Week 10

Kumusta po kayo ng pamilya ko at mga kaibigan ko!

 So I'm just going to start of by saying how awesome this week has been! We had Zone Conference earlier in the week with a general authority and it was so motivational and inspiring! My faith was definitely strengthened and I felt the love my Father in heaven has for me so strongly.

So many of you have asked about my daily schedule so here it is:

6:30 wake up and exercise! around 7:15 we eat breakfast (rice of course) then we have personal scripture study from 8-9am. After that is companionship study where Sister Calaunan and I talk about what we learned. After that I have language study for an hour where I do my best to cram Tagalog into my brain. After that is lunch and then the fun begins! We are out teaching lessons or tracting across rice fields until 9pm and then come home to the apartment. We then plan for the next day right away and update our lessons in the area book. It's great fun haha. Then, by that time its like 10ish and I shower, pull out my mattress to sleep on the floor and collapse, say my prayers and sleep. Then the fun begins all over again bright and early the next day! It's a blast :) This week was full of adventure as always. We treked across some rice fields to get to a less active member's home and because rainy season is here everything was flooded so no joke- I had to take my shoes off and walk through mud almost up to my knees! It was awesome. Dirty, but awesome haha. I'll try to send pictures (sorry i've sent so few pictures by the way, it takes like 500 years to upload so my time usually is up before I can send it) I learned how to gut a fish this morning- that was exciting/ absolutely disgusting haha. 

So even though all that is great and fun, the best part of my week was definitely yesterday. All week a lot of our investigators have cancelled on us or just "forgot" about our lesson appointment. We would just walk and walk from house to house in the hot Philippines sun trying our best to share the gospel and help the people here, but wala. So that was kinda hard. But we just kept praying and having faith that Heavenly Father would help us and bless us for our diligence and hard work and boy did he ever! Yesterday, one of our investigators (his name is Jimboy and he's getting baptized this Saturday!) came to church and brought his whole family who before had shown little interest. Also our recent convert Gardo, who was baptized last Saturday, brought his brother, Florence to church! They both said they loved what they learned and the way they felt when they were there and agreed to have us over later that night to teach them more about what we believe. As we taught Jimboy's family (his dad passed away a couple years ago so it's him, his mom Emilda, Jessa, Raquel and Putput who are his sisters, and Samuel and John-Mark his brothers) the spirit was so strong and I just felt so much love for them and could feel God's love for them as well. We invited them to be baptized and to enjoy the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives and they said yes! They were all smiles and so happy! Even though my Tagalog is at most sub-par and can only understand like 15% of what they say, I love this cute little family so much and can't wait for them to be baptized and enjoy the happiness and many blessing the gospel has given me in my life.

So after that we went to Florence's house and got to know him and taught him more about what we believe. As I was teaching, I felt prompted to ask Gardo (his brother who was baptized last week) about his experience and how he feels now as a member of the church. He told us how before we taught him he felt like his mind was a dark room with many questions about life and his purpose, but now it's as if we filled it with light. As Gardo bore his sweet and simple testimony of the happiness and peace the gospel has brought to his life, the spirit filled the room and I (for the first time ever all by myself in all Tagalog) invited Florence to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized... He looked at me and with tears in his eyes said "of course, this is what I've been waiting for." Ahhhhhh! It was so amazing!! I love love love being a missionary and helping people feel the peace and joy the gospel can bring to our lives. It is SO hard but SO worth it.

I love you all so much and hope you are all doing great! I send my love and prayers from the Philippines :) MAHAL KITA!

Sister Lowe