Letter #62

Yeah I realized Saturday that I didn't say happy birthday to Cole..... so yeah Happy late Birthday!!

Things that need to change in the area. The members. The majority go inactive or change wards because the members treat them really badly. We are working with the members right now. We will do Family Home Evenings with them and we also told them to invite friends to get to know the gospel. There is a bit of rain, but it's weird. When we leave the house it looks like it's going to rain. I tell my companion that today we won't get wet and we don't get wet. Yes it rains sometimes, but we somehow stay dry.

Things in common with Elder Ramirez. Not much really. In fact we don't have almost anything in common, but we get along well. With the lizards I would also like to teach more interactively and it's better with visuals and things. Maybe if you could read the mission lessons and think of how you could teach them with examples. Also if you could send another plan of salvation visual that would be great...

Ok well one "funny thing" I guess you could say for this week was when we went to teach Daniel (recent convert) and Mirian (his girlfriend and ex-missionary) They have a little dog in the house and it entered the room where we were. While teaching the dog kept coming over to sniff me and get attention like all dogs do, but then I started feeling something on my leg. The dog had mounted my leg and was "trying to get some action" with my leg. It did that like 4 times in the lesson until they took the dog outside. 

This week we set a lot of appointments with new people, but they either weren't home, or we taught them and they don't want to change how they are. So we will look for other ways to find people. We had a good week because the Mexico City Temple was rededicated. We got to watch the cultural event on TV and the rededication on Sunday. It was amazing. Elder Holland and President Eyring went. Something that stood out to me was a story that Elder Holland told. 

The saints started in Kirtland and were asked to build a temple. The men had gone off to war and the women, children, and senior citizens were left to build the temple. A little after the construction was complete the saints were run out of town. They arrived in Nauvoo and received the commandment again to build a temple. When they put the final piece on the temple, they were run out of Nauvoo and fled to Utah. 4 days after arriving in Salt Lake, Brigham Young said we will build a temple. Many asked themselves, why. They had already built 2 that they couldn't use. Someone asked Brigham Young why should they build another when they probably would be run out of town again? To which he responded, "I don't care. I dont know if we will be able to use it or not, but what I do know is that we must build a temple to worship our God. We must do today what God expects of us, we must be where he wants us to be Today. We cannot wait. For that we will build a temple." 

We are seeing hard times in Xalpa, but God wants us to keep going and do what he wants us to do even if we may not see the results in our time. My invitation is this; that you can do what God wants you to do because you want to show him your love, even if you may not see the results or blessings in this life.

Love you

Elder Finlinson