26 months later... The conclusion and beginning.

Well everyone, it's been 26 months today since I got on a plane to head out to Peru on the wildest adventure of my life so far, and wow! Has it been awesome!

So many great people met and lifted, so many new experiences lived, so many lessons learned, so many friends made, so much good done, so much great food eaten, so much beauty seen and so much more that goes beyond words.



I really love this picture of me at Machu Picchu holding the Book of Mormon, because it almost embodies the essence of what I was doing as a missionary and who the people are. There are certainly many more things to be said than can be here, but I was preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a people with a rich heritage and it was spectacular. It still is and I'm so glad to have been able to serve them as well as my God by having served them as it says in Mosiah 2:17, "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."


Now that I've been home a month and 3 days I'm caught up in so many good things, helping around the house, being with my family, working at a new job at Missionary Mall, visiting old and new friends, staying in touch with people on the mission, starting to work at the Temple again tomorrow, being in the middle of my dream of being a mentor to help people near and far and I think one of the biggest things that I love is that I'm happy. I'm engaged in so many good things and I'm happy. I'm also at peace.

I think those are some of the biggest blessings that anyone can experience in this life, to have peace and happiness. I know and tell you all that it is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is found in His restored church which is "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" I invite you all to read the Book of Mormon, to meditate what it contains, to then pray to God and ask Him if it is true. As well as to attend church with us at your nearest meetinghouse (find yours here: https://www.mormon.org/worship) and most of all, to come unto Christ by being baptized in His true church so that you may receive the greatest blessings of eternity.

I add my witness to the millions that have gone before me and are currently giving witness, this is the truth, you will be blessed, Jesus is the Christ and this is His church, He inspired and had translated the Book of Mormon which is another testament of Him, it is true and you will be blessed by reading and living what is found there-in.

May God bless you and may peace and happiness fill you life!
(Elder) Benjamin Fincher

Glory to God!

Here I`ll quote what I write President Herrera every week, because this week it`s kind of funny:

"Good afternoon President Herrera,

Well, I figured I`d write you one last time since I can still.

This last week was very good, Hermana Estefany got baptized! That was really cool and spiritual. I`m so glad that God let me be here to witness that miracle.

The sector, well, we left it with 2 converts more and a few investigators, though Elder Yovera with Elder Chinguel will need to look for new ones too.

My health, I`ve had butterflies in my stomach for a day or two now, but I`ll be fine once I wake up on Thursday I think.

My spirits, I`ve been good this last week and I`m excited for the future. Though I`m really glad that I`ve written down already many things because now my brain isn`t working in that aspect.

My companionship, well I left it good and I`m excited to see who my new companion will be, though I`m not going to stress about that for now.

Thank you so much for everything President! It`s been marvelous and I`m really happy to have completed honorably the mission despite all the temptations that Satan was always throwing at me, when we trust in God we are better.

I love you and wish the best for you, and as you said this morning, we need to keep in touch.

Thanks,

Elder Fincher"

Now, this will be my last email as a missionary, and I`m happy, I`m satisfied and I know that I did my best because I`ve done just that, and when I haven`t I`ve repented. Or tried to at least. And for God, that`s enough. But glory be to Him for giving me this grand opportunity to become a better person while serving my brothers and sisters.

I love you all, I`ll see many of you very soon and I wish the best for you.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord`s church upon the Earth, the Book of Mormon is true, the Gospel of Jesus Christ guides us in our small steps daily and the Plan of Salvation gives us the big picture to be able to trudge through the day by day hassle as well as joy of life. God loves us and He sent His Son Jesus Christ to atone for us so that we can become eternal families and live with God again in His presence eternally in complete joy.

Until we meet again,

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Our God is a God of Miracles

You´re all doomed!!!!!!!!!

Your doom is coming!!! 

You will all be doomed when you try to talk to me, I keep saying this in Spanglish, or worse, it´s 100% English words, but not grammar, AKA Spanish grammar with English words. For example: Right now Elder Carlson showed me some sheet music for playing at the White Night we´ll have this Saturday, but it was in English, so I said, "Yes! We should do this for the Noche Blanca, but are there Spanish letters? It should be in Spanish." I meant to say lyrics,  but in no moment did that occur in my brain, I had to just pull it out. YU´RE DOOMED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This has been a very, very good week! We got a reference from the other branch in Quillabamba of Estefany and she´s progressing super fast and super well! She reminds me of a convert that we had in Puerto, Hermana Almendra who is very strongly active from what I hear and I´m super excited! We put a baptismal date with her for the 12th and she jumped on it right with us! She´s gone to church already a few weeks and this week she went to 5 hours of church! She went to all of Quillabamba branch and then principios del Evangelio and 3rd hour in our branch in La Granja.  We´re super excited for her baptism and we´re helping her get ready.

That´s the only thing  that´s really  happened in the sector this week, other than we did a chapel open house that wasn't very well attended, but I think we got 2 great investigators out of it  for Quillabamba, so it was worth something.

My spirits are good, I´ve got ups and downs, but I´m good. I realized that I´m pretty much trunky, but I ´m still working and doing my best. Trunky is a state of mind in the house, so, you can still work, as Elder Schindler said, it´s like the force, it can be used for good or bad, so I decide to be a freaking Jedi and go be good!

 We had no water Friday and Saturday, so we showered with a bucket Sunday since there was precious little water pressure. That was fun.

Also, we moved the Sisters in La Granja since they had a problem at their old house.  After we were done moving everything to the 5th floor (Elder Yovera and I alone practically, Elder Carlson had a baptismal interview and the sisters tried to help, but only small stuff) I died.

And  yeah, our Heavenly Father loves us so much and I ´m really grateful that He´s given us the opportunity to teach Estefany and that she´ll be able to get baptized this Saturday before I leave Quillabamba! I want to ask all of you the favor of praying for her progress in following our Savior Jesus Christ and coming unto Him by being baptized please!

I think that´s it for this week, other than sorry for the extra spaces, the keyboard I ´m using is broken.

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Piña and Happiness

At English class this week we were learning about how to talk about your health, so there were phrases like, "I have a headache" and, "I don´t feel very well" as well as "I need ..." so, for example, Advil, drugs, help, or something like that. But I only put these 2, "Advil" and "Pineapple" That was funny. No one, including myself knew why I´d put it on the board. But I did. Mwahahahaha!

This week was good, lots of citas fell through, but we were still able to have a successful week. Logros sucked but we still helped people.

The sector is good, we´ve visited a few people, we put a baptismal date for the 12th, but it fell through because the person didn´t come to church.

Our companionship had a bump yesterday and today, Elder Yovera feels like Elder Carlson and I are excluding him, we´re not trying to, but he´s felt that way. We had a short inventory this morning and we´re better now I think, but I´m going to try and help him more. Here´s to the best!

I personally am doing very well. I´m happy, excited and doing my best. Still imperfect, but that´s a status that´s not going to change in this life. But I´m doing good.

This week, let´s think what else we did...

We got zone polos! We did the Peru World Cup polo with our names and numbers on the back along with "Zona Quillabamba" They look really great!

It was also Hermana Arias´ birthday on Thursday, so Hermana Calvillo bought her flowers and gave them to us to bring in the morning as a surprise for her, I took advantage of having flowers in my room at night and took funeral pictures. Nerk nerk nerk.

Then the next morning we threw a party (surprise???) for Hermana Arias at their pension along with the Hermana Liders who just happened to be here this week. And then we went home and had a good day.

Hermana Kaori, the daughter of our pension made a dessert out of Jell-O, it was yummy. I don´t recall the name... mozaiko-Elder Yovera just told me.

We also found a new room for the hermanas in our branch since they said that they have a creep in their current house. So they´re going to be moved tomorrow.

A couple other things that happened. One is that we looked up requirements for marriage here in Quillabamba. The other is that I lost and found the SD memory card of Elder Yovera. Because it got wet at the waterfall Illapani he wanted to put it somewhere, so he put it in my first aid kit and then we left and I forgot he´d put it there. So when we were back at the house and he asked me for it I couldn´t find it. So yeah. I felt really nervous and really bad too.

I remembered that I´d opened my kit to get into the pension, so we went and checked there and didn´t find it. It´s lost, sorry man, there go all your mission pictures and your birthday video you made for your sister, sorry. Kinda sucks for you. Then we went to internet as he went to play soccer and when we got back to the house I remembered that I´d opened my kit in the car too to pay the driver.

So I called the driver and he said that he´d look for it. He called back as Elder Yovera was coming up the stairs to get to the room with Ronaldo who he´d been with. I finished the phone call and we went to go pick up his card, which the driver had found, without Elder Yovera knowing. The driver gave it to me, I gave it to Elder Yovera and we all left really happy and me very relieved too!

It wasn´t by chance though, I´d been praying all day in my heart that we´d be able to find it, and after enough time to feel bad about it God let me remember where it was and have a miracle happen! That was really special!

I can´t think of much else that´s happened this week. But it´s been good. Have a great one yourself!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

What goes down must come up, sometimes

Neither the saying what does up must come down, nor it´s opposite, what goes down must come up is entirely true. And I´d like you guys to send me examples of both of them. This week I give an example...

Q: What are some blessings you've experienced this week? (question that a friend sent me this week)

A: I was able to achieve the childhood dream of swinging on a vine, I was also able to help direct a choir for district conference (like stake conference, but in a smaller district) and I think the biggest blessing I received this week was one of comfort. I got super stressed out on Friday night from lots of things that were happening, one of them ironically being the choir practice, and just lots of things piling up that stressed me out. There were also interviews going on with our mission president, President Herrera, that helped me a little when I talked to him, but I think as being co-responsable for making sure that went right it was another stress factor.

So, all these stresses piled up and I got to a moment where I just walked into the nursery room while no one was looking and sat down to gather myself again, one of my companions who was playing the piano thought I was with our other companion who I was going to be with, but he ended up going with another Elder to an appointment, so he thought I had stayed behind. And everyone else there that thought about where I was would have thought I was at the appointment. But I was having an emotional breakdown in the carpeted nursery.

And so President Herrera finishes his last interview and is calling my companion who left to the appointment to get a hold of the assistant who had gone with him to say they were waiting on him to eat dinner I knew that within minutes I´d have to leave and have everyone see what I looked like, (a mess) and I was being bombarded by the enemy as well so that I was feeling like I would be sent home dishonorably for not being with my companion (because that´s usually the reason that happens) and so I was getting worse and worse instead of getting better.

Then I hear them show up and Elder Johnson (who´s an older couple missionary) asked, "Well where´s Elder Fincher?" And so I knew my hour had come and I opened the nursery door and waved my hand like a little kid would on the floor, someone noticed and Hermana Herrera came over and saw me, then President Herrera entered the room and asked how I was and if he could talk to me. He found out what was up with me and all, said a couple words that were comforting and then he did something amazing for me in the moment, he asked if I wanted a blessing of comfort. I said that would be amazing. That´s where the real blessing came in at that moment, or the miracle I should say, because there were other blessings, Elder Johnson being aware that I wasn´t there, the kindness of everyone and others, but in the blessing that my mission president gave me I was blessed by the Lord, he was only the conduit for the Savior Jesus Christ to be able to bless me. From the moment in the blessing where I was told to be comforted I was. And I only got better. President Herrera then took me with them to eat dinner, and that´s always special. But the miracle there is that within 30 seconds I was able to feel good, that which for more or less an hour and a half had not occurred.

I know that the power of the Priesthood is real and that He who blesses us thereby is our Lord and Healer Jesus Christ, and so remember, whenever you need help, you can always count on the Lord, and on His ordained servants. <end Answer>

The rest of the week was pretty good, we did service for our branch president on Wednesday and we got the goal again of 7 new investigators this week!

My spirits are tired. To be honest I feel like I realized yesterday that I won´t be having anymore baptisms in the mission other than maybe one. And so I'm kind of discouraged knowing that, but I'm going to do my best to go on and finish the mission great how the Lord would like.

But nonetheless, I love the Lord, and I always do my best or at least try to do my best when I can´t quite get my very best out of me. But I know that we can all do good and help others, we can be blessings in the lives of others and act as Christ would were He here.

Other/summery of cool things that happened to me this week: I ate 100% pure cocoa, (bitter) I swung on a vine like Tarzan, (a childhood fantasy, i.e. never was going to actually occur, did it!) I directed a song in the choir for district conference, I went to another really cool waterfall, I completed 2 years in the mission, I beat Elder Carlson in a staring contest and other good things. I also taught the noche de hogar with the jovenes in the branch and talked about how we need to have a battle plan in place to thwart the adversary´s plan to beat us.

Be good, love God by loving His children and keeping His commandments and just be the best that you can!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

The best week yet? Maybe, I don´t have a perfect 2 year memory. :-P Or do I?

This is weird, I just touched my head and realized that for the first time in my life I have hair gel in my hair. Weird! O_o   O_O   o_O It´s like I had sticks of hair that I could just pull out because it doesn´t belong... o_o It´s like grass blades...

This was a fantastic week! I feel kind of bad because when we were in Cusco we didn´t do anything but consejo really, but here in our sector we were pulling hard! We ended the week with 11 new investigators! And we found 7 of them yesterday and of those 7, 5 we found last night at the same time! That was super cool to see that the Lord was willing to bless us for our diligence in wanting to achieve 7 new investigators this week despite consejo and working until the last moment, because it was the last door I was going to knock where we found the 5, it was an abuelita with 4 of her granddaughters.

My health is super great, I bundled up in Cusco to make sure I´d remain healthy.

Our sector as I said is going really well right now, we´re working on teaching people as well as finding. It´s good.

My spirits are so much better than a week or two ago, I´m feeling good about my efforts in the mission again and I´m making more personal effort to be better. I´m also happy with what I´m doing now.

Also, we had consejo de lideres this week too, that was definitely the best one I´ve been to yet! (out of 2 that´s not too hard... but it was better than the other ones in the office too :D ) I´m hilarious, seriously. :D :D :D Jejejeje jajaja hehe hahaha! I just literally laughed what I wrote out in laugh form... O.o I like these emojis I can make too!

Okay, seriously now, we had 11 new investigators like I mention above I´m sure. And yeah, that was awesome. Another thing is that I had a very large brain fart Sunday morning, I´m pretty sure it´s because I forgot to pray that morning because I jumped out of bed into the shower. Also, I leave my journal up on the light fixture in our pension´s house when I have to update it and couldn´t at night because reasons. And so I leave it there until night, but I forgot it last night because it was the birthday of her sister-in-law and so we ate at their house.

Also, I got a haircut today and used Elder Bednar´s picture as the example pic for the barber, and he asked if he was the President of the Jehovah´s Witnesses, I said that he was an Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And he cut my hair like his, so now I have an Elder Bednar do. :D Also, this is why I just realized I had gel in my hair, because I don´t know when the barber put it in my hair. I didn´t have any space-time continuum problem, just a barber put gel on me head.

I got cool things in Cusco, and I´m not going to mention any of them because they´re surprises.

OH! And Giordano got baptized!

Silly me, I was almost forgetting that.

Giordano is the pension´s son, Hermana Esther. He turned 8 a couple weeks ago, well, about a month. But he was baptized on Saturday, and it was very nearly black when the service started and so Elder Carlson couldn´t read the sheet music to play the piano, so we used the blessed blessing of technology and held a phone´s flashlight up to it so he could read it. Why? Because the power was down on the grid for maintenance or something and was supposed to come back on at 5, which it didn't, so we took pics and then had the service start in the dark. About 5:30ish. 6 it´s black pretty much.

I conducted the baptismal service which was cool and neat. And then after the messages and his grandma´s musical number had just finished... the lights came back on! So the ordinance was done in the light. And then we missionaries sang another number and then it kept going with the welcome and all and then it ended and was good.

I think that´s the important things for this week, be good, have fun, read the Book of Mormon because we are blessed when we do that and go climb a mountain if you feel like it. That´s fun!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

By the mouth of 2 OR 3...

Howdy!

I say that a lot now that I was companions with Elder Lewis...

This has been a pretty good week, just not many logros.

The sector is seeing some pick up in the work since Elder Yovera arrived, though mostly just extra efforts since many haven´t received us.

But, the scripture says that it´s 2 or 3 witnesses, that´s why their aren´t quads apparently according to my brain at the present moment. Seems right.

I don´t know what to say about this week, it´s been good, but pretty uneventful. We´ve had choir practice and now the choir sings gooder, but not perfect yet.  (nor will they ever, but yeah)

It´s going to be consejo this week.

We waited until 10:40pm for Elder Yovera to arrive.

District meeting we "abandoned our arms of rebellion" like the Anti-Nephi-Lehis. But there were no holes, so I used a garbage bag.

There are some really cool views  here in Quillabamba and we took flowers to a sick person in the hospital that got burned whom we gave a blessing to.

I really  can´t think of anything else other than we all need to follow the prophet´s voice and act on what the Spirit told us during the conference. (and watch/read conference over again, having already done so or no)

Take care y´all and see ya later!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher