Transfers (Hudson's Podcast Week 58)

 Weather is chilly in the morning.  He is using a sweatshirt and sweatpants on their morning runs.  Afternoons are beautiful in the 60's.

Hudson is still the district leader over sisters in Mt. Juliet and STL's (sister training leaders) in Smyrna.  Elder's Wiscombe and Peterson have left the apartment.  Elder's Owen and ____ are moving in.  He is looking forward to not speaking a lot about lonely Hispanic men with the Hermana's in the area.

Wednesday:  Elder Peterson gave Brett a haircut in the apartment courtyard.  Carbon monoxide detector went off while Hudson was talking to us.  They called the housing coordinators that said not to worry about it, it was probably just a test.  Elder Bay looked into the monitor and realized he had gave them bad information.  Elder Bay tried to call back and check on them, but all their phones were on silent, and no one answered.  He came to check on the apartment and pounded on the door four long times. He woke up the neighbors.  When Hudson finally gets to the door, he sees someone arguing with Brett. It is  Elder Bay who came to check on them and make sure they are all alive.  He then went to the mission office, got a working detector and brought it back to the house at 1:00 in the morning.  "What a stud!"

Thursday:  Hudson went to do service for a nonmember Cindy Thomson's house.  She fed/paid them in Steak House gift cards to get around not being able to pay them.  Brett took the Elder's out to lunch to apologize for yelling at Elder Bay.  The apartment had a supreme mac music making (Elder Peterson's birthday) party.  Hudson brought the keyboard to the kitchen and reenacted the Little Mermaid scene with Ursula making a potion.  Worst batch of supreme mac they have made yet.  Went to Toot's for Elder's Peterson's birthday dinner.  Hudson got frog legs that did non impress.  It was fishy chicken. The meal came with four legs and each leg only had about two bites of meat.  Hudson thought the bones looked human in nature.  Not Great.

Saturday:  Hudson got a call from a girl he had been talking to on Facebook.  Her dad had been taught by a previous set of missionaries.  That was a first for him!  Elder's were 15 minutes late getting to stake conference.  Elder Gerard was speaking on the come follow me program.

Sunday:  Stake Conference was at Mt. Juliet for Sunday session.  They watched it on TV at the church house.  The quality was not good.  An investigator came with the other Elder's and it was not a great first impression.  Hudson feels speakers need to explain doctrine terms before they start their lesson.  For example Proxy sealings.

Monday:  District council at Mt. Juliet.  Said good-byes to those that are leaving.  Hermana Lee reminds Hudson of Aunt Kacy in her facial features, but she is shorter and younger, of course.  She is leaving for Spain in five days.  All the missionaries in the quad have been messaging the same girl named Faith.  The game plan is for Hudson and Elder Johnson to meet her, at her church and give her a Book of Mormon.  Then she wants tells them to give it to her father, the pastor of the church, to give to her.  Hudson is not keen on that plan if their is no personal contact.  He also knows what this situation leads to.  A waste of three hours getting bashed on about their religion.  He also understands it looks questionable with the Elder's all messaging Faith, since they are about her age?  It is Elder Johnson's senpai week (he is in charge) and he wants to go.  They showed up an hour late, after calling to warn her, and Hudson hit it on the head.  They were at the church for 3 1/2 hours getting bashed by her pastor Bryan father.  The pastor had studied LDS religion when he had his come to Jesus moment.  He gave Hudson some new anti-Mormon info he had not heard before.  He did politely apologize for telling them, that they were wrong.  His main points:  1-Joseph Smith writing the kinder hook plates/stone tablets 2-Book of Abraham from the Egyptian Papyri that he had bought was false (Joseph Smith was murdered before he finished).  The Papyri ended up in the Chicago museum and were later burnt by the Chicago fire.  Another papyri was in a different museum and that is his bases for falsehood.  Pastor Bryan called Hudson out on his confusion.  The Pastor felt it was him putting doubts in Hudson's head as to the truthfulness of the church.  He was proud to tell Hudson he got a missionary to leave the church from the doubts he put in his mind a few years earlier.  Hudson was feeling confusion, but not towards what the Pastor was "teaching" him.  The Pastor feels the inspiration for the Book of Mormon was of the devil and it is an evil book.  The Pastor prayed for forgiveness if he shared anything untrue with them and Hudson respected that.  Hudson prayed for how to respond to this allegation.  He was prompted to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 33.  Nephi writes a testimony of the Book of Mormon that if the devil was behind it, it would teach us to sin.  If there is sin to be found it could be pride, as the LDS church is prideful in believing they have the only true church on Earth.  However, the pride cycle happens over and over again in the Book of Mormon and warns us not to be prideful.  Maybe the church should take a closer look at that.  After reflecting on the events Hudson realized the only time he felt the spirit was when the Pastor prayed and when Hudson testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.  Most of the time Hudson Pastor Bryan was talking he felt a scared contention. Similar to the anticipation you get if you feel you have just been caught doing something wrong.  The Southern thought that the hyped up, wailing unto Jesus, band jamming, demons pulling from bodies is the spirit, doesn't line up with what Hudson feels to be true.  He didn't like the experience, but he learned a lot from it.

Joe Mama (Hudson's Podcast Week 57)

 Wednesday:  Recorded Supreme Mac rap song.  Went to a return/thrift store called Dirt Cheap that had signs posted in Arabic.  Member food of pasta gave lots of indigestion/heartburn.

Thursday:  Went to visit Sharon in Laverne, TN who rides her bike to work at the Nissan plant.  Living at landlords house as she got evicted.  While driving there, they see an older women walking a bike down the freeway and assume it is Sharon.  Missionaries are not allowed to give people rides so they don't stop.  Speak with the landlords who are Baptist and not interested.  They think Sharon will be home in 1 hour.  While they wait, they go to visit Norr, a previous contact from 3 weeks ago.  He is not home, but they talk to his son and get contact information for the son.  While driving back to Sharon's the missionaries stop to talk to a black man standing in his driveway.  His name is Antwon Lias.  He tells them he is an original Israelite.  He only worships on Saturday?  They give him a Book of Mormon.  He jokes how people try to get away from the missionaries, but right now the missionaries are trying to get away from him.  He did not want to call them Elders but called them brothers and was smoking a doobie the whole time.  When Hudson calls him on Sunday he does not answer the call.  They get to Sharon's and she is obviously out of breath from her long bike ride, but she wants to talk on the porch.  She tells the missionaries how picked on she is since she does not get along with her family.  She asks the Elders if they have physically seen God, because she has.  One time He was next to her fireplace and talking to her.  Her mother could not seen him.  Another time she was praying and a knife tried to stab her, but God stopped it.  Again, her mother could not see it.  She saw God over Hudson's shoulder while they were talking.  Hudson felt like he was on the birdbox movie when the man on the river tries to get the family to look at the supernatural being.  God tells her things are going to be alright and work out.  She didn't want to read the Book of Mormon as she was going inside to have her 20 minutes alone with God. She needs that everyday.  Car contact on the way home only spoke Japanese.

Friday:  Cold call turned them down instantly.  He thought they were from the religion that has 25 wives.  He said he would be interested if they did practice polygamy.  When asked if he knew anyone that would be interested in the message he gave them the number 615-867-5309 and sang the last 4 digits.  Hudson had some respect for him after that.  Another call was some kids that had them repeat the Lord's prayer.  Another kid told them his parents were dead, when Hudson called him out on it he hung up and then texted them back 4 times.

Saturday:  Visit with Pascal at 11:00.  He was sleeping.  Came back at 3:00 and Pascal had left with his friend.  Had a lesson with some of the younger household members.  Went to pick up dinner and the whole quad got a buzz with a size 4 guard, as that is as short as mission standards allow.

Sunday:  Quad is praying for a miracle that someone will attend church with them.  Sylvia shows up half way through sacrament meeting.  She is talking with the other missionaries in the apartment.  A black man and a young girl walk in as well.  Hudson does not recognize them.  Turns out it was Norr who they had texted a church address to three weeks previously.  He texted the Elders and asked where they were.  Turns out they were sitting three rows apart the whole time and Hudson did not even talk to him.  Whoops!

Monday:  Elder Peterson's dad and brother came to town for the Titan's game and they went to eat at Cracker Barrel.  Elder Johnson had some rough cold calls.  One was a lady that claims she loves studying new religions, but refused to consider learning about the church.  Another lady told him to go hang himself.  When he called her back she told him to get away demon.  Another man liked the scripture they shared, but once they mentioned the Book of Mormon he was not interested.

Tuesday:  District council training with the senior couples.  Housing coordinator discussed mold.  West Fork sisters had baptism at their building.  The Elders decided to go.  A ton of people showed up.  Sister Brown asked Hudson to play some prelude music.  He was still on the piano when the brother started conducting.  Suddenly Hudson is asked to play I Am a Child of God on 301.  He finds an orange cover hymnbook that has been defaced.  He can't read through all of the markings and gets paranoid in front of the large gathering.  Didn't play a lot of the bottom hand.  They go to the font.  He Asks Sister Brown is he needs to play another song and she tells him no.  After the baptism is over Sister Brown waves his attention and starts making air piano gestures.  He went and play some postlude from the Children's Hymnbook.

Bing bong (Hudson's Podcast Week 56)

 Wednesday:  Went shopping to Ross and got cotton, stretchy, flowery shorts.  Looked at some purple, floral women shorts at Bargain Hunt.  Didn't think they would fit quite right on his male physique.  He also went to dollar bargain and got "authentic" Italian pants for $0.50.  The drawback, they are size 44 waist.

Thursday:  Hudson has been swapping videos at "Calvaho" A You Tube type account that he, Gordon and Calvin Henderson upload to.  Hudson's latest video was of himself depressively eating a grapefruit.  Good stuff!

Friday:  Hudson reached two cool people on Cold Calls, but they were out of his area.  They had to refer them on.

Saturday:  Four lessons planned and all of them cancelled.  Hudson was very upset as he had picked out his best missionary attire.  Hudson has set some goals to become an "Alpha Chad".

Sunday:  Had eight commitments for investigators to come to church.  No one came to church.  Other Elders recent convert Darlene came with husband (who had not been there in 50+ years) and a deaf daughter.  Darlene shouted out like they were in a Baptist church during peoples testimony.  She marched to the front and gave her testimony. She moved to Tennessee from New York three months ago.  Hudson got a Referral from Lafayette.  Nigeria refugee Nisini and wife Peace.  Had a good lesson, but his wife was not interested and gave them the silent treatment.  When Hudson was ready to leave he asked if they had any questions.  Peace ended the lesson with telling them she had heard weird stuff was in the Book of Mormon, but she was intrigued they spoke about Jesus.  She ended with a lecture from the bible quoting Romans 3:23.  

The Elders had a tie market swap in the apartment.

 

 Elk Daddy (Elder Lewis's trainer) is going to his OG assignment in Brazil and gave his departing testimony.  He had to loose weight before the mission would let him go.

Monday:  Drove to district council in Mt Juliet.  It was beautiful, especially over the bridge that crosses the finger lake.  He had Lawrenceburg nostalgia from the surroundings.  Went to people contact in the park.  There were lots of basketball and baseball games going on.  It is hard to contact people when they are doing activities that take so much concentration.  Bedtime stories including a legless date.

Tuesday:  Emergency zone call that made them miss the 10:00 funeral at the church.  They showed up just

as they were serving lunch and they felt bad so they went home.  They might have needed to take down the tables.  Whoops!  Forgetful missionaries.  Went to David Goodman's for service.  He fed them T-Bone steaks for dinner.  Book of Mormon drop off to a drummer got bad response from the neighbors.  With the weather drying up, Hudson is missing the humidity?  His skin is drying out as well as congestion is setting in.

Pnelly dropping revelation (Hudson's Podcast Week 55)

 In the field 365 days today!!

This picture is with Elder Clark.  He and Hudson flew to Tennessee together 365 days ago.  They have not worked together until this transfer. They are now in the same zone.

Wednesday:  Ate at "Toots" a controversial restaurant that some say is a knock off of Hooters.  Bowling Green has more restaurants per capita than any other place.  Hudson said he did not feel it was family oriented and very expensive.  He was planning to get frog legs 1/2 lb for $12 including side dishes, but the waitress talked him into the chicken special that was half priced.  The food was very oily.  Afterwards played basketball and that was not good after all the grease.  Lost 1 out of 3.  Went to Dr. Bailey in Murfreesboro and got free adjustments.  He wondered what Hudson had done to his

shoulder.

Friday:  Lesson with Pascal and family for two and half hours.  They have been in the states for ten years.  His wife seemed very attentive and spoke a lot about gospel topics.  They didn't have the lights on in the house.  The sun would peek through sometimes, but it was hard on the eyes.  Brett's daughters birthday party at El Pablo and Brett paid.  The kids were crying about the claw machine taking their money.  Hudson feels he is a good dad, except smoking around the kids.

Saturday:  General Conference.  Hudson is sad how little he appreciated it before his mission.  He watched Saturday morning at the apartment.  Afternoon session watched in the chapel with a YSA and having lunch.  It was raining so they pulled out their raincoats. Elder Petersen's mom sent him a projector, but it didn't work so they watched evening session at the apartment with "so many" bargain hunt snacks.  Got sad about how much work someone went to in making his fancy gummy worm.  Hudson started thinking maybe he is putting too much energy into material things and should work more on relationship as was suggested by M. Russell Ballard in "Lovest thou me more than these?" a conference talk.  Hudson pulled out a scripture.  His favorite book of scripture 2Nephi.  In Chapter 2 verse 25 it says we exist to find joy in life.  Purchased $.50 water bottle that look like milk jugs at bargain hunt.  The other elders paid $5 for the same item a few days earlier.  Got pitbull/Bruno Mars type sunglasses.

Sunday:  General Conference watch party at the church with the sisters from the other area.  Went to David Goodman's for the Afternoon session.  Served questionable chicken that made Elder Petersen "blow chunks".  Two bad cold calls this afternoon that got him riled up.  One told him that he should go shoot himself.  No thank you, would have been enough.

Monday:  Facebook shut down.  Went to sister Brewers.  Then made Mac and Supreme with pasta, ramen noodles and mixed vegetables.  Phenomenal with a little Slap Yo Mama on it!!

Tuesday:  Zone Conference.  Hudson got talking and Elder Johnson went ahead of him and got surrounded by sisters.  Hudson got the blueberry as the second car for the apartment.  Sister Weaver does Book of Mormon training.  She covered condescension 1 Nephi 11:15-17, 26-27, 31-33 2 Nephi 31:7.  Which is: voluntary descent from one's rank or dignity in relations with an inferior.  Jesus Christ who had Godhood which created the earth with Michael and God.  He had to be full of humility to come to the world, he created, and allowed the people of it to crucify him.

Hudson is working on embroidery project while recording this podcast.