January 27, 2014

Our week was great! It is freezing cold. Really, really cold. But it has been a good week. The blizzard I was talking about last week was a blessing in disguise. We went out that night and shoveled Mindy's driveway, a less active member, and then we went around her neighborhood asking if we could shovel people's driveways for free. After they got over the shock that people would do something like that they were quite grateful. We got a return appointment with a family this Wednesday night. And on the way home, we found a guy who is interested in learning more about our message. Super cool guy named Eric. We have an appointment to see him this Friday. And he is actually really interested. Hopefully, we can help him. 

Ryan is doing good. We were going to meet with him Tuesday but 'the yard' went on lock down due to the snow. No one went in and no one went out. So we taught him Thursday. He texted us before, saying that he had read through the gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet and he had no questions...and felt good about it. So we asked him to read Alma 32. In preparation for that lesson, I also read Alma 32 and was thinking about how the lesson would go and how we could help Ryan. I felt like that lesson was going to go really smooth.  It was cool. So, we followed up on what he meant when he said that he felt good about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We asked where he was as being ready to be baptized. He said, "On a scale of one to ten?" We said sure. And he said ten. haha He loved Alma 32 and so he was sharing with us what stood out to him. Well, the spirit guided our preparation so it was just all super smooth. I love when you can see the spirit guiding you and helping the missionaries be more effective. That's when you really feel like God is in control of His work. So, we asked Ryan when he wanted to be baptized and he chose the eighth of February. We are stoked for him. We need to meet with him quite a bit this week and then, Elder Riddle our district leader needs to interview him. Hopefully, all of that goes well. Ryan announced that he was getting baptized on Feb 8th to pretty much all of the mids. haha It was cool. Everyone clapped. haha We are meeting with him tonight and it should be sweet! 

So the day after that, we had the mission conference with Elder Nielson! That was awesome! I could have listened to him speak all day long. It was kinda cool, he told us about how before he came out to speak to us he was in the Bountiful temple praying to know what message he needed to share with us missionaries.  Then, he hopped on the plane and flew out here. He asked us to think about our perfect day. Then, he asked if our perfect day we thought of was our mission. Because, it should be! He talked about how serving a mission is like one on one time with the Lord. It is our time to get to know Him and learn all we can from Him. It is our time to give Him all our heart might mind and strength. It was cool because I went in with the question of how can I give more of myself to the Lord? And, he talked about that a bit. He talked a lot about how the mission is one on one time with the Lord, and it will be the only time in life when we are in that position. It is true and it really is a neat opportunity. I have thought a lot lately about this. Mosiah 2:34 says, render unto God all that you have and are. I read that and it has been on my mind constantly for the longest time. I have really been pondering that a lot lately. Elder Nielson didn't specifically tell me what I needed to do but he did give some great insights on it. And I learned a lot. So yeah.. it was the best day. It was too short.. . He only talked for like two hours... haha which was really sweet. He also shared a lot of what it was like being a general authority. You can tell that he just loves it. He is so excited about being about our Father's business. He is a super neat guy. You guys should read his bio. He has had an awesome life. haha His commentator nickname was "the Gif" haha Fun fact... 

Saturday, we went down to Arlington. It was so cold. It was kinda miserable. We picked up all of the wreaths in the cemetery and froze to death. Then, we went over to see the tomb of the unknown soldier and we got there right before they were about to change the gaurd so we got to see that. It was pretty cool. Being outside that long in the cold got me pretty sick though.... I'm feeling miserable at the moment. But who else can say they did that on their mission? So it was pretty cool. I did take pictures too. Hopefully, I remember to send them. That night, we had dinner with the Dembia family! That is always a blast! They are so fun! And Sister Dembia came to church again this week! We are stoked that she has been coming! And we watched a video about temples with them that night and the nonmembers in the family were asking a bunch of questions and were interested in the answers. So that was cool. Before dinner there, we stopped by a less active guy who is like 84. We knock on the door and he answers. He let us in and then asked who we were. We told him the mormon missionaries and he informerd us that he didn't want to be preached to and we should leave. But he missed his chance, he had already let us in. So I just started talking to him like we would a street contact. We started talking and then his wife came out and we started talking to her. Very persistant, just question after question, making good conversation. Finally, after like five minutes they were just like, "Alright, just go sit in the living room." haha So we got in. Turns out they are super interesting people and we had a great visit. At the end they told us we could stop by anytime! haha It was sweet. So now we have some more people to talk to. We also had great success doing the same thing with another part-member less active family eariler in the week. It was awesome. We had a great week this week.

Oh, huge highlight for the week - in the Book of Mormon, there are six places where it uses the phrase "one by one".  I finally found all six. I'm pretty excited about it. I have also thought a lot about what that phrase means lately as I have looked for those six instances. Most of the time, when this phrase is used, the Savior is doing something. And, it is really cool to think about how our Father in heaven and our Savior know us individually and work with us on a one on one basis. It has been really fun to look for those scriptures and think about what each one teaches. 

Hey, I've gotta run now.. I'll talk to you guys later!! Have a great week!!! 

Love you guys! 

Elder Hinkle

December 30, 2013

Hi Family,

It was great to talk to you guys on Christmas! That was pretty neat. It felt like I was in an appointment with an active member family. Just stopping by, trying to build some trust. haha It was kind of weird, not going to lie. But it was way fun. If you were one of my member families you would be the best! We definitely thanked the Huffman’s a ton for letting us use their computers. It’s funny, it was only Wednesday but enough has happened that it does feel like it was still a while ago. It was great to talk to you guys though, it really was. 

We had a good Christmas party that night. It was fun, but they kept us there forever. We were there for around five hours... that’s a long time. haha Crazy people. So when we visited the Huffman’s on Christmas day they were all sick... stomach virus. So it was really nice of them to let us come over anyway. So we went to the party that night. And now a ton of people in the ward got sick. Sister Huffman posted a picture of the missionaries on facebook shortly after a comment about the family being sick... the other sisters in the ward noticed and so now everyone knows that the Huffman’s got everyone sick. The ward can’t blame the missionaries... 

We got really sick too. We were doing service at a less active/part member family. We were raking leaves and I might have thrown up a lot in one of the leaf piles.... We laughed about it. I’m pretty sure they weren’t offended; they still love me. They took us to get some dinner for Elder Plumb and he got this huge burger. So later that night he got sick too and it all came up... We were out of commission for all of Friday and all of Saturday. Longest days ever!!! I hate being bed-ridden. But, we are doing better now. I lost a bunch of weight... so lame... I’m still not quite all the way better. I haven’t really started to eat normal yet, but I can work... working is so much better than sitting around. 

Transfers are this week. Wednesday. We found out last night that I stay and he goes, as predicted. But the news that no one saw coming is that I am going to be training a new elder. So you may want to include him in your prayers for the next few days... It's weird to think that I will be training in a few days. Training is for the old elders... the ones who know what they are doing.... haha Some one goofed here… No, just playin’. I’m sure that it will go well. We have Ryan’s baptism to look forward to. It will be sweet to let the new guy be part of that. He will get some solid teaching visits fairly often. That’s huge. 

I’m not sure that I feel super ready to train someone new, but at the same time I think this is a great opportunity to go through all of the training material again! haha I can be retrained! Hopefully, the greenie is pretty cool and we can learn to work well together.  I’m stoked that the Lord and President Richards think I am ready to train but I am well aware of how under-developed my fundamentals are and so I feel like I have a lot of work to do. I’ve gotta’ step it up. haha So next week you get the update on the new companion and how that goes.

Oh! So, we did have the opportunity to go to the temple on the twenty- sixth! It was pretty cool. The DC temple is awesome! I’m going there some day. We, as parking staff, were not really needed but we were really there to answer questions and make people feel welcome and stuff like that. It was freezing. We stood outside for like four and a half hours. But they did give us the traffic light-saber things to play with. Kids kept asking if they could hold it... haha Oh, and I saw one of my friends from the Frederick ward there! Kelsey Canizales. He was the bishop’s son back in Frederick. He leaves on his mission this Wednesday. I was kinda’ bummed that I stayed so long in Frederick and then I missed his farewell. But, he was there with his little sister that night. So I was working the crosswalk and greeting people and whatever. So as he was walking out I just casually said like "have a great night Kelsey" haha He was pretty shocked to see me... the temple is out of mission boundaries. hahaha So it was cool. Oh and get this... he went to BYU for a semester. His roommate was Jihoon, the super good tennis player from Highland. It was pretty crazy. Last I heard, Jihoon was trying out for the BYU team and it looked good. You should check the roster and see if he made it... Kelsey leaves for Australia in two days... He came out and worked with us a bunch. He will be a really good missionary. 

As promised, I did take a picture of the DC temple. It’s not a great picture but I’ll still send it. haha We didn’t have a ton of time so I just snapped one really fast before we left. 

New Year’s Eve day and New Years day are no proselyting. All day… We aren’t quite sure what we are going to do... no parties this time… Well none that we know of right now... Hopefully, someone invites us to something. haha It will be nice for the new elder to take some time to get settled in though. And we won't have to take away from proselyting time to shop for him and stuff like that. I just hope he has a bike... it is possible that he doesn’t... I didn’t have mine immediately.. if he doesn’t, then we are going to be walking a lot. haha 

Elder Hilliard will be back in town in time for transfers which is nice because he has a big car. Since I am training, I have to be at a meeting in Colombia that starts at eight-thirty that morning... Columbia is about an hour away... So, we will get an early start that morning... haha Still weird to think that I am going to the trainer meeting. 

Well, I hope that you are having a great vacation. I am sure you are. I would love to hear all of your goals next week. I will share mine with you as well. If you have any goals that you would like to suggest that I make feel free to send those as well. haha 

Oh hey! One of my favorite parts about this Christmas season was that I took some time to read that book you sent me, “Believing Christ”. It is a really good book. Have you read it? It was cool for me because I read it on Christmas Eve. I read it straight through. I had read parts before that but not the entire thing. (not a ton of free time). But it is a great book on the atonement and all about what Christ has done for us all. It broke down the subject of the atonement very simply and it makes a whole lot more sense now. I think that before I read it I believed a lot of the things he talks about. I just didn’t have words for it. Now, I can put words to it I am finding that many scriptures have a new spin that make them way cool. It was perfect to read at Christmas time because Christmas is all about how much God loves us. He loves us immensely. He loves us so much, he provided a way for us to return to him even at the cost of sending his Only Begotten son, Jesus Christ to suffer and die for us. That is amazing. God's love is truly something to celebrate during the Christmas season. I thought back to the times in my own life when I have felt God’s love personally and those are time’s to celebrate! I think it is also appropriate to look to Christ at new years when we are setting goals. With His help we can do more than we could alone. That should be taken into consideration and give us much more hope. When you guys take the time to set goals or if you are looking for something to talk about on new years there is a great new mormon message called "don’t look back." (I think) haha 

Anyway, I’ve gotta’ go. I will talk to you guys next week. Happy new years!

Love,

Elder Hinkle

December 23, 2013

Merry Christmas!!! 

I got your package!!! I haven't opened it yet... way to tell me what it is... haha Two more days... Thank you very much. I am excited to open it up. I also got the package from the Finklea's. Thank you.  That's under my tree as well. Well, kind of a tree... its an aloe vera plant. It is sitting on the window sill and my packages are stacked under it. haha It was the best I could do. I got Grandma's package too. It makes you feel pretty good when the stack of gifts is taller than the tree. 

The mission Christmas party was a blast. I spent the night with the Frederick zone group that was there when I was... It was a party haha.  I met Dennis Pita. He's huge. haha He totally came to our christmas party. He talked for a bit about the role faith has played in his life. He shared how his hip injury initially was looking bad and was an injury that could end his career. Then, he got a priesthood blessing and good treatment. Sounds like he is good now. He either is playing again or expects to return to play. He talked about how while he was injured he took a step back and for the first time in his life, he was able to see himself as more than a football player. He was pretty cool. His wife came too and they both just shared short testimonies. The mission gave us rings.. the say "rwh" on them... I tried but there is no way I can wear a ring.. It's completely ridiculous. It will be quite the deterrent when I am thinking about getting married... It couldn't possibly be worth it.. It drives me nuts... so it's sitting on the floor under my desk right now.. haha The party was fun though. I am sure that there is a million new pictures on the mission blog, including one with me and Dennis. 

It's pretty crazy that it is almost Christmas. What is today the 23rd of December? Really? haha I'm pretty sure I left just the other day on May something... In one week, I will have been out for seven and a half months.. That's crazy.. 

We have a pretty good christmas day lined up. We are having breakfast with a couple that morning. We will probably end up eating lunch with the member that we are skyping with and we have a dinner set with members as well. For the dinner appointment that family is going to have their less active parents over for dinner too at the same time. It's a trap! I'm not sure that their parents know that we are going to be there or not... haha They are a pretty funny family so it should be pretty fun. Christmas eve, we have dinner with the bishop and his family. We are looking forward to that because the bishop here never has the missionaries over for dinner... as long as Elder Plumb has been here it has never happened. So we really need to establish a relationship as a bishop. It is something that I have been trying to find a way to do for a little while. Spring will be nice because we can offer to do some more service stuff... no one wants to take us up on service when it is cold outside... 

Oh yeah! We have parking lot duty at the temple on the 26th! That's awesome because that means we get to go to the DC temple and we will see the lights! I think... haha It should be fun. I have heard that the DC temple is pretty great. I am excited to see it. 

I have to say, I dont think that I have said "Merry Christmas" as many times in my life as I have this Christmas season. haha It's just like a habit now.. Someone bumped into my cart today at the store. They said sorry. I said Merry Christmas. haha 

We also had a stake musical fireside last night. We had a great turnout! There were a ton of people there. We gave tours of the church and different displays that were set up. Then there was the fireside which was really good. Our old elder's quorum president came back and played the violin. He makes violins and he plays really well. He really stole the show. 

I got a christmas card from the Burnham's. Tell them I said thank you.  

Anyway... I've gotta go. I hope you guys have great christmas. I look forward to seeing you Wednesday. 

Love you guys,

Elder Hinkle

December 2, 2013

Hello Family!

 

It's good to hear that you have all had a great Thanksgiving! I am sure you guys had a great party. haha We had dinner with two families. We ate with the Wallwork's and the Huffman's. Wallwork's was pretty good and we had a great visit with them. Huffman's was good I am told. I didn't eat theirs... I was pretty full. haha

 

There was a tender mercy of the Lord this week. I got to go back and play Frederick zone soccer today. It was a blast. Elder Ashton had a doctors appointment there so we hitched a ride with him.

 

So, fun fact about Annapolis. There is a guy here who is known as Bagman. He is some random black guy who is frequently seen running around the city carrying a big black bag. The story goes that he runs around catching all of the evil spitis in the town. Pretty crazy guy... haha No one knows really who he is or where he came from.... he is just Bagman. Runs really funny too. I wish you could see him. It's crazy.

Oh yeah... just found out at soccer that some great things are happening in Frederick. Ricky is going to go to the temple for an endowment session with the Elders. So sweet! I wish so much that I could go with him... Also, Steve, the tennis player, invited Brother Ferguson and I to play in  a tournament. I missed it.. haha but that's awesome! Best news this week is about Ricky!

 

Anyway, have a great week!

 

Love you guys,

Elder Hinkle

November 25 (Out 6 months)

Hello family!

 

This last week has been a great one! There have just been so many miracles and so many sweet things happening! Leaving Frederick was kinda weird. I will definitely miss the members there, they are awesome! We were pretty busy those last two days I was in Frederick. I didn't really take the route of going around saying goodbye to people, I just stuck to business as usual. And I got lucky. haha We had dinner with the Kippin's Monday night. That was great. They have a tradition that they give all of the elders a shirt from his store, "if the shoe fits". So I got a sweet shirt from the coolest shoe store in Frederick. Then, later that night we had an appointment with the Ferguson's. Brother Ferguson said I need to marry Diondra Ensign. haha That's his plan to keep me in the family. Then, Elder Dorsey was going to marry Nicole, the older sister, because he is the senior companion. haha We all had a good laugh about that.

 

The next day, we had a sweet miracle. If you remember the Robert's, they were the ones with all the signs and we mowed their lawn. They found out I was leaving and desperately wanted to feed us. Their neighbor told us that they were wanting to contact us, so we stopped by and they were super excited about it. We already had a dinner appointment that night so we set up a desert appointment. We went over and had a great visit with them. They were sad to see me go and they were very complimentary of Elder Dorsey and I. It was neat. We had the chance to do some teaching and we said a prayer with them, which was huge because they really aren't interested in the gospel but the spirit was definitely strong while we were there. It was sweet. This time we visited, I really felt like we brought a special spirit into their home.

 

Earlier that day, we met with Ed. haha He was super sad that I was leaving. We can't travel to Thurmont because of our restricted miles, but he came down to Frederick and we met at the stake center. So this was another sweet miracle. We had just had zone training that day and our zone leaders talked asked us how often we bear testimony of Christ in our lessons. And we talked about how powerful bearing testimony is. So we met with Ed and at first we were just talking with him about whatever. So then, the conversation turned to one of Ed's favorite topics, what I will do when my mission ends. He likes to bring that up because I told him it's never going to end. haha So we told him about transfer meeting and I said I would go up and bear my testimony. He thought he was being funny and he asked me how long that would take. I just said "start your timer." And then I just bore my testimony. The spirit came in super strong and Ed was all tearing up. haha Funny, in retrospect, because he is never like that. While I was talking he kept saying that he would have brought in his video camera so he could of recorded it. I ignored him and just kept bearing testimony. haha We had to get going to another appointment so we were wrapping up. So I finished and on that note we asked if we could close with a prayer. We asked him to say it. This guy has not prayed outloud in years. The last time we really pushed for it he took time before we came and wrote out a prayer... in German. Then he prayed in German. So we caught him this time and he prayed! It was sweet! This guy hasn't prayed outloud in all the time I was there and he has told us that it has been years since that last happened. It was an awesome miracle! haha

 

So transfers went well. Packing wasn't too much fun, but it all worked out. haha Elder Plumb is a pretty cool elder. I think we will be a good team here. Annapolis is cool. Full bike area! I love biking, but it has been cold. Last night it was in the twenties. Thank you so much for sending out the coat and gloves! Just got the second package you sent; just in time too. haha The ward here is much smaller than Frederick. Still a ward though. We get to work with all of the students at the Naval Academy, apparently called Midshipmen. They are pretty cool and are a great fellowshipping crew. haha We have a midshipmen investigator named Ryan. The mids are great fellowshippers for him. It's like the ideal situation. Anyway... it is crazy that I am literally on the East coast. And the naval academy is sweet. We also have a senior missionary couple here, the Hilliard's. They are in charge of military relations and they work with the midshipmen a lot.

 

So the night I got to Annapolis, we had an amazing miracle! The Annapolis elders recieved a media refferal at the start of the week for a Toni Cain. This lady had visited the Salt Lake temple visitor center and was blown away by what she learned and felt. So she requested missionaries to be sent to her house here in Maryland. That's when we come in. We had an appointment for that night on Wednesday to meet her and see what's going on. We did not have a ride though and it was really far away... so our plan was to visit a member and beg for a ride. haha Luckily, it totally worked out. The Wallwork family is an older couple who recently returned from serving a senior mission. They hooked us up with a ride and we went to see Toni. Toni turned out to be really cool. She has a crazy story, you need to google her. She is a trauma surviver turned motivational speaker. She lived on the streets for nineteen years and is now doing quite well. So she visited Utah on business and happened to stop by the temple. She loved it and wants to learn more. She also has a boyfriend who is LDS. He lives in Utah but he is going to be at our next appointment this Friday! haha Crazy! We had a great visit with her. The Wallworks were a huge help in this lesson! She shared a sweet experience about how here husband joined the church. She told us how when he was not a member that her and the kids would group up and pray that he would join the church everyday while he was in the shower. Years later he told her that everyday when he would take a shower he just felt like he was being told that he needed to join the church his family belonged to. haha Crazy story! The spirit was super strong. I know that the spirit spoke through me in this lesson. We were talking about God's love and I just bore solid testimony that God loves her and the spirit was super strong. So she seems awesome and it was a great start to the transfer. haha. This Friday will be sweet. 

Anyway, have a great week! Have a very happy thanksgiving and, Mom, have a very happy birthday! It was great to hear from you today. I always enjoy your letters. I also enjoyed the letter you sent in the package. In the spirit of thanksgiving I want to tell you what I am thankful for. Just before I left on my mission I was was in the temple and I came across   1 Tim 1:12. It says "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry." I love my mission and I am so thankful to be a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Alma 34:38 says, "worship God in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth, that ye live in thanksgiving daily for the many mercies and blessings he doth bestow upon you." I am so grateful for our Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for their constant involvement in our lives. I know they are helping me each day and I know that they are helping you too, because they love us. That tops my gratitude list. Have a great week! I will talk to you this monday! I gotta go!

 

I love you guys,

Elder Hinkle

November 18, 2013

Hey guys! I am exhausted today. It's been a sweet day and I'm tired already. I played tennis with Brother Ferguson this morning after running a few miles. Then we got to play soccer today, which was a blast. It was a great last preparation day here in Frederick. Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to pack. Not quite sure when I will fit that in... It was great to hear from you guys! It sounds like all of you had a fun week. So, Mount St. Mary's is in Frederick. haha Well, Frederick area, it's actually in Emmitsburg. If you remember the Catholic professor, he worked at Mt St. Mary's. Crazy. Sounds like I will have to shoot him a text and let him know that the Mormons beat the Catholics. haha I cant believe Travis came home. Time is flying by. It's funny. We have had great weather during the latter half of the week and since time seems to be going so fast, it is hard to believe that its November. It's close to seventy degrees outside right now.

We have had a great week this week! A lot of stuff happened. I got hit pretty hard in the face with the soccer ball today so this might be kinda' jumbled.... I apologize in advance.

So, story number one. I'll start with the end. We had an entire family of Chinese people come to church at our ward. None of them speak English... haha So let me back up a bit. We have been pushing street contacting. We talk with everyone. So we are riding our bikes through a neighborhood of town houses and we run into this Chinese guy. Mid twenties. Sweet Nissan 350z. His name is Suni. So we start talking with him and quickly realized that he didn't speak much English... but we persisted. Using mostly gestures we gave him a Mormon.org card and somehow got the idea that his roommate was interested. So we went back another day to try to meet him. We knocked on the door and met Suni again. This time he was with who we presumed to be his mom. He opens the door and we say hi, he responds with nihow and then he starts speaking Chinese to his mom. We didn't know what was happening but he invited us in to his house. Then he invited us into his room to talk with him. We didn't do too well.... we tried as hard as we could to get the idea across that we were missionaries. His mom spoke a bit more English and asked us if we were the neighbors. Then she asked if we worked at the mall.... clearly we were not effective. haha So then we got the bright idea to pull up Mormon.org in Chinese. So we pulled it up on his computer. Suni saw the home page and just said "me go." haha Elder Dorsey and I looked at each other in bewilderment. haha After a quick Chinese conversation both him and his mom wanted to come to church. Crazy. So we gave them time and location and they said they would come. So a couple days later we stopped by with a translator. There just so happens to be a sister in our ward who is from China. Her and her husband came with us to meet Suni. We knocked looking for Suni and met five other Chinese people. None of them were Suni or his mom. haha But after we started talking with them in their house they wanted to come to church too. So they did. We had a bench of Chinese people in our ward. I'm not really sure how that went. I was on exchanges with the zone leaders in their area. But it was a pretty crazy story.

Exchanges with the zone leader was pretty sweet too. It was a Sunday exchange so we went to church and then came back to eat lunch. I was fasting yesterday so during our lunch hour I was just chillin on the floor. Elder Despain, the zone leader was just eating some food on the couch. Pretty mellow. So we hear some one knock on one of the adjacent doors. "Hello, we are from St John's Catholic Church and we are just going around meeting people in the  area. How are you doing today?" That got our attention. Catholics proselyting? That doesn't happen everyday. Needless to say, we were ready to answer the door. So they knocked on our door. We answered. It was a young guy, Brother Brian as we called him, in training to be a priest and a Hispanic nu. We called her Sister Maria. The young white guy was pretty timid and the nun was like super passionate. They started right into their door approach and about half  way through the guy interrupts him self and says "oh, you're Mormons." haha So Elder Despain entertains the conversation for a little bit and we moved on to some gospel conversation. The nun, shared her feeling about Christ. It was good. Super passionate.  We taught the restoration when they asked about Joseph Smith. We taught about prophets. We taught about the plan of salvation and gave them a pamphlet. We taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ a little bit and invited them to tour our church building and set up some Catholic/Mormon service project. haha It should be sweet for the zone leaders. It was funny. Like no bible bash. They just asked us questions. haha So we taught a Catholic priest and nun.

We have had a ton of service lately. The leaves keep falling. It is a never ending job. We have had a few sweet service opportunities for non members. All leaf removal. But one house stood out. We went over to this one guys house, Mr. Graves. We made a pile of leaves that was over six feet tall and at least twelve feet in diameter. It was simply amazing. I have never jumped in a bigger leaf pile. Simply massive.

We have had great success with sharing Elder Carlson's advice with the members. The members love it. We are hoping to get a lot of new faces to our ward Christmas party. It's going to be awesome. I realize that I forgot to send it to you guys last week. I will do that right now. Done. You should definitely read it. There is a lot of good stuff there. I have a new idea too. Unfortunately, I only have two days to implement it into the Frederick ward. I was talking with the zone leaders about setting up individual family mission plans. There is some good stuff there. The zone leaders have tried it with some success. I am going to refine it a little and get it started here. It's such a sweet idea. Hopefully, I will be able to send you guys some stuff on that too. I think it will really help some members who really want to get involved but are struggling to figure out what to do. My idea behind both of these two projects is that this hastening the work with member involvement thing is all new territory for the members. It's also new territory for us working with members so much but that's not a big deal really... Anyway, whenever you get into new territory it is helpful to have some instruction on what to do. Then they can do something. When they do something they feel successful and want to keep doing things. I like the idea behind it. I am really excited about the family mission plan idea. I cant wait until I have some time to develop that idea more fully.

Not going to lie... I am struggling to remember more of the stories from this week... I must have gotten hit harder than I thought.. haha Just playin'. It just all blurs together.. I need to be better at keeping a journal...

It's going to be a little sad to leave Frederick. I love this ward. It's a great area and it has a lot of great people. I'm leaving so soon too. I had a feeling I was leaving though.. Ok, I pretty much knew I was leaving. I was still hoping I would stay though.

We have a great night planned for tonight. We are having dinner with the Kippins, visiting the Ferguson's, and then visiting the bishop and Ricky. Should be a great night. Solid night to go out on...

So I am going to the Annapolis! My new comp is Elder Plumb. I've heard great things about the area.  I am optimistic to say the least. It sounds like he has been there for a really long time too. It will be nice to have someone who knows the area. I have also heard that we do a lot of biking in Annapolis. I'm stoked! I love biking. One of my elder friends just came from this area and he says its great. Plus, the apartment has a gym. Whaaat!? I am really lucking out with gyms on the mission. I have heard great things about the members there too. I am sad to leave Frederick but I figure the Lord knows what He is doing and I will be in the right place this coming transfer. Should be good. The worst news of all is that I have to pack... that might be rough...

Oh, I did get the coat by the way. It was on the doorstep when I got home Tuesday. Good thing too. Tuesday was freezing. Coldest day of the week. Brother Ferguson's coat was good but the one you sent is better. Much better. haha.

Another one of my elder friends, Elder Holm, hooked me up with a ton of music today. Pretty excited. He got me a copy of a cd that has a ton of different albums on it. So far I know that there is seven.... I am sure there is more but I am not sure how many. Plus, he drew me a sweet picture to put in my signing journal.... I don't have one.... haha Maybe ill start one. Probably not... its like a mission year book. Doesn't really sound like my thing. But I'll keep the picture for sure. He is a really good artist, so its pretty cool.

So I am not quite sure how this next week will shake out but I think it will be good. Transfer meeting is always good because we get to hear the testimonies of those missionaries coming in and those returning. The retuning missionaries get more time so they are usually more interesting. I hope all of you have a great week back home. Is thanksgiving this week? If it is then have a great day/party. haha Not sure what I will be doing. I will talk to you next week and give you the scoop on Annapolis. I am certain it will be a good report. Until then...

Love you guys,

Elder Hinkle

Notes from Elder Carlson's talk to the Baltimore Mission November 2013

The Work Of Salvation

Elder Carlson, Second Quorum of the Seventy

We have all been called to the work of salvation. You are a disciple of Jesus Christ and now you have been called to declare his word (3 Nephi 5:13). How can you help? Elder Carlson shared some practical ideas that we could use to talk to people. We would like to share some of his insights with you!

4 Things You Can Do To Attract Attention:

• Smile!: people can see the joy that the gospel brings to your life. When you are always smiling it attracts attention! 
• Focus On Helping Other People: People will notice you as a disciple of Christ when you are always doing little things for other people. In the world today that attracts attention!
• Live What You Believe: Live so that those around you can feel the influence of the spirit. The spirit attracts attention!
• Share: Don’t be afraid to share what you believe. Confidence attracts attention!

Talking About The Gospel:

• People learn things when they are ready and willing to learn. Remember that we cannot recognize who wants to learn about the gospel or who is ready (1 Samuel 16:7). 
• You succeed when you invite: After that it is up to the person you invited and the spirit.
• Every invitation is important: when you extend invitations it shows God that he can trust you. The more He trusts you the more likely He will be to place people in your path who are prepared to hear the gospel. 
• You don't have to be their best friend to introduce them to the gospel.
• In fact, it may be easier because there is less at stake when you dont have to worry about your relationship. 
• When they accept your invitation they will be better friends than they were before.
• If they are not interested in the church do not lose interest in them! 
• Be honest, loving, and direct when you talk to people about the gospel.
• When they ask a question, answer the question that they ask directly so they can learn what they want to learn when they want to learn it. 
• Always leave people with a good impression.

How To Create Gospel Conversation: 

• The idea is to get them to ask questions so you can talk about what they want to talk about. Be able to answer with short simple answers.
• Ways of doing this:
• Use Mormon language: if people don’t understand what you are saying they might ask some questions. When you answer their questions you are teaching them what they want to know about your church. For example, you could mention family home evening, mutual, or relief society and elder's quorum. We use weird words. 
• Mention news articles about the church: the church is in the news more than you might think. Casually bring up the latest news article you have read about the church. Haven't read any recently? Check out Times Magazine or Mormon newsroom. 
• Talk about church activities: tell people how much fun you had the other night at the latest ward activity. Maybe you can invite them to the next one!