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
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