Groundbreaking and other things

Hola todos!

Esta semana tuve que decir a Elder Huallparuca chou. El ha sido llamado para ser el nuevo asistente. Es chevere, pero ahora uno de mis amigos está en Cusco.

Our zone leader, Elder Huallparuca got called to be the new assistant this week, so he went off to Cusco. It's kind of crazy, but cool.

In the sector, we're doing something still, but we're not doing much. I think it's mostly because my companion has been sick and not feeling well for a while now, but I also feel like we're not finding people and that we've lost almost everyone we'd been teaching. We are picking it up a little, but we're struggling. I know that the Lord knows what's up though. And as we're diligent He'll bless us with success.

This week we had the opportunity to attend the groundbreaking of the Temple of Arequipa! That was awesome! The talks were great and the ceremony cool to watch. President Herrera was there and the Seventy that was conducting was super nervous the whole time almost, I can kind of relate now, knowing that he's a normal guy like me that has received a call from the Lord. But something funny that he misspoke is that President Herrera is president of the Arequipa mission, not Cusco. :D But it was great to be there and see it all.

Also, there exists a fruit here that when it's a little rotten it smells like parmesan cheese. My brain was having a really, really hard time with computing that. Still does.

That's pretty much it, but I was reminded of a hard lesson that I had to learn by someone who I think still needs to learn it. We were talking with someone and they told us that they couldn't forgive someone for the way the other person acted, that they had to ask forgiveness first. But I remembered that I've felt that way before and am still prone to feel the same way.

At times I've felt that all of my companions were doing things they needed to ask forgiveness of me, but when I asked it first, I felt better. Even if they may or may not have rejected my apology, I felt better. Because I was doing what the Lord has asked of me:

9 Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.

 10 I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.

 11 And ye ought to say in your hearts—let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds.

D&C 64:9-11

I'm not perfect, I still am quite prideful, but if any of you are waiting for another to ask forgiveness of you, take the step the Savior would take, and ask forgiveness of them, whatever it may be. He forgave those that killed Him, we can forgive all as well.

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

This week

Hola a todos!

No hay nada que decir en Español, lo siento. jajaja Soy terrible.

How did your baptisms go yesterday? We ended up having Taylor get baptized, he was confirmed yesterday and his mom came to church! She's a less active that hasn't come in 3 years more or less and with the confirmation of her kid she came. We hope that she'll keep coming too.

Ana had her baptismal date moved to the 11th of March so that she can stop selling beer after finishing her current stock which is only a little. She had her interview right after internet last week so we had to boot on over there. She's really ready though, she just needs glasses to be able to read better, but she's pretty excited.

Are your other investigators progressing as well? Um, we need more. We've been contacting and having new investigators and everything, but the next appointments just don't happen really. We're working on that though.

Oh, and I'm a grandpa now! Elder Yangali is training Elder Rojas.

Read the Book of Mormon and put Moroni's promise to the test.

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

The work goes on; with updates occasionally

Hola todos!

A decir este saludo es mucho más fácil e profesional, entonces, es por eso que lo utilizo cada semana en lugar de decir algo como "que tal mis patas!?!" o "hellos a all yous!"

So, this has been a good week, we finally got the changes that were announced in the worldwide transmission implemented in a zone meeting this week. Now we're planning in the morning and we get to use our agency in a way that really shows The Lord's trust in us as missionaries. We are more responsable now, but also more able to do things in the way that we best do them and prepare for when we get back to our houses and have to do things without an exact schedule.

The sector is doing well, we should have two baptisms Saturday and we've got other people that we're finding that we're starting to work with. Including a family that has listened to the missionaries before and has lots of relatives that are members, we're excited to work with them. We're doing a lot of contacts blessing houses and finding a lot of new investigators.

We are also going to be leaving Samuel and Melany alone for a little while, last night in the cita he said at the end that he wanted some time to think about it all and do a lot of study. We invited him to pray a lot and read the Book of Mormon. I really think that he's going to do it. And then in 2 months we'll stop by again like he said and we'll see how we can help him. The gospel blesses us, but the journey to finding the truth of it for ourselves is personal. It's something we all need to do, personally.

We had five investigators come to church yesterday! Ana, Taylor, Maria, Laura and Daniel! Ana and Taylor we've been working with and both should have their baptisms Saturday, Maria and Laura we found this week and Daniel is cousin of Almendra.

Hasta la próxima!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

German, weddings, awesome members and lots of rain!

Hola personas! Que tal?

Esta semana fue muy bien y también un poco loco, y la otra parte de esa frase, pero, fue lo máximo!

And now, English. Unless you all desire that I should talk to you in the native language here in Peru of Quechua. :P Or maybe you prefer German? Wie heissen Sie? Ich bin von Utah in der USA. Noka Elder Fincher. Or this? Kidohopshida.

That's probably a good idea, I should probably say a prayer to not be crazy. But yeah.

Anyway, this was a good week, I asked my grandmother to help me with a couple German phrases to talk to a family that's here from Germany building their house. It helped a ton! I was able to start a conversation with the family that we wanted to talk to and he understood me and kept talking in German! :D I got lost, so I finished with the last phrase she sent me "Ich spreche nur ein bischen Deutsch." :)

Then later that same day (Thursday) we went to go help with a wedding since our branch mission leader had asked us to help since his wife couldn't because of something that happened. So, we went and helped a little with the reception, they didn't have a ton of stuff to help with, we carried a couple things inside, talked to people, greeted at the gates, and at one point my companion Elder Quevedo and I helped the groom learn how to waltz. That was fun, but a little weird. Not too weird, but it was. I imagine only missionaries, who have been to weddings, will understand. But it was good and then they fed us too. I took pictures of the food. Filled peppers and a spaghetti salad like funeral potatoes but spaghetti.

Another part, last night in branch council we were talking about Samuel and Melany, they have a lot of doubts and questions. We were trying to find a couple answers to questions they had. But anyway, we were leaving to go to the appointment in the middle of the meeting after our part, asked if anyone wanted to join us, and Hermano Macario joined us.

We started the cita with introducing ourselves again since he was joining us and there was another friend there of Melany. When it was the turn of Hermano Macario he took a good 3 minutes talking about something I couldn't even hear for the rain, I think he was introducing himself, but took a long time to do so. Maybe it was a full 5 minutes.

Anyway, we have a prayer and ask if they have any questions, knowing full well that they did, they just needed to tell them. And at this point Samuel says that he doesn't have any questions, when he had left us with 4 at the end of the last cita. I thought at this point that we would probably not have the greatest lesson or visit. The investigator wasn't asking any questions when we knew of at least 4, we've got a talkaholic member with us that I have no idea what he'll do, another person to add to the mix that we've never talked to and they've never talked with missionaries, and all of this together. I was very wrong with that thought.

(I didn't have it for too long either)

I don't even know exactly what happened, but we started answering a question that they finally said about something in the book of Revelation. We were answering, then since they have a shop Samuel had to attend and we never quite finished with the question. But Hermano Macario started answering all the questions that Melany had and Elder Quevedo was talking to the friend while I was only able to listen to the Hermano answer question after question that we'd already tried to answer.

(to imagine, we were seated like this:

                                              Macario       Samuel

                                                         Melany

Elder Quevedo         Friend       Me)

After a little Melany didn't have many other questions so the Hermano started on Samuel and I answered a couple of Melany that she had more. But yeah, it wasn't a normal lesson at all, but the spirit was very strong and we all left feeling great.

That was a great experience.

And that's it for the week, other than it's raining a lot. But I don't think it'll flood, the river's still low, it had come close, but that was a couple weeks ago, it's low again. But there's still a couple paths that get flooded.

Have a great week!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Transfers!

Hola a todos!

Entonces, supongo que todos están muy animados a saber que va a pasar estos cambios... y la respuesta es nada!

Questions I've been asked.

How are your investigators? Good, we've got three that are coming to church now. Samuel came the first time yesterday, Ana couldn't make it, but wanted to come. And Taylor is coming regularly.

Did you have a baptism this weekend? No, but Ana and Taylor are working towards the 25th as their respective baptismal dates.

I'm going to let you translate the above to find out about transfers. But I'll also tell you here in English. We're sticking around here in Puerto. Only a couple other people are heading out.

Oh, here's something that we learned this week from a natural healer here in Puerto.

To cure malignant cancer, follow this recipe:

12 garlic cloves

1/2 cup of water

honey or sugar

1 Mix honey and water

2 Boil mixture

3 Immediately add garlic after having pulverized it

4 Cool to lukewarm

5 Drink before having eaten breakfast

6 Repeat for 15 days, have a doctor check up and if necessary, repeat another 15 days.

I hope that helps someone that needs it.

Have a great week!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Worldwide Missionary Broadcast

Hola a todos!

Esta semana recibimos noticias sobre cambios que van a cambiar todo el mundo! Será un gran tiempo ahora en la obra del Señor, el horario y los indicadores claves están cambiando y jamás será lo mismo. Estoy animado!

Alright, for those that don't speak Spanish I'll tell you what that says in a little bit. :P Trying to give incentive to learn Spanish, because you won't believe it if you use a translator. :P :D jajaja

Anyway, this week was great! The sector is progressing, we're finding more people who are progressing well and we're working with some people who are coming closer and closer to Christ. One sister, Ana, she wants her daughter to listen to us as well and her daughter wants to as well. Ana really wants to be happy with her family, it makes me so happy! Taylor is a 10 year old boy and he's interested and progressing really well too. Samuel and Melani, father and daughter are listening as well and she knows that it's true, he has some doubts, but we're helping them.

I'm working on being a better missionary each day and being more exactly obedient, still failing a little, but realizing that it's all a process still. That's helped a lot after reading an article about forgiving the person in the mirror from the Liahona in April 2013. It's a good one that one.

There was also a couple big changes announced in the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast on Wednesday. First the missionary council (Elder Oaks, Elder Bednar, Elder Anderson and a couple Seventies and Sister Oscarson) taught us about Teaching Repentance and Baptizing Converts. Answered questions to teach us, so it answered a couple questions for what I need to be doing better. I also studied today and found more of the relation between repentance and baptism. I think it has to do with sanctification. We become clean through repenting, but then we want to become more, and baptism by fire leads us to that, sanctification. Where we become set apart from our old selves of sin. It's really cool.

Anyway, announcement! The schedule is changing and we'll only have 4 key indicators in the world! Baptisms, people with baptismal dates, I in sacrament meeting and new Is. I like it! It'll be so much easier to focus on our slogan, teach repentance, baptize converts. And I've got pictures of the schedule. The difference as I understood is that we have so much time to do all the things we need to, but there's no 8AM study, there's studies and everything before leaving at 10AM. For example, but yeah. It'll be great. We're still waiting for how it'll be in the mission Peru Cusco, but I'm looking forward to this revelation taking part in my life.

The rest of what's happening, it's hot, that's normal. People mow their lawns with weed whackers or machetes. I finished the first personal journal in my life on Thursday and my second church study journal. Life is going well and my companion is really helping me become more like Christ and doing the work more diligently. We're working hard and having a good time in the service o the Lord!

Have a great week!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Zone Conference!

Hola todos!

First, the sector is advancing, we're finding new people to teach and we have two investigators, Ana who is an older lady, and Taylor who is a 10 year old boy that are progressing. They both came to church on Sunday! They're not family though, and it's the second time Ana has come, she just needs glasses to be able to read the Book of Mormon, but she believes what we're  teaching is true. They're both progressing and we're doing our best to help them.

Having that said, we had interviews with President Herrera this week and a zone conference. (I've found out the difference between a conference and meeting, the conference has the mission president, the meeting has the zone leaders) It was awesome!

They talked to us about a couple things we need to do, one of which being exercises. Hermana Herrera explained a little bit more about how we should do them and all that, I really liked it and I plan to implement it in my daily life, because we need to, and because I want to. I invite you to as well, do flexibility things, strength things and cardio ones too.

We put in place monthly goals a little while ago, we're completing them and already some are achieved! It's really cool to see lots of progress at one time. See what goals you can put down to increase your light in your life. D&C 88:15-30 talks about light and how it's important in our lives.

Have a great week!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher