August 5th, 2019 Letter #91

This change I'm headed to Poza Rica (known as the hottest zone in the mission) in whitewash with Elder Shumway from Arizona. My area is called Petromex. Elder Shumway and I did splits just a week or two ago haha. I actually believe that we're together for that same reason. The assistants asked me a few days ago about my opinion considering who would be a good companion for several missionaries in the zone and when they asked me about Elder Shumway I suggested that it be me or a missionary similar to me in personality. Elder Martinez (an assistant) told President about what I said and I guess they decided to go with it. *When asked why he thought he would be a good fit for Elder Shumway this was Connor's response: "He has maybe 10 or 11 months in the mission. He has been in Poza Rica for half of his mission so perhaps he doesn't know the exact area, but he knows the city. I thought I'd be a good fit because he has a lot of talent, but a lot of his companions haven't wanted to work so I feel like he needs someone with a desire to work to be with him so that he can have some space to grow. He's also a really loud and energetic guy with a stronger personality so I figured it'd be good for him to be with someone that's a little more calm to balance it out."

The flyswatter is more useful in dirty houses. So when it starts to become a common necessity we know that it's time to clean.

Something that made me smile was that Angel received the Priesthood yesterday. 

My favorite part of the week was that we had a busy week of traveling for baptismal interviews which is a hopeful sign that Teziutlan will be left in good condition. 

Something that I'm excited for this change is putting (Elder) Lovaas to work looking for references. (*Lovaas is one of his mission friends that now lives in Poza Rica with his new wife and family.) Also I think it'll be super fun to work with Elder Shumway. 

Something interesting that we saw was a little farm hidden in the mountains. The dad of Nathaly (the girl we baptized a few months ago) works there and showed it to us (the bad news is that we had left our backpacks at Nathaly's house to walk to the farm and therefore left our cameras without thinking). 

The things that I'll miss most from this area are the weather, the members, and the recent converts. If I were to come back to the mission to live and be part of a ward I would probably choose this one because I enjoyed the ward interactions quite a bit. That being said I have no plan whatsoever to come back to live in the mission.

Love you,

Elder Finlinson