Sept. 24th, 2018 Letter #46

Elder Lovaas is from Las Vegas. The missionary that they sent to my district is doing well. His obedience is on the rise and they have an investigator with a lot of promise.
Elder Lovaas was the one that told me why he was brought here. 

In the District Meeting we talked about what it is to be a successful missionary (thanks to a few things that have been going on lately that I will relate to you in a sec). We also talked about how we should help people understand faith and repentance before throwing them into baptism (thanks to other things that I will soon relate) and then practiced teaching those things.

I'm confident that we have 8 investigators that will get baptized within the next couple weeks, but I'm concerned that they will all have the same baptismal date (the 13th) if none get baptized this weekend. That would turn the work into a frenzy in the week leading up to the 13th. If you could pray for us to have a baptism this weekend that would be great. 

The ward I'm in typically has 120-130 in church. We'll hope that investigators watch conference, but there's a lot of time still left before conference so we don't have set plans. 

A tender mercy that we saw this week was that every area in my district had better numbers this week even though the week started rough. One thing that made me happy was just being able to see that the Lord is looking out for us right now in our mission. We've seen missionaries push through some difficult things this week.

Love,
Elder Finlinson

P.S.
As to the follow up of the second paragraph, Elder Finlinson asked me not to publish on the blog. But anyone that would like to pray for the Xalapa zone that would be much appreciated. 

Sept. 17th, 2018 Letter #45

Elder Lovaas has actually grown to be one of the best friends I've had in the mission. He's planning on going to Utah State so perhaps you'll see him at Walmart some day and wonder why he looks familiar. 

On Independence day we had to go home early so we borrowed Monopoly from some other missionaries and played it in the apartment. 

My district is finding it's way, but it'll take some work. One of the missionaries was sent here because he's a friend of mine and they were hoping I could get him motivated. We did splits this week and talked for a while about how he's doing and I now expect to see progress. We didn't have a district class this week because we had that zone conference (the one with the singing and tie-cutting).

The best part of the week was just seeing that we have a good amount of people that could get baptized within the month (Aleli, Fernanda, Fernando, Saul, and Juan Jose). 

A funny moment was when Elder Lovaas took a mega risk in Monopoly and sold all of his properties to put hotels on Boardwalk and Park Place in hopes that Elder Breinholt would roll a 10 or a 12. Elder Breinholt rolled a 12 and lost the game. 

A tender mercy was that we have found countless miracles of people who all of a sudden want to get baptized in our area. I'm hoping to see the new people get baptized in October. 

My clothes are holding up fine, although a few new pairs of garments would never hurt. I'm still on my first pair of shoes and they're holding up so I'd be surprised if it ever becomes necessary to buy more. Goldfish would be good in the Christmas package. 

One teaching thing that I've liked is that we're teaching the husband of a member who is just now coming back to church and while we teach I can tell that the message is helping her as much, if not more, than her husband so I've enjoyed seeing the spirit of learning that is there. 

One of the hardest parts of the week has been trying to stay organized enough with our time to help progress the current investigators while still finding and teaching new people. We had tacos al pastor for the conference on Friday.

Love,

Elder Finlinson

 Elder Bednar's visit to the mission

Zone Conference in Xalapa (Connor is behind the guy that stands out in the middle. )

Sept.10,2018 Letter #44

One thing I really liked about the visit from Elder Bednar was the way he responded to a question. The question was something like this: "Often times we are promised specific blessings as we receive a priesthood blessing. How can I know that I haven't lost any of those blessings because of something I've done wrong?" And Elder Bednar said something like this: "Do you remember what those blessings are? If so then they are not lost. But quit waiting on them like an object. Be an agent and go get them." We also talked about how prayers don't end when we say "amen." The spoken portion of the prayer will be of little use without taking proper action afterward. 

The last name for the family of 7 is actually unknown to me. Around here we get by on first names typically because everybody has 2 last names.

I've been in the mission/offices for long enough to know almost every missionary at least a little. Of the 5 that went home there were 3 from my zone and one of them got here at the same time as me so I knew those 3 decently well. 

The mission is pretty safe. There's not many sketchy areas. Usually the worst we get is just an angry drunk dude in the street who shouts stuff at us. 

The next wave of missionaries is basically as big as this one so I'd like to say things have calmed down, but we'll surely stay busy. That's a bigger problem for my companion than for me though. He has to get materials for all of the houses while I simply deal with the contracts for said houses. Apart from that I mostly just work with the records of baptisms.

Something I'm going to focus on more in the district meetings is doing simulations. I was chatting with Elder Lovaas the other day and we talked about what we do when we go to basketball practice. We talk about what we're going to do and how we'll do it for a short amount of time, but then the majority of the time is spent actually doing it. 

Thanks to the abundance of new missionaries there where a couple of zones that increased in size (one being ours) so the districts were reorganized. I'll be working with a couple of the same missionaries, but also some new ones. I'm really excited about the change though and I think it'll be a fun few weeks. My district has shrunk a tad because a new district leader was called in our zone, making us 3 instead of two. So I have 8 missionaries now instead of 10. It's now tied for the biggest district in the mission instead of being the flat out biggest haha. I like that because I'll be able to focus on the individuals a bit more.

You could say I'm with Elder Breinholt more than anyone else, but I definitely see a fair share of other faces during my weeks. My favorite moment of the week was in a baptismal service we went to with our investigators. There was this little kid who sang a solo after this baptism and you could feel the spirit pretty well. I think it'll help the investigators.

One scripture that I've liked lately is James 5:19-20. It helped me realize the importance of bringing back those who've gone astray. 

Love, Elder Finlinson

Sept. 3,2018 Letter #43

I don't have a ton of time so I'll keep details minimal. Elder Bednar's visit was really cool. He had a presence to him that boldly stated prophet, seer, and revelator. He said to us that he typically doesn't shake hands because when that happens noise breaks out and the Spirit of the meeting is lost. He then asked us after that intro whether we thought we should shake hands or not. One missionary raised his hand after about 30 seconds of waiting in silence and said that he thought we could manage it. So, yes, I shook his hand. After we finished he walked to the pulpit and simply said "Well done." Then left. So we felt good about that.

Elder Breinholt was doing well with his health in this week so hopefully things stay that way. That family of 7 is super super awesome. The couple isn't married and the mom is married to another guy so legally and with the law of Chastity we'll face obstacles, but the whole family is way nice. 

I have some Christmas music, but I'm not opposed to more. The new Nashville Tribute album would of course be nice. 

That was indeed Elder Lovaas and Elder Ahumada in the picture.

Today we just helped new missionaries get settled all day so it wasn't much of a p-day, but it was cool to see the excitement that they all had. They'll be good missionaries. We're sending home 4 missionaries this change because they finished, but we also lose 5 to disobedience/sickness/lack of desire. 

The best part of the week was just seeing the success we had because we didn't have a ton of time to work, but things really came together for us. I smelled a cool thing in a house the other day, but I don't know what it's called. A little 4(ish) year old member came up to us the other day and offered us a piece of cake so that was something good that I tasted. I suppose that was a neat little tender mercy as well. It also made me smile. (I'm out of time)

Love, Elder Finlinson