July 31, 2017 - Bed Bugs???? 😬 - Springville, NY

Hello from Arcade,NY!

Hope y'all had a good week! It was a crazy busy week for us here in FREEDOM. Lots of miracles and tender mercies. 🏼 God is good. Annnddddd I can't believe it's August tomorrow.... closing in on 1 year.

Monday was a blessed p-day. We spent it in Gowanda with Elder McCune and Elder Jones. We hung out at their church building and played some ball and emailed! It was good to hear from some of ya! Thank you for all the support!  After p-day ended we hit the streets of Gowanda! As district leader I get the opportunity to spend 24 hours with different missionaries within my district! I was Elder McCune. He's a stellar missionary! He's been out 6 months and already has the hang of things. I learned a lot from him! We were able to find 3 new people that night while walking around the small town of Gowanda! That was a tender mercy. They have been doing lots of finding lately and haven't had any luck! It was a good night, got dumped on while walking around and got soaked, we weren't going to let it slow us down tho! We kept going!

Tuesday, we were still with Gowanda Elders. Elder Jones is still a little green, he's been out about 4 months. But ever since he got to Gowanda he has had poison ivy and is getting blisters everywhere and it's super gross.  I spent the day with Elder McCune again and we got to do some teaching appointments with some recent converts in their branch. They've had a lot of success in their area the past couple of months! We had a lesson in our area at 4:00, but we got a call from the man saying he had a stroke and wouldn't be able to meet... so we were able to stay longer in Gowanda! The Gonzalez family fed us dinner. They are from Puerto Rico and they know Coelton Hammer (my cousin) "the missionary that fell off the cliff"!   Small world! They told me of how she had used his story for bearing her testimony before! Kinda cool! They are the coolest members there!  After we had dinner with them we did some tracting in their neighborhood and then had a lesson with Rebecca!  She's so awesome and feeds us every time we come over. We read her favorite pageant story out of he Book of Mormon, which 

is Mosiah 18. It was a good lesson!  We ended the night with Tyrone. We finally figured out what's holding him back from everything. He doesn't have a testimony of Joseph Smith... we are working on it now.

Wednesday morning we had interviews with our President Evans! It was really refreshing and good to get some pointers on how to be a better leader. Feels like I'm not good enough at times. (D&C 121) after interviews we had our weekly scripture study with Dennis! Then branch correlations! We are trying to come up with a program to get the members involved with missionary work! It's gonna be good we had a recent convert call us with some bad news about her heart... she needed a blessing so we dropped everything and went to see her. She was packing when we got there, preparing for her death... it was super sad.  We gave her a blessing and read the Book of Mormon with her. It made her happy and gave her a better look out on the trial she is going through.  We had dinner with the Cooper family! They are super awesome and returning to church!  We saw Sister Bain, she's also a less active who has recent wanted to come back to church. We shared a scripture study message with her. The branch clerk gave us a bunch of names to go see of the people still living there. We did some of the names in

Franklinville and ran into a lady who's name is Kristy. The man we were looking for didn't live there anymore,  but she was interested in what we had to say, took a Book of Mormon and a return appointment! We taught Jessie Sexton the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thursday we had district meeting in Gowanda! The STL's FaceTime in for a training. Then I gave a training in having PASSION, PERSISTENCE, and GRIT.   I used examples from the scriptures. I only had about 10 minutes
so I did what I could!  After district meeting we tried to contact a few people, then had dinner with Rebecca and we also had a lesson with her. We taught her about the importance of Christ in helping us get to the kingdom of heaven just as he was important for the leper to be healed so he could return to the city in Luke 5:12-13. It was a great lesson!  We ended the night with Tyrone, we watched the restoration video with him and helped him understand the restoration a little more.

Friday was a way scattered day.... it was rough. While doing weekly planning a member called and said they needed help unloading chairs out of their truck, so we drove 20 minutes to help them, came back and had
a lesson with Jodi Mason, the recent convert who might be dying... we taught her the plan of salvation and assured her everything would be okay. We did some finding in Delevan. Contacted a couple few people. Did weekly planning and had our last lesson with Rebecca for 2 weeks, she's off to Michigan for Air Force duties. Gonna miss her! She's literally the coolest person I have taught. I always ask god why I am lucky enough to be able to teach the people I do. We had dinner with the Gonzalez family again! Had a member lesson with the Owens then Rebecca took us out to ice cream!

Saturday was a good day! Spent the morning in Arcade, then we drove out to Springville to have lunch and a lesson with a less active that reached out to us. His name is Chris and he's 23 and has been a member for 4 years

but has been inactive for 2.  But he really wants to come back and knows the truth is found here. We had a good lesson about building our foundations upon Christ.  He works construction, so it kinda cool to be able to relate to him and show the similarities in building a house and building our testimony. We did some finding in Springville for a couple of hours. Handed out a couple Book of Mormons but no one who is really interested. We came back to

Arcade and had a lesson with Sister Scales, she's less active due to her health. We gave her a blessing. While we were in the lesson with Sister Scales, the Gowanda Elders called us and I took the phone call and they asked if I had any bug bites on my legs or arms, which I had... they said that they had found bed bugs in their apartment...
and we were there on Monday and Tuesday.... small chance we brought some back to Freedom with us... let's hope not!  We had a lesson with Ruth, we showed up and she was gone... we dropped by Katie's and finally, literally after 15 days of trying, we finally got in contact with her again. It was nice. It's been hit and miss for 2 weeks! We had dinner with Sister Becker. Also gave her a blessing. Had a lesson with the Tarantinos! They are a less active couple who are showing interest in coming back! Lots of reactivation work going on right now! It's
awesome! We ended the night at the church going through our area book, calling formers and potentials.

Sunday was a blessed Sabbath day, Elder Short gave a wonderful talk about being perfected in Jesus Christ. We had 2 investigators at church, one in our congregation and one in Michigan! Donna came to our service and Rebecca is out of town for Air Force but still made the time to go to church! She's so awesome! We are finally seeing success with gaining trust with members! We have regained the trust and are getting referrals! Today we introduced a new "game" Elders Quorum against Relief Society. The organization that gives the Elders the
most referrals wins a free cooked meal! It's gonna be awesome, already seeing success from it. Haha!  When there is food involved, everyone is on board! After church we did a little bit of finding, did studies then the Leffler family had us over for dinner! We did a little bit more finding then took the sacrament to Sister Mason. Read the scriptures
with her as well. We FaceTimed Rebecca and had a good lesson about the Ten Commandments! It was a great day!

While studying this past week I read a verse out of the Book of Mormon that struck me, 2 Nephi 2:2.  It says god will consecrate our affliction for our gain. I was thinking about that and how it's so true. Any hard time, trial or affliction that happens in this life, it's to help us improve ourselves and to draw us closer to Jesus Christ. I don't think I have ever gone through a trial and said that was a waste of effort or time. You always come out how God 

wants it to be. And it will always be to your gain.  God is loving and merciful. He loves all of us. He knows each of us by name, I know all this to be true.  ITS ALL TRUE!

Love,
Elder Judy

July 24, 2017 - PAGEANT 🎉🎊 / 11 MONTHS - Springville, NY

This week was better than Christmas!  We were so busy with lessons and pageant that we didn't have time to
think! It was wonderful!😬The spirit testified to me 1,000's of times this past week that this is all true. I love what I am called to do. ❤️

Monday was p-day, and it was the same ole thing.... hang out at the church and email and play the piano. Nothing too exciting. After p-day ended we had dinner and FHE with a less active family, the Coopers! They're super cool! We have been working with them for a little while and they are progressing so well! They read the Book of Mormon
stories every night before they put their kids to bed! After we visited with them we had a check list of people to call and things to do!

Tuesday was a blast! We got in contact with Gilbert kite, he's a less
active and turns out he's from Rigby Idaho! What are he odds? We had a
good visit with him. We went to machias to visit with Dennis Clark the
man in the nursing home, it's always awkward to teach people in those
things. But he's an awesome guy! He had a stroke 4 years ago and has
been in there ever since. Super sad. After our lesson with brother
Clark we drove back to arcade and met with Rebecca, she had gotten
into anti material over the weekend so this lesson was kids a setting
rules, and proving the things she saw wrong, luckily enough the spirit
was with us and we are still teach her!:) god  to is good! Then we met
up with the Cooper family and we went to palmyra watch pageant! Before
we watched pageant we took them to the sacred grove to let them have
here own personal revelatory experience. They said it was very
humbling. It was both of there first times there! So awesome! And
pageant was amazing! It was so cool to be back as a missionary and to
watch it with a totally different attitude than the first time I did.
It was kind a funny as well, everybody at pageant treated us like
celebrities! Haha everyone came and talked to us. It was kinda funny,
only got asked for a signature a few times. We got back to our
apartment at 1am...
Wednesday was another day for the books! We got to wake up at 7:30!
And we had a lesson with Dennis Raines, we read the Book of Mormon
with him! Then we had lunch and mossied on down to machias to teach
the Bain family, but they had bailed in us... so we dropped by set of
the people we are teaching down there, one of which is Thomas! He's
super cool and we were able to meet with him for a little bit! We
drove back to arcade and tried to visit with some people here but no
one was having it, so we went to the apartment and did weekly planning
because we weren't able to do it Friday morning! While do so the
Hansen family from home stopped by! It was really weird! Haha thanks
for the scriptures momma! After we finished up weekly planning we met
up with Rebecca and Jaylyn and they took us to pageant for the second
time! Before hand we went to the grove again and hey had a really good
experience and I think it helped them out so much! They also love
pageant! Who doesn't?! It's literally the greatest thing ever.
Thursday was district meeting in the morning and I gave a training in
some new rules that came out with president Evans at some conference,
the rule or standard is living the morning schedule, to help us become
consecrated! I used a talk from 2001 October general conference
called, beware of murmuring bay H. Ross Workman. It went well. After
district meeting we had personal study then we went to a preschool
type place and painted there walls! It was a lot of fun. And if you
guys have been hearing about the tornados that happens in New York...
it really! They went right through our area and destroyed a lot of
part of our area. 3 of them! So awesome! Haha after painting we had
dinner with the Owens, then a lesson with Ruth Garcia, she was a
former in our area book who saw us walking down the road and came up
to us and asked us to come over! We taught her the restoration and she
had good questions! We also had a lesson with Tyrone. He's in Date for
the 5 of august.... I don't know if he'll make it but we will sure
try! We read the Book of Mormon with him! And to end the night we
tried contacting some investigators but everyone had family in town.
Friday was really good, in the morning we meet up with the orchard
park elders and elder Griener and I went to Amherst for a district
leader meeting with president Evans! It was really cool p, there was
only 5  DL's so it was kinda lone one on one with President. He talked
about how we need to be setting the example for our districts by being
exactly obedient and being a preach my gospel missionary. One thing he
said will stick with me forever and I wanna ask you the same question.
"If you were in a room with someone, would they believe that you
believe that you know that this gospel is all true?" He asked that
question but asking if we believed in preach my gospel. It was a
spirit filled meeting! Lots of roll plays! They're my favorite! After
the meeting we had personal study then a lesson with the sansone's
there super cool but have some pretty lame excuse for not being
active. But they are returning and need us more than ever right now.
We had a lesson with them and then they fed us lunch! After our lesson
with them Rebecca had us over for dinner and lesson. Rebecca is like
the coolest investigator ever. Haha she's so prepared! We drove to
Lancaster to stay with the Zone Leaders for our Blitz with tomorrow.
Saturday was a good day! Elder Beardall and I hit the streets and
talked to literally everyone that was in or around our path! It was so
awesome to feel like a missionary again. I learned lots of things from
elder Beardall on our exchange, he's a great missionary. One of the
best! We had a contact that was like picture perfect, it was like a
solid role play with some one😂 we told her about the Book of Mormon
and asked if we could come and share more and she said she would love
to learn more and set up an appointment and gave us her contact info!
She's super prepared! We were able to hand out 9 Book of Mormons! I
love the days where you start out with a heavy bag and by the end
there's nothing left in it. It's the best feeling ever! Love being a
missionary!
Sunday was so awesome, Rebecca comes to church, and we had 5 less
actives there! It was wonderful! After strides and dinner, we did some
finding in bliss and found a couple people who are interested as well!
We ended the night with Rebecca and watch the restoration movie!
The spirit was very moving this week, I felt it multiple times
throughout each day. I testify to all of you that this is the restored
gospel of Jesus again on the earth today! I know it, and I know god
knows it and I cannot deny it. I love you all! Have a great week

Love,
Elder Judy

July 17, 2017 -🔁 - Springville, NY

Hello everyone!  

I hope you all had a great week! It was just another week here in the
freedom branch. Not a whole lot is new. Pageant did start this week! I
haven't gotten the chance to go yet... hopefully this week! I'm super
excited to be able to watch again, but this time it will be from a
missionary perspective, not a punk teenager.

Monday was a super slow and boring haha we sat at the church building
all day long and emailed and played the piano... not to much that
happened. The coopers, a part member family invited us over for dinner
and FHE. After FHE they need some help moving things around there
basement. We helped them out and they said they would like to go to
pageant with us! Looking forward to that. They have an 8 year old
daughter who hasn't been baptized. We had a lesson with them, we
shared the "good things to come" talk and video by Elder Jeffrey R.
Holland and sister Cooper was touched, she couldn't talk at the end
cause she was in tears and we invited them to come to church and they
said they would love to!
Tuesday was a really good day. We met with Dennis in the morning and
read some from the Book of Mormon, we met with another Dennis, brother
Clark and read from the Book of Mormon and talked about the
restoration  with him. He was baptized 4 years ago and had a stroke
right after and has been in a nursing home ever since... rough. We
spent some time in Machias contacting potentials and formers, some
less actives as well. Our afternoon appointments bailed on us, we
tracted park street in arcade and had dinner with the Gonzalez family!
There super awesome. We had a lesson with Rebecca, we taught her the
gospel of Jesus Christ, we talked more about baptism and she was kinda
hesitant... but I can see her doing it! She's solid! After our lesson
with Rebecca we contacted some more people and then cleaned out our
car a little before zone conference
Wednesday was zone conference! It was probably the best one I have had
on my mission. It was so good. We talked a lot about what president
Uchtdorf taught us and how we can use his teachings to become a more
consecrated missionary, that's the huge push in the mission right now
is becoming consecrated. And I love it. It's so cool! But
frustrating... weather it be your companion doesn't have the desire to
give it all to him or what... you just get held back and it's rough.
But there are reasons why we have the tool of prayer. To comfort us in
times of need and to ask for help. As of recently I have been studying
every conference talk, scripture story, literally anything I can to
learn how to become more consecrated and this meeting just topped it
off. It was awesome. It was reassuring. Lots of cool things are going
on in the NYRM right now. We had a speed walking competition, I did
and I'll admit... didn't have my game face on and came in tied for
last place... but it was fun, video below. I learned a lot of new
things that I will be applying in to my life to help me become more
dedicated to my lord and savior. One quite from the meeting
             "Be a Builder of the Restoration, don't sleep through
your mission."
I have promised myself that I won't waste a minute, I want to help god
build the restoration, cause it is still happening. Just because it
started in 1820 doesn't mean it ended in 1820... it'll end the day
Christ will come again. I hope you all want to be Builders of the
restoration.
Thursday was a wet day, in the morning it was down pouring... it was
really bad. We did some area book work and then wen t out to our
appointments, we had a lesson with sister tevis. It went well, she got
her birds out again and guess what... it crapped on me again in this
time it was right on the top of my head. I was so ticked. We had a
lesson with Katie! We finally were able to meet with her after 3 weeks
of not.. we read from the Book of Mormon with her and showed her the
video mountains to climb and she started bawling... she's had a rough
time lately. We planned that Friday we would fast with her to help her
get some answers for some life changing things she needs to do to be
able to be baptized. We did some mor cleaning up of our area book and
then had dinner with Rebecca and it was Elder Shaws year mark and he
burnt his shirt! We had a good lesson with her answered some of her
questions and different things. She's just so awesome, literally I've
asked myself more than once why is god blessing me with these awesome
prepared people to teach?! We went down to franklinville to see the
schadts but they stood us up against we dropped them... we did some
contacting down there to end the night.
Friday was a rough day.... we did our weekly planning session, it was
pretty productive. While we were doing companion study we got a text
from one of our investigators saying she isn't interested in
converting anymore, she had done her research.... but she said she
would like to talk about the things she had read and sent us the link,
we dropped everything and went to the library and looked up the link
and it was just a bunch of 💩... then we had a lesson with the sansone
and brother sansone really opened up to us and asked us all his
question and gave us his concerns and is giving us a week to study and
come up with answers. There kinda weird ones, it'll be interesting. We
had a lesson with Donna Eccles, we were going to teach her the gospel
of Jesus Christ but she had to many questions so we just answered her
questions. And while doing so both of my companions fell asleep... and
I taught the lesson by myself. Team work? Haha🤦🏼‍♂️ our branch
mission leader had us over for dinner, we are teaching there next door
neighbors and that's where we went after dinner! Then we called
everyone potential in our area book.
Saturday was a good day! We did lots of finding swigging through the
wheat and the tares. We saw sister Mason in the morning and read the
Book of Mormon with her. Then we went out and contacted a whole bunch
if people, and while we were walking down Main Street I talked to this
lady who has never heard of the Book of Mormon, so we told her we
could teach her more about it and be her guide to know it's true! We
have an appointment with her next week! We went back to arcade and did
some more contacting and while we were walking down the street there
was a lady who yelled over at us "are you the guys hat replaced the
sisters?" And she was across the street so I ran across and started
talking to her and it turns out it was Ruth Garcia. The First Lady I
dropped in this area! Haha now that she has met us she wants to meet
again so we have an appointment with her next week as well! We had a
lesson with Russel, he's a members husband. We read from the Book of
Mormon with him. Then we ended the night finding / more area book work
Sunday was a really good sabbath day, church was awesome! After church
we did our studies, and I prepared district meeting for this week.
Then we had dinner and then we went out to go see Katie, she didn't
answer the door... so we dropped by the littles and shared a little
lesson with them, and we dropped by our mission leaders house and they
gave us a snack and we shared a message with them! There awesome!

This week my eyes have been open on how I need to improve myself, I
have been called to labor with all my heart, might, mind, and
strength. Not to maintain to build. He restoration is still happening
today, temples are being built, people are still jumping on board of
the ship. The restoration is not done until the great Jehovah will say
it is. I love this gospel and I love my savior Jesus Christ. This is
the least I could do for him, considering what he did for me. I hope
you all have a great week! Love and miss you all! God bless
Love,
Elder Judy

Speed walk race @ zone conference

July 10, 2017 - Special Visitor! - Springville, NY

Hello everyone!  Hope all of you had a good week!:) This week was one for the books! Many miracles happened!

Monday was a pretty chill Pday. We didn't have any plans and just hung
out at our tiny church building all day and emailed. After Pday ended
we went to the Owens house down in the lake and had dinner and FHE
with them! We had a lesson with Tyrone, he's on date for august 5th!
He's doing well! We read the Book of Mormon with him to help him
understand it.
Tuesday was one of the best days of my mission, it was transfer day
and all missionaries met in palmyra and we switched around the
luggage, got Elder Shorts stuff then we went into the building and
took a picture with President Uchtdorf and his wife, then we got to
shake his hand! President uchtdorf also spoke to us, he talked about
having passion, persistences, and grit for life and work. The spirit
was so strong and it was such a privilege to be able to listen,
basically one on one with a special witness of Jesus Christ. I have
been able to here from 2 members of the first presidency while being
in my mission. Hopefully president monson can make it to the NRYM then
I'd have the whole first presidency!😂 after our meeting we got our
sack lunches then hit the road and made the 2 hour journey back to
arcade, we had dinner with the cooper family. We are helping brother
cooper build a picnic table. There so awesome, hopefully they will
start to come back to church. We took Elder Short around to a couple
people to introduce him to them. Then we went grocery shopping. Elder
Short is from San Diego, California he's been out on his mission for
20 months. He's super cool! It's been a good time so far.  It's was a
pretty good 4th of July.
Wednesday we had lots of lessons, we had our weekly scripture lesson
with Dennis! We saw a couple less actives and the littles, there
investigators that are also pastors of there own church.. the husband
is retiring soon and wants to have a congregation for afterwards so we
have been teaching them! We ended the day with Jesse sexton and carol,
they are so awesome. Jesse has stage 4 COPD and had a stroke on
Sunday, he has no toes. He's a pretty bear up man. We gave him a
blessing last week and he said ever since we gave it to him he's just
felt peace and knew everything was going to be okay, then he had the
stroke but he was comforted as he had it.... god is good all the time.
Thursday we had our apartment inspected by my favorite senior couple,
the Jeffries! There from Idaho as well! But we got an A! Mom you would
be proud of me!:) we had district meeting in gowanda and I had planned
a training to give and I started it off how I planned and the spirit
took over and did a whole other thing with drawings on the board,
scriptures, and testimony. It was pretty cool to look back and think
of what happened. So last week Elder Shaw and I Tracted into this lady
named Rebecca, she's a young mom of 2 kids and we had our appointment
with her today, she let us right in and we got to know her, she's in
the air force and she has been wanting to get her children and herself
back involved with religion and that's the reason why she invited us
back. We taught her the restoration and she believed that there could
be a prophet again on the earth, we invited her to church and she
invited us this Tuesday for dinner and a lesson! She's so cool. We had
dinner at the Owens again. We had a couple lessons in delevan that
fell through so we did some walking around contacting people, we
contacted Thomas, and he's the guy who pulled over in the side of the
road and asked for a Book of Mormon, well we dropped by today and
taught him the restoration, throughout the whole lesson he was saying
"that's amazing" when we told him about President Monson he said "wow,
there is someone lead by Christ that cares for me? Maybe this is the
religion that I have been looking for my whole life, the missing
peace."  It was a super spiritual lesson. We ended our night with the
buziak family, we taught them about building our foundation in Christ.
Friday we had a super good weekly planning session, best one in a
while! We did lots of contacting peeps in Sardinia, a little tiny tiny
town about 5 minutes away. We cleaned that place up so it is ready for
tracting in the next little while again. We had a lesson with Donna
Eccles we taught her the plan if salvation and we put her in date for
September 2nd. She's so funny, she's believes in the church and knows
it's the true Church of Christ but is hesitant to be baptized because
she doesn't think she will be prepared. She's an older lady as well.
The Gonzalez family fed us dinner, there the coolest. We had our one
appointment for the night cancel.... so we spent the night in delevan
walking and talking, tracting, and hanging up pageant fliers. Oh yeah
that starts this week! This weekend and next week, can't wait to go!
Hopefully we can get there.
Saturday we had branch correlation in the morning then we finished up
studies and had a lesson with Tyrone then we went to Sandusky and
tracted some, went to farmersville station and tracted some, no luck
today. Handed out a couple Book of Mormons but no return appointments
which is kinda sad. We tracted for about 2 hours, we had dinner the
Dahill family, there super cool and were less active for 10 years and
just came back about a year ago! There super strong. After dinner we
did some less active contacting on the way up to arcade, we dropped by
the earls and they let us in and we got have a really spiritual lesson
with them. We had a lesson with Russel Pritchard, he's a in actives
husband. He taught him about the Book of Mormon and how and why it's
important for our lives, we also invited him to read it daily, he said
he will give it a shot.
Sunday we had branch council in morning and after getting out of that
we walked in to the sacrament meeting room and saw Katie and her 2
year old son, Donna, and Rebecca with her 2 kids. It was so awesome! 4
at sacrament meeting. After church Rebecca invited us over for a 4th
of July party so we went over and had some lunch then did our studies
and cruised up to bliss and had a lesson with jack leffler, a recent
converts son who is now also on date for august 27th! We called some
members to set up appointments, no one answered. We had a lesson with
Becky and she finally read the Book of Mormon, I had a mini copy of
the Book of Mormon that I had studied and I was sharing scriptures
from it and she asked to she it, I gave it to her and she loved it! So
I just told her to keep it. Then we got home and I asked my companions
if I really just gave away a Book of Mormon that I had studied and
used a lot for teaching... they said yes. Oh well. She can use it more
than me. And happy birthday to my sister Ashley!😊
The past couple of weeks I have been studying about how I can become a
consecrated servant of the lord, I have read conference talks,
different stories in the scripture stories about consecrated
missionaries, Alma, Ammon, nephi, all of these people would do
anything for there god. And the meeting that we had with president
Utchdorf topped it off for me, the lords knows my desires of my heart.
I know that for a fact. I know he knows us by name, he knows us and
loves us. My favorite scripture is 1 Nephi 21: 15-16 it talks about
how a women, or person could forget there sucking child, then the lord
says I will never forget thee, I have written your name upon the palms
of my hands, he will never forsake us either, the lord is loving and
it forgetting. I love my savior Jesus Christ and would do anything for
him. I love all of you! And hope you have a fantastic week!
Love,
Elder Judy


Getty ready for the President Uchtdorf pic