"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

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