Devon - Week 89 got sick :(

This week has been pretty good.

I  went on exchanges this week and  got sick but I worked through it.  I walked all day that day but it was worth it because I meet some people that knew some of my old investigators and we talked about them.  

My companion is a stressed about going home. I am trying to help him  He does missionary work a little differently that I do.  He has shown me a lot, taken me to a lot of members homes which is good, but I want to go and knock on less active doors and teach more.  

Three soccer games in one day

Today Robert had a busy day - so did I but I had to keep it a secret ... shhh ... I'll explain later.

Robert had a basketball game at 11:00 in Crestwood - great win.  Then onto breakfast at McDonalds and then to his Futsal game that started at 1:15.

Robert Lowe

Aaron Green

Scoring!!!

They were up 3-0.  Robert had scored all three goals!  Then Robert was subbed out and they ended up losing 4-3.  BUMMER!!!!  Unfortunately in this game, Robert got kneed in the thigh.  OUCH!!!!  He is hurting.

We had the afternoon to rest, but then Robert had another game at 5:00 pm for OSC.  They won 10-4.  Great game!  Robert scored one, he was limping during the game.

He had another game at 7:00 for Creasey FC.  He had another 3 goals (or maybe 4) and was best player of the game.  Little did he know there was a big surprise waiting him for the rest of the night at home!!!

I secretly snuck off after the futsal game to picked up Robert's cake and more balloons for a surprise birthday party that was held later that night!!!

Great Basketball Win

Devon - Week 88 - Gave talk

As I have been studying the life of Jesus Christ through the Book, “Jesus the Christ” I have seen many new insights.  Recently, my eyes are opening up to the importance of humility and how much pride can be a stumbling block.  I understand more what the scripture mean by they that have ears hear not and those with eyes see not.  People that have strong pride literally can’t hear you, they hear the words but don't understand them.  They don't see the things you see.  They are so single minded that they miss the mark.  Pride limits are ability to repent, improve, and come closer to God.  We as humans all have our prideful moments here and there and I am Glad that God has helped me through mine and I will need his help in the future, that is something that I am positive about.

This last week I gave a talk to the Vienna Woods Ward about missionary work.  The focus of the talk was about being better missionaries.  D&C: 4.  The only qualification Christ has set is to have Faith, Hope, Charity, and with an Eye singled to the Glory of God.  The first step and the foundation of missionary work is desire to serve God.  

Devon - Week 87 - New Area - Bad Papers

Hey everyone,

  My area in Meridian North.  It has two wards named Vienna Woods & Edinburgh. This area is similar to my second area.  This place is a richer place than all the rest of my areas.  Last transfer 3 people were baptized in this area.  Now Elder Marostica and I need to go find people that are seeking the gospel.  This stake has been know as a hard place to find people to teach the gospel because the people are rich but we know that we can find.  

This last week, as a District, we  decided to pray that we can find New Investigators.  This last week the District found 5 new investigators which is outstanding for the district.  Elder Marostica and I found a Vietnamese Investigator named Adren.  He super open, maybe to open to things.  He is Buddhist and Christian and decided that he wanted to learn more about our church.  He recognizes that he feels good talking to us but does not recognize it as the spirit or God.  So we are going to work on that.  It's time to get super spiritual with him.

On a sad note I got my papers for traveling home :(.  I love you guys but I love my mission and I love being a missionary.  When I was growing up I didn't want to go on a mission but now I am grateful that I am and all the blessings that come from it.

Devon - Week 85 - Standards of Excellence

This week was a great week.  We almost achieved all the standards of Excellence this week except for that some people got sick and cancelled so we didn’t hit 20 lessons.  We found Jacob and are teaching him.  Marissa Johnson is getting Baptized on the 20 and Emily Vosser on  March 12. Looking back at what this area was when I got here and what it is now  has brought me happiness.  It is the happiness of working Hard and seeing success from it.  I have seen myself grow through my mission but I think these last 6 months I have grown a lot.  I am probably going to get transfer next week so I am going to make my last week count in this area.  

yes, I love getting your Gift cards.  I am getting transferred next week so I don’t know the stores over there so I will tell you next week.

Marissa got her Mission Call

It was late at night our time - around 9:15 pm (we had to wait for Robert to come home from soccer practice).  Marissa opened her mission call in the lobby of the Taylor building.  She has been called to serve in the Utah Logan Mission.  She will report on 6/1/2016.  She is so excited!  We are so excited for her.  

Waiting for Robert to get home

Opening the envelope

Robert's works at Tinseltown

In December Robert started working at Tinseltown Theaters.  It is the same place that Jessica, Devon and Marissa had their first job! 

Right away his managers liked him.  Robert works as much as he can.  He works every Friday and Saturday.  They are very good not to schedule him on Sunday.  Robert worked concessions in the beginning.

Later Robert was moved to ushering!  He likes both.

Robert's Basketball team

 Starting in January, the church basketball league started up again.  Robert played all the games he was available, but he also worked on the weekends and played on two indoor soccer teams.  He loves being active.  Robert was an excellent point guard.  We had a nice group of guys - everyone gave their best effort - you can't ask for more than that.

The Team
Robert, Josh Hancock, Sam O'Brien, Noah McKinley, Coach Longhurst, Jacob Bosco
front:  Jeremiah Bosco, Jate Longhurst, Josh Powell, Spencer Hancock, and Alex Hancock
Not shown:  Ben O'Brien, Izen Longhurst

Creasey FC Soccer

Robert was invited to play on the Creasey FC indoor soccer team.  It is a group of friends from NOHS that like to hang out together.  Some of the players are very good varsity soccer players and others are baseball players or girl soccer players, but they are all friends and all have a great time together.

The only sad thing about the Creasey FC club is that they players do not want parents to come to the games.  Not even to take photos.

I guess they want to just be able to relax and have fun together without any pressure from parents, good or bad.

Devon - Week 84

This week was a good week.  We Taught our new investigator, Emily. It was especially good for Elder Wood to get the experience teaching the Restoration.  We asked her to read the Book of Mormon and to be Baptized and she said yes for both.  Her date is March 12.  As we were leaving we saw that she started reading the Book of Mormon.  The Spirit was really strong and I feel like she will be baptize, which is awesome.  

This week at church everyone came to Summerwind Ward but no one came to Meadowlark Ward.  We had a great member Presents we defiantly had the "Right member."  Ryan, our investigator that is agnostic, was not really following his commitments and was starting to get less interested until we brought our recent convert  Eric who used to be agnostic/atheist and has all the same interest as Ryan does.  After he bared his testimony Ryan never took his eyes off him, thats how focused he was.  Marissa, his wife came to a baptism  and will be baptized soon.  Sorry that my email is short this week.

Court of Honor

Brother Lindman and Sam O'Brien ran the Court of Honor.   All the boys received awards.  Robert received his Venturing award and his Varsity pins.

Tonight was a very special night for the scouts in our Branch.  Betsy is the Advancement Chairperson for our troop and crew.  She works hard to make sure Court of Honors are super exciting to keep the boys motivated to earn awards and advance.

Devon - Week 83 - Missionary Conference

This Week there will be a Worldwide missionary conference I think the First one ever for missionaries and Mission Presidents.  Elder Bednard and Elder Oaks will speak as well as a 70 named Elder Neison.  

We had a super great week this.  We had a special Zone Conference all about faith that was given to our Zone personally from President Winder.  It just made me supper excited to do missionary work and it made me think a lot about how I can strengthen and build my faith.  This week we were greatly blessed with 2 new investigators and 4 of our investigators were at church.  Basically we reach many of our goals for the week even though at first we think we would.    Not only were we Blessed but the district as well.  Our district reached the standards of excellence for member presents this week.  This week was the highest it has been for months.  

This week was also stressful because I had to plan district P-day on Monday, Lead District Meeting on Tuesday and go on exchanges with the Zone Leader, Wednesday we had Zone conference, Thursday we had exchanges with Elders in our district; I went with Elder Mosimann who speaks French it was one of my most memorable exchanges.     

Devon - Week 82 - Repentance and handbook changes

Eric Keren and Cheri Graffias are doing better.  

We had some weird lessons this week.  Three people asked us about the new handbook change.  We watch the interview with Elder Christopherson and discussed it with one of them and that helped them understand. The other two didn't have a computer so we couldn't show them the video but we asked them to watch it. 

We had great spiritual lesson with some investigators and less actives which helped them to progress towards their next steps.  The zone meeting training and watching teaching Repentance came in handy especially for a less active that is really struggling spiritually, emotionally, physically, and socially.  It became crystal clear that she needed to go to church and talk to the bishop as well.  She agreed to come to church which she has not been to for years. it was really cool we had a come to Jesus moment. 

We had a lesson with both Ryan & Marissa this week.  We asked them some spiritual questions to understand where they are Spiritually.  Ryan still is trying to wrap God in his head or as he calls it a higher Power.  Marissa is still doing great the only thing that she needs is a testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith.  So next time we go over we are going to teach the Restoration. 

We have this Potential Investigator named Cheryl Stoops that we have been trying to reach for two weeks.  She has a Baptist Roommate that doesn't want us over and is making it difficult for us.  We still haven't been able to teach her yet, but we have texted and she seems interested.  Elder Wood and I are excited to start teaching her.

Fabulous Futsal

Robert finally got to play a FUTSAL game with his friends that attend St. X.  They are called the X-men.  Here he is with Trent, Aaron, and Ryan.  All four of these boys played middle school soccer together in 7th grade!

Trent Stigler, Aaron Green, Robert and Ryan Danehy

Betsy is attending College

Monday, January 4th brought big CHANGE to the Lowe home.

After a decade of waiting, I finally bit the big one and decided to go back to college for her final degree.

I was accepted at the University of Louisville and at Sullivan University (I only applied to those two). I was awarded a grant at Sullivan University so with the reduced cost we decided to go there.

I am taking a full load of classes (4):  Principles of Management 304, Negotiations 401, Ethics and Public Speaking.

I loved the first day!  It was great - all the classes seem exciting and I like all my professors.  The second day was a bit more realistic - massive homework - doubt sets in ...

Family Trip to the Zoo

This is the second annual trip to the Louisville Zoo during Christmas Break.

We had a wonderful time, although the weather wasn't as nice as last year.

Mark and Betsy

Bats - love the bats

 Betsy wanted to take the family photo while at the zoo since it is such a fun thing for us to do.

Family photos

this one - or one like it is my favorite

beautiful sisters

adorable

another favorite

so cute

come here little ducky