For those not familiear with missionary terms, a missionary’s trainer is referred to as “my father” (mi papá), therefore the trainer of your trainer is “my grandfather” (mi abuelo). (jh)

From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Una semana aca en Trevelin
Date: January 30, 2012 7:38:50 AM MST

Hello everyone! Hope everyone had a sweet week. It looked like you all had fun at Nana and George´s farewell. I can´t believe that they are already leaving. Thats awesome, I´m so excited for them. I do have two questions: What are those things that Tyler is wearing on his legs and what is going on with Nate´s hair??? Anyway, I´m glad everyone is having a good time.

This week in Trevelin was a pretty good one. We have been really working on getting references this week and we feel we have been getting some really good ones. There are a couple of people we are trying to talk to with some member but that can be a little difficult here with the small membership we have. One referrence we got was from Esquel and it was for Properina´s son. He lives here and we have actually met him before and he has two little girls that love us. The problem is that the wife really doesn´t like us. So we are trying to get a noche de hogar with Presidente Ganga and the family this week. I hope it works! We are also really trying to get these menos activos going to church. A lot of them have some kids that are not baptized so we need to get those families going to church so we can get those ordinances done.

We had an awesome lesson this week with one of the less active members. Her name is Zulma and she was baptized a long time ago and really has a strong testimony. She also went through the temple a few years back. We talked to President Peterson about her a little and he says that she really needs to be back at church. So we went over there this week and had a really good lesson and committed her to coming to church on sunday. I guess that bring me to this sunday. It was raining all night and all morning yesterday. Nobody showed up for church. There were only 9 people in sacrament. But the awesome thing was that Zulma actually showed up. It just made it all the better. I had to give a talk yesterday too about repentance and Zulma said that is was really good so i hope it helped her a little. She gave the closing prayer in Sacrament and it was a really good prayer. She said some things that show me that she is on the right track.

David is still progressing really well, although he didn´t come to church. But we talked to him Friday night and he said that he doesn´t drink anymore. We didn´t even have to tell him. Its awesome because the first time we saw him he told us that he wasn´t going to stop drinking because that was just what he did. But now he is like telling all of friends that is just stupid. He was telling all of them how cool it was that Presidente Ganga was visiting him too. Its awesome to see all the ánimo that he had about these changes he is making. I just keep getting more excited for him.

Things are still going well for Paola. She finally got a date set for her marriage for the 30 of March. We were hoping it would be a little sonner but its good that they have that date set. Right now we are really trying to get her to have her own testimony of the gospel. She is kind of riding of the testimony of her kids right now. We gave her the committment to pray about the church so hopefully she will get that confirmation.

Yesterday I think I probably had my best lesson. Elder Clark is really pushing me now and making me take lead in the lessons. We taught the daughters of Dionisio i think i may have metioned them before. They are both really nice and have a desire to find some sort of religion. But it was probably our best lesson of us teaching together so that was really satisfying.

The weather here this week has been really nice. Today I am actually wearing a sweater and my jacket. It has been raining a lot these past few days and its been a nice break from the hot weather. Oh and my package probably wont get here for about a month. I finally got the package the DeBry´s sent. Tell them thank you.

I think thats about it for the week. I´m excited for Nana and George! I hope you all have a awesome week!

Les amo,
Elder Kyle Hudgins

Oh and I´ll explain the pictures a little. The one that says RiBer is a joke around in Argentina. Its talking about River the soccer team and they are in the B league right now. In the alphebet the call the letter “b” b larga and the letter “v” b corta. So the joke goes like this… How do you spell River?… Con b larga (because they are in the b league).

The other pic is with Elder Clark (mi papá) and Elder Boyd (mi abuelo, Elder Clark´s trainer) at zone conference.

The other one is just a cool sunset.

From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Awesome week
Date: January 23, 2012 7:51:15 AM MST

This week was pretty sweet. We had zone conference in Bariloche on Friday and it was pretty good. But let me start with the beginning of the week. On Tuesday we had just returned from dristrict meeting and we saw that we had nothing to eat in the pension so we went out real fast to get something. While we were walking we saw a couple tourists sitting on the side of the road. They seemed really frutstrated so we asked them if everything was alright. They asked if we spoke english and when they found out we did they were pretty happy. They were all from Isreal and they were trying to get to Futulaufu, Chile. Someone told him that there would be a bus coming by later in the day but that bus only comes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. When we told them they were not too happy. They told us that they needed to get to Chile the fastest and cheapest way possible (yes they were Jewish). We told them that it would probably be like 60 pesos to get to the boarder and then another 60 from the boarder to Futulaufu. When we said that they were like ¡¿Seriously?! That acutually was really cheap to what it ended up to be. But we took them to the taxi place and translated for them we even took them to a members house to use their internet because all the sybers were closed. We got them on their way and they were very greatfull for our help. I think it was their first time ever seeing missionaries so I hope we made a pretty good impression.

On Thurday we all headed to Bariloche for zone conference. Elder Clark had to go on Wednesday to do his visa. So it was just me and the Elders from Esquel. 5 hours on a bus is not the funnest thing in the world. I pretty much just tried to sleep the whole time. We did pass through some really nice cities on our way though. But when we got to Bariloche we all went to different pensions in the city to sleep for the night. The pension i was in the terrible. They had no food. I had to take a shower with a cup. It was not very fun.

But Zone Conference was pretty sweet. The conference was focused on baptism. I don´t know if i have told you but i think this mission is the lowest baptizing mission in all of South America. President Peterson said to make sure to focus your lessons on baptism. And put the baptismal date in the first lesson. He also really stressed the importance of finding new investigators. He wants every companionship to have 5 new investigators every week and a goal of 2 every day. It was pretty good. I understood most of it but still not all of it. The spanish is coming well though.

So the best thing that happened this week was on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday we asked Presidente Ganga if he wanted to go out on visits with us and he said yes, but he didn´t want to talk about baptism haha. So we went to David´s house and we talked about baptism. It was awesome. He said he was willing to do what he has to do to be baptized. So we set him with a date of 11 de Febrero and we also invited him to church. And he came yesterday. We gave him a tour of the chapel and it went really well. The first counselor in the mission presidency was there too and he gave an awesome talk. David said he had a really great experience. Also yesterday evening we were walking past his house and he was on his porch and he waved at us so we went to talk to him and you could just tell on his face that he was much happier than before. It is just awesome to see that difference in someone when they feel the gospel in their lives. I am so excited for David right now. If he keeps doing the things we tell him to do we might even be able to move up the date a week. Its awesome to see someone accept our message like that.

Well I hope all is well at home. Send some more pictures. Im sorry i don´t send a lot of pictures but none of the USB ports on these computers work so its hard. Hope you all have a great week. Love you all.

Les amo,
Elder Hudgins

As Elder Hudgins talks about the weather, be aware they are in the middle of summer in his part of the world. (jh)

From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: ¡Hola familia!
Date: January 16, 2012 8:41:55 AM MST

Hey how is everything going on at home? Hope all is going well right now. This week was really fun. Pobably my funnest since I have been here. And the reason is because we worked the hardest we have this week. Elder Clark and I are just really focused right now and its awesome. President sent out a new email with mission commandments. He wants to change the whole focus in this mission. He wants us to find at least 2 new investigators a day. Its not really the easiest thing in Trevelin but we did our best to get it. We were going through the area book and trying to thing of part member families all week that we could teach and get them to investigate the church. We found some really good people this week that I believe have really been prepared. We finally found David this week and we sat down and had a lesson with him. We talked a lot about Jesus Christ and what he thing God expects from him right now. He says he really wants to change but he is afraid that he wont be able to fulfill with the commandments and all that stuff. He said he was going to be at church but didin´t show up so that was a little frustrating. Hopefully we can meet with him sometime this week. Another new was Hermano Uribe. The family is less active but he and his 9 year old daughter are not baptized. He recently lost his job and they have been having some family problems. He has really been humbled. He is working in the campo right now and probaly only makes about 50 pesos a day. We had an awesome talk with him. He talked a lot about repentance. He was really beating up himself because he was really close to baptism a couple months ago but then he felt like he had a nice job and all that so he was fine with his life. We asked him about baptism and he had the same doubt as David. But we will help him with that. We have an appointment with the family tomorrow so I´m excited to see how that goes. And another awesome person we found was one of the daughters of a member of the branch Dionisio. He is like 95 years old and we go over every Thursday to do service. He has two daughters that are just the nicest people ever. They always have nice treat and always bring out jugo for us. We took the sacrament to Dionisio yesterday and we asked her about if we could teach the lessons. She is really thinking about it hard and taking it seriously and she knows that it is something very important. So we will go on Thursday and share a message with her. Hopefully it goes well.

This week we have zone conference. My first one. Because the mission is so big we have zone conferences every other transfer. Im excited about it but im not excited for the 5 hour bus ride to Bariloche. And it is taking 3 days out of our work week because Elder Clark has to do some visa stuff. From everyone that I talk to Bariloche is very overrated and always covered in ceniza. Elder Clark says Trevelin is the prettiest part of the mission.

So if you think the weather in Utah is weird, you have to see the weather here. Seriously like on Sunday night last week it snowed in the mountains and Monday and Tuesday were pretty cold days. And these last couple of days have been killer. If you ever send a package, make sure there is some gold bond in there. Oh and also send some pictures to put in my album. I love getting email pictures but i can´t look at them when i want.

Well anyway, I believe thats about all for this week. Hope you have a wonderfull week!

Les amo,
Elder Kyle Hudgins

From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: One transfer done!
Date: January 9, 2012 7:31:21 AM MST

Holy cow i can´t believe that this transfer is already done. I have been in Argentina for 6 weeks already. It is crazy how fast it has gone. Elder Clark says that it just keeps going by faster and faster which is kind of crazy. Elder Clark and I are both staying here in Trevelin but we have two elders from our district that are leaving. Elder Sharp is going up to Zone leader in Coleta Olivia and Elder Syddall is going to the General Roca zone, not exactly sure which part. But I´m glad that we are staying here because we have a lot of unfinished work here in Trevelin. Hopefully we can have a baptism this transfer.

This week we had divisions again. I went to Esquel again and worked with Elder Rozas. He is from Buenos Aires and it was the first day in my life where I didn´t hear or speak any english. Now because of that it was kind of a quite day but it was quite the experience. Elder Sharp said that i was the senior compaion that day because I entered the MTC on Sept 28 and he on the 29 so i had to conduct companion study and stuff and it was pretty hard. They have a training program now that has a list of thing to study for you first 12 weeks and you have 2 hours of comp study in the morning. It was really dificult to try to do stuff for the 2 hours all in spanish as well. But I am understanding more and more. I can actually understand a lot but now that hard part is having the confidence in my teaching. I don´t feel like i can speak the best either but I know that that will improve with time. This last district meeting Elder Syddall told me that i have learned a lot and don’t worry because I was called to speak spanish and teach the gospel and we are all that the Lord has so he will find a way.

This week we worked a lot with menos activos. We went to talk to this 90 year old guy named Sisilio. He hasn’t been to church for a while which is a little understandable because of his health but we go there just to let him know we are thinking about him. But sure enough yesterday he came to church. I was sweet to see him there. There was also another Hemana who hasn’t been there since i have been here that cam so that was also sweet. We havn’t made much progress with the investigators lately which is a little frustrating but I just have to keep working, trying to find ways to teach them so they can grow their own testimony.

It sounds like all of you are having a great time at home. Hope everyone is doing well and is enjoying the cold weather. I love you all and miss all you you. Keep sending pictures!

Les amo,
Elder Kyle Hudgins

Cascadas Nant y Fall

Elder Hudgins at Cascadas Nant y Fall

Kyle with the Esquel District at Cascadas Nant y Fall

Elder Prusse, Elder Rozas, Elder Sharp, Elder Syddall, Elder Clark, Elder Hudgins

From: Kyle Hudgins <kyle.hudgins@myldsmail.net>
Subject: Happy New Year!
Date: January 2, 2012 1:18:32 PM MST

Hola familia.

Sorry its taken a little while to get this email out today but we left this morning to go check out some of the scenery of around Trevelin. We went to this place called Nant Y Falls. Its a pretty cool place about 20 minutes south of Trevelin. Its a short little trail that takes you past 4 waterfalls, it was way awesome. I have pictures but this computers wont acept USB chords so hopefully i will be able to send them to you next week.

This week has been really nice. We didn´t really do anything for New Years. We were allowed to stay up late and be with members or investiagors but we just stayed in our pension. It was a little boring but everyone around us had fireworks so we went outside and watched them. They had some pretty big fireworks that would shake the house and stuff. I assume the laws are pretty laid back about buying fireworks here in Argentina. Then yesterday after church we spent the day in Esquel and we had the whole day off so we made a whole bunch of pizza and played Monopoly and card games. It was a good time.

The reason we decided to go out today was because this is the last week of the transfer and some of the elders in our district thing they might be leaving. Its crazy that i am almost done with my first transfer. It has gone by so fast. This whole mission has gone by really fast. I have already been out for 3 months. It feels like just yesterday you were dropping me off at the MTC. I guess time goes really fast when you are having fun and you have a lot of stuff to do.

The missionary work in Trevelin has been really tough. I feel like Elder Clark and I are working really hard but when we look at our numbers at the end of the week, we think man those really suck. Thats the only thing that really gets me down a little but is not seeing the fruits of your work. Im sure the lord is helping that person or whoever in some way but i just can´t see it. But one thing really awesome happened this week. We set up a baptimal date for Paola. She has been talking to the missionaries for about 3 years now i think and never had one. She has two kids that are baptized and she really likes the church. She just hasn´t been able to go becuase she has work on sundays. The date is for the 10 of March because she has to get divorced from her previous husband and marry Juan (the guy she is living with). he is also an awesome guy. He is way nice and my hope is that he gets baptized the same day. They are just an awesome family. Paola and Juan read and pray with their kids Irving and Nacho. Those two come to church every week and when we went to teach, Irving knew the answer to all the questions. He is only 11 but already says he wants to serve a mission. So that is probably the most exciting thing that is going on. The funny that was that the next day we had a ward activity for the new year and she came and we telling everyone that she was going to be baptized. So that was just awesome to see such enthusiasm from her.

Sorry its a little short i don´t have much time today but just wanted to let you know I love all of you and i miss you and i was so greatfull to see and talk to you the other day. It was so nice to be able to see your faces. Hope you all had a happy new year.

Les amo,

Elder Kyle Hudgins