Love and Gratitude from mom

Dear Max,

It's late Sunday night. If I didn't love you so very much I would probably just crawl into bed. But I have to send my love and my gratitude.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week. I love this time of year with Christmas to look forward to and a holiday that is centered around such a beautiful virtue! My heart really has been full of gratitude this week. I think it is a gift we can cultivate and the more we focus on it, the happier we are and the more things we can find to be grateful for. So I thought I would list random things I am thankful for. (Besides, Rosey gave a great rundown of our St. George trip!)

First and foremost, I'm thankful for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I'm thankful to know I am a daughter of a supreme being. I'm thankful for a brother who lived a perfect life and performed a sacrifice so great I cannot even understand it. I'm thankful that because of Him I can grow and change and repent and improve and return to live with them someday. I'm happy to understand this truth.

I'm thankful to have been born into a loving family who taught me the restored Gospel and set such a good example to me. I'm thankful that my mom is still around to learn from and for siblings who are strong (thinking of Kent and family) and so generous (thinking of Brent and Nancy.)

I'm thankful for dad. I'm thankful for how hard he now works and has always worked to provide for our family. I'm thankful for the respect he shows me and for his wisdom and love for the Gospel. I'm thankful that he is such a good driver and got us home safely from St. George even in all that busy traffic and with him coughing (he has caught a cold). I'm thankful that is is patient with me and loves me in spite of my weaknesses.

I'm thankful that Heavenly Father sent 5 adorable babies to our home for us to raise and that they have all grown up to be such good friends. And that they used wisdom and the Holy Ghost to guide them to such fabulous spouses who make them even better. And I'm thankful for seven, almost eight, sweet and smart and healthy grandchildren who light up my life whenever I see them or when I receive a text or phone message from them.

I'm thankful to serve in the temple and to have memorized and have stored in my brain beautiful ordinance words. I'm thankful for new friends I have met in the process who love the work of salvation and teach me through their joyful example of service.

I'm thankful for my job and that I learn something new every day about the body and that I have a kind boss. And I'm thankful that I only have to work three days a week. (My job has made me appreciate hard-working dad even more.)

I'm thankful for a strong and healthy body and for the desire I have to keep it that way.

I'm thankful for a calling that stretches me and keeps me humble and realizing how much I need to rely on The Lord as I do His work.

I'm thankful for the scriptures that I can never wear out since there is always more to understand. And thankful for church magazines and the Church News that I can read daily to uplift and inspire me.

I'm thankful for technology and for the fact that we can stay in touch and I can hear from you so regularly each week.

I'm thankful for a warm home and good food and a bed that is waiting for me. I'm thankful that we get to go to bed each night to renew our minds and bodies (and boy does this mind need renewing!)

I'm thankful for your willingness to commit two years of your life in dedication to the Lord. I'm thankful for your mission President who is in tune with your needs and for good companions. You are such a good example to me. I'm thankful for the peace I feel each day as I pray for you to know that Heavenly Father is watching over you.

What a blessed life we have. A heart full of gratitude is a perfect way to go into the Christmas season. I hope you feel my love. Can't wait to hear from you in the morning.

Love,
Mom

Sent from my iPad

Week 89 - Dad - You can be pleased but never satisfied...

Week 89 - Dad (t-13) - You can be pleased, but never satisfied

Sunday, November 30, 2014

9:27 PM

Rosey's letter should be read before mine.  She did a great job describing our trip to St. George.  So I won't try to torture you by having you read all the details over and over again.  But a couple of tortuous details might be good and healthy to remind you that you come from a loving family.

 

• I loved everyone's reaction to BretFlix.  It was great to see how excited everyone - especiially Uncle B was in watching over 950 movies.  He kept saying he wasn't going to go home until he had finished all of them.  He didn't scratch a dent in it.  It was also particularly gratifying to see all the comments back and forth between Blaine, Nick and Warner giving each other timecodes on specific home movies clips.  I can't wait to introduce you to it.
• I loved the traditional puzzles, left overs, and of course the incredible meals.
• Although we had fewer people (it was an off year for Yorgasons and for Mom and I) the food was even more amazing - and there were a lot more leftovers than normal, so we've been enjoying turkey and ham all weekend.
• The drive home was filled with christmas music 6 hours constant.  We agreed that we will get you a play list as soon as possible.  Let us know what works best, SD card, USB, or Hard Drive. I can't think of any cloud services that you would be able to access (google drive, dropbox, onedrive, etc.  If you can, let us know the fastest way to get it to you.  I got thinking that last year's hard drive probably has all the christmas music that we would send, so let us know if that HD from last year has christmas on it..
• I caught a little head cold.  And so all weekend I've been sniffing and sneezing.  And if you recall, Dad's sneazes are not simple easy, happy little sneezes.  They are the kind of sneezes that makes the car move backward.  So I've been kind of nhoisy.  But I don't think anyone else caught a cold from me.  So I think it's all good.

 

We love the Christmas season.  I was rereading your old letters from last year.  You had such a wonderful spirit last year as you taught about the savior.  I hope you'll enjoy this year's christmas season as much as you did last year…and for the same reasons.

 

I will send an email which has all of last year's thoughts on it.  If it's too long, and you already recall all those thoughts, then you can ignore it.  But if you want to re-read the thoughts. Look for it in your email and print if you can.

 

I loved your last letter called "What Lack I yet?"  It was such a great reminder of all the things I need to do in order to be more like the savior.  I "lack" so much.  We were talking about Roger Andrus tonight.  While we were gone, I got a phone call from him asking about home teaching.  Here he is, blind AND he had a heart attack last week, and had to have heart surgery.  But here he is a week later following up on his assignment to get home teaching numbers turned in.  I was saying to mom, that he scares me because he is soooo good.  If he sets the bar for what's required to enter the high kingdom, then I've got a lot of 'lacks' that I need to fix.

 

I also love the comment Elder Kearon said to your mission about how pleased the Lord is with your efforts, but how he isn't satisfied and how he never will be.  Elder Renlund said a similar thing to me after a quick review of our stake and all the great things we were working on.  He said, "You can be pleased, but you can never be satisfied."  That has always stuck with me also.

 

By the way, I love Elder Kearon.  I was able to train him on PSD processes along with 8 other General Authorities within a month of their being called.  He has such a pure spirit.  I remember that he was guileless and sweet and yet powerful.  I hope you took great notes.  I looked up your "relative" that he asked you about.  I'm sure the Brother he asked you about is no longer a Stake President, but he's been called as an Area Seventy in California Roseville Coordinating Council.    And no, he's not a relative.

 

We will keep praying for you and your investigators.  If only they knew the message you carry will change the world… and it would change them, if they will listen to it and pray about it's truthfulness.  Keep working.  You're an example.

 

Loves.

 

Dad

 

PS - Last week, Redford's countdown was "t minus 6".  Whoa.  Jann said the following.

 

T-6?  

That means that he is in his last transfer...consequently...

This will be my last zone conference.

This will be my last interview with the president before my final interview.

This will be my last companion.

This will be my last area.

This will be my last Sunday at Church in Spain.

Etc., etc.  

A tender, but very hard time.  

Our prayers will be with you Elder Red to carry on until the last moment.

 

Keep working hard.  The time really does end quicker than you can imagine.

 

 

He is the Gift

Dear Max,

Sorry I've missed emailing you the last couple of weeks.  Life barrels along like a run-away train and we're trying our best to stay on top of it and enjoy the ride.  Lots has happened since I last wrote and I won't try and capture or detail everything but will instead provide a couple brief snippets.  

1 - Thanksgiving was great.  We had a delightful time with the Morris family.  We ate great food, and played "Mafia" for well over an hour.  Earlier that morning the boys and I played in a Turkey bowl with the Yorgasons who did not go down to St. George.  

2 - I've taken a first swipe at how I'll do my Christmas lights here at my new home.  I used to think I had tons of lights but having a full-sized home now makes me realize I have yet a lot of collecting of lights to do.

3 - Work is pretty much the same as it has been.  I'm very grateful to have a job, but can't say this is my most favorite job I've ever had.  It is "work" after all.

4 - Stef and I are singing in the ward choir.  I think there are 5 guys total so I've been trying to sing bass.  I'm definitely not a bass.  Additionally, while I admire and respect our choir director and her way of doing things, I have a new respect of the way Sarah Thompsen always ran the ward choir.  

5 - I don't know if you've seen the church's "He is the Gift" campaign, but we are excited to share it with the kids tomorrow in Family night.  Thanks to Stef most of our christmas shopping is done and so we are excited to focus during December more on the Savior and the true meaning of Christmas.  

6 - I'm enjoying my time with the young men.  

Now, just a couple quick thoughts on the whole Isaac experience that I'd like to jot down.  For the sake of time, you may want to stop your reading here, but for my sake, I'd like to get a couple of thoughts down.  

 First of all, we surely miss him.  What a tragic loss to the Winder family, but especially to Candalyn.  She's a trooper and seemed to be handling everything well, but I can't imagine the heart-ache associated with that kind of loss.  As you've heard and read the serices were all very nice.  It was hard for me (and many) to not really get to see him again.  Given that he was cremated before coming back to the US, I had to reach back several months to remember my last interaction with him. Gratefully it was a positive one, but it was still hard to just think that he's gone, rather than really seeing him gone.  It was hard for me not getting that closure.  

A couple of the highlights for me from the services were 1) Clay's slide-show.  Clay put together a really nice slideshow for the end of the services where the first song he played was one that he had live video of isaac lip-syncing it back in High School.  So while we were all looking at pictures from Isaac's life, suddenly there was Isaac live in the video singing along.  It got me really choked up.  It was kind of a surreal moment for me, as if he were reaching through the other side into that slideshow to put one last smile on all of our faces.  2) Story telling at the luncheon.  Everyone got a few minutes to stand and tell their favorite Isaac story during the luncheon.  Many of the stories I had heard or was an active part of, many I hadn't heard, and they all had us both laughing and crying.  A common theme I picked up on in many of these stories was Isaac's nonjudgmental nature, and his love for everyone (they talked about Isaac as a kid hugging kids out on the soccer field who were on the other team if they ever fell down or got hurt).  Isaac was pretty goofy himself and thus didn't spend time judging others, but instead loving them.  As I pondered this, I must admit being filled with some guilt by the fact that for the last several years, I was among many who were probably unfairly judging Isaac on the decisions he and Candalyn made to leave the church.  Not that I didn't still love them, but I certainly was saddened, frustrated, and even a little annoyed whenever I thought about it.  Why was it that my reaction was to judge, rather than have an increased love for them?  I don't know how the cards will all shakeout at the final judgement for Isaac, but what I do know, is there are some Christlike qualities he possessed in much greater quantity than I do.  I was sharply reminded that none of us are perfect.  We all struggle with things.  Some of those things happen to be more visible than others, but just because we know where someones weakness lies, doesn't make them any worse than us.  I've always liked the quote from President Utchdorf where he's citing a bumper sticker he saw that said: "stop judging me because I sin differently than you do".  With the exception of priesthood leaders who are called to act as judges in Israel, our jobs are simply to love people as the Savior would love them.  I certainly don't condone Isaac's decision to leave the church.  It broke my heart when I heard that he had left, but for me to spend much time judging him for making that decision was wrong.  I haven't walked even a step in Isaac's shoes.  I have no idea what he's dealt with all his life, or what things he's struggled with.  I certainly don't  accept or approve of their choices, but we love them for who they are, and acknowledge that if we were in their shoes, perhaps we would be making the same mistakes.  I left this experience with Isaac with a more firm resolve to love everyone and not bother spending time judging others.  It's certainly not what the Savior would do or what he's asked us to do.

I'm sure you've already heard abut the inspiring string of thoughts, feelings and impressions shared by the Winder google groups.  I think it was uncle Brent who shared this quote that I come across from time to time and felt inspired to go look it up.  The talk during which President Hinckley shared the quote (he was actually quoting someone else) was in a talk to YSAs several years ago, but the thought applies to each and every one of us.  It goes something like this: 

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to just be people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old time rail journey…delays…sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling burst of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."

We will indeed miss Isaac.  It is hard to think that he's gone, and the circumstances under which it happened.  When you step back and consider the circumstances however, I don't think there's any question whether it was his time or not.  For whatever reason, it was his time to be called home.  I have no doubt he's being reminded of lots of truths he already knew deep down in his heart.  I look forward to the day when we get to meet again.  

Sorry this has turned into such a long letter.  We sure love you Max.  Carry on and enjoy this last Christmas in Spain!

Nick

I'm seriously so excited for you and Warner! I think about how crazy it is that you're having a baby all the time. And to think it could be this week!! Wow. Can't wait. Love ya, and missed you in St. George! 

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 30, 2014, at 10:17 PM, Janey Nielsen <janeybassett@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey Max,

This is going to be a quickie, it's 10:00 and I'm exhausted, but I wanted to say hi!

Warner and I had a quiet Thanksgiving this year...just the two of us! Warner had to work on Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) and with the baby coming so soon I was a little worried about leaving town. Warner's family went to San Francisco and Mom and Dad went to St. George. I know we could have gotten an invite somewhere if we really wanted to go to someone's house....but we were fine with it being the two of us. We actually spent the WHOLE DAY cleaning. I've been collecting baby stuff and this was when we finally organized closets, moved stuff to the garage (so we had to clean the garage), cleaned drawers....it was a busy day and Warmer was so nice to not complain but just help. I was SOOOO appreciative. We did have a pretty tasty Thanksgiving meal with a Rotisserie chicken, mashed potates and gravy, stuffing, and broccoli.

 I'm feeling ready for the baby to come....although we just got a bunch of stuff dropped off from Warners family (Warner's sisters are sharing a bunch of stuff with us) so now I need/get to go through it all. They gave us SO many little baby clothes I think I'll have to change my baby 5 times a day just so he can wear each outfit once (which I will probably have to do anyway with blow-outs and stuff.) Anyway, I'm getting excited.

There is a possibility I'll have the baby this week.....maybe next week I'll be attaching a picture of a baby. How crazy is that?!!!!! I was going to attach a picture of me with my pregnant belly, but it's too late and I need to go to bed.

Sure love ya Max. We pray for you everyday.
Love, Janey

He's coming

Hey Max,

This is going to be a quickie, it's 10:00 and I'm exhausted, but I wanted to say hi!

Warner and I had a quiet Thanksgiving this year...just the two of us! Warner had to work on Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) and with the baby coming so soon I was a little worried about leaving town. Warner's family went to San Francisco and Mom and Dad went to St. George. I know we could have gotten an invite somewhere if we really wanted to go to someone's house....but we were fine with it being the two of us. We actually spent the WHOLE DAY cleaning. I've been collecting baby stuff and this was when we finally organized closets, moved stuff to the garage (so we had to clean the garage), cleaned drawers....it was a busy day and Warmer was so nice to not complain but just help. I was SOOOO appreciative. We did have a pretty tasty Thanksgiving meal with a Rotisserie chicken, mashed potates and gravy, stuffing, and broccoli.

 I'm feeling ready for the baby to come....although we just got a bunch of stuff dropped off from Warners family (Warner's sisters are sharing a bunch of stuff with us) so now I need/get to go through it all. They gave us SO many little baby clothes I think I'll have to change my baby 5 times a day just so he can wear each outfit once (which I will probably have to do anyway with blow-outs and stuff.) Anyway, I'm getting excited.

There is a possibility I'll have the baby this week.....maybe next week I'll be attaching a picture of a baby. How crazy is that?!!!!! I was going to attach a picture of me with my pregnant belly, but it's too late and I need to go to bed.

Sure love ya Max. We pray for you everyday.
Love, Janey

Long time no write- Stef

Dear Max,


Sorry it's been so long since I have written. I kept forgetting- it's as lame as that.

We are very blessed here. It's always this time of year that I reflect on how blessed we are and how easy we sometimes have it. I am grateful for so many things! At the top of my list is my family, good health, good employment, my Savior's Atonement for me and for each of us.... The list goes on and on.

I usually go from that gratitude to guilt that I am not giving more to others or doing more for them. I guess the best way to remedy that is to be more generous. Nick is a good example of being generous.

I love the countdown to Christmas. It starts tomorrow! What a magical month!!

That's enough of my ramblings. We sure love you and are always praying for your obedience, safety, faith to see and do miracles and much more!

Have a great week!

Love,

Stef

Re: Week 88 - Dad - And so it begins.

What a fun email dad. I loved your personal little tribute to everybody in the family. You are such a wonderful example to me of being a support. You don't have to be in the middle of everything to be a part of things or to appreciate them. I don't know if that makes sense, but it's really something I love about you! 

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 23, 2014, at 10:54 PM, bret bassett <bretbassett@gmail.com> wrote:

Week 88 - Dad (t-14) - And so it begins….

Sunday, November 23, 2014

10:06 PM

 

Hi Max,

 

Well the house has almost quieted down after a big week.  The only remnant of the party is the sound of Rosey upstairs playing the piano… which I just love, and is probably one of the things I have missed the most after all the kids left home.  There is something so soothing about hearing music from one of the kids.  I love it.

 

The week started with me getting oriented in my new job.  My calling is "Meetinghouse Technology Coordination Team Manager".  What does that include?  If it's technology which is used in any of the meetinghouses, then my responsibility is to get training prepared which can support the users…or the STS (stake technology specialist) in each stake.  That is worldwide.  So anybody you run into who is an STS, I'm here to help.   I am excited and believe it will be one of the best jobs I've had to date.

 

Wednesday was Stake Presidency/Bishopric training.  Here we talked about the Stakes new objective statement, and Family Home Evenings for YSA.

 

Thursday I went ot the church for 3 hours of Tithing Settlement.  It was great.

 

Friday was the viewing for Isaac.  Mom and I didn't make it and felt a little bad after the fact since there wasn't a huge crowd for it.  So we went over all the earlier to the funeral the next day. 

 

Saturday was the funeral.  There was a visitation (when there's no body, the viewing has a different name - visitation) before hand where we got to see lots of family and friends.  Then we walked into the Hunter High School auditorium which was easily more than half full.  I'd guess 200 people maybe?

 

The program was great including talks from Kent, Aimee, Mike, Tami, Nathan (via pre-recorded video) - a musical number from Tyler and Aubrey (piano/violin), and then Candolyn.  IT was all so well done.  No one broke down into heaving sobs.  I was the video man, which was a little awkward cuz all I had was an iphone at first, then a little sony handicam at the end.  But I think Aimee and Mike were grateful for anything.

 

Then we went to the church for a family dinner.  It was a huge family dinner of 160 people.  The fun thing was during the dinner, people could stand up and tell funny little stories about Isaac.  People talked about things like skinny dipping, breaking his arm on our tramp, kissing girls, and spending all his earnings at the dairy with cherry coke and skittles.  Finally Jessica talked about halloween and how Isaac just planned for months how to scare the girl cousins.  I so wanted to stand up and say, "Girls, I don't know the rules in heaven about when we get to visit family on earth, but if there is any say about when we can come back down and visit family… you can guarantee that Isaac will save up all his points and come to the cabin on Halloween.  IF you were scared before, plan to get super scared at the next winder cousin halloween party.  Isaac will do all he can to freak you out. Of your mind."

 

Then tonight was the Bret and Wendy (BAWB) Thanksgiving dinner.  Since we're heading down to St. George with Rosey and the yorgs, and N&S are staying with Morris's, Janey and Warner are partying here in preparation for their new little baby to come (she is due in like 3 weeks) and B&K are in Austin, we decided to do the party early.  And I'm so grateful we did.  It was a perfect T-day party, and know we get to go to St. George anyway for another T-day party.

 

It was a great party. 

• We enjoyed Easton and Court - she has such a great fun, bold spirit.  She even told us about her 6 parking tickets  which if she gets another she'll be banned from BYU campus (in her car). 
• I enjoyed watching Warner and Janey playing games with the little kids.  The kids were entranced with them.  I loved how when Ned was coming up the stairs, he turned around and said 'come on Warner'.  I loved watching Janey making her way around as a pregnant woman.  She is so cute. 
• I love how Rosey was able to entertain everyone.  She had Easton and Court laughing during dinner.  She had the kids eating out of the palm of her hands, she had us all play games.  She was just entertainment personified.
• Nick had some youtube videos he wanted to share.  Stef is great at enduring the noise, and just jumping into everything going on in everyone's lives.
• Mom was fabulous.  The food was great.  She is so kind to have everyone over and keep things moving and fun.

 

We pray for you that during this holiday you'll be able to reflect on the purpose of Christmas and share it with others.

 

Thanks for you wonderful example.  We couldn't help but talk about you all night at the party - especially as we rewatched old BretFlix videos…and the video of you and Isaac milking a cow. (It has 23,00 views)

 

A vencer my valient son.

 

Dad

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Re: Happy Thanksgiving!

I loved your sweet listening to the spirit story too.   And I loved the turkey.  I think it's a great example of listening and acting.  I think these kind of promptings happen ALL THE TIME.  we just have to be willing to obey...  Loves.

On Mon, Nov 24, 2014 at 12:56 PM, Janey Nielsen <janeybassett@gmail.com> wrote:

I liked your little sweet listening to the spirit story. We are grateful as well that you listened! Thanks again for a fun dinner. 

On Sunday, November 23, 2014, Wendy Bassett <wendy.bassett@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Max,

Do they celebrate Thanksgiving at all in Spain?  Do the missionaries try to get together to do something?  Did you remember it is Thanksgiving in four days?  You remember dad's funny story from his mission when he tried to have a nice Thanksgiving dinner for his district or zone and the turkey was all green filled with weeds (the cook's version of stuffing) and the grease splattered all down dad's front as he tried to transport the turkey to the church house on the bus.  Perhaps you can learn from him and not get too tricky!  Whether or not you celebrate it, I do hope you have a good week of counting your blessings.  I love this holiday and think it is such an important one.  But it seems like more and more it gets crowded out between Halloween and Christmas.  Lots of the stores are even opening their doors for Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving day at 6 pm.  That's a shame in my book.  You won't see me shopping!

The weeks fly by but we pack so much in that it's hard to believe that it was only a week ago we were in Texas.  It has been a good, full week.  Dad started his new job at the church.  I had a few job related things happen.  Our office manager, Katie, who has been out on maternity leave since the end of August, came in and announced she is not coming back to work.  She and her husband are actually moving.  She brought her cute little baby and I held him while they did work stuff.  I am REALLY going to miss her.  And so is Wade.  She knows so much about every aspect of work that she will be hard to replace.  But on the other hand, I am so happy she gets to be a full time mom.  That's exactly what she should be doing!

I attended an Area Wide YSA Auxiliary training meeting up the the University of Utah this week, along with all the YSA Relief Society presidents in our stake.  We had presentations from Relief Society General Board Members and from our Area Authority and it was inspiring.

I went to the dentist and learned I have a cracked back tooth and will need to have a crown put on sometime soon.  Ug!

I got to go back to the temple after missing last week and realize that I was missed.  A couple of the temple sisters who I am helping to train said the nicest things to me about how patient and helpful I am with them in their training.  Anyway, it made me feel loved.  I love the spirit in the temple!  It is a great blessing to me.

Wednesday was a baby shower for Janey.  Aunt Karen held it at her house and we had about 26 people come.  Janey got some really nice things and people surely are generous.  Warner's mom came and it's always fun to see her.

Isaac's visitation was held at our church house on Friday night.  Then the memorial service was held on Saturday at Hunter High School.  I am guessing Candace didn't want it at a church building because of her feelings about the church.  We did gather for a family prayer before it started and Kent offered such a beautiful prayer.  Then we filed in and Mike conducted the services.  There was Movie music playing (Lord of the Rings) as we walked in.  The service turned out VERY nice.  I was worried because there were no songs or prayers, but it turned out beautiful and there was a sweet spirit there.  Kent,  Mike, Aimee, Tami and Nate all spoke.  Nate had prerecorded  his message for them to play on the big screen.  Karyn played "Bring Him Home" on the piano and Tyler and Aubrey played a number on piano/violin.  Clay spoke and then Candalyn spoke and they concluded with a short video featuring Isaac that Clay had put together.  Then a moment of silence before we all filed out.  It was different but I t turned out nice.  There was a pretty big group there and most of all the cousins, aunts and uncles attended.  Nate is going to come for a few weeks at Christmastime so he didn't come now.  Afterwards we all went to the ward and Nancy had coordinated a funeral dinner that we all helped prepare.  There were about 140 people for that and after dinner, at Candalyn's request, people were invited to go up front and share memories.  There were some funny ones.  Through it all I realized what a kind, nonjudgmental person Isaac was.  I realized that I did not know him well.  I learned so many happy things about him that I hadn't realized.  It was all a beautiful tribute to his life.

This letter is getting too long and dad is long gone to bed.  Just two more things.  Today we had our family Thanksgiving dinner.  We invited Easton and I was glad when she asked about bringing her cousin Court.  Nice guy.  I set up two card tables at each end of the dining table and all 12 of us fit around, including the kids.  It turned out really well.  We had turkey and all the trimmings and Janey did rolls and Stef did fruit and a fun drink.  Easton made a very delicious strawberry pie and I did some apple pies.  We watched some you tube videos - including the one about milking a cow and you are Billy.  It's always wonderful to be together and so fun to have Easton with us.  She is delightful!

One last story.  I  had a sweet experience today that let me know Heavenly Father is watching out for me.  Today was a busy day.  I had set tables last night and done whatever prep work I could for the big dinner.  In order to have all the dinner come together I had even written down a schedule of what to do when.  I had to make a trip back to the house to get the turkey in at just the right time and then hurry back to a Relief Society where I had to share a message.  When I jumped in the car, the thought came that I hadn't set the oven right.  I was in a huge rush to get back on time.  I almost ignored it but decided to go back in and sure enough - I hadn't turned the oven on!   I was soooo grateful.  I knew it was the Spirit helping me since I had done my part.  It sounds kind of silly when I wrote it but it was one of those sweet experiences when you feel blessed for doing good.

Anyway, it's almost midnight and I better get to bed.  I sure love you.  Have a wonderful week.

Love,
Mom

Sent from my iPad

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

 

Bret Bassett 

Bret Bassett  - PMP | International Product Manager |

4268 Sherm Circle West Valley City UT. 84120

Home: 801.968-0760 | Cell: 801.815.5860 | bretbassett@gmail.com

 

Re: Happy Thanksgiving!

I liked your little sweet listening to the spirit story. We are grateful as well that you listened! Thanks again for a fun dinner. 

On Sunday, November 23, 2014, Wendy Bassett <wendy.bassett@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Max,

Do they celebrate Thanksgiving at all in Spain?  Do the missionaries try to get together to do something?  Did you remember it is Thanksgiving in four days?  You remember dad's funny story from his mission when he tried to have a nice Thanksgiving dinner for his district or zone and the turkey was all green filled with weeds (the cook's version of stuffing) and the grease splattered all down dad's front as he tried to transport the turkey to the church house on the bus.  Perhaps you can learn from him and not get too tricky!  Whether or not you celebrate it, I do hope you have a good week of counting your blessings.  I love this holiday and think it is such an important one.  But it seems like more and more it gets crowded out between Halloween and Christmas.  Lots of the stores are even opening their doors for Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving day at 6 pm.  That's a shame in my book.  You won't see me shopping!

The weeks fly by but we pack so much in that it's hard to believe that it was only a week ago we were in Texas.  It has been a good, full week.  Dad started his new job at the church.  I had a few job related things happen.  Our office manager, Katie, who has been out on maternity leave since the end of August, came in and announced she is not coming back to work.  She and her husband are actually moving.  She brought her cute little baby and I held him while they did work stuff.  I am REALLY going to miss her.  And so is Wade.  She knows so much about every aspect of work that she will be hard to replace.  But on the other hand, I am so happy she gets to be a full time mom.  That's exactly what she should be doing!

I attended an Area Wide YSA Auxiliary training meeting up the the University of Utah this week, along with all the YSA Relief Society presidents in our stake.  We had presentations from Relief Society General Board Members and from our Area Authority and it was inspiring.

I went to the dentist and learned I have a cracked back tooth and will need to have a crown put on sometime soon.  Ug!

I got to go back to the temple after missing last week and realize that I was missed.  A couple of the temple sisters who I am helping to train said the nicest things to me about how patient and helpful I am with them in their training.  Anyway, it made me feel loved.  I love the spirit in the temple!  It is a great blessing to me.

Wednesday was a baby shower for Janey.  Aunt Karen held it at her house and we had about 26 people come.  Janey got some really nice things and people surely are generous.  Warner's mom came and it's always fun to see her.

Isaac's visitation was held at our church house on Friday night.  Then the memorial service was held on Saturday at Hunter High School.  I am guessing Candace didn't want it at a church building because of her feelings about the church.  We did gather for a family prayer before it started and Kent offered such a beautiful prayer.  Then we filed in and Mike conducted the services.  There was Movie music playing (Lord of the Rings) as we walked in.  The service turned out VERY nice.  I was worried because there were no songs or prayers, but it turned out beautiful and there was a sweet spirit there.  Kent,  Mike, Aimee, Tami and Nate all spoke.  Nate had prerecorded  his message for them to play on the big screen.  Karyn played "Bring Him Home" on the piano and Tyler and Aubrey played a number on piano/violin.  Clay spoke and then Candalyn spoke and they concluded with a short video featuring Isaac that Clay had put together.  Then a moment of silence before we all filed out.  It was different but I t turned out nice.  There was a pretty big group there and most of all the cousins, aunts and uncles attended.  Nate is going to come for a few weeks at Christmastime so he didn't come now.  Afterwards we all went to the ward and Nancy had coordinated a funeral dinner that we all helped prepare.  There were about 140 people for that and after dinner, at Candalyn's request, people were invited to go up front and share memories.  There were some funny ones.  Through it all I realized what a kind, nonjudgmental person Isaac was.  I realized that I did not know him well.  I learned so many happy things about him that I hadn't realized.  It was all a beautiful tribute to his life.

This letter is getting too long and dad is long gone to bed.  Just two more things.  Today we had our family Thanksgiving dinner.  We invited Easton and I was glad when she asked about bringing her cousin Court.  Nice guy.  I set up two card tables at each end of the dining table and all 12 of us fit around, including the kids.  It turned out really well.  We had turkey and all the trimmings and Janey did rolls and Stef did fruit and a fun drink.  Easton made a very delicious strawberry pie and I did some apple pies.  We watched some you tube videos - including the one about milking a cow and you are Billy.  It's always wonderful to be together and so fun to have Easton with us.  She is delightful!

One last story.  I  had a sweet experience today that let me know Heavenly Father is watching out for me.  Today was a busy day.  I had set tables last night and done whatever prep work I could for the big dinner.  In order to have all the dinner come together I had even written down a schedule of what to do when.  I had to make a trip back to the house to get the turkey in at just the right time and then hurry back to a Relief Society where I had to share a message.  When I jumped in the car, the thought came that I hadn't set the oven right.  I was in a huge rush to get back on time.  I almost ignored it but decided to go back in and sure enough - I hadn't turned the oven on!   I was soooo grateful.  I knew it was the Spirit helping me since I had done my part.  It sounds kind of silly when I wrote it but it was one of those sweet experiences when you feel blessed for doing good.

Anyway, it's almost midnight and I better get to bed.  I sure love you.  Have a wonderful week.

Love,
Mom

Sent from my iPad

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Week 88 - Max - What lack I yet?

Week 88 - Max - What lack I yet?

Monday, November 24, 2014

7:11 AM

 

Hola familia!! :)

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! Over here, we are super pumped for thanksgiving. The streets are filled with turkey decorations, kids dressed up with pilgrams and indians, and everyone just talking about the things that they are grateful for....hahaha....just kidding. Spain doesnt celebrate thanksgiving at all. Some people know what it is from TV and watching movies, but they dont really know what a thanksgiving feast is. Good thing we have a zone thanksgiving feast planned for tomorrow (on tuesday because thats the day of district meetings) and then on actual thanksgiving day, we are eating with colombians that ALWAYS make some good food, and lots of it. So it will be a fun week!

 

Mom reminded me of Dads classic green turkey story. And now that Im on the mission, I could totally see a zone leader doing that. And all of the south americans talk in detail about the horrible bus systems over there, so I now have  greater image of how bad that must have been Dad, Im sorry!! haha The experiences are what make the mission the mission though. Gotta love it! :)

 

Its been a great week this week. We had the visit of Elder Patrick Kearon of the first quorum of the Seventy. What an amazing, Christ-like man. It was such an awesome experience. As he walked in and we all (about 100 plus) missionaries stood up for him, the spirit just came flooding in. It was as though we were standing up for a special commander of the war. haha I loved it!

 

He came in, looked at us, and just said Thank you about 30 times. We then all lined up to shake his hand where we, as we passed, told him our name and where we were from. He didnt have time to stop any of us and talk, but he wanted to at least hear our names.

 

As I passed him and said my name, he grabbed my arm and just said, Bassett, Bassett, Bassett (in his thick english accent) I got nervous...uh oh...I did something wrong. He didnt stop anyone else...what have I done?!

 He then said, "Do you have a relative in California that is a stake president?" I sighed and thought about it, and then I just said, "Im not sure...I think hes the brother of....(trying to act like I knew...) but then I stopped and said, "I dont know." haha He just said, "Well, hes a good man." And that was it. It was really interesting.

So the question is...Do I have relatives in California?

 

After Hna and President Deere gave some remarks, Elder Kearon then took the rest of the conference. It was cool though because he allowed President or Hermana Deere to jump in at ANY time. So it was kind of back and forth with all three, while he lead the discussion. He talked about a ton of things.

 

He started off by reading the story in the Bible, where the man goes to Christ and tells him that he his keeping all of the commandments. He asks Christ, "Lord, what lack I yet?" To which Christ responds, "Go sell all that thou hast."

Elder Kearon then applied it to us. What lack we yet as a mission? He told us over and over, "Youre doing great, you really are. But the Lords not satisfied, He never will be." He encouraged us to ask ourselves, "What lack I yet?" And then as soon as we come up with the MANY things we do, choose some to focus on, and DECIDE to work on them and do better. He showed us the video of the man and the woman on the escalator that shuts down. They stand there calling for help when really it would be so much easier to just walk on up. I loved that. How many times are we stuck at something that we could DECIDE to get unstuck at?

 

He focused a lot on getting up on time, which I feel Elder Chapple and I do pretty well. He shared a quote that hit me from Elder Holland that says, (mas o menos) "Show me the first couple hours of your day before you go out proselyting (the time you wake up, your studies personal and companionship) and Ill tell you right now how the rest the day is going to be. Ill tell you right now how the rest of the year will be. Ill tell you how the rest of your mission will be. Ill tell you how the rest of your life with be."

 

I LOVE IT!!! Those are our moments when we can DECIDE to be obedient or not.

 

Anyways, I wish I had more time to describe the WHOLE conference, but Ill just say it was super awesome! I learned and felt a ton from Elder Kearon. I love that man! :)

 

Well family, happy thanksgiving! Im excited to read how it all goes! I am so thankful for you all and your support. Im thankful for such amazing family and friends. And Im thankful for a Savior that knows me and has given everything for me. I know He lives. I love Him!

 

I love this work. Missionary life is the best! :) Like James always says, Live it and love it! :) I love that.

 

Well, until next week! Have so fun and eat lots!

A vencer!!!! Carry on!!!!

 

Love, Elder Bassett

Hi Max!

Hey Max!

I just woke up and read the letters to you. Since to looks like only mom, dad and Blaine got a chance to write I thought I'd drop an early morning line.

Tess has been kind of sick this week. I think having such a big gap in the spacing of my kids has really made me act like a brand new mom with Tess. I was SO worried about her! I went to the store and bought everything I could to make her comfortable (humidifier, nasal mist and even paid an exorbitant amount of money for "boogie wipes" instead of tissues). The great news is that since she was sick I had her sleep next to us in her little inclined sleeper and she has been sleeping great! She's getting too big for that thing though so it'll be back to her room soon, here's hoping for a smooth transition! She is feeling a lot better now, but now the rest of us are sick! Haha.

As Blaine mentioned the sisters came over tonight. I've never felt too close to any set of missionaries, but we've had this pair over a lot and I'll really miss them when they go! I got a text from them a while after we dropped them off ...

We love your family. You and bro bassett are outstanding parents and make us think of our parents. Thank you for everything! <BurrowsGreenwood>

It was so sweet but I can't decide if I like reminding them of their parents :) I mean, a cool older brother and sister maybe, but parents??? We aren't THAT old! Haha ;)

Tess's babbling is slowing morphing in to words! I even heard "dada" the other day! It's a really sweet phase when they learn how to talk! Though I don't know if my ears can take another big talker in this house, we need another listener ;) just kidding, I love our wordy family. 

Ever since mom and dad left the weather had been gorgeous (minus those ridiculous storms the other night!). 75 dgs the last week of November??? That's why I moved to Texas right there. 

We are excited for our house guests this week! I read about a really cool way to cook a turkey that involved cooking it in a buttered paper bag. So please pray that I don't start the kitchen on fire!

Hope your week was great! I can't believe how soon you come home! We watched a video of your first day of kindergarten, it was Blaine filming and he asked "Max, what's after kindergarten" to which you replied, 1st grade, 2nd grade...[insert all grades" then Blaine "what's after 12th grade?" And you lit up and said "MISSION TIME". Haha, can't believe that you are already to mission time! I better not blink or my kids will grow up! 

Love, 

kris

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Max,

Do they celebrate Thanksgiving at all in Spain? Do the missionaries try to get together to do something? Did you remember it is Thanksgiving in four days? You remember dad's funny story from his mission when he tried to have a nice Thanksgiving dinner for his district or zone and the turkey was all green filled with weeds (the cook's version of stuffing) and the grease splattered all down dad's front as he tried to transport the turkey to the church house on the bus. Perhaps you can learn from him and not get too tricky! Whether or not you celebrate it, I do hope you have a good week of counting your blessings. I love this holiday and think it is such an important one. But it seems like more and more it gets crowded out between Halloween and Christmas. Lots of the stores are even opening their doors for Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving day at 6 pm. That's a shame in my book. You won't see me shopping!

The weeks fly by but we pack so much in that it's hard to believe that it was only a week ago we were in Texas. It has been a good, full week. Dad started his new job at the church. I had a few job related things happen. Our office manager, Katie, who has been out on maternity leave since the end of August, came in and announced she is not coming back to work. She and her husband are actually moving. She brought her cute little baby and I held him while they did work stuff. I am REALLY going to miss her. And so is Wade. She knows so much about every aspect of work that she will be hard to replace. But on the other hand, I am so happy she gets to be a full time mom. That's exactly what she should be doing!

I attended an Area Wide YSA Auxiliary training meeting up the the University of Utah this week, along with all the YSA Relief Society presidents in our stake. We had presentations from Relief Society General Board Members and from our Area Authority and it was inspiring.

I went to the dentist and learned I have a cracked back tooth and will need to have a crown put on sometime soon. Ug!

I got to go back to the temple after missing last week and realize that I was missed. A couple of the temple sisters who I am helping to train said the nicest things to me about how patient and helpful I am with them in their training. Anyway, it made me feel loved. I love the spirit in the temple! It is a great blessing to me.

Wednesday was a baby shower for Janey. Aunt Karen held it at her house and we had about 26 people come. Janey got some really nice things and people surely are generous. Warner's mom came and it's always fun to see her.

Isaac's visitation was held at our church house on Friday night. Then the memorial service was held on Saturday at Hunter High School. I am guessing Candace didn't want it at a church building because of her feelings about the church. We did gather for a family prayer before it started and Kent offered such a beautiful prayer. Then we filed in and Mike conducted the services. There was Movie music playing (Lord of the Rings) as we walked in. The service turned out VERY nice. I was worried because there were no songs or prayers, but it turned out beautiful and there was a sweet spirit there. Kent, Mike, Aimee, Tami and Nate all spoke. Nate had prerecorded his message for them to play on the big screen. Karyn played "Bring Him Home" on the piano and Tyler and Aubrey played a number on piano/violin. Clay spoke and then Candalyn spoke and they concluded with a short video featuring Isaac that Clay had put together. Then a moment of silence before we all filed out. It was different but I t turned out nice. There was a pretty big group there and most of all the cousins, aunts and uncles attended. Nate is going to come for a few weeks at Christmastime so he didn't come now. Afterwards we all went to the ward and Nancy had coordinated a funeral dinner that we all helped prepare. There were about 140 people for that and after dinner, at Candalyn's request, people were invited to go up front and share memories. There were some funny ones. Through it all I realized what a kind, nonjudgmental person Isaac was. I realized that I did not know him well. I learned so many happy things about him that I hadn't realized. It was all a beautiful tribute to his life.

This letter is getting too long and dad is long gone to bed. Just two more things. Today we had our family Thanksgiving dinner. We invited Easton and I was glad when she asked about bringing her cousin Court. Nice guy. I set up two card tables at each end of the dining table and all 12 of us fit around, including the kids. It turned out really well. We had turkey and all the trimmings and Janey did rolls and Stef did fruit and a fun drink. Easton made a very delicious strawberry pie and I did some apple pies. We watched some you tube videos - including the one about milking a cow and you are Billy. It's always wonderful to be together and so fun to have Easton with us. She is delightful!

One last story. I had a sweet experience today that let me know Heavenly Father is watching out for me. Today was a busy day. I had set tables last night and done whatever prep work I could for the big dinner. In order to have all the dinner come together I had even written down a schedule of what to do when. I had to make a trip back to the house to get the turkey in at just the right time and then hurry back to a Relief Society where I had to share a message. When I jumped in the car, the thought came that I hadn't set the oven right. I was in a huge rush to get back on time. I almost ignored it but decided to go back in and sure enough - I hadn't turned the oven on! I was soooo grateful. I knew it was the Spirit helping me since I had done my part. It sounds kind of silly when I wrote it but it was one of those sweet experiences when you feel blessed for doing good.

Anyway, it's almost midnight and I better get to bed. I sure love you. Have a wonderful week.

Love,
Mom

Sent from my iPad

Week 88 - Dad - And so it begins.

Week 88 - Dad (t-14) - And so it begins….

Sunday, November 23, 2014

10:06 PM

 

Hi Max,

 

Well the house has almost quieted down after a big week.  The only remnant of the party is the sound of Rosey upstairs playing the piano… which I just love, and is probably one of the things I have missed the most after all the kids left home.  There is something so soothing about hearing music from one of the kids.  I love it.

 

The week started with me getting oriented in my new job.  My calling is "Meetinghouse Technology Coordination Team Manager".  What does that include?  If it's technology which is used in any of the meetinghouses, then my responsibility is to get training prepared which can support the users…or the STS (stake technology specialist) in each stake.  That is worldwide.  So anybody you run into who is an STS, I'm here to help.   I am excited and believe it will be one of the best jobs I've had to date.

 

Wednesday was Stake Presidency/Bishopric training.  Here we talked about the Stakes new objective statement, and Family Home Evenings for YSA.

 

Thursday I went ot the church for 3 hours of Tithing Settlement.  It was great.

 

Friday was the viewing for Isaac.  Mom and I didn't make it and felt a little bad after the fact since there wasn't a huge crowd for it.  So we went over all the earlier to the funeral the next day. 

 

Saturday was the funeral.  There was a visitation (when there's no body, the viewing has a different name - visitation) before hand where we got to see lots of family and friends.  Then we walked into the Hunter High School auditorium which was easily more than half full.  I'd guess 200 people maybe?

 

The program was great including talks from Kent, Aimee, Mike, Tami, Nathan (via pre-recorded video) - a musical number from Tyler and Aubrey (piano/violin), and then Candolyn.  IT was all so well done.  No one broke down into heaving sobs.  I was the video man, which was a little awkward cuz all I had was an iphone at first, then a little sony handicam at the end.  But I think Aimee and Mike were grateful for anything.

 

Then we went to the church for a family dinner.  It was a huge family dinner of 160 people.  The fun thing was during the dinner, people could stand up and tell funny little stories about Isaac.  People talked about things like skinny dipping, breaking his arm on our tramp, kissing girls, and spending all his earnings at the dairy with cherry coke and skittles.  Finally Jessica talked about halloween and how Isaac just planned for months how to scare the girl cousins.  I so wanted to stand up and say, "Girls, I don't know the rules in heaven about when we get to visit family on earth, but if there is any say about when we can come back down and visit family… you can guarantee that Isaac will save up all his points and come to the cabin on Halloween.  IF you were scared before, plan to get super scared at the next winder cousin halloween party.  Isaac will do all he can to freak you out. Of your mind."

 

Then tonight was the Bret and Wendy (BAWB) Thanksgiving dinner.  Since we're heading down to St. George with Rosey and the yorgs, and N&S are staying with Morris's, Janey and Warner are partying here in preparation for their new little baby to come (she is due in like 3 weeks) and B&K are in Austin, we decided to do the party early.  And I'm so grateful we did.  It was a perfect T-day party, and know we get to go to St. George anyway for another T-day party.

 

It was a great party. 

• We enjoyed Easton and Court - she has such a great fun, bold spirit.  She even told us about her 6 parking tickets  which if she gets another she'll be banned from BYU campus (in her car). 
• I enjoyed watching Warner and Janey playing games with the little kids.  The kids were entranced with them.  I loved how when Ned was coming up the stairs, he turned around and said 'come on Warner'.  I loved watching Janey making her way around as a pregnant woman.  She is so cute. 
• I love how Rosey was able to entertain everyone.  She had Easton and Court laughing during dinner.  She had the kids eating out of the palm of her hands, she had us all play games.  She was just entertainment personified.
• Nick had some youtube videos he wanted to share.  Stef is great at enduring the noise, and just jumping into everything going on in everyone's lives.
• Mom was fabulous.  The food was great.  She is so kind to have everyone over and keep things moving and fun.

 

We pray for you that during this holiday you'll be able to reflect on the purpose of Christmas and share it with others.

 

Thanks for you wonderful example.  We couldn't help but talk about you all night at the party - especially as we rewatched old BretFlix videos…and the video of you and Isaac milking a cow. (It has 23,00 views)

 

A vencer my valient son.

 

Dad

Re: Letter from Blaine, November 23, 2014

It was so fun to read about your exciting life Blaine! What an adventurous family you all are! It was especially exciting to hear that you have some cousins coming for Thanksgiving. That's really neat. We missed you guys tonight (as usual). 

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 23, 2014, at 8:39 PM, Blaine Bassett <blainebbassett@gmail.com> wrote:

Max,

Sundays are always the days I miss you the most. As well as the rest of the family. How fun that the Lord gives us a day to focus on bigger picture things like family and the gospel and other eternal things. Today we thought of you as we watched you spin in the tub (mom's little "wet noodle") on one of our favorite home videos from when you were a baby and as we watched your first day of Kindergarten. You were such a sweet little guy. We thought of you as we had our home teachers over and he told us about his job where he directs commercials and is working on a feature length film on the side and actually making a living and supporting a family of nine with it.  We thought of you as we had the sister missionaries for dinner and had to go drive 15 minutes each way and then, right as we got there (we being me and some of the kids) they texted and said that sorry they forgot to tell us but they aren't allowed to ride with me unless Kristi is there. We thought of how annoying it is to have all these rules but how you follow them with exactness anyway, even when it is inconvenient or embarrassing or seems silly. Yes, we think of you and pray for you every day, but Sundays in particular we talk about you and think of you often. 

I spoke in church today. I felt good about it and really loved the whole meeting. The whole meeting was dedicated to the Articles of Faith and I was the concluding speaker speaking on the 10th through the 13th. I'll attach my talk in case anyone has time or interest in reading it, but basically I had to narrow down my scope big time because I only had 12 minutes. In the end, I decided to focus deeply on just one phrase from the 13th: "We believe all things." I talked about what it really means to believe. We say we believe all things, but do we really BELIEVE all things? What is the difference between believing and BELIEVING? How does our attitude and behavior change when we literally and truly BELIEVE the things we say we believe. Anyway, I hope it made sense when I gave the talk because I was personally very moved by the thoughts and inspiration that came to me as I prepared. 

We had a really bad storm last night. We got somewhere between 4.5 and 5.5 inches of rain, which is a LOT. Like the streets were flooding, our back lawn on the side of the house was a big puddle, and we found a car that washed off the road when we were driving to church today. There was also a lot of thunder and lightning so Kristi was pretty nervous but she did well to keep her cool. We watched this Disney movie Maleficent from Bretflix during the storm, which we all really enjoyed. So that was a fun Saturday night. 

Other than that, it's just been a lot of work for me. We have Ben and Kacey's family, as well as Lorie and Manny's family coming to stay for Thanksgiving this week, so I am really hoping I can get to a place at work where I can take Thanksgiving off and not have to worry about going into work. We'll see. This week had some fun things at work too though. One cool thing is that I got sworn in as an attorney, so I am now "official." I am now a real-live actual licensed attorney in the state of Texas. I still have a few steps before I can say I am an official "patent attorney," but it was cool to finally get my business cards and be able to fix my signature to say "Associate" instead of "Associate (not yet licensed in Texas, bar results pending)." The swearing in ceremony was nice although a bit stressful with the kids there. I had Kristi bring them all, which may have been a mistake, but hopefully they will remember it. There was fancy food and wine and champagne and I was supposed to raise a glass for a toast at the end. I made it clear that I didn't drink alcohol but I took the little champagne glass and raised it high anyway. It was a little awkward, I think people thought it was a little weird, not that I didn't drink, but that I made such a big deal out of it. Whatever. At least everyone knows where I stand. I didn't want there to be any confusion. :)

The ceremony was just at my work in one of the big conference rooms, but a lot of important people from the firm were there, as well as people's families (most had parents, however, rather than kids… :)  It was me and about 4-5 other new associates being sworn in at the ceremony. The person who swore me in was the former Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court who now works for our firm. He talked about the seriousness of the promise I was making to do my best to uphold the Constitution and the law and to put my clients needs first. He talked about how that might sometimes mean putting the client before a kid's birthday party or watching television. That was no surprise, I guess, but it did strike me as kind of extreme and sad to think that I was promising to put my client above my family in certain situations. I said something to Kristi about it later and she reminded me that it was too bad that I had already made a promise to her first that she was the most important thing in my life. Certainly I don't want to ever drop the ball on either one so I pray that I will be able to balance both important things in my life. 

Another fun thing this week was that we threw a client appreciation event for one of our biggest clients. We rented out a theater and got to see the new Hunger Games movie before it had even come out in theaters. There was a delicious catered dinner beforehand and a chance to network with the client (I did my best and felt pretty good about the people I was able to meet and greet) and then there was unlimited popcorn, drinks, and candy during the movie. The whole family was invited, but since the movie is PG-13, we got a babysitter for the big kids. Kristi came with Tess, who has successfully sat through movies in the past, but unfortunately she was not being so good in this one, and nice Kristi eventually just left the movie and took Tess home (we had driven separately). It was sad, because Tess wasn't actually crying but just making really loud happy sounds. It was kind of distracting though and this was not the kind of event where we wanted to be even close to annoying anyone. So I was grateful she would do that. 

Anyway, we are excited for Thanksgiving this week and for the other upcoming holidays. We miss you and the rest of the family so much but our hearts are with you all. Have a great week!

Love,

Blaine

My talk (I didn't read it at all so these are not the words I actually said, but this was the working outline that I roughly followed): 

I love the articles of faith:

·     I remember memorizing them as a child at the insistence of my mother and grandmother and passing them off at a family reunion. Yeah, they were pretty serious about this stuff.

·     I feel guilty that my own children don't know all of them yet because I haven't pushed them as hard, but it has been wonderful to have them learn these beautiful songs and to see how excited all the kids are about them.

 

Scope:

·     So I had a cool thing this week. After many years of hard work, I was sworn in as an attorney. So I am one of the newest lawyers in the state, but I am now official. 

·     One of the big themes that I am trying to learn in my early days of being a lawyer is to determine a proper scope of things. Any invention I claim in a patent application—I am a patent attorney—the most important and difficult decision that must be known up front is that of scope. What do we really think the invention is and what is it not? We can talk all day about how it works and how it could work, but what is it that we are going to claim protection for. The same goes in any brief or memo or letter or motion: You have to know the bounds of exactly what you want to say. There is so much you could say that if you don't define the bounds, you end up  caught in the weeds very quickly and your most important points get weighted down.

·     So when I was assigned to speak on the 10th through the 13th articles of faith, scope was the first question on my mind. There is so much in these four scriptural verses that could be discussed:

o  It could be interesting to talk about how the articles of faith came to be. Wentworth letter to the media but never published. Very important to our church.

o  It could be interesting to talk about the gathering of Israel in the 10th and what it means to be a member of the house of Israel today.

o  It could be interesting to talk about the restoration of the ten tribes and to examine some of the different theories about what that may look like in the last days.

o  It could be interesting to talk about the building up of Zion and all the prophesies that have led up to where we are now and all the prophesies that we may still see in our lifetimes regarding Zion.

o  It would be interesting to talk about how Christ will reign personally upon the Earth and to reflect on what that will really mean and when it might happen.

o  It would be fascinating to examine the privilege of worshiping almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience and to explore the tension in our missionary work between sharing the truth and persuading people to come to Christ's restored church on the one hand and respecting their God-given privilege to "worship how where and what they may on the other.

o  As a newly-minted lawyer, it was really tempting to focus on the 12th Article of Faith and what it means to be subject to the laws of men and governmental authority. Again, there seems to be tension between working to make government serve the people justly and helping institute just laws and respecting the processes that lead to laws that we might not agree with and being subject to them anyway. There is so much that could be said about what it means to be "obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law."

o  Finally, the longest Article of Faith—the 13th—is totally ripe with good topics. What characteristics do true Christians seek to obtain? Why must we seek to be "honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and doing good to all men," and how do we develop these traits?

o  How do we apply Paul's admonition to seek after things that are "virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy" in our day? What does this admonition mean for the way we spend our time and our money and the things we choose to entertain us and our children?

·     These topics and more have swirled around in my head all week as I have pondered and prayed about what scope I can really cover in the 12ish minutes that I have to speak. Ultimately, I have decided to focus on a very small part of Paul's admonition: We believe all things.  I was going to cover "we hope all things, we have endured many things and hope to be able to endure all things" but even that suddenly blew up and gave me way too much to say.  But I hope and pray that in the few minutes I have I can at least make us think about what Paul meant, and what Joseph Smith meant, when he described followers of Christ by saying "we believe all things."

·     "We Believe All Things"

o  I actually first started thinking deeply about this phrase and this concept a few months ago after watching a Hollywood adaptation of a book written by one of our Christian brothers about a trip to heaven that he claims his son made during a near death experience.

o  Now I'll say right off that I have not read the book and I am certainly not hear to bear my testimony one way or the other about the claims in the movie and what might have literally happened to the boy. But in spite of a lot of controversy and rather poor critical reviews, the movie did make me ask myself some important questions about what it means to "believe all things."

o  In the movie, a boy almost dies and when he is revived he starts talking about things and people that he saw in Heaven. While his parents are lovingly (and understandably) skeptical at first, eventually the boy claims to have seen people and things that they have a difficult time explaining. The boy's father is a minister at a church and cautiously begins telling the story as a faith promotion tool but it is not received well. Soon the whole town is up in arms and the board of the church is meeting to decide if it might be best for the church to part ways with this minister with all these radical notions.

o  It is this idea that really stuck with me about the movie. This is a Christian church. They ostensibly believe in a resurrection and an afterlife. They ostensibly believe in Heaven and that Jesus lives there. They teach their children to obey the bible and live a good life so that they can go to heaven someday. But here, when the rubber hits the road, they struggle. Is Heaven "for real"? It is one thing to speak in generalities and abstractions about spiritual and supernatural beings and places and events. But when a little boy forces everyone to look inside and see if they LITERALLY believe in these things, the question is decidedly more difficult.

o  I won't divulge how the movie ends because that is not the point. The point I would like each of us to consider is if we really follow the admonition in the 13th Article of Faith to "believe all things." I think almost all of us "believe" in the truths of the gospel, but to what degree do we really "BELIEVE" in the gospel.

·     Perhaps a scriptural example will help us understand the difference between "believing" and "BELIEVING."

o  The Book of Mormon tells a story of several brothers who are asked to believe something that a prophet who happens to be their father tells them.

o  The first brother I will talk about "believes."

§  At the prophet's encouragement only—he is not forced—this brother leaves behind ALL his considerable worldly possessions and embarks on a life of homelessness.

§  This brother believes enough to leave his home and his home town because he believes the prophet when he says it will be destroyed.

§  This brother spends years in the wilderness with people that he would rather not be with because the prophet insisted he did so.

§  This brother believes the prophet enough to put his own life at risk by returning to a powerful and wicked man to ask him to have a valuable and unique record that the wicked man owns.

§  This brother believes in the vision of the promised land enough to spend his labor building a boat unlike any boat that he has ever seen even though neither he nor anyone else on the crew has experience in boat building.

§  This brother then has the courage to board the boat and set off across the turbulent ocean in search for a promised land that he has no reason to believe exists other than that the prophet says so.

§  This brother's whole life was changed by and centered around the actions he took because he believed.

§  This brother's name was . . . Laman. Or Lemuel—the same things could be said about Lemuel's beliefs. Laman and Lemuel "believed," but did the "BELIEVE"?

o  The second brother I will talk about was named Nephi. Nephi didn't only "believe," but he "BELIEVED."

§  Like his older brothers Laman and Lemuel, Nephi left behind his worldly possession to embark on a life of homelessness. However, because Nephi BELIEVES, he doesn't murmur but leaves with a happy and faithful heart.

§  Like his older brothers, Nephi leaves his home and home town because he believes the prophet but because he BELIEVES Nephi prays to the Lord for himself to find out that the prophet's visions are accurate and that leaving is the right thing to do.

§  Like his older brothers, Nephi spends years in the wilderness with people who try to kill him. However because Nephi BELIEVES, he is administered to and protected by angels and he finds peace as he forgives the people who wish him harm.

§  Like his older brothers, Nephi puts his life at risk to go back for the plates at the say so of the prophet. However, because Nephi BELIEVES, he does not wish to turn back at the first complication. Even at the threat of fifty armed men seeking to kill him for his unreasonable request, Nephi is undeterred. Nephi BELIEVES that the Lord will provide a way to accomplish what He has commanded and so Nephi doesn't care if fifty men or TENS OF THOUSANDS of men are dispatched. Do you see what I mean? Nephi didn't just believe, he BELIEVED! The number of armed men trying to kill him was utterly and completely irrelevant! No number of men could scare Nephi because he literally believed that the Lord had commanded him to do this, that the Lord was mightier than any number of armed men, and that the Lord would provide a way. 

§  Because Nephi BELIEVED, he had no fear, no doubt. He commanded his brothers to stand down when they threatened to kill him. He built and boarded a boat mightier than any he had ever seen (let alone was trained to build). He spent his life in peace and gratitude that could only come from within. He was not given an easy life where the peace was automatic. But he generated peace and happiness because NEPHI BELIEVED IN ALL THINGS.

o  My time is short, but I hope that I have covered the tiny bit of scope that I set out to cover in these wonderful articles of faith. We "believe" all things, but do we BELIEVE all things. The Articles of Faith certainly lay out a lot of things the "we believe." We believe not only in God, but in a God who has visited people on earth IN PERSON. We believe in a God who still talks to prophets today. We believe in a God who not only commands us to do hard things, but who has the ability to "prepare a way" for us to do those things. We "believe" in these things, but do we BELIEVE them.  I pray that each of us can search inside ourselves and ask this question. It is good to "believe all things," that is a great starting point. But let us act on those beliefs and let our seed of faith grow until we can truly say, as Nephi, that we BELIEVE ALL THINGS.

o  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BWBassetts" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bwbassetts+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.