Sick but Smiling

12-20-10

Dear family and friends,

I can't believe Christmas is only 5 days away!! This holiday season has just flown by, I still feel like its November, but that's probably because it's like I'm not celebrating Christmas, everyone else is. It's so weird not listening to Christmas music 24-7 (I don't get to at all since I don't even have a CD player to listen to MoTab) and no decorations or anything. It’s weird. Anyway, this week has been pretty hectic and crazy!

Last Mon we had a farewell for Elder Thomas at the church. Lots of families came for Noche de Jugar and everyone bore testimonies about the importance of missionary work and appreciation for all Elder Thomas did. It's weird having him gone this week knowing he's back home with his family. On Tues. elder Kerby (since he's the DL) got to go do the baptismal interview for this woman the English missionaries taught. Her granddaughter is a member, they are from Haiti, and Nefide. The Grandma only speaks French/Creole so during all the lessons Venya (granddaughter) had to translate everything. She had to translate for the interview too. This sweet little old lady comes to church every week and to all the activities, and she speaks next to nothing in English, I can't imagine! I have a hard enough time it being in Spanish! Also, we had our last District Mtg. since transfers are tomorrow! I'm staying here in east New York, but Kerby is leaving to go be DL in some other zone so I'm nervous/excited about getting my 3rd comp! It's going to be quite the transition especially since right after I get my ‘step-pop’ (2nd trainer) we'll move! We still don't have a date set for when we're moving. Also we had the last Leaders mtg. I'm going to miss those because I love getting to hang out with Elder Patchett every week for an hour since both our trainers are DL's, but Elder Crawford is taking over as DL here so no more meetings! We had choir practice again with the zone; it was pretty hectic trying to get a bunch of tone deaf elders to sing a song in parts, while I was trying to play the piano. Eventually I just started conducting since no one was, and it was not all together. We're performing in 4 days at the mission wide Christmas meeting. We had the Branch Spanish Christmas party. We brought a lady we'd met the day before. We got there when it was supposed to start, but no one was there. I unlocked the building and then we just started setting up the tables, chairs, and finally an hour later when the Pres.'s wife showed up we started decorating. Needless to say we didn't start till 9:30 so we had to grab food and leave=( oh well, it was fun. I love how they have the exact same food at every party, every house, no matter what: Rice, chicken, salad, and macaroni salad. Never fails, no matter the holiday!=) The next day was the English party. All the elders performed the haka at it since Elder Kinikini taught it to us. They had a program: the primary performed the nativity, the young adults performed a variation on "A Christmas Carol". It was all very fun and the food was delicious! They actually started at 6:30-8:30 and it was all perfectly on schedule, LOL I love the differences in the cultures. J Also that night I got my first Christmas package from my good high school friend Kristina Kohl. It was awesome! The next day, Sunday when I was helping get the sacrament ready there was a little plate with some frosting left over from the party the night before so I just licked it off and threw it away to make more space (the kitchen is tiny). After church I was feeling super sick. We went to go pick up Augustine to take him to the Christmas Concert. These three kids came and played, they're amazing, the boy won the worldwide competition and is the best violinist his age, and his 2 sisters attend Julliard. On the way there I was feeling so sick I wanted to get off the train and throw up in a trash can, but I thought I could wait 2 stops till our transfer, but alas it was not to be. I threw up in the train car. I didn't want to get it on all the people around me so I kinda just threw up on my back pack. It was disgusting, all over me, and the weird thing about New York, no one even acknowledged the fact. No one even stopped in their conversations or anything. They just ignored it except the guy right next to me, who just moved to another seat. Anyway, luckily at the next stop Augustine's uncle owned a little store right next to the train stop, so we went in and I cleaned up at the bathroom and got some Pepto-Bismol. It was pretty miserable, walking in 20 degree weather covered in throw up, not fun. We went to the concert anyway and just stood in the back of the gym so I could run to the bathroom. It was an awesome concert! I love the violin and they played parts of the Messiah which just made my Christmas! When we got home last night I threw up some more. I tried taking Pepto but threw it up, and I finally just fell asleep. Today I'm not feeling too good, but I'm living. J

As for our investigator Jordyn, we haven't been able to get a hold of him since church. L He doesn’t answer the phone or the doorbell. Roxanna is struggling. Our last lesson her mom came in who is very catholic and kept trying to bash with us, and the spirit was just gone. Roxanna isn't reading and doesn’t have a testimony of the BoM so that's depressing. Augustine didn't come to church, but he went to the concert! Hopefully he'll do his reading by the time we meet with him and he can be ready for his baptismal date since the other 2 aren't looking too good. We found these 2 kids, Jonathan and German (13&10). Their mom's a member but she has no interest in the church, their uncle is also a member but inactive since he works on Sundays, but when we meet with them he's much more inclined to bearing testimony so hopefully we can get him reactivated so he can get work off and take his nephews to church. They're super nice kids and have a strong desire to follow God's will. Also at the dinner app. with a member we found Jose Miguel, his wife is inactive, but his mother-in-law (the member we were at) is very active. He just got here last week from the DR and we were so excited since he's pretty religious and very understanding and seemed interested in learning more, but we just found out that actually he doesn't live there like he said, he lives in Crawford's area.

Also, we need to figure out calling on Christmas day. I was supposed to write you last week and ask when, but I ran out of time. I heard that I can call you and set up a time to call you on Christmas, but I really don't know when since I'll have a new Sr. Comp on Christmas Day (sad day). You'll be 3 hours behind me in TX right? I know usually we open up presents till like 9 or 10, then that's usually when missionaries called, but I guess I'll just call mom's cell 541-221-2808 and figure it out. It'll be a weekend so it should be free for both of us=) Alright I can't wait!

I hope this Christmas season has been wonderful for all of you, I saw Lynette's picture of going to Pepiot's and reminded me of cutting down the tree, playing football, those delicious cookies and hot chocolate, that was always the best! I also was super jealous hearing Lynette went to the Feaste. That was always one of my highlights for Christmas. The wassail, Deck the Halls, The Boar's head, haha all those fun songs. Madrigals are so much fun! Tell Mr.H hi for me!

Yesterday in church we had some great talks about the true meaning of Christ, and all the symbolism for Christ, his purity, perfect example, his coming into the world, a gift to us, enabling us to repent, to be clean, to live again and have the wonderful opportunity to live with our father in Heaven again. I love this time of year, knowing that Christ lives, that he is my Savior, and I love taking this time to think about him, and what a wonderful blessing it is that we have this church, His church, to lead and guide us to do His will. At the concert and at church it was wonderful to hear not only beautiful music praising him, but also hearing people bear their testimonies of Him. I love my savior and I'm so grateful that I could be here in New York to preach his gospel, to share his message, and invite people to come unto him. It's truly a once in a life time opportunity, and I love it! As Laura pointed out, I'm so blessed especially right now when so many people are praying for me and thinking about us missionaries. It's such a wonderful spiritual time, even when it's hard. I know this is where I'm supposed to be. I know I was called to come here by a prophet of God, and that this gospel is true! I know without a shadow of a doubt that this wonderful restored gospel is the best way for us to find happiness right now and in the life to come. I'm so grateful for all of you, my wonderful friends and family who have always supported me, and helped me learn and grow, making me the person I am today. Thank you so much for your examples, your encouragement, for your prayers and for your love. Isn't this truly the most wonderful time of the year?! Thinking about Christ as seeing symbols of his wonderful Condescension into the world! I get to think about him all day every day for 2 years! Merry Christmas everyone! I love you and miss you, especially this time of year when being with family is one of the best highlights, but I know you're keeping me in mind. Know that I'm praying for all of you as well! Keep being a missionary, sharing the gospel with everyone around you. Don't hesitate to offer the most important thing to you with someone else, you never know who might accept!

Love,

Elder Lewis

Christmas, quincineras, and cleaning

Hey everyone!

So this week has been awesome, mostly!I can't believe my first transfer is almost over, it's crazy that I've been in New York for almost 6 weeks! Very exciting though, looking back at all the progress we've made up to this point=) Some main events of the week were deep cleaning, Birthdays, CDM's, and awesome lessons.

Once a transfer we're supposed to clean really good in our apartment, so we took a morning and got on our service day clothes and went to work. It was quite a project, I don't think any of the previous elders for the last 10 years have ever really done a very "thorough" job, so it was fun scrubbing away at a lot of surfaces, sweeping, moving furniture (our 3 little collapsible tables, 4 chairs, and a big shelf we put all our food on, mission life is a spartan life), but the nice thing about being in a dingy little apartment is that there isn't much space for there to be messes=) After several hours we finally decided we had done as much as we could. Also another day of the week we spent the morning starting to make a more efficient/portable smaller version of the area book. Compiling lots of the information on recent Converts/Less Actives, Former investigators, Potentials, etc.. Then we want to get enlarged more detailed maps of sections of our area, mark where members live etc. so we'll be more efficient in visiting people and not wasting time waiting for trains/buses and walking all over the city going from app. to app, but it's quite the project and so we're working at it slowly but surely. Also had CDM (Combined District meeting) this week which I always love getting together with all the other Districts, being instructed by our Zone Leaders, they're amazing examples to me on what a missionary should be like. We were edified learning about the importance of prayers, not only our companionships or with members and how powerful those are, but also our personal prayers, and how we need to make sure we're showing the respect and taking the time to think about them and have the faith to receive an answer, Elder Cottrell based the discussion off a talk by Pres. Eyring, again reiterating to me how blessed we are to have those amazing men leading and guiding our church under the direction of our Lord Jesus Christ. I commented about when Elder KiKuchi visited our stake and told us to try to say our morning prayers dressed nicely, we wouldn't go visit the prophet in our pj's we should do the best for Heavenly Father. Our zone goal is to every morning have at least one prayer when we are fully awake and dressed in our ties/slacks. Also our zone is performing a song at the mission Christmas devotional, "We 3 Kings" and I kinda got put as the choir director since no one could play the piano to help people learn their parts, and I got volunteered to sing a solo so I was playing parts, directing people, and trying to help out the tenors, and sing a solo. I was very grateful yet again for my musical training and it again made me regret how I never took choir class too seriously, Mr. H is amazing for doing that every day, and I wish I would've developed my talent at the piano even more=(

Had some fun birthday parties for Katherine Delcid, the District President's daughter, it was her Sweet 16 so they had quite the event (every Friday is some huge big party here, it's awesome!) a DJ, lots of big decorations, big cakes with figures of guys in tuxes and girls in dresses. Their 15th and 16th birthdays are bigger than some weddings I've been to! I love the hispanic culture=) The food was delicious, entrees before hand of seafood, shrimp, crab, good stuff like that, and then the main course of pasta was so good, i was sad we had to leave early so we wouldn't be late for curfew. it was also fun doing a toast, everyone had these plastic wine glasses that looked real (everything looked very refined and proper, but was plastic) and we all drank sparkling cider after her dad did a toast for her, reminds me of Christmas with Danny and the Masons. Also celebrated Elder Thomas' birthday, he turned 21, and leaves tomorrow for home. Weird seeing him leaving and me just getting here, when we're all together it's funny because me and some other elder that had been out about a year were talding about "Taken" the movie and Elder Thomas didn't even know what it was since it came out while he was on his mission, weird, I'll be like that soon!lol Several members had us all 6 over for dinner and bought a delicious choc cheese cake and we sang happy birthday to him and did a toast again with red grape sparkling cider, and one Hna. bought him this amazing ice cream brownie cake with his name on it and everything, they're so generous here, even though they live in tiny little apartments and don't have much, they share everything!

Jordyn came to church yesterday which was so nice! We met with him Sat night and he really is a golden investigator, he has such a strong desire to follow God and be a good person. After our lesson of reading in the book of mormon and explaining how we can apply that to ourselves he totally understood it all. He committed to reading every night,and we nailed down a baptismal date for Jan 16th. We just need to meet with his mom who's pretty catholic and hope that she'll understand and give permission. Jordyn at the end gave the prayer, sincerely asking for the Lord's help in understanding and knowing if it's true He also asked the Lord to help his mother know how important it is to him! We walked with him to church and it was a good meeting, but young Men's was kind of a disaster=( When he asked why it was called priesthood we kinda explained how it's for men that have the priesthood to meet together, and then in the class with all the deacons, teachers, and priests they were all acting up (kids usually do when there's a guest, they all want to look like the funny guy and impress the new kid) so everyone was super disrespectful to the teacher and not paying attention. It was rather embarrassing and I hope it didn't drive Jordyn away because he was confused how those guys were priesthood holders=( really reiterated to me how much good and how much harm members can do, and how sacred it is that us young men are given the opportunity to serve the Lord and have the priesthood at such a young age and that few of us take it seriously or give it the respect that calling deserves. As a missionary I have an even more serious calling and I hope I always carry myself accordingly. ]

It's been pouring again this week, but with the cloud cover, it hasn't been as cold which is nice. Luckily I have a long jacket an elder just gave me in the MTC, it's not very warm, but it's water proof and goes to my knees so it's perfect! I left my awesome little mitten/finger gloves on the train the other day which was really sad, I'm gonna have to go buy some new ones, but it's okay since this week I just wore my water proof big gloves=) Last P-Day we went to the Brooklyn bridge ad I got some cool pics of the Hudson, Manhattan, Statue of Liberty, Ellis/governor/Staten Island all in the distance. It was freezing cold, especially out on the bridge, but a fun trip!

I'm so blessed to be here in this part of the world. Brooklyn is so fun, so diverse, I love one sign that says Merry Christams, Kwanzka, Hannukah, Feliz navidad=) Lots of cultures and languages, i run into crazy people every day, but it's all good! Last night we had the great opportunity to watch "Joy to the World" in Spanish with this cute little Mexican family, they're very catholic, their apt. was nicely decorated for Christmas, the biggest decoration was this huge picture of the Santa MAria, but they gave us some Hot Chocolate and delicious bread (red with like brown sugar on top) and the message was great, the spirit was strong and slowly but surely I think we're making progress with them. We'll see. She took a picture of us with her adorable little 6 yr old Wendy. It was fun. I love every day getting to meet great people and always just preaching about Jesus Christ as our Savior, and how much he loves us, how much our Heavenly Father loves us, and exhorting people to read and pray. It's awesome!!

I love you all, hope everything is going good for you. Thank you for your prayers=)

Love,

Elder Lewis

Cold but Happy... That's Logan!

12-6-10

Hey everyone!

This week has just flown by it's crazy! It started out super rainy and cold, I was very grateful for the nice big jacket mom got for me, but unfortunately my bottom half was not so well protected from the elements and my slacks were soaked! We had to walk up to this big apartment complex for an appointment, but of course she wasn't there, so we started just knocking doors in the building since I was still soaking. It was probably a comic scene, I'd prop up all my wet coat and gloves and some papers in my backpack that had gotten wet, I'd put them out to dry on the banister, and then we'd knock on the three doors close by, then I'd take them all across the hall to the other side and prop them all up again. Slowly but surely(building was 6 floors) I got all my stuff dried out, and we found a woman who had been baptized back in the DR but hadn't been to church since, and her records weren't here or anything. Funny story: her next door neighbor had his door open and was playing outrageously loud, crazy, music. When he saw us walk by he came out and started burning sticks of incense and followed us around the whole time just waving it in the air as if he thought he could dispel us "demons". We've gone back three times since to visit another member in the building and every time but once he has seen us and came out and did it again. Crazy people are especially prevalent in this side of the world=)

The week was great though; really busy with Zone and District Conference and lots of exchanges, but it was a lot of fun. I feel especially edified after Zone Conference and I learned so much. I'm continually amazed by how amazing Pres. Nelson is. I know every missionary says this, but I really think I lucked out with the best Mission President=) It was fun getting to refocus on lots of basic things, being lead by the spirit, etc. I hope I can apply what I learn more and more into my every day actions. We also had some great lessons with our 2 main progressing investigators. Jordyn is this boy that we randomly fearlessed his sister and she invited us back, but she didn't seem super interested, and we have only been able to meet with her once more, but her 15 yr old brother we've met with several times. When we gave him an assignment to read the first chapter of 1 Nephi he read up to ch.3! He actually understood a lot. He has lots of great questions, and seems to have a true desire to learn, he even did the prayer at the end of the lesson perfectly, asking to know if the BoM is true, and he even asked how he can recognize the Spirit! I hope he keeps progressing and we can work around his baseball schedule to get him to church, he's so prepared. It reminded me of how in PMG it talks about how we need to talk to everyone, and teach everyone, even if on the outside we don't think they'll accept it. We can't see their hearts, and sometimes the lesson isn't meant for that person, but someone else in the family or a friend that is prepared. The Lord really does know what He's doing, we just have to try to be worthy to the promptings of the Spirit so he can guide us! Also Roxana the one investigator we were given who was kinda faltering when we got here,-- we had a couple of really great lessons with her these last two weeks and she's learning a lot, and really seems to want the gospel in her life. She says she has a lot of faith, but we've been working on getting her to show that by actually reading and praying and coming to church, and this Sunday she came! I was so grateful for a sister in the ward who Roxana recognized from the last time she came over 2 months ago, and the sweet sister came to the class with Roxana and answered her questions and helped her during the rest of the block of meetings. Members that notice new investigators and are friendly really make all the difference. It was the best meeting for Roxana since it was testimony meeting!

On Sat we had a mini-mission which I've never heard of, but an elder here said he did it back home. It's awesome!

1 The youth in the ward, or just anyone that wants to serve a mission comes and we did workshops in the morning about contacting, opening your mouth, the blessings of mission work, and the importance of the BoM. Then each missionary got paired with a youth and an adult then we took them out with us to our appointments to teach and knock doors. It was great seeing so many of the members come out and support it, including sweet sisters in the ward. One, Hne. Crz that always has us over for Sunday dinner was on fire and seriously talked to anyone and everyone even if they spoke English since she doesn't she'd go grab an English speaker and have them talk to the person=) At the end we had a zone wide street sweep again which was super fun. We got to sing Christmas carols over all the crazy noise from the train, busses etc, and we got lots of names. The next day so many of the youth expressed how much they learned and how they want to go on missions. It was a great success! I'd highly recommend it=)

Also, other fun things were a baby shower the Spanish Branch had. The Branch President’s wife is expecting and they threw this huge party at the church, with tons of food, lots of funny games involving lots of adults having contests; their kids feeding them baby food or other crazy stuff, it was hilarious, They had fun decorations with lots of balloons. It was the funnest baby shower ever!

I loved the Christmas Devotional. I've missed hearing the Mormon Tab choir. I took it for granted hearing it so much before, and it was especially wonderful to be inspired and reminded of the true meaning of Christmas by our dear prophet and the First Presidency. They made me want to make this a more serviceable Christmas and to really try to have the compassion that Christ would want me to have as I share his great message. How grateful I am for the birth of our Savior in that manger in Bethlehem. I love Christmas!! I was sad that this year I won't be able to read "A Christmas Carol" when Pres. Monson brought that up, but in 2 years I will=) What a wonderful time of year. I love the holidays. Today it started to snow! I'm getting slightly sick, probably from being out in the soaking rain, and our apt. is freezing cold all the time. For comp and personal study we bundle up in all our jackets, gloves etc. We probably look ridiculous, but there is no heating and the shower is still as cold as ever, but they're saying they'll get us a new apartment this next week so that's exciting.

Mission life is great I love it in spite of all the antagonistic elements=) Thank you everyone for your letters, prayers, and support. I love this work, I love this church, and I love all of you! Keep being a missionary and sharing the gospel with everyone!

Love,

Elder Lewis

Time for turkey in the Big Apple

11-29-10

Hey Family!

Good old Thanksgiving week, always one of the best=) Lots of fun crazy stuff happened this week, but it wasn't the best for missionary work unfortunately, too many meetings, and then everyone is either out of town, or the whole family is in town and it's hard to get them to sit down and listen to a message when the house is full of crazy Hispanics celebrating a holiday they don't even celebrate. LOL I didn't ever get mashed potatoes with gravy, but I did get Turkey, and a piece of pumpkin pie, just wasn't the same! Anyway!

So Tues we had a leadership meeting all day long since I'm new and my comp is a trainer and the DL, we had to go also. It went from 11-4 so basically we didn't get much done teaching wise that day, but I learned lots of good stuff! We learned about how to ask good questions that will get the investigator to talk and figure things out for themselves, and about the importance of listening to them, something I'm trying to learn, but I'm just trying to understand what they're saying in Spanish! Always a fun game trying to figure things out, and then they'll use a verb I don't know or conjugated in a way I don't recognize right off the bat, so I have to think about it and then they use a noun for a subject and I miss it and after that they refer to it as a pronoun and I'm really lost! Luckily that mostly only happens when people are telling long stories/talks, not in conversations where I can hear both people talking=) The rest of the week was full of 2 exchanges which are always fun=) I get to spend the night at another pad, and I have to pack a bag and all that, then I get to know a new comp, so far I've only gone with one who spoke Spanish, but they're situation is even worse then ours so we basically knocked doors for 8 hours! Sometimes I wish I could speak more Spanish or knew more about missionary work so I didn't feel so helpless, I just want to do things more efficiently and I read about all these great ideas in PMG I just don't know how to implement them in my specific scenario. Oh well, it's a learning process! I'm definitely learning a lot, not just about Spanish, but about the Gospel, about people in general! With one exchange with English speakers, almost everyone we taught was from Guinea(Guyana is how they pronounce it, I think it's the little country on the NE corner of S. America, but they don't speak Spanish or Portuguese, weird) we taught this family; the mom is Hindu and the dad is Muslim! Go figure, so it was interesting getting to talk to them about what/who God is. The best part of all though is just sharing your testimony and bearing witness that I Know it's true! We also taught 3 guys that live in an apt. One is Jamaican, coming from a bad background, another is from the US, he's white, the other is a Dominican. They’re a very diverse house, they all have very different religious backgrounds, and we just read the Book of Mormon with them and it was cool seeing the different insights each of them got from it. The Jamaican especially loved the part when we showed him how Nephi quotes Isaiah and the guy was astounded how the Book of Mormon even quotes the Bible. It really strengthened his testimony that the book is true. I loved his quote: “We all Gods kids, this book's great cuz them cats here in America doing the same thing as the ones in Jerusalem, and is dope that Jesus was kicking it here in America too!" That made me laugh=) But the Book of Mormon is a testament that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and it is the best way for us to come closer to Him! I'm so lucky—no blessed to be on a mission and I get to do this every day, even when some days, like yesterday, we had all these appointments and 3 investigators said they'd come to church and none of them answered the phone, showed up, or answered the door. Even when we tried to visit less actives, they didn't answer and the 2 that did, they had moved! In New York everyone moves after a couple years, no one stays put so that makes things interesting trying to find people=)

For Thanksgiving Day we had a turkey bowl with our Zone which was way fun! They have a nice turf field near my pad so we all played there, about 30 of us, and we had 4 teams that just rotated on when the other team lost. My team did great surprisingly since we were all scrawny XC kids, but we would just out run everyone and it made it fun, if it would've been tackle rather than 2 hand touch it probably would've been another story, but I'll be grateful that it wasn't=) Then we had a couple of appts. We dropped by to visit people, they always fed us which was awesome! Then at the end of the night we had a big dinner at the District Pres's house (kinda like a Stake President, but of branches, he's in our branch, well at least his family is, like Dad, he's rarely there with his family since he's visiting all the other branches.) It was fun having all the families invited over there. It was nice since he actually had a normal sized house so we could fit more people, and we did it buffet style just like back home. Before hand we went around and said what we were grateful for so that was nice to try to listen to everyone. Some people had some incredible stories about how the Lord has blessed them, and I was impressed by some of the teenagers and the respect and love they show their parents. I am so grateful to be in the branch I am, they are awesome!

Let’s see, not much else, yesterday was church which is always fun trying to get something out of talks when I don't know what they're saying. Usually by the end I can tell what the topic is=) During Sunday school they all laugh at me when I try to read since I always mispronounce words, but I keep practicing! The youth had a Mormon prom the night before which was a cool reminder of how we did that at home. The church is the same everywhere, even in the little church building they have here! Anyway, gotta go get my laundry! Love you all, keep being missionaries!

Love,

Elder Lewis

P.S. Mom and Dad,

Could you ask Sis Eastin to send me that recipe book she showed me she was making for Robert, it looked way good, and I'm getting bored with my limited stock of food items I make. Also, where did Esther live in DR and Puerto Rico? I always meet people from there, like 90%, and where was Joseph in Tampico? I meet so many people from these places my siblings have been it's awesome! I was again glad for my talent of singing when on Sat we did a street sweep by having half of us singing carols and the other half getting people to sign up for free DVDs. I loved giving away Mr. Kruegger's Christmas=) I love Christmas songs! Well gotta go! I love you. I hope to hear an update on the Lee's, tell them hi for me! If there's anything I can do for you all, or answer a question, let me know. Dad thanks for the letter! I love you, and yes there are funny black guys that call us Jesus' boys=) I haven't seen any violence yet, just heard it... But New York is awesome! How is our Stake doing? I loved the Newsletter on everyone! Can't wait to hear more! Hope you're feeling better and I'm praying for you! I love you!

Love your son,

Elder Lewis

Start Spreading the news! in old New York, New York

11-22-10

Hey everyone!

Thank you so much for all of your support, and letters, they really make my day when I hear all about the wonderful things going on with all of you. It's amazing how missionary work continues all over the world. Keep it up!

So this week was my first official whole week here in New York. I live in what's called East New York, and it's in Brooklyn. That's my proselyting area. It's funny all the different parts of New York City. This week we had lots of disappointments with investigators and things, but we continue to find people, and try to just keep sharing the gospel. It's a trial here where I want to improve my Spanish, but since everyone speaks fluent English and Spanish, most (missionaries and the youth in the ward) mostly speak English so I never get to practice until some older member talks to me going 100 miles a minute and I only catch every 5 words. It's a work in progress. I just need to find a way to keep progressing. I don't feel like I'm getting better, maybe worse because I rarely get to really practice my Spanish. We teach in Spanish, but since we don't have a pool, it's really simple things, greetings, and talking about prayer, the Book of Mormon, etc. but I'm forgetting already a lot of the vocabulary I learned in the MTC just because I don't get to speak it in my apartment in my pad like I did with my District. Hopefully I'll figure out something soon because I want to be able to express myself in Spanish! I can understand it sometimes though, and that's always really cool when during a lesson I know what they're saying and I just want to tell them something, but I have to say it a different way because I don't have the vocabulary. It's like a game, trying to reword sentences in my head until they're simple enough grammatically and vocabularily (can't even speak English, sheesh!) so they will understand me. But the work goes on!

New York is getting more and more interesting the more I see of it. I live in a pad with Elder Crawford, a big football player for BYU that's been out since last May, and his comp Elder Cortez that is Ecuadorian and already speaks Spanish. It's cool how fluent he is in both Languages, I hope I can get my kids that way, reminds me of when little Jeffery Toronto spoke Spanish when he was little and we'd always ask him for "un beso" a kiss, and when he was thirsty he'd ask for agua. Aww I miss all those cute kids. It was great to get to see some of them, Brenley's and LaDawn's, right before I entered the MTC, and to hear from Esther, and get cute hand paintings from Mason and Akirah! One of the people we're teaching right now is Roxana, who is Dominicana. Her brother converted this summer with his wife and when Roxana's son Sergio stayed with them for the summer he really liked the missionaries, lessons, church, and went to the 24th of July party. He showed me all the pictures and Roxana saw that change in her brother and wanted it for herself. She's a single mother with Rosalba 15 and Sergio 11. She lives with her parents and her sister's family who are all very catholic and anti-Mormon. When we went to teach her this week she'd been given a lot of anti-Mormon stuff and had all these questions about polygamy etc. It was a great lesson when Elder Kerby just testified that this is God's church, and the only way she can know if it's true isn't from us, or from her Catholic family, but from God. We really encouraged her to pray and to ask God, and she said she would. We also invited her to church, she has to work Sundays, so we offered to take her kids home from church and walk with them since she'd have to go straight to work after Church. We visited them right before church, but they didn't come. L We're also teaching these kids, Celeny (18), Jordyn (15), and Neyeli (13). They're Dominican but speak English, and they're parents just speak Spanish. We contacted Celeny on the street and she had questions about life after Death, and life before, so we gave her the Plan of Salvation Pamphlet, taught a quick lesson and then another night we taught all 3 of them, but their parents weren't home, so we're still working on meeting the whole family. The kids had a lot of great questions, and we taught about the Restoration and more about the Plan of Salvation and the spirit was really strong. Those kinds of lessons are what makes being a missionary so worth it! Sharing this knowledge we have with those around us. They just don't know all these things that I've taken for granted my whole life: The nature of God, our ability to communicate and receive His help, all of these fundamental things I've known since I said my own little prayer when I could barely talk. Getting to share that with others is the best! They couldn't come to church because Jordyn had a baseball game, but we're working on them.

Other fun things: I saw these giant rats in the subway that reminded me of August Rush when he's in New York Subway and gets away from Robin Williams to get to his concert, good movie. J I also saw a chicken just strutting along in the street, random. Fri. had a Thanksgiving Party with the Spanish branch. That was fun, they had a disco ball, and we had rice and lots of yummy types of chicken, also sauces, salads, etc. It wasn't much like a normal Thanksgiving, but that's okay, the food was delicious, the branch is great, the members are super nice, and the kids are hilarious. I haven't had kids in my wards since Aug of '09 since we didn't have any at BYU or at Jacob Lake. Kids really do just have a sweet innocence that really adds to the life of the branch/ward, even if they're rowdy sometimes. J

We did an exchange on Sat. because my companion is the District Leader, and we have 10 other missionaries in our District. He has to do exchanges with all of them so that will be fun. I got to spend the night at a pad with Thomas and Snow, and my comp for the day was Elder Jones. He's English speaking so I didn't get to speak any Spanish at all except when on the Subway. I'd always spot a Hispanic and go sit next to them and strike up a conversation=) Elder Jones was great, and we went into this part of town where everyone is Jewish, and since it was Sat., their Sabbath, we saw them all coming back from the Synagogue; I guess. There were tons of them, all wearing black and white, with big brimmed hats, or the little caps, and they had what looked like towels white and blue wrapped around them, and you could see the long strands draping down others, all had big beards. The little boys had just these strands of long hair around their ears. All the doors had writing over them, and these little capsules with a paper scroll inside in the doorway. It was super cool! Jones told me that they don't talk to Gentiles and are pretty stuffy and rude, so every one I passed, I’d smile and say hello. Admittedly the first 50 just glared at me or looked surprised and didn't respond, but 1, out of probably 100, actually replied and said "Hi, how's it going". He was walking with his kids and looked like a nice father. I can't make generalizations about any culture or people, they are normal people, they just have different beliefs=)

We had another Thanksgiving party with the English Branch. There were 2 white people, the rest black, lots of Jamaicans and Haitians. It was fun during the day to teach people in English, and to be able to really get to know them, find out their needs and help them. It was awesome! But I'm glad I get to work here in New York with English, Spanish, and even Hindu, Muslims, Buddhists, it's all here! I love it=). The food was good at the party, but still no mashed potatoes or turkey. We're going to a Hispanic family's house on Thurs. so I might go this year without a normal thanksgiving dinner, but at least they celebrate it here, unlike other countries. This is the best mission ever!!

The church is amazing, the gospel really can change peoples' lives. I've already seen people getting baptized and seen where they came from and how they are now. The Lord can work miracles. Don't judge people and think they would not accept the gospel, we can't see their hearts. Just the Lord can. I'm so grateful to be here on a mission, serving the Lord. I'm so grateful for my wonderful family, the way they raised me, all the opportunities and happiness I had growing up. The Lord has truly blessed me and no matter how hard I work, I can never repay Him. I love this season and having the opportunity to think about what we have to be grateful for. There are so many people here who have nothing! Love everyone, and don't be afraid to share more!

Love,

Elder Lewis

LOOK HERE FOR LOGAN'S MISSION ADDRESS

Logan's Mission Home Address

85-69 60th Dr

Elmhurst, NY 11373

11-8-10

Familia!

!Yo estoy aqui! I finally made it to New York, New York! J My mission President, President Nelson, is super nice and friendly. He met us right as we got off the escalator and he knew where each missionary was from and talked to me for several minutes about Jacob Lake; he is really good friends with my boss, John Rich.

The weather is already pretty cold, but it’s beautiful! I’ve missed all the vegetation, as the JFK airport is right on the water front so we got to fly over the Atlantic. I’ve missed the East Coast (land view). Right now we’re at the mission home. We drove directly here from the airport and its 5 PM (3 PM for me; still on Mtn. Time). I’m starving though since yesterday was fast Sunday, then today I didn’t get breakfast or lunch, only peanuts/trail mix/candy so I feel sick from that, but Sis. Nelson has prepared an amazing meal that smells delicious. I can’t wait!

Elder Patchett & I were traveling companions, with Hna. Lewis from my MTC District. She’s the only new hermana. I know this is where I am supposed to be. I haven’t been this excited in a long time. I’m not even nervous, I’m just so happy to finally be here. I love our mission home, it’s a quaint house in the nicer part of Long Island and it reminds me of when I lived with LaDawn in North Potomac. The houses all have that beautiful Colonial Architecture; the stairs are really steep and small. Everything is old but I love it.

Our Zone leaders are super energetic and fun. They’re a Zebra companionship; one’s English speaking from Spanish Fork, UT and the other is from Buenos Aires, Argentina. It’s making me excited to meet my trainerJ. Tonight we’re spending the night here in the mission home basement. They’ve got 2 rooms with 6 bunk beds crammed in there. They also have a foosball and hockey table, (go figure), in the downstairs living room.

I already wrote you a letter earlier today on the plane, and I called you so I feel like I’ve basically been with you all day. Thank you for all your prayers and support. Know that you’re in my mindJ I love you!

Love,

Elder Lewis

his first email from NYC!

11-15-10

Hey family!

I'm finally in New York, the Big Apple!! I wrote a letter home last Monday, so I'll just start from there. Monday night we met Pres. Nelson and the AP's, had a delicious dinner and welcoming mtg. at the mission home somewhere in Suffolk I think, it is a colonial style house/cottage that reminds me of LaDawn and Danny's house in Maryland. All the stairs are super steep and narrow=)

Tues. we got to meet our trainers; I'm with Elder Kerby, from Mesa, AZ. He's super friendly and nice, likes outdoors stuff, camping, snow/wake boarding, and likes to work out, so that'll be good for me to actually do push-ups etc.. We had meetings at the chapel/mission office all day since it was a transfer day and leadership mtgs. Kerby is the district leader of our district, and Elder Jacob's (elder Patchett, the missionary from my district at the MTC that came to NY with me, Jacobs is his trainer) is another DL in our zone so Patchett and I were comps basically all Monday and Tues. We did a service project and went and picked up trash for a couple hours. One of the weirdest things about NYC is the litter. No one uses garbage cans, everyone just drops everything on the street; there is trash everywhere! Pretty disgusting, but just adds to the big city feel I guess. Then that night we got to our Pad (Apartment in New York), which is a tiny apt. above a member's home. It's fun, we have 3 bulbs, and half the lights don't work so we have to move the bulb into the kitchen when we want to cook or-- I just made my spaghetti one night in the dark. The shower has never gotten above ‘luke-cold’---almost to being luke-warm, but not quite, but that's after you let it run for 20 mins. which seems like a waste of water to me so I just usually take cold showers, but Elder Craword likes to wait. We share our pad with Elder Crawford who's training Elder Cortez, who already speaks Spanish since his parents are Salvadorian so he was only in the MTC for 3 weeks. Its fun living together and getting to know them better, but apparently we're moving soon.

The field! Everyone here is either black, or Hispanic. We're literally the only white people. I could count the number of Caucasians I see every day on one hand, so it's fun. We're in the E. New York zone, also called the Man Zone because no sister missionaries are allowed in our Zone, it's too dangerous which is always comforting=). I ride the subway everywhere. I have a nice little metro card for unlimited use and we use it to get everywhere. All the Hispanics are pretty much from Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico (is that where Esther went and LeGrand went to Costa Rica?) also some Mexicans. So far I’ve been fine with the language and the food, my 2 biggest concerns coming here. I can't speak amazingly well at all, but I usually can convey what I want to say, especially when teaching since that's what 90% of my vocab is, --gospel related terms, but I’m excited to learn! I can mostly understand people too, they talk ridiculously fast, and for some reason DR's (Dominicanos) don't pronounce the letter S ever so that throws me off, but I’m getting the hang of it! We're what's called being ‘blinded in’, neither Elder Kerby or I(obviously) have ever been in this area, the pool (teaching pool) is pretty dead in that there is no progressive investigator, so we've just been doing a lot of finding! ‘Fearlessing’ people in the streets, subway, busses, or knocking doors, so I've walked miles and miles, up and down these crazy crowded little streets. All the cars and stores have music blaring, and everyone shouts at each other across the street, out of windows, houses, cars, so it's pretty loud, and then added to the noise is the metro which, in my area is mostly above the street. It screeches really loud and shakes the street. But it's been great!

I love the culture here, getting to know so many diverse people from Sri Lanka, Jamaica, or any other country you can think of, its fun! Teaching is also great, sharing our message of Christ and being bold. It is pretty awesome and I’m excited to get better at it! Hopefully we'll be able to get people to start progressing! Awww, I have so much more to say about the branch here, our investigators, but we gotta go! I'll write a letter if I get time! I love you all! The gospel is true, remember to talk to everyone and always be a missionary.

Love,

Elder Lewis

and he's off!

Elder Lewis flew to New York City today to enter the field. God speed little brother.

Last week in the MTC

11-1-10

Dear Family and Friends,

I cannot believe that I've already been at the MTC for 8 weeks!! It seems like I just got here, and now I've already got my travel plans and everything. My plane ticket is booked, and I'm reporting next Monday morning to the travel office at 5 am, then flying from SLC at 8:35, and arriving at JFK at 3:35. So this time next week I'll be in NYC!!

This week has been awesome and has flown by super fast! The biggest highlight for me is Whitney getting her mission call to San Diego, and speaking Spanish! I can't wait for you to get out in the field so we can be serving at the same time=). The next coolest thing was having Elder Richard G. Scott come to speak to us on Tuesday! It was such an amazing talk on recognizing the spirit, he had lots of people walk up to mikes and read quotes and then he'd ask them questions randomly on the spot. My friend Elder Brandon Leslie was one of them, he got to talk to an apostle! I was honored to get to sing in the choir that performed, again. I love singing and sharing that talent, and I keep using it all the time here in the MTC. We seriously sing about 10 hymns a day, Sundays like 30, and every time an apostle comes we sing "Called to Serve", I wish I would've kept a tally of how many times we've sung that. Afterward we had a great district review with everyone, and it's so great hearing everyone's insights, and at the end getting to bear our testimonies in Spanish, and it's even better now since we can actually talk about what we learned, instead of just saying memorized phrases. It brought a lot of members of our district to tears, especially hermanas, but even some of the elders=) This next week will be my last Devotional, last everything! Today was my last P-day, it's so weird to think about!

Saturday for our TRC we had to give a summary of the lesson, find out their concerns about the Word of Wisdom, give them directions to the Church building, and then come back and teach them all of Lesson 2 in Spanish. Not an easy week for us, but all of us felt better about our Spanish this week, even though we were short on time since we didn't have enough volunteers to fill the roles as investigators. Later that day we also had Interviews, and since Hno. Edwards is on his Honeymoon, poor Hno. Jensen had to do all of them, but I love his interviews. They really do help us to set good goals, and help us be accountable to him, help us figure out where our strengths are; where we need to improve, and think about all the good things. It really gets me excited for the upcoming week, and helps me focus on what I want to accomplish. I love it! This week I'm really going to focus on knowing the scriptures better, and always having a scripture on hand for any given scenario, question, or anything I might need it for. They are such a wonderful resource that I'm not using enough. PMG has some great sections and scripture study activities that I"m excited to work on this week for Personal Study=)

I also love Saturdays because we get to have a District meeting and recap the week, set goals, etc.. and then we do one with our companionships, which is so healthy for resolving potential conflicts, being supportive, and giving/receiving constructive criticism.It was especially fun this week because we just got to talk about a lot of things, and now I think we're a lot closer as friends, not just companions.

On Sunday Bro. Swensen, director of Missionary Services gave an amazing talk on "Friends". We got to usher=) He hit on a bunch of scriptures where the Savior refers to us as his friends, and then he admonished us to treat others in the same way He treats us. We need to be everyone's friends, members, investigators, and especially our companions. Also at the fireside an elder sang a beautiful piece "Be Still My Child" I think, and it was one of the most powerful musical numbers I've ever heard, I loved the cello and piano accompaniments. We also got to go to the temple again and that was fun to take pictures of our district and have fun outside, even though it is pretty chilly.

I also loved going to Music and the Spoken Word Sunday Morning, it always makes the day go better. I got to sit behind Elder Rusk a friend from BYU, and then on the way out ran into Elder Biggs, another friend from my freshman ward. The MTC is so fun!=) During Sacrament meeting I was called on to give my talk, every week we all write one and then hope we won't actually have to give it, but Hna. England and I both got called; they seem to pick on our district a lot. It was on the restoration and I got to talk about my experience being in the sacred grove for my 14th birthday and how the restoration is such an important part of our message. It's the power statement that catches peoples' attention, sets us apart. We Are the same church that Christ established on the earth in the New Testament, he still leads and guides us today. What an amazing message I can't wait to preach it to the people in NY!

Mom: Yes I voted, I filled it out and put it in the mail box the day I got it, before any of your letters or advice.lol Yes, when I sang for Elders Nelson and Scott, that was here at the MTC. My mission Home address should be on my facebook profile I believe, or I'm sure you could find it any other way too=) Good job on being a missionary and inviting people to church! Thanks for forwarding me e-mails and being so faithful. I'm gonna miss dearelder when my number of letters will be cut in half.

Dad: Thanks for your letters! Yes I"m allowed to call when I"m at the airport, supposedly 7-8 Mtn. Time, next MOnday.

Happy Birthday LaDawn on the 2nd, and Tara on the 4th. You two are so great and I'm so glad you've been close by here in Utah while I lived here now and all last year!

Hunter Lynette! How was districts, how's school? Why haven't you written me?! I love you guys!

Esther thanks for your letter and your amazing missionary efforts.

I love all of you guys, and I love getting your letters and hearing from you! Next time you hear from me I'll be in New York City!! And I won't have a flashing number blinking at me in the corner of the screen.

Love you!

Elder Lewis

Week 7 in the MTC (only 2 more to go)

10-25-10

Hey everyone!

So the big news for this week is that on Tuesday for the devotional we got to hear from Elder Nelson! I sang in the choir like I normally do, and it was funny walking in because there were tons of people lined up outside already waiting in line to get good seats, and I automatically got a seat for being in the choir, and my spot is in the very middle part of the gym so I was at his level looking straight at him. It was nice watching him speak rather than the screen. It was amazing feeling such a strong spirit there with an apostle of the Lord. He reiterated how much the Brethren love us and how much they pray for us. It made me feel pretty good, knowing how mindful they are of us, and how mindful the Lord is of his servants. It's such an awesome opportunity to hear from a real apostle in person, but I found it kinda funny how people make such a big deal going to "see" the apostle when they mainly look at the screen the whole time and might as well be watching a recording, and then they complain about having to watch all 5 sessions of general conference. I just love getting to hear God's chosen servants, special witnesses of Jesus Christ, and hearing their strong testimonies'. I hope that I can bring that same spirit to my future investigators so they can know of its truthfulness and come to know that God lives and loves them. That message is so important and so many people don't know it! For the TRC on Saturday we had to do our task of going to a store and buying clothes, contacting the clerk and getting him to invite us to teach him the lessons (all in Spanish) and then go to his house and teach him the first lesson (all in Spanish). We had to teach a lesson to a person without a teaching record, and our person decided to be an atheist, which was fun... It's so hard to talk about our message when they think it's all just a fabricated story to get people to live good lives. I tried so hard to bear witness that, I know it's true, that God really does live, that we are his children and he loves us, but it's hard to answer questions and explain things on topics I've never studied the Spanish vocabulary for. It was a very neat experience though, when during the lesson I felt like we weren't connecting with him, or getting the investigator interested, so I just started asking more questions and trying to pry information out of him. I finally got him to say that he liked reading, and upon further inquiry that he liked history, which I love! So I then had to try to get him to talk to me about his favorite historical figure, and then I started going on this tangent trying to show how Napoleon (the person he decided on) was able to make such a difference in the world, and was able to make such great changes and affect so many people because he'd been prepared and learned what he needed to know. I tried to make an analogy to the gospel and how it helps teach us the principles on how to live our lives, but we need to make the effort to follow their counsel and let Heavenly Father teach us. It was just really cool because it got him all excited and perked up and I was talking about all this in Spanish, and half the words I'd never even seen or learned, but words kinda just popped in my head and later I looked them up and they were right, and he understood me. The gift of tongues is such a blessing, I hope I can use it in the field, to help me communicate with the people, even with my lack of knowledge, but I'm trying to learn as much as I can!=) In our class we're playing a game called loco nativo where every night we draw cards and one person is the nativo and they have to try and speak the most Spanish the next day At the end of the day we all vote who we thought was it and if we get it right we get 2 pts, and if someone votes for us and we weren't it we also get 2 points. So everyone tries to speak a ton of Spanish so people will vote for them. It's helped a lot so other class members speak a lot of Spanish which in turns helps all of us! It's a lot of fun, and I just enjoy speaking Spanish, especially if everyone's doing it so it doesn't matter if it takes a while to formulate and conjugate all your sentences=)

Also this week we've had a lot of subs. Hno. Edwards got married on Sat. in the San Diego temple so we missed him half of last week, all this week, and part next week too. We're very happy for him, but we miss him. It's interesting getting subs though because each teacher is extremely different in their methods, some have certain things that are extremely effective, and some things that aren't so much. It's quite the party every day having a new person that we have to get used to, but it also keeps us on our toes and we are learning a lot! One of our teachers was Sis. Ennor who had served in NYC-S as well! She told us lots of great stories after class and we want to go see pictures and hear more about our mission, at least the 3 of us in my district that are going there. Just 2 more weeks!! Crazy.

This week we also got to teach Tommy again, our progressive investigator, and it was fun teaching lesson 4! It's crazy with Tommy because we picked him up our first week here, so we've gotten a lot farther with him then with our teacher investigator "juan", so in class we always learn how to teach a lesson, like 2 weeks after we already taught it to Tommy. It helps us a lot to learn, and lesson 4 we never teach or learn how to while in the MTC so it's very good for us as a companionship to have to work really hard forming our lesson plans and all that. Lesson 4 is hard because it's all the commandments and things: tithing, chastity, word of wisdom, Sabbath day, 10 commandments etc. We wish we would have integrated these commandments earlier in our lessons like you’re supposed to so you don't dump it all on them one right after another, but we didn't know back then, but we know for next time! Always learning=)

Sunday was really fast yesterday, which was weird because it normally takes forever, and in choir we're going to sing "A Marvelous Work" on Tuesday which reminds me of when I was really little and I think we performed this song as a family in church or something. I somehow already know it and it reminded me of you Mom=) Again thank you so much for giving me so many musical opportunities growing up, they've blessed my life so much!

Dad: Thanks for your letter! It's always nice to hear about you in the family newsletters, but I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to write me a letter, and even give me great advice!

Our investigators are usually volunteers that know Spanish or are learning English, or they're teachers. I think they all know the gospel, and just have a character that they do for the lessons. Like Tommy is actually Hno. Evans an RM from Peru, but he always in character if we ever see him, so I don't really know Evans at all, just Tommy, a young man from Chicago that has a good friend that joined the church and he wants the happiness she now has.

I love reading the family newsletters. Thanks for sending them! makes me miss XC, and going to Herricks, etc. I love you all and miss you!

Elder Lewis

Week 6 from the MTC

Hey everyone!

So I think this is week six, at least that what it has down in our schedule stuff, but I neer know if that week starts on Wed, the day of the week we got here, or if they start it Sunday like a normal week. So I think this is my sixth letter, but I don't have time to check!

This week was quite a load of spiritually uplifting experiences that really made it meaningful for me. Of course every week at the MTC is full of great experiences, awesome talk, lessons, etc. but this week I really tried to have the spirit with me as often as possible, and I think that helps, when you're actively striving to live and act in a way that you know would bring the spirit, and would never drive it away. On Tuesday we had the opportunity to hear from Bishop Edgley from the church Bishopric which was quite a treat! He was very funny and gave some great insight which inspired me. He talked about how our success isn't measured by how many baptisms we get, but by how committed we are, if we're hard workers, obedient, if we rely on prayer and don't hesitate to get on our knees to ask for help or to receive guidance, and then how much we changed during our mission. In one of my interviews with my teacher Hno. Jensen, he challenged me to try and figure out how I can take this opportunity of being on a mission to solely focus on gospel related things, and during my personal study, since I didn't have a progressive investigator really, to try and see how I can change myself for the better. This really is a great thing since every day I have at least one hour where I have to account for what I did the day before and if I was trying to reach my goals. Being accountable and reporting your success really does force you to improve dramatically, faster than I could've thought possible. He also touched on how I've been called of God, this is His work, so I shouldn't be intimidated to share His gospel with those around me. Yes they have their agency, but we're called to find the elect of God, and he is preparing people for us to guide to him, we just have to be bold and open our mouths! Afterward we had a great district review, which I find is always especially uplifting because not only do I get to discuss what I learned, but everyone else's views and thoughts as well! It helps us to let each and every thing really sink in and helps us decide how to apply that.

Another thing I'm working hard on this week is memorizing scriptures in Spanish. We're having to start teaching the lessons in Spanish, which is a whole new ball game, but it helps when I know the scriptures and can share them and discuss them in Spanish, and I'm finding that the best way for me to understand what a scripture is saying, is by going through it line by line and deciphering the message, and while I’m at it I might as well remember it=) Also a cool little thought that I had this week was with our teaching opportunities. it really strengthened my testimony of the spirit and my resolve to have it with me always (which I've been promised if I am worthy and do those things I've covenanted to do). One day we had to teach the first lesson (something we taught a million times the first 3 weeks, but the last 3 weeks we've been focusing on the next 2) and it was a trying experience, but educational when we were with other missionaries our same level so none of us new exactly how to say everything, so we were just stumbling through, and then later my companion and I had to teach "Juan" our progressive investigator with Hno. Jensen, and that went rather badly because we just weren't on the same page, he hadn't done any of his commitments, and we couldn't move on with our lesson I thought until we addressed all his problems, but he would just be stubborn and every time I explained why he needs to do something, he's just say that's great that I believe that, but he believes something else. I tried so hard to get him to see why he needed to pray to God and not just recite rote prayers, or why he needed to read the Book of Mormon, but eventually we just had to bear witness that we knew it was true and we hoped he'd follow the Lord up on his promise, but it was rather disheartening just feeling so helpless, then we remembered right after that we had to go teach again in Spanish to the ZL's because they'd asked if we could practice on each other since we'd done it a couple times before. My companion was out of sorts from the last lesson and completely abandoned me half way through the lesson so I had to do the whole thing, which just sent the spirit out the window, and of course you can't teach without the spirit so I just felt like I might as well have just recited Spanish phrases to the wall. Anyway, this was an example of how when we didn't do what we were supposed to, have the right attitudes, and subsequently didn't have the spirit, then we could do nothing and it just made us feel exhausted afterward. This experience I want to compare to 2 days later when we went down to teach our other progressive investigator "Tommy" in the TRC. This time we really focused on making sure we were ready to do it, and would keep the spirit. The lesson went great, all throughout it I felt impressions to say things I hadn't planned on, and somehow it made it better, I just seemed to know what he needed to hear or how to explain it, and I know that's because we had the spirit. This lesson was a lot more in depth and should've made us even more exhausted then all the other practices, but walking out of it we both felt elated, and energized. The scripture that says when we teach, the student and the teacher will be edified together. I felt that promise come true and it was so great to see the difference. Just like in running when I run with bad form, or am distracted thinking about other things, or I don't run the pace I knew I should've, I always had a horrible race, and felt completely dead afterward and I had a terrible time. When I followed Cantrall's plan, when I was focused, then I'd run great, I'd usually PR, and even win it! It's just funny how even though I ran faster, or taught longer, I was less tired=)

Running out of time! In the TRC we got to teach an Italian so that was interesting, he talked way fast, but we somehow were able to answer most of his questions, and teach with the spirit. I guess practice makes perfect, and we did prepare a lot which I"m grateful for. On Sunday we had the awesome opportunity to bless the sacrament, in Spanish. It really felt cool knowing that my priesthood is used to bless others, give them the opportunity to utilize the atonement, and I can do it in Spanish too!=) We didn't get a temple walk on Sunday but we instead reviewed "Sweet is the Work" a hymn our Branch Pres had us all read and discuss. Reminded me of Paul's lit class talking about the different interpretations of poetry, but it was so much cooler with a spiritual perspective!

Also for fireside the Beeson's spoke which was hilarious and awesome! Sis Beeson sang a medley of a bunch of hymns to describe a day in the life of an MTC missionary. Mom it reminded me of you, always singing=) Well I love you all, am so grateful for your prayers, letters, etc. You're the best!!

Church is true!

Love,

Elder Lewis

10-4-10 (4th letter)

Hey everyone!

So this week has been very trying, but in the end was probably the most rewarding. All I can think about is General Conference and the wonderful blessing and opportunity it is to hear the words of the prophets. I've been coming to enjoy it more and more every year, but being a missionary during it is just that much better! Every talk it seemed I could somehow relate back to my purpose as a missionary, whether it be being a better teacher, leaning on the spirit more, or just improving myself so I can help my future investigators more. It was amazing!

My main talk I enjoyed and can think of right now is of course Pres. Monson’s when he opened conference with a short call to all missionaries. I'm so grateful to be on a mission and hope Hunter is preparing himself to go, and all my friends that are nearing or are at that age. It truly is the best experience of your life up to this point! I also really enjoyed Elder Jensen and Bednars' talks on the Holy Ghost. As a missionary and even when not on a mission, it is so vitally important that we always are listening to the quiet promptings of the spirit. He will direct our paths, if we are humble enough and in tune with the spirit. I've definitely seen that promise come to fruition as I try to teach the lessons and cater them to the needs of the investigator. As members of the church we have such an awesome promise to have it with us always, the Sacrament prayers just take on a whole new meaning when I thought about it that way. Another couple talks I felt were directed at me was Elder Holland and Pres. Monsons' on Gratitude. Elder Holland is such a strong speaker, when he spoke of his own dear parents' sacrifice for him while on his mission it really hit home when I think about all the things you all have done for me. I don't say it nearly enough, but thank you thank you thank you! I am always amazed at how much easier and blessed my life has been and is because I was in our family. How lucky am I?! I also loved Elder Oaks talk on our personal and priesthood communication with God. Not only did this give me a lot of food for thought for my own relationship with God, but that is also a key part for when we teach investigators, to get them to come unto Christ and to feel his love, and why we need to pray always that we may come off conqueror. Also I had an investigator ask about the need for organized religion if we can just have such a close relationship with God ourselves, I think that talk answered a lot of those questions. My other favorite talk (I know I'm missing tons) was by Elder Arnold as he asked each of us what we're doing with Christ's name, relating to George A. Smith's experience. That talk really came alive for me since I do wear Christ's name every single day, everywhere I go, his name Jesucristo in Espanol, is on my chest. Am I always acting in a way that he would want me to act, honoring him with my actions? I have a lot to work on, but since I get to spend all day every day just focusing on the gospel I’m a lot more able to do something about it since all my time and focus is centered there, so I better not mess up. I was sad I still haven't heard Sat. afternoon, and I couldn't take notes for Priesthood, but I guess I'll just get to watch or read them later and take even better notes then I would have. Plus I got to sing in Priesthood Session! That was definitely the highlight of my week. It was a struggle this last week since I was sick for like 2 weeks, and got pretty bad last Mon and Tues, but miraculously my prayers were answered and literally my sore throat went away the day before we had to perform. The Lord really is mindful of us. I still coughed a bit and was a little congested, but I was able to sing with all my usual ability, and that was one of the best experiences of my life. Being in the conference center, right where the Mormon tabernacle choir sits, staring at the General Authorities, apostles and prophets right in front of me, and knowing I was being watched be every priesthood holder in the church! The experience was amazing, just getting to have the opportunity to learn those songs, their lyrics, and the meaning behind them would have been good enough for me, but that truly was the experience of a lifetime I'll never forget. I hope we were able to share our spirit, our love for the gospel, to show our purpose to go forth to every nation, tongue and people, as messengers of the Lord, going forth to serve his children and share his message of joy and happiness. I loved it!!!

After Conference on Sunday we had a devotional (sitting in meetings for like 12 hours in just 2 days was spiritually exhausting), but it was awesome because Pres. Breinholt decided to make it a musical devotional focusing on the ability of music to always bring the spirit. That is so true! I'm so grateful to you mom for always forcing me to develop my musical ability and getting me to push myself to learn more. It has been one of my greatest blessings on my mission, and really in my life!

Also thanks for following up on all my numerous requests for things, I know you are all so busy, I appreciate all you do! Thanks Dad for sending that letter, it was such a blessing in disguise because I was talking with some Elders just in a random hallway about the letter from New York and a teacher came over and heard I was going to New York (because of your letter) and apparently he went there as well and then Elder Patchett (the other elder in my district going to NYC) and I spent the next hour just listening to him tell us what to expect--another highlight of my week. I can't wait to get out into the mission field to preach the gospel to people that need it! It's going to be such an amazing experience I know!

Well I have 5 minutes left and I'm not going to make it too close like before when part of my letter got cut off so I'll end it here. Thanks for all your letters everyone! I loved them, and I'm working on getting back to you all. I can't wait to hear back from you=) keep up the good work, keep being missionaries and spreading the gospel. I think it's so cool Lynette how you talk about the church with your friends and you are such a good missionary to them. Use preach my gospel, it will help a lot!

I love and miss all of you! Yo se que este iglesia esta verdad y tenemos los profetas en la tierra. Les Ama!

Elder Lewis

Logan's first Handwritten letter home (still week 3 in the MTC)

September 24, 2010

Dear Mom & Family,

Thank you so much for consistently sending me letters and taking time out of your day to forward all the info about what is going on. Also, thanks for saving my e-mails, I think it will be fun to look back on these sometime. I’m sorry they’re short. I literally sign on and try to type as much as I can straight for the 30 minutes. Last time I was lucky since I finished with about 20 seconds left and pressed “send”, which is usually instantaneous but for some reason it was taking awhile and then it just kicked me off without sending it!! Luckily a missionary near me said he still had a minute left and let me sign on using his time and I got to send the last saved “Draft”, but unfortunately not the whole letter, so I don’t even know what all you got! Pretty frustrating! I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to read e-mails, I guess I’m just too slowL. It’s pretty hard thinking back over everything that happened over the last week, which is a lot, since every minute is schedules from 6:30-9:30, 16 hours every day! I try to give you a feel for how I’m doing personally, what I’m learning, Spiritual experiences, etc. but it’s a lot to fit in.

Anyway, yes I did hear about the choir and I signed up for it literally an hour after I showed up at the MTC. Luckily they accepted me since a lot of people filled out the form and a bunch didn’t get in. I didn’t realize we were singing at General Conference though until I got the acceptance letter. We’ve had practice at 6:30 A.M. the last two days and it’s so awesome to be in a choir again with a real choir director who’s a professional J Unfortunately I’ve had a sore throat the last two days in spite of getting 8 hrs. of sleep, and trying to stay healthy, I’m getting worse! Keep me in your prayers, It would be so sad if they didn’t let me go to General Conference because I as sickL

Also, I still haven’t received anything from LaDawn’s or Whitney, like my winter clothes. Whit, Aaron, Verlan & Katherine wrote me letters, (THANKS) but I still haven’t heard back form Aaron or Whit. Maybe they e-mailed me but I didn’t even get to look at my inbox. So if you could try to make sure I get my stuff. I really could use more normal T-shirts, I don’t like just wearing those plain white Tees over my garments when we’re in our P.J. or for gym, and I only have 3 shirts which get gross if I ever go running, or get all sandy (volleyball PDay). Also I really need my other suit. Aaron’s advice about wearing slacks way more than suits is probably true, especially in the field, but here we wear suits all of Sunday, for Tuesday Devotionals, temple session/walks, Firesides, Zone/District Conferences. Etc. My suit is taking a lot of wear & tear since I can’t ever give it a rest or wear another one. It’s also getting colder here already so at least before the end of October I’d really like to get my Sunday Sweater, gloves, beanie, etc.

Well thanks again for all you guys do for me, forwarding my glasses, the Memory card. Etc. I really am so lucky, no, blessed, to have been born in our family. Being surrounded by such a variety of members I’ve found even among the Mormon society we’re pretty rare. Thank you, thank you, so much for helping me prepare for this mission, financially, physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. It has been such a blessing and made the transition so smooth, I feel bad for all the elders who are struggling.

I’d love to get Parker’s letters and get Robert’s address if you could. It’s been great to see Ben (Elder Carlisle) at all our meals since we’re on the same meal schedule. I’ve loved seeing so many of my friends and already witnessing the maturity and changes in them, preparing them to better fulfill their purpose as missionaries. The Lord qualifies those he calls. That gives me a lot of hope for myself.

The MTC is great, it really is a once in a lifetime opportunity, no other like it. I Love you all! Can’t wait to get your next letterJ

Love, Elder Lewis

Week 3

9-27-10

Hey everyone!

I'm sorry lasts week letter ended in the middle of a sentence. I tried to send my finished letter, but for some reason my computer was being weird and wouldn't send it, and then it kicked me off. Luckily another elder next to me had extra time( how I don't know), so I logged on my account through his time and found the letter hadn't sent, so I had to just send the last saved draft, which I don't even know where that ended so sorry about that! Hopefully you already knew all that since I sent you a letter a couple days ago, hand-written, to try to explain everything, hope you got it!

So this week has been pretty eventful for me. One of my highlights was my opportunity to have my teacher interviews, as Dad probably knows from all our monthly interviews, I love getting to talk on and on and on and then I'd force him to sign all my Duty to God requirements even though he'd fallen asleep during our interviews! Hunter I hope you're doing your Duty to God, it really does prepare you really well for not just the mission, but life in general. Anyway, I loved getting to know my teachers a little bit better on a one to one basis, and then just discuss my goals, my Spanish, how I'm coming along, my companionship etc. Both of them are really awesome, especially Hno. Jensen since we're his first class he just shows such a love for all of us, he's so great, and so is Hno. Edwards! This week we learned a bunch of stuff, and it's hard since we've gotten past what I learned in my two years of high school so it's all new for me. Learning how to use por and para more properly has been nice since I use it so much and I never really knew the difference, now I wish English had a way to differentiate between our use of them since we just use "for" and it can mean so many different things, depending on the context. It's so awesome learning about Spanish, not only am I learning more about another language, but I think languages themselves are fascinating and I get to learn a lot about why we speak in English certain ways. It reminds me JRR Tolkien, since he was so smart he learned tons of languages, and even made up several for his books! Spanish really is a beautiful language and I can't wait to get in the field so I can inly use it. It's sometimes difficult to follow our H.S.E. policy of speaking our mission language when it's so much faster and more convenient to use Spanish, like right now! I could be trying to rearrange my sentences so I could use my limited vocabulary, but it would just take me the whole 30 mins to write one paragraph! It's coming along slowly but surely and I know I can receive the ability to speak it if I put all my effort into it=)

Another highlight of my week is our mission president letters. Again I love just discussing what I'm learning, how I'm doing, etc. It's great time for introspective thought and just a way to realize everything I've learned. Kinda like saying a prayer. God already knows our thoughts/needs.concerns, but prayers are ways we can figure out what we really need, realize all we have to be grateful for, and just an opportunity to come closer to our Heavenly Father. Prayer also is an awesome way to bring the spirit, that and singing or bearing your testimony, definitely great things we do a million times a day here! I love it! I also really enjoy comp study time (well also personal and Language, but companionship is more relevant right now), because it's such a good opportunity to strengthen our relationship and teaching ability. We've definitely found out that when we go into a lesson not on the same page, then it totally falls apart. Even if we don't completely agree with the other person, we have to compromise because if we can't support each other then we both just fall. It's been a good learning experience so in our hour each day we've been focusing on working on our lesson plans, and then picking an attribute of Christ from Ch.6 in PMG and then discussing it and writing out our thoughts. Not only does it help us learn how to be better companions for each other, but also how to help everyone. it is one of my favorite chapters...well actually they're all so amazing I don't think I could pick one since I just thought of several others that are also equally helpful and awesome! I'd highly recommend going through it and getting familiar with it. Some really great stuff=)

Along with my companion and I learning, we found out all this stuff from the TRC and TE (Teaching Resource Center, Teacher Evaluation). It's hard, but really beneficial when every Saturday we have to go practice our Spanish by contacting/knocking door to door, and then teaching a whole lesson. It really shows us what the mission field is like, and how far we have to come!

For everyone else that might be reading this, just to let you know, thank you so so much for all of your letters! I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to a lot of you. last Monday I got a ton right before e-mail and then dinner so I didn't get a chance to write anyone back, but I tried doing better today. Unfortunately I didn't spend that much of my free time writing like normally since I tried to get some sleep. I've gotten pretty sick this last week, which is really unfortunate and horrible timing=( I have a sore throat, congestion, head aches, etc.. The good news of this all is that I'm in the MTC choir so I get the wonderful opportunity to sing at the Priesthood Session of General Conference, the bad news is that my throat is horrible and I can't sing! I've actually been really blessed in that even though my throat hurts all day and I'm always coughing up a lung, every morning for practice I've been able to sing fine (just not my full range which isn't a problem since I'm a 2nd tenor) so I've been really blessed there, I just want to be better by Saturday so I've been doing everything I can to try and get over this as soon as possible.

Oh yea, yesterday was fast Sunday which was a neat experience getting to hear everyone's testimony's in Sacrament Meeting, and I understood them all even though they were in Spanish! Now I just need to be able to remember how to say it when I'm the one speaking=) I hope all of you had a great week. I can't wait to hear from you all! I love and miss you, but this is definitely where I'm supposed to be right now, and having that assurance is such a blessing. The gospel is such a blessing in my life, I can't wait to go and share it with those people in New York waiting for me=)

Hopefully LaDawn or Whit or someone can get me my stuff soon. Can't wait to get my first package!

Love,

Elder Lewis

Week 2 - still loving the MTC

9-20-10

Dear family and friends,

Thank you so much for all of your warm heart-felt letters. It is such a wonderful opportunity to learn as I read all your great advice and encouraging words. Thank you thank you!

This week has been really, really good and I'm just loving the MTC more and more! Now that we're really getting into a rhythm of how things work, where we're supposed to be, how to prepare for it. Also our zone/district/companionship are all just getting that much closer, it really brings the spirit into all of our meetings. That's what is so cool about this place, no matter where I go or what part of the day it is, I can always feel the comforter and his influence on all of us. So on Tuesday we had the opportunity to hear from H. Bryan Richards, a member of the 2nd quorum of the 70, or at least he was. He gave a simple but great talk, and every time I hear from one of our leaders I get so much out of them! A reoccurring theme I'm sensing is the importance of obedience. Afterward our District had a meeting, and it was a great opportunity to review what we learned and a chance to bear our testimonies. That's also what I love about being here, there are never a lack of opportunities to practice bearing your testimony, whether in English or Spanish=) We spend about half our class time focusing on Spanish, and then the other half on learning how to be a missionary. We also get lots of study time; companion, personal, and language. I'm trying really hard to develop my Spanish enough that I can incorporate it into my religious study time, and that is a challenge, but really good. I loved how my teacher Hno. Jensen put it: "Spanish becomes your spiritual language. When you get home you'll do all your worldly activities in English, but when you pray, read scripture, or bear testimony, all of those you can do in Spanish and appreciate the beauty of that language. It remains pure and holy to you." How true that is! I love getting to have sacrament meeting in Spanish, hearing the sacrament prayers in Spanish helps me to refocus on the meaning of the words, and what we promise and the blessings we are promised when we partake of the bread and drink the water. How lucky are we to get to do that every week!

Today I also had the chance to attend the temple, my 3rd time, and it just gets better every time! My companion and I heard you could go get breakfast there and that we should try it someday, so we went there before our endowment session time, but apparently the cafeteria is closed on Mondays, which is sad since that means we'll never get to go, but it was a good opportunity to walk around the temple grounds, which are still beautiful with all the flowers in bloom, and once again appreciate our amazing Earth. I truly love mornings, everything seems so clean and fresh, like after it’s been raining. Another great thing about being a missionary; you get to enjoy each and every morning, every sunrise, every sunset=) On Sat we had the chance to go to the TRC where we practiced contacting people in Spanish, getting to know them, sharing a short message and scheduling an app. Afterward we then taught the First Lesson, but in English, so basically it was the best thing ever! I love practicing my Spanish, especially on native speakers since I really have to pay attention to their every word to understand them, and then teaching the gospel, nothing compares! You feel so full of energy afterward, and during! When you know it's true, I just want them to have it too! The message of the restoration is so great, what a blessing to live at this time. How did we get so blessed?! I also love talking about our Heavenly Father and his love for us. No matter who they are, or what their religious views are, getting to share a testimony of God and how they are his children and he wants to have a relationship with them is so spiritual. I can't even emphasize enough how much I've been told, that I can't do anything as a missionary without the spirit, and how true that is!! Being open to the influence of the spirit is so awesome, knowing you are a tool in his hands. I can't wait to get out in the mission field and teach real people that need the gospel, but I have to learn how first! A district from my zone leaves this week, and a bunch of my friends. It’s fun to get to talk to them and hear how excited they are to teach. A lot of them didn't get visas and are going to Ogden, or other places in Utah, but I love that they all still have positive attitudes and know that the Lord has prepared children even in those places for those missionaries.

Anyway, I love the MTC, getting to play Volleyball, running, etc. is fun, during Gym, and we also get to have one morning a week where we do service by cleaning our building. It was really cool how our person gave us a lesson on how important cleanliness is, especially once we are out in the field. All of our study time happens in our apartments, and we have to have the spirit with us if we want to make those times effective, but if our apartments aren't clean, how can the spirit reside there? I'd never thought of it that way, I love being clean anyway, but it was just another reason!!

Also, yesterday, the Sabbath, is awesome because we get to go to the temple to just go on a walk around it and enjoy the spirit there, and also we have another speaker come. Yesterday we had Bro. Brown and he gave a great talk on being a 100 watt missionary, putting all of our effort into it and not holding back anything. The one thing we never want to happen is come home with regrets, knowing we could have done more. He gave some great advice about learning from your companion, and just how to live up to your full potential. We have so much potential, if we could just utilize all the gifts God has given us, we don't want to be the unthankful or slothful servant!

Well I only have a minute left, so I'll just end with the classic but true: The Church is True!!! We may have a testimony of that, but unless we act on the knowledge we have, it is useless to us. Don't be af

(and that's where it cut off. I guess he ran out of time)

Week 1

Hey everyone,

So this week has gone by in somewhat of a blur. My first day I got to see Whitney and Aaron who met me at the entrance to the MTC, and there said goodbye to them, and Brenly's cute family. Thank you Burton's for being so kind and taking me to the MTC! After farewells at the curb and a few quick pictures, Elder Alston (my BYU roommate) was my host who took me around to get my picture taken, get my key etc.. it was pretty hectic and very hot in my suit, but eventually I got to my classroom where I met my district! We're District D in the 17th Branch/zone. Most zones get a new district every other week. but our zone got a district the week before, and 3 the week I got there, so we have 6! It's fun though having so many people to meet, and with our group our zone got hermanas for the first time all summer. In my district my companion is going to San Jose, along with 2 others who are in a trio with an elder going to my mission (go figure), and then 2 elders going to Guatemala. Our hermanas are going to Tuscon, San Jose, Espana, and my mission, the best of all, New York New York South!

My companions name is Elder Russell, he's from Dallas,TX and he lived in Wyview the last two years. He's turning 21 in 4 days, but we still get along really well even though he's almost 2 years older than me. It's good for me to learn ro calm down and not rush everywhere because he likes to take his time and is pretty relaxed. We are in a room with 2 elders that have already been here 4 weeks and are going to Mexico, so it's really good for us to practice our Spanish with them all the time.

The schedule here is super organized and we have to plan every waking moment of our day, but I like that since I hate being disorganized and not knowing what I'm doing. I got called as the senior companion so I get to head our daily planning sessions each night, and in 4 weeks we'll switch places and I'll be the junior comp=) Our teachers are Hno. Edwards and Jensen and I liek them a lot! I've always loved Spanish, espescially when we had foreign exchange students from Bolivia, Argentina etc. so It's super fun to get to practice/learn it all day long!

During Gym I usually play volleyball, which I love, it's fun to play sand volleyball since I've never played it that much and the sand brings a whole new aspect to it, but we aren't allowed to keep score or anything so it really is all just fun! It's difficult when playing sports to call everyone Elder___ or something since we hardly know anyones first names and we aren't supposed to have nicknames or just call them by their last name. The position of a missionary, the responsibility, the blessing and power that we are given when we are set apart is so real that I totally understand why they'd want to retain the dignity and importance of our positions.

I love being surrounded by such outstanding people everywhere I go. Everyone is super polite, friendly, etc. which is probably good since we're all going on missions, but it's still nice to enjoy being in a mini zion. One heart and one mind. It's great how everyone helps each other out and tries to always be focused on our reason we're our here. A big thing at the MTC is learning the "My Purpose" at the beginning of PMG and it's so inspired, I can't believe I didn't seriously start studying it until just a month before I came here!

Today is Preparation Day which means we got to go to the temple, right after breakfast, the sun hadn't come over the mountains yet, but it was shining on a part of Provo Canyon (I think) and it was such a beautiful morning it made the experience all that much better. I've missed Utah, the mountains, and fall is so amazing with the mountain covered in hues of red, orange, etc. I love being here! It's sometimes hard when you're working basically non-stop and never get a break, but it's awesome all the same since the thing we do is what I love, the gospel! I can't wait to got to go out and share it with people. That's something that I've really been taught this week. We've all been called by God, and there are people in our areas that only we can help. It's such an exciting time to finally be here. I've looked forward to this my whole life I can't believe I'm finally 19.

Well time is short so I'll try to wrap up. This last week we had the opportunity to watch/participate in some mock scenarios with investigators and it was so educational to see what it's like and what we can do to be better missionaries. How we can share our important message even with complete strangers. Just getting to know who they are and always during the lesson focusing on them, their needs, what they know etc. It's super good to learn from our mistakes, when I want to just share the first lesson and let them know it's true, God loves them, he wants them to return to him, and he has restored his church to the Earth through the prophet Joseph Smith so we can have all the keys and ordinances to return to him. I can't wait to learn how to say all that in Spanish=) i basically can, but it's just memorized phrases, I don't know that much vocab, and conjugating future, conditional, etc. my class hasn't even covered that yet. I guess it's only been 5 days, but I just want to learn more. We have a lot of personal/companionship study time each day and I want to make that as educational as possible, so we're trying to do all the activities in the chapters, and always practicing Spanish wherever we are. On Sunday we had to prepare a talk in Spanish which was pretty hard because I actually wanted to say things with my words instead of just copying out of the spanish PMG, but it took a long time. Even though I wasn't called, I'll still have a talk on the Atonement all ready when I get to New York=)

Well I love you all. I miss you, but I'm glad that I'm here learning and getting this opportunity to serve. The transition hasn't been hard at all, which is good that I never think much about the outside world. HOpe you are all well. Keep up the good work always being a missionary. The Church is true!!

Love,

Elder Lewis