November 16, 2015

Thankful for Wool Socks!

COLD.

Its very cold. 

I am nicknamed 'Desert Flower' in my ward because everyone is wearing sweaters and long sleeve shirts and I show up in 3 coats, 2 shirts, thick skirts and boots. 

New England winter: challenge accepted. 

Transfer calls were on Saturday!! 

We had a movie night set up for Saturday evening and the whole time we were all (us and two other sets of missionaries) were just so stressed out because ANYTHING could happen. 

That night we were doing comp study and the phone started to buzz and we just stared at each other and no one would touch the phone haha but then I pushed it at Sis. Farrally and she answered. She is leaving me. :( 

I explained that story in great detail because that was the most exciting thing of the week.

 

We are still trying everything we can to find those willing to listen. Negativity towards Mormons is thick in the air around here because of the new changes, but we keep going. We pray for the spirit to guide us in those conversations because he is the ultimate guide in knowing the truth and receiving peace in such matters. 

On Wednesday it 'misted', you know the feeling of when your arm falls asleep or your leg, and then it feels all tingly and staticy? That's exactly what this mist felt like! It was so weird walking in it because it felt like walking through a staticy TV screen haha 

The Franklins. AWESOME family! Blessed out of my mind to know them! 

Concord Sunset. Be still my beating heart!! 

LOVE YOU ALL 

Sister Lewis

November 9, 2015

November 9, 2015

Fact: The Capitol of New Hampshire is Concord, and the state house has
a gold dome on it. That means a president of the United States is from
here! Also, people running for president, like Trump and Hilary
Clinton and Bernie, are always coming to Concord to win new England's
hearts. If I could vote I would vote for Donny Osmond to be president.
Good thing I can't vote on my mish, am I right? haha


This week we saw a full-blown miracle fest that took place in many
different miracles, making one giant miracle party! It totally rocked
my socks off!!
Lets begin at the beginning.

MIRACLE:    Saturday was Zone Conference with a member of the seventy!
Not only a member of the seventy but also the head director of
missionary work for the church! It's Elder Nielson, the one who talked
in general Conference last April about his sister that was inactive
for several years and after lots of love and caring, came back! That's
him! It was so awesome to learn from him for 6 hours. My brain
exploded like 20 times that day! He focused on the atonement, and went
into detail on how we can apply the redeeming and enabling power of
the atonement in our lives.  He said: "It's through the redeeming
power that we are saved, and it's through the enabling power that we
are changed."
He said a million other things that were amazing, but I just can't fit
it all on here, so just know that he and his wife are AWESOME!!

MIRACLE:    So yesterday was Sunday.
I love Sunday's.
Best day of the week BY FAR.
So all day me and Sister Farrally kept thinking about Jo and Debbie
our investigators, so we went to their house and we were just talking
to them, seeing how things are going, and Jo informs us that his uncle
just passed away this last week. Now, I am not being insensitive, a
loved one passing away is hard. But that is the best thing a
missionary can hear because BAM! Plan of Salvation! We were able to
share the message that he isn't gone and that we can be with our
families forever, and he and Debbie were very interested! So we set up
a return appointment, and went on our way.

MIRACLE:    We then had dinner at the Franklin's (coolest family ever)
they are always helping us missionaries and feeding us. They have a
pet rat that scared the day lights outta me, but then I petted it and
our souls connected and now I love the little guy. :)

MIRACLE:    We were walking home, and we had a crazy intense
impression to go contact a referral that we got from someone in the
the other ward. It's like 8:00pm so we were nervous because the sun is
down at 5:00pm here and New Englanders are asleep by 5:30pm, but we
went because we could not deny it! We go to the address, couldn't
figure out which one he lived in (there is like 7 apartments in one
normal house) almost gave up, but we found a doorbell and rang it,
praying our guts out that he would answer, and he did!! We introduced
ourselves, talked a little, and then he said, "I want to be a follower
of Mormonism, can I be baptized? I want to get baptized. I think
Mormonism is the path God wants me to take."
......
..........
WHAT!? Is this really happening???
My companion just stood there so stunned, and I'm over here smiling
and laughing saying "yeah!! Totally!!" Haha we asked if he wants to
take the lessons and he said " is that how I become a Mormon? Then
yes, how about tomorrow?"

God knows exactly what he is doing, even, and especially when, we don't.
I know that miracles happen! Every single day! We just need to open
our eyes to them.

John 6:3-14 is the story of the loaves and fishes. Jesus see's 5,000
coming to hear his word. The apostles said there wasn't enough food to
feed them, but Jesus made it possible for everyone have some. At the
end of the story, Jesus asks his apostles go go and gather up what was
left of the food after everyone had eaten their fill. The apostles had
gathered up twelve baskets of left overs. Why was that included in the
story?
His grace is sufficient.
We come to him, we need his words, we do all we can, and He WILL make
up the difference. So much so, that there will be left overs. He NEVER
runs out of grace and mercy. We do our part, and He will do the rest.
:)

Love you all!
Sister Lewis

pictures: 

-exchanges with Sister Harper. *New England translation: Sista Hahpuh

-The Sky at the Joseph Smith Memorial, That is where zone conference was.

-See that black picture there? that was what the sky and streets looked like at 5:12 in the evening.... The dark days have begun....

November 3, 2015

November 3, 2015

Fact: the roads here were built in like the 1800's so they are super
small. So in the 1900's they just threw down granite cement, so all the
roads are like spaghetti, and there's no blocks or squares or sense of
direction. There is enough room for about one car, so when two are
coming and going with other cars parked on the 'side' of the road, it
feels like a video game but instead of having three lives you only
have one. Haha it definitely keeps you awake and aware!

So on Wednesday me and my comp were out trying to find people to
teach, as we were walking we came upon one of the numerous hills that
populate New England. We saw that a woman was trying to get up the
steep climb in a wheelchair, so instinctively my companion and I both
looked at each other and whipped into service missionary mode. We ran
up to her and I grabbed her wheelchair and said 'mind if we give you a
boost?' And she thanked us and we got to the top and we started to
talk to her, she saw who we were, spouted profanities, and then we
left. As we came up to the house we were going too next, I look down
at my skirt and saw some of the vilest creatures that spread like the
Black Plague in New England, all over my skirt. BED BUGS. I just about
ripped all my clothes off right then and there! But my good judgment
stopped me in the act, I brushed them off with ninja like strikes
to my skirt, and prayed that the Lord would take care of the rest. My
dearest comp just laughed and said "that's what you get for doing a
good deed!" Thankfully I am clear and free of Satan's insects. Now I
know to never do a nice thing for anyone ever again. ;) just kidding!!

Besides my wheelchair-lady-bed-bug-extravaganza, this last week was a
bit of a dud, but we worked hard, and did all we could. These kinds of weeks

 happen, we just have to remember who is in charge, and to work harder next time.. 

But, MONDAY NIGHT(yesterday) WAS THE AWESOMEST THING

EVER!! So 2 weeks ago a nice lady called us and said she is from the
Jewish church and they are having a religion night and they wanted us
Mormon missionaries (along with the elders in our area) to come and
tell them about our religion. So we agreed, but then about Sunday we
realized, 'what the heck have we done!?' And all day Monday we were so
nervous because we had no idea what to expect, so we drive up and park
outside the church and we are all just about to pass out on the ground
because, you know, Jews, what do we even talk about!? So we prayed
real hard, and went in. The lady was SO nice and the teenagers we were
teaching were SO chill! They gave us a tour of their synagogue, and
they told us about their Arch and the Torah and a lot of really awesome
stuff. Then we went into the classroom, and there was only about 7
kids and a teacher, and we were able to answer a lot of questions and
teach them about the restoration and our church history and core
beliefs. They were very interested! It was so cool!! They loved
learning about Joseph Smith and the Angel Moroni and Thomas S. Monson.
It was very difficult to teach all these things and not testify haha.
But of course being representatives of Jesus Christ, we did. Just very
gently. :)

The teacher lady asked us to share about how our religion is strictly
an American religion, 'as American a religion as you can get' and so
we had to kindly burst her bubble about that one but it was soooo
awesome and they loved it! And especially everything about missionary
work, they are brilliant kids who work really hard. They have to learn
Hebrew! They are really awesome. I feel really blessed to have gotten
to know them and had that experience. SO AWESOME!!

Today we had the opportunity to go to the Boston Massachusetts Temple.
That is officially my favorite temple. It is absolutely GORGEOUS! I
feel so incredibly blessed to have gotten the chance to go. The temple
is surly the house of the Lord.

We got to meet the temple president and his wife, it's President and
Sister Wheelright, it was their first day today as temple president
and matron! They bought me and sister Farrally lunch, they are so
sweet!

Now that the leaves are starting to loose their color, they are also

loosing their strength against the wind, and who better than

a bunch of missionaries to clean that mess up! Its so fun, I love

raking! There were a lot of worms and stuff, so why in the world

would I not take a picture with them?? :) 

I hope you all have a phenomenal week, Read your scriptures

and say your prayers!!! Bear you testimony often, even if its just

on a piece of paper. (you can even send that paper to me if you 

want, I would love to hear your testimonies. :) 

YOU ALL ROCK!! 

October 26, 2015

Fact:   If you see an orange/red/yellow glow coming in your window, it's not fire burning your house down, it's just the AMAZING fall leaves being illuminated by the radiant sun, you should all, most definitely, be jealous. 

SHOUT OUT to my awesome Mission President, President Stoker for being one of the GREATEST people to ever live. 

We had Zone Interviews on Thursday, it was my first one, and everything about it was very much needed. We have a new mission goal, to get all of our less actives and recent converts to the temple, because baptism is the gateway! God wants them to make it eternal. Family History is huge out here too so we are really trying to get that out there to people, and it is working! Spirit of Elijah man... its REAL.

There is a city in NH named Weare, pronounced like the word 'where', and its super boony. Us and the Elders in this area are in a car share, so on Wednesday we had a 'Weare Wednesday".  We were so pumped, and then we got there, and literally EVERYTHING fell through. But the best part that really topped of the day was when this lady was screaming at the elders and then saw us with them and she started screaming at us and telling us we dont know how to read and we are illiterate(what?) and that she doesn't want to be saved and that everyone has guns out here and we could get shot at any moment, and she was super disgusted that we had the nerve to talk to her. haha well, we tried to explain why we do what we do and she was so appalled that we were still trying to talk to her, she almost called the cops! It was super pointless, all we could do was pray for her in our hearts and get the heck outta there!! 

so that was cool....

So I guess you could say 'Weare Wednesday" was a success. haha

The rest of the week was pretty good, our investigator Katherine is gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon which is so AWESOME! The Spirit was so strong when she was telling us about her praying and pondering. She says it's so obvious that no mortal man could ever write a book like that from his own knowledge and in the time that he did. SHE IS SO RIGHT. The Book of Mormon is God's word, and it makes me so happy when the Spirit guides others to that knowledge as well. 

Yesterday I got a little taste of home when this cute little snake just came a slithering up to me, I named him Malvolio, like from Shakespeare, he was way sassy though, so we left.  

I am wicked excited for this coming week, because we are having a trunk or treat in our ward, and I am a missionary, and lots of people think we are starving all the time (which is usually true) so they give us all their left over food from ward parties! tender mercies man.... 

I hope everyone has a totally awesome week!! 

Halloween joke: 

What kind of music do mummies listen to most?

Wrap music

Sister Lewis

October 19, 2015

Fact: New Englanders like to 'endure' things. There is probably one
house in all of New England that has air conditioning, and they are
from Utah. Everyone just buys like 12 fans for the summer, it's so
crazy because it's wicked humid so it doesn't do much except blow the
water around in your face. But in the winter, they for reals only have
like these ancient metal heaters that are on one wall in one part of
the house, and then they just live in subzero clothing. It's nuts.

This week was chuck full of finding! We have been working on finding
people to teach and less actives to help. We had a lesson with
Katherine this week. She is such an awesome lady, with a heart of
gold.

We have a less active Billy that we meet with every week, she taught
us how to knit! She is more youthful than I am, it's so awesome! She
is hilarious. So she has been less active the past 20 years. She
attends a different church with her son but she has been coming a
little here and there, she is trying to find out where she really
needs to be, religion wise. So the other day we were talking to her
about the gospel, and she told us an awesome story: last Sunday, she
was really tired and wanted to sleep in and do yard work and have an
easy day, but then she kept getting this restless feeling and so she
prayed and asked Heavenly Father what she should be doing and which
church to go to, and she said the spirit was so clear, it said 'get
ready and be to church by 9.' Well, her other church doesn't start
until 10. She said it was so distinct and clear and she knows this is
where she should be.

My heart is full for this sweet city of Concord New Hampshire.
It's the craziest/hardest/greatest feeling when we tract. Well, it is
for me anyways. The 3-10 seconds before they answer the door, feels
like days. I get so excited and nervous thinking, "this persons it,
the Lord has prepared them, this is the moment we introduce them to
the greatest thing in the world!" The desire to share the gospel is so
strong, and so when they answer and I get the opportunity to say the
beautiful name of our wonderful church, and they start shaking their
head with a 'poor girl' look on their face, my heart just hurts. "In
my head I'm saying: "no! Please! This is so important! Just give me 2
minutes!" And sometimes those words literally do come out of my mouth,
and they just laugh and close the door.
BUT

The beauty of this, is that there are the elect few, there are
some who are prepared, and when those moments come, when they answer
with a curious face and say "sure I've got a minute." Man, that minute
is the greatest in the whole world! Being able to testify of the Book
of Mormon, plan of salvation, the restoration, and Gods love for them,
that is the best feeling to ever exist and experience.

This weeks finding/tracting was so rad. We prayerfully selected a
couple of streets and set aside a couple of hours to go tract there.
we met a lot empty houses, a Quaker, a gypsy, a couple of dogs, and a
man that, at first did not want to talk to us, but after my desperate
attempt to strike up conversation, he ended up interested! It's
awesome how fast people's minds change when they see that we are
normal humans like them. :)

I have come to know a lot about a lot of different religions out here. They are all such awesome people who love God and Jesus. But the questions that keeps coming to my mind are: Are we 'fans' or 'followers' of Christ? Most of us don't mind Jesus making some minor changes in our lives, but will we allow Jesus Christ to turn our lives upside down? Fans don't mind a little touch up work, but what if he wants a complete renovation? 

I hope that we can strive to be followers of Christ, dedicating all we have and are to the spreading of the gospel, and becoming our best selves through Christ. 

Love you all, have a stellar week! 

Sister Lewis

October 12, 2015

Fact: New England's five main food groups: hot dogs, pizza, orange
soda, vegetables, and dunkin donuts. They are either way super
healthy, or they are way super not. It's very interesting. And about
half the population is vegetarian.

 Wowzer, this week was definitely an adventure! Let's begin with the
most memorable Tuesday of my life.
So, we got a call on say of last week, our zone leaders told us we
were going to transfer meeting and to bring our car because we are
going into a 'car share' with the elders, but to come before the
meeting because it should only take like five minutes because we are
just giving them a ride home. So! We head out Tuesday morning, and we
are driving, it only takes 20 minutes to get to Manchester, but then
20 minutes go by, and according to our GPS we still had quite a ways
to go. We thought it was odd but we kept going, well after 40 minutes
we knew we were definitely wrong so we pulled off and got directions
from a very nice lady, she told us kind of where to go, so we turn
around because we had completely passed it. Some how we missed the
biggest city in New Hampshire haha. So my comp is very stressed out,
and I am laughing because I didn't really know what else to do, and
then we get a call from the man in charge of the 'car share' and he
said "hey so it's actually your car we need to take so if you could
get here asap that would be awesome." By now my comp has had kittens
and I'm frantically trying to get all of our stuff together. We
finally show up an hour and a half later, so they told us to go in and
listen to transfer meeting. We got to hear president Stoker talk,
which helped calm us down, and then we went home! As we were walking
to our apartment, we realized through a series of sighs, moans and
groans, that our house keys are on the car keys!!!! And that car was
on the other side of the state by now. So went to the land lords of
our apartment complex, and they gave us some keys. We get inside our
apartment, and we called the people who have our car, they said, 'how
should we get them to you?' So we said, probably the best way would be
to mail them too us. About 3.2 seconds after we said that, we let out
more sighs and moans and said 'don't mail them, because our mail key
is on that key chain too!'
Awesome right??
So we told them to mail them to the sisters in our area, and maybe
before we are done with our missions we will have those keys! I loved
Tuesday... :)

Good thing that story took so long, sorry!

Oh hey, we were on the crime scene of a murder too! (Don't know if it
was actually murder, we didn't get to stay) it was so crazy!

Nothing much happened this week. Just normal missionary work. :) the
spirit such an awesome teacher. I learn something new every day!
I know that when trails come before us and we are struggling
physically, spiritually, mentally, etc... That the Lord is there to
help us! He is with his people in their afflictions.  (Mosiah
24:14-15) I love the end of that scripture where it says to 'submit
cheerfully and with patience'.

You are all so awesome, and I love you all dearly!!
Have an awesome week!!

Sis. Lewis

Pictures: last pday we went to a corn maze and it was awesome!!
The leaves are coming and it's making me flip out because LOOK HOW BEAUTIFUL
awesome New England sunset :)

October 5, 2015

I. Love. Conference. 

What a blessing it is to able to hear from our prophet and apostles and leaders of the church!!

This week was pretty good! We talked to our investigator Alex, he is way pumped for his baptism, which is AWESOME! He is really nice and has a real desire to be a better person, his story is very inspiring. 

We also got to have a lesson with wonderful Katherine, she is so sweet! The spirit was very strong in our lesson with her. I love when the spirit says to testify, I LOVE TESTIFYING. This Gospel is so true! Jesus Christ Lives! God loves each of us individually and personally! We can be with our families forever!! The atonement is REAL. I love testifying of these truths. She notices that we are 'all smiles' and we 'glow with happiness' and she wants to know why it makes us so happy. :) I love that question, because that is our opportunity to introduce them to the Book of Mormon and the beautiful Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We also got to go to the Joseph Smith Memorial again! Our awesome less-active-soon-to-be-active-because-she-is-awesome-and-wants-to-go-to-church-again wanted to go, and she expressed to us her desires to keep progressing and how the JSM really helped her feel the spirit again. The power of the Holy Ghost is REAL. 
This Gospel is so FANTASTIC!!! 

General Conference was amazing. General Conference as a missionary is even MORE amazing!! 

I just can't stop smiling. :) 

I love you all SO MUCH!!! And guess who loves you even more than I do? Your Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ!

"Exaltation is our goal.

Discipleship is our journey." - Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Sister Lewis