The unexpected May 11 death of the executive director of the Missionary Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not the end of his missionary work, said his son and a senior church leader Tuesday at the funeral of Elder W. Mark Bassett.
Elder Bassett, who was 59 when he died of complications from a traumatic brain injury suffered days earlier, played a vital role in revitalizing the church’s missionary efforts after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My dad still has not been released from the missionary department; I don’t think he will be for a very long time,” said the son, Taylor Bassett, citing Latter-day Saint scripture that teaches that faithful elders continue preaching repentance and redemption through Jesus Christ to others in the afterlife.
President D. Todd Christofferson, second counselor in the First Presidency, the church’s highest body of leadership, said that Elder Bassett’s death at age 59 was in many ways untimely.
“It’s hard to believe any place he would be needed more than here,” President Christofferson said, before teaching about the Latter-day Saint belief on the size of Elder Bassett’s new role. He said one late apostle noted that tens of billions of people lived on Earth without hearing Christ’s gospel, creating new labors for the righteous who die.
“In God’s ecology, talent and love are never wasted,” President Christofferson said, quoting Elder Neal A. Maxwell.
The church experienced a 25% surge in convert baptisms last year, to a record 385,490. Nearly 900,000 converts joined the church in the past three years.
The church will also set a new mark this summer for the number of missions it has around the world. The church also now has 84,000 missionaries, nearing its historic high in 2014.
Five other Latter-day Saint apostles also attended the funeral — Elders Quentin L. Cook, Neil L. Andersen, Ronald A. Rasband, Patrick Kearon and Clark G. Gilbert.
Church President Dallin H. Oaks and the First Presidency — the church’s chief leadership body — honored Elder Bassett in a letter as a dear friend and great man who put Jesus Christ and his family first.
The letter, to Elder Bassett’s widow, Sister Angie Bassett, shared the First Presidency’s prayer that the family will find peace in their knowledge of the gospel and comfort from the Holy Spirit.
“He leaves the legacy of light, personal integrity, kindness and commitment to righteous living,” stated the First Presidency, which includes President Oaks, first counselor President Henry B. Eyring and President Christofferson. “His devotion as a husband, father, grandfather, and stalwart servant of the Lord influenced the lives of loved ones and all with whom he came in contact.”
Born William Mark Bassett on Aug. 14, 1966, in Carmichael, California, he grew up in a close-knit Latter-day Saint family with a deep testimony of Jesus Christ. He married Angie in 1989, after serving a full-time mission in the church’s Guatemala City Mission.
He graduated from Brigham Young University in 1991 with an accounting degree and built a career in auto auctions. He served as president of the Arizona Mesa Mission from 2007 to 2010.
In 2016, he left business for full-time service as a General Authority Seventy for the church. He served in three major international assignments in the church’s Brazil, United States Southeast and United States Northeast area presidencies.
Speakers described him as an energetic leader and powerful public speaker.
“He led with charismatic love and bore powerful witness of Jesus Christ, and invited all to come unto him,” the First Presidency stated in its letter.
His son Taylor said speaking at his father’s funeral was like being asked to sing a solo at Josh Groban’s funeral.
President Christofferson noted that the death was a second recent blow to the Bassett family. Elder Bassett’s mother, Edwina Acker Bassett, died in March. President Christofferson spoke directly from the pulpit to Elder Bassett’s father, Lynn, in the wake of his losses.
“We invoke a special blessing of love and comfort on you,” President Christofferson said.
He also shared with the family a Bible verse: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”
President Christofferson shared part of President Oaks’ most recent talk at a general conference of the church.
“I wonder if we fully appreciate the enormous significance of this belief in a literal, universal resurrection,” President Oaks said. “The conviction that death is not the conclusion of our identity changes the whole perspective of our mortal life. ... It also gives us the courage to face our own death or that of loved ones — even deaths we might call premature.”
President Christofferson told the family to hold onto their belief in “that sweet assurance of a happy reunion” after the Resurrection.
Family members repeatedly shared their faith in that hope in talks, prayers and the music selected for the funeral.
“I know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ, I will be able to see my dad again,” his son Taylor said. “And that’s because of the covenant that he made with my mom and with Jesus Christ in the temple.”
Elder Bassett was a beacon throughout his extended family. “The happiest times of my life are when I am with my family. That is my hobby,” he once wrote in a letter.
That family grieved the separation.
“I don’t know that I’ve found deeper sorrow in my life than in losing my brother,” said Elder Bassett’s younger brother, David.
He quoted the apostle Paul’s question, “Death, where is thy sting?” and said, “I can tell you where it is. It’s right here. And it hurts. We miss Mark deeply.”
But David Bassett also testified of the Resurrection. Speaking to Elder Bassett’s five children and 15 grandchildren, he said, “Your dad is still your dad. Your grandpa is still your grandpa.” Then he tacked on a joke: “He is just trying to prove once again he is our mother’s favorite child.”
Taylor Bassett said his father seemed larger than life to him and many others.
“The reason ... wasn’t because of him at all,” Taylor said. “It was because of his covenant relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
Speakers said Elder Bassett’s love of God and family made him a natural for missionary work, where he taught that the covenants available in Latter-day Saint temples make it possible for families to be bound together happily for eternity.
Other leaders who attended the funeral at the North Salt Lake Stake Center included the church’s Presiding Bishop W. Christopher Waddell; members of its Presidency of the Seventy; Primary General President Susan H. Porter; Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson; and other general authorities and officers of church organizations.
