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