October 13, 2014 Week 66

Bueno Bueno

Wow what a week!!! 

So I will just get straight to the crazy news! 

So on Saturday we were having our comp study and President called and said that he was on his way to Wichita Falls to drop off Elder Rodriguez's stuff! 

1. clean the apartment 

2. what is happening!!!!? 

So we cleaned the apartment super quick and President came and gave us some early transfer doctrine! 

Both Elder Karr and Elder Palmer are leaving and in their place Elder BARRETT and Elder RODRIGUEZ, they are going to be my new comps! haha... if you remember Elder Barret was my mtc comp! and Elder Rodriguez is an awesome elder! The crazy thing is that on my first day of the mission field Elder Rodriguez took Elder Barrett and I tracting for the first time! WE joked about being companions together!...well it must have been a prophecy!!!  It is going to be Elder Barrett and me for the first 2 weeks.  Then Elder Rodriguez is going to come... he has to get his visa figured out!

IT is going to be pretty crazy! we have a huge area (more then half of Wichita Falls!) I am still trying to figure out how to get around!  But I guess we will just have to find new people to teach if we can't find the old ones! Thats alright this area could use a deep clean!

This past week was great!  The weather finally took a dip and we are enjoying some fall weather! This past week I had the opportunity to give 2 baptismal interviews! They were very different! One was a 9 year old  and the other was a 70 year old! ha They were both interesting... some highlights-- the 9 year old remembering what the law of Chastity was... haha and then the 70 year old was a black Vietnam vet! He wanted to share all of his stories and I really would have wanted to hear all of them if it wasn't 8:45 at night! It is awesome to hear the conversion of others no matter what the age is!! SO share your story! 

Sorry for the short letter! It will be longer next week!! 

LOVE YA

ELDER FINLINSON

October 6, 2014 Week 65

"great, now my hand smells like weed"‏

 Wow what a week! Way to go my Utes! yes! Everyone here was sad because BYU lost to Utah State! But of course they wouldn't say anything about the Utes beating UCLA! There isn't one University of Utah fan in my district or ward! Oh well I am used to it! Ehh it is nice to hear that this will be my last football season that I have to endure through! We tracted around yesterday and Everyone was watching football! Saturday night we went to Texas road house (in texas) and everyone was watching football!!!  

That is awesome that Eli and Joel are both playing good! I knew that that would happen for Eli!  There is always someone who gets hurt in the middle of the season.

Wichita Falls had their high school rivalry game on friday... everyone was dressed up and ready to play.

This week was pretty different.  On Thursday we were able to watch Meet the Mormons! President received a screening copy and we were able to see it! It was weird sitting down and watching  a movie! It was a good film...though it made me a little trunky with the football and skiing scenes! Ehh and not just any skiing... Little Cottonwood Canyon skiing!! hijole! But i think that it was a great way to explain a little about what those weird mormons actually believe!

We were also able to do a good amount of service this week! The first opportunity we had was with this German less active--she is crazy her name is Silka.  She lives in Iowa park which is about a 15 mile drive from our place.  She needed help cutting down sunflowers... lets just call them sun trees! Well she didn't have any tools to cut them down except a weed whacker, a shovel and a weird hoe thing! Well a weed whacker doesn't do much when the stems are as thick as a half dollar and we broke the hoe thing 10 minutes in!  So we had a shovel... well we ended up going and asking one of here neighbors if they had anything.  He let us use his push weed whacker... nope didn't do anything! So we got a machete from him and some clippers and went to town!...then we got eaten alive by chiggers!

So you might be wondering why the subject is "great, now my hand smells like weed" haha well we tracted into a guy yesterday who was 'sky high' haha he of course was really interested to visit with us, but didn't have time...but we shook his hand and after that Elder Karr said "great, now my hand smells like weed"! it was great! luckily that was the last house we knocked so no one had any ideas! 

Of course general conference was great! some quotes that I liked!

"A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder"--Thomas S Monson

I think this was my favorite because it related really well with missionary work! 

A missionary without(or who doest know his) purpose is like a ship without a rudder! 

"as we seek heavenly help our rudder shall not be jammed!"--Thomas S Monson

Well I hope y'all received some great revelation at conference!

ELDER FINLINSON

 Elder Karr

 Mike member we visit that had a Stroke

September 29, 2014 Week 64

Uhhh man I am really jealous of the weather y'all are having right now!  It seems like it should be in the 70's in the morning but then we go outside and it is 90!  I am trunky for some Fall weather! It is coming but not fast enough! We call this number on the phone 'tell me' and that is how we get the weather! Well this week I just had to see what the weather was like back in the Ole Sandy... 60's and 70's...lucky! I also saw that it was raining almost every day! Share the love!

We had a sweet lesson this week! It was with Bro Craig(he has been investigating the church for a long time, but hasn't been progressing!--imagine a 60 year old white Indian Thor) We had a church tour with him and it was crazy! This was actually my first church tour of the mission that has worked! It started pretty normal. we took him around the whole church and ended with the chapel...  before we went into the chapel we told him of the sacred nature of the chapel and what goes on in there!  Right when we went into the chapel it was a game changer! The spirit just whacked us all in the face! We went into the front and sat on the front benches.  This is when it gets crazy... we asked him if he had thought about being baptized.  He told us he thinks about it every day! We asked him if he was ready...there was  a very long pause and he told us about how he needs to do some things before he will be ready to be baptized.  He talked about how he can't forgive himself for some things that he had done in the past! 

Brother Craig was feeling true Godly sorrow! It came to the point where we all felt that we were just distracting him and hindering him from feeling the spirit.  We told him that we would leave him in the chapel to ponder and pray! That was the first time in my mission that the spirit told me to leave an investigator in a middle of a lesson! It was crazy! so we left him in the chapel and went to the foyer... those were probably the longest 5 minutes of my life! HE came out, he talked a little bit and we left with a prayer!  I don't know what he felt, but I do know that he felt the spirit!  Church tours are the best! We don't have to invite the spirit into a church.  It is already there! BOOOM  

1 hour latter...

We were bashing with a recent convert who said that he isn't coming back to church!...RETENTION!!! ehhhhh it is so annoying! i guess that is what happens when people get baptized for the wrong reasons!  We were talking to him at golden corral for 2 hours... at least we were at golden corral haha. some people have the weirdest beliefs! The trinity, faith without works and the rapture! it is all crap... the great apostasy is testified to me everyday serving here in the south!

WELLL have to run have a great week!

love ya

--ELDER FINLINSON

September 21, 2014 Week 63

Well what a week! That is awesome that everyone is doing great! I am really getting trunky for those pizzas they sound really good!  Bethany you are crazy...(Bethany and Chase went skydiving) 

Man Texas is great! at least for the missionary work.  We had a good week this week!  Somehow the trio is still in tact!  It is annoying we get called a threesome all of the time! IT IS A TRIO!  ehh we had a good week though! 

So last Monday night we started it off right having 2 lessons at the church!  One was with this college student that we met the week before at MSU(we email there) he stopped us and said that he went on a 'mission to salt lake city'... what really happened is that he went on one of those save the Mormon campaigns by the baptist church haha! but we made an appointment to visit with him! so we had our lesson in the chapel, Bro Johnson was there with us he is a young married adult.  Well luckily he allowed us to go through the whole restoration lesson.  

We are still working on our teaching in unity... both of my comps have been out for less then 6 months.  One of them just went straight through God is our Loving Heavenly Father to the Great Apostasy in 2 minutes!...ummm we are having a Lesson not a street contact!  haha luckily we were able to cover it as though it had been a 'summary' of what we were going to teach him! well we taught him the restoration and it went ok.  

We committed him to read The Book of Mormon and he said he would!... well now it was his turn! I honestly felt bad for him. He tried to bash with us! It was pathetic he pulled out a paper that had a list of scriptures on it.  He started to read through the list, Of course starting with how god is all powerful, then how we have one God and to end it off the Trinity! yeahhh my favorite! haha so he started off reading scriptures and he probably read 6 in a row and we asked if he would like help reading... he said sure so he was giving us the versus and we would find them in the Bible before he would (we said it was the tabs, to make him feel good).  But after that lesson I really saw the need of testimony in teaching!  He knew it too. His confidence in the Trinity was about as strong as Logan. I learned a ton on how to teach after that lesson!--he just said hi to us haha. I should of showed him this!

We probably had the fastest set of investigators ever this week. We had 8 new investigators and in less then 24 hours 6 of them were dropped!  We had what we thought a great lesson with a potential investigators and because of it 6 new investigators. Boy were we wrong! some how we forgot to bring Book of Mormons to the lesson. Luckily the member that we were with had one and said that they could have it (I know we probably look like the worst missionaries ever). But we told them that we would come back the next day and give them a Book of Mormon.  They sounded excited and all of the kids loved the lesson.  Then the oldest kid who is probably 17 and has some learning disabilities gave the closing prayer.  I don't know if I had heard such a heartfelt prayer on my mission!  Well, 20 hours later we were walking from their house never to see them again.  We went up to their door with 3 BOM's we knocked, the wife "SISTER BAILEY" answered the door and gave us our members BOM and said, "I wont be needing those" pointing to the book of Mormon.  She then shared how she "talked to her church" and how her and her family will not have anything to do with our church.  I asked if we offended her in any way she said, "no, you didn't offend me... you just pissed me off!"...haha what the flip! Now you know what we deal with haha it makes no sense.  

I guess she didn't like the commitment to read the Book of Mormon.  Well my comps didn't really say anything but I talked to her for about 15 minutes just trying to testify as much as I could... she told me not to get down on myself and asked if I was sad...uhhh yeah! you just denied the thing that will bring you eternal happiness! I testified that she did feel the spirit the night before because I know she did and that the spirit will be witnessed with truth! we then left! 

It made me happy that I was sad at the sight of someone rejecting the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  For most of my mission I felt mad or angry at rejection but now it has turned to sorrow for the people that make that choice.  It is this sorrow that keeps me going through the day. Anger brings self pity, and if you pity yourself pitying for others is impossible (missionary work is hard!) 

scripture of the week

ROMANS 1: 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Don't ever be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. 

If you are, find out why and fix it! What could be more important then returning to our heavenly father and becoming like him?

THANKS Y'ALL! LOVE YAH AND HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

ELDER FINLINSON

--sorry i dont have any pictures worth sending

September 15, 2014 Week 62

WEEELLLLL had my first full week in Texas! It was great. Texas is an interesting place.  We had 105 and 55 degree weather... But we did get some rain so that was good! 

Everyone is talking about the drought here and say in 2 years if there isn't much rain Wichita falls will turn into a ghost town...drama.  

We had some rain this past week so that made everyone happy!  

The ward here is awesome! We had a really good family history activity this past week.  It is weird to have ward activities.  

In Purcell, for the 7 and half months that I served there not once did we have a ward activity! 

But in the next 2 months we have 3 planned! 

We had our mission tour and Elder Foster came! It was really good.  He expressed how often we set goals without having a vision… 

or we set goals but the vision is different for everyone.  

We counseled in our DM and found that our vision is our purpose and that one way to accomplish this vision would be to set up a ward mission plan!  

So we should be getting that set up soon!

This area is really big and has a ton of work!  

One of our investigators Monica who has a baptismal date for the 27th of September is awesome!  Her husband is a less active member but he is returning to the gospel.  

She shared with us yesterday how her example of her husband in returning to church has been a great testimony for her in the truthfulness of the church! 

She said she kinda tested him the morning before church... she asked him,"Could we just read the scriptures for church today?" he said, "No" "Can we just go to the first hour?" He said, "No".  

He probably didn't know that he was being tested but luckily he made the right choice!  

It made me think of how we can be the influence to others eternal progression without even knowing it!  

It is kinda scary, especially when we are bearing the name of Jesus Christ on our chests!  

But I have seen how example plays a huge role in missionary work with investigators-less actives- recent converts! 

Unfortunately being a bad example has an anti missionary effect! We waste so much time dealing with the problems people have with members it isn't even funny! 

We also have a investigator, Gilbert,  who had a baptismal date for the 27th but it was dropped yesterday because he didn't go to church... ehhh.  

But he is solid, he has a huge desire to be baptized but he doesn't have a huge desire to go to church so we are going to work on that with him!

We visit this member, Mike, at the rest home every couple of days. He is awesome, he is in his 50s and half of his body is paralysed from a stroke! 

He was a missionary and we have a fun time talking to him. No one else really talks to him. I guess his family is crazy! 

We read a chapter from the book of Mormon every time we go because he can't read and doesn't like listening to the CDs.  

It is easy to see how us coming to visit him is really affecting his life for the better! 

Well that is a sampler of what happened this week! I hope that y'all have a great week! Stay classy!  

Eli and Joel keep tearin it up! Bethany... same! 

Elder Finlinson

September 8, 2014 Week 61

Well I said good bye to Oklahoma this week and went down to Texas!  

It isn't too much hotter than purcell but there still is a difference! 

I was really shocked driving in seeing how big Wichita Falls is.  

I was expecting a small town a little bigger then purcell... boy was I wrong.  

But something that President didn't tell me was that I was going to be in a trio! 

So there used to be 4 areas in the Wichita ward but now 3… 

one of the areas was shotgunned (when both of the missionaries leave at the same time and two new ones come) so it is going…

man I am sorry but it is crazzy so this is going to be a very short email!! I will catch up for next week 

Keep on Working hard!! 

2  corrinthians 3:12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech... Make sure you have some hope! 

EHHHHHHHH good job in everything triathalon football ect! 

I am sorry but love yah

ELDER FINLINSON

New Comps. Elder Palmer (26), Elder Karr (19), both have been out for five months.  All spanish speaking Elders.  So many less actives in this area.

September 2, 2014 Week 60 Headed to Texas!

Well the time has come... I am leaving Oklahoma...

I am going to Texas.  We got the transfer call on Sunday and President is shipping me off to Wichita Falls Texas! 

It should be fun, I am excited and my fingers are crossed that it is a bike area! 

All of the members here are really concerned that I will turn into a longhorn... I guess whoever wins the championship will be my team! 

My new companion will be Elder Karr...he has been out for 5 months and he just finished up getting trained.  

From what I know it is going to be a partial spanish district!  yeah! hopefully I will remember how to speak Spanish! bueno. 

I am excited for the change!  Purcell has been great and all but after 7 1/2 months time starts going too fast!

But they would switch our ward mission leader right when I leave! ehhh the new one is going to be great! 

Our last ward mission leader was a little burnt out after going through 200 missionaries!  

The ward is really getting missionary minded!  Last week we had 9 members at lessons with investigators... that is a record for this area! 

Our mission only records lessons taught with member presents! There is a different spirit when a member is in on a lesson.  

It makes it look like we aren't just trying to sell something!  

We had a great lesson with the Munday family (a family that we tracted into about 3 weeks ago) they haven't been able to go to church because she is going through the first trimester of pregnancy... I am sorry for all of you that, have and will suffer that, haha... but it has been really bad for her she hasn't been able to keep down any liquids or food! she has to get hooked up to an IV... but we taught them the Doctrine of Christ it was amazing... because 1st) The Spirit was there and 2nd) A Member was there! 

We talked for 30 minutes after the lesson about real concerns that they have, not necessarily about the church but in life!  They already believe the church is true.  Brother Munday was abused when he was a kid and his step children(Sis Mundays kids) were abused by their father.   There are a lot of deep scars in his mind.  He started off stating that he could never forgive his parents... we then testified that we won't tell him what to do but Christ will!   It was silent and the Spirit was there I am convinced that after 15 years he felt the need and desire to forgive his parents!

 “The spirit must be freed from tethers so strong and feelings never put to rest, so that the lift of life may give buoyancy to the soul.

In many families, there are hurt feelings and a reluctance to forgive. It doesn’t really matter what the issue was.  It cannot and should not be left to injure.

Blame keeps wounds open.  Only forgiveness heals.  George Herbert, an early 17th-century poet, wrote these lines: 

"He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass if he would ever reach heaven, for everyone has need of forgiveness.’” 

-- President Monson

buuut on with the questions you asked---

What taught you the most this week?........... We had an awesome leadership training this week President quoted 

" Always teaching, sometimes with words"... "you are called for what you will become" was another good one!

Can you share an experience where you witnessed the love God has for one of His Children?... that is a hard question because in every choice that we make there is a a good or a bad... a choice that brings us closer or further from our Heavenly Father.  But is is amazing to see not only in my life but in the life of our investigators and less actives how forgiving God is! Even after making the mistake 70 times God is still willing to forgive!

What are you most grateful for this week? I am most grateful for some awesome members here in Purcell.  Just this morning I walked out of the shower and one of our members stopped by and said that he felt like giving us a box of doughnuts! Also the 9 member presents in one week! miracle.

What advice do you have for member missionaries?--Read PMG Pg1 your purpose and apply it to your life! 

It is very clear that "every member a missionary" applies to every single person who has been baptized! 

This is the foundation of missionary work with out it it is hard to be an effective missionary!  

It makes me mad when members don't think that it is their responsibility to be 'missionary'.  

It doesn't matter if you are 8 or 100, rich or poor, busy or lazy YOU need to be a missionary! 

Matthew 22 
 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
 38 This is the first and great commandment.
 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

What is the greatest thing we can do for our God?--figure it out and do it 

What is the greatest thing we can do for our neighbor?-- figure it out and do it

If we truly apply these 2 commands we will be great missionaries, striving to become better missionaries!…

It is definitely different in Utah because we have one set of missionaries for a stake but if you have the chance to go out with the missionary's go! 

GOOD JOB
Well already time to go! but stay classy! Eli and joel keep on being the hammers! Go do some Bengal jacks for me! 

bueno bueno 

ELDER FINLINSON