August 26th, 2019 Letter #94

Some of the investigators are doing pretty well. I think we'll start seeing more progress in these next few weeks. We had 4 people in church this week and I expect to have more next week because we found a person with a lot of potential last night too. We talked to the ones that thought church was boring and they said they'd go again. We called them the night before and they said yes. We called them the morning of church as well and they said yes again. But they didn't show up. So I think we're going to leave them in the area book for the next set of missionaries. 

The best part of the week was the multi-zone conference. The messages were well chosen and well prepared. Something that happened that wasn't necessarily "challenging," but was uncomfortable was that during the special number that our zone sang there was a part for a quartet and I was the tenor, but we had barely practiced and so both the alto and I forgot our parts and we just gave up and sang the melody after a couple moments of silence at the start while we were trying to remember it. I suppose that in retrospect it can also be considered a funny moment. 

Something unexpected that happened is that in one day we had two different non-members pull over to offer us rides. 

There's not a lot of good smells here honestly haha, but the worst smell is when you're close to any of the places where they work with oil or by a river because they're all super polluted. 

One good thing that I ate this week was ice cream. We had another one of those rare and special days when somebody offered us some. For p-day we played volleyball. 

Something I learned from my studies is when I was reading the scripture in D&C that says: "Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence." Now that I'm not a zone or district leader anymore I saw it in a new light. Let can also be interpreted as allow or permit. And I realize that now is a time when I might have to stand back a little and allow other men or missionaries to learn their duties as leaders in the church. 

I did talk to Hermano Lovaas after the conference. He came at the end to say hi to a few people, but we didn't have time to chat so he said that he'll invite us over to eat one of these Mondays. I'll be praying for Grandpa.

Love you,

Elder Finlinson

Connor and his friend, Darin Lovaas and his daughter.

(His daughter is funny, I talked to her a bit while the other missionaries were talking to him. She made a face for the picture, but she was pretty happy most of the time.)