Feliz Navidad!

Okay, today has been the best, happiest day of my entire life!

so i have been receiving packages and letters through out the last week but my comp told me that we couldn't open them until today(pday) so last night was like Christmas eve! I am seriously so so so so so so so blessed. 

Steph Bauman sent me a T-Bird gymnastics shirt which im super stoked about. I got a Christmas card from my favorite teacher Mrs. Trudy Benson, I got a  package from The 7 Brides house, Grandma Lowry sent me so much homemade candy and fudge, I got a cute little mason jar mug from tiffy and doug, and grandma sandy sent me so much stuff!! She is amazing. She sent me like everything i need right now! An umbrella, alarm clock, gloves(because its getting chilly), toothpaste, and nail kit, jewelry, clothes, and a ton of candy!!! she is a saint. My family of course sent me a package and letters too. Me and my comp actually needed a 2015 calender and they sent my Jesus calendar that is so perfect!! and a journal, candy of course, toms, and loni sent me some church cds!! It has literally been the best Christmas i have ever had. I cried when i read the letter from my dad and brady. 

I got so much stuff but its funny because the only thing i asked for was pictures of my family and its the only thing i didn't get ha.. oh well. 

I sent Christmas cards out to y'all so i hope you get them soon. Btw, does anybody have Steph's email for me?? And Gia Allred\

so this past week has been pretty awesome for spiritual mission stuff too. there are these two girls in our ward who are 16 and 17 and they want to serve missions so we took them out contacting and they loved it!! they said it was so much fun. ha but it was a good contacting day, its always really easy around this time of year because its Christmas! and the spirit of Christ is around, and all were doing is inviting people to watch the He is the Gift video. I've done it so many times, its like the only thing i know how to say in Spanish now. "Podriamos compartir una trajeta con ustedes? Es un video en YouTube y es sobre como Jesucristo fue el primer regalo de dios para nosotros."

My Spanish is coming slowly but surely. I still have a really bad white person accent which is annoying. im building really good relationships with the members right now. they are all so nice and loving! But they feed you so much food. Like even when you are so full, you still have to eat more. So if it looks like im getting fat in my pictures, i am. I have never ate so much in my life! I wish we had more time to work out in the morning. 

So we had our mission Christmas party last Friday. our whole mission was there, all 280 missionaries we have. it was huge! but so amazing of course. because my president and his wife are so amazing! I promise that President Mortensen will be and apostle one day because he is so powerful. we sang Christmas songs, watched the nativity story, ate of course, American food! i was so happy. you get over Hispanic food real fast. Oh yeah Dad guess what? I met two wrestlers at this party for my mission. Elder French, from Cedar High, walked up to me and said Hi sister Lowry! and we talked. I had no clue he was in my mission! hes been out 9 months and is English speaking though. And then this other elder came up to me from Hurricane, and he was like, Hey do you remember me?? and i was like haha noooo. I think hes name is elder hill, he was heavy weight. He told me he remembered me because i always hung out with the hurricane kids! ha awkward. but anyways, it was a fun time, 

we have two new golden investigators that are ready and excited to learn about the gospel. Norma, and Ronaldo and his wife Elaine. We don't have any baptismal dates yet but by next week, we will! 

time is still going by pretty slow. i just want to know more of the language already! but patience is a blessing i don't possess yet i guess. ha 

i really do appreciate all your guys prayers. they really do help. i am actually kinda sick right now, im pretty sure im getting strep throat like i do every year:/ but i really don't want to go to the doctors so pray for me to get better soon please! like my dad would say, "I don't have time to be sick!!"

prepare yourselves for a lot of pictures coming up! loni is going to kill me ha.

i love you all so much and i hope you can remember the reason for the season and watch He is the Gift together as families or read the Nativity story or something! keep Christ in Christmas!! he never forgets us, so don't forget him. My sister sent me an amazing talk by elder holland about the attonement. it really helped me to realize that missionary work and life is not easy, because salvation was not easy for Him. 

tengo un testimonio sobre la expiacion. yo se que Dios nos ama y nos da nuestro salvador. y por media de Jesucristo todas las cosas son posible. estoy agradecida por el poder de oracion. y yo se que este evangelio es vedadero.

Sunny and 75

Okay so I felt bad that last week I didnt have a lot of time so I didnt get to say much about the field but I will today.

So Houston. Its super great here. It doesnt get cold so thats nice. I like havent wore a jacket since Ive been here. Our area is called Bear Creek. Its a not like in the city city so its nice. A lot of hispanics of course. Our ward here is great. Everybody is so welcoming and loving. And really huggy, not sure how I feel about that. We always eat hispanic food so also not sure how i feel about that.

My companion is amazing. Her name is Nikelle Reese and she's from Orem. we get along so well. And her spanish is so good. And good thing because i literally cant even speak spanish at all. We are like the same person. all the hispanics in the ward call us Barbie Pequeno and Barbie Grande. haha which is just little barbie and big barbie. Because we're both blonde. She helps me so much and im so happy we get along because me and my last comp hated each other. I also like everyone in my district. They're awesome. The two elders in our ward are Elder Gibson and Elder Martinez and they are super funny. 

Our apartment is like really really nice. We are super blessed. If you remember what my townhome was like that i used to live in in cedar, its kinda like those but nicer. we have a really nice gym that we can use in the morning. and the computers we email from are here in the club house part of the lobby. it almost like we live in a hotel. 

So im not biking in this area, which i was super depressed to find out because i don't want to get fat. and i get super car sick. and only my comp can drive and i cant because i have like 5 tickets on my record ha..awk. it nice that we have the car but it does make me really sick. and thanks Lon for the gps. we use it everyday.

Ive been getting really bad migraines frequently since i was in the ccm which sucks and i thought it was just stress but i actually think its my eyes so thats super unfortunate. i get one everyday if i don't wear my glasses. and sometimes my glasses don't even help. so not sure what I'm going to do about that. 

the work has been really fun here. its really easy to contact because everybody here believes in Christ so we have that foundation. we work a lot with less active members and part member families in the ward. we have a couple investigators right now. Yesi and Myra and Mario and Vickie. none of them have baptismal dates right now so yeah, we just need to keep working with them! 

Something we do here for our service is we teach english classes every tuesday wednesday thursday and friday to parents who only know spanish. it is seriously my favorite thing ever. i love it. its fun and all the moms are so fun. and it is a great way to find future investigators:)

Im still really tired always and frustrated with the language but maybe 17 months from now ill know some spanish.. but i learn so much about the gospel everyday and i have really grown in my spiritual knowledge. i love my study time when im not falling asleep.  

Brady! congrats on wrestling, you're awesome and i cant wait to see y'all on christmas! hope everyone is having a fantastic holiday season. Keep me and my investigators in your prayers:) 

So the address i would like you to send letters to is My home address not the mission home address because we never go to the mission home so I'll never get your mail or packages! 

15903 Yorktown Crossing Pkwy #1223

Houston, TX 77084

Talk to y'all next week! 

Texas Houston Mission

okay so much has happened these past 5 days and i only have like not enough time to type! so please excuse all my grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. i dont have time for that.

so, i arrived to the mish last wednesday! so overwhelming. in the airport i contacted two people and gave them passalong cards. the plane ride was actually not bad. they gave us breakfast so that was nice. we met our president and his wife first and they are saints. they are literally perfect. we love them. the weather here is not christmas weather. first we had like a little orientation thing with all the new missionaries at the church and then our mission president commanded us to take a nap. literally we all took naps on the church pews, pillows and blankets provided. so that was nice. then we went and had dinner at their home, texas barbecue. i was so happy to finally eat american food i wanted to cry. it was fantastic. we had some more orientation stuff and then we went to our hotel for the night. i was so happy to have a queen size bed to myself for the night. i slept like a rock! the next morning we had breakfast the mission home, texas french toast. it was the best thing of my life. and then we went to another training thingy and thennn we got to meet our new companions. my trainer is greaaaaat. her name is Hermana Reese she is from orem utah and her spanish is like perfect. she has only been out in the mission for 3 months! we went right into the work and everything is really hard and stressful and exhausting and frustrating because i dont know spanish. so that sucks. hopefully next week is better. if you want to see pictures you can go to the Texas Houston Mission Blog. sorry i dont have alot of time. next week my group email will be better! still keep me in your prayers because its a hard life out here! i love you all and happy holidays. if you havent yet, you need to watch the church's HE IS THE GIFT VIDEO. its all we are doing right now as missionaries. adios

my address is 15903 yorktown crossing #1223 houston texas 77084 WRITE ME