sept 9

Hello all!!

So sorry for the very short email. 

I am getting transferred tomorrow!! I will be off to DURHAM, NC!!

Soo... I would suggest you probably dont look it up. All you will see is news reports on murders and everything bad. Yes, I am going to the ghetto!! One of the most dangerous areas in the mission. yay! Mom, dont freak out. 

 I am a little nervous but I know it will all be for the best and Heavenly Father will protect us! 

Excited to see whats in store! Pray for me!!! 

This week has been amazing. Have I told you how much I love the Garner ward??!! 

We have been treated so well and this is truly my home away from home. I will miss is SOOO much!

Not much else happened this week that is exciting to tell. Just the normal missionary things, with a few going away parties thrown in there. 

I hope you all have a great week!!

Love, 

Sister Judd 

Sept 2

Hello one and all!! 

Well its safe to say that miracles never cease!! 

It was a week full of miracles.

So you all remember T? She was baptized back in May. Well I havent mentioned anything about her since for a reason. You see, after her wonderful spirit filled baptism and confirmation she disappeared. She walked out of the church building after church the day of her confirmation and we never saw her again. It became something that has been a huge stress to me. We called, we texted, members called and texted, we fasted, we prayed, we had our whole district pray, we stopped by her house at least once a week, members stopped by, we left numerous notes. Basically we tried absolutely everything and had no success. She didnt return anything and never answered her door. We had no idea what had happened. And the biggest problem was that because we hadnt seen her since the day of her confirmation we were never able to get her baptism record filled out therefore the church couldnt recognize that she had been baptized therefore she would have to be baptized again if she ever came back. It was a huge MESS. This is basically a missionaries worse nightmare. And it really has been bothering me. I felt like it was all my fault. Luckily we have had such huge support from our members in trying to help us. I couldnt help but feeling though, what did I do wrong? Well now here comes the good part. It was Thursday morning and we had just finished up a visit near T's house. The member we were with then said "should we drive by T's house?" Sure we replied. This was something all too familiar to us. We drove up and bam! T was in the backyard mowing her lawn. My heart immediately sank into my stomach. She couldnt see us. We immediately said a prayer and asked that the spirit would guide us as to what we should do. Since Sister Treu has never even met T I knew I needed to take the lead. I started walking towards her not knowing what she was going to do. Was she gonna yell at us to get away? was she gonna be angry? was she gonna be happy? One could never know. I walk up and then she sees me. The first thing that I could say was "can I take over mowing your lawn for you?" She then gets this look of relief on her face and says no, she wouldnt make me do that in a skirt. We then talk for a second and the our very sweet saintly member with us who mind you is 63 years old says "I will mow the lawn, you go inside and talk with the sisters". T agreed. We hesitantly left our sweet member out in the hot sun to mow the lawn while we went inside. We got to talk with T. Luckily she wasnt angry, she wasnt mad, she was very grateful to see us. After we got all caught up on life she went on to tell us the struggles she has been facing and that her crazy job schedule has kept her away. She then expressed that she felt guilty for being gone and she didnt know how to come back. We expressed our love and how much we had all missed her. We had a great visit AND were able to get her baptism papers all filled out. To tell you that this was truly a miracle is an understatement. I cant even begin to tell you how much love, and happiness, and relief filled my soul being able to visit with T this week. I KNOW that Heavenly Father answers our prayers, in his own timing. 

Another miracle.. We have this wonderful investigator N. She loves the church and everything she is learning. She has great desires to follow Jesus Christ and she knows the church is true. There is just one problem, her husband does not feel the same. He is completely against the church and has really been a struggle to get through for a while now. This week we were in a lesson with N and guess who came home early from work? Her husband. We all saw his car pull up and we all got a little scared. What was he going to do? (he doesnt have the greatest background on being nice to missionaries and people from the church). He came inside and saw us and then walked back out. N then said that she was going to invite him inside so we could talk with him. I was preparing myself to take some verbal hits. Well he came inside and was very nice. He greeted us. N then told us what she wanted us to tell him. They then got into a little quarrel but he agreed to try out the church 3 times. Try out the church?!! This was huge. After speaking with him for a moment he went back out. We knew he had made progress. We had a ward pig pickin yesterday and they both came! He went out and played football with the guys and had a great time. We are grateful for this HUGE step we were able to make. 

Rember A and L? The two cute boys baptized back in April. Well they are doing very well. Their mom has a very difficult job and has been struggling with it for a long while. She has to work late hours and sometimes on Sundays. It has affected them being able to come to church and do all they are supposed to. We have been praying real hard that she would be able to find a new job. And this week she was offered a position and will now be able to make her own schedule, not work weekends, be less stressed, and get paid more!! This is a huge blessing for their family. 

I talked I think last week about our new investigator J. She had her sweet baby girl this week. We have been able to arrange meals to be brought to their house. Her husband, who we have been unable to meet told one of the members "I didnt know people still did things like this". He mother in law who is staying with her we also found out was being taught by missionaries a few years ago and has been greatly touched by the kindness they have received. I have a feeling their search for a new church will be ending at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints very shortly!! 

I am grateful to be able to see the hand of the Lord in many ways this week! 

In other news, I found out this week that I am being transferred... enter many many tears... This is SO HARD!! I love Garner more than I can even express!!! I am grateful for all these miracles that have happened and know that it is my time to go but it doesnt make it any easier. I will miss this place more than I can say. 

I have no idea where I am going or who my companion is going to be. I am quite nervous. Things cant get much better than they are now. All I know is that I am staying a sister leader, once again. Transfers are a week from today, on the 9th. PRAY FOR ME! 

So I made mention earlier about the ward pig pickin.. Anyone have a clue what that is? Its a true southern party. You all might call it a BBQ. Here in the south they get a full giant pig. And cook it on a pig cooker all day long. Then you have to break it apart and get everything edible, including the pig skins. Then you mince it up the meat and pour some vinegar based bbq sauce on it and wala, you have amazing meat! Then everyone gather together and brings sides and you have a delicious meal! It was so much fun! I thanked them all for throwing me a giant party before I get transferred :) 

Well I hope you all have a great week!! 

I know I will!

Much love, 

Sister Judd 

Aug 25

Hello!

Well I guess I should say the best news first, C got baptized!! 

Man, it was such a special day. He was so excited and it was so sweet to see that he knew he was making the right choice. We were able to have a lot of non members attend which is always a good thing! Baptisms always provide such a sweet spirit. I cant thank my Heavenly Father enough for providing me with this experience to witness this man come to Christ. 

We went on exchanges this week. I went to Fuquay Varina. I had a great time there. It is so much fun to be able to go around and meet so many incredible people! There is just special things that come with being a missionary that you just cant put into words. The love that you feel for people and the love that you feel from people is one of them. I can feel my time in Garner coming to an end. Which makes the end of my mission feel even closer. And its not a good feeling. I have been trying to soak of every minute of this very special time I have to be a representative of Jesus Christ and to be here in North Carolina sharing the gospel. 

Every third Thursday our ward council gathers together and then we go out and do ministering visits to people in the ward. I always love doing this! Usually Sister Treu and I split up and go out with one of the relief society members. This week it wasnt so. In the nicest way possible the single adult rep in our ward is a little bit crazy. Love her, but she is crazy.  Well she needed someone to go with her and who gets nominated.. me! I happily agreed because thats what missionaries do but secretly inside I was a little bit sad I didnt get to go with a member that I have a good relationship with. We get in the car and head to the house of the person we were going to visit. She welcomes us right in and we sit down. I look around at my surroundings, here I am with two old single ladies who are both cat lady hoarders. The smell isnt very nice and all they are talking about is cats and the 1960's. I then remember a quote I read just a few days earlier while visiting in Fuquay. It reads " Remember that you can miss a lot of good things in life by having the wrong attitude". I was quickly reminded by the spirit that I needed to change my attitude. I obeyed and what do you know.. it ended up being such a great night! We had a great time chatting and I got to learn about what Garner was like long ago. After the visit the sweet sister wanted to go get ice cream. She opened up to me about her life and I now see why she might be a little bit crazy. She hasnt had it easy but she sure has done a great job with what she has been given. I am grateful for all the lessons I am able to learn in every situation. I know that a good attitude makes all the difference! 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Love, 

Sister Judd 

Aug 18

Hello!!! 

Guess what happened this week... This sister celebrated her 1 year mark!! 

I CAN NOT believe it has already been a year. I can honestly say 100% that this has been the fastest year of my life! And it has been the best year FOR my life. I cant say its been the easiest year, but it has truly been amazing. I wouldnt change it for the world. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here in North Carolina serving my Heavenly Father.  Of course it was a day to celebrate. Sister Treu made me a special breakfast and served me all day long. Can I just say how grateful I am for a good companion? Makes life so nice. Anyways, we had a great day. I had been craving a Jello cake for a while and so no better day to have one then on the special occasion. If you have never had jello cake I highly recommend you looking it up and making it asap. We brought it to one of our favorite members houses, the Wiggins, and they celebrated with us. The rest of the day was filled with normal missionary activities. Including being rejected and yelled at, but that's what makes everything exciting right? Its not a good missionary day in the south if you don't get torn down by a baptist preacher. 

C got interviewed for Baptism and all went well! He will be baptized this Saturday!!! His interview was quite tense. It lasted for an hour, longest interview of my life. But all is well and we are so excited! He walked out with the biggest smile on his face and I felt like a proud mom! Yes sorta weird that I felt like a proud mom to a 60 year old man but hey, we have put in a lot to teach him. And it all paid off! He is just the sweetest. 

We had a great experience this week. 

We were just finishing up dinner with a member and were headed out on exchange. We had somebody planned to see but as we were pulling out of the driveway she stopped the car. She explained that she felt that we needed to go stop by her neighbor. She didnt know why she had the feeling but she asked us to say a prayer to make sure it was right. We said the prayer and then walked across the street to the house. Her kind neighbor Jenny opened the door and let us right in. We began talking and the member introduced us as the missionaries. We were able to to talk with her and explain a little bit about who we are and what we do. We then asked if we could come back and share more about what we believe. She accepted. We were able to go back for another lesson and it went so well! She had told us when we got their that she had gone onto mormon.org and found answers to her questions! We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she said it all made sense. It was incredible. Jenny is expecting her second child in just a few weeks and so far her husband is supportive and will hopefully join in on the lessons. They have been searching for a church to go to. This was a testimony to me of how members and missionaries are supposed to work together!! Listen to those promptings brothers and sisters! 

M took a couple steps back this week. She still quit smoking but we realized she just isnt ready yet. We need to take more time and teach her a little bit slower. We are going to keep teaching her and hopefully she will be baptized in September! 

The Book of Mormon has been a focus for me for a little while now. I just cant say enough how much I love the Book of Mormon. It is another testament of Jesus Christ. I know that you will become closer to God if you read it and abide by its precepts. We watched this mormon message this week and I just cant help but sharing. Take 5 minutes to watch it. I promise you wont regret it. 

Here!

This gospel is TRUE!! God doesnt want us to be lost, so he has blessed us with a prophet. He has blessed us with families. He has blessed us with the knowledge of a plan. A plan that can give us hope for a better tomorrow. I love my Savior and I know he died for me and for you!  

What will you do to make a difference in the world this week? 

Thanks for all your love and support!! 

Love, 

Sister Judd 

aug 12

Hello hello!! 

Another week bites the dust!

Everything is going so well here in Garner! To think that I will probably be leaving in 4 weeks makes me really sad. But I will live these last weeks up! 

Investigator update...

S... She had signed up to feed us last Monday. We were really looking forward to it. Earlier that day we get a text from her. It reads "sisters, its monday night. We are supposed to be having FHE. Will you bring a game?" We were in shock when we read this. We hadn't taught S about FHE. But she knew about it and she wanted that for her family. She is progressing so well now if she would just commit to a baptismal date!! Pray for her to have a desire to be baptized! She is just scared of the commitment. So anyways, our minds then begin racing of a fun game to play with them. We tried to think about classic mormon games their family might not know. Then the genius idea of "dont eat pete" came into my mind. Sister Treu then exclaimed that she loved that game. I thought that was a game only my family knew. But she had grown up playing it. It was also funny because the next day we were talking with elders and we told them about what we did and one of the elders said that he thought only his family knew about that game. Anyways, its a pretty awesome game. We made our own board the best we could and it was a hit. The poor 4 year old daughter got a little scared the first time we yelled "dont eat pete!" and started crying. I couldnt help but laugh because my dear sister Hannah would always start crying when we yelled it too loud too. (remember that Hannah ;) ). ha. We then continued the night on teaching them primary songs and reading the Book of Mormon. Great fun with one of my favorite families! 

C... He is doing so well!! He is all ready to be baptized! He will be interviewed this week and then baptized next! He will forever probably be one of my most favorite investigators. I love them all but he has a little special place in my heart. This week we were teaching Him about prophets. We showed him a picture of President Monson. He said "oh yeah, I know him. He helped me find the mens restroom on Sunday". We laughed and then explained a little better that he isnt at our specific church. We then asked him if he believed President Monson was a prophet of God. He replied yes and then we asked him how do you know that. And in the most humble, sincere way he answered "because of faith". I am seriously amazed how much he really cant grasp a lot of things. But he is grasping the gospel!! You just cant deny the Hand of God helping him out. 

M.. The cutest woman you ever will meet. Saturday was her quit smoking day! Last week she only smoked half a cigarette each day and now she is done. (hopefully no relapses). We went over and brought her some of her favorite candy and sang a little happy quit day song. She has a lot of faith and knows with Gods help she can do it! We went to a fireside at our Mission presidents home last night. This is a chance for new converts and investigators to bear their testimonies. M was the first one up and gave such a sweet testimony. We are so proud of her. 

T (who is baptized) is doing well. She also bore her testimony at the fireside last night. She talked about how she has come to know God more fully in her life and that she knows if she continues to come to church and read and pray she can continue to grow closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus. I am so grateful she has that knowledge. Its very rewarding to know that the first day I met her she sure didnt know that. And to see how far she has come. That is definitely worth every sacrifice it takes to be on a mission!! We went to teach her this week and her mom expressed desire to learn more so we got to start teaching her! We think it will be a little slower with her mom but 

hopefully she will also come to know of the same things to be true! 

We had a great experience this week. We have been wanting to volunteer in the community for a while now and got to this week. Not only in the community, but more specifically we volunteered at the baptist church food pantry. We got there and it was like two aliens walked into the room. It was kinda funny to see peoples reactions to us. We just tried to be very friendly and nice and Christlike. We helped people get their food and walked them to the car. We hope to do this every week so we can leave a good impression and help them see that we arent crazies who believe in a different God than them. 

We are happy as can be here in North Kakalacki. 

Have you seen this video yet? If not, watch it now! 

""Spiritual light rarely comes to those who sit in darkness waiting for someone to flip a switch. It takes an act of faith to open our eyes to the light of Christ."

Take that step of faith. Do what you need to do to get Christ more fully into your life. Whatever it takes, it will be worth it. 

The church is TRUE!!! Gods love is REAL!! 

Thanks for all your prayers and support! 

Love, 

Sister Judd 

aug 4

Hello all!! 

Not much to say this week but I would feel really bad if I didnt send out an email. 

We are enjoying life in Garner so much. This week we were on bikes and Heavenly Father blessed us with the most beautiful weather. We had a lot of rain but when it wasnt raining it was in the high 60's and 70's. We had to wear long sleeves one day because it was actually cold! This summer has been so good to us and we are very appreciative! 

Our investigators are doing so well!! 

M is just wonderful. Before she can be baptized she has to quit smoking. Now this is no easy task. She is 66 years old and has been smoking since she was a teenager. When we first met her she was smoking 8 cigarettes a day. This past week she only smoked 1 a day! She is making strides and we are hoping this week will be the final week and she will be able to quit smoking for good! We taught her a lesson about tithing this past week. Then we are sitting in sacrament meeting and Sister Treu elbows me and motions for me to look over at M. I look and she is filling out a tithing slip! She has such great faith and a desire to follow God. Its little moments like this that make everything worth it. 

C is doing so well also! We had one of the best lessons with him this week. He remembered almost everything we taught him!! This is huge for him with his dimensia. We know that Heavenly Father is completely helping us know how to teach him and helping him remember the things we teach him. He always makes the comment that things in his room keep growing legs and disappearing (he says this in all serious not realizing that he just forgets where he puts things) but he knows that God is real and that he loves Him. That's what is important!  

I was reading through an old general conference magazine this week and came across one of my favorite talks Mountains to Climb. This part stuck out to me especially.. 

You know how the Lord answered that question for the Prophet Joseph Smith in his prison cell:

“And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

“The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

“Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.” -D&C 122:7-9

This scripture has been one of my favorites while being out here in the mission field. We must not fear what man can do because God is with us. We will all go through hard times and fear. But we must conquer that with faith. Always knowing and always believing that God knows all and we will win if we are on His side. Let His will be done. 

Thanks for all your support! 

Much love, 

Sister Judd 

july 28

Hey hey hey!! 

Well so many great things happened this week I dont even know where to start!!

Last Monday we got to go to the NC museum of natural sciences in downtown Raleigh. We are actually only about 10  minutes away from downtown Raleigh here in Garner. We met up with some sisters and members from Sister Treu's last area. We had lots of Fun walking around and chatting. There was a huge storm going on outside. Nothing new. I love the huge thunderstorms we get here.  

A couple weeks ago I got a message from my past Relief Society President in the wake forest ward. She was informing Sister Fullmer and I that our convert M was struggling. Satan was really working on her and she just wanted to let us know so we could pray for her and try and send a message to uplift her. This was of course heart breaking to hear and I knew something needed to be done and so did Sister Fullmer. Well Sister Fullmer called our President and we were given permission to go visit M after the meeting we were having on Friday! Best news ever! We were so excited. So Friday after our leadership meeting Sister Treu and her companion came to Garner and Sister Fullmer and I went to Wake Forest. It was the craziest thing. Almost a year later Sister Fullmer and I were back on our old stomping grounds out to save M. Something that was all too familiar to us. It was a true tender mercy that we were able to do this. We had a great meeting with M. She opened up to us and we were able to help her out. She has gone through her fair share of trials but she will be just fine. She knows the Gospel is true and nothing will come in the way of that. We got to see E and M as well. We surprised them and they were so excited. Never did I imagine we would be going back to that house together but it was awesome. After that we had to come straight back to Garner and meet up with our companions. 

We had a bit of a scare this week. Sister Treu and I were going to go to an appointment that we had set up the day before with a very  nice family. We show up and they have two great big German shepherd dogs out roaming their yard. As soon as we pulled up they started very aggressively barking at us. We bravely just continued walking up to the front door but I was terrified. They kept their distance but kept barking. We rang the doorbell but no one answered so we decided to knock on the door. The only thing is that they have a screen door. So as usual, I opened the screen door and then Sister Treu went up to knock. The second she went up to knock the bigger dog bolted straight at her. I thought she had for sure been bit. I yelled watch out not really knowing what to do. The dog then stopped in its tracks and didnt bite. We then knew we needed to get out of there. Sister Treu whispered "just slowly walk to the car". And that we did with our hearts racing. The dogs made sure we got to our car and continued barking at us until we drove away. We got in the car and both of us were pretty shook up. It took us a while to settle down. This probably doesnt sound very scary but it was! I knew that Heavenly Father was protecting us in that moment. Something stopped that dog from biting her. And we are grateful for it. I can now officially mark getting chased by a dog off my bucket list. 

The best news of the week is that T was baptized!!!! It was such a  beautiful baptism. T had spent this past week at Girls camp with all the young women from the stake. We knew this was going to be a great experience in preparation for her baptism. All the young women got home form camp at 11 that morning and they all showed up clean and ready for the baptism at 4. We had a lot of support from the ward there. The young woman did a musical number which brought the spirit so well. And T had a lot of family and friends that were non members there. It was truly a success and T was so happy to be making such a righteous decision that day. Her family even came to church the next day and stayed for all 3 hours. We will soon begin teaching the rest of the family, we pray! 

Well life is good here in North Carolina. The humidity is in full force and it is HOT. Buts its all good. 

We had an incredible lesson in relief society yesterday. It was on the talk given by President Uchtdorf in the last general conference. I challenge you all to re-read this talk. It is amazing what a difference your attitude can make! "How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God that there is rain?"

Read the talk here. 

I hope you all have a great week! Always remember God loves YOU!! 

Love, 

Sister Judd