I love seeing the Spanish within Kyle’s emails.  If you don’t know Spanish and you want to know what he said, just use Google Translate. (jh)

From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: One month down!
Date: October 27, 2011 12:58:13 PM MDT

Hey! How is everyone doing? This week hasn’t been too special I guess. I can’t really remember what really happened to be honest and with this timer in the top corner it kind of jumbles my thoughts. So I guess I’ll start with how my investigators are going. So what happens is my teachers choose an investigator from their mission and they try to do the same things they did to them. So one of my teachers is role playing as Carolina and boy Carolina is not an easy person to teach. She is catholic so she doesn’t thing she needs to be baptzed again. She is pretty stubborn. She has been reading and praying and she finally committed to coming to church so that was pretty cool. We said that we would pick her up and that is the only way she would come and my teacher said it took him 4 months to figure that our so that was cool.

I finished el Libro de Mormon this week. It was awesome! I got such a good feeling when I finished it. I know that it is true. I can say that is a surity. I encourage everyone to read it. It is the keystone of our religion. If  you have a testimony of the Book of mormon that you know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and you know that this church is the only true church in the world. If you want to know, read it and pray about it.

This week we had Elder Hallstrom from the seventy come speak to us. He gave a really good talk. He gave us all a question to answer and that is what missionary do we want to become? He tied it in with obedience and stuff like that. I want to become the best missionary i can be. That means that i will have to be obedient in all I do. That is deffinitely easier said than done. There are many things that we have to do and its easy to get a little distracted especially durring study time. Its something that i have to work on but ill keep at it and i have no doubt that it will get easier as time goes on.

So i broke my watch, if you could send a digital one a.s.a.p that would be great. Oh and also please send that photo album with the pictures. My district wants to see what all you look like. If you send me a dearelder and you want me to answer your questions in the email, send it on wednesday. If you send it today i get it today but I wont get it until dinner and Thursday is the only day i can write all of you.

I just want to clarify that although I want to know what is going on in the sports world it is not the thing that if forefront on my mind. I know why I am here. I am here invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo al ayudarlas a que reciban el Evangelio Restaurado mediante la fe in Jesucristo y su Expiacion, el arrepentimiento, el bautismo, la recepcion del don del Espiritu Santo, y el perserverar hasta el fin. It is just fun to know how all your lives are and stuff like that.

Les amo,
Elder Hudgins

We just got a few pictures from Kyle in the MTC with his companion and his district.  He was not able to send digital files over the MTC computers so these are scans of pictures he had made up from the bookstore.

This is Kyle’s entire district at the Provo Temple.

Front Row:  Elder Hancock, Elder Runyan, Hermana Nelson, Hermana Sandorf, Hermana Shoaf, Hermana Sweet

Back Row:  Elder Hoth, Elder Dalton, Elder King, Elder Snelson, Elder Kimball, Elder Hudgins

If you remember from our post of Kyle entering the MTC, we mentioned Elder Hancock whom we met at The Brick Oven.  We recently discovered Hermana Sandorf has a blog of her own and has her sisters posting her mission updates.

Elder Kimball and Elder Hudgins in front of the Provo Temple.

Elder Kimball and Elder Hudgins were just informed they needed haircuts.

Elder Hudgins, Elder Kimball, Elder King, and Elder Snelson, room mates in the MTC.  Kyle mentioned that he and Elder King collided awkwardly in the gym while playing basketball.  The gym trainer thinks Elder King may have torn his MCL.  He had an MRI after the letter was sent so we don’t yet know the results.  We hope and pray all will turn out well.

Elder Kimball and Elder Hudgins with all their study supplies.

From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Hola from the MTC!
Date: October 20, 2011 12:55:55 PM MDT

This week has been pretty good, but its hard to think of new things to write because it sometimes seems like we are doing the same thing every day. Lets see, last Friday they have this thing called TRC (Teaching Resource Center). Its kind of like home teaching. Some volunteers come in and we teach them a lesson in spanish. It was cool to finally teach some real people. (The investigators that I am always talking about are our teachers role playing as investigators). Elder Kimball and I taught an old couple from Mexico. Brother and Sister Argon I believe it was. We taught about the restoration of the gospel and it was a really cool experience. Even though we had a limited spanish vocabulary we were still able to bring the spirit into the lesson and the couple was in tears at the end. It was a really amazing experience and it encouraging to know that the Lord will make up for our language when we have done all that we can do. We are going to the TRC again tomorrow and Im pretty excited, it gives me a little taste of what the mission field will be like.

On our tuesday devotional I got to hear from my first apostle at the MTC. Richard G. Scott came and spoke to us. It was awesome to be in a room and having him speak directly too us. He talked about how we can have the spirit in our lives and how we can make it more effective. He told us to bring things to write down so when we get impressions we can write it down. It was just a sweet experience. I hope we will get more apostles while im here.

So I’ll tell you a little bit about how my days go. We wake up at 6:30 every morning and get ready for the day. We have breakfast at 7 (just a side note, I am really getting tired of the breakfast food here, its pretty much eggs and bacon/ham/sausage). After breakfast we have personal study for and hour. This is when I usually read my scriptures. Its pretty cool. I have definitly found a new liking to the scriptures while I have been here. Right now i am in 3 Nefi 16. Its awesome to read about Christ’s ministry in the Americas. After personal study we have classroom. This is where we teach one of our investigators. We also have companion study during that time. when everyone is done teaching we learn spanish and stuff about the gospel. We do that until lunch. Lunch is one of the better meals of the day. They have more variety and it doesn’t taste bad. Our gym time changes every day but its usually after lunch or dinner. We then have another classroom where we teach our other investigator. Its pretty much the same as the first classroom instruction. Then we have dinner, then language study and this thing called TALL (Technology-Assisted Language Learning) which is like a software program to learn spanish. Throw in another personal study in there somewhere and thats about how the day is. I feel like all we do is study and eat but and its getting a little repititious but I cant believe I am almost half way done here. I already cant wait to get to Argentina!

Oh and mom you can stop sending snacks i have like a billion things in my room so you are good for now.

Les amo,
Elder Kyle Hudgins

From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Another week flown by!
Date: October 13, 2011 12:45:46 PM MDT

This week just seemed like it came and went, but I sure did do a lot thats for sure. This week Elder Kimball and I started teaching two new investigators, Carolina and Ezra. So far we have only had one lesson with both of them but, I would say that they both went really well. Its amazing to see the progress we have made in one week. I can get through a whole lesson in spainsh without looking at my notes! haha. We taught Carolina about la primera vision. It was awesome because Elder Kimball had the scripture in JSH memorized and he said it perfectly. The spirit we felt when he said that was amazing. Sadly our time was up right when he finished so we couldn’t get the reaction from Carolina and how she felt about it. But it was definitely awesome and very encouraging. Our lesson with Ezra was also good. He doesn’t really believe in God. So we taught him about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and about faith. We had prepared to teach the first vision so I was a little nervous that I would have to talk about something else and about something else that is didn’t study any spanish about. But it went great. I taught what I knew and things went really well.

This week for our devotional we had the general Releif Society presidnt Julie Beck speak to us. It was a pretty awesome talke she gave. She was talking about how la plenitud del Evangelio is achieved by going to the temple and partaking of those temple ordinances. At the end she also said that the 3 most important things on your mission are to love your companion, the people, and your president. That is something I have focused on this week. Just trying to become better friends with my companion and develop that love.

I am having a great time here at the MTC. I really love my district. We are all great friends and I love my teachers as well. Its pretty amazing how much you learn here. Gym time and mail time are probably the funnest times of the day haha. During gym I play some basketball but there are some pretty dang good people here. Elder Dalton in my district got dunked on earlier this week haha, that was pretty funny.  We played soccer for the first time the other day. The weather has been pretty bad this week so the field has been closed. It was nice to get a little taste of what I’ll be doing most every P-day. And we all love mail time. We get mail at lunch and at dinner and they are seriously the best times of the day. We all get together by the post office hoping that we get letter. I CAN TELL YOU THAT MISSIONARIES LOVE LETTERS SO KEEP SENDING LETTERS!

I’m sorry I haven’t sent any pictures yet. I don’t think I can plug my USB thing on these computers, and the machine that develops pictures is out of order right now. But I will send some home as soon as possible.

Well time is up. I love you all thanks for the support!

Elder Hudgins

If you wish to write Kyle, you can send him an email to the address listed within this email, send him a letter through the website Dear Elder or send a regular snail mail letter.  I have instructions for all HERE

Thanks everyone! (jh)

From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: One week down!
Date: October 6, 2011 1:19:17 PM MDT

Hello family and friends!

Well, I just finished my first week here in the MTC and things are going pretty good. The first couple of days went by sooooo slow trying to get adjusted to the new schedule and stuff, but this week so far has flown by! We are always doing something. But it seems like all you so is eat and go to class. Right when we get ready for the day we go eat breakfast and right after that we head to the classroom and don’t leave till lunch then we head back to the classroom and I think you get the point. But it is going great.

There are 12 people in our district, 8 elders and 4 hermanas. Elder Kimball and I and one sister are going to Neuquen, and there are a couple going to Bahia Blanca and some more going to Resistencia. Its cool that we are all going to Argentina and we all got here on the same day, so we will probably all travel together. Elder Kimball and the sister both brought their sleeping bags so, when you get the chance just send it over.

This week I have learned so much spanish. Elder Kimball and I had to teach 3 lessons this week all in spanish. We taught our investigator about the restoration, the atonement, and faith. The atonemet lesson went really good. It is probably one of the hardest things I have done but when we do well it feels so good but not so good when we so bad. We just have to keep working hard keep studying and hopefully we will be more consistant. I had my first fireside and devotional this week. We had a sunday fireside and the speaker was Chad Lewis. I can’t seem to remember what he said right now haha but I remember that it was good. We had our Tuesday devotional and the speaker was emeritus general authrity L. Lionel Kendrick. He talked about how much God is a part of our lives and how he micromanages them. It was really good.

Probably the best day this week was yesterday. Hermano Grua gave an awesome lesson about the Doctrine of Christ. We read all of 2 Nephi 31 and I think it has become my favorite chapter of the Book of Mormon. I encourage all of you to read it. It relates so much to our purposes as missionaries. The lesson made me realize how important being a missionary is. We are the only people who can baptize converts. That means we are the only ones who can do all the things in the Christ teaches.

Tell me more about the things that are going on at home. How is the job hunt? How is school for Tyler? I really want to know what is going on in all of your lives!! Please tell my friends to write me also. Mail time is the best part of the day and it really sucks when I don’t get letters. So please send me more letters!

It is so weird not knowing what is going on in the outside world. It looks like it is snowing in the mountains today, it was raining on us hard when we were walking to the temple this morning.

Love you all,
Elder Hudgins

We just received our first email from the MTC and couldn’t be happier.  Kyle’s P-Day is on Thursdays while he is in the MTC.  jh

From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: HOLA!
Date: October 1, 2011 12:58:59 PM MDT

Its is saturday right now in between sessions of conference writing my first email!

This week has been crazy! When I got dropped off so many things started to happen. We went inside and i imediately got my nametage. It was a pretty cool feeling to be honest. The guide took me to my redidence all the way in the back corner of the campus. I droped off my bags and then went to my classroom where I met my companion, Elder Kimball. He is a way cool guy and we are getting along very well. He is from sandy and went to Jordan High School. Our teacher is Hermano Grua. He is a way fun teacher and I can’t believe how much spanish I have learned in 3 days.

My district is awesome. Elder Hancock, the elder we met at the Brick oven, is in my district. I am getting along with all the elders y hermanas in my district and we are all having a great time. One our first day, we did a workshop kind of thing where we had a group of about 30 missionaries and we were all teaching some investigators. It was cool get a feel of how the next two years of my life will be like. We need to focus on what the investigator need to hear, instead of what we want him to hear.

Thursday was a tough day. Hermano Grua told us that we would have our first lesson to an investigator on Friday ALL IN SPANISH!!! Me and elder Kimball were so nervous. We tried to gather all the Spanish we knew but we just didn’t feel we knew enough to teach a full lesson. We were really stressed out about that and were getting really dicouraged. We studied all we could and we knew that we would need the help of the Lord to help us make the lesson effective.

Friday morning is when our lesson was. We went over it a little in the morning but not too much. We started our lesson with Domonic, our investigator, and it was pretty rocky. He was talking all in spanish and we were having trouble understanding what he was saying. He also started talking about things that we had not studied any spanish on and were having a hard time answering his questions. But it went a lot better than i excpected it to go. I started to remember things that I had only read over once and some of the things i learned all the way back in jr. high. I have no doubt that the was Padre Celestial helping us through that lesson and helping us remember those things. The lesson ended up being a great learning experience.

Today, everyone at the MTC gathered to watch conference. It was pretty cool to see all these missionaries in one place. I got so excited to hear that they will be building a temple in DR Congo, Kenshasa. I bet Nana and George will be so happy about that. I am so excited for them because being on a mission is the coolest, funnest, but one of the hardest things I have done. Even though I miss everyone already I know that this is the place i should be right now. So please don’t worry about me.

I got the packages Mom, thank you for the donuts the hanger and the twix bars. My district really appriciates it too haha. Could you please send the Argentina flag in my room. I told my roommates I have one and they all want you to send it here.

Yo se la iglesia es verdadera y Jesucristo es el salvador.

I love you all,

Elder Hudgins

My p day is on Thursday so from now on that is the day you will get my emails!