4th Transfer: Week 4 ~ "I Promise We Are Not On Vacation:)"

Okay where should I begin? My week has been pretty good.. just very stressful :) but .. oh well. Heavenly Father has really been pushing me this week. It has been so very stressful to where a blood vessel has popped in my eye and it hurts! Unless it's pink eye...I don't know but I will be going to the doctor soon.. haha. So no worries :)

On Monday we had the chance to go to Atlantis and it was a lot of fun! (of course I have pictures). It had 3 aquariums and a huge casino. The rest was just water slides in stuff which we couldn't do. But we did go down to the beach which was nice. So P-day was a lot of fun! :)

Throughout the week the other off island sisters came to stay in our house for the conference. They flew into Nassau on Wednesday so we had 10 sisters in one little apartment. They came from the Camans and Turks. We had Zone Conference on Friday and Elder Cornish (of the seventy) came which was pretty cool. We had the other 4 elders from Freeport fly in and we had to go and pick them up. So in all we had 14 missionaries in the little Relief Society room having zone conference with a general authority. Talk about awesome. The not awesome part was that Heavenly Father has such a sense of humor, that he prompted this General Authority to call on me to give my talk. Prior to this event I was praying to my Father in Heaven asking him to please have Him not let anyone feel prompted to call on me to speak. After my prayers I just knew I was going to be called on. It was like He was laughing at me! HAHA! I just knew I was going to be called so I prepared my talk and sure enough I gave it. All the missionaries needed to hear my talk apparently they all were touched. I even saw them take notes and most even teared up because of the Spirit that they felt. It made me feel good but of course I was prompted by the Spirit in knowing what to write in my talk. I shared my personal experience and related it to the topic. It was great. Elder Cornish was impressed by my talk and really liked it he said. So PHEW. I was so relieved after it was over. But anyway it was a nice experience.

Back in Ochi, me and Sister Bailey taught this man Eli for months :) and he just got baptized!! So he is considered our baptism! How cool is that?! It was a cool story. We were teaching his friend at the car wash then all of a sudden Eli came up and was interested. His friend we were teaching ended up dropping us but Eli ended up being baptized. So all in all I have 2 baptisms on my mission. It just feels good to know they those baptisms are GOOD baptisms because I know they both will stay in the church and endure.

Anyway.. that was pretty much my week! it was a pretty good week :) Also I am learning Creole! It's pretty cool even if I say so myself :) Well mom I can't wait to read your e-mails you have sent me to see how the family is doing!! LOVE YOU

-Sis Judd

Her response to my email:

Hey Mom!! It is miserable to not have A.C. But.. I am used to sweating it feels like thats just the way life is now.. is to always sweat. So I don't know how it feels to not sweat. Ha! Thats awesome that you have the desire to share the gospel! The gospel is so very important for all of our brothers and sisters here on the earth. I just know I will continue to share this even after my mission. We give our members little Mormon.org cards and we put our information on it as well as mormonchannel.org so when they see the little clips they may get interested and give us a call. Maybe thats what you can do as well! Get little mormon.org cards and put the missionary information on it as well. I just know members can do so much good. The missionaries leave but the members are always there so befriending those who are investigating the church is so very important. It's a new environment and it can be a scary thing. So thats awesome that you have the desire to share it! I LOVE THAT! I got Nana's box. In there were huge bags of junk food. I got her card and her home made flower pot thing. Tell her thank you for the things she sent me. As for your boxes I haven't gotten them. I know you sent me some clothes.. I really need those clothes haha.. because my green skirt broke.. the zipper fell off.. and all my other ones I am just getting annoyed by. But its okay.. I will just get it when I go back to Jamaica again I guess. Did you say the makeup was in that box too?? Thank you for everything and I just love hearing about how the family is doing and I am so glad all of you are doing awesome! :)

I love this thanks for sharing. Being obedient is huge for being out on your mission. I always strive to stay obedient and do what is right so I can have the Spirit to be with me always. I have been trying to recognize the Spirit more... some times it is difficult for me. Some times I freak out because I ask myself am I doing some thing wrong for me not to have the spirit with me??? I even pray and repent for every little thing its like I freak out.. but I just know he knows the desires of my heart.. So I always have to keep that in mind.

We have a hurricane coming but thankfully it's going around us! So now they have changed it to a tropical storm. I can't wait :) I'm excited because we need some rain! It's too hot! I have been thinking a lot about you guys. Maybe its because my companion is leaving me this week. She is flying back home to Georgia on Sept. 2! My goodness.

We can definitely come back to the Bahamas and have a vacation. You would LOVE NASSAU! Paradise Island is truly PARADISE. It is amazing we have the best P-days I swear. There are tons to do here. We would never be bored. For sure. I honestly have to say this is my favorite area thus far :)

I knew Eli would get baptized :) He has a sweet little family and he always carried around his pamphlet and his Book of Mormon. He would read it when times got hard for him. So he is awesome and I just know that his kids will get baptized as well! They are a sweet little family. He is a single Father :) I don't know who baptized him but I do know he is my convert! woohoo! It was wonderful to hear :)

Yeah Satan is the worst dude ever. I do not like him... it stinks that he had to be cast down here.. he should have his own planet where he can stay for eternity and never go loose ever, ever, ever ,ever again.

Trying to share the gospel in Atlantis... He didn't accept. 

Pictures of Atlantis!

Atlantis!! Creepy ole crabs in the Caribbean Sea + us being silly as always (You know me)

I promise I didn't gamble hahaha! this casino was so fun to be in not gonna lie! 

I promise we are not on vacation :) ...................LIES! We totally are! We serve in the BAHAMAS! HA!

Really pretty road on a way to a lesson! and me and my MTC Companions! We are all off island. Sister B and Sister S are at Turks. 

Jamaican Food! At a dinner appointment. :)

Any investigators? Yeah.. just a couple. Since everyone works here its really hard to have appointments here in Nassau. So.. we have this lady Rhada and her daughter Narissa. Narissa is interested in going to BYU Idaho. Her mom Rhada saw us on the road walking and she pulled over and stopped us and asked if BYU was related to our church. We said of course! and we have been teaching her ever since. So she is a new investigator of ours. Narissa heard about BYU Idaho as she was looking for colleges online at school. She became interested in the school because its affordable. She also loves our standards. Narissa is very modest and she is such a cute girl! I can see them being LDS. Rhada is a single mother and its just her and her daughter at home. They are wonderful. Julian (Baptist Pastor) dropped us. We refused to really teach him anymore because he was talking about starting his own church. When we were teaching him we felt like he was going to use our information as doctrine for his own church. So we are no longer teaching him, but he is in our prayers. I don't deal with priestcraft! It's ridiculous.

Are all 4 of you sisters serving in the same ward? Yeah all 4 of us are in the branch. Its not a ward :) its a small branch .. we have over 500 less actives. We have a meal calendar that gets passed around and we get fed! We have about.... maybe.. 2 meal appointments throughout our week.. maybe even 3.

Elder Cornish told me some thing that I know he was prompted to tell me to tell you guys. He said that being in the military has been a blessing in his life (he lived in Warner Robins as well). We had much in common, so i can say that I am friends with a general authority haha! Anyway, he said that that is when you can see the Lord work in your life because the Lord is in charge of where you go. So I know for a fact you are in Del Rio, Texas for some reason. You may not see the blessings now but they will come. The Lord knows best :)

Yes.. Elder Cornish was prompted to pick people to give the talks. So me and Sister Oman spoke on The Doctrine of Christ and then Sister Bailey and Elder Fitkau spoke on the Process of Conversion. So it was cool. ALL 4 of us in Nassau gave talks and I said the closing prayer! Talk about receiving blessings. It was a good zone conference...a stressful one.. but it was good.

Visiting teaching is so important! President Brown looked at our branch at the fireside on Friday night and talked about missionary work. He said "There are over 500 less actives in this branch, so what are you going to do? We need to get up and find these people and bring them back!" He stresses this in every branch I have been to.

He did the fireside on Friday night and our zone conference was throughout the whole day pretty much. It was wonderful. Elder Cornish is actually over our area. That's why he came. :) He lives in the Domican Republic.

I have really learned boldness since I have been out. Me and Sister Woolf actually talked about that! She said.. haven't you noticed all the sisters in this mission are bold?! Elder Cornish was awesome. He wanted all of us to be in the leadership meeting before zone conference because he said "You all will be future leaders, since you have been called to serve on these islands". It was awesome to hear that from a general authority. It made me feel like I was doing something right.

Today for P-day we are probably just going to take more pictures. Today is Sister Woolfs last P-day, so whatever she wants to do we will do today. Its so sad! because I will be in a trio. I will be the only one running my area for at least a week. I'm nervous but I know it will be fine.

Well mom I love you so much and let the family know that they are in my prayers and that I love them. I love you all and hope your week will be good and I know the Lord is always mindful of all of you. Keep pressing forward. Mom, even though some days might be hard, set some time for yourself and relax with Lauren on the couch or some thing! I love you my family! Take care!! I will talk to you all Next Monday :)


LOVE YOU ALL!

-SIS JUDD