December 30, 2013

Kev's Christmas tree

Dec. 23, 2013

My cool story of the week involves the sisters…

Yesterday I we had got the impression not to go to this less actives house and to call the Sisters and ask if they had gone to see Luiz (we turned him over to them.... Long story) they asked if we could come to this other less active to help them with some service. We got to help make tamales and then they gave us fish tacos. It was sooo good.

Service project...making tamales with a wonderful family!

On a more spiritual note….

Thursday, the English elders asked us to go to the hospital with them to give a blessing. After searching the hospital for 10 min. we found the room it was a member of the Danville, AK Branch. Elders Jardine, one of the English Elders asked me to give the blessing and for his companion Elder Bennett to anoint. It started normal Elder Bennett did the anointing and I started the blessing. Called her by name and saying the authority, and as I went on in the blessing I continued to call her by her middle name.... when the blessing concluded Elder Bennett leaned over and said her name is...... that is when I thought in my head... I know why did I just do that? We looked down at her and saw she was crying and she said how it was alright that she had not been called that in 20 years because her mom had died and she was the only one that called her that. It was a very cool experience.


Alfredo (he is a recent convert and is AWESOME! (Kevin loves this guy!)

Love ya see you on Wednesday.

Dec. 16, 2013

Yes being on Bikes is not fun when it is cold out. One day we had rain all day and we got home and our feet where black.... not a fun day. I got mail from Alex and the Sampson’s which was nice.

Thanks for the mail. I am not sure when that package is coming.... did you send it to the mission office or to the apartment? Because that is two very different outcomes they are both in my area but the other is in North Little Rock which is kind of a drive. I am going there for Zone Conference this week.

Yes the Branch had a Christmas party.... It was ok it was with the English ward.

My Spanish is much better for the most part I can talk and kind of understand what people are talking about. But I have a month to learn before I hit the 6 month mark.

Luis....his brothers daughter is in a coma and so he was not able to come to church so he could get baptized but we are going to try a 3rd time next Sunday.....Let’s pray the 3rd time is a charm.

Thank you for everything. I am doing well. Hope y’all are the same. Have a great week

Elder Jardine (English) is the very left Elder, Kev (Spanish) Elder Dalton (Spanish), Sister Howton(Spanish), Elder Bennett (English), Sister Goudie with the hood (Spanish)

This is Sister Goudie and Elder Dalton
Sister Goudie is a distant cousin of Kevin's (her mom is a Ashby)

December 9, 2013

We have had freezing rain this week. I don't have my camera with me or I would send a picture. It is not that bad but we did not have church this week.... we did go eat at the branch president’s house. It is cold and humid. The humidity makes it feel so much colder. The temp has been around 20 this week. We are on bikes this week but the last few days we have had to walk because the roads are not safe to ride on. Not much time today. Love you all

December 2, 2013

Ok, so this week has been pretty good. I had two dinners on Thanksgiving one Bolivian and one American. Lots of work, but it’s not very easy finding people.

We have a baptism date with Luis this from Nicaragua. Luis is an awesome guy. We took Alfredo one of the people that Elder Burger Baptized and it was a Boss lesson.

Me and Elder Dalton now have dog treats in the back of our car... after we ate one last week... long story. But a less active has some angry dogs we are trying the positive reinforcement with them so that they will learn to like us.

We got to play a pick-up game of basketball and won.... it was awesome!

Doing well
Love y’all

Elder Ludwig

November 25, 2013

Welcome to Little Rock Spanish North.

Elder Dalton (my first district leader in the field)

What can I say about my new area..... it is wet, cold, and has no shortage of the biggest hills that I have ever seen. And because I am so lucky I am on bike week. It is really cold but that is life.

Happy Birthday everyone that is having a birthday.. (t2 (double T), kokopuff and Madre)

There is not a lot of Hispanics in my new area and the branch is really small but overall the area is pretty good.

My cool story of the week is about when I got to meet Santa in the south.

So we had done service that day and we were with the pinnacle mountain Elders that live right next to us and they were giving us a ride a little closer to where we were headed to teach. We got in the car with the Elders they took us to this bbq place to drop us off. When I was pulling the bikes off the car this guy drives up and asks me what I was doing I told him just taking off the bikes, and then asks me where we were going... (Please note at this point I am weirded out, thinking what does this guy want). Elder Dalton my comp comes over thinking I am getting chewed out but some old guy in a truck. The man continues to ask where we are going and we respond “to the Lopez family just down the hill 3miles. That is when he says “Would they care if you were late?” Dalton says “we don't have our appointment until 5”. That is when he offers us BBQ! We had felt bad that the English Elders had driven us around so much so we asked the man to give the food to them. He paused and said you are going to give away your food? We explained to the man that these other Elders had driven us around all day. Then the man said I will just get all 4 of you food. The man said his name was Nick and he is Santa's cousin. He lives in North Little Rock and is inactive (we need to fix that).

Moral of this story is..... Santa is a southerner that is a member of the church (thus the church is true and so is Santa’s cousin) and Sims BBQ is really good.

Love y’all and hope all is well.

Elder Kevin Ludwig
7820 West Capitol Ave. apt 1203
Little Rock, AK 72205

November 18, 2013

I am leaving Spanish south..... And I did not get to see Graceland, Even if it was only a 20 minutes from where I live. I did get to see Bellevue and the school that the blindside guy went to. I got the call today saying that I will be leaving but not where to. Elder Child's thinks that I will be going up north to Northern Memphis. But we are not sure. Tell mike and Dottie that it is OK they didn't get to see me. Graceland is kind of in a sketchy area..... Like where I work. I was actually pretty close to Graceland today.

No I did not have any tornadoes. We had a lot of wind some days but for the most part it was not bad. Not a super exciting week. Basically just work as normal. Got a picture with some of the people from the branch and tried to write. In specialized training they showed us the IPads that we would be getting in the coming months. They are the IPad minis and it is going to change how we work completely but I am excited.

November 11, 2013

So I find out on Monday if I am getting transferred or not. I have a feeling that I might be but am not exactly sure. We are right now trying to get some new progressing investigators we have a few dates. there is this one family that I just know that I have to baptize but the wife is doesn’t want to commit to a date she knows it is true but she said that she wants to read the whole bible and book of Mormon before she sets a date. We have a date with her dad who lives with them and I think if that goes through that she will follow we just need to get her to church... church attendance is kind of lower than what we want it. yesterday we went over to one of the investigators houses to knock on his door we knocked on the door to his bedroom and he still did not get up to come to church.... it was not the happiest moment but we have a date with him we are just going to talk to him about not staying up so late so he will actually make it to church.

so I saw that you guys have 60 degrees and beautiful.... some days here are nice around 60 but the sun goes down really early around 6 and that is when it gets cold.... and we have been on bikes this week so it have been really cold but we have tried to make the most of this week and keep working but we had a lot of days that no (Hispanics) answered the door.

This week I got to do a blessing in Spanish a member has a friend that has cancer and a daughter who is pregnant so Elder Childs and me went over and talked with them and gave them both blessings. They said that we could come back and teach them and that they would try to come to church. We are planning to go and talk to them again this week. Along with 2 other referrals that we have that are too far away to bike to.

Not a bad week I am really excited to get a car and start get some more dates set.... and get out of the cold. Love you all and hope everyone is doing well.

Congrats Kira, Paul and Otto on the new baby... Blossom? I am getting that right?

November 4, 2013

Ok so this week was a pretty good week, yes I did get the package the day before Halloween thank you very much I wore the tie and socks just for the occasion.

We had a baptism for Abelino. Both me and Elder Childs had to do because Abelino can't more his knees really well but it was good and after all the stuff that we had to do to make it happen (having to find 3 different rides for him and 2 new speakers) it worked out really well. He got confirmed Sunday and stayed all 4 hours which for him was really impressive because it hurts to sit for a long time. Church is 4 hours for us on fast Sunday the branch has this thing called “break the fast” where people bring a bunch of food and eat right after the meeting block. It was a good service. We have a new branch mission leader named brother Zuccherro he is a good guy and his assistant Eikel is a great guy too. They really want to start to get the work moving in the branch again and with the baptism this week and Memphis east having one planned for the 16th I hope it happens. Post baptism is weird because you are exhausted form all that you had to do for the baptism but no time to rest you have to start looking for the investigators that will be next to be baptized. All the ones that we have been working with fell through. We started going through people that had been progressing previously. We chose to go see this guy named David who we contacted a few weeks ago. We had a great lesson with him about the plan of salvation and he committed to be baptized. When we taught about the Holy Ghost we taught about what we have to do in this life (faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, endure to the end) when we listed them he asked us “what was that 4th one" so we started to teach about the Holy Ghost. He asked us how he could get that in his life because that is what he and his family needed. We told him he needed to be baptized again and he said alright so we set a date. He has a date for the 1st of Dec. because he is going out of town for a week but we said if he was ready we would do it earlier.

The weather on Thursday was not the best really hard rain but I was very grateful that we had a car this week but we go on bike week this coming week and it is supposed to get very cold and wet. With the rain the last few days it has just got colder and colder. It is 50 yet it feels so much colder with all the humidity.

Thanks for the pictures. Otto is much larger than what I remember it is weird thinking he will be 2 when I see him next. Congrats Kira, Paul and Otto on the new baby (born on my half birthday by the way and as well as Grant Jones birthday). Love y'all and hope all is going good with you in la montanias.

Elder Ludwig

October 28, 2013

It was a good week this week. We have a baptism Saturday. We got Abilino to CHURCH. He was not in too much pain to come and what I am told we made the mission Goal of 60 baptisms this month which is really good. I was sad to hear that Klarissa had a slow week because this was one of my best. 11 con un miembro presente or member present. The story for this week is the power of members. So we have a thing in the branch called the iron rod that is (a brass hand holding a bar I will send a picture when I get one it is a missionary award but the branch got one) and basically when someone is given the hand they have two weeks that they are to focus on missionary work. The person that has it is named Brother Trejo he asked if he could come out with us so that he could fulfill his responsibility with the hand and he lives in our area (please note he feeds us every Wednesday). We took him to some appointments and had a lot fall though. The last one we went to was a family, Martin and Claudia with their young son Martin. Claudia had to leave but we had that chance to teach Martin who surprised us. He is a man me and Elder Berger found after a very hard day of 5 hours of walking and no success. Martin who is very shy and soft spoken had not only read the intro to the Book of Mormon that we had asked him too but also the testimony of the prophet and started asking about it. It was weird how we found that out, we asked him if he had questions and he asked us about the angel that appeared to José smith in his room.... we thought he meant the first vision but we started to roll with it and found out he read the testimonio del el testigo, so it was a good lesson He said he would try to come to church but he had said that before so we were not sure if he would. About 5 minutes after sacrament started Martin and Brother Trejo who is also a very shy guy came walking in and sat down. Martin stayed for all 3 hours with his son. It was a true demonstration on how powerful members are. Brother Trejo went (WITHOUT BEING ASKED) and reminded Martin and took him to church. It was a good day.
Now we just have to start working with his wife and get her coming. We have a feeling that we are going to be getting some more baptisms for November. I really want Martin and Claudia to be baptized when I am here. I want to be able to see an investigator be able to progress from start to finish. So far Martin’s journey has been amazing to watch. Elder Berger came and visited Memphis; I did not get to talk to him much because I was teaching primary that day.

Love you guys and hope all is well.

October 21, 2013

This week; work, work, work! We had 22 other lessons, which is double what our goal was and 3 times as much as I have had before. We are really pushing the talk to everyone thing and it seems to be working we have found some great people and a lot of less actives that we did not know were out there because the where baptized outside the country but moved here and have not come to church for years. One of them was this guy named Juan from Honduras. We tried some finding around his area and we knocked this one door and the man let us in and tells us that he is actually a member, all but one of his siblings are also members back in Honduras and that one of them served a mission. But he has not been to church in years. We invited him to come and he said that he would try because he does not have a car but really wants to come.

Avalino the guy we have the date with is disabled because he fell off a ladder when he was working and it has caused a lot of problems for him. So now he can’t come to church this week so we are going to have to change his date until he has been to church more than once. but we had the Elders that originally started teaching him pass by on their way down to church so they gave him a blessing and we will see where it goes from there.

I had to teach Gospel principals yesterday.... in Spanish. It was about the role of families. It was an interesting experience having to teach a lesson without any for warning. Me and one of the other elders (because we were doing exchanges. The other two missionaries did primary... we did everything yesterday) got up and did the class. we actually had a good experience and we got a new investigator out of it because one of the less actives in my area came to church and her friend came to so we set up to start teaching him. We also got two referrals from this guy in the ward. He is 17 and getting ready for a mission at the end of the year and wants us to start teaching his mom and step dad. We are really excited and hope that it goes well.

Love you guys and hope all is well.

Elder Ludwig

October 14, 2013

So the district has changed drastically we lost one area so my area just got twice as big. My companion is Elder Childs, how I would describe him is the stereotypical district leader. Very responsible and very oriented to baptism. The first few days he took some getting used to (not in a bad way just very different from the goofy Elder Berger) but me and him get along well. We are really wanted to push the Memphis zone back to where it was last year. The Spanish branch has the ability to have 50 baptisms a year and that is what we want. We are working really hard trying to find a fresh teaching pool and start to get some baptismal dates.

I am starting to improve in my Spanish which is good! Yesterday I had the chance to bare my testimony in Spanish in the testimony meeting and I did it without messing up to bad. Now I just need to work with understanding what other people are saying which may have started out easy but now is much harder. The work is hard but it is well worth it.

We are working with a less active family now. They have been taught anti LDS things by the 7th day Adventists. This is one of the hard things about being down here is that our new converts and investigators have so much anti and it is always coming to them. It has really made me grateful to have a home in a place with a strong support system in the church.

I now have a dinner every night. Elder Childs was in the branch when he started his mission and actually served in this area. One of the people that he baptized previously would switch what group of missionaries that they would feed. She called us last night and told us that she was going to stop and only feed me and him because she wanted to us the time she had to serve the missionary that baptized the family.

Over all I am doing well. I can't wait to get back in to a car and start getting some dates set. We are going to bring the Spanish branch back to where it should be. I hope y'all are doing well. You’re in my prayers.

Love you!

Oct. 7 2013

Elder Berger is gone and I am staying in Mississippi right now with the Spanish west elders who live and serve more south then me in Spanish south area. we got a date set with an investigator. We also got our car taken away this week when one of the other Elders in a different city called and set a bunch of repairs up without telling us, needless to say Elder Berger and I were not happy. I did watch conference Saturday in English and Sunday in Spanish. Elder Scott actually translated his own talk. This was interesting. You will have to send me the talks because I have only understood about half conference. I was told that my next companion is going to be an Elder child’s who I hear is good. I will not meet him until Wednesday.

Love you all,
Kevin

September 30, 2013

Very hard week with a hopeful end

We have been working really hard to try to get one baptism before the transfer is over... We have gone to the investigators we have now that seem to be progressing well and to some of our new investigators hoping to get some out to church and hopefully to baptism and start the area moving before Elder Berger leaves for home.  

We are working with a family, Saundra, Jessie, Gorge, Emme, and Jessie. They are progressing really well. They have a lot of questions about the church. They are a referral from one of the families in the branch. We teach them mostly in English because the mom is from Texas but everyone speaks Spanish because the dad is Mexican. So we do a mix of both. We tried for a date on Friday but they had so many questions for us to answer that we didn’t have a chance to get something really set in stone.

The other investigator Isabel has been having a very hard week. We went over on Monday and had a lesson and set up another appointment with her. She left a message to change the appointment we made and when we called her she told us she wanted to take a break and think about it.

We got 11 new investigators this week. Most all of our set appointments fell through. We did a lot of praying to try and find people close to us so we could save some miles. We have spent a lot of time walking and praying to find someone ready this week we had a fast so that we would find someone to get to the waters of baptism.

I hate Spanish. I often get told that I am not very good by the person we are teaching which makes it hard to want to try to keep talking. And when you have a companion that can talk really well and makes you look really bad it is not fun.

The hopeful part

We found two families this week as answers to prayers the first was Rene and Maria. Because of our miles we wanted to look close to our apartment. When me and Elder Berger where on our way back both of us stop and looked at this one house. It had a few of the signs of a Hispanic but also some of them for Moreno’s so we did not know if we should knock on it or not. We agreed we should. We found that the family who lived there moved here from Mexico. The brother has a disease of some kind and the mom had just said she wished some priests would come to bless him that is when we knocked. We both where down because we did not have any investigators make it to church when 6 said they would come. We found a family living in a home that we got to share the plan of salvation with because the Grandmother just died. We got a return appointment with both.

We are going to try to finish strong. Love you all

Kevin

September 23, 2013

     


This is the second hardest week of elder Berger’s mission; please note he goes home in 2 weeks... Rain... I hate rain and it rained all day, it was bike week also, so we had to bike in the rain... the best part was that the day we got all the rain was our most productive day.... sad but it was not a very productive week. We could not get to the appointments that we would have liked to and the people that we did contact did not go as well as we had hoped. We only got 8 other lessons when our goal was 13.... it was not good. Yesterday was our climax of death; both me and Elder Berger have been having problems with bikes which has made it harder to do anything. Yesterday Elder Berger’s tire popped we were about a mile away from the church and needed to get to an appointment so we walked to the church put our bikes there and walked the hour and a half to the person... and the appointment fell through. That is when we did the 3 hour walk home because all the other Elders where out in Olive Branch Mississippi EATING DINNER… pretty bad. We got to our apartment and waited to have the Memphis East English Elders come pick us up and take us up to an area to walk around trying to find new investigators for about an hour and a half..... Both me and Elder Berger got in to the apartment and basically died we were so tiered.

This was my week to try new stuff. I had to eat octopus... ya, not my favorite it is chewy and does not have very much flavor. First time biking in the rain and it was wet and hot. Basically it was a very hard week.

Memphis drivers are much worse than Mexico City drivers... Mexico City is organized chaos Memphis is just dangerous they do not pay attention to anyone.

The weather here is getting colder which is much nicer then the hot, but it is still really humid.
Love you all and hope that everyone is doing well.


A wonderful man that works with the missionaries in Memphis met Kevin today and sent this to me. I love these members that go the extra mile to make missionary Mom's happy!

September 16, 2013

It was a car week this past week, bike week starts tomorrow. I am very very very unexcited for biking this week, mostly because we have to do a lot of work in Olive Branch, Mississippi... 13 miles away. Biking in slacks in hot humid weather is not super fun. It cooled down a little but it started to heat back up yesterday.

We have 3 baptismal dates set. One of our new investigators this week is named Isabelle she is the wife of a member who we did not know lived in our area, she is progressing very quickly but it is hard because she lives at the state line and can only meet on Thursdays and Saturdays. We hope to get her to baptism by the 28th.

Why I said I was living off of cheese sticks and pretzels is because I got a big bag so I have something to snack on and often we don’t have time to eat a full meal... or a half meal so we grab and go. But last week I was able to get some eggs at the store. I think my apartment has all the stuff to make no bake cookies; I would love to get the recipe.

Elder Berger’s birthday was on Friday so we were fed 5 meals.... yes, it seemed like dinner was never ending on Friday. We started with a new member named Ausensio who read the BofM with his daughter in law made us Mole, watermelon and a cake. After that we went to a member named the Suseros for our actual dinner appointment where we had Colombian food and Tres leche cake, then we went down to Olive branch to see this less active person who has not come for some time and she was just finishing up dinner so she gave us full plates... I was stuffed by the end of the night... Elder Berger said Most Hispanics love to feed people especially on special occasions.

The mosquitos are not a problem here at least right now I hear they are much worse during the summer and spring not so bad in the fall. It is the cockroaches. The dang things are everywhere we have not had many in our apartment and I would like to keep it that way, but in the church and all the homes seem to have cockroaches. It is very, very good Klarissa is not down here because we have a lot of spiders and they are really big.

I hope everything is going well with everyone and that you are all safe and such. Love you

Kevin

Pictures of the CCM and some of Memphis. He didn't send any description..sorry

Sept. 9, 2013

I am doing well, Memphis is called the promise land here but we also say how it is the first place to go in the second coming. I got the letter From grandpa tell him that I was very grateful for it it was a good pick up and that I would love to have his full story if he is willing to send it.

Week two in the field. We have had more success but our investigators are going through a lot of trials. We are teaching this set of two girls, their dad Humberto just was baptized 2 weeks ago but the mom is a baptist. We had a baptismal date set for one of them for this Saturday Ashley age 9, but the something is going down in the family and the mom moved out. This makes it hard to get the approval of both parents. Jennifer who is 11 is also really effected by the mom which makes it hard. Two more of our progressing investigators Jose and Yanin have been having a lot of problems with commitment so we are just trying to get them to church which is just getting harder and harder. A lot of the Hispanic people have the what we call Catholic doubt. they think that as long as they have faith they are fine and that they don't need to have a new religion as long as they have one. but we have a few more investigators one who both me and elder Berger have a lot of hope for named Adan. (Spanish for Adam)

A big part of the work down here is reactivation the Branch has a lot of inactive members and the rama (branch) is still trying to get organized so the home and visiting teaching is still not enough to keep members coming. Elder Berger who has been in the area for a long time basically is the one that keeps the branch running.... and he leaves in October which is when me and who ever my follow up trainer will need to take over. The branch is getting better we are slowly trying to get them to relying on one another for help and less on the missionaries. Blessings and reactivation, me and one of the other missionaries in the branch Elder Robles call it Project Activation there would be accents in that but we can't on American computers.

I have gained 15 pounds from the time that I came out on my mission. No I am not getting fat, I have actually been gaining a lot of muscle from the time that I came out. Even if I am living off of cheese sticks and pretzels and the occasional gummy bear from Alex or Kyler (Thanks you guys). MSF don't cover that so I am very grateful for the food.

I can now find my way home from the church! yes that is an accomplishment much harder when the church is 6 miles away from where we live, even harder when you are doing that on a bike about 4 times a day. But all is well I love you and hope every one is doing good and no ones house flooded with the rain.


Love ya,

Elder Ludwig

Week one in Tennessee

Monday Sept. 3, 2013

From the words of Elder Tate "sucks to suck" ya I got hit by a car on
Saturday. My bike is down but the zone leaders are taking it back
to little rock to get it fixed. it is only the back tire and good news my pants
did not get ripped! Yes I am ok. My shin is bruised but over all I am
still OK. I will send more tomorrow we don't have much time because it
is labor day I will send more tomorrow.


Tuesday Sept. 4, 2013

OK so the me getting hit was her fault. I was riding passed a parking lot exit and when I was in front of her she laid on the gas and hit me sending me flying. the worst part was she did not even get out of her car she just sat there and stared at me for 5 minutes and then drove away. I am sending my bike to Searcy to get fixed by the guy that sold it to us, hopefully it will be free. Yes I am using my zone leaders bike and now I am on a car week which is good. Today I am on exchanges with My district leader Elder Dalton actually so I don't really have to worry about it. Well one week down in the mission field and it has been... strange. I ate a taco de lingua today... tongue, not too bad actually some parts where a little chewy but over all just tastes like beef. The week started out good other then the fact we where on bikes. We did a lot of lessons and got some new investigators. It was Saturday that it started to go down hill. On the way to our first lesson is when I got hit by the car and after that all of our lessons started to fall through or when we knocked a door no one was home. Sunday was the same but Elder Berger's tire (the bike he is borrowing from my other zone leader) got popped by a nail so we had to walk the bike back to the apartment and take the back tire off his old bike and switch them. We bike about 15-20 miles a day and our heat index was up to 105 last week. Ya humidity is nasty here. Elder Berger is great he is on his last transfer he lives in Ogden and I will be killing him off. I have a full Spanish district and the Memphis 4th Branch/rama has 5 sets of missionaries in it. Over all I am doing well I don't have much time. Love you all and hope everyone is doing well.

Elder Ludwig

Kev is walking in Memphis!

I asked someone on facebook if they knew where Kevin was serving:

Elder Kevin Ludwig
3305 West Monticello Circle, Apt. #13
Memphis TN 38115

His trainer is named Elder Jordan Berger...they even sent me his phone number, I won't post that!
I'm sure Kevin would love to hear from you. It is funny how much Kev was wanting a burger when he got back to the states, now he will be living with one...Elder Berger...hahah...I'm so funny!

Kevin has arrived in Little Rock!

New Arrivals to the Arkansas Little Rock Mission (ALRM)

Last Day at the CCM August 26, 2013

Needless to say it has been an eventful week in Orem.... Mexico City is all about getting ready to leave. District A left yesterday or most of them. Most of us are going out tomorrow. Most of them at 2:30 me and Elder Henderson at 3 yes that is in the morning they are having me Email now because I do not know if I will be able to email when I get there. I don't know if I get to call at the airport or not. They are talking to Provo right now to find out. I think I can but I am not sure. If I can it will be around 11ish but I don't know I don't have the info with me now. But I will be calling in Atlanta because I don't think you want a call at 5 am. We finished with our investigators this week. I am no longer teaching. Yes I have pictures of them so don't worry I will send them when I get back to the states. We had Elder Johnson from the area 70 give a discourse Tuesday. He gave us a Challenge that I would like to give to everyone. He asked us to get on our knees and ask some questions even if we have asked them before.

1 Are you there?

2 Do you really have a Body?

3 Are you really my father?

4 Do you know me?

5 Do you love me?

It was interesting to hear this because it is so simple yet it is the very foundation of faith or in Spanish fe. Sometimes we skip the simple things because we just imply but we need to remember that our faith is built by small and simple things. Little by little. It is like a car when you are just given one. Most don't know how it works. We know how to use it but if problems come and it stops working we can't do anything, yet when we build it then we learn every small part. We learn to care about it and when problems come and one part stops working you know what you have to do to make it work again.

In theory I will send more tomorrow. I love all of you and can't wait to hear from you. God will bless you, good things come to the people that wait just ask Kira.

Elder Ludwig

August 20, 2013 week 5

Week five I am a new man. I have been looking back on my progress that I have made and it is crazy. I am not the same person. I have come to love the Lord more than ever. I glory in my God always. I would recommend a mission to everyone it is fantastic! When you look how much you have been blessed. Me and Elder Henderson have been getting better and better at working together we are now the dynamic teaching duo. Yesterday was one of our high points, Hermana Rivera was having us practice teaching she came over and watched for a little then went to the other groups she came over and had us demo the teaching fundamental that we were working on which was resolving a concern after a commitment falls through. WE GOT A BAPTISMAL DATE! Mateo who was a non-religious person to start has made amazing progress and is now preparing for baptism. I ran in to the room and told the class, the story that came to my mind was Alma 26 when Ammon’s brothers are talking about how they think he is boasting this is his response. "yea, I know that I am nothing as to my strength I am weak therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things yea behold, many mighty miracles.....Now if this is boasting even so will I boast for this is my life and my light my joy and my salvation" the power of God is In this work and I am learning that more and more every day. This is part of my spiritual journal entry on august 17th "We just had a lesson with Frances. It started with the plan of salvation and we moved to life on earth. The spirit moved us to the love of God, She asked us how she could get her family to follow Christ, Elder Henderson followed with the story of his uncle who fell away yet his daughter was converted and whose example got the rest of the family Baptized and the uncle back to activity. That is when he gave the baptism commitment. she paused... we waited... she said she was not sure because people had said bad things about us. I felt I needed to invite her to find out for herself so I told her she needed to read the book of Mormon after she had just previously said no, and that she needed to ask God herself. She paused for a good 5 minutes the spirit was powerful it was so thick you could not help but feel it. She will now read the BofM and pray I found out later that when I said that commitment Elder Henderson was about also, but the spirit told him to wait and then he saw that it was my job to do so. The quote of Kevin of that day was "say what you can and let the spirit say the rest". God has really blessed me the last few weeks and even more so the last few days. Last week we had a devotional from Provo, one Elder Scott gave that talked about prayer... he basically stated all of my feelings that I had been having the past few weeks. At one point he stopped and by his authority gave all the missionaries that are learning a language power if they have the faith. Also his wife was there.... that is one that is harder to explain if you get the chance I think you can find the talk on Lds.org I would watch it, it was powerful. On more temporal notes. My roommates are leaving this week some left this morning and the others are leaving tomorrow. There was an Elder who came from Orem he had some hot sauce that is 1.5 million sculville units so I had to try some (the ghost chili is 1 million) yah, that was not the smartest thing that I have ever done but It was something I can say I have done. Everyone has asked me if I felt the earthquake... here are my words on that... Disappointment the alarm went off and no one could really feel it here. I did not even know it was an earthquake. The people that have sent me pictures thank you a ton I love getting to see what is going on back in Utah. I miss you all and hope that everything is going well. I am happy to say one week and I will be in the same country again, my challenge this week is to search for a way you can grow to be more like Jesus Christ. I promise if you try you will gain more light than you can ever imagine, and you will benefit all that you come in contact with.

Week 4 at the CCM

Samana 4

I have been slowly getting better at speaking Spanish. We have a new district of non-Spanish speakers in our zone; it is good to see how much I have grown from when I first got to the CCM. Not to mention the Peru and Guatemala Mtc's are full so we are getting 200 more people this week. We have 4 investigators now. Frances who is my teacher Herm. Rivera she is portraying her grandma. Manuel who is my other teacher Hermo. Robinson. Now we are teaching other missionaries who are acting as investigators as well as we are portraying investigators. My name is Colton, and Elder Henderson is Landon. We are teaching Mateo and Zach. It is hard because Mateo does not have any religious back ground and does not believe in God yet Zach has grown up around the church his whole life and is Christian. So we are trying to find a balance between the two. Me and Elder Henderson had an investigator named Rosa last week (remember the Rosa lesson I was sick for?) well needless to say it was not our high point in teaching, we did not know it was our last lesson with Rosa that was kind of a crash and burn. Yet we have started to get better at teaching together. I have reached Alma now in my reading of the Book of Mormon and it only made me think how important it is for me to teach the people of my country. Alma often does not get the glory of missionary work that the sons of Mosiah do but he did so much in the land he belonged to with the people of the Nephites. Not to mention Alma and Amulek make the dynamic duo of teaching. I just want to learn to model that kind of power and spirit. Not to mention the ability to know the spirit well enough to know what your investigators thoughts are.

Me and an Elder Moore from Idaho have been doing a lot together lately we go on splits when his and my companions go to practice for the musical number they are doing next Tuesday. I was able to tell him a lot about what I know about the history and doctrine in the scriptures and I got to share the story of my conversion when I did I thought about it and I don't think I have ever shared it with any of you. I feel my family and friends should know the story of how I came to the Truth of the gospel.

In growing up in the church I have learned from the time I was very young the stories in the scriptures. I know them fairly well and that knowledge has always come to me very easy. Yet they did not mean anything to me until I found my testimony. Two events in my life have helped me find my testimony. First was when I was in 3rd grade, It was when I lost most of my friends yet found one that changed my life, Lance. Lance, was in my class was never the most popular, me on the other hand had many friends and could consider myself very popular. Lance was often made fun of because he did not learn as fast as the other kids, or could not do all the sports and such. I did not like how the other kids made fun of him but I knew if I did something about it I would be giving up my friends. Yet I knew what I had to do... I had one friend after that Lance, and a whole lot of people that made fun of me who I thought were my friends. Because of Lance I met other friends real friends like Eddy, Nick, Tohi, and Jared. At the end of 7th grade they told me how they were going to take a ballroom dance class the next year. So not thinking about it I did the same. Because of that I met, Kylie, Alex, Sofia, Brie, and Jesus. These are all people who are really true friends to me.

This is the second event that helped me with my testimony. I had been praying for over 3 years to have knowledge that the church was true; I felt I had never been given an answer to this prayer. I went to church and could only think when someone said “I know the church is true” how can you know? What did you do that I didn’t do to find this out or are you just saying it and you don’t really know? Sophomore year I had an early morning Seminary class with my dear sister Klarissa, one day a scripture was shared. I thought nothing of it; just that it was a nice scripture. Little did I know God had something in store for me. Later that night I was at the stake road show and I was back stage texting some friends... One of them was having a really hard time. I wanted to help but did not know what to do. I felt that I should share that scripture, yet I did not feel I could. The feeling continued to come to me, Share the scripture, finally I thought to do it. I could not remember the exact wording of it. God provided a way, Sami Chun was in my class and after asking him what it was soon I had a book in my hand and some short words in my mind. I shared the scripture and it worked. That night I could not sleep thinking about what I had done.... I got down on my knees one more time and asked if the church was true... This was what came to my mind, why are you questioning what you have always known to be true?

A testimony is like a pen, God has given you the pen placed it next to you yet you have to be willing to pick it up and start writing or the pen will only be lost and pushed to the side. Every day you should seek to share your testimony and have it grow and help others grow theirs. That is what our savior did.

I love you guys and hope everyone is doing well.

I can't wait to get back to the states and eat a Burger.

August 6, 2013 Week 3 at the CCM.

We cleaned the dorm for Pday today so now it is all nice and clean and WE GOT WATER, for the longest time we have had to use water bottles with filters on them but we finally got a water jug.... I hope they don’t take it from us again. I have to say I like the weather here. We get lightning storms all the time which is much cooler then the storms in Utah, and actuality it is really not that hot.

IT is pizza Tuesday! Every Tuesday we get pizza because we get new elders. We are also losing the first generation of greengos today. 3 weeks to go and that will be me going out in to the field. It is hard work down here but I feel like I have gained a lot of experience that I would not have any other way... like what pineapple tastes like in pasta. The food down here is the strangest part. For some odd reason if they every have a pasta in white sauce they put pineapple in it. They must really like pineapple because they put it in everything even the pizza that is the pretty much only kind that we ever get. Some times if we are lucky we get some supreme but that goes out fast. They are getting better at making dessert. We had some raspberry rolls yesterday. I guess it was to make up for the dinner of no bueno that we had on Sunday..... After fasting all day.

An Elder went home this week. He was a good friend of mine. After he left we all got a lot closer in my district. My branch president, Pres. Muchata said that he wanted us all to start to read the book of Mormon over again. In the last 2 days I have had the ability to get almost 100 pages in with knowledge and meaning in every verciculo. I would like to challenge anyone who reads this to read the book of Mormon, if you have read it before read it again. God will reveal his love for you as you seek to find out his will for you. It reminds me of when I was in Sunday school class that was taught by Bro. Barney and he told me how he thought I was like Alma's son Shiblon. I have been tested here very much and I know that I will be tested more as I continue. I may have not had to be bound up in cords, I may not be teaching people as wicked as the ones that he did but the Lord is with me. The 23 psalm says (paraphrasing) even if I am walking through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil because the Lord my God is with me, my cup runneth over. In Jesus the Christ it talks about the cup, both as bitter of sin and the sweet of Christ’s redemption. Yet I may not be perfect I do not need to be yet, I have a perfect savior on my team. As you read the book of Mormon Another testimony of JESUS CHRIST you will come close to the savior. When you use the Bible and the Book of Mormon together, you will have power and truth at your disposal that you could not match by any manner of weapon or natural disaster.

On a happy note I have been doing very well I was able to give Elder Henderson a Blessing yesterday. The priesthood is a true power and authority from God, I can attest to that. Elder Cole or Kika is here at the CCM now and as far as I know he is doing well (this is a boy Kev knows from school). I now wish that I would have taken more Spanish in high school. I have learned more in the last 3 weeks then most would learn in months. Hermano Robinson said that it takes about 6 months to feel that you can actually speak. I will tell you at 6 months how it is coming.

Yesterday we were teaching Manuel we had major spirit testifying... then it started to rain on us.... we almost got a commitment to baptism but we had to change it to a soft commitment. Next up Rosa tomorrow, and next time we teach Manuel we are going to pound with the spirit and going to get a full commitment. 

flying into Mexico


This is who Kev flew into Mexico with


Elder Ludwig and Elder Henderson


Random statue right outside the CCM


Kev's I.D. if he gets lost


Kev's District


Real Mexican Food

July30,2013

Week 2 in the CCM was.... still hard. When they tell you Spanish immersion they mean it. I kind of understand some Spanish conversation now which is nice. I just can't respond to them. Franco committed to baptism and we got to hear the really story of Franco from the man who was portraying him. His favorite phrase was No se, or in English I don't know. Everyone in the district hated it. We have two new investigators that we are teaching one is named Rosa and the other is Manuel, we had our first lesson with Rosa yesterday and needless to say it was not our best and it did not help that It I was sick. The food here is off and on, sometimes we get something that is really good.... other times we get the Burrito from Satan. Everyone got sick from it not to mention something is going around and I just so happen to get it which was not fun.

I wish I could send some of the pictures of Mexico that I have. Once I find a computer that has an sd slot I will send one.

I was chosen to give a talk in sacrament meeting this week, and it just so happen to be the week that Presedente Pratt the CCM president came to our branch. It was all in Spanglish and as far as I know I did well. It was about repentance.

You will have to tell Brother Hatch and Welling that I am doing well.

We have had a dry week this week it only rained 5 out of the 7 days. The one thing that Mexico has more than rain is mosquitoes They are everywhere, Dorms, Classrooms, everywhere.

My companion and I have been chosen as the executive secretaries. Which means basically we go and sit in on the meetings then pass out papers.

Thanks for the pictures. I love seeing everyone.

Love you all.

First P-Day in the CCM, July 23, 2013

Well one week down. Hola para le CCM that is Spanish for MTC. It really is not as hot as people made it out to be here in Mexico, it rains every day, if we do not have a sprinkle it is weird.

My companion is from Utah, Spanish Fork to be exact. Elder Henderson, me and two sisters are the ones that are going to Little Rock, yet the sisters are in another branch. My district is great 8 elders and 2 sisters mostly going to mesa some that are bound for Disneyland.

When they say that it is immersion down here they mean it. The first day the teacher Harmana Riviara only spoke Spanish. I learned more in two days on how to understand a person speaking then I did in 3 years of Junior High. It is really hard work to learn a language I must say. We had our first investigator named Franco. We have had three lessons with him so far and have one set up for tomorrow. Teaching is really hard when you don´t know how to say what you are trying to teach. I was here for 3 days and we had our first lesson. I am very grateful that my companion speaks Spanish well enough to communicate.

The food here is well.... Mexican, Tortillas are with almost every meal. I have eaten some of the strangest foods I would tell you what they were but I have no idea. We kind of just eat it because we are starving. Sitting in a classroom for 14 hours every day more is exhausting than I thought it would be.

I got to go to the Mexico City Temple I would send pictures but the computers here do not have a place to put in a sd card. It was an amazing experience other than the fact I have no idea what they said in my first Mexican session. Needless to say I am very grateful the temple worker that was helping me spoke English and Spanish.

Let me tell you about driving in Mexico. Lines mean nothing; they are there for show not much more, whoever gets there first is the winner. The people down here are the most aggressive drivers. People will drive and cut you off without a second thought.

The area around the CCM is different, there is basically no building that does not have spray paint on it. Yes, there is a B on the mountain behind us. It is the name of the old school building they made into the CCM. Which is named after Benito Hoares (I’m not sure if that is how you spell his name). They have a Brass sculpture of his head in the center of the CCM.

Well that is Mexico Wet, Not the place to Drive, and a lot of food you have never seen. Love you all I hope to get you guys some pictures soon when I can find a place that I can do it. Oh, and for those that have asked, Tuesday is my P-day.

Eldere Kevin Ludwig

PS yes that is how you spell Elder in Spanish.

This is from one of Kevin's friends (Kelsie) Mom. Her husband is in Mexico right now. She sent us this message.

Here is Kevin's Branch President pointing to Kevin! My husband is in Mexico right now looking for some interesting members to do more "I'm A Mormon" spots on and apparently met one who's connected to Kevin! Love it!

I had him text me the background just now: "We went to vet (interview) his daughter who is 20 and sings and plays piano. They live in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Mexico City. Very wealthy. They invited us to stay for an incredible dinner. He told us that he was going to really have to start practicing his English because he had just been called as a branch pres at the MTC. So of course I asked about elder Ludwig and that's how we figured it out. He said, 'I just interviewed him yesterday!' He's a wonderful man. Funny and kind. "

Letter Kev wrote to Mom....a lot of the same, but figure I would post it anyway.

I did not fly alone there was about 8 other missionaries that had the same flight plan, 7 elders and 1 sister. Me, Elder Hendricks and Sister Stevens are all going to Little Rock. The Mexico MTC is really nice. The area around the MTC is a huge amount of buildings on top of one another and a lot of spray paint. I arrived with a total of 3 sisters and about 15 elders. I was happy to get something from both you and dad, and yes I am taking pictures. It is really not as hot as everyone made it out to be, that maybe because it is overcast here but it is actually really nice. Dallas was not so nice, VERY HOT leaving the airport I was burning. I was going to call but we could not get the phone to work. I have been placed in district B. I will write more when I have more to say. I hope you are all doing well.

With love from Mexico

July 16, 2013

I am at the MTC my companion is Elder Hendricks. So far I have met two missionaries that will be serving in my mission, my companion and Sister Stevens. I am doing well and have made it here okay.

Welcome to Slaying Satan, Down South.