Here is Bradley's letter received Monday, August 26th. Hope you enjoy:
"Hello Family! Wow this week really flew by! I don't know if I have much time today to email. The sisters gave us a ride out here, because we are very low on miles for the month, and they hate their families or something, and so there all like Elder Hintze, we have to be out of here by like 1:30 at the latest. Whatever! They can take a hike! So I am going to get right into it! But this week flew by!!!!!! Really time is flying, but I love it out here! I would be content to spend my whole mission here in Dothan.
Monday - Still no roller skating. Never enough time to do anything that we need to. After all of the P-Day jazz, hardly any letter to write and again this week.. none, where are they??? ;) So we taught a man named Johnny Facion, a recent converts grandpa, he can't read.. And he understands nothing, but agrees with everything. He thinks that his pastors are prophets, and so I don't know what to do there, the other missionaries stopped teaching him, so we will see what happens. The Spirit wasn't in the lesson at all, which is always a really crappy feeling afterwards. Then we ate at the Depews, they played a joke on the sisters and put out green juice, and made them think that it was gonna be gross, but surprise it tasted like fruit!
Tuesday - We had zone training. So all 30+ missionaries got together in the zone to meet, the zone leaders and sister training leaders instructed us and we did some role playing. We are super lucky to have the stake center here in Dothan, so we don't have to travel at all for meetings like this. THEN we met with Barbra Phillips and she read Alma chapter 7 to us in German and told us what it meant in English, and she basically said that she wants to get baptized, and she quit smoking!!!! So we were like no way. And then we explained the Priesthood to her, and we gave her a priesthood blessing to be able to quit and she hasn't since then! And we went to get her remaining cigarettes, and she went to the cabinet and said, "they're all gone, I must of smoked em, ahh, even better." Hahahaha. She is awesome. But really I am so proud of her and I love this woman so much. She is making great steps. Then we had a first lesson with a man named Will, who is Gabe Halls friend (member just got home from mission) and he has had some rough past little whiles, and said he thinks there is a reason that he has been surrounded by friends who are members. His best friend just joined up in Chicago. It is amazing how the Resoration lesson really answers every single persons questions, and he is super sincere!! So I have great hopes for him... Unfortunatley though Gabe leaves to go to BYU Idaho in a week. Everyone down here loves BYU Idaho they think that it is so prestigious.. And I'm like come on people!! Then we ate with the Marturello's that Utah family, they are so awesome! They feed us every two weeks, and you should see their house, I tell her everytime, that if my mom and sisters could see this, they would die. Super awesome. Then we played ball and Tony brought like 13 marine buddies, and we BALLED. There was this little black kid, who played in High School, but guess who beat him? I will let you guess. :)
Wednesday - We met with Kevin and April in the morning and we talked about the Gospel of Christ. So we talked to them about baptism. He enjoys our visits and we have showed him all of this new stuff, and he believes it, he just doesn't have a testimony of the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith, that is crucial!!!! We also talked to them about quitting smoking, well actually they brought it up, so we are following up on that next time we meet with them! Then we saw Paul Kennedy. So then we had correlation meeting with all of the auxiallary heads in the ward, it was the best thing to ever happen. We are now all coordinating our efforts to find lost members! The church has like 10 step checklist to go throught that if you do all of them you can take them off your roster. There are 80 names that are lost, how does that happen? 80 people just gone! Then we ate with Cam, and studied with him.
Thursday - Today was awful. We updated the rosters in the morning. Went to Linda's she forgot about her appointment, tried a bunch of less actives, started pouring rain, so then we worked on the map. I filled up a balloon really big like the ones that we did at home, and it was huge, and then it popped all over our kitchen so.. But then we ate dinner with Bishop and Sister Cain, and it was so awesome!! We made him cry talking about some of the stuff that we had done lately! Then we went with Luke to see Danny Dee's and he was headed to bed, so we just got to know him a little bit better, and he talked about how much his family means to him, and it was great! There is so much potential with him too, just hard to meet with him.
Friday - Started the day at Linda's she asked us some questions from the book of Revelations, and that my friends is some crazy stuff in that book. I have been reading it a little bit, because of her questions. We saw Barbra Phillips again and we read from the book of mormon with her, she is still smoke free, but Sister Johnson her neighbor a member of our ward bought her an electronic cigarette.. So I confiscated that baby and I broke it in half and then it started heating up on me. But we got it out of her house, I stomped it. Then we did hospital shift and we were making our rounds in the ER, and another lady says I used to be a member of your church. What? So awesome two weeks in a row. So we talk to her, she has 4 kids, one lives with her mom and is 7 and is getting baptized in a few weeks. But the others are young, and she was awesome, and says that she is going to come back, but she didn't on Sunday. But its still alright!! Then we ate dinner with the Allen family, from Arizona originally, super awesome! Brother Allen since then has helped us out a ton, he has drove us places on Sunday and is planning on taking us out to a mexican restaurant to find a less active young men in the ward. And Friday night we were out biking and we almost got eatin by 3 pitbulls, Elder Stubbs was alone the first time, and so I was laughing at him, but then they came at us on the way back, so we stood back to back with our bikes in front of us and walked slowly, they were out for blood. Then we saw the Deal family.
Saturday - Didn't really have anything planned so we walked to Walgreens and I sweat out of my slacks, but then we got there and the supplies that we needed for our maps weren't there, but we did get to talk to a couple people on the way. Then we met Anita (recent convert) in the park, it is her grandpa that we met, read with her. Then we went to talk to the buddhist woman Itsoku she let us in, we met the husband, he didn't like us, but he said, "you know we're buddhist right?" And we were like yes sir. And then he loved us after that he gave us powerade and then she played some japanese guitar for us, and they have some giant buddhist shrine in their living room. But we talked to her a lot about where she came from, and we talked about family history, and we were able to talk a lot about the Gospel. If we were able to talk to him, I think that we could have em, because he is american, so he can actually understand us better. So we will keep working. Then we saw good old Sister Knight and Cameron took us to see some folks.
Sunday - Real fine day. Real fine. we had 4 investigators at church! Church is so stressful.. I am so worried about every little thing that people say when we have investigators there, because sometimes it gets a little crazy down here in Alabama. But it was an awesome meeting, Brother Thomas, talked about prayer to end sacrament meeting, it was so awesome, so basic, with the Spirit, and then he sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer over the pulpit and it made me cry. It was exactly what everyone of the investigators needed. We had Barbra there we picked her up, and then Gloria and she loved church and she has started reading the Book of Mormon!!!!!!!!!!!! So we will see here this week, and then Tony Hansen brought two friends Tiffany and Mitchell. Both Gloria and Barbra said they were coming back next week! We ate dinner at the Lewis's they live out on a diary farm. Then we saw the Burnsed's they are going through some rough times, her son was doing drugs in their home, and so the mom called the police on him, and he is in prison. Then we went to Southside Baptist Church with Brother Willie, they had a get together outside with games and hotdogs and burgers, so we just met lots of the people, real good time, the pastor there really, really likes us. Then we went to Barbra's because it was her birthday today and she has no body so we had us, both sets of sisters, and Sister Yawei and Sister Johnson from the ward over. We got here a little gift and we made a cake and brought over ice cream, it really was such a great time, and she was so happy! I loved all of it! After when we left we said a prayer and afterwards Barbra said, I feel like I need to pray to. So she said a prayer on her own and just gave thanks! It was so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well that's the week! I really do love whats happening here! Some really great things!! And I don't want to count any eggs, but we have a lot of sincere people, that could get baptized. It really is so sweet to see people learn and accept the Gospel!!! So everything is on the up and up! I really am so happy about all of it! And I love all of you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Gospel is true!"
Love, Elder Hintze!
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!
"Alright I want to see you two outside"
Here is Elder Hintze's email dated Monday, August 19th. Thanks for looking in on this blog once in a while. If you get a chance, Elder Hintze would love to hear from you. Hope you enjoy:
Hello there Family, another fantastic week in the mission field. Some really pretty fantastic things happened this week, the Lord's hand really is over all that we do. I hope all is well back at home! Alright I am just going to get right into our week!
Monday- So as I mentioned last week, we taught Kevin his lesson in the morning. And he just wants his Bible, and proof from the Bible. But I will get there later. So unfortunately I didn't get to go skating or to teach the Restoration lesson on roller skates. But today I believe we are going to go skating, because I don't have any letters to write. So tried to track a bunch of unknowns down afterwards, and couldn't find them, so we taught mission prep to Cameron and Luke and we continued to work on our new maps. The sister missionaries one upped us again, and got us a giant map.. Psssh.
Tuesday - So starting today, we have been venturing into the sketchy areas within the circle, which is awesome. All kinds of young black people drive by and yell stuff at us, and I don't even know what they're saying. It's so awesome! But anyway we visited a less active member Bonnie Lou Crunelle, and she was talking about how her house is falling apart, and how there are holes everywhere, but yet she owns like 13 cats, and just keeps picking them up from the shelter. What in the world? She told us a lot of heavy stuff though, she doesn't even know where her daughters are, some of them she hasn't talked to in years, that is so sad! So after that we took Paul Kennedy to teach an investigator with us.. we felt prompted to take him. And it was awesome! We took him to Barbra Phillips and he was able to apply a lot to her, about being alone, and he's blind, and she's hard of walking. It really was fantastic, plus they both smoke, so hey! :) But it really was awesome, and he was able to testify of how prayer had helped him in his life. Then we met with Linda Pollium, she is still my favorite person in the ward! I love her. Then we went to basketball, and I got a little competitive.. I know, I just wanted to win, and the head honcho Marine recruit was there, so I couldn't let him beat me.
Wednesday - Really awesome day! So we went to Linda's because she asked us to help her move stuff from her garage to her shed and what not. So we helped her with that, and we cleaned off her back yard, and did everything that she asked. And then her neighbor was about to mow her lawn, a woman, so Linda offered us to help her, which was so awesome, we were going to offer anyways! But service is huge, it is by far the best way to find people, so we are trying to do service as much as we can! So we go over there, and her lawn mower is broken... I don't know anything about lawn mowers or engines really.. But I fixed it, I took out the air filter, and that baby was clogged, so I washed it all up. And she ran like a charm, its weird how the Spirit knows engines too? :) So we mowed her lawn, and while Stubbs mowed I helped the two little kids build a tree house, the first thing they said to me was, "I'm Jasmine and this is my brother Tarence Johnson." Hahahaha. But they were awesome, they said to me, "Elder you are the bestest friend we've ever had." And "Elder can you come over every day?" So then I took a turn mowing, and while I was mowing, Stubbs and Linda taught the lady, Deborah the first lesson! She just came up and started asking! She has a Book of Mormon and has been exposed to the church already. Then we met with Gloria and offered her service, so this Saturday we are helping them! Then we visited Sister Newton because we were told she needed help, and she just showed us around her garden, and holy mosquitoes, I got bit literally probably close to 150 times. Then we saw Sister Rush, and offered service, and we have to go back and pick the weeds in her garden, I love picking weeds. :) So then we get home shower, and get dressed, and we got a call that Bro Prigmore needs help moving couches, so we go and get drenched in sweat again moving couches! But he gave us a free table. Then we went with Cameron to see Itsoku the Buddhist woman and she has been reading her Book of Mormon in Japanese, and she said "let me keep studying" She is a better Christian than most people. Then we met with the ward mission leader and went over the ward roster, in hopes to figure out who people are. Nobody knows like half of the roster?
Thursday - We met with Kevin and April today. And we finished the 2nd half of the Plan of Salvation lesson. And it got really good towards the end, and we had to show him where in the Bible it talks about all of the steps in the Plan of Salvation. And he was like, "woow well I can't dispute this it must be true." Which is good, but awful. He needs to receive he answer by asking God, and exercising Faith, he is still unsure about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, but we give him reading assignments now in the Book of Mormon. So hopefully it will get him reading. Then we met with Sister Barbra Erb, she is really awesome, because we had the Sister missionaries with us this time.
Friday - We started out working at the Food Bank, super great. Then we tried to track down a bunch of potentials and less actives in the middle of the circle. And that never turns out, a lot of the lost people we try and find, or people on the roster, we go there and it is an abandoned house. So these people are just lost! And so basically there are 10 steps you have to go through to find them, and if you can't then they just excommunicate them, they do that a lot down here I've learned. Any whom, so we go to the hospital, and we are making our round through the ER and we stop to talk to this lady, and she says she would like somebody to talk to, so we start talking to her. And she says, "I used to be a Mormon." So we were like woooww, So we talked to here about that, she joined in Tennessee when she was 15, and she said it was because she had a crush on one of the missionaries. But we find out that she is in there because she was huffing some chemicals. And so we started talking to here about the Atonement and that God still loves her, and so she just starts crying. And it was so awesome, the Spirit was really working on her, so we left her our number and everything, and invited her to church, she didn't come. But we are going to try and find her. I hope that we can, she seemed fairly sincere! After that we visited Tarin Burnsed a recent convert girl, she is 14 I think, she lives in rough circumstances, but she seemed to be pretty happy, which was really awesome. Alright here is the real good story: So we were eating dinner at a Members home, the Lints, and it is out in the middle of no where in Alabama, in a trailer. Any whom, so the family is really nice, the dad used to be a satanist, (super sketchy story about that too.) So we are eating and Sister Lint's brother and girlfriend come over to pick up a phone, and you can tell they both are looking a little rough. So shortly after that, we sat down for a message, and the brother was like "oh well we gotta get outta here." But the girlfriend, made him stay. So we just shared the 1st Article of Faith, and we were all talking about how the knowledge that we have a loving Heavenly Father has helped us in our lives. And I was talking about a Buddhist lady that we are teaching, and how she didn't believe in God, and just how sad it was that she had no knowledge of this. And so he starts asking questions, kind of angrily. Such as "Well were all from one God right? so why does the church matter?" "No one has really died and come back, so we don't know what its like in heaven." So he is just going on and on, and he talked about how he was in prison for 16 months, and how he read the whole bible from cover to cover. And how there is so much misinformation, and he said nobody has an answer for that. So he says, "I just feel like a monster sitting here with all of you, because I just don't know if there was a God." And so Brother Lint, could apply to him because he was a satanist, and we just testified that we had the answers to all of his questions, and we gave him a Book of Mormon. And then he says, "Alright I want to see you two outside." To Elder Stubbs and I.. So out in the middle of no where, really dark outside, just one porch light on, we follow this man out.. And so I'm real nervous not going to lie. You can tell he's a rough and tough guy, So I'm thinking alright Bradley, now be smart, I'm thinking I might be tangoing with a man here pretty soon. BUT! We go out there and he says, "Alright I drink a whole lot, and I mean a lot, and I want to make things right with my girlfriend. And so I want you two to say a prayer with me right now, to help me stop drinking, and get my life in order." CAN YOU SAY CURVEBALL. How awesome right? So we say, "Do you believe that you are a child of your Heavenly Father?" He says, Yes. We say, "Do you believe that Christ died for you?" He says, I don't know about that. So we say, "Do you want to know?" He says, Yes. So we say, "Alright because for this to work it is going to take a lot of faith in your Savior Jesus Christ, because through His power you can quit." And so we prayed with him, and he said that he is going to try us out, and read the Book of Mormon. It was like life changing for me, The Spirit was so strong there. Unreal experience. So we hopefully will see him again! Also the marine Nathan, Tony got a letter from him, and he got to see a baptism while at boot camp! And he said in the letter that he can't wait to get home and be baptized! And he is taking his buddies to church with them, and giving them Books of Mormon!!!!
Saturday - It poured rain all day. And apparently we are supposed to get a ton all this upcoming week. So we went and saw Bro Nunez and he is doing great, but his family is none existent, so we asked him how we can meet with them. So hopefully we will get that figured out. Then we visited the Forzey family, real big dude, says he was up all nights playing computer games, but hahaha really cool family. Then Linda had us over we had Subway and we had "Bible Study" as she called it with Anita (RC), Sis Newton, Prigmores, and her. So that was really pretty awesome to be able to strengthen so many members, or develop frienships with them. Then we took Paul Kennedy to Barbra Phillips again. And we basically talked about prayer again, because I think she is getting Alzheimer's she can't remember anything. But it was really great again, Paul relates to her really well. Then we met with Tony Hansen and he drove us around to see a bunch of people. And he bought a new truck and while at the dealership, he taught a couple that worked there the 1st lesson, word of wisdom, law of chastity, temples, all of that for 2 hours he did! And they were way into it. So hopefully we will be able to work with them, he got their info! But while we were driving Tony says, "That's the guy I'm looking for!!" And were like who? Apparently some kid that he is trying to recruit in the marines. And so he takes off and we follow the kid to Sonic, and he hops out and goes and talks to him. Hahaha. If you have ever wondered where all of the military come from? Its Alabama. Everyone is in the military. Also the women in the ER who was huffing chemicals, was picked up by Tony's wife Alicia. Mormon cop, Mormon drug abuser, Mormon Missionaries, we gotta find her!
Sunday - So we had a lot of hopefuls at church, but sadly we got nobody.. But it is alright! We ate at the Hall's after church super awesome family, love them, with the dream house! We then introduced the sisters to Sister Rush, and she has recovered from cancer, so now we just have to get her to church! After that the Elders Quorum President called us and we went and made some visits with him, which was awesome. We got to talk to him a lot, and he really is such a good guy, so it was great to go out with him. Then we just stopped by Barbra Phillips, because she wasn't feeling well, that why she didn't make it to church. She talks about how it is hard for her to stand in the shower, so I said, Do you have a seat? So she says, Yes it doesn't work. So I says, Let me figure it out. So I put it in, and she was saying, how am I supposed to use that? So I proceeded to get into her bathtub and model the seat out for her, I shut the curtain and everything. Hahahaha. Then we went and saw Sister Knight to finish off the evening.
Pretty good week for us, we don't have anybody that is really solid yet! But I really do love everyone in this ward! That is a huge thing that changed for me this week, every where that we went, I truly felt love for everyone! I know this isn't even relative, but I don't want to leave Dothan. The people here are awesome, and I feel like just now we are connecting with all of them! But regardless of what happens on any of my days here it's happy. I am wearing Christ's name, I am representing His church! I am His Missionary. Regardless of anything that happen's I am happy because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true!! Love you all so much! Think about you a lot, and miss all of you!!
Love Elder Bradley Hintze
"That's a Fact"
Here is Elder Hintze's letter from Monday, August 12th. Hope you enjoy!
Hello Family!!
Another week gone and by in this mission, fun fact today marks my 2 month period for being a missionary! Eh? Pretty nice am I right? Not going to lie it has gone by fairly quick, but at the same time I feel like I have been gone for like 13 years. But any whom, so this week was kind of a dull one with teaching people, but we did get two new sisters. And holy cow... They are blowing us out of the water, they have been creating fliers and come worship with us cards, and coming up with all kinds of smart ideas that we had never even thought of, who are they? But it is really nice to have a set of sisters just over the Dothan 2nd ward. So that we can both work over the area. So get this, they passed this rule a few weeks back, that sisters and elders can't eat at the same dinner appointment, so.. Basically this past month we have been fed like 7 times.. and the Sisters calendar is full up. So I am basically starving here without members, and on a limited budget. So don't worry about me, I am fine. :) Any way I will give you the week!
Monday - P-Day. So we found out in the morning that one of the Sisters was going to Tallahassee. And so she was shedding lots of tears, and so we all went to lunch as a District at Zaxbys. And she was wanting to take like a million pictures, and I was just so over it all. It was so much drama. Hahaha. :) So we got all of our shopping and stuff done, we always try and hit up some local thrift stores for ties, I think today we are going to go to the pawn shop, and I think that Elder Stubbs and I are going to go roller skating at the skate rink, my goal is to teach a lesson while on roller skate, huh? But after we were done we were fed by the Marturello's, Dean and Brooke Marturello, they have been here for 3 weeks, they moved from Utah. They have already fed me more times than anyone. They are really awesome, they both served missions, so they are willing to help us do anything. I love them!! So after dinner we tried to visit some less actives, and none of them worked. And so we didn't know what to do, and I just had a thought that we should go visit Linda Pollium. I don't why, but I just did. So we got to her house and we were talking, and she just broke down, and started sobbing, and she said, "I don't know why you boys decided to come over here today, but I have been praying all day, because it has been so hard." And the Spirit was so strong, I learn more from her everytime we teach her. And it really felt good, because I sometimes think that I am not the best at feeling promptings of the Spirit, so I was so thankful. Because that also meant a lot to me, that I just had an impression to go see her, it was awesome!
Tuesday - Had District Meeting in the morning, and District meeting has become one of my favorite things to do, I really enjoy them. So after that, we went and had a lesson with Kevin Hust. And we read Enos with him, just all they way through, and explained all of it. I love Enos! It is the bomb, it basically goes through prayer, faith, repentance, Gospel of Christ. It is awesome. So we just answered all of his questions that he has, and read with him. Each time we meet with him, he has questions, and we have to crack the shell, and get through all the problems, but each time we meet with him, he softens up just a little bit more, it is really cool to see. And afterwards, they fed us some soup. But he was just talking about how much he enjoyed that! So slowly I think that we are progressing with him. After that we helped Levi Hansen move to Burmingham, he is in our Elders Quorum, and he was from Idaho. The Also Elder Stubbs had a prompting to go into the Dothan Rescue Mission so we did. We also went into this antique shop, and you wouldn't believe all that was in there, I told the guy that if my family was here they would be in heaven. So then we met with Barbra Phillips. We had a set time to be there, and they showed up 30 minutes late.. because they were baking cookies. So we had like 20 minutes with Barbra to teach her... I mean come on, and then the Sisters were late to their dinner appointment as well. AHHHH. But we just read some out of the Book of Mormon with her, and got her to pray which is awesome, she gets more and more confident every single time she does it! Then we had dinner at the Myers, Paul and Cindy, he used to be the old bishop, but has had two strokes, and is now going in for heart surgery to fix a hole in his heart, but I heard they had run marathons, and so I asked them, and he has run 29 marathons, and she has run 4, crazy! So I talked to them for a while about that, but Paul used to run and ride his motorcycle everywhere, but now can't do any of that, so it is a little sad. But he is hilarious, if anything happens, or if he drops something, or if he needs more food he just says, "Stroke. Stroke. Stroke." He is hilarious, I love them too.
Wednesday - We started out the morning working at the food bank, loading up pallets of food to be shipped out all over Alabama. So we got all sweaty doing that, came home showered sat down for studies, got a call, that a part member family needed help in the yard, so we went and did that for like 3 hours. And we were fasting throughout this whole process as well, so we were pooped. But we were able to watch Mormon Messages with the family, so that was really cool. Then the rest of the day was kind of a bust, the new sisters got there and so we went to Taco Bell with them, and we just debriefed them of the area, and things to be aware of, and all the members in the ward, so it was really good.'
Thursday - We started out in the morning again working at the food bank, packing up pallets of individual boxes this time. And then after that we spend the morning with the Sisters doing weekly planning with them, just further getting them acquanted with the area, both of them are brand new. So we did weekly planning, and thats where we got a lot of really cool ideas going on. I think we are going to throw a fireside for members to teach them about mormon.org, and to show them the new videos on the church website about missionary work. And also, we are putting on a talent show for the ward, to get all less active or investigators too in like a month or so. So that should be really good! Then we don't have any real direction here, so we went and got maps, and so I made two brand new maps and hung them on the wall, and started putting in all of the pins from the roster. So that we actually know whats going on and who is who, the last map is really pretty old. The ward roster is 20 pages long! So you can imagine the amount of pins, and we aren't even done yet. Then we had dinner at the house of Sister Yawei.. Celery Juice, and that same leaves, with like 9 tomatoes in it. And we had sweet potatoes.
Friday - Got a real good jump on the day, and we ventured far inside the middle of the circle, which is the sketchier areas to try and track down a bunch of less actives. And we didn't really see any of them, but we found someone off of an old progress record, that we got a return appointment for, and we found two new investigators, who told us to comeback, because they would like to learn more. So that was sweet!! The one lady was really young, and pregnant, and was saying she grew up Baptist, but didn't like some of the stuff they did, and was developing her faith right now, I mean come on, that is golden! So we were way excited about that. Some of the areas that we are in, make me feel sad though. One less active we tried, had no windows, they were all broken out, so it was just wide open, and their front door, had no door knob. So then we went to the hospital for clergy duty, nothing too exciting happened, but we just talk to everyone, that we can, and it is really fun. The workers in the CCU hate us, because they think we're in their way, so I decided I was going to make them like me, so I talked to each and everyone of them, and just asked them how they were doing, and it was awesome! We went to Krispy Kreme and brought donuts with us, and the chaplain after us was really mad, and so I was just like ya know what sir, would you like a donut, and at first he was like NO. But then he did a double take, once he figured out what I asked, and said, oh yes thank you. And he was so nice to us afterward, and believe me I was saving that last donut. :) After that we had correlation meeting with the mission leader. And then we had dinner at the Dewpews, I ate their my first night that I got to Dothan, and I was just thinking about the difference in how I felt and it was really cool, because the first night there, I was thinking, what have I gotten myself into. But now it was so different, it was much more enjoyable. :)
Saturday - We helped the Mitchell family move, another solid member of the Elders Quorum, that we are losing. Then we did a trade off with the Dothan 1st Elders, I went up there so that I could see Sherlyn Everage, BG Hunts sister. And I was with Elder Davidson who came out the same time as me, so we were lost because he didn't know where we were going, and it wasn't my area. So that took awhile. But I tried her house twice, but no one was home either time. I have her phone number, and I know where she works in Dothan. But I would just rather see her at here house, so the other Elders kind of have an in, and can start working with her. So I will keep you posted on that, but we just visited some of their less actives, and members, and we did some tracting. After that the Chappell's took us out to eat, which I love. They took us to Ryan's a southern buffet, they had steak grilling, you would just walk up and say how you wanted it cooked and he would give it to you, and the CHICKEN oh my goodness, I bet I had like 23 chicken nuggets/tenders/fried chicken. Any whom, I put the hurt on the buffet. After that we stopped by Bro Willie Parkers house and talked with them, and read from the Bible with him. I'm working up to talking about the Book of Mormon dad!!! So he fed us ice cream, and we asked them what time their service was, and so we told them we would go, I'll get there. Then we visited that referral from the bishop in Douglas. Nathan Spivey, and we talked with him forever on the porch, President Bess has talked to him, because they both work at Flowers Hospital. And we told Pres Bess to talk to him, which is about the best thing that I can think of for anyone, Pres Bess will get the job done. But they are getting married and 2 weeks, and we both kind of walked away with that in 2 weeks we will be able to work with them.
Sunday - So some huge stuff happened today. So it was the sister first time at church, so we had ward council. I piped up, and told all the ward council to "please don't hesitate to send any of these rescue names to us, that you would like to be contacted." that's all I got. But we didn't have any investigators at church, but we got Paul Kennedy there. So after church Bishop Cain invites the sisters into his office for a meeting. WE HAVE BEEN ASKING FOR A MEETING FOR WEEKS. Hahahaha. So I was just like whatever. And we weren't invited in, and they were in there for 2 hours! And we carpooled with them, so we got all new rosters and such talked to everyone that we could and then finally we were like alright we got work to do, so we started walking home, in the suits.. bad idea. I was drenched. Luckily we got picked up, but we got to the apartment, and we were locked out the key was in the car so, we had to sit there and roast while we waited for the sisters hahaha. So Quinn Krizer the elder's president came up to us, and was like alright guys I need your help, so we are going to be working heavy with him. Which is fantastic! After church I put everyone on the ward roster onto our white board, so there is like 120 names in the "Unknown" category, so we have lots to track down this week! So we went to the Southside Baptist Church with Bro Willie Parker. And I got to say, I was pretty dang impressed. With some of the stuff that they do, if I was looking for a social church, I would be all over that one! They were way in to fellowship, and everyone there was SO nice. It was hilarious though, I had to hold back laughter a lot, this guy in front of us was throwing up fist pumps, and yelling "That's a fact!" It was just a really hilarious experience. But we talked to the Pastor for awhile, and he got our number and said that he wants to take us all out to lunch, he was so nice, and asked us to call him, he would love to come out with us is what he said. Hahaha. But we think we are going to go again, we asked what we could help them with. And so if we can get in with them, some how it could be really awesome for us!
Well, family I miss you all so much. I got the baby package, and all the pictures and that made me cry. Really I love all of you so much!! And it is really hard to be away from ya'll. But I love it here, I am beginning to love it more each and everyday. I love this Gospel, and what it had done to our families life, and what I see it do in other peoples lives! There really is nothing else like it!! I know that this Gospel is true!!
Hello Family!!
Another week gone and by in this mission, fun fact today marks my 2 month period for being a missionary! Eh? Pretty nice am I right? Not going to lie it has gone by fairly quick, but at the same time I feel like I have been gone for like 13 years. But any whom, so this week was kind of a dull one with teaching people, but we did get two new sisters. And holy cow... They are blowing us out of the water, they have been creating fliers and come worship with us cards, and coming up with all kinds of smart ideas that we had never even thought of, who are they? But it is really nice to have a set of sisters just over the Dothan 2nd ward. So that we can both work over the area. So get this, they passed this rule a few weeks back, that sisters and elders can't eat at the same dinner appointment, so.. Basically this past month we have been fed like 7 times.. and the Sisters calendar is full up. So I am basically starving here without members, and on a limited budget. So don't worry about me, I am fine. :) Any way I will give you the week!
Monday - P-Day. So we found out in the morning that one of the Sisters was going to Tallahassee. And so she was shedding lots of tears, and so we all went to lunch as a District at Zaxbys. And she was wanting to take like a million pictures, and I was just so over it all. It was so much drama. Hahaha. :) So we got all of our shopping and stuff done, we always try and hit up some local thrift stores for ties, I think today we are going to go to the pawn shop, and I think that Elder Stubbs and I are going to go roller skating at the skate rink, my goal is to teach a lesson while on roller skate, huh? But after we were done we were fed by the Marturello's, Dean and Brooke Marturello, they have been here for 3 weeks, they moved from Utah. They have already fed me more times than anyone. They are really awesome, they both served missions, so they are willing to help us do anything. I love them!! So after dinner we tried to visit some less actives, and none of them worked. And so we didn't know what to do, and I just had a thought that we should go visit Linda Pollium. I don't why, but I just did. So we got to her house and we were talking, and she just broke down, and started sobbing, and she said, "I don't know why you boys decided to come over here today, but I have been praying all day, because it has been so hard." And the Spirit was so strong, I learn more from her everytime we teach her. And it really felt good, because I sometimes think that I am not the best at feeling promptings of the Spirit, so I was so thankful. Because that also meant a lot to me, that I just had an impression to go see her, it was awesome!
Tuesday - Had District Meeting in the morning, and District meeting has become one of my favorite things to do, I really enjoy them. So after that, we went and had a lesson with Kevin Hust. And we read Enos with him, just all they way through, and explained all of it. I love Enos! It is the bomb, it basically goes through prayer, faith, repentance, Gospel of Christ. It is awesome. So we just answered all of his questions that he has, and read with him. Each time we meet with him, he has questions, and we have to crack the shell, and get through all the problems, but each time we meet with him, he softens up just a little bit more, it is really cool to see. And afterwards, they fed us some soup. But he was just talking about how much he enjoyed that! So slowly I think that we are progressing with him. After that we helped Levi Hansen move to Burmingham, he is in our Elders Quorum, and he was from Idaho. The Also Elder Stubbs had a prompting to go into the Dothan Rescue Mission so we did. We also went into this antique shop, and you wouldn't believe all that was in there, I told the guy that if my family was here they would be in heaven. So then we met with Barbra Phillips. We had a set time to be there, and they showed up 30 minutes late.. because they were baking cookies. So we had like 20 minutes with Barbra to teach her... I mean come on, and then the Sisters were late to their dinner appointment as well. AHHHH. But we just read some out of the Book of Mormon with her, and got her to pray which is awesome, she gets more and more confident every single time she does it! Then we had dinner at the Myers, Paul and Cindy, he used to be the old bishop, but has had two strokes, and is now going in for heart surgery to fix a hole in his heart, but I heard they had run marathons, and so I asked them, and he has run 29 marathons, and she has run 4, crazy! So I talked to them for a while about that, but Paul used to run and ride his motorcycle everywhere, but now can't do any of that, so it is a little sad. But he is hilarious, if anything happens, or if he drops something, or if he needs more food he just says, "Stroke. Stroke. Stroke." He is hilarious, I love them too.
Wednesday - We started out the morning working at the food bank, loading up pallets of food to be shipped out all over Alabama. So we got all sweaty doing that, came home showered sat down for studies, got a call, that a part member family needed help in the yard, so we went and did that for like 3 hours. And we were fasting throughout this whole process as well, so we were pooped. But we were able to watch Mormon Messages with the family, so that was really cool. Then the rest of the day was kind of a bust, the new sisters got there and so we went to Taco Bell with them, and we just debriefed them of the area, and things to be aware of, and all the members in the ward, so it was really good.'
Thursday - We started out in the morning again working at the food bank, packing up pallets of individual boxes this time. And then after that we spend the morning with the Sisters doing weekly planning with them, just further getting them acquanted with the area, both of them are brand new. So we did weekly planning, and thats where we got a lot of really cool ideas going on. I think we are going to throw a fireside for members to teach them about mormon.org, and to show them the new videos on the church website about missionary work. And also, we are putting on a talent show for the ward, to get all less active or investigators too in like a month or so. So that should be really good! Then we don't have any real direction here, so we went and got maps, and so I made two brand new maps and hung them on the wall, and started putting in all of the pins from the roster. So that we actually know whats going on and who is who, the last map is really pretty old. The ward roster is 20 pages long! So you can imagine the amount of pins, and we aren't even done yet. Then we had dinner at the house of Sister Yawei.. Celery Juice, and that same leaves, with like 9 tomatoes in it. And we had sweet potatoes.
Friday - Got a real good jump on the day, and we ventured far inside the middle of the circle, which is the sketchier areas to try and track down a bunch of less actives. And we didn't really see any of them, but we found someone off of an old progress record, that we got a return appointment for, and we found two new investigators, who told us to comeback, because they would like to learn more. So that was sweet!! The one lady was really young, and pregnant, and was saying she grew up Baptist, but didn't like some of the stuff they did, and was developing her faith right now, I mean come on, that is golden! So we were way excited about that. Some of the areas that we are in, make me feel sad though. One less active we tried, had no windows, they were all broken out, so it was just wide open, and their front door, had no door knob. So then we went to the hospital for clergy duty, nothing too exciting happened, but we just talk to everyone, that we can, and it is really fun. The workers in the CCU hate us, because they think we're in their way, so I decided I was going to make them like me, so I talked to each and everyone of them, and just asked them how they were doing, and it was awesome! We went to Krispy Kreme and brought donuts with us, and the chaplain after us was really mad, and so I was just like ya know what sir, would you like a donut, and at first he was like NO. But then he did a double take, once he figured out what I asked, and said, oh yes thank you. And he was so nice to us afterward, and believe me I was saving that last donut. :) After that we had correlation meeting with the mission leader. And then we had dinner at the Dewpews, I ate their my first night that I got to Dothan, and I was just thinking about the difference in how I felt and it was really cool, because the first night there, I was thinking, what have I gotten myself into. But now it was so different, it was much more enjoyable. :)
Saturday - We helped the Mitchell family move, another solid member of the Elders Quorum, that we are losing. Then we did a trade off with the Dothan 1st Elders, I went up there so that I could see Sherlyn Everage, BG Hunts sister. And I was with Elder Davidson who came out the same time as me, so we were lost because he didn't know where we were going, and it wasn't my area. So that took awhile. But I tried her house twice, but no one was home either time. I have her phone number, and I know where she works in Dothan. But I would just rather see her at here house, so the other Elders kind of have an in, and can start working with her. So I will keep you posted on that, but we just visited some of their less actives, and members, and we did some tracting. After that the Chappell's took us out to eat, which I love. They took us to Ryan's a southern buffet, they had steak grilling, you would just walk up and say how you wanted it cooked and he would give it to you, and the CHICKEN oh my goodness, I bet I had like 23 chicken nuggets/tenders/fried chicken. Any whom, I put the hurt on the buffet. After that we stopped by Bro Willie Parkers house and talked with them, and read from the Bible with him. I'm working up to talking about the Book of Mormon dad!!! So he fed us ice cream, and we asked them what time their service was, and so we told them we would go, I'll get there. Then we visited that referral from the bishop in Douglas. Nathan Spivey, and we talked with him forever on the porch, President Bess has talked to him, because they both work at Flowers Hospital. And we told Pres Bess to talk to him, which is about the best thing that I can think of for anyone, Pres Bess will get the job done. But they are getting married and 2 weeks, and we both kind of walked away with that in 2 weeks we will be able to work with them.
Sunday - So some huge stuff happened today. So it was the sister first time at church, so we had ward council. I piped up, and told all the ward council to "please don't hesitate to send any of these rescue names to us, that you would like to be contacted." that's all I got. But we didn't have any investigators at church, but we got Paul Kennedy there. So after church Bishop Cain invites the sisters into his office for a meeting. WE HAVE BEEN ASKING FOR A MEETING FOR WEEKS. Hahahaha. So I was just like whatever. And we weren't invited in, and they were in there for 2 hours! And we carpooled with them, so we got all new rosters and such talked to everyone that we could and then finally we were like alright we got work to do, so we started walking home, in the suits.. bad idea. I was drenched. Luckily we got picked up, but we got to the apartment, and we were locked out the key was in the car so, we had to sit there and roast while we waited for the sisters hahaha. So Quinn Krizer the elder's president came up to us, and was like alright guys I need your help, so we are going to be working heavy with him. Which is fantastic! After church I put everyone on the ward roster onto our white board, so there is like 120 names in the "Unknown" category, so we have lots to track down this week! So we went to the Southside Baptist Church with Bro Willie Parker. And I got to say, I was pretty dang impressed. With some of the stuff that they do, if I was looking for a social church, I would be all over that one! They were way in to fellowship, and everyone there was SO nice. It was hilarious though, I had to hold back laughter a lot, this guy in front of us was throwing up fist pumps, and yelling "That's a fact!" It was just a really hilarious experience. But we talked to the Pastor for awhile, and he got our number and said that he wants to take us all out to lunch, he was so nice, and asked us to call him, he would love to come out with us is what he said. Hahaha. But we think we are going to go again, we asked what we could help them with. And so if we can get in with them, some how it could be really awesome for us!
Well, family I miss you all so much. I got the baby package, and all the pictures and that made me cry. Really I love all of you so much!! And it is really hard to be away from ya'll. But I love it here, I am beginning to love it more each and everyday. I love this Gospel, and what it had done to our families life, and what I see it do in other peoples lives! There really is nothing else like it!! I know that this Gospel is true!!
Love, Elder Hintze
"New Member of the Fam"
Here is Elder Hintze's letter from Monday, August 5th.
HELLO FAMILY!!!!!
WE HAVE A NEW MEMBER OF THE FAM!!! THAT IS FANTASTIC!!! All I got about it was a "PS - Just hear news that Chantel was headed to the hospital" in Dads letter.. I was left completely hanging! And that was so hard.. I just wanted to come on right home and see that baby. I saw some pictures! He looks just like Buster when he was born, he is adorable!! I am really excited to hear that it is all good news. Also it made me cry seeing the pictures, but tears of joy!!
So this week was kind of a bummer week. I shouldn't say bummer but it was kind of! We taught a good amount of people, but we didn't find anybody new, and we eliminated a lot of people, because they don't want to meet with us. So I still have high hope for several, we have that family that was on vacation that was reading the Book of Mormon and was interested, that comes home this week, Gloria and her family the ones we taught with the mission president, Kevin Hust the man who just go out of prison, and a few others. So I have hopes for them all, and we haven't been able to meet with them a lot. So I am trying to remain patient!!
Monday - It's hard to do stuff, on P-Days, because we have so much stuff to do, so we just got all of our shopping done and laundry and all that jazz. But today I think we are going to go to the batting cage for a little bit. But after all that was done, we ate dinner at Zaxbys, that is our P-Day place and then went and saw Bro Nunez, who is the one who had been through all of the marriage problems with his wife hating the church, funny part about it is he is in his 70s and she is in her 30s, he is like 42 years older than she is... so ya. But we had to drive up to Ozark to pick up Elder Olsen, our zone leader. Because he was coming on a trade off with us for the next day, so that took up most of the evening.
Tuesday - So we had the Zone Leader with us, so it was a really short day, because we had District Meeting in the Morning, and then we had to drive back out to Ozark at about 6 to take him back, and we had to be in at 5, because he had to interview us. So all in all, this was our most successful day, because it was way short, but we taught 5 lessons. After district meeting we met with Kevin Hust at our Ward mission leaders house, because thats where he is living with his niece, who's name is April. And so we were following up on the 1st lesson, and on his Book of Mormon reading. And he is super skeptical about the Book of Mormon.. He just isn't grasping why God would need more scripture, because he covets his Bible. So we just read with him the intro to the Book of Mormon, and places in the Bible where it talks about the Book of Mormon, and in the Book of Mormon, where it talks about the Bible. But he is just afraid that it is going to plant a bad seed into his head, is what he told us. It was kind of cool to see though in a weird way, I want him to accept it, but every experience I have is still kind of my first, so it was interesting to see an actual real person skeptical, I don't know just my first experience with that. But April his new bride, told us of her testimony and how she knows that it is all true, and she hasn't been faithful in her life at all. But is now coming around, she said it clicked when she got her Patriachal Blessing, so I think she is going to be the biggest influence to him. So then we met with Linda, and she told us lots of stuff about Gloria and her family, and that made me really hopeful for stuff to come with them! Linda Pollium is her name and she is probably my favorite person of anyone that I have met in Dothan. Then we saw Vicky Rush, just a weekly visit that we make. Then we met with german lady Barbra Phillips. I can never remember what I have said about people in the past. So she has been smoking for 50 years, but she wants to quit and the Book of Mormon is already helping here. But she doesn't understand what she reads, and it is hard to teach her, because she doesn't understand a lot of what we are trying to say. Then we took Elder Olsen back.
Wednesday - So we went back to Barbra Phillips in the morning and we finally got her to pray a loud with us, after like 6 tries. Just because she would never do it, and we would walk her throught it, and we would say it with her, but she never would, so finally we did! And she prayed that she would quit smoking, which was pretty sweet. Then we hit the bikes tried to see some people but didn't see any of them. Then we came back, changed into service clothes or normal clothes, and we headed out to the Pioneer day ward party. It was combined with both of the Dothan wards, so it was really awesome to talk to people and just build better friendships with the members. They had tennis courts and a couple from the ward was playing, they were no good, but I wanted to play, but I didn't. Played a little football, talked to a kid that said he was going to play D2 college football, and he said Because I am in D2 I won't be in the Heisman running, but I am determined to break records. But Gloria and her daughter Zooya was there, and that was awesome, it was neat to see members of the ward go over and talk to them, and be friends to them. So I really do have high hopes for them, but they just haven't been able to meet with us. Gloria is hilarious.
Thursday - We got a call in the morning from Linda, saying that her niece Carol Hughey, who is a member, but her kids and husband aren't, needed help in the yard. So we went over there and we helped them a ton, and we were able to teach the 1st and 2nd lesson to her sons who are in high school still, they have a lot of way good questions, and are super spiritual for their age. They also are basically a mormon family, the kids are home on the weekends mostly, because they don't like the choices that their friends make. So it was really awesome to talk to them, and explain the Restoration!! So we will see where that goes as well. We had to clean out there old boat, and it was just filled with who knows what, so they throw me up in there, and this place is just crawling with poisonous spiders and wasps, so they figured throw the Utah kid up there, who doesnt know about all the spiders in Alabama. sheesh. Then we went and did home teaching with a member in the elders qourom presidency, and then he fed us dinner. Any whom, we had breakfast for lunch and dinner, both times pancakes and eggs, and grits, I don't get it, they taste like nothing, but everybody loves em.. Beats me!
Friday - We worked at the Hospital, and we actually got to talk to quite a few people. One guy in the CCU, said to us, "Are ya'll prejudice?" No sir, we are not. And then he went on about how our country has moved a way from God, and that why we are in this mess. And he kept saying to me, "We are children of God right?" But it sounded like "chilllen gard." So it took me like 15 tries of saying, I'm sorry one more time. And then finally I said, oh got you yes. And he was said, "Come on man!! ya got to understand." But I couldn't understand. A guy that I gave a blessing to a couple weeks ago, who was going into surgery died we found out, so that was really, really sad. He had been in the CCU for a while. Saw the Thomley family, and then we were with Luke Thompson kid headed to Brazil, and an investigator caved and we went to Dairy Queen.. And the float here, just was not the same as a float there.
Saturday - We met with Barbra Phillips in the morning and we got here to pray and we read Mosiah 2 with here the whole time, and she was actually pretty into it, the whole time, which gave us a lot of hope for her. It still is just hard because she can't understand a lot. So then we had it planned out to head out of the city and go see a bunch of members out in the middle of nowhere, so we spent that whole afternoon out there visiting members in trailer parks basically. But we met some really nice people, one lady Helen McClellan, what a cool name am I right? But she loves us and the church, but her husband got her name taken off, so she doesn't come a lot, but really did love us. We got a japanese Book of Mormon for this lady that we found Itsuku is her name or something like that, and we took it to her, she is buddhist. But we have had some really good talks with her, and we have that lady from China who know buddhism and she said she'd help us out.
Sunday - Fast Sunday. I wore my fast Sunday tie, you better believe it! I wore it last month too, I just kept forgetting to say that I did. But April Hust got up and bore her testimony and Kevin was there, and it was really powerful, and I think that she is going to be the influence that converts Kevin, because she is really strong and is desiring to comeback. But a lot of others got up who I didn't expect to, or who are less active I should say, and it really was a powerful meeting. So we went out with Carter Bess after church to see some people, we rode in his lifted F-150 that they had ready for him when he got home.. Hint Hint. Any way that was a bust, didn't see anybody really. But Paul Kennedy, and we saw Sister Knight in the evening. So we did a fair share of tracting, and tracting is always so fun to me, you meet so many interesting people. Most of them aren't very nice, but it is still so fun, I love it. One guy said he had read the B of M, and I said, Well what did you think of it? And he said, We don't have enough time for that, come back another day and we'll talk, but you won't like what I have to say to you. So I want to go back and see what he has got for us. :)
Well family, another week in paradise for me!! I really do miss all of you so much! And I wish that I could be there so bad to see Mack Jacob Henderson!!! That really is a way sweet name too. I like that a lot! I was saying my prayers on Monday night this past week, and I was just doing as I normally do, thanking Him for blessing me with the greatest family in the world. And obviously it wasn't new to me.. But as I was praying, it just hit me. Like in my mind I was like WOW! It just hit me how blessed I really am to have the family that I do!!! So I thank you for all that you have done for me, and your prayers on my behalf, I really feel the strength from that. Know that you are in my prayers and that I love each and everyone of you so much!!!!'
Love, Elder Hintze
HELLO FAMILY!!!!!
WE HAVE A NEW MEMBER OF THE FAM!!! THAT IS FANTASTIC!!! All I got about it was a "PS - Just hear news that Chantel was headed to the hospital" in Dads letter.. I was left completely hanging! And that was so hard.. I just wanted to come on right home and see that baby. I saw some pictures! He looks just like Buster when he was born, he is adorable!! I am really excited to hear that it is all good news. Also it made me cry seeing the pictures, but tears of joy!!
So this week was kind of a bummer week. I shouldn't say bummer but it was kind of! We taught a good amount of people, but we didn't find anybody new, and we eliminated a lot of people, because they don't want to meet with us. So I still have high hope for several, we have that family that was on vacation that was reading the Book of Mormon and was interested, that comes home this week, Gloria and her family the ones we taught with the mission president, Kevin Hust the man who just go out of prison, and a few others. So I have hopes for them all, and we haven't been able to meet with them a lot. So I am trying to remain patient!!
Monday - It's hard to do stuff, on P-Days, because we have so much stuff to do, so we just got all of our shopping done and laundry and all that jazz. But today I think we are going to go to the batting cage for a little bit. But after all that was done, we ate dinner at Zaxbys, that is our P-Day place and then went and saw Bro Nunez, who is the one who had been through all of the marriage problems with his wife hating the church, funny part about it is he is in his 70s and she is in her 30s, he is like 42 years older than she is... so ya. But we had to drive up to Ozark to pick up Elder Olsen, our zone leader. Because he was coming on a trade off with us for the next day, so that took up most of the evening.
Tuesday - So we had the Zone Leader with us, so it was a really short day, because we had District Meeting in the Morning, and then we had to drive back out to Ozark at about 6 to take him back, and we had to be in at 5, because he had to interview us. So all in all, this was our most successful day, because it was way short, but we taught 5 lessons. After district meeting we met with Kevin Hust at our Ward mission leaders house, because thats where he is living with his niece, who's name is April. And so we were following up on the 1st lesson, and on his Book of Mormon reading. And he is super skeptical about the Book of Mormon.. He just isn't grasping why God would need more scripture, because he covets his Bible. So we just read with him the intro to the Book of Mormon, and places in the Bible where it talks about the Book of Mormon, and in the Book of Mormon, where it talks about the Bible. But he is just afraid that it is going to plant a bad seed into his head, is what he told us. It was kind of cool to see though in a weird way, I want him to accept it, but every experience I have is still kind of my first, so it was interesting to see an actual real person skeptical, I don't know just my first experience with that. But April his new bride, told us of her testimony and how she knows that it is all true, and she hasn't been faithful in her life at all. But is now coming around, she said it clicked when she got her Patriachal Blessing, so I think she is going to be the biggest influence to him. So then we met with Linda, and she told us lots of stuff about Gloria and her family, and that made me really hopeful for stuff to come with them! Linda Pollium is her name and she is probably my favorite person of anyone that I have met in Dothan. Then we saw Vicky Rush, just a weekly visit that we make. Then we met with german lady Barbra Phillips. I can never remember what I have said about people in the past. So she has been smoking for 50 years, but she wants to quit and the Book of Mormon is already helping here. But she doesn't understand what she reads, and it is hard to teach her, because she doesn't understand a lot of what we are trying to say. Then we took Elder Olsen back.
Wednesday - So we went back to Barbra Phillips in the morning and we finally got her to pray a loud with us, after like 6 tries. Just because she would never do it, and we would walk her throught it, and we would say it with her, but she never would, so finally we did! And she prayed that she would quit smoking, which was pretty sweet. Then we hit the bikes tried to see some people but didn't see any of them. Then we came back, changed into service clothes or normal clothes, and we headed out to the Pioneer day ward party. It was combined with both of the Dothan wards, so it was really awesome to talk to people and just build better friendships with the members. They had tennis courts and a couple from the ward was playing, they were no good, but I wanted to play, but I didn't. Played a little football, talked to a kid that said he was going to play D2 college football, and he said Because I am in D2 I won't be in the Heisman running, but I am determined to break records. But Gloria and her daughter Zooya was there, and that was awesome, it was neat to see members of the ward go over and talk to them, and be friends to them. So I really do have high hopes for them, but they just haven't been able to meet with us. Gloria is hilarious.
Thursday - We got a call in the morning from Linda, saying that her niece Carol Hughey, who is a member, but her kids and husband aren't, needed help in the yard. So we went over there and we helped them a ton, and we were able to teach the 1st and 2nd lesson to her sons who are in high school still, they have a lot of way good questions, and are super spiritual for their age. They also are basically a mormon family, the kids are home on the weekends mostly, because they don't like the choices that their friends make. So it was really awesome to talk to them, and explain the Restoration!! So we will see where that goes as well. We had to clean out there old boat, and it was just filled with who knows what, so they throw me up in there, and this place is just crawling with poisonous spiders and wasps, so they figured throw the Utah kid up there, who doesnt know about all the spiders in Alabama. sheesh. Then we went and did home teaching with a member in the elders qourom presidency, and then he fed us dinner. Any whom, we had breakfast for lunch and dinner, both times pancakes and eggs, and grits, I don't get it, they taste like nothing, but everybody loves em.. Beats me!
Friday - We worked at the Hospital, and we actually got to talk to quite a few people. One guy in the CCU, said to us, "Are ya'll prejudice?" No sir, we are not. And then he went on about how our country has moved a way from God, and that why we are in this mess. And he kept saying to me, "We are children of God right?" But it sounded like "chilllen gard." So it took me like 15 tries of saying, I'm sorry one more time. And then finally I said, oh got you yes. And he was said, "Come on man!! ya got to understand." But I couldn't understand. A guy that I gave a blessing to a couple weeks ago, who was going into surgery died we found out, so that was really, really sad. He had been in the CCU for a while. Saw the Thomley family, and then we were with Luke Thompson kid headed to Brazil, and an investigator caved and we went to Dairy Queen.. And the float here, just was not the same as a float there.
Saturday - We met with Barbra Phillips in the morning and we got here to pray and we read Mosiah 2 with here the whole time, and she was actually pretty into it, the whole time, which gave us a lot of hope for her. It still is just hard because she can't understand a lot. So then we had it planned out to head out of the city and go see a bunch of members out in the middle of nowhere, so we spent that whole afternoon out there visiting members in trailer parks basically. But we met some really nice people, one lady Helen McClellan, what a cool name am I right? But she loves us and the church, but her husband got her name taken off, so she doesn't come a lot, but really did love us. We got a japanese Book of Mormon for this lady that we found Itsuku is her name or something like that, and we took it to her, she is buddhist. But we have had some really good talks with her, and we have that lady from China who know buddhism and she said she'd help us out.
Sunday - Fast Sunday. I wore my fast Sunday tie, you better believe it! I wore it last month too, I just kept forgetting to say that I did. But April Hust got up and bore her testimony and Kevin was there, and it was really powerful, and I think that she is going to be the influence that converts Kevin, because she is really strong and is desiring to comeback. But a lot of others got up who I didn't expect to, or who are less active I should say, and it really was a powerful meeting. So we went out with Carter Bess after church to see some people, we rode in his lifted F-150 that they had ready for him when he got home.. Hint Hint. Any way that was a bust, didn't see anybody really. But Paul Kennedy, and we saw Sister Knight in the evening. So we did a fair share of tracting, and tracting is always so fun to me, you meet so many interesting people. Most of them aren't very nice, but it is still so fun, I love it. One guy said he had read the B of M, and I said, Well what did you think of it? And he said, We don't have enough time for that, come back another day and we'll talk, but you won't like what I have to say to you. So I want to go back and see what he has got for us. :)
Well family, another week in paradise for me!! I really do miss all of you so much! And I wish that I could be there so bad to see Mack Jacob Henderson!!! That really is a way sweet name too. I like that a lot! I was saying my prayers on Monday night this past week, and I was just doing as I normally do, thanking Him for blessing me with the greatest family in the world. And obviously it wasn't new to me.. But as I was praying, it just hit me. Like in my mind I was like WOW! It just hit me how blessed I really am to have the family that I do!!! So I thank you for all that you have done for me, and your prayers on my behalf, I really feel the strength from that. Know that you are in my prayers and that I love each and everyone of you so much!!!!'
Love, Elder Hintze
Genesis 37:17?
Here is Elder Hintze's letter from July 29th. Sounds like he had a great week. Hope you enjoy:
"Hello Family!! So let me give you a quick history on Dothan, Alabama, in the form of a reading assignment. Go and read Genesis 37:17, and you can learn something new, about where I live. Also Have you guys read Matthew 17?? I read this, this week and it blew my mind, when Christ is on the Mt of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John. And they see that John the Baptist is going to come back and restore all things. And he was just beheaded 3 chapters earlier. And then along with that, and the JST for Matthew 17. Holy smokes. What other church out there besides The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has record that John the Baptist came and restored their church? Now thats all I'm saying, seems like a pretty big reason to believe in what we have!!! So this week was by far are most successful week!! We got 5 new investigators, which is a record for me!! A lot of really good things happened!!! Every single one of our lessons was so solid! And I had said that I had not yet taught a first lesson, and I taught two first lessons this week! Crazy."
"Monday - It rained harder than I have ever seen it. The roads were covered in water, like flooding, it came down. And we were out in the Chevy Malibu just pushing through, it was crazy. We were at the Dothan Rescue Mission, when it started coming down.. Nothing can compare to the DI. Any whom so that night our Baptist preacher friend Brother Willie Parker, took us out to eat at CiCi' pizza. But any whom, so ya they took us out and he is super nice, I just wish that somehow we could convert him, because he could bring a lot of people with him. I love it when he prays, I really do feel the Spirit when he prays, but my oh my it is an extravagant prayer. When he dropped us off, and we were getting out, he just breaks into prayer, and says, "Lord just put a hedge around these here Brethren." Haha, I love him! So after that we went with Gabe Hall, who just got home from his mission in Arizona, Hall family, with the beautiful home. So we went to see a referral that live way out in the middle of no where, so we get there, and they have a locked gate. So we try and call them again, and they say they're on vacation, but he is way interested and has been reading the Book of Mormon!!!!!!!! I know right?!?!?! Some how he just got lost when the 1st Elders turned him over to the other elder months ago."
"Tuesday- So we had a blockbuster day planned out. Three member present lessons, and then all of the members canceled, and the rain came in a terrential down pour! So the day went to shambles. We visited a potential, and talked with him for a bit, and then while biking home I said, why don't we try and go this other way home... 12 miles later and like 9 giant hills later, we made it home, so my clothes were drenched, it looked like I had been swimming, pants and all. So I found myself in the cold shower. So the only good thing that happened today, was I basically hustled everyone in basketball that evening, but then again whats new? I really do love playing basketball on Tuesday nights, its the only chance we get!"
"Wednesday - Pioneer Day! How were the fireworks at Mueller Park? I went through the 4th of July and the other days, without seeing one firework.. :( Hope that was good! I was thinking a ton about the fireworks, and being there with ya'll. So I had to take 2 other Elders out in our area, while Elder Stubbs went to zone training something. So I got to drive a car for the first real time in almost 2 months! Except one time when Stubbs eye got swollen shut, funny story. So we visited this Less active lady Barbra Erb. And she told us her conversion story, and it was powerful. It really is neat, how I can sit there and listen to people talk, and I can piece together their problems, and what they need. The Spirit is real, so we have a lot to go off of with her. We went on to have 6 lessons today!!! That never happens here.. Never. It was awesome! We got a new investigoor Barbra Phillips she is german, 79 years old, and she previously saw the missionaries, but got dropped because of smoking, but they didn't even teach her the 1st lesson.. That makes me mad, everything comes back to The Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith! Then we met with a gentleman Danny Dee's, been around the church for 30 years his boss is mormon. We got him to pray vocally and it was one of the few times he said he had done that in his life, it almost brought me to tears. Then we had dinner with the Granthams, he had a Ford Model A from the 1920s in his shed, it was sweet!"
"Thursday - Thursdays are annoying because we have to do weekly planning, I know it is so important! But I'm in that daggum apartment until like 2 in the afternoon, and I go crazy. But... President Smith came out teaching with us, my oh my, he is the man! He really is. I can't wait to learn from him more, it really was so awesome. So we had an appointment set up with a recent convert Lynda, neighbor, so we get there and Lynda says, oh no I didn't set anything up, after she told us that she did.. So were like crap. This is bad with President here, but then he ended up getting us in just by being "President" she thought it was so prestigious, and her house she thought was messy, so she was talking to here grandma in heaven saying, oh no she is gonna be mad, oh I'm so sorry grandma, I will clean this up. So her name is Gloria, the family that came to church and then thought it was too loud. And her daughter Zoya. First off Pres Smith felt prompted to offer her a blessing, which we normally don't do to non members, but we did it, because she is having health problems, and she was crying during the blessing and it was powerful stuff. So we then went onto do the first lesson, it was a sketchy lesson because Linda and Gloria love to talk. But she was excited and said that she was going to read the Book of Mormon, so we are going to meet with them again this week!!!!"
"Friday - In the morning we met with Forest Bain's nieces boyfriend, who just got out of prison.. I know, I thought the same thing.. But he really is looking to turn his life around. Apparently he was in prison, because he had past stuff that he wanted to clean up, so he turned himself in. So we taught him the 1st lesson, and it went great. He was a little confused with it all, just because it was new. But he lives with Forest, so he already has great support there. Clergy duty nothing happened, the last few weeks it has been rough, we have been given very few chances to talk to people, because we can only go to the ER and the CCU and we can't proselyte, and lately no one has been giving us the time of day. But after that the Evans family took us to eat. Both of them are from Bountiful, Utah. They are solid. He is an anesthesiologist pain specialty guy, but they are loaded. And so they took us to some Mexican restaurant and it was tremendous, and then to Coldstone, oh man coldstone never tasted so good!"
"Saturday - Holy cow, we are like Dothan's professional movers. So there is the new medical school that is coming to Dothan, so we are getting lots of young families into the ward. So we helped the Marturello family move in. Or move out of an old apartment into their house. All of the Utah families are so solid, I don't mean that negatively to everyone else, but all of the members that used to live in Utah, which there are quite a bit. Are super solid, and do lots with us. So we moved him out of his 2nd story apartment, and then moved everything upstairs in their house. Hard work. So we get home shower and get a call, that someone else needs to be moved. So we met with the German woman again, we brought her a German Book of Mormon hoping that would be easier. So we then moved the other lady in, her son was less active. But we moved them quick, because we had a member that ordered us pizza, that we had to be home too. :) So then we visited some less actives. I started talking to people about Bama football!!! Its heating up down here. I am going to start talking football with people if we don't have anything else to go to, cuz I got lots to say about that. This may sound stupid.. But we visited this member family and he was asleep on the couch, watching baseball, and I was like man.. I used to do that, and that made me sad for like a quick second."
"Sunday- It was ward conference. President Bess spoke in Priesthood about the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood, and I'm pretty sure that everyone in the audience's eyebrows were singed, because he was spitting fire up there. I wanted to get up and start applauding! He talked about us a little bit in it, and a story that he had of someone that we talked to him about when we were over for dinner. And then after ward conference, they have a big lunch. Its the darndest thing that I've ever seen. Hahaha. It is a southern thing to do that I guess. Then after church we taught a buddhist japanese lady that we tracted into, she already believes a lot of things that we do, but in a way weird sort of buddhist way. Then we visited Paul Kennedy, the most interesting man in the world, blind stroke guy, while talking about God, he referred to him as "Chuck". Haha. He doesn't have the priesthood and we asked him about it and said the priesthood is for leaders, somebodies got to be the follower, thats me."
"There you have it!! Really was a great week. I have been trying to exercise greater faith! Because I got into the thinking of oh well nothing is going to happen, or they won't be home.. But if I can't believe that its going to happen, then God sure isn't going to give it to me. So that really helped a lot this week!! I really grew in my testimony on Faith and Prayer this week. God is willing to give us so many gifts, we just are the ones with not enough Faith to receive them, or to act on the things that we receive. Also ya'll should watch the Mormon Messages, here are some of my favorites, a lot of them will make you cry, so be ready for them: Enduring Love, Waiting on our Road to Damascus, Earthly Father Heavenly Father, Men's Hearts Shall Fail Them, Watch Your Step, and my personal favorite, Mountains to Climb. Sometimes I sit back and think about the 2 years that I have to serve and it is so daunting, but I know that I am where I'm supposed to be, and there is no greater feeling than to be a missionary in the service of God, to wear Jesus Christ right on my chest. There really is no greater reward. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH I MISS YA'LL. "
Love, Elder Hintze
"Hello Family!! So let me give you a quick history on Dothan, Alabama, in the form of a reading assignment. Go and read Genesis 37:17, and you can learn something new, about where I live. Also Have you guys read Matthew 17?? I read this, this week and it blew my mind, when Christ is on the Mt of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John. And they see that John the Baptist is going to come back and restore all things. And he was just beheaded 3 chapters earlier. And then along with that, and the JST for Matthew 17. Holy smokes. What other church out there besides The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has record that John the Baptist came and restored their church? Now thats all I'm saying, seems like a pretty big reason to believe in what we have!!! So this week was by far are most successful week!! We got 5 new investigators, which is a record for me!! A lot of really good things happened!!! Every single one of our lessons was so solid! And I had said that I had not yet taught a first lesson, and I taught two first lessons this week! Crazy."
"Monday - It rained harder than I have ever seen it. The roads were covered in water, like flooding, it came down. And we were out in the Chevy Malibu just pushing through, it was crazy. We were at the Dothan Rescue Mission, when it started coming down.. Nothing can compare to the DI. Any whom so that night our Baptist preacher friend Brother Willie Parker, took us out to eat at CiCi' pizza. But any whom, so ya they took us out and he is super nice, I just wish that somehow we could convert him, because he could bring a lot of people with him. I love it when he prays, I really do feel the Spirit when he prays, but my oh my it is an extravagant prayer. When he dropped us off, and we were getting out, he just breaks into prayer, and says, "Lord just put a hedge around these here Brethren." Haha, I love him! So after that we went with Gabe Hall, who just got home from his mission in Arizona, Hall family, with the beautiful home. So we went to see a referral that live way out in the middle of no where, so we get there, and they have a locked gate. So we try and call them again, and they say they're on vacation, but he is way interested and has been reading the Book of Mormon!!!!!!!! I know right?!?!?! Some how he just got lost when the 1st Elders turned him over to the other elder months ago."
"Tuesday- So we had a blockbuster day planned out. Three member present lessons, and then all of the members canceled, and the rain came in a terrential down pour! So the day went to shambles. We visited a potential, and talked with him for a bit, and then while biking home I said, why don't we try and go this other way home... 12 miles later and like 9 giant hills later, we made it home, so my clothes were drenched, it looked like I had been swimming, pants and all. So I found myself in the cold shower. So the only good thing that happened today, was I basically hustled everyone in basketball that evening, but then again whats new? I really do love playing basketball on Tuesday nights, its the only chance we get!"
"Wednesday - Pioneer Day! How were the fireworks at Mueller Park? I went through the 4th of July and the other days, without seeing one firework.. :( Hope that was good! I was thinking a ton about the fireworks, and being there with ya'll. So I had to take 2 other Elders out in our area, while Elder Stubbs went to zone training something. So I got to drive a car for the first real time in almost 2 months! Except one time when Stubbs eye got swollen shut, funny story. So we visited this Less active lady Barbra Erb. And she told us her conversion story, and it was powerful. It really is neat, how I can sit there and listen to people talk, and I can piece together their problems, and what they need. The Spirit is real, so we have a lot to go off of with her. We went on to have 6 lessons today!!! That never happens here.. Never. It was awesome! We got a new investigoor Barbra Phillips she is german, 79 years old, and she previously saw the missionaries, but got dropped because of smoking, but they didn't even teach her the 1st lesson.. That makes me mad, everything comes back to The Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith! Then we met with a gentleman Danny Dee's, been around the church for 30 years his boss is mormon. We got him to pray vocally and it was one of the few times he said he had done that in his life, it almost brought me to tears. Then we had dinner with the Granthams, he had a Ford Model A from the 1920s in his shed, it was sweet!"
"Thursday - Thursdays are annoying because we have to do weekly planning, I know it is so important! But I'm in that daggum apartment until like 2 in the afternoon, and I go crazy. But... President Smith came out teaching with us, my oh my, he is the man! He really is. I can't wait to learn from him more, it really was so awesome. So we had an appointment set up with a recent convert Lynda, neighbor, so we get there and Lynda says, oh no I didn't set anything up, after she told us that she did.. So were like crap. This is bad with President here, but then he ended up getting us in just by being "President" she thought it was so prestigious, and her house she thought was messy, so she was talking to here grandma in heaven saying, oh no she is gonna be mad, oh I'm so sorry grandma, I will clean this up. So her name is Gloria, the family that came to church and then thought it was too loud. And her daughter Zoya. First off Pres Smith felt prompted to offer her a blessing, which we normally don't do to non members, but we did it, because she is having health problems, and she was crying during the blessing and it was powerful stuff. So we then went onto do the first lesson, it was a sketchy lesson because Linda and Gloria love to talk. But she was excited and said that she was going to read the Book of Mormon, so we are going to meet with them again this week!!!!"
"Friday - In the morning we met with Forest Bain's nieces boyfriend, who just got out of prison.. I know, I thought the same thing.. But he really is looking to turn his life around. Apparently he was in prison, because he had past stuff that he wanted to clean up, so he turned himself in. So we taught him the 1st lesson, and it went great. He was a little confused with it all, just because it was new. But he lives with Forest, so he already has great support there. Clergy duty nothing happened, the last few weeks it has been rough, we have been given very few chances to talk to people, because we can only go to the ER and the CCU and we can't proselyte, and lately no one has been giving us the time of day. But after that the Evans family took us to eat. Both of them are from Bountiful, Utah. They are solid. He is an anesthesiologist pain specialty guy, but they are loaded. And so they took us to some Mexican restaurant and it was tremendous, and then to Coldstone, oh man coldstone never tasted so good!"
"Saturday - Holy cow, we are like Dothan's professional movers. So there is the new medical school that is coming to Dothan, so we are getting lots of young families into the ward. So we helped the Marturello family move in. Or move out of an old apartment into their house. All of the Utah families are so solid, I don't mean that negatively to everyone else, but all of the members that used to live in Utah, which there are quite a bit. Are super solid, and do lots with us. So we moved him out of his 2nd story apartment, and then moved everything upstairs in their house. Hard work. So we get home shower and get a call, that someone else needs to be moved. So we met with the German woman again, we brought her a German Book of Mormon hoping that would be easier. So we then moved the other lady in, her son was less active. But we moved them quick, because we had a member that ordered us pizza, that we had to be home too. :) So then we visited some less actives. I started talking to people about Bama football!!! Its heating up down here. I am going to start talking football with people if we don't have anything else to go to, cuz I got lots to say about that. This may sound stupid.. But we visited this member family and he was asleep on the couch, watching baseball, and I was like man.. I used to do that, and that made me sad for like a quick second."
"Sunday- It was ward conference. President Bess spoke in Priesthood about the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood, and I'm pretty sure that everyone in the audience's eyebrows were singed, because he was spitting fire up there. I wanted to get up and start applauding! He talked about us a little bit in it, and a story that he had of someone that we talked to him about when we were over for dinner. And then after ward conference, they have a big lunch. Its the darndest thing that I've ever seen. Hahaha. It is a southern thing to do that I guess. Then after church we taught a buddhist japanese lady that we tracted into, she already believes a lot of things that we do, but in a way weird sort of buddhist way. Then we visited Paul Kennedy, the most interesting man in the world, blind stroke guy, while talking about God, he referred to him as "Chuck". Haha. He doesn't have the priesthood and we asked him about it and said the priesthood is for leaders, somebodies got to be the follower, thats me."
"There you have it!! Really was a great week. I have been trying to exercise greater faith! Because I got into the thinking of oh well nothing is going to happen, or they won't be home.. But if I can't believe that its going to happen, then God sure isn't going to give it to me. So that really helped a lot this week!! I really grew in my testimony on Faith and Prayer this week. God is willing to give us so many gifts, we just are the ones with not enough Faith to receive them, or to act on the things that we receive. Also ya'll should watch the Mormon Messages, here are some of my favorites, a lot of them will make you cry, so be ready for them: Enduring Love, Waiting on our Road to Damascus, Earthly Father Heavenly Father, Men's Hearts Shall Fail Them, Watch Your Step, and my personal favorite, Mountains to Climb. Sometimes I sit back and think about the 2 years that I have to serve and it is so daunting, but I know that I am where I'm supposed to be, and there is no greater feeling than to be a missionary in the service of God, to wear Jesus Christ right on my chest. There really is no greater reward. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH I MISS YA'LL. "
Love, Elder Hintze
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