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

Ronald McDonald 5K

Working in a Bar (water)

5K

5K Beauties

We will baptize Converts and not nations!

Hi Yall! 

It has been a good week! 

Last monday, we went to a middle school basket ball game with a member. It was alot of fun!

Tuesday: We had district meeting, and I was asked to play the piano. So i chose hymn 237. Only i have not played that one in a while so when i played it, i kept messing up. O well. Practice makes perfect.  We had lessons on how we can better listen to the Holy Ghost and I felt that was very inspired. This past week I have been studying on Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. And I feel that God wants me to be more in tune with the Spirit. I know he has something in store for me. 

We did exchanges on Tuesday. I went with Sister Shank, who has become one of my good friends. We worked in Pace. Went to our first lesson of the day which was our investigator, Jack. We went in thinking that we were going to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but when we got talking, I realized that he was struggling to comprehend some of the terms. We went over 3 Nephi 11 and as we did this, I received a prompting to ask Jack to be baptized. So i followed my prompting, and asked him, "If you come to know these things are true, will you be baptized by someone holding the Priesthood Authority of God?" and guess what he said?!?! He said yes!! So we are going to work with him and set a baptism date.

On wednesday, we had lunch with the Donohoe Family, and she cut some vinyl for us to have. We then went to the young women's activity and made scrunchies for the temple baptistry. It was alot of fun. I forgot how bad i sew...

Thursday, We helped at bishop's storehouse, and I got to see Sister Renfro! It was a hoot to hang out with her for a short while.

Long story short about this week, I have been able to touch a few people's lives and I have been able to find out what my purpose on my mission is. I love teaching and sharing the gospel! I love to meet new people and help them to feel of God's love.

My spiritual thought for the week is Mosiah chapter 4. I invite yall to read it and then share your insights with somebody.

Love yall!

Sister Lewis

P.S. check out this blog of our mission: https://pressingforwardintheftm.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/general-authority-visit/

Baskin Robbins round 2

Blue Berry Bash

Blue Berry Festival Red Tongues

Elder Uceda

#miracola #Tooblessedtobestressed

Hi yall!

First off, happy belated father's day to all of you dads.

So last monday, we went to this bay and hung out as a district. We played volleyball and soccer in the rain and mud. It was super fun. But the cool thing about it was that while we were playing volleyball, this guy walked up to us and asked if he could join us. And he played soccer and volleyball with us for a good hour or 2. At the end, Sister Baker and I were able to get his contact info and set up an appointment with him. His name was Robby.

Sad news, our investigator, Chelsea who had a baptism date, moved to Mississippi. 

So on tuesday, we decided to fast for miracles as a district.One of the miracles as a result of fasting was Samantha. So we had decided to go through our former investigators and go and try to contact them. Well we were looking for one of the formers and as we were driving towards that house, I decided to look to see what the house number of another former investigator, that was on the same street. As I was looking at the houses that we drove past, all of the house numbers were a blur to me, except for the one that said 4376(the number of the former investigator's house that I was looking at). We kept driving towards the first one that our GPS was routed to, and then when we tried them, they were not home. So we turned around and walked back to the 4376 house and knocked on their door. Samantha answered, and it turns out her best friend is mormon and lives in Pensacola, and she has been to church with them a few times. Her and her husband have even began to read a little of the Book of Mormon. As she was introducing us to her husband and 5 year old son, her son ran and hid. The husband, Gary, told him "It's not the Jehovah Witness people, these are the good people. They're Mormon." This was a cool experience. We were able to get their number and see about setting up a return appointment.

Another experience, happened shortly thereafter. We went to try another former before heading to our next appointment, and this former did not have a drop reason. We knocked on the door, and she let us right in. She only had a few minutes, but as we were setting up a return appointment, she was like, "I have next monday available, but that's next week. What about this Friday?" and so it was amazing how she was able to schedule to meet with us a few days after that initial contact.

This week we were able to find quite a few investigators. It was alot of fun!

We were also given some house plants and some Harry Potter Butterbeer (Non Alcoholic) by some less actives. It was a good week!

John 14:18 says:"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." I love this scripture because it demonstrates how much God loves us and cares for us. He will not leave us comfortless. 

Love Yall!

Love,

Sister Lewis

P.S. Write me letters! 

Bowling with the Relief Society

Floridatown bay

Harry Potter Butterbeer (Non Alcoholic)

Harry Potter Butterbeer (Non Alcoholic) and our plant

Inspiration at its greatest

Hi yall!

This week has gone by so fast!

Last monday, we went bowling as a district and had alot of fun with that.

On tuesday, we went and taught 2 of our investigators, only they were not reading the Book of Mormon, so we read it with them so that they could see the importance of the Book of Mormon. 

On thursday, we went and helped at the Bishop's storehouse. As i have been in Pace for the past 2 almost 3 transfers, i have grown a love for the ward members here as well as alot of the other people.

Friday, the day where everything happened. We had a half mission conference where we had the privilege of hearing from Elder Juan A. Uceda of the Seventy. He talked alot about how to have strength in the work. One thing he said that touched me was, "You are special, the Lord knows your heart and your desire to serve. He accepts you as you are, and He believes in you, whether or not you believe in yourself. His name is Love."  The same statement goes out for all of you. You are all special. Heavenly Father loves you and He believes in you! 

We also got to hear from him in stake conference, and he talked about how we need to make sure that we all reach out to Recent Converts and Less Active members in the church because they are fragile. As we reach out to them, they will be able to build their testimony.

I encourage you all to read Philippians 4:13.

Send me some of the missionary moments yall have been having!

Love,

Sister Lewis

Oops Bowling #1

Oops Bowling #2

Chelsea and I

Perry

The Relief Society 2

Transfer 3 in Pace

Hello,

(wow that sounds formal haha.)

So apparently i am really good at teaching, because i keep getting asked to teach in district meetings. That or play the piano for it haha. Last Tuesday i taught on how to use the scriptures while teaching people. In preparation for my lesson, i went through my journal that has notes from devotionals and Conferences. I was able to use some quotes from BYUI devotionals that i had been too. As well as some things from Preach My Gospel on page 180. It was alot of fun and i enjoyed teaching on this topic.

At district meeting, we signed everyone's journals because Sister Fast, Sister Cook, Sister Anderson, and Sister Fox left our district. Here in the mission field everyone has what is called an exit journal where other missionaries sign your journal when you leave a zone or when you leave a district. I think it is pretty cool. I had to try and figure out what journal to use as my exit journal, because i have found that i like to have seperate journals for seperate things. I have  one right now as my daily journal, one as my note taking journal for devotionals and conferences, i am making one for writing things down that stress me out, etc. I think by the time my mission is over, i will have a suitcase full of journals haha.

This week we were able to teach one of our investigators, and his friend that he had invited to come and listen to what we had to teach. It was a cool lesson, and both of them said we could teach them again.

This past wednesday was transfers, and so i drove Sister fox to Pensacola to transfer spots for her to go serve in a new area, and for me to get a new companion. It was funny because at transfer spots, we were able to have a district reunion. Sister Palmer came to Brewton, which is an area that is in my district. Sister Renfro is serving in Pensacola which is in my zone, and Sister Maughan is serving in Mobile still, but they all were at transfer spots, so I was able to talk to them all.

I think i have definitely been blessed to have people put in my path throughout my mission, that are familiar faces. I know that this mission is where i am supposed to be.

My new companion is Sister Baker and she is super sweet. She is also very friendly and loving and has a great desire to do missionary work.

I hope to hear from yall! So please write me a letter!

Love you all!

Love, 

Sister Lewis

Exchanges in Gulf Breeze Transfer

Sis Fox and I

Sister Baker and I

Transfer 3

The trouble making in Pace continues...

05/29/2017

Hey Y'all!

It has been a crazy busy past week. We received a few referrals and taught a lot of our investigators. 

On tuesday, we went and taught Shy, he is a really nice man with 2 kids in his 40s. We took the Bishop's wife with us to teach him. Usually he just sits and asks questions, but this time, he was just kind of quiet. We started teaching him the restoration, and we testified of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. When talking about dispensation, I said, " that dispensation is like teaching your kid certain things at different stages of their life. You know like walking at the infant stage, riding a bike at toddler stage, etc. That is like how God gave us prophets in each age of time. Then when your kids get older, and have their own families, they will often look to you for guidance. That is why God gave us a prophet. The prophets guide us as we go through our life and help us to keep asking God for help." This analogy really hit home for Shy because his niece that lives with him was graduating this past week. The cool thing about this lesson was, we were supposed to meet with Shy 2 weeks ago, except we had to cancel due to other concerns. However, i think that God wanted to prepare him during the week we had cancelled to be able to be ready for the Spiritual lesson we were able to have.

That same day, we got a referral for a man named Jerry. It turns out, we had knocked on his door before, only he wasn't home, some other lady was. Well we had sent a referral to the lady's house for the missionaries in that area to go talk with her. Well those missionaries were able to talk with Jerry while talking with the lady, and they referred him back to us. 

Well, this past week, I ate a bite of Swordfish, and even though i tried it, i probably will not try it again. 

Thursday, my companion and I had the police called on us. We had driven to a neighborhood to go tracting, but had flipped around a few times to try to find a good spot to park, and then when we were finally parked, we got a bunch of texts and phone calls. As my companion was responding to a text, this elderly couple drove up next to us, rolled their window  down, so i rolled my window down. They asked us if we were waiting for someone. We said no, we were just pulled over to answer some texts, and then we would be leaving. Well then, after they left, we decided we would leave the spot we were in and park some where else. So then we parked in front of someones house on the side of the street. We went and walked towards someones door, when we were about there, i noticed a cop car by our car. So i told my companion, and we decided to go talk to the police man. Luckily he was really nice, and told us that someone had called them stating there was a car driving around with 2 suspicious women in it. We told him that we were missionaries and we were just knocking on doors, sharing messages about Jesus Christ. He told us okay then we are fine. But just to move our car because it was sticking out a little bit and could obstruct traffic. So we ended up just leaving the neighborhood all together since the old people there love to call the cops.

Well, this week i have gone tracting many times in the hot and super humid weather.

One of the times we went tracting, we were able to save 3 golden retrievers who were in the middle of the road, and were causing traffic to slam on their breaks. 

Other than that, if any of you have ideas on how to stay cool in the humidity while tracting, send them to me.

Love you all!

Sister Lewis

My 11th week of being in the field (last week)

How are you all doing? Email me your experiences of showing acts of kindness this past week!

Car Report: We had to give our Chevy Malibu to the elders because they were too big for their car which is a 2013 Chevy. We now have their 2013 Chevy and I am driving it. I do not like how different it is compared to the 2017 Chevy, but I guess I was spoiled for the week and a half that I got to drive it.

Food Report for what Sister Lewis has been able

to bake this week: No bake cookies, brownies from scratch,Chicken Nacho Dip

Weather Report for Pace,Florida: Hot and humid;thunder and lightning showers;hot;humid (I made this up based on what it has been like this past week).

We have had to do a lot of tracting this week because our teaching pool is really small. We have also had

an investigator call us to say he can't meet with us right now. So therefore, we need new investigators. Tracting

has been hard because we have not been able to tolerate the 83 degree weather with 100% humidity for long periods of time. So we do it in 30 minute spans, to an hour. We have been able to get better at teaching a 2-3 minute long restoration message at the door though.

This week, we have committed another investigator to baptism, her name is Alissa. She is a really nice girl,

and wants to come closer to Jesus Christ. We met her in the end of March when we were trying to visit a less active part member family. We just opened our mouth and asked her if we could share a message about Jesus Christ. It's amazing how the Lord prepares people for us as we work hard.

On Saturday, we had 30 minutes before our dinner appointment, so we decided to go tracting. The first door we

knocked on, a lady in her 40's answered. I started to tell her a 2 minute restoration, and she sat and listened.

When I was done, she said "thanks, but we go to a Baptist church in Pensacola." So I said, " that is

awesome, we also really love to sit down and read the bible with people." She said, "It's okay." She

then began to ask us where we were from and how old we were. When I told her I was from Utah, she started asking us questions about the "big giant church" that is in Salt Lake City, referring to the temple.  We talked to her

a bit about that and then she had a question about something she saw there that involved Abraham. We weren't sure what she was talking about, but we were able to talk to her about Joseph Smith and from there transition into an introduction about the Book of Mormon. She had lots of questions. We gave her a pass along card, and a flyer for the Joseph Smith Fireside on June 25. We also offered her a Book of Mormon, but she said no thanks. She was just interested in learning what we believe because she is going to school to study religion. Even though she was not interested, you could tell, that she knew the truth behind what we told her, and if she accepted a Book of Mormon, she would know that this is the true church. I truly believe that we had planted a seed in her, but that now is not thetime for her to be taught the fullness of the gospel.Heavenly Father just needed us to plant a seed in her heart. She was a very sweet lady. She even gave me and Sister Fox, a pair of sandals each because she could not wear them. Theyare brand new. 

This week, I studied in Helaman 5 about the type of missionaries that Nephi and Lehi were. I love how this

chapter talks about how they taught the Lamanites with power and authority, as well as they tried to teach "the word of God among all the people". This chapter talks about how much desire they had to preach the gospel, and how much more faith they had then fear; especially when they were in the prison, and people were trying to persecute them. I think that these missionaries are the perfect example of a "Preach My Gospel Missionary". They had so much courage, faith, and strong testimonies. I love this chapter.

Will you all study Helaman 5, and share the gospel with someone you know this week? I know that as you

do this, Heavenly Father will help you to be able to do it and He will bless you beyond measures as you help His lost sheep return to Him.

Love you!

Love, Sister Lewis

P.S. Yall know how I love to take pictures so here is some more! One is of a bug we found on a porch.

One is of me and these 2 sweet ladies who took me and my companion out for ice cream.

 One of them is a member and one of them is not ( the nonmember accepted a Book of Mormon).

One is of a trailer with a ghetto "Keep Out" Sign.

Two are of a library that they have in all of the parks here. We love to put Book of Mormons in the libraries and pass along cards and then go back and check on them a few days later. One of  the libraries that is in Floridatown park, we have found that somebody has been taking the Book of Mormons out and then reading through them, sometimes keeping them, but marking them. However, we have not had any calls requesting that they want to be baptized haha.