Week One!

ALOHA!

first off, sorry you had to wait a whole dang week to hear from me :) haha! also, thank you for the brownies (all the elders and sisters love you!) and for the awesome letterS! it seriously is the greatest thing at the end of the day to have your district leader hand you a bunch of letters :) 

anyway, mom i love being a missionary. the mtc is incredible. i feel the spirit 24/7. I was able to get the bottom bunk wahoo! haha. my companion is incredibly amazing and i love her so so much! her name is sister robinson and she is from orem (went to timpanogus) she runs with me every day and we have had a lot of fun teaching and learning and studying together :) I was able to see Jess, along with a bunch of people, sisters and elders, from svu!! so cool. Sister robinson and i share a room with sister Maher (the one i found on instagram that is from phoenix!) and her companion, sister Blanchard (from brigham city going to austrailia!) It has been so fun! It is just us four sisters in our district and then four elders, Elder Butterfield (utah-austrailia), Elder Ika (tonga/utah-austrailia), and Elder Longino (Louisiana-austrailia). The district is AWESOME! 

I'm really sorry that this email is gonna jump all over the place haha! just bear with me, i only have like 15 minutes to write :/ and i promise i'll get better!

First off I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. Holy cow, it's incredible. The very first day we were separated into groups of 40 and had an incredible experience teaching a single man who's child died at the young age of 12 due to cancer. One elder stood up and bore his testimony to the man about the Plan of Salvation. He also shared a scripture from D&C 189 (i think..) haha. Then we told the man of prayer and long story short, we were able to all kneel down... all 40 of us with this man... and the elder offered a wonderful prayer. We, including the investigator, all had tears in our eyes. 

We teach every day, members and nonmembers, investigators, and actors. We don't know which are which :) Sister Robinson and I are teaching two investigators regularly. Nico is just a teenager and we've been talking about God and about the restoration with him. He has an incredible way about him and it's been so fun to teach him and get to know him.  Devan is a BYU student from San Fran! She is a southern baptist and we've had some great discussions about Christ <3 she has been reading from the book of mormon :D its awesome. it is incredible that as a missionary, i totally feel God's love for them so so much!

So Sister Robinson and I were called to be Sister Training Leaders for our Zone. Due to this, we had the awesome opportunity to teach relief society on sunday. it was on the book of mormon :) we also had an incredible fast and testimony meeting with our zone. Sunday night, we also got to watch the "Character of Christ" devotional from years back by Elder Bednar :) it's a great talk and i invite all of you to go watch it!!! 

We've also been able to teach member lessons, once over skype, twice in person. I love it so much. I never really realized how much members matter in the missionary purpose! Members can and should help the members as much as they can!!!! 

Days at the mtc are filled with teaching, learning, role-playing, and THE SPIRIT! Ahh, I just love being a missionary so much :) 

Today we were able to go to the temple as a district and that was really really beautiful! I feel so blessed to be here and to have this opportunity to serve! It's awesome.

So many incredible things have happened since being here and i can feel gods love so intensely it's crazy. I know that God loves all of us, and that He is just a prayer away!!! I am so excited to get to Hawaii and get to work :) this gospel is absolutely incredible, and i learn more and more each day through the scriptures, PMG, prayer, and the wonderful people around me!! 

Thanks for the prayers, love and support i really do feel it :) hope yall have a wonderful week! & happy easter, happy conference, and happy birthday to cousin courtney, lindsey richards, kasi palmer, and anyone else :) peace n blessins!

aloha, 

sister judkins

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P.S. My flight leaves at noon on monday, april 6th,Delta flight 1105 and i will call you either there or when i get to hawaii :)