Easter Preparations

This week was full of administering rather than ministering, but we
were able to get a little work done still.

8 March
we had Stake Reports. We did it fast so that we could do
some service with Jesse Bennett. after service we had dinner followed
by our weekly meeting with the Stake Presidency.

9 March
we had a long meeting down in Independence. We were there
from about 8-4:30 so, yea, it took a long time. After that we had
to grab some stuff from the mission office before going straight to
dinner. After dinner we had to prepare for a meeting we were going to
have Friday where we take the information we got and condense it
into less than half of the time.

10 March
  We did some studies and We actually worked on this thing we were
building for J. B's birthday. So they have an American flag
in an old window that's hanging on their wall, and we found some old
windows sitting outside of an empty apartment that we were trying one
day so we snagged them, had a member order the marine and "Don't Tread
on Me" flags, bought some ply wood, which the gentlemen were nice
enough to cut to size, and nails and a few other small things and made
these with the two flags inside of the windows!! Haha, innovation.
J has basically become our brother here so we are super pumped to
give them to him. Well, after we finished those
we went to lunch with our ward mission leader to the restaurant of an
investigator of the sisters but they sort of gave him to us to work
with since they have been struggling to visit with Him.  After lunch
we tried to visit a few people and finish getting ready for the
meeting. We had dinner and then a visit with A.

11 March 
  Well, we had zone training in the morning. I
had the opportunity to discuss the power of our calling as
missionaries and the magnitude of that calling. Other trainings were
on preparing lessons, the new Easter Initiative, and the Doctrine of
Christ and its importance, there were a few more as well. The meeting
went well. Afterward we had a good discussion with the sisters about
how we can help the ward out the most. after the meeting our zone had
lunch together which is always a fun experience. Then we went and did
service at the thrift store. Following service we went to the
homecoming party of a returning missionary in our ward. He served in
Chile. It was our dinner for the night and we got to visit with a lot
of members which is always good. We had to bail on the party because
we had a lesson with M. S. where we talked about missionary
work, eternal families, and temples and the work done there.

12 March
  So we had Elder Deschler, the area authority, Elder Willford W.
Andersen of the seventy, he gave the talk The Music of the Gospel last
April in conference, and of course, Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the
quorum of the twelve apostles. The meeting was great. There was a lot,
and I mean a LOT of emphasis on the spirit and its role with our
investigators. Elder Andersen talked about how investigators don't
just need to feel the spirit but to act on it to become converted.
Elder Stevenson talked about the need for us to follow spiritual
promptings. He talked about how we would feel so confident if Elder
Holland was our companion, but we have the Holy Ghost, who knows even
more than Elder Holland does so we shouldn't be afraid at all; I
really liked that part. Something else was, at the beginning they
requested to shake each of our hands, so they stood at the front of
the chapel and we got to shake their hands one by one. All-in-all, it
was an experience I will never forget. From the moment Elder Stevenson
walked into the chapel, I knew he was an apostle of the Lord, no doubt
about it. Well, after the meeting we ended up going to lunch and a ton
of other missionaries showed up, as in, like 30 other missionaries. It
was pretty fun! After lunch we went to the visitors center in
Independence with A. and his friends K. and K. After the
visitors center we basically had to go directly to dinner. After
dinner we had a visit with S. D. where we began
reteaching him the missionary discussions for the new members.

13 March
  We did studies then had our weekly correlation meeting. We had ward
council and then ward choir practice, we are singing "Beautiful
Savior" next week for Easter. Sacrament meeting was really good. The
talks were on faith, family history, and not criticizing/judging. The
Bishop talked on not judging and man it was one of the best talks I've
ever heard! Sunday School was on the Lord's Law for Health. Priesthood
was good, we came in a little late because we introduced the new
Easter video in opening exercises for Priesthood and then for relief
society as well and when we got back we only caught the tail end of
the lesson. After church we tried to contact a few people before
dinner with not much luck. After dinner we had a lesson with a lady we
had talked to the day before on her porch. In the lesson we talked
about what Christ has done for us and what he can do if we allow him
to. We shared the new Easter video and discussed how, through meeting
with us, she will be able to feel the Holy Spirit more and feel Gods
love for her more in her life.

Well, this week was definitely riddled with meetings. The only day
without any meetings or assignments to fill was Thursday - every other
day was partially taken up with some sort of responsibility to do, but
these times come and go. Sometimes we need the attitude of "This Too
Shall Pass" to help us recognize the good times for what they are and
not take them for granted and to see hope in the dark times. I would
like to invite you all to watch the new Easter video at
followhim.mormon.org, and then to share it on social media with a
brief testimony of how you've found new life through Christ with the
hashtag "#Hallelujah". What a great opportunity to proclaim our love
for our Savior. I hope and pray everyone is doing well. Please pray
for S. D. as he is going through a lot of health problems
right now. Take care!

Much love
Elder Hinrichsen

Leap Day

This week was a little rough. It's interesting because we struggled
all week to get anything done, than Sunday, the last possible day, we
found three people to teach, how solid they are is in the air but
three people said we could come back.

2/29/16 LEAP DAY!!
 Monday, the usual p-day stuff, basketball, emailing, shopping,
laundry. After dinner we had a lesson with some investigators, it went
pretty well. We talked a lot about church attendance,

3/1/16
 Tuesday, we had stake reports. We spent most of the day in the
apartment calling companionships. Luckily we finished early and had
some time so we went and did some service. Then we had dinner and
prepped for and had the stake correlation meeting. So on the first
Tuesday of each month, the meeting isn't just with the Stake
presidency, it is with them, the mission presidency, and all of the
ward mission leaders... So there's a little pressure for you! Ahaha,
luckily the meeting went pretty well this week!

3/2/16
  Wednesday, we had to set up miles for our zone for this upcoming
month. After that and studies we had lunch and then went to a lesson
with an investigator, M. The lesson went pretty well, we talked
about the Word of Wisdom and obeying the law. After the lesson my
stomach was a little upset... Uh, oh. I had gotten sick at M's
house the time before and I didn't want it to happen again haha,
luckily it didn't, but after M we had a lesson with S, our
recent convert, the ward mission leader, Brother A, came and the
lesson was going well, until my stomach just turned upside down.
Luckily we were able to end the lesson fast and get home where I was
all kinds of sick... I spent an hour between my bed and the bathroom
before we had to run to a family's house who was having us taste test
a recipe the mom made, I thought I could stomach it, I was wrong. We
ate the food and while I was backing out Elder Hunt gave the taste
tested food back to Mother Nature, so we called our dinner, who's
house we were about to go to, and asked them if we could pick it up to
go, they said yes. So we spent the rest of he night in the apartment,
 with me just dying, it was rough, very rough.

3/3/16
  Thursday, it turned out I just had a gnarly stomach flu on Wednesday
because Thursday was fine. It was transfer day, and we had to
coordinate certain things, missionaries giving up and receiving cars,
and who was driving who where. Well, we had lunch with some of the
missionaries that were in town, the only new missionary there was
Elder Conley's new companion, Elder Booth, whom he's training, so
that's sweet! Well, we gave a blessing to an investigator and then had
to run some missionaries out to Leavenworth, Kansas. Following
dropping them off, we did some weekly planning and then had another
lesson with M, where we talked about the priesthood and how it's
only used to serve others. From the lesson with M we headed to
dinner. well, after dinner, we had a lesson with A, turned out he
had a group of friends there so we taught them all the Plan of
Salvation, that was sweet! After the lesson we went to the same
members house and taste tested the same dish because I demanded a
re-taste since I had thrown up everything I had the day before haha so
we did another test. It passed. After that we visited with a less
active family we are working with and talked about the importance of
the family.

3/4/16
 Friday, studies, followed by service. At service one of the managers
of the thrift store fed us lunch because of all the help we give and
because we're tight with the managers at the thrift store. After
service we changed and spent a long day with little success in trying
to find people, we barely talked with anyone and those we talked to
were very uninterested, es la vida normal. Well, after many attempts
and fails we decided to try and come up with good ideas to find new
people to work with, mainly through ward members because they, or you
I should say, are the key to finding people to teach. And even more
than just baptisms, people's exaltation, and eternal happiness really.
With the members involved, the work is so much more effective! So we
are trying to come up with some good ideas there. Well, anyways, we
had dinner followed by a lesson with S D where we
watched "The Testaments" and discussed the Book of Mormon.

3/5/16
 Saturday, we had studies followed by some service at Hillcrest.
Following service we visited with A. So after A we tried
some people before dinner. After dinner we had a lesson with M.
S., on tithing and fast offerings. The lesson went really well, to
the point where M. asked if he could give tithing before he was
baptized!

3/6/16
  Sunday, fast Sunday; the slowest Sunday of the month. well we had
our missionary correlation meeting which went well. After that we had
ward choir practice, we sounded pretty good! Testimony meeting was a
little rough, some long and drawn out testimonies that's for sure. We
had A come to church and bring a group of his friends which was
great, but not the best testimony meeting to bring them to. After
sacrament those people we had at sacrament left and we had to teach
Sunday school about service, the lesson went pretty well! For
priesthood, S. D. was given the Aaronic priesthood so we
stood in for that, and then apparently, he was able to turn around and
stand in the confirmation of a boy to be a teacher, so that was
awesome! The elders quorums lesson was on focusing on Christ in the
church, which is exactly what was needed! After church we were able to
try knocking some doers in an attempt to find some people to teach. We
were able to come across three people to teach in the future so that
was pretty good! After the finding spree we had dinner with the Bishop
and his family. They invited S. D. over as well which was
super cool! Dinner was great! The Bishop is super awesome! After
dinner we went and chatted with our ward mission leader.

So the week might not seem like it, but it was just a funky week.
Things just didn't seem to click and other things fell through, but
that's the mission life I suppose. It's not meant to be easy. It's
meant to push us, and humble us; both of which come through trial. But
through it all, if we look closely, we can always see the hand of the
Lord. This upcoming week, on Saturday, Elder Gary E. Stevenson, a new
apostle, will be at our mission to soak to us, it's just a short
meeting but he will be here nonetheless, so we are stoked for that!
Hope everyone is doing well and has a great week!

Much Love,
 Elder Hinrichsen

Baptism

2/22/16
  Monday, p-day's it up with some basketball. After that we had
dinner, then a lesson with a family we are working with. It went super
well.

2/23/16
  Tuesday, we did stake reports and ended earlier than we thought we
would, which allowed us to have a lesson with A. It was a good
visit where we cleared us some things he wasn't sure about. After that
lesson, we had dinner with the ward mission leader, followed by the
stake report meeting, and lastly, we had a lesson with S.
D., who should be baptized on Saturday.

2/24/16
  We had district meeting in St. Joseph and to our surprise, President
Sister Vest came, there's a little pressure for ya haha! And to add to
it, Elder Hunt and and I gave a training on ways for finding people to
teach haha well, the training went well, luckily! After the meeting,
the district had lunch together, it's a thing here to have lunch as a
district after district meeting. Well, after lunch we rushed back to
Platte City, to set up for a baptismal interview for Stephen
Duzenberry. We got that set up, and Elders Sutton, Wood, and Conley
came down so Elder Sutton, the district leader, could do the
interview. Well, we had a Spanish family to contact, so Elder Conley
and I went and left the other three and Stephen at the church, and
contacted a Spanish family. We taught the restoration on the doorstep,
it was an alright lesson, but I definitely realized that the Hispanics
are just being "nice" letting us come back and talk to them haha.
After the lesson, we went back to the church and the interview was
over so the other elders left. We then had dinner with the stake
Patriarch, Patriarch Frame. He was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, with
some crazy war stories that he shared with us. After dinner we went
with our ward mission leader to teach a lesson to a woman that we find
while on exchanges by just talking to her while she was on her porch.
She seems very interested. The lesson went well, we taught the Plan of
Salvation, but only got a little over half way done before she asked
us a few questions that she had about the church, which is awesome!
Because it shows that she is attentive and interested!

2/25/16
  Thursday, so we go and work out with J. B. every morning, but
this time, I left with a stomach ache. I wasn't feeling good so when
we came home I ended up blowing chunks. Well, I thought that was it,
so I had breakfast but then, when we started weekly planning I got a
gnarly headache and ended up sick again. Well, we had an appointment,
and I didn't want to cancel, so we went and while we were there I was
fighting my headache and sickness, bad haha. The day before Elder Hunt
had found some peppermint essential oil in the house, and I had heard
that by rubbing a dot on your temples it can help a headache, well let
me tell you, I was emptying that baby on my temples haha, it helped
for a little but then, I accidentally touched around my eye and oh
my... That is pain. My eye starting watering like you couldn't
believe. So we are sitting in this lesson, I had told Elder Hunt to
teach almost the whole thing, luckily we weren't covering much
information, and I need to throw up and me eye is watering
incessantly... Not my favorite experience. Well, by the grace of God,
because there's no other way, I made it through, shared my testimony,
we ended with a prayer and while the member with us and the
investigator were chatting I snuck out the front door and started
vomiting in the grass of the apartment complex and somehow was able to
throw up at the perfect times, thus letting nobody know it was
happening, not to brag, but it was pretty smooth... Well, as smooth as
throwing up in someone's yard can be... After that we went home, and
laid down for a little bit and we finished our planning. The sisters
called and asked us to give their investigator a blessing, so we went
with the ward mission leader, Brother A, and talked with her,
she's going through some hard time, and gave her a blessing. From
there we rushed to dinner before having a visit with S and then
another visit with A, who had some visitors so we taught them the
restoration.

2/26/16
  Friday, we had a visit with S in the morning to hash out the
details of his baptism. After that we went to the church, every
Tuesday and Friday I do a Skype language study with two missionaries
in the zone; one elder, Elder Call, on Tuesday and another, Elder
Conley, on Friday. So I skyped with Elder Conley after which we had
lunch and then did service at the thrift store. After service we went
to the church and set up the room for the baptism Saturday morning.
From there we changed and went to dinner and then to A's house to
talk more with him. If he could get some prayers his way, we'd love
that, he's struggling to overcome a few things right now, so he could
use all the spiritual strength he could get!

2/27/16
  Saturday, we had the baptism of S. D.. Everything went
perfect! I had the opportunity of performing the baptism which was a
great experience. S has some physical challenges so we figured
the baptism would be a little harder to do, but it went perfect! Well,
the service went well as well. The high priest group has been super
involved with S which is awesome to see! Well, after the baptism
we had a lesson with a man we are helping to reactivate. After that
lesson we had lunch and then did some service at the thrift store,
they asked us on Friday to come back and help on Saturday. After
service we spent time trying to find new people to teach before
dinner. After dinner we had a visit with A then we visited with
the B family.


2/28/16
  Sunday, we had weekly correlation meeting, followed by Ward Council,
followed by choir practice. Church was good, sacrament talks were on
two general conference talks "Come What May and Love It" and one on
Integrity. Sunday school was on work and self reliance, the lesson
turned more toward the principle of work which went really well! In
Elders quorum we talked about President Uchtdorfs talk, "It Works
Wonderfully!", that talk is amazing! Well, after church we tried to
visit a few less-active members but had no success. After that we had
dinner and then we went to visit some people who weren't home, too bad
haha. Luckily we were able to contact a few other people.

This week was good, other than Thursday haha. Things are going good in
Platte City but we have transfers this week, yikes!!! We hope we can
both stay and keep the work moving forward! Hope everyone is doing
well! Have a great week!!

"From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success"

Feb 16
 Tuesday, we did stake reports which went way faster than we thought
they would go, so we ended early and went to do some service at the
thrift store before dinner. After dinner we had to run to our weekly
missionary report to the stake. After that we had a lesson with A
and A.S.. The lesson was super good. We had a member with us who did
some super good teaching so he was an awesome team-up.

Feb 17
 Wednesday, district meeting. After which we went on exchanges with
the Parkville Elders. I stayed in Platte City with Elder Katoa and
Elder Hunt went to Parkville with Elder Kelly. We went to a town named
Weston and were able to find a new investigator, we were just walking
down the road, we waved at her, and she beckoned us over to her so we
went and talked for a good half hour about the gospel and set a return
appointment for Sunday, so it was pretty sweet. We had a lesson with
an investigator, it went alright, then we went home and someone
dropped dinner off. After which we had a lesson with S.
D., he is planning on being baptized on the 27th of Feb! After
that lesson we visited with a less active family.

Feb 18
 Thursday, Elder Katoa and I went and worked out with J. B., we
usually work out with him in the mornings. He's a returning member who
is a former marine and when I told him Elder Katoa was coming,
specifically that Elder Katoa is going to play D-I football, he
decided to put us through a "real" workout haha, it was this circuit
of workouts that he called, "Semper Fit" instead of "Cross Fit" it
incorporated like 8 workouts in a circuit that you would do 6 times,
it was intense, but we survived. Well, that morning Elder Katoa and I
had some really good discussions about life and getting to know each
other better, in a nutshell, he's an animal and a stud. Well, we
exchanged back over lunch and, upon returning to Platte City, we had a
meeting, who was supposed to be baptized on the 27th and he had the
baptismal interview and everything. After that meeting, we we and
taught another investigator about the importance of scripture study,
prayer, and attending church. From that lesson we went to dinner and
then had an appointment with another investigator, (A. B.)we
have been struggling with this one recently because there's a lot
going on in his life.

Feb 19
  Friday, well, we went on exchanges again, this time for a struggling
missionary. It was a good exchange! The Elder that came to Platte City
had served here before so he gave us a list of some people to visit
who he worked with. But, we went to a funeral service for a member of
the ward and then went and did some service at the thrift store. After
service, we visited with A and then with some people that the
Elder with me had worked with before. After those visits we had dinner
and from dinner, we had to rush home and put on suits, because... Dawn Armstrong,
from Meet the Mormons, the "Missionary Mom" came to out
church apbuilding and gave a fireside about her life. So we went there
for that. It was amazing! Her story goes so much deeper than Meet the
Mormons shows. She left home when she was 11, and jumped between her
grandmas house and her aunts house-where she saw loads of physical
abuse. She shared the in-depth version of stories that the movie
barely brushes over and, WOW; it's crazy all that she went through.
Saddest story, her baby, Trey, who the movie makes it sound like died
at birth; nope, he was alive and well for about a month before
randomly passing during the night and she woke up to her baby having
slipped away during the night. Anyways, it was heart-wrenching.

Feb 20
 Saturday, we went to a baptism in Leavenworth in hopes that one of
our investigators was going to show up, turns out, he accidentally
slept in; so we were just awkwardly there haha. Well, after the
baptism and the drive home, provided by a sweet brother in the ward,
we met with the investigator who's been struggling recently because
he's overwhelmed with life. We had a few other investigators, they're
all friends, show up and we had a good visit, but the one who's
struggling just decided he would walk home when the other two offered
him a ride, so he left. Well, after we left we called the one walking
and he was feeling depressed so we went where he was, talked with him
and had a good gospel discussion. We went from there to dinner, and
then to visit with S again. Funny thing, we had been trying to
get a team-up to visit with S and we were leaving messages to
people, finally someone said yes, so we went with him; mid-lesson
someone knocks on the door, a brother we had invited showed up, so we
had two members now haha, it was definitely awkward... Well, after
that lesson we tried a few more people.

Feb 21
 Sunday, we had missionary correlation in the morning and we had an
appointment with a friend of A's at his house. After that visit
we had ward choir practice before church. Well, at church, we had like
4 investigators who told us that they would be there not show up, but
that's the mission life. We did have two people show up, however, so
it was awesome. Sacrament meeting was good, talks on conversions to
the Gospel. Sunday school was about spiritual revelation. Well, at the
end of Sunday School, A, who had to leave church to help someone,
got pulled over and because he was driving on a suspended license, he
was taken to jail, so, his friend, K, that was at church with him,
needed a ride to her apartment so we had a member drive her there and
we went with him, so we ended up missing Elders Quorum because
A's apartment was locked and we had to wait with K at the
church to see what was going to happen with A, well, church ended
and we had to go help a family out, so, the ward mission leader,
Brother Arendt, took Kylie to his house with his family and fed her
dinner and talked with her until she was able to get into the
apartment and get her keys to her car. Well, after church, we helped a
family who needed some help getting the light fixtures in their houses
put in the rooms where they go because the electrician comes Monday
and the Dad was leaving Monday morning for a work trip, so they had to
do it today. So after that we went to our dinner with a super cool
fam, then we went with a member to visit the lady that we found while
on exchanges who lived in Weston. We had a good lesson with her,
answering questions, and teaching about the Restoration. She said we
could come back on Wednesday!

Well, this week wasn't too bad. There were a couple of "interesting"
things happen, but they seem to be cooling down for sure, hopefully at
least. We did have quite a few appointments and commitments to attend
church fall through, but, as the song from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"
teaches, "from the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success" haha.
Hope all is well for everyone! We should have S. D.
baptized this Saturday, we are pumped for that! And we did have
another one who was supposed to be baptized but, due to some slip-ups,
won't be until the 5th of March; but it's all good! Take care, love
the Lord, and love each other, there's no room for backbiting or
criticism, it only tears others down. Have a great week!
Much love,
Elder Hinrichsen