Hello everyone! I hope everyone got what they asked for from Santa, haha. Really, I hope everyone remembered the reason for the season-- the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Anyways, I got lots of Christmas presents from my family back home and I'm very thankful for all the love and support from them. I'm doing good, Christmas put more energy and optimism into me and I'm working hard and getting results too. This week has been a lot better. I can tell that patience and continued diligence brings forth blessings from heaven--more than I can count.
So without further ado, here's the weekly update:
Tuesday- In our zone, we had a Secret Santa gift exchange. So we started off our morning with a little party with a piñata, pizza, and some presents. Afterwards, we got to work. Two weeks ago we weren't having any success with contacting in the street, but this day we had 4 contacts in the street, which is 4 more than the week before. I was pretty happy with the little piece of success that we were experiencing. That night, I went to our zone leaders' house with my companion to pick up my huge, heavy Christmas package from back home. Thank you again family for the presents!
Wednesday- We had EVEN MORE success. We got a really solid day's of work in, teaching 10 lessons. My companion and I worked efficiently and with the help of the Spirit, we found the people that we needed to find. I was feeling really great about our success, especially since it's the holiday season and people are busy.
Thursday- So we didn't have much success on Christmas Eve. We tried contacting a bunch of references that we have but no one was home or they all didn't have time for us. That evening, a member offered to have us over for a Christmas Eve dinner. They were really kind and even gifted some ties and socks to us. We ate, and we returned to our house. Holidays here are crazy...people use lots of fireworks and shoot their guns into the air.
Friday- I woke up a bit earlier than usual so that I could open my Christmas presents at the same time as my family in Maryland. Afterwards, we got to work like it was any other day. We had our weekly planning session, then lunch with the Fam. Guerrero Gaxiola. They were kind enough to allow us to use their phones to Skype home. After we Skyped, we got to work again. We tried contacting a few references, and then we decided to visit a semi-old investigator that we have, named Hector. We chatted for about 15 minutes, then we retaught the Restoration. We didn't teach it completely, just the beginning. I felt prompted to invite him to get baptized, and he accepted. We saw some Christmas miracles and were successful again.
Saturday- We hiked to the Church building to help the sister missionaries with a baptism. We cleaned the baptismal font, then we filled it and prepared the water too (the water here is unclean so we have to disinfect the water). We returned to our area for lunch, attended the baptism, then went to visit the Fam. Burgueños. We taught the same thing as with Hector, and again I felt prompted to invite the mom and dad of the family to get baptized. They both accepted. More success!
Sunday- Game day! We went to Church, we recharged our spiritual batteries with the Sacrament, then we we went to eat lunch with a member. Afterwards, we returned to our area, then we visited some less-active members to finish the evening. Of course they gave us food too haha. I felt so stuffed. Some days I have to eat 4-5 meals because people always offer us food and put plates of food in front of us haha.
Anyways, that's the update for this week. We had a lot more success after the trial of our faith and patience.
Although Christmas is over, don't forget the importance of the Savior's birth! Enjoy the time you all have with your families!
Merry Christmas again, and a Happy New Year! Be safe!
Love,
Elder Finkner
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