BIGGEST WEEK EVER!!

Okay so this week was the coolest and most miraculous week of my mission. So much happened so I'm just going to pull a Kylee and just list everything.

1. We found 12 new investigators this week! TWELVE! Everyone that we talked to were just SO prepared and ready to learn about the Gospel. it was just so fun to be a part of all of those miracles!

2. Our investigator Tammy is set for baptism! She is so ready. I don't know if I shared this before but she helped her sister get baptized and then she didn't think it was her time and now she is even more prepared! YAY!!!!

3. We have a Part Member family, Derusha and Villi, and we have been meeting with them for ages now. Villi is not a member and has met with missionaries for years. He is Tongan and really converted to the Bible, his main concern is the Book of Mormon. So we had a really good discussion with him and the spirit was really strong, and now he's set for baptism! I don't know how it happened but it did and we are SO excited :)

4. We had an amazing experience with Jessica's mission hahaha we went to go see two less active members who haven't been to church in AGES and they never let the missionaries in. she is from the Philippines and turns out she was born and raised in the mission jess went to! and the husband served there! so they were about to kick us out until I told them that my sister served there and nek minute we were sitting in their house and they were telling me heaps about the Philippines and giving me stuff to give to Jessica. it was a huge miracle. Jessica serving there has even helped people in New Zealand! It's so cool the way the Lord works!

5. We also had 2 nice visits with a Less Active slash Part Member family who we had just met and we really bonded with them. We invited them to church because the parents haven't been because of different reasons that have kept them from church for YEARS and on sunday sister flake leans over to me and whispers "don't look now but he's here" and it was on of the happiest moments I have had.

6. we had a less active and her non member partner come to church as well. we saw them walking in  during the opening song and we were freaking out with joy.

7. Leah, our recent convert, spoke in Sacrament Meeting. She is on FIRE and so ready to help us and work with us. we love her.

8. Tammy and her three kids were at church as well!

As you can see it's been an amazing week. those are just SOME of the miracles that I have time to write down but I am just so overwhelmed with this week. When I was sitting in Sacrament Meeting surrounded by all the people whom we had invited I had this impression "Heavenly Father is showing you all the work you have put into this area and loving these people. He is proud of you. You are working hard." I know that I am supposed to be here for a reason. Here in Tauranga, here in New Zealand, here at this time. This work is so amazing. I am obsessed with it.

I love you!

I Hope all is going well!

May the Force be with you!

Kia Kaha!

Sister Judd

Baptism and Attack of the Birds

Kia Ora Whanau! WHAT A WEEK! So much has happened! 

Okay i'll start with the baptism. We had Leah's baptism on Tuesday and it was SO GOOD!!!! The spirit was very powerful as her non member family members were there to witness the baptism. They were able to feel the spirit and truly see why Leah made this decision. It was a super amazing great day. it's all in the photos so just look at those hahaha :)

Tuesday was just a busy day in general. After the baptism we went over to Kate's house for her little girl's Frozen themed birthday party. It was the one form last week when we're making snowflakes and such. and the party was so cute! We met heaps of people and had fun with all the cute little kids. just imagine how fun i had if you remember how much i love Frozen hahahaha :) 

then later that night we went to an American Family's house for dinner and it was super yum. Sister Flake and I feel at home there because of the little kids running around everywhere, the american food, and just being with them. So, story about this evening at the Preston's house. It was after we all ate and i was sitting with one of the little boys, Owen who is being potty trained, and we were playing on those magnetic boards where you can draw on it and then wipe it away. anyway i was showing him shapes while Brother Preston and Sister Flake were having a conversation. while i am listening to them discuss pros of living in New Zealand i feel this warm trickle run down my leg. so i silently look down and see his pee going down my leg....so i just stare at for a good 30 seconds while more pee gets squirted on me. so finally i just look up with fear and raise my hand. when brother Preston looks over to me i silently say "uhmm i think your son just peed on me". Owen and i will always share a special bond now. So there you have it kids. Sister Judd got peed on this week. (pictures will be included with this email.)

This week we also had our cute little family come to church. Tammy and Naomi came and they were asking us heaps of questions about baptism and the temple and it was just really great. We are going over to their place tomorrow and talk more about baptism. it's amazing how quick Heavenly Father is moving the work along here in Otumoetai. We love it. There are always people to teach and always ALWAYS miracles. 

okay one last funny story, and with this story you have to remember how terrified of birds i am. We were at a Less Active's home, Aunty Dulcie. And Aunty Dulcie lives on heaps of land and she has chickens and birds and sheeps and any other wild thing that decides to wander around her property. She always has her doors open and she lives practically outside anyway and last night we were with her and this bird came into the part of the house that we were in and i flipped out man. so then this little bird just decides to perch on the TV and taunt me and then it flies around the room and i'm just sitting there trying to keep my cool but doing a good at all and then it 'flies' out the door but actually just flew right into the closed part of the sliding door and just falls to the ground and i'm flippin out man. so aunty dulcie goes over and saves the bird like the cute little mother nature that she is and lifts it and it flies away. my heart was beating so hard and my hands were sweating. it was a traumatizing experience for me. 

So as you can tell this week has been very interesting. 

I love you all!!!!!!!

Remember who are and what you stand for! 

May the force be with you

Kia Kaha

Sister Judd

Christmas Miracle and Tears

THIS WEEK HAS BEEN A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!

I don't even know really what to say because we just skyped a could days ago. By the way i was very impressed with myself because i didn't even cry. I'M GROWING UP! well...i did cry later just not in from of yous hahaha. but then sister flake skyped he family the next day and i was sitting next to her as they started the call and then all of a sudden the tears just started to flow. i was like "i don't know why i'm crying you're not even my family" it was pretty funny. so at least i cried for someone :)

i really don't know what to say because there hasn't been much that happened since Christmas, but i hope you're all doing GREAT!

I just want to share some from one of the Conference Talks i have been studying lately and hope it helps you as much as it has helped me. maybe it will be a beginning and maybe it can be a refresher like it was for me.

It is the talk "Choose to Believe" by Elder Whitney L. Clayton. He talks about a little girl, Sailor, who was the only one who survived a plane crash with her family. she saw a light and walked miles to get to it all alone to be saved. I want to share some of my favourite parts with you.

"After the crash, Sailor had a choice. She could have chosen to stay by the airplane in the dark, alone and afraid. But there was a long night ahead, and it was just going to get colder. She chose another way. Sailor climbed up a hill, and there she saw a light on the horizon.

Gradually, as she made her way through the night toward the light, it grew brighter. Still, there must have been times when she could not see it. Perhaps it went out of view when she was in a ravine or behind trees or bushes, but she pressed on. Whenever she could see the light, Sailor had evidence that she was on the right path. She did not yet know precisely what that light was, but she kept walking toward it based on what she knew, trusting and hoping that she would see it again if she kept moving in the right direction. By so doing, she may have saved her life.

Our lives can be like that too. There may be times when we have been hurt, when we are tired, and when our lives seem dark and cold. There may be times when we cannot see any light on the horizon, and we may feel like giving up. If we are willing to believe, if we desire to believe, if we choose to believe, then the Savior’s teachings and example will show us the pathway forward."

I love that so much! If we CHOOSE to believe then the Saviour's teachings and his example will be the light that saves us. Just like Sailor, we all have a choice. we can choose to stay where we are or we can choose to progress. to strengthen our testimony and our faith. but it takes effort on our part. He goes on to say,

"Sailor could not know at first if what she was doing as she pushed her way through the underbrush would actually work. She was lost and injured; it was dark and cold. But she left the crash site and ventured out in hope of rescue, crawling and scraping her way forward until she saw a light in the distance. Once she had seen it, she did her best to move toward it, remembering what she had seen.

We likewise must give place for the hope that we will find spiritual light by embracing belief rather than choosing to doubt. Our actions are the evidence of our belief and become the substance of our faith. We are choosing to believe when we pray and when we read the scriptures. We are choosing to believe when we fast, when we keep the Sabbath day holy, and when we worship in the temple. We are choosing to believe when we are baptized and when we partake of the sacrament. We are choosing to believe when we repent and seek divine forgiveness and healing love."

Once we choose and decide to change or seek the light then that's when we have to start putting that choice into action. Just like with Sailor walking and crawling to get to that light we too have to walk to the light. Sailor didn't see the light and then was saved; she had to get to it before the safety came. When we have our own "crashes" we need to seek the light, keep it in our view, and do all that we can to get to it. Especially with all the little things. I can testify that as you seek to find the light that the Saviour of the World gives you too can find safety and comfort. I love this promise that he gives at the end,

"In those moments when the light of your faith has dimmed, let your hope for the Savior’s love and grace, found in His gospel and His Church, overcome your doubt. I promise that He stands ready to receive you. Over time you will come to see that you have made the best choice you could possibly have made. Your courageous decision to believe in Him will bless you immeasurably and forever."

I know that He is ready to receive you all you have to do is seek to feel of His love, and once you feel it you will want to do all you can to have it with you at all times.

I love all of you SO much and i hope you have a great week!

be safe!

May the Force be with you

Kia Kaha

Sister Judd

Singing to Old People and Riding the Bus

This week has been SO GOOD! We've had so many things happen i will try to fill you in as best as i can!

This week started out with Sister Flake and I going to sing to old people. It was so cute! we sang some carols and then did karaoke with them. THEY ARE SO CUTE! you know how i feel about old people so you can just imagine how happy i was. they were even getting up and dancing and my heart just melted away with sheer happiness and joy.

Another cool thing is public transportation. It's so big here. people are always getting on the bus and going places but because we have a car we never get to ride the bus, but we really really want to. So a perfect opportunity arose when we needed to get our car serviced outside of our area in the city so we were in the city without a car and so we rode a bus!! it was so funny though because we had no idea what bus or what stop or anything so we called one of our members who rides the bus heaps and she told us where to go and what bus to get on. So we got back to our area and went to an investigator's house and before we left she looked up the times and what bus to get on. So we got on a bus. got off that bus. and got on another bus to get back to our car. it was a very fun and interesting experience. but we are just very grateful for our car, Gandalf the White (because it is this bright white car). 

This week we also had our ward Christmas party and it was so fun. The ward was meant to dress p as nativity characters but the only ones that actually dressed up was me and sister flake and our investigator family. (i'll send the pictures after this). it was the cutest thing ever. all these angels walking around everywhere :) We really love this family and are so excited for them and this journey they are on. They are so prepared and ready to take this step. I love them so much.

The last bit that i want to talk about is the Christmas Devotional. We got to watch it last night and i LOVED it! Elder Bednar's talk was my favourite, He related to the first Christmas in The Book of Mormon and how Samuel the Lamenite prophesied that Christ would be born and that the sign would be three days of light. No darkness. and then when Christ died on the other side of the world there was three days of complete darkness. no light. How amazing is that. Christ is LITERALLY our light in the world and He even says he is when he comes to the people in Book of Mormon and says "I am the Light and the Life of the world". Christ is our light and we can always have light in our life when He is involved. Find the light and embrace. Especially this Christmas season.

I love all of you!

Can't wait to skype!!!

May the Force be with you

Kia Kaha

Sister Judd

Tone Deaf Christmas Carols and Pulling out Trees

FAMILY! This week has been super fast, super fun, and super exhausting.

I think this has the been the quickest week i've had on my mission, and the most eventful one. I'll try and update you on some of the stuff we did.

So at the beginning of the week we got to have a little road trip and drive over to Hamilton! Sister Flake was in a meeting and so i got to stay at the Visitor's Centre while she was with all the other leaders in the meeting. It was so fun to be back again. I got to see all my lovely sisters i served and most importantly i got to see Sister Lualua! It was so good to see my daughter :) she is doing so well.

We also have been singing so much these past couple of weeks with Christmas coming. We just sing carols to anyone that we can. So a funny thing that happened this week was that we were at this old lady's house and she is so sweet but she doesn't let us read from anything because she doesn't want us to 'preach' to her so we usually just watch Mormon Messages and then sing a hymn for her. But she is kinda deaf and so she usually just compliments us on the tune of the song because she doesn't usually hear the words hahaha so this time we sang "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" and a couple words into it she recognized what song it was and started very loudly singing along with us, and if you remember what i said earlier...she can't hear very well. SO if she can't hear us she definitely couldn't hear herself. So here we all are happily singing along to this lovely Christmas Carol and her face is SO HAPPY! It was the cutest thing ever. and so Sister Flake starts getting the giggles because of the tone deafness and her happy face and then i get the giggles so we're just taking turns giggling as we sing and she has no idea because she's just sitting over there singing along to her own tune...all three verses of her song were the same as well. It was such a fun experience. it made my heart hurt because she's so cute.

Hah i just realized this next story is about ANOTHER old lady :) So Aunty Dulcie lives on a farm with heaps of sheep. And Aunty Dulcie is getting so old she can't do much anymore. So the Elders and us take turns going over and feeding her sheep and mowing her lawn and al lthe other good stuff. So on Saturday we went over there thinking we were just going to hop on her lawn mower and mow the lawn but instead she had us cutting down trees and pulling the roots out of the ground. We didn't take any before pictures but let me just tell ya it looked SO nice after. I worked on this one tree for a good hour cutting the roots and wedging it out of this little corner of the yrad and I FINALLY GOT IT!!! IT WAS THE BEST FEELING EVER! That darn tree. Here's what i did after i got it out hahaha. If anyone needs a tree pulled out.......don't call me. Because my body is still super sore.

Last thing i wanted to talk about was our Christmas Fireside that the Stake put on. it was SOO GOOD! And Sister Flake and i sung in the choir. So many pretty songs! I've been feeling weird lately because it's Christmas time but it doesn't even feel like it. It's hot and summery here and there's no family around me so it's just a normal day or something. But last night at the fireside as we were singing all these Christmas songs it hit me and it actually feels like Christmas. No matter where you are in the world right now. People are singing. and people are rejoicing. and people are praising the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ. And then i thought to myself, it doesn't have to be winter, it doesn't have to be a time surrounded by family. If you're rejoicing in the birth of your Saviour and that is what you're focused on it will be Christmas to you. and it'll be the best Christmas ever. But i am SUPER stoked to skype yous in a couple weeks!! it's been so long! So get ready to see my face soon :)

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!

Heber! STOP GROWING HOLY FLIP!! Have an amazing birthday! I'll be thinking about you!!

Baptism Miracles and New Transfer!

Kia Ora...what up...what's crack a lackin. hey.

This week has been so cool!! First of all, it's a new transfer and i get to be here in Tauranga for another transfer WITH Sister Flake! WOOPEE!! WOOHOO!!! YIPPEE!!! We're really excited. There is this cute little town in our area called Bethlehem so guess who gets to spend Christmas in Bethlehem? HOW CUTE IS THAT? We're just a little excited. It's weird that we'll be away from home at for Christmas but we're making the best of it and decorating the flat and singing Christmas songs every morning for companionship study. it doesn't get old!

This week we've had some crazy stories and heaps of laughs. First of all we set our most favouritest investigator and we're super excited!! #dunked i love when they just know that this is what they want and it becomes a part of them. She is so excited and so are Sister Flake and I!!!! :) We love being around her because the spirit is so strong. She is so receptive and know that this is the truth. She is such an amazing example.

We also had some fun times door knocking this week. Anybody who has done this knows you come in contact with some weird as people hahaha it's always fun to have a good laugh. Sister Flake and i are constantly laughing i feel like and i love it so much. There are countless stories that i have for all of yous soon! :)

If yous haven't seen the Christmas video the church put out yet do it now!  https://www.mormon.org/christmas and then once you watch it and love it share it with all your friends. use your social media for good! :) Help all you know understand really what Christmas is about. When i watched this the Spirit spoke to me so strongly. That if it wasn't for Christ being born we wouldn't even have this holiday. yeah the music and the traditions and the decorations are all really amazing but if you go down to the core it's truly about our Saviour being born. and that's what we should be celebrating even more that the other stuff.

I LOVE ALL OF YOUS!!

have an amazing week!

Kia Kaha

May the Force be with you!

Sister Judd

Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from the country that has no idea what Thanksgiving is! Hope yous had an amazing Thanksgiving! Ours was fun! I don't know f you saw the pictures that we sent but we had Thanksgiving with one of the most amazing investigators ever, we're all just best friends it's cute. So we had Thanksgiving lunch with her and I made Pumpkin Pie!! it actually turned out really yum for never actually making one before. I've only watched dad do it every year haha but it was so fun! then we had a thanksgiving feast with our ward because they had no idea what it was and we talked it up heaps. So we all got together and Sister Flake and I told them all about thanksgiving and then we all went around the room and said what we are thankful for and then we had a massive feed! It was so cool! The only thing that we missed was the actual Turkey because turkey here is like 85 bucks so we just decided on heaps of rotisserie chickens. Pretty much the same thing :) But we had heaps of fun and felt a little closer to home with our mashed potatoes and Pumpkin Pie.

We also went to a Tangi (funeral) at a Marae and apart from the sadness of our member passing away it was really cool to be a part of her culture. there are so many different things that they do and that i love. i love being a part of this culture and sharing the gospel will these amazing people in this beautiful country. THIS GOSPEL IS SO COOL AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH!

Sorry this email is going to be short but i have some photos to make up for it! :) I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Kia Kaha

May the Force be with you

Sister Judd