Yes I deserve the reprimand about the length of the letters. I find that I don't have a lot of time so they are short AND I have a very poor memory so I can't remember my past week. I will try and be better.

Last night at the VC I met a family that had 7 children all under the age of 11. The father was from a family of 11 and the mother was from a family of 10. The father's parents also adopted 10 Russian children as well. Get this also, his parents got married at 28 and had the 11 within 15 years...no twins. What the?? I was in awe. It was fun to talk to them. I love the visitor center. Had a guy come in yesterday that had a ton of questions about mormons because of the election going on. He is Catholic and wondered how our faiths differed. He probably would have stayed forever if his little son wasn't wanting to go. I told him to come back and invited him to meet with missionaries. He was such a nice guy. It is so cool to see how whats going on in the world is bringing Heavenly Father's children closer to Him. I love it.

Yesterday before I went to the VC was very cool as well. We went to go see a lady that we knocked on many a time. She talked to missionaries like a year ago but no contact since. We showed up and her husband was pulling out to go to work. He got out of the car and went in to get his wife. So we got to go in. Miracle. She was so nice. We sat in her office and she told us about her country Liberia and her life story. It was incredible and sad but also good. We talked about God and Jesus Christ and how important they are in our lives. We talked about church and she said that she would try to come with her family. She is a very educated woman. She lives in the most beautiful home. She gave us a tour after we chatted and told us to come back and cook with her. It was so fun. What is also cool is that morning during my studies I randomly read an article in the latest Ensign about the Book of Mormon for our day. It talks about the war chapters and everything. It was a good article. But what was cool is that our conversation with Gbomai (pronounced Bo-Ma) she asked about war and why there is war. I told her that in the Book of Mormon there are many instances of war and throughout history that has been the case and I used what I had learned earlier in the morning with her. I love how the Spirit works. Later yesterday we also met the nicest people in the world. The wife is a less active but I didn't realize it until at the end of our conversation. We had just gone over there because we received a referral to give a dvd to this family. The husband is not a member and the wife doesn't have a testimony at all but they LOVE the missionaries. We were there forever and they just chatted with us. They just got back from Utah and going to the Shakespear festival. They saw all the shows that you did. They gave us homemade peach butter and they were the most delightful people. They offered to take us to tour DC on our P-day. I told them that you were coming to town in November and they said that they would love to meet you. Their son is an art docent at the national cathedral so he said that he'd give us a tour. A lot of people would love to meet you two. It will be fun.

We are still meeting with John. We had a wonderful lesson on Tues and we have a lesson for tonight. He already knows pretty much everything so it is just answering some concerns. On Tues we talked about the Word of Wisdom. He said that Christ's name is Wisdom so it is the Word of Wisdom. Yep. He is so good. We read from D&C 89. He took it and just read. It was so cool to see how the Spirit taught him. We didn't really say much and then suddenly he smiled and said that he has never heard the Word of Wisdom put so positively. He thought it was just a negative obedience thing but he LOVED what it really was saying. I love the scriptures. They are so true. They are far more powerful than anything else.  I loved that we turned to the scriptures. Tonight we will be talking about the Priesthood. I'm excited. I love that couple so much. I told them that I want to travel with them because they are so awesome. You will have to meet them for sure too.

Well I need to go. Time is far up. I hope the length of this letter was sufficient. I love this work. It is true. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't. Jesus Christ is our Savior. What a blessing! Tell Todd happy birthday today and tell all the other birthdays coming up or past that I send my love! I love you all so much!!!

Love,
Sister Lewis

 

Background:  Today is Janell’s birthday, and she is commenting on a fruit basket her Mom had delivered, and then she commented on a funny birthday card she sent Jodee that had a bunch of monkeys on it....cute card!  We hope you enjoy her latest “miracles”.  Val

 

Wow that was an eventful trip. First thing before I forget, I need an absentee ballot so I can vote. I am a Utah resident so is there any way you can get one for me?

Second, THANK YOU for the gift! I loved it!!!! So delicious! You are the best! Tell Jodee that I know I didn't sign my name because there were too many monkeys that I couldn't fit my name on it. She can write my name on it if she can find a spot.

This birthday has been great. Sister Miller and I went down to the National Mall and went running around the monuments. It was so beautiful. I love this country. It is my favorite part of DC to go to the Jefferson monument. It is so peaceful there. The Spirit is so strong there. After we went down there we went to the Cheesecake factory...so thank you! It was fun. I still have to go home and get ready for the day but it has been a wonderful day. I have a feeling the best is yet to come because...miracle of the week...Sunday we were at church and I spoke. I don't think the talk was very good but I just prayed that people felt the Spirit. Pretty sure everyone in the ward was sleeping. BUT after Sunday School John came up to me. Now, John is the husband of our recent convert, Audrey. She is so incredible and so is he. She started investigating the church about a year ago and got baptized in March. He comes to church with her every Sunday but doesn't really seem interested at all. On Sunday he came up to me and took me to the corner of the room. He told me quietly that he wanted to know if we would come over and teach him "mormonism 101". He said that he didn't want anyone to know. I was SO excited inside but I played it super calm and told him "sure thing". This is HUGE! I been thinking that I was going to teach him ever since I got here in Olney but I didn't know how it was going to happen. Well, tonight is our first meeting. I will let you know how it goes. I'm so happy!!!

I have seen many miracles this past week. We met a girl at another recent convert's house (Sakina is the RC and Crystal is her friend). This girl is 17 years old and she ended up sitting with us and opening up to us. She isn't really happy in life and feels like something is missing. We told her what it was. We told her to pray. We saw her the next night at a YW activity and she loved it! She is so cute. She is ready to hear the gospel. I love it!

I can't wait to go on a road trip with Min. That will be fun. I have a list of people that we will go visit when you are here. I have had so many people offer their house for you stay but I said that you already have everything booked. You will love these people. They are so amazing! I love this gospel so much. I love these people that I get to meet. I love seeing the blessings take place in the life of others. Heavenly Father sure loves His children. I love my Savior. What a blessing we have to know all of this. Keep me updated with all the miracles in your life. LOVE YOU!

Sister Lewis

 

Background:  Tomorrow (9/13/12) is Janell’s & Jodee’s birthday...they’re 30.  As instructed below, you can watch LDS general conference on KBYU TV, Saturday and Sunday, October 6th & 7th at 9:00 am and 1:00 pm each day.  The whole world would be better if everyone watched and applied the instruction given at these meetings!   Val

This last week was a long week it seemed. It was good but just seemed long. Today we had a mission wide Sports Day. My companion is a sports girl so she was all decked out. She played college ball before she came out on her mission so she was lovin today. She put eye black under my eyes so I was hard core! I looked so tough but of course didn't play tough. It was so fun though. I will have to get copies of the pics from others to send to you. Our team took the championship so that is always fun. I didn't play the last game because one of the sisters got smacked in the face with a soccer ball. I took her to get ice and make sure she didn't pass out. Yes, I was the team mom. People joked about it because I am so old:) Oh, it's lovely.

Mom, I heard that you talked to Sister Dougall. She is excited to meet you.

Monday night we had the best dinner appointment with the Olsens. Oh I love them SO much. She made me a cake and they sang happy birthday. It is weird that I am so old. I was having a hard time with knowing that I'm getting old but I think I am ok now. It is just weird.

I don't think I have anything fun and exciting to report. My brain is fried. The weather is fine. It has been raining a lot but it is still very hot. Autumn is coming soon and so that will be nice. We will be preparing soon for Festival of Lights. There is a lot that will go into it so we have to start now as trainers at the VC. I don't know if I will get released from that calling after this transfer or not but there is work to be done until then.

I love you all so much. This work is true. I am SO excited for Conference coming. Invite people to listen to it. They will love it. Tell my visiting teachers that I thank them for their letters. I'm not very good at sending letters so if I don't get a chance, tell them that it means a lot to me. 

I love you all. Talk to you soon!

-Sister Lewis

HELLO!

Well right now you are having so much fun in Utah I bet. I can't wait to hear about it!
This week has been busy. We had a car wash last Saturday. At first no one was coming. It was super cloudy so we thought no one would end up coming. I didn't just want to stand around and hold up signs. It wasn't my thing. So I decided to go with Sister Lawrence down the street and tell people about it. We talked to a few people. It was nice to just walk and feel like we were accomplishing something. When we got back to the chapel cars started to come. The spanish sisters in our district were so cute and set up a little table in the foyer of the church that had a picture of Jesus and a whole lot of stuff...and lemonade. That tactic worked because while people were getting their car washed they came inside and had lemonade. I was able to do the "tour" part and talk to people. That is my favorite of course. There was a girl who came and she asked after we had talked if she could come to our service sometimes. I said, "of course!" I was so happy! This girl works down the road from the church at the local theater. Of course we hit it off because she is in theater. The cool miracle of it all was that she actually came to church the next day! Oh it was so cool! I love how Heavenly Father is so aware of all of His children. The other cool thing that happened was that one of the guys we talked to down the street came with his car. That was fun to see that he came. It was a good day.

On another note, I have learned more on my mission how much Satan is real. Sunday night we had a miracle in a way, but not a miracle that we all like to hear. We were checking on people in our area and I had a feeling to go to the other side of our area which is about 20-25 min away and check on a former investigator. It was weird because we had only 25 min left before we had to stop proselyting. We were driving there and I just thought that maybe I was not doing the right thing since it was so far away. We got there at 8:29 which is a min before we are to stop. We saw someone home and it was the recent convert that had been out of town. We were so excited to see him. We were also excited because it is his sister that we want to teach. He told us to come inside and we just talked about his trip and everything. I then said that I was so excited that he would get to come to church so that we would know more people. He then said that he has decided that he is done with church and he won't be going anymore. His whole countenance changed. It was so awful. He did not seem happy. We were in silence for a little bit. We asked him why and he just said that he made up his decision. I wanted to cry. It was so sad to see him reject his Heavenly Father. I know he doesn't really realize that is what he is doing but that is exactly what he is doing. I told him that this decision is not permanent and that Heavenly Father will always be there for him. Heavenly Father knew that His son was struggling at that moment in time and that His missionaries were on the other side of their area but needed to go talk to him. We didn't change his mind but we were able to call his closest friends after we left. It was a miracle in a very sad way. It was a very hard night but a testimony of how much our Father loves us. No matter what.

I love this gospel. I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. He can heal us and will if we let Him.
I love you all so much. I loved my package by the way! Best gift ever! Thank you thank you so much! I love you all so much! Talk to you soon!

Sister Lewis