Blog Letter 6/22/2015

Dearest Family,

It has been another great week in the Tacloban 2nd ward. Our Zone Training meeting was a success and on Sunday there was a Nation wide Stake Conference broadcast from Salt Lake and Manila that was inspiring. I loved the apostolic promise from Elder Andersen that if we will take our sacrament meeting attendance more seriously, our faith will grow. We even used that in a lesson we taught yesterday afternoon. It was also great to hear from Elder Nielson and a bit nostalgic as well flashing back to Yolanda. Can you believe I was still here for Yolanda?? If I'm not mistaken, I think I was the one that took a picture of Tacloban right after the storm that they displayed in the broadcast because they copied all my pictures from the storm when we arrived in Manila after the Storm. That is really unimportant but hey kind of cool right? But what great advice to anyone no matter what their station in life, "I will be the one." His whole message was centered around that phrase, "I will be the one." That is something Flipino's will often say in English when they want to do something kind for you. They will say "I will be the one" to do this, that or the other. The phrase is truly an indicator of their love and desire to serve and be kind to one another. I hope that we all might say "I will be the one" to follow our Savior Jesus Christ through our kindness to others. 

We did exchanges with the Palo Elders last Tuesday and Wednesday. I went back to my first area with Elder B. in Palo and we had a great experience. It was weird working again in my first area. There are some people I have never met and others who still remember me. I am happy I had the opportunity to go back and work in my first area though especially now as I am in my last transfer. Exchanges are one of my favorite things to do as a leader. I have really come to love just talking and getting to know other missionaries and other people for that matter. I learned a lot from Elder B. and I hope he was able to learn a bit from me as well that he might be able to use as he continues his mission.

Our Investigators are doing well. We have some great things going as well as a few investigator families that have potential to progress. We taught a man this past week and some members of his family and they were all very receptive and asked excellent questions. They agreed to pray about our message and be baptized if they come to know that it is true. So we will keep you updated on how they progress. We had another new investigator as well tell us after our second visit with him where we explained in great depth about the Book of Mormon that he wanted his family to hear this as well and so we are hoping to be able to schedule an appointment with his family sometime this week.

I am really enjoying the work right now. We are striving to be diligent and really sprint to the finish. I love my area and I love my companion. Thank you for all your love and support! You are continually in my prayers and I look forward to seeing you in a few weeks time.

Love Elder Lowe 

Blog Letter 6/15/2015

Dearest Family,

It has been another great week Tacloban 2nd  ward. Our Zone Training meeting was a success and and on Sunday there was a Nation wide Stake Conference broadcast from Salt Lake and Manila that was inspiring. I loved the apostolic Promise from Elder Anderson that if we will take our sacrament meeting attendance more seriously, our faith will grow. We even used that in a lesson we taught yesterday afternoon. It was also great to hear from Elder Nielson and a bit nostalgic as well flashing back to yolanda. Can you believe I was still here for Yolanda?? If I'm not mistaken, I think I was the one that took a picture of Tacloban right after the storm that they displayed in the broadcast because they copied all my pictures from the storm when we arrived in Manila After the Storm. That is really unimportant but hey kind cool right? But what great advice to anyone no matter what their station in life, "I will be the one." His whole message was centered around that phrase, "I will be the one." That is something Flipino's will often say in english when they want to do something kind for you. They will say "I will be the one" to do this, that or the other. The phrase is truly an indicator of their love and desire to serve and be kind to one another. I hope that we all might say "I will be the one" to follow our Savior Jesus Christ through our kindness to others. 

We did exchanges with the Palo Elders last Tuesday and Wednesday. I went back to my first area with Elder B. in Palo and we had a great experience. It was weird working again in my first area. There are some people I have never met and others who still remember me. I am happy I had the opportunity to go back and work in my first area though especially now as I am in my last transfer. Exchanges are one of my favorite things to do as a leader. I have really come to love just talking and getting to know other missionaries and other people for that matter. I learned a lot from Elder B. and I hope he was able to learn a bit from me as well that he might be able to use as he continues his mission.

Our Investigators are doing well. We have some great things going as well as a few investigator Families that have potential to progress. We taught a man this past week named H. and some members of his family and they were all very receptive and asked excellent questions. They agreed to pray about our message and be baptized if they come to know that it is true. So we will keep you updated on how they progress. We had another new investigator as well tell us after our second visit with him where we explained in great depth about the Book of Mormon that he wanted his family to hear this as well and so we are hoping to be able to schedule an appointment with his family sometime this week.

I am really enjoying the work right now. We are striving to be diligent and really sprint to the finish. I love my area and I love my companion. Thank you for all your love and support! You are continually in my prayers and I look forward to seeing you in a few weeks time.

Love Elder Lowe 

Maupay nga Kuolop. Blog Letter 6/8/2015

Maupay nga Kulop dearest Family!!!

It has been a good week. Yes I lost my wallet and that was stressful but I have strong testimony of prayer and that situation strengthened my testimony thereof even more. I love the Bible Dictionary Definition of Prayer. Part of it explains that through prayer we align our will with the will of God and as we pray in Christs name we pray with the mind of Christ and therefore ask for things that are possible for God to grant. Nephi when he was bound by his brethren did not pray that his circumstances would changed but rather he prayed for the strength to overcome his circumstances. Of course I hoped and prayed that I might find my wallet but I also prayed for the comfort and support to be able to get by without. That prayer was answered and continues to be answered to this day. I have received comfort and have been relieved from stress throughout the week and then today we received a call from the assistants informing us that my wallet was found and is currently in Carigara(a town about an hour out of Tacloban). They gave us his name and contact info and hopefully we will be able to get a hold of my wallet again this week.

And then other than that it was a pretty good week. We had Mission Leadership Council this past week with all the Zone Leaders and STL's as well as a special training for all the ZL's and DL's. Both trainings were really good. I may be at the end of my mission but I still have so much to learn and I learned so much from both trainings. The focus in the mission this month is Loyalty. Loyalty to the Lord. I am coming to realize that only through our loyalty to Him can we truly be loyal to others as well. A true friend indeed is someone who brings us closer to our Savior. I have learned so much from my leaders and fellow missionaries this past week that has left me with a lot to think about and ponder upon. The training in  MLC training was based off of a talk by Gordon B. Hinckley titled "And Peter Went Out And Wept Bitterly." It is a good talk and you should all check it out.

Anyways I love you all. Thank you and thank you again for your love and support. I am indeed blessed to have such a wonderful family that takes time to email me each week. I am always sad when I ask my companions how their families are and they say they don't know because they didn't email that week. Of course that partly is because of different backgrounds and situations that can't be completely explained now. I know their families love them too. I just feel especially blessed to have such a wonderful family that has been so good to me. I know families are central to Gods plan for his Children. Everything in the Church is indeed aimed towards the temple where a family can be sealed for eternity through sacred priesthood ordinances. 

Let us always remember where our loyalties lie. Let us always be honest with our fellow men and with ourselves. Keep the faith and may peace be the journey!

Love Elder Lowe

John 15:4-5

Because their souls are precious

My dearest Family! 

It's been a great week. The work continues to move forward. Part of being the oldest batch in the mission is that whether with other missionaries or members, you become the brunt of the joke when ever the conversation turns to Eternal Marriage. I honestly never thought I'd reach this point in my mission yet here I am. We're loving it though. Me and Elder G. are having fun and doing work in our area. We've had a lot of fun just talking to people, getting to know members and have gotten some new investigators that we are excited to work with. One night this past week our last appointment fell through and so we walked up to the first big house we saw and knocked. A young man about 25 years old answered and let us in before we really had a chance to introduce ourselves and we were able to visit with him a bit and then teach him and his friend who showed up right after the opening prayer. They were both receptive and as they have time we will be able to continue teaching them. They were the type of people that asked all the perfect questions that can be answered by the Message of the Restoration.

There are a ton of things that I am excited to tell all of you! But I just want to reiterate how much I love being a missionary! It has taken two years but I think I'm starting to figure out how to be a missionary. One of the questions that one of the young men that we taught last week was why we are here. What a great question that I will never get tired of answering. They recognized that we are from far away places speaking a language called Waray-waray. I with my family have received countless blessings from the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I want to share those blessings with them. I am here because this is the True Church of Jesus Christ and each soul is precious. As members of the Church we have so much to offer to our fellow men. 

I love you all! I know the Church is true and I know that God lives. He is the reason that this work is possible. Keep the faith and may peace be the journey!

Mosiah 28:3

Love Elder Lowe

Dearest Pamilya... 

It has been an interesting week back in Tacloban 2nd ward. It has been fun to see some old faces and to see their reactions that I have returned. I'm honestly not sure what the missionaries have been up to the last two transfers but that's another story for another time.

I would like to take a moment to testify of the Gift of Tongues. This week has been a miracle. We have taught lessons in Waray, Tagolog, and Cebuano and sometimes in all three. I never before been able to switch between the three very well but now it almost seems just natural. We have one Investigator who my companion and I started teaching when we were still here who really only speaks Cebuano. He is a referral from an active member and is pretty old. Anyways, it has been cool to see him open up a bit more the past week as he has understood more clearly the gospel in his native tongue, Cebuano. I hope to see him progress and choose to be baptized in the coming weeks.

I don't have a lot to say but the work is going well. By going well, I mean that our work is cut out for us for the transfer. Elder G. is good and we have been able to teach some great lessons this past week. With each lesson I teach, my testimony of the Gospel increases. We had a recent convert ask us last night why FHE was so important and I was grateful to be able to testify of the influence that consistent FHE has had in my life. 

I love you all! 

Keep the faith and may peace be the journey.

One Last Transfer, One Previous Area. Blog Letter 5/18/2015

Dearest Family!

Thanks again for the chat last week! You all look and sound great as well! Our week went rather well and it finished off with the Baptism of N.M. She is only 14 but she's pretty bright and her mom is a returning member. The baptism was excellent and we had 2 of our investigators attend one of which is her Brother-in-law whom we have just started teaching and he wants to be baptized. As soon as he and N's sister get married he can. There are many others in her family as well that will hopefully be taught in the future.

The work here is starting to move a long and I have really grown close to the members and so you know what that means! Transfers! Transfer day is today along with p-day and that's why I didn't email you yesterday. I will definitely miss Kilim Branch and I was very surprised to learn of my new assignment/area but I'm excited as well... I think. My thoughts are all still pretty scrambled because I'm in transfer mode. My new companion is a Filipino and his name is Elder G. We have been assigned as the Tacloban Zone Leaders. So I'm going back to my old area in down town Tacloban and training Elder G. as a zone leader for my last cycle. When I transferred from this area in January I was hoping that I could have just one more cycle in down town and so here is that one more transfer that I wanted. I would have been content to end my mission in Kilim but I know God needs me here again in Tacloban. 

Two people I will definitely miss are the H's. They have been so kind to the missionaries and it was fun being assigned in the same District as them. They came to Tacloban yesterday(Monday) and brought our luggage and we met up with them this morning when we arrived in Tacloban. Because I will be transferring, Sister H pulled me aside and gave me unsolicited permission to take their daughter on a date when I get home. She specifically mentioned I could take her mt. biking or rock climbing... . ... I didn't really know what to say so I just laughed and said okay. So um.. I'm just gonna forget about that for 6 weeks and then perhaps I'll give it some consideration when I get home. But hey, as missionaries, we're always grateful to receive referrals right?

I'm excited for this next cycle though. I'm excited to give everything that I got and finish hard in down town Tacloban! I know this Church is the True Church of Jesus Christ and this is His work!

Keep the Faith and may peace be the journey! 

Amping!

Love Elder Lowe

P.s. Back to Waray-waray!

Understanding Things I've learned Blog letter 5/5/2015

So I don't know if you heard anything about the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. It was pretty big here because everyone loves Pacquiao but then he lost and so every one was pretty quiet yesterday. Apparently it was a good fight though. I don't know because I didn't watch it. We half expected it to effect our work and our attendance in Church but the truth of it is the faithful still came to Church. We even had some Less Actives come to church as well which we were excited about. The other good thing that happened yesterday is we had a good dinner appointment with a family that told us they would feed us dinner if Mayweather won the fight. That was mostly just a joke though between Sister S. and Elder A. because they were gonna feed us anyways. 

Elder A. is doing great. Our companionship is doing really well. Each day is an adventure but I have laughed a lot and have learned a lot as well. I have learned a lot of things throughout my mission but this transfer I have really started to understand some of those things that I've learned. And despite the trials and the challenges I can honestly say that I love my companion. I would do anything for him that is right. 

The work is going well. Our investigators are good. Most of them are female which is okay but we are trying to find Potential priesthood holders as well. But Men are just in general a little harder to get to. I haven't lost hope on Brother B. though. We've gotten close with his wife and family and I know that even if it doesn't happen in my time the time will come when Their father will open his heart. But until them we continue to wait and watch and pray for him. 

But I love you all and I love this Gospel. I'm continually grateful for the atonement and the wonderful truth that we can repent and change. It's never to late as long as we're willing. I know the Church is true and I know families are forever.

Keep the faith and may peace be the Journey!

Love Elder Lowe