Monday, November 17, 2014
Here goes nothing!!!!
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
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
No comments:
Post a Comment