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