Week 3

Kumusta ka pamilya ko!

Hey guys!! How are you?? Week three has been craazzzyyy! So this past week all the older districts left for the Philippines and it was super exciting, but really sad too because I had gotten really close with a few of them. Sister Talfa was one of the 2 sister training leaders for our zone (which is pretty much a sister zone leader- they are over all the girls in our zone) and she would come in my room every night and talk and we got super close so it was sad to see her leave. But now that they are gone our district and the other 2 districts that came in on the 8th are the oldest! Another cool thing that happened this week was that I got called to be a sister training leader!  It was so crazy on my first day- a girl tore her ACL and probably has to go home and then another girl that same night got super homesick and almost decided to go home. I was really stressed out and was so concerned about these two girls, but the Lord really stepped in and helped me and now everything is ok and they are both still here and loving being missionaries. Also this week we got 2 new districts added to our zone and branch so I got to give them orientation to the MTC and give them a tour of the MTC. I LOVE our new missionaries and I can tell they are all going to be such a great assets to our zone.

So not gonna lie this week started out a little rough because we were all really tired and two people from our district got sick and had to go back to the residence halls. My kasama from Kirabati was one of them. At first I was really bummed that I couldn't be in class, but it turned out to be a really good experience for me. So just to back up a little, this week I started to notice my mood was a little down and I wasn't quite myself and at first I thought it was just because I was stressed with my new calling, but then that all got sorted out and I was still feeling weird. I realized it was because I was so focused on trying to master the language that I was letting my personal study and scripture study take a backseat to learning Tagalog. I feel like sometimes in our lives, we busy ourselves with some really good things, but we forget some of the most important things. Learning Tagalog is important, but gaining spiritual knowledge and getting that peace and happiness that only comes through scripture study and forming a closer relationship with God is SO much more important. I've started to really focus on the spiritual things and really study and ponder what I read in the Book of Mormon every day and I have noticed an immediate difference in my mood and feet so much happier. In  fact, I love the feeling that I get from my personal scripture study so much that I've been getting up at 5:30 every morning to get an extra hour of personal study time in. I know I know, it sounds crazy but it just starts my day off so good and I can really feel the difference in my day. I just never want to waste any time here that I could be using to get closer to my Heavenly Father or helping others to come unto Christ... because for the next 18 months it's not my time to waste, it's the Lord's time.

Yesterday was probably one of the best days I've had so far being at the MTC. I started it off with a wonderful personal scripture study in the Book of Mormon (Alma 32) about how to increase my faith and I got some super great insights from it. So... as many of you are quite aware I'm kind of a perfectionist and I kind of like to be really good at things and just practice or study them until I know i'm good at it or can get an A on the test or whatever it is. So naturally I get super frustrated with myself when i'm not perfect at something haha. Tagalog is one of those things and sometimes I just want to be fluent and have a perfect knowledge of everything, but i'm not so I get frustrated with myself. But as I read in Alma 32 it talked about how faith is not a perfect knowledge of things, but a hope for things which are not seen, but true. I do not have a perfect knowledge in Tagalog, but I know that if I have faith in my savior Jesus Christ and pray to my Heavenly Father for help, that he will help be and I can master this language and be a good missionary. No one said that it would be easy, but with faith in God we can do all things :) Later in the day we taught a 30 minute lesson to our investigator Rizolito in complete Tagalog with NO notes. I was a little nervous at first because I was used to having some notes with me, but it ended up being the best lesson we've ever taught!! The spirit was so strong and things would just come to me in Tagalog that I didn't even know I knew! He said that he would pray about the gospel and the church and that if he got an answer that it was right he would be baptized! It was so exciting and we were so happy for him! He said for the first time in a while he felt true peace in his heart and was excited to pray. I seriously love being a missionary SO much and I love the Joy that it brings into my life as well as the lives of others. 

I love you all so much and I think about and pray for you all the time. Keep up the good work and don't worry about me because life is good and there is so much to be happy about!

Mahal Kita!!

-Sister Lowe

Jessica with her companion

Jessica with her District