Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Baptism

Last night I baptised someone for the 1st time. His name was Robert. He's 10, also, my comp. baptised his cousin, Stephanie. She's 18. The Spirit was real strong there. It was awesome. I'll send pictures soon.
Elder Lewis

Sunday, November 22, 2009

New Email 2- reminiscin'

Hey!

We have two baptisms lined up for the 22nd. They're awesome. We had 5 investigators at church Sunday! Like wow ik.

I just bought like 300 note cards and filled 'em out with words I don't know. I already know like more than half of ‘em. I think I’m gonna keep doin that. It really helps build my vocab.

Right now I’m having a hard time learning like how to use reflexive verbs. Like se, te, nos all that junk. But it is coming. The note cards really help though, I’m gonna keep doin that. Then, with the ones I’ve learned. I'm gonna send ‘em to my buddies here who don't know as much Spanish yet here.

We played bball on the beach this morning. Uberawesome. They took the volleyball nets down :-/ 'cause the tide is coming up really close. O well.

There’s always too much to do on P-days. I don't like it. Someday I just want to relax and be lazy on a p-day. Oh well. I never take naps. I'm not a nap person. My comp takes naps sometimes, every p-day he does. I can't. I feel like I’m wasting my time. So I’m always the only one awake sometimes, reading, or studying or writing letters.

Thanks for the I-pod. I've been using it a lot. There are a ton of songs I want on it though. From other elder's cd's. O well, I think I’ll just try and burn those cd's. --Like motab singing lion king and lord of the rings and stuff like that. "Oklahoma" by motab is an awesome song. I never watched the movie. But that songs pretty cool.

That football game sounds awesome. I remember when Dad and I went to one. But it got thundered-out. Everyone wears Carolina blue. The whole stadium is light blue. I'm wearin' my NC soccer shirt that Brooke gave me right now.

Now that I look back on life and stuff, I'm glad for all I’ve been through and junk. Like Bro. Wayne Nier said: "kids these days aren't learning the meaning of hard work" it's so true. I think of him a lot. He's the man. Patrick Mitchell too. You know he got like a bunch of promotions right? And now he's a manager at that bank he works at across from Ithaca bakery. Remember doing food pantry? mmm.

Remember cutting down all those pine tree branches and dragging them everywhere and making huge piles of sticks and junk. I hated that. But, it made me stronger. Remember living in Grandma’s house for like a week, waking up @ like 7am, then going across to our house in NY--and just cleaning everything out of it? I'd never worked so much in my life up to then. We'd work from like sun up to sun down. Then we made it a pretty nice house.

Yeah this is a really long email. But I’m just writing my thoughts as they come.

I'm glad for all the hard coaches I had. Jack Reid was crazy ha-ha. We ran so much with him. He just yelled at us all the time ha-ha.

He said once: "I know I don't coach the best way, I don't even coach the right way, but I coach the way I coach." Then he also said once.

"These are the priorities is your life right now":
1st: Religion and Family, those went hand and hand
2nd: School, education
3rd: Basketball
4th: job

ha-ha he yelled so much. I didn't like him then. But I sure learned how to work my hardest and try my best and run as fast as a can. Ha-ha

all these experiences have sculpted me bit my bit. Looking back, yea I guess there were things I wish I would have, or hadn't of done. But I don't care about them anymore. I'm happy with who I am. They seem like "but a small moment" to me. All these experiences will be for my good, and if I endure them well. I’ll be exalted on high. It goes something like that in D&C 121.

People don't realize the effect they have on others. I really really looked up to my coaches. And most of my teachers. Especially you, mom, dad, and Evelyn. I hope people have looked up to me. Especially as a member of the church before and now a missionary.

Anyways this is a humongous email. I jabbered a lot. I'm pretty hyper right now. From running around on the sunny beach. :-p ha-ha.

Love Elder Lewis
bye

New email 1

Hey all,

I met a Puerto Rican at church today. He's from Vieques. Cool huh. He was in the Marines. So like half his family likes the army and stuff, and the other half don’t. haha. 'Cause of the bombing and the protest and stuff of Vieques. Also, some of his family live on Culebra! He was pretty cool. We joked around a bit. I've been in this area...since Sep. 2nd or so. Sep 2nd was my first real day I think. This is my 2nd transfer here. One transfer is 6 weeks. Transfer meeting is on the 24th I think. So in like a few days we'll see if I’m staying here or not. I think I’m staying here. However, because people here like to gossip and junk--we might be losing our car. So....I might need some $$$$$$$$$ for a bike. I'll let you know though. K? Cross your fingers I don't. Ha-ha, although it'd be fun. But our area would kinda stink---because we'd have everything west of Beyer Blvd. to the beach...which is mostly all English...hmm, idk… all rumors. I don't like gossipers. But my companion is a gossiper. lol---transfers, who's gonna be assistants to the pres., zone leaders, district leaders, trainers---people try and find out what’s going to happen b4 they're supposed to know. Kinda annoying. But...yeah.

Brother Allan and Brother Watson were at our church Saturday for a baptism. They are the big dogs in the church---in terms of missionary work. Look 'em up ha-ha. They are literally the head of missionary work in the whole world. They’re pretty cool guys though.

The cameras leave tomorrow!! :( I'm def in the film ha-ha I hope. We were filmed a lot. But we aren’t the main characters or anything. :-s it's nerve-racking having a camera in your face. The movie is gonna be really really cool though.

You should see if you can buy it. The old one that is. If you want to see what missionary work is like. Will can tell you about it. It's pretty cool. The last one was really good.

Thanks for the encouragement mom. That’s what we really need to do. Sometimes we forget and just start teaching and junk. But we have to think, "What are this person's needs?" and teach and stuff to their needs. It says in my Patriarchal blessing that "I will be a great teacher" something like that.

I'm trying. But it'd help if I knew Spanish. Ha-ha, I’m getting better every day. I've re-doubled my efforts. ‘Cause I was kinda lax with it b4.

Thanks for the story mom. Keep them coming. I'll send some too. Those are really nice. Plus, I’ll be able to use them in lessons. Cause, I don't have a testimony or experience about everything.

Love Elder Lewis

Sunday, November 1, 2009

My Area

Hey Mom and Everybody,

Yeah, I thought I knew Elder Leavitt [from Las Vegas] was going to be [at the MTC]. I didn't really think about it though. He was there for one week I was there. He's serving in Everett, Washington mission I think. It was pretty cool to see him. I also met a couple kids there who were going to the Raleigh NC mission. I met them in the lunch line once at the MTC. I didn't meet anyone going to NY though--wait, just a couple girls who were going to Palmyra and stuff. I also met a couple Elders who were going to Puerto Rico. I told ‘em they'll love it there.

I see a lot of Puerto Rico and Filipino flags here on people's car mirrors. Most of the people here are Mexican. I don't see many African Americans; every once in a while. Lots and lots of Mexicans. And they're ALL from Tijuana. Everyone goes to Tijuana on the weekends. So...Saturdays really stink. NO one is ever home. " oh they went to T-J" we get that all the time. It's a big hindrance, because people go to Tijuana instead of coming to church.

We had a baptism last week. Trinidad Marin. I'll send some pics home eventually, hopefully next Monday, ‘cause I forgot my camera. It was real good.

Estamos ensenando una familia, se llama familia Chaidez. Son dos hermanas viviendo juntos. Son divorciado. Pero, sus hijos viven con ellas. Sus hijos y hijas son muy obediente. Y eschuchan a cada palabra que dicimos. Son muy joven, pero encantan iglesia. Especialmente la primaria y cantar. El mas mayor hijo, se llama Julio, tiene, creo que el tiene 16 o 17 anos. El es amigos con dos de los juventudes de nuestro rama. Vamos a jugar "pool" con ellos a las 5 hoy. Pienso que ellos se gustan la iglesia. Pero, no se si estan dispuestos a dejar algunas cosas y sacrificar su tiempo por la iglesia. Y dejar Tijuana en los Domingos jaja. Pues, vamos a sigiur adelante con ellos de todas maneras

The area we are in is pretty big. It takes like 20 min. to get from one end to the other. But if you wanna google it--it goes from the ocean east to Beyer blvd and dairy mart road, down to the border. And north our boundaries end at like a little north of Palm St. yeah...

I haven’t gotten the mail yet here today. But I hope I get your packages today! whooo!

te quiero mucho mama adios