Fun Game?

Pretty sunset we saw while feeding the ducks!

 

Hey!

I don't know how fond I am of this "Hey, let's everyone get married while Loni is gone" game!!!!!! But congrats to my Regan and also to my Uncle David! :) Next it will be Grace and then Kendra. It's whatever. I am where I am supposed to be! :) And I still love it of course! The weather here is amazing right now. I love the members so much I never want to leave them. And I still love my companion too. Transfers are next week so we are nervous/excited to see what happens. Something I learned this week is that submitting our will to God is the one unique thing we can lay on the altar for Him. I really liked that because sometimes it's hard to remember to forget myself and just do His work.

 

It was an interesting week! Monday we went bowling for District P-day and I bowled a 146! That is a personal best :) I thought you would be proud grandma Sandy! Tuesday Sister Rogers had to go to the doctor again to get an absess thing on her leg drained. It was really cool to watch. But she got pretty sick afterwards so we had to spend the next couple days resting. We still went to Don's and had a good lesson. She just sat on the porch and cheered me on while I mowed the lawn. Thursday we helped the Ko family with their English. That was so fun. Just made me remember how much I love teaching! But English is freaking hard!!! I don't know how people learn it.

 

Sword fighting with the weeds at Don and Sue's

This weekend there was a big festival called the Oktoberfest at our little community. It was super cool! Friday night was just an alcohol fest but Saturday was awesome because it was more of a family thing. We wanted to just stay for like ever and walk around (it reminded me of the July Jamboree in Cedar), but missionaries have a curfew for some reason?? ;) We got free spine tests and basically our backs and necks are messed up ha. I'm about ready for a chiropractor and also a teeth cleaning. You know what that means? It's been six months!! :)

 

We were soaked from the rain so when we got to dinner

the member put our clothes in the dryer and gave us robes! :)

Check out the snake around my neck!

 

We also were able to have a lesson with Irma again finally! It went really well. We haven't been able to see Austin :( Big bummer. We had stake conference yesterday and got a new stake presidency. But our ward actually got moved out of the stake. But transfers are coming anyway so basically it's just a big mess! But Elder Soares who spoke at general conference spoke at our stake conference and it was really cool! :) Yesterday was also Sister Rogers birthday so we got to hang out and celebrate a bit! It was fun. I have some cute pictures. I am sending my flash drive so they will be on my blog soon. Today we watched mormon channel at a members house and wrote our letters, so that was fun! :)

I hope everyone is happy and well! I love you all!

Love, Sister Lowry

Baby turtle we found on the sidewalk!

 

My cute companion...

 

Best Friends!

 

The elders fell asleep while waiting for us to come get the car!

No wonder, they were listening to conference talks!

 

Ugliest duck ever that charged us!

 

Saying good-bye to our recent convert family, the Caldwells!  They had to move :(

God Loves Us! :)

Helloo!

Ok, how blessed are we to have a Heavenly Father who loves us so much that he sends living prophets to guide us in this day? I am still overwhelmed with the spirit of general conference! It was such a neat and different experience watching it as a missionary! It went by so fast! And the spirit in the chapel is much stronger than on my couch! I think my favorite was Elder Maynes’ talk on spiritual endurance. I loved how he compared it to physical endurance, because I've always kinda’ been in to that stuff! It is so important to exercise our testimonies as well as our physical bodies! :) I also loved President Monson's of course. I hope everyone will remember his words, "Will you falter? Or will you finish?" whenever you are having a hard time! Remember the Lord will never forsake you! :)

It was another tougher week, so Sister Rogers and I were very grateful to be so spiritually uplifted with conference and also ZTM, which is monthly. Monday we were able to make fall wreaths with the Holt family! :) They agreed to actually investigate and listen to the lessons! :) It was so exciting for us! Our wreaths are adorable as well. Bad thing about it, the family changed their mind a couple days later and texted us that they were no longer interested and would be finding a different place of worship :( But they are a very sweet family and said we could stop by for a snack whenever! They will come around someday :) We also dropped Pamela because she wouldn't do anything or keep our appointments :( I made a general conference journal for Don, and he loved it! He recorded all of the sessions, but had to fit them in with his football games! I used to love football, not so much as this point haha! ;) So hopefully he will get to watch! Some of the talks were perfect for him! We also helped a few people put up Halloween decorations this week! That was fun because I have always loved doing that stuff! :)

 

My "One Dessert a Day" diet is not working out very well....... :\ We had a birthday party/dinner for Elder Freeman, an Elder we serve with. So that was super fun! :) I'll have pictures of this stuff on the blog soon. Well, Laurel will. She is amazing! :) We met some super great people this week. We are told that we should find them that will receive us. Find the prepared people. These people seemed so prepared! But, of course, they don't live in our area so we have to hand them off to other missionaries! But, it doesn't matter the missionaries, as long as they get the chance to hear the gospel! :) Speaking of prepared people, when we were tracting this week we met two ladies who kept trying to bible bash with us. Ugh. It's so annoying. They were "reformed baptist," and I made the mistake of asking what that entails.... Well we stood in their driveway for like an hour listening to them preach to us! They didn't even take a breath! We finally got to bear our testimonies, which is all you can do in a situation like that. And no matter what, people can't turn down a testimony. They didn't even know what to say! They were crazy though. Just made me realize that much more that our church is the true one! They were saying the bible is the only word of God and if anyone else tries to teach more then they are wrong and dadadadada. Modern day revelation is such a blessing!!! Sister Rogers rocked it bearing her testimony too. I was so proud :)

 

Anyway, I have to save the best for last of course. After a particularly hard day, Thursday I believe, (when we lost the Holt's and Pamela), we were getting ready for bed/writing in our journals. A less active young woman named Tori called us. We have visited them a couple times and they come to church every once in awhile but seem pretty "active" other than that ha. Anyway, she told us her boyfriend was interested in listening to the missionaries and learning more about our church!!! Oh my gosh we almost died!! :) Just another proof that diligence brings miracles!! :) So we got to teach him last night, and it was one of the most spiritual lessons of my mission. He is so sincere and prepared, especially for a 17 year old! He is excited to read the Book of Mormon and find out what he really believes. He has a full ride scholarship to the Naval Academy for lacrosse! How cool huh?! :)

Well I love you all. I hope you are enjoying your short fall weather, colorful leaves, football, soccer. horses, school, work, and whatever else! :) The church is truer than true! :)

Love,

Sister Lowry

PS: Happy Birthday soon to my amazing, faithful, dedicated, loving, tough, best mom and to my sweet little Lainee Williams!!! :)

Hide and Seek

 Hey!

Well I finished the Book of Mormon this week! :) That book is truer than true. Best book I've ever read! :) I seriously learn so much everytime I read. Sister Rogers and I were singing the "Scripture Power" song all week! But I wanted to share the scripture Moroni 8:3 with everyone, but I forgot to write it down! :( So go look it up! It made me think of all my amazing friends and family back home! :) We also heard a talk this week about patience, and there was a quote I just loved.

 

"The Lord's promises are not always swift, but they are always certain." -President Uchtdorf

I honestly don't even know what happened this week. The weeks are going by faster and faster. I have been out five months and it feels like five days. It is finally cooling down though! It's been like mid to high 80's rather than mid 90's. So that's been awesome! It's still pretty humid though! But we can definitely tell the difference from a month ago! I'm not quite as soaking wet as I was! ;) We heard November is the best so we look forward to that! :)

We are still just doing a lot of finding people. We know that God is preparing people, they are just really good at hiding! But I played hide and seek quite a bit as a kid and teenager, so I'm pretty sure we will find them soon! :) It is just a big faith stretcher here! It's so hard to have faith in people when you get let down so many times! But we have so so much extra help from the other side.

 

Today we painted our apartment. Well, spot painted! I told you how it was so gross and we've been fixing it up. It looks like a whole new apartment! We shampooed the carpets too! :) This ward is just so amazing. Especially at feeding us! BUT! I am going on a dessert diet in October! Only one dessert per day! Which means when members give us cookies or brownies after dinner I can only have one! It's gonna be tough, but hopefully it will be worth it! You know how I am about sweets! Anyway, now we just need to get them to get finding people to teach! They will come along :)

We are still going to Don and Sue's every week. Don is coming along just waiting for the Joseph Smith experience so that is that. :( He is excited for conference though! :) We haven't been able to see Pamela or Irma :( They have been "busy." It's always hard when people pull that because you never know if they are being for real! We would so much rather just have honesty, people! But we met a really sweet family this week. A lady, Heni, was walking so we stopped and talked to her. She asked us to pray for her friend Sima who has cancer and whose daughter, Jessica, is really struggling and hasn't left her room for weeks. So we asked if we could go visit them. Heni happily took us there and we prayed with them. Jessica talked with us and she won't even see or talk to anyone! It was a really cool miracle! :) Sima was also very appreciative of our prayer! So was Heni. She said she thought we were angels when we stopped next to her on our bikes! :) haha I guess we kind of are! We are planning on going back to talk with Jessica soon.

We got soaked on our bikes so a family put our clothes in the dryer during dinner and we wore robes ha! :)

 

On Saturday we had a service project and dinner before the Relief Society broadcast, so that was fun! And the broadcast was just amazing of course! :) I hope all you women got to listen! I just love listening to President Monson. I can't help but smile and know that he truly is a prophet of God! We are so blessed to have that! Sister Rogers and I are SOOO excited for general conference this weekend!!! :) It will be interesting watching it on a church pew rather than my nice couch with all my snacks and PJs, but I know it will be an awesome experience! :) I really hope you all will be able to listen to some of it atleast! I know that the prophet and apostles receive revelation directly from Heavenly Father for us individually. It's the best! :)

Well, I hope everyone is having an amazing Monday and that this email finds you happy and well! :)

Fall is in the Air!! :)

Hey! :)

The first day of Fall was a few days ago, and it was 90 degrees! Yikes! But I can tell it is getting a little cooler here! There is a nice breeze usually! Too bad I'm missing those fall leaves though! :( This week I learned a lot about faith. You know there is a reason it is the first principle of the gospel! Without faith and charity we have nothing! So my commitment to everyone is to go read Ether 12 :) Missionaries are taught to ask direct questions, such as, "Will you read Ether 12?" When we ask direct questions we usually get a direct answer! So in your own missionary work, try to ask direct questions. And also have faith! Brenda once taught me that if you don't have faith in yourself then you aren't trusting in God either! I love that and have never forgotten it! And remember, faith without works is dead ;)

This week was pretty good! :) We found a new investigator! I love her! Her name is Pamela, and she is from Lima, Peru! :) She is so cute. She was just sitting on a bench outside our apartment one night, and we talked to her for like an hour and walked her home! Then an RM in the ward came and taught her with us because he spoke Spanish :) I am learning more of Spanish phrases because we meet so many Spanish speaking people! It's insane!

We spent a lot of our week cleaning out our area book. Which basically means visiting former investigators and potential investigators found a long time ago. And we did quite a bit of tracting! We seem to be finding more open people, which is exciting! :) We also got to visit some families who are less active, so it was good. We did yard work for Don and Sue like always! Don is reading the Book of Mormon now, but just really struggling with his faith :( We are just praying that he will get answers to his prayers because it is basically up to him now! He just needs to take that leap of faith! We also helped another guy with yard work! He said he would come to church since we helped him, but he didn't :(

We had to say goodbye to our recent convert family the Caldwells! They moved :( So that was sad. But Christina and Alex are doing well! I had a little bit of a rougher week I guess. I just over think things! So I felt like I should ask for a priesthood blessing. Our ward mission leader gave me one after church yesterday, and it was just what I needed! I have felt so much better ever since! The priesthood is so real and is truly the power of God restored to the earth through a living prophet! I love it! :) Speaking of living prophets!!! Ahhh!!! :) Conference is sooo soon!! :) We are so excited! Like counting down the days! And the relief society conference is this week! :) Yay!! :) Except super weird that conference is at noon and two here... Oh well!

I hope you have an amazing week! Don't forget that you have a Heavenly Father who loves you! And a missionary in Florida who loves you too! :)

Love, Sister Lowry

PS: Can you believe it's been five months? Wow!!

Charity Never Faileth...

 

A kid we talked to on the street let us hold his bird :). 

It's name was Gas...the kid was atheist. :(

Hey all!

"True christianity is love in action. There is no better way to manifest love for God than to show an unselfish love for your fellow men. That is the spirit of missionary work." -Pres. David O. McKay

Doing yard work!  :)  Our matching shirts are from this amazing frozen yogurt place!

 

Charity is seriously the most important thing ever. If you don't show your love for someone, you aren't going to get anywhere. Every single Christlike attribute links back to charity. That is probably the most imporatant thing I've learned so far. I don't know if anyone reads my blog that this will go on, but if anyone who does is considering a mission, you MUST go!! It is the best experience ever. There is nothing more important you could do than serve the Lord. And it is such a blessing to do that and that only for 18-24 months. Not to mention it gets you out of school for a bit! I sure am happy I'm not in Kendra's shoes taking a chemistry and biology test in the same week! Yikes!

We found a turtle in the road :)

 

Florida wildlife.  These birds are everywhere here!

 

Anyway, we had a good week! :) It was freakin hot, we didn't have the car, I am so sore from biking so much, and I wrecked again. Except this time I was carrying a huge tupperware thing full of our left overs from dinner! Don't worry, it stayed closed! :) but a car did have to slam on it's brakes so they didn't run me over... :\ Don't worry, I'm fine! And now we have the car. So I should be safe for 7 days.
 

My cute companion Sister Rogers and me :)

 

This week we got to feed some ducks in one of the billion little lakes they have everywhere. I was so fun and relaxing! There was a lady there one night and I started talking to her. She seemed kinda down, but I just talked to her about her family and job and church and stuff. She opened up a lot and fed the ducks with us. Before she left she said that she was really thankful that we stopped and talked to her. She said she was dreading it at first because she went on a walk to get away from people and was "in a mood" and knew we were missionaries and would try to be friendly, but that it was just what she needed to talk to us! :) It made me feel so good that I had helped someone out. Charity again!
 

A quick stop at the temple before a meeting! :)

 

We got to visit a less active woman last night who has a husband and son who is a rockstar at karate! Usually she just talks with us and we share a scripture, but this time the husband and son joined us! :) I think it was because we got to know them and watched some of his karate videos with them! Hm, what to do you, love again! It reminded me of watching Brady's wrestling videos all the time! This kid was just like Brady. "How'd you do at your tournament?" "Pretty good, I took two firsts and two seconds." Haha it made me feel at home! :)
 

 Temple tour with Alex & Christina.  They loved it! 

 

We found someone to help us teach the Ko family English! :) She is a less active woman who lived in Japan and used to teach the children there English! :) We were praying so hard for someone who knew Japanese then I remembered that they had lived there! :) God answers prayers! :) Mormon chapter 9 ;) Also, the Holt family came to church yesterday! :) So that was exciting!

 

District Preparation Day!

 

We got to help Don and Sue again this week and had a pretty good lesson with them! Don had a ton of questions but he is such a deep thinker that they are ones that are hard to address so they don't really matter! He is such a talker too so we just listened! And Sue would just laugh and interupt every once in awhile ha. They are coming around I think :)

I made Sister Roger's take her nasty medicine!

 

Her new medicine was even worse!

 

We have still just been doing a ton of finding stuff! And sometimes it is really tough. I often feel like asking the "Why does missionary work have to be so hard?" question, but then Elder Holland's voice comes into to head from an aweome talk he gave. "It wasn't easy for Jesus Christ, what makes you think it should be easy for you?" And he goes on to talk about how we get to walk shoulder to shoulder with Christ in this work. It is so true. I have never felt closer to my Savior! It's amazing! :)

Well, I hope all is well and that y'all are loving the fall season! I am missing it! We are still in the 90's till about Halloween I hear! Thanks for all your love and support and prayers! I pray for you every night!

Love, Sister Lowry :)

 

 

Christina's baptism! :)

 

Alex & Christina's wedding!

 

Twinners!

 

Alex and Christina's rings!

 



I tied like 80 of these burlap bows for a wedding reception. 

Guess cheerleading did me some good.  Haha!  :)