First Area--Northeast Oklahoma City--Highway 66 August 26, 2013 Week 7

Hola my familia,

Oklahoma is awesome, I have  been having a ton of fun already.  I am serving in the OKC north-- central area.  It is really nice, we have a Spanish branch so my whole district goes to that.  Everyone in my district are Spanish missionaries.  My apartment is way nice compared to the living in Mexico.  It has been a ton of fun to be in the Spanish culture here in Oklahoma.  As your neighbor said there are a ton of Spanish people here, it was definitely a shock for me.  My companion is Elder Pugmire,  he is from west Jordan Utah.  He has been out 15 months.  He has been a really good trainer for me so far...  I have yet to get some really good American food, because the branch is in charge of feeding us every night, and since we are in a Spanish branch we get Mexican food.  The other fun thing is every night our district eats dinner at the same place because there aren't enough people to cook the food.

If you look at a map of Oklahoma city and then find rout 66 that is where I live.  It is pretty fun we live right on route 66 and cross it every day on our bikes...   (we do not have Ethan's address, but map below marks route 66 in OKC.)

I have already had a ton of spiritual experiences so far.  But I will just share one.  So there is a sister Laura de la Cruz who has been taught for quite some time but I guess has never really felt anything.  We went in talking about the restoration, once we got to Prophets my companion was like would you like to talk about prophets.  I was really scared but I knew that it was ok.  I asked her what she knew about prophets and what were the purpose of prophets.  She didn't really know, once she figured it out, I told her that there are prophets that guide us today.  I then shared how Grampa Quilter was blessed by Thomos S. Monson.  And i think that she about started crying.  After that there was a pause and she said that she knew that prophets are real and that they are here today.  She is in a really hard situation though, she is married to a spouse that doesn't like religion, and she has 3 little kids.  It has just been crazy for me to see all of these problems in real life, not fake like at the MTC.

I have a ton of other experiences but I will share them in letters.  But so far for the most part I have had an awesome time here in OKC.  The people here are so nice, it definitely isn't hard to get into a house, what is hard is getting them to go to church and make the life change... One more story... our district had correlation with our ward mission leader,  we all went to his house and he wasn't there.  We called him and he said that he was down south, so we decided to go and get lunch somewhere, we decided to go to this one Mexican place and get some really good food,  the thing of it is, we didn't have to pay for our food.  When we got to the restaurant we found our WML (ward mission leader) there.... hahahaha it was way funny.  He then payed for our food...out of guilt probably.

Braums (ice cream/dairy?) is great...homemade Mexican food is amazing...it is just flat out awesome here... o yeah my president is just shy of 7 ft.  he played for BYU basketball team... surracha is good on everything... and i have not opened up my spice cupboard yet...there isn't a ton of room.  But thanks.  I am going to go buy a blanket and pillow today.

te amo elder fin

Arrived in Oklahoma! August 20, 2013 Week 6

Hi Family and Friends,

Elder Fin arrived in OK today.  Bethany and I were able to talk to him on the phone for six minutes while he was at the Dallas airport.  I wanted to talk longer, but he said he only had enough quarters for six minutes and then he needed to get on the plane.  Enjoyed every minute! 

He travelled with four other elders and two sisters--all headed to OK.  

These are a few of the things he said,

"First thing we did was eat at McDonalds, Best food I've had in six weeks"

"It is weird to be back in the US, I'm saying Hola to everyone"

"Talked to someone from OK on the plane, so excited to get there, can't wait!"

"I love you, tell everyone hi from me"

Below is a photo with him flanked by President and Sister Walkenhorst.  

Grateful he is under their watchful care!

President Walkenhorst definitely looks like someone Elder Fin will be "looking up" to.  

Thanks for your love and support,

The Fins

OK Mission Home Address:

Elder Ethan Finlinson

416 SW 79th Street, #210

Oklahoma City, OK  73139

holA i just landed this is my mission pres.  just went tracting  

August 14, 2013 Week 5

...Man sounds like a crazy week in slc football. braces. .... well done eli and joel for tearing it up on the football field...i am so excited to leave Mexico it has been great and all buuuut I want some good food..  as far as seeing stars here it is rare, it is usually cloudy every night and the light pollution is very bad.

 

           Well in one week I am going to be in America and I can't wait...  I have to say though this last week was a ton of fun... so here in Mexico there is this food called taco de lenguas... and is what it is..tongue tacos yummy right... Well anyways my district is friends with this janitor and we asked him if he could get us some tacos on the other side of the wall.  I think that he used to be a drug dealer because he gave us a whole plan .  First we are going to give him a bag filled with 200 pesos and then he is going to go to the other side of the wall and get the tacos, fill up the bag and then meet us in back of the cafeteria at 5:30.  I hope it all works our whole district chipped in to the peso stash... Another thing that happened today is we went to the temple and on the bus ride home i bought some weird nut thing.  It was ok but now i can say that i have made a driving exchange... only me and my companion did it, and the teacher got mad.  I don't know why?  I think that he was just jealous... but I am sure that buying stuff from street vender's is going to get put in the rule book.  But hey YOSO--You Only Serve Once... the thing actually wasn't that bad.. My companion got some pork rind things and a pack of gum.. It was pretty sketchy looking.  This is what is fun about being the first ones here..  They are still trying to figure out everything..  I have some cool souvenirs from the mexico mtc.  It is too bad for all of the other missionary's coming after us because all of the rules are going to different.  These last couple of days are going to be hard but hey  it has been a ton of fun here, I fell like I have learned the Spanish here ten times of what i would have learned in Provo... that was terrible grammar.... Well I guess I can call you guys when I am at the airport.

adios

elder finlinson

August 7, 2013 Week 4

Hola family,

No I havent gotten my patriarchal blessing but I plan to get it in Oklahoma.  

I am so happy to hear that Eli and Joel are lovin football.  

Thanks for your emails.  I have'nt recived the package from you guys yet i hope you sent it to the new mtc-_-..  

Sorry but the email this week is going to be pretty short because I barely remember what happened.  

All of the days here are blurring, it is crazy it feels like yesterday was Sunday.  This week we lost our natives they are serving in northern Mexico.  I have to say it has been pretty nice -- no more tornadoes,  at least for another week...  

A whole bunch of new missionaries came, it was fun just to see their faces of being lost.  Me and my companion helped some sisters with their bags and we were talking in Spanish.  I think that one of them was about to cry..hahaha,  I am glad I got to come here when there were 100 missionaries because I don't think that will ever happen again.  

Justin Horne will probably get here right when they reach full capacity, by next week there will be 800 because the MTCs in Peru and Bolivia are full so they are sending them here.  I am glad I won't  have to be apart of that mess, anyways  the night all of the new missionaries came it rained bad, all of the street gutters were overflowing and it went up to my half calf.  Well it turns out that we had a devotional across the campus so every one got drenched, one elder slipped and fell in the gutter and he disappeared because the water was so high...hahahahahahahhh..  but yah i am happy i had the chance to come here but i cant wait to leave...

 

Pictures  elder in the glasses---loves pink Floyd     Short elder thought he could beat me in an arm wrestle hahah and tornadoes

 

have a killer week

 

Elder fin

July 31, 2013 Week 3

Hola family, how are y'all doin? 

This week has been pretty good.  Minus the hairy chicken wings last night.  

We got a full sized fridge installed into our apartment.. and out of no where my companion pulls out a snow making machine hahaha.  I about died. 

This week we got some natives in the same room with us, it is good to be able to talk Spanish...  they gave us some nasty suckers that you dip in chili powder... it is disgusting.  Every night we have what we call a Tornado (I don't know if this is in preparation to OKlahoma Tornadoes?).  It is when  all of the natives come in and have all of their ties around their necks, i have yet to exchange one but i will have to.  They also like doing rap battles and push up contests.  We are going to have to start locking the doors at night, but now our room is high price because it has the fridge and snow cones.  

i got my first hair cut today ..  it was weird not having mom do it.. they do it way fast though it is crazy... Eli and Joel I am soo excited that you are loving football... I was way nervous last Friday.. it was weird that was the most nervous that I have felt on my mission.. but i am glad that you have had a good experience... 

We didn't go to the temple today because they are doing cleaning...  my favorite foods to eat are boing and rancheritos..  mom they have guava here but i have to say it is no better.  They do have these fruits that are like balls and then there are air soft pellets in it...  i don't know what it is but they are goood... you just have to get over the texture of rocks...  

It is getting more and more crowded aqui... I dont like it, it was nice when it was just 150 people it was so quiet-except for all of police sirens...  o yah i just remember we were able to find a football a real football.  it wasnt easy to find but we found the equipment room and they had all of the football gear.  The only problem was filling it up we had to use a pressure tank and it filled it up in like two seconds, and it about exploded.  I tried on one of their ancient helmets and we found a ball...  last night when the Tornado came they had football pants on and wanted to play some night ball... i told them that i didn't want to make them feel bad. haha it is way fun.. the one (native) in our room loves pink Floyd and he started singing great gig in the sky.  awesome... don't worry i am also learning Spanish and the Gospel too!

Well three more weeks until no more Tornado....hairy chicken....police sirens....MEXICO

love ya family

the fin fin finny