Week 10, July 22, 2013

Hey guys! 

I had another great week in the mission field. I am still in Frederick. Elder Hibbard is gone now. He has been replaced by Elder Hansen. My new trainer is an interesting character. If you could just watch a day in the life of our companionship you would be pretty entertained. He grew up on a farm in Idaho, but he is not what you would expect. Super OCD about cleaning. Good news for me, he just cleans stuff. haha Where as Elder Hibbard and I maintained a fairly clean living area, this guy has sanitized pretty much everything. His love of cleanliness does not quite extend to every area of his life though. I quickly diagnosed poison ivy on his legs figuring he must be taking care of it. As time went on I noticed the absence of anything like calamine lotion. ching our investigators, but sometimes it feels like I am training my trainer. haha  He is just a funny guy. He has been out four months. Its kinda’ like we are both new. Good news is that the spirit quickeneth all understanding.

Anyway, so this week has been a lot of member work. We have been traveling around introducing Elder Hansen to the members. Elder Hibbard left and that means that I have taken over the area. It’s been fun. I have been forced to kinda’ step it up. With Elder Hibbard I could just let him drive around and he really liked to lead lessons so I would play more of a supporting role. Now I lead out on most things. It’s cool. Different, but I feel like its good. I don’t know the area as well as Elder Hibbard did so planning is a little more difficult but things are working out well. Our stats dropped this last week but there were outside influences working as well. Appointments with people both fell through repeatedly. One had wedding stuff he had to take care of and was forced to reschedule. The had a more interesting experience. We were going to meet with her Tuesday but she was followed by her fiance's father, the Baptist minister. She changed her course and instead of coming to her member friend's house where we would be teaching her she went to another friends house. Craziness.

Ok, so I know that I told her sweet story last week but thinking back I remember it being horribly written and I forgot to finish it. So I am going to start from the beginning. She was driving on a stretch of high way, right? She is low on gas and realizes she forgot her gas card. The gas light goes on and she is no where close to a gas station. So she prayed saying "God, if you make my gas light go off then I will go to church tomorrow." gas light goes off and the fuel gauge goes up. Immediately after she was refueled by angels she got a text from her member friend saying "are you coming to church tomorrow?" she promptly replied "I think I should." BOOMSHAKALAKA! haha Anyway, she did go to church that Sunday and the entire meeting was pretty much tailored to her. A recent convert spoke and shared a powerful testimony. After that our mission president and his wife spoke. Sunday School was on the Holy Ghost. Relief Society may or may not have been beneficial, I really couldn’t say... then we had a fabulous lesson with her that night where she accepted the baptismal goal. The following day was her birthday, happy birthday. Yea. She started reading the Book of Mormon. Word on the street is that she has read the first five chapters. She reads at work when she has the night shift. Anyway, its pretty awesome. We are trying to meet with her this week, so we will see what happens.

In visiting members I took Elder Hansen to visit one guy. hahaha I quite enjoyed watching the two meet. Crazy Brother and the super straight laced Elder Hansen. I rather enjoyed it. You will have to imagine the encounter. He began by asking Elder Hansen to take mugshot pictures. Elder Hansen was quite uncomfortable. His discomfort increased when Ed asked him to try on the batman mask and produced some pictures of Elder Hibbard wearing it. It was a fun visit. Productive too - He finally said the closing prayer! I mean he wrote one and then said it in German but progress is progress. Also he is buying a suit so he can come to church and look good. His words not mine. Naturally, it was at Brother's house where I started spitting lyrics like nobody's business. haha So check it. This is the rap that I rapped for Ed.

I wake up in the morning and I pray for fun.

Hit the gym at six and I’m on a run

Breakfast is cereal, oatmeal and bananas

Next we study in a shirt and tie, NOT IN OUR PAJAMAS!

We think about people and what they need

Maybe we'll share a message or trim some trees

Then we say a prayer and ask if it’s right

If the answer's yes, then SWEET! THAT’S TIGHT!

We go to appointments sometime around two

If you’re on our list then we'll come see you!

You know I’m on a mission, man, these are the times

Out here in Maryland just bustin’ some rhymes

Two minutes prior we were shootin’ the breeze

So now this is my first rap and I’m flowin’ with ease

But now I’m runnin’ out of words and I cant hear a beat

Guess I’ll throw my hands up and admit defeat!

       -alternate ending-

So now this is my first rap and I’m flowin’ with ease

But now gotta stop cause I’m gonna sneeze!

[insert sneeze sound here]

So yeah... he asked us if could tell him what we did that day. I said I could not but I could rap it. And so that happened... hahaha I am sure you guys will have a pretty good laugh imagining me rapping about a day in the life of a missionary in a less active member home. Too bad I can’t give the beat. Someone who reads this will have to rap it. I'm thinking Jenna and Hannah? Kristy and Brant? Tyler and Jaron? Just ideas... one will beat box and the other will take the words. FHE activity, anybody? The alternate was an after thought... sneeze rhymes with ease. It’s lyrical gold.

Unfortunately, I don’t have to much to say about investigators this week. A lot of appointments fell through. Good news is that this week is looking a lot better. We are going to paint Dan's house tonight and we are hoping to teach the first discussion while we are there. We are planning to teach Travis today and commit him to live the word of wisdom. And this is all on p-day. haha It’s going to be fun.

We had to come to the library early today because we are teaching Travis at two and painting at four. We don’t have much time at all to do normal p-day things. We missed basketball today... bummer, but I also got a much needed hair cut. Which was good. My hair was getting long... hadn’t been cut since I left the MTC. haha 

Elder Hansen doesn’t have a bike, but he is getting one so hopefully we will start riding soon. I want to ride my bicycle! I want to ride my bike!!! Bicycle! bicycle!! bicycle!! It was a queen reference. Just in case the younger kids didn’t get it.. Wow, I am really showing my age here..

We have a lot to do today. Which is good. I hope all of you are doing well. I wish you a marvelous day! The mission field doesn’t get old. It is really fun to be out here. I love what I am doing. Working hard having fun.

Love you guys,

Elder Hinkle