Letters from Friends

Betsy,
I was so sorry to see (on facebook) that Jessica got sick and had to go to the hospital.  We are sending extra prayers of comfort and healing for Jessica...as well as prayers that your family will feel peace.  I can imagine how very hard this must be for you!

~Suzanne Mingus

I so sorry she is sick...I'm reading this 6:30 Sunday morning and crying.  Jessica is truly a gift and she is strong and she will be fine...she's to tough not to be;). If u get a chance tell her I love her and will b praying for her quick recovery!






Nancy Martin

Letter from Senior Missionaries in Olongapo

Sister Lowe,
We visited your daughter this evening for over an hour and decided we will adopt her as a grandchild.  What a wonderful daughter you have raised.  I hope you are very very proud of her.  We sure are.  Despite being in the hospital she has a wonderful attitude and has no problem smiling.  To speak to her, you would have no clue that there was a problem.  She is really a choice young lady.  We will continue to visit her daily whenever possible.  Thank you for sharing your daughter with us in the Olongapo Mission.  

Elder & Sister Gorringe

Second Letter From President

Dear Brother and Sister Lowe,

We were so happy seeing her excited even with her situation. Very diligent missionary. We love her. Members in her ward assignment love and speak highly on her because of her dedication to the work. We are praying for her recovery and the priesthood blessing was done before she was brought to the hospital. 

Hopefully she will be transferred to a private room today if things will continue to be stable. We will update you. 

Best regards.

President Roberto B. Querido

Philippines Olongapo Mission

#KM140 Mangan Vaca,

Subic, Zambales 2209

Letter from Ologapo Mission President and Assistants to the President

Brother and Sister Lowe:

Your daughter is one of the best missionaries we have in Olongapo. She has only been here for two months but can speak Tagalog already. She is amazing! Her dedication to the work is very commendable. Her devotion to the Lord is such a great example to everyone. We had the chance to visit her today and happy to let you know that she is getting better and hopefully she can be transfered to the private room tomorrow from the ICU.

We pray for her recovery soon.

Best regards,

President Roberto Querido

PHILIPPINES OLONGAPO MISSION

Km 140 Mangan Vaca, Subic, Zambales

2209 Philippines

(+63)918-911-6857

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From: Philippines Olongapo Mission
Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2013 9:40 AM
To: betsy4kids@aol.com; Mark.Lowe@flextronics.com
Cc: Roberto (Bayobo) Querido
Subject: Sister Jessica Lowe

Brother and Sister Lowe,

We had a chance to visit your daughter earlier today in the hospital in Olongapo. 

We took  a picture of her and wanted to let you know that she is doing quite well. While talking with her, her spirits are still high and she’s loving missionary work. She has even been talking to the nurses that are attending to her and inviting them to learn about the restored gospel. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon in Tagalog so that she could give that out if she gets the chance. She has been an inspiration to us here in the Philippines Olongapo Mission that even though she’s confined to a hospital bed, her spirit is still striving to teach those around her. She’s improving every day and we expect to see a quick recovery. We asked her if she needed anything, and she told us that she was doing fine and that she would just like to go out and get back to work. Your daughter is doing amazing things in her area with Sister Calaunan and the members love and support her. She is anxious to get back to them and work. Some of the members from Hermosa have visited her in the hospital as well. They have all expressed their love for your daughter and they want the best for her. She has been in our constant prayers. We thank you for raising such a fine young daughter, and we are thankful for this chance to work with her here in the Philippines Olongapo Mission.

Sincerely,

Elder Howes

Elder Maraon

Assistants to the Mission President

Email from Jessica's mom to her friends

Dear friends and family,

As some of you may already know we received a phone call late Friday night (Saturday morning in the Philippines) from the church medical representative.  So, I guess I got the phone call I didn't want to get.   Jessica Lowe is in the hospital ICU. She's been there three days. Her heart rate dropped and she passed out - she also had a rash on her arms and legs - it's gone now and her heart rate is slowly improving. I can't imagine her being there without us around her. 

Since then we received the following two emails:  I share them with you because they gave me such great comfort and because you are all such good friends to us.  

(Today at 3:00 pm)

Brother and Sister Lowe:

Your daughter is one of the best missionaries we have in Olongapo. She has only been here for two months but can speak Tagalog already. She is amazing! Her dedication to the work is very commendable. Her devotion to the Lord is such a great example to everyone. We had the chance to visit her today and happy to let you know that she is getting better and hopefully she can be transfered to the private room tomorrow from the ICU.

We pray for her recovery soon.

Best regards,

Week 14

Kumusta po kayo!

Ok so I just realized that this is like a HUGE year for the Lowe family! I'm out here being a cool missionary, Devon goes to BYU in a couple weeks (ahhh Dev i'm so excite for you!!! and write me back :p haha) Marissa is a Junior?? Who told you you could get old and beautiful Marissa? I just know when I get home I'm gonna be beating boys down with a stick just to talk to you haha. And Robert... High school? No way. Not my lil bro! Man... time sure does fly. Well I hope you all are doing AMAZING and know that I love you and think of you often :) 

So wow this has been an AMAZING week! Our zone and district split because of all the new missionaries coming in and I love love love my new zone and district! This week we have been preparing 4 people for baptism as well as find new investigators and trying to help bring back our less actives to church. Can you say buuusssyyyy? Every night when we came home after planning I would just shower and practically fall asleep on my knees. Like no joke Sister Calaunan had to wake me up because I fell asleep on my knees saying prayer haha. But hey! That just means we're working hard right?? And this week we really saw the fruits of our labor. Yesterday was possibly the BEST day of my mission and I could not stop smiling all day! It was probably really creepy haha. But anyways, On Saturday we had the baptism of the Capoquian family (the family of Jimboy) and Florence Oleguer (Gardo's brother) and oh my gosh it was so beautiful! They were all just glowing and so excited to make this step in their life and come closer to Christ. 

After their baptism they all got up and bore the most beautiful testimonies and it was incredible for me to know that everything they were saying we taught them. We helped bring peace and happiness to their lives and each and every one of them shared how grateful they were to God for sending us his missionaries to them. When they stood up there and looked at me and thanked me by name, the joy and happiness I felt cannot be explained. Then yesterday they all received the gift of the Holy Ghost and were sustained as the newest members of Hermosa ward. Then Jimboy, Gardo, and Florence (all previous investigators of ours who are now baptized) were sustained to receive the priesthood next week! And to top it all of we had a ton of investigators and less actives come to church and we had a record breaking church attendance of 202!!! 

Jessica and her companion

Jessica with a rice patty field behind her

This is why I'm here. To help make others happy and bring the gospel to their lives. Ahhhhh guys being a missionary is the bomb! 

I wish I had more time to write and tell you everything that goes on here but as usual I'm out of time :p Just know that I love you all and think about you and you are all in my prayers!

MAHAL KO KAYO and keep the faith! Know you are never alone and that someone in the Philippines loves you :)

Week 13 - 3 months

Kumusta po Kayo!

Ok so I'm just slightly jealous of the family reunion trip you went on but I'm glad you all had fun haha. I hope you told everyone hi for me! So it's been another great week here in Hermosa as always! It's always a good time out here haha. The people are so kind and friendly and so dang hilarious. Like yesterday a guy came up to me and was like "ahhhh americano!!" and was jumping around and smiling. I just smiled cause now I'm used to that kind of thing and was like ya taga america ako haha. Then I told him my name and that we are missionaries and asked if he'd ever met missionaries like us before. With that he just started singing Jingle bells and skipped away. It was quite the experience haha. Rainy season has hit full swing and it just heaps rain all day which is a blast haha. Actually it's really fun and everyone thinks I'm weird because I like the rain- but it's nice because it cools everything down. Which reminds me of another funny thing this week. So because it has been raining its getting cooler like 65 degrees and EVERYONE here complains about how could it is and are in sweaters and scarves even though I think its still pretty warm. I can't count how many times people made us hot soup or hot chocolate this week haha. so The week started out a little slow because sister Calaunan was sick again and we had to go to Balanga and get her checked out, but we just worked even harder during the rest of the week and it really payed off! We taught more lessons than normal with having less time so it was really cool to see how as we increased our efforts and faith the Lord really blessed us with more people to teach. So I am soooo excited for this Saturday because we have 4 baptisms!! 3 of them are the Capoquian family or the family of Jimboy who we baptized 2 weeks ago and the last one is Florence who is the brother of Gardo- the first person we baptized :) It has truly been such a blessing to be able to watch these people to learn and grow in the gospel of Jesus Christ. From hearing them say their first prayer to seeing them attend church every Sunday and read from the Book of Mormon with their families has been a privilege and such a sweet experience. I am so excited to continue to help them progress and become closer to their Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. I love being a missionary here in the Philippines so much and know that there is no greater joy than sharing the beautiful and happy message of the gospel of Jesus Christ with others. It brings light to those who feel they are in darkness and joy to those who have lost hope. 

Seriously. Being a missionary is the bomb haha.    

Well I gotta get going but I love you all and hope you are well and happy! LOVE YOU/ MAHAL KO KAYO! 

love always, 

Sister Lowe