Elder Tanner Hutchens: MEET THE MORMONS

This week was so incredibly spiritual, where to begin?

We had the chance this past week to meet in a specialized zone training with our mission President. He discussed a lot about weekly planning and how crucial it is to keep doing it with all our hearts. Our weekly planning starting this week will start at 9 in the morning and end at 7 o clock. But its nice, we have every second of every day planned out for the week. It shows The Lord our plans and that we have work to do. Before the training we got to view the film Meet The Mormons which comes out in theaters October the 10th. I am not going to ruin it for you guys, but all people, Mormon or non Mormon, should go and watch it. It had me crying by the end of it. It's a good way to show the world that Mormons are real people, and that we arent some crazy cult. So anyone that is close with my family, call them up and take them out to watch the movie when it comes out. You'll also get a huge laugh from it too, it has a ton of funny scenes. But I dare so it was one of if not the most spiritual movie I've ever watched. Want to see the life of a Mormon? GO WATCH IT.

Want to share a weird but funny experience that I had this week. We went to go visit a woman named Elva, shes been heavy on drugs, prostitution, she has 3 kids whom she cannot support, it's one of those situations that we have to be careful with basically. But when we got there, I bent down to pick up my book that I had dropped and WHAM....I had just been hit in the head with a rock. I looked up, and some strange woman was standing in Elva's door. She goes "YOU GUYS NEVER GIVE UP DO YOU?" Then Elva came out of no where and all we hear is and see are cops coming out of no where. Apparently some woman had went into Elva's house and refused to leave the house. So Elva called the cops, she looks at us and says "Hey boys, it seems like every time my life goes crazy theres ALWAYS Mormons around." I never really understood why she threw a rock at me, but its whatever. We then sat down with Elva and read our scriptures with us. Finally the cops got the woman out of the house and we went in with one of the members of the church and said a prayer. But it was one of those moment's that we came home and laughed so hard about.

Something I have been thinking about is repentance. How many people actually know the process of repentance? I am still learning myself actually. But I read this morning in the book of Acts, chapter 3. You read about Peter and John and how they healed the man with no strength and couldn't walk. With the power of Christ, Peter healed the man and he stood up and walked normally. The man was so happy that he ran and shouted and screamed with joy. People had noticed how Peter had just healed the man and was in total amazement. But Peter, being the great apostle that he was, told the people that they were incorrect, that he had not healed the man, God did. And that they needed to repent of their sins. The people had killed Christ, he resurrected and they still didn't believe in Christ. Peter preached only on repentance, the people couldn't deny the miracle they had just witnessed so what did they do? They repented. Repenting of our sins is so important. We all make mistakes, none of us are perfect but at the same time recognizing our sins is crucial in the repentance process. The people that Peter spoke to had not realized of their sins until they saw the miracle that Peter had performed through Christ's help. It shouldn't take a miracle to recognize our sins, it should be a normal habit. Repenting is something I myself am working on, and I strongly encourage everyone to learn the process of repentance and to start repenting of our sins. Why do we get baptized? To cleanse our sins, right? After that, all the mistakes that we make God gave us the repentance process, SO USE IT.

5 weeks ago two missionaries here in the area knocked on a door and a young lady by the name of Heather Davis opened it. Soon after, the two missionaries got transferred, and in came myself and Elder Ballard. The last 5 weeks we have been working with Heather and watching her grow through Christ. Her, like everyone else, has made mistakes, had bad habits, and wondered if there was even a God. I've had the chance to watch Christ take her life into his hands and its even greater that she accepted him. Shes a totally different person. Yesterday, I am proud to say that Heather Davis was baptized, and I am so blessed to be apart of her conversion. I never thought 2 years ago when i was baptized, that I would be out doing what those missionaries did for me. Yesterday, I got the chance to experience it. Seeing someones life change is something I can't explain, nor can I even try to explain. It's one of those warm feelings that you get that you only know that God is giving you the feeling, or that the Spirit is there. When she came out of the water she said she felt like a totally new person, and thats what its all about (As my grandpa says). Baptism is so important and the more that I'm here the more that I understand that being baptized is the first step in a life long journey here on this earth. "Matthew 28:19"

Just a couple side notes, hate to hear that the Braves did so poorly to finish out the season, but hey theres next year right? At least we did better than the Cubs...well actually my high school did better than the Cubs...or wait...didn't the Yadkin County Riverside 7th Grade All-Star team do better than the Cubs? Oh well, its whatever.

PAUL GEORGE WILL BE HEALTHY WHEN I COME HOME...Just saying. :)

I love you all, thanks for the letters, it means a ton.

Until next week,

Con Amor,

Elder Hutchens