"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