From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Time flies when you are having fun!
Date: November 24, 2011 12:23:43 PM MST

Well, its a pretty cool feeling that this will be my last email here at the MTC. I still can’t really imagine myself in Argentina but that only a couple days away. Yeah Im not to excited for that that 12 hour flight from Atlanta and then Im sure another long plane ride or (hopefully not) bus ride to Neuquen. Yeah The flight plans that we got didn’t say how we get from Buenos Aires to Neuquen. I guess maybe someone from the mission office will be there to pick us up or something I don’t know. But its going to be an awesome experience, Im way excited.

So this week we have been a little spoiled here at the MTC. On the tuesday night devotional we had D. Todd Chritofferson speak to us. He gave an awesome talk about what things he would have done differently on his mission (he actually served in Argentina as well). One thing he said was make sure to focus on your results. See what your efforts are doing and if they aren’t producing then you have to change. Another one is earn the trust of the memebers. I can only assume this is really important. In one of our investigators she didin’t really have a desire to be baptized but once she went to churuch, she felt it was the thing to do. She mentioned that is was like a family there and they made her feel welcome. If she had a bad experience, it probably wouldn’t have gone well. So everybody back home in the ward, it is very important that you fellowship anyone you don’t know becuase that one visit to church could bring them to baptism or the loss of interest. Another thing that he said that i really loved was to yeild your whole heart to the lord. This is something that has been on my mind a lot these last couple of weeks. It is deffinitely not an easy thing to do. But one of the most important things as a missionary is for everyone that you come in contact with to feel the love of the savior. The only way we can do that is if we are like the savior and make our will the will of the Father.

So today, I just barley got out of another fireside where Russell M. Nelson spoke. Its pretty cool to get two apostles in my last week here. The first thing he told us to do was for me to tell all of you at home that he is thankfull for you. He talked a lot about thanksgiving and giving thanks. It was pretty good. He told a story about how the church started in Russia. He was so confused about what to do and everything he had tried to do didin’t work. So thats when the lord stepped in and people where memeber started moving into the country and eventually they were able to register the church in Russia. He then told about when he gave his prayer of thanks to the lord.

I’m so glad to here that everything is going well at home. I love hearing about it. Keep sending dear elders these last few days. I want one on Friday and Saturday. They are my last two days of mail. Make them count. And seriously Tyler send me one, come on now, i know you can find time.

So yeah this week has been pretty awesome. But im so excited to go to Argentina! And im pretty sure I will not be able to get my luggage to be under 50 pounds, I don’t know what to do with all this stuff you have sent, I don’t even know if ill have room. I’ll try my best but be expecting a pretty big spending spree at the airport.

I hope you all have an awesome Thanksgiving today. We have a service project and a little treat in the evening. Mike said they got to watch football so thats what I’m really hoping for! Have a great week. Till next time from Argentina!

Les amo,
Elder Kyle Hudgins

Kyle sent a separate written letter to the family.  In it he answered some of the questions we had asked previously.  Here are some of the answers.

“You asked if I had developed strong relationships with teachers and other people in my district and that is yes.  I am great friends with everyone in my district.”

While playing basketball Kyle and Elder King had collided.  There was concern Elder King may have torn his MCL in his knee.  Nobody wants to be injured and possibly delay getting into the mission field.

“Elder King’s knee was fine, he had to wear a brace for a while and couldn’t play sports but now he can so it’s all good.”

Hermana Sandorf had injured her back.  Kyle and Elder Kimball were able to give her a blessing.  We had wondered how everything turned out.

“Hermana Sandorf is all healthy also.  The trainers said that it healed really fast, that’s the work of the priesthood right there.”

On being district leader.

“Being district leader is getting better.  I have to make sure we are all speaking as much spanish as possible.  We have this game where you have a rock and if the person with the rock hears someone speak english they pass it to them, so we are speaking a lot of spanish.  I have learned everything there is to know (grammar wise) in spanish so I could say anything I want if I know the vocab.”

Kyle then goes on to ask…

“As for my sleeping bag… I still have no idea how I am going to get it to Argentina.  Any ideas?”

Finally he says…

“P.S. Tell Debbie thanks for the cheese balls, everyone loves them.”

The picture shows what happens after nearly two months in the MTC.

Elder Hudgins, Elder Kimball and Elder Snelson.

From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Only one more p day left!
Date: November 17, 2011 12:38:30 PM MST

Ha well thank you for telling my flight information. I actually haven’t recieved my flight plans yet. I think we either get them tonight or Friday. So thank you for relieving my curiosity!

Well this week was pretty cool. The coolest thing was our devotional this past Tuesday. Tad R. Callister from the presidency of the 70 came to speak to us. It was pretty much the coolest talk I have ever heard. He talked about the apostacy and how we have to make sure our investigators understand it so they can see that there was a need for a restoration. This was something that I think will be very good to know because of all the Catholics I will be teaching in Argentina. He then went on to point out 10 witnesses that there was an apostacy. I can’t quite remember all of them, I forgot my journal (yes mom I am writing in my journal every night). But I will name of some that i remember. 1. The true order of prayer was lost. He made the analogy how like in battles and stuff they try to take out the communications first and that is exactly what Satan did. 2. Ordinance where changed, altered or lost. He found the first time where a sprinkling baptism was taken place (Pres. Callister is seriously a genious) and it happened because there was a lame man who was unable to be submerged and they allowed it for him and then that eventually became the custom. 3. The bible ends. Its seems so obvious yet i never thought of it. God obviously stoped revealing his word to the poeple. 4. The sctiputes tell us. I think the scripture is Amos 8:11 but im not sure but it is pretty porfound, look it up. 5. The scriptures were taken from the hands of lay members. Ordinary people could not own a bible and they were usually not in english so they could not read it if they got their hands on one. 6. The priesthood was taken from the earth. Sense I have been in the MTC I can really see how important the priesthood. It is the authority to act in God’s name on earth. There are less than 14 million people out of 6 billion who have that. Thats pretty crazy. Well that is all i can remember fromt he top of my head but that talk was amazing. My testimony of the truthfulness of the church grew so much. When he started talking about Joseph Smith and the restoration i could really feel the spririt. I know that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that he restored the fullness of the gospel. I am so greatfull that I came on a mission. My testimony would not nearly be as strong as it is now and I wouldn’t be as happy as I am now. If i hadn’t come here. Im so excited to go to Argentina and i can’t believe that its only a week and a half away. Time goes by so fast here but I am so ready to get to work and help people come unto Christ.

So for that box, just go ahead and send it and if I can’t fit in my suitcase ill just send it back. Or can i just open it haha. But do it quick I dont have much time and things are crazy this week with me leaving and with thanksgiving. The dry cleaners are closed for the second part of the week and the barbar shop will propbably be closed to so I don’t know whats going on. But at least you will get to hear from me on Thanksgiving. I hope its fun!

Well I love you all and I miss you, keep sending letters, its the last week i will be able to get them every day!

Les amo,
Elder Kyle Hudgins

From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Running our of interesting subjects…
Date: November 10, 2011 1:55:33 PM MST

Well this week, noting really special happened… It was probably the most boring week here. The fireside and devotionals were both kind of boring. Elder Gavarret from the 70 came on Tuesday night and I can’t remember the guys name from Sunday night. The one on sunday was just more of an informative fireside. He was like an attorney for the church and just had some interesting fact and stuff but nothing that has really stuck. Um one cool thing that happened this week was our brach president, President Stone brought the whole zone pizza. It was awesome he brought like 10 pizzas for everyone. It was sweet. I have a pretty cool branch presidency. President Stone if from North Carolina I think so he talks in his southern accent. There is also Brother Bulloch. He just got back from being a missino president in Mexico a couple months ago. He is probably the most intense guy I have ever heard. His lessons and talks are awesome. A couple weeks ago in sacrament he gave an awesome talk about la expiacion and it made me think about it in a way i have never thought about it before.

Its wierd we are now the oldest district in our zone now. I only have like 3 weeks left here. It has gone by soooo fast. Its been nice but I really cant wait till I get to Argentina.

Alright to answer your questions…

The hardest thing to do in the MTC was the first lesson. It was the first Friday there and they ask you to teach an investigator all in spanish. That was probably when i felt the most overwhelmed here. But it gets a lot easier. Because the thing that I enjoy the most now it teaching in spanish. Its pretty cool. I never really liked teaching but now its not so bad. Its fun to see how your investigators are doing any you feel great when they are progressing. I can pretty much say what I want to say in my lessons. Its crazy how fast you learn spanish here.

The MTC is nothing like what I expected it to be. I can’t remember exactly what I thought of it before I got here but i just remember thinking that it was totally different.

How are things going at home? Its the same thing you say to me, I want to know everything thats going on. I know its hard to find things to write about but that is exactly how I feel right now.

Im sorry this letter is kind of bland, hopefully next week will be a little more interesting.

I love you all so much and I miss you!

Les amo,
Elder Hudgins

From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Almost forgot
Date: November 10, 2011 2:00:08 PM MST

Please tell my friends and everyone to write me! The letters have slown a little bit and I would love to hear from them. Just tell everyone, I want at least one letter everyday this week!

A few days ago, I sent Kyle a bunch of questions about his time in the MTC.  The second half of his email contains the answers to those questions. (jh)

From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Howdy!
Date: November 3, 2011 12:48:13 PM MDT

So this week was a pretty good week! Probably the coolest thing that happened this week was that all 3 of our investigators accepted our baptism invitation. That coolest was with Carolina. She came to church and loved it. We asked her the questions like what do you think about el libro de Mormon and she said she believed it was the word of God and that she believed Joseph Smith was a true prophet. The spirit was sooooo strong it was amazing so I popped the question. Seguira el ejemplo de Jesucristo al ser bautizado por alguien que posea la autoridad del sacerdocio de Dios? And she said yes! It was amazing. Its cool that you can feel the spirit so strong in just a role play. Our teacher said that he hadn’t felt the spirit like that since his mission. It was awesome. It just makes me more excited to go to Argentina and teach it to my own investiagators. Our other investigator, Ezra came to church also but he had some doubts. He didn’t believe he had enough faith to actually be babtized. We were kind of struggling to answer his question but then Ether 12:6 came to my mind and I had him read it and he could not deny it. He said yes to baptism. And then our other investigator Valentino. We contacted him on Saturday of last week behind a liquor store where he was drunk. We shared with him that God loves him and through Jesucristo we can be forgiven of our sins. We gave him a book of mormon and told him to read 3 Nephi 11. When we visitied with him on Monday we talked about the Atonement in more detail and we asked him to be baptized and he accepted. It was all pretty awesome!

We I almost forgot to mention this but on Sunday I was assigned to be the district leader. Im not really sure what to thing about it. Leading is not really my strong suit. I feel very uncomfortable telling people to stay on task and all that stuff. But im sure that was the reason I was assigned. The lord puts us in positions so we can learn and I will definitly learn a lot from this.

So to answer some questions, No i do not use google translate in my letters, lds.org is the only website you can get on here at the MTC. We try to speak spainsh as much as we can. It is a new program called speak your language. The teachers only speak in spanish and we are supposed to say whatever you know in Spanish all the time. Im not the best at doing this. Its hard to get all the english our of your mind and replace it with spanish. But Elder Kimball and I decided that whenever we are planning a lesson we have to speak in spanish. so little by little it will come.

I forgot to mention this last week but we met with the Argentina visa agents and consul. I was fingerprinted and signed all the papers. I don’t know how long it will take for it to go through, i sure hope that i can get there on time.

No i did not read the Book of Mormon in spanish. I finished it in english. I am terrible at reading spanish it is really hard for me but im sure it will get a little easier as time goes on.

If i was placed in Argentina right now I could probaly make conversation and maybe teach a lesson but I know i would not be able to understand them very well at all. When the Argentina consul came she talked in spanish for us just to give us a little taste of what its like. I seriously couldn’t understand pretty much anything she said. Its very frightening but im sure ill get used to it when I get to Argentina.

No president Monson did not come to the MTC. We heard that he was at BYU and got a little excited that he was here. When we got in and realized it wasn’t him you could hear a little groaning going throughout the biuling. But Elder Zwick from the 70 talked and spoke about prayer and it was very good.

Some things i would do different before i got here would be memorized the purpose of a missionary on page one of PMG (Preach My Gospel) and when you are reading your scriptures doing whatever study  try to see how you can accomplish that purpose with whatever you are studying. Every thing we do here is connected our purpose its pretty crazy.

Im excited to hear about Jr. Its going to be awesome and i know he will be a good missionary. Tell everyone i say hi. Send more pics and thanks for the watch!

Les Amo!
Elder Hudgins

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