Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Excited for General Conference

Date: March 30, 2011
Area: Itaporanga,Sergipe
Companion: Elder Lopes
From: Fortaleza, Brazil




Hey family!
How´s everybody doing?
    I´m doing good, this week was kinda slow. I´m still getting used to being senior companion and everything. It´s not bad it´s just that now I have to think about the numbers of lessons we teach and baptisms we mark, etc... but  it´s good it got me excited to work harder and find more people. This week we completely started over with our teaching group because we were wasting our time with people that weren´t progressing, so we´ve just been making a lot of contacts. We don't really have any great investigators right now.

   But yeah my companion is a pretty good guy. We get along pretty good. He´s from Fortaleza, a few states north of Alagoas, it´s good to be with a Brazilian to speak Portuguese a lot more.

That´s cool that you guys got new chicks. they look cute.
Congrats Brookie on the good grades, that sucks that you´ve been sick. I´ve had a bad head cold for a few days now, but I´m getting over it already.

So 6 Americans are coming next week and 16 missionaries are coming next transfer. so hopefully the visa problem is getting worked out.

I´m excited for General Conference next week. There won´t be very many Americans there so I bet It´ll be Portuguese. but it should be good I'm excited.

I wanna bear my testimony that this church is true and that I´m here to help people to be baptized. I'm glad that I decided to go on a mission, and I know that this church was restored by a prophet of God.

I love you guys!!
Be safe everyone, this computer sucks so I can't send pics. Have a great week.

te amo muito, me sinto saudades de voces.
(Love You, I miss you guys)


Elder Ludlow


hey dad, i hope that your birthday was great and i want you to know that i´m doing great here in brasil. how old are you now? i hope that work and everything is going good! the mission is flying by after this transfer i´ll make a year. tell grandpa happy birthay too. i´m excited for the hunt in 2012!!!

love bradley

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

New Companion

Date: March 23, 2011
Area: Itaporanga,Sergipe
Companion: Elder Lopes
From: Fortaleza, Brazil




Elder Ludlow And Elder Smythe baptized Joseane this week



Hey family,
       How´s it going? I´m doing good! we had transfers and I´m staying in Itaporanga for round 3!!! My new companion is Elder Lopes from Fortaleza, Brazil. I barely met him last night but he seems pretty cool. He has 6 months in the mission, so I went up to Senior Companion this transfer. I dunno I'm pretty excited I'm making a lot of goals and evaluating myself to improve as a missionary. I'm trying to work out again. I´m a lot skinnier but my body is kinda weak. but I´ve lost between 12 and 15 pounds in this area.

       But yeah Elder Smythe and I baptized this week! It almost didn´t happen, it almost fell through various times, but it all turned out great. we baptized a girl with 17 years and she´s really firm, she stopped drinking coffee without us even inviting her. We´re gonna work with her mom and brother now, the mom went to church and really liked it so hopefully we can baptize her too. we should have a few baptisms this transfer.

     Brian s mullet is nasty. lolol

     Thanks for the pics of my 3 new cousins. They all look really cute!

     That's nice that its starting to warm up back home. its officially fall here but it feels hotter than ever its gonna start raining a lot here pretty soon. I cant wait for winter to arrive again.

It sounds like the visa problem should be getting better soon but I don't know. there´s a lot less missionaries here then when I arrived because of the problems. (Elder Whitaker is still in St.George waiting to go to the Maceio, Brazil Mission)

I only took one photo this week and it was the baptism.

I love you guys and I know that this church is true, and I'm so happy to be here on my mission.
Stay firm everyone!!

Love Elder Ludlow

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

This will be the last week of this transfer

Date: March 16, 2011
Area: Itaporanga,Sergipe
Companion: Elder Smythe
From: San Fransisco, California



3-7-11
Thinking spot by the river - where we go when the going gets tough , haha


 Hey guys, how is everyone?
    This week was pretty good. We are working hard and we had 8 investigators at church on Sunday. We are gonna try and baptize a 17 year old girl on Saturday, she is definitely an elect... we´re not 100 percent for this Saturday, but she wants to be baptized. she just doesn´t really know when. Tomorrow we´ll try and get her excited and ready for this weekend. she´s living all the commandments, and has really no problems, and she´s talking about serving a mission already. So we´ll  just try and get her excited.
And ther´es a less active family that has been coming to church, they gotta get married, then we can baptize the wife and 3 kids, so if I do stay here at least finally we´ll have some decent people to work with. It kinda sucks that all of our success happened on the last week of the transfer.But as of now we have that family of 4, and also that José that really wanna get baptized but they need to get married. if I stay I might have to pay for part of the weddings, but we´re trying to find a free wedding they have them every once in a while.It sucks cuz almost nobody is civilly married here they just live together.

     But were almost positive that Elder Smythe will go, but the branch president hinted that we both will leave. But I dunno I´m not gonna get my hopes up I´m just preparing to stay in Itaparanga for  ROUND 3!!! But it´s a little better now cuz we actually have people that aren´t lazy and for sure we´ll baptize next transfer. I´ll probably be with a Brazilian. but yeah I´m chill with whatever happens.
My rash is a lot better, the pills are working and it´s a lot smaller.

That's cool Bri is playing the guitar. Elder Smythe has one and I´ve been practicing a little, it´s like impossible to learn during the mission though. I don´t really have time, but I really wanna learn.

That's cool that the kids are staying busy. Brooke is doing softball, and bubba´s lifting weights. I need to work out more, I have a fat gut. but I´ve lost a lot of weight in this area and my stomach is a lot smaller. when I eat I feel full way fast.

Yeah I saw the Japan earthquake, that's good the missionaries are safe.

I´m way excited for the package!!! I´m really needing one.

I'll send pics.

Love, b rad

eu amo voces!!!
(I Love You Guys!!!)


3-14-11
 


3-14-11
 

3-7-11


3-14-11



3-7-11
Our Thinking Spot
 


3-7-11
 

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

I´m doing good don´t worry about me

Date: March 9, 2011
Area: Itaporanga,Sergipe
Companion: Elder Smythe
From: San Fransisco, California
Hey family!

     How´s everything going? This week was pretty good. I thought that like nobody would go to church because of carnival, but we had 5 investigators at church, that was definitely a miracle. But we won´t be able to teach them till tomorrow and they live really far away on a ranch. We´re gonna have to take a bus then walk like an hour, an inactive member just decided to go to church and brought a bunch of neighbors and stuff.

     But so far this week the city is literally A ghost town, everything is closed and theirs no one in sight, everyone went to the beach, so we´ve been trying to work but we have just been kinda chillin. We went down by the river on Monday and hung out at our thinking spot. (where we go when the going gets tough. ha ha.) we tried to go hunting for birds with a slingshot, it was pretty funny.

     But yeah not a whole lot to say, I´m doing okay. This week was better than the last few. It sounds that the family is all doing good, that's crazy that theres snow still, its so hot in my area cause there's no wind here. I can´t wait till it starts to get to be bearable again...

     But yeah I´m outta things to say, just a pretty normal week, we don't really have any super great investigators, they all fell through. We´ll work hard this week now that carnival is over.

     Love you all very much, I´m doing good don´t worry about me, I know that even though things get hard, the Lord blesses me in so many ways, and I'm very grateful for this opportunity to serve a mission, I´m learning and growing so much and having a good time.!!!
Much love
Bradley

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

9 months!

Date: March 2, 2011
Area: Itaporanga,Sergipe
Companion: Elder Smythe
From: San Fransisco, California



Bradley has been out for 9 months! YAY, I can't wait until May when we get to talk to him and he hits the 1 year mark!

Hey Fam!
This week was good. This area is just really hard. basically all of our baptisms fell through and José was the only investigator at church. we haven´t really gotten a hold of Lú in a while, I think she´s kinda avoiding us so I dunno, hopefully we´ll talk to her this week and mark her baptism again and get her to church. the other three ladies fell through, they were on their porch and ran inside when they saw us coming and pretended like no one was home lol.

So yeah it´s a little bit rough here. I´m loving it with Elder Smythe though, he´s a really good guy.

But yeah we spoke again in church on Sunday, it went pretty good. I spoke about faith in Jesus Christ. but no one really pays attention besides the president and one other guy.

It would be really nice if you sent a package, especially if I stayed here for round 3. with some food and treats and stuff. this transfer is only 5 weeks so it´s like half way over already. I don't know if I´ll stay. Elder Smythe is for sure leaving because he´s been three here.

So I weighed myself and I´ve lost like around 10 pounds since I´ve been here in Itaporanga. we have lunch 2, maybe 3 times per week. we just make something easy in the house but its hard to eat for so cheap. I cant wait for my mom´s home cooked meals again!!!

McKay emailed me, he seems to be doing great! I told him how the mission flies by. sometimes theirs rough patches but you look back and realize how fast it goes by.

This week is carnival, like the biggest holiday of the year. Everybody just gets drunk and party for like a week. I think it´s kinda like mardi gras but a lot bigger. we have to be inside by eight this week. but we live in the busiest part of the city so its gonna be really loud all night.

Sorry guys, I still haven't taken pics, I´ll for sure take more and send them next week..

But yeah not a whole lot going on, we´re just doing our best to get this branch up and running again.
love you guys!! be safe,
Bradley