Transfers week…again!

So I actually wrote down interesting things so I could remember what to email about this week.

The first thing is this: If you have the missionaries over for dinner, don't serve corn on the cob. We keep eating corn on the cob at dinner appointments, and not that I don't like it or anything, but it gets everywhere and I get it stuck in my teeth so I can't smile or talk without feeling awkward. It's just further proof that corn is evil.

Next: Sister Loveland said she's going to name her first daughter Libby, and I told her I was going to write home about it to make it official. Now she can't back out. Haha, Sister Loveland, haha. Oh, speaking of that! I've met TWO people named Libby in this stake, and they aren't old ladies!! Or dogs!! So that was cool.

The other night we were meeting some different families in a gated community we're over and we went to the house of a family who weren't members. The man answered and we talked to him for a while and I thought to myself "He's got a weird accent," because it sounded familiar but I could NOT place it, but I figured it was somewhere back east. So I asked if he'd always lived in Utah and he goes "Oh,no, I'm from West Virginia".  HE'S FROM CLARKSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA! WHAT?  Sister Loveland and I both went crazy because that has NEVER HAPPENED MY ENTIRE MISSION. Sometimes people don't even realize that WV and regular VA are different places. Or they drove through at some point going to North Carolina or something. So anyways, I told him I was from Buckhannon and he knows lots of people from there and he said that he knows some Hinkles and so anyways, that was awesome. We probably stood on his porch for a good 10 minutes. He said we could come back in a couple of weeks when his wife's back was healed because she just had surgery. Wahoo!!!! Sister Loveland and I figured I'd be getting transferred this week, but after meeting him, we think I'm going to stay. YEAH! We are always led to those we are meant to find!

On Wednesday our mission is getting 30 new sister missionaries from the MTC, so I have a good feeling that either Sister Loveland or I will be getting a brand new companion in a couple of days. We find out tonight! Because Mondays are days the call people and let them know if they're training or not.

OH! Hey! I just remembered. We took a family we're teaching up to Temple Square the other day and as we were leaving, guess who was walking in?! Sister Hansen and some of her kids and another girl from the Clarksburg stake, WHAAAT? They walked into the South Visitor's Center and we ran in after them and got to talk for a while. That was so weird!! They're the first people I've bumped into my entire mission! The timing was so crazy! Had I been 20 seconds later I'd never have seen them.

The lesson at temple square with that family was great though!!! We prayed that we would have the right Sisters sent to the lesson to help us teach, and we did! They are so excited to follow the Savior!

On Saturday Austraia got baptized! It was amazing, there were a TON of people there from the 7th ward and from the YSA ward to support her. She started crying when she came out of the water. It was so special for her. She knows how important that decision is. Then yesterday she got confirmed and recieved the Gift of the Holy Ghost and later she told us that she'd never felt that kind of happiness before. She was also asked to share her conversion story with the Relief Society and she stood right up and bore a beautiful testimony of prayer and how God really does answer us. She knows that Jesus Christ is real and that we can be cleansed by His Atonement. She was totally unafraid to stand up and talk. She is so so so special, and I am so excited to teach her the new member lessons!

Jayde is getting baptized this week!!! She is ALSO so so so special!! We love her a LOT.

We had a really great zone meeting last Thursday and we talked about how unified our zone is and how because we have the Spirit in our zone, we've been having all kinds of success and finding the ones who we were meant to find and help. God loves each of His children, and He will guide us to those who we can help if we listen to the promptings of the Spirit. Whether or not we're full time missionaries, we can receive that help.

Last thing I want to mention is the RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF SNAILS THAT ARE HERE. They're everywhere, and the other evening we found a ton of little teeny baby snails!! They were so cute! Some were smaller than my finger nails.

So anyways

I love you! Be happy!

Sister Hinkle

baby snails!!!!!!! They turned out a little blurry though :(

This is a dog we met named Darla

 Riverton YSA Elders (Sturgell and Henderson) that taught Austraia, Austraia and us in front of a picture of Jesus

Miracles, banana popsicles, and Texas Roadhouse

Every week goes by way faster than the last. We've been having a lot of meetings recently. Last week we had Elder Clark of the 70 come and speak to us. I was terrified to shake his hand because I figured he would peer into my soul and send me home or something, haha. But he was really nice and it was a great meeting! It was from 8-4 and we learned all kinds of things about better relying on the Lord, reaching goals, and strengthening the trust between auxiliaries and missionaries. I think the greatest thing that I learned from  the meeting was how we really need to learn on the Lord for support. Our best isn't really our best. We need to be exerting every effort and taking every opportunity to really fulfill our purpose. Every single soul is precious to Him and to our Heavenly Father and we need to remember that every time we look at someone. He will not let us fail. Something President Chambers said at the meeting was "we love the unlovable, teach the unteachable, and change the unchangeable" we can do that as we do missionary work. Fear and faith can not coexist, we must be fearless as we do the things the Lord asks us to do.

That being said, today when we got to the church building to do our emails, we got to the door to find a homeless guy! He was sleeping, but he understandably woke up with 4 sister missionaries walking towards him. We introduced ourselves and got to know him and it turns out he was on a flight from California to somewhere and got stuck in Salt Lake City and he needed to get to the jail to get his clothes or something. ANYWAYS, it was so cool! Because we ended up talking to him about how loved he is by Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We told him about how studying the scriptures and living the Word of Wisdom can bless his life and we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and some pamphlets about the Restoration and the Word of Wisdom and we said a prayer with him. He was really touched! We were meant to find him.

So a boy named Kaden that Sister Snyder and I were working with back in WJ got baptized last Saturday! We were in shock because we put him on date probably 4 times and nothing worked out. We were able to attend his service and it was amazing! His whole family was there and they were all SO HAPPY!!! Sister Snyder and I got to help Sister Osa and Sister Stewart teach the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ while he and his grandpa were getting changed. I love going back and seeing the people from my last area.

We also got a call Saturday night from the YSA Elders, it turns out one of their investigators wants to go to the family ward instead of the young single adult ward, so we get to teach her now and we're in charge of her baptism this Saturday! We sat with her in Church yesterday. She is so happy and excited about joining the Church.

Another girl named Jayde that we're teaching is going through a really round situation right now. Her little sister has Leukemia, and her whole family is really hurting. She came to Church yesterday and you could just see how the Spirit was touching her heart. She had tears streaming down her face at different times in the meeting when Jesus Christ was being talked about. She knows that He is real, and she knows she can turn to Him and to us and others around her while she's hurting. I really love her a lot.

We spoke in first ward yesterday, the whole stake presidency showed up for that sacrament meeting and before we got up the stake president got up and told the whole ward how much he trusts us and knows we were meant to be in this stake. He really loves us and I was flabbergasted by how much the stake presidency wants us involved in leadership meetings, and how much faith they have in us. But everyone paid attention during the talk (which was on missionary work, so I was happy because usually when people hear we're speaking on missionary work they immediately stop listening).

Speaking of our stake president! He's over all the cars in the Church! He works in the Church office building. We had a doctor appointment downtown the other day and his wife took us. After the appointment she said "Hey! He get's off work in a couple of minutes and wants to see you two!" So we just walk through the parking garage over to the church office building like ain't no thang and walk in and just stand there and he comes out and he goes, "Hey! I'm going to show you the Apostles' cars!" and so we leave and walk over across the parking garage to the Church administrative building or whichever building it is and he's all "And that's the car Elder Holland drives, and there's President Eyring's car, and that's usually where President Monson's car is" and Sister Loveland and I are just standing there like, how did this even happen? And then President Eyring walks out and gets into his car and drives off and we're just standing there looking at each other like did that really just happen? My life is so weird.

In other news we went to a barbecue at the RCCC (elderly home) on Saturday, where I was introduced to something called Creamies. It's a type of popsicle. They have a banana flavor, and trying it was one of the best decisions of my LIFE. I ended up eating 4 of those things. I regret nothing.

A family brought us to eat dinner at the Texas Roadhouse last week, too. It was a little too loud and crowded for me. But the family we ate with is one of favorites, so that made up for it. Later that night they were walking down their street with us and their neighbor saw us and he yells "Yeah! That's right, we're walking with the missionaries. We're pretty much the most righteous people on this road!" I think that might be my favorite line of his.

Anyways, that's my week! Miracles are everywhere! There is nowhere I'd rather be and nothing I'd rather be doing that here in the SLC South mission, being a missionary, doing the Lord's work.

Have a happy week!!!

Love,

Sister Hinkle

I am seriously running out of email subject lines

HEEEEY everybody!

So this past week we found lots of people to teach!! My favorite person to teach right now is a less active 17 y/o girl who's currently living in a foster home. She's awesome!!! She's meant to do great things. We know she's going to go on a mission, even if she can't see it in herself. She doesn't realize how powerful her testimony is and how special she is. We were meant to find her, the Lord has a lot in store for her. Every time we have a lesson the Spirit is SO strong, we can see her growing and learning more and more and becoming more enlightened every time we see her. And more than that, she's happier every time we see her. She's started reading the scriptures every day and she's started praying again. I can't believe the change the gospel makes in everyone's life who gives it a try. The Lord blesses us for our efforts.

Sister Osa told me that a boy I was teaching back in WJ is getting baptized this weekend!!! Hurray! I've been teaching him since back when Sis Snyder and I were together. We're super excited for him. We've gone to the RCCC (an assisted living facility in our area) a lot lately. It's so much fun visiting with the residents. Old people are my favorite kind of people.

Yesterday Sister Loveland and I were asked to attend a stake priesthood leadership meeting and got to sit on the stand and all that. Our stake presidency is super missionary minded and they like to include us in a lot of things. It was weird being the only sisters in the whole meeting, haha. We've also been asked to speak in first ward this Sunday. WOOOOO!

I've been reading a lot in Ensigns lately. Those magazines are way cooler than I every gave them credit for. I've also been getting a lot more from the scriptures lately. The scriptures are such an amazing tool that God has given us to learn from. In almost every blessing that I've gotten on my mission it's mentioned the importance of the scriptures and how they can help me and how I can find answers to my questions there, and especially in the past few weeks I've seen that happen over and over and over again.

Family history keeps coming up everywhere around here. We've been teaching a lot about temples and family history and people have been talking about it in meetings and at dinner appointments and things. Soooo, do your family history work! People are waiting for you to find their names and have saving ordinances performed for them!

I've also been studying out of the gospel principles manual recently. I am learning a TON. I can't believe there are all of these books I've had around my whole life and I never bothered to look at any of them. THERE IS SO MUCH KNOWLEDGE I MISSED OUT ON.

Miracles are happening everywhere!!! We are continually being led by the Spirit.

We have a mission tour this week, which means a general authority is coming to speak to us or something on Thursday. Or Wednesday. I should probably look at my planner. But anyways, we're excited about it!

Something fun the elders in my zone started doing was passing Books of Mormon to each other if our cars are in reaching distance when we're all driving to a meeting at the mission office and we're stuck in traffic. We almost died laughing the first time we saw them do it. It's probably one of those things that are more funny when you see it in real life than when you're reading about it.

Okay, well that's all I can think of.

I love you! Be happy!

Sister Hinkle

-I can't remember something funny Sister Loveland said, but I know at some point she said something laugh-at-worthy

Yay puppies! 

Pictureeeeeeees

My Last district in WJE - Elders Kennedy, Flinders, Despain, Alvarado

More realistic picture of my last district in WJE... I don't know why it went so dark

Tennesse

Okay, so I don't know if I mentioned this in a previous email, but Tennessee is coming up everywhere and it's starting to freak Sister Loveland and me out. It all started with that man from a few weeks ago back in WJ from there that we taught. Now we see cars with TN license plates, people are moving here from TN, the Sister who took over my last area is from there, people talk about it in their cars and at dinner appointments or they have family that just moved there and we have no idea WHAT it means, but we're taking it as a sign that all the people we're teaching from there are ready. WEIRD.

Anyways, last Monday we were able to go to and see Justin get baptized! Last Saturday I got to go back to WJ and see Lexi get baptized! Wahoo! West Jordan is on fire, and so it South Jordan, Sister Loveland and I taught 13 lessons last week and it's going to keep on going up! We have three progressing investigators and we're hoping to pick up more here in the next couple of days!

We had zone conference last Wednesday, so our regular Tuesday morning district meeting was cancelled. Then Monday night we get a text that we were going to have a zone meeting, and we were like "oh, okay weird" and when we got there our zone leaders told us that our zone was in charge of the musical number for zone conf the next day and we were all singing "I Feel My Savior's Love" as the opening song. So that was kind of exciting.

Our zone conf was awesome. It was about the worth of a human soul. We talked a lot about how much our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ really REALLY love each one of us, no matter what we've done, or where we've been. They are always ready to welcome us back. We also talked a lot about the phrase "Come follow me" and how we as missionaries have already come to the Savior by coming out on missions, but now it's time to follow Him. We can follow Him best by being obedient to His commandments and to mission rules. Something he mentioned was about how in the Utah Salt Lake City South mission we are pioneers of missionary work, he said "if we figure it out here, the rest of the world will follow". I thought that was really interesting, because it's one of those things people tell you to make you feel better about serving in SLC, but then when your mission president says it, it just means more.

Looking over my notes, there are three things stood out to me as I'm writing this that I just want to include:

"Understanding the worth of others' souls will be the source of my success in life"

"True beauty comes from righteousness"

"We can become like Him. We can see that we have divine potential, we are created in His image. We are gods in training."

We started teaching a really REALLY funny less active family that wants to come back to Church. We were talking about hard thing that we have to go through in life, and one of the suggestions the husband gave was "being too attractive...I really struggle with that" and we completely lost it. We laughed the whole way through that lesson. Reverently laughed, of course. ;)

We went on exchanges Fri-Saturday and Sister Prenatt form Fairmont came here while S Loveland went to another stake. We had a really fun time! She told me about things that had been happening in our stake back home since I've left. It's weird how life just goes on without you when you're on a mission, haha. We helped a woman get ready to move and she gave us all the jenga blocks we found. I was ecstatic. We played extreme jenga when we got home with the 2+ games worth of blocks we got.

Yesterday S Loveland and I saw some peacocks walking around in one of the neighborhoods. Also, we went to ward council in 9th ward yesterday morning and everyone sang "Country Roads" to me. My life is so funny.

I was reading the Ensign a few days ago and came across an article about how we can let our light shine to the world and about how others who are sensitive to that light  will be inspired to seek greater light themselves. There's a part I really liked from it that says,

"We do not serve our Savior very well if we fear man more than God... We are called to establish the Lord's standards, not to follow the world's. Elder John A Widtsoe declared, 'We cannot walk as other men, or talk as other men, or do as other men, for we have a different destiny, obligation, and responsibility placed upon us, and we must fit ourselves to it.''

That combined with the zone conference makes me think a lot about how each person is a child of God. We need to help each other remember who we are, and not only that but Whose we are. We were created by Him and we need to know that every person we see is one of His children, too. By being an example and by sharing our testimonies with others, we can help them understand where they came from, why they are here on earth and where they'll go after this life, that they are precious children of the Most High. God is real and so is His Son, Jesus Christ. Following the Savior will lead to eternal happiness. The Holy Ghost will give us promptings and as we listen to those promptings we know that we will be blessed, and other will be blessed through us.

I've also been studying Isaiah, so that's going okay. There was an article on that in the Ensign too. Fun stuff!

Love you! Be happy!

Sister Hinkle

Sister Loveland:How would fried broccoli taste?

Me: I don't know

Sister Loveland: LET'S DO IT!!!!

Everyday is party day

Sister Loveland and I are continuing to have a big huge giant blast every day of our lives (more or less). Everyone asks me about coal mines here, and I have to pretend like I know about coal and stuff. My new area is super awesome for a few different reasons:

reason 1- It's super close to my last area in West Jordan, like I could literally spit into my last area from here...okay well maybe not that close, but 2 miles max.

reason 2- I'm in the same zone as Sister Snyder, and we see each other all the time

reason 3- I can see the Jordan River temple from here

reason 4- There's a road called cemetery road that we walk down all the time with trees and cows and hills, and it reminds me of West Virginia

reason 5- This stake is super missionary minded

reason 6- we have a tread mill in our apartment

reason 7- I got to put a puzzle together with an old lady the other day!

reason 8- there's a group of chickens that walk around 4th ward and there's a duck named Dave that follows them around everywhere

There are more reasons but I am too lazy to think of them.

There are tons of firework scraps in the streets from the 24th.

Sister Snyder's and I have got to go back to the MV stake twice the past week, Saturday we got to go back for Lacie and Tera's baptism, this morning we got to go back for Justin's baptism, and next Saturday I get to go back for Lexi's baptism!!! Wahoo!

Today was fun, we got to see a lot of people we love back in West Jordan. We both had to give talks, though. But we did alright.

We're hoping to pick up 6 new investigators this week!!! We also have 10 lessons set up this week, but hopefully that number will get higher! There are tons of people here who the Lord has prepared to listen to our message. Sister Loveland and I are seeing miracles everywhere. Keep us in your prayers please!!!

I'll actually send pictures this week.

LOVE YOU, BYE!

Sister Hinkle

Sister Loveland: "Man, we're gonna get lost over in 7th ward today with all the mansions everywhere."

Me: "Don't worry, I'm sure a kindly butler will find us and take us in."

SoJo: The land of giants.

So transfers snuck up on me and guess the heck what? I got transferred to the South Jordan River stake. I cried a LOT. I genuinely did not believe I was going to get moved and I would stay in WJ for at least another six weeks. It was really hard saying goodbye to everybody. Especially my investigators and my landlords. It was like I was moving away from home again when I had to leave on Wednesday morning, I got really close to a lot of people there. Before I left my neighbors even came over to say goodbye! I'll send pictures next week.

BUT! To make up for how sad it was to leave, I got a giant super mega surprise by being put back with Sister Loveland again!!! Whaaat? Yaaaaay!!! We've already started having all kinds of super weird adventures and it is a giant blast. Tonight we're going to start teaching a new family and we have a lot of faith for this stake. We know that a lot of miracles are going to happen here.

Funny things that have happened so far:

A man told us that he wasn't "part of the cult so leave me alone" and I thought he was joking so I started laughing. He wasn't actually joking. That was awkward.

We were sitting on a wall trying to figure out which house to stop at next and a little chubby shirtless boy wearing a towel as a cape drove by on a little motorcycle.

Last night at dinner a different little chubby boy started running through the sprinklers in his underwear.

There's a man that dresses like a sea captain that lives in our stake and we've started seeing him everywhere.

A kid sneezed all over me yesterday in class and then grabbed my hand and pretended like he was going to kiss it and then put it on his forehead.

A couple from my last area brought us 4 bags of salt and vinegar chips and a case of Gatorade last night (which is actually more cool than it is funny).

We walked past one house and glanced in the back yard and there was a guy sitting in a giant red bucket.

We taught Elders Quorum yesterday.

There are other weird things that I can't think of right now, but those are the ones that are sticking out to me the most.

Yesterday we went to church in the 7th ward (which is the obnoxious mansion ward) and guess who goes there? Elder Arnold. Like of the the seventy. Also, Sister Amy Prenatt (who I know from institute in Morgantown) is in SoJo too! She's in my zone and this is her first transfer. Yeah! WV pride!

Almost everyone here is at least 2 feet taller than me, I have no idea what's up with that. We're over 10 wards and 2 branches. No car, and Sister Loveland doesn't like riding bikes, so I guess I don't have to worry about getting impaled or maimed this transfer! Hurray!

Next week (hopefully) I'll send you the pictures from my last couple of transfers. I do have a couple pictures of Sister Loveland and me doing service though.

I love you! Be happy! Keep us in your prayers. We're working hard :)

Sister Hinkle