Merry Christmas

It was a crazy bonkers week, it was a ton of fun! Christmas eve we went out and went ding dong ditching as we delivered Christmas presents and it was so much fun! Last night we went and had a great time playing games with the Duncans it was so much fun and a great Christmas! Sorry its short but I don't have to much time to email!

Love Elder Hutchings

Allergic Reaction!!

This weekend was a bit rough, I ended up breaking out in hives due to an allergic reaction. So I spent most of the day in urgent care on Saturday. I am doing much better now and have plenty of medications (drugs) pumped into me!

Monday- The turkey that we cooked ended up turning out really good!!   It was super moist and was just a really fun time. We texted Curtis and told him about it and he was like I'll bring the board games and be right over to help you eat some of this! It was a good time, we played games  and ate turkey it was sweet. What was really weird was we looked at all the instructions and we left it cooking while we came to email because we had this cooker from a member and it said it would take 4 hours to cook. 2 hours and it was done we used the meat thermometer and it was like 200 degrees in it, it was defiantly cooked!  That night we went out and just tracted all night! It was a good time.   Elder Shore makes it nice and fun!

Tuesday- We came down to Raleigh for a meeting and it was a ton of fun, it was a zone council so we had all the leaders in the Raleigh zone there and we talked about what was going on and how we can help. What was the best though was we got to have cook out for lunch afterwards and that is always good! I haven't had it in so long since there isn't one up in Wake Forest! Then we had an appointment which ended up falling through but we were able to tract around them and make it work. Then we had to drive all the way out to the boonies of  area for a dinner which killed on our miles and then it took forever and it was just a bunch of stress but we got there and it all worked out! We then had a really interesting lesson with this Muslim lady which made me so mad.  We were answering her questions and she wanted perfect answers and it was just a hard lesson. We will be dropping her here soon since all she is doing is asking questions about weird stuff she finds on the internet. Hopefully we can get her to come to church with the recent convert she lives with!

Wednesday- We had our regular district meeting and it was a party. We all had a good time and Elder Shore and I took up our turkey and we had that for lunch.  Then I went with Elder Meyer into the Roxboro area on exchange.  We met some of the weirdest people, it is a Podunk little area but it was so much fun! We tracted a ton and had a great time. He is from a little town in Idaho and it was great. It was fun to talk to him about Idaho! Nothing really happened on exchange other then we met these people that told us to stay away from this one house, the guy is crazy and thinks he is a prophet! So that was a good story to hear about and he comes and visits these people all the time!

Thursday- We came back in from exchange and we had an awesome lesson with this guy named Whitehead. We don't know if that is his first or last name but he is really cool. Our lesson with him was planned for 11 and we showed up right at 11 and as we were half way up the walk way he opened the door. We taught a really powerful restoration lesson to him and we used the scriptures and the whole time he kept saying y'all have brought me the truth.  He was super amazed by the vision that Joseph Smith had it was really cool! The rest of the day was pretty routine with most of the planning that we needed to do and we had our dinner. It was a pretty good day but sadly didn't find anyone.

Friday- We had a lesson planned with this guy named Paul, and we show up and his wife answers.  We have started to contact her and we teach her quite a bit since Paul is asleep. We taught a pretty good lesson on the door and then she was like yeah I don't have time but come back and Paul will be sure to talk to you! We were like dang.   We were low on miles so we biked all the way down there, but it was good since we planned on staying in Wake Forest all day.  We worked hard and we tracted all day and we ended up finding a few people. We taught quite a bit on the door and it was a good day. Then we went to contact some referral from some other sisters in the mission and these people live right in the middle of baptist seminary housing.  We were like yea no, another time since we didn't have anything in their language! Then we went to the ward party, and that was a blast. They did breakfast for dinner and it was really good. The bad part was when we got home that night I was breaking out in hives (thought it was just a rash). So put some itching cream on it and went to bed.

Saturday- Woke up and I thought the rash was gone showered and went out for the day. Then as we were out it came back and I could feel it on my scalp and it was so itchy! So after we came home for lunch we called the mission nurse and she said to go into urgent care and what not! So went in and sure enough it was hives. So they gave me 2 shots, one was steroids and the other was for the itching. The nurse came in to give them to me and I was talking to her and I asked if she wanted me to roll my sleeves up.... Well I found out they weren't going to be put in my arm ( edit this if their are children) But they go in the butt!!! Dang it hurt so bad when the fluid went in to! So I got those and then we ran to Walgreens and picked up everything.  We came home so I could eat and then I fell asleep from all of the drugs!! When I woke up we ran to dinner and then after wards I was covered in hives again and so the mission nurse told me that I should spend the night in and what not.  That was the worst. But I got a blessing and felt better!

Sunday- We had church and I talked to a doctor from the ward and then we tracted a ton of people from the seminary.  We think that we hit an area that was just recently hit by some Jehovah witnesses just the day before so it made our efforts pretty pitiful!

Overall the week was pretty good and we had fun while we could. Elder Shore was able to get quite a bit of cleaning done though!  (Since I was sleeping!!!)

The picture of the Guy getting baptized is Abugar!  The rest of them are the turkey and then the prep for the turkey, yes i am holding its neck in my hand!!

Have a great week

Love Elder Hutchings

Yes we're going to cook this!!

This is the neck!!!

Looking good!!

Oh yes we get to eat this!!!

Looks done to me!!!

Abugar's baptism!!!

Freezing Rain - Holes in Shoes!!!

Well I just want everyone to know that this week I found out that I have holes in the soles of my shoes. Some might ask -  well how did you just barely find this out. This week will tell and it is quite a good story so stay tuned and find out!

Monday- Was sorta fun, we drove down to Raleigh to help people with rides since we have lost some of the cars in the zone because of some accidents.  We were able to go down and spend some time with the other elders. We played some board and card games! It was pretty fun, and I got to hang out with some cool elders. I found out basically everything that was going on with transfers! It was really fun to get the assistants to just blabb it all out to me! LOL!!! So that was a pretty good part of the day, and then we had the nice long drive home with traffic! It  wasn't to bad, then we went straight to a lesson with Dan our investigator who is getting baptized here soon! We took pictures and stuff! Then we ran to another appointment and met with this awesome couple.  We went in and sat down and taught them the restoration! It was a powerful lesson, and they committed to come to church and read and pray! It was awesome, and then we ran to the store to get ice cream, and milk shake ingredients and we had a milk shake party for Elder Robinson! It was great, just me and him but it was a lot of fun!

  

Tuesday- We had our transfers, we swung by the Henry's first to grab some biscuits they were giving us and then we drove to transfers. It was fun seeing everyone and having them be like whoa its transfers again. (I was like you don't even know!)  It was cool, we got to see all of the trainers, sadly a lot of the people that I wanted to see weren't there but there was a few, so it was good. Everyone leaving was so trunky it was the best!   Then I found Elder Shore and we packed it up and left transfers. It was a pretty short drive home not to much traffic or anything. Then we got home, he unpacked a bit and then we were off to the races.  We went and tracted around the area that we were having dinner and it was quite fun to be able to see how Elder Shore works. By the way, my companion is now Elder Shore, he is from Utah and has brown hair. He is really cool and we are pretty similar so it will be a fun last transfer!

 Wednesday- We went up to district meeting and it was really fun. There was a ton of missionaries there since my district lines were changed and I now have a district of 6 companionships instead of 3 haha. President doesn't want me trunky I guess! But it was fun, and we also had the zone leaders there! We had a great day of tracting though. That is what a lot of this week consisted of! We had a great member dinner though  and it was awesome. The kids were great, and the we tracted the rest of the night!!

 Thursday- Was crazy we had 2 appointments that morning and sadly one of them fell through. It was weird because of the person that missed it, his name is Eric and he seemed super solid.  We are going to text him and try to reschedule! We should be able to get an appointment and the other appointment, we were able to teach about the Book of Mormon and prayer. We tracted for quite a bit and let me say the Christmas Initiative really melts peoples hearts and helps us to share a message with them. It was cool, and then we went with a member and visited some Baptist seminary students who he invited to meet with us. It was mostly question and answer session and what not. Nothing came from it but in the end we were able to leave them with a Book of Mormon.   They were super nice people. When we were driving though we almost hit a deer it was great! I spotted it and was like deer! So we missed it!

Friday&Saturday- Both days were really awesome, this is when I found out that I had a hole in my shoe. Friday we tracted all day and all night it was great. It started out raining and then it went to freezing rain, and my shoe got soaking wet. It was awesome!!  We tracted for  hours straight and the best comment I heard both days was " its cold out here, y'all should get somewhere warm"... aren't you in a nice warm house... Ha Ha but we were able to find people both days and we saw an investigator named Joe and we talked to him about why he missed church last week.  He said some excuses and then I said well come tomorrow.  So we arranged a ride! (he came too!) Then we had some great member dinners! At one point on Friday though we had to run into the dollar general store and buy new socks since ours were just soaked! It was a great 2 days.  I had a ton of fun and so did Elder Shore. We even got to tract in the snow and we both felt like we were back out in the west!! It was so cold though!!

Sunday- Joe came to church it was the best, and then we went and visited some of our investigators.  We had a great dinner with some newer members of the ward! It was a ton of fun. The end of the night we met with Dan and him telling us he forgot the baptismal record, and we were meeting with him to fill it out! But it was good, we visited this lady named Sister Share and she is really cool.  She gave us a turkey and was like this needs cooked... So now we are cooking a turkey today!!

 It has been a great cold week and I loved it!! Oh and here are some pictures of a mouse in our apartment!!!  We caught it and I had to dispose of him... But hes gone now! It was fun have a great week love all of you! Oh and that is my life for the past two years in all 17 of my planners!

Love Elder Hutchings

We got the little rascal!!

Now - disposing of him!!!

Last 2 years of my life in 17 pictures!!!

#HereComesChristmas

Monday- Elder Robinson and I had a pretty boring day! Haha we ended up playing scrabble, and I found out that there are a bunch of words that I didn't know were actually real words! It was quite funny, but in the end my vocab wasn't the biggest!!!  So I ended up losing but we had fun while we were at it! We also took some time and made our planners for this next transfer! Mine is pretty cool it is Christ opening the eyes of a blind man! It is pretty awesome, it was going good. Then Curtis called us and asked if y'all eaten lunch yet?  We were able have lunch with him.  We went to this really good Mediterranean place it was a Gyro that I got and it was great!! We had a good time, then that night we went out and were tracting a ton. That's pretty much what I remember!

Tuesday- We had an accounting call and it was pretty sweet, the zone leaders and us were talking about what was coming for transfers and it was pretty great! They had some pretty interesting perspectives on who all might be leaving! It was a good day though and we tracted a ton. We went and saw this investigator of ours named Joe.   Joe thought he was buff and so we had a competition to see who could do more push ups... Well I won and he said he would come to church! Which he ended up not coming!  Then we were tracting not to far from Joe and we were able to find 2 people who were interested in us coming back and teaching their families more! The rest of the night was pretty great.  We were able to see a recent convert. She was doing pretty good and it was good to see her!  Then we went and visited some investigators who we had an appointment with and we took Tyson one of the people getting ready for his mission.  Unfortunately the appointment fell through, it was the worst! But we got to visit a few people!

Wednesday- We had a bunch of appointments scheduled and it was pretty booked. Then all of it slowly fell through. We had one appointment that morning and it had to be rescheduled which was alright and it gave us time to tract.  We met this lady named Rebetha.  She was nice and she knows one of the members of the ward! So that was cool, then we swung by a few other people that afternoon and ended up not catching them.  We were able to knock on Eric's door. He is this really spiritual guy who was like oh yea if I could have more scripture on Christ I would read it immediately! So we scheduled to come back Thursday and teach him more so that was really cool! It was a pretty good day.  That night we had a good time as we went out and our appointments fell through. One after the other cancelled on us.  We ended up with one left which was good because we had a member coming out with us. Then we got there and they ended up not being really interested in continuing so we got dropped.  It was alright though, it wasn't there time yet!

Thursday- Eric was there for his appointment, so that was really great and we were able to teach him more about the Book of Mormon and he was really interested! So we set up a time next week to come back! That afternoon we did an exchange with some elders, I was with Elder Lowe in Wake Forest. We had a good long time to tract and we met some really nice people and we were able to share with them the Christmas initiative "Light the World". It works really great at softening people up to talk to us and be able to share more with them! Then what was really cool was we knocked on this super sweet older guys door.  He wasn't interested in learning more but he was super cool and had investigated before!

Friday- We had our district meeting and interviews with President James. It was so much fun.  My interview went so much longer then it was suppose to! We were just talking about different stuff in the mission and in life and it was pretty great! Then I went on another exchange but this time I was with Elder Hunsaker down in Raleigh.  It was spanish speaking!  What was funny was we ended up having to drive back up to Wake Forest because the other elder accidentally took the phone.   it was pretty great! It was so much fun, I basically just stood there and took the gringo stare from all of the spanish people it was the best! It was funny that we had chicken alfredo for dinner with this spanish family though! But hey that's my favorite meal so I wasn't even going to complain!  Then we tried a few other people and it was in this really weird complex! But it was a fun night!

Saturday- We exchanged back and it was a fun little drive up to Wake Forest again! The day flew by though it was so fast! We had a good time as we planned and waited for the transfer news!  Then we found out that Elder Robinson was leaving it was pretty crazy! 

Sunday- Dan finally came to church which was great and we had a good time.  We went in with the Priests during the Priesthood session of church! They did mission prep stuff and it was pretty funny! So we asked a few questions and then we had them do some role plays trying to teach one another it was super funny!  Then it was great because that night we went to the Duncans for dinner and we also went back to to watch the Christmas Devotional.  We went out and tracted in between and visited a few members so Elder Robinson would be able to say bye! Then the devotional was really good, we had a fun time with the Duncans as we watched it!  We are going to watch it again with Dan and the Henrys tonight!

Over all it was a great week and we had a fun time. I was sad to hear Elder Robinson was leaving but I love this area and am happy to stay! It will be exciting!

Have a great week everyone!!

Love Elder Hutchings

Wake Forest District - the BEST!!!

Turkey Week

Monday- We didn't do to much. After emailing we went and were just kinda chilling at our apartment, it was alright but a little boring. Then Curtis texted us and wanted to play some board games?   We were like heck yea, so we got to play some board games. We played this one that was really weird, it was all of these questions on church stuff and it was surprisingly really fun.   I don't know if anyone possibly knows more then half of the answers to these questions that this game had! It was good.  Elder Robinson was able to get a haircut from Curtis so that helped save some time! That night was pretty cold but we were able to get quite a bit done. We followed up with quite a few people that we had tracted into earlier in the year who were on some records.  Not to much came of that but we were able to tract around them and try to find some people! We ended up not finding anyone but we were able to talk to a ton of nice people who all wished us a happy Thanksgiving so that was nice!!

Tuesday- Was really fun, we went out that morning and were tracting when we knocked on this preachers door.  He invited us in so we went in and started talking to him and it was a good conversation but he didn't really want to listen but was super nice. He told us about this new version of the bible that had come out recently and said the translation on it was pretty good so it was interesting to talk about that! Then we were able to have a lesson with our investigator Stephen.  It went pretty well.  We were teaching the plan of salvation and it basically ended up at pre earth life. He had many deep questions which couldn't be answered ... it was so crazy and at the end we just testified of what we believed.  We were a bit off track but were able to set up a return appointment to come back and finish teaching it so it will make more sense for him! It was pretty exhausting trying to keep up with his train of thought.  That night was really cool we were able to go out and tract for like 50 minutes and we found 2 people who are super interested in hearing more about the restoration - it was really cool! Then we went out with a member to visit some people and it went really well.  We had a lesson with some members named the Hendersons and it was really good.  They set a date to find some one for us to teach in their home!

Wednesday- We had a pretty interesting district meeting but it was really good, we all had fun and were able to continue to try to be better at teaching.  There was some pretty funny comments made! We all had lunch together and then after that Elder Robinson and I set out for a place called Franklinton where we had an appointment with an this lady named Kadejah! It went really well we were able to give her a Book of Mormon and tell her more about it and we read the introduction. She wanted to come to church as well so we told her we would get her a ride to come.  We set one up and called her friday and we never got an answer so that was frustrating!!  The rest of the night was cool. We went and were able to talk to Dan, and we need permission from his parents for him to be baptized.   We will see how that goes but he is getting really excited to be baptized. He is 17 and a really good kid! Our lesson was at the church and it was funny since there was volleyball going on!

Thursday- Turkey day!!!! We went and played in the ward turkey bowl, it was a ton of fun!  I had 2 interceptions one of which was a pick six so I scored on it!   Then I had a deep catch where I ran it in and scored!! We were like the best team but no biggy!! Then we were able to get up with a few investigators and wish them a Happy Thanksgiving!!   Then we had dinner ourselves, it was really good! Then we went and had dessert with a few more people the rest of the night and it was really good!! We got this one really manly man to tear up with the new light the world video it was really cool!

Friday- Went by so fast, but we got a call from Dan and he has permission to be baptized now! It will be on Jan 5 it is so exciting!!!   We were able to have a great time tracting that day. I had been feeling a bit off but we pressed on. After dinner we went and were tracting for about an hour and then I felt so sick. So we went home and I ended up throwing up once and then I just passed out on the couch and that's all that I really remember!!

Saturday- I felt great when I woke up it was really good, and we had a great day. We went and had some appointments and were able to teach some more of the restoration to people and then we tracted a ton. We met this lady who was really weird she was like yall are so nice. Just keep seeking for truth... so we ended the conversation.   We tracted these huge houses and we found 2 people.  It was crazy since we usually don't have much success in this big of neighborhoods!! But we did!!  We also went out with brother Higbee and visited Connie and we had a great lesson again on faith with her and we read through Alma 32 it was pretty good. We are trying really hard to get her to come to church!

Sunday- We went to church and it was a good service.  I really enjoyed the talk of this one returned missionary who got back not to recently. It was a good day and we tracted a ton but we were able to see our investigator Joe he is pretty cool. He had a party last Saturday and that was why he couldn't come to church... It was so lame but we are gonna try to get him there!! Then we were able to go and visit some people after tracting and what not and the timing was so inspired.  This guy named David was puling up right as we got there and we were finally able to talk to him and we will be able to teach him more now since his old phone stopped working and he hadn't been able to get our number! It was great!!

Now i sit here emailing and we are going to play scrabble or something today! Oh and we have a mouse in our apartment and its just a little one but we will get him soon, he has missed our traps so far but we will get him now!!!!

Love yall

Love Elder Dylan Hutchings

Last temple trip!!!

Monday- We had a good ole time, we had a district activity. So that consisted of us and 2 other Elder companionship's and 1 Sister companionship. We played some chair soccer and then some dodge ball.   Then this game called dot dot, it was a ton of fun and we all really enjoyed it. We were suppose to play basketball and do some other games but I forgot to tell the people with the stuff to bring it so we would be able to play. It turned out really well, I think everyone enjoyed it for the most part! It was a lot of fun, after that we came home and relaxed for a bit. Then we went and hit the pavement.  We went and tried contacting some investigators who we haven't been able to catch up with. Sadly they were leaving right as we pulled up so we weren't able to catch them... But we were able to tract some more of the area. Let me tell you these houses were flippen huge too!  Then we went with one of our ward missionaries to visit a recent convert. We were able to talk to her about writing her conversion story for the mission since president James asks everyone to!  We were able to talk to her about work and why she had been missing church but she said they had scheduling conflicts and what not so that was why but she said she would be at church!! So we were happy we could meet with her!

Tuesday- We tracted a ton, we went and were tracting in the town of Youngsville and it was weird.  The town its self was pretty on the dead side. No one really answered the door, I'm not sure how many people lived in the houses where we were knocking but it was a nice part of town.  Elder Robinson and I were both super surprised! We took our lunch after that and headed back out! We had a good ole time tracting in this place and we found this super cool lady and she had twins it was great!! She said my mom must be a saint for dealing with twins!  She is super interested in learning more and what not!! Then as we were heading to the farthest reaches of our area we stopped on this road to tract and we met Valdakina and she is super cool.  She speaks  5 languages and she is super interested.  It was a great contact and we can't wait to meet up with her again!  We had dinner was this super sweet southern lady who made really good food and half way through the meal she said - well y'all didn't get enough on your plates get more... I was breathing heavy at this point from so much food but I continued to take just a bit more of everything! It was good, and we were able to visit some part member families around her which were super nice and we are going to start teaching one of them!!

Wednesday- Was the best!! We got up at about 5:45 and headed down to Raleigh. We picked up a pair of Elders and headed to Apex... Because today was the conference temple trip for our zone! It was so good, the temple was great!!!  I was excited to go. It might be my last time in the temple here though so that was a bit of a bummer but oh well I really enjoyed it. I even got to sit by President James during the session so that was really cool!! We got home late after the meeting though, we got back at 7 ate a little food and then went and tracted a bunch till the night was over and I went on exchange with Elder Randall so it was fun!!

Thursday- Was fun we went back up to Franklinton and it was blast up there.  We knocked and got a ton of answers that we were able to contact. We met this cool lady named Kadejah. She was awesome and we were able to set up a time to come back and teach her more so it will be cool to go and teach her!! We had a great night too, we took Ivan Duncan with us to visit Connie and we had a great lesson on faith with her. We were able to talk to her about coming to church!  It was a good way to end the night and it was a fun time being with Ivan he is a cool guy!

Friday- Was so busy, we ended up doing our weekly planning in the morning so that took quite a bit of time to do but it was better then doing it on Saturday! Then we had like 3 appointments that we needed to go to.  One that was the best was with this guy named Stephen, he is a southern baptism Seminary student. He is really cool though and super nice. He got us a cracker and cheese and meat platter tray and bought us drinks to have while we taught him. The lesson wasn't bashing at all and we taught him and he had some great sincere questions.  It was a good lesson over all. Then as we were going to leave he said - wait I baked you cookies!! It was so cool and such a good time! Then we got to have some great Mediterranean food for dinner when we went to a ward activity and it was fun to be there and we followed up with some members on things we had asked them to do!

Saturday- We tracted a bunch and not to much came of it.  We met a few people who tried to be all confrontational and tell us we don't know what we believed in.  I just told them to have a nice day and walked off. So it all turned out pretty good!! We tried our best to just share a sincere testimony with them and but they wouldn't listen! Oh well!!!  We had a great dinner with members called the Abshers and it was great, they are super nice!!   We had a great lesson after dinner with this lady who we tracted into. She said her husband would be really interested as well!!!

Sunday- NO one came to church, sadly people had to cancel for various reasons but it was still hard. We will get them there next week though! We had a good time that evening though we had a cool lesson with one of our investigators Sisters who is super interested. It was interesting how we were at the right place at the right time. We finished the night by watching the Young Single Adult Face to Face with Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard. That was really good and we were able to watch it over at the Duncan's home it was a good night!!

Have a great week!!!

Love Elder Hutchings

Always let your companion be in Front!!!

Monday- We had a zone activity down in Raleigh, it was a ton of fun. We played a ton of sports and what not so it was a good time. We played this one card game at the end that was pretty weird it was where you got a character card and an attribute and so did your opponent. Then you decided who would win in a fight between the two characters. But it was a good time, I think everyone in the zone came and had a pretty good time! It was pretty fun! That night was pretty good, we went and tracted a ton. We were in this one neighborhood that was pretty nice and some members of the ward live there. We found this guy named Matthew and he is pretty cool. He has seen Jesus play a huge role in his life and really helped him with tough decisions and what not. He really liked the message of the restoration and the concept of the Book of Mormon. It was really cool, and we were able to teach him  quite a bit and set up a return appointment, so that was good!

Tuesday- We did our accounting for the day with the zone leaders, it was pretty interesting.  Then we went to our appointment with Sue and Gilbert and for some reason they weren't there so that was weird since they are this older couple who like never leave their home. We will see what happens with them.  We checked out this place right next to them and it was weird because it looked like it was an apartment complex thing but after walking around it for just a bit we were like yea not sure what this is... so we left! We tracted a ton as well, I mean we tracted all day. It was great because we had a lesson with our investigator named Dan.  He should be getting baptized here soon. It was good then we had a really great lesson with a lady named Connie who is really awesome, and we were working on getting her to come to church!

Wednesday- We had district meeting, with both us and one other companionship so that was fun. It went pretty well and it was fun having it be so small and simple. Made it easier to have everyone involved in what we can do better! We then went and tracted a ton again. We were tracting in this one neighborhood and we met this anti mormon theologist, who has disproved everything we believe multiple times. He was interesting to talk to for a minute then I shook his hand and told him I was going to go knock on other doors. He was funny though and he didn't bring up anything I haven't ever heard before ha! But it was great, then we got the cops called on us... But it was all good because this person just wanted us to move our car and everyone was nice about it! It was all good. That night we had a great dinner with some members, but afterwards we planned to work in their neighborhood and we got some hot chocolate from some super nice people!

Thursday- We tracted a ton again, we had a lot of planning that we did as well. At 3 though we were able to have a lesson with a lady named Kathrine. She is super interesting, she only believes in doing what you feel God tells you and not what is written in a book... She is a "free spirit" pretty great we will see how the teaching process goes from here. She did say that next Sunday she will come to church! So that is super cool, and we also got to go out with this Rm named Ryan Barnes. He served his mission in Ghana, the Accra mission. It was a good time, we went and taught the Hendersons, some members in our ward an active member lesson on missionary work. It was a great time they have the funniest bunch of kids.  It was a great lesson with them!

Friday- Was quite a blur we tracted a ton, like 10 to 4:30 we were knocking doors and we met a lot of really cool people and found a few people who were interested. That morning was so cold though.  Then at 4:30 we had a great lesson with a guy named kelvin and we set him with a date to be baptized it was great. He is going to be turned over to the other elders since he doesn't live in our area but it was a great lesson. Then what was really cool was that night we got to help out at a merit badge clinic for the Boy scouts. We helped with a citizenship in the nation merit badge and we got to meet a ton of non members. One kid even drove down here from Buffalo New York crazy!! Good time though it was a ton of fun that was for sure!

Saturday- We went and helped some people move an oven, and they gave us pizza so that made it really good. Then we went and were tracting in these mansions of houses. It was quite interesting, we had this kid whistle and we would whistle a tune back to him.  It was funny because I don't think I ever saw where he was but the houses were huge!! Then we went and had another lesson that night with Connie and it went really well.  We shared a powerful lesson on how it was satan keeping her from church and we got her pretty fired up to go and she was committed to come!!!  It was pretty cool!  Then we went and visited her daughter who is really cool and talked to us about wanting to come to church as well, so that will be really awesome!

Sunday- Connie didn't come to church so that was sad, we called her and she cancelled last minute it was a heart breaker!!  Church was really good, I enjoyed the lessons that we had.  We had our appointment with Matthew and we are going to try to start teaching his family so that should be fun!! Then we were able to get some delicious BBQ for dinner from some members! That night was crazy, we were out tracting and it was about 7:30ish when we knocked on this door. Next thing we know this lady is like who is it, so we tell her and she yells something through the door. Then the door swings open gun in hand aimed in our general direction. She the proceeded to yell at us for knocking so late, we were understanding since she had a 7 month old baby but it was so cool. Good thing was Elder Robinson was in front so I wouldn't have been shot - lol. It was pretty funny!!

Great way to end the week, hope everyones week was a fun as mine was!!

Love Elder Dylan Hutchings

The picture is of a dead bird on a porch while we were tracting!!!  I thought it was funny!!

Crazy Back Road

Monday- As everyone could see we didn't have our P day this last Monday. We had a good time we went and taught this old couple named the Benfeilds.  It was a good lesson on the restoration and they found it quite interesting. We ended the lesson and committed them to come to church and they said they would do their best (they didn't come). It was a good lesson and the crazy part was that they already had a Book of Mormon.  They couldn't remember where they got it either! We continued to tract the rest of the day! Then Curtis invited us to come with them to dinner at this place called waffle house. It was pretty good I liked it and then we found out it was his Brother Ivan's birthday so we sang to him and it was fun! Then we went and tracted a ton more and tried following up with some people and we had to bike a ton but what was really nice was Curtis was able to come and pick us up at the end of the night so that was really good.   All of our tracting payed off because we were able to find 2 people that day it was really great!

Tuesday- I had so much fun, we spent the whole day with Curtis. So we were out of miles so he came and helped us drive to get groceries.  That was super nice and then we emailed and what not. But then the day started when we got back we played these board games that Curtis brought.  We made some cinnamon rolls and this Stromboli thing it was really good! Such a fun time.  The games were ones I had never played before.  I won twice it was great! Then we got this call later that day and we ran over to help one of our investigators really quick with some service and then basically the day ended. We had dinner then we were to stay inside and plan for the week that night! But we were able to finish early so I pulled out this church movie called how rare a possession. I had never seen it before but it was really good! That was our basic day!!

Wednesday- Was so much fun, we had a Tri zone conference and it was really good. All of the instructions were really good, they focused on faith and reaching goals that we have set. It was really a good time. Then we did some service for the people who were hosting us. Then we had this activity with it. We were on this farm thing so we had a sack race, and three legged race. It was a ton of those types of games. Elder Robinson and I were the anchor for the three legged race, and it was crazy, we were behind by quite a bit when it got to us. We caught up and we were going so fast it was crazy, then we went to turn and we both lost our footing and fell down, but we were still able to take 2nd so that was good, but we were so close to beating those who were in first! It was crazy awesome till we fell hahahah, then we went on to win some other ones and what not it was really fun.  The race messed up my leg it was all swollen from the fall with the rope on and being tied to elder Robinson but I was fine and it is doing really good now! That night we went and took one of our ward missionaries out with us and it was really great because we taught an awesome lesson to these two people and he had great insights and testimony!

Thursday- I had a zone meeting with the other leaders of the zone it was quite interesting. We had a good time at the meeting. I of course was cracking jokes the whole time trying to keep it lively!!  It was great. After that I went on exchange here in Raleigh with a missionary named Elder Lowe and we had a great time. We had a good time tracting because that was basically all that we did, but it was good. I rode a bus for the first time ever, it was pretty interesting!  We had dinner with this member who was really cool, he was a mission president down in Peru and he had the funniest stories from it! Then tracting was great that night we were able to find 2 people who were really interested! Then as we were walking to the bus we noticed that we had missed it so we were like oh no... Then this member turned the corner and was like want a ride? We were like heck yea! Then we got cook out shakes and he sent a picture home it was a pretty great way to end the night!!

Friday- Elder Robinson came and picked me up so we were finally able to be back together and we headed up to Wake Forrest. It was an interesting day, we had a few people that we tried to get together with but we missed them sadly. It was a pretty generic day, but that night was really great! At 6 we went to this members home who had invited a family to meet with us. We had dinner and it was a ton of fun the members are so cool and so is this family. We taught them the restoration.  We went over how Christ had established a church and the apostasy and then Joseph Smith and his part in being called as a prophet! They had great questions and we set up another appointment and committed them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. After the discussion it was funny the member challenged us to go and play them in foozeball. So my skills were put to the test.  I won a few games but then I lost, my left hand is really bad now at playing! It was a great night!

Saturday- We went to an appointment and it was with the people that we visited with on Wednesday.  It was crazy and tough because Wednesday after we left a member of the family tried to commit suicide. It was super discouraging, but we taught about our relationship to Heavenly Father and how they can get strength from him. It was very interesting, we just tried to show our love to them and asked how we can help them out. All of that put a damper on them coming to church this week! It was super sad, but we will help them work through it! We finished the night with visiting this less active member and it was great they talked about how they wanted to start coming back to church so hopefully we can help them get there!

Sunday- Was great,  I got to meet a lot more members of the ward.  It was sad no one that we invited to church came and that was hard. But we will get people to come.  What was really cool was there was a member from the Raleigh 1st ward and he was going around telling everyone that they had some great missionaries in the ward!!!  It was really funny!  It was a great Sunday, we had an awesome dinner with these members named the Henderson's. We had ribs and it was so good, and they have some super fun kids!  Then we went tracting and we found a baptist seminary student who is getting his masters.  It will be interesting with our return appointment. He said he was going to bring his bible hahaha!! Then we went and visited a recent convert and went back over the restoration with her. It was great way to end the night!!

Today we have a zone activity it will be tons of fun since we are playing chair soccer!!

Pictures are me on this crazy back road, every Elder still out here who came out with me except one. And then the trip down to the zone conference!

Road trip to zone conference

Crazy Back Roads

All the missionaries I came out with!!!

Happy Halloween

Monday- Was pretty interesting we had basically a pretty big game of basketball. It lasted for a while and the elders from Hampstead came down and played. On our accounting call with president we basically got all of the transfer news from him it was pretty great. After basketball we spent most of the day cleaning and packing so that was interesting. That night we went and visited Will Champange who was super sad to see me leave but we will go see him when I am done. Then we went and saw Karen, she was funny she was like but you just got here right you cant leave haha! Then we saw Lake at  YSA activity and that was really fun got some great pictures from him. Then we finished the night by seeing Abeguar.  I got his number and email so we will be able to see him as well!! Then that night I packed basically all night and was ready to go in the morning!

Tuesday- We ran over to Leland and got a bike to take over to transfers, then we were off. We had a great testimony meeting at the beginning of the meeting which was pretty sweet. Then I piled all of my stuff in Curtis Duncans car.  He's a member here in Wake Forest and we started out path back. It was great because we stopped and got some great burgers on the way back and then did some service for an elder who recently had surgery. That night we went and visited some investigators and it was pretty great!

Wednesday- I had my first district meeting as a district leader again so I had to conduct and instruct. It was really weird doing that all over again but it should be fun. Then the rest of the day we spent tracting our guts out! We found quite a few really solid people as well! Then we stopped by the church and I was able to meet the bishop and a few members of the ward!

Thursday- We were biking and it was so windy, but we made it though. We tracted most of the day but then that night was really cool because we went out with this recent convert to a Mediterranean place for dinner and it was so good. Then we were able to go by and see this investigator named Connie who is super nice and Tony (the recent convert) was really able to connect with her on how searching for truth was so important and what not! Really great lesson with her!

Friday- Was the usual we basically tracted all day I don't really remember much of what else happened, other then Elder Robinsons bike tire went flat. It was the worst. That night we had two great lessons one was with this less active family who we were trying to get to come to the trunk or treat.  We had a member with us and we had them fully committed so it was interesting. Then we had a great lesson with Eddie and Sussanna. We taught them all about the Plan of Salvation and it answered a lot of questions that they have had and really helped them out! The member with us provided some really awesome insight on the plan it was really cool!

Saturday- That day we filled out some records online and sent them in then we spent most of the day tracting. We went from one place to another and met some really nice people but no one really new!  Then that night went to the trunk or treat. It was really fun we were the judges for the chili cook off. There was some really good chili's there for sure. And yes we were dressed up as mormon missionaries it was pretty great, especially since we went and biked up a highway to get there!!

Sunday- We had church and no one showed but it was still good. We had a great dinner with some members and it was really fun that night.  We biked out on the highway to a town called Franklinton. It was so much fun!! We were able to get a ride home though and then we had some phone call lessons with some of our investigators who we couldn't get out to meet with and we just read some of the Book of Mormon with them! It was a great week over all!!

Sorry for the loss of details if you have any questions just ask, love you all!!

Love Elder Dylan Hutchings

Wake Forest here I come!!!

I will preface this email just saying that I have had a great time here in Wilmington but it is apparently time to leave. Sorry to spoil it for yall.

Monday- Well we headed up to a place called topsail island for a district activity. It was really fun, we had a bbq there with hot dogs and stuff it was really good. We played corn hole and looked at the water. Then we went and played a game of football of the beach right next to this members house. It was a ton of fun. We had to drive for quite a while though. They lived down on the very end of the Island what we went on. Great day, we spent the rest of the day tracting and we didn't have much success but it was fun.

Tuesday- We did our usual accounting. It was pretty interesting and then we went and tracted.  We found a bunch of people. We found this guy named Thomas who sold pest control with a bunch of Mormons. It was an interesting contact, but he was really cool and was super interested in learning more. He was suppose to come to church but he ended up not coming. We had dinner with this super nice couple and after we went to see this guy named Will. He was excited to see us but has been super busy with work and stuff since he is a police officer. 

Wednesday- Was my last district meeting in Wilmington, it was kinda sad because I hadn't been told I was leaving but I had a feeling it was coming. We had our last exchange for the transfer, it was with the Leland Elders. It was so much fun, I went back to Leland. Everyone was super excited to see me. We did a bunch of tracting even found a few people.  The best part was that night, we went to the mutual activity, and I was able to see a ton of people that I was super close with when I was there! It got even better because we went to my favorite house to end the night. The Child's home, and they had made me cheeseburgers and this amazing blueberry cake! It was so good and just awesome being able to be there, so much fun!

Thursday- We exchanged back and we went and did our planning. That took a ton of our day since we were planning for the zone and what not. Then we got a call from some Elders and we had to go help them with somethings that they were dealing with. It was the most interesting thing I have ever done. Then that night we went and were doing some YSA tracting. We got yelled at twice and had the most interesting contact that only lasted a few minutes... I'll have to leave out details since it was super gross! Then we both were so mad when we ended the night because we met this guy who was super interested in learning more.  Then this other guy came out and and told him get inside now. It was super lame because he even took the card from the guy that we were contacting and ripped it up! I was so ticked!

Friday- We had so many appointments and most of them went through so we taught a ton, but the best one was with our investigator Abeguar. He is so solid, we taught him the word of wisdom.  It was quite crazy because he accepted it all and he said -  yeah I need to stop some stuff. So we will be working with him to help him with all of that!   Nothing else really happened that was exciting!

Saturday- We had this awesome lesson with this college soccer player named Stian, and he is so cool. He tore his meniscus so he is out for the season but it was so cool talking to him about prayer and helping him come closer to Heavenly Father and finding answers to his questions. Then we got the call from president that I was getting called to Wake Forest. It will be a new adventure! We had some great appointments that night but I don't remember much because I was trying to not be in shock that I was actually leaving!

Sunday- Abeguar came to church it was so good! He hasnt missed church once.  Then the best part, Stian came to church as well. I mean a few others came as well which is always awesome but them coming made my entire week!! 

It has been great here, but I am off to my next adventure!!!!  It will be fun and I'm excited to see what is next even though I will miss the people here. I will stay in contact with them!! Love yall!

Love Elder Dylan Hutchings

Stian and I at church!!!

Football at the Beach - Did I tell you that I Love the Beach!!!!

Monday- We had our investigator Lake and his brother Joe come to the church along with some other missionaries and we played a ton of basketball. It was pretty fun, the games were good everyone played really well, and Lake and his brother are pretty good! That mixed it up and made it really fun. That night was awesome, we went and met with our investigator Abeguar. The lesson was great and he had some great questions about the Book of Mormon that you want every person to ask you about. Then we were able to commit him to read the Book of Mormon as a homework assignment. So that was really awesome, and after the lesson he told us -  oh I got something for you and he gave us a bunch of sandwich stuff, it was so cool!! Then we were also able to follow up with another one of our investigators Damion, and he could be so solid but he isn't keeping commitments. It is so frustrating because he sees the need and wants to but is just being lazy and uses work as a excuse! So we will have to see if we are going to continue working with him! But we had a good lesson on why we need the Book of Mormon and how it plays a role in his life, which we have taught before. That was how we ended Monday night!

Tuesday-  We had a fun day, we did our accounting with people and then we went on an exchange with the Wilmington 2 Elders. It was pretty easy they live right next to us so we were able to go with them when we were done accounting and having lunch! The exchange was pretty fun.  Elder Manu came to my area with me. We tracted for days! We knocked so many doors, which got us kicked out of this one complex it was so funny!!  The only reason why the lady got me was she said we were loitering and I couldn't think of the definition so I couldn't fight her on it! LOL!!  After we tracted for DAYS, we had dinner and I made some pretty interesting fish tacos! That night we planned on doing some YSA tracting and it was pretty interesting. The second door we knocked on was this guy named Michael.  He let us in right away. We sat down and taught him the restoration and he really liked it and wanted us to come back it was cool!  Then we met this lady who had lived in Palmyra it was so cool she knew who we were and we had a good discussion with her.

Wednesday- We needed to surprise the Jacksonville district so we went up to their district meeting. We needed to do an interview with one of the investigators up there that is getting baptized.  We also needed to go on an exchange with the assistants. So that was fun, Elder Jones came with me and we went back to Wilmington and started working. We had some great lessons. We had a lesson with Lake on keeping the Sabbath day holy.   Then we had a great lesson with this guy named Matt who is super cool he plays water polo for UNCW and it was a great lesson. He is super busy though so he wouldn't let us set a return appointment. Elder Jones was really fun though and we had a great time.  He was cracking jokes about when he was in Wilmington.  We both served with Elder Pesta, so it was really fun to talk to him about his training and everything!

Thursday- We started the day off right by going to the beach and watching the sunrise with a game of football going on! It was a ton of fun, and most everyone enjoyed it a lot! We got to do our planning and what not it was pretty good. It was a long day of knocking doors though but it was fun. We ended the night off with a meeting with Abeguar, it was the best. He is so elect. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and holy moly! He already believed in the pre mortal life and the kingdoms of glory - it was so awesome!! We were just trying to not freak out the whole time because of he already believes it all!! So amazing, and then he again gave us some fruit to take with us, he is just an awesome guy!

Friday- Was the grind, we went a did a bunch of campus contacting. We used this survey which makes it easier and not as hard to make contact with people and it was kinda fun. Really weird being on a campus, because everyone stares at you and it is really weird! We had a great lesson with Lake again, we taught him the law of tithing which was good. He committed to live it! Other then that it was a pretty boring day haha not to much happened!

Saturday- We did nothing but tract, it was so interesting. We knocked and knocked it was the literally the grind! We did have a lesson with Karen Demata, it was great she told us that she can come to church on Sundays now.  It was so great to be able to hear that she would be coming, and then we taught her the law of chastity which and she said - yea i can live that law and then the word of wisdom as well and she said - yeah I need to treat my body more like a temple! It was a great lesson! Then we went back to the grind and we met this weird guy!!

Sunday- Abeguar, Anna and Lake all came to church! It was so cool that we got all of them there. It was so great to have so many people at church!  So we got out of church and then just went to dinner.  We had some bbq and it was the best!! Such good food and it was with this family named the Curtis's.  We had such a good time. They are really funny and cool! 

Thats basically the highlights of my week!!  It was great and a ton of fun!

Love yall

Love Elder Dylan Hutchings