Elder Judd in California

Its been a great week here RSM, filled with many awesome miracles! Tuesday - We went street contacting in a sports park near our apartment, and there was not as many people out as there usually is. We tried contacting a few people but they were running and we couldn't chase them down. Just as we were about to go home I saw a man to the side of us sleeping on a bench. I had such a strong prompting to talk to him but I ignored it at first because he was sleeping and I was scared to wake him up. When I said that I was scared, Elder Edwards stepped up and just went and woke him up, I am grateful for companions to back me up. He ended up being a super nice and humble guy. He and his girlfriend, who we didn't see at first wanted to hear a lesson from us. We shared the plan of salvation with them right there. They were so kind and said that they felt that they really needed that message. As we got to know them better, we found out that the guys grandmother is a member of the Churc...

This week we have focused our efforts on member missionary work. So many of the days were filled with calling members of both wards and trying to meet with them and share a message about missionary work. The first night we did this, Tuesday we experienced a cool miracle of prayer. We had no one to visit with after dinner and we were very bummed. We said a quick prayer of guidance and immediately we got a text from a family in Aliso Creek saying that they wanted to meet with us right then. It was awesome, They are a super awesome young family and they promised to invite their neighbor to church. We were so happy that night after heavenly Father answered our prayer in a simple way. The rest of our week has really just been filled with meeting with members and inviting them to hand out a Book of Mormon or invite their friend to church. Sunday, We met with the Judd family from the Live Oak ward. Because of a time crunch we couldn't be there for their real dinner, Sister Judd gave u...

This week was pretty slow, but still fantastic! The main thing that happened this week was our exchange with the zone leaders. Me and Elder Loveland stayed in our area and we had Elder Johnson, elder Kemas trainer, come with us. He only has one more transfer left, so he has learned a lot, and we learned alot from him. We went to Live Oak and did a little bit of tracting and stopping by potential investigators. We really tried to be better at street contacting that day, so when we saw a lady come out of the house we just knocked on, we knew we had to talk to her. She was a nice lady who went to a popular non denominational church. She was very concerned for us and really wanted us to pray to know that what we are doing is wrong. She also told us that we were teaching false doctrine and we should consider the wrong things that we were doing. Elder Johnson, being known for handling bashers well said we didn't appreciate being told that our doctrine was false and that unless she ...

We've been grinding all week in the desert. We didn't do much this week except for pound the pavement. Not much success but our hope is not lost. I love being able to talk to people at doors. I have been trying to get better at my door approaches and being less robotic. We were able to get a return appointment because I commented on a lady's cool toy story shirt. I have loved seeing Elder Loveland come out of his shell more and more. I believe that through all of our practice role plays we do with him he has learned so much. We were able to go to the temple this week and it was a fantastic spiritual restart for me. I felt so great there and felt so many great spiritual promptings and revelation. I have a strong testimony of the Temple, I know that it is the house of the Lord. In other news i finished the Book of Mormon in my personal study, I again felt of its truthfulness. One of my favorite scriptures towards the end of the Book of Mormon are Moroni 7:45-48 ...

Wow. I have had the best 2 weeks of my mission so far! Last Tuesday was my birthday, and it was a weird day for sure. A member took us to a fancy dinner and we drove in his new Tesla there. It was a great day, but its hard to celebrate your birthday when you are trying to serve and focus on helping others. Later in the week, I had another birthday dinner at the Clark family's house, probably the most genuine family I've ever met. They always show so much love to the missionaries who serve in that ward, I am really going to miss them. We started teaching a Columbian family that we helped move in and happened to live across the hall from us, talk about God putting people in our path. This family is spectacular. We taught them the restoration, the mom and dad only speak broken English, but were able to understand the majority of the lesson. The mom even read the introduction in Spanish and was blown away. We invited them to an activity right after the lesson and came! The ...

Yep... Im already training. Since my mission is so small they had to call in all the reinforcements to train, so it has much less to do with my skill than the sheer demand for trainers. I am training with Elder Edwards,  he is one of the most kind and meek people I've met here. He is super funny too. I am transferring to the Rancho Santa Margarita zone aka RSM. RSM is practically the opposite of Newport, its mountainous and dry. It's also the location of the holy fire. We are training Elder Loveland who comes in this wednesday. I am so excited to train, but I definitely don't feel ready. There is so much i dont know about being a missionary let alone a trainer. As Troy Bolton might say "I'm nervous but excited"  That's just the quick note to the family. Probably won't have much tome to email today because is transfer day. If i find time I'll write about the great week i had.  Love you all. 

Wow. this week was wonderful.  We had a huge miracle this week. I truly learned the God knows and cares for all of his children. Although there were many uncertainties, Jim & Andrea will in fact be baptized this Saturday.  Let me explain why this is a massive miracle -  Jim was in jail. After a long night of unrest, he asked his cell mate if there was anything to read. his cell mate pointed to a pile of books on the ground. after picking through the books, one of them stood out to him, The Book of Mormon. He picked it up and started to read it. Although he could hardly understand the old English style writings in it, he kept reading. With the help of a ward member, he read the entire thing while in jail. After he was released, he went to church and asked the first person he saw there how he could become a member. Fast forward a month or so, he is taking the missionary discussions. His wife, Andrea, is skeptical. But while giving a member an uber ride, the ...