Jan 13

Hello all!!

You are all lucky I am alive, as this week we survived a tornado!! Yes, a tornado. 

On Saturday we were just going about our regular missionary business. We had planned to contact a lot of people that live in this one neighborhood. Luckily we had chosen to drive our car that day. All morning we kept talking about how beautiful the weather was. It was seriously the best weather. It was a cool 70 degrees with tons of humidity. It was the exact weather that I had when I was in Ecuador in the Amazon jungle. I loved it. We contemplated many times to park our car and just start walking but we for some reason didnt. Well no one decided to tell us that there was a massive tornado warning going out to the whole town. People were getting alerts on their phone, it was all over the news, and everyone was getting prepared. Well here are Sister Spiel and I just going about doing our business thinking the weather is so awesome having no clue that a tornado was anywhere in the forecast. As we were driving our car.. bam! a sheet of rain just hit. It hit so hard it made both of us jump. within seconds of that the wind just started blowing out of control. all of a sudden trees were falling over, branches were falling, peoples yard items started blowing all over. After driving a little bit more looked at each other and said we should probably pull over. We then saw a ladies mailbox fly off the stand and go into the road. Trees were continuing to fall over and at one point our car got picked up a little bit. At this time we still had no idea we were in a tornado we just thought it was a crazy storm and the only thing on our mind was running out in the storm to get the ladies mailbox and another houses chair cushions. Finally after about 3 minutes of out of control wind and rain it stopped. Then all that was heard was sirens. Immediately fire trucks were out trying to asses the damage. We safely got the ladies mailbox back to her and the chair cushions. We then drove around to see what was happening. We of course had to take some pictures. We then drove around to see if we could help people. Trampolines were over fences, trees were on top of cars and houses, and everyone was in the road trying to move trees out of the way. On one major road the trees had fallen on top of power line (pictures below) so everyone was without power for hours. All in all everyone is okay and safe. After talking to people at church I had only heard about one person who is in critical condition in the hospital because she was jogging on a local trail during the storm and a tree fell on her. No worries here though, 10 minutes after the tornado is over we get a text from our district leader "tornado warning. everyone keep safe".

Things with D are going well. We were able to teach her a few times this week. She recently moved into a house with one of her friends. Well we had never met this friend before but she had a baby on thursday. D asked us if we could come over and help clean the house before they came home from the hospital. Of course we agreed. The whole time we were making this house spotless I kept thinking.. Here I am, in North Carolina, scrubbing the toilet and making beds at a house of a lady I have never even met who is currently in the hospital having a baby. And I couldnt have been happier! It is such a good feeling to know that what you are doing is making a difference in someone else life. Are you looking for ways to be more happy? Lose yourself in service!! I can promise that service is a cure to any trouble in life. 

As Sister Spiel and I were having companionship study one morning we were thinking of better ways we could teach lessons to children. The idea came into our minds to teach the armor of God, and to make an actual armor of God! We then scurried around the house to see what we could do to make it. Luckily the night before our dinner appointment sent us home with the leftover pizza. We were able to make basically everything with pizza boxes and tin foil. We had a random stick for the sword and of course every missionary has a helmet!

We were able to make an armor of God! And dont forget the fiary darts of satan we made out of an old red shirt we didnt want. We asked M if we could come practice the lesson on her kids. We went over to teach and it was a success! They had so much fun and so did we! (Pictures included)

Last night we had a wonderful dinner with a family in our ward and also C and her dad. C had become close friends with the family after the first time she came to church.  After dinner as we were teaching our lesson their 8 year old daughter says "I used to not want to go on a mission because I would miss my family, but now that I see how happy the sister missionaries have helped C to be I want to go on a mission."

It was the cutest thing and brought a tear to my eye. This gospel can make anyone happier, this gospel changes lives! I am grateful to be apart of this wonderful work!

Thank you all for your love and support! Have a wonderful week! May God bless you!!

Love,
Sister Judd