Birthday Week

¡FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS, VIEJITOS!

Dear everyone that I love,

So, a bunch of birthdays are about to happen this week, including mine!  I´d just like to extend a Happy Birthday to William, who will be turning 22 (viejito) on the 18th, Benjamin who will be turning 13 (jovencito) on the 22nd, myself who will be turning 20 (viejito) on the 20th, and my Dad who has the right to remain silent if he doesn´t want to tell you his age (un poquito más viejito)...  Haha!  Congrats to the Wan for finally winning the dance competition and Mr. Viking after 6 tries from the Hutch boys.  And congrats to Mantha for getting to be Catilion Queen!  Mr. LHS/Prom King congradulates you both on pre-college dominance.  Haha!  Oh, and I´m super excited about big Z´s graduation, and what is going on with Kamille! (If you don´t already know, find out from her blog).

Anyway, things back here in Mexico are going pretty swell.  Unfortunately, Rafael from last weeks story hasn´t been able to see us due to the fact that his family won´t let him, because they don´t like us because we´re... well "not from their religion" (ironic if you ask me, because we actually helped him START to excersize some faith to find out that God was trully there for him, but his family just won´t leave him alone if he meets with us.)  Poor man... but we´ll see that we get around these obstacles that the father of all lies throws in peoples way to keep them from trully coming to Christ.  However, the good news is a soon-to-be convert named Dionicio.  This man at first barely talked when we first met him.  However, he felt something special each time we went with him, and now he has opened up and is QUITE sociable and is probably more active and faithful in going to church activities than I have been at times!  Yep, he´s the man!  Also, we have a great couple (José and Claudia) that´s going to get married this 5 de Mayo!! They´re doing this in preparation of their baptism to keep a commandment called the law of chastity, and they are just so PUMPED to have the wedding and everything.  I don´t think it´ll be something really huge, but I just hope I don´t get transfered out of here all of the sudden so that I can see everything go through for them!  (Because, yall know how I recieve special transfers... too much, and not always too well.)

So, as I said, my birthday is this week.  I was talking with our ward mission leader (a recent return missionary), and we were laughing because we were talking about holidays and birthdays on the mission and how it´s super wierd because they´re almost like completely NORMAL days.  "Missionaries celebrate more the days in which they complete one month more than they celebrate actual holidays!"  He said.  It sounds funny... and it IS funny... because it´s true sometimes.  Haha!  However, I´ve made sure to spoil myself in my grocery shopping this week bying (in addition to my normal weekly stuff) an extra tub of yoghurt, a big bag of cheeto puffs, a frozen Tony´s pizza (especially saved for my birthday), and froot loops (NOT off-brand cereal for once... But unfortunately there was not Cinnamin Toast Crunch to be found).  Woo!  Happy Birthday to me!  And thank you all so much, by the way for all of the emails I recieved this week!  (Especially Mantha for the awesome sign she made me).

Some people may think "what?  how aweful to barely be able to celebrate your own birthday or holidays in the normal way of taking a vacation or relaxing:"  Yes, I have to work on all holidays and equilly on my own birthday, but I trully don´t want anyone to worry about it.  I don´t find joy in relaxing and resting for a while.  You know what I find joy in?  Finding people like Dionicio, José, and Claudia, having special experieces with them as a missionary and representative of Jesus Christ.  And I have the oppurtunity to do that EVERY DAY because I am here.  Whenever I think of the scripture John 15:13, I think of what the savior personally did for me.  And THEN I think about what I can do to pay him back and to serve my friends and family in Mexico AND at home at the same time by doing this.  I love you all so much.  And I hope that these letters that I write will help others be inspired to use thier own talents to improve the lives of others around them.  I miss you all, but I pray for each of you everyday.  Pray for me too, but don´t you dare worry about me.  I am SO happy.

¡Hasta luego!

Love,

Elder Christian Hutchinson.

February 27, 2012

LENGUAS, DONAS... ¿MONJAS?

Dear everyone that I love,

This week has consisted of fun things (which I thrive upon), and very hard and stressfull things (which I don´t like as much, but still thrive upon).  What are these things you ask?  Well, I´m glad you asked!

HARD

-Having a goal of 200 contacts in a week.  What´s a contact?  "Hello we´re representatives of Jesus Christ..."  And then after there are various reactions of either saying that they´re in a hurry, getting mad at you, our being completely fascinated and wanting to here absolutely everything that you say.  Fun contacting, but HARD to do it 200 times in a week.  BUT it´s our goal for this week, so we´ll see how things go.

-Not recieving sports updates... can I just have a few please? :)

-Not talking.  For me, not talking is one of the hardest things that I have to do.  When we teach, we teach as a companionship, and that´s how it SHOULD be.  And Elder Cruz is a FANTASTIC teacher.  However, he talks a lot sometimes in the teaching.  And eventhough, I know that how he teaches is a lot better than how I teach, I still have that urge to blurt something out with the relatively loud voice that I inheritated from my Mother (love you, by the way).  However, I´ve learned a lot from it, and Elder Cruz has already told me that he knows that he talks to much, so we´re in the process of balancing things out.  Hooray for companionship inventory!

FUN (or funny...or just plain weird things that one can view as funny)

-The Salazar Orozco family, Lilia Becerra Parra, and Ana Beatriz (a new SUPER GOLDEN investigator that we found this week)  all going to church!!  Have I told you how much it makes me happy to see them happy?  WELL, it does.  The Salazar Orozco family and we have shared some very spirtual experiences together.  My companion and I shared personal experiences and they all started to bawl... and I may or may not have shed a tear or two... They confessed to us that they actually had NO CLUE why they opened their door to us in the first place, because they normally would have been one of those happy-door-slammers like the one that didn´t like my accent in Toluca.  However, they have developed and felt such love as they went to church, and they want us to keep coming and do all that we can to keep sharing the gospel.  Will do, will do.

-A Christian woman that acompanied one of our best investigators that wanted to speak to me in "tongues."  This was our conversation.

Her: Do you speak tongues too?  Because I speak and interpret tongues.

Me: Well, I´m here in Mexico speaking Spanish, eventhough I´m from Texas... so yes maam.

Her: Oh... 

I think she had a different idea of "tongues"  But anyway, it just made me laugh.

-A new and semi-crazy teenage investigator that we have.  We met her because she was selling donuts, and I said to myself "Go get me a donut!!"  So I bought some; we contacted her; and she would love for us to pass by this week.  There´s just one complication:  her parents are going out of town and because she was bad the last time they left (I didn´t ask why), she´ll be staying with the nuns this week.  Yes, nuns this week.  I do love the nuns, because they have such a devotion to Christ, and I trully respect them.  But I think it might be kind of weird and a little bit difficult trying to tell them that our investigator invited us in their home to share our message... BUT IT´LL BE FUN!

My spiritual thought is simply this title: You are Important to Him.  The worth of EVERY soul is great in the eyes of God.  And don´t you forget it.  I´m not perfect, but I will NOT forget it.  Because it is why I am here.  When we are just about to fall down, that´s when the Lord helps us the most.  He knows each and everyone of us perfectly.  He know´s what we are capable of.  He sees what man does not see.  For, while men see what´s on the outside, the Lord sees what is inside each of his children, and their potential to become like Him.

Anyway, I´m out of time, but I love you all so much.  Let me know if I haven´t been giving you the details that you´ve wanted and I´ll put them in.  Until next week!

Love,

Elder Christian Hutchinson.

January 16, 2012

COSAS RARAS Y COSAS BUENAS

Dear everyone I love,

I have seen some pretty interesting things happen this week, that one
might say are "Journal-entry-worthy."  In a mission, you are
CONSTANTLY learning, failing, growing, improving, laughing, and just
plain seeing wierd stuff.  I think that the last one and the
"learning" are what have happened to me more than anything this week.
And although some of these things may have caused a little bit of hard
work, weird feelings, or just moments that I´d rather not relive, I
think that they will prove to be for your own personal entertainment.
So, more than anything, I guess that´s why I´m writing them!  Haha!

First off, the work IS going really well, so that should be good news.
We have a man that is progressing quite well and wants to get
baptised.  His name is José Miguel, and he is a very well-spoken,
educated, and good man.  The thing is that he ALSO happens to be a
chatter box.  When I first met him, he performed the super-human act
of breaking the record of what I have seen on my mission (and quite
possibly in all humanity) of speaking for AN HOUR AND A HALF WITHOUT
TAKING A BREATH.  I was the first one to respond to his... uh
commentary... story... lecture, or whatever it was, and then he did it
again for another HOUR.  However, it was VERY important to listen to
him so that we could resolve his doubts.  He is a very good man, and I
have great hopes for him.

Well, the first thing that I´d like to mention is a contact that I had
early in the week.  We was a very content fellow.  Very content.  He
seemed to be quite interested in the gospel of Jesus Christ, so I
taught him a little bit.  I dropped my pen, and then he kind of
awkwardly gave it to me... ok...  Then I taught him more.  He was very
attentive.  He then wanted asked me if I was from Brazil and bunch of
other questions.  Normal...ish.  And then when we parted, he shook my
hand... and he shook it... and he shook it... and that´s when I
realized that it wasn´t exactly the gospel that he was interested
in...  BUT he doesn´t live in my area, so hopefully he´ll find the
true happiness of the gospel with the other missionaries.

Gosh dang it,  I don´t have time to tell yall everything that I want too.

But, one of the MAIN things that has happened this week, was being
with my companion Elder Villa.  Quite honestly, if you had asked me to
describe him the first day that I was with him, I probably wouldn´t
have said some nice things...  HOWEVER, I am completely honest when I
tell you that that has changed completely.  Why?  Did he change?  Did
you get a new companion?  No.  One word.  Patience.  What is patience?
Very good, you return missionaries, it´s a Christlike attribute.  But
how do we really do with it?  Elder Montoya, my last companion and a
very good friend of mine, taught me quite a lot about this principle.
I´m telling you, he was SUCH a good friend and example to me, but he
was DIRECT with me.  The second week with him he litterally said
"Elder Hutchinson, you are a very impatient person."  (I´m still not
completely in agreement with that, but) In that moment I almost
exploded, until I realized that THAT itself would be impatient itself.
I then told him that he, aside from my parents, was the first person
in my life to ever tell me that.  And from there on, I kept on
practicing.  When we aren´t patient with our companions, co-workers,
spouses, friends, investigators-- you name it-- we can´t learn from
them, and it´s too hard to develope love for them.  And because of
what Christ has taught me through his example, I´ve learned SO MUCH
from Elder Villa too. We can learn something from EVERYONE.

Gotta rush!!

Untill Next week!

Love

Elder Christian Patrick Hutchinson