"President Smith, called Elder Peterson and I the "Dynamic Duo"! So we got that going for us!"

Monday, October 13, 2014

Monday - P-Day, it was kind of a crazy day. But we just ran down potentials and investigators… Elder Peterson and I had a good night tonight. Also there was a couple of days here, where the weather was nothing short of lovely, it was in the 60s and the 70s, but now we are back up into the 90s. But we were all getting cold in the morning!

Elder Hintze

Tuesday - Today was a pretty good day! We had our District meeting in the morning. Then we went on a tradeoff with in our area. And we went and we did service for George and Marsha again, so we were there just raking the leaves, throwing gasoline on a bunch of yellow jackets nests, talking to them the whole time.. So after that, we sat down with them and we started to teach them the Restoration, and it was an absolute wonderful lesson. We committed them to read and to pray. We helped George to say his first prayer that he had ever said in his entire life, it was super awesome! Then we ran up to see Richard McCulley, and we were able to teach him, we had planned to just rehearse the Book of Mormon, because that is what he was super interested in, and read from that and follow up on the Restoration. The great news is that Richard has already read all the way into 2 Nephi in a week! After that we taught Christina with Sister Knudsen, she is awesome by the way, super good for Christina. So Christina texted us this morning and mentioned that by chance her aunt who was a "christian missionary" was going to be there, just a heads up. So I said, "Okay, well we are planning on teaching some commandments this evening, but we can switch it up if need be." So we get there and it is Christina, her mother is there, and her 2 aunts are there! And because I told her that we were doing commandments, Christina had gone and studied them in PMG. Hahaha, so it was super awesome! We taught her the big ones Word of Wisdom, when we said  coffee and tea, she gasped.. then we kept teaching and went onto the end. Do you have any problems right now with living the word of wisdom? Sister K is awesome! Christina really, really likes her, so she added great insight. Aunts sat in quiet. We involved them, but her mom is sooo interested.

Wednesday - We traded back, only to tradeoff again, so I stayed here in our area again, and this time with the APs, I got Elder McPherson, and he used to serve here in the 1st Ward. Then Elder Peterson went with Welch and Sorenson. Then we did our exchange report first. Then we met with Christina again with Sister K, she is awesome to come with us! SO we taught her the rest of the commandments, we finished up some of the little ones like Pray, Read scriptures, Baptism is a commandment, live the law of the land. And then the bigger ones I guess are keep Sabbath day holy and then the 10 commandments. So we covered all of that, no problems. Then we went over the baptismal questions, and got her ready for that, and talked about the purpose of that, how it all works. After her lesson, we ran out and we tried to visit some less actives, but no go! And so we were able to see Ron Locke, he owns a tire store and we visited with him and his son, both members. But the real kicker was one of the workers at the shop, a kid about 18, his dad passed away not too long ago. So we started to talk to him about the Restoration and about the Plan of Salvation, and he was so interested, it was really neat. So we got his info. We visited with Robert Delmonico and his friend, we just caught up with him, it has been about a month since we have been able to meet with him. So we just reviewed the restoration and the things we've taught, he has been reading the Book of Mormon! Which is good, and then we set up a time for us to meet with him that next day! We then ate dinner at the Knudsen's home! Then we were able to go and visit with Sister Daniels.

Elder McPherson & Elder Hintze with the Knudsen kids!

Thursday -  We met with Torrez LeBrun and his son T.R. We met them in the chapel and we had Brother Shipley with us, and we began to teach them the Plan of Salvation. Brother Shipley was really good to be there. We were only able to make it about halfway through the lesson, and it went fairly well.... So after that we went with them to do some family history work. And they brought all of their old records to help us out, so it was awesome! We were able to find a bunch of their ancestors and when we found them, boom, like 7 generations back all got filled in, it was awesome. We also had a lady named Edith in their doing family history as well, the family history people we're helping her out. Brother Shipley, knew Edith already so that was cool. Then we ran and we saw Robert Delmonico, we taught him with Brother Gray in their home. And it started off so awesome, he wanted to get right into and tell us the things he had been reading. So he had read Alma 32, and he had read D&C 137 and 138, which that is all good stuff, so it was awesome for him! 

Friday - We had to finish up our weekly planning and such in the morning. And we have zone training this next Tuesday, so we began to make preparations for that. We are going to be doing a Family History Week thing/competition thing with the other zone here in Tallahassee. The jist of it is that we use family history for a whole week, and depending upon the number of return appointments that we get by using family history according to our district. They are the winners, and at the end of the week, we end with a dodgeball tournament, and the winning district is going to get incentives, and then the winning zone gets incentives as well. So we met with the Tally 2 ZLs and we tried to begin to figure out all of the details to go along with it! Then we met with our sister trainer leaders in our zone, to talk about zone training. We have 2 sets in our zone. We have such awesome sister trainer leaders in the zone, they make me look like chop liver, so we schemed with them for a good while, about things that the zone needs and things that we can do! So we got some good ideas, and then we started to do a little bit of planning ourselves. Then we went out and we set some appointments with some folks. Then we taught Gonzalo finally, he has just been super busy with his school, but he is still doing really good. We taught him from the Book of Mormon, I believe Alma 24, the story of the anti nephi lehies.

Saturday - In the morning, we took some time and we planned some more for zone training! It is coming along, we felt really inspired with the first part that we are going to be sharing, about the Atonement, just to invite the Spirit! We are also going to be feeding the zone breakfast before hand, so that should be fun. Then we saw our boy Eric Erickson. But after that we hit the streets. And we were on that finding, we were just walking around this neighborhood, as we contacted potentials, and we found quite a few people that we are going to teach! Then we met with this man named John Day and his wife, she is not a member. They had 2 sons that served missions and everything. So they fed us dinner, they are both super nice. She is really into family history! Then we went and we taught Jalesia and Michael, we have been communicating with them for a while now, finally got into see them! When we first went, we talked to Michael... he was the only one home, so started through the restoration, and then Jalesia come home which is the GF, then her mom was there, and her grandma, and her brother! So we had an audience! So we started over and we taught the Restoration in full, these people we're hanging on every single word that we said it seemed like! I loved it, it was pretty powerful! So we will see. After that we went and we visited with Cristina, and we just talked about baptism and who will be doing what and how it will all run down, we read 3 Nephi 27, and some Moroni 8:25-26, and then some sacrament prayers in Moroni 4. Cristina has asked if I will baptize her, so I am super humbled and excited to be able to do that this week! :)

Sunday - Fast Sunday!!!! We had Gonzalo there and Cristina there! We sat by Cristina and she really gets into it sometimes! So she is always nodding in agreement with the people and she lets out some semi quiet Amen! and mmmmhhmmm! and then a couple times I heard some "Praise you Jesus. Praise you Jesus." So it keeps it exciting, and usually she gets some tears! After that we had ward council! And we ate lunch/dinner with the Miller's shortly after, the Miller's are so awesome! The rest of our day was just running around, we talked to the Stanley's and the Liedy's on the front porch! And then we did some potential work.. were able to set some appointments with some people, and did some finding as well! Then we ended it and we went back and we did some more zone training planning!!!

We are excited for zone training, we are going to be cooking breakfast for the zone, so we are going with Sister K to Sam's club today, to buy some stuff for it! And then we are pretty well planned out with the rest of it! We will have to be doing some minor planning for this evening! The APs told us that Pres. Smith, called Peterson and I the "Dynamic Duo"! So we got that going for us! Elder Peterson really is an awesome missionary, super diligent! Family, thank you for all of your support and your prayers, I can't tell you how much that I love and miss each and everyone of you! Love you so much!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

"He thinks that we have everything right, he thinks that Joseph Smith is an absolute genius."

Monday, Ocotber 6, 2014

Hello ya'll!!!

It is crazy, it seems like I fly from one Monday to the next!!! This week was great, we had the successful transfer, and I lost my boy Cooper! It was actually pretty hard to have him leave, loved serving with him! So my new companion is Elder Peterson, he was our District Leader here in Tallahassee, so it wasn't much of a move for him, I already knew him as well! I am going to pump this email out, today has been crazy, so don't have too much time. Let's get to it!

Monday - We ate dinner at the Schrader's in the evening! We did some finding, and following up with people, and then on the way home, popped by the Knudsen's for Elder Cooper to say goodbye. 

Tuesday - We had our district meeting in the morning!

The District!

I had to buy the campus district donuts because they had so many member presents! Elder Cooper bore his testimony in district meeting, and it made me cry, and he was crying... adorable am I right? Then we had our district activity, and we played what was called 5 base baseball in the gym here, we combined our district with campuses, so it was a big one, it was a blast!

Then we taught Christina Hamilton, she was bummed that Cooper was leaving... but we taught her the doctrine of family history and connected it with temples and with the plan of salvation, every meeting we have with her is so awesome.. we had planned to share something completely different, but we felt to go there, and it was exactly what she was thinking about! Then we taught a man by the name of Richard McCulley, he was a referral from the 4th ward sisters... he is really interested in the Book of Mormon, so we taught him the restoration, and then we talked extensively about the Book of Mormon. Then we ate at the Culligan's house, they are super awesome! Then we taught Gonzalo at the church, with Brother Carroll, we just read 2 Nephi 4 with him and based it off of that, he is still doing really well!

Wednesday - Transfer day... so we drove all the way to Crestview  and it was funny Elder Peterson actually rode with us! So we drove there, and we took a pit stop in DeFuniak, was able to take a quick drive around the lake, and my old living quarters! :) So they did the big meeting and announced everybody, it was a lot of fun! So I said goodbye to Elder Cooper, super hard! Elder Cooper is in Milton, Florida, it is where he started his mission, so he is super happy. So after all of that we turned right around and headed back home! Then we had to run to Crawfordville to give the new sister's some supplies!

Thursday - We helped out at a funeral in the morning a member's son died, she is the only member and her other son who lives in Utah was there. Then we met with this man named Torrez LeBrun and his son name Torrez LeBrun "T.R.", and it was awesome, new people that we OYMed and we did family history with them, and then afterwards, we taught them the restoration in the chapel. The son has been reading the Book of Mormon and loves it. He thinks that we have everything right, he thinks that Joseph Smith is an absolute genius. Then we went out with Bro Hollett for splits, and we visited with Bro Barber.

Friday - We met with Eric at the library and we taught him about revelation. Then we taught Christina Hamilton with Sister Stroud, and we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we committed her for baptism on October 17th!!!!!!!!!!! It was again an awesome lesson! Christina really is so awesome! Then we visited a member lady named Markeish Scott with Bro Delp, she has 4 boys. Then we taught Gonzalo and we taught him out of his new PMG, it is awesome he loves it so much! He was so happy when he got the package, he called me right up and told me to tell you thank you, he was so excited, about the chocolates too.

Saturday - AND THE CONFERENCE BEGINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man alive it is always so good, just know that I love every single second of conference!!!! We attended the Saturday sessions at the other building in Tallahasse, and then we stayed for a baptism, and Christina was there to watch it! Then afternoon session.... then we ate dinner at the Gray's. And then we went to Priesthood session!

Sunday - AND AGAIN BABY!!!!!!! This time at our own building, we watched morning and the afternoon, so to count investigators at church, they have to watch one session of conference! And I had my all time record this week!!! We had 7 investigators watch a session of conference!!!!!!!!!! Richard McCulley watched Sunday morning, Torrez LeBrun and his son, were Sunday morning, Gonzalo watched at Bishop's house, Christina all sessions and Sunday at her house, Eric all sessions, and Ted came to the Saturday morning session with us! It was so awesome! In between these two sessions we taught Aurther H. at his house! Then we taught Christina in the evening! I feel that I am here for her, we have had such a connection, it is really cool.

:) Love you all so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry its not my best email, I am hurrying sorry. I just have had on time. Miss and love you all like crazy!!!! 

"President says, "why are we here? What are we doing here?"

Monday, September 29, 2014

FaMiLy!!!!!

Hello, how is everyone!? Hope everyone is doing well today! I am doing fantastic as ever! So first off new transfers.... it is crazy! So before they would send out an email today with where everyone is going and with who they are going with... then on Thursday they would work there way across the mission with the transfer van and truck with trailers... but they are switching it up... the APs called us Sunday, and they told us who is leaving, but not where or with who... so we called everyone in the zone and told them if they were leaving. So we told them they were leaving, now all of us have to be at Crestview, FL Wednesday at noon, so everyone that is being transferred, is going there! It is going to be madness, it is in the middle of the mission, where I used to have District meetings in DeFuniak! So everybody who is getting transferred is going there.... and as well they are doing a train the trainers on Wednesday morning.. Alright lets get to the week!

Monday - We played ball on P-Day as always! Gonzalo came and he played with us missionaries, so that was awesome! 

Tuesday - We had District Meeting in the morning, and we went to the Campus district meeting... so we had to speak, ya know say a few words of wisdom! Then we taught Eric Ericson right after that at the church, with Bro Delp, we taught him the story of Bro Jared... overcoming trials/receiving revelation.. basically, he asked the Lord, what should we do about the light? The Lord says, what do you want me to do about it? So Bro Jared, goes to work! And comes up with a solution, and then goes back to the Lord... it was a good lesson, Eric liked it! 

Wednesday - MLC baby!!!! All day... so we headed out to Crestview at 7 am! So we got there did our thing, and then turned around and headed back!

MLC - September 2014

They talked mostly about the new transfer procedure, which came from Elder Zwick. President spoke at the end... just on what he said in his email, being #1 in effort and not in baptisms..... I loved the meeting though, the Spirit is so strong!! When we first opened... President says, "why are we here? What are we doing here?" And people throw out some answers... .our purpose, so on so forth. He had all of us walk out in the hall and look at the picture of the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane, kneeling down in prayer.... and had us all come back, and said that is why we are here!" It was awesome, how could a missionary look at that and then be disobedient, how could someone look at that, and not keep the commandments! After MLC, we taught Gonzalo in the evening with Bro Gentry.... we shared with him Alma 17, the story of Ammon, and then we bring it into real life scenario, and what we can learn from the Book of Mormon... 

Thursday - We headed out to contact some referrals and to do some finding... and we had a lesson with the TCC A Sisters and an investigator that they passed over, her name is Latonia Blunt, we taught her and her neighbor Looria... so we sat outside with those two, the sisters and us and we taught the Restoration, it was really good! Then we taught Christina Hamilton with Kim Mobley (who is a recent convert, lives in Christina's apartment place) ...... and it was awesome again!!!! We were planning on teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and commiting her to a baptismal date... but she had studied the Plan of Salvation in PMG, like are you kidding me? She had studied it, and I just really felt nervous before the lesson, which always means something is up, so we switched it right then, and we taught the Plan of Salvation... it went tremendous! Beautiful lesson again, and the spirit was very strong! Her mother sat in for most of the lesson as well, and she is interested, her son was there too.. Christina wants to do it on her own first however... so Kim was awesome! 

Friday - We went on a tradeoff! I went to the 4th Ward with Elder Jackman and Elder Moore.. And Cooper and Peterson, went to the 1st ward! When I was with them, we just tried to discover some new less actives and did some finding! But we were able to see a less active with a member, and we gave her a blessing, it was super powerful. She was crying, and we just talked to her about the Atonement! Then we were able to teach this investigator Ricky Spencer who has been coming to church! We were able to teach him the Restoration! 

Saturday - I was still in 4th ward... and we visited this/family, named the Cook's they are awesome! Then we did our exchange reports and then traded back! Visited with the Stanley's, tried to get them to come to the high priest activity, that night! So then we went to the high priest activity, it was a family history oriented, so people were sharing stories from their family history, and I shared a story from our mission of family history, a story of a woman who joined in Dothan, after I had left.

Sunday - We had Eric, Gonzalo, and Christina at church! Great service, super pumped for General Conference next week! So we had ward council after church, came home lunch, then we headed out, we taught Christina again, we just read parts of Alma 32 with her, it was super awesome again!!! Just talked about faith! Then we were with Bro Carroll, for some appointments! So we ate with Bishop and Sister Hargredt and they are awesome, I really, really like them! Then we taught this guy named Tori Ellison in the evening! And we taught him the restoration... it was really, really good. Great lesson, we had him pray at the end, a kneeling prayer... and it was the best prayer ever!

Family, I can't tell you how much I love you! Time goes by so quick, I feel like I am just going from P-Day to P-Day!! I love and miss you all so much! Next week, I will report to you, who my new companion is!!!!! 

Love,

Elder Hintze