I'm a Man Now: Elder Ludlam Forgets to Shave

Dear Family,

How are you all?  I got a huge stack of letters last week.  I didn’t have anything from 2012.  I read about all the stuff you had to do to get that house, mom and dad.  Thank you for all that you do to for my sisters and I.  I love you mucho.

Well, we had an exciting week.  We hardly had anyone in our programs so we hit the streets.  We decided to go for the members and look for references and it turned out really well.  We found some great people.  So far the most promising is Diego.  He is a very interesting person.  His parents are members and he has been going to church on and off since he was about five.  He travels for his work so he’s lived all over the world.  He said he has been going to church in the Hong Kong foreigner’s branch for a while because he found a Mormon girlfriend that took him.  He came back to Ecuador recently and asked a sister in our ward who lives down the street from him to send us to see him.  So far the only problem is his new non-member girlfriend.  She needs to go.

I know I promised pictures today but they are on Elder Coy’s camera memory and we can’t find a computer with that kind of port.  Maybe I will be able to send them later on today.  My favorite picture I have to send you I have entitled I´m a Man Now: Elder Ludlam Forgets to Shave.

Well, I am not sure I much more to say.  I could just bore you with more companion problems.   Oh, did I tell you, I am living with the Elder Carnese.  He was secretary for a while, you know.  Elder Child is the fourth missionary living with us.

Well, I love you so.  Maybe I’ll get to write a little more later on.

Love,

Your Elde

Dear Sophie,

How are you?  I got your letter a few weeks ago.  I decided this that if I write to you this way, it is probably a better since my letter will get to you before spring term ends.  I am guessing you have heard that my family is moving to New Jersey in the next few months.  I guess I won't notice that much since I will be heading back off to school soon after I return.  I am just a little sad because I had all these ideas in my head of all the people I was going to look up in our class to convert as soon as I got home.  Oh well.

I was thinking of how old a missionary I am.  My time soon will come to an end.  I've got to make good use of every moment I've got left.  I am glad to hear that you are still want to leave on a mission.  It really is the best thing I've ever done.  Do you think you'll get to go foreign?  You have to tell me more about your trip to Ghana.

Well, I'm sorry I don't have much time.  I think my emailing we will be able to get mail back and forth more quickly, at least.

Talk to you later, Love Grant

A Day Late and a Camera Short

¡Familia!  Sigo vivo (I’m still alive).

Flooding in Guayaquil

Sorry, this last week has been Carneval and they haven’t let us leave the house due to the general mayhem.  (He didn't write on his usual Monday) It’s actually not really that bad.  They are giving us a little bit of time to write today.  I am sorry to keep you hanging like that.

More news.  I am back in my first ward, Solana.  I got transferred out of Cuenca.  It was close, but my previous record of only staying in a ward 14 weeks still stands.  My new companion’s name is Elder Coy from Guatemala.  He is a very smiley fellow.  

Narcissa and Gisella Villon and family

It is really weird because they have pulled the missionaries out of Solana a couple of times so not much has happened in the aspecto misional (missionary work) since I left.  I got to the new sector and opened up the area book and there were all my converts from a year ago right on top.  It is kind of like things were frozen in time.  I was only there two weeks so everything seems like a foggy memory.  Almost all the members a have said, "You seem familiar, have you been here before?"  I remind them I was with Elder Gonzalez and they say, "Oh, you were that quiet Elder."

Mall del Sur

Well, I want to wish Luci a very happy birthday today.  

Love, Mr. G

About the camera, I have some bad news.  I think someone took it out of my bag on the bus.  I got to the house and I didn’t have it anymore. Please don’t be too angry.  I do have some pretty good pictures to send that I took on my companion’s camera for next week.

Just a quick note

Dear Familia,

How are you?  It looks like you had some fun with the dance party for Ava.  I am back to using my big "tractor" shoes.  I had lent them to Elder Castro to use for a little while.  He likes to call them "mis tanques".  I need to look for a good place to find new shoes.

Well, we are running kind of late today.  The zone leaders wanted to come over to inspect our house and took forever to show up.  I am sorry I don’t have much time.  Elder Castro and I need to come up with some good ideas because we can’t get anyone to come to church.  We have been trying to work with the members. 

Well, I’ve got to go. 

Hope to talk to you soon.

Elder Grant

Staying in Cuenca!

Dear Family,

How is every one?  The new house doesn’t look any smaller or less Xanadu than the last one.

Well, today was transfers and it looks like I’ll be staying in Cuenca.  Everyone is staying here in our house except for Elder Warner.  He’s going to Monay.  We had a trip down to Machala to have a meeting with Presidente Montalti.  I guess the mission got pretty lazy this past month.  We all dropped in numbers.  I am rather proud of myself because this week we did really good working with members.  Elder Castro and I beat our record for number of lessons with a member present in a week for this area and we even were gone two whole days.  

We’ve been trying to help this family who knows the Book of Mormon is true but doesn’t want to pray to God about it.  We got the members excited about the family and they have all been trying to help, but I am afraid the family doesn’t want to progress.  The dad said that he really likes everything we have taught him from the Book of Mormon and even wants to go teach his friends using the Book of Mormon but said that he made the decision long ago to never join another church.  I think he’s talked with and investigated a lot of churches.  He said all the churches lead to Christ.  Apparently prophetic revelation, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and a remission of sins is not all that important to him.  I told him if he wants to walk away with the Book of Mormon but not join the church, its basically the same thing as stealing a bunch of cable channels from his neighbor.  I am not sure how he took it.

One of the big things I took home from the Machala conference is we need to always have a prayer in our heart.  Everything we do should be in a spirit of prayer.  If we do that, it will be a lot easier to stay focused on what is really important and we can know what we need to do.  We are still teaching the girl from Machala that I told you about last week.  There are two sets of senior missionaries here in Cuenca called the LaMarcas. They have been teaching English classes and our investigator has been going there with her friend, Yuliana.  The LaMarcas called and asked if they can come and teach her with us.  They are really good.  They still need me to translate, but they add a level of maturity to the lessons that Elder Castro and I are not quite capable of.

Hopefully, tomorrow I’ll get to learn what you’ve been up to.  How long did it take you to find the house?

Love,

Elder Ludlam

Where is New Jersey anyway?

Hello Family,

About the shoes.  I used the money from the New Year's package to buy some cowboy shoes from my companion but they have thick soles and now the nurses want me to buy some new shoes because they my be hurting my feet a little.  They have stopped calling to bug me about it now, though.  I don't know what I'm going to do.

Well, I guess we'll be moving out of Washington.  I tried showing my companion were I'll be living on a map and I realized I don't actually know where New Jersey is.  It is west of Long Island, right? 

Brian Leon's Baptism next to his mother, Melva

What state is that?

Well, we are approaching the end of another transfer.  I just realized how little time I have left.  I am too scared to even write it.  Got to aprovechar (take advantage of) every last minute.

We found a young lady yesterday from Machala.  She is friends with a girl in our ward, Yuliana.  Yuliana is a super member-missionary and carries her scriptures around with her everywhere she goes in her backpack.  When her friend saw her Book of Mormon, she started asking questions.  They had a nice long talk about the Book of Mormon, and "compared it to the Bible."  We told her about the Restoration and she is pretty excited about it and accepted a baptismal date.  We'll just have to see what her parents say.  They still live in Machala.

Well, my companion is medio gruñón (a little grumpy) right now and is bugging me to leave.  We are waiting for the money to come in from the mission and it looks like it won't get here for another week.  I hope Ava has a wonderful Birthday this week.

Love you all; talk to you soon.

Love Mr. Uve

Be a Little More "Valiente"

Elder, Hermana Lamarca, Pereyda, Liberato, Ludlam, Marquez, Retuerto, Ñacato, Brock, Presidente, Neilson, Jimenez, Silva, Alvarado, Moss, Leonardson, Castro Dear family, How are you all?  Looks like a lot of snow fun.  My companion says he feels sorry for you being frozen. Melva Guanga and Fma Flores We had an interesting week.  We found a sister who has been going to church for a while with her sister but has never gotten baptized.  She is excited about finally being a member of the church. We are teaching a lot of great people, but they have many problems.  The guy I told you about that has had the Book of Mormon for 20 years told us he knows that the Book of Mormon is divinely inspired and that Joseph Smith would have to have been a prophet to write it.  But he is "unsure" that God restored His church through him.  It was a bizarre lesson.  Whenever we tried to get him to think it through, he would say he couldn’t because he was too confused.  I am not sure what we are going to do.   We are teaching another family, too.  The mom and kids all like what we teach a lot, but the dad is more reserved and doesn’t want to accept what we teach right away.  We finally got him to read the Book of Mormon and to understand why the restoration is a big deal, but when we asked him to ask God about it, he said he is willing to pray with us but wants to wait until later to ask God because now he knows this question is a big deal so he needs to be prepared.  I guess this means he already has an idea about what the answer will be.  It was a good lesson.  He is one of those people you don’t have to try too hard to listen because he does most of the talking.  Just kidding.  That’s not how it works. We also found a new family.  They are really good, too.  When we got to know them, they just let us into their house and we shared our message with them.  They all picked it up really well.  They were all going to come to church but disappeared the morning of. Feely I am trying to be a little more “valiente” in the lessons.  In the new PMG (Preach My Gospel), Part 2 Booklet, it talks a lot about inviting people to baptism and the other important commitments in the first lesson so the people know what our purpose really is in teaching them.  I guess it is easier to do that when you live on the coast and anyone will listen to you or when you're teaching old people, but it is a little easier to just try to talk pretty so that people will like what you teach more (especially when you find complete families in Cuenca).   It kind of feels good to know you have a big program with all these people, even if you are not helping them to progress.  But the people need to hear what we need to tell them. Even if they don’t accept, we are doing what we are called to do and the Lord will be pleased.  It was with His help, after all, that we are able to find people like that in the first place.  I guess the same thing goes with doing daily contact with the people. In order for the people to keep their commitments, sometimes we need to remind them every day. Sometimes I am worried they will get irritated, but they need to keep their commitments.  Anyways, this is my batalla contra la cobardía. I guess if they don’t accept, all that work is not really lost even sometimes it feels that way in the moment. Well family, I am hoping to hear from you soon.  Ojalá que haya correo mañana.  (Hopefully there will be mail tomorrow)  Elder Castro quiere otro paquete lleno de caramelos (Elder Castro wants another package full of carmels/ candies).  (Favorites: Reese's Pieces, dark chocolate KitKat)  Do we have the final word on NJ? Love, Nan

­­¡Muchas Gracias a los Evans!

Dear Family,

I got the package you sent with the Evans!  This has been a lot of packages all at once.  I loved the recordings.  Lia is sounding pretty good.  I would have liked to have heard from Ava as well.

Anyways, this past week we have been working in a different part of our area.  It is way out on the edge of town, but it seems like there are a lot of good people out there.  We have been using a new contacting strategy.  We call it using the "Gringation".  It works best at night.  One of the problems we have here is that people don’t like to answer the door.  The just stick their head out the 2nd story window and shout, "What do you want?" When they do that, I mumble really loud so they don’t really know what I am saying.  I figure if people can’t see that well nor hear what is going on, they are a lot more easy to manage.  So far it has worked well in getting people to come downstairs and then we can at least shake their hand and have a nice conversation about the Book of Mormon or something.

We found a new guy named Sergio.  He is really good; the only problem is that he needs to get married -- but his family lives in Guayaquil so he may have to be put on hold for a while.  We had a good lesson about how the Gospel helps us be freed from sin and that we need our whole life time to be completely purified but that we need to always have the desire to do anything the Lord asks and how that all ties in with the sacrament.

Feely
I really enjoyed what you wrote in the package.  It helped a lot.  I need to focus on being a better example for my companion.  This Sunday, we didn’t have a gospel doctrine teacher so my companion did the class. He ran out of stuff to say so he started just sharing all the wisdom Elder Ludlam has shared with me.  I thought it was pretty interesting all the stuff he was listening to.  I guess it sounds corny, but recently I have been trying my hardest to do everything in the handbook and follow the schedule.  I still have stuff I need to work on, but it does bring a lot of satisfaction knowing you are trying to do everything the Lord asks.  

I used to get angry when we’d have to drop an investigator and my companion would say, "Well, we did everything we could."  I used to think, "No. We never really explained our purpose clearly, they didn’t understand what they needed to do.  We should have taught this principle, we should have brought more members over, etc."  But now I guess I can kind of see how it would be-- to being able to feel confident that I had done my job.  I’ll have to try even harder this week.

Well, thank you so much for all the thought that you put into your letters to me.  They really are what I need to hear right when I get them.  You are almost as good as the Book of Mormon.  I learned that I can’t ask to extend.  If president wants me to extend, he’ll let me know.  I hope I won’t miss fall term by a week just so I can stay around the house for a few months.  I kind of like how you all miss me and I think if I stayed around too long all those nice feelings will somehow disappear.

Well, taytas y nanas (that was Quichua). I love you so.  Hope to hear from you soon.  

Love, Brother Gruñón