December 15, 2014 Week 75

Well the trio is dead.  

We are having a mini transfer this week so all of the missionaries that should be going home in 3 weeks are going home early for Christmas.  

Well that leaves a lot of open places in the mission that need to be filled.  

Elder Barrett will be going to Norman, Spanish again with Elder Guzman.  

It was pretty depressing to hear especially since Christmas is in 10 days and we had a whole bunch of plans.  

Oh well life moves on.  

But he is getting transferred on Tuesday sooo ...

Today is our last day to pack say goodbye and also do our usual p-day stuff.

It will be ok Elder Rodriguez and I will still have fun here but it sure won't be the same.

So once again sorry for the rushed email but we really don't have much time. 

One story... you know cattlemen's steak house--the one that was on man versus food. Well we went there this past Thursday (Elder Rodriguez had an appointment in OKC) and we each got the presidential t bone steak... it was amazing.  I am glad we had the chance to do that before the trio dies! I will send some pictures to explain the rest of the week! 

LOVE Y'ALL

OBEY FOR SNOW:)

ELDER FINLINSON

Elder Finlinson also answered two questions:

Do you know what time you get to call on Christmas?

-- probably at night we are going over to a families home to Skype...maybe--

How is your investigator that was referred by the less active? 

-- awesome she went to our ward Christmas party along with 6 other investigators! and 10 less actives!!

December 8, 2014 Week 74

17 Days till...

hello hello 

Sorry in advance this is going to be very short! 

There was a bomb scare at MSU (Midwestern State University) so we have to go to the ghetto library and they have a 1 hour limit! 

I guess someone really didn't want to take their finals! 

Those gingerbread houses are awesome great work! 

We got invited to go make some with early morning seminary. 

So I will send y'all some pictures! 

We had a very good week sharing The Gift with many people. 

We have found it to be very easy to share The Gift with others! I think we still might be sharing The Gift after the 25th, it is just too easy! 

One experience we had this week was with a less active member. 

We shared The Gift with him and right after we watched the movie he had the desire to share it with one of his friend's wives. 

He didn't know why, he just knew that she needed to watch the video. 

So he gave us the address to his friend and we were able to see her that night. 

She was very prepared to receive The Gift.  We were able to teach her The Restoration, and since then teach her 2 other lessons. 

She has already read to chapter 9 in the book of Mormon and has read all of the pamphlets that we have given her! 

At all of her lessons we were able to have member presents and this helped her out a ton. 

Without us even telling our members anything they invited her to the ward Christmas party this week and she should be going!--- 

by small and simple things great things are bought to pass! Alma 37:6

Just imagine if we didn't go see that less active this week we wouldn't of had 3 solid lessons with an investigator!...

It is an eternal principle!!  

So look for those opportunities and share The Gift! 

LOVE Ya'll 

and once again sorry for the short letter!!

ELDER FINLINSON

December 1, 2014 Week 73

"Rabbit!" December

IT was kinda funny you asked if I was the rabbit of the trio because I am! I think that was the first time on my mission I said anything about Rabbit!  Who is the rabbit of Utah? 

(we have a tradition in our home of saying rabbit the first day of the month, the person who says rabbit first is the queen or king rabbit of the month--it was a tradition I picked up from Sister Laura Wilson Doud, companion in Hawaii)

Well this week has been great! The weather is not what I am used to. It is like we should be listening to Christmas music but it is 80 degrees outside! 

Luckily it cooled down today and it feels a little more like December! 

Thanksgiving was great.  We started off with the classic turkey bowl! It has been a year since I have played football like that.  We are all still recovering from it!  

I would say that my team won.  We set up an unstoppable zone defense and started tearing up the other team.  

I have to be honest I can't wait until this football season is over.  It is always hard going to restaurants and seeing football...

I am sure that you have heard of the "HE is the Gift" initiative that the church is putting out!  It is awesome!  

We had a training on it the other day and I thought that it sounded a little weak but boy was I wrong! 

It has been the easiest way to share the gospel on my mission! 

SO DISCOVER THE GIFT--EMBRACE THE GIFT-- SHARE THE GIFT! 

One example.  We had a ton of miles left over for this past month so we decided to go to Iowa Park--a small town north west of Wichita falls.  

Well there is one active family that lives in Iowa Park. We decided to go visit them and we shared The Gift with them by watching the little 2 minute video.  

They expressed how they really wanted to find someone else in Iowa Park.  

Well we told them to pray and we would go out for the last hour of the night and see if we could find someone.  

It ended up we found a less active family that hasn't been to church in a long time.  

We told them about what we were doing with the other family.  They wanted to meet them.  

They committed to go to church.  It was sweet! WE also shared The Gift with them. 

SO SHARE THAT GIFT

In my studies this week something that stood out to me is 2 Nephi 29:8 "Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word?..."

Now this is a classic one that we use a lot in talking about the Book of Mormon, which is good because that is what it is talking about. 

But it made me think "what is 'the word'"?  

As I thought about it.. it made me think of all the truth we have been given, specifically through modern day prophets. 

I am so thankful to have modern day prophets that lead us and guild us. 

If we were to find missing parts of the bible that would be cool...but I wouldn't exchange it for having a modern day prophet. 

A living prophet is greater then a dead prophet!..though it would be cool to chill with Abraham--oh well I guess that is what the spirit world is for.

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING HAVE A GREAT DAY

ELDER FINLINSON

November 23, 2014 Week 72

BUENO BUENO DIA DE PAVO  

That is crazy that neider is home!!! what the heck! Man he will have to go shred some lines for me! 

This week has been crazy!  I don't have a ton of time! I got my thanksgiving packages last night! That was an awesome addition to the sabbath day! thank you very much!   

This week has been crazzzy SERVICE SERVICE AND SOME MORE SERVICE!!! 

But it has been great! Wichita Falls is da best! 

WE have been getting pounded with food.  Everyone is cleaning out their fridges  before going on their vacations.  

Studies have been great  I have been in D&C 122

5-7 are "the if thou's of tribulation"
the last 2 lines of 7 through 9 start "the know thou's of tribulation"

This made me think of everything that we go through and everything our investigators go through.  But through tribulation We gain experience and more knowledge! So don't hate on tribulation!

Once again I am sorry for the shortness of my letter... I do have a lot more gratitude than what this letter shows. 

ELDER FINLINSON

November 17, 2014 Week 71

SNOW!

Well we got our first snow of the season! It wasn't anything to get too excited about though--it was just a small dusting!  

I am wearing my ski tie today though! It was great to see that we may have a chance of a white Christmas. 

We have some great news,  we received transfer doctrine last night and..... the trinity is staying together!  

I have been blessed to have great companions! especially during Christmas time!  We are pretty excited about it! 

This next transfer will go all the way to January! No one is really moving in the mission.  I guess president wants to keep everyone together! 

SO this week Monica got baptized! It was great.  It was crazy though.  

Bishop was the one going to baptize her and he thought it started at 10:30, when it actually was going to start at 10...hijole! 

It was 10:05 and Bishop still wasn't there.  We called him up and luckily  he was able to make it around 10:20 ish. 

We were able to delay it by watching Mormon Messages!  

But the service went great after that! Everyone really felt the spirit. Especially Monica.  When she came up out of the water she said she was so happy! 

It is has been amazing to see the change in her these past few months.  

She now has the vision to go to the temple and partake of all of the blessing that come from that!  

We found Monica by doing less active work.  

Her husband was a less active member and in the attempts to get him back to church we were able to bring his wife along. 

In most of their prayers to close our lessons they talk about being sealed in the temple.  I had the opportunity to confirm her on Sunday in sacrament meeting.  It was great!

Also yesterday we finally got a ward mission leader!  His name is Brother Hanson and he is a news anchor here in town.  It is going to be nice to have one again! 

The ward is getting already for the turkey bowl!  Hopefully it will be a nice day. 

 I have really been pondering on what needs to be done in this ward and I recalled the successful missionary section in PMG---

You can know you have been a successful missionary when you:

• Feel the Spirit testify to people through you.

• Love people and desire their salvation.

• Obey with exactness.

• Live so that you can receive and know how to follow the Spirit, who will show you where to go, what to do, and what to say.

• Develop Christlike attributes.

• Work effectively every day, do your very best to bring souls to Christ, and seek earnestly to learn and improve.

• Help build up the Church (the ward) wherever you are assigned to work.

• Warn people of the consequences of sin. Invite them to make and keep commitments.

• Teach and serve other missionaries.

• Go about doing good and serving people at every opportunity, whether or not they accept your message.

Now this isn't just for us full time missionaries.  If you are a part of this church you are expected to be a missionary.  

This has been something that I have been pondering a lot lately.  

I am going to go through these points and find the thing that I am struggling with the most.  

The desire of my heart is to be a successful missionary( thankfully PMG is very clear on what the means)

Well I hope y'all have a great week I love ya!

ELDER FINLINSON

 Monica's Baptism- Elder Rodriguez, Elder Finlinson, Monica's Husband, Monica, Elder Barrett

 The Very Happy Trio-Elder Rodriguez, Elder Barrett, Elder Finlinson

Elder Finlinson in front of Wichita Falls

November 10, 2014 Week 70

Hey ya'll!

 Sounds like you had a great week!  That is awesome that Joel was able to experience a championship game!  

I still have my hoof so they don't need to worry about that! It is hard though having an effective workout with such limited time! (hoof = tricep muscle)

What is up comoco being a woman what the heck?! I saw a kid playing clash of clans the other day, it made me laugh! (Comoco=woman in Fin Clan of Clash of Clans, Doug and I met her and her husband for dinner last week when we were in Las Vegas. )

The work is going great here! 

You asked how many less active we have found in the Wichita Falls ward... well a ton! We don't have an exact number! 

But less active story for the week. 

So we have every single person who is on the ward roster punched into the gps, this is super helpful when we have some free time.  No matter where we are in our area we are close to at least 3 or 4 less actives.  We have not gone 'tracting' once this transfer.  

But back to the story, we were driving around last night and it was 8:45... and everyone who has served a mission knows that 8:45 can be a rough time, just because it is 15 minutes before we can go in.  

But Elder Barrett was inspired to see one of the less actives that we haven't visited.  

So we go over to this persons house and they dont answer--hijole. 

As we were walking to the car the door opened! 

We then ran up to the door and were able to meet this man and set up an appointment for next week.  

We didn't think much about it.  

But that night we were talking to the other missionaries in our district and they told us that that night a member told them to visit the less active man we just saw!! it was crazy! 

We talked and the time that we decided to go see them was the same time they were talking to the member! 

I don't know why 2 people felt like this person needed a visit. But I am sure we will find out this week! 

I guess he used be a member of the bishopric and hasn't been to church for 5+ years! It should be a fun one!! LA work is the best! 

WE are having a baptism this week for Monica McCawly so keep her in your prayers! 

I am now 2 for 2 in getting pulled over and getting away clean!  We were driving down the street and all of the sudden it happened blue and red everywhere! 

We pulled into a street and waited...as usual.  Well the officer got out of his car and phoned in for back up... I guess a Chevy Cruz with no tint and a picture of Jesus looked pretty suspicious! Ha he even pulled out his flashlight and was looking into our car (we did have those giant pixie stixs in the back, maybe he thought it was cocaine...).  But it ended up we didn't have our lights on! 

I guess before we were making a phone call and the call was a little lengthy so I turned off the lights and then forgot to turn them on...

But I have gotten away from the Oklahoma and THE GReat Texas police... but not the Sandy police. I guess that shows who has charity haha no, it probably helps being dressed as a missionary (they just look at us and think "well they are already going to hell, might as well give um a break') ahh good times! 

I studied in 2 nephi 26:22"...yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever." 

This is a great parallel to the power of the adversary and how he works. I have seen this in my life as the adversary has tried to place this little 'flaxen cords' in front of me.  I have seen how those small cords, which initially could be broken easy, turn into powerful cords capable of bearing much tension.

So lets break them strands before they turn into rope!

LOVE YA 

ELDER FINlinSON

November 3, 2014 Week 69

November!

Wow, October is gone!  

The weather here finally caught up! 

Thanks for the Halloween package!... the scone mix exploded and smelt kinda bad but that's ok, the rest of the stuff was great!  

It is awesome to hear the everyone is playing some November football that is always a good sign! Go kill those hawks this week!  

It is great that y'all live in a neighborhood that is safe enough to have trick or treating! Most of the people we have visited this past week didn't let their kids go! I guess there was one neighborhood that did it just because they are huge houses--so people drove to it and went trick or treating!... It is going to be interesting how much longer trick or treating stays around!

This week was great though we got some good work done! I like the time change but I hate it at the same time! Missionary work is hard in the dark!  I guess Texans dont really like the change either.  We had a gun pulled on us last night doing some less active hunting! fun fun its alright he was drunk;)  But we have been having a good time!  

For the past month we have been having Family Home Evenings with Sister Allen (She is a single mother of five ages 8 and younger! The youngest was born 2 weeks ago! Then 1 week ago her son broke his leg and is now rolling around in a wheelchair!) but anyways I had the opportunity to baptize/confirm 8 year old Juliana.  It was kinda weird doing it for an active family especially since the 'dad' (who is a RM, and was active a few week ago) was there.  But it was a great experience!  And another testament for me to always be loyal to your family and those you truly love!

Yesterday we had dinner at the Bishop's house! This ward is blessed with a great bishop who really cares for the people here! But during dinner their dogs escaped! Well this wouldn't be a problem if they lived in the city... but they live in the sticks! So we were all looking for them for about 30 minutes and gave up... Bishop said  that they would probably come back and luckily they did!  But it was kinda fun running around in the sticks--and cactus...I got to see the beauty of Texas (which is sparse)

Well that is about it for today! There is just too much to talk about i cant even think:)

BUENO, BUENO

LOVE YA 

ELDER FINLINSON

October 27, 2014 Week 68

"OBEY FOR RAIN"

HAPPY 49 PADRE!! 

Wow what a week! 

The trio has been made again! We got a text from President Sunday morning saying that Elder Rodriguez will be arriving in Wichita Falls around 2! It was awesome! I was able to meet Brother Lee.  But it is going to be nice to have the trio again.  It is really nice not having to worry about the 3rd male rule!  I really hope that President keeps us together at least until Christmas! 

This area has really been progressing a lot!  I was able to punch in all of the members in our area in the GPS! It took forever but it is worth it! Instead of tracting in our free time we are doing less active work (which honestly is about 4X more effective!... we have found a ton of part member families just this week!) One LA (less active) miracle we had this week was crazy! So Elder Barrett and I knocked on this less active door, no one answered. About 20 minutes later we got a call from the less active... He asked us if we had been by we told him yes.  He then shared how the night before he and his wife decided to go and watch Meet the Mormon's and felt like he needs to get back to church! We then set up an appointment for the following week to meet with him.  Well the next night we received  a call from him and he shared how he needed a blessing.  Luckily we had no set plans for the night and we were able to go and visit him.  He shared how ever since he talked to us the day before he felt lost and no focus.  He pretty much waited last minute to ask us,  But we were privileged to give him a blessing.  After we could see that he knew what he needed to do!  It is always nice to see that you were the instrument in bringing someone closer to Christ.  Most of the time it doesn't happen that way! 

So our message that we have been sharing with members this week has been awesome because it relates really well to Wichita falls!  Just to give you some background-- Everywhere in Wichita falls there are signs reading 'pray for rain'... which I think is great! BUT prayer is an act of faith. How do we increase our faith?- True to the Faith says, "We can strengthen our faith by keeping the commandments. Like all blessings from God, faith is obtained and increased through individual obedience and righteous action. If we desire to enrich our faith to the highest possible degree, we must keep the covenants we have made." ...well this is a problem when most of Wichita falls view commandments as suggestions! what is a prayer without faith? 

This made me think and led me to Leviticus 26

3 ¶If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

 4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

This is one 'if then' statement this place doesn't know... this is one 'if then' statement this world doesn't know! 

But I found it very ironic that the 1st blessing talked about is RAIN! haha It has been great sharing with everyone! 

Every member that we have shared that with has loved it! 

One family we shared it with( the 1st counselor in the bishopric) loved it so much they made there 14 year old daughter share it for mutual that night! haha it is great! So if you hear on the news an OBEY FOR RAIN campaign in Texas…THAT'S US!!! We shared it with Bishop yesterday for a dinner message and he loved it! haha...

The work is hastening here in Texas and you better believe it! Wichita Falls Ward will soon be Wichita Falls 1st and Wichita Falls 2nd!... yesterday our ward had 21 less actives at church and 5 investigators! Watch out Satan we be comin'!

LOVE YA 

ELDER FINLINSON

#obeyforrain

#wichitawork

#floodinthefalls

October 20, 2014 Week 67

Wow what a week!! 

I went to the airport! It was weird to go to that place! I had some memories of my first day in OK!! 

I thought " this is where it starts and this is where it ends!" 

But I was able to pick up Elder Barrett and it was great to see him again! 

We have had an awesome time just in these few days! 

We are going to tear it up here in the WICHITA FALLS!!

We taught about 5 lessons so far to investigators in the 6 or 7 hours we have had to go out, we have had meetings, stake conference, driving places, etc. 

We taught a lady this week, and her less active husband she is investigating, and we taught her about word of wisdom and tithing and it went well, and we asked her for a ride to stake conference an hour a way and they said yes, I guess the night before she had 3 hours of sleep and she tried to think of every excuse not to go on Sunday but she knew she was taking us so she kept her promise and took us.  The speakers there really touched her and she felt the spirit in their words.  She said after Stake Conference a lot of her concerns were gone.  So I think she is close she just has to give up coffee which she said she has given up for lent a few times, even though she doesn't follow that religion she did it any way....

This week our go to verses are in Alma 37:6-7  

6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.

 7 And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.

We have been sharing this with the members.  I think many times we try to bring to pass great things not realizing it is by the small things that we can get to those great things.  It is like trying to score a touchdown without having any plays!  I think that the Doctrine of Christ runs right along with verse 7, it is so simple, but impossible to deny!

Sorry for the short letter! But I still love ya'll

ELDER FINLINSON