Elder Judd in California

Hello Everyone! This week was superb! The main highlight of the week was on Tuesday. We were knocking doors before dinner, at one of the doors a lady answered and told us to come back the next day. We came back the next day, and met her family and we taught her the restoration! This never happens! *we just received a text while I was writing this from her telling us that she is not interested at all anymore* It's a bummer, but that's missionary life, it's about planting seeds. This week during my studies, I read Alma 29, and I felt the power of Alma's words deep in my heart 1 O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people! 2 Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon al...

I am so happy to be here in San Clemente with Elders Farrer and Whitchurch! There is so much work to be done here! Elder Farrer came into two awards where the member work is amazing! I am also so excited to be in a ward with my cousins, the Garffs! this transfer is going to be so great! This week we had tons of meetings, on Thursday we had Tasty Transfers at the stake presidents house. His house is unreal, I have never seen a bigger house in my life! I can't even describe it, it was just amazing! We ate breakfast and had a few trainings about working with the ward and being consecrated missionaries. On Friday we had Zone Conference, one of the best we have had since I have been here! They dropped a major announcement, no more member dinners as of December 1st! Since prime finding time is 5-7 they want us eating by ourselves at 4pm and finding the rest of the night! Its going to be a great change, Elder Bruce in the mission presidency is to "double our failure rate" an...

Wow! I can't believe I will be out for six months this Friday. The time has flown by and one quarter of my mission is gone! I still have much to do and learn. I feel like I am not the missionary I expected my self to be at six months, but While talking to Elder Kema (my trainer), He told me that it is good to feel like like it has flown by and I am not exactly who I wanted to be. He told me I should never be comfortable where I am, and to have a sense of urgency, which is needed in the mission field. I am looking forward to the next year and a half, and what I will learn and experience. This week I went on two exchanges in a row, it was great! I learned so much from both of them, but the second one with Elder Johnson (Elder Kema's Trainer) was especially great because it was his last exchange on his mission, he goes home next Tuesday. While doing a short spurt of tracting we met a family who just returned home from church. we soon found out that they are Seventh-day Adventi...

Not much to report on this week. We have tried meeting with all of our potential investigators but we weren't able to make any return appointments. On Saturday we had our ward trunk or treat and decided we needed to dress up so we scrounged up everything from our apartment we could and dressed up as Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. The whole ward was crazy about it and wanted to take pictures with us. we gained some major ward respect from it. The sisters in our ward brought one of their seekers of truth who we met and talked to Also loved our costumes. His name is Daren, and soon the sisters are going to pass him off to us. He is completely interested in joining our church but he wants to learn more. He is amazing, and we look forward to teaching him soon. A scripture that has stuck out to me this week from my studies is Nephi's testimony about speaking in plainness, he says 2 Nephi 31:3 3 For my soul delighteth in plainness; for after this manner doth the Lord...

Holy Cow! what a week! probably the best finding week I have ever had! We were able to pass out 7 Books of Mormon, which is totally crazy here! Thursday - I had the sudden urge to go finding, and when I brought this up to Elder walker he said "Okay, where?". So I went into our room and prayed while looking over a map of our area, and by the power of the spirit, I narrowed it down to a house. We went there not expecting anything to come from it, maybe just a test from God or something, but when we knocked on the door a lady, we will call her Sally, answered. Sally Said that she went to Saddleback church, a huge non denominational Christian church in our area, but she has "Mormon" friends. Eventually we were able to give her a book of Mormon and she wants us to come back this week. Later that day at an Elders Qourum activity we met one of the friends of a member, We'll call him José. After talking for a while he asks us "what does Elder mean?" then w...

On Tuesday We had the craziest move ever. We had to move a lady's two storage units into one across town. The hard part was that her storage units were on the second floor and someone had to use a forklift to bring us up and we had to load the crate and bring it down. It took us 3 trips and roughly 6 hours to do it all. With these types of moves I constantly remind my self that I am only in the service of my God. The good news is that she said we could come over soon and teach her. On Wednesday we had an awesome zone conference, and I am pumped. I was really inspired to become more obedient to all of the rules of the mission. I know that true joy on the mission comes from strict obedience and diligence. Thursday, was not so good. After meeting with a less active in the ward, a man comes out and says that he wants us to come over and talk to him. He was super nice and we were super excited. He invited us in and he told us that he was Muslim and he has always wanted to talk t...

Wow! General Conference was amazing. I have never been filled with so much inspiration in my life, I felt that every message that was shared was truly inspired from God. So many of the talks hit home for me, there is no doubt that general conference is best on the mission. My favorite talk was from Russell M Nelson when he shared the importance of the name of our church. I hit me hard because I wear that name on my heart everyday and it is something to always remember, and the most important part of our name is often taken out. I know that the power of the atonement comes through the name Jesus Christ. I also loved Elder Brough, Ballard, Bowen, Andersen, and Eyring. I felt those underline message of those talks was that there is that we can overcome all hardships in our life through Jesus Christ. I loved it all. Other than Conference, we have had a good week with tons of transfer meetings. I know it will be a great transfer.  I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ! love, Eld...