Dear Family and Friends,
Tough Week
It’s been another week here in the land of Houston. I really don’t have much time, but I’ll try and give y’all a good run down of how it went. We had a pretty trying week last week as far as numbers go.. we have been having a tough time getting in to see everyone we were wanting to. So we didn’t reach our lessons goal for the week.
Probably another reason why we had a bit of a tough one is because it was my week to take the lead in all planning and teaching situations. I did my best to plan but I guess sometimes it wasn’t our fault with people not being home and with appointments falling through. Let’s just say we knocked A LOT. Which I like. At first I disliked going tracting but I rather enjoy it now. It’s fun getting out to talk to people and interact with them, while sharing the Gospel.
I can’t remember a lot of specific stories because I don’t have my journal with me this week and every day just seems like it’s meshed into one, but we did have a great fireside Saturday morning with Elder D. Todd Christofferson!
Fireside with Elder Christoffersson
Early Saturday morning at around 4 am Elder Bruneel and I were woken up by what was absolutely the loudest thunder I have ever heard! It was shaking the house! When I looked outside, the lightning made it as bright as the afternoon! It was like nothing I have ever seen before… I guess everything is bigger in Texas. Anyways, it was raining something fierce and there was flooding everywhere yet again… it seems to do that a lot here in Houston. Well it was a hassle driving through these crazy flooded Texan freeways to get to where we would be having our fireside on the other side of Houston in a town called Sugarland but it was well worth it.
I got to shake Elder Christofferson’s hand personally and talk to him for a bit. He gave a great talk on missionary work and we got to have a question and answer session with him. It was really cool! I took a lot of notes in my notebook!
Who Leads the Camp?
Later on in the day Elder Bruneel and I found ourselves stranded in yet another torrential downpour with the decision to either go home and get dinner and dry off or go see someone who we had contacted in the area. No doubt because of increased desire thanks to Elder Christofferson’s remarks, we decided of course to go try this lady. Sometimes, between Elder Bruneel and I, any time we need a little pick me up, one of us asks the other “Who leads the camp?” to which the other responds “The God of Israel leads the camp!” It always gets me way pumped to do whatever it is we need to do. Anyways, this lady wasn’t home, and we were completely soaked to the bone and cold. But thankfully, the sister missionaries were willing to give us a ride back home so we could eat and change before our next appointment.
Struggles
On Sunday, for some reason or another, Hayde didn’t come to church. She didn’t answer her phone. We finally got a hold of her later on that night and she said she was sorry and that she had slept in. She said everything was fine and she was still looking forward to her baptism on the 25th. However, Elder Bruneel and I have been praying and we feel that we may need to postpone her baptism one more week to make sure she understands the importance of the covenants she is going to make. I think she does understand, she has a great understanding, but tonight we will have a lesson with her to make sure. We will try to discern whether or not she is ready to be baptized or if we will postpone it which may be really weird considering the ward has already announced it a million times and there are going to be lots of people.
It’s a little frustrating for me because, this will be the second or third time that a baptism that I have helped set up doesn’t go through. Of course I know that the number is not what matters, but I feel that I have failed as a missionary if I can’t help an investigator get to that crucial point of baptism. But we shall see.
Francisco
Everything went well with Francisco’s son’s operation, so now we are getting the ward heavily involved in helping him find work. He is looking for work on his own as well because he really wants to come to church.
Leo
We saw Leo again and after we went through his fears of being baptized as we usually do… we had a very spiritual lesson on the atonement and faith. We explained to him that the opposite of fear is faith and that baptism is a step of faith. Sure, his temptations may not completely go away after baptism but if he takes that step, the Lord will bless him and give him more desires to do the right thing. He said he would ask his parents about it, and unless they straight up tell him “absolutely not” he will go ahead and do it. He said he will let us know on Sunday.
More People
We have several new investigators, a sign of our frequent knocking this week. We are working hard to help these people. We have a few that could be baptized very soon as well as some others who are progressing but it is my belief that we need more. More more more people to find and teach. That is why I have been planning so much knocking and finding time. Hopefully soon we can start to see the fruits of our labors.
Transfers?
This is likely Elder Bruneel’s and my last week together as transfers are next week and we have already been together for two transfers. It is sad, we have become a great companionship and have really grown close and learned a lot from each other.
I would love to stay in the Broadway area, because I love the ward and I want to continue working with our current investigators, but there is a possibility that I will be the one to be transferred. However, Elder Bruneel thinks it’s going to be him that leaves because he has already been here for a while. I guess anything could happen, we will just have to see. I’ll let y’all know next week.
Hope everything is well, we are doing our best!
“His spirit guides, His love assures: that fear departs when faith endures.”
Love,
Elder Viitanen