Dec. 17th, 2018 Letter #58

After lunch today the staff of the little joint gave us mints that had little inspirational quotes on them and mine said something along the lines of: "No matter how long the storm is, the sun always shines again." It was cool because this week the sun came out again in our area. We have 4 people who have accepted baptism for January 5th. There's a lot left to do with them before that day, but we're on the right track. 

The other missionaries weren't exactly excited when we took Viridiana back, but they didn't make a huge deal of it so I'm content. She has the desire to get baptized, but has a few things she needs to get in order first. We'll try to help her get things done by the 5th, but we didn't count her as one of the 4 that accepted baptism for lack of certainty on that part. 

The Primary Program was actually pretty calm. They would sing a song, have 4 or 5 kids share a short scripture, then sing again. They didn't do any Christmas songs or scriptures, which was weird to me, but it was fun. That same Sunday though, the ward after us had their program as well and I had to stay in order to do a baptismal interview with an investigator in that ward so I figured I would sneak in and watch their program as well. That program wasn't so uneventful haha. They had the typical child in the choir that shouted everything at the top of their lungs, several kids that got very confused about their turns for reading scriptures and the whole deal. They also started every song with a small solo and some of the soloists were very lost, while others sang rather well. The elderly lady, that led the songs, was also super into it. She has to be an ex-member of another, more wild, church or something because she was leading with just about every part of her little body and left the children with no way to excuse themselves by saying that they couldn't see the director. It was kind of funny though because I could tell she wasn't doing it to be irreverent, she just simply had a LOT of dedication to leading those songs. 

We had a few investigators in church, but still haven't had much time to visit with them since the program. 

I pretty much just listen to talks, but I listened to a bit of the tabernacle choir and a touch of EFY this week in the moments I felt like humming a tune. 

To help explain the number thing I'll give you a bit of background info. Nowadays in the mission field there are only 4 key indicators that we report each week: 1. New investigators, 2. Investigators with a planned baptismal date, 3. Investigators in church, 4. Investigators baptized and confirmed. Our problem with the new investigators was that in our mission specifically they just tightened up the rules for what counts as a new investigator, and we found them the old way last week so they didn't count. We fixed our strategy up this week though. We had a couple of people with planned dates, but they were more than 3 weeks away so they didn't count either. In church we kind of just had a bad week. We had Dana come, who will get baptized on the 5th as well, but she didn't count because she's still 7 years old until the 5th. Reactivating members doesn't count as any key indicator now so some particular leaders sometimes get mad when we "use our time ineffectively" and reactivate, but in Preach My Gospel we're told to do it so Elder Jimenez and I do it one way or another. It worked out for us though because one of the inactive members wants us to baptize her nephews now and is going to work with us to do it. So that was the deal there, but we're back on top of things now. Elder Jimenez has been doing really well lately. I think this was perhaps the most impressive week I've seen from him while we've been together. He's really making some key changes.

The best thing I ate this week was a Mexican take on Chinese food. There's a sister in our ward that always tries to give us something out of the ordinary and it's always fun to eat with her. The Sister just made fried rice and some chicken that was prepared differently then it usually is in Mexico, but it was different enough to stand out and I liked it. 

One thing I did this week that I liked was that I just read a random chapter from the Book of Mormon each day to see what would happen. It helped me a lot to focus on what was being taught in each individual chapter in stead of focusing purely on the "plot development" of the book. It was neat to see how much you can learn from any chapter in the Book of Mormon if you're willing to really focus on the message in each verse. 

Something that has made me laugh all week has been a running joke that we have between the zone leaders and us. The four of us were talking to an old dude last week about basketball and he did something iconic. But now that we're close to the video call it'd be better to wait until then to explain it in full measure. Just remind me. 

Zone Conference was cool, but it was also kind of odd. I found that I enjoyed the spiritual side of it a lot, but then just felt like the "fun" part dragged on. I hope I'm not becoming a boring person haha. But I felt a renewed desire to bring people to Christ this Christmas as a present to He who has given us everything. 

There hasn't been anything too crazy about Christmas in Mexico, but one carol they have here is catchy. I think it's called "La Rama" or something like that, La Rama means, 'the branch'. I just like hearing people sing it. 

For P-day we tried to play a game with flour, but it basically just turned into a flour fight.

Love, Elder Finlinson

 Christmas Zone Conference

 Connor with Pres. & Sis. Esquihaus

 Tuxpan Zone

Dec.10th,2018 Letter #57

We've got an odd situation going on with Viridiana. It's a long story, but basically we told other missionaries to teach her because of a doubt we had. Now the doubt has been cleared and once again President got involved (I feel like I have more communication with him now for the weird situations we've had than I did as secretary) and he told us to teach her again. But the other missionaries were obviously really excited because they see it as a potential baptism so we don't know how to tell them (we just got the news recently and therefore haven't had the conversation yet). It'll be rough because we were the ones that said to teach her and now we'll be taking her back. We'll do it though. But for that reason I'm not 100% sure about how she is progressing. I'm confident that she'll get baptized though. 

With Chucho we're also counting on other Elders. His dad lives in another area so we have to send them to try to teach him about the Gospel and hopefully convince him that way. 

The Primary program is going to be next Sunday. I'll put up the nativity set this week. I actually didn't know you sent me a white tie haha. The one I wore in the baptism was Elder Lobo´s. Now I know. I'm good on shirts and pants. I didn't get the music yet, but we actually have a new rule in the mission that says we can't listen to anything that doesn't have the church's seal on it. That means EFY and the Tabernacle Choir pretty much. Not even Vocal Point is approved. I just listen to talks now while I'm in the shower and whatnot. 

This week was worse than last week in terms of results. Elder Heaton (as assistant he sees the results) called me to ask me if I was alright because our numbers tanked out of nowhere. That being said, we have several people that, for one reason or another, don't count as new investigators, investigators in church, or investigators with a baptismal date but will count if they're baptized. It's hard to explain, but I'm pretty sure that we're on track for more baptisms. It'll just be a surprise for those who don't know the situation this time. I've felt a mix of emotions about the whole deal, but I'm primarily calm. "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." 

I don't know what's up with the Skype yet. I'll try to find out this week. The best part of the week was that we did see some cool little miracles in reactivating inactive members. I'll give you more details as we go. The challenge was dealing with the disappointment of the results this week, but one thing that helped was the conversation that I had with Elder Heaton. It was nice to have a chance to tell him that I'm not out here losing my motivation, it just simply hasn't been the best two weeks of results. 

Something that made me laugh was that today in the morning Elder Jimenez spanked Elder Lobo really hard on the bum and the both of them made rather silly faces of pain and started saying ouch, ouch, ouch, over and over because it hurt both of them (Elder Jiminez - hand, Elder Lobo - Bum). It probably seems immature, but it made me laugh haha. 

A tender mercy: On Friday I had to leave my area to do a baptismal interview for the Sisters. We got to the right house and the guy wasn't there. Elder Jimenez and one of the sisters was already rather frustrated when we arrived for something else that had happened so when he wasn't there people got a bit on edge. We waited a couple minutes trying to call the dude, but had no luck. So we left. But as we were walking back to where we would take the bus we found the guy and were able to do the interview. That helped ease the situation quite a bit.

 One gospel principle that I feel strongly about is that God has a perfect plan and knows what trials to give us, what blessings to give us, and when to give them to us. He knows what we need. I know that we can and must "believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend." Humility is required of us as we place our trust and confidence in His superiority. We cannot afford to doubt him. I know that although difficulties seem endless, "all these things shall give (us) experience, and shall be for (our) good." So my invitation for anyone in times of trouble would be to hold on. Pray for support, comfort, and understanding. Realize that this life is preparation for the next and that each of us has a unique learning process that we must endure, and even perhaps enjoy. Our Heavenly Father knows how to prepare us. 

One thing I love about the people that I serve with is that, regarding the missionaries, we have each made the decision to sacrifice important years of our lives in service to the Lord. As difficult as each individual missionary may or may not be to work with, they can always be respected for that one simple truth. Love you!

Elder Finlinson

Dec.3rd, 2018 Letter #56

Viridiana didn't make it to church, but had an excuse that's reasonable for now seeing as we need to teach her more about the doctrine of the Sabbath Day. Her kids all made it though. If the two of them get baptized it would indeed be right before the next change. Chucho's mom is pretty much cool with us now, but his dad is still a ways away. 

Elder Pearl was changed and Elder Gutierrez arrived in his place as zone leader. He and Hermana Aristega are the new missionaries in my district. Everyone else is the same. I know both of them fairly well and neither one is hard to get along with. 

I wasn't given time to teach a district class this week due to the fact that we took 19 years to have every missionary in the zone present him or herself the day of the classes, and there won't be classes this week or the next due to the zone class (where the zone leaders will talk about what they learned in the leadership council of the mission) and zone conference the week after. 

I don't know what's happening on the 23rd, they haven't said anything in church. 

When we play games on p-day we usually get together in the church and most of the time somebody has a game so they bring it. There's a Mexican-Cuban museum here somewhere. 

I did get to see the Christmas Devotional. I liked the music a lot. Something I started this morning that I'll continue for a few days is that I'm dissecting Mosiah 3:19 and studying each thing mentioned in the verse in order to essentially find how I can more fully "put off the natural man." 

One challenge in this week was that Elder Gutierrez got sick and couldn't work so Elder Jimenez and I put ourselves in charge of the investigators of the Zone Leaders as well as our own. We were able to maintain the investigators in place, but we found only 2 new people in our own area and didn't have time to visit them again so we went from a stellar week last week to a horrible week of results this time around and that kind of hurt my pride haha. But I'm just going to brush it off and work hard this week. The Zone Leaders should be able to work this time around and I think we'll get things turned around. 

This week I probably had the funniest/most embarrassing moment of my mission so far, but you'll have to ask me about it when I get back so that I can explain it better. (*He guarantees he will remember it but I am still going to ask him when we Skype at Christmas.)

One tender mercy this week was that the other two areas in my district had some miracles happen and have a number of baptisms coming up so we're seeing things move in the right direction with them. One thing I really like about Tuxpan is that it's big enough to have some cool things, but it's not too much.

Love,

Elder Finlinson

 Baptism of Elvira

 Baptism of Gael and Ariana by their cousin Miguel

Baptism of Karla

Check it. This showed up in the announcements of the mission that only the missionaries see. We took this picture a few weeks ago and ever since then I've been known as Joseph Smith in the zone.

Nov. 26th, 2018 Letter #55

We had a good chat with Gael and Ariana's mom. We found out the real reason why she wasn't ready to give her kids permission, resolved the problem, and they were baptized! Not only that, but she herself finally decided to come to church with Dana. And I was wrong about how old Dana was, she turns 8 on the 5th of January! So we talked to Viridiana (the mom) about baptism for both her and Dana that day and she seems semi-open about it. She's super cool with us now, we just need to teach her a little more directly and I think she herself will accept the baptism. Chuco's parents want to wait a little more, but they said they want to investigate the details a little more and his mom showed up at the baptism of Gael and Ariana as well so I think we'll see progress with time. 

Elvira and Karla had one of the strangest/most miraculous weeks I've seen thus far in the mission. Through a unique process and a few unexpected details President Esquihuas himself gave us direct permission to baptize them this week. It was pretty cool. I baptized Karla, Elder Jimenez baptized Elvira, and Miguel baptized his cousins. Usually we don't confirm, but on rare occasions we do. Karla has just showed an incredible dedication to do everything we've invited her to do and now is no longer dependent on others to help her make her decisions, which was the obstacle at first. Elvira changed her attitude after one simple act from us. She had been struggling to give up coffee so we bought her a giant container of powder to make chocolate milk instead (perhaps the reason we struggle financially?) and she just about cried from the surprise/dedication. Since then she's been pretty dedicated as well. The rest of the deal was that the Zone leaders called President saying that they were ready and whatnot, and he gave us the green light saying, "Baptize them as soon as possible." 

We saw a lot of blessings this week. Thanks to the last-second surge of baptisms we broke the record of baptisms (according to our knowledge of the history of the zone) in the Tuxpan Zone this month (the record of the zone was 11 in one month and we got 13). That was pretty exciting.  

We're having a little bit of trouble with the money right now, but I think we just need to be smarter with how we spend it. Elder Jimenez and I are indeed both staying here for the next change. 

It turns out that there is going to be a Primary Program after all. And it's only a few weeks away haha. I'm excited.

I got my package when I went for my visa. I think they get here faster than you think. Elder Jimenez will get a package soon I'm sure. He comes from a family that is pretty well-off. He's a convert of 7 years. 

It would be hard to say that there is a "best part" about being a missionary. It's a neat thing. You can definitely feel divine support and it's a great opportunity to learn how you want to live your life. It's also really special to see people change and to be an instrument in the process. 

We wash laundry at a member's house. They have a machine. It's not the like American machines, but it beats hand-washing. Then we dry the clothes on a line. 

The last thing that Elder Jimenez and I laughed about was when we were on the bus we decided to coordinate ourselves in order to synchronize our making of the "Lovaas Face." (The one we did in the pictures with the little girl). We have it down so we can do it in the same instant. 

People don't really have a particular tendency in regards to work as far as I know. But we live really close to a hospital so a lot of the people we meet from nearby work there. I haven't taken a picture with the Tuxpan sign yet. 

The best part of the week was Sunday Morning because we saw everything come together with the confirmations and there were a lot of other investigators, inactive members, and recent converts there that were there thanks to the efforts of the missionaries. Of the 13 baptized in the zone there were 9 from our ward. 5 from the Zone Leaders and 4 from us. The attendance in church on Sunday was super high. I felt really blessed that morning. 

One challenge this week was when we heard the changes. I feel like in these 6 weeks Elder Jimenez and I have gotten along well, but I also feel like it's really easy to offend his pride or make him mad. So I was kind of hoping to end things on a good note and call it a day. Sometimes I feel like I walk a thin line between trying to keep him happy and do my job. That being said, he's excited for another change together and I should be too. He can be really helpful when he's in the right mood so I'll just have to stay patient and humble and I'm sure it'll be another good change. I know the Lord knows what He's doing by keeping us together.

One thing I was meditating in my studies this week was the importance of convert retention. I was thinking about how it was odd that we were given special permission to baptize Karla and Elvira already. But I'm glad to stay in Tuxpan to keep an eye on them. 

I don't have pictures of the baptisms right now. Elder Jimenez and I both forgot cameras so we told Miguel to send us the pictures, but he didn't do it yet. I'll remind him tonight because we're going to visit his family later.

Love you,

Elder Finlinson

Nov. 19th, 2018 Letter #54

This week was a bit of a bummer. Gael and Ariana didn't get baptized because their mom won't give them permission. She doesn't think they're ready yet. Chucho talked to his parents and doesn't have permission either. We're going to work more with the parents this week and we're also sending in Miguel and his mom (the family members that bring those three to church) to see if they can talk some sense into the parents. Hopefully it'll turn out. Karla and Elvira won't be getting baptized on Saturday either because they didn't go to church. They still have good intentions though so we´ll keep working with them. 

Elder Jimenez has two transfers left. He had told me that he wanted me as his last companion before we were told that we were going to be companions. Elder Robinson is indeed part of the other district, but we get along really well. He's still new, but he's got a lot of energy and a bright future. 

It's not typical to bring food to zone activities. This time around that was simply the point. I decided to make yellow death because we don't have the money to do anything else. We were going to make muddy buddies until we realized that it would cost about a week's worth of money to do it. (We're given about $100 every month and more than half of that easily goes into travel expenses with taxis and buses). 

I went to Cerro Azul to do some baptismal interviews. I was hoping that that would mean good news. One of the two people that they said was "ready" had never actually been to church before and the other had recently chatted with friends from other religions and was no longer too sure about his decision due to some comments that they had made. Just to make it a full report I'll let you know that the sister missionaries were supposed to have a baptism on Saturday, but their investigator didn't show up to her own baptismal service. So, like I said, bummer week for the district. But we're doing our best to stay in good spirits. I'm actually feeling unnaturally calm about it, but I do worry for the other missionaries. My district covers half of Tuxpan and everything north of it.

As far as I'm aware there aren't primary programs here like the ones back home. 

It was kind of hard to be productive this week because it took more than half a day to do the interviews in Cerro Azul and we lost two days of work when I had to go back to Xalapa to renew my visa. That being said, my favorite part of the week was that while we were in Xalapa I had a tiny bit of time on Wednesday before our bus left for Tuxpan so I started talking to Elder Breinholt (remember that he's still a secretary in Xalapa and, seeing as I was there to renew my visa, I went to the office). We were talking about how I had nowhere to eat that day and so he checked the schedule for where he was going to eat and it turned out that he was scheduled to eat with Sasha that day (the one we just baptized) so he called her and asked if it would be ok if two extra missionaries came to lunch. She said yes, and so we went. She was mighty surprised when I showed up in her doorway haha. It was a good time. 

For p-day we played monopoly and I won with the brown monopoly properties as the only one I owned. It was a unique game. I'll send you a picture of something that made me smile. 

Something I was looking at in my studies is godly sorrow. In True to the Faith it says that it's not something that comes as a natural consequence of sin nor by fear of punishment, but rather from knowing that you've displeased our Heavenly Father and the Savior. That's the sorrow that's necessary for repentance.

Love you,

Elder Finlinson

This is Fatima. She is being baptized this week. The zone leaders taught her. 

Nov. 12th, 2018 Letter #53

We had a miraculous turnaround this week and had five investigators in church and all five have accepted a baptismal date for either the 17th or 24th (I know that seems really sudden, but they're people who almost all have 1.Been to church several times before and 2.Have family that are members). So with Gael and Ariana (the 2 scheduled for the 17th) we visited them almost every day in the week. I will include a picture of them below. Chucho is also in the picture and will get baptized on the 24th. Elvira and Karla are the other two with dates for the 24th. Those are the core 5 for now. 

There are only 2 districts in my zone. We're the smallest zone in the mission as we have 14 missionaries. I don't know why President thinks it's Tuzpan. It's definitely Tuxpan. I've seen a few confusing signs that say Tuxpam, but never Tuzpan. 

Zone conference was really good. We only had to travel a little less than an hour to Poza Rica. We had gone to Walmart to buy food because every one or two missionaries were supposed to make something from their home for everyone to try. Elder Pearl and I made "yellow death." Do you remember that? It's the mix between Ramen and Mac & Cheese that always ends up better than it sounds. Everyone was reluctant to try it at first, but once they gave in they liked it. One sister missionary actually got a little upset when we threw away the leftovers after everyone said they were full because she thought we were going to bring it home and she said that if she would've known then she would have asked for the leftovers so she could eat them the next day. 

I studied the Spirit a lot this week and found myself a lot more in tune. I feel like my prayers were guided by the Spirit. I was rather amazed by how consistently my prayers were answered. (*I asked what some of the answers to his prayers were other than the people coming to church and baptisms. This was his response, "Even as my mom I'm sure you'd be surprised to know just how quickly I can manage to forget details. I just remember feeling really grateful at the end of every day for how I'd seen my prayers answered. Perhaps I'm simply doing a better job at recognizing the answers, but I felt that gratitude almost constantly this week." He still cracks me up.) 

I'd be cool with going back to Xanath with Elder Alor. ( *This was in response to me responding to his desire to get back in shape. Xanath was all hills).

Due to several events this week it wasn't the right week to do splits in Cerro Azul (the area furthest to the north), but I'll do them this week. Regardless of what happened though, I feel like I'm getting along with the missionaries in the district pretty well. I'm starting to have more trouble helping the sister missionaries because it's harder to get super involved in the details "Do not counsel missionaries of the opposite sex, even if you are serving in a leadership position. Such talk can lead to inappropriate feelings and relationships. Always refer such cases to your mission president." -Missionary Handbook. 

Christmas decorations are in some of the big and fancy stores, but that's about it. I think there's another holiday type deal at the start of December, but I don't remember. I was in the CCM last year at that time. 

My favorite part of the week was that I was able to do 3 Baptismal interviews this week and we put 5 people on date. So in other words we're starting to see the work progress more around here. The hardest part of the week was finding out about an incredibly hard situation that a family that the zone leaders are teaching is in. I was in their area that day to do baptismal interviews and was therefore involved when we found it out. I won't explain the details, but know that the Lord answered our prayers and things are looking better. Not perfect, but hope is on the horizon. 

A tender mercy was 1. Seeing that situation be improved and 2. Finally seeing some people in church. 

Something that made me smile was spending time with Dana. She's the 5 year-old sister of Gael and Ariana and she is the cutest little 5 year-old I've ever met. On Sunday she wore a shirt that said, in English, "Laugh, Smile, and Be Happy." After church I asked her if she knew what it meant, she said no,  then I gave her an explanation and said that it was the perfect shirt for her. She smiled, agreed and ran off to play. Oddly enough she didn't smile in the picture that I'll send and she put her sweater on before taking the picture so you won't see the shirt, but know that she's typically a ball of happiness. 

Something I loved from my study is something that I would suggest that anyone read in order to understand while we're all different, but all important. It's 1 Corinthians chapter 12. I know it's a full chapter, but I promise that it will enlighten your understanding if you read it with a Spirit willing to learn.

Love You,

Elder Finlinson

 A picture from when they visited Alamo to help with the flooding.

 A Sunday meal that the missionaries helped prepare. We made the Guacamole! They were also starting the fire with charcoal to cook steak in the background.

Ariana has the blue bow, Chucho is dressed up without the tie, Gael is in the totally casual outfit, Dana is the little one in yellow, Elder Lobo disappeared from the picture, but Miguel (the cousin of the others who is helping us teach them) fills in the spot nicely haha, and the mom of Miguel. Also Elder Pearl, Elder Jimenez, and me.

Nov.5th, 2018 Letter #52

We did indeed go to Alamo to aid in the flood relief efforts. It was humbling to see the damage that was done to some of the houses. The members who were effected had incredibly good attitudes about everything and seemed to be in good spirits. We got really dirty with the mud and the houses smelled awful, but being able to lend a hand was an enjoyable experience overall and it was cool to see some missionaries from that area that I hadn't seen for a while. 

No luck at church again. Finding ourselves in a hole we decided to be a little more interactive in ward counsel and I think we've got a plan figured out to get people to church next week. 

The rain has continued, but it's been weaker and a little less frequent so it's not a big problem. We don't live exceptionally close to the river, but the whole city lives at least somewhat close to it. 

I was able to gain a little more trust in the district this week, but there's still one missionary left that I need to get to know better. The problem isn't so much that he's stubborn or anything like that, it's more just that we don't know each other very well still. I'm planning splits with him because I just did them with his companion (that helped a lot in his companion's case), but it's been difficult because his area is 2 hours away from mine and due to several complications it's been hard to do many splits with them. 

We had neither Zone conference nor District class, but rather Zone class. Conference is between 2 zones, District is the district, and Zone Class is for 1 zone. Don't worry about keeping track of that. But it went well I suppose. 

There hasn't been much American backlash in Tuxpan. (In regards to the caravan of people trying to get to America and Trumps threats to take away aid.) 

We don't eat super weird things very often, so I've got nothing to say really about that, but I will say that we had a lot of hot chocolate with bread this week thanks to el Día de los Muertos. 

Something that made me smile was that we had to drop by Walmart to grab something for the Zone activity and as we were leaving a teenage guy chased us down and said to wait because his mom was buying stuff for us. A minute or two later she showed up with cereal, milk, and bread. She said that she knows we don't have much money as missionaries, because she used to get taught by them so she wanted to help. She kindly refused our offer to visit the church again, but she was definitely a good Christian lady. 

I studied quite a bit about Joseph Smith this week and how he acquired and used spiritual gifts. It inspired me to do the same, so I'll be focusing this week on seeking spiritual gifts. 

One cool thing about Elder Jimenez is that he has always been very open when talking to other missionaries or members about how he wanted to be my companion for a long time before it happened haha.

Looking back on this year in the mission field I can say that one thing I've learned is that it's always going to be worth holding on to the Iron Rod. I've also seen the importance of inviting others to either come back or take hold for the first time (James 5:19-20). I know that the Lord rewards sacrifices. That's something I saw with Lili (a teenager that we baptized in Xalapa). She gave up a lot to join the church, but has been rewarded with a rock-solid conviction about her newfound testimony. Another inspiring individual is the Bishop in Los Lagos. He was another among the good examples of a father who would always make time to be with his kids and get to know them individually regardless of how much time his calling and job demanded. Some of the strongest spiritual experiences have been felt while bearing pure testimony or offering an honest prayer. In the next year I hope to 1. Strengthen my dedication 2. Help more missionaries on an individual level and 3. Get back in good shape.

Love you,

Elder Finlinson