Officially 21

     I'm officailly 21. It's funny how if you tell anyone that it's your 21st birthday outside of the church they assume that you are going to be partying hard that night. I'm happy to say I still haven't drunk a drop of alchohol. I've seen the effects that it can have on some people and it's sad.

     My birthday felt like just about any other day. We had a zone huddle and then ate at Double Daves, a pizza buffett. Then we knocked doors, taught people and worked hard. I didn't tell anyone about it because I don't like the attention, so my companion was happy to tell everyone. I heard from grandma and grandpa and they sent me a tie.

     The work had slowed down there for a bit, but it is beginning to pick back up. A lot of the people we had been teaching had recieved anti from a couple of sources. We stopped by one of them, and he let us know that he was still interested. He said that he is trying really hard to stay sober right now and trying not to deal with too much else. I wish he understood the role the atonement could play in his life. He is doing well and we will probably stop by every couple of weeks to see if he is ready.

     We also started teaching a young man who is the grandson of a member in the ward. He is excited to learn. He loves to read and is willing to pray. I know that if he will do those two things with an open mind he will recieve an answer to his prays. I love how simple it is.

     We had the Assistants to the President come and visit us on Monday evening. We went and visited with a few of our investigators. I sometimes get frusterated at how number focused the AP's can be. They are great teachers but a lot of the time they will get in and scare away investigators by trying to set dates. Luckily they didn't scare anyone this time. They spent the night and then in the morning did studies with us. They had us role play with them and commented that we were the best companionship they had seen in their travels.

     Other than that nothing too new is going on.

I love y'all

Love Elder Rindlisbacher

A Father's Day Letter

Hey Dad,

Happy Fathers Day!!! Seeing that it is fathers day I thought it was your turn to get an email. Dad I'm so grateful for your example. Being out on my mission makes me realize how blessed I really am. Satan is attacking the family, but I have the best example to follow to be a great husband and father. I'm so grateful for everything you've taught me. I am grateful for all of those times you encouraged me to do what is best, even if I didn't listen all of the time. Thank you for allowing me to make decisions and learn for myself at times. Thank you for all of the support you gave me in all of my hobbies, even if they were a little nerdy at times :). Thank you for choosing the best lady ever to be a mom to be mine. Thank you for laughing even when it isn't funny. Thank you for the letters every week. I joke with my companions that your letters sound like something out of Preach My Gospel. I'm grateful for your diligent effort at studying and living the gospel. Thank you so much for being worthy to make covenants so that our family will be together for ever. I love you so much. I've met a lot of dads out here but none as good as you. Keep it up.

Love your son,

Elder Nathan Rindlisbacher

PS Let mom know you got the email this week. I'm only allowed to send one.

Disappointments with Investigators

Dear Family,

     Well we've had an interesting week full of highs and lows. I'm blessed with a very strong district. We are all young in the mission. My companion and the other companionship have all been out one transfer less than me. In a lot of ways they are better missionaries than I am. My companion, Elder Whittier, is a great teacher. The others have a super good work ethic. I'm excited to be around them and to learn from how they do things.

     Last Sunday we were calling to remind a few people about church. When we called one of our most solid investigators he let us know that he had gone to his church that morning and they told him some things about the Mormons that concerned him. He doesn't really want to meet with us again. We plan on swinging by in a week or so and trying to iron things out. I hate that other churches will twist truths to make them seem wrong or confusing. It was very frustrating.

     Yesterday we had our final zone conferance with President Thurston. He is one of the most powerfull speakers I have ever heard. The spirit was great and I realized some things that I could be doing a lot better. It is a little sad to see him go but I'm excited about meeting President Sagers.

     We got a call a couple of days before the Zone Conferance and they let us know that we would be recieving a car! They haven't told us how long we will have it but I'm glad that I wont be riding a bike anymore in this abnoxious heat and humidity. We also had our phone replaced. They also bring all of the mail from the office to the Zone Conferances and both me and Elder Whittier both got two pieces of mail! It was a great day.

     After the conferance we went back to the apartment, in our car!, and had a short break before we had dinner. After dinner we were picked up by our exchange and went to go visit with our investigator Cami. When we got to her house her husband met us outside and let us know that as a family they decided that they were going to start going to a non-denominational church up the street. By Cami's face you could tell it wasn't a family decision. She was progressing so well. Each lesson that we had had with her the spirit was in ubundance, and on two occasions she felt it so strong she was in tears. It is sad to watch someone's progression be slowed by someone they love. We still haven't decided how or if we will try to get back into contact with her.

     We decided that our area is falling apart and we need to do something about it. We are going to strive to be 100% obedient and not as light minded. It will be a struggle to let go of a little bit of pride and allow myself to change a bit, but I know it is the only way we will be blessed. Please pray for Cami and Shannon.

Love Elder Rindlisbacher

Fossil Ridge Area

Hey Family,

     I'm loving life! The fossil Ridge area is great. It is a lot more wealthy than the other area's I have been in. In my last area there where a lot of wealthy areas but we never spent any time in them we always tracted in the ghetto. I thought that was the best thing to do because the people there were more humble and willing to hear us out, but I'm realizing there needs to be a balance.

    The people here that will listen to you are golden. We found a man named Shannon the other day. He is a recovering alcoholic who is going through a bit of a rough time but he is a great father and he is open to the ideas we have been sharing with him. He has been reading from the Book of Mormon and has committed to come to church already.

     We baptised a 15 year old black kid named X-Zavier on Sunday. He is the last of his family to get baptised. It was awesome to see how happy he and his family were at the baptism. This area has been doing great. They had previously baptised 5 other members of his family and two other people before I got here. We also have three other baptismal dates set. Please pray that we will be able to get back into contact with some of our investigators.

     I'm enjoying the bike as long as I have water. A member let us borrow a GPS and we are going to keep track of how many miles we are riding every day, but I would guess that we do somewhere between 5 to 10 miles a day. All of the close areas to us have been tracted so we have to ride up hill to the last area that hasn't been tracted recently.

     P-days here are interesting. We have to rely on other Elders for our ride to and from places and today everyone is in a hurry so I love yall.

Love Elder Rindlisbacher

Keller, Texas

For information about Keller, Texas you can read at the following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keller,_Texas

Have a great day!

Nathan's Dad

Transfer and Mission Leadership

Well I usually worry about not having enough to write about, but then something unexpected happens and then there is plenty. We had 22 missionaries going home this last transfer, and we didn't get quite as many so a lot of the areas including mine that had two sets of missionaries are back down to one. I am now serving in the Fossil Ridge area in Keller, Texas, in the Hurst Stake as a district leader. My new companion's name is Elder Whittier, and he is from Virginia. Oh and did I mention that I'm on a bike.

Fossil Ridge from what I have heard has been a great area lately. We currently have 5 dates set and the member support seems to be really good. From what I have seen it seems to be a pretty middle class/upper middle class place. There are a lot of homes about our size, except they all seem to be 10+ years newer.

I'm not sure about this whole leadership thing yet. So far all I have had to do is collect and report numbers from my district. I hear the only other real responsibility is to give trainings at district meeting. I think that leadership positions make you think about your focus and how good of an example for younger missionaries you are being.

Elder Whittier seems to be a great missionary. He has been out one less transfer than I have, and loves hard work. He grew up on a cattle ranch and his dad is a Vet at Virginia Tech. He likes country music but he has a good sense of humor, so I think we will get along great. He has been on a bike his entire mission so he is a bit faster than me right now, but I keep up alright. I am excited for this transfer.

After a long day riding around on a bike in 94 degrees and some humidity I slept very well. I am excited for this new experience, and super excited to be in an area where the focus isn't finding :)

I love y'all

Elder Rindlisbacher

Finding a New Investigator

Time is a bit shorter today. We had a pizza party that we won as a zone from a competition as the mission and then I got stuck playing a game of Risk. Don't worry, it was completely worth it. I won.

Thank you for all of the packages and letters this week. I got two of the packages yesterday, and the letters today. From the pictures it looks like the kids have already changed a bit since I left. Crazy. It is always great to get updates from people. And the shirts will be great. I was down to two short sleeve shirts and it has been in the low 90's with humidity. Gross.

The work is still a little slow. We are trying all sorts of things to find more people to teach. I think that this area might be going back down to one companionship next transfer, which is next week. The transfers are flying!!!

We don't have much of an area book in our apartment, so when I went on exchange last week and stayed in the others apartment in the evening I went through some old records and wrote down some names with their information. I got four names that sounded pretty promising. Two were bad phone numbers one was already being worked with by other missionaries, and I was able to set up an appointment with one. We went and visited her last night. After visiting for a while I asked her why she had stopped meeting with the missionaries. She said that one set of missionaries came and told her that they were both being transferred and left a number for her to reach the new missionaries. She tried calling the new number after she hadn't heard from the new missionaries and it was a bad number. She seems very interested and she has read a bit from the Book of Mormon.

I know that the Lord blesses us for our obedience and hard work. I will continue striving to be more obedient and more hardworking until the end.

Love, Elder Rindlisbacher

PS: Pride and Prejudice is way worse than Lord of the Rings.

Humidity

Not a whole lot has really changed or been going on. We are slowly seeing our teaching pool increase. Last Tuesday we were out with a member in the evening and we had our appointments fall through. I asked him if he could think of anyone that could benefit from a visit from the missionaries. He said he couldn't think of anyone from off the top of his head but he asked for the ward list. He chose a sister who the other missionaries had already visited but we agreed. She was a recent convert of just a couple of months. She has been fairly active, but has been under the weather recently. When we went to visit her she let us in and we shared a spiritual thought with her and her sister. We invited her sister out to church and we should be starting to teach her this up coming week.

Yesterday was a pretty rough day for me. It has been hot and humid. Humidity, I have discovered, means you are uncomfortable. We went tracting and we were knocking doors. When we returned to the car, my companion pointed out that I had a huge set stain that had picked up dirt off of my backpack and looked rather large and disgusting. We tracted a bit for an hour or so more and then did some stop byes. I decided we better go in so that I could change before dinner and our appointments in the evening. I changed my white shirt and it felt great to be dry and in the cool apartment again. Our exchange was a little late so I decided to update some things on our board we have in the room. After I finished updating the board I was trying to cap the marker and it slipped and marked about a four inch line on the front of my last clean short sleeve shirt. arghhhhhhhhhhhhh! Anyways I'll get over it, I just hope that it comes out in the wash.

I had the option of going to visit the new Dallas Cowboy stadium today. It cost $18 bucks so I decided not to. My companion is there so I am with my district, Elder Togogae and Misustin. Sometimes it is good to get a break from your companion.

I'm sorry I cut y'all off there at the end of our phone call. I realized that my time was seconds from being up and I had to go. I think Nicki was trying to ask me a question, and I'd love to answer it if she would send a letter and ask. I loved visiting with y'all and it sounds like everyone is doing great. Keep it up. I love y'all very much.

Love Elder Rindlisbacher

My Missionary Life

Texas is humid. It got up into the 80's yesterday I think and it felt like 100. It was pretty killer. Before dinner at a members I decided to change my shirt. We ate at the Black's house last night. Brother Black is a pediatric surgeon and lives in a very nice home, but he also lives across the street from an NBA player who plays for the Denver Nuggets. The NBA player's home is huge. From what I hear it is 18,000 sq ft. That is ridiculous.

Mom was asking for a break down of how a regular day goes, so here it is. We wake up at 6:25 and are out the door at 6:30 for 30 minutes of exercise. Then from 7-8 we have time to eat breakfast and shower and get dressed. At 8 o'clock we hit the books for an hour of personal study. Then at 9 we have a companion study, where we talk about what we studied during personal study, recite something, read from the white handbook, and then role play teaching situations. We head out the door at 10 and teach and find until 9 or 9:30pm except for an hour at lunch and dinner.

On preparation day, every Thursday, our morning routine is the same except that after studies we spend 30 minutes cleaning the apartment. Then we have from 10:30 until 6pm to take care of all of our preparations. We usually have some sort of physical activity, shop, laundry, email, write letters, and listen to music other than Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I am usually quite tired after a p-day.

I still don't know a ton of people in the ward, but the people I have met are really a great group. We cover a part of a place called Dalworthington Gardens witch is a super nice area. We also cover a place called Stop 6 which is super ghetto.

We haven't been teaching a ton yet, but it is slowly picking up. We are finding more and more people through tracting, but it feels really slow. I see the Lord blessing us as we strive to work harder and be obedient. President Thurston interviewed us this week and let me know that our area has enough work for one set of Elders, but sometimes not enough for two. I hope that isn't a hint that I will be transferred next transfer, but if that is the case it wont kill me.

The mail dry spell has ended. Aside from immediate family, it had been 8 weeks since I had gotten mail. I got an email from Kyle and it sounds like the weather is crazy where he is as well. He is getting snowed on right now. I'll take the heat over the cold any day.

Love, Elder Rindlisbacher

Sunday is Mothers Day!! I will call at 4pm my time, or 2pm for y'all I think. I am very excited to visit with y'all. Last phone call was not long after I had left, and there wasn't a ton to talk about. I will have no more than 40 minutes to visit with y'all and I plan on being obedient.

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

A Visit From An Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ

It's been another quick week. Time flies by and then I can't think of what to write, so... how about the weather. About a week ago it was 70 degrees with a nice breeze and not a lot of clouds in the sky. The next day it was 30ish degrees and it dumped 5 or 6 inches on us that night. The next day it was in the 30s again and no snow, but lots of wind. It then jumped back up to about 60 for a couple of days, and then yesterday it was a warm overcast day until about 5 o'clock and then it started pooring cats and dogs. It rained the hardest I have ever seen for about and hour, and then it just rained regular for another couple of hours. We drove to our dinner appointment in the rain and in one section of road we had water up over our bumper. It was crazy. Today is a pleasant day with a nice breeze and it's nice and warm. I have been told if you don't like the weather in Texas wait 5 minutes because then you might.

     We had the traveling AP's (Assistants to the President) up in Gainesville on Sunday. They were probably up here to meet Elder Oaks, but it was really good. They helped us tract and gave us some pointers. One of them had served up here previously and we were able to connect with some of the people who he and his companion had been teaching. I was able to learn a lot from them and we now have a few new investigators.

     We also had the special stake conference on Sunday. The stake president, our mission president and his wife, a member of the Seventy, and Elder Oaks spoke. They shared some great words and the spirit was definitely there. Elder Oaks was surprisingly casual, and taught a variety of subjects. He had himself laughing quite a bit. I really enjoyed a story that the Seventy told. When he was young, he and a friend found an industrial dryer barrel out in a field and decided to push it back home. They were going to let neighborhood kids climb in and then push it down the hill and charge a nickle a ride. When they got it to the top of the hill he suggested to his friend to try it out. His friend then told him, "No way. You climb in!" He decided to do so. He climbed in and then his friend pushed him. He said it didn't take long to realize that it was a bad idea, but he had no way of stopping it. He compared it to making poor decisions in out life. Once we decide to do things we cannot avoid the consequences. 

     I'm loving life. We are working hard and seeing progress in ourselves and our investigators. I love the Lord I know I'm doing his work. Pray for me and all the other missionaries. We make it look easy, but it's not.

Elder Rindlisbacher

Obedience and Blessings

     It's my Birthday!!! I'm officially 4 now. Another week has flown by. I'm really enjoying myself now. Elder Cooper and I have been working hard and trying hard to be very obedient, and we are starting to see the fruits of our labor. We had a very successfull day of tracting this last Saturday. We were able to give out 3 Book of Mormons in one tracting session. Two of which were back to back doors. It was very good. Hopefully they will turn into teaching apointments, then investigators, and then baptisms.

     We were able to visit with Kelly again. She is the lady that had bone cancer and let us in the rain. We had an awesome lesson. We taught her about the plan of salvation, she was especially interested in what happens to her after she dies. It was sad. She had a "friend" that had told her that she was going to Hell, and she was nervous. I am very glad that we know that we have a loving and just God that will judge us based on our works and desires. She is comming along very well and even asked for a reading assignment for our next visit.

     We went back to see Jerry. He was waiting for us, but seemed very stressed out. He asked us to come back in a week or so. His daughter was in town for spring break and he had to run her somewhere and his mother had had a stroke. Please pray for them both, that they will feel the spirit as they read and pray, and that they will be willing to accept our message.

     This coming Sunday our stake is having a special stake conferance. Elder Dallin H. Oaks has requested to come and visit, and we are all very excited. Having an apostle of the Lord visit creates a great invitation for everyone that we contact. He will be down in Denton, but it will also be broadcast to our building in Gainesville. I hope we get a lot of people there to feel the spirit that will be present.

     The mission as a whole is doing very well. In a zone meeting President Thurston showed us some of the stats for the last couple of years. Our best month ever was in '07 when they had 67 baptisms. For the last couple of months we have not only smashed the previous record, but have been increasing consistantly. Since December we have been over the old record, and last month we were able to bring over 80 people into the waters of baptism. Pray that we will be able to continue this upward trend and help bless that lives of more people.

     I know that the Lord is blessing us as we strive to be more obedient. I know the message that we bear can and is blessing the lives of the people that we contact. I love the Lord for the sacrifice he has made for all of us. I love all ya'll that are out there supporting me.

Love Elder Rindlisbacher

PS: Thanks so much for the package, it was a lot of fun and a special thanks to Nicole for the cookies. Let her know she can send baked goods whenever she would like.

Rain or Shine -- A Positive Door Approach

     Time continues to fly by. Elder Cooper and I have been comps for just over a week now. It has been great. We have been working hard. We tract for a couple hours a day now. We found that a lot of the people that Elder Taulanga and I had been teaching were not progressing, or progressing very slowly. We have dropped a few and have been focusing on finding new people to start teaching. We have been tracting a couple of hours a day, rain or shine, and at a lot of our dinner appointments we have been challenging members to give their friends copies of personalized Book of Mormon's and invite them to meet with us. We haven't heard back from any of the members yet about their experience but we have found two new solid investigators.

     We were tracting out in the rain and not a lot of people were home and the ones who were home weren't very excited about seeing us. It was a bit rough, so I decided to make a game of it. I challenged my companion to see who could tell the most cheesy jokes at the door about the weather. At the next door I said "We are taking advantage of this beautiful weather to go and speak to you and all of your neighbors about Jesus Christ." The old lady who had answered just frowned and told us she wasn't interested. After a few more doors I used the same line and the lady who answered chuckled and let us in. We sat down and were able to talk with her about the Restoration and the purpose of the Book of Mormon. We left her a copy and a challenge to read and to pray. She was a woman in her fifties and she had cancer in her bone marrow, but now it was stable. She told us that she had never been very religious. When she had overcome her cancer she decided to go searching for it. She was very kind and the spirit was definitely there.

     Then last night we went to follow up on a Book of Mormon we had lent to someone two weeks prior. His name is Jerry. We were able to sit down with him and had a very good discussion. He had already read until Alma, and had some simple questions. We answered them for him, which lead to more and more questions, and by the end of it he asked us, before we asked him, if he could come to church. Hopefully he will be there. My only worry is that he lives with a girlfriend and smokes, but if he gains a testimony, then I know he will be able to fix those problems fast.

     We also went to the temple as part of the mission yesterday. They took the mission in three seperate sessions. It was a very good experience and it was fun seeing some of the guys I had served with previously. I can't wait for when I will be home and able to attend more frequently.

     It is amazing how quickly the Lord blesses us as we make small changes to be more obedient. I'm working hard and loving life. Keep us in your prayers.

Elder Rindlisbacher

A New Companion

     It's been a pretty good week. Transfers were yesterday and............................... I'm staying in Gainesville!!! I am very glad to be staying. The members are amazing here, and I still feel I need to accomplish some things before I leave.

    My new companion is Elder Cooper. He is a 6'11" black man from East LA. I'm kidding. After transfer calls I asked another missionary in my district about my new companion and all he said was he is black. I told a few people in the ward, but when he showed up I was a bit dissappointed. He is actually white, about 6 foot and from Sacramento area. He has been on his mission for about 7 months now and seems to be a very good missionary and a hard worker. He spent some time up at BYU-I and then worked back at home at      In 'n Out. Speaking of In 'n Out, if you could figure out how to keep a double double fresh through the mail that would be amazing.

     Elder Taulanga has been sent to Arlington and was called to be zone leader for his last transfer. President Thurston said that people are never called to zone leader for their last transfer, but he wanted to let Elder T gain some leadership experience. He will be missed, but I was ready for a new companion. Before he left he wanted to say good bye to a bunch of members, so now me and Elder Cooper are playing catchup for the week. I am finding out about a lot of things that Elder Taulanga did that we probably shouldn't have. Nothing major, just a lot of time wasted. It is great that I have an opportunitiy to serve with a companion with a bit more of a work ethic.

     Last night we tracted for a bit, and ran into a lot of Spanish speakers. I'm able to use bits and pieces of what I picked up working for the bee keepers. I know how to apologize for not speaking much Spanish, and how to tell them to call a number to get a DVD or Book of Mormon for free. I would love to serve in a zebra, so I could pick up a bit more Spanish. After tracting we went to check on Junior. It had probably been about three weeks since we had spoken to him and I was ready to drop him, but he answered the door and was excited to meet with us again and he is still excited about baptism. He had been really sick recently and had been in and out of the hospital. I'm very glad that we found him again.

Love y'all very much,

Elder Rindlisbacher

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

Weeks Flying By

Another week has flown by. Not alot of storries this week. Things have been a lot of the same old same old.

For the month of Febuary our zone, the Denton Zone, has set a pretty hefty goal. We plan on helping bring 34 people closer to Christ through the waters of Baptism. They presented this idea to a meeting with President Thurston and all of the Zone leaders. The closest goal in any on the other zones was 13. We have set up an action plan and I know we will accomplish our goal.

Our investigator Junior was not at church again this Sunday. We even had a member over there to pick him up and everything. He didn't answer at the house or the phone for a couple of days. I was really starting to worry about him, but we got a phone call yesterday. He called to appologize for missing church again. He had been in the hospital with congestive heart failure. He is home now, and trying to rest up. I really hope he starts healing up. Please pray for him. We do every week.

Love,

Elder Rindlisbacher


PS :  . . . I am working on taking better care of myself. I have been good about getting up and exercising every day this week. We went shopping last week and bought loads of healthy food, but that doesnt stop the members from taking us to places that deep fry everything. I dont drink soda.

Staying Together -- And Happy for It

Dear Family,

     We got transfer calls on Saturday, and my companion and I are both... Staying in Gainesville! I think it will be very good. We are now getting to know the ward pretty well and I like them a lot. There is a family in the ward, the Davies, they are amazing. They have us over for dinner almost every Sunday evening. Brother Davies is a pilot for Delta Airlines. They have six children, two at BYU, one on a mission in Salt Lake, one married one, and a twelve and four year old. The four year old Briley likes to tell us stories and it makes me homesick every time. Rachael is going to be four when I get home.

     My companion got a call from the office this week. They were asking which airport he wanted to fly into. That call is called the trunky call and he is starting to feel it.

     We finished off last week strong. We were able to get quite a few member-present lessons, but the people who needed to be at church to be baptised this month both were ill and not able to make it to church this Sunday. One of them, Junior, had blood clots that had traveled to his heart. I told him that was a decent excuse.

     Other than that nothing very exciting. I got my haircut for the second time on the mission this morning. I really needed it I had a nasty neck beard going on.

     Anyways I love you all. I would love to hear from my siblings... *hint hint cough *Rich* cough.

Elder Rindlisbacher

On Again - Off Again

     Another week has flown by, but you look back at it and you sure did a lot. Last week it felt like our teaching pool fell apart. For one reason or another everyone that we were currently teaching couldn't continue to meet with us or just didn't want to follow through on commitments. The older man that was so excited when we first met him wasn't home when we went for a followup, and he didn't show up at church. It was a rough week.

     This week has been a 180 turnaround. We went on an exchange Monday with the Zone Leaders. I went down to Denton and stayed with Elder Birch. He is from Sandy UT and is a really cool guy. They had already had a baptism this month and a couple of the areas were struggeling finding people to teach, so we went and blitzed two areas that day. It was great. We tracted all day, but we were able to find people to teach in both areas. We stopped by a refural that they had recieved from a member. When we knocked at the door no one came to the door and we were about to leave when the door finally opened. I saw an old grumpy looking man in a wheel chair, but before we could open our mouths he slammed the door shut. I had a really hard time not laughing out loud.

     That night we went to teach a lady, but she had to leave. We taught her neighbor instead who the Elders had already talked to. We taught about the restoration. Everytime we would pause he would get a look on his face, and take a deep breath, that made it look like he was thinking of a way to tell us we were wrong, but every time he would just say something like "I could see that". It was really cool he took the challenge to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.

     The next morning we tracted a bit more and then headed to lunch to trade back companions. They had a lot of success up in Gainesville while I was gone. They went to see Nick, who we thought didn't want to meet with us anymore. By the end of it they were teaching Nick and his mom, who was aposed to him being baptised. We went on an exchange with members of the ward the next night and my companion and a member went back. Nick and his mom wern't home, but they started teaching the Uncle. Last night on another exchange with members I went over to see Junior, the man that had been excited and then missed church. He was home! We taught him and he was still very excited about our message, he had just been in the hospital from being sick and didn't have our number to contact us. We taught him about the plan of salvation and then committed him to baptism. If he is at Church for the next three Sundays he will be baptised right after church on the 31st.

     My companion and I are making small changes to be a bit more obedient and the Lord is blessing us. Continue to pray for us.

     This Saturday is transfer calls. I'm a bit nervous, I don't want to leave Gainesville just yet, but we will just have to wait and see.

Love,
Elder Rindlisbacher