This week was crazy awesome! My homesickness has gone away. I've been able to get lost in the work. I love it here in Medina, the people are awesome. Elder Verdine and I went to a beach of Lake Ontario last p-day! It was super cool and very pretty. Looked just like the ocean! Haha! We handed out 11 Book of Mormon's Tuesday, we met with a less active who has bed bugs in their house.... we were hoping they would come outside to talk but they invited us in and we couldn't say no. So after meeting with them we went straight home and got out
of our clothes and threw them into the drier to kill the bed bugs, that was scary! Haha a lot of people here are on welfare. So they don't really care about their house or anything so it's pretty ghetto.
Wednesday we went to Middleport which is about 10 minutes away from Medina and we did some tracting, we met a lady named Abby! She is 21 and has never heard of Mormons before! We thought it was crazy, we
carried on a conversation with her for awhile. We got into prayer and the back ground of the Book of Mormon. Then we told her about missions and she thought we were the craziest people ever for leaving our loved ones
at home to dedicate 2 years to our Father in Heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ. After being in Middleport for the morning we went to Sister Pace's house for service. I told her about Tobin and how I worked there and all that! She was so excited because they are remodeling a house they bought to down size. So we will have lots of service hours of helping them paint and home restoration things! She pays us with pizza so it's all good! Haha
Thursday we had a lot of people we were going to see but like always, they fell through except one, Christine! She is one of our investigators that is not progressing... so we sat down and talked to her and she straight up said she wasn't going to change because her God doesn't want her to. But she wants to pay tithing and do everything a member does she just doesn't want to be baptized and still wants to smoke! So Elder Verdine took it into his hands and we ended up dropping my first investigator. We could still feel the spirit while doing that! It was awesome! In the afternoon we had an appointment with a couple, Tessa and Donald. Donald is a less active
and Tessa is a non member, she also has more facial hair than me. Haha We had taught them the restoration and Tessa said she believed in all that, so we read the introduction and broke it up and helped them grasp it. After our lesson with them I felt the impression to talk about baptism. She said it was something she might wanna do. So I
asked her to be baptized and prepare herself by November 15th, she said yes!! I'm so excited!
Friday we had zone meeting! My first one ever! It was super cool and the training was awesome! Our zone leaders are way cool, Elder Sevyand Elder Larsen, our sister training leaders are Sister Furiman and Sister Van Kampen! Haha kinda funny seeing her after high school! President Evans had training in how to study with our iPads more
effectively. All around it was an awesome zone meeting! After the meeting all of us went to a Chinese buffet! And then we had a 1.5 hour car ride back to our area..
Saturday we had a lot of appointments that fell through so we went tracting on Church Street, which is the super ghetto spot of Medina! No one answered their door. I was super bummed out but one of our investigators was getting baptized!! Sue Koleszar got baptized on Saturday. She is way cool and has been meeting with missionaries for 8 years now and has finally come to know that this is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm so happy for her and the decision she made to be baptized! And it was myone month mark! So we went and got some root beer to celebrate!
Sunday we went to church and Cordell and Susan were there!! It was awesome, we had planned on going to the sites with them on Sunday as well. So after church we loaded up the cars and headed for Palmyra! We
went to the Smith Farm first. We did the tour and then we got to go into the grove! Susan and Cordell wanted sometime alone so we had the kids hang out with us and Eder and Sister Woodhouse. After about 20
minutes I felt the impression to go find Susan an Cordell. So that's what Elder Verdine and I did. After we found them we talked about their experience. They both said they had felt the spirit and know that the vision happened there. Well after hearing that I asked them to be baptized on October 22nd. They said yes! But there's a lot they
need to do before then. I love that family so much. They are my favorite!!
After seeing what the Sacred Grove did for Cordell and Susan, it made me realize that it changed my life a lot too. I wouldn't have been able to meet or teach these wonderful people if it wasn't for that experience that I had. I'm so grateful that Joseph Smith was willing to follow the commandments so that he might obtain the record and restore this ever lasting gospel back upon the face of this earth. I love my savior Jesus Christ. He was crucified for me. I love my Father in Heaven with all my heart. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve the lord. What a blessed mission to have all the restoration sites at our finger tips to help convert people and let them know for themselves if this is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I say this multiple times a day... that I know it was restored through Joseph Smith, that he is the prophet of the restoration. There's no doubt in my mind. I love this gospel and work!!
Love and Miss you all so much. Hope all is well.
Love,
Elder Judy
