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 :)
No comments:
Post a Comment