ABM

Monday, January 20, 2014

January 19, 2014 Letter

Hi family,


Well it sounds like the triplets are still growing. When I get home they will probably be walking and talking. That is crazy! Dad it sounds like your pretty busy as well like usual. Keep it up. Also thank you so much for the Calendar! I would guess that would be Amelia's work. I love it! Happy birthday to Grandma French on the 26th! I was always impressed at how many of my games you made it to Grandma. It seemed like you rarely missed any if you missed any at all. I really appreciated that.


Well this week wasn't too hot for us, but this week is suppose to be hotter. That is alright. I am just glad I am not in the other areas during this time of year. Mom I do use sunscreen sometimes, and I actually do wear a hat. An old man in our ward gave me a big hat to wear. My companion wears one as well. I feel like if I didn't wear it I would get fried. It is pretty useful. Karen sometimes we do take naps on Pday if there is nothing else going on.


This week was pretty busy. I went down to Brisbane on Friday for a leadership training meeting. It is about an hour and a half to a two hour drive down to Brisbane depending on traffic and construction. It was a great meeting though. Besides that we had some great progress with some investigators this week as well. A less-active lady in our ward is dating a guy who doesn't really know much about any religion. We are now teaching both her and the guy she is dating though. Her name is Patty and his name is Noel. It is tough for Noel because it is all new to him, but he is willing to learn. We are excited for him. We also tracted into a great family this week! The Briskey family. They actually invited us in out of the heat and fed us lunch. It was a miracle! That doesn't happen very often in Australia. We were very grateful. We had a brief talk about the Plan of Salvation and set up an appointment to come back this week. They did tell us they were brought up Catholic but they wouldn't mind having us come back. So we will see what happens there.


I love seeing the different personalities of the people we meet. Sometimes they aren't so friendly, but they are still children of God. It is amazing how many times in the Doctrine and Covenants its says "the field is white already to harvest." Something we have talked about in our district is that the field is ready to harvest everywhere! Not just in Utah or somewhere else. The field is even ready to harvest in Australia! I have definitely seen that. I am so grateful for the chance I have to be serving a mission. We are so blessed to meet these people. I love the Gospel! I love the Lord! And I love all of you! I hope you have a great week.


Love,
Elder Low


P.S. As of this morning I weigh about 216 pounds. Either I am getting fat or I am hitting a growth spurt. Just thought I would throw that in there. Love you all!

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

January 12, 2014 Letter

Hi Family,


Well I am glad to hear that nobody is in the freezing -50 degree weather over in the states. We have been hearing stuff about that and I saw a picture of Niagra Falls as it is frozen solid. That is crazy! That makes me feel better about being in the heat. Dad good luck with all the ward conferences. That will be a busy time. Dad could you tell the Kennards thanks for the Christmas card they sent me? I just got it last week.


Mom I did get my bike fixed. I think it was somewhere around $67. I used my Canadian visa so I hope that is ok. Also I can't think of a whole lot I would want for my birthday, but something I could use would be deodorant. It is crazy expensive over here! To buy the kind I like, I think it is around $6 a stick. I use old spice anti-persperant/deodorant. I am not sure how expensive it would be to send some over. If it would be more expensive I can just buy it here. I think our mission will be using facebook sometime in 2014. There hasn't been any announcements about it yet. I would guess that we would be getting iphones and ipads sometime this year as well.


Well we had a pretty tiring week. We have really been struggling with consistancy with some of our investigators. So we did a lot of finding this week. My companion and I tracted for 20 hours this week. We are really trying to work with members in finding people to teach as well. That is something our stake president here has really been pushing. Hopefully we can progress with that. I like teaching a lot better than tracting.


We did have some good lessons this week though. Unfortunately Christine worked on Sunday so she couldn't make it to church. Robbie Christine and her family are Catholic. Christine is very open to other religions though. Her only problem is that she believes all religions are true. We have tried to explain about priesthood authority, but I think she is struggling to grasp the concept. We will keep working with her. We did have a good lesson with a man named Bernie though. He has met with the missionaries before so he is very friendly towards us. He is interested to learn again so we are excited to work with him. Apparently he was in a pretty bad car accident and it was a miracle he survived. I think that is what has sparked his belief in God. It sounds like he hasn't finished his purpose on Earth yet.


Something that has been more apparent to me on my mission than ever is that God can give us strength. Not only spiritual strength, but physical strength. I am not going to lie, serving a mission can make you pretty tired physically. I am sure all of you that have served missions can relate to that. Every day I pray for strength and I really notice that the Lord has blessed me. Just when you feel too tired to keep going, He gives you a little extra push. He loves us so much and He wants us to succeed. I am so grateful for that. I know this Gospel is true! I know this work will continue to move forward! I am so grateful to be a part of it. I love you all and I hope you have a great week.


Love,
Elder Low

Monday, January 6, 2014

January 5, 2014 Letter

Hi Family,
 
Well it sounds like the Richard Low family up in Edmonton is keeping life busy. Sounds like fun. Leslie how are you doing? I am glad to hear that the triplets are all at home and that they are doing well. Karen and Alvin good luck at school again. The holidays always seemed to go by so fast.
 
Well we had a really good week. Unfortunately I did not stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve, but I did hear some loud noises from people celebrating outside. Instead us staying up late, we just made a really nice dinner. My cooking skills are coming in handy. I made water and bread..............just kidding. We had steak, potatoes, carrots, fried onions, and some tomatoes. It was actually really nice.
 
I will try to answer some questions really quick. Mom and Dad my Samoan companion is pretty trunky. He goes home in March and I think he is pretty excited. We are still working hard though. Karen people call the candy over here lollies. The two new missionaries in our flat is Elder Beveridge and Elder Pu (poo). Elder Beveridge is from Utah. He is great! He was my zone leader in my last area for awhile. I am really excited to have him here. Elder Pu is from China. He is funny! He is learning English so we have a good time with him.
 
I am not going to lie, I wish it would snow here. This week was crazy hot again! There was some record breaking heat over here. And Mom we are in one of the cooler areas. It got up to 40 degrees celcius this week. I think there were other areas that were hotter and probably a lot more humid. So I am glad I am in Toowoomba for the Summer. We tracted for 6 hours on that day that it got up to 40 degrees. We were so blessed for it though! We are really starting to see progress in this area.
 
We finally had one of our investigators come to church this week. Her name was Christine. She is from Sudan. She was suppose to be working on Sunday so she said she wouldn't be able to make it, but then she called us on Saturday and said she didn't have to work anymore on Sunday and that she wanted to come to church. It was amazing! She loved it as well. She stayed for the whole 3 hours. The members really made her feel loved. I love when the members help with the missionary work. It can bring about so many miracles!
 
It is amazing to see how much of a difference the Gospel can make in somebodies life. Christine was so happy at church yesterday. I love it! I am so grateful that we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lord loves us so much and all he wants is for us to be happy. To find true happiness, we just have to put complete trust in Him and live the Gospel. I am so grateful for the chance I have to learn more every day. This Gospel is so true! I love it! I love you all and I hope you have a great week!
 
Love,
Elder Low