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!
Picture From Sister Smith
On Thursday, July 25th, Elder Hintze and Elder Stubbs spent time with President Smith. Sister Smith posted this picture from that day. We understand President Smith wanted to visit a family with the Elders. You gotta love missionary work!
"I'm Cooking In My Own Epidermis"
Here's what Elder Hintze had to say on Monday, July 22, 2013. Thanks for looking in on this blog. When you have time, drop Elder Hintze a note. Address and email to the right ------------->.
He would love to hear from you. Enjoy!
"FAMILY!!!!! Hello. Time really is flying here, it is zooming from P Day to P Day. Hope everything is going well there, love all of you so much!!! Not a lot happened this week here in Dothan. BUT REST ASSURED IM COOKING IN MY OWN EPIDERMIS HERE. Holy smokes I can't even handle the heat. I usually sweat through my slacks each day, so I have some bum sweat that shows up on my pants. I am not quite sure exactly how to conquer this as of yet, but every day is a struggle here! :) And I gotta be honest after living in Utah, I don't know why anyone in their right mind would come and live in such a place as Dothan, Alabama, I don't know it goes over my head. But this place is pretty alright, and as far as Alabama goes I am starting to love this place. So lets talk about this dress code change for the missionaries, we have heard nothing about it, but we went and looked it up... We can't wear backpacks.... They just decided in the year 2013, that backpacks are unprofessional.... I don't get that. I would almost rather die a thousand deaths than wear a over the shoulder bag.. I don't know. But maybe could you look at sending me a pair of tan slacks. Because I would probably look mighty fine in them. Tonight I think we are hoping to go out with Carter Bess and see some families with him, some of them are investigators, so it has potential to be a real good night tonight. We may even take him to a Spanish guys house that the sisters found and have him interpret for us. And not to mention we are going to hit up the Dothan Rescue Missions for some 50 cent ties. I still have yet to teach a first lesson.. So I am really hoping that this week will be the week for that. Also, President Smith is coming to go out with us on Thursday to see an investigator or a less active... But as of yet we have no one for him to go see. So pray that we have somebody to take our Mission President too."
"Monday- After I got done emailing ya'll we went to the grocery store and then to the Mall. It is a lame mall, but that killed me, I wanted to buy lots of stuff there, but I didn't. Any whom, so we met Tony Hansen and Nathan Hansbury there, Nathan is the investigator, he is now gone. So we have no investigators. But we talked with him about the Priesthood, just the lessons that are in the 4th lesson. So he is gone and in 13 weeks he will be back, and he wants to be baptized. So I am just thinking that I will probably be here when he returns, but I don't think that Stubbs will be. But he believes everything that we have taught him, and he has changed so much, which is awesome. I just hope that he keeps it up while at boot camp, he said that he would go to church while there, and we are going to write him every week, and send him different material. Then we ate dinner at the Bess's home, and I told you about that. It was awesome, holy cow their neighborhood is unreal."
"Tuesday - Had District meeting in the morning, and it was really solid. We are the only ones in the District, which is Sisters that cover Dothan 1st and 2nd Ward, and the Dothan 1st Elders. We are the only ones getting investigators, or teaching member present lessons, everyone else doesn't have anything going. Anyway, so it was a good meeting. Then we met with the recent convert Linda Pollium again, she is sweet as pie. She gets so mad when sacrament meeting is noisy, like she said that she was going to get up and leave. So we are trying to work with her. And her neighbors that came to church, we are trying to get in with them!!! But we haven't been able to. So then we ate dinner at a members house, Levi Hansen. And he is in the Elders Quorum Presidency so we met with them, it was supposed to be all of them. So we met with them and tried to get something going with them, missionary wise. Then we played ball at that church with everyone, and we talked to Nathan again, and taught him little things here and there."
"Wednesday - So it was Trade-Offs, so I didn't know much about trade offs, so I went to the 1st ward with Elder Hyer, and Elder Davidson came down with Stubbs. I didn't know that you spent the night, I got the hee bee gee bees from sleeping in another man's sheets. Eh. That grossed me out. But so I went with Elder Hyer. So we tried to see probably 12 people and like 2 were home, but we did meet this recent convert family, they were pretty awesome. Not what I expected going into it, walked in Dad covered in tattoos, killing dragons and what not on the computer, grandpa sitting there with his shirt of. But they are some good people, who are doing some really awesome things with their lives. The Gospel has really blessed them. So then we had dinner at a members house, Ingrams. They cooked us ribs, and corn, baked beans, and I even tried potato salad.. They have 3 daughters, and then a lone son. I told him to just endure and things will get better. :) So that was basically the trade off, I was really happy to get back to the 2nd ward."
"Thursday - So this day we had planned out awesome.. But as for most days, no. Nobody will ever see us. So it didn't turn out as planned. We tried a lot of formers, but nothing is coming from them. So we rode the bikes for a while and tried to find people and tract, but you know how that goes, nothing. So we rewarded ourselves with Kraze Yogurt, and regrouped. We visited a member family Homer Meeks, he has cancer. He has been in Dothan his whole life, and was here when the church was first established here, so that was cool to talk to him about that. We then had dinner with Donna Yost, we were hoping her non member husband was there, but he wasn't. So after that we went and saw Nathan for the last time, we had a lesson at the marine recruiters office, where Tony Hansen works. And we just talked to him about the Book of Mormon and shared our favorite stories with him, and then I had the idea to give him a priesthood blessing. So we did that because he was leaving, so we did it. And he said, "That was weird." And so I'm like oh crap. But then he said, "I almost cried." Hahaha so it was good. He was really happy, and said that was exactly what he needed to hear, so I think that's good right? :)"
"Friday - Ah man this was a bad day. We had nothing going. We did Clergy duty, and nothing happened, we talked to very few people. We tried to find formers after that. And then we went to Cameron Coggins house the Japan bound missionary from the ward, his Mission President is the Wadas! Who used to be in our ward, I don't know if you talk to them at all, but I told him that we knew him. So we went over to meet his two friends Michael, and Calhoun, who are non members, Michael had to leave, but we grilled up burgers, mac and cheese, and tots. And talked to Calhoun, and tried to teach him, but he wasn't interested. But before we talked to them, we tracted out his neighborhood, and this is where something clicked, I was like forget this, we gotta do something different with these door approaches, so every since that time, every single experience that we have had tracting has been positive, even if its a negative experience its a positive negative, and we have found like 5 potentials, and I think 3 of them told us to come back, so we have a lot of work to do this week. It is amazing to see how many people have heard of the church, or who have friends that have told them all about it, or who have a Book of Mormon in their house, but then just say we are happy where we are. Everyone, not everyone, but almost has heard of the church, and been exposed to it. Also we got up early and met as a district at Loyless Donuts in Dothan, they make homemade donuts and are usually sold out at about 8 am in the morning, they were delicious!! Crazy that they sell out that quick, it is pretty famous I think.."
"Saturday - Another day that we had planned out to be a blockbuster day. Nah. Aint having none of that. It never turns out how we plan, because nobody is ever home, so we just have to improvise. So we met with Anita a recent convert and read form the Book of Mormon at Linda's house. And Carol Hughey was there, who is Linda's niece or something like that, and she is the mom of the family that we've been trying to get in with, but we cant seem to do it. She is a member, but isn't active, because her husband cheated on her, I think I told you about her. But the second we open up the scriptures, she's gone, we invited her to stay, but she never does. So we don't really know how to get in with that family. We tried to visit a new investigator that Stubbs picked up on tradeoffs. We talked to the husband as he was fixing his ghetto sled. Just a ford continental or something with like 40 inch rims, they are everywhere, all the people, seem to enjoy them, I don't know? Any whom we talked to him, he told us to come back, so we did that night, and he came to the door, and just laughed at us. And said, "Man, what are ya'll even doing out here?" So he thought we were funny, I guess. :) Haha, but we are going to go back and see them, you better believe it. So then we visited a recent convert Carol and Taren Burnsed, super nice family, the son got baptized too, but right now, doesn't like the church, so we have some work to do there. Then we had dinner at the Hutto's and there was lots of food, breakfast for dinner. It was really good. I had grits for the first time, they don't taste like anything. But everybody down here is obsessed with them. Then we saw Sister Knight, with the sisters. Saturday night I was super depressed, because I just felt worthless, because it is so hard, when we have expectations to see these people, and then it doesn't work, and we have nothing to do. I just feel worthless a lot. But I snapped out of that quick, and I'm just gonna keep on pressing forward."
"Sunday - We had no investigators at church this time. Sacrament was really quiet today, which is a great positive for the ward! Some really great things are happening in the ward right now, a medical school opened up, so we have had tons of young families moving into the ward, which is phenomenal. And the last two sundays there has been close to 220 members at church, which they normally have like 160. Which I don't think has much to do with us, but it really is awesome!! Right after church we had dinner with the Davis family, they are a super solid family. So we talked to them a lot about missionary work, and hopefully go them back on the train with us. So that was good. Then we went and tracted, the historic Dothan area. Some houses are hundreds of years old, and they are beautiful. So we found are solidest potential there! It was sweet, and we are going to go back and visit him, everyone we met was super nice, and had experiences with the church. So then we tried to see Nathan Spivey that referral from the Douglas Bishop, but the girlfriend answered and we gave her a B of M, and told us to come back, it was super quick, and so we don't really know where they stand. We are confused. But you better believe you can't get rid of us with that. So then we thought we were moving a new family into their house, but that got canceled, so we taught Tony Hansen a little, he has only been a member a year, but is the most solid missionary in the ward. Then we found like three more potentials tracting, it really has been weird? We are killing it tracting lately, but its really odd. And freakin awesome!! So then we tried to visit with Linda's neighbor, Gloria, but we couldn't, they were busy, but apparently they are very poor, and they don't have money to fix their plumbing, so they have to take tubs of water from their sink and dump it out back, I WANT TO HELP THEM SO BAD! So we are trying to find a member of the ward who is a plumber, who would at least come look at it."
"Well family that's my week! I wish I had more cool stories, or sweet lessons that we taught! But haha, we are trying to get things moving. This mission thing is pretty fun though, if I wouldn't be having fun, I probably wouldn't be here right now. But it is awesome to watch how the Gospel blesses lives. It has blessed my life and our families life so much. I am so thankful for the Gospel and for all of you, and all that you do. Really I love all of you so much, it drives me crazy not being home!! But I love what I'm doing here, because we have been too blessed, to not try and share that with others, who are missing it.
LOVE THIS GOSPEL, AND LOVE ALL OF YOU MORE THAN IMAGINABLE."
LOVE, ELDER HINTZE
He would love to hear from you. Enjoy!
"FAMILY!!!!! Hello. Time really is flying here, it is zooming from P Day to P Day. Hope everything is going well there, love all of you so much!!! Not a lot happened this week here in Dothan. BUT REST ASSURED IM COOKING IN MY OWN EPIDERMIS HERE. Holy smokes I can't even handle the heat. I usually sweat through my slacks each day, so I have some bum sweat that shows up on my pants. I am not quite sure exactly how to conquer this as of yet, but every day is a struggle here! :) And I gotta be honest after living in Utah, I don't know why anyone in their right mind would come and live in such a place as Dothan, Alabama, I don't know it goes over my head. But this place is pretty alright, and as far as Alabama goes I am starting to love this place. So lets talk about this dress code change for the missionaries, we have heard nothing about it, but we went and looked it up... We can't wear backpacks.... They just decided in the year 2013, that backpacks are unprofessional.... I don't get that. I would almost rather die a thousand deaths than wear a over the shoulder bag.. I don't know. But maybe could you look at sending me a pair of tan slacks. Because I would probably look mighty fine in them. Tonight I think we are hoping to go out with Carter Bess and see some families with him, some of them are investigators, so it has potential to be a real good night tonight. We may even take him to a Spanish guys house that the sisters found and have him interpret for us. And not to mention we are going to hit up the Dothan Rescue Missions for some 50 cent ties. I still have yet to teach a first lesson.. So I am really hoping that this week will be the week for that. Also, President Smith is coming to go out with us on Thursday to see an investigator or a less active... But as of yet we have no one for him to go see. So pray that we have somebody to take our Mission President too."
"Monday- After I got done emailing ya'll we went to the grocery store and then to the Mall. It is a lame mall, but that killed me, I wanted to buy lots of stuff there, but I didn't. Any whom, so we met Tony Hansen and Nathan Hansbury there, Nathan is the investigator, he is now gone. So we have no investigators. But we talked with him about the Priesthood, just the lessons that are in the 4th lesson. So he is gone and in 13 weeks he will be back, and he wants to be baptized. So I am just thinking that I will probably be here when he returns, but I don't think that Stubbs will be. But he believes everything that we have taught him, and he has changed so much, which is awesome. I just hope that he keeps it up while at boot camp, he said that he would go to church while there, and we are going to write him every week, and send him different material. Then we ate dinner at the Bess's home, and I told you about that. It was awesome, holy cow their neighborhood is unreal."
"Tuesday - Had District meeting in the morning, and it was really solid. We are the only ones in the District, which is Sisters that cover Dothan 1st and 2nd Ward, and the Dothan 1st Elders. We are the only ones getting investigators, or teaching member present lessons, everyone else doesn't have anything going. Anyway, so it was a good meeting. Then we met with the recent convert Linda Pollium again, she is sweet as pie. She gets so mad when sacrament meeting is noisy, like she said that she was going to get up and leave. So we are trying to work with her. And her neighbors that came to church, we are trying to get in with them!!! But we haven't been able to. So then we ate dinner at a members house, Levi Hansen. And he is in the Elders Quorum Presidency so we met with them, it was supposed to be all of them. So we met with them and tried to get something going with them, missionary wise. Then we played ball at that church with everyone, and we talked to Nathan again, and taught him little things here and there."
"Wednesday - So it was Trade-Offs, so I didn't know much about trade offs, so I went to the 1st ward with Elder Hyer, and Elder Davidson came down with Stubbs. I didn't know that you spent the night, I got the hee bee gee bees from sleeping in another man's sheets. Eh. That grossed me out. But so I went with Elder Hyer. So we tried to see probably 12 people and like 2 were home, but we did meet this recent convert family, they were pretty awesome. Not what I expected going into it, walked in Dad covered in tattoos, killing dragons and what not on the computer, grandpa sitting there with his shirt of. But they are some good people, who are doing some really awesome things with their lives. The Gospel has really blessed them. So then we had dinner at a members house, Ingrams. They cooked us ribs, and corn, baked beans, and I even tried potato salad.. They have 3 daughters, and then a lone son. I told him to just endure and things will get better. :) So that was basically the trade off, I was really happy to get back to the 2nd ward."
"Thursday - So this day we had planned out awesome.. But as for most days, no. Nobody will ever see us. So it didn't turn out as planned. We tried a lot of formers, but nothing is coming from them. So we rode the bikes for a while and tried to find people and tract, but you know how that goes, nothing. So we rewarded ourselves with Kraze Yogurt, and regrouped. We visited a member family Homer Meeks, he has cancer. He has been in Dothan his whole life, and was here when the church was first established here, so that was cool to talk to him about that. We then had dinner with Donna Yost, we were hoping her non member husband was there, but he wasn't. So after that we went and saw Nathan for the last time, we had a lesson at the marine recruiters office, where Tony Hansen works. And we just talked to him about the Book of Mormon and shared our favorite stories with him, and then I had the idea to give him a priesthood blessing. So we did that because he was leaving, so we did it. And he said, "That was weird." And so I'm like oh crap. But then he said, "I almost cried." Hahaha so it was good. He was really happy, and said that was exactly what he needed to hear, so I think that's good right? :)"
"Friday - Ah man this was a bad day. We had nothing going. We did Clergy duty, and nothing happened, we talked to very few people. We tried to find formers after that. And then we went to Cameron Coggins house the Japan bound missionary from the ward, his Mission President is the Wadas! Who used to be in our ward, I don't know if you talk to them at all, but I told him that we knew him. So we went over to meet his two friends Michael, and Calhoun, who are non members, Michael had to leave, but we grilled up burgers, mac and cheese, and tots. And talked to Calhoun, and tried to teach him, but he wasn't interested. But before we talked to them, we tracted out his neighborhood, and this is where something clicked, I was like forget this, we gotta do something different with these door approaches, so every since that time, every single experience that we have had tracting has been positive, even if its a negative experience its a positive negative, and we have found like 5 potentials, and I think 3 of them told us to come back, so we have a lot of work to do this week. It is amazing to see how many people have heard of the church, or who have friends that have told them all about it, or who have a Book of Mormon in their house, but then just say we are happy where we are. Everyone, not everyone, but almost has heard of the church, and been exposed to it. Also we got up early and met as a district at Loyless Donuts in Dothan, they make homemade donuts and are usually sold out at about 8 am in the morning, they were delicious!! Crazy that they sell out that quick, it is pretty famous I think.."
"Saturday - Another day that we had planned out to be a blockbuster day. Nah. Aint having none of that. It never turns out how we plan, because nobody is ever home, so we just have to improvise. So we met with Anita a recent convert and read form the Book of Mormon at Linda's house. And Carol Hughey was there, who is Linda's niece or something like that, and she is the mom of the family that we've been trying to get in with, but we cant seem to do it. She is a member, but isn't active, because her husband cheated on her, I think I told you about her. But the second we open up the scriptures, she's gone, we invited her to stay, but she never does. So we don't really know how to get in with that family. We tried to visit a new investigator that Stubbs picked up on tradeoffs. We talked to the husband as he was fixing his ghetto sled. Just a ford continental or something with like 40 inch rims, they are everywhere, all the people, seem to enjoy them, I don't know? Any whom we talked to him, he told us to come back, so we did that night, and he came to the door, and just laughed at us. And said, "Man, what are ya'll even doing out here?" So he thought we were funny, I guess. :) Haha, but we are going to go back and see them, you better believe it. So then we visited a recent convert Carol and Taren Burnsed, super nice family, the son got baptized too, but right now, doesn't like the church, so we have some work to do there. Then we had dinner at the Hutto's and there was lots of food, breakfast for dinner. It was really good. I had grits for the first time, they don't taste like anything. But everybody down here is obsessed with them. Then we saw Sister Knight, with the sisters. Saturday night I was super depressed, because I just felt worthless, because it is so hard, when we have expectations to see these people, and then it doesn't work, and we have nothing to do. I just feel worthless a lot. But I snapped out of that quick, and I'm just gonna keep on pressing forward."
"Sunday - We had no investigators at church this time. Sacrament was really quiet today, which is a great positive for the ward! Some really great things are happening in the ward right now, a medical school opened up, so we have had tons of young families moving into the ward, which is phenomenal. And the last two sundays there has been close to 220 members at church, which they normally have like 160. Which I don't think has much to do with us, but it really is awesome!! Right after church we had dinner with the Davis family, they are a super solid family. So we talked to them a lot about missionary work, and hopefully go them back on the train with us. So that was good. Then we went and tracted, the historic Dothan area. Some houses are hundreds of years old, and they are beautiful. So we found are solidest potential there! It was sweet, and we are going to go back and visit him, everyone we met was super nice, and had experiences with the church. So then we tried to see Nathan Spivey that referral from the Douglas Bishop, but the girlfriend answered and we gave her a B of M, and told us to come back, it was super quick, and so we don't really know where they stand. We are confused. But you better believe you can't get rid of us with that. So then we thought we were moving a new family into their house, but that got canceled, so we taught Tony Hansen a little, he has only been a member a year, but is the most solid missionary in the ward. Then we found like three more potentials tracting, it really has been weird? We are killing it tracting lately, but its really odd. And freakin awesome!! So then we tried to visit with Linda's neighbor, Gloria, but we couldn't, they were busy, but apparently they are very poor, and they don't have money to fix their plumbing, so they have to take tubs of water from their sink and dump it out back, I WANT TO HELP THEM SO BAD! So we are trying to find a member of the ward who is a plumber, who would at least come look at it."
"Well family that's my week! I wish I had more cool stories, or sweet lessons that we taught! But haha, we are trying to get things moving. This mission thing is pretty fun though, if I wouldn't be having fun, I probably wouldn't be here right now. But it is awesome to watch how the Gospel blesses lives. It has blessed my life and our families life so much. I am so thankful for the Gospel and for all of you, and all that you do. Really I love all of you so much, it drives me crazy not being home!! But I love what I'm doing here, because we have been too blessed, to not try and share that with others, who are missing it.
LOVE THIS GOSPEL, AND LOVE ALL OF YOU MORE THAN IMAGINABLE."
LOVE, ELDER HINTZE
Bradley has lost it....
We were delighted to get a letter in the mail this morning from Elder Hintze...
We were very please to see what was inside.
1. A short handwritten letter from Brads...
2. A beautiful picture collage he had cut and pasted together all by himself, using his sister's picture published in an old Ensign...
The letter reads:
"Surprise! I was just reading the February of 2011 Ensign. Madison, what a celebrity you are! So, I found it only necessary to put together a collage of you and the Japanese family. You're welcome! Love, Elder Hintze"
We realize the collage is a little blurry, so here are a few of the captions Bradley decided to cut and paste...."I'm MadDawg. I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it"......"Model, U R a star"......"What we believe possible"...."Whoa! Now that's an Eagle Scout project!"
For those of us who know Brads, we are not all that surprised by this, but we can't help but wonder what his companion, Elder Stubbs, might have been thinking as he saw this little art project unfolding.
Man, We miss this kid!
We were very please to see what was inside.
1. A short handwritten letter from Brads...
The letter reads:
"Surprise! I was just reading the February of 2011 Ensign. Madison, what a celebrity you are! So, I found it only necessary to put together a collage of you and the Japanese family. You're welcome! Love, Elder Hintze"
We realize the collage is a little blurry, so here are a few of the captions Bradley decided to cut and paste...."I'm MadDawg. I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it"......"Model, U R a star"......"What we believe possible"...."Whoa! Now that's an Eagle Scout project!"
For those of us who know Brads, we are not all that surprised by this, but we can't help but wonder what his companion, Elder Stubbs, might have been thinking as he saw this little art project unfolding.
Man, We miss this kid!
"Elder Bess and Elder Hintze?"
On Monday, July 15th, a family by the name of Bess (President Bess is President of the Dothan Alabama Stake) had Elder Hintze, Elder Stubbs, and the Sister missionaries over for dinner. Afterward, Sister Bess sent us a picture of the group at their home. It was really fun to see! There is another part of this story. Elder Carter Bess, standing next to Elder Hintze in the picture, just returned home after serving in the Ogden Utah Mission. We actually met him on two different occasions in Huntsville! Enjoy the picture!
Well So What, We're Mormon and We Are Here To Talk To You About Christ
A few thoughts from Elder Hintze received on Monday, July 15th. Sooooooo good to hear from him. Hope you enjoy his email letter. Here we go:
"HELLO FAMILY. The weeks are flying by! It is crazy. I feel like I was just writing to you last week. I have now been out for over a month, eh? How about that! :) A month and 3 days, it seems like it has been 8 years, but at the same time it is starting to fly by. So this email, might be kind of short, because I usually bring my journal, because I can barely remember what I did yesterday, so I use that to include all of the details, so I am just going off memory, and it might be sketchy. Sorry about that. Sounds like everybody is doing well!! Love to hear all of the things that are going on! We got a little bit more rain this week, it basically rains everyday hear at some point or another."
"Monday - P-Day's are awesome it is just a good to day to chill. We didn't have much planned that night, we tried to make several visits and nobody was home. So we went to get dinner at Zaxby's a chicken place it is absolutely delicious. And then we did mission prep with Cameron and Luke those two kids who are preparing to serve missions from the ward. We are going to do splits with them this evening, which is exciting, I will be the lone missionary. So I am excited for that and to be able to go with these kids, and impart all of my wisdom on them. :)"
"Tuesday- We had District meeting, again nothing that special. But last night we did learn a lot of things about the District because Stubbs is the District Leader, so we got a lot of stuff to work on. Haha. I am pretty sure that I am going to be in Dothan for a long time.. I don't know why, but I just have a feeling I am going to be here for a while, there is a lot of work to do in the ward, and so I don't know I just feel I'm gonna be here a while. The missionaries before us were here for 12 months and then 8 months, and in the other ward a missionary was here for 14 months. Elder Stubbs has only been here for 1 transfer before this, so we still don't know most of the people and are learning the area a lot better. We went and saw a man by the name of Brother Nunez, he is less active and kept saying he was trying to comeback, and I thought he was blowing smoke. But he told us his story, and wow he has been through a lot. He was a convert with his wife and two kids like 8 years ago, they went through the temple, were sealed together, and everything was going great. His wife went back to Mexico to visit her family for 6 months, then she came back got a divorce and in the same day sold all of Brother Nunez's stuff in the house. So he lost everything in like a day. He is still with his wife today, I don't know how that worked out, but his wife is super anti to the church and it has affected the two kids and they no longer want to come. But he said through it all he kept praying that he would not lose his faith, and he hasn't! His story was powerful, but it is just hard for him because he wants his family to be with him at church. But he has come the last 3 weeks, which he hasn't been in a while. So its awesome!! Then we did a lot of tracting, and that never works. I love tracting, I enjoy it. But everybody treats us like we're a disease, they don't answer and talk to us through their window, hahaha. Some people or they say, Oh I'm catholic or I'm Baptist. Well so what, we're Mormon and we are here to talk to you about Christ. Very slim you will meet very nice people who love to talk about Christ, for instance we met a Methodist preachers wife, she came right out and said that. And so we talked to her about Christ, she said it is a joy to have you boys in the neighborhood, you do a lot of good, and then gave us water. Any whom, we met with Nathan Hansbury again that night and taught him the Plan of Salvation, it doesn't matter what we teach him, he knows its true, unfortunately we won't get to baptize him before he leaves for Boot Camp this Sunday, but when he gets back in 13 weeks if I am still here. His personal views about where we come from and where were going, he already believed most of what we taught him, it really is crazy to see how the Lord prepares people. And then we played basketball with all the youth, we do that every Tuesday night, so we get Nathan to play with us, so he already has a ton of friends who are in the church."
"Wednesday- Um.. I'm struggling with this day, we met with Nathan again, but it was a sparatic lesson. He works with Tony Hansen who is the Marine Recruiter in the ward, who got us our only two solid investigators. So he was recruiting people at WalMart, so we taught him the Word of Wisdom as we walked around Walmart. Hahaha. Oh well, you take them as you get em. Then we tracted down a bunch of old formers, haven't been able to talk one yet, but we're trying all of them! Saw Vicki Rush. She is super nice."
"Thursday - We did weekly planning in the morning so it is a shortened day, I hate that. We met with President Smith and he said out of 24 months, you only have 10 months to proselyte, because we have studies and planning and what not. So that made me super sad. Because I just want to get out there and find some people! So we again tried to tract down a bunch of formers, no go, so we knocked a lot of doors, no go. So we went to see this guy named Nathan Spivey grew up in the church, I think I have talked about him, his girlfriend isn't a member, but is way interested. So right as we got there he got home? Coincedience, I think not. Both times we have seen him, we have been there right as he pulled in. So we get there and he says of hey Elders we were just talking about you last night. Ah? You see whats happening here. :) So any whom she wasn't home, but he said that she wants to have us over for dinner sometime, so we are way excited for that. So we just talked to him and saw his dogs, he has a pitbull german shepherd mix, it is crazy. And it slobbered all over me, yum. Then we hit the bikes inside the circle after dinner, it was awesome delightful weather. We tried to see good old Paul Kennedy the shoot people guy, who is blind, because of the stroke. He came to church with us last Sunday, so we stopped by and he lives with his daughter and family, but turns out he was at the bar. He called a taxi and took himself there. So, we got a lot of work to do there, and we gained a lot of insight, so we got to focus on getting him back. Then we taught a recent convert Linda Pollium, she is super nice, really sweet lady. I really do love seeing her. And we talked to her neighbors who we are trying to get in with every so slowly, they came to church but didn't like it because it was too noisy, and boy is our ward noisy, it is out of control, so we don't know what to do about that, but we got some work to do with that family."
"Friday- We met President Smith, I love him. He is awesome. He reminds me a lot of you dad. He has a lot of good ideas that are going to help out a lot. So that morning in our studies we read an article in the Ensign about taking less actives or people who aren't super solid in the church to lessons with you, and make them remember their testimonies and help them to feel the Spirit, so we are going to start doing that. And then the big thing that President Smith talked about was just that. So we are going to start doing that a lot more. We went like 2 hours early to set up the room for all 40 missionaries in our zone, so we were the only ones in there and in walks Pres. Smith and Elder Munns our Area Seventy, we had no idea that they were coming that early, so we got to meet them, it was really awesome. Also come December ever missionary companionship will have an iPhone and an iPad, they said. How about that? It is really going to advance the work like crazy, and make is so everyone has a chance to hear the Gospel. We will be able to Skype people all over the world and teach them, and then send missionaries to their door. So we will see how it all works out eventually.
"Saturday - We worked at the Hospital, we had to switch because of Pres. Smith. It was very slow again, nothing really big happened. A couple people tried to pick fights with us, one old guy in the CCU was a Baptist preacher and he started getting into us, and its like really man? We are just here to help you, talk to you, pray with them. Haha, kind of funny. But then we attended a baptism of a boy who is in the ward, it was really good. Funny the dad was baptizing him and he forgot his sons name, oops hahaha. Oh boy and then we had dinner at Sister Yawei Peng's house. And she takes the Word of Wisdom to the max... So we had Celery Juice to drink. The whole dinner I was a champ. We had some yams that were all mushed up and nothing on them. And some salad, but no not lettuce, some spinach and artugelo, and tomatoes galor, nuts and all manner of veggies. She brought out a second juice which was apple something. It was very different for me."
"Sunday- We had two investigators at Church, which was awesome!! Chris McCollum, who is another Marine he is 18, he has been to church probably 5 times, but we haven't had a chance to teach him, he keeps skipping out, and we can't get a hold of him, but we have Tuesday set up to talk to him, we can't quite get a read on him. But, he came from Tony Hansen too, he is the one who gives us referrals. I have received zero referrals since I got here, other than him. Then Nathan came which was huge, I forgot to tell you this story, so Thursday was his birthday and somewhere in my synopsis of the days I forgot to mention we taught him fasting and praying and commandments lesson, so we decided that we would all fast for his parents to let him come to church, and he decided he wanted to fast on his birthday, so it would mean more. He really is super awesome. We met him 2 weeks ago about and he is already fasting! So we fasted that his parents would let him come to church, he prayed in the lesson that it would all work out, and it was powerful. We just went to the other room and knelt down with him. It was huge stuff. So he made it and it was awesome, he really enjoyed it! So we just hope that he doesn't fall away at bootcamp. We are going to write him every week."
"Family I love you so much!!!! And I still miss everyone like crazy!! It hasn't gotten any easier, not one bit. But I'm doing really good. I was thinking about Doctrine Covenants 18:16, where it talks about the worth of souls and great shall be your joy if you bring one soul into the kingdom of heaven, and how great shall be your joy if you bring many souls. And I was thinking about that, and that one soul is ourselves. The mission is a lot of hard work, and I am going to keep working hard everyday, and giving it all to the people that I am serving. But regardless of what happens, my testimony of this Gospel has grown so much since being out here. And if nothing else comes from my mission, but that I become truly converted to the Gospel, that is A okay with me. This Church is without a doubt true!! Love you all so much!!!!"
Love Elder Hintze
"HELLO FAMILY. The weeks are flying by! It is crazy. I feel like I was just writing to you last week. I have now been out for over a month, eh? How about that! :) A month and 3 days, it seems like it has been 8 years, but at the same time it is starting to fly by. So this email, might be kind of short, because I usually bring my journal, because I can barely remember what I did yesterday, so I use that to include all of the details, so I am just going off memory, and it might be sketchy. Sorry about that. Sounds like everybody is doing well!! Love to hear all of the things that are going on! We got a little bit more rain this week, it basically rains everyday hear at some point or another."
"Monday - P-Day's are awesome it is just a good to day to chill. We didn't have much planned that night, we tried to make several visits and nobody was home. So we went to get dinner at Zaxby's a chicken place it is absolutely delicious. And then we did mission prep with Cameron and Luke those two kids who are preparing to serve missions from the ward. We are going to do splits with them this evening, which is exciting, I will be the lone missionary. So I am excited for that and to be able to go with these kids, and impart all of my wisdom on them. :)"
"Tuesday- We had District meeting, again nothing that special. But last night we did learn a lot of things about the District because Stubbs is the District Leader, so we got a lot of stuff to work on. Haha. I am pretty sure that I am going to be in Dothan for a long time.. I don't know why, but I just have a feeling I am going to be here for a while, there is a lot of work to do in the ward, and so I don't know I just feel I'm gonna be here a while. The missionaries before us were here for 12 months and then 8 months, and in the other ward a missionary was here for 14 months. Elder Stubbs has only been here for 1 transfer before this, so we still don't know most of the people and are learning the area a lot better. We went and saw a man by the name of Brother Nunez, he is less active and kept saying he was trying to comeback, and I thought he was blowing smoke. But he told us his story, and wow he has been through a lot. He was a convert with his wife and two kids like 8 years ago, they went through the temple, were sealed together, and everything was going great. His wife went back to Mexico to visit her family for 6 months, then she came back got a divorce and in the same day sold all of Brother Nunez's stuff in the house. So he lost everything in like a day. He is still with his wife today, I don't know how that worked out, but his wife is super anti to the church and it has affected the two kids and they no longer want to come. But he said through it all he kept praying that he would not lose his faith, and he hasn't! His story was powerful, but it is just hard for him because he wants his family to be with him at church. But he has come the last 3 weeks, which he hasn't been in a while. So its awesome!! Then we did a lot of tracting, and that never works. I love tracting, I enjoy it. But everybody treats us like we're a disease, they don't answer and talk to us through their window, hahaha. Some people or they say, Oh I'm catholic or I'm Baptist. Well so what, we're Mormon and we are here to talk to you about Christ. Very slim you will meet very nice people who love to talk about Christ, for instance we met a Methodist preachers wife, she came right out and said that. And so we talked to her about Christ, she said it is a joy to have you boys in the neighborhood, you do a lot of good, and then gave us water. Any whom, we met with Nathan Hansbury again that night and taught him the Plan of Salvation, it doesn't matter what we teach him, he knows its true, unfortunately we won't get to baptize him before he leaves for Boot Camp this Sunday, but when he gets back in 13 weeks if I am still here. His personal views about where we come from and where were going, he already believed most of what we taught him, it really is crazy to see how the Lord prepares people. And then we played basketball with all the youth, we do that every Tuesday night, so we get Nathan to play with us, so he already has a ton of friends who are in the church."
"Wednesday- Um.. I'm struggling with this day, we met with Nathan again, but it was a sparatic lesson. He works with Tony Hansen who is the Marine Recruiter in the ward, who got us our only two solid investigators. So he was recruiting people at WalMart, so we taught him the Word of Wisdom as we walked around Walmart. Hahaha. Oh well, you take them as you get em. Then we tracted down a bunch of old formers, haven't been able to talk one yet, but we're trying all of them! Saw Vicki Rush. She is super nice."
"Thursday - We did weekly planning in the morning so it is a shortened day, I hate that. We met with President Smith and he said out of 24 months, you only have 10 months to proselyte, because we have studies and planning and what not. So that made me super sad. Because I just want to get out there and find some people! So we again tried to tract down a bunch of formers, no go, so we knocked a lot of doors, no go. So we went to see this guy named Nathan Spivey grew up in the church, I think I have talked about him, his girlfriend isn't a member, but is way interested. So right as we got there he got home? Coincedience, I think not. Both times we have seen him, we have been there right as he pulled in. So we get there and he says of hey Elders we were just talking about you last night. Ah? You see whats happening here. :) So any whom she wasn't home, but he said that she wants to have us over for dinner sometime, so we are way excited for that. So we just talked to him and saw his dogs, he has a pitbull german shepherd mix, it is crazy. And it slobbered all over me, yum. Then we hit the bikes inside the circle after dinner, it was awesome delightful weather. We tried to see good old Paul Kennedy the shoot people guy, who is blind, because of the stroke. He came to church with us last Sunday, so we stopped by and he lives with his daughter and family, but turns out he was at the bar. He called a taxi and took himself there. So, we got a lot of work to do there, and we gained a lot of insight, so we got to focus on getting him back. Then we taught a recent convert Linda Pollium, she is super nice, really sweet lady. I really do love seeing her. And we talked to her neighbors who we are trying to get in with every so slowly, they came to church but didn't like it because it was too noisy, and boy is our ward noisy, it is out of control, so we don't know what to do about that, but we got some work to do with that family."
"Friday- We met President Smith, I love him. He is awesome. He reminds me a lot of you dad. He has a lot of good ideas that are going to help out a lot. So that morning in our studies we read an article in the Ensign about taking less actives or people who aren't super solid in the church to lessons with you, and make them remember their testimonies and help them to feel the Spirit, so we are going to start doing that. And then the big thing that President Smith talked about was just that. So we are going to start doing that a lot more. We went like 2 hours early to set up the room for all 40 missionaries in our zone, so we were the only ones in there and in walks Pres. Smith and Elder Munns our Area Seventy, we had no idea that they were coming that early, so we got to meet them, it was really awesome. Also come December ever missionary companionship will have an iPhone and an iPad, they said. How about that? It is really going to advance the work like crazy, and make is so everyone has a chance to hear the Gospel. We will be able to Skype people all over the world and teach them, and then send missionaries to their door. So we will see how it all works out eventually.
Then we helped a family move, we had no idea who they are, so we talked to them about the church and what we do as missionaries. But we went to a place like on Storage Wars, that indoor building with rows and rows of storage spaces, it was awesome. And a little creepy. We walked in and all the lights flicked on. Any whom kind of cool. And we did service at the food bank in the morning again."
"Saturday - We worked at the Hospital, we had to switch because of Pres. Smith. It was very slow again, nothing really big happened. A couple people tried to pick fights with us, one old guy in the CCU was a Baptist preacher and he started getting into us, and its like really man? We are just here to help you, talk to you, pray with them. Haha, kind of funny. But then we attended a baptism of a boy who is in the ward, it was really good. Funny the dad was baptizing him and he forgot his sons name, oops hahaha. Oh boy and then we had dinner at Sister Yawei Peng's house. And she takes the Word of Wisdom to the max... So we had Celery Juice to drink. The whole dinner I was a champ. We had some yams that were all mushed up and nothing on them. And some salad, but no not lettuce, some spinach and artugelo, and tomatoes galor, nuts and all manner of veggies. She brought out a second juice which was apple something. It was very different for me."
"Sunday- We had two investigators at Church, which was awesome!! Chris McCollum, who is another Marine he is 18, he has been to church probably 5 times, but we haven't had a chance to teach him, he keeps skipping out, and we can't get a hold of him, but we have Tuesday set up to talk to him, we can't quite get a read on him. But, he came from Tony Hansen too, he is the one who gives us referrals. I have received zero referrals since I got here, other than him. Then Nathan came which was huge, I forgot to tell you this story, so Thursday was his birthday and somewhere in my synopsis of the days I forgot to mention we taught him fasting and praying and commandments lesson, so we decided that we would all fast for his parents to let him come to church, and he decided he wanted to fast on his birthday, so it would mean more. He really is super awesome. We met him 2 weeks ago about and he is already fasting! So we fasted that his parents would let him come to church, he prayed in the lesson that it would all work out, and it was powerful. We just went to the other room and knelt down with him. It was huge stuff. So he made it and it was awesome, he really enjoyed it! So we just hope that he doesn't fall away at bootcamp. We are going to write him every week."
"Family I love you so much!!!! And I still miss everyone like crazy!! It hasn't gotten any easier, not one bit. But I'm doing really good. I was thinking about Doctrine Covenants 18:16, where it talks about the worth of souls and great shall be your joy if you bring one soul into the kingdom of heaven, and how great shall be your joy if you bring many souls. And I was thinking about that, and that one soul is ourselves. The mission is a lot of hard work, and I am going to keep working hard everyday, and giving it all to the people that I am serving. But regardless of what happens, my testimony of this Gospel has grown so much since being out here. And if nothing else comes from my mission, but that I become truly converted to the Gospel, that is A okay with me. This Church is without a doubt true!! Love you all so much!!!!"
Love Elder Hintze
"Amen, Amen, Amen, Praise God Whom All Blessings Flow"
This letter was received on Monday, July 8th. Sorry for the delay in getting the thing posted. Great to hear from Elder Hintze. Here's what he had to say:
"FAMILY!!! Holy smokes this week flew by, miss you and love each and everyone of you so much!! So last time I emailed you I was in the dumps, like I was saying batten down the hatches oh baby Bradley, because I don't think you can do this for two years. But this week has been awesome and lots of fun. P-Day last week saved it for me, I just needed a good day to chill out. So it has literally poured every single day this week, like not even joking. We have gotten more rain here in the last week than Utah gets in a year. So it makes what we do hard, because we can't really go out when it is thunder and lightning and DUMPING RAIN on us. So it really was a slow week in that way, we are still trying hard to find people to teach, we have a couple people that are just teetering, were going to get them there. We have basically exhausted all of our other resources, we would go visit people in the rainy days, they wouldn't be interested, so literally we didn't have anything to do a lot of the time, but we tried to stay busy. Funny.. I broke my toiled flusher, so I have to open up the lid everytime and submerge my hand to send away my wastes to the sewage. The Bess's are in the ward, yes I have been looking for Pres. Bess, but he hasn't been there I met his daughter, and I will talk to the son next Sunday when he gets here. I am excited to have him help us with mission work, cuz we need more members working. Thank you for the letters, I love them, and the packages. I got all of them, still waiting on the belt? :)"
"Monday- last P-Day. It was crazy how it flew by, there was hardly anytime to do anything, but I finished my laundry, cleaned the apartment up real nice. I wrote letters which I'm bad at it takes me forever, I just wrote to Sara and Emileah thats all the letters I've gotten so far. But Tyler, Cody, Ben, Nate, Bronson, Scottie, and Jarom all email me it is really nice. So we ate dinner at the Hall's house and they have the most beautiful house ever, like a half a mile long driveway, lined with trees, to a way nice old plantation house that has had a facelift, and a huge field all surrounding it and then a pool just chilling out in the back. I want to live in it so bad. Any whom so after that, we went and had ice cream with a baptist Preacher named Willie Parker, he runs the chaplain duty at the Hospital, ra ra ra amen amen amen, praise God whom all blessings flow. Things he says. He is way nice, and he loves us, he offers to take us out to pizza, and ice cream almost every week. So we just chit the chat and we talked about the Bible with him, he doesn't like the Book of Mormon.. Haha. But he really is a quality individual, and we are going to work with him, because if we could get him so many would follow. He was talking about how he went to a baptism of ours and loved it, and a lady gave a talk there on the Holy Ghost, and he said it was "right down the line" with his sermons."
"Tuesday- We had District Meeting in the morning nothing eventful, there are only six of us in the district, so that was whatever. Then we had lunch at Linda's house and Sister Carroll made it. Hahaha it is hilarious. So then one of the HIGHLIGHTS, we met with Nathan, who is an investigator, I think I talked about him last time, I hope I did. So we were going to finish up the 3rd lesson, which is Baptism and the Holy Ghost, in a week he has read halfway through 2 Nephi, he has changed immensely, he said it made him cry while reading, he said that it brought him closer to God, he said is was the word of God, and when we brought up baptism, he said that it had been on his mind!!!!! Crazy everything that we were going to teach him, he has already done or thought about, we did nothing as missionaries, it was the Spirit and the Book of Mormon!!!! Phenomenal to see, but he was supposed to ship off to boot camp this Sunday, and he had already been delayed once, and that is how we got to teach him. So he said he would be baptized when he gets back, so chances are neither of us would be here, BUT WAIT.. we were praying that he would be delayed haha.. So we get a call two days later and his paperwork got messed up so he is here for a couple more weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we meet with him tomorrow, and we will set a date with him, I hope."
"Wednesday- Literally a down pour of rain all day, we did some service with good Forest Bain our ward mission leader, at the food bank, boxed up a bunch of food. For lunch we went to the Waffle House sketchyiest place ever an old diner, and they let people smoke in them? We didn't know that, or know it was even allowed. But the food was good. :) Biscuits and Gravy, 2 eggs, a waffle, 2 sausages, 2 pieces of toast, and hashbrowns. mmmm. We love our food down here! So we didn't have anything going today, so we went through the Area book and cleaned it out, we probably called like 60 people, and we took out probably 30 more that we are going to begin contacting this week. Then we visited some recent converts, Mike and Linda Thomley, they live in a trailer park, they have 2 cats and a dog with them. EVERYONE HAS CATS AND DOGS. So we taught them the new convert lesson, I can't really understand what he says a lot, he flys through those words. But I struggle with a lot of people down here."
"Thursday- Happy 4th of July!! Sounds like ya'll had a great time up in Hunstville, I wish I could have been there! It poured and thunder and lightning all day, and there was flash flood warnings going on all day. So bad weather here, but Forest Bain, had us over for a BBQ. So that was really good, I had my first Boiled Peanut, I don't know what is with them, but everybody loves their boiled peanuts, gross stuff if you ask me. I have been eating some veggies though, I had some broccoli, but thats about all I've been brave enough for, they cook their green beans in bacon grease, still not for me. So then we went to the Hospital we took an extra shift this week, there was nothing that happened, it was very quiet. So we just sat around, I took a little nap in the office, wooops ;) So it was pretty uneventful. Then we went and had dinner at Cameron Coggins house, recent convert, he is 18 years old just got his mission call to Japan, only member of his family that is a member, he is funding all of it on his own, he is a stud. He is always working with us and we teach him mission prep once a week. He really is the coolest dude, and he is so strong in the Gospel. The youth here are the strongest in the ward, its nuts!"
"Friday - So we went to Chaplain duty in the morning and it is kind of dead, we are making our rounds talking to people, praying with them. But nothing eventful, just doing out duty. And like 10 minutes before we leave, over the intercom comes a "Code 4" which means that someone is dieing. And so we respond to those. So we hustle down to the 1st floor to the womens vascular center, and we walk in and its empty, and there is this beeping that is going on like crazy, and we hustle and try and find it and we come to the room. A very old woman her heart had stopped and so there is like 20 people there working on her, and the family is there and they are so emotional, so we are with the Family trying to console them. But words are pretty hallow at times like this. So like 7 minutes passes by and they are doing everything, so we get the family together it was just 3 ladies, and we have a prayer with them. And we are trying to do everything that we can, eventually they revive her, the doctor comes out and says she is stable were going to move her to ICU, we will have to wait and see what the damage is, because her brain obviously didn't have oxygen. So its all good, now the family is calmed down, we are still with them. Then like 4 minutes passes and the ladys goes again, when they tried to move her. So the doctor comes back in and they start working again. The worst part is, is that the family is right in the hall and they can see it all, so they are shocking her, and CPR and its rough. The doctor comes out and says her heart is not responding, I have done all that I know how to do. So she passed away. And the family is beyond devastated. (It was a really neat but humbleing experience. Here this family is, and here I am a 19 year old, who has not a lot of experience with death. And we are called upon to try and help these ladies. It was just a hard situation.) It is unique to see that, you could tell that there was no spirit in the woman's body, it is so reassuring to know of the Plan of Salvation. But it was very sad, they cleaned the woman up and we just hung around, just to make sure they were all okay. So we went in the room with them, and just told them we are so sorry for you loss, if there is anything you can do let us know. And we just shared a quick testimony on how its the Lords time to watch over here. The family was very impressed with us, "you two sure are some young chaplains, I admire that two young men out doing what the Lord would have you do." But we didn't stay long, we wanted to let them have their time, but man that was powerful. I just wanted to tell them all about the Plan of Salvation, but we couldn't. It was a very hard neat experience, very emotional."
"Saturday- We tried to visit like 6 people and none of them our home. The highlight of the visits was when we got a popsicle form the ice cream man, the sketchiest ice cream truck ever. But man oh man did he have lots of flavors, I went with a sour blue raspberry popsicle. I know this is meaningless, but really it saved the day for us. We did get in with one man Paul Kennedy, the man who talks about shooting people. But he came to church and he was mad, because it was fast and testimony meeting, and he hates it when people cry. hahaha. He just kept watching his watch the whole time, shaking his head. Then for dinner we went to TACO BELL. Hey ya'll taco bell is the bomb. So then the sisters picked us up and we went and visited the elderly ladies in the ward, for our weekly visits, that the bishop asks us to do. Sister Lock, is 92 years old, and she is as spry as they come, she exercises every morning, and she drives, crazy how healthy she is. Then we visited Sister Knight, oh boy oh boy oh boy. You have no idea, she is bed ridden and so you ask her one question and she just goes off in story."
"Sunday- It was fast Sunday so I got up and I bore my testimony to the people, told a few one liners, had them laughing, then I shaky at the end, but all in all, I made it through. We had no investigators at Church, Nathans parents wont let him come, but he turns 18 tomorrow. Tony Hansen he is a Marine Recruiter and a recent convert, so he brought with him a big dude named Chris. So we met with him and we are going to start teaching him, and he is a pretty good lock as well, good stuff about to happen with him. So after church we made our visits and nobody was interested to hear from us, except this family Gloria and Anthem, who are neighbors to Linda are very interested, we were going to their house, but they would never answer. Turns out we were going to the wrong house....... So ya. So we finally go in with them and good stuff about to happen there. Also we doubled up on dinner we went with a family named Hughey's the mom is a member, but not inactive. She married a member, so converted basically for him and then he cheated on her and they divorced, so she has a little bit of a sour taste about the church. But they have two boys, Houston and Christian who are in high school, and they ask us all kinds of awesome questions, everyone is amazed to find out we aren't paid and we taught them about the temple, so there is interest there, so we are going to work with them a lot. So nothing big this week, but we did a lot of good, we got a ton of names out of the area book, Nathan, Chris, Gloria and fam, and the Hughey's. We're getting a lot of things moving I gotta say, it was my idea to go through the area book and I got us a Bishop's Action list, and that is all the part members, so we're gonna get going on them, because I feel as thought part members if we can get a little bit of interest, it is easy for them to come back, because the Family is already there."
"Anyway that's my week, I love each and everyone of you so much!! The Book of Mormon is incredible, I read it before I came out but not as consistent as I should have, and over long periods of time. But DAGGUM. I can't stop reading it now, it is incredible, absolutely unbelieveable. and the power that comes from it, literally if we could just get them to read from it, it changes life. It is changeing mine right now. I know this church is without a doubt true. So thankful for all of ya'll, I really have been so blessed. Keep on keepin' on."
Love Elder Hintze!!
"FAMILY!!! Holy smokes this week flew by, miss you and love each and everyone of you so much!! So last time I emailed you I was in the dumps, like I was saying batten down the hatches oh baby Bradley, because I don't think you can do this for two years. But this week has been awesome and lots of fun. P-Day last week saved it for me, I just needed a good day to chill out. So it has literally poured every single day this week, like not even joking. We have gotten more rain here in the last week than Utah gets in a year. So it makes what we do hard, because we can't really go out when it is thunder and lightning and DUMPING RAIN on us. So it really was a slow week in that way, we are still trying hard to find people to teach, we have a couple people that are just teetering, were going to get them there. We have basically exhausted all of our other resources, we would go visit people in the rainy days, they wouldn't be interested, so literally we didn't have anything to do a lot of the time, but we tried to stay busy. Funny.. I broke my toiled flusher, so I have to open up the lid everytime and submerge my hand to send away my wastes to the sewage. The Bess's are in the ward, yes I have been looking for Pres. Bess, but he hasn't been there I met his daughter, and I will talk to the son next Sunday when he gets here. I am excited to have him help us with mission work, cuz we need more members working. Thank you for the letters, I love them, and the packages. I got all of them, still waiting on the belt? :)"
"Monday- last P-Day. It was crazy how it flew by, there was hardly anytime to do anything, but I finished my laundry, cleaned the apartment up real nice. I wrote letters which I'm bad at it takes me forever, I just wrote to Sara and Emileah thats all the letters I've gotten so far. But Tyler, Cody, Ben, Nate, Bronson, Scottie, and Jarom all email me it is really nice. So we ate dinner at the Hall's house and they have the most beautiful house ever, like a half a mile long driveway, lined with trees, to a way nice old plantation house that has had a facelift, and a huge field all surrounding it and then a pool just chilling out in the back. I want to live in it so bad. Any whom so after that, we went and had ice cream with a baptist Preacher named Willie Parker, he runs the chaplain duty at the Hospital, ra ra ra amen amen amen, praise God whom all blessings flow. Things he says. He is way nice, and he loves us, he offers to take us out to pizza, and ice cream almost every week. So we just chit the chat and we talked about the Bible with him, he doesn't like the Book of Mormon.. Haha. But he really is a quality individual, and we are going to work with him, because if we could get him so many would follow. He was talking about how he went to a baptism of ours and loved it, and a lady gave a talk there on the Holy Ghost, and he said it was "right down the line" with his sermons."
"Tuesday- We had District Meeting in the morning nothing eventful, there are only six of us in the district, so that was whatever. Then we had lunch at Linda's house and Sister Carroll made it. Hahaha it is hilarious. So then one of the HIGHLIGHTS, we met with Nathan, who is an investigator, I think I talked about him last time, I hope I did. So we were going to finish up the 3rd lesson, which is Baptism and the Holy Ghost, in a week he has read halfway through 2 Nephi, he has changed immensely, he said it made him cry while reading, he said that it brought him closer to God, he said is was the word of God, and when we brought up baptism, he said that it had been on his mind!!!!! Crazy everything that we were going to teach him, he has already done or thought about, we did nothing as missionaries, it was the Spirit and the Book of Mormon!!!! Phenomenal to see, but he was supposed to ship off to boot camp this Sunday, and he had already been delayed once, and that is how we got to teach him. So he said he would be baptized when he gets back, so chances are neither of us would be here, BUT WAIT.. we were praying that he would be delayed haha.. So we get a call two days later and his paperwork got messed up so he is here for a couple more weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we meet with him tomorrow, and we will set a date with him, I hope."
"Wednesday- Literally a down pour of rain all day, we did some service with good Forest Bain our ward mission leader, at the food bank, boxed up a bunch of food. For lunch we went to the Waffle House sketchyiest place ever an old diner, and they let people smoke in them? We didn't know that, or know it was even allowed. But the food was good. :) Biscuits and Gravy, 2 eggs, a waffle, 2 sausages, 2 pieces of toast, and hashbrowns. mmmm. We love our food down here! So we didn't have anything going today, so we went through the Area book and cleaned it out, we probably called like 60 people, and we took out probably 30 more that we are going to begin contacting this week. Then we visited some recent converts, Mike and Linda Thomley, they live in a trailer park, they have 2 cats and a dog with them. EVERYONE HAS CATS AND DOGS. So we taught them the new convert lesson, I can't really understand what he says a lot, he flys through those words. But I struggle with a lot of people down here."
"Thursday- Happy 4th of July!! Sounds like ya'll had a great time up in Hunstville, I wish I could have been there! It poured and thunder and lightning all day, and there was flash flood warnings going on all day. So bad weather here, but Forest Bain, had us over for a BBQ. So that was really good, I had my first Boiled Peanut, I don't know what is with them, but everybody loves their boiled peanuts, gross stuff if you ask me. I have been eating some veggies though, I had some broccoli, but thats about all I've been brave enough for, they cook their green beans in bacon grease, still not for me. So then we went to the Hospital we took an extra shift this week, there was nothing that happened, it was very quiet. So we just sat around, I took a little nap in the office, wooops ;) So it was pretty uneventful. Then we went and had dinner at Cameron Coggins house, recent convert, he is 18 years old just got his mission call to Japan, only member of his family that is a member, he is funding all of it on his own, he is a stud. He is always working with us and we teach him mission prep once a week. He really is the coolest dude, and he is so strong in the Gospel. The youth here are the strongest in the ward, its nuts!"
"Friday - So we went to Chaplain duty in the morning and it is kind of dead, we are making our rounds talking to people, praying with them. But nothing eventful, just doing out duty. And like 10 minutes before we leave, over the intercom comes a "Code 4" which means that someone is dieing. And so we respond to those. So we hustle down to the 1st floor to the womens vascular center, and we walk in and its empty, and there is this beeping that is going on like crazy, and we hustle and try and find it and we come to the room. A very old woman her heart had stopped and so there is like 20 people there working on her, and the family is there and they are so emotional, so we are with the Family trying to console them. But words are pretty hallow at times like this. So like 7 minutes passes by and they are doing everything, so we get the family together it was just 3 ladies, and we have a prayer with them. And we are trying to do everything that we can, eventually they revive her, the doctor comes out and says she is stable were going to move her to ICU, we will have to wait and see what the damage is, because her brain obviously didn't have oxygen. So its all good, now the family is calmed down, we are still with them. Then like 4 minutes passes and the ladys goes again, when they tried to move her. So the doctor comes back in and they start working again. The worst part is, is that the family is right in the hall and they can see it all, so they are shocking her, and CPR and its rough. The doctor comes out and says her heart is not responding, I have done all that I know how to do. So she passed away. And the family is beyond devastated. (It was a really neat but humbleing experience. Here this family is, and here I am a 19 year old, who has not a lot of experience with death. And we are called upon to try and help these ladies. It was just a hard situation.) It is unique to see that, you could tell that there was no spirit in the woman's body, it is so reassuring to know of the Plan of Salvation. But it was very sad, they cleaned the woman up and we just hung around, just to make sure they were all okay. So we went in the room with them, and just told them we are so sorry for you loss, if there is anything you can do let us know. And we just shared a quick testimony on how its the Lords time to watch over here. The family was very impressed with us, "you two sure are some young chaplains, I admire that two young men out doing what the Lord would have you do." But we didn't stay long, we wanted to let them have their time, but man that was powerful. I just wanted to tell them all about the Plan of Salvation, but we couldn't. It was a very hard neat experience, very emotional."
"Saturday- We tried to visit like 6 people and none of them our home. The highlight of the visits was when we got a popsicle form the ice cream man, the sketchiest ice cream truck ever. But man oh man did he have lots of flavors, I went with a sour blue raspberry popsicle. I know this is meaningless, but really it saved the day for us. We did get in with one man Paul Kennedy, the man who talks about shooting people. But he came to church and he was mad, because it was fast and testimony meeting, and he hates it when people cry. hahaha. He just kept watching his watch the whole time, shaking his head. Then for dinner we went to TACO BELL. Hey ya'll taco bell is the bomb. So then the sisters picked us up and we went and visited the elderly ladies in the ward, for our weekly visits, that the bishop asks us to do. Sister Lock, is 92 years old, and she is as spry as they come, she exercises every morning, and she drives, crazy how healthy she is. Then we visited Sister Knight, oh boy oh boy oh boy. You have no idea, she is bed ridden and so you ask her one question and she just goes off in story."
"Sunday- It was fast Sunday so I got up and I bore my testimony to the people, told a few one liners, had them laughing, then I shaky at the end, but all in all, I made it through. We had no investigators at Church, Nathans parents wont let him come, but he turns 18 tomorrow. Tony Hansen he is a Marine Recruiter and a recent convert, so he brought with him a big dude named Chris. So we met with him and we are going to start teaching him, and he is a pretty good lock as well, good stuff about to happen with him. So after church we made our visits and nobody was interested to hear from us, except this family Gloria and Anthem, who are neighbors to Linda are very interested, we were going to their house, but they would never answer. Turns out we were going to the wrong house....... So ya. So we finally go in with them and good stuff about to happen there. Also we doubled up on dinner we went with a family named Hughey's the mom is a member, but not inactive. She married a member, so converted basically for him and then he cheated on her and they divorced, so she has a little bit of a sour taste about the church. But they have two boys, Houston and Christian who are in high school, and they ask us all kinds of awesome questions, everyone is amazed to find out we aren't paid and we taught them about the temple, so there is interest there, so we are going to work with them a lot. So nothing big this week, but we did a lot of good, we got a ton of names out of the area book, Nathan, Chris, Gloria and fam, and the Hughey's. We're getting a lot of things moving I gotta say, it was my idea to go through the area book and I got us a Bishop's Action list, and that is all the part members, so we're gonna get going on them, because I feel as thought part members if we can get a little bit of interest, it is easy for them to come back, because the Family is already there."
"Anyway that's my week, I love each and everyone of you so much!! The Book of Mormon is incredible, I read it before I came out but not as consistent as I should have, and over long periods of time. But DAGGUM. I can't stop reading it now, it is incredible, absolutely unbelieveable. and the power that comes from it, literally if we could just get them to read from it, it changes life. It is changeing mine right now. I know this church is without a doubt true. So thankful for all of ya'll, I really have been so blessed. Keep on keepin' on."
Love Elder Hintze!!
"The Curious Case of the Mysterious Wet Seat"
Today was Elder Hintze's first P-Day in his new area of Dothan, Alabama. It was so good to receive the Monday email! Here is what he had to say regarding his week. Thanks to all of you for your prayers for the missionaries. Elder Hintze wrote:
"Wednesday the 26th,
so the 110 highway runs all through the mission so they have 3 stops and
everyone north and south of that meets and then heads back up to the missions.
So I got off at the first stop called Cottondale or Cottonwood. And loaded up
with my companion and a man named Brother Dewpew he is a sealer at the
Burmingham Temple he is in the ward and he is a solid, solid man. So we drove
about a half hour to Dothan to the apartment. Our apartment is pretty dirty,
Stubbs says it is one of nicer ones. But walk in the front door, immediately
walk up 20 stairs, then left is a bedroom that is empty and a bathroom for
Stubbs and a closet for him. Then right of the stairs is an open kitchen area
and living room, our beds are in the living room. Then farther right is another
bedroom where we have our study desks. Then a bathroom for me, and a big walk
in closet that is inside the bathroom, I have the nicer set up. Anyway I
unpacked a little, and then we rode our bikes and went tracting. We were there
for probably an hour talked to 3 people. Then an appointment fell through so we
visited a less active Bro. Nunez, he said he would come to church, but he
didn't. Then we went and talked to someone who was a referral from a Bishop in
Georgia, the guy had been raised in the church and knows its true, but isn’t
living it, his wife/GF we don't know which haha, was talking that they needed
to come back. And asking what time church was, she isn't a member, they live
together, but they seemed interested, but we haven't been back. Then
we ate dinner at the Dewpew's because our dinner fell through, I'm telling ya
the Dewpew's are celestial people. Then we visited a recent convert Mike
Thomley taught him about the priesthood, and this Sunday he was given the
Aaronic Priesthood, he was way excited so that was cool."
"Thursday the 27th, we
started the day with weekly planning which was actually kind of cool, we went
to the map and each wrote down 3 streets we wanted to tract, and then prayed
about them and then we matched them up 1-6 they didn't match up, haha. But I picked
a street that they had recently been on, and Stubbs was feeling good about
going back, he said that is a sign that we missed somebody. So that was kind of
cool. But then we visited a recent convert named Linda and taught here about
the Priesthood, we took a member Bro. Pigmore with us and he just talked to her
the whole time about Mojave County in Arizona, it was really pretty hilarious
to watch them go on, oblivious to us. Hahaha. But she is a really good lady.
Then we went to the Hospital because on Friday we work as Clergy at the
hospital on chaplain duty. I'll tell you about that, hahaha. So I got my name
badge. Then we had a lesson with Nathan, the only investigator that we have,
and man it was a crazy experience. They met with him before I got there, and he
was swearing during the lesson and saying. He is 17 and is headed to Marine
boot camp in 2 weeks, and his parents hate the church. So pretty much we
shouldn't be teaching him. But... So we taught him the Doctrine of Christ and
he had already read all of 1st Nephi and he told us that he had repented,
because he didn't feel worthy reading the B of M. But he is reading it every
night, and knows its true. But he is leaving to boot camp, so he cant be
baptized. For like 13 weeks, but the Spirit was so strong in the lesson."
"Friday the 28th, so
clergy duty. Pretty awesome we go around the ER and the Critical Care Unit and
pray with people and see if they need our help. When we got there a black
baptist women preacher named LaRhonda was there, had a gold tooth, starting
talking to us about spreading the Good News that Jesus loves us. Crazy lady. So
for 5 hours we are there helping people and praying with them. We get a lot of
"Ya'll are just babies." "Are you out of High School" "Not
bad for a bunch of 12 year old preachers." Palease people! They don't know
whats good in the world though. So we were walking the ER and this guy was like
hey come on in here and want to share something with you, big dude, covered in
scary tattoos, cut his arm wide open when he was hanging a light up, and a
razor blade cut him open about 8 inch gash on his forearm, he showed us.... Any
way he interpreted some story from the bible about 9/11 and the twin towers
something in Daniel, Isaiah, and Zephariah. I don't we were creeped out. But
then he started talking about his past and how we came to be a Christian, and
how he was in jail, and how he wants to be a missionary with us, and how he
wanted a Book of Mormon, and wanted to come to church, and it was awesome. And
so we gave all that to him and he said he would come to church. And then he
didn't.... So that broke my heart a little bit, it was this way awesome
experience. But now we got nothing because of it. Then we visited Paul Kennedy
a member. He had a stroke and so he is blind, but for like a dime size that he
can see out of. Telling us about he has been shooting people, and how he shot
himself on accident. And how he shot a kid in the foot, because they were
picking on his nephews, I don't crazy stuff. But he said he would be at church
too, and then nope."
"Saturday the 29th, oh
boy the day with the best story so far. So we started out moving a family into
a new house. So we have a dinner appointment that night. So I sit down to eat
and the seat I sat in looked fine, nothing was wrong with it. But after like
a minute I'm like wait a second, is my seat wet?
So I'm feeling just a little bit of moisture down there, but not
enough for me to full on know that it is wet. It was just kind of a cooling
sensation. So we finish up and we try and get out of there as quickly as we
can. So I stand up and look at my seat and it is soaked. So I'm all like heck
is going on. What is this? What is happening? Stubbs thought that I peed my
pants. So the seat is soaked, my pants are soaked all over the bum. So he
drives us home and we check it out. And it is pee! but I didn't pee, so where
did the mysterious pee come from? I DONT KNOW. They have a cat and a dog, so we
think that one of them peed on it, and it dried on the surface, or they just flipped
the cushion around, but I sat in some foreign pee. Cool huh? It was kind of
like the air conditioned seats in the Navigator. :) So I did some
wash and took a shower, disgusting. Then we had this kid Cameron Coggins over
after he is a convert only member in his family, he just got called to Japan on
his mission doing it all on his own, he is 18. So he came over and we made
macaroni and grilled brats, and we teach him mission prep. There is also
another kid that comes Luke, who is going to Brazil on his mission. Awesome
kids."
"Sunday the 30th, we
taught Primary singing time, we taught them briefly about all 5 of the
missionary lessons and then we sang songs that applied to each one with them,
that was really pretty cool. So then we tried to visit YSA less actives in the
ward and none of them were home or didn't answer. Then we went to a referral
didn't answer, they were home. Then we went to a potential, they didn't answer,
we could hear them inside. So then we tracked and got one ladies address and gave
her a book of mormon she said she'd read it. But she lives out of our boundary,
so we have to refer her, she was just visiting her daughter."
"Well family, I miss
you so much. I'm struggling a little bit, because I just feel inadequate, I got
a lot to learn. But I know that despite all my weaknesses, the Lord will
strengthen me. I am going to keep working hard!! Love you all!!! The church is
without a doubt true. The Book of Mormon has meant so much more to me since I
came out, that is the key if only we could get people to read it."
Love You, Elder Hintze
Pictures from Tallahassee!
We received pictures and a letter from President and Sister Jensen this morning. Very thoughtful of them to send this to the families of their missionaries. The Jensen's return home tomorrow, June 2nd. Pictures are just great!
Elder Hintze, Sister Jensen, and President Jensen
Group of 24 who arrived on June 25th
Elder Hintze's MTC District
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