Letter #81

They have to be sober for 30 days before their baptism, but if they have not completely repented it is more time. Its not just a checklist of things to complete, they must have a testimony and a conversion. (Answer to my question about Juan after he had some alcohol.)

I recorded the thing before christmas. I thought they would have used it before. I had recorded a better one, but my camera turned off half way through. (Answer to my question about a recording he did for our ward conference on missionary work.) 

Adversity. Its like going to the gym. You have to have gravity and weights to do exercise and get bigger and stronger. In life we will go through different things, but its also necesary. One thing that changed my mission was the invitation to ask God what I lacked. When I pondered I realized that I needed to repent and get better. What I felt is described really well in the video on Mormon channel of the Gardener and the Current Bush it is the story of Hugh B. Brown. The video is called The Will of God.

This week was cool. We taught the restoration to Carlos and Maria Magdalena.They are living together, but not married. They say they would like to get married in 4 years so that they can go on a big trip to celebrate and they can save up until then. We told them that because the gospel is restored they can get sealed in the temple for time and eternity. That they could get married and then have the trip when they get sealed. The next day we saw Maria Magdalena in the street and she was super excited. She said "Carlos and I went out for a coffee (which isn't the best thing) last night and he said he had been thinking about the things he learned from your visit. Then he asked me to marry him in March!" They understood the blessings of God and decided to repent in order to "not live in sin" in the words of Maria Magdalena. They are 22 and 21. 

We also were really time limited on Wednesday because we went to Tula (an hour from Tepeji) in the morning for a meeting for all the missionaries in the world and then back to Tula again that night for the meeting with the mission president and stake president. In the short time we had in Tepeji in between we contacted some people and did some service for people we saw in the street. They were pulling out things that had fallen in a ditch (tires and other things) we got down there in the ditch and pulled out the stuff. I could feel the Joy and Light that came from service and proclaiming the gospel. Later people started talking to us when they saw, us asking us if we could teach them about God. It was crazy! We just used the time wisely that God gave us and he gave us miracles. (The majority of the people that we contacted and contacted us live in the area of the sister missionaries in Tepeji, that was the only sad part).

I invite you to serve this week, in the house, school, wherever and feel the joy that it brings to serve.

Love you,

Elder Finlinson