6th Transfer: Week 5 ~ "This Is the Lord's Work. Not Ours."

Ocean at Heritage Park

Hey my family!!

Well, I have felt very close to my Savior this week which has brought a lot of trials due to Satan and his followers. But nothing too big. It was a wonderful and perfect opportunity to exercise my faith and to strengthen my relationship with my Heavenly Father. So thank you Satan. I was reading in the New Testament about my Savior and his Atonement. He was spit upon, mocked and slapped in the face. For what?! He was innocent, but Satan stirred up the hearts of the people against him. That is what Satan does, I have noticed that. The Savior is our example. He even says that if we are nice to those who wrong us, our reward in heaven is great! For we have need to rejoice! So that's all that matters to me. Our time here on this earth is so short. Little petty things don't matter. It's just a test to see what our reactions will be. Thats the only way for us to learn.

Everything here is all the same. It is still very hot. I am not too sure if it will ever get cool here. Although this week has been cooler. We have had a ton of rain all week which has been wonderful for a change. It was like England here for 3 days. It was nice. But the sun is out now and ready to kill.

Everything is the same here. My peanut rasta friend I wave to almost every day, although I haven't seen him lately because it's been raining. SAD! I will have to take my picture with him so you can see him. Also the "Repent" guy was not out due to the rain. I was trying to convince Sister Dill to go to the Muslim palace to have a prayer session but we both agreed it probably wouldn't be a good idea. I don't know if I have told you this but we are friends with the Muslims. I bought these little bottles of oil perfumes from them. They were so cheap! And they are lasting me forever. So every time we see them we wave. They always recognize us.

Well as you can see I am trying to make this e-mail as interesting as possible but everything is going the same here. Just pressing forward in the work.

There have been tourists here on Sundays lately. Hurricane season has not yet come to a close so there are price cuts on the cruise ships. 

There was something said at church yesterday that was really nice to hear. In Relief Society a sister raised her hand and made a wonderful comment. One that I will never forget. She expressed gratitude to me and Sister Dill. She said that EVERY time she is having a really hard day she prays then me and Sister Dill show up on her doorstep. It's at the perfect time every time. She said that the message that we share with her is always what she needs to hear. The Spirit is so wonderful. I wish I could take credit but it's not me and Sister Dill it's the Spirit. Without the Spirit we cannot teach. We would not know how to help people. Being on a mission is a wonderful time for me to really begin to recognize the Spirit and to try to act on every prompting that I have. I just know the Spirit leads us to certain people during the day if an appointment cancels. Names run through our minds and we act on it. It was so wonderful to hear her say that. It made us feel good to know that we are doing something right. So this work is definitely a marvelous work!  

Everything has been great. The work is wonderful and I absolutely love everyone here. I am going to be very sad when I have to leave Nassau. We get transfer calls this Saturday morning!

The Ferdinand Family

Sunday was great. We had dinner at the Branch Presidents house. I just love him and his family! Great members! We had a haitian dish which WAS AMAZING. A dish that I have been dreaming about ever since I finished the whole plate. We ate what is called Saspwa which is rice with a bean sauce. We had amazing chicken that was seasoned sooo perfect and the chicken just feel right off the bone with a yum salad with RANCH. He also made his famous juice...Mango and Carrot. It was amazing. So that was a good time at the Ferdinands.

Today we are planning on going hiking down this path by the beach. The other sisters want us to go with them so that should be fun. Last P-Day we went to Heritage Park where the slaves were. They still have some of the original buildings from back in the day. That was very fun.

I forgot to tell you an experience! You remember Eddie? The guy in the parking lot that I was prompted to stop and give a pamphlet to? Well he speaks Creole and doesn't speak good English but we have already taught him 2 lessons! He loves it every time we come. He is so excited about the Book of Mormon and he is willing to have Andrew come pick him up for church on Sunday. He is awesome!! I am so excited for him! I know that some day he will accept this gospel. So again, without the Spirit we would not be able to perform miracles. This is the Lords work. Not ours.

But I love you so very much and tell the family that I said I love them too! I will be decorating Laurens page and probably won't send it til next week ! I am now going to go grocery shopping. But I LOVE YOU MOM AND MY FAMILY!

-Sister Judd

 PICTURES OF HERITAGE PARK!

Slave buildings!!

It was pretty fun....cool experience to see the history here in Nassau.

We are sleeping in front of our hut.

HAHAHA! We had to get this picture. I am trying to find perfect opportunities to find a place where I can pretend that I'm sleeping because every time I come in for lunch I lay down for about 20 minutes on my couch. So, I am all about resting! The sisters think it's hilarious. I can't fall asleep but I like to rest my eyes. Sometimes if I am lucky I can actually fall asleep but most of the time not. Which stinks!

This is a cave that we found. We went off the trail and came to a cliff park. When we looked down we saw there were caves and we were on top of a cave too. We saw a hole that looked like an animal hole but when we went closer we could actually look down inside the cave! It was crazy! It was called the Banana Caves. So I don't know if they have bananas down inside there or what but it was cool.

6th Transfer: Week 4 ~ Search, Ponder and Pray

JuJu learning how to
do the wash:)

So my week consisted of Sister Dill and I rocking out to "As Sisters in Zion" and trying to share the gospel with everybody. As usual.

But I strive to find some more information to tell you guys, so here it goes!

We were trying to go around and do our missionary work when a preacher at the end of this particular road pointed at us and yelled "REPENT!" He does this to every car that passes him.........that is all he says. You would think he would know something else to say. I guess when he read his BIBLE he took the Lords counsel to his apostles tooo seriously. So now he spends his time in Nassau on the same road every day yelling out (very loudly) "REPENT!" to us and everyone else. I tried to wave at him once and he just smiled and yelled "REPENT!" at me still so I will continue to wave at him to make him happy :).

Also, this week we had a member take us to downtown Nassau. We went to eat at this place called Chill in Grill. Which, by the way the food is amazing! As we were waiting on the member to get there these 2 tourists, a man and a woman, came up to us and the guy said all excitedly "Where are all of you from?!" I looked at him and was like um.......... and then he said "Oh I am from Salt Lake City, Utah!" as he holds this beer in his hand. I said "Oh okay cool! have you been taught by the missionaries before?!" He said, "Oh actually we both have been raised Mormon. Our families are still very active. At age 16 we both chose to leave it". It was sooo sad to see them both choose that path! I think they were a couple, and to see what they think is a "better" life.. is really sad. Hopefully one day they will choose to come back. They were very, very nice. I could tell they were raised LDS.

A spiritual experience that I had this week was.......around 8:00 on Friday night our appointment canceled on us. While driving around we went through a grocery store parking lot. I saw this guy walking. I drove past him but I kept thinking about him and looking in my rearview mirror. So I started to slow down and Sister Dill asked me "you ok?" I said " I think we need to talk to this guy". So I parked the car and we got out. He willingly accepted the pamphlet on the restoration, we got his contact information and he went on his way. We shall call him! He was very, very nice! He is from the Baptist Ministry Church here but I know he could be a very good investigator. Even if nothing comes out of it, I am just glad I acted on the prompting.

Well, in 1 Nephi 11:1 it says: "For it came to pass after I had desired to know the things that my father had seen, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot". Nephi is a great example. He believed, or in other words, he had the FAITH to know that the LORD was able to make things known unto him and because of his faith, the Lord did just that.

I know the Lord works mighty miracles in our lives due to faith. The Lord cannot perform miracles without faith. Faith is everything....in ALL that we do. It is the driving force to push us to do what is right and gives us hope for a brighter future. I remember once reading that the eye of the natural man may not see the huge blessings God performs in our lives, but as we do our best in putting off the natural man and become a SAINT we will be able to see the hand of God in our lives.

How can we build our Faith?
Studying and Pondering the Scriptures and Praying!!

Not only do we need to READ the scriptures but we should PONDER them! As we do so, the Spirit will come in and teach us. We can go to the Father in prayer and ask him if what we are reading is true then we need to wait for our answer. This is how we will learn and draw closer to our Father in Heaven. The words are His. This work is His. So lets ask him in faith knowing he will show us the way. He will reveal things to us in His own time and in His own way.

Jerome (our investigator that we have been teaching) has accepted his baptismal date for December 27th. It's so far away because our Missionary Plan has changed. The investigators have to come to church for 5 Sundays before they can be baptized, which I definitely agree with. It will be harder to get people there for 5 Sundays but it's the right thing to do. People need to be sincere about this decision before they make a big promise to the Lord. But I am very excited for Jerome! :) He has 2 younger boys and he really likes being taught. He told us he wants to meet with us a lot more during the week. So we will now see him 3 times a week to prepare him for his baptism. But as always.. Satan is going to do all he can for him to not reach his date. BUT I know Jerome will be baptized. He is awesome!!

Yeah our apartment is nice. However, we no longer can have the AC on in the house. It costs too much so we are living off of fans. It is HOT all of the time. Humid and hot. It's horrible. I am just waiting for it to get cooler here. I just want to feel COOL WEATHER! AHH...LOL! It's almost Christmas for goodness sakes. While doing the service project at the nursing home I got a little sun burn. Who gets a sunburn in October? It's insane! And also our apartment is full of ants and spiders and roaches. Our water heater in our apartment is broken so we no longer have hot water. We shower in cold water which stinks. Oh well I am used to it. But our house has improved from Ochi's. At least we have carpet in our individual rooms and we have real windows :)

On the bright side of things I found a wonderful journal this morning! So I can now start my study journal. When I am done all of you can see it! Lisa said she wants to help me decorate the front of it. So I am excited!

BYE MOMM AND FAMILY! LOVE YOU!!

-Sis Judd

6th Transfer: Week 3 ~ A Picnic and a Pirate Museum:)

Our picnic:)

Heyyyy hope all is going well with you! So I will try to make this e-mail as quick as possible. I will put my experiences this week in categories.

Funny memory this week: Well, on P-day we went on a picnic which was pretty fun. It consisted of pizza and Sprite. At least it was cheap:)

We also went to a Pirate Museum which was too scary for my liking. I didn't know museums could be scary. It was like I was at Disney World going on the Pirates of the Caribbean boat ride. Scary.

Also, something that I think is quite hilarious is that we have been getting a lot of tourists on Sundays. They always get so emotional because of how small our branch is and our members stories. They also play the piano for our meetings. It's just a humble experience for them. As for me, I'm used to it. I kind of wish I could remember what church felt like back at home. I will be able to remember that in 10 months though. The tourists are always so surprised to know that its just us 4 on this island.

Another funny thing is that we have a broken toilet seat. It is completely loose so every time we use the bathroom we have to reposition the seat

The Boardwalk:)

or else it will move and we will fall in the toilet (that almost happened once). Life of a missionary.

Spiritual Experience:

There is a sister in our branch who was not having a good day. She cried all day and of course we didn't know. We were supposed to see someone at a certain time and they canceled. So I decided to

call this sister to see if we could come over and she was excited that we called. So we went over there, listened to her and read her a scripture. Before we left she said "I know you guys were prompted to come. Every time something happens to me you always come by" then she told us " I am so glad you both decided to serve missions". After she said that it really hit me.... I teach, listen, talk all day every day but at the end of the day I have never really sat and thought about how much we truly are blessing others lives. I am so glad that I chose to serve a mission so I could meet these wonderful people. I

We tried to go to the beach but the
tide was too high. There was no l
onger a place to sit. 

know I would not be as happy as I am now if I had not followed Gods plan for me to serve a mission.

I am writing in my blue journal now. I have finished my first one and I have already used quite a bit in my blue journal. I am very surprised that I am actually keeping a journal. Some nights I am just too tired to write in it. But I love my journals!

It was really funny at church yesterday....me and Sister Bailey were sitting next to each other. We have a Jamaican sister in the branch and we joke around with her. I understand her and Sister Bailey said "Sister Judd, what are

It was so windy!

you going to do without Patois back at home?!" I was like oh my goodness its so true!! Life will be so boring without it!

A scripture I want you all to read is John 17:17-23. Christ pleads for us always as long as we hearken unto his words, apply them into our lives and follow Him. He loves us so very much individually and that is what motivates me every day to go out to do the work. Not for ME, but for HIM.

Love you my family!!

-Sis Judd

p.s. I forgot to mention.....I have a Rasta friend here who sells peanuts. He gives us free peanuts most of the time just because we wave at him. HAHA!

PIRATE MUSEUM PICTURES!

Scary pirate museum. It took us all a while to actually to go inside.

I was going to climb the boat. Decided not to.

This picture is so crazy! Thats where they hung the pirates after they did all of those cruel things to them! Very violent I know....but I thought it was pretty cool. 

 Pirates!

6th Transfer: Week 2 ~ International Service Day!!

The sky looked really cool
on Halloween night

Hello my family!!!

So, I want to just say thank you so much Mom and Lauren for my amazing Halloween box!! We were all so excited to get it. I gave everyone their Halloween bag and we all shared the sweets! Everything in the box was perfect! No melted chocolate or anything. We had a blast! When Sister Oman saw the ghosts she chuckled and said "I think Lauren had fun making the ghosts" I even chuckled. I thought it was so cute!! Tell her it was an amazing job! Also tell her thank you so much for her decorations and her little project she gave to

Our Halloween Box!

me. It is amazing! Although, I don't know where to put them... and I would hate to throw them away so I guess I will be carrying them for the rest of my mission (which will be cute haha). I will try to decorate Lauren a little page with the things that I find here in the Bahamas. I think she would love that so I will do that for her :) Sister Bailey, Sister Oman, and Sister Dill all just love you! You really made our Halloween night! Thank you again Mom and Lauren.

Okay, so to start off my e-mail for the week...the work here is going great! I absolutely love the members of the church in this little branch. I love them too death!! We are all just one big happy family. Even us 4 sisters here. We are just family. I am going to be soooooo very sad to leave Nassau. 

My second family here in the Bahamas, Sister Reid and Kempst, are having us over for Thanksgiving! They asked me what I want to have for dinner because they want to make us the things that we miss. I requested mashed potatoes and gravy.

Lisa, Dre and Sister Oman.
I love this picture! It's absolutely priceless!

I haven't had mashed potatoes in a very long time!! You're going to think that is a weird request. Kempst just laughed at me!! and said, "Man, you should have just come sooner and we would have given you some." LOL!! but its true. I just love them and I feel at home when I am there. I am sure I sent you a picture of our family home evening one night. We played Jenga. 

We don't have any baptisms for now.. for the near future.. who knows? People can change. It just depends on if they will let the Lord in their lives or not. It's just our job to teach. I feel like I am just a seed planter out here on my mission so far. But I won't get discouraged. Planting the seeds is also a very hard job and I know the Lord is happy with what I am doing. But as a missionary you just hope to see more but I can't always look at that. I am glad to teach our investigators...we really try to get them to church. Its just mostly their desire is not there but we will be working hard with them this week. It's just they all work all day every day! Oh well....hopefully some day they will get baptized :) Here are our investigators....we are still teaching Fabiola and Diane(they are friends), Ann, and Kevin (who is a taxi driver). We saw Kevin show up to church yesterday because he brought tourists! He has definitely been put in our path so many times. We have been trying to see him for

Sister Dill pretending to drive:)

a while but being a taxi driver, he is so busy. He's always on the go.. no break. We have been trying to get in contact with Jerome and we have been teaching Beverly. She is a referral from Andrew. So we have been seeing her and she seems very interested! So the work here is definitely hastening. It's going great.

By the way guess what?!! We have 2 sets of Sister Training Leaders now in this mission. We have 2 Sister Training Leaders in Boulevard, Kingston and the other 2 STL'S are in Mandeville. They each cover one side of the island.

Me and Sister Dill are matching
so we needed a picture:)

As you know Nov. 1st was International SERVICE DAY!! WHOOP WHOOP! So our service project was going over to the nursing home to repaint (and to pretty much remodel) the whole building outside and inside. We did so much good on that day!! and I did not want the day to end. It was the best day and the happiest I have seen myself and the whole branch! We all just became so close! It was sooooo much fun I wish I could do that every day! As I looked at us coming together to help those in need, I thought about how todays' technology keeps us inside (not doing anything) when we could be out doing so much! Like

helping so many people in this world! It truly

INTERNATIONAL SERVICE DAY!!

brought us happiness! It was an amazing day. I figured out that the reason I was so happy was because we all came together as Latter Day Saints and served others just as the Savior did when he was here on the earth. What a great example He was. I love him very much and am thankful for His example. Because of that we know what we need to do in this horrible world to one day return to live in our Heavenly Fathers presence again. Sometimes we get caught up in the world when really we need to take a step back, read the scriptures and do wholesome things that will truly bring us and our families happiness. We even had a little old man show up to church yesterday from the nursing home. It was so fun :)

Me and Juju! She is ready to paint!  

One of my favorite parables in the New Testament is when the rich man comes to Jesus and says "I have been keeping the commandments what else do I need to do to gain eternal life?" and the Savior looks at him and says (paraphrasing), "sell all that you have and give to the needy then you will be able to enter in the kingdom with my Father". The man was very sad because he didn't want to give up his worldly things. We need to realize that if we do, we will receive so much more happiness in the world to come. And for that... I will give up all that I have and help others. That brings me happiness anyway!! Even more happiness will come when I get to be with my

This is Sister Ferdinand, the Branch
President's wife. We were really
working hard!:) 

Savior and my Father in Heaven! So as long as we serve others and show others that we care for them, and be more like our Savior, we will find happiness! 

Well my family and mom our time is up. The sisters are here to take us to go out to the pirate museum. I LOVE YOU MOM AND MY FAMILY !!! TAKE CAREEE AND thanks for sending the halloween pictures it was so fun to see!!!

-Sister Judd


MORE PICTURES OF OUR SERVICE DAY!

The young men wanted to be in my picture too!! They came running and I told them lets do a "thug" face. So we all had fun in this picture! Let me tell you something about these amazing young men here. Every young man that you see in this picture are my greatest friends. They are the only church member in their families. They are stalwart...even preparing themselves for one day to serve a mission and they are great examples to their friends. They fellowship so many other young men their age and because of them, many other young men are wanting to be baptized. It's so wonderful to see them pass the sacrament each and every Sunday. Even though they are the only members in their family they make the effort to not miss a Sunday.

Us girls relaxing after painting! The woman to the right of me is Sister Saintil! I am good friends with her. Her brother is Ruben who just left for his mission.

Sister Bailey painting a sign:)