May 30, 2012 Letter from Elder Ludlow

Hey,

It's transfer week so my P-day is on wednesday. I apologize for not sending the memo. Hope you figured it was something like that.

Thankyou again for telling me about what everyone is up to. I appreciate it.

From what I've heard, it's starting to heat up over there in the Holy Land. It was really rainy and moderately cold for a while here and i was wishing every day for warm weather. Then sunday and Memorial day came around and we were burning up outside. Missionary clothing is not the most comfortable when it's hot. However, yesterday it cooled down and we enjoyed it.

So the Pentecost is going on right now? I have just been reading about it lately.

Things are going pretty good then? A quiet week in Jerusalem is still a significant one. I have to tell you about my Middle Eastern phase that's going on right now. I started reading the Book of Mormon in Arabic again in the evenings. And I love it. I've forgotten a lot so I want to build my knowledge back up. Also I walked into a store and saw some writing that looked like arabic and the worker seemed Indian or similar. I got excited but it turns out that he is from Pakistan and speaks Urdu (?) Close but not quite.

There is a mosque in Fitchburg. I have to resist the urge to walk inside. Although I do have that problem with the Chistian cathedrals all around too. That's what Jerusalem will do to you.

Q's and A's:

Food- We usually don't cook much besides lunch. I've been making a few things from recipes in the cookbook. My mind is blanking out on the things I cook for lunch but they're mostly simple. I eat fast food probably once or twice a week. It's a tradition after district meeting to go together to a place. The members still feed us well. I find myself looking to that part of the day. It's relieving to be with people that accept all of the doctrine that you teach :P and to rest a little bit.

Yes, transfers are happening tomorrow. I didn't see much speculation beforehand. The transfer texts are somewhat suspenseful though because they come one at a time and you can infer from them things like: who is training, shotgunning etc.. A few people were expressing that they did NOT want to be transfered. One missionary from our district is leaving and he was really sad. We developed a quick friendship and had an exchange this last week so it's tough for me too. From the texts we believe that he will be shotgun training. So in other words, training a new missionary in a new area. Fun!

Personal study... I read from each of the testaments (O,N,BoM) and Jesus the Christ (Almost done) plus Preach my Gospel (Which is gold)

What does it mean to pass off teaching? Im assuming I don't do it

I could do better with spanish study but I enjoy it. It's hard to improve rapidly in that area when >75% of our teaching is in english.

Had zone meeting this last week. Down in Ludlow again :) It was pretty good. Afterwards we played Cricket with the Mission Pres and wife plus the Corbins, who are an awesome senior couple from England; they taught us how to play. They know about Ludlow England and think it's one of the most beautiful parts of the country. It was fun to see how enthusiastic President Evans was. Sister Evans is pretty awesome too.

It was tough again to get investigators to attend church which lead to other discouragement but the work keeps moving forward. It seems like excellent weeks are always followed by slow ones. It's a rollercoaster.

We have contacted a ton of people in the last few days and we'll see what comes from that. They came from trying to find past investigators. I met some guys from Brazil. One from Campinas (Sp?) and they wanted a portugese book of mormon.
Do the new students like to watch a lot of movies? Do they hangout in the main hallway late at night like we did? Are either of the classes (Harp or Hunts) remotely close to being as fun as mine was?
Im glad that my bros and sis' are involved in a bunch of things. Don't waste a single minute!
 Mom, I'm with you. The history is so rich and expansive that there is always something more to learn. It intrigues me a lot. We'll see what I do with that after my mission.

I dont have any cool stories to share this week. I'll try to do a better job of recording them when they happen. I also decided that Im going to take at least one picture a day. So keep me committed to that. Every week I'll send about seven pictures. Don't worry, I wont let this get in the way of my missionary duties.

Shalom and talk to you on Monday! Hasta Luego!

-Elder Jared Ludlow Jr.