Week 28

The 'remembrance' Angelyn made for Scott.

Hello Everyone!

I'm doing really well here today! It has been a slow week where the work just seemed to not progress. But we trudged on through and we are excited and rejuvenated for another week. I am thankful for each P day as we get to recharge and discuss how we can do better the next week. With transfer meeting we got a new District Leader! His name is Elder Farnsworth. He came from the office and is a way good missionary. I am excited to learn lots from him and to work closer with him. He is just one of those missionaries that is way bold. I have been trying to be more bold this last week and it has been working pretty well. It is easy to just be timid sometimes in a foreign land and when the language is still tough. But I have just been relying more on my help than on my personal abilities. So that is constantly demanding my time and efforts. It is tough but it really makes me apply myself and study all the harder. I have notices this week that I can REALLY get to introduce myself and get to know someone pretty darn well in Aklanon. These little kids always just get these confused looks and say, "Why do you know how to speak our language?" They really don't understand why someone who is English and white would take the time to learn their dialect. All they want to do is speak english.

Speaking of wanting to speak English! I am officially starting the English class on Thursday evening. I got to announce the class to everyone in the ward on Sunday. They were SO excited. Like people clapped and stuff. I was pretty surprised. But it really served as a testimony to me of just how BAD these people want to speak English. It is crazy to think. So we have our ward's support in this endeavor. I think it will really pay dividends to the work here in Banga. It will also be something I will take with me to other areas. I will prepare a little lesson for just basic English. Answer any questions and then they will be free to have little tutor sessions. Like all the university kids will bring projects I can help with. People were just overly excited for it.

We also get to MOVE TO OUR NEW APARTMENT. We move on FRIDAY! I can't even express how excited I am for this. I have the keys in my pocket right now and just waiting for Friday in order to move. So we have lots of work to finish this week in order to move out. It should be relatively easy. This house is honestly just in the perfect place for the missionaries. And the rat returned to our apartment. Or maybe his brother seeking revenge. He have gotten into my instant pancit packs (like ramen noodles). So I was short a breakfast two mornings this week. I swore a blood oath to find it and eat it with my rice one day... again, just joking (sort of). So a new house with hopefully zero rats or chickens in the roof will be a relief. And also I remember Krista one week telling me about Levi throwing unusual amounts of temper tantrums. All I have to say is this kid that live right by us right now is the KING. I mean like two to three a morning. This kid must drink a TON of water because he will cry for half an hour time periods and just scream. For literally no reason. I wake up at six to him crying. I study with him crying in the background. Then I cook and there he is just crying again. Oh new house... you can't get here fast enough.

Well I love you all and think of you regularly.

I got a letter today from Luke and Peru is a cool place it sounds like. Even though the Philippines (in my prejudice) the one and only dear to my heart. We will definitely have to go on a world tour when we are both residing in GA again. SO I can show the Philippines as well. That is way sweet about the France idea. We will make a trip like that together one day. How about herding in Siberia? That should be about right. I will only be fluent in one language when I get home... but have like two or three dialects. Just give me an email and I will write to your home address that should be good enough.

I love my mission and am way excited to get another week going. It is awesome to be able to do nothing but ask people about their lives and try to find out how our message will help them. It is really a unique and interesting opportunity and one I could get from no where else.

I love you all so much!

Elder Lowry

Hello Family and Friends!

Well this week has been way interesting and I have been excited to write this email all week. I will go backwards in interest of giving you the way fun news first (don't worry the other news isn't bad, but a crazy scary story). Angelyn was baptized!!!!!!! I can't even put enough exclamations on that. This baptism paid off SO much to me personally. I can't even describe what it is like. I am so excited for this girl. It has been a fun time teaching someone our age. It allows you to really relate with the person. Anyways, the baptism was a huge success. We had 12 non members attend her baptism. We had over 30 people total. The room was packed with people and full of the Spirit. We took the opportunity to share the message of the Restoration to everyone by showing the movie when Angelyn was getting changed. Everyone really liked it. Then the best part came. She stood up in front of family, friends, and members and said that she knew the decision she made to be baptized. She knew that the Book of Mormon was true, Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and the church was true. Then she turned to Elder and I and just said (with tears in her eyes) thank you for sharing. That is the most rewarding thank you I've ever received. We have been telling her over and over that she can't believe us and use our testimonies, but she needs to pray and really find out for herself. She did it. She took the opportunity to tell everyone she knew that she did it as well. Now her cousin is a new investigator and has talked about baptism as well. She has a rock for a testimony. Man, she is awesome. I literally asked bishop if her and Sister Sheila (my baptism in January) to speak my last Sunday. He said he would think about it. haha

I have other good news, but it will have to wait. THE SCARIEST CRAZIEST THING HAPPENED TO ME ON TUESDAY NIGHT. Like I was in shock the rest of the night. We were coming home the night of my six month mark of my mission (7:30 PM so pitch black already). We get to the highway (main road) going to town and wait for a tricycle. We wave one down and he stops 30 ft in front of us. People are in the front so we will have to get in the back. For some reason he didn't pull all the way off the highway so we started walking on the road to get in the back (completely normal). We are about 10 ft behind the tricycle when the drivers eyes gets really big (he is looking back at us). We hear screeching breaks from the oncoming tricycle (which is right beside us at the time) and then right behind us a BANG! We feel glass hit us on the back of our heads. We look behind us and 1- 2 meters away is the tricycle turned perpendicular to the flow of traffic. The driver is on the ground. We see another guy sprawled on the ground and another meter behind him is his motorcycle. They are both OUT. Not moving at all. 1 METER BEHIND US. Elder and I are frozen and wondering if what just happened is real. After a good 5- 10 seconds two other guys get there and we carry the guys off the road to the side. I helped with the tricycle driver. His face is streaming blood and his is still out. I was in front of him trying to wake him up while the other guy was supporting him in the sitting position. After like a minute or two he suddenly wakes up, takes a deep breath, and blows his blood all over my shirt and face. He has cuts all over his face with some glass as well. He wipes off all the blood with his shirt (like a reaction) and it just keeps on bleeding pretty bad. He recovers in the next 5 minutes or so and is able to stand up. I go to the other guy (way worse) and other people have given up I guess cause no one was there. I see him. His white shirt is pure red and is still just out. Breathing heavily though. (later to find out he was drunk so it was like a drunk person snore). Like I said he is heavily breathing, but his mouth is shut. He has a cut from right under his nose to his jaw bone that went all the way through. Later to find out he also had two other major lacerations I couldn't see beneath all the blood. So he is breathing through that. It has been probably 10 minutes since the crash and someone is like "Should he go to the hospital?" As bad as it was I had to hold back a laugh and say yes he really does. SO we carried him to this van that had stopped and they took him to the hospital. So yes... I will NEVER forget my six months mark on my mission. The motorcycle must not have seen the tricycle and not braked at all (going 50- 60 kmh) because if he had seen the tricycle he probably would've swerved back and there was Elder and I just a meter away. WOW. We got to our apartment door and I was like" Elder I've never been so thankful for being here on our doorstep. We could easily be in an ER right now" I wrote down my experience immediately and I promise that I did not exaggerate a word in what I just sent. That is the single most crazy thing that happened in my life. I can picture it perfectly in my mind. It sent me into quite the shock from seeing all that blood and getting blood on me. Just a crazy crazy horrible night. It was hard to celebrate what should've been a fun night.

Other good news. We are moving probably in the next ten days. I got a phone call just a couple hours ago and they said to move in ASAP. I am also not going anywhere for another six weeks as we just had our transfer meeting. So I am in Banga until May at least. Maybe even longer if we get more Elders in our area next transfer. Very possible since that is the reason we are moving. So they won't make three new elders come into a splitting area. They will probably split my companionship with Elder Quinantoto but we will just have two more elders join us as our new companions. So I might be in Kalibo zone until June or so. We can only hope. I really do like it here.

Devyn- Yes ma'am. I'll get that letter off as soon as possible (which will be tomorrow). I didn't realize how close your trip to England was. Awesome!

Marie- I'm gonna hold off one more week to see if you have gotten the letter. If not I will send another one. I am upset about this and will probably also write a strongly worded letter to the Philippine's Post Office as well. They lose letters and literally take a vacation every other day it seems.

Sis. Leseberg- Thanks so much for the letter. It is so good to hear about your family. Tell Daniel to work with the Elders as much as possible. The Elders really appreciate it and it will prepare him the most for his mission. I had some really good examples to follow by the time I got to the field because of the Elders at home.

Pictures:

She looks good in white

These are all non members! (her class mates)

Our happy Banga District. We really are super close. Two people are leaving though so that is sad.

2. This pic has a good story. A couple weeks ago we had zone conference and we were warned against being plastic. Or wearing our "Plastic smiles" Elder Dadbe taught us what a plastic smile looks like and we all died because it is possibly the funniest face I have seen in my life. So Elder Dadbe (the original plastic smiler) is the second from the left. I just look like I need to pee or something.

The other two people who came to Kalibo from my batch. They are both getting transferred.
I stand alone....

This is how short Filipinas are. (And that is Elder Dadbe again... very funny person) Blood on my shirt. It was CRAZY!

And these ones we found on Facebook- someone had tagged my mom on them!

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers. I love it here and continue to serve and work hard.

Halong (= mixed according to Google Translate. Right on.)

Elder Lowry

Week 26

Hey Family and Friends!

It has been just a good ol' dandy week here in the Philippines! So no worries. Absolutely zero effects to us from our Japanese disaster. Other than it is POURING today (which actually has nothing to do with Japan). But ya, I saw that all on the news. That is insane! I just heard that the whole country was shifted a couple feet! I can't even imagine being there for that. Water disasters seem the worst to me. It is definitely the most powerful. That, I guess, is the reason for the analogy that the gospel will flood the earth. Floods are the most complete. They don't miss a single spot. If you look at the areas hit in Japan you won't find a square centimeter that wasn't affected. I will continue to pray for those people and hope that it can be cleaned up and people will be able to somehow get back to their lives.

The work this week has been progressive. We have spent probably half of the week at the church. We have really tried to teach more investigators at the church and it has brought SO many benefits to our work. One: We get to teach with the members present so it makes the investigators way more comfortable and a built in fellowshipper. Two: The spirit is always more strong when we are in the Church. Three- Just a rough estimate here, but if they will be taught by the missionaries at the church they will be 400% more likely to GO to church. It is like the most perfect solution I have ever come up with. SO our work was fun this week. When you can say it was fun and you still have numbers to show, you know it was a good one. So I had an epiphany the other day. We had all been challenges to reread Preach My Gospel this transfer by our District Leader (Im so close to finishing and the transfer ends in like 10 days, go me.) and I read about ways to find more people. It was perfect. Teach English as a second language. SO we talked to the Bishop (who loves the missionaries right now thanks to some hard work from Elder Q and I) and he was in full support. So Thursday night I will be teaching English (or just like an English tutor to help with papers and projects)at the church. It will be great. I can just feel it. People are pretty bad at English here, but they are ALL required to study it. Even in University. So these people really NEED help and we really NEED investigators. It is just a match made in heaven. It gets people to investigate the church in a comfortable setting and gets us to help the community. Bishop lets us have the keys to the church whenever we need and we have a working tv and DVD player (worth their weight in gold here, to me at least). So I'm thinking this will just let the work absolutely bloom here. It puts me in a comfortable position and helps the people be comfortable at church.

Sister Angelyn is so ready to be baptized. We have the paperwork finished. We have like three more principles to teach her. We have the program ready with half of the ward committed to attend. It will be sweet. She is way excited to be baptized and just has so much support from the ward. Our ward has grown so much in missionary work and it makes me so proud of them. they have all taken on an attitude of missionary work. This is a ward of 100- 120 active members that are ALL working their butt's off to support 6 missionaries. I didn't screw that number up, they have 6 elders they are paying for right now. So I want to encourage our Martinez ward and Augusta stake to step up their game. And to become involved with the missionaries. I don't go to church for 30 minutes before getting asked how different investigators or less active members are.

Other investigators are doing great and we hope to give some baptismal commitments later on tonight to our family investigators. So pray for our success. We had a great District meeting today and Pres. Pagaduan even was at the church today for some meetings so we got to see him for a bit. He is the bomb.

Devyn- No worries, I love getting your letters and enjoy writing you back. I should work on expressing my inner joy of writing letters (I hope you can hear my sarcasm)

Marie- I think the first time I ever write to someone it takes a year or two. I wrote my sister like a week or two after you and she got the letters already. I hate to think the letters got lost. I spent quality time on them. And Joseph expresses his anxiousness differently. It usually involves him crying alone in his closet where no one can see him. Or going to his lab at 4 o'clock in the morning.

Shelby- I got your letter and was very pleased. That is all.... joke! Thank you very much for all your kind words and I hope all is well with Mr. Dorsey (by that I am referring both to Jeff and your beau). Send me the wedding inv.

Love you all! I love the Philippines and my mission. I love the people here. I love the gospel. I am so thankful for our Savior and everything he did for us all. I am thankful for the knowledge I have gained about his atonement and how I can use it to the maximum in my own life. I am grateful to be able to help others do the same.

Elder Lowry

Earthquake effects not bad in the Philippines.

(Thanks Marie, I should have posted this sooner!)

We've been watching the news in the Philippines making sure our missionary is safe and there have been no reports of anything happening in the Philippines. There was a warning, they've all been lifted and they only saw small waves. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/03/11/11/tsunami-warnings-lifted-19-philippine-provinces

Thanks for keeping him, and all those effected by today's tragic earthquake in your prayers!

Big Sister :)

Week 25

Hello Everyone!

Things are going pretty well here on my end. I'm glad most people liked my letter last week because this week isn't nearly exciting... sorry. I did get to experience leadership training for the first time! It was alot of fun! SO Tuesday morning I left to Iloilo again on the dreaded 4 hr bumpy bus ride. With stops and stuff like that it really takes half the day to just travel from my apartment to the place to get to the apartments in Iloilo. It isn't so bad (there is Air conditioning and movies playing). We stayed in the AP's apartments and had air conditioning for all our meetings and when we slept. I never knew how much I missed that stuff. PHEW. It has been getting pretty hot here lately and any moment we can get inside of air con is like heaven. The training itself was pretty fantastic as well. I learned alot of things that I am excited to use in my area. We are doing a TON more tracting this next week so I'm thinking the training will really help with that. We are getting slim on investigators again about now and so we need to really find those people who will accept our message. We struggle sometimes with very poor people. We have two families like that right now that say they can't progress. They love to hear our message and keep other commitments to read and pray. But they say that they cannot go to church. He says that if he goes to church they will have nothing to eat. So we are praying to help them find a way to really go to church and to help them progress. I try to help them realize that they will be safer if they follow God's commandments, but it is still just way tough.

We got some pretty good news on the new apartment. We turned in our thirty days notice. So in early April we should be able to move! We are way excited and the owners took the news really well and didn't get angry (we all thought they would be super offended). So I've been getting calls from the office and we are working things out for that right now. We are actually starting to pack and get things situated. So that is VERY good news. Also at training it was a lot of fun because people have just gotten used to the idea that the American Elders don't speak Tagalog. So when I got there and spoke Tagalog to them they were all taken aback. I think that is why Sister Pagaduan likes me. She isn't nearly as comfortable in English as President, so it is always nice for her to just speak Tagalog. I am glad I got sent to a place where I could get my roots in Tagalog and hopefully I will be blessed with native companions throughout my mission in order to keep up my speaking abilities. As for Ilonggo I can understand it really really well, but to speak is still no good for me.

Angielyn is definitely getting baptized next weekend. She has been to church 4 times now (in a row too). It is great. We are so blessed to have met her. We still have a ton more to teach to her, but we have recommitted her like twice or three times now to be baptized and she says she really wants to. Even though she is 20 we got her to talk to her parents (they live far away) and they were way fine with her being baptized. I borrowed The Restoration video to show her and On the Lord's Errand (a movie about Thomas S Monson) so our next lesson about prophets should be great. I haven't seen On the Lord's Errand yet so I am really excited! So keep her in your prayers. She is going to make a great member one day. She has got some way good roots in the church.

We are also excited to teach this one family that was referred to us later on tonight. We are taking some of their older sons to play basketball too. They are the one with the little girl named Twinky. She is like exactly like Liam. Except a girl. Just this crazy little girl. She was born WAY premature and is just this tiny little thing. She loves to watch TV. She has the schedule memorized and if you ask her what will come on next she performs this little thing where she has all the show taglines memorized and will put on her TV announcer voice and even completes it with hand motions. I literally almost fell off my chair laughing the last time. She takes so fast and speaks wonderful Tagalog (her mom is from Luzon and doesn't know Aklanon).

Thank you all for the wonderful emails! I love hearing from you all and knowing what is going on in good ol' Georgia and Idaho for that matter. I am way jealous of you all for picking the year of my mission to finally go see Gen Conf. Typical, eh? Well that is just fine. I will watch it two or three weeks later when it finally gets here to the Philippines. I think they just make DVD's and send them over here our something. So I won't get to see it until way after you all! Oh well. Have fun and enjoy being in the presence of all those people. naseselos na ako sa inyo! grabe naman! pupunta kayo sa General Conference at wala na ako. Kapag uuwi ako bugbugin ko kayong lahat! Ano ba yan?!

Marie- did you ever get my letter?

I love you all!

Elder Lowry

EXTRA: I got a little response to my own letter this week (he answered the questions I asked) and I thought I'd share! He says, (I asked him how often he eats with the members and to tell us a companion story):

Well being head cook we try to get dinner appointments. But it is like once or twice a week only. I feel bad when we eat at members homes too much. They like skip eating themselves sometimes just to give us food. I just try to only go if it is like a celebration and if the Elders aren't the only ones going. Then I know they will have enough food. I made some DELICIOUS fried rice with pork though last night. Man... I will have to show you all how to cook like a Pinoy when I get home.

Companion story. So everyone gets really confused here when I introduce him. His name is kinda awkward in Tagalog. If you leave out the last o and make it quinantot it means rape in Tagalog. So it took me a while to find that out but that is why EVERYONE gets these big eyes and asks me to repeat myself. SO it is funny. People always just say "oy, akala ko bastos yan" or MAn, I thought you said something rude. Then we just laugh.

Love this boy!!