Oct 28

This is me in front of our mission logo. I love the NCRM! (North Carolina Raleigh Mission)!

Hello family and friends!

Time goes by so fast here I cant believe it! I feel like it was just yesterday I was writing you all telling you about C's baptism. It has been another fabulous week here in North Carolina!

C is doing fabulous! We will continue to meet with her. This week we taught her about family history and then taking the names of her family member to the temple to be baptized so that they can enter into the kingdom of God. We pulled up the wonderful familysearch.org website. We typed in the name of the only deceased family member she knew. We were then able to track her family back a little while. She was so excited to see the names on the computer of family members that she had heard stories about before. The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has the largest collection of family history and genealogy resources.What a wonderful resource we can all use to find our deceased family members! She is excited to get names put together to take and do work in the temple for them so that they will be able to feel the same peace and happiness that she has found by being baptized by the proper authority of God.

M is doing just wonderful. I have so much love and respect for this woman. A single mother trying to survive raising her children and do the right thing. She will be so blessed to have this gospel in her life! This week we went and saw her. We were talking with her at the end of the lesson she says "you girls want to hear a joke I heard yesterday. My co worker said that mormons cant drink coffee. The rumors people say are so funny". We then started laughing and kindly told her that that wasn't a joke and she had complete shock on her face. M loves her coffee. We told her we were grateful she wasn't believing all the rumors that she hears and we would come back tomorrow to teach her the Word of Wisdom and the blessings we receive by being obedient. The next day we went over prepared to teach her this commandment. When we explained that our bodies are a sacred gift from our Heavenly Father and we need to do everything we can to take care of them. Just like when you buy an expensive car or item we will do everything we can to protect that certain thing, we need to do that for our bodies. Just like alcohol or drugs, coffee is an addictive substance that can come in control of our bodies. Addictions are dangerous for many reasons. M then said that this commandment was an answer to her prayers. Her doctor has been telling her for years that coffee is ruining her intestines. She explained to us that she never has been a drinker but recently she has been drinking wine with her friends. Every time she has something inside of her tells her that it is wrong but she didn't know why. She is grateful now for the explanation and has committed to living her life following the word of wisdom. We know that the Lord never gives a commandment without blessings in return for obeying. She will now be blessed with a healthier body and mind in which the spirit can more heavily reside. We will all receive blessing when we obey the commandments. 

As I said last week we had a fabulous visit from 2 general authorities. We had Elder Zwick and Elder Pino if the seventy. The whole mission gathered together in Fayetteville North Carolina. This is the first time the whole mission (over 200 missionaries) has been together in over 18 months! There was a wonderful spirit in the room! Elder Pino and his wife both bore wonderful testimonies. They are from South America so their talks were translated by a spanish speaking elder. Elder Pino shared this story with us. A little while ago he was invited by an apostle to sit in on missionary calls being assigned. He said as they were going the apostle stopped on the North Carolina Raleigh Mission and said "this is a great mission". As he was with us yesterday he said he could now see why and he was grateful to be here. I agree that this is a wonderful mission and I am so lucky to be here! Elder Zwick gave a fabulous talk also. He talked about the scripture found in Mark 1:16-17..

16 Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become^afishers of men.

He pointed out the word become. We are all becoming. It is line upon line, precept on precept. None of us are perfect, we are all learning. We are all becoming better. He stated that we must not stop ourselves on what we think we can do but we must allow the Lord to expand our capacities. We must trust in the Lord because through Him all things are possible!! I can testify of that.

I am out of time but I hope you all have a fabulous, blessed week! I pray for you all! 

Thanks for all your love and support!

-Sister Judd

This is the pumpkin I painted at our Relief Society activity this week. Inspired by my wonderful farewell cake Heidi Hunt and Mia Brooks made. 

God loves you

Sister Fullmer and I were walking to try and contact one of our referrals. We had our cameras on us from the baptism so we took some pictures. Here I am showing you North Carolina. All you that you ever see is trees. Trees trees everywhere. You probably had no idea there are tons of houses right behind those trees did you?

On Saturday October 19, 2013 C was baptized! Oh what a glorious day. Who knew planning and preparing for a baptism could be so stressful? I didn't sleep much the night before with so many thoughts going through my head but when the moment finally arrived I was filled with so much joy! It was wonderful to be able to see the fruits of my labor and change somebody's life! Ward members came and supported and even our mission president was in attendance! Funny story, we had a lady in the ward doing a musical number. About 30 minutes before the baptism started she was practicing and said her voice was a little rough that day. She then asked if Sister Fullmer and I would sing with her. With much hesitation we agreed. Now in case you didn't already know, I am not a good singer. I would never choose to or volunteer myself to sing in front of people. A mission definitely changes you in ways you would never imagine. We sang the song and by the end much to my surprise there weren't very many dry eyes in the room. I know the spirit was helping me sing that song. It was one of those "I wish my friends and family back home could see me doing this" type of moment. All in all it was a wonderful day and I look forward to seeing C grow and strengthen herself in the gospel! 

Yesterday our investigator M came to church for the first time! We had a little rough patch with her. She was supposed to watch general conference with us 2 weeks ago but instead of showing up she sent us a text saying "I don't think it would be fair to myself or the children if I made a commitment to the mormon church without researching other things first". It was a heart breaker! We were deeply saddened but we knew that was not going to be the end. We have been able to resolver her concerns over that past weeks and now she is stronger than ever! She had a wonderful experience at church yesterday and we are praying for a baptism sometime in November! She is just fabulous.

So some exciting news... We are having 2 General Authorities come visit us this weekend! We found out on Saturday. We have been expecting one and preparing for one to come in November (which is still happening) but we are also getting graced with the presence of 2 this weekend! We are so excited. We have no idea what is happening all we know is that it is a "very special occasion" and they have "something special to share". All the missionaries will be gathering together in Fayetteville. So we get to go on a little road trip about 2 hours south. We are very anxious and cant wait to learn from them!

Thought of the day is about FAITH! What a powerful principle!

2 Nephi 26:13 And that he manifesteth himself unto all those who believe in him, by the power of the Holy Ghost; yea, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, working mighty miracles, signs, and wonders, among the children of men according to their faith.

We were promised by our mission president that there are at least 10-20 people in our ares that are prepared and ready to accept the gospel. We also had the goal set that our mission would double baptisms from last year in the months of October, November, and December. Now this kind of seemed daunting at first. Sisters have been in this area for about a year now and there has been one baptism, C. How in the world are we supposed to find those 10 people and also be able to double our baptisms?! One word, faith! As the scriptures say miracles can and will happened, according to our faith. How do we develop faith? The bible dictionary says this "strong faith is developed by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ; in other words, faith comes by righteousness" We must be obedient to the commandments in order for our faith to increase and in order for miracles to happen in our lives! 

I know that God has not ceased to produce miracles. He is a God of miracles. But we must have faith in order to see those miracles in our lives! We must be obedient to the commandments and we must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ! I challenge you all to strive to increase your faith and I know that you will be able to see those miracles start to happen in your life.

Thank you all for your continuing love and support. 

Have a wonderful, blessed week!

With love,
Sister Judd 

October 14

Hello!!

Well I am still here and alive. Hurricane Karen didnt come into Wake Forest too strong. A week full of rain but that's about it.

Just ended week 1 of my 2nd transfer. Today marks my 2 month mark! I can not believe how fast time is flying! Only 16 more months left of my mission and the rest of eternity to think about it. To say I am loving this experience would be an understatement. I could not think of anything else I would rather be doing right now. Of course sleeping in for an extra hour would be nice or sitting down to watch tv would be relaxing but I can do that for the rest of my life. For this 18 months I get to wake up every single day with a purpose. I get to serve others and bring happiness into peoples lives. It is the most rewarding and life changing experience. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for sending me here and blessing me with this opportunity. I feel as though I am on cloud 9! Even during the moment this week as we were walking up to a house and before we even got to the porch the lady we were coming to visit runs out and yells at us to stop harassing her.. oh well.

This week has been wonderful. We have been preparing for C to be baptized! Yes, this Saturday October 19 C will be getting baptized. We are SO EXCITED! She is truly prepared and we were placed in her path for a reason! Her life has made a complete 180 from when we first met her. She is happier than ever before and she will continue to be blessed throughout her life as she continues on the right path.

We had a mission home fireside last night. All missionaries are welcome but the catch is you have to bring an investigator or a recent convert. Well luckily C was able to go so we attended. Our President spoke for a little and then he opened the time up to have the investigators and recent converts bear their testimony. It was remarkable. The testimonies of these new members is such an example to me. They are so simple and full of so much power and spirit. C bore her testimony first and she testified that she knows that this church is where we can find the most happiness in our lives. She told the story of after the first time she came to church she went to her moms house and the first thing her mom said to her was "you look so happy". C realized that and knew it was because she came to church and has come to know that this is the best place to be. That true joy is found when we are coming closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. And I can testify of that myself. 

Look forward to pictures from her baptism next week. And keep C in your prayers this week as she continues to prepare and Satan will be trying to tempt her hard.

3 Nephi 19:25
And it came to pass that Jesus blessed them as they did pray unto him; and his countenance did smile upon them, and the light of his countenance did shine upon them..

The power of prayer is real!! I dont know about you but I would love to know that Jesus is smiling because of something I did. Pray to our Heavenly Father. He will be listening. And he will answer your prayers.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Thanks for all the support.

Love, 

Sister Judd

Oct 7

Hey y'all! 

(that's as southern as it gets. Sadly I havent picked up an accent yet)

Another fabulous week has come and gone!! It was like Christmas here this past weekend. We got to go to the temple and listen to general conference!

I loved all the words that were spoken. They all touched me in different ways. But I wouldn't be a true missionary if I didn't talk about all the missionary work that was spoken of. It's still pretty surreal to me that I'm a missionary. That I was called to be here in Raleigh North Carolina and help invite others to come unto Christ. I love this work!! There truly is nothing that has brought me greater joy in life than seeing other peoples lives change because of the message that the true Church of Christ has been restored to the earth. And YOU can all feel that joy too! I know that there are opportunities to share the gospel put in our paths every single day. I challenge you all to open your eyes to those opportunities. Look for ways to serve others and act as Christ would and I promise you that you will feel so much more joy in your life.

We received a new investigator this week. Her name is C. The elders we share a ward with found her taught her the first lesson and then gave her to us to continue teaching. Well she is incredible!! She is 23 and recently divorced. Her ex husband didn't want anything to do with religion so she wasnt attending any church for many years. With this divorce and other circumstances in her life she has been very depressed. The elders knocked on her door and the rest has been history. Her life is truly changing and she is glowing more and more every time we see her. She has been able to find peace and happiness through our Savior Jesus Christ just like we all can. She has accepted to be baptized on October 19 and we are so excited for her!

There is a hurricane supposed to happen here this week. Hurricane Karen. We hope it brings in lots of storms. The rain and thunder storms here are incredible! Obviously we don't want any damage to happen but it would be pretty cool to be in a natural disaster. If you don't get an email next week from me you know why ;)

I hope you all have a wonderful week! May God bless you all! 

Thanks for all your love and support.

 -Sister Judd

Sept 30

Good morning friends and family!!

I am now the big 20! yay! Thank you all for your birthday wishes and cards and packages. I will be getting thank you letters out today so look forward to those. I had a fabulous missionary birthday! 

Woke up and did our normal morning routine. Which is 6:30 alarm goes off. Sister Fullmer has a cool alarm clock that you can change the sounds. Well one of the options is the Happy Birthday song so I got to enjoy waking up to that. We then have exercise from 6:45-7:15. Usually we run around our apartment complex but I told Sister Fullmer I was not running on my birthday. So we walked down to the bike trail that goes all around the city and enjoyed the beautiful fall morning. Then we came back to get ready and eat breakfast. While I was getting ready Sister Fullmer made me breakfast. Waffles and eggs. It was delicious. Best companion ever! Then we had our study time from 8-9. Then every Wednesday we have district meeting. Its a meeting with other missionary companionships and we talk about our week and how we can help each other. I love these meetings. I decided to bring donuts to celebrate my birthday. Felt like elementary school again. They all sang to me and we had a great meeting. Then we had lunch and went out and worked. Nothing too exciting there. 

Then we had an appointment with B. And I got a birthday wish, we were finally able to meet her parents! We always just meet with B outside on her porch and have never even seen her parents. But today for some reason they decided to come out and we met them! It was so nice to talk to them and see where they stood as of B being baptized. Miracle number 1! Then after that we had a dinner appointment with a family in the ward. Well they found out it was my birthday and had a little party for me. They decorated their house and we had a delicious dinner. Then we of course had cake and ice cream and they sang to me. I felt so loved by a family I have only known for a short few weeks. I love how this gospel can bring families and strangers so close together! The night before my birthday no one had signed up for dinner and Sister Fullmer and I were both craving Texas Roadhouse rolls. We decided since it was my birthday we could celebrate. We went in and ate probably too many rolls then ordered a cheap meal and split it. Then we got dessert cause it was my birthday! It was a fun, super cheap, celebration. All in all it was a fabulous day!

This was just a fabulous week all around! Another miracle filled week. Our investigator M and her son (who I think I talked about in one of my first emails) accepted to be baptized! October 26! We are so excited for them and cant wait to continue seeing the gospel bless their life! Its so amazing what this gospel can do for people. M is just glowing more and more every time we see her!

On Friday we held a church tour. We have been having a problem with our investigator not coming to church. So we thought a tour of the church building would help them be more comfortable. We planned in on Monday and throughout our week we invited probably 25 people. Well when Friday came around 4 people showed up. (life of a missionary) But 4 was all we needed! It was B, HER PARENTS, and C, a new investigator elders gave us. We were so so excited to have B's parents come. The tour went so well! The spirit was so strong and we were able to answer all of their questions, and comments, and bring truth to rumors they have heard. It was truly miraculous. And best of all, B's mom asked for a Book of Mormon at the end.
Our prayers are being answered and we are really hoping B's baptismal date of of October 19 will be allowed.

Saturday was a beautiful day so we decided to bike instead of drive. We had been biking all day and really had no success. No one was home of the doors we had planned to knock or they told us they were not interested. Typical but we were hoping for good things. We didn't get discouraged though and kept on going. Well we were 5 minutes away from where we parked our car to then go to our dinner. We hear "hey, LDS!!" And a girl starts running towards us. She starts talking to us and says she got baptized in 2002. She says it always brightens her day when she sees the missionaries. She then tells us her mom just moved away and she is living out of a hotel trying to save up to by a house. She has been inactive for a while but that "there is no such thing as coincidences" and she was so happy to see us. She told us she wanted to start coming back to church but had no ride. We were able to get her information and we made plans to start visiting her. I know we were blessed because of our hard work and diligence. It may take riding our bikes all day long to find someone to help but I would do it all over again just for her. Heavenly Father put us in her path that day and I am grateful for the opportunity I have to bless other peoples lives.

Heavenly Father knew what that girl needed in her life. And He knows what I need, and He knows all of your needs! He knows the big picture. He is waiting with blessings and answers, all we have to do is simply ask! The power of prayer is incredible. Pray! Heavenly Father want to hear from YOU! I know that to be completely true.

We get to go to the temple On Friday!! I am so excited for that. Also General Conference this weekend! I am excited to hear from out living day prophet Thomas S. Monson.

Hope you all have a wonderful week! You are all in my prayers.

Love, 

Sister Judd 

#4

Hello All!!

Fall is quickly approaching here in North Carolina! The weather is very nice and cooling significantly down. I am so grateful I never had a horribly hot day here. Next summer I'm sure I will be in for a treat.

I'm sure you all saw the exciting news, I am now on Facebook! As the world is changing and people are spending more time on the internet than wanting to actually have a face to face conversation we are now implementing online proselyting. We spend an hour a day doing missionary work online. We had to do an 11 step process to get our facebooks "missionary approved". Use your facebook as an easy way to do missionary work! Feel free to share anything I post and let your friends and families know about the things you believe. You will be surprised by the outcome, I can promise you that.

This week we got to go on exchanges. Me and Sister Fullmer were split up and put with another sister for 24 hours. I stayed here in Wake Forest and was the senior companion and in charge! It was just a little but stressful. I didnt realize how much Sister Fullmer and I rely on each other. It was great to see and prepare for a different companion but right now I will continue to be so thankful for Sister Fullmer and our wonderful companionship.

This week while I have been studying the scriptures I have really been noticing how much protection we can receive if we depend on our Savior Jesus Christ. This is a crazy world we are living in! And things are only going to get worse. In Helaman 5:12 it states "when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea his shafts on the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and mighty storm shall beat upon you" Now notice it doesnt say if. It says when. Satan is trying to get ahold of all the people he can. He wants this world to be miserable. Continuing on in that scripture is says " It is upon the rock of our Reedemer, who is Christ, that ye must build your foundation. Which is a sure foundation. A foundation wheron if men build, they cannot fall." If we rely and turn to Christ Satan will have "No power over us" And then Heavenly Father promises in 2 Nephi 9:18 "they who have endured the crosses of the world.. their joy shall be full forever" In a world where society doesnt honor promises it is so comforting to know that Heavenly Father will never break a promise! As long and we are doing what he has asked. As long as we are bearing our own crosses of the world, whatever they may be for each of us, and turning to our Savior for comfort we will have joy forever!

I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I have seen in my own life how turning to him brings more comfort than anything else. I have felt more joy than any worldly thing can bring when I have turned to Jesus and relied on His teachings!

I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to be a missionary. I wouldnt be out here if I didnt think what I was doing was beneficial or bringing myself and others closer to Christ. I am sacrificing 18 months of my life because I can see the joy that I bring into peoples homes when I tell them that they have a loving Heavenly Father and that they can be forgiven for their sins and have joy in this life full of sorrow and sin. And the same for all of you.

Love,
Sister Judd 

Sept 16

Check the new address for Sister Judd!

Also, her birthday is Sept 25- I'm sure she would love a letter for her birthday! Other things she might love are nail polish/makeup type things, fast food or store gift cards, stamps, church music CD's, pictures, or food treats! 

Hello All!!

How are you all doing? Things are wonderful over here!

Another wonderful week down!!

Not much exciting happened this weeks. It was a week full of meeting and service.

We had first transfer training meeting all day Thursday. All the new missionaries that came last transfer came together and we had lessons taught to us by our President and his wife and the Assistants to the President. It was amazing!! The best part was probably being able to see all my friends from the MTC. It was an exciting reunion since I havent seen any of them since the day we got here. We all had fun stories to compare and it is so great to all be able to be doing the Lords work!

We have helped people move 3 times this week. I have been packing up boxes and carrying things up 3 flights of stairs all week. And it was fun! I love being able to be of help to people 24/7. Service brings joy!!

Things are still coming along with B. Her parents hearts are still slowly being soffened. She is so strong!

So I havent yet mentioned the best part of my area yet. The Baptist Seminary student housing. Yes, a place where all the people learning how to become baptist pastors or teachers live. A place where we arent very welcomed with smiles.

Well we taught a young couple this week that live there. They are Evangelical and know TONS about Mormonism. They just moved there and contacted us to meet them. They wanted to have us over for dinner. They asked us if we wanted ice cream or jello for dessert. No joke. We also brought a side dish of funeral potatoes at their request. Well we got there and they were very very nice people. They basically are just interested in individual people and why they choose to be LDS. They have met with tons of missionaires before and have tons of gospel books all the way from Preach My Gospel to a Triple Combination. They asked us tons of questions and told us a lot about their religion. Toward the end they started to want to bash. We dont think their intention is in the right place so we are being very careful with them. We are going to meet next in a member home and then see if we will be able to continue teaching them. Our purpose as missionaries is to invite people to come unto Christ by helping them receive the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. If they arent truly interested in coming closer to Christ through us our time is better spent teaching someone who we can really help. Its an experience everyone in this mission should experience and I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Fathers plan!

So something else we did this week. We had about an hour before a dinner appointment and didnt know what to do. Since we cant knock doors we decided to go to the grocery store. We were going to try and contact people. Well its a little bit harder to talk to people in the grocery store than you would think. We moved our efforts outside to try and help people with their groceries and taking carts back. After about 45 minutes and no one wanting to talk to us we were getting a little discouraged. Thats when we heard "hey, hey! I know you!" We turn around and its a 15 year old girl in the car waiting for her mom while she is getting the food. she goes on "Hey I know you from friendship!" We walk closer and turns out the girl thought I was someone she knew from school but she was mistaken. Oh well! The converation was already started! She appologized for thinking I was someon else. We then told her who we were and what we were doing. She was very interested so we gave her a book of mormon and our card. We dont know what will happen with her but we were happy to get one more Book of Mormon out there! We then went and talked to a worker that had just gotten off and was waiting for a ride. We were just having a normal nice conversation with him for about 5 minutes. When we told him who we were he walked away from us not saying a word more.. Oh well.

Me and Sister Fullmer are just fabulous. I am so grateful for her. Sometimes I think we are having too much fun doing this because we are always laughing. This week we changed things up in our apartment. We have basically the nicest apartment in all the mission. Its a huge 2 bedroom apartment. Well we decided this week we wanted to move our furniture. So we moved our beds into the living room, put our couch into the dining room and table into the bedroom. So basically we never even use the 2 bedrooms. Its great. Its just one of those thigns you can only do as a missionary.

I love being a missionary! Everyday just gets better and better! I can feel the Spirit working through me! Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us and He is in control! He knows exactly what He is doing. Rely on Him, have faith in Him. Talk to Him in Prayer. He is at the door knocking waiting for you to answer it!

I love you all. Thanks for all your support.

-Sister Judd