Consejo and other news

Hola muy queridos hermanos!

¿Qué tal? ¿Todos están bien? ¿o qué? Espero que estén bien.

This week, it was actually really fun! I´m so happy right now and remembering everything that happened in the week. So, Tuesday was Consejo, or Council. That´s where all the Zone leaders and Sister training leaders come to Cusco from EVERYWHERE in the mission. And the office Elders (us) tell them things that are changing or that we need to do better or whatever. There was quite a bit of that for some of them, and for me I just got up there and said. (in Spanish) ¨Here´s a couple reminders of things that have been said in the past, but to remind you all. 1.You need to give us two transfers notice if you want to shorten or extend the mission. 2. Everyone will get a copy of their carné (foreign identity card) and if you lose it that means you buy the new one. 3. You can only say no to going to Machu Picchu if ¨Manan kanchu colque¨ otherwise you need to go so that the groups are big enough.¨ And then I ended and only one person asked when the copies would come and I said, ¨We´re working on that.¨ Pretty simple on my part. :D

But then I took another part after having talked to the Hermana Herrera (President´s wife) a couple nights before about exercises. Because I used to not do them too well, because I just did something or another, but I then had the idea to ask my family to send me the exercise routine that the entire mission where my sister served used. So I then was feeling a lot better myself doing exercises regularly and I had more energy, more strength and I just like it. And I mentioned that to Hermana Herrera and she said it would be great if I could share that with everyone in Consejo, so ok, normal. (as they say in Spanish, alright in English)

So after lunch I had my part to share about exercises. I confirmed with Hermana Herrera what I was going to do, and then did it. I explained the exercises on the projector and how to use the routine. Then I demonstrated. I took my suit coat off and all the Elders went, ¨oooohhh, ooh, ooooohhh!¨ And generally everyone got excited. I had my yoga mat that I use and Elder Daybell (the assistant) rolled it out like a red carpet and I had President Herrera start the music on his laptop and in less than three minutes I was done demonstrating the most basic in the routine. But winded from having eaten right before. Everyone loved it and I really hope that instead of just a lot of people having a short exercise show that they have shared it with their zones and that more missionaries are doing exercises so that they can be blessed with the blessings of regular exercise. (I challenge each and every one of you that is reading this blog to do something for exercises. Take fifteen minutes and just make a plan then do it each day. Maybe different for different days, but just make a plan and do it. It feels really good to be healthy and fit.)

In other news:

I´m pretty much running the show now as the executive secretary. Elder Boelter just explains the new things and the only thing I think I may have trouble with, but think I´ll do well anyway, is when to do everything next transfer. But we schedule things pretty well. So it´ll be good. We´re wondering if Elder Ordoñez is sticking around or if he´s out. But it´s cool either way.

My parents sent a package through some friends. I´m really grateful to God that I could retrieve it. Because they ended up having to leave it at their hotel desk since we couldn´t meet up. And 80% or more of the time here, with packages, you need ID. And my ID card is still in migrations right now, so I didn´t have it. But I didn´t need it thankfully. Tender mercies. I really enjoyed playing with the Frisbee I got in my package today on p-day, but on one throw it hit the concrete hard and died. I think super glue and tape will fix it though. If not, my parents were wise in sending two. :D

As far as the work goes, we´ve visited with Jhonothan a couple times as well as Mari. We´ve been proselyting a couple times and we set up an appointment with someone that stopped by the church, we´re hoping it goes well. And things are going good. The sisters had a baptism this Saturday! Norman got baptized and Elder Boelter baptized him.

Also, we did service by painting the ceiling of a member´s house.

Have a great week!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Mothers´ day!

Hola a todos!

This has been a pretty good week. I´m learning more, I´m growing and I´m working.

My spirits are a lot better after my dad reprimanded me in the Mothers´ day Skype call. They asked how office life was and I said it was pretty boring and that I felt like I wasn´t doing much, then my dad told me he wanted to tell me something. ¨I love being in the office!¨ He reprimanded me for being negative and now that I´ve decided to take a better attitude, I feel a lot better and I´m working on a couple goals and declaring who I am, and who I am becoming. I LOVE BEING IN THE OFFICE! I also love my family and my dad!

As far as our sector goes, we´ve visited a couple more times Jhonothan, our progressing investigator who works in our apartment building. We also had a good visit with Mari and Nicolas, she´s a recent convert and they´re doing well.

A couple pictures, we saw this huge dog coming back from President´s house after a meeting. We called it Max. We made a mattress fort in the office with the 8 mattresses that we had to buy to replace some old ones. And Elder Westbrook and Elder Fawcett cooked Sloppy Joes for our pension´s birthday.

We had correlation like normal, but we took a picture too. Hermana Arana, Hermana Barrientos, Yo, Elder Chango and Elder Boelter in this picture that our ward mission leader took of us. Later that night, Friday, we had a ward activity that we organized, we didn´t do much to organize it, but once people showed up and we started it ended up being the best ward activity I´ve seen here in Peru, so that was cool. We taught the Restoration-

RMs will know that, but basically we talked about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and we´re His kids. The Gospel (teachings of Christ and His prophets) blesses families. That God calls prophets in each day and age. That Christ came and in His ministry He established His church and had four key pillars, Prophets, Apostles, Priesthood and Revelation. We explained this by putting those words on big soda bottles and putting a box that said ¨The Church of Jesus Christ¨ on top. The church fell when the wicked people killed the Savior (prophet) and His Apostles. But Joseph Smith was an instrument in God´s hands and restored the Church of Jesus Christ to the Earth through Christ´s direction. And he also translated the Book of Mormon and now we can know this today through sincere prayer and wanting to know.

I had a really neat spiritual experience Saturday morning, I finished reading El Libro de Mormon. (The Book of Mormon in Spanish) and as I finished reading the last of Moroni, no fireworks exploded or anything significant physically. But as I knelt down to pray after reading, I felt yet again as I asked, that this book, the Book of Mormon, El Libro de Mormon whatever language you want, it´s true. I´ve felt the Spirit witness to me time and time again.

So I invite you, just as Moroni invites all of us. Go and read it, then think of all the wondrous works that God has done for us, meditate on all of the things God did for that people and our people. Then pray. Pray sincerely and with true intent. Pray to know if it is true, pray to know if it is not true, pray to know how God wants you to use this book in YOUR life. And if you do so with real intent, really meaning to act on your answer, you will receive.

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

P.S. I didn´t say anything about Mothers´ day, but HAPPY MOTHERS´ DAY to all the mothers out there. I hope it was great!

Changes! Transfers! And I´m not trunky!

Hola! Hola a todo el mundo que esté veyendo esto,

¿Qué tal? Yo estoy bien, por mayor parte.

Okay, so the mission handbook tells us not to be negative or complain or stuff like that, but just honestly, office life is boring. It´s essential for the other missionaries to keep going without headaches, but I want to proselyte! I want to teach! But hey, it´s alright. I get to cook my own breakfast now! (see picture for reference{I bought groceries!})

That´s okay though, if I´m here it´s because God wants me to do something, and/or become something. So here I am. Oh yeah! This week we said hello and goodbye to roughly 15 missionaries each group. It´s interesting. I didn´t get trunky from seeing airplanes, so I should be alright.

The last week in Puerto was good, but I kind of felt I´d be gone, each time Elder Rodriguez said he thought I´d stay, I knew deep deep down that I wouldn´t, but didn´t want to! I´m good now.

Things I do here: I do legals, Machu Picchu list, flights, missionaries from branches here, and take everyone to and from the airport. My companion Elder Chango is the package man and supplies.

Something cool that I want to testify about, in Puerto one of the councilors in the District presidency invited us to do two different fasts. One with prayer, the other without. I obviously do the one with prayer, but I unintentionally did the one without. There have been a couple different times here in the office where I didn´t eat breakfast or I ate only a little, (just because we´re busy, not because I´m starving myself) and I was hungrier after only a meal missed than almost before eating when I had fasted for two whole meals. It´s quite interesting just from a curious standpoint. But when you realize that there are a lot of blessings that we can and do receive from fasting, it´s more than a curiosity.

I invite you to do a fast for a special purpose if you so feel that you should or if you want to try this. And you will receive the blessings that God wants to give you, just try it!

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

I thought I was on a mission...

...not in an office job.

Hola a todos! Qué tal? Cómo están? Espero que estén muy bien!

I´m in the office! I´m using my personal computer that I share with the Assistants, this is crazy! No more internet expenses for at least 6 months! That´s pretty much a guarantee! I´m happy, I´m sad, I could only laugh when I got the phone call, there was nothing else to do. It´s crazy!

It´s been good though, I´m already learning my responsibilities as the new Executive Secretary here in the office, and you'll never guess who my companion is! It´s Elder Chango!!!!!!!!!! He was with me in Puerto Maldonado in La Joya, it was pretty far from the rest of us, but he´s really cool. I also went to Lima with him when I went for legal mumbo-jumbo. (that´s my job now) He´s a good Elder, he´s from Ecuador and he´s my age too. How cool!?!

You´ll possibly guess who´s ion a trio with us though! Elder Boelter! That´s right, my companion from el CCM is my new "trainer". Meaning he had the job before me of Executive Secretary. We´re in an awesome trio though. It´ll be exciting. Though I hear we hardly proselyte, I hope we get to, but I´ll just have to see.

Basically I need to make sure everyone is ok here in the mission with legal stuff, take care of flights, answer some phone calls, do some stuff with transfers and yeah, other stuff that I don´t know yet.

I left Puerto in good hands, Elder Rodriguez is amazing and he´ll do wonders there, I´m excited to hear what happens. This is crazy, in so many different ways, but yeah, it´s what the Lord wants of us in this moment, so we´ll do it. 

P.S. We had a Luau on Friday, that was cool, I was able to say bye to a lot of people that wouldn´t normally have happened. Tender mercies.

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

The Savior's Love

Hola a todos!

Esta semana fue corto por el viaje a Cusco, pero estaba bien. Tuvimos mucho éxito cuando regresamos.

This week was great, short, but great.

I'm really feeling the love of the Savior more for investigators, the other night we were talking to Hermana Ana, who had her baptismal interview a while ago, but is having a couple problems still, we read the Book of Mormon with her and another investigator who lives next door and the Spirit came so strongly there, it was amazing.

I've felt that love for my companion too, he's really trying to develop and strengthen his own testimony of the Book of Mormon, I shared my experience with him and we just felt the Spirit so strongly, the Book of Mormon is true! It's so great to be a missionary!

I think I'll just let you guys know that you can feel that same love as you open your heart to others and seek to help them as the Savior helps us. Do it, feel loved, feel love, share that love.

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

Still alive! And Semana Santa (Easter)

Hola a todos!

Que tal? Esta semana fue bueno, pero también raro por la Semana Santa, pero bueno.

This week, it was pretty good, but Easter's almost not celebrated here. Semana Santa or the Holy Week is huge, but almost no Easter. It was good though.

I'm honestly a little lacking in the memory banks on last week, because today we had a "Grand P-Day" Or, we came from Puerto to have a multi-zone conference and a p-day with President and 4 whole zones. (or, for no RMs, 70ish missionaries) We played tug of rope, a couple hula hoop games and hand ball. Which was basically soccer with hands and a yoga ball. Our team won that one, we were tired, but happy. I got really sunburned though, because I forgot sunscreen. Be wise, learn from your mistakes. Do not become a human tomato in physical or other form.

The conference yesterday was really good. We learned that by living the Doctrine of Christ (not doctrines rather, Doctrine of Christ, as is found easily in 2 Nephi 31, and 3 Nephi 11 and 27) you are able to remove stress from your life, because Christ will help us and we will remove burdens that are in us from not repenting or not having faith in Christ or from not following the Spirit or from not keeping covenants or from not enduring to the end.

In other words, as we have faith in Christ, that will lead us to repentance, which leads to covenants that we keep and are blessed for keeping, with those covenants we receive the Holy Ghost as our constant companion to guide us and we can endure to the end with all these blessings. All of these pieces or principles will help with at least one form of stress that we can have in life, but as we live His Doctrine, we are free and at liberty, from all kinds of bondage, including stress.

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher

P.S. I was in an airplane to Lima exactly a year ago at this hour! I'm a year in the mission! Woo!

Starting to let you guys know how I'm doing again

Hola a todos!

Que tal? Esta semana ha sido bien, pero que significa eso? Voy a esforzarme a explicarlo.

Questions

How was your week? Did you meet new people to teach? Were you able to share any of the messages from conference?

It's been a great week. Yes! 11! :D More or less, I made a huge sheet of application notes, now how to apply them... But we've shared some from the conference too.

How has the weather been?

It feels like Sicuani again, I don't know why, but it does. It's rainy still, that's odd they say, but it's sun otherwise. It's hot.

One experience that was fantastic this week is when we were visiting Izabel, she's a sister that we've visited a couple times, more or less mid-thirties, and shared the Plan of Salvation and last week we shared the Restoration. Then this week we remembered to do the verification of commitments that people do, so we asked if she had read the Book of Mormon. She said that she had and that she prayed too.

She said that she felt a burden lifted off of her like never before felt, that God was right there next to her and she knew that the Book of Mormon was true, as well as the Restoration. That experience brought the Spirit strongly.

Another is when we visited Miguel. He and his partner Juana, more or less sixties, have received us well, we've shared a couple different things with them and he's been more or less interested. She's not doing well with her health, we shared a couple scriptures and had a good experience with that and a blessing we gave her a couple weeks ago. Then this week we passed by and she was sleeping, but Miguel invited us in, we talked to him about the Plan of Salvation and that God has a plan so that we can have hope, be happy and not fear anything at all. He felt the spirit really strongly so we invited to baptism, he said he needed to learn more still, but he sounded open.

I was able to do exchanges with Elder Villavicencio this week, that was good. He teaches well. It's amazing being here in Puerto and helping so many people. We reached many goals and we're excited to keep reaching goals, because that means more people will know about the great blessings that God, our loving Heavenly Father, has for all of us His children. And even more than just knowing, that they can experience them themselves.

God loves us, that's why He gave us commandments, so that we can be cleaned of our sins through the Atonement of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior.

--

Hurrah for Israel!

~Elder Fincher