Welcome to the Other Side of the Equator

Well, to start off, I'm emailing you guys in a winter coat with a sweater, and thermal clothing under my dress clothes. So here was my week:

-It is extremely cold, oh my goodness. I normally walk with 2-3 pairs of socks, thermals, dress pants, a sweater, a jacket, and the giant winter coat you got me. And it's only May. In July and August, I can't even imagine how crazy it's gonna be. Welcome to Brazil.

-Elder Pontes and I have iniciateda special program for our companionship. Every other day, we do a special fast. The first 2 days weren't that hard, but I'm actually starting to fell hungry now, which is good. It makes it feel more like a sacrifice and I'm feeling the Spirit a lot stronger. This fasting is also bringing about a lot of miracles! We found a couple and started to teach them, Rafael and Iliane. They are super cool and they accepted the baptismal invite. It was super cool. Also we're seeing a lot of protection. This city isn't very dangerous, but something cool happened. Elder Pontes and I had marked an appointment with a less-active that is getting over a drug addiction. It was night, and we were about to go, but we had a feeling to go meet with a recent-convert on the other side of the area. So we followed our feelings and went there. Nothing special happened, (except for a chocolate cake that was waiting for us),, but we later found out that the drug dealers had tried to break into the house of this less-active that same night, and they tried to ruff up his brother in law. But because we listened to the Spirit, we were protected. It was super sweet.

-I've been thinking a lot about my childhood lately, and I'll I have to say is that I am so grateful for my amazing parents who raised me so well to know that the Gospel is true, and that families can really be happy and unified. You guys rock.

Well, besides the cold and the work, there's nothing else going on in my life. I'm just so happy tobe here in Brazil! I love my mission, and I love this work!

Challenges of the week:

1. Write your testimony to me in Portuguese
2. Read a talk from General Conference, Oct. 2013, and write me an email about what you learned.

"In the sight of the Lord, it is not so much what we have done or where we have been but much more where we are willing to go."
-Edward Dube

Well, I love you all! This Church is true. If you don't know it yet, just ask the creator of all truth. He'll tell you.

Rock on.

Elder Hintze

Rolling Hills and Deutsch

Ich bin Deutch lernen!

So this week was sweeter than honey pie. I'm in my new area of Cruz Alta, after many events I made it to P-Day!

Okay, so here was my week:

-So I left Uruguaiana at 4 pm last Pday and after 8 hours of travel alone, I arrived in Cruz Alta at 12:30 in the morning! When I arrived, absolutely nobody was waiting for me. haha I was in a new city, alone, and in the middle of the night. Luckily, some nice man let me use his cell phone and I called the Secretaries. Luckily (again), they were awake still because they had a meeting with President Parrela. So they called the Zone Leaders and they came and got me! haha. So I'm good.

-On the bus ride, the bus was stopped by the Brazilian Military. They asked for all the passengers to show their identification, and I, being the only foreign person on the bus, had a different type of ID than everyone else. The soldier walked over and looked at me and asked where my passport was, and I had to explain that the church has it in the mission headquarters in Santa Maria. Nothing happened. They left, and I was fine. But oh, how scared I was.

-So Cruz Alta is BEAUTIFUL! It's rolling hills and extremely green. The city is much smaller than Uruguaiana, but much more developed. It feels like a mix of San Juan, Paris, and Old Town Leesburg. It is sweet. I absolutely love it here. It's small,. peaceful beautiful, and the people are so nice. I love it.

-The people here speak portuguese with an Irish accent

- There is a member of our ward who speaks German! I talked with her yesterday, and she started to teach me some stuff! It was her first language becuase her parents were german and owned a farm here. She hasn't spoken it since she was little, though, so here vocabulary is limited to farm language with bad grammar. But, she gave us a reference to a lady who speaks German better, and we're gonna try and read Das Buch Mormon with her! It's cooler than coolers.

-My companion is Elder Pontes, and he is super cool. He was baptized 7 years ago and went to church all alone for 6 months until his dad was baptized. Then his dad went inactive, but Elder Pontes kept going to church. And after 1 year of the mission, his mom was baptized! I think it's an awesome story. But he rocks, and right now he's our district leader.

Well, this was my week. it was super sweet. and I love it here in Cruz Alta! I'm happy and working! So I have a task for all of you. I want you all to read this article.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/the-windows-of-heaven?lang=eng

Pray before hand and ask the Lord what you need to learn and what he wants to teach you. Then read it and think of all the different ways that the Lord blesses us. Also think about the form in which blessings come. I promise better understand of the blessings that the Lord sends us.

Well, I love you all a whole heap and I hope you all keep strong. Read the scriptures!

Até próximo,

Elder Hintze

Football and Prison

Yola! (Yo and hola together). This week was cooler than the weather here. Tons of work, tons of fun. Okay, so here's whats been going on down here in the meio de nada:

 

-So I've been praying for spiritual experiences this week and some cool things happened. Simple, but quite dandy. So we were working and I had a thought that we should pass by the one inactive family and leave a message. So this family was sealed in the temple and were all super active and then one day they just stopped going to church. I think they've been away from the church for almost 5/6 years now. So we passed by and talked, and it seemed like they were having a lot of problems. The wife is having health problems and the dad, Paulo, is out of work. So I shared D&C 58:2-4 that talks about tribulations and the blessings we receive when we keep the commandments during our tribulations. Well, before I could even explain the scripture, Paulo starts looking at his wife and explaining why it's important to keep the commandments and go to church every sunday. He was explaining as if he was desperate to go to church but she wouldn't let him. Then afterwards, Paulo wanted us to give a blessing to her, but only if she wanted. And she wanted, so we gave her a blessing, and the Spirit was super strong. Then we asked (kind of sassily) what they're gonna do Sunday. They didn't really say anything until the 8 year old whispered to her mom that she wanted to be baptized. It was really cool to see how the Spirit affected their determination to return to church. But the sad news is...they didn't show up. It was a spiritual experience because I got to see how the Spirit works, but they still have their agency. I'm super bummed, but we'll keep trying.

 

-So a couple weeks ago, a lady stopped us on the street and said we could stop at her work to teach some youth about Jesus. So we went by this week (turns out it is the building right next to our apartment), and we entered. We asked what kind of facility it was, and she explained that is was sort of an open prison. Boys who did something bad, but not bad enough to go to prison, come here, where they live/work/study and if they're good, they have more freedom to do stuff. So we're starting to teach them and they're really excepting. You can tell that there are some that are totally down to change their lives and there are others that are still a little stubborn. But hey, I'm like the Apostle Paul, I'm teaching in prison!

 

-So we were searching for the house of the one guy in our ward, but we just couldn't find it. So after quite a few attempts, we decided to visit another member close by. It was almost time to head back home, but too early to start heading back yet. So as we walked we passed by a house, and I said "Boa Noite!" to a women who was sitting out front. I had a feeling to talk to her, but I ignored it and kept walking. We passed the house and turned the corner, and the feeling stayed, so I told my companion that we needed to go back and talk to her. So we did. She received us really well and we taught her about the restoration and eternal families. The Spirit was really strong and it was awesome to see how the Spirit guides us. Her name is Mariza.

 

-This last Saturday, we gather the youth to play soccer and bring their friends. But instead we totally played football. My companion bought a football, and now all the Brazilians are learned how to be real men.

 

-Church was crazy. We brought Lázaro, our 11 year old investigator. And there were a lot of children. I ended up entertaining all the little ones and Lázaro, who was having a hard time paying attention, while my companion sat with our other investigator. I got to draw pictures and do silly things, which was flippin' sweet. I'm on a mission and I'm already starting Papa Prep!

 

Well this week rocked, and I hope you all have a radical time, n' stuff. I hope you're all feelin' my prayers! LOVE YOU ALL!

 

Elder Hintze

 

P.S. Dearest Mother Who I Absolutely Adore, all the Brazilians want cookies. Do you have a good recipe?

Hola People

Howdy folks. So this week was weird. Last Sunday, it was super duper cold and then the rest of the week was flippin' hooootttt. I do not understand. I feel like I'm in the bipolar whether of Virginia again. But all is well. Easter was pretty dandy. 

So my week:

-Tuesday, we went back to teach Claudia, that one lady that accepted baptism. She was there and we taught her, but I'm starting to think that she doesn't get it. We explained very clearly and simply that if the Book of Mormon is true, than our church is the only true church in the world, and the only way we can really return to our Heavenly Father. But she keeps saying things like "But I already got my church and I don't think God wants me to go church-hopping." Bah. But her she said her son doesn't have a church and so we started teaching him. His name is Lauro, and he went to church with us on Sunday! We thought he would be sleeping because it was early, it was a holiday, and he's a skateboarding 16 year old. But we got to his house, and he was all ready, waiting outside, so that was cool.

 

-Lázaro is 11 and we've been working with him for a while. His mom was pregnant so it was hard to get in with them. She's inactive, and a little protective of her kids, but they're cool. She had the baby Wednesday (and he is the cutest darn little baby ever), and we got a good lesson in with them this week. And then the mom let Lázaro go to church with us. I think she's opening up to letting him get baptized, which is sweet peas. But keep them in your prayers. 

Me and Paulinho at the river. Paulinho is the only member in his family but I think he's one of the strongest members in the ward. He's the coolest. and his name means Little Paul

-We did 2 service projects this week. We painted a house, and then we cemented the walls of another house. It was pretty sweet. I have a newly developed skill of making and applying cement now. Yeah, I'm cool. 

-I made crepes last P-day, and my companion loved them, and he tells all the families about them, so now, all the families in the ward want me to come over and make crepes. And, they are pretty fantastic, thanks to a recipe of my wonderful mother who I absolutely adore.

-We worked a lot with inactive members this week. It sort of bothers me. Here, all the inactive members have awesome testimonies, they're just flippin' lazy. GET OFF YOUR BUTTS PEOPLE. THE CHURCH IS TRUE. But really they're pretty cool in their own lazy way. 

Well, this was my week. I hope you're all having a wonderful time of magical awesomeness and stuff. I love you all and you all rock socks to the utmost degree of rocking on the Mike Hintze scale of Rockage. Well, peace out, peeps. 

Dad on his mission, and me on mine!

Elder Hintze 

Funky Town and Modern Day Revelation

So this week I learned that chocolate soap is not edible. It was a crazy week, like always, so here are the highlights:

-General Conference was sweet. It was a really different experience listening in Portuguese. Also, it was hard to pay attention. The song "Funky Town" was playing through the loud speaker in the chapel all Saturday. It was so quite and subtle that if you didn't focus , you couldn't hear it. I think me and my companion were the only people who could hear it anyways. I still have no clue why.

-We are going to baptize a senhora (an older lady) by the name of Silivia this Saturday. It's gonna be sweet. She went to conference and she loved it, so I'm excited!

-The chapel always had this weird chirping noise the whole time that I've been here. Well, we now know why. We went to go put some things on the bulletin board, and there were some exterminators there, killing bats. Like, a lot of bats. They had grocery bags full of dead bats. It was crazy weird/cool.

-There is this cool member in my ward who was the mission companion to Austin's mission president! How cool is that?

So I was explaining the story of Nephi going to get the Plates to this 11 year old investigator. I had this huge realization of the importance of the scriptures. The Lord knew that it was necessary for Lehi and his family to have the scriptures with them while they were in the wilderness. It was one of the things most vital to them. So this is what you guys need to do. You guys need to make the scriptures one of the most vital things in your lives. A day without the scriptures is a day without food. So nurture your Spirits and read the scriptures every day! It's something that is so important. I know the scriptures have so much power. Use the amazing opportunity that you have and read, read, read, read, and read.

Anyways, this email is kind of lame, but I love you guys so much! You all are super incredible and I am so grateful to be part of my family! You all rock socks to the utmost degree of sock rocking. Just remember how important each and every one of you are to your Father in Heaven.

Love you guys!

Elder Hintze

From the City in the Middle of Nowhere

Howdy people. So my week was quite grand. We had a lot of cool things happen, so I will explain:

-We have a baptism! She was supposed to be baptised this Saturday, but we moved it to next Saturday since conference will happen. Then she can get confirmed the next day. But her name is Silvia. Remember Bianca? Well, the mother of Bianca is Nadir, and Nadir is a member. And Silvia is this old senhorinha that lives with them. She came to church with Nadir once and then we visited them and she told us she wants to get baptised. Pretty dandy, if I do say so.

-So remember Bianca? Yesterday when we were teaching Silvia the commandments, Bianca was there too. We have to speak really loud so that Silvia can hear us, but Bianca is a little impatient. So we're reading about the 10 commandments in the Book of Mormon. But Bianca went ahead and read the whole chapter when we were teaching Silvia. So by the time we were talking about commandment #2, Bianca had read the whole chapter. So it ended up that Bianca taught Silvia the whole 10 commandments, better than I think my companion and I would have. It was super funny since Bianca is not a member. She's just a little lazy and impatient. But their family rocks.

-So this week we were going to teach a lesson and we passed by the house of an inactive member. Well, this inactive member is also a Profesora of English. So when we passed by, we waved to her, and she waved for us to enter. So we entered in the middle of one of her classes. And then she asked me to teach her students something. So, I began teaching English in a formal English class setting. I taught them how to say "Cool", "Sweet", "That's Rockin'", and "Peace Out.", along with some other stuff. It was sweet.

-We've been doing a lot of Noites Familiares with the ward members and they are inviting all their friends and its awesome. We're teaching a bunch of people and it is super cool. The ward members are super pumped about the Work of the Lord, so they're working hard as well. Missionaries can change lives, but the members make the difference.

-We contacted this guy named Edidio this week, and we taught him about the Restoration. He was very engaged and was a little bible-bashy. At the end of the lesson, he said: "If I take this Book of Mormon and this Pamphlet from you guys, you can't teach anything about your religion." So I explained to him. "Of course we can't. We could teach you all the doctrine of our church in the Bible, but without the Book of Mormon, we're nothing. If you read this and know it's true, than you can know that this Joseph Smith was really a Prophet, and that God really loves you and His church is established here on this earth, for you." Now, this is the kind of stuff that we say all the time, but this time it hit me. I really grew to understand how the Book of Mormon really is the most important thing of our religion. How great the love of our Heavenly Father must be, for him to send us just one little book, adjoined with one little prayer, to know that his church is here and that we can begin to receive infinite happiness in this life and for eternity. Yet, so many people are so ignorant and won't read or pray. God is the creator of the universe. He created all truth. If we want to know truth, all we have to do is ask him! It's simple! And you know where we find truth...THE BOOK OF MORMON! The Book of Mormon is true people! Read it! Pray about it! This church is true, and Jesus is our Savior. I am so grateful for this Gospel!

Anyways, if I could leave you all with one piece of advice, every conversation you have, somehow involve the church. You have this incredible gift. Share it.

Well people, the church is true. Choose the right, and don't do drugs.

Peace

Elder Hintze

A Terra de Promessa

OLA!

 

So this week was interesting, like all weeks. The work is awesome but with Carnaval, it was a little interesting.

 

-The nights of Carnaval were Thurs, Fri, Sat, and Sun. It was loud and the roads are extremely dirty and smell like a barn. There were these super cool giant floats in the streets. Like REALLY cool stuff, but I didn't have my câmera so I couldn't take fotos. Saturday night, we went to bed with loud music blasting from the streets, and we woke up at 6:30, with the same music blasting. And when we went to church at 8, it was still blasting. However, the Ward went from 25 people in church last week to 55 this week, so things are better!

 

-An inactive member in the Ward died this week :( I had met him once but we were working with his wife. We knew he went to the hospital but we didn't know he died until the Bishop called and asked us to sing at the funeral. So we went to the cemetery and we all sang Mais Perto, Quero Estar (Nearer My God to Thee) and everyone was crying. It was super sad. I almost cried too.  So then we went to out his coffin in a wall. So here in Uruguaiana, they have this giant court Yard and walls filled with coffins. Its got aisles and aisles of walls of dead bodies. Kinda crazy. But no disrespect, it was so cool. The first thing I thought when I entered was "Golly, Mike has got to see this." Its crazy. You feel like your in a fantasty world. But it was still sad.

 

-We are teaching this two kids, Lazaro and Barbara. They're mom and older sister are inactive, but the older sister really wants to go to church again. The problem is, she's a tad sassy, so she's not all inclined to let them got to church or seminary or the English classes we teach. It's sad. We had a baptismal date marked for them this saturday, and they were all super pumped, but they didn't/couldn't go to church, so the date fell through. It's sad, but I have hope for them. Lazaro is 11 and he is so cool. We show up and all he wants me to do is draw him cartoon animals, and then, after that all he wants to do is listen to the lessons. He is so awesome.

 

-The Ward wants to have a party and they want American Pancakes. So mom, can you send me a recipe for Pancakes and syrup?Something simple. And a recipe for crepes, too!

 

-I've been studying a lot about how we can learn by the Spirit, and one thing I learned is that we are accountable for what we learn. So we need to apply what we learn, imediately. If we don't apply what we've learned, did we really learn it? So in your studies, Always try to apply what you learn and live what you learn. Be a living testimony. And the more you do this, the more you learn, the more you grow, and the more you feel the Spirit. It's crazy how much more you learn when you apply things. You may think you've learned something, but until you're doing it, you've learned only a fraction of what you coul've learned.

 

Anyways, this week was crazy cool, and I'm exciting to continue on! Being a missionary rocks socks. So, I love you all so much! If I could give one tip to ya'll...read Preach My Gospel and study the scripture references like crazy. They're sweet. Okay, I love you all.

 

Peace

 

Elder Hintze