Monday, September 22, 2014
Whats good, family!
How is everyone doing today? It is always great when Mondays roll around, always love to hear from ya'll! Here it is for you!
Monday - We always play basketball now, that is our new thing, it is a blast! It is fun to be in Tallahassee, so there is missionaries around! My ankle felt really good while we played, I was wearing the ankle brace.. but it was slowing me down, so I ain't about that life. But it was good! Then we came back home and we got into our zone training planning... just finishing everything up!
Tuesday - Zone Training day! We arose and got ready for the day... we were planning on showing a video, so we ran to the mission office and got the stuff that we needed. And then came back, ran to the church, got the church all set up.. got our video stuff all set up. Then we got to it.... it ended up going really, really well! I was anxious before hand, but once up there.. it all went away! Cooper conducted.. and we opened up by asking 2 questions. We wrote them on the white board and asked, "What does the Savior want me to learn today?" & "Heavenly Father, wilt thou accept the best that I could do this day?" Just talked about those two with them.. 2 questions we wanted them to keep in rememberance throughout the meeting! We opened up with the Atonement.. specifically something called Teach the Atonement. So we opened with having everyone stand and recite the missionary purpose --> "Our purpose is to invite and help people receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and endure to the end." So after that was said, we wrote Our purpose is... The Atonement. Then we all listed everything we teach and do and drew it around the Atonement and drew arrows to it. Just connecting everything back to our purpose.. what we have come to realize is... Our purpose is to help people use the Atonement. Simple as that, so we taught that. The fulness of the Atonement can only be accesed in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. People can't endure to the end if they aren't taking the sacrament each Sunday, they can't repent if they haven't talked to a Bishop in some cases and so on! It is super cool, and so what we have been doing, is when we do our HTBT points right off the bat.. we have been using this and just teaching/testifying of the Atonement.. After that the Sister Trainer's spoke on Unity and they did awesome, gave us 9 points for a happy companionship. Then we invited 4 recent converts Joanne Reints, Taylor Wilhelm, Angy Vasquez, and Sister Miller to speak. Each of them took the time to share their conversion stories and spoke on the things that the missionaries did that was effective, what they really liked.. what they maybe didn't like as much and it was super powerful. Then all of them after they were done we asked them some question and they answered, about things the missionaries did... or how we can improve. Just certain aspects! It was cool.. I received a lot of mini revelations, for things that we can do to improve in our work! The spirit was really strong in the meeting, from the beginning all the way through! So after they were done we talked about the principle "Simplify and Intensify" that Elder Zwick had taught us, and what that means in terms of our teaching, how can we improve as teachers. After that discussion, we broke off into 4 different role plays.. one using pamphlets, one drew a principle out of a hat. They had 1 minute to find 2 scriptures, one on using short powerful statement, and the other on a role play Elder Zwick taught us. Then, we just bore our testimonies and closed the meeting! It was pretty awesome meeting.. We had planned to show the video, Because of Him.. the Church's easter video at the end.. It is my favorite video, I watch it every P-Day at least once. So after it was all done, we had all the stuff to clean up... After that we went to our correlation meeting! Then we went and we caught the tail end of Institute class, Eric came, so we went and we were with him for the last few minutes of it! The institute is right behind the church, and it is a D&C class.
Wednesday - We went on a tradeoff with the other 1st Ward Elders.. so a tradeoff to our own area. I went with Elder Collett, and Elder Harding, came here with Cooper. I was in the MTC with Elder Collett, and this is the first time that I have seen him on the mission. So I was excited to go with him, and we had a pretty awesome day! We went in the morning and our appointments fell through, so we just spent the time finding! We visited a member Brother Stanley. Then we saw a member named Brother Peddie. Then we taught a man named John Lewis. But then we went and we visited with a lady named Rebecca Rybicki. She introduced us to a friend of hers named Greg and we just began to talk to him, just getting to know him.. and he asks who we are and what we do.. so we tell him about the mission, so on and so forth, and then he asks, Why?? Why in the world would ya'll do that?? -Million Dollar question, so we said, will you let us tell you why? We would love to tell you why! So Elder Collett and I taught him the restoration, and all along he kept asking, how do you know this? It was fantastic, really was. And after we finished we said, What do you think? and he said, It is beautiful, it really is a great story. And I said, Well either what we told you is a really, really great story, or it is true! He said, I wish that it were true, but it is completely illogical. I say, How so? He says, There is no proof of what you say. So we then told him, scripture, and the spirit testifying. But he still wasn't sold, and then we told him if you try it out, your life will be better and you will be happier. He said, Dangit, you got me, that is it, that is the proof. So I said, Alright are you in? And he said, I'm in, what do I have to lose, I drink too much, I smoke too much. Lets do it! So we closed with a prayer and after I had said it, he said, "Alright, I got a prayer for ya. Dear God, you have been working on me for a while now God, and I haven't listened, but you sent these two through the side door, you got me this time God, I will listen to these two. Amen." And Sister Rybicki, was balling.. it was super powerful, it was so cool! So they are headed back to teach him!! Then we ate dinner at the Porter's home.. super awesome family, I love them a whole lot!
Thursday - We traded back this morning. Then we get a call from President Smith, and he says after the Hellos, Elders I have got 4 missionaries that I need to place, where could they go? So we told him some spots in the zone. We now have another set of sisters on campus, because they were up in Opp, Alabama and the sheriff was having their car towed for no reason, so President took them out and sent them to us.
Friday - We did service in the morning.. And then we got cleaned up.. and we went on an exchange with the APs, I went to their area with Elder McPherson, Elder McPherson is the absolute man, love him so much.. so it was great to be with him.. he has been AP for like 11 months, he goes home next transfer. So I was with him, and the day was spent chasing down formers and potentials, and just doing some finding... we were able to find this super solid girl named Chelsey and her son named Braxton, just talked to them in this apartment complex. She really needs the Gospel, as do all, but it was super cool! Then the Mill's the senior couple in the office took us out to dinner at this Thai place. It was delicious!
Saturday - In the morning we went with Elder Cooper, Elder Welch, Elder McPherson, and Elder Ashcroft and we went to something called the coastal cleanup.. it was a big clean up effort in Crawfordville... So we went down there and worked with the Crawfordville Branch, and did this cleanup.. so we picked up a bunch of garbage and cans from all over the roads, got free t shirts!
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| Elder Ashcroft, Elder Cooper, and Elder Hintze |
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| Elder Ashcroft, Elder Welch, Elder Hintze, Elder Cooper, Elder McPherson, and Elder & Sister ?? |
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| Elder Welch and Elder Hintze |
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| Elder Hintze |
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| The Crawfordville gang! |
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| Elder Ashcroft, Elder Hintze, and Elder McPherson. Just can't quite reach it! |
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| Elder Ashcroft, Elder Cooper, Elder Hintze, Elder McPherson, abd Elder Welch. |
And then we were fed lunch, then loaded up and headed on a back home! Once home.. we went to do some finding.. and found a ton of awesome people, we are headed back to see this next week! So we found some cool people and then we taught Gonzalo and we read from the Book of Mormon with him! Gonzalo is still the man!!!! Then we ran to teach Christina Hamilton, remember the lady that had lived in SLC for 3 weeks with Skywest airlines, anyway... this is the highlight of the week!!!!!! We get there, and she is expecting us, we couldn't go inside, so we walked to this gazebo in the apartment complex to teach her... and just started teaching her, and getting to know her a little bit more... and we shared with her the HTBT, and the Atonement and God is our Loving Heavenly Father, and she was already crying... the whole lesson as we taught her, we were encompassed by the sweetest most powerful spirit, we taught her the Restoration. At the conclusion, she said, I know that all of this is true, I feel it, and everything for me right now is just coming together. It was easily one of the most powerful lesson/experiences of my mission. Christina is awesome, and so prepared. She kneeled with us in prayer afterwards, and said a wonderful prayer in which the spirit was so strong. Family, this whole experience it was just so beautiful, we have just been so grateful for it! We got Christina a ride to church, from Sister Stroud.
Sunday - We had Gonzalo there, we had Eric there, and we had Christina there!! So let me tell you... sacrament meeting, Sister Karlberg is teaching and she is talking about treasures in heaven a conference talk, and talked about what our treasures are.. she talked about her experience as a bread winner in the family, she has had to work and not be at home with her son, and she was really emotional, and it was powerful as she spoke of how inadequate she felt. Christina is a single parent, with a son, and she is having to provide for her family.. and Christina was in tears, it was so powerful.. It was incredible, she spoke just to her! The member was with her and was so awesome, showed her everything on the program and explained all of what was happening. Then we had an awesome lesson in Gospel Principles about developing your talents.. it was phenomenal as well, and during it Christina downloaded Gospel Library app on her phone, so she had it.. which will be important later! Later we head to the apartment place where Christina lives because we have been doing work in there... so we tried to see this guy named "T" who we met.. he wasn't home, so we tried this other guy and he let us in... and I knew right off the bat, it wasn't going anywhere, and he just kept interrupting... so I just assertively told him the restoration and told him that the Gospel has been restored, this is Jesus Christ's Church! Bore my testimony and all of us did. Then we left and "T" chased us down... and we taught "T" briefly in the same gazebo.. he is awesome, so we are heading back to meet with him.. but as we walk back, Christina is out front, so we walk up and she sees us coming, and what is she doing? Sitting there reading "How do I recognize the Spirit?" in Preach My Gospel.. what what what!!! And then she was like this is so real, right as I am doing this ya'll walk up. So she loved church, and we just bore our testimonies to her. We went to the baptism in the 5th ward, a girl named Victoria, great service.
This week has been wild and fantastic.. I have loved every second of it... excited for the week ahead! Things really have been smooth lately with the work, lots of exciting things to come.. we finally saw Eddy Jones too, apparently he has been in the hospital for 2 weeks! I am loving life right now! This mission is without a doubt the best possible thing that has ever happened to me! I love my mission! I love ya'll a whole lot and I miss you a bunch! Love you!!!
Love, Elder Hintze
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