Week 29

Hello Everyone!

I am doing really well here! I am loving my mission still and excited for another week to get things done! It was awesome hearing how wonderful General Conference was! I am still so jealous and borderline covetous of you all (I just chuckled because of the time Evan and I were forced to go furniture shopping with Krista and Mom. Then seeing a nice lamp Evan just said "I covet that"... I thought it was pretty funny). Elder Quinantoto and I got to move in to our new apartment this last week and it has just been great. It is so nice to only walk 1 minute to go to market instead of a half hour. Our travel all together is just great now. It is so easy to go anywhere in our area now! The house is pretty big and will easily be able to fit a couple more Elders. I really think I will be here for at least one more transfer. It will be nice to be in my first area for 7- 8 months. My companion and I are getting along really well and it just makes everything so much nicer. We are pretty similar and I feel like we are becoming really good friends. Speaking of companions, my MTC companion got transferred into our zone but not my district. It is sweet being able to see him again and telling stories. Telling stories- the only form of entertainment available to missionaries. I have gotten pretty good at it.... in English or Tagalog.

I had the coolest thing happen to me yesterday. Like a life dream just got fulfilled. I made friends with a monkey! Like me and this little guy are tight. He spent a good half hour grooming my hair while chilling on my shoulders! He also groomed my hair on my arm. The are really just cleaning the skin and getting any dirt. So he would see like the two freckles on my arm and think they were dirt. So that kinda hurt when he was trying to pick off my freckles for me. He is a native monkey from a forest pretty close to our area (but not part of our area). He was literally like a little kid. He just loved to get into my bag. He always tried to steal my name badge. They are way smarter than dogs and to me would just be the awesomest pet. They are like little humans and very curious. I will go back and get some pictures so you can see. But after like ten minutes of being nervous of each other, a beautiful friendship eventually formed.

As for the work we are doing well and excited because Angelyn's cousin Vegrace who came to her baptism is really investigating the church. We hope to extend a baptismal date to her this week. She will make a great member as well. Angelyn is just absolutely flourishing and it makes me just so excited for her. To see this gospel really stick in their life is an awesome miracle. Sheila is another great example of it. Angelyn is helping us teach her cousin and really involved with just everything right now. She might even have a chance to go to the Cebu temple next month to do baptisms. She is going to conference this next week as well (the broadcast here is postponed a week).

So we got our Liahona's this week (church magazine that is the international version of the Ensign) and man, it was awesome. There is one talk that you ALL have to read. It is the gospel classics talk in the magazine and it is the talk by Elder Bruce R McConkie. He gave this talk 13 days before his death. In the very beginning he just says "I feel impressed to bear testimony of the most important thing I can bear testimony of... the Atonement." He then goes in to a beautiful discussion of the Atonement. It is literally the most beautiful talk I have ever read about our Savior's atonement. We cannot understand what the Savior went through because only a God could possibly bear that sort of pain. We cannot be grateful enough to the Savior. The only man who did not deserve to be punished because he committed no sin... this same man was the one who somehow satisfied the demands of God's justice by enduring the punishment for every soul's sin except himself. "No mortal mind can conceive the full import of what Christ did in Gethsemane" He suffered himself to endure the pain of Gethsemane, to be betrayed by one he loved, to be spat upon by the vilest of men, he allowed himself to be mocked and scorned and tortured, he allowed himself to hang on a cross for hours, and then he uttered probably the three most triumphant words in history and said, "It is finished" He did it! He overcame the world and accomplished his mission. In those few short hours our Savior transcended everything in human history and then was able to overcome it all. I know that this is true and if we will just give our whole heart and souls to him his suffering will not have been in vain. Isn't that amazing?

I love you all and miss you all this Easter season. Let's all take some time to be more familiar with what the Savior did for us all as a race and for each one individually. The atonement was, is, and will forever be the single most important event/accomplishment in the history of this world. It deserves our full attention and will never cease to teach us more about the plan of our God for us. The more we study on the Atonement the more sacred and important it will become.

I also like what Elder McConkie said in that talk. I know you have all heard what I just said a million times. Even though you have heard them from different sources before, they are my words. Because I know, through the witness of the Holy Ghost, that it is true. Therefore, they have become mine... from my own heart and soul.

Have a great week!

Elder Lowry!

These pictures were from his camera card that he sent home. Unfortunately, something happened in the mail and all the files were corrupted by the time we plugged it in... here's a few that we were able to recover though!