I'm Being Transferred!

Sis Hudgens

So...bad news first.  I am being transferred tomorrow. That is not really the bad news, I was expecting that, I have been here for 6 months.  The bad news is, Sister Goodrich is leaving too!!!!  That means they are white washing this area and putting a completely new set of missionaries here.  Since there are so many sisters going home this transfer and not many coming in, this ward might not even get sisters again.  I am not happy about this.  I have worked hard here for 6 months!!  I have built relationships with members and found out how things work.  Sister Goodrich hasn't been here long, but I was able to pass things along. Now I feel like all my work is being tossed aside.  I know that is not completely true, but it feels like that.

I will answer your questions first.  When I first got here, we were not encouraged to tract.  What changed?  We got a new mission president and he told us we had to talk to 25 people everyday and if we didn't see 25 people on the streets we had to go to them.  So that is what we do now.  Usually we still don't see 25 people though.  We built a random fort because we were bored and we had to do weekly planning.  We decided to make weekly planning fun by doing it in a fort.  Way more exciting.  On P-days we try to do fun things, so we get inventive.

This week has felt like it has been the longest week ever!!!  I hardly even remember Monday.  Sister Goodrich had to talk to the mission president about something, so we drove to the mission office.  I got a little lost, we wound up on the toll road and had to pay twice before we finally realized where to get off, but we finally made it, and we were early too!  The mission office is right by a church building, and it is the one Sister Davis goes to for P-day activities, so I got to see her on Monday, that was nice.  We were at the mission office for a long time because there were lots of other missionaries meeting with President Mortenson and we didn't get home until 7:30.  We ate some dinner, visited a member, then came home.

Tuesday was Sister Goodrich's birthday, so we tried to make it fun.  I honestly can't remember all we did, but I know we went to chicken foot and played games with the old people, visited fun members, and had a Hello Kitty decorated dinner.  We had dinner at the Larsens and it was their daughter Autumn's birthday too.  Autumn really likes Hello Kitty, and had a Hello Kitty themed party and they left the decorations up for our dinner.  We even had Hello Kitty shaped cookies for dessert, made with a cookie cutter Brother Larsen made from a can.  It was pretty neat.  After dinner we did some family history and then went home.  The Katy 1st sisters came and brought Sister Goodrich this dessert thing and sang her happy birthday.  Then at 9:45pm we hear a knock on the door and I have a mini heart attack wondering who it could possibly be. We look out the peep hole, and it is the pizza delivery person!  We were a little scared, and we timidly opened the door.  Apparently Sister Goodrich's ex-boyfriend's sister called the local Dominos and ordered her a pizza.  It was really nice of her!

Claunch Family

On Wednesday we taught the Claunch family the next lesson.  The boys were supposed to help us teach, but they weren't ready, so we took an hour while they prepared.  The lesson went well though.  Sister  Goodrich has been having stomach issues all week and was feeling nauseous, so we went home so she could recover, and then we went out and visited more people.  We met an awesome new potential while tracting.  She has such great faith!  I was so happy to meet her.  I love her already even though now I will probably never know what happens to her.  

Thursday wasn't much better and we stayed in almost all day.  We did go to dinner and do weekly planning though. It is not as much fun when you don't do it in a fort.

Temple with Sis Goodrich

Friday we went to the temple.  It was great.  I just felt so peaceful there.  I didn't want to leave!!!  We were  able to see the new new new temple video.  I didn't like it as much as the new new video.  After the temple we saw more members, did a little tracting, and had dinner with a family with crazy kids.

Saturday we tried potential people in the morning, got donuts, and dragged Camille out so she could come with us to see the potentials who are male.  Had some lunch and Sister Goodrich felt nauseous again.  I think it is her anxiety.  We stayed in and after a while we were able to back out again and try visit people.  No one was really home though, so we did some more family history.  I have been able to really find a lot of people.  Y'all need to start doing the work and sending me the names that need the endowments done!  The is plenty to do!  

Sunday was nice.  We had a really good lesson in Relief Society about being grateful in any circumstance.  We then spent the day taking pictures with member families because I figured I was leaving. Getting the transfer call last night, I was really mad first, and I still am a little bit, but I am working on it. All will be well, it will just take a while for me to see it.

I hope you are all healthy and well!  Love you lots!

Sister Hudgens

Exchanges last week with Sis Colton

Exchanges last week with Sis Colton

I Don't What to Go Home!

Thanks for all the pictures! Looks like the family reunion was a lot of fun and a lot of people came.

This week was pretty crazy.  A lot happened, and I can't believe it was only a week!  Monday I sent a letter to Heidi at camp, I hope she got it.  We had a lesson with Rucker this afternoon and it went really well.  Afterwards we went to the Claunch home and we slid down the stairs in sleeping bags with couch cushions stuffed in them.  It was lots of fun!  I didn't even get hurt.  We had a great dinner with the Lowes and then we stopped by a few other people.

Tuesday we tracted a lot.  We then met a new member of our ward.  We had her street name, and a house number, but it was missing a number.  We found the house number that matched the closest and since it had a bunch of moving boxes we guessed that it was the one.  It was and we met Sister Terry.  She is this older woman and she is a talker.  She talked to us for a long time and then we went tracting again. 

We went to Carriage Inn and played chicken foot.  You know what we did next?  If you guessed tracting, you would be correct.  We were going down the street and we see these two guys in a car and we were just working ourselves up to talk to them, when they pull forward and say "Hi Sisters!"  They were members. They were members here selling pest control for the summer.  We asked them if they knew anyone in the neighborhood who was nice and might listen to us. They gave us one name, but nothing came of it.  

We had dinner, met with another new member, and then we went to ward coordination meeting.  After our meeting we went to the Nottingham Country sister's apartment and switched companions for exchanges.  I stayed there with Sister Colton and Sister Goodrich and Sister Garlick went back to my area.  I wasn't quite sure how it was going to go with Sister Colton.  I didn't know her very well, and it didn't seem like we had much in common, but we stayed up until like one in the morning talking, so those fears disappeared. Turns out she is a complete nerd like me!!  It is awesome, especially since none of my companions have been that way.  Eventually, we did go to sleep though.

On Wednesday we did service at an old people's home in the area, playing with a big inflatable balloon and reading them current events.  Then we rode our bikes to the stake center to do family history with the Katy 2nd sisters.  We then got some lunch and spent the next few hours outside.  I have never been so sweaty and gross in my entire life.  I know I smelled bad.  We were able to contact some potentials though and get a return appointment.  We also met this guy named Phil.  We had gone down a wrong street and had just found our route and were about to leave when I noticed a guy outside trimming his trees.  So we stopped and talked to him.  He wasn't interested in our message, but we asked if we could help him with his yard work.  He said we could if we wanted to earn a few dollars.  We refused the money and I started putting branches into piles while Sister Colton started breaking them and putting them in a trash can.  He was flabbergasted that we would do something for nothing so he kept trying to offer us things.  He also asked about our missionary work and what it all entailed, so it was really awesome.  He also gave us otter pops, a water bottle, and a cup of ice, so I felt more than repaid.  I also rode around with a styrofoam cup full of ice for a few hours.  It was pretty funny.  

We tried by a few more potential investigators, and as we were just chatting away when I noticed a guy sitting on his porch.  Very surprised I said, "Oh, hello sir!"  We then talked to him for a bit and invited him to church.  We then went home to rest for a moment, drink more water, and spray a bunch of perfume on us so we didn't smell too bad when we got picked up for dinner.  We had dinner at a really cool family's house.  Their daughter just got back from her mission the day before. She talked to us a lot, probably because she is in the awkward, not a missionary anymore, but not a regular person yet stage.  I don't want to go home!!!!!  That is scary!  

Anyway, we had a good dinner, and then we decided to walk home in order to contact more people and make 25.  We were able to talk to a lot of people and even though one lady didn't want our message, she said the sisters could come back and help her.  We were just walking by the Subway by the church, about half way home, when we hear the familiar hello of Sister Peterson, one of the Katy 2nd sisters.  A member had just picked them up and she demanded that we get in her car so she could take us home.  We weren't saying no to that!!  So she took us home, we met our companions and exchanged back.  I like going on exchanges, but it is always nice to get back with your own companion.

This is the week of moves.  Three members of our ward are moving this week.  We went to the Kreitline's Thursday morning to help them clean their house before the new people move in.  We were mostly just cleaning base boards.  We then had lunch and went to KCM.  They had us measuring detergent into quart and gallon sized bags that day.  We smelled nice and clean after that!!  They also had a food drive come in with lots of food so we had lots more to do!  After KCM we went tracting again (what else would we do?) and then had some dinner.  It was really good and since Sister Goodrich really didn't want to tract more, she offered to do their dishes and I helped them start indexing.  We then commenced tracting and in a last ditch effort to invite 25 people a day to learn, we went to the park.  We just needed 5 more, we were so close!  We saw a group of teenagers at the park and we went up to them and since it was my turn, I talked to all of them and told them to check out some cool, inspiring videos on mormon.org.  Man I was terrified! We got 30 ITLs that day though, so it paid off!

On Friday we went to district meeting and while we were waiting for the elders to finish making lunch, the Katy 1st  sisters told us about this book they read this week about the second coming.  A lot of crazy stuff, and it was sending Sister Goodrich into a panic attack, so we left shortly after that.  Sister Goodrich has had very high anxiety the last few days, so talking about the second coming didn't help.  She said some pretty funny stuff though, like "You know what could happen in three days?  The Lord could be resurrected, that's what could happen in three days!"  We watched some Jesus videos to calm her down and then we did weekly planning.  After that was over we went to the Cooks and drew the Plan of Salvation in chalk on their driveway.  It was pretty cool looking.  I hope the rain didn't wash it away already.  We had dinner, and then we tried by a family in the ward that lives on the same street as two other members, one of which was out with their neighbors.  

We parked at the end of the street and prayed before getting out of the car, like normal, and when we looked up, three little girls were just staring in our car window.  That has been one of my greatest fears on my mission, that that would happen.  It is super creepy.  We knocked on the member's door, but they weren't home, so we walked down to the end of the street where the kids were playing.  Last time we saw these kids, we showed them a really cool object lesson and a scripture.  When we saw them again they asked us if we had another trick.  Unfortunately, we didn't, but we shared a scripture anyway.  It was pretty cool.

Saturday we helped another sister in the ward clean her house before new people moved in and then went to a child of record baptism for a new family in the ward.  We went home, had lunch, and then went out again.  We had an appointment with an investigator and we brought a member with us.  It went well, but he still doesn't believe in God, just a supreme being in the universe.  We will keep checking up on him.  We didn't have a dinner appointment so we just went home and had dinner.  We went out again to see people and tract, but not much success with either.

Sunday was good.  Good talks and lessons.  After church we just went home, had some lunch and studied before going to dinner at the Grahams.  We ended up being there for two hours because their very talkative friend from the Katy 1st ward was there, but the food was good!  We saw The Vances after dinner, and then visited a semi-active family in the ward. Those kids were so happy to see us.  They are so spiritually starved.  When the 9 year old son saw us, he immediately went to get his scriptures and after a while he asked if we were going to do anything besides talk.  They all loved the lesson and the son was like, "Is that it?"  He wanted more.   The kids all wanted us to stay, but we couldn't. As we left they all gave us hugs, even the two year old, River.  She hugged our legs and then gave us a little push out the door, it was pretty funny.

This has been an interesting week and it is only going to get more interesting this next week!

Sister Hudgens

The Plan of Salvation in Chalk Drawings:

Don't ask my why, but the sisters went down stairs in sleeping bags with pillows stuffed in the bottoms?

Week of Pure Awesomeness!

Sisters Goodrich & Hudgens

This week was a crazy week!!!!!  Full of miracles and pure awesomeness.  Monday turned out to be fun even though we weren't able to go to the Bluebell factory.  We just went to the church building and and we played with one of those colorful parachute things and played games.  It was fun.  We had dinner with the Claunch's and then had a lesson afterwards.  It was lots of fun and their sons are helping us teach, so it is working out well.

On Tuesday we helped Sister Rojas pack up some of her things as she is getting ready to move.  So we wrapped baking pans in paper and bubble wrap for an hour and she sent us home with a giant blender and half of her pantry.  We then went out to the mall and tried to find our potential, but she wasn't there!!!  We will keep trying.  We then went to play chicken foot with the old people.  They are so fun.  

Know who thinks they are funny?  The elders.  We had let them borrow our church keys so they could go to the family history center on Monday night and they said they would give them back at chicken foot. When we asked for the keys back, they said they lost them and they were either in their car, at Walmart, or the mall.  We were so mad at them!!!  We needed them that night for our meeting.  When we left I said they better pray hard to find those keys.  One of them then pulls our keys out of his pocket and tosses them to us.  They thought they were so funny.  It was only slightly funny.  We are trying to find some way to prank them back, but we aren't too devious and we are too busy doing missionary work to think about stuff like that.  We tried visiting more people before dinner, but none of them were home.  We had dinner at the Parkinsons, and before we left we set up a time to come back and make cookies for a less active that lives on their street.  Everyone loves cookies!  After dinner we went to our ward coordination meeting and it went well.

On Wednesday we had interviews with our new mission president, President Mortensen.  While he interviewed our group of 8, we received training from the assistants to the president (APs).  They gave some really good training on goal setting and achieving.  My interview with president did not go as I expected.  I thought he was going to get to know us and things like that, but he pretty much just chastised everyone if they weren't talking to 25 people everyday and committed them to do that.  I am pretty sure that 6/8 of the happy people that walked in to the interviews walked out solemn and glossy eyed.  I think President Mortensen will be very good for the mission and will take care of some of the problems that we have, he is just very different than President Pingree.  By the time I get used to President Mortensen, I will go home though.  So I am just going to take his advice and do my best as a missionary. 

After interviews we helped the Claunch family with family history since both of their boys need to find 5 names each for youth conference.  We had dinner and saw the bishop's family then went and saw the Lowes.  

Thursday we decided to take president's challenge and we tracted for about 3 hours today.  Not at the same time though.  We went out in the morning before an appointment for an hour and the results were surprising.  Though not many people answered the door, few let us say more than 5 words, there were a couple of people who let us share a message about Christ and one even said we could come back.  

We then had an appointment with a member family. We have been teaching them for a few weeks now since their son is getting baptized soon, and their 2 less active daughters have been present through all the lessons.  We had a really good lesson about a few of the commandments, including prayer and going to church, and one of the daughters prayed at the lesson and came to church this week!  It was so great!  

We then had lunch and went to the food bank. We have been doing a food drive at church all summer, so we take them with us when we go.  It has been slow, so it is good that we bring our own work!  We didn't have much to do so after about an hour we went to another family's house and helped them with some family history.  I was able to help him find one name that led to a few others.  We didn't have a dinner appointment so we went home, had dinner and then went out tracting again.  

We knocked on one door and this lady answered and was not happy to see us.  She asked if we had permission to be in that neighborhood (she thought we were solicitors and they aren't allowed).  I pulled out my ministerial certificate which says that I am a certified minister for the church and can go out and proselyte.  I don't know if that means that we can be there, but it worked.  We figured that even if she called the cops, it was going to take  them like 15 

Sisters Hudgens & Goodrich

 minutes to get there, so we finished the loop and then went to a different area.  We went to another neighborhood and started knocking doors when this lady answered the door.  She told us to come in and we were kind of shocked and a little leery until she said she was a member from the spanish ward!  We talked with her for  a while, tried by a new member and she wasn't there, and then saw a member and while we were talking I got a bloody nose which was only kind of awkward.  We then still hadn't talked to 25 people by then so we went to the gas station.  I picked up a pint of Bluebell so it looked we were there for a purpose and we ended up talking to the cashier, Ghani, for like ten minutes in which he asked us if we were from a church, that even though he is Muslim he loves Jesus Christ, if he can bring his family to our church, and if we had some lessons we could come over and teach him.  Yes!!!  We weren't able to set up a time there, and we really hoped we didn't get him fired, but it was totally worth letting my ice cream melt a little.

Friday we were so busy we didn't have time to tract.  It was crazy.  We helped Sister Rojas again, this time wrapping pictures.  She again unloaded a few things on us.  We then went home and started our weekly planning session that we were supposed to do yesterday, but didn't have time.  We still didn't finish before we went to bake cookies with the Parkinsons for a less active.  We then had a meeting with our investigator Rucker, miracle!!  We haven't been able to see him for like a month and a half.  We invited him to meet us at the frozen yogurt place though, so we managed to get him out.  We had a good meeting with him, finding out about some of the things hindering his progression and committed him to come to church and read his scriptures.  At the end we asked him if he knew anyone who could use a message about Christ and he told us we should come with him to visit one of his friends who is a less active in the ward.  Go Rucker!  We were able to go there, visit, leave a message, and tell the kid to stop avoiding us when we came to his house.  After that we had dinner with a family in which the mother is less active due to health reasons and we were able to have a good visit with them.  They had on a Pandora station that was awesome.  It was playing all those movie/show soundtracks that I like.  Tender mercy of the Lord right there.  After dinner we went to the Claunch home intending to take Camille out tracting with us, but she wasn't ready right away so it was too late and we ended up helping them get ready for the pest control people who were coming to spray the next day.

Saturday was a busy day!  We went out tracting in the morning, hoping it wouldn't be too hot.  It was pretty hot.  We knocked on 30 doors, and only like 5 of them even opened.  We decided to tract around member's homes and so we went to one cul-de-sac to do so.  We knocked on a door and one guy said we could come back  We wrote it down, decided it was to hot to keep going, and went home for lunch and completed weekly planning.  We picked up Camille and went to visit a part member family and then went back to the guy who said we could come back.  We knocked in the door and his wife answered.  We asked if Mariano was home and she said yes and who was asking.  We told her who we are and she looked a little surprised.  "My husband?  Are you sure?  He is atheist!" she said.  We were a little surprised, but told her he said we could come back.  She said that she believes in God and wasn't going to stop this so she let us in and we talked to Mariano and his wife for about an hour and it was great!  We all felt the Spirit working through us, even Camille and we committed him to pray and ask if God was there.  We are going back next week and we are super excited!  We had just enough time to drop Camille back off at home before dinner with the bishop's family.  After dinner we tracted again and met some not very nice people you didn't want to talk to us and some other very polite kids who listened, but didn't want to hear more.  It was a very productive evening.

Sunday was great. We had a good ward council, 5 new families have moved in, Rucker came to church, and a family who is moving gave some really good talks that I think y'all would have enjoyed.  We were asked to go into primary sharing time and talk a little about baptism and someone we helped be baptized (I let Sister Gooodrich do that since she has more experience that I).  I was talking about baptism and said I wish I had written down what I felt that day since it feel like it was a really long time ago and one of the little girls said that that's because it was a long time ago.  I just laughed it off, but it kind of was.  I was baptized 12 years ago, that is longer than any of those kids have been alive!  Anyway, it was a good day. 

We decided that is it is 100 degrees outside that we aren't going tracting.  I don't want to get heat stroke, been there, done that.  So we visited members instead and it was really nice.  There was a big storm that came in with lots of thunder and lightning that sent Sister Goodrich running from the car to the doorways every time.  Before we went home we stopped by a family who is moving this week and she unloaded her freezer on us.  That means I only have to buy a few things today and our freezer is so full, I don't think anything else will fit!

Well I hope y'all are doing well.  Just remember that the Book of Mormon is true, God listens to and answers every prayer, and going to church is important.

Sister Hudgens

 Holly's mom speaking here- for reasons that were not explained, Holly & her companion made a fort in their room with sheets?  

Fireworks, Thunder, and Lightening, Oh My!

Don't I look cool?

Sounds like you had a fun time this week!  I like that y'all got out to play some basketball and that y'all had fun.  Every day this week felt so long, but in the end I am always surprised at how fast the week goes!!!  

Last Monday was pretty boring.  We went to Hobby Lobby with Camille and then just stayed at our apartment and caught up on journal writing and letters.  Everyone else was sick or running errands and couldn't play with us.  Boring! Don't they know how fun we are?  We will just have to remind them. We had dinner with 3 families that night.  Not separately though, thank goodness.  Just a nice dinner party.  Though we did have to listen to them talk about all of their overseas living experiences. Welcome to Katy Sister Goodrich!  Home of the wealthy and well traveled.  We then taught a lesson to one of our 8 year olds.  Pretty low key day.

On Tuesday we went to Sister Goodrich's last physical therapy appointment.  We gave the exercise specialist a mormon.org card, hopefully she will check it out! We then visited one of the new members in our ward. Not uncommon.  Our zip code is the fastest growing in the United States, and our ward reflects that.  We have records read in every week, and it is usually like three families.  It is hard to keep up with.  Poor Sister Goodrich, half the ward is out of town or moving in the next month, so she is going to have to meet new people every week for probably the next 6 weeks.  Oh well, hopefully I will be able to help her out before I get transferred.  

Transfers are at the end of the month, and since I have been here for 6 months, it is likely (not for sure) that I will be leaving.  Anyways, we visited people and went to play chicken foot with the old people.  I missed them!  We didn't go last week because they had  voting or something going on.  Those old people make my day, they are so funny.  Afterwards we went to try more people before going to dinner and then our missionary coordination meeting. Brother Lowe (our ward mission leader) is back!!  He has been out of town for a month and he is finally back. I think I missed his family more than him, but shhhh, don't tell.

On Wednesday we met our new mission president!  I was actually on time for zone conference.  Since I got put in a car area I have been on time to a lot of things.  Anyway...New mission president, President and Sister Mortenson and their 5 kids from Irvine, California.  They seem like they are going to be good for our mission.  They are very different from the Pingrees, and I am going to miss them, but it was time for them to go.  They will be missed though!  We then went home, studied, then went out a visiting. 

We had exhausted all of our names for the day and didn't know what to do, so we went to a park.  We are just sitting there I looked out the window and what did I see?  A black quadracopter flying in the sky.  I see the man flying it and we go out to talk to him.  He was a very nice older man who had had some very good experiences with members of the church in the past.  He said we were the most trustworthy people he knows, something to do with our doctrine.  Turns out he was flying his quadracopter and taking pictures of the development for them.  That is how he makes his living, he flies his remote controlled helicopter and takes pictures.  Pretty good deal. He talked to him for so long we were a little late for dinner, but it turned out alright.  We finished off the day visiting other members.  Pretty good day.

When ducks swarm!

Thursday we didn't have much to do.  We took a walk around a lake in the morning (by that time it was already ridiculously hot and humid) to try and talk to people. We see three ladies approaching and we are trying to figure out what to say...when one of them waves to us.  They were all from our ward.  Major let down!!  We then continued our walk and we see a swarm of ducks coming our direction from across the lake.  So what do we do?  We stand there and wait for them to come over.  They come and they completely surround us.  They must of thought w had food.  They would be severely disappointed.  

We then went to our next appointment and taught a good lesson to a family.  The father is less active, as well as the two teenage daughters. The boys are active and one is turning 8 soon so we are teaching them the lessons.  All the kids are there when we teach and it was been a really good experience.  Sister Goodrich was able to bear powerful testimony of the difference coming to church can make.  Hopefully it makes a difference.  

We then went to the food bank, but the didn't have any work for us to do, so we left after an hour and took our car to the dealership because we got a recall notice for the air bag or something like that.  They were too busy to take our car then, so we scheduled a time for Monday.  We then did some family history at the stake center, had dinner with a fun family, and then went home and had weekly planning.

Friday was the 4th of July!  We were able to go out and see a few people today.  We stopped in on one family and helped them prepare for a party they were going to.  They actually let us serve them, it was a miracle.  Then we had lunch, tried to see Shelby again to no avail, and then went to a baptism that the Katy 1st sisters had.  It was of two kids of a less active member of theirs, one I actually knew.  He is good friends with someone in our ward, so we had actually met him before they did!  It was good to see him step up and change his life so he was able to baptize and confirm his kids.  It was a really great experience. 

Also, for the interlude between the baptism and the continuation of the program we watched the Restoration video.  During it Sister Goodrich thought, "Joseph Smith prayed and got an answer, I can get one too" and she asked Heavenly Father for a referral.  Not five minutes later we checked the phone and we had one. Miracle!!!  We were so excited it was not even funny.  Though we kept it in pretty good since we were in the middle of a baptismal service.  Afterwards we picked up a lesson plan for the class we were going to be subbing on Sunday and went over it.  Then we went to dinner at a members house and enjoyed the company of a few other families.  

Funny story time.  We get to the house and I ask to use the bathroom.  I flip on a switch and it doesn't work, so I try the others.  Nope, nothing.  I am beginning to wonder if I am going to have to break out the flashlight I conveniently carry in my bag when the light comes on.  I find out later that as soon as we walked in the power flickered off.  Sister Goodrich said it was a spiritual surge when we walked in.  I am pretty sure it was just due to the huge storm that was brewing outside.  While we progressed through dinner, it dumped rain and there was lots of thunder and lightning.  When it rains here, it pours, but only for like an hour at a time usually, so by the time we left it had stopped raining.  

We then went to the Luke's to watch them shoot off fireworks.  Fireworks are legal here, so everyone puts on their own show.  One of the members of our ward had bought several hundred dollars worth of firework and was setting them off in the Luke's cul-de-sac.  As we were watching them the loud noises sent all the kids and Sister Goodrich heading towards the house. Sister Goodrich remembered as we were watching the fireworks that she doesn't like fireworks, thunder, lightning, or frogs, all of which were present that night.  It seemed like God was competing with man for who could light up the sky better.  We left a little before nine to make it home on time and to spare Sister Goodrich anymore discomfort and listened to the thunder and fireworks going off all night.

Roosting duck on the front porch

Saturday was pretty boring.  We weren't able to catch many people at home, though we did find a few.  We also saw a duck on the front porch of a member, sitting in a planter and like 20 eggs.  Scared me pretty bad for a second.  

A member took us to dinner at my favorite restaurant that I have been to in Texas, Los Cucos.  They have them in both of my areas- it is a delicious restaurant.  We went out after dinner and tried to find people at home, but for some reason no one is ever home, or at least that is what seems like.  We did stop by a member and found her outside with her kids and her neighbor, so we were able to stop by, talk a while, and share a message.  The member was even able to take us to church the next day, that was a relief.

Sunday was good.  We taught the 16/17 year old class about ordinances.  It was a good lesson and I am pretty sure they learned something.  Also had a good lesson on the Lord's timing in Relief Society.  We then came home, studied, and saw a family who talked our ears off and gave us a delicious loaf of home made bread.  We stopped by to see Sister Jackson and then had dinner with the Grahams.  We were able to see a few members and heard lightning strike so close we could hear the sound pierce and rend the air.  I thought it was cool, but it scared Sister Goodrich really bad!  Not much else happened.  We were going to go to the Bluebell factory today, but our ride cancelled last minute.  We took our car into the dealership this morning and we were able to teach the first vision to the shuttle driver on our way to the church.  I have no idea what we will do the rest of the day, but they are supposed to pick us up any minute now to get our car back, so who knows!  Have a blessed week y'all!

Sister Hudgens

Physical Therapy Helps Spread the Gospel?

Bubbles!

This week was really good.  I am happy to have Sister Goodrich as my companion, she is great.  We get along well and have a lot of fun together.  We love to laugh!!  Monday was  a pretty tame day.  We did all of our p-day tasks and then went to the Drexell building and played card games with another set of missionaries.  Then we had dinner at the Davidsons and I had my first meatball sub ever.  It was delicious, with homemade marinara sauce.  We then went to visit a family and they had a non-member friend there.  Poor kid is going to think we are stalking him.  We talked to him at church yesterday, and we saw him again today.  We aren't, I promise!  We then had a lesson with another family we are teaching because their son is turning 8 soon.  It was a pretty good day.

On Tuesday Sister Goodrich started physical therapy.  Her knee caps are too high on her legs and cause her a lot of pain while walking.  The physical therapist is really helping with it though.  Plus we get to talk to a non-member whenever we go!!!  That is at least one every week, which is often more than we usually get to talk to.  We don't run into many people that aren't members.  No one is outside because it is too hot/humid or they have fled for a month.  Seems to be a common theme around these parts.  After the therapist we came home, studied, ate lunch and then went to an appointment with one of our 8 year olds.  We then tried visiting people before dinner, to no avail.  Why is no one home!!!  Don't they know that the missionaries are trying to uplift, encourage, inspire, and bless them?  It is ok though. We find things to do.  We dinner with the Larsens again and afterwards we went home so that Sister Goodrich could do her exercises.  The doctor says she has to do them three times a day, so I make sure she does them.  Then we went to the priest's activity.  We were invited to come and talk about preparing for missions.  It was a good night.

Temple Day

Wednesday we woke up at 4am in order to pick up a set of sisters and get to the temple by 6:30am for a special session with our mission president.  Made for an early morning!  We got to the temple and I realized  that I had forgotten my temple recommend.  Luckily the temple president was able to get it all settled and I could go in.  That would be terrible to go all the way over there so early in the morning for nothing!  We had a session with President and Sister Pingree and a bunch of other missionaries and then afterward we had a special meeting with the temple president in which he explained a few things about the endowment session.  It was a great experience and I hope that I can remember everything I learned!!  We then commenced our travel back to Katy, stopping for lunch along the way.  We then came home and took a little nap.  If I was going to have to function and drive all day, I needed it!  Then we did our studies, and went to dinner at the Kjars (say care).  Brother Kjar likes to smoke meat as a hobby, so we had a really good dinner, then a lesson afterward.  We were able to see a family where the mom is semi-active afterwards and it was a good visit.  A very long and productive day!

On Thursday we visited a few members, volunteered at the food bank, walked around the mall so I could try and introduce Sister Goodrich to our potential investigator and awkwardly ran into the elders (Sister Davis and I always wondered when that would happen), and did our weekly planning, nothing too exciting.  Friday we went to another physical therapy session for Sister Goodrich, had a lunch appointment and a lesson with a member family, and just visited more members.  If you don't realize by now, we visit a lot of members here since we don't have very many places we can go to contact people.  We love the members and encourage them to do member missionary work. If they give us their friends and family to teach about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, then we won't have to bother them all day!  I don't think we are a bother though and I know the members are really trying to help us.  That night after we got home Sister Goodrich sat on her bed and told me her life story and I in turn told her mine.  Good bonding time and we get to find out why each other is the way we are.

On Saturday we helped a part member family move.  My arms are still sore, but it was good.  There were a couple men from the ward there along with the elders and they were all surprised that I was working as hard as I was.  I was not just going to sit there and do nothing!  Of course I was going to help.  We then went home, had lunch and studied, then a member picked us up so that we could go to Conroe for the baptism of three people Sister Goodrich taught in her last ward.  It was really nice.  On the way home the member bought us dinner and we decided to eat outside.  While we were eating we say two guys, Keith and Raul, from our apartment complex that we have talked to about the gospel a little bit.  We didn't even know they were friends!  We had given Raul a Book of Mormon and were following up.  Then Sister Goodrich said that Keith could read it too.  He said he didn't have one, so we ran and got him one and he said he would read it in a week.  I hope he actually does!

Sunday was another missionary farewell. We are going to have a lot of those in the coming months.  Are there any missionaries being called from our ward?  Anyway, the talks were good, and the boy who is leaving was very good at laying it all out for anyone who wants to serve a mission what it was they needed to do. A girl also spoke on the roles of women and it was very good.  The youth in this ward are so strong!  After church we ate lunch, studied, and then went out.  We were able to visit with members, have dinner and then go to the open house/farewell for the soon to be missionary.  Then we stopped at the Claunch home and talked with them for a while.  They always seem to make non-traditional food and Brother Claunch made this really good smelling Chinese food, so we had a little helping for second dinner and it was really good.  First dinner was really good, and so was second.  Sometimes I wish I had two stomachs so I could eat all the delicious food!!  Alas, I don't, so I will just have to be content with portion control.

Have a blessed week y'all!

Sister Hudgens

Had to take a picture- you don't see this on a
license plate souvenir in California

We saw a chicken in one of the neighborhoods in our area.  

I almost hit it because it was crossing the road!!!!  

So now I know why the chicken crossed the road...to get to the bayou!