¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Merry Christmas!

I hope that you´re all enjoying yourselves today and that you´re able to be with your families wherever you may be, or at the least be able to video call them. #MissionaryStyle :D

Today is a very special day, not because it´s the day that pur Savior came to Earth, (that being the 6th of April according to D&C 20:1) but because this is the day that we remember that wondrous event with the rest of the world.

Anywho, we sang carols in a plaza Saturday night and Christmas eve was good with a small gift exchange at our pension with the other 2 elders.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Elder Fincher has an imperitive update... *PICTURES*

I say that because I feel like I haven´t written all y´all much now recently. So, here´s an update:

Christmas party, basically the videos explain it all, but to explain the unexplainable: We got there, there were people that I knew (because at the Christmas party I met the last missionary I hadn´t met yet, being Elder Castillo. met him, now I´ve met all the missionaries in the mission. #OfficeLife) Juliaca came, Puno Central my zone and Bellavista the other Puno zone were all there. All the remaining office Elders in the mission (Elder Boelter, Elder Ordoñez, Elder Fawcett and I) are all in Puno, so we got a picture.

There was a really good spiritual start to it all and then each zone played the video that they filmed. Ours was really good until the end. But Bellavista´s was outstanding! Juliaca´s was alright. Then we all presented songs and presentations. Some zones did sketches we did a song and then a song dance thingy. It went really good, my foot went above many heads (please put the video in here). And that was that, I photobombed 1/3 - 1/2 of all the pictures taken that day by people, but it wasn´t with my camera, so just know that many people have me in their pictures now. :D I am a master.

What else? Christmas is next P-day, that´ll be interesting. Merry Christmas! ¡Feliz Navidad! Frohe Weihnachten! all them wishes!

I honestly don´t know what else has happened that´s interesting, other than yesterday for the third hour we attended the baptism of the Bishop´s kid who turned 8 on Saturday? Or maybe yesterday, I didn´t ask. But Saturday there was a party for him, don´t know.

Oh! Raul got baptized! I think I talked about that, but this week I have pictures because I found a place that likes my camera enough to read it and move pictures! So, yeah, pictures of that great day.

I finally ate with chopsticks again at that Chinese place! Because I brought the ones I´d bought there.

It was Elder Ochoa´s birthday the first Wednesday I was here in Puno, the 6th.

Our room when I got here was really, really sad. You know in the movies when the guy goes to boot camp and he´s in a small room with a bad paint job? Yeah, ¡Bienvenido a Puno! But we quickly solved that and had moved by Friday afternoon to a much nicer and closer to literally everything house. The old one is the green one (with shower faucets like the ones I have in my basement bathroom at my house) and the new one is the yellow/orange/redish one. It´s nice. And a bedroom and a study room!

Also, our pension takes us out to eat a few times for lunch, that´s kind of neat. No one else has ever done that.

Also, all the news came and I have many pictures of them, but you can find cooler pictures with descriptions on the mission blog: http://misionperucusco.blogspot.pe/ Cool stuff there, organized and explained.

The Johnsons also invited us over for dinner to have pancakes. AKA: Hotcake Hoedown. ´twas delishous!

I took pictures with lots and lots of members. I don´t know if it´s realistic to say that I´ll name them before I´m back.

Also, some amazing moms from back in the states (the only one I know for sure is the mom of a missionary who´s middle name is Layne) sent Secret Santa gifts for the missionaries! Thanks all of you amazing moms! (I don´t even know if my mom was in on that or no) You´re all the best! Especially my mom though, but I don´t know if she did anything there, but nothing can beat her, because she´s my mom! <3

And yeah, some pictures of Puno from different places, it´s really pretty actually. Just coldish. Like November/December in the house, without snow.

The sector is progressing a little bit, we´re teaching people in the street and we have some future appointments that we´re looking forward to, lots of finding right now, but there are people to be found, so it´s good. What´s sad is trying to get the dad of two people ready for baptism to sign their paper so they can be baptized, but he´s not willing to sign it, he says to baptize them and all, but won´t sign the paper. So we´ll be going back to talk again on the 29th and hope for the best with lots of prayer and maybe fasting too.

And I think that just about covers everything I have pictures for and not much else comes to mind that I don´t have pictures for. So have a great one, enjoy all you Christmas preparations and especially the day of, remember WHY we even have this day, remember all the WHYs and take a moment to be grateful for them. Have a great one and Merry Christmas!!!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Christmas in Puno!

Really boring right? Actually, I`m going to change the title from "Puno, week 1" to "Christmas in Puno!"

Questions:

How are things going? Are you used to Puno yet? Getting comfortable with the area?

Things are going good, other than trying to get you guys pictures. Yes and no, I`m trying to figure out how to keep being good and when to wear a coat and when not to. We`ve done some service, it`s been good, but we`ve yet to teach much.

As far as the area goes like I said we did some service. Once shoveling dirt inside of a house right before it rained and as it started sleeting, that`s fun without a coat. The other service we did was helping a hoarder to clean their house, we threw about 1 1/2 - 2 of the big black trash bins like we have in Orem of trash away. And that only cleaned about 2/5ths of the one room house up. But it was something.

That`s it this week, I really need the bathroom and there isn`t one in the internet cafe, so I need to find one. These are things that one deals with on the mission.

Also, title came about because we had our Christmas party here in Puno on Saturday, when I can I`ll get pictures, and details, but bathroom...

Love y`all,

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

PUNO!!! HEY HEY HEY HEY!!!

That`s an excerpt from almost all the music they have here that`s called Wayno, but they just list off whatever city name they want. I`ll make a video later of how they sing, it`s funny.

I`m in Puno now, I now feel more like Christmas is almost here and that`s nice. It`s colder basically is the thing. Kind of nippy, but it`s not bad.

Raul got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That`s super exciting! It`s the first baptism the Vista Alegre office sector has had in 15 months. That`s more than a year! AKA, a long time!

But it almost didn`t happen, he passed his interview alright, he`d told us first that it would be at 11AM and then on Tuesday he called and said to have it at 5PM, okay, that`s fine. But on Saturday we went around 4:20PM to clean the room and get everything ready, and we called him to double check he was going to be on time...

He said that he had a fever and wasn`t feeling so great. Could it be next Saturday??? And then the line cut...

And we tried calling him 20 times and nothing.

So I got depressed and knew that I should have done a better job, tried harder, made more of an effort to get out and teach people while I`d been in the office and just generally felt like I hadn`t been enough. So I got really distraught.

The other Elders, Elder Larsen and Elder Pinedo showed up too and they got a little sad, but still trying to be upbeat and optomistic.

Then Elder Lewis comes out of the bathroom and says that Raul had just called him and said he was coming, that he`d gone to the wrong chapel! YAY!!!

So real quick we picked ourselves up and finished preparing everything, made a welcome sign on the whiteboard and wheeled it to the door of the chapel and waited for Raul to come...

And he walked through the front gate and I ran up and gave him a hug and told him that we were so glad to have him there. (even though we were the only ones there for him at that point 5:20-30ish) And we went in and he got changed and the 1st councilor of the bishopric showed up and we took pictures and the Hermanas came and then the Hermanas convinced the Relief Society sister who were having an activity to come join us and then Nefi and Kristina showed up right before we started and the room was full.

We had a very spiritual service and it was very good and Raul got baptized and then the next day Sunday he got confirmed and he`s well on his way in following the Lord Jesus Christ. And I`m happy. I`m in Puno now, but I`m happy and ready to work hard. Elder Ochoa who`s also from Huanaco like Elder Cubillas my second companion (they are from the same stake and they know each other) and Elder Ochoa is super cool. But just wait until next week when I can upload a picture of the two of us together and you`ll probably laugh. Jaja.

I`m going to love this!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Thanksgiving

Hola a todos!

Well, this week was Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving! Thank them pilgrims and our great Maker.

So, to start out with I taught District meeting this week about the armor of God. (see photo with cardboard person) And that was really good. Elder Spencer volunteered and had the armor put on him. Basically we need to be strong, prepare ourselves and develop Christ-like attributes. I also like being like Captain Moroni too and declaring my Title of Liberty, we can all make our own y´know.

Tuesday night we had a ward Noche de Hogar, or Family Home Evening. And it was spectacular! We had around 80 people there, that´s more than other all the other ward activities I´ve had combined I think! Wow... We also did an activity that I describe below. I was in charge.

Then we had the changes meeting. It was super messed up. Because Elder Fawcett and I were still in our sectors here in the office and there were a couple sectors without people in them and there was a trio in another zone that was training. Super freaking messed up. So in all honesty Elder Fawcett and I got upset on that one. Because we had no idea how long we´d be without knowing where we´re going.

But then Thanksgiving happened. And that was super awesome! We had that at President´s house with all of the Cusco and Inti Raymi zones. Or about 50 missionaries. We all spread out picnic style on his lawn terraces. And I made some great quality mashed potatoes that a ton of people loved. I made about 2/3s of a 40 liter pot. (I think) It was a lot. And yummy.

I also had charge of an activity that we did as a Mix´n´Mingle/Get to know ya. Where everyone had a paper with different things written down and you had to find someone that had the same thing. But the same person could only sign twice. on your paper out of 25 items. I got them all, just like the ward Family Home Evening.

We also did a sketch of the pilgrims when they came to America, I´m uploading the video, it´s a 1.58GB file though, so you guys may or may not be able to ever see that on this blog...

Come Friday morning, Darwin gets baptized! He´s a convert of the sisters, and Elder Rüeckert (our zone leader) baptized him because he invited him to the Chapel Open House that we had in the middle of October right before changes. So, there has been at least one baptism from that activity and made everything worth it. Superb! (voice of Albert from 17 Miracles)

Saturday we went to Pisaq which was some ruins an hour out more or less. I was too distracted by everything going on with me leaving to really enjoy it, but it was cool. Elder Fawcett and I hiked all the way down to the city from the ruins after driving up to the top of the mountain to the ruins.

After we were done at Pisaq we went and had second Thanksgiving. With some members we did another Thanksgiving. Nefi and Kristina, they´re super cool and we presented again the sketch and there were like pure investigators. It was good too.

Our sector has been pretty good. We´ve taught Raul a bunch of lessons this week and he´s in his baptismal interview right now. It´s kind of tense waiting to know if he´ll pass it... Not much else. (in the middle of writing this email) RAUL PASSED HIS INTERVIEW!!!!!!!!!! For the first time in 15 months there will be a baptism in our sector! Also, I´ll be staying until Saturday at least, maybe longer.

And then on Sunday night (last night) President called an emergency meeting for changes that had to happen. But Elder Fawcett and I know our changes now. I´m going to.... PUNO!!!!!!!!!!! I´ve known that since I was awaiting my change at the end of my time in Sicuani. I knew I was going to go to Puerto Maldonado and Puno, just didn´t know what order, but being in the office made me forget until I saw it actually happen.

Elder Fawcett is going to Puno too, again. He´s opening a 100% new sector, no house, no pension, no laundry, no bed, no area book, no nothing. But he´ll have fun. :D

My companion will be Elder Ochoa from Peru (maybe Lima, maybe not, just hasn´t had to do tramites; so... automatic Peruvian.) Everyone is telling me that he´s cool, so that should be good. I don´t know how it´ll be. But it should be good.

They tell me I have a good sector too, don´t know. But I´m just hoping that it is all good. I know that there will be things I need to learn and grow with, but I just wonder what it will be. We´ll see...

We pick up the news tomorrow morning!!! YAY!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Water and Cara a Cara

Hellos to all the peoples,

In case anyone is wondering, I´m not becoming worse at English as my time in the mission goes along, (well, it is, but not bad enough to where I´d actually mistakenly write the words above which are weird, rather it is a side effect of being in the office, I´ve decided to leave it behind in the office though and not take it with me to the new area I´ll be going to.)

This week we have been without water for a good part of it, the FM group is supposedly taking care of a problem with the baptismal font, but they turn off all the water. It´s made me quite angry. I´m working on that. But today there´s been water thus far, so we´re alright. (at least our house still has water)

Questions from peeps:

How is the training going? Is Elder Spencer catching on? How much longer do you have for it? Do you know yet where you will be going afterwards? Hopefully it is going well. Wherever you are assigned to serve, you will do well there.

It´s going good, he catches on good, but there are a couple things that I may need to show him later as they don´t occur now, rather later. I have however long I need supposedly, but probably not much more than the first week of December. Thanks, I´m slightly concerned, but I´ve gotten more at peace with it.

Are the baptisms still lined up for this week? I hope that they are. Please send some pictures.

We taught Marco the rest of the lessons that he needed for baptism and told him that he needed to come to church before the sacrament to be able to be baptized, he indicated that he understood. Then on Saturday he passed his baptismal interview and we got everything ready to announce in sacrament meeting. Then he showed up 30 minutes late and missed the sacrament, so we had to postpone his baptism. And Raul who has been progressing well, hasn´t received enough lessons to be baptized the day he was going to be, so I´m a little disappointed and worried if I´ll be able to have a baptism here in Vista Alegre. But if they get baptized that´s great, whether I´m here or not.

Also, President Herrera has been on vacation all this week. Interesting, but not any different, he doesn´t frequent the office much anyways. (it was really a mission president seminar, but he went to Colombia, so, vacation)

He also announced that all the missionaries in the mission (I think, at least Cusco) would be watching the Face to Face event with Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard. In Español it´s Cara a Cara. And it was spectacular! They are SO FUNNY!!! You wouldn´t think it, but they are. And they gave some very wise counsel. If you didn´t, I would recommend to watch it, especially if you´re a young adult, but also everyone else can learn from it.

I can´t think of anything else there is to say, other than right now I´m kind of stinky because we had a Turkey Bowl where we played football. Not fútbol, football! I didn´t have a clue during the whole thing, but I had fun running and I moved the ball 10 yards one time, just open and went. Cusco, Inti Raymi and Sicuani all came. But the sisters didn´t play, they were told they couldn´t, some were not quite happy with that. But the sidelines were good for conversations between turns.

Anything else? I´m going to miss the office, but I´ll be happy to move on and see what other growth God wants me to have. Keep on keeping on. *distant thunder*

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

P.S. I´m going to have 2 Thanksgivings this week, double chance to be thankful! Like we should be all the times.

Newness, adjustments and surprizes

Howdies and hellos to alls,

This week, very good, then I had an interview with President Herrera and got sick. :-| *cough cough*

First off, Elder Gutierrez helped us yet again this week to get out and do some great stuff in the field. We found a family on Sunday last week and we taught them a couple times this week and they´re super interested and excited to learn. They also indicated that they´d be willing to get baptized, that they´d talk about it and let us know. And we´ve been teaching two other people that have baptismal dates for the 24th of November! And even though Marco, a 12 year old who´s been actively attending church, even though we had to move his original date, he´s going to make it to this one that we´ve put. He´s only lacking a couple commandments to teach him and he´s just a great youth that wants to follow Christ. And Raul, more or less 60 years old, he´s been coming to church for the past couple weeks and he´s also super excited to get baptized, and we explained last night about enduring to the end and I feel like he understands and that he´ll keep on going well. It´s going well.

Then on Friday President Herrera called me in for an interview, which was weird, because he´d just talked to me the day before as well. So I was curious as to what would be happening in this interview. He started out asking about a flight to Juliaca that I´ve yet to get anything on (sometimes people don´t help you out when you ask them for flight options...). And then he proceeded to ask about how I´ve been doing in general in the office and after I told him about that he mentioned how I´ve been doing a really good job.

Then the kicker. He said that the time had come for changes in the office, me, Elder Fawcett and Elder Daybell the assistant who´s been here for 8 changes... I was a little surprised but also had known it was coming eventually anyway.

I was expecting to stay around until at least new years, so I´m a little disappointed, but I´m trying to continue how I should and trust in God. And with that I wasn´t expecting to leave the office for a while more at least, I think that´s a big reason that I got sick this weekend, just a lot to take in and I couldn´t quite swallow it. But I´m doing better and know that I´ll be here until whomever I train is ready, so I could be around longer or shorter. We´ll see.

All in all it will be interesting. We´ll be having a couple baptisms in a couple weeks, so that part will be done that I´ve been wanting to accomplish. And the other things I´ve been wanting to do will be done, or they won´t, but they´re not super important either way, so it´s good. This morning I worked on moving all of my stuff from the downstairs room where I´ve been my whole time in the office to the room upstairs where those leaving the office sleep their last bit they´re here. President said that I´ll be training at least 3 weeks, but that if whomever I train needs more time we can accommodate that so it works out right for them. So I might be out by December, or I might be around for a little longer, but it´s pretty sure I won´t be around for Christmas or New Years, which I was planning on, but one of those things that´s a good either way thing.

I don´t know what to think, other than to do stuff quick that I´ve been meaning to do and work hard in the sector so that the baptisms happen as planned.

Elder Gutierrez got an assignment finally and he´s in Bellavista in Puno now with Elder Diaz, the other office friend. :D

Other things, for Halloween I dressed up as a Wayqe, or brother in Quechua. We wrapped up Elder Pinedo in plastic wrap and I made a model picture for when the new executive secretary does the ending packets (without knowing that there would be that change)

I think that´s about it, other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and the Book of Mormon has the fullness of said Gospel. So I recommend and invite you to read that inspired book. (also, I made it through all of the small plate pages last week at the end of the week in my goal to read it in a week, yesterday I was around the middle part, I´ll see if I can finish it this week. We´ll see.)

Take care!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Weird occurrence + All you need to work is a black guy

Good day, good day to all,

I assume that the title of this week´s blog sounds a lot more racist there in the States than here in Peru where it´s a lot more acceptable. :D But fear not, I shall explain all in due time...

First off, on Tuesday we went and picked up Elder Gutierrez from the airport. He was supposed to have come all the way back in June, but he being from Nicaragua, they didn´t want to give him his visa. So he served for 5 months in Nicaragua until he finally got his visa and came here last week. He´s not so black, but he´s blacker than most other Latinos, so here he´s black. And as we (Elder Lewis, he and I) were walking somewhere the other day I asked if he was offended if someone said that he was black, he said no, so I said that everyone was looking at us weird asking the question in their heads, "What are 2 white guys and a black guy doing together? In white shirts and ties even..." So yeah. Normal here.

Wednesday was tramites with Elder Jensen and Clancy, then afterwards they went somewhere with Elder Lewis and they came back a while later with the mail.

Now, you might think that the sentence found above ↑ is normal, but it´s not. Now the question, what´s not normal about it???

Wait another minute and examine it. ↑↑

And another 30 seconds. ↑↑↑

Now just 10 seconds more trying to find out what´s not normal with the above sentence. ↑↑↑↑

Okay, now I´ll tell you, trusting that you at least put in the ten seconds to guess what´s wrong. The thing that´s not normal is that a while ago, shortly after getting to the office Elder Lewis either had his keys stolen or lost them. We replaced all of them we knew of besides the one to the mailbox. So, for a good 3-4 months now there has been no way to get the mail out of the ever filling mailbox. Until the point where nothing else could be put in and possibly things were being stolen from how full it was.

So, that´s what´s not normal with the above sentence. ↑↑↑↑↑↑ There should not have been mail to bring in! But they did!!! From my suggestion they had gone to a hardware store and bought a new lock to put on in place of the old one. (padlock style) but not to my suggestion, rather I´d just said we´ll figure this part out later after we have the lock. They also bought a hacksaw! And then the next time I saw them they had their arms full of letters, bills and other papers. (see photo)

And that´s when I finally got the Christmas card from my bishop from last year. Pretty nice. And there were lots of phone and light bills, (power bills) and letters for Elder Clobes, Elder Fackrell, Sister Johnson and Elder Clancy. Not many other peeps. (so if you´re reading this, and you know someone in a mission, send them a card! Because those 4 people are only 2.5% of the missionaries in the mission, and I´d say less than 25% receive letters regularly and less than half receive letters. (guessing, but just send a letter! :D C´mon, please?)

Then Thursday was a multizone conference, really good I´d say. And then Friday, some of Saturday and Sunday we got to work! Elder Gutierrez really inspired us to leave since there was nothing else for him to do all day but study.

We had a couple really great citas. One with Franco whom we met this week, he seemed super interested and we´re hoping that he´ll progress a lot and quickly. We also visited with Raul, he´s been coming to church for a few weeks now, but we haven´t been able to visit with him yet, and last night we had a great cita and Elder Gutierrez invited him to baptism which he readily accepted, and then a little bit further along we put a date for the 24 of November. We´re really excited to help him come unto Christ like he´s wanting to. And also Irina, who we´ve taught a couple different times came to church yesterday! We were super happy with that since she´s been studying Sunday mornings and now she was able to come!

So in conclusion, all you need to work is a black Elder from Nicaragua called Elder Gutierrez to come and be put in a trio with you (because President still hasn´t assigned him a sector...so he´s stuck with us) to be motivated to get out into the field and do the work of the Lord. It´s pretty great I´d say.

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Changes, The Census and The Book of Mormon

HOWDY!!!

I scratched my arm this morning as I passed by a bush coming back from the Balcon del Diablo. Still human...

This week, where to start? Well, Monday is a good option. What happened on Monday? I can´t remember, that was a long time ago. But it was something along the lines of finishing the ending packets for those ending the mission and other things I´m sure.

Tuesday, I was in a bad mood, I don´t know why anymore, people were expecting me to do things how I didn´t want to, (expecting more than I felt I could give) so I gave up for a couple minutes and then finally came out of the storeroom and faced the day, but I was still not great because I let people get on my nerves. But once I got over that it was a lot better. (AKA, don´t let people get you down, just roll with it)

I took the dying missionaries to the airport and we said goodbye to some good Elders there, including Elder Westbrook. Other things happened too including with the news.

Wednesday we trained the new missionaries and they´re all super pumped! It´s awesome! I was busy the whole day with this that and the other. Legalizing passport copies, setting up lunch, sending out pictures to their parents, etc...

Also, small note, we´ve gone to this Chinese restaurant with the new missionaries and their trainers, and they have really good food, but 4 out of 5 times that we´ve gone they haven´t given me chopsticks. I´ve asked each and every time, but only the first time did they give me chopsticks. So this time I came prepared with my own chopsticks. (see picture with pens and my face) Next time I´ll bring actual palitos chinos though. Great food. No chopsicks anymore (they must have all burned.. :P)

Thursday, a normal day. Other than I had to do everything to get ready for Friday. So I was busy yet again, updating info for all the news and everything. Also, I went to Migraciones with some new missionaries to do their legal fegal to get their carnés de extranjería. Good stuff, but long lines.

Friday, Consejo! Where all the zone leaders and sister training leaders from the whole mission come to Cusco to talk about the mission. I announced a couple things, for example: If you want to change your ending date, do it! Normal, but talk to President first. BUT! Once I have sent you the email to ask where you need to travel and all, this is your last chance to change it. Unless you want to fork over $300-400 for changing your plane ticket. I don´t know why, but people just willy-nilly this last transfer have asked me to do that. I tell them that and there was one who was like, "but it´s not my fault" uh huh, right buster. C´mon! Be smart. So I announced that. And other things, like Machu Picchu, and then I had 3 people that heard me announce what I did come and ask if they could go specifically against what I had announced... Good gravy!! I think it´s funny, but really folks. Pay attention! Be smart, as Jacob says in the Book of Mormon: "Oh be wise, what can I say more?" (I don´t remember the reference right now...)

Saturday, also busy, finishing up everything from the week including tasks that can appear at whatever time.

Sunday, I was in my scrubs all day long. (please see picture with me in my bed in scrubs with the Book of Mormon) Why? Because it was the Peruvian Census! I am now so officially Peruvian! I was in the Census! Yeah! But anyway, we couldn´t leave the house from 8 until 5. And then we didn´t even leave at 5 because Elder Lewis was sick. So I was in the house all day long. And I got a decent start on my goal to read the whole Book of Mormon this week. I read 30 chapters yesterday, the most I´ve ever read in a single day. It was good, but it was also long, I´ve got a lot more ahead of me this week, but I´m excited. I also invite anyone else who wants to participate with me. Read the Book of Mormon in a single week. I´m actually learning more than I thought I would, things that make sense on a large picture basis. (I wanted to read it in a day, but that didn´t happen)

Anyway, I hope that you all have a great week and I´ll be seeing you later!

Take care!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Fortified Nephite Cities

Sumaj p´unchay!

I hope that you are all doing well. I am currently sick, proving that even those with a divine mandate from God can suffer illnesses.

This week, first, last week. Because it rained at Condor Picchu, (Machu Picchu) there were no bugs. So it was a tender mercy in disguise, but, also because it didn´t look like it would rain, I decided to leave my rain jacket in the car that brought us to the train. So I got wet. But I had brought more shirts, so I did a wardrobe change at a Wonder of the World. Right there in the middle of everyone, all the tourists I changed my shirt. Though differently than you might think, for you see, I´m ingenious.

I put my black long-sleeve on first, then my green t-shirt, on top of my white shirt which got rained on. Then, I unbuttoned my white shirt and carefully took it off from under my two other shirts. Then I put it on top of everything because it was cold and I had no other layers. So, quite ingeniously I did a wardrobe change at a touristic location without hardly anyone noticing because I was never shirtless! Haha! The only thing is I might be sick from getting wet, but lesson learned. If not going to bring a jacket, bring a plastic poncho.

Now, this week went like lightning. There was a lot of things that happened, but it´s all over now. Changes meeting so we can plan for everyone to move and all. Half p-day, work then half p-day. And a couple citas for teaching too. The Spirit was strong in the one we had yesterday. With Irina we taught the Restoration and really drove home the importance of the Book of Mormon which we´d shared with her earlier.

Ahora, lo que es el titulo del correo: I visited Pikillakta again, but this time it was with Elder Lewis and the Johnsons. So we actually looked at what is was, not the pictures we can pose.

This time, as evidenced by the videos I filmed, I´m now convinced that it was a Nephite city that was fortified personally by Captain Moroni. I could be wrong, but I also could be right... So...... Yeah.

Just look at the outline that the city is from the high vantage point that I took the picture from. There were strong walls, they could have had trenches on the outside for all we know, the whole city has been filled in by dirt almost. They´re excavating it for crying out loud. But it could have been a fortified Nephite city...

Now, analogy: We should make our lives like a fortified Nephite city. We should make it hard for our enemies to enter. And we should make it easy to kill our enemies when they come and try to invade. That way we can come out victorious by defeating all our enemies. But the key to remember is that the Nephites were strengthened by the Lord, and we need to be as well. The Lord strengthens us as we pray, read the scriptures, go to church and keep the commandments. So, I recommend that you all do those things, because I´ve seen when I do them, I´m better off than when I don´t. Because the Lord strengthens me when I do those things.

Have a great one!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Machu Picchu... NOT!!!

Hello everyone!

I went to Machu Picchu this week!

Actually I didn´t!!!

I went to Condor Picchu!

Because Machu Picchu is the name of a mountain behind Condor Picchu.

The real name of the city is: Illkyllantyamachuwakcha

Actually it´s not that either, it´s some other unpronounceable Quechua name.

But the Machu Picchu part is right, it´s a big mountain behind the city and Wayna Picchu is the mountain in the middle of the all the postcard pictures.

But yeah, it was quite wondrous the trip.

I don´t actually have much to say about it without pictures for reference, and how that takes a long time... Plus you just need to be there to understand, but I hope that my dad puts a bunch of the cool pictures I took on here so that you can see a little bit what it looks like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of the week was pretty good.

Now that I proofread a little, you don´t know why it´s Condor Picchu. It´s because our tour guide kept pointing out how the Incas made everything in the city look like a condor. And that´s also the name that I don´t remember in Quechua.

I probably don´t make it sound too special, but that´s just because it´s indescribable. You have to go and see it for yourself. And after the mission I´ll be happy to help you out with a bunch of tips and pointers. But that´s a ways off still.

I actually just want to delete this message, but you guys need something to read. Machu Picchu is cool, it´s actually Condor Picchu and it rained on us.

Christ may or may not have gone to Machu Picchu itself, but He did come down and visit the Nephites here in America. (please see video I filmed at Machu Picchu.)

Love you all, take care!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Conference and rumors

Howdy!

I´m not normal right now, that´s because I just had an all-day training at the hands of Hermano Yeremy Herrera. (pronounced with a J and not necessarily related to President Herrera.) It was good, but it was long.

Anyway, I really don´t have anything to say about the training, because otherwise I´d just bore you with the details of my office job and all the legalities. But I happily report that in the Mission Perú Cuzco we are as legal as possible at this point in time. I am very happy to report that God did a good one with me when we put stubborn tenacity in me.

Everyone dance with me to this awesome banjo/violin song! Oh, wait, you can´t hear it... weird...

Conference! The news we received Friday night at 7:30PM (6:30 Utah time) is that our prophet had passed away.

The rest of conference was good, even without President Monson being at the different sessions for his health. And in case anyone else is like the rumoring Peruvians that are here, President Monson is still alive, and while I can´t say that he´s healthy. I can say that he´s still the prophet of God on the Earth today, although what did actually happen is that Elder Hales passed on to the next life. And he willed be missed. But the work of the Lord goes on as well as in Heaven as in Earth. Now Elder Hales is preaching much more energetically and vibrantly. So that´s happy.

The messages in conference were all really good. I saw that God was weaving a tapestry of testimony of His Son and His Plan for all of us that was made even more beautiful by the final touch of making everything else really shiny and brilliant by saying that no topics are assigned. 

Think about that! The testimonies of Jesus Christ being our Savior and healer, of His ministry and love for each and every one of us. Of the Book of Mormon being the word of God, (really loved Elder Callister´s talk! burn all them critics!!  and that we really can live with God again because of all His miracles and promises for us.

It was really awesome!

Also, you all may not know, but the best someone who is not a member of the Church gets without the Book of Mormon is either overemphasizing a principle of the Gospel or a very general, yet incorrect idea of God, possibly idolatry in the name of worshiping the Savior or other similar things, without the Book of Mormon people simply don´t know God. Even Bible scholars don´t have the full picture, they usually don´t believe in the afterlife or eternal families or other key Gospel principles. Go and read the Book of Mormon and benefit from the eternal truths that it teaches us.

I hope that you were all able to watch, be inspired and uplifted and that we can all apply what we´ve learned to ourselves.

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

What happened anyway?

Hello,

First off, sorry about last week, p-day sucked, but the rest of last week was good. This week was hard and kind of sucky too, but I´m trying to learn how to be happy in bad circumstances.

Questions:

Do you have "High Occupancy Vehicle" lanes down "south"?

There exists no such thing here in Perú, nor even pedestrian right of way. No, the way things work down here is, if I can get in front of you, I will, and if I´m a bus, I will cut across 2-3 lanes of traffic within 5 seconds to get to my bus stop from the middle lane. And no one cares if an emergency vehicle is coming down the street, they´ll just keep going as if nothing were going on. It´s quite interesting to watch. But no, there´s no HOV lane here in the least.

NEWS:

They all thought that Saturday was the end of the world or at least that there´d be an earthquake here in Cusco, nothing... absolutely nothing but overcast skies. I survived AGAIN!!!

Other things, I got a haircut 2 weeks ago, Elder Lewis´ first time cutting hair. And he did good. We also made peach cobbler, that was really good! They have Chimichurri here, it reminds me of chim chimminy chim chim churri...

We´re going to have a Chapel Open House here on the 14th of October, and we have banners and all! It´ll be sweet!

I hit 17 months. I´m old, I´d be dead this transfer if I were a sister.

I cooked pancakes in the office and really big ones today. (family, please send the Frisbee picture to Andrew Reeves, he´ll appreciate it)

We all got wet yesterday in the rain, Elder Fawcett and Elder Pinedo got soaked.

We worked pretty good in the sector. More investigators, but no time now.

Take care, love you all!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Judging, transfers and good friends

¡Hola a todos!

Aiai anchu? Wie geht ist dir? ¿Cómo están? Iminaya casianki? Guten haven. Allin punchay kachum. Buenas tardes. Allin tarde kachum.

I don´t know if I´ve actually ever said hello in English to you guys, so, hello! I hope that you´re well and that your week has gone well!

Well, I was talking to my dad and he mentioned that we need to make sure to love and avoid judging and all that talk. I thought about it a second and this is what I told him:

Oh! I learned about that one too! I don´t know how to mention the situation without making it into gossip, but the general idea is that me and another Elder would talk and talk and talk about something that we thought others should change, I justified it by saying it was ¨solution finding¨ but it was just gossip in the end. Because nothing was put into action, and so whenever I´d see the other missionaries I´d think they were terrible and should be better and that they were always taking advantage and everything. Turns out, they weren´t, there was just bad communication and I´d let my relationship with them go down the hill while they did nothing and I silently judged them. Good lesson to learn early!

The whole of this week was transfers and it was insanity. But, as far as I know, the only mistake I made was forgetting to give out the welcome letters that no one knew they were getting anyway, so I could toss them and no one would know the difference, but I´ll give them to the news as I can.

Also, I went to the airport three times on Tuesday. First, I picked up all the new missionaries with the office. Then at lunch time I went with Arian from Puerto Maldonado to send him to the mission. He´s off to Bolivia la Paz. He´s quite amazing. And then I dropped off Sister Valdebenito who was ending the mission and didn´t have a flight with everyone else the day before. And the rest of it was normal, but stressful.

I honestly don´t know what else to say, be good, have fun and I hope that you´re all doing well.

Be honest, be loving, be kind and read the Book of Mormon.

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Elder Calderon and Randomness

Hola a todos!

No sé si ustedes han escuchado, pero mi familia se fue a Canada esta semana, y estoy bien feliz por ellos para que pudieran conocer el país en que servio mi hermana, es bien chévere. Mientras, yo estuve aquí en Perú y pude conocer al ex-Presidente Calderon, ahora Elder Wilson Calderon de los Setenta. Él es bien chévere también.

Well, English time now, I hope that all of you guys are learning Spanish so that when de repente yo utilizo una word in Spanish in a conversation, ustedes me puedan entender. That´d be awesome if you could all do that to be the best for you guys. Spanish is really cool.

Anyways, this week has been good, prep for changes. I´m staying with Elder Lewis in the office. It´s amazing! A lot of other people have changes. We´re the same other than Elder Pinedo changed out Elder Ordoñez since 2 weeks ago (they´ve both been here for these last 2 weeks). It´s about time for Elder Ordoñez to leave the office after having been here for 7 transfers. Or roughly 310 days, or 85% of a year and 42.5% of his mission time. He´s been here a while... Elder Daybell is going to be here as assistant for the same amount of time... And I´m going to be here for..... at least until the end of November, maybe January, maybe February, maybe April................................

Well, we had a Stake conference this week in Inti Raymi, and the ex-President Calderon, (before President Harbertson) now Elder Wilson Calderon came to visit us. He´s actually really cool, but President Herrera is our mission president.

He talked about family and mission work. He had the members think about people that they loved, think about them being encircled by the love of God, being in the Temple with them and then talking to the missionaries so that they could see that same scene in real life. We got a couple references and I recommend doing the same thing with the missionaries over there where you´re at so that the life of your best friends can be blessed.

Anything else? A ver...

Tramites, office work, planning for transfers, naming my cuy, (Charlemagne{picture}) llama (Mason{picture}) and alpaca (Esau Caesar{no picture}), sitting in a chair for most of the day and eating. That´s about it. We did go to Qorikancha though, that was kind of cool, better said, we went to the museum.

The cool things we learned in the museum are that the Nephites (we went in with a knowledge of the Book of Mormon timeline) may have done brain surgeries. Or they dated the operations badly and they we Lamanites. Also, the Lamanites got the idea to deform the skulls of people to make a prestige system (Lamanites are called Inkas in world history) they also made golden idols and the surviving  beliefs from the Lamanites (Inka) are somewhat close to the beliefs we have as Latter-day Saints. Different, but kind of close.

Also, they´ve been making ponchos here in Perú for a good 1000ish years too. They look pretty much the same as nowadays. Also, Wiracocha was almost definitely Jesus Christ by a different name, so, there are still some traces of worship of the Savior here in Cusco. Cool stuff.

As far as I go, I´m striving to be more obedient especially with going to sleep and waking up, and I see the difference. Even though I couldn´t sleep for hours last night, I´m only slightly tired, because I got to sleep on time, even if it didn´t come on time. So, in conclusion, be obedient and be blessed with the blessings that God wants to give you, because He wants to, but we need to act. Just like you can´t reward a child without them having done anything to deserve it, He can´t give us blessings if we don´t deserve it. So, be obedient!

The end.

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Repentance

Hola a todos!

¿Qué tal? ¿Cómo están? Espero que estén muy bien y que están guardando los mandamientos de Dios para que puedan ser bendecidos y tener Su Espíritu consigo.

Question: (based on the fact that I´m 2/3rds of the way done with the mission...)

What golden nuggets have you learned?

Well, the first one to mind is that even missionaries can fall into sin, and we need repentance. Just like Hermano Velasquez from the CCM would always tell us, ¨I need repentance¨ and then we´d repeat after him, ¨¡Yo necesito arrepentimiento!¨ good times.

And yeah, I´ve realized that being in the office has taken it´s toll on me and I´ve become somewhat disobedient... I´ve not been getting up on time, nor getting to bed on time, nor have I been exercising and with being in the office and always having stuff to do, I´ve not kept the Sabbath day as holy as I should have. So, after the district meeting on Friday and the short zone testimony meeting afterwards, I put some goals in place and printed them out to have them in front of me to be able to focus well on them.

And it´s working! I´ve gotten up at 6:30 for the past 3 days and I´ve gotten to bed a lot better, I exercised on Saturday and I´ve been doing better at keeping the Sabbath day holy.

That´s a bit gold nugget that I´ve picked out of the mission so far, be obedient! Others, be kind, be patient and just in general be like Christ, because He´s perfect and He´ll help us to progress to become like him.

Have a great week and be obedient!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

THE END IS NEAR!!!

Hola a todos!

Esta semana ha sido buena. Pudimos hacer unas citas más y ¡ya estoy por terminar los tramites! Estoy bien feliz.

Questions from one of my cousins that I´ll answer for all:

How do you like Perú? Have you had any intense/scary stories?

It´s quite great actually, it´s not like the States at all, at least on the overall scale. The people are regular people that speak Spanish instead of English, but they´re normal. And the places are awesome!

Only sometimes do things get ¨intense/scary¨ and I can only think of a couple times. When a dog bit open the door of the taxi I was riding in, when a crazy drunk guy with a knife chased some other missionaries and I was eating dinner as they got to the pension and when all the lights go out. Besides those I don´t have anything come to mind, there´s more, but nothing spectacular.

Well, this week we went to visit an older lady that Elder Yangali and I contacted. The cita didn´t happen, but Elder Lewis taught her in the door and we found out that she´d been baptized 30 years ago but had since stopped coming to church. We had a spiritual doorstep visit and set up another cita but when we called to confirm the cita they didn´t want us to come over. Lesson learned, don´t call to confirm citas, just go! Maybe once you´re teaching someone you can confirm the citas, but until then, just go!

What else to talk about? Well, let me think...

Oh! I think that the story related to the title of this week would be wise. Here goes:

So, since I´ve been in the office things have happened. Good things, bad things, silly things, sad things, crazy things and other things. All in all, many things have happened. But up until now, there has been one thing that has not happened. And that is the end. The thing that is the end is soon to happen... And it will happen soon... Very soon....

In other words, there´s been lots of experiences that we´ve had in the office since I´ve gotten here. Including tramites, I´ve done lots and lots and lots of tramites. And now the end is near. Now don´t get me wrong, the tramites will never end, but the end is near.

All boiled down to simple language. This Tuesday I´m going to go to migraciones for the last time until a week or two down the road. Thinking about it, I´ll need to pick up what I drop off, but after that, the tramites will only be happening little by little each transfer. Because THE END OF THE BACKLOG IS NEAR!!! I´m going to go pick up 10 new foreigner´s cards for 10 missionaries. And then the back log will be done! I won´t be going to migraciones with other missionaries for a while until the new ones get approved in the system. For meanwhile I´ll just need to renew some of them and cancel the ones for those missionaries finishing the mission. I feel good!!!

I also got another tramite done for a Brazilian sister that has a fancy Ç in her name. Which makes paperwork terrible! Because all the documents needed to have that letter, or not. We decided to have them not have it. Then they said it needed to have it, and this, that and the other thing happened and so this Thursday I finished the process that took 2 months that normally is done in a day. I´m happy about that.

The lesson I learned from that experience though, is that success is so much sweeter after failure, after failure, after failure, after failure.... and after another setback and another and then finally it happens. And WOW! It feels so good!

The more I think about it, the more that this office job is teaching me spiritual truths. Because if you look at it, is that if you didn´t know the context of the paragraph above this one, you could assume I´m talking about many different things. Now imagine this one. You´re at the side of your Heavenly Father in His Kingdom, and he asked you how your mortal experience was, and you tell Him, ¨The lesson I learned from that experience though, is that success is so much sweeter after failure, after failure, after failure, after failure.... and after another setback and another and then finally it happens. And WOW! It feels so good!¨ And you´re there with Him and His Son and your family, and WOW! It feels so good!!!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Volviendo a la Obra (Back to the work)

Hola a todos!

¿Qué tal? ¿Cómo están? Esta semana para mí ha sido bueno, ocupado y triste y muy feliz. ¡Como se cambia su actitud durante la semana!

Well, this has been a good week, a long week, a sad week and a very happy week. The normal pretty much. Other than one thing...

The sector is doing better! Friday I went with Elder Yangali on divisions and that went well, we contacted some people and taught some too. We went to visit yesterday also, and first off we knocked on the door where we´d contacted a 10 year old girl who was the only one home on Friday when we passed by, so we came on Sunday when she said her parents would be home. She answered the door again and said she´d go get her parents.

Then her dad came with the pamphlet we´d given his daughter on Friday, and told us that he´d been a Mormon before, that we were new to the area and that he wanted nothing to do with us. As we were trying to ask why he didn´t want to talk to us he just stepped back in his house, said that he wasn´t Mormon and that he was Catholic and then slammed the door in our faces... We went on, I thought we should maybe go back like some missionary stories talk about, I mentioned to Elder Lewis this idea and he turned right around and we knocked again... And nothing. So we kept going.

But later that night we visited with a young man whom some members had presented us to and had a very spiritual lesson and we have another appointment next week with them. We´re very hopeful for these two brothers Jim and Eric.

On Monday we went touring the downtown historical center and we went to one shop where they insisted that we put on Waiki (Incaish) garb and we got pictures. We also visited the 12-angled stone, which isn´t anything much to look at unless you realize how exact the Incas had to cut each rock to line them up like that. (photo where I´m next to a rock wall) The wall is still original Inca. We also got a tour of the Marriott hotel which was super cool. (free!) And then we went up to the White Christ on the hill. I learned this time that it was a gift from Palestinians who had been treated well by natives when they stayed in Cusco, they shipped it over seas to put it on the hill. (Elder Lewis has these pictures, so I'll get them when I can)

During the week there was a lot of stuff going on, but it´d going good. Basically I´m seeing that the more I strive to be like Christ and remove bad habits and even not great practices I feel better and am feeling the Spirit more. So, I invite you to take a habit that you have and would like to change, see what other habit(s) you can replace it with that are good, and ask God to help you change them out. And you´ll see that it happens, not all at once, but it will. And you´ll feel better because you´ll be better.

Have a great week!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher