Bi-Polar Weather

Me with Sis Wahlen on a beautiful sunny day

Sounds like you had a busy week!  I am doing well, all recovered from the flu and able to walk and

Recovery from bike accident last week!

bike and do all I need to do.  The weather was extremely bipolar this week.  It was beautiful and sunny early on and then on Friday they canceled school because of ice.  It is supposed to snow tomorrow...I hate snow!!!!!  Bur I will survive.  We are going to go by hand warmers today and I am going to shove them in the toes of my boots since I can't fit enough socks on my feet and still get them in my boots.  Those gloves you sent are amazing.  I love them.

School was cancelled due to ice--
see the ice hanging on the sign?

And then the weather was cold!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week was pretty great.  We were able to see most of our investigators and two of them are reading the Book of Mormon which is amazing.  The Book of Mormon is the key to conversion.  If it is true then Joseph Smith was a prophet and he restored the Church of Jesus Christ to the earth today.  If anyone is having doubts about the Church or having a difficult time, I exhort them to read the Book of Mormon and to gain or reaffirm their testimony of it.  I have been able to gain such a testimony of the Book of Mormon on my mission. I have grown to love it so much.  In my personal study I have been marking the different attributes of Christ found in Preach My Gospel in different colors and it has helped focus and direct my study.  I have been able to pick out different attributes and examples of how people have exhibited them and it has been a great blessing.  You can do it with anything, Young Women's values, the doctrine of Christ, or any other attributes you wish to develop.  I highly recommend it.  I know that if you go into your study of the scriptures with faith and with a focus you will be able to better receive the revelation the Lord wants to give to you. 

Sheri Dew came and spoke to the greater Houston area on Saturday and we were able to attend the broadcast of her talk at the stake center.  On the way there we saw this dog on the side of the road by our house.  We all looked at each other and realized that it was one of the dogs that has been on the lost dogs signs around the neighborhood.  So we turned around and pulled over.  Sister Wahlen then immediately runs after it, so of course I have to follow her.  She is calling the dog but it keeps running farther away so we give up.  Sister Wahlen then proceed to lose her shoes in the mud she was running in and had to go back for them, so she was a bit muddy when we got to the broadcast.  Sheri Dew was an amazing speaker and I am glad that we had the opportunity to hear from her.

          

  

Sister Wahlen and I are getting along great.  We have been together for just about four months now so we know each other pretty well. Our last companionship inventory was pretty funny.  It was about 9:45 at night because we wanted to get all of our weekly planning session done before the next day.  So it was late and we were kind of tired and loopy so we made some really funny comments and faces and just laughed.  I hope we didn't wake Sister Canfield up.  I am so glad that she is my companion, she helps me to be better and to see where I can improve.  I am lucky to have her and hopefully she doesn't mind having me for a companion.

We saw one of our investigators this week and her daughter is in Girl Scouts.  We actually saw her as we were trying to see someone else because she was out doing door to door sales.  It brought back a lot of memories of my own girl scout days!  Also made me want girl scout cookies.  I saw that new cookie and it looks pretty goood and non-perishable..*hint hint*  Good luck with all the cookie sales though!  Sorry I won't be there to help out!

 

Love Sister Hudgens

 

 

 

 

                                                    

Wipe Out!

I am happy to see that y'all are doing well.  I bet the long weekend probably helped.  This week has been a little rough for me.  I crashed my bike on Wednesday morning.  I had to then ride my bike home with unaligned handle bars and a swollen ankle.  By the time I got home (wasn't too far) I couldn't walk on it.  As far as I can tell since I never went to a specialist, I sprained my ankle.  Luckily we have some doctors/nurses in the ward who were able to take a look at it.  The mission president's wife told me to get up and walk on it as soon as possible. I felt like she had done as Christ did when he told the lame man at the pool of Bethesda to take up his bed and walk.  And that is what I did. I used crutches and a cane for a while, but after about two days I could walk and ride my bike without pain.  So that is awesome.  

 

Then Sister Wahlen and I both came down with a stomach bug Saturday night and felt terrible all Sunday.  I think that I slept for most the day.  Had to force myself to not go back to sleep after about 4 so that I could sleep at night.  Feeling way better today except for a persisting headache which I think is due to dehydration.  So I am drinking lots of water!

We did manage to have some good teaching experiences this week though!  We taught a guy named Mark, whom we have been trying to get an appointment with for almost a month.  He said that ever since we had been knocking on his door he and his wife had been thinking more about religion.  He even said that we weren't bothering him with all of our stopping by, which was a big relief.  He is a bartender, but is fixing to get a new job.  We are very supportive of that and I gave him a card for LDSjobs.  We are excited to continue to help him make positive changes in his life through coming closer to Christ.  

We also met a guy named Miguel who has so many questions, the majority of which can be answered by the plan of salvation.  We have an appointment to see him next week and can't wait! 

We have had a few trials this week, but there is no miracle until after the trial of our faith!  So we are looking forward to the miracles that will be coming our way soon.

 

Sister Hudgens 

Missing my little Grace!

Sisters Wahlen, Seymour & Hudgens

Sounds like you had a busy week!  Is it scary that Heidi can drive now?  I can only imagine because y'all were scared when I did.  But who knows, maybe Heidi learned from my mistakes and is a better driver than me.  I haven't driven in 5 months, so who knows what kind of shape I will be in in 13 more months!  I really like what you did for the New Beginnings video, I think you should definitely work on getting it on the church website.  Then I can show all of my investigators and members how cool my mom is!

I had a super busy awesome week as well.  We had a mission wide fast for new investigators and I can tell the effects.  This was a week of miracles!  Wednesday I went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leader Sister King. That was a crazy day.  The night before we got 3 referrals which was crazy.  We haven't gotten a referral in like two months!  They all happened to be in the same place as well so we made plans to go and contact them.  We went to an appointment with an investigator at 11 and while we were reading 3 Nephi 11 the Spirit was incredibly strong.  Sister King and I were almost crying and our investigator was balling. It was great!  

We then went to contact our referrals.  Two of them weren't home so we went to contact the 3rd, a Vietnamese guy named Bihn Nguyen (pronounced Ben Winn).  We knock on the door and we ask them for Bihn.  He says that 3 Bens living there.  We ask for Bihn Nguyen and he says that they are all named Bihn Nguyen. Sister King and I are at this point very confused because the guy at the door does not look Vietnamese at all.  So we ask for the Vietnamese one and he says that he isn't home. We then walk away and knock on a few doors before we turn around and see an Asain looking guy and think, oh, maybe this is the one we are looking for.  We start talking to him and realize that he is deaf.  I happened to have the paper for communicating with the deaf the ASL elders had given to us and a notepad so we are writing messages back and forth and he agrees to let us send the ASL missionaries to him.  And this is the great part, his name is also Bihn Nguyen. We left that whole incident laughing to ourselves because what are the odds of us finding two guys with that name and none of them being our referral?  

We then walk to contact a former investigator and Sister King finds a dollar, that was pretty cool.  We talk to our former investigator and she says she isn't interested but to talk to her secretary and we had a good conversation with her. I also fell down when I went to put on my boots and got a huge bruise on my arm.  But Sister King and I both just had to laugh at the sight of me just tipping over. That was a really crazy day.

We had dinner with this family this week that has a little girl that reminds me so much of Grace.  Same age, height, build, and cute little smile.  Made me miss her and just want to run up and hug and squeeze this little girl.  I actually do miss my little Gracie!

Another miracle, we had the best Sunday ever! Two of our investigators came to church.  Their daughter was totally in love with nursery so they were able to stay for all three hours. Gospel Principles was amazing, the Spirit filled the whole room. We were talking about Spiritual gifts and everyone picked two and we shared. Mark and Regina (our investigators) participated and at the end right before we were going to have the prayer, Mark asked if anyone felt they had these gifts. Four or five people shared experiences where they felt they had these gifts and by the end half the people in the room were crying including Mark and Regina.  It was amazingly great.

 

So that has been my week, it was great.  Even better the sun came out this week so we weren't freezing like we were last week.  I didn't even have to wear tights and a sweater for like the past three days!

Love your favorite sister missionary,

 

 

Sister Hudgens

P.S. no new pictures because I had some problem with the computer we used this week.

Hobo Shelter and Fireworks!

Grandma told me all about her New Year's party. I have always known that Grandma's house is the party house.

This week was kind of different.  We found out that the Klein 1 and 2 zones are being put back

Sis Wahlen and Ririe with
me photobombing!

together to be the Klein zone again.  This is not a restoration of the fun times however.  We have been told that we are to go to the building closest to us on P-days.  Unfortunately, we are pretty isolated from the rest of the zone, so it will  be interesting to see how it all  plays out.  Sister Wahlen and I may be playing lots of games together!  Sister Flannery left Memorial Springs, on of the areas in our district.  Sister Goodrich's new companion is now Sister Wahlen's old companion, Sister Ririe.  It was a great surprise for Sister Wahlen to walk into district meeting and see her old companion.  

I have never heard/seen so many fireworks in my whole life.  People go crazy here in Texas!  Never even occurred to me that people set off fireworks during New Years.  Well people here don't only set them off on New Year's Eve, they do it for the next 3 days as well!!  So it was a little loud for the next few days.  Not to mention a cold front came in yesterday so the wind has been howling for a few nights.  It is all good though, I can sleep through fireworks, wind, and even Sister Wahlen's sleep talking most of the time!

On Thursday it was really weird.  Before dinner my stomach started to hurt and I brushed it off thinking I was simply hungry.  After dinner though it wasn't feeling any better so we started to bike home.  The half hour ride home took an hour because I was biking slowly through the pain.  By the time we got home I could hardly move.  Two hours later though I was fine!  Never threw up or anything.  It was the strangest thing.  I am thinking that there must have been some reason why we weren't supposed to be out that night and that is why I felt so sick.  I will probably never know why, but that's fine.

It was pretty cold last night.  I am guessing about 40 give or take plus wind chill.  I must be getting used to the cold or have finally learned to layer correctly because for the first time ever I wasn't cold and Sister Wahlen was.  We had to wait outside for like 5-7 minutes for our ride and she made herself a little hobo shelter out of some building materials from an unfinished house.  It was pretty funny and I just had to laugh.  

Sis Wahlen in her hobo shelter

We met some really promising people this week.  We met Mark and Regina on our way home from district meeting on Friday through the secret path (as I like to call it).  They are super awesome and when Sister Wahlen boldly asked them to come to church after knowing them for all of  a minute, they said that they were looking into other churches.  We got an email address and they said that they were going to come to church next week!  So we are really excited about that.  Susan is also back from Louisiana until the middle of January and we were able to teach her a little bit.  So this was a good week.  We had 6 appointments and only half of them fell through!

I love being in Texas even though it is not what I expected.  I love being a missionary even though it is hard.  I just keep going, keep working hard and trust the Lord to put people and put me where we need to be.

 

Sister Hudgens