Sunday, December 26, 2010

A Miracle

11/30/20
Things are going well. Transfers are next week. I’m still in Brawley, but my time may be short here. It would be cool to go to another area, but I’m content here. Its nice having a native companion, my Spanish is getting ok now.

It's been freezing here! Like it gets in the 30's during the night! Burr and then biking in that! My hands get cold. Things are happening; we've been finding new people to teach.

Yesterday we had a miracle. We went out in the morning to work. To try and change things up, maybe catch people at home. That didn't work; almost no one was home, haha. But it was about 11:30 and we knocked on the door of a potential investigator. This potential had been street contacted about 2 weeks ago. We had gone by before to contact her. She said come by after the holidays (thanksgiving). We went by to see her, and an older man opened the door. We start talking he asks us from which church we're from, we responded and he said. Oh! I’m baptized in that church. Come in! We came in, and then waited in his living room all awkward for like 5 minutes. We had wondered where he went. Then he comes out with his baptismal certificates and his Aaronic priesthood certificate. Turns out he got baptized in Mexicali in 2006. The man is 81 years old, but super super healthy and strong. He's read the book of Mormon twice. He's lived here in Brawley for 4 years, but never been by the church. Anyways, he's coming back to church and it's a miracle, cause there are only 2 worthy priesthood holders here in Brawley :-0

The church is true, the Holy Spirit is real. God is waiting to bless us according to our obedience. If I’ve learned one thing on my mission. It's that wickedness isn't happiness!! The world is really messed up! Especially Brawley! haha, God loves them just as much as he loves us :)

Lover Elder Lewis

Hey mom

Hey mom,

Yea I bet you guys are really busy. It's too bad I won't be there for the wedding. That's crazy. On what date are they getting married? Ummm, I looked on Google maps and stuff. I think I’d just like to go to Durham Tech when I get home. It's like 3.5 miles from the home right? I could just bike. Plus that'd save me a lot of money. Plus, I don't know if I want to go all the way out to BYU-I it's pretty far. And yea...idk, I don't really want to think about it that much either. But it does come to mind.

Wow, you wanna go back to school? cool :) you'd be real busy. did you ever get to see the dvd's from preach my gospel?
Ben

Temple Trip

11/16/20

It's nice here now. However it got kinda hot yesterday. It might have been in the 80's or 90's
it's getting really nice though. :)

I'm a stinker when it comes to writing people back nowadays. At first I was good. But not I’m kinda unorganized and don't remember where I put my letters and what not. I'm always busy. The missionary schedule takes up all of you time.

Saturday I got to go back to San Diego! whooo! We went to the temple with a recent convert, Gilbert Gonzalez. He's the man. He used to go to Victory Outreach church. Anyways he's on fire. We went and did baptisms for the dead. Also an active, but less involved family went to the temple for the first time with us. That's awesome; 'cause they hadn't been to the temple in the 6 years they have been members.

Anyways we went to the temple. It was way cool. Since I haven’t been to the temple since...ummm..March!! Yea long time. We could go to the celestial room and all. You just have to do an ordinance of any kind, and you can go to the celestial room. It's way cool.

Gilbert, after doing the baptisms was pretty emotional. He said to one of my companions in the locker-room: "I just saved 10 lives". Pretty cool

Then we went to the Mormon Battalion. We watched the Joseph Smith movie, Prophet of the Restoration. Awesome movie. Then we went through the tour there in the visitor’s center. That was an awesome day for us, but more for Gilbert. Our branch president, Pres. Raya took us and everything. He's awesome. He's a really good leader here, he does a lot for the people here.

They had "Cattle Call" here. I didn't really get to see any of it or anything. But it's a big deal here. Really big deal.


Love Elder Lewis

Baptism

11/09/20
Hey

We had a baptism Sunday! :) His name is Jerry Trujillo. Really humbled guy We went to Glamis Sand Dunes today. Enjoy the pics.

The mission in just flying by

11/2/20
Things are good in Brawley. The weather is beautiful. It's sooo nice out here. Yesterday was a little hot. Like 87ish. But as of late it's been really really nice. We've been teaching this guy named Jerry Trujillo. He's going to get baptized this week or the next. He's had a rough life, but has changed completely. He used to be all up on drugs. Especially meth. There's a lot of drugs here in Brawley. A lot crazy people haha. You see them on the streets a lot. We keep finding more and more people to teach. Which is awesome.

When I was here before we were having a hard time. It was hard work. Not a lot of stuff was happening. But now like idk... 3-5 months later...there's a ton of stuff happening. The missionaries who come in after us are going to have a ton of people to teach. Our teaching pool is like 15 people at least. It might be up in the 20's. Which is really good compared to what I’ve had in the past.

My Spanish keeps getting better. I'm still with Elder Araujo and Elder Yardley. We're getting along fine. This is my 3rd transfer with Elder Araujo. So who knows what’s going to happen after this transfer. 3 transfers is a long time together for a companionship. However, I think he'll stay and I’ll go. Because I’ve been in Brawley 3 transfers before. So now it's a total of 6. ----4 Transfers in Imperial Beach/ San Ysidro, 3 transfer in Brawley, 1 in El Cajon, 3 in Brawley.

The mission in just flying by. It's almost Christmas. :-0

Halloween was fun. We weren’t allowed to be out on the streets. We went to the Branch president’s house and watched some church movies. That was a nice little break and time to relax. It was nice.

Well. It's just the same ol' same ol' I guess. I'm having a great time here. Its soooo nice and soooo much easier to work now that it's not 115 degrees out. It's actually easy to go out and bike and such. I don't get thirsty. I'm not completely soaked from sweat and dying from the heat. It's really really good weather :)

I love you all and pray for you all every day.

btw. How’d the pmg videos go with the missionaries? Did you see me?

Lover Elder Lewis

I'm in the video, ha, ha!

10/19/20
Hey, that mountain place is called Salvation Mountain. It's in a little boonie spooky town called Niland. Out in literally the middle of the desert.

Thats sooo cool the missionaries are gonna come over and show you guys the videos (Preach My Gospel). I know everyone in the movies. All the missionaries. Elder Moreno and I are buds. Elder Christensen and Hepworth and Sister Voyles are all still here on their missions. I was in Sister Voyles district for like 6 months. I was in the "Districts" zone. So I'm friends with ‘em all. They're all awesome missionaries.

Yea, I'm in the movies in two parts. You can see the back of my head in one part. But before that, the cameras are on Sis. Voyles and Zaldivar in the church. And I'm in the doorway. You can see me pretty clearly. haha.

My stitches healed ok. Yea I have a scar. I don't grow hair there anymore :/ and it's kinda red still--the skin.


Everything is good

Love, Elder Lewis

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Baptisms

Tue, Sep 28, 2010
Everything is going well. There were the most people in the branch Sunday than ever. Wow! It’s growing. It wasn't before.

It's getting a little cooler. Yesterday it was 110 I heard. haha I’m not much for writing letters :-0 anymore.
We’re gonna go play laser tag. 2$ bucks a game! Whoo

Sept. 15, 2010
We had another baptism Sunday. Her name is Angie. The whole family has come back to church. Which is absolutely amazing! :)

Hey sorry, I didn't get to email yesterday.

Yesterday we found out transfers. Everything is staying the same out here. So that's good :)

Yea, I hadn’t had a baptism for a while. Things are just falling into place. I guess I really did need to go back to Brawley. :)

We're having another baptism this Sunday :)

Well...send lots of pictures of the wedding and send me an invitation :)

How's Evelyn doing?

The weather is getting better bit by bit. Even though it was a mild summer. It's going down every week. Biking here to the library though it was 112--and it didn't feel that bad :)

Everything is going great out here. Like I’ve always said, don't worry about me, like at all. I'm in really good hands. We get fed a lot! Almost every day we have a meal with members.

Also idk if I said it already, but we'll have another baptism this Sunday. It's a little girl named Angie. The family has been less active. But they all came to church last week and to the baptism. They were all dressed in white shirt and tie and dresses. :) They're probably the nicest family I’ve met on the mission. They've just had some problems they're overcoming.

The “Preach My Gospel” videos are out. Ask your missionaries if they've seen them. Maybe they'd let you watch them. Or have them come over for dinner and watch them, then talk about your mission plan. I'm in the movies for like 2 seconds. haha. 1st disc part 3.

Well I love you all very much,

Elder Lewis