Lord’s Work, not Ours

Marko October 16, 2012 1 Comment

Dear Family and Friends,

I’m afraid about how this email is going to turn out… this week wasn’t very eventful! You know how we’ve been leading the zone? Well, this week we tried to work even harder than we have been and … we had some of the worst numbers in the zone. We could just feel that with every dropped appointment, every rejection and setback, we were getting chastened hardcore by the Lord! We think that God was trying to humble us a little bit and remind us that this is His work, not ours, and that any success we have is because of Him. Lesson learned. This was really a terrible week results-wise. I wish y’all could have just seen our week. It felt like we were getting taken out at the knees haha! man, some crazy stuff happened. It was like the perfect storm. I’m glad it’s a new week, let’s just say that.

Here are some reports on our investigators:

Dunia

The stake president called us on Tuesday and told us to give Dunia the gift of the Holy Ghost as soon as possible. We were just going to do it the 14th at church but I guess he wasn’t having that. So we called her to let her know and did the ordinance at Presidente Garcia’s house. It was kind of on the fly, but it went well. She felt great. It’s been really good seeing her this week. We have seen all her ups and her downs, and now that she is living the Gospel and has the companionship of the Holy Ghost, she looks happier than I have ever seen her. It’s great. She is doing well.

Beto and Yaneth

Beto and Yaneth are plateauing. I don’t mean in their willingness or interest – they love having us come by, they are reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church (except for yesterday because their car almost exploded), but we have been waiting for their birth certificates to get mailed here from El Salvador for the past three weeks. We just need those to get here so they can get a marriage licence, get married, and then baptized! We’re done teaching them everything, they have testimonies, we are just waiting on those papers. So, they aren’t progressing because they have done all they can do to this point.

Jamileth

Jamileth is slipping away. She won’t make time for us and won’t take it seriously. She’s nice, but she isn’t acting like she is truly interested, or putting forth any effort. She says she wants to change but isn’t really showing it. And, we found out that she is a bartender at a club in Port Arthur. Pretty interesting haha.

Morales

There is a family called the Morales family who have been taught by Elder Hatch the whole time he has been here. At first, only the wife – Norma – really listened. She’s great! Her retention level and understanding are crazy! Now, we are teaching her and her husband. Her husband is an average Hispanic from around here – works a ton, drinks a ton, and is “hardcore Catholic” which means he only goes to church during Easter and Christmas. Although he has told us before that he won’t change religions, he has been listening lately too and understanding. He doesn’t understand or learn as well as Norma but we are slowly starting to see some gears turning. Tomorrow, we are planning on laying down the line in our lesson with them and inviting them to baptism. They said they would do their best to find out if this is true or not. So we will see if they have understood, if we have taught well enough, if they understand.

Delgado

There is a part member family in our ward, the Delgado’s. Only the mom is a member. She was baptized a few years ago. She has a couple of kids, a 15 year old son who is in and out of Juvie all the time, and two daughters, 13 and 10. Although the two daughters haven’t really liked talking to us before, and weren’t very open, they have always come to church. Lately, they have been asking us to come over and teach them, they are reading, and praying, and they love church. They go even if their mom doesn’t go! Well, they weren’t open at all to listening to us before, but now we are teaching them the lessons so they can get baptized! So we will see how that goes!

Tri-Mission Conference

Saturday, we had the chance to go out of our mission over to the other side of Houston to attend a tri-mission conference with the other two Houston missions. We got to listen to Elders Echo Hawk (from conference), Ellis, and Tad R. Callister. Each of them gave awesome talks. I am so glad that I bought a notebook so that I can start taking better notes! I haven’t been a very good note taker ever in my life. But I was able to take away a lot of good things. Callister talked about the Plan of Salvation. He did it in a way I’ve never thought of before. I love that plan. It just makes sense, doesn’t it? Down here in Texas, you ask someone what the purpose of life is and they’ll tell you “well, praise Jesus, of course!” That’s great! I’m sure that’s part of it, but don’t y’all think there should be something more? The Book of Mormon gives us the answer “men art that they might have joy.” We are here to be happy! And to follow our Father in Heaven, who is perfectly happy! Also, we are to “prepare to meet God.” We do this by following the commandments. Often, people will tell you that in heaven, all we do is “praise Jesus for ever and ever.” I’ve heard people say that if we are lucky, we will be given a harp or a flute and get to play beautiful music for God forever. That sounds fun, but if that was all eternity meant, I wouldn’t want it. Shouldn’t there be more? That’s why the restoration of the Gospel was so necessary. To bring these truths back to light because “the truth will set you free.” I love this plan! I am grateful that we have been blessed with the knowledge of it.

Sharpening the Tools

Elder Hatch and I have had some really good opportunities to fine tune our missionary work. We are nowhere near perfect, but we have been able to help each other out in certain aspects of the work. Something we have been talking a lot about lately is opening our mouths. Talking with everyone we see, in every situation. Well, it was 8:30 one night and we had nothing to do. We had the option of going home a little bit early. It wouldn’t be smart wasting miles to go try someone clear across town that may not even be home, or go knocking in the dark in some of these sketchy neighborhoods. We had plenty of excuses.

But we decided to go to the gas station to top off, and look for some opportunities to talk to people. I think we struck up conversations (or tried to) with three different people. SHUT DOWN! Except for the last guy who took a pamphlet. The humbling continued! Sometimes, contacting can be SOOOO awkward! haha you just feel so weird approaching people randomly. But I think it will help me later on in life. I just need to practice more.

Mysterious Ways

Saturday night, we went to an ATM to get money for fast offerings. It was about time to head in for the night. There was an African American lady that pulled up as we were leaving the ATM. We said hi to her but just walked by. I felt like I should have talked to her but I didn’t. It was late and she probably didn’t want anyone to bother her. As we were leaving, a truck full of hispanics just getting off work pulled up and started laughing and yelling. She called to us and asked if we could stand close to her until she was done just to make sure that she would be ok. So we did! We stood by her as she was making her transaction and talked to her. We asked how her day was. Not to good, she said. Her sister in law passed away earlier that day, and she felt really sad and frustrated! We told her we are representatives of Jesus Christ and that her sister is on to a better place, that she has nothing to fear or be sad about. We said we wanted to share our message with her about how families can be together forever. We gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and set up an appointment! Sadly, since she is an English speaker, the English elders will have to teach her but they are heading over to see her today at 5. Before she left, she told us, “God works in mysterious ways. There is a reason he had us cross paths tonight.” Who knows what will happen, but it’s great to see things like that happen in missionary work. As we walked to our car, talking about what had just happened, one of the Hispanics in the truck came out to talk to us. He said he is a member. He lives out in Kady, Texas, and he hasn’t gone to church in a year. His friends in the truck we are laughing and yelling at him while he was talking, but he asked us for a pamphlet that we could give him to read, because he wanted to go back to church. Another miracle! God really does work in mysterious ways!

So, although numbers-wise it was a terrible week, we had some pretty cool experiences. It’s still hot and humid down here! We are waiting for the cold… but I know I’ll regret that when it gets here because cold + humidity is like a cold I have never felt before! We will see when it gets here.

I love y’all!

Elder Viitanen

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