Best Day of my Mission!

Marko December 17, 2012 2 Comments

Well, everyone, I’m pregnant!!

Haha that’s mission lingo for “I’m going to be training a brand new missionary.” Usually, we joke around and reffer to a “trainer” as a “father” and a “trainee” as a “son.” It’s just a funny little mission culture thing we have. My “dad”, Elder Bruneel, trained me, and now it’s my turn to have a brand new missionary.

Training

I got the call from President Crawford last night to do it. He told me that training a new missionary is the most important responsibility in the mission because it will shape the mission’s future. I’m a little stressed because I feel like I am going to need to do every little thing perfectly and not mess up! It’s going to be crazy to train in the area that I am in right now, because it’s so different than all the other Spanish areas in our mission out in Houston. When I came to Beaumont, I feel like my mission changed. Out in Houston, all the Spanish missionaries are really close to each other and you get to be really good friends, which is good, but out here, it’s just you and your companion and the other English companionship, and the zone leaders. It was a really good opportunity for me to focus even more and I feel like I have learned and grown way more in my three transfers here than I have in any of my other areas combined. I love Beaumont for that. But, it is kind of hard feeling like it’s you and your companion all alone sometimes. Plus, they are taking missionaries out of the English branch here, so it will just be my greenie and I and the zone leaders, who we never see. So we will almost literally be by ourselves. It’s really different compared to all the other areas out in “Spanish Land.”

I decided that I don’t care how weird or goofy or strange or different my next companion may or may not be, as long as he is humble and willing to work hard, everything will be ok. And of course that goes for me too. I can’t ask anything from anyone that I’m not willing to do also. I’m just really nervous to see how it goes. I’ve heard training goes by really fast, and it helps you improve as a missionary because you kind of have to run things on your own for a while as opposed to my mission so far where I have always been paired up with an experienced companion.

So my “son” is probably on the plane out from the MTC right now. Tomorrow, I’ll have to drive out to Kingwood at 7:00 AM to be there for a meeting at 9 and I will meet him and we will make the lonely drive back to get to work! So we will see how it goes! It will be an exciting next two transfers that’s for sure! I can’t believe I have been here in Beaumont since August and I will stay here until the middle of March! I asked President to keep me here and I guess he likes me because he did! 🙂

 

Elder Cope

It was a pretty big shock for Elder Cope to get the call to leave this area. He has only been here for six weeks! It’s unheard of for missionaries to come to and leave Beaumont in only one transfer. Usually, missionaries stay here for about three. So we both thought that I could leave. But he got called to go be a zone leader in Pasadena with Elder Hatch! My two favorite companions together as ZL’s! I realized that on my mission I have made some really good friends. Some best friends. All such good kids. Especially Bruneel, Sorenson, Erickson, Hatch, and Cope. We are all so super close, it’s crazy. Especially this transfer with Elder Cope. It kind of stinks that we will have to get seperated after only one transfer. It kind of feels like when Erickson and I got split up. But we all have plans to hang out after the mission so it will be ok 🙂

ANYWAY… how about we talk about the BEST DAY OF MY MISSION!?

Beto and Yaneth were married and baptized on Saturday! We had the wedding in a small little bank in downtown Beaumont. Yaneth had an awesome white dress and Beto bought a really sharp looking suit (with Presidente Garcia’s help) and they both looked so good!!! Elder Hatch got permission to come out to spend the whole day with us which made it even better! Then, after the ceremony, us missionaries went out to the parking lot and painted their car and then we all drove out to the Weaver Chapel to get ready for the baptism. I got to baptize Beto and Elder Hatch baptized Yaneth. After that, we had a reception/Christmas party with the Port Arthur Spanish branch and Beto and Yaneth had their “first dance” as a married couple. It was just a surreal day. Just incredible. At first, it was a little stressful as we were getting things ready last-minute, but in the end, it was a perfect day. They were so happy.

When our branch President Garcia did their interviews, he said they were the most spiritual interviews he has ever been a part of. They are so sweet. I seriously wish y’all could meet them. Such awesome people. I think it’s crazy how on missions we leave behind so many of the things we love, and the Lord blesses us by giving us new things to love. Beto and Yaneth have a special part of my heart.

Mission Conference

There were a couple of other cool things that happened this week. Wednesday we had our mission conference. It was really sweet getting to see everyone again. I got to play the violin. In fact, they called and asked me that morning to do it. Pretty stressful. Well, there is this man named Mike Bartlos who was there and he is a professional pianist and bagpiper (we got along really well) and we got up there and I told him what I was going to do and he just followed me perfectly. We were playing purely by ear! And we really “felt” each other. It’s weird to describe. Playing music is truly like another “sense.” We were both on. Anyway, I recorded it. We got a standing ovation. Pretty good for no practice. President Crawford then went up to the microphone and started crying. The spirit was really strong.

Here it is (Click on the triangle if it doesn’t start automatically or if you want to play it again):

Juan

Thursday, Elder Cope and I went up to Lumberton with a member to go visit Juan’s wife while he was away in Mexico. We bought some chocolates and wrote a Christmas card and we hoped for the best. She has never let us in when it was just her at the house alone, even when we had a member with us. But we felt a confirmation earlier in the day that we should make the drive out to go see her. So we went, and she let us right in! We had a short little conversation with her in her little living room in her trailer. She said Juan would be home soon and that he’s doing ok. She was really grateful for the candy, and she seemed really surprised that we remembered her! We had a prayer and then left. I think it was a huge step. She let us in and talked to us! Juan should be back today so when we go up there again hopefully we can start to teach them both together.

Hour of Power

We were coming back from Lumberton to Beaumont to go knock for our Hour of Power, but we were late because of a traffic jam! We were late for the Hour of Power, which is when every missionary in the mission prays with a member right at 6:00 PM and then goes out to knock doors with faith. We didn’t get back into Beaumont into 6:30. We didn’t even know where we were to go knock. Elder Cope was searching through his planner for a street that he had written down for us to knock earlier in the transfer but couldn’t find it. We were driving around until finally it hit him. Blanchette street! It just popped right into his mind! So we drove ther as soon as possible and prayed again. We decided that even though we were late, we were still going to knock for an hour. It was probably the most fruitless knocking of my mission. No opened doors. We talked to two gangsters who were smoking weed, and that was probably the best it got. Until 7:25. The last door, like always. We knocked on the door and a little Mexican girl answered the door and started jumping around because she was so excited. The family let us in. It was a mom, Carmen, and Angel Hernandez, and their little daughter Sharon. It was one of those cute, perfect Mexican families. Just awesome. Straight from Mexico. They were so friendly. There was a weird feeling. Almost like they had been expecting us. They pulled up chairs for us, and Carmen started cleaning up around the living room for us. We sat down and had a great discussion with them for about an hour. I have a special feeling about this family. I am asking you to please pray for this family by name. I believe that they will be baptized. And I am only saying this after one visit… there wasn’t anything crazy that happened, but I have that feeling. We are going back there tonight. Please! Pray for us! Isn’t that a miracle? It makes me want to cry just thinking about it. Being a missionary is truly the sweetest thing that I have been a part of. So many little miracles everyday.

Holy Ground

Well, I’m loving it out here. There’s been lots of missionaries from Houston calling me to see if I’ll finally be able to come back to Houston or not. And although it’s sad that I won’t be able to see a lot of my friends out there, and maybe P-Day basketball can’t be a reality out here like it is in Houston, I love it here. Beaumont smells bad, the water tastes gross, there’s refineries everywhere, it’s a big old ghetto, but it’s holy ground for me. Beaumont has been my refiner’s fire. I love this town.

This week there was a cold snap for a day. It got down into the 30’s and I was freezing cold. Here were two missionaries from Utah just freezing their butts off! The cold here is so much different than in Utah. It’s damp and wet. It doesn’t matter how many layers you put on, you will still feel the chill. It’s crazy. But after a couple days of it, it went back to the normal muggy and humid, and warm and rainy. Pretty sweet Christmas weather. We had a huge storm yesterday! So much rain. Weather here is weird. I miss Utah sometimes!

I’m going to try to email y’all a bunch of pictures from this week so I better go. But I love y’all!

Love

Elder Viitanen

Related Images: