Jan.7th, 2019 Letter #61

Danna got baptized! She turned 8 on Saturday. Her aunt came and she's interested in learning more. Some other investigators that the Sisters are teaching also showed up. Elder Jimenez baptized her. Typically we baptize on Saturday and confirm on Sunday, but with Danna we did the baptism early Sunday morning before the services started. 

The 2 hour thing has a lot of potential, but almost nobody had the manual until this Sunday so nobody came prepared and, as a result, there was very little participation. Hopefully this week everyone will read it now that they have it. I don't feel much different about the time we have outside of church. It's not too big of a change in that regard. 

This change I'm getting sent to Martinez de la Torre (the same zone I started in). But this time I'll be in the area Ejidal as a Zone Leader. I'm going to be with Elder Marines again, that detail made me laugh. (They served together for 3 weeks before Connor was made a secretary.) I think it'll be fun. I was surprised that they called me to be a Zone Leader before training, but I'll trust in the plan. 

All the changes in the church are kind of fun. I feel like nobody tells us about them, but every once in a while I check the church website. 

My favorite part of the week would have to be the baptism of Danna. 

I think the most exciting thing about the change will be having a new responsibility. I feel like I've adjusted myself a lot to the mindset of a District Leader and it'll be a challenge to adapt to a different position. 

I was reading in 1 Nephi this week and I found it interesting to read about some of the prophecies that he made. He talked about the arrival of the Gentiles to the American continent and mentioned that they were inspired by the Spirit of God. It made me think about how God is always in the details and how He never stops working. Even when the world wasn't ready to receive teaching directly from a prophet (this happened during the Great Apostasy) He didn't give up. He worked with what He had. I think that sometimes we too need to work with what we have. We shouldn't make excuses based on our situation. If we have a work to do then we need to get it done. 

Something that made me laugh a bit was that we had a ward party on Saturday and I won in musical chairs. So ha. 

One challenge that I faced here in Tuxpan was trying to stay out of drama. You would hope that a mission wouldn't include too much drama between the missionaries, but it does. So in Martinez my goal will be to put a stop to rumors and other kinds of drama as soon as I hear them so that it doesn't develop. I've always tried not to spread them, but I now realize that it's not enough to be quiet, but rather it is necessary to take a stand. 

The New Year we had to be in home at 7 so we just kind of sat there for a couple hours then went to bed.

Love you guys!

Elder Finlinson

Connor with Danna and Elder Jimenez