Pictures for daaaaaaays

Another Week in Zion!

My life is so weird. So this has been my week:

Monday we went hiking as a district. We had been walking for maybe 5 minutes when we realized how terribly out of shape we all are (we're the only district in our zone with every companionship in a car). We also realized that some of the elders were afraid of heights...when we were half way up the trail. It was a good experience, though. The Portuguese elders are SO funny! One of them was terrified when we were climbing up this one hill and every time one of us would move he'd yell "be cautious!" and at one point he froze up and couldn't move and he whispered "seestehr, I'm suffering". I almost fell off the hill from laughing so hard. Poor elder.

Tuesday was normal...OH, EXCEPT FOR A MASSIVE WIND STORM THAT HAPPENED. Ugh. I've never seen to many tumble weeds in my LIFE. I didn't even know there were that many tumbleweeds in all of Utah! It was crazy. After the day of getting blown around everywhere, it started snowing! Which was perfect because...

Wednesday we went on exchanges and I had the blessing of going back to the River stake again! Hurray! It was wonderful, except for the fact that our mission got rid of 12 cars recently and one of them was in the River stake. That meant that it was a day of walking around in the snow. Luckily I was with one of my favorite missionaries, Sister Fameitau from NZ and it's impossible to be grumpy around her. Also we visited and taught some of the sweetest people! I love going on exchanges there because it's so neat to see how people have progressed from the time I left until now. We put two people (a husband and wife) on date for baptism May 16 that night! We had an incredible lesson! The bishop and his wife came with us and the Spirit was really strong.

Thursday everything melted, which was great. We also gave a garbage man a "Because He Lives" card. We're just proselyting to everybody out here. We tried to talk to these two men who were cement cutters, but they we're a little grumpy. Oh, also our district leader and his companion needed to borrow the keys to our stake center to use the copier and one of them had set their jamba juice on the roof of our car and it got knocked over so then we had this weird streak of pink down the side of our windshield.

Friday we finished weekly planning and went to fill out progress records and found the stake offices decorated in pink princess party decorations. We're not really sure who did it, or what it was for, but we thought it was hilarious. The people in this stake are so funny. I grabbed a balloon and created an alien out of it. On the back I wrote some extremely clever jokes, because, you know I'm really funny and whitty. <-- Lies. That last sentence was nothing but lies.

Saturday we rediscovered out love of old seminary videos. Also we learned that Taco Bell has pink startburst slushy beverages.

Yesterday we decided to go to 1st ward to see two return missionaries speak! One is our friend Megan that just got home and comes out with us occasionally, the other was and elder that served in Oregon and actually lived next door to Sister Meyers' brother! Crazy! What a small world. They gave their talks and it was over and they were just about to close the meeting with a song and a prayer and then President Christiansen (stake presidency) started whispering something in the bishop's ear. Weird. They talked back and forth for a minute and then President stands up and tells the congregation that he felt a very strong impression TO HAVE SISTER HINKLE STAND UP AND BEAR HER TESTIMONY TO EVERYONE BEFORE THE MEETING CLOSES?! WHAT??! WHATEVER! We were sitting near the front and I almost threw up! I didn't see that coming at all! Do you know how many people there were at that double homecoming?!!? My legs went numb and I almost fell over when I started walking up there and gave probably the shakiest, speediest testimony of my entire mission. But those words were totally inspired because I didn't know what to say, but I opened my mouth and felt what I needed to say. It was so cool. The Church is so true.

Then this morning we discovered we could find mormon.org profiles of people serving in our mission and we spend probably 20 minutes taking screen shots of them and laughing.

Anyways, that's my life! We picked up a new investigator this week and we are STOKED!! He is awesome! He's a 13 year old boy and he has a stroooooong testimony of the gospel! Hoping I get to see another child of God enter into the waters of baptism before I go home.

Love you! Be happy!

Sister Hinkle

Weeky McWeekerson

Howdy!

So it's been a fabulous week! Zone conference Tuesday went super well!

I gave my departing testimony. The only bad part is that I was getting

over a cold and crying at the same time and I coughed this really ugly

cough that was really high pitched in the middle of bearing my

testimony. It was so dumb. But other than that Sister Meyers said it

wasn't so bad. Uuuuuuugh.

What else? Oh. President and Sister Chambers came out with us for a

couple of hours Thursday night, it was terrifying and wonderful all at

the same time! Just kidding. They are some of the most loving people

I've ever met and it was a huge blessing to have them be part of the

lessons we were teaching that night.

Everyone around here seems to be getting baby chickens.

Our stake had stake conference this weekend. There are 88 missionaries

serving from this stake. Crazy! I wonder how many are out from ours.

Well, I think our district is going hiking today so I'm going to run

and get ready.

Love you bunches! Pray for missionary opportunities and then

courageously take them! Be like Paul! And Ammon! And all those other

awesome missionaries! When you love people, sharing the gospel with

them is a lot less scary.

Sister Hinkle

I'm sitting in a chair

So just to start off with, last Monday Sister Meyers and I went to a

jewelry store that everyone talks about here and it's basically the

great and spacious building from Lehi's dream (1 Nephi 8) but probably

with more glitter. After we stumbled around for a while (glitter

blind), we found our way out! We then discovered a less blinding and

expensive store and got matching rainbow unicorn earrings. Best.

Purchase. Ever.

We also did a lesson for our stake president's family home evening!

While there he broke out the pictures from his mission in WV and I got

to see a picture of Dad twenty some odd years ago sitting in the

living room eating. What's new?! Haha. He also had pictures of Roy

Chapman's family. It was the craziest thing!

This was a week of meeting after meeting after meeting. But we were

still able to teach a lot of people! So that was great. :) We got to

do a happiness training for our zone! Sounds lame, but it wasn't.

President Chambers brought up D&C 128: 19-22 and we talked about how

no matter the persecution that comes we should choose joy because our

Savior was the most persecuted person that walked the earth, and He

was also the happiest. It doesn't matter what the world thinks when we

know what God and Jesus Christ think!

I got to go to the Saturday morning session of General Conference! And

to make it better, I got to go with Sister Ricks and Sister

Kahaiali'i! There were a bunch of other missionaries from our mission

too but I mostly talked to them. On the way to downtown and home on

trax our group was just sharing the gospel with everyone. It's neat

that no matter where you go or what time it is there is always an

opportunity to do missionary work! We have some of the best

missionaries in our mission. I love these elders and sisters so much.

Saturday afternoon we went to a wedding! Our investigator from NY and

his cute wife got married and we got permission to go! It was great :)

They are some of our favorite people.

We watched conference with one of our ward mission leaders and his

family yesterday. It was fun. We also had Easter waffles with a cute

sister in the third ward last night.

Bishop Newman put up a trampoline in his back yard this weekend for

his grandkids. Sister Meyers and I thought it would be a great idea to

jump on it this morning for workout...we forgot how terribly out of

shape we are and after about 10 minutes we were DONE and decided to do

something else.

Tomorrow is my last zone conference! I am so sad! I'm going to miss

the days of people thinking I'm Sister Hinckley from Virginia :(

mostly I'm going to miss teaching people though.

Love you! Be happy!

Sister Hinkle 

I'm wearing a skirt with chikens on it.

SO, the news we've all been waiting for! *drum roll*

Okay, maybe just I'm the one who's been curious to find out.

I am dying in the South Jordan Highland stake, and Sister Meyers is the one to kill me.

Double blessings! Because I love this stake and I love my companion.

Our investigators are doing AMAZING!!!

One of the great people we're teaching has been really afraid to tell her husband that she's meeting with missionaries because he hates the Church. After a lot of prayer she took a step of faith and talked to him about it, and guess what?! His heart has been softened and he's totally fine with it!!! AAAAAAAAAAH YEEEEEEESSSS!!! We are so happy for her! She came to the women's broadcast on Saturday night and she looked so happy! She totally loved it! She's so awesome. The other day we went over for a lesson and she was trying to find Meet the Mormons and accidentally came across a video that makes us look like a freaky cult. When we got there she was looking for and said, "I don't think this is the movie I'm looking for" and showed us the first couple of minutes. Man were we glad we got there in time to let her know that nope, that was definitely not the movie she was looking for. The video didn't phase her at all. She is one of those people who easily recognizes truth and when she does she follows it, she also easily recognizes when things aren't true and stays away from it.

Another couple that we're teaching hasn't been to church in years and tons of people said they'd never be interested in having missionaries over. They are some of the sweetest people I've ever met, the sisters started teaching them right before I got here, and yesterday was the first time they stayed for all the classes at church and didn't leave after sacrament meeting.

Another person that we're teaching is getting married on Saturday!!! Sister Meyer and I might be able to go for the ceremony! We're super excited for them.

Our hearts are so full right now! We love all of these people so much. We want them to have every blessing that Heavenly Father wants to give them.

It's true that as missionaries we go through a lot of hard times, but the good times make up for all of it. It's been such a blessing to be the Lord's hands and to find people that are so ready to include God in their lives.

I love you!

I'm never going home!

Sister Hinkle