May 30, 2017

Hola mi amigos!

     This has been one crazy week! It has been full of exchanges,
miracles, service and even a birthday. As far as the exchanges go we
went on the first exchange Tuesday with one of our zone leaders who
promised us we would go on one before the transfer ends. It was only
for a few hours though. We ended up going to institute with an
investigator of ours which was really good. That's about all we had
time for so we came home after that and exchanged back. Our second
exchange was on Thursday with our district leader. I went to his area
with him until Friday. We had a good exchange and I was able to gain a
lot from it. When we exchanged back on Friday we went to Texas
Roadhouse because it was my companions birthday! It was great, he got
to sit on a saddle they brought out while everybody shouted out a good
ol' birthday yeehaw!!  He turned 20. It was a pretty good day. The
third and last exchange we went on was on Saturday with our other zone
leader who also promised to go on an exchange with us before the end
of the transfer. It was another short one, but we did get to find some
cool people during it. I was with Elder Leja our zone leader and Elder
Pruszynski went with Elder Chugg. We met a really cool guy named Tom
who we are seeing this Saturday with his family. He seemed promising,
we will see where it goes.
     Now for the miracles. So there is a member family in our ward who
are just here for about a month or so visiting. They used to live
here. They have been staying in their RV at a campground in the area.
They talked to the people that are staying in a tent next to them and
ended up talking about the church with them. Turns out they are really
interested. So we went over and met with them on Saturday and taught
them about the restoration. They loved it and we set a date with them
for June 17th! We have been teaching them all this week and they have
been super receptive. They have been looking for a church like this
for a long time. It is a family of 4. Chris is the husband and Sharron
is the wife. They are in their early 20's and have a 2 year old kid.
Chris' brother is also living with them, his name is Zack and he is
19. So it turns out that they were living in the tent they were in.
They didn't have a car either. The husband has been working Day to day
jobs. It's a rough situation. Since we have been meeting with them
though they have seen so many miracles happen in their lives. Since
last Saturday they have gotten an apartment, the husband got a full
time job with Sunday's off, and they got 2 cars. It's crazy how much
the Lord has blessed them! They are so ready that they want to move
the date sooner so we will be baptizing them next week. They are so
great, I love them! We are also meeting with a lady named Jessie who
we had a lesson with last night and set a date with her for June 24th.
Her fiance is a member. She is super solid! So it's looking like we
will have 4 baptisms in June. Blessings are raining down here in
Lakeland!!
     I guess I better mention what happened with transfers. Elder
Pruszynski and I are both staying in Lakeland. We are pretty excited
about that. Most of our zone is staying the same. After this next
transfer I will have been in Lakeland for 6 months. I didn't think I'd
stay here this long, but I'm sure glad I have! We have had some good
service opportunities this week too. We helped a member move on
Saturday which took up a good chunk of our day, and yesterday morning
we were able to help an investigator fix his fence. I always love
doing service. Anyways, I think that's about all for this week. I
didn't get to email yesterday because my mission President moved our
P-day to today because of Memorial Day. Just in case any of you were
wondering. I want to thank all of you for supporting me and helping me
before and during my mission. This has been the greatest experience of
my life so far. I hope you all have a great week! I love you all.

May 22, 2017 (Zone Conference/Why I believe)

Hey everybody! This has been a really good week! It has been pretty
eventful as well. On Tuesday we had zone conference and it was a
really good meeting. We talked a lot about working with members and
the ward council. I always love zone conferences. It's good to see
some other missionaries from the other zones too. Anyways on Wednesday
we got to do some service for a member named Sister Vosburgh. We raked
the leaves in her backyard, and she had a TON of leaves. It took us
about 2 hours to finish. She fed us lunch too so it was totally worth
it ;)
     As far as investigators go we got 3 new ones this week who came
to church and we have set a baptism date with for July 17th! They are
a family, the husbands name is Chris, the wife is Sharron and the
husbands brother is Zack. They were a referral from some members in
our ward. We have had two lessons with them so far and they went super
good. They have been looking for a church to attend, but have had bad
experiences in the past with churches so they have been hesitant. They
really enjoyed church though, I'm super excited for them! I will keep
you all updated. Also Jessie came to church again this Sunday and she
actually participated a lot in class. She is doing really good too.
Those are the main people we are working with right now.
     We had the Why I Believe fireside yesterday in Brandon. It was at
the building I went to when I served in Valrico. It was a very
spiritual meeting, there was a lot of non members there. I also got to
see the Uprichard's and some of the ward members from Valrico. It was
nice to see them all again. I'm not sure what else to say, sorry if
this email is a little short haha. I hope you all have a great week!
Thank you all for your support and prayers.

~ Love, Elder Hudson

May 15th (Big ol' Bass!!)

Hey everyone!

     This has been one great week! I'll give you some of the highlights. So first of all there is a member from St. Pete which is about an hour or so away that texted us this week saying his girlfriend who lives in our area is ready to take the lessons. We met up with them on Saturday and has a lesson. It went super good! She
already knows a lot about the church. Her name is Jessie. She will be getting baptized in June! So that was a huge miracle this week. Other than that we met with a lot of potentials who are now new investigators. One being Andrew, he is a pretty cool guy. We met him on Friday. He committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He seemed to like it a lot. We also met with a guy named DJ and he has been reading the Book of Mormon. He said it makes a lot of sense that God would speak to people in other parts of the world at that time. He seems promising! Lots of good people here in Lakeland. I'm excited to see where things go!
     Skyping my family yesterday was so good! It was really nice to see them and talk to them. Sadly that will be my last skype call before I go home. I'm going to do my best to make the most out of the time I have left. Missions are the best. If anyone reading this is debating on going, as Nike says, just do it!! I have loved my mission, I wouldn't trade these two years for anything.
     So as far as my subject goes, we went fishing this morning and we caught some huge fish! I'll send pictures. We went with the Highlands Elder's and one of their members. It was a lot of fun. We are planning on going next week too, but to a different place. It should be good. Anyways, I don't have much else to say. I'm so very thankful for all of your support and prayers. It has helped immensely. I love you all!
Have a super good week everyone!

~ Elder Hudson

May 8, 2017 (Fire)

Hey everyone!

     This has been a fairly good week. There have been some good
things happen and some not so good hints happen, but that's life. On
Tuesday I went on an exchange into the Gibsonia area which is right
above ours. I was with Elder Tye for the day. We pretty much had a
full day planned. We had quite a few lessons. They went really well
and we were able to meet a lot of other people while we biked to the
appointments. I always like going on exchanges, sometimes it's nice to
change things up a bit. We have met with Jamie this week and she is
Progressing! She is that 16 year old girl I told you about. She has
been reading from the Book of Mormon and has good questions. She
wasn't able to make it to church this week, but next she will. We also
saw Laura this week, we just ended up stopping by her house on
Saturday because she canceled our appointment on Friday. She seemed a
little shocked to see us haha. It was good though, we were able to
talk to her a bit and get another appointment scheduled. We are also
having a "Why I believe" fireside this month that she said she will be
able to come to. So we're pretty excited about that. The fireside is
mission wide and it's just going to be a bunch of recent converts and
other converts bearing their testimony and sharing their story. The
last one went really well. I'm looking forward to it.
     I guess you're all probably wondering what my email subject is
about. There were a few fires this weekend Northwest of where we are.
There was so much wind though that all the smoke blew our way. It was
pretty thick where we were, at the end of the day we both smelt like
smoke. It reminded me of the summer fires back west. Anyways other
than that we have been doing a lot of contacting and finding new
people to teach. It's been great! We have a goal set to contact at
least 10 people a day each. It's really helped us to find more people
to teach. I'm looking forward to the rest of this transfer! Things are
going good here. That's about all for this week. I love you all and
hope you all make the most of your week, because why not?

May 1st, (Hood Finding)

Hey everybody! This has been a pretty good week. We have been doing a
lot of biking this week. It has been in the 90's every day and the
humidity is insane. Luckily we wil be getting the car this week.
Anyways we have found a good amount of new people to teach. One of
them we set a baptismal date with for the end of May. Her name is
Jamie. She is pretty cool. We will see how it goes. Laura had to go
out of town for work so we haven't been able to meet up with her yet.
We should be meeting with her this week. Her date will probably be
pushed back a bit. We have been in the hood a lot this week too.
People are crazy there. On Monday night we played basketball with a
bunch of kids from the hood, it was pretty funny watching the look on
their faces when my companion Elder Pruszynski dunked haha. Then the
other night we were in the hood right next to the church and there
were a ton of people out with the music bumping. We have had some
crazy stuff happen there. People in the hood are funny, you have to
really change the way you teach them. It's a lot of fun though. We got
a few of them to commit to come to church, but none of them came.
      We had a ward activity on Friday where we went to Circle B bar
reserve. This was like my 4th or 5th time going. We saw a few gators
and turtles and birds like usual. There was a little one about 3 feet
long that was on the trail, we took a picture with it. There was about
30 people from the ward that came. Most of them rode on the tram so
they didn't have to walk. We had a lunch afterward too. It was a good
day. Elder Pruszynski and I are getting along really well still. We
have another month left of the transfer and we are doing our best to
make the most of it! That's about all for this week that I can think
of. I hope you all have a great week, love you all!