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 

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