July 30th, 2018 Letter #38

With the new and old missionaries we just help in whatever way we're asked. It's not a super routine thing for us. And there are 17 news coming in the next change. That has us a little stressed because we have to open a bunch of new areas and who do you think is in charge of getting them homes with beds and all that stuff? Us! I'm excited for a wave of young missionaries though because they bring a different energy to the scene.

We do in fact answer the phone while we're here, but it recently broke and frankly I don't know what to do with it. I assumed it wasn't a problem because we have another phone here that kind of works so I figured the calls would go through to that phone, but I guess not. So I should probably look into that. 

When I have an investigator that's gonna get baptized a Zone Leader does the interview. As for how to help the district I really just think I need to help them realize their potential because I've been blessed with some really good missionaries. I try to let them know that when I call them. We didn't have much time for the district class this time around and there won't be one this week, but I'll keep you posted. 

I did in fact see the Bishop again seeing as I went to church. We didn't have a long talk yet, but he did call me "poderoso" in front of the members haha. (Poderoso means powerful) 

Good to hear that everything worked out well with McCade's farewell, that guy's a stud. I hope that between Tyler, Andrew, and Caleb we can see a wedding here soon. I write every once in a while to some friends, but it's off and on. 

Something cool about this week is that we kept ending up in the right place at the right time in situations where we wouldn't normally expect to be present. Some things that we ended up doing as a result: Taught a new deacon from another ward how to conquer his fear of sharing the gospel, sang at a baptism and gave talks in another, met relatives of a member family that seem open to hear the message, etc. The context of each is the curious part, but those things are the important results.

One really spiritual part of the week was during a youth conference that we helped out at. President talked about the importance of missionaries and mission work to the youth and it was really cool to hear what he thinks about us when he doesn't have to be putting us in line. He talked about how we really live D&C 4 and I realized how powerful those words actually can be if you don't just see them as words we habitually recite. 

In México every meal is the same so I don't notice much what we eat anymore. This week was crazy for us so we barely had time to work in general and therefore didn't really do splits this week. 

Study the scriptures.

Love, Elder Finlinson