General Conference

I forgot to mention: GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THIS SATURDAY AND SUNDAY!!

go out and be member missionaries by inviting someone to watch general conference with you!! 

Love Yall!!

This picture is of my district, from left to right: Sister Jenkins, Sister Shank, Sister Andersen, Sister Cook, Sister Fox, Me, Sister Fast, Sister Saunders, Elder Chamberlain, Elder Casper.

The elders are our district leaders and they like to call them selves the relief society president. they are so crazy and funny!! hahaha.

The other picture is of me and my companion in our apartment getting ready to eat the chicken and alfredo and broccoli I cooked.

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I will go, I will do!

Hi yall!

first things first, i just love the south!! the people here are mostly friendly.

Here is a quote for this week "All is possible because of the Savior's enabling power of the Atonement. Because of the infinite Atonement, we are able to trust in the Lord and be comforted and sustained as we walk upright to the Lord." - Bonnie H. Cordon (2017 General Women's Broadcast)

I love this quote! I know that it is because of Jesus Christ, our Savior, that all things are possible to do. If Jesus Christ could do it, so can we. I know that because of the Atonement, we can trust in the Lord, and be comforted. The Atonement is not just to repent of our sins, but to make changes in our selves daily to Become As He Is. The Atonement helps us to heal and to relieve our sorrows and our grief.

This past tuesday, i got to go on exchanges with sister Jenkins. She is a sister training leader serving in the gulf breeze, Florida area. it was fun to have a change of scenery and get to teach different people. I realize that no matter what area we are in, there is still the Lord's work to do. I learned while on exchanges that I shouldn't be afraid to act on promptings from the Spirit as well as be bold, and embrace the awkward. Missionary work is hard but when you trust in the Lord, you can do great things.

On saturday, i got to bike 12 miles. it was super fun!! we haven't biked that much in this area, but we are running low on the amount of miles we can use in our car per month. therefore, we chose to bike to a member's house that we were helping move. It was a little bit scary biking because we had to cross highway 90 and the bike lanes here are very short. they don't go for long distances so we have to ride alongside the cars and basically in the grass or ditches on the side of the road. but other than that, i love biking!! it is so much fun, and you get to see so much more!!

Love you all!!!

Sister Lewis

P.S. i made chicken Alfredo and broccoli for dinner one night and it was so good!! also, to get from the area where i serve to our stake center, to have to drive across the water. one of the pictures attached, is an example of some the fun signs we see in people's yards while tracting.

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Week 2 in the field..for there were many beasts among us.

Hey yall!!

So last night i woke up in the middle of the night to find that there was a cockroach(beast) in my bathroom. I went to my companion's bathroom and found a cockroach there as well. Therefore my companion and i have decided that there are many beasts among us.

So this past Wednesday, we went to our investigator, Betty's house for lunch. She made us tuna fish sandwiches, and a strawberry cake. and for those of you who know me well, know that i strongly dislike tuna, onions, relish and celery. Well these were all of the ingredients in the sandwich. i decided that i could handle the tuna, but i couldn't handle the relish or onions. So i started to pick those out only Betty noticed. I didn't want to offend her so when she asked me if i don't like onions i was like no not really and then i had to stop picking out the stuff out of the sandwich and instead had to eat the sandwich.... It wasn't too bad but lets just say, it wasn't my favorite.

This past Friday, the bishop's son got baptized. Sister Fox and i invited our 3 investigators to go. It was so cool because all of our investigators came and then we also had our 2 recent converts come, and we even met a potential investigator there. It was truly a spiritual experience, and i could tell that our 3 investigators could feel it too.

A funny story for your week: so we live an apartment that used to have elders living in it. therefore, it smells really bad and was not the cleanest. Alot of the previous missionaries left stuff behind. One of the previous elders had cut down 2 trees and carved them so that he could do power lifting. well he left those 2 trees in our garage. So one day, sister fox and i decided that we would try and see if we could lift the trees at all. we could lift one tree, but we were unable to lift the other. It was funny because here you see 2 sister missionaries attempting to power lift this massive tree and then the mailman was putting our mail in the mailbox and was watching us and laughing at us because we looked really silly. haha.

So last Thursday, i was asked to give my testimony and introduce myself in sacrament on Sunday. Well i thought that would be easy, until i pulled into the parking lot of the church on Sunday and got a text from the bishop, saying that one of the speakers had cancelled. He asked me if i would be willing to talk longer. I of course told him yes. However, little did he know that i was not prepared at all. As my companion and i walked into ward council, i frantically searched Preach My Gospel and the book of Mormon for things to share. I guess i should watch what i pray for because i had prayed that the bishop would ask me to speak in church so that i could introduce myself to the members. Lo and behold, i spoke in church. As i got up to walk to the podium, i was so shaky and nervous. As i started to speak, the scripture Moses 6:32 came to my mind. "Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and i will give thee utterance..." I could feel the Holly Ghost filling my mouth with words as i opened my mouth to speak. I know that the Holy Ghost is such a comfort to me. What made my talk even more better, is that we had so many of our less actives show up. That was something else i had prayed for, is that some of our less actives would feel the love of our Heavenly Father, and would come to church on Sunday. My prayers were answered! we had 4 less active families show up. It is such a blessing because Sister Fox and i have been having a hard time finding the less actives and/or visiting with them. As i gave my talk, it got super quiet and i knew that Heavenly Father was watching over me, and the Spirit was helping to keep all of the kids quiet while i spoke. I know that the power of prayer is so true and that Heavenly Father is always listening.

" Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hat said?-- If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you." - 1 Nephi 15:11

I encourage you all to read 1 Nephi 15:13-15, 20. These are the latter days and we do have the fullness of the gospel now on this earth!!!

Love you all!!

Sister Lewis

Week 1 in the Field and behold, we did tract for an exceedingly long time. therefore we were exhaustingly tired

Hey yall!!! Im in Florida Now!!!!

My address for mail:

4468 Governors st.

Pace, Florida 32571

So last Monday, my district got to host the senior missionaries that were coming into the missionary training center. Only, i had left my coat in my residence hall and my job was to direct traffic. the people in charge of us made me use a lender coat that they had. when i put it on, it was 3 times too big. so imagine short little me drowning in this big huge coat meant for somebody with longer arms than I had.

On Tuesday, i flew out to Florida. we had a layover in Atlanta Georgia where i met some interesting people. I definitely caught up on sleep that day being as i had like a 5 hour flight and i slept through all of it! In the salt lake city airport, there was this sweet lady who stopped me and my companion to offer us the use of her cell phone. She worked at one of the food places in the airport. When i told her that i would think about it while i went to fill up my water bottle, she offered to fill up my water bottle with ice and water. Then she told us how every Monday and Tuesday she brings her phone because she has unlimited minutes and lets the missionaries use it so that they don't have to pay to use a phone. It was really nice of her to do that. When we got to the mission home, they fed us Chinese food for dinner and ice cream!!! it was so yummy!!

That night, us new missionaries got to stay in a hotel for the night. Let's just say that it was an interesting night for us sister missionaries. hahaha.

Right as we walked to get our luggage at the airport, the mission president and his assistants had us walk around the airport and give out pass along cards. there weren't very many people in the airport to do that because it was a small airport and there were more missionaries than there were people.

This past week I got to teach my first 2 investigators. One of them is a sweet old lady who feeds us lunch every Wednesday. She always has fun stories to tell us about when she was younger and she has 2 dogs. one does tricks and the other snores really loudly.

The other investigator is a man who used to work on trains. we got to teach him at the bishop's house where they fed us a green dinner. literally the bishops wife dyed everything green. Because you are called a greeny when you first exit the Missionary Training center. It was super good food. Zucchini muffins, an egg casserole, and a green smoothie.

TRACTING:  we didn't have very many appointments this past week so we went door to door to share our message with people.  the first day we went tracting, we knocked on this 90 year old lady's house. The lady had dementia and invited us in to her house thinking we were friends of her Son's girlfriend. Well the girlfriend came into the house carrying groceries and didn't notice we were there sitting on the couch. The 90 year old lady, (Thelma) introduced us to the girlfriend saying, " Sophie, your friends are here. they came to see you". WE kind of caught Sophie off guard and she was alarmed to see 2 girls sitting in her living room. She was really nice to us but claimed she wasn't religious and told us that she would pass on our information to her boyfriend.

TRACTING PART 2: yesterday, we walked to visit a less active member and Then yesterday on our way home, we stopped and talked to this lady outside her yard and she invited us into her backyard to show us her turkeys and chickens. She had like 5 turkeys and 30 chickens. she also had 8 cats and 3 dogs. She lived by herself. Before we left, she gave us a dozen chicken eggs and 2 turkey eggs. one of the turkey eggs had poop on it and she picked up the turkey egg and licked one of her thumbs and started trying to get the turkey poop off the egg. (it did not come off). then after doing that, with the same hand that touched the poop, she started touching her face with it. It was so GROSSS!!! haha. we set up an appointment with her to teach her family history.

MY INVITATION TO YOU ALL THIS WEEK: USE FAMILY HISTORY AS A TOOL TO DO MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK TO INVITE PEOPLE TO COME UNTO CHRIST!!! Family History is something that has been helping us missionaries here in the south be able to make appointments to teach people.

"Pray as if everything depends on God, but work as if everything depends on you."

"Behold i have given unto my gospel, and this is the gospel, which i have given unto you-that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my father sent me." -3 Nephi 27: 13

Love you all!!! I will send pictures in a second email!!

Love,

Sister Lewis

P.S. I forgot to mention that this Wednesday i will have been out on my mission for a month!!!
P.P.S My p-days are every Monday while i am serving in Pace. I do not have a tablet anymore, but still send me emails or even snail mail!! I only get 2 hours on P-days to email at the library.

love you all!!

Sister Lewis

Week 3 Accomplished!!! (my last week at the Missionary Training Center)

Week 3

Hey yall!!!

This week went by so fast!! i leave this coming Tuesday for Florida. so anything that you want to send to me in the snail mail now has to be sent to the mission home until i get my official new address. 

Last Sunday i got called to be a sister training leader at the zone level. This means that if any of the sister missionaries have concerns that are in my zone, they come to me and my companion. it also means that we lead zone prayer and make assignments for lessons on Sunday. 

Yesterday we had in field orientation where we learned alot about how to find people to teach. one of the quotes i liked from the presentation was " Success is a blessing from the Lord". Another quote was from Elder Oaks, " Spiritual experiences start with desire". if we want to be able to have those experiences, where we can feel the guidance of the Holy Ghost, we need to make the effort. It starts with daily prayer(morning and night) and having that open communication with our Heavenly Father. Then it continues with reading the Book of Mormon daily (you can take it a few chapters or verses at a time). I know that as we do these things we can be blessed. Also, if you would like a copy of the Book of Mormon and you don't have one, go to Mormon.org. 

infield orientation was so much fun! i learned a lot yesterday on how to be a good missionary. 

Another experience i had this week was teaching an investigator named Leila, from Hawaii, this week. Her husband had passed away 2 years ago and she has 5 kids. We were teaching her the Plan of Salvation (Families are eternal and we can return to Heavenly Father's presence again) and i could feel the Spirit so strong in the room. I could tell that the Spirit was testifying of the truth of the things we were teaching to Leila.In the middle of the lesson, Sister Palmer (my companion) asked me for my Ipad. She pulled up a video about the Iron Rod from 1 Nephi Chapter 8 in the Book of Mormon and we showed it to Leila. The funny thing is, before heading to teach Leila, I wasn't going to take my Ipad . However, i had a prompting from the Spirit that i needed to take it. As we showed the video to Leila, i could see the Spirit softening her heart. As we were teaching, i had no idea that i had been pondering a question. but as i was teaching i heard the Spirit tell me, " This is why you are on a mission and not at BYU Idaho with your friends. you are meant to be here. I need you to testify of my truth. You have the light of Christ, and there are people who need you to show them how to get it." I knew at that moment that Leila could feel Heavenly Father's love for her. 

I know that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of you. He is waiting for you to greet Him with open arms. I also know that He has a plan for each one of us no matter what we are going through or struggling with, if we pray to Him and ask Him for help as well as study our scriptures, we can be blessed.

This past week on Tuesday, we had an MTC devotional. I sang in the MTC choir again this past week and had the opportunity to sing the hymn "Hope of Israel" for Brent H. Nielson of the Seventy. I love that song and encourage you all to listen to it!! 

In 3 Nephi 18:20-21 (Book of Mormon) it talks about how we should pray in our families. I invite you all to read this scripture as a family and then do as it says and say a family prayer. As you do that, i know that your family will be strengthened.

Love you all,
Sister Lewis