"DeFuniak has a special place in my heart!!!!"

Monday, July 7, 2014

Hello Family, sure do love ya'll a whole lot!!

So yes the big news from here today is that I am Tallahassee bound to be a zone leader in the Tallahassee 1st ward with Elder Cooper.. he is awesome, I knew him in the Dothan Zone. Elder Larsen is headed to the Fort Walton 1st Ward.. I believe that I am going to be close to Elder Hammond. But these past few days have been interesting, it is sad to leave DeFuniak, I'm such a baby, a couple times I have started to think about it and tears have come easily to my eyes, it is going to be hard to leave, a part of who I am going to be for the rest of my life was formed here! DeFuniak has a special place in my heart!!!! It's been good DeFuniak... Thursday here comes Tallahassee! Elder Uriquagua and Elder Smellie, two of the elders I am really close with all of us are going to be zone leaders.. so it is funny, Smellie will be in the other zone in Tallahassee. Can I tell you guys one of the weirdest things about the mission? DREAMS. So when you dream it is about random stuff right... but not on the mission, every dream that I have is about mission stuff! It is so weird, I dream about Elder Larsen and I teaching and doing stuff, really weird. Lets get to the week!

Monday - We went to the beach again.. it was a good time, it was hott… :)  We are not going today at all! But we got back and we had dinner with the Anderson's we were just a few minutes late getting back, so we ate with them and then we had a lesson with them, to wrap up our evening!

Tuesday - We had our District Meeting in the morning, it was super awesome! We had a little mormon message testimony meeting, and it was so spiritual.. one of the Sisters fathers had passed away, so... she got so emotional with some of them, and the spirit was super strong, not a dry eye in the place. Then we ate lunch at Taco Bell. :) And got back to the church for our Correlation Meeting with the people! Then we taught John Reyes, it was a good one, we talked to him about Eternal Families! Then we had to move two fridges with Elder Habel and take them to his house, and then we got to Mark Lassen's in hopes to help him, but he just fed us... and didn't have time.. then we went and we watched the Prophet of the Restoration with Al Jackson and Bro Stripling... we popped popcorn and watched it... Al loved it, he learned so much about Joseph Smith and listed off like 7 things he learned.

Wednesday - We went with Brother Mitchem and we ate lunch and then we headed down to Freeport and we helped Sis Hunt we took apart her trailer and had to rebuild or still in the process of rebuilding all of the floors and securing the water heater all that jazz.. We got back up to town and Bro. Skayhan was in the family history center doing his work, and we stepped out and we taught Zac Gauntney with Bro Stripling, so we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ.. and it went super well actually!!!!!!! He seemed into it and interested and humble like he wanted to change, he is super pumped. So we committed him to baptism on Aug 2nd... and without a doubt he is going to make it, super solid! Then we broke for milk shakes with Bro. Stripling... Bro Stripling, he is the best man in the world, we have become really close.. it is going to be hard to leave him behind, we are always doing stuff with him. 

Thursday - We went to the Howard's in the morning and we helped them out... we helped load things for them. So we did that and helped load a bunch of cinder blocks and cemented stuff in. Then we got back and we taught JR Strange, it was awesome! So we taught him and he had some major doubts at the first... about Joseph Smith and about him suppressing a newspaper and going to jail for it... I just told him, what does that matter, completely irrelevant, Peter denied Christ 3 times, Paul persecuted the saints, does that make them not apostles, NO. Imperfect men... so we got him straightened out he is just so apprehensive, super into learning though! After that we saw the Ammons, the family we did Family History with, and they are so nice, they   show up to our appointment, but we talked to them for quite some time and we got the oppurtunity to share the Restoration with him and we are going back on Wednesday to teach it to them.. he was super into it! Afterward we went home teaching. I went with Bro Stripling and Bro Andersen and we taught Al Jackson, we taught him 4 of the commandments, and he had no problems he committed to live all of them, he took special interest in the Sabbath day holy, he loved that! Then we ate dinner.

Friday - HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!!!! wooow... But we did our weekly planning and then we went and we visited the Habbard's, we followed up with Bro Habbard on the calendar that we set up.. and he is still on it and trying to quit smoking cigarettes, we talked to him about the talk 'The Joy of Redeeming the Dead" and we are hopefully going to start going family history with him..  then we went up to the Crosby's they had us over and so we ate with them and visited with them for a short time and then we got back down and we went to the Jones's home, they invited us over and they had lots of members of the church over there, so we ate and then visited… Then we all went to the lake yard and they shot off fireworks over Lake DeFuniak.. so right by our house, surprisingly.. not that bad of a show for DeFuniak, we were impressed! Ohhh we had one of the cooliest experiences, we OYMed this guy around the lake, I just felt prompted we needed to talk to him, his name was Darrell. And it was probably the best OYM of my life... he said, "anyone from your church is welcome in my home!" Wooow, so the new elders are going to baptize him, I'm sure of it! :)

Saturday - We taught John Reyes in the morning, probably our last time.... so we just read to him passages about the Atonement from the Bible and then the Book of Mormon, the Bible is lacking in that... so we just read him a bunch and testified, and he was crying during the whole thing, so we said our last prayer with him, he says he is going to be out in 2017 and we are going to get his address and write him in there, he wants us to come see him when he's out..! Then we saw Sister Dunaway... trying to do family history with her, been less active for a long time! Then we didn't quite know what we needed to do, and Sis Howard called us and told us that Bro Howard's brother is at the house helping out, and we were trying to contact him, planned on it that day, and we didn't really feel very prompted about our plans.. so we ran with it and we got up there and we helped them to unload stuff again... I got to drive the tractor!! And we got to meet him, he is not a member, so hopefully something can come from that! Then the Russ's had us over for a little barbeque at their place.

Sunday - We had Zac at church! Nobody else besides, Brother Skayhan and Mark Lassen.. Skayhan has been asking me if I will be here to rebaptize him.. it was super sad, just this man in the wheelchair... I hope he can keep moving without us here... He is set up to meet with the bishop on Wednesday.. bore my testimony for the last time here, love testimony meeting! I taught gospel principles as well, and Zac introduced himself and said, "Hi I'm Zac Gauntney and I am getting baptized August 2nd." So things went well there, after the meeting we gave the Howard's blessings, some of the most powerful blessings. Then we ate with the Hughe's after church. Then we went out to Freeport with Brother Anderson, but our people weren't home at all.. so we stopped and saw the Diviney's hilarious, hilarious people, I die! Then we went out and we visited with JR again, we just talked to him some more about getting an answer, desiring to change, about how we give it, and used some of Elder Holland's talk this conference, about peoples view of a comfortable God. Then we were at the Farris's, which you probably saw pictures of…

Elder Larsen & Elder Hintze

it was our time to grill up the burgers for burger night!!!!! So we did that, and then we ran out to the Habel's their daughter is here from China, she teaches over there... so she got to do a little fireside about the Church in China, it was so interesting.. the Gov't over there is crazy.. a lot of other churches break the rules as far a proselyting, but the church doesn't at all, because the prophets have said, either we go in through the front door or we don't at all... so when it happens and China opens up look out! The Gov't over there is really afraid of the church, because they see them taking over.. .sounds about right to me, eh? :)

Family sure do love you a whole lot, miss you like crazy!!!!!!!!

Love, 

Elder Hintze

"Transfer News"

Monday, July 7, 2014

Hello Family!!!!!

SO here it is for you.. just to start off, my new assignment in this mission, which I will talk more about in the big letter.... But I am going to be heading to the Tallahassee 1st Ward... and I am going to be a ZONE LEADER!!!! So I did not expect this, but I am going to be with Elder Cooper, and I got to know him fairly well, he is so awesome!!!!!!!! So I am headed to the big city of Tallahassee. 

Love ya'll!!

"Heavenly Father please make this night's sleep seem like it lasts forever!"

Monday, June 30, 2014

Hello Family!!

Hope everyone is well and happy! I am doing outstanding this morning, coming to live from DeFuniak Springs Library, sorry for the early emailing... But, lets talk about a few things... can we be for real about the weather in Florida right now... I don't know if ya'll have seen how hot it is here, but they are saying it hasn't been this hot in a long time!!!!!!!!! I am literally burning, literally cooking in my own epidermis, send me some dry air!!!!!!!!! This humidity, is lighting me up baby, sweating all the day long! It is killer. This week, was awesome for us.. we had a stellar week, probably the best one since I've been here, with that being said.. I honestly have never been so tired in my whole entire life, I woke up at 1 am last night on the couch in my shirt and tie, and I don't remember getting there! So we have been working so hard, I have never worked so hard in my whole entire life, before I go to bed I always pray, "Heavenly Father please make this night's sleep seem like it lasts forever!"

Monday - We went to Fort Walton last week and we played basketball, there is this kid named Elder Smellie and he is too small or else Utah State was going to sign him on the team.. he is ridiculously good, we played with him, he plays like Cam. So it was some pretty good ball! We ate at the Crosby's in the evening, and The Moreno's were there (Anderson's daughter and grandson, who came from Arizona), and Sister Farris. Zac was also there, so we shared a lesson around the Family Proclamation to the World, and around the Plan of Salvation it went really well. Apparently Zac is a lot more interested than we first though!

Tuesday - We had our District Meeting in the morning, and it went pretty well, discussed the principles of How to Begin Teaching. Then we had to jet back and we ate lunch with Bro Stripling at Pizza Hut.. another buffet.. Then we had our correlation meeting. And we went after that to mow Mark Lassen's lawn, so we got started on that, and then we didn't get to finish, so we had a lesson with him, he is doing well, Simone is not doing very well, but he is really been getting into the scriptures! We read Alma 60-61 with him, interesting chapters there, the cleansing of the inner vessel! So we had dinner with the Habel's and we picked up Al Jackson and we had him over there as well with Bro Jones. Al is a hoot! After dinner we had a lesson with him and we taught him the Plan of Salvation, it went really well, it was nice to be in the Habel's home to teach, no distractions, just peace, the Spirit really was felt and Big Al felt it as well!

Wednesday - We got up and we went and we finished Mark Lassen's lawn, and we had another little visit with him! Then we visited with the Habbard's we didn't get the chance to continue the extension of the calendar with Bro Habbard, but we will got on that! Then we went out in hopes to see Christian Cannon, but he wasn't there, Bro Cannon had gotten some rare infection and he almost passed away, so Sister Cannon was home and she had not slept in 4 days, so we talked with her, comforted her and prayed with her. She was tired, so we got out of there, to let her sleep! We ran out to see JR Strange next, and when we got there he was determined the the Book of Mormon was wrong... okay now JR, just settle down. His problem was in 2 Nephi 3 talking about Joseph, it didn't correspond with the Bible, so we read that with him and covered it all, and by the end he was apologizing to us for doubting it, so he is still into it, he is a studier! 

Thursday - We had our weekly planning in the morning. Then we taught Bro Skayhan, we taught him about the Family History and the doctrine behind it, we are going to start getting him over to the Fam History center. Then we visited with Bro Copeland again.. they have always been there.. he just has super bad health, so we haven't been able to teach them anymore! We then ran down to Freeport, and we started to do some finding around there, we were biking and we visited with this man named James Sevy, a less active guy, his wife and kids are all non members, his family is super awesome, all in the church, and live in Utah/Idaho. His brother served a mission, but he was so cool, he knows everything about the church. So we are going to go back and visit with him and his wife, and kids hopefully! Then we met for Home teaching, Elder Larsen and Bro Diviney went and taught Rick Birch, been a long time since we have been able to see him, but we got him back on it now. And I went with Bro Mitchem and we visited with Barbra Hunt, her trailer is falling apart, so Wednesday we are going back with the ward and we are going to replace all of her flooring! She was so touched by that, we got her to church, she hasn't been in a long time!

Friday - We left bright and early for Darlington, way up in our area, with the Habel's and we helped the Thomas family paint their house, (different Thomas's than neighbors!) Good times, good times! So then we went with Bro Stripling and we saw Al Jackson, we taught him the commandments of Pray Often, Follow the Prophet, and Law of Chastity. All went really well, he hasn't had a sip of coffee, since we taught him the Word of Wisdom, he has been reading, and we left him a conference ensign, and we showed him the organization of the church... But we left and I had to run back in to give him something, and he was already reading the magazine! He is so awesome! Then we went back down to Freeport, we had a little lesson with Bob Niedermeyer, they just have been so busy, we just checked up on everything, his reading, etc. We then ate dinner with the Williams family, super awesome! We were supposed to meet with Rick again, but couldn't and David Royce, don't remember if you remember him. We haven't been able to see him at all.

Saturday - We got together for a big old service project with the EQ's, but not that many showed up. So bright and early us and Bro. Stripling, pulled a tree out of Bro Skayhan's yard and did some work around his house.. pulled it out with our old Chevy Colorado! Then we joined the rest of the group, and we did Carmen Caryl's yard, her huge yard, did all of it! I logged probably 5 hours straight on a weed eater... and my shoulders and fingers and forearms, are feeling the burn baby! I was treating that thing like a mower, I could cut our grass with a weed eater, and you wouldn't even know! ;) Then we did Sister O'Neill's yard, and we trimmed a bunch of limbs down from her yard! It was so hot... I was exhausted! After that we got fed lunch! Then we went out and we visited with James Larkins, the guy way out in Mossy head, and we visited with him, he is super awesome, we are going to get him back to church, we are going to go next weekend hopefully and teach his wife! Then we went and we saw a referral for Family History, so we visited with the Ammon's family and began to start their family tree out on paper, and we set up a time to meet them in the fam history center on Tuesday. They are so nice. They go to Mossy Head First Baptist.. so they were a little apprehensive, but they agreed, kind of, to let us come tell them why we do family history work!

Sunday - We had Al Jackson, Bob Niedermeyer, Mark Lassen, and Bro Skayhan all at church!!!!!!! It was awesome, Al and Mark had to take off after sacrament meeting, but we got them there!! After that we came home and we had a little bit of study, and then this was our only day where we weren't running around like  a man man, so we tried to contact some referrals, but some plans fell through and we ended up doing some finding, we ran into dudes named Caesar and Candido, Caesar's sister and nephew are members of the Church in Mexico, so we are going back next weekend hopefully with Tarek Thomas, he served his mission in Mexico. And we have tons of Spanish materials. Then we went out and we saw JR Strange again, it was awesome, we had an awesome discussion with him, we ready 2 Nephi 27, he is struggling a little bit with the Book of Mormon, and with the original plates. Then we ate at the Farris's home and we had a lesson with their son and Sister Roldan... But then we talked with the Farris's a little bit afterwards, Sister Farris, is literally no kidding here, the funniest person that I know... I die the whole time! 

We were busy this week... it was good! I love you all so much! I really do.. I think I am starting to figure things out a little bit lately, I think I am really getting it, soon I may be on the train! :) Love ya'll.

Love,

Elder Hintze

"I GOT STRUCK BY LIGHTNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM A SURVIVOR."

Monday, June 23, 2014

Hello Family!!!!

How is everyone doing today!? I am doing outstanding, couldn't be better. I have to apologize about my poor emailing last week, the surf was calling my name, you will have to forgive me! Plus that iPad is not the best for typing, I was going as fast as my little fingers could manage! Just want you all to know how much I love you! So to break the ice about transfers, we had interviews with our Mission Pres this week and I am going to be headed out, that is all that I can tell you. And kind of sad, but I got 3 weeks to continue to work hard!! Love you all so much! Lets get to it!

Monday - So we went down to the beach with Nathan Cobb, it was a blast, we played beach volleyball and football and threw the frisbee around, on the way down there, we picked up the Niceville Elders and there was lots of missionaries there, lots of fun! We were a little late getting back, but after that we had to get out to the Reeves place and we ate there with the Crosby's and the Reeves, and because of travel, that was our night! 

Tuesday - We had our district meeting in Crestview. Everyone participated and prepared a part of Preach my Gospel and shared the section that they had been assigned, it didn't turn out as planned, but it went well! We had the zone leaders there, and then we went on an exchange, we picked up Elder Rasmussen and he stayed with us until Thursday morning, so it was a 2 day exchange! We got back and had our Correlation meeting and then we tried to see John Reyes, but we were unable to see him. We went and we visited with Bro Skahan, and we taught him the Word of Wisdom, and he took it very well, he of course knew it all, but we had seen tea and coffee around, so he said he had no problems, but then I saw some in the kitchen, and I said, don't you think we should get rid of this, hahaha, so I threw away his tea, coffee, and the coffee maker!!! Bro Skahan is super nice, he is so lonely and unable to do a lot, so we try and call and talk to him at least every day, just so he has somebody to talk to! We then helped with the church cleaning, but we were the only ones that showed up, so we cleaned the church, and then we went with Bro Andersen and we taught Bro Al Jackson, he did not come to church, because he got taken to Louisiana, I love Al so much! So we set a new baptismal date with him for July 12th, and we talked to him about Baptism, Sacrament, and the whole Doctrine of Christ, we bore powerful testimony of the Priesthood in all of this, it was an awesome lesson!

Wednesday - We had to go back in the morning to Bro Skahan's. We then went and we taught the Habbard's, we made a calendar for Bro Habbard and mapped it all out, on how he was going to be able to quit smoking, he is trying to hard, so we set a date with him, and a goal for each month and week to continue to lower it every time! He took it really well, he really wants to quit, so hopefully we can help him out! Then we out and we taught JR Strange, and again it was a wonderful lesson. :) We talked with him and read with him about 2 Nephi 31 and we taught him the Doctrine of Christ, he is a little mixed up at times, but he knows that the Book of Mormon is true, and he knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet, he was super touched to find out that Joseph was murdered, he was almost in tears. So we committed him to a baptismal date of Aug 2nd, and he agreed, he has got some things to overcome, he is afraid of church, and he has got to quit drinking, he knows he needs to quit, so we are going to stick on him, and see if we can get him! We got back into town, these people invited us to come to their Evangelical Church, so we popped in for like 30 minutes... hahahahahaha it as ridiculous family, it was all about the new age, he said things like this, "I was speaking to a youth in the church the other day and I told him that if you want to have a new car at age 16, then have faith in Christ." It as all about money, so we just left..! We then visited the Routley's, we had an awesome visit with him, we just talked about why he is away from church and how we can help quit smoking.

Thursday - We had our exchange report thingy to feel out! And then we stopped by and we visited with the Linke's, just shared a quick message with them and then headed to Crestview for our interviews with Pres. Smith, thats where the news was dropped on me, and we ate with the Crestview elders there. Then we got back up and we taught Christian Cannon and Darrius again, we watched the Restoration video with them, and they are tough to teach let me tell you... but we thought that would keep their attention fairly well, so little by little we are trying to help those 2. 

Friday - We did our weekly planning in the morning. After that we got out on the bikes and we just drove and were talking to everyone and holy cow, everyone was so rude to us, so no success. Then we met this super sweet lady Deanna Curry, so nice, she is a hospice nurse, then we ran into her on Saturday and the sister's did as well, so she is going to do family history with the sister's! She is so sweet! But it starts pouring rain, so we are like nuhha, so we pull over and ditch our bikes under a tree and book it to the nearest porch, the house ended up being abandoned, but listen up right here!!! So it is just a down pour and the thunder and lightning are super close, like I was getting scared again... like it was nuts, so as we just sit there, I am saying, dude we are going to get struck by lightning, and not 30 seconds later, this bold comes screaming out of the sky and strikes right next to us on a tree, and both of us got electrocuted... I kid you not!!!!!! I GOT STRUCK BY LIGHTNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM A SURVIVOR. It was wild family, I got struck by lightning, I never thought I would say it.... Crazy!!! Then we did some running around to some less actives and did some finding, but to no avail.

Saturday - We helped the Elder's Quorum in the morning and we built Bro Skayhan a ramp from his front door and we built him a platform into his garage, so he can get into his laundry room, so he is wheelchair accessible now! So we hit up the Lakefest around the lake yard here, a big city festival and so we just went around and we talked to a ton of people, we ran into Mark again, and so we set up to meet with him on Sunday. After that we taught JR with Bishop and it wasn't the best lesson, we just had to review parts of the Restoration. But then we ate with the Everett's.

Sunday - We had not heard from Al at all, last we hear is that Friday he was in Tallahassee at his sister's house, he is the man! He told me he had been reading every single night, and his family wanted him to stay awhile with him, but he kept telling them you guys have got to take me home, I have got to go to church on Sunday... so we didn't hear from him, so I was praying so hard that he would come, after PEC and we went and got Bro. Skayhan and wheeled him over, he lives right next to the church. I am passing the sacrament, so at the front, I look back and there is my man, Al Jackson in the seats, I was so excited! So I went and sat with him, the ward is so welcoming, afterwards Sis Howard asked if he was an investigator and he so puzzled he said, "Investigator...???" "Nah, I'm trying to become a member!" Hahahahahaha it was so awesome, he had to take off after sacrament, because his uncle was preaching, but we got him there! After church we had a pot luck social thing for the Howard's. Then we went to Fort Walton to a Family History Fireside put on by Pres and Sis Smith, it was really good! 

And thats a rap ya'll, it can rain and lightning can hit me, but nah Elder Hintze will continue to spread the Gospel! Love ya'll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

"He says he knows Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true."

Monday, June 16, 2014

Hello Family!!!!

How is everyone doing today? I am doing fantastic as always... I am emailing early today, because we are zooming to get down to the beach, the missionaries are congregating at the beach for some volleyball and ultimate frisbee! We are headed down with Nathan Cobb. Anyway, this week was an alright week for us.. But I will tell you all about the week, how about that!!

Monday - By the way DeFuniak really knows how to use their prisoners around here, every single yard care duty that the city does, they have them prisoners out there working like fools, they are everywhere!! Anyway we had dinner at the Habel's monday night with the Crosby family and we watched a movie about the life of President Monson while we were there with them, it was really really good!

Tuesday - And Monday night we drove down to Crestview to stay at the Elders apartment for the night and we woke up and we headed with them down to Niceville for our Zone Training, zone training was really really good, I always love them, they are always like a pump up for me, lately we haven't been learning to many new things as a mission, but we have just been told to use all of the stuff we have, it is up to us! The Spirit was super strong, really good. I had to do a few things in it talk about our District and then they had me and some others up doing some race thing and doing pushups. But after that on our way in, we were able to stop by and to see JR Strange. Then we went and we visited with the Habbards in the evening, and we had an awesome lesson with them, Sis Habbard is so sweet, we are still going to try and work with Bro Habbard a lot, he has been coming to church every week for a longwhile now! After that we visited with Al Jackson, we just taught him Read, Pray, Come to Church, and we discussed Alma 32 with him, about Faith and developing our seed. He really really liked that. His daughter is gone for about a month in Orlando, so he has lots of free time. I really want Al to be able to make it to Baptism, as I sat in there with him... I just really really love him. Like he is one that I care about a lot a lot!

Wednesday - We went and we mowed Rosslyn's yard in the morning. So we did that, and did our studies, and then we visited with Mark Lassen. Simone isn't doing well, she fell this week really bad. But we just talked with him and we read D&C 122 with him, about trials and just praying with him, and just letting him talk, he cheered right up and just calmed down and felt at peace! So they took off to Tennessee this week to see her grandbaby for the last time! After that we tried to teach Christian Cannon, but he wasn't home, so we jetted out to Mossy Head, where we were going to meet with Ronnie, Dustin, April, Ashley! But after we went and we taught JR again, and it went much much much better. He has read a lot of the Book of Mormon, and has been studying all of the pamphlets and has been praying. We taught him about Baptisms for the dead in relation to the plan on salvation and the spirit world, and he loved it. We also talked about a lot of stuff, the priesthood and how that works. He is all in with it, he even said in regards to baptism, that is a small thing for me to do, if that is what he requires of it. He says he knows Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true. 

Thursday - 1 YEAR A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!!!!!! We went back and we finished up Rosslyn's lawn. And Thomas Skahan, we visited with a little bit is back, so we went and we visited with him, he had his right leg amputed, because of diabetes. I celebrated the year mark with a nice big burger from Ed's restaurant! After that weekly planning. And then we saw our Brother John Reyes... it went probably the best that it has, we just said to him, look no more arguing, we just want to teach, and so we started teaching him the Plan of Salvation, and he really really enjoyed it and he agreed with everything, which was good! :) We did some work around the Lake, had no success, then we went out home teaching with the gang, I went out with Brother Stripling, man wish you guys could meet him he is the bomb. But we made two visits to Sister O'Neill, we helped her out with her lawn mower and she had some questions for us about some things her friend had said about the church, so we answered those and she is going to invite her friend to learn, then we visited with Sister Caryl, he husband passed away about a 9 months ago, and she is working 90 hours a week.. can you believe that to survive, so her yard wa a mess, and she was just in tears, so we said, alright say no more it will get done. 

Friday - Us and Bro Stripling loaded up the gear and we hopped to Sis Caryl's yard, we borrowed 2 weed eaters and he brought a push mower, the grass was like knee deep, so we went to town, she had lots of garbage and so we made a burn pile, we mowed and weed wacked a ton of grasss... tons, and then we organized all of the stuff on her porch, pressure washed the porch off after we got that engine started for her, cleaned everything up and organized it all, got it out of the weather, and it was looking super nice! Took a good while of the day, but she greatly greatly needed it! We got all cleaned up and we did some finding.

In the evening we taught Al again with Bro Anderson and we taught him the word of wisdom and he committed to live the word of wisdom, no problem. His only issue is going to be that he drinks coffee. But he agreed to give it up with no problems.

Saturday - We committed to do 5 hours of finding a week. So we did a bunch of finding in the morning out and about knocking some doors but we did not have much success at all. Bro Skahan called and told us that he did not want to join the church anymore. So we visited with him, and I told him that nobody needed to do anything but himself. I said the only one that needs to do anything is you, you have withdrawn yourself from the temple you have withdrawn yourself from the gift of the Holy Ghost so on and so forth, then we taught him this new thing we learned about the short comings of the original apostles, but it didn't make the church not true, so that straightened him out, so he is coming back! Then we had sports night.

Sunday - we didn't get anybody at church, talked to Al on Saturday and on Sunday morning said he was headed out there. I waited for him in the foyer.. But he never showed up! So didn't hear from him. We didn't have much to do again, we taught a lesson to a couple around the lake yard, and it went really really we'll, so hopefully something happens with them!

Love ya'll a whole lot! Love,

Elder Hintze

"all they talked about was missionary work... it was beyond fantastic."

Monday, June 9, 2014

Hello Family!

I am here, coming in a little bit late this week.. started to email and then had to wait around to be able to get onto the computers again so that we could finish! We had a pretty good week this week, it has been HOT here.. it is a joke, so I am getting used to just uncontrollable sweating again, even if we are out for like 2 seconds! Gotta love it though! Lets get to it!

Monday - We ate dinner at the Curtis's home in the evening and had a lesson with them, then we had a lesson with the Habbard's. Had a really neat lesson with them, Sister Habbard is probably one of the most Christlike individuals that I know!

Tuesday - We had District Meeting in the morning, it was an alright one not my best, we just talked about ways to find! We were with the Habel's so we had to get bread from the Reeves and then we headed to correlation meeting. Then we saw John Reyes. After that we ran to the hospital and had to give Sis Andersen or attempted to give her a blessing, she had to go in for surgery, but she is okay now. Then we were with the Habels, they drove us out to see Bobbie McMillan.. and we didn't get to see him, but we rode with them for a bit down to Freeport and we got to see a few people down there, we finally made contact with Bob again, and then just stopped by some less actives homes.

Wednesday - We saw Sister Miller in the morning in the rest home. And then we got out around the lake we met a man named Clyde and we got to talking with him and we shared with him the Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon and we are headed back to teach him and his wife this week! We then went and taught Mark Lassen, we just read from the Book of Mormon with him and we talked about Faith, it is good for him just to talk to somebody. After that we saw Sis Hughes and her LA grandson named Joshua Mitchem. Then we went with Chris Jones and we taught Christian Cannon a 12 year old grandson of members who are less active and he is a non member, taught him and his son Darius. It was really hard, they were crazy... but we just talked to them about prayer, how to pray, and taught them the point of God is our Loving Heavenly Father. But I don't know how much they remembered. After that we headed out and we ate dinner with Elliott and then we helped him out for about an hour.

Thursday - We went with Sandy Jack Brown and we taught Al Jackson and we talked to him about the things that went on at church, talked a lot about the priesthood and the sacrament in terms of our baptismal covenant and then we talked about Gift of Holy Ghost and Enduring. He is doing good, he has been reading some.. which is good. I hope things continue to progress with him. He enjoyed church, and he asked some good questions about what we teach him. His daughter who is 6, is crazy, tons of attitude, she loves me, she kept coming up and sitting next to me and putting her arm around me. Hahaha. After that we got after it around the lake yard again doing some OYMIng and we had another really great experience, we met these 2 couples and both of the girls were previously baptized in the church, one in Michigan and one in Olive Branch just right next to us. So we were able to teach them, the one from Olive Branch was super into it , she said that she still believes all of it and we are trying to teach them, we had something set up and it fell through. But then we went out with Chris Jones again, he is 15, was adopted by the Jones's is super nice. So he has been wanting to go out with us alot, so we took him with us and we went and we taught JR Strange, we taught him about the Plan of Salvation again and he has been studying and writing down tons of scriptures, so we studied the scriptures in regards to these points and we set up next time to teach him about baptisms for the dead, because he asked questions about the Spirit World. Then we saw the Linke's just an active family, visited with them and taught them a little lesson, and gave him a blessing. Then we went out Home Teaching! I went with Bro Stripling.. we saw 2 less actives Shannon Sanchez and Kate O'Neil.. But he told me his conversion story, he has recently been activated, and he just cried as he told it to me, it is so powerful. 

Friday - We had to do some weekly planning. The weekend ended up being kind of a hard one, we did not get to see that many people. We did some more OYMing around the Lake. And then we went out with Bro Stripling and we did service for Kate O'Neill we cut down and stacked up a bunch of limbs we cut down a lot of a big tree for her.

Saturday - It was Stake Conference this weekend, so we did some OYMing and saw Rosslyn, don't know whats up with her. Then we took off at about noon with Bro Jones and Elder Habel for Fort Walton for the Priesthood Leadership Session at 2 and then the Adult Session at 5 pm. We had Elder Clarke from the 70 there, then Elder Maradith from Tennessee an Area 70. Let me just tell you!!!!!! AWESOME. They were soooo good, I love how they do the Stake Conferences now, they are up and about and in the crowd and microphones passing around and they watch videos and panels, and asking questions. They were hilarious. In the Priesthood Session they talked about us as priesthood holders and how nothing is going to happen until our own homes are set in order. Then in the adult session all that they talked about was missionary work... it was beyond fantastic. I was so spiritually recharged! They were so good!

Sunday - They broadcasted it from DeFuniak.. so we got to go there and it was just as fantastic.. those two were phenomenal... ahhh so good family, so good! I loved every minute of it! They also got a new stake president here, he comes from Crestview he is only in his 40s or so, very young. One of his counselors bore his testimony and said I looked over and saw what his wife had in his bag, (crying as he said this) and you know what I saw…. diapers!" Just showing the sacrifice of how young he is. We unfortunately did not get any investigators there sadly... I really wish that we would have been able to but we didn't. We went out with Bishop afterwards to try and see the people we found around the lake. We tried to visit with James Larkins and the Wymans. But our week came to a close. 

The time on my mission has absolutely flown by. I miss you all a whole lot, love you!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

"why doesn't any one else talk about Joseph Smith?"

Monday, June 2, 2014

Hello Family!

How is everyone doing today! Coming to you live from dreary, rainy DeFuniak Springs! We have had lots of it this week, either that or it is just HOT! Things were really good this week, we really are seriously only working with Mark Lassen and Al Jackson... everyone else has just kind of fallen off! So things are really progressing with these two! Lets get to this week!

Monday - We ate dinner at the Crosby's.. But we went out there and just taught the Fam a lesson, her father was there, who is not a member, so I just locked it in and I started getting after him, so we ended up teaching him the Restoration lesson, "why doesn't any one else talk about Joseph Smith?"  

Tuesday - We had district meeting and it was a good one, it went really well! We just talked about how to help our investigators to progress and overcome the things that they are dealing with... all of them can be solved with the Spirit. So we as a district are starting something called a 40 day fast, where you fast for 40 days not from food, but from things that hinder the Spirit, should be pretty good! Then we had our District Activity, we played kickball with the Crestview District, it was pretty fun.. We went afterwards and we taught Mark Lassen with Brother Andersen, those two have really bonded and it has been awesome, Mark calls him often and ask questions, and Bro. Andersen has really been the enforcer as far as what he needs to do to come back. He has been in the Bishopric, so he knows all that stuff. But we had it set up to teach Simone and him the Plan of Salvation, and it was going really well and the Spirit was present and then Simone's nurse came who is a good friend and she was out for like 30 minutes so we waited and then she came back, and she was completely turned off... So she wouldn't allow us to give her a priesthood blessing.. but we gave Mark one and it was a powerful experience, we was happy as can be! He also went and he met with Bishop on Wednesday night, so things are rolling! After that we were there for a long time, we worked the Lake yard OYMing.. the lake is so big it is overtaking everything..a park is under water! 

Wednesday - Happy Birthday Kell's Bells! We got up and we mowed Mark's lawn early in the morning and we got back and we got cleaned up and we taught Al Jackson with Sandy Jack Brown, we were planning on teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but only got to Faith... Al was pumped about Faith and so he went off and he LOVES TO TALK. So we gotta wrangle him in, I made the mistake of razzing him about the Miami Heat and then he really went off. But it was a good lesson it was an answer to his prayers he has just been praying about faith! He called an old preacher of his, to ask if he could get baptized in another church, super cool answer he got... "Al I just want you to do whatever your heart tells you, do whatever the Lord tells you to do." We went out and we helped Elliott.. We got cleaned up and then we ate dinner at the Griffith's home, who just recently got baptized, they are so awesome, I love them. He got the priesthood this Saturday, it was pretty special!

Thursday - Happy Birthday Baby Claire! We did our weekly planning in the morning and then this was a super bad day. Nothing happned. We tried to get out to teach John Reyes. And then we went over to the church and to see if the font got fixed and the man was fixing it right then, so we have a working baptismal font! We went down to Freeport to eat dinner with the Williams! 

Friday - We headed out with Bro Mitchem in the morning up to Paxton area and we tried to see, but we actually got to see a lot of the people up there, he is run and gun, so it is usually just a pop by and see how things are going, we invite you to come back out to church, then were out! So we got to see a lot of people! We headed out to Mossy Head and we taught JR Strange the Plan of Salvation.. He loves everything that we give him, he believes the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith are true, the Plan of Salvation threw him for a whirl, but he loved it. I don't know what will come with him, but he really is the dream investigator, but I just wish he wasn't an alcoholic. We ate dinner at the Reeve's home! And then we were able to see a man named James Larkins, a less active guy, he is super cool, we are going to start working with them, he has a lot of non member family. He joined the church in the 80s!

Saturday - We had to get to the church building, after we worked around the lake some! Oh... there are a group of Messianic Jews that meet around the lake that we have met and talked to quite a bit.. and we went and we talked to them, our yard man is with them, and we know him really well. We were just talking and the head hancho guy just starts like attacking us, and telling us all kinds of stuff about Joseph Smith, and that he is a liar, the Book of Mormon is false. He was being so rude, all false information, I was biting my tongue so much, so much!!!!! I just told him, "I didn't come over here to knock your beliefs I respect them and I ask the same from you, I have no desire to argue with you there is no Spirit in that, I would strongly encourage you to find some correct information," and then I bore my testimony. We had to fill the font up, so we got everything set up and got the font filled and then we had the 3 baptisms of the 3 kids that the Habels have been working with, it was very neat to see! We got to see lots of less active families coming out! We went and we taught AL Jackson after that with Bro Andersen... Bro Andersen is the best, don't know if I have said much about him! He is hilarious, we get a long really well. He also whips me into shape a lot, like one time last week I drove off his driveway a bit and smooshed down some soft ground, and boy did I hear one, he was yelling at me. But anyway we taught Al and we talked about Repentance and Baptism, again he is a talker! He had a lot of good questions about Repentance and we were able to talk to him a lot more about what baptism means. He asked his current preacher if he could be baptized in another church, and the preacher and the deacons in the church told him absolutely not... so he went off, who are you to tell me that, your not God. Hilarious! So it went really well and we talked to him about why we do it and what we gain from it!

Sunday - Fast and Testimony meeting, always my favorite Sunday! I had my fast tie one! We had Al Jackson and Mark Lassen there! Mark got up and he bore his testimony, it was really neat, very simple, but he is so humble! Al knew tons of people there he is the umpire for little league, and that is A HUGE deal here! So everybody in church knew him, they call him "Big Al". He really liked it both of them had to take off after Sacrement meeting! But they confirmed the 3 kids! We got to participate in the circle, so so so so neat! Elder Habel promised one of the children that he would see his family in the temple, and he started to cry as he said it, very special! I also have had the oppurtunity to bless and pass the sacrament in this ward, almost every Sunday, I have enoyed that a lot!!!!!!! We went afterwards and we contacted a referral for a member, and "he told us that we worshiped a different Jesus, then said bye." So I don't think he is ready yet. Then we tried to see Bobbie McMillan. We ate dinner at the Jones' and we were there for a while too, Bro Jones confided in us a lot and told us some of the stuff in his life, and gave us a tour of the place. Then we saw the Cannon's and then we talked to Jeff Fiquette! So that was a wrap.. we have been trying to teach Maddie Cobb, like I mentioned and the Sister's are going to have to take her back. This week was a good one! Hopefully we can get the ball rolling with some other folks this week! Love you all so much!!!!!!

Love, 

Elder Hintze

"My Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!! Heyo!!!!!!!!!!"

Monday, May 25, 2014

Hope everyone is doing well today! Happy Memorial Day, I am reporting to you live from the Anderson's home... the library is closed today. We received Transfer news this morning and we are both staying here for another one!! Only Sis Bennion who has been here for a year is leaving! This week was a pretty good one for us, a really good one for us, we had a lot of neat things happen!! Here we are:

Monday - Last monday we were down in Crestview playing basketball at the gym there, completely free for anyone to use, and let me tell you baby....  they had some real ball players there playing! The starting point guard for Louisville University was there playing and it was intense. Needless to say we were on the other court! The Thomas's took us out to dinner and then we did some planning for our week!

Tuesday - Another District Meeting down the drain, it was a good one, not my best effort, but a good one! We did a little bit about how to help people keep our commitments! We came back and we did our correlation meeting and then we taught John Reyes after doing a little bit of Fam History! John went well, he is still struggling a lot. We ready 2 Nephi 29 with him, which talks about the Bible! We went and we saw Will Wilkinson, a lessactive guy his wife has been interested a little bit in the church, and we talked with him and he said to come back on Saturday to talk to his wife and so we were super pumped talked to him.

Wednesday -  We went in the morning and we Helped Mark Lassen and Simone in the yard, we helped them move some plants and water stuff. And then they fed us lunch and then we had a lesson with Mark! Super awesome with him this week... he is coming back! He is going to be rebaptized, or he wants to! We just had a lesson with him and we read out of the scriptures and talked about the Spirit, we found his old baptismal certificate and his priesthood certificate, so it brought back some memories, he has had his Book of Mormon out and he has been reading everyday and has been wanting us to come over! We then taught JR Strange out by Elliott's, Elliott declined to come with us, but we taught him the Restoration.. he believed every single thing! He knew there was more books out there and it didn't make any sense to him why it would have stopped with the apostles as far as revelation goes. But we don't know if he is beliveing everything just because he does that, or if he actually is growing and feeling the spirit, but he is one of the most perfect people that I have ever taught, everything clicked with him! 

Thursday - We went in the morning to John Reyes trial again.. and it was a waste, nothing happend, just got postponed again! Came home did our weekly planning and then we went and we gave Sandy Jack Brown a blessing and then we came back and we OYMEd around the lake and we met these 2 guys named Spencer and Derrick and we talked to them for close to two hours, we covered the plan of salvation and the restoration and the Book of Mormon it was awesome! Spencer didn't believe anything and thought we were of the devil, because we didn't believe in a triunion god... he believes that they are 2 seperate entities but one being, they can't even explain it, but by saying we don't know everything because god is omniscient?? He tries to explain it and I just say, what? But Derrick was more quiet and we got their info and he was interested, but because of Spencer he wasn't, but he texted us right after that and texted us again, so we are going to meet with him this week! We then did home teaching with Elder Habel. While we were talking to Derrick this dude named Mark came up we have ran into him at least 7 times, we got his info the first time and we really need to meet with him, Heavenly Father is working on him, his dad is a member and his GF married into a mormon family and spent a lot of time in Utah.... like it is crazy the correlations. He is a super spiritual dude, and preaches a lot of places.

Friday - My Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!! Heyo!!!!!!!!!! We worked at the Thrift shop in the morning, we were trying to see Savannah, but she is just gone, she will not respond and we don't know where she is at. It is really reallly sad. We ate lunch at Ed's for my BDAY and the sisters and Bro Stripling showed. So then we did some OYMINg around the lake and we got super awesome couple named DeSean and Amber Bell, he is turning his life around, they were super excited about our message, so meeting with them this week! Then we did some chasing around, some things canceled... and then we finally saw Rosslyn, she has been dealing with some family problems. So we gave her a priesthood blessing and during the middle of it, she just burst into tears and broke down and then opened up a lot about what has been going on. We ate dinner in the evening with the Habels and Mark Lassen and wife were there. he had his guitar and he played tons of tunes for us and we shared a lesson on the Atonement and that is where he officially announced that he was coming back! And then my birthday ended, thank you all so much for the packages!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday - Hectic day we were running around a lot, we tried to see the Cobbs we have not been able to teach Maddie yet.. We taught Alewesha Jackson!!! And we got him with a Baptismal date for June 28th.. he hadn't read our full chapter assignment so we started reading 2 Nephi 2 with him and he brought it up about baptism and what is required for us to be saved! And so we talked all about it and talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ he is always gungo ho and the spirit is always present when we teach him! He always feel it and he is super excited for the 28th, he is going to pray each day he can make it. Our only thing is he didn't come to church, so we need to begin to lay down some expectations for him! Then we ate dinner at the Bishop's house.

Sunday - We didn't get anybody to church so that was a bummer! But the meetings were good... we had ward council and I got to give another baptismal interview after church to Ryan Pennington he is 10 and the Habels have been working with him baptism is this saturday. He is pretty special, I was worried about how it would go with him being so young, but he understands a lot and I was really impressed with him! After church the baptismal font since last week has not been draining, so the water is getting murky, so us and Bro Stripling got changed up and we grabbed Anderson's pump and we pumped out all of the water and we pulled the old one up and we got it fixed well figured out what the problem was. Then we visited the Wyman's a less active couple. he is a non member, so we are starting work with them. And then the Farris's, active family, they are absolutely hilarious. We are going to start teaching their son who just go out of prison. Then we saw Mark Lassen with Bro Anderson, it was awesome to have him there. He paved it all for him and what he has to do to come back. We are going by on Tuesday with Bro. Anderson and going to teach him and Simone the plan of salvation and going to give both of them priesthood blessings!

Good week this week family!!! We experienced a lot of blessings! I sure do love ya'll so much, so grateful for all of the packages and what not!!! Thank you so much!! love you !!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze  

"So I was like NO, NO , this is garbage."

Monday, May 19, 2014

Hello Family!!!

How is everyone doing today? I am reporting to you from the Crestview library, we finally got ourselves a ride down here and are going to spend P-Day down here, playing some basketball! I don't have a whole lot to report or big things that happened this week, but lets get to it and then we can talk about it at the end!

Monday - I felt that we needed to go and see Mark Lassen... and we did, wife is quite sick. Anyway we had an awesome visit with him, it took our evening, he played some guitar for us. But the end our goal was to get his membership records here.. so we asked him about it.. and it opened up a whole hour of conversation. All of his kids are active and have been through the temple, we talked to him about what he needs to do, to come back, and we offered to come by and give both of them a priesthood blessing and to begin to teach them (her) about  the Plan of Salvation. But it was powerful to be with him, he closed us with a prayer and it was one of the most humble/sincere prayers I have ever heard! So we got the go ahead from Bishop, he said that we can begin to teach them!

Tuesday - District Meeting in the morning, .. we just had no time.. we always run out of time, so I tried to smoosh it all in and didn't get to cover all that I would have liked. But we talked about working with less actives and how to improve. After that we bounced out to Reeves and got bread, after the Habels bought us Taco Bell. :) Then Rodney didn't show up for Fam History, so we did some of our own and helped there. Then we ran with Sandy Jack Brown and we gave a blessing to the Brickner's a older couple in the ward, that is very sickly in health! We didn't have much to do.. so we did a lot of finding, and found one dude named Ronnie Wilson? But we got to share the restoration with him and read out of the Book of Mormon with him and he was super interested, and we set up for Thurs @5.
 

Wednesday - Huge service day.  When meet a man named JR Strange.. But anyway, he got to asking us some questions, and Elliott suggests that we give him a Book of Mormon, which was super awesome, and then Elliott began to tell him all about it and it was super cool. So we had the chance to do a lot of the restoration lesson, and he was super interested in Pres. Monson, so I had my PRECIOUS only one we can get Conference Ensign and I showed him and then I gave it to him and a Book of Mormon! So I am Ensign less now... :( But regardless, it was awesome! I got Elliott to be on board to go and teach him with us, which would be so cool. We are excited! So we went to the Family History center and finally Rodney was there... and it didn't turn out to be much, because he is like the master of the fam history.. so I didn't get to help him much.

Thursday - We went out in the morning with Elder Habel and we helped Brother Reeves. Fed us delicious breakfast! Then we taught John Reyes. After we worked the lake yard again, we own that place for real though, nobody escapes us. Didn't have much success again, and then Ronnie Wilson did not show up. So we went out for Home Teaching I went with Elder Habel and with Chris Jones. We went and saw Sis Miller and then saw Rodney and gave him a blessing, he had fallen.

Friday - We were supposed to see Al Jackson in the evening, but he canceled on us, right before, so we went and Bro Pollard had us come and help him. We were supposed to go down to Freeport and teach David Royce and Bob and Pam Niedermeyer, Gary and all of them down there and then all of them canceled on us... so it was like really!?!?!? Really !?!?!?!!? Then we went and we worked the lakeyard again... and didn't have much success. We ate dinner at the Andersen's and then we helped them to fix their kitchen sink.
 

Saturday - Crazy day we had... absolutely crazy...! We got to the church bright and early in the morning and we filled up the baptismal font and rearranged all of the seating and the rooms for the baptism and at 10:30 Dallin Thomas an 8 year old got baptized and so we were there for that. Elder Habel met some guy on his way in and brought him to us and said here Elders give him a church tour, and so we missed the baptism, but we took him into the chapel and talked to him, he was an old fellow down the street and he wasn't interested at all, he was just interested in telling us we didn't need the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith is not a prophet. So we just testified and he was one of those ones that you couldn't tell anything too.  After that we jetted down to Freeport to see Bob and Pam again.. and right as we get there.... they call and tell us they can't make it... So I was like NO, NO , this is garbage. We are going by! So we just go there early and were able to see them and had a good visit with them, things are good with them lately, Bob especially he has got a job, and is working on getting his life in order. But we just talked to them in the short time that we had about reading and praying. Then we got through Niceville the roundabout way to get to Crestview, out of our area to give a baptismal interview and we are halfway there and they tell us it got canceled.. so now it is just comical right? Frustrating. So we go anyway, because that is closer to get home. We did get to see Pres. and Sister Smith there though. We picked up the Zone Leaders and then we headed back to DeFuniak and we saw James Griffiths get baptized, it was super awesome! It has been a long time coming for him and we all know him super well, so it is good! Then we had some refreshments!

Sunday - Church was a good one! We didn't have a single person come this week... Bob said he would be ready, and he wasn't home.... Elder Habel drove all the way down there and then he wasn't there. Ahhhh. So we finally got to see Al Jackson after church I woke him up. :) He has been reading a bit and he feels that he has got an answer that the Book of Mormon is true!! SO that is awesome.. we don't know if he fully understands yet.. but he is so sincere we just covered the read, pray, come to church, over and over again, so he could get it down! Then we did our weekly Planning, after some more OYMIng we found a super awesome dude named Cory that we are going to start seeing, he invited us over to eat with him sometime next week!

I don't know what has been going on lately... I am so happy and enjoying my mission, I am not down in the dumps. But sometimes I just don't get it at all, I am trying to do my best to be the best that I can, and things just never work out at all. I don't know what guidance anybody gives except, well endure through trials, keep pushing. So that is what I am going to do. But it just doesn't make sense all the time. I want to progress I want to help people! But for now.. I will just keep on doing ma thang. Sure do love you all a whole lot!

Love,

Elder HIntze

"Oh we had an axe cutting contest.. cut my tree down in 28 seconds thank you very much!"

Monday, May 12, 2014

FAMILY!!!!

It was soooooo good to see you guys yesterday... really it was so good! I wish that we could do it more often! Well here is this week:

Monday - We ate dinner at the Crosby's home and we had a lesson with all of the folks over! We had Robbie and Cherish Martin, their little little brother and their little cousin, we had Pam and AJ and Destiny Miller. We taught them about the stripling warriors parents and we had them write something they were going to stop doing and we went outside and we buried the swords in the ground! Trying to get them into the Book of Mormon!

Tuesday - Big day of service.. we went in the morning and we picked up Brother Marshall's yard and then we mowed his lawn for him.. hopped on that rider mower and took off! And then we had to jump over and we cut Brother Lasson's yard, we visited with him, his wife has 2 months to live, and it has been so hard on him.. so we are trying to help them out a lot! He says he always feels better when we come over! We had our correlation meeting at the church! And then we did some family history at the church.. there is a new program called Puzzilla to help find cousins, it is super cool, so there is lots of holes in the family tree that I saw, that can be done! We have some crazy ancestors.. read about John Gailley and read from his journal.. talking about when he was converted to the church in England, he basically just went around and baptized people right and left! Then we grabbed some ice cream with Brother Stripling. We ate dinner with the Brittens in the evening!

Wednesday - We worked with Elliott in the morning and we cut down a ton of trees for the green house! Oh we had an axe cutting contest.. cut my tree down in 28 seconds thank you very much! After that we came home and got cleaned up we went out with Vann Driskell, he got his call to Vancouver, Canada. And we went and we gave a blessing to asister named Betty Yates and then we taught Al Jackson.. that was the one that was super cool, we taught him how to receive answers and how to feel the Spirit, and then we read with him and we really did feel the Spirit, he was highlighting the book on his car, when we left it was really, really neat! Then we had an appointment to do family history, but they didn't show. Then we helped out at mutual preparing the mother's day gifts!

Thursday - We did our weekly planning and then we didn't have our car, because it was in the shop getting fixed! Had some transmission malfunction, so we biked to see John Reyes.. intense bike ride. And we had an awesome visit with him, we are going to start reading the Book of Mormon with him every time we go by and then we are trying hard to get him to get into it! Then Elder Habel picked us up and we went out and we taught Jeffrey Fiquette. So we were able to talk about the plan of salvation and what the Book of Mormon does for us, but he needs to hear the restoration, so that is what we set up for next visit! Then we did home teaching with Bro Andersen and we didn't get into any homes, but we ate with him. And then we took off to Crestview and we slept over there.

Friday - We headed down to Fort Walton and we went to zone conference and it was really good! It went super late, but we learned some cool stuff! 

Saturday - We did service with Brother Pollard in the morning cutting down tons of limbs and piling them all up! Then we ate lunch with him, came back and studied, I had to finish my talk! And then we did some OYming around the lake and we visited a Sister in the ward, Sister Hughes. 

Sunday - Church was good, I gave my talk and it went well! I talked on Fam History.. so it went well! But always could have done better. We ate dinner with Bishop afterwards. We visited quickly with the Wyman's a family we are going to start to work with! And then I called you guys!!! And then that was the night.

I love you all so much!!!!! 

Love,

Elder Hintze

"it is hard because they are investigating the church, but I don't think they know they are investigating the church if that makes sense?"

Monday, May 5, 2014

Hello Family!

How is everyone today!? Hope all is well, I am doing fantastic, enjoying a beautiful day here in Florida! Man this week was absolutely crazy.... we had the storm coming down, which I will talk about in the email, I have never seen a storm that nuts in my life! This week went by so fast as do all of the weeks these days! So here we are!

Monday - We went to eat at the Crosby's home in the evening, and Robbie, Cherish, and AJ were there, so we had the opportunity to teach them.. which it is nuts in there.. we are just trying to focus on the Book of Mormon and teach them stories from in there, but it is hard to keep everybody focused, and it is hard because they are investigating the church, but I don't think they know they are investigating the church if that makes sense? so we are trying to get into their home and teach them there! But we taught them about the stripling warriors!

Tuesday - So this is the day that the sky opened up on us... we got to Crestview for our District Meeting, and we had our conference call with President Smith, and he told all of us to go home and to stay inside and to not leave, and to not drive through standing water, and made all the missionaries in trailers get out of their homes.. so we went home and stayed inside! I have never been so bored in just about all of my life! Literally nothing to do.. and there is only so long that one man can study the scriptures.. so I took my first nap of the mission and then just chilled... it rained and came down most of the day, but toward the evening and night it got CRAZY!!!!!!!! I can't sleep when stuff like this happens, so I didn't get but 4 hours of sleep, and I was outside for most of it.. :) I had to film it! So I was on the phone with all the sisters in the district, some of them were in the bathtub and had lost power and then I stayed updated with the zone leaders. But it literally was lightning in the sky for 24 hours, just bam bam bam bam bam bam right after the other, then it started blowing wind and the rain dumped,... I got video don't you worry! And the thunder was like bombs going off shaking our windows in our house and no way you could sleep, I was filming it and it got so crazy, that I got scared and went inside!

Wednesday - Same thing.. we were inside until like 4 pm... so then we got let free.. again we were so bored.. I watched just about every church production video that there is! But finally we went to the Thomas's and they let us borrow some board games, and JT came over their son and we played with him on our porch all the board games, and we tried to put together a 750 piece puzzle, and then finally I couldn't stand it, so we went out and threw the frisbee around outside the house and the football, because it had cleared up some. So we were set free and we went and we saw the Habbards, and then Elliott called us and told us he still wanted to feed us, so we went out and we helped him to build his green house, which is pretty cool by the way, and then he fed us dinner there, so we were there the rest of the night!

Thursday - We did forever long weekly planning in the morning and then we did some lake contacting! And then we went and saw John Reyes. We shared with him Matthew 17 about John the Baptist coming to restore all things.. ie Aaronic Priesthood to Joseph Smith. But we went and we visited a dude named Rodney, who was a referral from a member, he is friends with the Pollards and he apparently took the lessons 20 years ago and was about to join the church. He is way cool! So we talked to him forever, and we set up a time with him to do family history work in the center this week, he has been really big into that! Then we went out to the lake again and were doing some contacting.. it was National Prayer Day.. so they had a huge community get together with all of the Baptist churches and what not. And then we headed out to home teaching, we went out with Brother Diviney, because he was the only one that showed up. We were able to visit a new family we had never met, his name was Jose Mendez, from Nicaragua, super cool, so nice, but just don't come because the wife doesn't speak much English. So she doesn't see the need to go, when she can't understand it.

Friday - We were sending our family history banner to the APs in the morning and on the way home we saw this older couple loading their car, so we offered to help them.. and they turned out to be episcopal's and so we talked to them, the first thing the guy said to us was "Hey you two should come over and have dinner with us on Sunday morning?" Oh by the way... here when someone says dinner that means Lunch. It goes Breakfast, Dinner, supper here! so !??!?!?!!!?!?!?!?!?!? But there church is super old, so I just asked them if they would let us see it, and they did, awesome stain glassed windows in there and it was all super old and handmade everything... and she started telling us about the church... oh my gosh. oh my gosh. We understood everything she said, but came away so confused! Basically they are Catholic, but they don't want to be Catholic! Then we did some service at the Matrix Thrift Shop! And we talked to Savannah, she is set for baptism on May 24th. We saw the Sissons family.. they are hard to get in and see, but had a chance to see them. Then we went to the Andersen's home we were set to teach Al Jackson, but he canceled, so the Andersen's fed us and then we helped them with getting their driveway poured!

Saturday - We ate breakfast with the Episcopal's in the morning, It was like their fundraiser event, so not exactly what we thought it was going to be, but it was fun! They didn't make us pay, super nice of them. We then went to a place called Pettler's Alley in the little downtown part of DeFuniak, just a bunch of street vendors that post up in this alley way. And so we just talked to everyone... I don't know what is going on lately.. but I literally probably met like 9 people with connections to Utah, one guy who is going to be in St George in a week. Just nuts.. we have been meeting so so so so many awesome people lately, just from contacting. We went up to Paxton after that... and that was a bust.. we tried to see everyone up there and there wasn't a single person home.. I did visit the highest point in Florida though while up there..... 345 feet high! 

Sunday - We went to the temple dedication in Crestview in the morning at 8... that was cool! Then we came back and we did some studies outside and we headed down to Freeport. Bob & Pam, Rosslyn, and David Royce all canceled on us.. so again it was kind of a bust. But while down there we visited with the Williams Family an active family, they are super nice! It was good to get in with them and to get to know them a little bit better! After that we came back home for the YSA Broadcast and we watched that at the church with the 1 ysa that showed up after all we invited. :) So it was really good, it was Elder Ballard speaking!

So this week was a crazy one. But all good here, I sure do love you all a whole lot and holla... this Sunday, can't wait to talk to all of you!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

"apparently he has been meeting with missionaries for 25 years.. haha... and he told us he wanted to take a break from learning"

Monday, April 28, 2014

Hello Family,

How is everyone doing today!? I am doing well!  This week... oh boy where to start.. we had a pretty good week this week! 

Monday - We ate dinner with the Curtis family in the evening. A younger family here in the ward. They are cool. After that we tried a few people around the area, and then we went back and we scheduled out the rest of our week, called and set up appointments. We played some frisbee at the park for P-Day, don't know what is on the agenda for today.

Tuesday - We had our District Meeting in the morning, kind of a lamer one, but we talked about our goals that we are setting for our district this transfer. Our mission is already falling behind on our baptism goal and vision that Elder Perry set for us, so we are trying hard to catch up to it! We also watched the talk "A Brother Offended" in the meeting, the one that you sent me Dad. Then I went on a trade off with Elder Rasmussen the zone leader, so I went to Crestview for the day. Elder Rasmussen is the man! We had a pretty awesome day. We went and we saw a less active guy named Mallary King. But we got to follow up with a lot of their investigators.. we met this girl named Keke, who is a roommate of this couple they have been teaching so we went by and we saw them.. We invited ourselves to dinner, because she said she was cooking, so she said yes and then we taught her the first lesson right there on the porch and gave her a Book of Mormon and told her to read it before we come back for dinner. And then we saw another one of their investigators named Darren... he is a police officer at the jail, he has read the Book of Mormon all the way through and is working on his second time, comparing it with the Bible and really wants to get back and get into the church!! He is so cool, he asked us a lot of awesome questions, he told us that he doesn't know how to pray, so we got to teach him that, I always love teaching someone for the first time and get to describe the Spirit to him. Then we went back for dinner and met the couple and Keke for dinner couples name was Tina and Chris. They are so cool!! We played basketball in the backyard while waiting for them to come, and then they finally got there, Chris played college football and is trying to get to the NFL, he was so cool, he told us a lot about his past and where he's come from. And really they are cool, he apologized to us for not reading and said they need to put more importance on it. Crestview, has a lot of good things going on!

Wednesday - We traded back in the morning after we taught another dude at McDonald's.. apparently he has been meeting with missionaries for 25 years.. haha... and he told us he wanted to take a break from learning, and we told him if this was Jesus Christ's Church if you knew that would you join it? he said NO. So I didn't get that, but then we taught Savannah at the lake, and I learned a lot about her from Elder Rasmussen, because he taught her too. She read the Book of Mormon for the 1st time and got her answer that she knew it was true, he said she wanted to get baptized the first time she read it, so we talked to her a little bit more about baptism and the Sacrement and finally she is done traveling, so baptism is set for May 24th. We then went out and we helped Elliott, we are building a green house called a wallapini or something like that. Then we ate dinner at the Andersen's house, super awesome he is the assistant ward mission leader and comes out with us a lot, then we helped them move a bunch of cabinets through their house.

Thursday - We did some weekly planning in the morning and then we went and helped this dude named Dan Cosson he is from Tallahassee he is the land lord for like 6 apartments that missionaries live in, so he loves the missionaries, and he is hilarious. He won't join the church, but he is good to us, he fed us lunch. And we helped him unload stuff from a old house he is restoring around the lake here, he was ragging on Utah alot. Then we went out home teaching with Bro Mitchem up in Paxton, we saw David Hayes and a man named James Jeffcoats, just less active people. Then we did some lake contacting and then went out home teaching in the evening with the rest of the gang. I went with Brother Anderson and we taught Rosslyn Wood, we taught her about Baptism and we talked about the Sacrement as well, and it was cool, We then gave her a priesthood blessing to help her overcome smoking and drinking.

Friday - We taught Al Jackson with Bro Andersen in the morning and it was an awesome... straight awesome... we taught him the restoration and there was a distinct change in him, he was silent when we talked about Joseph Smith and the first vision and the Book of Mormon! He committed to read and to pray about it! We didn't get him at church.. but it was awesome! We then went up to Paxton with Andersen to check and see if we could get wifi at the church building up there and we did! So after that we went back and helped Dan Cosson out a bit more and then we ate dinner with the Habels, they had us over. And then the Browns had us over and showed us their property and we are going to go out and go fishing with them.

Saturday - We went to an air show here in DeFuniak at the airport.. we heard about it and it was cool. It is always hard in situations like that to talk to people.. because they don't care about us.. so we didn't stay long, but they had some rad displays. We then went and we taught John Reyes at the prison. We then visited Sister Miller in the rest home.

Sunday - Great day of church! Fast Sunday is always the best! Down day for investigators.. we had Zac there. We still are working on really teaching him. We took off after church down to Freeport and we taught Bob and Pam Niedermeyer... it had been such a long time since we had been able to! Saw a few more down there... but then we met this dude named David Royce.. the sister's had taught him and they passed him on.. He is awesome.. he is a deep thinker, like intense.. so he grilled us with questions, like about immortal soul, adam and eve, pre earth life, why are we here, and tons of different things. Elder Larsen is really good at this in particular, so we answered every single one of his questions and he was super impressed, so we told him that we want to teach him, not just answer questions. So we really are pumped about him and it is always freaking awesome to answer peoples questions! He is going to read the Book of Mormon, hasn't done it yet, but he says he knows there is truth in there, so he can't dispute it, he is 30 yrs old. But he knows a member, they are really good friends! So we are super pumped for that!

Well family thats a wrap this week! It was a crazy one.. this week, but some good things accomplished, sure do love ya'll a whole lot!!!!!!!

Love,
Elder Hintze