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
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