Week 24: The longest week...and the best week!!

So, this week was CUH-RAZY!! We went to the temple with Sarah, taught her all of the remaining lesson, planned for her wedding, planned for her baptism, had a sweet experience with her and prayer (oh man the power of prayer is SO real) and so on...holy cow it was a long tiring week but it was so incredible.

So Sarah's baptism!! It happened!! Haha, she had a few struggles the week preceding (not unusual) but we powered through them with prayer and trust in the Lord. Her baptism strengthened my testimony of the power of the promises we make with God in this life. This weekend, Sarah promised to always remember her Savior Jesus Christ, to follow Him, to serve others, and to keep the commandments. Heavenly Father was so proud of her and happy with her choice. This was manifest through the powerful presence of the Spirit. You just couldn't miss it, the Spirit was so thick in that room. Both of the speakers at her baptism cried along with several members of her family. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to meet her and watch her grow by strengthening her relationship with the Savior. I know He lives and I know He loves us. Please continue to pray for Sarah as her journey has just begun!

This week we also started handing out pass-along cards with the new video that is coming out on the 28th. It is called "Because He Lives" and the website is helives.mormon.org. The video will be about the Savior and His Atonement. I know the Atonement is real and it changes lives. My life and my heart have been changed by the sacred and holy Atonement of our Savior.

We also taught Mareina this week about the Plan of Salvation! She is working through some of the principles but has a strong testimony of the foundation of the Plan- the Atonement! I have great faith that this will help her to gain a testimony of the whole thing! Heavenly Father is blessing her with great light, knowledge, and truth! Please continue to pray for her!

I love you all so much! I know that Heavenly Father loves each of us and desires great blessings and happiness for us. Thank you for your faith, your prayers, your love, and you support! I pray for each of you!

Please keep my downstairs neighbor Shari in your prayers. He husband passed away over the weekend.

 

 

Week 23: I don't even know what to title this...

OKAY! SPEED EMAIL BECAUSE I HAVE LIKE 5 MINUTES AND HAVEN'T EVEN WRITTEN MY PRESIDENT!

Sarah! She is still on track to be married and baptized this week! She encountered some crazy stuff in her family over the weekend so please pray for her! She needs lots of help and strength and faith from the Lord right now to help her get through whatever is required for her to be baptized.

Mareina is so awesome! This morning she told us that she feels the same way when she reads the Book of Mormon as when she reads the Bible and she has a SOLID testimony of the Bible! She also said, "If God shows me that the Book of Mormon is true, I will be clamoring to get baptized." Holy cow she is so prepared! We're so excited especially since the Book of Mormon is true! Haha  we are going to continue teaching her and resoling concerns so she will recognize her answer! Pray for her too!

This week is going to be crazy and stressful but so good!

Thank you for all your prayers, love, and support! This has been the best time of my life because of you all praying for me to grow! I love you all!

Love,

Sister Lewis 

Week 22: 5 Months...

I'm pretty sure I haven't been out for 5 months but that's what the calendar says...

ANYWAY! This past week was so awesome! It started out last Monday with a sweet miracle meeting Guillermo's mom! We stopped by to drop off the Bibles and Book of Mormon and Guillermo's mom answered the door. He had told us about her when we met him and how she might be interested in learning more. He had given her our card and she told us she would love to set up a time that we could come over and teach them all together! MONEY! SO PREPARED!!! So we have yet to hear back from her but I have faith that it will happen!

We also had a BUNCH of lessons with Sarah because we have a lot to cover before she is baptized! The one that stands out in my mind is when we finished teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she told us at the end, "You should have started with this one!" Haha but she does understand why we need to teach the lessons in the order we do haha she just loves the Gospel of Jesus Christ because it's PERFECT! Heavenly Father has provided the perfect plan for us to return to live with him in a state of never-ending happiness! The best part is that it's simple. I know that he provides a way for us to follow this plan and to be happy doing it!

We haven't met with Mareina again since last Sunday but during our weekly planning session on Thursday as we planned for her the Spirit was the strongest that it has ever been during any of my weekly planning sessions.Heavenly Father knows His children and He knows what they need. It is a powerful experience to go to Him in prayer seeking knowledge on what we can do to help His children. He does and He will always answer our prayers.

I want to share with you that I know our Savior and I know the power of what He did for us. He didn't come to place burdens that are to heavy to bear. He didn't come to reprimand and condemn us. He is our Savior. He came to save us. To save us from our sorrows, from our burdens, and from our sins. He is the way.

I love you all! Keep the prayers comin! I will continue to pray for you as well!

Love,

Sister Lewis

Week 21: Miracles out the Wazoo!

Well obviously everyone has been praying for the work here in Mt Airy to progress, so I thank you for that!

This week we taught Sarah the lesson on the Plan of Salvation that I talked about last week and it went fantastic! The Spirit was super strong and she really understood how truly vital the Atonement is to our Heavenly Father's plan for us. We literally cannot fulfill his purpose without our Savior. After that lesson, we immediately saw her conviction and dedication to the gospel increase. We taught her on Saturday about tithing and fast offerings and she accepted it without any problems. She even fasted on Sunday and contributed an offering to the church's fund for the poor and needy! She is amazing! She also brought her daughter Josie to church yesterday and Josie bore her testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday! She said, "I love Jesus and He loves truth!" Haha so cute!

We also taught Mareina last night when they had us over for dinner! It was AMAZING! We taught her about the Book of Mormon and we can see how well she is progressing. She used to say, "I don't believe the Book of Mormon is true" and now she says, "I don't believe the Book of Mormon is true yet." Along with all the other principles she doesn't believe yet, such as modern prophets! Her desire to seek for the truth is amazing! Last night after we taught the Book of Mormon, we asked her if she would be baptized when she found out the Book of Mormon is true and she said, "Yes!" Without hesitation! Wow! She also came to our ward yesterday and loves it! 

One last thing! On Friday night, we didn't know exactly what to do because Sarah had just cancelled our appointment with her so we decided to go knock on some doors. We said a prayer before leaving the car that we would be blessed with the faith to find a new investigator and the first door we knocked on let us in! His name was Guillermo and he was in the Air Force! He sat don and talked to us about an Air Force program that he did for 6 months and how Christ helped him through it. We shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon (Mosiah 18:8-10) and he loved it!! He felt the Spirit reading the Book of Mormon and we invited him to be baptized...and he didn't say no! Haha  We are going back soon to drop off a Spanish Bible and Book of Mormon for his roommate and an English Bible for him. From there, the elders will be in touch with him!

I just found out that my aunt has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Please keep her in your prayers.

Thank you again for all your love, support, and prayers! It is appreciated and needed! Keep it coming!

Until next week,

Sister Lewis

Week 20: Bikes, Snow, The Flu, and Transfers!

So, this week was another awesome week! I guess I am only updating from Tuesday on. I feel like I just emailed but I also feel like this week was really long!

So, on Wednesday we went to the temple which was amazing as always! Sitting in the celestial room I was just overwhelmed by our Savior's love and our Heavenly Father's love. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

On Thursday, we had a very powerful experience in our lesson with Sarah! In the previous weekly planning session, Sister Jeppson and I had prayerfully considered a date for Sarah to be baptized and we felt very strongly that March 21st would be a good day. This might seem a little stranger considering she didn't want to get married until May, but we went with it. In our lesson on Thursday, we taught her about the Plan of Salvation (or at least the first half of it) and as soon as we began to testify of the Savior, the Spirit was SO strong. We invited her to be baptized on the 21st of March and she said yes! She is now planning to get married on the 20th, and confirmed on the 22nd! We are so excited and happy for her!

Another amazing experience this week. During our companion study on Saturday morning, we decided to make a lesson plan for the second half of the Plan of Salvation. In our mission we call role plays "real plays" because they are real  Anyway, we real played for Sarah's lesson and we really wanted to emphasize how important the Atonement is. Without the Atonement, the Plan of Salvation is not possible. We real played once and decided it was good but we could make it better. In a moment of pondering, the Spirit helped us to think of a powerful way to teach this lesson to Sarah. We decided we would teach her about the Plan of Salvation without talking about the Atonement until the end. Just a small change that catered this lesson to her and the Spirit was so strong- just as we real played it! I can't wait to tell you how the real lesson goes with her!

We didn't get to teach Mareina this week because she was house sitting out of town but she has been texting back and forth with us and she is reading in the Book of Mormon. We are confident that as she continues to read and pray, the Spirit will manifest the truth of the Book of Mormon to her heart!

We didn't get to teach Luke and Heather, but we will continue to have the faith that things will work out with them, whether in our time here or for future missionaries!

There was a crazy snow storm this Saturday and we shoveled. All day. It was a lot of fun meeting people who were surprised that we would shovel for free and many that didn't want us to help haha but it was great! That day I was feeling too great- stomach cramps and such- and the next morning I woke up at 4:30 with the flu. I was feeling terrible and throwing up all morning, then I received a priesthood blessing from some members in our ward (approved by the mission president...I'm being obedient haha) and immediately following the blessing I started to feel better. I haven't had any terrible symptoms since then and am feeling well enough to email...that is a miracle!

With transfers, Sister Jeppson and I are staying here and we are getting a new district leader and a new zone leader! I don't know our new district leader but our new zone leader was in my district during my first transfer! He is awesome!

This email was super long, I apologize, but I love you all and thank you always for your support, love, and prayers. Keep praying for Sister Jeppson and I as well as all those we work with!

Love,

Sister Lewis