March 31, 2014

Hey guys!! It was great to hear from you today! Sounds like you are all doing well. We had a great week this week!!! Finished strong in nap-town and Columbia is a blast! haha My comp, Elder Pail is cool. We have a ton of fun together. Elder Pail, pronounced Elder Pie-all , is from Austria. Super cool guy. So that’s been a lot of fun to work with him here. It’s a party. haha And we drive the mission truck. haha We drive a chevy silverado. haha It’s so nice! We share it with the sisters in our area though, so we still get to bike some. I’ll send a bunch of pictures this week, but I forgot to take one of the truck. Our zone is cool too. Elder Holt is here, Elder Day is our zone leader and Elder Dorsey is here too. So that’s fun.

We had a good last two days in Annapolis. We had pretty stacked days and stayed really busy. We had a great dinner visit with the Weurdeman’s last Monday. They were sad to see us go. Hopefully, the sisters can follow up with that and make some thing happen. The highlight of Tuesday was definitely the oreo party with Sister Kinsella. haha Pictures to follow. We showed up and she had a picnic basket and said we had to have a party! haha We love Sister Kinsella too... She is so cool... She was really not happy that we left... and she is not excited about sisters. She said they are all boring. haha But we tried to talk with her a bit. Mostly just listened though and reassured her that things would work out, and the ward really loves her and wants her to come. ... ugh…But I suppose it’s all in the Lord’s hands now. I trust that he will do all he can to help her. I am just disappointed that I don’t get to see the rest... 

We didn’t get to see Ryan before we left... that was a bummer. We saw Mindy and she was also sad to see us go... She is stoked to meet the sisters though and we set something up for them. So that miracle will continue for sure! haha

So then we got transferred.... haha Columbia second ward.. It’s been so much fun!! Haha Elder Pail has been here for all six months of his mission. So, he knows what’s up. Unfortunately, the odds of us spending more than this transfer together are kinda low... bummer. Training was a lot of fun but it’s so nice not to have so much extra study... plus, I don’t have to speak Portuguese any more... I have a bunch of stuff memorized in Portuguese, all of our recitations hahaha but we can speak English now! Plus, Elder Pail knows what’s up. Funny story... I trained Elder Holt and Elder Pail trained Elder Holt’s MTC comp and now Elder Pail and I are companions. haha We make missionary work fun, let me tell you. Anyway, we both are on the same page with a lot of stuff so it just makes it smoother. Plus, Elder Pail can out juggle me with the soccer ball... for now. But we call it futbol because he is from Austria. And it’s cooler.

We are working with a lot of cool people here in Columbia. Our foremost investigator is a guy named John. I use "John" so you will not be confused with the Jon in a story later on. haha John is a cool guy. A little awkward, computer engineer, but super cool. He isn’t quite sure if he believes there is a God. But, he has been to church like nine times and continues to read and learn. He has read all the way to Alma 5. Craziness. We have a great relationship with him and we are really excited for him. Unfortunately, he will not be in town for gen con (general conference) haha but we will watch a session with him later. Which may be cool because we can choose the session. Pause - general conference this week!!! haha Can’t wait! Five days! - Anyway, we are going over tonight and we are going to read Alma 30 with him. If you have read Alma thirty lately, you may have guessed that this could be a pivotal lesson. We will see how it goes. Hopefully, it goes well.

We had a sweet miracle this week. We were at a member’s house, the Morgan’s, and we had an appointment with another family who we are teaching the daughter who wants to get baptized. So dinner ends and we share the message and Brother Morgan insists that he walk us out to our car, well truck, excuse me. (it’s really nice) So he asks where we are going and then he just casually drops some info telling us who their new hometeachers are. We are like thanks, I guess... Then, our appointment called and said that the dad would not be home so we could not come over. This was literally as soon as we got into the truck, about two minutes after Bro Morgan told us who the hometeachers were. So, we looked at each other and we were like let’s call the hometeachers. haha And one of them came with us. And we had a great visit! hahha Miracle! 

We had another sweet visit with this 15-yr old kid named Sammy. We went over and talked about the restoration with him. Lots on prophets due to the upcoming conference. He is 15 and the only member of his family. He catches a ride to church and activities every week with an older lady member who actually introduced him to the wards scouting program. The youth group here is awesome!!!  There are like three hundred members in sacrament. It’s like a Utah ward. haha In Annapolis, we saw pretty much everyone in our area in a week. Here that is impossible. It’s so different. But I love it. The members here are great too! We get dinner every night! That’s unheard of for me. So that’s pretty cool. And the ward is very supportive of missionary work. Even on our bike days, we will generally just ride to appointments with other people. Awesome to see!

Anyway, I’ve gotta run! I’ll talk to you next week!!! Have a great general conference! Don’t forget to receive personal revelation!! I will talk to you next week! I want to hear your favorites! Have a great week!!

I love you guys,

elder hinkle