"I'm not a member I need to get baptized first."

Monday, April 6, 2015

Hello Family!!!!

I hope everyone is doing well today... I literally have so much about this week that I want to talk to you about! It has probably been the best week of my whole entire mission, it has just been a huge, huge blessing! We have been blessed so much in the work! We found some awesome people this week, we have some solid investigators! I hope that you all had a Happy Easter, and General Conference, it was so so so so so good!! We really have been blessed so much in the work, so we are just trying to give our all, and do some work!  Anyway I am going to get to it, I will probably forget literally so many details, but this week was awesome!

Saturday - I told you about Saturday last week, we taught Ian Gourley in the evening, he is a new one, we were not able to see him this week, but then we didn't get to do much for the rest of P-Day!

Sunday - We had our Ward council and our ward coordination meeting in the morning! And then church, sadly we did not have anyone at church, so that is getting to be kind of a bummer! But it was all good! We went home and we changed and then Bishop saw us on the side of the road and he picked us up and had us go with him to give his son Julian a blessing who was sick, so did that! And then we contacted for the rest of the evening, and then mad some phone calls! While we were out, Elder Carlile contacted this girl named Therese.. and set a return appointment with her... she will be a focus in the rest of the week, so cool!!

Monday - We had a lesson with Michael Melindez in the morning with Taylor Wilhelm, first time appointment we taught him the Restoration and it went so well... he loved the Book of Mormon, he is a super cool guy. I contacted him and after I did, he said he was inspired to go to church, so he went that Sunday, but he loved the Book of Mormon! Then we had a lesson with Thomas in the evening as Nick Franks as the member present, we ended up answering a lot of his questions about his Book of Mormon reading he had read all of 1 and 2 Nephi, so it was awesome, he had lots of questions and commments, they were really good! And we ended up sharing the end of the Plan of Salvation! Then we had FHE, and it was paint twister, so that was cool, and Ryan Carter, remember him the 1st ward to 5th ward investigator, he came! It was so cool to see him, we are going to start meeting with him again.

Tuesday - We had our District Meeting, it was a good one! And then some 12 week study! And then we went to FAMU with the other Elders and we did some work there, and we had some good success! Then alright... we taught Therese with Caroline as the member, and we taught the Restoration and it was just a beautiful lesson, such a good spirit, and right off the bat we kicked it off and she was very open and it was just fantastic, so she was pumped! And just received tons of answers and then we gave her the Book of Mormon, and that is going to be key as well, she loves the Book of Mormon. Then we had a Family History appointment with Bianca doing some family history work. 

Wednesday - We had a lesson with Arianna in the morning, interesting case her! But we taught her the Plan of salvation and she really enjoyed it and agreed with everything! Then some contacting. Then we taught another new girl named Jasmine, member present with Aymee and we taught her the Restoration it went so well... she seemed genuinely interested.. so we will see what comes of it! 

Thursday - We had a lesson with Cameron Locke in the morning, he's the recent convert of last year! He is doing well, we talked to him about the temple, we are trying to prepare him to get there! Then we taught Thomas again with Carson, we taught him the rest of the Plan of Salvation, and it went well... He likes our views, the plan of salvation, modern prophets, but he just says... I don't know if that is the right way! Then we had a lot of lessons fall through, so we finished up our weekly planning session. Then had a family history appointment with a guy named EJ.

Friday - We had a lesson with Dusty in the morning. Then we had a member lesson with Lauren Herzog. Then we taught Arianna with Carson again, and we watched the video How Rare a Possession video, about gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon... Then oh boy this was another good one, so there is this member named Ashley Keoppel, and she is awesome, she has been coming with this boy to church and long since we have been coming he has been there, even in Priesthood... so we see them on campus, and we are talking to them, Ashley is going on a mission, and so we were asking Alex if he had been on a mission, and he says to us "I'm not a member I need to get baptized first." WHAT!!!! So I said, and I quote, "Uh oh, I am about to go all missionary mode on you right now!" Boom set up a time with him and then talked to him about the Book of Mormon he is already in 2 Nephi. So we had a lesson with him and Ashley at the institute, and it was fantastic as well.. really good spirit, we taught the restoration! And it was powerful, so he is super solid!! 

Saturday - GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!! So I won't talk too much about it, because I literally have zero time... but it was basically awesome! In between sessions we taught this girl named Scarlett, who is a new one, we taught with Celine B, and we taught the Restoration (love the Restoration).. and it was good as well, she has 2 friends from Virginia that are members, so she is pretty solid too! Then Priesthood session and it was awesome!

Sunday - Thank you so so so so so so so much, for the Easter Baskets, they we're awesome!!! It really meant a lot, Elder Carlile and Otu we're very thankful.. When Elder Otu opened his up he started crying! It was pretty neat. So thank you so so so so much!!! We and I really appreciate it! HAPPY EASTER! So in the morning... bring it back to Therese. We texted her in the middle of the week, and she said she was just about to text us, so that was cool... we got talking about her Book of Mormon reading, and she can't put it down, she loves it, and it is answering all of her questions, she sent so many scriptures to us that she loved, and things that she really needed to hear! So we taught her with Angy in the morning.. and we talked about the Book of Mormon and then we read Alma 32 with her, she said that she knows the Book of Mormon is true! It was such a good lesson! So she then came to conference in the morning, which the session in the morning was killer! And Thomas was there, and they both loved it... like it was both so good for them! Alex also watched it ! So we had a lesson with Andrew Florial in between the sessions, he is a member. Then Therese came back and watched the evening session! And she loved it! And then we had a little easter dinner at the institute, all of the missionaries pot lucked! And she came to that as well, so we have a super good relationship with her! And then we did some family history with Dusty!

So this is probably the worst email ever.. but I am so crunched, I will AlphaSmart this next week, but life has been so crazy, and we barely have time to think, because there is so much work that needs to be done!!! We are staying very humble, but at the same time we have a lot of faith that we will be having some baptisms soon. It really was a great week. But I love you all and miss you all like crazy! 

Love Elder Hintze!!!

"I know that He does live, I know that He suffered for all of us! I have come to know Him, and to feel His love personally"

Saturday, March 28, 2015

HELLO FAMILY!!

Good afternoon, hope that everyone is doing well today! I love you all like crazy! This week has been so good, and we have been very busy! I can honestly say that I have never worked harder for anything in my whole entire life, everyday I have been given everything that I've got! And the Lord has really been blessing us! Alright, lets get to it:

Saturday - Today was awesome! I honestly am so grateful for Elder Otu, I love him so much, it has been the best thing ever serving with him! It will be sad to leave him. We went out on campus and did some contacting! Campus was alive today, there was all kinds of events going on, and music playing all over the place, sometimes I just want to boogie ya know!? :) But it is also good during the weekend, because it isn't insanely packed, and people aren't in too big of a hurry, so they can stop and talk. So we had some successes. I had a super awesome contact with these two girls, I had talked to one of them before and I knew that, but I played dumb and then got them both on a return appointment! So it was good, I literally love, love, love contacting on campus! It was very warm today as well. So then we ate with the Assistants some lunch, emailed ya'll folks, did our shopping! And then there is a bonfire behind the Institute, and so we had a fire for our P-Day. It was the bomb! It was actually pouring rain when we started the fire, but we got it going and then just kept it going, we made a little make shift shelter over it, and all of the other missionaries came, and so we just made smores, hotdogs, and then we made a little stove and we cooked some bacon!

Sunday - In the morning we were out on campus contacting some folks in our suits for a bit, and then we went to our coordination meeting and then on to church. We had a cool sacrament meeting, we had the institute choir perform.. so had a few musical numbers and they are always awesome, then  2 speakers, it was a good meeting. Unfortunately again we did not have any investigators who were in attendance there. :( After church though we taught Dusty, in his new member lessons, so we taught him tithing and fast offerings. Then spur of the moment Bishop Havlicak invited us over for dinner, so they had thanksgiving dinner. So we put down some serious food. But it was very delicious, and the Havlicak's are awesome! Okay so then in the evening we taught a girl named Arianna. First time appointment we contacted her on campus, and since then have ran into her multiple times. We taught her the Restoration with Carson! She loved it all, and was just thanking us for sharing our testimonies and these things with her. Carson the member played a big role as well. So we are so excited to be able to teach her further, she seems to be very, very prepared! There was a terrific spirit in the lesson as well! So we received some serious blessings today, thanksgiving dinner and Arianna! And at church.. I came out into the foyer and boom there was Elder McPherson, it was dang good to see him, got to meet all of his family!

Monday -  Starting out our day, we had some good contacting time! We have been trying to put together a missionary fireside in our ward, so we were contacting the FSU Gospel Choir to sing, after contacting them it turns out that they can't do it! But anyway we were all over campus OYMing people! And then we taught this girl named Dora, she was someone I contacted and set an appointment with, so we taught her with Alex Hauter, kind if an interesting lesson, we taught her the Restoration, but she believes in energy, and oneness... as she puts it! But the lesson went well and she wasn't interested in church at all, but we got her to pray, which was way sick!!!! And then we taught Thomas with Claudia Rivero, we did a little bit of review of the Restoration and then watched the 20 min resto DVD, then read Alma 32 (love that chapter!), and then just answered some of his questions, he had some good questions, and Claudia provided some awesome testimony! 

Tuesday - District Meeting in the morning, it was another good one! And then afterwards, we had our district activity, we played Ultimate Frisbee in the field behind the church! After getting all cleaned up we did some contacting out on campus! And then we had an appointment with this guy named Nick "Niko" Rule, so kind of a cool story! He is a convert of about 2 years, but he got into a lot of anti, namely he just looked it up all day... we received some pretty direct spiritual promptings as to what we were to share with him, again from Alma 32. So we talked about that, I hope he will let us help him! Then we had a family history appointment with a girl named Bianca. And then we taught Dusty a lesson, we did family history with him! 

Wednesday - We taught Arianna in the morning with Carson again, we did some review of the restoration and we watched the 20 min restoration DVD with her, and then watched the 3 mormon messages with her called Patterns of Light, it was such an awesome lesson it honestly was an answer to her prayers... in regards to how the Holy Ghost communicates with us. And it just felt so good the whole entire time in the lesson! We committed her to be baptized at the end of the lesson, and she was a little skeptical but she agreed when she came to know that it was true! Then we taught a member named Steffin Golden, he goes to FSU, he is from Marianna, Florida, he served a 2 year mission in Lisbon, Portugal. Then we had a lesson with Dusty and we taught him obedience, pray, and study the scriptures, and watched the John Tanner Story with him. Then we had a pow wow with Taylor Wilhelm, or a coordination meeting with him. Then we contacted all over campus, and then we made some phone calls!

Thursday - We had to give up our little Ford Fusion that we had, it is being sold, so now we are carless again, but no worries, unlimited miles on my feet! But it took up all of our morning getting it there and getting it washed out, we also had to wait for the ZLs, to give us a ride back. Then we taught a lesson on FAMU with Ryan Snyder, we taught this dude named Cyrus in the library there, we taught him the Plan of Salvation, and it was a hectic, but at the same time... it was a strangely good lesson. The Spirit was strong at times. He is an agnostic, so he basically believes there is something out there, but doesn't know what it is... But he was right on the Plan of Salvation, he loved it! Then we did a little weekly planning and then we taught Dusty again, we watched 2 talks with him on family history that bishop had given to him to watch/read! Then we had Breakfast with the Bishopric in the evening.. and we had the less active kid there, so we're getting him back baby! And then the TCC Sisters invited a dude who goes to FSU, so Sister Crandall came up and told me that he is ours to take on a church tour and have! So he came in and immediately I recognized him.. don't know from where though, but his name is Ronderias. So I go talk to him and he recognizes me and says ya you came by my house and taught me a lesson! Boom! And then it clicked, it was in 3rd ward when I was on an exchanged with Elder Welch and we taught him. So it progressed to a church tour, and my comps we're busy, so I went with Alex Hauter and Taylor Wilhelm, gave him a church tour and talked about the church service/sacrament in the chapel, and then baptismal font, which we talked about baptism and then the Book of Mormon. Alex and Taylor bore some killer testimony! And he was so pumped, so we should be teaching him tomorrow and he is coming to church, super cool!

Friday - We had a family history appointment with this girl named Christa, which she was an hour late, so that stunk, but we had Angy Vasquez there a member, and we did some family history with her, had some success, so we set up a return! Then we had a member lesson with Lauren Herzog, we are starting to work more with members, so it went really well! And then we taught Arianna with Carson again.. Then we ate dinner and then for sports night we played soccer in the gym! It was actually the bomb, Will Lasley came, he had dropped us! :) But we got him for soccer!

Saturday - This morning.. well this whole day, we had 5 lessons.. haha! And all of them fell through this morning, so we finished our weekly planning! And then we just had a lesson with this new kid named Ian, he is actually super cool! We gave him a church tour and he had tons of good questions, he grew up in a baptist school and he said they categorize us as "herotic", haha so funny, and so sad! But it went really well, we got him interested, he lives right next to the Orlando Temple. So we ate with the McPhersons today, and we are going to be playing ball with him and his brothers tonight!

I love you all like crazy!!!! I hope that you have all had the chance to watch the new #BecauseHeLives video, it is amazing... Time is really flying by, and I miss you all like crazy! But I must say it is going to be hard to leave this mission, I have found no greater joy in my life than when I have given everything that I've got each day to the Lord... I have really, really grown in my appreciation for the Savior in these last few months, I know that He does live, I know that He suffered for all of us! I have come to know Him, and to feel His love personally, I hope that all of us can do the same this Easter Season! Love you all! :)

Love,

Elder Hintze

PS- My P-Day I think will be on Monday this next week!!! Because of General Conference! So talk to you on Monday!!!

"The rejection is just part of the deal, so I love that too, if anything it is just a testimony that the work is true!" :)

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Hello Family!

How is everyone doing today!? Hope well, I am doing fantastic today! It has been a warm week for us here in Florida, it is miserable and awesome at the same time.. I have been sweating profusely! But it was a good week this week! We are grateful that spring break has ended, and the people are back! Also it was transfer week this week! Which we had some moves around us and with us, so I will talk about those! Lets get to it: (I may be kind of brief, I am the king of dilly dally as you all know... so running out of time)

Today we did our proselyting from 10 am to 1 pm again, and then we have the rest of the day for P-Day! So we had to finish up some weekly planning at our place earlier this morning and then we headed onto campus.. campus was bumping today, they had lots of activities going on, so we had a successful day of contacting on campus! This evening there is a fire pit behind the institute and I think we will be having a little bonfire and then roast some delicious delicacies over the flames!

Saturday - We did our proselyting in the morning again! And then we had P-Day, and it was really fun! We all went to the beach, the beach was less than desirable unfortunately, we don't have very good beaches near us! But it was Sister Crandall's birthday, so we had a dinner there and desserts and all kinds of goodies, there was no grill, so I went with Otu, Palau, and Taylor W. to go to Bro Livingston's house (Institute teacher) which was not but 5 minutes away to use his grill, so we were grill duty! So it was a lot of fun!

Sunday - Don't know if I told you, but Taylor Wilhelm is our new ward mission leader, so that is super awesome! In the morning before church we had our meetings, correlation and then ward council, which led up to church! Good day at church, unfortunately we did not have anyone at church on Sunday..  But we did teach Gospel Principles class, we did what seemed like a good job, so hopefully it went well! Then we did our contacting and then some weekly planning! It was in the evening that we found out that we were getting a 3rd companion, Elder Otu and I knew and felt that would happen! Elder Otu and I are absolutely on the same page, everything that we did we were one, so it has been a delightful transfer with him.. but we will do it again with our 3rd comp! :)

Monday - We taught Dusty in the afternoon, we did some family history with him, we called his grandmother and we got loads of information from her and were able to log all of it into the computer! So we are cruising right along with him, his mom is very interested in that.. Then we had our Tally 1 Zone and Tally 2 Zone dodgeball tournament... and let me tell you family, the Campus District just straight whipped up on some people, we dominated, it was a blast! If I don't say so myself, I only got out one time, and I led the team to victory, so fun!

The District

We then taught Cameron Locke before FHE, he is a recent convert as of September of last year, his is really cool! We taught him some commandments. Then we had FHE, which we ditched out on early so we could go start calling some of our potential investigators!

Tuesday - Had District Meeting in the morning! It was a really, really good one I think! It has been really, really fun to be a District Leader again! Then we had a day full of contacting on campus we went to FAMU and did some at FSU, had a really, really good day! It is always just a struggle out there, but I love it! The rejection is just part of the deal, so I love that too, if anything it is just a testimony that the work is true! :) We have been trying to get in with the clubs on FSU, have had some success... in the evening we attended The Lions Club meeting on Campus in hopes to get service oppurtunities.. it was cool, people were so nice, we got to stand up and introduce ourselves!

Wednesday - Transfer Day!!! So we drove out to transfers and then drove back! It is an all day ordeal, so we got back about 7 pm, and then we ate dinner with Julian Havlicak, love Julian, he just got off of his mission in Mexico. And then we did some contacting on campus! So transfer news! Elder Welch is gone as AP, so it is just Sorenson and Palau. Elder Peterson got transferred,

Elder Peterson & Elder Hintze

and the zone leaders are now Elder Milne and Elder Jorgenson, who both served on FSU while I was a Zone Leader, so the tables have turned! I love Elder Jorgenson, so he is one of my favorites, glad to have him back at the pound, we also got Elder Riddle out back in the shack, he was the Mobile ZL, so he is here as a DL now, love him to! So our zone has some killer missionaries! Our 3rd his name is Hyrum Carlile, Elder Carlile was trained in Dothan 1st while I was there with Smith, so I know him well. He is from Eagle Mountain, Utah.. has been on his mission for 16 months.

Thursday - We had Elder Johnston with us from New Zealand, he was the man! He was a visa waiter for Samao, so he took off, and we held him for a day! So we split up, it was a full day of contacting, I was with Elder Otu and Carlile and Johnston were together. We had a lot of lessons and we had it mapped out to who would teach who, but all of them fell through except for two for them! So Otu and I taught Thomas with Quinn B, we taught him once before in Denny's he is awesome, we gave him a church tour and talked about baptism, different organizations of the church. Then concluded in the Chapel, talked about the church service.. he hadn't read the Book of Mormon, and he had some concerns about physical evidences... which is the worst question ever. So we covered that and how he can receive the answer and how the Spirit works, and then we just testified. So interesting that people read the Bible which talks so much about the Holy Ghost and trusting/faith in God, yet it is so much a problem to people... just read it and ask! Then second lesson was a guy named Jeremy, I contacted him on campus, he is a rapper! And so Carlile and Otu taught him with Taylor W, while Johnston and I made phone calls! They said the lesson actually went really well! 

Friday - We did some more contacting in the morning! We taught Dusty again and we ended up watching the talk Bread or Stones: Understanding the God that We Pray To, which was awesome! And then we taught these two members named Spencer Gonzales and Ben Austraw, really cool guys, got to know them and shared a message with them! Then we did our weekly planning, almost all of it.

And now here I am! It has been so good here, I really am so happy! And we are working our guts out, haven't had a whole lot of success with getting people to stick.. so we are trying to find some good people. But it will all work out, I recently was given a talk called "The 4th Missionary" it was written by Elder Lawrence Corbridge of the Seventy, and it basically changed my mission! So I'm trying to be the 4th missionary! Love you all like crazy!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

"I'm trying my best, the spirit has been really, really strong in them, so can never argue with that!"

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Hello Family!

Sure do love you guys a whole lot, I hope that you all had a fantastic week, and you are doing well! This week was a good one, but kind of slow.. not exactly that much to do when all of the students peace out, but it was a good one, we had lots of fun!! We have some pretty fun plans today for P-Day.. We are all headed to the beach today, which is about 45 minutes away! We did our proselyting hours this morning, so we have the rest of the day for P-Day, going to be grilling and playing volleyball, and all that fun stuff! So it should be good! Lets get to the week!

Saturday - So Saturday night, our appointments fell through, so we ended up contacting the remainder of the evening! And has some good success, I love being with Elder Otu though, whatever we are doing, it is a blast, so being with him, made this week the bomb! 

Sunday - Church day! Had an awesome fast and testimony meeting, I was wearing my tie, spirit was so strong! Unfortunately we did not have any investigators there... afterwards, we had the break the fast meal! So that was dang good, chinese food! Then we had our correlation meeting, and then we had a little pow wow with our district to divide and conquer the ward roster! And then we did some contacting the rest of the night, sorry if this email is lame! :)

Elder Hintze on Campus

PS - It has been soooo hott here lately, humidity has shot up! So all we do is just sweat pretty much! :)

Monday - So we did some contacting on campus ALL DAY Long! It was a good time, had fairly good success, the campus had been dead, but we catch all of the stragglers.. in the Consecrated Missionary talk it talks about putting our fears on the altar and talking to everyone.. so we talked about it in District Meeting, and Otu and I have been doing that, anyone we have seen this week we have been getting after them, it has really been so fun! Then sometime about mid afternoon, we gave some campus sisters a blessing! Then we took sometime, to go through all of the clubs listed on FSU's website, and we picked out all of the good ones to try and get involved in.. so hopefully something will come of it! Pres encouraged us to do that! We ate dinner then had FHE!

Tuesday - District Meeting in the morning! It went fairly good again this week, as best as it can with a scrub for a District Leader, so I'm trying my best, the spirit has been really, really strong in them, so can never argue with that! Then oh boy, this week... after the meeting the 1st ward elders were giving us a ride, and so we went with them to a quick service project. Then we taught this chinese kid named Hon and it wasn't a real formal lesson it was in his apartment complex parking lot, but he asked tons of good questions, and we are teaching him again, so hopefully we will get him rolling along! And then we taught Will Lasley with Robert Hudson, he is a member who just moved from Jacksonville, so solid, only been a member for less than a year, and he played soccer with Will in high school, so he is perfect for him! We had a lesson with Will about prayer and the Spirit, and how it communicates with us, and it went fantastic! Then we had a lesson with Dusty in the late evening!

Wednesday - We emailed some more of the clubs for FSU in the morning, we have sent a bunch out, so we will see if we get any responses! And then we had a lesson with Dusty in the afternoon, did some family history work with him, we are having some really good success, and we are going to be doing family history with his mom as well.. We have tons of names ready for him. Also Taylor Wilhelm will be in Utah for conference coming up! 

Thursday - Did a bit of weekly planning in the morning! And then we had a lesson with Dusty, we watched the Prophet of the Restoration movie with him, love that movie! We also gave him a blessing, he asked for us to give him one.. to help out! Then we did some contacting until dinner, and then we had sports night/ cleaning the church, we played some volleyball!

Friday - We went and we tried to contact some names we had been given from Elders Quorum to no avail! And then we went contacting on FAMU.. we love FAMU!!! The people there are so much nicer, than the people on FSU, as I mentioned it is an all african american university pretty much, and they are so awesome, we love it there, we will be spending more time there!! Then we did a bit of FSU in the evening!

Saturday - We had some awesome lessons set up this morning... but unfortunately none of them turned out! So we contacted FSU, and it was literally bare, so can't wait for school to start back up this week, it will make life much easier! :)

Love you all like crazy!!!! :)

Love,

Elder Hintze

"Lord, I ask that these 2 can come to the true knowledge of you, and they can no longer be led astray!"

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Hello Family! 

Well another week, another dollar! This week was fantastic, nothing too exciting happening, it has been a tough last couple to have lessons! This week was mid term exams, so everyone was running crazy and now this upcoming week will be Spring Break, so that is going to be hard for us to stay busy... with there being not a sole on campus! Spring Break is really tough in a lot of areas in the mission.. we already got a big email about it, Panama City Beach is the worst! How are you all this week!? Great, good to hear! Lets get to the week!

Saturday - P-Day and then preparing for the adult session of stake conference! Which was really good, we had Elder Thompson there of the Seventy, he is I think from like the Sixth Quorum of the Seventy, they did like a big ward council and then people from the audience, could then ask questions! Pretty interesting!

Sunday - Again we had Stake conference in the morning! We unfortunately didn't have anyone at church. So we are all struggling to get people to church, Florida has a 14% church attendance for the whole state! Anyway, it was really good, they had a lot of testimonies, and then Elder Thompson had the majority of the meeting, he did so good, the spirit was very, very strong! He told lots of stories from his ancestors.. I have had a lot of promptings and just desire to learn more about our ancestors, it is something that is hard to do, because we don't have much free time. But when I get home it is something that I plan to do a lot of! Just reading there are tons of amazing people, who made sacrifices for the Gospel, so I want to learn more about them!  We had a family history appointment with a guy name Shawn, had some success, we will be meeting up with him after the break to do some more! Then we did some contacting until a baptism in the evening. When we showed up at 6:45, Kiara is her name, was not there. (I gave her baptismal inteview last week.)

She showed up at 7 pm, with all of her family... it was awesome! All non members, so we all got to go around and meet all of them and talk to them!

Monday - We taught a lesson to Dusty, really good lesson! The spirit has really been working hard on helping us with him, every lesson, he says, I think you guys are following me or something every lesson is right what I needed. So we are trying to help him prepare for the Priesthood! And then we contacted until about 5 pm in the evening, when we met this kid named Thomas, on campus at Denny's he bought us dinner, we contacted him last week and he wanted to meet us there, nice kid! Very serious, he is joining the air force, we kicked it off great with him, and then in Denny's we shared with him the Restoration, and it felt so good, despite the distractions. Elder Otu and I really felt led by the Spirit, so he was very open minded. And so we will be meeting with him after Spring Break! 

Tuesday - We had District Meeting, it went really, really good! President and Sister Smith came and were in attendance! It went really, really well! There are some pictures on the blog of President and others preaching on chairs and that is in district meeting, it went well!

President Smith

And then Pres and Sis Smith offered some instruction for us, just to make sure that everyone on campus is on the same page...  The whole Tally 1 Zone this last transfer is stacked with good missionaries, so we have a good zone! And then they took us to lunch at Chipotle! And then we contacted the rest of the night!

Wednesday - We went to lunch with Taylor Wilhelm. Then we chased down a referral with him, turns out it wasn't much of a referral as it is a PM Family on the 4th Wards roster, so we sent it to them! Then we had another lesson with Dusty Young, we did some family history with him and turns out one side of his family has all of their temple work done, so it was pretty cool! Then we had another FH appointment with these 2 guys named Jamal and Bodey, not too much success, but turns out one found a piano and started playing, which led to the chapel.. and so it turned into a mini church tour and we are going to teach them the Gospel! Then we contacted the remainder of the night!

Thursday - Finished all of our weekly planning in the morning. Then we had a lesson with this dude named David... oh brother. We had Lauren Herzog a member there, it was not a good lesson! We shared with him the Restoration, started out strong and good Spirit there, but he was so disinterested and wasn't really accepting or open minded to it, and then once we finished he has just tons of anti questions that he was asking us.. the only problem is we would answer them and then he wouldn't accept the answer and would go at us again. I try not to contend! And then later in the day, we had a conversation with a guy on campus, after him disagreeing, we said a prayer for him, and he said in the prayer, "Lord, I ask that these 2 can come to the true knowledge of you, and they can no longer be led astray!" I just smiled as he was praying! Good stuff, I love everyone though! We taught Dusty Young in the evening again.

Friday - Tradeoff with Elder Milne... hahaha, and we literally contacted all day! It has been cold again here, so it was frigid, and campus was slowly dieing. So we made a trip to FAMU, don't know if I told you we cover that as well, but just don't go often, it is predominatly an african american school.... like 99%, but we may try and go some more, we had some success! I was able to walk with one girl, and recite the 1st vision as we walked that was fun! Then in the evening we helped set up for the Family History fair they are doing at the church building today!

And now here I am, headed to hopefully play some tennis today!! I love you guys!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

"His only thing is when Jesus came and said, "it is finished" I don't see a need for more prophets."

Saturday, February 28, 2014

Hello family!!

Coming to you from a rainy day/cold day in Tallahassee, this week has been cold on the weather! Hope everyone is well and happy today, I myself am doing fantastic, thanks for asking! This week.. well.. was not quite as good as last week! This has been a very very hard week! But those weeks are good too! The students here at FSU are approaching midterm exams, and working towards spring break.. so don't know if the next weeks will be any better! But we are staying on them! Something about this cold weather, makes people so unhappy.. my go to phrase as we have been talking to people this week is, after I pat them on the back, "Hey Cheer up man, life's a blessing, we love ya!" Somebodies gotta put some life into these people! I can honestly say that these last couple of weeks, I have never been so exhausted in my whole entire life... Elder Otu and I have been going to bed early, first time in my mission that I have done such a thing... SO I will tell you all about the week, lets do it:

Saturday - After a great P-Day, we did some contacting on campus and then a member took us out to dinner.

Sunday - We had our correlation meeting in the morning.. followed up with ward council! Elder Otu and I go in and represent the whole district in ward council.. really awesome ward council, Bishop Havlicak is the man, so it was good to be part of that! Then we had church meetings, and it was a really, really good day at church, the meetings were awesome, we had Will there, and it seemed that every meeting was catered to him. Afterwards, all the appointments fell through so we ended up on campus contacting some folks!

Monday - Some members took us to dinner. One of them is named Jake Long, he served in Kai Hintze's mission in El Salvador, he was AP down there for a bit with him. Then we had a lesson with Dusty in the evening, Dusty is still doing well! Then we had FHE and it was a Phantom FHE, so a quick lesson and then we went out and made some visits to some less active folks!

Tuesday - We had zone training, no district meeting! Boy was that fun to be a spectator after so many of them up there teaching, I loved it! All of the sisters and Elder Peterson and Milne did really good, strong spirit there! So good! The mission had been doing a huge push to be consecrated missionaries, from a talk given by Tad Callister titled Consecrated Missionary, so they talked about that a bit! Great talk. Oh my goodness... so afterwards we taught a lesson with Taylor Wilhelm. We taught a kid by the name of Isiah Elliott, he is a former investigator, who was set to be baptized, but lived in a baptist housing community and they just antied him like crazy, but he showed up again, he is 18. Interesting lesson! We then had a family history appointment with a girl named Jackie, super nice girl, didn't have much success, but will be meeting again to try and do some more! Then we contacted the rest of the evening, until we attended institute with Will Lasley! Sister Dalley always cooks afterwards, and she made like cafe rio style rice and dressing and man it was most likely the best meal I have eaten in my mission!

Wednesday - All of the FSU missionaries, met up and then we went on campus to divide and conquer we had like a little sign up and then we were just contacting people using this new family history survery.. it was a lot of fun, well I had a blast! And then we had another lesson with Dusty Young. And then the rest of the night we contacted, all our appointments fell through.

Thursday - So we met that guy named Kevin that we met on campus with that 2nd ward member, we met him at the Suwanee Cafeteria on campus, it is designed like the cafeteria off of Hogwarts in Harry Potter, so it was a cool experience! He bought us lunch, super nice of him. Such a cool guy, we had lunch and over lunch had a lesson of sorts.. he had sent us some questions! 1. Who goes to Heaven? 2. Where do you see the need for Mormonism opposed to Christianity? 3. What are the pros and cons of the legalism of Mormonism? 4. How are you guys so positive? 5. What are your goals for your 2 year mission? So he had some interesting questions! And he is sincerely interested, so we are going to work on him, it may be a slow process. We answered the first one, easy! But it pretty much led into the answer of the rest of them, and we shared a short restoration. His only thing is when Jesus came and said, "it is finished" I don't see a need for more prophets. So we covered that... And then contacted, taught Dusty again. Then we had breakfast with the Bishopric, they made dinner in the form of breakfast for the ward. They made something like Lake Powell hash but with sausage.. man it was good, so you best believe that when I get home, were gonna whip that up! :) Then I gave a baptismal interview to a girl named Kiara who is getting baptized on Sunday, so awesome, always a pleasure to be able to do baptismal interviews!

Friday - Reallly hard day! In the morning we were able to see a recent convert named Jaylynn Smith, super cool kid, he needs to get back to church! And then the rest of our day was contacting...  

So here I am now this morning, writing to all of you! Thank you all for giving me an opportunity to serve this mission, it honestly has just been one big BLESSING! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Hintze

"We honestly have seen so many blessings, so many blessings in our work lately!"

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Dearest Family,

Hope everyone is doing fantastic this week! This week has been so good, I have loved life this week, I am really in my dream area, and it has been so good! We honestly have seen so many blessings, so many blessings in our work lately! I am learning a lot from Elder Otu, it is totally meant to be that we are companions! Anyway but things are super good, lets get to the week!

Saturday - We went to Wakulla Springs, it was really pretty cool, saw my first alligator ever when we were there, but it was just beautiful scenery! The water is kind of murky sadly, so we didn't get to see as much as normal I guess.. but still great! They had Manatees there as well, which are kind of hard to see, but its whatever! So it was a ton of fun!

Sunday - Good Sunday, unfortunately, we did not have anyone at church on Sunday! We had quite a few people set up, but all unfortunately we're unable to make it, so we will get them next time! Before church, we just do our studies, devour some lunch and then we had correlation meeting, it is fun doing a correlation meeting with 5 missionary companionships, everyone gets a turn! So after church we hit the campus and we did some contacting! 

Monday - We went less active chasing. The Elders Quorum gave us some names to go and check out. It is hard to do some less active work here, because we have zero mobility, besides our feet! So then we hit the campus, (which might be lame when I say that, but sooo many stories within the campus). But we had a way awesome miracle, we were just contacting people and we see these 2 on a bench, and after we finished talking to this guy, they said, Elders, and motioned us to come over. So we walked over, turns out one of them was a member in the 2nd Ward Tice Sirmans, her cousin is in 5th ward, so we start talking to her and her friend named Kevin, who she was studying with.. he is not a member! So then we just went straight for it, he said that he loved school.. pssh, who loves school! So I said, "Well do you love religion!?" So turns out he loves to talk about religion and he is a really smart guy, very intellectual. So we ended up having a lesson right there on the spot, and we taught him about the Book of Mormon, and he was asking us tons of questions about our missions! So we set up another time to meet with him, and he said that he wanted to take us to lunch and then to have a lesson, and the member is going to be coming with us! We are so pumped to teach him! After that we headed back to teach Dusty at the church. As we concluded there was a guy named Harold waiting to meet with the missionaries, we didn't think it was us, but turns out it was us.. we didn't set an appointment with him, but we went in with Dusty and Taylor and we taught him right there. We did some HTBT with him and went into the Book of Mormon! He says he is seeking truth! After that we had FHE at the church, which was a blast, we played this game called heads up, which apparently there was an app for it, way fun!

Tuesday - We had District Meeting, and it went way better than last time! Getting back into my District Leader groove, so that was good always running out of time though! By the way it has been soooo cold here, it isn't even fair, its dumb! I am in Florida! Afterwards we did our District Activity, we played ultimate frisbee, it was fun! After that we hit the campus and we're contacting tons of people! It was freezing and there is Institute on Tuesday nights at 7 pm, which the Elders are not allowed to go to unless we have an investigator.. but we were going to go anyway due to the frigid temperatures and it being dark, but my conscience got to me and so we headed out into the frigid and started contacting people.. then we got a text that our investigator Will had shown up and he was there, so we came back, and then got the tail end of Institute and then ate dinner!

Wednesday - We made a bunch of Phone calls in the morning! There are so many potentials to call, so our finding activities are calling people and then contacting more people, love it, never a moment where there is not something to do! Led up to an appointment we had with Shawn Lavin, he is a member we hadn't met, had no idea what to expect, he told us he would buy us lunch, so we went to Chick Fil A. So it was a good time, we shared a message with him. More contacting and then we had an appointment with EJ to do some family history, we actually had tons of success, and he asked the question... Why do you guys do family history work? Oh well let us tell you EJ, so we got another appointment with him!

Thursday - We did service in the morning at the Grace Mission, serving pizza to the homeless, so fun! Man it is so fun to see the difference in people's gratefulness... learn a lot from some people, they are so grateful!! We came back and we got on our contacting groove, which led up to Brandon Klenk's lesson. Brandon has decided that the Book of Mormon isn't true, because of the different accounts into how Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, so we read Ether 12 with him, and basically said, dude just read the Book of Mormon and pray about it! So simple, do you trust God?Afterwards we taught a new girl named Krista who we contacted on campus with Dusty, she used to live in San Diego and she has tons of member friends there, so we taught her the Restoration, and it was so powerful, it was cool to see how attentive she was to it, and the Spirit was so strong! So we are way excited to continue to teach her! Then we went out contacting! After I gave Aymee, her baptismal interview, she really is so awesome, her understanding of the everything and what it means to her, so cool, it always strengthens my testimony! Elder Otu and I gave her a blessing afterwards, because she was feeling sick, and she knew that it was Satan trying to mess with her. Quick story from last week, Elder Otu and I were in the church after a fall through on an appointment, just about to head out and contact and the Tally 4 Sisters were teaching a part member couple in the relief society.. and they were just talking to them about getting a priesthood blessing from the Elders to the non member husband, because he has not been feeling well, and right as they said that we walked past the door...so it was meant to be, we went in and we met this couple and we gave him a blessing, I had Elder Otu offer it, I walked him out and we talked about what to say, because it was only his second ever given... he gave an awesome blessing! They have a child on the way, and he talked a lot about families in the blessing.. so he went to the hospital the next day and what had been confirmed as Strep... was no longer there, it has disappeared! So he said to his wife, "The Elders blessing works, that means that we must go to church." So he is going to be getting baptized soon! So cool to see how the Lord works, the Priesthood is so real!

Friday- Crazy day!!! So many lessons, but so awesome! We were heading on to campus for the day, and we got a text from Taylor telling us to go to Friday Forum, which is an institute class, and they had a guess speaker, but no one was there.. so we went to support and our investigator Tramell, showed up and we caught the end of it, and then we ate some refreshments and we went into teach a lesson with Taylor, we taught him the restoration, literally we have ran into him like 9 times on campus, so it was cool, the spirit was very powerful in there, but he had some interesting experiences in his life! So it was so interesting, because he was trying to figure out if what he was feeling with us, was the Spirit or if what he had felt before was... and so we just tried to help him figure it out, obviously he had never felt it before... and so we tried to help him out! We had so many investigators and appointments piled up.. that we had to give one to the Sisters, we gave them one of our first lessons with a girl named Yangun. After that we taught a girl named Tashara with Taylor and with Dusty... she is interesting, so cool, and so nice. But she is what she classifies as Agnostic, so she doesn't believe if God exists, so we did some good HTBT. We taught her a portion of the Plan of Salvation... We got a return with her so we shall see! Then we had a lesson with Dusty, he is preparing to receive the priesthood, so we had a lesson on that and then we just continued to teach him the plan of salvation. Then we had an appointment with Will Lasley! We had such an awesome lesson with him and it just felt right, we just go to know him and established expectations with him and talked to him about his views, he is also agnostic, and then we read Alma 32 with him! It went so well! Then we had a lesson with Nick Franks, taught him about commitments. We have had an awesome week, tons of new investigators and member presents, some of the most I have ever had.

Saturday - So this morning we had a FH appointment with these two girls named Sara, they are roommates! And then we had the baptism.. and then we went to lunch with all of the clan from the baptism! So it has been a great day, and an even better week, just going to keep things moving! I love you all so much... miss you like crazy! Really I do!!!! I feel like just now in my mission, I am becoming like a small portion of the missionary that I need to be.. so just trying hard to really dig in and finish hard, love you guys so much!!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze

"I wish ya'll could be here as we talk to all of these people, the good, the bad, the oh so awkward, love it all!"

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Here's the week!

Saturday - This is interesting starting my week off on a Saturday, so good day today! Didn't have hardly any emails haha, nobody knew it was my P-Day except for ya'll! But thats alright. And then for our evening we just ended up doing our Weekly Planning, which will end up helping us out a lot... but it is taking forever, because it is Otu's first, so I am teaching him and then we have no idea who any of these investigators are, so it is hard to plan for them! It has been a whole new experience here on FSU, I really have felt so confused and so dumb, like I have never felt before in any area on my mission... so it may take us a little while until we are fully in the swing of things! Elder Palau the new AP is the man, I have nothing but good things to say about him, the most Christlike person that I know, so fun to see him interact with people, he is so happy! So thats good, Elder Otu and I are still getting along fantastic, always laughing!

Sunday - Lets talk about like the best Sunday ever! So we have got our 12 Week training now, so we have to do an extra hour of companionship study in the mornings, so we finished and headed down to the church after lunch for 1 pm church! And then we got roped into being in a choir full of recent converts and missionaries.. hahaha, so we had to practice and then we sang in Sacrement meeting and literally we killed it.. it was so good! It was ward conference for them, so got to see the Knudsen's there. Elder Otu had to bare his testimony as requested by the stake president!! We had Ryan Carter there and he is awesome.. he will be coming to a baptism that they are having in 5th ward this week, and he wants to take us out to dinner, and then meet for 2 lessons! And then we had Brandon Klenk there. After church, they did something call break the fast, so it was pasta palooza, just tons and tons of food, so it was so much fun! Awesome to be able to get to know all of the members as well, going to be a blast. After all of those festivities, we went out and we were contacting on campus, and it was so good.. ah I love it so much! I wish ya'll could be here as we talk to all of these people, the good, the bad, the oh so awkward, love it all! We had some really, really good contacts, the campus was much slimmer on people on Sunday, so it actually helped us to be able to talk to more.

Monday - So in the morning we had a lesson with this girl named Kaylee, we got a text during sacrament meeting that said, "quick question. Do you get your own planet?" So we were like what the heck! Turns out it is a girl they had talked to previously, and we were just super nice to her and she agreed to meet up. So we had Taylor Wilhelm in the lesson with us, she is a student at FSU. But we are teaching about prophets.. and she interrupts to say, "do you live here? where do you live? do you feel jipped for coming to Tallahassee?" And so needless to say she was not interested in the least... and in her closing prayer she said, "thanks for letting me talk to them, and for me agreeing with at least 2/3 of what they said." She had seen the Book of Mormon play, which is awful, she asked us if "rule #72 was that we can't leave each others side!" Then we taught our man Dusty, he is doing good! He is still progressing right along, and working to receive the aaronic priesthood. Then we came home ate some lunch, and then got to work on calling potentials, we could spend a whole day calling people and then maybe we would catch up! There are so many people to call, so that will be a daily thing, then we got out to do some more contacting, didn't have the greatest success.. but got a few, it is strange how it changes with each new day! 

Tuesday - We had District Meeting in the morning, not the best district meeting.. I'm going to work some kinks out and I will get back into my DL groove! We talked about some good stuff though! After that we had a family history appointment with a guy named Cyrone Ferguson, he came prepared, he met with the other Elders once before, and he had tons of stuff going back into his great grandparents, so we just took the time to start logging all of the info in! Then some lunch, and some good 12 week studying! And then we had some failed Family History appointments, we set the record here on campus for the most no shows on appointments, it is so crazy... but we set so many! So then for the rest of the evening we hit the pavement and we contacted all over Campus! man I love it so much! I think my first adrenaline rush of campus is sligthly wearing off, because man it is a tough job on campus, so so many people are rude/make fun of us, but then again maybe that is why I like it, who knows! :) So we had some fairly good success. Then some dinner and some phone calls! I handed out the first of the testimony Books of Mormon you all sent me, I was looking for real good oppurtunities.. and the girl we gave it to, it was my only one in my backpack... she totally didn't deserve it, but I told her this is my parents testimony, and she better take dang good care of this! So we'll see.

Wednesday - Oh baby, what a day! So 5 lessons scheduled on the day, bam.. all of them fell through, so you know that is a good time! So that equals a full day of contacting on Campus.. it was good! There are literally thousands of people to talk to, and we keep track of how many we actually get to extend invitations to.. so most don't let us get that far! :) But I love it so much! So we did that all day, and then Cameron Locke a member in 5th ward took us to Wendy's for dinner, so that was cool, I like Cameron he is a recent convert of only a few months. And then some more contacting to finish off the evening. It has been so fun with Elder Otu so far. I've got to honest with you, my feet are killing me, I have never walked so much in my whole entire mission hahaha, it is a good thing! But I think that I am going to have to buy some gel soles or something, becaue we are putting on the miles. And I'm a walker, we got places to be, and people to talk to! So we have zone conference tomorrow, and so some of the Panama City missionaries came in for a sleepover, so my man Elder Smellie was here, so it is always fun having some sleepovers.

Thursday - Zone Conference day! oh and was it ever so good! I always love them, we had the Panama City ZLs teach us about member presents, Tally 4 Sisters taught us about Unity, the APs taught us about this cool new family history survery door approach where for lack of a better term, we kind of "con" the person into learning about the gospel, but not really! Just certain words that you use to get in their house, it is pretty tricky, so it is fun to do! Sister Smith taught us about Unity.. introduced our new mission theme of "United We Stand!" for 2015, she had us watch a video from youtube that was made for wounded veterans... it was so good! One of my favorite quotes from it was: "The only enemy is ourselves, if there is no enemy from within, then the enemy from without cannot harm you!" And then Sister Smith shared one I loved: "If your not in the process of becoming the person you want to become, you are automatically engaged in becoming the person you don't want to be!" So good, the Spirit was really strong, her words meant a lot to me! And then President THREW DOWN! But because of lack of time, he couldn't give us the full shpeal, but it was good, he talked about in 3 Nephi where it says contention is of the devil, and then in John 14, where it says if ye love me keep my commandments. And said if you truly love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, you would keep his commandments, and when you cause contention in you companionship, then you are breaking the commandments!

Zone Conference - Tallahassee 1, Tallahassee 2, & Panama City Zones

There has been so many dumb companionship problems in our mission, President talked about the lessons we each need to learn, and somewhere down the line, we will use the things that we learned from each situation! The whole conference was the bomb! I was experiencing some sadness during the meeting, it really hit me how short I have left on my mission.. and I went up to President after and I asked him if they let missionaries extend their missions, I was literally going to do it right then and there, I had been thinking about it the whole entire meeting! But unfortunately they do not allow any more to extend.. President said, "If I could you better believe that I would do it for you!" But we can't anymore. Today is my 20 month mark, and it hit me hard! So sorry family but I almost extended as hard as that would have been to do, I was dead set on it. After that we got back and we had a super awesome Family History apointment with this guy named Ali, but we were a few minutes late and he told us he was there and then he didn't show up. Nor did our next appoinmtent, so we went home and ate ourselves some dinner. And then we were set to meet with Ryan Carter, but he had to head back home to Tampa for a family emergency.. so that didn't happen! And then we attended a baptism in 5th ward for a girl named Allison Graham, great baptism.

Friday - Had some lessons today, so that was awesome! We taught this guy named Graham in the morning, he works at the Wesleyan church on Campus/lives there as well. So don't know how receptive he will be due to that, but we shared with him the restoration, it was a fairly good lesson, a little all over the place, but good! He has been wanting to meet with missionaries forever just to talk about what he has heard... everyone thinks that in the Book of Mormon it says that all of us will get a planet.. it is ridiculous, come on people! He has been to church once before, so hopefully we can keep teaching him, don't know if we will hear from him again! And then we had a lesson with Dusty, he taught us the Restoration. It was good! Then we did some family history work with Tremell, and we gave him a very brief church tour afterwards, showed him the chapel, and talked a little bit about the church.. we set it up for next time when we will be able to teach him about the Gospel! Then later on we had a lesson with a Member/recent convert of last year named Nick Franks, the elders before us were teaching members so we piggy backed off that, and are continuing to do it! Then we had a lesson with Will Lasley. Will called in to the institute wanting to learn more about the church, and wanting to know what we were about, he wants to raise a family with good values, so he is pretty solid! We finished teaching him the plan of salvation and it went well, the Dalley's the institute couple were in there with us and Nick Franks was there as well. He is so willing to read/pray and come to church, so we will see what happens... we will see if we can get him progressing! Then we played volleyball in the evening with the ward!

So it has been a good week! it has been crazy, the time flys by so quick, I feel like I was just barely emailing you all last week, it is nuts! But it is good, I am still loving life here on Campus! We are headed to a place called Wakulla Springs today, to go on a glass bottom boat, and see manatees and alligators and all kinds of other wildlife! We are going with the APs and Dusty, Sister Anderson from 1st ward will also be getting baptized at noon, so I will be in attendance there! Love you all so so so somuch!!! Miss you all!

Love,

Elder Hintze!!

"My mission has just progressed and gotten better and better and better!"

Saturday, February 7, 2014

Monday - Today was a great day! After a good emailing session, Elder Peterson and I went to the New Time Country Buffet, because Dan bought us a gift card for there.. Anyways we took down some food and while we were there a random guy came up and gave us $20 bucks, said he wanted to pay for our lunch, so nice of him! We thanked him a lot, he wasn't much for talking, just said, Keep doing what ya'll are doing! But man I am a wouse, I took down 2 plates and was stuffed.. I am just a skinny little white boy. After lunch we went to dodgeball, and when I was getting dressed, I was shocked, I have some little toothpick legs, my body is wasting away! So dodgeball tourney was awesome, lets here it for the Tally South district (our district!) We didn't lose a match this time and we took the championship! I was pretty decent out there.. in the championship game I was the only one left, against 2 sisters, Elder Welch, and Elder Christensen (Tally 2 ZL) so they were just going at me.. all I had to do was catch one and my whole team comes back in! So I was dodging and then they moved the lines up, so they could come a lot closer to me psssh, so still dodging, then I take matters into my own hands, nail Christensen, then throw it at Welch, he blocks it, he throws it at me, catch it, so he's out and the whole team is back in! So then we drilled the 2 sisters and then went on to win it all! It was a sweet victory to steal it from the APs :). The meal calendar lady didn't get the February calendar done, so my last days get no meals.. After that we had to do all of the transfer scheduling and tell everybody where they are headed, we have so many transfers, don't know where were going to get the miles for this! :) Peterson's problem :) I am going to miss Elder Peterson, I am also going to miss being a zone leader I really really enjoyed it, lots of good times! So after that we headed out, and we found this new less active lady, she is awesome her name is Sister Heffner, talked to her for probably 30 minutes on her porch, set up a return appointment, she says she was just praying the other night and knows she needs to get back into church! And then we payed a short visit to the Knudsen's man alive I love them, they are so awesome, going to miss them as well!

Elder Hintze & the Knudsen's. This family has been so sweet with the missionaries!

Tuesday - We had District Meeting in the morning! It was a good one, that whole district is being shaken up!

The Zone

The Zone (with more missionaries)

So after district meeting, we had an appointment set up with Cristina, and then she told us she couldn't make it after we already got there. We then went and we taught TR at his house this time, so we got a chance to meet his mom, we taught him the commandments of Sabbath Day Holy and Ten Commandments, and it was his birthday, so we went and bought ice cream and a bunch of toppings! But it was also part of the lesson, we made a sundae  and put nasty things like BBQ Sauce on it, just to show him that there are better and even best things that we could be doing on the sabbath! Then we did some family history with Eric at the church, still rocking and rolling with him! Had our meeting with Pres Campbell and then we ate some dinner. The February meal calendar didn't get passed around, so my last days ended with no meals from 1st ward! :( Then we taught Gonzalo it was good! Didn't get to sit down and have too much of a lesson, just talked to him about how he was feeling about church. I love that man like crazy!! Then we had our correlation meeting!

Wednesday - Transfer day!! We went to the train the trainers meeting in the morning! And it was good, the APs taught it.  And that is where they announced I was going to FSU with Elder Otu, and I would be the district leader... not even a suprise for me, but I was so pumped!!!! I was talking to President after, and he was so excited, he said to me, "You lucky dog, I would trade places with you if I could!"

Transfer Day: Elder Fredericksen, Elder Funk, Elder Hintze, Elder Milne, & Elder Otu

I love Pres and Sister Smith, they said I almost didn't come here, they had me in Pensacola as a Zone Leader, so finally one of the last moves that they made was putting Elder Otu with me, and it is working like a charm! I love Elder Otu, he is the man, we get along so good, and have been having so much fun! He is from Taylorsville, Utah, and he is a rugby player, he played for the USA Jr. National Team, so he is dang good. He is 20 years old, he used to box, plus he can protect me! :) He is awesome, we are going to do really great things here! So there have been some big big changes, Elder Milne, who was on FSU is now in my spot as our Zone Leader, so that is hilarious!

Elder Fredericksen, Elder Funk, Elder Hintze, & Elder Milne

Elder Hildebrandt & Elder Hintze

Sister Collett, Elder Peterson (photo bombing), & Elder Hintze

Elder Hintze & Elder Collett

Elder Hintze & Elder Udy

We got a new AP in Elder Palau, and so now get this... their proselyting area is on FSU as well, so now there are 5 of us, and now we will have someone to spend P-Day with so we are excited! So we got back to our place, and we just cleaned the heck out of it… Elder Otu is a very clean guy, so we went to town on that place, threw so many things out, so it is looking really nice now! We got a new companion in the shack out back, his name is Elder Browning, and Elder Cooper trained him... he is so awesome, so it is going to be some serious good times here!!! Oh also we got taken out to dinner by a member named Taylor Wilhelm he is the man!

Thursday - So it is a whole new experience for me... in the white washing... I feel so dumb hahaha, just becuase I don't know who anyone is or who the investigators are or who these appointments are with, so it has been a whole new experience, but we are getting the hang of it! So my emails might be a little bit more lame, because all we do is teach and then contact on campus... and that is my favorite part! It has been fun with Elder Otu. We are working it out together and it has been fun to teach him, we have had quite some good success, with campus you got lots and lots of return appointments and phone numbers... but rarely ever do they turn into anything! So we will see what happens, I will tell you about the lessons that we taught! We taught Dusty Young, he is the one that was just baptized and he reminds me so much of Cameron Coggins...so much! He is planning on going on a mission, and so we talked to him and read quite a bit about the Priesthood, and his preparation to receive it. Then we taught an investigator by the name of Brandon Klenk, 18 years old, student at FSU, very interesting, we just go to know him. And then in the evening, we had sports night with the ward! We played volleyball, it was so much fun! It is way different in a YSA ward, it is gossip central as well, all the members will go and stalk your instagram, twitter, and facebook, to check you out!

Friday - A lot of contacting! And some good lessons, we taught a member girl named Kirsten Christensen, raised in the church, parents are fully active. Then we did some family history with a man named Tremell! Then we taught a guy named Kahasim... he is a student at FSU! And then we taught Ryan Carter, he is pretty darn awesome I am glad that I get to teach him! We talked to him about his play... and he said his motives were to learn about us for the play, but it has totally switched and he has found it to be very enlightening, and he is now pursuing it for himself! So we taught him the Plan of Salvation, and it went so well, he understood and it was a very good lesson, he is really loving it! He will be at church, and he is reading the Book of Mormon like a champ! 

So now it is Saturday! Today we are going to be playing some basketball with some members from the 1st and 5th ward, so we are excited for that! And then don't know what else we will have plans to do! But life is so good, I thought that it couldn't get any better than the 1st ward.. but now I am here and my mission has just progressed and gotten better and better and better! So these last 4 months are going to go by very quick, Elder Otu and I are going to be working like crazy! I love you all and miss you!!!

Love,

Elder Hintze