January 15, 2009

I just received a letter from Verle in the mail, and thought that I would share it with you all, because it was so sweet. I keep thinking of Verle as a little boy and young and a bit immature, but I can tell that he learning a lot through his service out there, and I am humbled to be a part of it. Here it is, in his own writing/language:

[Dear Sean and Marci,
Thanks very much for your letters they really mean a lot to me. As you know Sean they can brighten your day out here. I would be lying if I said it was easy out here. I've been deeply humbled. Just when I think I'm doing good, and maybe get a little prideful it hits me like a load of bricks. Oh man I didn't know there was so much to learn out on a mission. I thought they called us greenies just because we were new. They call us greenies, because we really don't know anything yet. I'm very blessed though. My companion is amazing. Elder Crystal is a hard worker and leads by example. I never really appreciated Sundays enough though. Out here Sunday is the best day of the week because it is a rejuvenation. We've been truly blessed out here though. My first area, St. Cloud, we were white-washed but got seven new investigators the first week and nine new investigators the second. The people here are awesome, and just so you know the weather here is like St. Gerge in the beginning of September and that's as cold as it gets.
We taught a new investigator in the church on Sunday, his name is Brandon and one of the members brought him. He is solid and actually called the members to let him know he wanted to go to church with them. We were able to teach him the first lesson because we still don't have a gospel principals class set up, it was amazing. As for the good part Sean, you would not be doing good out here. You would be so sick because every member who we visit wants to feed us a lot. My first Sunday was fast Sunday. We ate dinner at the Clarks, and they fed us potatoes, ribs, beans, and carrots. then we had this Perubean type of salad that had a little sour taste and a couple of little jalapenos. Also within this salad we had baby shark, that's right baby shark. Tonight we had fried bananas, amazing rice, way good meat, and eggs. We do a lot of contacting at a place known as the lake front. So far we've been fed twice. First by a J-Dub (Jehovah Witness), who was way nice. She cooked an amazing Brazilian meat for us, oh my goodness. It was awesome. Then we had a Pentecostal family feed us a couple of hot dogs. Oh, they were good.
I don't know about you and your mission Sean but it is hard to teach the importance of preisthood authority. Especially when a lot of the people are really illiterate and not very smart. We have to really focus on teaching to their understanding.

Love Elder Judd

See yall in two years - good luck with little Sean]