Tuesday July 17, 2018 I Absolutely Loved My Mission!

This week was wonderful! We had some amazing miracles with the people we are teaching. Shon finally prayed in the proper way and had an experience where he felt light completely come over him. He has real intent. Francisco and Larissa are so great. They came to church and have had great fellowship with the ward and Francisco had an experience where he feels that the Book of Mormon is true! It really was a great last week of my mission. 

Wow. I have filled with so many emotions. I am eternally grateful for the sacred blessing and opportunity I had to serve a full time mission. I have grown even closer to my Father in Heaven and my Saviour. I know they are real and that they are very present in our lives. I know that there was a restoration of all things through the prophet Joseph Smith and I can’t even put into words how much that means to me. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and I testify of its truthfulness. I know Christ lives and that this is His work! I have been changed forever because of the experiences I have had in this green and pleasant land. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

Thank you all for your support over these last 2 years! 

-Elder Ludlow 

July 9, 2018 Lots of Emotions

This week was a pretty good one! We didn’t get much time for finding
but we saw progress in our area and found joy in serving the
missionaries in the zone. We were able to go work in Warrington and
Southport! We are especially loving our work with the Brazilians.

We saw some miracles with the Bizera family from Brazil. We taught
Francisco the father and his daughter Larissa on Monday and it was
amazing! They are so prepared! Larissa is 10 and she understood and
loved so much of what we taught! And to make it better the wife works
with a member of the church (we’ve never met the wife) and the member
invited her to come to church and she accepted! Unfortunately she
wasn’t able to come but it was disconnected from the work that we were
already doing with Francisco and Larissa. So this family has some
great connections!

Random highlights:
On Tuesday we had to help clear out a flat in Wigan which was fun! Had
my last MLC on Friday and it was really emotional. Last night we had
the member missionary fireside in Chorley which was wonderful! It was
really hard to say goodbye to some of the people that I’ve grown to
love so much. It’s honestly been really hard. I’m going to ask for an
extension ;)

Hope you all have an amazing week!

-Elder Ludlow

P.S. our P day will be on Tuesday next week, if you want to email me
for the last time! :)

July 2, 2018 Ludlow, England!

So surprise! I finally got to go to Ludlow!! It’s honestly one of my favourite places I’ve ever been to. The castle is absolutely amazing, the greenery was beautiful and the little town was cute. (Don’t know how else to describe it haha) It was a really good experience and I’m grateful for the members who drove us down there so I could finally see it. 

This week was good! We continue to see progress with our vision. We have seen progress with working with the Brazilian families and are starting to get some great referrals. We have seen progress with Shon and looking for other YSA. We have seen some great success with working in new housing estates. Finding this week was a lot better. We are just wondering why, when we are doing the same things, we will have such different results from week to week. We will be praying to find out exactly what the Lord is planning on for the area.

We had the fun opportunity to take part in a stake youth fireside yesterday where we talked about sharing your light now and tied it in with President Nelson’s devotional from a couple weeks ago (which is honestly amazing, everyone needs to see it). We also had exchanges with the assistants which was really great and it was nice to be back working in Man South for one last time.

-Elder Ludlow

Pictures: 

Saw some former missionaries who I served around for a while! 

Ludlow, England :)

June 25, 2018 Brazilian Miracles

This week was pretty good! We were able to teach some really great people and we really feel good about our vision for the area. We were able to teach our friend Shon (Shawn) quite a bit this week and he came to church!  He is 25 and is from Bulgaria and he is a very deep thinker but has been making some good progress. He asks a lot of really good questions but refuses to pray, so we are focusing on that. We were able to teach a recent converts mom this week a couple times and she is really wonderful. We haven’t really been able to see Pedram and he isn’t making the gospel a priority right now.

One big part of our vision is to work with all the Brazilian members we have here in the ward. We found a really solid Brazilian investigator Shirley a couple weeks ago and this week we took her a Portuguese Book of Mormon with a member from Brazil and it was amazing! They were able to speak in Portuguese and you could feel a difference in the Spirit when the member started testifying. She also even works with some other members of the church from Brazil and so she already has connections!

There is lots of solid progress in the work but it was one of those weeks where we were working hard but there weren’t many visible results. We did have a zone street display in Liverpool and it was good! There were 20 missionaries there and everyone seemed to enjoy it! There weren’t a lot of fruits and it was a little too busy but was a positive experience.

We had zone conference on Tuesday and it was a powerful meeting. I had to give my departing testimony which was super hard and emotional. I am cherishing every moment I have left! There’s much more work to be done :) 

-Elder Ludlow 

Pictures: zone street display and Jack from Oldham came all the way to Liverpool to visit! (He is doing really well in the church)

June 18, 2018 Life Is Great!

This week was good! We were able to find a lot more and had some great success! We have found some new solid people that we will be working with. We weren’t able to see Tim and he didn’t come to church but we hope to see him soon. We were able to reestablish contact with Pedram and he just feels like he is too busy but he will be getting a new job soon which is great! 

We had an amazing miracle with a self referral! His name is David. He went on mormon.org and started chatting with the missionaries online. We went and saw him on Saturday night and taught him a full restoration lesson and he is so prepared! He was not satisfied with the other churches he attended and agreed with what we said and said he wouldn’t mind being baptised! The only concern is that he lives in the St Helens area with his girlfriend but we will get over that hurdle when it comes (The St. Helens elders will be teaching him). 

Random highlights: 

Had a district leaders training conference which was great! Also participated in the stake service day in Warrington on Saturday. Life is just so great! 

-Elder Ludlow 

June 11, 2018 Busy Week in Liverpool

This week was good! Didn’t get as much time as we would hope to do finding with everything happening and also with the finding we did have for some reason we didn’t see the usual results but we feel that we have done our best and that we are successful in the eyes of the Lord. We were able to teach Pedram last Monday and he is still committed to be baptised but it might take a little longer than expected. We were able to see Tim, the 15 year old a few times this week and he is progressing. We can just feel the energy in the air and that there are many great things ahead, I am so excited for the miracles to come!

We had MLC on Friday which was really great. Always uplifting and motivating. We've also taken a lot of time as I’ve been trying to help Elder Masekeomeng get used to the area and also his new responsibilities as a zone leader. I am really grateful and excited to work with him. For my birthday on Thursday we got to do some service which was exactly what I wanted for my birthday. We also had a member who prepared my favourite meal for tea!

Hope y'all are doing great and that you have a wonderful week!

-Elder Ludlow

Pictures: 

MLC

Zone P Day and the Liverpool docks

June 4, 2018 Finishing in Liverpool

I received news this weekend that I will be serving my last transfer
in Liverpool! I am super excited! I will be serving with Elder
Masakeomeng from Kent, England, but his family originally comes from
South Africa. I have always wanted to serve with someone from Africa
and England I got both in my last transfer! We’ve served around each
other before and it should be a really good transfer.

This week was pretty good. We have been able to teach some good people
and met some good new people. We are working with some kids that are
staying with a member and that same member also introduced us to his
friend who we will be teaching tomorrow! Pedram had an accident last
weekend where he fell down a hill and got some scratches and bruises
and a smashed phone so we haven’t been able to see him but we will see
him today. The work will improve, I know it. I know there are many
more prepared souls out there just waiting.

One big tender mercy from this week was seeing some of the people I
taught before from Chorley and Oldham yesterday at the fireside! Also,
I have 3 of my companions Elders Hargiss, Vincent and Tuipulotu going
home this week, it’s crazy. I love this work and I am so excited for
the miracles ahead!

-Elder Ludlow