Sister and Elder Hintze: 5/15/23

 

Monday, May 15, 2023

Hello family and friends. I hope all of the moms had a wonderful Mother’s Day. In spite of
being separated from my family, I felt so much love. I got to talk to all of my kids and
grandkids. I got the sweetest texts from several of the teenage boys!!!ѡѢѣѤ. The fact that those
kids initiated those texts on their own was so heartwarming. And in the evening when I thought
it was all over, I got a phone call from a grandson!!! I love my family! My day was filled.
Did you know that after a gray day, the sun will always come out? There are lots of gray sky
days here in Georgia but last Tuesday was an especially gray day. Elder Hintze and I were a bit
down and feeling blue in the morning because we didn’t have many prospects of people to visit
and teach. So, we decided to make a list of people whose names are on the ward roster but
whom we have never seen in church and have never visited. We made our list of people within a
fairly close geographical area and off we went. The first stop we made was at the home of a
sister named Deborah who was homebound with a CNA assistant by her side. She was so very
happy to see us since she doesn’t get out anymore. We had a nice visit with her and she told us
that she still stays in touch with Sister Gardner, a senior missionary who served here in
Thomaston several years ago.

Our next stop was at a home that we recognized we had stopped at once before but found no one
home. This time a woman named Roxanne came to the door. We talked through the screen door,
as she did not invite us in. But she was talkative and seemed glad to have the visit. We found out
that she got very sick with Covid which resulted in heart surgery. Her health has been
compromised since that time. She said she and her husband bought their home in 1973, and both
she and her home took me right back to the hippie times of the 1970s. Since she’s not getting to
church, we offered to come to teach her in her home. She was open to the idea and said she
would ask her husband when he got home. We left her our card with our contact information.
Surprisingly, the Elders said they went over to that very same home in the evening, found her
husband at home, and he was not quite so friendly. He told them not to come back without an
appointment!

Then we pulled up to the home of Robbie. He saw us approaching his home and he came out on
the porch to meet us. He told us he was recovering from a bad infection that caused sepsis, so he
wasn’t up to a visit at the moment. But he said that he’d like us to come back. I asked him if
there was any particular day of the week that would work best, and he actually did specify a day.
So, we told him we would give him some time to recover and we would return. Things were
already looking up!

There were several stops along the way where we found no one home, so we left a contact card
in the door. But our last stop was the golden buzzer! We went to the front door of a woman we
knew to be a single sister and rang the bell, but no one answered. There were three little boys in
the yard playing baseball, so we knew someone must be there. We knocked again and still got
no answer. As we were walking to the car to leave, we heard someone in the garage. We walked
around to the garage to find a young man working on hanging shelves. He stopped what he was
doing, set his tools down, and came to talk to us. We found out that he is the son-in-law of the
woman that lives there and that he and his wife are temporarily staying with her mother. I knew
his mother-in-law is a member of our ward, so I asked him if he was a member of the church.
His answer was, “Not yet!” That’s always a pleasing answer for a missionary to hear! He told
us a bit about his religious history. He said that he had attended many churches with his buddies
before he was married and that the rock band style of worship was not for him. He said he failed
to find the Lord in those meetings and he wanted something more reverent. Then he met his
wife, who is a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He said he really
enjoys the services and he would like to learn more. Bingo! The gray skies cleared and our joy
in our work as missionaries was renewed. We will be returning to meet with Tyler.
We had a fun evening with Kelli and Wyett and their kids at the park. Wyett’s sister, who lives in
California, has been called to serve a mission in Australia so she came to visit her brother and
his family before she leaves. We enjoyed getting to know her!

On Saturday we got to witness the wonderful Baptism of Nariya Butts. Her mother is one of the
ward members that we are helping to prepare to go to the temple. She is such a wonderful
woman with a strong testimony of the gospel. Although she is the only adult member in her
entire extended family, she had a dozen family members present to support Nariya on her
baptism day. Instead of the usual spread of cookies and cakes for refreshments, we had a
beautiful array of salads, vegetables, and fruit as she requested, as she is working on teaching her
daughters to eat more healthy foods. It was a truly beautiful event.

And to end an already wonderful week, our Mother’s Day service in church and the luncheon
that followed was just spectacular! The first week that Elder Hintze and I attended church in
Thomaston there were 52 people present. This past Sunday there were 115 people in
attendance!!! We realize that the holiday and the draw of food probably made a significant
difference, but we will hope that some of these people will continue to come worship with us.
When we stay after church and everyone brings a dish to share we call it Linger Longer. For this
week’s Linger Longer, since it was Mother’s Day, all of the men were assigned to bring the food.
There was much discussion of concern over there not being enough food, but oh my, the spread
was incredible!! We suspect that there were probably some women coaching in the kitchen, but
nevertheless, there was more food than there has ever been before at a Linger Longer. The men
definitely showed us up! It was a really enjoyable time.

Elder Hintze and I are going to take our first outing to see some of what Georgia has to offer. We
are going to take two days off to visit Savannah. We both love history and love to experience
foods of different regions, so we are quite excited about this little adventure. I’ll tell you all
about it next week.

I hope you all have a wonderful, blessed week.
Lots of Love,
Elder and Sister Hintze