February 23, 2015 Week 85

Midwest City east of the city...

HA hola hola,

Ohhh yeah some crazy stuff just went down! I am now in Midwest city or MWC! it is actually a pretty nice area though... 

We've already seen a ton of crazy things.  And no I am not in a bike area:(... we have a brand new truck, it's nice. 

It is quite a bit colder then Texas up here even though it is nothing compared to Wisconsin (we had some members move in this past week and told us what a "cheese head" winter is like...Neider* is a beast!)

It is snowing today... BUT first day-- ha 

Well my new comp is Elder Hoffman. He is from Highland, Utah. We have gotten along really well so far...so far. jk 

But my first night we went to a concert! lol what?! 

The Nashville Tribute Band** played at Rose College which is in our area and we took an investigator to it.  It was fun to be back around so many missionaries.  

We got to go backstage before and meet everyone in the band and then say a prayer with them...

It was kinda weird they had a mellowed down pre-game coaches talk. So that was sweet!  

The zone I am serving in is really young, 5 of the companionships in it are training.  

I bet all of the greenies thought they could do this missionary work after that being their first night. Ha but it was a ton of fun and our investigators that went really enjoyed it.

This area is on fire right now! We had a ton of investigators go to church! But this area of course has its problems... LAS (Less Actives) are still here galore.  

I have a already punched in all of the members of the ward into the GPS (Bishop Perez in Wichita Falls bought one for my last area he loved it so much!***) and have started taking people off of the roster. 

It is a great way to not only clean up the roster and rescue less actives but it is a great way to find new investigators/If some one doesn't answer we ask all of the neighbors around to see if they know anything about the member.  We usually get quite a bit of info on the member and also get a potential investigator.. sometimes.  We of course had some wonderful old lady from Southern Baptist Church give us her thoughts but that doesn't matter!

In my studies this week I came across Alma 1:26 

"And when the priests left their labor to impart the word of God unto the people, the people also left their labors to hear the word of God. And when the priest had imparted unto them the word of God they all returned again diligently unto their labors; and the priest, not esteeming himself above his hearers, for the preacher was no better than the hearer, neither was the teacher any better than the learner; and thus they were all equal, and they did all labor, every man according to his strength."

This has been a principle that I have really tried to apply in my teaching situations this week.  It has been great to see those that we teach react when we thank them for teaching us something! 

I think it is so great because this scripture cuts pride in half! BOOM so lets all learn from everyone! Teacher or Learner.  We are all learners of one Teacher.

LOVE Y'ALL

ELDER FINLINSON

*Elder Finlinson's good friend Ethan Neiderhauser recently returned from serving a mission in Wisconsin

**LDS Band

***Asked Elder Finlinson if he left his navigator in Wichita Falls

February 17, 2015 Week 84

Adios Texas

I am getting transferred tomorrow to Midwest city OK... it is just east of OKC. I am excited to go.. sorry today is a very busy day so this is going to be very short..

Highlight of the week--- we went to Purcell to see the baptism of a Hoffman boy! 

It was great to see him make the choice to follow Christ. He is Joel's age.

I also got to see that great ward up there!  O yeah and Ron Fishburn! 

Good stuff y'all thanks for all of the prayers and support! 

Love ya 

Elder Finlinson

  

  

Elder Finlinson, Elder Meservy, Elder Taggart

  

  

Elder Finlinson's new area, Midwest City, OK

© Adam Knapp, Licensed to About.com, Inc.

About Midwest City:

Founded in 1942 by Oklahoma builder and businessman W.P. Atkinson, Midwest City is known by many around the state of Oklahoma as the home of Tinker Air Force Base. In fact, its name comes from "Midwest Air Depot," the original name for Tinker. Many of those affiliated with Tinker live in Midwest City, but it also has a number of commercial areas as well as Rose State College.

Located in the east/southeast part of the Oklahoma City metro, Midwest City spreads about 25 square miles and includes many housing areas, its own city government separate of Oklahoma City and a school district in conjunction with nearby Del City.

Demographics:Midwest City spans the area north of Tinker Air Force Base in east/southeast Oklahoma City. It covers the 25 square miles north as far as NE 36th Street, west to Sooner Road and east beyond Anderson Road. Major north/south roads include Sooner, Air Depot Blvd., Midwest Blvd. and Douglas Blvd. Reno Avenue runs east/west through the middle.

The population of Midwest City is approximately 55,000, placing it as one of the 10 largest cities in the state. Median household income as of 2005 was $37,200, slightly higher than the state average, and the median home value is $83,300, about $6,000 less than the state average.

February 9, 2015 Week 83

Well another p-day...

We have had a great week this week! loooots of good stuff! 

To start it is in the 80's so that is nice... We didn't even have a winter we had a couple of cold days but nothing worthy to be called winter.  

I guess it has kinda been the same in the great SLC! --- that better change next year! 

This was great... 

We had President speak in our ward yesterday! BOOM drop the mic! 

President shared his vision for the Wichita Falls area. 

He asked, "Why cant we had a WF 1 and second ward... Why cant we had a WF stake?..." in sacrament meeting! 

I think it got everyone excited! 

Yesterday our district had 29 LAS at church it was amazing!  

Elder Rodriguez and I were asked to teach the 17-18 year old youth class. 

We asked President come for the last 10 minutes but he ended staying the whole time! Luckily we were fairly prepared.  

But we had a pretty big youth group. We had 14 youth there and they didn’t say anything... I guess I can't complain I did the same. 

But we had a meeting with Our ward mission, Bishop and Pres and Sister Walkenhorst.  

Bishop presented a WMP(por fin) and had me and Elder Rodriguez explain how we were working with LA's and the process that we were doing to clear them off.  

We also talked about mini missions for the youth.  We have one set up this week for Friday, Sat and Sunday... it should be fun! 

I have been really enjoying reading in The Book of Mormon! I was kinda rebuked this week in not using it enough in our teaching.  

But I have had a strong testimony change with The Book of Mormon this week. 

It truly is the thing that will root Any investigator-member less active in the gospel, just because it is either true or not and good ol' Bruce (Bruce R. McConkie) says, 

https://www.lds.org/ensign/1983/11/what-think-ye-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng

"Either the Book of Mormon is true, or it is false; either it came from God, or it was spawned in the infernal realms. It declares plainly that all men must accept it as pure scripture or they will lose their souls. It is not and cannot be simply another treatise on religion; it either came from heaven or from hell. And it is time for all those who seek salvation to find out for themselves whether it is of the Lord or of Lucifer."

I love that last line, "it is time for all those who seek salvation to find out for themselves whether it is of the Lord or of Lucifer"... whether they have been a member for 40 years or a few days it is time to Know. 

Why? Because you can throw every Church historical concern in the trash if you know the BoM is true.!! So let's use it! 

BRO B came to church with his wife... first time in 5 years! also gave him a blessing right before.

Well love y'all have a good one,

ELDER FINLINSON 

February 2, 2015, Week 82

Howdy Y'all,

This week has been great, it is crazy how fast time is flying by.  

This week we had district meeting on Accountability. 

I looked up the definition of accountable and it is -- required to explain actions and decisions to someone.  

This really made me ponder about us being accountable to our Heavenly Father, while yes we are accountable to our comps, bishops etc. 

I feel when we are truly accountable to the Lord we'll be fully accountable to our fellowman. 

To make myself more accountable to the Lord I am making a goal to say my night prayer right after nightly planing.  

I usually wait until 10:30 to say my prayers and I feel they aren't as meaningful when the temptation to go to bed is so strong!  

In my studies of being accountable I really thought about what we are accountable for in this life.  

Just by being born into this world we are going to be held accountable to the Lord in the final judgement.  

This isn't something that we were forced to do but rather it was our choice.  

But we know that our Heavenly Father will hold us accountable to promises that we make with him....baptism, priesthood, temple, mission, callings. .  

I feel that I just realized what I have done haha and there is no going back, the contract has been signed for life. 

It kinda made me think for a moment...

Why would I hold myself so accountable to the Lord? 

Well I think for me it is the fact the this is the only way that we can return to our Heavenly Father and be with our family forever. 

I then asked myself what wouldn't I do for that? and I couldn't think of anything.  

As Elder Holland described it as 

The Bitter Cup and

the Bloody Baptism

 

"The war is on, and we have conspicuously enlisted. And certainly it is a war worth waging. But we are foolish, fatally foolish, if we believe it will be a casual or convenient thing. We are foolish if we think it will demand nothing of us. Indeed, as the chief figure, the great commander in this struggle, Christ has warned us about treating the new testament of his body and his blood trivially. We are told emphatically not to pilfer and profane, prevaricate and fornicate, satiate ourselves in every indulgence or violation that strikes our fancy and then suppose that we are still “pretty darn good soldiers.” No, not in this army, not in defending the kingdom of God."

This talk is great Y'all should read the whole thing. link: http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=863

Sorry I need to bounce.. the area is great.  

President is speaking in our ward next week!!

Love Y'all

ELDER FINLINSON

  

  

  

  

January 26, 2015 Week 81

hijole que paso?‏

Well this week has gone by very fast.  It is starting to freak me out a little. 

This week has been great though.  I am tell'n ya the weather here is nice. 

This has been the mildest January of my life. 

I am honored to be in the furthest south part of the mission, missionary and frio = no bueno. 

This area is exploding.  

As we have started our big search of the 295 households in our area alone, we have seen so many miracles.  

It seems as we have turned to the will of the Bishop we have seen so much success

and not just that, it has been effective success.  

Just in this past week we have found 5 new part member families that no one in the ward has heard about (4 of which the Bishop told us to knock...he didn't know them).  It has been crazy.  

One of our recently returning members is on fire.  He shared with us yesterday that we need to get his wife baptized before we leave.  This was definitely not his mindset a month ago.  He asked us if he could go out with us teaching....

ummm YES you can!  That kinda rebuked us.  He shared his vision to go to the temple this year.  

It is amazing to see the surge that comes from a member returning to activity, it really is the same as a recent convert! 

One PMF that we found this week was super prepared. 

Bro B lived in SLC his whole life but never was a mormon. But his first wife that he married was and she got him into the church.  Unfortunately his first marriage ended in a divorce and he moved to WHYoming(haha Larry). 

Well he found his second wife there and she wasn't a member but she also grew up in Salt Lake City. 

Well they eventually made it to Wichita Falls where they have almost completely avoided contact with the church, living in an over 55 residency.  

Well they were found on Saturday night and it was thanks to Bishop (he told us to go see who they were.) 

Of course they were on the ward roster but no one knows anyone on it.  

Well they are sweet! 

They love skiing and their daughter is a professional snowboarder and competes against Olympians! 

So after getting really trunky by talking about back-country skiing and Utah we able to get their story. 

I guess Bro B hadn't read the scriptures for 5 years but for some reason he decided to read them that morning...then guess who showed up that night!! THEM GOOD OL MISSIONARIES!! It is amazing how that works... 

Then you can pretty much X3 this story for this week. #effectivefinding

Tip of the week--follow the council of those that have keys over you, you will see many doors open because of it...

pun not intended.

love y'all 

Thanks for all you do!
ELDER FINLINSON

January 19, 2015

Janu-ary

Hola Family,

That is some very sad news about Matt Carlson... I had a dream of him this past week.  

I was home giving my homecoming talk and I gave Matt Carlson a shout out- ha it was kinda weird.  

I am sure he is having a blast in the spirit world! I am sure he has found something to make fun of there! 

I still can remember going up to snowbird with him and he would always bring chocolate milk and Twinkies. 

Tell the Carlson family that they are in my thoughts and prayers!

 

This week was very fast! 

It was amazing I believe it was the temple that made it go by so quick.  I had an awesome time going to the temple.  

After going to the temple I have an even greater urgency to help all of our recent converts and less active get to the temple.  

I like a quote from Elder Nelson in which he said, 

" enduring to the end includes the ENDowment".   

We have done great this week with building trust with our bishop.  We ate with him 4 times last week and we were able to do service with him twice.  

In return he went out with us teaching and has given us a huge list of individuals to see.  

It is amazing how effective less active work is, especially when the bishop is on your side giving you names that he has prayed about.  

Each family that bishop told us to go visit is a pmf! (part member family)  

The ward was the fullest I have seen it in awhile this past Sunday.  

We had a few past less actives turn to the active side this past week. 

This week in my studies I read all of the mini books in The Book of Mormon and started Mosiah...   

I love king Benjamin It is amazing how bold he is in his teachings.  That is something that both elder Rodriguez and i have seen as we have gotten older in the mission is that we are both getting very bold. 

One verse that I liked from the first chapter is verse 17 

"Therefore, as they were unfaithful they did not prosper nor progress in their journey, but were driven back, and incurred the displeasure of God upon them; and therefore they were smitten with famine and sore afflictions, to stir them up in remembrance of their duty."

It helped me ponder my duty as a missionary, son of god, priesthood holder etc.  I think I show my unfaithfulness daily in one of these 'duty's'... but the lord never fails handing out a rebuke! 

Whether it is just the feeling of no progress or a sore affliction they both do the job in helping me remember my duty and put me back on the path of a more complete faithfulness.  

Love y'all

ELDER FINLINSON