The
pajama meeting was indeed on Christmas day. We did a gift exchange there. I
gave away a battleship set (good for two players #missionlife) and received a
tie and a T-shirt. While I was waiting for other missionaries to talk to
families Elder Lobo and I went to the bus station to pick up another Elder that
was visiting our zone.
I think one gift that I've been developing a lot is that
of leadership. I'm still figuring it out, but I feel like the change is
notable. I think the gift of tongues has accompanied me as well.
My favorite
part of the week was that there were 8 baptisms in my district this weekend!
That was exciting. The challenging part of that was that we were the only
companionship that didn't directly contribute to the 8. But we're getting over
it by keeping our eyes on what's coming rather than what already passed.
My
favorite Christmas gift was that on the 24th and 25th we had to stop by a
member's house to do a couple things and while we were there one of the girls
in the family (she's 15) openly expressed to us some of her doubts regarding
the church (this on the 24th). We took time to address each one and she was
reasonably satisfied. But I know what happens when people live according to
doubts so afterwards I bore testimony of the need to live by faith over doubts
and left her a few conference talks to read. We came back and verified every
few days and she is now really excited about the church and is reading the Book
of Mormon for the first time and says that she actually really enjoys it. So
that was neat to see her get pointed in the right direction.
This week I
studied chastity and virtue quite a bit. I would venture to say that when we
think about the law of chastity we typically think about the really big
concepts that it covers and all too often forget about the importance of the
little things. These kinds of things almost always involve the domino effect.
So two important things to do to stay on track are 1. Always fight to have
clean thoughts. 2. Repent and ask for more strength daily. We
shouldn't wait to get a sunburn before putting on sunscreen. Likewise we
shouldn't wait until we have major problems before asking for strength to avoid
them.
One goal I have for the coming year is to not get tired of trying to
improve. I'd also like to impact more individual missions/lives of
missionaries. I'd like to be able to eat healthier. I know that's not a
specific thing, but that'd be nice. Perhaps more salad wouldn't hurt the
Veracruz diet.
I think the spiritual highlight would also just be what happened
with the girl that had doubts. It's incredibly crucial that we believe the
gospel message by faith instead of letting doubt run our lives. I would suggest
the following talk by Elder Uchtdorf: "Be Not Afraid, Only Believe".
Love
you,
Elder
Finlinson
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