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..."