May 17, 2010

well hello family.
ok so there are quite a few questions that need to be answered so ill start out with those. so first thing, umm i didnt get a new companion or anything, so sorry if what i said last week in my letter was a little confusing but everything is normal i still have the same companion as always. and mom ok, so i think when i talked to tenille on the phone she said that you were trying to give her my futon ? umm you cant do that.. i payed for half of that.... you can give it to her if you replace it with something better in my room , thats the deal. and yes a leatherman knife, let me explain to you how living in the DR is. its basically a two year camping trip, its nothing like living in america, and a leatherman would be very very helpful. and i dont need any mosquito cream, so dont worry about that. and also could you put a copy of my mission call in the box your sending to me and as for the treat well anything will do , sweedish fish are always good but anything will work. and your right i dont have a microwave, and i do all my cooking on a gas stove. umm drinking out of that water bottle , well the president told us not to use it because since the missionaries have been using them , more missionaries were getting sick, because if you look at the part where you suck the water from, its not coverd so alot of dirt and stuff gets in there. and i havnt used my rechargable batteries yet, because i havnt had to but im sure that soon in the future i will be using them. as for dallin and jantzen, well i havnt heard from dallin since the provo mtc and the only time i heard from jantzen was when i talked to him on the phone, so i dont know what going on with them or anything. tiff so as for my poop well this has been an interesting week and ill talk about it later in the email. but as for my sleeping , i sleep on a bed and its actually a really comfortable bed, and there are no bugs in my bed which i am extremely gratefull for. but speaking of bugs ill talk about that later in the email also. and that work out vibrator thing, that sounds soo cool and i reall really want to try it out........... in 20 months haha. jonny well as for my investigators , we dont really have any good ones right now. we basically had to get rid of the six best ones we had because they wouldnt come to church. so were basically starting from scratch. and my testimony is great. im really good at testifying because thats all i do all day long haha. but my testimony has also grown in everything so much too , its really cool. but ok so as for my week , it was pretty good and averageish week. so about my poop. so i had some problems last week with it being to runny right? well this week i have an entirely new problem. so for the past two days and if you include today, 3 days i havnt been able to poop!!! nothing i do, try, or how long i sit there for , nothing happens haha. it has definatly been really really really interesting. so i just got like two and half days of stuff chillin inside my body waiting to come out..... haha. and im not exactly quite sure what i should do about this haha. but and for the bugs. so my house officially has cockroaches. yes cockroaches. i open up my clothes drawer and i find cockroaches. i pick up my shoe and i find cockroaches in my shoe. now the worst bugs invented are mosquitos, ants, and cockroaches. as for the language , well i think all is going well. im studying really hard and learning alot so i think with just a little time everything is going to be alright. but sounds like all of you are doing pretty good, really really busy but overall things are going good. i love hearing from you all every week and all of you are in my prayers every day. so thats about it , love you all cant wait to hear from you next week. love elder finn

May 10, 2010

heyyyy family again ......
well i talked to all of you yesterday so i dont know how long or great this email will be. but mom to answer you questions, i dont need anystamps, i just give my letters to the post office and they send them off. the stuff i would like you to send to me are what i talked to tiffany about yesterday ( wiht the card reader!!!!!!!!!!) , a leatherman pocket knife, and i think that is about it. the transfer call came after i talked to you all yesterday and im staying here in azua with the same companion so pretty much nothing is changing, except there will be a new missionary that is moving in to my house. yup i got another baptism this week, it was really cool ill give you all the story later in this email. but as for contacting people, we do it all. contact door to door, work through references, and just all of it. and teaching people, i would say that i teach more individuals more than families. and my camera charger works great so you dont have to worry about that. and as for the mosquitos, well they still love  me and i am constanly getting bit by them, but im learning really good how not to itch them because that only makes it worse. and yes im taking pictures so as soon as i get that card reader from you i will send some pics to you all. and HEY ryan congradulations on graduating from college, now the really fun schooling is going to start. and grandma and grandpa finn thanks so much for your letter that you send me, i love getting mail from you guys and hearing about your lives. but as for my baptism, well you all remeber that one house that i was teaching at that had like all of the chickens everywhere? well i baptized the person that lived there. so its kinda a funny story , so her husband was baptized like 2 weeks before i got there, but he is practically blind so the way that he had to read from the book of mormon was his wife would read to him. so time went on and he got baptized, but still wanted her to read to him. so with time she eventually developed a testimony in the book of mormon too. and a few weeks went by and she was ready to get baptized. its a pretty cool story, and its amazing how the will of one person can change more than one persons life. but remember also how there are crazy people here. well, so im sitting here typing this email and this guy comes in and sits down at a computer next to us. and he takes out his newspaper and starts having a conversation. with who? that is a very good question. so me and elder flake are trying not to laugh at him , hes just sitting there talking to noone seriously for like 20 min. and i just looked back at him and he gave me a hello wave but was still talking away haha. holy cow i love the crazys down here. but thats pretty much all that happened to me , that i didnt talk to you all about yesterday. i really really really really really really really liked talking to you all yesterday. like it was really hard for me to go to sleep that night because i was so excited that i got to talk to you all. i cant wait until the next time i get to talk to all of you. it helped me out so much out here because i was having kinda a hard time out here so i really really apreciated having the opportunity to talk to all of you but i love you all lots and lots and ill email you again in a week.
love elder finn

May 3, 2010

hey everyone,
ok well im really really excited to talk to all of you too on sunday, and the 6 o clock your time works out for me too. so you all went through the temple with tenille for the first time, i bet that was a pretty good experience. dad im not really sure if i will be able to go through the temple, i know alot of missionaries that havent been in like 6 months or more. so jord # 1 in tennis singles, that is way cool. it will probably be hard because thats where all of the really good people usually are, but it will help you so much and you will improve alot too, and dude dont worry i probably did worse in calc than you are doing so just keep at it. jonathon that was a good story, i wish i could have been there so me and you could make it worse haha. tiff sounds like everything is going good, especailly now that you know you get to stay in pocatello. and mom to answer some of your questions, the heat... well you know how i said that may was the hottest month, no that when it starts getting really hot. and no im definatly not used to the heat nor do i think that i will ever be used to the heat. ITS ALWAYS SO HOTTT!!!! and especially on sunday, it was fast sunday so i couldnt drink any water or eat any food, one of the worst experiences i have witnessed yet on my mission. that night we didnt have power for most of the night so i didnt even have my fan to cool me down, so throughout the night when i couldnt sleep and was soooooooooo thirsty i would just go and take a cold shower. and i got your suprise today, but its at the zone leaders house so i havnt opended it yet. and elder flake is from mesa arizona. and i figured that brady would go to the provo mtc, and not to the one in brazil because thats what happend to a lot of missionaries. there were even some missionaries that were stuck in the mtc for 14 weeks trying to go to brazil but couldnt cuz they couldnt get their visa. but as for my week, it was pretty alright, nothing special. but you all remember how i said i went to that spring of water last week that cleans you out. well i went back today. and ....... let me just say that i am totally clean!! we went there with a member who knew where to get the water from and how to drink it. so what you do is , you get a bottle of water and chug it. ( this is probably the worst tasting water i have ever tasted in my life, its like salty ocean water but worst, nasty nasty nasty). and then once your done with that one you get another one and chug it. and you keep doing this until you have to do your business out in the woods. so its different for every person, like some have direah and others puke alot. so we start chuggin this water and after about three bottles of water my comp takes of for the woods. and after three for me it did like nothing, i just felt really full of water. so my comp comes back and part of the cleansing process is you have to keep chugging water so it keeps cleaning you out.soi finish my fourth bottle of water and i felt a little sick so i took a little walk and after about 30 steps, i probably had the biggest throw up of my life. it was amazing, serioulsy i was projecting this water like a fire hose. so after like 2 minutes of puking i had to go back and drink some more water. so i would go back, and chug more water and then throw up like crazy!!! so i did this three times, and it was crazy amazing. i recorded me doing it one time so i can show you all later. but my stomach is definatly clean!!! but that is basically it, i cant wait to talk to you all on sunday, and mom i think what will happen is i call you guys really fast and then you call that same number. so at 6 o clock you all be ready to talk to me!! but i love you all . talk to you soon.        love  elder finn

April 26, 2010

hey everyone,
well holy cow can you all believe that i have been out here for three whole months!!........ haha well dont worry its going just as slow for me as it is for all of you at home. but first thing, tenille i even called you out last week about writing me and you still didnt so i came to the conclusion that you really dont read what i write, sooo. . . you smell like poo. haha. but anyway,  i got my package!! thanks for the suprise , and im sure you were laughing when you put those ¨ mints¨ in there. so the wedding is this week, crazy ! well just send me all of the good pics that you would think i would like to see. the more the merrier. mom the seasons down here are a little different, like the rain season is from septemberish to january, and the rest is the hott season :) . and as for people listening to us, this is how it goes. almost every person we talk to will accept another visit, but usually they are never there, but sometimes we find some really cool people that will listen to us. and dad dont worry about the immuplex and stuff for now i have plenty still. haha so ryan i looked a little chunky ? well i did gain about 6 to 7 pounds while i was in the mtc and ccm. but im probably back to normal now cuz all i do is walk all day, all day, all day. and for p-days well for the first like three weeks i was here, we didnt do anything. just chilled around all day, because like our zone leaders never plan anything . but today me and elder flake were sick of doing nothing so we made a plan. we live like right by a bunch of mountains, and in these mountains there is this spring. me and elder flake named it poop spring, because it is famous for if you drink it , within like five minutes you have major dirreah and vomit a ton. and its really popular here cuz it totally cleans you out and what not. so me and elder flake went exploring for it today, and think we found it but didnt drink any of it. ahah. but we went exploring all over the mountains and i took some cool pics that hopefully one day i can send to all of you if i figure out a way to do it.but no baseball, my comp. said that i will probably only play that like tow times my whole time hear, which is wierd cuz like everyone plays it. but as for my week, i got my first baptism!!!!!!! so i was really pumped about that. it was a really wierd story. so there was this kid that has been going to church for years, and everyone thought he was a member. so the president of the district asked him if he had been baptized, and the kid said yes. but the missionaries that baptized him like ten years ago didnt keep or lost his records, so technically he wasnt baptized. so over two weeks me and elder flake taught him everything and then on saturday we baptized him. it was  a cool experience. but as for our investigators, we have like six really good ones right now, and two of them would be baptized right now but their  ¨husbands¨ wont get married to them, so that really stinks. that is a really big problem down here, like noone is married. so i also decided the two worst creations that are on this planet.    1. mosquitos, as of right now , i have like 30 ish bites all over my arms and feet. and i honestly do not know why God created this stupid bug.    and   2. ants, there is probably like never a worst site than looking inside of my cereal and seeing hundreds of ants in it. really though worst bugs on the planet!!! but one of the coolest things about this place is that if we are in our house and dont want to go and get something from the store, we just have to yell at a little kid, and give him money and he will go get it for us. and they dont even steal your money, so tanner i expect you to do the same when i come back. but not really anything really crazy has happened to me this week, so this is kind of a lame letter but hopefully next week will be a lil better. that about it, and somebody tell tenille happy b day to her for me cuz i know shes not gonna read this, haha. oh and and what is the best time for me to call on mothers day? when everyone will be there? this is very important information that i need you to get back to me!!!!! but thats it i love you all lots and lots.         love elder finn

April 19, 2010

heyyyyy everyone,
ok well first before i tell you all what went on with me this week, let me answer all of your questions. about an earthquake....... well let me just say that there is a giant crack in my ceieling now because of it, and we have been living in the church for the past week cuz our house is not safe......... not im just kidding! haha i didnt even feel it or know that there was an earthquake. mom when i was in the mtc i got to go to the temple everyweek on thursday, but now because im out here in the field probably will hardley be able to go. unless one of these days i get transfered to the capital, but that wont happen anytime soon. what is this i hear about jan getting marrie?!! crazyyyy!! everyone is getting married. and mr. ryan grant finn....... freakin what the heck man!! a girl friend?? ok i want some pictures. seriously the whole family decides to change and do all the exciting stuff right when i leave. and i had normal living, water all week, so overall pretty good. mom you dont need to send me one of those water bottles, im good. and my health is doing really good no sickness......... yet, and yes dad in case you were wondering i am taking the immuplex. and mom if you are curious about pants, dont worry about them because i maike pants here for super cheap and they are super cool. i made me a pair this last week, ill take some pictures for you.  as far as food, like i said we have a lady cook us lunch but for breakfast i usually eat yogurt and cereal, and for dinner we usually stop a like a street stand and pick something up or i just eat little snacks all night. and money i have a little over 7000 pesos a month to buy food and what not. AND for all you up there complaining about the cold, .. i would give up everything i own to have some cold right now, especially during the night when there is no power and i just lay in my bed sweating and sweating and sweating, soooo enjoy the cold for me !! Jordy well congradualtions on your braces, im really jealous and i want to see some pics of your teeth, and about the friends just give me all the b days of like my good friends. about the haitians, well i dont really know much about them. it hasnt really seemed like there was a problem between them and the domincans to me, maybe closer to the border but here its pretty chill. and i was talking to my companion, about my mission. and when he got into the mission, the west was like the worst in the carribean, and there was just alot of problems. and then president almonte came in and he got to see like the whole change. he said right now that the west is most successful mission in the carribean and one of the best missions in the world. pretty cool how a change in presidents can change so much. and the churches here are kinda the same. they arent as nice as the ones in the states and they are really open and have aton of fans in every room. no carpet or drinking fountains or gym, just a church. and as for the members. president almonte made it a rule that we have to a member present in every lesson or else it doesnt count, but all the young men are usually willing to come with us so there really isnt a problem with that. the problem is with the older members. they just dont really do anything, like dont go to meetings, or during church teach false doctrines haha, and so its just stuff like that. and so mom said that you all fasted for me, well thank you soooo much. all week is was great i didnt feel worried about the language at all so thanks thanks thanks. and i can understand my compainon perfectly and have a conversation with him soo thanks sooo much. and im also convinced that dominicans do not speak spanish, because i can understand my comp. but when they say the same thing , i swear they are not speaking spanish. i even have a mexican in my house and i can understand him. jonathon i cant wait for next week haha. and tiff dont you worry, everything will work out ok and i will be praying for you, and that is so funny about tanner. hows the wedding stuff going? ok so this week, i had the opportunity to go on a intercombio , i dont know what its called in english, with a dominican. i can say that like that whole day i probably didnt say more than 5 sentences haha. but during one of our lessons, i was just chilling there trying to figure out what they were saying and then i look over and say something that looked a little different. so you know how people have dogs for pets and stuff, well apperantly here some people have goats for pets. i looked over and saw a goat just chillin there in the dining room. and later the elder that i left with said that it is even trained. like it knows how to sit and come. haha who knew? and i also had the opportunity to do some service. while me and my comp. were contacting this guy was cleaning his yard, so we asked if we could help. and he said yes and gave us each a broom. and i was a little confused of what to do because i looked around and all i saw was a dirt yard. and yup you guessed it, i swept the dirt. i know it is really good to do service for people and stuff, but sometimes i just dont understand what the point of sweeping the dirt. but whatever. and you all remember the house with like 100 chickens at it. well he trains them for cock fight here and to prepare the chicken for the fight they do some pretty interesting stuff. and during our lesson there i had the wonderful opportunity to witness it :)!! so first the shave all the feathers off the roosters legs. next they take some water in their mouth and hold up the back end of the chickens , and.... spit. as you can imagine this gets feathers and poop all over haha. and then next after all the water is dry they take a lemon or lime slice it in half and rub it all over the chicken. all over , ano y todo :) haha. and that is pretty much all i saw while i was there. pretty interesting. but that is about it haha. i caint wait to hear from you all next week, and im not sure about the calling on mothers day yet so i will try and get details about that. and i still want a list of all the birthdays of our family, and i think tenille b day is either this week or last week , soo HAPPY B DAY soon. and speaking of tenille , ..... Tenille im calling you out! im almost 99 percent sure that i havnt gotten an email from you or anyting since i was in provo, so next week i want to hear about your life, cuz i know you have alot going on in it right now. but thats all love you all and your all in my prayers .       love eler finn

March 25, 2010

my familia , that half of them arent home right now to read this.

ok this section is for jordy so when he gets home make sure he reads this. jord tell aly and madeline that i got their letter they sent to me in february and tell darren that i got his letter too. and mom all those pics that i sent to you from provo ... print some off and have jordy give them to my friends ( brady , taylor, send one to dallin, aly , madeline ) ok? and can you send me some of the pics that dallin sent to me from when he was in the provo mtc. alright but to start off the email really good, i just wanted all of you to know that i accomplished one of my goals in my life!! I DUNKED IT!!!!!! i dunked a volleyball first , then the next day during gym i tried a real ball and .... i totally did it!! and yes the hoop is real size. so ryan you better hope that your p 90x thing is helping your vert cuz you dont want your little bro to show you up... do you ? ok and last week in my email i was thinking about it and it kinda sounded like i chewed out dad and ryan for not teaching me spanish.. so i just wanted to clarrify that i was just joking so dont take what i said seriously. i heard something awsome about my mission president though, pres. almonte doesnt speak hardly any english ...... isnt that so cool.........  ☺? and iam so ready to go out into the field! i am so sick of being in this box here! i dont even care how much spanish i know , i am ready to go out there and start doing stuff. and my spanish is doing really well, i can pretty much understand almost everything they say and can basically respond. im sure its sounds really green-go but its still spanish. i heard that its 50 degrees up there ... wow ! thats cool. today is about 75 with a little overcast and a breeze so.... yea its pretty much perfect ! haha. i still havnt gotten my package yet but it could be at the mission home and they are just waiting for me to get there so i can pick it up. yesterday i talked to some elders from my mission. they said 1.) they havnt had like any water for the past two weeks cuz their filter broke, so no shower or anything for a few days and 2.) be ready for a culture shock. so i am ready ! ryan a couple weeks ago you said you went skiing. i am proud of you haha. there is probably no more snow up there so you cant go anymore , but i am so happy that you tried going. TRIED going haha. mom to answer some of your questions, no i havent heard from dallin yet but mail here is terrible so he could have sent me something and i just havnt gotten it yet. and nope , there is no day light savings here so that is pretty nice. and there are definatly different holidays here. on st patricks day we all wore green and the teachers thought we were all wierd. it was pretty funny. tanner i miss you and i totally know how you feel man. im sick of being inside all day too, but just hang in there for a couple more week and then you can play outside all the time. i do get all your dearelders , sometimes they are a couple of weeks old but they get here.haha i think that when i get out into the field i get an hour to email so then everyone can just email me and it will be alot better. im thinking of a way that i can send you pics. i think i will have to buy an SD card reader that goes into the computer and then i can just emaill them to you all. and be more than happy to send me pics through email. especially of peru. and familia stuff. that is so crazy that like half of our family is outside the country. i definatly think that i chose the best place to go though ☺. i cant wait to hear how everyones life is going next week and peru and their experiences! oh and round two of wierd stuff they do here. so some girls dont shave their legs or armpits. and the guys do shave their armpits. and the guys wear fingernail polish. only the clear coat , no colors. but i dont know about you but i think that its kinda crazy! definatly a different culture. but i dont know if you guys will get an email from me next week cuz im going out to the field and i dont know when their p day is so you will just have to wait and see. love you all keeping all of you sick folk in my prayers , 19 a day ! love elder finn


part 2


 and im pretty sure all of your prayer, fasting has helped a ton!! i can understand them and kinda speak it and i can read out of the book of mormon and know everything that is going on. and i can read like the entire liahona ( which is entirely in spanish) so thanks so much for all that you guys have done for me .. it has helped so so so much!!!!!

March 18, 2010

alright alright i know that all of you have been dieing to hear from me, so listen up cuz im only going to write this email once. like i said last week i went to  a new district and got a new companion. my campanion is cool and we get along and my district is pretty good too. but one of the new teachers i got .. well lets just say we arent like two peas in a pod. yea he says just stuff that bugs the crap out me and its just frustrating cuz he is like our main teacher so learning is hard , but oh well i can deal with it. so all the latinos came in and, two of my roomates are latinos. its a genius idea to put the americans with them cuz i think it is helping us learn spanish in a different way. my roomates are really cool and fun but coming from a different country they tend to some things a little bit different than americans. Like the first couple of days they pooped and showered with the door open so that was a little interesting. but they are learing and now its better. they have never seen a reatainer either, so i thought that was a little interesting. but remember that story greg told us about him pooping his pants, well i didnt actually poop my pants but i know that exact same feeling he felt. it is like hitting a brick wall! i was just sitting there planning and then BAM it hit me !! all im sayin is im really glad that there was a bathroom five feet away cuz if i was in the streets i promise you that i would not have made it. elder anderson of the 70  came and spoke to us so that was really cool, it was all in spanish so i had no idea what he said but it was still cool. when i talk about driving , no elders drive. we have drivers and its just crazy here! thanks for getting me a camera charger and trying to get it to me as fast as possible. ryan ok its about time you wear those contacts, now MAYBE ( probably not) keep up with me in b ball. and you also said that the way im learning spanish will help in the long run....... ill believe it when i see it haha. all of the latinos are from around the world. like central america and south america, and they are all learning the spanish language..........   . jord it sounds like your eagle thing is going pretty good, you should be excited to go to peru. it will be a shock and you will basically have to depend on ryan translating for you but it will be alot of fun. so mom you wanted to know what i do on p-days, i go to the temple then read letters then write my email then eat lunch then go and do service somewhere then rest until dinner then after dinner class. so i heard you all did a fast for me on sunday? thank you all so much for doing that every lit bit helps and i needed it so much cuz this week we learned subjunctive from my not so favorite teacher, so it was a rough class but i feel like i understand it. just keep up the prayers because i need them. im prayin for all of you everyday too. so time to get down to business. DAD and RYAN i 100 percent blame you two for me not knowing spanish haha. you both should have only been speaking spanish to me for the past 3 years, so by the time i left on my mission i would be fluent and not have to stressed out about learning all of it now. and i decided spanish is like a giant riddle. cuz when your speaking you have to congigate all of it in your head and think of the words you want to say too. but yea GIANT riddle. ok and ryan to give you a lil taste of what im going through. in domincan spanish they DO NOT say their letter S. so i challenge you and dad to talk to eachother in spanish and not say the letter S while you speak and see how well you can understand eachother AND slur all of your words together. i poromise you im not exaggerating on this , this is exactly how they speak. but that is it for now. and only 13 more days until i go to the field so im gettin a lil anxious!! but i cant wait to hear from all of you next week. love elder finn

March 11, 2010

hello family it me again ! can you all believe ive been gone over a month. not gonna lie this has been the longest but fastest most busy month of my life. but i got my packakage today ... yaayy!! but when i got it, it was open but nothing was missing from what i saw. i got the SD card and it didnt really look like they searched through it. i heard that flat packages make it through customs better too. and put pictures of jesus all over it and that will help too. mom rember those book ( jesus the christ, etc. ) that i didnt take with me, well could you send those down to me?  and you dont have to make me another photo album one of the kids in my district from provo sent it to me here. and one thing that i need especially for the field is a headlamp . like what we take on the man hike. cuz the power goes out here all of the time and i heard that those are awsome to have. and one more thing to send me , my black nike bag. that would be great to have. now to answer all of your questions. i get all of your dearelders on wednesday usually or sometimes thursday, so in time for me to read them before i email. ryan my calases are gone on my fingers :( so now i get to go through the two weeks of pain again when i get back. i got to go to the store/ supershopping center this week, and i have been looking forward to going there for about two weeks so let me tell you a litlle bit about it. we had to drive there so we almost died like 20 times on the way there ( i found out that there are not alot of stop signs here either ) but i finally got there and inside it looks pretty much exactly like a giant walmart. it had two floors and it wasnt really anydifferent than what we have in america, so i was kinda bumbed cuz i thought it was going to be just this crazy store and there would be just craziness everywhere , but nope it was pretty normal. my companions , yup plural were elder warren and elder mecham but this week latins missionaries came in from around the world and so they split up our trio and now im with elder horton. i had to change into a whole new district with new teachers and eeveything , im really bumed cuz i really liked my old district and was comfortable there but oh well what can ya do about it ?elder warren was pretty cool and elder mecham, well tested me a lil bit but overall it was pretty good. you know toby off of the office? how he is always singing and stuff and kinda annoyoing well taht is pretty much how he is. i have never heard someone sing that much in my entire life, and sometimes he tries to sing a song and it just doesnt sound very good but he doesnt care and just belts it out anyway. it was pretty rough to get used to. so i hear tanner thinks its funny to poop ? haha that is so funny i wish i could be there to cheer him on. and jonathon i will approve of you buying this suburban only if it still works by the time i get home and i can ride in it on the way to our manhike. mom i havnt seen the ocean yet besides from what i could see from the temple. and im pretty sure that i wont be in the mtc during general conference cuz my day that im suppose to leave on is march 30 or 31 so i will be out in the field. mom i forgot to get the model of my camera but the brand is an EXLIM ( i think) and the box could be in my closet so you could look for it in there. my curfiew and time to get up is still the same as in provo.  get up at 6 30 and go to bed at 10 30. and someone asked me if was doing my big bird stuff..... well the most excercise that i have done the enire time out here on my mission is probably getting out of bed. jordy its ok b ball is over cuz tennis is way fun and you will be playing alot this year. when all of the haitians left i still didnt get the package so elder wendler let me borrow one of his, but now when i take pictures im probably not going to send home the SD card cuz its just too dangerous and takes way to long. so you all will have a bunch of pictures to look at when i get home. still going to the universtiy every week and guess what ...... still have no idea what anyone is saying to me. ok well i can kinda get it but spanish is freakin hard, so listen family even if you are prayin for me to learn this language its time for you to go into super prayer mode. because today we got two native roomates and i promise you this..... i can NOt understand one word they say to me . so pray pray pray. ryan i dont think you were tellin the truth to me in your email about me doing kinda well , cuz if you were here and saw my face when they talked to me , im pretty sure you would have a different idea. and my dear brothers i am sorry for the rough times that your eyes have gone through ( from your emails and both of you should know what im talking about). but mom i dont need anymore shirts and yes im still wearing my retainer. ryan and greg i give you two more weeks with p90x ... im just sayin. and i still only get thirty min of email, and i heard i only get thirty min out in the field but hopefully that wont be true but we will just have to wait and see. i bet that im tanner than all of you up there though. im gettin kinda dark, but when i get into the field i think thats when i will start getting super dark. thanks for the letters and emails everyone , i love hearing from you guys and i cant wait until next week when i get to hear from you again. love elder finn

March 4, 2010

alright listen up because this is very very important..!! i dont know if you can do anything but you could try. at the mtc i left my camera charger and my filter water bottle they gave me in my room. so i dont know if like tania could go and see if they could just go get it or what, but i neeeeeedd need need those things. but i think i got all of your dearelders, but i just barely got them today. they either come on wednesday or thursday. some things i thought you might like to hear about the great dominican republic is, the power goes out here all the time. but the church has a giant generator that kicks the power back on after like ten seconds but in the field i wont be that lucky. the water here is no good.. at all. sometimes in my room the sink water turns brown haha its pretty interesting. i think my spanish is getting better cuz this week at the university i could pretty much understand what they were saying, i dont know what to say back to them most of the time which i found out is quite a problem because it turns into a ... i have no idea what you want me to say right now look on my face. it is hot hot hot here. if there are no clouds and no breeze it is death, it is so humid and my skin always feels sticky. this part is fro greg ... greg i now know what you are talking about when you talk about trinindad people. we have a trinidad missionary in the mtc and so now i know what your saying about they dont really speak english. they have the wierdest english accent i have ever heard, AND i now know what trinidad smells like too. ... im sorry you had to go there because he smells no bueno and im assuming thats what the country smells like too. i dont know if you can do this but look up and see how my mission got changed, like if its with puerto rico or what. but i would like to know the exact locations. my "sickness " last week wasnt from the water, i ate something that i wasnt quite sure it was and i think thats what put my stomach in a bad mood, and i think my stomach just had to get used to all the new food and stuff here. they have a kitchen somewhere in town cook all of our food and then they bring it to us to answer your question mom. from what i read im assuming you got my pics. thats good cuz i was a little worried if they would get to you or not, and yes i parted my hair. but it was only for one day and it was only because my whole district did it too. we go to the university every tuesday and this week was better. i placed two more book of mormons and the kid that we gave a book of mormon to last week came back and wanted to learn more. i have my first investigator and im still in the mtc , bet none of you did that :) . but yea the university is really fun, and super challenging cuz everyone speaks spanish and i dont speak spanish. i decided that english is a very good language because i already know it!! my teachers here are awsome . especially this one that i get every night, hermano ramirez. he is so cool and the best teacher i have ever had. but they are all from the dominican republic and hardly speak english at all. jord im pretty sure you won your game last night so good luck at state, and if you didnt have fun shoveling snow off the tennis courts haha and sorry to tell you this dude but your not gonna get your braces off when they told you they would. add another six weeks onto that and then you will get them off. and i dont need you to get anymore adresses other than tammys, and good luck with your eagle project and be ready for a shock when you get to peru cuz if its anything like here.. its nothing like america. tenille you are not getting married, i just barely decided that... you know why? because you picked the wrong place to go on your honeymoon. maybe if you picked somewhere that ryhmed with " the dominican republic" you could get married but las vegas does not sound anything like the dominican republic, so sorry no marriage for you.  tiff and jon keep having tanner remember who i am cuz i dont want him to forget me, and jon i hope your feeling better. ryan i didnt hear from you this week so im assuming i didnt get your dearelder cuz i know you wouldnt forget to write one of these weeks and then like one week later you just drop a message like your getting married or something. tania keep on teaching and have lots and lots  of fun! mom i didnt get your package yet but i think its going to come this week? but i dont know. dad all i have to say is ...... GET BETTER!!! i almost caught a lizard today at the temple. oh and i did service for haiti this week. we move an entire truck full of rice into a semi trailor. you sweat alot here when you work , cuz it is so humid. but it was fun and way cool. the whole camera thing is i cant take pictures because there are alot of people here that are go to the temple and the president doesnt want us looking like tourist and stuff. but the haitians leave on tuesday so we can take our cameras out and take pictures with them on tuesday. i will take alot of picture ( as many as i can cuz i dont have an SD card ) with like the temple and haitians and stuff. but i got a question for all you scripture folk out there.       at the age of 15 did joseph smith have faith?....................................................................................... the answer is NO. i was reading in the scriptures and it dawned on me that, after you have seen god and jesus christ you dont have faith anymore but you have knowlege. no faith just knowlege. pretty cool huh. so if you ever see god you wont have faith anymore. but thats it for this week, cant wait to hear from you all.
love elder finn

February 25, 2010

hey me familia!!! well to start things off , i did get all of your dearelders on time so you can keep sending them. jord that stinks that you guys lost to madison in b ball , that is rough hang in there i bet you will beat them at state. could you send me anouther SD card for my camera and i think i sent home my SD card from provo so you should have or will be recieving it. also if you really want to then i would be more than willing to accept food in that package... like chips and candy and stuff and letters!!!!! but everyone who is reading this needs to know that I KNOW ZERO SPANISH!!! we went to the university and i go in there thinking that i will be able to pick up a few words and create a sentence out of it BUT NOOOO nothin i seriously just stared at the people the whole time having no idea what they were all saying. thank goodness for me they love to talk here so all i had to do was nodd my head and say yes. but there were quite a few people that spoke english too so i talked to them alot. but i did place my first book of mormon ... YAY!!! to a kid that is 17 going to college and going to learn 5 different languages. he is really smart. everyone here though speaks at least two languages, im not even kidding. it was really intense to try and listen to people speak spanish when i really really really really had no idea what they were saying. my rooms and stuff here are so  so much nicer than at provo. the beds and pillows are way better and i can actually get a full nights sleep. it is so pretty here too, especially at the temple, you all need to come down here and see it. i can see the ocean from the temple too , it is way cool. right now it is like perfect tempurature... kinda. it is way hott sometimes but at other times it feels really good. there is always like a litlle breze which makes it feel so nice outside. they said that it gets way hott in june july and august so i cant wait until then :) . my spanish isnt as bad as it sounds though . in class i can understand them but they speak really slow for us and cleary but out on the streets i have absolutly no idea que en el mundo they are saying. our teachers said that we will be able to understand people by the time we get out of the MTC and by three months we will be able to speak it in three BUT we will see about that . i dont really like the mtc here as much as i did in provo. it is alot less organized and there is less free study time for the missionaries. we have three teachers everyday and they teach in spanish all day . my brain seriously hurts so bad by the time i go to bed at night. we did have a devotional this tuesday and elder vina of the seventy came and talked to all 30( or something like that) people at the CCM. so that was pretty cool. its really dumb .. were not suppose to take pictures at all so i have to wait until all the haitians leave and they we can take out our cameras so we can take pictures with them and stuff. i dont know its a dumb rule. i also got my first domincan haircut today....? remember when we shaved my head?....well i got round two today. it does feel pretty good because its so hott down here. humidity is wierd. you will walk outside and i feel like my entire body is swimming and breathing water and i feel sticky all at the same time. but there are no mosquitos here cuz were in the middle of the city and there is alot of pollution and stuff. all the stories are true there are dogs running around and garbage all over the place and it so funny cuz i totally feel like im in a third world country but its way cool at the same time. they are crazy drivers crazy crazy crazy .... like i would instantly kill myself if i got in a car. they drive the wrong way on the road and honk and do whatever they want. they call of the missionaries mormonies, just a random fact. but the food here is so good. and they feed me so much of it too. i am stuffed at every meal, so i will probably get fat. but one bad thing all of the new missionaries go through what i like to call the     " enfermo estomego" phase. i dont want want to go into detail with but lets just say that my bathroom visits were often and not solid haha. i had a dream that jonathon bought a suburban :)....? but that is about all that i can think of so i cant wait to here more from all of you and I LOVE YOU !!!!!! elder finn

February 12, 2010

ok jonny i heard you got kidney stones and that is noo bueno. but i also heard that those hurt worse than giving birth so now you can one up tiff. jordy i also heard that you are taking a cetain someone to the dance, remember that that is my wife and i will beat you if anything happens and tell her i say hi and love her. im also glad to hear that tanner found his muscles, he is learning the ways of being cool like uncle mo mo very well. jordy i also heard about your games ... just keep havin fun and doing good and what happens , happens. mom yes i am keeping all of my emails but i have these pouch things so i dont think i need you to send me anything. the deal on the phone calls in the airport is .. i was just going to call collect but if there is a better way than let me know and im sure i can make more than one phone call cuz ill be in the airport for a while. the mtc food here is pretty good , it got old really fast but i still eat so much of it and i have gained a couple of pounds. about my pink shirt , yea it was only one shirt so i dont know what happend there. and thanks so much for all the food that everyone has sent... serioulsy so much food . my sunday schedual is i go to church at like 9 to 10 ish then pretty much study the rest of the until the devotional at 7. thanks agian for all of your emails i dont think you guys realize on how much i depend on those cuz it is my only connection between you and me, so if you think you dont have anything to say .. you do cuz i really love the little things that happen in your life. ryan do good in basketball , i know im irreplacable but i still think you guys can manage and enjoy the good life man its pretty nice not having to worry very much and go skiing and get good ... you too jord. my first hair cut is in about 2 hours so we will see how that goes, i wish you were doin it tenille. that dearelder apple pie and cookies tasted great... i didnt even know you could ship an apple pie in the mail. mom the passport stuff i have know idea whats going on , i just sit in a class all day and try to concentrate for 12 hours ahhhh. i  hope the basement looks good cuz that is my domain and i want it to look amazing when i get back :). all of you that are fighting over my clothes........ keep doin it cuz i think its totally awsome haha.on sunday was fast sunday and not gonna lie that was by far theeeee looonggest day of my life oh my gosh it was bad. but to update you on my week, i pretty much sit in class all day and try to learn but you all know me im not the best at staying in one spot ... unless im watching tv. i pretty much know absolutly nothing abput spanish so i wonder how well the DR is going to be, i heard the only speak spanish to you absolutly no english. i learned the second lesson this week too , pretty exciting. im also pro at baptismal commitments ! i just got back from the temple and it is awsome. the temple here is huge!! and its really nice just to go and be able to relax. me and my companion are like two peas in a pod .. we have alot of fun and he is awsome. what is this i hear about all of you using my email to create a sermon or something? should i be careful of what im saying? well if im that popular i guess ill give you another thing to use. c. scott grow talked to us on sunday about conversion and reactivation and it was good to hear. after it we all bore our testimonies in our district and i came up with this analogy .... you ready?
" we the missionaries are the coastguard sent out to rescue people. the people struggling in the water are the non members AND inactive. the rescueers go out to save the strugglers and bring them back to safety in the helicoptor ( the gospel ). we can not give up until every last one of the people are safe because it is our responsibility , because we have the safe place to bring them back to it "
but thats about it for the week ill email you from the DR and let you know how everything is , so i dont know if you will hear from me next week. thanks again for everything that you guys are doin and i will keep you in my 19 prayers a day. :)!!!
oh and happy valentines day to you all too, and i still cant read spaish hardly at all so i appreciate the translation on the back.
LOVE elder finn

February 5, 2010

Subject: miiiiii fffaaaammmmiiilllliiiaa


IM BACk!!!! haha but anyways hoooooooooooollllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ffffffffffffffrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkkinnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggg fffffffffrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkk fffffffffffrrrrrrreeeeeeeaaaaaaakkkkkkknnnnnneeeeessssswss... serioulsy im in shock right now. thanks for at least waiting for me to come home so i could actually see it in the temple but whatever looks like im the forgotten one now and wont be able to see her in the temple but WHATEVER ahhhhhh. k first things first it would work out ten times better if everyone just sent their weekly emails through dear elder.com cuz i only have thirty min to read all of the and write this email so just trust me it would be better. next to answer all the questions my insoles are in my basketball shoes so just take them and send them to me, basketball is way fun ( seriously the funnest part of my day) and we can dunk but it has to be during a game so moone ever dunks, ryan hmmmm im thinkin it would be ok if you worked at barries BUT only if you go skiing and not snowboarding, tell kevin he is in my prayers( which are all in spanish and 19 times a day !) , yea i met shaun warner we talked for a little bit, down here ive seen taysom .. bryce anderson.. crobin latimore but they all left on monday but mac folger is still here , im ticked jans not going on a mission i wanted to see her here sooo bad but oh well she better get married then, tiff ya make me a new shirt but just keep it at home for when i come back, i got all of your packages and letters and stuff and i LLLLOOOVVVEVED them so so so much, i didnt have to get anymore shots , my first day here elder uchtdorf came and spoke to all the new missionaries... that was super cool and richared hinckley talked to us on sunday,
but as for my week .. it has gone by so so fast.. crazy fast. umm i found out that i have bed bugs cuz im getting bit at night which is no bueno. and yes ive done laundry but mom remember how you put red marker on all my stuff? well it turned one of my shirts pink haha. another thing if you are just sitting at home and doing absoluty nothing email me on dearelder.com cuz letter are probably the biggest help for me to get through the day. jordy i have some advice for basketball, PLAY not work PLAY as hard as you can and HAVE FUN forget working so hard and just play basketball like you have been doing your whole life. I hate waking up at 6:30 but oh well its good for me.but as for my days they are sooooooooooo long like they have a saying down here one day feels like a week and a week feels like a day and i can 100 percent comfirm that that is true. i have class for like 12 hours a day and i took your advice to concentrate on more of the gospel instead of learning the language and it is helping in both parts so good advice. my departure date is Feb. 18 and i dont know specifics yet so ill let you know when i find out which will be next week. again thanks for all the packages and stuff they rock. umm this week our teachers have been interviewing us on why we went on a mission, i answered by this
" my whole life i grown up saying that i want to go on a mission, im just gonna go because its the right thing and gods wants me to do it. but after just a week of being out on a mission something slapped me in the face and said no that is not why you are here. i am here because i love the people of the dominican republic, i havnt even met them yet but i love them. i must do everything in my power to bring them back to christ. " that ladies and gentleman is why i am serving a mission, because i love them. ive truely gotten to know what love is out here on my mission and i love all of you guys too :) umm spiritually im growing like crazy and i already feel more mature from being out here. i love you cant wait to here from you and if you see any of my friends tell them to write me too cuz that would rock!! love, elder finn

letter UNO!

Subject: ITS MEEE!!


hola familia
well how have you all been for the past three days without me :( ... i know really sad. but anyways my first day here was.......  the worst day of my life , i literally hated it. i seriously wanted to be home so so so bad, but the next day got ten times better and the next day ten times better and the next day got ten times better. so overall im doing really good right now. my companions name is elder wendle and he is from farmington utah( where lagoon is ) and he is way cool , we get along really really good. uhhh thanks for warning me ( ryan, dad, and jonathon) that all you do ALLLLLLL day is sit in class all day!! but i can say my prayers in spanish and bear my testimony in spanish and can have a brief convo in spanish so that is sweet. I love spanish ... serioulsy love love love spanish , i dont know how long it will take me to get it but i dont care cuz i love it !! some things i heard about the DR while i was here is that the speak super super fast and cut off the end of their words so its crazyness to just and understand them.another thing is .. apperantly they hate the haitions there and there is always a fight thing going on between them... like for instance i heard a story of a guys brother who just got there last month and he said a haition stole from a dominicans store so the dominican chased him down and cut off his head right in front of the mission home haha sooooo it will be fun down there :)!!! i cant wiat to go to the DR cuz i can tell that this MTC stuff here will get pretty boring. ummm well i kinda get sleep but one of my roomates serioulsy is the loudest snorer in the world ...like i wake up three different times a night because of him snoring and then it is super hard to go back to bed because of his snoring .... IT SUCKS!!! thank you all so much for the letters and thanks tiff and jonathon for the box of food ( so so cool to get packages here... especially full of food) but i love mail, i love mail, i love mail!!!!! so keep sending it familia . some things i forgot ... thanks for the wallet by the way... i need more of that shampoo , my concecrated oil( its in my dresser at the bottom, fingernail clippers, put all my money that was on my dresser into my debit acount , my dark blue aeropostale jeans with no holes and thats about all i can think of for now but thats pretty much all  thats happened to me so far, my  p days are usually on friday so you will get my email then and i miss all you and cant wait to hear from you.
love !!!!!!!!!! elder finn

MTC

On January 27, 2010 we loaded all of Morgans stuff for the next two years into the car and away we went.  His request on the way down was to stop and eat at IN-N-OUT BURGER, one of is favorite places.  It was a somber car ride down to Provo, Utah as we all knew what was going to happen.  As we arrived at the MTC, they had changed how missionaries get dropped off.  Now families just get a number, pull of to the side of the road a the designated number, and off they go.  I think it was just as hard if not harder than the old way was.  But we knew that Morgan was in the right place, which was comforting and that he would be taken care of.  We were all so PROUND of him that day!

 So we decided to start this blog for Morgan and all of his followers.  So we will post his letters and feel free to comment because we will print it off as a book for him when he comes home!


We love you Morgan!!

Called To Serve...

Elder Finn was called to serve in the Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic mission. 

I dont think Morgan could have picked a better mission for himself even if he hand picked it.  When he sent his call in he only had 2 requests- somewhere WARM and he really wanted to learn SPANISH.  His wishes came true when he was called to the Dominican Republic mission.