December 26th

Hope you all had a spectacular Christmas! Thank you again for the 2 boxes (family and grandma). It was so sweet for you to think of my companions- I was especially thankful for Sister Tiroba to have things to open. Sister Snow was also very appreciative because of how sweet and thoughtful you all are! As if it isn't hard enough not to gain weight here at the MTC, having all our favorite candies is making it just that much harder! But ya know it is what it is. Also thank you to the Hoopers for the ADORABLE Christmas card!!! Miss you and love you bunches! Also, Silas hope you had a crazy amazing sweet 16! Ah you are so old. I demand all details about you asking girls on dates etc etc etc. So excited for you!! Family, did you take any pictures at Christmas? And did you get my letters?
PAUSE from the letter: So we do our laundry while emailing and all the computers downstairs next to the machines were being used so we put in our clothes and went upstairs. When I took my whites out of the washer I left my bra on the top of the machine on top of my laundry bag and went and started a dryer. I went back to the washer to get my colors and my bra was gone. I looked everyyyyywhere for it. Double checked all the machines and even my companion's machines. Can't find it. Haha Ya I'm like super weirded out right now. Who takes someone else's bra? So beware of the creepy elder bra stealer here at the MTC people! haha I'm going to go look again when my drying is done and if I haven't found it I'm going to have to send another email asking mom to send me another before I leave. Sorry mom but I should really go to the Philippines with more than one! SO weird.
Well I am starting my 4th week here at the MTC. That means half way there! The ENTIRE zone is leaving either Sunday night or Monday morning and my district will be the only ones left! But only until Tuesday when internationals come in and Wednesday everyone else will follow. We will be getting 17 new Elders and Sisters!! And guess who will be training the new Sisters.... Sister Snow and I! We are so pumped! I will update you next week on that when we have them here and get to interview them etc. It is going to be SO hard to say goodbye to all the other Elders and Sisters in our zone but we're so excited for them to be in the field and meet "normal people" as we call it here. This week has been kinda hard. In some ways I feel like I've hit a wall with the language. It's so important to know that there are 2 parts to the atonement- cleansing and enabling. Paagi-sa Pugpasag-uli (Through the Atonement) we can have more power, skills and capacity than on our own. Knowing this makes all the difference. USING it makes even more of a difference. Hope you all can use this in your life too.
So Christmas here was awesome! Elder Bednar and his wife came and spoke to us and it was THE COOLEST! He had us do something that has never been tried before... They passed out over 200 cell phones and had the Elders and Sisters text.. yes I said TEXT inspired questions to Him (he gave us his number) and he would get the questions on his iPad. It was really cool! One really funny thing that he said to us before they passed out the phones was if anyone called their parents or texted their girlfriends he would "hunt you down and do bad things to you" hahaha He didn't even smile after saying that or anything and everyone kinda nervously laughed. haha But the devotional was also broadcasted live to all the other MTCs around the world and they had his email and he actually answered a couple questions from them too! I want to share a couple insights and things that I thought were really cool from his talk. One of the questions someone asked "what his favorite scripture is and why": He answered by saying he has favorite themes not just scriptures and something he taught about the Savior through this theme was WAY cool! (It made me think of you dad, I thought you would find it fascinating too). He shared 3 Nephi 11:14-17 and outlined where it says "One by One" as the people came and felt the Saviors prints of the nails in his hands and feet. Elder Bednar taught that there were 2500 people in this multitude and that for every person to come one-by-one it took almost an entire DAY for the Savior to individually meet each person. This shows the Savior's love for all His children individually. And the "individual" aspect is what we should truly gain testimony of and know for ourselves. Because he bore the sins of every person individually, not as a whole. Elder Bednar said that this principle is outlines a total of 6 times in the Book of Mormon and that in 3 Nephi 11 that is 1 of 6 of the times it is found. It was also interesting for him to take this principle and have him teach us as missionaries. He said that when we speak in church we are teaching a congregation of ONES. Not teaching 200 people. But 200 ONES. That is how the spirit works and how we should let the spirit teach through us. There is so much more I'd love to share but it means so much to me and I would probably end up writing a novel. But if any one is particularly interested in what else he shared, email or write me! It was SO cool to actually see him gain inspiration as he taught us and as he took each question into careful consideration.

Kabalo ako nga matuod ang simbahan ni JesuCristo. Kabalo ako nga mga anak nia kita. Ginpadala kita sang Dios sa Kalibuton, agud mgtu-on kag muguswag. Palangga ang Dios sang mga pamilya.
I know that this church is true. I know that we are His children. God sent us to earth to learn and grow. God loves families.

LOVE YOU ALL!!
Sis. Judd