Sister Missy Hutchison in Omaha, Nebraska: Week of Miracles!!

August 8, 2016

Hello Family and Friends!!

Wow, this week has flown by again. The days seem like weeks, but the weeks seem like days. Mission time is so weird!

This was a pretty great week. Sister Janson and I saw so many miracles. I will start by telling you about "Finding Night". On Thursday, President Gardner asked us to clear our schedules so we can have a "finding activity" as a whole entire mission. He asked us not to have a dinner appointment that night, and to not have any appointments from 6:00pm-9:00pm, because those 3 hours were dedicated to finding people to teach. We had a big conference call as a mission a couple hours before we went out for the night, and President Gardner set goals for us all to teach the restoration 3 times, hand out 2 copies of The Book of Mormon, and set 1 person for baptism. He ended the conference call giving us all a blessing. It was neat. At about 5:30, the tornado warnings started going off and it looked like it was about to storm. I know it totally was Satan, because why in the world would he want over 300 missionaries out working hard? When we first got out in our area, it was pretty rough. It was pouring rain, we didn't have a car, and everyone was pretty rude to us. I felt like I was on a sad movie when I was soaking wet and no one was listening while slamming the door in our faces. We were able to teach the restoration within that first hour, but that was about it! Then, in the second hour, we met a nice man who didn't have time for the restoration, but he accepted The Book of Mormon and agreed that we could come back. Earlier that day, we prayed about where we should go and we thought of a specific apartment complex, so, that is where we ended our night! For the last hour, we weren't having too much success. It was about 20 minutes before we had to go home, so we said a prayer and knew that the Lord would help us. We met a nice gentleman, named Jessie, taking groceries out of his car! We asked him if we could help, and he said no. We asked him about his faith in Christ, and he went on about how when he was 12, he became addicted to drugs. He told us how Christ was able to help him become sober. Again, this man didn't have time for us to share a message with him, but we set up an exact return appointment to teach him more, and gave him The Book of Mormon. As we were walking the complex, hoping people would be outside, we saw a cute couple getting out of their car, so we ran up to them, taught them the restoration, but they weren't interested. We had about 5 minutes left in the night, and we still had to teach the restoration 1 more time and set someone for baptism. As we were walking back to our ride, we saw a man walking his dog, and the spirit told us to talk to him. We literally started to run and chased him down. When we got closer, we realized this man was Jessie, who we talked to earlier! We stopped him and told him that God told us to talk to him This through him off, but he let us share the message of the restoration. It was powerful. When we were finished, we invited him to be baptized and he said yes! It was amazing how God truly helped us accomplish our goals that night. He is so mindful of all of us.

I took a cool tour this week at the Trail Center! It was 4 non-member women. They were all really nice, and had a lot of questions. It was really cool how I was able to use so many resources on the tour. They asked about temples, and I was able to give them a "families and temples" pamphlet. They asked about the angel Moroni, and I was able to testify of the Book of Mormon and give them each a copy. They asked if we had a faith in Christ, and I was able to show them the Hallelujah video. God has given us so many resources, and they truly work. They weren't interested in meeting with local missionaries, but I referred them to mormon.org if they ever had any more questions. They even said they would watch Meet the Mormons! As they were leaving, I noticed one of them take a couple more pamphlets about the discussions as they were walking out. Such a neat experience.

This week I was able to go on exchanges with Sister Orton! It was so much fun. It is neat to see how both of us have grown spiritually since the MTC. Teaching with her was a blast, and it was super nice to talk about how our missions have strengthened us both so much in these past 9 months.

Yesterday was a great day! Heavenly Father blessed us. We were able to find quite a few potentials, and we even got 2 investigators! We were trying to find a part-member family, but we didn't have their apartment number! So, we started knocking on all of the doors in the complex. We came across a woman named Angela. As we talked about Christ, she said "I have really been going through a hard time. It is actually really ironic and meant to be that you are here today. Come on in!" And she let us in. Her and her roommate are going through bad breakups, so we were able to teach them how much comfort this gospel brings, and that Christ knows how they feel. They agreed to read the introduction to the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and agreed to let us teach them more. Later that night, we had a lesson with a Less-Active woman. We were reading 3 Nephi 18, and discussing the importance of the Sacrament. Without us even mentioning church, the spirit touched her heart, and she told us that she really should have been at church because she needs the blessings of the Sacrament. She committed herself to go next week, and we were able to create a game plan with her about how she will accomplish that. The spirit is amazing.

Sorry this email is so long, but it was such an amazing week. I am so thankful for the gospel in my life. I know that as we show God how thankful we are for our blessings, he will shower even more blessings upon us. I have really been working on being better with gratitude and gratitude prayers in particular, and this is what I have learned from it. That is why I am here on a mission. God and Jesus Christ has given everything for me. I can give 18 months for them.

I love you all. Have a great week!!

Love,
Sister Missy Hutchison
"And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more." -D&C 78:19