Monday, April 27, 2009

April 27, 2009

Family Judd the baker's dozen,
What up my family. I'm so excited to be able to write you this wonderful Monday morning. I've really been spiritually fed this week and hope to really make something of it.
As yall probably know I was able to hear from Elder Foster of the quorum of the seventy this last Saturday. He was very humble and spoke of being a greeny compared to the man he was speaking with. He taught a lot of important things we could do to increase the baptisms here in the FOM. We are really looking forward to the ideas he has given us. We are going to try a lot of them this coming week and see the difference in our work.
But the speaker yall really want to here about is, the one and only, Jeffery R. Holland. Oh what a joy it really was to have a prophet seer and revelator of the lord speak to and share his personal witness of the Savior Jesus Christ. He focused a lot on letting us know how much he loves us. He told us he owes everything he has to us the missionaries of the church. I could really feel the sincerity of the words he spoke. His humble demeanor was unbelievable, I did not expect it especially from him when he usually gives the chastising talk in conference. I really enjoyed listening to him and can't tell you how great of a spirit he truly has.
Anyways back to the week that i had because it was a good one. We were able to find a few new investigators but our numbers are still down a little. For anyone who's been a mission you can relate to what I'm going to say. It is very hard to stay focused on the goals that you set, not really the daily goals but maybe the weekly or monthly goals. But I am working on it and will get better at doing it.
Our investigators are Ransom, who is about sixteen years old, and I met him playing football the first time. The second time we were tracting and tracted his house and taught him. The spirit was strong, I've really been pondering the last week on why it was so strong. I came to the conclusion that it was so strong because he was being prepared. He was truly looking for more he has been looking for something more and we've been able to bring it to him.
Heather is an interesting story and real testimony builder. We were biking and ran into a twelve year old kid named Jeremy Fisher. My companion started teaching him a little and set up an appointment for later that day with his family. I thought this was very strange because usually if you talk to kids you just give them a card but he actually set up an appointment with him. I was thinking that my companion was crazy, but then I thought to myself there has to be some thing else that was no coincidence so we made sure we went there at four o'clock. Well it turns out that we didn't meet Jeremy Fisher at his house, in fact it was not his house at all but we met Heather. Heather is a single parent about twenty five years old and has a friend on a mission. She really has a lot of questions and I know the lord has been preparing her to recieve the restored gospel.
Ashley Gonzales is the last but not least. We met her family tracting and they were very awesome. However they've been really hard to help progress, but their daughter(Ashley) is about thirteen years old and has been once to young womens and came to church yesterday. We are really excited to work with her. She really could be the means by which her family comes into the church so we are very excited to work with her.
St.Cloud's new bishop is amazing and really a big help to us. Bishop Forte is such a strength and very missionary oriented. He's very good and doesn't seem new at all. St.Cloud is really going to explode and I'm so happy I'm going to be a part of it. Well I'd just like to say good bye and also tell you once again to send any letter to the mission home address not the St. Cloud address because I could be transferred at any time and would not receive your letters for a long time so please write to the mission home address.
Love you all Elder Judd

Monday, April 20, 2009

April 20, 2009

Dear Family,
I'm having a stellar time out here in St. Cloud Florida. The members here are super awesome and have such great families. In fact we had a family home evening last night in one of their homes with the Meadows family who were baptized and confirmed yeah. Any ways after the lesson i told jokes with the four little girls they have and we laughed like crazy. In fact one of the girls really had a hard time stopping so i kept trying to make her laugh even more. It was so nice and reminded me a lot of home so i felt just as though i was home.
Like i said though we had three baptisms this Saturday and on Sunday they were all confirmed. This family is really just amazing i'm so very excited for them. They have a lot of desire and becoming what their heavenly father wants them to be. It was really funny because at the interviews for their baptisms they were so nervous to answer one of the questions wrong. In fact while their dad was having his Mitchel turned to me and asked me what else they were going to ask him. I said it's OK and gave him my planner to look over the interview questions so that calmed him down.
Well sorry about not being as good at sending pictures, for any one who knows me you would know that i'm not much of a picture taker so i really don't have a lot but i am sending some that should get to you probably on Saturday if not Monday. Well not much else going on with investigators in fact we probably didn't spend enough time finding this week so we only recieved one new investigator. We are going to focus all our efforts on finding this week.
Well in the middle of no where yesterday at sacrament meeting we received a new bishop Bishop Johnston was replaced by Bishop Forte, I guess our stake is notorious for switching in the middle of no where. i am however very excited because Bishop Forte is very missionary minded and is just very excited to help.
Well i love you all so much and i feel your prayers out here. In fact i've really been strengthened by them this week you don't even know.
Love Elder Judd

Sunday, April 12, 2009

April 12, 2009

Dear Family,
This week has been a good one but also had some of its downs. We were supposed to have baptized sister Hines this week but she told us she's not ready to do it. We are helping her still and hope she'll be able to understand the importance of what our message can bring into her life.
The Meadows family is supppppppppppperr awesome. They are all going to be baptized this weekend on the eighteenth of April and we are so excited for them. You can really see the change they have made in their countenance. He gave up coffee like it was nothing and said he never really drank that much either. Oh man I'm so excited for them and so is the St. Cloud ward. In fact they are helping us so much. This really has got them all excited and they are really looking forward to helping us out is much as possible. In fact a lot of them are looking for missionary opportunities and are being blessed with them.
My Easter was amazing but i won't lie after hearing Jeffery R. Holland's talk on the atonement was incomparable. The talks that were given though were very heart felt and you could really feel the spirit so strong. We have been very blessed in St. Cloud and have been able to find eight new investigators this week. They are very cool and have made missionary work all worth it.
I guess by being and staying away from the world you gain a prospective on how unimportant the world really is. You are able to see those who have the gospel and stay away from the world prosper. While those who don't have the gospel and are of the world struggle especially in this economic crisis. I'm very thankful for all the things my mission has really taught me, and look forward to learning even more.
Love Elder Judd

Monday, April 6, 2009

April 6, 2009

Hey Family,
Well another great week in the mission has just come and gone. It's very interesting how the lord works in mysterious ways. He has sure done a lot of it in the last couple of weeks. Both our baptismal dates are still good. However we might move Micheal Meadows back so that we can baptize his children with him. We can only meet with his children on the weekend because they stay with their mom on the week days.
Well we are also teaching a new investigator. His name is Caesar and has been able to see the difference the gospel makes in a family. He's really longing for something more and he knows he's finding it in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm very excited for him and know he will do great. So far we've had the chance to teach him once and we taught the restoration. He also came to a members home with us on Sunday to watch conference and said he liked it. At first he was a little uncomfortable because he didn't know everyone. But by the time it was time for him to go he really didn't want to leave and in fact he wanted to stay but that's because he could feel the difference.
Well keep praying for me because I need your prayers every day. It's sort of weird but Florida is beginning to look more and more like home. Even though I still miss my family I'm doing a lot better with that feeling of home for me. The members here are awesome and they are part of the reason I feel more at home here. Thanks once again for all the emails and letters you are all way awesome. Dad say hi to all the priest for me, tell them to get into preach my gospel because it will help them the most on a mission.
love your favorite missionary we all know
Elder Judd