Week 24

Hello Family!

So I will start with the good news. We have a baptism that will most likely happen on March 19 (I say most likely in fear of counting my eggs before they are in the basket) ((speaking of eggs I have a good apartment story about that later)) Angielyn Francisco accepted a baptismal date for that date so we are way excited. This last week has been alot of fun teaching her and we really got to build a great friendship with her. She went to church yesterday which makes 3 times now. She really enjoys it as far as I can tell and has awesome roots in relief society and young women. We have been really nervous about extending the commitment (she has been such a gift to us that we really didn't want to screw up) but it turned out fantastic! So that is a funny story: We met Angielyn the very first night Elder Quinantoto was in the mission. We went to the church to eat dinner and they were having an activity. So it has really been fun for him. That among the very first people he met in his very first mission area will be baptized as well. She is really doing well in keeping commitments and praying regularly. She is sorta dating an RM (I actually don't know if they are but the guy sure loves to call her his future GF/wife... it is funny) so it helps to have him to help answer questions. It is funny because I said to the RM "You should put a ring on it" and then ten minutes later I found myself trying to explain a Beyonce song in a foreign language. They realized where the reference came from but didn't know what it meant. Good times, eh?

Krista asked for an apartment story this week and just in time too. These two past weeks have been a war that I raised against a rat. I swore I would see that rat die and drink of its blood (joking, of course) But Filipinos do make blood stew (one of those stories that might just be better left untold). This rat squeezes under our door and likes to chill under our fridge (it is dry and warm and safe). Not so bad, except for the fact that he leaves little presents all under and behind our fridge. So the other week I cornered it in the back of this cupboard while it hid under our propane tank. SO I had this genius idea to get the Permethrin spray bottle and poison it. So I soaked it in permethrin pretty well and then it escaped outside (permethrin is this crazy strong chemical that would do some serious damage to a human. we use it to bug proof our house). The next couple days were problem free and I thought for sure I had conquered my foe. THEN I am showering (with a bucket so I'm not even sure if you could call it showering or just pouring small amounts of water on your head and trying to also get clean) and I hear something above the roof just scrambling around and making a racket. I am just baffled as to how this rat got into our attic. There is no way to get up there. So I get the mop and start banging on the roof to scare it out of our attic. This goes on for a whole week. Thinking that this rat has found a way to beat me, I start plotting how to strike back. Finally while washing my clothes I see where this rat could've somehow climbed up our outside wall and gotten up into our attic above the bathroom and kitchen. I climb up with my bottle of permethrin again ready to for sure kill this rat. I peek my head in and what do I see?... A hen with nine eggs just chilling above our bathroom. She must've somehow flown up there. So we then had to get our neighbors/landlord to take out part of our ceiling to get this big ol' chicken and her eggs out of our attic. My point: I did beat that rat after all.

As for other missionary stories we have this one family that we are really hopeful for. They LOVE to have the missionaries over. They have this super cute little girl who's name is (are you all ready for the best one I've heard so far?... Princess, Angel, or Lady having nothing on this one) Twinky... yes I typed it right Twinky. I got them to repeat it about four times before I believed it. She is very cute though and has an obsession with always trying to sit on my lap. The family is a referral from some other missionaries and they really have enjoyed listening and ask alot of really good questions. Last night they told us they want to come to church next week without us asking them to or anything. Their name is the Rubello family.

I got my letter from Sir Michael Ryan this past week and am excited to get a response back over seas asap. Thanks for all the emails (Krista). I'm not sure if she meant to do this but I opened up my email today and had 79 new messages. I think I have every month Thatcher has been alive outlined and pictured in my email account. {He gets an email every time I write a blog and I consolidated all my blogs into one this week so I could print a blog book-- so he got all the ones we added from other blogs from years ago! Oops!} So thank you! Thanks for the letter miss Devyn and the pictures! Hannah that is pretty crazy about that car. I had that happen to me one morning on the way to seminary and it made me paranoid whenever I would try to stop to turn for the next couple months. I was always watching my rear view and just hoping they would see that I had stopped. Good luck in the musical. I have been thinking this week that tech week must be coming up soon. Man, I miss tech weeks.

Shout out to Michael and Krista. Krista sent me southern gospel music to listen to with a bunch of MoTab hymns as well. SO I listen to that a lot surprisingly. It is good to have a little taste of the southern culture. Although Michael I will never stoop so low as to resort to country music. (Especially the Dixie Chicks... I threw up a little in my mouth when I read that) My favorite Krista is Amazing Grace and "It Ain't nobodies fault but mine" I think it is the Fairfield Four. {Nope, it's Blind Boys of Alabama... awesome stuff though, and so is Fairfield Four} So as much as I laughed when I saw you sent me that CD it is the one that I listen to the most probably (while cooking). I also have a funny memory to bring up to Evan Matthew and Graham. Remember our Slap Santa brownies? And then going to the sand trap to proclaim to the world our marvelous creation? Good times!

The language is coming along alright. I am getting more and more fluent. I find it easier to manipulate words and verb conjugations to say what I really want. It gets harder and harder to translate my experiences into English every week. I guess that is a good sign, right? Like with Angielyn's story I did a lot of deleting because the words that would first come to my mind weren't English. And to answer Krista's question about seasons... none whatsoever. It is always green and hot and humid. Only somedays it is raining and green and hot and humid. As for food The Crystal Light was AWESOME! I ate everything so those were all great! Especially the pancakes... my companions have just thought those were so delicious.

Dad, Dexter and Merlinda just had their grandmother die. So it has been tough for them. they still read and pray but they haven't been to church the past bunch of weeks. But we are still working on them. We talked to Bishop and discussed on how to really fellowship them and make them feel a part of the congregation even thought they can't get baptized right now.

I love you all and pray for you a LOT! Take care and have fun!

Elder Lowry

Week 23

Hello Everyone!

This week has sure been a good week of tough work. Phew. I told Elder Quinantoto last night that he should be happy that this week was somewhat good and not to worry because it was bound to get easier from here. I sure hope it does. We had lots and lots of tracting time where we just had to try to find people to teach. It has been somewhat tough this week because they are ALL harvesting rice right now and should be done pretty soon. So lots of turn downs and trying our best just to be able to teach lessons to WHOEVER. So like I think I said last week we are basically starting over fresh right now. So we don't have to many steady investigators and that just makes things difficult. We are keeping our chins up though and still appreciate all the Lord's blessings in our lives. I have really gained such a strong testimony of prayer these past couple weeks. It has kept me going no matter what the problem is. My biggest challenge has been the tracting. I am still not as fluent as I would like to be and my new companion is pretty shy. As senior companion and trainer it basically is my responsibility to show him how it is done. It is just very difficult to go up to a person and start talking to them and knowing that if they go off on you in Tagalog or Aklanon you might not be able to understand. Or even worse I might misunderstand what they say to me. So it is a step of faith to start a conversation and ask questions to a complete stranger in a language that is still pretty foreign to me.

We do have one investigator that we are really hopeful for. Her name is Angielynn. She was the girl that went to church last week and has been attending institute. We have taught her three times now and just finished Lesson 1. She is praying and reading and hopefully on Wednesday we will be able to commit her to be baptized. We always have a member present and the lessons have all taken place at the church. So we are way excited for her. She has been to church twice and says she really enjoys it. It also helps that the member we have in our lessons is also an RM. So hopefully some exciting news will be included in next weeks letter. This will be the firs investigator that Elder Quinantoto will be able to be involved in teaching that gets baptized. So some prayer for her would be greatly appreciated.

We have our zone meeting on Wednesday so we are pretty excited for that. Then like next week I will be going to Iloilo again for leadership training. So I'm hoping I get all trained up these next couple weeks and then the work will just take off. That would be ideal, eh?

I'm doing really well here. I enjoy the work and I'm ready for another week of trial and rejoicing. I am comfortable with the people and am learning to love the culture more and more everyday. Oh, one more thing. With the new companion we really quickly found out that neither of us knows how to cook. So your's truly is now the cook of the house. I have been experimenting my hand at cooking Filipino food. And I have a witness for this, Our ulam has been supreme these past couple days. I make a Tongue sizzlin adobo and a slap your mama sweet and sour pork. (Mom you were missed this week because 1. you weren't here to cook me delicious food and 2. when I finally made a delicious meal I had no one to slap) So I'll keep you posted on the food poisoning that is sure to follow.

Thank you all for the notes and uplifting messages. I love you all and pray so much for your safety and success.

Elder Lowry

Week 22

Hello Everyone!

So this week has been a pretty slow one due to all the excitement, being out of town, and getting my new companion oriented. It has been good though and I am having to apply myself more and more as the mission goes on. I think I am working my hardest and then the Lord throws something new at me every week it seems. It really has forced my to rely on Him so much more and spend more time on my knees. A part of Dad's letter came to my mind when I was struggling with the new challenges this week. He said that too often as prideful men we can let our pride get in the way of asking for divine help. That even though we believe that the calling came from the Lord we hesitate to ask for help. I thought of how foolish I had been for trying to carry out the Lord's work without his very assistance. So after spending more time on my knees and asking for forgiveness I asked for help as well in the work.

So here is the part you all want to know. My new companion is a Pinoy. His name is Elder Quinantoto (Ya... try saying that 5 times fast.) He is from Luzon Island in a city that is under the Baguio Mission. He is way nice and a very diligent worker. He is very good at Tagalog (Elder Ordeniza was Cebuano so it is weird hearing PURE tagalog) and I am trying my best to teach him the Aklanon I know. We are both excited because we are practically starting over this week with the work. All of our investigators either dropped us or had to be dropped. So now we are back to the dreaded tracting and finding. The transfer meeting was wonderful and it was great to see some of my batch mates and hear how wonderful their missions were going. I got to see one of my favorite Elders from my batch Elder Dueker. He is an awesome missionary and the only member in his family. He is now being follow up trained by Elder Stokes! Elder Stokes will be going home in March. We got a chance to talk and reminisce. He is actually follow up training and training the third member of their companionship all in his last transfer.

We had to go tracting all day yesterday and had zero luck. I think that part of town was called Sodom and Gomorrah or something like that. (There wasn't a sign) But we are keeping our chins up. I was just happy enough because I had to do most of the talking and the people at least understood me. Even if they told us to go away I did get some compliments on my language abilities.

We are excited about one investigator of ours. We met her when we stopped by the church to eat at one of the activities. Some members brought their friend from university and so we introduced ourselves. Then I got the members to invite her to Church on Sunday (They said she had been attending institute the past week). She went to church and stayed all three hours! We had our stake president there and in Sunday school we had a great discussion on Revelation through Church Attendance and Revelation through Prayer (2 principles from the new missionary curriculum). We watched some of the PMG videos and just discussed it. So we basically had the stake president and the members give her an introduction to the missionary discussions. So then I got a member to invite her to listen to the missionary discussions. We will be teaching her on Wed. just a 1/2 hour before institute starts at the church with her friends present. I am thinking this will be a good investigator.

I really am enjoying the work here and it is progressing. Slowly as of right now, but still progressing. Sheila Mae is just awesome as a member. The members have done a fantastic job of making her one of them. She remembers all the lessons and the review of the lessons is just flying by. In like two weeks she will be all done. It will be strange not going to her house all the time. But, I am not worried about her and she will make a fine Young Women's president someday.

It's funny that Mom mentioned Bishop Hinsdale. I finally wrote him a letter last night when I was thinking of our ward. It will be sent in the next couple days. How is my Martinez ward doing? I miss you all! I also got Nadia Franz's letter today. I will get a response all ready to go here in the next couple days! And Maddy Rupard for that fact... It was great getting all these letters. You guys are awesome! Michael I sent your letter like a couple weeks ago so you should get it pretty soon. And that book is a good idea. We will discuss the title in our letters!

I love you all and pray for you all a whole lot! Keep working hard and I know the Lord will take care of us.

Elder Lowry

Week 21

Hello Family and Friends!

I am doing well here in the Philippines! So I am pretty nervous right now. We had our transfer meeting today. My companion is getting transferred to a different district to become district leader again. An it was announced that I will be the only trainer this transfer in our whole zone. I am scared scared scared I am going to get an American companion. PHEW! My heart is thumping right now just typing those words to you all. I can't even express to you how daunting that task would be. I got the phone call yesterday at church. President spoke alot of Tagalog to me (which in retrospect I shouldn't have spoken it back to him) probably to get a grasp of my language. It was weird hearing Tagalog from him, even though he IS Pinoy and from Luzon (a very Tagalog place, other places in the Philippines aren't very good at Tagalog). He is very good at English and I haven't heard him speak Tagalog before that phone call. So I am going back to Iloilo for the first time in a long time on Thursday along with my trainer to pick up my trainee. They call the trainer Tatay (Dad) and the Trainee Bata (child). I am excited but with a nervous excitement. It is hard to believe that the work in Banga is MY responsibility to continue. So I am praying alot for help. Some help in those prayers will be greatly appreciated! So Friday I will get my new companion!

This week was a tough week and the work seemed as slow as molasses compared to the previous month. I am ready to get out and try again this week. We had some really hopeful investigators drop us. It rained nonstop all week and tracting was just no good because people would just hide from us. We did't have anyone attend church. Dexter's grandmother died yesterday. We are going to their house later this afternoon to help them set up for the funeral. So it has just been one of those weeks. This week will be slow as we have to get Elder Ordeniza ready to go from living here for 6 months. We have to get the apartment ready for the new missionary and get a new missionary settled in. Two days of the week I will be out of town and in Iloilo. I am excited for that! It should make for an exciting week!

I made myself a man in my eyes this week. About a month ago I saw some Filipinos climb up a coconut tree to get the coconuts. It was amazing. These things are not small by any means. I mean they are SO SO SO tall. They did it shirtless and barefoot. It was amazing. So I said I wanted to try it. So about two weeks ago I saw a nice tall one that I thought I could do. So I asked Elder Ordeniza if he thought I could do it. He told me I would only make it half way up. He was right. My feet hurt (I had to do it like the Filipinos of course I kept my shirt on though.) and it was WAY high already. So I came down ashamed and decided it would have to wait. Yesterday I went to the very same tree and climbed up the full thing! It was awesome. I felt good. Even though my feet got cut up and my arms hurt the rest of the day. It was rewarding. I mean like over fifty feet. I will send some pictures soon.

Krista sent me back a part of my email this week. Of course I meant to put 19 months to go. So I apologize for any confusion that caused. The 0 and the 9 are right next to each other. I will proof read my letters from now on. I do not have more than double 10 months left though crazy lady.

Thanks Dad for the address for Luke! I will try to send him a letter here in the next couple days!

Devyn! I'm glad you got some letters! Those are so old haha

So this next email should be full of interesting stories. I am excited to write it more than I think you are to read it. I am hoping that I will become a good trainer for this new missionary. I am working hard and think of you all often. I miss you all dearly and pray for your success!

Go Mom for getting your License back!

Halong,

Elder Lowry

Week 20

Hello Everyone!

Things are going well here in the Philippines!

This week has been a good week of work for Elder Ordeniza and I. We are truly working hard and we are having some good success. We weren't able to get Dexter and Merlinda an interview because Dexter had to work that day. But they will hopefully be interviewed before our zone meeting in early February. Like two weeks from now I think. So we are still holding our breaths that we will be able to work something out for them! We got 30 teachings again this week. Phew... that just makes you tired at the end of the week. But happy, and a sense of accomplishment. It is a good goal to have. We got 10 teachings on Saturday. We could have gotten 3 more but some of our investigators were already asleep and one part member family the dad had already started drinking. Maybe next week we will try for 13 again. haha. We decided to visit ALL of our investigators on Saturdays from now on just to help our church attendance. But sadly, this week, none of our 10 teachings went to church. Hopefully our efforts this week will be more fruitful.

So transfer week is next week. I am going on three months here in the Philippines pretty soon. That is insane, eh? I have only 10 more months on my mission. I have so much more to do. I swear this is not enough time. (It's not Scott, you're right. So I think you'll be happy when you realize you actually have way more than 10 months left! Twice that, in fact. As Levi would say... "Coo-coo, coo-coo...") My companion is getting transferred. I know because President assigned a district leader (my companion is DL). We are a really close district so there really is no element of secrecy. haha. So it is kinda weird thinking about this change coming up. I imagine it will be my turn to train. I am scared to death that I might have to train an American. Man. I need to pick up this language quickly! So I am almost guaranteed to stay here. I really really doubt I will leave Banga the Beautiful. Banga Banga Beautiful Banga, Banga Banga Banga city that I love! Me and my companion decided that Banga is the new Zion and switched the names... I know I know.... we are clever and funny.

So I have gotten a bunch of Scripture reading suggestions. thank you all so very much. I read them and study them. So thank you again. I have a good question for all of you though (and it is one that has taken me until now to be proud about) How is your reading of the recent General Conference talks? I think it deserves a bit of attention. We learned from two talks last General Conference the 14 Fundamentals of following the prophet. #3 "The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet. Now that struck me hard the last time I read that. Those talks are written for us by men who live among us in the same crazy world that we live in. SO that has been my new goal. That I spend time with my nose in the Ensign (esp. the Gen Conf edition) a whole lot more. I have found some real great treasures in there. For my work as a missionary and as just an individual. Really though, it is awesome. Richard G Scott is still the man and President Utchdorf still rocks my socks. Elder Holland is bearing testimony like he was there for the restoration and President Monson is still the best example of a consecrated life we have. Read it. Feast on it.

So my cute story of the day has to do with my picture. Like 15 kids (there were more that didn't want to take a picture) came up to our house and just wanted to hang out in front our house Sunday afternoon. They are really nice little neighbors. So I gave them a bunch of silly bands and stickers. They loved it. The little kids here are so much fun and I love them dearly. Sometimes when the work is slow and investigators drop us or don't progress we just have to take a minute and play with the kids. They boost our spirits and recharge our motives to work hard. They are so cheerful and just want to have fun. With simple things. We played baseball with bamboo and not yet ripened papayas. They will play with ANYTHING and have more fun than I've ever had in my life.

I love it here in the Philippines. It is beautiful. It is green. It is hot and humid. I love the people. They are wonderful simple people who love the Lord. I am trying my best to help them in their journey to return to our Savior. I am thankful for all the sacrifices made at home to make this mission possible. I love you all at home and pray for you each night. Remember that I do and know that the Lord is with us if we obey his commands.

Luke! I got your letter. thanks so much. I love and miss you brother. If someone could get me his Peru address that would be awesome. Emily! Thank you so much for the note. I hope things are going so well for you in good ol Georgia.

Devyn. Your letters are great don't worry. I wish there was a more efficient way for my to respond!

Hannah Banana! Go you and your letter and email writing. I loved the Who What where pictures. Good thinking! Thanks for keeping me updated on your play. I am excited to see a video when I get home. Thanks for filling me in on the song's name. The Filipinos have probably thought I'm retarded for not knowing that.

Krista! Thanks for the Dear elder! I agree with you. Don't risk your children for sending me letters. Dear elder and email will do. That'll do. That'll do. Always and Forever. (I literally laughed out loud at your song)

Mom and Dad. I love you two! I miss you both as well and think about you often. I am so thankful for you. Keep working hard and we will all be blessed.

Elder Lowry.

Week 19

Hello Family and friends!

I am doing well here in the Philippines. I am sort of sick right now though with a cold. So bear with me. This week has been super busy for Elder Ordeniza and I. We are working hard just to keep up. That is so awesome though that Graham and I got to experience or first baptisms on the same day! I think we will treasure January 22 2011 for forever. Congratulations Courtney! I know it was a tough decision and a very big decision for you. I know it will be tough to stick through and to endure. But I also know it will be a decision that you will never ever regret. So really, good job. I said to Sister Sheila this last week. Baptism is likened to a gate for a reason. Once you are baptized you aren't to the Kingdom of heaven yet. You are in the right direction though. You still have to walk more and persevere until that day comes when you do arrive at the door to heaven. You are on the right path to learn those things you need to know and for the Savior to say, "Welcome home thou good and faithful servant." So those are my two cents!

So Sheila's baptism was a very nice one! We are excited for her and her journey. Her brother this week said he wants to be and Elder. This is actually what his mother said, "Ginhambae ni Fernando nga gusto niya mag-elder" They put mag- in front of alot of american words to just say "to do that thing" So he wants to do whatever Elders do. So we taught him and hope he will progress and e baptized as well. I was able to baptize Sheila. Funny Story: The priest who was supposed to get there really early and fill up the font was, of course, fantastically late. So we waited and waited and had some problems with the water. So finally, with the water at my knees, they made me attempt the baptism. Sheila is not short either. Failure! We tried twice and basically only succeeded in scaring the poor girl half to death. So I told bishop that we need to just wait for the water to raise in level. So 45 minutes later I was able to baptize her. She is so nice though and didn't hold it against me. She is getting involved with Seminary this week and got her Young Woman's achievement book this week. She truly is awesome. Attached is her note to me in my remembrance journal. I thought it would be good so you could see real Tagalog. You don't have to just take my word for it. It says: Thanks so much for the teaching to me. And I hope that you still have many more teaching to your brothers and sisters. And you are very talented in Aklanon. (it really says that, I don't know why. I am horrible). I really believe in you. Thank you for your baptism to me, I won't be able to forget it (probably because she thought I was trying to drown her.) Always take care." So there you have it.


Aklanon Aklanon Aklanon. the story of this week. We have taken our language study at a member's tindahan the past week. It has paid ridiculous dividends. I don't know why we didn't think of it before. I can teach in Aklanon now! Very basic vocabulary though. This past Sunday I wasn't lost for one minute because I could completely understand the member's Aklanon. It was awesome. I was overjoyed! The pronunciation is still impossible, but the grammar is coming along. I have also noticed that when I speak Aklanon the people are SO much more forgiving on my speech. When I completely speak wrong Tagalog they don't understand, but when I try my best in Aklanon they still get my point. So I am so thankful for that! It is very different though and I get head aches from thinking so hard about it... haha. So here is a basic testimony in Akeanon. Kasayod ko nga ro mensahi namon, tuod gid imaw. Nga matuod nga propeta si Joseph Smith ag gintawgon imaw it Diyos bilang propeta. Nakita nana ro atong amay sa eangit ag si Jesus christ. Sa paagi nana mayuna kitang simbahan ngara. Kon ipangamuyo mo parte sa mensahi namon, gasabat do Ginoo it mga pangutana mo. Kasayod ko nga matuod ro Simbahan ni JesuCristo ng mga banal sa katapusan adlaw. Sa takipusoon ko napamatiyagan ro banal nga espiritu. Nagpamatuod imaw kakon nga matuod imaw, ro simbahan ngara ag si propetang Joseph Smith. In Tagalog, the very same thing- Alam ko na ang mensahe namin ay totoo. Na totoong propeta si Joseph Smith na Tinawag siya ng Diyos bilang propeta. Nakita niya ang ating ama sa langit at tsaka si Jesus Christ. Sa pamamagitan niya meron tayong simbahan na ito. Kung ipagdasal mo tungkol sa mensahe namin, sasagot ang Diyos ng mga tanong mo. Alam ko na totoo ang simbahan ni JesuCristo ng mga banal sa mga huling araw. Sa puso ko, narumduman ang banal na espiritu. Nagpatotoo siya sa akin na totoo siya ang simbahan na ito at si propetang Joseph Smith.

So there is the Aklanon. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I think it is just the most interesting thing ever. I should be able to get some others while Im here. Like Karay-a and Ilonggo and Kapish-non. Like that. I am very excited. I am sending the pictures home to Krista so hopefully there will be plenty more for people to see soon. The pictures are

(I haven't received any pictures yet... so maybe he meant snail-mailing them?)
1 Already explained.
2 Me in Altavas with the members who started my Aklanon lessons. Marco and Resty. Resty is very happy he just doesn't want to show it.
3 The baptism day! She is not very photogenic either! But we love her anyway.
4 Typical kitchen.

So this is a funny shout out and I doubt she even reads these blogs. But one of my investigators reminds me EXACTLY like Rachel Van Dyke. Like her personality the way she talks.... just everything. It is uncanny. haha. She is one of the girls that gets to church at six! She literally is just a 10 yr younger version of Rachel. So Michael or someone who knows her. If you could please just pass that along. Thank you!

Devyn- I'm glad you got your letters and you are doing so well! I have no explaining to do. All explaining will be done after the mission. Thank you for the pictures.

Bro Anderson- Are you getting these emails? I really hope this other person I am sending the emails to is you. haha. If not just tell me and I will quit.

I love you all and pray for you all daily! GO Dawgs!

Elder Lowry!

Week 18

Hello family and friends!

So this week has been a different one! I went to Altavas to work this week. It is about a 45 minute bus ride away from our house. Elder Ordeniza had training again in Iloilo so I went there again. It was a lot of fun and the area there is just beautiful! I got ALOT of mail from home this week. It was so nice! Thank you all so much! I got the letter from the primary, I am thankful for all of them! It was so nice to read all of their testimonies and good wishes. I even got a request to get home quickly and babysit them. Unfortunately I heard that the Ainesworth's are moving. So Abigail maybe I will have to pay a visit to your new house after the mission, haha. Thank you so much for the letters! I got Michael Ryan's letter. It was great to hear from him as well! I need to know if your address is the same this semester though. I have as letter already written so the quicker the better, eh?

So the work in Banga was slow this week because the first art of the week we weren't here and then when we got back EVERYONE was in the neighboring town of Kalibo for the humongous festival called Ati-Atihan. So we were pretty bummed. We only had 1 investigator at church. It also flooded like crazy on Sunday and a lot of streets were flooded. Sheila Mae Rofino went to church though and she will be baptized this Saturday. So get excited. She is reading the Book of Mormon all the way through and is almost done with 1st Nephi. Jessa didn't go to church and so we had no 6 o'clock investigators. They were all at the festival.

While in Altavas we worked with the members. Brother Marco and Resty. They are awesome. They are really good at English so everytime I get to work over there I get Aklanon 101 lessons. This last week I got like three lessons so I can really understand it now. I test out all of my Aklanon on Devine. She doesn't laugh at me when I completely botch it. Haha. Like to say what are you doing is "Alin ro ginaobra mo?" and in Tagalog it is "Ano ang ginagawa mo?" So it is quite different. But I understand and I am starting to incorporate it more in my speech. Elder Ordeniza and I are practicing more and we are now starting to go to a member's tindahan for language study. We ask questions for half an hour and then practice teaching her in Aklanon. I think in about 2 weeks we should be able to teach a lesson in Aklanon. People are super impressed when I respond in their local language. They love it.

Dexter and Merlinda have an interview with President on Jan 26. No guarantee that he will be able to do anything but I sure hope he can. Dexter shared with us some of his reading. He is just awesome. His scriptures are marked. He truly just loves to learn more. So we really just hoe they can get baptized. It would make my mission to be able to baptize this family. So we are working our hardest to prepare them. But honestly. I would have Pres. Monson interview these people and I wouldn't worry.

Dad, I withdrew some money because I made some pants. Some of my pants are not holding up too well with this intense mud. It is ridiculous. I am also buying rain boots for this season because my shoes will just be ruined if they have to endure these conditions much longer. It should help to save some pants as well. I ordered two pairs of pants and in all it was 1000 P (~$20) so no worries here for money. Thank you so much! I will send you a picture when I get the pants next week... They are really good looking!

Devyn! Im so glad you got the letters. They are as old as dust now! Disclaimer for all letter recipients. Expect 4- 6 weeks. Sorry!

Marie and Joseph. Sending the letter today! Get excited (or rather postpone the excitement for a couple weeks). I just looked the two names again... haha. I didn't mean to make it look like you are a couple. Another Disclaimer Marie and Joseph are not a couple.

I pray for you all everyday. Mom... don't test my prayers for your safety anymore please! Thank you. Take care of yourself lady! I hope you get some answers to all your tests. {Mom had a stroke scare that ended up being complex migraines this week. Yuck! We could ALL do without that kind of drama from our mama. Get well Mama Lowry!}

Go Dawgs! Basketball might just be better than football this year. haha.

Elder Lowry!