Week 63

Oh my goodness this week was crazy! Sister Feinga and I hardly said goodbye to anyone in Charles Town because we were crazy busy! On Tuesday morning we found out that no sisters were coming to replace us so we had to do a ton of stuff! But, that's okay because at least we didn't accidentally forget to say goodbye and hurt anyone's feelings. Nope, we just didn't say goodbye to anyone! Haha!

Well, on Tuesday night we had an amazing church tour with Lisa! It actually started off as the worst church tour that I have ever given and ended in the chapel with Lisa and I both sobbing while I played, "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" on the piano. Sadly, she ran out of the chapel after we finished because she felt undeserving. But, that wasn't the end! She texted us and she is now meeting with the elders and I'm sure she will come to know that the Book of Mormon is true very soon!

In the Kent Island Branch, we are teaching 5 people! 3 are the teenage and pre-teen daughters of members of the branch, the Harrisons! They came to the Washington DC Temple on Saturday to look at the lights! Also, I ran into my ROOMMATE FROM BYU-IDAHO, Laleska! It was crazy!!! She was there visiting her boyfriend who we also used to hang out with when I was at school. It was weird having my pre-mission life mesh with my mission life haha but it was so good to see her! FUN!

So, we taught the Harrison girls at the temple about baptism and repentance! They are so excited and ready to be baptized! They just need to be taught and start coming to church regularly! I attached a picture with them and my companion Sister Blosch!

We also taught our other investigator, Billy, this week! He is 83 and loves to talk! I love to listen to his stories, too, so that makes it hard to leave in an hour! BUH! Hahaha! We taught him about the Restoration by watching the 20 minute Restoration film! It was awesome! He felt and recognized the Spirit and committed to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and to read the introduction to the Book of Mormon.

Well, we need to go shop so I will email you all next week!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! I love you all and appreciate EVERYTHING you do for my companion and me!

Love,

Sister Lewis

The Harrison girls

 

 

 We live on the water...

 

 

 It's beautiful.

 

 

Week 62: Transfers!

So...transfer news! Sister Feinga and I are BOTH LEAVING WHAT THE HECK?! Haha, I kinda felt it coming but I was skeptical. I didn't feel like I was staying but it would have been weird for me to leave and Sister Feinga to stay for a fifth transfer here in Charles Town but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was leaving. Anyway, I am going to Kent Island in the Annapolis stake! I am super excited to go there but sad to leave Charles Town, especially after we just started teaching Lisa! Meh! But, she is so cool. She was sad that we were leaving but her commitment to keep learning is unflinching!

My new companion's name is Sister Blosch, and I remember seeing her last transfer meeting. She is so sweet! I'm so excited to work with her on the east side!!!

So, as for this week! We had an awesome zone conference with Elder Teh from the Seventy! He was awesome! We talked about following the Spirit, praying with faith, making the Sacrament meaningful, a missionary story from the Book of Mormon, and so many other things! I have resolved to make my prayers more meaningful and to learn more about the life of the Savior. I love him so much and I always revel in the opportunity to read about His life from the New Testament and Book of Mormon.

On Wednesday we taught Lisa in a member's home! It was awesome! The Spirit was so strong! We talked about the Book of Mormon and how it is evidence that Joseph Smith is a prophet! She loves the Book of Mormon. We read about the Atonement from the Book of Mormon (Alma 7:11-12) and she loved it! We invited her to read Alma 32 because she wanted to learn more about faith!

I'm running out of time so quick! Today we met with Lisa for lunch and a lesson, and it was awesome! She read Alma 32 and 33, the Restoration pamphlet, and the Plan of Salvation pamphlet! She is so awesome! We invited her to be baptized and she said yes! Super strong Spirit! Wish I had more time!

Love you all so much! Thanks for all your love, prayers, and support!

Bye, bye, C-Town! Hello, Kent Island!

Week 61

This week was the bomb diggity.com! On Monday and Tuesday I was feeling pretty down because I haven't taught a solid investigator in a while and I felt kinda lame like I wasn't doing what I was supposed to. So, on Tuesday after district meeting I asked my district leader for a blessing. (A blessing is when someone who has authority and power from God lays their hands on your head and gives you counsel or advice from God.) This experience reaffirmed my testimony that God's power really has been given to man in our day. There is no way that this 20-something elder would know that I needed to hear what he said by inspiration from the Holy Ghost. That blessing changed my week. I was on the slick downhill slope to discouragement, and the Spirit that I felt when I received that blessing and the counsel that I received have blessed me so much in the past week and I am sure they will continue to bless me.

So, after that we went out and worked! We went to a lesson with a referral from the Charles Town elders on Tuesday. Her name is Jessica Grady! She joined the church in Idaho a year ago...we didn't know that before we visited her but hey! It's a funny story now and we've learned a lesson about being ourselves all the time!

On Wednesday we visited with a family from our ward named the Diavolikis! The wife hasn't been to church in a while and the husband is not a member but comes to church around Christmas time every year. We happened to drive by their house a few weeks ago just as Sister Diavolikis was going out to her car to get to work. Wednesday was the second time we have met with them since then. On Wednesday Sister Diavolikis expressed that she feels like she is unfamiliar with some of the teachings of Jesus Christ, so we offered to teach them the lessons! We are so excited not only to help Sister Diavolikis learn again but to teach Brother Diavolikis about the restored gospel! We are hoping and praying that Sister Diavolikis will feel the desire to come back to church and Brother Diavolikis will feel the desire to be baptized. Great blessings await them both!

On Wednesday we also visited a family that hasn't been visited in months by the missionaries. The crazy part is that the elders felt inspired to visit them on the same day and the Spanish elders have felt inspired to visit them and they went on Saturday! The Spirit is so real!

On Thursday we had the craziest afternoon of our lives haha! It consisted of a woman shouting to herself in her apartment about these crazy church ladies who wouldn't stop calling her (that would be us after one phone call...), being yelled at over the intercom at an apartment building because we didn't know how to respond and they thought we were criminals trying to break into their building, and being told by a woman that she would never want to get into the Book of Mormon because it might implant false ideas in her mind...oh man. That was the highlight of the day.

Along with visiting lots of members this week to try to help them in their missionary efforts, contacting referrals, and teaching less-active members, we have been doing a lot of personal contacting (or knocking on doors/talking to people on the street) to find new people to teach so that has taken a lot of our time and we have seen miracles because of it! As we are striving to work hard to find people, we find them!

HERE IS THE BEST PART OF THE WEEK

On Friday morning, we had two appointments scheduled to start teaching some people. Within 5 minutes of each other, both appointments canceled. At this point I almost slid back down the slick downhill slope to discouragement because Yvonne had just dropped us, we weren't teaching anyone, we could never get into someone's house more than once, a whole bunch of our return appointments would cancel and I was feelin' pretty bummed! I just wanted to teach someone about the gospel! But, instead of becoming discouraged, I decided to read the notes I had written about the blessing I received on Tuesday. As I did, I could feel the Spirit encouraging me and saying, "It's okay, you will find the one who needs you. Just keep working hard." So, we decided to listen to the Spirit and go where Heavenly Father would have us go. We felt prompted to visit an active family named the Clines. On the way to the Cline's house we passed a neighborhood that I knew we had some referrals in so I pulled into the neighborhood to knock on some doors and contact the referrals (even though my motivation to knock on another door was next to nothing). We talked to a man who was raised in the church (not a coincidence), another man who didn't understand why there are so many religions (we have an answer to that), contacted a referral who knows that Michael Jordan is better than Lebron James (doesn't take a rocket scientist), and finally contacted a referral named Lisa. Lisa is a miracle!

So, Lisa has two kids (a daughter and a son who has autism), and a husband. When we knocked on her door she came out cheerfully in her apron. We asked if she was cooking and she said she was baking and asked if we wanted some cookies! Oh man, they were fresh out of the oven and DELICIOUS! That's beside the point but it was a tender mercy haha! So, we started talking to Lisa and shared some things that we believe and in the course of our conversation we found out that her church is closing in a few weeks! It was super sad because we could tell that she would miss her church family but I know that we were sent to meet her at this specific time! We also shared with her that a prophet was called in the 1800's, a man just like Moses or Noah, and there have been 16 prophets since then. She said she was really interested in learning more and invited us to come back on Sunday to teach her family. We left her with a Restoration pamphlet and asked her to read it.

On Sunday afternoon, we went back with a sister from our ward to teach them and it was awesome!! Only Lisa was there for the lesson because her daughter was flying back from NJ, her husband was going to pick her up, and her son just needs to warm up to us  So, we talked about the Restoration of the gospel and she shared with us that something we said on her doorstep really intrigued her. She said, "Now, you said there have been 16 prophets since the 1800s...how did I miss all of those prophets?!" Haha! She is awesome! Then the awesome sister who came with us jumped right in and told Lisa about the time after Jesus Christ when there was no prophet and how Joseph Smith was called as a prophet in the 1800s. She really felt the Spirit and she is eager to learn more! She read from the Book of Mormon while we were there and you could tell she was extremely moved. She is SO COOL!!! I know we were sent to find her. She is the one! We are going to see her again on Wednesday!

Well, I am out of time. Thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers! As you can see, those prayers are being answered!

Love you all!!!

Love,

Sister Lewis

 

P.S. - We find out about transfers on Sunday. They are on the 16th so anything that is being sent needs to be to my address by the 16th! Thanks!

Also, we went Christmas caroling at a senior center as a district. It was super fun! We are going back next week and having Christmas dinner with them! I'M SO PUMPED! Here's a picture...Elder Gardner is so short they had to lift him up...now that's a loving district haha!

Love you all! Have a great week!

 

 

 

Week 60

This week was awesome! On Tuesday we taught a woman named Yvonne! We met her a few weeks ago at CVS after picking up my antibiotics for a sinus infection! Miracle sinus infection! Haha, anyway after meeting her we found out that we could help her with her Thanksgiving meal so we reached out to the ward and an AMAZING family stepped up and provided an ENTIRE Thanksgiving meal for Yvonne and her family! Amazing! So, on Tuesday we brought another member over and taught her about the Restoration. We asked her what it would mean to her if there was a prophet on the Earth today. She said, "Okay!" Haha, that was her way of saying she has no objections to the idea! She is awesome and said she feels the Spirit every time missionaries talk to her about Joseph Smith. (Oh yeah I forgot to tell you that missionaries taught her a year or two ago.) Anyway, we are teaching her now. She is Baptist and very devoted to her religion. We are so happy that she has such great faith in Christ and we know that as she reads the Book of Mormon her testimony of living prophets will grow!

We are also seeing tons of miracles as we continue to work with the members of our ward in helping them to share the gospel with their friends! Many of the members are really getting involved in missionary work and are reaching out to us for our help! We KNOW we will find people who are being prepared to receive the gospel. The Lord works through the members EVERY DAY!

Thursday was Thanksgiving...three meals...I am still recovering from my turkey and gravy coma. But, I can never get enough potatoes. Yum.

On Friday we met with a part-member family in our ward and shared a message that we felt inspired to share on the Plan of Salvation. Brothers and sisters, I KNOW that God has a plan for us. His plan is made perfect through the Savior Jesus Christ. During the lesson, the nonmember husband was listening intently which he doesn't always do and we could tell he was feeling the Spirit. This just confirmed to me that what we were teaching is TRUE!

On Saturday we felt inspired to visit a referral from someone we met on the street. The referral's name was Joanne. So, we went and visited her and it turns out she is actually a less-active member of our ward who hadn't been visited by missionaries in a while! She was SO nice! She also happened to live in the same building as the less-active whose bathroom I fell asleep in last Saturday...I totally did it again. There's something about the apartments in that building around 2pm haha! 

On Sunday night we visited with another part-member family. This time the wife is not a member. We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We started talking about faith and ask how a belief in Jesus Christ had motivated them to act. The wife said, "Well I was just thinking about Emma (her daughter), she got baptized." It was amazing! Unfortunately, in my weakness I did not follow up very well...just praying for another opportunity like that one to talk to her about baptism.

We also visited a family last night and joined in their annual family tradition of doing a Greek dance around the Christmas tree! It was SO FUN!!

To end our week last night, we attended a baptism in a bordering ward! It was awesome. The Spirit was super strong! We also got to help an investigator of another set of missionaries since they were helping the investigator who was getting baptized. We got to tell her about how Jesus Christ suffered for her so that she can have peace. I love telling people about that. It is so beautiful. His love is so beautiful.

Well, that's all for this week! Thank you for all of your love, support and prayers!

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Lewis

Week 59

This is going to be the shortest email of my mission...

First thing, my headache is gone! Hallelujah!

Tuesday we had zone conference and we found out...we're getting iPads!! Haha, jk. Well, we will eventually but I will likely be long gone by the time that happens. We DID have an AMAZING conference though and learned about how our inspired planning can change the way we work as missionaries. TRUE! Our mission president is SO inspired! On Tuesday night a member walked up to us after our Book of Mormon studies class and said, "Hey sisters, I may have someone for you to teach." MIRACLE! Her name is Ashley. I'll keep you all posted!

On Wednesday we met with a less-active member whose husband is not a member! We are hoping to start teaching him! He is from Greece and super cool! We have been singing for less-active members and it always brings the Spirit. Hymns are awesome!

On Saturday I took a 3 minute nap on a less-active member's bathroom floor. I was so tired. Haha! New low for sure, but hey! You do what you gotta do! 

Well, I don't have any more time! Shoot! We don't have any investigators...SHOOT! That's okay. Soon, very soon.

Love you! Thank you!

Love,

Sister Lewis

 

 

Week 58

Hello all! This week was awesome! We went on exchanges with our awesome Sister Training Leaders Sister Talbert and Sister Ward! They are so cool! I got to go to Winchester again and spend a day and a half there with Sister Ward! She is crazy haha but she is such a hard worker I love it! It was cool to learn from her. Also, at the beginning of all exchanges that we go on we set goals and it was a really good exchange in that regard. It was really fun to work on my goal and to help Sister Ward with hers. Her goal was to invite the Spirit into our lessons with members. We had some really awesome spiritual experiences with the members as we really strove to do that!

On Thursday we went to the doctor for a migraine that I have had. I have been trying to kick this migraine for almost 4 weeks. It will all work out, I know it. 

We weren't able to see any of our investigators this week for lessons, although we tried with all of them and were able to bring some applesauce to Mrs Hudson because of her oral surgery she just had. We did a lot of work with the less-active members which was awesome! That always seems to go well with Sister Feinga and I! We love them so much and are so excited to help them come back to church!

I am having a hard time concentrating so I'm going to have to cut this email short! I love you all! Thank you for all you do!

Love,

 Sister Lewis

 

Pictures: Sister Feinga and I had some extra time last night so we built a fort in our room and ate ice cream while watching "Only a Stonecutter." It's a great little video! You can find it on lds.org! It's about a man who gave all he had to the Lord in his calling. I loved watching it and really needed it!

 

 

Week 57

Okay I am VERY CLOSE to having all my time spent.

Highlights:

One of my companions, Sister Jeppson, went home this week. SO STINKING SAD!

Sister Feinga and I were asked to teach seminary in two Fridays! I'm so excited! We were also asked to travel down to Woodstock on the 22nd to give talks in sacrament meeting on High Council Sunday! I am SOOO excited!!! Haha!

Okay, I am blanking on everything that happened this week, but I have to get off, so I will have to catch up next week! Sorry, buh!!

Love,

Sister Lewis

Oh! I remembered! We are teaching a new girl name Jacque (pronounced Jackie)! She is awesome! Her husband's family is from Idaho, and they are "jack-Mormons"; her words haha! She is headed out to Idaho next week for a few weeks. Hopefully she will have some good experiences out there with the Church! I am so excited to keep teaching her!!

Okay love you! Thank you for all your prayers, love, and support!

Week 56: Transfers!

Okay, Sister Feinga and I are both staying in Charles Town! We were both very surprised by this news because Sister Feinga has already been here for 3 transfers! That means she will spend at least 6 months in Charles Town. That is a long time to spend in any area so hopefully we will just be so busy that Sister Feinga doesn't even know what day it is! Haha, but in any case, I am excited to be working with her for another transfer! Last night after we found out about transfers, we visited an active family and the husband shared a story about some sisters in his mission and how they got a ton of work done. While he was talking, I felt so strongly that Sister Feinga and I are here to do amazing work together and with the Lord. I am so excited that she is still my companion! I love her so much and we are gonna DO WORK this transfer!!

Side note:  one companionship in our district is leaving the area and an Elder Lewis is coming here. Haha! Also, one of the elders from Woodstock is coming here to Charles Town! That probably means little to nothing to most of you haha but these are the little things that are exciting about transfers especially since I have only ever served around ONE missionary more than once!

Okay, SO THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME! Even with having to take a slow day because I was having migraines every day for about a week, we still had an awesome week. Sadly, we had to drop five of our investigators. Colleen will be ready one day as well as Dustin and Kiara. We can't teach Kenneth and Brady without permission from both of their parents and we are having a hard time getting that, so for the time being we won't be able to teach them.

BUT, things are going well with Nikki! She had strep throat last week so we brought her ice cream on Monday and we have been texting and calling every day so we have a really good relationship with her! She is feeling better now so we are going to see her in the next few days!

We also picked up a new investigator named Regina Hudson. She is older and wants us to call her Mrs. Hudson! She is so cute!! She loves learning about God and she really trusts us. She is so humble. She always talks about how you can learn something from everyone you meet, even if they are generations younger than you. She believes Joseph Smith is a prophet. We are just trying to help her realize what that really means! We know that once she does, she will come to church and be baptized! She is excited to start reading the Book of Mormon! Teaching her is going to be awesome! Also, she is super committed!!

Okay, I have one minute! I wanted to quickly bear my testimony that I know Heavenly Father loves us. I have recently realized that I have struggled for most of my life to feel worthy of His love. It is because of my own pride that I have felt this way. It has been hard and it has been a process, but I am finally learning how to let go of my pride and as I do, I FEEL HIS LOVE. We are His children. Think of it. We are His children.

Well , I'm out of time! These pictures are dedicated to my video game loving brother! Go Minecraft!

 

 

Week 55

Hello! This week was so awesome! I am very concerned about that because usually when the work starts to pick up right before transfers that means that someone is leaving. And yes, you heard me right, transfers are next week. I can't believe how quickly the time is moving. I feel like I was just emailing you people! Haha!

Anyway! This week we met a bunch of new people that want to learn more! We also met with Colleen for the first time in forever! I hope everyone just thought of Anna from Frozen singing and sliding down the staircase. Anyway, we had a lesson with her on Friday and she really opened up about some things she is struggling with. She also came to a baptism on Saturday! A recent convert's husband got baptized on Saturday! Colleen is also really good friends with the recent convert (Holly). Sadly, we won't be teaching Colleen anymore because it just isn't her time right now, but we will continue to reach out to her and pray that one day she will come to know that the things we teach are true.

On Thursday, we visited a family in our ward who have a nonmember family living with them right now who are trying to get back on their feet. The parents are really busy most of the time, but their two sons Brady and Kenneth are only 10 and 8 so they are free as birds! They came to church on Sunday and we are going to teach them tonight! They are so ready to learn and it's going to be fun to teach kids who are so young!

On Friday we taught a girl named Nikki who we met on Wednesday! Nikki is awesome! We were driving by and saw her waiting to pick her daughter up from the school bus on a street corner and we stopped the car to talk to her. She immediately opened up about how she really wants to be a more positive person. The beautiful thing about the gospel is that it can help us to achieve any worthy goal, not just the big ones! So we told her that Jesus Christ and baptism could help her to do that and she said wanted to be baptized. When we went back to teach her on Friday, we taught her about the Restoration of the gospel and she believed that Joseph Smith really was a prophet and she decided to be baptized on November 21! Yay!!!

On Saturday we went to the Washington DC Temple Visitors Center with Sister Hutton from our ward. She is preparing to go to the temple within the next year or so and we wanted to help her to feel more comfortable with the temple! Visiting the Visitors Center and the grounds was really helpful for that. There is also a beautiful statue of Christ in the Visitors Center that has an audio recording of things that Christ has said in the scriptures. She loves sitting and listening to that while looking at the statue. I love it too!

Like I said, on Saturday Holly Silveous' husband Dave was baptized! It was awesome! The Spirit was really strong and the sisters in the Harpers Ferry Ward sang a special musical number with Sister Feinga and I. I wanted to share some of the words from the song. It is called "The Miracle" and I believe it is a new children's song published by the Church. Here are the words that really stuck out to me:

"Jesus is a God of miracles!

Nothing is at all impossible to him,

But I know this, of all His miracles,

The most incredible must be the miracle

That rescues me."

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. Through His Atonement, we can be saved, rescued, purified, refined, and changed. It is truly a miracle that Jesus Christ can take me as I am, and with a willing heart, He uses me as so much more. I love Him, and I share His love with you.

I love you all! Thank you for all of your prayers, love, and support!

Love,

Sister Lewis

 

Sister Feinga and I with Sister Hutton and her granddaughter Tatiana

 

 

Angel Moroni atop the DC Temple through the Fall leaves

Week 54

I can't believe it is already the fifth week of the new transfer! Time is seriously flying by!

I don't have a lot of time, so here are the highlights of the week!

On Tuesday we met with Dustin and Kiara and taught them about the Restoration! They are both awesome! Kiara has a lot of faith! She is a lot quieter than Dustin so it is interesting to teach them together but it works out well because they have a good relationship and Dustin is an awesome teacher. When he can tell that she doesn't understand something, he helps her to understand it. It's awesome! Dustin loved talking about Joseph Smith! He read the pamphlet before our appointment and he just kept wanting to talk about Joseph Smith the whole time haha! We definitely would have jumped straight to it but we wanted to make sure they both understood the events leading up to the Restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith.

On Wednesday we met this amazing woman named Susan! She is originally from China but moved to the U.S. when she was 15. She was baptized shortly after coming to the U.S. in a Baptist church and she LOVES the Savior! She loves being Christian and is super humble! She knows she has lots to learn and she relies on the Spirit so much to know what is true! She has tons of amazing questions and always asks them (oh man, that's a missionary's dream!) We are going to start teaching her. We met with her again yesterday and she loves us!

Well, I am out of time! Thank you for your love and support!

Love,

Sister Lewis

Week 53

This week was amazing! The less-active work in this area is exploding!!! We are working with so many members of the ward (active and less-active) to help the members who haven't been in a while to come back to church and feel the blessings of the Sacrament!

This week we had interviews with President Christiansen! He is so wise it's not even funny! He reminds me so much of my dad! He shared some wonderful quotes with me on the Atonement. These are just the first parts of the quotes but if you look them up on google you can find the whole quote:

"Not only did Jesus come as a universal gift, He came as an individual offering."- Heber J. Grant from "Marvelous Growth"

"Christ has infinite attention to spare for each of us."- C.S. Lewis

We also had Stake Conference this weekend, and I am still in the Winchester Stake so I got to see a bunch of people from Woodstock! It was a sweet reunion! I love the people from all my wards more than I can say! It is always so sweet to see them again!

From Stake Conference, I really loved President Wright's comments on preparedness. He shared this thought that I really loved:

"The designer of the pattern sees what you can't yet see. You need to trust that the designer can see what you can't see." What amazing thoughts on faith!

Well, I am out of time! I love you all! Thank you for your thoughts, love, and prayers!

Love,

Sister Lewis

 

 

Fern! A recent convert in our ward!

 

 

 

My beautiful companion!

 

 

 

The Gagnons from Woodstock! I love them!

Week 52: Member Missionaries!

Hey everyone! This week has been full of many miracles! We started out with a zone training in Winchester and it was so awesome! We talked a lot about helping people to receive the blessings of the Atonement of Jesus Christ by being baptized. It has been really effective to share with people that they can have the blessings of the Atonement by being baptized by someone with the priesthood authority. I know this is true and I know that we need it in order to return to live with Heavenly Father after this life.

We met with a dear sister on Monday night who is returning from less-activity in the Church! We talked to her about preparing to enter the temple and she is so excited to start! This is what it's all about. Helping everyone to get to the temple!

On Wednesday we had a really fun activity with the Young Women and Young Men in our ward. Us and the two sets of elders in our ward talked about using technology to share the gospel. I was struck by the incredible blessings that we have in our day. I thought about the sacrifices that women and men made over thousands of years so that we could have both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. We now have access to holy writ in the very palms of our hands. How blessed we are! I was also touched this weekend that we have the opportunity and the blessing to listen to living prophets and apostles of the Lord through technology. We live in an amazing time!

We had a cool miracle on Thursday! We went to a recent converts house who is 8 years old and she is usually really crazy! Haha we prayed that she would be calm and MIRACLE!! She was calm. Haha

We had a lesson this week with our investigator Colleen and she really connected with the member that we brought! We were able to talk to help her understand the importance of knowing that the Book of Mormon is true! We will continue working with her and help her prepare to receive the blessings of the Atonement by being baptized!

The members in this ward are getting so fired up about missionary work it's awesome! We hope to start teaching many friends of member very soon!

Well, I am out of time! Just wanted to share something quickly that I loved about conference this weekend. Watching President Monson struggle was heart-breaking, but even more powerful was the comfort of the Holy Ghost that I felt as I listened to our dear prophet continue to speak. His urgency to deliver the message that Heavenly Father had given to him brought a power to the message that penetrated my heart. That was a very powerful moment. I could almost see the Savior at his side giving him the strength to deliver his talk. In addition, the thought of his devoted counselor reaching out to give him aid is heart-warming. I am not worried for President Monson. I recognize the possibilities of his frail health, but I am not worried. Heavenly Father is in charge.

I love you all! Thank you for everything you do for me and my companion! Keep praying! I feel it!

Love,

Sister Lewis

Week 51: Charles Town!

Okay this week was crazy! On Monday and Tuesday we said goodbye to so many people! Oftentimes you don't realize how much you love an area until you are leaving it. I held it together until the end of the night on Tuesday when we went to visit a dearly loved family in the Woodstock Ward and the elders happened to be there (crying haha) and after a long day of saying goodbye to lots of loved people I lost it haha! I sure do miss Woodstock!

BUT! Charles Town is AMAZING! The people here are so nice and my companion, Sister Feinga, is so awesome! She is from Tonga and we all know that Tongans are some of the nicest people ever! I love her so much! She is such an amazing teacher and has such a powerful testimony of the gospel.

Very quickly, this week we started teaching a girl named Ashley (haha it's fun teaching someone with your sister's name). She is so cool! She was given to us as a referral twice by two different sets of missionaries. It's obvious that Heavenly Father is preparing her and wants her to learn about the restored gospel. She was raised going to church with her grandma and has an amazing understanding of the Bible. When we taught her about the Restoration, it made so much sense to her and she totally accepted Joseph Smith as a prophet. She is reading from and praying about the Book of Mormon and this weekend she is so excited to hear from the living prophet in general conference! She is planning to be baptized on October 24!

Speaking of general conference, I would like to encourage everyone to invite a friend to watch it with them! It is going to be amazing and what a wonderful opportunity that we have to witness 3 new apostles called and sustained. The Spirit will surely be there!

This weekend, Sister Feinga and I were able to go down to the Washington DC Temple Visitors Center for Sister Feinga to perform at a Polynesian Culture Celebration. She did a Tongan dance! It was awesome! I got to see the Haka (spelling?) performed and the hula and many other Polynesian dances! A less-active member of our ward came and loved it! It was awesome!

I love you all and thank you for your prayers and love!

Love,

Sister Lewis

Week 50: Transfers!

Well, I'm not becoming a Spanish sister like some people guessed, but I am getting transferred! My new area is in the same stake but a little over an hour's drive from Woodstock. Also, it's in West Virginia so I get to serve in all the states of our mission haha! I will miss Woodstock dearly. It has been one of the greatest blessings to serve here. I love the people. I love the ward. It just feels like home, but new adventures and experiences certainly lie ahead with my new companion, Sister Fanga (from Tonga I believe), and all the people I will meet.

So, an update on this past week. After talking with her parents, Keysi was not able to get permission to be baptized this past Saturday, but hope is not lost! Keysi's mom and dad still think that learning about the Church has been a really good thing for Keysi and are still open to her being baptized some time in the future. It may take some time but I am sure that it will happen eventually!

We also taught our investigator Rosemary this week and she is awesome! She loves learning and she is super smart! We talked about the Book of Mormon with her and she is so excited to start reading it! She expressed some concerns about her personal life but we were able to talk it out with her and she is now really optimistic to keep meeting with us!

We also had an awesome visit with Morgan and Sister Dykes! We watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" and the Spirit was so strong! Sister Moore and I both learned so much more from the movie that specific time watching it! They both loved the movie but we didn't have any time to talk about it after because it ended at 9:25 and we are supposed to be in our apartment by 9:30. We made it, though! 9:29! Good thing they live close to us haha! They will be on a cruise this week! We hope and pray that they keep reading the Book of Mormon!

We started teaching another part-member family this week! There is a woman in our ward named Sister Vincent. Her granddaughter Megan takes care of her so we started teaching her this week! We have a hard time with keeping appointments but we're usually able to catch her if we drop by and she's really good at reading and praying and all that good stuff! So, we have high hopes for her!

Well, that was all for this week! I love you all and thank you for everything you do!

Love,

Sister Lewis

Week 49: Gift of Tongues!

Okay this week was fan-diggity-tastic! It feels like it was only two days long but it was jam-packed with miracle after miracle! Let's jump right in!

Miracle #1: So recently there was this woman named Teresa that the elders met on the street. They talked to her twice and the second time they found out that she was actually a member of the Church! She hadn't been since she was about ten years old and was interested in coming back. Since it is just her and her daughter Morgan (who isn't a member of the Church) living in their house, the elders told us that we should go over and visit! For the first visit, we gave Teresa a tour of the church and it was awesome! The Spirit was super strong and she was so excited to come back on Sunday and take the Sacrament. The second meeting was while I was on exchanges in Winchester, but the sisters brought over a member of the ward who they felt inspired to bring and she totally hit it off with Teresa and Morgan! The third meeting we had was on Tuesday of this past week and Morgan sat in as well. We taught about the Restoration of the gospel and Teresa and Morgan both loved it! So here's the crazy part...Morgan hasn't ever been the spiritual type and doesn't really connect with religion or God or anything, but ever since we started coming over, she said she feels like what we're teaching is true. She says it makes a lot of sense but on top of that she feels it. Amazing! We had another lesson on Thursday about the Book of Mormon and she is excited to read it and find out if it's true. She is working to be baptized in October! Tomorrow we are going over to watch "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" with them! It is going to be so good!

Miracle #2: There is a less-active member of our ward of about 50 years or so. She has recently been meeting with us as well as representatives from a few other churches. She has been attending one particular church for a few months now but always expressed to us that it was only because she felt obligated to them because they helped her find the house she is living in. She would tell us that she wanted to come back to "the Mormon church" but was scared to tell the other congregation, even though she didn't believe what they taught. So, a week or two ago when we stopped by, we talked about Joseph Smith with her, she cried and told us how much she loves us. It was an amazing experience. Then, two visits later (this past Wednesday) she told us that she finally had the courage to tell the other congregation that she wouldn't be attending anymore. She is still confused about all the religions so we asked how we could help and she wants us to start reading the Book of Mormon with her weekly. That is going to be awesome!

Miracle #3: On Saturday, we had the privilege of a visit to the mission from Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. We got to hear from President and Sister Christiansen, Elder Gerard of the Seventy, and Elder and Sister Cook. It was amazing! It was truly a sacred experience so I won't share too much, but I will say that in that meeting, as Elder Cook invoked an apostolic blessing on the missionaries in our mission, I felt the love of our Heavenly Father stronger than I have in a long time, and I feel His love every day. I know that Heavenly Father loves us and that is the sole motivation for His plan for us. I know that the priesthood has been restored and that prophets and apostles walk the Earth today. What an amazing opportunity we have coming in just three short weeks to hear their inspired counsel.

Miracle #4 (IF YOU DON'T READ ANY OTHER MIRACLE, READ THIS ONE!):

So, like I said last week we have been saying lots of prayers and fasting and working to help Keysi's parents allow her to be baptized. So, recently Sister Moore and I (and Sister Tripple when she was here) have felt that we needed to watch the movie "The Testaments" with Keysi and her family. We tried to set it up a couple weeks ago but it ended up falling through because Keysi's dad was injured a few days prior. So, this week we arranged to have a member of the ward who speaks Spanish (and who "happens to be" Keysi's class adviser in Young Women) invite Keysi's family over for dinner and to watch the movie. So, last night, it happened! We had an awesome dinner provided by our member and her husband, and watched the movie! Keysi's parents thought the movie was so beautiful! Keysi's mom cried at the end! After the movie, we had a little testimony meeting in Spanish! It was so cool! Sister Moore and I bore our testimonies in Spanish that we had Keysi translate for us earlier, our member bore her testimony, and Keysi bore her testimony! The Spirit was so strong when Keysi bore her testimony. Both of her parents started crying and they both told her that they were happy with the direction that she was choosing to take in her life! Keysi asked her parents for permission to be baptized and guess what...they didn't say no! Haha, that is seriously a miracle! Before they had said no or that Keysi needed to take more time, but this time they said they would talk about it and pray about it together and we could ask them on Wednesday how it went! If they say yes, she will be baptized on Saturday! One of the coolest parts of the lesson is that Sister Moore and I hardly know any Spanish at all but we were able to follow everything that was going on! It was awesome! Gift of tongues! 

Well, that is all for this week! I love you all so much! Thank you so much for your prayers and faith, they are going a long way. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Love,

Sister Lewis

The Shenandoah Valley 

Weeks 47 & 48...but really the entire transfer...

Okay this is going to be the craziest game of catch up I've done on my mission. Sister Richards always used to say, "It is easier to keep up than it is to catch up." She was talking about cleaning our apartments, which thankfully I'm really good at keeping up with that, but it definitely applies to emails as well.

So, like I shared a few times, my new companion (not even new, we are in our 5th week together...time flies) is Sister Moore. She is just about the bubbliest, happiest, most energetic sister that ever walked the planet earth. When we were assigned as companions, an elder who knows both of us said that if a nuclear explosion occurs in the western part of our mission, he would know where it was coming from. Haha, needless to say we have been working our tails off together. I'm exhausted all the time, it's fantastic! (No sarcasm)

Since the beginning of the transfer we have still been teaching Keysi. It used to shock me whenever she would give the most golden answers when we asked her questions, and I'm still amazed at her but the shock has worn off a little bit. But, the members that come with us are seriously shocked every time haha!  For example, Hannah is back in town (the one that come to one of the earliest lessons we had with Keysi) and she came to a lesson with us on Sunday. We asked Keysi why it's important to take the sacrament and she said, "Well, it's like getting baptized again. It washes away your sins." Hannah's jaw just dropped to the floor, it was awesome haha! She just looked and Keysi and said, "What?! I didn't realize that until I was fourteen!" Haha, Keysi does that pretty often, says things that I didn't even understand until I came on my mission. It's obvious that the Lord has prepared her for the opportunity to learn about the gospel. As of right now, Keysi is really wanting to get baptized. She also told us that she wants to serve a mission when she's nineteen! What?!?! Again, she's golden! We are just praying and working with her parents at this point so that they will feel that baptism is the right thing for Keysi to do. Prayers of faith would be greatly appreciated!

As for other people we have taught...well we've taught a lot of people...and seen a lot of miracles...which just reminds me that I really need to do better at keeping a journal...

Right now we are also teaching a girl named Rosemary. On Saturday evening we had plans in a town just south of Woodstock and every single one of our plans there fell through. So, we came back to Woodstock and again, our plans were falling through. People weren't home, they were busy, etc. etc. We weren't discouraged or anything we just know what to do and we had an hour left of the evening to work haha! So we decided to go by the last person on our plans for that evening which was a former investigator who lives close to us. We didn't actually end up seeing them because we ran into Rosemary who was out on her porch painting her nails. Rosemary is awesome! She takes care of her ailing mother and has had quite a few member of her family pass away in the last few years. She has been having a really rough go of it recently so she has been praying for Heavenly Father to give her guidance. She said time and time again during our meeting that she saw us coming as a definite answer to that prayer. I am always so humbled to be used as an instrument in His hands. I am nothing, and somehow He is able to use me to reach His children. Now that is a miracle. We taught Rosemary about the Restoration and she is really excited to have us back tomorrow to talk about the Book of Mormon! It is going to be awesome!

Well, those are all the significant updates and I'm sure this is getting a little too long so I'll just leave it at that!

Wait just kidding! I forgot to say that we got to go to an Orioles game on August 21st for Mormon Night it was so fun! Also, this Saturday our mission has the privilege to have a conference with Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles!!! I AM SO PUMPED! I will bring back gold next week to share with all of you!

The Church is true! I love you all!

Love,

Sister Lewis

 Sister Moore and I on the way to the Orioles game!

 

That one time a drunk guy wanted to take a picture of me at the Orioles game!

I love the Orioles but mostly just because I love Baltimore!

Week 46

Okay I am running out of time again this week. I am going to have to do some more catch up next week. This is crazy!

Quick update!

Keysi is still doing so well! She came to church for the first time yesterday and it was so amazing! One of the speakers in Sacrament Meeting spoke on a trial that he faced that is almost identical to a trial that Keysi's family is facing right now. Coincidence? Absolutely not.

We have been praying really hard and working really hard to find a family to teach. We had an amazing Zone Conference this last week and President Christiansen was able to share some thoughts from the New Mission President Seminar that he attended before coming into the field about 9 weeks ago. It was AMAZING! I know the Apostles are just that: Apostles of the Lord! They are so inspired! I also know that President Christiansen is called of God! The work is hastening and we are just trying to keep up.

Well, I have got to get going, but I love you all and thank you for everything you do for my companion and I!

Love,

Sister Lewis

Week 45: One of my Favorite Sciptures

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

-Helaman 5:12

I know this is true. If we build our foundation on Christ, nothing can ever make us fall!

No time left, sorry!

This week was awesome. My new companion Sister Moore is awesome. You are awesome. The gospel is awesome!

Love you!

Love,

Sister Lewis

Week 44

I will start off with transfer information. I am staying in good ol' Woody Woodstock and Sister Tripple is off to Pasadena. Wait...I thought I was serving in Maryland. Hehe there's a Pasadena in Maryland near Annapolis. Being from Haiti and living on a float house in Alaska for the last five years, she is excited to see the water again!

This week we got to see Keysi twice before she skirted off to South Carolina for the weekend. The lesson we had with her on Thursday went really well! We taught her about the Plan of Salvation using an analogy about summer music camp. It was a lot of fun and she loved the analogy because she loves music. We had Whitney with us (Hannah's return missionary sister) and they hit it off really well. Whitney is such a good teacher so it's always good to have her there! Keysi is going to pray about a date to be baptized which we will talk about when we see her tomorrow. It should go really well!

On Thursday, we were able to help a less-active member of our ward, Pam, set up a tent for the Shenandoah Valley annual yard crawl. It's basically the most insane yard sale ever. They have hundreds of tents and booths set up all along Route 11 from Stephens City, VA to New Market, VA. It. is. crazy. Anyway, we helped her set up and she appreciated it so much and invited us to come to lunch with her tomorrow! We were so excited! Even more exciting was when we found out from a sister in the ward that Pam had expressed how impressed she was with Sister Tripple and I and she had told her she was taking us to lunch. The sister was floored! She never connects with missionaries! Needless to say, the Lord has been in it!

On Saturday we decided to contact some people on the street during the yard crawl and I had a pretty fun experience...haha. We saw a man and a woman handing out religious literature on the street corner and told them we would swap. They turned out to be Baptist. It was fine...until the woman went to get their pastor from across the street. Oh my lanta. I will spare you all of the details but basically I found out that there aren't going to be any Mormons in heaven. Haha...that was fun.

Well I am out of time but that was pretty much it anyway! I will see you on the flip side! Thank you for everything!

Love,

Sister Lewis

 

 

 

Week 43

This week was crazy fast! Like faster than a cheetah. Haha...

Aaanyway, we started off the week with some service with a member of our ward who has the sweetest garden ever! If the Second Coming happens before I have time to get a good garden going, I'm coming back to Woodstock because seriously everyone has a garden haha! We helped this sister peel peaches and talked to her about the Atonement. There is no gospel topic that I love more. The Atonement is incredible! The Atonement saves us, it brings us comfort, it redeems us, it brings us forgiveness, it lifts our burdens. The Atonement is the figurative key to our happiness. Again, the Atonement is incredible!

On Tuesday, we taught Keysi! It was awesome!! When we first started teaching Keysi, we felt impressed that we should invite a young woman in our ward who was going to be starting home school this year to come with us to teach Keysi. We thought they would connect really well. So, Tuesday was miraculously the only day that Hannah (the young woman) could come to a lesson. She came with us to teach Keysi about the Restoration. Okay... Miracle 1) Keysi felt the Spirit so strongly during that lesson it was amazing! She completely accepted Joseph Smith as a prophet as soon as we shared his experience in seeing God the Father and Jesus Christ. She knew he was a prophet right away. Miracle 2) We invited her to be baptized on August 22 and she said yes! Miracle 3) Keysi and Hannah connected immediately and Keysi was so excited to be friends with her and have her to count on in high school. Miracle 4) Keysi was a fulfillment of a promise given to Hannah in a priesthood blessing months earlier. Miracle 5) Hannah decided to go to public school with Keysi instead of home school! That was the most amazing lesson that I have been blessed to be a part of. Holy cow!

We met with Keysi again on Wednesday and taught her about the Book of Mormon. She loves the Book of Mormon and is so excited to read it! We asked her how she thought the Book of Mormon would help her and she said, "Well, it's going to give me what's missing from the Bible." What?!? (For those who don't know, after Christ and his apostles were martyred, many truths were taken and lost from the Bible. The Bible is now incomplete, not because it isn't holy, but because men have made it so over thousands of years. We believe King James version of the Bible to be the most correct version of the Bible.) She is so prepared!

On Thursday we met a set of twins named Naomi and Gina! They are so cute! Their family is not super interested in religion, but they want to come to activities and stuff. We are hoping and praying that their hearts will be softened as they have brief but powerful experiences learning about gospel truths at activities. They came to our missionary sport night on Friday and got to learn about baptism! It was awesome!

This week we also saw a member of our ward named Sis Clark who has been having some health issues recently, and with lots of prayer and lots of faith, she was doing so much better this week. So much better, in fact, that she was able to return to work and church this week! Sis is the greatest example of faith to me. As she has reviewed priesthood blessings she has received (including her patriarchal blessing) her faith has increased that her health would improve, and as such, it has!

We are hoping to start teaching the granddaughter of a member of our ward. The granddaughter's name is Megan and she is extremely humble! We are excited to start teaching her!

We went to the temple this week, which was incredible as always! At the temple I was reminded that we are not supposed to do things alone. We are here together for a reason. Let's work together to share what we know is true! We aren't all full-time missionaries, but we can all be missionaries full time! Also, I will include more of my typical pictures of the temple  How grateful I am for the eternal ordinances that happen in that building. We can be with our families forever, and it's all because of the Atonement! Death has no sting, the grave has no victory!

Well, I love y'all and thank you for everything you do! Prayers, support, and love goes a long, long way in this work!

Love,

Sister Lewis

 

 

 

 

Week 42: Blisters, Sunburns, and Keys

Hello all! So today was a super awesome week, just in case you were expecting anything different.

We started the week off without a car, which is always really fun and I'm being completely serious haha! We get to meet a lot more people walking around, and I find it's much easier to slow down and see unplanned opportunities when you are forced to slow down haha!

So, as I mentioned we met a lot more people this week and we received a super amazing instruction in zone training on making our contacts with people more effective. Because of these two factors and especially with the guidance of the Spirit and the help of the Lord, we were able to meet a bunch of people who were excited to hear about our message! Many were intrigued by the ideas of prophets, eternal families, personal responsibility in the gospel, and so forth. We are going back to see 4 of the people we met this week and let me tell you that is a lot! If you didn't think so before, now you know. Our betting average is pretty low as missionaries haha but it's all worth it!

One of the amazing people we met this week is named Dona. She has been doing Bible study with a Jehovah's Witness in the area for a long time so she loves having religious people over. She told us from the beginning that she wasn't just going to accept everything we said right off the bat, she was going to do her own studying. Little did she know that that's exactly what we ask people to do: read the material themselves and pray to know if it is true. Everyone's answer ultimately needs to come from God.

We also started teaching a girl this week named Keysi (pronounced Casey). We had met her mom last transfer and her whole family speaks Spanish so we tried to get them hooked up with the Spanish sisters, but the rest of the family wasn't as interested in learning. So, this week we had a lesson with Keysi and her parents. It was awesome! Keysi was able to translate for her parents which helped her a lot to understand what we were saying. She is 13 and super smart so she caught on to everything we were teaching really quickly. But, more importantly, the Spirit was super strong especially when we talked about the Holy Ghost and the Atonement. We also had a church tour with her two days later and she is bonding really well with the members of the ward that are around her age. It's awesome! During the church tour we talked about baptism and why it is important. She said she has been thinking about getting baptized for a long time so that's something she will "probably do." She is awesome! We are going back tomorrow to teach her!

We also got to see Anna again this week! It was a huge miracle! She was about to leave her house and was working on some stuff in her yard and we were able to offer service and the help from the ward. We also brought her some cookies that we made with a member of the ward and a large print Book of Mormon. She said of the Book of Mormon, "Hm, I haven't been able to read any of this since the last time I saw you girls, but maybe I'll take a look. Maybe it will help me with everything." OH YEAH! It will definitely help anyone who reads with an open heart!

I also got a sweet sunburn on my neck this week. I am officially a true Virginia redneck. And hold onto your seats for this one: I have a tan line on my wrist! What?! Haha!

Well, that is about all the highlights of this week! We also got to see some less-active members that we've been trying to meet for a while. The Spirit has been abounding in our companionship recently. It's awesome!

Well, I love you all! Thank you for everything you do for me and my companion!

Love,

Sister Lewis

 

Redneck

My companion and a tin of mission-legal kisses

Week 41: "Mareina! I met a girl named Mareina!"

Hey everyone! This week was super awesome! It went by really quickly because we had a ton to do, but it was so awesome!

So, Monday night Sister Tripple and I got a call from the sisters serving in my last area, Mt Airy, MD. They were calling to let us know that my investigator from Mt Airy, Mareina, was getting baptized that week! WHAT?!?!?! I was FREAKING OUT! Just before I left Mt Airy we had dropped Mareina as an investigator and told her that when she was ready to learn again and be baptized, she should let us know. So last Sunday, the 12th, she walked up to the sisters at church and told them she was ready to get baptized! They asked when, and she said, "How about this Saturday?" Again, WHAT?!?!?! I was FREAKING OUT! So amazing! So many prayers for that girl! I love her a ton. She has been one of the biggest examples of faith to me!

So, in our mission, in order to attend a baptism of an investigator you taught in a previous area, you need to bring an investigator you are currently teaching or a less-active member of your ward. So we immediately started making a list of people we felt would benefit from attending the baptism. The first person that popped into my head was Sister Anderson who had just returned from less-activity. When I realized she wasn't less-active anymore and that wouldn't be allowed, we decided not to call her. Anyway, this week we went on exchanges and Sister Jeppson and I switched places. "Coincidentally," Sister Jeppson and I taught Mareina together! So, while I was in Winchester and she was here in Woodstock, we tried our hardest to find each other rides to the baptism. We also found out on exchanges that Mareina moved her baptism to Friday instead of Saturday! AH!

Once I was back in Woodstock on Thursday, after 3 days of trying to find rides, we hadn't been able to find one for either Sister Jeppson or myself. So on Thursday night I started texting a ton of people asking them if they would be able to come. Sister Anderson kept coming to my mind, but I kept pushing it away...until I realized that her husband and son are nonmembers! So, I texted her and asked if her family would be able to come to the baptism. Nothing happened that night, but the following morning Sister Anderson texted back and said that her husband and son wouldn't be able to go but that she could make it work! I decided that since she had come to my mind again and again it would be a good experience for her to attend (among other reasons) and I would ask President Christiansen if that would be alright. And, he said yes!!

So, on Friday, we had an exchange for a few hours so that Sister Jeppson could come to the baptism, and Sister Anderson drove us up there! On the way there, we found out that she had been prompted on Wednesday (after the baptism date had changed) to get her tires replaced that day instead of Saturday morning like she had planned. She said she knew the baptism was the reason for that as soon as we asked her about it!

Sister Anderson ended up being able to see an elder who is serving in Mt Airy and who taught her husband a while back which was an inspiring experience for her. She said on the way back, "I haven't felt this kind of peace in over three months." I have never seen Sister Anderson the way she was after the baptism. She is an amazing woman; so sensitive to the Spirit it's ridiculous!

At the baptism I asked Mareina what made her decide to get baptized. If you all remember her, she was the girl whose family didn't approve of the Church. She said that once she realized that if she got baptized her parents couldn't do anything about it, she was overwhelmed with peace and she took that as her answer. She knew what she needed to do! I am so grateful for the Lord's timing and that Sister Jeppson and I were able to attend with Sister Anderson. It was an amazing experience for all of us!

Thank you for everything you do for me! I love you all!

Love,

Sister Lewis

 

 Mareina and me

Mareina, her missionaries, and her boyfriend

 The glorious reunion of Sarah Merson, Sister Jeppson, and Sister Lewis