Investigators! Yes!

Sis Hudgens

So we had a pretty alright week.  Just visited lots of people and saw the weather change from humid and hot and uncomfortable to windy and chilly.  Texas weather is crazy and doesn't make any sense. We got lots of free stuff this week.


We went to Wendy's like we usually do at least once a week and the manager gave us all a free Frosty, it 

Sis Davis & I like to make funny faces

was awesome.  Then we went to another restaurant and the manager came over to us and asked if it was our P-day and gave us free queso even though he says he isn't Mormon anymore.  We got free cookies and jam from one member and a cantaloupe from another.  Sometimes I wonder why we bother to buy groceries, but it is pretty awesome.
 We had some amazing miracles this week which all leads up to the biggest one:  we have people to teach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am super excited in case you can't tell!
 

There has been this Chinese couple coming to church for the past few months, but nothing has really happened with them.  We have a Chinese family in the ward that has been fellowshipping them and trying to arrange a meeting and we finally got one this week.  We had dinner with them and the Ong family from our ward.  We had real Chinese food (no orange chicken Heidi) and it was really good.  We had curry and veggies and pork.   Julia (our investigator) made dumplings and they were super good. It was just some sort of flour based dough filled with yummy stuff and it was delicious.  We then showed them the Restoration video in Chinese and testified about it's message.  Then the Ongs kind of took over and talked to them in Chinese for a long time.  We are assuming it was about the gospel and it went well since they came to church the next day. We are going to start teaching them the lessons during the second hour of church since that is the only time that works for them.  We are super excited!!!!

Another miracle happened this week as well.  One of our youth has been bringing a friend to seminary and teaching him about the gospel and finally introduced us on Sunday.  We were able to teach him the  first lesson after church and he has a desire to be baptized!  He just needs to get permission from his parents.  We don't think it will be too big of a problem, but if it is he turns 18 in August so he won't have to wait too long to be baptized.  We are so happy that we have been able to have these experiences this week.  We were afraid with so much good happening that Sister Davis would be transferred this week, but we found out last night that we are both staying!  We have lots of big things panned for this week and we are so grateful for the blessings the Lord has given us.

 

Have a blessed week!

Sister Hudgens

 

 

 



Temple Day

 



 



 

 

 

 

 

Wind & Pepper Gel

Windy Day!

 

Really windy day!

 

Sounds like lots of fun things happened this week! This week was really slow.  It was Spring Break so since most of our ward are fairly well off (some are downright rich from being in oil and gas) they went out of town and some even went out of the country! Everyone that stayed went on the ward campout Wednesday-Saturday, so it was a little difficult to find people at home to talk to.  

 

One day we were walking around one of the neighborhoods that are still under construction and we say a taco truck.  Sister Davis really wanted a taco so we stopped and she got one.  I wasn't going to get one, but it looked really good so I got one too. Best taco ever!!!  It was so good!!  I have now become converted to the taco truck.

We got so Jamba Juice.  It was delicious.  

And Sister Davis was nice enough to share!

Because there weren't many people at home this week, we went to the mall on Friday to talk to people who were just out walking around.  We met a really cool girl named Samantha who asked a lot of questions.  We were able to give her a mormon.org card with our phone number on it and we are hoping that she will call us or look at the website. Only thing is she was working at one of those car give away things so to talk to her we filled out one of the raffle things.  I really hope we don't win, because I am not sure what we would do if we won!  

Bass Pro Shop!  Dad's gotta love it!

There is a Texas souvenir shop in the mall and that is where I got the stuff I sent y'all. They also have this giant Bass ProShop Outdoor World thing.  Dad would love it.  We bought pepper gel there today. It is like pepper spray, but won't blow back at you if it is windy.  Got to stay safe right?  I don't think using the knife I got in Tomball would be very safe, so we had to go with the next best thing.

Nothing too exciting this week except finding a new CD in the car and dancing in the car as we drive from place to place.

Have a great week!!

 

Sister Hudgens

 

 

Went Spanish for a Day



Me

 

 

Sounds like another busy week, but what else is new?!  That missionary night sounds fun.  I am glad that Heidi participated.  She made me proud!  I also loved all the pictures I got of her.   The water polo suits look cool and I liked the Tangled meme.  This felt like a super long week, but I cant believe that it is Monday again already!  

 

We come to the family history center at the stake center to email, so I have access to a computer a lot more than I did before.  I can check the emails throughout the day a bit, which is kind of nice.  We visit members a lot here and hold free lemonade/family history stands as a way to find people.  We also walk a lot to try and be seen.  We are really trying to encourage the members to do member missionary work and find someone for us to teach.  We have some promise though.  One of our youth has been bringing a friend to seminary and he loves it!  Already tells people he is Mormon.  We hope to be able to meet with after Spring Break.  



Ice

We had crazy weather again this week, but that is Texas.  If you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes.  Sister Wahlen always called it bi-polar, and it is true.  We were out walking around and sweating and 4 days later we had ice so bad it broke off the branches of all the trees!  That was pretty crazy.  

 

 

Downed branches

 

We had a Relief Society activity this week.  It was a "fast friends" thing, like speed dating, but for friends.  It was pretty fun and it was nice to meet more sisters in the ward since I am still pretty new. I went to my first ward council in this ward this week, so that is pretty crazy!

We did a lot of family history this week since the weather was poor.  I was able to find a few names and plug them into our family tree, so that was a really neat experience.  It felt pretty good to fill in some of our tree.  I encourage you and everyone else to get a little more involved.  It is amazing the little rush you feel from finding someone to put on the tree.  I didn't even like family history before!

 

Me with Hermana Glauser

I went on exchanges this week with the Sister Training Leader Hermana Glauser this week. Her area is down in Sealy and she covers an English and a Spanish branch, so it was very interesting.  We went tracting (which I kind of missed) and we met a guy who only spoke Spanish. She proceeded to talk to him in Spanish and I was surprised how much I was able to understand.  I was able to follow the conversation really well, just not able to contribute.  All I would have been able to say is "Yo se el Libro de Mormon es verdad", "I know the Book of Mormon is true".  So I just let her go with that one.  

 

 

Sealy is out in the country, very widespread with little houses.  As a result I saw lots of animals!  Four cats at one house, lots of dogs and chickens, and even a dear just chillin' with the chickens.  We then played volleyball with the Spanish branch.  Before they played, they had a little English class.  It was weird to be on the other side of that class.  I am used to being taught Spanish in English, not English in Spanish. It was kind of fun.  I really enjoyed the exchange.

I am sending a package home today so look out for it in the coming days!

Love,

Sister Hudgens

 

So this is what I do all day, sip on juice boxes and kick pine cones-- Just kidding!

 

 

Awkward Moments, Tiger Curse, and Indiana Jones!

Zone Conference

 

Sounds like you had  much better week!  I am glad to hear that.  I was really worried about you.  It is not easy to feel like that weight of the world is on our shoulders.  I felt a little bad that I couldn't be there to help, so I have been praying to help your burdens be lighter or your back stronger.  I like how you used two talks from general authorities and I hope that you sited them so others can look them up later. 

 

There has been such a missionary focus in our ward and stake lately, it has been amazing!!!  We can tell the members are trying find people and are talking to their neighbors.  We see a lot of people that are so close to committing to hear the lessons.  Our members have such a desire to help us and God is answering their sincere desire and earnest prayers and giving them the missionary opportunities they are asking for.  God does give them to all who ask, we just have to be able to discern and recognize them for what they are when they are presented to us.  If we ignore them long enough they will stop coming.  If the members are truly trying, the missionaries can see that and will appreciate it.  I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but the book "The Power of the Everyday Missionary" by Clayton Christensen is super good and gives lots of ideas on how we can be missionaries even when we feel like we don't have the time.

 
My week has been pretty good.  I have had lots of opportunities to laugh that is for sure!!  I got your package this week and I was so happy.  I loved your card and Grace's as well. Those cranberry orange cookies are good!  We will have a nice freezer full of cookies for a while as a member also gave us some girl scout cookies.  

We had a scary moment this week.  We came home for the night and I noticed the porch light was on.  I asked Sister Davis if she had turned it on at the same moment she put the key into the lock and realized that it was already unlocked.  We both looked at each other and were like, you open the door, not me!!!! We pushed the door open at the same time and stood back.  We peered in and I saw this white paper on the counter.  We had had our apartment checked and the missionary couple had forgotten to lock the door.  They must have turned on the outside light in their attempt to find the inside lights.  We did have a momentary freak out though.  We are going to call the apartment coordinator to make sure that it doesn't happen again though!
 
We had a couple of awkward experiences this week too, actually they were all in the same night!  We were stopping by some members after dinner.  We stopped  the house of one of the bishopric members that I still hadn't really met yet.  We knocked and waited for a minute or so for someone to answer the door since we saw someone in there and knew they were home.  The son answers the door and then goes to tell his dad in the office by the door who is here. We clearly hear him tell his son to tell us to come back another time.  He didn't even come to the door to tell us it wasn't a good time!  It just felt a little rude to us, but we don't know what was going on his life, so who are we to judge.  

 

We then went to another house to follow up on a commitment we left with them.  We come to the door and can clearly see in since it is glass.  We see their daughter and 7 year old son, only he is just in his underwear.  We are like, "Oh, that's awkward" , and when we knock it takes them a long time to come to the door too.  We can see you!  Eventually the daughter comes to the door and says that her mom isn't home, just her dad.  We asked if we could talk to him for a moment and we hear from the living room," I am feeding two babies (they have twins) and I am not dressed, so yeah"  Then we felt really awkward!!!  We then turned around and left and were kind of wondering what was going to happen at the next house. It was all good though, so we were relieved.  We did get to laugh a lot though!

 

I met a family this week who has read the Tiger's Curse books and I was super excited.  I haven't met very many people who have read those books.  They also gave us monkey bread, so needless to say I really like this family.  There was also a man in the ward who bore his testimony on Sunday who used an Indiana Jones analogy.  He was talking about the Last Crusade and the test in the temple of the sun about the penitent man.  It was pretty cool.  I liked the analogy.

 

I am doing great and Sister Davis and I have bonded over quoting movies and music.  It makes for fun conversations.  Perceived near death experiences and awkward moments have also served to bond us. Learning to laugh is the best way to bond!!

Have a wonderful week and remember to count your many blessing and give thanks to God :)

 

Sister Hudgens