Week 71- June 17

     This week has been a pretty good week. We have been staying busy as usual trying to get everything done. Last week we had to do AMPS (assessment of missionary progress). That is always tons of fun. We meet with the district leaders and talk with them about the missionaries in their district and how they're doing, their skills, and the things they need to work on. After we meet with them we basically write an essay for the mission president to read to get to better know the missionaries. It takes a lot of time but it isn't that bad. There is only 14 missionaries in our zone that we have to do it for. It is really cool to get to see the growth in the missionaries. There are 5 new missionaries in the zone and it has been cool to see them grow and learn missionary skills. Along with meeting with the district leaders we also call and talk to all of them, (which means we are always on the phone). We are either talking with missionaries or investigators or stake and ward leaders. I have come to not be afraid of the phone.
   We had a baptism in the zone on Friday night. It was a really cool baptism. It wasn't like you normally have at a church building. This one was at someones home in their pool. It was a really cool baptism. While we were standing around the pool the birds were chirping and there was a slight breeze. I thought that that was probably how it was when Joseph Smith was baptized. Quiet peaceful and open. We were worried that we weren't going to feel the spirit as strong as we would have in the church building but we were definitely wrong. The spirit was very strong. I also thought of the first vision and what an incredible experience that was and also how much love Heavenly Father has for all of us.
    From Friday to Saturday I was on exchanges with one of the Assistants in my area. It is always great to work with them because you learn so much. We saw so many miracles. Friday night we were driving home and we had 5 min left before we had to be in so we decided that we were going to park the car and see if we could talk to anyone. We started walking and there was a guy talking to a lady down the way, so we went up and stood there awkwardly waiting. When they finished their conversation we started talking with the man and come to find out he has terminal cancer, he was recently married and his 2 bosses are Mormon. We talked with him for about 10 min and he introduced us to his wife. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet and we are going to be going back this week to talk with him. Also all day Saturday we talked with a lot of people who might be interested it was really cool.
   Thursday night we met with one of our investigators and we taught her the gospel. While we were talking about baptism I was prompted to invite her to be baptized. I was a little hesitant, because she has a lot of crazy ideas and concerns and what not. But I decided that that is what I had to do so I did. When I invited her the spirit in the room was so strong and she said yes and we set a date for July 13. Hopefully she will make it, she still has a lot to understand and it takes her a little bit of time. It was a really cool experience.
   Saturday we sent a text to our investigator that we haven't been able to meet with in a month, (the one who said her heart exploded when we shared the first vision). When she texted us back she said that she didn't want to meet with us and that she was going to stick with her church. This is what we were worried was going to happen. We think she got anti'd. It was very disappointing because we know she felt the spirit testify to her that what we were sharing is true.
Love, Elder RINDLISBACHER

Week 70- June 11

This week has been a great week! We have stayed pretty busy. This past weekend we had stake conference. It was really good. All the missionaries in the stake were invited to go to the priesthood leadership meeting. There the stake presidency trained on what we as a stake needed to do to get the missionaries teaching more and to have more baptisms! The Stake presidency is really involved in the missionary work here. We talk with the stake president a few times a week about what needs to happen to get the work moving. He is a former mission president so missionary work is a high priority. He goes out teaching with the missionaries a couple times a week. He is an incredible man and it has been a lot of fun serving with him. On Saturday I went to the dentist. There is a member of the ward who is a dentist so he fixed a tooth for me. I had a filling that was coming out so he fixed it. It was pretty weird. I was on Exchanges with Elder Goble which was pretty cool but while my tooth was getting worked on he was the assistants running the suction. Last week I was also on Exchanges in the Spanish ward, that is always interesting, but cool at the same time. We are staying pretty busy trying to find more people to teach, we still have 2 baptismal dates set for the end of the month hopefully everything works out! On Wednesday we had our zone training meeting. It ended up being a great meeting. President Cook came. That was pretty intimidating but he helped out a lot and gave color to the trainings. We trained on having better studies and getting investigators to attend baptismal services. I have come to enjoy giving trainings. This week I have memorized a poem, this is how it goes.
I often say my prayers,
but do I ever Pray
do the wishes of my heart
go with the word I say
I may as well kneel down
and worship gods of stone
as offer to the living god
a prayer of words alone.
well prayer without the heart
the lord will never hear
nor will he to those lips attend
whose hearts are not sincere.

I thought this was a pretty sweet poem.

Thanks for everything! I Love You!

Love, Elder RINDLISBACHER

Week 69- June 3

This week has been a great week! This morning we got to go to the San Diego Temple. That is such a great temple. I love going to the Temple it is so great! We have been staying busy working hard.
   
       Sunday was a great day. After church we were able to pick up another new investigator and set a date for baptism. We now have 2 dates set for June 29. It is incredible to see how people are prepared. It was a really good lesson the spirit was very strong. Elder Hancock and I work very well together, so it has been a lot of fun teaching. This past week we have run into a lot of anti people that have wanted to bash with us. Sunday afternoon we ran into a guy on the street and he basically just yelled at us and rambled in Hebrew telling us that we were wrong. It was quite the experience. Last night we ran into a less active member who is now an atheist and he was trying to prove evolution to us. That was a weird conversation. He said a lot of stuff that made no sense. I feel so sorry for those people who have had a testimony but have forgotten it, but aren't humble enough to remember.
 
        Saturday night we had a lesson with one of our investigators. It was an interesting lesson. This lady mixes Hindu/Buddhist with Christianity and all this random stuff. During our lesson she invited us to her church so we will probably be going here soon. It is going to be really interesting but I am excited. Friday we had Mission Leader Council with President Cook and the assistants it was a great meeting we received trainings on how we can improve our studies. The trainings helped me a lot. Tomorrow we are having our Zone training meeting that my companion and I get to do. We have been preparing all the trainings and practices that go along with what we learned at mission leader council. Hopefully all will go well. Last week we helped a lot of people move in and out. By the time I am done with my mission I am going to be a professional mover.

       Sounds like everything is going well and now you guys get to have summer! I hope you have a great week I I Love You!

Love, Elder RINDLISBACHER  

Week 68- May 28

    This past week was a really good week. We have been staying really busy. There is always so much to do with so little time. My new companion is a cool guy. His name is Elder Hancock, he is from Highland Utah. He has been out just over a year. He is a pretty quite guy but he is really smart. This is his first time being a zone leader so I am his zone leader trainer. It has been pretty crazy because he doesn't really know everything he is supposed to be doing yet so have had to be doing a lot. It is helping me a lot tho. Sunday morning we had a meeting with the stake presidency and ward mission leaders and our mission president was there. It was pretty intense, because we had to report and get some help with things going on in a couple of the wards in the stake. Going into the meeting I thought President Cook was going to be the one talking but I was wrong. When we got there and sat down with President Cook he said that we needed to be young successful business men and that we had to be the ones to get what we wanted. I was so nervous but it ended up going pretty well.

    Last week we saw a lot of miracles. We went and stopped by the lady that told us to come back. When we went back we had a lesson on her front porch because we couldn't go inside because we didn't have a third person. I think that was probably the most spiritual front porch lesson I have ever had. We taught her the restoration. After we shared the first vision we asked her how she felt and she said it feels like my heart exploded and she began to cry. We continued talking and talked about the Holy Ghost and how that's how she will know if what we are teaching is true. We then invited her to be baptized she said yes and we set a date for June 29th. This all happened on a front porch, it was pretty awesome.

   Thursday night we meet with an investigator that we have been teaching for a while who has had a lot of deep questions and basically has just wanted to study the Bible with us. We talked with him for a while about verses in the Bible and at the end of the conversation we told him that we couldn't meet with him anymore because we were basically wasting our time because he really doesn't want to learn. While we were talking we asked him if he went to another church and he said he did. We think that he is some kind of pastor or preacher or something like that. It was a pretty interesting experience.
 
   On Friday we had dinner with a family in the ward and they had a friend that's not a member over and after dinner we talked about the restoration. We weren't able to teach a complete lesson so we set up a return appointment for the next day. We went back and we started teaching and while we were teaching we would ask her questions and she would go off on random tangents and she was confessing to us everything she has done. It was sad to hear and the Gospel will definitely bless her life. We will hopefully be meeting with her again this week to talk with her some more.
Love, Elder RINDLISBACHER