August 28, 2017 - 1 Year Down - Canandaigua, NY

Hello everyone!

Hope you all had a good week! Elder Hardy and I have been working our hardest and saw lots of success this week! God is so good!

Monday was a good p-day, got to see a little bit of the solar eclipse.  The fire alarm of our apartment building went off at 2 in the morning so we took a nap in cause that took an hour of sleep away from us... haha Monday evening we had a lesson with Deongela Rhett, she's super cool and really trying to find ways she can come unto Christ. We
taught her the restoration and she believed it all and wants to be baptized! We had a lesson with Charles and Kristina, we taught them the first half of the plan of salvation.

Tuesday we had Zone Conference and Elder Hardy and I conducted the meeting... it was interesting, first time conducting a meeting. Zone conference was very inspiring though. I learned a lot from my leaders and the other missionaries there. President trained on Urgency, not having a sense of urgency but becoming urgent! It was awesome. The AP's trained on teaching and testifying as we find. And it was very revelatory. It's going to take this mission to the next step. Elder Hardy and I implemented the things we learned and god provided people for us to testify to as we were finding and we found 9 people to start teaching this week! It was so awesome! The Gulick family had us over for dinner. All of our appointments canceled and it was pouring rain but it was stopping no one. We knocked some doors and used what we learned and got 2 return appointments!

Wednesday we met and taught Tori, she is 17 years old and very interested in the gospel. We taught her the restoration and she expressed an interest of being baptized! It was so awesome. We did some contacting at the park next to the lake for a little bit. We had a lesson with Anita, a lady we met my first day here. We taught her
the restoration and she to also expressed the desire to be baptized.It was so awesome. God is good. We had an awesome gospel of Jesus Christ lesson with Tera, she loves everything we teach her. She's on date for the 23rd of September. We had a lesson with Steve, taught him the restoration also.

Thursday was a pretty slow day, we had an appointment in the morning with a returning member Brother Schwab. We had lunch then pounded the pavement for the rest of the day! We did some street contacting during the day and met Breanna! She's super cool and seems really interested. After dinner we went tracting in the city of Canandaigua.

Friday was a really successful day! We did planning in the morning and had a lesson with Tori! She committed to come to church! We went to the lake again for an hour. The lake is lots of fun! We did service for a family in the ward. Their son was just in a really bad car accident and broke his back and is in a wheel chair so we had to clear
a spot for them to build a ramp for him. Our appointments after dinner all fell through so we pounded some more pavement. We tracted Phoenix Street. We found a FAMILY! They just moved here from Texas! They are so awesome. Their names are Natalie, Jorge, and Alana!

Saturday was a good day! We saw Kristina and Charles in the morning and taught the last half of the plan if salvation. We helped a new family move into the ward. We met India Love while walking around the streets to an appointment and she told us to come to her house in the evening. We had a lesson with Deongela and invited her to church! We taught India the restoration and she's truly looking for the truth and said she would be baptized if she comes to know this was true! It was so awesome. We had our first lesson with Natalie and her family, we taught them the restoration and they loved it and said it made so much sense! We invited them to be baptized and they accepted!

Sunday was great, we had 3 investigators at church! And sacrament and Sunday school were great! After church we did studies and then went and did some finding. Met some really good people, but no one to interested. We had dinner with the Kolz family. We had a lesson with Steve again, we invited everyone in the house to come and listen to our message and got 2 new investigators from that! It was really cool.  It was a really good week.

This week I really learned the power of bearing our testimonies and testifying to people of a prophet again on the earth and god reaching out in love. Bear your testimony with conviction, mean what you say, be confident. The Book of Mormon accompanied by a sincere testimony is the most powerful thing in missionary work. God loves you all. I know this gospel is true.

Love,
Elder Judy

August 21, 2017 - The Daigua - Canandaigua, NY

Hello family and friends!

It's been a solid week. Canandaigua is awesome, it's the "promised land"!  The people here are awesome and the lake is beautiful! I love it here! The members here are also very awesome. Blessed to be able to serve here.

Monday was the day we got transfer calls, I got called to be a Zone Leader Sunday so I knew I was leaving Freedom, but didn't find out where to until Monday morning! I'll be serving here in the Canandaigua Ward, my companion is Elder Hardy, he's from Arizona! We came out together!  He's super cool, we are basically the same person. He loves to wakeboard and dirt bike, I think we will get along great! Haha Monday we dropped off Elder Short, and he flew home. Elder Shaw and I hung out with Rebecca most the day at mini golf and she took us to pizza, she's so awesome. I'll miss her tons! We had a couple lessons that night and had dinner with the Coopers, going to miss them tons!

Tuesday was transfer day! I got picked up in Amherst in the morning and then rode in the van with some elders to Rochester! I met my new companion, Elder Hardy! We came to the Daigua and got to work, we had a lesson with a new investigator named Ryan, we taught him the restoration and put him on date for the 16th of September! Solid. A nice couple, the Bishops fed us dinner! Afterwards we went and tried contacting a few people so I could meet them, we ended up finding Anita. She was walking her dog and we stopped her and had a good talk with her and will be meeting with her this coming week! We didn't have too much luck trying to contact investigators...  it was a good first day!

Wednesday was a day full of finding because of canceled appointments. We went to the lake in the morning and talked with people at the playgrounds and stuff.  We had a lady think we were preaching against racism... when we actually talked to her and told her we were Jesus people, she immediately asked what I thought about Trump. Haha Jesus is still king so it don't matter. Anyways, lots of really nice people just no one who is super interested. After lunch we went to Main Street and went street contacting. We got to talk to quite a few people! We found Kristina and Charles. Charles told us he was baptized at the end of last year but moved out of the ward and just lost contact. Kristina is a former investigator, who's interested! They are dating so we can take out 2 birds with one stone! We had dinner at our apartment, then back out pounding the pavement. Haha my shoes are trashed after this week. We did some tracting and contacting in a park. Then we had a lesson so we grabbed Kenny, a recent convert and brought him along with us. We got to the appointment and they weren't home... so we ended up taking Kenny tracting with us in his neighborhood. He's hilarious.

Thursday we had a lesson with a less active, Charles Schwab. He's super cool! Haha he's excited to be returning back to the church. We went to the lake again to do some more street contacting. Met a family from a ward in the Rochester area. Didn't have too much luck at the lake today. Talked to some good people tho.  We spent the rest of the day in the northern part of our area in Farmington. Had dinner at McDonald's. Came back to Canandaigua and gave a church tour to our most progressing investigator Terra. It was so awesome and very spiritual. She was introduced to the gospel by her uncle who is part of the seventy! Super cool! We had a lesson with Becky and Connor, a mother and son. They are super awesome! We taught the restoration and they love it!

Friday was planning day! Weekly planning is always good. After weekly planning we had a lesson with Ryan, we retaught the Apostasy and the Joseph Smith story to help him understand authority. He's got it now! He's excited for the baptism! We invited him and his wife that we have never met to church on Sunday. We had district meeting, it was really Good! Elder Thorpe gave a really good training in being consecrated! We had dinner at our apartment  then hit the streets again and tracted Gorham Street. Saw a younger lady pushing a stroller crying we talked with her and set up a time to meet with her on Monday. We also prayed with her! It was really cool. We contacted
Danielle Davis, she's another investigator. She's pretty flakey. But she told us at the door she wants to be baptized, so that'll be cool if it happens.

Saturday we did studies and then went to the church to do zone leader things. We had to plan out our zone conference. Then we went finding for an hour. Had lunch then cruised up to Farmington and met with a less active family the Wiedners. They are super cool and really want to come back. It was a blessing that we showed up. The mom of the couple was there and followed us out of the house and told us we had been prayed to their door. God is good. We did some contacting in a trailer park. Met a couple potentials who were down to meet but couldn't set
up a time. We met with Kristina and Charles and set expectations with them and taught them about the Book of Mormon. Did a little bit more finding, then GVB elders were down and came to dinner with us and Chuck, a returning member. After dinner we went and walked to a park and there was a bunch of people playing kick ball, they saw us and yelled over for us to come play, we made a deal with them that if we won we could share a 5 minute message about Jesus Christ. We ended up winning! Haha we shared a 5 minute restoration and there was one dude, Steven who was engaged and listening to us the whole time while we talked, all the rest were just there. Afterwards Steven came up to us and opened up and said he is really needing some help right now in his
life, we set up a time to meet with him!

Sunday was awesome! The members here are great! So we cover about 2/3 of the ward and then there are sisters that cover the rest. So it's been a lot of fun! Ryan, his wife and their daughter came to church and loved it! So awesome! They are so cool! I'm way excited for them. His wife is now going to be there when we teach him. After church we did studies then went and did some finding before dinner! Had  dinner at the apartment. Then went to the south part of our area. We contacted a member, the Pits family. Turns out President Pitts is the pageant
president! Super cool. We shared a message with them. We went to Cottage City and did finding for the rest of the night.  We met a guy who was so drunk he couldn't even walk, but he was jammin out to Nickel Back! You could hear it forever away. Haha it was pretty funny. Talked to a couple people who are interested that we will go back and visit! God is good and blessed us this week!

A huge part in being a member of this church is our testimonies. Let's
not hide them... bear them frequently to others with conviction! We
shouldn't be afraid for standing for the truth. God will be with you
and will fill your mouth. I love ya all! Have a good week!

Love,
Elder Judy

August 14, 2017 - Transfer Time 😱 - Springville, NY

Helloooooo!!

This week was another great week in the Freedom Branch! This place is awesome! I hope you all had a wonderful week and are a super Sabbath Day, the most important part of our week.

Monday was a great day! We had Zone Pday. We went up to Orchard Park and our zone met there and we hung out and played some basketball and lacrosse. It was a lot of fun! It's good to be with other people and in civilization for a wee bit. Haha after Pday ended the Gowanda elders came to Freedom and we blitzed our area. Elder Jones and I were together! He's a stud! We spent most of our night in Delevan! We saw lots of miracles. We found Heather while tracting and got in contact with a former investigator family!! Super awesome! It was a great day!

Tuesday, Elder Jones and I were still together and we had a solid day planned we had lots of finding time! Haha we actually ended up finding 2 more people to start teaching! We spent most of our day in the Franklinville area. The most south part of our area! We tracted Pine Street, that's where we found Melvin and Carey Ann! We did a little
bit of former contacting and got in contact with Shirley Miller, she's a member's niece and she said she would love to start over again! So we will see what fruits come from that! We had a lesson with Jessie Sexton, he sang us a song that he wrote about Christ. It was legit.  I'll send the video. After our lesson with Jessie we did a little more
finding then headed back up to Arcade for the day. It was a good time with Elder Jones, his a stud of a missionary!

Wednesday was a great day! We had services with Sister Sansone to start off the morning, we helped her plant some flowers and make a new flower bed in the side of her house! Then Elder Short had his exit interview. We had our weekly scripture study with Dennis Raines, he's the nicest guy you'll ever meet. We had our studies, in personal study lately I've been studying the Book of Mormon, and also Elder Holland conference talks... I recommend "Safety for the Soul. My favorite! After our studies we went to Machias for some lessons, our first one
was with Bob Mossier and he canceled because he wasn't feeling well at all. So we drove across the highway and started tracting Hazelmere for 45 minutes or so. Then had a lesson with the Bain's. On the way back to Arcade we did a little bit of less active contacting but had no luck. During dinner a member called and said her mother was in the Springville hospital and needed a blessing. After our dinner hour we headed over to Springville. We gave her a blessing then shared a message about trials and facing them with faith and patience. We spent the rest of the night in Springville. We walked over to the trailer park to contact a man that Elder Shaw and I found our first day in the
area. He was home but was busy. His name is Don Weight. We ended up finishing the trailer park out. We tracted into Irene. She is from Austria and has a super thick German accent. It was awesome. Couldn't really understand,  but she took a Book of Mormon and she asked if we could get her a German one and wants to learn more!

Thursday we had district meeting right after studies. It was over in Gowanda this week. I trained on using our area book for finding, and also how to set goals. I used the scripture 1 Nephi 5:5. I invite you to read it and see how that applies to goal setting. After district meeting we had service with the Owens, they have a friend who is 84 years old and keeps falling while walking up their stairs. They wanted to do it before transfers just in case if I got transferred cause I'm the only one who knows what to do with construction stuff. We got there and I expected to start building a hand rail, but they hadn't even bought material yet. So I had measure it all out and drew it up and figured what we would need. Then they took us to Lowes with them to buy the material. Hah it was just weird. Didn't start the hand rail today. The Owens fed us dinner. We had a lesson with Tyrone. He's getting frustrating to teach. We did some contacting in the village of Arcade then walked home for the night!

Friday was a good day, planning in the morning and canceled appointments in the afternoon giving us the opportunity to go out and find people! I was very strongly prompted to talk to a man on his porch, I started talking to him and he accepted a Book of Mormon. We got to talking a little more and he started to express how he didn't
know if there was a Christ and different things like that. Good thing that's our job is to invite people to come into Him! :) We have a return appointment with him! We went and started and finished the hand rail as well! They are grateful that they don't have to continue risking their lives going up and down stairs now! They fed us dinner
as well. After dinner we had a lesson with Becky. We had a really good spirit filled lesson with her! We taught her more about the plan of salvation, she has so many questions about it! She is super confused about all this stuff tho, I feel really bad for her.  One of the crazier experiences of my mission happened tonight as well. We felt very
strongly that we need to go see Sister Mason. We went down there and she was home and we got to talk with her a little but the whole time I could sense something was wrong. She started losing her breath and couldn't get it back and started having chest pains. We gave her a blessing and called 911 and she was hauled away in an ambulance.

Saturday was a pretty good day!  We had branch correlation in the morning then a lesson with Sister Scales, we do a scripture study with her as well! Then we had lunch with the Coopers and they wanted us to help them build a picnic table, so we stayed a little longer and helped them. Oh and super cool, the Coopers are now preparing for the temple and for their 8 year old daughter, Vera to be baptized! We then contacted some less actives around the Cooper family. We had dinner at our apartment then went to Delevan to have a lesson with the lady, Heather that Elder Jones and I tracted into. She was home but was walking out the door as we were walking up.... she is still
interested! But she forgot about our appointment. We contacted some other people that we have been teaching but haven't seen in awhile. Same as less actives! We finally got in touch with Sister Mason's daughters family. We are going to help them with remodeling their house next week!

Sunday was a great Sabbath Day, the Coopers were at church! They had to leave a little earlier because Stephanie had to work. Right after church we had a lesson with Sister Buziak. She's not active but wants to prepare for the temple and things like that. We had a good talk about what she needs to do to get herself there. We had our studies then had dinner with the Leffler family. Since Elder Short is leaving he has to do a program called "My Plan". It's where you set a bunch of goals for when you get home and it takes 6 weeks to do. But he had to
do it 2 weeks, so after dinner we went to the church so that he would be able to finish the program. And while we were at the church we got a text from President Evans asking me to call him.... I gave him a call and he told me the lord has called me to be a zone leader!  I guess we will see how this goes. Haha I'm excited. We haven't found
out what area yet, we will soon. We had a lesson with Rebecca, said goodbyes and taught her about the godhead.

Something I have learned this week about the godhead is that we have to involve all 3 in our lives somehow. To be able to receive those blessings we need to have personal relationships with each member of the godhead.
Father: to have a personal relationship with the father we must pray to him in the name of the son, that is the only way that we will be able communicate with him. 

Jesus Christ: to have a personal relationship with the son we must
read his words, the scriptures! In John 1:1 Christ is referred to as the word. By reading the scriptures it gives Christ the opportunity to talk to use and enlighten us. 
Holy Ghost: to have a relationship with the Holy Ghost we must keep the commandments, that is the only way he can remain with us constantly is if we are following the commandments and rules of god.
I invite all of you to have a personal relationship with each member of the godhead, pray daily, read the scriptures daily, and try your best to keep the commandments of god, as we do what the lord says he is bound, but if we do not what he says we have no promise.

I love you all!

Love,
Elder Judy

August 7, 2017 - Heelllllooooooo!!! - Springville, NY

Hey y'all! This week In Freedom was great! Lots of lessons and member missionary work! Started teaching 2 people who were referred to us by members!

Monday was a good p-day, we spent lots of time at the church like always! Haha!  We had dinner with the Meyers. Sister Meyers is a member, not active and loves missionaries coming over. We helped them with a little bit of farm work then had a lesson with Tyrone! We taught Tyrone about prophets and the need for one. He's coming around, slowly but surely.

Tuesday was a day full of little miracles! We were able to get in contact with a former investigator! Bob Mossier, he's a member's father and is super anti against the church, well that's what we thought... we set up an appointment with him and will be teaching him the restoration!? God works in mysterious ways. I was shocked!  Katie canceled our appointment... we had a lesson with Sister Tevis! We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ, she's improving so much. It's so cool to watch! Next step is to come to church! We had dinner with the
mission leader, then had correlation with him. We did some area book work to start cleaning our area up some, then had a FaceTime lesson with Rebecca! We taught her the law of chastity.

Wednesday was a day chuck full of lessons, we had 8 planned and 6 of them went through! In the morning we read scriptures with Dennis then had a lesson with Sister Mason. She's less active due to health and is having some really bad complications recently, we go read to her to help her have peace! We had our lesson with Bob and it went great! He agreed with a lot of what we taught and accepted the invitation to be baptized! Super awesome! We drove up to Boston, NY to contact a referral that we had a set lesson with and he bailed.... so we had dinner in Springville then headed back to Machias and had a lesson with the Bain's family, they are a returning family. They are super awesome.  We answered their questions about the gospel of Jesus Christ, Faith and Baptism. We tracted Franklin Street in Franklinville, no luck. Handed out a Book of Mormon. Went to Jessie Sexton's and he had to cancel when we got there, we spent time contacting people for the rest of the night in the village of Franklinville.

Thursday, we had district meeting in Freedom! I gave a training on teaching simply. Afterwards we had lunch and finished up studies, then we walked into the village of Arcade and tracted Park Street and had a lesson with Tyrone. We did another lesson on prophets but had it centered in the Book of Mormon. We stopped by Becky's and she let us in!  We had a prophets lesson with her as well! We had dinner with the Bain's. We did some contacting and finding in Delevan, tracted Grove Street. At 8 o'clock we went to the church for wifi so we could have a
FaceTime lesson with Rebecca! This lesson we figured out how she liked what we taught and how she was feeling about it all.

Friday we planned in the morning and had a good session of it! Robert King, a member of the branch here took us out to lunch! Then we went out and got dumped on.... so we went to the church and cleaned up our area book. I texted literally everyone in our area book. It was ridiculous! Haha and only a couple people texted back.... we had dinner with the Miess family in Springville. We don't get to go to Springville too often so we stayed the rest of the night there finding. Their son Isaac is 16 and I got to take him out with me and we divided up and Isaac and I went one way and Shaw and Short went the other! It was a lot of fun. It was Isaac's first time out with missionaries. I took him tracting and he loved it!

Saturday was a nice day, we had a lesson with Sister Scales in the morning then met up with John Leffler, a recent convert. And he drove us all the way down to the bottom of our area to Black Creek. And again we all got out and John and I were companions and we tracted out Black Creek together! It was a lot of fun. It was John's first time out with missionaries as well. Got to break in 2 people this week! John and I had some really good contact with people but the problem is they live an hour away and we don't have the miles or the members to take us down there twice a week to teach them. We were on a mission for this cause tho, the Wellsville elders called us and said they had found someone in their area that lives in Black Creek but didn't get her address, so they told us to go tract out the town looking for her.  That's exactly what we did, but with no luck! Haha! We had another lesson with Rebecca! She's so awesome! We taught her the word of wisdom!

Sunday was a long day, we had a interesting church meeting.... it was bad. Haha! We had lots of less actives there!  After church we did studies then headed out contacting people cleaning up our area. We tracted in 

Delevan on the way to an appointment. We gave Sister Mason the sacrament! Had dinner with the Coopers! We talked to them about going to the temple and their daughter being baptized and they loved the idea and 

want to start working towards it! So awesome! And we saw Becky before the night was done, we answered her questions and read the Book of Mormon with her!

Life in the NYRM is going well! The church is true, there is no doubt in my mind. Read the Book of Mormon everyday! You won't regret the blessings you'll receive! Love you all!

Love,
Elder Judy