Vamos festejar

Olá família! 

so the "s" and "double-u" keys don't function on this computer so I have to copy and paste the "s" every time....so from nouu on "uu" = "double-u" . so if there is an "s" or "double-u" missing, please don't get too sassy.  Okay:

-Monday, for pday a member invited us to their farm. It rocked. They had a ton of animals and she made us lunch out of stuff that she had on the farm. sim, foi maravilhoso.

Tuesday, Elder Gomes and I visited Luisa and her mom, Beatriz. Beatriz is catholic and never uuaned to hear the message that uue have. But she told us that she uuas praying and uuoke up 3 nights in a rouu uuith the feeling that she needed to hear our message. UUe started teaching here, and nouu, Beatriz and Luisa uuill be baptized on the 16 of August! It uuill be super cool. Uue also found a less active uuho is married to a super cool guy. Uue talked to him and nouu he uuants to get baptized! 

Uuednesday, it uuas raining a uuhole bunch, so nothing really happened. It uuas also super cold. Uue also had an activity at the church but nobody shouued up. 

Thursday, uuas really slouu too. It uuas raining, and it uuas a little hard to find people uuho uuould listen, so uue visited members. 

Friday, uue had another activity at the church but uue uuaited and uuaited, and nobody shouued up. so right uuhen uue uuere about to leave, a teenager uualked in. He told us that he uuas uualking by and had a feeling to enter. He started asking questions and uue started responding. It uuas super cool. But I couldn't tell if he uuas a member of another church and uuas just trying to get us uuith questions, or if he really uuas interested. But uue're going to visit him this uueek and uue'll see. 

saturday, I succesfully taught a german class at the church. 

sunday, there uuere 6 people at church. It's tough sometimes. Uue uuork throughout the uuek to bring people to church, and nobody comes. Uue put so much effort into something that uue knouu is true, and people don't do anything about it. It's frustrating at times, but uue keep on trying. 

so I love you all, so much! You all rock! I knouu the church is true. Don't take it for granted. 

I LOVE YOU

Abraço!

Elder Hintze

Howdy Folks!

Hello. Another week! So this week was sad, slow, but awesome.

-Monday: After P-day was over, we went to visit Marlene and Sidnei. Sidnei then told us that he didn't want to get baptized anymore but still wanted to get married. Then Marlene told us that she didn't want to get married, but she sitill wants to get baptized. Wow. We left a super spiritual message about the importance of families and baptism. We talked about Lehi's dream and told Marlene that when she tastes of the fruit that she will desire that her family tastes of the fruit too, and that she can be the motivation for them to be baptized. The Spirit was super strong and afterwards I asked if she would accept our help to continue her preparation for baptism and an eternal family. The Spirit was super strong and then she looked at me and said "No." Whattt?? I knew she felt the Spirit too. I know it. But everyone has free agency. It stinks because I want her to feel the blessings of an eternal family. She could have so much happiness if she just tried a little more. We're gonna keep going there and try to help them out more. I think that maybe she has a little bit of fear about moving forward. 

-Tuesday: We had District Meeting in Cruz Alta again, so we took the 2 1/2 hour bus ride there and got back to Palmeira about 4 in the afternoon. We hadn't eat anything so we went to get Xis (A brazilian hamburger that is amazing). When we were there, the lady at the restaurant was super friendly and started talking to us. So we invtited her and her daughter to our English class. When she brought us our food, she and her daughter came out and asked us about our church. They were searching for a church but they don't like the super crazy pastors here in Brazil. So we explained a little bit more, and they have a whole lot of interest! I'm super excited to see what happens with them.

-Wednesday was just a normal day of work, but extremely slow and all of our appoitments fell through. But everyone has that types of days. 

-Thursday, we ate lunch at a members (which is extremely rare here. Normally we make our own food). When we went, it was raining a whole heck of a lot, so I stopped and bought un umbrella because mine ain't too dandy. Then we walked to the other side of the city to meet with an investigator named Roberta. She wasn't at home, and we didn't have any other investigators at that side of the city, so we decided to knock doors and talk to people. We found this guy named Miguel and asked if he time for us to teach him. He said yeah, so we walked to his farm with him. We started to teach him about the Restoration and it started to rain a lot. He got up and screamed "Oh, my horses!" and ran away in the middle of the lesson, leaving us alone in his barn. We waited a bit, and he didn't show up again. So we just left. We later figured out that he doesn't own horses. Hmmm.

-Friday, the District Leader showed up to do the interview with Luiza. We went to her house to take her to the church and when we got there, her family said that she wasn't in any condition to be baptized because she was irresponsible and not reading her scriptures. She is a little bit slow because of the medication she takes for her schizophrenia. We explained everything to Elder Marley, the District Leader, and he prayed about it. He interviewed and then we determined that it'd be best if she were baptized a week later. Now, I think we will just work with her family and baptized them together. I think that way, Luiza will be more strong. It was also my companions birthday, so we made a surprise dinner for him. It was super cool. 

-Saturday, was even more slow than wednesday. 

-Sunday, church had 16 people and a member from the Stake Presidency came and spoke. It was cool and I learned a lot about how to increase my calling. The Lord will always qualify us, no matter what call we have. He qualifies who he calls. Then we had a family night in the house of Marlene and Sidnei. It was cool and we talked about the importance of families. But I don't think that they were listening or anything. It was sad. But oh well. It's not cool to see these peoplethat mean so much to you, not doing what they should do.

Well, this was my week. Very interesting. So, I hope you all have a wonderful week full of miracles and stuff like that. I love you all so much and hope you all have a good week! The church is true!

Elder Hintze

Where are all the Palm Trees?

Well, hello people! My week was super-duper spectacular, and super-duper busy. I'll try to make it super detailed for all ya'll who want super details. Bust first off, the name is this city means "Palm Tree Missions" but I have yet to see a palm tree. Just something I noticed. Okay here we go:

-So Tuesday, we had Zone Meeting. So we had to take a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Cruz Alta (my old city), and then had to walk from one end to the other to arrive at the chapel. It was awesome to be in my old chapel and see all the other missionaries in the zone. The Sister Training Leaders gave an awesome training where we wrote letters to ourselves to start off the transfer, and then they'll give it back to us at the end off the transfer to see if we reached our goals. Then they said something that I thought was super awesome. "Cada dia é uma nova ressurreição." Which means "Each day is a new ressurection." It was sweeeeeet because really, each day, we have the opportunity to be better and better. We need to utilize this opportunity and make little goals to better ourselves each day. And after each little goal is completed, we will have become a new person who we never thought we could become. So live each day like a new ressurection!

-The Zone Leaders also gave a training where they gave us paper swords and told us to write a problem that we have on it. So we wrote all of our problems down and then we read abou the Anti-Lehi-Nephies. Afterwards, we went out behind the chapel and we all burried our swords! We burried all of our problems so that we could truly follow our Savior better. It was a cool example that really helped me out. And I also thought that mom would really like it. 

-So there is a family here that we are teaching and they are super cool. Marlene and Sidnei, and their son Vinicius. Marlene and Sidnei are getting married this week so that they can get baptized next week! Super cool. Before I got here, Marlene had a dream that 2 young men came to her house and gave her news that would change her life. Soon afterwards, the missionaries knocked on her door, and now I arrived and we're gonna baptize her. Super sweet. 

-We are teaching a girl named Luisa with schizophrenia. Her mom told us that ever since she's been meeting with the missionaries and doing the stuff that we've asked, she's been better and hasn't had any problems. She wanted to be baptized, so we talked to the District Leader and she can be baptized! So she's getting baptized this Saturday!

-I made cookies yesterday! And yes, they were delicious.

-So in all the other cities that I've been in, when ever I say I'm from Washington DC, they look at me like I said a town from some fantasy story. But here in Palmeira, one of the smallest cities in the mission, I say I'm from Washington DC and everybody freaks out a little. I have no clue why, but hey, it is what it is.

So I realized something quite nifty this week. In Mateus 5:48, The Lord gives us a commandment to be perfect. So I was thinking, what can I do to be more perfect. So then I read in Timothy 3:16, "

16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."

So what do we need to do to be more perfect? We need to read the scriptures! "We read the scriptures so "that the man of God may be perfect." When we read the scriptures, we feel the spirit. When we feel the spirit, we have more desire to do what God wants us to do. When we have this desire, coupled with the call to repentance in the scriptures, each day, we become better and better. So..READ THE SCRIPTURES! Every time you have the chance!

I know the church is true! It is!

I love you all so much!!!

Adios muchachos

Elder Hintze

Me and My Mansion

So I'm here in Palmeira das Missões, sometimes called just Palmeira, and yes. I live in a mansion. And yes, it rocks.

                                My Home in Palmeira

So some dandy updates from the life of Elder Hintze:

                                My and my Companion at the Mansion

-So the life in a branch is quite interesting. We had a grand total of 7 people at church! There are 2 companionships here in Palmeira so we're going change somethings around. Some mighty cool things are about to go down. 

-We found an inactive guy named Mauricio and his wife isn't a member. We ended up teaching them about baptism and challenged Roberta to be baptized. Then we marked a date for the 19th of July. It was sweet. And then we returned and they weren't at home, so I left some cookies on there door with a note, and then as we were walking back, they called us over and invited us back and we taught them again. They are so cool! They said they'd go to church, but they didn't. It's a bummer. But we'll keep trying!

-We taught an English class that was full of people. It was cool. 

-I live with a Columbian missionary (in my mansion) so things were a tad bid strange during the Columbia/Brazil game this past week. But hey, the USA is already out so we got nothing to worry about for me down here!

Well, this was my week. Simple, but cool. I hope all is rocking back in the other part of the world. 

PEACE OUT

ELDER HINTZE