Sister and Elder Hintze: 1/30/23
Hello family and friends,
It’s been another great week in the mission field. Jerry and I spoke in church yesterday, and as I
looked out upon the congregation, I realized that in only one week, half of the people are already
friends! And the other half we are quickly getting to know. It is a wonderful ward with a
fantastic spirit of love and service.
Last week I mentioned that the Elders invited us to go with them to visit a family that had a
young lady being baptized. We didn’t know anything about the young lady or the family last
week, but we have already become great friends with the Hayes family. Their fourteen-year-old
daughter was baptized last Saturday. Their older children had been baptized in their youth, but
this daughter was never baptized because the family fell away from the church for a time. The
baptism was so special. Her older brother got release time from the Marines to be here with her
and her grandparents traveled from Washington state. She was baptized and confirmed by her
grandfather. What a wonderful sight to see this family come together again in the gospel.
We actually had two baptisms in the ward on Saturday. Jeremiah, a single man, probably in his
early 40’s, also had a beautiful baptism. He shared with me and Jerry that both of his parents are
deceased and he had a brother, who is also deceased. So, he had no family members present, but
the ward was there in full force to support him. He is going to be a wonderful strength to the
ward. He offered his first tithing payment last week before he was even an official member!
Another thing about this ward is that they sure do like to eat!!! At both of those baptisms, there
was a full spread of delicious food! And here in the south, everything is made from scratch!
Every Friday we have a mission correlation meeting and the ward mission leader feeds the
missionaries EVERY WEEK at that meeting. Last week we had Jambalaya and biscuits. Oh
boy, I should have brought some stretchy pantsѮѯѰѱ
We met the bishop for the first time on Sunday. He and his family were out of town the first
week we were here on a cruise to celebrate the end of their son’s chemo treatments. He’s
fourteen and has been through an intense course of treatment for six months. But he is cancer
free now! They are a wonderful family. We took our written mission goals to discuss with the
bishop and he liked our agenda.
We had our first district meeting this past week, where Jerry got to meet an Elder from
Nicaragua who is serving here. Jerry served in Nicaragua on his first mission in his youth. The
young man is from Managua, one of the cities that Jerry served in. They had such a sweet
connection. Jerry remembered a fun, little song he learned there. He sang a few lines from it
and this young man was moved to tears hearing that song from his homeland. What a sweet,
tender mercy that moment was!
We are really enjoying visiting the members in their homes. We try to arrange our visits
geographically because the ward covers a very large, spread-out area. It’s not unusual for some
members to drive thirty to sixty minutes to get to church. We are going to focus on teaching the
Come Follow Me lesson for the week in peoples’ homes because the bishop mentioned that
many people are struggling to use the program. Last night we visited with Sister Bailey and her
husband. Although he is not a member of the church, they welcomed us to come back next week
to teach a Come Follow Me lesson.
Again, for my friends who are not familiar with the church programs and who are keeping up
with our mission through our emails, the Come Follow Me program is a study guide for reading
the scriptures at home. It is replete with a personal application of the scriptures and ways to gain
a deeper understanding. This year we are studying the New Testament. Below I have included
a link to this week’s Come Follow Me lesson so you can take a peek at this great tool for
personal scripture study.
I was moved when I watched the three-minute video clip included in the middle of this Come
Follow Me lesson where Jesus declares that He is the Messiah and that He has been anointed to
preach the gospel. I wondered what I would have done if I had been sitting in that room. Would
I have recognized Him as the Savior? I can’t be sure, but what I do know is that today I know
that He suffered ALL things for us, He knows every pain we will ever experience, and through
our faith in Him we can find peace and strength to endure our own trials.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder and Sister Hintze
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