Whew! Honolulu

Fellow smurfs:

I just read Deena's e-mail about her call and the subject line made me think it might be a joke, so I was reading it trying not to get too excited. Then when I read that she was called to Honolulu, Hawaii I thought of that night 7 years ago when Phil called and we listened to him read his call letter and he said that he was going to Hawaii...just kidding, I'm going to Tucson, Arizona. So...pretty funny that Deena's going there now. haha! I had to reread her e-mail like 3 times before I could let myself accept it. I've just been thinking about her call and looking forward to it for so long...and it's finally here. It just feels right (not that I can get revelation for her or anything.) Deena, I don't know if you know this or not but Sherry Pomerleau (now Thomas) just moved to Hawaii like 6 months ago. Meredith and Jake Logan are planning to move back there someday (Jake's family is all there.) It's crazy!!! So cool! You'll just have to let your awesome, thick, curly hair flow like the Polynesian girls do. We'll just put a nice flower in it and call it good. hehe! :)
I can't wait to be there all together again! Phil, I hope you can pop in sometime in those 2 weeks so we can get a family photo and have a little mini reunion!?
Oh family, I just love you all so much. It is funny how intensely a mission can change the way you look at the world and your relationships. I hope you all know how much I love you...I really do.
 
So, my new companion is Sister Roberts from Alabama! We totally represent the South! (except she tells me Oklahoma is the mid-west...I don't have a good rebuttal.) She is super sweet, fun-yet calm, and crazy organized. We make a great team. We are tackling a lot to help the ward council better know their members (all 700 of them.) Hopefully we'll do a lot to lighten their load. We had 6 people at church this week which is the best we've done in a long time! We had Alyna and Yadira there which was such a tender mercy and joy in my heart. I love those girls so much! Kailani and Joseph came with their mom. They are well on their way of being baptized in 3 weeks. Then Larry came. After not meeting with him for about a month we decided we needed to check on him and to teach him the word of wisdom really soon. He told us that he stopped drinking and smoking as a part of his new years resolution. So far, he's done really good! It's funny though because on his own he bought grapefruit juice, he's been brushing his teeth as many times as the quit-smoking program we have says too, he's replaced his bad habit with baking! haha! Seriously though. The spirit has truly been working on him. We didn't teach him any of that. :) Frank is our last but not least investigator that came to church. He is so solid! He has been in and out of prison but he had a near-death experience that totally shook him out of his deep sleep. He has a totally repentant heart and is our "Alma the Younger." He is such a gentle man and we are so excited for him to be Baptized as soon as he gets permission. What a gem!
There is so much to do but the Lord is sustaining us and we are having a wonderful time along the way. :) Thank you for all of your prayers!
Love, Sister Hudson

Miracles!!!

Hi Family

 

I don't have much time but wanted to send home some miracles!

 

December 26th: P-day. Met w/ Teresa at 6:30 for her "do or die" lesson to be Baptized. Brother Oels gave her a powerful blessing. She went to her interview and passed. We taught Mayra during Teresa's interview with her fellowshippers.

 

December 27th: Sister Riggs 27th birthday. We spent the entire morning calling people to do things for Teresa's Baptism. Everything was settled for the baptism but we hadn't heard anything from Teresa all day. We had District meeting and at 3:00 she finally texted us. Had the Baptism at 5:30. She bore a powerful yet simple testimony that she knows this was the right thing to do for her and her children (she has a 6 year old and is 9 months pregnant) Went to the Mormon Battalion at 7 and had a tour with Tony Middleton (recent convert) and his family. Then we had an oreo layered cake that I arranged for a senior sister to make for sister riggs' birthday.

 

December 28th: we prepared everything for mayra's Baptism. Weekly Planned. Taught a lot of lessons and then had her interview that night.

 

December 29th: we had a few lessons. It rained and was really cold. All the suits in Mayra's size were gone except for the one in the men's changing room that was just used at the Zone Leaders' Baptism an hour earlier. Mayra put on the cold suit and was Baptized. :) What a joyous day! We bought a Pizza and invited Teresa to join us. We had a good lesson at Mangia Bene's

 

December 30th. No Ward Council...thankfully so we could finish our Sacrament talks. Teresa didn't show up to Sacrament until just after Mayra's confirmation was finished. Sister Riggs was really stressing out! haha! It wasn't funny at the time though. We were the entire sacrament program. We both spoke and Sister Riggs sang one of her lovely musical numbers! :)

 

December 30th after church....thoughts of transfers filled our minds and started haunting us a little.

 

December 31st Got out of the car and saw someone that said "do I know you?" It was my little middle-eastern friend Yasmin from my last zone! She moved here and is in our area! We added her and are going to baptize her!!!! :) Then 30 minutes later we ran in to another lady i knew in my last area that I volunteered with at the Miramar Thrift Store. She is neighbors with the Relief Society President in the ward I'm serving in.

 

That was my crazy week!!!!

 

Deena Getting a Mission Call!?

So...Deena is getting her mission call soon!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!! I'm totally freaking out! I'm so excited and I can't wait to hear over the phone on Christmas where she is going...so everyone pray that she gets it before then okay!? Scott and I took over the English part of the Mission Field and Josh and Phil took over Spanish and mastered it! All of us were state-side...I wonder if she'll pick a side or totally be neutral and get sent to Asia!? Hmmm....What is more like Deena? Yeah, she's totally gonna do her own thing!

Mom was stateside, Aaron was stateside, Tricia was in Canada but all of those are in the West....maybe she'll go to Maine or something cool and totally cold like that? so exciting!!

 Wow, I CANNOT believe we are here again....preparing  for the Christmas phone call! Ahh! I get 30 to 40 minutes so we'll just have to make it work...oh that makes me a little trunky thinking about all of this. Weird. Okay, back to missionary goodness!

We had a normal week...just lots of teaching which we love! I had a great exchange with one of our sisters from Kirabit...a teeny island in the south pacific! She is so great and we had a lot of fun together! She has some cool experiences and stories to share about her conversion 3 years ago. Her family is all catholic but they are supporting her being out here. She and her companion have both been really sick these past two transfers but they are being taught so much by the spirit and setting a great example of diligence and strength. I love them! I love my mission! I love the Lord! I love being set apart from the world and having holy problems to worry about! It is the best thing on Earth...besides the temple!

Have a wonderful week! Merry Christmas! i love you all!

 

Merry Christmas

So much happens on a mission, I seriously struggle trying to remember what happened yesterday...but for you, I'll work a little harder to remember.

 

Tuesday night we were at a lesson w/ Mayra and Krisitna, a 14 year old girl that lives in the house, asked if we were mormon missionaries. She told us that she was from Chicago and that her mom's friend used to take them to church in Indiana. We were totally shocked and then after explaining that she had a book of mormon she ran off into her room and came back with a quad! We just looked at each other in shock. Then she joined our lesson on the gospel and she had all the perfect answers and she even referenced the story of Job and connected it beautifully to our lesson and the point we were on. All throughout the lesson, Sister Riggs and I kept looking at each other in shock. haha! We taught her 3 times that week and she wants to be baptized but they are headed to Chicago for christmas and her mom attends a different church that worships on saturdays and has told Kristina that she wants all of them to be baptized together in the same church....She has 2 younger brothers that are both older than eight....let's see what the spirit can do in the next few weeks! :)

 

We're teaching a man named Frank that is a complete Alma the Younger. We love teaching him. He is so faithful and so peaceful. He has to wait a while to be baptized but we are excited to be a part of his process! He invites all of his friends to come to church with him. What a great man!

 

About half of the people that we are teaching are black or mexican. It is so funny because every time we tell our district we added someone they always say...is she black? Haha! They all want to teach an African American...and they should because they are so deeply rooted in faith in God. It is wonderful!

 

Well, I should share more funny things that happen but I don't want to strain myself on my preparation day so you'll just have to wait until after the mission when I've joined you all again in Babylon.

 

Photos

Picture #5 All of us Sisters in the California San Diego Mission at a special sisters meeting that me and the other 3 trainer sisters put on with Sister Clayton's help!

Picture #6 Dulce, Enner, Sofia, And Cesar a family that I taught in my last area (Scripps Ranch) that I didn't get to say goodbye to when I was transferred. I got to see them on exchanges! We recommitted her to a date on January 19th! :) I love them so much!

Picture #7 Jasmin Calvillo and Alexis. Sisters that we baptized two weeks ago! Adorable!

Picture #8: Yadira, She is going to be Baptized this month! She is such a spiritual Giant. We love teaching her!

Really Busy Week

We have had a really busy week. We taught 31 lessons and we're all striving for at least 20 which was really hard to accomplish in my past areas....I'm so grateful to get a chance to teach as much as we do here. I love it. We've had our challenges though. We are learning a lot about working with the ward council and really being there to serve. That seems to be the theme for this transfer, we're ready to learn what the Lord has for us to learn. :) I know that will make things even better than they are for the missionaries that follow us.

Sister Riggs is so great. I truly love being companions with her! We have a lot of fun, work really hard, and are really good friends. :) She has helped me so much and I think I've helped her a little too.

I'm really not sure what to update you all on. We are going to the Temple today. That will be wonderful! We had a lovely Thanksgiving. We were in 5 homes and ate 2 dinners :) We got to teach a lesson to every family we visited. I think the members really appreciated it and we certainly did.

I can't believe it is Christmas time again. You should all check out mormon.org/christmas it is a huge campaign the church has been planning for and really trying to push! Tell your friends about it! We have a lot of people that we are teaching...that in itself is a blessing, but it is hard to get to them all. Please pray for us to help these newly added investigators to progress and come to church.

As for now, I don't have a lot more to report on. I'll try to attach some pictures to this e-mail. I love you all and think of you often! Thank you for your prayers and love!

Ouch...Thank You

Dear family,

Yesterday was a very bizarre day for us. After 4 weeks with our sweet Sister Greathouse, she felt strongly that she needed to go home to sort out a lot of health problems, so we had to drop her off at the airport yesterday morning. It was so hard knowing what lies before her if she truly wants to get back out here. She can do it with the Lord's help. We truly do miss her though. Sister Riggs and I just hugged and cried for a good while. After personal study we went to see Dr. Holmes, the Chiropractor. While he was adjusting Sister Riggs neck I had to look away so the image of the movement wouldn't be in my head when he adjusted mine. I hear the movement in her neck and she said, "oww,...thank you." It was a perfect analogy for the gospel and our experiences hear on Earth. Sometimes the Thank you is delayed for a very long time but it will always come when the Lord lets us understand the purpose of that trial or challenge. It's silly but very deep. I know there are people experiencing a lot of Oww for a reason and we can be a part of helping them come to say Thank you.

We just got back from a meeting for the Sisters in the mission. The 4 of us training Sisters (including the mormon battallion sisters) got a chance to share our thoughts with all 40 of the sisters here. It was wonderful. We talked about how we need to laugh and find joy in the journey. Self-destructing is Satan's way. Joy in the journey is the Savior's way. Sister Sterling (Phil, do you know any Sterlings from PG?) shared how her twin sisters that are about 4 were alone in the kitchen getting into their typical mischeif and from the other room she hear one of them say, "I believe in Savannah!" She peaked in to see Savannah standing on the kitchen counter tightly holding onto the cupboard with one hand and reaching far back into the cupboard with the other. Savannah said, "say it again." So her sister said, "I believe in Savannah!" That unity and confidence in each other is what we need in our companionships, mission, ward and stake. I know that applies to after the mission too. We can do incredible things when we know that someone believes in  us. I know that is true. I felt that the moment I walked into my district in the MTC. I felt it totally change me and I've carried that throughout my mission. Then we talked about the immense changes in missionary work that are approaching. We have 180 missionaries currently and are expecting that to increase by 70 before July. We want each missionary to come into this mission and feel like they are a part of something amazing and that they are needed and loved instantly. The work will truly roll forth with greater power as we are behind each other and pushing alongside. I felt so humbled and full of love for every sister as we all sat huddled in the living room of our mission home. I felt an outpouring of appreication for these choice daughters of God that are here serving the Lord. They each carry a power and I know that we can create a unity here that will help hasten the Lord's work.

I love this gospel. I Know it is true. I feel the safety and certainty that comes from spoken truth as the spirit witnesses to my heart that the doctrine is true. I love being a tool for the Lord. I'm looking forward to the months I have left here in San Diego and for the years I have in the Lord's kingdom all over the world. I'll still make a huge impact if it is a desire of mine and if I am willing to act on the impressions that come, even when they don't appear to make sense. I love you and invite you to pray for those opportunities to bless lives each day with an act of kindness and showing your awareness.