Wilmington... The Home of My Mission

Well I also remembered that I forgot to tell everyone that since I am now in the first ward I will be learning Swahili as well!!!  There are a ton of African refugees here in Wilmington. So i will be getting a name tag in Swahili!!!

Monday- Was the dreaded day of packing, but i skipped that till the night. So we did our like cleaning real quick then we bounced on out so we would be able to email quick. Then we were able to play a ton of basketball with the priests from our ward... and that was super fun! They are all characters and pretty funny, and one of them is so tall!  Then that night went by really fast, we had dinner with a member and then sadly I needed to start packing.  I started with my study desk and hurried to get that packed before I had an appointment. Then we went to that appointment and to be honest from the way the first appointment went I was not excited to go back and teach them more.  They were just not open to listening to what we had to say and we had really gotten into some stuff that they didn't understand. But it went really well and we were able to teach them about the plan of salvation and they were a lot more open and it just went a ton better!

Tuesday- was crazy like always on transfers. We got picked up and I grabbed all of my stuff and went to the stake center there in Raleigh. We were there for quite a while but it was fun. We got to help with some of the new cars that were getting sent out! So that was fun and then I got some home made root beer, it was a ton like grandmas but not quite as good.  It was a nice little like whoa there is home for ya!! Then after being able to find Elder Miller, Elder Dobson and Elder Millers trainee, Elder Garlick got a huge posterity picture which was a ton of fun!! So transfers were really great being able to see a ton of people and take pictures! Then at about 2 we left for Wilmington, and man this is like the 300th billion trip I have taken back down, and it was still pretty great!! That night we like rolled in and I threw my stuff in the house, (which I have already lived in) then we went straight to work. It was great we found a few new people and this older guy named Lundy let us right in. It was pretty cool!!! We got to teach him the restoration and he understood it pretty well, even though he was like 87 years old!

Wednesday- we went to district meeting, everone that was still here was like what your back... it was pretty great! Then I had to go shopping after that for some grocery's it was great!! Then we went home for our language study.. Swahili. It is great I am learning slowly but it will be good. Then we went out and worked a ton. I was able to meet Cecil and Melissa who are some characters, they are engaged and he is 39 and she is 64 it is weird!! We gave Cecil a blessing and both of them felt the spirit really powerfully. Then they committed to be baptized on July 22.   They are ready to start coming to church and being solid in everything!! Super cool experience!! 

Thursday- we went out to knock doors that morning and we were about to leave this area that we were in and then we felt like we should knock these one doors and boom we found Christine!! It was really cool we taught her the restoration right there on the door and she was like yea come back here Saturday and teach us more!! It was really cool. Then we needed to to weekly planning which took a long time because as zone leaders we had a ton of extra stuff to plan for like - going on exchanges with all of the district and elders in our zone. Then that night we got a call to do a ton of stuff for the zone and then we taught a few people and got one of our investigators to come to a class at the church. We then ran home and packed up our stuff because we had a meeting on Friday and we were driving up that night to Raleigh to stay with the assistansts! It was a crazy busy night!!

Friday- we spent all day in leadership meetings, it was kinda crazy we were there from 8 till 4 it was really good and inspiring but after that long, you are just super tired. Then when we put all of the supplies for the zone in our car we walked out side and man our eyes hadn't seen sun in what felt like forever!! Then I drove us back home, nice long car ride back to the house. Then it was eat and back to work which felt really good because sitting all day is not the best!!!

Saturday- we went and taught Cecil, it was on the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the lesson went so good. Then in the middle of it Cecil started confessing some stuff to us and we were like yea you can repent and he is so funny and I quote him '' ima tell you sumptin!!!'' hahah its the funniest thing!!! That night was crazy though, we had a lesson in Swahili and our recent convert was like drunk it was insane, everything at the end went kinda crazy but the ones we were teaching believe the Book of Mormon is true and want us to come again. Now we just need to re teach the word of wisdom to the recent convert!! Haha crazy night!

Sunday- I got to meet the ward and I saw a ton of people from the 2nd ward, and they were excited to see me! It was great, and now since I am a zone leader we cover the YSA as well! So I was at church from 7 till 4 it was nuts and exhausting. But we got Cecil and Melissa to church which was crazy because everything was like going against them, but they made it!! Then sadly after church they called us and dropped us:(  Melissa was being weird all church so we kinda felt it coming. But we will find more people to teach. Like Dawn, Christine's mom, we went back because we forgot and were off time for their lesson Saturday and boom now she is interested as well!! It is awesome!! The area is great and so is the missionary work. Even working with the Swahili speaking people is awesome, I don't understand much but it is pretty great!

Love Y'all! 

Elder Hutchings