Highs, Lows, & Trampolines (w/ Pictures!!)

Hey y'all!

To say it as the Southerns would...I was a hot mess this week. Two trade offs, getting sick all over again, a swarm of new elect and not-so-elect investigators, throw in the summer heat hitting and more service projects than you could imagine...hot mess describes me perfectly this lovely week of the mission.

BUT anyway....I've got to take you back to the Lake Butler Team Sunday Night Pow Wow conversations that I absolutely LOVE. They seem to review the week nicely. Last night we went around and shared our pit and peak of the week. The pit of the week was simply put-being sick while on a trade off. Not a good combo-BUT the peak....was two fold and OH so good.

PEAK: We started the week off giving a training at District meeting all about "The Best Day Ever." Missionary life, and probably true for life in general, is ALL about our attitude. If we decide to love it and love every aspect of it...every day can really be the best day ever. While giving this training, I told the story about my MTC companion changing my entire perspective of my mission in a matter of 12 days....and in the midst of that story, it hit me that though I LOVE my mission with all my heart, it's become normal. I've become so used to missionary life-that I've started taking it for granted. We get so used to the many blessings in our lives, that we stop appreciating them. Like the blessing that I get to go to district meeting every week-I absolutely love it. And with a limited about of district meetings left-I need to be better at appreciating them in the moment.

So long story short, I've began praying that I'll be able to appreciate each aspect of my mission, while I'm here. Instead of looking back on my mission and thinking how great it was...I want both. Now and future appreciation.

And naturally because God is so good - my prayer is beginning to be answered all over the place. While on a trade off, we began teaching a woman and her daughter the first lesson. To paint the picture for you, we were in a pretty run down home. My "companion" and the family sat in the few chairs they had, I took the floor. I was more than distracted the first half of the lesson by the cockroaches roaming the ground around me and started praying I'd actually be able to focus. Before long, I was reading Moroni 10:3-5. I could feel the mother intently listening, and as I read it, everything else melted away and this scripture I've read hundreds of times....hit me so powerfully, I almost couldn't keep reading.

I have the best life in the world. I get to read the Book of Mormon with complete strangers and invite them to find answers to their prayers. And the longer I'm out here, the more I love opening my mouth to testify of the best truths there are. I'm finding myself not just sharing my testimony now, but feeling my testimony. Not just saying what I know needs to be said as a missionary, but sharing a bit of my heart and letting the Spirit take it to the heart of those I'm teaching. Goodness me....I love it. So my challenge for y'all this week...is to re-evaluate your life for minute. What have you been taking for granted? Love it a little extra instead.

Love you all more than you'll ever know.

p.s. Enjoy the service pics...

1. Party prep for the world's coolest 12 year old (We heart Kelsey Starling)....okay in that exact moment we were taking pictures...but when Sister Tsai hasn't even seen a trampoline before-you HAVE to jump for just a minute =) She was so terrified-we died laughing. 

2. Writing out a tombstone....you think we're kidding. We're not. The elders carved it. I can't even believe that happened. 

3. Roofing. Yes. I'm determined to convince the ward/community we can do more service than they are letting us do at this current moment. Oh the skills one learns on the mission =)

The Atonement & Answers To Prayer (w/ pictures!)

Hey y'all!

I loved loved loved this Easter more than any other Easter I've had. Well, perhaps it ties with Jerusalem last year. It was phenomenal. And a direct answer to prayer. Ready for the story?

We have been struggling to find people to teach. We've been praying like crazy for some teaching opportunities, but I kept feeling like nothing was happening...until this week =) And all of it relates to the Atonement. Love it.

Atonement Chat #1
We had a few trade offs this week, and funny enough-we go on trade offs with our own Lake Butler sisters. I was with darling Sister Crawford. Not even 4 hours into our trade off during daily planning at the end of the night, the Spirit took our conversation exactly where it needed to go....all about the Atonement and how there was only so much she could do, and the rest had to be turned over to her Savior. I literally loved every minute of her processing and realizing that the weight of white wash training wasn't completely on her shoulders.

Atonement Chat #2
You know when you can tell that something is off with someone you love and adore? Well, on Easter Eve something was off with my dear companiera. Long story short, we had one of the world's best heart to hearts in the car during our last hour of the night. And in that moment, I was able to testify of the Atonement and tell her all about an epiphany story I had had a while back. The Atonement isn't just to redeem, it is to enable us-provide us with power that it far beyond our own.

Atonement Chat #3.

When we got home that night we built a fort with our other darling sisters, Sisters Tsai and Crawford (Fort LB pow wows are now a weekly tradition....perhaps this is why President doesn't like 2 sets living together---oh well, we absolutely LOVE it). And somehow ended back on the topic of the Atonement. And there I was all over again discussing, testifying, and pondering the Atonement as dear Sister Tsai shared with us her fears about her mission now that she has been out a few weeks. She just needed to know that she is enough, no matter her weaknesses....with her Savior she can be exactly who Heavenly Father needs serving here in Lake Butler.

Atonement [Personal] Chat #4

Later, I was reading something from a friend about the question I was bringing to Easter Sunday all about the infinite concept of the Atonement. Simply put, while perhaps Heavenly Father was able to work through me to address other's prayers about the Atonement.....He then answered mine as well. There is absolutely nothing that the Atonement cannot cover. Christ overcame the world, not just part of it.

Moral of the story, I kept praying to teach more lessons. And it took a few days, but I finally realized that He was answering my prayers...Maybe they weren't to investigators, but I was able to teach and testify all about the Atonement all throughout the week of Easter to those I am closest to. I couldn't be more grateful for the infinite power of the Atonement and the ways it can help each and every one of us, no matter the situation. 

There are quite possibly an infinite number of lessons to learn about the Atonement...and this week I was able to take part in 4 lessons with the darling Lake Butler sister team. I love it.

Heavenly Father is answering each of your prayers...but are you really allowing Him the opportunity to answer in His perfect ways, instead of the ways you are expecting?

I love this work. And I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We are the luckiest people alive to have this gospel not only in our lives, but as the center of your lives. Who are you going to share it with this week?

Sister Hutchins

100 Reasons to LOVE the Mission (w/ pictures!)

Hey y'all!

There seems to be a common thread that ties together all of our darling sisters. It seems like everyone is here "enduring" their mission. And somehow on every trade off, I find myself sitting there answering beautiful sister after beautiful sister how I came to love my mission. So after a whole lot of prayer, we came up with a plan revolving around weekly challenges for our sisters. Last week's challenge was to write 100 reasons why we each love our mission. Are y'all ready for this? Here's the complete 100 reasons why I, Sister Hutchins, LOVE, ADORE, AND AM POSSIBLY OBSESSED with my mission. (you don't actually have to read them haha, if I were you....I probably wouldn't.)

1. Prayer time with my oh so favorite prayer journal
2. Life long sister friends (I love companions!!!)
3. Name tag reminding me of Jesus Christ
4. Falling in love with complete strangers
5. Constant service
6. Book of Mormon revelation
7. Teaching precious people
8. Sharing my testimony constantly
9. Feeling the Spirit often
10. Eating yummy Southern Food
11. Stealing wisdom from people from all walks of life
12. Cute dresses/skirts
13. Letters from loved ones
14. Seeing packages on my doorstep
15. Opportunities to learn and lead as a trainer and sister training leader
16. Beautiful church music as a constant background
17. Finding myself
18. Journal writing each night
19. Daily scripture study
20. Constant companionship with a divine daughter of God
21. Exercising every day
22. Reading miracles from complete strangers from around the world
23. Taking funny and completely dorky pictures
24. Laughing at churchy jokes and actually considering them funny
25. Planning for each and every day
26. Quality car conversations with companions and on trade offs
27. Setting weekly goals and constant self-evaluation
28. Count downs - Happy 10 and a half months!
29. Growing appreciation for my family
30. Feeling love love love love all day
31. Having a prayer answered
32. Being an answer to prayer
33. Acting on the spirit quickly and smoothly
34. Powerful confident handshakes
35. Catching on to all my favorite southern catch phrases
36. Serving families in the ward and learning how to clean!
37. Praying all through out the day with my companion
38. Eating cereal two meals a day multiple times a week
39. Actually having scriptures memorized
40. Wearing a special necklace everyday to keep me going
41. Perfect April Florida weather
42. Being apart of the 85,000 missionaries around the world
43. Understanding people and actually knowing their hearts
44. Getting tech/blog savvy
45. Sleeping like a complete rock every night
46. Finally understanding how to love every day
47. Never having to paint my nails
48. Harmonizing to hymns during companionship study with my talented companion
49. Color coded scripture marking
50. Collecting all my favorite quotes into a study journal
51. Accompanying on the piano at any and all church functions
52. Heart attacking
53. Feeling more and more prepared to be a mom
54. Loving the gospel more with every passing day
55. Being overwhelmed with gratitude for the small things
56. Lunch dates with incredible sisters on p-days
57. Priesthood blessings to comfort, lead, and guide
58. Not caring about my hair in humidity
59. Bonding with people of all ages
60. Two minute toothbrush workoouts
61. Washing other people's dishes (I seriously love that)
62. Having mission parents/sisters/grandparents/cousins. Wards=families
63. Watching people change
64. Answering the phone and screaming with joy afterward during miracle moments
65. Writing letters back and forth with our mission President.
66. Feeling in exactly the right spot each time I kneel
67. Watching the restoration DVD and feeling the spirit each time
68. Having 1200387482 inside jokes with my companion
69. P-day family/friend emailing is like Christmas every week
70. Lake Butler Subway outings-aka splurge days
71. A clean clean clean double wide trailer that is oh so homey
72. Seeing my mother-daughter ring and feeling my momma's prayers from far away
73. Gaining appreciation for the temple
74. Becoming a people person...like really really. I enjoy talking to strangers officially.
75. Being watch wearer
76. A J2 Postcard pillow to hug all night
77. Fasting in unity with a zone or the mission or a ward. Talk about a purpose.
78. Feeling like a complete and total Floridian.
79. Those moments where you almost forget there was life before the mission
80. Sharing my Book of Mormon aha moments day after day with everyone we meet
81. Companionship "I love yous" each night
82. Realizing I am capable of SO much more with God....faith 

83. Service in the cute little Lake Butler library

84. Conversations of true meaning
85. Overflowing happiness for other people
86. Learning communication (companionship weekly inventory!)
87. Feeling a missionary mantle
88. My heart is at peace
89. Relying upon my Savior as I am humbled to dust every day
90. Gaining an eternal perspective
91. Planning and plotting and praying for people's inevitable conversion to the gospel
92. Walking in the sunshine from house to house while tracting
93. Knowing my entire 20th year is being spent as a missionary
94. Pondering the future and realizing my path has completely changed because of this mission 95. Listening to recordings from my family that bring tears to my eyes in 3.2 seconds
96. Learning to live off the bare minimum-two suitcases baby
97. Not being able to throw a stitch of mail away. Have fun posterity.
98. Feeling close to my Heavenly Father
99. Experiencing my Savior
100. Knowing I am called of God every minute of the day.

Moral of the Story....no matter what stage of life we're in, no matter how hard the day may be....like President Uchtdorf said in Conference, we MUST be grateful in our circumstances. And let me tell you dear world, I am so grateful for my mission. I'm grateful for lowest lows and the highest highs. I love my life. So much.

Sister Hutchins

p.s. That was darling Sister Tsai's first burrito!!!! SHE LOVED IT.

Moments to Remember (w/ pictures!!)

5 Moments I Will Always Remember:

1. We've got two new sisters in Lake Butler and one of them is from Taiwan! Driving around her first day here, you should have seen her face as she saw her first horse. We all just about died. She didn't freak out about the peacocks crossing the road of our neighbor's home....she stared and stared at the horses with her mouth gaping open. (She eats Seaweed in the morning for breakfast!! LOVE IT.)

2. We're doing a 90 day read of the Book of Mormon as a mission and then sharing our spiritual "aha!" moments during district meetings each week. This week Sister Cline and I did a training at our zone meeting all about the Book of Mormon to kick-start the 90 day reading. Bearing my testimony of the Book of Mormon to a room filled with faithful young men and women was my favorite thing in the world. Not a day will ever go by that I do not read this precious book. I talked all about how we experience our Savior in it's pages...there is no truth more pure than that.

3. A dear sister in our ward had a miscarriage this week. That afternoon as she was in the hospital, my companion and I, with three other Relief Society sisters (one recent convert who got baptized two weeks ago!) got to work cleaning her home. With church music playing and a feeling of complete Christ-like service emanating from these holy women who dropped everything to come and serve for the afternoon, I just sat that stunned at how grateful I am for Relief Society of all things. I am finally coming to appreciate that amazing organization of powerful women. I pray that I'll be the kind of woman that will drop everything to serve as those incredible women did.

4. We set up a family mission plan with the darling recent convert Starlings this week. Before we had even finished the lesson, Ganeene asked to leave and within 5 minutes came back saying, "Alright, I've got one family coming to church next week," as she hung up her phone. Their family is having a competition inviting people to church for the month of April. There is a fire in these people that almost blows me away when I'm in their home. They have more faith than families that have been in the church their entire lives!

5. General Conference. I can't even describe to y'all how in awe I was those perfect 8 hours. Every question, every fear, every worry was addressed. Each talk somehow pierced another part of my soul. The names of family, friends, investigators, members, companions came to my mind like crazy as I listened. To talk about just one talk would be almost impossible, but the one that's standing out the most right now is President Eyring's talk all about the legacy of Hope we each hold in our hands to share with our friends, family, and posterity. We each have the opportunity to have eternal families if we stay faithful and true. Our influence, our decisions, our lifestyle effects more than right now, right here. We have this life to act-this is our time as Gary E. Stevenson said. Let's let it bless eternity. Ahhhh I love the covenants we are sooo blessed to make in the temple. I know the words spoken by the prophet and his apostles are from our Heavenly Father. They were meant for us. And I couldn't LOVE those precious words more. Hope you loved them too!

Love you, 
Sister Hutchins

THIS BIRD WOULDN'T GET OFF MY SHOULDER. I was actually kind of freaking out inside. It tickled sooo badly. 

I love that darling Brooke chose to wear a modest prom dress!

Only in the south would a protective father get away with such a perfect prom photo.

Best gift of a mission-a postcard pillow from Jaclyn Michele. LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Lake Butler is actually pretty gorgeous. =)

Week 44 (w/ lots of great pictures!!)

What does a long-awaited baptism, one nasty flu, performing the EFY medley in Sacrament meeting, a temple trip to ORLANDO, stargazing during a transfers conference call, a powerful healing priesthood blessing, yummy Chick-Fil-A, a sleepover with Sister Phelon (MTC companion), a road trip with the Craig's, messaging back and forth with Al Fox and Mormon.org, reaching day 300 on the mission, an awesome mission leadership council, finding out we have a new set of sisters in Lake Butler tomorrow, teaching a man in Nepal via Facebook who loves Jesus Christ, and an iPad officially and finally named Iggy the Enigma all have in common? Oh yes, that would be week 44 on the mission for me. Quality right? 

Goodness, there is SO much goodness I would love to share with y'all. I'll narrow it down to three precious details of the week.

1. After being knocked over by a vicious flu (thank goodness for Priesthood blessings), we had a mission leadership council on Wednesday and then on Thursday(drum roll please) we went to the temple!! Oh my word, I loved it more than words can even express. I have always believed in perfect moments, but I've officially experienced a perfect day. Not only did we get to drive down in the Craigs' car and steal their wisdom for hours on end, but after the session we were taken into a sealing room and allowed to ask questions with the Orlando Temple President. It was sitting in the temple that day that I realized what large steps God has helped me to take in regards to my testimony. My little seed of faith has grown so much out here on my mission and to be able to attend the temple and feel spiritually recharged for the next half of my mission was way more that a piece of Heaven here on earth.

2. I am in love with teaching the gospel over Facebook, but it breaks my heart a little too. There is only so much we can do with these precious people living in Nepal and Kenya. So grateful to know that God has a plan for each and every one of us. And as a side note, I seriously struggle with technology sometimes. Therefore the perfect name-Iggy the Enigma. I mean, you have to love that. 

3. Sister Cline is a doll. There's a power in the work we do together that I've never really felt with anyone else. We started out on rather different pages, but we've found this balance that's close to perfection in my book. Thank goodness we have at least another transfer together here in Lake Butler. And we'll be having another set of sisters come to Lake Butler tomorrow! 3 sets of missionaries in Lake Butler!?! The work is hastening and I've never been more overjoyed to be apart of it. This lovely Lake City zone just broke it's month baptismal record. I am surrounded by the most powerful missionaries-sometimes I just can't get over how grateful I am to be right where I am serving with exactly these people. I may just be the luckiest girl alive. Heavenly Father's plan is absolutely perfect.

Love you all. More and more with each passing day.

Sister Hutchins

p.s. My blog was written about in BYU's newspaper. Baby steps towards sharing it with the world =)

http://universe.byu.edu/2014/03/31/18-months-later-younger-sisters-making-a-difference-in-the-mission-field/