February 25

Hello everyone, this was probably the best week of my entire mission! There were so many incredible things that happened. Here are the highlights... 

1. First I got to go to the Baptism of my good friend Alejandro in Newport Beach. He and his family are some people I found my last week in that area. They progressed so rapidly in a week and it was amazing to see that my second transfer. I drove up to the baptism with Elder Kema and Burrows (who I was with when we found them). His family happened to live right across the hall from us. At the End Elder Kema, Burrows and I got to bare our testimonies to the family. It was a super spiritual experience. It was so incredible to see this young boy beaming with excitement to be baptized. Afterwords the rest of the family said they felt the spirit very strongly. The mom got up and bore her testimony and said "I have had many missionaries teach our family, but it was those 3 crazy boys in the beginning who came with their hearts and their hands that really got us interested". His family is proof that God puts prepared people in our path. It was a great night.

2. We got to teach our friend Katy who decided last week she wanted to be baptized. We taught the restoration and it was incredible. She said she has felt the power of the adversary try to win her over. At the end we read Joseph Smith's whole account and talked about the darkness that came to him before he received the revelation. We usually don't share that with those that we teach, but we felt super prompted to do so. It was touching to see how ready and willing she is.

3. We got to teach the Brazilian family with a member of 70! It was incredible! It was an amazing lesson and we really hit another break though. Everyday they are getting closer to making the decision to be baptized. I love that family so much. They have been reading a chapter of the Book of Mormon with our ward mission leader every night, and have seen great blessings from it. Henry said he felt the spirit very strongly reading it for the first time. The ember of the 70 actually sent a picture of the family to Elder Soares of the 12 and he sent and individual email to the family. We got to sit down with the 70 the next day and have a lesson evaluation, which was little scary at first, but he gave a lot of great feed back on how to help them. It was pretty cool experience.

4. Lastly, President Ballard came to our mission! I got to shake his and! I could feel spirit very strong when he spoke to us. He even gave the mission an apostolic blessing, which was incredibly powerful. It was really cool to see the love that he had for President and Sister Clark, which are some of his long time friends. My favorite quote from him was "To know what we know is precious". It is so simple but so powerful. To have the restored gospel is so important and we need to be doing alll that we can to share it. It was an experience I will not forget.

So many great things happened this week. I am so grateful for the opportunities I have. My mission has been the greatest experience of my life. I love the people here. I love representing Jesus Christ. I am far from being a perfect representitive but I am trying. I feel like I have been working harder this transfer than I ever have, and I have felt more joy because of it. The gospel truly is the good news. It is the good news because it brings joy to our souls. It has brought joy to my soul.

Stay Excellent

Love,

Elder Judd