May 13th, 2019 Letter #79

When it comes to missionaries that I'm excited to see come into the zone I would have to take my daily vitamins and go ahead and say all of them. I'm going to trust in the Lord a lot this change in knowing that He does everything with a purpose. It will be a zone almost full of missionaries with questionable reputations, but what I'm most grateful for is that my companion is a missionary with a rock-solid reputation. When I heard about the changes my mind drifted to a movie I watched in a teaching class that I took. The movie was a true story about a teacher who took over a class of struggling students, but treated them with patience and talked to them as if they had the highest of potentials (Now that I think about it I believe that their are several movies with this same story). In short, the class turned out finishing the year as a top class. Basically what I'm getting at is that I'm hoping that these missionaries just need someone to believe in them. 

The best part of the week was hearing Elder Valenzuela talk about the gathering of Israel. It got me motivated and helped me understand much better the purpose of what we as members need to be doing to further the work. 

The most challenging thing was not getting a little let down with the fact that the girl who was going to get baptized last weekend disappeared suddenly and doesn't answer our calls. 

One tender mercy is that a family that we're teaching has taken several steps and is now close to being ready for baptism. They'll need to get married, but almost all of the paperwork is already done. 

Something that made me laugh was a little toddler who was quietly walking around during stake conference trying to give money to all of the members seated nearby. Elder Romero leaned over to me and paraphrased the Savior's statement: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these" Elder Valenzuela later talked about tithes and fast offerings. It was a neat little moment of reflection. 

This change I'm excited to be with Elder Merrill and because I feel like we have a handful of people that will be baptized soon.

Thanks for the support! Love you,

Elder Finlinson

 From the hike a couple weeks ago.

 During a leadership training

 Leadership Training or Conference

 More leadership training classes

May 6th, 2019 Letter #78

The mountain is in the zone, if that weren't the case then we wouldn't have gone. I feel like we had a good time, but I don't know how much it did or didn't change in the zone. Some of the missionaries right now are hitting their stride while others are waiting for changes already or passing through other trials. There's been a wide variety of attitudes in the zone. 

We battled a little this week to find time to teach people, but I was impressed and encouraged when almost all of our progressing investigators went to church even without having had frequent visits. Many of them are progressing well and I expect that many will be baptized. 

I haven't stayed very well in touch with people I taught in different areas to be honest. I'd like to, but I don't have a lot of time to communicate with them. 

One thing that I'm hoping to accomplish in the next 6 months is use the experience I've been given to raise the bar and baptize significantly more people. For a time I battled a little with thoughts that leaders in the mission focused too much on baptizing, thinking that it was a game of numbers. But as I've matured a little more in my vision and understanding of our missionary purpose I've come to understand better the importance of baptism and therefore my personal desire has grown to help other people make that step.

One miracle this week is that one of the district leaders in the zone who had been struggling found a family of 5 who accepted a baptismal date and went to church. I'm happy for him because he's one of the most honest guys I've met and it was high time for him to see some success. 

One thing that was kind of funny is that we organized a soccer tournament for members and investigators and we made a team of missionaries as well. We bought the trophy and ended up winning the tournament. So now we don't know what to do with the trophy that we bought. They were 8 minute games on a small court to not lose much time and one of the investigators that showed up accepted our visit and a baptismal date so we'll see what happens. 

One thing that I love about the area is that the church is in a convenient location so I feel like that's made it easier for the investigators to make the trip.

Something I battled with this last week was a feeling of detachment. I worked, but I kind of felt like a machine going through the motions. That being said, today I feel normal again so I think I'm good to go. One thing that you could pray for is that in these 6 months I can be a better missionary than in the first 18. 

For p-day we cleaned the house. It was time. In grand part I felt President's love more during the conference and the activity for little things that he did or said, but I also felt a witness from the Holy Ghost that he really does care about us and at the end of the day he just wants us to be the best we can be. Thanks for the support!

Love you,

Elder Finlinson

Natali is a 9 year old who has gone to church since she was little. Her story is pretty cool. She was always waiting for her dad to come back from the US so he could see her get baptized. When the prophet said that time is running out Elder Romero and I felt the need to go talk to the famliy. We conversed about what the prophet had said and Natali and her mom felt like it was indeed time so they called dad and told him that Natali was thinking about getting baptized already. He made the decision to come back immediately to see it. Now he's back with the family for good and they're looking at the possibility of getting sealed as a family in the temple. 

April 29th,2019 Letter #77

I pray to love anyone I need to love. Other missionaries, my companion, investigators, members, leaders, etc. (Everyone in short). 

I enjoyed the zone conference. I feel like I understand the love that President has for us much more clearly now. The class went alright. It wasn't super special, but it didn't go poorly either. The zone conferences are always between two zones. What I have mentioned as a zone class is for one zone. It was good to see the Martinez zone again. There are some special missionaries there (here as well). 

My favorite part of the week was probably the zone conference or the activity today. Today we went to the top of a nearby mountain to a statue of Christ that looks over the city. Several pictures were taken and will surely be put on Facebook because President and Hermana Equihuas and the assistants came to the activity as well. Afterwards we grilled some steak and hotdogs and played sports. 

The most challenging thing about the week was likely trying to stay on top of the teaching that our investigators need. One little miracle happened on Sunday. We passed by the house of an investigator to see if she would come, but nobody answered the door. We had come from the church building and hadn't seen her in route, but even so we decided to believe that someway or somehow she would get there. Sure enough as the sacrament meeting finished and people started filing out towards the classes we found her up in the front corner of the chapel. We simply hadn't seen her until afterwards, but she'd been there all along haha. 

One thing that made me smile big was hearing that the formerly inactive member and his investigating wife from Martinez finally were able to get married and he baptized her. The ward also threw a party for there wedding. I would have liked to be there, but hearing that it happened is good enough for me. 

Today's activity should leave a clear answer for any question about good food this week. 

One thing you could pray for is that the district leaders in the zone can have success in their areas so that their missionaries can be motivated by their examples. 

On Mother's day I can work with your schedule (as long as it's not really early because I intend to go to church). Just let me know. 

Love you!

Elder Finlinson

 Tezuitlan Zone

April 22nd, 2019 Letter #76

Easter here is not a one day event. Look up the holy week on internet and I bet you'll find an idea. We personally didn't do anything to celebrate, but I talked in church about faith and how we receive a testimony of Christ and the gospel.

We've run into some little issues with a few of the people that we're teaching, but there are also several people who are progressing well. The best part of the week was seeing the progress of a particular family that we're teaching. There are 3 fairly young kids in the family that always keep us entertained. 

Something that made me laugh was when we brought a recent convert to a stake youth activity. He was set on not going, but we convinced him and he ended up really liking it. The funny part was that he went back the second day just because he had liked a girl from another ward. He was pretty bashful about it so I got a kick out of it. 

One tender mercy of the Lord has been that he has helped me to love others. It's something I've been asking for specifically lately and I've seen once again that the Lord answers honest prayers. 

I reread the talk by Elder Oaks about repentance. I liked his statement from the beginning when he compared the pure justice of legal courts with the ever-accessible mercy of a heavenly judgment. 

Zone conference is this week and I'll be talking about the importance of inviting people to be baptized in the first visit. 

Love you,

Elder Finlinson

 Baptism of Jose

Picture during Holy Week

April 15th, 2019 Letter #75

Leadership conference was good. It was reasonably uneventful because we had several meetings last transfer, but we basically talked about how to verify the plan of the mission in our zones. One of the new leaders is Elder Garity, who was secretary at the same time as me. It was really good to see him, he's a man "without guile or hypocrisy." I didn't have a special assignment, but of course participated in the council. In a typical conference we present the monthly results of our zone, we hear announcements/brief talks from the President, his wife, and the assistants and we have a council about the new announcements, strengths and weaknesses of the zones/etc. 

There are a lot of newer missionaries in the zone. There are a few that I had bumped into in other zones as well, but it was a pretty big change at first. I'm already pretty used to the missionaries though. I still haven't studied one of the talks from the conference because I had downloaded talks from other conferences and wanted to finish them first. I should be able to start this week with the recent talks. 

My favorite part of the week was that we had a baptism. I forgot to ask his permission to send the picture and his name, but I'll ask this week. There are several promising investigators right now as we had 12 people come to church, but I'll update you with more specifics as we go with them. 

The biggest challenge right now has been knowing how to help the zone to care about the little things. The zone is somewhat disobedient for the moment and although there is some respect for the bigger details there is a frank disregard for the little things. When you want to help people to be more obedient it is always a delicate process because if you say too much then people take offense and if you say too little than nothing changes. We had the same problem when I got to Martinez and things changed so I'm hoping that with some patience and diligence things with be resolved. 

It was a real miracle that so many people got to church because typically around 25% of the people that say they'll go to church actually go, but this time we had a good 75-80% (these aren't real statistics, but that's the idea). 

I've had the opportunity to laugh quite a bit lately, Elder Romero is one of those people that knows how to make people laugh. One thing that happened was that he cleaned the bathroom on Monday and opened the window to let some air in. Afterward I went to shower and realized that the window was open so I tried to close it. After struggling a bit and realizing that it was jammed I gave up and decided that I would simply have to shower as close to the wall as possible so that the neighbors wouldn't see. Elder Romero showered next and then we were off to the conference. We didn't say a word to each other about it until we realized while chatting in the bus that we had both fought and lost the same fight with the window and then proceeded to shower glued to the wall. It was funny in the moment.

I'm sad to hear about the struggles that the family has had, but I know it's for a purpose and that the Lord is merciful. Try to stay calm about everything and it will turn out alright. Did you already have the conference with Elder Costa? Remember that every night when you pray for me, I pray for you all too.

Love you,

Elder Finlinson

April 8th, 2019, Letter #74

I like the new area a lot. It's really pretty and the weather is much more pleasant. There are some hills here, but it's still better than Xanath was. Everyone has always told me that people here are closed-minded, but I feel like we have found more good investigators this week than in a typical week in another area so I'm not too worried about those comments. 

Elder Romero is a really good companion for me. He's fun to be around and knows that the Lord is in charge. I know a few of the missionaries in the zone, but there a quite a few new faces. They're a good bunch though and I'm excited to work with them. The person I know best out of all of them is one of the sister missionaries because I was her district leader for 2 changes in Tuxpan, but outside of that I've never even been in the same district as another one of these missionaries. 

I figure you can pronounce San Juan, but Xiutetelco is almost just Shoe-teh-tel-co. With Teziutlán just try to say it how it's spelled and you're close enough. 

I liked conference a lot. I'll be reviewing the talks in the next 6 months, but among the many that grabbed my attention are the 2 talks from Pres. Eyring and the talk by Sister Becky Craven about whether we are careful or casual with our covenants. I also thought it was necessary that somebody say what Elder Bednar said about temple preparation. Too many people don't prepare themselves well for the temple because they don't get how important it is due to a lack of conversation about it. 

I gotta go catch a bus to Xalapa so I'll finish talking later I guess.

Love you,

Elder Finlinson

April 1st, 2019 Letter #73

In and of itself there aren't a crazy amount of changes with the new plan. It's more of a way to focus our efforts in our finding, teaching, and fellowshipping of new members. We are also reminded that although Preach My Gospel gives us the freedom to use our own words and experiences while we teach, we still are asked to teach simply, clearly, and directly all of the various points of doctrine listed in Preach My Gospel and that we should do it in order unless there is a justified reason to teach the lessons in some other order. The model of teaching now also helps us ensure that the investigators understand what we teach. I feel like it's helping us a lot to teach the doctrine how it is, instead of relying on our own wisdom. It allows us to spend less time thinking about what to say and more time feeling what we should say. 

I'm going to be moving on to San Juan Xiutetelco, Puebla in the Teziutlán zone. Elder Romero from the state of Guerrero will be my companion and I'll continue being a zone leader. Teziutlán has been having quite a bit of success lately so it will be fun to learn from what they're doing.

 My favorite parts of the week and the miracles of the week are that 1. The mission has had a goal since a little after I got here to reach 100 baptisms in a month and we had never reached it until this month when we passed the mark by quite a bit with 118 (something that hasn't been done in ~5 years) 2. The Martínez Zone finished with 21 baptisms (Something that hasn't been done in ~3 years). It was really cool to finally see it done. I would say it has been both humbling and encouraging to see what the Lord has done with the mission. He is at the helm. 

The most challenging part of the week was trying to get a good amount of studying in. It seemed like everyday something happened that pulled us out of the house early (splits, a 3rd hospitalized missionary in 3 weeks, etc.) One funny thing was just letting people know about the transfers this week. There were a lot of silly reactions thanks to several unexpected (but certainly inspired) transfers. There are a couple areas that I wouldn't mind serving in before going home, but I'm not too concerned about the areas. I just hope to train at some point. 

This week we were able to teach more and we saw a lot of miracles and found some great people. I expect the elders that stay here to have plenty of things to do now. 

 Good to hear that the family is doing well and that you saw Darin. He told me that the family is "so awesome."

Love you,

Elder Finlinson 

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