"You've got to be kidding me, well aren't you the wousiest thing."

Monday, November 17, 2014

Here goes nothing!!!!

Monday - So P-Day today, don't know how much more basketball we will be playing without Elder McPherson and Elder Smellie here they were the real ballers. Today as I talked about we had Elder Rispress with us, so we had to run him back to the mission office, so we spent a few minutes there with President and the AP's... President and Sister Smith are really the best, and the Mills and the  Bells the senior couples in the office, I love all of them! We had to run the bikes of the Africa bound missionaries to the storage unit.. So we did that for Elder Mills, then we did our shopping and we headed back and got our emailing done. We ate dinner at our place. But after that we met Sister Ayers at the church and we helped her to do some of her Family History..  I am very thankful for all of you, we really have been blessed with an awesome family, we don't appreciate it enough! After that we went and we contacted this 13 year old girl that we talked to and we set up a return appointment.. in hopes to sit down and talk with her whole family, ya know.. surprise em! So we went and her and her sister and their friend came out on the porch.. So we were able to talk with them and teach them the Restoration for about 40 minutes. So we will see what happens, they seem to be fairly interested, we left all of them with Book of Mormons.. and they said we could come back, so we will see! I am much more committed to my goals, so always trying to meet the goals that we set each day!

Tuesday - We headed out on an exchange to Madison, Florida and to head to their district meeting, so we had to swing by the mission office for some supplies, and then to President's house to grab a flash drive for Zone Training, which is in a week. So fun to interact with President, talked about the zone and zone stuff for a bit. Then we headed off to Madison, they had an exchange there, so the new District Leader is Elder Snow, it was a great meeting! And then Elder Snow and I headed off together back to Tallahassee.. it is an hour away, so it is a miserable drive.. and our A/C in our car broke, hahaha. So it is so hot in the car, and driving down the road, kind of funny. We got back here and we taught Mike Jones, at Bro Barber's place, but Bro Barber was not feeling so well, so we just taught Mike and he hadn't begun to read the Book of Mormon yet, only the beginning and the testimony of Joseph Smith... We started to read with him, we just read 1 Nephi 1 and 2.. and then just committed him to read on! He is still really interested, lots of potential! Then the evening got hectic.. we had a lesson with a new person, that fell through.. then our correlation meeting got canceled, and so the evening was left wide open! So we just we're running around like crazy, trying to see somebody that would have us... it is so hard here, when you don't have appointments in the evening, because it is getting dark here by like 6 in the evening... and in the south, when it is dark, nobody answers their door after dark! So we we're able to see a few people and set up some return appointments, and then finally we were able to see Sister Daniels and her daughter Taahira.. so we had a lesson with them, Taahira is 11 and is a member! Then we we're home! Elder Snow is a good man, he has been out for 10 months, and he is from Sacramento, California! He is going to be a good DL, he understands missionary work.

Wednesday - SO.. some great news! So we taught Bonnie Hamilton in the morning, and Cristina was in the lesson with us. So her mom said she had some concerns and some questions that she had been thinking about that she was going to be ready to share with us when we got there.. but when we pulled up they had just received a call from her mom's husband, so basically grandpa. So he called up out of the blue and just wanted to talk and patch over the relationship, and we had talked to them a little bit about it, how we need to forgive.. and it was right before we pulled up... thus all of these good things happen when we are around, it has been crazy.... so she was crying and just saying how blessed she and they have been since we started coming around.. and she said, I no longer have any questions and concerns, she said this is confirmation enough, lets get on with the lesson! So we start and I say first thing, "If I were to invite you to follow the example of your Savior Jesus Christ right now, and be baptized, what would be holding you back?" And she said, well I've already been baptized. Easy!! So we explained it to her, Christ showed us the example in all things, including who was the one to baptize Him.. Authority! And she accepted it, we went on to teach the rest of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, Endure to the End. The spirit was so wonderful, and Cristina was bearing awesome testimony throughout, and there were tears.. and so we get to the end, "With all of that being said, we have been thinking and praying about a baptismal date for you to work towards, we would like you to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding this priesthood authority from God on December 13th!?" AND it is a YES! So December 13th, mark it down ladies and gentleman, she's getting baptized! And she is really excited, she said, "I can't wait to be baptized!" She is really solid, she knows without a doubt that it is true! So then Elder Snow and I drove back to Madison again with no A/C... then we picked up Elder Peterson and then we turned right around and came back, without the A/C we would have to roll down the windows for periods of time on the freeway, and we would blast our EFY tunes.  We met up with the sister trainer leaders when we got back, and we had a little pow wow as to what we needed to discuss in our zone training meeting.. and we met for a good while and we we're able to talk and discuss a lot, but we were kind of at a loss.. so we took what we had, we are going to show Pres Uchtodorf's video that we saw in MLC.. so we found a projector and we found a screen for it, then we took the time to watch the video and to make notes from it and what we wanted to talk about from it.. Then we taught Gonzalo, we watched the story of John Tanner with him.. and then we talked about Consecration, and although we may not live the law of consecration, we still can consecrate all we have to the Lord, in fact the only unique thing that we have to give him is our will/agency, so that was the basis of our lesson! Gonzalo is literally the man, he is like my best friend, we are super close to him, he will be blessing the Sacrament this Sunday! Today was a really good day, a humbling one! Side story it is interesting to see the sacrifices that a lot of people in the YSA Ward make to join the church.. so those that our taught by campus missionaries, one of them was sat down by his parents and they said," Why couldn't you have been on drugs or gay, rather than join the Mormons?" Another one that the FSU Elders are teaching is so ready, but her parents have said if you join the church, we will cut all ties with you.. It is amazing to see, how ignorant people are! But amazing to see these people join the church!!

Thursday - Real chilly here today. So we headed out and we contacted 2 people that the High Priest Group Leader told us to find, we got em, just contacts at the door. Then we w're able to get in and see the Liedy's, he has just had surgery on his nose, so he was down and out, but we visited. Still trying to get his wife on board, don't know what we can do. So then we met Sister Maurer at the FH Center, she is a member, and we began to do some research for her and take all of her information and plug it into the computer, and it was awesome, probably the most successful trip I've ever had, she was prepared, and we were able to find a ton of stuff on there! It was super exciting, it really was, so we are going to be doing it this next week with her! We have been struggling with zone training planning, so by the time you read this zone training will be tomorrow, so pray for us! Things have been really fun around the "compound".. all of the missionaries here are awesome. The funny story coming from FSU today.. there is this homeless man named Dennis, who is always around, and he knows the missionaries because we always talk to him for a minute, well mainly the campus missionaries, one time I gave him my panda express  :).. but anyway Elder Farris asked Dennis if they could meet up sometime and have a lesson? And Dennis responded, "Sorry, I'm too busy!" WHAT!?!?!? Hahahaha, even the homeless are "too busy" to meet with the missionaries.

Friday - So bad news for our vehicle, we took it in this morning and they have to keep it until Tuesday, which that made things a little interesting... no car for the weekend, it is very cold, and it is very hard to bike in Tallahassee, zero bike lanes or sidewalks and busy streets, so ain't no hill for a climber! We met Gonzalo at the church for a lesson, starting up his new member lessons, so we taught him the Restoration again, and we went a little bit more in depth about it.. covered some of Why 1820? talk. Then we met Cristina at the church and we did some Family History with her, got her set up and got searching for her family... she knew quite a bit, so we actually were able to find a lot, it was good.. but her family is from Georgia.. She said that her Mom has been talking to her grandma and her husband about her decision to be baptized in the church!  Then we went to lunch with Gonzalo, we convinced him to go with us, we went to a place called "Super Perros" which means Super Dogs... so I was a little sketched out, but it was alright. Then Gonzalo came with us to teach Mike Jones... and we taught Mike in Bro Barber's place, Barber is not feeling well, so he wasn't in the room. Gonzalo was so good in the lesson, like he killed it!! It was incredible, he was just able to bear his testimony to him about his conversion, and about his past struggles, we read Alma 32 with him, and just talked about planting this seed and nourishing it. He dropped us back off at the church, and a new guy forgot about our appointment, so we took the time to brainstorm and work on zone training. Then our boy Eric came to the church for a lesson, Eric is so funny, I love him... he had been studying his Preach My Gospel in the Chapter 9 How do I find people to teach? So he had a lesson planned for us, so we answered all of the questions in the beginning of the lesson, referring to how we can have faith to find, and how we can find people, so he has his eyes peeled for us! Then we talked about Obedience with him, and the commandment of keeping the Sabbath Day Holy, we really challenged him to come to the 9 am church in 1st ward, talked about the transformation that can happen in each of us because of the Atonement, just as the Resurrection, changed all of the apostles... so he is coming at 9 am, Gonzalo is picking him up. We ate with the Southern's for dinner, they had to come and give us a ride! 

Saturday - So crazy day...  I pulled some strings with my man Elder Bell in the mission office, I told him that our car was down and out.. wondered what he could do to hook a brother up.. first thing he says is, "You've got to be kidding me, well aren't you the wousiest thing." But needless to say.. he hooked us up with one of the trucks that has been retired.. so we are now driving the DeFuniak Springs truck baby!!! Her and I are reunited, so we are rolling in style in Tallahassee until our car is fixed, he only did it because we are Zone Leaders, rough life we have. So all of this was in the morning, we had to be shuttled over there, and then we had to run to the Ford place to get our stuff out of the car.. So we got that back.. then we did some service with the Liedy's, which wasn't much they had us go out and pick some form of clementine off the tree for them. After that we helped Sister Byrd in her yard, cleaning out this drain and unplugging all of the mud from it, then she fed us some lunch. Oh this is kind of fun... so this morning I was notified that the Stake has asked me to talk for 10 minutes to the little shaves preparing for the priesthood in the priesthood preview tomorrow! Then we went and we ate dinner with Cristina, she cooked us some good spaghetti and pie.. Cristina is feeding us and the other elders, Gonzalo is helping people move... it is, as you described in your letter today dad, pure Joy! So awesome to see. So we had a lesson with her, we actually talked about the with holding of priesthood from African Americans, we read the official declaration 2 with her.. and then we covered the original 12 apostles lesson with her in response to anti material.. she doesn't have any anti, but I had particularly felt that we needed to talk to her about it, just in case anything does come up.

Sunday - Real good Sunday! So we had Eric there at the 9 am meeting! And Gonzalo was there. And Cristina and her mom were there and as well, the neighbor who was there last week was there with her daughter, the ladies name is Vandera, and we are going to teach her on Monday. So Sacrament meeting was really, really good for me today, all because of what happened in the sacrament, Gonzalo showed up in a white shirt, but no tie.. hahaha, so I was like Elder Peterson, quick whip off your tie and let Gonzalo wear it.. so he did and so he had a tie to wear up there, I was going to bless with him, talk about that in a second, so Gonzalo did awesome, he was just up there, he did not bless, but he did so awesome, so cool to see him up there. So instead of myself blessing a boy named Max Davis blessed, this was the best part for me.. he is in a wheelchair, handicapped, he has some movement, so he pulls his wheelchair up to the stairs and then he crawled up the stairs and across the carpet to take his seat at the Sacrament table.. it was amazing, it brought a tear to my eye! So Sacrament was amazing, really it was. Afterwards, we had to run over to the other side of Tallahassee to get the laptop from the AP's so we could test it out for our zone training. So after that we came home we ate lunch and then we had some studies, so that I could finish up my talk for the priesthood preview, got it done! So then we taught Bonnie Hamilton, with Cristina, we talked a lot about what went on at church. She is so awesome, she just told keeps focusing on what she feels and not the things that she sees around her... so she is doing so well! Talked a lot about the Sacrament it is interesting to me, to learn that no other churches.. really understand the sacrament and the significance that it holds to us with the Atonement and our repentance, she was never taught that before! So we taught her the Word of Wisdom, and she says coffee will be easy, but she is going to struggle with tea, a little bit, but she committed to do it! And I believe her, she is super awesome! After that we met the church media guy to see if our video will work for zone training. Then we ate dinner with the Karlberg's and then we went to the Priesthood preview... I think my talk went really, really well, I was happy with it.. and the Spirit was definitely there.. I got really emotional at the end, because I told of the events that had just happened in sacrament meeting that day... about Gonzalo and Max, so fun for me to speak on the Priesthood, what an honor for those young men to hold the priesthood, I wish I would have appreciated it when I was their age!!!! The headline of my email today is because I lost my big PMG... I am still hoping it returns... I prayed about it this morning.. literally all of my secrets of missionary work are recorded in there... so it is super sad.... I am sure Satan confiscated it, so that the world wouldn't have such good material.... 

Anyway, I love you all so so so so so so sooooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!! Love, Elder Hintze

A BAD ATTITUDE IS LIKE A FLAT TIRE, YOU CAN’T GO ANYWHERE UNTIL YOU CHANGE IT!!!

WE, OF ALL THE CREATURES OF EARTH, CAN CHANGE OUR OWN PATTERNS…THE GREATEST REVOLUTION IN OUR GENERATION IS THE DISCOVERY THAT HUMAN BEINGS, BY THE CHANGING ATTITUDES OF THEIR MINDS, CAN CHANGE THE OUTER ASPECTS OF THEIR LIVES. 
WILLIAM JAMES

"Can I be bold with you for a second?"

Monday, November 10, 2014

HELLO FAMILY!!!

Hope everyone is well and happy! I am doing fantastic, been busy today, but here is the email and the week coming at you!!! 

Monday - We had our Family History dodgeball tournament.... and it was sooo sick and soo much fun!!!!!

We had perk for all of the districts, the winning district, the other team couldn't catch their ball to get them out, and then the small districts who only had like 5 people, if they caught a ball, then their whole team came back in! But each district had their own shirts on and they all had their own cheers and it was so much fun! We had the bracket drawn out and it was a double elimination tournament... it got competitive and fun, but not maliciously, so it was awesome, it turned out to be a really good unity exercise!

The APs and the Tally 2 ZLs district won it all, they had all Elders... I blew it for me district, their was one person left from this district, and he caught my ball that I threw at him... but I am going to avenge our loss and bring my team back up this next transfer! In the evening we had dinner with the Roberts. And then we went to visit Bro Barber, but his friend Mike Jones was there, who we had met before at his house, and was interested, but we were never able to get up with him, we ended up being able to start teaching him the restoration, and with Bro Barber there he was adding to the lesson, super awesome!

Tuesday - We had district meeting and then we had our district activity and we played SCRUD on the pool table in the institute building! We have mission conference calls every Tuesday and for like 6 straight Tuesday's the Tally 1 Zone has been given a shout out to by President for doing awesome things! We were out hunting most of the day, in the finding grind.. Then we ate dinner with the Miller's in the evening! And then we taught Aurther Harrelson at the McDonalds.. haha, he wanted to meet us there, so we taught him, and don't really know about Aurther, don't know if he is really that interested, so we just tried to get him going, based the lesson around Moroni 10:3-5! Then we had our correlation meeting in the evening!

Wednesday - TRANSFER DAY! So we loaded up and got everyone set out to go! And then we drove all the way to Crestview, and we had the announcing of all the new companionships and all of the new areas!

Elder ?, & Elder Smellie & Elder 

Elder Hintze & Elder ?

Elder Smellie & Elder Hintze

We didn't have too many changes to report in our zone! It took us a really long time to get back, and we had an appointment with Eric at the church... and we were a few minutes late.. We had to run and pick up a missionary to stay with us for the night and tomorrow, who was headed home.. and so we got Elder May to stay with us! He is awesome!

Elder May & Elder Hintze

We taught Gonzalo in the evening, and we just went over D&C 138 with him, talked about the spirit world, he is still doing really well!

Thursday - Had that weekly planning and then we taught T.R. and Torrez LeBrun, taught them with Bro Delp and we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ it was a great lesson, and we invited T.R. to be baptized.. but didn't really jump at the prospect, but we are going to continue to chip away at him slowly, and their is progression coming! Then we did some family history. Then we taught Mike Jones again with Bro Barber, we we're able to finish up the Restoration lesson, and he is super interested, and he is very, very impressed.. so he is really awesome though, so we are really excited! Then we dropped off Elder May, he is a goner.. the picture on the blog of Pres and Sis Smith in black, it was hilarious!!

Departing Class of November 2014

Then we taught Cristina and we watched the Restoration DVD with her.... she really loved it! And she showed it to her mother, and then her mom started to read the Book of Mormon after that! Then we had to run and pick up Elder May again to spend the evening with us. This evening we took Elder Rispress with us into our companionship to form a trio!

Elder Peterson & Elder Rispress & Elder Hintze

Friday - We helped Bro Pope move in the morning, they are headed down to Crawfordville. It is so funny, Gonzalo is there helping out, he is just part of the ward now. And Cristina is signing up with the other members to feed us.. they are both so awesome! Then we did some Family History work with Gonzalo at the church! Then we taught Mike Jones at Bro Barber's place again, and we focused the whole lesson on saying prayers and how we can learn and receive revelation from our prayers! He is coming along, he has a broken leg, that hasn't been treated yet, so he is not able to come to church.. but he is reading and praying! Then Elder & Sister Mills a senior couple who works in the mission office, went back to Utah.. and so he has been talking for months that he was going to take us out to dinner and he took us to Outback Steakhouse.. Outback Steakhouse on Elder MIlls, I ate lobster for the first time! 

Saturday - In the morning is when we tracked down Eric and talked with him for a bit about what happened! Then we went to the other church building in Tallahassee to hear Elder Soares of the Presidency of the Seventy... lets just say it was the new best thing of my life... wow!!!! It was so awesome and the Spirit was so strong... we we're with him for about 3 hours! And he talked about goals, plans, and our attitude! It was incredible, he spoke to me and I learned so much... I have a lot that I need to work on.. he spoke about our attitudes and our thoughts and it really hit me, how I need to dig deep.. not much time left on the mission! He also opened up goals for me and I really received a witness as to how important they are!!! President told the story again of him and I when I was first out, how I had not taught the Restoration lesson.. and we taught Gloria.. I cried so much, when he told it. Story means a lot to me! But it was just amazing! After that our evening was nothing special, we just tried to do finding and chase down our potentials.. we contacted a referral passed over to us by the campus sister's... so we saw him, and he told us he knows its all true, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, but yet he has decided to go to another church... my favorite line to say is, "Can I be bold with you for a second?" And of course they always say yes... and they gave me permission.. haha, so I told him how ridiculous of a thing that he just said, but he has decided to stick with the old church!

Sunday - Church!!! It was kind of bad, we didn't get any investigators to church... I always hate that... doesn't ever feel good, but we will regroup and get them next week! We had to each Gospel Principles, they told us when we we're on our way to church... hahaha. Gonzalo received the Priesthood this week, he is now a Priest! And this next Sunday, he will be blessing the Sacrament.. it was so cool to see! After church we did some planning of the next week.. and we saw Gonzalo for a bit and just ran through blessing the sacrament and the prayers... Then we visited with Cristina and we were teaching her and we are really interested in teaching her mom, but we want to separate the 2 appointments, so we are going to begin teaching Cristina to her needs, and to her Mom, so her mom was in the back bedroom, so we had Cristina go get her and we are now going to teach just her.. she said she has a lot of questions, and she wonders what is different with what we have, and what she has as a Baptist, so we are excited to teach her this week! Then we taught a new one named Silena White, she was a former from the sister's that we met, so we taught with Bro Hollett and we also taught Silena's roommate... we just taught the Restoration and it was good one!!

Love you all like crazy family!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

"OYMing (talking to people, opening your mouth) is my game...."

Monday, November 3, 2014

Hello Family!!

How is everyone doing today!? I am doing fantastic as always! It is always good when Mondays roll around! I will start out by telling all of you, that it is absolutely freezing here, like we only have the heat on, and I am rocking long sleeve white shirt and a cardigan, or maybe I just want to be super classy!? :) Either way it is cold, cold, we had frost on the lawn this morning! So lets get to the week this week! Oh and by the way... I am staying here in the 1st Ward, and with Elder Peterson... our zone didn't have but 2 transfers, and a handful going home! BUT I am pumped to stay here, this is my stomping ground!!! 

Monday -  We played football and basketball for P-Day! And this past week was our Family History finding week, so today we will all be competing in the dodegeball tournament for both of the tallahassee zones! So that should be good! But in the evening we ate dinner with the Schrader's. Everytime we go over there, he gives us a big hug, in place of our father! They are awesome! Then we we're able to visit Sister Ayers, her husband was baptized earlier this year.

Tuesday - We had our District Meeting in the morning! And then we taught Eric Erickson after at the library! We shared with him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we were pretty straight up with him, and told him that if he really wants this, if he really wants to be baptized, he needs to get to church! Then we taught Gonzalo everything for the baptism! We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he knew all of it, so we just reviewed with him! Then we had our meeting with the Pres. Campbell of the stake presidency! And we tried to run down some potentials, then we had our correlation meeting!

Wednesday - We we're determined to find.. and to get our Family History on! So we took off in the morning on our bikes! And we rode around for hours and hours and just talked to everyone that we could... and we didn't have too much success. We then went to Gonzalo and Eric's interviews for their baptism! So then we did some Family History for Eric... Then there was the ward Trunk or Treat, so we ate dinner there, and then we just sat with all of the members and then helped to clean up afterwards!

Thursday - We met with Torrez and T.R. LeBrun at the church, and we took what we had taught with the Plan of Salvation and we taught the Doctrine of Family History and we taught with Brother Delp, it was really good.. they are awesome to meet and they love it! We then did Family History with them. Then we taught the Adams Family... which is a part member family, she is the member, he is not, as well as his daughter was there, who is 18 I believe. Sister Adams really does have a testimony of the church. We were able to teach the Restoration, and it was really awesome, spirit was there, and so we committed them!

Friday - Best day ever! It always is when I go to FSU... I am going to try my best to get to campus, that is the place!!!! I LOVE IT. So I was with Elder Frederikson, and Elder Milne,

Elder Hintze & FSU Student & Elder Milne

and we taught a guy named Yanis, he was recently baptized... super good guy though, we watched the devotional that they we're showing at the institute with him, and then we taught their recent convert Rodson Sylune, about the Priesthood, really good lesson, loved being with Milne and Frederikson, awesome missionaries! So then we just had a lot of contacting time.... and it was so awesome!!! We had 82 OYMS.... which is crazy... crazy...... and we got 40 people's phone numbers! OYMing (talking to people, opening your mouth) is my game.... so I would stop to talk to someone, and then they would leave me, and then those two would go get someone, so we just divided and conquered!! It was so fun! Then we had to be in early for Halloween! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!! Thank you so much for the package and cookies, they we're so good!

Saturday - BAPTISM DAY!! So we we're at the church early to get him some baptismal clothing, and some members we're cleaning the church, so we helped them out! And while in the process, we cleaned out the baptismal font, and just spruced it up! Then we set up and got the font filling up for the baptism! Gonzalo was there so early, so we just sat and talked with him, he was so happy! So the service was fantastic! And as I mentioned I had the opportunity to baptize him... so it was really special!!

Elder Hintze & Gonzalo Mendez

Elder Hintze & Gonzalo Mendez & Elder Peterson

But it was all awesome, afterwards, we taught Eric, and we taught him the Word of Wisdom, and just went in depth, because he had some questions.  So it was super good... he is still hanging tough! Keep him in your prayers! Then we did some more potential work, and then we met up with Tally 2 ZLs and finished all of the preparations for the dodgeball duel!

Sunday - Gonzalo was confirmed in church, it was awesome as well!! Cristina was there, she hasn't missed a Sunday since we met her, she is still doing awesome! As well Gonzalo is still doing really well.... After our meetings, we attended the 5th ward sacrament meeting with Eric, so it was good to have him there after a while! Then we went out finding and trying potentials, we tried this potential named Glen.. and we went and he let us right in, so it was cool.... and we taught him and a man named Todd... So we taught them the Restoration.... and it honestly actually turned out to be super awesome! The Spirit was working this lesson... so we don't know what will happen! And then we met with Cristina, and we taught her the Plan of Salvation... it is always super awesome! And after that we headed out to see some people, and Gonzalo calls us up and says, "Hey what are you up to!?" "Oh we're just headed to see some people!" "Oh so your not seeing me!" Hahaha, so we went and we saw him.. he is the happiest that I have ever seen him!!!! It really is so awesome, he said that he talked to you Dad, and he thought you we're funny.. so obviously something was wrong! But he really, really enjoyed it!

It has been so good lately here! But it has also been hard... we are struggling a lot with stuff to do at times.. and just dealing with a lot of people where we teach them once or twice and then so hard to get back with them, so I feel like we are filing through people quick, and just trying to find all of the potentials that we got! I love and miss you all like crazy!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

"I am remembering the story of Sodom an Gommorah, and the two angels that came and led them out of the city... I look at you two there and I know that you two are those Angels for our family, and are going to lead us out of something!"

Monday, October 27, 2014

Whats up Family!!!!

This week has been so good, so so so so good!!! I just am feeling really happy today! SO the big news...... GONZALO is getting baptized this next week Saturday... he asked me to baptize him... so I will be doing it, really humbling and exciting!  Also this transfer was only a 5 week transfer, so it is going to be transfer news this next week, but I don't think that I am going to be moving!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is a lot of fun, this week is our Family History competition, ending with a dodgeball tournament this next week! Happy Halloween to you all this week!!!! Alright lets get to it!

Monday - We just played basketball for P-Day and we are doing that again as well... same thing, because we love it! :) We ate dinner with the Delp's in the evening, love that family! Then we met with a man named Mr. T, he showed up to the 4th ward building one day... and said he had met with missionaries before and he was ready to get back into it! So we met up with him, and we sat down and just did some HTBT, got to know him, and then we just read Alma 32 with him, get him back into the Book of Mormon! But something kept telling me that I knew this guy, so I just asked him if his first name is Tshombe? And it is! So that means... we have his old teaching record and he was ready to be baptized... but fell off for some reason!! So it is super exciting, we are going to begin to work with him again!

Tuesday - We had our district meeting in the morning, good one! We were at Campus District, the DL there is awesome. Then we got over to the mission office, to have our president's interviews! IT WAS SO GOOD!!!! After that we taught that man named Tom, we shared with him the Restoration, but he doesn't believe, nor would he let us come back... so he is an interesting fellow, he doesn't believe it has been restored yet, but it will be restored! We ran back and I gave a baptismal interview to a kid name Rodson, who was baptized this week for FSU Elders. He is so awesome, he plans to go to BYU and he walked into the institute building and said, I want to be baptized! He is so awesome! Then we went to MLC, it was a 2 day thing this time, they do it every so often! So all the STLs and ZLs met in Tally and we played games and had a fire that night... It was really, really good. We had a testimony meeting around the fire, and people sung and played the guitar. The spirit there was so strong... love it!!!

Elder ?, Elder McPherson, Elder Smellie, Elder ?, Elder Hintze, & Elder ?

Wednesday - So then we had MLC the actual discussing part... it was really, really good! We got to watch the new temple garment video, and we watched Al Fox the tattooed mormon video, and we got to watch Elder Uchtdorf's talk in the mission president seminar, it was not released to the public, it was so killer!!!!!!! He talked about the sacrament and the change that should be wrought in each of us because of Christ's Resurrection as was the Twelve Apostles, then talked about unity in companionships! It was so good! Loved it all!

MLC - October 2014

After all of that was done, we got all cleaned up and we came back and we just did some finding.. Then we met with Gonzalo and we just went over all of the baptism details, set the date and we went over the baptismal questions one more time with him... he really is so excited!!

Thursday - We did our weekly planning! Then we met with Torrez Lebrun and T.R. again, we had Bro Delp with us and we we're able to finish the plan of salvation... We have taught him how to pray and he has been reading the book of mormon! So afterwards we did Family History with them again, and he really, really loves that! Then we met with Cristina and we began to teach the new member lesson, so we started with the restoration again, and we only got to God is our loving Heavenly Father and Gospel Blesses Families, and we talked a lot about her family. It was really good, every appointment with her, the Spirit is so strong! 

Friday - We met with Robert in the morning and we just talked with him about his "search." Then we went on a tradeoff with the other Tally 1 Elders, I went with Elder Harding, he is a new Elder. We met with this man named Phil Inman, we did some service with him, helped him out in his garden and then he fed us dinner. Then we met with Gonzalo again, and we taught him the Gospel of Jesus CHrist, we reviewed Faith, Repent, Baptize, Holy Ghost, and Endure, and he knew all of the answers!

Saturday - We visited with the Liedy's in the morning. Oh and we went to a 1st ward baptism for 2 kids in the morning! Our zone had 5 baptism this weekend! Which is unheard of!! So we helped set up for the 1:00pm! And then we attended a baptism at FSU for Rodson and we were there with Gonzalo, so he got to see another one! And then we went to another baptism at 7:00pm for the 4th ward! 

Sunday - Such a good day! We had Gonzalo and T.R. at church! And Cristina is still doing so awesome! After church we had a really, really good day! We just went out finding, back to the tracting.. and we had a ton of success! We found a bunch of people and we were able to sit down right then and there and teach a woman, named Reatha! Then we taught Gonzalo with Brother Carroll, and it was just kind of a Endure to the End lesson, we talked about the things that are to come after baptism, like receiving the Priesthood! Then we found this couple, that we talked to for a long time as well, that hopefully we will be able to teach! Just a finding day! Then we met with Cristina again, and we continued with the Restoration lesson, only this time her mother was in there... and she is a new investigator! It was such a powerful lesson!! She already knows that the church is true.. she has felt it! We shared the part about Joseph Smith and the First Vision, so we invited her strongly to begin to read and pray! She said, "I am remembering the story of Sodom an Gommorah, and the two angels that came and led them out of the city... I look at you two there and I know that you two are those Angels for our family, and are going to lead us out of something!" Powerful.... so we said, "It has nothing to do with us... but the message that we bare, and it is the power to lead us through anything!!!!!!!!!!!

I am happy... so happy! This mission continues to be the greatest thing that has ever happened to me in my whole life!! It is changed me in so many ways! I really do miss and love you all like crazy!!!! Have a happy Halloween!! LOVE YOU!!!

"Since ya'll have been coming here, I have felt something that I have never felt before, a feeling of peace and clarity, that I have never before felt."

Monday, October 20, 2014

Monday - I was hooping today, we beat Elder Smellie and Elder McPherson 4 straight times and they are always the ones that win. :) So after that we spent a quick few minutes planning for our zone training. Then we ate dinner with the Blime's, love the Blimes one of my favorite's for sure! They're awesome and then after that we went to the Knudsen's, we committed them to study PMG and then to teach us the Restoration, so we went and we enjoyed a nice lesson from the whole family, it was pretty fun, then they took us to Dairy Queen for their Family Home Evening with them, so great night!

Tuesday - The Zone Training day! So we were running around from when we woke up. Then we had to run all the way across town to grab the laptop, because we had hopes to try and play a video, so the STLs started to cook the breakfast at 8 am, and everyone was to be there at 9 am. The A/C was broken in the church, so it was literally soo hot in there, it was miserable! So for breakfast we had Pancakes, Muffins, Eggs, Sausage, Milk, and OJ, then the fixens for the pancakes. So also while we were in there, we were on lockdown, because there was a huge storm, and there was a tornado watch going on. We started out and we just talked about the Atonement, we had everyone walk out in the hallway and look at the picture of the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane as President had us do in MLC, and then we talked about things we can control and things that we cannot control. Then the STLs, taught us about humility, and they did really good. Then we had a musical number by an elder who sang. Then we talked about some goals and how we can unite as a zone, we need 7 baptisms a month as a zone for the remainder of the year to meet our goal. Our goal is 48 and we are at 26. So it is a lot, but we all committed to say in every prayer to pray for those 7 baptisms and to set a goal and to pray for 1 new BCD by the 1st week of November, and 1 baptism by Christmas. Then we discussed what we can do better with church and member present lesson. Then we presented the Family History week that we are doing, in 2 weeks, it will just be a week of straight using family history for everything and then it all comes together with a dodgeball tournament Nov 3rd, district against district and zone against zone! :) We are doing it with Tally 2 Zone as well, so we are super pumped about it! And everyone else was as well! Then we had a wonderful musical number by the campus sister's and then we heard from the other STL's, they spoke to us about planning, and they did a really, really good job as well! Then we took it over and we finished off with some finding activities in which we discussed some different finding tactics and how we can improve them, we broke off into groups and then role played them, then it all came together, for some testimonies, the missionaries that were leaving bore their testimonies and that brought the Spirit really strong to finish us off. Then we taught this guy named Tom, we found him in the area book as a potential, so we came by and set up a time to meet with him. We got to know him a little bit and taught the restoration, but focused more on the Book of Mormon. He is a cool guy, he wouldn't pray about the Book of Mormon, because he felt that was for people who actually had faith, and he said, I think I am already set in my ways. So then I said, well it won't do us any good to be here teaching you these things, if you aren't willing to try it out. And he said, ya know what maybe so. He was really cool, so we are going back one more time, and we will see where it goes from there, he has a lot of misconceptions about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith!

Wednesday - We have really been trying to do a lot of clean up through the area book, so tracking down all of the potentials. Then we saw Cristina Hamilton, and it was wild what happened. So we are there, just barely start teaching and there is like crazy banging coming from the apartment upstairs, so her mom heads out to go tell them to quiet down.. apparently they have had some problems with them, and Cristina was like don't worry about it.. any whom she goes then comes back, then it starts again, then she goes out again.. this time a little bit more angry. And then Cristina was like I don't have a good feeling about this, then there is this super loud bang from upstairs, so she books it outside and we are just sitting there... So I start getting real nervous, so we get up to see what's going on outside, and don't see anyone, so we go back in. Cristina runs back in and says alright I think we need to call the police, so were like what!? So calls them, and then she goes back out and we join this time, and over at the apartment office there is just like screaming and her mom and this other lady are just going nuts, and I guess the other lady was ready to fight. And so we were just staying clear of that, we didn't want to be in any altercations. So we start talking to this other dude about the Gospel named Brad, and he has met with sister's before, so we talk to him for a minute. Things finally settle down and we get to start teaching about Priesthood and Eternal Marriage. Then Brad comes in with his son Kristopher, and now he is in on the lesson. So it was weird! But it ended up being a really great lesson, and it allowed for her mom and Kristopher, both to feel the spirit, both of them told us how they felt at peace when we talked, so going from the commotion to peace, allowed them to contrast the two! We visited with Bro Barber, and it was a really, really cool visit, some friend of his came in while we we're there and so we were able to talk to him and get him interested in learning more about the Gospel. Then we taught Gonzalo with Bro Gentry and his son Will. Gonzalo picked our topic and it was on Motivation and Managing Stress, so kind of an interesting one. We weren't real sure what to talk about, so we started and it took a different turn, went to Plan of Salvation, and he was wondering about our "chance" to accept the Gospel, because we know everyone will have a chance, so we talked about aspects of the Spirit World! Keep him in your prayers!!! 

Thursday - We did our good old weekly planning! And then we met with Torrez LeBrun x2, and we taught them with Bro Shipley in the chapel, our hopes was to finish teaching them the Plan of Salvation.. we did a quick recap, then our life on earth, and went into the Atonement, and their was a question as to why we needed a physical body, why couldn't we just live as spirits? It allowed us to take it and testify as to how we can know that things are true, simple prayer and by answers from the Spirit, we don't have to listen to anybody else. Then we did some family history with them, and they are actually finding quite a bit about their ancestors, and they are loving it! Then we met with Eric at the library for a lesson. We talked with him about our Freedom to Choose and what we will do with that! But he said, I am looking for a church to join where I can serve in the community and get spiritually fed, and I said, well I know a church! We visited with  Robert Delmonico. He just needs to read and pray and ask if these things are true, I told him that I can't answer for anyone else, I can't even answer for him, but I can answer for myself, and then I bore my testimony! Then we taught Cristina with Sister Blimes, for the last time before the baptism, finished up all of the lessons! It was super cool, at the end of the lesson, her mom bore a testimony after ours, and just said, Since ya'll have been coming here, I have felt something that I have never felt before, a feeling of peace and clarity, that I have never before felt. I was dealing with some family stuff, and I was able to let it go, because of ya'll. 

Friday - We did some service at the Stone's we helped them to load up their furniture into the van, they are moving to Utah! Then we got ready for the baptism, we got all the seats set up. The baptism was awesome!!!! It went really, really well!!!

Elder Peterson, Cristina Hamilton, & Elder Hintze

Delightful service, and Elder Cooper was there!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He got permission to come for it, it was really good to see him again! I was able to perform the baptism, and it was so neat!! The service was really good, the Spirit was there really strong! And Cristina's mom really, really liked it, she shed many tears! And she said to Elder Cooper afterwords, I have been sitting in on the lessons, and I am liking what I am seeing, you may have another member on your hands here soon! Also hilarious story, Cristina brought with her some neighbors to support her, and I went up and introduced myself, nice to meet you yadda yadda, don't think anything of it! Then after I go up to them again, to talk to them, and this lady says to me, you don't remember me do you!? So I started thinking really hard, and right then Elder Cooper walked up in the corner of my eye. And I said, "NO WAY, you we're the one who was giving us grief!" And then Elder Cooper says, "I knew you looked familiar, it's you!!!" Hahahahahaha, so one night we we're outside of Cristina's and their was this group of ladies there, and this one was just giving us major grief. Then she showed up at the baptism and was apologizing to us, hahahahahahahaha!! After the baptism we traded off. I had Elder Jackman with me in 1st ward, and Elder Peterson went to 4th ward.

Saturday - Tradeoff! So in the morning we went to a funeral for this man named Ed Smith who passed away in 1st ward! My first sunday here I gave a sacrament meeting talk with him. The funeral was really, really good! A lot of funny stories, and after a long time of not having a temple reccomend just 4 weeks earlier they went to the temple and had them renewed, so they talked a lot about that!! His father bore the sweetest testimony in the words that he shared!! He invited all there to learn about the Gospel and listen to the missionaries! 

Sunday - Well Primary Program at church... so you know how that goes, it was hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!! And we got Cristina confirmed in sacrament meeting!!!!!! So all of Sunday afterwards, we just spent finding, and running around trying to see potentials, and we were able to set up a lot of appointments, so it was really good. Then we just popped by to see Gonzalo before going home, and it ended up being awesome!!! He slept in and so he went to another church with a classmate, and he hated it, absolutely hated it, the preacher was just raising himself up, and he wanted to leave, said he didn't feel anything.

So things are good here! We have a big MLC this week, which is in Tally! Also have an interview with Pres Smith, so that is always a highlight!! I miss ya'll like crazy and love you so much!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze