October 1st, 2018 Letter #47

I don't know if I told you, but Elder Ahumada (that used to be an assistant) is one of the Zone Leaders right now. I talked to him on Monday night and we were able to see eye to eye and get things figured out. Tuesday was pretty normal all things considered. The sister missionaries in my district are super happy once again and the Elders are about the same as they have been. Their results have been nearly the same every week, which is somewhat disheartening. That being said, we've seen steady improvement (small as it may be). So as long as they keep improving I'll be happy. 

There was a lot of problems this week in trying to schedule appointments with the people that had a chance of getting baptized this weekend (we couldn't get an appointment until the weekend itself) so we'll be waiting another couple of weeks. That worries me and encourages me at the same time. I see the positive in the fact that they'll have a little more time to truly prepare themselves, but I'm worried because now we have a ton of people with the same baptismal date and I'm concerned that we won't be able to stretch ourselves out well enough to give everyone the proper attention. The biggest positive is this though: The assistants are back from doing the conferences so they'll have a little bit of time to work in these two weeks. That means that we'll be able to split ourselves up and schedule double appointments. The problem that we've had recently is that, since we can't work in the mornings as secretaries, all of our investigators have the same schedule. So we'll have an investigator say, "can you come Friday at 6?" and we'll have to say no because they're the 4th person to ask us that. Summed up: I feel that we'll pull it off if we work hard and have faith that it's possible.

The weather here has been cooling down. I've appreciated it. The best part of the week was the baptism of Hector. He wasn't our investigator, but rather the investigator of the sisters. That being said, I had the pleasure of doing his interview and Elder Lovaas had taught him more than a year ago, back when Elders where in that area. He took a looong time to get baptized for various reasons, but that made the service super special. Hector asked Elder Lovaas to baptize him and seemed rather happy that I went with him to the baptism. The hardest part was staying motivated this week. That was because it was really hard to get appointments with our progressing investigators (hopefully it's not because of a lack of desire on their part) and I didn't want to find too many news just in case we started to get the appointments going again. But eventually I realized that that was a faulty way of thinking and that it would be better to keep looking. As a result we ended the week with good results... apart from baptisms. But they'll come soon. 

We went to the trampoline park today again and it was the first time I've gone to a park like that and not had a minute or two that I just got bored or tired. I felt like it was well worth the money this time around. We had pork with mashed potatoes yesterday and a meat besides chicken was an interesting delicacy. I also had pig brain finally. It was disappointingly normal, but it wasn't bad. 

A tender mercy was also something I learned in my studies. I studied love quite a bit and tied it with obedience. I held in mind something that Elder Bednar had told us: if we lack love, the noun, it is due to a lack of love, the verb. I've come to a further conviction of the doctrine found in John 14:15, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." I also took an intriguing look into the parable of the unjust steward found in Luke 16. Read about it in "Jesus the Christ" if you don't understand it at first.

Love, Elder Finlinson

I always tell Connor that I want him to send pictures so I can see his cute face...well Elder Breinholt took this candid picture of him so he could send it to me. 

Sept. 24th, 2018 Letter #46

Elder Lovaas is from Las Vegas. The missionary that they sent to my district is doing well. His obedience is on the rise and they have an investigator with a lot of promise.
Elder Lovaas was the one that told me why he was brought here. 

In the District Meeting we talked about what it is to be a successful missionary (thanks to a few things that have been going on lately that I will relate to you in a sec). We also talked about how we should help people understand faith and repentance before throwing them into baptism (thanks to other things that I will soon relate) and then practiced teaching those things.

I'm confident that we have 8 investigators that will get baptized within the next couple weeks, but I'm concerned that they will all have the same baptismal date (the 13th) if none get baptized this weekend. That would turn the work into a frenzy in the week leading up to the 13th. If you could pray for us to have a baptism this weekend that would be great. 

The ward I'm in typically has 120-130 in church. We'll hope that investigators watch conference, but there's a lot of time still left before conference so we don't have set plans. 

A tender mercy that we saw this week was that every area in my district had better numbers this week even though the week started rough. One thing that made me happy was just being able to see that the Lord is looking out for us right now in our mission. We've seen missionaries push through some difficult things this week.

Love,
Elder Finlinson

P.S.
As to the follow up of the second paragraph, Elder Finlinson asked me not to publish on the blog. But anyone that would like to pray for the Xalapa zone that would be much appreciated. 

Sept. 17th, 2018 Letter #45

Elder Lovaas has actually grown to be one of the best friends I've had in the mission. He's planning on going to Utah State so perhaps you'll see him at Walmart some day and wonder why he looks familiar. 

On Independence day we had to go home early so we borrowed Monopoly from some other missionaries and played it in the apartment. 

My district is finding it's way, but it'll take some work. One of the missionaries was sent here because he's a friend of mine and they were hoping I could get him motivated. We did splits this week and talked for a while about how he's doing and I now expect to see progress. We didn't have a district class this week because we had that zone conference (the one with the singing and tie-cutting).

The best part of the week was just seeing that we have a good amount of people that could get baptized within the month (Aleli, Fernanda, Fernando, Saul, and Juan Jose). 

A funny moment was when Elder Lovaas took a mega risk in Monopoly and sold all of his properties to put hotels on Boardwalk and Park Place in hopes that Elder Breinholt would roll a 10 or a 12. Elder Breinholt rolled a 12 and lost the game. 

A tender mercy was that we have found countless miracles of people who all of a sudden want to get baptized in our area. I'm hoping to see the new people get baptized in October. 

My clothes are holding up fine, although a few new pairs of garments would never hurt. I'm still on my first pair of shoes and they're holding up so I'd be surprised if it ever becomes necessary to buy more. Goldfish would be good in the Christmas package. 

One teaching thing that I've liked is that we're teaching the husband of a member who is just now coming back to church and while we teach I can tell that the message is helping her as much, if not more, than her husband so I've enjoyed seeing the spirit of learning that is there. 

One of the hardest parts of the week has been trying to stay organized enough with our time to help progress the current investigators while still finding and teaching new people. We had tacos al pastor for the conference on Friday.

Love,

Elder Finlinson

 Elder Bednar's visit to the mission

Zone Conference in Xalapa (Connor is behind the guy that stands out in the middle. )

Sept.10,2018 Letter #44

One thing I really liked about the visit from Elder Bednar was the way he responded to a question. The question was something like this: "Often times we are promised specific blessings as we receive a priesthood blessing. How can I know that I haven't lost any of those blessings because of something I've done wrong?" And Elder Bednar said something like this: "Do you remember what those blessings are? If so then they are not lost. But quit waiting on them like an object. Be an agent and go get them." We also talked about how prayers don't end when we say "amen." The spoken portion of the prayer will be of little use without taking proper action afterward. 

The last name for the family of 7 is actually unknown to me. Around here we get by on first names typically because everybody has 2 last names.

I've been in the mission/offices for long enough to know almost every missionary at least a little. Of the 5 that went home there were 3 from my zone and one of them got here at the same time as me so I knew those 3 decently well. 

The mission is pretty safe. There's not many sketchy areas. Usually the worst we get is just an angry drunk dude in the street who shouts stuff at us. 

The next wave of missionaries is basically as big as this one so I'd like to say things have calmed down, but we'll surely stay busy. That's a bigger problem for my companion than for me though. He has to get materials for all of the houses while I simply deal with the contracts for said houses. Apart from that I mostly just work with the records of baptisms.

Something I'm going to focus on more in the district meetings is doing simulations. I was chatting with Elder Lovaas the other day and we talked about what we do when we go to basketball practice. We talk about what we're going to do and how we'll do it for a short amount of time, but then the majority of the time is spent actually doing it. 

Thanks to the abundance of new missionaries there where a couple of zones that increased in size (one being ours) so the districts were reorganized. I'll be working with a couple of the same missionaries, but also some new ones. I'm really excited about the change though and I think it'll be a fun few weeks. My district has shrunk a tad because a new district leader was called in our zone, making us 3 instead of two. So I have 8 missionaries now instead of 10. It's now tied for the biggest district in the mission instead of being the flat out biggest haha. I like that because I'll be able to focus on the individuals a bit more.

You could say I'm with Elder Breinholt more than anyone else, but I definitely see a fair share of other faces during my weeks. My favorite moment of the week was in a baptismal service we went to with our investigators. There was this little kid who sang a solo after this baptism and you could feel the spirit pretty well. I think it'll help the investigators.

One scripture that I've liked lately is James 5:19-20. It helped me realize the importance of bringing back those who've gone astray. 

Love, Elder Finlinson

Sept. 3,2018 Letter #43

I don't have a ton of time so I'll keep details minimal. Elder Bednar's visit was really cool. He had a presence to him that boldly stated prophet, seer, and revelator. He said to us that he typically doesn't shake hands because when that happens noise breaks out and the Spirit of the meeting is lost. He then asked us after that intro whether we thought we should shake hands or not. One missionary raised his hand after about 30 seconds of waiting in silence and said that he thought we could manage it. So, yes, I shook his hand. After we finished he walked to the pulpit and simply said "Well done." Then left. So we felt good about that.

Elder Breinholt was doing well with his health in this week so hopefully things stay that way. That family of 7 is super super awesome. The couple isn't married and the mom is married to another guy so legally and with the law of Chastity we'll face obstacles, but the whole family is way nice. 

I have some Christmas music, but I'm not opposed to more. The new Nashville Tribute album would of course be nice. 

That was indeed Elder Lovaas and Elder Ahumada in the picture.

Today we just helped new missionaries get settled all day so it wasn't much of a p-day, but it was cool to see the excitement that they all had. They'll be good missionaries. We're sending home 4 missionaries this change because they finished, but we also lose 5 to disobedience/sickness/lack of desire. 

The best part of the week was just seeing the success we had because we didn't have a ton of time to work, but things really came together for us. I smelled a cool thing in a house the other day, but I don't know what it's called. A little 4(ish) year old member came up to us the other day and offered us a piece of cake so that was something good that I tasted. I suppose that was a neat little tender mercy as well. It also made me smile. (I'm out of time)

Love, Elder Finlinson

August 27, 2018 Letter #42

I still haven't met Alfredo's grandma, but she doesn't live in our area so if she accepts anything, I'll probably only hear minimal details about the process. Sasha didn't get baptized and now she's gone to Guadalajara for the next few weeks so I don't know what'll happen with her. Elder Bednar will come this week. We'll be with him on Thursday. Yeah, this week will really be something for us, but we'll be good. (Elder Bednar visits on Thursday. Then the first part of next week 17 new missionaries come and some will go home.)

Elder Breinholt's got an infection in his intestine, but he's already doing a lot better. We couldn't really work this last week, but I think he's good to go again. I gave him a blessing. I've given several during the mission, but they seem to come in spurts where I'll go a week or two or three with nothing and then all of a sudden they'll be all over the place. Elder Marquez is doing fine as far as I know.

I'll likely be a secretary for 6 or 12 more weeks depending on how things go. Secretaries are typically in the offices for around 6 months. The best part of the package would've been the music, I don't have a "favorite" part of the music because I hold those two albums both in high favor. I liked the granola bars for snacking. 

My favorite part of the week was that I was able to work on Friday and Saturday with Elder Ahumada because the assistants were back and town (Elder Lovaas was also sick so he stayed with Elder Breinholt). In those two days we were able to get a lot done and we got a reference for a family of 7! (6 that are old enough to get baptized). I hope that things go well there. 

One thing I studied in Preach My Gospel was the importance of studying/teaching with/understanding the scriptures. There's a lot that we can learn from them and a lot of power that is found therein. We sometimes undervalue that power. 

Something that made me smile was just that we were able to have a successful week even with a serious lack of time. 

Love, 

Elder Finlinson

 Xalapa Zone/District

  A park they went to for P-day

August 20th,2018 Letter #41

Lili and Alfredo got baptized this weekend, but I don't have pictures of either of them. I'll get a picture of Lili's later on, but I didn't even get to go to Alfredo's baptism (I'll explain in a sec). Sasha will hopefully get baptized this weekend, but the plan is shaky right now. Lili and Alfredo were found within the last month or so, but Sasha has been around for a good while. Lili is 14 years old and is the neighbour of a member. She was pretty bold in pushing forward towards baptism because there was very very little family support, but she did it. Her family said that she will not be having a party for her 15th birthday (which in México is the most important of all birthdays for a girl). But she said it just made her sad for them that they would react that way and that she would still get baptized anyway. I had the privilege of baptizing her and it was a neat experience.

Alfredo is the boyfriend of a member and he's the most humble dude I've ever met. He's 16 and completely independent. He technically lives with his Grandma, but has responsibility for all of his costs. He accepted the Gospel extremely quickly and he trusts us a lot. He seems significantly happier now than when we first met him. 

Sasha is married to a member but comes from a Christian church background. She loved her old church and doesn't want to change, but feels that she should be at her husband's side so she's making the effort. But every week when she's goes to church she gets upset all over again and doesn't like the idea of joining. So we'll see what happens with her. 

We went to IHOP for Pday just to chill for a second because yesterday/last night was another one of those days. Around 4:30pm Elder Breinholt got a sharp and sudden pain in his abdomen that wouldn't go away so we went to the hospital and long story short he's doing better, but we're still not 100% sure what's wrong with him. The insurance that we have couldn't agree with the hospital staff so we didn't get a real room last night. I was therefore left with a metal stool to "sleep" on. Needless to say I think I managed about an hour of total time asleep last night. We had been on our way to Alfredo's baptism when it happened so that's why we missed it. I called the Zone Leaders and put them in charge of the baptismal service. It was much easier to help the medical staff with their questions this time than it was with Elder Marquez because now I actually communicate in Spanish so that was a blessing. We ended up in the same hospital as last time. 

When I said I was reading the headings in the Book of Mormon I meant to say that it was only the headings. That way I could get a good grasp of the story of the book without reading all of it in one go. 

You can surely send these emails on to a group if you'd like. I live with the assistants and therefore have the privilege of a washing machine in the house so... ha. I've been to Walmart. It's pretty much the same except you're supposed to tip the baggers. 

One tender mercy was just seeing the baptisms come through this week. It's stressful waiting to see if problems will arise because they so often do. One thing that made me smile was just how excited Lili was after her baptism. It was a simple thing, but fun to see. I'm a big fan of all the music I got in the package (it did arrive this week).

Love, 

Elder Finlinson