Dunia Was Baptized!

Marko October 9, 2012 1 Comment

Dear Family and Friends,

Ladies and gentlemen … THE DROUGHT IS OVER!!!

Elder Hatch and I were almost crying tears of joy as we slipped out of the first session of conference during the intermediate hymn to start filling up the baptism font with the sweet, sweet water that would be used to baptize Dunia Torres and end the drought of baptisms here in the wilderness!

We had her baptism between the morning and afternoon sessions. Since we were all watching conference at the church, the whole branch was already there. Lots of people came to support her and welcome her as the newest member of the branch. Yaneth was there also and got to watch, and said that she would be next.

It’s been such an up and down journey with Dunia. She definitely is one to attract lots of problems and drama… from the baptismal program to the gown she had to wear to get baptized… there were times when she gave us a little bit of grief! But it was worth it when it all melted away as she came out of that water! She was beaming with happiness! When she came out she confessed to us that she had been baptized in a different church before… she said that when she was first baptized she didn’t feel anything different. All of her cares and sorrows were still on her shoulders. But she said that this time, she felt different. She felt like she could fly! She felt like she had been truly washed away, and that this baptism was valid. She was so happy! So were we! That’s one of the coolest things you can hear as a missionary! Another life changed by the gospel…

“Always hungry, never satisfied!”

Now that the drought is over and the streak has been broken.. elder Hatch and I have adopted a new saying for the rest of our time together… “Always hungry, never satisfied!” We are still working hard and trying to help and teach as many people as we can. Even though we didn’t have as much proselyting time this week because of conference we were able to have just as much success as we have every other week. We found some new investigators and also had some great lessons!

Vega Family

I think I mentioned the family we found a couple weeks ago, the Vega family. The single mother, Claudia, is really busy, but so nice. We haven’t been able to get a hold of her but last Wednesday we finally did! As soon as I knocked on the door, it opened, and two young, professionally dressed Jehovah’s Witnesses opened the door on their way out. “Are y’all out preaching today as well?” they asked. I really didn’t know what to say. We just tried to be nice. So I told them that we are teaching Claudia about our church and our beliefs and she said that we could come by. I wonder how they felt about that. Anyway, Claudia let us in. There were Jehovah’s Witness magazines everywhere. I felt like I was in a nightmare haha But she sat down and said she was ready to listen so we did our thing! We reviewed what we had taught her about prophets and apostasy and surprisingly she remembered everything even though it had been a couple weeks since we talked last. So we went ahead with the restoration. Our mission recites Joseph Smith History, starting from “in this war of words and tumult of opinions” by memory as part of this lesson. We obviously give an overview of what happened and set it up so they will feel the spirit during this relation. Before we went into it, we asked her what she thinks God could do to help us with all of this confusion. “Call a prophet!” she said. She was absolutely right. As we, word for word, from memory, recited the words of Joseph Smith describing his conversion story, the Spirit was the strongest I have felt it on my mission. I know she felt it as well, she told us she did. She said she would do anything necessary to know if this was true. She was sincere! She also said that she would be baptized if she did receive this answer. I know she understands, and I know she will get her answer if she seeks sincerely.

After the lesson, we headed back to our apartment for the night. There have only been a few experiences in my life where I have felt the spirit so strongly. The only phrase I can use to describe it is “my heart was full.” Elder Hatch and I didn’t speak for fear of driving that Spirit away. We both had tears rolling down our cheeks the whole way home. It’s so great having a companion that cares about the work as much as you do! We know that this is true! I hope that Claudia receives her answer as well.

Beto and Yaneth are doing well. They both came to conference. They are still just waiting on their danged birth certificates to come in from El Salvador so they can get married.

Esther and Family

One last experience I want to share is one we had last night. During exchanges, I had contacted a Mexican lady named Esther in a trailer park. She was in her 30’s and seemed a little strange. Really nice, but weird. Yesterday night, we stopped by for the appointment. A man was sitting outside and told us that Esther was not home. Almost immediately afterwards, she opened the door. It’s never really comfortable when you open a discussion up with someone lying straight to your face. She invited us in and her husband followed. It was an uncomfortable first few minutes. So awkward. I didn’t even know what to say. Part of me wanted to just leave them with a pamphlet, explain it, commit them to read it, and leave. Later on, elder Hatch told me he felt the same way. But something within us made us stay just a little longer. So we kept talking, the husband told us he was catholic and so were they. They said they enjoyed their church, which we said was all good and dandy, but we would like to share our message with you. We kept talking and eventually, somehow we began talking about trials and tribulations and how faith in Jesus Christ helps us overcome them. I felt prompted to ask them if their faith in Jesus Christ has helped them with a challenge they have had recently. They both became very quiet. Well, the husband had been doing all of the talking. The wife is really timid and they had a 5 year old daughter that was being very attentive. But it was quiet. Then, the husband told us of their daughter that had passed away recently. It sounded to me like she had been a stillborn. He told us how that had been hard for them. Esther began to cry and cry and cry, but really quietly. She just looked so SAD! She was wiping her eyes with her sleeve, looking down, looking at us, smiling a sad little smile, and crying some more. We bore our testimonies that they would see their daughter again and that they would be a family forever. They seemed to feel better. We have a return appointment with them. I’m not saying they will be baptized, but I would call that a miracle. Who knows what will happen to them. But something that it helped me realize is that this Gospel can help everyone in any situation. I dread the day in which I will lose a loved one and have to test my own faith, but I know that if I have faith, I will be ok. It was a really touching experience.

The General Conference

Conference was awesome. We were all looking forward to it like Christmas morning! Last p-day, I bought a sweet new notebook to take notes in. If you know me very well at all, you know that I HATE taking notes. But it is so helpful! I learned so much! and I still have that info available. Usually by this time I would have forgotten all of the talks haha.

One that stuck out to me was Elder Holland’s. He is my favorite. Everytime he gets up there he just seems to drop a bomb! I don’t even know how, but his talk hit me like a ton of bricks. I better not go back to my nets when I get back home. Another one I like a lot was Elder Uchtdorf’s talk about regrets.

But one thing I do want to mention was President Monson’s declaration about the ages for availability for missionary work. I’ve said it many times, but now more than ever I want to say to anyone who may be seeing this that is contemplating a mission. GO NOW! don’t wait! You won’t regret it. This work needs faithful young elders and sisters more than ever before! please join the ranks!

Thanks for all y’all’s supports and help. Keep em prayers coming!

Love, from Texas,

Elder Viitanen

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