November 1, 2010

Well this was a great week. We worked a ton and even lost a day. Wednesday was the census, and by law you arent allowed to leave until you have been censused or until 5pm. So at 4 we got censused and left to get to work. We knocked some doors and didnt get anything. So we passed by the relatives of a part member family in Ayacucho (I found them last week) and well I thought I knew a little about them. The mom told me that she and her two daughters had just passed the anniversary of her husbands death. We shared the Plan of Salvacion with her, and I NEVER thought that this woman would ever accept any kind of help from the Mormons. Her brother is Dante(a man from Ayacucho whose wife is extremely active and he just barely is being slightly sociable with the missionaries) who leaves the room when we would start teaching at his house in Ayacucho. It was great but I think that this is the key to get the whole family baptized. Great moment of "oh so thats why I´m here". Well we kept on working and working and working. Saturday was a great day though. So we get to the conference (we had to be there at 7:30) after waking up at 5 to get there on time. We are pretty tired, but we got to hear the most general authorities you will hear outside of conference. Elder Gonzales President of the Seventy. Elder Arnold, Elder Spitale, and President Salas (future GA) topped off with Elder Neil Lindon Andersen (Dad are we possibly related or is that a normal name) who really was the cherry on top. Its the most general authorities that have ever been in Cordoba. Well President Salas started off batting strong telling us that the cordoba mission is the 12th of 14 in baptismal statistics. =( Well we are talking a bit on how to improve when everything gets quiet, this big guy comes up to the door opens it and holds it as all the GA´s walk in with their wives. Sweet. Well we start things up and we are listening to what they have to say, most just give their testimony. Then Elder Andersen goes. He tells us that the groundbreaking for the Rome Italy temple happened last saturday, done by Pres. Monson. =) It was kind of fun what he had to say. If I remembered exactly I would tell you. Anyway he continued and just kind went on a little, some scriptures, and such. Stuff about how the 4 languages he speaks were slightly mixed up in his head. Then he just pauses and says, President Salas can you come up here a few minutes I need you to translate my english. It will be about 5 minutes. So he starts and the Spirit just fills the room even more than it had. It was something you could touch in that moment. He told us things that I cant really remember all of, but I definitely remember his promise. That when we dont have words to speak, speak of Christ and the words will come, but not only come but be new things that we didnt even know we knew as we testify of His Merits, Mercy and His Grace. He said also that general belief in Christ will decrease and will increase only in this Chuch. It was a little bit interesting. We know even more than we think we do because we have the BOOK OF MORMON: ANOTHER TESTAMENT OF JESUS CHRIST, where we can go to find the answers that we lack, and find the truth of His Merits, Mercy, and Grace. I love the Book of Mormon. I know it is true and as Joseph Smith said, A man will get nearer to God by reading that book than any other book. Well something like that. I think thats two quotes in one, but its what I know to be true. Anyways Elder Andersen finished (sorry some of that was my testimony) and he heads off to the Groundbreaking, which after that moment was pretty boring compared to being with him in the same room and 200 missionaries alone. Well we did that left, said hi to friends, took some pictures (like my MTC group) and we went out to work. I was happy, and I just worked. Not much happened that afternoon, but Sunday morning we went to go find our investigators that were going to come. No one opened up, so we came back to the chapel and went about our business. Well not 15 minutes later Maxi shows up. He came ALONE for his first time, and ended up helping teach the Gospel Principles class, and talking to the employment specialist. He may be getting a job, and he is getting bpatized here soon. well as soon as we can. So yeah pretty cool, then as the sacrament meeing was ending in comes another guy. His name is Matias. He had listened to the missionaries in another area, and wanted to get baptized in the area that he actually belongs to. Us. So he is getting baptized the 20th. then we had lunch and left to go do some more work. (Siesta = Sucess) and found an awesome family that has pretty much been friends with the missionaries and members forever (aka "Dry Mormons") and they were leaving to go to church. We asked them if we could sing a song and we were there for way more than the 2 minutes it takes to sing Familes Can Be Together Forever. We talked about Christ and what it really means to be close to Him. We watched Finding Faith in Christ to help them feel that they could believe even though they have some really tough challenges to face. They were glued to whole time and just were silent. We asked them how they felt. " I feel good, peaceful, but I dont feel satisfied. Its like there is something more and I think I can believe" So we shared Alma 32: 27 It was great. We saw the Lords hand this week, and we will see it more and more as we keep working. So that was my week. It was great, but I am going to top it this next week here. Way pumped. =)



Hahaha yeah hes got some good stuff. I have seen that plan of Salvacion guide here. The Simpsons are way big down here. Like crazy big. So I would imagine it works well. dunno.
Now now mom, Dont get trunky for me hahahaha. I am glad Landon made it back in good spirits and loved his mission so much. Pass it along that when you see him, it has been a great pleasure to read how excited he was every week.

Yeah thats about it. Love you all.

con amor

elder Ludlow