The Last Weekly Email. Goodbye Nebraska [broken heart emoji]

Hello Family and Friends,

Wow. I cannot believe that this is the last time I will be emailing all of you before I am home. It has been such a quick 18 (19.. haha) months. As hard as it will be to leave, I am looking forward to being reunited with all of you again. It was very fun to Facetime with my family yesterday. :)

It was such a wonderful last week of my mission. I was able to see such an amazing miracle. For the past 12 weeks, every single day, Sister Willmore and I have been praying to find a woman named Shannon. These past 12 weeks have probably been the hardest weeks of my mission! I have never faced so much rejection in my life. It seemed like door after door would be slammed in our faces, and it was pretty discouraging. But, Sister Willmore and I never lost hope. We continued to fast and pray for Shannon. We met a couple of Shannon's along the way who weren't interested.. So, we knew it wasn't the right one and we continued to pray! Last Monday, Sister Willmore and I went out into our area. WE FOUND 3 SHANNONS IN ONE NIGHT. All of them said we could come back. It was SUCH a miracle!!!!! Later this week, we had a return appointment with one of them. We were trying very hard to find a team-up, but everyone we had asked said no. So, we were sitting at our dinner appointment, and the woman who cooked us dinner offered to come out with us! It was so great!! The lesson went so well. Shannon had a lot of great questions, and connected really well with the member. The lesson started out with her saying that she wasn't really looking for her and her family to come closer to Christ. But, the lesson ended with her saying a vocal prayer FOR HER FIRST TIME, praying that her 15 month old son would come to know Jesus. It was incredible, and such a miracle. It just shows the power of prayer, and the power of faith. We could have given up SOO many times. But, we didn't. Because we kept being diligent in or efforts, we were blessed. Shannon is now our investigator. :) So exciting!!! It seems surreal as we plan lessons with for her and have her name written in our planners, haha.

Other than our Shannon miracle, it was a week of "lasts". My last District meeting, my last Sacrament meeting here, etc. Goodbyes are the WORST. I also had my departing interview with President Gardner this week. As soon as I said the opening prayer, both of us were crying. It was emotional! I am so grateful for that man. He is the greatest Mission President I could have asked for. I am so blessed.

I am so sad to be leaving Nebraska. My heart is so broken because of the fact that it is my time to go home, but at the same time, my heart has NEVER been so WHOLE. My heart is whole because I know what is important. The only thing that matters in life is this Gospel or Jesus Christ, and I have truly come to realize that. This Gospel changes life; I have seen it happen in front of my eyes. I have been a witness of God's miracles. These past 18 months have been the hardest months of my life, but they have been the most rewarding, and I have been the most happy. This is because I had the opportunity to serve the Lord 24/7. I know that Joseph Smith is the Prophet of the Restoration. God and Jesus Christ DID appear to him, and DID restore Christ's original church back on the earth. I know this church will never be lost again, and I know God still speaks to us today. We truly DO have a living prophet, and his name is Thomas S. Monson. He is called of God, and holds all of the keys of the Priesthood. I know that The Book of Mormon is true. The feelings I feel in my heart when I read it are undeniable. That book truly DOES contain the powers from Heaven. In my setting-apart blessing, I was told that the scriptures would become my best friends, and that is most certainly true. That is how God speaks to me, and the words written by ancient prophets has given me so much comfort. I know that through the Priesthood power which has been restored on the earth, that families are ETERNAL. This is the ONLY way our families can be sealed. This earthly life is so short, but it is just a step in our eternal progression. There is so much more after this life. I am so blessed to have a family so strong in the gospel, and I am so excited to apply everything I have learned to my future family. Before my mission, Jesus Christ was just someone that I heard about in church. I never REALLY knew Him. But, now I know with all of my heart that He is my Savior. When He suffered for us, He didn't just suffer for our sins... It was so much more than that. He suffered for every single time we are frustrated, upset, sad, hurt, etc. Every time I had a hard day out here, and was wondering how in the world I got through it, it's because the Savior went through it first. He carried me through everything, and will continue to carry me throughout my life. I know who I am, and I know what God expects me to be. My life is changed, and I know it will never be the same; I don't WANT it to be the same. Even though in a few days I wont be a set-apart "representative" of Jesus Christ anymore, I will still stand as a witness of Him. I know He lives, and will live forever. I AM a witness of Jesus Christ, and will be til the day I fall at His feet. I love Him.

Thank you again for all of the support that has been given to me throughout my mission. I can honestly say I am leaving my mission with no regrets, and that is a wonderful feeling. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve. I don't know who I would be without all the memories, people I have met, and the Spirit I have received from my mission. It is so apparent that God needed me in Nebraska at this time.

"12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." Helaman 5:12

Love,

Sister Hutchison


THOSE WHO WANT TO COME TO MY HOMECOMING: It will be at 11:00am on May 21st, and it will be at 932 W. Greenoaks Dr. Murray UT, 84123

What Sis. Willmore and I do on Preparation Days..

Same

Said "bye" to Courtney </3

Last District Meeting!

My comp <33

My POSTERITY (I trained Sister Hall- daughter, she trained Sister Gurr-granddaughter, she trained Sister Neuberger- great-granddaughter) I love mission terms.

I WILL MISS THE TREMAYNES. 

Sister Church is a fav, too.

same ^

We literally took this picture 30 seconds ago. Had to take one last pic with all of us who are emailing right now :) 

My Last full Week... GAHHHH

May 8, 2017

Hello Family and Friends!!

Wow, what a wonderful week it has been! It went by very fast, which is kind of scary!

Like I said, my week was great. I attended my very last Zone Conference this week, which was hard. But, the meeting was so wonderful and the Spirit was so strong. Wow, I love being a missionary and being in that atmosphere.

We went on the yearly Trail Center field trip. This is when all of the Trail Center sisters and Senior Couples see all of the church history sites around Iowa! It was super cool! :) We had an awesome time.

I had another amazing Teaching Center miracle this week. I saw the name "Ashley" pop up in the queue, and I felt so compelled to click on it. So, I did! Ashley had ordered a free Bible, so I called her to verify. As I was speaking to her, I simply asked her why she decided to order one! She started weeping, telling me how she has been suffering with a lot of afflictions lately, and felt like she needed to come closer to Christ. I asked her if I could share a message with her about her Savior, and she accepted! We started with a prayer, and as I was praying, I heard her continue to cry on the other line. It broke me heart. I began to share with her the message of the Restoration. She was amazed the whole time. When I explained Joseph Smith to her, she kept saying things like "That is how I feel! I always wondered why there were so many churches!" She was able to "liken" herself to his story, which was pretty cool. After the first vision, is was silent. All I heard was a faint "wow" from her end of the phone. The Spirit was intense, and I knew I needed to stop the lesson and have her pray RIGHT THEN to ask if it was true. We got down on our knees, and she prayed. She said such a sincere prayer, asking God if this was His true church. After the prayer, I asked her how she felt. She said, "well, I'm not crying anymore.. I feel peaceful." I simply said, "Ashley, is this the true church?" After a little pause, she said "Yes. I know it is." Wow. After that, I invited her to be baptized, and she agreed. So, I sent her information to her local missionaries in Florida. As soon as I pressed "Send", I called the local missionaries. They were sweet sisters, and I let them know what happened. As soon as I stopped talking to them, the sisters went over to Ashley's house, probably within 20 minutes of us ending our lesson. They are now teaching her, and she is doing well. Such a cool miracle.

Some new families are now in our ward, so we went over this week to meet them. As we went to one specific family's home, the mom was the only one home with our kids. She was THE CUTEST young mom ever, and was so sweet to us. We asked if we could share a message with her, and she said "of course!!" So we started sharing a message with her about how doing the basics (prayer, Book of Mormon reading, church) are soo important. We asked her how doing these things have blessed her family. She was quiet for a moment, and said "I can tell you how NOT doing them has effected my family.. It has been a while since we have done that, and we have seen a difference." As we talked to her more about that, she opened right up to us. She started telling us that she doesn't even know that there is a God anymore, and doesn't even have a testimony. It was so heart breaking. You seriously would have NEVER guessed that. Her and her family are at church every Sunday, and look like such a cute Mormon family. She just cried to us, telling us how broken she feels. She doesn't even pray anymore because she feels like she is talking to the wall. We all were able to share pretty personal experiences, and I think it helped a little bit.. But, it broke my heart. Kind of like I said last week, my testimony has grown SO MUCH about why it is ESSENTIAL to do the basics. Church, prayer, and The Book of Mormon provides heavenly power that will help you resist the temptations of the Devil and bring you closer to God. So many people think "that will never be me..", but then they stop doing the basics.

On another note, Sister Willmore and I found a hidden neighborhood in our area the other day! As we were knocking doors, we figured out that missionaries have NEVER been to that area before. No one was interested at this time, but hey, it takes like 7 good interactions with the church until someone joins, right?

It was a really good week. It is crazy to think this is the last full week of my mission. I am determined to make it the best.

Love,
Sister Hutchison

Me and Sister Willmore at Zone Conference!

Piggy back! :)

The Ludlows are in the Rockbrook ward, and took us to lunch to say bye! I love them!!

Put us on your next Coke ad.

Field trip!!

This is in front of where Orson Hyde's home used to be. This is where the 1st presidency received the confirmation that Brigham Young was to be the next prophet, and then they sustained him. Such a cool spirit!!

Same :)

May?? What??

May 1, 2017

Hello Family and Friends!!

Wow! Another week has flown by. I cannot even believe how fast time goes! It has been a great week!

Sister Willmore and I received some pretty cool revelation this week. As we were weekly planning, we were discussing possible reasons as to why we are not finding people to teach.. We feel like we are being exactly obedient and that we are using our time wisely, so we were very confused. But then it hit us! We realized how much success we were having on Teaching Center at the Trail Center. We have seriously sent SOOO many referrals to local missionaries at the Trail Center. We immediately felt guilty for feeling so discouraged, and repented haha. As we pondered what we could do for our area, we received a strong impression that we needed to strengthen the members or our ward. So, this next week we have lots of plans to visit our members and seek referrals from them. We have a lesson plan that will strengthen their testimonies and desire to do missionary work. We are so excited!

I had a cool miracle on Teaching Center this week. This girl from Australia, named Shawntelle, came online chatting. She said that she always sees the "Mormon.org" poster on the train every day, and wanted to check it out. She had a lot of good questions, and a sincere desire to learn more. I was able to teach her the Restoration and explain The Book of Mormon to her. As I was explaining, I shared John 10:16 with her, which says: "16 And other sheep‍ I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one‍ fold, and‍ one shepherd". She was ASTONISHED when I shared that scripture. She said she had never really paid much attention to it before. She said "Jesus Christ said it, so The Book of Mormon must be true!" It was so neat to see that click for her. She didn't want to meet with local missionaries, but for the past week, I have been teaching her online! It has been great! She sent me an email and asked for advice on what to do while she reads The Book of Mormon. I told her to pray for understanding before and after, and then I felt like I needed to share Galatians 5:22-23 about "the fruits of the Spirit". Not even a day later, she emails me and says she has been focusing on Galatians 5: 22-23 for the past week, and knows it wasn't a coincidence that I shared that with her. It seriously has been so great teaching her! I am excited to see how she progresses!

Since we have been at the Trail Center 5-6 times a week, we haven't had a TON of area time. But, when we ARE in our area, we spend most of our time finding. It hasn't been too successful lately, but that is okay. We still are trying :) We actually met an old former investigator the other day. His name is Tim. He let us right in his house and talked to us for a while. He told us how he used to meet with missionaries, and how he loves The Book of Mormon. He said "it fills in the gaps of The Bible". It was obvious he loved his missionary discussions, and had a desire to progress. But, it was also obvious that his wife does NOT like us. She didn't make eye contact with us at all, and made it clear that she loved her Methodist faith. So, there is the source of why Tim never joined the church :( We left them with a commitment to read the scriptures as a family once a week, so we are going to go back soon to follow up!

Sister Willmore and I had another cool miracles on Teaching Center. We took a phone call, and it was this gentlemen who sounded pretty depressed. The first thing he said was "Hello, I would like to remove my records from the church". It broke our hearts! We politely told him we weren't the ones to talk to about that, but we kept the conversation going and asked him why he was feeling this way. He opened up to us about how he had been offended and wanted nothing to do with the church. We asked him questions like "when was the last time you went to church?" He said 3 months ago. We asked him "when was the last time you read The Book of Mormon?" He said about 2 years ago. DING DING DING. There was the problem. After talking to him for a while, we asked him if he knew that the church was true. He said that he did, and told us how he gained his testimony. Then, we simply asked if we could pray with him, and he said yes. So, we got on our knees in our little chat room and prayed with him over the phone. The spirit was so strong. After the prayer, we asked him how he felt. He said he felt peaceful, and that he was going to start reading the Book of Mormon. He didn't want to leave the church anymore. It was powerful. This was such a testimony builder as to why we MUST be going to church, praying and reading The Book of Mormon diligently daily.

Oh my goodness. Words cannot even begin to express how much I love this marvelous work. I LOVE being a missionary, and being able to share my testimony with others. It is the biggest blessing in my life. I can feel all of your prayers, and am so grateful for all of the support that I receive. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

"23 Therefore, cheer up‍ your hearts, and remember that ye are free‍ to act‍ for yourselves—to choose‍ the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life." -2 Nephi 10:23

Love,
Sister Hutchison

We bought a "love fern" haha

Hot chocolate/melano cookies is how we spend our evenings

my 2 favorite people: Dr. Fischer and Bill

My "month" was is completed!!