Week 32

Hello Family!

So this week has been a ton of fun and I am way excited for this oncoming week. I am also kinda sad as I am pretty sure it will be my last week in the area. Yes, transfer announcement is next Monday and I have been here for six months. I would put a bet on the fact that I am transferring. I think I might even start packing... NOT. I hate that word/verb with all my heart. So the next email will have the fatal decision of whether or not I will be in banga for any longer. They are going to have to drag me on to that bus though. It will be so hard to leave here and to start new in another ward and another language. Everywhere else in the mission speaks ilonggo. So it will be a big adjustment even though I have been in the Philippines for six months. It will be like being a green missionary all over again. No fun. The members have begun to be some of my best friends and it will be hard to come to terms that some of them I will never see again. If I ever get to come back here Banga ward will be a must see.

However, I can leave. My converts that I have been with the past several months are so good. Probably having nothing to do with their missionary, but they are just awesome. Both Sheila and Angelyn are just like veterans now. Angelyn works with us all the time now and loves to meet all of our investigators. She has a rock for a testimony and has become one of our biggest supports in the ward. She has started this awesome trend that it is fun to work with the missionaries even though we walk all over town. So now we have people working with us all week this week. I am totally convinced it is because of Angelyn's example to our members. Like I said... this girl is awesome. Oh, and something else to brag on her about. She is, as I am typing, at lunch with her grandpa and helping him set up a time for us to make a special trip to his house and to meet him. He lives in no man's land (there are no missionaries there yet) but yet he has been talking to Angelyn alot lately and even though he is a Catholic leader he said he wants us to share our message with him. Angelyn even said that he might be interested in becoming a member. (He is the old man that went to Angelyn's baptism). Need I say more?

We have been working really hard with this one family named Arrieta. Sister is the member that has been inactive since before I was born and brother is the shiest person I have ever met. Brother is still shy but we hope he won't run from us and we will have more opportunities to meet with him. However, Sister is active in the church again and really is enjoying the fellowshipping there. She is very concerned about her husband and really wants him to get baptized but so far he is holding out. Angelyn came with us to visit her and said they would be partners at church. They sat together the whole time and Angelyn just spent all three hours talking with and helping Sister Rutchie. I was so proud. I was told in the MTC that these people we help get baptized are our gospel children. And just being a gospel parent it is awesome to feel proud of your figurative child. It must be awesome to be an authentic proud dad. They just grow up so fast! (hahaha... spoken with a thick southern accent)

So I am way excited to get back to work and to go out of this area with a bang. You usually only get five areas in this mission and it is weird to think that my time in one of those five is winding up. It definitely puts a bigger sense of urgency on my work. I am very satisfied though with the work I have accomplished here. I feel like I have been able to repair some relationships with the local leadership and the missionaries here. I have helped baptize and confirm some really strong members and reactivate some others. I hope I can continue to learn and grow in order to help the Lord in this His great and marvelous work.

Devyn- congrats! have fun in Europe. Take tons of pics and don't forget to attach them this time.

Evan- This is the joke right now between me and the members. To say Im getting angry we say "Gumagalit" It is really supposed to be "Nagagalit." I just had a brain fart one day and said gumagalit a bunch to try to describe something and they have just thought it was the funniest thing ever. Gumagalit just makes no sense here (even though google probably could make sense of it). So now they always say it in front of me just so I will never forget making that mistake. There are about 50 other jokes like that my ward always uses around me. I guess I just suck at Tagalog. I will explain what we always do as Elders at restaurants when you all get to call me because it is pretty funny but would take forever to explain in typing.

Also with calling... I can't believe I almost forgot. I have a landline that I know I can use here in Banga that would make talking so much easier than with unreliable cell phones. But I might not be in Banga on Mother's Day. So we could talk next week on like Wednesday (Tuesday evening for you all) and I would for sure have a landline to use or we could actually wait until Sunday and probably just have a cell phone. So just tell me what you all want to do as it is fine for me anyway. I will plan to wake up early so we can talk in the evening time your time if we talk on Wednesday). So just let me know and I will give you all the landline number next Monday if you decide to call a couple days early.

I love you all family and miss you all so much.

Elder Lowry