Week 6

HOLY CATS!!!! the time is near, so near its KILLING ME!!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!! Well this week was pretty normal, not much to report so I guess I'll just wait until next week, thanks for waiting.......

district eating Magnum's --best ice cream ever!

     Naw, I'm just joshing you guys this week was great! as all of them are in the mission field, it was so full of the spirit and of learning and testifying and just cool missionary stuff.

      So my district decided to to Family Home Evening this past week and the activity we did was everyone chose a favorite hymn and we played hang man to figure them out and sang a verse of each of them and commenced to bear our testimonies of why this particular hymn was our favorite. I think it is appropriate to share a little excerpt from mine. My favorite hymn is Praise to the Man. 

Recently I have been studying Our Heritage and Joseph Smith

History and various other sources and have come to the conclusion that no man upon this earth would do the things he did, go through what he went through and die testifying of the validity of what he had seen and come to know unless he did in fact see God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I want to give credit where credit is due, I have the love for and testimony of Joseph Smith that I do because of the one and only Papa Hutchins (of CT) his testimony of Joseph Smith created a desire within my heart to have my own testimony of him and now I do and I am ready to testify of what I know in front of the President of Chile, I just have to find him first.

      Lets see here in the CCM we are pushing 700 missionaries I think we are officially at 699 or something like that, but close. This past Sunday at the Sunday devotional by Elder Holland (almost all of them are by Elder Holland) he promised the missionaries probably in passing thought, not really thinking about it that one day if in the future he would sit down with us individually by a fire with a bowl of popcorn and tell us the things he learned about apostleship, I don't know how many other missionaries caught that, but I am going to hold him to his word, not missing a chance like that. 

     Okay time for the MTC story of the week: This week was fast and testimony week, leading up to the fast and testimony meeting beginning on the previous Tuesday was a devotional by Elder Nelson and his wife, they told us of the importance of specific prayers and then Sister Nelson told us something very interesting, she told us that we can pray for certain people , on the other side of the veil who have attributes that we need, so Saturday night after studying Our Heritage I prayed that the next day I would be able to have the spirit and the courage that Joseph Smith always had when he testified. So that brings us to the present, Fast and testimony meeting I got up and I bore testimony of...... The divinity of the calling of Joseph Smith. I know and can bear testimony that Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet. 

      I love being a missionary it is the best thing ever and even better is the knowledge that this calling is for life, God loves each of you and is aware of you. I know that just as he made Joseph Smith one of the greatest men ever to live he can make us just as great and in fact he wants to, we just have to let him. 

Elder Hutchins and Elder Anderson

     I want to end with something that kept coming up in my studies this week of the New Testament, probably fifty times in there is says that Jesus had COMPASSION, lets us strive to follow the example of Jesus Christ and have compassion of those around us, life up those in need, bind up the broken hearted and remember nothing shows compassion more than an invitation to draw nearer to our Savior, the author and finisher of our faith, so invite, invite nonmembers to hear the missionaries, invite members and family members to do better and to be better, then we will begin to be the person Christ wants us to be. I love you all and you are in my prayers, continue in the faith, I'm proud of each of you.

Much Love,

Elder Hutchins

Well, as it turns out my last day serving in the field will actually be June 16, so I will be serving less than two years, but we will have to see about that.

Love

A dertermined Elder Hutchins