Starting Out in ChannelView

Marko March 8, 2012 2 Comments

Dear Family and Friends,

A New Area

Well, it’s official. As I thought, I am now in Channelview with Elder Sorenson. He is a Canadian from Calgary and he is so cool! We were wanting to be companions so it’s pretty sweet that it actually happened. He has a pretty sweet accent and uses different words so it’s pretty cool. He is 22 and played college football and he also played hockey in high school. He said that some of his friends that he played hockey with are in the NHL now but he decided to go play football. He turned down the Canadian Football League to come on a mission. He is an awesome guy!

We live in a nice house with an elderly member of the English ward, his name is Brother Jenks. But he leaves right at 6:30 AM and goes to bed at 8:00 PM so we hardly ever see him. But he is a really nice guy. We just live in his upstairs and it’s a really nice house. We also have a car because our area is HUGE!! It is really hard to bike because we technically don’t even live in our area or zone so we have to drive in to our area every day. It’s like a 45 minute ride from end to end in our area and it takes us about 15 minutes to drive into it.

Starting from Zero

The only down side is that there weren’t many investigators when I came in. And the ones that they had aren’t progressing at all or haven’t been seen in a while. We struggled a bit this last week getting into houses and seeing people. I feel like in this aspect, Channelview is a complete opposite from Broadway. In Broadway, it was dominantly Hispanic so we could always set up appointments and talk to everyone on the street (it helped that we were on a bike, which I think I like better). Here in Channelview it’s mostly African-American. There are some Hispanic areas but they are hard to find. It’s just crazy to leave an area that had over 20 investigators and come into one that has virtually 0. But, I am excited because one of my favorite things to do is knock! Especially in the heat! I am not even joking. I don’t know what it is but it is seriously my favorite thing to do other than taking away people’s coffee! So I am looking forward to this week because we are just going to go out and find like crazy! It’s going to be sweet because we will have to let the Spirit work through us to find and talk to people so hopefully I will have some good stories for next week.

I don’t have much to say about this week other than we didn’t really get in much. We had a lot of appointments fall through. The ward seems pretty cool though. The ward mission leader seems really good!

New workout Routine

One thing that I’m pretty excited about: Ever since I got out onto the field I have been working out and running and going on a pretty good diet. (It’s pretty impossible to diet at members houses though, especially in a Spanish ward) and I’m doing good! I’m really excited because Elder Sorenson has a bunch of sweet workout stuff like dumbbells and bands so we wake up early and every other day we go do sprints at a field nearby and every other day we lift weights like crazy! I’m seeing some good results so I’m pretty excited! And then, after a shower and breakfast it’s off to study the scriptures. I really couldn’t think of a better morning routine!

Playing the Violin

http://youtu.be/XR7_wFFIErg

Choir practice is going well. I am really happy about being able to play the violin on my mission. They gave me a violin and I’m the only one in the mission who has permission to have an instrument at our house. So every now and then when we have a bit of free time I practice the songs we are performing. We have a couple new ones.. “That Easter Morn” which is an amazingly spiritual piece. I love John Schmidt’s arrangement on the piano so everyone should listen to it! and also I have a solo for “Our Savior’s Love.” I’ll try to figure out a way to record it and send it out to y’all. I’m sure my dad can come up with a good idea on how to do it 😉 I just really want y’all to hear it cuz our choir sounds amazing along with a violin, piano and sometimes organ! So hopefully that will work out.

The Lord Is My Shepherd

‘ll leave y’all with the words of a really good hymn that I like, Hymn #108 The Lord Is My Shepherd

“The Lord is my shepherd, no want shall I know
I feed in green pastures, safefolded I rest.
He leadeth my soul where the still waters flow,
restores me when wandring, redeems when oppressed

Thru the valley and shaddow of death though I stray,
since thou art my Guardian, no evil I fear.
Thy rod shall defend me, thy staff be my stay.
No harm can befall with my Comforter near.

In the midst of affliction my table is spread.
With blessing unmeasured my cup runneth o’er.
With perfume and oil thou annointest my head.
Oh, what shall I ask of thy providence more?”

Listen to it! music is really one of the most powerful influences the Spirit can use to speak to us!

New Address

My address is

Elder Carlos Viitanen
1507 Goswell Lane
Channelview, TX 77530-2119

but I am only guaranteed to be there for five more weeks. Although I think I will be there for longer, maybe the mission adderss is most reliable. They will forward anything off to me.

Elder Carlos Viitanen
2815 Westlake Houston Parkway
Suite #109
Kingwood, TX 77339

Love y’all!

Elder Viitanen

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