Best week ever‏

Buenos Dias todos!
I can't even begin to express to you how happy I am! This week was
absolutely amazing- probably one of my favorites in the mission, if
not my favorite. I don't even know where to start!
I guess first off I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Mine
couldn't have been better. So all week was great because we got to do
so many things to focus on Christ and to help others focus on Christ.
We started off by going downtown to pass out hot chocolate and
pass-along cards downtown with our zone the day before Christmas Eve,
and we had a lot of fun with that. I even saw one of the members from
back in Sonoma that I was really close with while we were there!
So on Christmas Eve, both our zone and the Santa Rosa south zone
(about 40 of us) went downtown and flash mobbed the mall, which was
actually way cool. We gathered around the railing looking down into
the lower floor by the food court, so by the end we were surrounded by
people taking videos and singing along to the Christmas carols with
us. It was definitely an experience I'll remember forever because even
though there were so many people of so many faiths and backgrounds,
the spirit was so strong there and it definitely hit me hard. Plus,
president and his wife surprised us and joined in the caroling, then
bought us all mrs. Fields cookies (my favorites!) after that, we went
to our Christmas Eve dinner. Our investigator, Eric, and one of our
recent converts, valente, fed us. They were so sweet, they had us all
write down our favorite food and dessert that we missed from home, and
then they made them for us. After that we actually had another dinner
with bishop's family and they gave us all Christmas presents so we got
to open presents with them :)
On Christmas, we got up, opened presents (thanks everyone, by the way!
I loved everything you sent me!!), studied, then headed to skype our
families! After that, we went over to president's house because they'd
asked us to come visit on Christmas. We had a great lesson with them
and talked about Christmas, then we were leaving for dinner when they
called and cancelled. So, sister wright, being the sweetheart that she
is, offered to feed all 8 of us in the ward! So we went to visit some
of our less actives, and then headed back for dinner with the wrights,
which was so much fun. Then that night we had a zone
devotional/activity which was a great way to end the night. I'm
definitely sad it's over, but lucky for us missionaries, we get to
focus on the spirit of Christ all the time :)
So aside from all that, everything else is going pretty well too!
We're working really hard with 2 less active families and a less
active member who I'm sure could use your prayers! So if you could all
pray for Gerardo along with the Suarez and Velazquez families, it
would be greatly appreciated. Love you all, happy New Years! 

Love, 

Hermana Lewis 

Pictures: 

1. Skyping with the best family in the world! 

2. Christmas Eve dinner 

3. Christmas present w/ Hermana Escamilla (bishop's wife) 

4. Christmas morning comp picture :) yes, we're too poor for a tree haha

Read More

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas! I seriously can't believe it's the week of Christmas!

I hope you all have a great week planned and get to enjoy the last of
the Christmas season :) as for us, we're going to be spending a lot of
time doing service and visiting members and soaking up all the
Christmas spirit that we can!
So this week we had quite a few awesome experiences. My companion got
pretty sick so we had to stay inside for a while, but it was actually
a blessing because I was able to have some phone lessons with people
we haven't been able to get a hold of for a while! It just goes to
show that everything happens for a reason, even sicknesses.
Other than that, we got to do some awesome service this week. We
helped out at the Salvation Army putting Christmas angel packages
together and it was honestly one of my favorite Christmas experiences
I've ever had! What we did was they had numbers placed out all over
the floor for about 600 different families here in rosa. They had a
form filled out for each family that said each of the kids' likes,
dislikes, and what they wished for for Christmas. So we would pick up
a family's form, read through it, and then shop through the toys they
had collected to find what the kids wanted. It was so much fun putting
gifts together and being able to find exactly what the kids had asked
for, knowing it would bring a smile to their faces. One thing I've
come to learn on the mission is that service truly is the best way to
get into the Christmas spirit, and I'm so grateful that I get to
dedicate my life right now to that.
We also had our mission Christmas party this week, which was a blast!
We had a huge breakfast together, every zone put together a skit which
we performed, and then we had a devotional. The devotional was such a
wonderful spiritual experience because during it, each missionary got
up to recite a scripture we had memorized relating to a gift we would
like to give to the savior this year. I chose Mosiah 3:20, which says,
"And moreover, I say unto you, that the time shall come when the
knowledge of a Savior shall spread throughout every nation, kindred,
tongue, and people." I chose that because there's nothing I want more
than to share the knowledge of him with everyone. So, in the spirit of
Christmas, I want to invite you all to ponder the same question our
mission president asked us- what do you want to give to the savior
this year?
I want you all to know how much I love you and I love my savior. Have
a wonderful Christmas! 

 Love, 

Hermana Lewis 

Pictures: 

1. Me with all the hermanas in the ward at the Christmas party! 

2. My MTC comp of course cause I love this girl so much 

3. The ward asked us to do a skit for the Christmas party, so we
performed "donde esta Santa clause" and even got the AP's to come join
in with us! Haha that's me in the stripes 

4. My crazy compie! Throwing it back to 8th grade with that face (sorry mom) 

5. So, as a Christmas gift for our mission president, we were asked to
all record a video about why we're happy, and let's just say this
screenshot describes our endless tries perfectly 

© 2015 Microsoft  Terms  Privacy & cookies  Developers  English (United States)

    

Read More

Christmas time ‏

¡Hola todos!
Let me just tell you how much I LOVE spending the holidays in the
mission field! Before I left, I remember going to lunch with the
sisters serving in my area, and they told me "we're so sorry you only
get to spend one Christmas in the mission!" And of course I thought to
myself "whatever, you're crazy." Haha now, looking back, I am
convinced that they definitely were not crazy! Nothing beats the
Christmas spirit you feel as a missionary. You get to constantly focus
on Christ and share that wonderful feeling with others.. What could
beat that!? Anyways, I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas
season and remember what it's really about :)
So, this week we got to do a lot of Christmas-related activities and
shared the new Christmas videos the church put out a lot. It's so fun
to be able to see the change focusing on Christ makes for people this
time of year. Also yesterday my companion and I had the opportunity of
sharing the missionary moment at our friend Mina's baptism! She's been
investigating for about 2 months with Hermana Steiner and Hermana
Gomez and she is such a sweetheart. It was so great to be able to see
her enter the water of baptism yesterday, and then we got to share a
message about the restoration of the gospel for all the nonmembers who
were there.
Sorry I don't have much more to share with you guys this week, but I
hope you all have a wonderful week this week and enjoy the snow for
me!!! I miss it like crazy! 

Love, 

Hermana Lewis 

Pictures: 

1. I went on exchanges with sister free this week and a cute old
member asked us to help her decorate her Christmas tree :) 

2. My comp disappeared the other night, and I thought she ran away...
Come to find out she was hiding under my bed. Haha I love this crazy
girl 

3. We went caroling this week, so this us in front of the Christmas
tree at the place we went to

Read More

Christmas.mormon.org

Mis queridos amigos,
I can't believe it's already December! This week flew by, not like
that's anything new though! We're finally getting to know our all our
new investigators and figuring out how to get around healdsburg. We
got lost in the dark many times this week, haha but it was always cool
because it ended up leading us somewhere we needed to be, even though
it wasn't where we planned to be. It's so amazing how God always puts
us in the right place at the right time :)
President asked me to be the sister training leader in our zone this
transfer, so I got to go to mission leadership council this past week.
I got to learn so much and it definitely helped me to be more
motivated as a missionary to be better. We also talked a lot about the
new Christmas initiative that just came out, which I absolutely LOVE!
It helps us so much as missionaries to find people to teach, to get
members involved in missionary work, and to help remind everyone
(myself included!) what the Christmas season really is about. If you
haven't been on the website yet, GO! It's Christmas.mormon.org :) and
if you have, share it with someone else! It is super cool, I promise.
Well I just want you all to know I love you and hope you have a
wonderful week! And that you all remember that Jesus Christ truly is
the reason for the season :) 

Love, 

Hermana Lewis 

P.S. I'm sending Christmas cards this week so if you still haven't
sent me your address and would like one, please send it to me as soon
as you can! Thanks :) 

Pictures: 

1. Our district leader taught about the creation in district meeting
on Tuesday and had us "create" gingerbread houses :) 

2. We played the nail game with one of our families this week, which
is where you have to get a bunch of nails to balance on top of one
nail (it's an object lesson), and this is how they went about it
hahaha 

3. Every year here in rosa, the stake puts on a festival for Christmas
where they have like 400 nativity scenes from places all over the
world, and it is suuuuper cool. So this is me and my comp at the
entrance 

4. They asked us to be ushers for the musical program 

5. My favorite nativity there- they're all Mooses! Moose? Idk

Read More

ADDRESSES!‏

Okay, I had to make that the subject line cause if any of you are like
me, you read the subject and skim the email and that's about it. Haha
so anyways, I need addresses from anyone who would like to get a
Christmas card from my comp and I... So please send them! Thank you :)

Oh my goodness, this week was absolutely crazy! We were literally
running from place to place trying to fit everything in. I mean I'm
definitely not complaining about that, but my poor greenie! Speaking
of which, she is amazing! She got here at 5 am Wednesday morning and
had been driving through the night, so in the training meeting
president told me "your companion got 2 hours of sleep last night, so
I give you permission to take her home and let her sleep for the day."
So after we finished our meeting, her and I started heading home and
she asked me what we would be doing that day, so I told her president
said she could sleep all day, and she said "what? I don't wanna do
that. Let's go." Haha so off we went! We got to work and had a great
day and have been doing great ever since. She is such a great
missionary already and is a convert of only a year and a half! And her
name is Hermana Garcia. We've been working super well together and are
having a blast. Since we do have two areas combined into one now, we
are crazy busy, but she's handled it super well and I'm really excited
for what is to come this transfer.

So this week, we had thanksgiving of course which was so much fun. We
had early morning service setting up for a nativity festival that will
be this weekend, so that took most of our morning. Then we headed to
the turkey bowl which was super fun and most of the missionaries and a
lot of members showed up. Then we went to an old folk's home to wish
the residents happy thanksgiving and visit with them, which was super
fun cause they all had very big personalities and were absolutely
hilarious. Then we went to our thanksgiving dinner which was
definitely different than any of my thanksgivings in the past, but I
sure wouldn't change it for anything. After dinner we had appointments
with a few families and one of our investigators who doesn't have
family here and had no plans for the night so we took him a pie which
was fun. It was definitely a thanksgiving that I will remember and
cherish forever.

As far as our investigators goes, we have a new investigator up in
healdsburg, our new area, who is super ready to be baptized, he just
doesn't know it yet... :) so basically we're just working really hard
with him and trying to help his testimony grow.

We also just picked up two new investigators yesterday! They were
investigating the church a long time ago, but then one of the members
showed up to church with them and they want to have us start teaching
them again! So that was a tender mercy :)

To close today I just want to tell you all how grateful I am for the
gospel in my life. Especially having thanksgiving this past weekend,
I've definitely been able to see what a blessing it is in my life and
how truly lucky I am to be here on a mission sharing that with others.
I'm thankful for all the experiences I've been able to have here, for
all the trials, for all the things God has taught me and continues to
teach me, for my family, my friends (so, all of you:), for truly
everything. Seriously, we are so blessed! Just take a moment this week
to count your blessings :) love you, hope you all had a great
thanksgiving and that you have a wonderful first week of December! 

Love, 

Hermana Lewis 

 Pictures: 

1. Matching w/ Hermana Steiner 

2. Saying goodbye :( sorry don't mind our crying 

3 & 4. Me and my cute comp! 

5. Some of the cute members in our ward decorated our door for thanksgiving!

Read More

Miracles and transfers ‏

First, sorry for the long email! I had to make up for not emailing last week!

This week we had an amazing experience while tracting that I wanted to
share. We were knocking doors, and it was funny because as we were
knocking this door, I turned to my companion and said "I bet the
elders have tracted these apartments a million times. Oh well!"
(Background info-we cover the same are as our zone leaders, who are
English missionaries. But they live at the apartment complex we were
tracting that day). My companion says to me "hey, we're hermanas. Who
knows, maybe they'll let us in." Just then the door opens, and the
woman who answered, Susan, said "oh my goodness, sister missionaries!
How exciting! I saw you walking across the street and hoped you'd come
to my door- all we get here is elders. Come on in!" As ironic and
funny as that was, we were stoked that she was so happy to see us. She
explained to us that she's a member, but her mother isn't and is very
afraid of religions and God because of some traumatic experiences she
went through as a child. We talked with her for a few minutes and she
told us a bit more about her story, and how she was actually visiting
her brother's house, where he and her mom live. The biggest shock was
that she then told us "yeah, he's active, but I'm not. I lost my
testimony." We definitely weren't expecting that from her, but it gave
us a great opportunity to talk about testimonies with her, and then we
invited her mother in to watch a video we had wanted to share with
them, and she said yes! And right then, her brother walked in the door
:) so, we shared the video with the three of them and the spirit was
so incredibly strong. By the end, we all had tears in our eyes and
Susan told us she hadn't felt the spirit that strong in years.

I can't express to you how grateful I am for this inspired work. And
experiences like that are the reason I know without a doubt that this
work truly is inspired. Sure, we go through times of trial and
sicknesses and failure, but I know I'm here for a reason and God puts
me exactly where I need to be at all times. And with that said,
transfers are this week! So president is doing things differently now,
and we don't find out who our companion is or where we're getting
transferred to until transfer meeting. We just find out if we're
staying or leaving though, and I'm staying! I kinda knew I would, but
either way I'm stoked about it :)

I got a call from our zone leaders though on Saturday who informed me
that I'm going to be having a baby! Aka, I'm training! I'll be honest,
I'm terrified. But I know it's going to be a great thing. So actually
lucky for me, I already know who my companion is because she's the
only Hermana coming in. President invited us over for dinner with the
APs and tech elders last night because one from each of our
companionships is going home so he thought it would be fun. So
anyways, they told me a bit about her and so I know she's a native
Spanish speaker but lives in Oregon, and her name is something really
cool and long and hyphenated haha so I forgot it... But I'll tell you
next week! Oh also, my companion and I are going to be absorbing the
healdsburg elders' area, which is a city just north of Santa Rosa. So
we're kind of whitewashing again, but keeping our area. It's a bit
confusing, haha but the good thing is I've got the lord on my side so
it will all work out!

Friday we had la fiesta del día de acción de gracias! which means the
thanksgiving party. It was so much fun! The whole ward got together
and we had a huge thanksgiving dinner, and then after they had a dance
party. And since we couldn't really join, bishop kindly involved us in
the party by spraying whipped cream in our hair  it was so fun to
get the ward together and we actually had quite a few less actives
there.

Well, since it is the week of thanksgiving I just want to tell you all
how grateful I a, to have you in my life. I'm grateful for my family,
my friends, the gospel, my amazing mission president and the
opportunity I have to serve here, and for every single other blessing
that God has giving me. I hope you all have an amazing thanksgiving! I
love you with all my heart!

Love, Hermana Lewis

Pictures:
The first 3 are at our trip to the beach last week, then us at lunch
with hermano Navarro at the amazing Peruvian restaurant he owns, and
the last one is me with Charlie Brown. Haha they have those all over
Santa Rosa because the guy who created that is from here.

Read More

The worth of souls is great‏

Well, mainly I just have the weekend to update you on! So we had zone
conference on Friday, which was amazing as always. We combined with
the other Santa Rosa zone and both San Rafael zones, so there was a
lot of us there. We learned a lot about how to be better missionaries,
and my companion also had to give her departing testimony which was
crazy  speaking of my companion, she has an AMAZING singing voice,
and there's also an elder in our zone who belongs at Juilliard, so the
two of them are asked to sing for pretty much everything, and somehow
I got dragged in as their pianist. So I had to accompany them for a
song at zone conference and at church on Sunday, and let me just say
I'm regretting not practicing hymns like my mom told me to growing up!
Listen to your mothers, people! Oh also, president and sister wright
both spoke in our ward yesterday, so I got to see them quite a bit
this past week

We had a super amazing service project this Saturday, where the stake
got together downtown to feed the homeless and give them winter coats
and clothes and stuff. It was so cool cause all us missionaries were
asked to show up in our lovely yellow helping hands shirts and go
around meeting people. So I just got to chat with homeless people for
a few hours and I absolutely loved it! They were so grateful and
appreciative for everything and it was so amazing to find out all
their back-stories. It gave me a little taste of how God sees all of
us, and that everyone has a story and deserves to be loved, regardless
of who they are. I know without a shadow of a doubt that we are all
children of a loving Heavenly Father, who knows your back-story, who
watches over you, and loves you more than you could ever know.

"Remember, the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." -D&C 18:10

Love you all! 

Hermana Lewis

Pictures: 

1. Me with president and sister wright at zone conference 

2. The 6 girls of us girls in our zone at the temple (yes, we're the
hardly visible dots there in the middle) 

3. Me and my companion  

4. Car ride to the temple! (Party in the back seat ) 

5. Awkward selfie

Read More