Some Excited New Investigators -- Yea!!

                It's been interesting having a new companion. He is a great guy and seems to be a good missionary. We've had a little of a rough go and things kinda seem to be falling apart last week. Our investigator named Chris has chosen not to meet with us anymore and made that a for sure by moving into his girlfriend's house which is outside of our area. The investigator who promised to be at church wasn't there. Overall we were in a down spot on Sunday.

     Monday is our planning day. We had a good planning session and it seemed like we would have a pretty good week. However, on our way to stop by the home of someone to whom we had lent a Book of Mormon I took a little spill on my bike. That put a bit of a damper on the day, but Tuesday we started meeting with a part member family. We started teaching the niece and nephew of the Mascoro family. They are both very bright and are excited to learn. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and showed them the Restoration DVD. Caled, the nephew, asked, "When can I get baptized." We're excited and will be setting a baptismal date with them this evening. 

   The mission has made some changes recently. There are a lot fewer district leaders. Which means the the districts are bigger. I now have stewardship over two other companionships. I like the change because it makes the leadership seem a bit more meaningful. District meetings should be a little easier because I will be training 5 missionaries instead of 3.

     We have a pretty good week planned and we're focusing on finding. Hopefully something will work out.

Love,

Elder Rindlisbacher

A New Companion

Well yesterday was transfers. No real surprises. Elder Whittier had served in this area for six months so we knew he'd be going. He is headed to Flower Mound. It is a very rich area up in the Louisville Stake. He was a great companion. Not only did we work hard, but there wasn't a time when we weren't having fun.

     We had a weight loss challenge this last six weeks. We were both really good about what we were eating and working out well in the mornings, but we slacked pretty bad in the middle. This last week we tried really hard again. Especially in the last two days. We both almost fasted and then pushed ourselves hard the next morning and sweated it all out before weigh in. I won. I lost 15.2 pounds and he lost 12.6 pounds. We figured that i really lost about 10 pounds and then 5 pounds of water, and Whittier lost about 6 pounds and 7 pounds of water. We had a lot of fun. He owes me a ticket to Disneyland when we get home now. We're going to go on a double date.

     My new companion is Elder Walker. He is from Rexburg, ID. He is the youngest in his family. He has 4 sisters and he is an uncle to 8 nieces and nephews. He loved playing basketball and has an offer to play at Salt Lake Community College when he gets home. He seems to be a real fun loving guy and always has a smile on his face. He has been out for a year this week. Weird thing is I'm serving as senior companion and district leader still. President Sagers seems to have a bit of a different style when it comes to transfers. There were quite a few surprises.

     Other than that not a lot has changed. We are still working really hard on finding. There are a few people we're teaching and some are progressing well. We met again with a lady last week who was raised Baptist, but because of some unfortunate events chose to be an atheist. Last week she accepted the commitment to pray. I'm excited to see how it goes. The young man named Chris we're been working with after his two week vacation decided that he didn't want to be baptized and has avoided us completely. He had some anti thrown at him, but I think if we could sit down and chat we could answer any of the questions he had. I love this work, but I hate when people will tell lies or twist truths to scare people who we're teaching. We'll keep working and I know that if we're obedient and endure our trials well that we'll see success.

Love Elder Rindlisbacher

PS: Thanks for the letters this last week. I loved seeing the pictures.

Companion Healing

       It has been an interesting week. Most of the interest has been created by the weather, and Elder Whittier. It has been HOT. The heat is unrelenting. 100+ all week with a decent amount of humidity. It is uncomfortable to be outside. You can walk outside and start sweating. I wonder some times if any interest that we receive from people is for sympathy only.

     I mentioned that Elder Whittier had a little bit of a spill last week. Well it seems to concern everyone except for him. His bruise continued to grow for a couple of days and bled a bit. I think its starting to heal now. The bruise is turning yellow and gravity is making it sink. He stopped bleeding which makes me feel a bit better about it. Everyone we have shown the injury to freaks out and then somehow gets the number to the mission presidents wife to let her know how bad it is. She got a hold of mission medical and they think he just has a deep bruise and said it'll just take time. We had to take it a little easy for a bit.

     We spent one day in the apartment. After making a ton of phone calls to try to get things set up we decided to pass the time playing scrabble. It was pretty boring. We also played take two. I like that one a lot better.

     The work still seems to be a little slow, but I'm not too worried about it. As long as we continue to work hard and stay obedient I know it will turn around. We have a baptismal date for this Sunday, but we haven't been able to see him since he's been back from a two week vacation. I hope that everything is OK with him. We also had our one other semi promising investigator fall out of touch for a bit. I talked to him and got another appointment set up over the phone. Please pray for our investigators.

     Transfer calls are this Saturday. I will probably have a new companion. Elder Whittier has served in this area for 6 months, and that is rare for this mission. I'll miss him. It's been a really fun three months.

Love, Elder Rindlisbacher

Have fun with family. Tell my siblings it's been a while since I 've heard from them.

Companion's Bicycle Mishap and Lessons from New Mission President

Another week has flown by. It was fairly uneventful again. We are still struggling to find people to teach, which translates into a lot of tracting. We are also trying to be consistent at following up with the people that we've found and given Book of Mormons to. Every once in a while we will find someone that's interested, but tracting doesn't seem to be very effective. We keep on rollin along though.

     This week is hot. It is supposed to be over 100 degrees for over a week, and the humidity isn't relenting. Fast Sunday was pretty rough. A combination of not eating and being in the heat left me filling pretty sick that evening, but everything was better after a big glass of water and a good nights rest. I purchased a camelback a month or so ago when my old backpack broke and if I put Ice in it I can have cold water for 5 hours or so.

     On Tuesday evening we didn't have a member to come out with us. So we rode our bikes to our dinner appointment and then afterwards we planned on stopping by some people. The first person let us in and we had a good visit. However he essentially told us he had no plans on reading the Book of Mormon for now. Hopefully we planted a seed. After we left we were riding our bikes along, and my companions tire caught the lip of the concrete and he took a hard spill. One of his handlebars hit him in the hip. When we got back to the apartment it was pretty swollen and now it has a football size bruise around it. It might slow us down for a couple of days, but he doesn't seem to worried about it. We've talked to mission medical and it'll all work out. Elder Whittier sure is a trooper though.

     We had our first Zone conference with the new president yesterday. In preparation he had us do a lot of reading about the atonement. The zone conference was great. He is an amazing teacher. I think we were all uplifted and if we apply what he taught we will be better teachers and people. We also watched some video documentary that the church has put together called The District 2. They follow 4 companionships and then put a bunch of the clips together. It was filmed in the San Diago mission. Aside from it making me really miss California it was great. It kind of made us all take a step back and think about our teaching.

     I'm still learning a lot and working hard. It will be interesting to see what kind of person I am when I get home. I love y'all keep writing.

Love, 

Elder Rindlisbacher

Have fun at the reunion. Tell everyone that I love them and would love to hear from them. I'm happy to respond to any mail I get. :)~