Sister Lewis in the Florida Tallahassee Mission: Living It up in the Pensacola/Miracola zone!

Hey yall!

We have been able to find lots of different people to talk to, especially when people cancel appointments or reject us. We had an experience this week, where we were both prompted to walk left out of a drive way. To confirm our prompting, we prayed at the end of the driveway to ask for guidance. Then we started walking left, we knocked on one door, but the parents weren't home, so we decided we would come back to that door later. Then we started walking, and this lady pulled up in her car (filled of like 5 other people) and asked us, "what is Jesus' name?" My companion responded, "Jehovah?" the lady said no. My companion asked, "Jesus Christ?" and the lady said no. Then I said, "The Messiah?" and she pointed her finger at me and said "Yes!" she then began to say how missionaries like us in a homeless shelter saved her life, and began to ask questions. Then the other lady in the car with her said she would like to chat with yall, but we are about to run out of gas. So we then asked if we could come by another time and visit with her. She told us where she lived and told us to come the next day at 2. It was such a cool experience, how as we prayed to confirm a prompting, someone was placed literally in our path.

This past friday, we went to the Jones' house who are members, and shared a message with them, we were just barely starting, when their daughter and son in law came in through the door. They had been in Alabama for the past few days, purchasing fireworks for the 4th of July.(you see, here in Florida, everyone crosses the border and goes to Alabama to get the big fireworks that are technically illegal in Florida, but the police here don't do anything about it.) The Jones family does a big firework show and dinner and pool party on the 4th of July. We are going to their house for dinner on the 4th and will probably get to watch the show they put on with these fireworks. haha.

On saturday, we woke up at 4:30 in the morning, and got ready and left at 5 to head into Pensacola to volunteer at the Ronald Mcdonald 5k they had going. We got free tshirts. One of the jobs we had to do was fill pitchers of water and take them outside of this pub to a cooler and fill the cooler with water for the cold towels for the runners. Then we also had to hand out tshirts to all of the runners that were registered. It was alot of fun! After a few hours at the 5k, we had to leave and go to a less active member's house for a service project we were doing with the members.

This service project was yard work. There was alot of trash and overgrown plants and mattresses in the yard, so me and my companion, and some of the priesthood bretheren, mowed this member's lawn, picked up alot of the trash and mattresses, and took it all to the dump. We also killed all of the weeds, and repaired a little bit of the fence. It was alot of work, but we got to know the members better.

In my studies this week, I studied Elder Holland's talk: "Songs Sung and Unsung". I liked how he said, "When we disparage our uniqueness or try to conform to fictitious stereotypes-stereotypes driven by an insatiable consumer culture and idealized beyond any possible realization by social media- we lose the richness of tone and timbre, that God intended when he created a world of diversity".

I have a testimony and I know that as we Become as He Is, and we learn of God's will for us, we can keep the richness of our personality and self that God intended for us to have. I know that as we are ourselves and we don't change for anybody but God, we can be happy and we can remember our purpose as a child of our loving Heavenly Father. Elder Holland said, "Come as you are,' a loving Father says to each of us, but He adds, 'Don't plan to stay as you are." As I have been on a mission, I have learned that as I am myself, and I tell Heavenly Father that I am ready to do His will, and I show Him that I am ready, He will change me for the good.

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Lewis