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!!!

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

Article from North Carolina Mission paper that Elder Hutchings wrote

Elders and Sisters, we read in Preach my Gospel Chapter Six, Christlike Attributes under diligence that, "diligence is steady, consistent, earnest and energetic effort in doing the Lord’s work." Then directly following it says, "The Lord expects you to work diligently." I believe this often causes fear of what will happen if we choose not to work diligently. I don't want to dwell on that aspect, but on why Heavenly Father expects this. He knows our Eternal Potential, so he knows who we can become even when we often times forget. He asks us to do hard things because we, with His support, can do them. It does take effort on our part, but the more we exert ourselves the more we grow to our Eternal Potential. The wonderful thing is that we are never alone as we exert our efforts, we receive the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. As we diligently strive to fulfill the task at hand, we can exercise our faith to call down this power. D&C 58:28: "For the power in in them, wherefore they are agents unto themselves." We can call down this amazing power and do all things. Now Go ye therefore and teach all nations!! - Matthew 28:19. 
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. ~Elder Hutchings

What a Whirlwind!!!

This week was extremely busy, it was crazy. Probably the busiest week I have ever had as a missionary.  I will not lie, I am so tired it is not even funny!

Monday- Was the big day for the ECLIPSE... we didn't even see it, there was a bunch of cloud cover! We had a really fun day, we went down to Shallotte's district activity. We had this like nerf war, really fun and we played this game called zombies down there! We scared the daylights out of this one missionary while playing. It becomes a really intense game. Think of Raptor or ghost in the grave yard, except you have a gun if your not one of the dead guys and you shoot the zombies to stay alive while they try to get you! It is crazy we turn all of the lights off and make it all spooky! It was well worth the drive down to Shallotte!  That night was great, we finished some stuff up for our zone conference that was on Tuesday.   We had a great lesson with Lake, we taught him most of the plan of salvation and it was really cool.  He said that he has always had a belief in the pre earth life but always wondered why no one taught it! Great night!!

Tuesday- We had zone conference, which is this huge meeting with all of the missionaries from the zone, about 30 in total.  President James and the assistants are there as well! Its always a great meeting. It always goes over though it is so funny.  Elder Rawlins was conducting and I looked over at him and was like I bet we don't get out of here till about 5! Now the schedule says that we should be out by 3:30, and we got out at about 5. Lets just say I won that one! Then that night we exchanged with Elder Miller and Elder McComb.  Elder Miller came to Wilmington with me and we killed it! We went and had dinner with Laura, which was good. Then the lesson afterwards was great, we taught her the last of the commandments.  She was great with it and totally loved it! Then we got to go and knock some doors. Elder Miller has been out for about 3 weeks now so he was pretty funny on the doors, but we found 2 new people who want us to come back this week that was awesome. One of them is trying to find more peace in this life with everything she has been through and was so happy that we had came by, even though we had to push really hard to get her to listen, because at the beginning she was just  yeah I'm not interested. But we didn't give up it was great!

Wednesday- I went and picked up Elder Rawlins and we exchanged back, and after that we ran out to try and tract a bit. Then we ran home for a minute to allow him to drop his stuff of and I packed my stuff up. We ran to a lunch with a member which was pretty good! We had sandwiches. Then we ran over to Leland and went on an exchange with Elder Cox and Elder Shore. I went to Leland which was tons of fun. We went and saw a few people that I knew from when I was there.  We then got to tract a bit before we ate dinner with the Carols who have fed me when I've been back there before, so they were excited to see me!! We had a great lesson with this lady and she was really interested in the thought of a prophet. This all happened after her dog tried to get me, but I was fine and it was all good. It was fun to be back in Leland though, always a great time, I just wished I had been able to see the Child family - love them! But its all good I will have another exchange!

Thursday- We exchanged back that morning and we ran over to a recent converts home to have a lesson with him. Brother Burwell, he is this super funny older guy! Then after the lesson we ran home to unpack and repack because we were heading up to Raleigh because we had an exchange that we needed to do with them as well.  Up to Raleigh we drove and then we get there, they needed to push the time back so we went and tracted some huge houses in their area. These people were so rich I was like whoa!!! Then we got to exchange after dinner. I went with Elder Shearer, and we went and taught this guy named Nathan, he was interesting so say the least... Then we ran over to another appointment with this guy named Sar. He is from Africa and is really cool, we taught him the restoration.  His son joined in as well and he is now interested in learning more so hopefully that turns out for them!

Friday- We woke up and went to MLC and man were the assistants helping us out because we spent the night with them and we didn't have to wake up at about 4:45 to head up to Raleigh for the leadership meeting because we were already there!!!  We had a great time setting up and getting ready. Then the meeting was great, it as well was suppose to end a lot earlier then it did. It was pretty crazy so long story short, we ended up back home by about 6:45.   That was a nice long day of meetings! It was fun though because President James is so funny in those meetings. He doesn't have a filter on some things and it is just the best thing ever! That night we just tracted - no real appointments but it was a good night!

Saturday- First normal day. We got to contact this guy who was referred to us by this member down in Florida. It was pretty cool and the guy seems really open to learning more and really pretty committed. We will have to be careful since the member is his soon to be Father in Law!!!  We don't want him doing this so he can get some brownie points!!!!  Just teasing him, he seems like a great guy!!

Sunday- Well to start off Laura had her baptismal interview and she is all set, it was amazing! I was so excited to see her and now we just have 2 weeks that we are working towards and she will be baptized. It is such an exciting time!  Then in the YSA Branch i gave a talk, and with how busy it has been I wrote my talk the night before.  I let them know that I was not prepared for my talk which was on Being Prepared for Spiritual Emergencies. Haha it was so funny, but i think it went well!! Everyone who I talked to liked it! 

So overall it was a great week really busy and pretty tiring but it was great!

Love Elder Hutchings

Sick days can't get us down!!!

Monday- We had a district activity that went really well. We all met here at the church and played some card games for a bit which was surprisingly pretty fun! Then we played some volleyball and chair soccer which are always fun.  The best news was I didn't hurt my ankle playing volley ball this time which is always good! Most of the time was spent playing chair soccer which is really my favorite game out here. Then that night before we left the Wilmington 2nd sisters stopped us and told us that they had someone that they wanted us to go teach.  We went and taught him, which turned out to be him and his 2 friends who are all pretty interested so we will see how it goes after the second lesson.  We will see if we can get them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. That was exciting because we were a bit skeptical of the appointment but it went really well! Then we spent the rest of the night tracting, which wasn't to much time since that night we came back to the church so some other elders could help elder Rawlins give me a blessing since I had been sick for a day or two!

Tuesday- Woke up feeling some what better but definitely didn't do any exercising.  I really wasn't up to it, was kinda sore from all of the sports that we had been playing yesterday but it went good! We had to do our accounting which was pretty weird since everyone had appointments on when they were needed to account but we got it all worked out, it took more time then we would have liked but it all went well.  In between the accounting we were able to go and meet with our investigator Lake, he is super cool. He is 18 and just moved here, he had read about 2 pages of the Book of Mormon, so we read some more with him and helped explain it more. It was a great lesson.  We are just working on getting him to come to church with us now! Then that night what was really awesome was that Babbs and Ronnie, people that I had worked with in Leland live here in Wilmington. So we went and met with them, they are in a bit of a rough spot.  It was good to see them and we started teaching Ronnie again who isn't a member. It was pretty great to see them and see if we can get Ronnie to a point where he can be baptized!

Wednesday- Well that night was interesting, I woke up twice only to find that my fever was breaking and both times i was really really sweaty which was gross, but i just went back to sleep. Then that morning I felt great.Then it was time for our exchange with the Shallotte Elders so we headed down to Shallotte for district meeting. It was a good meeting, this one older missionary couple took like half of the meeting which was really funny but it was good. Afterwards I stayed in Shallotte with Elder Lambert.  It was a pretty great day. We had quite a few appointments that we went to.  Then I got to do a baptismal interview for their investigator who is doing good but will need to be interviewed again. But it was all good, but let me tell you about the dinner that we had in that ward, we had ribs and they were so good.  They gave us peach cobbler and it was so amazing!!

Thursday- Elder Rawlins and I were back together. Which was nice but we needed to go on another exchange with the Wilmington 2 elders.  So I again left the area and went to the other ward. It was a great day as well, I was with elder Manu who is this big Samoan guy from washington! He was really funny. We got to go to this birthday thing where the investigators fed us some cake it was really good cake to!  We taught this funny old black couple who were Jehovah witnesses. The whole time they had something to argue about but we taught a good lesson to them and they invited us to come back and teach again! So that was exciting! While out tracting we found this guy swinging this thing around, well come to find out he is a fire dancer guy and this is a new thing that he will be using.  He was cool but not super interested in learning more at that time! The concluding lesson that night was so good, we taught this guy who came to church because he started talking to one of the members of the church at Walmart. Then after she told him he decided to come. So we taught him the restoration that night and he is super solid just really looking for truth and he said that if he came to know that this was all true that he would be baptized it was really cool!!

Friday- I am once again in my area and now this is for the rest of the week, and Elder Rawlins told me how everything had gone and what all had happened and how this ladies mom had a heart attack while they were teaching her it was crazy.  That night we went and taught her, her name is Gwen. She is the nicest lady, we have taught her  3 times now and each time she is like okay I get it, she does have some memory issues from a stroke a few years back but she is doing really well!! Then most of the rest of our day was spent tracting or planning but it was a good day just not to busy or exciting! That night though at 2 am Elder Rawlins woke me up, a cockroach had been crawling on him while he slept and now he had to find it.  It was back behind my bed, so I get my blow dart nerf gun and we pull the bed away and boom first shot got it even while it was trying to run away!!  We disposed of the body and went back to bed!

Saturday- Was cool we went back into this area that was super rich and we found a few people who were interested. This one guy though had  this pond connected to his house it was probably the craziest thing I had ever seen.  His house foundation went into the pond... He was really well off! Then as we were walking out we found this turtle. It was a cute little turtle and you know us so we picked it up and took a few pictures with it, only a small photo shoot not to big or anything. I think a few people saw us but what the heck right! Then we visited this one less active member and it was a good chat with him, he makes these like metal sculptures and has all this army gear, quite cool.  In the process of trying to spark some kindle of fire in him again he says well boys I'm not active and I feel like the terrestrial kingdom will be good enough for me... But we told him it wasn't and were going to keep trying to get him back to church! Then the rain came down it dumped for a bit it was pretty crazy, then we got a call from the 2nd sisters again asking us to go to another appointment.  It was in this pretty rough part of town and we were both scared but the guy was really nice and we had a pretty good lesson. At the end he like told us that he believes that aliens are god... so we will see how this teaching process goes!

Sunday- Laura came again to church and she told us that next week she is going to be bringing like 3 of her friends.  She keeps telling everyone at church that she is going to get baptized and become a member!  Babbs came to church it was really good, I guess Ronnie was feeling sick so that was why he didn't come but we will get him there next week!! Then in the YSA ward we got asked to bless the sacrament, it was pretty crazy  because this is my second time doing it in church. But it was fun! We were expecting more people to be at church with school starting but it seems like not to many people have popped up yet which is kinda scary since the YSA branch is tiny and there is like 5 active guys not including us... But they should be fine haha! The rest of the night was pretty busy with some tracting and appointments but nothing else exciting really happened!

That is about all of my week in a nut shell it is pretty great, really a fun week this week. Lots of driving and exchanges!!

Love Elder Dylan Hutchings

The Big House

Photo shoot!!

Me and the Turtle!!

Babbs at Church!!!

Capture the flag Zone style

This week was really fun!

Monday- we had a zone activity and we went out to the beach, it was a ton of fun! We played some soccer on the beach and some capture the flag it was all really fun. It was like the perfect day to go as well.  The weather wasn't the best so the population at the beach was pretty low so that was fun. Ever missionary in the zone ended up showing up which made it quite a bit of fun and we were able to meet everyone and put a face to all of the names that we know. So that was good, all of the new missionaries are so young. They like all just graduated and I'm over here like this old decrepit man - LOL!!! It is so weird... But it was a good day. We took food from a place called cook out, which is like my favorite place ever and ate it out on the beach. Everyone needs to try it, it is the best stuff ever! That night we went out to work.  We were still on bikes but we made it to all of our appointments and we even got to see one of our investigators who we were in need of catching up with. Then we ended the night by giving a blessing to some of the sisters in the district it was a pretty good day!

Tuesday- Was a bit odd our usual schedule was thrown a bit off but we were able to go out and get done what we needed to. We went and taught this guy named Ricky.  He was so cool, and he fed us so that was great! He made super good potatoes and ribs.  It was the best! After that we booked it in the rain on our bikes because our car had finally gotten finished.  We biked up a rode called market which was super sketchy but we made it! Then we were able to make it to our other appointments for the night, so it all worked out. We had our one and only meal of the week that night with this super awesome member who took us to Jimmy Johns! We also got a call that night to tell us that one of investigators baptismal dates will be able to be moved forward significantly so that will be really good.  That was an exciting call!!

Wednesday- We headed up to district meeting in Jacksonville. It was a great meeting, really fun and they had a ton of missionaries in the district up there!  Afterwards elder Rawlins stayed in Jacksonville and I took a new missionary with me to Wilmington for exchanges. All we did that day was teach and it was so awesome. We just went from appointment to appointment. We taught this guy named Tom first and we read Alma 7 with him and focused the lesson on the atonement of Jesus Christ. Then we taught this guy named Lake who is YSA age and that was great.  We read the intro to the Book of Mormon and he committed to reading and praying about it. Great lesson, then we went and taught the restoration to this one lady who ended up not letting us come back, but that is alright! Then we taught Kayla who we talked about reading and praying and it was awesome and she said she had gotten an answer to her prayers and believes it is all to be true!

Thursday- We exchanged back and had a pretty fun day, we went and met with Brother Burwell. We tracted into like 5 muslims and then we tried to visit this bible referral and it turned out to be a bust.. and then we met this man named Lateef Peace!!! It was so funny and a great appointment!

Friday- We went and did quite a bit of teaching, we went and were tracting in this one awesome neighborhood where everyone is super nice and we found this lady named Toni, she was super cool!! Then we went and taught our investigator Gwen, and the lesson went so well. We taught most of Plan of Salvation and then invited her to be baptized, and she said yes if she received and answer to her prayers!

Satuday- we went and taught Laura the rest of the plan of salvation and the word of wisdom and she is so solid!! She is going to get baptized it is so awesome!! She gave her cigarettes to us to get rid of!! It was awesome best day ever!!

Sunday Laura came to church and we had a great time.  The YSA ward was great - this girl went way over on time for her talk it was awesome. A lot of new people moved in and what not with college starting again!! It was a great day and we found 2 new people to teach!!

That was mostly the week if you have any questions just ask!!

Love Elder Hutchings

Craziest Contact Ever!!

Monday- We went and tried to catch some more gators and then got some dairy queen. It was pretty great, I really enjoyed it! We didn't do to much since everyone needed to pretty much get stuff done with transfers so that was fun. That night we went out and worked and we found these 2 new investigators  and it was pretty great. One of them is the daughter of an investigator that we found a few weeks ago.  We are trying to get the whole family to start meeting with us so hopefully that all pans out. We met with a less active that we are teaching and that was fun, he told us he is on this world renowned martial arts team it was pretty funny. Then we ended the night with going and giving some of the sisters blessing for this coming transfer.  One was called to train and the other was bringing in a new leader. So that was pretty cool.

Tuesday- Was transfers we were the only ones who didn't go up.  We were so out of the loop for what was going on but we found out pretty fast because we get a rooster of the mission of where everyone is.  Elder Dobson got called to train which is pretty exciting! We took this YSA out with us to go teach and sadly our lesson fell through but he was a good sport about it.  He tracted with us for a little bit! Then we spent most of the day tracting.  We had a few really good contacts but it wasn't super eventful but that's okay because the rest of the week was!

Wednesday- we took the car in to get the tire fixed because we needed take it into the shop  later and we didn't want the tire to go flat while it was in the shop. So we cut it really close since we took it in right before district meeting, but they got it done before it started so that was good. Then we took the car in after the meeting and we started our bike week off! It was pretty great, I feel so skinny again. We biked all over the place and it was kinda scary.  We found these two really cool new investigators. Then that night we met this less active part member family who is super nice and want us to come back for dinner.  He was so cool, he ran the heart machine for the first open heart surgery here in North Carolina and joined the church in 78. Just a really cool couple who we are hoping to teach!

Thursday- We biked a ton, we biked clear down to where Laura lives so we could have dinner and a lesson with her. It was a ton of fun. We also met with Tate Bagley who is this really cool Priest. Dinner was really good!!  It was a pasta dish and Laure is Italian so it was really good! Then the lesson was just awesome. We taught her all about the plan of salvation and Tate was really involved with it as well! I really enjoyed it and then we were able to commit her to be baptized and she was all for it. She had already asked for her moms blessing and everything!!  It was amazing and Tate was like whoa whoa!!! It was great. Then she gave us these shrimp that she had caught that morning it was super cool! Luckily we didn't have to bike a ton after that because it took up a ton of our night but it was well worth it!

Friday- We got a call and the sisters needed some help fixing a bike so we went and helped them with that and then tracted some YSA apartments which was fun. We had this one guy who opened the door and let us right in and and told us that he will not be converted that he was catholic, but that he would convert us. So after about 5 minutes of us trying to get him to listen to us we both just stood up and walked out because he started  bashing with us.   We needed to leave so we said sorry sir we mean no offense but we do need to be going because this isn't what we are trying to do and what we are about!!  Unfortunately he was like jvihdiubasj and so we just walked out.  We ended up finding 2 people who were super interested in hearing and invited us to come back! Then that night we went out tracting again and this time we meet this guy.. Ken and he idk what was up but he thinks the government is microwaving him with radiation and he had this lab coat and a helmet and everything. It was pretty crazy. He went on for days telling us all about it. Then he gave us this card with his website on it to get the word out - it was crazy. Then he tried telling us that the government can read minds and that the weed smokers below him are government goons who are using pulse cannons on him hahaha it was the best!!!

Saturday- It feels like all we did was bike and it was so hot. As we biked to this recent convert we got dumped on by the rain and what not it was the worst. But we had a great lesson, I thought I was going to catch pneumonia though because his house was so cold!! Then we spent the rest of the day tracting and we found a few people but most everyone was nice just not to interested!! We finished the night by stopping by this family from the Congo and we set up an appointment with them so it was a pretty good day.

Sunday- we had church and it was really good, Laura was telling everyone she had made up her mind and was going to get baptized. It was awesome, sadly, all of the cool sales guys from the YSA ware are going home so we won't have any cool priesthood in the ward except the elders quorm president. But it will be alright!! That night we biked the farthest ever!! We live 3 miles outside of our area so that doesn't help but we biked 30 miles.  The people we went to see weren't even home, it was so frustrating. But we were rebels and went across this closed off bridge!!!  It was completely finished though so we were all good.  It was a great Sunday.  I was so tired from all of the biking this week though it was crazy and really hard but we did it!!

Love Elder Hutchings

 The picture is me being a rebel!!

Our last district meeting

The size of Moths here!!!!