Faith: Week #81

Hey Mom!

I can’t believe that my friend Kaitlyn (Heaton) is going on a mission already, it seems crazy to me. (She's going to Brazil next week) It’s weird when the friends you grow up with go their separate ways to serve the Lord. It’s hard because you can’t see them for a long period of time, but it's so good because you know that they are doing the same work you are doing. The harvesting of souls :) 

We had some good things happen this week for the missionary work in the area. Some part member families are starting to open up to us missionaries AND we are finding MORE part member families to teach! We are also going out with members more and they are introducing us to their less-active families that they home teach. There are so many in these wards unfortunately. These are the lost sheep that sometimes just need a kind hand to reach out and pull them back into the fold. 

Saturday morning we helped out with the Phoenix-Mesa Marathon. Our job was to hand out cups of water and Gatorade. There were a lot of missionaries and only so many of them could do that, so the rest of us cheered everyone on coming through our area. We were at the 9 mile marker and it was really fun😂 There was a funny dude in a huge dinosaur costume that was running the race...I’ll attach a video of it😝

We had a few cool experiences with finding, one in particular I would like to share. We were biking through an apartment building one evening when one of the apartments caught our eye. There wasn’t anything special about it, we just had the impression to knock. We knocked on the door and a younger woman opened. Her name was Lauren. She had previously gone to church with her Mormon friends when she was a kid. She never had the opportunity to sit down with the missionaries and talk, but now she wants too! We are meeting with her this week! It was a small yet powerful experience of following the promptings of the Spirit. It’s really easy to miss promptings of the Spirit because they are so subtle sometimes. 9 times out of 10, the Spirit comes to me in thoughts. Do this, do that, say this, go there, talk to that guy. Really it could be anything. But what I’ve learned is that by acting on every good thought that comes to me, something good has happened. Sometimes that’s how the spirit works, it's different for everyone, but that’s how it works for me😊

This week was actually very trying for me. Mentally, physically, emotionally, the whole package. I think we all have our hard days though. It’s miraculous that we have someone who knows exactly how we feel. Jesus Christ has been there. He has felt it all, every bit of pain that we all have felt. Not sure how He did it, but He did, and He did it for everyone. He even did it for those who won’t accept it. He paid the price for them as well. That’s the unconditional love He has for all of us. Knowing that strengthens me in my trials. 

That’s really all I have to say this week. I love serving in Mesa and I love the Gospel. Have a good week! Love you!

Love, Elder Findlay

It was so cold this week! So we
 turned old socks into gloves :)

Random pic of me in front of our house

 This weeks car pic #1

Car pic #2

And here is a funny video of
 the marathon running dinosaur:

Preaching in the Rain Week #80

Hey Momma!

It’s ya boi Elder Findlay live from Mesa😂 I’m glad you had a good week! We had a pretty crazy week ourselves. It rained this week! Yeah that never ever happens. It made me realize how much I love the sun. I like biking in the rain for a few hours, but any more than that I’m not a fan of. Anyways it was a good change of climate :) 

I’m glad Jacks B-day was a success! And that jacket is SICK! What the...what is that? I want one, my two favorite things - Basketball and Utah!😂 I’m sorry that Jack hurt his ankle. That’s THE WORST. I remember when I did that in the MTC, it was the worst pain ever. It still sometimes hurts and that was a year and a half ago, I probably should have gone to the doctor...oh well😂 Hopefully his recovery is quick so he can ball out

Here is an update on Portia and Jose: We are no longer teaching either of them :/ Portia’s Brother is a Buddhist Monk who lives in the Buddhist temple here. He told her to not meet with us and to drop everything that we have taught her :( So we are no longer teaching her. But she remembers what we’ve taught her and she definitely felt the spirit. Hopefully that will stick with her for a long time :) As for José, he just stopped responding to us and so we dropped him. It’s sad but we don’t let it discourage us! I know that there are still people out there who are prepared to receive the gospel, it’s just a matter of finding them! 

We currently have only a couple of investigators that we are working with. We have been trying really hard to find people to teach, and we even fasted on Tuesday to find someone. Sadly this week we weren’t able to find anyone new but we still have the faith to! Obviously missionary work can be discouraging sometimes. But other times you are having so much fun that you don’t even care about the discouragement, you don't let it get to ya! When you get into those moods, that’s when missionary work is the best!

This week I had the opportunity to witness the baptism of an investigator that I taught in Citrus Heights Stake! It was such a cool baptism. The gentlemen’s name is Al, and he is such an inspiration to so many people. When I was teaching him he couldn’t be baptized because he had to take care of some things in California before he could be baptized. That would require him to leave his home and family for about 2 months. That was definitely a sacrifice that he would have to make. At the time I was teaching him, he didn’t have the faith to go just yet and so we just kept encouraging! It finally paid off! He went to Cali, got done what he needed to, and was finally baptized a member of the church. I have never seen anyone so happy! The Gospel can literally flip you around and change your life. No matter what you have done. It’s glorious!😊

Although we aren’t teaching many investigators, we are working with a lot of less actives. I think this week we met with 5 different less active families and had great visits with them all! They have various reasons of why they aren’t coming to church, but they all have a desire to change. One visit in particular was with Brother L. and his son. Our excuse to get over there was to play basketball with him and his son. So we did exactly that! We played a few games of horse and 21 with them. 😂 It was so fun, we played for a good few hours. It was good because we really built a connection and he invited us to come back next week! Not only that but another miracle happened! I’ve been working with Brother L. for a good 4 months, playing pool with him every week, trying to get him to ward activities, and so on. On Friday Brother L. said something that was a miracle. He has a habit of smoking and LOVES IT. He loves his beer and smoking. But after basketball he said “ I’m going to quit smoking, I’m not doing it for Gage(his son), I’m not doing it for you guys, but I’m doing it for Him(that’s when he pointed up).” That is a huge sign of change! Hopefully we can keep supporting him down this path and get him active again! 

Time and time again I have seen Gods hand in this work. It’s real and He’s real. I cannot imagine what it would be like to not know or believe that you have a Heavenly Father who loves you and watches over you, a Brother Jesus Christ who gave his life for you, and a messenger from your Father who guides and protects you. This is the greatest knowledge we can obtain :) Glorious blessings are in the Gospel! PLEASE make it apart of your everyday life! I love you all! Have a great week! 

Love, Elder Findlay

This was a gift to me from an investigator.
It's not a symbol we use much as members
 of the church but I was honored that they shared
this special gift with me.

Bishop C.'s Mustang. Me likey!

Valentine from the Garners 😊

Biking on a rainy day

add this to my collection of cool car pics in Mesa 😉

I love this Temple.
 It will be closing soon for extensive renovations.

Love... Week #79

Hello!

I’m glad you saw the picture of our mission conference! (It was posted on the Arizona Mesa Mission facebook page) It was a super cool experience that’s for sure. It’s always fun to be with the whole mission, I’ve been out long enough that I know everyone. Ha! It’s made me realized how many friends I’ve made on the mission😂 When Elder Cook was sitting behind me I could feel him searching my soul😜 Just kidding, but when he was speaking at the pulpit he said “When I shake your hands and look you eye to eye, I interview each of you individually...and you all passed!”. Ha it was pretty cool. 

Elder Uceda and Elder Cook had a lot of great things to say at our conference. Elder Juan Uceda taught about the importance of prayer in the conversion process. He basically dissected the word “exhort” which is found in Moroni 10:3-5. It brought a new meaning to the scripture itself, that way we can teach it to our investigators more powerfully. Exhort is basically a COMMAND to us and how we need to read and pray about the Book of Mormon in order to become converted to Jesus Christ. 

Elder Cook talked about having an urgency in the mission. Not only in the mission but in life. We are living in the restoration of the fullness of times and we need to be urgent in doing the Lords work. His talk was very inspiring and you can absolutely tell and feel that he is an apostle of the Lord. I know that he is. He also gave an amazing apostolic blessing on the Mesa Mission. He basically said that we will all find joy in our missions as we serve with our all in an urgent manner. I will always remember his words to us.

I got your package today! Thanks so much! I’m so grateful for the easiness of sending stuff to Mesa😊 

I can’t believe Jack is turning 15, he’ll be driving so soon😅 It will be super weird to see that. 

We had a bunch of Good lessons this week with new investigators! We are teaching a lady from Sri Lanka, an island south of India. Her name is Portia and she has been in the US for only a week. She is VERY smart and has already started to read and pray about the Book of Mormon! She is super open too so hopefully she continues to want to learn about the gospel :) 

We also taught some of our other investigators, one of which is José. He is super awesome. He just got out of prison after 12 years. We have been teaching him and he is very open and humble. He is working a night job and so it’s been difficult trying to meet during the day because he is sleeping a lot but we’ve been able to work it out though.

Other than that there was a lot of time spent trying to find the elect of God's children, people who are prepared to receive the gospel. Me and Elder Burningham are going to work really hard this week and find them. We are also going to fast and I know that it will help us in our search.  I have complete confidence that we can with the Lords help. I love being able to have such confidence in God, He always delivers. 

I am greatful to be an Arizona Mesa Missionary! It’s the funnest thing in the world, I can’t wait to serve the next 6 months with a smile on my face😊 I love you so much Mom! Your such an amazing person, have a good week!

Love, Elder Findlay

Arizona Mesa Mission special conference with
 Quentin L. Cook and Juan A. Uceda.
 Elder Findlay is FRONT and CENTER,
right in front of Elder Cook and his wife.

Zone lunch pic #1

Zone lunch pic #2

We got to go out of the mission this week
because Elder B had to see an orthodontist.
 So we went to Tempe and Chandler,
and it was sooooo fun! I love going
 outside the mission while still being obedient😂
We went to this place called Caine’s Chicken
which was the best chicken I’ve ever had.
 Too bad we don’t have one in our mission😭

0 to 100 Real Quick...Mesa Week #78

Hey Momma!

Yeah so my p-day was today (Tuesday) because we went to the temple this morning. It was a great experience as usual! I love that place. It’s going to be sad when it closes for renovation in May. I hope I can go to the Gilbert temple again before I go home. That would be fun.

Anyways yeah I heard all about the Superbowl! We ate with the Garners (I know... surprise), and it was sooo good. We ate in the backyard with everyone so whoever wanted to watch the game could go in the house and the rest of us hung out in the yard. Brother Garner's mom and siblings are pretty passionate about football, kind of like Kaitlyn😂 But yeah we had a TON of food as well, it was super good. I felt so sick afterwards😂 The Super Bowl is my new favorite holiday(if only it was a holiday)😝

It sounds like you had a good Stake conference with a general authority. And to answer your question,  I’ve had bishops call me up to share my testimony in sacrament meeting but never in Stake Conference....  Thank goodness haha. Speaking of General Authorities, Quentin L. Cook and Juan Uceda are coming to our mission this week and we are having a big mission conference on Saturday. I’m super super excited, it will be cool to have one of the apostles here in Mesa. I’m excited to learn from him.

It’s crazy that the weather is so odd there, it’s already warming up here, it got up to 80 degrees this week. Yikes, I’m not ready for summer yet. And that’s super cool that you guys are going to Nauvoo this summer, I’m a little jealous I must say! You can’t wait just another month for me?😂 That’s super cool, you’ll have to take plenty of pictures for me. I love learning about church history. 

This week was a roller coaster of a week. Our investigators have been very flakey, meaning that they aren’t very good at keeping their commitments. We are trying to find more solid people to teach here in this area. Monday night was a miracle for us, we were visiting one of our investigators when we saw a lady struggling to carry some stuff upstairs to her new apartment. We stopped and asked if we could help out. She graciously accepted and we were even able to teach her a little bit after. Her name is Shannon and she is very open, we had our first lesson with her on Tuesday. We taught her the restoration and she was very intrigued by it, it was a great lesson! She has been reading and praying about the BOM! We have high hopes for her. 

We also finally found our investigator Waldo!😂 Yeah his name is Waldo and we’ve been trying to contact him for weeks, every time we talked about him we would be like “where’s Waldo?”😂 Finally tracked him down. We actually had a super powerful lesson with him this week, he is really looking for his faith at this time. 

Oh and I kind of have a funny experience this week. We wanted to go to a restaurant for lunch called Wings Express, so we decided to bike over there. The street that the restaurant is on is called Main St and it’s been under construction ever since I’ve been here, so it’s a nightmare riding through there. It’s like an obstacle course. Anyways I was cruising through on my bike and I felt like I was racing haha, it was fun.....until I hit a garbage can and tumbled down😂 Elder Burningham was behind me and he said it was the funniest thing to watch haha, I wish I could rewatch it😂 Luckily my bike was okay and I only got some scrapes and bruises...😂 

Yesterday was kind of a rough day, our investigator Bill told us that he wasn’t interested in meeting with us anymore. I guess he watched some anti-mormon videos on the internet which talked about some false things. And we had to drop our other investigator Wanda because she never shows up to our lessons when she says that she will. It was a slap in the face that’s for sure. We were feeling pretty bummed, so to make things better we got ice cream at Dairy Queen. While we were sitting in the church eating our ice cream, we had like an hour before dinner, I said that if we exercised our faith enough we would be able to find someone before dinner. So we did just that and went out. As we were visiting a former investigator we saw this man standing outside for a smoke. He was all tattooed up and looked pretty rough. After some conversing me and Elder Burningham went over and talked to him, we told him what we shared as missionaries and how it could bless his life. I asked if he would be interested and he said yes! He said that he was looking for a church and wanted to come this Sunday! We are also going to meet with him again tomorrow. When he said yes I thought that he was kidding, but he was dead serious. I know that because we were willing to act on an opportunity to share the gospel with someone, God placed someone in our path that would be interested. God is a god of Miracles, and he shows me that every day :)

I love the missionary life, it is so fun. I even love being that goofy missionary that runs into garbage cans on his bike😂 I loved your email Mom, I am so grateful that you have such a strong testimony of the Gospel. Have a great week! Love you!

Love, Elder Findlay

Cool truck sighting #1

Cool truck sighting #2

We all got the same shorts! :)

Temple grounds grapefruit! I eat it everyday :)

I got to go on exchanges with Elder Bland!
First time since the MTC!

Cool ball court

Superbowl with Jakey Garner

District pic... Temple day!

Mesa fruit!

workin hard...

Superbowl food in Garner's backyard