Elder Hudson arrived in Tampa, Florida Tuesday, November 24th, 2015.  His companion is Elder Nilsen, they are serving in Hudson, Florida (Funny coincident)

Elder Hudson and Elder Nilsen, his trainer

President and Sister Cusick with new missionaries and the Tampa airport.

Monday, November 23, 2015

Well I don't really know how to start this so I guess I'll just jump right in. This past week has been so much better. I think I can navigate around the campus without getting lost now ha ha. My first week I kind of had a hard time with that. We got a lot of new elders and sisters on Wednesday. I got to see McKay (my friend from my home ward) and my other friend Josh when they got here on Wednesday. It was really good to see him and talk about how we are doing. I’ve seen him like every day at either lunch or dinner. I also saw him on Sunday when we went on the temple walk. We do that every Sunday here. We took some pictures together, but I’ll upload them later tonight because I don’t have my camera with me right now. And yes mom, I got your package, we cracked open the nachos last night ha ha. The new elders that we got in our zone on Wednesday are pretty cool. We like to joke around with them so we told them when they got here that there was stuff hidden in the vents from the last people. They looked for a while but they didn’t find anything ha ha. I’ve grown really close to the guys here and it’s going to be hard to leave them tomorrow. We all agreed that we are going to hang out after we get back home. So I’m looking forward to that. My companion and I have been doing pretty good with our investigators. We have one named Carl and the lessons have been going really well. We got him to commit to baptism and we just had our last lesson with him today. The next missionaries will continue to teach him. Another one of our investigators name is Josh, he has been really hard to teach. He doesn’t seem very receptive to our message, but we worked really hard to have him gain faith in the restored gospel. We had our last appointment with him on Saturday. We got him to commit to read the Book of Mormon and that’s as far as we got with him. It’s been such a good experience teaching them. I’ve learned and grown a lot from it. My testimony has grown so much stronger since I’ve been here it’s crazy. I’m really excited to leave for the field tomorrow and I know it’s going to be a big change but I have faith that I will be able to get through it. I know that I can turn to the Lord in time of need. Sorry to all those that have sent me emails and I haven’t gotten back to them. I don’t have much time to email here but will in the field, so I promise I will write you all back, don’t worry. 

Love, Elder Hudson

Hey everyone! So the MTC  so far has been really amazing and I learn a lot here, but it also feels like a prison sometimes haha.  We have a really strict schedule here  from 6:30 to 9:30 we are either in class or studying or at some devotional. It’s been really tiring. There is just so much to take in and so much to learn and get used to it feels overwhelming a lot of the time. Usually we are in class for about 4 hours then we have lunch then we have another 3 hours of class then we study for an hour, then we have dinner, then we come back to class to study some more haha.  We do a lot of studying here. It was kind of rough the first couple of days here but once I started to get closer to my companion and the people in my room and zone it became easier. We all have grown really close to each other and we are great friends. We joke around all the time and just try to have fun. Sometimes we have a little too much fun though haha. Like today we had a "bowling" tournament in our residence hall because today is p-day. We used a hacky sack for the bowling ball and a bunch of soda cans from our shrine for the pins. I guess I should explain what the shrine is haha. So the elders that got there a week before us handed it down to our room. It’s been handed down for a long time in our residence I guess haha.  It’s just a ton of cactus cooler soda cans that we stack into a closet in our room. and all the elders in our zone keep contributing to it. so every time anyone drinks a cactus cooler then put it in with the shrine. When we leave we will hand it down to the next guys. It’s kinda fun haha.

           So we have the opportunity to teach investigators while we are here in the MTC. It’s been a really good experience to teach actual people that want to hear more about the gospel. I think I’ve learned more from doing that than anything else. Yesterday me and another elder in my dorm saw a lady in one of our buildings with a gold name tag, that means they are investigators and they just come here to have the missionaries teach them. So we started taking to her and set up an appointment for today. So today we talked with her and got to know her. Her name is Elsie. She is actually from Tampa but she moved down her with her husband because he is going to BYU. She was really receptive and I feel like she felt the spirit while we were teaching her. We set up another appointment for tomorrow and she seems really interested. It made me feel a bit better about myself as a missionary. We went to the temple this morning and it was kind of different going as a missionary. We have a separate place to get our clothes and a different changing room it was a really good experience and it was really nice to get away for a couple hours. I don’t have much more time but I will be leaving next week on Tuesday at 3:30 in the morning. So that should be fun. haha not. I think I will be able to write on Monday. So until then, I love all of you and thank you for your prayers and support.

love, Elder Hudson

This is a letter Connor sent to me but I though I would share. : ) enjoy

well  guess we get to write our mothers today! but it is supposed to be brief. I just wanted you to know that I am loving the  MTC! the first day was really overwhelming and there was a lot to take in. my companion is Elder Krebs. he is awesome! i can tell he has a real desire to serve the lord. we room with just one other set of missionaries. they are so much fun to be around but also know how to bring the spirit when we need to. we have a lot of fun here together haha. I'm doing good and really learning a lot! I've learned so much already. I think I will write again on Tuesday. so I will write you then. 

love, Elder Hudson

also for packages anyone wants to send me while I'm in the MTC here is the address. 

Elder Connor Shayne Hudson
NOV24  FL-TAM
2005 N 900 E Unit 130
Provo UT 84602