Thursday, March 19, 2015

It Happened!!!




HI family!!!
SO I have more birthday shout outs!! BUT I need to clarify something, I think I got Uncle Glen and Grandma Hutch's birthdays mixed up but either way HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO UNCLE GLEN AND GRANDMA HUTCH! Also a very special happy birthday to my wonderful sister Heather!! I love you all so very much!!!!

Well this email is titled "IT HAPPENED" because it happened. As I opened my email today I received the dreaded "yep, you're going home soon so we need some personal info" email. It really just blew me out of seat. I may have almost cried. I just can't believe it. I have less than 5 months left to work in the best service in the world. Really, only 20 more weeks.... Yea, let's move onto another topic because this one is really sad and I don't want to think about it.
Well this last week we have a special zone conference. We hosted the visit of three general authorities of the church. We were able to hear from Elder Clayton, member of the first quorum of the seventy, Elder Clayton of the area presidency of Mexico, and Elder MirĂ³n, area seventy. It was a really cool and spiritual experience. We really didn't recieve a formal training like normal. We were asked to study a topic and come to the conference with questions. We basically did a question and answer session for two hours. I really liked it because a lot of the questions that were asked were inspired and helpful to many of. I received a lot of personal revelation although I didn't ask a question. 
Special conference that we had. I am like right in the middle. This is half of our mission!

This week I wanted to write about two of the people that we are working with right now. One of our investigators is named Jesus. He is 68 years old and had his own mechanic shop. Before we got here the other sisters were teaching him. Actually his first Sunday here was my first Sunday as well. Since I have been in this ward he has only missed church 2 times. He has presented us with an unusual challenge. He doesn't consider himself worthy to be baptized. He feels that the Bible condemns him. As he reads it, espcially the New Testament when Christ makes the 10 commandments more difficult he feels condemned because he fights with his wife and falls into temptation. I feel that we have tried everything to help him. He thinks it will be a couple of years until he will be worthy to be baptized. I really enjoy our lessons with him though. He is very kind and respectful of us. He doesn't like to pray in front of us but we were able to get him to pray last week! It was huge progress because he hadn't prayed before with us or the other sisters. He continues to read the Book of Mormon. Actually he has almost finished it. He is awesome honestly. We just strive in every lesson to show him the love that we and our Heavenly Father have for him.

We had some fun after the food! This is Sister Raquel!
 Another investigator I want to mention is a young mother named Ana. We found her last week as we were walking to the church after a lesson to meet up with a member. We were on the other side of the street and my companion told me "we should cross the street to talk to that girl" and I was like, "YEA WE SHOULD!" haha so we crossed the street and started talking to her. I gave her the proclamation on the family and talked to her about living day prophets and how building her family on the foundation of Christ as it explains in the proclamation would give her spiritual and even temporal safety in these difficult times. She was super excited and them explained to us that she has been searching for a church for a very long time. She said that she has visited a ton of them and wants to be baptized because she knows it's a commandment but has felt that there has not been a single one that has been the truth. We were able to meet up with her again on Saturday. We got to her house and she explained to us that her husbands family didn't give her permission for us to enter their house because they
are Catholic and we aren't. Fortunately, she lives right across the street from the church so we went and had our lesson there. It was a super spiritual lesson. We gave her the Book of Mormon and she is super excited to read it. It came to a very rough end though. She did the final prayer and asked that her husbands heart would be softened so that she can draw closer to God. She was crying because she explained that her husband doesn't allow her to do anything and that she would have to read the Book of Mormon in secret so that he wouldn't get mad. I can0t explain how much this lady has touched my heart. She desires more than anything to do what the Lord requires of her. She is really wonderful and I know that the Lord sees the efforts that she makes to draw closer to her and that He is with her in this process.

Ay, ok. I just have to say it. I can't believe the little time that I have left in the mission. It has gone by so quickly as I look back at it. I feel like a completely different person. I am so blessed although I will always be in debt to my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ for saving me from where I was. I was reflecting today about a call that I made to a friend of mine, Andre Hutchens before I entered the MTC. (Most of you know who he is.) The Sunday or Monday night before entering the MTC I called Andre crying because I wasn't sure if I could serve a mission.
I wasn't sure if I was doing the "right thing" because of my age. I didn't feel ready to teach about a gospel that I had just barely began to discover. As I thought about this today I have come to the understanding that I was right. I can't serve a mission and maybe I wasn't doing the "right thing" for my age, and I sure wasn't ready to preach. But the Lord was and is ready. He is always here to make everything right. I, alone, could not
have served a mission but when I have depended on Christ and His power He has helped me. For the world, to spend a year and a half of my life at 23, nor 24 years old wasn't right. I could have finished studying or gotten married. But it wasn't about what I was going to do as much as what the Lord was going to do with me. He has mercifully made me an instrument in His hands in this time. And truthfully, I didn't know anything but I had to learn to let the Spirit guide me in all that I did. HE has taught me in this last year. I am so different. I am 100% different. The Lord has made me a whole different person. I am grateful to know His restored gospel. I am grateful that I have been able to read the Book of Mormon so many times and I invite every single one of you to read it with an open heart waiting for the revelation that you will receive from it.

I love you all so very much. Thank you for all that you have done for me.
Hermanaut

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