Pics doe (Hudson's Email Week 41)

 

When I was sick my arm ached sooo bad I deep blued it and peppermint and thieves oiled it up After killing the previous tads connie entrusted us with 20 more from a different tank and they are alive and somewhat well Chelsea's stop smoking went well Theres a big emphasis on talking to everyone and street contacting which is uncharted territory for this covidary but I'm excited to do it, we've done it a ton. Our mission had 33 baptisms this weekend, check the picture I sent, that's huge

Member meals and meeting with them might open up tomorrow too

Sickness strikes in the mission field

We all knew it was bound to happen.  I am glad Hudson made it nine months before he got truly sick while on the mission.  He attended Hillbilly days.  There he had a lot of exposure to a lot of different people.  Then on Tuesday he went to Connie's and ate meatloaf for lunch.  That night both Hudson and Elder Lewis did not feel good.  By Wednesday morning Hudson was taking chills, fatigued and lots of intestinal issues.  He drove through McDonalds and got a Sprite and an Apple Juice paying $2.15 for lunch.  He spent most of PDay sleeping on a couch at the church and listening to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack.  He was improving Thursday, so hopefully just a tummy bug.  

Hudson said that the mission is over 50% vaccinated with the COVID vaccine.  He is still holding out for his own reasons.  

He said that Callie's baptism was amazing.  He got to stand in the circle for her confirmation.  A member of the Branch Presidency's son (that this young lady went to school with did the baptism).  He is prepaing to put in his mission papers.  Hudson says that Callie is also talking about serving a mission after graduation.  She will be a senior this fall.  They asked Hudson to take 5 minutes to share a message on baptism.  He said he is getting really good at speaking in public on the fly with a spiritual thought.  I can't wait to see that when he gets home.  There are planning to do baptisms for the dead on July 31.  I told Hudson that will be after his next transfer and he should push them to move that up so he can take Connie.  He feels optimistic he will stay one more after this.

Connie reached out to me on Facebook.  She thanked me for the journal and the beautiful red ribbon I tied around it.  Hudson says she is hanging it on her baptismal covenant plaque that a member made for her that is hanging in her kitchen.  She told me that Hudson has been such a cheerful helper around her place.  I thanked her for feeding him.  Admitting that , that is hard on the grocery budget.

(Hudson's Email Week 40)

Whats up gang, another week in Lafayette in the books, it was a really good week though. I don't know if I talked about about Parkin with y'all (he was my last DL) anyways my new comp is just like Parkin and I've gotten along well with both of them so it's been a pretty fun week for sure. Connie consented to Hudson building a fire.  He burnt some old hay that was moldy.  Connie was afraid it would make her horse sick.  The boys "rescued"  a pickle jar full of tadpoles from Connie's trough.  Problem was, when they got them home and put them in a bucket.  They all died.  Hudson assumes from the shock of not acclimating the water.  Hudson and Elder Lewis got to attend Hillbilly days (it is comparable to Idaho Days in Franklin).  They got these great T-shirts for $18 after Elder Norton drove all over town to find a shirt that said Lafayette.  Elder Norton paid $35 for his.  Hudson said almost every other booth was a religious stand.  A bit different from Idaho Days in that regard.

The sisters had a baptism that's always an amazing experience. We are teaching Ryan's girlfriend, in 3 days she's read all of 1 Nephi which is so amazing, hopefully we will baptize her soon!

Blazin' Wings

 Hudson called with a long face.  He is sad that Elder Norton is moving away from Lafayette.  He called while we were watching Ridge's baseball game which he lost and got out of the playoffs.  He was excited to tell his dad about completing the Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin' Hot challenge.  Elder Abrams filmed the event instead of participating because he had done it a month previously.  He was motivating them throughout the five minute ordeal.  Elder Abrams dad has also completed the challenge multiple times.  He gave the boys some advice.  One tidbit was to cover the skin around their mouths with Vaseline.  To stop the sauce from burning.  Hudson got to see Chance Randall at the game and his "mustache".

With President Gilday moving the missionaries went to help move a piano.  Hudson once again used piano straps, but it did not go as well as when he helped Gordon's uncle.  After putting the piano down, Hudson felt sick and all the sound washed out like he was under the water.  He has recovered, but something for us to keep an eye on.  

Hudson has been practicing in his Elton John book and some books of Connie's.  He feels he is getting much better at the piano.

Hudson is having a hard time coordinating a date to do baptisms for the dead and new convert lessons.  He is hoping the new branch presidency gets it together.  They are impeding his work, and he doesn't like that.

Transfers (Hudson's Email Week 39)

 This week has been even sadder, we got transfer news and Norton is leaving, unfortunately this was kind of expected, we spent 3 transfers together.

My new comp is named Elder Lewis and he should be pretty cool, we did the blazing challenge today as a last hurrah for the district. I'm glad to be staying in Lafayette though!

The Future

I messaged Hudson and told him all the places I needed to be last night.  He took my hint and called in the morning.  That boy gets me most of the time.  Ridge was excited to show him the pictures he had been drawing.  McKinley showed him how bad her sunburn was peeling.  Chevy commiserated how awful the P-Hill run was on Monday morning, before he left for work at the firework warehouse.  Ellie was happy to sit and chat with the two of us.

I brought up the deadline for his application to get in to the aviation Fall 2022 class was due June 20.  He has worked things out through his head and has decided he will not skip the last transfer.  He will be released September 21, 2022 and start school Spring of 2023 at SUU.  Pending of course more changes in his mind during the next 14 months.  He wants me to make sure his scholarship hold gets extended and get him the deadline to enter his application for that semester.  No pressure on his mom.  He tells me he has learned in the mission field to push out of his mind the things he can't change.  Schooling being one of them.  He has however been thinking about his future. He wants me to save him a place to build in the field, so I can watch his children while he and his wife travel the world on the airlines free family flights.  Silly boy...

I told Hudson the local missionaries came to visit us.  They biked to our house from Preston.  Hudson said that is impressive, but what a waste of the use of their time.  He went on his phone and showed me the area planner missionaries use to track who they teach what to.  It also shows different ward information, but does not give a lot of description about a person.  I told him that must be why they did not know he was a missionary or that I was primary president.  That information might be useful to missionaries to know going into homes.

The last great news is his wart is shrinking on his elbow!  Maybe the fingernail clippers and wart freeze will work after all.

Goodbye President Gilday (Hudson Email week 38)

 This week has been kind of sad, pres gilday has been preparing to move and we've been helping him do that, we had a last supper with him yesterday. Our transfers are coming up and a switch is kind of imminent so that's disheartening. Me and norton have been through 3 transfers, hopefully there will be a fourth

 We've been able to finish the fence at Connie's and we put up some pretty intense electrical wire, it was a lot more powerful then I thought, I grabbed norton and grounded it out through him and I thought my shoulder blades were sprouting wings, it really hurt, it will suffice to keep her horse in.

Tennessee has been beautiful these last few weeks. Its been spring and so much water has been coming down. The vegetation is just a solid wall on the side of the road, it's very green and super vibrant. All the vegetation has created an irrational fear of snakes/spiders/allthecreepycrawlingthingsthatwillbiteandpoisonme. 

But other than that I've really enjoyed the southern spring, the humidity is bad in the afternoon, but after the sun goes down the humidity has this cooling feel and it feels so good, I now understand what Glen Campbell was getting at while singing "southern nights"

Slow Week?

You might have noticed Hudson did not send an email on Wednesday.  I questioned him about it while on the phone that night and strongly encourage he send something out.  The array of filtered pictures is what we all got.  I am assuming it was a slow week in the mission field.  Hudson did not have much to tell me, but we talked about health issues.  COVID vaccines are strongly recommended now and he took Elder Norton to get his Wednesday morning.  Hudson is still on the fence in regards to getting one.  His wart on the elbow has grown back, again!  He broke down and called the mission nurse who said unless it was causing pain, missionary medical would not pay for it.  He could find a clinic and pay using his personal insurance, which I told him has a large deductible and won't cover anything.  I am going to look into some more options for him.  Hudson has also created a phobia of getting bitten by something and having his leg amputated like a venomous snake or brown recluse spider.  Maybe he has been on the internet too much?  He like the rest of the family is jealous of Chevy's senior trip to Whitefish, MT.  The final straw was the picture of the pike fish Chevy caught.  Hudson would love to catch a tiger Muskie.  Atleast, now we know where the family should go on vacation.

He finally finished Connie's fence and she posted about it on Facebook.

Connie Landis Miller

Jeeunes 1 tdaSttlp o1n0ss:f2nsoSrnegd0md AteSafM  · 

The missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints at work. Elder Hudson Nelson and Elder Jonathan Norton at my house. They put up all this fence and posts too. Here they are adding a top strand of electrical wire to keep the horse from chewing on the wooden boards. They did a great job. A lot of hard work!

My favorite comment to her post:

Connie Hansen

Wow, those Mormons are good boys.

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(Hudson email Week 37)