Wow, my heart is so full after reading your emails. It is so good to hear from you and I love to hear about all the blessings your are receiving. So today is election day in the phillipines for their town or barangay leadership. We are usually supposed to continue work on P-day at 6 but apparently things get pretty sketchy and we have been instructed to be in our apartments at 6. I love the people but here are my thoughts on all the election stuff; It's like a prison had a student council election. Needless to say, we are used to a more professional way back in the states. It just makes me chuckle and I am grateful that I am not involved. So don't worry, I will be safe and I will tell you next week if anything exciting happens.
I am so grateful for the gift of tongues. It is real. I am nowhere near perfect and it is still wicked hard to understand what people are saying, but on three separate occasions I was complimented on how well I speak Waray-Waray. One potential investigator even made the comment that it was better than Elder S. because he uses a lot of Tagolog (which everyone speaks but it is good to use the native dialect). Now I am just trying to receive the gift of the interpretation of tongues which is also coming but not quite as fast. Surprisingly this is actually somewhat of an advantage because it requires me to rely on the gift of discernment and be able to say something that is right on whether or not I understood what was just said. But as you can see, there are so many gifts to be received if we just obey Gods commandments.
We have been visiting the C. family a lot lately. They are less active and we are working with them to return to church. They came on Sunday and so that was super exciting. This family has basically nothing, but I love their home made of Bamboo and other humble materials. It feels like a home. It is nice and clean. You can tell a lot about a person by what they do with nothing. With this family like most Less active families, they just lost hope, they lost sight of the vision. With these people, it takes persistence to convince them that they belong, that the atonement is real.
We were finding earlier this week and we talked to a "professional" (anyone who has a job and have actual houses and cars) and they had talked to the missionaries before and had the Restoration pamphlet. She likes reading and asked for another one and we also gave her a Book of Mormon. She made the comment that "They weren't ready yet" and when she said this my first thought was "Dumb and Dumber" When he says "You mean there's still a chance?!?!?" and that is what it's like to be a missionary...
We found another really good potential investigator this week. We only taught them once but we are excited to continue. It was a mom and her daughter and they were very impressed with us and how we give our life for two years to serve the Lord. She got out this Book about Catholic Saints called "Champions of God" and likened us to it. I had never thought about it but I thought it was a cool idea of what some people may see us as. In reality, as we are obedient and follow the spirit, we are indeed Champions of God. And they were also commenting on how you actually have to do stuff in our Church. The opportunity was perfect or otherwise I wouldn't have said this. I said, "Yeah it's not a 2 times/year Cross on the Wall conversion plan being a member of our church. They Got a good laugh out of the statement mainly because of how True it is.She also made the comment how we do this and get nothing in return. I didn't say this but I just thought to myself, "Are you kidding?! We get everything in return!" There is a part in "Screwtape letters" Where the comment is made that the submitting of self will just gets a way from all the noise and clamour and after we do that he gives everything back. How true that is.
Sister A. is doing well. She wants to be baptized she just needs to pick a date and we're hoping and praying we can do it before transfer day. I will be so heart broken if I am not here for her baptism. We taught her about eternal marriage and so we have the temple in her sights.
Brother L. has been super busy and so we didn't get to visit him a lot this week, but we have been teaching his mom and she is doing so well. We talked about the spirit and how the Spirit is the perfect teacher. She made the comment that I was perfect evidence of the spirit because of how well I am speaking the Language in just two months. That was cool and we hope she will be able to come to church next week.
I love you all so much! Keep the faith and may peace be the journey! This Gospel is true. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to share it each and every day.
Love Elder Lowe
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