Letter # 67

I received the package. Thank you for what you sent! The painting, (*Andrew sent home a painting with a man he met from Provo who was in his area visiting his Mother) an old grandpa from Xahuento gave it to me. He was inactive for 5 years when I arrived and he got active while I was there. My last day there he wanted to give us something and he does paintings to sell in the streets so he gave one to me and one to Elder Morfin.

Mission traditions... sometimes they do tie trades, but I haven't done a ton. I gave one to Elder Candelario, Elder Toro, Elder Morfin, y Elder Urrutia. I received one from Elder Candelario y Elder Toro. 

I am living in a sweet area. Its a town hidden in the mountains. Its beautiful. Its a bit colder, but really pretty here. The ward is a bit bigger and the chapel is pretty big. The members give a lot of references from what I´ve seen, but it would be nice if they would accompany us a bit more. My zone is the biggest in the whole mission. There are 4 districts in my zone (28 missionaries). A typical day as a zone leader is a typical day in the mission. It is Sunday and Saturday that are a bit more crazy. This week we had to do 2 big reports (one we have to do every month, the other every week). It took us hours to do it all. We are also on the phone a lot because the missionaries call us a lot. We will have to do interchanges almost every week to reach all the district leaders.

This week was good. I ate quesadillas with grasshoppers inside today. They were good. Grasshoppers taste like unflavored popcorn basically. Besides that, we worked. We found a lot of new investigators, but not one came to church. That was hard. I am still getting used to the area. Its really big and I didn't know more than half of the missionaries in my zone. A funny experience was in church. We were learning about eternal families. A grandma entered half way through the lesson. Her 33 year old daughter was also in the class. All of a sudden the grandma raises her hand and asked the teacher if there was a website where she could find LDS single men. The women started laughing, but she was serious. Then the class started talking about finding a potential partner on the LDS singles site (the majority of the members in mexico are single mothers or mothers with a non-member spouse). 

This week I want to share with you the fact that the Lord is hastening the work. Moses 1:39 says his work and his glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. If we think He finished his work by just making the plan of salvation it isn't true. He is hastening his work by INVITING people to come unto Christ. The mission purpose says that... Our purpose as missionaries is God´s eternal purpose. We must invite people to come unto Christ because if we don't we are not helping God in his work and his glory to  bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of Every Man. We must look for these opportunities to share the gospel and act with faith.

Love you

Elder Finlinson