November 28, 2016

Hey everyone!

     This week has been a pretty great one. Monday we had a zone
activity day and zone training meeting. It was a really fun day! For
the activities we played kickball, volleyball, signs and some other
small games. We all pitched in $5 for pizza. It was great. For the
zone training meeting we went over a lot of stuff. Since the last
Seventy came they have been discussing a lot of things. We are
basically going back to the basics. For a long time we had a lot of
extra rules that were put on by President Cusick but now we have taken
all those rules away except for the member meals rule. So now we can
email from our iPads and there is no time limit on Mondays for
emailing. We are going back to what a normal mission should be like.
It has been pretty nice actually. Anyways that was my Monday.

I went on an exchange with another missionary on Tuesday and it went
great!! His name is Elder Konecki. He has been out 4 months and is a
really great missionary already. He has so much energy though it's
nuts. He was literally running in between houses when we were
Tracting. Everyone we met loved him though. We taught 12 lessons that
day and got 9 return appointments. That is a really good day for us in
Valrico. We even got to do some service, it was a great day.
Thanksgiving went pretty good. I got stuffed just like last year. I
thought I was doing good but by the second house I was already full.
We had 5 dinners planned but one fell through. It was literally a day
spent eating. I had way to much food. I gained 6 pounds that day haha!
I'm surprised I didn't throw up. It was nice to be able to eat with
the members though. All in all, I'd say Thanksgiving was a success.

We have met a lot of new people this week and just a few have stuck.
It's kind of hard to keep people here longer than one or two lessons.
We are still working with the Uprichard's. we are shooting for
December for their baptism. They are such an awesome family. I am
definitely coming back to visit them. We already have it planned out.
They are going to take me and my last companion Elder Drumright to
Universal. Anyways I will keep you all updated. We met with our other
investigator Richard on Saturday and he came to church again on
Sunday. He stayed for all three hours this time and said he loved it!
He is doing great too. He just needs to get into the Book of Mormon
more. Oh yeah! On the exchange we had something cool happen. We had a
couple of people to stop by at night, one was a referral and the other
a guy we met on the street a few days earlier. It turns out that they
were both bad addresses, but the people we met were so nice and
humble. We were able to teach them briefly and set up a time to come
back and share more with them. I love it when things like that happen.

That is pretty much all this week. It has been great down here in
Florida, the weather is perfect right now. It doesn't really feel like
its Christmas time, but that's alright haha. You all should check out
the new Christmas video on lds.org and look at the calendar the church
has put out for December. It gives you ideas of was you can serve
others everyday. Don't be afraid to share your beliefs! It could just
change someone's life forever. I love you all and hope you're week is
great!!

~ Love, Elder Hudson

November 21, 2016

Hey everyone! 

       So another week has come and gone just like that. This week hasn't been too eventful but it has been fulfilling. We have been doing the usual, tracting, visiting less actives and members, doing service, ect. We were able to do some service this week with some of the other missionaries in my district. It was in the Lithia area just below ours and we helped a lady named Sister Brozak who is a member stack some hay. She had about 80 bails or so. They were a lot lighter than the ones I stacked by home haha. It was a lot of fun and we got to take some pictures with her horses and donkey. Her husband also had a huge collection of old Texaco stuff out in a separate building. I felt like I was on American pickers or something ;) I always love doing service though. 

       We were able to bring Tiffany and James (Uprichard) to a baptism down in my last area Apollo Beach. It was a really good experience for them to see what it was all like. They are all still doing well. We had dinner with them yesterday with the Eve's family in the ward. They got along so great and are already good friends. We are shooting for December for their baptism. We have had to drop quite a few people because they have either cancelled on us multiple times or just aren't interested anymore. It can be hard sometimes to just stop teaching somebody, but there is no effort wasted. Who know's, maybe the next missionaries that come along will find them again and they will be ready. Most of the time you never know how much good you actually do. 

       We are having a zone activity day today along with zone training meeting. It should be really fun! We have  a bunch of games planned and My companion and I will actually be doing a musical number for the training meeting. I will let you all know how it goes, I am pretty nervous because I haven't ever performed for anyone. Hopefully I don't make a fool of myself haha. 

      The weather is really cooling down, so much that we have decided to just work out in the apartment in the morning. Florida gets a lot colder than you would think, and with the humidity its a lot worse. It is time to bring out the sweaters. 

      That's pretty much all for this week, I hope you all have a wonderful week of thanksgiving, which reminds me, we have 3 dinner appointments scheduled on thanksgiving so we will see if I can make it. last year we had 3 appointments too and I stuffed myself on the first visit haha. Love you all!!

From the sunshine state,

Love Elder Hudson

Sister Kurihara, who I actually went to junior high with..small world!

November 14, 2016

Hey everyone! 

       Yet another week has passed. I have officially passed my year mark! It doesn't feel like I have though, I still feel like a new missionary. We will see where the next year takes me! Nothing too exciting happened this week. We have been talking about doing some service projects with our districts or even our zones this week. President Cooper has really been pushing service lately. He says he wants us to do up to 10 hours of service per week. I think that is awesome, I love doing service. We also might go caroling when it gets closer to Christmas as missionaries. I love President Cooper, he has all the great ideas! Hopefully we will be able to find service to do, we offer it to basically everyone we meet. I'll keep y'all updated. 

       The Uprichard's came to church again yesterday and they are still loving it. The ward is doing a great job at fellowshiping them. They said that they actually look forward to Sundays now. They area really diving into the book of Mormon now. Now that we've got them started they can't stop! They want to read like 10 chapters between visits haha. They are awesome, we hope we can commit them to a date to be baptized soon. They said they would be baptized but not sure about a date yet. They have to work through some things first. I will let you all know how it goes. I have learned 3 songs on the guitar and ukulele now from Tony, it's pretty fun! The ward wants us to play music at the ward Christmas party in December so we have been working on some songs. Maybe I will record some for you all. 

       Other than them we have just been tracting and street contacting and visiting members. It is hard to find such solid people like the Uprichard's. Oh and their son James said that he wants to be baptized so he can pass the sacrament and one day be an Elder, he is jumping all in! Their whole family is loving it.

       Also, just a random comment, I bruised my tailbone like 3 weeks ago mountain biking and let me tell you, its not fun at all. It hurts to do anything and there is not much you can do other than just wait to let it heal. So yeah that hasn't been fun. Still pushing through it though. That is about all for this week. Maybe next week will be a little more exciting. Have a great week everyone! Love you all!

Love Elder Hudson 

Elder Hudson and his new companion, Elder Tanuvasa

November 7th, 2016

Hey everyone!

       This week has been pretty good, a little hectic with transfers and everything but it has been alright. My new companion is awesome! He is a lot like my last one Elder Drumright. They are both Hawaiian, play guitar and ukulele, like to sing, easy going and fun! I am glad we are companions, I was worried that I would get some stiff missionary who just works and doesn't like to have fun with it. I am very happy with transfers haha. 

      The last couple days that Elder Drumright was here we did some finding but mostly just went by to a lot of the ward members and our investigators to say goodbye. He was here for 6 months and really loved the people here. They were sad to see him go. Change is good, it brings more growth and experience. We had a pretty good Halloween, we went to a less actives house and talked with him for a while and helped him hand out candy, people thought we were dressed up haha. After that we went to the Uprichard's and spent the rest of the evening there. Tony has been teaching me guitar and ukulele. I am picking it up pretty fast, I can already play one song! We do this thing with them where we teach them our lesson and then they give us a lesson on guitar. It has been pretty fun. We are actually working on a musical number with Tony for sacrament meeting in a few weeks. It should be really good!

        The Uprichard's are so awesome. They came to church again this week and plan to keep coming. They love it! We are continuing to teach them and are trying to get them into the Book of Mormon. They should be baptized by the beginning of December. I will keep you all updated. 

We had another Zone conference on Saturday with the whole mission and another general authority seventy came. His name is Elder Klebingat. He is German. The meeting lasted from 8am to 6pm. It was long, but so so worth it. He is an incredible teacher. I felt the spirit so strongly when he was telling us his conversion story. This church is true, I know it is. I am so thankful for my mission and how it has strengthened my testimony. This week I will hit my year mark, then it is all downhill from there,(time wise). I am so grateful for every single moment of it, even the times that I was really hating life, it taught me something important. I love you all and thank you for all you do. Have a great week everyone! 

Be not afraid, only believe!

Love Elder Hudson

Elder Drumright's last day

Our investigators the Uprichard's

Zone conference

New companion Elder Tanuvasa