Sept 30

Good morning friends and family!!

I am now the big 20! yay! Thank you all for your birthday wishes and cards and packages. I will be getting thank you letters out today so look forward to those. I had a fabulous missionary birthday! 

Woke up and did our normal morning routine. Which is 6:30 alarm goes off. Sister Fullmer has a cool alarm clock that you can change the sounds. Well one of the options is the Happy Birthday song so I got to enjoy waking up to that. We then have exercise from 6:45-7:15. Usually we run around our apartment complex but I told Sister Fullmer I was not running on my birthday. So we walked down to the bike trail that goes all around the city and enjoyed the beautiful fall morning. Then we came back to get ready and eat breakfast. While I was getting ready Sister Fullmer made me breakfast. Waffles and eggs. It was delicious. Best companion ever! Then we had our study time from 8-9. Then every Wednesday we have district meeting. Its a meeting with other missionary companionships and we talk about our week and how we can help each other. I love these meetings. I decided to bring donuts to celebrate my birthday. Felt like elementary school again. They all sang to me and we had a great meeting. Then we had lunch and went out and worked. Nothing too exciting there. 

Then we had an appointment with B. And I got a birthday wish, we were finally able to meet her parents! We always just meet with B outside on her porch and have never even seen her parents. But today for some reason they decided to come out and we met them! It was so nice to talk to them and see where they stood as of B being baptized. Miracle number 1! Then after that we had a dinner appointment with a family in the ward. Well they found out it was my birthday and had a little party for me. They decorated their house and we had a delicious dinner. Then we of course had cake and ice cream and they sang to me. I felt so loved by a family I have only known for a short few weeks. I love how this gospel can bring families and strangers so close together! The night before my birthday no one had signed up for dinner and Sister Fullmer and I were both craving Texas Roadhouse rolls. We decided since it was my birthday we could celebrate. We went in and ate probably too many rolls then ordered a cheap meal and split it. Then we got dessert cause it was my birthday! It was a fun, super cheap, celebration. All in all it was a fabulous day!

This was just a fabulous week all around! Another miracle filled week. Our investigator M and her son (who I think I talked about in one of my first emails) accepted to be baptized! October 26! We are so excited for them and cant wait to continue seeing the gospel bless their life! Its so amazing what this gospel can do for people. M is just glowing more and more every time we see her!

On Friday we held a church tour. We have been having a problem with our investigator not coming to church. So we thought a tour of the church building would help them be more comfortable. We planned in on Monday and throughout our week we invited probably 25 people. Well when Friday came around 4 people showed up. (life of a missionary) But 4 was all we needed! It was B, HER PARENTS, and C, a new investigator elders gave us. We were so so excited to have B's parents come. The tour went so well! The spirit was so strong and we were able to answer all of their questions, and comments, and bring truth to rumors they have heard. It was truly miraculous. And best of all, B's mom asked for a Book of Mormon at the end.
Our prayers are being answered and we are really hoping B's baptismal date of of October 19 will be allowed.

Saturday was a beautiful day so we decided to bike instead of drive. We had been biking all day and really had no success. No one was home of the doors we had planned to knock or they told us they were not interested. Typical but we were hoping for good things. We didn't get discouraged though and kept on going. Well we were 5 minutes away from where we parked our car to then go to our dinner. We hear "hey, LDS!!" And a girl starts running towards us. She starts talking to us and says she got baptized in 2002. She says it always brightens her day when she sees the missionaries. She then tells us her mom just moved away and she is living out of a hotel trying to save up to by a house. She has been inactive for a while but that "there is no such thing as coincidences" and she was so happy to see us. She told us she wanted to start coming back to church but had no ride. We were able to get her information and we made plans to start visiting her. I know we were blessed because of our hard work and diligence. It may take riding our bikes all day long to find someone to help but I would do it all over again just for her. Heavenly Father put us in her path that day and I am grateful for the opportunity I have to bless other peoples lives.

Heavenly Father knew what that girl needed in her life. And He knows what I need, and He knows all of your needs! He knows the big picture. He is waiting with blessings and answers, all we have to do is simply ask! The power of prayer is incredible. Pray! Heavenly Father want to hear from YOU! I know that to be completely true.

We get to go to the temple On Friday!! I am so excited for that. Also General Conference this weekend! I am excited to hear from out living day prophet Thomas S. Monson.

Hope you all have a wonderful week! You are all in my prayers.

Love, 

Sister Judd 

#4

Hello All!!

Fall is quickly approaching here in North Carolina! The weather is very nice and cooling significantly down. I am so grateful I never had a horribly hot day here. Next summer I'm sure I will be in for a treat.

I'm sure you all saw the exciting news, I am now on Facebook! As the world is changing and people are spending more time on the internet than wanting to actually have a face to face conversation we are now implementing online proselyting. We spend an hour a day doing missionary work online. We had to do an 11 step process to get our facebooks "missionary approved". Use your facebook as an easy way to do missionary work! Feel free to share anything I post and let your friends and families know about the things you believe. You will be surprised by the outcome, I can promise you that.

This week we got to go on exchanges. Me and Sister Fullmer were split up and put with another sister for 24 hours. I stayed here in Wake Forest and was the senior companion and in charge! It was just a little but stressful. I didnt realize how much Sister Fullmer and I rely on each other. It was great to see and prepare for a different companion but right now I will continue to be so thankful for Sister Fullmer and our wonderful companionship.

This week while I have been studying the scriptures I have really been noticing how much protection we can receive if we depend on our Savior Jesus Christ. This is a crazy world we are living in! And things are only going to get worse. In Helaman 5:12 it states "when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea his shafts on the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and mighty storm shall beat upon you" Now notice it doesnt say if. It says when. Satan is trying to get ahold of all the people he can. He wants this world to be miserable. Continuing on in that scripture is says " It is upon the rock of our Reedemer, who is Christ, that ye must build your foundation. Which is a sure foundation. A foundation wheron if men build, they cannot fall." If we rely and turn to Christ Satan will have "No power over us" And then Heavenly Father promises in 2 Nephi 9:18 "they who have endured the crosses of the world.. their joy shall be full forever" In a world where society doesnt honor promises it is so comforting to know that Heavenly Father will never break a promise! As long and we are doing what he has asked. As long as we are bearing our own crosses of the world, whatever they may be for each of us, and turning to our Savior for comfort we will have joy forever!

I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I have seen in my own life how turning to him brings more comfort than anything else. I have felt more joy than any worldly thing can bring when I have turned to Jesus and relied on His teachings!

I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to be a missionary. I wouldnt be out here if I didnt think what I was doing was beneficial or bringing myself and others closer to Christ. I am sacrificing 18 months of my life because I can see the joy that I bring into peoples homes when I tell them that they have a loving Heavenly Father and that they can be forgiven for their sins and have joy in this life full of sorrow and sin. And the same for all of you.

Love,
Sister Judd 

Sept 16

Check the new address for Sister Judd!

Also, her birthday is Sept 25- I'm sure she would love a letter for her birthday! Other things she might love are nail polish/makeup type things, fast food or store gift cards, stamps, church music CD's, pictures, or food treats! 

Hello All!!

How are you all doing? Things are wonderful over here!

Another wonderful week down!!

Not much exciting happened this weeks. It was a week full of meeting and service.

We had first transfer training meeting all day Thursday. All the new missionaries that came last transfer came together and we had lessons taught to us by our President and his wife and the Assistants to the President. It was amazing!! The best part was probably being able to see all my friends from the MTC. It was an exciting reunion since I havent seen any of them since the day we got here. We all had fun stories to compare and it is so great to all be able to be doing the Lords work!

We have helped people move 3 times this week. I have been packing up boxes and carrying things up 3 flights of stairs all week. And it was fun! I love being able to be of help to people 24/7. Service brings joy!!

Things are still coming along with B. Her parents hearts are still slowly being soffened. She is so strong!

So I havent yet mentioned the best part of my area yet. The Baptist Seminary student housing. Yes, a place where all the people learning how to become baptist pastors or teachers live. A place where we arent very welcomed with smiles.

Well we taught a young couple this week that live there. They are Evangelical and know TONS about Mormonism. They just moved there and contacted us to meet them. They wanted to have us over for dinner. They asked us if we wanted ice cream or jello for dessert. No joke. We also brought a side dish of funeral potatoes at their request. Well we got there and they were very very nice people. They basically are just interested in individual people and why they choose to be LDS. They have met with tons of missionaires before and have tons of gospel books all the way from Preach My Gospel to a Triple Combination. They asked us tons of questions and told us a lot about their religion. Toward the end they started to want to bash. We dont think their intention is in the right place so we are being very careful with them. We are going to meet next in a member home and then see if we will be able to continue teaching them. Our purpose as missionaries is to invite people to come unto Christ by helping them receive the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. If they arent truly interested in coming closer to Christ through us our time is better spent teaching someone who we can really help. Its an experience everyone in this mission should experience and I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Fathers plan!

So something else we did this week. We had about an hour before a dinner appointment and didnt know what to do. Since we cant knock doors we decided to go to the grocery store. We were going to try and contact people. Well its a little bit harder to talk to people in the grocery store than you would think. We moved our efforts outside to try and help people with their groceries and taking carts back. After about 45 minutes and no one wanting to talk to us we were getting a little discouraged. Thats when we heard "hey, hey! I know you!" We turn around and its a 15 year old girl in the car waiting for her mom while she is getting the food. she goes on "Hey I know you from friendship!" We walk closer and turns out the girl thought I was someone she knew from school but she was mistaken. Oh well! The converation was already started! She appologized for thinking I was someon else. We then told her who we were and what we were doing. She was very interested so we gave her a book of mormon and our card. We dont know what will happen with her but we were happy to get one more Book of Mormon out there! We then went and talked to a worker that had just gotten off and was waiting for a ride. We were just having a normal nice conversation with him for about 5 minutes. When we told him who we were he walked away from us not saying a word more.. Oh well.

Me and Sister Fullmer are just fabulous. I am so grateful for her. Sometimes I think we are having too much fun doing this because we are always laughing. This week we changed things up in our apartment. We have basically the nicest apartment in all the mission. Its a huge 2 bedroom apartment. Well we decided this week we wanted to move our furniture. So we moved our beds into the living room, put our couch into the dining room and table into the bedroom. So basically we never even use the 2 bedrooms. Its great. Its just one of those thigns you can only do as a missionary.

I love being a missionary! Everyday just gets better and better! I can feel the Spirit working through me! Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us and He is in control! He knows exactly what He is doing. Rely on Him, have faith in Him. Talk to Him in Prayer. He is at the door knocking waiting for you to answer it!

I love you all. Thanks for all your support.

-Sister Judd

Sept 9

Dear Family and Friends,

Is it Monday already?! Wow this week flew! I forgot to mention last week that I will be emailing every monday at about this time. Last week just got messed up because of Labor day and the Library where we email being closed.

So this has been a wonderful week here in Wake Forest, NC. My companion Sister Fullmer who has been here 5 months says the work is busier now than its ever been so we are grateful for that.

We have been teaching a lot and hoping to have more investigators! Two miracle stories of the week.

First is with our investigator B. Our prayers for her parents hearts to be softened so she can get baptized are being answered! We had turned B to the Bisop so they could get to know eachother. After the interview the bishop decided he wanted to go over and meet B's father and see more of the situation she is living in and how he can help. Well he decided he wanted to bring a member with him. The member he brought just so happened to know B's father! They were both surprised to see eachother. B's father then was more receptive to what they had to say and realized the church might not be so bad for his daughter. We are so grateful for the inspiration the bishop recieved to bring Brother D with him! It was truly inspiration from God and we are grateful!

Our second miracle is with a lady named M and her two kids. We were looking through our area book on Saturday of doors we could knock on of past investigators. We came across M's name and decided to knock on her door. She answered and told us she had been church hopping but that missionaries had taught her before and she just loved how the church was so family oriented. She wanted us to come back the next day when her kids were home. So we went back yesterday and let us right in. Her kids (age 11 and 7) are some of the most well behaved children I have ever met and were so excited to have us there. She said that everytime she would pray about what church to go to or whenever she felt alone missionaries would knock on her door. She also said that a member from our church dropped by a plate of cookies to her house last Christmas. Someone she didnt even know. She now keeps the plate that the cookies came on on her counter because it makes her feel loved and that someone is watching over her. She even said she sometimes reads the Book of Mormon past missionaries have left her to her kids at night. Talk about golden!  She recently went through a divorce and is feeling very alone. We are grateful for the inspiration we recieved to knock on her door and know that Heavenly Father sent us there. We are going back again tonight to share a message with her. She is so prepared to hear the Gospel and we know good things will come of it!

I love doing this work and I love teaching people about this Gospel!

A scripture I found this week that I love is Moroni 7:45-46

45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

Now replace the word charity with the word Christ.

Without Christ we are nothing!

The picture is Sister Fullmer, N and me yesterday at church. N is our best friend. She is a member here from this ward who leaves on her mission this wednesday to Argentina. She gave her farewell talk yesterday. She has spent much time going on exchanges with us and driving us places so we dont have to waste miles or ride our bikes. We will miss her greatly!

I love you all and hope all is well with everyone! You are all in my prayers! Thanks so much for your love and support.

-Sister Judd

September 3

Dear loved ones!

I am here! I didnt get a preperation day last week so I apologize for the lack of an email. 

I cant believe I have been here for a week now. It doesnt feel real. 

I'll just go ahead and start out with my first day here.. 

After a morning of waking up at the presidents beautiful home and then having orientation and transfer meeting I was off to my new area with my trainer. It was about 3 in the afternoon. My companion and I were dropped off at our apartment by a member. We unloaded our suitcases and then were going to head to Walmart so I could get food for the week. The second we are about to leave we get a call. Its from B, our 15 year old investigator. She is bawling and trying to get words out. We hear "there are cops and ambulances here. My dad called the cops on my mom. I'm at my neighbors house." We try to settle her down and my trainer asks if we should come over and she says yes. So off we were. Many thoughts were going through my head. I had no idea what I was about to get myself into. My trainer/companion tries to tell me a little about her background. She is 15 and has taken the discussions for a while. She was supposed to get baptized last week but her parents withdrew consent. She has some emotional  problems and lots of family issues. She is embarrassed of her family and her house. The drive was about 15 minutes but felt like eternity. I was terrified. And of course expecting the worst. Turns out the situation wasnt nearly as bad as I thought. By the time we got there the cops and ambulance were gone. B was sitting on the porch and just crying. We were able to comfort her. Her mom had been drinking and taking drugs so she needed to get help. We helped B and told her she could find comfort through her Savior. We read some scriptures and prayed and she calmed down and was reassured that everything was going to be okay. 

Welcome to the mission Sister Judd! 

Luckily after that traumatic experience a nice single sister in the ward was signed up for dinner and she treated us to Olive Garden. So all was well. And we did get to go grocery shopping later that night. 

North Carolina is Beautiful as everyone has said. I guess I'll get the two negative things out first.

#1. Mosquitoes. Oh my goodness. I have at least 20 bites on my arms and legs and i get new ones everyday. It is the worst. I am constantly trying to not scratch them. I hope they go away soon because I am too cheap to buy itch cream. I figure I am just teaching myself self control by resisting the urge to scratch. 

#2. Spiders. Of course the two things I hate most they have an overabundance of. Spiders are everywhere. We walk into at least 3 webs a day. They say October is the worst month for spiders so I am just trying to prepare myself. 

Other than that things here are just wonderful!! The humidity has not affected me at all. 

So my first area is Wake Forest. My mission President said to people back home I could just say that I'm in the Northern part of Raleigh but do not tell the people that live here in Wake Forest that they are in Raleigh. So thats that. 

My trainer's name is Sister Fullmer. She is so awesome. We are so similar and work so well together. I am grateful for her. We cover two wards; Wake forest 2 and Falls Lake. The Falls Lake ward is probably the wealthiest part of Raleigh. Very beautiful huge homes on huge yards and the most beautiful scenery. Just how you would picture a wealthy classy southern neighborhood. Wake Forest 2 has very nice parts too but it also covers some areas with said in the nicest way possible; country hick trailer parks. So we get to experience the best of both worlds. 

And to top it all off our apartment is not the best. Our actual apartment is very nice and spacious but our doors are always locked and we dont walk around at night. 

Unfortunately because of the wealth most people are set in their ways and want nothing to do with learning about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ that will only makes their lives better. Therefore we only have one investigator, B who I mentioned before. We arent allowed to proselyte in this area because of the neighborhood rules. We knock of lots of doors all day of people that are referrals, previous investigators, or potential investigators. 90% of the time no one answers. And when they do we ask if we can make an appointment and then the day of the appointment they cancel. love it. There is a huge amount of less actives here so we are really trying to work with them and the part member families. 

We might not have a lot of people to teach but the members here are so wonderful to us. They welcome us in with open arms and give us anything we need. 

The works is incredible though. It can be very hard at times but we see blessings everyday for our hard work and dedication. Our Savior Jesus Christ is incredible. He loves us so very much and wants us all to return to Him. I love the Book of Mormon. I could read it all day, never thought I'd say that. It is an incredible book and I know that we can all find strength and help through our trials if we read it. 

I love being a missionary. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to teach other people what brings me the most joy and peace in my life. 

Love you all, 

Sister Judd

PS: if you would like to write me my address is
4801 Riverstream Place #301
Raleigh, NC 27616

I would love to hear from you all!