My Companion's a Polynesian Butcher

Dear Family,

 

    Time continues to fly by. I hope I don't miss anything in this madness. I'm still loving Gainesville. The members are awesome and continue to treat us very well. We had interviews last week and I found out that I will be having a new companion, because Elder Taulanga will be made a zone leader somewhere for his last transfer. I still don't know who it will be or if I will be staying in Gainesville. I am ready for transfers. I love my companion, but I was happy to hear I would be getting a new one. 3 months with almost 24/7 contact with a person can really wear on your patience.

 

    President gave a training before interviews about temple worthiness. We will be attending the temple on the 9th or 10th. I am excited, becasue it will be the third time I have been through. 

 

    We recieved an email a while back informing us that we will be having a new mission president this July. He is from Boise ID and he was an institute director. I can not remember his name for the life of me. It will be interesting seeing how a different mission president will handle things.

 

      The work is still quite slow. A lot of our investigators are still having a hard time keeping their commitments, but I think they understand that we love them and they are starting to make small changes that I hope will eventually lead to baptism. Please pray for all of them.

 

     We had a zone activity for P-Day. A member bought a pig for us and my companion and one of the other Tongans prepared it and cooked it. It was the first time I have ever seen an animal get slaughtered. They hit it in the head with a hammer to stun it, and then slit it's throat. It was a pretty quick death. After they let the blood drain for a bit they put the pig into some very hot water and pulled all of the hair off. Then they gutted it and pulled out all of the inards. Then they stuck it on a pole and we turned it over a fire for about 3 hours. It was a lot of fun, but it used up almost all of our time yesterday. We got back and showered to get the smell of the fire off of us and then went straight to a dinner appointemnt and then to visit our investigators.

 

   Thank you for all of the love and support. Contine to pray for us. I love you all.

 

Elder Rindlisbacher

It's a Missionary Birthday -- I'm Officially 3

        Sorry about last week. I made a typo when I was typing your email address and it didn't go through. I'll paste last weeks email at the bottom of this one. Yes we did get a new email account. It is through google, but you can still reach me at my old account it is all forwarded. You can also use this new account.

        Last week we made it to Library a bit early, so I wasn't able to read mom's email. I just read two from mom and one from cassi and one from dad.

       It is my B-Day! I'm officially 3!

       Well the weather is better this week. The sun has been out all week and it has slowly been getting warmer. It is the first time in a while that I am not wearing a sweater. I thought I had told ya'll, but I guess I didn't. We have the second largest area in the mision, so we are in a car most of the time, especially in the cold weather. When we are on a bike I have been using a members old bike that they bought in the 80's. It is pretty ghetto looking, but it rides like a Cadilac and has a cool thing that the wheel spins to run a light on the front.

         Last week after I returned back to Gainesville after my exchange with the Zone Leaders I went to the fridge and an entire box of corndogs was missing. I asked my companion what happened and he said the other missionary that was on exchange with him had waxed them. As I continued around the kitchen I noticed that he had gobbled up the rest of my bag of pot stickers, about 12 of them, Two half containers of my juices, half a box of cereal and a banana. I was pretty upset at first. I called him up and asked him how he was able to do that when they had a dinner appointment and got a free lunch from a member. It is water under the bridge now, but I keep on teasing him about the doller value of the food of mine that he ate.

        Another Sunday flew by, and the investigators that we really want at church where not there again. The 12 year old son of one of our investigators was there though, and I think we are going to start teaching him. Junior, the fellow that has been sick for a while but was very excited when we visted with him, has kind of fallen off the map. He hasn't been answering his phone, and when we go knock on his door the guy he lives with comes out and tells us that he is still at work trying to catch up on all of the work that he missed while he was in the hospital. He said Junior is still interested, so we won't give up on him.

       This coming week is board week. That is the week that our president looks at a board with all of our faces and areas and decides what he will be doing with each of us for the next transfer. That means that the following week is transfers, so I'll let you know if and where I go. I hear that it is rare for a greenie to stay in their first area longer than two transfers. I'm nervous and a bit excited about change.

Well Love Yall

Elder Rindlisbacher

PS Let Cassi know I wrote her a letter by snail mail before I knew she had emailed me. Tell Kevin to stick with the basketball. It was about his age when I gained interest in it.

Wierd Weather -- Working With a Less-Active Member

    The weather got pretty crazythis morning. We are getting quite a bit of snow. The library up in Gainesville is shut down so we are down here for zone activity and we are emailing from the Denton Library. It is closing in 40 minutes so we had to email a bit early today.

    We had a pretty good week this week. The investigators still haven't been making it to church, but I think they are beginning to see the importance of it. We had exchanges twice this week and both times the members were really able to reach out to the investigator we were visiting with. Last night a bunch of the investigators and less actives we have been working with were at mutual. Things seem to be turning around. This and next month should work out very well.

    There is another member of our ward that is a convert. His name is Jesse Trevino, and he used to be a pro golfer. He has a golf shop downtown where he gives indoor lessons. A year or so after he and his wife joined the church his wife passed away, and since he has remarried he has been inactive. Since we showed up we have been visiting him at least once a week and we taught him a bit and then he helped us with our golf swing. He has been at church for the last four weeks now and really wants to make it back to the Temple. It has been really cool.

    Mom you would be proud of me. I was wearing my black pinstripped slacks yesterday, and noticed that I had a hole along the seam in two places. After daily planning last night I sowed up both of the holes with the kit you gave me. In a couple of days I will wear them and see how good I did.

    We are going on a companion exchange today. I will be down with Elder Birch, one of our zone leaders, while Elder Tatioli, the other zone leader goes up to Gainesville with Elder Taulanga.

I love yall,

Elder Rindlisbacher

PS:  . . . . I love you guys. Keep praying for me and I always like to here from you guys.

Member Referral and Progressing Investigator

You arn't too late, but this is my second time at the library today. We had a zone wide football game today, and decided to try to get everything done early, so that we could go. After I saw you hadn't emailed yet my companion said that we could come back to the library after the game. Sorry about last week. We had to wait for a computer at the library for over an hour and then we were going to be late for an appointment I was a bit rushed.

This week has been good. Nothing too crazy or exciting has happened. While we were teaching a man named Jimi, that we have been working with for a long time, my companion went and spoke with his wife and her brother. Jimi is a.... um.... interesting guy. He is pretty rough around the edges. He is dealing with a lot of Word of Wisdom issues, and hasn't given us a straight answer if he belives that the Book of Mormon is true. But he comes to church every week and stays for all three hours. I think he will come around eventually. Well anyways, my companion was speaking with Jimi's brother-in-law, Jessy, while I was visiting with Jimi, and Jessy asked him what he needed to do to be saved. My companion left him with a couple of challenges and he has stopped chewing and drinking coffie and tea. He missed church, but he has a very sincere desire to do what is right.

Last Thursday evening after our dinner appointment with a less active member we recieved a phone call from a member in the ward. She let us know that she was speaking with her friend and the topic of religion came up. The friend asked her what the differences were between Mormons and the rest of the Christians. She explained them and then asked if she would like to be taught by the missionaries. She agreed and we will be meeting with her soon.

I know that God answers prayers and lets us have our rightous desires. I know that He is blessing us. Continue to pray for us. I love yall.

Elder Rindlisbacher