Monday, July 23, 2018

July 23rd, 2018 Letter #37


I would agree that Coatepec is a pretty area. This week was a little crazy because it was the last week of the change, so I didn't do splits besides the typical ones with the assistants.

My district is the biggest in the mission with 5 companionships or 10 missionaries. Something memorable I've seen a couple of times in baptismal interviews is that I've been with a person that says something to the effect of: "I'm still not sure if I'm ready yet." But after a kneeling prayer where I ask the person to ask God if He feels they're ready for baptism the person agrees that it's time. It's been cool to see people receive their answers and be with them in the moment of decision.

The people we're teaching are getting there little by little. 7 people came to church yesterday so we're gonna have to focus on getting those people on board for baptism now. 

The district meeting didn't go as well as I'd hoped because I didn't plan it as well as I should've. We'll work on it for this week.

The people from the picture are indeed members from the ward. We were waiting for the food to get cooked while we took the pictures.  I was with Elder Lovaas at the time who, yes, is an assistant. When we do splits we usually just decide as a group what we think will be most efficient. The assistants usually go with the same investigators every time while Elder Breinholt and I switch which assistant we're with (this so that us two can get to know everyone seeing as when the assistants are gone we have that necessity). That results in those two getting to know people better and us two getting to know more people. It works for us. 

President and Sister Esquihaus are good at just being loving. We had a FHE with them and Sasha this week and they became friends. President and Sister Esquihaus invited her and her husband to do double date type stuff with them every once in a while as well. 

A pretty cool spiritual experience was a chat that Elder Lovaas and I had with the bishop on Sunday. After ward council he pulled us aside to give us advice and also asked us about our reasons to be missionaries because he said he felt like getting inspired or something like that. It turned into a cool conversation. Bishop gave us a handful of advice, but his line of thoughts began after his nonmember neighbor commented about how many missionaries stray from the path after their missions. So basically he was saying how we can prepare ourselves starting now for the life that follows the mission. He even suggested we pray now that we'll be able to keep ourselves in line afterwards because he says he sees that we're good missionaries and that we bring the Spirit with us and he doesn't want us to lose it when we face the temptations that will come. As for what we said, he basically just asked us why we came on the mission and said he wanted to ponder about it. I'm curious what he'll say next time we see him. He also said that he expects to see us in General Conference someday haha.



 Something that brought me joy was an activity that we had this week. The primary kids put on a play and then the kids from the nursery -- yes I said nursery -- did a choreographed dance that was really funny because they were super lost, but they gave it their best.
Love,
Elder Finlinson

The view from Connor's apartment during a rainstorm.

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