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

I made it out Alive!!

Monday- We had a bomb zone activity, it was a ton of fun. We played sports and had a nerf war it was pretty great! Super fun when we started with the nerf war, then we transitioned into a game of football outside. That was pretty tiring but a good game and everyone was mostly involved the whole time so I would say it turned out pretty successful. That night was pretty boring.   Our appointments fell through so that was a bummer and we tracted for the whole night.  We did find this one lady that was pretty great. She reminded me of one of the Flintstones! She was super funny!  Then we ran into this drunk couple and they were so funny! They said they were christian and then were all over the place on the conversion -  it was super funny!!

Tuesday- I'm not sure what all happened - must have been a pretty crazy day!

Wednesday- We went down to Shallotte for their district meeting. The senior couples down there are so funny and always make the best comments!  They bring lunch for everyone so it is free! Then I stayed out in Shallotte, which is always fun. I was with a missionary named Elder Harmon. He is really a good missionary, we went and worked with this  list that the Bishop gave them. Both him and his companion were moved into the area together so this helps them to be able to find places to work and what not.  That night was so awesome, we went and were tracting these apartment things. When we knocked into this one black guy and for some reason he thought I was the funniest thing. I had him  eating out of my hands it was pretty great.  When we got done teaching him, he asked us -  so what brought y'all here? I said the spirit duh! It made him laugh super hard but he thought that was a  good answer! The guy was just really interested though!

Thursday- Was crazy, we are suppose to do this weekly planning thing and we were so busy that we didn't have time to! We just like grabbed some food when we went home and we went to help with a move.  Man this place was nasty, there was rat crap everywhere and the trailer was just in super poor condition. It was pretty gross, I was scared for my life! As you can see it all went well because I am emailing right now so I made it out alive.  After coming home and showering we went to our appointments that we had. We contacted this referral named Annie who is this super sweet old lady who requested a bible on mormon.org so that was pretty cool! We had a great lesson with her. Then we went  for dinner with ourselves, which was nice since we were able to take a rest. Then that night we had the best lesson with Abeguar, this guy whose parents live in Brazil and they just got baptized.  He is interested and he also went on mormon.org to request us to come by! It was such a good lesson and we committed him to coming to church! Then we also had a lesson with  Lake our investigator who is getting baptized here soon. We taught him the law of chastity which was super interesting but he committed to live it!  That was basically how the day went!

Friday- We finally got our time to plan, which was nice it felt like we hadn't done that in forever. Our appointments fell through that night but it was all good we were able to tract and it was pretty fun. Nothing to crazy happened just working and what not! We found people just not super eventful!

Saturday- We got a call from a member and they needed help moving this non member to a new place. So we got our work clothes on and headed down to where they lived! It was a ton of fun, but it was so hard. There was a ton of dressers and stuff that we had to move and get into a truck so that was interesting. Overall it was really fun and we got free Krispy Creme donuts from it, I was quite happy! Then we didn't have any appointments that day except for this one sorta, we went to see a Swahili family which was quite interesting. We had scheduled to come by and the oldest brother was suppose to be home but then he wasn't so that was lame.  That fell through and it was pretty hard that night we had to really fight to get people to listen to us but we found this one girl who said that she was suppose to get baptized at 8 but her parents fell away from the church.  She is super interested in learning more and building her faith!

Sunday- Abeguar came to church!! It was so awesome, we called him and he was on his way  but he said he was sorry there was a wreck on college street!  Then he called us back right before church started and was said I'm lost come help me hahah! So he was in the parking lot right next to the church. It was funny but we got him there! Then we got to break the fast with the ysa's which is always really good. Most of them are super good cooks so that was really nice since we didn't have a dinner lined up for that night!  Then we got to meet with this guy named Stian! He is a college soccer athlete who is meeting with us and we went and taught him on the college campus. Everyone was watching and was just like what!!  He is this star player and is going to go pro and he's sitting there learning from the mormons! It was the best appointment ever it was so cool and he had tons of great questions and is going through a lot of trials right now! So it was really great that we met him! He offered a great prayer at the end of the lesson it was pretty awesome!

That's my week, in a nut shell it was pretty awesome!

Love Elder Dylan Hutchings

I can't get enough of the Beach!!!

Monday- It was awesome, kinda had a lazy day. We went and checked out this Asian market.  It was pretty small but they sold some good stuff, but i didn't buy anything. Then we got an offer to come to dinner with these members who live way down at the bottom of our area.  So we were smart and went to the beach for the day. The waves were really big compared to normal it was pretty cool.  I took a nice long nap on the warm beach and it was pretty great! Then the dinner was super good. We had this meat ball soup! I ate a ton of it! After that we went and saw some less actives that live close named the Oxendines. It was pretty sad they are living in some pretty hard conditions so we tried to provide them with something uplifting with a message and they seemed to be more at peace so it was good to see! We spent the rest of the night knocking doors which was a ton of fun and we met some really awesome people!

Tuesday - We had our accounting which took so long, people kept missing there times and what not but it all worked out for the best! Then we went to this appointment which ended up falling through which was sad but it was with a YSA investigator so we kinda for saw it coming. I don't really remember what else happened.. I know it was a pretty good day because we found 3 new people to teach so that was exciting but I don't remember the details! LOL!!

Wednesday- We had interviews with President James, and it was super funny. We made it super quick since we were going on exchanged and by super quick I mean we got out of interviews at about 4:00 and my interview was suppose to be at 1 to 1:15!!!  Hahahahahah I wasn't even in there very long, just all the other ones that pushed it back farther and farther! So we finally left and I went to Hampstead with Elder Evans and it was a ton of fun! We went and tracted and met this marine who was crazy buff it was nuts!!  Then we went and had dinner on the beach with this member who got us these nice taco bowls it was pretty great!  Then we tracted these super funny looking trailers. It was like a gated looking community and then it was like a trailer park kinda creepy actually.. but it was pretty fun! We ended the night giving a blessing to one of the sisters who has been in need of one which is always an awesome experience! 

Thursday-We exchanged back and before that I  got to go do some service at this thrift store place.  It was fun especially because we got to break some glass into this dumpster! We tried to make it all cool looking but it wasn't that cool but I made it look like it! Then we exchanged back it was pretty nice being back in Wilmington for the day. We had a great lesson with our investigator Anna. We took a guy named Michael with us and the lesson went great. We taught Anna the word of wisdom. She took it pretty well and what not.  She had a few concerns but we were able to resolve them! We had a great dinner with Laura that night and Michael came with us. We had some chicken and potatoes.  We also had a great lesson with an investigator named Charles who is really looking for the truth. He met the sisters in the 2 ward and wanted to learn more so they referred him to us.  We went and taught him the restoration and it went really well. He understood the concept of the apostasy and really wants to find out if it is true or not!!

Friday- Was rough we woke up at 4 to get ready and head on our way up to Raleigh. It was a pretty quick drive up for Elder Mcconkie since he slept while I was driving. It was nice though - just quiet on the road. Then the MLC was great, president is the funniest when we are in that meeting. He has no filter. Direct quote from him, he looked at all the elders and was giving us this dating advice. " You want to leave her hungry for more" and then he referenced us to something in the mission it was the best!! Then we drove down to Wallace where I went for the day with Elder Larsen and it was so cool. We went and met their investigator and taught him about the restoration and prayer and he has been reading a little bit. Then we met these Hispanics who let us right in and we taught them - well I just sat there because I don't speak spanish!! It was a good day!

Saturday- We watched general conference all day and we met this really cool kid who was named Otian.   General conference was great but no one came on Saturday but it was all good. We were tracting basically between every session and what not!!

Sunday- We got Lake to come to conference it was pretty great. He kept asking me all of these funny questions about it. It was pretty funny!!  Then after the first session some of the ladies from the ward made us some sandwiches which were really good and we got apple pie it was great and we got to watch the next session. I was so upset because we were suppose to have 5 people come and 4 of them cancelled last minute it was the worst! Oh well they have their agency. Afterwards we tracted into 3 new investigators and this guy named Michael was so solid it was pretty great!!! Then we went and put numbers in for the zone like we do every Sunday. It was a pretty great day!!

Its been a great week and tons of fun!! Love Yall!

Love Elder Dylan Hutchings

The waves were so BIG!!!

My favorite place to be - the BEACH!!!