Week 94: The Best Two Years

"All good things must come to an end." Believe it or not this was my last week in Thailand and I will be coming back home to America on Tuesday night. I still can't believe it, but I'm grateful that I got to serve as long as I did. I have had 22 months full of experience, happiness, help, knowledge, and so much more. I truly feel that the Lord has blessed me so much in these past two years. Even though the Corona virus is the reason I'm going home, I believe this is all part of God's plan; He is always looking over us and I know He is in charge. 

In terms of my last week, we had a transfer board meeting with President all of Monday and Tuesday to try and organize the mission and put them in new areas. We decided that I should get back in the field for my last 2 months and get to work in หนองคาย (Nong Khai). While I was packing on Wednesday morning we received word that we aren't allowed to travel or move areas. So I stayed as the Assistant I guess. However, we were hoping that that would only be temporary. We also had a new missionary from Myanmar come to the mission so we got to do a little training for her as well. 

We had MLC and a district leader meeting and some other meetings to start off the new transfer. However, we got news on Saturday that we are all going home :(( Our last day we had testimony meeting for all the zones and it was so powerful. I'm truly going to miss Thailand and all the people here!!

I've learned a thing or two in my time here:

1) The most important thing you can do for your life is to develop a relationship with your Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. As a missionary in Thailand we have the opportunity to teach people so many people who don't know about their father in Heaven that loves them so much. I feel blessed to know that I am a child of God and for the relationship that I have developed with him over these 2 years. 

2) The most crucial and significant event that has ever occurred since the beginning of human existence is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that Jesus Christ loves us and sacrificed himself for us. Nothing else even compares with the Atonement. In fact nothing else is important in life when we understand the Atonement more fully. As I have come to understand the Atonement better on my mission, my heart is full of gratitude and joy that someone came to this Earth to suffer for my pains and sins personally. I know without a doubt in my mind that Christ suffered personally for me on that night. If you haven't started your relationship with Jesus Christ, or if you don't know where he fits in your life I implore you to start now!

3) The Lord answers prayers. My mission has been full of ups and downs. Good times and bad times. Joy and sorrow. Accomplishments and Stuggles. But through it all I have always had a guiding hand in this work. As I turned to the Lord I truly saw His hand in everything. He has answered my prayers repeatedly and helped me in more ways than I can name on my mission. 

4) The Lord calls prophets. It is quite obvious that the Lord has called a living prophet to lead and guide us in these days. With the Corona virus, panic is imminent, however as I have looked to our prophet I have felt peace and safety in every phase of the way. 

5) The Book of Mormon is God's other witness. It truly is another witness to the glory of God! I have developed such a strong testimony that it is true and that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God. I want to support the apostle Elder Holland in his testimony of the Book of Mormon. He stated, "I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgement bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true, that it came forth the way Joseph said it came forth and was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the last days." I know it to be true!

6) The Lord is the master of the vineyard and he has a work for us to do. The importance of sharing the gospel cannot be overstated. God has a work for his servants to do in his vineyard and I have a desire to labor with the Lord. I'm so excited to continue to serve the Lord with all my might even when I'm back home. 

Just wanted to end this email with a quote by Dr Suess: "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened"

Love you all. See you soon!!

Love,

Elder Lowe'

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Bunk mates for one night in Bangkok

Heading home

Temple progress

Working in the office

Companions to the End

Stop with Robert and Elder Robison
Stop is an entertainment reporter in Thailand that is also a member of the church
He's fantastic

Robert - a proud Thailand Missionary

Robert and Elder Robison in Bangkok
AP's to the End

Week 93: The End of the World

Just for your information, I'm doing fine but I am pretty bored. It's been about 3 and a half weeks of being in my apartment only!!

 It's been such a crazy week, but more for all of you who are in America. I have heard how insane everything is in America at the moment. But, don't worry!! Our prophet is very optimistic and as long as we follow his counsel and keep the commandments we will be fine. I'm praying for all of you back home and may God be with you.

 I marvel at the day in age that we live in. These truly are the last days, and although the second coming may not come for some time, I believe it's time for us to all prepare for our Lord, Jesus Christ and his glorious second coming. I had the opportunity to study in the book of Revelations and D&C 77 this week to understand the second coming a little bit better, and how I can prepare. All of you who have not yet started your personal relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, I invite you to start now. Jesus Christ is the light and the light of the world (Mosiah 16:9) and through faith in him all things are made possible (Moroni 7:33).

 I have tried to develop my relationship with my Savior this week by listening and hearing him. I got to attend a zone conference this week (via video call) and 5 different zone devotionals. They were so uplifting and focused on how we can hear the voice of the Lord in our everyday lives.

 Oh yeah I also made some more progress on memorizing Mormon 9 this week. So far I have memorized 23 verses of that chapter!! But, I still got a long way to go haha.

 Last thing that I wanted to share is that I have been able to watch a lot of the Book of Mormon videos and other church produced videos. It has really helped me to feel the spirit and has strengthened my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

This week is transfers, so we'll see if I move or if I stay in Asoke! Love you all.

 Love,
 Elder Lowe
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Week 91: Complete Shock

This week was not like any ordinary one. First of all, I turned 21 years old a couple of days ago and I still can't believe it! I'm grateful for the person I have become over the last 21 years of my life. Also I want to thank all of you that wished me a happy birthday, posted on my timeline, wrote me personally, or sent me a package. I am so grateful to have such great friends and a wonderful family. So thank you! On my birthday the Senior couples made a big Mexican meal and my district got me an ice cream cake! I'm so lucky!!

However, the day after my birthday was a day that I will never forget.  Wednesday Afternoon we get a phone call that says all of the missionaries that have 2 transfers left will be going home this week, possibly the very next day. At first, I didn't know if that included me or not and I was just in complete shock. But, i came to learn that it was for all missionaries that had a release date before May 31st (or 90 days from that Wednesday). Also, the senior missionaries would be going home this past week as well. I still couldn't believe all of my close friends would just be going home out of nowhere. 

I had the opportunity to drive a couple of these missionaries to the airport, and all of the senior missionaries. I'm grateful for them and their service. 

Overall this week has consisted of making phone calls, answering phone calls, driving missionaries to the airport and teaching members and investigators on the phone. 

Also, we worked on our member board this week.

Last thing is that Brother Arm and Brother Arthur were both confirmed as members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints this past Sunday at church. It was wonderful and they were just full of smiles!!

(Church here was a little bit different this last week as well. The Bishop had all the members sit every other row so that those who passed the sacrament wouldn't ever give up their tray. This is due to the Corona Virus and the fact that everyone is terrified of getting this virus. Additionally we all had to wash our hands multiple times and wear masks during church haha!)

Love you all so much. have the best week!

Love, 

Elder Lowe

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The Ward Member Board - complete with photos

Senior Couples going home

Treat for Robert

Week 90: Baptisms of Arm (อาร์ม) and Arthur (อาเธอร์)

This has been probably the weirdest week of my mission, but then again I still have next week. 

So for those who haven't heard, all the missionaries in Southeast Asia, or at least most of them, are on house lockdown. We are quarantined, meaning that we are restricted to only our houses/apartments until further notice. That is, unless we need to buy food or supplies. So yeah, we don't get to go out and do our usual missionary work, which is a big bummer. 

However, the Lord has blessed us with technology so that we can continue to do our missionary work through technological efforts. We can text and call members, less actives, and interested persons. So we are still able to teach, but we aren't able to teach or talk with anyone face to face. Needless to say, it has been a very interesting week. 

So this week started off great as usual. On Monday night we visited Arthur (อาเธอร์) and gave him a practice baptismal interview and he did awesome. Then we got to meet with our man Jim (จิม) that same night and we had the opportunity to teach him the word of wisdom! He had a problem with drinking tea and coffee, but by the end of this week he has given them both up!! He immediately quit drinking tea, and then a couple days later he quit coffee as well! He has so much faith and I'm grateful for his decision to keep these commandments.

The decision to have us stay strictly in our houses came on Thursday night and it said that Friday would be our last working day. We had scheduled a switch off on Friday with the Chiang Mai Elders and scheduled a ton of appointments! I switched off with Elder Taylor, and he is such a solid missionary! We were able to prepare อาเธอร์ and อาร์ม for baptism on Friday as well! 

On Saturday we were locked in our apartments and just did a deep clean day. Our apartment looks so so good now! It's awesome!! 

Lastly, on Sunday I gave a talk in church about the Atonement for about 10 minutes and it went really well! For church, we are only allowed to have sacrament meeting (1 hour) for like the next 2 months. However, we had a scheduled baptism for this Sunday, and luckily that was able to happen. It actually ended up being 4 people's baptisms - two people from us, one from the office elders, and one from the STLs. The pictures are attached below.  It was such a great day for everyone.  Look at all the people in white!!!

I love you all so much! Thank you so much for your prayers and your concern!

Love,

Elder Lowe

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Everyone in White:  Robert baptized 

What a great group of missionaries
Robert is in one of his new Thai suits

Robert teaching at zone conference

Elders and Sisters in front of the Asoke building

Time for some tennis 

Up in Chaing Mai

Robert in his new suit and Elder Robinson
and an investigator

Robert and Elder Taylor

Robert and Elder Robison with other members

Robert with Elder Robison loving that they are missionaries

Tomorrow is Robert's birthday!  Happy 21 to Robert Lowe!!!

Week 89: Happy Valentine's Day

So first things first...HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! I hope everyone had an awesome week and felt a little bit of extra love this week. 

As for me, I had a crazy busy week and I didn't get a p-day haha. On Monday I had the Bangkok East Zone Conference. Then on Wednesday we left to Roi Et and we were there for 2 days for their Zone Conference. Then Friday I got to go to the Bangkok North zone conference. Zone Conferences are the best because you just feel the spirit so strong, and you get pumped up for the transfer. 

I got to visit 5 families in Roi Et like old times, and we just shared the message of the Atonement and how much God loves them. Missionary work is the best! Being able to lift someone else up and helping them to draw closer to their Savior is the greatest feeling in the world! 

On the days that we didn't have Zone Conference, we got to teach a ton of lessons. Right now we have อาร์ม (Arm) and อาเธอร์ (Arthur) who have been progressing so much. Both of them are kids who just love the gospel and understand it so well. Arm is 13 and Arthur is 9 and they have baptismal dates for next week. How exciting!!

We are also teaching this guy named จิม who is just following all of our commitments. He has a baptismal goal for March 15th and is beginning to really understand the immense love the God has for him. He has read to chapter 10 in the Book of Mormon in just 1 week, so we are very excited for him. 

Lastly, I want to talk about our man สุวัฒน์ (Suwat), who is the dad of one of our RCs, พัช (Pat). He is not a member yet, but he has such a desire to learn and change his life. He has prayed for God to open his eyes to know for himself if these things are true. We have taught him about the Plan of Salvation, The gospel, and the Restoration, and he just couldn't believe it. He was like, "we got to tell the whole world." hahah 

The Lord is so good! Rely on him and he will truly direct your paths. 

P.S. I have less than 4 months left on my mission. How crazy is that?!?

Love, 

Elder Lowe 

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Robert and Elder Robinson on the flight - 

look at that awesome new tie

Week 88: Work Work Work

This was such a busy week!! We had our mission leadership conference on Wednesday, and I honestly feel really good with where our mission is right now. I feel like the diligence and obedience has increased throughout the mission - at least I hope. 

On Thursday we met with a couple people, but for the most part we had to plan for our trainings that we would be giving in all of the zone conferences! 

The next day was Zone Conference for the Bangkok West Zone, which is my zone. My companion and I gave a training on the importance of members in finding and teaching. We have set a goal to find some soul everyday as a mission, and to teach with a member every single day. Honestly we should be teaching with a member every single lesson, because as President Hinckley said, it is the most effective way! 

In that Zone Conference I also had the opportunity to give like a 10 minute special musical number. Basically my companion played the piano, and I just gave like a 10 minute memorized talk from President Eyring and Elder Holland. 

We also had a special English meeting for all the English leaders in our mission on Saturday! 

It was a solid week. Our best days are definitely Saturdays and Sundays because we get about 8 appointments for both days. We have so many people progressing and coming to church. I feel like the Lord is really blessing us in our area because of our diligence. Just like PMG states, the key to missionary work is work!!

Love you all so much

Love, 

Elder Lowe

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Teaching Arm