Here is our email from Monday, December 23rd. Merry Christmas!!
Hello Family!!!!!
As for when the conference call is supposed to happen with ya'll I am not even sure.... It will probably be in the morning sometime, because we are going to go to the Marturello's their boys told me that they have stockings set out for us at there house.. so that is so awesome, I am excited to get over there on Christmas, mainly just to talk to you all!!!
Monday - We didn't do anything for P-Day at all.. waited in line for an hour to mail the packages, hope ya'll go them! But we ate dinner at the Grantham's house and then after that we had another dinner with Brother Willie Parker and LaMearl, and then they treated us to some ice cream as well, good, good people.
Tuesday - We did some service with the Marines, we did Toys for Tots, so we went to this way old air force building and helped them to sort out toys and to haul all these little kids bikes around and got to divide up toys for families. It was really a lot of fun, and some great service, we got to talk all of the people there! Then we had to go give Sister Knight a blessing in the hospital! And then get this after a lot of finding, we went and we helped this lady in her yard, we are still trying to do service/finding type of stuff. But its alright I guess. Then we got dinner dropped off.
Wednesday - We just did a lot of finding again, spent all of our time out and about finding people, but we didn't find anyone this week, but we talked to lots, probably just about more than ever! We stopped to see Theresa and she is fine, we didn't get to teach her because of the store, tried to set something up, but couldn't and she is again, just liking her church, so think we are going to take a step back and see what happens. And then we went caroling with the mutual in the ward, we went and saw some less active and recent converts while caroling, we saw Barbara and it made her cry. She loved it, the ward has really taken care of her lately.
Thursday - this was our Half Mission Conference and it took all day for real though. So we went down to Panama City it was awesome! Had a Christmas program with everyone's talents, crazy how good people are at instruments and everything. The Spirit there was awesome, I love it so much, coming together as a mission with so many of us, and having President and Sister Smith there, and then we did the gift exchange, and that was awesome. Saw a lot of familiar faces, Romney Hammond, and Elder Misi from MTC, and a lot of sisters from the MTC, saw a kid I knew up at Utah State, and Sister Stanfield from our stake. In the evening we had dinner with the Prigmore's.
Friday - We did our weekly planning. And then spent the rest of the day doing more finding, a lot of our appointments canceled. I love talking to people, so we did get a lot of potentials, that will hopefully turn out after Christmas. We saw Brother Nunez and had such an awesome visit with him, about getting him back to church, but we didn't get him this week, he says he will, so we are so close with thim.
Saturday - Oh man, we spend literally just about all day moving the Lint's! From 9 am to 4 pm, so we came home and cleaned up and then went with Bro Prigmore and visited Barbra, Sister Rush, and then the Thomley's.
Sunday - All of our appointments that we had fell through again today. But we did have a good Sunday, I sung in the ward choir, and then I said my part, it was a really good meeting! So we had to free style it and tried to see a bunch of people!
Well thats all Family! Hope that all of the Christmas festivites thus far have been great! I love you all so much, I can't even wait, can't even wait to see all of you and talk to you on Christmas!!LOVE YA!!!!!!!!!
Visiting this blog will you provide you information regarding Elder Bradley Brent Hintze and his two years in the mission field. He was called to preach the Gospel as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Florida Tallahassee Mission. He is served from June 2013 thru June 2015 He appreciated your love and support. Enjoy! The Gospel's true!
Christmas Mission Conference - Thursday, December 19th - Panama City, Florida
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| Elder Hintze, Elder Smith, Elder ? |
"A pretty darn good one we had this week"
The following is from the email received on Monday, December 16th.
Hello Family and Friends,
Hello Family and Friends,
Another week down the drain here in Dothan.. A pretty darn good one we had this week. Will be mailing off the Christmas package today for all the Hintze Family to enjoy, also another one that is just full of random stuff, hope ya'll enjoy!
Monday - We just did some shopping this last Monday. Didn't really do anything in particular fun. We went with the 1st Ward Mission Leader Bro. Kelly to visit a lady that he knew in our area, we gave her a blessing because something went funky with her eyes. She is a non member, apparently they have been very exposed to the Gospel, so we are hoping to work with them. Then we ate dinner at the Allen's home.
Tuesday - We had our District Meeting in the morning. And then the kicker was lunch being delivered, it was so awesome. The lady Kim came in and said are you Elder Hintze, and so she brought all of the food, and took a picture of us. The food was really good, it came in a whole spread, and she was so nice. She loved doing it. We threw $5 dollars in her car as a tip. But it really was so fun! So fun to have that done Dad! So sounds like we will be going by and paying here a visit. But we will stop by and see her! Then after that we went bowling with the district, as our district activity. It was a lot of fun as well. Then we went to Linda's home for a Christmas party/lunch. They were worried that I was going to be leaving, so they wanted to celebrate it earlier, so it was with Linda, Gloria/Zoya, and Carol Hughey. They got us a watch, a wallet, some socks, and then just personal care items, toothpaste, shampoo, etc. So nice of them!
Wednesday - Today was Transfer day. So the switches have been made, two new 1st ward Elders and a new Dothan 2nd Sister. In the morning we met with Theresa with Brother Bain, and we taught her and it was a great lesson, talked about the Doctrine of Christ all the way through complete. And she came to church this week. But it was a really great lesson with her, the Spirit was there, and she again asked about baptism, but just isn't ready to do anything yet. But while we were teaching a lady was unloading a Christmas tree at the shop, so we ran out and helped her, and she said, "Hey I met with Elders in Florida, I want you to come teach my family." Pretty darn neat. So we got her info.. and since we have called and says she needs to think on it a little more, but... still really neat, and one that we really hope to start working with, her name is Gena Taylor. After that we ate lunch, and spent some time doing some finding, tracting. Then we saw Barbra Phillips with Charles Bain, she is doing very well, she fell on Sunday, so couldn't come to church, she is in rough shape, but she hasn't smoked or coffee in two weeks. :) We did some more planning, and then we went out and we saw the Thomley's.
Thursday - We worked at the Food bank making boxes in the morning. Had studies. Then we ate lunch. And we hit the finding, we have been trying finding with a rake, we share a message that we are missionaries, and then we just offer service to them, by raking their leaves up. We don't know exactly if its working, but we will see. People treat us the same hahaha. We also did something kind of cool, at a Baptist church they had something called a "walk through Bethlehem" and we went and did that, made some friends with the preacher, but it was a reenactment of the times when Christ was born, like Roman soldiers that we're really acting the part, and the had a real baby, kind of neat. Then they gave us the talk at the end if we had been "saved" or not. So then we did more finding, and we ate dinner at the Marturello's. We then saw Brother Nunez, trying really hard to get him to come back, but he didn't come to church this Sunday.
Friday - We worked at the Food Bank in the morning. And then after that we went to the Food Bank luncheon for all of the Volunteers, we won some prizes.. I won a candle... :( But it was really great to get to talk to so many people there, we just split up, I just sat down at a table and started talking to some folks, and the sisters did the same! So it really was good, then we worked at the Hospital, and then ate dinner at the Hansen's. Then we did our weekly planning to close it out.
Saturday - We saw Barbra P again in the morning with Prigmore, and we then saw Barbra Erb as well. Both good visits, hopefully we are helping them in some way! Then we went to the Hughey's they had us over for lunch, and she wanted us to help put up Christmas, so that they boys would come out and help hahaha, so we did, and during dinner, their Grandma, and Christian one of the boys, started asking us different questions regarding the church and just what we believe about certain things, so it was really a great visit with them. Then we saw Gloria, and she is also doing really well, she still loves learning and always wants us to continue to teach her. Then we had the Ward Christmas Party, and it was a blast. We had people there that never had been, we got Carol Hughey to come out and watch us sing. Hahaha the missionaries all sung the 12 Days of Christmas, but missionary style, so it was pretty good! Pretty funny, got it videoed for ya'll to watch! But it was great fun, had the primary program and all.
Sunday - Good day at church. Theresa came and it really was some great talks, that I think were exactly what she needed to hear! So we will see, we didn't get any real time to talk to her about any of it. She wanted to meet after church and talk, but couldn't. Also I am in the ward choir, and I volunteered to say some parts in next Sunday's program. They put me in "tenors" I don't exactly know what that means. We ate dinner at the Hall's. And then we just went on a walking spree, talking to everyone that we saw, our destination was Sister Rush's and we talked with her, but also we got a lot of contacts, a few pretty good ones. So this week was a good one for that, we got a lot of potentials, and we got 4 new investigators, which is pretty darn good for these parts, so we are very excited! So dinner this evening was with Lee & Joy, we met Lee when he was cleaning up a broken beer bottle by our apartment, we live right next to the dumpster, so I asked him if he needed any help, but we got talking for quite a while, he goes to Church of Christ, knew Utah a little, but anyway, a few days later they knock on our door and ask us if we would like to come over for dinner, so heck ya! So we do it, and they are so nice. And we ate with them and we basically talked about everything imagineable. We talked about all manner of stuff, plan of salvation, priesthood, articles of faith, word of wisdom, new Jerusalem, book of mormon, bible, etc. etc. All of that stuff! And Joy knew everything about a lot of stuff, she was good. I gave her props. :) Haha. But we left them with The Book of Mormon and they are going to read it, and then we are going to talk some more. But they really are so nice they made sure we were taken care of on Christmas and new years, they invited us to come eat with their whole family on Christmas, and to come over and have crackers and watch the ball drop. So we will see what comes of it, don't know if they are sincere seekers, but we will see!
Can't wait for the Christmas day phone call! Well I sure do love you family and can't get over how great you all are. We'll see ya.
Love
Elder Hintze
District Meeting
This picture was taken on Tuesday, December 10th at the Dothan Ward following their weekly District Meeting. I have listed the Elders names below, but do not know the Sisters. Oh, one is Sister Devries? The following day one of the Sisters, Elder Simmons, and Elder Davidson were transfered!
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| Elder Davidson, Elder Simmons, Elder Hintze, Elder Smith |
"Christmas in Dothan!"
Later on Monday, December 9th, we received his weekly email. Enjoy!
"HEYO Family!!
So as you know, I am staying in Dothan, Alabama for the Holidays. So that is going to be super awesome, and I already got the hook ups for a skype call Christmas day! I hope ya'll are still around!
So one of our sisters is leaving and we are getting one from Geneva which is right next to us. And then both of the 1st ward Elders are leaving.
Monday - We worked at the food bank in the morning. We spend out P-Day at the mall looking at some gifts and what now. Got some people's info as well to learn more, all in a days work! Then we ate dinner and we didn't really have any plans, so we took the time to plan out our whole week.
Tuesday - We had District Meeting and then we went and got free hot dogs from the man in the 1st ward, Bro Filkins. We then helped Brother Bain in his yard rake up his leaves and we tore out some bushes and planted trees. Then we went to Linda's and she had already finished the painting, so we talked with her for a second, then raked her leaves, did some service for her neighbors. Then we went home and dinner time.
Wednesday - We worked at the food bank in the morning again. And then we went to a red cross luncheon for all of the volunteers, so that was cool.
Got to meet lots of people there. Then we did some finding, trying to talk to people, did some tracting. Then we saw Barbra Phillips with Charles Bain. Barbra is well, still fighting the smokes and coffee, she knows it is wrong, but so she is trying very hard. Barbra is having a hip replacement surgery, I am kind of worried, but I told her it would help her. I hope it is a Zimmer part! :) She said a Dr. Robinson is doing it down here. Dad, look into that! Then we had our ward correlation meeting, and then a ward choir practice, thats right, opa! I'm in the choir, and nominated to say some parts in the program! Then we ate dinner with the Thomley's.
Thursday - We worked at the food bank again in the morning. And then we worked at the red cross after that unloading all manner of junk from a shed, we had to move like over one hundred shovels and rakes. Then we met with Sister Crunelle, a less active in the ward. Then we ventured out to find lost people. We were sent by the ward and it was actually really, really good. We found quite a few of them, and we were able to sit down and talk with them. Some we will hopefully begin to work with some. We then ate dinner with the Thompson's, awesome family. Luke's family. Then we saw Brother Nunez, had another really great visiit with him, he didn't come to church however, but he has been so sick, so hopefully once he is healthy, he will come. Then we stopped by to see the Hughey's, everytime we see them, Jef is slowly being realed in!
Friday - Pretty sweet day, on the way to the hospital. We stopped just to see how Linda was doing, and look who pulled in the driveway.. Athen. So I was like enough of this, lets do this thing. So we invited him to take the lessons. And he said, yes! Which was really cool, he said that he has been thinking about it for a little while. So it may not be immediately, he said he may need some time. But also on the way there we got to talk to two guys, who both told us to come back and talk to them, which was cool. So we worked at the hospital. And then we went to dinner with the Evans!
Saturday - We saw Barbra again in the morning with Brother Prigmore. We saw Theresa, and she is just the same, we are thinking we are going to take a step back and then see what's up with her. We saw Sister Rush, but basically just spent the whole time trying to find people, just talking to people. Then we had dinner and did our weekly planning in the night time.
Sunday - Church was good, didn't get any of our investigators out. After that we had our ward choir practice. And then we hit the streets to go find, just walked around and talked to everyone that we saw, we were headed to meet with Jeffery our new investiagator we found on the way to the hospital, but he didn't answer. So we then got a call from Sister Knight, she is leaving and so we headed to see her for the last time, because it was her last time and we had been talking to her a lot about the church, so we got her info for the sisters. And then we had a ward pie social before the Christmas Devotional.
Did ya'll watch the devotional? I don't think I have ever seen the devotional before. But Cameron's mom and sister came out to that, I called them during the week and made sure they were invited. And Sister Davis went out and invited them together.
So that was the week. A pretty good one. So I guess we will just keep doing our thing, and keep asking the members for referrals. I am really excited to spend Christmas here! I love you guys a whole lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"HEYO Family!!
So as you know, I am staying in Dothan, Alabama for the Holidays. So that is going to be super awesome, and I already got the hook ups for a skype call Christmas day! I hope ya'll are still around!
So one of our sisters is leaving and we are getting one from Geneva which is right next to us. And then both of the 1st ward Elders are leaving.
Monday - We worked at the food bank in the morning. We spend out P-Day at the mall looking at some gifts and what now. Got some people's info as well to learn more, all in a days work! Then we ate dinner and we didn't really have any plans, so we took the time to plan out our whole week.
Tuesday - We had District Meeting and then we went and got free hot dogs from the man in the 1st ward, Bro Filkins. We then helped Brother Bain in his yard rake up his leaves and we tore out some bushes and planted trees. Then we went to Linda's and she had already finished the painting, so we talked with her for a second, then raked her leaves, did some service for her neighbors. Then we went home and dinner time.
Wednesday - We worked at the food bank in the morning again. And then we went to a red cross luncheon for all of the volunteers, so that was cool.
Got to meet lots of people there. Then we did some finding, trying to talk to people, did some tracting. Then we saw Barbra Phillips with Charles Bain. Barbra is well, still fighting the smokes and coffee, she knows it is wrong, but so she is trying very hard. Barbra is having a hip replacement surgery, I am kind of worried, but I told her it would help her. I hope it is a Zimmer part! :) She said a Dr. Robinson is doing it down here. Dad, look into that! Then we had our ward correlation meeting, and then a ward choir practice, thats right, opa! I'm in the choir, and nominated to say some parts in the program! Then we ate dinner with the Thomley's.
Thursday - We worked at the food bank again in the morning. And then we worked at the red cross after that unloading all manner of junk from a shed, we had to move like over one hundred shovels and rakes. Then we met with Sister Crunelle, a less active in the ward. Then we ventured out to find lost people. We were sent by the ward and it was actually really, really good. We found quite a few of them, and we were able to sit down and talk with them. Some we will hopefully begin to work with some. We then ate dinner with the Thompson's, awesome family. Luke's family. Then we saw Brother Nunez, had another really great visiit with him, he didn't come to church however, but he has been so sick, so hopefully once he is healthy, he will come. Then we stopped by to see the Hughey's, everytime we see them, Jef is slowly being realed in!
Friday - Pretty sweet day, on the way to the hospital. We stopped just to see how Linda was doing, and look who pulled in the driveway.. Athen. So I was like enough of this, lets do this thing. So we invited him to take the lessons. And he said, yes! Which was really cool, he said that he has been thinking about it for a little while. So it may not be immediately, he said he may need some time. But also on the way there we got to talk to two guys, who both told us to come back and talk to them, which was cool. So we worked at the hospital. And then we went to dinner with the Evans!
Saturday - We saw Barbra again in the morning with Brother Prigmore. We saw Theresa, and she is just the same, we are thinking we are going to take a step back and then see what's up with her. We saw Sister Rush, but basically just spent the whole time trying to find people, just talking to people. Then we had dinner and did our weekly planning in the night time.
Sunday - Church was good, didn't get any of our investigators out. After that we had our ward choir practice. And then we hit the streets to go find, just walked around and talked to everyone that we saw, we were headed to meet with Jeffery our new investiagator we found on the way to the hospital, but he didn't answer. So we then got a call from Sister Knight, she is leaving and so we headed to see her for the last time, because it was her last time and we had been talking to her a lot about the church, so we got her info for the sisters. And then we had a ward pie social before the Christmas Devotional.
Did ya'll watch the devotional? I don't think I have ever seen the devotional before. But Cameron's mom and sister came out to that, I called them during the week and made sure they were invited. And Sister Davis went out and invited them together.
So that was the week. A pretty good one. So I guess we will just keep doing our thing, and keep asking the members for referrals. I am really excited to spend Christmas here! I love you guys a whole lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Transfer News!"
We received this short note from Elder Hintze on Monday, December 9th.
"We just got transfer news here!! I am staying in Dothan 2nd Ward
for another one!!! Elder Smith is also staying here.. so no changes
for us…"
"We just got transfer news here!! I am staying in Dothan 2nd Ward
for another one!!! Elder Smith is also staying here.. so no changes
for us…"
"HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Elder Hintze's email from Monday, December 2nd. First Thanksgiving in the mission field.
Monday - Did some biking and then went to the members. We then ate at Marturello's in the evening for dinner. And we went back and we planned out the rest of our week, it is necessary in order for us to be more effective, we have run into a lot of problems meeting with people, so we are trying to all call ahead planning now.
Tuesday - We had zone training in the morning, so all of the missionaries in the zone got together in Dothan and the zone leaders instructed us, no president, just the zone leaders. We do role plays on role plays on role plays. Hahaha. So after that we hit the streets knocking doors and talking to people, it started to rain on us. We saw Robert Dobbs a less active guy that just likes to play music for us, no gospel conversation, seen him once before, but we were able to talk to him about why he is less active. Then a lady tried to kick us out of her neighborhood for soliciting, it was ridiculous, I told her like 12 times we weren't selling anything. Then we ate dinner at the Hornsby's.
Wednesday - We taught Theresa in the morning and is fine, she isn't progressing, so we told her we have told you everything, and you agree with it all , you have changed because of it, now it is up to you in order to take the initiative and read and pray to know if this is true or not, she still says she wants to be baptized, but nothing immediately. So we will see what happens, she still hasn't come to church. We then did service at the Red Cross, that's where you got the thanksgiving video from.
They didn't really need us too much, so we did family history. We tried to see Brittani, but haven't been able to this week. We then contacted a media referral we got from a member in California, it is pretty cool. We get a text messsage that says their name, address, phone number, missionary visit or what they requested, who send them in this case it was a member in Apple Valley, California, and this one said they spoke spanish. So we took Brother Marturello, who went to El Salvador on his mission, so I spoke to the lady at the door and she didn't speak any english, so Marturello just took it over and whipped out spanish as we stood there, it was so cool. So we got a return appointment, but we can't call them and they live forever away, so we didn't get to see them again, he couldn't get a hold of them. Our nearest spanish missionaries are in Tallahassee, so we may have to teach with an interpreter. We also picked up a new less active lady to work with. We then saw Barbra in the evening, she is doing really well, she has now quit smoking and coffee for over 10+ days again, and she is so much happier when she does.
Thursday - HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope it was a good one for you! We had a fun one! In the morning we played the Turkey bowl, football game. So we got there early and Davidson and I ran a couple of miles, to prepare for the food, I am pathetic, I get exhausted after like 2 miles now. But we played and it was really, really fun, we had about 22 guys and a ref came from the 1st ward, non member guy who refs high school, hahahahaha he was serious, like halfs, play clock, flags thrown, etc. It was the most organized flag football ever, it was hilarious. No injuries and I scored my fair share of touchdowns. It was also like 30 degrees when we started and the humidity, makes it cold, cold, cold. So after that we got picked up by Cameron's dad to go to dinner with them , so we went out to the house out in Cottonwood, an awesome house, way open tons of windows that look into the back, lots of land, with a couple different ponds, and there is a gator our there in it. So we got to meet a lot of the family, and talk with them for a long time. Didn't get anything too Gospel in, but talked to them a lot about our missions and about Cam and what he is doing. Haven't heard from him in a while, but read his email to his fam. But got to spend a lot of time talking with just his parents after the crew left. We also got to fish a little bit in their pond, which was good. Then we ate at the Hughey's house. And good visit with them, we had a really good Gospel conversation with them, Jef read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet I left with him, so I just wish they were members, they are dry mormons!!!! Thats what they call themselves, but slowly they are getting reeled in, the sons are awesome, they want me to come back and room with them at Auburn University.
Friday - We taught Linda in the morning, then we went to the hospital. The hospital was good, got to pray with quite a lot of people and talk with them. Then we ate dinner at the Hansens house and then we did our weekly planning in the night.
Saturday - We met with Barbra again in the morning, doing really good. So happy now! Then all of our appointments that we had set up canceled. So we each didn't have anything solid, so we decided well we can't visit anyone, because they will watch the game. So we went on a joint service spree, hitting a bunch of areas in the 1st and 2nd ward Chopping bushes, raking leaves, painting stuff. People are going crazy down here, and their were Alabama fans that were so mad! hahahahaha I am a total Auburn fan now, I was cheering for them all the way, I wanted the under dogs, so it was awesome. Then we visited Sister Burnsed, hadn't been able to see her for quite sometime and she is up in Headland which is out of our area, but Forest went with us to see her, really good visit with her.
Sunday - Church was real good! Didn't have Gloria, Zoya, or Barbra, all of them are sick, and we didn't have any investigators. Again our member canceled who was giving us a ride, so we had to wing it all day. We did some tracting, and we biked around a ton and saw some less actives. We visited Sister Knight, and we gave her a blessing. She isn't doing well.
Hope that all is well on the home front, and you had a good thanksgiving! I have got a lot to be thankful for, we all do, and I am so thankful for this family. You guys really are awesome and I love you all so very much!!!!!!!!!! I have grown to love and appreciate you all so much more and what the Gospel really means in terms of the family! This church is true, and I am feeling so blessed to be able to share that message each and every day! Love you all!!!!!!!!!"
Tuesday - We had zone training in the morning, so all of the missionaries in the zone got together in Dothan and the zone leaders instructed us, no president, just the zone leaders. We do role plays on role plays on role plays. Hahaha. So after that we hit the streets knocking doors and talking to people, it started to rain on us. We saw Robert Dobbs a less active guy that just likes to play music for us, no gospel conversation, seen him once before, but we were able to talk to him about why he is less active. Then a lady tried to kick us out of her neighborhood for soliciting, it was ridiculous, I told her like 12 times we weren't selling anything. Then we ate dinner at the Hornsby's.
Wednesday - We taught Theresa in the morning and is fine, she isn't progressing, so we told her we have told you everything, and you agree with it all , you have changed because of it, now it is up to you in order to take the initiative and read and pray to know if this is true or not, she still says she wants to be baptized, but nothing immediately. So we will see what happens, she still hasn't come to church. We then did service at the Red Cross, that's where you got the thanksgiving video from.
They didn't really need us too much, so we did family history. We tried to see Brittani, but haven't been able to this week. We then contacted a media referral we got from a member in California, it is pretty cool. We get a text messsage that says their name, address, phone number, missionary visit or what they requested, who send them in this case it was a member in Apple Valley, California, and this one said they spoke spanish. So we took Brother Marturello, who went to El Salvador on his mission, so I spoke to the lady at the door and she didn't speak any english, so Marturello just took it over and whipped out spanish as we stood there, it was so cool. So we got a return appointment, but we can't call them and they live forever away, so we didn't get to see them again, he couldn't get a hold of them. Our nearest spanish missionaries are in Tallahassee, so we may have to teach with an interpreter. We also picked up a new less active lady to work with. We then saw Barbra in the evening, she is doing really well, she has now quit smoking and coffee for over 10+ days again, and she is so much happier when she does.
Thursday - HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope it was a good one for you! We had a fun one! In the morning we played the Turkey bowl, football game. So we got there early and Davidson and I ran a couple of miles, to prepare for the food, I am pathetic, I get exhausted after like 2 miles now. But we played and it was really, really fun, we had about 22 guys and a ref came from the 1st ward, non member guy who refs high school, hahahahaha he was serious, like halfs, play clock, flags thrown, etc. It was the most organized flag football ever, it was hilarious. No injuries and I scored my fair share of touchdowns. It was also like 30 degrees when we started and the humidity, makes it cold, cold, cold. So after that we got picked up by Cameron's dad to go to dinner with them , so we went out to the house out in Cottonwood, an awesome house, way open tons of windows that look into the back, lots of land, with a couple different ponds, and there is a gator our there in it. So we got to meet a lot of the family, and talk with them for a long time. Didn't get anything too Gospel in, but talked to them a lot about our missions and about Cam and what he is doing. Haven't heard from him in a while, but read his email to his fam. But got to spend a lot of time talking with just his parents after the crew left. We also got to fish a little bit in their pond, which was good. Then we ate at the Hughey's house. And good visit with them, we had a really good Gospel conversation with them, Jef read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet I left with him, so I just wish they were members, they are dry mormons!!!! Thats what they call themselves, but slowly they are getting reeled in, the sons are awesome, they want me to come back and room with them at Auburn University.
Friday - We taught Linda in the morning, then we went to the hospital. The hospital was good, got to pray with quite a lot of people and talk with them. Then we ate dinner at the Hansens house and then we did our weekly planning in the night.
Saturday - We met with Barbra again in the morning, doing really good. So happy now! Then all of our appointments that we had set up canceled. So we each didn't have anything solid, so we decided well we can't visit anyone, because they will watch the game. So we went on a joint service spree, hitting a bunch of areas in the 1st and 2nd ward Chopping bushes, raking leaves, painting stuff. People are going crazy down here, and their were Alabama fans that were so mad! hahahahaha I am a total Auburn fan now, I was cheering for them all the way, I wanted the under dogs, so it was awesome. Then we visited Sister Burnsed, hadn't been able to see her for quite sometime and she is up in Headland which is out of our area, but Forest went with us to see her, really good visit with her.
Sunday - Church was real good! Didn't have Gloria, Zoya, or Barbra, all of them are sick, and we didn't have any investigators. Again our member canceled who was giving us a ride, so we had to wing it all day. We did some tracting, and we biked around a ton and saw some less actives. We visited Sister Knight, and we gave her a blessing. She isn't doing well.
Hope that all is well on the home front, and you had a good thanksgiving! I have got a lot to be thankful for, we all do, and I am so thankful for this family. You guys really are awesome and I love you all so very much!!!!!!!!!! I have grown to love and appreciate you all so much more and what the Gospel really means in terms of the family! This church is true, and I am feeling so blessed to be able to share that message each and every day! Love you all!!!!!!!!!"
"Love this Gospel, love the mission, I know it to be true with all of my heart!"
Here is Elder Hintze's letter received Monday, November 25th. Always great to hear from him.
"HELLLOOOOOO! Busy day today! But finally winding down, ending the emails, with the fam!! Hope everyone is well and looking forward to a thanksgiving in St. George! Thanksgiving this year, will consist of two dinners both with non member families, how do I work my magic? Anyway has been a great day today, we were out biking on some trails. We are headed to eat dinner tonight at the Marturello's. They feed us everyweek, great family!
Monday - I didn't write in my journal all week, it is hard to write in it, I will try and be better at that, that is my source of material for emails, hard to even remember what I did yesterday, let alone beginning of the week! So for P-Day last week we went and we played some tennis and I got to play some doubles with some kids from the local high school, they were a 6A school and said they were headed to win state. I could have beat all of them handly, even now. psssh Alabama tennis. So after that we were fed by the Marturello's again.. Their kids never behave when were go over. I love it. hahahahaha. So after that we couldn't get anything, so we stopped by the Hughey's, a family were eating dinner with and saw them. We watched Mormon messages with Jef the father, he is who we are going to nab!
Tuesday - Had district meeting in the morning, it was a really great one! Love District meeting, after that we came back and we went and knocked on Brittani's door the one in our complex and we went and we taught her. She hadn't read The Book of Mormon, why don't people just daggum read it and pray? So we just talked more about that, and recomitted here, bore testimony and stressed the importance of it. Her boyfriend had also been saying some stuff to her, so we had to address some concerns like polygamy and what not, I love answering people's questions, love it, it all falls back on The Book of Mormon, so it went pretty well! We got invited to the Hughey boys baseball scrimmage at the high school, so we went and watched for about an hour and talked with the father, apparently he had been looking for Jesus parable videos on youtube and he couldn't find them, he said he found them in what we showed him, and he said that was an answer to my prayers. He then said, "As I keep searching, everything that I have seen in my study, and as I continue to pray to God and ask him for direction and to show me His will, everything that I have seen is pointing me to the Mormon church." I invited him to take the lessons and he said it will be a gradual thing, but we got him on the line, the Spirit is working him over. We went to basketball, next thing we know Nicholas is on the ground unresponsive, and he starts having a seizure, so all of us don't know what to do, and 911 is called and he is still unconcious after seizing for 2 minutes and he is having a hard time breathing, so the ambulance comes and takes him, we don't know him super, super well, but I find his phone and call his mom and give her the low down, and she tells me that it happens every single day. So apparently it happens a lot, because of epilepsy, I have seen people seize before, but not like this. But we have seen him since, and he is just fine. We traded off and Elder Davidson came with me to the 2nd Ward.
Wednesday - Davidson and I got up at 5:30 am and we went to the park and we ran around the track. We ran about 3 miles and did push ups there and pull ups, Davidson ran track for Idaho State University and he has gained just as much weight as I have, hahahahaha. We came out same time. So it was good to exercise, but 3 miles killed me, and I was sore the next day. I am so out of shape. We went to the food bank, but they didn't need us, so we went and we taught Theresa, and we answered her questions, she wants to be baptized, but not yet, she still didn't come to church. So working on that, but we read all of the questions with her and without us even asking she told us she will begin giving up coffee, in preparation for it, so it was really awesome, she is changing already. Then we worked at Linda's house we painted a door for her, it took so long to paint this door, for real, and we also went and we provided service at the Red Cross. We also helped Athen in his front yard, we didn't meet with him this week, I invited him out to church, but next time I see him I will invite him to sit down and take the lessons. No more dilly dally, gonna get the man. We ate dinner at the Depew's house. And then we went to Mutual, the young women invited us to their cultural night, so we ate MORE food. Then we get a text from the 1st ward that Elder Smith rolled his ankle and is injured needs a pick up. He was so mad. He tried to jump a fence!
Thursday - We worked in the Family History Center in the morning, just trying to get ourselves more and more acquantied with it! I traced a line all the way back to adam and eve also, the fam should go onto new.familysearch.org, there are some ordinances that need to be done for family, it is pretty cool. Not a lot of them, but names to be taken to the temple. Ferdinant Friis Hintze, was also the first missionary in Turkey. pretty cool stuff! We taught Brittani the plan of salvation lesson after that, one of the best lesson I felt like, I am really feeling more comfortable teaching. She was way impressed with all of the information, it kind of blew her mind, she is working on her boyfriend to meet with us. After that we did weekly planning. Contacted a media referral, which never work out unfortunately it seems like. Sister Bess dropped us off dinner, and then we saw Bro. Nunez. Had a way good visit with him talked about temple and church attendance, it was really neat, and we got him to come to church! Hadn't been in quite a while!
Friday - Had our hospital shift, quiet day, nothing really of event! We met with Gloria and Zooya afterwards and filled out baptism and confirmation records for them. Then Bro. Chappell took us out to eat. Then we saw Barbara again, she is pretty committed right now, quiting smoking, it is a constant battle, but she is doing it!
Saturday - Basically had nothing all day, people canceled on us and so we biked around trying to talk to people. But it was gloomy and cold so we really didn't do a whole lot of anything at all! Saw Theresa and Donte investigator we hadn't been able to see, and he isn't interested.
Sunday - Church! Had Gloria and Barbra there, no Zoya she was sick or Athen. Afterwards we ate dinner with the Davis'. We got invited to the Hughey kids birthday party ahahahaah, so that was cool, we ate with all of them. I said the prayer and it was Houston's Birthday.
Love you family!!!! Miss you a whole lot, going to be thinking a lot about you this week for thanksgiving! I have and we do as a family sure do have a lot to be thankful for!!!! More than we could ever imagine! Love this Gospel, love the mission, I know it to be true with all of my heart! If there is anything that I learn, it is that I need to be better, work harder, and be more obedient, much work to be done, love ya'll!!
"HELLLOOOOOO! Busy day today! But finally winding down, ending the emails, with the fam!! Hope everyone is well and looking forward to a thanksgiving in St. George! Thanksgiving this year, will consist of two dinners both with non member families, how do I work my magic? Anyway has been a great day today, we were out biking on some trails. We are headed to eat dinner tonight at the Marturello's. They feed us everyweek, great family!
Monday - I didn't write in my journal all week, it is hard to write in it, I will try and be better at that, that is my source of material for emails, hard to even remember what I did yesterday, let alone beginning of the week! So for P-Day last week we went and we played some tennis and I got to play some doubles with some kids from the local high school, they were a 6A school and said they were headed to win state. I could have beat all of them handly, even now. psssh Alabama tennis. So after that we were fed by the Marturello's again.. Their kids never behave when were go over. I love it. hahahahaha. So after that we couldn't get anything, so we stopped by the Hughey's, a family were eating dinner with and saw them. We watched Mormon messages with Jef the father, he is who we are going to nab!
Tuesday - Had district meeting in the morning, it was a really great one! Love District meeting, after that we came back and we went and knocked on Brittani's door the one in our complex and we went and we taught her. She hadn't read The Book of Mormon, why don't people just daggum read it and pray? So we just talked more about that, and recomitted here, bore testimony and stressed the importance of it. Her boyfriend had also been saying some stuff to her, so we had to address some concerns like polygamy and what not, I love answering people's questions, love it, it all falls back on The Book of Mormon, so it went pretty well! We got invited to the Hughey boys baseball scrimmage at the high school, so we went and watched for about an hour and talked with the father, apparently he had been looking for Jesus parable videos on youtube and he couldn't find them, he said he found them in what we showed him, and he said that was an answer to my prayers. He then said, "As I keep searching, everything that I have seen in my study, and as I continue to pray to God and ask him for direction and to show me His will, everything that I have seen is pointing me to the Mormon church." I invited him to take the lessons and he said it will be a gradual thing, but we got him on the line, the Spirit is working him over. We went to basketball, next thing we know Nicholas is on the ground unresponsive, and he starts having a seizure, so all of us don't know what to do, and 911 is called and he is still unconcious after seizing for 2 minutes and he is having a hard time breathing, so the ambulance comes and takes him, we don't know him super, super well, but I find his phone and call his mom and give her the low down, and she tells me that it happens every single day. So apparently it happens a lot, because of epilepsy, I have seen people seize before, but not like this. But we have seen him since, and he is just fine. We traded off and Elder Davidson came with me to the 2nd Ward.
Wednesday - Davidson and I got up at 5:30 am and we went to the park and we ran around the track. We ran about 3 miles and did push ups there and pull ups, Davidson ran track for Idaho State University and he has gained just as much weight as I have, hahahahaha. We came out same time. So it was good to exercise, but 3 miles killed me, and I was sore the next day. I am so out of shape. We went to the food bank, but they didn't need us, so we went and we taught Theresa, and we answered her questions, she wants to be baptized, but not yet, she still didn't come to church. So working on that, but we read all of the questions with her and without us even asking she told us she will begin giving up coffee, in preparation for it, so it was really awesome, she is changing already. Then we worked at Linda's house we painted a door for her, it took so long to paint this door, for real, and we also went and we provided service at the Red Cross. We also helped Athen in his front yard, we didn't meet with him this week, I invited him out to church, but next time I see him I will invite him to sit down and take the lessons. No more dilly dally, gonna get the man. We ate dinner at the Depew's house. And then we went to Mutual, the young women invited us to their cultural night, so we ate MORE food. Then we get a text from the 1st ward that Elder Smith rolled his ankle and is injured needs a pick up. He was so mad. He tried to jump a fence!
Thursday - We worked in the Family History Center in the morning, just trying to get ourselves more and more acquantied with it! I traced a line all the way back to adam and eve also, the fam should go onto new.familysearch.org, there are some ordinances that need to be done for family, it is pretty cool. Not a lot of them, but names to be taken to the temple. Ferdinant Friis Hintze, was also the first missionary in Turkey. pretty cool stuff! We taught Brittani the plan of salvation lesson after that, one of the best lesson I felt like, I am really feeling more comfortable teaching. She was way impressed with all of the information, it kind of blew her mind, she is working on her boyfriend to meet with us. After that we did weekly planning. Contacted a media referral, which never work out unfortunately it seems like. Sister Bess dropped us off dinner, and then we saw Bro. Nunez. Had a way good visit with him talked about temple and church attendance, it was really neat, and we got him to come to church! Hadn't been in quite a while!
Friday - Had our hospital shift, quiet day, nothing really of event! We met with Gloria and Zooya afterwards and filled out baptism and confirmation records for them. Then Bro. Chappell took us out to eat. Then we saw Barbara again, she is pretty committed right now, quiting smoking, it is a constant battle, but she is doing it!
Saturday - Basically had nothing all day, people canceled on us and so we biked around trying to talk to people. But it was gloomy and cold so we really didn't do a whole lot of anything at all! Saw Theresa and Donte investigator we hadn't been able to see, and he isn't interested.
Sunday - Church! Had Gloria and Barbra there, no Zoya she was sick or Athen. Afterwards we ate dinner with the Davis'. We got invited to the Hughey kids birthday party ahahahaah, so that was cool, we ate with all of them. I said the prayer and it was Houston's Birthday.
Love you family!!!! Miss you a whole lot, going to be thinking a lot about you this week for thanksgiving! I have and we do as a family sure do have a lot to be thankful for!!!! More than we could ever imagine! Love this Gospel, love the mission, I know it to be true with all of my heart! If there is anything that I learn, it is that I need to be better, work harder, and be more obedient, much work to be done, love ya'll!!
"UNREAL GUYS UNREAL!"
Here is Elder Hintze's letter from Monday, November 18th. Baptism this week!
"Hi Family! Good week this week, I suppose. Gloria and Zooya's baptism went through! I was able to baptize Zooya and assist with Gloria and I confirmed Gloria. Holy cow. So cool! I am very, very thankful that I was allowed to be part of it all!
Monday - In the morning we went to the Elephant Ear booth at the peanut festival and had to do some major clean up duty. For P-Day we enjoyed some nice Little Caesar's pizza in the church and shot some hoops. And then we ate dinner with the Grantham's in the evening. And then we helped good old Linda unload some furniture into her room.
Tuesday - After District Meeting, we knocked on Brittani's door the girl who knocked on our door and agreed to have us teach her, so we did and she said she was busy, but then she came back and knocked on our door. And so we were able to teach her outside the Restoration lesson outside on some picnic tables. And it went really, really well! Probably one of the better first lessons, but there was a lot of distractions outside, so it was hard to feel the Spirit. But she appears to be pretty solid. Then we went out with Bro Prigmore, and nobody was home, we did see Barbra Erb though. Did some tracting for the first time in along time and I actually really, really enjoy tracting! So then the Marturello's fed us.
Wednesday - So, we traded off Tuesday night, so I had Elder Winter one of the Zone Leaders down with me in Dothan. We taught Theresa in her thrift shop in the morning. We read Alma 32 with her and talked about Faith. She is scheduling times for us to meet her when the shop is closed, so that is pretty cool. But anyway it was an awesome lesson, and she loved it, the Spirit was definitely there. So I recommitted her to be baptized and she said yes! So... kind of cool right. She said that she believes that this is the true church, and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. She wasn't set on setting a date yet, she said she needed to pray about it. So pretty awesome! But then she didn't come to church.... So we will see what this next week brings! Then she had us search in the woods for some lost puppy that she saw.. don't ask. But we didn't find it. So then we went and we taught Nicholas the Plan of Salvation with Forest. And it hit home with him as well! He said "I am a believer" So we still have work to do, but he told us that he wants us to come meet with his mom and teach her, so we are going on Tuesday to teach mom and him! Then we saw Linda. Then we ate dinner at the Myer's home, which then they sent you pictures! And then we had our exchange report and then we met with Gloria at the church and solidified all of the baptismal plans and we got the program all set up! And then we traded back.
Thursday - We worked at the food bank in the morning, that place would fall apart without us. We then saw Barbra with Charles Bain. Her health is getting really poor, she can barely walk. So I can't get on her too much, because she is in a lot of pain. But after that we did our weekly planning and then we worked our way all across Dothan trying all of the potentials that we had, with no success whatsoever, so we had an extra meal ticket so we ate dinner at the Hospital, and then we went out to see Burnsed, but she is a goner lately. So we gave the 1st Ward elders a ride, since they were right there and it was daggum freezing here.
Friday - We worked at the food bank in the morning and then we helped Sister Lock move. The classiest lady I know, she is 92 and still healthy as can be, she has more clothes than I have ever seen before in my whole entire life. So then the 1st Ward gave us a ride to the hospital and we gave them free lunch at the hospital, for their efforts. So then we did our hospital shift and nothing huge, we got called to a trauma in the ER, and some guy had been shot, so that was kind of exciting, he was fine. And I also prayed with a man who was deaf, so that was also kind of a neat experience. He had know idea what I prayed about! But then on the way home, my bike tire exploded or popped. So I was man down, and we had to get home because dinner was being dropped off real soon. So we call the Sister's for backup and they are just down the road. So they rescue us and then Theresa offers to take us to dinner, so we are like heck ya, can't turn this down, dinner with investigator.
Saturday - BAPTISM DAY!!!!!! So went in the morning and got the bikes fixed. There is a guy who owns a bike shop and his wife is a member, but less active, and he fixs all our bikes for free. Really nice guy, he told me I couldn't put white walls on my bike. So then we got to the church and got the font ready and got everything straightened up! And then it happened!!!
We had quite a turn out from the ward! We also had President and Sister Smith there!! And Athen the husband and father came. The whole baptismal service was phenomenal, as I said Zoya asked me to baptize her and Elder Smith did Gloria. It really feels so good, I am so blessed to be able to be a part of it. And through out the whole service the Spirit was strong, members of the ward welcomed them in awesome and they all were tearing up. And so after the fact, Athen said now that he is open! And so we are going to hopefully be able to meet with him this week!! So everything just went really well! :) :) Later we met with Anita McBride and read with her. And then tried a bunch of people, we saw Donte that kid that met with us a while ago. We have never been able to get up with him and he is no longer really interested, he read a little of the Book of Mormon and he prayed a couple of times and he said he didn't get an answer. So we set up to meet with him Sunday, but he wasn't there. But then we also talked with Brittani's boyfriend, because she said that she wanted us to meet with him too. And we did and he said, he would think about it. But he ain't getting away from me. We saw Barbra with Bro Prigmore and she was doing much better! So it was a good visit!
Sunday - We did get to confirm Gloria and Zoya and that was cool. What a huge honor! I really am just so thankful I got to be a part of it. To confirm them a member of the church and give them the gift of the Holy Ghost. UNREAL GUYS UNREAL! Then we ate lunch at the Hall's and they always do breakfast style, so it reminds me of when we used to do the breakfast dinner! But then we biked to see the Hughey's and nothing, but on the way home we stopped and talked to his older couple and their daughter I believe. And they have been surrounded by Mormons their whole life! He worked with them, their daughters danced with Mormons, they have seen the Salt Lake Temple and Hawaii Temple and her sisters used to play volleyball with the elders when they were young in Hawaii, and she knew tons of members from Samoa and Hawaii. It was really cool, so we probably talked to them for an hour and a half, they have a Book of Mormon on their shelf. And she said one time she called her Baptist raised mother and told her they were thinking of joining the Mormons and her mom got angry so they didn't. So we are going back this week to paint their whole house, hahaha. And we are going to do some serious work there! Then in the evening we ate dinner out at the Thomley's.
Love you a lot family! Missing you a lot this week, I kind of just wish we could all come do all this stuff, ya know? Good week this week, it was very neat to see Gloria and Zooya this week take a huge step in their lives. I love it all and I know without a doubt that this church is true!!
PS - After we confirmed Gloria she hugged all the men, but then gave us handshakes and then once she was through. She said "forget it," and came back and hugged both of us in front of everyone, so it was a good chuckle!"
"Hi Family! Good week this week, I suppose. Gloria and Zooya's baptism went through! I was able to baptize Zooya and assist with Gloria and I confirmed Gloria. Holy cow. So cool! I am very, very thankful that I was allowed to be part of it all!
Monday - In the morning we went to the Elephant Ear booth at the peanut festival and had to do some major clean up duty. For P-Day we enjoyed some nice Little Caesar's pizza in the church and shot some hoops. And then we ate dinner with the Grantham's in the evening. And then we helped good old Linda unload some furniture into her room.
Tuesday - After District Meeting, we knocked on Brittani's door the girl who knocked on our door and agreed to have us teach her, so we did and she said she was busy, but then she came back and knocked on our door. And so we were able to teach her outside the Restoration lesson outside on some picnic tables. And it went really, really well! Probably one of the better first lessons, but there was a lot of distractions outside, so it was hard to feel the Spirit. But she appears to be pretty solid. Then we went out with Bro Prigmore, and nobody was home, we did see Barbra Erb though. Did some tracting for the first time in along time and I actually really, really enjoy tracting! So then the Marturello's fed us.
Wednesday - So, we traded off Tuesday night, so I had Elder Winter one of the Zone Leaders down with me in Dothan. We taught Theresa in her thrift shop in the morning. We read Alma 32 with her and talked about Faith. She is scheduling times for us to meet her when the shop is closed, so that is pretty cool. But anyway it was an awesome lesson, and she loved it, the Spirit was definitely there. So I recommitted her to be baptized and she said yes! So... kind of cool right. She said that she believes that this is the true church, and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. She wasn't set on setting a date yet, she said she needed to pray about it. So pretty awesome! But then she didn't come to church.... So we will see what this next week brings! Then she had us search in the woods for some lost puppy that she saw.. don't ask. But we didn't find it. So then we went and we taught Nicholas the Plan of Salvation with Forest. And it hit home with him as well! He said "I am a believer" So we still have work to do, but he told us that he wants us to come meet with his mom and teach her, so we are going on Tuesday to teach mom and him! Then we saw Linda. Then we ate dinner at the Myer's home, which then they sent you pictures! And then we had our exchange report and then we met with Gloria at the church and solidified all of the baptismal plans and we got the program all set up! And then we traded back.
Thursday - We worked at the food bank in the morning, that place would fall apart without us. We then saw Barbra with Charles Bain. Her health is getting really poor, she can barely walk. So I can't get on her too much, because she is in a lot of pain. But after that we did our weekly planning and then we worked our way all across Dothan trying all of the potentials that we had, with no success whatsoever, so we had an extra meal ticket so we ate dinner at the Hospital, and then we went out to see Burnsed, but she is a goner lately. So we gave the 1st Ward elders a ride, since they were right there and it was daggum freezing here.
Friday - We worked at the food bank in the morning and then we helped Sister Lock move. The classiest lady I know, she is 92 and still healthy as can be, she has more clothes than I have ever seen before in my whole entire life. So then the 1st Ward gave us a ride to the hospital and we gave them free lunch at the hospital, for their efforts. So then we did our hospital shift and nothing huge, we got called to a trauma in the ER, and some guy had been shot, so that was kind of exciting, he was fine. And I also prayed with a man who was deaf, so that was also kind of a neat experience. He had know idea what I prayed about! But then on the way home, my bike tire exploded or popped. So I was man down, and we had to get home because dinner was being dropped off real soon. So we call the Sister's for backup and they are just down the road. So they rescue us and then Theresa offers to take us to dinner, so we are like heck ya, can't turn this down, dinner with investigator.
Saturday - BAPTISM DAY!!!!!! So went in the morning and got the bikes fixed. There is a guy who owns a bike shop and his wife is a member, but less active, and he fixs all our bikes for free. Really nice guy, he told me I couldn't put white walls on my bike. So then we got to the church and got the font ready and got everything straightened up! And then it happened!!!
 |
| President Smith, Zooya, Gloria, Elder Hintze, and Elder Smith |
Sunday - We did get to confirm Gloria and Zoya and that was cool. What a huge honor! I really am just so thankful I got to be a part of it. To confirm them a member of the church and give them the gift of the Holy Ghost. UNREAL GUYS UNREAL! Then we ate lunch at the Hall's and they always do breakfast style, so it reminds me of when we used to do the breakfast dinner! But then we biked to see the Hughey's and nothing, but on the way home we stopped and talked to his older couple and their daughter I believe. And they have been surrounded by Mormons their whole life! He worked with them, their daughters danced with Mormons, they have seen the Salt Lake Temple and Hawaii Temple and her sisters used to play volleyball with the elders when they were young in Hawaii, and she knew tons of members from Samoa and Hawaii. It was really cool, so we probably talked to them for an hour and a half, they have a Book of Mormon on their shelf. And she said one time she called her Baptist raised mother and told her they were thinking of joining the Mormons and her mom got angry so they didn't. So we are going back this week to paint their whole house, hahaha. And we are going to do some serious work there! Then in the evening we ate dinner out at the Thomley's.
Love you a lot family! Missing you a lot this week, I kind of just wish we could all come do all this stuff, ya know? Good week this week, it was very neat to see Gloria and Zooya this week take a huge step in their lives. I love it all and I know without a doubt that this church is true!!
PS - After we confirmed Gloria she hugged all the men, but then gave us handshakes and then once she was through. She said "forget it," and came back and hugged both of us in front of everyone, so it was a good chuckle!"
"For every city, county, po dunk town they got a pageant queen"
Here is Elder Hintze's email for today, Monday, November 11th. Enjoy!
So here is the week! Went by quick, but it seemed we didn't get a lot done this week. Plenty of fun though, the National Peanut Festival!!! Got to bring the whole Fam back out to it! Here is the week:
Monday - So did the whole P-Day jazz. We then went and played some tennis, that is our new thing. But we are maybe going to be playing basketball today. So after that we dropped the other elders off at the peanut festival and then we went home. And then the Coggins picked us up and we went to the Festival with them, it was Father coggins, sister coggins, and bro in law coggins, no mother. So we spent the whole evening with them. I was way excited. Got to know them and had a good time with them. We did get to talk to dad a little about how transfers and all of that works. But it was good. His dad gave us each $100 dollars to start the night, and so I was like not spending this, and I was gonna give it back to him. So on the way home, I tried like 6 times to give it back to him, and he wouldn't let me, so they gave us each 100 dollars. :( So nice of them, but I felt way bad! So we got a ride pass and they just said, alright we're following you. So they walked around with us while we rode rides. Haha, They got quite the kick out of me riding the rides, so I think it was good! Tuesday - We saw Linda and we saw Paul Kennedy in the hospital. After that we saw the Hughey's and were able to talk to the son, they invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner, so that is really exciting, should be good. We also saw Theresa in the morning and helped her out, we have actually had a ton of oppurtunities to share the Gospel in her thrift shop, just being there.
Wednesday - We helped out at the Food bank, and then after that we helped Linda paint and sand down a bunch of shelves that need to go up in her new garage. Then we ate the the Bess's. :) They are so awesome! And they sent you the picture right? Spent some time in the Family History Center. Found a Ferdinand Friis Hintze, I think he is my great - great grandfather... it says he had 12 wives.. and I could count 27 kids.. I don't know how accurate it all was. But something cool, he was the very first missionary to go to Turkey!! After that we met with Gloria and Zooya with Linda and we taught them the Law of Chastity and we went over all of the baptismal questions with them! She is good to go, so the Baptism is going for this next Saturday!!
Thursday - We went to the thrift shop with Theresa in hopes to teach her, but she was too busy, but a man was there and we started talking to him and he said he was from Michigan and two elders used to live in his apartment, so we were able to start teaching him a little bit. Said he was going to read the Book of Mormon. Bye the way it is getting cold here!!! There were some days this week, where I was real nippy! So after all that we had Gloria and Zooya's interviews, before it we watched the Restoration video with them and it brought Gloria to tears! She really does have a testimony! It was so cool to see it, so Zooya was able to pass with Elder Simmons, but as I said, then Gloria had to do it with President. So after that we had dinner with Bishop Cain and his wife. It was really good. Ward councils have been pretty cool lately.
Friday - We had Hospital and we were able to have a lesson with Theresa, it was really cool to read the Book of Mormon with her, she can feel the Spirit and when she said the closing prayer! We were also able to find two pretty solid people on the way to the hospital. One guy named Steven we said Hi to and then he yelled back at us and said, do you have a Book of Mormon I can have? What!??!?!?!?!? How cool, he is trying to get his life back in order and he went to our church at basic training, so we are looking forward to that. Then we met with Gloria and just talked to her about the Restoration and how she was doing, she is so hilarious, she said, "don't you worry we are going to get the baptism done, so you can check another baptism off for your missions" hahahaha. She is hilarious. Then we had to go give a blessing to someone in the hospital with mono.
Saturday - All peanut festival. We were giving tickets to go to this special seating area, and so we got there early and walked all up and down the parade and talked to a bunch of people. Really cool! Then we watched the parade, all farm equipment, and then there was like 73 pageant queens that is all it was. The south for ya. For every city, county, po dunk town they got a pageant queen. Then we went to lunch with the elders, and then we went out to the peanut festival again and we worked in the church's booth there for the Boy Scouts selling "elephant ears" or scones.
Sunday - We went to church. Had Gloria there! And ward council was really good. But our plans for the day went down quick. Couldn't catch a break. So we did our weekly planning and then we saw Sister Knight and then saw Barbra. Barbra is doing okay, she is a tough one, but we are still working on her and loving her to death.
By the way: tomorrow is 5 months and the day will be 11-12-13. How about that? By the way, I still need someone to get that name off of FamilySearch.org and do that!!LOVE YA LOTS!!!!
So here is the week! Went by quick, but it seemed we didn't get a lot done this week. Plenty of fun though, the National Peanut Festival!!! Got to bring the whole Fam back out to it! Here is the week:
Monday - So did the whole P-Day jazz. We then went and played some tennis, that is our new thing. But we are maybe going to be playing basketball today. So after that we dropped the other elders off at the peanut festival and then we went home. And then the Coggins picked us up and we went to the Festival with them, it was Father coggins, sister coggins, and bro in law coggins, no mother. So we spent the whole evening with them. I was way excited. Got to know them and had a good time with them. We did get to talk to dad a little about how transfers and all of that works. But it was good. His dad gave us each $100 dollars to start the night, and so I was like not spending this, and I was gonna give it back to him. So on the way home, I tried like 6 times to give it back to him, and he wouldn't let me, so they gave us each 100 dollars. :( So nice of them, but I felt way bad! So we got a ride pass and they just said, alright we're following you. So they walked around with us while we rode rides. Haha, They got quite the kick out of me riding the rides, so I think it was good! Tuesday - We saw Linda and we saw Paul Kennedy in the hospital. After that we saw the Hughey's and were able to talk to the son, they invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner, so that is really exciting, should be good. We also saw Theresa in the morning and helped her out, we have actually had a ton of oppurtunities to share the Gospel in her thrift shop, just being there.
Wednesday - We helped out at the Food bank, and then after that we helped Linda paint and sand down a bunch of shelves that need to go up in her new garage. Then we ate the the Bess's. :) They are so awesome! And they sent you the picture right? Spent some time in the Family History Center. Found a Ferdinand Friis Hintze, I think he is my great - great grandfather... it says he had 12 wives.. and I could count 27 kids.. I don't know how accurate it all was. But something cool, he was the very first missionary to go to Turkey!! After that we met with Gloria and Zooya with Linda and we taught them the Law of Chastity and we went over all of the baptismal questions with them! She is good to go, so the Baptism is going for this next Saturday!!
Thursday - We went to the thrift shop with Theresa in hopes to teach her, but she was too busy, but a man was there and we started talking to him and he said he was from Michigan and two elders used to live in his apartment, so we were able to start teaching him a little bit. Said he was going to read the Book of Mormon. Bye the way it is getting cold here!!! There were some days this week, where I was real nippy! So after all that we had Gloria and Zooya's interviews, before it we watched the Restoration video with them and it brought Gloria to tears! She really does have a testimony! It was so cool to see it, so Zooya was able to pass with Elder Simmons, but as I said, then Gloria had to do it with President. So after that we had dinner with Bishop Cain and his wife. It was really good. Ward councils have been pretty cool lately.
Friday - We had Hospital and we were able to have a lesson with Theresa, it was really cool to read the Book of Mormon with her, she can feel the Spirit and when she said the closing prayer! We were also able to find two pretty solid people on the way to the hospital. One guy named Steven we said Hi to and then he yelled back at us and said, do you have a Book of Mormon I can have? What!??!?!?!?!? How cool, he is trying to get his life back in order and he went to our church at basic training, so we are looking forward to that. Then we met with Gloria and just talked to her about the Restoration and how she was doing, she is so hilarious, she said, "don't you worry we are going to get the baptism done, so you can check another baptism off for your missions" hahahaha. She is hilarious. Then we had to go give a blessing to someone in the hospital with mono.
Saturday - All peanut festival. We were giving tickets to go to this special seating area, and so we got there early and walked all up and down the parade and talked to a bunch of people. Really cool! Then we watched the parade, all farm equipment, and then there was like 73 pageant queens that is all it was. The south for ya. For every city, county, po dunk town they got a pageant queen. Then we went to lunch with the elders, and then we went out to the peanut festival again and we worked in the church's booth there for the Boy Scouts selling "elephant ears" or scones.
Sunday - We went to church. Had Gloria there! And ward council was really good. But our plans for the day went down quick. Couldn't catch a break. So we did our weekly planning and then we saw Sister Knight and then saw Barbra. Barbra is doing okay, she is a tough one, but we are still working on her and loving her to death.
By the way: tomorrow is 5 months and the day will be 11-12-13. How about that? By the way, I still need someone to get that name off of FamilySearch.org and do that!!LOVE YA LOTS!!!!
"And I most definitely know that it did happen!!!!"
I am sorry I am late with last weeks post. This is from Monday, November 4th.
"What up!? What up!? What up!? Another week down here in the mission! Another alright week, hope everyone had a Happy and a safe Halloween!! Lots of trick or treaters this year???? anyways lets get to it!
Monday - So yes it was a different P-Day we got here early, because we went and helped a guy move his sons. It is in 1st wards boundary, so hopefully they will be able to visit the sons. We went and played some tennis! We do that every P-Day now it is becoming quite fun for us. But after that we went and ate dinner with a new family in the ward, the Herrings, they moved from 1st ward, young couple from Arizona, they are going to the new medical school here in Dothan. So they are really cool! And then after that we hit the bikes and we rode to Sister Knight's, and the Sister's brought Barbara there, and so it was a really good visit with them.
Thursday - HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Unfortunately we did not dress up.... I know I know. We just didn't have time to go costume shopping and what not. So the best that I could do was to wear a fake mustache! We were also asked to be in at 7 for the night. So for lunch we went with the other Elders to try and find some pumpkins to carve for our evening, but we couldn't find any, so we bough apples and caramel and we tried to bake some apples. But after that we came back and we did our weekly planning. Then we went with Forest to see Barbara again, it was a really great visit. Everytime we read from the Book of Mormon with her, it just feels so good and she says it everytime. After that we had to get to Linda's to fill back in the hole that we dug for her. And after that we went to the Marturello's for dinner, they had chili, and breadsticks. And cookies, carameled apples. It was just kind of like being at home! But then we went trick or treating with the kids to a few houses, just walked with them. So then us and the other Elders went to the church and we baked our apples and we drank some sparkling cider and we played some basketball for our halloween evening!
Friday - We worked at Red Cross in the morning and we basically just made lunch for their big event that is coming up. So after that we hit up the Hospital, and it was a good shift. Nothing of event, but it is awesome to get to talk to so many people, I absolutely love it! So we picked up the 1st ward elders from red cross after that, and right before we got there, there was a huge drug bust, just like the movies. Like no joke probably 30 undercover cops in just normal cars and the sheriff, just all swarmed this house, and there were these 2 guys in a ghetto sled, just flying down the rode in reverse, and they were throwing cocaine out the windows, like huge bags of it, and as they are flying down the rode, a cop in a truck, just takes them out, and plows them off of the rode. We didn't get to see it first hand, but we saw the aftermath. So after that we went to visit a bunch of people and we got nothing. Tried to contact a referral that was supposedly really solid, but we didn't even get up the driveway before they told us to get lost. So then we biked to the church and we talked with the sisters about doing a family history booth. We are going to get a booth outside of the Walmart here in Dothan. Which should be pretty sweet. Then once we were home, we got a call from Tony Hansen, he got a call from Nathan's parents and apparently Nathan hadn't really talked to them about the baptism, so they were all up in arms, and Nathan's mom had to work, so she couldn't be there. And so Nathan was on his way home to talk to them, but they said the baptism is't happening. So Tony talks to them and we get it set up for Sunday morning, before he leaves, his parents can be there. So I was way worried, all night. But I figured it would be okay.
Saturday - So right off the bat, I start jumping through hoops to make the baptism happen, I am on the phone with Tony, Forest, I am talking to President Smith seeing what he thinks we should do, and I am texting Bishop. So we decide that it would be best to do it late that night after stake conference. But no Nathan. So I call his house and talk to his dad, and he was alright, not overly nice, and then he said that he would have him call us. So after that we met with Gloria and Zooya and we taught them tithing, and we were a little worried going into it, that this would be a tough one, but she knew it all, she told us how it is one tenth of you income, described the blessings and the sacrifice. So I just said, "Well sounds like we don't have to teach you much." The faith of both of them and the Spirit that they have, it really is very cool to see how much they are prepared. But before we went in, Nathan's dad called me and said, that the baptism is off. So we did not have the baptism, nor is there going to be one, until he gets back from boot camp. So he sent us some text messages saying how sorry he was, and when he gets back he will be sure. And he said he was really embarrassed. So we texted him told him not to worry about it. So we went home we got freshened up ate some dinner and then we went to Stake Conference the adult session, President and Sister Smith were there. After President could read what I was feeling he said, "No baptism, be patient it will come."
Sunday - We went to Stake Conference in the morning, and Pres and Sis Smith both spoke this time, which was way awesome. And all of the members of the stake presidency and what not spoke it was really good. So after that we went with Brother Prigmore and we saw Barbara, she was smoking when we got there. :/ So thats cool, but it was a good visit. And then we came back and we had to finish up our weekly planning, because we didn't have a chance to do it. And we made a ton of phone calls trying to set up some visits, but we couldn't get anything. And then the Thomley's picked us up for dinner. So we did that, I talked to President today after the conference, and he gave us permission to go to the peanut festival, so that should be really cool!!
"What up!? What up!? What up!? Another week down here in the mission! Another alright week, hope everyone had a Happy and a safe Halloween!! Lots of trick or treaters this year???? anyways lets get to it!
Monday - So yes it was a different P-Day we got here early, because we went and helped a guy move his sons. It is in 1st wards boundary, so hopefully they will be able to visit the sons. We went and played some tennis! We do that every P-Day now it is becoming quite fun for us. But after that we went and ate dinner with a new family in the ward, the Herrings, they moved from 1st ward, young couple from Arizona, they are going to the new medical school here in Dothan. So they are really cool! And then after that we hit the bikes and we rode to Sister Knight's, and the Sister's brought Barbara there, and so it was a really good visit with them.
Tuesday - We had District Meeting in the morning. And Tony Hansen came and he taught us for District Meeting. It was about talking to people or sells basically. Our job and his job as a marine recruiter surprisingly are a lot the same! Except we are recruiting people for a little bit different "branch"!!! Haha. But anyway after that we had our District Activity, so we went and we got free hot dogs from a member that owns a stand outside of Lowe's. We went to see Theresa after that, and we didn't get to have a lesson with her, she just had us help her to put up a cross for her thrift shop sign. So we helped her do that, and despite it, we really did do a dang good job of putting that thing together. Theresa still isn't progressing at all, but we need to actually sit down with her and have a legit lesson again. So this week!!! Then we saw Brother Paul Kennedy. And after that Linda had us and the Sister's over for dinner, we also ate with Gloria, Zooya, and Athen. So it was a really good dinner appointment. We are trying really hard on getting Athen to be involved!
Wednesday - We worked at the food bank in the morning, we were part of the backpack program, which is make individual lunches for kids. So we were there for like 3 hours, because it was us and a few other ladies, and the sisters came late and left early, so it took quite sometime. Then we went and we saw Barbara with Charles Bain, and then we headed to the ward trunk or treat, we just covered our trunk in toilet paper and then I hid in the trunk and I tried to scare some little kids, haha but that didn't quite work. But it was really fun, there was quite the crowd out and we had quite a few non members there that we were able to meet! So it was really quite fun!
Wednesday - We worked at the food bank in the morning, we were part of the backpack program, which is make individual lunches for kids. So we were there for like 3 hours, because it was us and a few other ladies, and the sisters came late and left early, so it took quite sometime. Then we went and we saw Barbara with Charles Bain, and then we headed to the ward trunk or treat, we just covered our trunk in toilet paper and then I hid in the trunk and I tried to scare some little kids, haha but that didn't quite work. But it was really fun, there was quite the crowd out and we had quite a few non members there that we were able to meet! So it was really quite fun!
Thursday - HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Unfortunately we did not dress up.... I know I know. We just didn't have time to go costume shopping and what not. So the best that I could do was to wear a fake mustache! We were also asked to be in at 7 for the night. So for lunch we went with the other Elders to try and find some pumpkins to carve for our evening, but we couldn't find any, so we bough apples and caramel and we tried to bake some apples. But after that we came back and we did our weekly planning. Then we went with Forest to see Barbara again, it was a really great visit. Everytime we read from the Book of Mormon with her, it just feels so good and she says it everytime. After that we had to get to Linda's to fill back in the hole that we dug for her. And after that we went to the Marturello's for dinner, they had chili, and breadsticks. And cookies, carameled apples. It was just kind of like being at home! But then we went trick or treating with the kids to a few houses, just walked with them. So then us and the other Elders went to the church and we baked our apples and we drank some sparkling cider and we played some basketball for our halloween evening!
Friday - We worked at Red Cross in the morning and we basically just made lunch for their big event that is coming up. So after that we hit up the Hospital, and it was a good shift. Nothing of event, but it is awesome to get to talk to so many people, I absolutely love it! So we picked up the 1st ward elders from red cross after that, and right before we got there, there was a huge drug bust, just like the movies. Like no joke probably 30 undercover cops in just normal cars and the sheriff, just all swarmed this house, and there were these 2 guys in a ghetto sled, just flying down the rode in reverse, and they were throwing cocaine out the windows, like huge bags of it, and as they are flying down the rode, a cop in a truck, just takes them out, and plows them off of the rode. We didn't get to see it first hand, but we saw the aftermath. So after that we went to visit a bunch of people and we got nothing. Tried to contact a referral that was supposedly really solid, but we didn't even get up the driveway before they told us to get lost. So then we biked to the church and we talked with the sisters about doing a family history booth. We are going to get a booth outside of the Walmart here in Dothan. Which should be pretty sweet. Then once we were home, we got a call from Tony Hansen, he got a call from Nathan's parents and apparently Nathan hadn't really talked to them about the baptism, so they were all up in arms, and Nathan's mom had to work, so she couldn't be there. And so Nathan was on his way home to talk to them, but they said the baptism is't happening. So Tony talks to them and we get it set up for Sunday morning, before he leaves, his parents can be there. So I was way worried, all night. But I figured it would be okay.
Saturday - So right off the bat, I start jumping through hoops to make the baptism happen, I am on the phone with Tony, Forest, I am talking to President Smith seeing what he thinks we should do, and I am texting Bishop. So we decide that it would be best to do it late that night after stake conference. But no Nathan. So I call his house and talk to his dad, and he was alright, not overly nice, and then he said that he would have him call us. So after that we met with Gloria and Zooya and we taught them tithing, and we were a little worried going into it, that this would be a tough one, but she knew it all, she told us how it is one tenth of you income, described the blessings and the sacrifice. So I just said, "Well sounds like we don't have to teach you much." The faith of both of them and the Spirit that they have, it really is very cool to see how much they are prepared. But before we went in, Nathan's dad called me and said, that the baptism is off. So we did not have the baptism, nor is there going to be one, until he gets back from boot camp. So he sent us some text messages saying how sorry he was, and when he gets back he will be sure. And he said he was really embarrassed. So we texted him told him not to worry about it. So we went home we got freshened up ate some dinner and then we went to Stake Conference the adult session, President and Sister Smith were there. After President could read what I was feeling he said, "No baptism, be patient it will come."
Sunday - We went to Stake Conference in the morning, and Pres and Sis Smith both spoke this time, which was way awesome. And all of the members of the stake presidency and what not spoke it was really good. So after that we went with Brother Prigmore and we saw Barbara, she was smoking when we got there. :/ So thats cool, but it was a good visit. And then we came back and we had to finish up our weekly planning, because we didn't have a chance to do it. And we made a ton of phone calls trying to set up some visits, but we couldn't get anything. And then the Thomley's picked us up for dinner. So we did that, I talked to President today after the conference, and he gave us permission to go to the peanut festival, so that should be really cool!!
So it was a good week here! A disheartening one! I was reading some way old Ensign last night about the Sacred Grove and the plaque going into the sacred grove says, "Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith here." And I thought that was so cool, that is all it said! It is either a yes that happened or a no that didn't happen. And I most definitely know that it did happen!!!! Without a doubt our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ did appear to Joseph, and because of that everything falls into place!! So I'm just gonna keep being happy and working as hard as I can! :)
"Got Nathan coming up this week with the Baptism and then Gloria the next!"
This was received from Elder Hintze Monday, October 28th. Always great to hear from him.
HELLO there family! Much quicker week this week! We did lots of service and lots of moving people around this week!
HELLO there family! Much quicker week this week! We did lots of service and lots of moving people around this week!
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| Elder Hintze & The Boys of Dothan |
Monday - P-Day sorry it was a bad emailing time last time, a guy from the 1st ward took us out to lunch, so I didn't get a real chance to email a lot! SORRY! But we went and played tennis again! It is a blast, playing on the clay courts are awesome, it isn't like nice clay, but you can slide around and stuff, there are sometimes some really good people that play there, so I am going to try and get in on some of that! But our evening was shot, because the lady who brought us dinner, was like an hour late, so we had to wait for her and that took up our whole evening!
Tuesday - We helped Scott Magnes move out of his house, before District Meeting. He had this big safe and so I hop on the dolly and move that sucker out of there, thinking I am tough, but that thing wasn't no joke, it was pushing on my hands, by my thumbs, and my hands were swollen and black and blue for like 4 days, but I got the baby in the truck.
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| Helping with a move! |
We then had District Meeting. Tony Hansen and his marine buddy showed up at the end of it and sat in on it, so then after that we all went to lunch with them. Then we came back home did some of our studies and then we went to see Theresa, the lady that sent you the pictures of me painting, I wish somebody would get her to join the church! But she loves us, like she calls me to tell me good news that happens to her!!! But I was able to teach some lady in the thrift store and able to give her a Book of Mormon, so it was an actually really successful trip! After that we went and saw Linda, she made me put ice onto my hands. So she is taking care of me! Then we traded off and I went with Davidson to the 1st ward.
Wednesday - We decided that we were both going to get up at 5:30 and go running at the park, but.. 5:30 rolled around pretty quickly and needless to say we didn't quite make it! But I need to start doing some running! We biked to go and give a lady in their ward a blessing. Then we came back and we were headed to red cross to do service, but we got a call that someone needed some help unloading an attic. So we went there and Simmons and Smith went to red cross. So we moved out this attic, and this house was built in like 1908. So It was a way sweet house! Like 20 steps up and then just a door and then a giant attic, that was way sketchy and way bigger than the main floor, and it was piled to the top with junk, you wouldn't believe some of the cool stuff that was up there, it was actually really cool, it was exactly like American Pickers, it was nuts! I kept making bids on stuff, but they wouldn't let me have anything hahaha. So for like 3 hours we carried junk out of this attic, up and down these steps. We were both exhausted when we finished. Then we went with their Ward Mission Leader to see a part member family in their ward, the lady is less activeish and the guy isn't a member, but comes every Sunday, lives all the commandments, and is awesome. But won't be baptized. So the WML is their good friend and all we talked about was baptism. It was actually really awesome, the spirit was way strong, and Brother Kelly the WML just absolutely told them like it is. It was really cool! He just needs to get baptized!!! Then we traded back!
Thursday - We helped Scott Magnes move again! We loaded up his truck with a bunch of stuff and then we did a little bit of cleaning with him. So they are now out of here, they are out of our area, so I am sad to see them go, I really want them to have the Gospel! Really, really bad! Then Scott Magnes took us to lunch and Hunt's Oyster Bar and I had raw oysters... they are just whatever... I wouldn't pay money to have them again. After that we went with Forest to see Nicholas, the kid that came up to us outside of Barbra's. And we taught him the Restoration... It didn't go exactly as we had thought, he told us that he has no friends, so he wants us there to be his friends. He said we were the closest friends he has, and he has epilepsy so he is a little weird, and then he told us that he smokes weed...... So It really wasn't the best. But we just told him that we would talk about that later with him. So I hope and I pray that our next lesson will be better! So then we went home and ate some dinner and did our weekly planning. While we were doing our weekly planning, there is a knock on the doors, so I am like uh its the sisters. And so I go out there and this girl is asking us if we knew some guy that she went to high school with, she said he was dressed just like us and he was walking with us in the parking lot, so I was like what the heck? But long story short, we start talking to her and she says that she wants us to come teach her, so this girl knocked on our door to be taught!!!! It was really awesome, so we set up a time to meet with her on Sunday. She said that her boyfriend told her the Bible isn't as valid, because it has been translated so many times! hahahahaha. How crazy is that? You NEVER hear that from anyone down here! It was awesome. But..... I texted her Sunday to make sure we were still good and she said "I can't. We can't. I am going to stick with my church." So I said, "Alright, we are very sorry to hear that, and we can understand that, we would still like to meet with you, just to share our message that we know to be true! But if not you know where to find us!" So after that she said we could meet again, so I'll keep you posted on that.
Friday - At the Hospital, great day there, I decided to be real friendly and so I was cracking jokes, and telling old ladies that I need them to stay on there feet in the ER, all kinds of stuff. So I love the hospital shift. But after that the Myers picked us up and dropped us off at Gloria's and the Sisters had just taught her lesson #3, and then we talked to her about the Word of Wisdom, I don't know that I had ever really taught the Word of Wisdom before, but we got her done! So Gloria and Zooya both committed to live the Word of Wisdom! Then we got picked up on the side of the rode and a member took us out to eat at Ryan's that buffett, bleh I am so fat. But I did get to talk to two people there, one from Douglas, Georgia he was a member and he knew a guy that we are working with here. And a lady that goes to Southside Baptist Church came over and gave me a big hug hahahaha, she is so nice. Really good person.
Saturday - Elder Smith was not feeling well. So we couldn't go out in the morning! I just spent the day until about 2 doing the area book. I got it all updated! Thanks to your letter Dad, I figured that I better get on that! But finally he did feel better, so we went and met with Anita at the downtown library. Then we went over to help Scott Magnes finish moving for the last time! But on the way there, there was a family out having a yard sale, so they yelled to me to come preach to them, so I stopped. It was really awesome, but then none of them would let me give them a Book of Mormon or talk to them, they said "they only prophet on the earth today is my preacher". So then we saw Sister Rush, and then we saw Linda, just because I felt like we needed to, and then she just cried a whole lot to us, because apparently she was just depressed a lot and missing her husband. And so it was really good that we went over there! Then we had dinner at the Prigmore's home, and then we saw Barbra with Brother Prigmore and then that was amen to Saturday!
Sunday - Church! Good day at church, Gloria or Nathan did not come. So that was dissapointing big time! But its whatever, it will all work out! It was Fast Sunday for us, because we have stake conference next sunday! Which I am excited about, after that we had lunch out at the Lewis's, huge dairy farm. And probably the best food on the earth in that kitchen, (sorry mom) but oooh man I love me a lot of things I didn't before the mission! Green Beans!!!!!!!!!! Potato Salad, Broccoli. All kinds of good stuff!!!!!!! Then we went with Tony Hansen and did his home teaching with him, saw 3 families. Then we went and gave a blessing to this lady that hasn't been to church in 20 years and apparently she wants to come back! So that was awesome, I love giving blessings so much! It is so cool to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord, exercising his Priesthood for this person, ah I love it.
Pretty good week for us! Not too shabby! Got Nathan coming up this week with the Baptism and then Gloria the next! We found out transfers this morning and everyone in Dothan is staying the same, President Smith said that he is really happy with the work that is happening in Dothan! But next transfer it is going to change a lot, I think I'm leaving next one and Davidson, and at least one if not two sisters! So kind of interesting that we are all staying the same! Romney Hammond is going to a Tallahassee Ward and he is serving with Elder Musgrave, who also went to Viewmont. He is a way cool guy, really funny! But man I sure do love this Gospel, I learn to love and appreciate all we have more and more every day!!!! We truly are so blessed!
LOVE YOU ALL FAMILY SO MUCH!!! THOUGHT ABOUT EVERYBODY A LOT THIS WEEK, MISS YOU!!
"The Lord is hastening his work, and the missionaries need our help!"
Elder Hintze wrote on Monday, October 14th:
"Heyo! Another week, this one seemed real long. This whole last month has seemed to move in slow motion, but then I think that we are done with this transfer in like 16 days. So that is pretty crazy. But here is the week for ya'll.
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| Elder Hintze (Not sure where he is going dressed like that?) |
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| Elder Smith and Elder Hintze |
Monday - P-Day and all that comes with it. We tried to go skating, but the place wouldn't let us skate, they only have open skating on Saturdays. But sadly no, the dreams of a skating lesson are gone. Then we ate the Krizer's house for dinner, good old pizza. Then we saw Bro Nunez, can't get him to come to church lately. And then some other people weren't home.
Tuesday - We had our President's interviews in the morning, which I was really excited about, got to talk to Sister Smith and President, they were both really short. But always awesome to get to talk to them. I don't know that I would want there job, 300 missionaries to watch over, no thanks. Then it was Taco Bell time with the Zone leaders and another set of Elders. :) Then we visited Barbra, didn't talk at all about the smoking and coffee, but she still is, we have just prayed with her and read the Book of Mormon and just loved her. But she has bought herself a new coffee maker and she is hiding her cigarettes from me, because she knows I will take them. hahaha. So she is going out of her way to sin, which is awesome right? NO. Stubbs called her and talked to her on the phone for about an hour, I have been in contact with him quite a few times about the whole thing. So then we saw Paul Kennedy and that is always an experience, but his grand daughter wants to be baptized, but the parents won't let her until she is 12, so that she can decide on her own, so that is awesome, because Paul lives with this daughter. So then we went and saw Theresa, at the thrift shop, and we basically have dropped her, because she isn't after truth, and is inviting us to come to another church with her. So she isn't quite on the train yet. But then we popped in on Carol Burnsed and she is doing better. Then we went to Linda's and Gloria and Carol Hughey were there, and Carol bought us a bunch of ties and so Gloria was picking them out for us, it was hilarious, the ties are all not my style she picked, but hey, I rolled with it. Then we ate dinner with the Grantham's. I don't think I have told you about this guy, Brother Grantham isn't a member his wife is the primary president been to the temple, he comes every Sunday is more active than most in the ward, but will not become a member it has been like 20 years now. General Authorities have talked to him, he is President Bess's best friend. It is madness, but he is there every Sunday. So then we played ball that night... Elder Smith punched a dude in the face on accident. It was Tony Hansen's marine boss and it gave him an instant black eye, hahahahaha Elder Smith clocked him.
Wednesday - We had District Meeting in the morning, he taught us about the Great Apostasy and we read a talk titled Why 1820? It is awesome, you should check it out. But in District Meeting he had me teach for a little bit about asking questions, so that was fun. Then we volunteered at the red cross. So they had us wash their van for them and work in the garden haha. And then after that we helped Linda clean out her garage and her shed a little bit, because she is getting some flooring put down in it. Then we scooted over to the hospital and gave a nonmember a blessing, a member asked us to, she went in for surgery, and they found out she has stage 4 cancer. So I gave her a blessing and not going to lie I was a little bit scared to do it. Then we ate at the Thompson's for dinner. Then we went and we taught Bonifay the nonmember lady and Scott magnes the less active guy they are moving into a different area, but we taught her the Plan of Salvation. Boy oh boy I am not the best teacher, my teaching skills need some major work, I just get stressed in a teaching situation or something. But it was good, she is pretty awesome! And has already read into 1 Nephi 11, which is way farther than most ever do. We were answering question and just talking more about the Plan and I was showing her some scriptures, because she asked for some study stuff. And out of no where Elder Smith, just says "something we haven't talked about is baptism. Will you follow the example of your Savior Jesus Christ and be baptized?" So she said, "Yes I believe in baptism, and I have never been baptized, but no I will not be baptized yet, I am not ready for that."
Thursday - we worked at the food bank in the morning, we taped up 500 boxes and it was only us elders and sisters there, so it wasn't the best service, but we got er done. So we then saw Barbra and she is doing just as good as ever, we have just been reading the Book of Mormon with her and she is understanding so much more, which really is awesome. Then we had some studies and weekly planning, then we went and saw this kid Donte he is in the 9th grade he is awesome, we went with Luke and we taught him the Restoration and he loved the fact that Christ visited the Americas, and he was way excited to read the Book of Mormon, and he invited us back the next day. So after that we went out to the Boonies with Luke and we tried to see Danny Dees an investigator that we haven't really focused on, then we saw the Saucer's recent convert brother and sister that live with their elderly mom. So we saw them, they ususlly don't let people in, so it was actually really cool. Then we went to Dairy Queen with Luke to cap off the night.
Friday - We worked at the food bank again in the morning, made a ton of individual boxes. Came back hit the bikes and headed to the Hospital worked at the hospital, nothing cool has happened there for quite sometime, so that's lame. But we get to talk to quite a few people. So after the hospital we saw Donte again and we taught him the Plan of Salvation, and he accepts it all, I don't know if it is something that I am doing but we teach people or just him and he accepts everything, but then doesn't realize what it really means that this is Christ's church on the earth!! Then we finally found Justin and his GF the guy who told us he didn't want to drink anymore and took us outside, well apparently he has been in prison 4 times since then. So he is no exactly on the train either right now.
Saturday - Happy 4 Month Mark to Elder Hintze, 4 months ladies and gentleman, if I can do 4 months I can do anything! :D So let me tell you what I ate today until 7:30 pm, 3 Loyless Donuts, 1 Krispy Kreme Donut, and some donut holes that you sent me! :) So we helped a family move from the 1st ward into our ward, they are really awesome a young couple that is from Arizona. From the same place as Elder Smith, they were so excited about it. After that we went to Theresa's thrift shop and helped her do some service, she told us to bring in Book of Mormons and she will put them around the store for people to read and take for free. Hahahaha, so that was pretty awesome. Then we met with Anita McBride in the park and read with her out of the Book of Mormon. Then we helped Sister Rush move a table in her trailer. Then we went home quick and we walked to see Donte and he wasn't home, so then we walked to see Linda, because she got her patriarchal blessing. Then Gloria canceled on us. Then we went and read with Barbra again. And then we were in for the night for some dinner.
Sunday - Barbra didn't come to church, because she fell getting into the shower. But we did have Gloria at church and so in Gospel principles we just freestyled it and we taught her the Plan of Salvation and she loved it all and had many questions. Then Luke gave his farewell talk and hands down it is the best daggum farewell talk I have ever given, I had the biggest smile on my face the whole time. He said at one point, "Brothers and Sisters, the Lord is hastening his work, and the missionaries need our help!" Wooo weeeeee. I loved it, hahahaha. I also got to bless the sacrament for the first time, which I was really excited about. So after that we went and saw Barbra to see how she was doing. So then we saw Donte and he was cleaning out his neighbors garage so we helped with that, I taught the neighbor guy while doing it and gave him a Book of Mormon so that was cool. BUT: While doing it, I spilled some kind of oil or grease on my brown shoes and now they are ruined kind of, or stained really bad. Not that bad, but I have tried to get it out, any ideas how to get it out??? I polished one of them and it made it darker, so it is less visible now, that's all I can get. So then we taught him and we reviewed the plan of salvation and we read a bunch of the Book of Mormon with him, he said he asked if it was true and didn't get an answer, then he said, "But I think I need to get into it more and then I will truly get my answer." So that was awesome. Then we did some biking around trying to see some people and some potentials and then we biked to Sister Knights to finish off the evening."
That's all folks! The Church is most definitely true!
Cheers, Elder Hintze
"Casual Dress! Great Band! Good Coffee! Changes Lives!" WHAT THE HECK?
Here is Elder Hintze's letter received Monday, October 7th.
"So this week..... Oh boy, probably like the best, worst week of the mission yet. Me and this week totally had a love, hate relationship, but that's okay! I'll tell you why in the days to follow!
Monday - So P-Day stuff with the 1st ward Elders, it is cool hanging out with them on the P-Days. So we go with them and we helped some lady in their area carry like every yard statue known to man and load them in her truck. Then we went and played tennis, which I talked about in the letter. But that was sweet! I haven't even lost a step.
Wednesday - We volunteered at the Food Bank. The people at the food bank are starting to get interested, one lady said to me, "Look at you, look at all of you, always smiling, I don't belive it, why are you always smiling." So I smiled and laughed in response. :) So then we went to Barbra's and she did not smoke this morning, she already seemed so much happier, and so we just had a low key visit with her and sang her some hymns, and just talked about how we can help her to quit smoking. She agreed to quit.... but she wouldn't let us take the cigarettes. So there was really no point to that, every fiber of my being said, take those cigarettes, but she wouldn't let us. So I have been calling her every morning since then, because she said in the mornings, is when it is the hardest. We have been trying to get bishop involved, because it isn't our responsibility really, so we tried to talk to him this evening. We saw Vicky Rush today as well. Then we tried to track down a bunch of former investigators, we have gotten a bunch of return appointments, but none have turned out yet. So then we had correlation, and this meeting was really effective, but now the ward leaders don't come all we had was Forest and the Elders Quorum President, Dean Marturello. So then we decided with the sister's we are doing a legit fireside with the ward on missionary work, and then going to start using family history more. BY THE WAY, I NEED SOMEONE IN THE FAMILY TO LOG INTO FAMILYSEARCH.ORG, BECAUSE WE HAVE A NAME WAITING ON THERE TO GO TO THE TEMPLE. I WOULD DO IT IF I COULD! HOP TO FAMILY!
Thursday - We worked at the Food bank again. Then I figured out how to use FamilySearch for our studies. There is a bunch of cool stuff on there. I didn't get but like 7 minutes on it, and I found Grandpa Hintze in a bunch of the census's and all his family, his occupation was listed as a "washman" in one of them. Haha. Then we worked at the Red Cross here in Dothan, we just called a list of like 100 people to see if they would be willing to volunteer, because of the so called hurricane. Don't worry we haven't even gotten the slightest bit of rain here. LAME! I accidentally called two guys on the list who work there, so they came and tracked me down in the building, it was a good chuckle for all involved. Then we met with Theresa, and we talked about the 3 degrees of glory, everytime she asks about them, so we read all that we could about them. And she really likes the idea, but she won't read the Book of Mormon, and she doesn't understand that these truths come from the Book of Mormon, she invited us to go to some other church with her. So not quite sure what to do with her. People down here don't think there is a true church, it is so sad! Church down here isn't about truth or conversion, it is about tradition, and a feel good church. The church next to our apartment Harvest Church, "the great and spacious builing", this sucker is massive! But their sign says, "Casual Dress! Great Band! Good Coffee! Changes Lives!" WHAT THE HECK? I don't get it, but they have thousands there! Any whom. Then we ate dinner with the Hornsby's then we had to trade the car back with the Elders.
Friday - Tried to see some former's in the morning! Nothing! So we went to the Hospital, and we had a zone conference call there, to talk about some changes, and as a mission we are now setting zone and district goals, which I think is really cool. I always get called on in these instances, on the phone call the ZLs said, "Elder Hintze, what do you think?" And over the mission wide conference call a few weeks back President Smith just says, "Alright we will now close with prayer and Elder Hintze will say that for us." So nothing of event at the hospital. Then we went to Gloria and Zooya's, Zooya is Gloria's 12 year old daughter, we taught her the restoration lesson the first time! So, the sister's and us taught her how to ride a bike, so we talked to Linda, Zooya, and Gloria for a little bit. Then we biked to see that way promising family Felisha, and they moved.... just gone in like 3 days. But then we talked to his one guy that Elder Stubbs tried to take me too, and he answered the door holding a pistol pointing at us, and said, sorry can't be too careful, then tucked it in his belt. Then we shared the restoration with him, and then he talked about all manner of crazyiness, of him being a private contractor in Afghanistan. And then he started smoking in front of us, and this dude, smelled heavy like some marijuana. So needless to say, don't think we are going back there. Then we went and saw Barbra again. So in her prayer all she said was, "I ask for forgiveness" so that was good.
Saturday - I can't even tell you how excited I was for conference, I have never been excited in my life!!! And the sessions seemed to fly by, they seemed to last forever back home! But I won't describe everything about conference, but I loved every minute of it!!! Can't wait to get the Ensign so I can study those babies up, I loved loved President Uchtdorf's talk in the morning, about the all of religions. Then after we went and saw a former and ate lunch at Bojangles, famous chicken and biscuits. Then we went back for the evening session, loved all of that too! So after that we met with Gloria and Zooya and needless to say we have their baptismal date set for November 9th!!!!!!!! And they are all on board, it was crazy, to see how prepared the Lord has made them! Gloria said, "I want to go to the Temple." ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? So we bounced around it and said, well we have to follow commandments yada yada. And every thing inside of me was like Bradley Brent Hintze, you commit this woman to be baptized right now! So I did it! Badabing badaboom! So I am way excited! So then we went to Priesthood session and loved that too!!!!!
Sunday - I wish every weekend could be conference weekend! So watched the morning session loved it, loved it!!!! I loved President Monson's talk at the end of the morning, and then when the MoTab sang We Thank Thee O God For A Prophet, every hair on my body stood up, it was a feeling that I could never deny!!!! It is so cool that we are part of Christ's Church on the earth!! And it was so humbling to see the Prophet talk about his sweet wife, and how devastating it has been without her. So after that we ate dinner at the Hall's, love that family too. I found out that the Church of Christ was formed by Sidney Rigdon, what????? That is what Gloria has been going too. Crazy! Then we went to the afternoon session, and I fell a sleep a little bit, but I stayed strong through most of it, and loved it! IF THERE IS ANYTHING THAT I'VE LEARNED FROM MY MISSION IT IS THAT I AM GOING TO BE EXHAUSTED FOR 2 WHOLE YEARS. So then we met with Barbra, and she is out of cigarettes, so she is quitting again, that's why all of us are fasting. So we just read the Book of Mormon with her, and helped her feel the Spirit. I took her plate in the kitchen and washed it for her. Then we did weekly planning.
I have been thinking a lot about why I got called to the mission that I did, and I think I am starting to figure it out maybe.. My Partriachal Blessing is just all about callings that I will hold in the church, and talking with the Halls, they were asking me what is one thing I wish that every member of the church knew. But I just feel like I am preparing myself for the rest of my life of service in the church, because I have learned a lot, a lot about how it should all work, I don't know, something I'm still working on in my head! Thinking about the Family a lot this week!!!! Missing and loving you, beyond comprehension!!!!!"
Monday - So P-Day stuff with the 1st ward Elders, it is cool hanging out with them on the P-Days. So we go with them and we helped some lady in their area carry like every yard statue known to man and load them in her truck. Then we went and played tennis, which I talked about in the letter. But that was sweet! I haven't even lost a step.
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| (l to r - Elder Simmons, Elder Davidson, Elder Hintze, Elder Smith) |
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| Driving to or from tennis. Looking good boys! |
So that night we tried to see a bunch of people on the bikes, and they weren't home and then I got us lost. oops!
Tuesday - Ah Crap! Basically is what this day was! So we had our District Meeting in the morning, and I have been given the district assignment to be district activity coordinator, hahaha, so I get to pick what the districts activity is at the end of the transfer. So we went and saw Paul Kennedy. Then we were heading to Linda's when we get this text from the Sister's, "Barbra got some smokes. :(" Shortly followed by "Help!!" So we wheel over there, and they were on a trade off, and Sis Johnson, was doing the whole "I don't even care that you smoked, I love you, you changed my life." I was crying, and just told her that I loved her and that we have come to far, to give all of this up now. Then I talked about a whole lot of stuff. And so she never would agree to quit again, so I left it with, "Barbra, before you drink your coffee, and smoke your cigarette tomorrow, I want you to look at the picture of the Savior, and ask you Father in Heaven if you should smoke!" And I said, I will be seeing you tomorrow morning to talk about it. So we left, and I don't know that I have ever been more heart broken in my whole life. But after that we saw Linda and Carol Hughey. Which that was good, it was a good stress reliever to sit down and talk to them, after Barbra's. So then we went to dinner with the Davis's, love that family. Then we had ball that night, and let me tell you I BALLED. Something about a Bradley Hintze on the edge, that really tears it up. But while we were there Barbra called the sister's and said that she had been praying since we left and she said that she doesn't want to smoke ever again! So that made me really happy.
Wednesday - We volunteered at the Food Bank. The people at the food bank are starting to get interested, one lady said to me, "Look at you, look at all of you, always smiling, I don't belive it, why are you always smiling." So I smiled and laughed in response. :) So then we went to Barbra's and she did not smoke this morning, she already seemed so much happier, and so we just had a low key visit with her and sang her some hymns, and just talked about how we can help her to quit smoking. She agreed to quit.... but she wouldn't let us take the cigarettes. So there was really no point to that, every fiber of my being said, take those cigarettes, but she wouldn't let us. So I have been calling her every morning since then, because she said in the mornings, is when it is the hardest. We have been trying to get bishop involved, because it isn't our responsibility really, so we tried to talk to him this evening. We saw Vicky Rush today as well. Then we tried to track down a bunch of former investigators, we have gotten a bunch of return appointments, but none have turned out yet. So then we had correlation, and this meeting was really effective, but now the ward leaders don't come all we had was Forest and the Elders Quorum President, Dean Marturello. So then we decided with the sister's we are doing a legit fireside with the ward on missionary work, and then going to start using family history more. BY THE WAY, I NEED SOMEONE IN THE FAMILY TO LOG INTO FAMILYSEARCH.ORG, BECAUSE WE HAVE A NAME WAITING ON THERE TO GO TO THE TEMPLE. I WOULD DO IT IF I COULD! HOP TO FAMILY!
Thursday - We worked at the Food bank again. Then I figured out how to use FamilySearch for our studies. There is a bunch of cool stuff on there. I didn't get but like 7 minutes on it, and I found Grandpa Hintze in a bunch of the census's and all his family, his occupation was listed as a "washman" in one of them. Haha. Then we worked at the Red Cross here in Dothan, we just called a list of like 100 people to see if they would be willing to volunteer, because of the so called hurricane. Don't worry we haven't even gotten the slightest bit of rain here. LAME! I accidentally called two guys on the list who work there, so they came and tracked me down in the building, it was a good chuckle for all involved. Then we met with Theresa, and we talked about the 3 degrees of glory, everytime she asks about them, so we read all that we could about them. And she really likes the idea, but she won't read the Book of Mormon, and she doesn't understand that these truths come from the Book of Mormon, she invited us to go to some other church with her. So not quite sure what to do with her. People down here don't think there is a true church, it is so sad! Church down here isn't about truth or conversion, it is about tradition, and a feel good church. The church next to our apartment Harvest Church, "the great and spacious builing", this sucker is massive! But their sign says, "Casual Dress! Great Band! Good Coffee! Changes Lives!" WHAT THE HECK? I don't get it, but they have thousands there! Any whom. Then we ate dinner with the Hornsby's then we had to trade the car back with the Elders.
Friday - Tried to see some former's in the morning! Nothing! So we went to the Hospital, and we had a zone conference call there, to talk about some changes, and as a mission we are now setting zone and district goals, which I think is really cool. I always get called on in these instances, on the phone call the ZLs said, "Elder Hintze, what do you think?" And over the mission wide conference call a few weeks back President Smith just says, "Alright we will now close with prayer and Elder Hintze will say that for us." So nothing of event at the hospital. Then we went to Gloria and Zooya's, Zooya is Gloria's 12 year old daughter, we taught her the restoration lesson the first time! So, the sister's and us taught her how to ride a bike, so we talked to Linda, Zooya, and Gloria for a little bit. Then we biked to see that way promising family Felisha, and they moved.... just gone in like 3 days. But then we talked to his one guy that Elder Stubbs tried to take me too, and he answered the door holding a pistol pointing at us, and said, sorry can't be too careful, then tucked it in his belt. Then we shared the restoration with him, and then he talked about all manner of crazyiness, of him being a private contractor in Afghanistan. And then he started smoking in front of us, and this dude, smelled heavy like some marijuana. So needless to say, don't think we are going back there. Then we went and saw Barbra again. So in her prayer all she said was, "I ask for forgiveness" so that was good.
Saturday - I can't even tell you how excited I was for conference, I have never been excited in my life!!! And the sessions seemed to fly by, they seemed to last forever back home! But I won't describe everything about conference, but I loved every minute of it!!! Can't wait to get the Ensign so I can study those babies up, I loved loved President Uchtdorf's talk in the morning, about the all of religions. Then after we went and saw a former and ate lunch at Bojangles, famous chicken and biscuits. Then we went back for the evening session, loved all of that too! So after that we met with Gloria and Zooya and needless to say we have their baptismal date set for November 9th!!!!!!!! And they are all on board, it was crazy, to see how prepared the Lord has made them! Gloria said, "I want to go to the Temple." ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? So we bounced around it and said, well we have to follow commandments yada yada. And every thing inside of me was like Bradley Brent Hintze, you commit this woman to be baptized right now! So I did it! Badabing badaboom! So I am way excited! So then we went to Priesthood session and loved that too!!!!!
Sunday - I wish every weekend could be conference weekend! So watched the morning session loved it, loved it!!!! I loved President Monson's talk at the end of the morning, and then when the MoTab sang We Thank Thee O God For A Prophet, every hair on my body stood up, it was a feeling that I could never deny!!!! It is so cool that we are part of Christ's Church on the earth!! And it was so humbling to see the Prophet talk about his sweet wife, and how devastating it has been without her. So after that we ate dinner at the Hall's, love that family too. I found out that the Church of Christ was formed by Sidney Rigdon, what????? That is what Gloria has been going too. Crazy! Then we went to the afternoon session, and I fell a sleep a little bit, but I stayed strong through most of it, and loved it! IF THERE IS ANYTHING THAT I'VE LEARNED FROM MY MISSION IT IS THAT I AM GOING TO BE EXHAUSTED FOR 2 WHOLE YEARS. So then we met with Barbra, and she is out of cigarettes, so she is quitting again, that's why all of us are fasting. So we just read the Book of Mormon with her, and helped her feel the Spirit. I took her plate in the kitchen and washed it for her. Then we did weekly planning.
I have been thinking a lot about why I got called to the mission that I did, and I think I am starting to figure it out maybe.. My Partriachal Blessing is just all about callings that I will hold in the church, and talking with the Halls, they were asking me what is one thing I wish that every member of the church knew. But I just feel like I am preparing myself for the rest of my life of service in the church, because I have learned a lot, a lot about how it should all work, I don't know, something I'm still working on in my head! Thinking about the Family a lot this week!!!! Missing and loving you, beyond comprehension!!!!!"
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