[IcewindDude]

I assume (like many of us) that you aren't fortunate enough to have a Japanese teacher to help you out atm. I, myself, only used books and the internet to get through learning the majority of what I learned.

I would recommend you get yourself a good book/guide that will act as a good study and reference. (I liked Japanese Step-by-Step by Gene Nishi when I began). I do recommend branching out like you are doing, if just to familiarize yourself with conjugations and such. But, you need to build your basics first.

First off, the -masu and -te have different functions in a sentence all together (they can even be used together). The -masu (-mashita, -masen, -masen-deshita) adds politeness to your verbs while the -te has a variety of purposes which actually change the meaning of the sentence.

In any case, definitely learn the -masu conjugation inside and out. Learn to conjugate to it and find the base verb from it. It will be used all the time. The -te you will probably learn first is the imperative conjugation. It is more advanced and should be learned a little later.