March 30, 2015 Week 90

EASTER WEEK

Wow it's crazy it is Easter time... 

I am happy to hear the "Because He Lives" initiative is spreading!  http://www.mormon.org/easter

Last Monday we destroyed the other zone in UF (ultimate frisbee)... 

then after that we gave a training on the "Because He Lives" initiative for the zone... 

we got the video before it was released. Everyone got pretty excited for it!

Yes the 12 week program is about to start for me.  It is crazy how fast the time has gone.  

Me and Elder Hoffman are staying around so it is going to be sweet!

Sorry this is short! But the work is hastening like crazy here. 

We had a meeting with Bishop on Sunday and President Walkenhorst is gong to speak at our ward on the 19th we have 5 baptisms set for the 25th and some more on the way!

HAPPY EASTER!

ELDER FINLINSON

March 23, 2015 Week 89

I guess 93 days to go...thanks mom‏

Well thanks for letting me know all of the trunky business! ehhh oh well I guess it happen eventually.. 

This is going to be pretty brief.  

Our zone challenged the OKC south zone to some Ultimate Frisbee today and there has been a lot of trash talking going around.  

But this week has been awesome we have seen a ton of miracles here, and the weather has been great!

One cool story for the week! So I got a call and got the news that Demitri Hoffman was going to be baptized! 

If you don't remember the Hoffman's are some recent converts of about 9 months ago.. 

the parents got baptized with Elder Taggart and I and then 2 other kids have been baptized the past 2 months.  

It was so great to see him finally make the decision to be baptized.  

When we taught the parents the kids listened but didn't really want to be baptized.  

I am sure that the example of the parents played a huge role in them getting baptized.  

Now 2 out of their 3 kids have been baptized Marshal (12) and Demetri (18).  

Avery (15) would be known as the more rebellious one. 

After the baptismal ordinance I was able to talk to Avery the whole time they were changing  and get a one-on-one and catch up on his life. 

I asked him when he was going to be baptized and he said that he really wanted to but he feels like he is going to mess up right after he gets baptized! 

It was really cool, I was able to testify to him about the doctrine of Christ.  

I invited him to pray about it that night and he said that he would. I then told him that he was going to be a great missionary haha (got to find your replacements)

Midwest City is doing great. It has completely blown up! both our companionship and the other companionship. 

I know it is because we are following the vision of the bishop combined with the vision of our mission president. 

As I prepare for general conference I am going to make myself vulnerable to the vision of the prophets and then apply their counsel. 

In short follow the counsel of your leaders and you'll find yourself following Christ. Because Christ put those leaders there.

Love y'all

ELDER FINLINSON 

Hoffman Family

  

  

March 16, 2015 Week 88

Mid West City (MWC) aka MagnifyWithChrist

This past Monday we were able to have a great zone p-day and training after. It was great! 

IT ran really smoothly and the spirit was definitely there.   

The theme of it and really our zone motto is MAGNIFY WITH CHRIST or MWC;). 

We talked a lot about the expectations that we agreed to in being baptized and in being a missionary of Christ's church. 

We then went over Disobedience Vs. Obedience and what both look like. 

On the disobedience side we start with a complacent/prideful attitude toward the law/commandment which then can lead to... 

1.  Questioning 

2.  Rationalizing 

3.  Slothfulness which then leads to disobedience. 

On the obedience side we start with an ambition we looked it up in the dictionary and it is the desire to succeed)/humble attitude which then leads to... 

1. Testifying 

2. Defending 

3. Diligence which then leads to the obedience that we are all looking for.

It made me think of the different levels of obedience that I am living. It is amazing how obedience starts with a humble ambition to obey that commandment. I think when I find my self most vulnerable is when I am just on the ambition part or when I don't defend it, testify of it, or am not diligent at keeping it. This better helps me understand Pres. Monson's quote 

“Regarding one’s testimony, remember, that which one willingly shares he keeps, while that which he selfishly keeps he loses."

Cool story of the week!

One of our investigators BIG CLIFF told us all about his hair. Just some background on CLIFF he is from Guam and is living with his sister who is active. But cliff is big and not fat big but ripped big! But he has this sweet hair style it is like a Samari where he only grows out the hair (ok you know the Jewish hats... he grows his hair out where the hat would cover, then shaves the rest).  It is super long and it is usually in a bun BUT this Sunday at church he had it down and I asked him why.  He then went on to explain that in his culture it is very disrespectful for a man to touch another man's hair.  He then went on to say that since his hair was down he trusted everyone more and felt more comfortable!!!! Yeah! I guess only women can touch your hair and even in battle the one that killed you gets your head, But you are expected to give the scalp to the mother of the one that was killed out of respect... ha sooo Big Cliff is legit.

The area is doing great. With every member we visit this week we have 2 commitments.
1)  Could we teach one of the lessons in your home?

2)  Could you go out teaching with us?

--We are convinced that this will be the most effective way to fulfill bishops vision of "increasing spirituality" with the members. 

At the same time we'll of course be applying the principles of finding!

Love Y'all

ELDER FINLINSON

March 9, 2015 Week 87

Wow... what a week!

The weather is starting to warm up (kinda).  Seen a ton success this week.  

The coolest thing that happened this week was that we were able to meet with our WML (ward mission leader) and Bishop yesterday and establish a vision. 

It took some prying to get him to share it but the question "what do you think is holding back this ward the most?" was able to uncover it clearly. 

Bishop shared how the biggest thing that is holding back the ward is the member's spirituality. 

He shared how members even if they are 'active' they really aren't. 

Bishop is going to be coming up with a ward mission plan this week and presenting it to ward council on Sunday. 

Elder Hoffman and I after the meeting now feel like we have a strong focus in what needs to happen in this part of the vineyard. 

Bishop said that in all his time as Bishop he never had a missionary ask "how can we help"!!!?  

But bishop now knows that we are here to help him fulfill his vision in bringing to pass the work of salvation. This area has soooo much potential.

One thing that I have really learned this week is how to find. The first thing that we think of in missionary work and finding is tracting.... 

I have know idea why because you have to go 12 pages into the finding section of PMG until you find it! Even then it only gets one bullet point!  

This week we went through the principles of finding found in the finding section of preach my gospel... 

That has been awesome for me because if we want to teach by the spirit we follow Preach my Gospel, if we want to find by the spirit we use Preach my Gospel. 

It's funny how that works out.

Principles

Developing the Faith to Find

Talk with Everyone

Teach When You Find, Find When You Teach

Addressing the Importance of the Family

Go About Doing Good

--these should be applied 24/7

The first way of finding is believe it or not through members! 

"Work with members of the Church to find people to teach. The ideal situation is when members invite others to be taught and are present for the teaching. When members do this, more people are baptized and remain active in the Church. Association with members is important because it softens people’s hearts and often leads them to investigate the restored gospel. This often means that they are brought into the circle of friends of Church members, including active and less-active members, recent converts, and part-member families."

---the work of salvation = finding through members

so I am not even gong to read what I just wrote but maybe it will entertain you for a minute if not I'm sorry

Love Y'all

ELDER FINLINSON

March 2, 2015 Week 87

WINTER IN THE MWC

Hola Family!

What a great week! 

It feels like winter finally came this week--I guess its about time. 

It was a little colder and disappointing that we couldn't have church (it got cancelled because of ice...kinda pathetic if you ask me) but it was a good week nonetheless. 

Elder Hoffman and I are seeing many miracles here in Midwest city. 

I believe we both had some of our most spiritual days of our missions the other day. 

We were meeting with an investigating family, the Websters. Our bishop and his daughter were with us for the meeting.

We helped them with some questions that they had (their first time going to church was our ward conference). 

Bro. Webster, who currently attends life church.tv with his family, addressed how he felt that there were good churches better churches and best churches. 

HE shared how it was easy for him to see that there was a different level of commitment in our church and he shared how he is 'on the path to find the truth'. 

Well we don't let investigators say "on the path" and not direct them to 2 Nephi 31! We read the whole chapter with them and committed them to be baptized on the 28th of march. 

You could see that they were all ready but wanted a confirmation through prayer. 

So this Thursday (we have dinner with them!!) we are going to follow up and see what they have come up with! So, the area is doing great!

Also David and Amber - another awesome family.  They are crazy they have such strong testimonies in the gospel! 

Let's just say that David has used about every drug out there and stopped using all of them for good last week and are planning on being baptized on the 28th of March!

I was able to use some of my Spanish.  I went on an exchange in a Spanish area! It is amazing how the gift of tongues is still working! 

I even understood a member who got pretty deep in the doctrine referencing one of Hugh B Nibley's books, "Theories of Kolob"! haha that was great and it made me think of all of the fun that I had in those Spanish branches.

Well I hope y'all had and have a great week!

Love ya,

E.FINLINSON

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

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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.