January 30, 2017

January 30, 2017

Hey everyone!

      This week has been pretty crazy all around. On Tuesday we pretty much spent the whole day packing up my stuff and visiting some of the members and investigators I really wanted to say goodbye to. We
stopped by Sister Sam who we have been trying to get to church since I got here. She is really cool though and I'm gonna miss her, she gave me one of her paintings that she did and she wanted to take a picture so she would remember me. We stopped by a couple of other families then we went to do the horses for my last time. By the way that is why we are in our service clothes in all the pictures I'm going to send. After the horses we went over to the Uprichard's and they made us dinner. It was especially hard to leave them. I feel like they are family to me. I'm gonna miss them a ton, but they said they are coming out to visit this week so I'm excited for that. I hope they pick a date to be baptized soon! Tiffany's cousin Shannon who we do the horses for also came to  the Uprichard's to say goodbye. She surprised me with a bag full of my favorite candy and food. She also had a cake made for me which said, "happy trails Elder Hudson." She is so nice! I can't believe she did that haha. Oh and the Uprichard's found out that Heath bars are my favorite candy bar and they bought me like 36 bars!
They also got me a journal and each of them wrote a short note to me. I am so thankful for them and what they do. They're awesome.   On Wednesday we had our transfer meeting and also a worldwide
broadcast for all missionaries. They talked about a lot of things in the broadcast, mainly the doctrine of Christ. They also announced a new schedule we will have. It's not too different but we now have 2
more hours on P-day. It starts at 8am instead of 10am. We can also do companionship study whenever we want throughout the day. We are also now waking up at 6:30 instead of 6 and can be up until 10:30. Not huge changes, but it will take some getting used to. As far as transfers go it was really hard to leave this area and the missionaries I served around. I am now with Elder Beauchamp. He has been out for about a year. He is from Chicago, but his family moved to Lehi, Utah while he has been out. He is a great missionary and we already are getting along great. Another great companion! At least so far, we will see as time goes on. Lakeland is a great area for finding. It is the complete opposite of Valrico. It's pretty ghetto here in some areas. Which makes it better for finding people to teach because they live in
humble circumstances. The ward here is another story. I'm not even joking, 98% of the people in his ward are over 60. Nothing against old people, but a lot of them are kind of senile. I thought my ears were going to start bleeding when we were singing the hymns, I know it sounds harsh but it's true. There are about 50 people that come to church. It's very small. There is one young man and one young woman that just moved in and there are 6 primary kids. It is literally the complete opposite of the Valrico ward. Even President Cooper said this is one of the hardest wards in the mission to work with. Even with all that I'm going to try my best to get to know the ward and work with them. We will see what we can do here. I'm just afraid to bring people to church here haha, it might scare them off, especially if they are younger. I will keep you all updated on what happens.   My new apartment is pretty nice. For those of you who need it.
my new address is:
1100 Oakbridge Parkway Appt. #239
Lakeland, FL 33800
When I got here there was like no food left. So we have been surviving off of ramen, grits, and popcorn. Needless to say I'm really excited to go shopping today. That's missionary life for ya. Anyways I feel like this is a really long email. I’m going to end with a miracle we had happen this week. It was on Thursday night we were out finding and we got a referral sent to our phone. It was for a guy named Zach who apparent has been studying our church and wants to be baptized and serve a mission!! It was so cool! Haha I even said when I heard the phone go off, "I hope this is a miracle!" Heavenly Father really does prepare people to receive this message and be baptized. We are going by this week to see him. Hopefully we don't have any hold ups! That's pretty much all for is week. We have some promising investigators
right now that are on the track for baptism. I will talk about them more next week. Thank you all for helping me before and during my mission. It's been the most fulfilling thing I've ever done in my life. I truly do now appreciate the Gospel and the Savior in my life.
Have a great week everyone! I love you all tons.

~ Elder Hudson

January 23, 2017

Hey everyone!

     So transfers are this week and I just found out that I am leaving Valrico and am going to the Lakeland area. It's kind of bitter sweet.  I love the people here and Valrico has grown on me. I'm going to miss
the Uprichard's! I will definitely come back when they get baptized, no matter where I am. I'm sure they're going to be pretty sad when I tell them the news. Hopefully not too sad haha. I am going to miss
this area a lot, but I'm excited for a new beginning and more experiences. Anyways enough about that. This week was pretty average. We did have an exciting event last night. It was called the why I
believe fireside. There were testimonies from converts and musical numbers by the missionaries of our mission. It was actually really good and there was such a strong spirit there. I love hearing
conversion stories, they are powerful. It helped me to think about my own conversion and when I was really converted. It was a very good meeting. The weather wasn't too good though, really windy and rainy.
We had an hour drive here and another hour back. We made it home safely though.

     Other than that we tried to meet with Blake this week, he is the less active guy who is just now believing in God and wanting to learn more. We met with his mom cause he was busy. She is struggling because
her mom is in the hospital. So we talked with her a bit, she is less active too. They always like us coming over. We have gotten so close to having her come to church but haven't yet. Maybe they will when I
leave this transfer. We haven't met a lot of people this week that have really been interested. Just a few who we got a return appointment with. We plant a lot of seeds here ;). Valrico is a tough area. Lakeland is supposed to be a little more of a humble area. I'm looking forward to that. Oh yeah by the way, my new companions name is Elder Beauchamp. Yeah it's a mouthful, I can't even pronounce it
right. He seems like a good guy. I'll let you know next week if that's
true haha.

     I'm ready to give it all I've got in Lakeland. I've only got about 9 1/2 months left. I probably won't be in Lakeland that whole time, but who knows. I'm just so grateful to be here serving the Lord
full time. It's so nice to not have any distractions and to be able to devote all my time and attention to this work. It's so important to share the gospel and why you believe it's true. People need it, they
need the hope and they need the joy that comes from it. Even if they don't realize it. Most people don't believe it because they haven't heard it in its fullness and from someone that believes, be that someone. Look for the opportunities and don't pass them by. Whenever you make that decision, the powers of heaven are with you, and the spirit will guide you what to say and do. As long as you trust in that, there is nothing to worry about.  I love you all and really hope you all have a good week!!

~ Elder Hudson

Pictures from a day of service

1/16/17 (Miracles)

Hey everyone!

     Another week has come and gone. It's actually been a great week.
We have had some cool things happen. First of all there is this
inactive guy in our ward who we have met before but hasn't every been
interested. He was baptized at 8 and that was pretty much it. He even
stopped believing in God. Well he has had an experience recently that
has made him come to know that God is real. He got in touch with us
and now we are teaching him the lessons and trying to explain
everything to him. This is all new to him, but he is like all in. He
read the Bible for 6 hours straight one day...I'm worried that he is
taking in too much at once, we will see how things go. It's crazy to
see the difference in him now. Also we went on an exchange this week
with our zone leaders. I went up to Temple Terrace with Elder Harden
and Elder Stout came down here with Elder Tanuvasa. It was a really
great exchange except for the fact that I was sick the whole time, I
just had a cold, but it lasted for like 4 days. Anyways on the
exchange they met a really cool lady who's brother is a member and
actually wants to be baptized. Her brother has told her about the
church and she is interested and has a lot of questions. We are
meeting with her this week. I will let you all know how it goes!
      Not much else has happened this week. We had a zone training
meeting on Tuesday which went really well and cleared up some things
about planning. We are also having a zone day of service on Wednesday
at metropolitan ministries so that should be fun. Tiffany and Tony are
doing good, they told us this week that it's not a matter of if, it's
when that they are going to be baptized and they are deciding that
with the Lord. They are so awesome! I'm glad they have that goal in
mind and are working towards it. That's pretty much it for this week.
Transfers are next week! I'll let you all know what's happening next
Monday. Love you all!

Elder Hudson

Zone meeting

January 9, 2017

Hey everyone! So yeah this week has been freezing! I'm sure it's not as cold as Utah but it has been really cold for Florida. Yesterday it got down to 34 and the high was 55. I guess it's just helping me for when I have to come home to the real cold haha. Besides the cold weather this week has been pretty good. We have been stopping by a lot of less active members this week, one of which we had come back to church on Sunday after a really long time. It's the Wagner family and they are really cool. They want us to come by once a week now to help them with their goals and to "keep us in line" haha. We had a really good lesson with the Uprichards this week and helped them to refocus on their goals. The holidays were pretty crazy for them so now they want to start to get back into it and move forward. They haven't really been praying specifically to know if the Book of Mormon is true so we taught them about that and are gonna be following up next week. They are awesome. 

      I went on an exchange with my district leader this week also and that was really good. I got to go to his area (Providence) for the day which was nice because I haven't left Valrico for an exchange since September. We biked a ton and the wind was always blowing against us somehow, but we still had a good day and were able to talk to a lot of people. We even did some spontaneous service for a guy by helping him load a tv into his car. They are going back next week to teach him now. I love it when you find those random people right in your path. It makes it a lot easier to find people that are prepared to hear the message. 

      We helped out a member this week (Brother Flakes) tear down and put up a fence. It was a ton of work and we had to span it over three days. He put up new fence around his whole yard. We had the help of his neighbor too. Brother Flakes just got back surgery not too long ago so he wasn't able to do much. We dug all the holes for the posts, poured the cement in, nailed the panels to it, and made two gates. It was kind of fun though, I like doing that kind of work. And it always feels good to help somebody who really needs it. 

      Other than that not much else has happened. Another week down, a lot more to go. Have a great week everyone! 

Love you all!

Elder Hudson 

January 2, 2017

Hey everyone!

      This week has been awesome! Everyone has been so nice to us this
week it's weird haha. The holidays make everyone nicer I guess. It has
helped us as far as finding goes this week. We have been able to meet
a lot of cool people this week and have really good lessons. We met
this one lady named Morgy who was super nice and open. She has cancer
and has had a bit of a rough life. We are meeting her again next week!
We gave her a Book of Mormon so we will see how it goes. The spirit
was strong in that lesson! We haven't been able to have a lesson with
the Uprichards this week but we have been over, they had family in for
the holidays and they wanted us to meet them. I guess they have heard
all about us from Tiffany and Tony. They were all very nice and we
were able to share with them what we do as missionaries. I hope we had
at least some affect on them from that. Who knows!

      Other than that not a whole lot has happened this week. There
was a ton of fireworks on New Year's Eve. We watched them for a little
bit from our porch. There was some right outside our apartment that
were going all night. It kept us up pretty late. Not until 12 but
pretty close. It was fun to watch them though. We had a zone activity
day on Monday and it was pretty great! We played some basketball, ate
pizza, played signs and a whole bunch of other games. I love getting
together with the zone, we always have fun. We did a white elephant
exchange and I got a couple of hot wheels cars haha! There were some
pretty funny gifts. Anyways that's all for this week, I love the
holidays and I'm sad they are gone, but they'll be around next year. Have
a great week everybody! Love you all. Happy New Years!

~ Love, Elder Hudson