August 20, 2012

Hey guys! This week was great, we didn’t baptize because they wanted to wait for family to be able to come so we called it off until their family could make it. Tomorrow at 3 o clock I will be baptizing, so just so you guys know and you can think about how one more soul is making a promise with our Father in Heaven. So the activity that my companion and I are planning with the Stake president is coming together great and it looks like we are gonna have a lot of success! Our ward is way excited for it and they are working hard so that it comes out to be what we want it to be. The stake president is way excited also and is really happy that we are working with him to get this activity going good for the stake. How did Brandon hurt himself? So this week we have about 4 people that will be baptized as long as we do everything we can to keep these blessing coming. I’m glad you guys liked the plaques. I wanted to do one of the family but they told me the faces wouldn’t come out very wel,l so I just did one of you guys. So I hope everything keeps going well and that you guys keep doing what you need to! I love you guys and miss you! P.S ask me questions more so that I can remember things about the week better, ha. Elder Lowder

August 13, 2012

Hey Guys!! I’m so glad to here that everyone’s doing great and is happy! I’m doing great! I’m not going to lie, I feel a lot older! It felt weird, I’m not gonna lie, to have my birthday here even though I had fiestas. It still felt way weird not having you guys there but i really enjoyed it! One day you will see pictures of things but it takes forever and I don’t like it, haha. So this week was great! We also had the opportunity to listen to a Seventy and WOW it was awesome to hear him talk about experiences he’s had as a member sharing the gospel. It was really a blessing to here it. We are still loving being companions and having a whole lot of fun helping everyone we can. I’m absolutely the happiest I’ve ever been in my life and its because we are having the opportunity more than once to here the words, I know this is the truth! Its the greatest thing I’ve ever heard and it really makes me feel amazing! So this week we are going to baptize 4 people that are way excited and want to be baptized and I’m so happy that they’re going to get this experience to be baptized as members of this only true gospel. Also, to be able to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost so that they have that help so much more in their lives! I just want you guys to know that I know for sure, like I know that the sky is blue, that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ LIVE and LOVE us all. That’s why they make things hard, so we learn and we become like them! I pray and hope every moment that I am doing what the Lord expects of me while I’m his servant for the rest of my life and onward. I pray everyday that I have some sort of experience to make me better so that I can be like them. I hope each one of us in our lives do the best we can to be able to be like him no matter what the circumstances are or what happens and that we die doing what we know the Lord wants and trying to apply something from them in our lives everyday! The Atonement has changed my life and I try to always use it so that my Lord and Savior didn’t suffer for nothing but suffered and gave me what I have so that I use it always! I hear everyday things like "Its hard to do things that he wants" or " I don’t have the strength to say no to my friends or to change" or" I forget sometimes". These things happen, yes but they don’t have to! Everything is possible if we want it to be. When we don’t do what we should is when these things run through our mind or come out of our mouths that its impossible. I know the opposite of that Its All Possible always! We just need to use our faith and trust our Father in Heaven so that we can do ONLY what he wants, not what we want! I know this without even the smallest doubt and I share that with everyone that reads this email with much Love and Hope that it will help you to be able to try and be better every day in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen Elder Lowder

August 6

HEY GUYS!! So this week was awesome! We had a lot of success and we are having so much fun doing it! We baptised 2 people and confirmed 3! We had 12 investigators at church and all the members are way excited and starting to support us alot more! Everyone here is just happy and working hard to complete our role as members and missionaries! I've never seen it before that everyone wants to work with us or wants to have a little part in our work and im super excited! I also can't accept that i'm going to turn 20 friday. My ward doesn't know i know but they're gonna throw me a little surprise birthday get together on friday and saturday another family of members are gonna throw me one to hahaha so you guys know ill be taken care of. So we have 11 people ready for baptism we have an activity almost ready for september 8th that is going great and that is going to be awesome! So i can't be happier with what's going on here! I cannot believe the blessings that we are receiving here! So I'm glad to hear that you guys are had a great time in san antonio. I'll make sure to pray for the bells and aunt jodi. So i love you guys and i miss you all and hope you guys keep doing your best! Elder Lowder

July 31

Hey guys! Thank you guys for your emails im sorry but time caught up to me today but next week im going to email all of you back! So this week was a great week! I got my new companion his name is Elder Tapia if you remember he was my companion for like 3 weeks when i was in the threesome. So i already know him really well and we get along great! So this we it felt wierd to actually have help in the work. Elder Tapia has 7 months in the mission so he is works hard. Which for me is a great blessing because now I can trust him to give him some responsabilites to haha. Im still senior companion and feeling great! We had the oportunity to baptise yesterday and it was one of the best baptisms of my mission. I really had the oportunity to see the support that the ward is giving us. The service was full of members, we didnt have enough room for the people which made me feel so great to know that all our work we have put into gaining the trust of the members has paid off. We have a new family of 4 that were teaching and we have 3 people prepared to be baptised the week!! Im so greatful that the Lord has blessed me again with the help ive needed to really be able to do what the Lord has called us here in this area to do. We had the oportunity to fast with the priesthood on saturday for the missionary work in this area and were really getting blessings from it. Also this week my companion and i took the iniciative to talk to the stake president and were planning an activity with his and the leaders of the stake! There all way excited with the idea and were recieving alot of support and blessings. What were doing is were going to have an open house as a stake here. The members are going to bring people to know more about our church and what we believe in. Were making this activity so big! In my ward we have a member that works at the MTC here in Mexico. We had the idea to bring all the missionarys from the MTC here to work with my companion and i and other missionarys in the zone. To be able to invite everyone to the activity! I called president and he gave us permission to do it and so that's also going to happen. My companion and i felt impatient because our leaders aren't doing things like this. So we took the initiative to do it and its looking awesome! So my companion and i are doing great!! It's great to hear from the whole family and to know that everything is going great! It blew my mind to see how old my cousins have gotten and i still can't accept some things haha. Well i love you all and miss you all and hope you all are doing the best you can! Mom Dad expect a package to get to the house here soon! I got the pictures! Elder Lowder

More July

hey guys! Well this week was good. My investigator Fransisca didn’t come to church again, so we let her go. Sandra and her 4 kids are progressing amazingly! They came to church yesterday and loved it! They should be baptized this week but we have to marry the mom and the dad so we have that to check off. So, tomorrow I get a new companion and Elder Dias is going home. My new companion is coming tomorrow and its gonna be Elder Tapia again, hahaha. We got along together really well and he’s way obedient also so we should have a lot of success together. Why did Papa have to have surgery? So, I’m kind of glad that my companion is heading home. My companion has been very depressing and quiet and very serious and he complains a lot. So the 3 last three months have been hard for that reason. elder Tapia has 6 months in the mission and I know him very well, so its gonna be a big change and a big help for me. Joe sent me an email and seems pretty excited and ready for things to come which is awesome to see. I know he will do great out there. So I miss you all and love you all I am really putting a lot of faith that this next month or however long will be, will be great. Elder Lowder

July

Hey! So this week was way, way good! We baptized Sunday! I was so happy to help Tania make that covenant! So this week I did finally get my money, thank you so much, Dad! I know that none of it was your fault its always the banks that cause the problem! Well this week I had the opportunity to talk to a Christian man. We knocked on his door and contacted him and he said I’m Christian, did you know you’re saved? So as I’m sure you know, I was great, here we go again. We started talking about what it means to be saved and what we need to do to be saved. He started to tell me that our works don’t matter only if we except Jesus in our lives. So I pulled out the verse in the bible in Matthew that says Faith without works is dead. He told me that it doesn’t mean the kind of works that we think but service and good works. I explained it to him what it means. Where I’m going with this is that this week when I had the opportunity to talk to him, it strengthened my testimony so much more that this is the truth, because a verse so clear and so easy to understand someone can take it completely differently! He ended telling us i we want to come back another time we were welcome to do so. Were gonna go visit him this week. So this week was pretty calm also here but it was a good week. I hope that you guys enjoy your time together and with the Cooks today! Be good and have fun out there! Be safe also! Oh and about time that Aunt Kim’s taking care of it! We’ll talk to you next week miss you all! Elder Lowder Hey guys! So this week was good but my baptism fell through. It was the Moms fault, haha. But it’s all good, we found 3 new families, one family of 4 and two families of 2! There great people! So the rain seasons started, so now it rains just out of nowhere. It will be sunny one second and the other start raining. So it’s pretty bipolar here in Mexico. I asked for the waffle recipe because my neighbor wants to make them for me! So, my companion is officially revived so don’t worry, he’s working hard with me every day! This week was pretty calm. Except yesterday, I had the opportunity to teach someone named Jesus who has been listening to the missionaries for about 10 years. He has problems with smoking and drinking. We went to visit him with a member and started talking to him and he told us his story of why he hasn’t been baptized. A lot of It was basically because of his smoking and drinking problems. So we talked to him and shared some scriptures with him and told him what he needed to do. He and his Mom started to cry and just felt the spirit so strongly and I did too. He accepted to be baptized and everything! So for me it was way special. Dad, you probably already know this but at least here, a lot of people that put off their baptism is because they don’t feel like they have enough knowledge of the Gospel or they don’t feel ready. Alma 32 has always helped a lot and explaining the importance of prayer and the answer that they need. If you talk to him, Dad and read that chapter with him and share your testimony from your heart of how this is true, I know he will be baptized. I just feel he doesn’t feel exactly sure about it all yet but if you help him feel that way I know he will do it. Just what I think, will help him a lot. Well Mom, buy ya some spray and hike it with ya! Nah don’t worry about the bugs it will be fun! Well I don’t have much to share this week either but I love you guys and I’m so thankful that you guys prepared me like you did to get to where I’m at right now! love you all and miss you all! Elder Lowder