3.31.14

Hej!!

How was everyone's week? This week here in Denmark was beautiful. Perfect temperature and sunny almost all the time. The clock sprung forward yesterday so now the sun is going down at 9! And it's only going to keep going down later. It's way fun I like it. Affects the work  a lot surprisingly. Lots more people are out and about those last few hours of our work day so we can get finding in all the way up until the end of the day! Not too bad of a deal. But yeah, It has been beautiful here.

It was a great week!! We didn't have as many adventures, but it was still really fun and work wise it went great. Things are still going good with familien Hansen. the last lesson was a little crazy cuz they had done some reading (luckily on on wikipedia) and found out about the commandments we have and tithing and all that stuff. But it actually worked in our favor. We were able to go over them really quick and now they know they are there and we were able to talk about what to expect in the coming lessons, no worries! So it turned out good. they weren't able to make it to church because they had their grandma's B-day party, but they want to come to conference this weekend so that is great! But, we didn't get skunked at church. We still had 2 investigators come! It was great! On Saturday we got a text from one of our investigators, who we had only taught once, Manpreet, cancelling an appointment. Which we were bummed about until we kept reading and she said 'but I'll see you in church tomorrow and we can make a new one!' haha I'll take the trade :) So she came and stayed the whole time and enjoyed it all! The work is going really good in our area so I definitely can't complain.

Hope everyone is having just as good of a time as I am and looking forward to General Conference! Eat some good and plenties and cinnamon rolls for me. I love you all and miss you all! have a great week!!

-Conner

The popcorns a' poppin :)

3.24.14

Hej!

How is everyone doing?? Is it spring yet in Utah? It has been getting pretty warm here. The sun already comes up before 6 and is going down around 8, so the days are getting longer! Crazy because it doesn't seem too long ago that the sun would only be up for like 3 hours a day. The whole sunlight thing is just crazy here! Soon it will be only 6 hours of darkness. Nuts.

We ran into a Utahn!!!

Talk about the biggest double take of my life holy cow!! We got on the bus and saw this kid wearing a Utah sweater and just flipped (on splits with Æ. Enniss). He is a foreign exchange student here in Denmark! Lives in West Jordan. Crazy stuff, eh? He wasn't a member but was stoked to talk with us. It was super fun! We exchanged contact info and are going to try and go get lunch one day and hopefully get to talk with him. So that was just great!

Funny story for the week: It was just a normal night of knocking, spreading the word. We had just knocked on a door and introduced who we were. I looked over to the side down the stairwell and saw the police coming up the stairs. So I just kinda thought "Well, this must be a sketchy stairwell or something. Wonder what is going on!"  But then they stopped at us... and pulled out notebooks and asked for some ID... Haha we were like what the heck?! But went along with it. Just showed them our visas and all that stuff and answered their questions. They asked what we were doing so we explained that we were missionaries and were just out talking to people. After they saw that we weren't really doing anything they stopped with the questions and explained that they had thought that we were thieves going around trying to get in apartments. Haha So they tracked us down so they could check us out! But we weren't so they let us be and walked back down the stairs. But, this is the best part: We turned around, expecting the door that we just knocked to be long shut by now, But it wasn't! They guy was still there. So we just picked it up where we left off haha! Said a quick sorry for the confusion and laughed a bit, and the guy turned out to be super open! We ended up talking for a while and he took a book and made an appointment with us so we could come over and explain the book a little more! Hahah Not too bad. I'll take it! Definitely one of my crazier contacts that I've had on my mission, but super stoked that it turned out the way it did!

Familien Hansen came to church again! This time it was just the kids! The parents both had to work but the kids (18 and 28) came! They had a great time and the talks and lessons in church were just money for what they needed. Stayed all 3 hours. And they told us next week they will be coming back! With the whole family!! We are beyond stoked. It is going to be great! They will be bringing all their little kids and taking them to primary and the whole shabang. So things are going great with them. They are reading, liking the lessons, and really searching for an answer. We kinda serioused it up a bit with finding an answer in this last lesson and it went great, so we are excited to see what happens this week. They are so great holy cow.

Well, hope all is going good for everyone and that your brackets are doing well!! Know that I love you and miss you all and that I think about you and pray that all is going fantastic for you! Have a great week!

-Conner

3.17.14

THANKS TO YOU ALL!  The birthday letters were a hit!  So thanks for making his day a happy one.  He said his companion (who holds the "most letters" status in the mission) was even blown away!  So thank you for your love and support of this cute kiddo!  Love you all!  Crysi

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From: "Conner Ludlow" <conner.ludlow@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2014 4:13:29 AM
Subject: You are all the greatest!

Hej!

 

So... You are all the greatest. Seriously! Thank you so much everyone for all the letters and notes wishing me a happy birthday! I was super impressed. I got a ton of letters every day the whole week, and it was just fantastic! And they were all so great and fun and I loved every single one of them :) Really, I hope you all know how much that totally made my week, every little letter, they were all amazing, so thank you so much!! I am so lucky to have such an amazing family and awesome friends!

 

My birthday was great! It was so fun! We went to a buffet for lunch :) and holy cow I ate so much. I just walked in and went nuts. Cuz it was my Birthday! So I ate 7 plates... and they weren't very small plates either... I took pictures to document how much I ate.

                          

                    

 I can't get them all into this email, but I'll send out another one with all the pictures. So I ate a ton. the buffet definitely lost money on me. And I used the 1 hour lunch time that we had down to the second. And kept it all down.....................  until about an hour later when I realized I had ate that whole thing without water. I was super thirsty. So I chugged a liter of water... which looking back now probably wasn't too smart. Because there wasn't room for a liter of water. So I may have lost a little bit of that. But I still kept alot of it down and I'm still full. It was so fun :) Made for a great story and definitely glad we went to the buffet. The rest of the day went well also- had a good little lesson with a funny investigator and people were actually pretty open when we talked to them on the street and knocking! Must have known it was my B-day. Actually, people have been super talkitive lately, not just on my birthday. It has been great!

 

News: Familien Hansen came to church!!!!!!!!!!! Well, just the Mom and Dad, but they came! And liked it! Then invited us over for another appointment without us even asking!! How great is that?! Things are going really well with them and we are loving it. Hopefully they are too. My new companion, Aeldste Read is a good guy! I like him a lot and we will have a great time here.

 

So IDK if you all remember Bente from Silkeborg, I talked about her a lot. I told the story about when she got her temple recommend. Anyways, she went through the temple this week! And I got to go with!! Her sister called me and gave me all the details, and wanted me to keep it a surprise that I was coming. So on Saturday we went to the temple and surprised her there and it was great!!

It was incredible. She was so happy to be there and that was so neat to see. We were able to go watch her be sealed to her parents that have passed away, and that was incredible! She was so happy. Everyone was. I love her testimony of the church. It means so much to her and you could tell she was just excited to be in the temple.  It was a great experience and it was so fun to be there and be a part of it. Man- Silkeborg's branch is great. It was so fun to see them all again (most of them were there too, and it was even better that it was a surprise when I showed up). So that was great! It was definitely an amazing week :)

 

Thanks again for all the birthday wishes!! I really can't convey how great it was getting all those letters from everyone, It was so much fun! I was all smiles the whole week because of them. So thank you everyone :) I'm a lucky kid!! I hope you all had just as great of a week as I did, and I hope that it continues for all of you! I love you and miss you!!

 

-Conner

 

 

 

3.10.14

Hej!

 

Would you just look at this:

I'm not quite sure what that white thing is... but I think its the sun. Today is going to be a good day.

 

So... Tåstrup is sick. I love it. This week was way fun and just cruised by. It is definitely a different place than Silkeborg. I can kinda give some more updates on it now that I roamed around it for a week. The apartments complexes are HUGE. I was impressed by the ones in Silkeborg, but these ones just put them to shame.

They keep going!! There was one complex that we were at earlier this week that was so big and spread out that they used shapes in the address. it had the street name, a shape, and then the number. Not confusing or hard to navigate at all... haha but it is way fun. The ward here is sweet! Back to 3 hour church. And lots of people to meet. We have a legit church building and youth and the whole thing. So that is pretty cool!

 

So the sun is shining today. Its amazing. Its been long enough that I cant remember exactly when the last time we had a sunny day was. We are in a pretty good mood right now! Today is going to be a blast. Æ. Metcalf is coming in to copenhagen becuase his companion is taking his language test for his visa, so we are meeting them in Copenhagen in a couple hours and are going to go roam around with them and chill there for the day! In the sunshine!!! And then they are coming back with us and staying the night at our apartment, so it should be a really fun day.

 

All is going well here. I'm getting the hang of the area I think. Æ. Ockey is way chill and we had a really fun time this week. It will be a good transfer for sure! Hope that you all had a great week and are having a ton of fun! I love you all and miss you!

 

-Conner

 

3.10.14

Hej!

 

Well, next time I email I will be 20... that's a weird thought! But my last full week of teenagerdom was pretty darn good!

 

It started off great, With an AMAZING pulled pork sandwich.

America. I know I talk a lot about Danish food in my emails.  But man, It just can't be compared to America. It just feels so great. I have become so patriotic on my mission, being away from the states. We went to Hard Rock Cafe in Copenhagen with a couple other elders and it was a blast! American things, the sounds and smells of grilling, English, and best of all: FREE WATER. I definitely left with my head held high proud to be an American.

 

Quick update on the family that we are teaching: They are great! So sick. They are Danes too! (I think I forgot to mention that). We had a lesson with them on Thursday and went even better than the first. They are super open and actually talk about all the stuff with us. The spirit was crazy strong the whole time, they agreed with it all again, and in the end they asked for more books so they could give them to their siblings. So it could get even better!! We are loving it. It's totally different teaching a family, especially when families are talked about so much in our church and in the lessons. The spirit just rushes in instantly and it is awesome. So we are stoked. Going back on Thursday. hopefully their reading went well!

 

Well, Elder Ockey is gone :( Off to Horsens. He left this morning. Which means I got a new comp! Æ. Read!

He is from the same group as Æ. Ockey and Æ. Durrant, who came into the land at the same time as Æ. Nelson. All of my last 4 comps came in at the same time. kinda funny. Oh and guess what! I'm taller than him!! haha Sorry i just had to mention it - I'm kinda excited. This is only the second time this has happened. And his birthday is on the 13th! So we'll be having a good little party. It was sad to see Æ. Ockey go though. I had a really good time with him. We got work done too, it was just a great transfer. But I'm excited for this one and hoping that the fun I had with Æ. Ockey just keeps going!

 

Well, Have a great week everyone! I love you and miss you!! Keep being so great :)

 

-Conner

3.4.14

From: "Conner Ludlow" <conner.ludlow@myldsmail.net>

Sent: Monday, March 3, 2014 2:39:58 AM

Hej!

 

How is everyone doing? Last week's letter had some pretty good stories so hopefully I can keep it up this time... We didn't have any more run ins with sikh guys, but it was still a super good week!

 

Danish holidays are pretty funny. Or at least the stories behind them. Saturday was a holiday called Fastelavns. In the old days, it used to be a holiday to get rid of evil. This was done by taking a black cat (I guess the symbol of evil?) and putting it in a barrel and then beating the barrel until the cat was dead... Kinda harsh. But nowadays it has turned into a pretty fun holiday. Instead of a cat, they use candy, so kinda like a pinata. Except it's still a barrel so it's pretty hard to break and gets pretty intense! We got to go to our ward's Fastelavns party and watch them do it. Everyone dresses up like it's halloween and they make Fastelavns boller ( a pastry that you decorate kinda like a sugar cookie) and then at the end they break the barrels. Everyone lines up and starts wailing on the barrel and then when it finally breaks they all cheer and grab the candy.

Kind of a fun little holiday  to get to go and see them celebrate it! The Danish culture  is so fun :)

 

We taught a family this week!!! While we were walking to an appointment last week we approached a big group of people and stopped them. Turns out it was a great big family! We introduced ourselves, and they were interested in what our church was because they hadn't heard of it before and they liked religion. They asked if we were Jehovah's Witnesses and after I said no, they said " Sweet! We are really interested in all that stuff, just not Jehovah's Witnesses!" So we told them a little about the gospel and asked if there was a time that we could come and teach them all. And they arranged a time that they could all gather in one of the daughters' apartment so we could meet and tell them about it which will be on Thursday!  We showed up and they were all there, had some cake for us, and were happy to see us. We had a really cool lesson with them about the plan of salvation, because they asked some questions about it, and talked a lot about eternal families. They liked it all, even said they agreed with it all, and when we asked if we could come back and tell them more, they arranged another day for us to come this week!!! Pretty sweet eh? We were pretty stoked after that. So that was by far the highlight of the week. I'll make sure to keep you updated on how it goes.

 

Well, I hope you all had a great week!! I'm loving life here in Denmark. This will be the last week of the transfer, So there is a possibility that next time I write I will have a new comp! But hopefully not. Me and Æ. Ockey have been having a really good time and the work is clicking so hopefully he stays for one more. But have a great week! I love you all and miss you all! Don't miss 'em!

 

-Conner