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