Sister & Elder Hintze: 7/10/23

 

Happy Monday again??? I know I always say this, but it’s already the middle of July. Time is
just flying by right now. I guess that’s what happens when you’re immersed in the work of the
Lord.

We started our week off with a wonderful July 4th celebration. The mission changed P-day from
Monday to Tuesday for this week so the Elders could have the day off to enjoy the holiday.
Elder Hintze and I started off the day with patriotic strawberry and blueberry pancakes. We
spent the rest of the morning hours in our regular P-day activity, a round of cards with the Elders.
We all look forward to this friendly, yet competitive play. Elder Hintze finally beat Elder
Buffham! He even sent a picture of the scorecard to Elder Dunn, who used to beat him
constantly. We were going to take the Elders to a restaurant called the Oink Joint, but
unfortunately, they were closed for the holiday. So, we recreated the lunch we’d had there; a
baked potato topped with pulled pork. Although we don’t have a smoker here, the pulled pork
came out quite well in the crock pot. After lunch, we went with the Elders and met our friends,
the Cairns, at the little fair in town. We walked around for a short while looking at the local
vendors and then decided that there was so much time before the evening activities that we
would come home for a while. When we returned to the park to find a place to sit on the field to
view the fireworks, we found several members of our ward, who invited us to join them.

Everyone had been telling us that the fireworks in Thomaston were fantastic. My thinking was
that they had probably never seen a firework display outside of their little town. My, were we
surprised to find such a spectacular fireworks display. They even had a band playing music that
was really quite good. The music prompted Elder Hintze to ask our neighbor’s six-year-old
granddaughter, Gracelyn if she would dance with him! We got a really cute video. It was a
really fun day.

One of the different but very rewarding things I got to do this week was to assist a sister in the
ward to prepare and teach a lesson for Relief Society. Lisa had a tough childhood and as a result,
lacks confidence. She’s quite smart, but she just needs more opportunities to develop skills. She
was given her first opportunity when she was asked to fill in this past Sunday for the regular
teacher who was out of town. Lisa didn’t feel confident enough to take on this task on her own,
so the Relief Society President asked me if I would support her by showing her how to prepare a
lesson and help her teach it. Our calling as MLS (Member and Leader Support) missionaries
calls upon us to do just that – support leaders and strengthen members. So, Lisa came over to
our apartment on Wednesday and we sat down together and prepared a lesson. We co-taught it
on Sunday and Lisa did a fantastic job! I could tell she was really nervous, but now the ice is
broken. The best part is that her mom, Julieanne, came to watch her teach. Julieanne has told us
that she’s agnostic, yet she’s had some questions that we’ve had the opportunity to discuss with
her. She actually invited us to come back this week to teach her again.

For the past few days, Elder Hintze has been feeling promptings that we needed to visit a sister
named Amanda. We visited Amanda once a few months ago, but she hasn’t been to church since.
Amanda has had many challenges in her life, including a teenage son who went through
chemotherapy treatments for cancer that left him mentally challenged. He was never able to
finish school and she has been his primary caregiver. We followed up on Elder Hintze’s
promptings and we went and knocked on her door. When she opened the door, she looked like
she was in pain, and told us that she’d been experiencing a migraine for the past two days. She
was open with us about her struggles to live up to her testimony of the gospel, which she
definitely has. We read to her what Elder Hintze and I have affectionately named “The parable of
the excuses”. Luke Chapter 14:16-24 is about the Lord telling the story of the man who sent his
servant out to invite many to a great supper that he prepared. And everyone that had been invited
had a pretty meaningless excuse for why they couldn’t come. So, the master of the house told
the servant that there was still room and he should go out into the highways and hedges and
invite those people to fill the house. Ultimately, the people who turned down the invitation
would not “taste of the supper.” This parable speaks of those that miss out on the great feast of
blessings when they choose to turn their backs on the gospel. I think she understood the message
and she came to church on Sunday. We hope she was spiritually fed and will return next week.
Every six weeks we have the opportunity to attend a Zone Conference and hear wonderful
counsel from President and Sister Farias and from the zone leaders. The first thing they always
do is have all of the Elders and Sisters who will be completing their missions before the next
zone conference share their testimonies. It’s wonderful to hear these young people talk of the
amazing changes that have taken place in their hearts as they’ve served the Lord. They grow
from boys to men and from girls to women as they learn such amazing leadership skills while
serving.

Most of this zone conference training was on the new edition of the “Preach My Gospel”
manual. Our discussion of the difference between a testimony and conversion was very thoughtprovoking to me. A testimony is what you know and believe. It’s what comes to us when the
Holy Ghost witnesses truth to us. But conversion is who you become because of what you know
and believe. Conversion comes when we change from one course of action to another.
Conversion is a spiritual and a moral change. I think we can all apply this concept to gauge how
well we are doing in our spiritual journey.

What Elder Hintze and I are sadly realizing is that the reason that the majority (and I think I can
safely say the majority) of the people that are baptized into the church in this area and do not
continue coming to church is that they were never truly converted. You can know the gospel is
true, but if you don’t change your course to submit to the will of the Lord, He cannot truly bless
you with a complete conversion.

Well, we’re going to teach a Come Follow Me lesson in our home tonight, so I guess I’d better
close and get tonight’s lesson ready. Lately, it seems like we’ve been preparing a lot of lessons!
Yesterday I spoke in sacrament meeting, taught with Lisa in Relief Society, and Elder Hintze and
I taught Cody after church. Elder Hintze will have his turn to speak in church in a few weeks.

I wish everyone a wonderful week!
Much Love,
Elder and Sister Hintze