How is everything going? This week has been busy, we are trying to get seven people ready for baptism on the 19th. A couple of them have word of wisdom problems so we will probably only get five but that is still pretty good. I forgot to tell you last week, but the Wednesday before last an investigator got kicked out of his house so we were helping him move all of his stuff to a different street and I threw my back out. So I had to go to the chiropractor last Monday. But everything is better now. Tomorrow we have interviews with President Poulsen, and exchanges with the zone leaders on Wednesday. So it is going to be a really busy week. I hope everything is going good for you guys I'll talk to you next week.
Dec. 13th

Hello,
The internet place we usually go to wasn't working today so we ended up in this dodgy little internet cafe' in the middle of Soweto. I have a bunch of pictures to send but I will wait until next week because I will have more time and stuff. We had five baptisms yesterday. Today we are going to Roodeport for the missionary Christmas party. I got the package from Sonya on Monday.
I hope you all have a Merry Christmas. I wish you the best.
Love Elder Finlinson

Hello
This week has been good the Zone leaders came to our area to do two baptism interviews on Saturday. We were supposed to have four but two guys we are teaching are having trouble quitting smoking. Hopefully we can baptize them in Dec. But out of the two we had one pass the interview but the other one had to get a second interview by Pres. Poulsen but Pres. Poulsen approved them so we will have two baptisms this Sunday. On Saturday the MTC missionaries came out with us and Dylan Hare(from Delta) was with them so I got to talk to him for a few minutes. Yesterday was Stake Conference. Every companionship gets a cell phone. We get transfer news on Saturday, I doubt I will be leaving but you can never tell for sure. I'm already past the three month mark, its gone by super fast so far, I'm and eighth of the way done already. We get to go to the temple on Friday so I'm excited for that. We are supposed to go every transfer but we didn't get to last transfer because Elder Holland came. So ya its going to be a busy week but that's a good thing. I hope everything is going good fot you guys and I hope you all have a nice week. Good luck with everything.Elder Finlinson (Nov. 22, 2010)

Hello
It's been a busy week, we had two baptisms yesterday, they went good. The one lady we baptized was so big we had to have two people baptize her. Then she was floating so they had to push her down and she started to freak out. It wasn't very pretty but it got done . Its weird it is almost Christmas, its so hot here and it gets hotter every day. All of the kids are about to get out of school for summer vacation so it doesn't feel like Christmas at all. The temple was good, just the usual though. We got transfer news on Saturday, there aren't any big changes happening. I'm not going anywhere. Elder Call will be training again but other than that nothing is new. I will probably be here for 6 more weeks but hopefully I will stay for three more months. Yesterday we went to Roodeport for a testimony meeting at the senior couples flat and we ran out of gas like two blocks away so we pushed the car there then they ran us to a gas station to get gas. It was kind of funny but it was lucky we ran out of gas where we did. We are planning a big u-nite at the chapel on Friday. We are going to try,Whose line is it anyway? I don't know if you know it bit it was a T.V. show a few years ago so hopefully it will turn out all right. We have a ton of less-actives in the ward so we are trying to reactivate them. There have been 37 baptisms in the ward this year and only half of them are still active. The relief Society has been having problems with people offending each other and then people going less active, so yesterday Bishop Sibeko gave a talk in sacrament meeting sham bocking the relief society, it was awesome.
On Tuesday we were meeting with this lady that we have been teaching. There are these sangomas or" tradition healers" which are basically witch doctors and people here are obsessed with them. But this lady was going to a sangoma but she wasn't really sure whether sangomas were good or not so we talked to her about God and how he has more power than anything and the sangomas have no power. so she decided we were right so then she wanted to know what to do with all the sangoma medicine stuff that she had. She had seven little pouches that were full of crazy powders and stuff that she was supposed to bathe in and drink and wash her hands with and stuff.And she said she was scared to throw it away because she thought it would bring her bad luck so we took it from her and took it back to our flat and threw it all away. I took some pictures of it but I didn't bring my camera today so I will send them next week. But there are just seven little plastic bags and a bottle of this juice stuff, and apparently it cost her R1200 or about 175 dollars. The people here believe the craziest stuff. But ya everything is going good, I hope you guys all have a nice week and everything goes well for you.
love Elder Finlinson

Hello,
General Conference was good, on Saturday only ten people showed up to watch it. In the priesthood session the choir was a bunch of missionaries from the Provo MTC and so on one of the songs they were showing the choir and they stopped on this one missionary for a little bit, and I thought that guy looks familiar. So ya it was Trent Eliason, he was in the same grade as me, he is going to Fiji, so it was pretty interesting. We just watched conference at the chapel. For family home evening we try to go to a members or investigators home and do it with them. Ya the district is kind of boring now but its ok. Elder Semaemae didn't have a drivers license and got pulled over so they had to transfer him to a companion who had a drivers license and then a bunch of missionaries in Botswana got kicked out of the country so they are moving a few people around. So we should be getting a new Elder in the district today. As far as cooking goes I can buy any food that you can and more. Just send me a variety of recipes. Oh ya I got your Halloween package on Thursday, we were at the office because we had a meeting with Elder Snow of the seventy. It was a meeting for district leaders but I got to go anyway. But thanks for the candy, they have weird candy here so it is nice to taste America again. If you have room in the next package send me another pair of wranglers since the ones you sent earlier don't fit anymore, but if you don't have room don't worry about it. But ya everything is going fine, I hope you guys are all doing well. But thanks for everything, I'll talk to you next week.

Elder Finlinson

Hello.
That's funny about the cows and horse, I knew the place would fall apart after I left. We don't get to watch conference till the 30 and 31 of October. We have a pretty good ward so we don't have to do much. President Poulsen came to our ward yesterday but I didn't get to talk to him much.
The baptism was good , but other than that the week wasn't very good. They had Soweto Days or something this week, so every one had long weekend and there was some famous DJ playing at maponya mall which is in our area and right across the street from the chapel. So they have been blasting music non-stop. Then last night there was a soccer game between the Kaiser Chiefs and the Orlando Pirates, which are the two big teams around here so last night everyone was drinking and playing loud music . The weekends are usually bad because everyone gets drunk and stuff, but this whole week has been like that. Most of our appointments canceled or ditched out on us this week. So this week has been really hectic, but exciting. I'm probably going to be in this area for four and a half or six months, and my companion is probably leaving in three weeks. I went on exchanges this week with Elder White from Lehi, and tomorrow we are going on exchanges with the zone leaders. Ask Brady if he remembers an Elder Bakker. This week should be good we have some service projects planned and we are going to be fed a few times which is always nice. I can't think of anything you need to send me. Its nice to hear Michael won his game this week. But I'm out of time so I'll talk to you next week. Take Care. Elder Finlinson

This week has been busy. We got our bikes on Monday so we haven't had to walk so it's been really nice. I got to drive a couple times this week; it is actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. We have a baptism next week and yesterday we had a lot of investigatiors come to church so this week will probably be really busy. I got the package you sent last week after I got done e-mailing. Thanks for sending me all that stuff, I really appreciate it. I don't know how to explain kota, its like bread and fries and meat. Braai is an outdoor barbecue. This week one of the members is going to cook some worm things for us so this might be the last time you hear from me.
On Oct. 15, Elder Jeffrey R .Holland is coming to Joburg. So I'm pretty excited about that. All the missionaries that live within an hour drive get to go see him so it should be pretty cool.
We get a few referrals but a lot of our investigators come from street contacting. We are supposed to contact 10 people everyday and we try to set up appointments with them.
But everything is going good so I don't really know what to tell you. Good luck with everything, I'll talk to you next week.
Love, Elder Finlinson

hello
Well I am in Soweto, in the Pimville 2 area. I was hoping for Botswana but everyone tells me this is the best place in the mission so I can't complain. My companion is Elder Horomba from Harare, Zimbabwe. We get along good and he speaks good english. The Joburg mission has more cars than any mission in the world, so naturally I end up riding a bike, and of course the bikes are currently in the shop being fixed so we have been hitching a ride with a couple of other Elders to our area then walking all day till the Elders pick us up again. but I think we are going to get our bikes today, so that will be nice. We e-mail in one of the malls that has a little place where you can buy time on the internet . I haven't gotten your package yet but we are going to the mission office today so I hope it is there waiting for me. I met some people from Scipio , They were here visiting their sister who is married to the area president, President Kolliker. So I talked to them for a minute but they didn't really say much. It is crazy that i would see someone from so close to home. The houses are small and close together and there are a lot of people but they are friendly. On the weekends a lot of people get drunk so it makes it pretty interesting. Yesterday we had interesting prayer with a drunk man he was blessing squirrels and all kinds of weird stuff like that. I'm not liking having to cook for myself so I'm living on peanut butter sandwiches. i was going to send you some pictures today , but i forgot my card so i will try and remember next week. It is starting to get hot here. Almost every day for lunch we eat kota from a little kota shop in our area. It is really good. Yesterday we ate lunch at the bishops house after church. He is one of the funniest guys i know. We are going back on Thursday so I am excited. Then on Friday I think we are having a braai for a zone activity. In the mornings we sit in our flat and study til ten and it doesn't feel like we are doing anything but once we get out and start talking to people and traveling around I really enjoy it here, so I am trying to keep busy. Our chapel is right next to this huge church called Grace Bible Church. It is sponsored by ESPN because they have this huge basketball court in the church. So a lot of people go to that church and on Sundays their whole parking lot will be full of cars. It is huge though, I will take some pictures and send them to you if I can. But I'm out of time so I'll talk to you next week. Take care. Love Elder Finlinson

Sawubona,
I'm doing well. My card is working now and we went to the mall today and i bought a shirt and some candy and pop. The splits last week went really good. We went street contacting and knocked on a few doors but it really isn't effective around here so they don't do it very often. I only have three days left here. I bought a card reader at the mall today so i might be able to send some pictures next week. It is starting to get hot here Wednesday was the first day of spring and now everything is starting to green up. I got one of your cards this week, it was really nice. My talk went really good everyone was wondering how I knew so much about the Atonement so it was kind of funny. We went to the bank today and exchanged our dollars for rand so I have almost two thousand rand now. They drive so crazy here, everyone honks their horn at everything. Taxis randomly stop in the middle of the road to let people on. People run out into the roads without even looking and expect you to stop or swerve. They call stop lights robots here, but we were stopped at a stop light and a funeral procession was passing in front of us and a couple cars just stopped in the middle of the intersection and people got out of the cars and were walking around the intersection of the two four lane roads. I'm learning a little bit of Zulu, I can say the words but i don't know how to spell them. I look forward to hearing from you next week and hopefully I will have more to tell you about after being in the field for a few days. Good luck with everything.

Everything is going great out here. I got one of your cards on Thursday so it only took eight days to get here instead of fourteen or whatever they said. It was really nice to hear from you since I hadn't talked to you guys for so long I really appreciated it. Just make sure to write my name on stuff when you send it to me because the card just had the address and not my name so they weren't sure who to give it to.I'm not sure what the name of the street is but I think you can just type the address into google and it will show it to you. I only have ten days left till I leave the MTC so I will have a new companion then. The Temple was awesome. Do you remember how I was telling you that Amberly went to it and she said it was really small? It is tiny. In the creation room there was seats for twenty four people. So we had to go in two different groups because there wasn't room for all of us to fit in a once. We went to the distribution center and looked around and they had elephant, and ostrich skin scripture covers, and books of Mormon with zebra, crocodile, elephant , and ostrich covers. Do you want me to get you one? The market was kind of boring, it was kind of run down and trashy. I tried to get some money out of the ATM but it wouldn't let me so i don't know what is up because it worked for other people. I might have done it wrong but I don't know. They mostly serve us American food like pancakes and mac and cheese and mashed potatoes and stuff like that but then they have some local food that is really good. Yesterday a bunch of the members from around this area came to the MTC and we taught them, we didn't do very good but is nice because now we know what we need to work on. Today we are going on splits with some of the Joburg missionaries, I'm not sure what we are going to do but I'm excited to get out of the MTC and see some of the town. Tomorrow I have to give a talk in sacrament meeting but its kinda funny because it is on the atonement and before i left dad said to take my farewell talk with me because I would use it again and here it is two weeks later and I'm already using it. We don't get to go to the post office we just give all our letters to Sister Christensen and she takes them to the post office for us. I'll be looking for the cards and package you sent for me. Make sure Michael stays out of trouble. How is everything there? You should send me some pictures, it would be nice to see some of home.
Love Elder Finlinson

well I am finally in South Africa. The MTC isn't too bad they feed us good and they keep us busy. The flight over here wasn't as bad as i expected it to be the plane was only half full so we had plenty of room to stretch out. My companion for while I'm at the MTC is Elder Mamba who is from Swaziland. There are 30 Elders here. There are 22 Elders from the U.S. 1 from Scotland 1 from Australia 1 from Madagascar 1 from Kenya and some from South Africa. The other two missionaries in my room are Elder Knight from Battle Mountain Nevada and Elder Rainibe from Madagascar. Elder Knight and I get along pretty good because are companions have trouble speaking English so we have been helping each other out. We go to the temple every Tuesday while we are here at the MTC . I can't wait to get out of the MTC, I'm learning a lot but my companion is making it really stressful. its still winter here and kind of cold and the days are really short. Every morning I wake up to the most annoying birds I have ever heard in my life. I haven't really got to see what Africa looks like because the drive over here was in the dark and there is a big wall all the way around the MTC. The MTC President is Brother Christensen from St. George. When he saw my name tag he asked me if I was from Oak City, and then he told me how he spent every summer growing up in Oak City visiting family. And that we are probably related. I don't really know what else to tell you, just that i'm doing ok, i miss home and all of you but i'm having fun learning a lot and staying busy. i get to e-mail every Saturday while i'm at the MTC just so you know. it will take about fourteen days for a letter to get here or even a little longer Love, Elder Finlinson

Hey i just got to the MTC. The flight from Atlanta was actually pretty nice. The plane was only half full so we had room to lay down and sleep. I could't see much on the way in because i was right over the wing. There were twelve of us that flew from Salt Lake together the we picked up ten more in Atlanta and one in South Africa. there are only about thirty missionaries at this MTC so it is not very big. It was weird flying in because right after we left Atlanta it got dark and it stayed dark for maybe five hours then it got light and by the time we got to Joburg the sun was setting again. The mission President here saw my last name and asked if i was from Oak City and i said yes and he said we are probably related. On the flight we met a Gideon one of the people that put all the bibles in hotels room and stuff he was pretty interesting guy to talk to. The accents are pretty sweet and they have different words for everything. Some american swear words aren't swear words over here. It was dark on the drive to the MTC so i couldn't see much. Well i'm going to bed so i will talk to you when i can.

love, Elder Finlinson