Crazy Back Road

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Road trip to zone conference

Crazy Back Roads

All the missionaries I came out with!!!

Happy Halloween

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Dylan Hutchings

Wake Forest here I come!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Dylan Hutchings

Stian and I at church!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love yall

Love Elder Dylan Hutchings

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!!!

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