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