From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: PICTURES!
Date: April 30, 2012 9:13:13 AM MDT
Elder Stokes and I with Bariloche in the background. There is a lake back there, its just a little hard to tell because it was all cloudy. The other is Elder Rozas, Me, Elder Prusse, and Elder Francis.
From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Hello everyone!
Date: April 30, 2012 8:48:16 AM MDT
Well I hope everyone has had a good week. I sure had a great time in Bariloche and really was able to learn a lot from the zone conference that we had.
We left on Thursday morning to Bariloche and got there at about 4:30 so we were able to work in the evening in Bariloche. I was able to work with Elder Prusse so that was fun to see him again. It was fun we were able to teach a couple people, the only downside was that we were totally in the most ugly part of Bariloche haha. So I wasn´t really able to see any of the cool sites. One cool thing was that just before we got to the pension at night Elder Prusse took me to Chango Mas (which is Wal Mart just with a different name) that was right next to their pension. It was interesting, it kind of felt like I was back in the United States for a little bit. On Friday the conference was awesome. We talked a lot about the vision of this mission and on the things we should focus on in our teaching. Another thing that we talked about it opening our mouths. We did this little activity how we were all blindfolded and then President yelled from across the room that he was a missionary from the church of Jesus Christ. We all then had to try to find a way while there were others trying to drag us in different directions. President didn´t say anything else so it was difficult to find him. They connected it with the scirpture in D y C but I can´t remember where, it says that the people are looking for the truth but they don´t know where to find it. So we have to be declaring with truth and talk with everyone!
This week we were able to find a new investigator named Andy. We found his dad Ignacio a couple weeks ago and we have taught him a couple times but his Andy recently moved in from Mendoza. They are both from Bolivia and really humble people. they live in just a one room house. They don´t have much and are just super nice. We talked a lot about baptism and priesthood authority with them and read from 2 Nefi 31. It was a great lesson and they both accepted an invitation to be baptized. They were all excited to go to church too, but they both recieved a call and had to work Sunday morning so that was a bummer. But they are both way awesome people so we are going to continue to work with them.
We also had a really awesome lesson with a new convert. His name is Septimio and he goes to church every Sunday. We were just walking past his house and Elder Stokes felt an impression so see how he was doing. We went in and he said that he was feeling really bad right now. His wives brother was just murdered and was just really sad about that. We shared a message about the resurection and the spirit world and I think we all left with a greater testimony of God´s plan for all his children. It really is a perfect plan and thats what makes it so awesome. The atonement makes up for everything bad that happens in this life. If we just keep the commandments that God has given we don´t have to worry about a thing.
On a lighter note, this week I had my first really weird food. Its called queso de pata. It was discusting. Its a cows leg just ground up and formed into a gelitin type texture. Tendons and everything even a little bit of bone and tons of fat. It was gross. At least I didn´t have to eat too much of it! Well thats about all i have for this week. I hope you all have a great one filled with interesting events! I love you all!
Les amo,
Elder Kyle Hudgins
From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: pics!
Date: April 23, 2012 10:43:18 AM MDT
Me with a big St. Bernard. The river goes through the small town of Aldea that we go to every Friday to eat lunch with some members. And the other is just a view of Trevelin with the fall colors.
From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Hello everyone!
Date: April 23, 2012 10:31:17 AM MDT
Thank you all for the emails this week. I always look forward to seeing how each of you are doing. Looks like Tyler had a nice birthday filled with work and studies and nasty mustaches but thats allright!
Anyway this week wasn´t too bad. We were able to have a good lesson with Cristina this past Monday. It was put together at the very last moment with great thanks to Hermana Margarita who was able to talk to Cristina invite her to have a lesson in her house. So that was really awesome. We taught about the restoration and about the Book of Mormon especially. She says that she has always read the Bible and recently has been loving reading the Book of Mormon. So that is sweet. But unfortunately we were not able to meet with again this past week. So hopefully this coming week we will be ablt to get some things rolling and help her attend church so she can be baptized in the coming weeks.
This week I was able to go on divisions with Elder Calvache, our new district leader. It was a good experience. He was also companions with Elder Clark too. We were knocking some doors and talking to some people. We weren´t having much success and everyone we talked too was not willing to listen to us. Afterward he told me “man I have not seen a harder hearted people for a long time!” We just laughed about it and kept going. We were able to get a couple people to agree for us to meet with them so hopefully that will turn out some new investigators. It was also fun to talk in costellano with him too. I always surprise myself with the language and i think that there in no way I could learn a language like this in 6 months by myself.
Elder Stokes had an interesting contact just yesterday. His name was Jorge and he was just cutting some wood in his front yard. I offered if we could help him he said no but we started conversing and stuff. He was a really nice guy. We asked him if we could come by and share our message with him. But he said that he had to get permission from his pastor. In his religion they have to ask their pastor if they can talk to missionaries from other churches. Elder Stokes then shared with him James 1:5 about how we should ask God. He said he would. I pray that he will and that he will recieve his answer and talk with us.
Well this week we get to go up to Bariloche for Zone conference. Thats pretty exciting. I´ll take some pictures. I hope you all have a wonderfull week full of exciting things to share with me next week!
Les amo,
Elder Kyle Hudgins
From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Hello everyone!
Date: April 16, 2012 10:35:39 AM MDT
Well I hope everyone is doing well at home. I´m doing great here in Trevelin. It was a tought week, but I´m ready to start this new one strong.
This week was really full of hardships and frustrations. Right now we are really having a hard time getting our appoinements confirmed. Whenevery we call or try to go by their house, they don´t answer, so that has really hindered our abiliy to progress with our investigators this week. One hermana in the branch recently came back from the United States. She was living there for six months with her daughter in Nebraska. We were talking to her at lunch and we asked what the biggest difference between Gringos and Argentines are. She said that gringos are really orderly and do everything planned and things like that. She said in Argentina people just go with the flow and things like that and just do whatever. I could deffinately attest to that haha.
This week we really had an awesome sacrament meeting. I had to give another talk for about the forth or fifth time already haha I lost count. But I really don´t mind giving talks anymore. I am more comfortable with it and it also helps me learn a little more about the things I have to talk about. I talked about love and charity and showing by small acts of service. It made me thinks of the times where I had helped somebody and felt that love after doing it. It reminded me that we all have a Heavenly Father who knows us personally and loves us so much that we can´t even imagine. There was also an older lady that attended the meeting. She was from Buenos Aires and was baptized in Trevelin about 60 years ago. She shared her tesitmony and it was amazing. She testified of the love of God. I could really feel it right there and I am so greatfull for that. I am so greatfull for the opportunity to serve our loving Heavenly Father and also to serve his children in the Patagonia.
I love you all and I hope that you have a great week. I hope you enjoy the warm weather you have up there. It is getting pretty cold here.
Les amo,
Elder Kyle Hudgins
Well this is weird. The email was sent at 9:41 in the morning. It arrived at 11:00pm. We are just happy it did arrive. (jh)
From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Crazy week!
Date: April 9, 2012 9:41:45 AM MDT
Well this week was a good one but also a little tough with the adjustment of a new companion. Its nice to hear that you all had a good Easter. Not to much happened here in Trevelin.
So Elder Clark left this week. Its sad to see him go. We became awesome friends and worked really well together for these past three transfers. Elder Stokes is my new companion. He is from Preston Idaho. He has just over a year on his mission. He is a way cool guy. We are getting along well so thats awesome. The hard part is just going about the things that just became routine when I was with Elder Clark. A new companion makes the routine a little different so its been a little hard to adjust to that and get that happy medium. It has also been really tough to be the person to show him around the area and everything. Im pretty much the one in charge because he doesn´t know anything about the area so thats tough but I think it has really helped me out. I have been talking more in the lessons and being more involved in conversations. I kind of fell in the the habit of letting Elder Clark do all the conversing and I would just support in the lessons. But this changed has really helped me out and helped me step up to the plate a little bit. We were with Prosperina last night and she was very pleased with my progression. She said that when I first got here, it made her mad that she couldn´t have a conversation with me but now she can so that makes her happy. Its also really nice to be able to talk with people more because it helps you grow more love for them which will in turn help in lessons with the spirit so thats an exciting thing to look forward to.
This week we weren´t able to find a lot of investigators because people were doing things for the semana santa the whole week. But we were able to talk with Cristina again. We had a really good conversation with her but it was just in her doorway so we didn´t get into anything too deep. But she was telling her story to Elder Stokes and it was just awesome to see the faith that she has. She is so greatfull for us that we came and found her. She really wants to get baptized. She told us that she called her sister that lives in Tucumán Argentina that she was talking to us and to let them in if they ever come to her house. One thing that also really shocked me was she asked if older people could go on missions. We told her yes and she said that that is something she would love to do. So thats just awesome to hear. We have an appoinment with her tommorrow so hopefully it goes well. We are still praying for her that she can find a house very soon. The guy that she is living with is very abusive and the sooner that she can get out of that house the better it would be for her.
Well thats about it for this week. We are really trying to find some new investigators in this coming week. Hopefully we´ll be able to get some more people progressing in the gospel. I am so greatfull for this gospel. These past few days made me think of all the blessings I have from our Heavenly Father. I´m so greatfull for the atonement of Jesus Christ and his example that he set. I know that if we follow his teachings we will have happier lives on the Earth and also after. I love you all and hope you have a great week.
Les amo,
Elder Kyle Hudgins
The Esquel District at the bus station in Esquel.
Elder Francis, Elder Prusse, Elder White, Elder Clark, Elder Hudgins, Elder Rozas
Elder Hudgins and Elder Clark.
Elder Hudgins in Trevelin.
From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Another thing
Date: April 9, 2012 10:09:11 AM MDT
I am pretty sure Kyle meant to send another email that contained perhaps too many pictures and was denied by his mail server. We missed that one but at least got this picture with comments. He lives. So does Kyle. (jh)
I thought this picture was really interesting. We were just walking around and we saw this big group of people. Its really interesting. The Catholics don´t eat meat all week, they just eat fish. This is what they did on Friday.
From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Conference Week
Date: April 2, 2012 12:56:38 PM MDT
Well this week was a pretty good one and it was awesome to cap it off with conference!
We were able to go to Esquel this weekend and watch the conference through satellite. They also had it playing in English so I was able to watch it all in the chapel with all the other missionaries in the district. It was fun. I really liked a lot of the talks but my favorite would have to be Elder Holland´s talk in i think it was Saturday afternoon. I especially loved how he ended it. Él re bajó la cañe but as always with so much love. “If you have made covenants, keep them; if you haven´t made convenants, then make them; if you have broken covenants, repent and repair them.” and “Don´t delay, it´s getting late.” where my two favorite quotes from his talk. I really liked it because there are many less actives that have made all these covenants and they are not keeping them right now. It is so important that we keep our end of the deal when we make those covenents because then God can´t keep his end of the deal. I also really like Uchtdorf´s talk on Sunday morning about judging others. I thought it was really good for all the members here in Argentina. There is a huge problem with gossip, especially in Trevelin because its so small. People get offended and then never want anything to do with the church. I also don´t think it was a coincidence that his tie was the same colors as the Argentine flag haha.
Well we also got permission to watch the priesthood session at 9 from president but I really did not get much out of it because in the middle of it we got conference calls and some really crazy things happened in our district. Elder White has only been here for 2 transfers and he is leaving to go open an area in General Roca. The weird thing is that he only has one transfer left on his mission. He was really surprised when that call came. He thought for sure he was finishing here. Also Elder Prusse is getting transfered within the zone which hardly ever happens to Bariloche. And then Elder Clark sadly is being transfered to the Neuquen 2 zone as a zone leader. I was pretty sure he was leaving so it wasn´t too much of a suprise. But that now make 6 of the last 7 missionaries that have been in Trevelin have gone up to zone leaders sometime in their mission. Maybe a foreshadow of things to come? haha But really its not going to be fun to see Elder Clark leave. We have become great friends and have gotten along awesomely. But I´m still excited. My new companion´s name is Elder Stoke. Elder Clark met him once in Comodoro and he says that he is a way cool guy so thats good to hear.
Things are still going pretty good with our investigators. Cristina is still progressing but right now she can´t go to church because of the guy she is living with. So once she gets some money from her job she is planning on moving out. We went by her today so Elder Clark could say bye and she was really sad. She really believes that we have saved her and she really has a testimony. She is awesome and i´m sure she will be baptized in the coming weeks. Another awesome thing that has happened is that one of our references that we called in to the front office is getting baptized. The reference was a sister of Hermana Delfina in our branch. She lives in Trelew and now she is getting baptized. Delfina had us over for lunch this week and broke down when she told us her sister was getting baptized. She was so happy that we helped bring the gospel in her life by calling in the reference. It really gave me that good feeling. I was so happy to be able to help someone come into the gospel although is was a little indirectly.
Well thats about all I have for this week. I´ll send some pictures next week with Elder Clark and I and also with my new comp. We´ll see how it goes this week because it is my area, even though im jr comp i have to take a little charge in showing him around and helping him get to know the members and investigators.
I love you all and hope you have an awesome week!
Les amo,
Elder Kyle Hudgins
From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: ¡Hola mis queridos!
Date: March 26, 2012 8:29:17 AM MDT
Hey family and friends! How is everyone doing, I hope all is going well at home.
Oh my goodness, no me diga, 6 months already. Time has flown for me! It seriously has gone by so fast i can´t believe it. Probably won´t do anything special, just any other work day. Transfers are also coming up this next Saturday night so this will most likly be Elder Clark´s last week in Trevelin. Hopefull it goes awesome and we can have a good turn out at General Conference.
This week was a little up and down. A really good thing was the continuing miricle of Cristina. We talked to her on Tuesday and she told us that Hna. Margarita let her and her work in a little house that she has out back with her granddaughter. They started a tailor business and now have a lot of work. That was one of the things that Cristina really wanted so she could get some money so she can find somewhere to live. So now she is working and making so money so that is awesome. In that lesson we also put a baptismal date for the 14 of April. Hopefully this goes through and we can keep her progressing. She loves the talks that was have given her and recognized the hand of the Lord in her life with all these blessings she has recieved.
Sadly this week Uziel did not come to church, so it´s not looking like he will be able to get baptized this next week. It was really dissapointing for Elder Clark and I because we really wanted to get a baptism before he leaves. We will keep working with him to get him baptized and also Zulma to get her reactivated in church.
This week also the Elders in Esquel Uno had a baptizm. His name is Erik, 16 years old. I had the opportunity to teach him a couple of times doing divisions with the elders in Esquel. He is such an awesome kid. And going to the baptism just made me really want that. I really want to do all I can so I can help someone have the blessing of this gospel. It was the first baptism i attended since I have been on my mission and the spirit that was there was so awesome. When someone decides to make that descion and go through with it, it just can´t get anything better with that. Hopefully I have one with one of my own investigators in the next coming weeks.
Well thats about it for the week. Pretty uneventfull. But I´m really excited for this next week and especially for general conference. Hopefully the chance to listen to living prophet will get people animated about the gospel. I know I´m really excited for it.
I hope you all have a great week. I love you all and I love hearing your stories you have for me. Thanks for all you do!
Les amo,
Elder Kyle Hudgins
From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Hello Family and Friends!
Date: March 19, 2012 9:15:53 AM MDT
FA! This week was awesome! Elder Clark and I were able to see a lot of miricles this week. Which probably turned out to be the best week of my mission so far.
Anyway I will first start with Uziel. He is the son of Zulma and we have been trying to work with him but we haven´t been able to make much progress. We went to their house on Saturday night to invite them to church. They were just about to leave to go do some shopping in Esquel though so we weren´t able to talk much. We invited him but he really wasn´t so excited, he had no ganas whatsoever. We were a little down because we really wanted someone in sacrament so we can have some investigators prepare to be baptized on conference weekend. On Saturday night there was an activity at the church and Uziel´s sister came who is an active member in Bariloche. We asked her what she thought and she didn´t think he would be there. So Sunday came around, we weren´t really expecting much. But during the sacrament song, Zulma and Uziel both showed up. It was the biggest shock to me, but I was so happy! We went to their house yesterday evening and talked a little. He said that he had prayed and recieved the confermation that he needs to get baptized. We set the date for the 31 of March so I hope we can keep him animated about it and get it done.
The other miricle we saw this week was with a new investigator, Cristina. We found her a while ago actually but we haven´t been able to teach her. We went by with Pte. Ganga for the visit and it was awesome. Right now she has been really down on her life. The guy that she is living with does not treat her well and she said she didn´t have much self worth. We talked about the love that God has for and that she matters to him. She broke down many times and the spirit was so strong. At the end Pte. Ganga gave her a blessing of comfort and that was also just awesome. The other crazy thing was that one of her old friends that she hadn´t talked to for a long time called her that same day to come meet up with her. That lady ended up being the granddaughter of one of the members of the brach Hna. Margarita, who Pte. Ganga told to go visit Cristina. So Cristina intorduced herself and then Margarita was like, “I´m supposed to visit you.” And they just started talking and stuff. We talked to her last night and she said that it was all an answer to her prayers. The day before she talked with us she was having very bad thoughts about her life and just didn´t know what more she could do. She said that she has no doubt that God put us in her life. We also gave her the talk “You Matter to Him” by Pte. Uchtdorf from the last conference and she says she has read it three time already and loves it. It was just an awesome experience to feel that we really were led by God and we were meant to help her through these trial in her life.
Alright so last week I had my interview with President Peterson. He is an awesome guy. He told us to share with him a scripture that has changed our life. When I was thinking I really could not think of one, but I could think of principle that have. The one that stuck out with the Atonement of Jesus Christ. While on my mission I have learned so much of the Atonement and it is the one thing I am so greatfull for. I shared with him Alma 7:11-13. Its probably my favorite scripture of the Atonement. He did all of that for us, but the only we we qualify for the blessing of the Atonement is if we follow the commandments of God. It truly is a blessing that everyone needs to hear and I´m so greatful for the opportunity to share it with the people of Argentina.
Thank you for all your prayers. I know there are all being answered and they have helped me out a lot and I love you all for that. There is no greater joy you get from doing the Lord´s work. I love you all and hope you have a great week.
Les amo,
Elder Kyle Hudgins