Elder Hinrichsen in Missouri: Week 4

So this week went by fast, they all seem to know. But on Wednesday our Zone and most other people going to the states have service, the first two weeks we cleaned the cafeteria and made a bunch of beds in the dorms... which is fun but we all really wanted to "host" the new missionaries, and you don`t volunteer for that, you are chosen... so Elder Gibb and I wanted to talk to someone about doing it, the same day we talked to someone about doing it, one of the leaders of the CCM came into our class and asked us to do it, tender mercies folks... its really nice because usually for service you have to change into gym clothes but we don`t, we just walk to the where the new missionaries come in dressed up and greet them, and help them take their stuff to their casa`s. Our service time is from 2-3:15 and most of the missionaries come around 5 so last week we had 3 hermanas and 1 elder come during our period, so while they were being orientated (i just made that word up) the 4 elder in our branch moved 60 boxes of bibles up some stairs... thats right folks, stone age carried them up, because some other missionaries had gotten stuck in the elevator another time, it was funny we just kept joking, "i think i like the Book of Moron better" because of how heavy they were, while we were doing this, the 4 hermanas in our district learning how to help the newbies (thats our term for them) email home on their first day telling mom when P-day is... thats REAL tough... Then after we were done taking boxes upstairs, we had to bring bags, each one with: two preach my gospels, a book about the CCM, three language books, and one book the size of a textbook, and we had to bring about 40 of those downstairs, so, as boys, we made a competition out of it, and naturally, I won, i carried 9 in my right hand, the game was to see who could carry the most in one hand... fun stuff, after we did this the new missionaries were ready to be taken to their casa`s and we had to do that too haha, but we really loved this whole thing, dripping in sweat, and out of breath it was so fun doing the service!! This week we are doing it againtomorrow at 2 but there are supposed to be a decent amount of new elders so were really excited to actually have something to do and not just carry boxes around! Then Thursday we did what is called TRC, this is where you teach members of the church from around the area that come and volunteer to be taught, we taught a man who really loved correcting us on our pronunciation, about how we can receive answers to our prayers, through the holy ghost but also searching the scriptures, we had a scripture and he made us read it and then corrected us, he told me i speak VERY GOOD spanish, which was really cool!! After we teach them they write a little review, he wrote that he saw a love in our faces that knew we would carry into the mission field! that was also awesome!! I think thats what ive really learned here, all of our lessons with our "investigators" go really well (our investigators are really are teachers, and we just started teaching each other) and the spirit is SOOO strong in our lessons we are so guided and aided by God, but its truly because we have a love of the person we are teaching, for example, the other day we were running out of time and our investigator felt that God didnt love him because his life was hard, and I had read earlier in Ecclesiastes 3:10 about trials are for our growth, so i opened my bible and it opened right to the page of the scripture, i havent been able to to it since hahaha. But I feel we are guided by the spirit for one reason, we are humble, we know we cant really speak a lot of spanish! but we have a genuine compassion for the person were teaching and as ive heard somone say, No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care... THAT IS SOMETHING EVERY SINGLE PERSON NEEDS TO KNOW BEFORE THEY GO ON A MISSION the spirit will only guide you if you have the right motives, that you TRULY want to help people come unto Christ... Saturday we started our fast after lunch and fasted until lunch on Sunday, and honestly, i felt that it wasnt really difficult at all, yet again, Tender Mercies, testimony meeting was super spiritual, i bore my testimony about my favorite scriptures Isaiah 53:3-5 which is also in Mosiah 14:3-5 and talked about how we are to tell people of the Saviors love and sacrifice for them, our priesthood class was about divine potential, something our Branch president loves to talk about, and he puts it into a really cool perspective, he said "if a cat has children they are... kittens, if a rabbit has children they are... rabbits, and if God has children they are... Gods" it just makes sense! its great our class with the MTC president was about specific prayer, and how we need to be very specific when we talk with the Lord with what we ask for he told some cool stories of his own experience with specific prayer... it was super funny because he was running out of time and he said "i only have 1 minute but i have another story to tell you... so we will take 6 more minutes, i can do that, i am the MTC president, no?" everyone just erupted into laughter it was hilarious! The devotional was about how we need to have faith, and was by the CCM director, Hermano Cates, one of the greatest things he taught about was how when he went on his mission he struggled not focusing on home, then talked about how when we have faith, we forget about our life and trust that the Lord has a better life in store for us all, it was great. Then the movie we watched was the Restoration movie, about Joseph Smith... i love that movie.Monday we didn't do much special, we taught each other for the first time which was fun and our investigators are Elder Cheney and Hermana Larsen, who have taken the roles of friends from home Cheneys person is HARD he believes that science is how everything was created and i told him that i love science and i know that everything proves that there is a God he asked how and i showed him the scripture in Alma 30:44 that say all things denote their is a God. It was really cool. The spirit works in mysterious ways!! Its great being out here, i love every minute of it. Love you all, Have a good week,

Elder Hinrichsen