Week 51 - BEACH

Hey guys!!! 

Ok so this was such an awesome week!!! I know that might get old to you guys but every week is such a miracle to me! This week especially! Ok so you guys might have noticed that in my email last week we were kind of struggling a little bit with getting people to listen to us and finding people who who attend church and really progress in the gospel. So to top that off at the beginning of this week we found out our 3 investigators to be baptized in May... well let's just say they are not going to be able to any more. PJ has some very serious issues that we found out from other people, then Jo-ann (17 yrs old) ran away with her boyfriend and Sari is always busy with work and doesn't come home till 2 in the morning so... ya. 

But, Me and Sister Burt truly believe that God has people ready for us to teach and baptize this month so we prayed harder than ever before, and worked so hard that we literally would fall asleep on our knees praying at night haha. We fasted and worked even in the blazing heat to show Heavenly Father how committed we are to him and our calling as missionaries. We just needed his help to find the people he has readied for us. Well as usual, the Lord always provides and helps his faithful servants (1 Nephi 1:20)  and we found 2 amazing families who we taught and now want to be baptized! They all came to church on Sunday and we had 7 less- actives come back to church as well! 

One's name is Froylyn and he is just amazing! He is now 23 and told us that he used to be super active in the church, but went a little wayward as a teenager and completely lost himself and fell away from the church. But he cried when he told us how burdened down and just sick he felt for the things which he's done in his past. He told us he wants to change, he wants to follow the Savior again. Of course the repentance process is not an easy one, but I know Heavenly Father loves Froylyn and all of us that have made mistakes in our lives and it is 110% possible for us to stop, take a close look at our lives right now, find our weakness and change them. Like I told Froylyn, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can all repent, change who we are to what we want to become, and free ourselves from the crushing burden of sin. I love My Heavenly Father and am so grateful he sacrificed his only begotten son Jesus Christ for us. Through his death we all live. Life is not easy, but it is full of miracles and we must slow down our lives to catch the hand of God in our lives because it is right there. 

Yesterday we had a tri-zone activity because we achieved all our goals and achieved the standard of excellence for the mission!!! We got to go to the beach in Iba and play beach volleyball, make sandcastles, do relays on the sand, and even get to put our feet in the water! yes its a big deal haha. It was so so so fun and I got to see so many of my good friends like sister Garrett, sister Lariosa, and sister Ila! I seriously LOVE my mission! Olongapo Philippines mission is the BEST mission in the world!!! And I love all the people I get to help in the process :) I love you all and I will see you in 6 months! Yup. I hit my year mark this week! ahhhhh! the times just flies! So I’m gonna work harder than ever so these last 6 moths last! :)

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lowe