"This week was amazing!! Full of soooo many blessings!! We have once again been so blessed in our work, and we have been busy!"

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Hello Family!!

Can't tell you how good it was to talk to you all this week, miss you and love you all! This week was amazing!! Full of soooo many blessings!! We have once again been so blessed in our work, and we have been busy! By the way, it has been soo hott here! It's crazy, I just have to consciously decide to not care.. because my white shirt and everything is drenched, putting in work baby! So lets get this:

Saturday - Always such a pleasure to be able to email you all on P-Days.. not too many more coming from me, kind of excited give my hands a rest, I'll just talk to you about it! After emailing we rolled with the APs to the bowling alley and Therese came with us, it was pretty dang fun, despite the fact that I am literally the worst bowler in the world. But I get over it! We then rolled up north to get some ties and I purchased 2 ties killer deal. Then we had the idea to run and grab Sister Smith some flowers and chocolates for Mothers Day, so we did! And took them to her sung a little verse of "I see my Mother kneeling.." Don't know the rest, it was really fun. And turns out Sister Smith was having a really bad day, just not feeling very adequate, so she started to cry and gave us all a hug, she just expressed to us how grateful she was and how this was a huge answer to her prayers! So then we said a prayer with them and then we dipped out to head home!

Sunday - Had some contacting before church on a dead campus! And then we had church, we had Hiram Menendez there for church! Good Sunday! After church we met with Therese and we worked on some family history work. And there is tons of Temple work to be done! And then I Skyped you all... just so you guys know, whatever anybody says, you guys are keepers, I'mma hang on to you, okay!? Then the Knudsen's fed us some food while we were there!

Elder Carlile, Elder Hintze & Elder Otu

Elder Hintze - Probably not the best mission car for him!

So…. who does Elder Otu think he is sitting next to?

Monday - Dan, the Man, was over grilling for us and he invited a bunch of missionaries over!  Had a nice lunch of BBQ chicken, all of those pictures of the car and the group were from that! Helped him do some clean up afterward.

Then we had a lesson with Dusty, we role played passing and blessing the sacrament with him and he should be doing that for the first time this Sunday! Then we had a long contacting block... and we saw sooooo many blessings in our contacting! We met some seriously awesome people, soo blessed! In this contacting block, we filled the rest of our week up with appointments! Then we did some more Family History with Therese in the evening! Then dinner!

Tuesday - Had District Meeting in the morning, it was a good one! And then we had our district activity, we played some ultimate frisbee in the field behind the church! After that we hit the campus and again, sooo blessed in our contacting efforts. But funny story, I had to call the ZLs to come and pick me up so I could run home and grab some sunscreen, it was miserable, my skin got fried up to a crisp out there, but I loved it! We then had a lesson with Hiram M, with Quinn, we taught him the beginning like barely beginning of the Plan of Salvation, set the stage for the rest.. he was super interested in it! Then we had a lesson with Stephanie, with Therese, we watched the Prophet of the Restoration with her and she loved it! Therese has been in contact with her this week via text and she  will be at church on Sunday.. and she is just trying to get closer to God. We are very excited to see what comes! Then we hit the contacting again, came back for dinner at the institute, and caught the end of the Elder Bednar, Youth Q&A, and that was saweet!

Wendesday  - We had a member lesson in the morning with Quinn! Then we had a lesson with Therese, we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ! OHHHHH THEN HERE IT IS! So the ZLs sent us a referral, it was a media referral for a guy named Alexander... so we taught him with Therese. Alexander is sooo awesome!!! He requested to see missionaries, he has read tons and tons about us online! And he wants to be a member of the church, told us so many cool instances, he is pumped to read the Book of Mormon. So we taught him the Restoration! He loves the sealing power of the priesthood, and eternal families! Keep him in your prayers! Then we did Family History with Jackie. Then had a lesson with Jason with Robert Strobel, first appointment, we taught him the Restoration, he met with missionaries last semester! Oh then we taught this guy named Ahmad Balzubi, with Emily Lee, this man is awesome! He is hilarious! He is from the country Jordan. So we got to know him, he is from California previously, where he knew a lot of members and missionaries, so we talked to him about he Book of Mormon and the godhead!

Thursday - Contacting for the most part of the morning and the afternoon! Then we had a member lesson with Claudia Rivero. Then we taught a lesson with Claudia, we taught her friend named Courtney, we contacted on campus.. we were super pumped about it, taught her the Restoration, she asked good questions and it was powerful! Then we had a member lesson with Kelli Longfellow in the evening, and then dinner and some phone calls!

Friday - ZONE CONFERENCE!!!! Don't really know how to tell you guys how awesome it was... it was sooo good! I was the biggest baby the whole entire time, I was crying a ton... it was just so humbling, I have lots of things I yet need to work on, and zone conference helped me to realize that! We were also taught tons of super awesome stuff... get this, every time they have the missionaries bare their testimonies who it is their last conference... well that was me! I cried all through that as well! It was sooo good, the whole meeting was just a blessing!

Tallahassee 1 Zone Conference

I am so grateful for Pres and Sis Smith, I know that I needed them! After we split off and Carlile and Otu taught a lesson to Jamael, and they said it was killer! And I went with the APs, and gave their investigator Maleeq his baptismal interview, good guy! So we regrouped for dinner and then a lesson with Therese, it was an awesome lesson, kind of random, but we just talked about Testimonies!

Saturday - This morning we went to Maleeq's baptism, it was a good one! And then we had a lesson with Hiram Menendez, with Therese. We finished all of the Plan of Salvation, and it was killer, Spirit was strong! And then we got our shopping done, Sister Crandall is back visiting the mission, so we saw her and her family they threw a little shin dig here, so we ate some grub with them! Now we are emailing, don't know what the rest of the day will hold!

Have I told you guys how much, I love you all!!! I really do! Thank you for all that you do for me, you are all a blessing in my life! Love you sooooo much!

Love,

Elder Hintze

Mothers Day Gift - Florida Tallahassee Mission

"So we went from a plethora of investigators to not many, but its all good, rebuilding time! So this week has been a little bit slower, but we have stayed busy... but every week is a good one!!"

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Whats up Family!!!

Hope everyone is doing well today! Shall we talk tomorrow, Skype perhaps!? Sooooo pumped!! So this week has been good, a little bit quieter here on Campus, literally no one! So we went from a plethora of investigators to not many, but its all good, rebuilding time! So this week has been a little bit slower, but we have stayed busy... but every week is a good one!! So lets get to it:

Saturday - Didn't end up doing anything for P-Day we went home with the hour that we had and we just chilled, so that was actually pretty nice!

Sunday - We had our meetings in the morning, Taylor was awesome, he wrote us all notes for his last time there! Then we went to church didn't have any gators there, but Therese was there. And we got the chance to participate in two confirmations for Lloyd Hines and Errick Spradley, two of the sisters investigators, just an absolute pleasure to do so! Great testimony meeting, I took advantage of it and bore my testimony!

Monday - We helped out Emilee McGee move that girl we helped last week, very quick move just a few essential items! Because of that, they bought us one of those huge pizza's from Momo's. Good to help them out. After that we enjoyed some pizza, and then we had a lesson with Therese. Hit the campus for some contacting, and then back to have a lesson with Dusty!

Tuesday - District Meeting, first one with the new district, it seemed to be a fairly good one! Then we made some phone calls (sorry our days are going to be super boring!) We had a lesson with Errick Spradley the sister's convert, he asked us to meet with him, so that was cool. Elder Dalley gave him a blessing and in the blessing talked about his earthly father and how he would come into his life, and by his example his dad would join the church.. 2 days later his dad called and said that he could come and live with him.. before that he had not been in the picture! After that we had another lesson with Therese, she is at the church a ton now, she loves hanging out here, she is cool! Then we did some contacting in the evening!

Wednesday - We taught this new guy named Lance in the morning with Dusty, interesting fella, we taught him the Restoration, we won't be seeing him again, because he is going to China to do missionary work. Then we did some Fam History with Dusty we have been killing it, he has soo many names to take to the temple! We also had a lesson with Stanley, he is a family history guy, he is from Haiti. After we got back we gave a new guy named Hiram Menendez a church tour, but it was a really good tour, he tells us he isn't very religious though! Then a member Wesley Wright fed us dinner in the evening, some great burgers! And then we did some family history with Therese.

Thursday - We bounced out to teach a lesson to a new guy named Jamael (pronounced ja mail) he was found through a member James Burrows, we taught him the Restoration, it was such a good lesson, spirit was strong! James bore testimony and started crying. Then we had our interviews with President, which literally is always my favorite part of every week that it happens, I love Pres. Smith so much. He knows exactly what to say every time to make you feel like a million bucks! He renewed my temple recommend for me.. it expires at the end of May, and this was my last interview with him! We were there for a bit, because we had to wait for the APs to be interviewed, they are our wheels! We then had an evening of contacting ahead of us.. I was with Carlile for a while and we had some really good conversations. It's been fun to work with these two, we have developed into being on the same page in everything. And because of that, the Spirit has never been stronger in our lessons, prayers, and even studies, it has been fun!

Friday - Dan, the man, our landlord showed up to our place in the morning and said he needed our help with some service around the house... We ended up washing all of the windows and pressure washing the house and all of the back patio area, as well as cleaning off our back patios.. so it took up a good chunk of the day! And let me tell you I was manning that pressure washer for a long time! :) After all of that, we taught Therese, it was a great lesson, she has been teaching with other missionaries now, so it is sooo fun to see her just continue to grow in her testimony! Then we had a lesson with Stephanie we taught her about a month ago, and so we finally got to meet with her.. and it was such a good lesson, we just reviewed a lot of the Restoration and talked about the Book of Mormon she had read up to 1 Nephi 5.. and the spirit was really sooo strong! We all felt sooo good about the lesson. 

Saturday - This morning we did our weekly planning and then we had a lesson with Therese! And we got our shopping done and lunch... so emailing and then I think we are going bowling this evening with the other Elders and Therese, so should be good!

Love you all like crazy!! Can't even wait to talk to you all tomorrow!! 

Love you very much!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

"Soooo craziest thing! Taylor came over in the morning and we climbed on top of the shack out back and we opened up his mission call, the best thing ever!! California Rancho Cucamango mission, so pumped for him!"

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Hello Family!!!

Hope everyone is well this week! Here is the week!

Saturday - The baptism was for real so killer! It was amazing, so that was just the highlight for us all day, we were so pumped! So after lunch with all her friends, we came back and started our P-Day, did some emailing, some shopping, and then we had a little fire at the church in the fire pit again. We also played some ultimate frisbee, Taylor had a glow in the dark one, so that was cool!

Sunday - In the morning we had our Coordination Meeting. Then Thomas came and we did some family history work before church, it was soo good! We have had so much success with him, and so the Jacksonville FH Center is right by his home, so he is going to continue down there, we really have impacted so many families in his tree, in just a short time! Then we went to church, and we had Thomas, Alex, and Amy (Therese's roommate) there at church, and then of course Therese. So Therese was confirmed, and I was able to do that, it was an honor. I was literally soooo nervous, don't even know why.. so hard to follow the Spirit when your nervous, so not what its about, but I think I just did alright on it! Shes still got confirmed and now she has the Holy Ghost, so what else matters, eh? :) Therese is so pumped to be a member though, so fun to watch. Church service was a good one, the spirit in sacrament meeting was really strong, so it was good for Amy and Thomas to feel it. We had to miss part of Gospel Principles and Priesthood, because we had to fill up the baptismal font for Eric's baptism. So immediately following church, Eric the sister's investigator was baptized, once again a really really good service! So we came home after that and we did our weekly planning session to finish off our night. Also it was transfers night, and we are not getting transferred any of us, so not that surprised at all!! :) There were only 2 transfers in our zone, besides a bunch going home... So not too much excitement. 

Elder Otu

Elder Hintze

Elder Hintze & Elder Otu

Monday - Soooo craziest thing! Taylor came over in the morning and we climbed on top of the shack out back and we opened up his mission call, the best thing ever!! California Rancho Cucamango mission, so pumped for him! After that we had a lesson with Dusty. And then we had some good old contacting.. Then we had a family history appointment with Ruthie, it was super good, our last one, because she is taking off for the summer, so we gave her a Book of Mormon and told her the quick message of the restoration! Then some dinner, then we had a lesson with Therese, and we have been doing some Family History work with her and it has been sooo cool! Had so much success, plus a lot of her family's temple work has already been performed, so she has members in her family somewhere. So while that is going on.. we get a call from the Institute couple the Dalley's, and they say that a girl is in the institute and she wants to meet with missionaries, so I stay with Taylor and Therese, they head over there to teach her. So we finish up and head over to FHE, it was a pizza party. 

Tuesday - We had District Meeting in the morning, I tried to do something new for it, had everyone write a letter to themselves as if they were a new missionary.. just to see what they would say and then we read them, it worked out alright. We ate some lunch and got on to campus where we taught a girl named Autumn the Restoration, and she was leaving the next day! Then we got back and we had a lesson with Therese we watched the John Tanner Story with her and retaught the commandments tithing and fast offerings. Then we made some phone calls. And then the Dalley's fed all of us dinner in the 5th ward. And then we attended Institute, it was a question and answer with Bro. Livingston, Therese was there...!

Wednesday - We taught Dusty in the morning, he is doing well, he has a ton of family names prepared and he is going to be heading to the temple soon. Then we had a lesson with Therese, we answered a lot of her questions about the Q&A and then we read out of the Plan of Salvation with her in PMG. AND THEN! Best lesson of the week, we taught Amy Seach, Therese's roommate! We taught her and we read from Alma 34, such a good chapter... and we referenced aspects of the Plan of Salvation, and she loves the plan of salvation. At the end Elder Otu and I just bore our testimonies to her about how we gained our testimonies.. and the Spirit was so strong! We then got out and we did some contacting on campus.. and then we taught Alex Fike, we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was an awesome lesson, just felt really right! And we invited him to take the steps that he needs to and get baptized in Atlanta.. we are hopefully going to be sending the missionaries his way. Then dinner and then contacting!

Thursday - We taught a member lesson to Victoria Munsell. Then we did some area book cleaning out we called a lot of formers and what not, we are trying to do anything we can to find. We killed it these last couple of weeks, but it is going to be hard to stay busy this next little while, we have got to find! So then we were on campus again contacting. Then we had a lesson with Therese... so her mom agreed to fly her to Utah this summer, so basically I have already been telling her all of the things we are going to do when she comes out to visit, so just get pumped for that! We talked about temple recommend and she is on her way to get that, and then she can go to the temple out there. Then we had breakfast with the Bishopric, and then I gave the sister's investigator Lloyd a baptismal interview.

Friday - We helped a member move in the morning named Allie Knowles, she is from the Keys, so we moved her apartment into a storage unit. We talked about the little branch named Marathon dad... she says it is sooo small! Then we did some contacting... then we did some family history with Jackie, and then a kid named Jake who I sent a picture of he is visiting from England, so we dids FH with him. Then we helped a non member we met on campus move named Emilee, so helped her move her dorm out and we are totally going to teach her. :) 

Saturday - So this morning we did some contacting, campus is dead and will be all this next week! We had a member lesson with Lauren Herzog in the morning and then we did some family history with that Jake kid again, and while they did that I went with Taylor and helped him to be able to move out of his dorm! And then we shopped and went to Lloyd's baptism it was awesome.. the other elders filled up the font, but they didn't secure the plug, so it filled up and the plug came undone.. so I had to go in and stick it back down, so I went swimming, and then here I am now!

Not to be getting all trunky or anything, because I am not, but I only get to do this 5 more times... sooo crazy! Love you alll so much!!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze 

"We were walking onto campus on Friday.. and I just thought to myself, man I am going to really miss this, walking on to campus every single day, just ready to get it!!!!! Nothing quite like it, I love being a missionary!

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Hello Family!!

WOWWWWW!! I don't even have words to describe this week, it has been nothing short of amazing!! And I promise that I don't have the words, just because I am a lazy emailer. ;) I will look back on this week as some of my fondest days as a missionary, and this transfer! We taught 20 lessons this week, so far... which doesn't seem like a lot.. but probably the most I have taught as a missionary, and the most member presents! It has just been good, the Spirit has been so strong in all of our lessons, so it has been fantastic week! I hope that all of you are doing well this week and today, love you all so much!! Lets get to it:

Saturday - After our emailing we went with the Assistants and we got our grocery shopping done and then some dinner we ate at Stevi B's pizza buffet, we put down some serious pizza. :) Missionaries go in there a lot I guess, so when we do they just start bringing stuff to our table. Then I went on splits with Elder Jorgenson, we played dodgeball this morning for exercise and Elder Riddle who lives in the shack rolled his ankle really bad, he thought that he might have broken it, so he has been out of commission. So they had to take Milne to go to their area, and Jorgenson needed someone to go teach with him, so I went with him and we taught a part member family in 1st Ward named the Millers, he is the member and his wife and 2 daughters are not members. We taught them the Restoration, and it actually went pretty sweet, it was really good. I visited them a handful of times when I was there. He went and got his scriptures, so it was cool! So Elder Jorgenson and I already decided, that they're going to baptize that family! :) Cool to teach with Elder Jorgenson, because I only knew him as a brand new missionary before. After that we had another appointment that fell through, so we did a tad bit of finding in Cristina's old neighborhood, and we tried some old potentials/investigator people that I knew in there! And then we came back! So didn't get much of a P-Day today, just email, shop, and dinner.. and then back to missionary work!! :)

Sunday - In the morning we had our coordination meeting, and studies and all of that good stuff! And then we had church, we had Therese there and her roommate Amy was there! So that was good, it was a great meeting. Amy had to peace out after sacrament meeting! But Therese stayed for the whole block. After church we got changed and we hit campus and did some contacting! 

Monday - So we went in to get an MRI for Elder Otu... get into the doctor and after sitting in the room for an hour, a lady comes in and says.. so it is pointless for you to be here right now, your MRI isn't even scheduled... so it was a nightmare and so basically it was just a big waste of time. I think he has a torn meniscus, but don't say you heard it from me, he is just too tough, and pushes through it every single day. So then we enjoyed some nice McDonald's breakfast, which led to us making some phone calls, we are trying to get caught up and call all of our people before they take off for the summer. Then we had a lesson with Dusty, we talked to him about the Priesthood and how to perform baptism, he will be baptizing an investigator tomorrow, the day he gets the priesthood, pretty cool! Then we had a lesson with Therese and Taylor was with us, we taught her about Priesthood, Eternal Marriage, and Missionary Work, great lesson! Then we had a dodgeball tournament... oh ya baby!!!! Therese played with us, and so did Dusty and Taylor.. but for real, it isn't fun anymore, because we just came out and we worked everybody, so we won, which that was cool! After that, we played just our district against everyone else in the zones.. and we worked them over too! So it was a good time, always love me some dodgeball!

Then we got changed and we did some Family History with Cameron Locke, and we had to do some splits, we had an investigator who got there early, so Carlile and Otu taught this kid named Jabari we had met, taught him the Restoration. And then I stayed and did some family history work with Cameron. Then we had FHE, which was good, Therese came to that, and we didn't really participate in the event, because she just had so many gems from the Book of Mormon that she wanted to share.

Tuesday - District Meeting, it was a good one, I think! Taught about the Atonement, and effective use of time, been wanting to talk about it for a while now! Then we came back had some phone calls and then got out and did some contacting! Had a Family History appointment with a girl named Ruthie, who got passed to us from the FSU A Sisters, their companionship is getting dissolved, so they are passing all their people off. Then had another block of phone calls, then had a lesson with Therese and Caroline came, we don't remember what we taught. :) Then we had Institute and Therese was there as well, like the grand finale of the year!

Wednesday - So we did this service at the homeless convention thing, so we just put up a lot of chairs and tables, just about all of the missionaries in Tallahassee participated, but we also sorted clothes and things like that. I think that we set up all of the tables at least like 8 times, because a new person would walk in each time and tell us to rearrange them. After that we taught a new girl named Rachel, it was an awesome lesson we taught her the Restoration it was powerful, she is super cool! But she will be taking off for the summer, so won't have much of an opportunity with her. Then some contacting. And then we taught Thomas with Kelsey S, we taught him the Doctrine of Family History... and it was super cool as well... it was a good spirit, and he felt it, but couldn't say that he all agreed. But he agrees, but just doesn't want to say that he agrees! :) Then we had a lesson with Alex F, and we did family history with him, has a ton more success. Then had a lesson with Therese and Taylor was there, we taught her about enduring to the end, some good old service, and some teaching and learning.

Thursday -  We had some contacting and some phone calls, which led up to a family history appointment that we had with this girl named Jackie, Lauren Cremoneze was there and we gave her a church tour afterwards. Then we had a lesson with Therese and Celine was there, we taught about the Book of Mormon and then watched some Mormon Messages.. and prepped her for her baptismal interview! So we broke she went into her interview, and then I gave a baptismal interview to Errick, the sisters investigator, it was a pleasure to give him an interview! And it was sports night, so everybody was playing! Oh and the other day when we were doing a family history appointment this girl and guy came in and they needed help on their world religions assignment they were doing on us, so we helped them, but in the process we taught them, it was cool. So for sports night Dusty brought 2 non member friends, one of them had the same exact assignment and so we were able to have a lesson with him as well.. so I never even had a sports night! :)

Friday - Such a good day! We taught Therese in the morning, there was a miscommunication with appointment time, so we had to go with Emily Lee to pick her up.. we watched the movie Only a Stonecutter, it was killer, then read Alma 36 with her! Then we had a double appointment we did FH with Dusty and then with Thomas as well!! Thomas came so prepared with information... so we were able to find tons of stuff and he was way pumped about it, we looked up and right next to his house in Jacksonville, Florida, there is a church with a family history center, boom baby! Then we had a lesson with Lauren Herzog, a member missionary lesson! Then we made some phone calls, while I made Therese's baptismal program on the computer. Then we taught Alex Fike and we watched the Prophet of the Restoration video with him , and it was so powerful! We all kneeled and prayed at the end, and he said it, and the spirit was sooo real! Then while in that spirit Claudia popped in and asked for a blessing, and that was awesome as well, Elder Otu gave a great blessing. Then Edgar provided us dinner at the institute, oh and he also fed us once more during the week, so that was really nice of him!

Saturday - We had a family history appointment with Thomas again, he is pumped I tell you! So while we did that, we also got ready for the baptism, and then Thomas came, and he felt the spirit so strong, we will be doing family history with him as well again tomorrow and he will be there at church! So the baptism was amazing, Taylor gave a talk and so did Elder Otu, and they both killed it! Therese bore her testimony and ABSOLUTELY killed it! She had 5 of her best friends there, and all 5 of them were crying so hard, probably the best baptism that I have ever been too, truly amazing! So then we went out to lunch with her and with all of her friends, so that was awesome. She has a super cool friend who goes to University of Florida, who came up, and she pulled us aside after the baptism and was crying and just thanked us so much! So we hooked her up with a Book of Mormon! :)

It really was an amazing week! :) And we have transfer this week, so we will find out tomorrow, I think that I am safe! But ya never know, there could be some moves with either Carlile or Otu, but I don't think so! So with that being said... I am going to be starting my last transfer as a missionary, so I am issuing you all a challenge, and myself as well, you are all challenged to read the Book of Mormon starting today, until June 11th!!!! So everybody read it before I get home and I will be doing the same exact thing! :) We were walking onto campus on Friday.. and I just thought to myself, man I am going to really miss this, walking on to campus every single day, just ready to get it!!!!! Nothing quite like it, I love being a missionary! Love you all so so so so so so much!!!! 

Love,
Elder Hintze

"Then we had dinner at the Knudsen's, yeeewwwwwwpppp! Love them so much, it was good to be back in their home!"

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Hello Family!!

I hope that you all are doing well, and had a great week! This week was a good one, we again taught a lot of lessons this week! I will try to get in all of the details that I need to! :) Alright here we go!

Sunday - We did some 12 week studies! And then church, it was Fast Sunday and it as awesome, always my favorite Sunday! Such a good spirit, we had Alex and Therese there, so that was super cool! After church we had the Break the Fast meal, so that was good as well. We then gave Sister Montague a blessing. And then we had to finish up our weekly planning session which took up the remainder of our Sunday.

Monday - We taught Dusty in the morning, some commandments! After that we taught Therese with Aymee, we taught her the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom, and it went really well. It is so so cool to see the effects of the Gospel in her life, I think they are sometimes hard to notice in ourselves, but from the moment that we started teaching her, any opportunity she had where alcohol was present she turned it down, and now she has such a great desire to unite her family and help them have the Gospel. Just so cool, to see it in her life! Then we headed out and we contacted for a couple of hours! The weather here had been miserable, very rainy, but when it is not raining the humidity has been off the chart, so we have just been sweating like nobodies business! We then came back and we made a few phone calls for our potentials! And then while we were out contacting, Carlile contacted this guy named James. James is from California and he walked all the way here/ hitch hiked here, he is out spreading God's word, and so he is sharing Bible verses with people and doing God's will as he says.. so in his journey here he road with a Mormon man from Arizona to Tennessee, and so they talked a ton about the church. So it was cool we got to share with him the Restoration, literally the best dude in the whole world, so nice and so humble.. but couldn't really get him to grasp much in the terms of the magnitude of the message, we told him to settle down and become a Mormon and get baptized.. but he wasn't down with that! But he said one day he would love to be a Mormon, so it literally was the crazyiest thing, really cool experience! And then we had FHE, Therese was at that as well.

Tuesday - We had District Meeting and I aborted my plan that I had set up.. and it turned out pretty alright! Then we had a fantastic lunch, supplied by Brent, it was so awesome... everyone was very thankful of it, and thank you from me!!! Then we taught a lesson to Thomas, with Carson there. We watched the President Uchtdorf talk with him "Receiving a Testimony of Light and Truth", and then read 3 Nephi 27 with him, Thomas is such a good dude, we love him, he is loving it all so far. But he is about to head home to Jacksonville here in the summer, so we are going to have to do some rebuilding here very soon, because all of the students will be heading home for summer, so campus will slim down. Then we taught Therese again and good news, we bumped her baptismal date up.. she is so ready, so she will be getting baptized this next Saturday the 25th of April!!! We taught her some more commandments: Sabbath Day, Ten Commandments, and Follow the Prophet, she was all on board! Then we made some phone calls and then came into Institute for the end of it and some nice dinner!

Wednesday - We taught a lesson to Cameron Locke in the morning, and then we taught Dusty, so the 2 fairly recent converts, who are both doing really well. Then we had a lesson with Alex Fike and Ashley was there as well, and we started to work on his family history work.. and it was super cool! We actually had quite a bit of success, so hopefully the Spirit of Elijah, and then we had him read the talk by Elder Cook "Roots and Branches"! Then we had dinner at the Knudsen's, yeeewwwwwwpppp! Love them so much, it was good to be back in their home!

Thursday - Dan the Man our landlord had us over for Breakfast in the morning, he fed all of us at the compound, that is always a hoot when we go over there! After that we came back and we were on campus doing some contacting again! And then that led up to us teaching Amy Seach, so Amy is Therese's roommate, who she has been sharing tons of stuff with, she has been watching conference talks with her, and telling her all of the awesome stuff, so we got a chance to teach her with Therese there and Taylor as well. We taught her the Restoration and we watched the Patterns of Light videos with her! And in the meantime, Carlile helped her, and Otu and I did FH with Therese and got her's started, we got the chance to talk a lot about or a bit about the temple, showed her the website and how she will begin to prepare the ordinances for her family! And then we just started looking at pictures of the temple, we would name a good one and then she would google it and so then we were just all stoked about the temple together!

Friday - I was on a tradeoff with Elder Jorgenson, he is basically one of my favorite people in the whole world! So I went with him to 1st Ward, my first time back!! It is amazing how I spent 8 months of my life there and I was trying to remember things about it and it all had vanished away, when I slept over there, it didn't even seem like I had lived there, so weird. So in the morning we taught Sister Dodd a member lady, she super awesome! And then we taught Michelle Carmin, Elder Peterson and I found her, and she has been coming to church strong since we found her and started teaching her! Then we ended up doing some finding and some tracting, it is so weird to be back into a family ward, it is a whole different ball game as far as OYMing people, and having to travel and all of that, so strange, I love campus. Then we taught a man named Eddy Jones, if you remember Elder Cooper and I taught him way back in September and set a Baptismal date with him and then he just fell off the map, so he is back on a little bit, he is interesting he has had a lot of strokes. Then we gave a church tour to T.R. LeBrun and his mom with the Holletts, they are still teaching my boy TR, he is doing awesome, he just needs to get baptized! But now they have mom involved in it pretty good, we invited her my last lesson there. Then a little dinner at Chipotle, to finish off the evening!

Saturday - This morning we had some canceled appointments, and then we did some weekly planning and then some contacting on campus.. campus was dead today! And then we had a lesson with Therese with Claudia and we watched the Prophet of the Restoration video with her, it was powerful and she loved it! And she is super pumped for the baptism!

Good week this week! I thought about you guys a lot this week, from what I have heard it sounds like Grandpa's funeral was fantastic! I love you guys and miss you all! 

Love,

Elder Hintze

"I have been dancing or taught to dance since I was a lad, but now I know just how sweet the music is, for most of my life I was dancing without the music! My my my, how nice it is to dance with some music."

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Monday - I feel that my emailing has not been up to par lately, so the AlphaSmart is coming back into use, hopefully! :) It is just hard to have anytime to do much of anything, life has been super busy, but that is a good thing! We have been blessed a bunch lately! So today, it was a hectic schedule again.. we did our proselyting in the morning, because we had some lessons set up, but they ended up falling through! So we just did some contacting, it is never good in the heat of the classes, because there are literally hords of people and everyone is on their way to class, but it was a super good one as always! After that we borrowed the Zone Leaders car to get some shopping done. Followed that up with going to Tom Brown Park and we played a little football and then some ultimate frisbee, followed with some sand volleyball. So it was good, it was hot and I definitely caught some sunshine. 

Tuesday - Such a good day! A lot of blessings continuing to come! We had Zone Training today, Elder Milne and Jorgenson as the ZLs, it was a good one, we learned about planning/area books, how to study/use our Preach My Gospel, and then the Spirit! We also did a role play in the 4 corners of the gym and you rotate around to all of them doing something new in each one, I was in charge of one of the corners, which it was Effective OYMing.. I literally have been in charge of that role play in zone training for like forever.. so I guess I should know a thing or two about OYMing by know. But it was cool, I was a waiter at a restaurant and I talked to them, and they had to invite me to learn about the Gospel, which was a hoot! (By the way, I think I want to try my hand at being a waiter.. I think I could do a pretty good job, I am going to look into it!) What the Zone Leaders taught us about the Spirit was pretty powerful, just contrasting Sin vs Weakness.. Sin comes from Satan, but weaknesses come from God (Ether 12:27).. knowing that we all have weaknesses so we can be stronger, and so we can turn to Christ to overcome them! We went on splits, Elder Carlile went with Dusty to get some yard work done that he needed help with, and then Elder Otu and I went about the work. We had a lesson with Therese and was it good! We started to talk about her Book of Mormon reading she is up to 1 Nephi 16!!! It is so cool, so we talked about tons of good stuff, she loves Nephi and his outlook on life and so we talked about that and shared some 2 Nephi 4.. then she told us how she got her answer that it was true.  And then she read all of Alma 5, where Alma recounts his own conversion and how he came to know it was true! So we did some other things we watched the Mormon Messages called Patterns of Light, which talks about the Spirit communicating with you, super good. Then we referenced Alma 32 again. Then watched a video called The Mediator, which talks about Justice and Mercy, and then we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ, faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end... And we set a baptismal date with her for May 2nd!!!!! After her we taught this new girl named Bianca, we did FH with her, but now we turned it into the Gospel, so we taught her the Restoration with Angy there as our member. And it was a good lesson. Then we went out and did a tiny bit of contacting.. Then came back and we went to Institute class with Therese, they are learning from the Doctrine and Covenants this year, and talked about sections 135-138, which are some dang good ones! So about Joseph Smith and the post life, which we haven't talked to Therese about all of the Plan of Salvation yet.. but she loved it! And then we ate dinner at the institute after!

Wedneday - Very warm today, just sweating like crazy out here, gotta love it! :) So lets see after the morning festivities we taught Dusty, we taught him the commandments of Chastity and Word of Wisdom, he is doing really well, and will be getting the Priesthood soon! So then we got out and we did some contacting. So after some good contacting we taught Therese. We taught her with Ashley Orosco, it was a good lesson, so much to talk about..! So she is up to 1 Nephi 19 in her reading, talked about that, we also introduced her to D&C and the Pearl of Great Price. We also prepped her for some opposition in her life, because things have been so smooth sailing, we told her she may see some opposition. Then we watched the talk "Music of the Gospel" from the Saturday Afternoon session of conference, she really enjoyed it! (Plus I really enjoyed it, it was one of my favorites. I have been dancing or taught to dance since I was a lad, but now I know just how sweet the music is, for most of my life I was dancing without the music! My my my, how nice it is to dance with some music. It is cool because converts to the church hear the music before they do the dancing! Ah something to think about.) So then we went into the Plan of Salvation! One of the biggest things that she has loved so far is having an eternal perspective! So it really answered all of her questions, when we talked about the Spirit World, we talked about Temples and Family History. In institute they talked about cleaning the church, and she asked us when it was, because she wants to come and help out. Really cool!! Then we came home and we made ourselves some dinner and then headed down to the institute we had a lesson with Alex, he is super cool. We watched the Mediator video and taught him Through Christ we are cleansed and then Faith. We watched the Patterns of Light Mormon Messages and then read Alma 32 with him, so it was good. After that we came home and we made some phone calls to all of our potentials, we got side tracked for a bit as we watched a policeman take down someone in our front yard, and then like 7 policeman arrived at the scene! It was nuts.. we live in such a safe neighborhood! :) 

Thursday - This morning we taught a new girl named Chioma, with Carson as the member presents. We taught her the Restoration, first time appointment, it was a great lesson! She is cool her parents are from Nigeria, I contacted her twice on campus, and I knew I had talked to her, but we talk to so many people it is unreal! And then we went out contacted, Taylor came with us, so I went with him and Carlile and Otu went together. Contacting has been difficult lately, we haven't had many that are interested lately, but we never cease to get em! :) After that we had to take a trip to the Ortho doctor for Elder Otu's knee, he has been having problems with it for weeks now, he hurt it playing soccer, he limps everywhere and is always in pain! When we got out is when Pres Smith called me and let me know about Grandpa's passing.. so that was super sad! Very hard to hear, so I shed a few or a lot of tears in the Tally Ortho lobby.  But we headed out and got back to teach our brother Thomas, we taught Thomas the Gospel of Jesus Christ with Aymee P. We read 2 Nephi 31 with him and taught him from there, faith, repentance, baptism, gift of Holy Ghost, and endure. It was a good lesson. And then we came back and we made some phone calls! Grateful for the oppurtunity that I had to talk you Mom and Dad tonight, sorry rest of the family! I do want you guys to know how much that I love each and everyone of you! It is so neat to know exactly where Grandpa is right now and what he is up to, he is a busy man, much work to be done! I just want all of you to know that I know that we know what God's plan is, it is a perfect plan, and I know that because of Jesus Christ this plan is perfect, because of Him we will all rise again, and we shall all be together! Death is part of that plan, but death has no sting, and has been swallowed up because of Jesus Christ! I love you all so much!

Friday - First lesson in the morning and to kick off the day, was Thomas! We taught him with Taylor W. It was a good lesson, of sorts... we read Ether 12 with him and taught him the commandment Keep the Sabbath Day Holy.. tried really hard to get him to come to church, but he won't do it until he reads all of the Book of Mormon, Then we taught Therese with Taylor again.. fantastic lesson! So she came in and she is still loving the Book of Mormon and is still texting us passages that she loves, she really is so incredible, she's awesome! Then we had a super cool experience of giving Angy's sister a blessing, she is not a member... and so we gave her a priesthood blessing and after the fact.. Angy told us that her sister said she had felt something she had never felt before! Then we went out and got our contacting on again! And then we taught Alex Fike, with Julian. 

Saturday - This morning we did our shopping with the APs in the morning! And then we had a lesson with Dusty, we watched a talk given in the Sat Afternoon session of conference titled "Latter Day Saints Keep on Trying" something along those lines! And then he came with us and we taught a new girl named Stephanie,  and we taught her the Restoration.. great lesson! Then today was the FSU Football Spring Game, so FSU vs FSU.. it was good! It was raining, so that didn't make for the best! I love sports, but it is hard for me on the mission, to be quite honest my heart just wasn't in it! So we bounced out early! And now we are here!

Grandpa's passing has been pretty tough, I really thought that I was going to be able to see him again! But I know that we will get to see him again one day! And that is the peace and comfort the Gospel brings, we know the plan, and it sure is a sweet one! How thankful I am for the Gospel and for the Savior!! I have thought and missed you all so much this week, I love you guys like crazy!!! 

Elder Hintze