July 4, 2015

Dear Family,

  I have decided that Iºm finally going to send you the email that you all so greatly deserve, haha. I am also so appreciative of your wonderful emails, I mean, I get at least 2 from both my parents each week, how incredible is that!? 

  I take comfort that many hearts are going out to the Simmonºs family, (as well as the Packer and Perry families). That really is heartbreaking. I know that he will have a great mission nonetheless. Mom, it is heartwarming how others can be such great supports through difficult times. Mom and Dad, you really have absolutely no idea how much you have supported me to help me through my most difficult times. Not only that but also to make my most wonderful times so special: Thanks. Thanks from the bottom of my heart.

  This past week has been such a rich week for me, I feel like Iºm able to see such needed progress in me having more patience with people. I just feel that Iºve just kicked all my patience out the window these past couple months, so it was good to see it coming back little by little, haha.
  With one of Godºs investigators, Silva, I learned a really important lesson: donºt doubt what God tells you. We had a baptismal date marked and he was progressing practically perfectly. One day we were praying for Silva felt like he should be baptized on a later date ºbut he is preparing perfectlyº I thought, (plus we are recieving huge pressure from our leaders to baptize him). The date drew near and the service was already being prepared. While we were talking to him a few days before the date we just felt inspired to tell him that he would be baptized on a later date, which came as a surprise as those words left our mouths. We learned in a few minutes the reason the Lord wanted him to be baptized on that later date, it became apparent. If we had given in to peer pressure, even from good people, we would not have followed the Lord, found out His reasoning, or felt His peace. Yeah, that is kind of a generic experience when you first think about it but it does not feel generic to us.

  We also have dealt with a lot of flood control this week. Saturday the church building flooded really badly so it was fun to help to care of it alongside with these great members. We thought it had been resolved until we were in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and water started creeping under the doors... haha, that was an interesting experience. The water did not smell like water nor like popcorn. 

 One of the funnest days of this year was the 4th of July with my Awesome companion, Elder Hughes! It was so much fun to make so much american food! (as you can see in the attachment that there was a lot of food, yup, for just my companion and I, haha. We have been eating a lot of cheap bread and rice these days to save up some good money.) Elder Hughes make some super great fried chicken and we had been given a water lemon from a great investigator family, and Elder Hughes taught me how to make ice cream. 

  Then the day after was the 5º de Julho: Cape Verdeºs independence day! So to celebrate we ate CusCus, one of the traditional dishes here.  (traditional food from Senegal in the second picture)

Have an amazing week all of you!

Elder Judd