New, but familiar...

Hello a todos,

Well, this week has been good and bad. Good because Elder Lozano and I get along super well and we talk a lot and really are getting to love each other more and more. Bad because we didn`t really work because we were talking so much, the first couple days we were trying to have citas with people, but they all fell through and we had an investigator drop us. And then the rest of the time we just let the time go. But this week we`re determined to go out and work and go lots of good in the Lord`s vineyard. I also think that to some extent it has been good for us to get a strong relationship in place first, seeing as many times that hasn`t happened, but I know that`s no excuse either for not working, so we`ll do better.

And yeah, Monday and Tuesday were interesting, Elder Ochoa got really sad. I think more than anything because he`d known he was staying, but then had an emergency change in the changes. And anyone who knew that something was going to happen and then it didn`t when they were hoping it would, would get sad. So it`s understandable, but that`s just one more reason why the changes are confidential until Monday morning. And why I`m so strict there. But yeah, I`m doing my best to think good about him despite feeling at times like I felt a year ago with Elder Quevedo, but this time I feel like I passed the test! Because I was trying really hard to get along with Elder Ochoa and to accept being with him again if the Lord were to require it. And so I feel like I passed the test.

And now there`s a new test! Getting back into the groove of taking the lead and the initiative. Because Elder Lozano is super great, he reminds me of Elder Rodriguez (although I picked him up from the airport in June with the second group of new missionaries that I picked up) because we get along so well. At least at this point it seems like he`s proving wrong my hypothesis that I can only get along with greengos and not with Latinos. So it`s good.

Wednesday we visited a couple people, but no one accepted us. Thursday we tried a few more, but nothing much. Friday morning I had an interview with President Herrera along with the rest of the zone that hadn`t had an interview yet. We talked about a lot of different things, the longest interview so far with him. And when he comes for the zone conference he`ll do me a Temple Recommend interview, because mine expires at the end of the month. And that is something very important to have active!

Also, I`m officially extended!!!! I`m now ending the 15th of May which will land me home in a plane the morning of the 16th which is a Wednesday. That give me 42 days more to work here in the Lord`s vineyard and do His work among the people here in Perù. It`s going to be great! #BestYetToCome #FlyingFinish #ServicePower

And then Saturday we put together a ward activity where Elder Lozano found a Mickey Mouse head to goof around with as we played some competition games, despite small numbers of people we had loads of fun! We made an obstacle course, questions and a crossword puzzle that they had to solve. And the hermanas did a scripture treasure hunt. They hid candies with scriptures and worked that all together.

Yesterday it hailed a lot, it looked like snow on the window sill, but yeah. Fun stuff.

Keep doing good and hasta la pròxima!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Life, death and changes

Howdy all!

There`s changes about! And they`re weird. But good.

Life, it`s so interesting... it really is. You just can`t ever seem to figure it out, because when you`re good somewhere, you`re not somewhere else. And you just have to keep going at it to be better and better. That`s where I`m at. And now there`s changes, so some bad things will die, some good things will be born and there will be changes through it all.

Also, it`s important to address something of worldwide significance right now. Our beloved prophet President Thomas S. Monson has passed away, I`m sure many of you knew this before I did (though if you remember from a couple months back in Cusco, I knew before everyone, because rumors, but that`s the bad thing about rumors...) but either way it is a time of sadness, but joy too. Because the Lord has put into place His system for how His church runs. Within a short period of time God will call his next prophet, which is almost certain to be President Russell M. Nelson. And the Lord`s work and His church will continue onward. At the same time President Monson`s body will be resting and his spirit will be free from the chains of his age; waiting until a glorious resurrection.

I`m doing well this week, I`ve been doing my best to be better and become better.

My health has been great this week.

Our sector has seen a little bit of good things, we haven`t had much, but we`ve taught a few more people and more visits with people that we`ve been teaching.

Our companionship got a lot better I`d say, not perfect, but we had a really good companionship inventory and that helped us to see the things that were going on and find some solutions for some of them. Though, now I`ll have to find out how to get along with a new companion, but I`ve been praying a lot and I fasted so that these changes would be according to what the Lord wanted. And because there is an Elder in our zone who now is going to have a change that called an office elder to know the changes, my companion knew that he was going to be staying. Or at least from what I understand, there was an "emergency change" yesterday or Saturday where my companion was changed out, and considering that I`ve been praying a lot and fasting for the right change, not my change, but the better change, I think that`s what happened. Which to me is really cool! That prayer does work, even though it wasn`t so that there would be the change, but so that it would be the better change.

My new companion will be Elder Lozano. He was trained by Elder Bogh, an amazing missionary that I was with in Puerto Maldonado. Then he was with Elder Soruco in Puerto, another great missionary. Then he had a change to Juliaca last change when I came to Puno and now he`ll be with me here in Inca Pachacutec. It appears that he`ll be the district leader, which is confusing to me, but at the same time, like I say above, this is a change that the Lord put more than a little bit of effort into, so whatever it is, it`ll be good.

I`m doing well. I`m a little nervous to see how Elder Lozano is, not having gotten to know him well, but considering that which I said above, I`m going to put my trust in the Lord for what happens. And I`m really happy that I`ll be able to change most if not all of the problems we have right now with the pension in wasting time there. I`m going to do my best to put that in order.

And yeah, pictures, we did tacos a couple weeks ago with Hermana Jeronimo who is from Mexico. The letter I found under my desk. Penguins in Puno (inside joke with Elder Rodriguez) and some more fireworks.

I can`t think of anything else to say, so I`ll just say this. Life is good, despite being hard and impossible to fully comprehend. But as we continue with faith in God, in His Son Jesus Christ, we will be blessed and we will become the conquerors against the forces of evil, which are the forces of the devil. Take care and I love you all!

Addendum:

Hey, I just finally got my email saying what`s going on officially from the office.

I`m the district leader! So, now I have to put on my big boy pants again and get to work supporting and loving the people in my district. (not that I avoided that, but now I HAVE to.) So, yeah, that honestly gives me butterflies in my stomach, but it`ll be good. I`ve got a good district and we`ll do some great things in these last 128 days that I have left. #NotTrunky

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

¡¡FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!!

¡Hola a todos!

Espero que este año sea lo mejor hasta ahora en sus vidas, pero no lo mejor para siempre, hay que mejorar cada año.

This has been a pretty good week. And very interesting and growthful. (word?)

A really cool experience for the which a picture is later coming is that I couldn`t find something. (when haven`t we heard these kind of stories?) And that something was an envelope full of letters that I`ve written to myself over the course of the mission. Some for hard times and others for after the mission and the plane and stuff. But I couldn`t find it to add my most recent letter I`d written. But I knew I`d had them since I`d read some here in Puno. So I searched everywhere (not hard when you don`t have lots of room or furniture...) but I couldn`t find it. So, I said a prayer. What you`re always supposed to do, right?

And as I said the prayer, expressing my desires to be able to find these letters that are important to me. And in the middle of praying the situation played out in my mind that as I`d opened the middle drawer on my desk it`d fallen in the back by getting caught on the lip, and so it would be on the floor under the drawers under the desk.

I couldn`t check then because we had to leave. But that night when I came back I looked through my suitcases and then went into the other room and saw the desk pulled out a little like I`d done to remind myself. And as I pulled out the two bottom drawers, there was the envelope as I had envisioned.

Now, that may just sound like any other "I said a prayer and found my thing" story, but the cool thing here for me is that I had practically received a vision of where it was. And that was a huge blessing for me. God loves us, and when we ask, He provides according to that which we need.

And New Years was good. I got really sick and as I`ve told other people, I woke up with double dragon and then the rest of the day I was constantly in the bathroom. I barely made it out of bed to get to church to partake of the sacrament. I honestly only put my coat on so that I looked more or less good. But I was still in my PJs. The good thing is that my pants were black so I was just all in black besides my cream sweater. The first time in my life that I have not worn a white shirt and tie to church that I can remember, all the other times I`ve been well enough to change or too sick to go. I`m better today, but still a little straining on the stomach. I`ll be back to normal and great soon.

I hope that this year is the best yet for you guys and that you can all learn and become what God wants you to be, just like I`ve been learning this last week more about how to help people and what things are okay and what things are not. And how to help out when you see things that should change.

Love y`all!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

¡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