November 24, 2014

Hey guys! Whats up!? It sounds like you guys had a really fun week! I bet you are stoked for Thanksgiving this week! We are! We are going to visit two families... one I don't really know yet and the other, I have met a few times. It's going to be a really fun day. Most of it. We have a zone activity in the morning to play ultimate frisbee.. so that means I'll sit on the ground for a couple hours.. but after that  the day will be sweet! haha 

Next Thanksgiving I will be there! That's weird.. but normal at the same time. I don't know. I always talk about not wanting to come home because I like being on a mission.  I feel like that's kind of a faithless attitude so I'm trying to be more excited to come home... don't get me wrong, I miss you guys and I can't wait to see you... but it really is good to be a missionary. haha 

You guys will have a lot to be thankful for this year. I saw something in a member's home once. One night for fhe they pulled out a giant piece of paper- like a really big one, three by three feet or so. They hung it on the wall. Then they all wrote things they are thankful for on it until it was full. I invite you guys to try it! Thanksgiving week! Hang up a big piece of paper in a place in the house that gets a lot of traffic, that you pass a lot. And put a pen next to it. Then every time you pass the paper you have to write something that you are grateful for until the end of the week. I guarantee you guys could fill a paper that is like ten feet long... but for the sake of time, it doesn't have to be that big... haha Then you can count your many blessings at the end of the week. yay. 

Brother K left for Florida on Friday. We met with him a lot before then. He is on fire. Tuesday, we taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson. We were on exchanges and I stayed and one of our zone leaders elder Ferrin came here to work with me. We had a great lesson and talked a lot about repentance, we have covered a lot of the other subjects and repentance is going to be a big thing for brother K to understand moving forward. The good news is that he already has the desire to make these changes in his life. All he needs is a little doctrinal push to motivate him I think. I think that he will be able to do it. While we were teaching the gospel of Christ, we were at the B's home. A member in our branch. Brother B joined the church later in his life and he shared his story about how it all happened. It was an awesome story and brother K loved it. Then bro B invited brother King to be baptized on the 20th of Dec.  It was sweet. Brother K is praying about it. He is really looking forward to it. 

Oh, yeah... so we are in the ward choir here, right? Well, we sang in sacrament meeting this week. The song we sung was in Spanish... haha I didn't even know how to say all of the words... let alone sing... ... We have been practicing it in choir practice every week... well... sometimes I was on splits.. .and then I don't go to choir.. haha But yeah. You would have laughed seeing me up on the stand singing in Spanish... I don't think anyone heard my voice out of the choir because people kept saying we sounded great. That may be the first and only time that people compliment my singing. haha So, check that off the bucket list. 

It was a pretty good week. and to top it all off I find out today that Federer and Wawrinka won the Davis cup for Switzerland! whaaat!? I am sorry I missed  that. It is not often that you meet people who follow Davis cup - but I did! haha So I hadn't heard any news about the ties except for what you told me last week... so that was a sweet surprise! haha I'll have so much to catch up when I come home... and a ton of time to do it too. haha

I have been thinking a lot on gratitude this week. And last two weeks since they asked me to speak about it kind of. As I have pondered that, I think the things I am most grateful for this year are things which give me hope and things which have helped me become more converted to the Lord. In my mind, there are many things which stand out. A couple of those things are the book or mormon and the atonement of Jesus Christ. The book of mormon is something that I treasure. I've definitely felt the power of the book of mormon. It teaches us true and simple doctrine. It is full of invitations for us to act and promised blessings. When ever I read the book of mormon it renews my hope for the future and refreshes my view of what is going on around me. I have found so much needed direction in the book or mormon when I needed it. I remember my last semester in school I was having a difficult time. The more I have learned the more I see how I could have handled the situation differently. But one thing that I did right was turn to the book of mormon. I remember making it a priority to turn the pages of the book of mormon daily and read the word of God. I know that is one thing that really helped me out then and has continued to help me as I strive to be an effective missionary and go through life. I know that the book of mormon is true and it is the foundation of everything I hope for. If the book of mormon is true than I believe I have a great future ahead of me. If it is not, then I do not know... the good news is that I know it to be true. And that witness which I have received through the power of the Holy Ghost is something I am very grateful for. 

The atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the work he has done and is doing and has promised to do in my life is something else that causes me to be grateful. I look back on my life and see that I have not always been the person I should have been. I am not yet the person I want to be.  I know of the work the Redeemer has done in my life to help me. It is because of Jesus Christ that I can look back and say - I am better than I used to be. As I reflect on that, I am filled with gratitude. I know that I still struggle to be who the Savior and I want me to be, but because of the gospel of Jesus Christ I am hopeful that I can and will continue to improve according to my faith, diligence, and obedience.  And life will be good. 

Reading your letters today is also something I am grateful for. I have been blessed to have a great family. I love reading the letters you send me. And it is quite a blessing to be able to email every Monday. I enjoy sharing my experiences with you guys and I enjoy reading about what's going on with you guys. I am really grateful for all the support that you guys have given me as I have been serving a mission especially. It is nice to be able to talk to you each week and hear your reports of the week. I am excited to talk to you guys on Christmas and it will be fun to come home and hang out with you guys this summer. I have met a lot of people in the last eighteen months... haha And I often find myself recognizing that we really do have a really cool family. If you guys were members in my ward, I would love to come to your house. haha You guys would be the favorites. haha 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!! 

I love you guys! 

elder Hinkle

November 10, 2014

Hey guys! We have had a great week this week! It's getting really cold again... This week is supposed to be even colder but today is nicer. Not looking forward to the winter... but oh well.. Sorry, the other missionaries here like to email really early... so I beat your emails to the library. haha My bad. Maybe I will get them before I leave, we will see. 

People wise, brother K is doing great! We had some really good visits with him this week. We taught him about the plan of salvation this week. It went pretty well. We were at brother B's house and brother K loves him. haha We taught the first half and finished by talking about the atonement of Jesus Christ. We emphasized that baptism is the way we receive the gift he wants to give us. We invited bro K to be baptized on the 29th. He said he would but he will be out of town... haha So we extended the date of Dec. 6th. He said he would pray about it. We left it at "we are not making you promise to be baptized on that day, just setting it as a goal." He kinda didn't say anything definitive so we aren't sure ... He has been telling everyone that he is going to be baptized soon though. haha Yesterday in church, I overheard him telling multiple people that he is going to be baptized in a few weeks, so there you go. haha We also invited him to attend a baptism on Saturday. He was stoked about that. So we went and watched this baptism. We met with him about 30 min beforehand to teach him more about what baptism is and that lesson went very well too. Brother K really liked the baptism. When the lady was baptized they forgot to use her middle name and brother K was like, "I cant believe they messed it up! It's like the one time she is going to be baptized and they had to do it again!?" haha I reassured him that we will make sure they do it right at his baptism. haha He wants to meet with us more and is always asking if there are activities he can come to. Unfortunately this branch is not huge on activities. So we are working hard to keep him involved and busy. haha We are meeting with him tonight in another member's home to finish the plan of salvation. We are going to teach with the temple in mind and prepare him for the rest of the week. We hope to have the visit after that with a family history consultant and get him started in family history. Then, this Saturday we are going to go to the temple and the visitors center. Whats up!? haha It's going to be sweet! So yeah, things are looking good for him. He loves the church. It's fun to work with him and the members are being great about welcoming him and welcoming him into their homes. Awesome.

We had dinner with this old guy on Wednesday... We were walking to the car and he was legitimately about to fall over. I caught him mid fall and put him back on his feet but yeah.. I feel bad for the guy. He is a really awesome guy but he has some serious health challenges. Super funny too. Just classic old guy - "I sure am glad you caught me elder." haha Just as calm as ever. 

We have been low on luck with potentials lately. So we don't really have any news about new people. Well, that's not true - we have a return appointment with a lady named E this week. We were going to meet up with them last week but she and her daughter got sick with the flu. So we rescheduled for this week. They seem like a pretty cool family, so hopefully that lesson goes well. I won't be there. I am going on exchanges this week and so I will miss that appointment. 

We are going to have a really good week this week. Good news - I will be here for the highlights too. The temple trip this weekend will be the best. I will try to take some pictures when we go down. And I will tell you more next week. 

Elder Perkins' visit was awesome. He talked about a lot of really good things. I felt like I was seriously called to repentance... He talked about being positive. He only said a little bit about it but that hit me pretty hard. I am pretty positive with regard to everything missionary work related, but I have been less positive in my personal life. Having my ankle injured for so long with no way to fix it anytime soon has been draining. Having to protect it and refrain from doing anything risky has had me saying things like "I can't" a lot. That is not a good thing to say... in fact, it is a very destructive thing to say...  When I was playing tennis I was trying to be very disciplined in my mindset - trying hard to focus on the positive. I think that has kinda faded as I have been on my mission. So I got a solid wake up call this week. It's easy to just get down when you look at all of the problems in front of you. It takes more work to focus on the positive and see things with an eye of faith. There is a language of faith. The way we talk about things and think about things has a great effect on how we feel and perceive what is happening in our lives. I think it especially important for me to try to be more positive when looking at my personal life because it will help invite the spirit to be with me to a greater degree. And that is always good. Discipline is very important. The ability to say this is what I am going to do and then do it, is something that sets winners apart. The discipline required for daily obedience and faith will forge our future. If we discipline our minds to see the world in a good light then we will have a great future ahead of us. Elder Perkins talked about faith grows. He talked about how we can help other people's faith grow and the pattern applies to us as well. The final stage of faith is when it becomes a principle of power. Faith can be a power to the point that when we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can make things happen in our lives that could not happen if we did not have faith. The book of mormon teaches plainly that in the strength of the Lord we can do all things. The book is full of people who had faith in Christ sufficient to do things that even they admit were beyond their own power or ability to do. Elder Perkins taught that the key to developing this type of faith is to eliminate doubt and fear. They hold us down. Even the Savior specifically said - 'doubt not, fear not.' He directed us to look unto Him in every thought. And to be of good cheer. That phrase - be of good cheer is one that I particularly like. Inasmuch as we have faith in the Savior, we can be of good cheer. It will make our lives better. 

But some of the things I thought were interesting from elder Perkins... one thing he brought up that I really liked is he asked us "what is the difference between a tool and an instrument?" There were many different answers. His was the best. He taught us that an instrument can be tuned and a tool cannot. One thought that popped into my mind is that makes a tennis racquet an instrument. haha But another thought was closer to what he was talking about. Alma rejoices in his opportunity to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord, this was his joy. Elder Perkins told us to always remember to be an instrument and not a tool. Don't be a tool! haha Let the Lord adjust you and tune you. Repentance is key to allowing that to happen. It's hard to do but brings great blessings. If we will speedily repent then the Lord can fine tune us to perform the work he has in store for us. Our greatest  joy in life will come from doing the work that God has for us to do, when we really let the Lord use us. If I remember right pres. David O. Mckay told us about our personal priesthood interview with the Savior at the day of judgement. Question 3 was the Savior would ask for a reporting of how we used our talents. We are all unique instruments in God's hands and I believe that He wants us to use our talents in his service to the best of our ability. As we walk the path of obedience we will prosper in the land. Life will be good. The question then becomes - what can I do to be more in tune with the Lord? What do I need to adjust in order to do the work He wants me to do in the way he wants me to do it? Harder questions. 

It was good to hear from you guys today! It sounds like you guys are busy as ever. haha Just always remember to devote adequate time to the Lord!!!

I love you guys! 

elder Hinkle

July 7, 2014

Hey! I can't wait to watch the Wimbledon final!!! ahhhh!!! I can't believe Fed lost it! I heard he was in the finals on Saturday and I was so stoked!! Fed - Djokovic match up is such a good one! Holy cow... I caught an update on the match in priesthood opening exercises right in the middle, with Fed and Nole tied 1-1 sets 3-3 in the third! ahhh!! I found out later that day that the Djoker won but no one here can really tell me about the quality of play, sounds like it was fantastic though!!! Oh man... thanks for the update! I'm a fan of the detailed report! haha Man... do you guys realize that this was the last time wimbledon will be played while I'm on my mission... Dang, the grass season is over... like, my mission is almost over... there are only two more grandslam events left... just two.. and a lot of good stuff in between but still time goes way to fast.. We are almost half way through July! Dang it! haha hang on... 

Brother Ashley is doing good. They were out of town for a family reunion this weekend but we are going to see them on Tuesday... tomorrow. haha We are stoked about his progress and for his baptism! Fun fact - so elder Ballard came into the mission and when he was speaking he told us that we needed to be talking to more people, because the more people we talk to, the more people we teach, and the more people we teach, the more people we will baptize. He set the standard that we need to talk to at least twenty people each day. So here is the fun fact - every companionship in the entire mission who has been talking to twenty people each day has an investigator on date to be baptized or has had a baptism. Jarom 1:9 and thus we see that the word of the Lord was verified which he spake unto our fathers saying inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land. Obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles!!! Lesson learned- always follow the prophet! Our leaders in the church are mighty men in the faith of the Lord! They truly have the spirit of revelation and also prophecy! Our leaders are inspired and called of God. The prophet, the apostles, and so on down to mission presidents, stake presidents, and bishops! What do you know! Always follow the prophet! If we follow the Lord's guidance, which is given through his inspired servants we will reap the blessings that the Lord wishes us to have! That's true in the mission field, and it is true outside of the mission field, in all of your lives! That's pretty neat! Just saying... 

Hopefully, you guys had a great fourth of July! It was a pretty dead night for us. Everyone was either having a party at their house or they were at a party at someone else's house... and they were all in their back yards... No one was on the street that night, except for a few people, which we talked to and that yielded a couple return appointments for the sisters, which is good. But still...

You guys should totally have the elders there teach you all of the lessons! All the way through lesson five!! You guys would love it!! We do that with active members sometimes and it is always a good experience for the families! I love doing that! To me it is a sweet platform for the family members to share their testimonies of those basic fundamental truths. Those are what are important and it is always so powerful when the members of the family answer questions and share their experiences. I'm all about fundamentals.  haha So yeah, do that!!! The spirit will come into the house and you guys will love it! Do it! Do it! Do it! And keep their commitments! - just a tip. Exact obedience brings miracles!

Well, I've got to be off soon. I hope you guys have a great week this week! We sure are, I can tell you that! Thank you so much for all of your prayers! I really appreciate that, as does the Lord, I am sure. 

I love you guys!

elder Hinkle

June 17, 2014

Hey guys! It was good to read your letters today! Happy father's day to Dad and Grandpas! .. and the other fathers. Someone wished me a happy father's day on Sunday.... and then asked if I had kids.. flip! I'm too old!! I could not believe it.. haha Anyway, happy father's day! The family history focus at Scott's house sounds pretty sweet! That was a cool idea! Its neat as missionaries, we encounter some people who don't want anything to do with us but when we mention family history and the family history center nearby, some of them open right up and are really interested in that kind of stuff. We had stake conference this week, which was an awesome meeting, and a young man from our ward spoke on family history. He has truly caught the spirit of Elijah and has found over 200 names and is in the process of taking all of them to the temple for proxy baptisms. He did all of this recently. That's ligit! Talk about hastening the work of salvation! As he was speaking, you could tell that getting involved in that work has really brought the spirit into his life.  As he spoke about the blessings of temple work for us and for our ancestors the holy ghost truly did testify to me that family history is a great work! So for you guys getting involved at home good luck! It seems hard to me... don't know how to do any of it, but Scott taught you guys, so you can do it!! And God will help you. Oh, and its worth it, so you should do it. Especially for the kids that can drive, Utah is pretty great because there are temples everywhere. So they can find names and go to the temple. That would be a fantastic way to bring the spirit into your life during your high school years when there are so many other influences around you which are not so great... Just saying, if you do temple work God's grace will spill into other areas of your life and he will help you with everything else you are doing! 

But yeah, we had a great week this week! I was on exchanges from Tuesday to Thursday so I missed a little bit of the action in the Columbia second ward but a lot of good things happened. So I wasn't there. I was in Ellicott City. We had a fantastic exchange. The first day, we went over to a families house where the dad is active/recent convert. He converted because his wife got him into it. Now, his wife is less active and his son claims he does not believe in God. Ouch. But we went over and the elders there had previously set up teaching them the missionary lessons. So we went in to do just that. Initially, the wife wasn't too happy we were there - she was watching reruns of the French Open, so its understandable. but we got everyone together and we had a fantastic lesson. It was the first visit, so we set expectations for further visits and we talked a lot about how they could get the most out of our visits and talked a lot on how to recognize the holy ghost and how the holy ghost testifies of things which are true. And it went great. The spirit was there; everyone was included and participating. As we left, the wife commented that she was glad we came. She told us how she wasn't looking forward to it before we came but now, she was glad that we did come because of the peace she felt come into the home. Perfect! Then, we also had a great meeting with their newly called ward mission leader telling him all about his calling and what not. Updating him on the area and what's happening right now in the Ellicott City area of the mission field. That was fun too. The rest of this week, we have had  good days - brother Weiss prayed with us, brother Wight is back around and he is excited to introduce us to his wife and invite her to church - she is not a member. and he knows nothing about the church really.  But he loves us and we are going to try to bring him back and bring his wife into the fold with him. He is a funny guy. We have also been talking to a ton of people lately... like last week. So hopefully, some of these people we are meeting will turn into investigators. 

In other news, I am staying in Columbia for six more weeks!! Good news! And elder Christensen is staying with me. So, yeah. We are excited about that. Like I said, I could stay here for a while. I like Columbia. It has been very nice weather here lately. I don't feel like it has been too hot or humid yet. Its just been really nice. Rains a bit too often but that's Maryland. The other day, we were walking around looking for some people to talk to and there was just no one outside, because it was about to rain. So I was like hey, let's knock on this door. Some random door... the guy there comes out and just starts talking to us like friends. Turns out he is from Florida, vacationing in that house for two days and he has mormon friends back home and has met with missionaries before and he invited us in to talk with him. We talked with him for about half an hour and while we were in there, it rained hard. So we missed the big part of the storm but we left walking in the rain and on the way, we ran into Kevin, who had just gotten home. So we stopped in to talk with him. We were inviting him to church and he pauses us and asked us 

"Do you all shout at your church?" - Kevin

"No" - elder christensen

"Well I do." - Kevin

(elder Christensen tries to be diplomatic)

"So if I stand up in the middle of the church and start shoutin', would people be looking' at me all weird?" - Kevin

Haha It was pretty funny. He will come to church one day, but it wasn't this week. 

I hope you guys have a great week this next week! We will, that's for sure! The weeks are flying by, this is my tenth transfer... I've gotta run though! I will talk to you next week!! 

Also, good fathers day video to watch - earthly father, Heavenly Father. - mormon channel, mormon messages. Watch it! 

I love you guys,

elder hinkle

May 19, 2014

We have had an awesome week here in Columbia! It's been crazy. Crazy stories, crazy miracles. It baffles me that it's all happened in only a week... when you look back at things, you just feel like they happened forever ago because the days are so full... but then time goes really, really fast... and it doesn't seem that long ago that I left home... I don't know... it's weird, but it's fun! 

So we did not see the Miranda's on Monday night.... They canceled with us again.... but that's ok. We will get in with them and teach them about the restored gospel! haha That fell through and then another appointment for Friday fell through... but then we sent them a text inviting them to church! ... no answer... but they came to church!! All three hours too. haha It was great! And they loved it! But yeah... sister Miranda loved relief society. The sisters took care of her and it turns out relief society talked a lot about the book of mormon and she said it answered a lot of questions that she had. And Danny, their son, had a blast chilling with our ward mission leader's son in their class! And bro Miranda was participating in classes and super social with everyone. It was so cool! The bishop was stoked! Yesterday was just a good day. I'll start there... haha

We have continued to have good visits with John. We are doing our best to help him out... it is tricky though... it's just an interesting situation. We have been pretty straight forward with him. And he has told us this week, his goal is to find out if what we say is true. And if it isn't, then he will decide what to do from there. If it is true, then he will make plans to be baptized and he said there is a plan to follow. haha Pretty sweet.

This week, we encountered many many agnostic people. Their favorite phrases are "I don't care," "it doesn't matter," or ... "whatever"... haha It is just so interesting how pervasive the philosophy of "it doesn't matter" is in the world today. There are so many people that we meet who just don't care about God. It is so sad... and dumb. 

Oh! Brother Zhen's daughter got baptized! That was sweet and he baptized her! It was cool! So that was a great way to start our Saturday morning! Then, we went to the mission conference!!! That was awesome! Just a priceless experience! Elder Ballard is awesome! An apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ! So cool! I'll pass on a few notes, but I'll have to be brief - 

Elder  Clayton spoke with him. He talked about the phrase "hear Him." This is my beloved son hear Him! And how we hear Him in our lives. We hear him in our lives when we follow the commandments of the Lord with exactness. We hear him when we serve others. We hear him when we are faithful home and visiting teachers. We hear him when we take time to read the scriptures and pray everyday. We hear him as we are are kind and cheerful in our homes. We hear him when we attend our church meetings and partake of the sacrament. And when we hear Him, we will be happy because we will have the spirit of the Lord with us. Our goal as missionaries, and members too, is to help others hear Him. They hear Him as they keep commitments and things like that. We must help them. 

I liked his message. Over the course of my mission, I have pondered the words which our Father in heaven spoke in the first vision. I have tried to imagine how exactly He spoke. I try to imagine what He emphasized and what kind of tone of voice he used. I can only imagine Heavenly Father speaking to Joseph Smith, pointing to his son, Jesus Christ and saying "this is my beloved son, hear Him!" in the most loving way possible. I imagine that when He says hear Him, He is pleading with people to listen. He testifies that Jesus is the Christ and that following Him is the only way to the celestial kingdom and then, He pleads with us to hear Him. He implores us to listen. He has given us the ability to chose for ourselves but he begs us to choose to follow Jesus Christ. He asks us to do that because He knows how much joy and peace is available if we do. Our best bet is to hear Him in all we do. 

Elder Ballard spoke for about an hour. He spoke about a lot of things that are directed to missionaries. But some applies to you as well. He told us that someone had recently asked him how he does it? How does he keep going? He responded, saying - 'I remember the Savior. I keep a picture of the Savior in my scriptures and whenever I am tired, I pull it out and look at it. I remember Him. There is a phrase in the book of mormon "look and live!" It goes so well with what he spoke about at that point. His picture of Christ was the pass along card of Jesus Christ coming out of the tomb. The one that is taped to the front of my planner at the moment. I love having pictures of the Savior around. I got one once in a Christmas card from the institute at SVU. I really loved that. I still have that picture. I remember taking great care to ensure that it would not be bent or damaged in any way until I got a frame for it. It is on my study desk right now and I look at it everyday. Elder Ballard's words on that topic were a powerful message from an apostle of where the real source of power lies. Elder Ballard relies on the Lord all of the time and we can and should as well. 

Hey I've gotta go! I hope you guys have a great week this week! Sadly, I am out of time... I wish I had more time to talk to you guys... And I will, on Monday. haha Until then, have a great week! 

I love you guys! 

elder hinkle 

May 5, 2014

Hey family!! 

It was great to hear from you guys today! Sorry, I am a little short on time today. Caleb shot me an email so we had to talk a bit. haha It was good to hear from him. Hearing that Coach Johnson is working with USU was sweet! That's awesome! He was the best coach ever. ahh!! That's crazy! I honestly can't wait to play again. I just need to keep myself in the best condition possible so I can jump right back in when I get home. When I get home, I pretty much just want to coach and play. That's the dream. Then, I will play for USU and still get to work with Coach Johnson! That's cool that Jenna is cheering with Ethan's sister. Now, we just need to get Jack playing tennis with Ethan's brother. Jack - I have had great anxiety over you and all of this baseball playing.... and now you are pitching...baseball is not easy on kids. I know you're super good at it but let's be real, you are super good at everything. I don't know... I'm just saying...but the plays dad told me about sounded pretty sick.  Whatever you do, do it well, right! haha Also, good to know that you guys named the dog. hahaha So, I did know that you replaced me with a dog, but I don't think you ever told me its name. haha Sorry. Elder Pail and I had a good laugh about that last Monday. haha I was like "who is that?" haha 

Are you ready for terrible news? ... Elder Pail is getting transferred... it's a bummer. We work pretty well together and there is a ton of good stuff happening here and we have a ton of fun. I don't know the new guy. Elder Christensen. I don't really know anything about him. Hopefully, he is cool too. I'll let you know on Sunday. Oh yeah, Skype Sunday!!! What's up!? I will give you guys a call sometime this week to set it up. Can't wait!!! That's going to be a party! Same drill as last time from what I understand. 1 hour on the dot. haha

Anyway... we have had a fanflippintastic week! Story after story, miracle after miracle! agh! I don't have the time for it all! I wish I could share more of my mission with you guys! It's like the perfect movie - very uplifting, lots of comedy (always clean), some adventure, a little bit of action, and absolutely no romance. Perfect. haha but yeah... 

So I guess I'll start withTuesday - you get the highlights...which are like the best of the best at this point... 

We had one of the best lessons that night! We were over at Sammy's house for the next visit with Rafael. (Sammy's Mom's boyfriend)  I told you about him, right? If not, sorry but I don't have time right now... haha So we taught him and we had a great visit. Long cool story short - last time he asked to learn more. This time we did some htbt (how to begin teaching) and taught about the Godhead and the holy ghost. The spirit was definitely there while we were teaching him. Great guy too. So we are going back tomorrow!!! We will teach the restoration. So yeah, when we taught him this week he made us tacos. They were delicious tacos. 

Wednesday was insane! I thought the earth was being flooded again. It rained all day long. It rained hard! So we were going about our day dreading each time we had to run from the car to a door and get drenched in ten seconds and we got a call from a member who's on vacation in Elder Pail's home town. haha Crazy, right? Before they left, they took a picture of us and then, when they were there, they just happened to meet his girlfriend and yeah...that was weird. But  anyway...they called us and they asked us to go in their house and see if there was any flooding. So they gave us the garage code and we went over. So we go in and we are going into the basement and elder Pail is in front. No lights on. He says, "Alright, I'll find a light switch and then we will look for water." Then, he stepped off the stars into the water. haha The basement was covered. Lots of water....so we helped out as much as we could... but we had an appointment with John so we didn't have too much time. Long story short - it all worked out and we helped. 

The lesson with John that night was interesting.  In answer to a lot of questions he had last week about death and suffering and stuff.  We decided that we needed to help John understand how to find these answers himself in the scriptures and from God. They don't mean as much when they come from two eighteen year olds...haha So we did, under the direction of our ward mission leader and hopefully the holy ghost, we set a plan. Bro Cintron asked us to give him an assignment that was pretty large. And we gave it to him. He said he would do it.  I know that the answers he needs can be found in the scriptures, I just hope that John is ready and he does get them. We meet with him tomorrow night. We told him that the next appointment he is going to just teach us what he learned. The assignment is pretty extensive, so if done properly, he will have learned a lot and tomorrow will be a great visit. The ward council fasted for him this week as well. 

So another highlight is that we are starting a sports night. This last week, we had a trial round. We invited people and it turned out that we had a ton of success. We actually bit off more than we could chew for this first time... haha It was awesome! We had one of our investigators there and he loved it! That was Ryshaun. Everyone calls him Smilie. That's his street name. Everyone really does call him that. haha So that was great! 

Saturday was the best day of the week!!! So we visited brother Zhen. Solid visit. Before that, we had coordination meeting so we needed to make up some study time and prepare a bit. We did that in a gazebo in a park. There was this guy who just finished playing tennis. I chased him down and we had a great street contact. His name is Steven. Hopefully, I talk about him in coming weeks. Then, we went over to the Miranda family. Awesome fam. They invited us over for dominican chicken. It was delicious. We played a game called ice breakers during dinner. Each person essentially gives a short intro for themselves. We laughed a lot and learned a lot about them. Then, we sat on their couch eating these ice cream cones they gave us-butter pecan. Elder Pail's favorite. haha As we sat there licking our ice cream cones, we couldn't believe what was happening. They loved us! Then, conversation turned to God and religion. They are looking for more purpose in life. They have tried many churches but don't feel like the one they currently attend is completely right for them. Both parents had past experience with missionaries. Roger, the dad, told us that he doesn't really know what it means to be a mormon, and he wants to learn. We were stoked! So we offered to teach them and they were excited about it! We will meet Friday! Danny, their son, is coming to mutual Thursday! They are coming to church this Sunday! Boom!! They are excited. We are excited! Our bishop is excited! haha You guys should be excited! hahaha It was a miracle! And this Friday will be awesome! They couldn't make it to church yesterday because their son was really sick. But they will come next week.

Then, yesterday was a blast. We found out elder Pail was leaving. I mean, we got the call, it's not like we didn't all see that coming... haha So we met with a lot of people. And set up even more appointments. He did good work here. The ward will miss him. And I will too... haha

So yeah... those were the highlights of our week! It was fantastic! Now, I get to talk to you guys today and then I will see you at the end of this week. Can it get better than that? Oh! yes it can! We have a mission conference with elder Ballard coming up on May 17th!!!! Whaaat!? I am stoked for that too!!! So we had a good week. A lot happened. 

I will talk to you later this week. I've gotta go.

Love you guys!

elder hinkle

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