Baptisms, saunas and ruins

Hola a todos!

Ustedes son mis amigos. Espero que sepan cual especiales son para mí y aun bastante más para nuestro Padre Celestial. Él les ama a todos ustedes y quiere su felicidad. Para cada uno. ¡Sí! Aun a usted que está fallando en esa pequeña cosa. Él le ama.

This week, good. Crazy. Eventful. Happy. Sad. Disappointing. Exciting. Lots of different emotions and all that kind of stuff.

To start out with, we cleaned our house really well. I think I´ve mentioned this before, but really. It is clean! And the Sister Leaders cleaned it up after all the 14 sister slept in it who had been there. I like it´s cleanliness. Pictures:

Then, on Saturday the Sister Leaders (Hermana Barrientos and Hermana Soto {yes, the same one who had been in Sicuani with me in the district}) had a baptism! I had the great honor to baptize Hermana Mileni whom the Sisters are teaching. It was really special and the Spirit was strong at the baptism.

Now, the title is a bit confusing, only the last one should be plural, but it sounds better all plural, so yeah.

Now, sauna. Hmm.... So, we had a baptism on Saturday night in the ward (Mileni) and then Sunday morning we had a sauna. Or, in other words. No one had emptied the font and no one had turned off the heater for the water. So, it boiled. The baptismal font boiled. I can´t tell you how it looked, because the Bishop got to the chapel first and found that out. Fixed it up too. But we cleaned it up though and now all 4 of us missionaries knows how to work the stuff so it´ll never happen again. The Bishop wasn´t happy to say the least, but by the end of it all, we were all laughing at it and just happy that everything was alright.

Today we went and visited some other ruins by Tipon. I don´t know the name, but they were cool. It looked like an actual settlement.

Besides that all I´ve been dealing today with the first known group of missionaries who haven´t been able to go to Machu Picchu because of teacher strikes. So yeah, that´s crazy, but I think it´s done. The good thing is that people are taking it well, they´ll go next week instead.

God is good. Sometimes we don´t know why something is happening; but He does, and that´s what´s important. Someone in church yesterday compared it to an embroidery. Which for a child from beneath makes no sense, just a bunch of threads in a random conglomerate. But once it´s done, and we rise up to see the other side of things, it all makes sense. We can see the whole picture and that there was a great picture in design the whole time.

So, let us be patient in our afflictions. Let us be more sincere in our love and relationships with others. Let us lift and cheer one another. And then we can be content knowing that we´re doing good. And we´ll keep going until we get to the other side and we can see in the end what the whole picture is. It is grander than we can even imagine here.

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

P.S. I got permission to write late since I had to do office stuff. :D

We cleaned the house!

Hola a todos!

Estaba pensando, y creo que sería bien chevere a hacer una palabra de la semana en cada correo, así que comienzo con este que se ve abajo. ↓

Word of the week: orto; vegetable garden (in Italian)

I accidentally put that in the subject line of an email I wrote to Hermana Herrera. Instead of otro; other. Oops. But oh well. Live and let die.

In otro news, we´ve cleaned our house! It looks really, really nice. The Johnsons moved recently and we´ve inherited a couple nice leather love seats. They really spice up the room from what it´s been. So we had a major overhaul as well. It´s nice.

In related news, the reason we´ve cleaned our house so well is because sister missionaries are going to be sleeping there this week. NOT with us, we´re going to live with the assistants and zone leaders in Inti Raymi.

But there´s going to be a conference with all the sisters in the whole mission. Hermana Herrera wants to have it, so they´re doing it. I got to make a PowerPoint for it and I really like how it turned out. But it´s in Spanish, so you guys wouldn´t all understand it. Plus, I haven´t been able to upload it successfully, it´s just been from my USB that it plays correctly.

Other news, I´ve been very busy with office stuff and was able to have a couple citas this week that were really good. Also, the sister leaders in Inti Raymi are having a baptism this week! Hermana Mileni, she´s really cool, I was able to interview her the other day and she´s quite amazing. The work goes on.

Tramites in Migraciones also continue, getting close to done.

All in all, the gospel is true. I´ll share the little bit of my testimony I shared in fast and testimony meeting this week:

Scripture study is important, if we aren´t reading everyday, the differences will show forth quickly. We´ll get more frustrated, more tired, less happy and just discouraged. I know because I didn´t study too well a couple days for so much office stuff I was doing.

But, happily, repentance exists! And works! It works miracles even! We need to do it for reals and not just pray that our problems will go away, we need to act. But if we do, and when we do, God puts His hand in our lives to lift us up and help us along the way.

And then, the Sacrament, that´s what gives us the eventual remission of our sins. Because that´s a promise included in baptism, that our sins will be washed away. And the Sacrament is the renewal of that covenant.

Or to try and say it simply, when we get baptized, we get washed clean from all the mud and gunk that we´ve gotten on us through sinning. Then when we repent we climb out of the mud-holes we sometimes fall into after baptism and as we partake of the Sacrament we become clean by being washed again. A ¨mini-baptism¨ to say it as such. And we do that each week when we worthily partake of the Sacrament, we become clean to be able to return to live with our Father in Heaven after this life. And that´s made possible through Temples and the eternal blessings that await us there when we enter worthily.

Have a great week!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

P.S. Come sono i orto?

Saksaywaman (say wa´man?)

Hola a todos,

Bienvenidos a mis amigos aquí que están leyendo esto. A veces tengo que ser más original, pero me escape a veces también. Pero espero que ustedes esteén bien.

This week, it´s been busy. I have been doing a lot of stuff with tramites and other things I have as the executive secretary, but we were still able to have a family home evening and do a couple contacts. There was a new investigator in the family home evening too, so that was cool. We also had a ward activity on Saturday, it went really well, sports, some games we organized and lunch. There were some non-members that came and lots of members were there too.

Question:

Speaking of Sacrament meeting, where do you attend?

We meet at the chapel that is quite a few blocks down the street. In the 7th bus stop. For reference, the office is in bus stop ¨Santa Ursula¨ which is one more block down from the 1st bus stop. We take a bus to get there each Sunday and whenever we go to work in our sector. It´s like 5-10 minutes in bus with an average of 7ish. Normally I´m standing, but I´m wanting to talk to people more. I haven´t yet, but we´ll see what happens.

Biggest things on my mind right now, seeing as how they´re the most recently done, are. I went to Saksaywaman with Elder Fawcett and more or less Elder Bever and Elder Yangali.

It was interesting. First, we had to do a couple things, (pick up Elder Yangali´s ID card and send a letter to Lima) and I forgot the papers that say that Elder Fawcett and I are Cusco citizens. (because people from Cusco go to many, many places here free!) So we had to go back for those and the others just went since they had theirs. Then we go and get there.

We check in at the gate, the person looks at our foreign ID cards (carnés de extranjería) and we show him the papers too that say we´re Cusco citizens. Says that everything is in order and to go ahead and pass on in. (now, to imagine, it´s like a Utah trail or just a trailhead. You pass the gate and walk in, then it´s really open and you can go on this path or that path or even that other one) And we get to a big fork in the road that joins a couple outside paths to a couple inside paths (more than one gate). And as we start walking towards where we see Elder Bever and Elder Yangali at, this guy stops us (he works there, badge and all) and asks which path we´re going to take. ¨This one we´re walking towards.¨ ¨Where´s your ticket?¨ Then I remember, oh yeah, just give him your carné because you´re a citizen here and you just need to verify that with the guy, then go on. He proceeds to look at it and says it´s not good, because it says it needs to say Cusco on it, but mine says Lima. (Because that´s where I got it) I say, oh yeah, that´s what this paper here says that I have, that I´m legal here in Cusco. He insists that it doesn´t say it on my carné, so I can´t pass. I try to explain that the paper is what says I´m a Cusco person. He refuses and since Elder Fawett had just kept walking on as he was talking to me, he called the police on his walkie-talkie. I get Elder Fawcett to stop and come back with me and we go to the gate we came in at, explain the situation, and they told us to go around another way and that they´d talk with the guy.

We then enjoyed ourselves and got some awesome pictures with llamas and really big stone walls that the Incas made. It was great.

I wish I could have this turn into a story of forgiveness for the guy that was stubborn, but as of yet, I´m still working on removing those bad feelings.

But I think I can turn it into a story of ¨Missionaries aren´t perfect either, so don´t sweat it, just do your best¨ or something similar. As well as that sometimes you need to take time to heal, I´ve already decided that I want to forgive him, and that´s the first step I think, but I´m human too. We all make mistakes and we´re all not perfect. I imagine now that he´s probably in the same thing as I am, having to heal a couple wounds that people have made to him. Especially seeing as Saturday there was a HUGE festival in the place we went to, and people probably didn´t make it easy on him. So he just got all crusty from them and has yet to put the healing balm on his wounds, or they´ve just been so bad that it takes a long time.

So yeah, I´m not perfect, you´re not perfect, he´s not perfect, we´re all not perfect! Only Christ is, and He´s told us to forgive one another, because He knows that´s how it needs to be.

So let´s all be more forgiving and understanding of one another.

Have a great week!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

CHANGES!!! WHAAA! Questions too...

Hola a todos,

Entonces, p-day debía ser Sábado para mí, y no fue porque trabajé todo el día casi. Después Lunes debía ser lo, pero tampoco. Entonces, Presidente Herrera me dijo que debía tomar un p-day porque era justo.

So that´s what I did. I had P-day on Friday, I went with Elder Perry who´s here so he can feel his face again after a plant stabbed it. And we hiked the mountain next to the chapel and visited some ruins and hiked to the top. (mostly, it looked like it gradually climbed until it became a really tall mountain, so we just went back down eventually.)

The new missionaries are awesome! I got a lot of office stuff done. I´ve been stressed, I´ve become unstressed. I´ve gotten lazy, I´ve repented, I gave a really great talk about the Doctrine of Christ in Sacrament meeting, with the night before's notice, and I figured out what´d I´d talk about in the morning. But because the Spirit inspired me, it was an amazing talk. I claim only the vocal cords in that message.

Basically, I defined all of the Doctrine of Christ, Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. But I asked a lot of questions in the talk. Why do we partake of the sacrament each week? What purpose does it have? How does that relate to baptism? Why do we need to repent before we´re baptized? How do we repent? Why do we repent? What does faith have to do with repentance? Baptism? Enduring to the end? How can we endure to the end being clean? What blessings does baptism have for us? Why does all of this relate to our salvation? How does Christ and His Atonement play into each of these parts? Why would it be impossible without Jesus Christ?

I didn´t ask all of these questions in the talk, but if you answer them and study the answers, you´ll learn a lot more, and change yourself for the better. Christ and His Doctrine will become more important to you because you´ll understand them better. Ask around if you need help, but these questions will help you understand a lot more. I promise that God will bless you with the blessings you need now.

And, speaking of questions, to answer a couple that a friend sent me: (that´s right, if you send me questions, I can answer them! to you and sometimes to everyone! benjamin.fincher@myldsmail.net :D)

What book of scripture are you reading? How do you usually study?

Right now I´m in Mosiah and 1 Nephi. Around the middle of both chapters. I study so randomly, sometimes I pick a topic, other times I´ll just read from each physical book of scripture I have (Spanish, English, Preach My Gospel). But generally recently I´ve been reading in the Topical guide with the crazy study idea President Nelson gave in conference; read every verse in the topical guide under the headings with reference to Jesus Christ. I really enjoy that, I´m finding that verses I´ve read time after time as I´ve read the Book of Mormon will actually contain so much doctrine about Jesus Christ and His Gospel. For example, Ether 3:14, I bet you never thought or knew that people in way Old Testament times knew a certain name of our Savior. Other times I´ll use questions I found in a Liahona for studying better: ¨What doctrine do these verses teach? And what do I learn about that doctrine?¨ ¨Where and when have I seen this Gospel principle applied effectively?¨ ¨What do I learn about Heavenly Father and His plan for my happiness?¨ ¨What do I learn about Jesus Christ and His Atonement?¨ and a couple others I´ll do in Spanish: ¨¿Qué desea el Señor que yo aprendo de esto?¨ ¨¿Qué pensamientos y sentamientos inspirados recibo al leer?¨ ¨¿Hay algo en estas enseñanzas que me ayuda con un desafío actual de mi vida?¨ y ¨¿Qué aprendo que me ayudará a vivir día a día?¨ That´s a thorough summary. :P :D

Questions, they´re so important!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Conference with Elder Christensen

Hola a todos!

So, we had a conference with Elder Christensen from the Presidency of the Seventy this week. That was super awesome and I didn´t know he was in the presidency until after the conference.

It was really cool this week.

So yeah, details as they tell me I should include...

Monday, normal. We had a pancake party with the Johnsons as you should know.

Tuesday, Office meeting, went to migrations and did more tramites so that people can get their foreign residency cards other office stuff.

Wednesday, We set up everything for the conference with Elder Christensen. All the other Elders painted the front gate walls on the Church. I would have, but I went with Elder Diaz so that he could have a companion while he was stuck in a tube for an hour getting some kind of treatment to help his healing process from a small surgery a while back. I also did cartas de poder which means I can do legal stuff for other people legally.

Thursday, The conference! We had told everyone to be there by 9 or else. That so that everyone would be there early when it started at 10. Then around 8-8:30 President got a call asking if it could be earlier at 9. And it could because they´d planned ahead.

The big things I took out of the conference are some of these: ¨The Spirit talks to us all at first in yes and no, then phrases. And as an Apostle put it, ¨pages and books¨¨ That´s the best as I remember it and translated, (Elder Christensen speaks very good Spanish. And I thought about that after the conference one night and the Book of Mormon came to mind. Mormon wrote a book by the power of the Holy Ghost. Pretty cool stuff!

He talked a lot about the Spirit. God cannot and will not take away our agency. But within that, spiritual promptings from the Holy Ghost give us an inspired option for us to choose between. We can act or not. He guides us to others to respond to prayers, but not without us acting, he doesn´t move us, He inspires and guides us if we let Him. We always have the choice, but God wants and does help us when we let Him.

His wife talked about the need we all have to wash, wash, wash, wash, wash and wash again our garments in the blood of Christ. Just like she would wash the clothes of her sports inclined children. They would get very dirty and she would get them white again. We do that spiritually each week when we partake of the Sacrament. I finally figured out the answer to a question I´ve had for a while. Repentance prepares us for and removes sinful habits from our lives. But it´s baptism and the subsequent renewal of those covenants through he sacrament that gives us the remission of our sins. Or, that actually cleans us after we´ve climbed out of the mud of sin.

Elder Godoy (who also came with his wife) talked about how we´re pretty much living in Book of Mormon areas and that as we are missionaries, we´re adding chapters to the Book of Mormon. Not to the standard work, but to the story. The continuing story that keeps going and going. Adding new chapters to this part of the history of the world.

That´s the highlights from the conference.

Friday, We ended up finally able to make copies of the carnés (foreign residency cards) so that we can keep the originals and everyone can prove they´re legal.

I had the best day Saturday, it was supposed to be P-day, right? And I had scheduled to go do some power of attorney letters, so I missed going to the place everyone else went to and another Elder that was here for something went around with me. We had to wait a while in the plaza de armas for the missionaries involved to meet up with us, but 4 BYU students passed by and said hi to us since we´re Elders and easy to recognize. Did the letters, then went shopping a little bit, (bought myself some forks!) then picked up the letters. Then lunch, then I said hi to some members from Sicuani that I recognized as we were heading back to the office. Then went to a cita that fell through, then picked up Elder Barry from the bus terminal, then came back and got ready for the baptism the Hermanas had at 5 and then went there. Then the family of the person baptized invited us to eat at their house with everyone that was at the baptism, then we ate dinner in our pension. It was quite amazing! It was super busy, but super awesome. Because I got so much done and was able to do it all, there was at least one tender mercy involving timing. And there were two tender mercies with people that said hi to me.

And Sunday was good too. I don´t remember much actually, which surprises me, but I remember that it was good. I prepped some stuff for the people who are ending.

I hope you all have a great week!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Yet again, not enough time

I´m going to do better next week, I commit myself.

President Herrera asked me to be the ¨Office Leader¨ to help like a District leader in the office itself. Like motivate and just generally help everyone here. I really like that, because I´ve kind of had that as a personal goal to help everyone, and President wants me to do so too!

I caught a cold and though I pushed through to do stuff I got run out and had to stop. But I´m over that now. Basically I got out of commission for a couple days.

For being sick I didn´t do much, but Elder Boelter and Elder Chango left to proselyte more than normal and set up a cita with a contact. I ended up heading out Sunday night and a little other nights, but not much happened. We did end up with an investigator at church though! We passed by a older investigator and invited them to come, and they came!

I bought a mug! And as I was drinking some maté with my mug and having my scarf on, Elder Daybell, the assistant, informed me that I looked English, so I posed in his chair for a picture. I quite like it. Chip chip.

More legal stuff and we went to President´s house on Friday to celebrate Elder Huallparuca´s birthday! Sister Herrera cooked some amazing lomo saltado! It was the best!

I´m also doing a small daily scripture for each Elder in the office as a cool little thing to make them smile and inspire each day.

Also! The Johnsons had us over for pancakes this morning! They were amazing! I ate somewhere around ten, after having eaten 40is grams of oatmeal earlier for breakfast. Homemade syrup, whipped cream, butter, jam, peanut butter, mango chunks, orange juice. It was the best!

Hasta la pasta! Nos vemos!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

I owe you guys one

Okay, sorry.

I don´t know if my dad put my message to you all on the blog, but I went shopping last week and didn´t get back in time to finish my other half hour of internet time. But I´ll do a small summery.

Tuesday, printing off info on the missionaries coming in for President Herrera to know them better before they come. Also, a great interview with President. He´s always trying to help us and doing so! 

Wednesday, Updated some legal stuff for the church. Sent out emails to the dying (missionaries ending this change the mission) about rules for ending the mission. Sent out welcome to everyone heading to the MTC soon that´ll be coming here to Cusco. Reminded about a couple interviews in a couple zones. Bought flights. Also, power of attorney for legal stuff with missionaries so they can stay in their sectors and not do all the legals.

Thursday I have no idea, my planners are not the same as normal anymore. There´s nothing this day.

Friday, prep everything for those going to Machu Picchu. Flights.

Saturday Divisions!!!!! I went with Elder Yangali to work in my sector! We didn´t get many numbers, but we talked to people! It was the best!

Sunday, Church, other stuff, I don´t know just like Thursday.

It was a pretty good week.

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher