Elder Judd in California

All is well in San Clemente. We are going into the last week of the transfer with no idea of what will happen. I think that Elder Whitchurch is leaving and I will be staying, but I've learned that you really have no idea what will happen. But, as always I will go where the Lord wants me to go. Elder Whitchurch and I have been struggling to find people this transfer, in fact at the begging of this week we haven't found a single soul in our area who has interest in coming closer to Jesus Christ. Let me clarify, We have seen success as we have gone to other areas to help find, we have seen many miracles in the other areas, and we are grateful for the descent sized teaching pool that we have which has mostly come from member referrals. But in our own area, we have had many "long nights and empty nets". We have tried countless times in different parts of our area but no no avail. We got discouraged and have had less motivation to go out and grind. On Friday we decided ...

Hello everyone! Gonna be a short email this week, not a lot of time.  We found out our new mission and President! Our whole mission is joining the California Carlsbad mission. And our new mission president is Weldon J. Reeves from league City Texas! I know I'm going to live them and the new missionaries and people I will meet. I am also excited because it means that our mission will ever to some slightly more humble areas which will lead to finding more elect people. It will be great! Our Brazilian family is amazing! We finally taught them the full plan of salvation. They loved it and completely understood it. I was able to bear a personal testimony of this plan and told them that I knew I would be reunited with my mom, and that could be sealed together as a family forever. We re invited them to baptism, and they said "we're getting close". It was one of my favorite lessons on my mission. This is my favorite scripture from my studies this week...  John...

Family and friends! I love you all! This week we had a mission conference and it was awesome! Many of the trainings and talks were direct answers to my prayers. At the beginning of the conference, sister Clark handed us a small piece of paper and told us not to look at it. Then they went on to announce that the California Irvine mission is being dissolved before our the decrease of missionaries. When they announced it, my heart was broken. I love this mission. It is small and wonderful. Ask if our missionaries are obedient and hard working and great things have happened! Since the dinner cancellation or mission numbers have doubled some have tripled, why would they change this mission!? I was confused and sad, then we flipped the paper over and it said "Fear not, Only Believe". They were the same words the president Hinckley's dad told him before his mission. I have had many fears recently not only about the mission change, I felt converted that everything will work o...

Hello everyone, had another wonderful week serving in the chillest wards in America. I love it here! I often find myself breaking out into song because I love it here so much. It's not always easy, but I've come to love the hard parts as well.  Nothing major happened this week. Elder Whitchurch was sick so we couldn't go out as much as I wanted. But I have had some amazing studies this week. My Christ like attribute is faith, and I have learned so much about faith by reading Ether. Holy cow, why didn't anyone tell me how amazing Ether is! I was blown away about what I descovered about faith just by reading about The Brother of Jared! Through out my mission I have felt that my faith has not been enough, that I have needed to have a greater knowledge of everything in order to be a great and powerful missionary, false. Faith is all that is needed. This is what Moroni said about the subject in Ether 12: 6 And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these th...

God is good. Christmas was great.  It was kinda hard to get back into the swing of things after Christmas. We got a tad bit trunky and lazy but but Elder Whitchurch and I pressed our way through it. While in our mental limbo I had some revelation as to what kind of missionary I want to be. I took to heart this transfer's zone theme:  Helaman 3:35 Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God. In our ZTM we gave a training over what this scripture means and how we can apply it to our transfer. In preparation I did a lot of pondering. I thought about the sacrifices I need to make in order to become a consecrated missionary. Fear. I have a lot of fears. Most times these fear...

Merry Christmas!! This week was great! Elder Whitchurch was sick most of the week so we haven't been able to go out and find as much this week but we definitely have felt the Christmas spirit We had a couple interesting lessons with the our Brazilian family. They were confused why people dressed up for church and thought everyone was fake, then they started asking questions about the word of wisdom and they don't understand why God "picks and chooses a few bad things" when there are plenty of addicting substances, as always though we testified of the book of Mormon and how all questions can be answered if they read and pray about it. The next time we came over we finished the plan of salvation and they had a hard time understanding it. The father feels like religion is a personal thing and nothing from the outside like church can change him. We testified boldly of church and the importance of the sacrament, the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith and told him that if...

Another great week in the San Clemente zone! This is the best place ever! Unfortunately transfers are here and Elder Farrer is leaving, it's a bummer, he is a good guy. Elder Whitchurch and I are staying in the promised land. This week we saw even more many mighty miracles! We had 7 people at church this week! It was crazy! this has never happens! Here are a couple awesome things that happened this week... 1. We were able to teach the Brazilian family 3 times this week. It was so great. At our second lesson we really hit a breakthrough. At first they were more interested in us teaching their son about Jesus Christ but then when we started talking about the gift of the Holy Ghost it really hit Henry (the Father). He then told us about an experience he had, one night he had a dream and he saw a pure bright light that over came him it was so powerful, he related the feeling to the rush you get on a roller coaster. He told us that this is the feeling he has been searching for in a ...