December 26, 2017 Christmas Fun

Good news! I will be staying in Chorley for another transfer! I will be staying with Elder Tuipulotu for a fourth transfer which never happens! I am very happy and excited. 

This week was good! We were finally able to see the Tatlock family again after 3 weeks and we have committed Jake, the 12 year old, to be baptised on the 30th of December! The family is ready to come back to church and we are excited about them. We also had a member approach us and ask us to go by a family that he is really close with who used to be members but had their names removed. We went by them and they are the nicest people ever. We taught them twice and they actually came to church! Their names are Gavin and Cassandra and we really feel like they have so much potential!

We were able to go do baptisms for the dead with Georgina and Emma and it was an amazing, powerful experience. They actually brought their own family names to do work for! There was one point I was doing the confirming and Elder Tuipulotu was standing as proxy and the member that had helped them with their family history was in the room and after one of the confirmations said: “that is Emma’s grandfather” and the Spirit just hit me so hard and I got very emotional. Emma and Georgina also felt that Spirit and it was a very special moment for everyone there. Unfortunately Lyn and Mick came to the temple but Mick’s Aaronic priesthood hadn’t been approved by salt lake yet so he couldn’t go to the temple last week but we will be going this week!

Fun highlight: had the Mission Christmas Party on Wednesday and it was a blast! We had to do loads of preparation because it was at the Chorley chapel but it was worth it. This year it was really chilled out and we mostly just talked and relaxed. There was a talent show though and as a district we did a Hawaiian dance (there is a Hawaiian Sister in Chorley) and that was super fun haha. 

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! I am very excited to see my family on Monday and will have P Day on Tuesday! 

 -Elder Ludlow 

December 19, 2017 Staying in Chorley for Christmas!

Good news! I will be staying in Chorley for another transfer! I will be staying with Elder Tuipulotu for a fourth transfer which never happens! I am very happy and excited. 

This week was good! We were finally able to see the Tatlock family again after 3 weeks and we have committed Jake, the 12 year old, to be baptised on the 30th of December! The family is ready to come back to church and we are excited about them. We also had a member approach us and ask us to go by a family that he is really close with who used to be members but had their names removed. We went by them and they are the nicest people ever. We taught them twice and they actually came to church! Their names are Gavin and Cassandra and we really feel like they have so much potential!

We were able to go do baptisms for the dead with Georgina and Emma and it was an amazing, powerful experience. They actually brought their own family names to do work for! There was one point I was doing the confirming and Elder Tuipulotu was standing as proxy and the member that had helped them with their family history was in the room and after one of the confirmations said: “that is Emma’s grandfather” and the Spirit just hit me so hard and I got very emotional. Emma and Georgina also felt that Spirit and it was a very special moment for everyone there. Unfortunately Lyn and Mick came to the temple but Mick’s Aaronic priesthood hadn’t been approved by salt lake yet so he couldn’t go to the temple last week but we will be going this week!

Fun highlight: had the Mission Christmas Party on Wednesday and it was a blast! We had to do loads of preparation because it was at the Chorley chapel but it was worth it. This year it was really chilled out and we mostly just talked and relaxed. There was a talent show though and as a district we did a Hawaiian dance (there is a Hawaiian Sister in Chorley) and that was super fun haha. 

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! I am very excited to see my family on Monday and will have P Day on Tuesday! 

 -Elder Ludlow 

December 11, 2017 Snow!

This past week was pretty good. We taught Mark with a member who is a psychiatric counsellor and he asked Mark some questions and we saw Mark as he really is and he isn’t fully stable to be baptised. It was unfortunate but we will see how Mark is after he gets out of hospital. We have been trying to teach other investigators and haven’t had much success but we did finally see Harrison and he is back on track. 

We have been doing lots of work with our recent converts and that has been great, they are doing well. We did family history with Georgina, Emma, Lyn and Mick! All are going to the temple this week! We have seen a big change in the members in the Chorley area. They are catching the vision and there are many members who are working on their friends! The leaders are noticing it and are excited about it. It’s amazing, we’ve had many members come up to us and compliment us and express their trust in us and that has been a big blessing. Of course all the credit and glory goes to the Lord but it is a privilege to be an instrument in His hands. 

We had a couple ward Christmas parties this week which was fun. Also IT SNOWED which was crazy! It was a little scary driving in the snow (mostly because I don’t trust the English drivers in snow) but it was so fun. We had loads of snowballs thrown at us by youth and we may or may not have thrown some back  Another fun highlight is that we got to show about 10 university students who are preparing to be religious education teachers around the temple site and answered any questions they had. It was fun to be with a bunch of people around our age who are genuinely interested in learning about our religion!

Hope y’all have a wonderful week!

-Elder Ludlow 

P.S. Transfers are next week and I will be writing on Tuesday. 

December 5, 2017 Emma Was Baptised!

This week was amazing! Emma is a miracle and was baptised! The baptismal service was really lovely, it was in the font area which is smaller so it was a real family feel and the Spirit was really strong. Everyone involved was very happy (Especially Emma:)!

Here is Emma’s full story:

She was introduced to the church when she came to Georgina’s baptism and enjoyed it. She came to church the next day but didn’t really think much of it. Georgina would tell Emma everything and even made her posters with all the PMG lessons on it so Emma could learn. Eventually after going to institute a couple times and the missionary fireside, Emma decided to meet with us and started progressing very quickly. Then on Saturday the 25th of November I was saying my nightly prayer and prayed for Emma to have a powerful spiritual experience in Church the next day. Then in sacrament meeting the next day she basically saw a vision of herself getting baptised and Georgina speaking at her baptism and then she saw herself getting baptised for her grandma in the temple! What an amazing experience!! So she decided she needed to be baptised so we presented December 9th to her. On Wednesday this week when we went to follow up on the date she said she couldn’t do it because she is having a minor surgery this Thursday and then the Bishop of Ward 4 invited to be baptised on the Saturday! 3 days later! She accepted and it was all just too amazing to put into words. Also to make the story even better, Georgina and Emma were actually called to be ward missionaries yesterday! 

Mark is back on track to be baptised! We feel that the event that happened is now a defining moment for him and he has been change by it. He is doing better but satan continues to work on him. 

We had a visit from Elder De Feo, a Seventy on the Europe area Presidency and it was a super super powerful meeting. We also had the Christmas carol Concert this week which was soo good and we have a few people that will be working with soon who came with members. 

Y’all are amazing and I hope Light the World is going well! 

-Elder Ludlow