January 31, 2017 Staying in Warrington (Never said that before ;)

This past week was good! We have 3 investigators who have agreed to be baptised and we have some others who we hope to be progressing this next week. We were able to give John a baptismal date but it might need to be bumped back but he will be baptised! We haven't been able to really contact Stephen unfortunately. Andy is doing well and said he wants to be baptised and promised to come to church. 

John is so fun to teach. He has great knowledge of the Bible and we have great discussions. He loves cross referencing the Bible and Book of Mormon. He has real intent and recognises that God has been preparing him for this. He still wants to have a sure answer from the Holy Ghost before he fully commits but we know he will! 

Stephen has been struggling with some family issues and we are giving him a little space but we will see him this week. Andy is great. He said that he is grateful that we give him answers to his questions and we have many experiences where the Spirit has lead the lessons with him and we have even seen the Spirit change his heart right in front of our eyes! 

We also found a new investigator named Oliver who seems really prepared. He lived with an LDS family when he coached soccer last summer in California. He says he thinks it's important to have beliefs and that his mom has been wanting to come to our church for a while and so they both should be coming next week! Really excited about the future of this area, get to be here for another 6 weeks. 

I want to share with all of you the full conversion story for Mohammed (we found out more from him about it this past week). So Mohammed was crying out in prayer to God, pleading to find out if He was there and was about to give up. Within days he was approached by Elder Hamblin from Wigan (our new district leader) on the train. Mohammed prayed asking if that was the answer to his prayers and felt an overwhelmingly good feeling and so that is why he accepted literally everything we said. He had many experiences with prayer and feeling the Holy Ghost. He bore his testimony to us after telling this story and it was probably the most powerful experience I have had on my mission. Heavenly Father is there watching over us. I know it. 

So yes there was a new missionary daily schedule that came out this past week. We watched a great broadcast about it on Wednesday in Manchester. We also had "First 5 Weeks" on Wednesday for Elder Audrlicky and it was lots of fun. Had a bunch of trainings and role plays. Meetings are always so uplifting and edifying. Here is an example of the new schedules: 

January 23, 2017 Mohammed was Baptized

This past week was amazing! Mohammed's baptism was such a joyous and
powerful experience. I am glad my companion could baptise his first
convert and I was honoured to be able to confirm Mohammed. We were
able to have our new investigator John at the baptism and he enjoyed
it! It was also great to see Kate there, who we used to be teaching
but is now being taught by the sisters.

It has been wonderful to see the change in Mohammed. The Gospel truly
does change people. It changes me everyday. He is integrated with the
ward and they have been so kind to him. He said the closing prayer in
both Sunday school and priesthood and his prayers are so great! After
his baptism he expressed to us that he is willing to help us with
anything and that he would even teach with us.

John McIntyre is our new investigator who is the referral from the
Manchester sisters which we contacted on Monday. He is so prepared and
is doing well. He has been searching for the right church his whole
life and he has real desires to find out if our church is the one. We
have set expectations and he recognises what he needs to do to receive
answers to his questions/ prayers. We are excited and faithful for him
to receive the answers he has been searching for!

Stephen is doing pretty well. He chose a baptism date for himself but
it is for March 4th and we feel that he could be baptised sooner but
at the same time he is struggling to keep some of the commitments. He
keeps making excuses for not coming to church and hasn't really been
reading. We are just trying to figure out what it is that he needs to
trigger his desires to commit fully.

Andy is doing alright. We don't know how accountable he is and how
much his disabilities will effect his ability to progress. We will see
how things go. He really wants to find out if what we share is true
though and so we won't give up on him just yet. We have a few other
potential Investigators which we will be seeing this next week.

Highlights: We had interviews with President Ulrich in Liverpool which
was great. He is such an amazing man. We also found out that our new
mission President will be President McReynolds from Arizona. He and
his wife were born in the U.K. but have lived in Australia and the
U.S. They will be coming in the beginning of July!

I LOVE being a missionary!

-Elder Ludlow

P.S. Got Silent Night by Justin Bieber (yes it's approved, it's a
hymn) on my iPad this week and it has been the best thing ever.

January 16, 2017 Five Months in Warrington

This past week was amazing and was full of miracles. We were able to give Tony and Mohammed baptismal dates and were FINALLY able to see Stephen and he is getting back on track to be baptised! We had two investigators in church!! (Tony and Mohammed) Heavenly Father has really been blessing us.

Mohammed is a miracle. We saw him on Tuesday and he agreed to be baptised and so we gave him a date. Then we saw him two more times and gave him a baptismal calendar and actually moved his date up! We have taught him the first 3 lessons and almost all of the commandments. (we saw him every day since Tuesday except Friday)  He is keeping his commitments and has actually felt the Spirit while reading the Book of Mormon and praying. Just amazing. He is so golden. He is in his 20s and is pretty shy. 

Tony is great. He is 63 and is really fun to teach. We have been able to teach him many times this past week. He is accepting things pretty well, he just needs to have more faith. We gave him a calendar and have been following it but he is still not completely sure on things. He says things that are really good but then sometimes is bipolar, so we will see with him this next week.

Stephen is also a miracle! We haven't been able to see him since the end of October when he was supposed to be baptised the next week. He finally called us and we set up an appointment. Within the first minute he mentioned baptism and how he still wants to be baptised! He said that he felt rushed before and that he didn't feel clean enough to be baptised. He said that he wants to have all the harmful substances completely out of his system before he is baptised. He said he will be ready in a few weeks and that he wants to take things at his pace. But it's so good! It shows that he genuinely cares about baptism and sees how important it is.

On Friday, we had a Vision Meeting about our mission's goals for this year and it was amazing! It was really powerful and me and my companion were kind of in a daze afterwards because we were on a spiritual high. In the meeting we talked about truly changing of our natures and also a new missionary daily schedule that will be introduced this month by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve! We have already started trying to do it and it just gives missionaries more flexibility with their schedule. (but it isn't too different). On Sunday we went to a fireside in Chorley and it was also really powerful. It was called:"Our Story Goes On" and was put on by members, about the Plan of Salvation. I felt the Spirit all throughout it. Also, last P-Day we went to Liverpool with a bunch of missionaries from the zone and it was lots of fun!

Elder Audrlicky is doing well. He is super solid. We went on exchange this past week and I think that was really good for him and helped him stretch and grow leading out the area. (I went to Wigan) I love being a missionary.

-Elder Ludlow

P.S. Go Cougars

Pictures: At the docks in Liverpool

January 9, 2017 Week of Miracles!

This past week was amazing and was full of miracles. We were able to give Tony and Mohammed baptismal dates and were FINALLY able to see Stephen and he is getting back on track to be baptised! We had two investigators in church!! (Tony and Mohammed) Heavenly Father has really been blessing us.

Mohammed is a miracle. We saw him on Tuesday and he agreed to be baptised and so we gave him a date. Then we saw him two more times and gave him a baptismal calendar and actually moved his date up! We have taught him the first 3 lessons and almost all of the commandments. (we saw him every day since Tuesday except Friday)  He is keeping his commitments and has actually felt the Spirit while reading the Book of Mormon and praying. Just amazing. He is so golden. He is in his 20s and is pretty shy. 

Tony is great. He is 63 and is really fun to teach. We have been able to teach him many times this past week. He is accepting things pretty well, he just needs to have more faith. We gave him a calendar and have been following it but he is still not completely sure on things. He says things that are really good but then sometimes is bipolar, so we will see with him this next week.

Stephen is also a miracle! We haven't been able to see him since the end of October when he was supposed to be baptised the next week. He finally called us and we set up an appointment. Within the first minute he mentioned baptism and how he still wants to be baptised! He said that he felt rushed before and that he didn't feel clean enough to be baptised. He said that he wants to have all the harmful substances completely out of his system before he is baptised. He said he will be ready in a few weeks and that he wants to take things at his pace. But it's so good! It shows that he genuinely cares about baptism and sees how important it is.

On Friday, we had a Vision Meeting about our mission's goals for this year and it was amazing! It was really powerful and me and my companion were kind of in a daze afterwards because we were on a spiritual high. In the meeting we talked about truly changing of our natures and also a new missionary daily schedule that will be introduced this month by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve! We have already started trying to do it and it just gives missionaries more flexibility with their schedule. (but it isn't too different). On Sunday we went to a fireside in Chorley and it was also really powerful. It was called:"Our Story Goes On" and was put on by members, about the Plan of Salvation. I felt the Spirit all throughout it. Also, last P-Day we went to Liverpool with a bunch of missionaries from the zone and it was lots of fun!

Elder Audrlicky is doing well. He is super solid. We went on exchange this past week and I think that was really good for him and helped him stretch and grow leading out the area. (I went to Wigan) I love being a missionary.

-Elder Ludlow

P.S. Go Cougars

Pictures: At the docks in Liverpool

January 2, 2017 Christmas Miracles

This past week was good! The work was still slow and not very much happened but we did experience some little miracles and the holidays were fun to celebrate! Skyping with the family was one of the best things ever. And shoutout to my best friend Amy and my family for amazing gifts :)

On Christmas and New Years we had tea at the Dunn's and that was lots of fun. On Christmas Eve and Christmas we went to some members homes to watch movies. We didn't do very much besides that. We mostly have just been relaxing in the flat. 

Our progressing investigators Tony and Lyncon are doing fine. They are reading but we haven't been able to have lessons with them because they were "too busy" with the holidays. That is how it has been with many investigators. We received a referral from the Wigan elders named Muhammad. They met him on the train and we will be seeing him tomorrow. We are excited! We are also looking to see a lot more of our investigators now that the holidays are over. 

I would like to share a little miracle experience. On Friday we had a street display and a few minutes after starting I said a little prayer to myself asking to have a miracle happen. It was one of those really hopeful, almost desperate in a way prayers. But immediately after I finished a boy around my age came up from behind and asked if I was from the Mormon church and I said of course and he said that he wanted to join. I was shocked and kind of stumbled for words. My prayer was answered very fast! Sadly, he could've been joking because he kept looking at his friends who were laughing and it seemed like they were putting him up to it, but we do have his contact information, you never know. Another amazing thing about this experience was at this exact time a lady went up to Elder Audrlicky and told him that she was very interested. Even though these two may not work out, Heavenly Father is so good to us. 

I know that there are so many people who are prepared and I am so excited to find those people. I met a girl on the bus on Saturday who had a close friend commit suicide the day before. I expressed my sympathies and then proceeded to tell her about the Plan of Salvation. It was amazing to see her face light up and she kept saying how lovely she thought it was. I gave her a pamphlet and she said that she was going to photocopy it and give it to the family of her friend and so I offered her another one. She then asked me for a third one and that she wanted to give it to another friend! She is going to help us with our missionary work! We hope to see her again this next weekend. 

Elder Audrlicky is doing well. We are having fun. Our weekly focus this past week was to pray on the hour every hour for the power of the Atonement to work within ourselves and to find people and that has been powerful. Even if we can't always have visible results of that, we can feel it. Praying more often definitely is very important in missionary work. 

I love being a missionary and I am very excited for this New Year! I love that they are so many experiences ahead.

-Elder Ludlow