Valentine’s Day In The Mission Field

Marko February 19, 2013 1 Comment

Dear Family and Friends,

HOLY COW! I woke up this morning and realized that I have less than 9 months left to be a missionary! What the heck?! That just sounds wrong! I still feel like I just got here! But Elder Cope and I are some of the oldest missionaries in the mission! Ain’t that wild? My trainer, Elder Bruneel, is part of a big group of missionaries that goes home in May (many of them are some of my old companions, like Elder Worrell and Elder Hatch). After they leave, we WILL be the oldest missionaries here, since we have been getting so many new missionaries. It’s all just starting to become real. It’s weird.

Exchanges

Well, this was a good week. We started off with exchanges with the Zone Leaders, so Elder Cope came to our apartment to spend a day in Spanish with me again. It felt like he never left. It was a little weird since we were companions in that same area together just a couple of months ago. So, of course, we went to see Beto and Yaneth so he could say hello to them. They are doing so well. Yaneth got a job washing dishes at a Mexican restaurant (personally, I don’t know why she isn’t a cook. Her food is unreal). And she is loving having something to do. Until now, she was spending all day by herself in their trailer reading the Book of Mormon and waiting for Beto to get home!

I Love President Garcia and This Ward

Tuesday nights are always fun because we get to have dinner with our branch president and his family. I think I have talked about them before. The Garcia’s. Well, President Garcia is half Cuban but he looks completely American. So it’s funny, it’s just this normal American family with cute blonde little kids but their last name is Garcia. Anyway, I’ve been here for so long that I’ve gotten really close to that family. I will definitely want to visit them if I ever visit the mission again. I love that family! They’ve got a really cute, young family. Their kids are awesome. Anyway, after dinner, President Garcia always goes out to teach with us. It was good going out with him and Elder Cope again. We are all really good friends. President Garcia isn’t much older than us, so we have a lot in common. I also have never seen in my whole mission a more supportive unit leader. In my last area, the Bishop didn’t even know my name. I think he shook my hand twice the whole time I was there. It’s funny how this branch has the most member – missionary support out of any of the big wards I have served in. This unit is just awesome. I love these people.

President Crawford Imitation Contest

Wednesday we had a zone conference. Sometimes I don’t like big meetings like that where President and the AP’s attend because I feel like it’s an opportunity for a lot of missionaries to dominate conversations and try to show off to President. But I like the refreshed feeling I get afterwards. I just feel like a better missionary and I have a determination to work harder. Man, I just want to work hard. I just want to lay it all out on the field, as they would say back in football. That’s all I want. The best part of the conference, though, was we had a “President Crawford Imitation Contest.” Elder Cope and I tied for first place! Sister Crawford was the judge. Haha, man it was hysterical! We got President and Sister Crawford in tears laughing. It was really funny. I’ll have to send y’all the videos somehow. President Crawford is awesome. I wouldn’t have anyone else as my mission president. But he has lots of funny mannerisms and sayings. Anyway, it was hilarious. And Elder Cope and I have had some practice haha.

Valentine’s Day Hour of Power

Thursday we had our Hour of Power. I think I have told y’all about that before. At around 5:45, central time, we meet with a member family and teach a lesson from the scriptures about faith and miracles. And then at 6:00 we all kneel together and the member offer a prayer for us that we will be able to find someone who will listen to our message and that we will have a miracle. I would love it if y’all also offered prayers at that time, whatever it is in your time zone. Every companionship in the mission does this, and there have been many miracles and stories that have come from it. Lots of baptisms.

We decided to do it with the Maldonado family. They live in a trailer park up in Lumberton, TX. About 15 minutes north of Beaumont. It’s not a very hispanic town, but we decided to give it a shot. We had an awesome lesson and prayer, and we went out to knock. Oh, and it was Valentine’s Day. Well, it was one of the least productive Hour of Powers I have had! We were cornered and attacked by a pack of angry dogs in the woods … Elder Jones knocked one out with a wooden board … I got my shoes wet when I stepped in a pond … we knocked into a crazy cajun hillbilly girl that fell in love with us and wouldn’t stop chasing us around (yikes) … and we knocked into several people who were “observing” their Valentine’s Day Evening. It was pretty intense. The point is, not that great. It would have been easy for us to lose our faith. BUT we kept going! The last person we talked to was a Hispanic lady named Irma. At first she said that she is ok because she takes lessons from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. But we persisted and explained how our message is unique and it will really bless her life, and it may be something she has never heard before. She took a pamphlet. We went back yesterday with Christian Maldonado, an awesome 17 year old that goes out with us all day on Sundays, and she said she read the whole pamphlet and had questions. She asked how Joseph Smith could have seen God if she didn’t think anyone could see God. I showed her Exodus 33 where Moses speaks to God “face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.” She was really impressed and we set up an appointment for Tuesday for her to come over to the Maldonado’s house. She kept mumbling, “wow, face to face, huh? that’s something.” I am so gratetful for the truths that have been brought to back by the Restoration! How important is it to know that God speaks to prophets face to face? How does a man speak to his friend? Is it through a curtain or with a mask on? No! And God is our Father. He speaks today. Man… I love this stuff. There really isn’t anything more important.

Thankful for a Clean Home

Friday wasn’t the best day. A less active lady in our branch, is moving to another part of Beaumont. We got there on Friday to help out and… nothing was done. Nothing. The house was a MESS. It was so gross. You would never have imagined that three girls live there. We started packing stuff up and getting them ready for the move because they had to leave the next day. We spent a lot of the day there. I didn’t know what to do because they HAD to leave and no one else could help them. Most of the branch doesn’t even live in Beaumont, so it’s not like they could come help. Man. There were so many cockroaches. I don’t even want to think about it. Let me just say I am so grateful for my mom for always keeping our house spotless. Holy cow. That was nasty.

Juan Aleman

Juan Aleman is doing well. We taught him the word of wisdom and he doesn’t do anything against it. He is a really great guy. He brought his wife to our last lesson so we could teach her too. He really likes coming to church and he likes us too. He says that he has felt the spirit more in his life lately. I don’t know how much he understands, and he has to listen to the Book of Mormon being read to him instead of read it since he can’t read, but he is moving forward! He got called in to work yesterday morning so he wasn’t able to come to stake conference, though.

Stake Conference

Stake Conference was broadcast from SLC to Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. We heard from Elder Pieper, Elder Scott, and President Eyring. Elder Scott talked about how men should treat women. It was a really good talk. I liked it. And Eyring had a great talk as well. I felt like he was speaking right to me.

Christian Maldonado

Yesterday, we went out with Christian. He is such a cool kid. I think I have talked about him before. He just got here from Mexico and all of the white girls here love him. But all he wants to do is go on a mission haha. So he just gives them the cold shoulder. He’s so awesome. he recently tore his ACL playing soccer. I really love the whole Maldonado family and I am really glad they came here. I wish you guys could meet all these people so they wouldn’t just be names on a computer screen. But oh well. In the celestial kingdom. He came out with us all day yesterday. We had over 20 people we had planned to try to see yesterday. A couple of them we tried several times throughout the day. We didn’t get in a single door! We would park, pray, get out, knock the door, come back in the car, and drive away. I HATE BEING IN A CAR! That’s all we did all day! I would so much rather be in a bike! Well, it’s easy to get discouraged, but we kept a positive attitude. Things happen. We worked hard, we did our best. Except another reason I don’t like being in a car is because you don’t feel like you are working hard. It’s not the same as biking back to your apartment at night in the summer just sweating like a dog. I guess that time will come again soon…

Sorry for the long email this time. I hope y’all have a good week! I’m having fun out here! All signs point to me leaving this area in two weeks. When Elder Hatch got here a year ago this area was “dead” and no missionaries wanted to come here. Since August, this branch has had five baptisms, which is more than something like the past five years combined. It’s an awesome area. Right now, things are back to the slow side a little bit. We are just looking for people to teach. I just want to leave this place better than I found it. I want to have an awesome last two weeks. Maybe I’ll get to stay! I hope so!

Love y’all!

Elder Viitanen

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