Sister and Elder Hintze: 10/18/23

 

Dear friends and family,

We’ve had a very busy few weeks and exciting things are happening in this little corner of the

Lord’s vineyard.

Last Saturday we had a convert baptism, the first one in the Thomaston ward in five months.

Elder Hintze and I had taught Brother Smith several times, and he had been taught previously by

other missionaries. He lives with his brother who is a member of the church. But he never really

took to reading the Book of Mormon or grew interested in living the principles of the gospel, so

we eventually stopped teaching him. But one night we went to their home to visit his brother

and we found Brother Smith aglow with the light of the gospel. He was so excited and animated

as he went to get his Book of Mormon and show it to us. When the new Sisters came to

Thomaston, they were able to reach him in a way no one else could. That proves to us that the

Lord is in all the details of our lives. He knew exactly who Brother Smith needed to teach him,

and those sisters were sent to Thomaston for him! He is a changed man and is so happy!

We were supposed to have a “day of service” to coincide with the National Day of Service in

early September. The ward asked us to recommend people who needed help, and we requested a

team of people to paint a fence for our friend, Julianne. But many of our ward members went to

help with the hurricane that hit Perry, Florida. So, we had to cancel the service we had planned

here in our ward. Julianne has been talking about that fence needing paint ever since we’ve been

here, so we rounded up the Elders and Sisters in our district to help us paint her fence. Julianne

had never met most of these Elders before, and she was so honored to have them working at her

home. She definitely felt our love for her as we combined forces to get her fence painted. She

has caught the joy of serving, and she recently volunteered to go visit Sister Goddard in the

nursing home. She told them at the nursing home that she is from the church, and she’s not even

a member!! Julianne attended Kevin’s baptism last week. She has come a long way since we

met her and she is getting very close to committing to baptism.

Last week for our Pday the Sisters asked us if they could come over to use our tv to watch the

movie “Meet the Mormons.” Elder Hintze and I both saw that movie years ago, but it is

especially meaningful now because one of the people featured was Bishop Sullivan from the

Atlanta ward. He is now in our Mission Presidency and we meet with him and the other senior

missionaries once a month. He’s an amazing man and a great leader. It was fun to see him again

in the movie (looking much younger) now that I know him personally.

For the most part, we stick to talking about the wonderful blessings of missionary service, which

are many. But sometimes parts of our missionary service are hard, sad, and make our hearts

heavy. And yesterday we had one of those experiences. We were referred to visit a man who

used to be an active member of the ward. We scheduled a visit with him, and although he was

expecting us, he was asleep when we knocked on the door at 2:00 p.m. He peeked his sleepy

head out the door and excused himself to put some clothes on. He came back to the door and

invited us in. When we entered the house, we entered directly into his bedroom, which was set

up in the front of the house. He said, “This is the living room” and he pulled two chairs in from

another room. He began to tell us about his life. His wife left, and he is the sole parent of six

children. One of them is grown and out of the house, but five remain. After we visited for a few

minutes, two children poked their heads through the door of an adjacent room. Their dad invited

them in, they sat down, and he introduced us to his daughter and his youngest son, Jody. He told

us that he works from 3:00 until 11:00 p.m. and leaves for work shortly before the kids get home

from school. He gets home at midnight or 1:00 a.m. He stays awake most of the time until the

kids go to school, and then he sleeps in the afternoon. His youngest son, Jody doesn’t go to

school. When we asked why, he responded that he didn’t have his birth certificate or social

security number, and they wouldn’t enroll him in school without those documents. So, this sixyear-old boy has adopted his father’s sleeping pattern and stays up all night and sleeps in the

afternoon. He also told us that Jody is not “potty trained” as he called it, and defecates in his

pants. Jody’s solution to this is to try to hide it by putting his clothing in the trash. So, he has

discarded much of the clothing that he had, and his dad said he has no clothes to go to school in.

He was dressed in girl’s capris that were many sizes too big and a t-shirt that appeared to be his

dad’s. We continued to listen to him share his life as we grew increasingly overwhelmed and felt

that we needed to help him in any way we could. I put my arm around Jody and asked him if

he’d like to go to school. He looked up at me with his beautiful, big, brown eyes and said he

would, and I told him we would help him be able to go to school. He should be in the middle of

first grade, and he doesn’t know his alphabet or basic numbers. We’ve seen many difficult

situations, but for the first time on this mission, I walked out the door and just sobbed. It doesn’t

take a professional therapist to see that this child is crying out for help and just needs some love

and nurturing. It’s difficult to keep a professional distance when all I wanted to do was take him

into a bear hug and bring him home with me. We know that it’s not difficult to get a replacement

birth certificate, so we offered to help Jody’s dad obtain one. He accepted our offer and we are

picking him up tomorrow morning to go to the city building to begin the process.

In spite of the hard situations we encounter, we are continuing to feel increased gratitude for the

opportunity we’ve been given to serve as missionaries. The blessings are much like being a

teacher – the one doing the teaching most often learns and grows the most. As we teach people

about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how it can bless their lives, our own testimonies grow

stronger. There is a quote by Elder Dallin H. Oaks from a talk entitled, “The Challenge to

Become” that says,

“In contrast to the institutions of the world, which teach us to know something, the gospel of Jesus

Christ challenges us to become something.”

It is pure joy to see the countenance in someone change as they grow to understand the principle

of repentance and to know how the Atonement of Jesus Christ can help lift them up and help

them become something more than they could become on their own. The gospel changes lives.

We are grateful for your support and we can feel your prayers.

Much Love,

Elder and Sister Hintze