I LOVE Jax Beach!

Oh dear family of mine, 

 A member gave us more fresh fruit than we know how to deal with.
I've been craving fruit salad since I left home. Oh happy day.

I LOVE JAX BEACH. I love Sister Hendricks. And I sure do love being a regular missionary. After 10 months of serving as an Sister Training Leader and then a Sister Training Coordinator, it is HEAVEN to be back to the basics and to give my all to my area and my companion.

Last transfer, I went on a power trade off in Jax Beach with Sister Hendricks actually. We had an incredible experience, and ever since...I've felt like I would be coming back. And I have! Woot woot. My area is gorgeous and I get to see the ocean oh so often. It's exactly what I had stereotyped Florida to be when I got my call. Half of our area is WEALTHY and the other half is incredibly poor. Our ward is powerful, and I'm so excited to spend the rest of my mission here.

There was a perfect, quintessential missionary evening and I have to tell y'all all about it. Sister Hendricks and I have been setting goals of how many people we are talking to everyday. At this particular point in our day, we had 17 people left to talk to and about an hour to do so before a lesson. It was POURING RAIN (and I mean, POURING) and off Sister Hendricks and I went walking and knocking an apartment complex. In the midst the loudest thunder I've ever heard (we both screamed and grabbed onto each other on one doorstep and died laughing), having a man yell out his window to us that he hoped we drowned, quoting scriptures we've been memorizing between doorsteps, and meeting an ex-mormon, we had our goal in our mind, and kept pressing forward. I don't know what happened, but in the midst of that hour...Sister Hendricks and I became best friends. We were both incredibly happy though circumstances were less than perfect. And miraculously, Heavenly Father led us straight to a new investigator, Caitie. Opposition in all things is just about the truest statement I've learned to embrace out here in the mission.

GUESS WHAT?!?! Let me freak out a little bit more over here....GUESS WHAT?!?!?! I've been praying about a family of 5 for the last 5 months. No joke. And when I got to Jax Beach, Sister Hendricks and I both began praying for a family of 5 who would be open and social kingdom builders and car owners (yes, we get very specific). And we think we found them when we were least expecting it! This family of 5 is incredibly kind and LOVES Jesus Christ. They welcomed us right into their home and loved learning the real truths of the Mormon faith they had heard so many negative things about. Recently as I've been praying about this family, I've felt very clearly that they would be foreign and strangely enough, that their last name would start with a B. I don't know how Heavenly Father can be so general at some points, and so specific in others, but ladies and gents, He is in the details. This family is exactly that. The Romanian Bozsodi family is reading the Book of Mormon...maybe even as you read this. Hallelujah!! 

Heavenly finding hours with Sister Hendricks

Oh and did I tell you that my companion is from Haiti, but was adopted at the age of 10 to an LDS family in Utah? I love her. She's the most focused and driven sister I have ever had the privilege to serve beside. 

Love you, 

Sister Hutchins

p.s. Reading the Book of Mormon in a transfer is the best goal I have ever set. I'm loving it. Being a missionary is the greatest calling in the world. Every single day is priceless. I'm starting to get nostalgic about putting on my tag each morning.  

p.p.s. Can you believe there are only five blog emails after this one?!

p.p.p.s. By the way here's my new address:

110 Clifton Court #308
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082

The Matzkes have been my home away from home every Wednesday night
for the last 6 months. I love them!

Laurent is the best member missionary I have ever met. It's a
privilege to learn from such incredible members. 

17 months ago I vowed to never be one of those sisters with
stereotypical over-packed suitcases.....good joke. Now I am embracing
that stereotype. Let's be real...stereotypes are for a reason.