Quillabamba!

Good afternoon, I hope that you´re all well. Life´s good though here in Quillabamba.

The sector, it´s much better here than in Puno, good in Puno, but better here. We have a couple people with baptismal dates and a couple with a marriage date! We helped them plan that a little more last night. We´re also getting lots of references from the members and we´ve taught quite a few people this week. I´m really excited to be here and be able to do a lot more with investigators than in Puno I was able to do.

Our companionship, Elder Carlson and I get along well. We´re both pretty in sync, we work well together but we can get better at ping ponging in lessons. I feel really bad for Elder Carlson though, he wants to end his time in the mission here and with me showing up and not ending in April now we are both pretty sure that he´s going to have a change. Unless we make history and finish together as a companionship.

I´m doing good. My spirits are nice and high and I´m excited to work a lot more in the obvious parts of the salvation of others here in Quillabamba. I´m really happy to be working more.

I gave a talk last week, not yesterday, but my last Sunday in Puno I gave a talk about peace, it was a good talk. We have peace when we live the Gospel and let Christ into our lives, then we can be calm and sure.

Quillabamba is great! The climate is much more chill than Puerto Maldonado, but I just love the jungle, and I prefer the town parts sometimes. (small country mouse city mouse reference)  But I like the people here even more! We´ve gotten a handful of references and I haven´t even asked for any yet!

I´m making a very concentrated effort to learn everyone´s names when I meet them and it´s going well. I know many people´s names now and I´m getting to know people. Things are good and I´m really excited to keep working here in Quillabamba.

This week we´ll be going to Cusco for consejo de lideres and we´ll come back with hopefully better ideas of how to help the zone. It´ll be fun at the least. :D (I´m going to do exercises with Elder Lewis!)

I can´t think of anything else to say other than the Gospel is true and Jesus loves us all.

Take care y´all!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Eternal.... summer?

I don´t know what to think about my change other than what I told myself before I knew it, iré y haré. But it´s good. Alright week, not much what with the Candelaria and all, but it´s been good and we´ve visited some more members to support them, and we had a lesson with an investigator yesterday too. Also a couple good activities with the ward and another between Central and Inca, they turned out pretty good. District service project too to clean a trashy stream. It´s been a good week.

Spirits, I´m good, but I know that it´s right, even though I´m also nervous. I´m just hoping to get it all good before I leave. Do the right and all. I´m a little incoherent right now.

Yeah, I´ve got a change. And the hint is, I really need a haircut now.

I don´t know what to think.

The Candelaria was good. We ended up going right by one of the dances as we went to go have the chess day with the members. But it wasn´t an immodest dance, so it was chill.

We had a great time making stir fry and playing chess with Hermano Cristian who is the really smiley one in the picture in this kitchen. And Monday we just played chess all day long and it was fun.

Then we had a district service activity where we were going to herd sheep, but it fell through, then we just cleaned 5 medium garbage bags out of a small stream. That was good. After that we had a district family home evening with the 2 wards and it was pretty good.

Then we had other things that I don´t remember. But it was cool.

Then, this morning we had changes meeting...

And now I need a haircut. I need to see about getting some sunglasses. I need to pack. I´m glad I said goodbye to people yesterday. I also need a shower after this morning and sports.

I´m going to be a zone leader in Quillabamba! WHAT?!?!?!??

My companion is going to be Elder Alexander Carlson who is from Nevada, (Henderson I think, maybe Reno.) and his dad is Peruvian I´m pretty sure. He´s cool, but slightly weird. And I haven´t even left Puno yet! #OfficeEffects So yeah, those are cool beans that shall be done up with a little bit of butter and be delicious.

I´m really out of it. I knew that I was going to be leaving Puno, but I thought I would train or just go be a district leader somewhere, I´m going to be a zone leader! What?!?

Anywho, I love you all, I love the members here in Inca Pachacutec, despite it being less than half the time I´ve been in other sectors, I love them. And I´m going to love the people in Quillabamba.

There´s only 10 missionaries there. My companion and I, Elder Valenzuela the AP is going to train and die there, Elder Eaustaquio with Elder Vilca, don´t really know them. And Hermanas Laime with Calvillo who was in Inti Raymi when I was in the office. As well as Hermana Mantilla who will be training as well. It´s going to be very interesting. I am going to be a much better example than what I´ve been here, I´ve not been bad, but I haven´t been good either. I´ve been average, and I don´t like it. So I´m going to change.

I love y´all! Take care and see ya in time after the best 2 changes yet here in the mission!

¡Chou!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Candelaria...

Imanaya Cashanki?

Howdy all!

This has been yet again another better week. It´s not been perfect, but it´s been better.

I´m proud to say that the constant exercises are finally paying off and I´ve got a 6 pack coming in on my abs, that´s good motivation and I´m really happy about it.

Our sector has more citas set up for this week and we´re trying to work with more people, we´re really focusing on strengthening the members because they´re not the greatest in their spirituality, but this Sunday we noticed a big change in how the Bishopric is doing things and we have a mission leader for the first time since I´ve been here. So it´s getting better.

I´m doing well, I´m working on putting things for in my house on paper, like what my overall vision is, what goals, plans, ideas, hopes, etc... I have for when I get home I´ll not be at a loss, but I´ll have a plan. I got really worried the other night, but I got over that and I´ve been doing good since and I´m going strong.

Our companionship is going well, Elder Lozano was super worried they´d send him to replace Elder Lewis in the office, but they didn´t. So he´s happier now.

This week is the Candelaria, AKA Very large pagan festival that results in missionaries being in lockdown for 2 days. That´s exciting!

The general details are that this morning we all came to the stake center in Chanu Chanu since 8am until 1pm and then we were considered free to go eat lunch and lock ourselves in our rooms until bedtime. With tomorrow being the same except for just in our houses. But we got permission and we´re going to hike a mountain, because being in the house all day is cool, but we´d rather not.

That´s about it this week, I can´t think of anything else besides encouraging you all to be great people like is your destiny. That´s right, even you, the one who is reading this, is a child of God, unless someone makes their dog read this blog, which I don´t know how that would happen, but assuming that humans are the only creature capable of reading, then, that is true; you are a child of the Most High God and He loves you and He wants the best for you, so go forward with faith in Christ.

Love vosotros!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Gran P-day, again?

Hey howdy hays a todos!

Question:

Just wondering, what do you feel has made the greatest impact on your life by serving a mission? What have you learned that is most valuable to you?

Working with people and being better despite it all.  How to work with people.

It`s been a better week this week, we were able to talk to more people and we also had more visits with the members.

Our sector has had more people and more effort this week, we`re still not at much, but we`re working at it.

Our companionship is good, we`re working together and we are trying to help each other more and more as we go along.

I`m doing well personally, I`m good. 

President Herrera helped me renew my temple recommend the other day during the multizone conference. So now I don`t have an expired Temple recommend like would have happened had it waited until just the next day, so that was good that it happened then.

We had gran p-day and a multizone conference, they were pretty good, but I`m slightly struggling with new rules that the APs are putting that seem to be just dumb. But I`m going to try and work with them.

The gran p-day was with President and Hermana Herrera. It was pretty fun, we played a trivia version of tic tac toe with 4 different teams then a couple team games, Cast Away and Russians vs. French were the names. Papers one a hula hoop to try and beat the cast aways that tried to beat the sharks. And then the other one everyone was on their backs and had to run to their base as the other team tried to tag them.

After that we went and played more sports with other missionaries at the Central chapel. Then we went to go move Hermano Cristian who was moving from our ward to central, that took the rest of the day, but it was good and I was happy to see that I could do a lot more than I used to in moves, considering that Elder Lozano and I were the only ones moving things off the truck after loading it before. Though Hermana Perry does a man´s part in moving, she`s tough for moving. I think she said she had worked with furniture before the mission as well as a mint oil factory. It was a good, but tiring move; I thought that I had over exerted myself, but I decided that I was going to be okay and that I would be healthy in the morning, and that`s what happened, it was cool.

Friday at the sports afternoon we played frisbee and it broke at the end of the night, so I am at a count of 0 with frisbees now, but they were fun while they were in use.

The Bishopric in the ward has completely changed besides the Bishop, but it`s good and we`ll be working together good. We`re going to pension at the house of the new 1st councilor so that`ll be good to coordinate some things.

Hermano Pablo who was the bishop`s secretary moved to Cochabamba the same day as the gran p-day so we couldn`t help, but we said goodbye the night before and he`ll be good there.

There`s more I could say, but there`s not much significant things that I can say, so I think that`s it this week, but be good.

God loves us, when we serve we are blessed as we bless others.

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher