It's a Pleasure!

Hey everyone!

Well right now it’s raining pretty hard, so I get to write you wet today, fun for me! Its been raining for the past 3 days, its nuts! Saturday was crazy here with the world cup game of Argentina. Most everything was closed down and the places that were open, all the people were standing around the TV not worrying about anything. And every house we went by we could hear the TV on, with the volume way up. The best part is when something went bad for Argentina or they scored, you could hear the people screaming or cheering, they are crazies! Good thing they won though or it would have been worse.

Last Tuesday we had our interviews with president Argyle, it was great. When I had my interview, he asked what he could do for me. I asked him how I could teach without fear and with authority while being direct but showing love for the people like he did. He told me that one reason is because he’s taught thousands of more lessons than I have (with all the callings and such), which I thought was funny. And that it comes with practice, and told me I needed to teach more to be able to be like that. He said that as I teach people doctrine, to who ever it might be, that they will see that I am trying to help them and they will feel the power of the spirit, and then they will see the love I have for them. It was really spiritual and it helped me a lot. He gave me I hug.  Then we looked into each others eyes and I started talking in Spanish, then changed to English and thanked him for what he has done for the mission and for me; for his example and such. And what he said has been on my mind the whole week. He responded very humbly with a grin on his face, "It’s my pleasure". That was so incredible, the spirit was so strong. He’s such an example to me and is so spiritual. What a stud,  huh? And tomorrow we have zone conference which will be the last with him. I'm excited; it’s going to be great. I know it. We are combining 3 zones together so it might be a little different than usual. And then we will have to see what happens when the new president comes in a couple of weeks! Crazy!

This week has been a tough one. Elder Lopez and I have walked so much this week it’s sad. We have gone by so many people and we haven’t gotten into hardly any houses. It’s been a real test for me. It's one of those tough times when I've had to learn how to dig deep and be positive and just keep working hard. We don’t have any new investigators and the ones we already have aren’t really progressing very well. It makes me think of a scripture I've found in Mosiah 23:21.  It says that the Lord tries our patience and our faith. There have been times like this so before in the mission but I don’t think as bad. But with my personal studies and with things that I have already learned in the mission, this time is a crucial time to keep moving forward with faith, diligence, and being happy and positive. Because I KNOW that we will receive blessings soon as we keep working hard. I feel more humble now and not as stressed because I know that as I keep going we will see the fruits of our labor.

I love you all so so much and am so grateful for every one of you. Hope you all have a good happy week, and remember to be positive even in hard times :)

Elder Ludwig

Hey Mom,

That’s sweet that you got to go to Taylor Wessman's homecoming! Sounds like it was a good one. I did get the Hump Day package you sent me and loved it! I've drunk the hot chocolate like everyday so far and I LOVED the photo book!