Jan 11th. Preparing Their Hearts, Blown Away By Their Faith!

Hello Family! So I don't have a lot to write this week but let me tell you about the baptism that we had yesterday!
Sister Joeralyn is so awesome!! She is 14 years old but you wouldn't believe it after seeing her picture.. she is a huge athlete and actually goes is this cool highschool here just for athletes (she is a jumper in track) and she has been taught by missionaries for a while now. Her parents are super awesome but have not yet come to church (her mom came to the Christmas party though) and we're working with her dad as well. 2 of Joeralyn's siblings are members but they now have families of their own and one of them (her brother) actually just passed away suddenly. He is the oldest of their siblings and it has been really tragic for their family. Sister Joeralyn's mom is very supportive of Joeralyn being baptized and becuase of her son that just passed away (that is a member) she shared that she knows that he would want all of them to get baptized.. so even though it is so sad what they are going through I know that this is one way that Heavenly Father is preparing their hearts. At her baptism, Sister Joerlalyn's testimony was so sweet how her greatest desire is for her to someday have her family join her for them all to some day be converted. She wants to serve a mission (and wishes she didn't have to wait years haha) and is excited about someday going to the temple!! I'm so grateful that I have met these faithful people in Cabanbanan and am so inspired by their conversion stories!! For example, one of our investigators from Cabanbanan.. his name is Brother Andrew. He's 16 years old and he has such great faith! Yesterday he walked ALL BY HIMSELF the entire way to church. He had no money and even though he is SO shy he didn't use the excuse that others use "I had no one to go with me" or "I had no money". There's no excuse for Andrew. Sister Silos and I were a little bit blown away by Brother Andrew's faith yesterday. Sometimes it's a wake up call to us as missionaries.. "Look at his faith! Let's do more and even more to help him continue to grow in his faith!" Brother Andrew's potential is so great.
We also have another investigator (also from Cabanbanan) and she keeps giving away the Books of Mormon that we give her!! It's so awesome! So many of the people that she or her husband knows are curious about the "mormon missionaries" visiting them and sayang not all of them live in our area.. but it's so awesome that so many other people will meet missionaries and find out about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ through the best witness that there is.. The Book of Mormon :)

PS. On Christmas our mission had a total of 205 baptisms! In one day! Christmas miracle indeed.. or 205 miracles. :)
PPS. I sent a picture.. I got gma's package :) All the other packages are stuck in Manila! We're all still [im]patiently waiting for them to arrive and get to us! :) Maybe right in time for my birthday :)
PPPS. They eat this snake/eel type thing from the rivers here.. I can't wait to try it next time they go and catch a bunch of them again. It's kind of hard to catch them I guess and they also bite so it's not fun but it was not the first time I saw people gutting snakes to eat for dinner...

Instead of ending on a note about snakes.. I will add that being a missionary is such great opportunity with such a great responsibility! Sometimes Heavenly Father reminds me of this responsibility by putting along our path people that are so so interested and willing to hear about the message that we have to share! For example just as simple as a tricycle driver that we see at least a couple times a week and we often pay him to take us to Cabanbanan.. well this week he asked if there is a fine to go to our church.. we surprisingly told him no and that any one is invited and he asked what time and was disappointed that this Sunday he has work but is planning to come "observe our church" this next week! Why didn't I invite him to church these past 3 months? That's what I mean. There are people all around us looking for the truth or willing to learn about what we believe.. let's just be more diligent in taking every opportunity to share the gospel! This is one goal of mine before I go home- talking to EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE about this good news- The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ :)

I know that this church is true and that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us so much!!!!
I also love you all SOO much!! Have a great week!! Gwen... it's coming so quick!!! :)))))))

Sister Judd