Information About Arlington Texas

Arlington (nickname Aggtown) is located east of Ft. Worth, about 20 miles from Dallas. It has a population of just over 374,000 people. 60% of the population is White, 18% Hispanic, 14% Black. Median household income is just over $52,000. 85% of those over the age of 25 graduated from high school. 30% are college graduates and 9% have advanced degrees.  About 51,000 of the residents are foreign born. 36% are Southern Baptist. 22% are Catholic. 13% are United Methodist.  11% are of German ancestry. 9% of English ancestry. 9% Irish ancestry.

Arlington is the home of the Texas Rangers major league baseball team and the Dallas Cowboys NFL football team. Six Flags is located in Arlington as well and boasts a roller coaster that is 255 feet high.

Serving as a Co-Senior

It's been another week. Before I know it the two years will have passed and I won't know where they've gone. I'm liking what I've seen of Arlington so far. It was Stake conference this last weekend, so I still haven't met a lot of the ward. It seems like an awesome ward though.

My companion and I are getting along great. We are serving as co-seniors, witch means that we are both experienced enough that President doesn't want either of us to feel less important and be called a junior companion. Elder Stuart is a very good obedient missionary. When he was growing up he had quite a few health issues, and his parents have taken it pretty easy on him. Sometimes he is a bit socially awkward, but he has a great heart. He is pretty reserved, so it is giving me an opportunity to grow a lot. I just do most of the talking. He is from a family of 4 children two of which were adopted. His parents have been very successful and they own a very large home.

We have two other Elders serving in our area as well. Elder Togogae and his Greenie (new missionary) Elder Misustin. It has been a lot of fun. We have been meeting up and knocking doors around each other so that we can keep track of what has and hasn't been done easier.

The work is a little slow at the moment, but we are working hard to get it turned around. We are only working with a few people, but the ones I've met seem semi-promising. We have an investigator named Frank who is a very active Roman Catholic. The missionaries found him a year ago, and they have met with him on and off for a long time. He is a very intelligent guy, and seems to know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that Joseph Smith is a prophet. He is having a hard time letting go of his deep Catholic roots. I hope that I'll know how we can help him best.

We visited Mike, the guy I met with last week. It was great. He had kept his commitments and had read from the Book of Mormon. He gave me a bit of a scare. He said he had done some research on the internet about Mormons, and said that he had to go get something. I thought for sure that he had run into some anti-Mormon material and was going to have some very deep doctrinal questions. But he had a paper where he had written down some of the things he had reasearched. I'm not sure if he is super interested, but he is at least very curious. If he continues to keep the commitments that we leave with him, I know that God will answer his prayers and he will know that the message we share is true.

I'm loving life. The mission is hard work, but I'm having a lot of fun while I am at it.

Love Elder Rindlisbacher

I love you all. Let my siblings know I would love to hear from them.

A Move to Arlington and a New Companion

It has been a good week. I was able to visit a lot of the people that I love in Gainesville before the transfer and I was still able to get quite a bit of work done before I left. We visited my investigator Kelly and taught her a lesson on the gospel path. She really enjoys meeting with us. I hope that she will continue to keep commitments and decide to be baptized. I know that she really could use a lot of the blessings that come along with baptism. She will make a great member.

I had slacked off pretty bad in journal writing, so I decided to write a quick summary of my time in Gainesville including a bunch of names and descriptions of people that I do not want to forget.

We traveled down to Hurst for our transfer meeting yesterday. Elder Cooper is training this transfer, so we were both able to head down. I know he'll be a great trainer. I learned a lot from him. He taught me to work hard, and how to turn an area around. When he first arrived we had only one person we were teaching, and that one person wasn't progressing. Now in Gainesville there are 5 or so people they are teaching and they each have a lot of potential. They will be baptising in the coming months. President Thurston gave us a training on joy in service, and then we were able to hear the departing missionaries testimonies. Among those going home this transfer was my trainer Elder Taulanga. Last transfer he and his companion Elder Birch served as zone leaders in Arlington. They worked very hard and had a lot of success. Another elder going home was Elder Swinie, I'm not sure that I spelled that correctly, but he is from Fresno and served in my zone for this last transfer. I think he is from East Stake. He was a very funny guy and has talked about sending me a double double from In 'n Out in the mail.

I've been called to serve in the Arlington 3rd ward for the next stretch. It seems to be a very good area. From what I hear, the poorest portion of the mission is in my area, but from what I 've seen so far it seems to be pretty diverse. We had dinner at a very big home in a gated community, and we tracted an area that reminded me of the area around the Fresno West stake center. However in the evening we went to an apartment complex on the other side of the tracks to teach a lesson. We taught a large black man by the name of Mike. He was very knowlegable of the bible and was very enthusiastic. I hope that he is baptised so that we can hear him speak during sacrament meeting. We taught a first and he said he will read and pray to know that the Book of Mormon is true, and if he recieves an answer in the affirmative he will be baptised.

I'm serving with an Elder Stuart. He's from Washington, Utah. I guess it is right outside of St. George. He's a small guy and reminds me quite a bit of Remington Hale. He is very obedient, and he has been out for about 15 months. We are serving as co-seniors.

In the process of being transfered I had my towel and pillow outside of my bag, because they wouldn't fit. I know they got into the van that took me to Arlington, but I think I left them in there when I transfered my things to our car. It wouldn't be a huge issue, if I had not put my binder with a bunch of personal info, pictures, letters, and addresses in it. I really hope it shows up.

Love, Elder Rindlisbacher

The Train Man

It's been another week already. Our teaching pool continues to grow and slowly people are starting to progress. It is a really good sign if someone has read since the last time you met with them, and an even better sign if they show up to church. For most of our investigators that hasn't been the case, but a few are starting to read. I hope that they will start coming to church and feel the spirit there.

 

General conference is great. I really enjoyed both of President Uchtdorf's talks on patience and charity. Those are two things that I could improve on. I also gained a better understanding of blessings of healing from Elder Oaks talk durring priesthood. I wish that every person that asked to receive a blessing would read that talk.

After general conference we went over to the Oakley's for dinner. Sister Oakley served a mission in Italy. She made us some lasagna. The Oakleys have 7 children. One is on a mission in Panama, and another is waiting for his mission call. After dinner we had a lesson with their friends Levi and Zach who are 16 and 19 respectively. We taught about the restoration and the Oakleys shared their testimony. The spirit was very strong, and we set return appointments with both of them.

 

Other than that nothing new is really going on. Yesterday while tracting, however, we met a mentally disabled gentleman sitting on his porch. Before I knew that he was disabled I said, "Hello, how are you?" To which he responded, "I like making model trains." He slid his binder toward us on the porch and Elder Cooper asked "What's in the binder?" Then the gentleman responded, "I'm glad you asked." Then he crawled over to the binder and opened it up. He showed us his train magazines, and then said, "Want to see something cool? It doesn't hurt." He then proceded to bend his middle finger all of the way back to his wrist. To top it all off he was wearing a train conductor's hat. We gave him a card and told him to have a nice day. It was probably the funniest thing that I've seen on my mission.

 

This Saturday is transfer calls and I will let you know where I will be for the next bit.

 

Anyways,

Elder Rindlisbacher

 

Early Letter Writing

     Sorry for getting started a bit earlier than normal this morning. I missed hearing from you, but we would like to email you about this same time every week. I hope it's not a hastle. Maybe write the day before... Anyways.

     We had a great week. We are teaching quite a bit and finding more and more people to teach. We have appointments almost all day after lunch for the rest of the week. We had a day like that yesterday, and it was great, but three of our four appointments fell through so we only taught one of them. I hope that we have a bit more success over the next couple of days.

     A lot of the people we are teaching are brand new investigators, and we are trying to see if they will progress or not. We started teaching the wife of a member that has been inactive for a long time but is recently coming back. He has spent almost his entire life working the oil fields, and it has left him pretty beat up. He doesn't breath very well anymore, and can't work. He is waiting on disability to start coming in so they are in a really tight spot. He is also an alcoholic, and a smoker. It probably doesn't sound very promising, but I know that the message we share will bless the life of his family. His wife has been to church twice now and is really enjoying it. She has a very sincere desire to learn and to change. I know that living the gospel of Jesus Christ will bless their lives. I hope they make the choices to change their lives.

     Some of the people we have been teaching have been put on hold for a little while. Two of the most promising have gone out of town for a little while. One for a week and the other for three. It is a bit discouraging, but I'll get over it.

     We had interviews with President Thurston last Friday. We were first interviewed by his wife, who had previously challenged us to make our bed every morning. I was honest and let her know that I had improved since she had challenged us, but I still had a lot of room for improvement. Since the interview with her I have been 100%. She also had us mark our favorite scripture in her set and sign next to it. I had a short and sweet interview with President. He let me know that I will be being transferred at the end of this transfer. That means in two emails I will be in another place. It seems weird to me, because all I know of being a missionary is Gainesville Texas. It will be good to see another place and meet more amazing people. I hear it isn't set in stone until transfer calls come, so we will wait and see.

     I love ya'll. keep praying for us.

Love Elder Rindlisbacher