Dear Family and Friends,
Well, this wraps up my third week serving in the San Jacinto Branch. I can’t believe how fast it’s gone already. I can’t believe I have been away from Beaumont for three weeks. I still talk about Beaumont all the time.
Anyway, things have been going alright. I don’t really even know what the heck to talk about when it’s time to tell y’all how it’s going. haha Part of me feels like it’s the same thing every week, and the other part of me feels like every week is just so different.
Challenges of a New Area
I guess the biggest challenge of being in this area so far is just not knowing the area very well. In Beaumont, my planner was just packed every day with names of people we could see, referrals to try, streets to knock. I guess that’s one of the perks of being in an area for seven and a half months. The hard thing here is that Elder Owens was only in this area for a transfer before I got here. So basically we are both really new. So, our planning isn’t the best. Because we don’t really have a ton of names to try. Another thing that isn’t very easy to deal with (but really, it’s no one’s fault) is that he is a little timid. Which, believe it or not, is really important in missionary work (being open). I don’t really know how to explain it. I don’t know, like, not giving up in the middle of a contact just because someone says they aren’t interested or they are busy. Asking when is a better time to come back. Not talking very much in lessons. So, it’s been a little difficult for me because these are all brand new people for me that I don’t really know and I have kind of been the one to have to push things along a little bit. haha and anytime I ask him something like, “what’s the background on this person?” or, “is so and so a less active or an investigator.” 95% of the time he answers with “I don’t know.” He is so funny and a really quiet kid but he has opened up a lot to me because I think he trusts me and I love him so much but that aspect of it just makes it hard. On my first full day in the area. It’s three o clock and things kind of fell through. He parks the car, looks at me and goes, “so, now what should we do?” pretty stressful. So, needless to say we have been doing a lot of knocking. Partly, because we don’t know the area well enough to make some seriously good plans, and, lately, lots of things have been falling through.
I LLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVV
Almost a 5-Minute Mile
Speaking of lengthening the stride… every morning we jog to the track at the middle school by us and run… I’ve been timing my time and this morning I was just barely over six minutes on the mile! So I hope this week I can break into the 5’s! It feels pretty good! I think when I go home I am going to drive everyone crazy with my “health nuttiness” like I’m driving everyone crazy over here. After district meeting, we usually go out to eat as a district. It’s pretty funny when I walk into a fast food restaurant with a can of tuna and a can of chicken for lunch. Everyone makes fun of me but if they only knew how much protein was in that compared to almost no fat… it’s a deal you can’t beat! anyway………
Investigators
An investigator update. We were only able to meet with a couple of our investigators… I don’t know if it’s because I am new or what, or if our investigators just loved the old elder who was here.. but things have really been falling through. It’s not that they aren’t interested or anything, but for some reason they have just been really busy. I don’t know.
we only met with Isabel and Ronaldo once this week. Actually, it was just Isabel. It was a good visit. The cool thing was that her little kid, Alex, who usually just plays video games, heard us talking about baptism and asked if he could be baptized! So they said they would come to church. But…. they didn’t.
We weren’t able to see Oscar. Don’t know what his deal is.
Cosme is doing way good though!!! His family is so sweet! They just look like such a happy family at church! I hope he can see that. He is really liking the priesthood members and getting to know the ward and really likes church. He is doing good!
Anyway, I think that’s all.. hopefully I didn’t bore y’all! But things are going good! Love y’all! have a good week!
Elder Viitanen
