Dear Family and Friends,
well I am just loving life down in the Broadway. It’s so sweet being right in the middle of Houston again. Seriously, downtown is like RIGHT THERE. It’s sweet to see the sun setting behind it every night.
Things are going well. This week Elder Erickson and I had a lot of success and we really feel like we are going to see some miracles in this area. It has a lot of potential. The hardest part by far has been balancing our efforts in our own area with the needs of the zone and how much work we put into uplifting the Broadway Zone.
Mini Missionary
This week we were with a mini missionary pretty much all week. It was good. It’s my fourth mini mission of my mission. It’s just stressful sometimes. Especially since this one stayed with us for a week. But it was good.
Elder Erickson and I have found our new favorite way to contact! There is a Mexican grocery store right across the street from our apartment. It’s called “Fiesta” and it’s just like little Mexico in there, 100% Hispanic. If we ever have some down time, especially in the early afternoon when no one is home, we just mosey on in there and start looking at stuff. We will just chill in the tortilla aisle for like half an hour and anytime a sweet Mexican lady walks by we just go “excuse me, what is the best tortilla flour to make gorditas with?” and…. it’s over. they are all over us, helping us, showing us what they buy. They talk and talk and talk. They’re so down to help us. Maybe because we are the only two English – looking people around. haha so by that time they have opened up and we usually know where they are from and whatnot and we slowly shift the conversation to who we are and about the church. almost always it ends in a return appointment. Ladies and gentlemen, that is how a true champion does his contacting. so boss! The only hard part is trying to not walk out with a bunch of tortillas and fajita meat and a bunch of other things we don’t want that we just asked for peoples’ opinion on.
Teresa Rodriguez
About our investigators. We have one we are working with named Teresa Rodriguez. She is in her 50’s and man, she has gone through a HARD life. Every time we go over she tells us something different about her past and it is pretty messed up. The other day she told us how she got shot in Mexico. She’s such a humble lady. Every time we teach her she just bawls. She has been dealing with stress her whole life by smoking. We have been working with her to quit because her baptismal date is for this Saturday, but yesterday she told us that she smoked one. We had a long conversation with her and she broke down. She felt so bad, she wanted to throw up. Today we are going to give her a blessing so that she won’t feel addicted anymore. I have confidence that she will be able to do it. She is such a sweet lady. We told her to call us whenever she felt like smoking so last night, around midnight she called us. There we were, sitting crosslegged on our tile floor and talking to her about her day and about her family and of course the gospel. I was just thinking, this is so great. I could be back home getting into stupid problems. But this is the life. We are helping people. So please pray for her that she will be able to overcome her addiction and get baptized on Saturday.
Jose Tovar is Getting Baptized!
Also, on Saturday, I will be able to attend the baptism of one of the first investigators of my mission. They are finally getting baptized and I am so excited! It will be great! I will get to go back to Pasadena for a baptism on Sunday as well. His name is Jose Tovar and Elder Fryer and I taught him.
The Garcia Family
There is a sweet family that Elder Erickson and I are working with. The Garcia family. Hugo and Carla are early 30’s or so and they have an 8 year old daughter named Janae and a 2 year old named Abby and they are the cutest things in the world. We have had some really good lessons with them and they understand so well! They know a lot of the church members and have accepted a baptismal date for the 17th of august! Hugo came to church yesterday and became instant friends with a lot of the members. He is already 30 pages into the Book of Mormon and we gave him one just a week ago. We are really excited about this family so please keep them in your prayers. They have a lot of promise.
Well, that’s pretty much I can think of. I think my letters home must be really funny because half of me is like all “missionary, proper dignified talk” and the other half of me is just my goofy old self. Pretty odd. See? that right there. I would have never said odd before my mission. That’s whacked. Alright, that’s enough. #personalityconflicts
Mummi
Before I go I just want to say that I have the best grandma in the world and even though she lives in Finland she still has been better to me than any grandma that is out there and I believe that 100%! Happy birthday!! Love you!!
#timetoball
Love,
Elder Viitanen
