Week 69: The Character of Christ

From Mark's Mom:  As you read Robert's email he will talk about his new companion, just FYI one of Mark's (Elder Lowe back in 1982) was Elder DeSpain.  NO WAY!!!!

From Robert:  Developing and emulating the character of Christ is the purpose of this life. I feel like I have been able to Draw closer and become more like my Savior, Jesus Christ, as a missionary. This week we had a wonderful district council about Christlike attributes. We talked about the character of Christ and what that really entails. One of the missionaries in my district shared a sentence from the talk entitled, "The Character of Christ." It says, "There would have been no Atonement except for the Character of Christ." I'm making an effort to become more like the Savior everyday in my thoughts, words, and deeds. I encourage everyone to do the same as well! If you are feeling down, sad, angry, stressed or anything I encourage you to turn outward like the Savior, not inward. Following the Savior brings pure joy and happiness!!

I just wanted to share that because sometimes in life we get so caught up on the little things. But what's most important is that we are becoming more like Christ and remembering Him at all times. 

This week has been a long one but way way good! I had 2 switch offs this week, but luckily they were both in my area! First, I switched off with Elder Sarabia, who is a Filipino. So many times I get stressed and I overreact to little things, but he would always say "don't worry, be happy." I like that type of mindset...just be happy!

I also switched off with Elder Freeze who is an older missionary than I am. He is a big dude and I mean like a big dude, but he was very good at making relationships with people. It turns out he has done 7 switch off with the Zone Leaders here and half of the time he would come to this area. So it turns out he knows the area pretty much as well as I know it! With both switch off days, I took these Elders to visit some recent converts and less active members and we took videos of their testimony. Like I said we are working on making a bunch of different videos and one of them will be centered on the members' testimony! We are so excited. 

In terms of new people that we will be teaching, we met this guy named Leon. He is way cool and we took him out to dinner on Monday. We had a casual conversation at first and then he switched it to religion. He mentioned the Bible and the Book of Mormon and asked what is the difference. We taught him such a fire restoration lesson and related everything to his own life. He says he is searching for the truth and we were able to bear powerful testimonies of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon! Overall, he has a ton of potential!

The family we are teaching (Giad, Nid, and Ingfaa) are doing so so good! They came to church and we are able to meet with them every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. We have sent them the basic belief videos and the restoration video and they watched them all. We gave them the pamphlet to read and they read it! We are focusing this week on having them read the Book of Mormon. I have such a strong testimony that deep conversion comes through diligent studying in the Book of Mormon! 

Lastly, we are teaching this one person named ตุ้ย (Tui). He is doing way good and we have been reading the Book of Mormon with him lately. Recently he wanted to dress us up. He said I looked like a prince and wanted us to come back on Halloween so he could dress us up like the King. Haha what a guy!

  

  

Oh yeah, this was transfer week. I will be staying in my area, but my companion will be leaving. My new companion is Elder Despain who is way cool! I've met him before and we are pretty close. He is 3 transfers older than me on the mission just like Elder Ratelle. It's gonna be such a good transfer. I'm so excited!! Love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Lowe

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Eating Thai style

Great district and zone!!!

Week 68: Consecration

Hey everybody! This week I almost had an entire week in my area. Last week p day was on a Tuesday and we went to a waterfall. It was way big, but we couldn't go in the water and swim. Regardless it was a ton of fun and we got a couple of really cool pics. 

Wednesday I got to do a "switch off" with elder Halversen again. We both had to renew our visas in Bangkok because we have been in Thailand for a while. I actually got to see my whole group from the MTC again which is always a good time! 

Our mission President came to our area and gave a training about the importance of using technology. He told us that Thailand is the country that uses social media/technology the most(85% of the population). Even all the old people are on social media, so we need to utilize technology to preach the gospel. As a result, me and my comp came up with a ton of ideas of videos we can make. You all are about to see a good amount of videos on my Facebook sometime soon. Hope you like them!!

Sunday was miracle day like usual! I continue to see the Lord bless us on his blessed Sabbath Day. We got more people back to church this week! When I first came to this area we had about 55 people going to church. I made a goal to try and get the church attendance to be 100 consistently.  Guess what? Yesterday there were 94 people so we are almost there already! On top of that we had 8 people we are teaching there as well!! What a miracle :) This family of 3 walked into the church and there are so cool! I'll let you know how their progression is in the coming weeks. 

As a missionary I serve for a period of 2 years. I am more than half way done and I took some time this week to reflect on how my time has been. I read a talk called "The fourth missionary", which talks about 4 different kind of missionaries. The 3rd missionary is the average missionary, but the difference between him and the 4th missionary is consecration. What I mean by that is to give yourself to the Lord. Align your will with His! I have made the decision this week to become a more consecrated missionary/servant of the Lord. I have about 8 months left and I want to give it all to the Lord! 

I love you all so much. The mission is the best thing ever!!

Love, 

Elder Lowe

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MTC reunion in Bangkok to update Visas

Great P-day at a Thai Waterfall

Standing for something

At the waterfall

Free lemonade at English Classes

Week 67: Exchanges and Transfers

Hey everybody. I wanted to start off this email by saying thank you to all of you. I want to work on gratitude this week and see the tender mercies of the Lord more easily in my life. You all are wonderful and are such a blessing to my life. Thank you for being so supportive of me and looking out for me. 

This week I had 3 switch offs (1 in my area and 2 outside my area). On Thursday I went to Ubon and I got to switch off with Elder Maat. He is on his 6th transfer so he is a relatively new missionary. We were able to just do service the entire day because the place is flooded. All the water that was in my area and all the water around us flowed to Ubon and so that place is completely wrecked. There is water completely covering houses in Ubon it was insane! 

On Friday we went to Sisaket and I switched off with Elder Meyer who is on his 13th transfer. We visited a couple people and we taught one person at a Buddhist temple (like right outside of one). Elder Meyer is a very experienced missionary and all of our lessons had such a powerful spirit there. I also did a baptismal interview on that day for someone they are teaching and he just got baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday! 

On Sunday we saw some major miracles. We have been working with a bunch of returning members because it is something that our mission President asked us to do. He has said, "getting a returning member back to church is equivalent to baptizing." Anyways we got 24 returning members back to church this last Sunday!! IT WAS AWESOME! When I first got to the area we were having about 55 people each week at church, but this last week we hit 88!! MIRACLES! 

On Monday I did exchanges with the APs. I got to switch off with Elder Walker who is a living legend. He goes home in 2 weeks, but still has such a determination to serve the Lord to the end. I learned so much from him about just being a better person. What I mean by that is I felt like he emulates the character of Christ better than any missionary I have seen. Being around him makes me want to be better and become more like my Savior, Jesus Christ! We taught a bunch of people that day and even got to eat lunch with my the mission President!

 President Hammond came to the area and took us to lunch.

For P day we went to a sweet waterfall. Pictures will be coming next week!

Love you all so so much! Trust in the Lord...and he will direct thy path :)

Love, 

Elder Lowe

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Week 66: One Night in my Bed

So it's been a bit of an interesting week with a ton of traveling. First of all, we left Monday afternoon to Udorn for our zone conference there. So Monday night I sleep at a hotel in Udorn. Zone conference was on Tuesday and we decided to switch off at Korat the next day with the elders living there. So Tuesday night we slept at the Korat Elder's house. Wednesday we switched off and we didn't get a bus till about midnight, so we slept the entire night on a bus. Thursday we got back to our area and finally got a work day in our own area. But we had a Missionary Leadership Training on Friday in Bangkok, so Thursday night I slept on a bus and got to the APs house around 5am. Unfortunately they locked the door so we just slept outside their house until they woke up at 6:30. Then we had an awesome MLC on Friday and interviews with President afterwards. We couldn't get a bus back to our area that night so we slept in Bangkok at the Bangkhen Elder's house on Friday night and got back to our area on Saturday around 5:00pm. So sorry if that didn't make sense or if I rambled, but basically we slept in our own beds only one night this entire week. And I'm still so exhausted!

All in all, it was still a very good week and spiritually uplifting too. Regardless of all the traveling, we received some awesome training. In zone conference we talked about a ton of good things such as, sharing the gospel in normal and natural ways and having members do the same. 

We also talked about where true happiness comes from. Sister Hammond shared this acronym, which I loved:

Jesus

Others

Yourself

You will have JOY as you put Jesus first in your life, others second, and yourself last. Charity is one of the most important attributes we can obtain in this life. I know this to be true as I have experienced it in my own life. 

On Wednesday I had a sweet switch off with Elder Halversen. He is actually in my MTC group and I knew him a little bit in college. We taught some cool LAs and with one LA we shared the story of Enos. It says that Enos' soul was hungered and so I took that opportunity there to talk about food and relate this story to this man's own life. For those who are unfamiliar with the Thai culture, Thai people love their food. Anyways I ask him what type of food he likes and what his go-to food is. Then I related it to the gospel by asking him what happens if he doesn't get to eat. He said that he would be a hungry man. I said exactly and it's the same with our spirits; if we don't feed our spirits with the word of God or through prayer, our spirits will starve. We invited him to feed his spirit by going to church and by reading his scriptures starting with 1 Nephi 1. He committed to do those things so I hope he showed up to church yesterday haha. Also, sidenote the food in Korat is the bomb and not too expensive. Overall, it was such a fun day and we both learned a ton from each other. 

MLC was on Friday and we talked a lot about the direction we wanted the mission to go. We decided that taking members on the journey with us and making every member a "missionary" is going to prepare this country for the temple it will receive in 2 years. 

Last experience from this week happened on Sunday night. We are teaching this guy named โก้ (go) and กัน (gan) and they are quite the characters. I'm pretty sure กัน has no idea what is going on ever cause he is so focused on making his ส้มตำ (Somtam). But our man โก้(go) just lost his daughter about a week ago. We were able to share a little bit about the Plan of salvation and give him some hope. Eventually he said he wanted to be baptized and wanted his friends gan to be baptized too. It's such a miracle to see so many humble souls being prepared by God in this country. 

Love you all so much. Miracles are real!!

Love,

Elder Lowe

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Great Missionaries

Robert and Elder Rattel

Biking in the rain

On their way

Week 65: The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came UP

Sorry for the cheesy subject title, but yeah its pouring over here! This week was like no other on the mission with a bunch of flooding and helping people with their huge losses. 

On Thursday the rain started coming a little bit, but by Friday we knew it was over. We were biking to a service project and it was just pouring and the next thing we knew the streets were flooded up to our knees. it was insane!!!

With a bunch of canceled appointments, we took all of Saturday going to members' houses to get the water out. We also transported care packages and hygiene kits for all of these families. Some of these houses were just wrecked and they lost so much. However, despite of the circumstances these people were still happy and we were able to make some ส้มตำ (somtam) together. I swear nothing brings a community together like making somtam in Thailand! 

As a matter of fact before all of the flooding, we visited a friend we are teaching and he couldn't focus on the lesson because he wanted to make some ส้มตำ really bad. So we made some ส้มตำ with him, ate it together, and built a never ending friendship. All it takes is some somtam and sticky rice, and your are best buds in the isaan. 

We are teaching some really good people though and we've already seen some really great progression and change in them. My new companion is Elder Ratelle and he is from Idaho. He is way cool and wants to open up a sick Thai restaurant when he gets back home. He has 3 more transfers left after this one so this is my oldest comp I've ever had so far. That's it for this week. 

Love you all so much!!

Elder Lowe

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I'm OKAY

Our meeting house

My Companion mucking out a house.  Bailing water and shoveling mud out

Also I went on a switch off with Elder Lewis and caught a couple fishes in the road haha

Last Area (Don Muang) last day 

Saying good bye