Kia Ora Family! Feb.15

Wow so first week in the field! it's so much to take in but I love the Manurewa area so much already! My companion is Sister Clarke and i love love love her. She is from Australia and is literally my twin. we are so alike it's scary. we quote the grinch and sing disney songs together all day! :) 

 

Sister Clarke has been showing me around the area and having me meet everyone in the ward and it's been so much fun. We met with Bishop Rere and he gave me Kina which is sea urchin. it looks so disgusting but it was actually really good! you have to slurp it off the sppon, squish it in your mouth and then swallow it. it was yummy. he said i'll be a proper Maori in no time because i told him i'm up for trying anything. i love this culture and all these people so much. the area that im at has a lot of islanders because we're up north so there has been so much food and so much love for us and it's so amazing to see how humble and giving all of these people are. i love it. 

 

I also ate a fish eye!!! CRAZY! i just took the fish head and sucked that eye ball right out. it was really good and everyone was so proud of me. I'm embracing this culture and eating anything they give me! it's so fun! 

 

We have been teaching a lady named Stevie and she is so hilarious. she is the definition of Maori and she loves us so much. we visit her almost everyday and teach her and read The Book of Mormon with her. The relationships here are really weird because almost everybody has a "partner" which someone more than a serious boyfriend or girlfriend but they're not married. They will usually have kids with their partners as well. So the Law of Chastity is a very common lesson we teach! So Stevie lives with her partner and two kids and she says she's shy so she won't come to church so we brought over a member, Shelly, and had her get to know Stevie and we, with some persistence, had her agree to come to the Valentine's Dance the ward was putting on that night. So she came with her sister in-law and she really liked it! she kept saying "yous know how to have fun and you don't even need alcohol" it was great. so now we're working wit her to come to church. She'll come i know it. 

 

We are also teaching another lady, Marama, and she's pretty much in the same situation as Stevie. She lives with her partner and three kids. she has such a strong desire to be baptized and reads and prays all the time that her partner will let her. Here the men have a lot of say in what their partners do, it's really sad. but we visited her on Friday and i invited her to be baptized AND set her for a date! it was so amazing. the spirit was so strong and i wasn't nervous or anything. She still has some things to do before she can be baptized but if she keeps praying and acts on her faith Heavenly Father will bless her.

 

The last two are my favorites. Pone and Feao. They are 15 and 14. They're so funny and remind me SOOO much of the boys. They love working out and are very worried for sister clarke and i because we only get 30 minutes of exercise a day. These two boys have such a strong desire to be baptized i can see it in their eyes and they love to read the Book of Mormon. they will read it for hours and hours with us if they could. I invited them to be baptized and set them last night but their dad is Catholic and doesnt want them going to church or getting baptized. But Pone told us that if we pray for their dad he will understand how badly they want to get baptized because the spirit will tell him. These boys are so special. after our lesson they brought out their guitars and played for us. they are so good if we sing something they can just pick it up and play along. So we taught them I Am a Child of God and we sang with them. They are so special and they have so much faith that they will get baptized and i do too. Heavenly Father will help their dad to see his son's love for the church and soften his heart. 

 

This work is so amazing. Seeing the brightness in these people's eyes is everything. When they feel the spirit and listen and learn from what we're teaching i just get reaffirmed that this work and this gospel is true. it brings so much hapiness and joy to my life and i am so blessed that i get to help others feel that love and joy as well. 

 

I hope you all had a great week and that you stayed safe! I'll send pictures from my camera next week because i forgot my chord today so there's just the pictures from Shelley's phone. I'm praying for all of yous every night and love yous so much! Mom hold as many babies as you can for me because the babies here are cute as and i can't hold them. it's a struggle. i love yous and i'll talk to you next week!!! 

 

Kia Kaha (stay strong)

Sister Judd 

Feb. 09

Well, it's my last day at the MTC i leave tomorrow at 8 am to drive down to Hamilton so Happy Birthday Jessica :) I have LOVED the MTC but i am so so so so excited to go out and teach and out to use what i have learned and also lose all the weight that i have gained being here. they feed us soooooo much i could barely zip up my dress today...oops.

my companion leaves for Sydney tomorrow morning at 4:30 and i'm going to miss her so family we are going to Samoa in a year and a half so start saving.

 

Just some things that maybe you might want to know. My bag broke on the second day so i've been carrying it around all week bc we cant go out and shop until we're out in the field, doing my hair without any appliances has been...interesting. i have learned how to braid my hair so that it can be wavy when i wake up so that's nice. but i'm really excited to go buy a hair dyer and straightener. It has been so cool to be surrounded by so many people from different areas. Meeting people from some countries that i have never even heard of is so interesting. i have been learning their language and trying to leanr phrases to tell you guys. Talofa is hello in Samoan. Ma loule lei is hello in Tongan. Nie Hao is hello in Chinese. thers some more but my comp is a few computers down from me so i cant get the spelling right.

 

The temple was magical. there were a few elders and sisters who were going through for the first time and the amazing spirit that was felt was overhelming. one of them was in our district, Elder Oten who is from Kiributi and he was endowed and the recieved his patriachial blessing on friday. what an amazing experience for him. He is going to be an amazing missionary. the hamilton temple is so tiny! there is only one endowenment room. it was so beautiful though. i am so blessed that i get to serve in the same area as the The Lord's House. 

 

Like i said in my last email we were able to have a fireside with Elder Nielson from the area seventy and it was so powerful. at the end of the month Elder Bednar is coming to the MTC to dedicate a part that was just built, and we were so upset when President Gibson told us because we would miss him by a couple weeks, but President told us a couple days ago that they are bussing up the Hamilton and Aukland missioanries to hear him speak so i am SOOOO excited. to personally hear an apostle of the Lord? woah. so i'll definetly let you guys know how that goes down.

 

A couple things i have leaned here is to trust The Lord 100%. if you don't have trust in The Lord how is He going to help? trust that he''ll help you and he will. i know it. Another thing i have learned is that i'm not here to baptize, i am here to bring souls to Christ and help them recieve eternal life. the last thing i have learned for myself is how blessed we are to have the gospel in our lives. Thank Heavenly Father for that blessing. i know that when you do He will bless you with opportunities to share the gospel with others. Heavenly Father has blessed you with the knowledge of the Restored Gospel why shouldn't you want to share it?

 

I hope you all have a wonderful week and i'll email you on monday (sunday morning for yous) and let you know how my first week in /hamilton was. i want to end this email with my favorite scripture at the moment which is Proverbs 3:5-6 when you trust in The Lord He WILL bless you and direct you. I know it with all my heart.

 

i love you all SOOOO much and miss you. i hope all is well and i'll talk to you next week.

 

Sister Judd

Feb. 3-TALOFA

Hello my lovely family. sorry you were waitng for me on sunday to email. here we have set days to email so it'll be sundays when im out on the field but right now it's whenever.

so, the mtc is....i don't have words. I AM LEARNING so much. like so much information is getting crammed into my brain that i feel like it's going to explode. i also feel like i've been here for like 3 weeks. the days are loooooong and im always tired. i guess  ijust have to get used to being tired.

My comp is wonderful. Sister Ah-hoy and shes from Samoa and serving in Sydney North, Australia. My district is amazing. i'm the only american and three from the philippines (not close to jess i asked) one elder from SA one sister from NZ and my comp.

okay so some things i have to explain:

EVERYONE HAS ACCENTS like everyone. theres only 10 americans and we're all serving in hamilton and everyone else is from Samoa, Tonga, NZ, Australia, Figi, Tahiti, Kidibas, Philippines, SA, and random islands. It's so cool learning words in their languages and listening to all of their sweet testimonies.

WE EAT SO MUCH like breakfast, lunch and dinner is hot and ready for us. i know im gaining wait becasue i eat aso much. like sooooooo much. and the food is so weird too. like blood sausages and kumara (like a sweet patato) roasted pumpkin and sooo much more. they have a drink here called Milo and it's like hot chocolate and its freaking dilish. the chocolate here is so yummmmmy i get chocolate from the vending machine every other night because it tastes so much better than home. they also have these really yummy patato chips that are chicken flavor and theyre the best thing i have ever eaten.

 MOM IM EATING RICE be proud of me

So when we got to NZ i was sooo jet lagged i don't even rememeer writing you guys on thursday so i hope none of this is repetitive. but they let us go to bed early and i slept so well. i didn't move and my shoulder hurt all day on friday bc i slept on it all nighjt. but the best night sleep ever. so now that my body is up to the time here it's starting to react to the weather and i'm starting to get sick. don't worry it's a little cold but now like everyone is getting one. like almost all the sisters are sniffly.

Boys: i'm playing rugby and the samoan and Nzers say hello judd boys and american football is for girls. hahahaha love you

so yesterday Elder Nielson from the Seventy and his wife and spoke to us and it was wonderful. he talked about it being our time to change the world and ourselves. it was so good and i really needed it. i keep going through phases of homesickness and im lowkey sitting here crying but i love being here but i do miss you guys soooooo much.

uhhmmmmm i don't know what else to tell you guys but i'll think of some more and write it down.

oh yeah we aren't allowed to have our cameras out except temple day (WE ARE GOING TOMORROW YAYYYYY) so i have only taken pics from my room but i'll send em to you when i get out to the field.

I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH

Sister Judd

Well hello family, I am alive and safe. Jan. 28th

Sister Flake and I got to SFO safe and right after i got off the phone with you we met up with 6 other missioanries. Three elders and three sisters. two of them are from idaho and the rest are from utah. once we got to the gate we met up with 2 other sisters one from idaho and one from the bay area. we all sat in the same general area on the flight over and we all really clicked. i love them a lot. THAT FLIGHT THOUGH!! So stinking long yo. I "slept" for like maybe three hours? and it was 14 and a half hours in the air. so that's fun. the person sitting next to me was watching so many good movies. he turned on thor the first time and i started crying and told him it was becasue i hated flying...oops probably shouldnt have lied but i couldnt take telling him that im crying because all i wanted to do was look at thor's face. but after i pulled it together it wasnt that hard to stay distracted. i read A LOT and talked with the elders next to me. it was fine (as 14 hour fligths go)

 

when we got to aukland we had to move our clocks back only 3 hours......but we're a day ahead. it's weird because it's 10 in the morning on thursday but it feels like 2 in the afternoon (which is what it is at home) so i was unpacking when they got us for emailing and it's really REALLY hot if you dont open the windows because there's no AC......like at all.

 

there's so many people with accents. LIKE EVERYONE HAS ACCENTS because only people from australia and samoa come here to either learn english or french or their native language. i don't have a companion yet but i'll send pictures when we can email again next week.

 

i have so much to say i'll make it quick and then give you more details next week. the accents are so hard to understand. the money is like a rainbow. the weather makes me so happy. THEY DRIVE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD. (okay but side note i ended up having to sit in shot gun from the airport and i walked over to where shotgun would be and the driver laughed at me and called me a silly american because i went on the side of the steering wheel)

 

okay so that's all for now and i'll get on some time next week to email you guys for real.

LOVE YOU BYYYYYYE

I'm going on a mission!

Well, it's almost time and I will be going to New Zealand in 2 weeks. Don't ask me how I feel because my emotions are freaking out. But I am so excited to preach the gospel to the people of New Zealand and I know that I was called there by God and that there are people there waiting for me. I know that this is the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and that because of missions there are people all over the world that know this truth too. What an amazing opportunity we have to share the gospel to all we come in contact with and I am so grateful that I get to dedicate 18 months of my life to do all I can to bring people to Christ. This blog will be here so that you can keep up with my weekly adventures in New Zealand so feel free to share the link to anyone you want. Love all of you!