Moving to Temple

     Well we received our transfer calls this last Saturday, and I will be leaving the Fossil Ridge area. I have mixed feelings about leaving. I'm sad to leave some of the families. The ward is great and gives us a lot of support. There are some recent converts and less active members that I've grown fairly close to. I'm not too upset about leaving because I've knocked almost every door in the area in my short stay, and the work has slowed down quite a bit.

     I will be transferred to the Temple 1st area. It is in the Killean West zone. It is one of the farthest south areas in the mission. I'm excited to be headed back to a more country place. I hear the work is always pretty strong, despite the heavy southern baptist leaning down there.

    My companion will be Elder Bevan. I haven't talked to anyone who knows him, so I guess we'll find out Wednesday. I think he is probably a fairly young missionary.

     We had an eventful week. Last Monday Elder Walker had some weird chest pain. Tuesday we went to the doctors to check it out. The doctor said it was probably something to do with his esophagus, and scheduled him to have a camera shoved down his throat. On Friday we went to go get the camera shoved down his throat. The doctor said that he had some disease that meant that he had acid reflux, and also some scarring from previous surgeries that food gets hung up on. All in all he is fine. They said he just needs to adjust his diet a bit and to chew his food more.

     We had begun teaching the young man that is the boyfriend to a member of the ward. He was progressing well and everything, but then he broke up with his member girlfriend. We found out how pure his intentions were when we gave him a call to see if he still wanted to learn. When he found out who it was he hung up on us. It was a tad bit frustrating.

    I know that Walker and his new companion will be able to turn things around. It's the Lord's work and it must go on.

Anyways,

Love,

Elder Rindlisbacher

Training with an Audience

Well we've had another week. No injuries or illness to report, which is great. We had a fairly slow week. We had a district meeting last Wednesday that I had to train at. We had a surprise guest. It was President Sagers. It was a tad bit nerve racking to have him sitting in on my training, but I kept it together. I'm glad I had planned well before. He made a few comments that were very helpful. He is a great teacher. It was cool. I feel that I learned more teaching it than when I had been taught it. President told me I had done a great job after, which was a relief.

We couldn't seem to contact any of the people that we had planned to meet with this week. We were, however, able to start teaching a young man who really is trying to change his life. His girlfriend who is a member says that he carries his Book of Mormon around with him everywhere. It is great to have someone that is willing to keep commitments.

This comming Saturday is transfer calls. I have mixed feelings about it. I have been here for a while so I'm pretty sure I'll be moving on, but at the same time people often stay for a long time in this area. My only concern is that I've almost knocked all of the doors in our area, because it is so small. I love the members, and we are starting to see a little progress with some people. I guess in the end it doen't matter how I feel about it. What ever happens is the Lords will and I'm sure he knows what he's doing.

Love,

Elder Rindlisbacher

Baptisms and Food Poisening (or Overeating)

     Well the weekend is passed and gone. This Sunday we had the baptism for the niece and nephew of a member in the ward. It was neat seeing their understanding of the gospel even though they are only 10 and 8 years old. We had a good turn out, including the nonmember cousin in law that we are going to start teaching this week. The children's grandparents were in attendance. I recognized them from Arlington. I had done some service for them.

 

     Saturday was a very long day. I woke up and got ready and went to exercises. After exercise we went back to the apartment and got ready. I realised I wasn't feeling very well. I decided I would nap for a bit to see if I'd feel any better. After and hour nap we attended the baptism of a mother and son that I had interviewed for baptism. It was great, but my stomach hurt so bad. We got a ride home from my zone leaders and I asked for a blessing. I spent the rest of the day on the toilet and sleeping. I was exhausted. I didn't eat anything for the entire day. We had to call and cancel dinner with the stake president. His wife had him drop it off. She also sent Gatorade and Sprite to keep me hydrated and help my stomach. They are an amazing family. ( They also have a son serving in the Fresno mission, Elder Hadley) I think I brought the sick upon myself the night before at a pizza buffett a member took us to. I probably will eat less the next time I go there....

 

     Anyways I love y'all.

 

Elder Rindlisbacher

Teach By The Spirit and Change in Preparation Day

Well another week is past and gone, and it has been a very interesting week. There have been some changes in the mission, some big and some small. I'm excited for all of them. First change: Preperation day will be moved to Mondays. President Sagers has said that it is strongly encouraged in his handbook for it to be that way. I don't think that it will make a large differance. Mostly, I think it'll be a difference for y'all. Starting this comming Monday I will be emailing on Mondays.


The rest of the changes are being made world wide. They aren't big changes, but they are reemphisizing some things from Preach My Gospel. To bring about the change, there has been a four day training meeting for all Zone Leaders, District Leaders, and Trainers. President Sagers and his Assistants have been giving trainings. Then they demonstrate the principals they were teaching, then we practice, then we evaluate, and then we practice. It has been a real eye opening experience.

It seems like the emphasis is to focus more on people than statistics. They are helping us realize the importance of the spirit in people's conversion. Then they are teaching us how to help people to understand the role the spirit plays, and also to help them to recognize the spirit.

I think that the instruction we recieved will help us to have people truly become converted to the gospel. I think more people will be baptised because they actually believe instead of pressure from friends and missionaries. I'm really looking forward to using it more in my teaching. The only thing that worries me is I'm supposed to go and train my district on these new techniques.

Other than that, the work moves on. I still have a little scab from my bike accident, but my head is fine. No headaches and my black eye is gone.

Love,

Elder Rindlisbacher

Concussion

Well another week is gone. Wow the mission is flying. I'm continuing to love life. Not much has changed in the last week. A lot of the people we've been working with seem to just be standing still in terms of their spiritual progression. We are still working with the young niece and nephew of a family in the ward and really we're just doing a review for them so that they will be 100% ready for their baptism on the 12th. We also started teaching the boyfriend of one of the daughters of the family. I'm looking forward to helping him gain a testimony of the restored gospel, especially because they have plans of being married soon and I think it would be great to have a goal of the temple in a year. 

 

     Other than that I just have a story that made this and last week a bit more exciting. I mentioned last week that I had a bit of a spill on my bike last Monday. It made for a very interesting day. First off I'm doing great and I'm fully recovered and I thought I'd write after I was fully recovered so you didn't worry about me all week. So... We got done with planning last week and we were heading to go stop by a fellow that we had lent a copy of the Book of Mormon to. On the way down his street there was a bit of a hill and I just got some new tires and I decided I'd see how fast a could go without pedaling. At the bottom of the hill was a stop sign that I figured that I could just roll through because it was in the middle of a neighborhood then I saw a car. I still had a lot of room but I wanted to slow down so I wouldn't hit it. When I grabbed my brakes I started to feel my back end lift off the ground and then I don't remember anything for the next five minutes. The first thing I remember was I was sitting on the curb and I answered the phone. It was an ambulance service they said they had heard that there had been a bike accident and they were wondering if we needed to be picked up. I still was confused to what had happened so I let them know that we were fine. Then we called a member to pick us up and take us to the apartment. We called the missions presidents wife to let her know what had happened and she gave us some advice. I had a headache and some road rash so I thought I'd just have to rest a bit and then I started to vomit. We got picked up by our zone leaders and headed to the ER. They gave me a CT scan and then let me know that everything was still there. I just had a bruise on my head. Then they cleaned up my road rash and let me go home. I had a pretty good shiner last week and was a little tired and stiff, but now I'm fine. The road rash is almost healed up. Anyway.... I know that I'm doing the Lord's work. I was clicking along at a good rate and my helmet came off before I hit my face on the ground. I should be a lot more hurt than I was. I'm grateful for the protection that was given to me. I Love y'all.

 

Love,

Elder Rindlisbacher

 

PS: I can receive as many emails as I want. I can just only send one a week. It was great to hear from Blane.