May 29, 2017 - Fairport > Springville - Springville, NY

Hello everyone!!

I hope yall had a great week! Happy Memorial Day! This week was sad and fun all at the same time. I had to leave one of my favorite areas, it was harder than leaving home. I grew to love Fairport and the members and people there. They are truly amazing people and will ways have a place in my heart!! But now I'm in the land of Springville, its a fair land in the southern tier. Where there are lots of humble people seeking to find god in there lives. The work is booming down here! It's awesome. I'll give you a little back ground of the branch here, well not to much to it.. its the first branch of the church! The Freedom Branch! Serving in history! Pretty cool.

Monday was p-day but we cut it short so I could go say goodbye to some of my favorite members and investigators. It was a rough day. Like I said it was harder than leaving home. Haha never thought it would be
that hard.

Tuesday was transfer day. Met at the mission office at 9 am and got on the van to head over to Buffalo! Then we met the sisters that were serving in Springville and took the car keys and headed out not knowing what to do, but we went forth.. we made it to Arcade safely and settled right in! Then we went out to meet the ward! We met the
Cooper family, they had us over for dinner. They are less active but acted like they've been active for 40 years... we are going to work on that.  Haha. We went to the church and met people who were there for mutual and family history! Tried to meet a couple of the investigators but everyone was busy.

Wednesday was a busy busy day. We had a ton of appointments! We taught 7 lessons! The coolest lesson was with Katie, she is our most progressing investigator. But she hasn't had much support from family in her search to find the truth. Until we met her. We had planned to teach her the plan of salvation which worked out perfect because her sister was there, they both had lost a cousin in a car accident and have many questions about that. And through the plan of salvation we were able to answer Taneeka's questions! And she asked for a Book of
Mormon and wants to meet with us now!:) Miracles happen on a daily basis here in NRYM!

Thursday was a slower day, we still don't know the area and had a little bit of finding so we spent our finding time trying to get in contact with potentials and formers, also less actives. We didn't have too much luck not a lot of people answered the door for us. Usual day in the mission field. Had a couple lessons and dinner with another
less active that is crazy but has the creek running through their backyard and said we can come fish on p-days! So down!

Friday we spent a lot of the day planning  because we have 12 progressing investigators. So we did a lot of planning for them and stuff. We had a couple lessons throughout the day but we ended the night in Springville contacting more potentials and formers. We also gave a member a blessing.

Saturday was another day full of lessons. All of our return appointments from earlier in the week were set for today! So we had a good fun day! There is a recent convert named Anthony that loves coming out with the missionaries. He spent all day with us driving us around. He's super cool! Has such a strong testimony! He moves out to Utah on the 5th, gonna miss him a lot! Were able to see Katie again and Amanda and her daughters. We invited all 3 of them to church the following day! We had a member appointment with the Gonzalez family, they are super cool! They're from Puerto Rico!

Sunday was a great day! We had a good branch council meeting, it was centered on missionary work work! Good to see. Katie and Amanda were at church as well! Elder Shaw and I spoke in church. We did an
introduction to the ward, and bore our testimonies.  Amanda's ride had to leave earlier and we didn't see her after church because there were 3 people being ordained to the priesthood, so we got out late... and didn't see her there so hopefully she got home. Haha we did studies afterwards, then we had a lesson with a recent convert family named the Leffler's, a family of 10. They're pretty cool. We had dinner with the Owens family, they're cool! We spent the night after dinner going through our area book and deleting people that are wasting our space in the book.

This church is true, there's power in the Book of Mormon. I invite all of you to drink deeply of its pages EVERYDAY, it will change your life. I love you all!

Love,
Elder Judy

Lots of pictures this week!

May 22, 2017 - Goodbye Fairport! - Fairprot, NY

Hello!!

I hope you all had a great week! We had yet another amazing week here in Fairport, found 5 more people to start teaching!! I will be getting transferred to Springville. I'll will be in the Freedom Branch with Elder Shaw! Super nervous but so excited! Springville is a small town, it'll be like Medina! I also got called to be a district leader! It'll
be a fun new experience!

Monday was a good p-day! It was zone p-day! The whole zone got together and hung out at Palmyra. Afterwards we had FHE with the Crockers and our lesson with Thibisa! 

Tuesday was a miracle day! We decided to contact some potentials and we got on with 2 Ashley, and Lisa. Ashley told us when we first met her that she only wants to talk to Sister's not losers so we gave her the sisters number and we thought we would follow up with her, she let us right in, we got to teach her and set a return appointment! As we were walking to Lisa's she saw us and came running out and said she has been waiting for us to come back, we tracted into her about 3 weeks ago. We gave her a Book of Mormon and restoration pamphlet. She read it and told us she knows its true! It was so awesome.

Wednesday we had service at Saint's Place! It was a good time. We made Micheal an Elder Flanigan name tag. For Latter-day Saints Place. He loved it!  Afterwards we had a good lesson with Lela and Joan Downey. We read 3 Nephi 13 with Joan with the question of the soul, how can I balance my family and career. It answered a lot of her
questions!
   
Thursday we had district meeting! Then we spent the rest of the day on bikes. We biked all over our area on the hottest day of the week. Haha, I was dieing. It was like 90. Way to hot to be on a bike.we did tracting and street contacting on the canal. Then we had dinner then tracted in Victors area until we had our ward correlation meeting. It was a slowwww day.

Friday was a great day of planning and full of lessons. We planned out our coming week and had a good lesson with Pam Sinkler! Our investigators on date for June 17th. She's so awesome and every lesson I've had with her the spirit is so strong and you can really feel god's love for her. Such a blessing to have found her and to teach her. We had a good lesson with Jeff Ornt, less active about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We read 3 Nephi 27:13-22 with him. Had dinner with the Matthews. They are an awesome family and I got to sit on his rode bike. It's been awhile since I've gotten to do that. Haha we spent sometime in the Pines riding people and we found a mother and son, Beth and Joshua. They are super cool and prepared for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! On the walk home we ran into our drunk friend Donavan again, he was asking us to come party and drink with him, it was hilarious.

Saturday was a long day, we spent most the time walking around. We walked the canal and came up on a group of teenagers gathered around a cross, one of their friends had been missing for 2 weeks and was found in the canal, turned out he had killed himself from a break up with his girlfriend. We gave them plan of salvation pamphlets and set up an appointment to to teach it to them for the coming week! We went back to the Pines and met Robin, we were just walking around the parking lot and she called us over and asked us what the message was today, she always has time for Jesus. I read 2 Nephi 25:26 with her and she started bawling and said to come back soon. It was so awesome. The lord is working on the people in Fairport! We worked on our less active list a little more to end the day.

Sunday was a great sabbath day, I have loved serving in the Fairport Ward. The people here are amazing and the ward reminds me of the Ammon 14th ward. Really strong and a family. I will miss it sincerely. I was hoping to stay for at least one more because so much good has happened in the past couple weeks. But I'm so excited too see
better things to come in Springville. We had some finding time today so we did a little bit of tracting, then we had dinner with the McCarthy family! They are so awesome! We had a lesson with Lela McCollough, Brother Sutton came along. Got called to be a district leader.  We had a member appointment with the Clark family, we helped
them create a family mission plan and gave them action items for the coming week. Ended the night getting our transfer email.

I'm grateful for my many blessing from the lord and all the good he has brought me in this area. I have grown to love the people here and its going to be hard to leave. Just like leaving home for the 3rd time. Haha but I know the lord has more in store for me and more ways that I can share the gospel to his sheep in the Springville area. I
cant wait to get down there and give it my all! I love you all! God bless.

Love,
Elder Judy

May 15, 2017n - Happy Mother's Day - Fairport, NY

Hello again!!

I hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day!!  I sure did. I'm just wanna thank my momma. I'm so grateful for her and the example she has set for me I would NOT be where I am today if it wasn't for her. I have the best mom ever! Just as the stripling warriors I do not doubt that my mother knows that god will provide for me.

Monday was a great p-day we spent the day shopping and eating Mother's Day stuff and sending off packages! We played basketball of course... hahah we did some tracting in the pines, played some basketball with some hood kids. Kicked their trash in a short game of 21. Gave some pamphlets and taught a short restoration. Fixed the
Crocker's bikes and now we going to teach them how to ride them! We had a good family home evening with them. Had a good lesson about hope with Thibisa as well. We did exchanges, went to Victor with Elder Moon.

Tuesday we went to Saint's Place! We had a good time with Micheal Flanigan! They took us out to lunch. They took us to Nictahouhot's. Which is a Rochester trade mark. It's a place that has the original garbage plate. It's all the scraps thrown onto a plate. They made it for the homeless people back in the 80's and it was a hit and they started selling them to the public. It wasn't too bad! After Saint's Place we did studies and headed out tracting. We found Ryan. He is this really cool guy who loves to hunt! Got to talk hunting for a little bit then we shared a message. He invited us back! It was awesome! We had dinner with the Braithewaite family. They're super awesome. We had some lessons with a couple less actives. It was good night. And I went back to Fairport.

Wednesday we went to Saint's Place! That's right 2 days in a row! #BLESSED greatest week ever. Got to hang out with Micheal twice! He's literally the funniest guy that I've met. We had another good day delivering some furniture. After Saint's Place we did studies then we saw Lela McCollough and had a lesson with Jennifer and Seth. They're so awesome we taught them the plan of salvation.  Then we had a lesson with Joan Downey. It was awesome. We had 3 members at the lesson. It was great!! We had a meeting with bishop to tell him about the missionary work going on in our area. It was really good, he expressed his appreciation and told us that we have done a good job and he is so grateful for us! It was awesome. Fulfilling my goal as a missionary. (Helaman 3:25) then on the way home we grabbed some Wendy's because we over scheduled and didn't have time for dinner.

Thursday we had district meeting then did tracting until dinner. After dinner we did some more Mother's Day tracting. We shared Alma 56 with a lot of people it was awesome!! People were pretty receptive to it. But Thursday wasn't to shabby here. It was long and fun.

Friday we did some weekly planning for the last week of the transfer! Crazy. It's gone by so fast. After planning we did some street contacting and tracting in the village. We saw Donavan again, the drunk guy we talked to last week. He invited us to go the the local bar called Shorts with him tonight. Tempting but we declined. We tried getting in contact with a bunch if new investigators but didn't have any luck. We will keep trying. 

Saturday we had a truck with no tiwi... that was a blessing. There were members in the ward getting rid of there mattress and a less active was taking it. But no one in the ward had a truck. Never thought that would be a problem.. so we borrowed a mission truck and did it really quick. We went less active hunting. Only one answered
and wasn't interested.... no such luck. We did some more tracting and Mother's Day messages. It was a lot of fun!
   
The best part of the week!! Mother's Day and the sabbath! Church was great!! Joan came! It was a wonderful surprise! She's so awesome. We bought some flowers yesterday and but together this cute things for some of our favorite families. And we gave Joan some flowers. After church we came back to the apartment and did studies then went out and saw the Henderson's, they just called to be ward missionaries today so we went there to set a game PLAN. It was awesome their awkward. It's great! :) we also saw my buddy Jeff Ornt. He's a a good guy. Then we saw Helen. We sang some primary songs with her and she loved it! She said she will come to church next week. Praying and hoping. We had dinner with the Neyts family. They are one of my favorites. I can't choose
between the Broadbents and the Neyts. They're both awesome. The Neyts were kind enough to let us crash at their house and FaceTime home to see our families!!! Oh how blessed are we with modern technology. It was great to be able to see some new faces... ;) and see my momma and the whole fam! Sure miss them!  After our FaceTime we had our flowers to deliver.  We went to the Broadbents and gave Sister Broadbent some flowers. They were having sparkling cider and had us come in and celebrate with them. They are the best. Then we gave some to our investigator Pam. She's awesome. And then we dropped some off to Lela. And it totally made her night. She loved it. So happy we were able to make her Mother's Day memorable.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve my lord. He has truly supported me in all my trials and troubles in life. And I know for a fact that what he takes me to, he will take me through. Always. He will always provide away for us to come out on top. Anything is possible with christ.

Love,
Elder Judy

May 8, 2017 - Week of Miracles - Fairport, NY

Another week come and gone in the blessed land of Rochester.  

Monday was another successful p-day! We hung out at the mission office all day with our district! It was a lot of fun! Towards the end of the day it started to pour outside. I guess there was a tornado watch. The member that was going to feed us texted us and asked If we were still out and about with the tornado watch! Of course we were! Ha! We had another good FHE with the Crocker family.

Tuesday was longgg. All of our appointments fell through so we ended up doing some area book work and then for the rest of the day we went out tracting. We tracted one part of Roselawn Ave and no one was having it. We went and saw Lara Anderson, while in the lesson he told us that he wasn't going to read the Book of Mormon or change... so we dropped him and went to dinner. Dinner was at the Sorenson's! They are super cool! After dinner we went to the village and started tracting West Ave. We got to hand out a couple copies of the Book of Mormon!
Met some really nice people. I wasn't feeling good all day so Elder Falter made me go in at 8 o'clock. I took NyQuil and was gone at Iike 8:10! :) Haha feel much better today!

Wednesday is a miracle day! :) We did service at Saint's Place like usual! It was fun! We had a delivery in Greece, NY so I got to see that part of the woods! After Saint's Place we did studies. Lela McCollough had us over for dinner. It was so good! She can cook! We had 3 appointments where we need 3rd males at. So before dinner we
spent an hour calling people in the ward and no one was able to. So we decided we would pray... (should've done it a long time ago.) but we were able to get Addison to come with us to Lela, Elder Spencer came with us to Jennifer, and Joan had to cancel but we had Brother Neyts coming with us! Now Jennifer is a miracle. She is a lady we tracted into 3 weeks ago. She gave us her phone number and said to call her in 2 weeks. We called her last week and she wanted to meet! So we went over there and it turns out she has a 9 year old son as well! And they are super prepared. They lived in Utah for 10 years, props to the members out there for doing a good job. Jennifer wants to teach at BYU really bad but can't cause she's not a member, she was having a conversation about that with one of her close friends and 30 minutes after hanging up the phone we knocked on her door. And she took that as a sign. Another miracle that happened that night was right before our appointment with Jennifer we got a text from a random number.. the guy's name is Collin and we had talked to him in the Canal Park the day before Easter. We gave him a picture of Christ with our number on it and he texted us 3 weeks later! He asked if we could meet with him that night so it was a blessing that Joan's appointment was canceled. We met with Collin and he is so prepared as well. He is trying to find god's path for him. His wife is interested as well but is busy and can't meet for another week or 2. But the lord provides for his obedient servants. My testimony of obedience was strengthened so much!!

Thursday we had district meeting in the morning and Elder and Sister Jones (office missionaries) took us and our investigator Pam Sinkler to the restoration sites in the afternoon! :) It was rainy but the spirit once again overrode the situation and we didn't even mind the rain. It was awesome. Pam told us in the grove that she has come to
know the true! It was a wonderful time at the sacred restoration sites. We had dinner with my favorite less active, Jeff Ornt. He's a homie. We ended the night tracting West Ave. Every door we knocked on politely rejected us. More than half of them  knew who we were and they asked us where we were from and how long we had been out on our missions. It was kinda annoying by the end. 

Friday was another day of miracles!:) We had helped set up at the church building for a big family history event that was going on the next day.  We met with the family history director and she fed us lunch and gave us the instruction for what we were going to do on Saturday. Afterwards we went to the mission office and started weekly planning. We felt like we need to plan really well for all the investigations that we had found and for there needs. We spent a lot of time in prayer in this planning sessions! It was so awesome.  We also made a less active list from LDS tools, we made a record of all the people we don't know in the ward and we are going to make it an effort to meet them.  We had dinner at Sister Gilchrist house, it was a lot of fun! She is the member that it's from Idaho Falls!  We had a
couple appointments for that evening but the lord had something else planned for us. They all canceled and the weather lightened up so we went and finished tracting Roselawn Ave. It was probably the most success I've had while tracting here in the past 4 months. Haha we were lead and guided by the lord for sure! We found 3 new people to start teaching! We went out and did some street contacting and we meet Christian, we gave him a picture of Christ and he was super down to meet, he gave us his number and we scheduled a time we could meet again.  While walking around this super drunk guy stopped us and said he knew me from some where, I told him I was from Idaho.. haha he was disappointed. We told him we could help with quitting his addiction to tobacco and alcohol he said he would love that and he gave us his address and phone number. We asked him what times of the day are you sober? He said "oh all morning... until about 2." It was hilarious.

Saturday morning we helped out at this big family history event. It was cool. Most of the people there were nonmember I got to have a lot of gospel conversation. Mainly abut the word of wisdom tho. Ha that was the most common asked question to me. We had a good time helping out! There was a big turn out, I think they said 180 people showed up. And more than 70% were nonmembers. We spent the rest of the day finding in the down pour of the rain. We had dinner with McCarthy family then we had a lesson with Joan Downey. We had Emma and Sister
Maxwell come. It was one of the most spirit filled lessons I've had. The spirit hit me a couple times really direct for certain scriptures and talked to use. It was really cool.

Sunday was a great Sabbath day for church we had an area broadcast. Elder Dallin H. Oaks presided and we heard lot of really good messages about member missionary work. Elder Oaks gave a really good talk about
just praying for the spirit and opportunities and we won't have to worry about the out come because the lord will be with us. He also talked about being a master and not being a slave, he said most people today have become slaves to their cell phones and that we should be the masters. It was really good. We did studies afterwards then went out finding. And then we had a fireside that our district put together. We called the preach my gospel fireside and President Evans came and spoke about member missionary work. Today was full of inspiring things about how members can be more involved in the work. :)

Looking back on this week and seeing the crazy miracles that happened and the spiritual lessons we had with our investigators this has been one of the best weeks of my mission. It has been great serving here in Fairport. I have grown more than I ever thought I could. Prayer has been the central part of my growth. Prayer can help us in lot more than just getting the courage to invite. Prayer is the passport to peace as President Thomas S. Monson says. As we kneel in prayer and as soon as we call upon his holy name he is listening to us and is embracing us in his arms of mercy. God knows us and our trials we face. He knows us so well he knows each of our nicknames. I love this gospel and opportunity that I have to serve my loving Heavenly Father.

Love,
Elder Judy

May 1, 2017 - Week 34 ->Miracles - Fairport, NY

Hello!

Hope everyone's week was great! It's was another week here in Fairport!

Monday was a great p-day we went to the mission office and hung out there all day. Played basketball and hung out with the senior couples! They are so awesome! We had dinner with the Chamberlain's then went finding for an hour and had a lesson with Thibisa, we are starting to teach her about Christlike attributes!

Tuesday we had a lesson with a lady that we had tracted into, her name is Gloria, she comes from a baptist background and is very hard to teach. We taught her the restoration and for some reasons it wasn't clicking for her. Then we find out that she doesn't get the priesthood at all. She believes the Holy Ghost and priesthood are the same thing. She'll be a tough egg to crack. We had interviews with president as well, I had thought about questions I could ask him but nothing really stood out to me, except asking him for a blessing. So I did and in
the blessing he answered a question that I've had since my 2nd month mark. It was amazing! We did some tracting in the village of Fairport and we met Richard Plunkett and his family. They're Jamaican and interested in the gospel! Then we met Maryel, she's a little old lady who is about to be baptized Jehovah Witness but said she wanted a Book of Mormon! Then we had dinner with the Broadbent family! They threw me a birthday party! Haha it was awesome. They had all the LDS families in the neighborhood come over and hang out. We had Brother Broadbent come with us to a lesson to Sister Vaisey, but we got there and she wasn't home. So we said a prayer and asked god to lead us to people who need a message tonight. Elder Falter and I both thought of the
Ellsons, they are less actives but just baptized over a year ago. We went there and they let us in! And we had a really spiritual discussion about the temple. It was amazing.

Wednesday we did service at Saints Place! That's always a party! Ha we went out on the delivery truck! Always get interesting experiences while out in downtown Rochester! Afterwards we did studies then we had a lesson with Lela McCollough we started the ARP with her! She's has come along ways since I've been here, and it all really started once I got here. It's been cool to see her change. Best part of a mission! We got "the temple" by President Boyd K. Packer to give to the Ellsons! We had dinner at our apartment then we biked into Fairport! Takes about a half hour from apartment to the village on a bike. We tracted Frank Street and didn't have any luck. Rode our bikes home.

Thursday was a long day!  We had district meeting in the morning then we did exchanges, Elder Hallstrom came up to Fairport with me. We did lots of walking around and talking to people. We had a lesson with Sara, a lady we met last week. But as soon as we were getting ready to leave for it her boyfriend called and dropped us. Sad day. So we did more walking around and talking to people. We had a lesson with Sister Hurley, another less active. She's crazy! We talked about forgiveness with her and invited her to read the Book of Mormon. We had a lesson with the Peterson family, they are super awesome! We helped them set a family mission plan! And we ended the night street contacting.

Friday was a good day we exchanged back and did weekly planning, we had a lesson with Pam! We taught her the word of wisdom and she had already planned on quitting smoking next week! She has 2 left and she's not buying anymore. She's so excited to come to church and get baptized! We had a lesson with Jeff Ornt, another less active. He's a character, served a mission in Houston and has more knowledge about the scriptures than anyone I know. We decided to go to The Pines, this ghetto apartment complex and walk around the parking
lot, we ended up finding Felecia Stuart! She is really interested in the gospel and wants her twins to learn with her. She was leaving to Syracuse when we talked to her so we can't meet with her until after this week. She also said she wanted come to church! We had dinner at Chef Pizza with the Wards, that pizza was the best I've had in Rochester. We ended the night with some more street contacting.

Saturday was an interesting day. We rode bikes to Fairport in the morning and stayed there all day. We did street contacting, tracting. We had one lesson with Gloria and she wasn't home. We were waiting for Brother Evans, a member from the ward to come with us to teach Gloria and while we were waiting this guy came up to us and started to anti us, haha Brother Evans pulled up and got into the conversation and bore powerful and simple testimony and the guy loved us after! It was so awesome! Since Gloria wasn't home we did some more tracting, we tracted Roselawn  Cresent, just say I probably will never forget the street name because of what I saw in that street. Scarred for life. Don't answer the door while your breast feeding, Especially if your going to move the baby.... we helped Brother Young clean up his garage sale then we pedaled home for dinner! After dinner we stopped by Richard Plunkett's to see how he's doing and finished tracting his street! We went out and got gelato with. Brother Young! We helped Brother Batt with his personal mission plan as well.

Sunday was a great day! Services were great we had 2 investigators there! It was fast and testimony meeting. My favorite Sundays! 😊 love hearing the testimonies of others, rekindles mine. We did studies afterwards and had dinner with the Torres family! They are one of my favs! They're awesome! We had planned to go tracting and we were prompted to go to the Roselawn Crescent again.... but as we were walking to the street we walked past Brother Young's house and he was moving more stuff and we showed up at the perfect time! We helped him clear his house out! He paid us by giving us everything in his fridge! Don't have to go shopping today! Haha there is a less active named Ryan Reed, this is the miracle. So 2 weeks ago Ryan came to church and has just felt broken for the past couple weeks, he picked up the Book of Mormon and he's in Alma 50 and wants to be retaught everything. I have so much respect for him. He is turning his life around 180 degrees it's amazing to see. He's an example for me! Cause we all are changing constantly.

I bear my testimony to all of you that I know my savior lives. God is our loving Heavenly Father. He's knows us, he knows our nicknames. I testify that Joseph Smith is a prophet of god, he did more to put the affect of the atonement in place save it be Jesus Christ himself.vThrough the priesthood authority we can access heavens blessings. Howvgrateful I am to live in this last dispensation with a modern day prophet! I love this gospel, it truly is my life. I'm grateful for all the examples I have especially my savior Jesus Christ I strive to be just like him everyday. I'm grateful for the plan if salvation and the knowledge I have that I can spend eternity with my family. I'm grateful for the scriptures and they way they teach me to do good. Just as Nephi says in 2 Nephi 33:10. I love all you! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Judy