Week 11

Hey Family!

How are all of you?

Well, first of all i just want to thank you ALL so much this week for the mail. You have no idea how much it means to me. This week has been so tough. I am ok now. I got pretty sick on Tuesday and Wednesday. I threw up a lot and my digestive tract just has been off since then. I am slowly recovering. Everyone is so willing to help. My cards wouldn't work last week so my companion and I were living on practically nothing as he had to spend most of his money on a training meeting he had in Iloilo. I think we lived on about $10 this last week. But we are still here, no worries. Investigators just did not want to progress for us. We may not be able to have our baptism this week (she is just so shy). Her little sister is supposed to be baptized as well but we are still waiting on her Dad's consent. The language just seems to never move forward. I got really frustrated this week with it. I am studying and trying though. It is non stop heat here. And that doesn't bother me nearly as much as the rain. LIKE THREE TIMES A DAY. It is so frustrating, especially when you have to hang out your clothes to dry. I have been tried this week for sure.

So thank you thank you thank you ALL for helping me with your wonderful letters. I am starting to get more adjusted. This place is starting to just become my home. I am praying and fasting for that good attitude towards the people and the very different food and culture. It is easy to get angry and just think "Why can't you people just speak English?!" It is tough to sit through a conversation and not understand what is going on. I'm trying though and I know the Lord will provide. I have to keep reminding myself that I've only been here a week and 1/2. I will get it soon... I hope.

I realized at about 9 o'clock that night that it was Thanksgiving. Then it took me 1/2hr to explain to my companion what it was. The culture here is so different. I cannot even begin to explain. It is crazy. Ok so this is hilarious! While my comp was in Iloilo for training I went to Altavas to work with another American Elder. PHEW. People were ridiculously nice to us. Like yelling from across the market to get our attention (uncommon because they are so soft-spoken). When we would ride the moto's and we would wave to the school kids the girls would ALWAYS just scream and freak out... not to toot my own horn or anything, it was just SO funny. We had this guy that LOVED to drive us and he would always say "Ah Der! Guwapo kayo! You ride with me?!" So while the girls would yell at us we always teased him and said they were yelling at him. Everyone would also say "HEY JOE" It is a good time.

As for the language though. I am trying to learn Aklanon as well. It is so difficult and people speak a mixture a lot of times too. My head just spins while I am talking to people. It is tough... so tough

We taught a family that had their mother die the day before. We think they will be baptized. We always ask them how they feel after the lesson and she says she thinks it is true. But when someone dies in the Philippines they hold the viewing in their house and it is like an ongoing viewing for the next few days. They have food and a lot of gambling actually. It is different.

I am so glad to hear about Thatcher "playing with me" (Thatcher plays with an imaginary Scott almost every day). He would like these little Filipino boys, they are as crazy as he is. Just so you all know all the Filipinos ADORE the pictures I have of you. I show them all the time. They are just blown away with white skin and blue eyes. Krista, your husband is a popular one... good thing you have him tied down. Devyn, don't be surprised if you have some Filipino stalkers now. Sorry.

I think about you all often and think of what it is like at home. I miss it dearly. As much as I love this place, home is always above it. With communication barriers, no A/C, no money things can be tough. I know the Lord will take care of us all, though. It is so nice to know that you all are receiving blessing from my service as well. I know that if we endure our trials well the Lord will exalt us on high (DC 121). Whether we are tired, discouraged, poor, lonely, or whatever if we just trust in the Lord and continue the way we will be exalted on high. I remember a letter Dad sent to me while I was in Athens. He told me "Keep working hard son, you will always be surprised with what you can accomplish if you just never stop." That has been going through my mind a lot this week. Thanks Dad. I know that if I just keep going I will be surprised later on with my accomplishments. I have also been singing the lyric "He may be moving slow, but that don't mean he's going nowhere." That came to mind this week... haha. Thanks Norah. I'm cheesy.

I will try to get some good pictures today and email them next week. The natural beauty is just unlike anything else I have seen. The fresh coconuts are SO good. You don't even know. And the juice is my favorite. It is like a weird tasting sprite. I'm lucky to have so many so close. While I was in Altavas the Ward mission leaders lived with us and made us food the entire week. So delicious. I didn't eat too much because of my illness. Which turned out to be a blessing in disguise with our lack of money.

Krista, best way to send money is through my bank card so just ask Dad. I may need some money so could you please check the balance. I am still just trying to get on my feet from arriving and getting over my expenses from only drinking super purified water and sprite (which was expensive). I still need to buy some little things to get comfortable here. Like so things to wipe my face from the constant sweat, hangers for drying clothes, etc. After this I should really be good to go. Love you all!

Devyn! I will write you a letter tonight and try to send it tomorrow. Sorry, things have been so insane with getting here and being sick. I will repent though. Those pictures came through really well. Thank you so much for writing me! I had a wonderful Thanksgiving proselyting all day. Thanks also for all the scriptures. You are just the best. Good luck on your finals and no worries. You will do fine. If not, just marry rich. I'm kidding

I love you all so much! I miss you all with all my heart. But I have work to do here and I will be able to be with you all again before too long. Hold in there and let the Lord work in your lives.

Please pray for us and we will work hard.

I get to talk to you all again soon!

Yours truly,

Elder Lowry

oh p.s- Matthew- GO DAWGS!!!! I'm kidding of course. Just think of it this way. In only five years the bumble bees should be up for another victory. who knows though eh?


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Note from the editor: Hey guys! So I am not sure I posted this already but even if I did, the best way Scott has said to communicate with him (lucky for us) is through e-mail! That makes it super easy to drop a line! Even if you don't want to write an email, leave a comment or shoot me an email/FB message and I'll be MORE than happy to pass it along to him!

His email address is:

scottl@myldsmail.net

And as you can see, it means SO MUCH to him to hear from you-- from ANYBODY! Even if you think he doesn't want to hear from you, it would mean the world to him if you sent him some encouragement.

Much love to you all, Scott's sister.

Week 10 - First week in the Philippines!

Mayad na aga pamilya ko!

So it is Monday morning here in the Philippines. It is very hot and humid and the people are as poor as ever. I absolutely love it here though. The people are just so funny. I am doing well, no health problems as of yet. SO my introduction... definitely not Tagalog. It is a language called Aklanon. I am in a place called Banga (malapit sa Kalibo) and in a region called Aklan. The Aklanon language is really different. I am very lucky though. They also speak Tagalog. I am probably in the most talented area Tagalog-wise. SO we only use certain words and phrases in Aklanon. The apartment I live in is tiny. No running water or anything really. It honestly looks like a haunted house, just a collection of cinder blocks, really. But, it is all we need as missionaries and we get by with no problem. We have no air conditioning and just drag our electric fans everywhere with us within the house. It isn't too bad. There is a part member family that lives right next to us and nay (pronounced "nigh," or woman, short for nanay) is an RM. They live in what honestly looks like a step up from a tree-house.

I hand-wash my laundry. It isn't too bad, but since it rains so much you have to have a bit of luck to get your clothes completely dry. Nay usually gets our clothes when it rains since we are never home. Nay is just what you say to any woman older than you. Tay (pronounced "tie," short for tatay) is used for men. "To" is little boy (pronounced toe) and Ne (pronounced like a sheep) is little girl. (I don't know what he's talking about here... maybe the sheep in the Philippines say neigh? Or maybe he just needs to come take a few animal noise lessons from Levi.) Everyone here has nick names and they are really weird and are not even close to their real names. I'm not quite sure why yet.

My companions name is Elder Ordeniza. He is a native from Mindanao (close to where Manny Pacquiao is from) and he is extremely nice. All the Filipinos are. He always cooks for me and helps me with my Tagalog. It is awesome to have a native to train because becoming fluent will be a lot easier for me. He struggles with English though so it can get difficult to express complex ideas to each other. We are both patient though. It will come.

The culture here is so different. The people are so poor. They are so nice. They are so soft-spoken. They are so humble. The list goes on and on. I cannot do justice to this place with only words. You would have to experience it. They absolutely adore blue eyes... so I have an in there. But, my height and my white skin makes them uncomfortable and shy. My companion always says "nahihiya sya-lang der" or 'she/he is just embarrassed elder'. They only say Der not Elder. (Ha! I'm so calling Scott "der") They are big into short cutting their words. So to help with that I just playing with the children at first. They usually really warm up after that. One thing that makes them really laugh is when I bless the little children (hold their hand and touch it to my forehead, you bow to them to do it). They pull their hand back and just laugh. I have been blessed a couple times by the little children... it is super special to me. I think it is just because I am tall and white though. Nevertheless it is humbling. The people here LOVE the elders. They will come home with dinner and forbid anyone to eat until we have eaten like at least half. I try my best to just leave if they are about to eat. It is so humbling to see people give everything when they have practically nothing. They truly live consecrated lives. They culture is so interesting and I can't wait to be fluent in their language and understand them more.

The work. We have one little girl JeckieLynn who is going to be baptized Dec 4th. She is twelve years old and she is ready. I am super excited for her. Keep her in your prayers. We are planning to extend a date to her mother Jessa this week as well with one possibly two more investigators. So just pray for us... we need as many blessings as possible. I teach usually 3- 8 minutes every lesson. My tagalog is improving and I feel somewhat useful. A lot of times I am just entertaining kids. I love the work though. I try to say like good morning to everyone. It is funny to see the confusion on people's faces when I speak their language. I can get to know someone pretty well with an aklanon tagalog mix. The ward here is great and they love the elders as well. At church the teacher will always ask me "Der, will you add something?" Again, just the white tall blue eyed guy. They are super kind and I already have my group of mga bata (children) that run up and demand high fives and to chase them around. The bata here are extremely cute. Like beyond cute. and hilarious. Mahal ko sila.

I saw Adam and he is doing really well. He is a zone leader down in Antique. (Adam is a friend who used to be in our ward in Augusta, also, obviously, serving in his mission!)

I have not bought a cd player yet. I will check and see if I can even buy one here today. I kinda doubt it. I will check though. I did buy a sweet belt though made out of horn. If you send me like $30 I can buy them for Dad and Matthew and Graham and Evan. Just tell me what color. They are honestly the coolest things ever. Mine is brown and black so it matches everything. For Christmas I would just like some money and a card and some pictures. I would like the money to get my companion and some investigators a little something. SO nothing too much at all. I felt bad enough buying this belt (it was 850 pesos= $11) All my Filipino buddies when I told them said "Ay Sobrang mahal sya der" or 'that is way too expensive der'. Just a bit of money to buy little things for people. Thanks for the little pictures we bought right before we left. We gave some to JeckieLynn's family. They flipped out and just absolutely loved them. When I left one of the bata blessed me. They are the investigators though that said they have something for us for Christmas and we should get them something. They are really big on "Maliit perro galing sa puso" So I don't need very much for Christmas at all. OH! I almost forgot. Could you send me some easy American recipes to make. My companion has never had American food. I made him and omelet yesterday and he just loved it. I will make him french toast soon. Just easy American foods that can be cooked on a stove. No oven and really nothing else, just a stove.

President Pagaduan is way nice too. He is hilarious as well. His English is pretty broken, I can't wait to be able to converse with him in Tagalog. I will not see him very much at all though for a while. I am on the opposite side of the island about 4 1/2 hours away. The very first night me and the AP's and his daughters had a spelling bee. We laughed and had fun for like two hours. I'm telling you, the children here are just so nice and outgoing.

I can't really think about anything else other than how beautiful this place is. I am up near the mountains and everything is green. The bamboo houses are also just amazing. They let the breeze through so they are way nicer than our hot cinder block house.

As far as communication goes just tell everyone to email me. I can read them and print them off and send real letters back. That should help the correspondence time.

Anyways, I love you all. I think about you often and pray for you often as well.

Be safe!

Elder Lowry

Pics from our missionary!

So I got a wonderful letter in the mail this week with a CAMERA CARD! I am so happy he got it sent off before he left the country, and I am so happy to report that he looks great and like he's having a ton of fun. Just trust me, he does.

Ok fine. I guess you can see for yourself.

{The LDS Temple in Provo, Utah.}

{Provo is tucked right into the Rocky Mountians}

{A day in the life of a missionary at the MTC... class 8-10 hours every day.}

{Buds. I guess. The guy to Scott's left was his MTC companion, Elder Christensen.}

{Cousins. Together in the MTC. Awww. This is Tayt-- Elder Low, who's now in Dallas TX.}

{Scott took 8,000 pictures of the flowers by the temple. Seriously. Believe it or I'll post them all...}

{Large meeting room. Apparently his district was all about this finger thing.}

{Sorry Scott. I couldn't help it.}

{Scott and Elder Christensen outside the temple- they went once a week while in the MTC}

{Because you're not a missionary until you've taken your "map" picture!}

{Or the Matrix ironing board picture. Really. Every missionary has one!}
{Scott's district... I would guess.}

{And proof that he really wore those suckers in the MTC and survived!}

And that's all folks!

Hope you enjoyed them because I bet it will be a while before we get any more!

The boy's in Taipei!

So Elder Lowry's had the awesome opportunity to talk to us as he lands in the different airports to let us know he's safe.... and to catch up on everyone's life ;)

We talked to him around midnight last night when he got to LA, and then about 6:30pm he called from Taipei, Taiwan! He had a 14 hour flight and said they ran from the sun the whole time. He said the sun had just came up when we were talking to him and so it had been like 21 hours since him and the other 19 elders with him had seen the sun! He also said he only slept 5 hours and played "Pong" the other 9 with other elders on the plane... so he sounded extremely exhausted! (Which was opposite of last night, he was so dang excited!!)

We talked about the language, how religious language is similar to Spanish because Christianity was introduced to the Philippines by Spaniards. I thought that was interesting. He said that in the Philippines they pronounce "P"'s like an "F"-- thus when he says "Pilippines" that's not a typo ;) And he said that because of that, the Filipinos come to America and say "Hey, let's Farty!" Evan thought that sounded pretty excellent. He told us that "po" is an add-on to sentences when you want to show respect. He said the kids love to say "Sorry Po" to the white people over there and they think they're pretty American when they say that! We talked about how much white people are admired and coveted and almost idolized in the Philippines. They would do anything to have white skin (dangerous things even, like skin bleaching)-- and to have a white baby, so he has to be very cautious in his interactions with the young women over there (as does any missionary but this is different because to the girls over there a white husband means a ticket out of poverty, beautiful fair skinned babies, etc etc). I thought that was very interesting and unique as well.

He enjoyed a delicious meal at the airport next to the Hello Kitty terminal, and was proud to say he had eaten a pretty authentic Chinese meal in China. He is the furthest away from home that anyone in our family has ever been! Crazy!

You should have seen and heard Thatcher when he heard Scotty's voice come across the phone! Oh it was priceless. He got all giddy and giggled like he couldn't believe it was really him! He talked and talked to Scotty like they hadn't missed a beat. It was a very sweet experience for us. They talked about pirates and digging to China (when Thatcher heard that Scott was in China he said "I will go dig!" and they decided they could meet half way if they both started digging.) Scott asked Thatcher if he would come visit him sometime in the Philippines and he said, "Yah! We will turn our car into an airplane and fly to the Philippines!" I said, "Wow, I didn't know our car could do that, how can it turn into an airplane?" He told me there was an airplane button and when I told him I had never seen one he said, "Oh, it's around there somewhere!"

Scott told Thatcher how to say yummy! "Masarap!" And a few other words too, but Thatcher kept saying "I can't right now. Maybe later." Scott told us that he had already given away a Book of Mormon and when he asked Thatcher if that made him a good missionary Thatcher said, "no, not yet." Turkey head!

We really loved hearing his voice these past couple days. It is such a treat and a tender experience to talk to him when it happens so rarely. You can tell he is really on fire and super eager to get out there and love those people in the Philippines. Actually, no, he already loves them so much- that was very obvious. He is just so eager to get out there and serve and teach and play and touch as many lives as possible! I sure love him and I am so, supremely proud of him. He will get on another plane soon here (around 8:30pm our time) and fly to Manila, Philippines and then get on yet another plane to Iloilo. I can't imagine how happy he'll be to be off that airplane and out of that airport!! It will be like 7:00pm Wednesday night (local time) when he gets to Iloilo so I'm guessing he sleeps really well when he finally gets to crash for the night.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support! We love you Elder Lowry!! Be safe. Be good. Be awesome.

Krista

(PS- We started Scott's Christmas package today!)

And he's off again!

Off to the Philippines today! Wow! Talk about jet-lag, this kid's going to be traveling to a time zone 12 hours ahead of us! And it's going to take him a few days worth of flying to get there. Absolutely crazy. That's going to be an adjustment for sure!

So keep the love a-coming! I am sure he'd love to hear from us all as he embarks on this amazing, life-altering adventure... mail will probably take 4-5 weeks to get to him from here, so keep that in mind when mailing! (As in send your Christmas cards NOW!) I have updated his mailing address in the sidebar, so check that out, and don't forget DearElder.com still offers FREE letters to Scott through their website! No postage or anything!

Anyways, please keep Elder Lowry in your prayers today- for safe and comfortable travels, for missionary experiences on the airplane/in the airports, for good travel conditions, for safe pilots, etc etc etc. He's about to be a looooooong way from home!

Thank you ALL for your continued support and thoughts and prayers. You're truly the best.

Love, the Lowry Family

Week 9

Kumusta po kayo pamilya ko!?

Excited ako para sa Philippines. I am almost ready to go! I am just finishing up some laundry today and then I need to pack it up and then clean my room. I am in great shape time wise. It was tough getting sleep last night. I was just thinking of how drastically different my life is about to become. It is so exciting and scary at the same time. I will be so glad when these next 30 or so hours are over and I am actually getting to do what I've been wanting to do for six months now. Isn't it crazy to think that I got my call 6 months ago today? It seems so far away now. The language has just been moving along in leaps and bounds for all of us. I hope I will be able to communicate well with natives when I get there. Thank you all for the letters this week. It is so nice to have all of your support. It really does mean a whole lot to me to receive so many encouraging words and to hear what others are up to.

I will call home at like 6:30 LA time. I think that is what you said. I will double check.

So this week the streak continued! We had David A Bednar come and speak to us. We set a definite record with four apostles in a row. He gave a powerhouse of a talk too! Man, he is awesome. He spoke about the individual definitions and the relationships between doctrine- principles- and applications. He said that Doctrine always answers the question of "Why?" Principles always answer the question of "What?" and Application always answers the question of "How?" He said that WAY too often we focus on solving behavioral problems with an application solution. Like an example was this family that would bake a cake on the first of the month and give it to the home-teachers whenever they got there. If they waited too long the home-teachers would just get a moldy cake. While this scheme or gimmick is clever, it does not change the attitude of the home-teacher. When they get a new assignment, they will just go back to cramming their assignment to home-teach at the end of the month. Rather, we need to determine: "What doctrine, if understood, will change behavior?" If we can do this then we will be so much more effective. We need to search the scriptures for doctrine that if the person understands, they would not dare misbehave again. It is powerful, no? He said that our "schemes or gimmicks" are not enough. He even went as far to say that we are being prideful because we think that our innovation or creativeness will be more effective than the Lord's true and everlasting doctrine. He said "it is like relying on the arm of flesh." He likened this to teaching, church leadership, parenting, anything. He said this phrase like 15 times so you know it is important "The Doctrine is always the answer." That is what he entitled his talk too.

So I am so happy that I got to see all 4 of these apostles. Pretty incredible, eh?

Well I need to get going and pack up. I will call tonight! I can't wait to hear everyone's voices!

Alam ko po na totoo Ang Simbahan na ito. Ako ay misyonero para sa simbahan na ito. Ako ang tagapagligtas ng Diyos at mahal ko Siya! Kung susundin natin ang mga kautusan Niya, magiging tayo mas ligaya at magkakaroon po tayo mas kagalakhan at kapayapaan sa ating buhay. Pupunta ako sa Pilipines para maglingkod sa lahat ng mga tao doon. Maglilingkod ako sama buong puso at tunay layunin. Sana maririnig ng mga tao ang aking mensahe. Mahal ko kayo at Nananalangin ko sa inyo araw araw!

Ingat kayo! (okay these Google translations are really starting to crack me up)

Elder Lowry

Week 8 - Last Week in the MTC!

Kamusta kayo ang pamilya ko?!

How is everyone today? Time here is just flying by, I can't even believe it. This time next week and I will be making final preparations to check out. We taught Lesson 2 in Tagalog this past week. It was pretty awesome. It was a Filipino family that volunteered that was from Iloilo so we chatted a lot as well. They had THE CUTEST little five year old girl named Iris. Man, I can't wait to get there and meet all these little kids. I am beyond excited. So I leave MTC campus at like 1:30 PM next Monday. I will leave the SLC airport at 5:00 PM. I will get to LAX at 5:45 and won't leave there until 10:45. This is all local time. I think I will call during that time if that is cool. Thank you for the calling card number! I am way excited to be able to talk to everyone. It seems like forever, di ba? So from LAX at 10:45 PM and get to Taipe Taiwan at 5:30 AM (their time) on November 17th (two days later)... can you say Jet lag? Wow. I lose two whole days traveling. Then from Taipe I fly to Manila and get to Manila at 11:45 local time. Then I hop on another plane to Iloilo at 5:35 PM (So I may try to call again.) I will honestly have no idea what time it will be at home so I apologize in advance. That flight is only about an hour long, so that is nice. I'M SO EXCITED. This is my last week of classes. And Sis. Turbyfield- Thank you so much for the goodies. All my hallmates and I chowed down on those delicious cinnamon rolls. Thank you so much.

I am ready to go! Thank you all SO much for all your support. I love you all so much. We got another visit from an apostle this last week! M. Russell Ballard came and spoke to us! I think we set a record. Wow. So I read his book "Our Search for Happiness" all the way through the next day. So good. I love hearing from apostles. I'm hoping we can continue this streak for just one more week. Maybe Holland or Bednar? OR maybe Uchtdorf... One can only hope. I do have a lot though, we also got an awesome speaker last night. Sheri Dew payed us a visit. She is a fantastic speaker. I love it.

I was released as zone leader. I am just training the new ones for my last week here. So this will be relaxing and less stressful. I am going to be really sad to leave all these missionaries. But, a lot of them are going to Iloilo so I will see most of them before too long. I'm really proud of all of them though. We have like the most loving and close zone. It is fantastic to see everyone getting along so well. I am happy I was able to help make the zone a little bit better before I left. These missionaries are just fantastic though. They don't need much help to be awesome. There is this one Elder names Elder Waggoner who is like a white Joseph Scott. SO naturally we are best friends. And he is a huge Avett Bros fan. (watch that one. watch it. all the way to the end.) So we have much to talk about. We have decided that we will be companions in the field. Sorry president, we have already decided. He's a fantastic harmonica and guitar player.

So we are all working super hard to close out our stay here at the MTC. It is bittersweet for sure. But we are all too excited to be distracted on the bitterness. Tell everyone to not send letters too far into the week, or else I just won't get them. I'm excited to talk to you all soon!

I pray for you all often

Meron po kayong pananampalataya!

Mahal Ko Kayo!

Elder Scott Lowry

Week 7

Kumusta Aking Pamilya?!

Well this week has been a very busy one for me. I have loved having the opportunity to get to know all of these new missionaries. The first couple days here the ZLs really get to spend a lot of time interacting with the new missionaries. I have tried my very best to be a good example to them and make them feel a part of the family. All the missionaries that have been here for a long time are really close now so we really focused on getting the new missionaries to feel that love as well. I was really pleased on Thursday because I somehow found out that the field was going to be open for gym and it was a nice warm day. So I got the whole zone to go outside and we had a bunch of sand volleyball courts all to ourselves. It really picked up the zone unity and everyone had fun. All these new missionaries are practically going to Iloilo so it is really fun to talk about our future missions together. One new missionary is Elder Doig. He is from Cardston (where our mom's family is from) and graduated with Tayt (our cousin who is also serving a mission, but in Dallas, TX)! It is way fun to talk to him and talk about the motherland. There are so many other Elders that are so cool, but I have no time to write about all 28 new missionaries.

So I am really upset that I didn't mention this last week because it was probably the coolest thing that has ever happened to me. I'm glad I didn't forget this time, or I would be in dire need of repentance. But Russell M Nelson came and spoke to us two Tuesdays ago. Phew! That was amazing. He is just a genius with the most solid testimony ever. Did you know that is is an internationally revered and pioneer of thoracic surgery. And man, he is just an awesome speaker. I have never heard from an apostle live before. So we all caught wind that someone big was going to speak to us, so I was really hoping it was Richard G Scott. He didn't come that day though.... He just came the week after! So this last Tuesday I heard from Richard G Scott. He is the man. I mean just every word, every sentence he says is dynamite. He talks straight to your soul so that you can have no doubt that what he is saying is true. We are all just on a spiritual high from hearing from two apostles in a row. What a fantastic experience. Richard G Scott is just my favorite. He even prepared a handout for us. This is how he described it "Everything that the Lord has taught me over my life put in simple statements on one sheet." I am sending it home... it is scripture. He also gave all the missionaries 3 Apostolic blessings. He said as he gave them that he was giving them to us not just as a man of God, but as a man holding ALL the keys to the Kingdom of God. It was so powerful. He gave us the Gift of Tongues, the Gift of Confidence, and the Gift that the lessons we learn on our missions will greatly bless us throughout our entire lives. He also bore testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ at the very end. It was the single most powerful testimony I've ever heard. I am still just freaking out.

Well, I am almost done here at the MTC. Only two more weeks of classes left here. I only have one full P day left. Two weeks from now I will be packed and ready to get on an airplane heading to the Philippines. I am still in shock. I have come to terms that the MTC is my mission. It will be weird to leave. I haven't received my travel plans yet, though. I will get those Thursday or Friday. I can't believe that I will actually be living half way around the world in a place where plumbing is nonexistent. I am beyond excited. These people are already fascinating to me. The language, the culture, their values all just blow me away. I can't wait to serve them and bring them closer to Christ. I'm working as hard as I can to be proficient enough in the language to accomplish my purpose. It is such a cool language. English should really take a page out of the Tagalog book. I am teaching the 2nd lesson for the first time in Tagalog on Thursday. The trick is to just keep it simple. I feel pretty comfortable and I feel like we will be really successful.

So I figure I will just impress you and practice at the same time. Here is the first vision in Tagalog (I swear I'm not looking at anything, it is all from memory) "Ako ay nakakita ng isang haligi ng liwanag na tamang- tama sa tapat ng aking ulo, higit pa sa liwanag ng araw, na dahang- dahang bumaba hanggang sa ito ay pumalibot sa akin... Na tumuan sa akin ang liwanag, nakakita ako ng dalawang katauhan, na ang liwanag at kaluwalhatian ay hindi kayang maisalarawan, nakatayo sa hangin sa itaas ko. Ang isa sa kanila sagsalita sa akin tinatawag ako sa aking pangalan, itinuturo ang isa: "Ita ang pinakamamahal na Anak, Pakinggan Siya!"

Alam ko po na talagang- talaga nagpakita ang Diyos at si Jesukristo kay Joseph Smith.

Maraming Mahal,

Elder Lowry