August 29, 2016

Hello everyone... 

This week was a little bit (super) rough (insert wink emoji). The only thing that really happened to boost our spirits was that... JAN GOT BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!! Surprise! We were crazy busy most of the week trying to get stuff figured out for that. We weren't really sure if he was going to go for it because he has cancelled in the past, but this week he was happy and ready and he was døbt! We were so happy for him. Jan is just the sweetest guy ever. His cute little wife, Ananya, is from Thailand. they've been married for about 3 months. He went to Thailand and brought her back to marry her. She was already a member, and she saw missionaries in Denmark and invited them to teach her husband. And now they are both members! Ah! that was definitely the highlight of a good week.

The other good news is that we have not seen Shelob (our man eating spider) this week. Well, I guess that could be both good news and bad news, because that means we don't know where she's hiding.... but I am grateful for it! Søster Jex released her inner rapunzel this week and killed a spider with a frying pan. It was running towards me and she happened to have a pan in her hand and so she saved my life with it! That, my friends, is why we have companions in missionary work.

We visited a really old member this week for a few minutes, and he was giving us cake and cookies and I told him that I couldn't eat all of my cookies. he told me that I was going to get sent home if I didn't eat his cookies. My response was that if I ate his cookies, I would be too fat for them to fit me on a plane at the end of my mission... all that he had to say was "Kvinder, kvinder..." which means "women...." We love Hans :) he is the best. and his cookies are really good too. 

In a lesson with one of our less active members this week, she asked us if we could sing hymns for her. She has a lot of problems, both physical and mental, and so we tried to pick songs that would really uplift her. We were going from song to song, just based on what the atmosphere of the room was changing to. We sang "I stand all amazed", and the topic of our discussion changed to be centered around Jesus Christ. We talked about it for a while, but at the end, we sang "I Believe in Christ". It really just got all of us thinking about how we forget to think about Christ in our everyday lives. That is so sad, because He is the one person that can always help, and we forget to ask Him. After we left Christa's apartment, Søster Jex pulled us into a hug and thanked us for bringing such a strong spirit into Christa's home, because it really changed how her day was going. My challenge for all of you, if you feel like you need a different feeling in your home, is to read a song or a verse about Christ every day. Invite Him into your home, into your lives. Allow Him to change you through the things that you read. I promise that it will make a huge difference in the Spirit of your homes and that your relationship with the people around you will improve if you just focus on becoming more like Him.

I miss you all, but I am so incredibly blessed to be in Denmark right now. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love you all and I hope that you have a great week! 

Søster Ludlow

Me and Søster Jex while our trainer was gone. When Mom is away... we eat ice cream. 

and when mom is here, we eat pizza for dinner on P-days because she doesn't like to cook :) 

August 22, 2016

Hello Again! Is it really Monday already?! Time flies by out here!

First of all, I need every single one of you who is reading this right now to call my mother on Tuesday the 23rd and say 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOU ARE THE BEST PERSON IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!!!!'

I love my mum. You all know how incredible she is, and since I'm not there to give her love, I need all of you to do it for me!

Next: the spider update for the week. On Satuday, we saw the biggest spider yet. It was chillin' outside the church on the web - he was striped and nasty and everything! Here he is:

(and no, I did not hold my nametag... søster Jex did. I was too scared.
​

BUT THEN SOMETHING WORSE HAPPENED. Saturday is the day that we can use the laundry machines, and so we were Down in the basement gathering our laundry to bring it back Upstairs, when Søster Naylor grabbed my arm and said "don't look". Naturally, I started panicking. and of course, I looked. I turned around.... and there was a giant spider THE SIZE OF MY PALM on the wall. SHELOB IS LIVING IN MY BASEMENT. She is so big that I wouldn't have been able to squish her with my shoe. I have never been more terrified in my entire life. I could not move. Then Søster Naylor blew on it and IT CRAWLED INTO THE WALLS. So I am living in terror. I will try to get a picture if we ever see it again, but for now, just know that I am living in terror.

In happier news, this week was Jytta's birthday! (Jytta is the disabled lady who loves to sing). We visited her and brought her flowers. She insisted that we sit down and drink some chocolate milk with her. ah man, I could talk about Jytta all day. One thing she told us was that every now and then, you just need to put a goofy hat on a dog, because if you never do anything funny, then your life is nonsense! hehe I love her so much.

This week, I was studying the second half of Mosiah. I came across some verses that I really liked. In Mosiah 23:21-22, it talks about how the Lord tries our faith and our patience. It got me thinking about how important it is that we recognize that our difficulties and our challenges are just God's way of testing us to see how much we've learned. The most important thing we can do while we are experiencing hard times is to trust that all of these difficulties are for our good. If we just hang in there, keep smiling, and trust in the Lord, EVERY dark time in our lives will be turned to brilliant light. We just need to trust Him. I hope you all have a wonderful week. and if you don't have a wonderful week, remember that just smiling and being grateful can make a big difference in our happiness level! I love you all, thanks for all the good you do!

Søster Ludlow

Here is me and Jytta on her fødselsdag :)

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August 15, 2016

Hello everyone!

We got our new companion!!!! Her name is Søster Jex and she is from
Orem, Utah. She is reallllyyyy good at Danish already, so I had better
start working harder so that she doesn't catch up! She got the full
Danish experience this week: broken bikes, sleeping on trains, eating
way too much, and she even got pooped on! I haven't even gotten that
yet!


Don't worry, she loves Denmark and we get along great! We got a new
elder in our area also and he is a GIANT. like he is over 7'2", thats
how tall he is. That really has nothing to do with my week, i just
forget sometimes that it is possible for people to be THAT BIG. I got
to take Søster Jex out alone for a couple days while Sister naylor was
at MLC. We went around and contacted people on the gågade, and I had
to be a big girl and start conversations. Turns out that I can
understand more Danish than I thought! It really is incredible what
the Lord can do if you ask for his help!

I finally figured out why it is that so many missionaries come back
from Denmark much heavier than they were before. No, it is not the
pastries or the butter... it starts somewhere completely different. So
in the Danish mission, we really have to trust in the Lord. We have to
trust that He is listening to our prayers, preparing people for us,
and then guiding us to them. If we want to be successful, we have to
trust in the Lord. I read in Proverbs 28 the other day, and I found a
verse that really explained the phenomenon of weight gain in Denmark.
In verse 25, it says "he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be
made fat".        WHAAAAAT! Phenomenon explained :)

So you see, the reason that Danish missionaries get fat is because
they trust in the Lord! It makes so much more sense!!
heheheh I hope that all of you laughed as hard as I did when I came up
with that joke.

On a more serious note, I want to share something that we talked about
in sacrament meeting yesterday. Someone got up and shared a story
about a little baby eagle that had fallen out of its nest. A little
boy found it and brought it back to his home, and put it in with the
chickens. Over time, it grew up to be a beautiful eagle. A man came
one day to check on the chickens and told the farmers family, 'you
have an eagle in your chickens! that is an eagle!' the family said 'no
its not, it is a chicken'. the man then said, "look, i'll show you"!
so he put the eagle on his arm and held it up and said 'you are an
eagle! Fly!' and the eagle looked at him, hopped off his arm, and went
back to pecking with the chickens. The man tried again. he took the
eagle a ways away, so that he couldn't see the hens. He held it up and
said 'you are an eagle; fly!' and the eagle still didn't fly. He came
back the next day and took the eagle up to the top of the mountain,
where it could see everything and all the beauty of the earth. He held
the eagle up and said "You are an eagle. You were not brought here to
be a chicken, you were made to be an eagle. Now go, and fly.' and the
eagle spread its wings and flew, and they never saw him again.

So, what was the point of that? You see, all of us were not put on
earth to be the same. We have been put here, with our specific gifts
and talents, so that we could be an eagle. If we never use the gifts
and the talents that we have been given, we are just going to be
chickens like everyone else and we will never be happy. My challenge
for you all this week is to make a list of your 'gifts' or talents.
God gave you to them so that you could fly and be great, so USE THEM!
I hope that you all have a fantastic week! You are incredible and I
hope you know that you are special. I love you all!

Søster Ludlow

Another amazing sunset from our apartment

Nevermind the wind

Like a good Mom, I take embarrassing pics of my trainee

August 1, 2016

Hello all!

I hope everyone has had a great week! I really don't have a ton to
write about this week, but don't worry, we stayed busy!  We found our
biggest spider yet (hiding in my closet, might I add... ) so that is
always a true joy! It also was super hot, but today we are back to the
good ol' cloudy Danish skies. I missed them.

This week, we had a training for all of us new folk. That means that
I got to see my beloved MTC district again! Needless to say, it was a
couple days with a lot of laughing and a lot of hugs! We ate at
McDonalds and played ping pong and learned a lot about what we can do
to become better missionaries. There is one thing that came up several
times over the course of the week that I would like to share with you.
In the mission, we've been talking a lot about how we can 'sanctify
ourselves' and really show God that we are committed to doing His
work. One solution that we came up with was that each of us was going
to take one thing - whether it was a habit, a food, a memory, anything
- that holds us back from being effective and that we were going to go
to the Lord in prayer and tell Him that we are willing to give this up
for HIm. After that, just work as hard as we can. Many
times, there is just one thing holding us back from reaching our
potential, or holding us back in our relationship with our Heavenly
Father. My challenge to all of you is to find that thing and exchange
it for something better. It might be hard to find, and it will be even
harder to give it up, but I promise that you will find more happiness
and more time to do good! Being a missionary is all about leaving
yourself behind and focusing on others. There was a quote that I heard
this week in a Mormon Message called "Lift" that said something along these lines:
"To heal ourselves physically, we have to turn in and take care of
ourselves. Yet when it comes to healing the soul, we have to turn out
and take care of others." If you want to hear how cool it is, the
message was called 'Lift' :)  Go watch it!  

I love being a missionary and I love Denmark! I hope you all have an
incredible week! remember to smile and say thank you - it makes all
the difference! I love you all!

Søster Ludlow

Making Frikadeller

We were able to go the Denmark Temple!  So awesome!!!!