Good and Bad

Marko July 31, 2012 1 Comment

Dear Family and Friends,

This week, it felt like it was Elder Erickson and I, vs. the world. There were a lot of trials and hard moments, but a lot of success too. Funny how those can go hand in hand so often.

Janet Chinchilla

Janet is still on for her date on August 11. She even went ahead and asked the Sunday school teacher (hermano Guillen) to baptize her without us even asking her to find someone. She is getting really comfortable with the ward. It’s crazy the change we’ve seen in her. At first, we thought she was just talking to us because she thought somehow she would get a job through the church. But now, she loves church. She loves coming and she is reading out of the Book of Mormon like crazy. She is FEELING something. It’s crazy to see that switch happen in the lives of investigators. It makes you feel good. Something else that’s crazy is how hard Satan works at people who have made commitments to be baptized. Seriously, as soon as someone commits to be baptized, the hard times come. And us missionaries know that.
Well, she has had three job offers so far, but she turned them all down because she would have to work on Sundays and she wants to come to church. Yesterday, her mother in law (who she lives with) kicked her and her three year old daughter (probably the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen) out of the house and onto the street because she didn’t accept those jobs and she hasn’t found work to pay for the rent. All her family and husband is in Honduras because they got deported and now she is living with a member family, looking for work so she can send Yasmin (daughter) home and then scrape up enough for her own ticket. It’s sad. She cries so much. But before, she would tell us “I am all alone here in this country.” Now, she tells us, “I know I have you (the elders), the ward, and God. It is hard now, but it will all be OK.” Crazy. She has so much faith. It makes me wonder what I would do in her situation. I think she might have more faith than I do!

Rick

Tuesday we taught Rick. Not sure if I have mentioned him yet. He is an English speaker that we passed off to the English speaking missionaries but to be honest… they need our help, so we are just going to teach him ourselves. He’s going through a lot of depression and stress but our visits have been helping him! He said he was “about done” when we came by and started teaching him again. But now he’s doing a lot better! He came to church in the English ward yesterday. He has a smoking problem that we are working with.We think we can set a baptismal date with him soon!

Polo Martinez

As far as Polo Martinez.. Well, he is reading through the Book of Mormon like there is no tomorrow. Man, one thing I’ve noticed is that if investigators read the Book of Mormon and come to church they just progress so much more! He told us straight up that he is starting to lean to us more instead of the Jehovah’s Witnesses because he is learning a lot more and doesn’t feel pressured. He also like the fact that we have “Jesus Christ” in our church name.

While I was gone on exchanges, Elder Erickson and Elder Cope (district leader) took Polo on a church tour. They told me it was really spiritual and peaceful. Polo was crying. They set a date with him for the 25th of August! Right before my birthday! I couldn’t think of a better birthday present. He is such a sweet, sincere guy. He really cares about his family. He didn’t come to church though, because his foot was hurting. He has already had one leg amputated because of his diabetes, and they are about to amputate his other one. We think he is almost up with his time here on earth. And I think he knows that. Keep him in your prayers. I really hope he gets baptized! He’s sweet!

Hitchhiking

On Wednesday, we went on exchanges and I got to go to Galena Park. Well, there’s no better way to start off an exchange than with a flat tire… so I just went ahead and wrecked the bike haha. I slipped on some gravel and laid it down, scraped up my arm and popped the front tire. So we went walking from appointment to appointment until we discovered something that works even better.. hitchhiking! Man, hitchhiking in little Mexico… there really isn’t anything better. People are SO NICE! Someone would pull over instantly, and what’s even better is we have the whole car ride to talk about the gospel! We got some pretty sweet new investigators that way!

Bible Bashers

We had some guy call us and said he wanted us to stop by. We get there and sit down and two of his other friends are there with their Jehovah’s Witnesses bibles. “Oh boy,” I thought. They just want to bash. Well, we tried to start off with a prayer but they didn’t want to because we wouldn’t pray to Jehovah. I asked if we could agree on praying to “our father.” He referred me to a verse in the Bible that calls Satan the Father of Lies, and said for all we know we could be praying to him. So I asked him how Jesus prayed. That got him pretty quiet. We tried to talk to them about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. They really didn’t like that. They were pretty in our faces and just wanted to bash, like most JW do. Well, I don’t really trust my temper, so I decided it would be best to just get out of the situation. We just bore testimony, got up and left. They were still shouting things at us as we walked away. Man.

Javier

Man, things are going really well. We have another investigator named Javier who is the boyfriend of one of the young single adult girls here and he has been coming to church and is really interested. He is so cool! He has been reading and praying and he is praying for a date for baptism right now.
There are a couple of other part member families we are teaching so hopefully we can set dates with them soon as well! I’m stoked!

There are Many Good People

One thing I have learned on my mission is that… people believe what they believe and they know what they know just as firmly, strongly, and truly as we do. That doesn’t mean they aren’t good people. Down here, you get a lot of questions asked you. Questions you don’t always have the answer to. Sometimes, people are trying to rock your testimony. Other times people ask questions out of a sincere desire to know. That’s even harder to deal with. I don’t know everything. I know nothing. I just hope that one day, in the end, it will all work out. Christ will judge everyone based on the light he has given them. He will weigh our hearts. That’s all we can really hope for. There’s so many good people down here who believe.

Trials

Now for the trials… this last week was SO HOT. I thought it was hot last week. Man. Haha I know I say that every week. But it just keeps on getting hotter and hotter down here. On Friday, we talked to an old investigator. He had been reading the Book of Mormon, mainly because ancient American history interests him. Well, he’s been praying to know if it’s true. He came across a lot of anti-Mormon literature. We’re familiar with it. Down here in the Bible Belt, we’ve heard everything. We know what they attack. It’s so stupid. It really bothers me. Anyway, he told us sincerely that if he has been reading and praying about everything we have given him, then it would only be fair that we do the same about this garbage.

The worst part was when his wife walked in holding her mom’s obituary. She shoved it in our face and started shouting at us saying her mom wasn’t a Mormon and never went to a Mormon temple but she knows that she is “rejoicing with the Lord” right now because she has felt the peace in her heart telling her that.

What do you say to that?

That man told us that he challenged us to rebuttal it with the Bible. He said if we can prove it wrong, “more power to you, I’ll be impressed,” and that we would have more “ammo” so really he’s helping us out. We called our President and asked what he thought. He said that if we thought that us going through those pamphlets and challenging them would help that man out, then he was all for it.

He seemed sincere, so we answered his attacks. With the Bible. In fact, I could even call it a testimony building experience. My testimony definitely was strengthened. It was strengthened even more when I saw how hard the adversary works at attacking what is true and right. But, we still felt like it was a waste of time, so we aren’t going to go back. It won’t convince him of anything. He chose to receive his answer from man, not the Holy Ghost. It’s sad.

“Vote for Obama!”

As far as the anti material. We’ve had a lot of garbage thrown at us. The whole Mitt Romney running for President thing really puts pressure on missionaries. There is so much more attack to the church right now.

People shout at us out of cars all the time, telling us to vote for Obama and saying this and that about Mitt Romney, asking us how our 7 mothers are doing. So much garbage. But all the hard times just makes me think. It makes me grateful. Because I now know just a little bit what the Savior went through. I’m so grateful for the hard times on my mission. Now I know just a tiny, 0.000001% part of how it must have felt, carrying a cross to the outside of town, getting spit upon and slandered along the way. The tough moments make me realize the sacrifice he made for me.

And people tell us that Mormons don’t know Jesus? I’ve felt Him kneeling down to prayer with me at night. I’ve never felt closer to him my entire life.

I know He lives.

Love y’all

Elder Viitanen

My new address is
6904 Hershe St.
Houston, TX 77020

our mailbox is getting cold!!! 😉

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