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