Week #32

My companion is good. I think that after doing the same thing for 18 months he's hitting the burn out stage, that's all. I am trying to get his motivation up a bit. We are friends though. There isn't a carnival but there are a ton of fireworks. All The Time. They sell firecrackers and other huge fireworks to 5 year old kids to have fun. We continued the cleaning spree today. We couldn't get to the bathroom and we don't have stuff to clean it. The ward I attend is like 40 minutes walking from my house. It's in the area of Elder Candelario. We rode a bicitaxi after church one day with our mission leader to his house. I never didn't like cactus. I actually do like it.(He says he eats a lot of cactus. I thought he just kind of tolerated it but I guess I was wrong.)  In my mission it's a special kind of cactus called Nopales. We have zone conference this week and interviews with president next week so I think I will get it in the coming weeks if it's here. (His birthday package) The Ramirez Pacheco family was the family who welcomed me to the area. He was the Ex mission leader, and his parents own a restaurant and fed us for free when we passed by. ( I asked about the family from the picture last week.) Maybe you could look at the Area plan for Mexico in lds.org for an idea. The area plan is pretty cool and if the members were to do it, Mexico would grow a lot in the church. (Ideas for FHE)

Well today was day 12 of ice showers and I think my body is adapting to it. I think I might almost have 2 chest hairs now so I am pretty much a man...

This week we worked with less actives and 3 came to church. 2 saw a baptism after church and the other had an interview with the bishop at that time. She will be able to go with the young women to the temple next week. She is super excited. Really the family just needs a little boost to get going. Then I hope we can work with the dad who isn't a member. Our only chance of baptizing a person in February fell because the couple still isn't married and can't until the wife divorces her old husband (a huge problem in Mexico). We have been visiting another less active, he is basically lost. He has no testimony and now thinks the only word of God is the Bible, but only if it's in Hebrew (because Jesus was Hebrew..) He worships the Sabbath on Saturday and isn't willing to change anything. I think we´ll have to stop visiting him. We have set a lot of appointments for the next week and I hope that we can actually have the appointments. If we can, we have the possibility to find a lot of new investigators. 

This week in Gospel Principles we were learning about the Holy Ghost and a person asked why the devil works so hard when we try to get close to God. It is a thing I have seen a lot in the mission. The temptations rise for us and for the investigators. The devil does all he can to make us think that getting close to God is bad. It reminded me of two scriptures I want you to read and think about. The experience of Joseph Smith. JS-History verses 15-17 (what would have happened if he gave up when the devil came, and why the devil came so strongly) and D&C 112:13 (what happens if we fight through it.)

Love you

Elder Finlinson

                                       This is an old photo, but he didn't send any this week and I like this one!