Category Archives: Area: Zapala

Last one!

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From: Kyle Hudgins
Subject: Last one!
Date: 5 Oct 2013 06:30:37 MDT

Well I dpn´t want to spoil all the stories for when I get home but I would really like to share the amazing day we had last Saturday in Rincon de los Sauces. I really was such a great experience. We met with the familia Ponce and the familia Bogado. So just a little background. The Familia Ponce was baptized in Santa Fe about 20 years ago. Hno Ponce was in the high council and everything but then he moved to Rincon 12 years ago where the church doesn´t exist. They go to church every once in a while to Neuquen where they have a daughter living. But it has been 12 years where there has been no church but he still tells everyone that he is Mormon. So 12 years without a visit from missionaries and we were able to make that visit on Saturday. I don´t think I have ever seen a family so happy to have a visit from missionareis. It really was a great experience. We were also with the Familiy Bogado who is a former bishop from Buenos Aires who has lived in Rincon for about 2 months now. Hno Bogado told us that we were the first missionaries to ever be in Rincon. That really was a cool thing to be a part of. Both Hno Bogado and Hno Ponce took us around the city and we were able to see everything. Its a cool place and reminded me a lot of Utah to be honest. We talked to them about puting together a branch of the mission out there and also puting 4 missionaries there. And like you guys found out we are getting 58 missionaries this transfer cycle so that will probably be really soon when we will see some missionaries in Rincon. It really was an experience that I was so greatfull to be a part of. The faith that these members showed has really been a testimony builder for me. Being a missionary really is awesome!

Well I´m really excited to see you all this coming week. I love you all!

Elder Kyle Hudgins

This is a statue of Christ that looks over Rincon.

Statue of Christ

Elder Wagstaff, Presidente Lovell and Elder Hudgins

A picture with the Flia Ponce and the Flia Bogado.

Flia Ponce and the Flia Bogado

Flia Ponce and the Flia Bogado with Elder Hudgins, Presidente Lovell and Elder Wagstaff.

Here is one with Elder Wagstaff on a lookout. Behind us is the povence of Mendoza.

Elder Hudgins and Elder Wagstaff

Elder Hudgins and Elder Wagstaff

Some news

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From: Kyle Hudgins
Subject: Some news
Date: 15 Jul 2013 08:22:13 AM MDT

Well hello everyone. Its fun to write you today from my new area. I would think that you will all be excided to hear about where i am. Well today I am writing you from the comfotable mission office because I have been assigned to be the next assistant to the president. Yeah pretty crazy no? I was really surprised and its going to be a really cool experience.

Well this week we were able to have the baptism of Sabrina. It was a really special baptismal service. All of the Barraza family was there and also Sabrina´s parents came and they really liked the service. We showed a video that showed the testimonies of all the apostles and he told us that he really believe that all the things they were saying were true. So we set up an appointment to go by this week.

We were also able to make a lot of progress with another parrt member family. Brenda is a less acitve member who says she really wants to return to church. She is living with her boyfriend Sergio. He accepted a fecha for the 17 of agust and they are both really excited to start changing their lives and go to church.

So yeah its going to be a pretty crazy experience being assistant but I am pretty excited to be with Elder Wagstaff again. We will also be in a trio with Elder Zimbleman for a week and a half so that will be fun as well.

Sorry but I forgot my camera in the house. I love you all and I promise pictures next week. I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!

Elder Kyle Hudgins

Hello Family

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From: Kyle Hudgins
Subject: Hello Family!
Date: 8 Jul 2013 08:12:12 AM MDT

Well we sure had a crazy week with traveling and training meeting and all that stuff but it was also really exciting and we are continuing to have success.

So I will start off with Sabrina. She is pretty much a golden investigator. She already has a testimony and she said that she already knew that she was going to get baptized in the futrue just didn´t know when. She had a baptismal date for the 20 of july but we asked her how she was feeling about that. She said that now she is pretty much just waiting for the date to come. We asked her if she would like to do it a week earlyer and she said yes. So this weekend Sabrina will be baptized! It will be a really special moment because she and her husband have been having some problems in the past but I know that this gospel will bring them together. Guille, her husband, is really excited to start going back to church. They also have the cutest little daughter, its just an amazing family. We truely are blessed to find somebody so prepared.

This week we were also able to find somebody else who the lord really has prepared. His name is Sergio (we are teaching like 3 Sergios right now). He is the boyfriend of a less active member, Brenda. Brenda´s sister just left of a mission a month ago and really has had desired to go back to church. Sergio has already been to church quite a few times and really wants to know more. He really likes talking with us and also likes going to church. So we will start working with them and hopefully get Sergio with a baptismal date.

Things really are going great here in Zapala. In the zone leader council I asked president if i could stay and he said no haha so I´m pretty sure this is going to be my last week here in Zapala. We will have to work hard to make sure that this area keeps going but it will be fun. The lord sure has blessed us in Zapala and I know that he will continue to do so. I love you all and hope you have a wonderfull week!

Elder Kyle Hudgins

Hola Familia!

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From: Kyle Hudgins
Subject: Hola Familia!
Date: 1 Jul 2013 08:44:10 AM MDT

Well today was a pretty crazy week but with lots of really cool things that happened.

So I will start with Sergio. He was baptized on Satruday! It was pretty sick. He really loves the gospel. We had to teach him everything in one week and he accepted everything. He stopped smoking and committed to live everything. Such a capo! Yesterday the Venegas family invited him to eat lunch with him and we asked him if he would share the scripture. And he shared the sickest scripture in 2 Nefi 25:29. Man he shared that scripture like he was a member all his life. It was such an awesome feeling. We surely are blessed to have been able to find him and baptize him.

This week we were also able to do divisions with some other elders here in Zapala. I went to the other area and when I got back, my comp told me that they started teaching Luciano´s sister in law who is not a member. We went by again and she is awesome and already has a testimony of the church. She now has a fecha for the 20 of july so that will be super awesome.

This week was also a fun opportunity to do divisions with Elder Kimball in Cutral Co. It was fun to be companions again. Just like in the good old days in the MTC. We had a lot of fun and we had a lot of success as well. He is opening the area and we were able to find some new investigators for them.

I´m sorry that this letter is a little short and summed up but my time is running out. I love you all so much and I hope you have a wonderfull week!

Elder Kyle Hudgins

Hello Family!

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From: Kyle Hudgins
Subject: Hello family!
Date: 24 Jun 2013 08:11:56 AM MDT

Well this was a pretty great week and we continue to see the hand of the lord in this wonderfull work!

First off I would like to start with Sergio. You may remember that he came to church 2 times but we were never able to find his house. Well we lost contact with him because he didn´t come to church last week. But on Saturday just before leaving the apartment in the morning my comp and I prayed that we could find Sergio again. As we were walking to lunch lo and behold we found Sergio! He was busy doing some errands and stuff but we told him that later in the afternoon we had an english class in the church and he said he would be there. He came to english and after we had a charla with him and we invited him to be baptized. He accepted. We had a prayer at the end of the lesson and he said it. We told him to pray to know if these things were true. After the prayer he told us I know this is true. It was so awesome. The Lord really had prepared Sergio and if all goes well he could be baptized this weekend. We are so blessed and I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers.

So this week was had interviews with the president. The were awesome. The assistants did a workshop about the atonement while president was calling everyone for their interview. The workshope was awesome. They had a bag of charcol and we had to get our hand all dirty and stuff. and they tied it in with our missionary purpose and how through baptism we can be clean again. The interview with president was great. He told me as well that it is very likely that I will be leaving Zapala at the end of the transfer so we will see how that goes.

So last night I was able to watch the broadcast. It was pretty awesome. I love it how that showed how through little small things like inviting people can help people accept the gospel. It really made me excited about the work in the future.

Well I love you all and I hope you have a wonderfull week!

Elder Kyle Hudgins

Here is a picture in San Martin. A lot of the snow had alread melted but the mountains are beautiful.

With Elder Suarez in San Martin.

San Martin

San Martin

Hello familiy!

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From: Kyle Hudgins
Subject: Hello familiy!
Date: 17 Jun 2013 08:21:16 AM MDT

Well we sure had a pretty good week. We saw a lot of cool things happen in the area and a couple of miricles also.

So this week Luciano got baptized. It was a pretty sweet service because the family is so big so there were a lot of people there which was really sweet. Lucianos dad baptized him which was a sweet thing to see. The family was inactive for about 10 years now and now the are back and strong again. It was a really sweet moment for the family. Yesterday he was confirmed by his brother in law which was also really cool to see. I hope this family will continue progressing and enduring to the end.

We also made a ton of progress with our investiagator Omar. We went and saw him friday night and was had a good chat with him and invited him to the bapismal service. He came and had a really good experience. After the service we had a lesson with him in the church with the bishop. It was just a really awesome lesson and the spirit was super strong. He told us that he loves it when we come by because he just feels so much better when we talk to him. He is really lonely and has a lot of pain in his life and he says when we teach him it goes all away. We comitted him to go to church and he came. He made a really big sacrifice as well. He works all night from 11 to 8 in the morning. He was really tired but he made it through church and had a great time. I´m not sure if I have seen an investigator progress as much as he did in a week so that was awesome. Hopefully we can help him continue to progress for his feca on the 6 of july.

Well things sure are going really well in the area and also in the zone so everything is just going awesome right now. This week we are going to San Martin and we also have interviews with the president so it should be another good one. I love you all and hope you have a wonderfull week!

Elder Kyle Hudgins

Here is a picture of the baptism.
With Elder Suarez, Luciano, Luciano’s Dad and Elder Hudgins,

Luciano Baptism

Luciano Baptism

Last week on p day we had an an asadito with some hot dogs. it was pretty good.
Elder Hudgins and Elder Suarez.

Asadito

Asadito

Hola familia!

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From: Kyle Hudgins
Subject: Hola familia!
Date: 10 Jun 2013 08:26:17 AM MDT

Hello everone. Well this week has been pretty fun with my new comp. Elder Suarez is pretty awesome and really animated about the work and we have fun with it. He only has 9 months in the mission so he is still a little fresh which is awesome. Even though we had a tough start to the week we still had fun and we were really blesses yesterday on Sunday.

The assistants called us and told us to focus on getting references and putting new fechas but we were haveing no success during the whole week. We couldn´t find anyone that we wanted to put a fecha with. But we kept at it and finally on suday we finally found some of our investigators. We were able to find Hector who was a reference and has already gone to church with the Hermanas in another ward. We taught him and he accepted a fecha easily. He really wants to follow Jesus Christ and I know this gospel will help him do that. We were also able to find Omar. We had a great lesson with him but we really have to help him pray so he can get his answer that these things are true. But I know if we can do that we will start progressing well.

Last night we were also able to see a miracle. It was like 8:50 at night and we were just waiting for 9 to come around to go back to the apartment. We started to do contacts around the apartment and we found a family that their jeep had ran out of gas. Now the gas station was like 5 blocks away so we offered to help push the jeep the 5 blocks. It was pretty cool because they were really greatfull that we were there to help him. They offered to drive us back to the apartment and we started talking and the dad said, well I think God put you in that place because there was no way I was going to get the jeep to the gas station by myself. He was really awesome and invited us to come to his house to share our message. So this week we will stop by and hopefully we will be able to teach this whole family. It was an awesome experience and I´m sure god did put us in that place for a reason.

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Kyle Hudgins

Hello everyone!

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From: Kyle Hudgins
Subject: Hello everyone!
Date: 3 Jun 2013 08:25:37 AM MDT

Well we have had a pretty crazy week here in Zapala and a lot of things have gone about. So I guess I´ll start with the transfers. So as you already know Elder Wagstaff left to go be the new assistant and so that means that I´m just staying here in Zapala with my fourth companion. His name is Elder Suarez. He is from Uruguay. I met him while I was in Trelew and he is pretty awesome and I´m really excited that he is coming here to be my comp.

So this week was another battle with sickness. Once again I cought a stomache bug and was out of work for 2 days and man was that a really boring 2 days! But now I´m doing fine and i´m at 100%. But I it was a tough week in our area because also earlyer in the week we went to do exchanges in cutral co. So thats 3 days that we wern´t able to work in our area. But I think its safe to say that the lord blessed us to make up for the lost time.

This week we were able to find two sweet new investigators Hector y Carlos. Hector was a reference from the hermanas and has already been to church. He was super recieptive and while we were teaching him his Carlos came by and we were able to teach him as well. They are both really interested in the church and want to learn more and follow Christ as well.

Another blessing that we got was on Sunday. but it started on Saturday night. Elder Wagstaff and I were walking down the street and we said to each other that we hadn´t contacted pretty much anyone this week so we started to talk to all the poeple that passed us. We came upon a man named Sergio. It was a simple contact and we invited him to church. We weren´t sure if he was going to go because I realized that he gave me a fake address. But surely enough Sunday morning he shows up! We talked to him in between classes and said that saturday night he was thinking and he said that he grandpa is member of the church and wants to follow what he is doing. So he was super content to be there in church. He stayed for the whole three hours and we set up a cita with him for wednesday and got his real address haha.

So another good piece of news is that Elder Kimball is coming to the zone! He is opening an area in Cutral Co and will be training as well and be the district leader which means I will be able to do exchanges with him shortly so that will be awesome! I love you all and hope you have a wonderfull week!

Elder Kyle Hudgins

Hello!

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From: Kyle Hudgins
Subject: Hello!
Date: 27 May 2013 08:17:09 AM MDT

Hello everyone.I hope everyone is doing great on your beutiful holliday there in the United States. Everything is going great here in Zapala and we are having some good success here.

I´ll start with a new investigator named Omar. He is a pretty cool guy and also pretty evagelical. But he is pretty willing to listen. He was a reference that we got from a member and she said that he was going through some hard times and that he could use a little help. So we went by and he accepted us even without us introducing ourselves. He told us that he has been separated for a little while now and he feels like he has failed God. We talked to him and we were able to share two lessons with him this week. We shared the restoration with him and also talked about how he could recieve the dirrection he needs. He said that he had listened to the missionaries before but he never asked God if Joseph Smith was a prophet so we committed him to do that. After the second lesson he told us that all the things we where teaching him we helping him a lot and that they were entering into his heart. We are really excited to be able to teach him and I think if we keep helping him feel the spirit of our message he will be ready to get baptized.

Luciano and the Familia Barraza are progressing really well. The family loves it when we come over. They all came to church this last week. The last lesson we challenged the Dad to prepare himself so he can baptize his son. He accepted and said he was going to do whatever he needs to do it. Luciano is awesome. He is only 9 years old but he is really smart. He reads all the things we leave him in the Book of Mormon and loves going to church. He is looking really good for his fecha on the 15.

So this week we celebrated the independance in Argentina on the 25 of may. We had a pretty sweet acitvity in the church where we all ate the traditional dish of the holliday called Locro. Its like a corn/bean/ a whole bunch of other stuff like cow stomache and basically every other part of the cow. Its pretty good and we had a good time. The members also brought some friends that weren´t members so it was good to introduce them a little to the church.

Well I hope you have a wonderfull memorial day. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Kyle Hudgins

We got a picture here with the big bowl of locro that we all ate.

Big bowl of locro

Big bowl of locro

The second it with Elder Pereira in San Martín. You can see the lake that is right there next to the city.

With Elder Pereira

With Elder Pereira

This is a picture with Guille and Laura Venagas. The are like our parents here in Zapala and take us out on Pdays. Last week we went to see the virgin Mary haha. Sorry mom, I don´t have a close up of me and Elder Wagstaff.

With Elder Wagstaff and the Venagas Family

With Elder Wagstaff and the Venagas Family

Hello Family!

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From: Kyle Hudgins
Subject: Hello Family!
Date: 20 May 2013 08:06:43 AM MDT

Hello everyone! Well it sounds like everyone is having a good time enjoying the nice spring weahter. Things this week went pretty well and we had a good time.

This week we were able to start teaching a part family the familia Barraza. The dad is a former bishop but right now is inactive. We started teaching them because they have a son Luciano that is 9 years old and not baptized. When we went the dad told us that Luciano has wanted to get baptized for some time now but it just hasn´t happened. But we when we went they were really happy to start going to church again and we committed them to start working to Luciano can get baptized on june 15. I´m sure that they are going to make it. They came to chuch and we also had an english class on Saturday and Luciano and his brother both came. So we are super excited to teach this family and hopefully we can get them into full activity again.

This week we had our zone conference. It was a really great conference. We talked about the importance of the first vision and how we can share it better and also the importance of the Book of Mormon and how we should use it. It was a really sweet conference and I think everyone was excited to go out and use the new things that they had learned. Right after we went out and worked and had a great lesson with Emilio. We shared with him the first vision and takled about the book of Mormon. IT was a lesson filled with the spirit. We comitted him to read the book of Mormon and he said he would love to. We were going to put a fecha with him but again the grandma interrupted and just went off and she just doesn´t give any room to change the subject. So hopefully tonight when we go by we can finally get him on date and help him progress toward baptism.

Well I love you all and hope you have a wonderfull week!

Elder Kyle Hudgins

Here is a picture of Elder Yañez and his sleeping bad (bag?) suit! We were on divisions and I just had to get a picture with it on.

Sleeping bag suit

Sleeping bag suit