"I don't believe that, because if I did, that would say my church isn't true."

Monday, January 12, 2015

Hello Family!!

Hope that everyone is doing well today! This week was a interesting one... really hard, but really really good! Here we go!

Monday - P-Day! We ate dinner with the Carroll's, they are awesome! He is our Assistant Ward Mission Leader. After dinner we had plans to contact a referral that we had received.. and our lesson with Gonzalo had canceled so the rest of our evening was wide open. So the referral wasn't there, and so we had missed a few oppurtunities to talk to people. So we are getting back to the car, and this car pulls into their driveway, and I'm like no way are we  going to miss another oppurtunity, so they pull in and it was one of those classic, they see us and they are still in the car, so its like I'm just going to stand here until  you get out, because I know you have to sooner or later! So they did and we talked to them.. and they let us right in! It was the street that we caroled on, so they remembered us from then, and we had a chance to go in and to teach them quickly, taught them about the Book of Mormon, and did a little HTBT, and let them know why we were there, so it is a couple probably in their 30s, have a 10 yr old son, 7 yr old daughter, and a baby that is due the 15th of this month. So we are going back to teach them, it was so awesome! So we are really excited to teach them, their names our Jary and Clarissa.

Tuesday - We taught Eric pretty early in the morning with Brother Karlberg at the church.. it was a pretty good lesson, we talked to him about the Doctrine of Family History. Oh and by the way, goodnight family, you guys don't even know what cold is.. it has been like 20 degrees here with all of the humidity, and it is the coldest thing of my whole life... so stinkin cold, this whole week is supposed to be bad. We went to the Campus District Meeting today, and it was awesome, Elder Frederiksen is probably the best DL in the world, we had a chance to teach for a bit, we talked to people about "planning to find", some good stuff. Afterwards, we had our district activity and we all played dodgeball, the campus district and the tally district. Not everybody was on board.. but I am probably the best at peer pressuring people into doing things, so I got everyone on board with it.. the campus sister missionaries were easy! :) So we played and it was a blast again! So after that we freshened up and we had several appointments but they didn't go through.. so we had some time to find, and we were able to have some good contacts, we found a family of 11, haha, and some other really good ones, hope they turn out. Then we went to the church where Sister Flores had left us some chili for us to eat, so then we ate a little bit of that. And then we went to our correlation meeting.. Brother Kelly has really got the fire! I'm excited for it, so things are starting to get rolling in the ward!

Wednesday - So MLC day! We were there bright and early and we boarded the transfer van, and we road tripped out to Crestview, Florida.

MLC - January 2015 

It ended up being such a good meeting, like it meant a lot to me. The Spirit was really strong, very uplifting, I left wanting to be such a better person... President talked about Unity at the end, that is the big push in our mission.. our theme is "United We Stand!" I feel a lot as Nephi did in 2 Nephi chapter 4, (by the way one of my favorites in the Book of Mormon) in verse 27- "And why should I yield to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry because of mine enemy?" And then in Alma 29:1 "O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!" The Spirit was really strong, helped me to want to be better in the meeting! On the way home, I commodore the transfer van... started honking the horn in the parking lot, yelling all aboard, this is polar express style! So that was fun! 

Thursday - (Elder Peterson's 1 year mark! hahaha) Oh and let me tell you... like freezing cold, so cold so cold! I have been wearing my long johns under my slacks. Then Dan Cosson (land lord) fed us some lunch, so we went over there with the FSU Elders, he fed us a delicious lunch! And then we came back and we did our weekly planning session and we got it finished! Then we were going on splits with the High Priests, so Peterson went with Brother Shipley and they were able to teach T.R. and they had a good lesson with him, he is still doing really well! And then I went with WML Bro Kelly, and we had an appointment with a family of 11, but they were unable to meet! So Bro Kelly and I went and we visited Gonzalo...

Friday - I was on an exchange with the FSU Elders... so that was awesome, you all know how I love Campus, I was with Elder Milne and Elder Funk! It was crazy there was tons of people on campus, never seen so many people to talk to in my whole entire mission, like thousands and thousands of people... I was a little big shell shocked and then we got into it, it is my favorite thing in the whole entire world, just talking to everyone! So we did a ton of that all day! But we also got to teach some pretty good lessons, we taught this new guy named Garrett the restoration.. it was a really good lesson, but at the end he was basically like I don't believe that, because if I did, that would say my church isn't true. But he seemed that he would give it a shot! We also taught this guy named Dusty who is getting baptized on the 31st, he is the man! He is 19 and was introduced to the church through a member, it is beautiful! So he has just taken it and ran with it! Then a member fed us dinner. And then I gave a baptismal interview to a lady named Claudia Rivero, she is one of the campus sisters investigators, and it was such a pleasure, she is so awesome, she is running with it as well, she already bought herself a quad scripture, and she isn't even a member! So it was a great day on Campus, in my dream area! :)

Saturday - We did some service with Bill Kosin in the morning, helped him to move some mattresses! Then we had to spend some time trying to get this DVD thing figured out that we are trying to show with members, and so after a bit of a struggle, we got it figured out! Did some finding! Then we taught a lesson to the Daniels, we continued in our Book of Mormon study with them! We got a chance to see our man Curtis B again.

Sunday - Church day! We had ward council in the morning! It was so awesome, Bishop has been in now for 6 months, and so they had like a review of how things have been going.... Brother Jackson, who is the man! He has been reaching out to Cristina and to Gonzalo, so it has been cool! We didn't have anyone at church, there was some miscommunication getting T. R. there, so he didn't make it! After church we took the Sacrament to Bro Hollett, who is in the hospital, so that was a lot of fun to do that... really special! Then we attended Claudia's baptism, that girl who I gave the interview to... and man it was awesome, such a powerful spirit! And get this, it like made my life, she asked me to be in her confirmation, so that will be next Sunday, super excited! We did some finding, and then we ate dinner with the Davis'! And then we went to give Heath Brackin, Sis Gray's son a blessing, he is headed to surgery.. Then the Knudsen's invited us over for cake and ice cream, so that was delicious, and then we shared a quick thought with them! 

Well family, I love all of you like crazy!!!!!! I miss you all more than I know! Keep me in your prayers, because I sure as heck need it! This week was rough... But it is just hard, I am learning so much though, this mission is nothing that I expected it to be in the least, but it is exactly what I needed, and no doubt will need in the future, so I am thankful for the challenges! I am learning lots! There have been 2 talks that have meant a lot to me this week, 1. "Bread or Stones: Understanding the God That We Pray To" and 2. "Cast Not Away Therefore Thy Confidence. The first is from a BYU Hawaii, devotional, and the second from speeches.byu.edu! They are awesome, and have helped me to learn some awesome lessons! Love you all so much!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze