Sister and Elder Hintze: 10/31/23

 

Good morning, family and friends,

Exciting things are happening both in the city of Thomaston and in the church in our area. The

City of Thomaston does a spectacular job of showing civic pride. Every time we turn around

there’s another festival. Last week they had their annual Fall Festival. We enjoyed the parade,

which differed greatly from the parades I’m used to. Maybe in Oak City Elder Hintze saw

parades like this, but in the parades I knew as a kid John Deere tractors didn’t lead the way with

horse-drawn wagons following. It was a real country hoe-down! After the parade, we

volunteered at the ward’s booth in the children’s section of the fair. Brother Hoopes built an

amazing game of Donkey-pong where the kids shot water guns to try to knock ping-pong balls

off of the poles that balanced on the heads of the wooden donkeys. I even tried my hand at shot

once or twice. It was a really fun day!

The work of the Lord continues in full strength in Georgia. I know every mission feels that they

have the best missionaries on earth, but here in Georgia these young Elders and Sisters are truly

incredible. They are 100% devoted and committed to doing the work of the Lord. They work

long and hard! On a mission Zoom call with our mission president yesterday, we learned exactly

how incredible this mission is. Our area president called our mission president to tell him how

pleased they are with the success we’re having here in our mission. Last year at this time the

Georgia Atlanta mission had 11 baptisms in October. This year in the past month, our mission

has had 50 baptisms!!! 50 new souls have joined the throng of the army of God. As Nephi of

old said, “By small means, the Lord can bring about great things”. As we go about scattering

seeds and teaching each soul, individually, to pray to God to know truth and wisdom we are

fulfilling the prophecy that “the gospel will penetrate every continent, visit every clime, sweep

every country, and sound in every ear, till the purposes of God have been accomplished, and the

Great Jehovah shall say the work is done”. What a glorious blessing it is to be a part of this

work!

In our little corner of Thomaston, we are continuing to enjoy the fruits of our labor. This past

week we escorted our friend, Freida, to the temple. We had a great group of sisters from the

ward accompany us. We have grown to love Freida and her great enthusiasm for the gospel and

everything else in life. When we first met Freida, she wasn’t attending church and she was not

responding to any of our fellowship efforts. And here she was, shedding tears as she felt the

great joy of the spirit of the Lord that was present as we worshipped in the temple. It was a very

special day.

A few days ago we enjoyed a wonderful morning with our entire zone of missionaries. The

training we receive from these young Elders and Sisters makes us forget how young they are

because they as so mature in the gospel. Their insights are great and we learn so much from

them. Afterward, we indulged in bag lunches that we brought and some delicious cookies that

some of the Sisters baked for us.

We rushed home from our zone meeting (well, rush is relative because it’s an hour's drive, as are

most meetings we attend) to prepare for our Family Home Evening. We had a feeling we would

have a large turnout. So, we moved furniture out of our tiny living room, set up chairs around

the room, and had to go out to the car to get our camp chairs when we had a dozen people fill the

room! We love these intimate meetings where we can have gospel conversations. The best part

is that it’s a place where new people can meet others in the ward on a smaller scale. One of the

most exciting attendees was Julianne, who has been attending church with her daughter. Her

daughter had to work but she came to Family Home Evening on her own!!! There was also a

new sister who moved into the ward last June but hasn’t attended church yet. We went to visit

her last week and at the last minute, I thought to send her a text and invite her to Family Home

Evening. I was surprised when she accepted the invitation and showed up just a few hours later!

We’re going to miss these gatherings with these people who we’ve grown to love.

The highlight of our week was the baptism of one of our favorite families. As I’ve mentioned in

the past, when we first met Sister Coley she hadn’t been to church in decades. She is the mother

of ten children. Her older children were baptized at the age of eight, but her two youngest

children, ages 18 and 20, were never baptized because they hadn’t attended church. We made

multiple attempts to contact Sister Coley as we were attempting to meet all of the members who

were not attending church. However, she would not respond to our calls or texts. One day we

were near her neighborhood and although she had requested to previous missionaries that they

make an appointment before coming, I suggested to Elder Hintze that we go knock on the door

anyway. As we knocked on the door, we heard people inside but no one answered. As we

turned to walk down the sidewalk toward our car to leave, there she appeared from around the

back of the house. We visited for almost an hour on her front lawn as she bore a tearful

testimony to us and shared that she had no reason or excuse for not attending church, other than

apathy. We walked away from that encounter amazed that a woman with such a strong spiritual

testimony could allow apathy to keep her from the blessings of the gospel. She followed up that

visit by contacting us with a request to teach her sons. What a joy it has been to watch the

transformation of these fine young men as they began to follow the commandments and allow

the spirit of the Lord to enter their hearts. The greatest joy took place in watching the conversion

of her son-in-law, who was brand new to the gospel. He’s the same age I was when I was

converted, and we were able to share a few special moments. All three of these great young

men were baptized last Saturday.

And finally, our dear friend Julianne has committed to be baptized on November 12. If you ever

doubt that the gospel is for every single soul and that there’s hope for everyone, you must know

Julianne. We got to know her as we visited with her daughter, Lisa, a member of our ward, who

lives with Julianne. When we first met her she was a self-proclaimed agnostic. She openly told

us that she wore a suit of armor that could not be penetrated. We asked her if as long as we’re

visiting with Lisa, we could share a few principles of the gospel with her. She agreed to that,

continuing to wear her suit of armor as she sat with her arms folded across her chest. Over the

past four months she is an incredibly changed woman. Not only is she changing in her heart, but

she is changing her physical environment. She and Lisa are pulling out old carpets, cleaning out

closets long awaiting an overhaul, and packing up boxes and boxes of clutter to clear out their

space. We know that the gospel creates a desire in us to become all that God has created us to

be and many times that growth can be seen as outward changes as well as in a change of heart.

We only have a short time remaining on our mission, and it will be difficult to top the last few

weeks. But we pray that the Lord will continue to bless us as we march on in our missionary

service. We testify that this is the Lord’s work.

Much Love,

Elder and Sister Hintze