November 27, 2017 Thankful

This week was good. Unfortunately Mark has dropped his date and is not happy with us. We taught him a few times and he passed his baptismal interview and then he came to a child of record baptism on Saturday and loved it. The only problem is that he smelt like alcohol and so we tried to approach him about it and he got really upset and stormed off. Some members have been in contact with him and he is not happy but we will keep working with him after some time. 

We are excited to say though that Emma has committed to be baptised! We saw her a few times and the lessons are always so good! I was praying on Saturday night for her to have ha spiritual witness on Sunday, specifically at church and while a recently returned missionary was speaking the Spirit was super strong and we looked over and Emma was crying. We asked her later and she said she had felt the Spirit and that she needed to be baptised! Another miracle! We are working towards December 9th with her. 

Light the World continues to be a success and we have seen so much positivity from visiting the different Ward Councils (yes councilS because there are 4 of them haha) and other members. We’ve seen an increase in desire to share the gospel, unity and overall better relationships with members. There are many members who have friends they are working with. Everyone is starting to catch the vision! 

For Thanksgiving we ate at the MTC for lunch and then a member made us a proper thanksgiving meal (they’ve lived in the states before) and both were amazing! The members here are way too kind to us, I am very grateful. I love English people! 

-Elder Ludlow 

November 20, 2017 Stake Conference

This week was good! Mark continues to progress and is still keeping commitments. We were able to teach Georgina’s sister Emma three times and she is so prepared! Georgina has already taught her a lot and so Emma basically teaches us the lessons. She also says that she has felt a confirming witness from the Spirit that the church is true!

We were able to see many member families this week and get them preparing for Light the World and it has been very successful so far. The stake presidency in particular are very excited and on board. We had stake Conference yesterday and all the meetings were about missionary work. We also had an inter faith event in Blackburn which was good. We did the Light the World theme and had a TV with the new video, banners, the calendars and loads of copies of the Book of Mormon. It’s always very good when we are able to get out into the community, I wish we could have more good opportunities to do so but we loved doing the display. 

-Elder Ludlow 

November 13, 2017 Staying in Chorley

I am very excited and happy to say that I will be staying in Chorley for another transfer and will also be staying with Elder Tuipulotu! We will be serving together for 3 transfers which is very uncommon but we make a good team 

This week was great! Joseph was baptised and it was a wonderful family baptism. Georgina spoke at the new member fireside and it was amazing and her sister Emma has now decided to start taking the lessons and pretty much committed to be baptised in January! Mark continues to progress and is now living all the commandments and we have seen a huge change in him. We also had an inactive member contact us and said she is wanting to come back to church and she has an unbaptised daughter and her husband is also not a member so we are excited to work with them. 

Random highlights: We filmed some videos around the church and temple to make a temple tours Facebook page where people can go on and book a time to go look around the temple! We are excited about it. Also, Elder Tuipulotu was asked by someone he taught to baptise him in Newcastle and so we drove down there for it on Saturday and that was wonderful. 

I hope you all know how much I KNOW that we are part of the true and living of Jesus Christ restored in these latter days! 

-Elder Ludlow 

November 6, 2017 Armour of God

This past week was pretty good! Had lots of things that took away from the work finding wise but were important for the work moving forward. Things such as MLC, Halloween and Bonfire night and helping the zone out. We had a Halloween activity with all the youth in the stake and it ended up being really successful. Each companionship in the stake (7 companionships in total) came to the stake centre and we each had a room where we had a little workshop or activity for the youth to do. For ours we got a ton of cardboard and some tin foil and tape and had the youth make the armour of God. It was so fun . The youth liked it and we hope to be teaching two new people from it. 

Mark continues to progress. Didn’t see him very much but he came to church and is sticking to his baptismal calendar. Georgina’s sister Emma came to Institute, a ward activity and to church! She is progressing but slowly. She had some amazing spiritual experiences this week, particularly with Georgina. Joseph passed his baptismal interview! His baptism will be this week. 

Georgina had another amazing dream! In the dream we were in a lesson and I told her to look up a scripture in Zachariah chapter 6 last verse (don’t even think she had heard of Zachariah) and to read it to her sister. So she did and her sister was amazed. Zachariah 6:15- “And they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord, and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. And this shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.” And then later on in the week some random keychain was found in Emma’s room that had never been seen before and it talked about letting the Lord guide you and so she has been amazed by all these things. 

The Lord continues to amaze us and we are so very #blessed. 

-Elder Ludlow 

October 30, 2017 Happy Birthday Mom!

First off I would like to wish a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my absolutely amazing and beautiful mother this upcoming Sunday the 5th. In Gospel Principles yesterday the lesson was on family responsibilities and as we spoke about the mothers responsibilities I shared how the hardest thing about being a missionary for me is being away from my mom. 

In the Gospel Principles Book it says: 

“The Book of Mormon describes a group of 2,000 young men who rose to greatness because of the teachings of their mothers (see Alma 53:16–23). Led by the prophet Helaman, they went into battle against their enemies. They had learned to be honest, brave, and trustworthy from their mothers. Their mothers also taught them that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them (see Alma 56:47). They all survived the battle. They expressed faith in the teachings of their mothers, saying, “We do not doubt our mothers knew it” (Alma 56:48). Every mother who has a testimony can have a profound effect on her children.”

I love this story because it’s the same with my mother. I do not doubt that my mother knows it and I can never describe how much of an impact my mothers testimony and strength has had on me. 

This past week was good! Made some great progress with Mark. He has been taught almost all of the lessons except for lesson 5. He came to a ward activity and church and is keeping commitments. He moved his date up to the 2nd of December and is excited about it. Emma, Georgina’s sister came to church and will be coming to Institute this next week. Georgina is a great missionary and has been working on her sister. 

We got in contact with Carol and Rory and they said they’d come to church but then didn’t show up. Joseph is still doing well, he has his baptismal interview this week. Harrison’s Mom has dropped his baptismal date because of some family and school complications but we will continue teaching the whole family and he will plan on getting baptised in January. 

We had a nice miracle at our street Display on Wednesday. Elder Tuipulotu talked to a super nice lady and got a return appointment but sadly didn’t get any contact information except first name, Maria and town she was from. So we searched her on Facebook and found her! We have been chatting with her and she is amazing! We sent her some videos and she felt the Spirit immediately. We are excited about her. There is so much work to be done in this area! 

Random highlights: went on exchange with the assistants and so I was back in Man South which was fun. Tried by Malcolm and he is doing okay, still trying to get him to come to church haha. 

I love this Gospel and I love my mom! Have a great week everyone! 

-Elder Ludlow 

October 23, 2017 More Surprises!

Sooo LYN AND MICK WERE BAPTISED!

Here is the full story:

Sister Merrick moved into ward 4 in April. Before she moved in loads of members went over and got her house ready. Lyn and Mick saw this service and it was their first contact with the church. Brother Merrick had cancer and passed away soon after and Lyn and Mick loved the funeral service and felt welcomed at the church. Eventually we had tea all together and we started teaching them. Their progress was pretty slow but they had powerful spiritual experiences at the church for a tour and Sunday services. This past Tuesday they had a temple tour and they had all their questions and concerns answered. They went inside to the waiting room. While in there the Spirit was unbelievable and Sister Merrick asked if they were ready to be baptised and they said yes and then she said what about this coming Saturday and they agreed!! The crazy thing is that we were on exchange so our district leader interviewed them right then and President McReynolds was there as well so he approved them getting baptised so soon. The baptism was so great, a recent convert baptised them both and it was his first time. Elder Tuipulotu and I confirmed them. Another crazy miracle!

This week was just so great. We saw our friend Mark multiple times and he is doing pretty well. He is a little crazy so we are not too sure if we should keep teaching him but he skipped out on a concert this weekend so that he could come to church which is a good sign. We haven’t been able to see Carol and Rory because they want a little space but some members have been in contact with them. Harrison and Joseph are doing well. 

Random highlights: I was ill after eating KFC and napped almost all of Friday haha. Also, the recent convert who baptised Lyn and Mick got the Melchizedek priesthood last night! 

-Elder Ludlow 

Mick is right next to me and Lyn is right next to Elder Tuipulotu. 

October 16, 2017 Georgina Was Baptized!

So surprise! GEORGINA WAS BAPTISED!! Obviously this deserves a good explanation so I will tell y'all the full story:

Georgina is good friends with a family in the ward that joined the church a few years ago and they used to carpool to school. Recently Georgina had a reoccurring dream that this member was taking Georgina to her baptism. She eventually decided that she couldn't deny the dream and so when she saw a link to Mormon.org on tumblr she requested a Book of Mormon. We gave it to her on the last Sunday of September and by the time we went to message her on Facebook about and hour and half later she had already read the Restoration Pamphlet and a good amount of the Book of Mormon. She had so many good questions and we were able to answer them through the Spirit. We took her on a temple and chapel tour and the Spirit touched her heart. She committed to it and was excited. We taught her all the lessons but she had a concern about one of the commandments. She attended institute multiple times (always taking notes) and the second week she went she found her answer to her question through the notes that she had taken and the Spirit helped it click in her mind. But she still felt like she wasn't ready just quite yet. She then had a dream on Monday night this past week where she was by the baptismal font and someone took her away to a place and all of her fears and worries went away. So now a little side note to the story. On the last Sunday on September I was fasting for someone to be baptised on the 14th of October. That night we met Georgina and I felt like she would be ready for that date. She progressed really fast but then had these concerns, so we were a little concerned as well. But one thing I have really learned on my mission is that if you have faith in something then never give up. So I kept praying non stop that she would receive an answer and then on Monday night I prayed for her specifically to have a dream. AND SHE DID! So now back to the story, now that she has had all these experiences we presented to her the idea of being baptised in FOUR DAYS and at first she felt it might be too soon but that she would think about it. The next day she messaged us first and asked if she could be baptised on Saturday. WHAT AN ABSOLUTE MIRACLE. She had her interview the next day and we actually had almost 60 people at the baptism which was crazy! I have no doubt that when we fast and pray and never give up on it then miracles will happen. 

Ether 12:12- "For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith."

This week was just amazing. Georgina's sister Emma came to the baptism and to church and Georgina has been talking to her lots about the Gospel. She is already a great missionary. Another fun fact is that Eleanor and Georgina grew up together, went different ways and now they both are baptised! We also had someone named Mark that walked into the family history centre come to church and we will see him tomorrow. 

We saw the Colemans a couple times and they are so great. We did service for them with some members of the elders Quorum in ward 4 and it really touched them. We were able to teach them and Lyn came to church. They said they see themselves joining the church, it will just take some time. We were able to see Joseph and Harrison as well and they both should be good for their baptisms next month. Carol and Rory are struggling a little bit with their relationship and so we haven't been able to see them but they should be fine.

Random other highlights: had a zone Conference on Thursday which was good. I conducted the first half of the meeting and Elder Tuipulotu and I gave a training on Online Proselyting. We also had a Europe area broadcast with Elder Ballard and that was amazing. He spoke about miracles and really just motivated the members to try even harder with missionary work. He shared a story about how he went to Ethiopia in the early 80s when they had their terrible drought. He was a seventy and went with the president of the welfare program. There was only one known member of the church in the country at the time and they somehow found him. They have a Sacrament Meeting with the 3 of them and then Elder Ballard called down the powers of heaven for it to rain and two hours later it started pouring down rain. It rained every single day they were there. 

I am filled with so much joy. I love this work with all my heart. Miracles have not ceased!! 

-Elder Ludlow 

Georgina was baptised by a convert of about 2 1/2 years and it was his first time baptising. He was very crucial for her progress. He is one of the most amazing people I have ever met.