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
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