Happy New Year!

Marko December 31, 2012 1 Comment

Dear Family and Friends,

It wasn’t long ago I sent y’all an email, and there hasn’t been a ton of stuff that has happened since my last message but I will try to think of some stuff.

Beaumont has really been pretty much a ghost town this last weekend. At least the Hispanic areas that we work. It seems as if everyone has just gone out of town to Mexico. haha it’s made it a little hard to work. But there were some cool stories.

Hour of Power

On Thursday, we did our Hour of Power prayer with a family and I felt like the first door we should try to knock was one right across the street. This younger kind of geeky guy (like mid-20’s) answered the door. We talked for a while and he let us in. He lives with his mom and dad and they were all white. He is a Sunday school teacher at Calvary Baptist Church (that way huge one) and we talked for a long time about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. We went back for another lesson on Saturday and he asked us about the Aaronic and Melchezidek Priesthoods and he asked why they needed to be restored if Christ fulfilled the law. So it was fun getting to talk to someone educated about the Bible and talk about the doctrine behind it. It was weird, I can’t imagine what it must be like for English speaking missionaries. Everyone we talk to as Spanish speaking are people who haven’t gone to school very much. Most of them don’t know anything about the Bible specifically, they just know some things they remember from church and they tell you they’re Catholic. The most religiously educated people we meet are Jehovah’s witnesses and they won’t talk to us. So it was weird actually discussing these things with someone like that haha. But he said he would read the book of Mormon and pray to know if it’s true so what else can you ask for?

Word of Christ

We had another sweet finding miracle that made me feel like an English missionary hard core. We had nothing to do so we decided to knock. Elder Jones said a prayer and we just kept driving around until we felt like we should stop and knock. Finally, we parked and got out an knocked. After our third door, we passed this weird shed-looking thing. I didn’t even think to knock it, it didn’t look like a house or anything. Suddenly I had a feeling to go around back and see what it was. We did and it was clear that someone did in fact live there. we knocked and a white man came out of the door. He asked if we were preaching the word of Christ or the “word of Joseph Smith.”

Well, that sparked a 40 minute conversation on his doorstep about who Joseph Smith was and how we can know that he was what he said. This man, Nathan, said that he had been born and raised Jehovah’s witness so he sympathized with us because he knows what it’s like to knock doors. He is “inactive” though and has been trying to get back into it. He said that he liked the church and everything but he thought that the Jehovah’s witnesses were the most correct church with ours as a close second. He said that if Joseph Smith’s name was in the bible he would be a member. We explained why that is a bit unreasonable and he heard us out. It was a really good conversation we had with him and he was a really nice man. Finally, he asked for a Book of Mormon and he said he would been willing to have us by to teach him some more and give this a shot! Isn’t it a miracle we found him? We were totally led to him… we decided to cancel our dinner appointment to go knock as well, so it was a miracle that we found him!

Juan Padilla

Juan Padilla is doing a lot better. On Friday we went by and he hadn’t been reading. We explained why it was important for him to read. He looked really depressed and down. We tried not to focus the lesson on his relationship with his wife like so many of our lessons with him have been and just focus on him and his own conversion. He talked about how he wanted to change and told us that 14 years ago on New Years he just quit drinking and smoking. Then he said, “you know what, I do need to read. I will start reading like crazy. You will see. I am going to do this because I know that it is good for me and I want to be a better person. My wife can do what she wants. She can leave me or she can stay, but she won’t affect my decision. And if she can hear me, then good. She will know.” It was crazy! I’ve never seen Juan like that, he is usually really passive. But he was finally taking initiative! Last night when we went to see him he had read every day since we set that goal. Looks like his baptism is set for the 26th of January. I honestly feel like he could be baptized a lot sooner, but it’s up to what he wants. He is doing well! Armando’s family is helping out a lot.

Maira

Maira wasn’t able to come to church on Sunday. But she has been reading the Book of Mormon and even told us that she feels that it’s true and she wants to be baptized! We still have a lot to teach her but she could be baptized on the 26th as well. Yaneth is really good friends with her and she has been a really good missionary on working with her. Beto and Yaneth are both great. They have come out with us on teaching appointments and they are just awesome.

Goals

Well there isn’t really anything else. I think that new years’ is a good time to set goals. Last year I sat down and wrote down a ton of goals, physical and spiritual.

The couple of months before my mission, I started packing on a lot of weight. In the MTC and my first two transfers, I gained even more. I was at over 230! it was insane, I did not feel good. So I set the goal of getting to 200 pounds. I won’t lie, I didn’t think it would be possible. It was more of a wish than anything else. But I just started doing it! Lately, when I’ve been getting on the scale it’s been between 190 and 195! I lost more than my goal was! Next year, I want to get in even better shape. we have definitely been working out hard in the mornings!

Spiritually, there were a lot of things I wanted to improve. I think I am getting there, but I still need a lot of work. I will set some new ones and go forward with them. I hope all of y’all can too.

Love y’all, happy new year,

Elder Viitanen

Related Images: