March 25th,2019, Letter #72

The Elder who got sick is doing better now. But this week another Elder got sick with almost the same thing and we had to do a bunch more interviews so we basically repeated last week. 

The person in Vega had their interview with someone else, but I was there to set a goal for the baptismal date (she got baptized this weekend). 

One of the best parts of the week is that I saw the prayers of a lot of leaders in the mission get answered through the revelation of President Equihuas. On Tuesday we had a meeting with him and a specific plan about how to improve our efficacy as missionaries and Teachers of the Doctrine of Christ was presented to us. We've been putting it in action this week and supposedly the Mission Department is watching us to see if the plan should be applied in the entire Mexico area. Let's hope. 

The most challenging part of the week was a common struggle: finding time to work in our area. But if that is to be our grand struggle than that's fine by me because it means there are things to do. 

One tender mercy I saw happened on Sunday. We had lost a bunch of time in our area so we left the house early Sunday morning to invite the people that we'd been teaching. One by one we were coming to the sad conclusion that we simply weren't going to have anyone in church. The last family that we passed for was a family of 2 inactive members and one investigator (Grandma, Dad, and Mom) along with a young child. They were our last hope, and when the dad came to the door he informed us that the child was sick and that they wouldn't make it to church. But when Elder Lobo reminded him about priesthood blessings he invited us in to give a blessing to the little one and the grandma. Shortly afterwards we headed on out. The services started and we had empty hands. However, surely enough that same family came confidently through the door with about 15 minutes left before sacrament meeting ended. That made me happy. 

I don't know what'll happen in transfers, but I bet I'll stay put for a little while longer. Something that made me laugh was that one of the assistants visited this week and he has a funny laugh so he made me laugh whenever he would. Thanks for the support!

Love you,

Elder Finlinson

March 18,2019 Letter #71

I'm gonna give short answers for time´s sake. 

(Leadership conference)They were just small presentations so I was there for the others as well. I mostly taught about how a good attitude comes from confidence in God. I was chosen by the group. 

The gentleman did indeed get confirmed. We didn't have much time to work in our area this week either due to a need for us in other places again (10 Baptismal interviews, splits, and a hospital stay with a sick elder). 

Elder Shoemaker was a Zone Leader for a long time, but now he's back to being a District Leader and Elder Castillo is his companion. You're right about who they are. (Former companions of Connor) 

There are 16 Zone Leaders, 4 Sister Training Leaders, 3 (typically 2, but not this time) assistants, the President and his wife in the leadership meetings. It's always been in Xalapa except that one time with Elder Valenzuela. 

The best part of the week was just being able to work with a lot of different missionaries in the Zone. One cool miracle was that I did splits in Vega and met someone that they were teaching and realized that it was someone that I myself had taught over a year ago and now she is about to get baptized. 

I'm studying a lot about repentance right now and it's relation with godly sorrow. The week was pretty unusual yet very usual in that we were very busy (usual), but always with a variety of new things to do.

Love you!

Elder Finlinson

March 11th, 2019 Letter #70

The conferences were really good, I feel like my faith was greatly strengthened and that I truly benenfited a lot from what was discussed this week. My favorite part of the 4 zone conference was being able to talk more about how important it is to find new investigators and how we can do it. We talked about several other subjects as well, but the 4 outstanding subjects were brought back in the leadership counsel. The missionaries ourselves basically chose the topics of the entire meeting, Elder Valenzuela just guided us to make our own conclusions. The 4 topics that we as missionaries chose to discuss were 1. High Expectations 2. Attitude 3. The Prominence of Baptism in the Doctrine of Christ 4. Love. We were split into groups and asked to give presentations on the subjects. I was half chosen-half volunteered to give the presentation on Attitude. 

I didn't see any of the people that were in the accident in Vega because they live in another town outside of Vega. We do service projects every once in a while, but it's not as habitual as it perhaps should be. The planning is typically done by the missionaries from the area of the project and the zone leaders. 

We had very little time to teach in the week, but we ended up having a good number of people come to church so I'm alright with that. We weren't able to have the confirmation due to the Stake conference, but we'll have it next week. Stake conference was good. We have a new Stake President and one of his counselors was my Branch President in Vega. We ourselves weren't involved in much. 

In Mexico they used to do the time switch, but the new government just barely changed that so we didn't switch this time. 

One tender mercy was that even though we had very limited time to work, we were able to see positive results in our area. Something that made me smile was that when we went to Poza Rica we got to stay the night with some other missionaries. The lucky two happened to both be former companions of mine, Elder Shoemaker and Elder Castillo. It was fun to see them again and chat a little bit. The best part of the week was being able to have a meeting of relatively few people with the Area President, Elder Valenzuela. It really gave an extra boost to my testimony about the sacred mantle of a General Authority.

Love you,

Elder Finlinson

This is a picture from his previous area.

March 4th, 2019 Letter #69

We had a baptism this weekend. It was an older gentleman. The funny thing was their was a slight miscommunication. After he was baptized he went and changed clothes, then he left. He didn't know that we would end with a prayer and a hymn. He left his cell phone behind also so we went to visit him to return it. Unfortunately he was unable to get confirmed the next day because he was sick so he still hasn't been confirmed.I don't think it will happen this week either because we have stake conference. But hopefully in a couple of weeks we can do that.

This is going to be a very busy week. We won't have much time as zone leaders to get out and teach, except for a couple hours tonight, Tuesday morning and possibly a couple hours on Thursday morning. We have a 4 zone conference in Xalapa on Wednesday so we need to leave Tuesday evening for that. Then we leave Thursday evening to go to Poza Rica to a Leadership conference on Friday. Then we have Stake Conference Saturday and Sunday. We did just get a Bishop for the ward though so that is exciting. It is my understanding that they have not had a Bishop for the past 6 years. They have had a 1st counselor and a 2nd counselor. The first counselor has been in for 8 years now. The 2nd counselor moved into the ward within the last year. He is now the Bishop. He is a great guy and has been our go to guy. He is around 26 years old. The new 2nd counselor is someone they asked if he could become active again and get his life in order so he could serve as 2nd counselor. He said he could. One thing I have learned while serving here in Mexico is the importance of doing the little things, like ministering to your neighbors and the people around you. It really does make a difference. 

Unfortunately there was a reason that the dad couldn't baptize Dylan, but he's a solid dude and he's doing his best to be a good example for his kids. 

The zone is looking really good right now, but we're going to have to stay on our toes to make sure that everything turns out right. Elder Korth from Arizona and Elder Leon from Texas are the other two in the ward. I was Elder Korth's district leader in Xalapa when he got to the mission. 

The missionary who had a visa issue was a special case, because he has been living in México for years already, but isn't a citizen so his visa is different. So he had to go to México City instead of Xalapa. 

This week we lost a bit of time as well because we ended up doing a service project in Vega all of Friday (we painted a bridge). I didn't have my camera, but other missionaries will pass me pictures for next week. It was fun to go back to Vega though. I had a free minute where I stopped by the house of some members and the youngest daughter came out (11 or 12 years old). She was happy to see me haha. 

One miracle this week is that almost all of the investigators in the zone that had baptismal goals went to church so their goals are still standing. Sorry I didn't get to all the questions as I'm in a bit of a hurry.

 Love you! Elder Finlinson