May 16, 2016

This week we got a lot done


5/10/16 Tuesday
     So it was Elder Howells birthday and his companion and him had to
come up to Olathe for something so we went to a Mexican restaurant,
Bonito Michoacan for some fantastic street tacos. Well, missionary
work can't be all play; we had to do stake reports for the next few
hours until our appointments started for the evening. We met with a
recent convert here, I.P., and were supposed to review the Plan of
Salvation, but we ended up having to sit in their garage outside
waiting for their parents to get back, which just turned into us
playing soccer with them and having a quick lesson on the Plan of
Salvation. Later, we taught two of the youth, W and N, because
their mom wants us to teach them the lessons. The visit went alright,
they didn't seem too engaged but are super cool kids. We had one last
appointment with another recent convert, W.W., who's wife
and kids are members and he was recently baptized.

5/11/16 Wednesday
     We went to district meeting in Paola, Kansas and then went on
exchanges. I stayed in Olathe with Elder Davis and Elder Gill went to
Paola with Elder Roberts. It was an awesome exchange. Elder Davis is
Spanish speaking and the thing is, that every contact or lesson we had
was in Spanish, which was pretty sweet. We talked to a super cool guy
on his driveway and he started asking some perfect questions about
life after death and forgiveness, it was insane. We left him a Book of
Mormon and hoped to meet with him again. We were able to have a little
lesson with two other recent converts, E and M, and talked
about the importance of the priesthood. The last lesson was with an
investigator who we've struggled to meet with, and actually, this was
the first time I'd ever say town and had a lesson with him. We
discussed the whole purpose of our visits and put it in terms of
helping them to feel the spirit more in their lives and come closer to
Christ, it seemed to go pretty well.

5/12/16 Thursday
    We exchanged back in the morning and then did some language study
before having lunch. We hit up some weekly planning to set us up for
success next week, hopefully. And tried to contact some people. Our
only appointment was that night with a man, J.B., whom the
missionaries have been meeting with for a long time. We discussed the
importance of faith and not just proclaiming to have it.

5/13/16 Friday
   We had another exchange, this time with the elders in the Red
Bridge ward. I went to Red Bridge with Elder Townsend, who is now one
of my lifelong homies, and Elder Gill stayed in Olathe with Elder
Torrico. Elder Townsend is such an awesome guy! We had an insane talk
about basically the importance of centering things on the Savior and
then about how some people are able to be more sensitive to the
Spirit. We were able to talk to a few people that day and set up a
return time for a lady, but didn't teach any lessons.

5/14/16 Saturday
   Luckily for us, we had three appointments that night . We had an
appointment with an investigator, R.V. and her husband and
children, but we got a message that a family in our ward, who is super
good friends with them, was having them over for dinner and invited us
to go as well! So that happened later. But during the middle of the
day, we spent trying to contact people and set up appointments for the
coming week. Well, at the dinner we were supposed to eat quickly and
then watch a general conference talk from President Hinckley, but we
ended up taking a little longer to eat and didn't even make it to the
video, at least not while we were there, we found out that they
watched it later. But while we were eating the families started
talking about Joseph Smith and ended up setting up plans to go to the
Historic Liberty Jail the next day so that was pretty cool! However,
we did have to cancel an appointment because we were at the house for
too long, luckily the man said he was busy anyways and probably
couldn't meet. But from the dinner we rushed to the house of a lady
and her husband where her 10 year old brother, L, stays on the
weekends. L is not a baptized member and so we wanted to work with
him. He has been taught all the lessons in the past and has been to
church multiple times, we were just going to see what his thoughts
were. Well, to preface the story, in the Olathe 1 ward there has been
a strand of 18 consecutive months with someone on baptismal date for
that month, as in someone on date for 18 months in a row; well, in May
we have had nobody and with the requirements to be clean from all Word
of Wisdom concerns for two weeks and to attend church twice,
technically, to have someone on date was impossible at that point...
But, "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God."
So we had an awesome visit with L, he expressed his fear of water
and how he almost drowned when he was younger and so we helped him
understand that someone would be with him and that the water wouldn't
be tall and we told him we would show him the font the next day. So at
the end we asked him if he wanted to pick a date, wait and see, or not
get baptized; the kid himself chose to pick a day and we were going to
go for a day in June, which would have broken the streak of
consecutive months with someone on date, but because of the fact that
L is leaving in the beginning of June to visit family, we had to
set the day for May 28th! Luckily he has been taught everything and
been to church but wow, that was an insane visit! We went in thinking
we would maybe discuss baptism in June and then his sister and her
husband we super encouraging and we clarified some things and we might
have a baptism in two weeks! Miracles happen once in a while if you
believe...

5/15/16 Sunday
   We had L attend church and we showed him the font afterward
which helped him feel super comfortable. He thought it wasn't even
deep and so it seemed to ease his worries. Well, the talks and the
entire sacrament program were all about the restoration of priesthood,
so the Aaronic priesthood boys did all the talks and even sang a
musical number. Sunday School was about the importance of faith in
Christ. Priesthood was about the Book of Mormon. Well after church we
were able to go to the Historic Liberty Jail with the G family and
the D family, which is R.V. and her fam. The tour was
good, long, but good. They enjoyed the history of the jail and
learning more about Joseph Smith's experience there. The jail is a
super powerful place to be. There is such a spirit of reverence there.


This week was awesome! We were able to put someone on date for this
month and  find a few new people to work with so we are super excited!
I hope y'all are doing well! Much love!

Elder Hinrichsen