"whatever your concern maybe the answer is just to ask God"

Here is Elder Hintze's email from Monday, September 30th.


SO HELLO!!!
So another week down the drain, everytime I say that, but things are flying by! So this was an alright week for us, we got some cool return appointments for next week. But a lot of our investigators we did not get to meet with this week. Didn't all go exactly as we would have planned it out! But still awesome!

Monday - P-Day, did all that jazz. After P-Day was all said and done Brother Willie took us out to dinner at CiCi's Pizza, you should see the amount of pizza that this man can eat, unreal! Today we are going to head to Westgate Park here in Dothan and play some tennis, clay courts, costs only 2 dollars to play there, I went in and asked them!

Tuesday - So had to be up real early! We had to be at the church at 6:30 am in order to drive down to Panama City Beach for our half mission conference. So we all gathered ourselves up and headed down there, it was awesome, all of our zone was right in a line, and then right as the Tallahassee missionaries merged in we met with them, and we just slowly picked up all the missionaries, so there was probably like 25 mission cars all full of missionaries in a line on the highway, it was pretty awesome! Sister Smith and Sister Pino shared some scriptures on obedience, basically everything in the mission conference was on obedience!

Mission Conference - Panama City - September 24, 2013

Elder May & Elder Hintze - September 24, 2013

President Smith talked about our mission goal of 450 baptisms this year, and we are way behind like we have 240 right now. And some missionary said to him, "President we can't reach that goal, that would man we have to baptize 17 people a week." But we baptized 20 last week! So he said, "Tell me I can't do something, and we are going to do it!" And the old AP Elder Norton, was there when they set that goal with P Jensen. So he told him he said, "President you weren't there when we set that goal, it was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life." But we now have 280 missionaries in our mission, and Elder Pino told us that as of last week there are 78,746 of us out in the world today! Crazy. But at the end Elder Pino bore his testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ and man! That made my whole body have chills, because they are called as a especial witness of Christ! Really awesome. After the conference we drove like 10 minutes and took a picture on the beach, but I felt really bad about it for like 3 days afterwards. So I have repented. But we didn't get home from the conference until like 5 or 6. So then we ate and went to basketball at the church. We have more non members than members that come to basketball, it is pretty cool!

Wednesday - In the morning we went and visited Carol Burnsed and visited some members in the Hospital. Then Luke went with us to Barbra's we read Lehi's dream with her, and she stayed on track, and was way interested to hear what it was going to be. Oh ya in the morning we helped at the Food Bank again, made lunches for kids. Then we ate at Forest Bains house, and went and contacted a media referral we got, first one ever! But then the address doesn't exist, so bummer... but we found where that guy Justin lives, the one who took us out side who wants to quit drinking, so I said a prayer with Elder Smith, before we went, because I just didn't know what to do, and we walked up and I was like do you feel sketchy about this, and he did too, because I was feeling something big time inside of me that said don't go, obviously the Spirit, so we didn't go! It was pretty crazy though!

Thursday - Best day of the week! Helped Forest Bain with some yard work in the morning. By the way, the weather down here is delightful, like way nice!!!!!!!! It is really cooling down quite a bit. So after that we went and had lunch with the two preachers from Southside Baptist Church, sketchy, not sketchy, but sketchy! So they bought us lunch at this nice Cafe place and they just got to know us and we got to know them and then they started asking us questions about doctrine stuff, they were really nice about it, Elder Smith was real quiet, but I talked to them about the Doctrine of Christ, and I shared with them the Plan of Salvation, and we talked about the Book of Mormon with them, and they wanted to meet with us again this Tuesday, but I will get there! So they had some historical problems with the Book of Mormon, so I told him, Ya know man I don't know much about the history of what your talking about, but whatever your concern maybe the answer is just to ask God, and He will tell you if its true! So then we met with Linda and ya she is still awesome. Then we got taken to another lunch by a member in the ward, a buffett. Oh boy! Then we saw Theresa, I don't really no what to do with this lady as of now, but we just talked to here about questions she had, but it gave me a lot of renewed hope that she will come around! I went through the Area Book and I got out all of the previous investigators, and so far, we have gotten 3 return appointments for this next week from it! So then we met with Bonifay and Scott Magnes and it was awesome taught her the Restoration, (I'm still a little sketchy on my teaching skills), Elder Smith did awesome he bore a couple of testimonies! But she said it all made sense to her, she said she didn't think God would leave us with nothing, she always thought additional scripture was out there! He made us Grits with Sausage and Shrimp in it as well...!

Friday - Real lame day, we have to bike to the hospital like a good 4 miles, so we leave early, are at the hospital all day, nothing cool happened. Just talked to everyone that we could. So then we went to see Gloria, and we couldn't, so we biked to another new family Felisha, one of the previous investigators, and she forgot we were coming they were eating dinner, so we were only there for a minute and she told us to come back tomorrow. Then we went and ate at McDonald's and then Brother Bain canceled our ward correlation meeting as well.

Saturday - Sunburned! Sunburned! First day yet of my mission that I have been sunburned. So in the morning we sanded Theresa's thrift shop down, we are going to paint it, we did it with a man named Mike, who has no top teeth, and he calls me "red" because he can't pronounce our last name, nobody can pronounce Hintze!!!! So we did that and scrubbed the mold off of the side of the building, going back to finish the paint next Saturday. So after that we drove with the sisters to the hospital. (which we can no longer ride in the same car as Sisters anymore, period. Which they are making it really hard.  But we got freshened up and we walked to meet with Anita, and we read with her. And then we walked all the rest of the day in service clothes offering service and talking to everyone that we could, we walked like 8 miles. So thats why I got sunburned. But then we went to visit Felisha again, and she wasn't home... I was really bummed, I really want to teach a family, and the kids seemed awesome! So then we stopped at a girl softball tournament and talked to some people there, then a member from Bristol came over and talked to us, real nice guy, would never let us leave, but real nice guy!

Sunday - Had Gloria and Zooya at church again! They are so awesome, it was awesome to see Zooya there, she really liked it. The sisters asked us if they could count Zooya as a investigator at church, oh sister missionaries you are so misinformed. Find your own dang investigators! But I gave it to them. So after that we were supposed to meet with Tiffany and Mitchell, but they were no shows, and we weren't able to get a hold of them. So Tony Hansen drove us around and we contacted a ton of previous investigators, got a couple more return appointments, offered service to anyone we could. When we drive with him, if he sees someone in their garage or in their front yard, he just rolls up in their driveway and we all hop out and go talk to them, hahaha. But then we had to do weekly planning all the rest of the night. Oh and we went and read the Book of Mormon again with Barbra. So hopefully we can get some good things going! We are kind of at a stand still right now, yet we have quite a few people to work with. It has really been a whole new experience for me with the new guy, he is coming a long! But as far as planning and stuff, it sometimes is so hard, because I am the only one who knows anything about the area, so I have really grown in my testimony and in my faith to rely on the Lord! Especially when talking to people and teaching people! But everything is solid out here on the home front! OHHHHHH also got a letter from Nathan this week and he is so sososososososso awesome!!!! So October 26th is going to be his baptismal date, I am so happy that I am going to be here to see it!! He is taking 4 other marines with him to church each Sunday!!!! Love it all!!!

LOVE AND MISS YOU FAMILY!!!!!

LOVE ELDER HINTZE

"hey you were the ketchup to Sister Devries burger"

I sat down to post today's email and discovered I hadn't posted last week's! Here is Elder Hintze's email from Monday, September 23rd. Enjoy!

FAMILY! Hey how is everybody! Great good to hear! This week has been a weird one... But regardless of what happens, I love being a missionary. I can't even remember the last time I felt another feeling besides Happiness! Remember the new missionary Bradley... ew I hated him! But things are great here in Dothan! I got my new companion and am starting to impart on him ALL of my knowledge. Description of Elder Smith to follow!

Monday - So Bummer Elder Stubbs is leaving, told ya about that. That really was pretty sad. So we did our district activity today and we went to the Dothan Rescue Mission (thrift store) and we bought our companions and outfit hahaha, and then they had to wear it out to dinner. It was really awesome, I got Stubbs some sweet bell bottoms and I was wearing some light blue shorts, real classy. Like I was boating. The Sisters were all very rude to each other, they looked really bad! So we were apart of Cameron getting set apart. can't wait to hear how that went???? With him visiting! But it was really cool to be apart of his blessing as a missionary, just a whole new perspective to it. So then we went with Luke and we saw Barbra and broke the news to her that Stubbs was leaving, and she started cussing at him. So that was funny, but bad? Hahaha. Then I helped him pack up a bunch of stuff and that was sad.

Tuesday - We had District Meeting in the morning Stubbs imparted his last wisdom on us! Then Luke Thompson took us out to eat to Chili's really great guy. Then we went to Barbra's again, and Stubbs set a goal for her that one year from now, he would come back and go to the temple with her. So we talked to her a lot about temples, and it was really cool and powerful with him leaving and all. Then we went and met with Teresa which was really cool, talked about how regardless of what happens at church it falls back on our testimony of the Book of Mormon. But she hasn't read yet or prayed, and it has kind of gone real down hill. So needless to say right now her Baptismal date of October 19th is off for now. Then we went and saw Linda for the last time, when Stubbs told her he was leaving she was balling. So that was a hard one. Then we went and taught Gloria, Linda's neighbor and we taught her the restoration lesson again, to clarify her questions from church and she is embracing all of it, and loving all of her experiences at church. We got her, but she just doesn't know yet! :) Then we had dinner at the Depew's house with the Hansens as well, two of my favorite people as well. A lot of good people down here, I love em all!! Then we went to the church and played some ball!

Wednesday - So Elder Stubbs shipped off, GONE. Oh... and he took our car with him. So we no longer have a car here in Dothan, we are sharing with the 1st Ward Elders, which is kind of hard, it is much easier to be effective with a car, but nonetheless! Transfers are so necessary and I am ecstatic for this new one. I feel like I have become Batman and I now have a Robin. :) So I went with Davidson all day and we worked both of the areas, visiting less active members and what not. One guy said this to us when I waved at him, "Merry Christmas. Can I interest you in some blood transfusions?" And I thought about it...... And I was like oh he thought we were J Dubs, and then it became super funny! Hahahahahaha. So we worked both areas, and we went and talked to some people at the local park. So then we got back in the afternoon, because the new guy was coming. So they got here, and Davidson got a new companion Elder Simmons super cool guy, been out about a year. And I got my fresh guy Elder Smith. So I took him to ward correlation meeting, which was awesome, he got to meet the ward leaders. Then we went and visited Barbra and we read from the Book of Mormon with her, she was hilarious for Elder Smith's first visit. So Elder Garrett Smith he is from Gilbert, Arizona. He is the oldest in his family, 3 younger brothers, hunter/fisher/wrestler/shot put thrower, he is a big ol boy, like 6' 2". He is 18 years old.. just graduated high school. Doesn't have a girlfriend. :) I love the guy, and am excited to serve with him!

Thursday - My bike helmet is gone. So bad timing since we no longer have a car. But I borrowed first wards, but it was a long day in the house of weekly planning and all that jazz, also we are doing the 12 week training program which is an extra hour of study a day! So I am going to try and train him on it. So we went to Linda's and helped her carry some boards and when she found out he is from Arizona she said, "Oh that's my homeboy" and shook his hand, she is from Arizona. So we went to teach Teresa, but she was busy she was painting her shop and she didn't have time. So we went to the Marturello's for dinner and they let us put our bikes in the back. So we biked home and saw or tried to see some less actives. I am really trying hard to find some less actives that we can actually get some kind of progress with!!! But with the bikes, we had to bike home about a half hour, so I am still trying to figure out how to plan and manage without a car. It is a whole different ballgame. So I am trying to figure out a master plan to be able to manage it!

Friday - So we had to bike to the Hospital in the morning, which took us just under an hour to get too. So we did that and nothing happened at the hospital big, very slow day. But then we had to bike home, so by this time it was like 6 in the evening. And then the Evans picked us up and took us to Hunt's for dinner. Evans is a doctor of some sorts, so he goes all out for us. I told them that I was getting chicken tenders and they said to me, "What the heck? we will take you to burger king on the way home, what is wrong with you?" me: "Forget I even mention it. So they are awesome but sadly it took up our whole night, because they took us for ice cream too.

Saturday - The Sister Missionaries, bless their hearts gave us a free meal ticket at the hospital. So they drove us there we ate and then we were biking to the library to meet with Anita and right as we got there, she canceled on us, and at this point it was starting to rain, so we biked home in the pouring rain. I went through 3 white shirts on Saturday. Then we met with Barbra again and talked to her about missionary work and read from the book of Mormon with her, she is writing her kids about the Gospel! Awesome! Then we met with Teresa and helped her arrange the thrift shop and she kept having me try on clothes hahahaha, so I have gotten a bunch of way awesome shirts. But we talked to her about the Gospel of Christ and the Book of Mormon. but she told us that she is going to Harvest Church now..... THE GREAT AND SPACIOUS BUILDING!!!!!! Right next to our apartments, they have rock n roll music and they have a 100 foot long coffee bar at their services, so people are making coffee all throughout the meetings. Oh boy..... You would think somebody would say, "Hey I don't think that this is the way that Christ set up his church??!" Ya know am I the only one!!!!! So then we ate dinner at the Lint's house. Basically since Elder Smith got here, everything that could have gone wrong has. We haven't had any success at all. But I still love it all!

Sunday - We had to sing "I Am a Child of God" in sacrament meeting. The 4 missionaries. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Elder Smith didn't sing, Sister Thompson didn't at all!! Sister Devries basically soloed it. but gosh dang it I gave it my all! Everybody was laughing at us! So awesome! Somebody said to me, hey you were the ketchup to Sister Devries burger. Oh boy rough stuff. After church we went to a youth baptism in the ward and we then went to Brother Willie's church again. Southside Baptist. and I am totally getting in with the preachers, I haven't exactly figured out what I am going to do with it yet. But a young guy who is a very new preacher got our number and is going to give us a call, and wants to meet. It is going to be a great opportunity to share our Faith with him, not shove it down his throat or bash. But were gonna make something of it!

So another week in paradise! I really have grown so much in the past week, and I am praying harder and studying harder and just relying on the Spirit and the Lord so much more than I have. Just little changes, which are awesome, I feel a lot more like missionary despite the lull! I just love it all!!!

LOVE YOU ALLLL!!!!!!!!!!!

Love Elder Hintze

"YES THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WE ARE SAYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Letter from Monday, September 16th. Had a baptism this week.


Hello Family! One more week in the books! Wow a lot has happened great week! This one might be a little shorter except for some days. I will say it is taxing to write this big email! I will try my best! 

Monday - Nothing big happend. We did all the P-Day regular tasks, had to write letters. Then we saw Brother Nunez he hasn't been to church in like a month, but apparently he has been ill. And then on the way home we totally hit a coyote with our car. Then we did a trade off with the 1st Ward Elders, so I got Elder Davidson down with me, he came out with me into the mission, so that was cool. 

Tuesday - Elder Davison and I went and saw Barbra Phillips, with Brother Bain. She has a baptism to prepare for. Then we saw Teresa at the Thrift Store. I fixed the cash register, cool huh? Then we saw Paul Kennedy and he told us that he didn't come to church because he didn't want to, but I sure do love him. Then the rest of the plans went to shambles. And then we went to ball. 

Wednesday - So in the morning we went over and helped Carol Hughey, we built a chicken coop! So ya.. I have never done that before, but we dug fence posts and ran chicken wire and put a giant fence up, it was crazy it took like 5 hours. But we did invite her and her husband to take the lessons and we talked a lot about her conversion (she's been less active for years) and she kind of avoided the question, but we are getting there with her! Then we went with Luke and saw Barbra Phillips, went over the baptismal questions with her she passed them! Barbra is hilarious, she told us about her Jehovah Witness friend, and how she didn't believe in Christmas, but she accepted presents, Barbra says, so I told her, "You just a hypocrite because you accept presents."   "She didn't talk to me for several months afterwards." All in german accent, it was awesome! Then we saw Sister Johnson. And then we went home had dinner and Cam came over and we did our studies. 

Thursday - So Cam was with us in the morning, whipped up some pancakes and then we went to see Deborah, Linda's neighbor, and the whole time headed there I didn't feel good about it, and walking up, I told Stubbs I just said something doesn't feel right.. It just felt weird. But she let us in and we taught the Restoration. Before we started her brother called her and wanted to talk to us, so Stubbs talked to him, and said, "Elder Stubbs you ever seen a black mormon?" Hahahaha, then he just tried to bash with him. But we taught the restoration, and Deborah ended up kicking us out, because she said, "So what your saying is that my preachers don't have the authority to baptize?" We never said that, but YES THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WE ARE SAYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But ya that is the biggest problem with some people, the authority issue. So it was real contentious and it didn't go the best, but then at the end she says oh well, I will still read the Book of Mormon because I feel like it is scripture, What Woman? If the Book of Mormon is true, than everything else falls behind it! Oh well, it was a crappy feeling after the lesson, the Spirit wasn't there and it never feels good, it is the worst feeling in the world. Then we went so see Tersesa's at the shop. We loaded a fridge in her truck and helped her take it to her house. And read with her from the Book of Mormon and then we went and saw Barbra shortly just to see how she was doing, because her interview was tomorrow. Then the Marturello's fed us AGAIN. They are the bomb! 

Friday - We worked at the food bank in the morning! I had a sketchy moment because I opened up a box and it was full of baby rats. I hate rodents!!!!!!!! So after that we went and painted Linda's new room hahahahahahaha all those years of painting things with the family, and I would never participate because I was awful, well wooooweeee you should see the job I did on this room, it is looking so nice!!!!!! Then we went to the Hospital and worked, nothing of report from there! So then we went to dinner at the Grantham's house, biscuits and gravy! Barbra called us at the hopsital, she had her interview, she said, "Hey you guys you will have to teach me for 2 more weeks, okay?"  us "Oh, okay thats alright we would love too."  Her: "I'm just kidding okay, don't you know how to take a joke, I told you I'm a kidder." hahahaha so she passed the interview. 

Saturday - Baptism day!!! She asked me to do it! SO I got to actually baptize her!!! Which was awesome!!!! So in the morning we finished painting Linda's garage. Then we went to the church got everything set up! Got in white!!!!! That felt good to be in white!!!! She showed up a little later than expected, but we got her in white, we took a ton of pictures! Then we had the program, Luke gave a talk, then we had the dunking! So Elder Stubbs and I both were in the water with her to help her, so we get her in there, I am in position and then all the old guys start telling me how to do it, and so I make a full circle around the font with all of the positionings and what not, and end up right where I started, so I raise my hand, and say the prayer, and man oh man, did that feel good!! NOthing else like it!! So then we started to take her down and she got really scared we were going to drown her so she started fighting and then I basically just shoved her under, hahaha. But needless to say we had to go again her foot came up, so then we did it again and it was a success! "I was worried those two skinny kids weren't going to catch me!" But it was a success! Then all of the missionaries sung I Am A Child of God, that was way cool, and then the rest of the program! After the baptism she had a cool experience after she came up, she told us that she saw a beam of light, and that she saw a figure dressed in all white! So she told us that she saw Christ, how awesome is that? We were walking down the hall to go back after the baptism, and she has a picture of Christ taped to her walker, and she got down to it and said, "Alright now Jesus Christ I did this for you!" And it brought tears to my eyes! So then after the baptism we went and saw Teresa and we taught her the Plan of Salvation and the Spirit was there, no doubt! She was balling and talking about her mother's death, and we talked about the Gospel of Chritst and we committed her to be baptized on October 19th! Which is the day that Nathan gets back, so we may be having a double baptism here in a month!! It was really cool, she confided in us a lot and opened up to a lot of stuff in her life... But we have some major problems I will get to that. Then we went to Tony's for dinner with Tiffany and Mitchell, next time we meet with them we are going to commit them to be baptized too! 

Sunday - Gospel Principles was the shining moment of the day! Cam's family was all there, Cam did awesome in his talk! I had Teresa next to me. She loves us as missionaries, and everything we have taught so far, but she was saying stuff to me the whole time. I was trying to explain it all to her, "it wasn't upbeat enough for her." BUT WE CONFIRMED BARBRA AND IT WAS FANTASTIC! ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!!!!!!! 

Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love and miss you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It has been a great week and many of the people that we do have right now are so awesome!!! Saturday we were on top of the world, we have so much to work with right now. But I guess I should talk about the NEWS: I am losing Elder Stubbs, he is headed to Daphne, Alabama. And I am getting a new missionary from the MTC..... I am training. I am very excited for the challenge, but I have never felt more inadequate in my whole entire life. I really am terrified for the challenge, I haven't even figured things out for myself yet. But I am going to learn a lot, and I am going to have to rely on the Lord and the Spirit much more than I have been! Needless to say Pray for me, because I am really going to need it. 

Love you family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time For A Baptism!

Elder Hintze & Elder Stubbs baptized Barbra Phillips on Saturday, September 13th! Here are a couple of pictures we received.

Elder Stubbs, Barbra Phillips, & Elder Hintze 

Elder Hintze & Elder Stubbs

"Who knew that the Ensigns were so good huh?"

Here is Elder Hintze's email from Monday, September 9th. He is doing great!

"Hey Family! I'm going to get right into it, another fantastic week here in sunny southern Alabama. I Love this place!


Monday - So this was Labor Day. Wooow Happy Holiday! So nothing too big this day, as always I hit up my stores and check out all of the hoodrat t-shirts! I haven't had an oppurtunity to go skating yet.. sadly Stay tuned for that. So we met with a recent convert family in the evening and they fed us some spaghetti. Then we hadn't met with them, Mike and Paula Thomley in a while, so they had a ton of questions for us.


Tuesday - We had district meeting, and it was a solid one. we put our district goals and actuals on the board.. hahaha. I'm sorry but man those are some bad numbers. The work is slow here, for just about everyone but Elder Stubbs and I, we have tons of really great things going right now! So on the way to district meeting we got a call from Carol Burnsed saying that she needed a blessing. So after that we went over there and did that, and when we got there she just broke down and man she has some hard stuff to deal with right now. She had her son thrown in jail, and has been really sick lately, and she is raising her two grandkids, and her grandaughter, one of them, is on meth and no one knows where she is. So just really hard stuff, so we were there for a while trying to help her out! It was good to be able to help her, and I think that we were able to! Then we went with Luke Thompson to try and find some people, the whole ward is on the chase for the lost people now, so we are on the hunt! We didn't have any luck though! Then we met with Barbra Phillips and we retaught her Lesson 3, Faith, Repentance, Baptism, etc. So we are just trying to get her all set for Saturday! Then the Myers took us to Del Taco to eat, Paul Myers is probably the funniest man that I know, he is the one who has had two strokes, so it is kind of sad to see him, but he is so upbeat all the time!


Wednesday - We worked at the food bank in the morning. And then after that we went to the Myers house again to help them with service, I ripped out a bunch of bushes and cut a bunch of hedges, they got a gas trimmer, that baby will take you for a ride! We also went and helped him at his old law office and did the yard work there, it was sad to see, because he can't work anymore. But as I said awesome people! And then they took us to McDonald's afterwards.. they are trying to make us fat I tell you. But on the way home they had to pick up rent money from a tenant of theres, and this old black guy named Lorenzo comes out to shake Pauls hand, and he says, "Hey Lorenzo do you want to be baptized?" It was awesome! So after that we went again to Barbra's with Forest and we taught here Tithing. And she did the math in her head and she basically told us that she will be living off of like 50 dollars a month after tithing and bills. And then she laughed and accepted it. So she has so much faith it is crazy! With this week leading up to her baptism she has been struggling a lot, you can tell that the adversary is just working on her like crazy. I will talk a little about that later. So after that Forest solicited us to help him pick up a washer and dryer. Oh boy so then a lady in the ward told us that she was buying us pizza for dinner, so she told us to meet her at Sams Club because that was the pizza that she wanted to buy us, so we get there and she has a chihuahua and says alright one of you needs to watch the dog, while the other stays with me.. So we told her that we can't split up. So here we are two guys shirts and ties and we are standing outside of Sams Club for probably like 30 minutes with this dog on the leash. hahahahahaha. I was laughing so hard. Then we finished up the evening with the ward coordination meeting, which is super effective, it is really awesome that we are doing that!


Thursday - We worked at the food bank again in the morning! Then we got weekly planning and that jazz, so we don't get out of the house forever. It's the worst. I just want to get to work! So we saw Linda for the first time in like 2 weeks, we are trying to help her understand the importance of baptism for the dead, we want her to go to the temple! But she gets upset that she can't do the male names, and she has no family members and she was mad that we couldn't go do them with her, it was actually quite funny! So we are working with her! Still my favorite person in Dothan! Then we saw Paul Kennedy, and he got his vision back, or at least some of it, so he was super happy about that and we read with him Elder Holland's talk from the September Ensign, and it didn't work as planned he just started talking about prison afterwards.. so that was a rough one. Who knew that the Ensigns were so good huh? It's like where have those magazines been all my life? ;) Really though I love the Ensigns!!!!! So we saw our thrift shop friend again Teresa, and we dropped her off a big Book of Mormon. And then here is the kicker we went to Marine PT. Because a lot of them play basketball with us, so we said lets get to know some of them better. ya bad idea... We both couldn't walk for like two days after that. We did some cross fit stuff, and it was like a 90 degree day here, I could have rung out my shirt. But needless to say I think we might go back, because it is a great oppurtunity to find people! So the sisters came over that night and told us about their visit with Barbra and she had told them that she didn't want to get baptized anymore and that she can't pay her tithing, and that she doesn't know enough... So I was super depressed about that, I said some real prayers that night for her. The adversary has been doing a number on her!


Friday - So instead of our normal donuts in the morning, we went to McDonald's breakfast, family I'm worried about my health, do you think it is the fast food? So after visiting a few people, we met with Barbra, and we talked with her, and needless to say she is still getting baptized!! She just felt like she didn't know enough, so we went through the baptism questions with her, and showed her that she knew them all, and we testified about the tithing, and told her to do it and see if the Lord doesn't bless her beyond measure. And then I had the idea to sing some hymns to her, so we sung her a bunch of hymns, and that was awesome. The Spirit was there! It was felt so strongly! I love that!!!!! It is unlike anything else! So chalk one up for the good guys and negative one for Satan, badaboom! So then we went to the Hospital and worked, nothing of report there. After that we visited a potential named LaRhonda that we saw from a while a go, and she is so nice, so we gave here a Book of Mormon, and hopefully we can begin to teach her, she is having a baby here in 2 weeks though. SO then! We went to the local high school football game hahahaha. With the Hughey's they bought us tickets and we went with them, it was Dothan vs. Northview the biggest rivarly in Alabama we heard.. both Dothan high schools, so we don't know if we will do it again, but it was awesome! We were hoping it would be a good finding oppurtunity, but I was too wrapped up in the football, the guy next to me, me and him just commentary all game.


Saturday - In the morning we tried to visit a bunch of people and we set up a bunch of appointments for Sunday. We went to see someone in the government housing district in town, so we pulled up in the parking lot, and there was these two black kids sitting on the porch probably 18 years old, and as soon as they saw the chevy car, and the white shirts everybody scatters. They booked it inside... Hahahahaha everyone thinks that we are cops. It is classic! So we went to visit Scott Magnus, the big burger man, his wife is a non member, and I was kind of frustrated because I was like what are we going to say, I was tired of the how are ya, we just wanted to see if we could help you, okay bye. So we get up there and are talking to him, and Elder Stubbs just says, "What are you doing tomorrow at 3?" And he is like, I don't know what's up. So he says, "We would like to come teach your wife more about the church." Goes inside asks, comes out, says, way to be aggressive, great way to handle your business see you tomorrow. It was so awesome!!! It was cool! Then we went and had our free lunch at the hospital, and then visited the Burnsed's again, they are doing much better, so we just read from the Book of Mormon with them, and we will continue to visit them! Then the Bainbridge Georgia Branch President called us and told us that he needed help loading up a piano. :) Hahaha so we had to lift a piano up into the bed of a truck, I'm huge basically. Then we went and met with Tony and Alicia Hansen's friends for the first time, Tiffany and Mitchell, and they are all for it, Mitchell is very receptive to the church and everything, and Tiffany is skeptical because she has never been to church her whole life. So we taught them the first lesson and it really was awesome that they met the Hansen's because they are exactly the same! oh ya and we had two dinners tonight haha, one at the Lint's and one at the Marturell's. My health...


Sunday - Sunday we had 3 investigators at church, it had been like a month solid now that we have had 2 or more investigators at church! We had Tiffany and Mitchell and Barbra there! Solid church meetings too. But in the morning Barbra wasn't there because her legs were hurting her, but if she doesn't come, then basically we would have had to bump the baptismal date back! So we rallied our troops of Cam and Luke and we left church and went and picked her up and helped her get to sacrament meeting, we told her that we would carry her if we have to, but we got her there! Then after church we had 3 straight member present lessons with investigators, 3 in one day, unheard of! So we met with Deborah first, Linda's neighbor and we just got to know her better and talked to her about prayer and then we had her pray with us, she feels that her prayers aren't answered, but she has been taught to not ask God questions, all the baptists believe that. That is so stupid!!! If there is anyone to turn to for answers it is our Heavenly Father, so we told her that, and she did her extravagant prayer. So prayer is going to be a great place to start for her. Then we saw Scott Magnus and his wife Bonifay, and she said that she is totally open to learning more about the church, we just answered a lot of her questions and all of them were based on the temple and why it was so secret, but we explained all that to her. And Scott has been less active for awhile, and he said that he would read the Book of Mormon with her, because he had never read it all the way through! SO AWESOME! Then we saw Barbra with Forest and we taught her the Law of Chastity. Oh boy, she is so hilarious, it was a hilarious lesson with her. But now we have officially taught her everything, she knows it all and so now we just keep going through the baptismal questions with her!!!!! After that we went and chilled with Cam and studied with him, and I helped him get all of his mission papers squared away, and then we saw Sister Knight! Cam told me that he was going to call you Dad, and I wanted him to do it while I was right there, but I decided against it, I would have been to tempted to say something!!!


Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great things are happening here!!! I love it!!! I miss each and everyone one of you so much!! It is crazy how much I love and miss you alll! But I love what is happening here, remember how sad I was that we had nothing at the beginning? But not now!! We have so much going on, and I am really looking forward to helping all of our investigators to progress!! I love this Gospel! And I love being a missionary!!

LOVE YOU ALLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Sweet Home Alabama eh? Creative!"

Here is Bradley's letter from Monday, September 2nd. He is doing good. Thanks for all the support you give as family and friends. Hope you enjoy this week's letter!

"FAMILY!!! Don't fret, despite the late emailing today, it is a little tricky, because of labor day, so we are emailing in the Family History Center, and this place is like stuck in the 80s, I am emailing on a box computer, what is this? But man the time is flying out here, am I right!? Does it seem to be going fast for ya'll back home. Because I am starting my 4th week of second transfer that is so crazy. But alright lets get into it!

Monday - Oh boy, we were at the mercy of the Sister's all day.. We were out of miles, so we had to bum a ride off of them all day, so we waited for them at wal mart for like 30 minutes, I thought on a mission, I wouldn't have to worry about waiting on girls anymore.. Bleh! Any whom, so we did hit up some great thrift stores and other places as such, and I bought me another great Alabama shirt from CitiTrends. And then once P-Day was over we had dinner at Ci Ci's Pizza and then Brother Willie Parker invited us over to his house for some ice cream, so we talked to them for a little bit. Then we had to be home, so that the zone leaders could be at our home, so we did a trade off, I had Elder Call in Dothan, and Elder Stubbs went up to Ozark for the night and next day. Elder Call is a way cool dude, so I really enjoyed serving with him for a day.

Tuesday - So as I mentioned, I was with Elder Call for the day. So we went and saw Barbra Philips, which I can't hold it in any longer, SHE IS GETTING BAPTIZED. But that didn't happen this time, so we talked to her about the Plan of Salvation, pictures and everything. So we had her quit smoking, and we were going to ease into getting her off of coffee, but when we were there, she willingly gave us the coffee maker, all of her coffee stuff, and her coffee. And we just threw it all away in the dumpster, it was awesome!!!! Then we went and saw Paul Kennedy, and we talked to him about setting a date for him to get the Priesthood, and he doesn't want in.. he feels that he will never be worthy of it, nor does he want the responsibility, he just wants to be a "commoner." Which is so sad! So we are going to work with him! Then we saw some other which was short, saw a dude who had drew us a picture and told us his conversion story, but he wouldn't let us come visit him, then we got a ton of food given to us by a member, then we had dinner at the Davis's. And then we went and balled, only two marines showed up, didn't have all of them.

Wednesday - We went and did service in the morning for a member in her garden and it took a long time, and these things were gnarly tons of grass and covered in roots, so I am going to town, thinking I am being funny just ripping roots out like crazy, and then after a while I think to myself man Bradley your hands hurt and I look down at them and I have massive blisters on my thumbs and on my palms, so I got that going for me. Oh boy this heat down here will just about knock you over, I had belly sweat, who has that? This guy! So after that, we went and visited little old Lois Bynum and Phillip here 50 year old son who has cerebal palsy. Those visits are always awkward, but the son knows just about everything about sports. Then we had two dinners this evening, one at Brother Bains house, so we had meatball sandwiches, by the way I am eating tons of stuff down here that I normally wouldn't! So I take it easy there, and then we had dinner scheduled for a less active guy, who's wife isn't a member, so we were pumped about that, sadly they are moving in about a week, but he made us burgers and they took forever to cook, and no lie this thing was like 2 POUNDS. Not kidding, so much meat, and it was all raw. So I start eating this thing, and he kept telling us that there was some suprise, so I bite into it, and there is cheese in the middle, and it like starts pouring out all over me, and the guy no like throws his arms up in the air and yells, "Thats the JUICY LOUSIE burger!!" So ya I took that baby down, raw meat, and full of cheese. This dude loved, I should say loves his food.

Thursday - Zone Conference all day basically, so president was there and the AP's. So I loved it! It was all about finding through family history! So they are really going big with it, to be able to find people! At the FSU football games they are having a booth set up at the games, with a banner that says "Are you a Seminole?" And then they are going to have 10 missionaries with iPads in there gettting people set up on Family Search and getting referrals, are you getting chills just thinking about that? Cuz I sure did! And the APs are teaching legit college classes at FAMU in Tallahassee on Geneology, how cool is that!? I honestly can't wait until we get iPads so we can start doing a lot of this kind of stuff. Also have you heard about the Facebook thing with missionaries? It is sketchy to me.. Apparently most US missionaries are doing it and they are on FB for an hour a day and they can talk to anyone as long as it is Gospel related.. I don't know about that! Any whom so zone conference was awesome and I think that we are going to do a lot with it! After that we went and saw Barbra Phillips and we set her BAPTISMAL DATE! It is on for September 14th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So that is really soon, we had it set for later, but we had to move it up, so two weeks away. She is so excited, like she is beyond ecstatic about being baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy about it. We also got a reply from Nathan Hanbury who is at marine bootcamp, and he said this place is so vile, and it is hard to keep the commandments, but his faith grows each day! He is in Alma 17! He brings friends to church! And he said, can't wait to come back and be baptized! Are you kidding me!? I hope with all my heart that I am here!. Then after all that we saw the Skippers, a member in the ward, and I just talked college football the whole time with him, I can't help it!

Friday - We had lunch at the Bain's house.... the food there is delicious. So then we went to the Hospital, and it was awesome! We got to talk to a lot of people and we prayed with a ton of them, and talked to people who had Mormon co workers, so it was a real successful day! Then after that we went to CVS because Stubbs needed DayQuil, and then we start talking to the lady who works there and she is part of the Ozark Branch (which is in our stake) So we talk to her about her conversion, and then she asks have ya'll had dinner? And I perk up NO, even though we had, so she had us go buy ourselves Taco Bell hahaha, and then bring her back what she wanted, so we did, we went over there ate, and then we waiting for her food... and a worker at taco bell left the store, then came back in, and said to his manager he needed to talk to her, then she came back in and said "Have you paid for your food?" We had, then she said well someone is paying you back and she gave us 20 bucks! So we tried to find the guy, and we waved at him, and he shook his head no. Then he comes back in and I thank him, and Elder Stubbs goes and talks to him, and he says, "I'm on one path, and you are on another, I respect you guys a lot, keep it up." So we gave him our number, but man that was humbling .. I don't know I didn't feel worthy of everyone's hospitality. It was just really cool! Then we had correlation meeting to finish off the evening with Forest Bain. Oh also we heard a marching band and so we went over and checked out the high school football game, awesome! The two high schools in Dothan, are playing each other next week, and we're going to it!

Saturday - Service, service, service! We were in our service clothes until 6 pm this evening, in the morning we went over and helped Linda, and her neighbor Gloria with service, we emptied out Gloria's back shed, and organized it all, which took about forever. And you wouldn't believe some of the spiders and lizards and cockroaches down here, I was scared for my life as I entered their back shed. Then we biked all the way across town and helped Sister Newton plant all of her flower gardens, or put new dirt in them and mix them all up and what not. She is the family history coordinator, so she is going to teach us how to use it all this week! Then on the way home, there is this way sketchy thrift shop, like spray paint all over it, so we're like alright we gotta stop by. So we stop in and we are talking to the lady that owns it, and we tell here were missionaries and were looking for ties, because we're in service clothes. So she gives us 3 free ties each, and some free sunglasses, And we are talking to her before we leave, and she is asking us all kinds of questions. So we are like well we would love to come talk to you about it sometime, and she says well theres a chair right there and a chair right there, lets talk! So we taught here the whole first lesson in her thrift shop hahahaha! It was so awesome! It wasn't the best lesson, but she told us to comeback! And we have to bring here a big Book of Mormon so she can read it! But how awesome! I hope there is a future with her! Then we went and saw Barbra Phillips with Cameron, and we retaught her the first lesson, she really is so pumped to be baptized it's awesome!!

Sunday - We had Gloria and Barbra at church which is so fantastic! The other two Tiffany and Mitchell, were in Georgia, but Tony Hansen said that they want to meet with us, so hopefully we will get to teach them this week!! But Gloria and Barbra came to all 3 hours of church, which is great! During Gospel Principles, Barbra saw a picture in the book of a baptism.. and she said, pretty loud, "Oh boy do I have to go down into that water, I better get me some slacks!" *all in German accent* Then everybody kind of looks at her and she says, "I'm sorry, I'm fix'n to get baptized and it is all I am thinking about, I didn't sleep last night because I was thinking about it!" And then she just chuckled. It was so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then after church we had to do weekly planning, because we put it off for too long. Then we went to dinner with a family in 1st Ward that used to be in 2nd Ward. Then we saw the Hughey's and we had kind of given up on them, but the dad started talking to us about some debate between two religion guys that he watched, and he said, "I am just all about finding out what God is about, I call myself a Godchaser." So we talked to him forever about all kinds of stuff and we think that he is ready!! We were pumped about it. Then after that we went back and I helped Cameron log all of his stuff in the computer for his mission he leaves in two weeks..... :( I'm gonna miss that dude, he is so awesome!

Family great things are happening here in Dothan!! I feel like we are barely scratching the surface, but it is so exciting! I am loving it here, and the people are so awesome! I hope that all is well back home, I love and miss each and everyone of you so much!!!!! The Gospel is so true, and the Lord's hand really is present in our work here! LOVE YA'LL!!!!"

LOVE, ELDER HINTZE

Zone Conference in Dothan

President and Sister Smith posted a couple of pictures from Zone Conference held on Thursday, August 29th in Dothan, Alabama. It is great to be a missionary!

Dothan Alabama Zone

(L to R) Elder ?, Elder Stubbs, Elder Hintze, Elder Davidson, Elder ?