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