Week 20

1-24-11
Dear Friends and Family,

Well even though everyone told me that February is going to be the
coldest thing I will have ever lived through, I kept telling myself
that it would be coldest in the beginning of January since it's
supposedly the middle of Winter, but they were all right, it is sooooo
cold here!!! We need to do more finding and tracting, but it is quite
possibly the most miserable experience of my life when we're out
knocking doors at night in ghetto neighborhoods and my whole body is
numb and my toes have frost bite, but I guess it builds character or
something like that  My comp always tells me "We knock doors to show
God that we have faith, and then he gives us investigators through
other routes, because of our faith." So hopefully we'll find someone
soon since right now the only good find has been Antonio (I'll get to
how he's doing later) so we're just working away and looking for a
miracle! 
I'm on week 6 of my 2nd transfer now and I (as usual) cannot believe
how quickly this transfer flew by! Seems like Elder Kerby left just
last week! I keep hearing that it's only going to get faster and
faster, but I don't know how that'd be possible, or else I'd be back
home in no time! I guess I just need to cherish every minute and work
harder in the limited time that I have! So this week! Monday we didn't
do anything for P-Day for the first time, just went to the other
elder's pad (so all 8 of us gathered in one little pad, there aren't
enough chairs, but most of them were lifting weights anyway) and I got
a chance to catch up on writing letters which was nice. That night we
were invited over to the house of a less-active member and it was fun
getting to know that family. They're Dominican and talk the fastest
and loudest of any family I have yet to meet. Sometimes I'm truly at a
loss as to what she was saying to me and I think she'd try to talk
louder to help me understand, but it was still too fast I couldn't
tell which words were which! Oh the joys of learning a foreign
language in your own country! It's funny how the Hispanics when they
ask me questions about home they refer to "my country" and I'm not
sure if it's impolite to point out to them that even though I'm VERY
far from home, I'm still living in "my country"=) Also a brother in
the ward called us and asked us to meet him at the chapel so we could
give him a blessing. We called the Elder's Quorom Pres. to ask who
Bro.Munoz' Home Teacher was so next time he could give the blessing
since we want to give the members opportunities to learn grow and
fulfill their responsibilities, but he didn't know. That's the one
thing with this branch which I'm finding very frustrating. They have
the priesthood holders and the number of members numbers necessary to
do things, but they really slack on Home and Visiting Teaching. In our
specific area all the "members" are less/inactive and we are
struggling getting the active members to help out. They don't even
visit each other let alone the inactives! It's too bad. I wish I would
have done more for our inactive families that I used to home teach.
Missions teach you SO much, and make you wish you'd been very
different before. Tues we had Deep Cleaning! Although we moved in not
too long ago, when we got here our apt was kind of a mess, basically
still a construction site, so we spent several hours continuing the
process of cleaning. It's extremely hard to sweep a wooden floor that
is still rough and has never been sanded. I resorted to using a vacuum
on a wood floor, just using the hose end.lol We did a lot of walking
around that day, had some near death experiences on the ice, visited
the Lee family and had a good lesson with the mom and kids and gave
them a reading assignment. We also taught English Class We only have
one student. He's a recently reactivated member from Mexico City and
knows next to nothing in English so it's good for me to get to teach
(or attempt to) English in my limited Spanish. Both student and
teacher learn together! McDonalds has promotion right now where on hot
drinks there are little stickers and if you get 4 then you get a free
Med. Hot choc. so every time I see one on the street (which is a lot
since litter is a disease here) I look for a sticker and then throw
away the cup. Slowly but surely I'm saving the environment, and I get
a free hot choc out of it! So after English class I went and got my
free Hot Choc.  Wed. we visited Antonio in the morning when all the
girls and family are at school etc. since he works from 2-11 so we
teach him in the morning. We had a good lesson reviewing the first
vision and covering stuff we didn't have time for the first time we
taught it, and he remembered everything really well! We also taught
about the Word of Wisdom. We were a little worried about that because
we had heard he used to drink-- from him and other members, but he
said that it made sense and he would pray about it. Also I had a
delicious DA with the Luna family who are Mexican. It's quite ironic
how my whole life I was told I was going to go to Mexico on my mission
since I don't like that type of food, but now I actually love it! I
still don't like hot stuff, but I can handle a little and it's all
great! Thur. we did lots of knocking and looking up potentials etc.
We've been going through all the old lists of people that old
missionaries had talked to and gotten info abt. but never taught. We
have lists of each "zone" inside our area and when we are in the zone
we look up all the names. It's weeding out a LOT of people since most
everyone has moved or is not interested or lies to us that they aren't
that person etc. but we're just giving them a gift and if they choose
not to accept, it's too bad for them and their loss. I'm just glad I
have it!=) We also did weekly planning which was good. Ever since my
Greenie Conference we always do a lot better planning our lessons and
trying to address our investigators specific needs and I think our
lessons go better now! At Hna. Flores we had stuffed peppers, they
were yummy! I'm loving getting to try such a variety of foods. Fri.we
had district meeting. We're sad because our District will only have 2
baptisms at the end of this month, but we had good lessons focusing on
our mission theme for the year and on using the Book of Mormon. Its
funny how we get similar lessons so many times, but I always feel
edified! We had a ‘Street Sweep’ in Bushwick and I was SO cold! But
it’s fun to be out among the people just fearlessing every single
person and being with all the missionaries in the zone. We taught a
new investigator we found, named Javier. It was just a ‘getting to
know him’ lesson, but it was really good. We had a good lesson with
the Lee family. We watched the Restoration in Spanish and I remember
watching it in the MTC and understanding next to nothing, but this
time I got most everything! It was great since their dad (who I've
never met), actually came in and watched it with us and the wife and
kids told us that he didn't like the church anymore-- although they
were only baptized less than 2 years ago. They've basically been
inactive ever since, but after watching the movie Hna. Lee turned to
us and said she knows that the First Vision is true and she believes
it. The spirit was really strong. They had also done the reading
assignment we left them. We explained it and the Dad gave a good
insight, then he asked us to stay and they fed us! They came to church
on Sunday (well the mom and 2 kids) too for the first time in like a
year! I was very excited about that. There is lots of reactivation
work to do in our area. Also Tue night we had a DA with the Viera
family, but when we got there the mom had forgotten and so they
ordered Chinese and we watched Testaments. I've never ordered Chinese,
but apparently delivery is free, as I learned in the movie "While You
Were Sleeping" but they don't deliver Christmas Trees. Sat. we had
breakfast at the Dorantes. Mexican scrambled eggs are seriously the
best! I loved it, and french fries, beans etc. I’m telling you, it's a
miracle that I just gobble up this food that before I could barely
choke down. Weird. We looked up a lot of potentials, still not much
success, then we had a lesson at Roxanna's. She is seriously
struggling, she never reads or keeps any commitments so I feel bad but
we'll probably have to drop her, after so much work! Yesterday we
walked with Antonio's family to church, it was awesome! We had a good
lesson with them and the whole family after church. I love that
family, they're the best! We finally made contact with a less active,
Ana, from Mexico. It's sad the hardships that people go through here
in New York, I wish there was more we could do for them.

So yeah, that's my super long and overly detailed letter. Sorry, I
just love my investigators and this work, even though when I'm out
tracting it's miserable, I know it's where I’m supposed to be! I know
this church is true. Every day when I get the opportunity to share my
testimony or hear other people's testimony, mine is strengthened so
much. I'm so blessed to be here at this time. Now I’m going to go see
the Brooklyn Bridge one last time before I get transferred probably
next week. It'll be exciting! I love you all!

Love, Elder Lewis