Jan 27

Hello!

It is the end of January and winter finally hit.. it SNOWED this week!! We were pretty excited to see the white flurries falling from the sky. We celebrated the best way we could by blasting Christmas music as we drove home. 

Not much else exciting happened this week. With emailing on Tuesday I feel like I dont have much new to say.
We had a wonderful experience this week with our  investigator D. We have been teaching her for about a month now. She has been grasping a lot from the lessons we teach but she would not keep our commitments (read the Book of Mormon and come to church) to save her life. We started to worry about her real intentions and what we needed to do to help her progress outside of our visits. We prayed and felt that we needed to give her a church tour, even though she has been to church once before. We met at the church this week and it was truly what she needed. As we walked around the building talking about all the pictures and auxiliaries the spirit was so strong. We showed her the baptismal font and ended in the chapel. We then went into a room and read the Book of Mormon with her. We could feel the spirit so strong and really hoped she was able to feel it too. About an hour after the meeting she called us and left a message thanking us for the tour and telling us she got a lot out of it and that she loved seeing the baptismal font. She continued on saying finally felt like she understood the Book of Mormon and was so excited to go home and continue reading. D went from always making up excuses about not being able to come to church or read to reading all night and being early to church on sunday. The power of the Spirit is real! We are hoping to set a baptismal date with her the next time we see her!

We went on exchange with sisters serving in Zebulon this week. I went to Zebulon to be with Sister Hall. She is so great. She actually serves in Nauvoo, Illinois but is here for 6 months during the winter. We have been friends since she got here in September. She also graduated from hair school before we came out. We had a great time together. We call them "sister sleepovers". Well where she serves is superrr country. It was so fun to be there and I really hope the next place I serve is true southern country. Oh and while there we came across the most perfect street so I of course had to take a picture..

Did you know that North Carolina has its own type of BBQ? It is vinegar based.. Nothing like what you picture BBQ being. And in my personal opinion, it is NASTY! Along with brunswick stew and hush puppies. I have decided I am not a fan of the southern cooking. And here when you go to a restaurant you dont say "can I get a to-go box". To-go boxes here are called "doggie bags". I was in shock the first time I heard that. Sister Spiel says her parents in Idaho would say it sometimes but it was new knowledge to me. That's your North Carlina tip for the day.

Things are going well. I love sharing being able to share the gospel and bring happiness to other peoples lives!

Thanks for all your support!

Love, 

Sister Judd

Jan 21

Hello!!

Sorry now for the short letter. Not much has happened this week. We had lots of meetings and are still on the search to find! Sister Spiel is amazing. We are getting along great and she is teaching me so much!

I opened up my email to find an email from a girl I went to High School with. I wanted to share it with you all. She says....

Hi Emily!

This is Megan, we went to high school and i think jr high together too.. So for some reason today I felt like I should try to contact you to tell you something. I feel like it's a testimony builder when anyone joins the church, so I thought I'd share the news with you that I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! The only people in high school that I knew were Mormons were you and Josh. I already told him and then I looked you up on Facebook and saw that you were on a mission! Congratulations! That's really awesome. I was baptized Dec. 1, 2012. So it's been a year and a month since I've been a member...and I love it more and more every day. It is honestly the best way to become closer to God. As a Catholic I kept praying to get closer to God but I never had any opportunity to progress and grow as a person and disciple of Christ...I felt stuck. Then I started dating a Mormon guy, and he wasn't that active but as we talked about what mormons believe, I kept having more and more questions and wanted to learn more. And reading the Book of Mormon brought the spirit back into my life and I couldn't get enough of church. He ended up going on a mission at the age of 21 even though he thought he would never serve a mission, he's in Berlin now. We broke up before he left so don't worry I'm not one of those girls waiting haha (not that there's anything wrong with that, I just don't think I'd marry him). Anyway, I just wanted to share that with you, I think it's kind of funny and shocking that I'm Mormon now...because I have had a mormon as a best friend all my life, and she never really talked about her faith too much, and i went to church with her a few times, but i did research on the religion and found a bunch of anti mormon stuff that made me really against the church when i was around 17. So being a mormon is the last thing i couldve ever imagined for myself. And i was so closed off to the church before...but when i became curious about the church in a more positive way (i saw that my boyfriends family was really close and really down to earth and actually really believed what they practiced...i started to take the religion more seriously and wanted to learn more)...so another convert that i was introduced to when i was investigating the church suggested that i should pray for an open heart...best advice because the Lord did soften my heart and i was open to learning. it took a while (6 months of missionary lessons), but I'm now converted to the gospel and know that no mater how seemingly closed hearted someone is, or how stubbornly they're against the gospel, people change. And this church is true, is resognates with peoples hearts and minds, it makes sense. 

Sorry for all the typos I'm in a hurry right now, but I just really wanted to share this with you. I know I look forward to the future when people I used to associate with tell me that they've found the truth too. I think that would be really neat to hear.

I removed last names for privacy. But wow! All my life I had heard of people knowing other people from high school get baptized but I never thought it would actually happen to me. I am so amazed at her faith and conversion. Her testimony is an inspiration to me! If I could change one thing about my teenage years it would 100% to be.. share the gospel more!! I have a strong testimony of change and I know that the true Gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth and that any person can get closer to God by following its precepts.

This week I had a testimony building experience. We had planned to go on exchanges friday night to saturday. I was staying in our area and another sister was coming in to be with me. On Thursday Sister Spiel and I were planning what the other sister and I were going to do Friday night. We had 2 lessons scheduled that I thought for sure wouldnt cancel. Sister Spiel said we should have a back up just in case. I didnt think so but I wrote a name down of a less active woman in the ward just in case. Friday night rolled around and guess what.. both of the appointments canceled! I then decided we would go to the library and do our facebook time. We were right in the middle of 2 libraries. I started driving towards one and then immediately felt like we should go to the other one. I did a U-turn and started driving to the other library not thinking anything of it. We pulled up to the library and it was closed.. totally forgot they closed earlier on the weekend. We were then stuck in the parking lot, it was almost 8, both appointments canceled and library was closed. I then just wanted to go home and start planning for the next day. The other sister with me asked if there was any less actives near by we could visit. I didnt want to bother anyone on a friday night but then the woman we wrote down thursday night came into my head. She lived right by the library I ended up driving to. Our dinner appointment sent us home with cookies. So I then figured I will text her and see if we can drop by some cookies. She immediately texted back and said we could come. When we got there I could see something was wrong right away. After talking for about 5 minutes she just broke down. She began to tell us that she has had the worst week ever and that she feels like God isn't answering her prayers. She was on her knees crying and praying to God explaining that she didnt even know what to do anymore when she got our text.. She knew that God had sent us there to be with her that night.

God was preparing us Thursday night to go and visit this wonderful woman.. If Sister Spiel hadnt pushed writing one more name down I never would have thought to visit her.. If the other appointments didnt cancel we wouldnt have been able to see her.. If I had driven to the other library we would have been no where near her house and wouldnt have visited her.. If the other sister missionary didnt suggest visiting a less active nearby her name wouldnt have come back into my head.. If the family we had dinner with didnt send us home with cookies I probably wouldnt have bothered her for a visit on a friday night.. If we didnt go and visit her that night she would still be wondering if God hears our prayers. I can testify that God is in every single detail of our life!! He loves us more than we could ever know. He absolutely hears every single one of our prayers and is always with us. Trust in him, he will never let you down!!

This is the greatest work. 

Thank you for all your prayers and love and support!!

Love, 
Sister Judd

Jan 13

Hello all!!

You are all lucky I am alive, as this week we survived a tornado!! Yes, a tornado. 

On Saturday we were just going about our regular missionary business. We had planned to contact a lot of people that live in this one neighborhood. Luckily we had chosen to drive our car that day. All morning we kept talking about how beautiful the weather was. It was seriously the best weather. It was a cool 70 degrees with tons of humidity. It was the exact weather that I had when I was in Ecuador in the Amazon jungle. I loved it. We contemplated many times to park our car and just start walking but we for some reason didnt. Well no one decided to tell us that there was a massive tornado warning going out to the whole town. People were getting alerts on their phone, it was all over the news, and everyone was getting prepared. Well here are Sister Spiel and I just going about doing our business thinking the weather is so awesome having no clue that a tornado was anywhere in the forecast. As we were driving our car.. bam! a sheet of rain just hit. It hit so hard it made both of us jump. within seconds of that the wind just started blowing out of control. all of a sudden trees were falling over, branches were falling, peoples yard items started blowing all over. After driving a little bit more looked at each other and said we should probably pull over. We then saw a ladies mailbox fly off the stand and go into the road. Trees were continuing to fall over and at one point our car got picked up a little bit. At this time we still had no idea we were in a tornado we just thought it was a crazy storm and the only thing on our mind was running out in the storm to get the ladies mailbox and another houses chair cushions. Finally after about 3 minutes of out of control wind and rain it stopped. Then all that was heard was sirens. Immediately fire trucks were out trying to asses the damage. We safely got the ladies mailbox back to her and the chair cushions. We then drove around to see what was happening. We of course had to take some pictures. We then drove around to see if we could help people. Trampolines were over fences, trees were on top of cars and houses, and everyone was in the road trying to move trees out of the way. On one major road the trees had fallen on top of power line (pictures below) so everyone was without power for hours. All in all everyone is okay and safe. After talking to people at church I had only heard about one person who is in critical condition in the hospital because she was jogging on a local trail during the storm and a tree fell on her. No worries here though, 10 minutes after the tornado is over we get a text from our district leader "tornado warning. everyone keep safe".

Things with D are going well. We were able to teach her a few times this week. She recently moved into a house with one of her friends. Well we had never met this friend before but she had a baby on thursday. D asked us if we could come over and help clean the house before they came home from the hospital. Of course we agreed. The whole time we were making this house spotless I kept thinking.. Here I am, in North Carolina, scrubbing the toilet and making beds at a house of a lady I have never even met who is currently in the hospital having a baby. And I couldnt have been happier! It is such a good feeling to know that what you are doing is making a difference in someone else life. Are you looking for ways to be more happy? Lose yourself in service!! I can promise that service is a cure to any trouble in life. 

As Sister Spiel and I were having companionship study one morning we were thinking of better ways we could teach lessons to children. The idea came into our minds to teach the armor of God, and to make an actual armor of God! We then scurried around the house to see what we could do to make it. Luckily the night before our dinner appointment sent us home with the leftover pizza. We were able to make basically everything with pizza boxes and tin foil. We had a random stick for the sword and of course every missionary has a helmet!

We were able to make an armor of God! And dont forget the fiary darts of satan we made out of an old red shirt we didnt want. We asked M if we could come practice the lesson on her kids. We went over to teach and it was a success! They had so much fun and so did we! (Pictures included)

Last night we had a wonderful dinner with a family in our ward and also C and her dad. C had become close friends with the family after the first time she came to church.  After dinner as we were teaching our lesson their 8 year old daughter says "I used to not want to go on a mission because I would miss my family, but now that I see how happy the sister missionaries have helped C to be I want to go on a mission."

It was the cutest thing and brought a tear to my eye. This gospel can make anyone happier, this gospel changes lives! I am grateful to be apart of this wonderful work!

Thank you all for your love and support! Have a wonderful week! May God bless you!!

Love,
Sister Judd

Jan 6

Happy New Year everyone!!

Hope you all have had a wonderful break and are enjoying the new year!

As I said last week transfers were on Tuesday. New Years Eve. The ultimate change to start the new year as a missionary. Im not gonna lie, it was pretty rough. It was so hard to say goodbye to Sister Fullmer. We had become so close (I guess that happens when you spend 24/7 with someone for 4 months) and had things figured out. But we knew things couldnt stay that easy forever. We went to transfer meeting, got our new companions and were off! My new companion is just fabulous! Her name is Sister Heidi Spiel. She is from Idaho Falls, Idaho. She has been on her mission for 9 months and is.. normal! Yay! Even though she is just great things are always hard the first couple days. You have to get used to each other and the schedule, she knows nothing about the area or the members so I have to explain every thing, we have to blend the way we both have done things together all while getting to know each other! Oh and dont mind if I throw in, as sister leaders, we had to give a big lesson to our whole zone less than 24 hours later. Whew, I am exhausted! But a quote I have come to love so dearly that our mission president wife always says is "There is no growth in the comfort zone, and no comfort in the growth zone". Things might be hard and a little uncomfortable but I have already learned so much! I am grateful for this fresh start and for the new year and for the wonderful friendship I will develop with Sister Spiel. Yay for hard things!

We got a new investigator this week!!! Its about time! Her name is D and she is just fabulous! She is a single woman about 45. Loves dogs and has the kindest heart. She has been church hopping for the past couple years and hasnt been to a church more than twice. She had no where to go for Thanksgiving so her friend in Utah called up the elders and told them about her. They found her a members house to go to and she had a great time! She came to church about 2 weeks later but because she was in the middle of moving we couldnt find time to teach her yet. Finally she has got settled in and we were able to have an official lesson with her. She loved it so much and we look forward to watching her progress. She accepted to be baptized if she found this to be true. She is reading the Book of Mormon and hopefully she will make it to our church more than twice!

We had a great experience this weekend with some Jehovah Whitnesses. They've been going to a member in the wards house every otherSaturday and she kindly welcomes them in. Well she wanted us to come over this past Saturday to help discuss some of the things we believe. They were a little surprised to see us but we had a great visit. We discussed our different beliefs on the Fall and also talked about many of the beliefs we share. 

The member shared a personal experience with how she came to know the Book of Mormon was true. The spirit was so strong as she was talking. When she finished they said they had to leave and pretty much ran out the door. My bets are that they wont be knocking on her door anymore. But it was great to see two ladies who are also so passionate about what they believe and are willing to sacrifice their time to share it with others.

We also had the experience of teaching a lady this week named M. We were at a members house for dinner this week and the father, J,  started sharing this story with us. He and his brother have a favorite mexican restaurant they go to all the time. A very friendly family owned shop. Well as they were eating there this past week the wife of the owner, M, comes up to them and starts explaining that the week before Christmas her husband passed over dead right in front of the shop. He left behind M, their 2 teenage daughters and a son. J and his brother tried to talk to her and bring her comfort. J then said he went home and was just up all night thinking about her and knew he needed to do more. He knew that the best gift he could give her was the knowledge that she will be able to see her husband again and that families can be together forever. J then asked us if we would be willing to go over and teach her a bring her the most wonderful gift, The Book of Mormon. We of course agreed but there was only one problem. J didnt know where M lived. The next day after our dinner appointment with his family he went to the restaurant to find M. He then told her how he was so worried about her and just wanted to help her and said he had a wonderful gift that he wanted to send 2 girls (us) to bring to her and share a message. She agreed so on Sunday we went to teach her. My heart just broke for her as I looked into her tear-filled eyes as we testified to her and her daughters that they will be able to see their father and husband again. That this life is not the end and that they can be an eternal family. We were able to share some scriptures with her and help solve her questions. It helped me to see how blessed I am for the knowledge of the gospel in my life and that I know that everything will be okay in the end! If you would like, M and her family could use a lot of prayers in their behalf as they go through this very difficult time.

Things are going great! It has been the coldest week yet hitting 28 degrees. But today its in the 60's. Life is great here in North Carolina and life is even better when we live the gospel of Jesus Christ! 

Thanks for all your love and support! 

Love,
Sister Judd

Dec 30

Good Morning everyone!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I sure did!!

It was a pretty slow week as far as the work goes. Nobody is home or wants people knocking on their door. We didnt want to bother people either so we spent a lot of time with members.

For Christmas Eve we went to a members house. A mid aged couple with all their kids grown and out of the house. They wanted to have us over since they didnt have kids coming home. We had dinner and then they have been so busy starting a new business that they hadnt decorated their tree yet. They enlisted our help. But their was a catch to decorating at their house, we had to dress up. So Sister Fullmer was an elf and I was Rudolph. It was a fun twist and we had a great time! We went home after to Christmas Pajamas we have been anxiously waiting to open. A tradition in both of our families. 

We woke up on Christmas at normal time. Did our normal routine.. Exercise, get ready, personal and companion study. Finally we could open our packages. We both held strong and didnt even peek at our presents until Christmas. We had a great time and felt so blessed!! We were definitely spoiled by our family and ward! 

Then we went to have breakfast with a member and then we got to skype! So great to talk to my family. 

Afterwards we went to another families house for dinner. We had a great Christmas and were well taken care of! 

The rest of the week we have just been trying to visit lots of people because we got the dreaded news... sadly Sister Fullmer is being transferred. We have no idea where to or who her companion will be but today is our last day together :( I did find out who my new companion will be. I have only heard the best things about her so I am definitely relieved. She has been out for 9 months. We will still be sister leaders. It will be exciting to see what happens. But Sister Fullmer will be greatly missed!!

I am excited for the new year! I am ready to bring on 2014 spent entirely as a missionary!

A scripture that has stood out to me recently is Mosiah 2:22
And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

How simple is that. All we have to do is keep the commandments and we will be blessed. It is the easiest concept but actually doing it does take some work. I know that any sacrifice we make will only lead to more blessings than anything we ever sacrificed. Keep the commandments, do what you know to be true and you will be blessed! Heavenly Father never breaks his promises.

I love you all. Thanks for all the support! 

May you have a wonderful New Year!!

Love,
Sister Judd 

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