September 12, 2011

Hey Mom

This week was really good, we had a zone conference with Elder Bradley D Foster, who apparently served as the Mission President of the Arcadia mission before the Ventura mission existed-- he had Thousand Oaks in his mission. He was remembering a few things. Pretty cool. Aside from that he explained to us basically where we all fall through as missionaries. He says we are great, but we are not working with the members enough. If we start helping and getting help from the members things will change dramatically to the point of baptizing 200 a month, and at some point the missionaries will just teach discussions to the members' friends (kind of what we do in the states supposedly) and the missionaries will baptize them, but the members will do all of the finding and fellow shipping alone. At that point we could baptize 500 a month. and with 14 missions in South America South that would be....7000 baptisms a month. Now imagining that as a goal. and the impact that would have worldwide. Its impressive how much work we could be doing if we did things according to the Lord´s plan. But that's just
silly numbers and things like that. The really cool part was when he brought out this presentation that talks about and interesting statistic: Only 50% of active church members are sure that our Heavenly Father answers our prayers, or that He knows them personally
by name. ACTIVE MEMBERS! Did you know (and this is for everyone) that God is your loving Heavenly Father? That He knows you by name, where you live, what you do, and knows the true desires of your heart? He knows you better than you know yourself, He is your Creator, and He has made you in His image, with your strengths and your weaknesses. Don't believe me? Ask Him. He is there with His arms open to you and wants to hear from you. In other words it doesn't matter what you have done, where you are from, what color skin you have, what your political party is, what religion you are from, or what you are struggling with, your Heavenly Father loves YOU! I know this. With all of my heart and soul I know this. I felt a very personal confirmation of this fact as I sat there listening to this presentation. I love my Father in Heaven, and I want to please Him. For you who are still learning and growing in your testimonies, or if you are passing through some doubts I encourage you, to kneel down in prayer or meditate on this subject, read the scriptures and when the Lord speaks put your name in the lines. He will reveal himself to you through your thoughts and feelings, and you will know that He is your Father.

Gotta go for now. Thanks for the update, Miracles would be well... In what way have we been blessed as a family, by the mission I am serving? What about the people you share the gospel with. Help the kids realize that its not just the guys in white shirts and ties that do this, but that it is them inviting their friends and families to church that really blesses everyone.

Love you
Elder Ben Ludlow

PS: In other news, I am pretty sure I am definitely related to Uncle Brian, because I have achieved the 12 o clock shadow. I shave daily, I swear.