"whatever your concern maybe the answer is just to ask God"

Here is Elder Hintze's email from Monday, September 30th.


SO HELLO!!!
So another week down the drain, everytime I say that, but things are flying by! So this was an alright week for us, we got some cool return appointments for next week. But a lot of our investigators we did not get to meet with this week. Didn't all go exactly as we would have planned it out! But still awesome!

Monday - P-Day, did all that jazz. After P-Day was all said and done Brother Willie took us out to dinner at CiCi's Pizza, you should see the amount of pizza that this man can eat, unreal! Today we are going to head to Westgate Park here in Dothan and play some tennis, clay courts, costs only 2 dollars to play there, I went in and asked them!

Tuesday - So had to be up real early! We had to be at the church at 6:30 am in order to drive down to Panama City Beach for our half mission conference. So we all gathered ourselves up and headed down there, it was awesome, all of our zone was right in a line, and then right as the Tallahassee missionaries merged in we met with them, and we just slowly picked up all the missionaries, so there was probably like 25 mission cars all full of missionaries in a line on the highway, it was pretty awesome! Sister Smith and Sister Pino shared some scriptures on obedience, basically everything in the mission conference was on obedience!

Mission Conference - Panama City - September 24, 2013

Elder May & Elder Hintze - September 24, 2013

President Smith talked about our mission goal of 450 baptisms this year, and we are way behind like we have 240 right now. And some missionary said to him, "President we can't reach that goal, that would man we have to baptize 17 people a week." But we baptized 20 last week! So he said, "Tell me I can't do something, and we are going to do it!" And the old AP Elder Norton, was there when they set that goal with P Jensen. So he told him he said, "President you weren't there when we set that goal, it was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life." But we now have 280 missionaries in our mission, and Elder Pino told us that as of last week there are 78,746 of us out in the world today! Crazy. But at the end Elder Pino bore his testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ and man! That made my whole body have chills, because they are called as a especial witness of Christ! Really awesome. After the conference we drove like 10 minutes and took a picture on the beach, but I felt really bad about it for like 3 days afterwards. So I have repented. But we didn't get home from the conference until like 5 or 6. So then we ate and went to basketball at the church. We have more non members than members that come to basketball, it is pretty cool!

Wednesday - In the morning we went and visited Carol Burnsed and visited some members in the Hospital. Then Luke went with us to Barbra's we read Lehi's dream with her, and she stayed on track, and was way interested to hear what it was going to be. Oh ya in the morning we helped at the Food Bank again, made lunches for kids. Then we ate at Forest Bains house, and went and contacted a media referral we got, first one ever! But then the address doesn't exist, so bummer... but we found where that guy Justin lives, the one who took us out side who wants to quit drinking, so I said a prayer with Elder Smith, before we went, because I just didn't know what to do, and we walked up and I was like do you feel sketchy about this, and he did too, because I was feeling something big time inside of me that said don't go, obviously the Spirit, so we didn't go! It was pretty crazy though!

Thursday - Best day of the week! Helped Forest Bain with some yard work in the morning. By the way, the weather down here is delightful, like way nice!!!!!!!! It is really cooling down quite a bit. So after that we went and had lunch with the two preachers from Southside Baptist Church, sketchy, not sketchy, but sketchy! So they bought us lunch at this nice Cafe place and they just got to know us and we got to know them and then they started asking us questions about doctrine stuff, they were really nice about it, Elder Smith was real quiet, but I talked to them about the Doctrine of Christ, and I shared with them the Plan of Salvation, and we talked about the Book of Mormon with them, and they wanted to meet with us again this Tuesday, but I will get there! So they had some historical problems with the Book of Mormon, so I told him, Ya know man I don't know much about the history of what your talking about, but whatever your concern maybe the answer is just to ask God, and He will tell you if its true! So then we met with Linda and ya she is still awesome. Then we got taken to another lunch by a member in the ward, a buffett. Oh boy! Then we saw Theresa, I don't really no what to do with this lady as of now, but we just talked to here about questions she had, but it gave me a lot of renewed hope that she will come around! I went through the Area Book and I got out all of the previous investigators, and so far, we have gotten 3 return appointments for this next week from it! So then we met with Bonifay and Scott Magnes and it was awesome taught her the Restoration, (I'm still a little sketchy on my teaching skills), Elder Smith did awesome he bore a couple of testimonies! But she said it all made sense to her, she said she didn't think God would leave us with nothing, she always thought additional scripture was out there! He made us Grits with Sausage and Shrimp in it as well...!

Friday - Real lame day, we have to bike to the hospital like a good 4 miles, so we leave early, are at the hospital all day, nothing cool happened. Just talked to everyone that we could. So then we went to see Gloria, and we couldn't, so we biked to another new family Felisha, one of the previous investigators, and she forgot we were coming they were eating dinner, so we were only there for a minute and she told us to come back tomorrow. Then we went and ate at McDonald's and then Brother Bain canceled our ward correlation meeting as well.

Saturday - Sunburned! Sunburned! First day yet of my mission that I have been sunburned. So in the morning we sanded Theresa's thrift shop down, we are going to paint it, we did it with a man named Mike, who has no top teeth, and he calls me "red" because he can't pronounce our last name, nobody can pronounce Hintze!!!! So we did that and scrubbed the mold off of the side of the building, going back to finish the paint next Saturday. So after that we drove with the sisters to the hospital. (which we can no longer ride in the same car as Sisters anymore, period. Which they are making it really hard.  But we got freshened up and we walked to meet with Anita, and we read with her. And then we walked all the rest of the day in service clothes offering service and talking to everyone that we could, we walked like 8 miles. So thats why I got sunburned. But then we went to visit Felisha again, and she wasn't home... I was really bummed, I really want to teach a family, and the kids seemed awesome! So then we stopped at a girl softball tournament and talked to some people there, then a member from Bristol came over and talked to us, real nice guy, would never let us leave, but real nice guy!

Sunday - Had Gloria and Zooya at church again! They are so awesome, it was awesome to see Zooya there, she really liked it. The sisters asked us if they could count Zooya as a investigator at church, oh sister missionaries you are so misinformed. Find your own dang investigators! But I gave it to them. So after that we were supposed to meet with Tiffany and Mitchell, but they were no shows, and we weren't able to get a hold of them. So Tony Hansen drove us around and we contacted a ton of previous investigators, got a couple more return appointments, offered service to anyone we could. When we drive with him, if he sees someone in their garage or in their front yard, he just rolls up in their driveway and we all hop out and go talk to them, hahaha. But then we had to do weekly planning all the rest of the night. Oh and we went and read the Book of Mormon again with Barbra. So hopefully we can get some good things going! We are kind of at a stand still right now, yet we have quite a few people to work with. It has really been a whole new experience for me with the new guy, he is coming a long! But as far as planning and stuff, it sometimes is so hard, because I am the only one who knows anything about the area, so I have really grown in my testimony and in my faith to rely on the Lord! Especially when talking to people and teaching people! But everything is solid out here on the home front! OHHHHHH also got a letter from Nathan this week and he is so sososososososso awesome!!!! So October 26th is going to be his baptismal date, I am so happy that I am going to be here to see it!! He is taking 4 other marines with him to church each Sunday!!!! Love it all!!!

LOVE AND MISS YOU FAMILY!!!!!

LOVE ELDER HINTZE

"hey you were the ketchup to Sister Devries burger"

I sat down to post today's email and discovered I hadn't posted last week's! Here is Elder Hintze's email from Monday, September 23rd. Enjoy!

FAMILY! Hey how is everybody! Great good to hear! This week has been a weird one... But regardless of what happens, I love being a missionary. I can't even remember the last time I felt another feeling besides Happiness! Remember the new missionary Bradley... ew I hated him! But things are great here in Dothan! I got my new companion and am starting to impart on him ALL of my knowledge. Description of Elder Smith to follow!

Monday - So Bummer Elder Stubbs is leaving, told ya about that. That really was pretty sad. So we did our district activity today and we went to the Dothan Rescue Mission (thrift store) and we bought our companions and outfit hahaha, and then they had to wear it out to dinner. It was really awesome, I got Stubbs some sweet bell bottoms and I was wearing some light blue shorts, real classy. Like I was boating. The Sisters were all very rude to each other, they looked really bad! So we were apart of Cameron getting set apart. can't wait to hear how that went???? With him visiting! But it was really cool to be apart of his blessing as a missionary, just a whole new perspective to it. So then we went with Luke and we saw Barbra and broke the news to her that Stubbs was leaving, and she started cussing at him. So that was funny, but bad? Hahaha. Then I helped him pack up a bunch of stuff and that was sad.

Tuesday - We had District Meeting in the morning Stubbs imparted his last wisdom on us! Then Luke Thompson took us out to eat to Chili's really great guy. Then we went to Barbra's again, and Stubbs set a goal for her that one year from now, he would come back and go to the temple with her. So we talked to her a lot about temples, and it was really cool and powerful with him leaving and all. Then we went and met with Teresa which was really cool, talked about how regardless of what happens at church it falls back on our testimony of the Book of Mormon. But she hasn't read yet or prayed, and it has kind of gone real down hill. So needless to say right now her Baptismal date of October 19th is off for now. Then we went and saw Linda for the last time, when Stubbs told her he was leaving she was balling. So that was a hard one. Then we went and taught Gloria, Linda's neighbor and we taught her the restoration lesson again, to clarify her questions from church and she is embracing all of it, and loving all of her experiences at church. We got her, but she just doesn't know yet! :) Then we had dinner at the Depew's house with the Hansens as well, two of my favorite people as well. A lot of good people down here, I love em all!! Then we went to the church and played some ball!

Wednesday - So Elder Stubbs shipped off, GONE. Oh... and he took our car with him. So we no longer have a car here in Dothan, we are sharing with the 1st Ward Elders, which is kind of hard, it is much easier to be effective with a car, but nonetheless! Transfers are so necessary and I am ecstatic for this new one. I feel like I have become Batman and I now have a Robin. :) So I went with Davidson all day and we worked both of the areas, visiting less active members and what not. One guy said this to us when I waved at him, "Merry Christmas. Can I interest you in some blood transfusions?" And I thought about it...... And I was like oh he thought we were J Dubs, and then it became super funny! Hahahahahaha. So we worked both areas, and we went and talked to some people at the local park. So then we got back in the afternoon, because the new guy was coming. So they got here, and Davidson got a new companion Elder Simmons super cool guy, been out about a year. And I got my fresh guy Elder Smith. So I took him to ward correlation meeting, which was awesome, he got to meet the ward leaders. Then we went and visited Barbra and we read from the Book of Mormon with her, she was hilarious for Elder Smith's first visit. So Elder Garrett Smith he is from Gilbert, Arizona. He is the oldest in his family, 3 younger brothers, hunter/fisher/wrestler/shot put thrower, he is a big ol boy, like 6' 2". He is 18 years old.. just graduated high school. Doesn't have a girlfriend. :) I love the guy, and am excited to serve with him!

Thursday - My bike helmet is gone. So bad timing since we no longer have a car. But I borrowed first wards, but it was a long day in the house of weekly planning and all that jazz, also we are doing the 12 week training program which is an extra hour of study a day! So I am going to try and train him on it. So we went to Linda's and helped her carry some boards and when she found out he is from Arizona she said, "Oh that's my homeboy" and shook his hand, she is from Arizona. So we went to teach Teresa, but she was busy she was painting her shop and she didn't have time. So we went to the Marturello's for dinner and they let us put our bikes in the back. So we biked home and saw or tried to see some less actives. I am really trying hard to find some less actives that we can actually get some kind of progress with!!! But with the bikes, we had to bike home about a half hour, so I am still trying to figure out how to plan and manage without a car. It is a whole different ballgame. So I am trying to figure out a master plan to be able to manage it!

Friday - So we had to bike to the Hospital in the morning, which took us just under an hour to get too. So we did that and nothing happened at the hospital big, very slow day. But then we had to bike home, so by this time it was like 6 in the evening. And then the Evans picked us up and took us to Hunt's for dinner. Evans is a doctor of some sorts, so he goes all out for us. I told them that I was getting chicken tenders and they said to me, "What the heck? we will take you to burger king on the way home, what is wrong with you?" me: "Forget I even mention it. So they are awesome but sadly it took up our whole night, because they took us for ice cream too.

Saturday - The Sister Missionaries, bless their hearts gave us a free meal ticket at the hospital. So they drove us there we ate and then we were biking to the library to meet with Anita and right as we got there, she canceled on us, and at this point it was starting to rain, so we biked home in the pouring rain. I went through 3 white shirts on Saturday. Then we met with Barbra again and talked to her about missionary work and read from the book of Mormon with her, she is writing her kids about the Gospel! Awesome! Then we met with Teresa and helped her arrange the thrift shop and she kept having me try on clothes hahahaha, so I have gotten a bunch of way awesome shirts. But we talked to her about the Gospel of Christ and the Book of Mormon. but she told us that she is going to Harvest Church now..... THE GREAT AND SPACIOUS BUILDING!!!!!! Right next to our apartments, they have rock n roll music and they have a 100 foot long coffee bar at their services, so people are making coffee all throughout the meetings. Oh boy..... You would think somebody would say, "Hey I don't think that this is the way that Christ set up his church??!" Ya know am I the only one!!!!! So then we ate dinner at the Lint's house. Basically since Elder Smith got here, everything that could have gone wrong has. We haven't had any success at all. But I still love it all!

Sunday - We had to sing "I Am a Child of God" in sacrament meeting. The 4 missionaries. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Elder Smith didn't sing, Sister Thompson didn't at all!! Sister Devries basically soloed it. but gosh dang it I gave it my all! Everybody was laughing at us! So awesome! Somebody said to me, hey you were the ketchup to Sister Devries burger. Oh boy rough stuff. After church we went to a youth baptism in the ward and we then went to Brother Willie's church again. Southside Baptist. and I am totally getting in with the preachers, I haven't exactly figured out what I am going to do with it yet. But a young guy who is a very new preacher got our number and is going to give us a call, and wants to meet. It is going to be a great opportunity to share our Faith with him, not shove it down his throat or bash. But were gonna make something of it!

So another week in paradise! I really have grown so much in the past week, and I am praying harder and studying harder and just relying on the Spirit and the Lord so much more than I have. Just little changes, which are awesome, I feel a lot more like missionary despite the lull! I just love it all!!!

LOVE YOU ALLLL!!!!!!!!!!!

Love Elder Hintze

"YES THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WE ARE SAYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Letter from Monday, September 16th. Had a baptism this week.


Hello Family! One more week in the books! Wow a lot has happened great week! This one might be a little shorter except for some days. I will say it is taxing to write this big email! I will try my best! 

Monday - Nothing big happend. We did all the P-Day regular tasks, had to write letters. Then we saw Brother Nunez he hasn't been to church in like a month, but apparently he has been ill. And then on the way home we totally hit a coyote with our car. Then we did a trade off with the 1st Ward Elders, so I got Elder Davidson down with me, he came out with me into the mission, so that was cool. 

Tuesday - Elder Davison and I went and saw Barbra Phillips, with Brother Bain. She has a baptism to prepare for. Then we saw Teresa at the Thrift Store. I fixed the cash register, cool huh? Then we saw Paul Kennedy and he told us that he didn't come to church because he didn't want to, but I sure do love him. Then the rest of the plans went to shambles. And then we went to ball. 

Wednesday - So in the morning we went over and helped Carol Hughey, we built a chicken coop! So ya.. I have never done that before, but we dug fence posts and ran chicken wire and put a giant fence up, it was crazy it took like 5 hours. But we did invite her and her husband to take the lessons and we talked a lot about her conversion (she's been less active for years) and she kind of avoided the question, but we are getting there with her! Then we went with Luke and saw Barbra Phillips, went over the baptismal questions with her she passed them! Barbra is hilarious, she told us about her Jehovah Witness friend, and how she didn't believe in Christmas, but she accepted presents, Barbra says, so I told her, "You just a hypocrite because you accept presents."   "She didn't talk to me for several months afterwards." All in german accent, it was awesome! Then we saw Sister Johnson. And then we went home had dinner and Cam came over and we did our studies. 

Thursday - So Cam was with us in the morning, whipped up some pancakes and then we went to see Deborah, Linda's neighbor, and the whole time headed there I didn't feel good about it, and walking up, I told Stubbs I just said something doesn't feel right.. It just felt weird. But she let us in and we taught the Restoration. Before we started her brother called her and wanted to talk to us, so Stubbs talked to him, and said, "Elder Stubbs you ever seen a black mormon?" Hahahaha, then he just tried to bash with him. But we taught the restoration, and Deborah ended up kicking us out, because she said, "So what your saying is that my preachers don't have the authority to baptize?" We never said that, but YES THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WE ARE SAYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But ya that is the biggest problem with some people, the authority issue. So it was real contentious and it didn't go the best, but then at the end she says oh well, I will still read the Book of Mormon because I feel like it is scripture, What Woman? If the Book of Mormon is true, than everything else falls behind it! Oh well, it was a crappy feeling after the lesson, the Spirit wasn't there and it never feels good, it is the worst feeling in the world. Then we went so see Tersesa's at the shop. We loaded a fridge in her truck and helped her take it to her house. And read with her from the Book of Mormon and then we went and saw Barbra shortly just to see how she was doing, because her interview was tomorrow. Then the Marturello's fed us AGAIN. They are the bomb! 

Friday - We worked at the food bank in the morning! I had a sketchy moment because I opened up a box and it was full of baby rats. I hate rodents!!!!!!!! So after that we went and painted Linda's new room hahahahahahaha all those years of painting things with the family, and I would never participate because I was awful, well wooooweeee you should see the job I did on this room, it is looking so nice!!!!!! Then we went to the Hospital and worked, nothing of report from there! So then we went to dinner at the Grantham's house, biscuits and gravy! Barbra called us at the hopsital, she had her interview, she said, "Hey you guys you will have to teach me for 2 more weeks, okay?"  us "Oh, okay thats alright we would love too."  Her: "I'm just kidding okay, don't you know how to take a joke, I told you I'm a kidder." hahahaha so she passed the interview. 

Saturday - Baptism day!!! She asked me to do it! SO I got to actually baptize her!!! Which was awesome!!!! So in the morning we finished painting Linda's garage. Then we went to the church got everything set up! Got in white!!!!! That felt good to be in white!!!! She showed up a little later than expected, but we got her in white, we took a ton of pictures! Then we had the program, Luke gave a talk, then we had the dunking! So Elder Stubbs and I both were in the water with her to help her, so we get her in there, I am in position and then all the old guys start telling me how to do it, and so I make a full circle around the font with all of the positionings and what not, and end up right where I started, so I raise my hand, and say the prayer, and man oh man, did that feel good!! NOthing else like it!! So then we started to take her down and she got really scared we were going to drown her so she started fighting and then I basically just shoved her under, hahaha. But needless to say we had to go again her foot came up, so then we did it again and it was a success! "I was worried those two skinny kids weren't going to catch me!" But it was a success! Then all of the missionaries sung I Am A Child of God, that was way cool, and then the rest of the program! After the baptism she had a cool experience after she came up, she told us that she saw a beam of light, and that she saw a figure dressed in all white! So she told us that she saw Christ, how awesome is that? We were walking down the hall to go back after the baptism, and she has a picture of Christ taped to her walker, and she got down to it and said, "Alright now Jesus Christ I did this for you!" And it brought tears to my eyes! So then after the baptism we went and saw Teresa and we taught her the Plan of Salvation and the Spirit was there, no doubt! She was balling and talking about her mother's death, and we talked about the Gospel of Chritst and we committed her to be baptized on October 19th! Which is the day that Nathan gets back, so we may be having a double baptism here in a month!! It was really cool, she confided in us a lot and opened up to a lot of stuff in her life... But we have some major problems I will get to that. Then we went to Tony's for dinner with Tiffany and Mitchell, next time we meet with them we are going to commit them to be baptized too! 

Sunday - Gospel Principles was the shining moment of the day! Cam's family was all there, Cam did awesome in his talk! I had Teresa next to me. She loves us as missionaries, and everything we have taught so far, but she was saying stuff to me the whole time. I was trying to explain it all to her, "it wasn't upbeat enough for her." BUT WE CONFIRMED BARBRA AND IT WAS FANTASTIC! ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!!!!!!! 

Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love and miss you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It has been a great week and many of the people that we do have right now are so awesome!!! Saturday we were on top of the world, we have so much to work with right now. But I guess I should talk about the NEWS: I am losing Elder Stubbs, he is headed to Daphne, Alabama. And I am getting a new missionary from the MTC..... I am training. I am very excited for the challenge, but I have never felt more inadequate in my whole entire life. I really am terrified for the challenge, I haven't even figured things out for myself yet. But I am going to learn a lot, and I am going to have to rely on the Lord and the Spirit much more than I have been! Needless to say Pray for me, because I am really going to need it. 

Love you family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time For A Baptism!

Elder Hintze & Elder Stubbs baptized Barbra Phillips on Saturday, September 13th! Here are a couple of pictures we received.

Elder Stubbs, Barbra Phillips, & Elder Hintze 

Elder Hintze & Elder Stubbs

"Who knew that the Ensigns were so good huh?"

Here is Elder Hintze's email from Monday, September 9th. He is doing great!

"Hey Family! I'm going to get right into it, another fantastic week here in sunny southern Alabama. I Love this place!


Monday - So this was Labor Day. Wooow Happy Holiday! So nothing too big this day, as always I hit up my stores and check out all of the hoodrat t-shirts! I haven't had an oppurtunity to go skating yet.. sadly Stay tuned for that. So we met with a recent convert family in the evening and they fed us some spaghetti. Then we hadn't met with them, Mike and Paula Thomley in a while, so they had a ton of questions for us.


Tuesday - We had district meeting, and it was a solid one. we put our district goals and actuals on the board.. hahaha. I'm sorry but man those are some bad numbers. The work is slow here, for just about everyone but Elder Stubbs and I, we have tons of really great things going right now! So on the way to district meeting we got a call from Carol Burnsed saying that she needed a blessing. So after that we went over there and did that, and when we got there she just broke down and man she has some hard stuff to deal with right now. She had her son thrown in jail, and has been really sick lately, and she is raising her two grandkids, and her grandaughter, one of them, is on meth and no one knows where she is. So just really hard stuff, so we were there for a while trying to help her out! It was good to be able to help her, and I think that we were able to! Then we went with Luke Thompson to try and find some people, the whole ward is on the chase for the lost people now, so we are on the hunt! We didn't have any luck though! Then we met with Barbra Phillips and we retaught her Lesson 3, Faith, Repentance, Baptism, etc. So we are just trying to get her all set for Saturday! Then the Myers took us to Del Taco to eat, Paul Myers is probably the funniest man that I know, he is the one who has had two strokes, so it is kind of sad to see him, but he is so upbeat all the time!


Wednesday - We worked at the food bank in the morning. And then after that we went to the Myers house again to help them with service, I ripped out a bunch of bushes and cut a bunch of hedges, they got a gas trimmer, that baby will take you for a ride! We also went and helped him at his old law office and did the yard work there, it was sad to see, because he can't work anymore. But as I said awesome people! And then they took us to McDonald's afterwards.. they are trying to make us fat I tell you. But on the way home they had to pick up rent money from a tenant of theres, and this old black guy named Lorenzo comes out to shake Pauls hand, and he says, "Hey Lorenzo do you want to be baptized?" It was awesome! So after that we went again to Barbra's with Forest and we taught here Tithing. And she did the math in her head and she basically told us that she will be living off of like 50 dollars a month after tithing and bills. And then she laughed and accepted it. So she has so much faith it is crazy! With this week leading up to her baptism she has been struggling a lot, you can tell that the adversary is just working on her like crazy. I will talk a little about that later. So after that Forest solicited us to help him pick up a washer and dryer. Oh boy so then a lady in the ward told us that she was buying us pizza for dinner, so she told us to meet her at Sams Club because that was the pizza that she wanted to buy us, so we get there and she has a chihuahua and says alright one of you needs to watch the dog, while the other stays with me.. So we told her that we can't split up. So here we are two guys shirts and ties and we are standing outside of Sams Club for probably like 30 minutes with this dog on the leash. hahahahahaha. I was laughing so hard. Then we finished up the evening with the ward coordination meeting, which is super effective, it is really awesome that we are doing that!


Thursday - We worked at the food bank again in the morning! Then we got weekly planning and that jazz, so we don't get out of the house forever. It's the worst. I just want to get to work! So we saw Linda for the first time in like 2 weeks, we are trying to help her understand the importance of baptism for the dead, we want her to go to the temple! But she gets upset that she can't do the male names, and she has no family members and she was mad that we couldn't go do them with her, it was actually quite funny! So we are working with her! Still my favorite person in Dothan! Then we saw Paul Kennedy, and he got his vision back, or at least some of it, so he was super happy about that and we read with him Elder Holland's talk from the September Ensign, and it didn't work as planned he just started talking about prison afterwards.. so that was a rough one. Who knew that the Ensigns were so good huh? It's like where have those magazines been all my life? ;) Really though I love the Ensigns!!!!! So we saw our thrift shop friend again Teresa, and we dropped her off a big Book of Mormon. And then here is the kicker we went to Marine PT. Because a lot of them play basketball with us, so we said lets get to know some of them better. ya bad idea... We both couldn't walk for like two days after that. We did some cross fit stuff, and it was like a 90 degree day here, I could have rung out my shirt. But needless to say I think we might go back, because it is a great oppurtunity to find people! So the sisters came over that night and told us about their visit with Barbra and she had told them that she didn't want to get baptized anymore and that she can't pay her tithing, and that she doesn't know enough... So I was super depressed about that, I said some real prayers that night for her. The adversary has been doing a number on her!


Friday - So instead of our normal donuts in the morning, we went to McDonald's breakfast, family I'm worried about my health, do you think it is the fast food? So after visiting a few people, we met with Barbra, and we talked with her, and needless to say she is still getting baptized!! She just felt like she didn't know enough, so we went through the baptism questions with her, and showed her that she knew them all, and we testified about the tithing, and told her to do it and see if the Lord doesn't bless her beyond measure. And then I had the idea to sing some hymns to her, so we sung her a bunch of hymns, and that was awesome. The Spirit was there! It was felt so strongly! I love that!!!!! It is unlike anything else! So chalk one up for the good guys and negative one for Satan, badaboom! So then we went to the Hospital and worked, nothing of report there. After that we visited a potential named LaRhonda that we saw from a while a go, and she is so nice, so we gave here a Book of Mormon, and hopefully we can begin to teach her, she is having a baby here in 2 weeks though. SO then! We went to the local high school football game hahahaha. With the Hughey's they bought us tickets and we went with them, it was Dothan vs. Northview the biggest rivarly in Alabama we heard.. both Dothan high schools, so we don't know if we will do it again, but it was awesome! We were hoping it would be a good finding oppurtunity, but I was too wrapped up in the football, the guy next to me, me and him just commentary all game.


Saturday - In the morning we tried to visit a bunch of people and we set up a bunch of appointments for Sunday. We went to see someone in the government housing district in town, so we pulled up in the parking lot, and there was these two black kids sitting on the porch probably 18 years old, and as soon as they saw the chevy car, and the white shirts everybody scatters. They booked it inside... Hahahahaha everyone thinks that we are cops. It is classic! So we went to visit Scott Magnus, the big burger man, his wife is a non member, and I was kind of frustrated because I was like what are we going to say, I was tired of the how are ya, we just wanted to see if we could help you, okay bye. So we get up there and are talking to him, and Elder Stubbs just says, "What are you doing tomorrow at 3?" And he is like, I don't know what's up. So he says, "We would like to come teach your wife more about the church." Goes inside asks, comes out, says, way to be aggressive, great way to handle your business see you tomorrow. It was so awesome!!! It was cool! Then we went and had our free lunch at the hospital, and then visited the Burnsed's again, they are doing much better, so we just read from the Book of Mormon with them, and we will continue to visit them! Then the Bainbridge Georgia Branch President called us and told us that he needed help loading up a piano. :) Hahaha so we had to lift a piano up into the bed of a truck, I'm huge basically. Then we went and met with Tony and Alicia Hansen's friends for the first time, Tiffany and Mitchell, and they are all for it, Mitchell is very receptive to the church and everything, and Tiffany is skeptical because she has never been to church her whole life. So we taught them the first lesson and it really was awesome that they met the Hansen's because they are exactly the same! oh ya and we had two dinners tonight haha, one at the Lint's and one at the Marturell's. My health...


Sunday - Sunday we had 3 investigators at church, it had been like a month solid now that we have had 2 or more investigators at church! We had Tiffany and Mitchell and Barbra there! Solid church meetings too. But in the morning Barbra wasn't there because her legs were hurting her, but if she doesn't come, then basically we would have had to bump the baptismal date back! So we rallied our troops of Cam and Luke and we left church and went and picked her up and helped her get to sacrament meeting, we told her that we would carry her if we have to, but we got her there! Then after church we had 3 straight member present lessons with investigators, 3 in one day, unheard of! So we met with Deborah first, Linda's neighbor and we just got to know her better and talked to her about prayer and then we had her pray with us, she feels that her prayers aren't answered, but she has been taught to not ask God questions, all the baptists believe that. That is so stupid!!! If there is anyone to turn to for answers it is our Heavenly Father, so we told her that, and she did her extravagant prayer. So prayer is going to be a great place to start for her. Then we saw Scott Magnus and his wife Bonifay, and she said that she is totally open to learning more about the church, we just answered a lot of her questions and all of them were based on the temple and why it was so secret, but we explained all that to her. And Scott has been less active for awhile, and he said that he would read the Book of Mormon with her, because he had never read it all the way through! SO AWESOME! Then we saw Barbra with Forest and we taught her the Law of Chastity. Oh boy, she is so hilarious, it was a hilarious lesson with her. But now we have officially taught her everything, she knows it all and so now we just keep going through the baptismal questions with her!!!!! After that we went and chilled with Cam and studied with him, and I helped him get all of his mission papers squared away, and then we saw Sister Knight! Cam told me that he was going to call you Dad, and I wanted him to do it while I was right there, but I decided against it, I would have been to tempted to say something!!!


Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great things are happening here!!! I love it!!! I miss each and everyone one of you so much!! It is crazy how much I love and miss you alll! But I love what is happening here, remember how sad I was that we had nothing at the beginning? But not now!! We have so much going on, and I am really looking forward to helping all of our investigators to progress!! I love this Gospel! And I love being a missionary!!

LOVE YOU ALLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Sweet Home Alabama eh? Creative!"

Here is Bradley's letter from Monday, September 2nd. He is doing good. Thanks for all the support you give as family and friends. Hope you enjoy this week's letter!

"FAMILY!!! Don't fret, despite the late emailing today, it is a little tricky, because of labor day, so we are emailing in the Family History Center, and this place is like stuck in the 80s, I am emailing on a box computer, what is this? But man the time is flying out here, am I right!? Does it seem to be going fast for ya'll back home. Because I am starting my 4th week of second transfer that is so crazy. But alright lets get into it!

Monday - Oh boy, we were at the mercy of the Sister's all day.. We were out of miles, so we had to bum a ride off of them all day, so we waited for them at wal mart for like 30 minutes, I thought on a mission, I wouldn't have to worry about waiting on girls anymore.. Bleh! Any whom, so we did hit up some great thrift stores and other places as such, and I bought me another great Alabama shirt from CitiTrends. And then once P-Day was over we had dinner at Ci Ci's Pizza and then Brother Willie Parker invited us over to his house for some ice cream, so we talked to them for a little bit. Then we had to be home, so that the zone leaders could be at our home, so we did a trade off, I had Elder Call in Dothan, and Elder Stubbs went up to Ozark for the night and next day. Elder Call is a way cool dude, so I really enjoyed serving with him for a day.

Tuesday - So as I mentioned, I was with Elder Call for the day. So we went and saw Barbra Philips, which I can't hold it in any longer, SHE IS GETTING BAPTIZED. But that didn't happen this time, so we talked to her about the Plan of Salvation, pictures and everything. So we had her quit smoking, and we were going to ease into getting her off of coffee, but when we were there, she willingly gave us the coffee maker, all of her coffee stuff, and her coffee. And we just threw it all away in the dumpster, it was awesome!!!! Then we went and saw Paul Kennedy, and we talked to him about setting a date for him to get the Priesthood, and he doesn't want in.. he feels that he will never be worthy of it, nor does he want the responsibility, he just wants to be a "commoner." Which is so sad! So we are going to work with him! Then we saw some other which was short, saw a dude who had drew us a picture and told us his conversion story, but he wouldn't let us come visit him, then we got a ton of food given to us by a member, then we had dinner at the Davis's. And then we went and balled, only two marines showed up, didn't have all of them.

Wednesday - We went and did service in the morning for a member in her garden and it took a long time, and these things were gnarly tons of grass and covered in roots, so I am going to town, thinking I am being funny just ripping roots out like crazy, and then after a while I think to myself man Bradley your hands hurt and I look down at them and I have massive blisters on my thumbs and on my palms, so I got that going for me. Oh boy this heat down here will just about knock you over, I had belly sweat, who has that? This guy! So after that, we went and visited little old Lois Bynum and Phillip here 50 year old son who has cerebal palsy. Those visits are always awkward, but the son knows just about everything about sports. Then we had two dinners this evening, one at Brother Bains house, so we had meatball sandwiches, by the way I am eating tons of stuff down here that I normally wouldn't! So I take it easy there, and then we had dinner scheduled for a less active guy, who's wife isn't a member, so we were pumped about that, sadly they are moving in about a week, but he made us burgers and they took forever to cook, and no lie this thing was like 2 POUNDS. Not kidding, so much meat, and it was all raw. So I start eating this thing, and he kept telling us that there was some suprise, so I bite into it, and there is cheese in the middle, and it like starts pouring out all over me, and the guy no like throws his arms up in the air and yells, "Thats the JUICY LOUSIE burger!!" So ya I took that baby down, raw meat, and full of cheese. This dude loved, I should say loves his food.

Thursday - Zone Conference all day basically, so president was there and the AP's. So I loved it! It was all about finding through family history! So they are really going big with it, to be able to find people! At the FSU football games they are having a booth set up at the games, with a banner that says "Are you a Seminole?" And then they are going to have 10 missionaries with iPads in there gettting people set up on Family Search and getting referrals, are you getting chills just thinking about that? Cuz I sure did! And the APs are teaching legit college classes at FAMU in Tallahassee on Geneology, how cool is that!? I honestly can't wait until we get iPads so we can start doing a lot of this kind of stuff. Also have you heard about the Facebook thing with missionaries? It is sketchy to me.. Apparently most US missionaries are doing it and they are on FB for an hour a day and they can talk to anyone as long as it is Gospel related.. I don't know about that! Any whom so zone conference was awesome and I think that we are going to do a lot with it! After that we went and saw Barbra Phillips and we set her BAPTISMAL DATE! It is on for September 14th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So that is really soon, we had it set for later, but we had to move it up, so two weeks away. She is so excited, like she is beyond ecstatic about being baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy about it. We also got a reply from Nathan Hanbury who is at marine bootcamp, and he said this place is so vile, and it is hard to keep the commandments, but his faith grows each day! He is in Alma 17! He brings friends to church! And he said, can't wait to come back and be baptized! Are you kidding me!? I hope with all my heart that I am here!. Then after all that we saw the Skippers, a member in the ward, and I just talked college football the whole time with him, I can't help it!

Friday - We had lunch at the Bain's house.... the food there is delicious. So then we went to the Hospital, and it was awesome! We got to talk to a lot of people and we prayed with a ton of them, and talked to people who had Mormon co workers, so it was a real successful day! Then after that we went to CVS because Stubbs needed DayQuil, and then we start talking to the lady who works there and she is part of the Ozark Branch (which is in our stake) So we talk to her about her conversion, and then she asks have ya'll had dinner? And I perk up NO, even though we had, so she had us go buy ourselves Taco Bell hahaha, and then bring her back what she wanted, so we did, we went over there ate, and then we waiting for her food... and a worker at taco bell left the store, then came back in, and said to his manager he needed to talk to her, then she came back in and said "Have you paid for your food?" We had, then she said well someone is paying you back and she gave us 20 bucks! So we tried to find the guy, and we waved at him, and he shook his head no. Then he comes back in and I thank him, and Elder Stubbs goes and talks to him, and he says, "I'm on one path, and you are on another, I respect you guys a lot, keep it up." So we gave him our number, but man that was humbling .. I don't know I didn't feel worthy of everyone's hospitality. It was just really cool! Then we had correlation meeting to finish off the evening with Forest Bain. Oh also we heard a marching band and so we went over and checked out the high school football game, awesome! The two high schools in Dothan, are playing each other next week, and we're going to it!

Saturday - Service, service, service! We were in our service clothes until 6 pm this evening, in the morning we went over and helped Linda, and her neighbor Gloria with service, we emptied out Gloria's back shed, and organized it all, which took about forever. And you wouldn't believe some of the spiders and lizards and cockroaches down here, I was scared for my life as I entered their back shed. Then we biked all the way across town and helped Sister Newton plant all of her flower gardens, or put new dirt in them and mix them all up and what not. She is the family history coordinator, so she is going to teach us how to use it all this week! Then on the way home, there is this way sketchy thrift shop, like spray paint all over it, so we're like alright we gotta stop by. So we stop in and we are talking to the lady that owns it, and we tell here were missionaries and were looking for ties, because we're in service clothes. So she gives us 3 free ties each, and some free sunglasses, And we are talking to her before we leave, and she is asking us all kinds of questions. So we are like well we would love to come talk to you about it sometime, and she says well theres a chair right there and a chair right there, lets talk! So we taught here the whole first lesson in her thrift shop hahahaha! It was so awesome! It wasn't the best lesson, but she told us to comeback! And we have to bring here a big Book of Mormon so she can read it! But how awesome! I hope there is a future with her! Then we went and saw Barbra Phillips with Cameron, and we retaught her the first lesson, she really is so pumped to be baptized it's awesome!!

Sunday - We had Gloria and Barbra at church which is so fantastic! The other two Tiffany and Mitchell, were in Georgia, but Tony Hansen said that they want to meet with us, so hopefully we will get to teach them this week!! But Gloria and Barbra came to all 3 hours of church, which is great! During Gospel Principles, Barbra saw a picture in the book of a baptism.. and she said, pretty loud, "Oh boy do I have to go down into that water, I better get me some slacks!" *all in German accent* Then everybody kind of looks at her and she says, "I'm sorry, I'm fix'n to get baptized and it is all I am thinking about, I didn't sleep last night because I was thinking about it!" And then she just chuckled. It was so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then after church we had to do weekly planning, because we put it off for too long. Then we went to dinner with a family in 1st Ward that used to be in 2nd Ward. Then we saw the Hughey's and we had kind of given up on them, but the dad started talking to us about some debate between two religion guys that he watched, and he said, "I am just all about finding out what God is about, I call myself a Godchaser." So we talked to him forever about all kinds of stuff and we think that he is ready!! We were pumped about it. Then after that we went back and I helped Cameron log all of his stuff in the computer for his mission he leaves in two weeks..... :( I'm gonna miss that dude, he is so awesome!

Family great things are happening here in Dothan!! I feel like we are barely scratching the surface, but it is so exciting! I am loving it here, and the people are so awesome! I hope that all is well back home, I love and miss each and everyone of you so much!!!!! The Gospel is so true, and the Lord's hand really is present in our work here! LOVE YA'LL!!!!"

LOVE, ELDER HINTZE

Zone Conference in Dothan

President and Sister Smith posted a couple of pictures from Zone Conference held on Thursday, August 29th in Dothan, Alabama. It is great to be a missionary!

Dothan Alabama Zone

(L to R) Elder ?, Elder Stubbs, Elder Hintze, Elder Davidson, Elder ?

"So everything is on the up and up!"

Here is Bradley's letter received Monday, August 26th. Hope you enjoy:

"Hello Family! Wow this week really flew by! I don't know if I have much time today to email. The sisters gave us a ride out here, because we are very low on miles for the month, and they hate their families or something, and so there all like Elder Hintze, we have to be out of here by like 1:30 at the latest. Whatever! They can take a hike! So I am going to get right into it! But this week flew by!!!!!! Really time is flying, but I love it out here! I would be content to spend my whole mission here in Dothan.


Monday - Still no roller skating. Never enough time to do anything that we need to. After all of the P-Day jazz, hardly any letter to write and again this week.. none, where are they??? ;) So we taught a man named Johnny Facion, a recent converts grandpa, he can't read.. And he understands nothing, but agrees with everything. He thinks that his pastors are prophets, and so I don't know what to do there, the other missionaries stopped teaching him, so we will see what happens. The Spirit wasn't in the lesson at all, which is always a really crappy feeling afterwards. Then we ate at the Depews, they played a joke on the sisters and put out green juice, and made them think that it was gonna be gross, but surprise it tasted like fruit!


Tuesday - We had zone training. So all 30+ missionaries got together in the zone to meet, the zone leaders and sister training leaders instructed us and we did some role playing. We are super lucky to have the stake center here in Dothan, so we don't have to travel at all for meetings like this. THEN we met with Barbra Phillips and she read Alma chapter 7 to us in German and told us what it meant in English, and she basically said that she wants to get baptized, and she quit smoking!!!! So we were like no way. And then we explained the Priesthood to her, and we gave her a priesthood blessing to be able to quit and she hasn't since then! And we went to get her remaining cigarettes, and she went to the cabinet and said, "they're all gone, I must of smoked em, ahh, even better." Hahahaha. She is awesome. But really I am so proud of her and I love this woman so much. She is making great steps. Then we had a first lesson with a man named Will, who is Gabe Halls friend (member just got home from mission) and he has had some rough past little whiles, and said he thinks there is a reason that he has been surrounded by friends who are members. His best friend just joined up in Chicago. It is amazing how the Resoration lesson really answers every single persons questions, and he is super sincere!! So I have great hopes for him... Unfortunatley though Gabe leaves to go to BYU Idaho in a week. Everyone down here loves BYU Idaho they think that it is so prestigious.. And I'm like come on people!! Then we ate with the Marturello's that Utah family, they are so awesome! They feed us every two weeks, and you should see their house, I tell her everytime, that if my mom and sisters could see this, they would die. Super awesome. Then we played ball and Tony brought like 13 marine buddies, and we BALLED. There was this little black kid, who played in High School, but guess who beat him? I will let you guess. :)


Wednesday - We met with Kevin and April in the morning and we talked about the Gospel of Christ. So we talked to them about baptism. He enjoys our visits and we have showed him all of this new stuff, and he believes it, he just doesn't have a testimony of the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith, that is crucial!!!! We also talked to them about quitting smoking, well actually they brought it up, so we are following up on that next time we meet with them! Then we saw Paul Kennedy. So then we had correlation meeting with all of the auxiallary heads in the ward, it was the best thing to ever happen. We are now all coordinating our efforts to find lost members! The church has like 10 step checklist to go throught that if you do all of them you can take them off your roster. There are 80 names that are lost, how does that happen? 80 people just gone! Then we ate with Cam, and studied with him.


Thursday - Today was awful. We updated the rosters in the morning. Went to Linda's she forgot about her appointment, tried a bunch of less actives, started pouring rain, so then we worked on the map. I filled up a balloon really big like the ones that we did at home, and it was huge, and then it popped all over our kitchen so.. But then we ate dinner with Bishop and Sister Cain, and it was so awesome!! We made him cry talking about some of the stuff that we had done lately! Then we went with Luke to see Danny Dee's and he was headed to bed, so we just got to know him a little bit better, and he talked about how much his family means to him, and it was great! There is so much potential with him too, just hard to meet with him.


Friday - Started the day at Linda's she asked us some questions from the book of Revelations, and that my friends is some crazy stuff in that book. I have been reading it a little bit, because of her questions. We saw Barbra Phillips again and we read from the book of mormon with her, she is still smoke free, but Sister Johnson her neighbor a member of our ward bought her an electronic cigarette.. So I confiscated that baby and I broke it in half and then it started heating up on me. But we got it out of her house, I stomped it. Then we did hospital shift and we were making our rounds in the ER, and another lady says I used to be a member of your church. What? So awesome two weeks in a row. So we talk to her, she has 4 kids, one lives with her mom and is 7 and is getting baptized in a few weeks. But the others are young, and she was awesome, and says that she is going to come back, but she didn't on Sunday. But its still alright!! Then we ate dinner with the Allen family, from Arizona originally, super awesome! Brother Allen since then has helped us out a ton, he has drove us places on Sunday and is planning on taking us out to a mexican restaurant to find a less active young men in the ward. And Friday night we were out biking and we almost got eatin by 3 pitbulls, Elder Stubbs was alone the first time, and so I was laughing at him, but then they came at us on the way back, so we stood back to back with our bikes in front of us and walked slowly, they were out for blood. Then we saw the Deal family.


Saturday - Didn't really have anything planned so we walked to Walgreens and I sweat out of my slacks, but then we got there and the supplies that we needed for our maps weren't there, but we did get to talk to a couple people on the way. Then we met Anita (recent convert) in the park, it is her grandpa that we met, read with her. Then we went to talk to the buddhist woman Itsoku she let us in, we met the husband, he didn't like us, but he said, "you know we're buddhist right?" And we were like yes sir. And then he loved us after that he gave us powerade and then she played some japanese guitar for us, and they have some giant buddhist shrine in their living room. But we talked to her a lot about where she came from, and we talked about family history, and we were able to talk a lot about the Gospel. If we were able to talk to him, I think that we could have em, because he is american, so he can actually understand us better. So we will keep working. Then we saw good old Sister Knight and Cameron took us to see some folks.


Sunday - Real fine day. Real fine. we had 4 investigators at church! Church is so stressful.. I am so worried about every little thing that people say when we have investigators there, because sometimes it gets a little crazy down here in Alabama. But it was an awesome meeting, Brother Thomas, talked about prayer to end sacrament meeting, it was so awesome, so basic, with the Spirit, and then he sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer over the pulpit and it made me cry. It was exactly what everyone of the investigators needed. We had Barbra there we picked her up, and then Gloria and she loved church and she has started reading the Book of Mormon!!!!!!!!!!!! So we will see here this week, and then Tony Hansen brought two friends Tiffany and Mitchell. Both Gloria and Barbra said they were coming back next week! We ate dinner at the Lewis's they live out on a diary farm. Then we saw the Burnsed's they are going through some rough times, her son was doing drugs in their home, and so the mom called the police on him, and he is in prison. Then we went to Southside Baptist Church with Brother Willie, they had a get together outside with games and hotdogs and burgers, so we just met lots of the people, real good time, the pastor there really, really likes us. Then we went to Barbra's because it was her birthday today and she has no body so we had us, both sets of sisters, and Sister Yawei and Sister Johnson from the ward over. We got here a little gift and we made a cake and brought over ice cream, it really was such a great time, and she was so happy! I loved all of it! After when we left we said a prayer and afterwards Barbra said, I feel like I need to pray to. So she said a prayer on her own and just gave thanks! It was so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Well that's the week! I really do love whats happening here! Some really great things!! And I don't want to count any eggs, but we have a lot of sincere people, that could get baptized. It really is so sweet to see people learn and accept the Gospel!!! So everything is on the up and up! I really am so happy about all of it! And I love all of you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Gospel is true!"


Love, Elder Hintze!

"Alright I want to see you two outside"

Here is Elder Hintze's email dated Monday, August 19th. Thanks for looking in on this blog once in a while. If you get a chance, Elder Hintze would love to hear from you. Hope you enjoy:

Hello there Family, another fantastic week in the mission field. Some really pretty fantastic things happened this week, the Lord's hand really is over all that we do. I hope all is well back at home! Alright I am just going to get right into our week!

 

Monday- So as I mentioned last week, we taught Kevin his lesson in the morning. And he just wants his Bible, and proof from the Bible. But I will get there later. So unfortunately I didn't get to go skating or to teach the Restoration lesson on roller skates. But today I believe we are going to go skating, because I don't have any letters to write. So tried to track a bunch of unknowns down afterwards, and couldn't find them, so we taught mission prep to Cameron and Luke and we continued to work on our new maps. The sister missionaries one upped us again, and got us a giant map.. Psssh.

 

Tuesday - So starting today, we have been venturing into the sketchy areas within the circle, which is awesome. All kinds of young black people drive by and yell stuff at us, and I don't even know what they're saying. It's so awesome! But anyway we visited a less active member Bonnie Lou Crunelle, and she was talking about how her house is falling apart, and how there are holes everywhere, but yet she owns like 13 cats, and just keeps picking them up from the shelter. What in the world? She told us a lot of heavy stuff though, she doesn't even know where her daughters are, some of them she hasn't talked to in years, that is so sad! So after that we took Paul Kennedy to teach an investigator with us.. we felt prompted to take him. And it was awesome! We took him to Barbra Phillips and he was able to apply a lot to her, about being alone, and he's blind, and she's hard of walking. It really was fantastic, plus they both smoke, so hey! :) But it really was awesome, and he was able to testify of how prayer had helped him in his life. Then we met with Linda Pollium, she is still my favorite person in the ward! I love her. Then we went to basketball, and I got a little competitive.. I know, I just wanted to win, and the head honcho Marine recruit was there, so I couldn't let him beat me.

 

Wednesday - Really awesome day! So we went to Linda's because she asked us to help her move stuff from her garage to her shed and what not. So we helped her with that, and we cleaned off her back yard, and did everything that she asked. And then her neighbor was about to mow her lawn, a woman, so Linda offered us to help her, which was so awesome, we were going to offer anyways! But service is huge, it is by far the best way to find people, so we are trying to do service as much as we can! So we go over there, and her lawn mower is broken... I don't know anything about lawn mowers or engines really.. But I fixed it, I took out the air filter, and that baby was clogged, so I washed it all up. And she ran like a charm, its weird how the Spirit knows engines too? :) So we mowed her lawn, and while Stubbs mowed I helped the two little kids build a tree house, the first thing they said to me was, "I'm Jasmine and this is my brother Tarence Johnson." Hahahaha. But they were awesome, they said to me, "Elder you are the bestest friend we've ever had." And "Elder can you come over every day?" So then I took a turn mowing, and while I was mowing, Stubbs and Linda taught the lady, Deborah the first lesson! She just came up and started asking! She has a Book of Mormon and has been exposed to the church already. Then we met with Gloria and offered her service, so this Saturday we are helping them! Then we visited Sister Newton because we were told she needed help, and she just showed us around her garden, and holy mosquitoes, I got bit literally probably close to 150 times. Then we saw Sister Rush, and offered service, and we have to go back and pick the weeds in her garden, I love picking weeds. :) So then we get home shower, and get dressed, and we got a call that Bro Prigmore needs help moving couches, so we go and get drenched in sweat again moving couches! But he gave us a free table. Then we went with Cameron to see Itsoku the Buddhist woman and she has been reading her Book of Mormon in Japanese, and she said "let me keep studying" She is a better Christian than most people. Then we met with the ward mission leader and went over the ward roster, in hopes to figure out who people are. Nobody knows like half of the roster?

 

Thursday - We met with Kevin and April today. And we finished the 2nd half of the Plan of Salvation lesson. And it got really good towards the end, and we had to show him where in the Bible it talks about all of the steps in the Plan of Salvation. And he was like, "woow well I can't dispute this it must be true." Which is good, but awful. He needs to receive he answer by asking God, and exercising Faith, he is still unsure about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, but we give him reading assignments now in the Book of Mormon. So hopefully it will get him reading. Then we met with Sister Barbra Erb, she is really awesome, because we had the Sister missionaries with us this time.

 

Friday - We started out working at the Food Bank, super great. Then we tried to track down a bunch of potentials and less actives in the middle of the circle. And that never turns out, a lot of the lost people we try and find, or people on the roster, we go there and it is an abandoned house. So these people are just lost! And so basically there are 10 steps you have to go through to find them, and if you can't then they just excommunicate them, they do that a lot down here I've learned. Any whom, so we go to the hospital, and we are making our round through the ER and we stop to talk to this lady, and she says she would like somebody to talk to, so we start talking to her. And she says, "I used to be a Mormon." So we were like woooww, So we talked to here about that, she joined in Tennessee when she was 15, and she said it was because she had a crush on one of the missionaries. But we find out that she is in there because she was huffing some chemicals. And so we started talking to here about the Atonement and that God still loves her, and so she just starts crying. And it was so awesome, the Spirit was really working on her, so we left her our number and everything, and invited her to church, she didn't come. But we are going to try and find her. I hope that we can, she seemed fairly sincere! After that we visited Tarin Burnsed a recent convert girl, she is 14 I think, she lives in rough circumstances, but she seemed to be pretty happy, which was really awesome. Alright here is the real good story: So we were eating dinner at a Members home, the Lints, and it is out in the middle of no where in Alabama, in a trailer. Any whom, so the family is really nice, the dad used to be a satanist, (super sketchy story about that too.) So we are eating and Sister Lint's brother and girlfriend come over to pick up a phone, and you can tell they both are looking a little rough. So shortly after that, we sat down for a message, and the brother was like "oh well we gotta get outta here." But the girlfriend, made him stay. So we just shared the 1st Article of Faith, and we were all talking about how the knowledge that we have a loving Heavenly Father has helped us in our lives. And I was talking about a Buddhist lady that we are teaching, and how she didn't believe in God, and just how sad it was that she had no knowledge of this. And so he starts asking questions, kind of angrily. Such as "Well were all from one God right? so why does the church matter?" "No one has really died and come back, so we don't know what its like in heaven." So he is just going on and on, and he talked about how he was in prison for 16 months, and how he read the whole bible from cover to cover. And how there is so much misinformation, and he said nobody has an answer for that. So he says, "I just feel like a monster sitting here with all of you, because I just don't know if there was a God." And so Brother Lint, could apply to him because he was a satanist, and we just testified that we had the answers to all of his questions, and we gave him a Book of Mormon. And then he says, "Alright I want to see you two outside." To Elder Stubbs and I.. So out in the middle of no where, really dark outside, just one porch light on, we follow this man out.. And so I'm real nervous not going to lie. You can tell he's a rough and tough guy, So I'm thinking alright Bradley, now be smart, I'm thinking I might be tangoing with a man here pretty soon. BUT! We go out there and he says, "Alright I drink a whole lot, and I mean a lot, and I want to make things right with my girlfriend. And so I want you two to say a prayer with me right now, to help me stop drinking, and get my life in order." CAN YOU SAY CURVEBALL. How awesome right? So we say, "Do you believe that you are a child of your Heavenly Father?" He says, Yes. We say, "Do you believe that Christ died for you?" He says, I don't know about that. So we say, "Do you want to know?" He says, Yes. So we say, "Alright because for this to work it is going to take a lot of faith in your Savior Jesus Christ, because through His power you can quit." And so we prayed with him, and he said that he is going to try us out, and read the Book of Mormon. It was like life changing for me, The Spirit was so strong there. Unreal experience. So we hopefully will see him again! Also the marine Nathan, Tony got a letter from him, and he got to see a baptism while at boot camp! And he said in the letter that he can't wait to get home and be baptized! And he is taking his buddies to church with them, and giving them Books of Mormon!!!!

 

Saturday - It poured rain all day. And apparently we are supposed to get a ton all this upcoming week. So we went and saw Bro Nunez and he is doing great, but his family is none existent, so we asked him how we can meet with them. So hopefully we will get that figured out. Then we visited the Forzey family, real big dude, says he was up all nights playing computer games, but hahaha really cool family. Then Linda had us over we had Subway and we had "Bible Study" as she called it with Anita (RC), Sis Newton, Prigmores, and her. So that was really pretty awesome to be able to strengthen so many members, or develop frienships with them. Then we took Paul Kennedy to Barbra Phillips again. And we basically talked about prayer again, because I think she is getting Alzheimer's she can't remember anything. But it was really great again, Paul relates to her really well. Then we met with Tony Hansen and he drove us around to see a bunch of people. And he bought a new truck and while at the dealership, he taught a couple that worked there the 1st lesson, word of wisdom, law of chastity, temples, all of that for 2 hours he did! And they were way into it. So hopefully we will be able to work with them, he got their info! But while we were driving Tony says, "That's the guy I'm looking for!!" And were like who? Apparently some kid that he is trying to recruit in the marines. And so he takes off and we follow the kid to Sonic, and he hops out and goes and talks to him. Hahaha. If you have ever wondered where all of the military come from? Its Alabama. Everyone is in the military. Also the women in the ER who was huffing chemicals, was picked up by Tony's wife Alicia. Mormon cop, Mormon drug abuser, Mormon Missionaries, we gotta find her!

 

Sunday - So we had a lot of hopefuls at church, but sadly we got nobody.. But it is alright! We ate at the Hall's after church super awesome family, love them, with the dream house! We then introduced the sisters to Sister Rush, and she has recovered from cancer, so now we just have to get her to church! After that the Elders Quorum President called us and we went and made some visits with him, which was awesome. We got to talk to him a lot, and he really is such a good guy, so it was great to go out with him. Then we just stopped by Barbra Phillips, because she wasn't feeling well, that why she didn't make it to church. She talks about how it is hard for her to stand in the shower, so I said, Do you have a seat? So she says, Yes it doesn't work. So I says, Let me figure it out. So I put it in, and she was saying, how am I supposed to use that? So I proceeded to get into her bathtub and model the seat out for her, I shut the curtain and everything. Hahahaha. Then we went and saw Sister Knight to finish off the evening.

 

Pretty good week for us, we don't have anybody that is really solid yet! But I really do love everyone in this ward! That is a huge thing that changed for me this week, every where that we went, I truly felt love for everyone! I know this isn't even relative, but I don't want to leave Dothan. The people here are awesome, and I feel like just now we are connecting with all of them! But regardless of what happens on any of my days here it's happy. I am wearing Christ's name, I am representing His church! I am His Missionary. Regardless of anything that happen's I am happy because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true!! Love you all so much! Think about you a lot, and miss all of you!!

 

Love Elder Bradley Hintze

"That's a Fact"

Here is Elder Hintze's letter from Monday, August 12th. Hope you enjoy!

Hello Family!!

Another week gone and by in this mission, fun fact today marks my 2 month period for being a missionary! Eh? Pretty nice am I right? Not going to lie it has gone by fairly quick, but at the same time I feel like I have been gone for like 13 years. But any whom, so this week was kind of a dull one with teaching people, but we did get two new sisters. And holy cow... They are blowing us out of the water, they have been creating fliers and come worship with us cards, and coming up with all kinds of smart ideas that we had never even thought of, who are they? But it is really nice to have a set of sisters just over the Dothan 2nd ward. So that we can both work over the area. So get this, they passed this rule a few weeks back, that sisters and elders can't eat at the same dinner appointment, so.. Basically this past month we have been fed like 7 times.. and the Sisters calendar is full up. So I am basically starving here without members, and on a limited budget. So don't worry about me, I am fine. :) Any way I will give you the week!

Monday - P-Day. So we found out in the morning that one of the Sisters was going to Tallahassee. And so she was shedding lots of tears, and so we all went to lunch as a District at Zaxbys. And she was wanting to take like a million pictures, and I was just so over it all. It was so much drama. Hahaha. :) So we got all of our shopping and stuff done, we always try and hit up some local thrift stores for ties, I think today we are going to go to the pawn shop, and I think that Elder Stubbs and I are going to go roller skating at the skate rink, my goal is to teach a lesson while on roller skate, huh? But after we were done we were fed by the Marturello's, Dean and Brooke Marturello, they have been here for 3 weeks, they moved from Utah. They have already fed me more times than anyone. They are really awesome, they both served missions, so they are willing to help us do anything. I love them!! So after dinner we tried to visit some less actives, and none of them worked. And so we didn't know what to do, and I just had a thought that we should go visit Linda Pollium. I don't why, but I just did. So we got to her house and we were talking, and she just broke down, and started sobbing, and she said, "I don't know why you boys decided to come over here today, but I have been praying all day, because it has been so hard." And the Spirit was so strong, I learn more from her everytime we teach her. And it really felt good, because I sometimes think that I am not the best at feeling promptings of the Spirit, so I was so thankful. Because that also meant a lot to me, that I just had an impression to go see her, it was awesome!

Tuesday - Had District Meeting in the morning, and District meeting has become one of my favorite things to do, I really enjoy them. So after that, we went and had a lesson with Kevin Hust. And we read Enos with him, just all they way through, and explained all of it. I love Enos! It is the bomb, it basically goes through prayer, faith, repentance, Gospel of Christ. It is awesome. So we just answered all of his questions that he has, and read with him. Each time we meet with him, he has questions, and we have to crack the shell, and get through all the problems, but each time we meet with him, he softens up just a little bit more, it is really cool to see. And afterwards, they fed us some soup. But he was just talking about how much he enjoyed that! So slowly I think that we are progressing with him. After that we helped Levi Hansen move to Burmingham, he is in our Elders Quorum, and he was from Idaho. The Also Elder Stubbs had a prompting to go into the Dothan Rescue Mission so we did. We also went into this antique shop, and you wouldn't believe all that was in there, I told the guy that if my family was here they would be in heaven. So then we met with Barbra Phillips. We had a set time to be there, and they showed up 30 minutes late.. because they were baking cookies. So we had like 20 minutes with Barbra to teach her... I mean come on, and then the Sisters were late to their dinner appointment as well. AHHHH. But we just read some out of the Book of Mormon with her, and got her to pray which is awesome, she gets more and more confident every single time she does it! Then we had dinner at the Myers, Paul and Cindy, he used to be the old bishop, but has had two strokes, and is now going in for heart surgery to fix a hole in his heart, but I heard they had run marathons, and so I asked them, and he has run 29 marathons, and she has run 4, crazy! So I talked to them for a while about that, but Paul used to run and ride his motorcycle everywhere, but now can't do any of that, so it is a little sad. But he is hilarious, if anything happens, or if he drops something, or if he needs more food he just says, "Stroke. Stroke. Stroke." He is hilarious, I love them too.

Wednesday - We started out the morning working at the food bank, loading up pallets of food to be shipped out all over Alabama. So we got all sweaty doing that, came home showered sat down for studies, got a call, that a part member family needed help in the yard, so we went and did that for like 3 hours. And we were fasting throughout this whole process as well, so we were pooped. But we were able to watch Mormon Messages with the family, so that was really cool. Then the rest of the day was kind of a bust, the new sisters got there and so we went to Taco Bell with them, and we just debriefed them of the area, and things to be aware of, and all the members in the ward, so it was really good.'

Thursday - We started out in the morning again working at the food bank, packing up pallets of individual boxes this time. And then after that we spend the morning with the Sisters doing weekly planning with them, just further getting them acquanted with the area, both of them are brand new. So we did weekly planning, and thats where we got a lot of really cool ideas going on. I think we are going to throw a fireside for members to teach them about mormon.org, and to show them the new videos on the church website about missionary work. And also, we are putting on a talent show for the ward, to get all less active or investigators too in like a month or so. So that should be really good! Then we don't have any real direction here, so we went and got maps, and so I made two brand new maps and hung them on the wall, and started putting in all of the pins from the roster. So that we actually know whats going on and who is who, the last map is really pretty old. The ward roster is 20 pages long! So you can imagine the amount of pins, and we aren't even done yet. Then we had dinner at the house of Sister Yawei.. Celery Juice, and that same leaves, with like 9 tomatoes in it. And we had sweet potatoes.

Friday - Got a real good jump on the day, and we ventured far inside the middle of the circle, which is the sketchier areas to try and track down a bunch of less actives. And we didn't really see any of them, but we found someone off of an old progress record, that we got a return appointment for, and we found two new investigators, who told us to comeback, because they would like to learn more. So that was sweet!! The one lady was really young, and pregnant, and was saying she grew up Baptist, but didn't like some of the stuff they did, and was developing her faith right now, I mean come on, that is golden! So we were way excited about that. Some of the areas that we are in, make me feel sad though. One less active we tried, had no windows, they were all broken out, so it was just wide open, and their front door, had no door knob. So then we went to the hospital for clergy duty, nothing too exciting happened, but we just talk to everyone, that we can, and it is really fun. The workers in the CCU hate us, because they think we're in their way, so I decided I was going to make them like me, so I talked to each and everyone of them, and just asked them how they were doing, and it was awesome! We went to Krispy Kreme and brought donuts with us, and the chaplain after us was really mad, and so I was just like ya know what sir, would you like a donut, and at first he was like NO. But then he did a double take, once he figured out what I asked, and said, oh yes thank you. And he was so nice to us afterward, and believe me I was saving that last donut. :) After that we had correlation meeting with the mission leader. And then we had dinner at the Dewpews, I ate their my first night that I got to Dothan, and I was just thinking about the difference in how I felt and it was really cool, because the first night there, I was thinking, what have I gotten myself into. But now it was so different, it was much more enjoyable. :)

Saturday - We helped the Mitchell family move, another solid member of the Elders Quorum, that we are losing. Then we did a trade off with the Dothan 1st Elders, I went up there so that I could see Sherlyn Everage, BG Hunts sister. And I was with Elder Davidson who came out the same time as me, so we were lost because he didn't know where we were going, and it wasn't my area. So that took awhile. But I tried her house twice, but no one was home either time. I have her phone number, and I know where she works in Dothan. But I would just rather see her at here house, so the other Elders kind of have an in, and can start working with her. So I will keep you posted on that, but we just visited some of their less actives, and members, and we did some tracting. After that the Chappell's took us out to eat, which I love. They took us to Ryan's a southern buffet, they had steak grilling, you would just walk up and say how you wanted it cooked and he would give it to you, and the CHICKEN oh my goodness, I bet I had like 23 chicken nuggets/tenders/fried chicken. Any whom, I put the hurt on the buffet. After that we stopped by Bro Willie Parkers house and talked with them, and read from the Bible with him. I'm working up to talking about the Book of Mormon dad!!! So he fed us ice cream, and we asked them what time their service was, and so we told them we would go, I'll get there. Then we visited that referral from the bishop in Douglas. Nathan Spivey, and we talked with him forever on the porch, President Bess has talked to him, because they both work at Flowers Hospital. And we told Pres Bess to talk to him, which is about the best thing that I can think of for anyone, Pres Bess will get the job done. But they are getting married and 2 weeks, and we both kind of walked away with that in 2 weeks we will be able to work with them.

Sunday - So some huge stuff happened today. So it was the sister first time at church, so we had ward council. I piped up, and told all the ward council to "please don't hesitate to send any of these rescue names to us, that you would like to be contacted." that's all I got. But we didn't have any investigators at church, but we got Paul Kennedy there. So after church Bishop Cain invites the sisters into his office for a meeting. WE HAVE BEEN ASKING FOR A MEETING FOR WEEKS. Hahahaha. So I was just like whatever. And we weren't invited in, and they were in there for 2 hours! And we carpooled with them, so we got all new rosters and such talked to everyone that we could and then finally we were like alright we got work to do, so we started walking home, in the suits.. bad idea. I was drenched. Luckily we got picked up, but we got to the apartment, and we were locked out the key was in the car so, we had to sit there and roast while we waited for the sisters hahaha. So Quinn Krizer the elder's president came up to us, and was like alright guys I need your help, so we are going to be working heavy with him. Which is fantastic! After church I put everyone on the ward roster onto our white board, so there is like 120 names in the "Unknown" category, so we have lots to track down this week! So we went to the Southside Baptist Church with Bro Willie Parker. And I got to say, I was pretty dang impressed. With some of the stuff that they do, if I was looking for a social church, I would be all over that one! They were way in to fellowship, and everyone there was SO nice. It was hilarious though, I had to hold back laughter a lot, this guy in front of us was throwing up fist pumps, and yelling "That's a fact!" It was just a really hilarious experience. But we talked to the Pastor for awhile, and he got our number and said that he wants to take us all out to lunch, he was so nice, and asked us to call him, he would love to come out with us is what he said. Hahaha. But we think we are going to go again, we asked what we could help them with. And so if we can get in with them, some how it could be really awesome for us!

Well, family I miss you all so much. I got the baby package, and all the pictures and that made me cry. Really I love all of you so much!! And it is really hard to be away from ya'll. But I love it here, I am beginning to love it more each and everyday. I love this Gospel, and what it had done to our families life, and what I see it do in other peoples lives! There really is nothing else like it!! I know that this Gospel is true!!

Love, Elder Hintze