Sister and Elder Hintze: 10/3/23

 

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Hello, everyone! You didn’t hear from us last week because we had the incredible opportunity to

fly home for a brief visit to meet our new grandson, Cole Michael Schwartzman. The visit was

fast-paced and wonderful! We spent lots of time with Cole, gathered with almost all of Jerry’s

kids and grandkids on Friday, watched four grandsons play football on Saturday, and attended

church with Emily’s family on Sunday. Spending time with our kids made me realize even more,

if that is even possible, how precious these eternal relationships are to me. However, the

interesting thing is that by the end of the week, we began feeling a pull to return to Thomaston.

We know that this is where we are supposed to be for this period of time as we complete our

commitment to serve the Lord for one year.

We returned at 12:30 a.m. last Tuesday and jumped right back into our missionary work a few

hours later on Tuesday morning. We had a Come Follow Me lesson to teach the evening we

arrived home. So, we got our lesson prepared and I ran to the grocery store to get the supplies to

make treats for the evening. We always offer a dessert after our meeting where people can enjoy

time to mingle and enjoy yummy treats.

The next day we had a wonderful meeting with our friend, Julieanne. After a lifetime of living

with an agnostic husband, she has become self-admittedly, a little spiritually hardened. She has

flickers of spiritual feelings but she has a hard time recognizing them and letting them grow.

But yet she’s really drawn to the church. We read together 2 Nephi 32 about the doctrine of

Christ and the need to be baptized to enter the gate that leads to eternal life. We have hope that

she will feel the spirit one day enough to be baptized.

That same day we met Cody and his wife, Teara, and their two kids at a restaurant for dinner.

She is expecting her third child next week, so our visits to teach Cody have been paused for now.

He is another one who has a great interest in the church, but will just not allow the spirit to grow

in him. He is a wonderful man and a great husband and father. His wife’s greatest desire is for

him to join her in the faith. We will continue to pray for this special family.

The Relief Society president referred us to visit a woman who is in a nursing home in the next

town. We had a really special visit with Sister Caldwell. She said she used to live in Macon

with her daughter, but she moved here to this nursing home. Her daughter rarely visits because

of the distance. She said she’s been in this nursing home for a year and has been very lonely.

She has been a lifelong member of the church and was so very grateful to have someone from the

church come to visit her. We were troubled by the fact that we were not notified of her earlier,

and we promised her that we would return soon. We are going to visit her again tomorrow and

take her a large print copy of the Book of Mormon, which she said she would love to have.

Recently we had a special Relief Society evening which included dinner and the drawing of

names for Secret Sisters through the holiday season. Lucky for me, the sister whose name I drew

lives right next door to me, which makes it very easy to deliver surprises! The only drawback is

that they have cameras all around their home, so I can’t drop the surprises myself without

revealing my identity. The Sisters happily made my first delivery for me. The next day, as I sat

across the table from Linda and her husband, Kevin at Linger Longer after General Conference,

it was difficult to keep a straight face as Kevin talked about the gift Linda had already received

from her Secret Sister. I will do my best to keep my identity a secret!

The highlight of the past week was, of course, General Conference. It’s always incredibly

uplifting and a great spiritual boost to get to spend a whole weekend hearing the words of the

apostles and the prophet. One of the best parts is that our friend, Julianne, got invited to watch

one of the Saturday sessions and have lunch with our friend Sister Druce. Sister Druce is an

amazing disciple of Christ, always taking care of those who need to be taken in. We love her!!

All of the talks in General Conference were spectacular, as always. However, I will share some

of the highlights from some of my favorites. (I love the fact that they will all be posted online in

a few days and we can refer to them over and over again).

Sister Amy Wright:

Sister Wright’s talk on spiritual preparation really spoke to me. She talked about the necessity of

spiritual preparation for the coming of the Lord and how being spiritually prepared is the only

way to bring peace and happiness into our lives. She spoke of the parable of the ten virgins to

share how we cannot share our oil, but we can share our light. But in order to have that light to

share, our lamps must be full. I know that there was a time in my life when I was raising

children, going to school, and working when I had a lot less time to build the oil in my lamp.

But we can always do something each day to add one drop of oil to our lamps, whether that be a

prayer, listening to a conference talk while cleaning the house, or reading just one verse of

scripture. Because if we knew that the Savior was coming tomorrow, we would be too late, as

were the five foolish virgins, to provide the oil in our lamps to light the way to meet the Savior.

John C. Pingree:

Elder Pingree taught about how to find the source of truth. The questions he told us to ask

ourselves are “What is truth”, “Why is it important for us to find truth,” and How do we find

truth?” He said that with all the information that’s available to us today, it’s important for us to

know where to find truth and how to recognize it. Satan wants to keep us from the truth or

distort the truth to keep us from obtaining eternal glory. It’s important for us to find truth

because it helps us avoid deception. How do we know if it’s truth? God is the source of all

truth. The Holy Ghost will testify to us of truth. Prophets receive truth from God in order to

share it with us. This means to me that if I have a question, Google or social media is not the

source to which I should look for my answer. I can pray, I can read scriptures, or I can look to

the living prophet for answers from God. The Holy Ghost will guide me toward the answer I

seek. I don’t think we can go wrong if we heed this wise counsel from Elder Pingree.

President Russell M. Nelson

I suspect that President Nelson’s address was everyone’s favorite. After all, how can we not

revel in the teaching of a prophet who has lived almost 100 years? He shared that an

understanding of God’s plan takes the mystery out of life and that understanding allows us to

choose how will we live here on earth and where we will live in eternity. He called mortality a

master class in how to choose the things of greatest eternal importance. As he admonishes us in

every address, he said, “Please do the spiritual work to increase your capacity to receive personal

revelation”. His well-known quote from a past address is still a guiding force for me: “In

coming days it will not be possible to survive without the guiding, directing, comforting and

constant influence of the Holy Ghost”. His prophetic counsel to “Think Celestial”, which is

already making its way across social media, are great words to live by.

I love General Conference. I love the fact that we get to spend six months discussing these talks

in our homes and in our Relief Society and Priesthood quorums. I love that we get to hear

personally from the prophet and from the apostles and other leaders of the church. We get the

opportunity to know them as we learn from them and apply their counsel to our lives. General

Conference reminds me how blessed I am to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter-Day Saints.

Much love,

Elder and Sister Hintze