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

เอ็ลเดอร์โลว์ 

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!!!!

Marissa comes to visit us in Texas

Marissa arrived in Texas on Friday, the day before Nina's wedding.  It was perfect timing, but very stressful for her.  She had to finish her last final, drive down to SLC and then didn't get into Austin until after 10 PM on Friday.  The Wedding is at 10 AM the next morning in San Antonio, so we woke extra early to get a good breakfast, get ready and drive the 2 hour drive.  It was all worth it because Marissa was there for Nina.  The wedding was wonderful; Nina was beautiful!  

After all the wedding fanfair, we changed our clothes and toured San Antonio.  It was Marissa's first time there so we took her to the River Walk.  There we walked around to the famous, Alamo.

We also went down to the river level and took a river boat crusie!

 

After the tour we walked along the river and enjoyed the sites, sounds and conversation.  I love having time with Marissa!  It's so easy to talk to her!

The next weekend we decided to go Zip Lining!  

What a blast.  We've never been in Texas, but I heard that this was an excellent adventure!

 

Another favorite of mine was spending time with Marissa at our neighborhood pool!  We would load up the sunscreen, towels, music and floatie!  What a great time!  You know I love the sun - it's so fun to go the pool with someone else that wants to get a tan!

Marissa brought her long board! WOW!!!! She's a pro!!!

Both Mark and I gave it a try too!  Clearly Marissa rules, Mark and I had fun!

The next weekend we decided to drive out to Enchanted Rock for a hiking experience!

We hiked to the top of Enchanted Rock and then we took some hiking trails around it - or so we thought.  Somehow we got off the trial, but it's all cool.  We found some exciting places and conquered some hiking challenges.

  

Marissa and I went to Brushy Creek and rented a kayak.  It was a double kayak so that we were together!  We were out on the water for an hour.  The day was beautiful - sunny blue skies, clear water and a great time together!

An absolute must was meeting Mark for lunch to treat Marissa to the Famous, Rudy's Bar.B.Q!!!

We had a delicious brisket lunch!

While Marissa was here, we got to celebrate Mark's birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

We planned on taking him to Chuy's but they had a long wait, so we went to Red Robin instead.  We all enjoyed a dinner out and a chance to celebrate!

More hiking - by this time, Marissa is not liking that Mark and I enjoy long hikes.  This time we went to Russell Park on the north side of Georgetown Lake.  

It's so sad to see her leave!!!