February 27th, 2017 Gators

Hey everyone!

      This week has been quite eventful. It's been a little bit hard
to get everywhere we want to because we are on full bike. My companion
has a bad back and hurt it this week so he had to rest on it for a
couple days. We were still able to get out though. We met some pretty
cool people this week. There was one day we were biking down a
neighborhood and someone called out to us from their yard, we couldn't
really see them because they were behind their fence. Long story
short, he let us in and he and his friend were just curious as to what
we do. They have seen us riding around for years and haven't ever
talked to missionaries. Their names are Ean and Kevon. We explained to
them what we do as missionaries and taught them about the restoration.
Ean seemed pretty interested, more than Kevon. We are going back next
Saturday. It's nice when the people come to you haha.
      We got together as a Zone this week to do service for a food
distribution place. They use the food to feed the homeless and things
like that. It was a lot of fun!! We basically just sorted the food and
drinks into different categories and stacked them on pallets. There
was also quite a bit of bread and meats that they had to throw out
because they were bad. My companion, me and 4 other Elders got to do
that job. We were outside throwing moldy bread and meat into the
dumpster. There was a ton of it too. Luckily we had gloves ;) It was a
little bit nasty, but we survived. Its always good to do some service!
      We saw a couple of gators this week in a lake by our apartment.
One of them was pretty big. I'll try and send a video. If everything
goes right, we will be going to Circle B park today with the Highlands
Elders. There's supposed to be a lot of gators there. Hopefully we
will get to see some! Don't worry mom, I'll be careful.
      Other than that not much has happened. Our investigator Wilma
will be having a hip replacement this week and we will be visiting her
in the hospital with some members. She is really liking church and is
starting to understand a lot more. She has a date for the end of April
to be baptized. We will see what happens! The Uprichard's came to
visit yesterday! The whole family came this time. It was so good to
see them!! They really are just like family to me. They are thinking
about getting baptized in march or April. They want to do it soon. I'm
so excited for them! We just met at a park and had dinner. I forgot to
take pictures though...I'm sure they'll come again. It made my day to
see them.
      That's about all for this week, if y'all want to write me
sometime that'd be cool too ;) I'm loving it here. I don't think life
gets any better than when you're a missionary. I'm so grateful for
this experience and time that I have to fully dedicate to the Lord.
I've learned so much about myself and have been able to help so many
others along the way. I love being able to see the change in others.
It brings me a lot of joy and happiness. I hope you all have a great
week. Don't forget who you are and live with no regrets!

~ Love, Elder Hudson

Service day

Day of fishing

Zone Conference

Hey everyone!

     Yet again, it's Monday! They seem to be coming faster and faster as time goes by. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. It's still really good to hear from you all. This week has been pretty exciting! We are teaching a lady named Wilma Kinder. She is a sweet old lady who lives by herself. She is probably in her 70's. The sisters that were here before started teaching her and then they passed her off to us when they got transferred out. She didn't really remember anything so we just started all over with the lessons. She
seems to be taking them well. She reads and prays about the Book of Mormon and she has been coming to church for the past month or so. Her major hold up is the priesthood. She doesn't understand the apostasy
and believes all churches have the priesthood. She is also having hip surgery in 2 weeks, that will hopefully give her time to read and pray while she is in rehab. She has seemed more open lately. We have a date
of April 29th for her baptism. I have high hopes for her!  We have been able to meet and talk to a lot of people this week, especially because we are on bikes now. We have return appointments with a few of them so we will see how that goes. Oh! Something awesome happened at church yesterday! There is a couple in the ward (Brother and Sister Teteh) who are awesome missionaries. They gave us a referral for one of their neighbors who they have been talking to. She found out that the wife used to come to our church as a kid and loved
it. She wants to come back and bring her husband and kids with her. She has 4 kids, not sure what ages. They are really interested though! We are going to be having an ice cream social thing with some members
and that family this week. I'm so excited! I will let you all know what happens with them.  On Wednesday my companion got to go to the Temple! He was pretty excited for it. While he was gone I was with two other missionaries in the Highlands area who's companions also went to the temple. It was only till about one or so. I always like seeing what other areas are like. As far as our bike week adventures go, we had a few. Our area is
a pretty decent size, on Thursday we biked to a less active members house for a lesson in the evening. It was about a 9 mile bike ride one way. The road we were on wasn't the safest either. Everyone we stopped
and talked to along the way said we shouldn't be out here this late at night. We got there safely anyways and they ended up giving us a ride home, which was so nice haha. I got a flat tire on Saturday, but luckily I had a patch kit with me. Once I finally got it fixed it was looking like it was gonna rain so we decided to head in a little early for dinner. It started to sprinkle a little bit, but gradually it turned into a down pour with lots of wind. Needless to say, we got drenched from head to toe. It stopped about 15 minutes after we got to
the apartment. Florida is so random. So that was fun haha.  Well, that's all I'm gonna write for this week. I can't believe I only have about 9 months left. I'm going to make the most of it and work as hard as I can. Just like Elder Holland said, I should be working so hard that I come home on a stretcher. My testimony of the
Gospel has grown immensely. I am so grateful for the atonement, for what Jesus Christ went through for me and everyone else. This is the truth, and anyone who sincerely seeks that truth will find it. I'm so thankful for my family, I love them! I'm grateful for all of you who support me and have have helped me along the way. I hope all of you have a great week, remember who you are! Love you all!! Till next week
✌️

~ Elder Hudson

These birds are everywhere

Nice Car

February 13, 2017

Hello everybody!

      How is everyone doing? I would love to hear from you all.
Anyways this week was pretty great. On Tuesday we had a zone
conference and we talked about what we need to do to increase our
spirituality and our skills as missionaries. It was really good
actually and I took a few hints away that I'm going to apply. The
Lakeland zone is pretty small compared to my last one, it was kind of
weird. I'm sure I will get used to it though. There are some good
missionaries in this zone and some that I am already good friends
with. We took some pictures of the zone so I'll send them with the
email. After the meeting I went on an exchange to the Winterhaven area
with Elder Ashcraft who was my old companion in Apollo Beach! His
companion is Elder Griffiths and he is a zone leader. He went to
Lakeland with my companion Elder Beauchamp. It was just for the day.
It was great to be back with Elder Ashcraft though and catch up on
things. It was a good exchange.
      On Saturday we went up to Citrus Ridge for a baptism. My
companion worked with the lady who was being baptized when he was
there, so we went to support her. It was definitely an interesting
experience. She is pretty old and frail. She couldn't bend backwards
to be baptized so they tried all these different ways to get her under
the water. Finally after the 7th try she went all the way under the
water. Even with all that she was still super happy and excited. I'm
glad we got to go!
      As far as people we are teaching, we met with Alex this week and
he is progressing now. He has been praying and reading the Book of
Mormon. He is very humble and willing to learn and change his life
around. I'm excited about him. We also met with a woman named Mary who
showed up at church last week. We talked with her about the Book of
Mormon and baptism. She agreed to be baptized if she came to know this
is true! She's great. We also met with a less active family yesterday
and had dinner with them. They are really nice. They don't come to
church much, but when they do they go to a different ward because they
don't like the Lakeland ward. It's interesting but we are working with
them. Other than that we have met about 6 other people this week who
we have return appointments with. I'll let you all know if any of them
are solid.
      That's about all for this week! I'm so thankful to be on a
mission. I'm especially thankful for all of the challenges that I have
had because they have made me stronger and have strengthened my
testimony as I have come out of them. I'm so grateful for the
atonement because I definitely need it. Thank you all for your support
and help! I hope y'all have a great week!

February 6, 2017 (Bike Week)

Hey everyone!

      There was a lot that happened this week! I'll just give you all
a few of the highlights. On Wednesday I got to go to the Orlando
Temple! This was my 2nd and last time I will get to go on my mission.
We usually only get to go once so I was really happy about that. I
went with a group of 6 other missionaries and a senior couple drove us
in the big 15 passenger van. It was such a good experience and I took
a lot from it. I always learn something or find something I can apply
when I go to the temple. We took a ton of pictures so I'll be sending
those too. I love the temple!

      On Friday the Uprichard's drove over here to Lakeland for lunch!
It was so good to see them again! They are still doing good and moving
forward. They don't seem to like the new Elder very much, but I'm sure
they'll get used to him. We talked for about an hour or so before they
had to leave. It was kind of nice to see someone from outside of
Lakeland.

      We met a lady this week named Naisha while we were biking to an
appointment. She is super cool! When we first met her we briefly
explained who we are and the restoration. Then we saw her again
yesterday and we set a baptism date with her for March 11th! She said
she has been wanting to get baptized for a while now. She was pretty
excited. She said she wants to quit smoking too so we will be helping
her with that as well. It was a miracle we met her!

      My companion Elder Beauchamp hit his year mark on Friday! So we
celebrated by going to smoothie king. It was pretty good actually,
I've never been there. We also burned one of his white shirts, it's a
missionary tradition to burn one of your shirts when you hit your year
mark. We did it in the bath tub haha. He had a lot of fun doing it
though, I think he's a bit of a pyromaniac. He's a little bit weird,
but we still get along. We are working well together in the area. We
have had to drop some people this week, but in turn have been able to
find some cool people. The area is great for finding, it's really
humble. The ward is still the same, we are trying to think of creative
ways to get the ward going. It's just hard because they are all super
old. There have already been 2 deaths since I've been here. This is
literally a dying ward. We'll see what we can do. President Cooper
told us there is potential here and that we are here for a specific
purpose so we are doing our best. Other than that it's been a great
week! I miss you all, if you guys wanted to write me an email that
would be cool too. Have a great week everyone!


~ Love, Elder Hudson