aug 12

Hello hello!! 

Another week bites the dust!

Everything is going so well here in Garner! To think that I will probably be leaving in 4 weeks makes me really sad. But I will live these last weeks up! 

Investigator update...

S... She had signed up to feed us last Monday. We were really looking forward to it. Earlier that day we get a text from her. It reads "sisters, its monday night. We are supposed to be having FHE. Will you bring a game?" We were in shock when we read this. We hadn't taught S about FHE. But she knew about it and she wanted that for her family. She is progressing so well now if she would just commit to a baptismal date!! Pray for her to have a desire to be baptized! She is just scared of the commitment. So anyways, our minds then begin racing of a fun game to play with them. We tried to think about classic mormon games their family might not know. Then the genius idea of "dont eat pete" came into my mind. Sister Treu then exclaimed that she loved that game. I thought that was a game only my family knew. But she had grown up playing it. It was also funny because the next day we were talking with elders and we told them about what we did and one of the elders said that he thought only his family knew about that game. Anyways, its a pretty awesome game. We made our own board the best we could and it was a hit. The poor 4 year old daughter got a little scared the first time we yelled "dont eat pete!" and started crying. I couldnt help but laugh because my dear sister Hannah would always start crying when we yelled it too loud too. (remember that Hannah ;) ). ha. We then continued the night on teaching them primary songs and reading the Book of Mormon. Great fun with one of my favorite families! 

C... He is doing so well!! He is all ready to be baptized! He will be interviewed this week and then baptized next! He will forever probably be one of my most favorite investigators. I love them all but he has a little special place in my heart. This week we were teaching Him about prophets. We showed him a picture of President Monson. He said "oh yeah, I know him. He helped me find the mens restroom on Sunday". We laughed and then explained a little better that he isnt at our specific church. We then asked him if he believed President Monson was a prophet of God. He replied yes and then we asked him how do you know that. And in the most humble, sincere way he answered "because of faith". I am seriously amazed how much he really cant grasp a lot of things. But he is grasping the gospel!! You just cant deny the Hand of God helping him out. 

M.. The cutest woman you ever will meet. Saturday was her quit smoking day! Last week she only smoked half a cigarette each day and now she is done. (hopefully no relapses). We went over and brought her some of her favorite candy and sang a little happy quit day song. She has a lot of faith and knows with Gods help she can do it! We went to a fireside at our Mission presidents home last night. This is a chance for new converts and investigators to bear their testimonies. M was the first one up and gave such a sweet testimony. We are so proud of her. 

T (who is baptized) is doing well. She also bore her testimony at the fireside last night. She talked about how she has come to know God more fully in her life and that she knows if she continues to come to church and read and pray she can continue to grow closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus. I am so grateful she has that knowledge. Its very rewarding to know that the first day I met her she sure didnt know that. And to see how far she has come. That is definitely worth every sacrifice it takes to be on a mission!! We went to teach her this week and her mom expressed desire to learn more so we got to start teaching her! We think it will be a little slower with her mom but 

hopefully she will also come to know of the same things to be true! 

We had a great experience this week. We have been wanting to volunteer in the community for a while now and got to this week. Not only in the community, but more specifically we volunteered at the baptist church food pantry. We got there and it was like two aliens walked into the room. It was kinda funny to see peoples reactions to us. We just tried to be very friendly and nice and Christlike. We helped people get their food and walked them to the car. We hope to do this every week so we can leave a good impression and help them see that we arent crazies who believe in a different God than them. 

We are happy as can be here in North Kakalacki. 

Have you seen this video yet? If not, watch it now! 

""Spiritual light rarely comes to those who sit in darkness waiting for someone to flip a switch. It takes an act of faith to open our eyes to the light of Christ."

Take that step of faith. Do what you need to do to get Christ more fully into your life. Whatever it takes, it will be worth it. 

The church is TRUE!!! Gods love is REAL!! 

Thanks for all your prayers and support! 

Love, 

Sister Judd 

aug 4

Hello all!! 

Not much to say this week but I would feel really bad if I didnt send out an email. 

We are enjoying life in Garner so much. This week we were on bikes and Heavenly Father blessed us with the most beautiful weather. We had a lot of rain but when it wasnt raining it was in the high 60's and 70's. We had to wear long sleeves one day because it was actually cold! This summer has been so good to us and we are very appreciative! 

Our investigators are doing so well!! 

M is just wonderful. Before she can be baptized she has to quit smoking. Now this is no easy task. She is 66 years old and has been smoking since she was a teenager. When we first met her she was smoking 8 cigarettes a day. This past week she only smoked 1 a day! She is making strides and we are hoping this week will be the final week and she will be able to quit smoking for good! We taught her a lesson about tithing this past week. Then we are sitting in sacrament meeting and Sister Treu elbows me and motions for me to look over at M. I look and she is filling out a tithing slip! She has such great faith and a desire to follow God. Its little moments like this that make everything worth it. 

C is doing so well also! We had one of the best lessons with him this week. He remembered almost everything we taught him!! This is huge for him with his dimensia. We know that Heavenly Father is completely helping us know how to teach him and helping him remember the things we teach him. He always makes the comment that things in his room keep growing legs and disappearing (he says this in all serious not realizing that he just forgets where he puts things) but he knows that God is real and that he loves Him. That's what is important!  

I was reading through an old general conference magazine this week and came across one of my favorite talks Mountains to Climb. This part stuck out to me especially.. 

You know how the Lord answered that question for the Prophet Joseph Smith in his prison cell:

“And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

“The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

“Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.” -D&C 122:7-9

This scripture has been one of my favorites while being out here in the mission field. We must not fear what man can do because God is with us. We will all go through hard times and fear. But we must conquer that with faith. Always knowing and always believing that God knows all and we will win if we are on His side. Let His will be done. 

Thanks for all your support! 

Much love, 

Sister Judd 

july 28

Hey hey hey!! 

Well so many great things happened this week I dont even know where to start!!

Last Monday we got to go to the NC museum of natural sciences in downtown Raleigh. We are actually only about 10  minutes away from downtown Raleigh here in Garner. We met up with some sisters and members from Sister Treu's last area. We had lots of Fun walking around and chatting. There was a huge storm going on outside. Nothing new. I love the huge thunderstorms we get here.  

A couple weeks ago I got a message from my past Relief Society President in the wake forest ward. She was informing Sister Fullmer and I that our convert M was struggling. Satan was really working on her and she just wanted to let us know so we could pray for her and try and send a message to uplift her. This was of course heart breaking to hear and I knew something needed to be done and so did Sister Fullmer. Well Sister Fullmer called our President and we were given permission to go visit M after the meeting we were having on Friday! Best news ever! We were so excited. So Friday after our leadership meeting Sister Treu and her companion came to Garner and Sister Fullmer and I went to Wake Forest. It was the craziest thing. Almost a year later Sister Fullmer and I were back on our old stomping grounds out to save M. Something that was all too familiar to us. It was a true tender mercy that we were able to do this. We had a great meeting with M. She opened up to us and we were able to help her out. She has gone through her fair share of trials but she will be just fine. She knows the Gospel is true and nothing will come in the way of that. We got to see E and M as well. We surprised them and they were so excited. Never did I imagine we would be going back to that house together but it was awesome. After that we had to come straight back to Garner and meet up with our companions. 

We had a bit of a scare this week. Sister Treu and I were going to go to an appointment that we had set up the day before with a very  nice family. We show up and they have two great big German shepherd dogs out roaming their yard. As soon as we pulled up they started very aggressively barking at us. We bravely just continued walking up to the front door but I was terrified. They kept their distance but kept barking. We rang the doorbell but no one answered so we decided to knock on the door. The only thing is that they have a screen door. So as usual, I opened the screen door and then Sister Treu went up to knock. The second she went up to knock the bigger dog bolted straight at her. I thought she had for sure been bit. I yelled watch out not really knowing what to do. The dog then stopped in its tracks and didnt bite. We then knew we needed to get out of there. Sister Treu whispered "just slowly walk to the car". And that we did with our hearts racing. The dogs made sure we got to our car and continued barking at us until we drove away. We got in the car and both of us were pretty shook up. It took us a while to settle down. This probably doesnt sound very scary but it was! I knew that Heavenly Father was protecting us in that moment. Something stopped that dog from biting her. And we are grateful for it. I can now officially mark getting chased by a dog off my bucket list. 

The best news of the week is that T was baptized!!!! It was such a  beautiful baptism. T had spent this past week at Girls camp with all the young women from the stake. We knew this was going to be a great experience in preparation for her baptism. All the young women got home form camp at 11 that morning and they all showed up clean and ready for the baptism at 4. We had a lot of support from the ward there. The young woman did a musical number which brought the spirit so well. And T had a lot of family and friends that were non members there. It was truly a success and T was so happy to be making such a righteous decision that day. Her family even came to church the next day and stayed for all 3 hours. We will soon begin teaching the rest of the family, we pray! 

Well life is good here in North Carolina. The humidity is in full force and it is HOT. Buts its all good. 

We had an incredible lesson in relief society yesterday. It was on the talk given by President Uchtdorf in the last general conference. I challenge you all to re-read this talk. It is amazing what a difference your attitude can make! "How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God that there is rain?"

Read the talk here. 

I hope you all have a great week! Always remember God loves YOU!! 

Love, 

Sister Judd