Dear Family and Friends,
Well seeing as I wrote y’all a huge email last week I won’t write that much this time. This week was really good. Actually it was dang good. Elder Fryer and I set what has unofficially (yet) been recognized as a mission record for member present lessons in one week. We hit 18! We were going for 20 but we will get it this next week. We had a seventy come to our zone conference and he really pumped us up to push harder and to stretch ourselves. And we are doing just that! It’s crazy that just a month ago, this area hadn’t had an investigator at church in months, or a baptismal date for that matter let along a baptism, and was averaging about 7 total lessons a week, with 2 taught with members. Elder Fryer and I, with all humility possible, are tearing it apart!!!
Mini Missionary
Anyway… on Friday morning we got a mini missionary. His name is Juan Pablo. He was one of the youth from my last branch in San Jacinto. He is a character haha. He is so hood. I really have no other way to explain him. At least he acts thug haha. He definitely made it one of the funniest and craziest weekends of my life. He is a good kid.
Julianna and Alejandro
So the whole situation with Julianna has been interesting… her parents are divorced and both Catholic. She was very involved in the Catholic church before she met Eliud, her boyfriend. Well, we started teaching her at Eliud’s house with his family and she started coming to church. When we set a baptismal date, we told her to talk to her parents about it. She was really scared to until she told them the week before. Her dad was OK with it but her mom, who she lives with, went nuts. The good news is Julianna had turned 18 the week before so she didn’t need her mom’s approval anymore to get baptized. But we thought it would be a good idea to tell her anyway. So her mom said that although she hated the idea, Julianna can do whatever she wants and she wouldn’t love her any less for it. We had an appointment set up for Friday, the day before the baptism, to meet the mom and go by and try to explain to her what our beliefs are and why Julianna was wanting to get baptized even though she had already been baptized as a Catholic. Julianna showed up at our apartment a day before with a bunch of anti-Mormon literature in her hands. She was almost crying and she said, “look, my mom gave me this. I don’t believe any of it. I know this church is true. Please come talk to her.” We were going to go by with Julianna, Eliud, and our mini missionary. The time of the appointment was Friday at 7. We were looking forward to it. It was funny.. all week I looked forward to it as I would a football game. They always started Fridays at 7. It was so interesting how I felt those same feelings of adrenaline and excitement. I was excited to share the truth. It felt awesome.
Well… Julianna’s mom and her aunt (who’s parents are from Spain by the way) did not feel the same way. Our plan was to share the message of the restoration and we got SHUT DOWN. man, they were looking for a fight. Her mom especially was very disrespectful. It was disappointing. She was really immature. We, of course, handled it professionally, but when all was said and done all we got done was yelled at for 2 hours. Every time we would try to talk she would interrupt us and we wouldn’t get to answer her questions, so she still thinks we are a cult probably. Well, I don’t know if this is the best thing but Julianna and her mom were getting into it quite a bit. Julianna left the table and went and prayed in a corner. She came back with tears in her eyes and said, “mom, every time I listen to these missionaries and go to church and pray I get this feeling that I KNOW this is true. And I am getting it again as I pray and as I just listened to these missionaries tell you about Joseph Smith. And so, I am getting baptized.” It was awesome to hear her testimony. She said that she wasn’t doing it for Eliud… she said that he was about to go on a mission for two years and you never know what will happen in that time.. she was doing it because she knew it was true.
Well.. bottom line is I think her mom hates us but she said that she would go to the baptism. We walked out of the house… another feeling I know very well. We all felt defeated. I felt like the refs had ruined the game for us hahahahahaha that is so funny I crack myself up hahaha seriously am I obsessed with sports? anyway we all talked for a while and Julianna was so strong. I am so proud of her.
Julianna texted us after and said that her mom is totally fine and that they went out to dinner after. So that is good.
Our mini missionary was so funny hahah seriously craziest weekend. From flat tires to a crazy bike accident… I love being a missionary! He is supposed to be coming down to spend P day with us so I hope he does!
Anyway that was our week! Transfers are coming up so we will see what happens… elder Fryer and I might get split up but we shall see! We hope we stay together!
I love y’all and I know this church is true! <3
Elder Viitanen
