"if the day cometh that the power and gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be because of unbelief"

Dear family,

Another great week. There have been some sad moments, as a few have decided not to continue to learn. But there have also been some exciting miracles, and we have met some really great people who want to learn.  I love my mission.  I have felt so much joy lately. 

On Saturday, I went to Yucca Valley for another exchange with Elder Tingey. It was excellent, as usual.  We taught a high school student I'll call Dante. Some back-story:

A few weeks ago we had a powerful stake conference which boldly inspired members to invite their friends to meet with missionaries to learn about the gospel. A young woman felt to invite her friend Dante. So she invited him that week. Dante now loves the gospel. He has since said:

This has filled a hole in my heart that I didn't know was there.

He is on fire. He says he has been feeling more happiness than he's ever felt in his whole life. I felt light and goodness radiate from him as I spoke with him.

The wonderful part about this is that Dante is not the only person that Heavenly Father has been preparing to receive the gospel! There are literally hosts of people around us who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it! It is exciting! 

Well, we have been continuing to teach Rory, and like Dante, he is also on fire. A while ago, Rory told us that some other Marines one day gave him grief about reading the Book of Mormon. When they left, one remaining Marine turned to him surprised and said: You're investigating too?  

We started teaching his friend shortly after. I'll call him Mark. Mark is awesome.  He started learning about Mormons after starting to date a Mormon girl just before she left for her mission.  Not knowing anything about the church, he began a sincere search to learn everything he could about it. He's one of the nicest guys on the planet. We have been really trying to help him receive a personal witness that what we teach is true, specifically thru reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. 

Last night we met with Mark and Rory again. We had felt a strong impression to read Alma 32 with them. Mark loved it. 

Here's the miracle. This morning he texted us and said that his missionary friend emailed him this morning and encouraged him to read Alma 32. Mark hadn't even mentioned to her that he had just read the very chapter. 

This is the Lord's work, I know it.

I love you all,

Elder Judd

"no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father"

Dear family,

This week was great. 

We started teaching a young guy that I'll call Sam. He is awesome. He was taught by the sister missionaries who were here before us, but we lost contact with him as we came into the area. But we met him last Monday. He does tattoos for his friends. He's a real cool guy.

And Sam actually just came into the library a moment ago and he's using the computer next to us. Funny!

On Tuesday we helped a woman clean her back yard.  We brought a young couple with us that just moved into the ward. It was fun to talk with her while we picked up items that she wanted to take to the dump. 

On Saturday we exchanged and I worked with Elder Tingey, my old companion and now my zone leader.  It was really fun to work with him again. 

We taught Jim, who we've been teaching for a few weeks. He is awesome. We met him one Sunday when he walked in before sacrament meeting asking some members:

How do I go about getting baptized?

The members direct him to us. Jim is originally from the east coast.  His mom was a convert to the church many years ago, so he grew up with some knowledge of the gospel. But his mother passed away a few years ago and her dying wish was that Jim and his siblings would join the church. He has been embracing the gospel. we love Jim!

We had interviews with President Van Cott on Thursday. I left feeling inspired and filled with goodness and joy, as usual. I love President Van Cott, and I love my mission. I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. These are really happy days. 

Alofa atu,

Elder Judd

29 Palms church building

Joshua Trees

Picture in the church. We love the Marines!

Me, Elder Duffin, Elder Seright, and Elder Howard

"we did put all our seeds into the earth ... wherefore, we were blessed in abundance"

Talofa i lo'u aiga,

 

It's been a great week. We had lots of miracles, like always.

 

On Wednesday we went to visit a guy named Joe but he wasn't home. We were walking back to our car and the door of a home we parked near caught my attention. I looked to Elder Tingey and he was looking at the same door. We both felt that we needed to knock this red door, so we started towards it.

 

Neither of us knew what to do or say because we've never tracted, but we prayed in our hearts that we would say what these people needed to hear. A woman answered the door. We told her who we were. She told us that she was busy taking care of her mother and she didn't have any time. So we asked if we could sing her a song. She agreed, and we sang the first verse of "I am a Child of God". The Holy Ghost was there.

 

When we finished, she thanked us and we left. We didn't know why we needed to go to that door, and we will probably never see the woman again. But I know that God knows every person perfectly because we are His children. He is always working good in us.

 

Wednesday night we were working in Loma Linda. We were trying to find an apartment that a guy named Tristan lives in. Our friend, Junior T. told us about him and his family and gave us directions. It's really fun when we get referrals from Samoans because in Samoa they don't have street names or addresses. So in the islands they give directions like:

 

Turn right when you see the 3 coconut trees.

 

Make a left at the big rock.

 

If you pass another rock by another coconut tree you've gone too far.

 

We usually get directions like that when we ask for an address, but Americanized. I love it.

 

So, we were looking for Tristan and it was dark because it was night and all we had was a few Samoan directions and a street number for a apartment complex and no street name and Loma Linda is the land of many apartments so we didn't know where to go. But we prayed that we could find Tristan. And we felt guided to go a certain way towards a certain complex. And then we found an apartment with a bunch of shoes outside (one of the many sure signs of a Samoan home). And we knocked.

 

A super nice guy answered the door. But he wasn't Samoan. But he said some big polynesian guys lived in the apartment downstairs. So we knocked at that door and found Tristan and he said we could come back this Wednesday. But the moral of the story is that God hears and answers our prayers. Even when it's something small that we care about, because He cares about what we care about. God is in the details of our lives.

 

Jesus Christ is alive today! God loves you! God speaks to us thru prophets and his prophets are speaking this weekend!

Here is a short video about General Conference. 

https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/unto-all-the-world/general-conference-has-something-for-you-b?lang=eng

 

Come and listen! :)

 

Alofa atu,

 

Elder Judd

"plant the word in your hearts, that ye may try the experiment of its goodness"

Hey Family,

On Friday we brought Bro. Julander out to work with us. We visited Junior, a guy we met a couple weeks ago. He is very friendly and said we could come by any time. He promised us that he would come to church on March 30th. He said he had requested work off that day, but didn't know why because he doesn't usually ask for Sundays off, but then he figured this might be why. Junior is awesome. He said he's also invited a bunch of friends to come too.

On Saturday we had a special conference with the Rancho Cucamonga mission. We met Elder Neil L. Andersen and Elder Anthony Perkins. They carried the Savior's love in everything they did and said. Elder Andersen testified powerfully and clearly that he is a witness that Jesus Christ lives. 

Also at the conference, as I was walking around the chapel back to my seat, someone called out to me. It was Elder Shaeson Bringhurst! I talked to him briefly, afterwards. I had no idea he was reassigned to CA. Really great to see him. 

Yesterday, we had a another miracle. Quick backstory. We recently received new mileage allocations which is pushing Elder Tingey and I to work much harder to find rides with members and stuff. We will even start biking soon.

So, we were planning to visit Matthew yesterday because we found out he's going back to New Zealand today. But he lives about 30 minutes away. So we prayed and talked to a bunch of people at church and called everyone we could think to give us a ride. But no luck. After a long time, when we almost gave up on seeing him, we thought to call a guy named Court. We've never asked him for help before, and we don't know him super well. Court said he was free and asked who we'd be visiting. We told him. He was like:

Oh, that's my little cousin! He's actually at my house right now.

Court lives in Rialto, which is where we were. We didn't know Court knew Matthew. We didn't know Matthew was in Rialto. But, God did. 

We had a great lesson about Enduring to the End. Matthew is going to find missionaries in New Zealand and find a seminary class over there.

The Holy Ghost is REAL. :)

Alofa,

Elder Judd

"if he believed in God it was his privilege to serve Him"

Talofa family!

I love serving in both Samoan wards! I love Elder Tingey! I love being a missionary!
 
So, remember about 6 months ago when I met a family that has 6 kids and was awesome? Probably not, but I do. And because we now cover the Rialto 2nd ward, we can teach them. We re-met them last week. Their names are Diana, Jody, Kyle, Mariah, Joseph, Maria, and Kanoa. We haven't met the dad yet. We're teaching them tonight. :)

We also taught Matthew twice! He's doing so well. We taught him about baptism and the Holy Ghost. He's really funny. At the end of our last lesson we asked him what he thought about everything, and he was like:

I think it's about time I got the Holy Ghost.

It was pretty sweet, especially in a New Zealand accent.

We spent a lot of the end of the week meeting the members of the Rialto 2nd ward. along the way we met John M. I recognized his name from the Inland Empire area book. In my mind I was like:

Holy cow, I've been trying to find you for 7 months!!

But in person I was like:

It's nice to meet you.

We'll see them again this week.

We have Elder Neil L. Andersen coming this Saturday! I'm so excited to meet an Apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ! :)

Love you all!

Elder Judd

"the light of everlastin​g life was lit up in his soul"

Ou te alofa i le lalolagi atoa!

I am really happy. I wish the whole world could know that God's light is real. It just is.

Transfers are this week and I'm really going to miss Elder Pauga. He leaves in a few hours. I've had a lot of fun with this guy. It was a privilege to serve with him and an honor to be his last companion.

I'm staying in Samoa! Elder Tingey will be my new companion. I've been told he's extremely obedient and extremely hardworking. I'm really excited to work with him. AND we will now be covering the Rialto 2nd Samoan Ward in addition to the great Inland Empire ward! Twice the Samoans. Twice the food. Twice the fun.

Just kidding about the food.

But this week has been full of miracles. Here's a few:

Wednesday. We brought out Sone, a young man from our ward who just his mission call to Houston, TX. We visited people in Loma Linda. Nobody was home. But we had a feeling to stop by Skyler's house, even though they never really let us in. (Remember Skyler? The guy who I met in my first area many months ago and didn't know was Samoan?) A new guy answered the door. His name was Al. We found out he's from Orange county and he's Skyler's cousin. He took missionary lessons out there in November and said he had his Book of Mormon in his car. while he ran and got it, we met Starla, Skyler's sister. She said Spencer was somewhere in the complex and ran to go get him. One thing led to another, and pretty soon we were all sitting Indian-style in their place listening to them explain why they knew God loved them. It was awesome. I've been trying to get to know them for months. MONTHS. We'll be meeting with them again soon.

Whoops, gotta go. Sorry for the short email!

I love you all! The gospel is true! Jesus is the Savior. God is your Father. They love you!

Alofa,

Elder Judd