June 20, 2011

Yup. It was another one of those excuses to go get drunk yesterday [for the Argentines]. But hey, thats just life. When you want to go see everyone and visit them they have people visiting. =P
Yeah yesterday was Fathers Day, and everyone asked if we were going to call home, and I said, "No the Dads are tougher, they dont need to talk to us."

Yup Elvis with Taco Bell. Can that happen again? I dont think the universe can contain 2 such awesome things in such close proximity

Oh ye of little faith, why must you doubt? Dad always pulls out all the stops. He is why most of the young men in the ward learn how to cook.

It was good, they sang really well, and yeah it was really funny, because the Bishop´s entrance was impromptu, so he just took off his suit and tie, and they gave him a mariachi belt and drew a moustache on him. Hes also not the thinnest 28 year old out there. It was hilarious.

Well Its a sad Fathers Day, cuz the Lakers lost, like a month ago I know, but well The MAVERICKS? REALLY? Its just not fathers day without the dads getting together to watch sports. 6 weeks is nothing. thats one transfer. Transfers fly by nowadays. But anyways Fathers Day. Wooh! What did the ward do? The RS made scarves for the men. But not the missionaries... Meh.

Whoa! Elder Salgado comes home? Oh yeah he got to leave early cuz of the Air Force. Thats cool. Doesnt Michael come home soon?

Yeah President Packer´s talk was interesting. Little hard to follow at times, because he knows just a few words in spanish, and the translation would stop and he talked in spanish and then go back to english. Sis Wixom greeted everyone with a Buenos Dias Hermanos y Hermanas de Argentina... then the translator took over. You never know. Its also never too late to learn a new language. Ask the missionaries to teach a mixed spanish/english class. that would be cool.

Technical Answer: Go ahead and load it up I know that it contains 250 GB which is about all of our poor old hard drive, take off anything you want to (from the old hard drive not my hard drive) to free up more space. If you dont have more RAM though it will not make the computer go any faster. You have to get more RAM to get it to go FASTER. Think about a new computer, talk to Carl, but still wait until I get back and I will try to help you find a good one. Black Friday? minimum reqs 4 gb ram, Intel i5 processor and 1 TB of HD space. Aly will understand that much if not more

Love you mom, gonna write to Dad in honor of Fathers Day though.
=)

Con Amor
Elder Ben Ludlow

June 13, 2011

This was a good week huh?
We worked way hard this week. We found some way cool people, some turned out to be kind of fake, people who accepted a baptismal date, but then said they didnt want to really commit, and others who with just a short introduction to the Book Of Mormon started crying, and felt the Spirit. <--Teresa went to Stake conference, and heard Elder Andersen, Elder Zivic, Sister Wixom, and President Boyd K Packer (who was quite poor in health and said goodbye to Argentina) speak by Satellite, and then just loved the whole thing. shes almost as much of a Spiritual barometer as you Mom. What am I saying, Im just the same, I just dont let them go free falling. Elder Zivic talked about how we are living our lives, because some day our children will be reading the scriptures and read about how wicked our generation was and hear the words of the prophets, and in the footnotes will have the years before the second coming and just be thinking as many of us do with the nephites, why wont they just repent? Sister wixom talked about reading the book of mormon at home to your children, based on a quote from Marion G Romney. Way cool what it promises. Read the book of mormon at home to your children every day and you will not lose them, pray together and prepare them to enter the temple. Elder Anderson talked about tithing (his middle name is Lindon did you know that? any relation?) Then President Packer talked about the promptings of the Spirit and how to know when its the Spirit. Overall quite good.

The ward here is awesome. The young men are 3 boys from the same family a deacon a teacher and a priest. They are so cool, they are always sharing the gospel. (They have an older sister, who married a Benjamin Hamilton from Los Angeles, ask the Hamiltons if they have a cousin/nephew who served in Cordoba.) they and the young mens leader got up for the stake talent show (they do one before every stake conference) and sang a mariachi. They came in with full mariachi gear, with cap guns and if you thought we have a warped view of mexican culture, you havent seen these guys. We dont need to stinkin badges has nothing on these kids. hahaha they took the prize. Yeah its great here, loving it, working hard, gonna baptize here soon.
gotta go, but I love you all

Con amor
Elder Ben Ludlow

ps thanks for the thoughts from stake conference Hope that the end of school isnt too crazy and that aly and aimee actually end up helping, hahaha.
Best young mens presidency ever. Dad the no nonsense gets things done, same with Evan, but just cool and a big kid in his heart, and I dont know the other brother or maybe I dont remember, but yeah Elvis does that.
bye

Alot

For those of you who may suffer from grammatical superiority that find yourselves cringing occasionally at Ben's emails, I offer my condolences.
I understand.


Allow me to offer a few coping mechanisms:

1. Ben is in a foreign country, where he speaks a foreign language on a daily basis. The sentence structures and vocabulary are different. It must be difficult for him to switch his method of thinking when he is so submerged in the Spanish language. So, be nice!

2. For times when #1 is insufficient to calm your troubled grammar and spelling nerves, I offer the humor of Alli of Hyperbole and a Half.

But there is one grammatical mistake that I particularly enjoy encountering. It has become almost fun for me to come across people who take the phrase "a lot" and condense it down into one word, because when someone says "alot," this is what I imagine:

The Alot is an imaginary creature that I made up to help me deal with my compulsive need to correct other people's grammar. It kind of looks like a cross between a bear, a yak and a pug, and it has provided hours of entertainment for me in a situation where I'd normally be left feeling angry and disillusioned with the world.

For example, when I read the sentence "I care about this alot," this is what I imagine:

She goes on to offer other applications for the Alot...

The Alot helps me get through Ben's emails with a smile on my face.
I hope it helps you too.


--Sarah

June 6, 2011

Yeah. So today I wanna start off telling you about a cool thing I read. Way back a long time ago, when I got real letters (=P) I got a letter from Grandma and grandpa Ludlow that was a talk that Brother Zierenberg (is that right?) gave them. It was a talk that President Mckay had given in 1954 when brother zierenberg was here in the Argentine mission. He gave 4 S´s or 4 suggestions, "obedience or compliance with which will mean success in your mission field and success in life."

1. Sincerity. "Because what you are, thunders so loud in my ears that I cannot hear what you say." - Emerson- "That means that you are radiating just what you are, not what you pretend to be and an intelligent, normal person radiates what he or she is. To live is to radiate. Some of us radiate encouragement, joy hopefulness, happiness; some of us radiate gloom, discouragement, sorrow. But each person is radiating; and a missionary radiates what he really feels towards the Gospel and it it not what you pretend. "

I have received many letters on how it seems like I have changed so much. That I am such more of a spiritual giant than I was. This is true. Because I am trying to be sincere with each and every one of you. I let my testimony radiate. It doesnt mean that I am better than you all for it. Not even close. I am the least of you. But this is something that if we were all a little more sincere with each other, if we didnt put up those false pretenses, those that have not before received the Gospel, could receive it. Too many times I am saddened to hear that what Emerson said/wrote is far too true. I hear people who have come in contact with a member who wasnt being sincere or true to their values and was being false, or did something that this person noticed and they dont want to be a member ever because of that poor example. We need to be example of the believers. We take our testimonies and our examples/responsibilities as members far too casually. Oh the missionaries will talk to them. I´ll just tell the missionaries to go by. As members it is your DUTY to talk to those that are not of our faith, even if it seems scary or that they will reject you, exercise YOUR faith, and help their faith to grow a little bit more. We as members have a purpose to build the kingdom of God on the earth. Thats when we truly are sincere, with others and with ourselves, because we take charge and let our testimonies radiate in a simple smile, comforting a friend who is down, and taking the place of the Savior and serving others. sincerity.

2. Studiousness. We all have a chance to study. Some of you are studying at school, some of you are in high school, some of you studied a long time ago, and other are going back to school. School is extremely important in our progression on this earth, because all knowledge and intelligence we gain here we will have in the life to come, but what knowledge will be more valuable in the next life? Thats right Scripture study. Read your Ensigns, read the conference edition. But take it a step further. Wherever you go, anywhere, take a notepad or have something or somewhere(iPhone is accepted) to write down those impressions that come up. Dont forget them. In the talk President McKay said: "I give as the second studiousness, and confirm most heartily the admonition given about the need of study. STUDY ALWAYS. Here you are in one of the best schools of life." the best school of life is just that: Life! " What an opportunity you have! Hard at first? Of course, it is! Everything in this life is hard at first. We are here to overcome difficulties. That is why we are in mortal existence..... You are humanity blessed with reason."

3. Self Control. " Learn to control your muscles, your feelings, but particularly learn to control your tongue... Dont fidn fault with the other; dont say the word that comes to you; keep it to yourself, perticularly if you get offended." He then tells about controlling the appettite(all missionaries are guilty of that one =P) but then tells a story about how President Peron(President of Argentina) was eating with President Mckay and said " I would offer you a drink, but you dont drink, nor smoke nor drink tea or coffee. What can I do to make you happy?" Controlling what we take in, and controlling our reactions and passions will help us to become better people. "Self mastery is self control. That makes men..."

" Ella Wheeler Wilcox; It is easy enough to be virtuous when nothing tempts you to stray, when without or within no voice of sin is luring our soul away. But its only a negative virtue until it is tried by fire, and the sould that is worth the honor of earth is the soul that resists desire.

But the cynic, the sad, and the sinner who had no strength for the strife;
The worlds highway is cumbered today;

They make up the item of life.

But the virtue that controls the passion,

the sadness that hides in a smile,

It is these that are worth the honor of earth

And you find them but once in a while."

4. Sense of responsibility. We as missionaries have 3 names on our plaques. My families name, the churches name, and the Savior´s name. really everyone has those names, they are just on this neon sign that hangs over our heads that only other people not members can see. They see it and go wow there is something different about this kid. There is something different about that family. They have a different church. People say well is must be "your" God. Hes not just my God, but your God and everyones God. Its how we act, our form of worshipping him and making him happy that makes the difference. He will bless us if we honor and keep His Name. As George Albert Smith was asked by his grandfather in a dream: What have you done with my name. We are the only true church on the face of the earth. I know it. Because I have asked God, and He has answered me. I know that He spoke to Joseph in a grove in the spring of 1820 and many times after that. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. and because of these things, I know this. I know that Jesus Christ, is my Savior and Redeemer. He suffered our sins and pains and sicknesses, and broke the chains of death the had us all bound in the hands of Satan. He has crushed the serpents head. He has already won, and even if it seems difficult, we can always go to Him and He will carry us on to victory in each of our personal trials. That is my responsibility. I am to teach and act and speak and do what He would do. I am His Representative. I know that He is pleased with what I have done up til now in this mission, but I also know that for him these two years are my two months in the MTC to get trained for my lifelong mission to always testify in His name. I may have been through a bit of the MTC of the mission of Life.

This week I really tried to apply that. We worked hard and had some amazing miracles.

Hno Villagras(because I dont remember his name): is not a member, his wife is, his daughers are, his grandchildren are, one is the EQP. He has always wanted to come to church, but somewhere along the line someone told him he couldnt go to church. So he has never been. We invited him, and he said that he was a devotee of the virgin so he wouldnt be able to come, so we started talking and his wife kinda just told us all the stuff he does as a catholic(nothing bad just huge misconcepcions and intolerance on her part) and we gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet to show him the difference between a living and dying Christ. It has the ressurrected Christ leaving the tomb. He wanted to read. And his wife gave the prayer as we left. That the Lord, would touch his heart and that some day he would accept the gospel. He broke down into tears, and I was close, as I heard a tough mans outer shell crack and the gooey filling spill out. ok thats a weird way to say it but yeah. Intense.

Paola- She liked church and accepted a Baptismal date. Shes the girlfriend of the EQP.

Andrea and oswaldo-Its a new oswaldo, but this one is way cool. He is not a member and is living with a non member. He has to get divorced to get married so that he and his wife can get baptized and sealed. They were old investigators in Neuquen and they went to church for like 3 years, and just stopped going because they had problems with work, but they are gonna get baptized and sealed now in Bimaco

Thats about it for now. I had a great week aside from the ridiculous cold and wind.

al ultimo una cosa chistosa en español. un chico en la escuela decia a su profesor. eh Profe como se escribe idiota? con h larga?

Otro.

un chico llega a su casa de la escuela y le pregunta a su papa: Papa, donde estan la cordillera de los andes? y el papa respondio "¡a yo no sé! Preguntale a tu mama que ella es la guarde todas las cosas.

Well fam. gotta go. Its late again.

Love you

Elder Ben Ludlow