Dec 15

Hello everyone!! 

We have had a great week! The sun has been shining, I couldn't ask for anything more! 

We gave the elders the best Christmas present ever this week. We decided it would be best for the elders to teach M so we handed him over. We hope that the Elders will be able to continue meeting with him and we look forward to hopefully attending a baptismal service of his in the near future. 

So that leaves us down to 1 investigator, S. She is doing well.  We watched the restoration dvd with her and she agreed with it all. She is putting up a little block and refuses to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. But we know that the spirit will soften her heart. We had a ward Christmas party this week entitled "A night in Bethlehem". When we told her about it she got so excited and we were able to make costumes with her since we were supposed to come dressed up as people did back then. She had a great time at the party and is starting to feel more comfortable. We hope to see a miracle happen soon with her! 

We went Christmas Caroling with the youth and some members in the ward on Wednesday night. As a whole we were able to visit 54 houses delivering cookies and an invitation the the Christmas party. It was such a great event and so fun to get the youth involved in missionary work. The youth were so excited to see that one of the less active ladies that they went to and invited actually showed up at the party and had a great time! 

We had a wonderful Sisters training this week. All the sisters in the entire mission gathered together. There was about 80 of us. Our wonderful President and Sister Bernhisel addressed us and then a few sisters. We were able to have a wonderful lunch put on by the Wake Forest 2nd ward. Which means I got to see many wonderful members from the first ward I served in. Cant believe it has been a year since I was there! The spiritual learning was great but lunch was probably my favorite part. In our mission we call it an Alma 17 experience. It is just so fun to be able to sit around and talk and laugh with so many sister friends. And then the wonderful Ben Howington aka Mormon Guitar came and played for us. If you haven't heard his music I suggest you go to http://www.mormonguitar.com/ right now and enjoy his wonderful music. It was such a wonderful uplifting day!

After the sisters day I went on exchanges with my sister leaders.. and who is my sister leader now you ask? The one and only Sister Treu. I brought her here and showed her around Durham. We had such a great time reminiscing on all those we love back in Garner. 

The work might be going a little slower than we would like but we have no reason to complain because we know we have the Savior Jesus Christ on our side! This work is so wonderful and I love every single day I get to be a missionary! And its a good thing every member is a missionary because that means I can be a missionary for my whole entire life! God is good and the church is true! 

Thanks for all the love and support! 

Love, 

Sister Judd 

dec 8

Hello!

I guess the best way to start out is by thanking my wonderful trainer (shout-out to Chelsea) for everything she did for me! Man, this training thing aint easy stuff! But so far so good. We are chugging along just fine! I forgot what is was like to not know how this whole missionary thing works out. But luckily my companion is wonderful. Her name is Sister Muder and she is from Arizona. She is 19 and just graduated high school in May and is excited to be here! We are getting along great and she hasn't ran away from me yet so I think we are gonna do just fine. 

I introduced her to the beauty North Carolina the best way I could by planning a day full of service her 2nd day here.The leaves are almost all off the ground. Almost. 

I dont really have much else to add. Things are going great! 

Have you checked out christmas.mormon.org yet? If not I highly suggest you do so now. This holiday season is so wonderful and it is given to us all because of our Savior Jesus Christ. Let su all remember the true reason for the season!! 

Love to you all, 

Sister Judd 

Dec 1

Hello!

Well it was a great Holiday week! I forgot how great it is to be a missionary during the holiday season. People are so nice!!

Ever since I got to Durham we have been trying really hard to excite the members to do missionary work. Its hard for us to do this work alone. We have been praying and doing everything we can to "build super trust" as we call it here in the NCRM. 

So this week we were praying one morning and I decided to be more specific. I asked Heavenly Father for the members trust us enough to give us referrals. About 3 hours later we were going about our daily business and our phone rings. Its a man in our ward and whats does he have to say? "Sisters, I have someone I would like you to teach." Music to our ears! Then guess what else happens.. Later on in the week we had 2 more members do the same exact thing!! We havent gotten any referrals from members since I have gotten here and this week we got three! We were so excited and we know the Lord is blessing us for our efforts. 

Our investigators M and S are doing well and continuing to progress! Yay! 

After District meeting this week us and the other sisters went out to lunch. As we were eating our food a guy walked up to us and said "are you going to be in the area for a while?" we were a little bit confused but responded yes and then he walked away. We thought it was strange and then got back to eating. A couple minutes later this man comes back. He begins to say how he used to meet with missionaries before when he lived in Oregon. He went on to praise us and thank us for all we did. He told us that he was comfortable in his beliefs but that he appreciated all the good we do for the world and then gave us a $30 gift card to the place we were eating at. This little act of kindness meant so much to us. It is not easy at all doing what we do. Especially during the Holiday season when it would sure be nice to be at home with our families. But what we are doing as missionaries is important and it is a great feeling to be able to know we can change peoples lives. I am grateful for that man and his charitable act towards us. Its good to be a missionary! 

Well I  hope you all have a great week! 

It will be a crazy one here. I am excited to get my new missionary tomorrow. Hopefully we survive this first week! 

Pray for us! 

I am grateful for all of you and your support and love.

-Sister Judd 

nov 24

Helllooo! 

Well this week was another great one! How could it not be? 

So here in the Durham ward we have some ladies who we call our "3 reliables". They do everything and anything for us. From taking us to appointments, driving us around town, picking us up, feeding us, loving us, and are our biggest supporters. Its weird to think that these three ladies who are 60 years of age and above have become my greatest friends here in Durham but they truly have. They are such an inspiration to me. One is a widow, one has a husband who has suffered from Alzheimers for over 10 years and lives in a facility, and one who's husband works away. They haven't had easy lives but they are so strong and have such good wisdom for us. If you haven't gotten the message yet, I love them a whole lot. We decided we needed to do something special for them because I am telling you, they do so much for us! It is weird if we go a day without seeing at least one of them. We had an open day for dinner on Monday so we invited them out to an appreciation dinner. We cooked dinner for them. (Mom you would be proud. I made Sesame chicken, rice, broccoli, and oranges). Then we had dessert and we planned earlier a little Family Home evening for us to all do together. It was so much fun! I love the people of North Carolina!!

Winter definitely hit this week! We didnt have the car so we had to bike it the freezing cold. Let me tell you, that is not easy! But we survived and it is a crisp 70 degrees today and we are stoked! 

We had interviews this week!! With Sister Turley going home next week I knew changes were going to be made. I found out I am going to be training! After spending practically my whole mission as a sister leader I am excited for the chance I have now to train a brand new missionary for my last 2 transfers. I am a little bit nervous but I know it will be great! I have already started praying for the both of us and I hope she is enjoying her time in the MTC right now! 

I went on exchanges this week to the Durham 1st ward. It was so much fun! It made me realize how blessed I am to be able to meet people from all walks of life all day everyday. 

We started out the day teaching a lady who didnt quite receive all the lessons she needed on personal hygiene. She was wearing dirty clothes, teeth or hair hadn't been brushed in days and maybe weeks, the house had no carpet and bugs were crawling all over the place. Spider webs covered most of her belongings. But she had the sweetest heart. We then taught a family who moved here not too long ago from Africa. Their big loving family was squeezed into a small apartment. The kids were running around and cooking dinner while mom was working her janitorial job at Duke. They had a strong desire to learn more about God and the whole family was celebrating that the 17yr old girl had gotten her first job that day at McDonalds. They were trying their best to live their life the best way they could. We then went to a lady who was living in government housing. She had spent the day in court fighting her baby daddy for child support because he just got out of jail. She does her best to support her 2 kids working 20 hours a week at McDonalds. Her son was getting baptized on Saturday and they were so happy for him. Later, as we were walking down the street  a man came up to us. We quickly learned that he was partly deaf and couldnt really talk. He was so excited to see us and had the biggest smile on his face as he tried to tell us that he used to meet with missionaries before. We got his information and then he gave me the biggest hug. (as missionaries, we really arent supposed to hug people of the opposite sex so this moment was a little awkward for me but he was so happy I just couldnt help but be too). And then we spent the evening with wonderful young moms and wives who are doing their best to support their husbands who are in law, business, or medical school at Duke. Can I just say it again, I love the people of North Carolina!

We had the greatest lesson with M this week!! We were able to have it in a members home. The couple we were with said exactly what he needed to hear. M accepted to be baptized on December 27th! And he came to church yesterday!! One of the best feelings ever is seeing an investigator walk in the doors to the church building on Sunday morning! We are excited about his progression thus far! 

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving this week and find  much to be grateful for!! 

I am grateful for this time I have to be a missionary and to share what brings me joy with others! 

I love you all!

Sister Judd

nov 17

Hello!

We were able to make great progress with our two investigators this week!! Thats the best news. We were able to have another lesson with M. When we went to pick him up he asked if his cousin could come along. Sure! His cousin M who is 12 joined us. We decided to have the lesson at the church so they could see what it is like and maybe be more comfortable to come to church. We showed the Restoration dvd and then did a little church tour. It went better than expected! The spirit was so strong and we could tll they both could feel it. They looked at us like keep on telling us more and more! Sometimes I wish I could just plug people into my brain so they will know automatically everything about the gospel that I know. But it doesnt happen that way. M said the sweetest prayer at the end of the lesson and we look forward to seeing them progress. 

I got pretty sick this week. I think it was just some virus that was going around. We were still able to go out everyday but on Thursday it was the worst. We called our investigator S who we usually do service for on Thursday mornings and told her we wouldnt be able to make it. SInce we didnt see her Thursday we decided to just stop by on Saturday. Luckily we caught her home and she let us right in. We were able to have the best lesson with her. She has been reading the Book of Mormon everyday and she told us that she has totally seen a change in her life. She has a lot more peace and hope. We are so happy that she is experiencing that change like we knew she would. Now we just wish more people would actually do what we invite them to do. We are representatives of Jesus Christ people, listen!! But anyways, things are going well.

Things are going well here. We are slowly but surely able to meet with more and more people each week. Its great to be a missionary!! 

"Now is the time and today is the day to learn or reaffirm for ourselves that the gospel is true. " -Elder Craig C. Christensen

I hope you all have a great week! 

All my love, 

Sister Judd 

nov 10

Hello! 

We got a new investigator this week!! (finally).  His name is M and he is 17 years old. We have spanish sisters in our area and they ran into his family. He said that he wanted to learn more about God so they passed him along to us. We started talkign with him and set up a time to meet. He said his house wasnt a good place to meet and asked if we could meet at the library. Sure! The only thing is he doesnt drive. So for our appointment we got a member, had them pick us up then we had to go pick up this teenage boy none of us had ever met and all go to the library. I was a little bit nervous of how it was all going to work out but it went better than expected! M comes from a very very rough background. Pretty much has been raised in the projects his whole life. He has a strong desire to believe in God and make a better future for himself than what will probably happen. The lesson went so well. He had great questions and was able to understand what we taught. I hope he will progress in the gospel. It will give him the change of course he needs in his life to turn it around. Keep him in your prayers that he will continue to meet with us! 

We went back to help S this week and she read from the Book of Mormon! We were so excited she actually took the challenge. She had a different light about her and we knew why. We just pray that she will continue to read and learn! 

Every other week we hold a Book of Mormon class, like I have mentioned before. Well this week we had a Book of Mormon "fireside". We help the class around an actual fire! It was Sister Turley and my turn to teach. We taught about how the Book of Mormon answers questions to the soul. We had a great turnout and fun was had by all! 

Last Monday for preperation day we travled a couple minutes down the road to Duke University campus. A member was bringing us and the spanish sisters. Then on our way we saw the sisters that serve in another Durham ward. We pulled over and invited then. They hopped in the car and we kept going. We first went to go look at one of the original Book of Mormons that Duke has in their rare book library. We were also able to see oen of the first Hymnbooks they made. It was so neat and sucha  strong spirit radiated off the book. How could it not be true?! Then we walked around the beautiful Duke chapel. One day I will attend a worship service there. It was magnificent. We felt a little bit like we were on a fieldtrip. 6 sister missionaries and an adult. It was so much fun and I dont think we ever stopped laughing. Its always a fun time to be with other sisters. 

Well thats the report for this week. I hope this email finds you all doing well! 

Love, 

Sister Judd 

nov 3

Hello!!

We had a pretty good week this week! We feel like the work is slowly but surely picking up. 

Wednesday was one of those days where I went to bed wishing I could be a missionary forever. Wanna hear about it? 

We woke up early(6am instead of 6:30) and got picked up to go serve at bishops storehouse at the stake center. We arrived and went straight to work. Bishops storehouse is basically like a food pantry that our church puts together. After all the food was put on the tables we got to go around and pick up different peoples orders. We delivered some to peoples houses and then we rushed home to clean up and head off to district meeting. I look forward to district meeting every week and have for my whole mission. I love that we can gather as 18-21 year old boys and girls and have a spiritual uplifting meeting and all leave better people because of it. Where does that happen in normal life with no adult supervision? The church must be true!  There is a special spirit being around other missionaries, one that I will never get tired of. Then we had lunch and did our online proselyting. We then were off to a lesson with a lady who got baptized last year. She invited a friend over and we watched the restoration dvd. The friend was so uplifted and enjoyed it so much. Even though she is strong on her faith is was great to meet together and enjoy the spirit. We then had a lesson with a member who we love. We are preparing her to enter the temple. We were able to talk about the many wonderful blessings that come from the temple. I pondered on how blessed I am to have the blessings of temple covenants in my life. We then headed off to our dinner appointment at our ward mission leaders house. Its always a fun time going there. They spoiled us with our favorite pizza from a local place. When else in my life will it be someone else's job to make sure I have a dinner every night? After a great dinner we headed off to the ward fall festival. It was so much fun! They had all kinds of carnival type games for the kids, fall treats, a costume parade, costume contest, and then trunk or treat! It was a hit. So many people attended and fun was had by all! The day came to end with nothing but gratitude in my heart for my Heavenly Father and for the blessing I have to serve here in North Carolina. 

We didnt do much on actual Halloween. We spend the whole day in our monthly leadership meeting. They celebrated by having bowls of candy for us on the tables after we ate our lunch. That night we had dinner later than usual. We went to a lady from China's house. It was the first time that she had signed up to feed us. She is hosting 2 exchange students from China as well. And guess what we had for dinner? Chinese food! This was no panda express. It consisted of Tofu with beef, some egg and tomato dish, and chicken in this weird seasoning. Lets just say it wasn't my favorite and I counted my blessings I'm not serving my mission in Asia. The best part was seeing how excited the exchange students were for trick-or-treaters. They dont celebrate Halloween in China. After dinner we went home and stayed in for the night. 

We went to help S in her yard again this week. We have been going every week. After spending most of the lesson we had frustrated because she just wasn't progressing or really wanting to learn we were about to give up. Just as we were about to leave she broke down. Telling us she had been feeling like she had no faith and that God has abandoned her. She was willing to do whatever we told her to try and build her faith. We then promised her that if she read from the Book of Mormon every single day she would see an increase of faith in her life. For the first time ever she actually committed herself to do what we asked. She then prayed and asked Heavenly Father to work in the crack in her heart. It was such a great lesson to see her change. She really has such a strong desire to do whats right but she is just lost, and thats why we are here. We hope to see great things come from it! 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Love, 

Sister Judd 

oct 27

Hello All!!

I hope you have all had a great week. 

I apologize but there just isn't much to write about this week.

We spent most of the week tracting. We didn't have any doors slammed in our face so that was a plus, but we weren't able to find anyone too interested either. 

We were able to meet with some less actives and share messages of hope. 

We spent our usual time raking more leaves and doing crafts with the old people. 

We had some great meals with members and were able to enjoy their spirit. 

We were able to be entertained with a wonderful Primary presentation put on by the kids of the church on Sunday. 

And we were able to spend another week enjoying life as a representative of Jesus Christ! 

Doesn't get much better. 

We were able to go to Young Womens yesterday. One of my favorite places to be. We had such a good lesson on gratitude. This video was shared and I just couldn't help but pass it along to all of you. Watch here!

Thanks for all the love and support and prayers! 

Love, 

Sister Judd 

oct 20

Hello!! 

I have been in Durham now for a full transfer! I cant believe how fast time goes. Transfer meeting happens this week. Everything is staying the same for us. 

We had a miracle this week! One day our phone started ringing and we looked down and saw that M was calling. M is the lady we were teaching when I first got here. She was doing so well and then one day we showed up for our appointment and her son came to the door and told us that after studying and thinking his mom was no longer interested and wanted to give us the materials back. We told him to keep the Book of Mormon and other pamphlets we had given and to tell his mom to give us a call if she ever needed anything. We walked away very disappointed.. So now here we are about a month later and we see she is calling. She tells us that she has been praying and God keeps telling her she needs to call us. We set up an appointment for the next day and went to see her. She said she has been feeling this huge weight on her shoulders and knew that she needed to invite us back. The second she did call us the weight was lifted. She said she was tired of ignoring God and realized that we were really the answers to her prayers and she was tired if resisting it. She is now excited to continuing learning and we hope to see some great progression with her! 

We continued to do lots of service this week. Carver living center had their fall festival. We went to volunteer and we got to watch old people take 3 hours to eat lunch. I even was given the great privilege of feeding an old woman her pureed food while she coughed it up all over me. Reminded me of my sweet days feeding soupa to the kids in Ecuador. 

Fall has officially begun therefore so has raking leaves season! We raked leaves for our investigator S. She has a neat leaf bin that she puts all her leaves in to turn into mulch. Pictures included because who doesnt love playing in a pile of leaves? 

We had stake conference this weekend. We received a new Stake President here in Durham. It was wonderful to witness revelation flow to man from God. We had Elder Carlson of the 70 and Elder Parker our area 70 here. Elder Parker is amazing. If you watched meet the mormons he is in the movie. He is the guy who argues with the Mormon Bishop over whose BBQ is better. He is your typical southern Baptist converted to Mormonism. Every time he speaks you just cant help but love him. And his testimony is contagious. He is so devoted to missionary work it is amazing. He shared a great story.. When the announcement came out about members and missionaries working better together his wife decided she wanted to get involved. She didnt know what but she knew she needed to do something. The next week she came up with a plan. The HOA of their neighborhood had recently stated that all mailboxes needed to be freshly painted all black. Her mailbox needed to be painted and she knew everyone elses did to. She came up with a plan that she would go around and paint everyone's mailboxes for them. The catch was that while she was painting the mailbox the homeowner had to talk with the missionaries she brought along.. Now I had heard this story about a 8 months ago when it happened. I might have even qwortoe about it in a previous email. I thought it was such a great idea and was happy she had gone out to do that.. This weekend he extended the story. Out of 182 mailboxes in the neighborhood his wife painted 161. And from that the missionaries got 22 return appointments. And 1 baptism happened because of Sister Parkers efforts. Elder Parker is now the new home teacher to his next door neighbor because his wife wanted to get involved with the missionary work. How inspiring!! 

Happiness comes when we keep the commandments. Missionary work is a commandment. I can testify that when you share your beliefs and what matters most to you to others you will be filled with joy! 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Love

Sister Judd 

oct13

Hello!!

Hope you have all had a great week like we have here in Durham! 

Let me start by telling you about our investigator S. She is the woman we met while walking on my birthday. She is currently our only investigator so we love her a whole lot :)  We have been going to do service for her a couple times a week. She has a giant yard and lives alone so she is in need of help. When we serve her we talk a little bit about the church but we dont have full on discussions. It is amazing to see just how serving her has made such an impact. The second time we went to serve her she told us that ever since she met us she has felt closer to Jesus Christ. The next time we went she told us that she felt that she needed to start praying everyday and so she had started doing that, without us even inviting her to do so! The next time we went last week she told us she felt the need to go to church and she did. The only problem was that it wasnt our church, she actually went to the church that is directly next to our church! At the point she didnt know where are church was so we told her she just needed to go the next door down the street next time. Then we went this week and invited her to come to our church and she did!! We havent had anyone attend church with us since we got here and we didnt think she was really going to come, but she did! We were so excited. We are amazed by just how us serving her is bringing her closer to Jesus Christ. Which is what we are here to do! I love how the Lord works. Hoping for great things to happen with S! 

We got to see Meet the Mormons this week!! Did you? It was sooo good! After our zone conference meeting they set up the movie on a projector and we all got to sit and watch it. I think we were all pretty excited to be able to sit and watch something entertaining, other than the district. And I also think that all of us missionaries and our missionary humor made it even better but nonetheless it was such a great movie! It brought out every emotion you could think of and left me so inspired and with a desire to be better! If you havent had the chance to watch it yet I highly encourage it! 

Here is the semi-funny story of the week. As we planned Saturday night we realized that we were pretty  much going to be at the church building all day. We had church, then choir practice until 3 and then we had to be back at the church at 5 for a mission prep class. Because we dont have the car the easiest thing for us to do was just stay at the church and eat lunch there and then do our facebook for an hour. So Sunday morning we packed our lunch to bring the the church to put in the fridge while we were in our church services. As I was making my lunch the thought came to me to make 2 sandwiches. I had no idea why, I never eat 2 sandwiches. I debated back and forth and then just made 2 thinking I might be really hungry after the long day. After all of our meetings we go to the fridge to grab our lunch which is in a plastic bag with our names written on it and it's tied. We go to grab our stuff and realize that Sister Turley's sandwich is gone and one of mine is gone. Someone had gone into the fridge and taken them. We were a little upset, we are starving poor missionaries with nothing else to eat and our substance is gone. Sister Turley then tells me she had a feeling while we were sitting in one of our classes that our food was going to be gone. She prayed that Heavenly Father would calm her and not make her so angry if that were the case. I told her how I had no idea why I made two sandwiches. Well now we knew why! We still had 1 sandwich to share! I am amazed how Heavenly Father prepared both of us in our different ways for that moment. We just tried to think that someone else really needed that food. But we are grateful for our loving Heavenly Father who is in every detail of our lives and is watching out for us. Funny now, not funny in the moment. 

Well I hope you all have a great week! "Seeking the kingdom of God leads to joy and happiness." —Elder Allan F. Packer

-Sister Judd

oct 6

Happy Monday! 

This week in North Carolina... 

I went on exchanges to Chapel Hill! Chapel Hill is a college town, home of UNC Chapel Hill. I was so amazed by how many people I saw. It has been a while since I have seen crowded streets and all that hustle and bustle. We rode the public buses all day and that was a fun adventure. You can always count on meeting the most interesting of characters on the public transit. So speaking of that.. The sisters there had been doing as we are supposed to, talking with everyone. As missionaries we are constantly talking with people and handing out Mormon.org cards and what not. So the sisters one night receive a call from this guy named Wayne. He explains that he was the guy they met on the bus and that he had gone home and looked upmormon.org and wanted to know more. This is something we love and wish everyone would do! The problem was, they had met so many people that day they couldnt remember who Wayne was. They set up a time to meet him outside a coffee shop and talk some more. So that meeting was while I was on exchange there. We rode the bus to downtown Chapel Hill and sat outside on the deck of a major coffee shop. Neither of us knew who we were looking for but we just sat there waiting for some guy named Wayne to come up to us. After a while he actually showed up and sat down. I have to admit, this was probably one of the most awkward circumstances I have ever been in. We talked to him for a while and answered some questions then set up another time to meet. Afterwards the sister I was with and I just couldn't help but bust up laughing. oh the fun of being a missionary! 

We taught a book of Mormon class this week! That was lots of fun. We are hoping this will be a way to find some people to teach. So far we have only had members show up but each week we will leave them the invitation to bring a friend to the next one! Hopefully this will bring success, and if not, its always uplifting to study from the Book of Mormon! 

We have been volunteering on a weekly basis at the assisted living facility that I talked about a few weeks ago. We are having so much fun with it! We have done all sorts of crafts and painted their nails. These old people sure are hilarious! You never know what they are going to say next! 

Remember Sarah from my birthday? She is the lady who told us that she has always wanted to read the Book of Mormon. Well we were able to go back this week and help her in her yard. We were also able to share a message about Christ. She is so sweet and we really hope she will progress! She has been through a lot in her life and we know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ could really help her! 

How about General Conference?! Was that not amazing of what. General conference happens every 6 months and its a time we get to hear our latter day prophet and his apostles speak to us! It was just the spiritual boost I needed! I have to say Elder Bednar's was probably my favorite! Missionary work is the BEST! If you would like to hear what a living prophet wants us to hear in this day and age you can see here. 

Well things are going well here. We are working hard to find people to teach! We went tracting yesterday between general conference sessions. Confession.. tracting is my least favorite thing to do ever! I try to avoid it at all costs but today it just had to be done. In my planner where we write everything we are going to do in the day I wrote.. "tract old barn neighborhood... because I love Jesus Christ!" I needed to give myself a little encouragement to knock on those doors with a smile. When I thought about my love for the savior and all that he did for me I wanted to tract all day long! I will do whatever Heavenly Father wants me to do because I love my Savior and I want to be the best that I can be for Him. And I want everyone else in the whole world to know that we have a Savior that suffered for us so we don't have to.  What are you willing to sacrifice because of your love for Jesus Christ? 

I love you all! 

Sister Judd 

sept 29

Hello!! Happy almost October! Can you believe it?! 

 

First off, thank you all for the birthday wishes! I had a great birthday! 

To be honest I wasnt really looking forward to my birthday this year. I am new here to the area, no one really knows me yet or knew that it was my birthday,  and nothing really special was happening on the day. I wanted to just kind of forget it was my birthday so I wasnt let down with the normal missionary routine. Lame thinking of me, I know. But luckily it turned out to be just wonderful! 

We woke up and did normal routine. Then after our studies we decided to go on an adventure and take a ride on the city buses! If I wasnt a missionary you couldn't pay me money to ride the Durham public transportation but things like that make missionary work and your birthday just that much more fun! We got on at the stop right outside our neighborhood. I walked on and tried to strategically place myself on the correct seat. I sat in front of a very nice lady. I began talking with her and she had just gotten off work. She is a single mother of 7 kids. We talked for a little while and then he was off on her way. Then another man got on the bus and sat in front of my companion. I saw him looking at her name tag, knowing anything could come out of his mouth at this point. But we were surprised! He looks at us and says "My finace is a member of that church". We began talking with him and were even able to invite him to church! We then rang the string and we got off at our designated stop, Downtown Durham. We are the northern part of Durham and we cover just the northern part of Downtown, right above Duke campus. It is such a beautiful place. So old and historic, lots of trees and the houses are so cute! The weather was perfect and it was the best tracting time ever. Sister Turley and I dont call it tracting. We call it "Walking the walk, and talking the talk". So off we were to walk the walk and talk the talk. It was still pretty early in the morning so we didn't want to knock on anyone's doors. We were just going to talk to anyone we saw outside. After walking a little ways we came upon a woman working in her yard. We stopped to talk to her and offer if she needed any help. She was very friendly and asked us who we were. We told her and then she exclaimed "Oh! I have always wanted to read the Book of Mormon!" Say what?! This is music to our ears! We talked with her for quite some time and she gave us a tour around her garden and house. We then let her get back to work but we will be heading back there this week! So far birthday is going off very well! I knew this was Heavenly Fathers gift to me. We then needed to get back so we walked to the nearest bus stop and were on our way. Later in the day we went out to go more people. We went to visit a member in the ward who lives in an assisted living place. We had a great visit with her. As we were in there the lady that lives next door came in crying. We offered her a place to sit and asked what was wrong. She stated that she was very scared because the next day she was headed to the hospital to have surgery because she has breast cancer. This broke our hearts and we just talked with her and tried to comfort her. We asked if she believed in God and if she would like us to say a prayer for her. She was very excited to hear that and said yes please. I offered a prayer for this woman. It was amazing to see the difference that made for her. I am so grateful for the power of prayer and knowing that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us so much.

We had dinner with a sweet family later that day who made cupcakes and sang to me. We then had some planning to do and then the day was over! 

I don't know why I was so worried about no having a good birthday. Any day spent doing the work of the Lord is a good day! I am grateful for each and every one of my birthday and this wonderful life Heavenly Father has given me! 

The rest of the week was good as well! The day after my birthday we had a leadership meeting. It was so much fun because so many of my close sister friends were also there. We were able to catch up on old times and have so many good laughs. There is nothing better than being surrounded by missionaries! But it was very sad because we are all coming to the end of our missions. Sister Fullmer, my wonderful trainer bore her testimony because she goes home in less than a month! And then right behind her are many more sisters. Tiem is going bby way too fast! 

We found out at our leadership meeting that we will be able to see Meet the Mormons!! Have you heard about this great movie?! If you havent go to meetthemormons.com now and then go watch the movie at a theater near you on October 10th! We were told that we are not to go in or anywhere near the movie theater but that our mission was being sent a DVD copy of the movie and we will be watching it at our Zone conference next week! We are very excited! 

Well running out of time but thanks again for all the birthday love! I appreciate you all! 

Love, 

Sister Judd 

Sept 22

In the words of my companion.. "two words.. rough week". 

But we will not focus on the negative! Like the fact that I think almost every single appointment fell through, we had 2 investigators dump us and tell us what we were teaching was crazy, and we found most moments of our days having no idea what to do next. This was all Satan trying to get to us because on Friday we got to go to the TEMPLE!! 

Thanks goodness for the temple, it was my saving grace this week. The temple is truly the House of the Lord. I am so grateful for it. 

And to top it off we had our session with the Apex Stake sisters. So I got to see Sister Treu and here about all the wonderful things still happening in Garner. Yay for tender mercies of the Lord! 

Other than that there isnt much to report about this week. I will tell you a little story that happened a few months ago. 

I was driving a car with 3 others sisters in it. My companion and another set of sisters. We were traveling home from a meeting. We were driving on the freeway when all of a sudden I see a car in the left lane drive over the median and onto ongoing traffic luckily missing all the cars that were speedily coming down the other side of the road and then the car stopped in a ditch. When I first saw it happening I yelled at everyone else to look and we all watched it happen. We then made comments like, "Holy cow! What in the world was that person doing?!" "Did they fall asleep at the wheel?" "They were probably using their phone or doing something stupid" "Maybe they were drunk". We couldnt believe what we had just saw. We were all then prompted that we needed  to turn around and go back. We didnt know why but as a missionary you learn very quickly to always follow promptings of the spirit. We made a u-turn as soon as we could and drove back. We found the car was still there and there was a lady sitting in the car crying. We were the only ones who had come back. We went up to talk to her. She explained that her brakes on her car had stopped working and the car wouldnt slow down. She saw a little brake in traffic and knew she needed to get off the road. She went over the median and that was able to help slow her car down and then when she went onto the grass on the side of the road her car stopped. She was very shaken up by it and was trying to call for some help. We asked if there was anything we could do for her and tried to help calm her down. She was able to receive some help and so we drove away. I dont know if that lady needed to see us or if we all needed to learn a lesson that day. We were so quick to judge when we saw it happen, thinking the driver was completely in the wrong. We had no idea what the situation was and how she was actually doing the best thing she thought she could do. I think this happens a lot more in life than we realize. I learned that day to be not so quick to judge others. To be more open to hearing what really happened. And to be more Christlike in all I say and do. We never know whats really happening on the other side. 

"May we ever be found doing the work of the Lord." 

I hope you all have a great week! 

We will be finding, teaching, and baptizing here in Durham, NC!! 

Thanks for all your love and support, 

Sister Judd 

Sept 15

*****It's Emily's birthday on Sept 25! Send her a card, she would love to hear from you!!*****


Hello all!! 

I survived my first week in Durham. Which is an accomplishment to say the least! 

Transfers are one of those things that you forget how hard they really are until you have to go through it again. 

But you know everything is going to be okay if you can just make it to preparation day, and here we are. 

Transfer meeting itself was actually really great. Sister Treu was training so she had to be at a meeting all day on Tuesday so me and some other sisters who I love got to hang around at the stake center all day and catch up on old times. It was lots of fun. 

After the bittersweet meeting we came back to Durham, brought my stuff in from the car and an exchange was already there waiting for us. Off we were to teach! No unpacking, no meeting the new companion, no really even discussion of who we were seeing or what we were going to teach. We just show up. And somehow it all just works out. Amazing how the spirit can work that way. We were gone and didn't get home until 9 that night. I had a little time to unpack but I was so exhausted all I wanted to do was go to bed as soon as possible. After a few days though I can sat that I am officially all moved in. I love the new place we live. Its a nice little town-home and its probably my favorite place I have lived so far. 

Oh my companion is Sister Turley. She is from Arizona. She has been out for 15 months. She is really sweet and so far we have gotten along great! She has been serving in the southern part of the mission and I have only been in the Northern part so we didn't really know each other until now. Sorry I dont have a picture of us together yet! 

We have been busy this week and we have a lot of work to do! We have 3 investigators right now. I got to meet 2 this week. We are teaching a 17 year old girl named S. She goes to the NC School of Math and Science. Its this awesome high school that basically is a college. The kids come from all around the state to come to this school. They live at the school and have everything they need there. Its super hard to get into and its tons of work. Its a really neat campus and everything is free. Even all there meals. The trick is just getting in.. But anyways, S is really sweet. Her boyfriend is a member and that's how she found the church. She doesn't really know if God is real but she decided to give it one last shot and is meeting with us. I really hope and pray that she will find truth in the Gospel and mostly gain a knowledge that God is her loving Heavenly Father and that she is of infinite worth.

Our other investigator M is very sweet as well. She is an older woman who had some kind if accident and is now in a wheelchair. Let me give you the situation of a typical meeting as a missionary. We knock on the door and she forgot that we were coming but lets us in anyways. We walk into the apartment and her son is sitting at the table smoking a cigarette and drinking who knows what with the TV blasting. We walk in and try not to breathe. We start talking and after what feels like forever his cigarette is finally burned up. Sweet M apologizes and starts spraying Lysol all over. Now that we have a great mix of second hand smoke and cleaning chemicals in our lungs we are all ready to start the lesson. You got a good picture of that? And thats pretty low key compared to some of the places we walk into. Who is ready to put in their mission papers now? I promise, you wont regret it. 

We share a car with the elders and this week we were on bikes. Holy cow, I think Durham takes the prize for most hilliest city in the mission. We biked a lot this week..and if you ask me we biked up way more hills that we got to go down. Thank goodness for the slightly cooler weather we have had! 

In the span of one day we went to 3 different retirement homes to visit people. That was an exciting day. We had quite the miracle at one of them. 

Something I love to do on my mission is serve. Yes, the whole 18 months is serving but I like to be involved in service opportunities to mix up the days a little bit. So I asked Sister Turley when I got here if there were any service opportunities in the community. She told me they hadn't been doing anything but that a member in the other stake owns or manages a retirement home and that they were looking for people to volunteer. Perfect I thought, we will go there. We go there one day and walk in and tell them why we were there. They called up the activities director to come speak with us. She was so excited we were there! She told us she had been feeling overwhelmed and asked God to send some help since they arent able to hire more people.  She gave us a tour around the place and we went into an office where she explained things we could do and ways we could serve. She was very kind to us and so excited to start working with us. It was the perfect situation. After we got back into the car with the member we were with we totally started talking about how awesome that lady was and how she needs to be baptized! We left very excited to go back next week and volunteer. Later that night during our planning session Sister Turley grabs the ward directory. She then gets this super weird look on her face and points to a name. Its the same name of the lady that was the activity director at the place.. And the lady is from Finland, it wasnt just some ordinary name. We just look at each other in complete shock. She has already been baptized! We knew there was something special about her!! We then just start laughing because we couldnt believe it. Her and her husband and 2 kids have been less active for a while. God sure does work in mysterious ways! We are now even more excited to go back and serve there and hopefully we will be able to get there family coming back to church in no time! 

I would love to receive letters from all of you. Especially since the 25th of September is coming quickly. I will let you figure out the significance of that day. 

Well time is running out fast! 

I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the rest of your Monday! 

much love! 

Sister Judd

sept 9

Hello all!!

So sorry for the very short email. 

I am getting transferred tomorrow!! I will be off to DURHAM, NC!!

Soo... I would suggest you probably dont look it up. All you will see is news reports on murders and everything bad. Yes, I am going to the ghetto!! One of the most dangerous areas in the mission. yay! Mom, dont freak out. 

 I am a little nervous but I know it will all be for the best and Heavenly Father will protect us! 

Excited to see whats in store! Pray for me!!! 

This week has been amazing. Have I told you how much I love the Garner ward??!! 

We have been treated so well and this is truly my home away from home. I will miss is SOOO much!

Not much else happened this week that is exciting to tell. Just the normal missionary things, with a few going away parties thrown in there. 

I hope you all have a great week!!

Love, 

Sister Judd 

Sept 2

Hello one and all!! 

Well its safe to say that miracles never cease!! 

It was a week full of miracles.

So you all remember T? She was baptized back in May. Well I havent mentioned anything about her since for a reason. You see, after her wonderful spirit filled baptism and confirmation she disappeared. She walked out of the church building after church the day of her confirmation and we never saw her again. It became something that has been a huge stress to me. We called, we texted, members called and texted, we fasted, we prayed, we had our whole district pray, we stopped by her house at least once a week, members stopped by, we left numerous notes. Basically we tried absolutely everything and had no success. She didnt return anything and never answered her door. We had no idea what had happened. And the biggest problem was that because we hadnt seen her since the day of her confirmation we were never able to get her baptism record filled out therefore the church couldnt recognize that she had been baptized therefore she would have to be baptized again if she ever came back. It was a huge MESS. This is basically a missionaries worse nightmare. And it really has been bothering me. I felt like it was all my fault. Luckily we have had such huge support from our members in trying to help us. I couldnt help but feeling though, what did I do wrong? Well now here comes the good part. It was Thursday morning and we had just finished up a visit near T's house. The member we were with then said "should we drive by T's house?" Sure we replied. This was something all too familiar to us. We drove up and bam! T was in the backyard mowing her lawn. My heart immediately sank into my stomach. She couldnt see us. We immediately said a prayer and asked that the spirit would guide us as to what we should do. Since Sister Treu has never even met T I knew I needed to take the lead. I started walking towards her not knowing what she was going to do. Was she gonna yell at us to get away? was she gonna be angry? was she gonna be happy? One could never know. I walk up and then she sees me. The first thing that I could say was "can I take over mowing your lawn for you?" She then gets this look of relief on her face and says no, she wouldnt make me do that in a skirt. We then talk for a second and the our very sweet saintly member with us who mind you is 63 years old says "I will mow the lawn, you go inside and talk with the sisters". T agreed. We hesitantly left our sweet member out in the hot sun to mow the lawn while we went inside. We got to talk with T. Luckily she wasnt angry, she wasnt mad, she was very grateful to see us. After we got all caught up on life she went on to tell us the struggles she has been facing and that her crazy job schedule has kept her away. She then expressed that she felt guilty for being gone and she didnt know how to come back. We expressed our love and how much we had all missed her. We had a great visit AND were able to get her baptism papers all filled out. To tell you that this was truly a miracle is an understatement. I cant even begin to tell you how much love, and happiness, and relief filled my soul being able to visit with T this week. I KNOW that Heavenly Father answers our prayers, in his own timing. 

Another miracle.. We have this wonderful investigator N. She loves the church and everything she is learning. She has great desires to follow Jesus Christ and she knows the church is true. There is just one problem, her husband does not feel the same. He is completely against the church and has really been a struggle to get through for a while now. This week we were in a lesson with N and guess who came home early from work? Her husband. We all saw his car pull up and we all got a little scared. What was he going to do? (he doesnt have the greatest background on being nice to missionaries and people from the church). He came inside and saw us and then walked back out. N then said that she was going to invite him inside so we could talk with him. I was preparing myself to take some verbal hits. Well he came inside and was very nice. He greeted us. N then told us what she wanted us to tell him. They then got into a little quarrel but he agreed to try out the church 3 times. Try out the church?!! This was huge. After speaking with him for a moment he went back out. We knew he had made progress. We had a ward pig pickin yesterday and they both came! He went out and played football with the guys and had a great time. We are grateful for this HUGE step we were able to make. 

Rember A and L? The two cute boys baptized back in April. Well they are doing very well. Their mom has a very difficult job and has been struggling with it for a long while. She has to work late hours and sometimes on Sundays. It has affected them being able to come to church and do all they are supposed to. We have been praying real hard that she would be able to find a new job. And this week she was offered a position and will now be able to make her own schedule, not work weekends, be less stressed, and get paid more!! This is a huge blessing for their family. 

I talked I think last week about our new investigator J. She had her sweet baby girl this week. We have been able to arrange meals to be brought to their house. Her husband, who we have been unable to meet told one of the members "I didnt know people still did things like this". He mother in law who is staying with her we also found out was being taught by missionaries a few years ago and has been greatly touched by the kindness they have received. I have a feeling their search for a new church will be ending at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints very shortly!! 

I am grateful to be able to see the hand of the Lord in many ways this week! 

In other news, I found out this week that I am being transferred... enter many many tears... This is SO HARD!! I love Garner more than I can even express!!! I am grateful for all these miracles that have happened and know that it is my time to go but it doesnt make it any easier. I will miss this place more than I can say. 

I have no idea where I am going or who my companion is going to be. I am quite nervous. Things cant get much better than they are now. All I know is that I am staying a sister leader, once again. Transfers are a week from today, on the 9th. PRAY FOR ME! 

So I made mention earlier about the ward pig pickin.. Anyone have a clue what that is? Its a true southern party. You all might call it a BBQ. Here in the south they get a full giant pig. And cook it on a pig cooker all day long. Then you have to break it apart and get everything edible, including the pig skins. Then you mince it up the meat and pour some vinegar based bbq sauce on it and wala, you have amazing meat! Then everyone gather together and brings sides and you have a delicious meal! It was so much fun! I thanked them all for throwing me a giant party before I get transferred :) 

Well I hope you all have a great week!! 

I know I will!

Much love, 

Sister Judd 

Aug 25

Hello!

Well I guess I should say the best news first, C got baptized!! 

Man, it was such a special day. He was so excited and it was so sweet to see that he knew he was making the right choice. We were able to have a lot of non members attend which is always a good thing! Baptisms always provide such a sweet spirit. I cant thank my Heavenly Father enough for providing me with this experience to witness this man come to Christ. 

We went on exchanges this week. I went to Fuquay Varina. I had a great time there. It is so much fun to be able to go around and meet so many incredible people! There is just special things that come with being a missionary that you just cant put into words. The love that you feel for people and the love that you feel from people is one of them. I can feel my time in Garner coming to an end. Which makes the end of my mission feel even closer. And its not a good feeling. I have been trying to soak of every minute of this very special time I have to be a representative of Jesus Christ and to be here in North Carolina sharing the gospel. 

Every third Thursday our ward council gathers together and then we go out and do ministering visits to people in the ward. I always love doing this! Usually Sister Treu and I split up and go out with one of the relief society members. This week it wasnt so. In the nicest way possible the single adult rep in our ward is a little bit crazy. Love her, but she is crazy.  Well she needed someone to go with her and who gets nominated.. me! I happily agreed because thats what missionaries do but secretly inside I was a little bit sad I didnt get to go with a member that I have a good relationship with. We get in the car and head to the house of the person we were going to visit. She welcomes us right in and we sit down. I look around at my surroundings, here I am with two old single ladies who are both cat lady hoarders. The smell isnt very nice and all they are talking about is cats and the 1960's. I then remember a quote I read just a few days earlier while visiting in Fuquay. It reads " Remember that you can miss a lot of good things in life by having the wrong attitude". I was quickly reminded by the spirit that I needed to change my attitude. I obeyed and what do you know.. it ended up being such a great night! We had a great time chatting and I got to learn about what Garner was like long ago. After the visit the sweet sister wanted to go get ice cream. She opened up to me about her life and I now see why she might be a little bit crazy. She hasnt had it easy but she sure has done a great job with what she has been given. I am grateful for all the lessons I am able to learn in every situation. I know that a good attitude makes all the difference! 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Love, 

Sister Judd