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.
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