wow, what a week!

Last week, I finished the week of with some good interviews. 

this week. 

monday p day

tuesday mission meeting in the capital, so good to see everyone. There was some really neat things said and some testimony built. 

wednesday tri-mission meeting in the capital with elder cook (of the 12) and other general authorities. 

What was said in that conference was just what I needed. Seriously. It seems to me like the interviews I had saturday, and the meeting tuesday was to prepare me to receive what I needed to on wednesday in this conference. 

It was litterally life-changing / mission changing. 

The next day I got home and wrote down some lines that I really liked and put them on a card so I can review them fequently. some of the things I can remember off of the top of my head right now:

I am a representative of Jesus Christ

As a disciple of Christ, I do what He would do if He were here. 

Now is the time to be kind. 

love the people

eliminate making fun of others actions, even if it is in good fun

love your mission president and his wife. 

if you think this is a sacrifice, you will be sorry for yourself

if you think this is a privelidege, you will feel joy, every day

this is where you ought to be

Those are just a few of the thoughts I had written down, hopefully I will get some more for next week. 

I enjoy reading the letters from my missionary friends. I have some really inspiring people in my life. I know some of the comments they make help them, their families, their friends, and others. 

I also had a great privelidge of going with hermana Ynjo to get her patriarchal blessing. It was a really sweet experience. I am really glad that I got to be with her for that. 

We also had a baptism this week. Christofer is 13 and is a great example for his less active parents, the mom is reactivating and the little sister wants to get baptised soon too. There are great blessings to see a family reuniting in the gospel. 

We ALSO did this big mission activity for the ward. We set up the rooms in the chapel to be parts of the plan of salvation. Members participated, investigators came, the spirit was strong. Especially in the "celestial room" with the Ramirez family. When the people came in, they began to "thank us" for the good that we had done, how we were faithful, how we were baptised, how we went to church everyweek, did FHE everyweek, read scriptures, said prayers, did service and so much more. it was really really beautiful. I will hopefully send some more pictures so you guys can see more. It was pretty legit for our guatie opportunities. 

I can feel a real difference. This week has helped a lot. I hope to be a much better person than who I was when I left for my mission. I have a lot to learn, but my eyes are being opened. Thank you for the prayers! 

Love to all! 

Hermana Deb Hutchins

Cook in the Capital

This week we had interviews with the Mission president, his wife, and the Assistants to the presidents (AP's). And tomorrow we have a mission meeting in the capital, and then on wednesday, we have a tri-mission meeting with Elder Cook (like the one in the quorum of the twelve....not just some random missionary). We are all looking forward to that. 

The interviews were helpful. I was asked questions that got me thinking in a different way. I was able to feel the spirit clearly and receive some personal revelation as to what I need to do to continue improving. I am grateful for the wise cousel of my leaders, and their inspiriation. I could tell that Presidente Watts was receiving revelation as to what to say through the spirit that was felt, what he said, and how he said it. It was a neat experience. 

I had a good moment with the AP when he was asking how we are doing with certain goals of the mission. It was really neat to say that we have actually been focusing on those areas in specific and have seen some good progress. He was also impressed when we had a sheet in our area book that we record which recent converts are coming to church and how many people are in the chapel for sacrament meeting. He said that we were the only companionship who had made a sheet without being asked specifically to do so. It was on the mission plan list, so we did it, just turned out to be good. they really liked the layout of it and hope to design one of the computer. 

Not everyweek is a high dat week, hopefully this week will be better...but we are going to the capital for two days.....well, we have a baptsim (actually two) planned for friday this week. and a big activity planned for the ward to help with missionary work this saturday. We are looking forward to it. I hope it turns out well. 

Reading Ether 12:27 (the scripture about weak things becoming strong) seems to be really applicable to me, right now. I definately have some big faults that make a lot of this difficult, but I think that this message, to be humble and have faith and then see how the weak things can become strong will be really good. 

Extra bonus. We have plans to get hermana Ynjo's patriarchal blessing when we are in the capital. I was explaining to her what it is and such (she is a convert) she is really looking forward to it and so am I. This girl is incredible. I am so blessed to have this great companion to help me learn.  

there are fruits!

This week we got to see some fruit!

fasting really does bring miracles. The last two months, when we fast, we find a person that is super ready to be baptised that same sunday. It's pretty neat. 

One of the less active families that we had been working pretty hard with has come to church 3 times now, and the mother was just called to be the first counselor in the Relief Society. She is super cool and is now willing to help us out with the missionary work. I wonder what happened? Maybe they finally read Alma 5 like we had left them with...That chapter is powerful, I would suggest it to all. 

We hit some really great numbers this week, which felt really good. We are excited for some of these families who could be some potentially really great investigators and member families. wow. There was one night we were with this family who had received missionaries about 2 years ago. They are a really sweet family, but they only had gone to church once. We went searching in "antiguos investigadores" ...ancient investigators.... in our area book to see what info we could find about them. at first we couldn't find their sheet. but then hna ynjo remembered that we had divided the area, and they used to live in the other half, so maybe the paper would be in the other stack. it was! we found them, what the elders had put, and on the top of the page they had written "LOOK FOR THEM!" the last comment they had was that they have some really good potiential, but maybe it was just the work for some future missionaries. and here we are! We had a really neat night with them. I could feel some great spirit. I hope this all goes well. 

haha. We were teaching the investigator sunday school class this sunday, and I was making a comment after my companion and I said ( in spanish) "I testify what my companion, Hermana Ramirez said...."   yeah.. hermana Ramirez USED to be my companion. she is still giving me a hard time about that. 

I enjoyed some cereal today in the mall. I brought my own spoon, bowl, and milk. that was fun. 

I got my package from my family! thank you for everything! It was so perfect. My companion really liked the picture of me when I was like 1 years old in the white dress with blue polka dots...she made a copy of it at the kodax store. 

My companion has been helping me with my pronunciation. I read the book of mormon to her...well, el libro de mormon, and she helps me to improve with words and how to prounouce certain letters that are similar, but different. She says that sometimes I sound native. NATIVE! yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. now, if I could just sound that good all of the time. and then If I could learn like a few hundred more words, I'll be set..oh, and all of the rules too. yeah. languages. 

I am happy for my little sister in the ccm....mtc, in provo. She's rockin it. 

Thank you thank you for all of the support, prayers, letters...especially letters. and love. wow. thank you!