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

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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 

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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

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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

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