January 27, 2014 Week 29

pues another week gone.  I wonder when I am going to stop saying that? probably never because it is going so fast. 

We didn't have the baptism last week because of stake conference!  It was kind of annoying but it is going to happen this week!!  

I love this area the members are great!!  Last week we had a dinner with one of our families and we were just waiting in the living room and we all decided to sit on the sofa well lets just say that the sofa ended up on the ground with one of the legs broken off.  Well the embarrassing thing of this was that it was before dinner.  So all during dinner the wife was trying to find the papers so that they could take it back.  We all felt very terrible and very fat even though we have all lost weight!!!  Oh well I guess those type of things happen to missionaries.  I just like to think that we are taking the hit for someone else. 

We had exchanges this week and Elder Cluff came over to my area.  We had a good time.  We tried going into these drains because it was faster. The only problem was that it was about 50% ice.  This made it scary.  Elder Cluff made a fast turn and took a pretty good fall!  But we finally made it to our appointment with a less active and it went really well!  

So some good drama that has happened this week.  One of the members in our branch brought a friend to church.  Well she said that she lived on Meridian and 10th so that could either be in our area or the sisters.  Well for the first lesson both us and the sisters went over and taught her at the members house.  And -- from what me and Elder Guzman taught--- is that we would find out where she lives and if she lives in the area of the hermanas she is going to get taught by them if she is in our area she is going to be taught by us... Well she lives in our area.... just the Sisters didn't like that fact... and we will keep it to that.  But we set a baptism date with her for the 5th of February.  And she has the desire to be baptized!  It is amazing!  From this event I learned 2 things.

1.  Over the past weeks our most successful investigators are those who were shown the church from a friend.  And the friend has gone out of there way to invite them to go to church/talk about the gospel! Members find....and then help teach with the missionaries!  This is the way we will see the most success in missionary work!!

2.  Some missionaries are really concerned about the numbers and it makes me sick!!! seriously!! I read this week in Alma in 60:36,"Behold, I am Moroni... I seek not for power, but to pull it down. I seek not for honor of the world, but for the glory of my God." This struck me that we are in the service of our God right now and we are trying to make him and his Gospel known in this world. Some missionaries get to see baptisms, some don't.  Some get to see a lot of growth in where they served, some don't.  What is the same is that we a serving God and making him known to the world!  What is the purpose for a full time missionary...

"1Invite others to come unto Christ by 2Helping them receive the restored gospel through 3Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, 4Repentance,5Baptism, receiving the gift of the 6Holy Ghost, and 7Enduring to the end--PMG 1.  We may see a lot of 1's on our missions and not see a lot of 5's.  But all of these things are a service to our God.

I don't know, I went a little crazy but I am sick of the confusion of the purposes of missions.  So yes Mom I have to take back some things I said about your mission!  What is important is to be like the 2000 stripling warriors in their obedience to their God.  In Alma 57:21, "Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them;"  We have our commandments--full time missionaries have a few more! But yeah that is what my brain went through this week haha.  hope that you all have a great week. much love from the OKC

ELDER FIN

--i didn't have time to read through this so yeah..good luck

 Ethan said he bought a buzzer to cut his own hair so he could save money on hair cuts...he said he did a terrible job but worth it for free...

January 20, 2014 Week 28

Holy smokes this week went by super fast!! Mission time is so fast!!! It is crazy to think that I have already spent a quarter of my mission in the same area!!  haha that is ok because I love this area and this branch.  But I think that I am probably leaving after this transfer.  We had some miracles this week that were super cool.  So last Friday we had our district meeting.  Well we also had an appointment with Gilberto at the same time!!  We probally had one of the most insightful district meetings on my mission, we talked about baptism and how we don't give it the respect that we should when we are teaching!  Well usually after district meetings we have these things called "real plays" it is when we practice teaching for one of our investigators.  Well we were going to have a real "real play" haha because we were going to go teach Gilberto.  Well we left to go teach Gilberto, and Elder Guzman and I both had the impression that we are going to set a baptism date!! for the next sat!!   We we got in and had one of the weirdest lessons on my mission!!  There really wasn't a lot of structure but it was very spiritual!!  We were just kind of reading when JesuCristo visited the Americas! It was so cool the first chapter has everything!!  We read it all, asked him to visualize it and then we talked about baptism.  We then asked him if he would be baptized, he said, yes!  We then asked him if he would be baptized in a week he said, Yes....  I MEAN WHY NOT!!!!!  It was a milargo!!! (miracle)  On Sunday when Gilberto came to church we had an awesome sacrament talk on tithing and after church he asked us how he can pay his tithing!!!!!!  hahaha he is awesome! 

This Sunday we taught the primary.  It is really hard talking to little kids in Spanish, I don't know it is just weird.  The Ibarras weren't able to go to church this week so that was kinda sad (new investigators).   For p day we first played tennis and me and Elder Guzman beat the elders so we got free McDonalds!  We then went to the zoo!  it was pretty good except that we are missionary's so everyone was asking questions and we ran into a billion members!!  some times we just need a break and watch some animals!! haha but after that we had some dinner and we then went to the hospital to see one of the members who has cancer and is going through chemo right now.  It was very sad you could see the difference in her health in one week.  She is super nice and her faith is so strong!!  We also had a very sad experience there..  there was this lady who is a member that wanted us to give her husband who is predicted to die this week a blessing and to heal him....we had to explain that while yes it is possible for these miracles to happen,  it has to come from God,  we were about to give him a blessing and then a doctor came in and said that we had to leave.  We tried to go in at 9:25 but there wasn't an answer....  so we left.  It was hard leaving, but we had to.  Then we pulled into our apartment and our dumpster was on fire so that was kinda cool haha we then watched the firefighters put it out... got to love missionary entertainment!!  But yeah that is what happened this week!!!!   Hope that you all have a good week.

ELDeR FINLINSON

Elder Fin went to the OKC on P-day yesterday, we received his email today since the library was closed yesterday. 

Cute little gorilla and baby!

January 13, 2014 Week 27

Holy smokes what is happening.  I leave and then my sister is married (Bethany is engaged, sealing set for June 12)--which is a win for me!!-- I think it was a new pair of skis or a car .... I can't remember (Bethany and Ethan had a bet before Ethan left...looks like Ethan will win the bet, I'm sure Ethan will require Chase to pay up July 2015).  But that is crazy.!!!  Unfortunately I was not prepared for this event in my personal studies in the morning!! But I guess I will have to study more on that one..  It was kinda weird.  

This week was awesome!!  Yesterday at church was  a miracle we had 7 investigators at church it was soo amazing!!!  We had the Ibarra family come to church!!  Unfortunately they were only able to go to the last hour but it was amazing.  After Sunday school we called them to ask if they were still coming.  They answered and said that they were in the parking lot.  Well they were not  there, Hermano said isn't it called the The Church of The Savior..... hahaha they were next door.  We were able to direct them to the one and only true church after that!!  It was funny they rolled up in their white minivan.  They they just piled out of the car, 7 of them it was awesome!!  They were able to make a lot of friends from the members of the ward.  When we finished Hermano said that he loved it. The 2 daughters said that they loved it and that they are going to go ice skating with the young women!!  I realized how really our part is to introduce them to the branch or members.  This little branch looked a little bit fuller this week. 

Oh yeah I also had to translate for the sacrament meeting this week.  It was super hard, it was a high counsel man that hadn't spoken Spanish for a long time so it was really broken-like mine-  but it was really hard to translate and he was quoting a ton of scriptures which is a whole other language!!  But it was fun.  It is cool to see how my Spanish has grown thanks to the gift of lenguas of course!!  and having a comp that doesn't speak much English helps too!!  

We had interviews with President this week and he said that I have been here for awhile... and I was just like haha yeah.  He said that that will probably change soon.  I told him just to keep me in spanish!!  We also went to the food bank this week and it was a good branch building experience!!  I think that we set a record, we were aso able to get a ride from one of our investigators and he loved it too.  

Well sounds like this week was a pretty big change but best of luck with everything!!

much love elder finn

January 6, 2014 Week 26

Bueno

Well all of the holidays are done---yeah.  

And this week I hit the 6 month mark, it is crazy how fast it is all going!!!  time flies when you are having fun!--so I don't know why time is flying!!   haha just kidding it Is a ton of fun.  But it sure isn't easy.  

This week was really good.  I finally saw an investigator at church it was a milargo!!  His name is Ebuerto-- yeah kinda weird but he is visiting with the gomez family who live in our area.  We went over to their house for a lunch and we didn't know that he was going to be there.  But when we got there hermana said that they had someone visiting with them.  Well it turns out that he is amazing, he is solid at church, he was participating in the lessons and wants to go do service at the food bank this week!! It was an answer to the prayers!!  

We also had the opportunity to go to the temple this week!! It was kinda unexpected but the sisters needed someone to do the baptisms for Jenny because she was going to the temple for the first time- doing baptisms for the dead.  Well it turns out that missionaries can't do baptisms for the dead??? at least for the opposite sex... I don't know I guess there is a reason for everything.  So we just watched and a temple worker did it...  it was a very good gringo accent!!... But it was still cool to see and the spirit of the temple is always nice!! After that the president of the temple talked to us for a while and told us about the symbolism of the temple in Oklahoma, it is about Jacob's ladder and then there is a square and then a circle inside...  he said that the square represents the earth and the circle represents heaven and the temple is were heaven and earth meet.  It was very cool to see this.  see the pictures

That night after the temple we went to go talk to Hermano Garcia who has told us that he has no desire to go to the temple...  well after we talked to him we got him to commit to praying for a desire to go to the temple, because it, well it is a commandment.... we got him on that one.  We both don't know why he is so stiff in not gong to the temple.  Oh well we will get him there pretty soon!!! 

Elder Guzman showed me some of his bmx stuff now I can do some tricks.  Church was very cool this week, luckily we had it... it snowed right before...  but we were able to get 2 references and everyone was in a really good mood.  I am ready to get some work done here and get some people wet!!!!  Well have a good week!!  I'll see you in a couple hundred days.

Happy New Year, Week 25

Well one christmas down one more to go "hearin" Oklahoma!!!  

It was awesome to hear from all of you this week expecially my brothers!!  boy voices change!! hahah 

Thanks for all of the presents!  especially for my comp!  

We became pretty good friends during the week and now we are going to go work and teach!  

Probally the most interesting thing that happened this week was well, first I was able to baptize Josep Lopez--he is the son of Jenny Lopez (the one that I baptized 2 weeks ago.  It a very cool experience!!!  

Well earlier that day me and elder guzman were out working and we were just locking up our bikes and then this guy with long flowing hair and some crazy modified bike... it was like a chopper motorcycle but you peddle it.  

We talked to him for a while and he was super nice and he asked if our church ever had dinners and we were like yeah we have one tonight!  He was like ok sounds good.   Well we just finished praying at the fiesta and they walk in.  ME and Elder Guzman were just like oooooooo noooooooo hahaha they actually came.   We then talked to them for a really long time.   Well the night continued on, we talked more and more then... he asked the classic baptist question why do you have the title ELDER?? YOU HAVE NO AUTHORITY TO WEAR THAT TITLE/ YOU HAVE TO HAVE A WIFE TO BE AN ELDER!  Well we exchanged back and forth for a while and then we figured it best if we got this guy out of the fiesta haha it was funny but you will have to hear the whole story when I get home because the morning after I talked in the recorder for 15 minutes, so it was pretty good haha well there wasn't a lot that happened this week that I didn't talk about on the phone.

But I hope that you all have a very good new year!!

-elder finlinson