Pics 5/21/16

My companion took a selfie of us

Me in the streets of Culiacan

It's too hot (wiping the sweat off)

The Heat

Hello everyone!

This week has been really good and uplifting. We've seen lots of little miracles and blessings and some puzzle pieces are starting to fall into place with our area. So Monday was transfers, and my old companion, Elder Garcia left for La Paz, Baja California Sur, and I received Elder Paravicini. He's from Bolivia. As soon as he got to the offices Monday morning, I put him to work. I've been teaching him everything I know about being secretary of materials, references and records, and he's been learning quickly and well. After our time in the offices, we went to work. We've taught some really good lessons and I'm able to see how much progress I've made in my 7.5 months in the mission. I've been unofficially designated as the missionary leader in our ward, since we have two sets, but my companion and the other set are all new, so I'm the only familiar face in the ward. I'm showing the other set of missionaries some parts of the area, and I'm also the senior missionary in the offices. I have the most experience.

This week we were able to visit Perla and Francia three times, and on Tuesday, we reviewed the baptismal interview questions with them to measure their progress. Although their baptism dates fell, we used this lesson as an opportunity to put new dates for the 28th of this month. They accepted, and we're going to be working hard alongside of them to get them to church tomorrow and next Sunday so that they'll be ready for the 28th. We visited Abraham, and he still has a lot of desires to go to church. He told us that he'll meet us there Sunday morning. We've also been contacting a lot and we've received a bunch of references. The other elders in our ward, the new set, have been contacting a lot to get new investigators so they've passed a few contacts to us. We've been able to talk to these references and we've put a few appointments to visit again. When we talked to one of the contacts that the other elders gave us, we had a first lesson, and we were even able to challenge him with baptism and he accepted. He's proof that the Lord really does prepare people for baptism, and that we just need to go out, and the Lord will lead us to these people. 

This week has been pretty good overall. I've had the chance to talk to several new people and bear my testimony about the restoration of the gospel. Although they may not accept the missionaries, they are receiving their opportunity and I'm doing my part in the Lord's work. I've found happiness in this work, even though it gets difficult sometimes. 

I testify of the truthfulness of the Church and that this life is a time of preparation and testing for us. We must do everything that we can for the Lord and I promise that you all will be blessed for your dedication to the Lord. Have a great week and make sure to say your prayers and read the Book of Mormon.

Love,

Elder Finkner

Middle of May

Hello everyone!

This week has been really good and uplifting. We've seen lots of little miracles and blessings and some puzzle pieces are starting to fall into place with our area. So Monday was transfers, and my old companion, Elder Garcia left for La Paz, Baja California Sur, and I received Elder Paravicini. He's from Bolivia. As soon as he got to the offices Monday morning, I put him to work. I've been teaching him everything I know about being secretary of materials, references and records, and he's been learning quickly and well. After our time in the offices, we went to work. We've taught some really good lessons and I'm able to see how much progress I've made in my 7.5 months in the mission. I've been unofficially designated as the missionary leader in our ward, since we have two sets, but my companion and the other set are all new, so I'm the only familiar face in the ward. I'm showing the other set of missionaries some parts of the area, and I'm also the senior missionary in the offices. I have the most experience.

This week we were able to visit Perla and Francia three times, and on Tuesday, we reviewed the baptismal interview questions with them to measure their progress. Although their baptism dates fell, we used this lesson as an opportunity to put new dates for the 28th of this month. They accepted, and we're going to be working hard alongside of them to get them to church tomorrow and next Sunday so that they'll be ready for the 28th. We visited Abraham, and he still has a lot of desires to go to church. He told us that he'll meet us there Sunday morning. We've also been contacting a lot and we've received a bunch of references. The other elders in our ward, the new set, have been contacting a lot to get new investigators so they've passed a few contacts to us. We've been able to talk to these references and we've put a few appointments to visit again. When we talked to one of the contacts that the other elders gave us, we had a first lesson, and we were even able to challenge him with baptism and he accepted. He's proof that the Lord really does prepare people for baptism, and that we just need to go out, and the Lord will lead us to these people. 

This week has been pretty good overall. I've had the chance to talk to several new people and bear my testimony about the restoration of the gospel. Although they may not accept the missionaries, they are receiving their opportunity and I'm doing my part in the Lord's work. I've found happiness in this work, even though it gets difficult sometimes. 

I testify of the truthfulness of the Church and that this life is a time of preparation and testing for us. We must do everything that we can for the Lord and I promise that you all will be blessed for your dedication to the Lord. Have a great week and make sure to say your prayers and read the Book of Mormon.

Love,

Elder Finkner

Onto Transfers and Mother's Day

Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing better than last week! This week I managed not to get sick and so that helped me have a better week. I also decided to focus my studies more on rereading the Book of Mormon. I've been reading the New Testament, but I felt like something was missing from my life and obviously it was the Book of Mormon. So I've been concentrating on that more.

So transfers. My companion is leaving and going to La Paz, Baja California Sur, and I'm getting a new companion, Elder Paravicini, from Bolivia. He will be the next secretary of materials, which means this coming transfer will be spent training him. I'm going to train him better than the past secretary of materials trained me, because I had to learn a lot on my own. It's my goal to leave the offices in a better shape than when I came. Most likely, this will be my last transfer in the offices, but who knows what President will do, he could ask me to stay longer. He's already calling missionaries to be the assistants for 6 months and not the normal 3. So the Mission President change at the end of June is tossing things up in the air. 

This week we were able to teach Perla and Francia a few times and Abraham twice. We were also able to teach Susanna, a street contact, for the second time, which makes her a solid investigator. We've finished with the missionary discussions with Perla and Francia, so we teach them various points of the gospel and we read Lehi's Vision with them too. We explained it as we read and it was a good lesson. Their baptism dates fell as they only have 3 attendances, and we were unable to put new dates this week, so next week the main goal is to put new dates to dunk them. We visited Abraham and taught baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. He has strong desires to go to church and a brother from church happened to walk by as we were teaching so he was befriending Abraham and invited him to church too, so that was really some good timing. We are still waiting for Abraham to go to church before we put a baptism date, but he told us that he'd gotomorrow so let's see what happens. And Susanna, we talked a little bit more about the Plan of Salvation, and she even invited us into her house! The few times we've talked with her and the first time we taught her, we taught her at her door with a busy street right behind us, so we were able to get the Spirit going and hopefully we can keep seeing her.

This morning we (as a zone) surprised Hermana Velez with a huge poster and some balloons for Mother's Day. We walked to her house and then she cooked up some breakfast for us, and then let us watch a movie called "The Cookville Miracle." So that was pretty fun on our P-day.

So yeah, that's about it for the week. Next week I'll have more to report on about transfers, and I'll be busy showing my companion the ropes. And tomorrow I'm calling home (yeah!!). So it's going better now.

Love you all and Happy Mother's day to all the moms out there, especially my own who taught me to be a good kid and to follow the example of the Savior.

Sincerely,

Elder Finkner

End of April which means Summer is really going to start and kick my butt

Hello everyone,

I hope you all are doing well. This week has been a little difficult for me. Well we were able to work in our area more but with our increased efforts, we didn't see much success. We were able to teach Perla and Francia a few times this week. They've been giving us less and less attention so the lessons don't really have the Spirit, so we're working on trying to get them to focus and concentrate. They weren't able to come to church last Sunday so not much else to report on but that we still have a lot of work to get done with them if we're aiming for the May 7 baptism. Tuesday night I got really sick from lunch that day. Wednesday I went to the hospital because I felt really bad. They told me that I had an intestine infection. They gave me the option of taking a prescription with medicine, AND a shot in the butt, or they could put an IV in me for an hour and a half. I chose the prescription. After going to the hospital, I was tired, but we went back to our area to keep on working for an hour before we returned to the house for the night. Thursday I felt somewhat better. Friday I felt bad again, but we kept on and went to work. This week the heat has been noticeably increasing, with no end in sight for the near future. With May, the infamous summer officially begins.

I think that's all for this week, nothing else has really happened. I've been busy in the offices like always and in the few minutes of free time that I get in between tasks at the office, I work on Family History and I've been able to find a total of 200 names of people who can get at least one ordinance done in the temple. Presidente Velez will be doing transfers this Monday so I'll find out whether next transfer will be my last in the offices or whether I'm here for the long run until September or October.

So yeah. Face each day with a motivation to help some other person in any way and you'll be richly blessed. I've learned to do everything for the Lord and although I may not see the results now, I trust the Lord to take care of everything in His time. 

Love you all and have a great week.

Elder Finkner

Pics 4/23/16

Just Staying Busy

Hello everyone!

By reading your emails, it sounds like you all are doing well! Glad to hear that. I'm feeling better this week myself. I don't feel sick anymore from that tuna and I've been, well, staying busy at work in the offices and in my area. I'm just doing good.

Some days in my area we walk around for several hours without finding anyone to street contact or teach. The thing is, with 8 streets, everyone already knows us. And they've been contacted already several times by different missionaries. And they say to each other when we pass by, "Those Mormons are always walking by, they must not have anything better to do." Sometimes we walk the same street 3-4 times in one evening. But we're putting in the effort and looking for more new people to teach and invite.

So this week, we had about 3 days like that. The other days we managed to get at least a lesson in. One of those days when we just walked all day, we walked from 4pm-8:45pm, and of course our last plan let's us visit and teach. Of course the Lord tests our faith and rewards us when we're good.  We're still teaching Perla and Francia and they're still on track for their baptisms on May 7th, right before transfers when my companion leaves. We're still visiting Abraham, but we had some trouble this week finding him, he's been busy with work. He's still one of our solid investigators. We visited a less active member, Omar, who was that last plan at 8:45pm that I mentioned, and we had a really good discussion with him. His wife and children are not members, he's the only member in the family. But he has lots of desires to come back to Church and bring his family with him. And in the Book of Mormon, we learn that it's by small and simple things that great things are brought to pass, so with the desires, let's see what comes out of this!

On Friday, we went to Navolato after lunch. One of the secretaries had one of his past investigators being baptized, so we went and accompanied him. Navolato seems like it's a really nice area. It's more in the country, so there's more farms and the people are nicer. The area is bigger and the missionaries there have bikes. I met one of Elder Lugo's converts (he started his mission in Navolato), and actually the person being baptized was Elder Lugo's convert's mother. So it's just crazy to think about the impact we can have as missionaries.

Well that's all I got for this week. Nothing too crazy has happened. I've just been staying busy. I'll write again next Saturday. Have a great week! Make sure to read your scriptures and say your daily prayers! And go to church tomorrow!

Love,

Elder Finkner