April 24, 2017 - Week 34 - Fairport, NY

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a great week! It was great week for us in the Fairport area! One of the busiest weeks I've had while serving in this area!

Monday was great, p-day is always a blessed day. We went out to Palmyra and hung out and walked through the grove. We had a lesson set up with Jennifer (changed her tire a couple weeks ago.) and she had to cancel because of work.... so we ended up going to Brother and Sister Holohan's and sharing a message and they gave us a referral and are inviting them over for dinner Saturday!

Tuesday was a great day, we had zone conference! It was so awesome! We got trained in how to implement the Book of Mormon and Bible more into our teachings. It was awesome. Now for when we teach an investigator or less active we have a piece of paper that says: 
Read: 2 Nephi 31
Ponder: What do I need to do to follow Jesus Christ?
Pray: Is the Book of Mormon the word of God?
And we give them specific things and questions to ponder while they read so they can have the Book of Mormon rooted deep within their soul. I love the idea of it cause it'll help the person keep the commitment, and keeping commitments means repentance and that's what we want!😊 We also had car inspections today, and who ever has the cleanest car in the zone gets the "golden plates" and we got em'! I've gotten them everytime! We ended the night with a less active: Sister Vaisey, we taught her the restoration. She's recently lost her faith and hasn't been to church so we are starting with the basics and getting faith rekindled.

Wednesday was our service day! We were at Saint's Place! Elder Falter and I went out on the delivery truck into downtown Rochester! We didn't have any weird experiences this time but it was still fun to hang out with Micheal! After Saint's Place we did studies then went and saw Lar'a Anderson. He's telling everyone about the spiritual
experience he had last time! So that's cool! He's an interesting fellow. We had dinner the Farar family! They are awesome! Our last appointment of the night canceled so we went up to Fairport and street contacted and ran into Sara, she's really cool and wants to learn more about forgiveness! She seems solid! We will see where it goes! We have a return appointment with her this Tuesday!

Thursday we did some more service, this time it was for a less active. Sister Priest. Her backyard needed to be racked and cleaned up a little bit so we took our morning and racked leaves for her! She is so awesome! Sweetest old lady ever. After service we came back up to the apartment had lunch then did more service for another less active. We picked up some garbage around his yard and sticks. It only took about 30 minutes. Then we changed into whites and went out tracting in the pouring rain... not such luck. We had a lesson with Lela! It was really spiritual and awesome. She actually stayed in a spiritual tangent this time! Haha love Lela! Afterwards we went out and finished the street we were tracting and we knocked on Gloria's door, she opened up and let us right in! We shared a couple scriptures from the Book of Mormon with her and tried giving her a copy.... she wouldn't even touch it. But after bearing testimony and reading more from it, her heart was softened to the point that she took and said she would read Moroni 7 and we got a return appointment for next Tuesday!

Friday was great! It was my birthday... I think, haha didn't feel like any special day. Thanks for all the birthday wishes. It was good to get emails from people who love me! Today instead of weekly planning we went to the mission office and they took our care to go get a hitch receiver and an oil change and we worked on bikes. It was
great! We had a lesson with Pam Sinkler! She's so awesome and has really grown the past couple weeks. We got our car back and had a bike rack and bikes! So it'll help us be more efficient and effective in this area! We parked the car and got the bikes and rode down to Jeff Ornts, that was a mistake. There are two huge hills just outside of
Fairport and we had to climb both on the way there and on the way back... didn't think I was this out of shape... haha😂 we had a good lesson with Jeff. He's a homie. Brian, the dope Utah member who we met a couple weeks ago took us out for my birthday dinner. He brought a couple of he's friends and we had a good time! It was a great
birthday!

Saturday we did weekly planning in the morning and I was under the weather so I practically slept the whole time... I took a 45 minute nap before our service and it didn't help much. For our service we helped a hoarder organize all his stuff in his garage... a ton of books and picture frames... it was ridiculous. But his heart was softened. That's all that matters, is that people get the good vibe about Mormons in this area. After service we went out and tracted a
little bit then had our dinner with the Holohan's! But the referral family didn't show up.... it was kinda depressing. But it's all good.  We had a good time with them!  Afterwards we went out on the bikes and did more finding. Talked to a cool lady at a gas station. We had FHE with the Crockers! On our way back to the car we were riding our bikes
and then all of the sudden my pedal fell off! So I had to walk my bike the rest of the way... haha great way to end the night.

Sunday was a great Sabbath day! Bishop's daughter just got home from her mission in Brazil so she gave her homecoming talk! We didn't have any investigators today... we are trying hard tho! After church we had dinner with then studies the. Went out finding! We met some really good people and even a guy named mike who is going to take us fishing before the transfer ends! He's interested in the gospel as well! So sick! Other than that not a whole lot happened today.

I hope all of you have follow the direction of the prophet and have read the Book of Mormon each day. Something President Evans stressed at zone conference was how do we get the Book of Mormon deep within our soul? And that's why he has encouraged us to do this read, ponder, pray. He said as we do this ourselves and with our investigators that we will be able to see the difference as the Book of Mormon becomes rooted into their and our souls. Don't just read the Book of Mormon... ponder it in your hearts and let it into your soul! That's the only way it will impact your life! And that's the whole purpose of it, to help us prepare to meet god. I know that it's the true word of god and it has truly blessed my life more than I can explain. Love all of you! Hope you have a great week to come!

Love,
Elder Judy

April 17, 2017 - Week 32? - Fairport, NY

Hey y'all!

Happy Easter!🐰 I hope you all had a great week! And a wonderful Holy Week! I sure did, and it all started with my studies. Each day I studied something about Christ and what he did that day. It was awesome!

Monday was a great p-day! The senior couples in the mission office took us to the Brigham Young church sites in Mendon, NY. It was a lot of fun! That only took about 3 hours then we went to the church and hung out and played basketball of course. Haha1 We had FHE with the Crockers and saw Thibisa that night as well.

Tuesday was transfer day, but we both stayed! We went to the mission office to pick up some of our friends and go to lunch. We went with AP Elder Larson. He's the coolest. Elder Broadhead, he was serving in the area next to me and we got to be really good friends and he got transferred so it was the last supper. Haha :)  In the afternoon we
tried getting in touch with some past investigators, like David and Carol. Well they both answered the door and we knew they weren't interested we just wanted a verbal no. And we got it! As we were driving out of that neighborhood a lady was pulled over on the side of road with a messed up tire... we got out to help her and I got our tools out and went to work. I knew trying to explain what was wrong wouldn't work so I just pulled the tire off, 3 out of the 5 studs were broke in half and only one was the right length... needless to say she wasn't going to be driving the car anywhere!  Haha so I put her tires back on and we pushed her car to the side of the road. I gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and exchanged phone numbers! It was so awesome!! (Thanks for teaching me dad!) Jennifer also texted us at the end of day thanking us and wanted to set up an appointment! 

Wednesday was Saint's Place! Micheal wasn't there so it wasn't  as fun at it usually is but it was still great! We got to play with little kid toys and sort them out. After Saint's Place we did studies then had a lesson with Pam Sinkler! She told us today that she asked for June 3rd off of work so she could get baptized! It was exciting. We taught
her the restoration and she believed all of it. She said she told her friend that she was studying with us and her friend said Joseph Smith was a drunk, she didn't believe them, she said she feels right when she is with us! She's awesome. We had dinner with Sister Gilchrist, she's from Idaho Falls! And she knows a Tobin! Small world. After dinner we went out street contacting and tracting and while we were walking around this guy pulled over and started talking to us saying he wanted to take us to dinner, turns out that he is a member for Utah out here selling security systems! We couldn't go to dinner cause we had a lesson but we asked him if he wanted to sit in on it and he said yes! So we taught Joan with Brian! He was an awesome member present! Since he missed dinner he offered to take us tomorrow and we agreed!

Thursday we had district meeting in the morning, afterwards we went to the streets of Fairport and went street contacting! We met a lot of good people, one of which was Ron. He was to interested in wanting to learn more but we were able to have a good conversation with him and talk about god and how he is so good! We also said a prayer with him right there on the street, it was awesome. After street contacting it got a little slow we hit the city streets and did some tracting. We met with Jean, we were able to talk about family history with her! We also got to bear testimony to her and we said a prayer with her on her porch! We had a lesson with Lela McCullough. She's my favorite. So funny. And we went out to dinner with Brian! Turns out that he is here with a couple people and one is from Idaho Falls! And it just so happens to be, Tanner Morrow. Tennile Stucki's little brother. The people we went to Lake Powell with when we went with the Wards! Small world!

Friday we did weekly planning, it was great! It was actually fun and not dreadful this time! Haha! We didn't have any set appointments today so we were finding people all day long! We did stop in at the mission office and we got a package!! Thanks momma! Your the best!!  We used the candy for a good purpose. But Friday was long and fun. There was lots of people out and they were really receptive. We handed out a lot of pictures of Jesus! It was awesome. We did meet a really cool pastor, he said he admires us for what we do. It was cool. I respect people like that.

Saturday was another day of no lesson but it was totally worth it.  God was on our side and lead and guided us to people who were prepared for the restored gospel. The first person we talked today was down to learn more! His name is Billy.  And as we continued to walk and talk to people, we walked on to Lar'a Anderson, he's a black fellow and loves god. We exchanged phone numbers and were planning on texting him to set up an appointment later in the day. It started pouring rain about half way through the day. But that didn't stop us . We went and knocked
doors in the rain and after it let up we went back to walking Main Street and the canal. It was awesome. So many people were willing to listen! We met a really cool young couple on a picnic table that wanted us to show them the Prince of Peace video! It was awesome. Haven't had a day like today in a long time finally feel like a missionary again.

Sunday was an awesome Easter! The Fairport Ward took great care of us! Church was awesome. Inspiring talks were given and we sang in the choir! After church we came back to our apartment and we live above someone's garage here. The landlords are young and have a couple of kids. Well we had way to much candy and the kids were out running around outside so we told them the Easter bunny gave us some of their candy and brought down a couple packages for each and it made their day!  They are so cute, two little girls. We did some street contacting before dinner, we were walking the canal and we came across this younger guy and he was talking to us and we were actually having a really good conversation with him about feeling right with god. And as we were talking a guy came up behind me and started to say anti material right to the guy in front of us... it took all I had into to say anything back and be nice to this man. haha. He was really rude. But the guy we were talking to agreed with the anti and said he just wanted to get our view point. So he was a huge waste of time, he was from Palmyra. We
asked him if we could say a pray before we left and he said it and just deliberately antied us throughout the prayer it was ridiculous. I was so ticked. But Brother Neyts cheered me up! They are my favorite family in this ward!  We had a good Easter dinner with them! We went to the Broadbent's for a camp fire then we had a lesson with Brother
Young. He has a very inspiring story.

This church is so true, it just takes the meek and the humble to be able to let into their life. I know how the lepers feel. In this area I feel like I have a bell strapped to me and when people see or hear me they run. It's hard, only if they knew what they were running away from. This gospel has blessed my life more than I ever thought it
could. Remember what the prophet has said, be  in the Book of Mormon everyday!  I just finished the Book of Mormon for the 6th time on my mission today and it was great. I prayed to know if it was true and the answer I got was, why am I asking..  you already know the Book of Mormon is the only book that contains the fullness of the
everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ. I love you all!  Thank you for your support!

Love,
Elder Judy

April 10, 2017 - Site Trip - Fairport, NY

Hope everyone had a great week! I sure did! This week was full of finding new people to teach and making it fun! I got so pumped after conference to be a missionary. It recharged me!

Monday was zone p-day, it wasn't really planned so we hung out playing basketball and the game Signs is what most the day consisted of. Haha it was fun! It was good to hear from home! After p-day we had our weekly FHE with the Crocker family! 

Tuesday was a great day, we did lots of walking around. And contacting and tracting a lot! We were so busy people starting to notice us. The UPS man even said that we must of been busy because he said he saw us every where in town! It was super cool we defiantly made a impression on the village of the Fairport.  We found a couple potential investigators! It was awesome day! We got to meet some great people! I don't mind tracting all day when it's nice but when its cold and snowy that's when it's a little dreadful. We had dinner with the Broadbent family! They are my favorite! They are awesome. Brother Broadbent at the end of the night before we left asked me if I would give him a priesthood blessing for peace in his life. I thought it was really cool that he asked me! 

Wednesday was a blessed day, we did lots of service at Saints Place. Elder Gardner and I went on a split in the delivery truck and we had a great time with my favorite guy ever Micheal Flaningan. He's the funniest person ever. He took us to "Prostitute Alley, Rochester, New York" to make a delivery. After Saint's Place we went to go see Lela McCollough. We set up a site trip with her for Saturday as well. So that was pretty awesome. Then we had dinner with the Stockman's. They are an older couple and when I told them where I was from he asked me if i knew any Elkingtons. I said of course! and it turns out he was Keith Elkington's mission companion at one point! So that was really cool to make that connection! We had a lesson with Joan and we ended up giving her a priesthood blessing for comfort and peace, she had asked me to give her the blessing. It was awesome. 

Thursday was an off day, I wasn't in the best of moods... but got over it eventually. We had district meeting and the spirit was defiantly there. It was awesome. We had a couple appointments today. One with a less active name Bethann and we also saw our family history investigators Janice and John Hunsiger. We taught them a lot of different principles. It was a bad lesson. Their atheist son was there and he asked us a ton of deep doctrine questions that confused Janice... we shouldn't have answered them. Janice told us she wasn't searching for a church so we don't have to worry about going over there anymore but she still wants to do family history! All of our nightly appointments fell through so we ended up in survival mode in the rain... we contacted some potentials on Kreag Road and we got drenched. so much fun... Haha! 

Friday was another weird day, weekly planning was alright, not much to report about that. We saw Jeff Ornt today and he gave me a present, the old missionary library. He's awesome. The most active less active I've ever met. It's impressive.  We did some tracting later in the day and found a Lutheran pastor who wasn't very found of the things we do as missionaries.... spreading the truth... so that was pretty interesting. Anytime I get in situations like that I can hear momma's voice, "Count to 10, or walk away." Most the time I just tell them to have a good day and walk away. Haha your advice is still working mom! We went over to see the Vaisey's and they answered and let us in!  They are way cool but the wife is going through a hard time right now. 2 out 3 of her sons aren't active in the church and its really hard on her. She hasn't been coming to church for the past 4 months either and asked if we could help her. It was really cool to see her want that. We got talking to her and turns out Elder Falter's uncle who served in this mission was actually the missionary who taught and baptized her! That was really cool! We did exchanges, Elder Gardner and I were in Fairport. 

Saturday was a fun day. Best exchange in 7.5 months. we had a great time. We went to the sites with Lela McCollough and Brother Batt drove us out. It was a ton of fun. Lela is the funniest person I've ever met. Dhe told me today that I'm her favorite too! That was funny. 

Just a little taste of Lela for ya: 

*Points at power lines* "are those solar panels up there?"

"Oooooh look at those things! Sheeps aren't they? I didn't know we have sheeps in Rochester"

She's a 50 year old black lady and the funniest person you ever meet. She grew up in the hood of Rochester as well. And she ain't afraid to tell you about it. After the sites Elder Gardner and I went and grabbed a bite to eat at Tom Wahl's its like the In-N-Out burger of Western New York. Then we went and did some street contacting on the canal! Not such luck, we had dinner with the Matthew's family! They are so cool! Then we went back out to the canal and we met Roman. He's a pretty cool guy that seems pretty down to learn more about faith in Christ! 

Sunday was a great fast Sunday! And also the day that we found out about transfers! Looks like I'll be staying here in Fairport, with Elder Falter for another transfer! Pretty stoked! Some great things will happen! The ball is started to role down the never ending hill! Sacrament meeting was wonderful and we got out in 70 degree weather to go street contact on the canal and it was great!  We met a Muslim family that didn't speak any English but loved pictures of Christ. we gave their whole family each one. It was great! They were all so excited. We had dinner with the McCarthy's! They always cook some great food. They are awesome. And we ended the day seeing Helen Cole. She's a less active that is starting to return. It's so awesome. Today we felt prompted to go see her and it was a very good timing... must have been from god! But we taught her about peace and prayer and she asked for a priesthood blessing and asked me to give it to her. It was wonderful. And that's a wrap of the week. 

This week I'm super grateful for the priesthood, I had many opportunities to be able to use my authority from god to comfort people with blessings of council. What a blessing it is to live in the time we do with the priesthood authority restored back onto the earth. We truly are the church of Jesus Christ. I love every second and opportunity I have to be able to share this message. I hope all of you feel the same way and try and share it as much as possible with your friends and family, and trust me... you'll be a huge help to the missionaries if you do so! 

Love,

Elder Judy 

1. Addison, the priest that comes with us all the time 

2. Tom Wahls 

3. My favorite person ever: Micheal Flaningan 

4. Sites with Lela McCollough 

April 3, 2017 - Where is the time going? - Fairport, NY

Hello everyone!  I hope everyone's week was great and spirit filled.

Tuesday we went to the temple and it was very much needed. It was breath of fresh air. Missed the temple so much.

Wednesday we did service at Saint's Place. They had us go to their warehouse in downtown Rochester and help them sort new furniture they just got from our church. They gift a shipment of Deseret industries furniture and we moved it all from the first floor to the third. There was around 50 dressers 80 chairs and 40 tables. There was a lot of stuff.  We used the utility elevator and it was like the Tower of Terror. It was fun. Afterwards we had a lesson with Lela McCollough, she's so awesome. Never a dull moment when your at her place. She's a returning member. We also had a lesson with Joan, we taught her more about following the prompting from the Holy Ghost and how that'll bring her closer to god. And we invited her to watch conference.

Thursday we had district meeting in the morning, Elder Broadhead gave a training on inspired finding and talked about how we should treat it like an appointment with god. Praying with faith and specifically. It was so awesome. We met a Jedi. We had a member appointment with the Caton's they are awesome. They love it talk.

Friday was weekly planning! This one was good enough to be in the district. We spent a lot of time in prayer asking for help with this area. It was most likely my most effective weekly planning. Halfway through we took a break and Elder Falter and I made a pan of jello the morning of and got it out and we had a jello break. Haha. After weekly planning we picked up Addison, a priest in our area. And we took him to a lesson with us. We went to Pam's house. We taught her the plan of salvation and she was so confused about everything at the beginning but by the end it all made sense to her and Addison invited her to be baptized and we put her on date for June 3rd! It was so awesome. Addison invited someone to be baptized before his mission. So cool. We had a lesson with Jeff. We finally figured out his concerns with him and why he won't come to church. We are getting there slowly but surely. We ended the night tracting in the rain. It was just sprinkling and every house we knocked on people thought we were crazy for being out.

Saturday we watched the morning session of conference at Bishop Maxwell's house. They set up a tent in their living room and have the opening facing King Benjamin's tower (or the tv) it was awesome. My favorite was defiantly president Eyering's talk.  The Plan of Salvation was a theme of this years conference. In between sessions we went out and all 4 of us went tracting in Victor. Elder Hallstrom had a guy yell at us as loud as he could. He didn't like us to much. Haha we watched the afternoon session also over at Bishop Maxwell's house. Elder Holland was my favorite talk from the afternoon session. Our ward had a chili cook off before the priesthood session so we helped set up for that and had some chili and hung out with the members. My favorite from priest
session was Elder Bednar. It was so good.

Sunday we had breakfast at the Whitcomb's house then came back up to the church building to watch the morning session. Pocatello, Idaho temple! That'll be so cool! My favorite talk was Elder Rasband. We went out and did more tracting with all 4 us. We split up in Fairport this time. For the afternoon session we went over to the Larson
families house and they had food and conference for us. It was so awesome. They are an awesome family! My favorite talk from this session was Mark S. Palmer. Very inspiring for me. I loved watching conference and I'm so sad that this weekend went by so fast. Now just gotta wait another 6 months.

How great of an opportunity we had to hear from our prophet Thomas S. Monson. We need to take his council that he gave us and be reading the Book of Mormon everyday. Prophets are the mouth piece for the lord. So I took that invitation like it came right from Jesus Christ. He wants all of us to be strengthening out faith and growing closer to him and the way we can do that is by reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. Come to know for yourself the truthfulness of that book. Study it. Any man who abides by its precepts will grow closer to god. I know that for a fact.

Love,
Elder Judy