Monday, September 19, 2016

When One of Your Investigators Gets Married...

Hey Everyone!

I hope y'all had a great week!

This week was pretty good for us. We were able to go to one of our investigators, Rosy, wedding. It was so cool. And the best part is that now she can get baptized and then in a year they can get sealed in the temple together for time and all eternity!

Also this week we were able to go to this volunteer appreciation luncheon for the Fallbrook Food Pantry and we received a Certificate from the Senator for LDS Missionaries as a whole for there 758 Service hours this past year. It was a great experience being there and being able to help out so many people and get to know all of those around the community.

This week we picked up a new investigator named Richard and he is on date for Baptism on the 15th of October! I am super excited for him and I am so grateful that we were able to meet such a great and spiritual man.

I also learned something really neat in Sunday school yesterday. WE were talking about obedience and the thing that was pointed out about why we don't keep all of the commandments is because we lack knowledge. If you think about it, everything that we do and are is dependent upon our knowledge of Jesus Christ and our willingness to be like Him. One scripture that we talked a little bit about that talks about the source of our happiness in this life is in D&C 93:28. I love that scripture and I know that it is true.

I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve a mission and to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's church here on the earth today. If you want proof of that, read the Book of Mormon and then go ahead and test God and ask Him if it is not true. I know that if you sincerely do, you too will come to the same knowledge as I have that the Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith and that the Church that Christ established is truly here again and that it will never again leave this Earth! What an amazing thing it is to have that knowledge.

Thank y'all for all of your love and support!

I love and miss y'all!

Love,
Elder Rudd

Senator's Certificate of Appreciation

Rosy and Jose cutting the cake

In the Apartment

(Zip ties so Elder Rudd wouldn't scratch his eyes that are driving him nuts)

Heading to the eye doctor for exam & prescriptions!!

Monday, September 12, 2016

It's Been a Good Week!

Hey Everyone!

This week has been great!

We were able to find a couple of new investigators and we were also able to see quite a few Less Active members which is always nice!

This week I saw God's hand in my life in many ways, first off, we were able to stop by this great person who was very welcoming in letting us come in and talk and he talked about how he had gone through all of these trials to get to this point in his life.

We were also able to help out this man who had met with missionaries in the past and agreed with a lot of what we believed and we asked if he was still willing to learn and he said he was so we are going to go and see him later this week.

We also were able to teach one of our recent converts how to do FHE. Those same people, we had a cool experience with earlier in the week as we were going to all of these people that we thought for sure would be there but they were not and then I had the feeling that we should stop by them earlier in the day even though we were going to be going there later that night. We did and it turned out that they needed us there at that time to be able to help them through some of the trials that they were facing at that time. One of the recent converts opened up to us more than before and we were able to help him through his trials. My testimony of God's hand being in the right place at the right time is growing each and every day that I serve!

I know that this is where I need to be and that there is no other place that I can feel the Spirit as strongly and in such great abundance than on a mission. I would invite all that may be thinking about serving a mission to go to the Lord and ask Him if you should, I have a feeling I know what His answer will be. I know that this church is true without a doubt and I know that the Book of Mormon is true. If you have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, I can testify that everything else will fall into place and that you will understand and agree with everything else. If you have not read and asked Heavenly Father if the Book of Mormon is true, I would invite you to do so.

I hope y'all have an AMAZING week!

I love and miss y'all and am so grateful for all of your love and support!!

Love,

Elder Rudd

Biking at a nature preserve