Dear Family and Friends,
I don’t have too much to say this week. Of course a lot of stuff happened but … there aren’t very many specific things that I can mention, and I want to make this one a short one because my last few have been novels and we are going to play “el juego bonito” today.
We have been focusing a lot on our member present lessons and we are doing really well at finding out when they can come with us and coordinating with them.
We have two baptisms set for this Saturday.
One is Bertha Hernandez, the nine year old who has crazy ADHD but is a freaking cutie. She drives me crazy sometimes though.
And also, Yanira Sanchez who just got here from El Salvador. She has been a roller coaster ride. She has so much going on in her life. She is in a new country that she had to walk to, she misses her family, her nephew just passed away, and she is trying to figure out what she can do here for work and school and also if the church is true! She is just 18 so I don’t know if she is really mature enough to be making all of these huge decisions but she is trying. She has told us yes and no to baptism for so long, mostly because of her 7th Day Adventist upbringing and her parents telling her that if she gets baptized they will never talk to her again. But last night we had a good lesson with her and she told us that she is sure she is going to get baptized on Saturday so that’s pretty cool.
We had a party at church for to celebrate a bunch of latino countries' independence. I felt weird since the whole theme of the party was their independence from the nation I was born in but hey... when in rome... this is a classic old school mexican picture. no one smiling...half the people don't even know a picture is being taken. Classic. I love mexicans so much. I'm going to miss them like crazy. Such a great culture. It makes me warm inside.
We had a party at church for to celebrate a bunch of latino countries' independence. I felt weird since the whole theme of the party was their independence from the nation I was born in but hey... when in rome... this is a classic old school mexican picture. no one smiling...half the people don't even know a picture is being taken. Classic. I love mexicans so much. I'm going to miss them like crazy. Such a great culture. It makes me warm inside.
As for our companionship…. I really like Elder Tatom but I have this terrible feeling that if I weren’t to get up on time he wouldn’t either. Or, if I were to sit in the house for an hour or two he would be totally OK with that. Or if I studied in my pj’s he would too. It’s kind of a crummy feeling to think that that is the case but… I guess that’s just all the more reason for me to gently push him. Especially because I don’t want there to be a bad example for Elder Stryker. But I think on some occasions, Elder Tatom has been kind of annoyed with me and called me a “pharisee” and a “rule lover” and whatnot. Don’t get me wrong, we haven’t argued at all and we get along great. I would definitely hang out with him after the mission, but just that little thing we don’t see eye to eye on. It bugs me how he doesn’t take things with as much seriousness as he should. But we are working through it. I’m by no means a perfect missionary either and I have plenty of faults and downfalls… I’m not perfect at all.
This time on my mission has opened up a lot of self-checking and evaluation and I’m not sure how smart that is because it makes me feel like garbage. I still have so much to learn. At least I’ve still got time to do it!
I love being out here and I love my mission! I hope everything is well with everyone back home! I love y’all!
Elder Viitanen