Hope y’all had a great Christmas as I did. We spent Christmas Eve teaching people and sharing Christmas messages with those who let us in. We spent the night at the home of the Rodriguez family. They are faithful members of our congregation here and they fed us very well.
Christmas day, we woke up and opened presents and packages. thanks so much to those who sent letters and packages to us! we had many.. y’all are way too nice! Then we went to church. We went with Francisco Santa Cruz and his children, who we have been teaching. After church we taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its Restoration. Then, we had breakfast with the Berueto family at 11, with the sister missionaries in our ward. Then, we had lunch at 12 with an African American Baptist pastor, Pastor Simmons, and his wife “Miss Mary.” We met Pastor Simmons one day as we were riding our bikes. He is extremely charismatic and a powerful speaker, and he constantly expresses his love for us, even though he hardly knows us. He and his wife are such kind people. They fed us pig feet.. which was.. an experience.. and Elder Bruneel and I got to eat LOTS of them. Afterwards, they brought out the most delicious peach cobbler I have ever had. They fed us ham and potatoes and green beans. It was a real country Christmas dinner!
After THAT… we had dinner at the Palasios’ house at two. They are members as well. They fed us tamales and beans and eggs and rice.. we ate with the other missionaries there as well. needless to say we were FULL. We are really taken care of here. We also shared messages of Christ at every house we visited.
Later on that day, we were able to Skype our families which was really cool. We were at the Rodriguez house for that.. where they fed us even more. Our fridge is STUFFED with food that everyone gave us.. I have no idea how we will eat it all.
Currently we are teaching several investigators.. people who are interested in our church and hearing the gospel.
Francisco and his son David are committed for baptism on the 14th of January. He also has two younger children who have serious medical problems.. He works six days a week and when he isn’t working he is taking his kids to the doctor. He is an amazing man.
Jose Lopez – 21, we have been coming by and teaching Jose and his wife, who is a member. He has been reading the book of Mormon and the Bible, but we can only meet with him on Sunday, which has been slowing our progress. But he has committed himself to coming to church and has been doing it.. and we have committed him to baptism in general although we have yet to work out a date.
Trinidad and Julia and their two teenage girls – we met them knocking doors. They are so loving and had a real interest to come to church and see it, so we gave them a tour of the church and they have been coming to the services. We have taught a few lessons with them, but Julia recently had surgery so it’s kind of hard to come see them very often because she is constantly at therapy. But they are progressing and we hope to continue teaching them. They gave us so much food on Christmas!
Leo and Rico – Leo 21, is the president of a chapter of a fraternity at Texas Southern. He wants to leave behind his partying life and find the gospel, so he has been listening to us. We left him and his nephew with a book of Mormon and they have already read over 50 pages! They love it. He said, “when I read this book, I feel as if God is talking to me.” We committed him to baptism, and it is up to him to decide whether he should be baptized on the 7th or the 14th. We will continue working with him. Rico is his fraternity brother. He is African American and really attentive and loves to listen to us speak. He knows the Bible really well and he reads the Book of Mormon and likes it. We teach him any time he is at Leo’s.
Those are our main investigators right now.. but we are always looking for more! I love it out here! we are so well taken care of! It’s awesome.
I’m eating nothing but beans and rice and tamales and I’m sure someday it will get old but for right now I love this stuff.
I know the Lord will protect me and that he is taking care of me and my companion. We are really working hard every day.
We both almost got hit by a car last night! Whoever was driving wasn’t looking and was going pretty fast but braked to a halt a few feet before me.. it was really scary! I know that we are being protected. I love this work and I love the gospel!
Thank you all so much for your love and your support. I would love to keep hearing from y’all!
Hope y’all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Elder Viitanen