"I wish ya'll could be here as we talk to all of these people, the good, the bad, the oh so awkward, love it all!"

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Here's the week!

Saturday - This is interesting starting my week off on a Saturday, so good day today! Didn't have hardly any emails haha, nobody knew it was my P-Day except for ya'll! But thats alright. And then for our evening we just ended up doing our Weekly Planning, which will end up helping us out a lot... but it is taking forever, because it is Otu's first, so I am teaching him and then we have no idea who any of these investigators are, so it is hard to plan for them! It has been a whole new experience here on FSU, I really have felt so confused and so dumb, like I have never felt before in any area on my mission... so it may take us a little while until we are fully in the swing of things! Elder Palau the new AP is the man, I have nothing but good things to say about him, the most Christlike person that I know, so fun to see him interact with people, he is so happy! So thats good, Elder Otu and I are still getting along fantastic, always laughing!

Sunday - Lets talk about like the best Sunday ever! So we have got our 12 Week training now, so we have to do an extra hour of companionship study in the mornings, so we finished and headed down to the church after lunch for 1 pm church! And then we got roped into being in a choir full of recent converts and missionaries.. hahaha, so we had to practice and then we sang in Sacrement meeting and literally we killed it.. it was so good! It was ward conference for them, so got to see the Knudsen's there. Elder Otu had to bare his testimony as requested by the stake president!! We had Ryan Carter there and he is awesome.. he will be coming to a baptism that they are having in 5th ward this week, and he wants to take us out to dinner, and then meet for 2 lessons! And then we had Brandon Klenk there. After church, they did something call break the fast, so it was pasta palooza, just tons and tons of food, so it was so much fun! Awesome to be able to get to know all of the members as well, going to be a blast. After all of those festivities, we went out and we were contacting on campus, and it was so good.. ah I love it so much! I wish ya'll could be here as we talk to all of these people, the good, the bad, the oh so awkward, love it all! We had some really, really good contacts, the campus was much slimmer on people on Sunday, so it actually helped us to be able to talk to more.

Monday - So in the morning we had a lesson with this girl named Kaylee, we got a text during sacrament meeting that said, "quick question. Do you get your own planet?" So we were like what the heck! Turns out it is a girl they had talked to previously, and we were just super nice to her and she agreed to meet up. So we had Taylor Wilhelm in the lesson with us, she is a student at FSU. But we are teaching about prophets.. and she interrupts to say, "do you live here? where do you live? do you feel jipped for coming to Tallahassee?" And so needless to say she was not interested in the least... and in her closing prayer she said, "thanks for letting me talk to them, and for me agreeing with at least 2/3 of what they said." She had seen the Book of Mormon play, which is awful, she asked us if "rule #72 was that we can't leave each others side!" Then we taught our man Dusty, he is doing good! He is still progressing right along, and working to receive the aaronic priesthood. Then we came home ate some lunch, and then got to work on calling potentials, we could spend a whole day calling people and then maybe we would catch up! There are so many people to call, so that will be a daily thing, then we got out to do some more contacting, didn't have the greatest success.. but got a few, it is strange how it changes with each new day! 

Tuesday - We had District Meeting in the morning, not the best district meeting.. I'm going to work some kinks out and I will get back into my DL groove! We talked about some good stuff though! After that we had a family history appointment with a guy named Cyrone Ferguson, he came prepared, he met with the other Elders once before, and he had tons of stuff going back into his great grandparents, so we just took the time to start logging all of the info in! Then some lunch, and some good 12 week studying! And then we had some failed Family History appointments, we set the record here on campus for the most no shows on appointments, it is so crazy... but we set so many! So then for the rest of the evening we hit the pavement and we contacted all over Campus! man I love it so much! I think my first adrenaline rush of campus is sligthly wearing off, because man it is a tough job on campus, so so many people are rude/make fun of us, but then again maybe that is why I like it, who knows! :) So we had some fairly good success. Then some dinner and some phone calls! I handed out the first of the testimony Books of Mormon you all sent me, I was looking for real good oppurtunities.. and the girl we gave it to, it was my only one in my backpack... she totally didn't deserve it, but I told her this is my parents testimony, and she better take dang good care of this! So we'll see.

Wednesday - Oh baby, what a day! So 5 lessons scheduled on the day, bam.. all of them fell through, so you know that is a good time! So that equals a full day of contacting on Campus.. it was good! There are literally thousands of people to talk to, and we keep track of how many we actually get to extend invitations to.. so most don't let us get that far! :) But I love it so much! So we did that all day, and then Cameron Locke a member in 5th ward took us to Wendy's for dinner, so that was cool, I like Cameron he is a recent convert of only a few months. And then some more contacting to finish off the evening. It has been so fun with Elder Otu so far. I've got to honest with you, my feet are killing me, I have never walked so much in my whole entire mission hahaha, it is a good thing! But I think that I am going to have to buy some gel soles or something, becaue we are putting on the miles. And I'm a walker, we got places to be, and people to talk to! So we have zone conference tomorrow, and so some of the Panama City missionaries came in for a sleepover, so my man Elder Smellie was here, so it is always fun having some sleepovers.

Thursday - Zone Conference day! oh and was it ever so good! I always love them, we had the Panama City ZLs teach us about member presents, Tally 4 Sisters taught us about Unity, the APs taught us about this cool new family history survery door approach where for lack of a better term, we kind of "con" the person into learning about the gospel, but not really! Just certain words that you use to get in their house, it is pretty tricky, so it is fun to do! Sister Smith taught us about Unity.. introduced our new mission theme of "United We Stand!" for 2015, she had us watch a video from youtube that was made for wounded veterans... it was so good! One of my favorite quotes from it was: "The only enemy is ourselves, if there is no enemy from within, then the enemy from without cannot harm you!" And then Sister Smith shared one I loved: "If your not in the process of becoming the person you want to become, you are automatically engaged in becoming the person you don't want to be!" So good, the Spirit was really strong, her words meant a lot to me! And then President THREW DOWN! But because of lack of time, he couldn't give us the full shpeal, but it was good, he talked about in 3 Nephi where it says contention is of the devil, and then in John 14, where it says if ye love me keep my commandments. And said if you truly love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, you would keep his commandments, and when you cause contention in you companionship, then you are breaking the commandments!

Zone Conference - Tallahassee 1, Tallahassee 2, & Panama City Zones

There has been so many dumb companionship problems in our mission, President talked about the lessons we each need to learn, and somewhere down the line, we will use the things that we learned from each situation! The whole conference was the bomb! I was experiencing some sadness during the meeting, it really hit me how short I have left on my mission.. and I went up to President after and I asked him if they let missionaries extend their missions, I was literally going to do it right then and there, I had been thinking about it the whole entire meeting! But unfortunately they do not allow any more to extend.. President said, "If I could you better believe that I would do it for you!" But we can't anymore. Today is my 20 month mark, and it hit me hard! So sorry family but I almost extended as hard as that would have been to do, I was dead set on it. After that we got back and we had a super awesome Family History apointment with this guy named Ali, but we were a few minutes late and he told us he was there and then he didn't show up. Nor did our next appoinmtent, so we went home and ate ourselves some dinner. And then we were set to meet with Ryan Carter, but he had to head back home to Tampa for a family emergency.. so that didn't happen! And then we attended a baptism in 5th ward for a girl named Allison Graham, great baptism.

Friday - Had some lessons today, so that was awesome! We taught this guy named Graham in the morning, he works at the Wesleyan church on Campus/lives there as well. So don't know how receptive he will be due to that, but we shared with him the restoration, it was a fairly good lesson, a little all over the place, but good! He has been wanting to meet with missionaries forever just to talk about what he has heard... everyone thinks that in the Book of Mormon it says that all of us will get a planet.. it is ridiculous, come on people! He has been to church once before, so hopefully we can keep teaching him, don't know if we will hear from him again! And then we had a lesson with Dusty, he taught us the Restoration. It was good! Then we did some family history work with Tremell, and we gave him a very brief church tour afterwards, showed him the chapel, and talked a little bit about the church.. we set it up for next time when we will be able to teach him about the Gospel! Then later on we had a lesson with a Member/recent convert of last year named Nick Franks, the elders before us were teaching members so we piggy backed off that, and are continuing to do it! Then we had a lesson with Will Lasley. Will called in to the institute wanting to learn more about the church, and wanting to know what we were about, he wants to raise a family with good values, so he is pretty solid! We finished teaching him the plan of salvation and it went well, the Dalley's the institute couple were in there with us and Nick Franks was there as well. He is so willing to read/pray and come to church, so we will see what happens... we will see if we can get him progressing! Then we played volleyball in the evening with the ward!

So it has been a good week! it has been crazy, the time flys by so quick, I feel like I was just barely emailing you all last week, it is nuts! But it is good, I am still loving life here on Campus! We are headed to a place called Wakulla Springs today, to go on a glass bottom boat, and see manatees and alligators and all kinds of other wildlife! We are going with the APs and Dusty, Sister Anderson from 1st ward will also be getting baptized at noon, so I will be in attendance there! Love you all so so so somuch!!! Miss you all!

Love,

Elder Hintze!!

"My mission has just progressed and gotten better and better and better!"

Saturday, February 7, 2014

Monday - Today was a great day! After a good emailing session, Elder Peterson and I went to the New Time Country Buffet, because Dan bought us a gift card for there.. Anyways we took down some food and while we were there a random guy came up and gave us $20 bucks, said he wanted to pay for our lunch, so nice of him! We thanked him a lot, he wasn't much for talking, just said, Keep doing what ya'll are doing! But man I am a wouse, I took down 2 plates and was stuffed.. I am just a skinny little white boy. After lunch we went to dodgeball, and when I was getting dressed, I was shocked, I have some little toothpick legs, my body is wasting away! So dodgeball tourney was awesome, lets here it for the Tally South district (our district!) We didn't lose a match this time and we took the championship! I was pretty decent out there.. in the championship game I was the only one left, against 2 sisters, Elder Welch, and Elder Christensen (Tally 2 ZL) so they were just going at me.. all I had to do was catch one and my whole team comes back in! So I was dodging and then they moved the lines up, so they could come a lot closer to me psssh, so still dodging, then I take matters into my own hands, nail Christensen, then throw it at Welch, he blocks it, he throws it at me, catch it, so he's out and the whole team is back in! So then we drilled the 2 sisters and then went on to win it all! It was a sweet victory to steal it from the APs :). The meal calendar lady didn't get the February calendar done, so my last days get no meals.. After that we had to do all of the transfer scheduling and tell everybody where they are headed, we have so many transfers, don't know where were going to get the miles for this! :) Peterson's problem :) I am going to miss Elder Peterson, I am also going to miss being a zone leader I really really enjoyed it, lots of good times! So after that we headed out, and we found this new less active lady, she is awesome her name is Sister Heffner, talked to her for probably 30 minutes on her porch, set up a return appointment, she says she was just praying the other night and knows she needs to get back into church! And then we payed a short visit to the Knudsen's man alive I love them, they are so awesome, going to miss them as well!

Elder Hintze & the Knudsen's. This family has been so sweet with the missionaries!

Tuesday - We had District Meeting in the morning! It was a good one, that whole district is being shaken up!

The Zone

The Zone (with more missionaries)

So after district meeting, we had an appointment set up with Cristina, and then she told us she couldn't make it after we already got there. We then went and we taught TR at his house this time, so we got a chance to meet his mom, we taught him the commandments of Sabbath Day Holy and Ten Commandments, and it was his birthday, so we went and bought ice cream and a bunch of toppings! But it was also part of the lesson, we made a sundae  and put nasty things like BBQ Sauce on it, just to show him that there are better and even best things that we could be doing on the sabbath! Then we did some family history with Eric at the church, still rocking and rolling with him! Had our meeting with Pres Campbell and then we ate some dinner. The February meal calendar didn't get passed around, so my last days ended with no meals from 1st ward! :( Then we taught Gonzalo it was good! Didn't get to sit down and have too much of a lesson, just talked to him about how he was feeling about church. I love that man like crazy!! Then we had our correlation meeting!

Wednesday - Transfer day!! We went to the train the trainers meeting in the morning! And it was good, the APs taught it.  And that is where they announced I was going to FSU with Elder Otu, and I would be the district leader... not even a suprise for me, but I was so pumped!!!! I was talking to President after, and he was so excited, he said to me, "You lucky dog, I would trade places with you if I could!"

Transfer Day: Elder Fredericksen, Elder Funk, Elder Hintze, Elder Milne, & Elder Otu

I love Pres and Sister Smith, they said I almost didn't come here, they had me in Pensacola as a Zone Leader, so finally one of the last moves that they made was putting Elder Otu with me, and it is working like a charm! I love Elder Otu, he is the man, we get along so good, and have been having so much fun! He is from Taylorsville, Utah, and he is a rugby player, he played for the USA Jr. National Team, so he is dang good. He is 20 years old, he used to box, plus he can protect me! :) He is awesome, we are going to do really great things here! So there have been some big big changes, Elder Milne, who was on FSU is now in my spot as our Zone Leader, so that is hilarious!

Elder Fredericksen, Elder Funk, Elder Hintze, & Elder Milne

Elder Hildebrandt & Elder Hintze

Sister Collett, Elder Peterson (photo bombing), & Elder Hintze

Elder Hintze & Elder Collett

Elder Hintze & Elder Udy

We got a new AP in Elder Palau, and so now get this... their proselyting area is on FSU as well, so now there are 5 of us, and now we will have someone to spend P-Day with so we are excited! So we got back to our place, and we just cleaned the heck out of it… Elder Otu is a very clean guy, so we went to town on that place, threw so many things out, so it is looking really nice now! We got a new companion in the shack out back, his name is Elder Browning, and Elder Cooper trained him... he is so awesome, so it is going to be some serious good times here!!! Oh also we got taken out to dinner by a member named Taylor Wilhelm he is the man!

Thursday - So it is a whole new experience for me... in the white washing... I feel so dumb hahaha, just becuase I don't know who anyone is or who the investigators are or who these appointments are with, so it has been a whole new experience, but we are getting the hang of it! So my emails might be a little bit more lame, because all we do is teach and then contact on campus... and that is my favorite part! It has been fun with Elder Otu. We are working it out together and it has been fun to teach him, we have had quite some good success, with campus you got lots and lots of return appointments and phone numbers... but rarely ever do they turn into anything! So we will see what happens, I will tell you about the lessons that we taught! We taught Dusty Young, he is the one that was just baptized and he reminds me so much of Cameron Coggins...so much! He is planning on going on a mission, and so we talked to him and read quite a bit about the Priesthood, and his preparation to receive it. Then we taught an investigator by the name of Brandon Klenk, 18 years old, student at FSU, very interesting, we just go to know him. And then in the evening, we had sports night with the ward! We played volleyball, it was so much fun! It is way different in a YSA ward, it is gossip central as well, all the members will go and stalk your instagram, twitter, and facebook, to check you out!

Friday - A lot of contacting! And some good lessons, we taught a member girl named Kirsten Christensen, raised in the church, parents are fully active. Then we did some family history with a man named Tremell! Then we taught a guy named Kahasim... he is a student at FSU! And then we taught Ryan Carter, he is pretty darn awesome I am glad that I get to teach him! We talked to him about his play... and he said his motives were to learn about us for the play, but it has totally switched and he has found it to be very enlightening, and he is now pursuing it for himself! So we taught him the Plan of Salvation, and it went so well, he understood and it was a very good lesson, he is really loving it! He will be at church, and he is reading the Book of Mormon like a champ! 

So now it is Saturday! Today we are going to be playing some basketball with some members from the 1st and 5th ward, so we are excited for that! And then don't know what else we will have plans to do! But life is so good, I thought that it couldn't get any better than the 1st ward.. but now I am here and my mission has just progressed and gotten better and better and better! So these last 4 months are going to go by very quick, Elder Otu and I are going to be working like crazy! I love you all and miss you!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

"I am now going to be serving on the Florida State University Campus"

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Hello Family!!!

I got permission to write you all a quick email... I am now going to be serving on the Florida State University Campus in the 5th Ward of Tallahassee!! My new companion is named Elder Otu, he is from Taylorsville, Utah. He is a big old boy, he did body building and power lifting, he is awesome! I am going to be learning tons from him! But I just wanted to let you guys know... my P-Days will now be on Saturdays, so I will talk to you all then!!! Love you!!!!!! :)

Love,

Elder Hintze

Elder Otu and Elder Hintze - February 4, 2015

I have updated Elder Hintze's address on this blog. He actually just moved next door! 

"Miracles, Baptism on Feb 14th, and Transferred!‏"

Monday, February 2, 2015

Hello Family!!

This week has been awesome!! I hope that everyone is doing well today! Miss you guys like always! We had some really neat miracles this week!! We also have the Tally 1 and Tally 2 Zone dodgeball tournaments today, so I am excited for that! Lets get to the week!

Monday - P-Day! We were with the Tally 2 ZLs for most of the day, after all of our business matters. We went to the museum in downtown Tallahassee, it was actually pretty darn cool. It started way back with the first indians in Florida, and then worked its way up until the Spanish came, and then slavery, civil war, and then up until today. So it was really cool, I was into it, and I was really reading the plaques, how about that huh? Nobody reads the plaques. :) But I got burned out, so the civil war and the civil rights modern stuff interested me the most.. but by then I had lost interest. :) Crazy to think that not just too long ago, our nation was fighting against itself, as well as the horrible things people did to blacks. After that we went up to the capitol building again, it was a clear day, so we were able to see much further out! Then the Delp family fed us were able to give us some names of people to go visit, they have been here for so long, so they know everyone! Then we visited with Bro Barber, we had a good visit with him, he sure likes to ramble and just talk, he recently had a colonoscopy and he had me dieing of laughter, he is hilarious!

Tuesday - District Meeting in the morning, we were at our own, and we had to teach for most of it, so we talked about Studies and OYMing, it went pretty well, we hope! :) After that we had 2 family history appointments, one with Eric, I helped him and things are still just rolling, we are continuing to find tons of stuff on his family, slowing down maybe just a little bit.

Eric Erickson & Elder Hintze

And then we had a new guy named Jaylinn who we just talked to out and about, and he came so we got him setup and found as much as we could and then sent him off to do some digging, and then we are going to meet up with him again. Rest of the evening was dinner and correlation meeting! In correlation meeting I was asked to lead the music, sometimes I think I have a semi alright voice, and others it is atrocious.. haha this time it was bad, and so everybody was dying with laughter, ya ya I do what I can!

Wednesday - So after some phone calls in the morning, we headed out with the FSU Elders and we volunteered at the Grace Mission, handing out food to the homeless again, I was handoff man, I like talking to the people, so that was a good time, really enjoy doing that! A lot of really good people there. Then we went on a mini split with the FSU Elders, because we had an investigator that we were going to pass off to them, so I went with Elder Frederiksen and Elder Funk, and then Elder Milne and Elder Peterson went to the appointment, and he ended up not being there, so they did some finding. And in FSU we taught Dusty Young their new member, he is 18 and he is awesome, he got baptized this weekend, so we taught him about missionary work, he was introduced to the church through a friend who just came home from a mission, he reminds me a lot of Cameron, only  member in family and now he want to serve a mission, he is awesome! We also had a Family History appointment, and while in there a couple came in for the first time, who were not members, and so I was helping them out, they had some tough stuff to find. So not as successful! But then we traded back and we did some family history with Eric, things were rocking again, but unfortunately the internet went out in the FH Center, and so it put a halt to our search, but Eric again said well lets try again tomorrow. Dinner for us and then we taught Ava Brock her lesson for her baptismal prep, we taught her the Plan of Salvation, we had her draw it out on a whiteboard. And it went well, we've been trying hard to get her involved, at the end of it I said, "Ava.. something terrible has happened, we have all forgotten the Plan of Salvation, we need you to tell us!" And then in the evening, we did some finding!

Thursday - In the morning we had our Presidents Interview... oh man alive it was so good! I really love President, I will try and remember as many things as I can about what we talked about! So he started out by giving some serious praise as he always does. He probably says that to everyone, but made me feel good! So we then talked about where I can finish strong, so I think I will be going to FSU Campus, but we will see! We talked a lot about finishing the mission strong, and what kind of person I need to be once I am home from the mission, he told me to choose very wisely who I marry, he said, I could see you being a mission president on day, if you marry wisely! He's throwing down on marriage already to me! ;) So then he said that it is good I live close to him in American Fork, so I can come and visit him anytime, so we talked about hanging out for awhile! And then about my 2015 goals that I have set for myself, so President is the man! Afterwards, we did some service with Dan Cosson our landlord, he cut down a big tree in our yard, and asked us to help him load it up in his truck and take the loads. So we dropped them off at this barbeque place, and they took the pecan wood, and in turn Dan got us a gift certificate to eat there, good guy! But hahaha, he is a big military guy, so he is always saying to me that my calling is to be a special forces medic in the Army. And so I was just asking him about it, as we were on our way to go to Sears to by some clippers for the tree limbs. And he says, well it just so turns out that the army recruiter office is on the way there. So I say, No Dan we can't do that today, I would maybe consider going with you on a Monday, but not today. He says, okay. So of course what does he do, next thing you know we are in the Army recruiters office.... so he says we'll just run in and grab some brochures. And then it turns into a 20 minute conversation with the Army recruiter asking me questions! hahahaha. Dan is a good guy! :) After that we did some family history with Eric again, and we hit a little bit of a wall.. so we are going to keep trying, but didn't have quite as many successes as last time! Then Peterson gave the FSU Elders investigator Dusty a baptismal interview, and then we ate dinner with the Porter's, we did a lesson and then had all of them write their testimonies in a Book of Mormon, and then we are going to hand them out to people we meet, it is pretty cool.

Oh so get this MIRACLE! We get a call from Bishop on our way home, and he says, "Hey Sister Anderson just called and she wants to be baptized, and she has set a date for her for February 14th, and so I told her she needs to take the missionary lessons before then! So give them a call to set it up!" WHAT!?!?!? SO crazy, she is a part member family, that has taken the lessons before.. and so we are going to teach her and then will be having a baptism on the 14th, so awesome!

Friday - We taught Bill Kosin in the morning, he is a good guy, had an awesome visit with him.. Then we taught T. R. LeBrun, they gave us this book and some military compasses, as gifts for teaching TR, it was super nice of them! So his dad was back in the lesson with us, we had Bro Delp there. It went really well! We talked about the Priesthood and Follow the Prophet, and watched a video called the Mediator... it went well, TR is still doing awesome! Then we had to do our weekly planning! And then we taught these 2 new guys named Dennis and Spencer, passed them off to FSU, they are students there, but the lesson went well, and they liked it! Then we taught Austin Whitfield.. and man alive it was bad, we read Alma 32 with him, and reviewed!

Saturday - Had to do some more weekly planning. Then we attended Dusty's baptism in the 5th ward, it was an awesome service! Then we taught Ryan Carter again, he is awesome we just reviewed and we taught him some more about the Priesthood and watched the short restoration video with him, and then read the book of Enos with him! He is so awesome, takes notes... but we have some further developments with him, we'll wait until Sunday to talk about that! Then we taught Sister Anderson it is funny to teach her, she literally knows everything, and already knows it is true, so it is fun, we taught her a bunch of stuff, taught her the Restoration.. and then some commandments since we are in a little bit of a time crunch! Then we ate dinner with the Gray's but they were short on time, so we came over and shared a lesson, and then gave their son a priesthood blessing. Then taught the Daniels Family, did a Book of Mormon read.

Sunday - Church was super good! We had Eric there as well as Sister Anderson was there, TR could not make it! And then Ryan came to 5th ward, and it was testimony meeting, and there have been lots of non members that bear their testimonies.. so the Spirit in there was so strong. So Ryan goes up and he bears his testimony... and he tells his story of how he was raised Catholic and how his mom passed away and due to that, his relationship with God ceased. He then said, I have been studying with Elder Hintze (Elder Peterson was not in the meeting) for 2 weeks now, and what Elder Hintze does not know, is that I have been given a role in a play, named Mormon. And I called the missionaries over for the sole purpose of learning about them, information that you can't get online.. but what Elder Hintze also doesn't know is that in those 2 weeks I have felt something that I have never felt before and am feeling my relationship with God increasing. And then he said, Good Job Elder Hintze! It was so powerful!! So excited for the FSU Elders to teach him, and see what happens! :) Then we saw Cristina after church, we just felt that we needed to pop by, she will be moving to Ft Lauderdale on Feb 23rd, she got a job as a flight attendant. It was a good visit, we had a good talk with her, and got things rolling again, she says she will be in church, and she really wants to go to the temple. So we had a good talk about the Sacrament and that comes first! :) Then we had a visit with Michell Carmon, the member we found and have gotten back the past 3 weeks. And then we ventured way out in our area and we tried to see a lot of people way out, were able to visit with one family the Browns!

Family I love you guys like crazy! Miss you all, it is kind of exciting with the transfer, but kind of sad.. this week has been kind of difficult knowing it is most likely my last week here in the 1st ward, so many good times here and so many lessons learned! It is hard to look back on all that has happened here, I hope that I have done enough. I am excited and very nervous for whats to come though! Love you guys!!!!!

Love, 

Elder Hintze

"in the next life he will know that Elder Hintze and Elder Peterson told him about the true Gospel."

Monday, January 26, 2015

Hello Family!

Hope you are all doing well! Today and this week were really good! And I am just extra feeling good today! So I love you guys like crazy, and now I'm going to tell you about our week! Here it is:

Monday - P-Day... told you about the wild festivities this last week, with the prayer meeting at the Capitol! It was a good time, it was with some African American preachers so it was a riot, they had recited and wrote out prayers, so we had lots of Amens and Hallelujah and Yes Lord! So I was throwing in a couple here and there, whats that old saying, When in Rome... :) We met the Knudsen's at Moe's grill, and they took us out to dinner! Then we went and we visited with a man by the name of Phil Inman, he is a guy who has been for about the last 10 years or so, we got a chance to visit him and his nephew who is like 10 or 11 named Ashton, and that little kid is hilarious. Ashton is not a member! So we are going to start working with them! 

Tuesday - We drove out to Madison, Florida! And we attended their District Meeting, we had the chance to teach there, and it went well, we taught Area Books and Role Plays! After that I went on an exchange with Elder Thompson in Madison, and then Snow and Peterson went down to the 1st ward! I had a really good day with Elder Thompson, we taught some lessons to some folks who were in the nursing home! And then had a chance to teach one of their investigators... did a follow up with him on the Restoration, read Alma 32, and then talked about Prayer and reading! It went really well, we had the chance to do a lot of finding. They usually report about 4 OYMs (opening your mouth to people, unplanned opportunities to find) And we got 19 in several hours, so it was really good! We were OYMing people in the grocery story parking lot, everybody needs the Gospel! So it was a really good day!

Wednesday - We traded back in the morning! It is about an hours drive from Tallahassee, so always a good road trip! Once back we taught this super cool guy named Tremeinko Jones, cool name right? He is a student at FAMU, and we taught him the Restoration, he accepted it very well and was excited for the opportunity to read the Book of Mormon, we will be passing him over to the FSU Elders however, because he attends FAMU, and is in the YSA age range! He didn't show up to church as expected. But then we had an awesome visit with Eric Erickson, we did some Family History work with him, and we had done it previously, but had not been able to find anything! And we said a prayer with him and things just started rolling... we were finding out tons of stuff on his dad's side, who he didn't know too well! And I just had a feeling that I should log onto my account and look up some of the people, because then it would have the temple tab, where his does not... and his ancestors had, had a lot of their work done in the temple! So we were able to email the individuals to see if we could find active members in his family, they unfortunately are all distant relatives, but had some cool contacts with them, one lady sent us a bunch of stuff, she said she has done over 9000 names. And then the other lady knows Bruce Hintze, who is father Brent's 1st cousin, very small world! After we finished, he said what are you doing tomorrow, so we set up to go again! Then we taught Dusty Brock's daughter Ava, who is progressing towards her baptism in a few weeks, so we are going to teach her the lessons. Then we ate dinner with Bishop and his wife. And then we attempted to visit Heath in the rehab, but he had left.. so we visited a member named Claud Hollett.

Thursday - We did service with Sister Lopez again, she had us raking up her leaves! And then we did just a little bit of weekly planning, then did some Family History with Eric again, and we had a lot of success again, we were able to print out a bunch of census records with his family on it, so he has all of them! Then we visited with the Daniels family, had a lesson with Sister Daniels and Taahira. Then we visited the Whitfield's I have talked about them a few times, it is a PM family, an Casey the non member, just got his son with them, who is 15 and his name is Austin, so they wanted us to come out and just teach him, to see if he was interested, and just to help him out!

Friday - We were on an exchange with Tally 4 Elders, so I was with Elder Duncan, a brand new missionary in our area, Duncan is an awesome guy! We taught Bill Kosin in the morning, and it was an awesome visit, he agreed to meet with us weekly, and he wants to come back to church! Then we did a bunch of finding, and potential work, got some good contacts, we also visited a former investigator named Tom, he was happy to see us, really happy. I asked him if he was ready to convert, but he's not sold. Then we did 12 week training with Elder Duncan, just an extra hour of study for the new missionaries, it is fun to teach other missionaries, I hope that I get to train to finish my mission! We had an appointment with Chris and Neisha and he texted us like 10 mintues before and said, "I'm not interested in LDS. Thanks." Bleh, whatever! So that stunk, they were so awesome! Then we did our exchange report!

Saturday - We taught a man by the name of Ryan Carter with Bro Kelly, Ryan called the mission office and requested that missionaries come by and see him, he is so awesome, he is a drama student at FSU. He loves the lifestyle that Mormons live, he told us that he wants to live the law of Chastity, and wondered how he could do it. It was so cool, he is so solid! So we taught him the Restoration lesson, and he loved it, we taught him how to pray! And it was so cool, he did not come to church because he slept in.. so that stunk! But we will again be passing him over to the FSU Elders, he is so solid though, without a doubt I see him being baptized! Then we saw the Liedy's very briefly, his grandfather passed away, and that family that I mentioned on Christmas eve in the ward that lost their son, was Bro Liedy's best friend, so he has a rough go of things right now, she is due with a baby soon! We taught T. R. with the Porter's in their home, and it was a fantastic lesson! We talked to him about Doctrine of Christ and the Atonement and connected into Baptism, as something that we all need. T. R. is so cool, he knows all the answers and really retains all that he reads in the Book of Mormon, but he is just waiting for the confirmation to tell him to be baptized, so it will come! Bro Porter and Cole their 14 year old son were there, so it ended up being perfect, they fed him and then had him over after to just visit, so things are going well with him! Then we saw a man by the name of Tyshawn Miller, he is a part member family, his mom is really active, so we are going to start working with him! 

Sunday - Church was really good, we had T. R. there, doing awesome! And we got to teach the youth sunday school class, on how the Holy Ghost helps us share the Gospel? It went really well! So church was good, after church we went with Bro Kelly to make a home teaching visit to a lady named Chloe Davis, a sweet older lady, who says she is too old to come to church. And then we were out finding! And I was on fire, I was in my preaching mood! So it was a blast, I told some guy that in the next life he will know that Elder Hintze and Elder Peterson told him about the true Gospel. He said to us, you guys don't know God's ways, none of us do, his ways are higher! I said, you are right, then I quoted Isaiah 55:8, and I said, but yet your the first one to say that the Book of Mormon isn't Gods's way.. hmm? It was fun! Had some really good contacts! Then we taught Otia Nash, she is an 18 year old only member in her family, and she hasn't been coming, but she says she has just been lazy. So we are getting her back to!

This week was a good one! We worked hard, everytime that morning alarm goes off, I feel like death! But life is good. I love you all like crazy!!!! Miss you!

Love, Elder Hintze

"I had fasted and I had prayed and come up with a list of questions that I needed answered, and then we did the same in our companionship, and all of them were answered!"

Monday, January 19, 2015

Monday - For P-Day as I just sent the pictures we went with the APs and went to the top of the capitol building! It was pretty cool, there is nothing to see but trees... never seen so far my whole mission, you are always closed in around you! It was a foggy day so we couldn't see the best, but on a clear day, you can see all the way to the coast they say!

State Capitol?

View form the State Capitol?

We also went to the Supreme Court building, cool as well, don't know what we're looking at, but got to see the library and their court room, the museum downtown was closed, so we may try and get there today!

But after all of that the Johnson's took us out to dinner to the Red Elephant, the Johnson's are awesome! After that we went and gave a blessing to a member's cousin who was in the hospital, the Grissett's cousin, she is not a member... so it was really good! And we got to talk to them, and the non member daughter in law was there. But really good visit with them, we will be  going back soon! And since we were up that way, we called Sister Gray and asked if Heath was in the rehab place still.. he was and she was there, so we came by! So we got there and he had just had surgery, and was in so much pain, like he was shaking.. so we were just about to leave, and Sister Gray says alright well I'm going to walk out with the Elders.. and he says, "What if I want them to stay, so I can talk to them?" So she was pumped, but hid it! So... it was awesome, we spent about an hour with him, and just had really good conversation with him, talked a lot about the changes he has made in his life and he wants to get back into church! And we got out and Sister Gray was waiting for us.. so we got to tell her all about it! It was a really neat experience!

Tuesday - We had District Meeting in the morning and we stayed at our own here in Tally. Then we went on an exchange with the APs, so I was with Elder Sorenson in our area, and Peterson went with Elder Welch. After trading off, it was our task to be able to find the Chamber of Commerce to find events in Tallahassee, that we can set up booths at as well as to just be in attendance, so we went to the Florida Chamber, they told us we need to go to the Tallahassee one. So we went there... and they told us they couldn't help us, so then we went to the Visitors Bureau and finally were able to find what we were looking for! We found a Farmers Market every Saturday in downtown starting in March, so we had a conversation with the man, and we talked to Pres Smith, and we got the go ahead, so come March until November we are going to be setting up a Family History booth at this Market. We had some really cool contacts along the way, the Visitors Bureau lady was super interested in FH, and the guy at the Florida one, his son is a member... so we worked on him, but he wouldn't give in! So after that Elder Sorenson and I, were just doing some finding.. So we were working mainly in apartment complexes, and it was hopping, it was awesome, we are going to start to do it more, there are people everywhere! Were able to find lots of people that are really interested in FH. Afterwards we ate dinner with the Reynold's at the church, love them! And then we had our correlation meeting in the evening. Things are starting to roll!

Wednesday - In the morning we did our exchange report... and then we volunteered at the Grace Mission, they feed the homeless, so we got to dish out all of the plates to people who were coming through.. I was the last one, gave them a choice between 3 veggies, then passed it off. It was a lot of fun, and it was so interesting, to see how thankful some of the people were, so nice! But then there were others that said... this is all the food we get. Its like you don't seem like your in much of a position to complain? But it was a really good time! Then we traded back! Then we had our visit with Gonzalo.. and it went really good, the Spirit was really strong. Then we had a great visit with Bro Barber! 

Thursday - Elder Anderson day! And I forgot my notes.. so I will try my best to give you what I took away from it! The whole mission came in, so it was a big deal, got to see all my favorite people! They did this big video presentation and we all made signs.. using the theme unity! So Elder and Sister Anderson were there, and man alive, it was like non stop Spirit in that meeting... it was so awesome!

Sister Anderson, Elder Neil Anderson, President Smith, & Sister Smith

I had fasted and I had prayed and come up with a list of questions that I needed answered, and then we did the same in our companionship, and all of them were answered! I don't really know what to expect from an Apostle.. but the bulk of their message to us, was Honesty! The whole meeting was taught with a scripture D&C 97:8.. and so I took away that Honesty and Accountability run together, I need to be completely honest with God and with myself, I should be able to kneel down each night and say, "Father, would you accept the very best that I could do this day? I know that we can't do it without you, and I am trying my hardest, and I plead with you that you can help us out!" And it really hit me hard... we are the first to complain about things.. but yet, I don't know if I was being completely honest each night! It has given me a renewed desire to do missionary work, and I have been so happy since that meeting! The other thing was: he told a story of a missionary from his mission in France, that wouldn't work in one city, and so finally he said, okay where do you want me to send you? The missionary said a city, so he sent him there. Elder Anderson said after he left, the city flourished. And I started to think about that, there will be missionaries that replace me in the 1st ward, and there will be baptisms here in the 1st ward.. so I can't let my mission become another missionaries experiences based on my lack of work or faith. Why not me, and why not right now!? It was so brilliant, it is probably one of the highlights of my mission! We hung around and then there was another devotional for the whole stake, we had T. R. there and he loved it, he loved Elder Anderson. He talked a lot about the Seen vs the Unseen in that meeting!

Friday - Did our weekly planning in the morning! Then some finding, and then the Southern's bought us pizza for dinner, we had to help setup for a funeral. One of my favorite ladies in the ward passed away, she was an older lady, and she was hilarious. Then we had some appointments cancel, and then we traded off with the 4th ward Elders, I went to their area with Elder Jackman!

Saturday - We had a super good day on the tradeoff! We helped a member to move in the morning, easy move, not too shabby. Then we had three awesome lessons with less actives and recent converts. The first sister wouldn't tell us why she wouldn't come to church, finally all it took was telling her that she can go talk to Bishop and it was crazy! Then we visited another older sister, and we just studied the scriptures with her. And then we taught the Lahtinens which is a recent convert, and they are stellar. We did some good finding.. Then we traded back in the evening. Elder Peterson had a good day in our area, he was able to teach T.R. as well as this new couple we have been in contact with Chris and Neisha! 

Sunday - Church! It was a really really good sacrament meeting! We had T.R. there and he is still loving it, he is just waiting for his witness to be baptized! We taught the Deacons Quorum there was only two of them in there, but it was a good lesson, we taught them how to teach the Godhead, and how to prepare a basic lesson plan. Then we ate dinner with the Gaskins, and they live 40 minutes away from Tallahassee, so it is a little drive. Bishop told us that he wants to visit all of the Part Members, focus more on the ward, so we were able to set up some returns with people. And then we taught Sister Daniels in the evening. And then had to finish our weekly planning!

Family, love you all!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

"I don't believe that, because if I did, that would say my church isn't true."

Monday, January 12, 2015

Hello Family!!

Hope that everyone is doing well today! This week was a interesting one... really hard, but really really good! Here we go!

Monday - P-Day! We ate dinner with the Carroll's, they are awesome! He is our Assistant Ward Mission Leader. After dinner we had plans to contact a referral that we had received.. and our lesson with Gonzalo had canceled so the rest of our evening was wide open. So the referral wasn't there, and so we had missed a few oppurtunities to talk to people. So we are getting back to the car, and this car pulls into their driveway, and I'm like no way are we  going to miss another oppurtunity, so they pull in and it was one of those classic, they see us and they are still in the car, so its like I'm just going to stand here until  you get out, because I know you have to sooner or later! So they did and we talked to them.. and they let us right in! It was the street that we caroled on, so they remembered us from then, and we had a chance to go in and to teach them quickly, taught them about the Book of Mormon, and did a little HTBT, and let them know why we were there, so it is a couple probably in their 30s, have a 10 yr old son, 7 yr old daughter, and a baby that is due the 15th of this month. So we are going back to teach them, it was so awesome! So we are really excited to teach them, their names our Jary and Clarissa.

Tuesday - We taught Eric pretty early in the morning with Brother Karlberg at the church.. it was a pretty good lesson, we talked to him about the Doctrine of Family History. Oh and by the way, goodnight family, you guys don't even know what cold is.. it has been like 20 degrees here with all of the humidity, and it is the coldest thing of my whole life... so stinkin cold, this whole week is supposed to be bad. We went to the Campus District Meeting today, and it was awesome, Elder Frederiksen is probably the best DL in the world, we had a chance to teach for a bit, we talked to people about "planning to find", some good stuff. Afterwards, we had our district activity and we all played dodgeball, the campus district and the tally district. Not everybody was on board.. but I am probably the best at peer pressuring people into doing things, so I got everyone on board with it.. the campus sister missionaries were easy! :) So we played and it was a blast again! So after that we freshened up and we had several appointments but they didn't go through.. so we had some time to find, and we were able to have some good contacts, we found a family of 11, haha, and some other really good ones, hope they turn out. Then we went to the church where Sister Flores had left us some chili for us to eat, so then we ate a little bit of that. And then we went to our correlation meeting.. Brother Kelly has really got the fire! I'm excited for it, so things are starting to get rolling in the ward!

Wednesday - So MLC day! We were there bright and early and we boarded the transfer van, and we road tripped out to Crestview, Florida.

MLC - January 2015 

It ended up being such a good meeting, like it meant a lot to me. The Spirit was really strong, very uplifting, I left wanting to be such a better person... President talked about Unity at the end, that is the big push in our mission.. our theme is "United We Stand!" I feel a lot as Nephi did in 2 Nephi chapter 4, (by the way one of my favorites in the Book of Mormon) in verse 27- "And why should I yield to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry because of mine enemy?" And then in Alma 29:1 "O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!" The Spirit was really strong, helped me to want to be better in the meeting! On the way home, I commodore the transfer van... started honking the horn in the parking lot, yelling all aboard, this is polar express style! So that was fun! 

Thursday - (Elder Peterson's 1 year mark! hahaha) Oh and let me tell you... like freezing cold, so cold so cold! I have been wearing my long johns under my slacks. Then Dan Cosson (land lord) fed us some lunch, so we went over there with the FSU Elders, he fed us a delicious lunch! And then we came back and we did our weekly planning session and we got it finished! Then we were going on splits with the High Priests, so Peterson went with Brother Shipley and they were able to teach T.R. and they had a good lesson with him, he is still doing really well! And then I went with WML Bro Kelly, and we had an appointment with a family of 11, but they were unable to meet! So Bro Kelly and I went and we visited Gonzalo...

Friday - I was on an exchange with the FSU Elders... so that was awesome, you all know how I love Campus, I was with Elder Milne and Elder Funk! It was crazy there was tons of people on campus, never seen so many people to talk to in my whole entire mission, like thousands and thousands of people... I was a little big shell shocked and then we got into it, it is my favorite thing in the whole entire world, just talking to everyone! So we did a ton of that all day! But we also got to teach some pretty good lessons, we taught this new guy named Garrett the restoration.. it was a really good lesson, but at the end he was basically like I don't believe that, because if I did, that would say my church isn't true. But he seemed that he would give it a shot! We also taught this guy named Dusty who is getting baptized on the 31st, he is the man! He is 19 and was introduced to the church through a member, it is beautiful! So he has just taken it and ran with it! Then a member fed us dinner. And then I gave a baptismal interview to a lady named Claudia Rivero, she is one of the campus sisters investigators, and it was such a pleasure, she is so awesome, she is running with it as well, she already bought herself a quad scripture, and she isn't even a member! So it was a great day on Campus, in my dream area! :)

Saturday - We did some service with Bill Kosin in the morning, helped him to move some mattresses! Then we had to spend some time trying to get this DVD thing figured out that we are trying to show with members, and so after a bit of a struggle, we got it figured out! Did some finding! Then we taught a lesson to the Daniels, we continued in our Book of Mormon study with them! We got a chance to see our man Curtis B again.

Sunday - Church day! We had ward council in the morning! It was so awesome, Bishop has been in now for 6 months, and so they had like a review of how things have been going.... Brother Jackson, who is the man! He has been reaching out to Cristina and to Gonzalo, so it has been cool! We didn't have anyone at church, there was some miscommunication getting T. R. there, so he didn't make it! After church we took the Sacrament to Bro Hollett, who is in the hospital, so that was a lot of fun to do that... really special! Then we attended Claudia's baptism, that girl who I gave the interview to... and man it was awesome, such a powerful spirit! And get this, it like made my life, she asked me to be in her confirmation, so that will be next Sunday, super excited! We did some finding, and then we ate dinner with the Davis'! And then we went to give Heath Brackin, Sis Gray's son a blessing, he is headed to surgery.. Then the Knudsen's invited us over for cake and ice cream, so that was delicious, and then we shared a quick thought with them! 

Well family, I love all of you like crazy!!!!!! I miss you all more than I know! Keep me in your prayers, because I sure as heck need it! This week was rough... But it is just hard, I am learning so much though, this mission is nothing that I expected it to be in the least, but it is exactly what I needed, and no doubt will need in the future, so I am thankful for the challenges! I am learning lots! There have been 2 talks that have meant a lot to me this week, 1. "Bread or Stones: Understanding the God That We Pray To" and 2. "Cast Not Away Therefore Thy Confidence. The first is from a BYU Hawaii, devotional, and the second from speeches.byu.edu! They are awesome, and have helped me to learn some awesome lessons! Love you all so much!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze