Feb.18, 2019 Letter #67

*Because of the changes that were made this past week that now allow missionaries to call or video home each week, I received a call from Connor. I think originally he was going to email but after reading all the emails someone asked them for help and so the email I received said, "Something just happened I will email in a couple hours." But he didn't think he was going to make it back to the internet place so he used his neighbor's cell phone to call me. Thankfully he had an international plan. So I kept notes and here is some of our conversation:

Feelings regarding the new change in communication: First thought was it makes it less exciting to come home. Because you see and can hear your families voices. But he also thinks it is cool because it will make for better communication. Because it is hard to remember and write everything in an email. He also sees it as a sign of trust from our Heavenly Father to see who will be faithful. He isn't worried about the missionaries losing focus. 

He is receiving a new companion to be a fellow zone leader. Elder Marines (his former companion) has been a zone leader for about 6 months and they wanted to give him a break. He will be going to Poza Rica to be a District Leader. Connor's new companion will be Elder Lobo. He really likes Elder Lobo and has served in the same areas with him for at least 5 or 6 transfers. They were both District Leaders in Xalapa at the same time (not companions) and between the two companionships they raised the baptismal rate significantly, so he is really excited to work with him and see what they can do with their zone. He loves that Elder Lobo is extra obedient. He says some don't get along with him very well because of it but Connor welcomes it and is excited that they will be companions. He says Elder Lobo is strong in organization and verification which has been a weakness in the zone. He thinks they will compliment each other well. They are opening a new area in their zone and need to find a house for the new companionship. They are hoping for some help from the other companionship in the area. But basically they have to walk around and look for rental signs. They found one but it had no electricity or water. So that was a no. So that will be one of the focuses of this week. There are 18 Elders and 2 sisters in their zone. When asked he said they didn't have very many sisters in the mission because I guess it is considered a more dangerous mission. But he said he really hasn't experienced or heard of others experiencing anything too awfully scary or bad. 

Tomorrow he will spend the day at the bus stop with a few other missionaries waiting for the new arrivals to come before they send them off to their areas. 

He was sick on his birthday. He woke up in the middle of the night with a dual problem of things coming from both ends. He said he was pretty weak but they still went to work and got things accomplished. He only had some crackers and water to celebrate. He did get sung to that was nice. The assistants came that night and they did splits the next day. Connor and Elder Goodman went to lots of areas to visit with baptismal candidates that didn't have dates yet. They were able to talk with a Mother who had not given her permission. The outcome was she would watch her daughter throughout the week and if she was well behaved she could be baptized. 

He said they are struggling with church attendance in the zone. They had 17 scheduled for baptism in March but 14 have dropped off because of church attendance. So they will be working to strengthen that area. 

He sends his love to all. 

Feb. 11th, 2019 Letter #66

Normally Hermana Equihuas calls us for our birthday and gives us socks in the following conference. I don't have the package yet, but the assistants are coming on Wednesday for splits so maybe they'll bring it right on time. 

Ezequiel and Yamilet couldn't come to church this week. Elder Marines taught them in splits this week, but we never got the chance to teach them together.

The advice Pres. Equihaus gave me was specific for the needs of the zone, but in a broad aspect I suppose it was concerning the importance of correcting missionaries and knowing even though a lot of people don't like being corrected, often times it's necessary. 

The best part of the week is that we found a couple people who are willing and ready to be baptized very soon. One's name is Dilan and he's 10 years old. He's the son of a semi-recent convert who has already been to church several times with his dad. His sister Meredith is also going to be baptized, but she's 8 and her dad is a member so she'll count for the ward instead of the mission. It's the same work though I suppose. But the ward will be in charge of the interview and everything for Meredith. The hardest part is that I feel like we're not doing a good job of having an exemplary area right now, which is a large part of the job of the leaders in the mission. We were blessed to find Dilan and Meredith, but we're really battling to find more people. But today I talked with Elder Griffin (one of our district leaders) about what he's doing in his area to have so much success and he reminded me of a few of the things we used to do when I was in Xalapa. I don't know why I haven't done them here. I'll do them this week and I believe we'll see more success soon. 

Something that made me laugh was a drunk fellow that approached us while we were talking outside with the mom of Ezequiel. He decided to "teach us how to dance." We just watched him for a bit to be nice then sent him on his way with some compliments about the techniques he had shown us. 

The tender mercy/miracle in our area was Dilan. But we also saw a huge blessing in the zone because if everything goes right this week and the next then every area in the zone will baptize this month. And just a week ago things were looking rather poor. So that was good. 

Something I like about Elder Marines is that he is really good about recognizing his weaknesses. He doesn't blind himself in pride like many of us tend to do. And as he recognizes them he tries to improve. I can see that he's improved a lot personally since last time we were together and I know that it's because he asks God to help him be better. 

Something fun that I tried this week was pig foot. It's basically pure fat. The flavor is fine, but I didn't want too much because I don't expect that eating pure fat is a great idea. It's sunny and warm right now. This week we had a little bit of everything. Sun, rain, clouds, cold, hot, etc. For P-day we played basketball and soccer. In your prayers you could mention Agustin and Irineo so that they can stop drinking and Dilan so he can understand what we teach him. There are other people, but those names come to mind more powerfully for now.

Love you!

Elder Finlinson

This is the baptismal font in Misantla. I think it'd be fun to baptize here. This is in one of the area's in Connor's current zone. 

Feb.4th, 2019 Letter #65

Juan and Cecilia are still having some struggles as a couple and I feel like we're just going to have to be supportive and let the Lord take care of the situation.

The Zone Conference was good. In my class I struggled a bit to figure out the correct pace of the class but 2 of the 5 that I taught turned out exactly how I was hoping, while 3 were a little quicker or slower than I would have liked. I talked with Elder Griffin afterwards (he was a Zone Leader for almost a year) and he said that he totally understands that struggle, so I figure it's ok for the first time, but next time I'll try to get the timing figured out a little better beforehand. We traveled with the zone to zone conference. 

The consumption of oranges here is fairly typical. It's just a job for most people.

Elder Maradiaga and I get along well. He's a 26 year old convert with a shady past, but his stories are always fun. (He was in Connor's CCM district.) 

Our zone has a few areas that are a bit out there. More than half the zone isn't even in the city of Martinez with Vega, Misantla, San Rafael, Tlapacoyan and Independencia (although Independencia is really close). We do splits where we're needed. Our first job is to do them with the District Leaders, but from there we usually go with missionaries from other areas when the District Leaders have too much that they need to do or feel that we're needed in a particular situation. 

The new missionaries ask the advice that they need. Sometimes it's about the language, sometimes it's about how to work, study, etc. The last minute miracles are what I'm trying to briefly relax from while I write, but suffice it to say that sometimes missionaries/members have ideas without making plans and then we end up in charge of making these ideas a reality with little notice.

I didn't do the cooking of the food (When the President came for interviews last week.), but we were in put in charge of most of the planning and preparations. When the time came to make the food Elder Marines took charge with a crew of missionaries and I took part in the activities. Hna Equihuas did come as well.

The Zone Leaders of the hosting zone are always in charge of the food for zone conferences. The Zone Leaders in Teziutlan set up a deal to get Domino's Pizza so that's what we ate. Zone Conference is from 9 or 10 until 3:30 or 4. President, Hna Equihuas, and the Assistants talk in front of everybody and then we go to the classes. My class was 20 minutes long in a rotation of 5 groups.

The best part of the week was the interviews because I received some good advice from President, his wife, and the assistants and we also got to help out some of the missionaries in the zone. The hardest part of the week is that a lot of the investigators that had planned baptismal dates in the zone didn't go to church this weekend and so we're looking rough heading into February. But one of my teachers from the CCM sent me a message this week with this quote: "Donde veas 1% de posibilidad ten 99% de fe." I'll make you plug that into google translate just for fun :). But that's how we'll continue from here.

Something that made me laugh was chatting with Elder Pearl in the conference. He's another one of those missionaries that I get along exceptionally well with. One tender mercy this week was that Ezequiel and Yamilet went to church this week. We haven't even had a chance to teach them a good lesson yet, but we always see them in the street and invite them to church. I was pretty surprised when they said yes on Saturday and let us pass by for them on Sunday morning. Yamilet even went with a sprained ankle! The members also were good about talking to them and welcoming them so we'll see how it goes with them.

The best thing I ate was a banana. Perhaps it wasn't the most spectacular thing in the world, but something semi-healthy every once in a while is a blessing.

Love you!

Elder Finlinson

Jan.28th, 2019 Letter #64

The best part of the week is that we baptized! I feel bad because I didn't have time to tell you anything about them before this week, but Michel and Marieli got baptized and confirmed yesterday. It was a wild ride. Marieli had been an investigator for 3 years, but it took forever to get her baptized and confirmed. She'd been baptized 2 or 3 years ago, but then the missionaries left and she never went to church to get confirmed. Afterwards it was hard for the missionaries to convince her to do anything so time passed and it was necessary to be baptized again to get confirmed. She did it though and now she's excited. Michel is her niece (looks more like a cousin because her mom gave birth to her when she was only 13).

Zone conference is the 31st. I'll be in charge of a class on Chapter 4 of Preach My Gospel which is about the Holy Ghost. I'm excited because Preach My Gospel and the Holy Ghost are two of my biggest focuses right now in my studies anyway. I taught about the importance of PMG in the zone class a couple weeks ago. 

Pablo went to Puebla. Juan and Cecilia are having some struggles right now as a couple that are outside of our control. Pray for them. 

The leadership conference was fun. I was excited to see some old companions like Elder Alor and Elder Shoemaker. We actually spent the night with Elder Alor and that was fun because we had a second to talk. The main thing that I remember talking about during the conference was Preach My Gospel. I know there were other things, but as you've likely noticed from the email that was what stuck most with me. Every member should have one as well. If you've never looked at it before, you might want to consider looking at it in the gospel library or something. We went in a bus to Xalapa. We had a couple hours before the conference started so we visited some of my converts like Lili, Fernando, Fernanda, and Juan Jose. The older brother of Fernanda, Fernando, and Juan Jose got baptized a couple weeks after I left. He was excited to tell me haha.

Ejidal is kind of like Ay-hee-dahl. A lot of people in my area grow, gather, box, and/or sell oranges. I like the members of the area a lot. I suppose that my dislike is that the buses cost more here than in Tuxpan. The ward has some really supportive members. We've focused a lot on getting the youth excited because there's a lot of them and it's working. There are two other missionaries in our ward, Elder Maradiaga and Elder Leon. Elder Maradiaga is from my district in the CCM. 

One thing I like about being a zone leader is that a lot of the newer missionaries come to me for advice. It's both fun and inspiring to see in them the honest desire to learn and improve. One thing that I don't like as much is that I feel like we're constantly being put in charge of pulling off last-second miracles. It's good though, because I know that the experience in that will help a lot in the future.

We have a leadership conference every transfer.

For P-day President came (we have interviews tomorrow). We made carne asada and quesadillas and played basketball and volleyball.

Love you!

Elder Finlinson

Connor with Michel, Marieli and Elder Marines

Jan.21st, 2019 Letter #63

People to pray for: Michel, Mariely, Pablo, Juan, Cecilia

In the birthday package an electric fly swatter would be good.

In the mission we're really focused on understanding our purpose and studying Preach My Gospel.

Being a Zone Leader is fun and time consuming.

Love you!

Connor and his companion Elder Marines at the Leadership conference last week.

Jan. 12th,2019 Letter #62

I have p-day today because Elder Marines and I have a conference of leaders on Monday in Xalapa. We have 19 missionaries in the Martinez Zone; 3 Sisters and 16 Elders.

It was a good week, and I'm really excited about the zone. We have really good district leaders and the missionaries have a good energy here right now. We're going to have to battle to get the ball rolling here because 13 of the 19 missionaries here are new to the zone. That means that several areas were whitewashed and every single area had at least one missionary leave so we arrived with little to work with. That being said, in this week alone we have seen a crazy amount of miracles and we're headed in the right direction. The miracles have been throughout the zone, but what we're enjoying right now in Ejidal (my area) is a plethora of new investigators. 

Love you, 

Elder Finlinson

Jan.7th, 2019 Letter #61

Danna got baptized! She turned 8 on Saturday. Her aunt came and she's interested in learning more. Some other investigators that the Sisters are teaching also showed up. Elder Jimenez baptized her. Typically we baptize on Saturday and confirm on Sunday, but with Danna we did the baptism early Sunday morning before the services started. 

The 2 hour thing has a lot of potential, but almost nobody had the manual until this Sunday so nobody came prepared and, as a result, there was very little participation. Hopefully this week everyone will read it now that they have it. I don't feel much different about the time we have outside of church. It's not too big of a change in that regard. 

This change I'm getting sent to Martinez de la Torre (the same zone I started in). But this time I'll be in the area Ejidal as a Zone Leader. I'm going to be with Elder Marines again, that detail made me laugh. (They served together for 3 weeks before Connor was made a secretary.) I think it'll be fun. I was surprised that they called me to be a Zone Leader before training, but I'll trust in the plan. 

All the changes in the church are kind of fun. I feel like nobody tells us about them, but every once in a while I check the church website. 

My favorite part of the week would have to be the baptism of Danna. 

I think the most exciting thing about the change will be having a new responsibility. I feel like I've adjusted myself a lot to the mindset of a District Leader and it'll be a challenge to adapt to a different position. 

I was reading in 1 Nephi this week and I found it interesting to read about some of the prophecies that he made. He talked about the arrival of the Gentiles to the American continent and mentioned that they were inspired by the Spirit of God. It made me think about how God is always in the details and how He never stops working. Even when the world wasn't ready to receive teaching directly from a prophet (this happened during the Great Apostasy) He didn't give up. He worked with what He had. I think that sometimes we too need to work with what we have. We shouldn't make excuses based on our situation. If we have a work to do then we need to get it done. 

Something that made me laugh a bit was that we had a ward party on Saturday and I won in musical chairs. So ha. 

One challenge that I faced here in Tuxpan was trying to stay out of drama. You would hope that a mission wouldn't include too much drama between the missionaries, but it does. So in Martinez my goal will be to put a stop to rumors and other kinds of drama as soon as I hear them so that it doesn't develop. I've always tried not to spread them, but I now realize that it's not enough to be quiet, but rather it is necessary to take a stand. 

The New Year we had to be in home at 7 so we just kind of sat there for a couple hours then went to bed.

Love you guys!

Elder Finlinson

Connor with Danna and Elder Jimenez