Week 98

Hello Family!

This has been another fun week here in Jordan!  I am really enjoying my time here and it seems to be just flying by.  I thought the other day of how fast the weeks have been just flying by lately.  It seems like the longer you have been out the faster the time seems to go by.  My companion is still pretty new in the mission and is always talking about how slow the time is going by for him and I always get confused because it is just flying for me.  It does seem like a long time ago, though, that I had my birthday.  It was a great day for me here though.  We had interviews with President Pagaduan in the morning... just the regular every other month interviews... nothing interesting happened.  SO it was fun to see him and sister.  Elder and Sister Dyer (the senior couple here) had made a delicious squash cake and had bought tons of fruit.  So we got to eat grapes (first time I've had grapes since 2010) and had delicious cake.  The cake tasted a whole lot like carrot cake... SO I had to tell everyone the story of when Dad made a carrot cake for a little girl that we home taught.  Everyone got a good chuckle out of that one.  Sister Pagaduan also made me homemade brownies... DELICIOUS.  The work even seemed to go super well that day and at the end of the day I went to a LA family's house and they made my favorite food.  Bicol Express.  Sister Ogaya made is just PERFECT too.  I brought some candy for the kids too.  I shared the Swedish Fish and the Gum balls.  I also gave all the kids squirt guns... That was a big hit.  It was quite the evening of good food and games.  So I had a GREAT birthday and I will never forget turning 21 in Jordan.  It was a fun fun day.

The work is still having a tough time here.  It seems like anyone that we visit decides to stop going to church...haha.  That is HORRIBLE.  But seriously, out of EVERYONE we went and taught this last week 2 of them showed up at church yesterday.  SO Elder Johnson and I sat down for a couple hours yesterday and had a long chat on how we needed to adjust what we were doing in order to get some different results and see some progression here.  We figured out some important things that we feel our investigators and members maybe don't quite understand yet and we have set some goals to fix that.  We taught some lessons last night as well and I feel like they went pretty well.  To be fair to us... we have had some super weird weather and that might be contributing to why we are having a tough time.  It has been storming all weekend long and it seems like ANY minute the heavens will just open up and pour down rain.  

I think this is good for us here in Jordan though.  We are learning a lot about how we need to change more and adapt more.  My companion seems hesitant to ever change what he is doing so it has been tough to get him on board for the new plan.  I don't mean to point fingers or anything but I can definitely see that this is something important for him to learn right now and when we can both be united in our change I expect to see the work take off.  So I am trying my hardest to help him accept that we need to do things differently in order to expect something different to happen to us.  So that is my main focus this week... to help the both of us change what we are doing and then we can expect different and better results.  

We are, however, working our hardest and we are definitely not slacking work wise.  We are tracting a lot and trying our very hardest to help others come closer to Christ.  I just don't think we are doing it the most effective way right now.  I, myself, am doing lots of thinking and studying on what exactly we need to be doing differently in order to help the people here change and repent.  I feel like every area is different and what we did in Hamtic won't necessarily transfer to Jordan.  So that is always tough and I don't feel like I am quite there yet.  I don't understand how to help these people effectively yet.  So that is another goal for this week.  Strive for some more understanding and to act accordingly.  So we still got lots of things to work out and I think we will get there slowly but surely.  I feel like this area has kinda died... for like 3- 4 months now.  It is just so hard to revive an area.  My goal is to just get some life in it and to get things rolling... that will be a good accomplishment and then I can go home.  Just like Hamtic... it was kinda dead and until right now it is just thriving.  I still get emails from Elder Domincel and it is doing really well apparently.  They are baptizing a guy that E Domincel and I started teaching and gave a baptismal date to.  So that is super exciting!  That is what I want to happen here in Jordan.  Then I will be happy and content. 

Well I am excited for another week of the missionary grind.  I am sure this week will just absolutely fly by and then August will already have been started.  This is CRAZY. Graham leaves in September and then I go home in October.  It is sure going by quick.  Also, I can't believe I almost forgot this... Elder David A. Bednar is visiting here on August 30!  WHOOO!!! I will get to have an apostle visit the mission.  We get a training from him on that day.  I am so excited.  And the funny thing is that if I didn't extend I would've flown home on August 29th.  Would've missed him by one day.... in fact most of my batch is gonna miss an apostle visiting their mission by one day.  HAHA SUCKERS!  I am glad I chose to extend and I am sure I will love getting to see him.  This is the first time an apostle of the Lord will ever set foot on the island of Panay.  How cool is that?  And I will be ther.  If you remember too, he came and spoke to us in the MTC the week before I left to the Philippines nearly two ears ago.  It will be sweet to be able to shake his hand and meet him for real this time.  This is a nice end of the mission present from God.

Well I love you all and can't wait for next week's letters!  I love and miss you all so much.  

Halong,

Elder Lowry

Week 97

Hello family!

This week has gone by just about as fast as the others have... man the time seems to just be absolutely flying now.  We had a good week of work here in Jordan and I feel like we got a good amount done.  We are still not quite seeing everything we would like to see happen but I think we are closer than we were last week.  It was awesome getting everyone's letters.  If you don't know how much I LOVE getting letters and emails let me explain... it is what keeps me excited during the week.  I love reading letters after a good hard week of work here in the Philippines.  Such a treat.  So keep 'em coming.  You time is almost up to write me on a mission.  Before too long I won't be a missionary anymore.  It is never to late to drop me an email.  I will respond and love you forever. 

We are working super hard here in Jordan.  I am still really trying to find more people to teach, but this week we got a LOT more new investigators.  We got a cool new family we are teaching... The Enriques family.  They are still brand new and we have only taught them once but it was a very nice lesson and they seemed super interested in what we were sharing with them.  We will be back to visit them again on Wednesday... MY BIRTHDAY (I will talk about this more later).  We have also had a lot of people we have just contacted and invited to hear the message.  Some turn out ok and let us at least share a message... some just tell us to come back and then never are home at that time.  We will find the golden ones sooner or later.  That has been the big story of this last week.  We did our one hour of tracting everyday and just got kicked around by all the people here.  It was tough but I think we are doing better about getting more investigators and not focusing on members nearly as much.  We have the same goal this week and I think it will really get some momentum for us in the work here.  We really need someone to progress and get some momentum here in the area.  It seems like nothing has really happened for 3 months so it is tough to get things rolling again.  We can do it though.  

We do have one really cool investigator that has shown some really promising signs.  His name is Joetay... the name is funny here because "Diutay" (pronounced the same as Joetay) is the Ilonggo word for small.  He is a way cool guy and seems really sincere and loves to have us over at his house.  He prays really sincerely and does all of his reading assignments.  We just taught im about the Book of Mormon the other day and we are going to follow up his reading on Tuesday.  We got to stop by his house yesterday and he said he has been reading and he likes it so I am excited to get to talk to him more about it on Tuesday.  I am hoping that we can get some more people we have been working with at church this next week.  yesterday was a nasty rainy stormy day and not a whole lot of people showed up at church for us.  It always stinks to wake up on Sunday morning and here rain pouring down.  You immediately think... Ah crap... no one is gonna go to church in rain like this.   I have only been proved wrong once with that and it was one Sunday in Molo when even though it was raining we had like 8 investigators at church.  I have faith that this next week will be fair weather and we will have lots more people attend church!

In other news... I turn 21 this Wednesday.  How did this happen?!  I feel like I am just a kid but now I am really an adult (or on Wednesday I am).  I would say that this would mean I have to act like an adult.  Like that'll ever happen.  I have a dinner appointment set for Wednesday and I am bringing candy from my birthday packages I got to share with the Ogaya family.  Mom and Krista are AWESOME and sent everything I could want for my birthday... I love you all so much! Anyways the Ogaya family is a less active family we are working with and they are super nice.  They are gonna make me a dinner on Wednesday and I will bring the water guns that Mom sent me and some of the candies and it will just be a super fun little birthday party.  I am super excited for it and it will be a good time with the less active family that needs some help.  Sister has 6 kids and her husband just doesn't help too much with anything around the house.  So she has a tough time especially with her husband wanting her to work as well.  So I think this will be a good time for them and maybe we can talk to Brother Ogaya a little bit more since he runs from missionaries like the plague. Maybe if food is involved he will stick around and we can get him to like us a bit more (even though he is a member he doesn't want to be taught by the missionaries).  Hopefully this will be a good opportunity for us to bond with them and help them become active again.  Don't worry I will have my camera and we will take lots of pictures.  Then there is an active family that has a birthday this Saturday and they invited us over to the birthday meal since my birthday is just  couple days before... So don't worry about me... I'll get my birthday fun.  

Well I am going to wrap this letter up.  I love you all and I am having a great time here in Jordan.  I am working hard and doing my best.  I am excited to see you all again and we can tell each other stories about what has happened over the last two years.  Take Care and know that I love and miss you all!

Halong,

Elder Lowry

Week 96

Hello Family!

I just sent my response form to the office checking all my departure information.  Holy Crap!  I'm coming home in 12 weeks.  That is all I want to say about that right now though.  It could get me feeling trunky.  this was a great week for me.  It was super busy and kept me on my toes.  I really have felt tired alot lately and when I get home I am racing through everything just so I can pass out on my bed sooner.  It has also been such a challenge for me to get up a bit earlier and workout.  I absolutely despise every minute I am awake before 6:30.  It is the worst ever.  I feel like I am working super hard still though and that Jordan is really not going to let me slack in my work.  The area is still having some struggles with investigators.  So bad that I made a goal this last week in weekly planning that this week we will have at least an hour of tracting everyday.  We really need to find some people who will actually respond to the message.  

Hannah included something good in her email and it is something that is so hard to get across to people when you teach them the gospel.  When the lesson is over... something has to change.  If nothing is changed after the lesson than all was wasted and you will eventually just forget it all together.  That is why when we come back to people's house they eventually just say that they had forgotten the lesson from the last time we were there.  It is because they did not consciously change something in their lives according to what they had heard/ learned.  That also applies to anywhere we are as members of the church.  If we leave any church meeting and do not leave with an attitude of repentance and change we might as well have slept the entire time (PA!... joke).  That is really something that we struggle with here in the Philippines... anyone will let you teach them but the toughy is helping them actually change in accordance with what they learn.  Good point Hannah and the quicker we learn that simple lesson the better.  

We are still working really hard with the less active crowd in our area.  We are seeing good change with them...l but not nearly as many of them went to church as we had hoped.  It used to really just set me off when people wouldn't show up to church... but I am learning not to take it so personally.  Now I enjoy my church services alot more because it seems every week that at least one or two people that you were expecting don't show up.  Now I kind of have the attitude that at least I am there and that I am where I am supposed to be.  I did all I could to invite others and to help them understand the importance of being at church... nothing else I can do.  Some people get shy when I follow up with why they weren't able to go to church so I try to explain to them now that they shouldn't be shy to me.  I am just a missionary and should not be accounted to... I was at church and had a GREAT time.  I am simply just trying to help them enjoy their Sunday as much as I enjoyed mine.  So that is what I think about people not showing up to church.  

Right now I am just cruising through the mission.  I am really enjoying the work and am excited to see what else the Jordan area has in store for me.  The members here are super nice to us and love to have the missionaries around.  I am also giving a big boost here at the end of my mission to really master the language more.  I think I have learned more these past two months than I did my first six months.  I have gotten lots better and I really feel confident in my ability to speak Ilonggo and Karay-a.  Those are the two languages that I have spent alot of time with in my mission.  At the very beginning I thought that all I could ever learn was Tagalog... but now I am much better at these other two dialects than I ever was at Tagalog. It is nice, though, that they are so close to each other cause the concepts of the languages usually are the same... just different words.  

Going back to Molo was a fun trip this last week.  I actually got to work in my old area Molo 1b.  I had a nice dinner appointment at the Gaje's house and that whole evening I took the new Elder there and introduced him to all the people I was close with.  I think the big thing that happens here in the Philippines that sometimes kills the work is some missionaries don't know how to hand off an area to someone else.  People are always falling through the cracks and end up lost.  I have seen that here in Jordan.  I am trying to help my companion right now help me know the area better.  I feel like when a missionary leaves an area that he hasn't left all the knowledge of the area he has to the next companion.  So it was fun to take him around Molo (he is still just new there).    

Overall I am doing great and excited to get back to work this next week.  It is crazy that the mission is actually going to end.  I will be fun t get home and see everything again.  Dad said something about a store going up at Washington and Gibbs road... It took me this whole email to remember where Gibbs road is.  I thought it was downtown somewhere.  It'll be fun to get back and remember everything.  I love you all and miss you a ton.  I hope you all have a great week and don't miss me too much.

Halong,

Elder Lowry

Week 95

So I had a wonderful long email all written out for you all and I
checked my inbox because someone had just emailed me and I promise I
clicked save draft... but it was lost. I am so mad. I can't believe
it is just nowhere to be found right now. I honestly don't even know
what happened. I hate computers!!!! AAAAHAHHH

This week has been a really good one here in Guimaras. We have been
working LOTS with Less Active members and it seems to be really
effective right now. This last week we had 6 less active members come
for the fist time in a long time. So we were super proud. We have
been working hard with a family named the Peralta family. Even though
they were pretty closed off and unreceptive at first they all came to
church and we have a good commitment for them to do the same next
week. I was so happy that they all came as a family and were there
really early. So good to see. Brother Peralta also got interviewed...
he has the Melchizedek priesthood and should hav a calling before too
long. SO we are super excited for them. His Sister in Law also came
with her kids and her cousin to church. She just went through a
separation with her husband and has been inactive since. But her and
her kids were all there and seemed to really enjoy themselves. The
branch did a great job welcoming all the less actives back and making
them feel loved. It was a good week for less active work. We are
struggling with investigators right now. When I got to the area I
tink there were abot three people investigating the church. I haven't
seen any of them go to church yet either... so we need to get some
more new investigators this week really badly. That will be my focus
over the next couple weeks and if we can do that the aea will be
great. The branch here is really sweet and love their missionaries.
They are also working hard t actually have a hometeaching program.
This is the best area I have been in for home teaching. The members
are actually visiting others and they are reporting... it is just good
to see. They still have lots to work out, but I think they are leagues
ahead of my other areas I have been in. SO I am way proud of Jordan
branch for that. This week should also be exciting cause I go to
Iloilo again for Leadership training. That aso means I will get to go
to Molo to work for a night and see my friends out there. I am so
excited for that. I will also be with Elder Faran for that trip...
who was my companion while I was in Molo. We will have a fun time
remiscing the good ol days in Molo. We already have a sweet dinner
appointment at the Gaje's house for Wednesday night. It is going to
be so good. Anyways. I am still so mad that my other letter was
lost. I will just have to make next weeks really great. I love you
all and I miss you all so much. Three months til I go home. HAPPY
BIRTHDAY THATCHER MAN!!! He is 5 tomorrow... so hard to believe.

Halong,

Elder Lowry

Week 94

Hello Family!

So this letter is coming to you all from a newly assigned Guimaras Elder! I am now assigned on that little island under Panay called Guimaras.  Home to the best mangoes in the entire world.  They are literally supposed to be the sweetest mangoes in the entire world.  I hear that the White House and Buckenheim Palace don't accept any mangoes that are not from here.  So I am pretty lucky to have so of the best fruit in the world for a dollar a kilogram... not to make you jealous or anything.  I am assigned in the capital of the island in a little place called Jordan.  I have a new companion named Elder Johnson from Washington State.  Things seem to be going well so far and I am excited to get more familiarized with this area and live up my last couple transfers in the mission field.  I was also called to be the district leader here... so I am back to planning for and teaching district meetings every Tuesday morning.  I was really sad to leave Antique... I really would rather have stayed in Hamtic for the rest of my mission.  I am not a very big fan of taking boat rides every time we have to go to the city.  It is just a short ride about 15 minutes long... but I do always get a queezy feeling on the boats and I would really not be happy if it decides to storm one day when we have to take the trip.  The boats are pretty big and make out of wood... I will just have to send a picture for you all to get what they look like.  They are pretty ghetto though and you just have to trust that they will hold up... haha.

I don't know too much about the new area yet but it seems like an ideal place to wrap up my mission.  It is still just a small branch here and we are part of the stake from Iloilo city.  Guimaras island is still pretty undeveloped and still just lots of agriculture.  It does attract some foreigners though and there are supposed to be some really nice condos tucked away on private beaches all around the island.  This would be a way cool place to build a house someday if I ever had the money and ability to do it.  It really does have that island paradise feel to it.  The branch here had a very warm welcome for me this last weekend and we were lucky as well that we had two missionaries come home from their missions this last week as well.  So they are a very missionary excited branch right now and I expect to see lots of missionary work done over the next few months because of it.  I am also in the same house right now with Elder Faran (my companion when I was in Molo) and also Elder Doig who is a fellow Canadian from Cardston Alberta!  He knows Uncle Lorin and Tayt and all them... so it is a small world.  

I am way excited for these next couple months to be able to serve here on Guimaras.  I know the language... it is just Ilonggo and the people seem to be way nice here.  I do just love this country so much.  It will be such a reality check to leave here one day.  I will just miss they way they do everything here.  I admire everything about these people and all their weird little cultures.  It is funny being with a newer missionary and trying to explain to him why the people here do things the way they do.  ANd some Americans really just don't like the way things are done sometimes so it is always a challenge to help them just look at things from the Filipino perspective and help the newbie understand the culture a bit more.  I really want to come back to the Philippines so bad someday and get to just go around and explore more than I am able to do as a missionary.  I wanna be able to experience life in the Philippines and be able to mingle with my friends here more than you are allowed to as a missionary.  Right now that will be a big goal for when I go home... to get back to the Philippines for a vacation.  I have enough people that I know that could offer me sleeping places and food that I don't even think it would be THAT expensive other than for the travel expenses.  So everyone start saving their money for a Philippines road trip if you are interested.  

Well I miss you all and love you all so much.  I am glad that you all emailed me and let me know what is going on in good ol' Georgia.  That is crazy that Steven got married!  Congrats pal!  I can't wait to come and meet your new wife.  It seems like I am the only bachelor left haha.  I'm not gonna think about that anymore.  I hope this next week is awesome for everyone and you don't miss me TOO much.  If you do just imagine me eating the best mangoes in the world... it will make you happy.  

Love you!

Halong,

Elder Lowry

Week 93

Hello Family!!!

Things are still trucking along here in the Philippines and I am just loving it!  I was SO excited to hear that Finn was finally born and that it wasn't a scary delivery or anything.  I am so excited to meet him... in fact that is probably the biggest thing I am looking forward to for when I get home.  Just from the pictures I felt a connection to him and I just really wanna see him and hold him for  a while.  He is definitely a perfect addition to the family and I'm sure his brothers just love him already.  This really has been the thing that has made me miss home the most... the baby being born.  I think it might just be that some of my missionary buddies left to go home this morning as well.  But I definitely missed that I wasn't able to see Finn this last weekend.  Don't worry though, I will still keep working hard!

This was my last full week, probably, in Antique.  I am still feeling like I will transfer here pretty soon and go to my last area.  I will let you all know how that plays out next week.  But this has been such a fun week for us here in Hamtic.  We had a baptism yesterday and we had Jun-Jun's Dad baptize him!  It was a great service and everybody really enjoyed it.  Also a little member girl turned eight and got baptized Saturday as well... that was fun too because her Dad also baptized her.  It is such a big deal to get the men here in the Philippines to not be shy to use their priesthood.. the are so used and would much rather just have the Elders do it.  So this weekend was a sign of progress as the Elders just stood by and helped with the baptism... we didn't even have to give any of the talks! Yes!  After the baptism we had a branch home evening which turned out to be EXACTLY what we wanted t to be.  I think we had about 120+ people in attendance and every single one had a blast.  The Elders had a surprise for everyone as Elder Petersen was going home and I am about to transfer we decided to split the price of buying a pig and having a "litson"  You just clean a pig and roast it over coals for a couple hours... see the pictures for details.  Well the fun part of this was that we went to the members house and got to kill and clean the pig with them.  It was a pretty crazy morning as we saw how the members knew what to do with EVERY part of the pig.  They used the liver to make us lunch... yes, I ate a dish of pure liver.  I thought I was gonna barf... but it was actually pretty good.  They kept the blood to use for the blood dish they make with the belly meat.  We also went back for a snack on Sunday and ate the intestines... I think I got the point across.  They used everything from the pig and absolutely nothing was wasted.  The thing I thought was the hardest to watch was them prying off the hooves of the pig.  They look exactly like fingernails and it just was freaking me out to see them struggling to pry off the pig's fingernails.    It was fun to put the piece of bamboo from where it's butt used to be until it came out of the mouth and then roasted it over a pit of coals for a couple hours.  So that was our fun morning of making a litson baboy.  The activity, like I said, was well attended and really helped the branch with its unity.  We just feel like over the past few months our members haven't been fighting as much and the branch is really progressing so much more just because they aren't constantly bickering.  We all had fun and the branch did most of the planning and work to get everything set and accomplished so they should be able to do it all by themselves next time... I won't cross my fingers though.

The work is moving along great and with the baptism we just got energized to go out and get some more.  Jun-Jun's baptism was so awesome though and he is gonna make a great member along with his family that has just returned to activity recently.  It is the Banez family and they have been doing so good lately.  They have really rekindled their testimonies and I think they are coming back strong right now.  We are just trying to focus on getting the Dad a calling.  He has the MP and will make a good leader someday.  He just needs to get a responsibility now to keep him going.  We are also working still with the Pablo family to help them prepare for their baptismal date in July.  We were able to teach them the Word of Wisdom since we could obviously see that this commandment might be a bit of a struggle for them.  They accepted it though and have been working this last week to stop using anything that isn't good for their bodies.  I am way excited for them to progress even further.  We are struggling as well to get them all to go as a family to church but I think it will come as we continue to work closely with them.  

Well I am starting my second to last transfer and I only have 15 weeks left on my mission.  I feel happy that my mission is coming to a close and that I will get to see everyone again... Especially Finn... but I will miss the Philippines so bad when I have to leave.  The people here are so cool and I love the little kids too much.  I will miss them the most I think.  I know God called me here because the kids here are cuter than anywhere else in the world.  I think that was a deciding factor as to why I was called to this mission.  They just LOVE to talk and tell you all about their lives and try to understand why things are the way they are.  Like Why do I have blue eyes.  I can't count the number of times I have had to try to answer that.  And then this last Saturday I was just able to play with little kids the whole time the pig was cooking.  I just fell in love with all of them and would take them all home to America in a second if I could.  

Anyways I love and miss you all insane amounts and can't wait to see you all again.  I turn 21 in a month from now... Let that blow your mind for a little bit.  I will be a grown up when I come home.  Never thought that would happen, eh?  I love you all and pray for you all often.  Take care and write me letters.  I love reading them!

Elder Lowry 

Pic 1- BAPTISM!!!

Pic 2 & 3- Branch home evening crowd


Pic 4- That'll do pig... that'll do (that is the one we ate)

Pic 5-  I didn't even know I had this picture until I looked through all my pics after the activity saturday night.  This girl was the cutest little three year old that just wanted to sit on my lap and watch the pig cook.  She would always ask if it was ready to eat... and then say it was taking so long.  Another little girl had my camera and got this cute photo.  I didn't even know until that night that it was on my camera... I think it shows how cute the kids really are here though... and how hairy my neck is.  I got a haircut. 

Here are some more pictures that my companion took... Apparently everyone was taking pictures of me while the pig was cooking and I was just oblivious to it all.  But I'm telling you.. that little girl was SO cute.  I couldn't even stand it.  And then the ones with my companion and I are in a tricycle as we were coming home from a CSP.  It was a fun little photo shoot.