Vamos Rafa!!
Men’s final today! Even though I can’t watch it, I am stoked! This
will probably be the third match I watch when I get back. I’m calling Rafa in
five. Ahh!! So exciting! We had zone soccer today. We got there at ten and we
played a couple games ‘til about ten thirty. Then more people had shown up so
we decided to re-pick teams. I had to find some way to support Rafa today, so I
took off to the pro shop I found a sweet national Spanish “futbol” team jersey.
Normally $70, got it for twenty. So I came running back out on the field with
the cry of "Vamos Rafa!!!" hahaha. They were all looking for me and
when I came back out it was pretty funny. But anyway, I felt like I represented
Spain fairly well today. I had some pretty sweet goals again. Indoor soccer is
all the rage here in the Frederick zone. I could easily stay here for the rest
of my mission just for Frederick soccer. haha And because Frederick is a great
place to work of course. Its funny, as the us open has been on there have
been multiple times where we go to visit someone and they start out like this:
"come on in elders. Did you see that Andy Murray lost? Or did you see
Federer lost? Or Rafa and Djokovic won again." haha The news just flows to
me. I’m like a magnet. Anyway, the moral of the story is: Vamos Rafa! I’m
calling Rafa with the win in five sets. Did I say that already? haha
The big slide in Thurmont was pretty fun. It was like a thirty-foot
slide that is made like a bowling alley. It was a big hit when the elders ran
up the steps and then jumped on to the slide, high fivin’ the kids on the way
down. haha It was a great ward activity but unfortunately no investigators or
potential investigators showed up. Fortunately, there was a big slide, which
was sure to make the trip worth our time. haha
As far as service goes, we are going to help a guy in our ward
chop up a massive tree. He has a machine that will pretty much split anything
you put below it. Sometime this week we are going to go up and spend a couple
of hours splitting wood. It’s just one way to pass the time… we are looking for
service opportunities all of the time so its good when we get some. The judge who collects neon signs whose lawn we mowed while they were out of
town are coming back so hopefully we will be able to contact them and I will
try to get some pictures of his sign collection! Should be cool.
Oh! I finally got a pull up
bar! It’s taken me way too long. That should have been one of the first things
I bought. It’s a pretty nice one. It’s set up so that you can do wide grip
pull-ups too, which is really nice.
We have had a good week in the mission field. We still only have
our one investigator, but things are going really well. We are seeing a
lot of members and we can see her fairly consistently. We met with her twice
this week and taught about the plan of salvation. We taught it in two parts. Part
one was pre-earth life through the atonement. In that lesson, we had a great
lesson about the atonement. Part two, was resurrection through kingdoms of
glory plus a bonus of talking about the role of the spirit. the second lesson
went really well as well. The spirit was definitely there as we were talking
with her that night. We have been talking about when we would extend a
baptismal invite to her and before hand we had picked a date that she could
shoot for. At the end of the lesson, I felt like we could very realistically
extend that invitation at that moment. The words came to my mind. It would have
been like reading it off a card. But I took a moment to analyze how I felt, to
analyze the prompting. You know, I wanted to be sure that I was interpreting it
correctly and also take note of how the spirit communicated with me in that instance
for future reference. But, as I analyzed the conversation turned from her talking about how happy her family was when they were sealed and how she
wanted her mom to go back to church so she could live forever with her family
to something that they were laughing at. I can’t quite recall. But it was clear
that I missed the moment. I missed the moment. haha If my spirits were feeling
elevated during the lesson, I hit rock bottom afterwards. haha It was just like
a spiritual drop. It was disappointing, but it was a good learning
experience for me. The spirit was pretty specific and felt like I really noticed
and understood the contrasting messages.
Brad Gilbert has a 3-step process for playing tennis: 1.
Recognize the opportunity. 2. Analyze the options. 3. Capitalize on the opportunity
by choosing the best option. Simple, but difficult. This approach applies to
pretty much anything that could be done in life. In this instance, I made it
through the first two steps and then I didn’t capitalize. But it’s all good. It
was a very beneficial experience and we are teaching her tomorrow about the
gospel of Jesus Christ. After I realized I missed the moment for the invite I
set up the next lesson fairly well, I thought, and hopefully it will go well.
So after that we went to choir practice! We are singing in stake
conference. You may have been confused at the exclamation point after the words
choir practice, but I pretty much just talked to Elder Barzee the entire time
in between listening to the angelic voices of the other missionaries. But yes,
I am in a choir. I think I’ll just check that off after the mission and move
on. We were starting out and the director was telling us where to go based on
whether you were a bass or alto or tenor or whatever. It just happened to get
all quiet just as I asked "what does that even mean?" From early on
that night my lack of musical talent was quite apparent. haha
The good thing is that what I lack in musical talent, Elder
Barzee makes up for. One of the guys in Elder Barzee’s ward--well, this guy's wife
decided to throw the him a surprise birthday party. He was led in to the church
gym, blindfolded, and sat down on a couch. Then a ton of different people put
on some type of performance for him. It was like a talent show. The entrants
were mostly family... and Elder Barzee. We had met beforehand and written new
lyrics to the song Hallelujah. We wrote all about this guy. hahaha His
performance really stole the show! It was hilariously well executed! So that
was a highlight.
Anyway... I hope you guys have a great week! Watch the final for
me. Record it and watch it later for me too… haha I am still doing great! Life
is good. I’ll talk to you next week!
Love you guys,
Elder Hinkle
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