Red Robin and Duck Donuts!!

Monday- Preparation day flew right on by, we came and emailed and then ran and did our shopping and it was crazy. We went so fast because we had a district activity. It was tons of fun though so I was super excited!  We played some volleyball which was really fun, we kept the net low so I could get my hands above it! Haha not really but that was where everyone wanted it.   That was fun but what I really liked was chair soccer. We have a few people now who have played soccer before so that made it a lot more interesting then usual. So it was pretty fun! That night was crazy, mostly the normal we tracted a ton. It was fun though because you always meet new people and what not.  We found this lady named Rebecca who was pretty interested in learning more. It was funny because right after we found her we met this super old lady who told us that she was an investigator for 2 years and then started talking about some random stuff it was really funny! Then she closed it out with well its way past my bedtime, and ill be oober cranky tomorrow and you don't want me to tell all of my coworkers that it was because of the mormons do you? hahaha it was so funny so we let her go!

Tuesday- We had zone council, its where all of the leaders in the zone come and we discuss what has been going on and what we can do to improve the work and best help the missionaries here in the zone. Then I went up to Jacksonville on exchanges, and I went with Elder Shields who is an awesome missionary. He was a zone leader but got called down to be a district leader and he is so good! He has brought a lot of fire to the district up there. The day was crazy though we had this girl almost die on us on a door contact. We are teaching her and she seems pretty interested, then she told us that she didn't feel good that she was nauseated!!  Then she went super pale and all her color gone!!!  She was fine, I think but I think it was morning sickness!!!  We both think she might have been pregnant. It was crazy then this lady came and kicked us out of the complex right in the middle of a great contact! Then everything else planned that night fell threw but it was good we knocked on more doors and had a great time!

Wednesday- Elder McConkie showed up to district meeting and told me that on exchange he was able to set a baptismal date with Lake! I was like what - that it was so crazy! Then district meeting went great, pretty inspiring.  Then I came back down to Wilmington and I was on exchange with Elder Whittmer, and it was so much fun! We had a great time. The Allens took us to golden corral!!  Then we went and tracted for a while and we had a lesson with this guy named Will Richards, and he is so cool! He is a cop and on the swat team. He is crazy cool, and he is so ready to accept the gospel, he spilled out everything that has been going on in his life and told us that he knew that God sent us to him, and he sees that this is what has been missing in his life! It was so cool and he is so excited to start reading the Book of Mormon it was the best lesson ever!

Thursday- We drove back up to a half way point of Jacksonville to exchange back, and I got Elder McConkie back. We then drove to see this recent convert named James Burwell who is so funny.  He is this 70 year old guy and is totally like master ugway from kung fu panda. He gives us life advice and what not! It is so funny, but our lesson went really good with him! Then the rest of the day was spent tracting and we found a few people but not to many.  We had a great lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ with our investigator Anna.  We were able to move her baptismal date up a week so I will still be here when she gets baptized. It was pretty cool!

Friday- Was really exciting, we went and moved the Wilmington 2 Elders apartments. They are closing it down because it is so bad.  We moved them out and that took most of the morning. Then the housing coordinator payed for our lunch so that was awesome! Then we got to go and meet with a few people and what not, then we got taken out to Red Robin. I love Red Robin, it was so good!! I was so full from all of the food! Then we went and tracted for quite a while in some pretty big houses, which always gives you interesting contacts. Then we had coordination that night and Brother Allen and he bought us Ducks Donuts.  They were so good! I ate way to much food, but it was all so good!

Saturday- Was the grind, we tracted basically all day. We had one appointment with Anna again but other then that not much else happened! We found a few new people but it was an interesting day. We had to be extra persistent with everyone. Then we ran into a few drunk ysa's so that was entertaining.  Other then that nothing crazy happened it was just a good day to knock a lot of doors!!

Sunday - Anna and Lake both came to church. It was amazing! Laura gave Anna a ride to church so that was pretty exciting!  Lake got a ride from his brother so it was awesome! Exciting to have people at church.  We got to sneak some food from the 2 wards linger longer pot luck thing. That is always good!! We were super happy. That night was weird we met this crazy guy who way over complicated everything and is said the only true thing is atoms.. We told him he was to smart for his own good! Haha but then we had an interesting meeting with this guy named Mike. Mike is pretty cool. He is a doctor and is going through some tough stuff right now. He is kinda looking for more guidance. So hopefully he is open enough to learn and what not. He did admit that he has read a bunch of Anti Mormon material which was lame but he is willing to listen so we will see where it goes!!

That was my week, the picture is of a sign we saw while tracting and if it doesn't show what North Carolina is like I don't know what will

Love Elder Dylan Hutchings

Bahahahaha!!!!

Sherrif in Nottingham/Hooey!!!

Monday- We had our last p day together and it was really fun, we played a game called Sherrif in Nottingham. It is kinda like hooey or bs it was really fun.We played all day basically. Not much happened for the activity. Then we went and taught some people. I don't really remembered what all happened but it was fun. We ended Elder Rawlins and I's companionship off right. It was a ton of fun being with him. Now I am zone leader 1 it is kinda crazy  I am in charge sort of!!!   But it will be good!

Tuesday- We drove on up to transfers, it was a nice long 2 1/2 hour drive. It was cloudy all the way up to. So we were like this is going to be a pretty gloomy transfer, but it didn't rain at all when we got there. I got my new companion Elder McConkie, who is super funny. The drive back was great and we even had to make a detour to go and drop off a gps to Elder Rawlins that he forgot. Which was sad because I made us late and we weren't able to make it to our dinner appointment, but we made some good chili really quick and we went straight out to work! We tracted basically all night and tried following up with some people and we ended up finding this guy named Drew who is really looking to build his faith in Christ!! 

Wednesday- Elder McConkie didn't even get to stay in the area, we went on exchange with the Tabor City elders who are super funny. So we went to the Shallotte district meeting which was really fun, a ton of people are training in that district.  We got to be there with all of the new ones!!  The exchange went really great. We were able to find a few new people, but what was really cool was we were able to set a baptismal date with this investigator named Anna who is pretty elect.   We told her that Laura would be able to give her a ride (which she did and she loved church) but it was so cool. Just a really awesome lesson and she is really open to learning more. It was a great time for Elder Mccomb, he has been feeling like he can't succeed but we saw that we could and it really lit a fire for him.  They found 12 new people to teach this week!! It was really awesome, he is really funny and we had a great time. He related the book of mormon and the bible to a video game while we were tracting some YSA apartments. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen!!

Thursday- We got to exchange back and most of the day was spent tracting. We got a text from Laura, we had told her about Anna needing a ride and Laura just went over there and knocked on her door so that she could meet her it was so cool!!!   She told us that she is so sweet that she is so excited to take her to church! Then we planned out all of our exchanges for the zone which was really nice and we know where everything is and how it will all work out this transfer! We are going on so many exchanges it is going to be crazy. We have two this coming week, with Jacksonville, it should be a ton of fun!  Sadly Patrice missed her appointment that we had with her today.   We met with her son in law named Travon. He is really cool he was like whoa who are y'all and so we told him and he was really interested, it was pretty cool! Other then that it was a pretty normal day!

Friday- We had an awesome lesson with Lake, he is really awesome and really nice. He was like yea I read 10 minutes before you got here but we were excited because that's improvement from him not reading at all!! Haha it was great, and then that night Patrice missed her appointment again as well!! But what was so great was we found this guy who is so open, he came out and said "I don't like church's, and then he opened up and was told us - yeah you should probably come back it was great!!!!!! Super cool he told us about his officer friend dying and how it has been really hard on him and how he knows he is missing something! Then coordination meeting with the ward mission leader was really funny that night. The sisters are teaching this guy who is scared not to read because one of the sisters scares him it is so funny!!

Saturday-  Was crazy we met with Anna again and taught the plan of salvation, and she was all good to come to church it was awesome.  Then it was really cool, Karen called us and she had time off right now come for us to come over for a lesson.  We went and it was really great, we found out that she is lacking a desire. Then that night we got this super awesome referral from this member, it is this kid that is about to go pro in soccer and just tore his meniscus it was crazy.   He came to church on sunday and it was awesome!!! He is so cool and we are going to start teaching him!!

Sunday- was stake conference it was great and then we tracted the rest of the night it was fun!!

That was my week love yall!!

Elder Dylan Hutchings

Laura Got Baptised!!!! Great day!!

Monday- It was a crazy day, we started it off by shopping for matching ties for Lauras Baptism.   We found some super nice ones on sale from a place called express! One is this light green paisley, and the other this cotton tie, the cotton one is the one that matches. It looked really good with my silver suit!  We had a zone activity and it was a blast! We had a nerf war, that was tons of fun! We played a few different games with them like this terrorist one and protect the president, it was so much fun. Everyone seemed to really like it. It makes it short for us to be able to email though, but it was still a good day and we ended it with some chair soccer! It was a really fun day! Then we had some appointments, and one fell through but we found this lady named Ginny, she was super nice and wanted to learn more.  We scheduled to come back on Thursday this week!! Then we went and taught Timmy and David, this super nice gay couple. It was so funny, we asked David how much he knows about Mormons, his direct quote " I know enough to be DANGEROUS" it was so funny because he knew nothing! Hahahah but they are super nice and we are going to teach them again next week. We will see where it goes, but they totally felt like there was an apostasy and need for a prophet to be called!

Tuesday- I dont know what happened this week was crazy!

Wednesday-The Biggest highlight of the day was that we went and met with Laura to finalize the program.   We asked her who she would like to baptize her, and she said she had been praying about it. Then she told us that she had a dream about it, and I was the one she asked to baptize her. She said it was from god and that I was the one to baptize her. I was super excited after that!  Because of that I forgot everything else!

Thursday- We had interviews with President and Sister James. Those are always the best, I love them. Elder Rawlins and I threw off the times for everyone. We were both suppose to be done by 8:30, it was 9:25 when I finished my interview. It was great though I love president! We had district meeting after that, which was fun. The last ones of the transfer always are. It went really well, then after that Elder Garrick and I were on exchange for the day! He was with me in Cary for a transfer! So it was really fun. We had quite a few appointments that we went to and we tracted a ton. We found 4 people so it was really fun! We met a witch as well!  She actually talked to us for quite a little while as well! It was pretty great, she was really like an herbal witch is what she said but it was weird. She didn't understand what we were really talking about!

Friday- We had this guy deliver all of the safe house info and emergency plans. Then he tried to tell us that we needed to drive it to everyone today. AND we were like what... that's all day and we would waste a ton of miles, we were like no. So we scanned them all in and emailed them out! Which took a while but we didn't have to drive them all around! We went and saw Laura that night and it was the best. We have her  Program that we had made and she loved it! Then we were able to show the video of the first vision.  Her sister was there who is like secretly super interested! It made her really think it was quite funny! It was a great night! 

Saturday- Laura got BAPTISED!! It was the best!!!  Elder Rawlins and I made it look all cute, it was the best. A ton of her family came and the spirit was really prominent there. It was pretty great! We went out to Arby's to celebrate! The shakes there were pretty good!  The service we the high light of the day. Then the sad news came that day, Elder Rawlins got released and I am taking over the zone. I was hoping to stay longer with him!  We went to contact this media referral and come to find out it was a prank from this kids friend, it was so annoying!!  Then that night we visited another investigator named Patrice, who is super elect. She is already trying to quit smoking and wants to be baptized so bad. She was relaying stories from the book of mormon it was pretty great!

Sunday- Laura was confirmed it was the bomb digitty!!!! Thats all I really remember! Hahaha it was been the best!​

Love

Elder Hutchings

It's September

Well this week was really great, felt pretty long but then short at the same time. It was interesting to  have a slow week compared to last week. But it was pretty fun!

Monday- we had a ton of elders who came down to Wilmington and we played this board game which is called bang and it is pretty fun. Its a game where the sheriff is trying to kill these bandits and he has 2 helpers and a ton of bad guys.  It's hard to explain much more about it. Then we had a nerf war thing, so we played whats called terrorist in Paris. So you have 2 people who are trying to get everyone else out. Everyone has nerf guns and its done with a card selection. Both of the bad guys know who each other but no one else knows so its a bunch of people shooting everyone trying to find out who the bad ones are. It really messes with you because you don't know who you can trust. It is a ton of fun! Then that night was interesting we finally met this guy named Alex who the sisters referred us to. He seemed interesting and  we started teaching him but he dropped us this week. After that we went and spent the rest of the night tracting and we met this guy named Damion, he is from Jamaica and is really cool. We just sat in some chairs outside his front door and taught him the restoration. He was like yea mon, I wanna be more committed to Jesus. It was really funny and cool!

Tuesday- Was our normal accounting like usual, then we went on exchange. We exchanged with the Jacksonville elders which was interesting. They were a bit late to the exchange point but it was still a good day. It was a great exchange we were able to go and meet with a bunch of different people. We found a few people as well, one was this  man named Anthony who had met mormons before and was like its not my time yet. After some persistance he was like yea actually y'all should come back it was the best. Then we went and taught this lady named Patrice and she doesn't have a strong belief in god but she was open to hearing us out. So we taught her the plan of salvation and we ended with talking about the Holy Ghost and I quoted a scripture to her and she was like whoa and got all big eyed and said I think I just felt the spirit when you said that. It was crazy cool! Then that night we taught a guy named Lake who is 18 and he finally read the pamphlet we gave him and is understanding the apostasy. So that was good and he had great questions on the priesthood and stuff. Great lesson, and we were able to set a time to come back for Friday to make sure he would still be able to come to church.

Wednesday- We went up to Jacksonville to exchange back, and we had our district meeting and lunch up there. It took what felt like forever, we finally got home at 3 which was really nice. Then we got straight to work and  we gave a blessing to this lady who is about to have twins, she had them this weekend but wanted a blessing before hand. So that was cool!

Thursday- We went and met with Laura and it went so well, we covered most of everything left to teach.  She is so excited for her baptism, we gave her a program to start looking over and picking people to do certain things so we will get that all scheduled out this week, it is so exciting!! We had a YSA member named Michael with us for her lesson and Laura adores Michael, he is the sweetest guy. Then we had our weekly planning session for the week which was weird because it usually happens on Thursdays but with how crazy hectic our schedule has been it has been on different days. It was really a great day. Then we got this media referral for a book of mormon, it was really cool. So we called them and set up a time to come by on Friday. Then we were suppose to have had coordination meeting with our ward mission leader but he forgot about it, but we were able to reschedule it for Saturday!

Friday- That night was a blast, we had this recent convert named Matthew Moore out with us and he is 18 and headed out to BYU Idaho. It was really awesome, he is excited and is also preparing for a mission and he spent the whole evening with us. So we went to contact the referral we got first and he ended up not being home but his mom was there so we were able to talk to her and she was really funny and was telling us - yea come on back by he needs it! Then we went and taught this lady named Gwen, and she has a bit of memory loss, but the lesson was really good and Matthew bore a really great testimony on the priesthood and its importance. It was great. Then we went and taught Lake. At the end of the lesson we invited lake to be baptized and he had a few concerns about it and how he was still young then Matthew again came in like a champ and told him, I was baptized at 17 and testified it was the best and Lake committed to come to church and to pray about being baptized!

Saturday- Not to much happened, we tried going to Marlyns baptism since I had taught her but apparently she was baptized on Friday so i missed it. It was a bit upsetting but she got baptized so i was happy about that.  I don't really remember much of the day though. That night we had coordination and it was so funny we talked about the hurricane and what not. We had a ton of people to talk about and our ward mission leader was quite impressed!! It was cool.

Sunday- Laura came to church and she had her baptism announced over the pulpit. It was awesome and made everyone so excited for her! Then church was great we taught the gospel principles class which got off topic so much but it was fun and everyone liked it! Then after that ward we ran over to Lakes house to make sure he was ready because we arranged a ride for him. Which he wasn't ready for when it came so his ride showed up and no Lake... But his brother brought him so it was a blessing. He walked in at just the right time it was so cool. The one conducting couldn't have been a moment to soon or late. It was so cool, he liked the meeting. Oh and in the 1st ward this guy quoted Donald Trump in his testimony it was so funny!!!!! That night was crazy though, we went to visited a few people in the hospital and gave a few more blessings it was a pretty great night!!

The Picture is of us with Matthew, last week we ordained him to the Melkezick priesthood and it was so cool. This is out last picture with him before he leaves for school this Tuesday!

Love y'all and I should have Pictures of the baptism this week!

Love Elder Dylan Hutchings

Elder Rawlins an I with Mathew