Week 51: President Ballard and Mission Conference

This week was one of the coolest and most inspirational weeks of my mission and maybe my life. We had a mission conference, meaning that I got to meet with all the missionaries in my mission. I got to see all my friends from the MTC, and all my old companions! It was so fun to catch up and see everyone's growth as a missionary and as a person. I got to see an apostle of the Lord come to this great land of Thailand. President Ballard is already 90 but is still a jokester. However, it is evident that he is an apostle of the Lord and represents Jesus Christ. He talked a lot about having a desire to be better, to strengthen the church, and to be a missionary in every aspect of our life! I feel blessed to hear such powerful words from a true disciple of the Lord. 

This week we have been teaching so many people. We got a challenge for this transfer to ask at least one person everyday if they want to be baptized. Me and my companion have seen miracles by just asking people. Right now we have 8 people on a baptismal date for next transfer and I'm so excited to see them progress!! We have Rose (a Filipino) that has such a desire to find the true church, Brother ทัต who used to smoke, drink, use illegal drugs, and so much more but has completely turned his life around. We met this lady named C this week. She showed up to the church on her own and we just started talking to her and teaching her. She is so fire and has accepted a baptismal date!! 

I had the opportunity to do a lot of service this week too! I actually got to help build a Thai house which was way fun and so hard. 

We just had transfers and my ลูก or trainee is leaving! I am staying in the same area and I will be companions with Elder Burgess! I'm excited for this new week and the adventures to come!

Elder Lowe

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On the temple grounds, Elder Davis is far left, Robert is middle

Robert with Elder Davis - reunited.  

Elder Gantt - Robert's trainee, Robert - Elder Davis' trainee and Elder Davis

Zone conference

The whole mission with Elder Ballard, Elder Gay and Presiding Bishop Davis

Robert on the left, Suprakit on the right

The MTC group reunited!!!  Elder Bentiti on the far right

Robert with wonderful members of his ward

Teaching English classes

Service #1

Service #2

Teaching at McDonalds

Lunch with Suprakit

Week 46: Transfers and Songkron

So like I said last week, Thailand has this crazy festival called Songkran which is basically a giant water fight! On Monday we got to go to Asoke and I saw a bunch of other missionaries including my trainer...who is now the AP!! Can’t wait till the next Songkran. 

This week was a little strange with Songkran and transfers. We had our switch off on Wednesday, the last day of the transfer. I switched off with Elder English who is soooooooo fire!!!!!! We live with the zone leaders so it was cool to see how they work outside the house. I learned a lot from him. He has a lot of fun while doing the Lord's work, but works very hard and talks with so many people! 

This week we also got 2 more people on a baptismal date for this transfer. One of the people we were teaching saw that we would teach from this book(the Book of Mormon) and wanted it so bad but was too scared to ask for it. We felt that we needed to give it to her and once we did she thanked us so much! She loves reading it and I can already see a change in her appearance and perspective in life. 

Lastly we began teaching this new lady this week named Ratchani and she is a lady with all the questions. Our lessons last for over 1 hour and she asks about 30 or so questions. She has such a desire to know everything before she is baptized! I love it!!!

Lastly I want to say how grateful I am for the Easter holiday and for the special time to think of our Savior's Atonement and Resurrection. I know that Jesus Christ lives! He atoned for each of our sins in his mortal life and rose 3 days after his physical death. Jesus Christ is with us. พระเยซูคริสต์ทรงอยู่กับเรา - Jesus Christ is with us. He is our Savior and Redeemer and fulfilled the will of His father. I love Jesus Christ and I'm so grateful that through him I can be with my family forever! If anyone has any questions about anything I just said please ask me or missionaries in the US! 

I love you all so much and feel so loved my you all and by my savior each day!!

Things that happened this week:

-I ate straight wasabi

- a crazy member taught with us

- One member invited us over for Easter dinner and we got some pasta!!

Love

Elder Lowe 

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More Photos

Delicious Dinner

Robert teaching

Robert and Elder Gantt working hard

Robert with an investigator and his Companion Elder Gantt

Robert and his companion had Easter Dinner with Wisan & Sister Wisanbannawit and the Zone Leaders

Service Project

 Songkran FUN!!!!! below

Many of the elders gathered at the Asoke Chapel - huge water fight :)

Lovin' Songkran - especially on a hot day

Week 16: transfer from Chaing Rai to Phuket

Robert Lowe

Sun, Sep 23, 8:55 PM 

So this week has just caught me totally by surprise. I'm still a little in shock about everything. But long story short, I love PUKHET!!!

First, leaving Chiang Rai. Honestly just one of the hardest things as a missionary is leaving an area that you have come to love so much. I loved the members there so much and all of the investigators were so kind too. But all good things come to an end. Transfers were this week which means I went all the way to Bangkok, picked up my new คู่ (companion), and we were on our way to ภูเก็ต (Phuket). My new companion's name is Elder ทู (thuu) and he is Samoan. He is super chill and wants to work hard so that's all I could ask for. Anyways, that bus ride was by far the longest bus ride I have ever been on...I think it was about a 14 hour bus ride but no worries, I got to Phuket in 1 piece! This place is super beautiful and very very hot. I'm literally living on an island right now teaching about Jesus Christ. Life can't get much better than that, right? 

Second, what caught me by a huge surprise was the lack of people we are teaching here. In Chiang Rai we had a bunch of people to teach but when I got here my companion told me we have nobody that we are teaching. This area is brand new so a lot of these people have never heard about God or are not interested at all. It honestly feels like we are the pioneers just trying to find anyone that is willing to listen to our message. The key is to have faith to find the elect and trust God that he can help me! 

Because we don't have too many people we teach, I have the sweet opportunity to talk with everyone. It's funny because in Thailand there are timers on the stoplights so I know exactly how much time I have to deliver our message. Sometimes with only 10 seconds I just ask where they are going and tell them I am a missionary that teaches about Jesus Christ. Anytime I pull up to a stoplight, if someone pulls up next to me on a motorcycle they already know I am talking to them! I've past out so many inviting cards because I am trying to plant these seeds for future missionaries. 

Overall I have gotten to speak so much more already. I talk with everyone I see, my trainer has me lead almost all the lessons, and I am now talking probably 60% in the lessons and my companion is talking 40%. It's just a complete turn around where I went from not speaking too much in lessons to being the one that answers questions and leads the lessons. I know it has got to be God helping me because I just feel way more comfortable and I don't really have to think about the words I am about to say they just come out naturally! But, I know I still have got such a long way to go because I am nowhere near fluent. 

I believe that God is giving me the gift of tongues this week. He has sent me to Phuket, a new area with only me and my companion. We both are relatively new in the mission and have a long way to go as missionaries. But, I can truly see God's hand in my life helping me teach these people in order to progress his work down here in the south. 

I feel so blessed to be here in Phuket. The people are still soo nice and I love the members here too. They are all shocked that I am a greenie and some of them say that I speak better than my trainer who has been out for 7 months in country. I think they are just being nice though. We visit members a lot and they always feed us so much. One member made a bunch of spaghetti and I thought I was in heaven. Overall the Lord is blessing me and has sent me here for a specific reason. I just have to find out what it is. 

Love and miss you all. Until next time

Love 

Elder Lowe 

1) me with sister ไหมา and brother พายุ and there crazy kid

2) last time teaching ต้น with Elder Davis 

 3) some guy dressed up in an elephant costume haha 

 4) the fam (my trainer and his son with my trainer's trainer and his son)

 5) my companion wanted in on the fun

6) the nicest people on earth or some of the members in Phuket 

Week 15: Phuket, here I come

So this week has been insane to say the least! Literally insane. Too much has happened that I honestly can't write it all. 

So there were too many miracles this week and the Lord is truly blessing me personally as well as my companion. To start, we found so many new investigators this week who seem to be ready to hear the gospel. It had been frustrating a little bit in the past weeks because it seemed like we were working so hard and none of our investigators were progressing, but we found so many new people and got so many referrals! 

ต้น is one of the referrals we got and he has been to church two weeks in a row. He doesn't really understand too much about this gospel but he has a desire to learn, which is the key. We have taught him a couple lessons and invited him to be baptized … and he accepted! He is such a cool guy to teach and I really hope he gets baptized in the near future. 

Another crazy referral this week was this older lady, ป้า ดา, who had been really sick lately. There was a good possibility that she had developed มะเร็ง (cancer). She had been to the hospital multiple times and then got a blessing from the Elders Quorum President. The next day she found out she didn't have cancer and started feeling a little better. She then said she wanted to be baptized just because of the power of that blessing. TheElders Quorum President told her she needed to take the lessons from the Elders which is where we come in. We have taught her some really great lessons and we can see how strong her faith is. We have given her another blessing and visited her at the hospital this week. I care about this old lady so much already and I barely know her. I think it's just crazy the way God opens my heart to love these people so much. 

So about 2 weeks ago we went inviting and talked to this girl for maybe 30 seconds. We invited her to come to church with us and she said she would but we never saw her after that. That was until we open the door after church on Sunday and she is just sitting on a bench right outside the church. She told us she had been looking for the church all day and was just waiting for us to teach her. It was unbelievable! We began teaching her how to pray to her Heavenly Father and she loved it. By the end of the week she accepted a baptismal date. Some people are just prepared and when the Lord just hands you these people, all I can feel is gratitude in my heart. 

Another thing I just love about Thailand is the opportunities I get to serve everyday. Especially this week we did some service projects in the hot and humid sun and I was so drenched by the end of it all. In Thailand I honestly feel like I am always wet. It's even humid in the house so after I get out of the shower I start sweating! Its awesome!!!, and I seriously love this mission and the opportunity to be a missionary to bless people's lives and serve them. 

This week there has also been such a huge progress in my language ability. I had worried about it so much in past weeks but this week I just decided to relax and forget about myself and get to work. So that's what I did and my language improved so much. I feel way more comfortable talking with people and leading lessons all of the sudden. I don't know why but the Lord is looking over me so much right now. 

Transfer stuff:

Transfers are this week! This is my first transfers in country. We were anticipating a call all of Tuesday night and eventually the President called and said that my trainer will be training someone else next transfer. What?  We didn't know if that meant I was leaving or if he was leaving. My companion kept telling me I would leave because otherwise he would whitewash an area. Finally we get a phone call and the AP says Elder Davis will be staying and that I will be staying as well...in another area lol. 

I have enjoyed this area, Chiang Rai, so much and I am going to miss it more than you can imagine. That's right...I will be leaving Chiang Rai after one transfer. I was super bummed. I have felt the love for all these people and I feel like I just got here. I truly care for and love these people with all my heart and this place will be deeply missed. I will never forget this time here in Chiang Rai. 

Well, when I got the phone call the AP said that I needed to be sitting down because he had some insane news for me. He then told me that I would be going to Phuket!! For those who don't know, Chiang Rai is the most northern part of Thailand and Phuket is the most southern. So in the next day I will be traveling to the opposite end of the country. I have heard only great things and I can't wait to get there and start working again. I know the Lord wants me in Phuket for a specific reason so I'm just going to keep trying to be the best missionary I can be and keep this work moving forward. The Phuket area was just opened up about 6 transfers ago and only 5 elders have served there. I will be the 6th and the first greenie so wish me luck! 

Love you all so much and I'm so grateful for the support. I still haven't met my new trainer but his name is Elder Tu. I have heard only great things!! I will be in Phuket next time I email and I'm ready for the adventure that will soon begin. 

Love 

Elder Lowe 

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1) doing some service in the hot sun

2) talking with a person about Jesus Christ

3) the legacy of former missionaries in Chiang Rai

4) talking with people on the streets with comp

5) baptism of sister หนึ่ง

Week 14: One month in Thailand in the books

Week 14: 1 month in the books

ทุกคนที่ผมรักมากฯเลย. ผมอยู่ทั่วประเทศไทยเดือนหนึ่งแล้ว. ผมเรียนรู้มากจากประสบการณ์นี้ตัวอย่างเช่นคนไทยใจดีและการรับไช้เป็นสิ่งที่สำคัญ. มันให้ช่วยผู้คนรู้ศึกความรักของพระเจ้า. 

Wow time flies by because  this week I reached my one month mark in country. I've already experienced so many amazing things and can't believe I still have about 2 years of incredible experiences to come. 

So this week started off with a Zone Conference. Monday night we packed up and headed to Chiang Mai for our Zone Conference which is only 3 hours away, so it wasn't too bad at all. We got to stay at this sweet hotel with American and Thai breakfast. For Zone Conference we had Elder Homer, who is an Area Seventy in Asia. The meeting was so so good and we talked a lot about how we can become the most effective missionary. Something I really liked was that we need to talk with everyone because God puts them in our path at a specific time and place for us to open our mouths. It doesn't matter most times what we say if they have been prepared. Later that day we got to meet with this guy who is about to be in the supreme court here in Thailand. He’s been a judge for 33 years and knows one of my companion’s friends so he took us out to dinner. We ended up giving him a Book of Mormon, too, and he said he would read it. Then we got back to Chiang Rai late on Tuesday night. 

Chaing Mai

Robert - the Missionary

With the guy that is about to become a Supreme Court Judge in Thailand

Wednesday morning we visited sister เก๋ who we hadn't seen in so long since she had been out of town. She told us she didn't need to belong to any religion or church. She is the one who said she has magical powers and has the ability to heal people. Also she has been having visions and intense dreams. Well anyways she says she shouldn't join any church because God has given her this gift so she can be available to help all people in need. We shared a couple of scriptures with her explaining the importance of being a member of Christ’s church but we were respectful, too. I'm not sure what's gonna happen there but we shall see. The saddest thing happened on Wednesday though. This amazing guy we are teaching told us he was moving. This was เบิร์ด, who was the strongest of the people that we were teaching. He had problems with smoking but had a 10 week plan to get over his smoking addiction. He needs to go back to his moms home to take care of her, but there is no church there. We hope he returns back soon so he can feel the joy of being a part of this church. 

เติร์ด, the person we met last week that cried after we bore our testimony, accepted a baptismal date. She is so sick and has a lot of faith. I'm so grateful God put her in our path. 

We got to teach these two referrals from a recent convert. One was from Myanmar and speaks no Thai, so we taught in English - because he knows English. It was a little weird to be talking in English (not gonna lie). The other friend had been to church and had read a lot out of the Book of Mormon. He understood everything we taught so well and I think he will be baptized pretty soon. It's pretty amazing when these Thai people are able to understand and humble themselves and accept our simple but unique message about Christ. 

Lastly, waking up Saturday we walk out our door and there are bananas and snacks on our handlebars and a note. That was so nice!!!  It was from someone we taught once right when I got in country. She said that her daughter had moved to Japan and took the Book of Mormon we left her. Her daughter had apparently been reading it a lot and really enjoyed reading it. However, her mom wanted another copy of the Book of Mormon, so we rushed over there to give her one before going to the bus station to go back to Chiang Mai. We went to Chaing Mai again for a district area conference where I got to see everyone in my zone again and like all the members from Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai. There were so many people I was shocked! The church is so strong here.  All in all I got to talk with and hear people talking Thai non stop for like 10 hours on Saturday and Sunday. It was awesome!

This has been another great week and I appreciate all the support from all of you! You all are awesome and I miss you all. 

Love 

Elder Lowe 

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Week 13: Miracles in Chaing Rai

Week 13: Miracles in Chiang Rai

อาทิตย์แห่งปาฏิหาริย์ที่เชียงราย

How's everyone doing? This week was one of my favorite in Thailand!! First, on P-day we went to the border of Myanmar and Thailand and everything was in both Thai and Burmese which looks so cool! 

This week started off with a switch off with the zone leaders. So I got a new companion for one day. I got to lead all of those lessons and talk with our investigators way more than before, which was super cool! It really boosted my spirit and showed me that I'm capable of doing great things with the Lord's help. Also, he taught me the importance of talking with literally everyone we see. So that's what we did this week...we talked with every person. We were just walking one day and heard out of nowhere "hey I just saw some Mormon boys" lol. Immediately we turned around and started talking to a group of Americans. It's funny how many Americans I sometimes see at night. 

This week I also got to do some cool inviting on my own. My companion and I just started talking to some people early one morning and I started talking to these two guys that  had their shirts off, smoking and drinking whiskey at 9 in the morning. I started teaching them about what we believe and one of them said he's been wanting to change religion for a while now. His name was ออ๊ด. He was interested so we started teaching him.  We taught him how to pray. He said a wonderful prayer and the spirit was definitely there. 

I had a goal to talk more this week and even lead some lessons and that's what I did. On Sunday we only had one investigator at church, which is sad because we commit so many to church every week and then they just don’t show up. Its heart breaking. But once church ended something really cool happened. 

We walked out of the church - just saying goodbye to some members. We saw this guy just walking past the church and we asked him if he’s ever been in a church before. He said no, so we invited him in and he toured the church. We asked him if we could give him a lesson and he was down. I got to lead this lesson and we just taught the plan of salvation and the spirit was so strong that we invited him to baptism in a month and he said yes. Life is full of miracles seriously! 

One more miracle was on Saturday this week. We were looking for ออ๊ด and ending up just finding another girl. We started chatting with her and told her we were missionaries. We asked her what religion she worshipped and she said she was Christian, so we started talking about the book of mormon and testifying of its truth. I opened my mouth and told her I knew the book of mormon would change her life because it has truly changed mine. All of the sudden she started breaking down in tears and told us she hasn't been to church in years and that she used to be such a strong Christian. The spirit was so strong!! We were invited to her house and taught the restoration and gave her a book of mormon to read...it was nuts. 

Spiritual thought: 

One day we were talking with two of our investigators, จง and เมย์, who just don't seem to follow any of our commitments. We have invited them to church numerous times and given them specific powerful scriptural passages to read. But they just won't ever read. So we used an analogy so they could kinda understand the importance of going to church and reading the scriptures. I especially enjoyed this analogy because it is about soccer. In soccer you have different positions, a coach, assistant coaches, and another team. The coach gives us direction and helps us achieve our goals of becoming champions. The coach stays focused on his one team and doesn't have multiple teams that he coach. We related the coach to jesus christ. He gives us direction and tells us how to win. The assistant coaches are missionaries who provide help along the way. In this analogy we said to be better soccer players what do the players have to do. They said practice and listen to coach. We said practice is on Sunday at 9am als church. The only way we can become better is if we go to practice. However the best players practice at home too. This is reading your scriptures, praying, and doing those simple things to draw closer to Christ. They understood completely that they went progress if they don't put any work in themselves. 

Sorry another thought we explained that's more applicable here in Chiang rai. For those who don’t know Chiang rai is so beautiful and surround with amazing buildings and nice people and a lot of wads (or buildings for the Buddhist people). However, the church we have here in Chiang rai is to say the least not that appealing, so when people come they say they would rather go to their prettier, bigger church. However another analogy to explain this is: imagine you have 2 cups. One is half full and doesn't look like clear water either, but the water is in a very smooth and nice looking glass. The other glass is full with clear water but the cup isn't colorful or that appealing. Which one would you rather have? That's how it is here in Chiang rai...we have the full doctrine (full water) with no distortion of truths (clear water). I love this area so much and which they could partake of the blessings of this church. 

On Friday we met this lady who is catholic. It's funny cause in Thailand if you are catholic, it's like you are Buddhist and have a shrine of some crosses and jesus. Kinda interesting Haha. Well we taught this lady named วิท and got to explain the restoration of the gospel. She could understand everything so we explained it in a variety of ways and she realized that her church was wrong and got a little confused with her life Haha. But we invited her to church and unfortunately she didn't come. Oh yeah and I got to eat some Mexican food! So soooo good. It's the best tres leches I've ever had by far. 

Love

Elder Lowe 

1) service cutting down some trees

2) the Mexican place with our tres leches

3) view of the split of Thailand and Myanmar 

4) view of Myanmar