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