One Year Already?

Matching Easter skirts!

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you all had an amazing Easter. It was definitely one of the best ones I've had yet. Easter is my favorite holiday, so I was worried that I would have a hard time not being with my family, but it was super good! We had an awesome musical program for church. Two of our investigators were there and were able to get priesthood blessings after. We had a great dinner with 2 members, a less active, and James, our investigator :) We all shared our testimony of the Atonement and Resurrection and it was so spiritual! I shared how I came to appreciate the Savior's Atonement through losing my mom. How I knew that He was the only one who knew exactly how I felt, so I was able to rely on that and I didn't have to carry the burden alone. Also how in Mosiah 16 it says that the grave has no victory and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ because of His Resurrection.

Our Easter dinner hosts

We used the Easter stuff from Mormon.org a ton in our finding and teaching this week. It was super helpful! The #becauseofhim video was just amazing and all the students that we showed it to on campus loved it! One guy texted us after and said, "I appreciate what you guys are doing and the love you have for it. Keep doing what you love, and it will be your legacy. It was His." We thought that was so nice!

So, lots of people have been asking if my address is the same. Yes, it is. All mail goes to the mission office, so it will always be the same mailing address even if I get transferred! Thanks! :)

I forgot to mention last week that UCF means University of Central Florida. :) This week is finals here, and I am stressing out! I might as well be taking them! I just can like feel it in the air and it just reminds me of finals week at school! Yikes! So this week and next might be a little hard for us missionaries to find people to meet with us. But we are just gonna have faith that the Lord will provide! There is us and the elders who have the same area and work mostly on campus. It has been kind of weird lately because it's gotten almost a little competitive! Hellooo! We are all on the same team here, duh! But the elders used to have a different area, and now it is the same as ours. So we are trying to work with the members to bring their friends and stuff, then the elders just jump in and take all of the referrals from members! So we had a little talk with them and the ward mission leader about it, and it should be getting better! I think our district leader (the one we share the area with) is sick of my attitude haha.

Please please please keep our investigators James, Hayder, and Cody in your prayers. Especially James. He is supposed to get baptized on Saturday, but he keeps letting stupid little concerns get to him and he is doubting it. We have already pushed it back once, and we cannot do it again! Yes, all of our investigators are male...don't even ask me haha.

I am still loving it here so far and I love my companion so much! We probably get along a little too well... And we are probably going to live together once she gets back. :) I want to wish the best step-mom ever a Happy Birthday this Wednesday! :) And oh my gosh you guys...guess what Thursday is!!!!! My year mark!!! AHHHH!!!! I can't believe it. I seriously just feel like I was walking into the MTC last week!

Love, Sister Lowry 

Easter Week!

Hellooo to my wonderful family and friends! :)

I am so excited for Easter this week. It is such a fantastic time of year. To be celebrating the Resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that He does live and that He loves us each so much and so individually. His rising again on the third day makes it possible for us to be saved from death and resurrected. God's plan is so perfect. I am so grateful for it! The church is doing an Easter Initiative thing, so that everyone can share the beautiful Easter message with their friends! Just go to facebook.com/mormon or mormon.org/becauseofhim. And the hashtag they are using for everything is #becauseofhim. I am super excited for this and for everyone to be able to use these tools to share the gospel! :) 

Ok, now for the entertaining week I had! Ohhhh my goodness! Remember how last week I said something about how this week's email would be much more exciting because I was getting a new area and companion? Well, that is exactly what happened! Sister Christensen and I have been talking about how we don't know how we are going to fit all the excitement into one hour of emailing! We came to a brilliant conclusion! Lists ;) 

1. Monday I said goodbye to all my family in Hunter's Creek. It was sad of course, but after 6 months, I was ready to go. Tuesday morning was transfer meeting, which is always exciting but also nerve wracking! 
2. My new companion is Sister Christensen from Washington state. She is amazing and we are already best friends! She went to cosmotology school in Orem and is licensed so she judges my hair, make up, skin, products, etc!!!! haha just kidding, she totally doesn't! But I get free haircuts now ;) It's like $40 for a trim over here. But seriously we get along so well and teach well together and it is soooo nice! 
3. My new area. You are going to die. I did. I am in a YSA ward called College Park. We work on UCF campus. The second largest school in the country. Yeah, ask me! I thought I would never serve in a YSA ward! But here I am! So far it is really cool, but I feel like I'm back at college! But everyone was jealous that I got transferred here because I guess it is like the best or something! So far the members are really cool and we have a couple investigators we are working with that should be getting baptized over the next few weeks! 
4. This week we basically only had 2 days to actually do missionary work. So our numbers were a little discouraging, but we are excited to start a new week! The next 2 weeks are finals, then there is a break between semesters, so it might be a little rocky finding people to teach, but we have faith! :) 
5. Thursday my companion may or may not have gotten hit by a car on her bike...but she is fine!! These Orlando drivers might be the death of us....
6. Friday we had an all sisters meeting, which was awesome! We had some cool little workshops and they put together a little missionary mall of donated clothes, accessories, products, etc! So that was fun! It is always fun seeing the other missionaries. 
7. Saturday we got to go to the Fort Lauderdale Temple Open House!!!!! AHHH!! I know!!! It was sooo amazing!! The bus ride was a little rough, but seeing the temple and having our investigators see it was so neat. We didn't get home till midnight!! I thought I was going to die! We really did feel like death though. Plus my companion is having to take muscle relaxers when she sleeps, so waking up has been really rough, and she has been talking in her sleep! 

I hope you all have an amazing week and a great Easter! I know it will be if you make it that way! Remember that you are a child of God and He loves you more than you can comprehend! I love you too! xoxoxo

Love, Sister Lowry 

What a Blessing!

The Medina Family

 Good morning everyone! 

Wow, wasn't General Conference amazing? I hope you were all able to watch it. I am so grateful for our prophet and the apostles. We were able to be spiritually rejuvenated and receive guidance from our Heavenly Father! What a blessing! This is a phrase that my district has adopted because our amazing district leader, Elder Waller, says it all the time! It is kind of a silly thing, but has helped us to recognize the blessings and miracles we get to witness every day! What did you love about conference? I heard from a few of you; thanks for sharing! I really don't think I could pick a favorite, but I loved the talks from the First Presidency. They are truly inspired.

Congrats to my brother Brady and my dad for taking stake in wrestling AGAIN! I am so proud! :) Exactly a year ago Saturday I was able to be sealed to my wonderful family for eternity! It seems like it was yesterday. I am so grateful that our families can be together for eternity because of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Adao's

So, transfers are tomorrow, and I am finally leaving! I have been here for 6 months. I am a little worried about leaving my recent converts, but I am excited for a change. I need it! We don't find out where we are going until tomorrow. Tonight I will be saying goodbye to all the wonderful friends I have made here! I have loved seeing this area grow and flourish since I got here in October. It was kinda dead. As I've said before, faith and hard work brings miracles!

I don't remember much exciting news from last week. There was one cool miracle though. Sal now holds another sign on a different busy street. I sent the picture of him in the dog suit. Well, we took a little detour to see him on Thursday, and as we were biking there, I felt that we should go visit this couple we met like a month ago. They seemed super solid, but when we went back, no one answered. And we knew they were home. Missionaries become pretty stalkerish. Anyway, we tried again and Haley was home and let us right in! She apologized for before, and we were able to teach her! She is so cute and is really excited to learn about the gospel. She and her boyfriend want to come to church, it has just been hard to meet with them since!

The Johnson's from Cedar City!

Oh, we also had Zone Training Meeting this week, which was amazing! The work is totally changing. There is a huge push now to just baptize. We do so many things as missionaries, but it is all to baptize! We brush our teeth to baptize! It's not our job to prepare people anymore. I hope you will all take the counsel from conference to study Preach My Gospel. It is an inspired book! It has changed my mission and my life!

I could write forever about all this spiritual stuff, but I'm sure you get sick of it ha! Hopefully I will have more exciting things to talk about next week with a new area and new companion! Here are some pictures!

Love, Sister Lowry 

2 Years

 The dog suit is our investigator Sal

Hey all! Sorry I am writing so late. It has been a crazy day. Funny how P-day is supposed to be relaxing...HA!!

Well it has been 2 years today since my mom passed away. I have felt her really close this week and been comforted by the Holy Ghost, as I have been this whole time. We sang I Know That My Redeemer Lives in sacrament meeting yesterday and I was bawling like a baby because that is the song we sang at her funeral. I know she is with me and we are doing this work together! I have been thinking a lot about Alma 56 when the stripling warriors give credit to their moms for teaching them not to doubt. I am very grateful to my mom and stepmom for teaching me not to doubt and to have faith. Their trust in the Lord has been such an example to me that I will never forget and I hope to teach to my children someday. I also got some great mail and packages this week from friends and family that really boosted my spirits! So thank you!! :)

So last week I was kinda’ sick with some weird stomach thing. I don't even know. Like every time I ate I felt sick. I finally just stopped eating because that is the only thing that helped! But I can't turn down the dinners that members feed us, so it was rough. I am feeling a little better though. It was probably just stress, you know me! I am just still being very careful about what I eat. There is a plus though, I lost three pounds ;)

District P-day last week! :)

We did a lot of finding this week. Trying to find people who are prepared to hear the gospel, because the people we have been teaching aren't really progressing. We had a couple cool miracles. One guy, William, we had a teaching record for from a few years back, but when we tried visiting him his family said he moved to New York. Well, when we were biking home from the church one day, we stopped and talk to this guy, and guess who it ended up being! William! He moved back! So we are hoping to start teaching him! We are still kind of teaching Sal and the others. Just not much to update on I guess!

I think it was actually that same day that Brother Medina called us as we were biking home, and said that his daughter Jen wanted us to stop by. Jen has 3 kids and is less active, and we have tried to visit her so many times, but no one ever answers! She has been pretty not receptive. So we were super excited! She was so sweet and just needed someone to talk to! She knows she needs to come back to church and wants her kids to have what she had growing up. It was really cool.

The Johnson's, senior missionary couple from Cedar City, fed us this weekend! She made homemade chicken noodle soup, and it reminded me of the kind my grandma Sandy makes all the time! I felt at home. Everyone has been so great to me here. Transfers are next week, so it will be sad if I leave, but I am ready to go. I thought I was leaving last time! But the Lord knows what I need and what the area needs!

I love you all and hope you have a great week! Please enjoy General Conference this weekend! I know I will! :) And invite your friends to listen! ;)

Love, Sister Lowry

This sign is one in the doctor's office that I loved

11 Months Today!

March 24, 2014

Happy Birthday to my beautiful little sister Savannah! I love you missy! :) Also happy birthday to Cobi Walker, one of my good friends since 4th grade! He probably won't see this, but that is okay!

I want to share what I learned in my studies this morning, because it was super cool. I was reading in Jesus the Christ about when Christ was sending his Apostles out on their missions. They were told to be fearless and not hesitate to preach the gospel in plainness, because the most that their persecutors could do was kill the body! I totally thought of member missionary work. Be fearless! The Lord will take care of you! What is the worst that could happen, really? I hope you are all sharing the gospel! We have no time to waste! :)

I also hope everyone had a good week. Ours was kinda rough again because my companion had a migraine all week. So we didn't get to do all the things we wanted to, but we still saw some great things happen! We had people come to church! And Sal went to the addiction recovery class with us on Thursday! Sal was the guy holding the sign on OBT that I told you about last week. He loved the class. So did I of course! That class holds a special place in my heart! Sal also came to church yesterday and liked it! :) So we are teaching him tonight.

We also started teaching a mom and her two daughters and they are so sweet! They came to church too. The little girls are like sponges and just loving what we teach them! We didn't really get to see anyone else much this week. We stopped by the Amone's for just a minute, because we hadn't seen them in forever. We had family prayer with them and it was so powerful! I really felt the spirit. They are so close, but I will most likely get transferred and not be there for their baptism! I just worry because my companion hasn't been here very long, so she doesn't quite have the love for these people yet that I have gotten over the past 5 months here. But, maybe I will stay another transfer! Who knows!

I got to relive my glory days again this week! Did some tumbling with the teenage girls we are teaching! I helped Ana do her round-off back-handspring! It was so fun :) I can still tumble a little bit! The girls are doing pretty good but we are trying to get their family more involved; their parents just work so stinking much! The cost of living here is a lot more than in Utah :(

Iliana and Yvette are doing fantastic. When they talk and testify they sound like they have been members for years! They both are completely different people than when I first got here and met them. It is so amazing what the Atonement can do in people's lives. We are so blessed to be able to witness that! Definitely the best thing I have done in my life. I cannot believe it has already been 11 months. I feel like I have missed out on so much, but I feel like you all are missing out on even more! ;) Have a great week!

Love, Sister Lowry 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Toni wanted a picture of my St. Patrick's Day outfit. 

Morning! I hope you are all wearing green! The room we email in is nice and green! All the sisters are here and very festive ha! 

So, Iliana's baptism and confirmation were this weekend! That was really special. One of the most spiritual baptisms I've been to. Her family was all there and they really felt it. Yvette gave a great talk. She sounds like she's been a member her whole life! It's only been 3 months! They are so great. It has been such a highlight of my mission to see the change that the Atonement has made in their lives. That is truly the greatest miracle we can ever witness! Other than the baptism, it was a rough week! Like every one of our appointments fell through. I was so done by yesterday. Sundays are supposed to be relaxing, but they are the exact opposite! But, Ana came to church, and so did another guy we invited! So that was a blessing! 

I don't want to dwell on all the negative things that happened, even though that is very tempting ha ;) There is a main street here that we always bike on called OBT. There are always sign holders for businesses, so they have become our friends. One is the one who came to church. Another is one who just started, and was an answer to our prayer! We didn't recognize him so we stopped to talk and he asked what we were doing. We told him we were representatives of Jesus Christ, and we that we teach people about Him and invite them to come closer to Him. He said, "Man, I need Jesus Christ in my life right now." We talked to him more and ended up giving him a Book of Mormon and we are meeting with him tonight! He told us that he is a recovering addict and that he thinks joining a church could really help him right now! Uh, yeah!! So that was another cool miracle. 

Relief Society birthday party

This week we are really just going to work on finding prepared people who won't bail on us. That is my worst pet-peeve ever, flakey people, so you can kinda imagine what I felt like this last week ha! We aren't having the success that we have had, so I am just trying to keep positive and keep working hard! That is all we can do! I am so blessed to be helping the Lord do His work! Especially here! I have been in this area for 5 months now, so I am getting a little sick of it, but it's okay ha! :) Sorry I don't have much to say this week, it was just not the most exciting! I hope you all are doing great! Know that I love you, miss you, and pray for you! The church is truer than true! 

Love, Sister Lowry

Glory Days!

Hey all!

We had a great week! I was a little discouraged like at the first because I felt like we had to keep getting the numbers and having the same success as last transfer, but I'm feeling a lot better now! I know, it's not about the numbers.  But still. Ah ok so I have so much to tell you about! My companion and I are still getting along okay... I am having to be very patient again though. But she is a very positive person, which is great! The area is still doing pretty well. Since we had to put all of our records into our iPads recently, we've been asked to visit all former investigators, which is a TON for us. Some areas have more than others.  So we have been working on that, and been able to see miracles from it!

Most of the people we are teaching are doing well. Daphney, the senior in high school, finally came to church yesterday, and she liked it! :) We were super excited! But everyone else just like randomly got super busy, so we weren't really able to meet with them :( So that was a bummer. We try to keep in contact with text and Facebook. Technology is such a blessing. We also started teaching a couple more high school girls. They are super cute, and I am going to help Ana with her tumbling so she can try out for cheer soon! Iliana is still getting baptized this weekend, so that will be exciting :) Edwin is being kind of a punk still. The Quinn family got back from Hawaii so we were able to teach them and they sent us home with Girl Scout cookies and salmon! I just love them so much! Kevin and Felipe, the ones that just got baptized, got the Aaronic priesthood yesterday, so that was just super neat to watch! :) I am so proud of them!

We had a zone meeting this week, which was so great. We all really got motivated to work harder. Elder Perry came and talked to the stake presidents and ward councils a while ago, and set like a vision for the south east. So our Zone Leaders shared it with us, and talked about how we can work towards it! Our Zone like rocked it last transfer, so we talked about what we need to keep doing, which is basically having faith and being diligent. Faith and diligence are sooo important! I had to give spiritual thoughts on that in district meeting and zone meeting! Everyone said I did really well :) Also, the Zone Leaders told us that our zone had 12 member find baptisms last transfer. That is so great for us! :) And 5 of them were the families that we taught! So that was exciting! I think the members are finally starting to catch on. We had exchanges with our STLs and we were talking about how the work really is hastening. Like when we were younger, the idea of the "being a missionary" was being a good example. People are still in that mindset, and they need to get out! We cannot afford to just be "good examples" anymore! We just don't have time for that! We need to open our mouths and invite! We have been talking a lot about the word URGENCY haha :)

Saturday was our ward picnic, which was a blast! We ate of course, and then played volleyball. My team killed it :) Mom would have been so proud ha! Then the ball got stuck in a tree so we decided to do a stunt to get it out! Hence the title, "Glory Days!" The Medina girls are both cheerleaders, so Anzli and I based, Linzy flew, and my companion, who has never even thought of doing anything like this a day in her life, backspotted! :) She did very well! We ended up stunting for like an hour! It was soooo fun! I miss it so much!!  But now I am super sore... It's okay though! Totally worth it! :) I'm including some pictures!

Have a great week! :)

Love, Sister Lowry