Sometimes I have found that large emails from Kyle take long time to be delivered.  This one must have come in after I was already in bed in spite of the time stamp from the email. (jh)

From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Pictures
Date: May 14, 2012 6:31:32 PM MDT

Alright so the first picture is of Presidente Ganga and Hermana Ganga.

The second is the Castillo Family.

The third is the Nicklitscheck Family.

The last is Prosperina with here daughter Patricia and her two kids, and Tania, Prosperina’s granddaughter that lives with her. I´ll send more pictures of the pension next week.

We were able to have a Skype call with Elder Hudgins today though it did have some problems.  First, as the image shows, the camera on the computer that Kyle used was zoomed in quite a bit.

About half way through the conversation, his camera completely stopped working.  We were able to continue a wonderful conversation with him without video so all was fine.

Kyle is being transfered to the town of Rawson which is at the same longitude as Trevelin but on the Atlantic coast.  His companion will be an Elder Rivera from El Salvador so he will get the opportunity to speak nothing but Spanish.

Kyle also mentioned that he has been surprised at how much he will miss Trevelin but he is excited for a new adventure.

I took a few snips out of the audio of our Skype call.  The first is Kyle’s advice to the young men and women of our ward though it applies to all young men and women thinking of a mission.
Advice to prospective missionaries

The second audio is Kyle’s testimony in Spanish.
2012-05-13-spanish-testimoney

Tomorrow will be busy for Kyle as he hops on a bus Monday evening.  We aren’t sure if there will be an email and pictures.  If there are, look here first. (jh)

From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Hola everyone!
Date: May 7, 2012 9:40:15 AM MDT

Well this week wasn´t a bad week here in Trevelin. We are still working hard to try to get some more investigators but there are some things that are really looking up.

This week we found two new investigators that are pretty sweet. Their names are Ivan and Alejandra. They are a young couple and about to have a baby in the next coming weeks. We found them a couple weeks ago when I just felt an impression to knock a door because we hadn´t done many contacts for the day. We then saw a sticker on a door that said “Confiar en Dios” or trust in God so we thought it might be a good one to try. She invited us back but we hadn´t been able to find them but we finally did this last week. We talked about the restoration. They had a lot of questions about why there were so many churches. They said they thought all were good but didn´t know which was the best. We talked about how Joseph Smith had these same questions and how he prayed to ask God which one he should go to. We didn´t have too much time to get into much else but we committed them to pray about it and ask God. I have a lot of hope with these two. They expressed that with having a baby they want to have something to help them raise it well. So we will see how it goes this week and hopefully we can get them with a baptismal date.

Cristina is still progressing. She is reading the Book of Mormon and loves it so that is awesome. The thing that is holding her back is church and her marriage situation or lack thereof. We met they guy that she lives with this week and he was really nice with us. He seemed like a nice guy very contrary to what we have been told. So this coming week we are going to try to teach him. Maybe that will be the key and will give her more support in progressing in the Gospel.

This week Presidente Ganga made a lot of changes in what the members need to be doing. We had a branch council this week (which includes most of the branch) and he really talked a lot about visiting and home teaching. He assigned every active member with a less active person in the branch. I´m excited to see how this will work out. I´m sure it will be really good for all the menos activos in the branch. Being on my mission I have been able to see the importanct of vistiting and home teaching. Many times I have seen people stop going to church because they don´t have a very good realationship with the members. Visiting and home teacher will help out a lot with that and help them have a friend in the church.

Well thats about all I have for this week. We have transfers coming up next Saturday. I have a hunch that I might be leaving but you never know. At least I´ll get to tell you when we get to talk on skype next Sunday! I can´t wait to see all of you. I hope you all have a wonderfull week full of exciting stories for you to tell me about.

Les amo,
Elder Kyle Hudgins

In the cold morning on the country side of Trevelin.

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