Week 79: It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

It's really beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! Believe it or not...Thailand is sooo cold right now. I've been freezing the last several days, no joke. It is usually around 90-100 degrees every day, but this week the weather dropped to the 60s-70s and let's just say I was not ready. My parents told me that Thailand would never get cold so I have no jackets, sweatshirts, coats, etc. Thank you mom and dad, haha, jk!

Right now as I am writing this email I feel completely exhausted. This week has felt so long and has overall been very tiring on me. Needless to say, it was an amazing week full of miracles and cool experiences.

I officially hit my 18 month mark on Friday!!

To start the week we went around to some different members and worked on our member board! We were able to share the wonderful Christmas message with some members in Roi Et before leaving to the other areas this week. As a Zone Leader I get the privilege to travel around the area often and visit other missionaries in different areas. This week I got to go all over the Isaan and I even got to go to Bangkok. I switched off in Ubon on Wednesday, Korat on Thursday, Sisaket on Friday, and Asoke on Saturday. These different areas are pretty far from each other, so yeah it was a week of traveling.

Traveling this week was brutal for 2 reasons. 1) we traveled at night so I probably got about 10 hours of sleep total this week and 2) I was so so cold. However, I am done complaining about this past week and I want to talk about all the cool experiences that happened. 

On Wednesday I switched off with Elder Fushee, who is on his first transfer. We did a lot of service, as we are trying to light the world, and we visited some members in Ubon. I want to talk about 1 member in particular that has been a blessing to me. Her name is Sister Tip (ทิพย์) and she is a recent convert to the church. I had visited her about 2 months ago with another missionary, before she was baptized, and at that time she had no desire to be baptized. She was drinking with her friends and family, and not really paying attention to us. Me and the other missionary decided to love her enough to help her, not JUDGE her. We read the Book of Mormon with her that day and applied every verse into her own life and she was amazed. She couldn't believe how this one book was "written for her." Anyway, fast forward to about a month ago where I got to interview her for baptism. She had changed a lot from that first moment to the day of her baptism and I was so proud of her. Okay fast forward to Wednesday this week when I went with Elder Fushee. We came to teach her follow up lessons about the restoration and she started crying. She had goosebumps and had another witness by the Holy Ghost at that moment that what we were telling her was true. She told us she has quit alcohol for almost 2 months now and that she wanted to help her family to do the same. She also told us that she has a desire to share the gospel with her family and she wants the missionaries to teach and baptize her family as well. Miracles really do exist!

On Thursday I was in Korat on a switch off with Elder Blood, who I first met in the MTC. He came to country about a month after I did, so it was really cool to spend a day with him and see how he is doing. This Elder is solid and is a very social man; he loves talking to people, so we used that skill and decided to talk with everyone we could. We visited a bunch of members and shared the message of Christmas with them. I love asking people what is the meaning of Christmas? Or what is the best gift you could ever receive? And after that asking them how is Jesus Christ a gift in your life? Or what role does He play in your life? I'm truly grateful for my Heavenly Father who gave his Son to us to be our Savior and Redeemer. I'm grateful for Jesus Christ that he did everything for me and allows me to return back to my Heavenly Father again.

On Friday, I was in Sisaket and I switched off with Elder Cruz. I got to interview another lady for baptism who just got baptized yesterday! We basically did the same thing in Sisaket and visited some Less Active members and got them excited for this Christmas season.

Lastly, on Saturday I was in Bangkok and I switched off with the Assistants. I switched off with Elder Sumsion who goes home in less than 2 months. He is a very talented guy and way humble about it too. He is by far the best Thai speaker on the mission, it is literally insane. But, what I learned from him is the importance of getting less active more involved in missionary work. We had an appointment with this one less active named เจดน์ (jade), and we got to show him a Christmas video. He felt uplifted and bore his testimony of the Savior. We were so impressed that we asked him to come with us to our next appointment and share his testimony again. He agreed and brought such a strong spirit with him into the next lesson!

We got back to Roi Et on Sunday morning, showered, and then immediately went to church! I have had absolutely 0 breaks this weeks haha. But, we had a miracle at church this week with one of the people we are teaching. We have been teaching this guy named Ping (ปิง) for a long time (he has been am investigator for about 2 years). He has been to church a billion times, received the missionary lessons all the way through 4 times, and has wanted to be baptized for such a long time. However, he is 17 and he told us that his mom didn't give him permission to be baptized. That changed today when she walked into the church and my companion and I got to meet her for the first time. We gave her a church tour with another member at our side and she immediately gave permission for her son to be baptized. I'm honestly so excited for him and his eternal progression. He is set to be baptized on Sunday, December 22nd, which is in 2 weeks! Yayyy!

Again so sorry this was so long, but I just have felt so blessed this week. I love you all so much and I hope everyone is doing good. I invite you all to remember the true meaning of Christmas this Christmas season. Take some time to think of all the things that your Savior has done does you!! Trust me there's a lot.

Love,
Elder Lowe
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PUPPIES!

On the Road again!

Christmas Tree in Thailand!

Week 76: Members #1

So it has been an interesting week for sure. Definitely one that I'll never forget. 

Transfer calls came on Tuesday night and one of the Elders in my house was not too happy about the next transfer coming up. He was completely silent the rest of the night and he decided to walk out of the house around 10:20pm to get some fresh air. He didn't bring his phone or any money either, so we knew he was just going to be right outside the house. He had been out there for a while and we are supposed to go to bed at 10:30pm, so we knew something was up. We then checked on him and he was just outside the house sitting down and thinking about life. We told him he needed to come back in for the night and he said just give him a sec. So we went inside and waited for a couple minutes and he still didn't come in. I was kind of worried something bad was going to happen and so we went back out and he was gone. We looked for him for about an hour after calling the President, but we had no luck. In the end he didn't come back to the house till about 2:00am that night! So yeah kind of a weird start to this transfer. 

Also one of the sisters in my MTC group just finished her mission this week, which is insane! I'm getting so old on the mission :/

We ate at a pizza buffet last week for p day and I ate probably over 30 slices of pizza (it was thin crust though). All in all, I felt way sick afterwards and never wanted to eat pizza again haha. 

We focused on some LA work this week by visiting members with other members. We are gonna make a strong push to meet with as many members as we can this transfer. Specifically bringing members to visit other members! The key to missionary work is the members and there is no way around that. Members trust each other, they understand the culture, the little things that missionaries miss. I can't stress the importance of working with members to strengthen other members and investigators. It is crucial!

On Saturday I got to work in Ubon for a service project. It was a whole zone service project, similar to the one we had last transfer. We got to scrape off paint in this one building, and then repaint it with a better color. It's very exhausting to scrape off paint trust me!!

The next day was Stake Conference in Sisaket, which was awesome! The members in Thailand are so great and have such strong testimonies. 

Lastly I interviewed with President after Stake Conference and he taught me a thing or two about Patience and Charity. I feel like I have become a little impatient lately, but my mission President reminds me that love is the most important thing. I need to have more love for those around me and have more empathy for them. 

Sorry this email was all over the place. I had like no time to write it! 

Love, 

Elder Lowe 

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Elder Depain

Missionary meal

Week 73: Bad Decisions 101

This last week has been one of the most memorable weeks on my mission. I learned a ton about what loving others means and why being empathetic is so much more important than being sympathetic. I have so much love for the people we are teaching especially this wonderful family that we have been teaching for the last 6 weeks. 

The family we are teaching is still progressing and have really developed individual testimonies of the things we are teaching. We visited another person we are teaching, and the family wanted to come and help us teach. I feel like true conversion happens when you want to share the joy and blessings of the gospel with others. By the time Sunday came around the family brought that investigator that we taught together to church! What a blessing and miracle!

On Wednesday, me and Elder Laurence switched off and made a video about sharing joy and the gospel with others. We still have to edit it, but we hope to get it out soon!

On Thursday, I did a switch off with Elder Tu in Yasothorn. If you can remember from last week, me and Elder Despain, and Elder Tu ate 40 peppers in our Somtam. It was so hot that I had started shaking and I drank like 30 glasses of ice water. Anyways, a couple days after that we heard that the record for missionaries in Thailand was 80 peppers. Elder Tu said we needed to beat that and he knew a member that could make Somtam with as many peppers as we wanted. Since we are serving in Roi Et, which literally means 101 in Thai, we told the member to prepare 3 plates of 101 peppers. We got to Yasothorn and we counted out the peppers ourselves twice to confirm there were 101 peppers. The member started making the Somtam and we knew that we were gonna be in trouble. It was just a plate full of peppers and to be honest I was really nervous to eat this. I bought two big water bottles, a bag of ice, a cup, and said a prayer for our health. Elder Tu, Elder Despain, and me started eating this insanely spicy plate and it was bad news from the beginning. Our mouths were on fire and my stomach felt like someone kept hitting it with a baseball bat. Elder Tu and Elder Despain gave up halfway because they couldn't take it anymore; Elder Tu ended up throwing up from the spice. But, I finished the whole thing after like an hour of eating and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. My body shut down and I thought I was going to pass out. I promise mom I won't do that again, but at least I got the new record for the Thailand Bangkok Mission (The land of the spice).

On Friday, the Ubon Elders came up and switched off with us in Roi Et. The Elders in Ubon are very good at making videos, so we decided to make a ton of more videos about our Free English Class! 

Lastly, today for p day we went pretty close to the Lao border and me and Elder Laurence bought a ton of Thai and Lao fabric. In Thailand we can buy a bunch of cool fabric and make them into pretty cool ties. I love the Thai culture and the people here! Zone conference is coming up next week and I'm excited to share a lot of the things I've learned on the mission with younger missionaries. 

I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Lowe

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All the Fabric 

Robert with 101 hot peppers that will be made into Somtom

My favorite picture of Robert in Roi Et

Eating somtom with 101 peppers - WHAT!!!!

Week 71: Saving one City at a time

It's been another crazy week in Thailand and I love being here. Unfortunately, I haven't been in my area like the entire week besides Sunday. 

On Tuesday night we traveled to Bangkok for MLC (Missionary Leadership Conference) on Wednesday. It's been one of those weeks where I literally got no sleep because I was on buses or trains over night. Also the AC in my room has been broken for the last week and now what I know what it's like to sweat all night. Shoutout to the missionaries in the Philippines! 

MLC was awesome and we talked about the impact we can have on Thailand through social media. We also talked about the importance of following spiritual promptings in all circumstances. After MLC we traveled to Ubon all night for a switch off the next day. 

I switched off with Elder Jensen on Thursday and we taught some really cool people. We taught this one guy named Winay who isn't ready for baptism because he won't give up smoking. Me and my companion ready in 2 Nephi 32 and talked a little bold with him about what he needs to do to be baptized. We made a schedule for him to quit smoking by next month. The lesson was full of the spirit and I'm excited to hear how he progresses in the near future. 

On Friday the entire zone came to Ubon to help clean up the floods from the month before. We literally had 20ish missionaries cleaning the floods up and building roofs, cleaning houses, and pretty much re-boosting the people's lives there. Service is so important and I learned so much about selfless service where we receive absolutely nothing in return. 

I have no time this week and my phone is about to die. love you all!!!

Buddhist Temples are amazingly beautiful.

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