Sister and Elder Hintze: 4/24/23

Monday, April 24, 2023

It has been a beautiful week in Georgia and the missionary work is going amazing.

Our friend, Lisa, whom I told you about three or four weeks ago, continues progressing on her

spiritual path. We have become quite good friends. She is coming to church each week, even

though she has to go straight to work from church. She used to use work as an excuse for not

coming to church, but now that she has the spirit in her heart, and has the desire to come to

church and partake of the sacrament, we don’t hear any more excuses. This past week she even

asked Elder Hintze and me to help her prepare to go to the temple.

Preparing new members or returning members to go to the temple is a big emphasis on the work

we’re doing. It is so exciting to see a person who has been a member of the church for years but

has never been to the temple have the desire to receive the endowment that the Lord has waiting

for them in the temple. In addition to Lisa, we have two other members who have recently

expressed a desire to go to the temple. Vicky, whom I’ve also spoken of in the past, is one of

these members. She shared with me that she struggles with ADD and that figuring out whom to

make the necessary appointments with and doing the paperwork seems overwhelming to her. So,

I told her that I would be happy to help her do that. With just one phone call she now has the

appointment she needs for her temple recommend interview. This morning in the grocery store,

we ran into another member, Steve, who has also expressed a desire to go to the temple. Steve

has been a member of the church for twenty-seven years and has never been to the temple. We

told him we had arranged the necessary interview appointment for another member and he asked

if we could do the same for him. So, with another phone call, we are now planning to drive both

of these good members of the church to see the Stake President for their temple recommend

interviews.

Also, this past week, Elder Hintze and I were asked to teach the lesson at our District Council.

We were asked to teach the Elders about the importance of the missionary work they are doing.

We focused on the message that we received from Elder Bowen at our last zone conference on

the Abrahamic Covenant and how that relates to missionary work. We showed them an amazing

video that shows the growth of the church all over the world and the rate of the building of

temples. Elder Hintze shared that when he was a young Elder in Guatemala in 1972 there were

14 temples in the world at that time. Today, there are 315 temples, including 176 currently

operating, 58 under construction, and 81 announced but not yet under construction. I’m sure

many of you have seen that video where the temples dot the earth while a timeline progresses.

It’s amazing to see the growth of the church over such a short period of time. This video helped

these young Elders to visualize the impact their service is having in the world. It was such a joy

to teach these bright and responsive young Elders! Elder Hintze asked me to share my

testimony at the end of the lesson about how the gospel has changed my life and thus the

trajectory of my posterity. Their eyes grew big as they listened to how their impact on just one

person can change a family, a community, and the world.

This past Saturday the little town of Thomaston had its first annual Art and Soul festival. The

entire town came out in full force! There were dozens of booths of mostly local artwork and

handicrafts, food trucks, and live music. Our twelve-year-old friend, Vakayla had a booth set up

to sell her handmade jewelry. The idea for the booth was born when I went to their home one

afternoon with a bracelet kit to make bracelets with Vakayla and her younger sister, Nariya.

Vakayla really took off on the idea and her mom told her if she could get enough jewelry made

she would get her a booth at the fair. Up until a few weeks before the fair her mom had still not

committed to the booth, but Vakayla worked really hard and she made it! The booth looked

beautiful adorned with colorful, handmade jewelry and filled with tasty homemade cupcakes and

cookies. She did a booming little business!

The church also had a booth set up for the kids to go on a scavenger hunt. They had a list of

things in nature that they had to find and check off a list. When they returned with their list

checked off, they were rewarded with a little baggie of candy. Fun was had by all!

Sunday was a special day in church. It’s always a wonderful surprise when a couple that we’ve

been working with to try to get them back to church shows up! The numbers at church are

getting stronger and the chapel seems increasingly full each week. After church, we had a

special baptism of a young man named Bentley. His grandma is a member of the church, but his

parents are not. All on his own he has been asking Brother Maddox to pick him up and give him

a ride to church. Also on his own, he decided to be baptized as a member of the church. It’s

pretty amazing for a twelve-year-old young man with no parental support to take this journey on

his own. We had a large part of the ward there to support him.

Elder Hintze and I love fulfilling our calling to be missionaries. We are working with many

people; some are receptive and some are not. But when they are, it is extremely rewarding to be

involved in watching souls change their lives as they open their hearts to receive the gospel and

commit (or in our case, to recommit) their lives to walking the path that Jesus has set for us to

return to live with God in celestial glory.

We hope you have a wonderful week!

With love,

Elder and Sister Hintze