12.30.13

Sent: Monday, December 30, 2013 3:52:31 AM

Hej! How was everyone's Christmas??

Christmas in Denmark was amazing... I don't even know where to start... They go pretty crazy over Christmas here. It was a way fun week! Christmas was so cool. The traditions here were amazing! Singing around the Christmas tree, running around in all the rooms of the house, trying to be the first to find an almond that is hidden inside a dessert (kinda like the pickle ornament game, you get a present if you find it!) Just way cool. Here is a picture of me lighting the candles on the tree ( yep- they still use candles as lights on their trees!)

The trio is turning out way fun! Its a little on the awkward side when we knock or talk to people on the street, but It's working! We have had a good week, found a ton of people. We had a little Christmas message that we offered to share with people where we sang and played the guitar and it worked really well! Our goal right now is  trying to have a companionship of ´oh wells` instead of 'what ifs'. We have being trying to take advantage of all the opportunities we get and give it our all, so that when we come back at night we never have to say "what if we worked harder" or "what if we had talked to that guy," and it has been very fun to live that way!

All is going really well and I am still loving every second of it here. I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and have some good plans for the New Year! I love you all and miss you!

Don't miss em-

-Conner

12.23.13

GOD JUL EVERYONE!!!! I hope you all have an amazing Christmas!! Know that I love you and miss you all!

12.17.13

He seems to be jumping for joy quite a bit lately! :)  And man he jumps high!   I guess the plural in Danish is -er, so no more aebleskiverS!  It's just aebleskiver.....and I've been trying to get him to try jam on them for years!  Oh well, I guess it took a native to get him to try jam on his Aebleskiver.  Hahaha! Thanks for your love and support!  Only 8 more days until we get to talk to him!!!!  Crysi

Sent: Monday, December 16, 2013 3:58:25 AM
Subject: I made weinerbrød!

Hej!!

I'M STAYING IN SILKEBORG!!! I'm beyond stoked you have no idea. I'll be staying with Æ. Nelson and we will be getting another companion, Æ. Durrant, who is from the same group as Æ. Nelson! So I'll be with two pretty young missionaries and I can't wait! It'll be a blast! It will be interesting to see us all fit into our apartment though... I don't know if I have mentioned it before... but our apartment is quite small. It's brand new and very nice, but a little small. Perfect for two elders, but 3 will be pushing it! But it will be really fun and it will help our area out a ton! There is a rule that missionaries can't go in a house with a woman if there isn't 3 men, so we have been running into trouble with that a lot, especially since our whole branch is single ladies! We haven't been able to go in and help if we didn't have another man. There's only one other man in our branch so it was hard to get him with. So it will be awesome having 3 missionaries because we can go in now! So it is looking to be a good transfer!

So I don't know if I have ever talked about this lady named Bente. She is one of our branch members and is my hero. She's old and just way cute and totally takes care of us. She is a convert and recently (like 1 year ago) became active again in the church, and has the most amazing testimony ever. It's not deep or huge or profound, but just simple and incredibly strong. She knows the gospel's true without a doubt and she isn't afraid to let you know. It's all just so real to her. But anyways, yesterday before church we were getting ready to start and Bente walks out of the Branch Pres's office with the BIGGEST smile on her face, and she is crying as well. She walks up to me and just gives me a hug  :/  haha and says: "I got my temple recommend!!" She hasn't been to the temple yet and has been working so hard to get there and yesterday she got her recommend! Idk why, but it was just so great to see. It meant so much to her to finally get there, and she was so excited for it. It was humbling for me to see how grateful and excited she was. I love her testimony and how real and meaningful everything is to her, and that was a great example to me. We talk a ton about how true happiness only comes through the church, but I know that at least with me it can still be a little hard to remember it at times. But Bente really showed how true that is! She knows the importance of the temple, knows how great it is and that's why she was so excited! Her testimony is such an example for me. It really is so cool. It was a little experience, but something that I thought was way cool.

So I made those sugar cookies you sent me for our branch Christmas party... they loved them!!! So good!! Apparently sugar cookies don't exist in Denmark. So they loved them and ate the whole thing haha! I'll send pics. and we had æbleskiver! They are so good! You eat them with jam. Holy cow they were amazing. I baked weinerbrød too this week!!!! I'm going to have some good stuff to cook for ya'll when I come back.

Hope all is going great with everyone and that you are all loving Christmas!! Christmas is the best!! Have an amazing week and continue with a great Christmas season! I love you all and miss you!

-Conner

æbleskiver plus the sugar cookies I made for the branch activity:)

More pics from December

12.9.13

Hej!  

So it was a good week. We knocked [doors] a flipping  ton. Which I kinda like. not going to lie. I think it's just cuz I love speaking danish and knocking puts it to use pretty good! Just trying to get Nelson as excited about it haha :) But it's going good, he's almost done with training and I think he's starting to get the hang of it now! 

Its gonna get cold here, holy cow! But it'll be fun. It looks so pretty when it's all frosted over and it's getting dark too. Sun goes down at 3 now. I guess we are almost to the worse, dark wise at least! Dang!  [Snowmobling] looks sick!! Way jealous! I just tried to ride my bike like a snowmobile on Friday to make up for missing the ride!  haha. Sounds like you got a good tree too!  

So I bore my testimony yesterday too!! and taught the lesson after... and blessed the sacrament... and prayed.... haha.   I love our branch. It's a crazy experience. There is only one other priesthood holder other than us missionaries so we get a lot of practice :) But yes I would love to share a bit of my testimony! Being a missionary is the best. Some nights I think back and realize I went a whole day just telling people about God and church and stopping people on the street and telling them about Christ, and its funny to think about. And it's fun! Your testimony takes on a whole new meaning, because its what you're using and doing all day long. I'm lucky that we have such a great family that helped me get one before I came out, so that now I just grown it and have things happen that just strengthen it even more. I know that it is all true, and I love being a missionary because I get to see it all work! One thing especially is how much Heavenly Father loves us. I know he does!! I know that prayer is a crazy powerful thing and that he listens to every little piece of our prayers. That's one thing I wish I had known before. He really does care about us, and I love that we can pray to him and just talk and not only pray for things but ask about specifics, help, questions, and blessings. We are lucky to know about this, and its one thing that I love telling people, that we have a Heavenly Father that loves us and cares about everything in our lives, even our friends and our school and work and all the way down to how we are feeling. I love being able to just focus on Him and not worrying about everything else. I know He's there. I know he hears us and cares about us. I know that all the stuff that He gives us like the scriptures and prophets and especially families :) are to make us happy, because He really is interested in that!  I hope you know that too :) cuz He really does and I know it! So with ACT, lacrosse, school, friends,  Don't be afraid  to just talk to with Heavenly Father, because he cares and will help you out! That's just one little thing that I have really learned is true since being here.

So we had this zone training about prayer. At the end our president challenged us to go and pray for something super specific, and then for the last hour of training we were going to go out and fulfill it! He promised us that if we went out in faith and gave it our all that it would happen. So Æ. VDB talked about what we would pray for, and we both prayed that in that hour we would be able to find someone that we could teach a full lesson to and that would give a commitment. So we said a prayer and asked specifically for that and then went out and we super pumped to see what happened. We were in åarhus and VDB had served there before when an area popped into his head, so we went there. We had a great contact with this lady, but she said Nej Tak (No Thanks) when we offered the church. We were kinda bummed cuz we thought that was going to be it. But we went on. About 3 contacts later we ran into this lady with a stroller and introduced our selves and who we were and she was like Oh hey cool! I have been looking for a church! where is yours?. haha we were a little surprised. so we pointed he towards the church, and then were able to sit down for a little bit and talk about the Book of Mormon and what makes our church different and she was really excited and gave us her contact info. So our prayer was answered! Just like promised. We went back to the training and found out that all the other missionaries had done it and had similar experiences. It was way cool! Really built my testimony on prayer and how much power faith really can have. The Lord really can do anything, and we know he can, so we just have to do our part and work towards it, and if we have faith he will help us out!

Another:  So we went to go out to this town to contact a referral. It was pretty far away so we had to take buses, where we had to switch buses in this little town called Sejs. We got to Sejs, got of the bus, walked to the other bus stop, and waited for the bus. we were about 5 minutes early, perfect timing. We waited for the bus. And waited. And waited. And waited and waited. For about 40 minutes after it was supposed to come--contacting people that walked by but just standing there waiting for it. We were really confused and didn't know why it wasn't coming. Right when we started talking about going back a car pulled up and a lady rolled down the window and said Hey! Are you Mormons?"  We said "Yeah!" and she told us where she lived and to come over for a cup of hot chocolate! So we went over and were able to teach a lesson and tell her about the church! But how crazy is that? I have no idea why the bus never came. but I'm sure glad that it didn't, because otherwise we wouldn't have found her! The Lord sure works in mysterious ways sometimes, that is for sure. Really Cool though.

GOD JUKE

-Conner

12.09.13

Language translation - sick=cool, "rad" or "stoked" in 80's lingo, amazing, wonderful, dope (not ok mission language), or awesome. :)  Just thought I would pass it along.

His language (English speaking) is starting to get a little crazy too.  We've noticed it a little here and there, which is a good thing. 

Notice - he would love to get some Christmas cards!  Thanks for your love and support!  Love you all!  Crysi

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From: "Conner Ludlow" <conner.ludlow@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, December 9, 2013 3:21:08 AM

Hej!!

So this week was sick. well, this whole month has been sick. Being a missionary is just sick haha. I think that I am having a little bit too much fun with it... anyways. Sorry for the lack of e-mails these last couple of weeks! Not a ton happened. Not in a bad way though. Just like everything was a blur! But I'll try and give some updates.

So Christmas is in full swing here! It is absolutely insane. People here go all out with Christmas and it is so fun. And the best part is that they are a little more open to talking about Christ. Which is great because we knocked and contacted A TON. And it was way fun! I have loved contacting on my mission so far, which is weird because I thought that would be something that I would struggle with, but It has been way fun! That has definitely been a tender mercy from the Lord!  I get really pumped when I speak Danish :) that helps too. We are going caroling all day on Wednesday for our district activity and it will be way fun! Really, Christmas here is the sweet!

Crazy thing of the week: We got hit by a hurricane!! I think Danish hurricanes are a little less than real hurricanes. But it got a name, Hurricane Bodin! So I guess that counts for something! It was nuts. It may not have been a real hurricane like the ones in Florida, but it was still crazy. And it hit right in the middle of our Mission Christmas Conference. We were in the middle of it and the President stands up and tells us the situation, that there is a big storm coming, and that all the trains have been cancelled except for one, which leaves in thirty minutes ( the trains to Silkeborg were already cancelled, so we were out of luck). So things just went crazy. We had to hurry and grab all of our stuff and cram into all the cars to go to the station. It was nuts. We got crammed in the back of the assistants van and they drove us down to Horsens on their way back to Copenhagen, so we stayed the night in Horsens. We couldn't go out because of the storm, and its a good thing we didn't! The wind like exploded this old apartment next to where we were. and broke all the Christmas trees. Anything that could be broken by wind. It really was some crazy wind! I'll send pics. So Thursday we had to spend the whole day inside.

We had a way good week teaching-wise too! We had a nice little lesson with some Jehovah's Witnesses that was a little interesting, and then we were able to get a hold of a ton of the people that we had contacted from the last little bit and have lessons with them, and they seem really solid! That was really good to see for our area, really exciting. We are starting to get some investigators that are progressing really well and are really excited! It's so great for me to see, because I remember what it was like when we opened it up and we were just knocking all day every day, haha. Never give up on anything! It's been a great motivator for me to see the progress that has been made and I love it. So hopefully I get to stay here one more transfer. We find out transfers this week so fingers crossed. If I'm in Silkeborg for Christmas.... Holy cow I will be so happy!

Well, hope all is going good with everyone! It sounds like you are all having a great Christmas season! Don't forget to send me your Christmas cards ;) really though... that would be awesome! I love you all and miss you tons! God Jule!

-Conner

I took 180 pictures this week... its gonna be hard to choose.

Storm damage

Crammed in the assistants van

I'm gonna have to send another email of pictures... Denmark is way too cool. this house was older than the U.S....