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
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