Dec 16

Hello Family and Friends!!

I hope you have all had a great week!

Part of our responsibility as Sister Leaders is to go on exchanges with all the other sister companionship's. We switch companions for 24 hours and just make sure they are doing okay and help them with anything they need. Well this week we got to go on exchange with a spanish speaking set of sisters. I went to their area with Hermana Cardenas who is fluent is spanish. I got there at about 5 on Tuesday. We then headed over to our dinner appointment. She told me that the parents don't speak english but the kids do. I basically just talked to the kids the whole time while Hermana Cardenas was talking with the parents. We had a real authentic meal. We had "poor soup" which she explained is called that because its made of the most basic ingredients that everyone could afford and then we had these tostada like things. Homeade tortilla with beans and meat and sour cram and lettuce with parmesan cheese. They were pretty good. We drank some super surgery koolaide drink that reminded me of Ecuador. And then dessert was mexican cookies basically covered in berry yogurt. The parents were so very kind. Even though I couldnt understand anything they said they had the sweetest spirit about them and so much love! It was so wonderful to be apart of their culture. After dinner we went and taught a lesson to a 16 year old girl. She spoke both english and spanish but preferred to talk in spanish. Most of the lesson was taught in spanish but to allow me to chime in they asked me questions in English. At the end of the lesson the member we had brought with us wanted us to sing "I am A Child of God" to her in spanish. I did my best to sing along and am grateful for the spirit that filled the room despite my horrible accent. The next day we did our studies and then knocked on some doors. Hermana Cardenas taught me how to say a prayer in Spanish. After we exchanged back Sister Fullmer and I went to say a prayer before planning. I offered to say it and then did it all in spanish. Sister Fullmer got a good kick out of it and was quite impressed. It was such a wonderful experience to be in the spanish area but left very thankful that I get to share this message in my native tongue of english!!

M surprised us and signed up to feed us dinner this week! We always love going to her house. We had a great dinner with her and her kids and J and his daughter. (Have I told her that her and J are dating? sorry if I left that detail out. And he is doing well. The elders are teaching him and he should be baptized probably the first week of January!) After dinner we all decorated the Christmas tree. It was so much fun! Its people like M and J and their kids that make every single hard day worth it!!

This weekend was party filled! Friday night we had the Falls Lake ward party! They did somethign different this year. They did the spanish tradition called "Los Posados". It is a reenactment of Mary and Joseph getting turned down at all the Inns. We we were told to dress up as people from Bethlemhem. (Which by the way sister fullmer and I had great costumes. So sad I didnt get a picture. But a lady in the ward owns a theatre so she has tons and tons of costumes. She lent us some things and we basically won best dressed award) We then walked to a couple houses that are all in the same neighborhood only to be turned away and told that there was no room at their inn. The last house held the party in the backyard. They had a big bonfire with smores and hot chocolate. It was a great party! Then on Saturdaynight we had the Wake Forest 2nd ward party. This was your more typical ward Christmas party. Dinner of ham and potatoes with a talent show following. It was so much fun also! I have grown to love these wards so much!!

I am so grateful for this Christmas season and cant even put into words how grateful I am for our Savior Jesus Christ. I came across this scripture this week in the bible and love it so much!

John 16:33
 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me [Jesus Christ] ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of goodcheer; I have overcome the world.

True joy and happiness can only come from our Savior. Let us all remember what He has done for us, especially during this season.

I love you all so much! Thanks for all your support! 

Have a great week! 

Love,
Sister Judd

Ps: Included is first a picture of the most wonderful Wake Forest district! I love these people so much and am honored to serve with them! 

Then second is a Christmas picture of Sister Fullmer and I wishing you all a wonderful Holiday!

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Dec 9

Hello everyone!!

Hope you all have enjoyed the first week of December! I'm over here in compete shock this it is actually December. Feels like September still to me.

We had a good week. Keeping busy even though we have no one to teach.

This weekend we had a fabulous Community Christmas Celebration put on by our stake. They had hundreds of nativities from around the world and different local musical groups performing. We were ushers for it. We werent allowed to go up to people and talk about the gospel but they could come to us to ask questions. We basically just stood around and smiled. They also had a live nativity on the front lawn facing the road. We had gotten there when it first started one night and they didnt have anyone to be people for the nativity. So they grabbed us missionaries. We each took a character and put on the costume and went and stood as the nativity. Sister Fullmer and I were angels. The costumes were pretty great. We all got a good laugh out of it and had a good time.. Oh the things that are fun to a missionary.. One of the elders took pictures on his camera so if we get them from him I will send you all a pic of us next week.

To prepare for this celebration we handed out lots of invitations to it this week. One fabulous lady in the ward make a treat and wrote a note with an invitation for lots of people she knew. She asked us to go pass these out and carol for them. Once again I am not a good singer but Sister Fullmer and I did just that. We sang a song and then handed them the treat and invitation.

We had a special sisters meeting this week. Last year at this time there were 12 sister missionaries in the mission. As of Thursday there are over 70. It was great to have all of us sisters together to learn and be instructed by President Bernhisel and his wife. He talked about woman and priesthood. What a fabulous power that we all are able to be blessed from. Then Sister Bernhisel talked about motherhood. It is not about the number of children but the qualities and attributes it takes to be a mother. And how to be a great woman and mother with faith.

As sister leaders we had the chance to teach our zone this week. We were pretty nervous but it went smoothly. This calling is definitely a hard one with a lot of responsibility but it is teaching me and helping me to become a better missionary.

This week we had a beautiful 78 degree day. And then yesterday it was 38 degrees. The weather is always dramatically changing but I am loving all the warmer days we can get!

In Mosiah 3:7-8 we read..
7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people. 8 And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and hismother shall be called Mary.

Jesus Christ did more for us then we can comprehend. This Christmas season let us not forget the real reason we are celebrate. Let us think of what we can do to give back to Christ.
I'd love to hear your experiences with this!

I had a little tender mercy this week. On our way out of ward council yesterday in the bishops office I decided to grab a dove chocolate. I opened it later that day and it read "You are exactly where you are supposed to be". If I ever had wondered what in the world I was doing here that all went away in that moment. Heavenly Father is always watching out for us and loves us! Even if he shows it with a simple dove chocolate. I hope you can all feel of His love in your life.

The title of a song I heard this week describes a mission perfectly..

The hardest thing I've ever loved to do!

I love you all and hope you have a fabulous week!

Love, Sister Judd

Dec 2

Hello!

I am going to apologize now for the short email. Not much has happened here this week.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! We started off celebrating Wednesday night. We had a wonderful dinner at M's house. It was M and her kids, J and his daughter and then M invited over her neighbors who have 2 kids. It was delicious and so much fun! M and her kids have become family to me! Sister Fullmer and I sat at the table with the kids. 

Then on Thursday we had two more Thanksgiving meals with two wonderful families in the ward. We were well taken care of and it was a Thanksgiving to remember.

The rest of the week was rough. It was cold and rainy, no one was home or wanted to talk to us because they were too busy with the holiday. But all is well. It is a new week!

"With all my heart I invite you to seek the Lord's acceptance and enjoy His blessings.. We can come to know that we are accepted of Him, regardless of our position, status, or moral limitations. His loving acceptance will motivate us, increase our faith, and help us deal with everything we face in life. Despite our challenges, we will be successful, prosper, and feel at peace." -Elder Erich W. Kopische Ensign of May 2013.

I can testify of that! We are all children of a very loving and forgiving Heavenly Father. He wants us to turn to Him and enjoy the blessing that he in anxiously waiting to give to you. I challenge you all to seek out the Lord this week and look for those blessing that come from Him.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

love, 

Sister Judd

Nov 25

Hello all!!

I hope you have all had a wonderful week!

It was an interesting week over here to say the least! It was a pretty slow week. Not the easiest week to be a missionary. But all is well!

We are on the search. We don't have any people to teach right now. Things have slowed down a ton. We spent much time out in the cold knocking on doors trying to find. Not much luck but we are not getting discouraged!! We know that there are people out there ready to accept the Gospel. We are doing all we can and being obedient and we know we will be able to find them!

We had quite the experience in one of the wards this week. You all know B.. Well she became interested in the church because of her friend A. A, who is also 15, was baptized earlier this year and told B all about it and that's when we started meeting with B. Well on Tuesday this week A overdosed on drugs and tried to commit suicide. We got a phone-call late Friday night finding out about this. We were in shock and couldn't believe sweet A would do this. She was in ICU for 2 days and then was moved to the children's hospital to be watched over closely. We were told she had been requesting a visit from us. We of course said we would go visit her as soon as possible. Saturday afternoon we went and saw her. I was extremely nervous, not knowing the condition she would be in. Well we were able to go and had a wonderful visit. We just let her know that we love her and that most importantly our Savior and Heavenly Father love her. We were reading the general conference talk Like a Broken Vessel By Elder Holland with her. She has a nurse that has to be with her 24/7. After reading the talk the nurse was asking about it and then we got onto the topic of religion. She was so interested as to what us missionaries did and all about Mormonism. We ended up sharing the whole first discussion with her and was able to give her a Book of Mormon. A was able to chime in and share her testimony also and help bring the spirit back into her life. The Gospel of Jesus Christ can turn any bad situation better. When we know that Jesus Christ atoned and died for us we can have immediate peace and be able to come closer to Him. All in all, A just wanted some attention and will be okay. She is still in the hospital and will be until her emotions are settled.

This week we were also given the opportunity to serve dinner to a battered womans shelter.
What a wonderful experience! These woman were so appreciative and so sweet. They all come from not the greatest of backgrounds but i'd say 95% of them had some sort of faith in God. It was so neat to be able to share with them that God does loves them and is watching over them. I figured we were going to a more dangerous place so I didn't bring anything with me. Didnt think I would need it.  As we were talking with them 2 woman asked for a Book of Mormon. Here I was, a missionary, and I didn't have a Book of Mormon to give to them. I was so ashamed and felt so awful for not being prepared. After that I promised my Heavenly Father that I will carry a Book of Mormon in my hand anytime I step out of my apartment to be readily available to give to people. I did just that and in the next two days I was able to give out four Books of Mormon. I know that those opportunities were given to me because Heavenly Father trusted me and knew I was prepared with the Book of Mormon in my hand. My testimony was strengthened. We must always be prepared for what is ahead of us. We must put on the armor of God every morning so we can go out and fight against the temptations of Satan. As a missionary and for all of you! Pray and study the scriptures. You will notice a difference in your life when you do these things!

Funny story of the week, we had pulled over in a neighborhood down the rode from one of our members houses waiting for our dinner appointment. We had a few phone calls to make. As we were sitting there a cop pulls up behind us with his lights on. We were so confused. He comes up to us and asks us what we were doing. Sister Fullmer is in the drivers seat and is freaking out. We tell him we were just making some calls and would be on our way. He then asks sister fullmer for her license. He then takes forever to run it. He comes back and says the owner of the house we were in front of called the cops and wanted us to leave. He let us go and said to just watch where we park our car next time. It was pretty funny. I wonder how many times I will get the cops called on me over the next 18 months.

I also just have to add that I had a nice surprise in the mail for me this week. The return address was The Office of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. I was like "what in the world is this?" My first honest thought was that I was sent a new mission call and I was going to be sent somewhere else. I had no idea what to expect when I opened it. Turns out it was the sweetest personal letter from Elder D. Todd Christofferson. He sent me a letter telling me what an honor it was to be in Bakersfield to call my father as the new Stake President of Bakersfield South Stake. He shared with me the love he could feel the people of the Stake had for my family. He told me he used to live in North Carlina while he attended Duke University to go to Law school. He expressed his gratitude to me for serving the Lord here and that I was missed in Bakersfield. It was such a kind gesture for him to take the time to send that. And he personally signed it (the ink smeared when I put my wet finger on it). A letter I will treasure! Its great to be a missionary!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I will be very well fed out here, no worries about that!
Thank you for all your prayers and support!

Love,
Sister Judd

Nov 19

Hello!!!!

M was baptized on Saturday November 16, 2013. What a glorious day!! It had surprisinlgy been a pretty easy week for M. Every day she would text us and say something along the lines of "I dont care what Satan thinks, I am getting baptized!". And she sure did. We met her at the church a little before and she was smiling from ear to ear!! She had gone shopping the night before to get some new church clothes. She had been wearing dress pants for the past couple of weeks to church but she wanted to find a skirt for her baptism. She looked happier than ever. The baptism service went wonderful. We had asked if she would be willing to bear her testimony after she was baptized as part of the program. She was hesitant but agreed. We promised that the spirit would put words into her mouth. She did a wonderful job and there was not a dry eye in the room. She shared her story on how there were 3 specific times in her life that she felt completely alone and overwhelmed and quite frankly just wanted to die. She says on those 3 days exactly were when the mormon missionaries knocked on her door. She knew that God was answering her prayers. She has such a strong testimony and I look forward to seeing her learn and grow in this wonderful gospel!! Her kids keep asking me if I will move in with them, after my mission I might not be able to turn down the offer. Included is a picture of us on her baptism.

J was able to come to the baptism. He is excited to be baptized in December. We sadly found out that he lives in another ward boundary. So he will now be being taught by other missionaries. But it will be good for him to learn from these elders. They are great! We will continue to meet and see him when we go to M's house. He also will still come to our ward. We found out this week that he is an ex-nfl player! he played for the Giants. Its didnt come as a complete shock seeing as he is the biggest guy I have ever stood next to in my life. It was funny because yesterday someone at church invited him to play turkey bowl on thanksgiving. He doesnt tell a lot of people that he played in the nfl. So sister fullmer and I joked that this nice man didnt realize he just invited a ex-nfl player to join in on a turkey bowl game. Wish we could watch that game go down. 

On Wednesday we had a wonderful visit from Elder Baxter of the 70. He taught a lot of wonderful points, especially to us in our missionary work. He made a statement that stood out to me. We are the New Testament church brought back to the earth! I couldnt say it any better. We are the church of Jesus Christ. His church that he set up while He lived. I love this gospel and I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who has given us this truth so we may know exactly what we need to do to return to live with him and live in complete joy for eternity. It is always a special time when a lot of missionaries gather together. It is my favorite! A picture is included of part of my district from the MTC. We all got so close in the MTC and it is so fun to be able to reconnect and share stories on how we are now applying what we all learned together. 

So tomorrow is transfers and guess what.. i am staying. And so is Sister Fullmer!!! We were both in complete shock when we had our interviews with President Bernhisel on Thursday. Sister Fullmer will now be in this area for half of her mission. We are excited to be together another transfer, especially since it will be during the holidays. The reason she is staying is because we were called to be the Sister Training Leaders. Basically we are in charge of all the sister missionaries. We are a little shocked, definitely a calling we were not expecting. But we are excited for the adventure. We will be going to all the leadership meetings and going on exchanges with other sister to make sure they are doing okay and keeping everything in line. Wish us luck!! 

I am sure you all saw on facebook but I now have a blog. It is sisteremjudd.blogpsot.com. I will hopefully be posting throughout the week. 

I love being a missionary! I love this gospel! I love my Savior Jesus Christ!!

Have a wonderful week.

Love,
Sister Judd

Nov 12

Hello wonderful family and friends!!

I just have to start out by saying this... Mis getting baptized on Saturday!!!! Words can not express the joy that I have felt as she has committed to following the example of Jesus Christ. This path has not been easy for her or for us but we have grown so close. She knows that the true church of Jesus Christ was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith and that nothing else in the world will be able to bring her greater joy or happiness! We are so happy for her. Prayers in behalf of her this week would be greatly appreciated. 

Now let me introduce to you J.. J owns a personal fitness gym. M is a personal trainer at this gym. M and J have been close friends for 7+ years. John has been able to see the change in M and M has been telling him all that she has been learning. J has some struggles in his life and has been looking for help. He has realized that he wants what M has. Therefore we are now teaching J! It is amazing.  He has been able to come to church twice and after the first time he said, " I know we are supposed to surround ourselves with the people we want to be like. And if there is anyone I want to be like it is those Mormons." He is so prepared and excited to have this gospel in his life also. We were able to go clean his house and have been able to get him on the path to getting his life back together. We love him and are excited to see him learn and grow. 

On Friday M texted us in the morning and said "Come to my boot camp class this morning. For free. I will help you obey the word of wisdom". We laughed and couldn't turn down a good workout or the chance to apply our teachings . We had a good time and it was fun to see M in this different setting. J said the gym was open free to us anytime we wanted. Perks of teaching personal trainers.

Tomorrow we get to hear from another general authority. Elder Baxter of the seventy. We are excited to learn from him. I am so grateful for all the opportunities that I get to enjoy while being a missionary. There is nothing better.

Next Tuesday is transfers. We will find out on Thursday what is happening. Sister Fullmer is most likely leaving and we are very sad. She has been in this area now for 7 1/2 months. She has become one of my best friends and it will be so hard to have her leave. But I am excited for the change and to see what happens!

www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2714780496001&cid=HPWE110613145

Take a minute and watch this video. It has become one of my favorites. God knows what he is doing, always. Continue to press forward in faith.

Thank you for your prayers and support.
Have a wonderful week!!

love, 

Sister Judd

Nov 4

Hello wonderful friends and family! 

I hope all is going well with you.

I wish I could explain into words how beautiful North Carolina is right now. As I have made it known before there are so many trees here. Well now that it is fall every tree is changing into a different color. I wish a picture could do justice for all the beauty around. You will just have to make a trip out to N.C. and see it for yourself ;)

Another fabulous week has come and gone!

It started with a lesson on Monday night with M. We had prepared to teach her some of the commandments and start going over the baptismal interview questions to prepare her for her interview that was going to take place on Saturday. As we got to talking she let us know that she wasn't quite sure she knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet and if the Book of Mormon was true. That being the keystone to our religion we knew we had to stop everything we had planned on and focus on that. She told us she believes that Joseph Smith existed and she tells us all the time how much she loves our Prophet today, Thomas S Monson. She watches his videos on the mormon channel all the time and has come to love and respect and believe his words. So now we just needed to connect the dots. M has a deep desire to know. She reads the Book of Mormon and prays daily. We had taught her before about fasting and while we were discussing she brought up the idea that maybe she needed to fast to receive her answers. We told her that was a fantastic idea and that we would fast with her. We had already planned that we would be having dinner tuesday night with M and a member so it was perfect. We would fast all day and then break our fast when we had dinner together.

 Now to Tuesday.. probably one of the hardest days of my mission thus far. We couldnt drive our car on tuesday so it was a biking day. We bike quite often so it was nothing new. Well tuesday turned out to be one of the hottest days we have had in a while. Also we were fasting all day. We had a route with stops at different houses and people we wanted to visit that we were going to bike. It was about 20 miles long roundtrip. Well after about 2 hour of biking and knocking doors in the sun with no energy because we hadnt had any food or water we were pretty exhausted. And let me just throw in that North Carolina is not flat. Well every single person we had planned to visit wasnt home. And then at about mile 12 my tire blew. I dont know what happened or what I ran over but bam, immediate flat tire. We then walked with our bikes about 2 miles to the closest members house. They let us keep our bikes in their garage as we then walked the rest of our route. Satan was really working on us. It was extremely hard not to be discouraged as every single house we knocked on no one answered. We werent able to talk to anyone that whole day except for the member who let us put our bikes in the garage.

But we just had to keep pressing forward because we wanted to do whatever it takes to help M receive answers to her prayers. Dinner time couldnt have come soon enough. 

M was able to successfully complete her fast. We were so proud of her as it is not easy going a whole day without food or water. We met with her a couple other times the rest of the week. She is continuing to do all that she is supposed to and we are being patient the best we can as we wait for her to know these things are true. I can not express to you all how much I love M. She is the greatest! She is not going to be baptized on November 9th anymore but we are hoping for sometime later in the month!

As we were sitting in church yesterday we realized it was just one month ago that C came to church for the first time. Now a month later we had taught C, she was baptized, and yesterday she was received a calling to be an assistant activity days leader. We were so excited for her and she will be wonderful in helping with the 8-12 year old girls. So much can happen in a month and her life has truly taken a turn for the best! 

I hope you all had a happy Halloween! I have to say I had a wonderful weekend full of festivities. On actual Halloween we didnt do much. We were brought lots of candies and goodies. That night we went to the church to go the the ward party for the other ward that meets in our building. Then Friday night was the Wake Forest 2nd ward party. It was trunk or treat and chili cook off. Guess who were the judges, the missionaries of course. I will include a picture of our table. That is 24 bowls of chili on the table for us to judge. we were slightly sick and yes, by the end they all ended up tasting the same. But it was great fun! Saturday night was the Falls Lake ward party. It was a bbq and cake auction to raise money for the scouting program. All your years of going to ward actions have you ever wondered what the people actually do with the food they buy? Well let me tell you, they give it to the missionaries! Between the elders and us we were given 8 cakes! Everyone had the same idea to buy cakes to support the fundraiser and then give the cakes to us. We gave the elders 5 cakes and we took 3. I included a picture of me with our 3 cakes. We gave 2 to the other elders we serve with and then the last one we took a couple bites of and then it ended up in the trash. We are sure loved by ward members! It was such a fun weekend being able to spend time with the people we love and serve!

I want to leave you with this. 

2 Nephi 9:52
Behold, my beloved brethren, remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day, and give thanks unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts rejoice.

God is great!

Love, Sister Judd

PS: Next week is Veterans day so I wont be able to email until Tuesday. 

and the last picture is of me and b. we showed up to a church meeting matching so we of course had to take a picture :)