Week 21, October 7, 2013

Hi! Great to hear from you guys again. Sounds like you are doing great. It's good to hear that Grandpa is doing well.

 

We have had a really great week this week! It's been really fun! If I had more time to write I would tell you all about it but the highlights will have to do. 

 

Tuesday, we went on exchanges. Elder Dorsey left and I stayed in my area with an Elder Hally. Pretty cool Elder. He is playing basketball at Westminster upon his return and used to live right next to Eagleridge. Anyway... we had an appointment with a guy who we contacted the week before, Frank. In the last meeting, we talked at noodles and co. and got to know him. After listening to him for a while our closing remarks were that we had a message we wanted to share with him that would dramatically impact his life. We met him again in noodles and co. because their noodles are delicious and Frank works there. We planned to share the message of the restoration. - In noodles, while eating noodles. just kidding, we ate before we taught. It went really well. Elder Hally and I taught pretty well together considering that was our first appointment together.  The Spirit was there  and the message seemed to make sense to Frank.  He definitely felt the spirit as he read it and we kept it rolling by informing him that Christ's church is again on the earth. Things went well. We then asked him if he would be baptized and he said he would. Pretty sweet lesson. It was one of those lessons where you walk out of it just super stoked to be a missionary. It is so good.

 

Later that same night Elder Hally and I took Drue to the stake center to see the baptismal font. Drue is doing great. I should probably mention that she passed her interview with the president. Everything went really well and she is going to be baptized this Saturday. We showed her the font and everything else that she wanted to see associated with her impending baptism. Then we took her into the chapel. I love doing church tours and finishing in the chapel. The Spirit is strong there and it is really cool to be teaching in it when its all empty. We went up by the sacrament table where we had set out some trays for decoration. We taught about the promises Drue is about to make with God by reviewing the sacrament prayers. We also emphasized that while she will get baptized in water only this Saturday, she can renew her covenants with God every Sunday and that it is a life long commitment. It was pretty great. I know I was feeling the Spirit.

 

So that brings us to general conference. Wasn't that amazing!? There were some powerfull talks. There is nothing like general conference for a missionary. in the opening prayer he prayed for all of the missionaries and I could just feel that support and sustaining influence. It was energizing. A very cool feeling to know that at that moment so many members were gathered in prayer and asked for a blessing on the missionaries. Anyway... we got a sweet invite to watch general conference Saturday morning. The sister missionaries from another area called us and asked us to come over and watch gc with them, a member, and a new investigator they had contacted that lives in our area. His name is Louie. Really chill black guy. He has one of the most soothing voices I have ever heard. He needs to read audio books, but that's not important... more importantly, he loved conference and the sisters made german pancakes. Does life get better?

 

We went over and watched the Saturday afternoon session with Drue. She really enjoyed it as well. We stayed in contact with Louie through text and he had stayed to watch the second session. We were stoked. Then we invited him to come to the priesthood session with us and he came with us! Even better there was an ice cream social before it started, which he came to. We introduced him to a million people but I heeded the voice of the Spirit to find his perfect fellowshipper. I just had this feeling as I was standing in line to dutifully eat my ice cream that I needed to go talk to this guy who  just got back from his mission. Not sure what I had to say or why I was leaving my new golden investigator, I figured it out right as I approached him. So I took Isaac, the rm, to meet Louie. Now Louie is going to a ysa bonfire with Isaac tonight and playing tennis with Isaac tomorrow. We will be meeting with him later in the week. Should be good. I'll keep you posted on his progress. By the way... the sisters taught the first vision and he believes that that happened. Also wants to read the Book of Mormon.

 

Sunday session we spent with the Ferguson family. Both sessions and breakfast and lunch. haha It was a fun day. Missionary marathon for them. We were texting Drue after each session about favorite talks and she watched all of the sessions. Then tonight, we are doing an fhe with the Ferguson's and Drue. It's going to be sweet. We have the lesson about feeling the Holy Ghost. We will try to get the kids involved. We are promised there will also be an activity so it should be fun.

 

Can I just say that I love conference!!! Please let Tyler know that the decision to go to homecoming instead of the priesthood session was the worst decision ever. Please use those words. Oh boy...

 

I had a lot of favorite talks.... haha Can't wait for the Ensign. Among my favorites were: Bednar's on tithing; Hollands talk, no surprise and then the finishing combo of the Sunday morning session. Elder Maynes through President Monson. Loved it. Love the idea of spiritual fitness. That's something I think about all the time. And then to be followed up with talks on endurance and capitalizing on adversity was great. As President Monson said - one of the best sessions ever!  The poem he shared was pretty sweet - the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees! (exclamation point!) haha

 

I know I have waited to the end for the most important news, sorry. But now I can finally tell you about zone soccer! It was a blast today. So we normally split into four different teams or so and switch it around a bunch. I managed to get my self on two maybe three teams (I'm not quite sure) today and I got to play for pretty much the entire time. ah.. So good.

 

It is great to hear that Jenna went to do baptisms this last week! Jenna, you will find that there is no place on earth like the temple and that it is one of the best places to be. Before I left, I spent hours there. Doing baptisms for the dead is a very important work. When you do baptisms for the dead you and I are very much on the same team as we do the work of salvation. You may be unable to pronounce their names but one day I am sure you will meet them and they will be filled with gratitude that you were baptized for them. Drue will also be going to the temple for her first time after she is baptized and we are excited for her.

 

Oh yeah... we had call outs last night as well. haha Staying in Frederick and stoked! This coming transfer is going to be a blast! I cant wait. When drue goes to do baptisms I will get to go with her and see the DC temple! Hopefully, I will remember the camera and I can send some pictures. Although I don't take pictures often, it is even less often that I remember to bring the camera to the library... haha sorry.

 

Great to hear that the books have arrived. Looking forward to reading them. I do love a good book to think about. of course I am never short of material of that sort on my mission. The standard works are always full of new insights. It's quite amazing. I often find myself wishing I had more time to study. There is just so much to learn.

 

Brother Kippen, Bishop Kippen = same person. They are there now haha super cool people. And yeah, he is the one who gave me the shoes. And I can't say that im thrilled with the twenty two minute time. Although I am a missionary now I can still remember when I was an athlete and ran faster... ugh.. I've noticed that my metabolism has slowed down too. It's not good. We just don't move enough. I don't need to eat nearly as much as I used to. Kind of a bummer.

 

hahaha!!! Elder Dorsey just got his tiwi card suspended for forty five days! We just barely got the call. hahaha Now, I should probably get mine... I've been a little lazy with that. I had just let him drive me around places. I have the stuff, no worries. and let's be honest, My odds of living past the fourth transfer just got so much better. haha Don't tell mom. haha Just kidding, I know she is reading this. But no worries, I'm driving now. It's all good.

 

It's true about what Brother Ensign said in his lesson. The mission field is full of success. I can't believe that I've been out four months. It doesn't feel that long at all. I only recently realized how old I was. Early on in this week, I was talking to someone who asked how long I had been out. I quickly responded that I had been out three months. I was talking to Elder Barzee who came out with me and that when I found out that I skipped a month. Whoops, my bad. At the end of this transfer, I will have spent a quarter of my mission in Frederick. Twenty five percent of my mission will have already happened. You will have received one fourth of all of my total letters. these stats are startling. the numbers are baffling. I cant quite understand where the time has gone. I have decided that I will just continue telling everyone that I've been out three months. If all of you could please do the same that would be wonderful. Except for any college tennis coaches.  We should probably be honest with them. Otherwise remember, three months.

 

I hope your fhe is going to be as good as the one im going to tonight. You have some tough competition, So good luck. I have got to go but I will talk to you again next week. Oh... I forgot to send you the poem Ed wrote... sorry. Maybe next week. He was convinced I was leaving. Can't wait to show up on his doorstep. haha anyway... I hope you all have a great week. Stay spiritually fit by saying personal and family prayer, holding personal and family scripture study, and having family home evening. - you know I will. A little more emphasis on the personal though since you guys are two thousand miles away...

 

I love you guys,

Elder Hinkle

Week 20, September 30, 2013

Hi again! I am a bit rushed today, so please excuse the lack of flow.. (I use that excuse way to much). Anyway, it was great to hear from you today. It sounds like you're all doing well. The primary program sounded great. That's a great opportunity to invite people to come to church. Ours is coming up and we are working with members to invite their nonmember friends to see the kids sing. For ours this year, the parts are all taken from the kids talks that they have given through out the year. It's a pretty neat idea.

It is turning more fall here. Mornings are chilly. The days are really nice though. Leaves have not started changing yet but I am sure it wont be long. The fall season will bring a lot of great service opportunities. Picking up leaves at Grandpa's house all of these years has prepared me well for the coming month. haha It will be a great opportunity to help out members and their nonmember friends. It's perfect because we will be able to talk to the people we are working with as well and get to know them. There will be a ton of leaves.

I am stoked for general conference this weekend!!! It is going to be great. as missionaries we are all really looking forward to it. We have been milking the oppertunity too. We have an investigator's inactive mother coming to her house to watch it, which is sweet. Then we have another guy who is going to a member's house to watch it. It's going to be fun. Our investigator went to the relief society broadcast this last week and loved it. From what we have heard it was all about keeping baptismal covenents, which is perfect for our investigators.

Oh, and we taught her about tithing and fasting at the bishop's house. We introduced her son to the bishop's son, so they could play while she went to the relief society broadcast. We went in and I just played with the kids for about twenty minutes. We played ninja. Unfortunately, they left me and just went and played with each other. They are friends now so thats good.

So...I also ran the 5k this week!!! Took thriteenth. Not bad but I didn't win... I ran it in about 22 minutes. It makes me realize how much I have gotten out of shape.. I used to be so much faster. It wasn't bad for being a missionary though. We all looked sweet in our shirts and ties with our running shoes. My bright blue nikes looked much better than the usual black leather ones.  More comfortable too..

Thursday, I went on exchanges with Elder Barzee. It was fun and we biked all day which was also fun. I think we rode about fifteen miles or so. It definitely beat sitting in the passenger seat all day. I am torn between being efficient with the car and being less efficient but getting exercise on the bike...

I played tennis with Brother Ferguson this morning. It was fun, but I broke his strings... haha Then he took us out to breakfast. It was a good morning. Brother Ferguson is hilarious, so we had fun. Our dinner conversation kept comming back to the sample of scapple that the resturaunt provided free of charge. When the waiter was telling us what scapple was, she defined it as being all of the parts of the pig that are unfit for sausage and hot dogs mixed together. haha As appetizing as that sounded we had been fed scrapple earlier in my mission and we advised Brother Ferguson to get something better. Noticing his indecision, the waitress brought a sample, free of charge, for us to enjoy. haha It was a fifties style dinner and I am pretty sure we were the only people in there who approved of laughter.. haha

None of the other elders would come play basketball with us so we have had a pretty open p-day. We went over and had lunch with another member and helped give his wife a blessing. She is pregnant and is having some complication.. I don't really know... They fed us lunch though. It's been a good p-day. Nothing like soccer but still pretty good.

In our 5th Sunday lesson I ended up sitting next to this girl who is about to leave on her mission. The lesson was given by Brother Turner and he taught about having effective fhe. Which would have been really interesting had I been able to focus because I've been to his fhe and it is really really good and he is a great teacher. I am told that the lesson was really great but im not really sure. I was totally distracted... this girl just started freaking out about going on a mission two days before she is supposed to leave and she decided to ask me about it... I missed almost the entire lesson. I just sat there in the back trying to help her out without breaking mission rules by offering counsel to some girl. The white bible makes it pretty clear  its really not my calling to counsel in personal matters. It would have seemed that my hands were tied but in our corellation meeting later that day I got the prompting to tell the sisters to go and visit her. Sisters counceling sisters is a little less against the rules anyway... Anyway, long story short is that she was excited to go and then Sunday morning she freaked out. We left class and I told the sister missionaries to go and visit her that night and now shes all good  and excited again. Yea. While I would have really loved to have been able to listen to Brother Turner I am glad that I was in a position yet again to follow the prompting of the Spirit and help someone out in a round about way. I love it when I recognize that I folowed a promting and it works out and I get to see all of it happen.

To answer your question this is the last week of the transfer. People keep assuming I am leaving because I have been here a while. I, on the other hand, am not so sure. I adamently assert that I am here to stay! haha Brother Bozman, Ed, wrote me a poem and read it to me last night. I told him I need a copy and when he gives it to me I will type it up for you. It was too funny. As he read it aloud Elder Dorsey and I were crippled with laughter. For the record, that was the first time an old guy wrote a poem about me. He scheduled his traditional expect-the-worst-end-of-transfer lunch.  In order to prevent any missionary from leaving without saying good bye he schedules lunch the week prior to transfers in order to arrange one last meeting. haha In case he is right please dont send anything to the apartment address.. Just send it to the mission address so it gets to me regardless of where I am. Not sure why I would say that.. I'm staying in Frederick for a long time time so it wont matter, right?

We have a lesson set up tonight with an older couple who invited one of their friends over to chill with us. We will be treated to more dessert and a great evening of conversation. Then we are going to share a spiritual thought from the Bible. It should be good. It is a great opportunity to help their friend feel the Spirit and get to know him better. It's exciting.

The Ferguson's are getting ready to make a move on their friends and invite them to learn more. Sister Ferguson has been wondering what it would be like to have them taught in their home so we are going to have the Ferguson's invite another investigator over for fhe soon to give Sister Ferguson a taste of what it is like. It will be great. Then we are hoping that she will be more comfortable extending the invite their friends to join us for dinner or something. It's has been really exciting to see the Ferguson's get involved in missionary work and reach out to friends. They have really started to be a lot more proactive about it and are now turning into one of the best missionary families in our ward at the moment. It's great.

Oh! Very important! As missionaries we invite people to do things all of the time. My invitation to you today is a very important one. I would like to invite you all to think of some different good things for me to eat. I've got to start mixing it up a bit. Anyway... I've gotta go. I will talk to you guys next week and tell you more about life in Frederick. Fortunately, thanks to email, what happens in Maryland, does not stay in Maryland.

Love you guys,

Elder Hinkle

Week 19, September 23, 2013

Hello!

Jack! Sounds like you had a great game! Five goals!? That is a solid performance. We played soccer today. Not quite sure how many I scored today but it was up there. I definitely got a hat trick... What was the term for four goals? I had three goals from far out today. Two were right footed and one was lefty! It was  pretty sweet. I was really working on some ball control today and kept trying to pull off some fancy footwork. I also had a few quick touches for some assists. Those are fun to set up too. haha It was fun. Wore my Spain jersey again. So we were both red. haha Mom sent me a picture of you playing. It was pretty sweet! That’s good you are in a tennis class! If you work really hard and keep playing then when I get back... you might win a couple points. hahaha Just playing, everyone knows you’re a pro.

So… the race was not this week. haha But its this coming week. So this Saturday. haha We are stoked! It’s will be quite the sight to see all of these missionaries running the 5k in shirts and ties with out vibrantly colored running shoes. I’m looking forward to it. Some people...not so much... haha

I have heard a lot about the BYU game. My companion keeps bringing it up in our appointments. I finally turned to him and said "Elder, its our job to uplift the members. It’s not to keep rubbing salt in their wounds." haha Everyone wasn’t super happy about it.

  

Priorities... I did do some missionary work this week. I don’t just live for indoor soccer and tennis with Brother Ferguson in the mornings. haha but seriously. We had a great week this week. We taught a sister twice this week. Both times we were on exchanges. First, I was there with another elder. This was Tuesday. Her son was sick, and we were super excited because it provided a perfect opportunity to teach about the priesthood. So we went over and talked with them. She had a few clarifying questions about our last lesson on the word of wisdom. We answered them and she said that it made sense. She has really accepted that teaching based upon pure logical information. Again she bore testimony to us that nothing good will ever come from a night of drinking or any kind of drugs. It’s a true story. Then we explained the priesthood and offered to give her son a blessing. Her son was sick with something called hand foot mouth disease and was in the hospital all of Monday night. He was home from school all week and he wasn’t feeling too great. We gave him a blessing and he is now feeling much better. So, the next visit I was not there. They taught the law of chastity and from what I’ve heard, it went really well. But here we go...the plot thickens. Saturday morning before I got back from exchanges she texted and said something to the effect of "Hey, not sure if I’ll be at church tomorrow. I am thinking that I need to think about some things." We haven’t met with her since so we don’t really know what’s up. But she did come to church haha and we have an appointment to do a family home evening with her and the Turner family. Brother Turner's family is awesome so we are excited for that tonight. But for now, I’ll leave you with that cliff hanger.

When I was on exchanges the elder I was with put on a clinic for street contacting. haha We talked to a ton of people. Part of that was that we were on bikes. Finally I got to ride bikes all day! It’s so much better than sitting in the car! haha It was a blast. We met one guy who is nineteen and just starting to really think about religion and stuff. My bike chain had popped off and he stopped and asked us if we needed help. We didn’t really but as I was fixing it my companion started talking to him and we ended up setting up an appointment with him the next day. So the next day, we met him at noodles and co. It’s a delicious restaurant and his place of employment. We had a great discussion and got to know him. Turns out he lives in my area so we are hoping to be able to continue meeting with him this next week. He is a great guy with some great desires to serve other people. It was inspiring to listen to what he has done to help people.

We also had interviews with president this last week. It was not noteworthy. We waited all morning to talk with him for about ten minutes... not super beneficial. But I did ask some important questions. I found out that I can read two books that I have been wanting to read. Lectures on faith and believing Christ. I thought I would have to wait two years to read them but president approved them! Do you think that you could send me out a copy of those books? I’m stoked to read them. They both give an in depth look at two very important principles, faith and grace, which are seemingly simple. But I am feeling like these principles are often taken for granted and not understood as well as they could be. The more I study the basics, the more I realize that I may be able to recite them and even teach them clearly, but I do not know that I have the understanding required to apply these simple principles in order to get the most out of life. I won’t have time to read them in personal study since I will be busy preparing messages for the people we will see. But I will definitely have time during lunch and dinner and right before going to sleep. I will have to sacrifice some ab work out time but that’s ok I guess... I do like to read about ideas and principles of high level performance.  I can’t believe I haven’t read these books yet..

By the way, I have some troubling news... my vapors are finally starting to show some signs of wear... ugh, I’ll have to send you guys a picture next week. My shoes which were traditionally so well taken care of and exclusively used on the tennis court are a far cry away from my collection of past models back home. For once the top of the shoe may be equally trashed as the sole. No worries, there is no hole and I am sure that there will be some time before the bottom will break, but it is still crazy to see. It’s good though. Where the shoes go, the man follows. As I have moved from chasing victory on the tennis courts to doing anything and everything to help the people we meet with (i am shoveling manure tomorrow...) My shoes definitely reflect the transition, and I love it! I keep them close to my desk as a reminder that everything I once had must now be used for the benefit of those whom meet in this journey.  Peter, the apostle, was originally a fisher. We may assume that he was knowledgeable, skilled, and talented in the art of fishing. It’s how he spent his time and made his living. He loved it and he had found his niche. When the Savior called on Peter and his brothers he said, "Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men." His invitation was not to drop everything they knew and had in order to start over. His invitation to Peter was to take his unique skill set and background and repurpose it toward the work of salvation. "And straightway they left their nets and followed him."  The call came when Peter was working and doing what he loved and did best. Because of Peter’s decision his life was greatly blessed. Through the experiences that followed he grew greater himself as he grew closer to the Savior than he ever could have before. The Lord now wants those same blessings to be extended to all of us. I am confidant that when the Lord asks us to lift those around us He is asking us to take what we do best and use it for the benefit of other people. I have seen it happen in my mission. We are taught that the Lord puts us as missionaries in specific places because we are unique. I am sure that when the members get involved it is the same situation. It’s always like that in my experience so far. It is so exciting to see the members reach out to their friends and to see them experience the joy of working with the Lord in the work of salvation. The work takes many forms and I am continually impressed with how people make an impact on those around them.

I have to run now. We have a busy day a head of us. I hope all is well back home. You guys sound great and it is always good to hear from you. I will talk to you later. Until then...

I love you guys,

Elder Hinkle

Week 18, September 16, 2103

Hello Family!

This week has been pretty great! Our p-day has been crazy today, in a good way. Sorry for the late letter. We ran into a service opportunity with a family. They decided to take a ton of trees out of their back yard. We have been there all day. Our p-day sacrifice was well worth it. They are a great family and we had a great time helping them out. It’s all about building the relationship. Plus, we pretty much hung out with the President’s bodyguard all day. How often does that happen? We worked in his yard, cutting down trees, taking all of the trees to the dump, and doing a whole lot of clean up. Then, we headed to the library to write the mission president and I started this letter. Now, we are leaving to go to our dinner appointment. Should be good. I will come back to the library in about an hour... wait for iiiiiiiit.

And I’m back. Pizza. We ate with these people who think their dogs can talk. They’re hooked on puppy phonics. It’s weird. Crazy day. haha And no worries. We got approval from the pres. for this all to go down today. Pretty sweet. haha After about six hours of yard work today, I’m still feeling ready to go. We are hoping for a couple of lessons tonight still. Fortunately, today’s dinner was the least interesting thing that happened this week.

Number one on the highlight reel is an investigator on date to be baptized in a few weeks. More good news, her mom, who hasn’t been to church in over twenty years, has promised to come to her baptism. It’s pretty awesome. So after the plan of salvation lesson I mentioned last week, we taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We brought a Brother with us. He is an all-star. He made that lesson so good. We had a great spiritual discussion about the gospel pattern of living and our investigator was on board. This is one of those scenarios where the investigator is just super prepared. She is progressing very well. Since that lesson we have met with her twice. Once we met at a member’s house and read from the Book of Mormon where she was and helped her apply it to her situation. 1 Nephi chapter 7 was a perfect fit. Next time, we took the bishop with us and talked about commandments and taught the word of wisdom. We had a great lesson and bishop made a lot of solid contributions. She committed to live the word of wisdom and was really glad to learn about it. She made the comment that while she historically would go out and drink with friends, she really feels that she needs to set a good example for her son. She noted that he is getting older and recognizes what is going on. She doesn’t want her son to see any of those things as acceptable. She mentioned that she feels that nothing positive has ever come from a night of alcohol or smoking. She wonders why she would even do it anymore. It’s pretty sweet teaching her. When she answers questions she pretty much bears testimony of the principles we are teaching. She talked about how she is glad to have a stronger reason to say no. When she said no just because she didn’t want to her resistance was weaker. Now, she can say that she will not drink alcohol or smoke because the Lord has asked her not to and she wants to show her love for the Lord by following his commandments. It is so fun to watch her learn.

The library is closing in ten minutes... I have to hurry. ahh! Too much to say…too little time. So, I also found a historical treasure this week. I stumbled upon a copy of the Book of Mormon that was published in 1950. haha It’s cool. It looks super old. The index and footnotes are minimal. I would have sent a picture, but again, no camera.

Oh really quick! There was an experience this week where I felt prompted to go see someone in planning. The next day we went and saw them and they gave us like three referrals. We are planning a game night with us them and their referral friends. Super stoked. Love the feeling of acting on prompting and being the Lord’s instrument.

Anyway, you guys sound like you are doing well. In response to your question about homesickness, I haven’t really been homesick. Sorry. I loved being home and I really do miss you guys and my old tennis lifestyle. But I don’t really feel that far away. I feel like my life is a movie that I was watching and then pressed pause and walked away for a minute. I don’t know. I am focused here. Mission life is great and I am savoring it. To everything there is a season and I plan to enjoy this season just as much as hardcourt, grass, clay, or indoor season. haha I have to go. I’ll talk to you next week. Good luck with everything, I have work to do.

Love you guys,

Elder Hinkle

Week 17, September 9, 2013

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