September 25, 2017 - Transfer Time - Canandaigua, NY

Hello family!

Another week gone and in the books here in the Daigua! This place is awesome. Spent lots of time finding, teaching and testifying to people on the streets, it's one of my favorite things to do. I love being a
missionary!

As for transfers, Elder Hardy and I will be staying. But the sisters are leaving so we will have the whole ward to ourselves... it's a massive area now. But we are excited to see the miracles and blessings from it!

Monday was a great day!  We had a district p-day, the Penn Yan elders came up and the sisters came and we all partied! We had lunch on the beach and enjoyed ourselves! We had dinner at the Record's they are a really cool family who reminds me a lot of mine. They love to hunt and dirt bike! We did some tracting that night and met John and Karen! We sat down and taught them the whole restoration and they said it's very interesting and would call us... kind of a bummer but it's okay. We had FHE with the Labombard family.

Tuesday was a greaaattt day, we did lots of door knocking, seems to be the thing to do now a days. Haha the end of last week and the beginning of this week we had a huge lack of talking to people. Just another one of those tests god gives to us. But we endured it well and we're blessed with 5 people by the end of the week! But as of today,
lots of hard work and not much to show for it. The pageant president,  President Pitts had us over for dinner! They are super awesome. And we had lessons the rest of the night, we taught Kris and put her on baptismal date for October 28th. And we taught a lady named Colleen we met over the weekend and put her on baptismal date for October 28th as well! God is good!

Wednesday I was on exchanges with Elder Broadhead in Geneva! It was lots of fun. Things in that area are super slow right now but we were able to get 8 phone numbers and a couple return appointments! It was awesome, god provided for us. Serious missionaries are gods favorite missionaries😉 we saw some miracles forsure. We will see if people keep their commitments! Elder Broadhead and I are really good friends we served around each other for 3 months and got really close and he's going home tomorrow. Gonna miss the guy!

Thursday was a really good day! We had a lesson with Brother Schwab! Then our bishop gave us a call and said a sister in the ward, her mom needed a blessing. We showed up at the hospital and Sister Bagley brought us up to the room and her mom was having a brain bleed... and was brain dead. We gave her a blessing and left. It was a cool experience. We had a lesson with Kris, she's on date. And progressing very well! We did some finding, knocking doors. Then had dinner with Bro & Sis Edwards. It was a good day!

Friday was a good day, we had some planning of course. We did an hour of service for a neighbor. Then went out and did some more knocking! That was the theme of the week! Had dinner with the Halls and then had some lessons to end the night.

Saturday was a day... it was spent in Penn Yan with Elder Thorpe! Not a lot of work is going there either. But we found 3 people! It was great! Elder Thorpe is a great missionary. We did lots of door knocking and talking to everyone. It was a good day. We put in lots of hard work!

Sunday was a great day! Natalie and George and their family came to church! And Kris came as well! It was awesome! We also did some finding today and found 2 people! Loving my mission and the miracles that god is doing in my area!

Love you all so much! Thank you for the support!

Elder Judy

September 11, 2017 - God Is Good! - Canandaigua, NY

Another week in the books. Hope you all had a great Labor Day! It was a really good week in Canandaigua! Loving it here!

Monday, we had the Labor Day picnic with the ward at the Ontario County Park. A beautiful park that is high on the mountain top with a sweet view! We had good conversations with ward members and were able to build a little relationship. We had a night full of appointments that canceled. We did a little bit of finding and ended the night with
a half active family doing family home evening! It was a good kick start to the week.

Tuesday we had a really solid lesson with Deongella. She was telling us how she didn't know if this was right for her and all these things... and described a sense of following the world, so I was able to use my favorite New Testament story of Jesus Christ walking on water, and Peter wanting to walk with him and sinking from being
distracted from the winds and waves. I was able to compare that to her in the situations she is going through and she loved it, to the point she is now preparing for October 14th as her baptismal date. So awesome! Her closing prayer was the most sincere heart-felt prayers I have ever heard. It was great! That night walking to the church building there was a dude in the cemetery that we started talking to. His name is Parker and we had a good conversation about life. We brought in the gospel and taught him the restoration and testified of the Book of
Mormon and the power within it's pages and he was hooked. He kept eye contact the whole time and loved it. We got his contact info and will see him later in the week!

Wednesday was a great day! We taught John, a recent convert about the sacrament and how to make it meaningful and more of a personal experience. We had district meeting! It was great! We had a couple
lessons and did some finding before dinner. After dinner we did some more finding and got caught in a massive rain storm...   We had a lesson with Natalie, Gorge, and Alana. We taught them the law of chastity, they aren't married but we really supported them in knowing that they could do it before the 30th of this month. It'll be hard but
we know they can do it. We had Brother and Sister Fallentine come along. It was great!

Thursday morning we had a lesson with Brother Schwab, a return member. He's such a good guy! We've met lots of good guys who are now interested in the gospel. God has been blessing us so much! It's awesome. We found 7 new this week! We had another lesson with Deongella and we taught her the plan of salvation. As we were talking about the Atonement she stopped us and asked if we felt that... and began to cry and said she has never felt this much peace in any other church. That was another witness to me the truth of what we have. It was cool. Very
humbling. Be grateful for what you know and feel to be true.

Friday we did some planning for the week and had a few lessons. It was a slow day. Didn't see much but we gave it our all and knew god was proud as I laid my head down to rest.

Saturday was a day chuck full of lessons. It was gnarly. Some of them fell through but we were able to follow the spirit of god to lead us to some more prepared souls. It was a good day!

Sunday Deongella came to church and loved it! It was her second time and she loved and was telling everyone about her baptism on the 14th of October. It was so awesome, she's so prepared and ready for the gospel. She even went to a self-reliance fireside that night. She has been taking notes while at church and while we teach her. It has been cool to see her change. We had dinner with the Watkins family, defiantly the coolest family I've met here! They are super cool, we had a good time with them. God is blessing us so much. Pays off to work hard and be obedient.

This week I have really been thinking of ways to make the sacrament more meaningful, and through lots of prayer and thinking the thought of reading The Living Christ came to mind.  I did it this past week and man did it work. I would invite all of you to think of ways to make that hour of one-on-one time with your savior more meaningful and
experience you want to look forward to each week. God is good. It's all true.

Love,
Elder Judy

September 4, 2017 - Fall is Here! - Canandaigua, NY

Hello! This week was great! We saw so many miracles! God is good! Canandaigua is a super cool town and I'm loving the people and the work here.

Monday was a good day! We cleaned out our apartment most of the day. All the clutter from past missionaries is gone and our apartment is squeaky clean! We spent a little time emailing, then had dinner with the Weidner family. They are so awesome! They are inactive but working towards returning. After we had our lesson with them we had a lesson with Kristina and Charles and we put Kristina on date for the 14th of October.

Tuesday was a good day! We spent all day finding. Met a guy named Bryan who loves the Hill Cumorah Pageant and the Book of Mormon but doesn't know if it's something he wants to change for. We invited him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and we will follow up in a little bit. After dinner we had a lesson with Tera Dusenberry. We taught her some of the commandments. We had Sister Davenport come along! It was so awesome. Afterward our appointments canceled so we were stuck to finding and teaching people on the streets!

Wednesday was good we had lots of finding again, we had district meeting! Elder Thorpe gave a good training on following the spirit in lessons and finding! Helped us and motivated us to pray more while we are out and about. We did some street contacting on Main Street, had dinner then our appointments fell through again. (Theme of the week)  so we did some more teaching and finding on the streets! We had a lesson with Natalie, Gorge, and Alana. We taught them the plan of salvation. It was really good. We had Sister Watkins come with us and the spirit was so strong. That little family is such an awesome and cute family. Big plans for them.

Thursday we did weekly planning in the morning and finding in the afternoon! The Meadows family fed us dinner then we went out and did some more teaching on the streets. We had a lesson with Steve and Desirea. We read Alma 32 with them and talked about faith and how to gain it. They said they wanted to come to church! Which was a huge shock, they both don't really have a belief in god or Christ so it's been cool to see their desires to change.

Friday was a really good day! We had MLC, all the zone leaders and STL's meet with president once a month and we go over goals and actuals and give trainings on things to improve and move the mission forward. Elder Hardy and I were chosen to give a training on finding, teaching, and testifying. It went well. It was kinda scary. My first
time to MLC and I was giving a training! Haha after MLC we came back to our area and have dinner with the Bishops, they are an awesome old couple that has us over once a week. We did some finding after dinner
then we went and had a lesson with Deongella, we taught her the restoration again. And invited her to be baptized and she was super stoked and asked when. We didn't want to set a date cause there's some things we need to work through. We are bringing her to the sites soon.

Saturday..... haha we defiantly tracted every hour of the day.

Sunday was a good Sabbath day, best fast Sunday I've had on my mission. There was something different about today where I was just filled with the spirit once I opened my fast until I closed it. It was nice:) but it was also a really good fast and testimony meeting. After church we did some tracting and got turned down. Then we went to
dinner with the Pitts. They are a way cool couple. President Pitts is the pageant president. So yes I had dinner with the Hill Cumorah Pageant president, perks of serving in the NYRM. Haha he was the mission president to the Provo Utah Mission. And he inspired us, gave us really good advice we will and already have implemented. Then we went out and pounded the pavement and after 4 hours of finding God led us to the one prepared person at the end of the time. 4th floor. Last door. Always. Haha we had another lesson with Natalie and Gorge! This hour dispelled all the bad thoughts I had about this week. God provided. We had Brother Watkins come along and we read the Book of Mormon and then taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ and as we were talking about baptism Brother Watkins took over and invited them to be baptized on the 30th of September.... it was crazy. He also gave us some really good advice on what we should do now. This ward is awesome.

Even though we spent a lot of time knocking doors and working our hardest to find people to teach, I felt peace every night after a hard day of work. I went to bed dog tired but overwhelmed with peace and joy. I don't think I've heard so many people bring up revelation "do not add to this book" the opposition as you go closer to the sites is
greater. It makes for a fun challenge to find the prepared people. Lots of faith and compassion, persistence, and grit to get the work done. I love you all! Have a good week!

Love,
Elder Judy