Home Sweet Home!

:) Hi everyone! I just want to thank all those who have looked at my blog over the past 18 months! My mission was the most wonderful experience and I am sad it's over! However, I am happy to be home with my family and excited to see what the Lord has in store for me next! I got home on October 18 and have been running ever since. We sent my sister off on her mission just three days after I got home! It was nice to have that short time with her. I am so proud of her and can't wait to hear about her experiences! I will be keeping a blog for her while she is gone and we would love for anyone to check it out! The address is tonimission.blogspot.com :) Now here are some pictures from when I got home!

 Airport Welcome Home! 

 Our wonderful family friends, the Baumans!

 Lunch!

 These lovely ladies traveled down from up north to support us!

 The high school crew!

 Brother and Sister Sherwood from my very first area of my mission came all the way from New Mexico to support me! I was soooo happy to see them! 

 I sure missed the mountains! This is my cabin!

 Sister reunited!

 My baby nephew Matei that I hadn't met till I got home!

 Girls day at the Manti temple!

 Me trying to unpack and Toni trying to pack...it was messy!

Sending Toni off at the St. George airport! 

Change in the Making--Final Email!

 

Hey everyone!

Wow. I have so much to say. I hope you have your reading glasses close haha! I seriously have so many emotions and I am so terrible and putting them into words! But I am going to try my best! But first, our week! It was awesome! :) We got to see the Meet the Mormons movie in a special zone meeting. It was so wonderful. I laughed and cried and just felt so uplifted! I strongly encourage everyone to see it! We also had a ward party that was an international food truck night. So people brought foods from all over the world and we dished them into small amounts so we could try everything. And believe me, I tried everything! I just kept walking around and seeing things I hadn't tried yet, and before I knew it, I felt like I was going to die from how full I was! It was all so good though! And there were tons of non-members there too! :) Then Sunday was super cool because we went to visit a lady in our ward who is in a nursing home and we asked the nurses after if there is anyone who never gets visitors that we could visit. They thought that was so cool and gave us a list of ladies and a box of nail polish! :) It reminded me of all the Sundays we would go visit my Grandma Cleo in the nursing home. It was a really neat experience for me. We also finished our 100 Days Closer to Christ Book of Mormon Challenge. It's always amazing to feel the Spirit testify of the truth of that book and this gospel when I read Moroni 10. It never fails. The power I've felt as I've read and the relationship I've been able to build with my Savior is something that I will forever cherish!

 

As for our investigators... Tom is the same. Still hasn't kicked that girl out of his apartment. We have tried being bold and loving and everything! So it's just up to him now. He has an awesome testimony, just isn't quite converted yet I guess! We weren't able to see Judy or Joseph because they were out of town. We taught Andre, a recent convert, and he's been bringing his sister Lecia, who is adorable! So we are teaching her now :) They came to the ward party and had a great time! We have a few new people, but we can never know if they are actually solid until we get a couple lessons in. So that's that ha. I am so glad I got to serve in Palm Bay. This ward is so wonderful. I barely got to know them, but they feel like family! During ward council on Sunday one of the elders asked what I sent my mom for her birthday. I said I just told her happy birthday that morning... He had no idea about my mom, so we just kinda let it go ha. Then I felt like I should give my mom something for her birthday yesterday, so I got up to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting. I talked about how there were a few talks in conference about how it's the parents job to teach their children the gospel. Then I gave the ward props because they do an amazing job at that, and I thanked my parents for teaching me the gospel and helping me get my testimony started. It was a really cool meeting. 

Now I want to thank all of you for your prayers. I know I've done it before, but as I hear people pray for the missionaries it makes me so grateful for all the prayers we have. I was a little scared at the thought of not having all of those prayers anymore after this week! We really really do feel them. And need them. I have especially needed them this week as it was my mom's birthday and I found out that my Grandpa Lowry passed away the same day. I am sad but I know that Heavenly Father needs them both at home right now. A scripture in the Book of Mormon gives me a lot of comfort! Now, concerning the state‍ of the soul between death‍ and the resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home‍ to that God who gave them life. (Alma 40:11) I KNOW this true. The Plan of Salvation is such a HUGE blessing in my life! I am honored that I have been able to share it and the restored gospel with the people in each of my areas. I know I was supposed to come here and have every companion and serve in every area that I did. Speaking of, Tani got baptized yesterday in College Park! Sister Woolley emailed me and said it was incredible. I knew it would be. He is such a stud. I was so blessed to have been a part of his conversion process and journey towards Christ!

As you may know, I have had a huge struggle with perfectionism my whole mission!! Well, probably whole life actually haha. But, right now I feel so so great about the work I have done and the person I have become. Yes, I still have a ways to go, but the lyrics of a song kind of describe how I feel! It's by Mercy River and it's called "Change in the Making."

This is redemption's story, with every step that I'm taking.

Everyday You're chipping away what I don't need.

This is me under construction, this is my pride being broken.

Everyday I'm closer to who I'm meant to be.

I'm a change in the making.

We are all really a change in the making. It's not so much about perfection as it is progression. I think Elder Russell M. Nelson said that. Jesus Christ was the only perfect missionary and the only perfect person. It's because of His perfection that we don't have to be perfect. But we can become perfect after this life! His grace makes up for what we can't do ourselves. Which is sometimes a lot. But as long as we do our very best, we can feel good about the work we do. Heavenly Father and our Savior love us so much and They do hear and answer our prayers. This is their work; I am eternally grateful to have had a small part in it! I love you all and cannot wait to see you in a few days. Yes, I am sad to leave Florida. It has been my home and it will always have a special place in my heart. But also am excited to see the other adventures the Lord has in store for me. :)

Love always,

Sister Lowry

xoxo

#ldsconf

We got to see the ocean this week! Yay for Coldstone!

Hey all!

Sorry I am writing so late. We went to Bass Pro Shop with the other sisters! It was pretty cool! I just wanted to buy everything for you dad haha! It is basically just like Sportman's Warehouse though. Nothing too special! Then we have cleaning inspections tomorrow, so we have been cleaning like crazy too! But we had a really great week. Wasn't Conference just amazing? I think I just love it more and more every time it comes around. And my testimony that those men and women are truly inspired of God gets stronger every time! I loved that they always turn and connect everything to Jesus Christ. I was able to learn a lot and receive revelation for myself, so I hope you all were able to as well! :) I encourage you to look over your notes, re-listen to the talks, and read them on the app or in the Ensign. Those words are scripture! And set goals to apply the things you have learned.

"We're watching General Conference this weekend.  Are you?"

So, we found a lot of new investigators this week, and are hoping we can get them to progress by making sure they get to church. We also have a ward party this weekend so we will be inviting everyone to that. Tom absolutely loved conference. He went to the priesthood session and said it was phenomenal! We are hoping our other investigators watched it...but we haven't heard from them yet! We went back to visit these guys that we met last week, but they weren't home. So we talked to their neighbor, Samara. She was so sweet and said they want to start going to church and she wants to get baptized too. We went back and taught them and they are so sweet! They moved this weekend, but luckily they are still in our area! So we will hopefully see them tomorrow. We also were able to contact a referral named Kass that they got like two months ago! She is so awesome and we are going to teach her on Thursday! We also get to watch the Meet the Mormons movie on Thursday, so we are really excited for that! :)

Well, the Church is so true. I can't wait to share my love and testimony and more of my experiences with each of you! Have a wonderful week! :)

Love, Sister Lowry

Service project cleaning the exercise machines at the YMCA

Palm Bay!

Biking with my companion.  Aren't the trees beautiful? 

 Hey y'all! 

Oh my goodness, I have so much to say! I don't even know where to start. How about the General Women's Conference. I learned so much this week and have found so many cool things that I've thought about sharing with you, but after that meeting I just have to share what I loved. I love the temple, and they talked about it a lot! It made me so excited to go home and be able to go to the temple again. It also got me so excited for Toni to go to the temple tomorrow! :) It is such a blessing. But the feeling that I felt when Pres. Uchtdorf spoke is so hard for me to explain! I want to get better at that. But anyways, I felt like he was talking directly to me. I felt the love of my Heavenly Father and my Savior so strong! Especially when he said that God doesn't wait for us to overcome our weaknesses or become perfect before He loves us. Oh my gosh it was so perfect for me again I just can't even explain! Which leads me to my next point...

Tuesday morning we went to breakfast with Jackie and Lina, two of my favorite members, then to transfers. I saw President and he said that he wanted me to give my departing testimony at the meeting because it was the last chance they will have to hear from me, since I'm not going home with my group. Uh.... I was SO not prepared for that! The missionaries who are going home all sit on the stand and share their testimonies but they know it's coming so they can kind of plan what to say. NOT ME! I know I looked and sounded like such a fool up there because I don't even know how to talk or explain my feelings or anything! But I just hope and pray that someone in there needed whatever came out of my mouth. 

Breakfast before transfers with Jackie and Lina 

So I said my "goodbyes" after that. Which didn't even seem like goodbyes because I am not leaving yet, but that was the last time I will see my missionary friends for a while! Oh, Sister Jacklin, my trainee, got called to be a Sister Training Leader! I am so proud of her! She is so solid! :) But then I came to the very southeast part of our mission! Palm Bay ward! It is in the Cocoa stake, where I first started my mission! So it is nice to be by the coast again! Lots of rain though! We got soaked a few times on our bikes! We biked sooo much this week, and my body was just not used to that anymore! I love biking, but man I felt like such a grandma! Anyway, this ward is really great so far! We get fed and everyone is really nice and excited for me to go home too! 

Saying goodbye to most of the College Park Ward

We are teaching a few people. First, Tom. He used to be a baptist preacher. He was supposed to get baptized last week but has a girl squatting at his apartment, so can't get baptized till she leaves. He is way cool though and talks so much! Next, Judy. She is so sweet and knows the church is true, but hasn't come to church yet because she has MS, so it's hard for her to get around! Her sister is a member in California and she wants to be here for Judy's baptism, so it's not till December. And Joseph, who is a busy student going to Florida Institute of Technology. That campus is in our area and there are probably about 7000 students there. So that is cool! More YSA! :) 

Oh, my companion! Sister Nielson. She is so great. She is from Elsinore, UT. I am one of the few people who knew where that actually is when she told me! :) But it is by Richfield for those of you who are wondering! She came out the transfer after me, so doesn't have too long to go either! We teach well together and get along pretty well too! Sister Bowman and Sister Rogers, two of my previous companions, have served in this area, so that is pretty cool! I am enjoying the little time I have left and just using it to the fullest! I feel really good about the work I am doing and have done, and am excited to be home to see you all in a few weeks! I believe my homecoming talk will be on October 19 at 9am, so I would love to see everyone there! :) Have a wonderful week! 

Love, Sister Lowry 

College Park Pictures #YSA

Celebrating my year mark!  Frozen yogurt always!

District P-day

#ilovehammocks

#sundaynap

Love her!

#sunset

#sunset

Fountain by the library

Our roommates always leave messes.  Hardened caramel.

Vivien & Yolanda's first time ever going to a church

There are trees in  the middle of this bridge we always walk on. 

 #accidentwaitingtohappen

Sister Christensen needed proof for how messy of an eater I am

Best Friends :)

In order to see the rainbow you gotta endure the rain, right?

We thought this tree on campus looked like the Tree of Life!  

#bookofmormon

Just had to see how long my hair is getting!

District picture!

Boing!

The trampoline place

James' baptism! :)

Goodbye sushi with Sisters Christensen & Taylor and Zarek!

New companion!  Sister Blake!

It's so green here!

P-day volleyball

More volleyball

Sister Forsey jammin' out!

Eric

#searchthebook

#UCFKnights

Temple tour with Danny, Eric, me, Sister Blake and Lexi

We love to see the temple :)

Flower toes :)

Nails & ice cream P-day!  These are the sisters we share the ward with

Volleyball again.  It was so HOT!

Elders trying to play indoor soccer!

#livethebook

Game night!  Apples to Apples!

Uno!

Video gamers...

Jeremiah's Italian ice is famous here!

My "posterity" at transfer meeting

Saying goodbye :(

New companion--Sister Woolley

4th of July!

Fireworks!

Indoor soccer!

At the temple after our session!

College housing...at least they have door mats!

Birthday breakfast for my companion!

Temple tour with Khalil, Isaac, & Alanna!

Sister Forsey likes to do my hair!

 

Paradise!

This pizza place we go to :)

Dumb Elders!

Ugly outfits for district meeting...

...the things we'll do for entertainment!

Turtle on sidewalk

Chelsea Leger's setting apart

 

#aftertherain

Yummy Thai place!

ZTM.  Love these sistas!

Random ferret tracting.  It's actually Kim's!

Visiting Christy & Ales!  My recent convert 

from Waterford Lakes last summer!

Temple tour with Brandon!

Downtown Orlando--bad picture, I know!

Car pic!

The squirrels attack you here on campus!

Jamming on Sister Forsey's last day with us!  

Some of these could possible by the best documented car pics!

 

    

Shannon's demolished B-day cupcake!

Rainbow!

Lake

Fan Fast!