February 26, 2018 - Bennett 2.o - Canandaigua, NY

Hello framily :)

This week was full of tender mercies! 18 months and received some really good advice from President Evans and Elder Bennett of the Seventy. 

Start things off, I had interviews with President Evans Tuesday morning and I asked him the questions for schooling and going home and stuff. I told him the situation of how I get home and I would go straight to school like 2 weeks after, he said “I don’t see the problem here. This is the ideal situation!” So yes mom, I will go straight to school. I asked him about staying at home or going up to campus and he said “get out of the house!” So I will need to get finding a dorm! I’m excited and feel good with these decisions. President Evans is so inspired and I know he’s called of God! 

We did lots of tracting this week... found 8 new investigators! Good things are happening in Canandaigua. Have I mentioned that I LOVE this place! SO MUCH! all of our active investigators are so busy so we didn’t see them this week :(  We picked up some bed bugs from a person that we teaching... Elder Gardner had them all over him. It was nasty! We spent an hour playing exterminator getting them out of our clothes. 

Friday morning we had a meeting with Elder Bennet of the Seventy. He is a special witness of Jesus Christ. No Doubt in my mind. The spirit that I felt as I listened to him and took notes was a feeling I never felt before. He tied up all the loose ends from his first visit in October. It was awesome! Friday night the Hornell Elders stayed the night because the district leaders were invited to the MLC with Elder Bennet on Saturday. Elder Gardner blitzed our area with Elder Lawrenz and Elder Hale was with me. We taught Andrea and Angelo! 

Saturday we had an awesome meeting with Elder Bennet. It was spirit filled and great. But it quickly got unproductive... we had a great discussion about the next step for the mission but we didn’t create any action items and wasted an hour cause we didn’t do so. Kinda a bummer. But President and Sister Evans are making some action items for us this week! It was also my 18 month mark today, thanks for all the emails and support! I burned a pair of pants at the Records house! They are the best.

Andrea and her kids came to church! Amanda Steele didn’t make it, she was recovering from an ER visit from early this week. She is still preparing herself for baptism this coming week, March 3rd! God is good! 

Helaman 5:47 

“Peace, Peace be unto you, because of your faith in my Well Beloved, who was from the foundation of the world.” 

The greatest peace in this world is Peace in Christ. 

Love,

Elder Judy 

1. Bed bug

2. Elder Shaw

3. 18 month 30 case of Monsters... 

4. The original crew 

5. My favorite family, RECORDS 

6. burning my pants! 

February 19, 2018 - Yo Ho! - Canandaigua, NY

Hello fam! It was a great week here in Canandaigua!

  

There’s a winery about 200 feet from out apartment and they must’ve fired it up this week because the smell of wine is so strong all the time. Basically can taste it when we’re outside haha. Just one of the weird things of Canandaigua. Wine Country!

It’s been another busy week though here. Colleen is doing well we were able to see her a few times this week! We’ve also been working with a really cool part member family, the Heltemes. The father was baptized when he was 8, but has been inactive for about 20 years and the rest of the family are non-members. They called the week before Elder Gardner got here and said they wanted us to start coming by! We’ve been teaching them every week since and it’s been going awesome. They’ve been progressing well lately, and I’m confident they’ll be baptized sometime end of March or April!

Cool story, got a call from the Palmyra Stake President on Thursday. “Elders, there’s someone you need to teach and baptize” Quite the way to start off a conversation haha. Well, an 11 year old in the ward has expressed that he now has the desire to be baptized, and since he is over the age of 9 he would be considered a convert baptism, so we get to teach him! He’s the cutest little autistic kid ever. We’re pretty excited for that. We had been praying for another person who would be prepared to be baptized in the next month this whole week, then President Robinson dropped this one right in our lap. Good stuff!

Amanda Steel has been interviewed and all ready to go for her baptism on March 3rd! She’s such a huge miracle. We’re stoked for that one :). 

We’re teaching some great people here in Canandaigua. There’s probably a solid 10 people who have tremendous potential to be baptized here in the next 3 months. President Evans a while ago had promised us that the prophets of who were in these mission boundaries in the past were laboring with us today, and I’ve really felt that verified here. We’re about 15 minutes from Palmyra, and I don’t think I’ve ever had more persecution while tracting. About every other door is either an anti-Mormon, born again Christian, or “knows everything about your church”. When I’ve born sincere testimony about the savior, or the prophet Joseph, or really anything I know to be true for that matter, I feel spiritual strength coming from other sources. I’m so grateful for that and that the Church of Jesus Christ was restored back to the earth today! 

Hope you all have a good week :). I sure will 🏽

Elder Judy 

Found out Blake sent his companion's letter and signed his name.  I caught him red handed and he wrote an email:

Hello Familia! This week was grand. Busy busy! 

Colleen is doing great, she has received a calling in the relief society on the activities committee:) she will plan some good activities! She also has received the visiting teachers and is becoming a visit teacher! She is so excited and it’s great to see her light up when she is at church! 

Amanda Steele was interviewed for baptism by President Evans on Sunday! She was passed and is preparing to be baptized on March 3rd! Exciting news! She has been struggling receiving answers and ever since she has made the commitment to be baptized and said yes she has been flooded with answers and blessings! Another cool thing in the subject of baptism our stake president called us and started the phone call by saying “Elders I have someone that needs to be baptized.” Turns out there is a family in our ward who has an 11 year old autistic son who has started having the desire to be baptized! We will start teaching him tonight! Hopefully will have 2 more baptisms by the time I leave! The work in Canandaigua is doing so well and I feel really blessed. It’s going to to be really hard to leave this place... 

We cleaned up our area book a little bit and now we only have 1 on date (Amanda) and a couple progressing investigators. I’m excited for the miracles that will come and the people god will put in our path the next couple of weeks! This area is the best! I love the members and the people in the Canandaigua Ward! 

The Heltemes family is feeling and following the Holy Ghost! They feel so much peace and love while they read the Book of Mormon and really felt it as we taught them the plan of salvation which is huge! Grateful for the opportunity to help this family fill the holes in their life! 

We’ve been doing a lot of finding in Manchester, NY which is about 5 minutes away from Palmyra and the persecution there is crazy. Every other door is an anti-mormom and they just want argue. It’s annoying but you can really feel that we are laboring with more than just ourselves. I know there’s prophets that labor in this mission. Moroni, Joseph Smith, and Brigham Young and many more. I feel power when I get to bear my witness of the savior and his restored gospel to people. 

Love y’all!

Elder Judy 

1.Come check out Pageant this summer!

2. Canandaigua Lake, the 2nd most expensive lake property in America (right behind Lake Tahoe). So clean and clear you can see about 30 feet down into it!

February 12, 2018 - Baptism! - Canandaigua, NY

Howdy! 

It was a great week here in Canandaigua! God is great! 

Monday night we had a lesson with our investigator Amy, she was referred to us by some members! The Kleinman Family! We had FHE and taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amy is eating the gospel up and is loving the Book of Mormon. It’s cool to watch! 

Tuesday we had Zone Conference during the day! We also had a lesson with a part member family, the Helteme's family! They are the best! The Dad is a member but hasn’t been active in 20 years. He reached out to us in the beginning of January asking us to come by and do the discussions with him and his family. We’ve taught them a couple times and they are keeping commitments and progressing really well. We taught them the plan of salvation this week. They loved it! We are excited for the next steps for them. 

Saturday was the best day I’ve had here in Canandaigua... Colleen Evershed was baptized and she gave me the privilege to baptize her! It was a great! Colleen was so excited and was a light for the rest of the day! After the baptism Amanda Steele came up to me in tears and asked when she could be baptized, she has been struggling with getting answers to her prayers and she felt the spirit at the baptism and made the decision to be baptized on March 3rd! So sweet! We had a really good turn out at Colleen’s baptism. It was a great day! 

Sunday was a great day! Colleen was confirmed a member of the church and received the Holy Ghost by President Pitts! It was great! We did lots of finding and saw a couple of the members as well. 

One of the times in my life that I was over come and felt the spirit so strongly was while I said the words “having been commissioned of Jesus Christ....” the spirit touched my heart and I received another witness out of the millions that this is the truth. The Book of Mormon is true. 

“And according to his faith there was a mighty change wrought in his heart. Behold I say unto you that this is all true.” Alma 5:12 

This week there has been a change in my heart because of the faith I have and of others I work with with, and I know that this is all true. I love this gospel! 

Love,

Elder Judy 

February 5, 2018 - Another Weekly - Canandaigua, NY

Hello friends and family!

This week in Canandaigua was one for the record books. Things are blowing up! Hard work and obedience really is the key to miracles. My testimony has grown so much from that! 

We met with Thomas each day this week to help him out with his addictions, he was good at the beginning of the week but as we continued to meet with him he got worse and worse. We ended up dropping him because he didn’t want to give up the life style he was living. Super sad. We dumped out cans of beer every time we went over and he would go buy more.