Del nido=gueritos‏

Well, this was one of those weeks where I feel like so much happened,
but at the same time nothing happened. Haha we finally had more time
to go tracting this week and that was... An interesting experience. We
found these apartments called "del nido" and were super stoked cause
we thought we'd find a ton of Hispanics there, but sadly it was just a
lot of gueritos (white people) smoking weed. The first door we knocked
on, we were talking to him and offered to show him a video about
Jesus Christ, and he told "nah, I don't want you ruining my high." And
then next 5 weren't much different. Haha so we left. But the cool
thing about that was that right after, we went to another complex and
ended up picking up a new investigator there! It's been a while since
we picked up a new investigator, so that was way cool.
Anyways, other than than I don't have much to update you on! But I
love you all and hope your week is great :) 

Love, 

Hermana Lewis 

Pictures: 

1. So, I was on exchanges at the princess palace (it's the apartment
the brush creek sisters live in and it's waaaay nice so that's what we
call it here haha. Anyways, we went to eat lunch and I found these
plates and had to take a picture cause my best friend lives in New
York City and I live super close to San Fransisco, so it was just
cool. 

2 & 3. It was Mayra velazquez's birthday in Saturday so this was at
their little dinner party :) 

4. Soo... During 12 week (it's the training program they do with new
missionaries) this week we had to practice teaching the law of
chastity, and my comp didn't want to do it haha so she made a deal
with me that I had to pretend to be somebody else, so this was me
attempting to dress up like one of our investigators, and that's her
just being her usual self haha.

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Tender mercies (that's probably been my subject line many times... But why not)‏

Happy Martin Luther King day! I hope you are all enjoying it :) this
week was great for me, we saw a lot of tender mercies :) so on
Tuesday, I got to go on exchanges with sister bear which is always a
blast. I can't even tell you how weird our day was- we showed up to
dinner 1 1/2 hours early, got hit on by drunk men, helped a blind man
carry his groceries, and who knows what else... But it was such an
amazing day! The best part was, we were talking about how her goal
right now is to find 2 new investigators, so we were praying for that.
And the next day, she told me they had the most amazing lesson with a
couple who is super interested and has a lot of potential! It was just
one of those moments where I was so grateful for the little tender
mercies of the Lord :) another tender mercy we had this week was that
we got to church Sunday and I was feeling a little discouraged because
our only solid investigator is becoming a little distant and we
weren't sure what to do, but just as I was starting to feel down, 2 of
our less-active families that we're working with walked in to
sacrament meeting :) and a few minutes later, another walked in! God
really does love us :) that definitely lifted my spirits!
So we also had zone conference this week, where we were able to learn
a lot from president and sister wright and the APs. I think my
favorite thing we talked about from the whole day was charity. We
talked about how the reason charity never fails is because it's the
pure love of Christ- and Christ never fails. I never really thought
about it that way before, but it definitely makes a lot of sense now
and I loved it so much I just wanted to share :)
One last thing, the mission finally has our blog up! It's still in
progress and honestly I'm not sure if there's even any pictures on
there with me in them, but if anyone wants to check it out, go to
http://thecaliforniasantarosamission.com/ and you have to log in, so
here's the info: 

Username: missionary 

Password: CASRMD&C88:73 

Love, 

Hermana Lewis 

Pictures: 

1. Me and sister bear! 

2. This is the porters, my favorite senior couple that ever lived! 

3. We found a sign this week that said "truth" so obviously I had to
take a picture with it cause the Book of Mormon is truth :) 

4. Me at the Shultz museum today! The guy who creates peanuts is from
rosa so there's a cool museum here dedicated to him 

5. Me & my compy : ) 

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Less active work is celestial work

Good morning! What a week, this transfer has started out great! I am
so excited for all that is in store for us this transfer, we have some
great people we are working with, a great zone, and of course I have a
great companion!

This week we focused a lot on Eric, one of our investigators, and our
less-active families. Eric is doing really well, he is going through a
lot of trials right now and I'm sure would love all the prayers he can
get- but he has so much faith and optimism, so I know he's going to be
alright :) we've also had a lot of fun this week getting to know our
less actives better and building great relationships with them. I
honestly don't know what it is, but this is the most inspired I've
ever felt that one of my companionships have been. I have the
strongest feeling that Hermana Garcia was put with me in this area
specifically so that the two of us could work together in reactivating
members. I don't know how to explain it, but I can feel it in our
lessons and when we talk with our members that God needs us two
specifically right here at this time. I know it isn't me or her or
even both of us doing the converting, but that God is working through
us with the spirit and it is so amazing because I can feel it so
strongly.

Many of you probably don't know, but this week was dia de los Reyes,
which is a holiday which mainly Catholics celebrate, but they have pan
dulce (it's like a sweet bread) and somewhere in it is a little baby
Jesus, and whoever gets it in their piece has to make tamales for
everyone. Well, you guessed it. This girl got the baby. So I better
get to learning how to actually make tamales, please wish me luck!
Then I can make them for all of you when I get home :) love you guys!! 

Love, 

Hermana Lewis 

Pictures: 

1. So this one is actually from Christmas, but I saw Hermana Navarro
at MLC on Friday and she gave me this picture, so I had to share it
cause I love this girl :) 

2. Me in the rain! It's been raining nonstop here... Some days I love
it but some days I don't. Haha this was one of the days I loved it. 

3. Okay, sorry this is a cliché food picture, but there's a reason for
it. So before the mission, my lovely grandpa and I used to have kfc
dates all the time, and I always got chicken pot pie. Then my family
sent me a kfc gift card for Christmas and of course I had to get a
picture with my pot pie for my grandpa :)

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New year, new transfer!‏

Happy new year! I hope you all enjoyed it :) mine was actually great,
haha president's rule was that we had to be home or in a member's
home, and the Velazquez invited us over for their party. Granted we
had to be home at 9 and we slept through the countdown, but it was
fun. That was probably the most exciting part of my week... Oh wait! I
almost forgot, it's transfer week! But the good news is.... My
companion and I are both staying here in rosa together! We are soooo
excited :) it is going to be such a great transfer, we're ready to see
lots of miracles for sure!
So on to our investigators, they're doing really well. We took Eric to
a baptism on Saturday, his first one ever, and he loved it! President
and sister wright were there too, so he got to meet them which was
really good for him. He's so close to baptism, he just doesn't know it
yet! He has a date for February 29, but he wants to be baptized in
bodega bay, and bishop says he can only do that on a Saturday morning,
and that's a Monday. So, blessing in disguise, we're gonna have to
make him push up his date! :) so if yall could keep him in your
prayers that he'll understand that he truly is ready for baptism, it
would be much appreciated! I think that's about all for today, I love
you all have a great week back at school! 

Love, 

Hermana Lewis 

Pictures: 

1. Okay, this is Martin Velazquez and that little toy he has in his
hand is crazy. (I don't know why he was feeding it champurrada, haha
don't ask) It just talks randomly all the time which it's not supposed
to do... It even talks when it's turned off! He said the other day he
was home alone watching tv and all of the sudden it says "are you
there?" And now he's legitimately terrified of it. On our lesson
yesterday it started saying "achoo!" And he decided he was done with
it and we needed to dispose of it. So, granted, we took it home and
hid it in the other sisters' bedroom :) haha 

2. This is Hermana Steiner, one of my absolute favorite hermanas! She
dies today  which means she is finishing her mission and going home.
We tried to take a cute picture but we're a mess and I decided this
picture describes us better than any of the cute ones. Haha. 

3. Okay I'm not sure if this will send, but this is dariel (the
velazquez's baby) and this is what he does all through our lessons
every time. Haha he's a little dancing queen

    

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