28 Weeks

So this week was hot and humid... And walking didn't make it any better.

Tuesday, we went to lunch with the Liberty 1 Elders and a super cool
member who served his mission with Elder Amosa's older brother. He is
a type of doctor who uses small amounts of pressure in certain parts
of the body to alleviate pain - not sure what it's called but it seems
cool. His motivating factor was when he broke his back on his mission
and was paralyzed and didn't tell his mission president for 9 months,
not sure how that was missed (haha). His president found out and he
was set to this type of doctor and he fixed him so that was a cool
story. Then we did our Mormon.org time and tried to contact a few
people. That night we had dinner with the K. family. They are some of
my favorites. Then visited with a young man who had his ACL fixed and
has felt lonely so we visited with him.

Wednesday, we had District Meeting in Independence An Elder trained on
talking with everyone and I trained on the importance of failure, and
learning from it, it was a good meeting. afterwards everyone decided
to go to pizza street, a pizza Buffett, then we went back to Liberty
where we did service at a thrift store with Lib 1 Elders then helped a
member in our Ward clean her front yard. That night we team ups with
an awesome member, Brother F.

Thursday was a rough walking day. We were able to avoid walking most
other days but this day killed!! We walked probably 3 total miles but
we're DRENCHED in sweat, it was bad. Then we got home and dried off, a
little, and the member asked us to pick up dinner, so we had another
member give us a ride to pick it up and then to the Historic Liberty
Jail where I thought we had an appointment but it turns out it was at
the church. We walked home from the church and ate dinner because
we didn't have time to before.

Friday we had a lesson with an investigator and tried a few other
people. We had dinner with a family we are working with on coming
back to church - they have been two times in a row!! After dinner we
went around their neighborhood and talked with people we saw and gave
invitations to the baptism the next day, it was another sweaty day!!

Saturday we went with a member to Sams Club to buy ingredients for
Pizza because Elder Anderson's family owns a pizza restaurant in Utah
and the member said we could make pizza at his house so we went to
Sams Club with him early in the morning and got the things we needed.
Then we came home and Liberty 1 dropped by after their exchange ended
so we saw them, we were making a lot of bacon for this pizza party
thing so the whole house smelled like Bacon, and then... "Elder"
Elwood dropped by with his family, it was so good to see him! After
that, they left, and we ate lunch with Lib 1 at our apartment, then we
tried out a few people before going to make pizza at the members
house, it was really fun and some good pizza. We made 3 kinds: meat
lovers with bacon, ham, pork and onion; a hawaiian with ham,
pineapple, peppers, onion and bacon; and a bbq pork with bbq sauce
instead of red sauce, pulled pork, and bacon... All these had
mozzarella cheese on top. Then we went to the baptism for the two
young girls in our Ward, and Elder Anderson and I were the witnesses.

Sunday we had ward council. In sacrament we had a missionary farewell
for a girl, Rachel Untch, who will be going to serve in Ogden, Utah.
The whole meeting was about the sacrament. For Sunday School we went
with the youth, the lesson was about the sacrament, also, then
Priesthood, with the Elders Quorum, was about, Marriage and Family.
After Sacrament we contacted a few potential investigators before
dinner then continued to do the same after.

This week was good. It was definitely warm and we sweat a LOT, but
it's over with. HALLELUJAH!! Anyways, hope you are all doing well,
have a great week!

Elder Hinrichsen

6 months in!!!! He's completed a quarter of his mission!

This week was great!

Monday I experienced my first tornado, not really but kind of. We had finished Pday and realized that we had left our phone at our house so we cut out early. We saw a few missed calls and noticed a tornado warning. One of the missed calls was from our dinner appointment, who, when we called back, told us to get to his house ASAP, because a tornado was set to touch down 5 minutes from then, so we rushed to his house in our sweaty pday clothes until the storm passed and we had dinner with him and his family which was there, a few of his grown daughters and their kids who were there. So, yes, the tornado touched down and ravaged a few neighborhoods, we have been rebuilding houses all week and have seen so many miracles from it... NO - just kidding! the tornado touched down in the Walmart parking lot for a few seconds, took a few cart racks for a ride, then went back up into the cloudy sky, no real damage, no service opportunities haha, no cool story, we just hung out in a member's basement until it all passed.

Tuesday was my 6 month mark! Wow, it's hard to believe that 6 months , well a little over now, have passed since I left, and while I still have a lot to go, this has been the most trying and rewarding 6 months of my life! Well, that day we helped the Elders in the Liberty 1 Ward move into their new apartment, that took most of the day. We were still, however, able to visit two less active members, which was great! It wasn't too eventful of a day.

Wednesday we had district meeting, but I had not prepared a training, which I wanted to be on simplicity, so I did it that morning. The three trainings in the meeting were on: listening to investigators, adjusting our teaching to meet the needs of investigators, and teaching simply. We tried to visit a few people after the District Meeting but weren't able to really contact anyone, but we were able to visit and share a message with a part member family.

Thursday, we did service for a member in the Liberty 1 Ward, we laid some sheet rock for them because they own a counseling firm and we'e moving to another location - which is where we were doing the service and that took up most of the day. It was Elder Winingers birthday who is an Elder in the Lib 1 Ward and neither of us had dinner so we showered and changed after the service and went and made musubi, which is spam sushi (which Elder Amosa, the other Lib 1 elder, a Polynesian) knows how to make. After that we went to dinner at Tasty Thai, a delicious Thai restaurant then had correlation at the Historic Liberty Jail.

Friday we did our Mormon.org time. After that we had a lesson with Danny Flexer about the CPR of the Gospel, which stands for Church, Prayer, and Reading the scriptures, the lesson went well. After that we had dinner with a less active family who made it to church Sunday so that was AWESOME!! Then we tried to visit a few people but had no success.

Saturday we went with a member, Brother A., to do some service for a big project called "Project Shine." It is put on by some organization where they go to all different schools in Independence and paint classrooms, plant plants, etc. to make the school nicer. Our Ward was assigned to Truman High School so we went there and painted 3 classrooms before cutting out. After that we went to Brother A's house and moved and edged his lawn then talked for a little. While we were cutting his grass we got a message from a member of the Bishopric asking us to speak THE NEXT DAY!! So we said yes, they know the missionaries have to say yes haha. Then we went and visited with a less active family. After dinner, we went to a farewell party for a girl who will be leaving on her mission soon to serve in Ogden, Utah. 

Sunday we spent the majority of the morning writing our talks, we both spoke along with the sisters. We weren't given topics so the sisters spoke on obedience and the CPR of the Gospel which, again, is Attending Church, Prayer, and Reading scriptures. Elder Anderson spoke on Enduring to the End and I spoke on the Atonement. I thought it was a pretty good sacrament. For Sunday school we went and helped the P's start their family history work. For Priesthood we went with the Priests who had a lesson about the importance of Ordinances. After church we tried out a few people and were able to find a new investigator whom we had tried to talk to a few weeks earlier and had given us his phone number and said to try again in a few weeks, so that was awesome! Then we had dinner with one of the greatest families ever, the K. family, they recently got back from a vacation to Alaska and brought back a lot of fish so they fried some of it up for dinner, it was delicious!! After dinner we taught a young man in the Ward a youth lesson.

This week has gone by fast! I hope it went by quickly for everyone else too! Thanks for all of the love and support you give me all of the time. I pray for you daily, and love you tons! Have a great week! Love you!

 Seth

Week 26

This week was good.

Tuesday we found out that one of our investigators (who was at a rehab
in Smithville which was 40ish minutes away) moved back into his house in our
ward boundaries. He was in the rehab for a surgery that he had. So
that was some great news to hear! But we got our Mormon.org time done,
then we visited some potential investigators. Then we went home and
waited for our dinner to show up, it was supposed to be delivered
pizza but the order got screwed up so we ended up waiting for like two
and a half hours because of that. So that took the entirety of the
night...

Wednesday we were asked to fast by our mission president because the
numbers of the mission have been declining for a few months and the
MLC, which is some of the leadership of the mission, was going to
discuss solutions to the decline in numbers... Well we decided to
fast. So we went to an appointment that morning and were offered ice
cream by a member who was working an ice cream truck and we took it
without a second thought and started eating before we realized.... We
were fasting haha... So that ruined that experience. But anyways. We
went to a neighborhood and walked around for about an hour - street
contacting - with little success. We visited with some members in
the neighborhood. Then we visited with a few less actives and had
dinner and the last new member lesson with the P.family. So, they are
home free... Just kidding, we will keep visiting with them and helping
them get other things done.

Thursday we were able to meet with the investigator in our Ward who
had moved back into our boundaries. We talked with him about the Book
of Mormon and the whole story behind it. He committed to read it and
pray which was awesome. After that we visited with a member in our
Ward who we are having fellowship a part member family, or trying to
at least. In hopes of a potential baptism. After that we went to
dinner at an awesome family's house! I got to share the
dinner message in Spanish which was cool since I don't get much
practice in this ward. After dinner we had to go make a progress
record then had correlation at the Historic Liberty Jail.

Friday we had zone training in the morning, it lasted a few hours. It
was about what the MLC had decided was the solution for decreasing numbers
within the mission. We needed to
focus more on the Atonement of Christ, and we need to work with
the members more. I gave a short training on dinner messages and how
we can more effectively use them as a missionary tool. After that we
went to lunch. After lunch we went home and had about an
hour and a half before we had to go to dinner, so we tried to visit a
few less active members before going to dinner with a less active
family who we have been fellow-shipping and have showed a lot of
interest in coming back to church!! After dinner we tried to visit a
few people and called it a night.

Saturday was the FOURTH OF JULY!!!! we had a ward breakfast at church,
pictures will be below. After the breakfast some members started
playing a basketball game of knockout so I had to jump in, naturally.
the we helped some members in the Liberty 1 ward move a mobile home,
but we had to cut out early to make it to our dinner. So we ate at 2, then went
with some members and played some soccer for a few hours, which was
really fun!!! After the soccer we had to rush and go change because we
had to help 'usher' at a concert for an LDS family down in
Independence. We didn't really do anything but stand around. Our
Mission President attended the concert but asked that we were back
proselyting by a certain time so we had to cut out once everything started. We
went back and realized we were both starving so we grabbed some food
and went home to eat, we watched a few fireworks from our apartment,
but that's the extent of the night.

Sunday we had ward council which we usually report at the beginning
then are excused, but today we sat through the whole thing because the
sisters in our Ward were on shift at the Historic Liberty Jail  so
they couldn't go until later but we weren't told that we didn't have
to go until the end and we sat awkwardly through the entire meeting
with little relevance to us. Sacrament was okay. It was the
stereotypical sacrament that we don't want investigators to attend...
The first testimony after the bishopric member was about blood moons
and the second coming, so that was fun. Sunday School was about
fasting and the role it plays. well for the third hour everyone but
primary was combined to talk about the church's statement in the gay
marriage vote. We dipped out early to set up for the break the fast
activity, which went great! After that we visited with 2 less active
members and an active member family before teaching a youth lesson to
a young man in our Ward.

So this week was pretty good, we are still struggling to find
investigators. But I hope everyone is doing well. Hope you have a good
week!

Elder Hinrichsen