Transfers!!

Hey Family,

So hey this week was a great week. We found this really elect lady. Here name is Iolanda and her daughter Jessica. So we taught the first lesson and gave her a book of Mormon. And the way that we found here was that she came to the church and said that she wanted to have the lessons by the missionaries. So ya way cool! Then after the first lesson we invited her to pray about the book o Mormon and read 3rd nephi 11. So we called the next day and she said that she felt amazing after she prayed and that she was really happy. So we already had marked a next visit. Then we marked her for baptism for the 7th of July. it was really funny because when we were marking her she just kept saying yes and so we just kept asking the question so we could say the date. But it was  really cool and she is so elect. Also i sort of got transferred. My area got switched with one of the other areas in my district. So my new area is in Alamda. But the weird thing is that i will sleep in the same house and have to take a train to my new area every day. But it will be kinda hard to do all of this. But oh well and that's mission life. Also in my district i had the zone leaders and two groups of sister missionaries wow that was hard to think of in English haha. but now its just me, my comp Elder Harris we stayed together so we both have finally had a comp for more than 1 transfer. and then just one group of sister missionaries. So ya its alot smaller now. So i am pretty sad to not be in my old area any more because the people there are really awesome and i don't want to leave because we have alot of great investigators. But i will do my best to work and give my all in the new area. So ya that is my crazy life right now. But its good and i will see all of the people on Sundays because we have the same church building so that is really cool. And for all of you life sounds crazy but at the same time good. And Dad is everything going to be alright with your Elbow?! i hope so and i will pray more for you! But that is exciting that Kirsten and the kids are up in the house right now. It was great to hear from you all and i love you sorry this isn't super long but ya i don't have a ton of time. But i love you and hope that you are all doing great! And by the way is it hot there right now? Because here it is crazy with how hot it gets everyday! But ya things are great right now. Probably will be a little crazy for a while but still it will be fun. and hey i am on a mission right now in Portugal! Doesn't get much better than that! Love you all and have a great day!

Love Elder Bascom

Happy 7 months!!

Hey y'all!

So how's my family doing? Hopefully great! So it does sound like everything is going a little crazy. But things here are doing pretty good for me. Being a district leader is still hard but i am starting to get the hang of it right now. So that is kinda nice and i don't feel super stressed. The only crazy thing is that i am in the last week of this transfer already. I can't believe that. I can't believe how fast the mission is passing. But its also cool to see how long i have already come from where i was when i first got here. but also i have alot that i still need to do in order to be at where i should be. I have some worries about this next transfer because i might leave and i really don't want to because this area really is amazing! Oh ya and HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD, KAMERON, DEVIN, and JAMIE. I love you guys and hey thank you all for the examples that you set for me. And here i actually had forgotten that yesterday was fathers day. And we ate at the house yesterday. We had sandwiches and ice cream haha. It was a very nutritional meal. I am pretty jealous of what you all ate. It sounded amazing. I hope that you send me some or keep some of the elk until i get home. Or get another one right before i get home. And ya it sounds like it was a super nice day and really chill. Nice day to spend with the family. So i can't believe that Brad is already in the MTC and starting the mission. I feel like it was so long ago and that i can barely remember it. So hey how did all of the preparation go for YWs camp? I hope that everything ended up working and that it wasn't too stressful. And how are all of the movings going with the great room for Dev and Kirsten? and how are all of the babies and kids doing? It was awesome to see all of them last week in the pictures. And ya that whole first 7 months went by crazy fast. And i will be hitting 6 months here in Portugal next month. I am just trying to make sure that i am working hard and i do the things i should to work the best i can. And i can't believe that everyone is coming home already that was gone. Also that everyone younger is starting to go on their missions. How is it that people are growing up so fast. I don't think that i ever actually thought about how fast things would happen. Especially since i would have wanted to learned more and taken things more seriously. So also tell that to anyone that is wanting to serve a mission that they can actually think about that and realize that things pass by way to fast. Well really though on my end things are great and i love it out here. It is the hardest thing that i have ever done but also the most worth while i have done also. Like when it comes to seeing how people can change and turn for the better. Also it is really fun to meet crazy people. I have met alot of people who really don't like the USA and i think that's funny. But that is one of the best things about being in a different country. Also the 3 girls that we baptized aer so awesome and are super strong members right5 now and they just are like sponges wanting to absorb everything they can. Also it was really cool to see that Ana the lady we baptized last transfer she got a calling and it was super cool to see that actually happen. She is one of the coolest people in Portugal and is going to be one of the strongest members here. Ah it is so cool to see people change adn to know that i got the chance to help with that. Well i love you all and i hope that you all have a great day adn remember that i really do love you and think about you all and pray for you all everyday. Love from a crazy elder in portugal. Remember that times go by quick but that we have got to enjoy them while we have them!

Elder Bascom

 

 

Hey Hey Hey

So this week started off great and ended a little slow but it was still great. So my comp and i are doing great. Transfers are this next week. I hope that i stay here for one more and after that there is a good likelyhood that i could possible training a new missionary that is crazy. The way that us Elders travel between islands is by plane right now but i think we could take a farry. But not sure. We have a great couple that we are teaching but the man doesn't think that he needs to be married which is really annoying. But we are praying that he will pray and get an answer. But today we did a volta around the island which just means that we toured the island i will send some of the pics from today. It was a lot of fun. That is crazy that everyone is leaving and coming home from missions. Tell them all hi for me if you can. Sorry this pday went a little long so i can't write alot but i love you all i think that i answered the questions that most of you had if not i am sorry and ask them next week adn i will answer them. But i love all of you and i really look forward to hearing from you. And that is not anything to do with trunky it actually makes me want to work harder. Well ate proximo vez família. The weather here is really rainy right now.

Love Elder Bascom

 

his emails just seem to be getting shorter and shorter!! but we still love him! enjoy some snapshots he sent us::

 

 

4 month mark.

Oí Família
So you should have Kam write me and tell me what his little kid is! I would like to see some pictures of this little kid too. So right now the mission is interesting. We are trying to go out and find new people that we can teach but at the same time we have to try and reactivate all of the old members that aren't active to make our branch bigger. Mainly we are looking for preisthood members so when the military downsizes the base our branch can still stay here. But its ok i have faith that we will still have a branch here in Praia. So we have been teaching a couple and i still don't know how it is going really. Because he has alot of strange ideas about how things are but they aren't bad things by any reason. But in the end i think that José and Celest will get baptized which would be awesome. I am sort of struggling with my comp right now. He is a very perky and always talking kinda person. And as you know that is not really my style of always talking haha. And ya i don't know i just have a really hard time trying to like him, but i know that it's not his fault and that I am really the one who should change not him. So i have some work to do with that. The weather here has really sucked lately. It is really cloudy and also it is raining for most of the day here. But I like the rain. It would be nice though to have some sunshine after just having clouds these past few weeks! So how has the weather been out there for y'all? Tell Bro. Vincent congrats for me and that i am super happy for him. Also tell Bro. Melville hi as well and that i hope everything is going well for him as well! And that is cool Dad that you and Sterling are home teaching companions! Tell him hi also for me please and thank you! I am very jealous that you got to play with Korbin and Brody! I miss those little guys alot! GIve them a big squeze for me! I have started to gain a little bit of weight here. But i am still under the 200's so it looks like i have to start working out a little harder. Maybe putting a few more Books of Mormon in my back pack everyday too haha. Tell the claypools hi for me. And that i am doing great and that i hope they are aswell. Also that is crazy that Jeff gets home this week! Tell him hi for me too. Well i think that is about it for this week. I love all of you so much and i am blessed to have all of you as family! Até proximo semena!
Elder Bascom 


I think he's starting to miss some people... CRAZY that he's been out 4 months today!!  

a quick update

Sorry that we haven't updated in a while! Life got pretty crazy around the Bascom house... But i'm sure that you'll all be happy to know that our sweet elder in Portugal is doing great! Here's his latest email and a little bit more about what he does everyday::

Como Vão?

I am doing great here in the Açores! The work has been really slow because alot of people have been canceling on us and that has made it slow. But a typical day here for me is Wake up at 7 or 6:45 and work out. Eat at 8 then study at 8 30 till 11 30 then we work from then until 1 and we have lunch and then language study for an hour. Then we go back out at 3 and work and try to eat dinner at 5 but that usually never happens. And we go back to the house at 9 30 or 10 at the latest. Then bed time is at 11. It is alot of fun and also a lot of work. I mostly eat rice or noodles with every meal and then meat and what ever we have in the house to drink haha. We eat out maybe two times a week and we get like one or two member meals every week which is awesome! We walk everywhere here. We have a bus to take us to like 2 or 3 places but other than that we walk everywhere. But i think we only walk like 4-6 miles a day so not alot. So i haven´t seen any new missionaries yet because i am on the Açores. But i think that we have new missionaries here now. The work will hopefully speed up this week. But i will be in Angra all day tomorrow and part of Wednesday because my comp will be in Lisboa for training. It is warming up a little here but it has rained everyday this week. And when it rains it is either lightly sideways rain or heavy sideways rain. It makes no sense at all but ya that is Portugal i guess. They have sweaters here and they are around 12-15 euros to buy. So not to much and so i would like to get at least one if that is ok. That is really exciting that you get to go and see Tiff and all them this month! Tell all of them hi for me! I hope that everything is going good up there and that is way cool that you all get to see Dev too! I hope that your first event goes well and that you all take a deep breath and enjoy it all haha. It is kinda weird thinking that i wont be there for it. But that is ok and it will go great! I am way excited for all of you with the coming of Kam and Mims baby. I want some pictures when it comes! Well that is it for me i think. I love all of you so much and i want you all to know that because of you i am here and am the person i am today! Love you!

Love 

Elder Bascom 

Elder Bascom and his new companion, Elder Berg::

 

 

His Own Words

I guess that there's not better way to tell you how Elder Bascom is than say it in his very own words. So, here you go. Oh, and don't mind the spelling, us Bascom's were never too good at that ;)

Como Vão?
Eu espero que vocês estejem bem. I think I said that right but I don't really know haha. This week has been a really good one. The work is really starting to pick up and I am starting to finally understand most of the things that people are saying. But it's really hard at times and I try to keep myself positive and happy about it. But then I think that I finally understood that I wasn't giving my all to the work. I wasn't doing everything that I could be and so I didn't really deserve to have help with the language. But I am ready to go now and just want to try to give my all and see how the work will go from here. So on Friday I went to a little island called Pico. You only go there if you serve in Praia. Which is my mission. So it was a lot of fun and I took a lot of pictures but my camera died and i forgot the charger in Lisboã, so I'm kinda out of luck with that. But my Comp is actually in Lisboã right now for a Zone Leader confrence adn he said that he would get it for me. So right now I'm on splits in Angra which is another city on Terceira. His name is Elder Owens and he is an awesome Elder, and I am really excited to see how it all goes here. So there is a possibility that my trainer Elder Leonard will be transferred when transfers come. Because he has been on the islands for like 4 months. So that is really nerve racking to think about since that means that I would basically be in charge of what my new comp and i would be doing. So I'm really hoping that he doesn't and taht I get the full 12 weeks with him. So ya that's that haha. So the weather here is really windy and it rains alot too. But I guess that the good thing fo rme is taht I really like the wind and rain! My apartment is pretty big and actaully a decent place. But nothing like the MTC or our house. There is alot more mold here and nothing gets super dry. I got more complements on my portuguese which was cool. But I just keep wanting to work so that I can understand everything and be able to teach. I haven't gotten any emails from you all and I hope everything is ok. My guess is that because it was the Super Bowl last night that you all got kinda busy. And so one question though who won? Ravens or Ninners? It was kinda weird knowing that it was going on and that I couldn't watch it. But ya I think that is about all that is going on in my life right now. I love you all and i hope that everything is going good! I was given a paper that was Titled my missionary commision. You all should look it up. I would type it but I don't have it with me right now and I don't have it memorized! Well again I love you all and i hope that everything is going great for all of you. 
                                                                                                           Love,
                                                                                                      Elder Bascom

I love that he is worried about who won the Super Bowl. He always did hate the 49ers! xoxo, brittany

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!