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 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 62: Happy Mother's Day from Thailand, 1 year mark in Thailand, etc.

So this week was so so awesome. By the way happy Mother's day to my wonderful mom. I just hit my year mark in Thailand and I can still remember my first week here last year...it was Mother's day. In Thailand they celebrate Mother's day on the Queen's birthday.  I'm so grateful for all the experiences and life lessons I've learned over the last year. I'm also grateful to be an instrument of the Lord and gather his sheep and blessing their lives. 

This week was a little stressful, but everything worked out in the end. Brother Pet and Sister Geeg are so awesome and just got baptized on Saturday and received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday. It was a little crazy of a story to be honest. We had been planning their baptism since the beginning of the week and they had asked me and my companion to baptize them. However, about 30 minutes before the baptism I had inspiration to ask Brother Pet if Brother Q (our recent concert from 2 months ago) could baptize him instead. Brother Pet said yes and we showed Brother Q how to baptize, and he baptized brother Pet. It was such a miracle!! 

Another miracle was that Brother Min finally came back to church this week. He is a recent convert that we baptized 3 months ago who hadn't been to church in like a month. He came to church and after church brother Pet and sister Geeg visited brother Min with us. Brother Pet is already ministering and is best friends with brother Min. It is just really cool to see brother Min, brother Q, and brother Pet as best friends!

There are so many miracles that I have seen in this area. I got to teach this 70 year old guy named Chaiyong with an area Seventy. He is already Christian but was so receptive to the idea that a restoration was necessary to bring back the full and everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ. He is beginning to read the Book of Mormon and I'll let you know how he progresses. 

I have come to love and use the Book of Mormon more on this transfer than I ever have in my life. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it can answer almost if not all your questions. We have been visiting a bunch of less actives, recent concerts, and people we are teaching and we simply read the Book of Mormon with them. I am so grateful for this book and how it has blessed my life as well as the lives of people around me!! 

Love,

Elder Lowe

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So many wonderful people came to the baptism

Baptism Day

Robert, Elder Burgess and his investigators

Baptism:  Elder Flake and his companion, ?, Elder Lowe, Elder Burgess
Geeg, Q, and Pet

Elder Lowe

Elder Burgess, Robert and members of Don Muang

Baptism of Pet and Geeg
Robert, Geeg, Elder Burgess, Brother Q, and Pet

Week 57: Baptism of Brother Q

This week has been a really crazy and stressful one, but I'll just give you all a summary and a funny story or two. Ok to start Brother Q (คิว) was baptized and it was such a wonderful day. However, everything leading up to it was a little crazy with trying to schedule the interview, filling up the water for the font, and getting members to it since it was on a Saturday. In the end everything worked out and he received the Holy Ghost the next day. All in all, the Lord answers our prayers if we ask for help with real intent and sincerity in our hearts. I've seen the person that Brother Q was to what he is now, and I can see a new person with more light in his life. 

This entire transfer my companion and I have worked on visiting Less Active members and helping them return back. I have seen miracles by just consistently visiting and ministering to these people. I haven't done so much less active work on my whole mission until this transfer, but it has been wonderful to see the excitement and happiness the good news brings to people's lives. 

We are teaching this one guy named อิ้ม (eem) and he is really cool. So missionaries from along time ago taught him, but he couldn't ever go to church because he works on Sunday. We began teaching him about 2 weeks ago and at first he said he didn't want to give up smoking, he didn't want to go to church, and that he didn't want to be baptized. It was honestly a little upsetting and frustrating because he didn't know what he was missing in his life. Nevertheless, we continued to visit and teach him and he has changed his mind. His heart is beginning to open. He has accepted a baptismal date and asked his boss if he can get off on Sundays. I am convinced that the Lord has a big hand in all of this and has been preparing his heart over the last 2 weeks. 

Funny Story:

One day my companion and I were teaching this person while eating food. My companion had drunk a bunch of water at the time and said that he had to go to the bathroom. However, one of the first things I learned in Thailand is that public restrooms don't really exist besides in malls. We were too far away from home and we had another appointment soon so we just traveled to our next appointment. After that one finished we had a member appointment which we were already a little late to. My companion said he couldn't really hold it, but I told him that there would be a bathroom around where we were going to. We went into the taxi and about 10 minutes he starts panting and grunting in the back and tells the taxi to stop. He pays the guy and then sprints out of the car and just runs about 100 meters and starting a peeing in the middle of this little neighborhood. A bunch of people came out of their houses laughing and asking me if he was drunk and I said that he just really had to go to the bathroom. What started from a weird incident turned into a pretty cool discussion. I told them that we were missionaries and that we have a special message for them. It was a really weird and cool experience to say the least where I was able to share the gospel with about 10 people at the same time. Although none of them accepted the message, I felt that we needed to share that message with them at that moment. 

Two new people that we are working with this week are named เพชร (pet) and กิ๊ก (geeg). They walked into the church together on Sunday and we got to teach them about Heavenly Father and how we can communicate with Him through prayer. The Spirit was there and they actually went to a family home evening with us the next day at a members house and then English class on Tuesday! I know that God has prepared their hearts  to receive this message!! I'm soo excited to teach them. 

Lastly, transfer calls just came yesterday and I am staying in the same area with the same companion! I'm so excited to help the work progress here and see all the miracles that the Lord has in store for us. Love you all so much. Have a good week!

Love, 

Elder Lowe

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Flooding in Bangkok

What is that?

Dinner 

Baptism of Brother Q

Baptism of Brother Q - group photo

Family Home Evening at Wisan's house

FHE - Pet and Geeg came

Drink from a bag

Like his shirt

Week 56: Teaching at a University

Wow so this week was not like a normal week because we got to teach at this University. We taught college students and it was a little sad that none of them could speak very good English! Anyways it was very fun but very long. It was an all day thing so I have a new and deeper understanding and respect for teachers. 

Other than that we have continued to teach Brother Q and prepare him for baptism! His testimony has continued to grow each and every week and it's been so cool to see the changes and sacrifices he's made to be baptized. We gave him a practice interview this last week and his actual baptismal interview will be on Tuesday! 

This week we started teaching sister See the review lessons after baptism and she new everything. She actually started recounting things that we never taught her but are true. She somehow already knows about how fast Joseph Smith translated the plates, and she knew about general conference and all these other things. Honestly  my comp and me were so touched by seeing sister See's faith and desire to change her life; it brought us so much joy and helped us to get along better! She also got the gift of the Holy Ghost this last Sunday!! 

A big problem in Thailand is that the men at around age 19 and 20 have to become Monks for some period of time (บวชพระ). So many people that we teach are 20 year old guys and they all have this problem. We are teaching this guy ฟลุค (Fluke) who really loves English and at first he would just come to the church for English class. However, he has started to learn and wants to be baptized. He even  asked his mom if he could be baptized, however like usual she said no...not until after he becomes a monk. We are praying for him that he can somehow be baptized and skip becoming a monk phase in his life. He is honestly such a good kid. 

well that's about it for this week!! 

Love, 

Elder Lowe 

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Missionaries that taught at the university

Teaching at the University