Monday, February 21, 2011

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

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