Sorry about the delay! Here are the past two weeks of Sister Judd's letters!
Maayong Aga Pamilya!!
This week has been great! Yesterday we had TWENTY THREE investigators at church. I repeat. 23!!! Sister Cruz has been out for 9 months and she says it's a new record for her. And let me tell you it FELT like a lot of people too! Investigators need a lot of TLC and Sister Cruz and I were really wishing for a cloning contraption- we couldn't sit by every single investigator leaving them in this new mormon world where there's airconditioning and white polos and white people speaking english at the pulpit and so many new things. Some investigators have specific concerns too and it was really challenging to help each person that we needed to while also teaching gospel principles class.. haha But we did our best. It was amazing! We have so many people that we are teaching and they are shy to come to church so they bring all their friends and then we have more people to teach! :) Love how that works. But we've really seen the blessing of working with the ward and members. We're driven to work even harder to do this more because those members or ward missionaries that came with us to a lesson to teach a family can sit with them at church, be a familiar face and someone that actually knows them at church who can help them feel more welcome and even answer the questions that they have. We really are grateful to those ward members that even shake hands with our investigators.. So note to those at home. PLEASE acknowledge investigators at church, shake hands with them, introduce yourself and try to get to know them! It makes A WORLD of a difference. :) Thanks. haha
Oh and as far as "white people speaking at the pulpit" there's 2 cute american couples that live in the ward. They are from Utah and the boys work heading a company here. They both have new babies! They're so brave :) But I love to chat with them and felt like I was at home a bit hearing their talks at sacrament meeting. The Sister (Jordan) approached me after and told me sorry for just staring at me the whole time but it was the only way she'd be able to get through it knowing someone could understand her. haha
Oh and one more thing about church :) We have this adorable family that we're teaching (Olarte) that haven't really been progressing but we decided to really focus on them this next week and we went to go pick them up and go with them to church and a miracle happened! They were all getting ready for church when we got there! Sister Cruz and I were ridiculously giddy with excitement. That's the first for me here! Even appointments- it's hard to go people to wake up from sleeping or gather everyone that said they'd be there at that time. But they were all bathed and washing their shoes and excited for church! It's so exciting to see investigators progress and act in faith :) It doesn't sound like a big deal here but let me tell you- it was exciting!!! :)
Something funny that happened this week- we went to an appointment and I was just about to say the opening prayer, I opened my mouth to pray and the sister EMILY who is from Manila (speaks Tagolog some English and understand Ilonggo) shouted in English "I LIKE YOUR NOSE!!!" and was laughing so much. hahahaha If anyone knows a normal response to that statement I could use the help :) haha kalabanan (usually) on a Jeepney I'll notice the little kids staring at me and they are holding the bridges of their noses just staring at me. Then I scrunch my nose at them and they think it's the funniest thing ever. You know how in society you always want what you can't have? Well they love "tall" noses. Can you imagine Gru from Despicable me here? ;)
Oh! I had Follow-Up training this week! I got to see Sister Snow! It was a good training- I found out there's a good chance I probably won't see Elder Doane while we're here!! :( He leaves in May (I'm pretty sure) and we're in different zones. :( How sad will that be?! But after he gets home we will finally be able to email each other! I can't wait to hear from him!!! He's like a legend here and he'd never admit it but if anyone knew him in highschool it's like the same times 10 here in the mission. So awesome! Something that really struck me from the training is "line upon line, precept upon precept" (PAUSE! SOMEONE JUST STARTED PLAYING GREECE SUMMER LUVIN IN ENGLISH IN THE COMPUTER SHOP I'M DYING SOMEONE PINCH ME. jokes. wow I miss you family! imagine mom and dad goofy dancing and singing this song "OOH WALA WALA WALA UH!"
) Okay play. SO (sorry about that) anyway I'm really working on not letting myself get frustrated about the language and taking it word by word (precept by precept). Heavenly Father just expects my best and that's all I can expect from myself as well!! I'm humored thinking back on my decision to serve a mission and in all honesty you just don't know what you're getting yourself into. It's the most life changing experience ever. I love this gospel and love you all so much!!!! Thank you for your support and prayers. Until next week!! Enjoy vacation family!!
Love, Sister Jood :)
Hellooooo pamilya Judd!
Wow this week has gone by fast. We moved apartments!! We are living in a different area now... actually Sister Manwaring's same area! Yes, we're sitting next to each other in the internet shop right now :) And being in a new apartment has been fun! And challenging. The first couple days I was really trying to adjust. It's not as nice as our first apartment (which couple missionaries will be moving into.. so that kind of gives an idea of how nice it is) and in this new apartment I felt like I was camping at first. haha we don't always have water... we had a little bit in the morning and none at night so we use our emergency water (bins of mineralized water) which tastes like bleach so the juice packets I brought have been suuuuuch a life saver this week!! Anyway the apartment is fine but has taken some getting used to. I've gotten used to electricity not being reliable here and now I need to get used to water not being reliable from the spout. (amat-amat) step-by-step. haha But something I LOVE about the new apartment is that our neighbors have a dog. Not a mean guard dog but a cute human dog! His name is Mocha and I haven't gotten a picture with him yet but basically I just love him so much!! We're not allowed to have pets (obviously) or else I'd probably buy him from the neighbors. haha
Anyways our baptism this week was amazzzziiinng! (duh). Brother Jordan. He is so so kind! Man I just love him. It's been absolutely amazing to see how prepared he is and how much faith he has. He used to be an alcoholic but we taught Word of Wisdom to him on the 2nd lesson and he stopped the next day and hasn't had a drink since. It has been so so hard for him but his wife and family are so supportive. His wife is a member and their daughter is also a recent member. It was powerful to see their excitement and love when they saw this change in Jordan and when he was finally baptized on Saturday! They read the scriptures together and pray every night and are just the cutest family ever! His testimony at his baptism was so touching as he expressed thanks to us and to His Heavenly Father for this church and for being baptized. The gospel truly changed lives!!
Oh and we had our first dinner appointment this week! At our bishops house. It was so kind of them and so fun! There was a ridiculous amount of food. Spagghetti, Jolibee (fried chicken.. like KFC here), pizza, fish and rice, macaroni salad and desert. Like that's like at least 3 different meals in one sitting. I can't decide if I'd rather live in an area where we have alot of dinner appointments or not because I just KNOW I will get so so fat. I love the food here. Especially the spaggheti. Crazy huh mom? haha maybe I just have different taste bugs here. Buds? whatever :)
Let's see what else. Oh so some funny moments. I am SO terrified that someone is going to ask me when we're all laughing at someone's joke or something what they said because I never really understand what the joke was but I'm really good at pretending like I understand :) I love laughing with them though. haha Oh and also I'm SOOO not funny here! I actually made a goal to stop trying to make jokes. It's that bad. I just make things so awkward and confuse people! So that's embarrassing. Like I tried to make a joke to this woman we'd come earlier to the appointment to help her with her laundry so that she can come to church and she kind of got impatient and was like "what? I said come at 7, not earlier." ohh sige sige 7 lang. Oh and also something that is so obvious and hilarious to me is how crazy people think us missionaries are. It's either hotter than satan here or pouring rain. Well yesterday it was pooourrrring rain and it was 8 am (people are barely waking up) and we're walking around the neighborhood without an umbrella inviting people to church with huge smiles on our faces. People are looking at us like you seriously think we're going out in that rain?? haha It makes me smile even bigger and shake their hands even firmer. I love being a missionary!! Heavenly Father answers prayers. Even immediately sometimes. When I'm struggling I pray until I feel better and it never takes very long! He's always there, hand outstretched to help us, comfort us and carry us through the hard times. I have this unreal love for these people and I am so humbled by this calling to be a missionary. Thank you all for your love and support. Your letters and your prayers are so so appreciated!!
All my love,
Sister Judd
