"And now ... I would ask if all is done?"

Dear family and friends,

There is so much in my heart right now. It is hard to put it all in words. It has been such a great week.

On Wednesday I went to the temple with President and Sister Van Cott and the other departing missionaries. I love the temple!

This week we made another new friend. I'll call him Brad. After facing a difficult change in his life, Brad found himself chatting online with missionaries. They referred him to us, and we began teaching him. We LOVE Brad. As we began teaching him he said:

I know that it's not a coincidence that I'm here with you guys. I need this right now. I even had a dream of this moment, with a park table, and 2 guys like you, and a tree in the back, just like I see it right now.

We had a lesson with another man I'll call David, who is not a member of the church. David loves music and is great at singing, so we decided to sing "I'm Trying to Be like Jesus" with him at the beginning of the lesson. Just as we finished, we heard a surprise from the kitchen:

Another! ... 'I Am a Child of God'.

We could not hold back the smiles. It was David's wife, who has never joined us for a lesson and is also not a member of the church. We learned she had been to an Inside-ut concert some time ago and had always wanted to know how the real version sounded. We fulfilled her request; the Spirit filled the room. 

On Saturday I went to the baptism of one of my favorite people in Indio. When I asked him what his college plans are he said: I'm going on my mission first.

It was such a great, great thing to hear.

Thank you to those who have supported and encouraged me throughout my mission with emails, letters, and gifts. I have felt love from heaven through you.

Tomorrow I fly home. I am so grateful for my mission. Heavenly Father has been so good to me. I am so grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Our Father in Heaven loves us. Jesus is the Savior of the world. Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. The Book of Mormon is true. I know these things are true!

Love,

Elder Judd

"The iron rod is the word of God; 'Twill safely guide us through"

Dear family,

Many many miracles this week.

On Wednesday, I was on an exchange with Elder Grigg. He's really good at teaching simply and powerfully, and it was really fun. Here's a cool miracle from the day:

in our planning on Tuesday night, we felt a clear prompting to visit a certain less active man as a backup to our lesson at 3:00. Well, the appointment fell through and we went to our backup plan. As we walked through the complex toward the place, we met a young Marine with a dog with a cone of shame. We talked with him. he accepted our invitation to learn more. After, we knocked at the less active man's door and he wasn't home.

There are no coincidences! This is the work of God.

We're teaching a young man I'll call Jason. Jason is awesome, and he has been coming to sacrament meeting for about a year now. He is now preparing for baptism. But he has yet to come to the other 2 hours of church. So we had members ready on Sunday to greet him and invite him to stay, and he hesitantly stayed for Sunday school. He enjoyed it. But just after that class was about to leave before the priesthood meeting. We caught him and did our best to persuade him to try it out. Sadly, he declined and left. So we started toward the next meeting. 

Then a voice came from behind us: Okay, what is this meeting like? 

Jason stayed! And he really liked it. And we were really happy.

One of our favorite people has been so solid and been embracing the gospel. But on Saturday night some friends introduced him to some information designed to destroy his faith. He ignored most of it, but he called us and told us he was really struggling with some of the things. He felt that he did not want to look into the gospel anymore.

We prayed so much that night and throughout the next day for him. We felt that we needed to focus on the Book of Mormon. We prayerfully prepared a lesson. We felt to read 1 Nephi 8 with him. As we read, there was a visible change in his countenance. He said he felt a weight lifted from him. 

We were filled with so much joy and relief and peace. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon because, with the Spirit, it changes hearts.

Love,

Elder Judd

A cool cactus named "Cholla"

"And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever"

Hello my family!

So many great things are happening in 29 Palms! We have been praying so hard that we will find those many people and families that Heavenly Father has prepared to be taught, and He has been leading so many good people to us. I know that there is a God and He answers prayers.

A few weeks ago we were looking for a certain family at a certain address. They had moved, but we met a woman named Windy who now lived there. She was interested in learning more and taking a tour of our church, and we asked her who else might be interested. She said we should stop by Richard, her next door neighbor, and jokingly said:

He needs God. He needs God.

We attempted several times to contact Richard and honestly didn't expect much to come from him. But on Wednesday we finally met him and his family. We taught them and they are awesome and Richard and his family of 6 have commit to be baptized. And during the lesson we asked:

If there were a prophet today, what would you ask him?

There was a pause. Then Richard's mother-in-law asked:

What happens to our loved ones when they die, and are they happy?

She is a widow. We read Alma 40:11-12 with them. The Spirit in the home was sweet, and we are so excited to teach them more about the Plan of Salvation.

We are also teaching a man name John. His wife is a member and this week he commit to be baptized in March. He decided to quit smoking at New Years' and he's been doing really great, even though it's been really hard for him. But they are so happy cheerful all the time. They're just funny. 

We've met many other people and our planners are so full for this coming week. We've been trying really hard to talk with everyone and teach everyone. It's been really fun.

And I can't think of other specific things I wanted to write about, but this comes to mind: Yesterday as the closing hymn in the Samoan sacrament meeting, they sang one of my favorite Samoan hymns. It's upbeat and I feel the spirit whenever we sing it. And it's not in the english hymn books, but the chorus in English would probably be this:

Face the war;

Fight strong for Jesus.

Satan has come, our enemy

There's many in his army.

Soldiers of Zion, 

Let's all be strong

Fight with alertness and diligence in doing good things.

I know the gospel is true! I love you all!

Elder Judd

"Jesus anointed that Prophet and Seer"

Dear Family,

Great week!

On Monday we prayed that we would find someone to teach. In the evening after dark we rode by a guy putting his bike and little makeshift bike trailer away. We talked with him and his name is Omar. He said we could come back.

We also taught a family I'll call the Sweetwater family. The Sweetwaters are members of the church but haven't been to church in a long while. We taught them about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They have family and siblings who have served and are serving missions. The message wasn't new to them, but as we talked with them and they shared their thoughts about it, a spirit of peace was there. We testified that Joseph Smith saw heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and I felt God confirm that it was true--I felt a powerful peace and calmness. 

We invited Bro. Sweetwater to say the closing prayer and we knelt with their family. He looked to his wife and seemed like he didn't want to. but something moved him to say yes. It was a great prayer. And as we stood and were about to leave he said:

Kudos to you guys. You got me to pray. I've had missionaries come over here for years and they've never gotten me to pray.

I was so happy and smiley all night. Filled with joy.

On wednesday we met a samoan family that was in their garage. We didn't realize they were in the branch. We found out a son in the family had passed away that morning. Really sad. They gave us a ride to a Priesthood meeting last night, and as we drove home the remaining brothers practiced a song they wrote for their brother's funeral next week. They sing really well.

We had zone conference on Friday and it was focused on the process of conversion.

On Saturday we went to meet a family that past missionaries had been teaching, but accidentally went to the wrong address. We ended up semi-lost in the middle of the desert on sand roads. We prayed that we would not get stuck in the sand. Just really funny adventure. 

Last night we had a stake priesthood meeting. we have a really great stake president. He is really young. we sang "Praise to the Man" and the spirit was powerful and uplifting. the stake president spoke of one time the priesthood sang that song when he was a bishop. They started to sing, but were sort of lame and didn't have energy. he stopped them and said:

If we're going to sing 'Praise to the Man who communed with Jehovah' we need to sing it as if the Priesthood of God has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. 

They sang again, this time with vigor. 

I know that Joesph Smith is a prophet of God! 

Love,

Elder Judd