May 30th, 2011

I keep forgetting that Calgary is two hours behind PA. Despite it not really being that much different, it's interesting thinking how right now it is 11:30 in the morning rather than 1:30. It's just weird how day and night can be controlled by where you travel and that time is a man-made measurement to quantify the movement of the earth. And yet we still have the flaws in our system, hence leap years and daylight savings.

Sorry for the tangent. That was Gospel related right?

Calgary rain is tiny sprinkle compared to the monsoons out here. Because the weather last week was so rainy, we tried to do as little tracting as possible when it was thunderstorming. Most of the time the Lord protects us from the heaviness of it all (it's so cool to enter a building and suddenly see the rain start to pour once we are under the shelter of a roof) but one of the days, I decided to experience first-hand Pennsylvania rain. So I stubbornly refused an umbrella and walked in the rain. It's different than Calgary because it's warm. And it almost always rains just straight down. None of this sideways raining junk like up north. Needless to say I was soaked to the bone. I think I've had enough rain for now. Though the 90 degree weather is not much better. Since that's started happening, everyone has this ever-present film of goo always on their skin. It's really gross. I've never sweat so much in my whole life.

WHOA. Cool you guys are doing missionary work? Yay! I'm not the only Low missionary out here! It's too bad that guy didn't show up for the appointment, don't give up! After all, we invited probably ten of our investigators to Church this week, many of them assuring us they would attend (it didn't hurt to guilt them by sharing that we were speaking in sacrament meeting). But despite all of that effort, not one of our investigators showed. I was heartbroken! But I know Satan's working hard on anyone who gets close to hearing the message of the Restored Gospel.

Concerning my talk, I gave one on Enduring to the End and my companion gave one on prayer. Some interesting fruits came of that sacrament meeting, including this awesome definition of prayer in the Bible Dictionary: "

As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are his children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part. Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work, and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings." I don't know why I wanted to share that with you guys. It's just an aspect of prayer I had never thought about. Heavenly Father is just waiting to grant us blessings, we need only ask for them.

The work is going ight. Remember my "golden" investigator couple the Cl_______ from my first week here? I kind of felt like they were my baby. They were my idea. They were my first call. They were my first success. But after weeks of not seeing them because of schizophrenic weather, we finally got in contact and asked them what was happening. We pretty much went through the whole Restoration Lesson again with bits of the Plan of Salvation stuffed in. They agreed with everything. They even agreed with the parts of the afterlife which had previously proved too foreign for their liking. But when we invited them to church, they declined, insisting that although their church may not be the true one, they didn't think that God would turn them away from heaven for not becoming a Mormon. And just like that, my heart fell. The Cl_______ had officially dropped us, claiming that they didn't care to learn more. I don't know what I could've done to help them understand anymore. I look back now with a ton of alternate scenarios of what I could have done all ending with the same result. I guess this is what they mean by loving the people, even when they refuse to hear the message you've been sent to preach.

Additionally, we've had some weird experiences this week. And by weird I mean difficult. And by difficult I mean super stenuous to the degree that I just wanted to throw my hands up in the air sometimes singing AYO JUST WANNA LET GO. I experienced my first real basher(s). And although we're told not to engage with them, after the fourth time we ran into one IN A ROW, we had to tell what's up. But afterward, it really just all exploded into nothing. Even with all of the scriptures we tossed at each other "proving our doctrines" neither will budge and a spirit of contention was the only thing that remained among the carnage of the battle. Elder Zaleski told me that even after two years, it's hard not to keep battling with them. But what if there's just a golden investigator next door? What if this basher is Satan's way of delaying us from finding them? In D&C 4, the ultimate missionary section of the scriptures, it says in verse 5, "And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work." Does that mean if we are missing even one of these attributes, we're no longer qualified for the work of the Lord? Will He withdraw his Spirit from us, making us uninspired vessels of former representatives of Jesus Christ? It's kind of a scary thought. And it really just goes to show that contending with these bashers is so not worth it.

Elder Low

P.S. Keep me posted if the Bishop actually does end up serving a mission; that's so exciting!

P.P.S. I got the Easter package the week before last, is that what you're talking about? I haven't received the package with the music yet. I guess it kind of depends if you sent it to the mission home or not. If you did, they have to resend it to me. That'll take some time.

May 23, 2011

Ah, the official Chestermere “birds” sounds like they are out in full force. Sometimes I forget how much I hate Calgary in the summer, not only due to the mosquitoes but also the schizophrenic weather changes from day to day. But maybe I would even take those right now. Since I’ve been in Pennsylvania, it’s been nothing but rain and minute bursts of sunshine. But I know as soon as the 90+ weather will hit in a couple weeks, I am going to be complaining all over again. Maybe I need to live in a place with a constant climate, then I can accept the weather after about a year and hopefully be satisfied once and for all.

Well for some reason I’m still here. There have been billboards up in Pennsylvania for the last couple months, sharing of a “prophet” who predicted the end of the world to be May 21^st, 2011 at 6:00pm. Wait a second. That was two days ago. Shouldn’t the world be ended and stuff? The sickening thing about this scheme is that some people actually bought into it. Jobs were quit, money thrown away, and I’m just glad I wasn’t out on the street to see the chaos of the people. When will people understand that the Lord will come as a thief in the night? And that there are several prophecies that need to be fulfilled before that even begins to happen? You would think that that bust would have people flocking toward us to be baptized because of the supposed Armageddon, but actually it’s kind of the opposite. People have come up to us, demanding of what our prophet says concerning the end of the world, creating an even more stiffneckedness in the people of our area.

On Friday, actually a couple of girls started talking to US (this may not seem like a big deal, but most people avoid us at all costs), complimenting my sunglasses, and asking us to teach them. Not knowing anything about what religion we even shared about we set up an appointment and have taught them two lessons since then. They’ve committed to be baptized, though I’m still not sure how converted they are, as they didn’t show up to church yesterday. Elder Zaleski has shared a little bit of his wisdom concerning the subject as one lady he baptized actually asked him to marry her. Because of some of these girls’ comments, I’m just hoping that they’re into what we discussing and not into us.

This weekend has probably been one of the most stressful of my life. You may remember me talking about the baptism that we were going to have on Saturday. Reading that sentence over, it kind of sounds like it didn’t happen. But it did! Dakoda, our 9-year-old investigator was baptized at 6:00 on May 21^st. Kind of weird huh? But despite this joyous occasion of the first baptism I’ve been a part of, I would be surprised if the events leading up and following the service didn’t give me any grey hairs.

We attended our Zone Conference on Friday in State College, receiving excellent advice from both mission leader and general authority alike. And I think I got the most compliments on my tie I think I’ve ever gotten in my whole life. It’s purple. It’s like none of the other elders have ever seen a skinny (not really skinny though, I left all my really skinny ties at home) purple tie before. It was kind of weird. I got a chance just before I left to talk to President Summerhays and his wife. They kept expressing how happy they were that I was here and serving. I know that might not sound like much, but it felt really good to hear that I was needed. I felt like for the first time I’m in the right place at the right time.

This is what stressed me out. Dakoda asked me right after her baptism to confirm her on Sunday. I felt like I couldn’t say no, especially to her, but honestly I didn’t feel ready at all. I know that my words are supposed to be guided by the Spirit, but when I feel the Holy Ghost, it’s less of a voice and more of a feeling. How do I decipher a warm feeling into fluid speech? To say the least, Saturday night was sleepless and full of frantic prayer. To this day I still don’t know if I really was the one who should’ve given Dakoda’s confirmation, but as I sat down at the sacrament bench following the blessing, I looked back at Dakoda smiling sweetly, leaning under her mother’s arm. And catching her eyes full of tears, her mom mouthed the words “thank you” to me and I felt an overwhelming feeling of love toward them. Maybe it was all worth it after all.

Elder Low

May 16, 2011

Zone Conference is on Friday (which I am super stoked for) and that’s when I’ll receive the package you sent me a jillion years ago… yup. But I am also excited for the new package you’ll send! I thought being away from worldly music would gradually decrease those songs in my head and my desire to listen to them, but it may have actually increased that craving. Elder Zaleski says that I need to replace that craving with an alternative of uplifting music. For some reason I keep getting that “Dollar Bills” song by Wyclef Jean stuck in my head!

Phew, I’m glad I have your permission to buy a GPS. Hopefully that will be useful. I’m assuming it’s going to take me some time to actually work myself up to using that much money. But the time will come when it’s absolutely imperative to have.

Meal plan is going better I would think. I’ve discovered soup in a can! And I don’t even need a can opener! It’s freaking grand! But on a more serious note, I think I’m starting to get the idea of what to buy and what I’m not going to eat in a week. Maybe lettuce isn’t such a good thing to buy…

Wow. Thanks for that quote by President Hickley. It’s super spiritual and dope and stuff, but it’s kinda depressing. And it kind of contrasts the message we received in Stake Conference yesterday, which was predominantly about optimism. It was cool, because instead of heading to Altoona for instruction from Stake leaders, we received a broadcast from Salt Lake City to multiple stakes in Northeastern United States. It felt really cool having M. Russell Ballard, President Eyring, and a couple of other general authorities speak directly to us. Richard C. Edgley, the 1^st Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric told of interesting analogy that if we stumble along on temptations and the other bumps of life that we shouldn’t jump ship of the church. We have partaken of the fruit of the Tree of Life, so let us not be one of those who looked to the massive pointing finger of the world and felt shamed but let us continue on this journey upon our heavenward vessel. We know where we’re going, we know the sights we’ll see, we know our destination. M. Russel Ballard, I felt talked directly to me as a missionary, telling of how we are serving in the same area where the first leaders of this dispensation served while in the genesis of our latter-day church. And because we are in this last dispensation, there is much work to be done. Henry B. Eyring’s talk, though, was by far my favourite. He spoke of being a “wise optimist” and how the decision between seeing life in a positive or negative light each morning affects our attitude the rest of the day. It’s cool because our main investigator right now, Dakoda, who’s set to being baptized this Saturday had to leave in the middle of church, foiling our plans of teaching a quick lesson at the close of the broadcast. I was worrying the whole time thinking, “great, now we have to do some sort of blind finding in Bedford.” I’m not sure why I have such anxiety toward finding, but I dread it every time we set out to contact new people. But this talk really made me wonder if it was my attitude, not the activity, that was bringing me down. President Eyring said, “there will always be peaks and valleys, but the trend will continually be upward.”

I can honestly say that this week has been full of ups and downs. It’s been an interesting week where we’ve found some really unique people; take that as you will. We’ve found a lady who is profoundly interested in new scripture (I always rejoice when I find people without preconceived notions toward the Book of Mormon) and has agreed to be baptized, a man who’s been humbled to the comparisons of Job, losing his family, job and girlfriend in the past year, a young girl who feels completely oppressed by her parents, believing that she will never be happy unless she is emancipated, a guy with a relationship with God completely based off of dreams, and a crazy woman who understands the consequences of sin but completely disregards her feelings of guilt and encouraged us to “live life to the fullest.”

Oh, I advise anyone who has problems with someone believing that additional scripture is false to read 2 Nephi 29. It rang amazingly clear to me and shattered any fragment of disbelief in the Book of Mormon in my mind. It’s an awesome chapter to end all bashing!

Elder Low

P.S. Thanks so much for the weekly forecast! Keep sending it in that format, it tells me everything I need, including the centigrade translation of the frustrating Fahrenheit scale. It will help a lot in choosing my wardrobe of shirts and ties. You know, I have silk and polyester… THESE THINGS NEED TO BE DECIDED.

P.P.S. Keep reminding that sweet little Ashton of his Uncle Tanner! I don’t want him to cry when I greet him in two years!

May 9, 2011

I can’t even begin to imagine how one “mightily” prays for me in the mission field. How is it possible to pray for me every morning and evening without it becoming a rote recitation? Well however you guys do it, I think it’s working. Don’t let me be an afterthought in your prayers!

Well I guess it was necessary for NDP to (finally) get some support in order for the Liberals to simmer. I commend Harper for his power grab. Now maybe we can get some change going or something. Just kidding I know nothing about politics.

It’s so funny how sheltered I am from the world right now. I guess I now understand the meaning of the phrase “being in the world but not of world” but more to an extreme. I learned Bin Laden had been killed off the MSN homepage that popped up last week on the computer. Yeah so? That’s not gonna stop Al Quaeda. I think I could get used to this unworldly sheltering, it’s kind of nice over here in my bubble.

My companion’s family members all talked to him on the phone, some of them only being there via Skype. I guess I’m just wondering why Gavin and Megan couldn’t have done that. Not that I don’t miss talking to you guys, but it’s disappointing to know that I won’t get to talk to them now for another eight months.

For me, this week has been a hard one. We’ve experienced quite a lot of cancellations on our investigators’ parts, forcing the day to be an inevitable chunk of finding. Though a new technique was introduced to me by a brief third member to our companionship this week, named Elder Carlile. He told me about a denomination of tracting called “chumming” where we don’t knock at all, but leave Plan of Salvation pamphlets on the doors of an inspired street and then the next day we reap the fruit of whoever read and accepted the teachings in them. Apparently the technique is usually more successful, because out of a whole street, one lady asked us to come back. And she didn’t even read the pamphlet. She was interesting because she’s been a Bible scholar all her life, but unsatisfied with the churches she’s attended. In her description of the perfect she basically depicted our Church services and she was extremely interested the Book of Mormon, or maybe the history of it at least.

Recently, the default anthem of my mind has been “I’ll Go Where You Want Me To Go,” though I wonder how true to the lyrics of the song I actually am. Because with a discouraging week comes a lack of desire to listen to the Spirit, hindering missionary work. Usually the Lord, in those times, provides a miracle to strengthen my faith, but it hasn’t been so easy this week. A humbling experience was given to me as we visited a less-active brother and suggested to me 1 Corinthians 15:58, which is an unknown comforting ending to a chapter so inspired with modern doctrine. And Paul assures me, along with the Corinthians, that as long as we are “…stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding the work… [we’ll] know that [our] labour is not in vain in the Lord.” I really liked that, and it’s a scripture that I know can get me through some of these discouraging times on my mission.

In other news, I’ve discovered that every Bedford Elder that EVER occupied our derelict apartment bought a package of hot chocolate they never used. Free hot chocolate has never tasted so good as I pass out on an old mattress on the floor at my child-like curfew. I am a happy boy.

Elder Low

P.S. I was wondering if you could send me the weekly forecast for Bedford Pennsylvania in your letters. Despite the basking in my current Amish state, I do miss out on some necessary conveniences of technology. One of them being whether I need my raincoat.

P.P.S. On the topic of music last night, my companion has an album by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir that I wonder if you could send me. It’s called “Love Is Spoken Here” and it includes some well-arranged versions of Primary hymns with a fantastic orchestra accompaniment.

P.P.P.S. I know this really isn’t your concern, but for some reason I feel the need to ask your permission to buy a GPS with my non-mission funds. It would probably be around a hundred and thirty dollars but totally helpful in my coordination around Pennsylvania. I won’t get one yet, but as soon as I get a companion without one, I’ll really need it.

Hello Pittsburgh

Elder Low and his district from the MTC arrive in Pittsburgh and meet with President and Sister Summerhays.

May 2, 2011.

A little birdie named Derek told me that you’ve created a blog to put my emails on. Well. Um. That’s cool I suppose. I wish I had known that before. I think I would’ve censored my emails somewhat but I don’t think I put anything on there too personally incriminating.

Yeah I hope you can forgive me for the gargantuan letter I wrote to you guys last week. I had a lot to say. This week’s will probably be a little shorter. But that’s not to say you should shorten your letters. I love reading what’s up at home. And that Word Document idea of writing down something throughout the week you want to tell me is grand. Hopefully that will make your letters a little longer. Wooo

In fact I did meet Elder Shipp for a couple moments when I first got to Pittsburgh. It was a little awkward. Not with Elder Shipp but that whole mission transfer meeting thingy. Elder Shipp was the first of a jillion elders to shake my hand as I proceeded to the chapel where the meeting was being held. We were slowly transferred through a narrow hallway in the church with both sides lined with Pittsburgh elders. Not that they weren’t friendly, but that it felt forced. Elders on either side wanting to shake my hand and quickly pass me to the subsequent missionary. It was weird.

That’s terrible about Grandma’s eyes. Make sure to tell her I’ll be praying for her as well. And that’s wonderful about Ashton’s first tooth! I’m so excited to see pictures! I would send you some pictures as well, but to be honest (and this surprises myself as well) I’ve taken a grand total of like, ten pictures since I’ve been out in Pittsburgh. I don’t think I even have one of me and Elder Zaleski together yet. I took some two-hundred pictures at the MTC which I could send to you I suppose, but I don’t want to do that right now.

I can’t even imagine not having any investigators. People keep telling me that the amount of people we’re teaching is very unusual because they’re usually not as successful in this area. I may or may not have already told you that Elder Zaleski and the elder here before me had only like, two investigators before I came in. I think that the Lord has blessed me with people to teach here in my first area because he wants to hype me up for when times are slow and I won’t be teaching as many people. My least favourite time of the day is when we have to OYM. Talking to people on the streets is always uncomfortable for me because I know that they’re out there walking because they want to go somewhere. I don’t like being the interference in that mindset. Rarely do we get much success from it because I think people are less willing to listen to us when we disturb what they’re doing at the time.

As for the work I’m doing, I’m pretty sure it’s going better. I’m becoming more confident in tracting (which I never thought I would get the hang of). The trick is to treat them as an individual. To look around their house and pick something that interests you and talk to them about it, joke with them if you can, that gets them to open right up. The D___s (of whom I told you we’re baptizing two of their girls in a couple weeks) came to church yesterday so they’re right on schedule. We’re also teaching a big guy by the name of Jeff who until the third lesson seemed kind of apathetic to our teachings, but since our “likening” of the Book of Mormon to himself, I think he’s starting to see the importance of it all. Hopefully he’ll be coming to church next week. The golden C_____s I told you about last week are a little less golden and little more stubborn. They accept a lot of things we teach them but refuse to believe that we have the fullness of Gospel. Lately we’ve really been trying to back up our claims with scriptures from the Bible, which is a real struggle for me, as I am not as familiar as these people who have been studying it all their lives. They just don’t seem to understand that if they pray and receive an answer they will know the truth of all things. On the contrary, the Roman Catholic guy I told you about, Paul, is progressing immensely. Everything we seem to teach him makes complete sense and he keeps wondering what he has to do to be baptized. It’s amazing that he’s come to the knowledge that we are the only Church that has that authority because many people can’t believe that. Despite him being baptized twice before in his life in different religions, Paul has committed to being baptized on May 28^th! I love going over to teach him. Just two days ago he confided in us that he had been praying to God asking Him to reveal what he needs to do to follow Him more closely. The very next day we came over to his porch and started talking with Paul. He said that we were like two angels like from Biblical times to come and bring him the truth. I’ve always heard stories like that happen to missionaries but I never thought that it would happen to me so quickly. Seriously, miracles happen everyday here on my mission.

Honestly, I think that this is because of my companion. It wasn’t until I went on an exchange with another elder this week that I’ve really seen how humble and exceptional of a missionary Elder Zaleski is. He recently gave me a talk or a letter or something written by a stake president about purifying yourself on your mission. The process sounds really intense and I’m kind of in the midst of doing that right now. For forty days you’re supposed to fast from the things that hinder you from being a perfect missionary, so I wrote down those items and keep them close so I know what I need to improve on. Items like, counting down the days ‘til the end of my mission or judging people who reject our message or speaking sarcastically to my companion or thinking of worldly music that doesn’t coincide with the Spirit. The talk/letter promises that I will have the Spirit constantly with me and I will be a great missionary. D&C 121:45-46 really poked out at me in a different way this week regarding this. It says, “…let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly, THEN shall your confidence wax strong in the presence of the Lord… The Holy Ghost will be your constant companion…” It’s going to be weird coming home.

OK OK OK. Questions. Sorry for my ranting once again. I can pay my VISA online. It’s sorta sketchy since I don’t like doing it on public computers but I guess it will have to do. I never got the package that you sent… so maybe you want to follow up with that or something. I would love it if you could send me some music or talks. The rules on music have just changed in our mission to a “good, better, and best” format. If you could, I would love some cd’s of talks by President Monson, President Uchtdorf, or Elder Holland (some of my favourite speakers) or even talks in general. Also hymnal music, not just Tab Choir but maybe some orchestrated contemporary versions as well. I would love anything by Enya, Agætus Byrjun by Sigur Rós (or anything by them really), or any classical music would be appreciated as well (I’m sure Dallin could help out with that.) I’ll be calling for Mother’s Day around five or six o’clock (Pittsburgh time) on Sunday, but I’ll only be able to talk for an hour tops. So hopefully that works for you guys. Some members offered to let us use skype, but I don’t think they’ll want us over for Mother’s Day, so I think I better just call this time.

Talk to you on sundaaaaaaay.

Elder Low

P.S. The members have been feeding us regularly. Usually we get about two or three appointments a week because the Branch isn’t that big. Cooking is kind of a gong show. I made spaghetti for the first time in my life (by myself) and it was pretty good despite burning some of the noodles. But cereal is always a good substitute.

P.P.S. I feel as if your guys’ menus that you sent along with me are optimistic regarding my funds. We have about thirty dollars to spend a week which really isn’t enough for fruit or vegetables at every meal.