December 30, 2014 Letter

Hi family!

Well it sounds like everybody had a good Christmas. It was good to talk to everybody I could at Christmas. I am glad everybody is doing well. Richard and Leslie it sounds like things are going to start getting really busy now that the triplets are home. Good luck with that.

Well this week was pretty awesome for us. We had a mission Christmas party where we got together with most of the mission. We did some service in the morning ( I made bracelets for foster Children), we had a huge lunch, had a spiritual meeting, and then we ate more and watched "It's a Wonderful Life." So that was really fun. Of course we had Christmas and we got to call home. Our Christmas was pretty sweet though. We had lunch at 12, another lunch at 3, and a dinner at 6. They were all with members. So all I did was pretty much eat this Christmas. I love it! Oh ya and then I got all the lollies from home as well. It was definitely a good Christmas.

Don't worry, we found time for other things besides eating as well this week. I definitely got burnt! We had a hot weekend! It got up to 38 degrees celcius on Sunday. It has been pretty humid here as well. So I got quite the nice burn. We are having transfers today as well. That is why I am emailing today. My companion and I are both sticking around, but the two other Elders in our flat are leaving. So we will find out later who is coming in.

We had a lesson with a really awesome lady this week. Her name is Patty Lassere. Her son is a less-active member of the church and she has known about the church for awhile. We talked about baptism and she wants her son to baptize her. I think he has some problems though, so we will see how that goes. We have another lesson with her this week so I am really excited about that! We haven't seen Daniel Smith for awhile because he said he would be gone for the holidays. So we are hopefully going to see him sometime later in the week. There are so many miracles waiting to happen in this area. I love it! I am excited to continue serving here.

This Gospel is so true! I got the chance to speak in church this week. It was on Christ like service. I talked about members working with missionaries. We have the greatest message on this Earth, and to not share it with others is a little selfish of us. We never know who we can touch with a little act of kindess or just opening our mouth to talk about the Gospel. The Lord is preparing people everywhere. The work will move forward! Anyway, I hope you all have a great week. Love you all!

Love,
Elder Low

December 15, 2013 Letter

Hi family!

 

Well it sounds like things are pretty busy back home. It seems like they always are around Christmas time. Leslie I love those shirts that Thomas, Mason, and Luke have! That was pretty funny. Benson is getting so big! I love seeing pictures of everybody back home. Sorry I don't send more pictures. I should get better at that. That is nice that the Cougars won the Cougar Classic. That is a fun tournament to win. Who is all on the team this year?

 

Mom don't worry too much about the emergency transfer. I love it up here in Toowoomba! It is a nice area. I hope the people I was teaching down in Logan are still all doing alright. Maybe I will see them again later in my mission. As for my bike, I forgot it in my last area. So I am planning on getting it when we go down there for the mission Christmas party.

 

Well let me tell you a little bit more about my new area and my new companion. This area is a lot more modern than my last area and not as run down. It is probably safer around here as well. I am in a flat with 4 missionaries again. The other two missionaries in our flat are from Utah. You know the area you serve in is pretty white when there is a companionship that are both American. My companion, Elder Palemene, is from Samoa. He is finished his mission in March. Is English is still pretty broken. I think he understands it a lot better than he speaks it. But he is a good missionary! I love him.

 

I will try to work out how I am going to call home on Christmas. We are going to call from a members home and he is actually Canadian. So I think he has a pretty good plan to call Canada. I think he calls there a lot. I will try skype as well. Mom what is the skype account address? What time do you want me to call? I was planning on doing it sometime in the morning during boxing day here. Maybe at 9? That would mean it would be about 4 in the afternoon on Christmas Day there. Just let me know.

 

Well this week was pretty good for Elder Palemene and I. The area is pretty dry as far as investigators go. So we have really been trying to find people to teach. We have been visiting some less-active and part member families. We have also been doing a lot of tracting. The other day we tracted into a guy named Daniel Smith. He said he was convinced that God was real and he was really interested to learn what we had to say. We had a great lesson with him! He said that we cleared up a lot of views he had about Mormons. We are going back this week. I am really excited about that! Hopefully things go well there.

 

Well I hope you can all enjoy the Christmas season. I love this time of year! There is such a good Spirit around. Mom now that you have already sent your package to me, don't worry about anybody else and just enjoy Christmas. Just kidding. This is a special time though. We are so blessed to have a Savior Jesus Christ who loves us and died for us. It is amazing to think what a humble birth He had. I know in my life I have always had a lot more than I needed. I think I took a lot of things for granted. I owe so much to Him. No matter how hard I try, I will never be able to repay Him, but He still loves me. I am so Grateful for that. I know without a doubt that we have a loving Heavenly Father and a Savior Jesus Christ. When we take this time of year to remember Him, we can find so much peace. I love it! I hope you all have a great week and a Merry Christmas! Love you all!

 

Love,

Elder Low

December 8, 2013 Letter

Hi Family!


Congratulations to the Richard and Leslie Low family! That is amazing! It sounds like it was quite the experience. Thomas, Mason, and Luke eh? Where did those names come from? Leslie keep hanging in there. You are a champion! I am so glad that everything went well. Thank you for all of the pictures. I love seeing my nieces and nephews back home. I can't wait to see those three. They will probably be a lot bigger when I see them. Julie I can't believe how grown up Anne and Faye are. They look so much different! That is awesome. It sounds like your family is doing great. Exciting times!


Well this week was pretty eventful for me as well. It started out pretty normal. We got a call from the mission President on Saturday morning though. It was an emergency transfer! It was very surprising! So I actually got transferred on Saturday. I am now a district leader up in a place called Toowoomba. My new companion is Elder Palemene. He is from Samoa. He is a great guy! He finishes his mission in March I think. So he has some experience. I am excited to work with him. We are serving in the Darling Heights ward. We are in the Ipswich zone so maybe I will see Julie and Andrew around when they move here. It all happened so fast! We got the call Saturday morning and we got picked up around 11 that morning. So I didn't have too much time to pack. I was a little sad because I didn't get to say bye to everybody in my last ward and all the investigators we had. I loved that ward! But I know this is where the Lords needs me now. I am excited to serve here! Also it is cooler up here. Toowoomba is quite a bit higher in elevation so it is not so hot. I love it! Not as humid either. It will be a good place to serve for the Summer.


Mom I have not gotten your parcel yet. I hope that the Mission office will send it here and not to my last area. If not though I can get it on Christmas Eve at the mission Christmas party.


It is a lot different serving here. There are a lot more white people. There was a lot of polynesians in my last area. So maybe I won't be eating so much anymore.


Well that was my exciting news for the week. Not quite as exciting as the news back home though. Congrats again Richard and Leslie. That is awesome. Families are amazing! They are the basic unit of the church. I know I say it a lot, but I am so grateful to have such a wonderful family. Our Father in Heaven has a plan for every single one of us. We are all sent to our families for a reason. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have that families are forever. I love sharing this message with the people here in Australia. Good luck with everything back home. I love you all so much! Take care!


Love,
Elder Low


P.S. How do you want me to call home on Christmas? There is a family here that says we can use their skype on boxing day to call home if you would like.

December 2, 2013 Letter

Hi family!

 

Well it sounds like it was an exciting week back home. Justin it sounds like your team almost pulled off another victory at alumni. It seems like your team is in the final every year. That is awesome to hear that Aaron was playing. I am glad that he is enjoying life. Robbie congratulations on the interview at the U of U. That is awesome! Leslie good luck with the delivery this week! I will be praying for you.

 

This week was pretty good. We are starting to get more of a Christmas feeling around here. We sang Christmas hymns in church. I love it! I love the Christmas season. Some people are starting to put Chrismtas lights up. Not many though. It is a little weird seeing Christmas lights up when it is so hot out. Christmas is pretty much the same over here. People put up trees and stuff like that. It is great! Mom I am not totally sure how I am going to call home at Christmas yet. I will probably call on boxing day over here, Christmas over there. From what I understand, we can get some help from the members if we want to skype home. Would you rather me skype home or just call home? I think the time difference between me and home is 17 hours.

 

Well we keep having miracles over here. Unfortunately it doesn't look like we will be having any baptisms on December 14th. But they will happen sometime. The Fanueli family is really progressing. They came to church yesterday and Brother Fanueli said they would keep coming every Sunday. It is amazing to see how happy they are about coming back to church and progressing in the Gospel. The Gospel brings so much happiness, espescially for families. We were hoping to have the Fanueli kid's baptism on the 14th but it might take a little more time. It will happen though!

 

We had a couple of other great experiences this week as well. So the other week we tracted into a lady from Thailand named Ead. When we went back to visit her, she told us a little about herself. She mentioned how she had tried to take her own life before. She ended up in the hospital. While she was in the Hospital, some people like us with name tags came and gave her a blessing. She said that blessing saved her life and she has been trying to find those boys every since. So she was pretty happen when people like us with the name tags came knocking on her door. She wants to learn more about our church. We are excited to teach her!

 

We also had a funny experience with Mensung and her kids. So we have been trying to teach Mensung for awhile. It is tough because her English isn't very great. So we have been teaching the kids who know better English. This past Saturday when we went to teach them, they showed us a picture of them with a couple of LDS missionaries at a baptism. Mensung and her oldest son have already been baptized! They were baptized while they were in Adelade. It was pretty funny. So we talked about baptizing some of her other children. I think they would love to come to church if the parents spoke better English. We will keep working with them.

 

It is amazing how many opportunities have opened up for us recently. The Lord is really blessing us. I love it! It is amazing to think how much our Savior loves us. He has done so much for us, so much that we can't possibly repay him. As we try to repay Him, He continues to do more for us and continues to bless us. It is a miracle.. I am so grateful that I was sent to such a wonderful family. Thank you all for your amazing examples to me. I hope you all have a great week. I love you and pray for you every day!

 

Love,

Elder Low

November 24, 2013 Letter

Hi family!

 

It sounds like everybody is crazy busy back home. Lots of fun. Leslie I can't believe how big you are!!! No offense. That is crazy though. How do you walk!? Does your spine feel like its going to snap? I'm praying for you. That is exciting that it is getting closer though. It sounds like the "glory days" in Cardston are still continuing. That is awesome about the football team. I still think stuff like that can really bring the town together. That is awesome! Jason and Justin, you better enjoy alumni while I am gone. It might be pretty tough to win when I am back. Just kidding.......I need to lose some weight.

 

Anyway, this week has been awesome. Full of exciting events and some interesting people. The weather here is crazy. It has been raining quite a bit here. It makes it really humid afterward so we sweat a lot. It is great.

 

We had a couple of really fun experiences this week. Our ward had a Christmas activity last Saturday night. It was a potluck dinner and there was a dance after. Too bad I couldn't show off my dance moves. Since we have a ward full of Polynesians, there was a lot of food. I loved it! Us missionaries were suppose to be shepherds in a little nativity thing, but our costumes got taken by someone else. So we just had dinner and enjoyed ourselves. We were hoping some of our investigators would show up, but I guess none of them had time.

 

We also had a fun time at church on Sunday. Some of the primary teachers didn't show up, so they had us teach a couple of classes. I am not sure if that is even allowed, but it happened. Elder Porutu and I got to teach the 3 and 4 year-olds I think. They were funny. Not much of an attention span though. That is ok. We ended up coloring and having snacks. Some of them might have even been able to say the word "sacrament" at the end of the lesson. I hope so.

 

Well the work has been going great! We are still hoping to have a couple of baptisms on the 14th of Decemeber, but we will see how things go. The Fanueli family is awesome. We are really hoping that the Dad can work towards baptizing his kids. He just needs to get some things worked out first. The kids are great! They love having the missionaries over. We always have great lessons with that family

 

We had kind of a breakthrough this week. We have been teaching a lady named Mensung. She is Burmese and her English isn't great so it has been tough. But she mentioned to us that she wanted us to teach her kids. She has 6 kids and 4 of them are over the age of 8. They speak good English and they are very bright! So we had a lesson with them all on Saturday. Mensung wants us to come back every Saturday morning to have lessons with them. We are excited about that!

 

One more experience. So my companion and I were tracting for quite awhile on Saturday afternoon. Right as we were about to get on our bikes and head to the ward Christmas activity, a lady came out of a home and approached us. Apparently she has had some problems with making some not so good decisions. She has been trying to find Christ in her life. She told us that she was about to go out and make some bad decisions again that night, but then she saw us walking down the street. She said that seeing us stopped her from making bad decisions that night. We had a great talk with her and she really wants to get on the right path. Her name was Evalin. She wants to learn more about the church. It is awesome! Unfortunately though she was just visiting her Auntie and she doesn't live in our area. So we have to refer her to some other Elders. That is okay though.

 

I am having some amazing experiences out here! This Gospel is so true. That becomes more apparent to me each day. The Lord is preparing people everywhere to hear the Gospel. The Gospel changes lives! I love seeing that. We do have a Father in Heaven that loves us and knows us. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for us. I am so grateful for that. I love being a missionary! I love you all! Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Low

November 18, 2013 Letter

 Hi family!

Well it sounds like winter is in full effect back home. That is exciting. That means Christmas is just around the corner. Robbie I am sorry to hear about your back. Hopefully things can get better. Joanie nice job on the missionary work. That is awesome!

I am emailing today because transfers was today. Elder Porutu and I are staying put though. So we have at least one more transfer serving together in this area. It will be good. We are really making progress here.

Well my email might be short this week but I just want to share a couple of things. The first one is a funny story. So Elder Porutu and I were out tracting yesterday and there was a huge storm coming in. The clouds didn't look too friendly. But we decided to just keep tracting. Anyway, the storm hit really fast. It started pouring pretty quickly. There was some pretty good size hail as well. So we ran back to our bikes as fast as we could and biked over to a house we knew near by. They gave us a nice dry shirt to wear. It was a good time.

So we are working with a part member family now. The Fanueli family. I think I might have told you a little about them already. They are such a nice family! The Father is Samoan, and the Mother is Mauri/Cook Islander. They have 3 kids that are eight and older that they want to get baptized. The parents really want to come back to church as well. It is an amazing feeling to teach in there home. We have such good lessons with them. Their desire to learn is so strong. It is great.

Sorry about the short email. Something that I have really noticed lately is that so many things come back to faith. Over and over again in the scriptures miracles happen "according to their faith." The same thing can apply to pretty much anything. God places us in certain places at different times in our lives for a reason. Sometimes things aren't easy and we struggle. But we just have to do our best and have faith in the Lord. We can let any experience strengthen us as long as we let it. That is what God would want for us. I know that He knows us and loves us. I am so grateful for that knowledge and for the chance I have to share it with others. I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Love,
Elder Low

November 10, 2013 Letter

Hey family!

 

Well it sounds like everybody is pretty busy. Especially Robbie and Cammie. I bet that was fun going from 0 kids to 4 kids. Pretty soon Richard and Leslie will have a similar experience. Keep it up Leslie! It sounds like you are gaining quite a bit of weight. I feel the same way. Just kidding. Dad good work on putting up the Christmas lights! I can't believe Christmas is already coming up. Time goes by so fast! What is everybody doing for Christmas?

 

Well I am still pretty jealous about all of the snow. The weather here has been pretty crazy. It was pretty hot for most of the week. I think the sun just burns me right through my sunscreen. It is either really hot or it rains really hard. Apparently they have some crazy storms here. Hopefully we don't get caught in any on our bikes.

 

Well I will try to answer some questions quick. Karen a lot of people here struggle with the word of wisdom. There are pretty much two religions here, rugby and alcohol. Well that is what we are told. People love to drink here. It is tough for them to give up those things. Unfortunately I am not picking up an accent. Or at least I don't think I am. The area I am in is very multi-cultural so there are a ton of different accents. Mom I do live in Logan. Logan is the city, and Woodridge is the suburb. Apparently Woodridge is well known in Logan for being a not so good area. Queensland is the state. Our mission covers all of Queensland. Ipswich is in our mission. So maybe I will run into Julie and Andrew over here.

 

Well we were pretty blessed this week. Again we did quite a bit of finding, but we were blessed to meet some great people. We actually have a baptismal date for two people we met. The day is December 14th. The first guys name is Ramon Mcgrady. He is an aboriginal man. So hopefully we can get him to give up some harmful substances. The other ladies name is Sarah. She is a Muslim. She is super nice! Hopefully we can keep working with them so they can be baptized on December 14th.

 

We are still working with Alana and Shana. They are very nice ladies. We have actually taught them all the lessons, the trick is to get them to act on what they have learned. We had a very good talk with them. They have told us that they will probably be baptized one day, but they just aren't sure if they are ready. There are some word of wisdom issues that are really tough for them to give up. Sorry if I have mentioned all of this before. It is tough though when Satan makes all these things seem like they bring happiness. It is very untrue. God knows what is best for us. We just have to put our trust in him. I am really hoping that one day they can see this.

 

Well I can't believe how fast time goes. Transfers are coming up next week so I don't know where I will be. Maybe I will stay here. I got the chance to give a talk in our ward yesterday, and it really made me realize how much of love this ward. I have really grown to love the people here. It would be sad to leave them.

 

Something that really hit me this week is that we will always have opposition. We meet a lot of unfriendly people here, but they are still sons and daughters of God. Instead of fighting back, we need to love them. We need to pray for them and help them in anyway we can. You never know when the Holy Ghost will touch them. We just always have to try and be that person that the Holy Ghost can work through. I hope you all have a great week! I love you and pray for you every day!

 

Love,

Elder Low

November 3, 2013 Letter

Hi family!

 

Well it sounds like Halloween was pretty successful back home. Lots of fun! I saw all the pictures that you sent. I always loved Halloween. I would come home with a ton of candy, and then I would sneak even more from the laundry room. Maybe that is why I had a little bit of an obesity issue. Good times. Halloween wasn't very big over here. Or at least it wasn't in the area that I am serving in. Like I said, this area is pretty dangerous. The suburb where we stay is called Woodridge, and apparently it is always on the news and has a very bad reputation. I don't think we saw anybody out trick-or-treating. By the way happy birthday on the 6th Jason! Maybe by the time I get home you will be old and tired so I can beat you at tennis. Just kidding.

 

Well I feel like I just wrote everybody. Time goes by so fast out here. We do not have daylight savings time here so I think we are 17 hours ahead now. This week has been really interesting. We have had a lot of changes in the ward that I am serving in. We have a new bishopric and most of the auxilary leaders were changed as well. So we are getting into the swing of working with some new people. It is great! I think the members are really starting to get into the work.

 

Mom I am not too sure what else would be good in a Christmas package. Maybe some socks? The ones I brought with me are a little small. But I can also buy socks here. Whatever works for you. I can't believe how close Christmas is.

 

Well this week has been a little bumpy. We are really struggling with getting our investigators to keep appointments or keep commitments. A lot of the people we are teaching have broken English as well so we have to go pretty slow. One of the big things we have been trying to focus on is getting people out to church. There was a couple weeks there when we had quite a few people coming too church. In the last little while it seems like they are getting caught up in worldly things again. We are still working hard though.

 

We have some tough times but we have also have tons of little miracles. Something interesting happened at church yesterday. A random African man just came into sacrament meeting and sat down. When we talked to him, we found out that he just wanted to see what goes on in this big building. He said he had drove by it many times but has never come in. So yesterday he decided to come in. He also said he was looking for a church to join. He came to the right one! Unfortunately he does not live in our area, so we have to refer in to the other Elders, but that is alright. As long as he is being taught the Gospel!

 

Lately in my studies I have been reading a lot about miracles. Mormon and Moroni both talk quite a bit about how miracles don't cease to exist. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We have the power to work miracles according to our faith. I love the verses in Mormon 9: 15-19. We have a God of miracles! He wants to give us miracles! The only reason why He wouldn't is because of our unbelief. I love that. We are so blessed to have someone so Powerful on our side. I know that we can all see miracles in our lives. Anyway, I hope you all have a great week full of blessings and miracles. I love you all so much!

 

Love,

Elder Low

October 29, 2013 Letter

Hi Family!

 

Leslie it sounds like things are going really well for you and the babies! That is awesome to hear. That is kind of cool that you guys are going to have a nanny. We need to hire one of those for us over here. Just kidding. Karen and Alvin it sounds like BYU is still treating you well. I can't believe that you are both graduating this year. Everyone in Edmonton it sounds like you had a great weekend with stake conference. I would love to hear Elder Holland in person. We probably aren't suppose to pick favorite apostles, but I would have to say that Elder Holland is definitely one of mine. He is a very powerful speaker.

 

Well this week was pretty good. I am emailing today because we had our Temple Pday this week. So we went to the temple this morning and then we have Pday. We get to go to the temple once a transfer. We woke up at 4:30 this morning to catch the train up to the city so we could make the eight o'clock session. I love going to the temple.

 

I had an interesting experience this week. So me and my companion were riding our bikes through this park last week when all of a sudden something hit me in the head. I was a little confused until I looked up and saw a bird swooping down at me. I tried to get away but it came down and hit me again. It is a good thing I had a helmet on. It hit pretty hard. I guess the magpies here are pretty ferocious. Kind of funny. I just thought I would share that. I also learned how to say "thank-you my stomach is full" in Samoan this week. Hopefully it will be helpful whenever we eat at a Samoan families house.

 

Mom I did think of a few things I would love for Christmas if you haven't already sent anything. A new journal would be great. Also some new blades for my electric razor. My razor is starting to burn my face. On the back of my razor it says "replace with original Philip's HQ9 heads." My razor is one of those ones that has 3 spinning blades. It is called a Philips Aqua touch. Thanks!

 

Well I will answer just a couple questions quick. They do celebrate Halloween over here, but I am not sure how big it is. Apparently it is starting to catch on more. The area where we serve though would probably be pretty dangerous for kids to go trick-or-treating. Maybe we will stay home that nights and hand out Books of Mormon for trick-or-treaters. Mom I do bike with my shoulder bag. I don't have a back pack. I had a pretty cheap one while I was serving in Utah but I left it there because I thought I would only use a shoulder bag over here. Plus the back pack wasn't very good. I am getting use to riding with it, but it isn't the most comfortable. Oh well.

 

The work here is going great! Last week was one of our best weeks yet. We found quite a few solid potentials that we are going back to see this week. We also had a guy move into our area named Josh Lilo. He is part Samoan part Maori. He split up with his girlfriend (or wife?) because she didn't believe in God and apparently should would make fun of him because he did. He said he really wants to find God and that she was just a bad influence. I think I told you a bit about him last week, but he is a great guy! And we have some great news to share with him. We are having some struggles with a couple of other investigators. Alana and Shana are really struggling. Mostly because they can't keep commitments. They say they believe "most" of what we teach, but they struggle with some other things. We are really trying to help them. They are great and I know they have felt the Spirit, but it comes down to their choice.

 

Well this week was pretty tiring, but it really showed me that the Lord does provide a way for us to do His work. I pray every day for strength, and I can feel the Lord helping me. We had a meeting yesterday and something that really hit me is that we never know who the Lord has prepared. That is why we as missionaries need to talk to everyone. Even if we are just planting seeds, it is still worth it. This Gospel is for everyone. There isn't a person on Earth that this Gospel can't bless. The Lord loves us and knows each of us personally. He knows our strengths and our weaknesses. I love Ether 12:27. Through Him our weaknesses can become strengths. I love you all and pray for you everyday. Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Low

October 21, 2013 Letter

Hi Family!

How is everybody doing? From what I hear it sounds like everybody is busy with work, school, or something. That is good! Leslie I am glad to hear that everything is still going well. Are you excited that you only have a couple weeks left of pregnancy? It will be pretty crazy when they all come though. Dad it sounds like you did a great job at stake conference this week like always. I can't believe how many missionaries are going out from Cardston. That is awesome! Oh and happy birthday to Benson coming up soon! I can't believe he is already 2 years old.

Well this week was really busy! I get a lot more worn out now that we are biking every day. There are a lot of hills around here. My legs are getting use to it though. They are either getting stronger or they are just numb. I am not sure.

So I ran into someone this week that served his mission in Edmonton. He was wearing an Oilers jersey so I went up and talked to him for a bit. He tells me that they aren't doing too good this year. Oh well. There is more to life than sports.

Mom my bike is a pretty good size. They have changed the bike policy here. We each have our own personal bikes that we have to keep with us the whole mission. So we just take them with us to each area. At the end of our mission we can even take them home if we want. We do get an ensign each month so we will get the conference issue. I am really excited about that.

I am not too sure what I want for Christmas. Some music would be great! Other than that I probably don't need a whole lot. Feel free to send me whatever you want though. I won't say no. I love getting letters and packages.

Well the work this week was awesome! One advantage to the bikes is that we can stop and talk to more people when we are on our way to our appointments and other stuff. We had a couple people that we are teaching make very big steps this week. I am not sure if I have told you much about Andrew Smith, but he is a less-active member that has a very big word of wisdom problem. He loves it when we stop by because he says it gives him motivation to resist temptation. But this week we made a deal with him. One of the reasons he wouldn't come to church was because his pants needed to be hemmed. So he told us if we could get his pants hemmed, he would come to church. So we did it! And he came to church! He loved it. It was so funny to see how happy he was. He is a very funny guy. He tells us that every time he reads his scriptures he does a fist pump when he is done. He is making great progress. Now the challenge is just consistency.

We had another interesting experience this week. Last Monday night we were GQ'ing people at a train station. We hadn't got anybody all night that wanted to listen to us. But on our way home from the train Station we talked to one last guy. His name is Samuel. Anyway to make a long story short, he ended up coming to church this week! He has a couple issues that we need to work out, but hopefully we can get through those. It just shows that every person you meet counts. You never know who the Lord has prepared. We may only find 1 in every 100 people we talk to, but it is so worth it.

Something that I love about the mission is seeing people change their lives for the better. Just to see Andrew's excitement this week made me so happy. He told us how thankful he was that we kept coming by. He wants to change so much. And I know that with the Lord's help, he can. With God nothing is impossible. We may experience trials and set backs, but like we were told in conference, brighter days are ahead. There is a quote in my room that I love to read. It is Jeffery R. Holland and he says something like this: "Blessings may not come now, they may not come later, and they may not even come in this life. But for those who embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they do come." It is so true! We are so blessed! God has so much in store for us. Thank you all for your love and support! I hope everyone has a great week! Love you all!

Love,
Elder Low

October 14, 2013 Letter

Hi Family!

 

I'm not going to lie, I get jealous when I hear everybody speaking about how cold it is at home. I loved the winter. When it gets cold that means basketball season is coming up. Anyway, its sounds liked everything is going well. Its good to hear that the potatoes came up alright. Want to send me some? Just kidding. Happy birthday on the 16th Dad! It sounds like you already celebrated in style. That is good. Julie and Brian thank you for the letter! Claire is a little artist. I love letters! Except they take a long time to get here. I got one from one of my friends at BYU and it took almost a month to get here. That is ok though.

 

Well this week has been very interesting. We got some news the other day that we are getting our car taken away from us. With all the new missionaries coming into the mission there are a lot more areas being opened. So they came by this morning and took our car for another area. We are full time bike now! I am actually kind of excited about that. We get lots of exercise because there are a lot of hills in this area. I am just concerned about my companion Elder Porutu. He is struggling with the bikes. Hopefully we will both get into better shape.

 

I will try to answer a few questions quickly. Mom conference here was for all of the church members and not just the missionaries. We went to the chapel here to watch it. I am pretty sure Elder Porutu grew up in the church. He said there are a ton of members in Tahiti. I am not sure when thanksgiving is here, but if you want to send us a turkey you are more than welcome. The food we eat at our flat is pretty american. We eat a lot of peanut butter and jam sandwiches, noodles, cereal, and surprisingly a lot of nutella. We try to buy a lot of fruit as well. When we go to members homes though they have some special dishes. Chop suiy or something like that is something we eat a lot. It is like really soft brown noodles with chicken or something in it. It is great! The Samoans here like to give us Cocoa Samoa as well. It is kind of like hot chocolate, but not as good. We do get tim tams on special occasions. We don't buy them because we don't have a whole ton of money. Mom I actually play the piano quite often here. I play for district meeting and there was actually a baptism that I was asked to play at as well.

 

Well the work has been up and down this week. A lot of people we have been teaching have been avoiding us lately or have told us that they want to hold of on lessons for a little bit. One even moved without us knowing. So we have been out doing a lot of tracting and GQ'ing again. We have also started receiving a ton of referrals all of a sudden. It is weird because we rarely ever got referrals last transfer. The Lord works in mysterious ways. So hopefully we will be able to replenish our teaching pool soon. There are a couple of girls we are teaching though, Alana and Shana, that have been doing alright. I am not sure how much I told you about them, but they are very happy to have us over. Like I said, their problem is just keeping commitments. The other day we talked about the Word of Wisdom and we set some good goals for both of them. So hopefully that goes well. I know they have felt the Spirit, they just need to act on it.

 

Well we got to listen to conference this weekend over here. You probably already know this, but it was amazing! I love hearing our leaders speak. I definitely took that for granted at home. It seemed to me like there was a lot of talks this time on adversity, the atonement, and missionary work. They are really starting to stress members and missionaries working together. I love it! There was a couple of quotes I really liked though. One of them was "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." I am pretty sure President Uchtdorf said it. I love that because Satan is real. He will always try to get us to doubt. We see that with people we teach all the time. But we all know that the power of God is far greater then the power of Satan. He will testify to us if we allow him too. We need to let our faith grow. The other quote I really liked was "God's love for you is there whether you deserve it or not." I think that was Elder Holland quoting President Monson. It is amazing how much our Father in Heaven loves us. He will never leave us. His hand is always stretched out. He sees us make mistakes over and over, but He will never give up on us. That is why we should never give up on others. Everyone is unique. Everyone is a son or daughter of God. We just have to do our best to see others the way the Savior sees them. We have to see others as who they can become.

 

I am so grateful to be born and raised in this Gospel. I am so grateful to all of you. We have such amazing family and friends. We are so blessed because of the Gospel. I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week.

 

Love,

Elder Low

Elder Porutu and I. The "fix red eye" option only seemed to work on one eye. We are in our lava lavas.

 

This was my zone at P-day. I love our zone.

This is at Waitai Ikiua's baptism. Her dad got to baptize her. My companion was Elder Iongi.

Still got it. :)

Elder French and I at the airport.

October 7, 2013 Letter

Hi Family!

 

Well It sounds like everyone enjoyed conference. That is awesome that some of you got to go. I remember last year at this time when I was there. I love conference! We get to see it this up coming weekend. So I am excited! Robbie it sounds like your lost without Cammie. Just kidding. But that is funny that Zach had to go through a window. Joanie good luck with the training for the half marathon. That is tough!

 

Well I am writing today because we had transfers today! So today is our Pday and we had our transfer meeting this morning. I have another new companion! If you include the MTC this is my seventh companion already on the mission. His name is Elder Perutu. He is from Tahiti and he has been out on his mission about eight months. He is still trying to learn English so I will be having language study with him in the morning. He also speaks fluent French though, and we are trying to teach a couple that speak French. So that will be awesome! Oh and I am still in the same area. It was my companion Elder Iongi that got transferred.

 

Mom we do a lot of different things for Pday. I think I mentioned that we play a lot of basketball. Sometimes we go to the park and there are things to do there like touch rugby. Last week we went bowling. It was fun! I got a 176. Not too bad eh? Just kidding. The weather her is starting to get even worse. I feel like I am in an oven every time I walk outside. Its great! Especially when we have the car.

 

Well the work has been going great! We had Waitai's baptism last Saturday morning. It was awesome to see her Dad baptize her. And Mom to answer your questions, Waitai's Mother lives in New Zealand. Her parents are separated and I don't think her Mom is a member of the church. They are a happy family though. Waitai is doing great! We have a ton of other investigators as well. Our tracting and GQ'ing have really been paying off. Our problem with them though is trying to get them to keep commitments. We are teaching a couple of girls name Alana and Shanna right now. Alana is 22 and Shanna is 20. They live together and Alana has 2 kids. We have had some great lessons with them! I know they have felt the Spirit. I think the biggest problem for them is just giving up a lot of things that they consider to be fun. It is sad because the worlds standards have started to drift so far away from the churches standards. 

 

Well sorry my email is so short this week. I feel like we get less time to email every week. I hope everything is going well back home though! Just remember to put the Lord first in your lives. I know that as we do that, He will strengthen us. We weren't sent to this Earth to fail. He was us to come out on top. That is why He will help us carry our burdens. The Gospel is such a blessing! I love being a missionary! Have a great week and I love you all!

 

Love,

Elder Low

Letter From Sister Willoughby

Hello,

 

My name is Linda Willoughby, my husband is Bishop of Logan Ward in Brisbane Australia where your son is serving his mission.I wanted to send you a brief email to let you know that you can be very proud of your son, he is doing well. We had the missionaries over at our home last evening and was a delighted to have a home cooked meal with 'GRAVY', he said he has not had gravy since being here.

 

He left a very special and spiritual message at the end of the evening, we are looking forward to getting to know him better as he serves in our ward.

 

As a mother with a son serving in Ghana, West Africa I know that all and any news is wonderful, they don't have much time to communicate so enjoy some pics from last night and today. In the 1st picture is Bishop Willoughby and Elder Iongi

 

God Bless,

 

 Linda Willoughby  

 

September 29, 2013 Letter

Hi Family!

 

Well it sounds like this week was pretty good for everyone back home. Leslie it sounds like things are going well with the triplets. I am really happy to hear that. Happy birthday Talia!! I hope you had a fun party. Robbie congratulations on the MCAT. That is awesome! And Cammie congratulations on becoming a true Canadian citizen. It sounds like the blessing are pouring out onto the Low family. I love it! And also thank you so much to the Justin and Amelia Low family. I got your letter a couple of days ago. So cute! I love getting letters. I think they take about three weeks to get here.

 

Well this week was great! I am learning new things every day both in the Gospel and also about the Australian culture. This week I found out the popsicles are called ice blocks here. Kind of funny. Something else I really like is the Polynesian way of dinner. I think it might be the Samoan way, but the children serve the parents. Good idea right Mom? And they after dinner, they bring a bowl with soapy water for us to wash our hands. They are such friendly people. It is great!

 

The weather here has been changing all week. There are some days where it got up to about 36 degrees, and other days where it is raining a lot. I think I prefer the rain. I was sweating like crazy the other day. I was literally bathing in my own sweat, so I didn't even need to shower. Just kidding. But seriously.

 

I will try to answer some questions quick. Mom we actually don't have the car every day. We get the car every other day. We share with the other 2 Elders in our flat. It is good that way. We get more exercise on the bikes. My shoulder is doing alright. I definitely feel it, but its nothing bad. General Conference here is going to be broadcasted the week after it happens. So they will show a session and then show the next session about half an hour later because we don't have to wait. I am excited!

 

Well the work has been going very well this week! I would say this was one of our best weeks. We have Waitai Ikiua's baptism coming up this Saturday. She is the 15 year old girl. I am not sure how much I have told you about her but she has learned so much. Her Dad was baptized a year or two ago so he is going to baptize her. We also had a little miracle happen yesterday. I told you about a 19 year old girl named Leiana a couple of weeks ago. She is the one that is engaged to the returned missionary. We haven't been able to meet with her for a couple of weeks because she said she has been busy and she wants to soak in what we taught her already. But yesterday she came to church! Even without her fiancé. It was awesome! We are hoping to get back into their home to teach more sometime this week.

 

It is amazing to see the little miracles the Lord gives us when we continue in faith. Faith is something that I have really been trying to work on these last couple of weeks. I love the scripture James 2:17-18. We have to show our faith. Even if our faith is weak, we need to show the Lord what faith we have. When we do that, He will help our faith grow stronger and stronger each day until it can't be shaken. It is so true! This Gospel is so true! The Lord knows each of us and loves each of us. I am so grateful to be out on a mission. I hope you all have a great week and the blessing continue to come. Love you all!

 

Love,

Elder Low

September 22, 2013 Letter

Hey family,

Well it seems like I just emailed you a couple days ago because I had a late Pday last week. Oh well. My letter probably won't be too long. Leslie I am sorry to hear about everything. It must be tough having to stay in bed all day. I know that would drive me crazy. I am praying for you every day. It sounds like the BYU football team is choking just like always. That's ok, it is just sports. At least everybody had a good time watching it right? Grandma I am impressed that you keep hiking every year. That is awesome. I hope I can stay in that good of shape when I get older. Dad is sounds like you are going back to the old days and taking written exams. Are you going to have to take any more? Is that a new thing for doctors?

Well I will just answer some questions quick. A lot of the work we do here is finding which involves tracting and GQ'ing. But lately we have been finding a lot more people to teach. I love it! It means we don't have to spend all day out in the heat. It is getting hot here! Mom I just took the white pants that you sent me for baptisms to the temple. They don't rent out clothes in there because it is so small. They do have some old ties and socks you can wear though. We get to go to the temple once a transfer with our zone. We have to wake up early on that P-day though because we have to catch a train up to Brisbane. The car ride is only about 45 minutes but we only have a certain distance we can drive each month. So we were up at 4:30 last Wednesday to make it to the temple. We do have our own laundry facilities in our flat. And I am getting along great with my companion. He is a good Elder. Very messy though. I think I will be seeing that a lot with Polynesian companions. That is ok though. It teaches me to love everyone for who they are.

Sorry this email was so short, but I am running out of time and I don't have much else to say. I will just leave you with my testimony. Something that I have really learned on my mission is that God can strengthen us. He answers prayers, He loves us, and wants the best for us. We can turn to Him at anytime and anywhere. It is such a blessing. I love the name "the Comforter" for the Holy Ghost. It is so true that we can be comforted in our time of need. We just have to let Him in. I love you all! I know this Gospel is true! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Low

September 17, 2013 Letter

Hi family!

Well it sounds like everyone is back into the swing of things after Summer. I can't believe how many of the nieces and nephews are starting school. That is crazy! Leslie I hope everything goes well. It sounds like you are going through a pretty rough time right now. Robbie and Cammie it sounds like you guys are doing some good missionary work. Keep it up!

Well I am emailing today because we didn't have our P-day on Monday. It got changed to Wednesday because we went to the Temple this morning in Brisbane. It was really nice. The temple there is very small though. It was pretty packed. Brisbane is so different then my area! It is really pretty up there. I feel like I am in a completely different country when I go up there. Anyway on our P-days we usually just play some kind of sport. Last week we got together with our zone and played some basketball and stuff like that. It is pretty fun. It is getting too hot to do anything outside. It was getting up into the mid 30's this week. It is very humid as well so I feel very sweaty and sticky when I go outside. A lot of people carry umbrellas around when it gets too hot.

I will try to answer some questions quick. Mom we are not using Facebook in this mission yet. There is a rumor going around that most missions will be starting to use Facebook sometime in 2014. The ward we serve in is mostly Polynesian. And there are actually two other Elders serving in this ward as well. It is a big ward so we take the south half of the area and the other two Elders take the north half of the area. Mom I did pay my bike money when I got here. GQ'ing is golden questioning Mom. It is where we go and talk to people on the streets or at the strain station and ask them questions. We find quite a few people that way.

The music policy just changed in our mission this week. With a new mission president here, a lot of things have been changing. The new music policy is just anything that can help you feel the spirit. So I think EFY music, Mormon tabernacle choir, and some songs by John Schmidt would be awesome. And any other music that you think would be appropriate. I would love that! Also could you send a USB port so that I could hook it up to the car?

Well the work here is going great! We have been finding a lot of people to teach lately. The trick is just to get them to keep letting us come back. I think I was talking about Leiana last week. The one who's fiancé is a returned missionary. She has been really struggling to put everything together. We are really trying to teach things simply though. We had a really awesome experience this week though. We met a Samoan man named Tovita while we were out tracting. He is still learning english but he can understand what we are saying. But he was really interested so we gave him a Samoan Book of Mormon. The next time we came back to visit he was sitting on his front step reading it. It was awesome! He is really excited about it so we are going to keep going back to teach. We are also teaching a 20 year old man named Oranga from New Zealand. We had been there quite a few times before but this time when we went he had a lot of questions for us. He was a lot more interested this time. We are just trying to get him to come out to church. So the work is going amazing!! Except we often run into huge dogs. I swear some of them are bigger than I am. So many fences have a sign that say "beware of dog."

I love serving in Australia! The work is tough but it has really been paying off. I know that when we show the Lord our faith by keeping His commandments, He blesses us. Dad you are so right when you always said "if you keep the commandments, you will be happy." It is so true! Anyway I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all and pray for you every day!

Love,
Elder Low

September 8, 2013

Hi family!!

 

Sounds like everybody is back to work after a good week in Waterton. It sounds like everyone did a lot of stuff up there. That is awesome. I love Waterton. So who is all starting school? Julie I can't believe Claire is already going to pre-school. How does Zach like grade 1? Future valedictorian? Just kidding. Dad I am pretty sure the time difference between here and there is 16 hours. So it should be around 8 pm there right now on Sunday night if I am correct. BYU beat Texas eh? Maybe it will be a good season. Karen I am sorry to hear about the mono. I hope you get better soon.

 

Well this week was pretty awesome! I love it here. From what I am told though my area is quite different from other areas. I get to learn all the polynesian slang. It is really funny. They are super friendly people though! It is the white people in this area that aren't so nice. When a white person opens the door here, they often just take one look at us and slam the door. I am starting to understand people a lot better though. It is mostly just learning all the different words they have here. Like fries are called chips, the trunk of the car is called the boot, people go to the toilet instead of the bathroom, and a bunch of other things I can't remember right now. And Justin there are seriously fish and chip shops everywhere! My companion took me to one the first day I was here.

 

Well I will try to answer as many questions as I can in as little time as I can. Karen we do get exercise time, but for the amount of food I have been eating it doesn't do too much. I am really trying hard not to eat too much. For exercise each morning we wake up at 5:45 and go to the chapel to play basketball with the other Elders. Justin we do get to play touch rugby. We actually do it on Saturdays though. We invite a bunch of less-active members and non-members to come play and meet the missionaries. We had a really good turn out last week. We met about 4 or 5 people that weren't members of the church show up. We talked to them for a bit and hopefully we can be able to teach them sometime. It isn't too hot here yet. It has probably been around 25 degrees lately. But it is definitely starting to heat up. Yes dad I have seen some big spiders! I am a little paranoid. We were helping a family clean some bushes in their yard the other day and every time I felt something touch me I would freak out. I hate spiders! Mom there is a library here that we email from. It is pretty busy though. That is why we don't get much time to email. I just drive a  Toyota. I haven't crashed yet and I hope I never will. Driving on the left side of the road just seems natural now. We eat meals with members 3 times a week. We are allowed to have dinner with members every night but we have to have an investigator there. So maybe in a little while we will be eating more with members.

 

We have been super busy this week! We got a big list from the ward with all the part member families in our boundaries. The ward has about 600 members but only 200 are active. So we have been visiting them a lot. We are really working on getting people to church. We were also visiting with a returned missionary that has gone less active. He is engaged to be married in November so we were meeting with him and his fiance. His fiance is not a member so we have been teaching her and the returned missionary is doing great! They both came to church yesterday. His name is Paula and her name is Leiana. We also set a date for Waitai Iqua for October 5th. Other than that we are still trying really hard to find people that will let us in their home to teach. It is a lot of work! But I love it! It is very multi-cultural here and I love meeting everyone.

 

This Gospel is true! I'd bet my life on it. I love being here in Australia. I know this is where the Lord needs me to be. I have really learned this week that as we do our very best to do the Lords work, he will provide a way for us. We have spent many hours tracting, GQ'ing, and visiting this week. There are often times that we get rejected for hours. But it is so worth it when we find that person who has been waiting for us. The Gospel changes lives! I love being able to be that instrument in the Lords hands. He has so much in store for us. I love you all! I love being a missionary! Have an awesome week.

 

Love,

Elder Low

Arrival Letter from the Mission President

 

Dear Low Family,

 

We are delighted to report that your son, Elder Low, arrived safely at the mission home in Brisbane, Australia!   He is an impressive young man and we are thrilled that he will be serving with us in this great mission; he has many talents and they will be used in various ways.  We will be watching over him in all his labors while he is here.  Elder Low is full of the missionary spirit as he contemplates his new opportunities; he has an excellent trainer and they will learn much serving with each other. 

You should be receiving an email each week from your missionary, and he should be receiving one from you as well.  Though they are immersed in the work, they do miss home, and a loving letter from family is comforting and reassuring.     We are grateful for your support of us and as an expression of our gratitude and appreciation, we have created a webpage for you to follow: australiabrisbanemission.com.  We will post pictures of our missionaries and will do our best to capture all that is happening in our mission; especially the missionaries'  joys and successes as they labor in the Lord’s vineyard. As they email me pictures of their baptisms, I will post those as well. 

We are so happy and pleased to be able to serve the Lord along with your son, Elder Low.  Great blessings are in store for not only your missionary, but family at home as well.  We know that you will experience marvelous blessings as you support your son while he serves the Lord honorably and obediently on his mission.  We pray for the Lord's blessings upon you, your missionary and his other loved ones.

 

Most Sincerely,

President Lon E. and Sister Carrie Henderson

AUSTRALIA BRISBANE MISSION

September 1, 2013 Letter

Hi Family,

 

Well I hope everything at home is going well. It is still Sunday back home while I am writing this, so maybe I will get some emails next week. I only have 50 minutes on the computer so I am going to be writing relaly fast.

 

For those of you that don't know, I have reached the promised land! Just kidding. But I have arrived in Australia. The flight was pretty long. I am not going to lie, I am still feeling the effects from it. Australia is beautiful though! I love it here! I even saw a kangaroo. I wish I could send pictures but I need to figure that out sometime when I have time.

 

So my new companions name is Elder 'Iongi. It is pronounced ee-ong-ee. He is a great Elder! He is from New Zealand and has been out on his mission for 13 months. I am excited to serve with him. We are living in our house, which they call flats here, with 2 other elders. We only have 1 bathroom and our place is pretty small. So we are getting cozy in there. We have the "what's mine is yours" policy going on. Literally, they were using my deodorant. We are going to be pretty close by the end of the transfer.

 

The area we are serving in is called Logan. It is a city just outside of Brisbane. It is a very ghetto area. My companion told me that this is the most dangerous area in the mission. We don't tract after dark because there are a lot of drunk people walking around. There was a man killed here a couple months ago. So it is just a little different than Utah. Jokes.

 

The work here is a lot different! We never tracted in Provo but here we spend a lot of time trying to find people to teach. We have a goal of 14 finding hours for each week. Finding hours are when we are out tracting and finding people to teach. So we try to do that for at least 2 hours a day. We also get a lot of names of people to visit from the ward. We only cover one ward here which I really like. I think that will give us a chance to get to know people better. And the ward takes very good care of us as well! It is pretty much all polynesians and aboriginals in the area. So all the polynesians feed us like crazy! They get offended when we don't eat so I am eating so much! It is funny because they feed us KFC all the time. I guess KFC is pretty big here. The other night we had a dinner with a member family and they had enough KFC chicken for each of us to have a bucket. I am going to gain a lot of weight. I know a couple of Elders here that have gained 80 pounds on there missions. Sounds good to me!

 

Guess what? We already have a baptism coming up! We are meeting with this girl named Waitai Iqua. She is 15 years old and we invited her to be baptized last lesson. We are shooting for the end of September. It just goes to show that the Lord is preparing people all over the world to receive the Gospel. I am excited to meet a lot of new people here. The names are really hard to pronounce though, and I often can't understand what people are saying. Their accents are so thick. I often find myself just nodding my head.

 

Some other exciting news is that I am driving a car! We share a car with the two other Elders in our flat and I am the designated driver in my companionship. So I am learning how to drive on the left side of the road. It is a little weird having the steering wheel on the right side of the car. Everything is backwards! But I haven't crashed yet. I am getting use to it.

 

For letters here they just have people send them to the mission office and the mission office gets the letters to us. The address is this:

 

Australia Brisbane Mission

PO Box 348

Hamilton QLD 4007

Australia

 

Well sorry if my email was all over the place. I am really trying to hurry. But I want you all to know that I love being a missionary! I love this Gospel. It is so true. The Gospel is for everyone. It is amazing to see how different the people are over here. It could take me a little while to get use to. But even though the people are different, the Gospel is for everyone. It changes lives. I have really enjoyed seeing how strong the members are over here. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father. He knows all of His children and loves them all equally. I am so grateful for that. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you all!

 

Love,

Elder Low

August 26, 2013 Letter

Hi Family!

How is everybody doing? First of all, holy cow Richard and Leslie! That is crazy that you are having triplets! I can't believe that. You are going to be busy. How are you feeling Leslie? Excited? Nervous? I guess there are going to be more nieces and nephews when I get home than I thought. I hope everything goes well! I will be praying for you every day. And it sounds like everybody is finishing up their partying down at Echo. I always remember leaving echo for the last time in the Summer. It was sad.

Well my email today might be kind of all over the place. I am just really excited to go to Australia. I go to the mission office right after I am done with emails. And yes Mom I am going with Elder Nakatsu. Hopefully I have time to call home. And Cammie tell Kelsey congratulations for me! That is awesome. Kind of sounds like you and Robbie. I guess when you know you know.

Well we were definitely busy this week. But I feel less exhausted now that we drive a car around. We did have Sephy's baptism on Saturday. It went well! It was a little funny though. Sephy was really nervous before the baptism. When it was time for her to come down into the font it took her a little while. Finally we got her to come down and I was able to baptize her. After she was done, she was really excited. She was telling us how easy it was. It was funny. It was a good day. I love seeing the people that we work with take those steps closer to Christ. It is an amazing feeling.

I can't believe that my time serving in the Provo mission is coming to an end. It went by so fast. It hasn't really hit me yet that I am leaving. I am sure it will soon though. Something really cool happened last night. There is a 24 year old man that we have been working with named Adam Barton. I am not sure if I have told you about him, but we have been working with him for a while. It has been a little frustrating because he often cancels our appointments and doesn't keep his commitments. But last night he called me and wished me luck in Australia. He told me that he appreciated everything I have done for him and that he really looks up to me. He told me that he is going to work really hard to get back to church. It was such an awesome feeling to know that all that work wasn't for nothing. This is the Lords work. He has prepared so many people for us to teach. It may take some time, but it is worth it. I have loved serving here in the Provo mission. I know this is where the Lord needed me for the past couple of months. And now I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for me in Australia.

Sorry this is such a short email. I am just really excited. I want you all to know that I love you all so much. I love serving the Lord. It is amazing what can happen when we try to see people the way the Lord sees them. 1 Samuel 16:7. This Gospel is for everyone! I hope everybody has a great week and I will email you next week from down under!

Love,
Elder Low

Letter from Pat Zeeman

Dear Brian and Cynthia,

     I am sending you some pictures of a baptism that your son performed while he was about one week from his transfer to Australia.

     It was quite a funny experience. Persephonie was afraid of water so she had to be coaxed into the water, then she was afraid to go under, so about 3 or 4 times had to be tried to get her to dare to be baptised. We all quietly had to smile.

     Your son is an awesome young man. We hope that all is going well for him. My husband is Bishop of the Mtn. View 5th Ward, Payson Utah. I am Pat Zeeman- The "Ward Mom."

                         Thanks,

                               Love Pat

                 P.S. Tell Dallin "Hello" from us!!

 

August 19, 2013 Letter

Hi family,

Well it sounds like a lot of people are ending summer with a bang. That is fun having so many people at the cabin. I wish I could see all the little kids. It is going to be really weird for me in a couple years to see how much they have all grown. Do we have any water skiers yet? Did Zach try this year? Alvin how are you enjoying your first echo experience? Also thank you so much for the package Karen and Alvin! I love getting mail. Mom what do you mean by having nobody in school? Karen are you not enrolled for the fall semester?

This week has been pretty crazy. As you know, my old companion Elder Baisden went home. He left Thursday morning. It was tough, but I think it was best for both of us. I am now in a trio. My companions names are Elder Va'enuku and Elder Clare. Elder Va'enuku is from Texas and Elder Clare is from Wisconsin. They are awesome Elders! I love serving with them. We are pretty busy though. Because of everything that happened, we are now covering my stake and also the two other stakes that they were covering. So we have lots to do. The best part about it though is that we have a car! I love it. It is definitely more efficient for us and now I don't have to worry about turning into a lobster as much.

As far as my flight plans go, I think I like them a lot better. I don't know how many of you have heard, but I no longer have a 14 hour layover in LA. I am flying with another Elder that came out of the MTC with me. We fly out of Salt Lake around 5:45 pm next Monday, and we are flying to Texas. We only have about a 50 minute layover so we will have to move really quick. Our next flight to Australia though is about 16 hours. So that is a lot of flying! Should be fun. I am so excited though! I know that Australia is where the Lord needs me, and I am excited to serve there. I think most of the Elders I knew from the MTC are already there. So I am excited to see some of them as well. If I have time to call, I will definitely be calling from the Salt Lake airport. I will try calling home, and if that doesn't work, Mom and Dad I will try your cell phones.

Well as far as the work goes this week we were plenty busy. A lot of the lessons we teach now are in the other two stakes. So I am getting a chance to meet a lot of new people. It is great. The baptism for Sephy is still on date for this Saturday. I am really excited about that! She has been learning so much and I am really surprised how much she remembers. She is a bright girl. We are also teaching a new family in the stake, the Farnsworth family. The Mom and Dad are less active, and they have 5 kids. I think I may have mentioned them last week. But it is amazing to see there progress. The Dad really wants to come back to church. The oldest daughter Mia is 8 years old and she is really into it. We gave her a Book of Mormon stories and she is already read to about 1 Nephi 20. I love seeing children getting involved in the Gospel. Something interesting was mentioned in a meeting yesterday. They talked about how children are so close to our Heavenly Father because they have been with Him a very short time ago. It is so true. I have been able to see that a lot on my mission especially in Utah where we work with a lot of younger kids.

I just want to share my testimony with all of you that I know our Savior lives and loves us all. It has become more apparent every day on my mission that He knows us personally. We have a special opportunity to communicate with our Heavenly Father every day. He still speaks to us. We can receive revelation just like the people did in the scriptures. That has been such a blessing to me, especially on my mission. I love you all so much and pray for you every day. Have an awesome week!

Love,
Elder Low

August 12, 2013 Letter

Hi Family,

Well it sounds like Summer is starting to come to a close at home. I remember by the time the parade rolled around I felt like school was just around the corner. Sounds like everybody is still busy and enjoying life though. Karen and Alvin I bet you guys are excited to get finals over with for a few weeks. Coming out of that last final is one of the best feelings ever. Robbie and Cammie that is pretty awesome that you will be in Justin and Amelia's ward. Cardston is being overrun by Lows.

Well this week was pretty interesting. Transfers were last week, and they didn't move me anywhere. So I am still here in Payson with Elder Baisden. But then something else came up. Like I said earlier, my companion Elder Baisden has had a rough mission. He talked to the President yesterday and he is heading home this week. So I am not sure what they are going to do with me. I am guessing I will be in a trio for two weeks until I leave to Australia. So I am not sure what my mailing address is going to be or where I will be at. I will let you know what happens next week.

I am glad the mission office sent my flight plans to you. It sounds like I am flying out of Salt Lake around 8:30 a.m. on August 26th and I will get to LA around 9:30. Then I have a fourteen hour layover before my flight leaves to Australia. I am guessing I will probably be meeting up with some other Elders or I might fly out of Salt Lake with some Elders from the MTC. We will see. So I will probably be calling that morning before I leave Salt Lake and I will use the calling card. If you want me to find some other way to call let me know.

I will try to answer a few questions quick. Dad the other bike I have kind of broke down as well. There are just so many puncture weeds in Payson. I have had a ton of flat tires. We have patched them multiple times but it just keeps happening. But I think they may put me with some missionaries that have a car anyway. So it shouldn't matter. Doing missionary work on facebook is very interesting. The only person we are teaching online is Elder Baisden's sister but I have been asked questions by other people. It is actually a really effective way to get information out. I doubt my mission in Australia will be using it yet, but maybe in a bit. And I am definitely excited to go to Australia! I know it is going to be a lot different, but I know that is where the Lord needs me. Hopefully I can do some good out there.

 

Well we still tried to make the best out of this week with everything going on. Everything is still on plan for Sephy Dodd's baptism on the 24th. She actually asked me if I would do the baptism. So if I am still covering this area, I will get to baptize her the weekend before I leave. I would love that. If not, some other Elders will take care of it. Cami and Brock came to church again this week as well. It is awesome! It may take them some time, but it is amazing to see them taking steps in the right direction. I am not sure if I have mentioned much about Mike Sorenson, but he is probably around 40 and has a rough couple of years. He has really been wanting to come back to church for a long time, but his work doesn't allow him. He is a truck driver and he has been working Sunday's for years. So we told him to pray about it. Last week we found out that his work changed his schedule. He said he had no clue why. But now he has Sundays and Mondays off. So he came to church! I love seeing how the Lord works.

Robbie I love how you said that missions are so personal. It is true. I have learned so much on my mission, even though I have only been out for a couple of months. This is exactly what I need right now in my life. I got to speak in church yesterday, and I decided to speak on prayer. I love how much I learn as I study. Prayer is something that I think I have taken for granted a lot in my life. I have really coming to realize that we are literally speaking to our Father in Heaven. It is such a blessing to be able to talk to Him wherever and whenever. I heard a great description that goes something like this. God isn't behind us pushing us, He is in front of us leading and guiding us. He has His hand stretched out and He is just waiting for us to grab hold. Through prayer we can begin to do that. He wants to bless us. He sees us going through trials, and He wants us to succeed. That is why He has provided us with prayer. When we don't ask for help, we are only hurting ourselves. It is my testimony that our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ know each of us personally. Because of the atonement, Jesus Christ knows how to help us. He has been there. Just like it says in Alma 7:12. I am so grateful for that. Thank you for all your love and support. I really appreciate it. I hope you all have a great week. Love you!

Love,
Elder Low

August 5, 2013 Letter

Hey family!

Well it sounds like everyone is enjoying the Summer. I can't believe that it is already August. Time is going by so fast! Also Happy birthday Leslie and Amelia!! Sorry it is late again. I hope you both had great birthdays. Justin and Amelia I am glad you guys are settling into Cardston. Sounds like work is going pretty good Justin. Do you enjoy it? That is cool that Zach has Mrs. Remington as a first grade teacher. She was there when I was there. I can't believe it has been that long. Brian and Julie your family is getting so big! Claire is getting so old. That is awesome. It will be weird to see all the new nieces and nephews in a couple of years.

This week has been pretty awesome. I am not going to lie though, I can't wait for winter. It will probably be quite a while until I see that though. It has been extremely hot down here. Maybe Amelia, Robbie, and Cammie will get some of that when you come down here. And I don't think I need anything, or at least anything that I can think of. I am already fat enough. To answer some of your questions, Cammie I do email Aaron. Do you play basketball with those girls pretty often? Who does Aaron play basketball with? And Mom I would love you help packing for Australia. Just kidding. I am pretty sure I will be fine. I handled it pretty well last transfer. As for the scripture on my mission plaque, I would probably put 1 Nephi 3:7. That has always been one of my favorite scriptures since I was little.

Well I am sure some of you have heard this other news, but I am on facebook now! We are the 8th mission in the world to use facebook. It was a little weird at first. I had to go on there and hide all my old pictures because they didn't want us creating a new facebook and they didn't want old pictures on there. The rules are pretty strict though. I still have to communicate through email. We are only allowed to use facebook for missionary purposes only. But we are allowed to teach anybody across the world. We are even allowed to teach family if we have permission. We are actually teaching my companions sister right now. She has been out of the church for 10 years and wants to come back. It is awesome! We are allowed to teach by typing or we can video chat. It has been pretty interesting.

The work went well here in Payson this week as well. Like I said, we have been teaching a bunch of kids and we put a few of them on date for Baptism. The 9 year old girl named Sephy Dodds is on date for August 24th. So if all goes well, we will have a baptism the weekend before I leave if I am still here. Transfers are this week and we are waiting for our call. I am wondering what they will do with me since I am leaving in the middle of next transfer. Maybe they will put me in a trio. Anyway, we also put Nicholas Bingham on date for September 14th. As for Brock and Cami, we are really trying to get Brock ready so he can baptize his son Stetson. I would love to see that happen. I love seeing people accept the Gospel! We had 6 families that we are teaching come to church this Sunday. Most of them are less-active families, and a few of them were the families we are teaching that their kids are getting ready for baptism. So we went to 3 different fast and testimony meeting yesterday.

Well I am not going to lie, the mission can be tough sometimes. Yesterday was a pretty long day since it was fast Sunday and boiling hot out, but it is so worth it! This Gospel is so true! We already know who is on the winning side. I am so glad that I am on the Lord's side. I am so grateful for His atonement that allows each and every one of us to repent and be happy. Like Dad always says, "If you want to be happy, keep the commandments." It is so true. We are given commandments to help and guide us in this life, not to restrict us. I hope you all have a great week. I pray for you all every day. Love you!

Love,
Elder Low

July 29, 2013

Hey Family!

Well it sounds like it has been a crazy and sad week back home. That is sad to hear about Elder Burton. I actually heard about that at the parade on Pioneer Day. That is tough. But I am sure he is in a better place now. That is why it is so awesome to know that we can be with the people we love forever. The Gospel can provide us with so much strength. I hope his family is doing ok. I have been praying for them a lot. That is tough. It also sounds like everyone else has been pretty busy. Julie congratulations on your calling! It sounds like you are doing some good missionary work. Karen and Alvin, congrats on your calling as well. That sounds like fun! And Karen and Alvin I got your package! Thank you so much!! It was all delicious. It was in the sun all day so when I opened it up it was all nice and warm like it had just been baked. Amazing!! I hope I am not stealing all of your treats Alvin. Alvin have you got your score back for the MCAT? Robbie do you think you are ready to take it again? Cammie I am glad to hear you are getting use to Cardston. It isn't too bad right? And Dad there are 8 missionaries in Cardston? What do they do with them all? You should sent them all out on a blitz to the reservation! Just kidding.

Well this week was pretty good. We got to be in another parade on Pioneer Day in Spanish Fork! And I saw Uncle Jim and Aunt Janelle again. It is like we are neighbors. The parade was actually a really good experience. We got to walk behind the 2000 stripling warriors in the parade. And I really think there were 2000 of them. There was a lot! While we were walking, I saw a couple people off to the side crying. The Spirit was so strong in that Parade. It sounds weird, but it is true. There was one guy who was dressed in a suit and tie and it looked like he had just returned home from a mission. He was waving at us and crying. I think he really missed his mission. It made me realize how special of an opportunity I have right now to be on a mission. There is so many people that the Lord has prepared for us and we have the opportunity to be instruments in His hands. It is such a blessing. I can't believe I have already been out for over two months.

I will try and answer a few more questions. We do a lot of different things on P-days. It depends on the day. We always do laundry and shopping and stuff like that. Last week we actually went golfing with the Mission President. It was fun! I wish I could put. Other than that I actually did not too bad. Mom we are the only Elders in that trailer. It is nice to have a lot of space. We usually get about and hour and a half for emails. I like it. It gives us time to say what we need to say. I am pretty sure the Provo temple is open now. Or at least it should be really soon. As far as music goes Mom, you can surprise me. Some can listen to stuff like EFY music, John Schmidt, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and stuff like that. But there is no rush on that.

I also have some other good news. My visa came!! I am headed to Australia in 2 days!!! Just kidding. It did come though. I was told that my last night in the Utah Provo Mission will be on August 26th. So I am guessing that means I will be leaving on August 27th? They said they would give me more information when it gets closer. I think I have to wait for a month because that is when the next tranfer in Brisbane is. I am excited though!

Well the work is still moving forward here. I love it!! We are actually working with a ton of kids now as well. Most of their families are less active so we always get them to sit in on the lesson. We are teaching a 12 year old boy, a 9 year old girl, and four 8 year old boys. They are all working towards baptism! So I hope I get to be here for a few of them before I head to Australia. Something that I have really tried to focus on this week is seeing how the Lord works on people. When you meet all these different people on your mission, you really see how unique each person is. The Lord has really given each individual there own set of experiences to learn and grow. Whether the experiences are good or bad, we can always learn something from them. The Lord is always shaping us into who He wants us to become. And I really believe that is why we are called to the missions we are. There are people there that only we can reach out to, but only with the help of the Lord. I know that my Savior Jesus Christ lives, and it is only through His atonement that we can return to live with Him and our Heavenly Father again. I am so grateful for a Savior and a Family that loves me. I hope you all have an amazing week! Love you all!

Love,
Elder Low