Hello all!
Don't worry I am Safe and Sound!
Hurricane Irma has not it us!The hurricane is going to hit Tallahassee and Panama City areas. I am a couple of hours away from that, but we will only be getting hit by rain. They evacuated the missionaries in those areas to higher ground. We do have to be prepared for it because another should be coming after hurricane Irma. We are required to have a full tank of gas and a case of water in our house and in our car. It is kind of fun to be here in hurricane season, because gas is sold out and so is water.... You have to go early in the morning to stock up.
There is a Florida Tallahassee Mission Facebook page that receives updates from our mission president about what is going on.
Anywho, I got to go visit Daphne, Alabama. We got a call friday night at 9:50 saying that we were having zone conference the next day because the hurricane is going to affect Tallahassee and Panama City zones, and our mission president needed to be there for that. Then around 10:10 we got told that even though we were combined with another zone, My companion and I would still be training the other missionaries. Even though we had been preparing all week, we had not confirmed our plans, so we had to put together our lesson in 20 minutes, and finish it up the next day. It was a very eventful zone conference.
This week, we had to take our car in for an estimate at the Auto Body shop, well when we were done, we were driving it down the street, and had parked at someone's house, we got out and went and talked to the person, but when we got back in to restart the car, it would not start. So we said a prayer to know what we should do, especially because at the Mission office, they were having troubles with their phones. Then shortly after, it finally started. So we started to head back, and were able to stop and talk to 2 girls that were walking down the street. We were able to give them both a Book of Mormon, the only thing was, i had grabbed a Book of Mormon off the floor of the car, that my companion had written her testimony in to send to her friend. We did not know this at the time, until they called us an hour later to let us know we had given them a Book of Mormon with writing in it. We told them to keep it. Then as we continued driving, the car started to act up, and the meters stopped working completely. So we pulled over and talked to the Mission office. They told us to stop driving the car, and leave it at the body shop. So while we waited an hour and a half for a member to be available to pick us up, we decided to go contact some people on the streets. We met a guy named Greg, and were able to talk to him about the Book of Mormon, as well as give an introduction to the Plan of Salvation, then we met another guy named Ricky, and we were able to teach him the entire Restoration, as well as give him a Book of Mormon. As we talked with Ricky, he kept saying that everything we were teaching was true. Though these gentleman were both not in our area, we sent them off for the other missionaries to teach.
We also were able to get a new Ward Mission Leader, named Noah. He is a return missionary from Australia. Hopefully we will be able to help the work move forward!
Spiritual thought: We heard a talk on Sunday about the reason of coming to church, is to come for Jesus Christ. In 1 Nephi 22:25, It says: "And he gathereth his children from the four quarters of the earth; and he numbereth his sheep, and they know him; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd; and he shall feed his sheep, and in him they shall find pasture." No matter if the people are imperfect in the church, Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father are perfect, and that is why we come to church.
I love you all!
❤ Sister Lewis
My companion and I decided to do a hurricane preparedness drill photo shoot (as you can see, I can remain calm as long as I have my family and Heavenly Father in mind). The other pictures are of us traveling with our Sister Training Leaders to Daphne Alabama. And the rest are random pictures.
