Nov 19

Hello!!!!

M was baptized on Saturday November 16, 2013. What a glorious day!! It had surprisinlgy been a pretty easy week for M. Every day she would text us and say something along the lines of "I dont care what Satan thinks, I am getting baptized!". And she sure did. We met her at the church a little before and she was smiling from ear to ear!! She had gone shopping the night before to get some new church clothes. She had been wearing dress pants for the past couple of weeks to church but she wanted to find a skirt for her baptism. She looked happier than ever. The baptism service went wonderful. We had asked if she would be willing to bear her testimony after she was baptized as part of the program. She was hesitant but agreed. We promised that the spirit would put words into her mouth. She did a wonderful job and there was not a dry eye in the room. She shared her story on how there were 3 specific times in her life that she felt completely alone and overwhelmed and quite frankly just wanted to die. She says on those 3 days exactly were when the mormon missionaries knocked on her door. She knew that God was answering her prayers. She has such a strong testimony and I look forward to seeing her learn and grow in this wonderful gospel!! Her kids keep asking me if I will move in with them, after my mission I might not be able to turn down the offer. Included is a picture of us on her baptism.

J was able to come to the baptism. He is excited to be baptized in December. We sadly found out that he lives in another ward boundary. So he will now be being taught by other missionaries. But it will be good for him to learn from these elders. They are great! We will continue to meet and see him when we go to M's house. He also will still come to our ward. We found out this week that he is an ex-nfl player! he played for the Giants. Its didnt come as a complete shock seeing as he is the biggest guy I have ever stood next to in my life. It was funny because yesterday someone at church invited him to play turkey bowl on thanksgiving. He doesnt tell a lot of people that he played in the nfl. So sister fullmer and I joked that this nice man didnt realize he just invited a ex-nfl player to join in on a turkey bowl game. Wish we could watch that game go down. 

On Wednesday we had a wonderful visit from Elder Baxter of the 70. He taught a lot of wonderful points, especially to us in our missionary work. He made a statement that stood out to me. We are the New Testament church brought back to the earth! I couldnt say it any better. We are the church of Jesus Christ. His church that he set up while He lived. I love this gospel and I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who has given us this truth so we may know exactly what we need to do to return to live with him and live in complete joy for eternity. It is always a special time when a lot of missionaries gather together. It is my favorite! A picture is included of part of my district from the MTC. We all got so close in the MTC and it is so fun to be able to reconnect and share stories on how we are now applying what we all learned together. 

So tomorrow is transfers and guess what.. i am staying. And so is Sister Fullmer!!! We were both in complete shock when we had our interviews with President Bernhisel on Thursday. Sister Fullmer will now be in this area for half of her mission. We are excited to be together another transfer, especially since it will be during the holidays. The reason she is staying is because we were called to be the Sister Training Leaders. Basically we are in charge of all the sister missionaries. We are a little shocked, definitely a calling we were not expecting. But we are excited for the adventure. We will be going to all the leadership meetings and going on exchanges with other sister to make sure they are doing okay and keeping everything in line. Wish us luck!! 

I am sure you all saw on facebook but I now have a blog. It is sisteremjudd.blogpsot.com. I will hopefully be posting throughout the week. 

I love being a missionary! I love this gospel! I love my Savior Jesus Christ!!

Have a wonderful week.

Love,
Sister Judd