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
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