Sister Missy Hutchison in Omaha, Nebraska: 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