Sister and Elder Hintze: 8/7/23

 

Monday, August 7, 2023

Hi all. We sure do miss all the Elders that are gone. We attended our first District Council with

our new district and Elder Averett is the only Elder that remains the same. The entire rest of the

district is new. But that’s all part of the process. We are already falling in love with these

wonderful, sweet sisters that are serving with us in Thomaston.

We are continuing to strengthen the ward by preparing ward members to enter the holy temple.

Sister Freida is one who has been inactive in the church for a long period of time. But she

returned to church about four weeks ago, declaring that she is here to stay. She asked the bishop

if there was going to be a new temple preparation class starting soon, and when he told her not

right away, she asked if we could teach her the temple preparation lessons. So, Freida came to

our apartment for her first lesson this past week. She has definitely had a change of heart and is

anxious to prepare herself for the temple blessings. We also had the privilege of taking Megan to

meet with the Stake President to complete her temple recommend interview. Afterward, we took

her out for ice cream to celebrate her progress. We have become quite connected to each other

and Elder Hintze and I suspect we will stay in touch with Megan after we leave here. Another

person we have become quite connected to is Vicky. We have a group of sisters going to the

temple together in a few weeks, but Vicky is unavailable that day, so Elder Hintze and I invited

her to go to the temple with us. We spent a wonderful morning on Wednesday in the temple with

Vicky and then we all went out for lunch. We think Vicky is a rock star! She had a very

disadvantaged start in life and has allowed the gospel to guide her in leading her own children to

a more virtuous life.

After the first half of the week focusing on the temple, with a two-hour drive in each direction,

we were ready for something more physical. And boy, we sure found it! We painted a bedroom

for the baby that’s coming to Wyett and Kelli. We started at 9:30 a.m. and finished at 4:30 p.m.

with only about a 10-minute break to eat a little lunch. We really enjoyed the opportunity to help

this busy family. Wyett works during the week, Kelli works on the weekends, and he’s gone in

the reserves one week per month. They were very appreciative of the help. Neither one of us

has done that much physical labor in a very long time! We didn’t realize how spent we were

until we got home and could hardly move!!!

Once again over two days, we had three scheduled visits canceled, so on Saturday morning we

took off as we’ve done before to knock on some doors to see who we could find at home. There

are times when we have our best success with this method of visiting people. However, this

time, we left with two loaves of bread and returned with the same two loaves of bread. We came

home to make an early dinner with a plan to go back out in a different direction after our meal.

The evening was a much more successful experience. We knocked on the door of a sister named

Belinda. I texted and called her multiple times in the past and even asked if we could bring her a

loaf of freshly baked bread. She did respond once that she was out of town, but didn’t respond to

several subsequent attempts. We heard laughter in the house and knew there were people there

but there was no response to our knocking. Just as we turned away to leave, Belinda came

walking around to the front door from the side of the house. Although she didn’t invite us in

because she said her baby granddaughter was sleeping in the living room, she welcomed our

visit. We stood outside visiting for about thirty minutes. She is a wonderful woman who has

raised ten children, most recently as a single mom. She tearfully shared her strong testimony of

the gospel with us. It’s always difficult to understand why a person with a testimony of the

gospel as deep as hers becomes inactive in church and has unbaptized children who have not

been raised in the church. She told us she knows that she’s been incredibly blessed in her life

and admittedly had no reason for falling away from the church. We simply invited her to come

and partake of the sacrament and be ready to feel the joy and the spirit that will fall upon her.

Her son, who is a senior in high school, came out and joined us toward the end of the

conversation. And lo and behold, they were both in church on Sunday morning. She sat with me

in Sunday School and she thanked me and said she was glad she came.

In our scripture study this week I was inspired by the story in Acts Chapter 27 of Paul traveling

by ship to Rome. The group was traveling late in the season, and the crew and the captain,

anxious to get to Rome, did not want to stop for the winter. However; Paul, based on inspiration

from the Lord, told them in Verse 10, “I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much

damage, not only of the lading and the ship but also of our lives.” Unfortunately, the guard and

captain did not listen and they continued on their journey only to shipwreck on an island. The

Lord speaks to us through His prophets and apostles and we should always be guided by their

words. The Lord did choose to preserve Paul and his fellow travelers but we may not always be

so blessed if we choose not to heed the voice of the Lord. How blessed we are to have a living

prophet on the earth today to guide us and show us the way to God.

We sing the words of a song from the Children’s Songbook:

Follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, don’t go astray.

Follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, he knows the way.

Have a great week,

Love,

Elder and Sister Hintze