Make Investigators Legit

Marko June 4, 2012 1 Comment

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, this week started off with a bang! I wasn’t feeling too well and last Monday I woke up with a sore throat and cough, but I didn’t have any cough medicine. The sisters in our district did though, they gave me some and I took it… turns out it expired a looooong time ago! I was acting a little loopy and didn’t know why and then we checked the bottle. Not good! But I’m doing well now 🙂

Sluggish Start

The week started off a little bit sluggish.. we weren’t doing very well. No one was really letting us in and we weren’t getting very many lessons. Lots of appointments were falling through and such. But we ended the week reaching almost every single one of our weekly goals! It was awesome!

Planning to Teach With the Spirit

It all started on Thursday with our weekly planning. I will admit, weekly planning is not my favorite. We do it after lunch, and it’s “supposed” to last at least an hour and a half, maybe more. My trainer didn’t like it either so we rushed through it. I just feel like I am wasting time in the apartment when I could be outside working. We would plan, of course, but we wouldn’t take so much time on it.

Well, this week we had a really inspirational planning session. On the mission, missionaries tend to refer to investigators as “legit,” or “golden” if they seem to have been prepared or are progressing the way they want.

So… in the middle of our planning session, as we were poring over the lengthy list of investigators we have, none of which are progressing, I got up, went over to our white board with all our investigator’s names on it, and wrote in big letters “MAKE INVESTIGATORS LEGIT.” We committed to focus on improving our teaching methods and also our commitment setting, so that we would really be able to help them feel the spirit and truly become converted through Him, not through us talking.

Top Investigators, Starting with Maritza

So, we made a list of our top five investigators that we should see by the end of the week. We called them all up and set appointments with them. We had lessons on the restoration with all of them (yes, it’s pretty sad when none of your top five investigators has even been taught a complete restoration lesson, we know. We also had a couple of our more extensively taught ones drop us this week). One of our investigators, Maritza Maldonado from Honduras, read the pamphlet we left her with before hand so when we taught it was just a review. We really did our best to commit her well and she said she would read and pray every night to find out if this is God’s church or not, and she said if she received her answer she would be baptized!! We have an appointment with her at the church tonight!

Marisela and Joanna

Also, we have been teaching Marisela (the girl from the story last week) and her sister Joanna (who originally didn’t even want to talk to us, but now is super interested). Joanna was in and out of our last lesson because her kids were driving her bonkers but we taught the restoration to them as well. It was a little bit of a shock for them to hear about all that. Marisela really processes things in her head. She thinks, a lot!! As we were explaining everything, she was really soaking it in and just thinking. She said it was a lot of stuff to process, but she would think about everything she had heard. We also committed her very well I think, and she said that she would read and pray and come to church. Also, she asked to be baptized! We will set a date with her officially soon, although we talked about the 23rd as a possibility. She is really excited.

Hector

Hector Villalpando is a 22 year old who wants to come closer to God. He doesn’t believe in organized religion, but he loves talking to us. He hangs around a rough crowd, but calls us his “friends” because we inspire him to stay on the straight and narrow. We talked about the restoration, and he liked it. He thought it was interesting. He said he has his own beliefs now, but he will try this out. And if God tells him something different, then he will be baptized.

Legit Investigators

Our fifth investigator’s appointment fell through, but all of a sudden we went from a list of non progressing investigators to a bunch of “legit” ones!

MAKE INVESTIGATORS LEGIT! When it comes down to it, I’ve decided, everyone is in one way or another “ready” to hear the Gospel. Everyone has the light of Christ. It depends on me as a missionary to bring it out of them.

Jackie

Also! We saw Jackie. Man, our lessons with her are intense! Lots of awkward silence, but that is good because it helps the Spirit work. She says she knows she needs to go to church. She just needs her space. She went to a pentecostal church with her brother and didn’t like it at all. So we talked about the Holy Ghost. She said that she is confused how there can be so many opinions. We talked about the restoration… again, and why it is important to have a prophet. We asked if she had every prayed SPECIFICALLY if Joseph smith was one. I had a hunch that she hadn’t and it was true. So we knelt down right then and there with her and asked her to ask specifically. At first, I was really nervous and throughout her prayer I was praying in my heart, begging God to answer her! As she went on, though, peace entered my heart and I was calm. Then, we left to leave her and the spirit alone. She will join the church one day.

Big Big Changes in the Mission

Yesterday, Sunday, was a very eventful day! For the past two weeks, it has been made known to us that there would be a “historic” change involving the stake and mission boundaries here in Houston, including the Spanish Speaking. There are only three Spanish speaking stakes in the U.S., and two are in Houston. As was my hunch, that was all about to change.

We had a mass stake conference, with 5 stakes invited and the three missions in the Houston area. Elder Gifford Nielson, our area authority was there (yes, the first legendary quarterback to come out of BYU!!! I love him!!) and so were Elders Villareal and Johnson from the Seventy.

The basic changes, is there is no longer a Spanish Zone in our mission. Before, the Spanish stake was split between our mission and the south mission so it was really weird. And, since zones go off of stakes, there was a pure Spanish speaking zone, which I was in. Also, there was some mission overlap.

Now, the Spanish stake on our side of the border was dissolved and joined the Houston East Stake. And a new stake, the Summerwood stake was created, where I am now in. So, now we work alongside all the English elders which is a change. Our zone leaders are English, and our district have English elders as well. It’s kind of weird, but it will be fun. The sad part is the division of the old “Spanish Zone” aka “Spanish kingdom” but it will be ok 🙂

Good Week Over All

Well, it was a really good week! No pictures this week though! Sorry!

It was really cool because we were able to hit all of our goals that we wanted! Except for one or two but it was a really good week!

Love y’all
Elder Viitanen

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