“Steve, are you happy?”

Marko January 17, 2012 1 Comment

Not a lot of time

Well I don’t have a lot of time. We couldn’t email yesterday because the libraries were closed and I got a flat tire on my way to the library today so the Sister missionaries are coming to pick us up in their car in a bit.

Steve

But we had a good week. It started off with an exchange with Elder Duke. We taught SEVEN LESSONS that day! We worked hard! And we also met a lot of people too. My favorite was our last one. It was with a man named Steve, who isn’t a member, and his less active wife. Steve seemed… cold. His baby started crying a few minutes after we walked in and Steve muttered, “She can feel the hatred.” when his wife asked what hatred, he told her that it was the hatred he has for us.

As soon as we started talking about Joseph Smith, Steve kind of lost it. He started yelling at us and said that we could only be in his house if we were going to talk about Jesus Christ and the Bible. He went on and on about how he hated the church and its teachings and what not.

Man, I was so excited. I was flipping pages in my Bible, looking for scriptures to bash against some of the things he was talking to us about. But right before I could… Elder Duke ask a very simple question: “Steve, are you happy?”

Man, I thought, this could get ugly. He’s probably going to get offended or something. It was just quiet. No one spoke for the longest time, until his wife started talking with tears in her eyes. She said that he wasn’t happy. He was miserable, but he didn’t want to admit it. He was proud. She said that he knew that the Gospel was true, and that its fulness had indeed been restored by Jesus Christ through the prophet Joseph Smith. She said she didn’t know why he didn’t live it.

She said, tears falling freely now, that the only time of peace that they had had in their marriage was one year when they lived the Gospel perfectly. Sure they didn’t have lots of money or the best things, but they were happy. And she wanted to have that back again.

After her, I bore my strongest testimony of the gospel and it’s truth and how I came to know of it. I told him that I was raised in the church, but couldn’t really say that I had a testimony until life’s winds blew at me hard. It was then, in my loneliest times, that I had found that I wasn’t alone at all, and I gained my own knowledge of these truths. Like I have felt a few other times in my mission, I didn’t feel like it was my own words coming from my mouth, and I felt the Spirit so much that the hairs on my arm were standing up. Elder Duke commented later that he wishes I could have heard me bear my testimony. He said it was really powerful.

I told him that he didn’t have to go through hard times to know that the gospel is true. I told him to find out now. To pray to God, with his wife and baby girl, and ask if it is true and if it’s what he should do. And that if he did that sincerely, he would know.

Elder Duke asked him softly if he would, and he said yes. We left after a prayer. Driving away, I wondered if that lesson was meant more for Steve’s benifit or my own. I knew that my testimony was strengthened by it.

I also recieved a confirmation that Steve’s was as well. That Sunday, Steve came to church with his wife and daughter for the first time in a very long time, and he was all smiles.

Watery Mess

Well, the water here has about cleared up.. that night after all the storms, there were some parts that the water was up to overpass level on the freeway! It was a MESS out here! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.. a couple trailer parks were completely submerged in water.. we have been able to do a lot of service this past week.

Temple

We also got the opportunity as the Spanish Zone to go to the temple together this week here in Houston. What a wonderful experience.

Francisco

Well, Francisco Santa Cruz and his son David unfortunately were unable to be baptized this week. Francisco called us in tears and told us that his boss wasn’t going to give him Sundays off anymore, so he couldn’t come to church. Obviously, if he is unable to keep the commandment of the Sabbath Day by coming to church to worship God, he can’t be baptized. We comforted him and told him that through faith, everything is possible. And through faith, God will prepare a way for him to follow Him. We are still working with him almost every day. I know that this is a miracle just waiting to happen, and some how, some way, Francisco will be able to be baptized soon.

Francisco is staying to faithful and loves to hear about the Gospel. Every night, his son David reads to him out of the Bible and the Book of Mormon, since he can’t read. What a wonderful man.

Knocking High Doors

Well we had a good week of knocking doors as well. There are some pretty interesting people out here haha. We were knocking doors in this trailer park and while we approached one that had its door wide open, Elder Bruneel said he could smell marijuana. At first I couldn’t but as soon as I went up to the door it hit me like a wall! There were four or five people gathered around a TV. I couldn’t see very well because it was bright outside and dark inside. The closest man quickly apporached me to see what I wanted, while someone inside was loudly yelling “What do you want? Who you lookin for?” over and over again. When I told the man who approached us that we are missionaries, he relaxed and told us they were watching the Texans football game. We tried talking to him but eventually the man from inside came up to us and got all up in my face. He was cross eyed and obviously very high. I though he was going to do something! I explained that we are missionaries and he backed off a little. “You about gave us a heart attack!” he said and told us to leave. He probably thought we were from the DEA or something. We got out of there pretty quick haha.

Hayde, Leo

We had a pretty good sunday. One of the newest people we are talking with, Hayde, and her two daughters came to church. So did Leo. Things are going well with him, but his father still won’t let him be baptized, although he wants to.

Gangs and Police

Later that night, around 8:40 we had the choice to either go home a little early or go see someone else – so we chose to go see the person to see if maybe we could teach a lesson. As we were riding we saw a ton of cars and trucks squealing and driving around in a parking lot ahead and blaring music and there were a bunch of gangsters walking around so we went a different way down a dark street. I didn’t feel right and when I was about to say something, Elder Bruneel asked “how do you feel right now?” When I told him he said he felt the same way so we turned around and started riding home. Without saying a word to each other, we rode faster, and faster, and faster till we were booking it home as fast as we could. We hear sirens coming from the area we were just at while we were pulling up to our house. Who knows what happened?

Well it was a great week filled with miracles! It is so hot and muggy here, it’s unbelievable for January! But there we are, out there all day every day! 🙂 doing the Lord’s work!

“the Lord bless you and keep you!”

Elder Bruneel was called as our district leader yesterday! I hope that I can serve him and help him in any way that I can.

Love,

Elder Viitanen

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