Blah Blah Blah

So this has been a pretty awesome 2 weeks! There have been 4 baptisms in first ward, two were twin sisters that we ADORE, and the other were 2 brothers who've been taught by probably 20 missionaries the past 8 years. It's amazing to see how the Lord prepares people to receive the message of the Restoration! Sister Loveland got to come back for the baptisms, that was super fun to see her! There were so many people at the McOmies' that we had to move it to the chapel instead of the Relief Society room.

We also had zone conference. It was great! President talked about the story of David and Goliath and related it to how as missionaries we are required to do things that seem pretty scary, but "the power behind [us] is so much greater than any obstacle in front of [us]." That's so true!! There is never any reason to fear, because really if we're doing the Lord's work, if we're doing what He asks of us, then there's no way we can fail! It was one of those light bulb moments.

So I had pictures to send, but I forgot that I needed to bring a cord to attach my camera. Next week! I promise! There have been some ward Halloween parties we've gone to, at one of them our ward mission leader, Bro Funk, dressed up as King Benjamin on his tower and was running some game with tents. While the kids were playing the game he was reading verses from Mosiah to them off of his phone. I almost fell over laughing.

We started teaching a girl named Katie that speaks Korean!! It was a little awkward at first, but (ready for a miracle?) the Lord always provides a way, because it JUST SO HAPPENS that a couple houses down the road lives a sister (who is already called to work with the young women anyways) that got home from a Korean speaking mission recently!! Cool stuff, huh?! Granted, the family she moved in with speaks fluent Korean, BUT IT'S SO PERFECT that we have someone that not only can translate, but taught the same things in the same language, AND SHE'S IN YOUNG WOMEN and can sit with Katie all the way during Church to translate and help her not feel so overwhelmed.

I'm going to chop all of my hair off today. I woke up on Thursday morning and decided long hair is too much of a pain to take care of, and it usually looks nasty at the end of the day anyways.

Sorry for not having a lot to say! Nothing really new except for we're really trying to get over our fear of  talking to people on the street....well, we have no problem talking to them, the hard part is teaching them when we see them on the street. We've decided that we just need to get over ourselves and embrace the awkward, haha. The more we do it, the easier it'll get. It all goes back to that power that's behind us.

Thanks for all of your prayers. They are being heard!

I love you, be happy! Go get fat on Halloween candy!

Sister Hinkle

PS, last week, Oct 23, made it a year since I went into the MTC. WHAAAT??? I've lived in Utah for a year. That is so weird.

PPS, last night we ate dinner with a family, and the dad of the family is an actor in a bunch of Bible/ Book of Mormon videos for the Church...also, James in the temple video...so that was an awkward dinner at first. It's not like you can just ask "Hey, are you like....famous?....Like...church famous?....Like....have I maybe seen your face before....on the computer or like....at the temple or somewhere?" But luckily half way through dinner they just brought it up. RELIEF.

Big fat giant news!

Okay, well first thing's first. This past week was transfers and something very unexpected happened.

Sister Loveland was transferred to Riverton South stake (her sister lives in the Riverton North stake, so we were super surprised) for her last 6 weeks. I figured I was going to get a newer missionary as a companion here. WRONG. They changed our stake to a Sister Training Leader area, and they brought one of my friends, Sister Santos, in an we're companions! We're the SoJo sister training leaders. So that's exciting!!! Also, I HAVE A CAR!!!!!!! I screamed so loud when I heard I was getting a car. I've been driving EVERYWHERE! We've been so productive!!! It was a little weird driving for the first time after 11 months...in Utah...on giant roads. But luckily my superior driving skills have remained. As for parking... I'm still working on that.

Oh, also, I found out that Red Robin actually exists this week. Because, you know, they have the commercials on TV, but I'd never seen one in real life so I just figured it was some kind of weird conspiracy. But! They're real.

Sister Santos and I are having a great time together! It's her last 6 weeks, so I'm going to be in the SoJo River Stake for probably another transfer after this one. No complaints here, though! I'm excited to take over the area....especially to take over the area WITH A CAR. I AM SO HAPPY.

So last week I got a card from the youth in the Buckhannon ward. That made me so happy!! I keep in on my desk, so I see it when I study. I got other cards too. Nothing better than getting mail!

There are 2 baptisms this Saturday and 2 next Saturday. I can't express the joy that comes from doing missionary work. On our call letters it mentions that we'll experience joy beyond that which we have ever experienced before, and I can testify that that is true. As we extend our arms out to those around us and invite them to do things that will bring them closer to the Savior Jesus Christ, there is a fire that burns inside of us that only comes from the Spirit. I know that missionary work isn't just important for 18 months or 2 years. It's important for our entire lives. Look for those people who are placed in your path each day for you to bring closer to Jesus Christ, because they ARE there, and you WILL be given the words to say to them if you just open your mouth. The Lord promises that to us.

Yesterday we gave talks in the 8th ward, and sang in the RCCC (which is a branch in an assisted living facility). They went great. Sister Santos and I are working hard and we are super unified when we teach, which is SUCH a dream!! You always worry that you're not going to teach well when you get a new companion.

BLESSED. We are blessed. This stake is blessed. Blessings for everybody.

That's all I've got! Other than now I actually have to take my own pictures because I don't have a companion that takes 2384125172350892936129346 pictures a week. So I'll try and make an effort there.

More adventures next week

Love you bunches!

Sister Hinkle

This is Tecia! The cutest girl in all of South Jordan! I'm 100% sure she is going on a mission one day. She doesn't know that yet but she will. 

Mooooooore pictures!

I was mistaken

So remember last week when I said I wasn't going to go to General Conference? WELL, I WAS INCORRECT! I got to go to the Saturday morning session!! It was so amazing! I've never seen so many Mormons in one place in my entire life which is saying something, because I go to college in Rexburg! It was crazy. We weren't able to find an investigator to come, so we brought someone who was recently baptized. It was such a neat experience!  We got to sit in the section right where they all walk in. While there we saw three other sisters from our mission, and two other people who finished their missions earlier this year. Also, while we were walking towards the temple this camera guy popped out of NOWHERE and snapped a picture of a lady and a little girl that were in front of us. So when the conference addition of the Ensign comes out and there's a picture of a lady with a cane and a little girl with a lightish colored blob walking behind them, that blob would be me! Woo hoo! Famous.
 We watched the other sessions with our investigator Robert (who said he felt the Spirit when we were sustaining the Apostles. AWESOME!) the Meisenbacher family (who fed us waffles with ice cream on top), and the Snasel family (they're just plain cool).

I also got to go out to lunch with Sister McKee from Kearns, it was SOOO FUN to see her again, and her cute baby, too. That woman is a blast. We went to a place called Zuppas. Zuppas is everywhere around here. I don't know if they have those back at home, but if they don't, they should.

 Last Wednesday we had a sisters meeting, where we learned about how to properly do lessons at temple square and having Christlike attributes. Sister Chambers shared a scripture from Alma 5, which I've decided to make my theme scripture for the next 6 weeks. I've prayed about it and set some goals for the next 6 weeks and hopefully by the end my faith will be strengthened, I'll have become a little more like Jesus, and I'll be able to better help people come closer to Him.
"14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in our countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?
15 Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?
16 I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?"
If we want the Savior's image to shine in our countenances, we need to do things that will help us be Christlike. As we serve others and treat them with kindness, we're able to start feeling the Savior's love for them, and they're able to feel the Savior's love for them. As we exercise our faith, it grows.
Last Thursday we watched Meet the Mormons and it was actually SUPER good! Like I saw an Elder sobbing afterwards it was so good. Good sobbing, not "this is terrible" sobbing.
It's getting chilly around here, time to bust out the tights here soon.
Wednesday is transfers! I'm not sure what will happen, since this is Sister Loveland's last transfer. She'll probably stay, and I don't think I'm going to stay. But you never know! I could be here the rest of my mission.
We had a miracle! There were some people we were teaching that dropped us a month or so ago, and they texted us this week and said they wanted to be baptized on the 25th!! What?!! We are SO excited for them!!! That means 4 baptisms in the 1st ward this month, 5 within 2 months. The people here love their neighbors and friends so much, and they are really led by the Spirit in the things they do and say.

I know that prayers are heard, and I know that miracles happen every day. I know that God lives, and I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that there is a prophet on the earth today, and I know that God speaks through him. I know this is the Lord's work that we're doing, and I know that He will never let us fail. We are all missionaries, and we all have people places in our paths each day that we can bring blessings to.

Love you!

Sister Hinkle

Cat Whisperer

So it got real cold this past weekend. Which is actually really great for me because I'm done with melting. 

It was super rainy the other day and this little cat across the street was looking for a place to run to, so I jokingly meowed at it and it responded. So there was this 2 minute period of me and this cat meowing and then he ran over to me and let me pick him up and carry him while walking around. It was so weird. We've decided that I'm the cat whisperer now. 

I probably won't be going to General Conference this weekend because none of our investigators can come! Sad. Mostly sad because they won't get that experience, because I can always go later on. Our investigator Cris was super excited to come with us but just realized she can't. Oh, well! We can watch it online. Technology is such a blessing!!!

Everybody should go watch the movie Meet the Mormons! It's not a proselytizing movie, it's just to inform people about who we really are (not a cult) and that we believe in Christ. Hopefully lots of people will attend the opening weekend!! All the money that comes from the tickets will go to charity too, I think that's pretty awesome.

Welp, nothing new in Salk Lake City. Hopefully it'll stay cool.

I love you! Be happy!

"The Church is true, the Book is blue, and Moroni is still on the ball!"  <-

 cheesy but funny

Sister Hinkle

sorry my face always looks uncomfortable, I feel so awkward taking pictures around people. Especially 23984710298341029353489120571239481.7 people

Big ole email

Okay! 

So this week flew by. We haven't found any new investigators this week, but hopefully as we work hard we'll find more people that have been prepared for us to teach! We're SUPER excited about General Conference, we really believe that if our Tennessee family comes to Conference with us something BIG is going to happen. Serving in SLC is such an incredible blessing. We have so many amazing tools that God has provided for us to use to help people come unto Christ. Temple square is only a 20-30 minute drive away and when you walk on those temple grounds, you can feel the Spirit for sure.

Last night we ate dinner with a super sweet lady named Sister McMahan. It was basically one of the best dinners I've eaten on my mission. THE WOMAN MADE A CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE FOR DESSERT. UGH. So good. She also has a little white poodle named Peaches McMahan, and that thing is the fluffiest dog I've ever met.

I am never going to eat Chinese food again for the rest of my life. Or at least until I've recovered from this week. We got taken out to Chinese places TWICE. And obviously I have to eat everything I order because Chinese food is so dang good. Yeah, that was a mistake. I've eaten enough rice for 10 grown men. I will never be hungry AGAIN. EVER.

What else happened this week? OH! There is this really cute old man in 6th ward, who's actually dating a member in 10th ward (scandalous, I know) and they're one of the people who took us out to dinner. But anyways, the old man lives in this secretly enormous fancy house that you would never realize was enormous OR fancy from looking at the front of it. Anyways, he has all of these amazing things in his house that his wife collected. The entire house is like a big giant maze. Every room has a theme and there are all these dolls everywhere and more paintings than I've seen in any gallery. There are murals on the walls and ceilings. There's an entire hallways in his basement devoted to cats (that was my favorite part) and a ballet room. Just a ballet room, you know, in case you ever felt like dancing ballet or whatever! So that was cool.

The Ogden temple dedication was yesterday!! We got to go because they broadcasted it at the stake centers around here. They seal the stake centers off and they become an extension of the temple, so you need your recommend to get in. What was really special was that Austraia ended up sitting right in front of us!!!! I am so proud of her and who she is. She's praying about whether or not she should serve a mission now. I think she'd be an amazing missionary. Hopefully she'll be able to come to some lessons with us here soon.

We watched Music and the Spoken work with our investigator Robert yesterday morning. It was an extra good one because they were playing a bunch of patriotic songs. He really enjoyed it! His neighbors came over too and brought cinnamon rolls. Cinnamon rolls help everything. 

I've been embracing the frumpy sister missionary look lately. Glasses and unflattering sweaters for me! I'm sure eventually I'll go back to trying to look cute.

This has been rejection week. All the hard parts of being a missionary were all mixed up into one big ole 7 day span. I wrote a big  list of cruddy things that happened, but after looking over it I decided that would just be whiney and lame. So I'll just share the funniest of all of these things: yesterday we spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get out of a gated community, because we couldn't find the button for the gate. DUMB. We had to call a member and ask how to escape.

 I'm actually glad we've had a hard week, though. I've been wondering where all the adversity has been the past couple of weeks. One great thing about having a great companion is that it's hard for Satan to discourage you. I am so happy to be with Sister Loveland.

Transfers are in a couple of weeks. I feel like I might get shipped out. Which will be sad, because I love the people here, but if the Lord needs me somewhere else, I need to trust Him. He knows where I need to be far better than I do.

Jesus Christ lives today and I know He's our Savior. He loves every one of us. We are all important to Him. He died for us, He thought of us individually when performing the Atonement. He's already paid the price for us, now all we need to do is turn to Him and live His gospel.

Okay! Well, I'm going to go buy a jug of milk at the grocery store! Have a happy day and remember how important you are! I'm probably forgetting things, I'll just send them next week.

Love you!

Sister Hinkle

PS: Joseph Smith is real. Just to clarify. He was a real person and he really restored Christ's gospel. He is a prophet of God. I am so done with people telling me he's imaginary.

Pictures!!!!

Planking will never die. AND JUST SO YOU KNOW. This was not taken during prime proselyting time. We were making copies and it seemed like the only logical thing to do while waiting.

This is a kid named Able that is Austraia's cousin. This is his version of planking!

The other day, we decided to cut through our neighbor's yard as a short cut, which resulted in us having to cut through our other neighbor's yard. And then climb up a rock wall to get into our yard. It might have actually been faster to just go down the street. Haha

Waiting on our ride to the store last week

I am far too lazy to write a good email

I now understand why people always talk about how their kids never write them when they're on their missions. I just can't  think of anything to say anymore! Forgive me for my recent brevity. 

So we went to the Oquirrh Mountain temple this morning!! That is such a pretty temple! Today is the first time I've gone to the temple on my mission and the weather's been warm and sunny. So that was delightful! I realized that it's been a year this month since I went through the Washington DC temple for the first time. Weeeeird how fast a year has gone by. I'm almost at my year mark for my mission too. UUUUGH I am not ready to go back to real life. Maybe I'll just go to college to become a professional seminary teacher so I can just teach the gospel to people all the time. I think I'd like that. Now they just need to start doing that in WV instead of having early morning seminary in WV. 

OH! Something cool. So this family we've been doing some lessons with recently, we stopped by their house on Saturday night because their son was turning 3 and two wonderful things happened. 1: I met the wife's dad, who SERVED IN BUCKHANNON  AS A MISSIONARY YEARS AND YEARS AGO. WHAT? YES. That happened. He almost died when I told him I was from Buckhannon. He said it was his favorite place on his mission!!! He remembered the Chapmans and the Wieses and the Johns family. He didn't remember any Hinkles, but it was still cool.

2: They had banana creamies. We were definitely meant to stop by that house that night. 

Sister Loveland is getting rid of a bunch of her stuff since her mission ends in a few weeks. Which means I got some sweet new clothes and scrapbooking paper to decorate my planner with. Yesss. 

I gave an impromptu talk in 2nd ward on Sunday. The subject? HOME AND VISITING TEACHING. WHAT DO I KNOW ABOUT THAT? BASICALLY NOTHING. Thank heaven I had Preach My Gospel and 6 copies of the Engisn. It was a really awkward talk and I ended up forgetting my scriptures and  having to walk back to my seat and dig through my purse to get them. I also didn't know where any tissues were, so at the end of the talk I started sniffling every 5 seconds because I was crying (good crying) and so I ended up ending it early because I didn't want to wipe my nose on my sleeve in front of 150+ people. At the end the bishop walked up to me and patted me on the head and told me I was "a darling girl" and laughed. I'm still not sure how to take that. Either he thought I was funny or he felt bad for me. Whatever! At least people know I have a strong testimony of Jesus Christ and the Restoration. And that's all that really matters.

I had other things to write about but I left my list on the kitchen table, also we have like zero time today because we went to the temple this morning and then went to chick-fil-a after that. So I'll have to write a more interesting letter next week. 

Sister Blackett, a sweet sister from my last area that I was really close to, sent me a cute package and in it was this quote:

"In this life we can be drawn to things that squander our time, energy, and light without moving us toward a meaningful end. Still, the way home is  straight and narrow, and it is vital to know the difference between something that helps us return and something that deflects or restrains our progress. Elder Neal A Maxwell said: Someday, when we look back on mortality, we will see that so many of the things that seemed to matter so much at the moment will be seen not to have mattered at all. And the eternal things will be seen to have mattered even more than the most faithful of the Saints imagined." -Brad Neiger

I LOVE YOU, BE HAPPY! 

Remember who you are and what you stand for!!!

Choose the right!!

Let the Holy Spirit guide!

All is well!!

So here's a picture of my district sisters Sister Collins and Sister Snyder, I thought it was so funny I had to send it home. Also, here's a picture of us in front of the Oquirrh Mountain temple. It's always windy up there. Man, I am the size of a hobbit.

I love you, be happy

This is Jayde!

Jayde got baptized last Tuesday! And her confirmation was yesterday. We love her a LOT. She is so special! We are also doing the new member lessons with Austraia, and she wants to come out and teach with us. Austraia has such a strong testimony. We were at her house the other day and she started telling us about different ways she's noticed the Spirit more in her life since she got the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She follows all those little promptings she gets, and she's still learning and growing all the time. She's so cool.

This past week has been a big giant "let's ask the missionaries all these questions they haven't been asked on their missions before" party. But it's okay though! It just showed me how powerful the Holy Ghost is in this work. We were able to resolve the concerns they had, and help them find answers to their questions. I think my biggest fear about being a missionary was that I'd get asked questions that were too hard to answer and I'd look like an idiot because I wouldn't have an answer. But now that it's actually happened...a lot....and we we're given the words to say, I'm not afraid of anything!

Things are looking great for the SoJo River stake! We started teaching a man from Tennessee, and we're going to start teaching a teenage boy tonight. We're also hoping to start teaching some twin girls that live up the street from us.

Yesterday we helped teach the lesson in the High Priests in 10th ward. It actually went really well, and we're thinking that things are going to start picking up in that ward now.

I probably mentioned this last week, but Sister Loveland and I are obsessed with mormon messages lately. Those things are soooo good! They're these little videos online and there's one called Origin that we've been showing everyone when we talk about the Restoration of the Gospel. 

Last Monday we hung out with the other Sisters and juiced things..like celery. Celery juice is a lot more potent than I ever thought it would be. 

I was looking through my notebook this morning and this stood out to me, I think it's from General Conference, but it says "trials and hardships are events in life, not life itself". That's truth. Men are that they might have joy. Happiness is a choice. No matter the hard things we face in life, we need to remember that it will only be a moment compared to eternity. We can find happiness in living the way Christ has taught us to. Not just a moment of pleasure, but real, lasting, eternal joy. We can find that right now, and we can have it forever.

Be happy!

Sister Hinkle

Sister Loveland: AAAH!

Me: Did you burn yourself?

Sister Loveland: No...I...threw frozen bread on myself..."