Monday June 20th, 2011

A word to my Dad as I couldn't talk to him yesterday on Father's Day. Thank you so much for everything that you do and for all the counsel and good examples you've shown me growing up. The theme for our branch's talks this month is how the roles of parents influence their children. On my mission, I see how easily that equilibrium of peace can be disrupted in a family if the parents do not set a good example. Seeing the destruction of families that the world causes here among nonmembers makes me realize how good I had it growing up. I, like Nephi, have also been born of goodly parents. Yesterday I pondered all through sacrament meeting on those small and simple things that you and Mom did to keep us continually observant of God and His influence. From Family Home Evening, to family dinners, from serving in callings to sending us on missions. All of that has given me a great example for what I want in my family in the future. We had dinner at member's house yesterday and to our surprise it turned out to be a reunion of the Frankenberry family, who's posterity of 9 children literally make up half of our branch. Seeing their joy in each other's company right down the family baseball game they started up, really tugged at my heart for the longing of my own family, probably one of the first times I've truly been weighed down from the absence of you all.

So if you scrape away all of the excessive typing in that last paragraph, it says I love you.

Our main focus this week has dramatically shifted, making it feel like one of the most rewarding weeks of my life. I'm not sure if I mentioned them before, but for a while now we've been trying to get a hold of a family that lives just down the street from us, as the mother (who's name is Amie) had expressed a strong interest in our Church because of our emphasis on families. When the supposed "doom's day" came around on May 21st, Amie said that although she didn't believe its validity, it got her scared. What would happen to her family if they were to all suddenly die? We then showed up. Through her experience with other churches however, she was a little stand-offish at first, entertaining us to be nice, but being told never to listen to the Mormons. As we persisted, she and her husband Leo gave in, a little curious about our message. The first night we taught them (Monday) we somehow got through both the lessons of The Restoration and The Plan of Salvation in answer to their many questions. Ever since then, we've been over to their house 4 times in the last week, teaching them doctrines about the Church that they're feeling comfortable about. It's amazing how prepared they were by the Lord as they've expressed their desires to be baptized on July the 16th, subsequently Amie has become kind of like my Mom away from my Mom. It's times like these that really make my mission feel completely worth it.

It's coming down to a lot of lasts for me and my companion. Elder Zaleski leaves for California in mid July and we just attended our last training conference together with our current Mission President. President Summerhays leaves on June 27th, so he desired to share his testimony with all the missionaries before then. His final testimony included a powerful retelling of the Prophet Joseph Smith's last week on Earth before his martyrdom. Helping us empathize with the trapped feeling of the brethren in Carthage Jail, in the middle of his testimony, our Mission President took the role of Elder John Taylor and began to sing all the verses of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief." It's spirit-filled power only rivalled by the testimony of my own companion in that meeting. Because this was Elder Zaleski's last training meeting, he was asked to share his testimony. He stood there for a couple of seconds, looking into the souls of the congregation and composed himself because he immediately started to weep. I've only seen him cry once before and that was when we were with a couple of falling investigators and he said that the reason he was out on his mission was to bring families so that they can be sealed for eternity. This last testimony of his was equally, if not more powerful as he expressed the worth of his mission. In his breaking voice and quivering lip, he bore the strongest testimony I've ever heard to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and this Church, committing us and God Himself as witnesses. Just by looking at him shine, you knew that he knew.

God be with you 'til we meet again,

Elder Low

P.S. Happy belated Birthday from Bedford, Gavin! I hope you're still enjoying your time out in Vancouver!

P.P.S. I didn't know that Grandma & Grandpa liked reading my letters! That's super cool! Do they ever have comments/wisdom to share with me when you read them off?

P.P.P.S. lololol I don't know any David Novak, but I'm fairly certain that he's in the same league as Chandler. Sparrow's planning on serving a mission.

P.P.P.P.S. (shutter) I can only imagine what Derek's peach-fuzz moustache looks like.

Monday June 13th, 2011

I guess I should apologize about the negativity of my last letter? Unfortunately that’s just mission life. This week has probably been one of the most trying weeks of my mission, possibly even harder than the last one. I literally stopped writing in my journal for like a week because I didn’t want to look back in years to come and just read my pathetic complaints. Before Saturday, we had appointments with every one of our investigators only to discover that one by one, they all cancelled. It was just one of those weeks. So many times as I walked away from a house where we were supposedly going to have an enthralling discussion about the Restored Gospel did I just want to break down and pound the pavement in frustration with the rudeness of people. As I see it, people we find think that we’re a couple of indoctrinated boys, hunting vulnerable prey for religious statistics. They then place us at the bottom of their To-Do list, when in reality this may just be the most important thing happening in their lives. So what if you have a recreational plans? So what if you’re feeling sick? So what if you’re having family troubles? Are these not times for our amazing message?

It wasn’t until we really started to change our tactics on Saturday that we really started to teach a lot more and frankly, a lot better. We had planned to teach a young family about 20 miles north of Bedford near New Paris, PA. But worried about the solidity of the appointment to travel so far, we prayed to Heavenly Father whether this was indeed what we needed to do. My companion got a prompting to go to Rainsburg instead. Now this was quite the test of faith; to completely chuck our entire day’s plan to follow the Spirit to a place where we had nothing set up. We decided to heed the prompting and in so doing, we were able to teach a couple of our investigators down there. And although some of our investigators weren’t impressed with the spontaneity of our visits, I think that we made some perceptible progress, truly following-up with their innate potential prepared by the Lord. Elder Zaleski’s vision of converting the entire borough of Rainsburg is starting to become a reality as we take down those religious barriers one at a time.

I know that my faith is definitely susceptible to wavering and it’s something I’m really working on, but I’ve been pondering the idea of faith for a while now. As often as permits, my companion and I listen to entries from Wilford Woodruff’s mission journal in the car and it’s amazing the things that happened to him on his mission. He went forth from household to household preaching for an hour and then baptizing multitudes right afterward. How did he do it? (I’m going to wave the requirement of having the investigator attend church three times and assume that all of his converts stayed active) But how did he, a convert of like, a year, have the faith to trudge through swamps, lay siege to apostates and stare death in the face while baptizing congregations? Why is my faith so weak? I was thinking the other day how the faith we have as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is kind of helped along. Because we have the companionship of the Holy Ghost and we feel it’s testifying, are we still walking by faith? It’s almost a result of faith. After all, in our testimony meetings we say that we know that the Church is true rather than we believe it is. Once one feels that witness and continues to feel it, how can one doubt?

Anyways, I feel like I haven’t really addressed any of the letter you sent me. The Low household sounds like it’s doing great. And I can only offer my wishes of being there to experience these times with you. I wish my friends all the best as I can’t respond to everyone’s letters with the length that I wish I could.

Elder Low

P.S. Calm your storm, Mother. You need not tear the house apart just yet. I got my package. It was one of the highlights of my day. I finally felt the pain/eagerness of seeing that “We Missed You” sign on my door from the UPS man. My companion was quite awestruck from the amount of music you sent.

P.P.S. For the first time in my life I saw fireflies. It was awesome.

P.P.P.S. Which investigators did you have in your Sunday School class Mom? Just being a missionary out here, makes me really curious about the work back in Chestermere.

P.P.P.P.S. Dad, thank you so much for your experiences in the Church. They always uplift and inspire me. I think that despite my thick-headedness, I’m starting to grasp the concept that the words of a Priesthood blessing are not as important as the worthiness of the one giving and the faith of the one receiving.

Well. I survived my first transfer. Go me.

And doesn’t Vancouver just sound lovely for all of you. I, too, would love to have a condo overlooking the beach, watching dolphins and stuff in the tranquil atmosphere of British Columbia but it seems that I am destined to roast in this Pennsylvania wilderness. But fo real, this week hasn’t really been that bad. I finally broke down and bought a couple short sleeve shirts. When it’s me versus 100 degree humidity, I know when it’s time to wave the white flag.

I’ve been learning how the mission process works and it’s quite interesting. In a perfect world, these two years that I have on my mission are supposed to be the only two years I have off from finding people to teach. That’s the member’s job. The missionary’s job is to teach those people the members find. Doesn’t that sound completely crazy and backward? Man, do I feel like a toaster for not doing my part before my mission. I definitely know that I’ll be working harder at that when I get home now that I know how hard missionaries have it.

Following up is key. Once we scheduled an appointment with a lady the morning of, and when we went over that afternoon, she wasn’t there. Wait what. Sometimes I feel like the people that we find and schedule appointments with have to be the flakiest people of all time. I JUST CALLED YOU LIKE YESTERDAY, HOW DID YOU ALREADY FORGET OUR APPOINTMENT?!?!?!1!

(pant pant pant)

Sorry about the freak-out apparent in those last two paragraphs, it’s been a hard week. For pretty much 3 days straight we went through fully planned days, not seeing one of the people we had scheduled for. I don’t understand. What is the Lord trying to teach me here? Maybe I’m becoming too prideful? Relying on my own intellect rather than the Spirit of the Lord? I have no idea. Those words in the Primary Song are becoming all so true on my mission,

“Heavenly Father,

are you really there?

And do you hear and answer every child’s prayer?”

It’s crazy to think that Heavenly Father can hear the millions of cries from his children every second of the day and somehow find time to answer them. But it’s weeks like these that make me feel like one of those insignificant beings swept under the rug, like I’m doing something wrong. Even my faith in my investigators is shaken as they tell me they “haven’t gotten an answer.” I’ve pondered quite a bit lately at what point should they expect to be answered by the Holy Ghost. Right away? When they come to Church? When we’ve taught them the first three full lessons? One of my Zone Leaders shed a little light on the subject when he interviewed me last Wednesday. He said that because my companion and I prayed about the baptismal date we challenged our investigators with, Heavenly Father will answer them before that date. His answers aren’t dependant on our schedule or when it’s convenient for us, but they come subtly, through a still small feeling. His timeline is more perfect than ours will ever be. And as long as we haven’t compacted layers of pillows over our ears with sin and pride, we’ll be able to perceive that answer. For the song promises,

“Pray. He is there.

Speak. He is listening.”

Elder Low

P.S. You sent my package to the wrong address? :S noooooooo…

P.P.S. Someone tell me about the new Fleet Foxes album!

P.P.P.S. It was wonderful hearing from Gavin, Megan and Dad at the end of the letter! You guys better write me, I love hearing from you!