Invites: A Small and Simple Thing!

Hey! 

I had a pretty good week! We had exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders, and it was so great. I went to Goldenrod with Sister Pugmire. She and I came out together and I have always looked up to her since the MTC. She is a really good missionary and I learned a lot from her. She basically just told me how great of a missionary I was the whole time! It made me feel so good! I needed it because I tend to beat myself up and be really self-critical. So something I took away from it that I am going to work on is giving praise to others! I have never really been good at that because I'm not very like...the type to express my feelings and stuff? I guess. Anyway, I am going to pray to see other's strengths and tell them about them. Sis. Pugmire said that when she did that and really focused on the strengths that other people had, she was able to not focus on her own weaknesses and to see her own strengths more! It was exactly what I needed. It's kind of hard to explain by typing it out so sorry...

Everyone is doing pretty well. Khalil and Carlos both came to church. Along with two less active guys and a girl we just met on campus and invited. We have appointments with all of them this week! Which we need because it is finals this week then summer break again. So we will need extra prayers haha. So cool story: We have shuttles that go from campus to most of the apartment complexes around the area. So if we can't bike we can jump on a shuttle. I don't know if anyone is familiar with air drop but we have it on our ipads with bluetooth. So it's kinda like snapchat a little bit. Anyway, we were on the shuttle and this guy's airdrop popped up so we dropped him a picture that said I am a child of God. He dropped a picture back and we did again. It was so funny we were trying to not to laugh out loud. We talked to him when we got off the shuttle and invited him to church. He said he just moved here and needed to find a church! So we got him a ride and he came! Turns out he is a member! Crazy! It was a pretty cool little miracle :) 

 

Another cool story and my plug for member missionary work! I sucked at being a member missionary before my mission. But I got a wedding announcement this week that made me so happy! Travis Hammer coaches wrestling with my dad and I met him right before I came on my mission. I was giving the prayer at stake conference so we invited him to come with us. He did and we went to dinner after and he really enjoyed it! He ended up learning from the missionaries and being baptized. He is now getting sealed in the Salt Lake temple! It is so amazing how one tiny invitation can go so far. All we have to do is the simple invite, and the Lord takes care of the rest! (Alma 37:6) So congrats to Travis! :) I also got Kendra and Zack's announcement this week! Super cute! They are two of my best friends and I am so happy for them! 

We also had interviews with President Berry this week! It was good. He told me to be happy and to finish strong. You know it's soon when even your mission president mentions going home. That was my last interview! I love President Berry so much. He is truly inspired and cares so much about each of us. What a blessing! I love serving the Lord right now. Sometimes it's weird to see that other people's lives are still going and mine is kind of on pause, but I know this is the best thing I could be doing and I wouldn't rather be anywhere else. 

Love, Sister Lowry 

Celebrate!

Temple trip with a few ward members and 

the other sisters who share the ward with us 

Hey all! :)

So we went to the library on campus this week because I could not stand to use those computers at our complex again! It was a much better week. I still don't have much to update you on, but I am feeling better and things are looking up! :) What I am working on is to celebrate the little miracles and victories that we see each day. Even if they are very small. Like yesterday we had 3 lessons fall through, but we were able to contact a really cool girl on campus! I started doing a little prayer journal just to keep track of who and what we are praying for and being thankful for. Once something happens I go back and put a smiley by that certain thing on the list. It has been super cool to see how often the Lord answers our prayers! Prayer is so powerful and I have really gained a better testimony of it the past little while. 

Temple tour with Khalil and the two members

Well, great news! I got a call from our travel secretary in the mission saying that she was making my flight plans and needed to know what airport I wanted to fly into! AHHHH!!! It was crazy. It has to be done 90 days in advance so that was a mind blower to me! I only have 90 days left to reach all the people who need me and to fulfill my mission here in Orlando! It has been super hard since she called me because I just keep thinking about home. But I have a goal this week to focus!! Oh, by the way, I am going home on October 18th :) So I get to see Toni before she leaves! Yay!!! Another prayer answered. Probably for more people that just me ha! 

Car wash!

We are working with the same people. Khalil has a baptismal date now, but didn't come to church so we will probably have to move it. It has been really hard finding rides for everyone here. We need like a calling for Ride Coordinator or something! But a cool miracle was that Khalil really wanted to go on a temple tour on Friday night, but it was so last minute we thought there was no way we could swing it. We texted a bunch of people and found a guy who could take us! But, we couldn't ride in the car unless a girl came to, so we had to text even more people and try to find a girl to come! We did! The Lord definitely had a hand in that one! It was pretty cool :) We are still teaching Cody and he is doing really well :) He said he is planning on being baptized when he gets back from summer break! Yay! :) We have been working with him since January! We are still kind of teaching Madison, the 4th of July miracle girl, but we didn't get to see her yesterday, so we don't know exactly where she is at yet. We are teaching her tonight. Then we found a new guy named Carlos who is pretty cool! :) He came to church yesterday (which is huge) and also to a community service event we had on Saturday! It was a free car wash and hot dogs and it was super fun! Not many people came, but we are hoping as we keep doing it regularly that more people will come! Other than that we are still just talking with everyone and trying to find people to share our message with! It's hard because lately we have taught so many people then when we try to set up another time to meet they either never reply or say that they read the book and it "isn't for them." Uhhhh... The Book of Mormon is for everyone. Nice try though! So it's just kinda frustrating I guess! But we are doing our best and that is all the Lord asks!

I hope you all are having a fun and safe summer! 

Love, Sister Lowry 

Slow...

July 14, 2014

The subject of this letter describes the computer I am using, the week we had, and my mind. I honestly don't know what to say or write about! I have so many thoughts in my head, but putting them into words has been a struggle lately! And I am just not patient enough to work with this computer today. But we are still just working on finding people who are prepared. We are working with a couple people, but we don't know how solid they are because they won't come to church. I never realized how important church was! But I am so glad we went every week growing up! It is a hard habit to get into if you aren't in it! Probably harder than exercising. Something I learned this week is kind of personal, but I will try to make it general for you! I have been super self-critical lately, which is bad. But I was able to feel so much comfort yesterday as I read my patriarchal blessing and realized that we have all of eternity to work on our list of improvements we need to make. Sister Berry, our mission president’s wife, always says that you have to eat an elephant one bite at a time! It is so true. We are all a work in progress, and I am so grateful that we have forever to work on each of our little...things, for lack of a better word!

Love, Sister Lowry 

Tender Mercies

 Hey all! 

I hope you had a happy 4th! Ours was pretty good! Not as cool as my last Fourth of July, but we still had fun! We went to campus to use Facebook (we get an hour each day) and these Baptist people came up and tried to bash with us. I was so annoyed because they always try to do that and it is just such a waste of my time. But, I learned a couple things from it. First, no one can ever take away my testimony of the gospel, especially of the Book of Mormon and the fact that God still speaks to us. I am so happy that I have a solid knowledge of that, and I would encourage you all to self-evaluate and make sure you do too! Because you never know when someone or something is going to test that. Second, when we ask with faith, Heavenly Father will make sure we are in the right place at the right time. Right after we finally got them to leave, we met this awesome girl named Madison who was like the only person on campus and she let us teach her! We taught her again last night and she is catholic and doesn't necessarily want to convert because of tradition (that is the main problem with Catholics here), but she is willing to read and pray about it! So that was really cool! We saw a few of those "tender mercies" this week. 

Speaking of, I learned that the term "tender mercies" comes from the Book of Mormon! In 1 Nephi! Our mission president has asked us all to read the Book of Mormon in 100 days. It's called 100 Days Closer to Christ. So, I was almost finished and had to start over, but it has been so cool. The power that comes from the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, just amazes me! And the unity too that we all have in the mission now! :) You guys should jump in on it if you want! We learned at Zone Meeting this week that if we want others to become closer to Christ (which is our purpose) then we have to be getting closer to Him, which we can do through the Book of Mormon. Also all of the great missionary examples in there can help us know how to be better missionaries! 

Transfers!  Sister Rogers and Sister Jacklin, my two trainees!  And the new sister 

that Sister Jacklin is training.  She is from Japan.  I am so proud! :)

Oh, I almost forgot, we had transfers, and I got a new companion! Her name is Sister Woolley from Draper, UT. She has been out almost 5 months and her positive attitude and excitement are just what I needed! We are pretty different but work really well together and get along just fine! :) We had a pretty good week, even though it was a challenge! It rained a lot which always puts a damper on our plans! We found a couple new people and were able to get Khalil to church! :) There were also a couple less active guys that came that I have been trying to get there for a while! :) So it was neat! Well, I was so blessed to hear from so many of you today, and I want to try to email a few of you back! So this is it! :) I love you and hope you have a wonderful week! 

xoxoxo

Love,

Sister Lowry 

Here is a picture from last fourth of July! Yes, I wore the same outfit!