Letter #60

I write to the Mission President in Spanish. The sign Elder Urrutia made the week before so that we could take pictures with it. Haha it was fun last week, but now I had to wash 2 weeks worth of clothes.

 And I have to pack still. 

Transfers this week and I am leaving Huehuetoca. I will be super close though. I´m going to Xalpa which shares the same chapel. I´m District leader of the same people and in the same zone. The only difference is that Elder Urrutia is going to train in Huehuetoca. He will do great training. My new companion will be Elder Ramirez. He is from Peru. He is in the pictures from the mountain that I sent last week.

But anyway here is a summary of my last week here.

All 7 of our investigators with baptismal dates came to the temple and 4 others came by invitation from members. Also lots of less actives came. It was amazing we went in a bus with 60+ people we filled it and more. We had to put more chairs to sit on and in the end we went the whole way standing. In the temple the Gamboa family and Carlos and Kariana left saying that they want to get married there so that was amazing that they could feel the spirit like that.

The zone meeting went well. Elder Mendez and I didn't have much time to plan, but we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and Endure to the end). We did it in different rooms. Faith was an activity of finding investigators because that is a challenge for the zone. Then in repentance we watched a little video of D Todd Christofferson and The Gardener and a Conversation. Baptism and the Holy Ghost we did an activity that is hard to describe and then we practiced inviting to baptism by following the spirit. Endure to the end was a short conversation with everyone. It was basically all by the spirit because we didn't have time to go over many things. 

Also on Saturday in the afternoon the bishop called us and told us that we were going to talk in church on Sunday. We tried the advice of Elder Bednar. We didn't write a talk. We received the topic. Meditated on it for a bit and gave a talk. It was an amazing experience. It was the first time I gave a talk that wasn't prepared by Me, it was prepared and delivered by the Spirit. We must do all things according to the spirit, not by our own knowledge.

I learned a lot this week. One thing I wanted to share with you was this. 

Repentance is a change of heart, not a change in what we do. 

Example: If my parents tell me to clean my room I won't want to do it. They will tell me I have to or else I won't be able to do the things I want. I clean my room, but the whole time I am sad or even mad. 

On the other hand if I walk into my room and see that it is dirty and decided to clean it for myself. I do it and feel joy seeing the changes in my room. 

In the two examples I did the same action, I cleaned my room, but how I do it is different. 

To repent we need to change our heart. When we do that we will not only live the gospel, but we will feel the happiness that comes. It won't be something that we Have to do, it will be a constant desire.

The invitation is this, every night when you repent. Don't ask God "What did I do wrong today?" ask God "Why did I do it wrong?" He will help us change our desires and our nature so that we can become what we can be. Mosiah 3:19

Love you,

Elder Finlinson