December 22, 2014

I will be on skype at around 1 or 2 ish on Christmas day depending how our lesson goes that day. #missionaryprobs 

I am sorry that I did not get to send y'all a good letter last week I was trying to make up with as much as I could with sending pictures. 

So I am feeling better... I would not say I am 100% but it is a slow increase. I did talk to the mission nurse about it at the meeting this week. She said bronchitis has been going around that the missionaries from the MTC brought it she said if it continues she will send me an antibiotic but now I don't think I will need it. I tried the Elder Jardine method. He told me some stuff to try and it worked pretty well. 

Russellville is doing well. We have had a pretty wet last few days. But the cold really has not been too bad. We got our investigators to church and I had to remember how difficult it is to deal with investigating youth coming to our branch... not as in the fact that they are young but the fact that our youth classes are split and they go with the English ward... and I can't be in 2 places at once, So it is hard to be with our investigators son and our investigator at the same time. 

Institute is going well. I don't know if I mentioned this but I will now. I am teaching institute for some of the members of the branch.... it is strange and I feel very unqualified to teach it especially in Spanish. We are teaching D&C which is sweet but hard and it makes a lot of study for the weekend when we are teaching the temple prep class #branchprobs.

6 months to sexy has begun. The church just sent out a rule that we cannot go to Gyms so we have been working out in our apartment which thanks to Elder Meyers has a weight bench in it. The English Elders come over every morning now with the "Walker plan" (less active pro power lifter they know named Stephanie) to work out.

Thank you for the package I was able to get it at the mission office. Elder Dyorich is a little sad one of his packages from home got there on Friday so he will not get it until January.

Love y'all and talk to you on Christmas

Kevin

December 8,2014

I am serving with Elder Dyorich who is an older missionary like me. He came out one transfer before me.

Still sick this is going on my 3rd week fighting this dang cold. And we are going on bikes so it will be anything but a rest. The work moves on. We will be having the Christmas party for the branch this week that is with the English ward and then we are planning one for the 24th that will be a more traditional Hispanic party. But I have been told that the 17th could be the day we finally get the ipads they have told us about for over a year and a half. 

I am well and hope it is like-wise.

December 1, 2014

 I have been sick this week with a cold. But I am starting to come out of it now. Yesterday in church I was so clogged up that I could not talk but I am much better now. 

So the call came today. Elder Salazar and Schoenfeld will be leaving me here in Russelville. I have no idea who will be replacing them. So I will be spending Christmas and New Year here in Russellville. 

Took a trip out to Danville and saw some of the new converts. Amy Chavez and Katie, Mom I feel like you would really like Amy Chavez she reminds me a lot of you. 

 Story of the week is about B, the guy that we baptized last week. We wanted to go see him and so we stopped at his apartment and saw a bunch of people there. We were not sure if we wanted to interrupt his party.  We chose just to go a just say a quick hello so he knew we were thinking of him. He saw us and clears us a spot and asks "how can I explain the book of Mormon simply so I can share it with other people." it was one of those moments where you feel so good to be a missionary. Then he taught all of his friends about the book of Mormon and we gave out all the copies that we had on us at the time. We are going to give him a Preach my gospel and a triple. Elder Schoenfeld and I are wanting to buy him a nice one. 

All is well here. I had a Mexican style thanksgiving...Salsa goes with everything. 

Les quiero

Elder Ludwig

Danville Baptisim

Kev's 2 companions

Russellville baptism

Woooo Pig Soooie

November 17, 2014

Ok, so this week was pretty good. It is our last one in a car, and half of the time we were on the phone with the mission office trying to get car stuff all set up because we have to take the truck into the body shop because someone side swiped it last week when the English elders had it.

Tanya one of the people I was teaching in Danville that we almost got baptized but did not get to because of some stuff that happened, but she got baptized this Friday. The Sisters Thompson and Androsko called me and told me that she still wanted me to baptize her and so because Danville is in my area i got to go out and baptize Tanya. The water was green and cold but it was a good experience and it was sweet to see some of the people from there.

Sickness is sweeping the mission right now. Elder Salazar just got sick last night him and I stayed in when elder Schoenfeld was out with President Hernandez from the branch. I am starting to get over whatever I was starting to get but I fear that Schoenfeld will go down next. 

Love y’all 

November 3, 2014

I only have 4 transfers after this one time is going fast. Russellville is about 25000 people and is mostly flat. It is like a small version of Jonesboro (My favorite area so far). The branch here is not really big it is about 30ish people that are active. It also has a lot of potential for grow. There are a lot of Hispanics here. I don't enjoy the trio but I know why I am here now. The area has had a lot of problems in the past and I feel like I am coming in to put them back on track. Pray for me, Danville was hard but I feel that I have a lot more work ahead of me and I feel like Danville was just the proving ground. 

October 26, 2014

My address is

1301 S. Jonesboro #601

Russellville, Ar 72801

The apartment is nice.... it would be nicer if it was not 3 people living in it... I hate the 3some.... Both the Elders are cool, I like them. It’s just hard when you are teaching. It’s very difficult to split up the lessons. Both Elder Salazar is from Mexico City so his native language is Spanish and I can speak Spanish pretty well Elder Schoenfeld is still learning and he is a little timid in speaking so it is hard for the two of us not to just take over the lessons. I am sure we will be able to work it out. I just want Elder Schoenfeld to have an opportunity to always participate in the lessons, he is a great Elder. I remember being in his place and wanting to participate more and not always having the opportunity. We are doing well here. Talk to you next week.

October 20,2014

So I will stay in Danville for another transfer. The lack of a call was a little hard on Elder Butler I think he wants to get going and see more of what the mission is like. It does not help that he has been here for his whole mission so far. This Sunday we had a member from the High Counsel come to speak and he did a very good job. He got lost on his way here and ended up about 25 miles past us and came in right before he had to speak but after the meeting he came and talked to me and Elder Butler and was trying to help us with our situation here in the branch. 

I would send pictures today but I don't have the stuff with me to hook up my camera to the computer. We hiked Petite Jean this week for p-day. It is a State park close to where we live. The fall here is one of the most beautiful times of year. It’s much nicer then the icy winters and sweltering humid summers. I will send some of the pictures next week. 

So in the month of November we are getting our P-day cut in half so it will only go until two. Our mission pres. wants us to focus on the goal of 100 baptisms in November so he asked us to shorten our p-days to do so. 

October 13, 2014

So I have no Idea if I we are getting moved or not the date is the 22nd that we will find out so not until next Monday. We talked to the branch pres. yesterday and told him they might take the Spanish Elders out of Danville. We are both worried about the branch because they are very reliant on the missionaries. Maybe taking the Spanish missionaries out will shake the branch enough to help them see the need to work and pres. Marcellus is in accord with us. We said that if we are leaving we will go and focus our efforts on the members and helping the sisters get new and solid people to teach. We want to keep the branch from closing but sometimes we need to hit rock bottom before we can start building. 

Also would you be able to send me a copy of a talk I think it is on cd. It is the dead sea scrolls I think it is by Truman G Madson but I cannot remember. 

Love yall and you will have to tell Klarissa “Hi” for me. Get a cardboard cutout of Obama and put my face on it so I can welcome her at the airport.

October 6, 2014

You asked about Bednar’s talk we actually got an investigator there about 10 minutes before the talk started. We have been working with D from the time I got here and he has had missionaries coming for about the past year but has only come to church once so it was a positive for us. 

We are doing pretty well, it is going to be hard we are losing our car this week and we don't have a way to get to Conway this week for zone meeting there. Lack of transportation makes this missionary and his companion’s life difficult. Our senior couple the Hansen’s are leaving to go back home to St George this week. Thus because of that we got told by President Wakolo that if they don't get another senior couple they are going to take out one of the sets of missionaries, so both me and Elder Butler could be getting moved. We are thinking that they will take the Spanish Elders and not English Elders out. 

We will hopefully be baptizing this week but we will see how it goes. Her name is T she is from the Sisters. But we are hoping to get everything closed up this week. 

Love y’all 

September 29, 2014

Sundays are one of the most stressful days for us because we are always running around trying to get investigators to come to church. With General Conference coming up times that by 4 (sessions) and you have conference weekend. It tends to be really crazy for us. We have been running dry on people to teach here. A lot of our old investigators are getting a little shady so we are going to try finding more people to teach this week. That and also we are going to try to find a family that we can get to the temple. We want to start working with some prospective Elders. We need men who hold the priesthood to have a ward, so priesthood we will find. Just like Pres. Monson when he was in Canada or Joe Smith trying to build the Kirkland temple. We know what we want so now we are going to go find it. 

September 22, 2014

No letter today....but lots of pictures!!

September 15, 2014

The work goes on. We have been walking this week and the rain came in and has dropped the temperature a lot so it was not as bad as it has been. This week was the county fair and so we ran a booth there and met some really cool people. One lady we met lives 25ish miles away but came down and when she saw us came up to us and told us how she has nephews that are on missions in Mexico and wanted to learn more. We also ran into a guy from Puerto Rico whose wife and kids are baptized but he moved before he had the chance to take the lessons because he needed work and he wants to come to church.

Stake conference was this week. It was a 2 hour drive (one way) to get to stake conference. I realize now how blessed we are in Utah to have church so close. It was a lot of work to get someone who is investigating the church or even the members to want to go to conference when it is so far away. We did get some people down to North Little Rock so that was good. We are going fishing today for sister T's birthday. Some members are taking us. We will be traveling to city called Havana to fish.  It should be really fun.

Love y’all

September 8, 2014

This is the last week of the transfer my companion and I will be staying together for the second time in my mission. Good thing it is with a companion I like. Really for the most part I have been okay with all my companions. Danville is a hard area out of the 1000 people we can talk to I would say about 980 have been contacted. All 1000 of the area know who we are and we haven’t been able to find any one yet that interested. We really need to get into some of the border towns but that takes a little driving and we don’t have a car. We are starting to work Belleville and Ola too so hopefully we will have some good things happen there. Brown Recluse spiders are in our apartment that is exciting! I saw one crawling on the floor the other day. I realized I had no shoes on; I can’t be going barefoot in the apartment with no shoes on. Thank goodness we haven’t been bit yet or hopefully ever. All is well here pray good things happen in this area.

September 1, 2014

This week was car week...but when we received the car there weren't enough miles left on it to drive, so we ended up having another walk week. The weather has been hot and makes the walking really a  sweaty experience.

Our most promising investigator dropped us which of course makes us really sad.

We are doing well and loving the work, even when it is a hard week.

Pray that we have a better week next week.

Elder Ludwig

August 25, 2014

Ivonne did not show up to Church yesterday it was a sad day. The heat index was 110 which was not fun. It is going to get hotter this week but I think by the end of the week it will start to cool off. August is always the hottest month here.

Yes the Hansen’s are the missionary couple that has been assigned here and they are the best. The Branch really needs them but they will leave in October.  We are losing 2 other senior couples this will really hurt the work here. Pray we get more senior couples.

The branch is starting to trust us more we are really putting our focus on member trust. The branch Pres. is one of the best he really goes out of his way to help us. He is going to get a spot for us at the county fair so we can run a booth at the fair. The whole county will be there... and our branch covers the whole county. The Sisters and us will be making a booth and running it.  We hope we will be able to contact a lot of people we wouldn’t be able to on bikes. We are working hard and hoping that it will start to pay off soon.

August 18, 2014

So I am doing good.... very hot week. We walked most of the week and had a lot of unexpected... complications. Evonne one of our investigators who was going to get baptized this Saturday was not able to come to church because one of the people she cares for died... that morning and she got out of the hospital 10 minutes before church ended. But we are going to see if we can baptize her on Sunday now.

We have been walking all week this week in the nice hot sun. But as they say the weekend comes. We had a baptism in the branch my companion got to baptize in a natural spring called Kirkwood in Havana which was something that I have never seen done before so it was cool. Not to mention the lady that got baptized was a super nice person and helps the sisters all the time.

We are starting to teach a lady that is 82 and her husband who is almost 90 and is a world war 2 vet (he helped in the pacific, The picture that the marines are raising the flag.) We got her to come to church and we are going to be teaching them with the senior couple that is working here the Hansens. They help us out a ton. I am not sure what we would do without them.

Elder Butler and I get along great. We are very different but I feel that we do well together. Hopefully I am teaching him how to be a good missionary. I told him the other day that if there was one thing that I could teach him it was that he needs to enjoy his mission it is not meant to be 2 years of misery.

For the most part life is pretty normal here the work of the lord goes on in his southern vineyard. Love ya’ll

Aug. 11, 2014

Thank y’all so much for the mail. Mom I am guessing you told people to write me because I actually got some emails from my sisters this week which was nice. I am doing well. The work here is hard. There may be a lot of Hispanics but there is not really any new water for us to go and find unless we drive for 30 minutes to go to one of the other cities. Our area is the whole county. So that makes it kind of hard. But we are working with it and trying to really kick start home teaching in the branch here. (Ask dad) The apartment is improving we are working really hard to improve what we have and make it a nicer living space. From when I came it has changed a lot I put in an order with my good Friend Elder Bowling he is one of the senior Elders in the office and he got us some more stuff. I am doing well and want to thank you so much for the letters, pictures and package. Sorry I don't have much time but I will write back in letter form. Love ya.

Aug, 4, 2014

Yes so I am in Danville, Arkansas the smallest city in the mission. Population 2,300. We are up next to the boarder of the mission near the Ozarks. Just south West of Russellville (That is where they have a nuclear reactor). The area is really big it takes up the whole county for just a small branch of about 40ish active people. Mostly Hispanic live in the area here because of the Tyson chicken plant which is close by and employs so many. Our apartment is something like nothing else. We now pay for laundry and don't have a dish washer but we do have a heater in the bathroom which is cool. Elder Butler is My companion. He was born in Texas but moved to Mexico when he was really young and lived there for 6 years. Then moved to Utah and did most of his growing up in the Salem area. He is 20 and was at BYU before he left for his mission. (Elder Butler had his spine fused after high school. He had to wait for that to heal up before he was allowed out on his mission) He has been in the mission for one transfer. Elder Henderson My MTC companion was the one that trained him. He is a good Guy and I feel he will do well on his mission and we will get along great.

That is the big update on what is going on here. I am doing well still getting use to not having a Walmart but we do have a Sonic! We are pretty progressive here in our small community.

 Love y’all

 

July 28, 2014

I am being transferred this week. I don’t have a clue where I’ll end up.

 The mesh... 100 times better it actually breaths. 

The news from Jonesboro this week. I killed some chickens this week, ​it was crazy de-feathered them and gutted them too. We may be getting to eat them this Tuesday. 

Before

After

I will send some pictures for y’all. 2 more Spanish Elders are coming out, we need them. Elder Meyers (my last companion) is getting to train one of them. He has wanted to train for so long. I am thinking that I will be going out to Russellville. Ana reset her date for the 11th of September. I am going to see if I can come back to Jonesboro to see her get baptized; I love that girl and that family we are going to be eating with them tonight. Hot week on bikes it was 97 one day and we started sweating before we had even left the complex, Yep, it was bad hot that day. We did not get a ton of lessons but we did a lot of good work and the member that was thinking of leaving the church is no longer thinking to do so. I am praying for y’all and love y’all.

July 21, 2014

     So this week... It was a hard one. We still did really good 20 lessons which is the mission goal but it was one of the weeks that a lot of stuff just went wrong.

    You can tell Pear that I am teaching Princess Ana (Ana and her family played the last 15 minutes of frozen when we were there. Ana’s nephew calls her princess Ana.

     We go on bikes next week, and going on bikes next week does not sound fun.

Elder Ramirez had the bed bugs. My stuff looked all clean, hoping it stays that way.

     For the first time I got a media referral it is a lady ready to be baptized... we have not ever got to meet her but we are starting to teach her cousin and cousin’s spouse that live with her. We are hoping that soon we will get the chance to start teaching her and her son but we will see. 

Doing good, hope y’all are well.

 Happy birthday Dad, Ken, and Pear!

July 14, 2014

So my one year report.... It was good. I can actually speak Spanish now which is good… My goals for this next year.... I don’t want to be in leadership.... at all. I would like to stay just as a normal missionary. Which Elder Child's once told me was a sign of a good missionary.  Well I guess my goals are pretty much the same as they were this past year. To bring souls to God! This past year has gone pretty fast. I’m thinking this next year will go even faster.

  IT is just so so so hot. The 200 days are coming... we had a day this last week that hit 100 and 80% hum. Not fun when you can feel yourself start to sweat just walking to your car. Not many storms, but there is a system that is coming in. this week should get pretty cool… we are at least hoping for some cooler weather.

July 7, 2014

 Out here we face a lot of anti and people just randomly pulling crap on us. Like how Joe smith blew up trains in Arkansas.... when he never came to Arkansas... The only way to fight anti is with testimony and if they are not getting testimony then they will only get worse. God's children never leave without a fight. Be a savior on mount Zion. How great is the worth of soul’s mom? 

Good job dad for working hard serve god and gain Amistad.

So this week has been one of the most exhausting but yet successful weeks of my mission. Walk week.... So so, so hot... we sweated out all of our clothing just dripping.. Not very appealing but we got 32 lessons. The standard the people want to hit in the mission is 20. Not to mention we are teaching some part member families and so 7 lessons with a member. It was one of the times when you get home Sunday night and just think Thanks Heavenly Father, we just saw so many opportunities that we could have never had without you. Ana Ozorio has solidified the goal of the 24th... yes pioneer day we are going for a baptism of one of my favorite people. We were over there yesterday with one of her good friends who is a member and we did lesson 5 which is about temples and has just been moved to a lesson we need to teach before baptism. This lessons went so well that I feel like could have been one “the district” videos and was full on lead by the spirit. 

I get along really well with elder Jardine. I am actually really enjoying my time here in Jonesboro. We are now trying to get some Spanish sisters here to help us out. 

Your logistics question we got the slips to pick up the packages Saturday so we are going today before we have a picnic with some people in the ward with Ana and Christian her nephew. 

Love y'all

June 30, 2014

Book of Mormon Musical...

So Sunday night the Jonesboro crew. (Me,Jardine,Jardine,Thomson,Gollar,Asay) took to the streets of Memphis. Beale street to be exact and we passed out invitations to a book of Mormon open house and new pass along cards that are right now only in our mission. They are beta testing them for the play. It was fun; I got to see some of my friends that live on this side. It was fun we did not get back until around midnight.

 That made for a real early morning since we had to get up for soccer. We have starting to do soccer in the morning here on Monday’s. We get members and investigators there to play and have a ton of fun. It’s just really hot. 

I know where Cordova is. It is right next to Bartlett. You should send them up to Jonesboro sometime or tell them when I am down in Memphis it is a much nicer area then down town Memphis. I don't really know how the wards are down there bout I am sure they are good ones. 

President Wakolo, Yes he is big and yes he has an accent. He is an amazing guy. I did not really get to meet him officially I was able to hear him speak when we did a devotional for the Book of Mormon musical. He just starts speaking and you feel how much love is in the guy. The best I would put it is a Tongan elder Scott. I am really excited to get to know him and his family. They seem amazing. 

Love y’all 

Elder Ludwig

June 23, 2014

Week one of the transfer...

I am now the one who does most of the teaching. Elder Jardine and I are doing really good. We basically have served together before so it is pretty normal. We have a few English families but for the most part we are teaching all Spanish. Elder Jardine is improving a lot on his Spanish. It is really hard at the start moving to religious Spanish and learning to understand what people are saying to you. 

So we got another storm this week.... 

A tree fell on our car. The windshield is broken but we are both ok. They are coming on Wednesday to replace it. It was an experience.

So there is a family that we are working with named the Orzorio’s supper cool family basically members and they always have us over for their parties (that is where I got to eat the freshly killed lamb). And we got their daughter Anna to come to church and she is going to come next week. We are working on getting her to do the translation work at church which I think would be sweet to have someone to help translate... it is exhausting work drains your head.... 

It was Elder Meyers birthday right before he left and the Orzorio’s made us a cake and we gave him a morditia sent him off to Memphis with frosting. 

Love y’all