Sister and Elder Hintze: 11/20/23

 

Dear family and friends,

I know it’s been a long three weeks since I reported, but my oh my, how busy these weeks have

been filled with wonderful events and amazing opportunities to serve.

Over the past several weeks we have had an increase in opportunities to provide compassionate

service to many people in need. A brother in the ward who is dying of cancer had surgery to

remove cancer from his spine that would have paralyzed him if they had not removed it. So,

although he knows that his cancer is terminal, he chose to have the surgery. We were able to

visit him the day after he arrived home and take a meal to him and his family. He called us later

that evening with so much gratitude for our visit.

We also visited with a sister in the ward who is homebound. We took her a loaf of Elder Hintze’s

fresh-baked bread and asked her how we could help her. Her son, who used to live with her, left

a lot of junk behind that she would like hauled away. So, Elder Hintze is arranging for that to

happen. She is an amazing woman with a strong testimony of the gospel and a very happy

outlook on life, despite her inability to get out and about.

Another act of service was for our friend Freida. We were just about to leave the apartment to

finish painting a fence when we received a phone call from Freida that she had fallen. She called

to see if Elder Hintze could come and give her a priesthood blessing. He called another brother

to go with us and we immediately headed to Freida’s house. A neighbor who had seen her fall

helped her back up the steep stairs she had fallen down and into her bed. When we arrived, we

found her in bed with a very swollen ankle. She was trying to decide whether to wait a day or

two or go and have an x-ray. The minute I looked at that ankle I knew it was broken.

(Unfortunately, I guess I have a bit of personal experience with broken bones!) So, we

convinced her that she needed to go to the hospital for an x-ray. It took both of the men to get

her back down the stairs and into the car. The hospital got her in pretty quickly for the x-ray, but

the remainder of the day was not so quick. Freida broke her ankle and her tibia. They had to put

her to sleep to set it back into place. She came out with a temporary cast and will be reevaluated in 7-10 days after the swelling goes down to see if it will require surgery. The most

difficult part of this situation for our dear friend, Freida is that she depends upon the daily

income she earns operating a driving service.

One of the highlights of the past few weeks was at the final high school football game for our

friend Kasun. You might remember that Kasun, along with his older brother, was baptized just

two weeks ago. We have been to watch a few of his football games, and we attended the final

game where they honored the seniors. Each senior walked through a hoop of balloons as an

announcement was made of their name and their plans after graduation. It was announced over

the loudspeaker that Kasun planned to serve a two-year mission for his church. Although we

knew of his plans before the announcement, it was still incredibly exciting to hear him make this

announcement to the entire student body of 1,100 students, his teachers, and coaches. We are so

proud of Kasun.

Another wonderful thing that happened recently was the baptism of Julianne at age 82. To

understand how amazing this baptism was, you need to know a little about her. We were first

introduced to Julianne by her daughter, Lisa. Lisa is not her biological daughter, but she calls

Julianne her mom. Lisa is now 57 years old, but when she was 14, Julianne was her caseworker

and placed her with a foster family. The foster family that Lisa grew up in was active in the

church, so at age 14 Lisa was baptized. While Lisa lived in that foster home, she continued to see

Julianne, as Julianne’s husband helped Lisa train her horse, and eventually took her horse in to

board it. And 25 years ago, Julianne and her husband took Lisa in to become a member of their

family. Julianne and Lisa have built a beautiful relationship as mother and daughter. When we

first met Lisa last January, she had not been to church for years. We went to her home to visit

her, and there we met Julianne. After Lisa began coming back to church, on one visit we asked

Julianne if we could teach her a few principles of the gospel. With arms folded across her chest,

she declared she was agnostic, and admittedly wore “a suit of armor”. Yet she agreed to let us

teach her. After a few lessons, she began to ask questions. She was especially interested in

knowing about the state of her husband, who had passed away just months before we met her.

She agreed to read the Book of Mormon. Her body language began to change. She shed the suit

of armor. She started coming to church, as a bystander at first. She began attending every week

and her entire countenance changed. She began asking questions about baptism. Lisa said she

saw a changed woman at home. The light of the gospel entered Julianne’s heart. The gospel

changes people inside and outside. The changes are visible. She comfortably prays vocally

now. She laughs and smiles more. She began visiting a member of the ward who lives in a

local nursing home. She’s ripping up the very old, worn carpets in her house. She started

packing up old books, records, dishes, etc. that were cluttering her space. She’s clearing out the

clutter of her life and making room for the spirit to reside in her home. She was baptized last

Sunday in one of the most spiritually moving baptisms I’ve attended in a long time.

We are so grateful for the opportunity we’ve been given to serve these wonderful, humble people

here in Thomaston, Georgia. We’ve made lifelong friends among the people that we’re serving.

While we know that it’s likely we may see them again someday, it’s going to be very difficult to

say goodbye.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. There are so many gifts from God to be thankful for. And

among those gifts are each one of you!

With Love,

Elder and Sister Hintze