OH MY GOSH

Sister Meyers and I worked our tails off this week! It was great! 

One of my favorite people that we're teaching, his name is Tom and he's investigating the church! He was a big giant miracle, because apparently the 9th ward hasn't been doing well with missionary work for a while and they've been praying for missionary opportunities. Then one day we were walking past the bishop of that ward and he told us that they had moved in and we began teaching him that night! I probably already emailed about him, but he is 100% prepared by the Lord and that family is one of our favorites in the stake. Him and his soon-to-be wife knew each other as kids in New York and after lots of years they found each other again and fell in love and now they live in Utah and are getting married on Easter weekend!! They are super funny, and they even invited us to their wedding! We probably won't get permission to go because it's out of our mission boundaries, but we'll still ask and see.

We also found 3 new investigators this past week!! One of them is a man named Bruce Lee. Yes, that is correct. I am teaching a man named Bruce Lee on my mission. If you hadn't heard already, my life is AWESOME. We also started teaching a man and his daughter. They are SO friendly! It's amazing to see how the Lord leads us to people who are ready to hear the message we have to share! We taught them the message of the Restoration and they believe it's true!!! They haven't been to and LDS service before, they haven't read the Book of Mormon before, but they felt the Spirit tell them in their hearts that it's true and it reminded me how Heavenly Father really is a God of miracles! That this is something we all already knew before we came to this earth, and our job as missionaries is to help them remember. They are willing to study the Book of Mormon and come to church, and to pray about what we're teaching them to gain a stronger witness that it's all true, that God and Jesus Christ really did appear to Joseph Smith and restored the Savior's church to the earth again.

Something I've learned a lot more about recently (and you'd think I'd already know it well by now but we're always gaining insight on things I guess) is how to teach the pattern of dispensations and apostasies in the scriptures. I've always had such a hard time trying to teach people about it, but there's a neat chart thing on the ipad that makes it 9845023470128437102458710294875102987 times easier to teach.

-God chooses a prophet

-The prophet teaches the gospel and leads the people

-God blesses the people

-The people gradually disregard or disobey the teachings of the prophet. They eventually reject the prophet and his teachings and fall into apostasy (forsaking or abandoning the gospel of Jesus Christ).

-Because of apostasy, people lose knowledge of the gospel. Priesthood authority is taken from among them.

-When the time is right and people are ready to follow Him again, God chooses another prophet, restores the priesthood and the Church, and directs the prophet to teach the gospel. 

That's what? 8 sentences? Oh MAN I've been making that WAY more complicated than I needed to.

I think that's why people have such a hard time sharing the gospel with those around them. We feel like we have to make it  more complicated than it really is. In Preach My Gospel there's a whole section on "Teach for Understanding" and it quotes President John Taylor saying "It is true intelligence for a man to take a subject that is mysterious and great in itself, and to unfold and simplify it so that a child can understand it." In the same section there are some great scriptures on why plainness is important. It doesn't matter how well versed we are, or if we know big words or not. What matters is our conviction and testimony of what we're sharing. The most simple and straightforward we are, the easier it is for the Spirit to testify to the hearts of those who are listening. Sincerity and simpleness are what counts.

Anyways, there's Sister Hinkle's missionary moment for the week.

In other news, we went on exchanges again this week! We went with the River Ridge stake Sisters! I stayed in the area and had Sister Malufau as my companion. That girl is one of the funniest people I've ever met. She's Hawaiian and beautiful and I'm not afraid of anything with her, because she knows exactly what to say in all situations. I think my favorite thing about being a sister training leader is how I get to see all of these wonderful examples that the sisters in our zone are to me. I get to learn great things from each of them and see what I can improve on and how I can better do God's work. We really have some of the most hard working and dedicated missionaries in SoJo right now. We love the Lord and we love doing His work!!!

Hmmmm...I can't think of anything else. Oh! Except yesterday a man that's been less active most of his life walked to church with us yesterday!! He said he'll only go with his wife (who's out of town for somewhere around a month), so naturally we stopped by to invite him to come with us! He was outside watering his lawn and after talking about fishing for a few minutes he agreed to have us meeting him Sunday morning and walk down with him! The whole way to the building yesterday he kept saying "I don't know HOW you got me to do this" "I have no clue WHAT you said to change my mind" and we kept reminding him that it was the Spirit that helped him make that decision, not us. Turns out one of the talks was all about boats and fishing. One thing my mission has taught me is that there are no coincidences. 

Well, I love you! This is week six of this transfer. Next Wednesday is transfer day and we'll find out who my last companion and where my last area is. HEARTBREAKING.

We think that since I have this streak of changing companions almost every transfer I'll get someone new in the area and Sister Meyers will leave after being here for around 6 months.

Crazy. Time goes too fast.

Sister Hinkle