Week 24

Hello Family!

So I will start with the good news. We have a baptism that will most likely happen on March 19 (I say most likely in fear of counting my eggs before they are in the basket) ((speaking of eggs I have a good apartment story about that later)) Angielyn Francisco accepted a baptismal date for that date so we are way excited. This last week has been alot of fun teaching her and we really got to build a great friendship with her. She went to church yesterday which makes 3 times now. She really enjoys it as far as I can tell and has awesome roots in relief society and young women. We have been really nervous about extending the commitment (she has been such a gift to us that we really didn't want to screw up) but it turned out fantastic! So that is a funny story: We met Angielyn the very first night Elder Quinantoto was in the mission. We went to the church to eat dinner and they were having an activity. So it has really been fun for him. That among the very first people he met in his very first mission area will be baptized as well. She is really doing well in keeping commitments and praying regularly. She is sorta dating an RM (I actually don't know if they are but the guy sure loves to call her his future GF/wife... it is funny) so it helps to have him to help answer questions. It is funny because I said to the RM "You should put a ring on it" and then ten minutes later I found myself trying to explain a Beyonce song in a foreign language. They realized where the reference came from but didn't know what it meant. Good times, eh?

Krista asked for an apartment story this week and just in time too. These two past weeks have been a war that I raised against a rat. I swore I would see that rat die and drink of its blood (joking, of course) But Filipinos do make blood stew (one of those stories that might just be better left untold). This rat squeezes under our door and likes to chill under our fridge (it is dry and warm and safe). Not so bad, except for the fact that he leaves little presents all under and behind our fridge. So the other week I cornered it in the back of this cupboard while it hid under our propane tank. SO I had this genius idea to get the Permethrin spray bottle and poison it. So I soaked it in permethrin pretty well and then it escaped outside (permethrin is this crazy strong chemical that would do some serious damage to a human. we use it to bug proof our house). The next couple days were problem free and I thought for sure I had conquered my foe. THEN I am showering (with a bucket so I'm not even sure if you could call it showering or just pouring small amounts of water on your head and trying to also get clean) and I hear something above the roof just scrambling around and making a racket. I am just baffled as to how this rat got into our attic. There is no way to get up there. So I get the mop and start banging on the roof to scare it out of our attic. This goes on for a whole week. Thinking that this rat has found a way to beat me, I start plotting how to strike back. Finally while washing my clothes I see where this rat could've somehow climbed up our outside wall and gotten up into our attic above the bathroom and kitchen. I climb up with my bottle of permethrin again ready to for sure kill this rat. I peek my head in and what do I see?... A hen with nine eggs just chilling above our bathroom. She must've somehow flown up there. So we then had to get our neighbors/landlord to take out part of our ceiling to get this big ol' chicken and her eggs out of our attic. My point: I did beat that rat after all.

As for other missionary stories we have this one family that we are really hopeful for. They LOVE to have the missionaries over. They have this super cute little girl who's name is (are you all ready for the best one I've heard so far?... Princess, Angel, or Lady having nothing on this one) Twinky... yes I typed it right Twinky. I got them to repeat it about four times before I believed it. She is very cute though and has an obsession with always trying to sit on my lap. The family is a referral from some other missionaries and they really have enjoyed listening and ask alot of really good questions. Last night they told us they want to come to church next week without us asking them to or anything. Their name is the Rubello family.

I got my letter from Sir Michael Ryan this past week and am excited to get a response back over seas asap. Thanks for all the emails (Krista). I'm not sure if she meant to do this but I opened up my email today and had 79 new messages. I think I have every month Thatcher has been alive outlined and pictured in my email account. {He gets an email every time I write a blog and I consolidated all my blogs into one this week so I could print a blog book-- so he got all the ones we added from other blogs from years ago! Oops!} So thank you! Thanks for the letter miss Devyn and the pictures! Hannah that is pretty crazy about that car. I had that happen to me one morning on the way to seminary and it made me paranoid whenever I would try to stop to turn for the next couple months. I was always watching my rear view and just hoping they would see that I had stopped. Good luck in the musical. I have been thinking this week that tech week must be coming up soon. Man, I miss tech weeks.

Shout out to Michael and Krista. Krista sent me southern gospel music to listen to with a bunch of MoTab hymns as well. SO I listen to that a lot surprisingly. It is good to have a little taste of the southern culture. Although Michael I will never stoop so low as to resort to country music. (Especially the Dixie Chicks... I threw up a little in my mouth when I read that) My favorite Krista is Amazing Grace and "It Ain't nobodies fault but mine" I think it is the Fairfield Four. {Nope, it's Blind Boys of Alabama... awesome stuff though, and so is Fairfield Four} So as much as I laughed when I saw you sent me that CD it is the one that I listen to the most probably (while cooking). I also have a funny memory to bring up to Evan Matthew and Graham. Remember our Slap Santa brownies? And then going to the sand trap to proclaim to the world our marvelous creation? Good times!

The language is coming along alright. I am getting more and more fluent. I find it easier to manipulate words and verb conjugations to say what I really want. It gets harder and harder to translate my experiences into English every week. I guess that is a good sign, right? Like with Angielyn's story I did a lot of deleting because the words that would first come to my mind weren't English. And to answer Krista's question about seasons... none whatsoever. It is always green and hot and humid. Only somedays it is raining and green and hot and humid. As for food The Crystal Light was AWESOME! I ate everything so those were all great! Especially the pancakes... my companions have just thought those were so delicious.

Dad, Dexter and Merlinda just had their grandmother die. So it has been tough for them. they still read and pray but they haven't been to church the past bunch of weeks. But we are still working on them. We talked to Bishop and discussed on how to really fellowship them and make them feel a part of the congregation even thought they can't get baptized right now.

I love you all and pray for you a LOT! Take care and have fun!

Elder Lowry

Week 23

Hello Everyone!

This week has sure been a good week of tough work. Phew. I told Elder Quinantoto last night that he should be happy that this week was somewhat good and not to worry because it was bound to get easier from here. I sure hope it does. We had lots and lots of tracting time where we just had to try to find people to teach. It has been somewhat tough this week because they are ALL harvesting rice right now and should be done pretty soon. So lots of turn downs and trying our best just to be able to teach lessons to WHOEVER. So like I think I said last week we are basically starting over fresh right now. So we don't have to many steady investigators and that just makes things difficult. We are keeping our chins up though and still appreciate all the Lord's blessings in our lives. I have really gained such a strong testimony of prayer these past couple weeks. It has kept me going no matter what the problem is. My biggest challenge has been the tracting. I am still not as fluent as I would like to be and my new companion is pretty shy. As senior companion and trainer it basically is my responsibility to show him how it is done. It is just very difficult to go up to a person and start talking to them and knowing that if they go off on you in Tagalog or Aklanon you might not be able to understand. Or even worse I might misunderstand what they say to me. So it is a step of faith to start a conversation and ask questions to a complete stranger in a language that is still pretty foreign to me.

We do have one investigator that we are really hopeful for. Her name is Angielynn. She was the girl that went to church last week and has been attending institute. We have taught her three times now and just finished Lesson 1. She is praying and reading and hopefully on Wednesday we will be able to commit her to be baptized. We always have a member present and the lessons have all taken place at the church. So we are way excited for her. She has been to church twice and says she really enjoys it. It also helps that the member we have in our lessons is also an RM. So hopefully some exciting news will be included in next weeks letter. This will be the firs investigator that Elder Quinantoto will be able to be involved in teaching that gets baptized. So some prayer for her would be greatly appreciated.

We have our zone meeting on Wednesday so we are pretty excited for that. Then like next week I will be going to Iloilo again for leadership training. So I'm hoping I get all trained up these next couple weeks and then the work will just take off. That would be ideal, eh?

I'm doing really well here. I enjoy the work and I'm ready for another week of trial and rejoicing. I am comfortable with the people and am learning to love the culture more and more everyday. Oh, one more thing. With the new companion we really quickly found out that neither of us knows how to cook. So your's truly is now the cook of the house. I have been experimenting my hand at cooking Filipino food. And I have a witness for this, Our ulam has been supreme these past couple days. I make a Tongue sizzlin adobo and a slap your mama sweet and sour pork. (Mom you were missed this week because 1. you weren't here to cook me delicious food and 2. when I finally made a delicious meal I had no one to slap) So I'll keep you posted on the food poisoning that is sure to follow.

Thank you all for the notes and uplifting messages. I love you all and pray so much for your safety and success.

Elder Lowry

Week 22

Hello Everyone!

So this week has been a pretty slow one due to all the excitement, being out of town, and getting my new companion oriented. It has been good though and I am having to apply myself more and more as the mission goes on. I think I am working my hardest and then the Lord throws something new at me every week it seems. It really has forced my to rely on Him so much more and spend more time on my knees. A part of Dad's letter came to my mind when I was struggling with the new challenges this week. He said that too often as prideful men we can let our pride get in the way of asking for divine help. That even though we believe that the calling came from the Lord we hesitate to ask for help. I thought of how foolish I had been for trying to carry out the Lord's work without his very assistance. So after spending more time on my knees and asking for forgiveness I asked for help as well in the work.

So here is the part you all want to know. My new companion is a Pinoy. His name is Elder Quinantoto (Ya... try saying that 5 times fast.) He is from Luzon Island in a city that is under the Baguio Mission. He is way nice and a very diligent worker. He is very good at Tagalog (Elder Ordeniza was Cebuano so it is weird hearing PURE tagalog) and I am trying my best to teach him the Aklanon I know. We are both excited because we are practically starting over this week with the work. All of our investigators either dropped us or had to be dropped. So now we are back to the dreaded tracting and finding. The transfer meeting was wonderful and it was great to see some of my batch mates and hear how wonderful their missions were going. I got to see one of my favorite Elders from my batch Elder Dueker. He is an awesome missionary and the only member in his family. He is now being follow up trained by Elder Stokes! Elder Stokes will be going home in March. We got a chance to talk and reminisce. He is actually follow up training and training the third member of their companionship all in his last transfer.

We had to go tracting all day yesterday and had zero luck. I think that part of town was called Sodom and Gomorrah or something like that. (There wasn't a sign) But we are keeping our chins up. I was just happy enough because I had to do most of the talking and the people at least understood me. Even if they told us to go away I did get some compliments on my language abilities.

We are excited about one investigator of ours. We met her when we stopped by the church to eat at one of the activities. Some members brought their friend from university and so we introduced ourselves. Then I got the members to invite her to Church on Sunday (They said she had been attending institute the past week). She went to church and stayed all three hours! We had our stake president there and in Sunday school we had a great discussion on Revelation through Church Attendance and Revelation through Prayer (2 principles from the new missionary curriculum). We watched some of the PMG videos and just discussed it. So we basically had the stake president and the members give her an introduction to the missionary discussions. So then I got a member to invite her to listen to the missionary discussions. We will be teaching her on Wed. just a 1/2 hour before institute starts at the church with her friends present. I am thinking this will be a good investigator.

I really am enjoying the work here and it is progressing. Slowly as of right now, but still progressing. Sheila Mae is just awesome as a member. The members have done a fantastic job of making her one of them. She remembers all the lessons and the review of the lessons is just flying by. In like two weeks she will be all done. It will be strange not going to her house all the time. But, I am not worried about her and she will make a fine Young Women's president someday.

It's funny that Mom mentioned Bishop Hinsdale. I finally wrote him a letter last night when I was thinking of our ward. It will be sent in the next couple days. How is my Martinez ward doing? I miss you all! I also got Nadia Franz's letter today. I will get a response all ready to go here in the next couple days! And Maddy Rupard for that fact... It was great getting all these letters. You guys are awesome! Michael I sent your letter like a couple weeks ago so you should get it pretty soon. And that book is a good idea. We will discuss the title in our letters!

I love you all and pray for you all a whole lot! Keep working hard and I know the Lord will take care of us.

Elder Lowry

Week 21

Hello Family and Friends!

I am doing well here in the Philippines! So I am pretty nervous right now. We had our transfer meeting today. My companion is getting transferred to a different district to become district leader again. An it was announced that I will be the only trainer this transfer in our whole zone. I am scared scared scared I am going to get an American companion. PHEW! My heart is thumping right now just typing those words to you all. I can't even express to you how daunting that task would be. I got the phone call yesterday at church. President spoke alot of Tagalog to me (which in retrospect I shouldn't have spoken it back to him) probably to get a grasp of my language. It was weird hearing Tagalog from him, even though he IS Pinoy and from Luzon (a very Tagalog place, other places in the Philippines aren't very good at Tagalog). He is very good at English and I haven't heard him speak Tagalog before that phone call. So I am going back to Iloilo for the first time in a long time on Thursday along with my trainer to pick up my trainee. They call the trainer Tatay (Dad) and the Trainee Bata (child). I am excited but with a nervous excitement. It is hard to believe that the work in Banga is MY responsibility to continue. So I am praying alot for help. Some help in those prayers will be greatly appreciated! So Friday I will get my new companion!

This week was a tough week and the work seemed as slow as molasses compared to the previous month. I am ready to get out and try again this week. We had some really hopeful investigators drop us. It rained nonstop all week and tracting was just no good because people would just hide from us. We did't have anyone attend church. Dexter's grandmother died yesterday. We are going to their house later this afternoon to help them set up for the funeral. So it has just been one of those weeks. This week will be slow as we have to get Elder Ordeniza ready to go from living here for 6 months. We have to get the apartment ready for the new missionary and get a new missionary settled in. Two days of the week I will be out of town and in Iloilo. I am excited for that! It should make for an exciting week!

I made myself a man in my eyes this week. About a month ago I saw some Filipinos climb up a coconut tree to get the coconuts. It was amazing. These things are not small by any means. I mean they are SO SO SO tall. They did it shirtless and barefoot. It was amazing. So I said I wanted to try it. So about two weeks ago I saw a nice tall one that I thought I could do. So I asked Elder Ordeniza if he thought I could do it. He told me I would only make it half way up. He was right. My feet hurt (I had to do it like the Filipinos of course I kept my shirt on though.) and it was WAY high already. So I came down ashamed and decided it would have to wait. Yesterday I went to the very same tree and climbed up the full thing! It was awesome. I felt good. Even though my feet got cut up and my arms hurt the rest of the day. It was rewarding. I mean like over fifty feet. I will send some pictures soon.

Krista sent me back a part of my email this week. Of course I meant to put 19 months to go. So I apologize for any confusion that caused. The 0 and the 9 are right next to each other. I will proof read my letters from now on. I do not have more than double 10 months left though crazy lady.

Thanks Dad for the address for Luke! I will try to send him a letter here in the next couple days!

Devyn! I'm glad you got some letters! Those are so old haha

So this next email should be full of interesting stories. I am excited to write it more than I think you are to read it. I am hoping that I will become a good trainer for this new missionary. I am working hard and think of you all often. I miss you all dearly and pray for your success!

Go Mom for getting your License back!

Halong,

Elder Lowry