April 17-23, 2023

Every day this week has felt a little like attending the Saturday evening adult session of Stake Conference.  Elder Bassett was here doing a mission tour.  The Montréal and Mount Royal (our zone) Zones met in person on Tuesday, then we joined via Zoom the following days as they visited other zones in the mission.  We had had an appointment for some time to do sealings at the temple Thursday morning, and had changed it twice already, so decided to sneak away from the Zoom call on Thursday.  We think our ancestors are happy to be sealed to their parents now and that we will be forgiven for the rest.

Elder Mark and Sister Angela Bassett

Here's part of his bio from the Church site:

Born on August 14, 1966, to Edwina Acker and William Lynn Bassett, in Carmichael, California, Elder Bassett is the second of five children. Serving in the Church and living the gospel were important priorities in his family.

After serving in the Guatemala Guatemala City Mission from 1985 to 1987, Elder Bassett moved to Provo, Utah, to attend Brigham Young University. He married Angela Brasher in the Salt Lake Temple on December 20, 1989. They are the parents of five children and have two grandchildren.

In 1991, Elder Bassett earned a degree in accounting from BYU and later moved with his family back to the Sacramento area to work in the wholesale auto auction industry. He worked as controller at Brasher’s Sacramento Auto Auction and as the chief financial officer and co-owner of West Coast Auto Auctions, Inc., where he operated automobile auctions throughout the western United States.

Elder Bassett has served in many capacities in the Church, including ward Young Men president, bishop, high councilor, stake president, president of the Arizona Mesa Mission from 2007 to 2010, and Area Seventy.

During the lunch break, we asked Elder Bassett if he had a brother named David?  Yes.  And is his brother currently serving as a Stake President?  Yes.  We already knew that, but wanted to be sure before embarrassing ourselves.  Well, he's our Stake President!  Elder Bassett suggested we take a picture for him to send to his brother President Bassett.  It was fun to have a little connection with him.

Elder and Sister Bassett taught us many things during the week.  In every Zone Conference, every mission tour and every other mission meeting we participate in, we discuss at least one element of the doctrine of Christ.  Elder Bassett began with enduring to the end and referenced Elder Renlund's September 2021 BYU speech titled "Lifelong Conversion."  I invite you to find the talk and ponder the things Elder Renlund is teaching (https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/dale-g-renlund/lifelong-conversion/).  Here is a little from his talk:

"Each element in the doctrine of Christ builds on the preceding step—repentance builds on faith, baptism on repentance, and the gift of the Holy Ghost on baptism—and then the sequence recurs. Each cycle ends progressively higher, so the subsequent cycle is higher and different. In this way the doctrine of Christ is iterative. Cycling iteratively through the elements of the doctrine of Christ enables us to endure to the end.

Enduring to the end is not a separate step in the doctrine of Christ—as though we complete the first four steps and then hunker down, grit our teeth, and wait to die. No, enduring to the end is actively and intentionally repeating the steps in the doctrine of Christ. Thus, the doctrine of Christ becomes central to the purpose of life, as stated in “The Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: A Bicentennial Proclamation to the World.”5"

Elder Bassett pointed out an interesting sidenote I had not noticed or heard about.  He asked everyone who had older books of scriptures (not on any devices but the actual books) to turn to the introductory notes of Ether 12.  Notice it says "The Lord gives men weaknesses that they may be humble."  Now find the same notes on your electronic device and notice that it says "The Lord gives men weakness that they may be humble."  The Church realized at some point that it should be corrected - weakness is a gift, as is sorrow and other attributes that we generally consider to be negatives.  They are all part of mortality.  We connect with God through our covenants and these gifts help us to overcome the world (See President Nelson's 2022 talk "Overcome the World and Find Rest").

Bassetts retold the story of Benjamin Landart, the young Utah violinist who sacrificed the only possession his family owned worth any money so that he could serve a mission (it was in 1888 - Google the story if you aren't familiar with it).

• As a loving parent, Heavenly Father will do almost anything to get his children back home, even sacrifice His son.
• Give up something you dearly love for the one who loves you most.
• Billions of people walk the earth today; billions have walked the earth before us but
• Only a few thousand missionaries are called to teach all those billions.
• Serving is a blessing;
• You may think you are sacrificing so much by serving a mission and wonder, "what does He want from me?"
• Better, think what does He want for me?
• It's not always the best two years, but they are the most important two years.
• We need to let the world know what we know.

Mount Royal & Montréal Zones with Elder Bassett

It is a privilege to be an advocate for Christ, who is our advocate with the Father.  We try to serve them well each day.