October 31, 2017 - Bye Bye Fall - Canandaigua, NY

Hey y'all! 

Hope it was a good week back home! This week was great! met lots of new people and saw so many miracles. God is good. I can truly say... if you want more faith, be more obedient.

Monday was a great p-day! We spent lots of time cleaning up our apartment and rearranging the furniture and making it more comfortable. We had dinner with the Gulick family, they are super awesome. Monday night we went to this little village south of Canandaigua called Cheshire. We met Julie there! We were able to share a message with her and helped her understand the importance of the Book of Mormon, it was awesome to see her face light up when we taught her about the restored gospel.   We ended the night doing some finding in the city of Canandaigua.

Tuesday was such a good day! We had so much success, the spirit was within our planning session that day! Haha we met lots of new people and found 7 people to begin teaching! It was awesome! We did lots of street contacting at the lake and tracting later in the day when people were home. It was a good day! We had dinner with President and Sister Pitts. They're the greatest! We did some finding on some old country roads, and ended the night with Chris and teaching her!

Wednesday we had district meeting, it's always good to see the Penn Yan Elders. Elder Griener gave a great training! We did lots of tracting and finding. Our lessons during the day fell through... it was good tho! We tracted Ontario Street and met Jeremiah, he has lots of really good questions about who god is and the role he has in our
lives. So we set up a time to meet with him! We had dinner back at the apartment and then went and did some  more finding.  We ended the night teaching Colleen, she's so great! GOLDEN.  We had President Pitts come
along and we taught her the word of wisdom. It was great! She accepted and is going to start working on not drinking coffee and she's already began to quit smoking! She had no problem with it what so ever! She's
great!  We had a lesson fall through right at 8 o'clock, so we said a prayer and followed the guidance of the spirit and god lead us to Thisn Street and the first door we knocked on, Dave opens the door and I said "Hello! We are the local Mormon missionaries..." he looks at me right in the eyes, "Oh! Come on in..."  We were able to comfort Dave in times of death in his family and shared a powerful message with him.

Thursday we went to the Fayette district meeting and got to have it at the Peter Whitmer Farm. Pretty cool. Then we went on exchanges, I was in Geneva with the elders there. Elder Emry and Elder Kelley. I had the opportunity to serve with them for the day! Elder Emry is close to going home and this is Elder Kelley's first transfer. We had
a good time talking to everyone and setting up lots of return appointments! Geneva is a cool little town (we went to the pizza place we went to while we were here for pageant as a family!! How cool is That?! Haha) I was able to give a baptismal interview to one of their investigators who's preparing for the 11th of November. It's always
humbling to interview someone for this sacred ordinance. It was a good day in G-town.

Friday I came back to Canandaigua and helped the senior couple Elder & Sister Jeffries move the sister's apartment. The Jeffries leave this week... they are going to be missed. The new couple, Elder & Sister
O'brian are from Driggs, ID so that's super cool!  They are awesome. We got to help them move furniture for the morning then we did some weekly planning and then went out and pounded the pavement for a little bit. Knocked some doors. Got flipped off by a 87 year old man... it was hilarous. Haha Friday night we had lessons with Chris and Colleen.

Saturday was a great day! Met some new good people! Met a weather man in Syracuse, who is interested in learning more! We did lots of tracting today. Love it! We had dinner with the Meadows family. Then we had a
lesson, and did a little more finding before our lesson with Matt.  We taught Matt the plan of salvation. He ate it up! He's loving all the things we teach him and is excited to be baptized at the end of November.

Sunday was a great day, I gave a talk in sacrament meeting. The youth speaker took about 30 seconds.... and Sister Johnson took about 7-8 minutes... so I was left with about 30 minutes to fill all by myself... haha I basically just chucked the plans I had and said a prayer and stood up and talked about ways of showing faith and what faith is. I filled 28 minutes. Good enough right? Haha it was ridiculous! Matt came to church in his sweet bright baby blue suit! It was awesome. All It rained all day and we had no lessons planned... so it was one of those days. But we were expecting miracles. After dinner we decided we would tract in this certain neighborhood. After about 40 minutes of rejection, we knocked on Ken's door and immediately he let us right in and we taught him the restoration. He's so interested it's a miracle! God is good! And later that night we met JP and he also let us in and we were able to share the restoration and give him a Book of Mormon! It was such a good night!

Monday was freezing. Haha no more sunshine for a long while. Here in New York it's overcast 98% of the winter. Yay. But it doesn't stop us from pounding the pavement! We met Dieter, we tracted into him and we were able to share the message of the restoration with him! It was awesome! We did a little bit of tracting. Did some service for a
member, Sister Record. She's the relief society president. Had Chinese dinner. Had a lesson with a family that was former investigators and want to get back into it! We also dropped by Ryan McNeal, he's a guy that I taught when I first got to the area and he's still really interested in the gospel! So we are going to start teaching him and his wife again! It was a successful day! We did some tracting in an old apartment building and we were talking to this guy and this young lady walked behind us and around the corner to her apartment and I went and talked to her and it turns out she is searching for what she needs to believe in. She was looking stuff up about higher powers an
hour before I talked to her. I was able to teach her the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon and she set up a time for us to come teach her more! Success!

This week I started a challenge of reading the Book of Mormon in 10 days! I'm 4 days in and ahead of the schedule! It's so cool to see how the stories go right along and how much more I've learned as I read it like a book and reading it for that reason.

Showing faith in being obedient to the commandments of god is the single most important thing we can do in this life to help us prepare to meet our god again. Being more obedient brings unwavering faith in your savior Jesus Christ. Just over the course of 2 weeks I've seen huge changes in the way I pray, in the way I act, and how I study the words of Christ. It's a beautiful thing. I LOVE my savior Jesus Christ with all my heart.

Love,
Elder Judy

October 23, 2017 - New York Rochester Miracle Mission! - Canandaigua, NY

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic week! It was another great week of serving my Lord!

Monday was a good p-day, we cleaned the apartment and car. Feels so nice to have everything spotless. Haha we hung out at the church for a little bit and emailed and shot hoops. We spent Monday night in finding mode for the first hour. Then we had a lesson with Colleen and Sheena! We taught more about the Book of Mormon and gave Sheena her copy. It was awesome! They are great! We had President Pitts come along, he's the pageant president!

Tuesday we had another zone conference, it was a follow up to the mission tour of Elder Bennett. And president is emphasizing the white handbook and how it's the way to miracles! So we have some new rules, we can only email for 1.5 hours on p-day, also the dress code, had to get rid of some ties and pants! It's okay tho! Doing it for the lord,
sacrifice is worth it. Specially for the miracles that have been happening in this mission, and it's only the beginning. After the meeting we had some finding and dinner. We also had another lesson with Sheena and Colleen, Sheena wasn't feeling good but came and sat in at the end. She had read up to 1 Nephi 12 and did the quiz of the plan of salvation on the back of the pamphlet! She's golden! We had a lesson with Chris. We are preparing her for her baptismal interview!

Wednesday we did some service in the morning for a former investigator. They had us bury this 6 foot deep hole in their yard dug by a tractor.... so it was huge and they had us using our hands and shovels to bury it. Haha it was ridiculous. We had a lesson with Kristy, then saw Kenny Eib. He's a recent convert to the ward, was baptized in February! Then we headed off to Gates/Chili to blitz the assistants area. I was with Elder Davis, he's from Kansas! Just outside of Kansas City. He's a great man! He came out in the same group I did. Lots of the people I came out with are in leadership. It's awesome. We spent our time that evening in the nicer part of their area and we did some tracting. We met some really great people and got them some more people to teach!

Thursday I was still with Elder Davis! Today we spent all of our time in the ghetto of Rochester. It was awesome. Haha talked to tons of people and even met a prophet... ha Job Smith. He's a great guy! Thursday evening we spent back here in Canandaigua we did some tracting and then we had a lesson with Rex. He's a great guy!

Friday was a good day of planning and was an all around really good day, super nice weather so we went to the lake to talk to people and we found a ton of new people to teach! One lady named Allie was a huge miracle on how the contact happened. Elder Hardy was talking to people on a swing and I saw Allie walking away from us so I took off after her and stopped her. I asked her if she's ever heard of the Book of Mormon and began to testify of its truthfulness. Then I pulled out a scripture that I wrote on a note card that morning, Mosiah 24:14 and that just hit home for her and she took a copy and we are going to teach her now! God is good! I love the Book of Mormon. ❤️  We had dinner with Chris, she fed us steak! We had a lesson in Bloomfield with Matt, he is the man! He's my homie! I love this guy! He's had really cool experiences with the Book of Mormon changing his bad moods into good when he reads it in the morning! So awesome! We also had another lesson with Colleen, she told us right before our appointment Sheena had gotten arrested.... there goes our golden investigator... Colleen is an awesome missionary tho and brought along another one of her friends that we are going to start teaching now!

Saturday was a really good day! Spent a lot of time running the streets of Canandaigua. We spent time at the lake again. Not too much luck. It's hit or miss there. Had a church tour with Colleen! She loved it and is preparing for baptism on November 11th. We had dinner with the Simpson family! They are so awesome, their son Ammon is 8 and has been dieing to have a dart war with us so we had a little nerf war before dinner. Haha Saturday night was spent knocking doors until 8:30 cool story: knocked on this guy's house and he let us in, not interested just wanted to show off his car in his garage. Haha let us sit in his lambo! Crazy! then we went to see Chris and did one last run through of the questions for baptism!

Sunday was a great Sabbath day! Chris and her daughter Sam came to church! After church we hit the ground running, had a lesson with a kid we met at the lake, named Mahommad. Speaks no English... so that was hilarous. Downloaded gospel library and got it in Abric for him. Haha our 4 o'clock appointment fell through so we got to do some more finding. What a blessing! We had dinner with the Weidner family. They bought us Subway... haha it was a crazy day for them. We did some tracting in this neighborhood in Farmington and we didn't even get to get one word out before every door was slammed in our face. Haha until the last door this little old man comes out and talked with us he's a very nice man, but catholic. Ha! It was a really good day! Chris was interviewed by President Evans, because she's on probation she has to get approved by first presidency. Sad, but it'll be so good for her!

The greatest saying in the world: "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me... when the light rested upon me I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other — this is my beloved son. Hear him!"

What joy this brings to my heart. God lives. He loves us all. I know Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God. And the Book of Mormon is the convincing evidence of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Love,
Elder Judy

October 16, 2017 - Miracle Mission - Canandaigua, NY

Hello!

This week went by so fast, it's crazy. So many good things are happening within our area and in our zone, thanks to Elder Bennett in teaching us how to be exactly obedient.

Tuesday was a great p-day! We got all the necessities done, and had a district p-day, Elder Griener and Harvey came up here to Canandaigua and we got some lunch and hung out, it was fun! When p-day ended we went out
to Bloomfield to do some finding and met with a less active family. We found Matt, we've taught him multiple times since then, he's great! We had a great visit with the Rougex family as well.

Wednesday was another day spent with Elder Bennett, all the zone leaders and sister training leaders got to have MLC with him. It was great! He basically told us what our mission needs to improve on...  we are obedient just not all the way there yet, people are reading the white handbook to loosely. He said to read as if your companion is President Monson! So lots of changes are coming soon! So excited for the miracles we are going to see from it! We got to go to the Hill Cumorah and President invited us all to choose a chapter in the Book of Mormon and to go read it on the hill and look for ways that it will help this mission. I read 1 Nephi 3. We had a lesson with
Sue, but she was sick....  we had a lesson with Colleen, and then we gave Kristy a church tour!

Thursday was our first full day of work.. haha we got to help out a member of our church clean his living room in the morning. Then we went and had a lesson Kristen a nice lady we met a couple weeks ago.  We had a couple other lessons then went up to Farmington and had dinner with Sister Allgood and her grandson Blake. They are super fun! Blake is a returning member, we've been working with him a little bit. We ended the night teaching Chris, we taught the law of chastity and the baptismal interview questions! She's almost there!

Friday was a long day...  we met Erin out by the lake we sat down and taught her the whole restoration and she loved it and wants to learn more. We did some door knocking and had dinner, then went to Bloomfield again and had a lesson with Matt. In our first contact with him I promised him he would feel something he's never felt before, and he said that after he read the pamphlet he couldn't take the smile off his face. I thought that was really cool. God provides! And this is the Miracle Mission... we had a lesson with Colleen one of our most progressing investigators. We walked in and she had a friend there, we thought ok cool. Well turns out this lady, Sheena had spoken with Brother Potter earlier that day. He's a bus driver for the city of Canandaigua and he bore his testimony to her and she wanted to learn more so she came along with Colleen. We taught her the restoration and she asked for a priesthood blessing. It was crazy. God is just providing as we are striving to be exactly obedient.

Saturday we didn't have a single lesson.... it was a really long day but god is good and we found a ton of new people to teach. We knocked into Cherokee, she's a young mother with 2 kids that invited us back. Roger Peterson is also in that same neighborhood and he invited us back! That night we ran into Bailey, she's a younger lady who had lots of really good questions and we gave her a Book of Mormon and she accepted a return appointment. Then while walking to a formers house we walked by this dude and just asked "you wanna hear a message about Jesus Christ?" And he said ya why not so we set up a time. He's name is Jeff. For how long of a day it was we saw lots of success. Oh and also this dude named Rex just walked up to us on Main Street and gave us his address and said come over tomorrow... haha super cool!

Sunday was a really good day! We had all of our return appointments today! But most importantly it was sacrament meeting! Kristy came to church! She was really nervous and only stayed for the first hour. Chris also came! She's so awesome. After church we had a lesson with Kristen, she still hasn't read... so we are giving her one more
chance. We had personal study and then went to see Jeff and had our follow up lesson, he invited us right in and we asked why he invited us back and he said oh, just because I've seen you around and I'm curious. Haha we taught the full Restoration and he loved it and invited us back. We had another lesson with Matt. He's doing great! We had dinner with the Langan family, their house is crazy with 3 kids all in a row and 2 of them are twins. Haha we did some stop bys in Bloomfield then went and had our lesson with Rex. He basically taught us the restoration and he believes this is the true church. It's nuts, blew us away. Haha we had a lesson with Kristy but here's the catch to this one... she texted us earlier and said that she doesn't want to continue to go further... we texted back and said can we still come by tonight? Ended up going and we taught her and found out she has really bad social anxiety. She has a therapy dog so we solved the problem, she's going to come to church with her dog!

This week I've been studying hope out of preach my gospel and one scripture that I loved is 2 Nephi 31:20 it tells us to have faith, HOPE, and charity but I love the way it says it. Having a perfect brightness of hope. Hope and faith are connected and related attributes, and they help us obtain the perfect love of Christ for everyone around us. I love this gospel and I LOVE being a missionary.

Love,
Elder Judy

Sorry no pictures this week.... still love ya tho!❤️

October 10, 2017 - Elder Bennett - Canandaigua, NY

Hey you guys 

This week was grand, saw lots of miracles with little time in our area! God provides! 

Monday was a great p-day, we got bored so we went to the motor sports dealership and sat on some dirt bikes... haha Monday night was spent in Farmington, we did some tracting in a back road and tried visiting some members, we visited with the Johnson's. They're a couple that was baptized when Mark Barrie was here on his mission! Super cool! They are really good people. We had FHE with the Labombard family, Patrick got his mission call to Mesa, AZ so excited for him! 

Tuesday was a busy day! We had to plan a training to give to all the districts in our zone, Good, Better, Best. Focused around using our time to the best of its abilities! We then got out and hit the ground running, tracted in the morning and had a lesson with Kristen. A lady we met a couple weeks ago! We then went up to Farmington and found Sue early, she's had lots of contact with the Mormon church throughout her life and we are going to start meeting with her! We found her in a trailer park. Those things are GOLD.  we had a lesson. With Jonathan, ended up passing him off to the YSA branch in Rochester. That night we did door knocking in Canandaigua. We had a lesson with Chris, asked her the baptismal interview questions and she's so ready to be baptized! Just gotta get her interviewed and find out a way to get her immersed in water with the disabilities that she has. We had another lesson with Colleen, she's so awesome. We are teaching so many wonderful people! Don't know why god is providing for us this well....

Wednesday we had district meeting in the morning and then we took a 2 hour journey to the bottom of the mission on the border of NY and PA, to a little, tiny place called Wellsville. We were able to blitz the area with the elders there and help them out! Elder Peters and I were together and within the first 30 minutes we had handed out 4 copies of the Book of Mormon. It was awesome! We didn't even get 100 yards away from the house before we had to go back and refill our bags! Elder Peters was AP a couple transfers ago and is getting ready to go home to Washington state after this transfer... he will be missed, he is such a stud! 

Thursday... man was a tender mercy.... GOD IS GOOD. You will never guess who called me, awhile ago, about 10 months ago there was a man named Mike Gates who was interviewed by President Evans for baptism on the 14th of January. Well I got a random call from him and he had gotten his letter of approval and is going to be baptized! And he wants me to baptize him! Oh, god answers prayers. Made my day, and my mission!  We went to the Wellsville district meeting. There are six elders in the southern tier that are absolutely killing it. We gave our training and stayed for the rest then climbed back into the Fusion and made the 2 hour drive back home to Canadaigua. We did some tracting after dinner. Been doing a lot of door knocking lately... we met Scott & Debbie Vanduyne at the lake and we were able to testify of the restoration and they felt something, they invited us back over to their house! Scott drove bus for the pageant cast so they know a little about us. We had another lesson with Chris, we taught her the law of tithing. 

Friday was a good day of planning, then we exchanged. I went to Penn Yan with Elder Harvey. We spent lots of time knocking doors cause the work is slower in that area, but I was determined to show that there are people to be found in every area. We were able to get 3 phone numbers and 2 return appointments in a little town called Hall! 

Saturday morning we spent it in Penn Yan, and we found a FAMILY! Haha god is good! (That's my new saying) I actually found this family last time I was in Penn Yan and they didn't follow up, so we went to follow up and the mom invited us in and we were able to teach a short lesson and set one up for the following day! Saturday afternoon was spent in Canandaigua back with Elder Hardy. We did some door knocking. 

Sunday was a wonderful fast Sunday. I love fast sundays, and I Love the sacrament. It's became a huge part of my life and I can't and won't go without it. It's so important! We had Nikki at church, she's been investigating for a little while. She's 17 and has made the decision to be baptized! Very soon, this coming Saturday! Haha Elder Hardy is going to baptize her as well! We had a lesson with Kristy, she's been reading the Book of Mormon so much! She told us about how she's applying it to her life and how much it's helping her! Haha golden. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes without hesitation. So awesome. We did some more door knocking at these really nice townhomes just out side of town. We met Roger, He's got some Wicked blue eyes. They are gnarly. But he was really cool. We taught him the restoration and he loved it! Inivited us to come back! 

Monday was a day I'll never forget... haha the hammer came down. Elder Bennett of the seventy came to the mission. He trained us on things that our mission needs to improve on, he promised huge blessings if we act on the things trained on. He talked a lot about having Faith, Hope, and Charity. Something I felt very strongly I could improve on... and he also said that our purpose is to Help, Not to Invite and Hope they do the commitment. We need to HELP them keep the commitment, really opened my eyes. A scripture he focused on is Matthew 20:36-39 I know that everything we do should be out of LOVE especially when we share the gospel. I do know the savior loves all of us, with His perfect love. Now we must obtain that and let others feel it. Pray for it. Faith, Hope, and Charity are essential attributes to help us prepare to meet god. 

Love you all! Thanks for the support! 

Love,

Elder Judy

October 2, 2017 - Hide your kids, hide your wife... - Canandaigua, NY

Hello friends and family!

This week was gnarly! Lots of door knocking in 90 degree and 50 degree weather... New York is super weird right now. It can't choose a season!

Monday was transfer email day! The sister's area is being flushed by us.. so now we cover the whole ward! So we spent a good amount of the day with the sisters correlating area books and phones to get ready for the week! After p-day ended it was ridiculously nice so we went and walked the path at the lake and talked to people! Everyone and their dog was out there tonight. It was crazy! Haha we had a lesson with Chris, she's going to be baptized in the 28th! So excited for her! We had a couple appointments fall through and so we did lots of contacting people we found last week trying to set stuff up for this week!

Tuesday was a rough day, we spent lots of time on the streets. Ever since school started here finding has been a tough stretch but we manage to get through it! We had another lesson with Chris, we brought John Mishock along. During prime time, 6-9pm we did as much finding as possible, we tracted some really nice town homes and met lots of good people just not ready to commit.  Pretty much the theme of this week...

Wednesday we had a lesson with Kristy, a new investigator. She's awesome! We left behind Alma 32 for her to read and she said it couldn't have been more of a perfect chapter to start on because she could apply to so much! God is good! We talked a lot about faith and how we receive our witness after the trial of it. Had district meeting! Elder Griener is my district leader! Good to be back with him! We met with Colleen, she's eating up the gospel. It's great!

Thursday we saw Brother Schwab and did some finding because our appointment fell through after him, did 4 hours straight of finding. Not too much luck. Saw the Barrie's for dinner, talked with a lady about how the Book of Mormon wasn't written by Joseph Smith... ticks me off when people say that! Haha then we did more finding because our appointment with a former investigator fell through... we went to the church for scripture study with Chris and her daughter Sam!

Friday was a good planning day, we saw Deongela. Just keeping tabs on her so she can get baptized soon. Did some finding, saw Colleen! She's loving it, she's on date for October 28th. After dinner we met with Tera! It's been a very long time since we met with her, she's so awesome and ready to commit hopefully. And we met with the Rougex family in Bloomfield. It was a great Friday!

Saturday was great. Conference is the best thing ever as a missionary and I wish I had more left! I learned so much! In between sessions we did some finding and had a couple appointments. My favorite talk was Elder Nelson's talk about the Book of Mormon, what would you rather have? Rubys and diamonds or the gift of the Book of Mormon? *BOOM* Elder Oaks talk was also very needed. Oh, and also in our apartment complex someone was killed and set in fire, hit the title of the email. Haha it was pretty weird, we didn't find out until Sunday while we were
tracting and found a news paper. We spent the conference with the Simpson family! They are awesome!

Sunday was another solid conference day, met with bishop and Brother Stine our ward mission leader. Made a game plan for us and the ward! It's going to be good! Crazy to think conference went by so fast, back to the real world. It was sad to not see the prophet.. but I'm glad for the words and things I learned! God loves us all and will continue to call a prophet to lead us and defend us from the adversary.

One thing that stuck out to me at conference was M. Russel Ballard's talk when he said "there is no blessing anyone can share that's greater than the blessing of the restoration."  I would invite all of you to share the greatest blessing of all, the restored gospel with all your friends and family! Because it has been restored, we have more!  The Book of Mormon, temples, and Prophets. God loves us all and the restoration is meant for all.

Love,
Elder Judy