"Looks like your jump shot could be better!"

Monday, April 21, 2014

Dearest Family,

Happy Easter week! I hope that everyone had a great Easter, and remembered the true reason that we celebrate Easter!! It was great to think about our personal relationships with our Savior.. I can't even begin to describe what He did for us! But He is Risen! What a glorious message this is! This week was alright.. we are finding a lot of new investigators.. but aren't able to teach a lot of them.. so this next week, hopefully we can begin to do better and teach all of the people that we have! Here is the week!!!

Monday - We went out to eat at the Crosby's for dinner! And they had lot of people over for dinner, it was awesome! We had Robbie and Cherish Martin there.. friends of the family.. and then Destiny Miller who just got baptized in January she's 13 and friends of the family, her Dad and girlfriend were there with their son, and then Zac the Crosby's girls Boyfriend. So we had a houseful.. and because there were so many it was nuts.. but we just said that we would like to share our first lesson with you.. and we covered all of the Restoration with them.. and it actually went really, really well.. the Spirit was very strong in the room.. and the Crosby's were adding in awesome insights, so it really is the perfect lesson.. we handed all of them out Book of Mormons when we were done, it was cool, just dishing them out! So there is a lot going on right now.

Tuesday - We had District Meeting.. it went really, really well!!! I shared the talk Why 1820? with the District and talked about it.. it is an awesome talk by Hyrum W. Smith ya'll should look it up! Then we had our district activity.. and it was freezing.. well I mean like 50 or 40 degrees.. why is it still cold? Anyway we played ultimate frisbee with the other district, it was awesome the field was soaked, so we were all super muddy! Then we ate at Wendy's following. We came home and we taught John Reyes at the prison.. it really is an interesting situation... its hard to teach him in this setting.. but as we talked to him.. he just broke down into tears.. it was actually really sweet. Then we had to go up to Paxton, Florida.. and we ate dinner with Sister Peeples up there.. she is so sweet, one of the first in DeFunaik in the church!

Wednesday - We went out chasing some people! We tried to track down some potentials.. but were unable to.. then we saw the Habbards and the Mays. Then we went out with Vann Driskell.. a kid from Bonifay that is preparing for his mission... he asked to be able to come out with us. Super cool. We went and visited a lady named Sister Sharp, she was in the hospital.. sweetest lady, so funny. Then we taught Alewesha Jackson, they guy that we got at the family history event this past week.. and he is awesome and we began to share the Restoration with him, he is super gung ho about everything we just got into it, but Rosslyn Wood, her parents are members and he knows them and Rosslyn's sister Jacque, he called her before us coming over, so he is cool! Then we teamed up with the Young Men and the Young Women for a service mutual night, we had a bunch of places lined up to help them with yard work... some of them canceled, but we were able to go and cut Sister Varella's yard and clean up around her house!

Thursday - We went to John Reyes trial in the morning, because he told us he was maybe getting out, so we went to support, and then they didn't even bring him out and they rescheduled for May sometime. Then we went up to the Howard's and we helped them to rip out the carpet in their home and take out every little staple in the floor. Then we went out with the Priesthood for Home Teaching, I went with Brother Thomas and talked to the Copeland's briefly.. he has been in the hospital, so he just got out! Then we saw a fam named the Routley's, interesting talk with them!

Friday - We did our weekly planning and we finally completed our giant maps of the area. Hard day for us.. all of our appointments canceled.. so we were just flying around trying to find people to see. We worked with the Habel's on drawing up our banner for our Family History event that we are doing at the retired building up in Paxton, it used to be the house of the Paxton Branch.. it is a double wide trailer church!

Saturday - We headed up to Paxton in the morning after trying to see some people.. So we went up and we had a family history event up in Paxton.. first one, we are trying to open it up for a family history center.. so it was kind of a test run for us.. of getting the internet and the computers to be working properly and we are going to see if it will be worth our while! Then we saw all of the people up in that area... We were able to visit the Coleman's .. Hazel Adams.. and Viki & Elijah Martin.. talked to Elijah a lot. I heard some hoops being played.. and so I told Larsen.. lets go talk to him.. man playing ball.. I said, "Hows it going?" ... Good... as he shoots the ball and misses.. "Looks like your jump shot could be better!" And so we started shooting with him and playing with him.. and his family was meeting for a get together.. so all of his little cousins and nephews were coming over some of them small, but he was like in his late 20s.. so we started playing PIG.. and I beat them the first 2 games.. and I said alright if I beat you guys three in a row.. You have to agree that missionaries get to come by.. so they agreed and started talking some more smack! So I beat em 3 times!!!!!! So sadly.. both live out of the area.. but I am sending one of them off to Atlanta, Georgia.. and then the other is just in the neighboring area! :) We got back into town and then we streamed the Handel's Messiah into the church.. the MoTab and we watched it as missionaries, the Habel's and the sisters.

Sunday - My oh my... .I wish every Sunday was Easter Sunday.. it brought the folks out.. we had a full house in there today it was awesome to see the chapel building, so full of people!!!! We had a lot of less active people.. there so maybe they will continue we will see! We had AJ, Zac (part of the new Crosby clan there, as well as Rosslyn!!! So lots more to be done.. we have been in contact with all of them, but just haven't been able to teach them in a while, Bob & Pam, Savannah.. all of them are doing well! We went out to the Mitchem's house for dinner and that was our night.. Got to spend a lot of time with their family though.. they are all members.

I sure do love ya'll a whole lot!!!!!!!!!

Elder Hintze

"She has been studying and wrote down some beautiful testimonies on paper"

Monday, April 14, 2014

Hello Family!!

So today is transfer day! The time has gone by soo quick here in DeFuniak!!!!!!!!!!!! So no news.. this time! I am staying here and so is Elder Larsen.. so it is all good with me! Also the sisters in DeFuniak are staying one of them, Sister Bennion came out with me.. she has been here for her whole mission. Elder Smith is staying in Dothan! I talked to him and this next Saturday the Brown Fam is set to be baptized AWESOME!!! They are the ones that we visited and challenged to take the lessons.. also Cindy Spivey got baptized in Dothan 1st ward this week.. remember them.. Elder Stubbs and I found them!! Really cool!!!!! I'm not trying to take any credit for anything.. because I didn't do anything.. but cool to see how things pan out!!!!!! Here we go:

Monday - We went out to the Crosby's house for dinner as we are this evening.... And they had a family that they invited over.. it was 4 kids.. so we had a chance to teach all of them! Their parents weren't there, but we are hoping to get them as well, the kids are really really interested in the church, two of them came to church this week, we talked to them about all kinds of stuff Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, Prayer, and God is our loving Heavenly Father. Really, really excited to continue to teach them as a whole family!!

Tuesday - We had Zone Training down in Niceville, Florida.. so we got permission and went to Crestview and had a sleepover with them Elders and we rode with them to the conference.. it was good! Talked about church attendance and OYMing people! So then we headed back up to DeFuniak.. we did some contacting around the lake.. found some awesome guy named Shane! Then we saw Bro. Jewell a less active guy.. talked all about his mission in Utah.. I love talking about Utah with people! Then we went and we provided service for Brother Skahan.. a less active single guy.

Wednesday - We jetted out and we did some service with Elliott.. we planted some garden and we fed some of his puppies by the bottle.. Then we came back and we ate dinner we visited the Habbards... tried a few others.

Thursday - Holy cow.. we did service with Brother Pollard. We went with him afterwards and we taught Rosslyn.. she is so awesome... we had such a spiritual lesson with her, we have been sending her scriptures, she is shy sometimes and she has been studying and wrote down some beautiful testimonies on paper, it was so awesome! She is feeling good, gaining a lot of confidence. We taught her the Law of Chastity.. but we talked extensively on how much Heavenly Father loves her it was such an awesome lesson! Then we did home teaching.. which I went out with Elder Habel.. and after several failed visits we tried an investigator named Jeff, who I had never met.. we caught him there and his wife! He was introduced to the church in Arizona, he watched last zone conference.. so we got to know him. So, did some HTBT and we are going to go back in 3 weeks.. I guess and teach him and his wife more, they really are such good people, they know the bible very well, and are sincerely seeking. 

Friday - We did our weekly planning, and then we went with the Habels and Rosslyn.. Rosslyn's parents who were members have a house here that has been abandoned and she went up there and somebody had broken into it and has been tearing out the ceiling.. it was really sad to go in there with her.. she was crying, because somebody had just desecrated the place.. but there was a lot of stuff there, so we used our truck and we loaded all of the stuff that she wanted up... and then I found a hammer and some nails.. and I boarded up the door and I boarded up a window where people had been coming in and out.. so nobodys getting back in the place! I also stepped on two nails......... it was gnarly they went in my foot for real, so I had Larsen pull them out.. and my foot has been tender! Tried a bunch of people afterwards had nothing.. Then we ate dinner with the Cobb's, neat family. 

Saturday - We went out in the morning had an awesome day lined up... many really solid people we needed to see... had none of them. So we then began to contact some FH referral people from our event.. and we were able to contact this couple and we set up a time to do family history with them this next week, and then we found a relative of a member and we set up for the sister's to go teach here this week! But then we had a Family History class at the library here.. we had a whole 2 people show up... woooow! But it actually was super awesome.. one dude named Aleweshe Jackson.. we got him hooked up with family history and got to know him really well, he knew Rosslyn's parents.. so we are going to teach him this Wednesday morning. 

Sunday - Church!!!! We had the Martin kids there! Rosslyn wasn't feeling well, Bob and Pam were sleeping and had work :( Savannah is out of town, and Rick who we taught only once has had 2 BCDs set.. is just gone, can't find or contact him! So Bob and Pam canceled on us.. so we went down to Freeport and we contacted a bunch of previous and potential investigators that this sister's gave us.. missionaries used to cover just Freeport.. so we had several great contacts down there.. met a man named Gary.. he is awesome, so we are headed back to teach him in 2 weeks. Then we went with the Cobbs down to Fort Walton for the Lamb of God musical performance that the Stake put on.. it was pretty awesome.. they had an orchestra and a choir and performed the Lamb of God. 

Family I sure do love you a whole lot! I am sitting here and thinking you are not getting the full potential of my experiences, so try and ham them up! Sorry if its lame.. confession I have to make.. I have not been a good journal keeper! But I am trying to catch up the days!!!!!!!! Family, I love you and miss you dearly!!!! Love Elder Hintze

"God's prophets and apostles speaking to us... this event should be the most popular event in the world!!"

Monday, April 7, 2014

Hello Family!!!

How it do!?!? I hope that everyone is well and happy this day.. we are enjoying some nice thunderstorms here in DeFuniak! But lets get to it!

Monday - Last Monday.. I did not get to play some ball with the kids... the court was empty.. so we played some tennis instead! Don't know what will happen today with the rain... but last Monday we headed out to the Crosby's for dinner and we had an awesome lesson with them, we have been trying to teach PMG, and she asked "I have a friend who I want to share the Gospel with, but don't know how?" BING.. we got you!! And tonight we are headed out there, and there is a family.. that they are bringing for us to teach, so pumped for that!

Tuesday - We had District Meeting and it really was an awesome one! I didn't really do anything I had planned... we talked a lot about investigators how we can help them and Sister Bennion spoke on being bold and she said some things that really struck me.. so I rolled with that and just went with the flow. We ended up talking a lot about our sacred calling. We then had Correlation Meeting. And we jetted over to the penitentiary to teach John Reyes.. Then we got called upon to help the Howard's probably the most solid family in the ward.. super awesome, just a couple. So we shared a message with them, ended up not having to move the dog cage and then they took us out to eat! Then we saw the Marshall family.. the Habel's baptized them not too long ago. 

Wednesday - We went in the morning and we gave Connie Brown a blessing with Elder Habel. And then we came back and we did service with Brother Pollard. Then we did some lake contacting we found these 2 girls.. Casey and Cassidy one had taken a class on Mormonism, so we talked to them and she was super interested to talk to us, so we are excited to set up a time with them. Then we saw Mark Lasson, an inactive member.. he fed us dinner.. he is a big man who plays in a band and is from Montana.

Thursday - We did service out at Brother Reeves house.. he leaves on a big farm... and it was nuts..... it was exhausting work. We got all of this bread out of his truck.. tons and put it in to barrels.. then I used a fence post digger to dig like 5, 3 feet by 2 feet wide holes.. exhausting work, but it was good to get out and work!... We ran home and we taught Savanah.. she is headed out of town until basically May.. so we set a Baptismal date of May 10th for her and taught her the law of chastity and the word of wisdom, committed to live both. She really has no problems at all. So I hope that nothing interfers. Then we saw the Farris's.. Then we did home teaching in the evening we went out with Brother Diviney, didn't have to much success.. we saw the Adkinson's.. but then he took us out to eat.

Friday - Oh boy Friday.... all day all day. We helped Tarek Thomas move into his house... so we had to travel about an hour to Baker, Florida load up a Uhaul and then drive like over an hour to Freeport, Florida to help him unload. This morning when jogging it was a sauna out here, so humid, I was cooked. Any whom we moved him from this hanger that Brother Thomas our neighbor has. But then we had Sports night in the evening.. it was really good, we had some none members out that a member invited, and they're coming back next week.

Saturday - Oh baby, conference weekend!!! Wasn't it absolutely stellar, am I right!?!??!?!!? man it was soooooo good, I love it all! Besides conference we ate lunch and dinner, did our weekly planning and we contacted a potential Tracy Porter.. who was unable to meet with us, but is super pumped to do it. But lets talk about conference... I was like a little kid at Christmas Saturday morning.. I had chills. My favorite talks were Elder Holland's, Sister Reeves, Elder Andersen, and President Eyring. They were all so good. It was just us in the church the sister's and Brother Pollard, so nice to watch it in the chapel. Then Saturday afternoon was good, not quite as good as the morning but still fantastic. And then holy cow Priesthood Session!!!! Dear woman in the family, if you didn't watch Priesthood session you should have... man it was phenomenal! Elder Oaks talk right off the bat talking about men and women in the priesthood and the priesthood keys! Mind blowing when he talked about how there are priesthood keys that we do not hold in this dispensation.. Namely ressurection, creation, and in essence we don't have the keys to give women the priesthood. My favorite line was: "In the Priesthood Authority we should forget about our rights and think about our responsibilities." Bam.. so good! I loved it all so much! President Uchtdorf, President Eyring, and President Monson all killed it too. "Are you sleeping through the Restoration?" One of my favorite quotes from President Monson: "Courage is not only to die manfully, but to live decently." So good. I can't even put it in too words, it WAS AWESOME!!

Sunday - Again.... ooooh baby all 10 hours, I couldn't get enough!! Sunday morning was awesome again… "President Uchtdorf.. don't even think about it!" Ah man.. gotta love our beloved Prophet! President Uchtdorf and Elder Ballard and President Monson. And then the afternoon session. I loved Elder Corbidge's talk. After conference we ate at Bishop Everett's house... man you should see the road to get to his house.. that thing is intense. We had an awesome visit with them. 

Kind of interesting conference this time around... last conference was all about missionary work, no doubts about it. This time around what was the theme? I don't know if there was one true theme. The major things that I got out of it were Matthew 22:36-38 "Master what is the great commandment in the Law? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and Great commandment." and then also John 14:15 "If ye love me keep my commandments." The theme for me was spiritual strength, loving one another, and not being afraid to stand alone. Family, if you believe that this church is true, as I do... Then nothing else matters!!!!! I think the brethren know what is ahead of us, and the world continues to get uglier by the minute. We will always be the minority, Christ's church, the truth will never be widely accepted as they said. They killed Christ, they killed his Apostles, why would we expect it to be any differently now? We live in a magnificent time, we truly do, I hope and pray that none of us took for granted what we just had the oppurtunity to view this weekend. God's prophets and apostles speaking to us... this event should be the most popular event in the world!! But it never will be, we need to stay strong, protect our families, from the whirlwinds that our sure to come. Family I would hope that you take the time to rewatch the talks that were given, and I pray that you guys go to the temple often, take family names to the temple! It is a whole different world down here to hear about temples that aren't that close to the members? We have them all over the place.. how often are we using them!? Family I sure do love you guys a whole lot.. I miss you a whole lot!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

"It was a good one, we talked about teaching people the doctrine of the Sabbath and how to help them get to church!"

Monday, March 31, 2014

Hello Family!!!!

I sure do love you guys a whole lot, hope that everyone is well and happy today! It is a beautiful day here in DeFuniak Springs just lovely. 

Monday - Last Monday we played some tennis with the Sister's and with Savannah... And then I cleaned our apartment.. got the fridge looking really nice.  The Thomas's took us out to dinner in the evening.. We went to a La Rumba Mexican Grill. The Thomas family is awesome, they are our neighbors. . But anyway today we are going to head to a park that is over in the ghetto, where we saw some kids playing ball, so we are going to try and go play with them!

Tuesday - We had District Meeting in the morning. It was a good one, we talked about teaching people the doctrine of the Sabbath and how to help them get to church! The Zone Leaders were there observing my skills and then afterwards we traded off, so I went to Crestview for the day with Elder Foster. But the kicker in District Meeting was I opened it up for testimonies, where everyone bore their testimony on a principle of the Gospel and how they came to know it was true, the spirit really was so strong. So I went to Crestview for the day, we had a good day. We taught Jamie one investigator briefly in her garage, about reading and praying. Then we saw a PM fam, who the husband hid, but the wife fed us ice cream and punch, mmmmm. Then we ate dinner with the Boyd's.. super awesome they used to live in Dothan, so that was cool to talk to them! They were headed back, because a girl from the 2nd ward, was marrying her brother, who I knew them both! Funny! We taught 2 more recent converts. One was Chris super cool, only member in family, he is a professional air soft gunner, and then we taught Angie, who is moving to Dothan, weird the connections. Any whom it was a good trade off, I enjoyed it a lot!

Wednesday - We traded back in the morning, and then we did some role plays with the ZL's to practice things with them. After that we headed out to Elliott's and we did service for him.. we finished up laying all of that concrete around the driveway. Put my initials in it. Then we were headed to the Methodist church near our home for a service, to meet Savannah's family, but it didn't turn out.

Thursday - We had an awesome day... we spent the whole day out seeing people with members. We did our weekly planning in the morning.. which we're getting better at!  But we headed out with Brother Mitchem up to Paxton and Florala, at the top of our area.. or area is so big, it is half the stake.. its nuts.  So we went up with him, he bought us lunch. Anyway we were able to see the Coleman's, the Crosby's, Tabatha Britton and her sons, and then Rob and Nikki Thomas. Nikki Thomas is an investigator, I met when I was first here, apparently she isn't interested.. but if we taught her it would make so much sense, her family is really anti mormon. Then we got home and we went out again with members for our weekly home teaching run, I went with Tarrick Thomas, the neighbors son, he is married got a fam, and we found a new guy Charles Ambrose a LA we are going to work with and we saw Gale Miller, active lady in the nursing home. And then we all rendezvoused for dinner the the Golden Bowl.

Friday - Oh my gosh Thursday night it was raining like crazy.. and it was thunder and lightning like mad, the most I have ever seen! There was one that woke us up in the middle of the night, I don't know how to describe it.. I thought the next world war had started, or Christ was coming back to the earth. It was nuts, so then I had to go outside and watch! :) But we worked at the Matrix Thrift in the morning, didn't have much for us to do. 

Saturday - Oh boy service like crazy. We did service with Brother Jones from about 10 am to 5 pm. Then we got out and saw the McAnally's, from Utah.. she is so sweet and active, but he just doesn't come don't know why. Then we saw Will Wilkinson, a PM family, who his wife is interested in the church, his mom is really active, so we are working with them. 

Sunday - Our investigators got sick, so we only had Rosslyn Wood there today! It was fast and testimony meeting, so I had on my tie. I bore my testimony as well, it was a really awesome meeting, I wish every Sunday could be fast sunday, I have been assigned to speak again in sacrement meeting, the last week in april, I am very excited for that! After church we taught Rosslyn, and we finished the Plan of Salvation with her, Rosslyn is super awesome, she is progressing for baptism, she had some great questions about the plan of salvation, she essentially asked if Jesus Christ was a mormon.. well Yes! :) And about denominations so it was cool. We talked about baptism and setting a day with her, she doesn't feel that she is ready... and it was super cool, she broke down and was balling, and told us she just needs to be ready, she doesn't want to be baptized and then fall back into sin.. she was so sincere. It was sweet. Some people grew up in the church and then go to other churches.. you don't see that very often.. most just go inactive. So I just want to ask them, did you pay any attention at all? :)

So this week was good!  I am feeling good. Feeling super happy! I really have been loving my stay so far here in DeFuniak... it has flown by.. like mad! I have almost been here a month.. and I am approaching 10 months on the mission.. I have been gone for so long! I sure do love you guys a whole lot! It is incredible how my love for each and everyone of you has grown! I love you all, and I love being a misionary! 

Love ya!

Elder Hintze