was able to be a host missionary this past week. It's crazy that that much time has already passed! It feels like just yesterday we were dropping him off at the MTC to the other host missionaries, but now he is one himself. He also told us that his district is now the oldest district. He said, "That is really weird. But i like it too haha." He is still waiting for his Visa to come through and asked us to pray for it to come, since he is supposed to be leaving to Portugal on January 15. I honestly can't believe that he's already been gone for this long! Mom keeps telling me "only one more Christmas and he'll be home!" which is true, but it's a lot longer than that!

We are all so proud of Ryan and all that he is doing right now. I know that he appreciates all the letters and packages that you all have sent. He loves hearing from you all! In his own words, "I hope you all have a great New Year and remember to keep smiling."
-Brittany