Hello Family!
How is everyone over there in your side of the world? I am doing really great here in Molo! I am loving the work here and have really settled into this new place. I think I could spend the rest of mission here if I could. But I've definitely got one more area. Yup... I probably only have one more area after this one. That is crazy to think about! I'm not trunky... just accurate. Anyways, this week has been so busy for me and it seems like this morning that I wrote you all last. I didn't even feel this last week go by. All I know is that Elder Faran and I have been on our feet and working our butts off. Then we come home, eat, sleep, and do it again. We have done a really good job of getting used to each other and I feel like we have gotten in a great rhythm together with how we tech and do the work. So I expect the rest of this transfer to really be great and I expect to see some great leaps in the work here in Molo 1st ward. Let me tell you all about the progress we made this last week...
We were really able to see the fruit of our labors this last weekend as we went to church and put together our reports for our leaders. Yesterday we had 8 investigators attend church! 8! We had two families show up. We ended the week with 6 investigators with a baptismal date and 5 of them were part of the 8 that were at church. The one that didn't come to church was part of a family that all went to church this weekend so we will just make sure she joins her family this next week. Practically, we are on track for all 6 baptisms to actually go through at this point. One of the families that went to church were brand new investigators. We just met them on Wednesday! And they still came to church. The wife is an inactive member, so that made things a little bit easier. We actually met the father last Sunday night on the street... he was as drunk as could be but asked us to come over and teach him and his family. This last Sunday he was at church and really seemed to enjoy himself. They said they will be back next week. The other family is another part member family and the Dad and the daughter just need to be baptized. The father is a really brilliant guy and is fluent in English. SO our lessons are very funny as they such a mix between Ilonggo and English. Just basically say whatever comes to mind first. It is funny. But he has really taken the Sabbath Day Holy seriously and says he won't miss another Sunday (he used to be a very inconsistent church attendee). We also met an investigator at church that wants to be baptized... so that was weird. She has been taught a bunch and her husband is a member that works in Saudi... So we will follow up with her this week. She just moved to iloilo and is still trying to get settled in she says. Other investigators seemed to just run at us this week. We were given 3 families to focus on from Bishop and as we went and contacted them we were able to get about 8 New Investigators! I was way grateful bishop took our request seriously that we needed some focus families... then I was glad we followed his advice because that is literally where ALL our new investigators came from this week. I think that is everything. Overall I was SUPER pleased with our work this week. We met EVERY goal that we set last week. Now that has never happened in my mission before. Awesome.
Last week's District meeting was alot of fun and I felt like we had a really good lesson about how to overcome our investigators concerns in order for them to commit themselves to come to church. The lesson tomorrow is called "Teach People, not Lessons." We will be focusing on D&C 50 and how use inspired questions and silence to help us missionaries find concerns and receive guidance from the Holy Ghost more during Lessons. Something I am really trying to focus on as of late is to try to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost in every lesson. Sometimes I get so carried away with trying to talk and get my point across I don't give the Spirit any chance to prompt me to the way I need to go. SO Elder Faran and I have both tried to calm down during lessons and really just try to listen more to the investigators and to the Spirit. I think it will be a good lesson and help the missionaries seek revelation during every lesson.
This next week promises to be really fun. I have more splits to go on and Elder Faran have a full schedule with all these new investigators and everything going on. I am really excited to get another week of work done and to report back to you all afterwards. I love reporting... it is something I have grown fond of. When someone tells me to do something or when I set a goal... I really want to achieve it and then report back to that person that I was able to accomplish it. It gives me lots of satisfaction to be able to do that. I think that has always been a strength of mine. This week was a great triumph for Elder and I as we really committed to our goals and worked our butts off in order to achieve them. I think it was Friday and we only had 3 lessons with a member present for the week... our goal was 10. We set some goals and really went out of our way every lesson to get a member there and we achieved it! Sunday night we got our tenth lesson with a member present for the week! It was that way for New investigators. We got to Sunday and were still lacking one more new investigator to reach our goal. We had no time for tracting and no appointments where we really thought we could find more people. But we went to a Less Active members house and his brother and sister just happened to be there. So we invited them to listen and got another family added to our teaching pool! The Lord really is mindful of us when we set goals in Faith and then go out with specific things we want to get done. He will find the way for us to achieve our goals.
Well, I think that is all I really have to report. I, again, am really excited for this next week. Remember how much I love you all and miss you all. Thank you all so much for the love and support! I think you are GREAT!
Halong,
Elder Lowry
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