October 15th,2018 Letter #49

I will no longer be secretary here in Los Lagos. I'm gonna go open a second area in the Tuxpan Ward in the Tuxpan Stake in the city of Tuxpan. It's kinda funny because we had already made jokes about that happening because Whitewash Tuxpan Finlinson makes for a hashtag that had some missionaries laughing. I'm going to be District Leader and my companion will be Elder Jimenez from Durango. He's only got a few months left in the mission. I already know him rather well and, interestingly enough, he had already mentioned to me that he wants me to be his last companion. We did splits one time back when I was in Xanath, Papantla and he is a very talented teacher. I'm excited about the change. That being said I do feel a tad wary of the situation due to some struggles that he's had in the mission. President talked to me today about the decision and he said that it was something he felt strongly about, but he gave me a warning. He basically said, "We're putting a lot of confidence in you with this change. There are two possible outcomes here. Either he enters your game or you enter his." I'm being given a good support though. The two zone leaders that I'll have are the two that I would handpick for helping me out in this situation and they are going to be working in the same ward as us (My area is Tuxpan 2). And going back to what I mentioned at the start: He told me personally that he wanted to be my companion and he knows that I'm not into messing around so I almost want to believe that he has a desire to give one last burst of effort before going home. 

Elder Lovaas leaves Wednesday, but I leave tomorrow so we'll probably just buy a pizza tonight or something because I don't think we'll have time to do much seeing as today he has to give a conference for the new missionaries. 

We ended up with four baptisms. Juan José, Fernando, and Fernanda were fairly expected, but super special nonetheless. The baptism that really caught me off guard was Sasha. Do you remember her? She was one of our investigators for a while, but she seemed really reluctant to join the church for 2 reasons; 1. Experiences she'd had with members and 2.Hesitation to leave her old church. She got really close to getting baptized a while ago, but it didn't work out. Then she left Xalapa to visit Guadalajara for a month or so (she's from there). Well she got back late last week and told us that she wanted to talk with us. She said that she had gone to her old beloved church while on vacation and she realized that they didn't take things seriously enough in that church. She felt like they didn't do things with the order that God would have them done with and that that was something we did well in our church. So her interest was peaked once again. I won't say that she immediately accepted baptism from that moment, but after a couple of visits and a good stop in Alma 32 we were able to help her make the decision to get baptized. And It was cool because she has a daughter from Guadalajara that was visiting this week so her daughter watched her both make and follow through with the decision to be baptized so hopefully that'll turn into another baptism down the road. Sasha and Juan José chose me to baptize them so that was a neat little experience. Juan José had a cast on so we had to tape grocery bags to his arm, but all went well. 

The investigators that went to conference loved it and we're expecting 3-5 more baptisms in the area this weekend, but I'll just have to find out later seeing as I'll be in Tuxpan. 

For President's Birthday we just ate a solid meal, I don't know how to describe it but it was good. Then we had cake and left so that we wouldn't waste too much time there. I couldn't find the charger for my camera and I don't have it with me right now to check what kind of charger you'd need, but I'm sure it could wait another week. The packages get here pretty fast. Also it'd be killer if you could include covers for my scriptures because my bible is falling apart. 

Something I was looking at in my studies this week was from the teachings of the presidents of the church. It was about how we must not question the direction of our leaders in the church nor talk poorly of the Lord's anointed. It talked about how losing trust in our leaders is a step in the direction of apostasy. I find it an important principle. It's important not because the leaders are perfect and don't make mistakes, but rather because when they are weak and need support we need to be the arms that bear them up (Exodus 17:8-12). 

Also if you wanted to know, President sent me a short email this week that essentially said, "I feel very blessed to have you in this mission and to know that you are a very obedient and hardworking missionary. Thank you for your work. This month has only 3 weeks (to baptize because you can't during conference) but we'll baptize a lot. I wish you success and I love you. Do your best."

I'll throw in some pictures for you to see as well.

Love, Elder Finlinson

The first 2 pictures are my district from this last change. There's one picture of the baptisms and the rest are with the family whose kids were baptized.

I like the serious picture because due to the position of the light bulb in the room I look like I'd just barely descended from the heavens to chasten the people.

October 8th, 2018 Letter #48

This week we were able to do a lot to help our investigators. There are now probably a few secure baptisms for this next weekend, but even though the 13th is super close there are still a ton of wild cards in play. 

I really enjoyed conference. I don't know if it was because it was an exceptionally good conference or just because as a missionary the Spirit is with me more, but it was easily my favorite conference I've seen. I decided that I would write down the names of those who gave my favorite talks so that I could go over them again first, but my list ended with 12 names so it'll take a minute to take care of things. I suppose I'll tell you which ones I liked most that weren't by apostles. I'm just gonna put their last names, not as a lack of respect but rather a lack of knowledge regarding their titles: Pieper, Bowen, Gay, and the Sister (Cordon) that talked before Elder Holland. We had 8 investigators who listened to conference so I'm excited about the enthusiasm we've seen. 

For P-day we played dodgeball. We don't have any big plans still to celebrate Elder Lovaas' complete mission. In the Christmas package I might need something to charge my camera because I finally remembered to look for the charger this morning, but I couldn't find it. But hold on another week before making that call because I didn't have much time to look. 

Something cool we did this week was that President Esquihaus' birthday was yesterday and he invited us to eat dinner at his house. We had fun. The funniest thing was probably just seeing President on a happy high due to his birthday; he made some good jokes. 

Something I learned about this week stemmed from that talk by Elder Oaks that you mentioned. I feel like before the mission I had a pretty solid issue of searching spiritual knowledge through other means so that's something I have a great opportunity to change while I'm here in the mission. (Seeking spiritual knowledge through spiritual methods.)

Love you,

Elder Finlinson

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