"Can we borrow some bleach we have worms coming out of our shower?"

Monday, December 1, 2014

HELLO!!!!!!

I hope that you all had a terrific Thanksgiving! I missed you guys like crazy, here is the week!

Monday - I just want you all to know how much I love you! So for P-Day today we played a few game of basketball and then we played dodgeball.. it is super fun, we play everyone against everyone, and if you get out, you sit down and they only way to get back in, is if the person who got you out gets out! So it was crazy, but it was a blast. I woke up the next morning and I was so sore, it kills me. So after we went and we visited with Bro Barber and we read Alma 24 with him, which is the story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies and how they choose to die rather than to take up their arms, and then that was the basis of the lesson, just talked about that, and the things we can learn. And when we were leaving, Mike Jones pulled up in his car, so we just stayed and we went and we taught Mike Jones a little lesson there. So we just talked to him about his Faith, and Prayers and Scripture study, we can teach him all we want, but until he does something about it, it won't do any good.

Tuesday - District Meeting day! So we had district meeting in the morning, it was a good one, we spoke on how to overcome fears. We did a pretty good job I suppose. It was a good meeting, I'm learning a lot lately, I have a lot to work on. Then I went on a tradeoff with Elder Farris, who is on campus right now, what to say about Elder Farris, he is a fantastic missionary. It was pouring rain again here today, so we we're just getting drenched, we are just trying to keep things rolling here! 

Wednesday - Still with my man Elder Farris, we did our companion exchange report first thing in the morning. Then we headed out to get our finding on.. We were able to go and see Eric, he is just fading in and out, he won't respond to our calls, so we have to go rescue him from darkness. So we were just out doing tracting and talking to the people out on the town, we we're able to find this really cool dude who lives right next to where the Stone family used to live (moved to Utah), he is an 82 year old man named Walked.. and he just won a gold medal in the senior olympics, eh? He is really excited for us to come back. We then taught Bonnie, and she did not get a chance to go to the Orlando Temple, due to the bad weather that we have been having, but her baptism on the 13th should be really good, the other 1st ward elders have a lady getting baptized as well, so we are doing them together on the 13th at 9am, right before the ward christmas party, so we are including it right into it, so hopefully they're will be lots of support and it should be fun. So we taught her the law of tithing and the law of the fast/fast offering.. it went really well, no problems there, she already knew this commandment and so she is ready to live it! She really is awesome and is doing so well, really excited for everything! Then we did some Family History with Bro Barber! And then we visited with Taahira Daniels, Sis Daniels daughter who is 11, and we shared a lesson with her!

Thursday - HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!! Very good day, very good! In the morning, we played in a Turkey Bowl for the Stake.. but it was more like all of the missionaries, some YSA and some 4th Ward people, but it was so much fun! So much fun, they were serious about it, had an offensive line, and flags, but we dominated. And not too shabby of a day for myself out there on the field! :) I got challenged to a race, mid game, by this kid named Charlie, so we had to pause the game, so we could race.. I could make a whole lot of excuses, because I hate losing, but he got me barely. I'll get him again. So we came home and we did our studies. Then we headed on over to the Knudsen's home, and we ate with them, it was great!! Great food, great company, great desert. So we were there for a bit, and just got to chill a little bit, went on a short walk with them, to see that burned down house near their home. And then we tried to see Craig Mecham, but he has been released from the Hospital to a Hospice House, so we don't know where that is, so don't know if we will be able to visit him anymore. And then we went tracting, knocking doors baby! Didn't have much sucess, a lot of really nice people though, also some not very nice people.

Friday - So after our studies in the morning, the FSU Elders came over and said, "Can we borrow some bleach we have worms coming out of our shower?" Headed out to do some more finding, so we went to this neighborhood and we tracted for a good 2 hours.. and not much came of it, talked to some people, but nobody that was interested. We also chased down a bunch of potentials we had mapped out, and that worked fairly well for us.. we're able to talk to some people in the process. We met with Eric at the church, update on him.. oh boy, so the other church he has been volunteering at, he has accepted a job to go full time in the "ministry" so he will be the supervisor over the homeless service, so he will be moving out of our area, and he will be working full time there, we we're pumped for him, but we were very clear to tell him that he knows what church he needs to be at, and how this would really make it hard for him to be baptized when it came around to it, he acknowledged that, so I guess we will work on that when it comes.. he is a hard one to help! We read with him from PMG, in chapter 5 about the Book of Mormon, and then watched Elder Holland's Mormon Message, the testimony of the Book of Mormon, and then the He is the Gift Christmas video! We are trying to get him back into the Book of Mormon. After that we ate with Cristina and her mom, they prepared basically a whole new Thanksgiving dinner for us, it was so awesome, super nice of them! We didn't think that Bonnie was going to be there.. but she was, so afterwards we taught her a lesson. We covered the Priesthood in greater depth, Eternal Marriage, and Missionary Work, and then covered the baptismal interview questions, in preparation for her interview! It went really good, she has awesome questions. After that we went out and we gave the zone our new He is the Gift pass along cards. I don't know if ya'll have seen the video or not yet, but you should it is super awesome! I love the church, they do everything always super awesome! So.. #ShareTheGift!

Saturday - We did service with Sister Lopez in the morning. We were breaking up pallets for her, she is going to make a credenza out of them, so we we're breaking them up, but not breaking the boards, so we had to very carefully take them apart with a hammer and a crow bar, it was some tough stuff, took a lot of patience, because those suckers we're old! And then we had 4 beautifully planned and confirmed lessons and all 4 of them canceled. One didn't want to meet with us because we  we're strangers and you never know who you can trust, the other had to work, one didn't speak english very well, and then Cristina got sick, so we couldn't meet with Bonnie. So we were just out and about finding, we did probably 2 hours of tracting again, talked to a good amount of people. So we just spent the rest of the time tracking down potentials and talking to people. We ate with the Gray's in the evening, well just Bro Gray, I love the Gray's. So afterwords, we we're less activing hunting and doing anything we could to stay busy, had some people tell us to never return, that is always fun. But we were able to visit with the Markham's for the first time, just tried them. So we just got to know them and visited with them and then we shared He is the Gift with them.

Sunday - Church today was fantastic! It was one of the best Sacrament meetings that I have been to in quite a long time. I got to bless the sacrament with Gonzalo again! And then the speakers did such an awesome job, and there is this lady named Sister Neeley-Bey, and she can sing baby, and she goes no piano and no microphone and just belts it out, she is unbelieveable!! We didn't have any investigators there today.. We tracked into this preacher guy, and so we talked to him in the front yard for like a half an hour, he didn't agree with us, and I was just boiling up inside, the rejection had gotten the best of me, so I didn't get heated, but I made sure that he was very clear what I knew to be true and how I knew it to be true! He was a really nice guy though!

But I am good! I am really, really happy and learning a lot lately, which has been good! I am learning how to be humble and realizing what is really important in life and what is not, that is so important, we need to never lose sight of what is really important in our lives! So thankful for all of you, love you like crazy!!

LOVE, 

Elder Hintze