PICTURES!

Jerick and I... at the church.  He is pretty cool.  Me too. 

These are the Gaje's.  The old woman is the auntie and the two smaller girls are the recent converts.  They became my little sisters here in Molo.  I love them so much.  the little boy Jerick isn't in the picture but he is the one we baptized.  I will miss them so much.

This is me with the Banhao family.  Brother is the one that has really turned his life around and is going to church and all of the activities. He had a cold so he is wearing heavy clothes and a bandana full of leaves.  (medicine or something like that)

The Panganiban.  The three older kids are all investigators and there Mom (member) is sitting down.  Their grandmother (inacitve) is standing up with the baby.  These kids are awesome.  They have been way involved with the church ever since we first invited them  One of those golden families.

My companion Elder Arrieta in Hamitc!

ME! In Hamtic.  Crazy no?

Week 76

Hello Family!

Another interesting week has gone by here in the mission.  Let me just tell you the story... hold on to your hats.  Tuesday was great.  We had a great district meeting and I went on splits with the ZOne Leaders.  Right before I started interviews with the Elders in my district President Pagaduan asked to talk to my companion Elder Faran!  So it was blatantly obvious that he was going to transfer that Friday.  I was so excited for him but sad that I would be left in Molo without him... we had become really close.  I also felt bad that he wouldn't be there for the HARVEST of baptisms comin up in March.  I felt kinda greedy and he felt sad to leave such success.  The upside of all this was the chance for me to train sky rocketed! I was waiting by the phone Wednesday and waiting for President to call and ask me to train.  "I was 150% positive the call was gonna come.  And it did.  President small talked for a bit and then asked to talk to me privately and said, "Elder the Lord has called you to be a  (insert me thinking trainer trainer trainer...) ZOne Leader.  WHAT!?!!?!?  What did he just say?  I asked for him to repeat that... yup it was in fact zone leader that came out.  So That means Elder Faran isn't leaving ME... I am leaving him.  Oh I almost choked.  So I had to get all my laundry done and pack up all my things all after just ONE transfer in Molo.  I was so upset.  I don't wanna leave this place.  I understand the people so well, I love them so much, I was having great success... Why would the Lord take me away so quickly from what possibly had become my favorite area?  These are alot of questions that have been going through my head these last couple days.  I eventually just had to trust in the Lord and expect that I can do it and find more success in my new area.  

So now I am emailing you all in a place called Hamtic, Antique.  I am the zone leader here in the Antique zone and the only District on Panay island... yes, they are not yet a stake.  So I've had a ton of responsibility heaped on me here in the last few days.  We have lots of meetings and we correlate with leaders in far away places.  I am really excited for it.  My new companion is Elder Arrieta.  He was actually my first District Leader in the field.  We are doing really well and I have just had to jump into being a new zone leader way fast.  Hamtic is only a branch here but has AWESOME attendance.  Like the average is over 100.  So we have lots to work with and still tons more to work on.  The members seem to be way nice here and very participative in missionary work.  I am still trying to get adjusted back to pure Karay-a.  I miss Ilongo so much right now.  But I will get by with a little help from my friends.  The work seems to really be progressing right now and I am excited to get more adjusted to it this next week.  Fun fact:  ELder Adam Stokes was zone leader here when I got to the mission. I have had a tough time this last week coming to terms that I had to laeve Molo and readjust AGAIN to a new area.  Like I struggled with it alot.  I was so attached to that place and had ZERO expectations of leaving it anytime soon.  I feel like I have done a good job of coping with it and getting excited for a new place and new challenges.  It has just SUPER tough initially.  

The work in Molo did really well last week and I am so excited for what is going to happen there over the next two months.  It should be harvest time for them.  The good thing about being ZL though is that I have meetings in Arevalo every few weeks so I will get to work in Molo at least every month.  SO I won't be out of contact like my other areas.  I should actually get to work there two times in the next two weeks.  I don't know if that will just torture me or actually inspire me.  I think it would help and it will be so good to see them and tell them I miss them.  

I am happy right now especially because I have the chance to send pictures today!  Get Excited!

Well I don't really have much else to say.  Elder Arrieta and I have talked alot about the zone alot and we are excited to get March started and get busy with the work.  I love you all and miss you all so much!  Talk to you all next week!

Elder Lowry

Week 75

Hello Family!

 

This has been another great week of work for Elder Faran and I here in Molo!  The people here are just so awesome and I have felt like every week I get closer and closer with them... it will be so hard to leave this place eventually.  I think I have said this alot but it is so true... I could stay here for the rest of my mission and I wouldn't mind in the least.  This past transfer has gone by so fast... I haven't even felt it.  Yes! It is transfer week once again! I really don't have much chance to leave (which is great!) but my companion has about a 50- 50 chance of getting transfered.  So I might have some news for you all next week.  I was way happy with how things went this past week and with everyone who went to church.  Right now I think it will be pretty easy for Elder Faran and I to have 6 people baptized in March and it could even go up to 8 with a small miracle.  Needless to say we are super excited and workingt hard to make sure that this will all go through. 

 

I have felt like I have been able to make some really good friendships while I've been here in Molo.  The members are seriously just so nice and LOVE to spoil missionaries.  People here love to talk to us and interact with us... it makes missionary work so nice to just have someone talk to you and ask questions about your life... it helps you not feel so alien in a foreign place.  If you wanna help your missionaries just talk to them and have fun with them.  Once they feel comfortable with you that is when they can really help and work miracles.  I think that is one big thing I've learned from this area... just how much the members have helped me stay focused and motivated to keep going. 

 

This last week we had another 7 people come to church!  Brother Omay and his daughter Alex were there... Bro Gilbert (Boyboy) and his daughter Shayra Mae were there... Bro Benjamin was there and Little Denmark came with his Mom who is a member.  His older brother and sister skipped because they attended a parade... It is ok though... they are still on track to be baptized together on March 17.  We were really hoping to have ten there but a few people fell through that we felt were for sure going to attend.  SO we are regrouping this week and goaling for the same ten next week.  It is possible and I think the members are ready for that big of a crowd!  This week again ELder and I "upped the ante" a bit.  We set even higher goals for working ith the members and total lessons in a week.  It will be tough but we are ready for another big challenge and it is definitely possible.  We have been getting 13 leesons with a member present for the past three weeks so 15 should definitely be possible.  15 is the goal for the whole mission and is pretty tough to get.  So we will be very happy to be reaching that standard.  We also did well with finding new people to investigate the church.  We found one new family that seems to be very promising... we were able to give their mother a blessing in the first teaching.  They were actually a referral from a recent convert that said their mother would like to ask us for a blessing.  So the first teaching went very well and we have an appointment for Tuesday.  I am super excited to see if they have read and how prepared they have been by the Lord. 

 

Other than that we have been trying hard not to mess with our success.  We are still working hard with our three part ember families that have baptismal dates and then we are still focusing on Benjamin getting more involved with Institute... Awesome news- He got asked out to the Sady Hawkins dance they are having this weekend at institute... ya our investigator is working it!  He has been progressing so well since he has been attending institute.  All of the YSA's text him now and invite him to attend classes and activities.  We don't even mind that he has little time for us to teach him anymore... he is doing great and will be ready for March 10th.  Brother Boyboy has turned his life around out of his desire to  "become Mormon" and is attending all things Elder's Quorum.  He even wanted to join with us to go to some home teaching appointments (it was part of the activity) but had to get back to his work.  He has impressed me SO MUCH this last week with his desire to follow Christ.  He just needs to get married to his wife and he will be baptized.  And then the other part member family the Panganiban's are doing great and are SO excited to be baptized.  The only person who won't be baptized is the Dad who loves the church and thinks it is important for his kids to become members but doesn't want to give up his bad habits and works on Sundays.  He is also warming up to us alot more (he used to be way shy) so we feel like he will follow sooner or later. 

 

Overall I am just a hapy person right now.  Life seems to be just right and nothing is too out of place.  I have settled that I will just come home in October and everything is ok.  I am excited to get home, and I feel like Oct is the right time for my mission to end.  A bunch of my buddies are going home either this transfer or next... it is weird to get to the mindset that I don't have that much more left.  Once you get a couple months in the mission it feels like it will just be your life for forever almost.  But now a it of a sense of urgency is added once you can see the end.  It is good though and I feel like it will help me be more focused instead of getting too trunky. 

 

I Love you all and hope everything is just dandy over there!  I miss you all so much and can't wait to see everyone in just a matter of months!

 

Halong kamo,

 

Elder Lowry

Week 74

Hello Family!

So another great week here here in beautiful Iloilo City!  Actually I am technically in a place called Molo... its all the same.  I am excited to report again to everyone on how everything went.  I think the big news this week is that I don't think I do not actually get to pick when I get home and they will just ship me out in October.  So no more stressful decision making.  I am excited that I will get a couple more weeks to spend in the Philippines as I will be hard pressed to ever come back.  I just wanna go home in Sept... I'm kinda being a baby about all this.  

Other big news... this time last week (like right as I left the computer shop) there were a couple good earthquakes here.  I've never experienced an earthquake before!  I was tripping way hard.  It felt like I stood up too fast or something and I blacked out... my head was spinning and my knees felt weak.  Wow... I was way confused!  But there were a definite 4 or 5 earthquakes that I felt.  SO we had lots of power outages and just people panicking here in Iloilo.  The Filipino people are pretty superstitious and took it as a sign from God that they could be the next Japan.  I think that day churches were full of people praying... but it rained Sunday so only about 1\2 of the regulars even came to church.  I thought that was humorous.  Everything is fine now though and I am OK... this is just another funny thing for me.  There was another act or mother nature that could've actually affected me but no one knew about it.  Anyways.. now I know what a mild earthquake feels like.

This last week was another awesome goal getting week for Elder Faran and I.  We gave another part member family baptismal dates.  The kids are the ones who aren't members.  The oldest is Dominique 15, Georgie 13, and Denmark 10.  Even though they are new they all want to be baptized and they came to church even though they live far away and it was raining.  Filipinos are certain that if you go out in the rain you are gonna get sick so I was super impressed with them that they walked way far in the rain to get to church.  We were also able to get an older investigator to finally get involved with the institute! His name is Benjamin and is actually gonna enroll and attend this week to the local institute program!  He also has a March baptismal date.  It was great because all of our 6 investigators with baptismal date were at church while it was raining.  I was one proud missionary when they all showed up.  We have also had continued success in our reactivation efforts.  The ward did a good job getting our focus family, the Gamela family,  involved and they even came early this last week because they were assigned to give the opening and closing prayer for sacrament and their son passed the sacrament.  The ward has really responded to the new area goals for 2012 and I think we have really been able to gain their trust... it makes such a difference!  

We still have lots more to get done though... it seems like the harder you work the more you notice what needs to get done and you never find the end of it.  We have found a couple more less active families that need help coming back to church and more part member families that can be completed.  We came short of our goal to have ten at church and came short on a couple more lofty goals we had set... so we pretty much kept the same goals and this week we are confident we can accomplish them.  My excuse for this last week is we had lots of meetings and then it rained all Sunday morning... lame... i know.  So I figure this week we will just get them.  

Right now I am excited for March! I think it will be VERY possible for us to have 4 baptisms next month!  As for February we have no plans to baptize any one, but these next coupe weeks Elder and I will be on the look out for people we can prepare for April.  I really hope I get to stay in this area for a while cause I am really liking this place.  It has seemed like I was just able to jump in the mix of things and already we are doing alot of great things... just imagine if I have another 5 months here!  Should be a really special area for me.  I already have gotten close to the members and have made lots of good friendships.  And I thought back in the day that I wouldn't enjoy the city mission.  IDIOT!  

Today promises to be a good day... we have an appointment later this afternoon to play volleyball with the ward missionaries.  We played last week after the earthquake and it was an absolute blast.  I'm excited for a repeat! 

I miss you all and miss you so much.  I am excited to come home this fall and meet my new NEPHEW!!!!  I am thrilled for another cute little nephew to play with.  Anyways,  I love you all and think of you all often. 

Love,

Scott

Week 73

Hello Family!

Well I have alot to tell you all today... this will be quite the letter.  I think I will start with the business.  We had another great week of work.  We had another big turn out for Sacrament meeting with 6 investigators in attendance.  Another awesome part of church was the attendance in general.  When I first got here the chapel was never full and this last Sunday it was PACKED.  I'm talking getting close to uncomfortably packed.  We had 130 people in attendance!  When I first got here it was a really good week to get 90 people at sacrament people.  So we were REALLY pleased with how well our members our responding to the new area goals to help our inactive Brothers and Sisters come back to the church.  These past two weeks have been real testimony builders for me of what can happen when members get more involved in the work... the work bears fruit easier and faster.  Elder Faran and I have been super busy working with our part member families this past week.  We have three pretty steady families we are working with and the all seem to want to be baptized.  Two of those three have been taught for a couple weeks now and have baptismal dates while the other one is new this week... but they came to church!  So that was really good to see them progress even though they are brand new.    Elder  Faran and I had another week of picking out some goals and working our butts off to achieve them.  He is another really goal oriented person and it makes achieving the goals much easier when your companion is on board and willing to make sacrifices as well in order to achieve the set goals.  I really have enjoyed working with him and I feel like we have already been able to help lots of people come closer to Jesus Christ.  

I had a cool experience at church this last weekend.  Our recent convert got up and bore his testimony in the meeting yesterday.  The first thing he said was "Bali, ginapilit ako ni Auntie ko subong." Which means his Aunt forced him to bear his testimony... haha.  Anyways, I am super impressed with this little 11 year old kid.  His name is Jerick Gaje and he bore a wonderful testimony about how thankful he was to his Aunt (He lives with his Aunt with his siblings) for bringing him to church and helping him become a member of the church.  The Gajes are an awesome little family here in Molo... I love visiting them.  They are loud and fun and love to feed the missionaries.  They remind me a bit of home... except they are all still little kids (the oldest is 12).  There is this one little girl named "Tsing-tsing"  who is HILARIOUS.  I think she thinks that is she doesn't yell and hold out her vowels really long she won't be understood or something.  She's also got quite the attitude and always has something funny to say.  I could try to explain what she says but I just don't think I can communicate it well over the internet with the language differences and such.  The language by the way is still really good.  I love being in the city just because it is easy to talk to them.  Their Ilongo is so understandable for me and I am never lost anymore.  This is another thing I don't think I can completely communicate over the internet... the language situation in the Philippines.  It is ridiculous and you don't even know how thankful I am to be in a place where I can understand everything.  It is such a blessing.

So here is something that joggled me a bit this week.  They are going to start teaching Ilongo at the MTC now... so that the poor missionaries in Iloilo and Bacolod missions don't study a language they won't speak in their missions (Genius, no?).    Anyways, that also means they will want the two missions to be on the same transfer schedule (which they aren't) and Iloilo mission is the mission that is going to have to adjust their schedule.  This will happen in May 2012... which means that I will not be able to come home on September 19 like I'm supposed to.  I now, probably, have the decision between going home on August 30 or on October 10.  So ya... I have been thinking alot lately if I want to just go home the last day of August or extend until October.  I will probably have to make a decision this month or the beginning of next month so that they can work everything out in SLC.  I really would like to come home and jump right into school but I'm not sure if August 30 is still too late for that.  I would, of course, like to see Graham before he leaves on his mission but I'm also not sure is Aug 30 would be too late anyway for that as well.  The more I have thought about it the more I really want to be back at UGA and go to school so if there is anyway possible for that to happen I would come home and do that.  So I will just ask you all to look into that a bit for me so that I can weigh my options.  I also want to hear opinions and other factors maybe that I haven't thought of yet so that I can make the best decision.  But dang... if I were to go home Aug 30 that would mean that my 6 months to go point would be the end of this month.  So that scares me a bit.  So let me know what you all think and gimme some advice because I freaked out a bit when I found this out.  I had it so set in my mind that I was coming home Sept 19 and now it is weird and scary to pick between August and October.  Thanks!

Well that is all I have to report this week.  Elder Faran and I have some really tough goals that we are focusing on this week and we are gonna have to work even harder than we have been to achieve them.  It will be a good challenge.  Anyways, remember I love you all and think about you all often.  Be safe and let me know how everyone is doing! Write me a letter if you have extra time... I'm getting desperate!  

Love,

Elder Lowry