Coming Home!

Wednesday & Thursday, June 13-14, 2015

The group of missionaries going home enjoyed some dinner on Wednesday evening 

with President & Sister Smith and the Assistants.

Studying the scriptures in the Mission Home on Thursday morning before breakfast.

A picture at the airport of the group prior to departure.

"I am so grateful for my testimony and for my membership in this great Church, this is the Church of Jesus Christ restored to the earth! It has been a dream to represent our Savior each day, to go out and to represent Him, I know that He is our Savior, I know that this is His work! I am grateful to have been able to serve Him!"

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Hello Family!!!

Hope you are doing well today, I hope you know how much that I love each and everyone of you! In case you might have forgotten this is my last P-Day thus last email from the mission, I can't thank you guys enough for your prayers and support over these last 2 years! So with that being said, I'll see you guys next week!!!! :) Here is the week!

Saturday - After we finished up our emailing we started our proselyting! We did some family history with Therese, but it was kind of hectic, because we were also getting set up for the other elders baptism, so we filled up the font and then set up the room. While doing some family history. Then we attended the baptism the girl's name was Zoie, good baptism as always, Therese gave a talk in it, so that was pretty cool. It is so cool in 5th ward, because there are so many recent converts, so it is cool to watch all of them grow! So after the baptism p-day began, and so we got our shopping done and then we went to the FSU fields and we just played football and ultimate frisbee, and then we went for some ice cream afterwards, and man was it good! So it was a good day today!

Sunday - Before church we did some weekly planning, gotta love it! Then we went to church and we had Alexander Farabee there and Jen Kovak was there. Church was good! Jen could only stay for sacrament meeting, but we had Alexander there for the full 3 hours! Afterwards we did some family history work with Therese, it is getting really really complicated. Dusty and Therese during church got callings to be ward missionaries, so that was super cool! Also Therese got her temple recommend, so she's ready for Utah. After the family history, we came home for some dinner and then we finished out the night with our weekly planning!

Monday - We did family history with Dusty in the morning! So then we went and we did some contacting on campus and we went on splits, so Dusty and I went and Otu and Carlile went together, and we weren't able to be out there for very long before it started dumping rain on us... like pouring! So we get caught a bit away from the church, so Dusty and I just start sprinting across campus to get to his car, so we can pick the other two up, but the time we got to the car it was as if we had gone swimming, it was crazy! So we went and rescued them from the rain. After a bite of lunch, we went to the church for the dodgeball tourney! And as you guys well know, we took home the championship again! I must say though we got to the finals and we lost, but it is double elimination, so we had to beat another team, then we came back up to the finals and we had to beat Tally South District twice (my old district) and my faith was wavering, I didn't know if we could do it! BUT WE DID! I played pretty well myself, so I retire with 4 dodgeball tournament rings! After it was all concluded, we got picked up by Alexander Farabee and we went to dinner and a lesson in President and Sister Smith's home! It was great!! We taught him about enduring to the end, but mainly temples/eternal marriage/and family history work. It was a great lesson! And plus the mission home is amazing and plus Pres and Sis Smith are the bomb, so it was a good evening!

President Smith, Sister Smith, Elder Hintze, Elder Otu, Elder Carlile, & Alexander.

Elder Hintze, Elder Carlile, Sister Smith, Elder Otu.

Tuesday - District Meeting in the morning, it went well! We had a mission wide conference call as we usually do, but President took a lot longer than he normally does and he talked about Responsibility, Accountability, Attitude, and Desire, how we need to improve all of those things! The Tally 1 Zone is killing it, and the Campus District is killing it! Once we are done with June our district will have already exceeded our baptismal goal for all of 2015 and already reached our stretch goal! After district meeting we had a lesson with Alexander and Therese came, we taught him tithing and fast offerings, and he is pumped to pay tithing! He was raised in the Catholic church always paying, so he already has a testimony of it! Took a little lunch break afterwards and then we had a lesson with Jen Kovak. We taught her the Restoration, and it went well! Then we made a few phone calls, before we had a lesson with Emilee McGann, and Angy came with us, it was such a fantastic lesson!! She said, "every Mormon that I have ever met has been the nicest person in the whole world!" So we read 1 Nephi 1 and 2 with her, and she already started to gain things from it, so it was killer! And then she stayed for Institute afterwards, and so we were there with her, and then we had dinner there and then bounced home!

Wednesday - We got a call to head with the Dalleys to give a blessing to a woman who was in the hospital, so we ran and we took the priesthood with us and gave her a blessing, she was a member from Quincy Branch! We then hopped onto campus and we did some contacting up until the time that we met Farrah on campus for a lesson! It was another marathon one we had with her, we didn't actually get to teach a lesson lesson, we just had to answer tons of questions and she literally just has picked apart the chapters in the Book of Mormon that we give her to read, so it was awesome. We headed back and did a late lunch and we made some phone calls. And then we got picked up for dinner with the Havlicak's (Bishop), they fed us and it was awesome! She gave us the Cafe Rio ranch stuff that she made afterwards and you best believe I have been putting that stuff down! After we came back, we hit the campus and did some more contacting!

Thursday - We had a member lesson with Quinn Berven in the morning, it went very well! We are still trying to get our member lessons down and fine tune our system! Immediately following him, we taught a new guy named Michigun with Quinn, so we taught him the restoration.

FSU Campus

Elder Hintze

Elder Carlile, Elder Otu, & Elder Hintze

After that we hit the campus and did some contacting and some lunch, and we got back to have another member lesson with Angy Vasquez. Immediately following we had a lesson with Jen Kovak, and we taught her the Plan of Salvation and it went well too! After her Errick Spradley made us some dinner at the institute. And then we taught Emilee McGee with Celine at the lesson, it as well went really well! And she asked a ton of good questions about it, she plans to come to FHE and Institute next week, she unfortunately won't be at church this weekend. Then we did some contacting to finish off the evening!

Friday - We went on an exchange with the Assistants, so I went to FAMU campus with Elder Sorenson and Elder Fortin, and Palau came to FSU with Otu and Carlile, turns out they had an amazing day on FSU, so that was cool! And we had a killer day on FAMU as well it as a blast to be able to serve with Elder Fortin and Sorenson, they are both amazing missionaries! We taught an investigator in the morning his name is Chris Wright, we taught him the Plan of Salvation! After some running around and some lunch, we hit the campus for some contacting! Such a difference in the two campuses, people are soo nice over at FAMU, so it was cool! We went to do some Family History survey tracting in this apartment complex and the first door we knock they let us right in and then we started doing family history with both of them, two roommates, so it was awesome!!! Got them hooked up on Familysearch.org, and set up return appointments at the FH Center. Then we had a lesson with Celine Burton, she is the recent convert, we taught her about Missionary Work! Then some dinner and then we had a lesson with their investigator named "Buddha", we read Alma 34 with him and we talked about the Book of Mormon/Plan of Salvation, so it ended up being a good lesson. After that we had a lesson with Zoie, their recent convert, she just got baptized, and she is awesome, so we taught her about Lehi's Dream, great lesson!

Saturday - We traded back this morning and then we hit FSU campus for a bit of contacting! And then we taught this new girl named Zoie, the Restoration.. the girl was awesome! So we taught her the Restoration and the Spirit was killer in the lesson, it was so strong! After that we were there while Alexander got his baptismal interview, so he passed and is all ready to go, Elder Milne who gave the interview said, Alexander has a better understanding of everything than anyone that I have ever met! So that is killer, he asked Elder Otu to baptize him, so I am pumped for that to go down! Then we ate some lunch at Newk's! And now are here!

I can't thank everyone of you enough and express my love to you all enough, I am so grateful to have been given this opportunity to serve a mission for 2 years!! It has been the most amazing to years of my life and I would not trade it for anything in the whole wide world, the good the bad, all of it has been nothing shy of a giant blessing in my life!!! I am so grateful for my testimony and for my membership in this great Church, this is the Church of Jesus Christ restored to the earth! It has been a dream to represent our Savior each day, to go out and to represent Him, I know that He is our Savior, I know that this is His work! I am grateful to have been able to serve Him! I feel like I am in a glass case of emotion! ;) It is bittersweet, sad to think of this being over, but I am very excited to see you all!! So with that, I shall see you all soon! Love you!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

"To be perfect, does God have to be the most rational or logical? Or, is he perfect due to a lack of logic or reason? In other words, is logic the tool of a sinner or a mark of/stride toward perfection?"

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Saturday - P-Day! After we finished up our emailing we went home and got a bite to eat, and our day didn't turn out exactly as we had planned. They had MLC here in Tallahassee. I got to see Elder Peterson, so that was way cool, I love Elder Peterson! And all the other peeps, got to see Elder Urquiaga. So we then got our shoppng done and then the Knudsen's took us out for some dinner, and we went to Burger Fi, and it was delicious, seriously sooo good! Afterward, we also went to this frozen yogurt place, so we were full, and it was all delicious!

Sunday - So before church we did some good old weekly plannig and then we scurried on down to the church for our coordination meeting. Church was good, because we had 3 investigators there!!! We had Alexander Farabee, Jamael, and Jason Fuller. All 3 of them had to take off after Sacrament, but it was awesome to get them there and they all seemed to really enjoy it! Afterwards, we came home got changed and ate some dinner, and then we hit campus shortly for some contacting. But then we went with a member Robert Strobel and we went and we had a lesson with Ahmad Balzubi, we taught the Restoration to him and it seemed to go fairly well. After his lesson we came home and we got finished up all of our weekly planning!

Monday - We taught Alexander Farabee in the morning with Therese, and he is still the absolute man! We taught him the commandments of Follow the Prophet and the Word of Wisdom. He also loves the idea of modern day prophets, he said that was one thing that really, really stood out for him on when he was researching. Afterwards we hit the campus to do some contacting, Therese and Taylor came with us, to talk to some peeps. It was a pretty dead day on campus, because it was Memorial Day, so there was no class, and nobody to talk to! We made some phone calls to potentials afterwards, and then we had some dinner with Taylor and his roommate Peyton. And then we had a sports night, we played dodgeball! And it was actually super fun, we had a way good turnout and Therese brought two of her non member friends, so it was fun! 

Tuesday - We had zone training in the morning, so no District Meeting! It was a good zone training, I once again had to bare my testimony as a departing missionary! They did what we did for a zone training a few back, they had recent converts come, so Dusty and Therese came and talked to the zone. That was probably the best part of it all! After that we had to go to a doctors appointment for Elder Otu, he had to get some blood drawn! We came back and we had a family history appointment with this girl named Stephanie, it was our first time meeting her, and we had a ton of success on her family.. but she won't be able to meet until August, so she will be gone until then! Then we had a lesson with Therese's friend named Jen Kovak with Therese there. We were just trying to get to know her and ask her questions.. We just read Alma 32 with her and talked about/asked her to exercise some faith in what we have to share! After that we we are at Institute, because Alexander came, so we stayed there for the lesson and then dinner afterwards with him! 

Wednesday - We taught Alexander Farabee in the morning with Therese, and we taught him the Plan of Salvation, and it was a killer lesson, he loved it! It was his favorite lesson thus far. He had already known/read about a lot of the Plan of Salvation, but never all together like that, so it was super helpful for him.. He cooked us lunch, so afterwards we ate lunch with him and Therese, made some delicious chicken and rice, and we all know how much I love that, and we told him jello was a Utah thing, so he made that! After his lesson, we had a lesson with Therese and we talked for the most part about the temple. Then the rest of our day was on campus contacting, it was kind of a bummer day, because it rained for a good bit, so we had to seek refuge and then we just forged on in the storm, the only problem is when its raining there is no one else outside! Contacting has still been super tough lately, and it is crazy because we have literally talked to a good portion of the people that walk the same path as us each day!

Thursday - Happy Birthday Mother!!!!! Our morning started out on campus doing some contacting, and it was a warm day today! We contacted this girl named Jashett on campus, and we ended up teaching her right then and there, we taught her the Restoration, and it was super cool! She understood everything and was actually pretty excited about it, she prayed really well at the end, and she committed to read the Book of Mormon! After some more contacting, we had a lesson with Jen Kovak. We had planned to teach the Restoration, but ended up teaching the 2nd half of the Plan of Salvation dealing with after life. Did some contacting and then we did some Family History with Therese, and we killed it this time found a bunch of family names to take to the temple! After that we ate dinner and then finished off the evening with some contacting, we also gave Carson Draney a blessing, she is a member.

Friday - Super crazy day, on our lessons, we taught 2, but they were long ones! We taught Farrah on campus again! She says stuff that I don't even know what these words mean, so I always have to have her define things for me. We taught her the Restoration, but also answered tons of her questions and we taught about the spirit world, so some of the plan of salvation. She asked this question, "To be perfect, does God have to be the most rational or logical? Or, is he perfect due to a lack of logic or reason? In other words, is logic the tool of a sinner or a mark of/stride toward perfection?" After some good contacting we had a lesson with Jamael. We watched the Prophet of the Restoration video with him, Therese was there as well as Carson and James Burrows his member friend, so we watched it and afterwards we talked briefly and committed him to gain a spiritual witness that these things are true, and afterwards, the Spirit was strong!!! Finished off with some dinner and then some good contacting on campus!!

Saturday - Don't know what we will do today for P-Day, we have the dodgeball tourney this Monday, and since it isn't our P Day on that day we will be taking the 2 hours out of today.. so we will proselyte for 5 hours today! :) And there is a baptism, so may not have much time to do anything crazy fun today!

FAMILY I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

"Are we dating the Book of Mormon or are we hanging out with it?"

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Hello Family!!!!!!!

Saturday - So after our morning proselyting, we had one of the sickest P-Days!!!! We seemed to get everything done super quick today, so that was awesome.. so we played some frisbee and it started to rain, so that was fun. It is crazy, we are now into the heat and the summer, so that means it rains every afternoon here for a short time, I love it! But man alive, it sure is hotttt! After that we went to McDonald's and got a ton of food, 7 of us.. 14 McDoubles and 14 McChickens, and 7 fries.. then came back to the institute and we watched Meet the Mormons, the APs have a copy, it was soooo fun! Love that movie!

Sunday - We had our correlation meeting in the morning. Then we came home for a quick bite to eat, then church! We had Stephanie there for Sacrament Meeting, she really really liked it! Elders Quorum, we talked about the Book of Mormon, but as to be expected in the YSA ward, it kept jumping to a discussion of dating. The teacher last week said, "Are we dating the Book of Mormon or are we hanging out with it?" Hahaha it was funny. After church we had a lesson with Therese, and we taught her the Doctrine of Family History, did our little scripture chase with her, it was as always killer! Then we came home and ate some dinner, and finished our sabbath with a delightful weekly planning session!

Monday - Here is something crazy for you before I start telling about the day.. so at the compound we have only wood floors all throughout the place, so first off man I miss some good old carpet, so I have been here for a year and I have worn calluses (don't know how to spell that?) on my knees from praying so much, how cool is that am I right? :) So we taught Jackie our Family History investigator in the morning, and the internet at the church was down so we had a lesson with her instead we taught her the Doctrine of Family History work, so spirit world and temples.. and then connected it into the restoration and Book of Mormon. Then we had a good lesson with Dusty. After that we had a lesson with a girl named Yarelis, we met her on campus a few days back. We went into it thinking that we needed to teach the Plan of Salvation, so we started... and it wasn't it, but we didn't know what was it.. so we continued on, and I was just praying and praying to try and figure out what she needed, turns out we just talked to her about God loving her and we watched the mormon message The Hope of God's Light, which was it! It was on the money and it helped her a lot. Came home for a bite of lunch, and then we took some time to call our potential investigators, followed by some great contacting time. Which led up to a lesson that we had with Emilee McGee, she was the girl that we helped to move out of her apartment twice, Alex Hauter came to the lesson with us, and we taught her the Restoration, she has been all over the world, so she knows all about other religions. So it was actually super cool and she took the lesson and understood it way more than most, and so she was excited about it and the Book of Mormon! Had a brief bit of contacting before FHE, we stayed just for the spiritual thought and not the activity, then we dipped home for some dinner.

Tuesday - District Meeting in the morning, went well! We learned a bit about charity and did some good old role plays with the Pamphlets. After the meeting we headed home for a change and a lunch, then booked it back to the institute for a lesson with Jamael. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ, he is loving the Book of Mormon and loved the lesson. Afterwards we hit the contacting, had a really good time, met some great people. Carlile and I taught a girl named Brittani on the spot on campus, while Otu just OYMed.. we taught her the Restoration.. she was easily the most solid and knowlegeable person in terms of Gospel things. So it was lovely, we agreed on so many things.. but she didn't believe us when we talked about Joseph Smith and the First Vision.. but we gave he a Book of Mormon, so that should settle that! Then we had a lesson with Therese! Spirit was way strong, we talked about Forgiveness and Charity, read D&C 59:21, one of my favorites! Following we had a lesson with Stephanie with Therese there, she didn't have much time.. so we read 2 Nephi 31 with her, but basically just taught baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost + Endure.. and we invited her to be baptized as well, she said she had already been baptized, so we expained authority! And then she said if she gains a testimony, she will.. so things are going awesome with her, she is reading and she loved church. Following her lesson, we hit the campus for some contacting for about 2 hours, and then came back to the institute at 8:30 to enjoy the dinner that is provided, very delicious meal! We also heard from Alexander Farabee today. He is awesome. He has read all the way to Jacob.. and he jumped to Alma because it was calling his name, plus he was texting Therese a bunch about all of his readings. So then we heard from him the next day (Wednesday), and he said, I can't wait for our next meeting!!! And I can't stop reading.. so the Spirit's got him! He's cool!!!!

Wednesday - Today was sooo awesome, well ya.. it was sooo hottt today, and we had very few lessons, so we were on campus all day contacting! So I went through 2 white shirts today. But it really was an amazing  day, we walked so much, and so now as we are about to go to bed, we are exhausted, sleep is best when it is earned! So in the morning we had a member lesson with Quinn B, and then following we hit campus! I will tell you, it is hard to contact.. because we have literally talked to so many people, or other missionaries have, it is wild how many people we have been able to hit on this campus.. sometimes I contact people and they will say, Dude you just talked to me 2 days ago. And so then I have to make them laugh or something, or just apologize, ya know make the best of the situation! :) So we did that for about 2 hours, came in for lunch, had to dry off and change the clothes. Then we headed out for another run at some contacting. Which led up to our lesson we had with Therese and we just did some family history work! After that we had a member lesson with Kelli Longfellow. And then dinner, and then to end the evening we hit it again with some contacting on campus.

Thursday - oh guys... what a day! Ah tough one! But a good one, ya know, one that puts hair on your chest! So it was another scorcher of a day today, and we taught one lesson, hahaha so everything else was spent out in the sun contacting all day! And get this all day and I didn't even get one phone number from anybody, I think Carlile and Otu got 2 combined, so it was one of those days. I met sooo many rude people today, so I just kill them with kindness!!! :) So we started out in the morning contacting for a bit, and we had a lesson with this super awesome dude named Bernard, and he texted us and told us he was on his way.. and he never showed up and we couldn't get a hold of him after that hahaha, so he pulled a fast one on us, but we will forgive him for he knows not what he does! :) So we headed back for lunch and then more contacting... made a few phone calls. And then we had a member lesson with Claudia, and she is the bomb, we really, really like Claudia! I gave her, her baptismal interview back in January when she was baptized! So we did some contacting before and after dinner, but dinner was the highlight! Therese's mom told her to take her friends out to dinner, so she took us out to Longhorn's Steakhouse, and we told her she had to bring a friend so we could share the Gospel over dinner, and she did her name is Jen, and we now have an appointment with her for Tuesday, so we are super pumped about that! We are on a tradeoff with Elder Jorgenson plus Elder Otu, so should be a good day tomorrow, excited!

Friday - Today was a good fun day! It was fun being with Jorgenson today, love him a lot. Plus the weather today was quite delightful, not near as hot as it has been which is a nice relief for once. Our day started out in the morning we taught this new girl named Farrah on campus, she is super cool, didn't really get a chance to teach her anything as far as lesson, but she had a ton of questions and we just did some HTBT. She is super cool, she has a lot of good questions! I learned a lot today that it is so hard to explain to someone about faith, who literally has no faith, it is like describing to them the taste of salt, had a bunch of experiences with it today. So after her, we scooted on over to the institute for a lesson with Alexander Farabee, with Therese, he is so awesome! So he has read up to Jacob, and then skipped up to Alma in the Book of Mormon, he knows that it is true he told us, he has been praying about it! And he said it became real for him when he read about the Liahona, he loved that. :) So we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson and it was really good! So then we cooked us up some delicious lunch, and we did a little comp study, Jorgenson had never heard of the doctrine of family history scriptures, so we role played that, I taught him that. Then we headed out and we had a long session of contacting on campus, we had some fairly good success, we found some potential investigators! It is crazy the amount of disbelief and just negativity we have faced lately... been crazy! People swearing at us and yelling things at us from cars, and then just the overall rejection and disbelief in God, its been heavy lately! But ya know we are still just trucking right along! There was this one dude today on campus with a camera and I talked to him and he said he is interviewing people, so I was like dude sign me up... thought it would be pretty cool, so all 3 of us together, and then he just asked us questions and we got to share in the camera, it was good and bad, we were bearing some serious serious testimony and the spirit was real! But at the same time, he was just trying to catch us with our words, he was like, "for the sake of this video, and for a non believer like myself, could you just have God drop down an apple from the sky right now for us." Dumb, just like Korihor from the Book of Mormon, and we all know he had a sad ending. :) Nice guy though, we left him with a Book of Mormon! Then we had a lesson with Therese. After the lesson we had dinner with Carson Draney, she fed/made us dinner at the institute, super good and nice little meal! And then we headed back for a few more minutes of contacting on campus, and then we headed home to do our exchange report. Kind of funny, exactly one year ago, Elder Jorgenson and I were in exact opposite positions.. hahaha he was on Campus and I was in 1st Ward, now we have switched up roles! It's funny Elder Otu and I do this thing where when one finishes praying we'll say something like, "Hey how is He?" Talking about Heavenly Father, and I asked him that tonight and he said, "He's good.. He's thinking of us and He's mindful of us, He knows our faith has been tested." and I said, "I know He is, I'm going to thank Him." Otu, "Tell Him I said thanks again." Just funny, make me laugh, but I know above all that, that is true! He's watching over us and He knows every single person that we talk to each day! He is mindful of us and HIs work! :)

Saturday -  It's my Birthday! It has been a great day so far, had some nice festivities this morning at the compound.. thank you for everything!!!! We enjoyed all of the party supplies and the pinata, very fun!!! The Knudsen's also Happy Birthdayed our front door, and then Therese baked a cake for us and brought it... she also gave me a $50 iTunes gift card, so stinking nice of her! So we hit the campus this morning to do some contacting and it was absolutely dead.. so an oppurtunity arose to go visit a recent convert named Erin Lustria in the hospital! I think we will be headed to the mall soon or something for P-Day. And Brother and Sister Knudsen offered to take us out to eat tonight for my birthday, so we will be headed out with them!!!

Love you all very very very much!!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

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

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Hello Family!!

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

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

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

Elder Carlile, Elder Hintze & Elder Otu

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tallahassee 1 Zone Conference

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

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

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

Love,

Elder Hintze

Mothers Day Gift - Florida Tallahassee Mission

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

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Whats up Family!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love you very much!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

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

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Hello Family!!!

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

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

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

Elder Otu

Elder Hintze

Elder Hintze & Elder Otu

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,

Elder Hintze 

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

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Hello Family!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,
Elder Hintze