This
week was a bit of a bummer. Gael and Ariana didn't get baptized because their
mom won't give them permission. She doesn't think they're ready yet. Chucho
talked to his parents and doesn't have permission either. We're going to work
more with the parents this week and we're also sending in Miguel and his mom
(the family members that bring those three to church) to see if they can talk
some sense into the parents. Hopefully it'll turn out. Karla and Elvira won't
be getting baptized on Saturday either because they didn't go to church. They
still have good intentions though so we´ll keep working with them.
Elder
Jimenez has two transfers left. He had told me that he wanted me as his last companion
before we were told that we were going to be companions. Elder Robinson is
indeed part of the other district, but we get along really well. He's
still new, but he's got a lot of energy and a bright future.
It's not typical
to bring food to zone activities. This time around that was simply the point. I
decided to make yellow death because we don't have the money to do anything
else. We were going to make muddy buddies until we realized that it would cost
about a week's worth of money to do it. (We're given about $100 every month and
more than half of that easily goes into travel expenses with taxis and buses).
I went to Cerro Azul to do some baptismal interviews. I was hoping that that
would mean good news. One of the two people that they said was "ready"
had never actually been to church before and the other had recently chatted
with friends from other religions and was no longer too sure about his decision
due to some comments that they had made. Just to make it a full report I'll let
you know that the sister missionaries were supposed to have a baptism on Saturday, but
their investigator didn't show up to her own baptismal service. So, like I
said, bummer week for the district. But we're doing our best to stay in good
spirits. I'm actually feeling unnaturally calm about it, but I do worry for the
other missionaries. My district covers half of Tuxpan and everything north of
it.
As far as I'm aware there aren't primary programs here like the ones back
home.
It was kind of hard to be productive this week because it took more than
half a day to do the interviews in Cerro Azul and we lost two days of work when
I had to go back to Xalapa to renew my visa. That being said, my favorite part
of the week was that while we were in Xalapa I had a tiny bit of time on Wednesday
before our bus left for Tuxpan so I started talking to Elder Breinholt
(remember that he's still a secretary in Xalapa and, seeing as I was there to
renew my visa, I went to the office). We were talking about how I had nowhere
to eat that day and so he checked the schedule for where he was going to eat
and it turned out that he was scheduled to eat with Sasha that day (the one we
just baptized) so he called her and asked if it would be ok if two extra
missionaries came to lunch. She said yes, and so we went. She was mighty
surprised when I showed up in her doorway haha. It was a good time.
For p-day
we played monopoly and I won with the brown monopoly properties as the only one I owned.
It was a unique game. I'll send you a picture of something that made me smile.
Something I was looking at in my studies is godly sorrow. In True to the Faith
it says that it's not something that comes as a natural consequence of sin nor
by fear of punishment, but rather from knowing that you've displeased our
Heavenly Father and the Savior. That's the sorrow that's necessary for
repentance.
Love
you,
Elder
Finlinson
This is Fatima. She is being baptized this week. The zone leaders taught her.
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