Picture 1 – My grandson Elder Gale, my son Elder Spohn, and I.

Monday April 9th, 2012

Sometimes it feels counter-productive with the amount of traveling and
administrative work we have to do. In this past week alone, we
traveled up to Clearfield to exchange with the Ridgway Elders, back to
St Mary’s to exchange back, up to State College for a couple baptismal
interviews, and then out to Pittsburgh for Zone Leader Council. It’s
amazing that we saw the success we did for I feel pretty restrained
from what the area could look like compared to the effort that it’s
getting now. It’s like I feel rusty and lazy, yet I still feel as
tired as ever.

Our investigators are surely making slow and steady progress, but I
think the real success that Elder Kovacs and I have seen working here
in Altoona is the strengthening of the members who may not be
completely less-active but who are bordering on being burnt out in an
area that is constantly descending into one of apathy and despair. The
families we’re working with are truly feeling the Spirit and making
efforts to come unto Christ and although I have yet to see a baptism
in this area, I remember that the worth of every soul, member or
nonmember is great in the sight of God.

I’ve never really felt like I could find solace in prayer before my
mission, but when you’re far from home, away from family and friends,
and thrust into situations that seem unbearable alone, kneeling
becomes a comfortable and familiar position. I’ve learned more about
our Savior and His plan for us more in these last 12 months than I
have in my 20 years before my mission. The beautiful and certainly
un-Canadian blossoms that have started to ripen and fall, only to be
replaced with the young leaflets, have really brought a tangible
reality to the wonderful renewing of the Easter season. And this past
weekend certainly left an impact on my life as it has jettisoned any
trace of doubt or indifference concerning the Atonement and replaced
it with deep appreciation and personal reflection.

Some may think of hope as an uncertain concept, a false and naive
security for something that is doomed to be harshly half-empty. But
hope is as real and reliable as the One who brings it. I know that I
have received grace and comfort only when I’ve relied on the Savior
Jesus Christ; because in Him, all things are possible. No one is
doomed. No one is forsaken. The comforting thing about reflecting on
the Savior’s spiraling last days is that because Jesus walked such a
long, lonely path, we do not have to do so. May we all find solace in
the reassuring words of the angel on that first Easter morning, “He is
not here, for He is risen.” (Matthew 28:6)

Elder Low

Monday March 26th, 2012

Looks like Dad was correct in his prophecy that I would be staying in
Altoona for another transfer. I was a little irked at his assurance
that I wouldn’t be moving because truth be told, this has been one of
the hardest areas I’ve ever had. I thought that it would be good for
me to move. But alas, the Lord apparently has more in store for me in
Altoona. I’ll be serving here for at least another 5 weeks, including
the time that I’ll be hitting my year mark (on the 30th). When you ask
a missionary if the time he’s been out has felt long, he’ll probably
give you a very vague answer that is completely true: At the time it
felt like it was taking forever, but in hindsight, it’s gone by so
fast. The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. It’s kind
of scary to think that half of my mission is done and that I’ll be on
the downward ride soon; and we all know what happens when you surpass
the peak and start the descent – you start to pick up speed. A mission
is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer you get to the end, the
faster it goes.

That being said, the longer I stay in this area, the more that I
realize I need to rely on the Lord for success. Since we know that the
Lord cannot work through a disobedient tool, Elder Kovacs and I have
decided to “purify” ourselves. It’s a long and strenuous process of
purging even your most deepest desires and rinsing your very soul. It
begins with a day of fasting. In the attitude of that fast, we are to
write down every impure practice or thought that may poke at our
Spirit. The little things that cause you any disobedience or any
unworthiness hinder the Holy Ghost from being your constant companion.
After writing those things down that you may struggle with, you
covenant with the Lord that you will fast from those things for 40
days. The temptation to do those things and slip up will be great, but
sometime between the 30th and 40th day, you’ll find that your desires
have changed from one who merely goes through the motions to one who
incessantly has an eye single to the glory of God (Helaman 3:35). I’m
hoping that that purification will bring much success to my future
endeavors, for I only have a year left!

However, I’ve already seen fruits coming of our obedience and
submission to the Lord. The investigator I was so excited about last
week (who is now through Jarom) asked us a load of questions for the
whole hour we were there. And the good thing about these questions was
that they were all asked from his perspective of a future member of
the Church. I’ve never seen him with a desire like that before. We’re
planning on taking him on a tour of the Church Saturday morning and
then watching 2 of the Saturday sessions of General Conference with
us! We’ve also been receiving referrals like crazy! A couple of them
extremely solid and I am so excited to teach them! One of them is the
wife of probably one of the most solid converts ever. He (I will in
the future refer to him as Allen) joined the Church about 4 years ago
because of his conversion the Book of Mormon without even coming in
contact with the Church but his wife never joined with him. However
she has been an active nonmember for 3 years now and is proud to call
herself a “dry Mormon.” Through a nerve-wracking and nail-biting
lesson of heartfelt testimonies, she agreed to take the lessons.
Although with how much she attends and participates in Sunday School
and Relief Society, I have a feeling she could probably teach us the
lessons better than we could teach her! Nevertheless, I am excited to
see her progress!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Low

Monday March 19th, 2012

It’s been quite the week. I have literally been all over the place and seen many miracles wherever I was. I told you last week that later on that Monday we would be challenging one Young Women’s boyfriend to be taught by way of a challenge at basketball. Unfortunately, the competition didn’t last long when Elder Kovacs jumped and landed badly on his ankle. It immediately started swelling and literally looked like someone had shoved a water balloon under his skin. We subsequently wasted the rest of our day waiting in a walk-in clinic, where the doctor there diagnosed his injury as a strain on the ligaments in his ankle. Though he was cautioned to stay off of it for three days and walk only out of dire need on crutches, we spent only the next day in our apartment when Elder Kovacs deemed it boring and we went out and worked. It gave me some time to catch up on a few letters but it was weird staying inside on such a nice day. Although we cancelled an exchange with the Ridgway District Leader due to his unfortunate circumstances, Elder Kovacs felt we could still conduct the second exchange we had planned that week with the Brookville Elders. 

Since Wednesday morning, I have hardly been home. I traveled up to Brookville to work with one of the Elders up there, only to find it very reminiscent of my Hershey days where we were destitute of a car. But the weather was beautiful and we walked around a lot, finding (to this Elder’s surprise) many people to follow-up on with the gospel. While we were finding the prepared in heart in Brookville, Elder Kovacs and this other Elder’s companion were able to pick up a new investigator of their own in Altoona. I know the Lord is blessing us whenever we are being obedient, no matter where we are.

 I was only back in my own area for a little while, but during that window of time, we had a set appointment with an investigator I’m really excited about. A couple of weeks ago I emailed and told you about a man that we tracted into who reluctantly let us in and we taught a first discussion. Since that time, we’ve had one appointment with him where he had read the Book of Mormon we left with him up to 2 Nephi 5! And his questions were awesome! Unfortunately since that time, he said he wouldn’t be available until 2 weeks later. And that takes us to Friday. Worried that he might have forgotten our appointment in those two weeks, we arrived with little faith. To my surprise, he was there, having continued his reading in 2 Nephi and skipping to the chapters in 3 Nephi, because he wanted to read about Jesus’ ministry on the Americas. Since we advised him to only research the Church on mormon.org, he again had awesome and unbiased questions that led us directly into the Plan of Salvation. He absolutely loved the fresh and logical look at God’s plan for us and told us he was beginning to understand and know the things we were telling him to be true. I am amazed at how prepared he is, the Spirit of the Lord is truly working on his desire to believe.

 However shortly following that appointment in Hollidaysburg, I was made aware of a situation that happened in Bedford where I had to go on an emergency exchange down there for the entire weekend (that’s actually where I’m emailing from). It’s been a lot of fun serving with Elder Garner here again, looking up my old investigators (of which, there are two that really want us to come back, namely Paul!), and rekindling my love for the branch and the area. Many of the branch members remembered me and I had a lot of fun participating in the program at Church last minute as well as having dinner at some of the members’ homes that I got really close with.

 I know this stream-of-consciousness letter probably wasn’t the most interesting or coherent read you’ve come across but know that this week has been a great one for the work. It’s those little faith-originating day-to-day miracles that help me have hope. I know that miracles don’t convert, neither does proof nor logic; but to strengthen our testimonies, the Holy Ghost reaffirms our faith when we are truly seeking. I’m so grateful for a loving God who showers tender mercies on us everyday. It’s just up to us to open our eyes in faith and see them.

Elder Low

Monday March 5th, 2012 Monday March 5th, 2012

I wonder how accurate Nephi’s observation of his people living “after
the manner of happiness” really was. He was a little biased in his
writing, ripping on the wickedness of his brothers and emphasizing the
results of obedience in his own life. Don’t get me wrong, I love
Nephi, he was a great record keeper. And he certainly had a testimony
of the gospel and how wickedness truly never was happiness. I am
amazed to see how their manner of happiness continued to occur while
the cursed descendants of his brothers and their desire to destroy the
Nephites loomed not too far away. But Nephi’s view was an optimistic
one and while they had their trials and annoyances at restarting their
civilization in the wilderness away from Laman and his crony Lemuel,
they chose to focus on the good and not the bad. Similarly, I should
do so when the adversary beats upon me.

On that note, I don’t know if I ever told you about the ward that I’m
currently in. The Altoona Ward is made up of a lot of older people. A
lot of them are long-time converts of the era when people actually
became converted when the truth came knocking at their door. Elder
Kovacs says the ward will die off in 10 years (:P) and Central
Pennsylvanian Mormon conservatism is not a perfect magnet for
outsiders. It’s a hard ward for missionary work, but I’ve come to love
it a lot. I was sitting in fast and testimony meeting yesterday with
the biggest smile on, knowing that I have truly become accustomed to
the antics of the members here. Instead of seeing the negatives which
could detract from a comfortable first impression, I see members who
love the gospel and are so tightly knit that the adversary would have
a hard time penetrating the unshakeable testimonies shared in that
meeting. I’ve come to love the erratic organ playing that follows its
own tempo and key signature. I’ve come to love the doctrinally
questioning opinions of some of the seasoned members. The members here
practice their religion far from the supposed celestial light of Salt
Lake City the best way they know how and it is as spiritually
uplifting as any meeting in the west.

We’ve come to really know the families that we serve and increase the
relationship from member and missionary to friends. In light of it
being Elder Kovacs’ birthday yesterday, numerous experiences helped us
feel their love for us as their missionaries. The Durgin family had us
over for dinner yesterday while their 8-year-old daughter asked us to
speak at her baptism. The Smith family actually sabotaged our car with
streamers and balloons. The Cooks baked a cake and left it on the
table on the way into the chapel. The Nebelskis protested to sing
happy birthday after Sunday School. One of the major points our
mission president has tried to make while telling us that we’ll be
staying in areas for longer is an increased unity between the
missionaries and the ward. If anything, we’re accomplishing that step
by step. And hopefully that kind of love will draw any investigator to
it.

Hope you all are having a good week!
Elder Low

Monday February 27th, 2012 Monday February 27th, 2012

Leap years also mean one extra day on the mission... just saying. I will leave that sentence destitute of an emoticon so you can take that as you will.

Yeah no, but this week has been interesting. I’m getting more and more acquainted with my companion’s favourite proverb of “tracting never faileth.”I’m getting a little sick of appointments with eternal investigators falling through. Since the beginning of my time here in Altoona, we’ve really struggled with finding new investigators, that’s why we continued to go back and pursue the ones that have been taught for so long and are making slow, if any, progress. It’s pretty hard when we enter ward council and the Bishop flies through the names we present because he and the auxiliary leaders have no faith in these people we continue to teach. Come on, it’s not like they’re blowing off our appointments everytime - OH WAIT. So I guess I can’t say that I blame them, as really the commitment keeping has been sparse with all of them. My faith has severely been tried this week as it seemed even our ward mission leader wanted to give up. Fortunately, I have an optimistic companion who loves to tract. And during our finding time on Saturday, we found more potentials than I have in like, the entire time I’ve been in Altoona. One man, after opening the door and recognizing our aura as Mormon missionaries, began to list reasons why he wasn’t really interested in talking with us. However after continuing to persist and asking some, what I believe to be, inspired questions provided by the Holy Ghost, he submitted to letting us in right off the doorstep and we proceeded to have a 45 minute conversation of answering his questions. We have a return appointment with him this Saturday. :)

The Lord knows my limits. And if it weren’t for those people we found through tracting on Saturday, I think I would have been completely overwhelmed by the subsequent disheartening experiences of dropping almost every single investigator we had previously acquired. While shaking my fists at the heavens when one of our most promising investigators discovered anti on the internets, I am always reminded in gospel-y ways that the Lord’s ways are not my ways and that everyone has agency. I was falcon punched at Church the next day as we discussed Elder Quentin L. Cook’s recent conference talk, “The Songs they did not Sing” because I was quietly prompted to internalize the fruits of those inspired words. As members of the Church, it’s easy for us to answer the question “why do bad things happen to good people” by rehearsing the well-known story of Job and the classic answer to Joseph Smith that it will be for our good, but the truth of it is that until we’re put in that situation, we do not understand the crushing feelings of seemingly unjust perils. Too often when these things happen do we dwell on the Book of Mormon theme of how if we keep the commandments, we will prosper in the land, feeling like we must have been unworthy to have the Lord withhold such substantial blessings. But our view of this “three act” life is so narrow. We are like actors that have walked into the middle of Act 2, many things may not make sense and problems might seem unfair but we need only realize that happily ever after comes not until Act 3. The Savior taught that “[God] maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45) But like I said, it’s pointless explaining this to someone who feels like life is too unfair to be ruled by a loving God. But it wasn’t until I discovered this truth by myself that I learned, especially in light of my recent missionary work, that eternal truth of a just and loving God; and that is that sometimes bad things happen to good people, but that doesn’t mean He doesn’t care.

-Elder Low

Tuesday February 21, 2012

It really was a happy President’s Day yesterday as the sun came out and Elder Kovacs and I wandered around Hollidaysburg in shorts and wielding tennis rackets, searching for a place to play. But I truly have no idea what I’m supposed to do on President’s Day. Is that the day that we… remember… Presidents? Is it somebody’s birthday? American holidays are so strange to me. That’s cool that you guys had a Hawaii party; ever since you mentioned a possibility of a vacation to Hawaii last week, I’ve been dreaming about the fun we would have and what we would bring and who would come etc. etc. It didn’t help that we discovered that a couple in our ward run a hypnotism business and after our dinner appointment with them, the husband lulled us into a state of relaxation on our own private beach. However, like you, Mom, pretending will never be able to replicate the true warmth of that place, and realizing that makes me quite the sad panda. All in all I’ve felt pretty trunky this week… BUT the work is still pressing forward! We’ve had a lot of cool success this week, particularly with the members.

Members, generally speaking, don’t really get missionary work (and I’m not trying to sound preachy, I definitely didn’t before my mission). In a desperate attempt to satisfy the post-dinner appointment plea of a referral, members may spout off the address of some random friend that the missionaries can go knock blindly. The most solid member referrals, in Pennsylvania anyways, seem to be the ones where the investigator refers themself and the member need only be the connection to the missionaries. Not that I’m complaining or anything, as we just received a referral like that this week. One of the less-active ladies in our ward has a nurse who is searching for the correct church, and impressed with the lady’s surety of the validity of the Book of Mormon, she started to ask questions and attend church activities. Elder Kovacs and I were able to meet her and subsequently call her for an appointment this Sunday. I’m so grateful when people are prepared by the Lord like that. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing!

Elder Low