The week was just a dandy week.
Of course the conference with Elder Arnold was amazing. Everyone was making it seem like he was way strict and such but it turns out he’s just a happy old feller. He was really laid back and straightforward but not real strict. He has a really tender testimony and gets a little emotional. He had tears in his eyes a couple times, touching, no? He gave some really, really powerful testimonies of President Thomas S. Monson. I felt the spirit so strongly! During the closing prayer, I had the impression of a celestial spirit. Sounds weird, but that’s what I thought because it was just a real strong meeting with a lot of powerful moments and I don’t really know how to explain it. It was just so... happy, I guess. It was cool. The conference wasn’t with the whole mission, though, so I didn’t get to see everyone I knew, but I did see a few. But we couldn’t really talk to one another, not even during lunch because Elder Arnold just wanted us to be reverent, which was different, but I won’t complain because it was worth it.
My comp and I had another interesting experience, though. After the conference we all made a line going out to the door so we could say good-bye to Elder and Sister Arnold. We were near end of the line. When I got up to him, he gave me a hug and asked how I was and then that was it. Just normal. But then my companion, who was right behind me, got up to him, he just put his hands around his neck/shoulders and asked how he was. It was a little different. Then he asked him who his comp was. So I was like, uggh, I am. He told us to stand to the side and wait because he was going to talk to us after wards. So we waited a couple of minutes until he finished and then he took us into a room and talked to us both. He told us he felt like he needed to tell us that God loves us and that sometimes we have a lot of emotions built up inside and that’s not good. Then he said the mission isn’t supposed to be hard. He said, just work hard, have fun and go to sleep. I was like, “That’s what I was thinking!” Ha-ha. It was pretty cool. Then he said he wanted to talk to my comp alone and then he wanted to talk to me. So I waited outside the room for my turn while he talked to my comp. The door finally opened and my heart was jumping out of my chest, “What was he going to say to me?!” Then he came out and smiled and said, “Take care of him”, (referring to my comp) and then said we could leave. So I thought, “O.K. That’s cool, see ya later”. Then later I realized he told me he was going to talk to me and he didn’t. So Elder Gardner and I came to the conclusion that a member of the seventy lied to me, ha-ha! Anyways, we weren’t really sure why he pulled us aside to talk to us and my comp said when he talked to him alone he pretty much said the same thing as he did with the both of us. Usually when my comp is tired and stuff he looks lifeless, so I was thinking that’s why he did it because my comp was way tired that day. But we will never know the real reason. Wonderful experience, huh? He never came out to the apartment to check it, either, so who knows. But it was a really good experience and very spiritual. Elder Arnold is amazing and is called of God, I know that much.
As far as the rest of the week, yesterday was Mothers Day here, so happy Mothers Day, Argentine style! We had another miracle happen to us this week, though. On Wednesday we were looking for an address that was given to us. We went down a path in the villa that we had never gone down before. Well the address didn’t exist but we kept going, and out of nowhere this guy said, “ELDERS!” I turned around wondering if he knew us. And he said, “There’s a Mormon in my house right now.” So we were like, that’s cool, who is it? We looked in and it was a member of our ward and the mom of this guy calling out to us. Long story short, they had talked to the Elders lots of times in the past and had almost gotten baptized. We asked him a couple of questions and read a scripture. Then he asked me how many lessons I was going to teach him before he could get baptized. His mom and wife were saying different numbers, and even my comp said 10! I just started talking with him and said, “Whenever you’re ready to get baptized, I'm not going to force you to be baptized because you’re going to know that you need to for yourself”. He answered back and said, “All right. We are going to take a turn out to get married and we will get baptized!” My comp and I were kind of shocked; we thought maybe he was kidding. But they are supposed to start the papers today so they can get married and then get baptized in November. They also went to an activity at the church we had on Friday for Mothers Day! So we guess he wasn’t joking. We have an appointment with them today. Hopefully they were able to start everything, we will see! We are trying to work more with the members and finding part member families so we can get people that will actually progress, so that was a good. We still haven’t been able to talk to Mica’s dad anymore. But she’s doing really well and going to church so hopefully she will be able to get baptized soon. Other than that, not too much is happening with our investigators.
Today we are going to play basketball with a member. So that could be fun and I’ll be able to see how bad I've gotten at basketball! Well that’s all I can think of for now. I miss and love you all so much. Hope you all have an amazing week.
Con amor,
Elder Ludwig
 |
| Mervyn B. Arnold of the Seventy |
 |
| photos from the Kroff's blog |
