Week 3

Oh boy another week goes by, a whole bunch happened....well write you next week!

    Hahaha just kidding. They keep us busy here at the CCM (MTC) we have classes\study time for about ten hours a day and when you add in eating and gym time that's about all we have! There is this one Elder in my district who is a football player, and so he loves working out hard core during gym and the other people in our district...well lets just say they all got 34s on their ACTs the first time they took it... And so they end up playing ping pong while somehow I end up working out, almost every gym class. The two days we played basketball I dominated, but he hurt his knee, both times. So that's off the schedule. 

    We have been getting pumped full of important stuff here, we have been practicing and learning how to invite people to receive revelation through prayer, reading the Book of Mormon, and through church attendance. It is a little crazy how many techniques there are to invite people to learn more about the gospel. My personal favorite though is the Book of Mormon because other religions believe in prayer and church attendance, but ours is unique in the fact that we believe in a record which was translated by the power of God and is now known as the Book of Mormon. If this book is true then everything we teach is also true. 

     So around these parts I have become known story teller, apparently I have the best stock of stories, plus some which I make up for the sake of some comedic relief, like the story of how my father made me wear a suit beginning when I was but three years of age in order to prepare me for my mission, that's one of the favorites. But also my life has provided me with a plethora of stories which everyone is extremely jealous of.-- Working for Chris, interning with Uncle Aaron, and just living my life. It's awesome! The first story I ever told was the first Sunday we were here, fast Sunday. I got up and I said, 'well I have a story for everyone here' and I commenced to tell the story of Kevin when he hung upside down from the tree. Then to relate it to the gospel I said there are people hanging upside down from trees who need to be rescued, many don't even know it, although I am almost positive Kevin did, and it is our job to rescue them. Just like dad left his important meetings to come home to rescue him so must we leave behind the many important things in each of our lives, indeed we already have, now we just have to find the tree and rescue the person. But from there my stories continued.

      As I said we have really been filled with information, but the thing which has been most focused on is the Book of Mormon, and there is a scripture in 1 Nephi 1:12,  this is on the second page of the Book and it gives us the answer to how we can change, how we can become more Christ-like, how we can be happy in this life and in the one to come. It reads "And it came to pass that as he read, he was filled with the spirit of the Lord." As we read we are filled with the spirit and we can learn things we never even dreamed of.  But there is another part of that verse which is equally important, the first five words, "And it came to pass". The spirit will be with us as we are reading, but if we cease to feast upon the words of Christ then the spirit will leave and thus it is that it came to pass, not stay unless we continue to read. 

     I've been working on committing scriptures to memory due to some council from my dad as well as the spirit and it is amazing the affect it has on investigators when you can just quote a scripture, plus it helps with the language. Yesterday we had TRC where we taught a member instead of our teachers, pretending to be investigators, and it was amazing. The guy, Angel, has been married for three months and his wife has been pregnant for two. When they first got married they were both working, but his wife has been getting sick a lot with the pregnancy and so she has not been able to work so he has been feeling stressed and angry and just not good, we shared with him Alma 7:11-12, actually even before he told us what was wrong and from there we went about comforting him and by the end of the lesson he had a stronger resolve to read the book of mormon because it will teach you how to grow closer to God and Jesus, the only people who understand us fully. He was almost in tears and was incredibly thankful, it was awesome.

      And yea that's pretty much been my week. I love you all and guess I just want to tell all of you to prepare for missions, like go for gold because there are a lot of missionaries here who are not prepared spiritually or emotionally or even socially to be here, so make sure you are not one of them. Also don't go into the field with a girl friend, its lame. And for all you girls out there who are unsure about going on a mission, DO IT!!!! It will make you better mothers and wives and also its a small sacrifice to make for our Lord and Savior who gave everything for us. I love you all and you are in my thoughts and my prayers. Until next time.

Much Love,

Elder Hutchins

 I don't really get that much computer time and  I don't have any access to the Internet besides one hour a week on the church email site.  I've been eating the Mexican food, it is delicious!!! I made a personal goal to eat everything I take. The only thing I regret so far is this boiling mud drink, but I finished it, mmmmmmmm.
 Also the temple is awesome in Spanish, that's the only time I get out into the city to drive to the temple which I have gone to twice so far.