Merry Christmas Eve-Eve!
Week one of transfer two has been a little chilly! Not foot-of-snow chilly or even inch-of-snow chilly. It's more like gentle-mist-in-early-spring chilly. But the sun's up today and I'm wearing a short sleeve white shirt. ;)
Well, not much has really happened this last week. Let's see...Zone Conference! That's what happened. Zone Conference was pretty cool. President Sexton told us to flood the earth with Books of Mormon (yes he said Books of Mormon not Book of Mormons so I'll go with it) so Elder Rodriguez and I have been passing out Books of Mormon to all sorts of people. Elder Rodriguez tried to give one to a mailman yesterday but he just kind of laughed. I got all sorts of cool letters (thanks fam that was so awesome!) and I turned the green lamp in the study room into a really pathetic yet sufficient Christmas tree (I took pictures you'll see someday. And yeah mom the apartment's pretty messy but that's just life out here. We deal.)
The ward's giving us all sorts of treats and presents and stuff. I'm not lacking in the Christmas present department. Our ward-mission-leader gave Elder Rodriguez and I a tithing envelope each on Sunday and said "I didn't have time to get you ties so this will have to do" We opened it during church and found $100 in each envelope... (He's the orthopoedic surgeon) Then he left during sacrament and to visit Malasia for a month. So we have a dilemma. Missionaries can't accept money from ward people or investigators. So I think we're just going to have to hold on to the cash until he returns and then awkwardly explain what it says in the White Bible.
William Peters says he thinks he's ready to be baptized on the 28th. It all depends on whether or not his daughter can come. If not this Sunday it'll be the following. We're visiting Roxy Galvan tonight. She came to church this Sunday with her aunt and cousin. David and Dixie's son George is going to scouts now. He's reading the Book of Mormon too. We visited David and Dixie last night and they fed us again and we watched Joy to the World on their new giant LCD flatscreen TV. My math teacher from my Junior year of high school, Miss. Gremillion, is in Joy to the World. She's the flute player with the short hair closest to the camera.
I have a weight update. This is alarming so prepare yourselves:
139 lbs. WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME?!?!?!?!?
I've never gained so much weight so fast in my life. It's rejunkulous.
Remember positude and have a merry merry feliz navidad! I'm so excited to call home on Thursday!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
P.S. - I'll call that cell phone number Mom thanks!
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
December 17th, 2008 Email from Tyler's Mission President
Dear Mission Family,
Sister Sexton and I wanted to wish all of the families of our missionaries a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. All of the missions of the Church are special in their own way. We have felt that the California Long Beach Mission is special because it is a sacred mission where the Elders and Sisters are truly striving to sanctify themselves and devote their complete efforts to the establishment of the Lord’s Church here in our part of the vineyard. This includes staying focused on our missionary purpose to find, teach, and baptize worthy converts to the Church and to help all with whom come in contact make and keep the covenants necessary to return to their Heavenly Father. We appreciate all that you do to support your missionary and pray that your family will have cause to rejoice at this Christmas Season and in the coming year.
Love,
President Sexton
Sister Sexton and I wanted to wish all of the families of our missionaries a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. All of the missions of the Church are special in their own way. We have felt that the California Long Beach Mission is special because it is a sacred mission where the Elders and Sisters are truly striving to sanctify themselves and devote their complete efforts to the establishment of the Lord’s Church here in our part of the vineyard. This includes staying focused on our missionary purpose to find, teach, and baptize worthy converts to the Church and to help all with whom come in contact make and keep the covenants necessary to return to their Heavenly Father. We appreciate all that you do to support your missionary and pray that your family will have cause to rejoice at this Christmas Season and in the coming year.
Love,
President Sexton
December 16th, 2008 (Email)
Hey
It's kind of cold here. You probably wouldn't think so, but in comparison to what it's been here in Cali I'd say it's cold. I have to wear a light jacket. Poor me.
I got my Christmas box yesterday! Wow. I am spoiled. I didn't open them yet I promise. I did open the box though. I don't know when I'll be calling home yet on Christmas but it'll definitely happen. It sounds like it'll probably happen sometime in the evening. The member family we're eating Christmas dinner with has invited us to use their phone.
Well I've got some great news and some kind of sad news and some really sad news. I'll start with the really sad news to get that over with: Elder Kemp has gone home. He emailed me and said he'll be home for 6 months to take care of things so he can come back. We got our transfer reports last week and I read over all the names looking for him because I didn't know where he was serving but after looking over and over and over again I just couldn't find his name. The other Elders told me what it meant and it made me sad. His email sounded optimistic for the future though. He'll do great things when he returns I'm sure.
The kind of sad news is Elder Berardy got transferred. It's just kind of sad because he'll be missed in the apartment. He was a really fun Elder. But he got to return to one of his most successful areas so he's really excited. The new Zone Leader with Elder Esterholdt is Elder Framton. He used to serve in the Dominican Republic but he broke his hand and got reassigned here after 3 months of surgery and healing at his home in Arizona. He seems like a cool Elder.
The great news is Elder Rodriguez didn't get transferred! 6 more weeks with him! It will be yet another awesome transfer.
So I baptized Sabrina Sanchez! That was a great though awkward experience. Sabrina is somewhat larger than me (as are most people) and I had to dunk her twice. I felt like I was attacking her. She has Cerebral Palsy (spelling?) and her right hand's kind of deformed so that didn't help either. The cold water was fun too. Oh goodness. Well the ordinance happened so that's what matters. She survived ans he's happy. She received the Holy Ghost Sunday and that was great too. I like standing in those circles.
Elder Rodriguez and I have two more baptismal dates: William Peters should be baptized the 28th of this month if he works out his Word of Wisdom stuff and Roxy Galvan will at the latest be baptized January 17th. Roxy's 12 years old and her cousin and aunt are members. She decided on the baptism date on her own after our first lesson with her last week. We're going to try to commit her to an earlier date because we'll definitely be finished with all 4 lessons before January.
We've set a lofty goal to have 5 BAPTISMS this month. That's how many Elder Rodriguez needs to reach the Standard of Excellence of 12 per year. Will it happen?!?!? MAYBE! We're aiming high with high hopes. The thing is is we have names for each of the goals so it is most definitely possible.
We had about 9 of our investigators come to church Sunday. I say about 9 because Roxy went to her cousin's church. I'm not sure why. And Jeffrey Camacho didn't stay for sacrament. Not sure why either. David Guiterrez (Dixie's David) shared his testimony in Gospel Principles class about Faith and he felt the spirit and teared up! He said he never would have let missionaries in before and he'd shut the door on all sorts-- Jehovahs Witnesses, etc.-- until we showed up. He said something about us felt different. And then he shared that since we started visiting them he's quit smoking, drinking alcohol and coffee-- just all sorts of great stuff has been happening. It was touching. And Dixie found a verse in the Book of Mormon she really likes and she's highlighted-- Mosiah 3:19. Elder Esterholdt shared it with her last week and something about it really touched her.
I've learned that boldness is good. I decided to follow the example Elder Esterholdt set last week and I was really bold when teaching William Peters. I told him that we are the ONLY true church of Jesus Christ and that we are the ONLY one holding the power and authority to baptize. He liked that concept for some reason and after sharing the verse in Ephesians that says "ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism" he was really convinced. When you bear bold testimony the Spirit has more room to work.
I'm priviledged to still be working with Elder Rodriguez in Buena Park. These next 6 weeks will be filled with blessings as long as I follow the example set by my companion and strive for obedience, humility, meaningful study and sincere prayer.
Merry Christmas next week! Make it sacred!
Love,Elder
Tyler Lewis
It's kind of cold here. You probably wouldn't think so, but in comparison to what it's been here in Cali I'd say it's cold. I have to wear a light jacket. Poor me.
I got my Christmas box yesterday! Wow. I am spoiled. I didn't open them yet I promise. I did open the box though. I don't know when I'll be calling home yet on Christmas but it'll definitely happen. It sounds like it'll probably happen sometime in the evening. The member family we're eating Christmas dinner with has invited us to use their phone.
Well I've got some great news and some kind of sad news and some really sad news. I'll start with the really sad news to get that over with: Elder Kemp has gone home. He emailed me and said he'll be home for 6 months to take care of things so he can come back. We got our transfer reports last week and I read over all the names looking for him because I didn't know where he was serving but after looking over and over and over again I just couldn't find his name. The other Elders told me what it meant and it made me sad. His email sounded optimistic for the future though. He'll do great things when he returns I'm sure.
The kind of sad news is Elder Berardy got transferred. It's just kind of sad because he'll be missed in the apartment. He was a really fun Elder. But he got to return to one of his most successful areas so he's really excited. The new Zone Leader with Elder Esterholdt is Elder Framton. He used to serve in the Dominican Republic but he broke his hand and got reassigned here after 3 months of surgery and healing at his home in Arizona. He seems like a cool Elder.
The great news is Elder Rodriguez didn't get transferred! 6 more weeks with him! It will be yet another awesome transfer.
So I baptized Sabrina Sanchez! That was a great though awkward experience. Sabrina is somewhat larger than me (as are most people) and I had to dunk her twice. I felt like I was attacking her. She has Cerebral Palsy (spelling?) and her right hand's kind of deformed so that didn't help either. The cold water was fun too. Oh goodness. Well the ordinance happened so that's what matters. She survived ans he's happy. She received the Holy Ghost Sunday and that was great too. I like standing in those circles.
Elder Rodriguez and I have two more baptismal dates: William Peters should be baptized the 28th of this month if he works out his Word of Wisdom stuff and Roxy Galvan will at the latest be baptized January 17th. Roxy's 12 years old and her cousin and aunt are members. She decided on the baptism date on her own after our first lesson with her last week. We're going to try to commit her to an earlier date because we'll definitely be finished with all 4 lessons before January.
We've set a lofty goal to have 5 BAPTISMS this month. That's how many Elder Rodriguez needs to reach the Standard of Excellence of 12 per year. Will it happen?!?!? MAYBE! We're aiming high with high hopes. The thing is is we have names for each of the goals so it is most definitely possible.
We had about 9 of our investigators come to church Sunday. I say about 9 because Roxy went to her cousin's church. I'm not sure why. And Jeffrey Camacho didn't stay for sacrament. Not sure why either. David Guiterrez (Dixie's David) shared his testimony in Gospel Principles class about Faith and he felt the spirit and teared up! He said he never would have let missionaries in before and he'd shut the door on all sorts-- Jehovahs Witnesses, etc.-- until we showed up. He said something about us felt different. And then he shared that since we started visiting them he's quit smoking, drinking alcohol and coffee-- just all sorts of great stuff has been happening. It was touching. And Dixie found a verse in the Book of Mormon she really likes and she's highlighted-- Mosiah 3:19. Elder Esterholdt shared it with her last week and something about it really touched her.
I've learned that boldness is good. I decided to follow the example Elder Esterholdt set last week and I was really bold when teaching William Peters. I told him that we are the ONLY true church of Jesus Christ and that we are the ONLY one holding the power and authority to baptize. He liked that concept for some reason and after sharing the verse in Ephesians that says "ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism" he was really convinced. When you bear bold testimony the Spirit has more room to work.
I'm priviledged to still be working with Elder Rodriguez in Buena Park. These next 6 weeks will be filled with blessings as long as I follow the example set by my companion and strive for obedience, humility, meaningful study and sincere prayer.
Merry Christmas next week! Make it sacred!
Love,Elder
Tyler Lewis
December 9th, 2008 Letter
Dear Mom, Dad and Hannah
First off, Mom's list:
1. The Spanish is okay I think. I don't get to use it that much. It will only really progress when I'm immersed in it.
2. Laundry = gets done every week. All's good.
3. Ironing?
4. Money's fine.
5. Elder Rodriguez is awesome! Best companion ever!
So Hannah, you're writing lots of songs now huh? That's really cool. "He Had To Go To The Stables In The Sky" sounds like it'd be good. I want to hear it. You should record it on the computer! Poor Red. Hey sorry I don't write letters just for you anymore. It's really really busy out here. P-days consist of study, email, grocery shopping, football (very very important) and then this short little space right now where I write a letter.
Dad I'm glad things are going good with the primary kids now. So you got an HDTV eh? Well now you've gotta get Blu-Ray. It wouldn't make sense not to convert now!
Hey Mom how's your calling going? I don't think I've even heard of a Stake Women's Sports Director.
Oh man. I've gotta go now. Time for the Reflections of Christ exhibit again! Thanks for the candy Hannah!
I Love You!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
First off, Mom's list:
1. The Spanish is okay I think. I don't get to use it that much. It will only really progress when I'm immersed in it.
2. Laundry = gets done every week. All's good.
3. Ironing?
4. Money's fine.
5. Elder Rodriguez is awesome! Best companion ever!
So Hannah, you're writing lots of songs now huh? That's really cool. "He Had To Go To The Stables In The Sky" sounds like it'd be good. I want to hear it. You should record it on the computer! Poor Red. Hey sorry I don't write letters just for you anymore. It's really really busy out here. P-days consist of study, email, grocery shopping, football (very very important) and then this short little space right now where I write a letter.
Dad I'm glad things are going good with the primary kids now. So you got an HDTV eh? Well now you've gotta get Blu-Ray. It wouldn't make sense not to convert now!
Hey Mom how's your calling going? I don't think I've even heard of a Stake Women's Sports Director.
Oh man. I've gotta go now. Time for the Reflections of Christ exhibit again! Thanks for the candy Hannah!
I Love You!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
December 9th, 2008 (Email)
Hey!
First off, parents: please don't send the package to the mission home. The zone leaders said it'd be difficult for me to get it before the next zone conference and I don't know when that'll be. So please just send it to the apartment. Thanks!
It's been an interesting week. First off let's talk about last Wednesday. That wasn't a fun day. The night before I woke up in a cold sweat and I threw up from the top of the bunk bed all over the wall and carpet. Don't be alarmed though I'm fine now. I felt fine enough the next day to proselyte but I still felt relatively like crap. Elder Rodriguez had whatever I had too (it was probably just the 24-hour flu), but not quite as bad. He didn't throw up. His illness involved the other extremity. That day got really rough when we were fed dinner. Twice. David and Dixie fed us burgers. They brought out their pet python and we watched it eat a live mouse! That was disturbing. I've got pictures so you'll get to enjoy that visit someday. After that dinner we were fed by our ward mission leader, Bro. Park, in his great and spacious building of a home. Have I told you about this guy's house? I don't think I have. It's a multi-million dollar mansion. The Parks are from Mongolia or something oriental like that and Bro. Park's an orthopoedic(?) surgeon so he's LOADED. He has a great and spacious building in Huntington Beach too for the weekends. His home is rejunkulously ginormous. Well, after that dinner I wanted to die. Both those meals were fantastic but I was sick and I hadn't ate anything solid that day for a reason and though I've definitely gained weight I'm still not a very big guy. I ran into this problem last night too. Dinner appointment with a sister form the ward AND with David and Dixie. And it's always a feast at David and Dixie's. I'd almost finished shrimp pasta when David asked me "Why are you sweating? Ha look at him!" I was way too full. I managed to eat it all though. Then they gave us more shrimp.... And then they gave us dessert... I was so full last night it's not even funny.
Well back to last week. Remember Raymond, the random guy who wanted to get baptized? Well things changed last week. We went to visit him and Suzanna let us enter the apartment and she was in tears yelling on the phone. That was the least funny most awkward half an hour of my mission thus far. Here's the deal: apparently Raymond and Suzanna are not married. They're engaged. That day they'd had an argument and that night they were in the process of breaking off the engagement. She was hysterical. Raymond stopped by for a second and left. I'm not sure if we've been dropped or what but things are no longer solid with Raymond. We gave Suzanna a priesthood blessing and then we had to leave. She came to church on Sunday and said things are going better now and she had her ring on still so things might be good enough for us to go back. But still - Raymond is not married. Cohabitation is happening. So the baptism cannot happen yet.
We got so close to getting Jason Patterson baptized! He's so ready! He had the baptismal interview and everything. But his wife still won't let it happen cuz she doesn't want to change from her heavy-metal rockin' ways and she keeps telling him "I didn't marry a Mormon!". I don't mean to judge but one parent is definitely setting a more firm foundation for that family than the other. Whenever we visit Jason his Mormon music's playing in the background. He has many copies of the scriptures. He's read the standard works several times. He's read TONS of church stuff and TONS of anti stuff and after like 18 years of investigating the church he's disproved all the anti stuff he's read. His testimony's uber-solid and he wants so badly to be baptized and set an example for his kids. So I am justified when I say that we are SO FRUSTRATED WITH HIS WIFE!!! We want so badly to teach her but she won't have it. She's not mean to us or anything. I think she puts on a pleasant facade for us. Jason says she knows that if she'd listen to us she'd believe. She just doesn't want to change.
Oh well. On a happier note we met Joseph. Joseph is this black kid who's about 18 years old and he's really nice and he's way open to whatever we teach him. He's digging the whole idea of the Book of Mormon and there being a prophet on the earth. He talked to his pastor about it and his pastor told him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon!?!?! Yeah. Weird for a pastor to say but Joseph's gonna do it.
On Sunday David Ramos asked me to confer upon him the Aaronic Priesthood. That was an awesome experience. Not all missionaries get to ordain one of their investigators to a priesthood office. I feel very priviledged. So now David's a priest. He's going to be such a strong member. His testimony's very strong.
Yesterday was different. Elder Rodriguez and I went on splits with the zone leaders. I went with Elder Esterholdt. I had to drive all day yesterday. Scary? Yes. But we're both alive. We taught Joseph yesterday. Elder Esterholdt was very bold with him. It was great. We read 3Nephi 11 with Joseph and Elder Esterholdt said "You do realize that what we're saying is that our church claims to be the ONLY church with the authority to baptize, right?" Joseph said "Yeah that's what I like about you and that's kind of why I let you guys in in the first place." Joseph seemed to really be into that chapter of the Book of Mormon and just really excited about the general idea of there being new scripture.
Elder Rodriguez and I have a new investigator named William who's going through a hard time. He lives in a sober home and helps out with the people there trying to overcome addictions. He's unemployed and broke. He wants us to teach him and baptize him and he made it very clear that he really needs help from the church to get him back on his feet. This may sound like he's trying to take advantage of what the church can offer but I'm pretty sure he's sincere. He said baptism is his first priority because he wants to experience that rebirth and start over. We're happy to help him on the road to baptism.
There's been this exhibit happening at the stake center called "Reflections of Christ" and it's really cool. It's a bunch of photographic art portraying the life of Christ. It's really powerful stuff. The missionaries of this stake were asked to act as guides for the people visiting the exhibit. Elder Rodriguez and I served Saturday night and we're going again tonight. It's a great opportunity for us to find new investigators cuz non-members get a chance to have us deliver a small framed copy of one of the pictures to them.
Sabrina Sanchez is getting baptized tomorrow! It looks like I'm going to get to baptize her! That'll be a great experience. Sam's still on the fence. We still don't know what's happening with Raymond. Jason's still awesome but stuck. The field's still white!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
First off, parents: please don't send the package to the mission home. The zone leaders said it'd be difficult for me to get it before the next zone conference and I don't know when that'll be. So please just send it to the apartment. Thanks!
It's been an interesting week. First off let's talk about last Wednesday. That wasn't a fun day. The night before I woke up in a cold sweat and I threw up from the top of the bunk bed all over the wall and carpet. Don't be alarmed though I'm fine now. I felt fine enough the next day to proselyte but I still felt relatively like crap. Elder Rodriguez had whatever I had too (it was probably just the 24-hour flu), but not quite as bad. He didn't throw up. His illness involved the other extremity. That day got really rough when we were fed dinner. Twice. David and Dixie fed us burgers. They brought out their pet python and we watched it eat a live mouse! That was disturbing. I've got pictures so you'll get to enjoy that visit someday. After that dinner we were fed by our ward mission leader, Bro. Park, in his great and spacious building of a home. Have I told you about this guy's house? I don't think I have. It's a multi-million dollar mansion. The Parks are from Mongolia or something oriental like that and Bro. Park's an orthopoedic(?) surgeon so he's LOADED. He has a great and spacious building in Huntington Beach too for the weekends. His home is rejunkulously ginormous. Well, after that dinner I wanted to die. Both those meals were fantastic but I was sick and I hadn't ate anything solid that day for a reason and though I've definitely gained weight I'm still not a very big guy. I ran into this problem last night too. Dinner appointment with a sister form the ward AND with David and Dixie. And it's always a feast at David and Dixie's. I'd almost finished shrimp pasta when David asked me "Why are you sweating? Ha look at him!" I was way too full. I managed to eat it all though. Then they gave us more shrimp.... And then they gave us dessert... I was so full last night it's not even funny.
Well back to last week. Remember Raymond, the random guy who wanted to get baptized? Well things changed last week. We went to visit him and Suzanna let us enter the apartment and she was in tears yelling on the phone. That was the least funny most awkward half an hour of my mission thus far. Here's the deal: apparently Raymond and Suzanna are not married. They're engaged. That day they'd had an argument and that night they were in the process of breaking off the engagement. She was hysterical. Raymond stopped by for a second and left. I'm not sure if we've been dropped or what but things are no longer solid with Raymond. We gave Suzanna a priesthood blessing and then we had to leave. She came to church on Sunday and said things are going better now and she had her ring on still so things might be good enough for us to go back. But still - Raymond is not married. Cohabitation is happening. So the baptism cannot happen yet.
We got so close to getting Jason Patterson baptized! He's so ready! He had the baptismal interview and everything. But his wife still won't let it happen cuz she doesn't want to change from her heavy-metal rockin' ways and she keeps telling him "I didn't marry a Mormon!". I don't mean to judge but one parent is definitely setting a more firm foundation for that family than the other. Whenever we visit Jason his Mormon music's playing in the background. He has many copies of the scriptures. He's read the standard works several times. He's read TONS of church stuff and TONS of anti stuff and after like 18 years of investigating the church he's disproved all the anti stuff he's read. His testimony's uber-solid and he wants so badly to be baptized and set an example for his kids. So I am justified when I say that we are SO FRUSTRATED WITH HIS WIFE!!! We want so badly to teach her but she won't have it. She's not mean to us or anything. I think she puts on a pleasant facade for us. Jason says she knows that if she'd listen to us she'd believe. She just doesn't want to change.
Oh well. On a happier note we met Joseph. Joseph is this black kid who's about 18 years old and he's really nice and he's way open to whatever we teach him. He's digging the whole idea of the Book of Mormon and there being a prophet on the earth. He talked to his pastor about it and his pastor told him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon!?!?! Yeah. Weird for a pastor to say but Joseph's gonna do it.
On Sunday David Ramos asked me to confer upon him the Aaronic Priesthood. That was an awesome experience. Not all missionaries get to ordain one of their investigators to a priesthood office. I feel very priviledged. So now David's a priest. He's going to be such a strong member. His testimony's very strong.
Yesterday was different. Elder Rodriguez and I went on splits with the zone leaders. I went with Elder Esterholdt. I had to drive all day yesterday. Scary? Yes. But we're both alive. We taught Joseph yesterday. Elder Esterholdt was very bold with him. It was great. We read 3Nephi 11 with Joseph and Elder Esterholdt said "You do realize that what we're saying is that our church claims to be the ONLY church with the authority to baptize, right?" Joseph said "Yeah that's what I like about you and that's kind of why I let you guys in in the first place." Joseph seemed to really be into that chapter of the Book of Mormon and just really excited about the general idea of there being new scripture.
Elder Rodriguez and I have a new investigator named William who's going through a hard time. He lives in a sober home and helps out with the people there trying to overcome addictions. He's unemployed and broke. He wants us to teach him and baptize him and he made it very clear that he really needs help from the church to get him back on his feet. This may sound like he's trying to take advantage of what the church can offer but I'm pretty sure he's sincere. He said baptism is his first priority because he wants to experience that rebirth and start over. We're happy to help him on the road to baptism.
There's been this exhibit happening at the stake center called "Reflections of Christ" and it's really cool. It's a bunch of photographic art portraying the life of Christ. It's really powerful stuff. The missionaries of this stake were asked to act as guides for the people visiting the exhibit. Elder Rodriguez and I served Saturday night and we're going again tonight. It's a great opportunity for us to find new investigators cuz non-members get a chance to have us deliver a small framed copy of one of the pictures to them.
Sabrina Sanchez is getting baptized tomorrow! It looks like I'm going to get to baptize her! That'll be a great experience. Sam's still on the fence. We still don't know what's happening with Raymond. Jason's still awesome but stuck. The field's still white!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
Friday, December 5, 2008
Nicoles
David's Baptism
Dead Cockroach
December 2nd, 2008 Letter
Dear Mom, Dad & Hannah
I'm going to try and send you the SD card. If this is a padded envelope and the SD card's in it I succeeded. If this is a normal envelop with no SD I either didn't have time or I found a different way to send you some pics. If this is a padded envelope with no SD card...that's not good.
I'm eating a peanut butter and jam sandwich right now and it's great. I haven't had one of these since the MTC. After writing letters and eating we're hopefully going to play flag football again. Last week's P-day's flag football session was fun. I was way sore afterwards though. Worth it.
After P-day's over we're visiting Raymond. Can you believe the story about us finding that guy? Raymond said he knew God sent us there yesterday for a reason. I feel like we just said hello and he responded with "Baptize me!"
Well I'm going to try and write some other people today so this one's going to have to be short. But this week's email was big again. And I'm going to try to send you my pics so that's an email/letter/picture triple bonus.
The blog's looking good Dad. I loved it. It was like having the Internet access all over again!
And your Virtue talk was amazing Mom. Virtue is defiantly something this state's lacking.
I haven't had a chance to ride my bike yet. It looks sweet though! Thanks! And irons are unheard of because 1. no time 2. wrinkle free white shirts work themselves out eventually. I know it's a mother's nightmare but don't worry it's all good and I don't need an iron. Speaking of a mother's nightmare, if you get the pictures - 1. Don't worry, the cockroaches are about 80% dead now 2. yes, that possum lives outside our apartment. At least I'm pretty sure it's a possum. It was too big to be a rat I think. Well anyway.
I LOVE YOU!
Love
Elder Tyler Lewis
I'm going to try and send you the SD card. If this is a padded envelope and the SD card's in it I succeeded. If this is a normal envelop with no SD I either didn't have time or I found a different way to send you some pics. If this is a padded envelope with no SD card...that's not good.
I'm eating a peanut butter and jam sandwich right now and it's great. I haven't had one of these since the MTC. After writing letters and eating we're hopefully going to play flag football again. Last week's P-day's flag football session was fun. I was way sore afterwards though. Worth it.
After P-day's over we're visiting Raymond. Can you believe the story about us finding that guy? Raymond said he knew God sent us there yesterday for a reason. I feel like we just said hello and he responded with "Baptize me!"
Well I'm going to try and write some other people today so this one's going to have to be short. But this week's email was big again. And I'm going to try to send you my pics so that's an email/letter/picture triple bonus.
The blog's looking good Dad. I loved it. It was like having the Internet access all over again!
And your Virtue talk was amazing Mom. Virtue is defiantly something this state's lacking.
I haven't had a chance to ride my bike yet. It looks sweet though! Thanks! And irons are unheard of because 1. no time 2. wrinkle free white shirts work themselves out eventually. I know it's a mother's nightmare but don't worry it's all good and I don't need an iron. Speaking of a mother's nightmare, if you get the pictures - 1. Don't worry, the cockroaches are about 80% dead now 2. yes, that possum lives outside our apartment. At least I'm pretty sure it's a possum. It was too big to be a rat I think. Well anyway.
I LOVE YOU!
Love
Elder Tyler Lewis
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
December 2nd, 2008 (Email)
Hey!
OK first thing first: Christmas list eh?Here's what sounds good to me: candy, restaurant gift cards, cool ties, letters, candy, letters.... and cool ties. And pictures. Yeah that sounds about good. If you send me stuff I will like it. And I will eat it. I wonder how much I weigh now... Ever heard of Claim Jumpers? Their Sirloins are DIVINE.
No Sam didn't get baptized last week :( She needs to get baptized before Elder Rodriguez leaves! He's been in Buena Park for almost 9 months now and he's been working with her for a long time and she has a testimony and she's had several baptism dates but no go! She says she knows its right. But her mom says otherwise. But it'll happen. Well see.
Yesterday INCREDIBLE things happened! So all of our appointments seemed to be ditching us for the first half of the day. So we decided to knock some doors before visiting David and Dixie. For some reason some stuff happened during the first three doors so that it took a while before we could reach door 4. We herd the alarm going off in Door 2 so we checked the front and back of the apartment but we saw no fire. Door 3 complained that we woke him up (4:30 in the afternoon) All sorts of stuff happened so that we arrived at door 4 JUST AS the guy who lived there was arriving home. The wife answered the door as the husband came from behind us and walked in his apartment. 5 minutes later we found ourselves in the apartment talking and starting a lesson. The wife's name is Suzanna and she's a member. The husband's name is Raymond and he's not. They told us they haven't been to church for months. Raymond had been taking the lessons before they moved to this apartment in September but he said he didn't do "the last thing." We asked if that last thing happened to be baptism. He said "Yeah! That! I need to do that! Can we do that? Where's the church? When can I be baptized? Can you give me the lessons again?" So we taught them lesson one, they commited to come to church and we set a date for Raymond's baptism -- Dec. 14th. Yeah. Amazing. Then we visited David and Dixie and they fed us amazing mexican food again and we gave their daughter Delilah a Priesthood blessing (she has crazy dreams and sleepwalking stuff so they talked to the bishop and he told them to ask us to bless her) I got to be voice so that was neat. Okay, so their son George is 13. Here's what's happened with him since we started visiting them: he's gone to church, he likes church, he's EXCITED for church, he asked for a button up shirt and slacks, and during this appointment we found out he cut his mohawk and told David and Dixie that he wants to be baptized. Wh-h?-!so...yeah. Wow. Amazing things are happening in Buena Park. And Sabrina Sanchez is still good for Dec. 10th. I think I told you about her right? Her dad's a member - she's not. She's 21 and she's turning her life around- she's meeting with us, repenting, quitting coffee, praying, reading the scriptures, and getting baptized on the 10th. It's gonna be a great month.
Thanksgiving was good. We ate with the Woolfenden family. They had 4 huge dogs and 1 little one so that was crazy. We ate Thanksgiving dinner OUTSIDE under the blue sky and sunlight. Oh to be in California. :)
Elder Rodriguez is the hardest of the hardcore. Yeah. He's an amazing Elder and I'm blessed to have him training me. It's so cool to live with the District Leader and the Zone Leaders. Elder Esterholdt is the oldest Elder in the mission and I'm most definitely the youngest. Elder Berardy and Elder Rodriguez call me Lucky Charm Lewis now whenever something amazing happens. I got it a bunch last night after we told the ZLs about Raymond. But I know that it has nothing to do with me. THE LORD DOES HIS OWN WORK!!!
Love,Elder Tyler Lewis
(P.S. I'm going to try and send some pictures on the other computer now so that's on its way. I'm kind of nervous about sending the SD card and it's not even close to being full yet so I'm going to try this first.)
OK first thing first: Christmas list eh?Here's what sounds good to me: candy, restaurant gift cards, cool ties, letters, candy, letters.... and cool ties. And pictures. Yeah that sounds about good. If you send me stuff I will like it. And I will eat it. I wonder how much I weigh now... Ever heard of Claim Jumpers? Their Sirloins are DIVINE.
No Sam didn't get baptized last week :( She needs to get baptized before Elder Rodriguez leaves! He's been in Buena Park for almost 9 months now and he's been working with her for a long time and she has a testimony and she's had several baptism dates but no go! She says she knows its right. But her mom says otherwise. But it'll happen. Well see.
Yesterday INCREDIBLE things happened! So all of our appointments seemed to be ditching us for the first half of the day. So we decided to knock some doors before visiting David and Dixie. For some reason some stuff happened during the first three doors so that it took a while before we could reach door 4. We herd the alarm going off in Door 2 so we checked the front and back of the apartment but we saw no fire. Door 3 complained that we woke him up (4:30 in the afternoon) All sorts of stuff happened so that we arrived at door 4 JUST AS the guy who lived there was arriving home. The wife answered the door as the husband came from behind us and walked in his apartment. 5 minutes later we found ourselves in the apartment talking and starting a lesson. The wife's name is Suzanna and she's a member. The husband's name is Raymond and he's not. They told us they haven't been to church for months. Raymond had been taking the lessons before they moved to this apartment in September but he said he didn't do "the last thing." We asked if that last thing happened to be baptism. He said "Yeah! That! I need to do that! Can we do that? Where's the church? When can I be baptized? Can you give me the lessons again?" So we taught them lesson one, they commited to come to church and we set a date for Raymond's baptism -- Dec. 14th. Yeah. Amazing. Then we visited David and Dixie and they fed us amazing mexican food again and we gave their daughter Delilah a Priesthood blessing (she has crazy dreams and sleepwalking stuff so they talked to the bishop and he told them to ask us to bless her) I got to be voice so that was neat. Okay, so their son George is 13. Here's what's happened with him since we started visiting them: he's gone to church, he likes church, he's EXCITED for church, he asked for a button up shirt and slacks, and during this appointment we found out he cut his mohawk and told David and Dixie that he wants to be baptized. Wh-h?-!so...yeah. Wow. Amazing things are happening in Buena Park. And Sabrina Sanchez is still good for Dec. 10th. I think I told you about her right? Her dad's a member - she's not. She's 21 and she's turning her life around- she's meeting with us, repenting, quitting coffee, praying, reading the scriptures, and getting baptized on the 10th. It's gonna be a great month.
Thanksgiving was good. We ate with the Woolfenden family. They had 4 huge dogs and 1 little one so that was crazy. We ate Thanksgiving dinner OUTSIDE under the blue sky and sunlight. Oh to be in California. :)
Elder Rodriguez is the hardest of the hardcore. Yeah. He's an amazing Elder and I'm blessed to have him training me. It's so cool to live with the District Leader and the Zone Leaders. Elder Esterholdt is the oldest Elder in the mission and I'm most definitely the youngest. Elder Berardy and Elder Rodriguez call me Lucky Charm Lewis now whenever something amazing happens. I got it a bunch last night after we told the ZLs about Raymond. But I know that it has nothing to do with me. THE LORD DOES HIS OWN WORK!!!
Love,Elder Tyler Lewis
(P.S. I'm going to try and send some pictures on the other computer now so that's on its way. I'm kind of nervous about sending the SD card and it's not even close to being full yet so I'm going to try this first.)
November 25th, 2008 Letter
Dear Mom, Dad & Hannah
1. Yeah my bike's right here.
2. The fires are done but they were pretty close. It smelled like a campfire everywhere for a few days.
3. The Proposition 8 hasn't been a problem. Everyone pretty much agrees with us that I've met so far. Dixie said she voted No but it gave us a chance to explain why the church was so serious about it and we're going to give David & Dixie a copy of the Family Proclamation next time.
4. I'm good. Money's fine. You can send me some cookies and candy if you want though. :) As long as you send letters too!
5. I'll send you some pictures soon. I've only taken like 74 pics so far so the SD card's not even close to being full yet.
I remember Tori Welk! She was in one of my math classes Junior Year of High School. And I saw her whenever I filled the vending machines at Taxworks.
Tell Jeff Meachum to say hello to Elder Darbo and Sisters Maughan and Stratford when he gets to Virginia. That's awesome!
Today we played flag football for our P-Day activity. That was way fun actually. I thought I'd hate it but it was a blast.
As you could probably tell from my email I'm on a definite high point of my mission. I'm hoping that it only gets better from here. I'm LOVING it! Nothings more satisfying than seeing someone accept the gospel and get baptized.
I don't have hardly any time to write letters so please tell my friends on the blog to be patient. I know I owe Jackie and Launa a letter each but I'm just really really busy now. Not that that's a bad thing.
I LOVE YOU and please write!
Love
Elder Tyler Lewis
1. Yeah my bike's right here.
2. The fires are done but they were pretty close. It smelled like a campfire everywhere for a few days.
3. The Proposition 8 hasn't been a problem. Everyone pretty much agrees with us that I've met so far. Dixie said she voted No but it gave us a chance to explain why the church was so serious about it and we're going to give David & Dixie a copy of the Family Proclamation next time.
4. I'm good. Money's fine. You can send me some cookies and candy if you want though. :) As long as you send letters too!
5. I'll send you some pictures soon. I've only taken like 74 pics so far so the SD card's not even close to being full yet.
I remember Tori Welk! She was in one of my math classes Junior Year of High School. And I saw her whenever I filled the vending machines at Taxworks.
Tell Jeff Meachum to say hello to Elder Darbo and Sisters Maughan and Stratford when he gets to Virginia. That's awesome!
Today we played flag football for our P-Day activity. That was way fun actually. I thought I'd hate it but it was a blast.
As you could probably tell from my email I'm on a definite high point of my mission. I'm hoping that it only gets better from here. I'm LOVING it! Nothings more satisfying than seeing someone accept the gospel and get baptized.
I don't have hardly any time to write letters so please tell my friends on the blog to be patient. I know I owe Jackie and Launa a letter each but I'm just really really busy now. Not that that's a bad thing.
I LOVE YOU and please write!
Love
Elder Tyler Lewis
Thursday, November 27, 2008
November 25th, 2008 (Email)
Hey!
It has been and incredible week! 2 baptisms! Nicoles Siatenu'u's ( the 9-year-old's) baptism was a huge event for his family. They're Samoan/Hawaiian, so of course there was a big feast after the ordinance. David Ramos' (the 18-year-old's) baptism was a very unique experience. Satan did NOT want David to be baptized. The opposition that night was crazy! First of all David was late. Second his parents weren't going to go to the baptism and support him. Third the power was out in Cypress. That included the stake center. But after much prayer and faith everything went fine. David made it to the church before anybody decided to leave. His Mom eventually decided to show up. And finally a man from the stake randomly decided he'd better check out the church and he just happened to bring a bunch of lanterns with him. That may be the only chance I'll ever have to see a baptism performed under lantern light. It was awesome. After Elder Rodriguez baptized David (and after they changed their clothes in utter darkness in the bathroom) Bishop Redding asked David to bear his testimony. It was great. David bore sincere testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and it was obvious how much this baptism really meant to him. It was impossible for his mother to have not felt the Holy Ghost radiating in that building.
8 of our investigators attended church again. That really is a big deal. Elder Rodriguez has NEVER had that many attend church before and he's been out for over a year now. David and Dixie (we found out it's Dixie, not Mixy) attended for the 2nd week in a row and they're planning on going again next Sunday! We visited them last night and it was great! David and Dixie love to feed Elder Rodriguez and I. They have us set aside at least 2 hours for them- 1 for a dinner appointment and 1 for the actual lesson. Last night they had so many questions and the lesson was going so well that they actually ended up having us stay for 4 HOURS! (That's really not supposed to happen but it had to last night.) We watched the Restoration video and it was great. David and Dixie asked us about the Priesthood and we talked about that for a while. I've had some worries on my mind about them for the past little while because of a few things- 1. they're not married 2. they have some Word of Wisdom issues 3. I didn't know if they'd dig the whole tithing deal. But last night I was much surprised when we ended up talking about all of that and more. And I was even more surprised when they seemed okay with everything! David was a little concerned about the coffee thing but they both agreed to live the Word of Wisdom! Dixie hates how concerned churches are about money but she's okay with the 10% Tithing Law because it's in the Bible! And they both acknowledged the fact that they need to get married our last visit without us even bringing up the Law of Chastity yet. And this time David asked US if he could be baptized! You see what I'm really saying here? THE LORD DOES HIS OWN WORK. He's not kidding when He says "the field is white already to harvest." It's not brown. It's not green. It's white.
Now it's time for a short story about a so-called Pastor. Elder Rodriguez and I were tracting one fine afternoon we happened upon two old men whose blindness and hatred defy all description. One of them turned around and spake unto us, not calling us by name and said, pointing to both of us "I know who they are! The servants of Satan! Do you know where you're going? Straight to Hell!" We tried to point out and explain the fact that the name of Jesus Christ was plainly written on our nametags both in English and Spanish but our efforts were wasted. The more energetic of the two old men called himself Pastor Clark and boy was he on one that day. He tossed his Bible on the ground and accused us of doing the same whenever we read the Book of Mormon. He told us we didn't know the difference between good and evil because we're so deceived and caught "hook line and sinker" in lies. We tried again and again to bear testimony and leave but the man really seemed to enjoy spewing hatred so we had no choice but to let him persist. He made me very tired. But now I look back fondly and laugh. Oh Pastor Clark. Calm down. Nobody's going to Hell.
I KNOW this church is true. I KNOW the Book of Mormon contains the word of God to this dispensation and so I KNOW Joseph Smith was a prophet called to restore the literal Church of Jesus Christ. I have felt the Spirit attest to those facts too strongly too many times to deny it. I have considered the circumstances of the world around me and the words of the Lord revealed through prophets and through His scriptures and I realize all too well how obvious it really is that this is the ONE true church of Jesus Christ. "One Lord, one faith, one baptism"; NOT one Lord, 5 faiths, 12 baptisms.
We may have another baptism tomorrow! Pray for Sam! She needs to finally get baptized! Happy Thanksgiving!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
It has been and incredible week! 2 baptisms! Nicoles Siatenu'u's ( the 9-year-old's) baptism was a huge event for his family. They're Samoan/Hawaiian, so of course there was a big feast after the ordinance. David Ramos' (the 18-year-old's) baptism was a very unique experience. Satan did NOT want David to be baptized. The opposition that night was crazy! First of all David was late. Second his parents weren't going to go to the baptism and support him. Third the power was out in Cypress. That included the stake center. But after much prayer and faith everything went fine. David made it to the church before anybody decided to leave. His Mom eventually decided to show up. And finally a man from the stake randomly decided he'd better check out the church and he just happened to bring a bunch of lanterns with him. That may be the only chance I'll ever have to see a baptism performed under lantern light. It was awesome. After Elder Rodriguez baptized David (and after they changed their clothes in utter darkness in the bathroom) Bishop Redding asked David to bear his testimony. It was great. David bore sincere testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and it was obvious how much this baptism really meant to him. It was impossible for his mother to have not felt the Holy Ghost radiating in that building.
8 of our investigators attended church again. That really is a big deal. Elder Rodriguez has NEVER had that many attend church before and he's been out for over a year now. David and Dixie (we found out it's Dixie, not Mixy) attended for the 2nd week in a row and they're planning on going again next Sunday! We visited them last night and it was great! David and Dixie love to feed Elder Rodriguez and I. They have us set aside at least 2 hours for them- 1 for a dinner appointment and 1 for the actual lesson. Last night they had so many questions and the lesson was going so well that they actually ended up having us stay for 4 HOURS! (That's really not supposed to happen but it had to last night.) We watched the Restoration video and it was great. David and Dixie asked us about the Priesthood and we talked about that for a while. I've had some worries on my mind about them for the past little while because of a few things- 1. they're not married 2. they have some Word of Wisdom issues 3. I didn't know if they'd dig the whole tithing deal. But last night I was much surprised when we ended up talking about all of that and more. And I was even more surprised when they seemed okay with everything! David was a little concerned about the coffee thing but they both agreed to live the Word of Wisdom! Dixie hates how concerned churches are about money but she's okay with the 10% Tithing Law because it's in the Bible! And they both acknowledged the fact that they need to get married our last visit without us even bringing up the Law of Chastity yet. And this time David asked US if he could be baptized! You see what I'm really saying here? THE LORD DOES HIS OWN WORK. He's not kidding when He says "the field is white already to harvest." It's not brown. It's not green. It's white.
Now it's time for a short story about a so-called Pastor. Elder Rodriguez and I were tracting one fine afternoon we happened upon two old men whose blindness and hatred defy all description. One of them turned around and spake unto us, not calling us by name and said, pointing to both of us "I know who they are! The servants of Satan! Do you know where you're going? Straight to Hell!" We tried to point out and explain the fact that the name of Jesus Christ was plainly written on our nametags both in English and Spanish but our efforts were wasted. The more energetic of the two old men called himself Pastor Clark and boy was he on one that day. He tossed his Bible on the ground and accused us of doing the same whenever we read the Book of Mormon. He told us we didn't know the difference between good and evil because we're so deceived and caught "hook line and sinker" in lies. We tried again and again to bear testimony and leave but the man really seemed to enjoy spewing hatred so we had no choice but to let him persist. He made me very tired. But now I look back fondly and laugh. Oh Pastor Clark. Calm down. Nobody's going to Hell.
I KNOW this church is true. I KNOW the Book of Mormon contains the word of God to this dispensation and so I KNOW Joseph Smith was a prophet called to restore the literal Church of Jesus Christ. I have felt the Spirit attest to those facts too strongly too many times to deny it. I have considered the circumstances of the world around me and the words of the Lord revealed through prophets and through His scriptures and I realize all too well how obvious it really is that this is the ONE true church of Jesus Christ. "One Lord, one faith, one baptism"; NOT one Lord, 5 faiths, 12 baptisms.
We may have another baptism tomorrow! Pray for Sam! She needs to finally get baptized! Happy Thanksgiving!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
November 21st, 2008 Letter
Dear Mom, Dad & Hannah
I switched my handwriting to cursive for a few days but for the sake of saving time I've promptly switched back to normal mode.
So how's it going? I think I'm supposed to get a letter from you in a couple of days, right? Feel free to write every week I don't mind!
I went to Wal-Mart today. Apparently Wall-E is on DVD now eh? That's all the media I saw. Has the news been updating you about God's anger towards California? It's pretty nuts it sounds like. But Buena Park's been blessed so we're flame-free! Well...I doubt there's a city in California that's really flame-free but ...
Elder Rodriguez and I visited a man yesterday named Dennis who only wanted to talk about Proposition 8 related topics. He said he wrote his college thesis about homosexuality. He said he likes talking to missionaries like us cuz he knows we have strong morals and that's rare in today's society. His view was homosexuality shouldn't be treated as a civil rights issue because it's not a race it's a choice of lifestyle. He said that act is wrong but the people aren't in most cases bad people. I pretty much agree. Dennis has one leg cuz his other one got amputated due to diabetes. He's read the Book of Mormon before and his beliefs are different but he's christian and a nice guy though he admits to have strayed from his ministry.
There's this other guy we're visiting named Jason. He's a super nice guy with a strong testimony but he hasn't been baptized yet because his wife is against it. He's what I guess we call a "dry Mormon". We cleaned up his shed. There was a ton of junk and a ton of black widow spiders. I was very cautious, thinking of Dallas Bradshaw's purple and swollen hand.
So 3 baptisms this weekend! Let's pray that all go through! Nocholas, David and Sam!
I Love You!
Love
Elder Tyler Lewis
I switched my handwriting to cursive for a few days but for the sake of saving time I've promptly switched back to normal mode.
So how's it going? I think I'm supposed to get a letter from you in a couple of days, right? Feel free to write every week I don't mind!
I went to Wal-Mart today. Apparently Wall-E is on DVD now eh? That's all the media I saw. Has the news been updating you about God's anger towards California? It's pretty nuts it sounds like. But Buena Park's been blessed so we're flame-free! Well...I doubt there's a city in California that's really flame-free but ...
Elder Rodriguez and I visited a man yesterday named Dennis who only wanted to talk about Proposition 8 related topics. He said he wrote his college thesis about homosexuality. He said he likes talking to missionaries like us cuz he knows we have strong morals and that's rare in today's society. His view was homosexuality shouldn't be treated as a civil rights issue because it's not a race it's a choice of lifestyle. He said that act is wrong but the people aren't in most cases bad people. I pretty much agree. Dennis has one leg cuz his other one got amputated due to diabetes. He's read the Book of Mormon before and his beliefs are different but he's christian and a nice guy though he admits to have strayed from his ministry.
There's this other guy we're visiting named Jason. He's a super nice guy with a strong testimony but he hasn't been baptized yet because his wife is against it. He's what I guess we call a "dry Mormon". We cleaned up his shed. There was a ton of junk and a ton of black widow spiders. I was very cautious, thinking of Dallas Bradshaw's purple and swollen hand.
So 3 baptisms this weekend! Let's pray that all go through! Nocholas, David and Sam!
I Love You!
Love
Elder Tyler Lewis
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
November 18th, 2008 (Email)
Good morning!
It's been another great week. Elder Rodriguez and I are still being fed like kings. I know that this luxury will not last forever so... I'm going to milk it. One sister from our ward (Buena Park Ward which I find funny considering that my hometown ward is just Park Ward) named Sister Riley took us to Black Angus one night. Yeah. I'm not starving.
David and Mixy DID come to church this week! Awesome! We had EIGHT investigators come to church this week! Elder Rodriguez and I teach the Gospel Principles class to the investigators. This week we taught about obedience. I thought it would be a good idea at the end of the lesson to give the example from 1Neph 3 & 4 about Nephi and his bros going to get the plates from Laban. But David didn't really dig the whole Nephi having to kill Laban thing... so I've learned something: don't bring up that detail with new investigators. It'll be okay though. We're visiting David and Mixy tomorrow so we'll talk about it.
We have three people getting baptized this weekend!!! First is Nicholas. He's getting baptized Saturday. Elder Rodriguez and his old companion had been teaching him for a while. He's nine. Also David Ramos, the awesome 18-year-old who is digging the gospel probably more than any of our other investigators. He's getting baptized on Sunday. Then right after him is Sam. She's my age and she's been receiving lots of opposition from her mom still about the whole wanting to be mormon deal. But her testimony's strong and she's met with the bishop a couple times now and it looks like we're shooting for Sunday with her too! BIG weekend.
Our bishop is Bishop Redding and he's the youngest bishop I've ever met. He's awesome. He's probably Bro. Westinskow's age and very bald. I'd be very comfortable getting interviewed by him. David Ramos' newly activated friend Omar, who sits in with us whenever we go to teach David, has been going to interviews with Bishop Redding cuz he's trying to get back on track. Sounds like the bishop's told him he can serve a mission!!!
So it's definitely been looking like the latter days in these parts of California. A couple days ago the sun was darkened by smoke and the moon turned to blood and all that fun stuff. It was difficult to breathe when the ashes from the fires started falling all over Buena Park and the entire Long Beach mission I'm sure. We had to go inside. Several missionaries got a little sick from the ash cuz of respiratory problems. I really feel like God's sending his wrath down on California for protesting and desecrating outside the temples. I recall that the ONLY time Jesus actually became MAD in the Bible was when he saw the merchants desecrating the temple with their worldly endeavors.So. People trying to destroy the family. People protesting outside the temple. The worst fire California's probably ever had to deal with. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!!!
I just had my first zone conference this week. Man I had no idea how long those take. I thought it was just some hour-2 hour long meeting but no. It was as long as a school-day. It was great though. President Sexton most positively is a spiritual giant. He receives revelation. All the missionaries here can attest to that. They all tell me about how he has turned this mission around and enhanced it into a sacred mission. This week he told each companionship to find five new investigators. It's harder than you'd expect. We pulled it off though.
I've found that the Book of Mormon really does contain truths that can guide you and uplift you if you read it each and every day. I can't see me depriving myself of that wisdom from God anyday in the future. I know that the Book of Mormon is absolutely postively true. I've basically relied on my spiritual witness of that for a long time now. Elder Rodriguez and I have been listening in the car to a talk about the Dead Sea Scrolls and other many other archealogical finds in the Eastern and Western world. Apparently there's a lot of evidence that attests to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon in that field as well. But all in all, despite all the evidence, what matters is your own spiritual witness. Remember that witness, rely on that witness, and refresh that witness daily. You'll be guided and strengthened and the windows of heaven will open and enlighten your mind and your life. Es la verdad.
Well I've gotta write my letter to the Pres now. I love you!!!
-Elder Tyler Lewis
It's been another great week. Elder Rodriguez and I are still being fed like kings. I know that this luxury will not last forever so... I'm going to milk it. One sister from our ward (Buena Park Ward which I find funny considering that my hometown ward is just Park Ward) named Sister Riley took us to Black Angus one night. Yeah. I'm not starving.
David and Mixy DID come to church this week! Awesome! We had EIGHT investigators come to church this week! Elder Rodriguez and I teach the Gospel Principles class to the investigators. This week we taught about obedience. I thought it would be a good idea at the end of the lesson to give the example from 1Neph 3 & 4 about Nephi and his bros going to get the plates from Laban. But David didn't really dig the whole Nephi having to kill Laban thing... so I've learned something: don't bring up that detail with new investigators. It'll be okay though. We're visiting David and Mixy tomorrow so we'll talk about it.
We have three people getting baptized this weekend!!! First is Nicholas. He's getting baptized Saturday. Elder Rodriguez and his old companion had been teaching him for a while. He's nine. Also David Ramos, the awesome 18-year-old who is digging the gospel probably more than any of our other investigators. He's getting baptized on Sunday. Then right after him is Sam. She's my age and she's been receiving lots of opposition from her mom still about the whole wanting to be mormon deal. But her testimony's strong and she's met with the bishop a couple times now and it looks like we're shooting for Sunday with her too! BIG weekend.
Our bishop is Bishop Redding and he's the youngest bishop I've ever met. He's awesome. He's probably Bro. Westinskow's age and very bald. I'd be very comfortable getting interviewed by him. David Ramos' newly activated friend Omar, who sits in with us whenever we go to teach David, has been going to interviews with Bishop Redding cuz he's trying to get back on track. Sounds like the bishop's told him he can serve a mission!!!
So it's definitely been looking like the latter days in these parts of California. A couple days ago the sun was darkened by smoke and the moon turned to blood and all that fun stuff. It was difficult to breathe when the ashes from the fires started falling all over Buena Park and the entire Long Beach mission I'm sure. We had to go inside. Several missionaries got a little sick from the ash cuz of respiratory problems. I really feel like God's sending his wrath down on California for protesting and desecrating outside the temples. I recall that the ONLY time Jesus actually became MAD in the Bible was when he saw the merchants desecrating the temple with their worldly endeavors.So. People trying to destroy the family. People protesting outside the temple. The worst fire California's probably ever had to deal with. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!!!
I just had my first zone conference this week. Man I had no idea how long those take. I thought it was just some hour-2 hour long meeting but no. It was as long as a school-day. It was great though. President Sexton most positively is a spiritual giant. He receives revelation. All the missionaries here can attest to that. They all tell me about how he has turned this mission around and enhanced it into a sacred mission. This week he told each companionship to find five new investigators. It's harder than you'd expect. We pulled it off though.
I've found that the Book of Mormon really does contain truths that can guide you and uplift you if you read it each and every day. I can't see me depriving myself of that wisdom from God anyday in the future. I know that the Book of Mormon is absolutely postively true. I've basically relied on my spiritual witness of that for a long time now. Elder Rodriguez and I have been listening in the car to a talk about the Dead Sea Scrolls and other many other archealogical finds in the Eastern and Western world. Apparently there's a lot of evidence that attests to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon in that field as well. But all in all, despite all the evidence, what matters is your own spiritual witness. Remember that witness, rely on that witness, and refresh that witness daily. You'll be guided and strengthened and the windows of heaven will open and enlighten your mind and your life. Es la verdad.
Well I've gotta write my letter to the Pres now. I love you!!!
-Elder Tyler Lewis
Sunday, November 16, 2008
November 11th, 2008 Letter
Dear Mom, Dad & Hannah,
It's been an incredible week. That first day was probably the strangest day of my life. I only had 3 hours of sleep my last night at the MTC, so that might've contributed to the dream-like atmosphere of that Tuesday. Leaving the MTC for good was the first weird part. Then seeing normal people and stores and television in the airport was the second weird part. Calling you on the phone was great but it was also weird. Then leaving Utah and flying in an airplane...it was all very surreal. But as soon as I set foot in the mission home everything felt just about right. President Sexton's an incredible person. He truly cares about the missionaries and he's super in-tune with the spirit. I got to test drive a car within the first hour of being here. Now THAT was weird and awkward. Later Elders Kemp, Clark and Colon and Hermana Choi and I split up with our companions and I haven't seen any of them since. I'd spent over 1500 hours with Elder Kemp. He's a good guy with a good testimony, but it's good to be away. He stressed me out sometimes. But it's no such case with Elder Rodriguez. He's a great Elder. He has so many investigators lined up for us to teach that we've hardly ever had to proselyte and knock-doors. Buena Park is great. Oh how I love this California weather. Temperature- 65 - 85 degrees. Life's pretty rough - we have a car, the members feed us dinner every night, we teach in English...life is rough. But that is sarcasm so I'll stop. Anyhow, life is great here. I love the many many different types of people we encounter. The 1st interesting character was Ralph. I told you a little about Ralph already. I'm glad he likes us. Yesterday we met a gangsteresque man named Joseph. He's served time in prison as well. But he's seeking religion so that's good. Elder Rodriguez and I have given lots of blessings. We blessed a guy's son who's going to jail. Well, I guess he's there by now. We blessed this Tongan family's baby. I think she was sick. She was tiny. We blessed a sick lady E. Rodriguez baptized a while back named Roxanne. Lots of blessings. I messed up on Roxanne's blessing cuz I forgot to seal the anointing. I think that's important but I think she's okay now. My first door contact ended up being golden. David and Mixy. They have 3 kids and they're going to church this Sunday. Sweet! Well this is the only letter I've had time to get to today. It's been busy. We've had to buy food, wash the car, do the laundry, play basketball, study, write or weekly letters to Pres. Sexton, email. We have lots more to do out here than in the MTC. So, how's life in Utah? Has it snowed yet? How's my dog? Oh, I saw a possum one night. Ugly. How's school/work?
I LOVE YOU!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
It's been an incredible week. That first day was probably the strangest day of my life. I only had 3 hours of sleep my last night at the MTC, so that might've contributed to the dream-like atmosphere of that Tuesday. Leaving the MTC for good was the first weird part. Then seeing normal people and stores and television in the airport was the second weird part. Calling you on the phone was great but it was also weird. Then leaving Utah and flying in an airplane...it was all very surreal. But as soon as I set foot in the mission home everything felt just about right. President Sexton's an incredible person. He truly cares about the missionaries and he's super in-tune with the spirit. I got to test drive a car within the first hour of being here. Now THAT was weird and awkward. Later Elders Kemp, Clark and Colon and Hermana Choi and I split up with our companions and I haven't seen any of them since. I'd spent over 1500 hours with Elder Kemp. He's a good guy with a good testimony, but it's good to be away. He stressed me out sometimes. But it's no such case with Elder Rodriguez. He's a great Elder. He has so many investigators lined up for us to teach that we've hardly ever had to proselyte and knock-doors. Buena Park is great. Oh how I love this California weather. Temperature- 65 - 85 degrees. Life's pretty rough - we have a car, the members feed us dinner every night, we teach in English...life is rough. But that is sarcasm so I'll stop. Anyhow, life is great here. I love the many many different types of people we encounter. The 1st interesting character was Ralph. I told you a little about Ralph already. I'm glad he likes us. Yesterday we met a gangsteresque man named Joseph. He's served time in prison as well. But he's seeking religion so that's good. Elder Rodriguez and I have given lots of blessings. We blessed a guy's son who's going to jail. Well, I guess he's there by now. We blessed this Tongan family's baby. I think she was sick. She was tiny. We blessed a sick lady E. Rodriguez baptized a while back named Roxanne. Lots of blessings. I messed up on Roxanne's blessing cuz I forgot to seal the anointing. I think that's important but I think she's okay now. My first door contact ended up being golden. David and Mixy. They have 3 kids and they're going to church this Sunday. Sweet! Well this is the only letter I've had time to get to today. It's been busy. We've had to buy food, wash the car, do the laundry, play basketball, study, write or weekly letters to Pres. Sexton, email. We have lots more to do out here than in the MTC. So, how's life in Utah? Has it snowed yet? How's my dog? Oh, I saw a possum one night. Ugly. How's school/work?
I LOVE YOU!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
November 5th, 2008 Letter From Tylers Mission President
Dear Brother and Sister Lewis
It was a pleasure for Sister Sexton and I to welcome your son, Elder Lewis, to the California Long Beach Mission. He arrived Tuesday, November 4, 2008, from the Missionary Training Center, bringing with him an enthusiasm that uplifts the entire mission. We welcomed your son with a lunch at the Mission Home followed by an orientation session. He was then assigned to the new companion/trainer, Elder Rodriguez. By 6:00 pm they, as a new companionship, were proselyting.
Our greatest desire is that your son will have a successful and spiritual mission, one that will be a blessing eternally. Your encouragement, your prayers and communication with him is essential. It greatly strengthens your missionay when he receives encouragement from home. The means of communication will be by letters or e-mail. E-mail communication can be used on P-days, which in our mission is on Tuesday.
Your missionary has been assigned to serve in the Cypress Zone. The new address is:
8182 W. 4th Street #27
Buena Park, CA 90621
I have enclosed a photograph of your son with Sister Sexton and myself upon arrival in the California Long Beach Mission.
Very truly yours,
President Edwin A. Sexton
California Long Beach Mission
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
November 11th, 2008 (Email)
Hey!
I'm here! Long Beach California! And everything's going great! Life out here was so much easier adjusting to than life in the MTC. The first day was surreal- First the airport, then the airplane, then seeing Sis. Orton from Layton at the Long Beach Airport- (her mission was ending while mine was beginning)- then going to the mission home with Pres. and Sis. Sexton and eating sweet sweet non-cafeteria lasagna, then meeting my new and awesome companion Elder Rodriguez from Ecuador, then going to Buena Park and getting settled in my new apartment, then later teaching people... it was fun. It wasn't really a stressful day at all. It was just strange and unfamiliar. President Sexton is awesome. He's uber-spiritual and very kind. Elder Rodriguez is also awesome. He isn't sarcastic or condescending- he's relaxed, he plans well and he's a great teacher. I couldn't have asked for a better trainer. He's learned most of his English in the field but he speaks very very well. Elder Rodriguez and I are serving English speaking in Buena Park. So my language study in the morning and my speaking Spanish with my companion are essential. I've met all sorts of interesting people this week. First there's Ralph. Ralph has been to prison and he's most likely killed at least one person. He's had a liver-transplant due to alcoholism and he's covered in tats. But he's turned his life around and now he's meeting with us! Que bueno! We set up a baptismal date with one of our investigators named David this week. He's 18 years old and we're crossing our fingers for the 23rd. He's a good young man and he's definitely received his witness that the church is true. I've met all sorts. I'll tell you more in my letters. I can't email anyone other than my family now so Mom/Dad if you could forward my emails to people that'd be great. I can't look up the addresses for Justin, Jackie and Launa right now cuz I don't want to risk the computer deleting my email again. This is my 2nd attempt. Well here's my address:
Elder Tyler James Lewis
8182 W 4th St #27
Buena Park CA 90621
my p-day's on tuesdays! i'll write some letters today sometime! all is well i love you!
-Elder Tyler Lewis
I'm here! Long Beach California! And everything's going great! Life out here was so much easier adjusting to than life in the MTC. The first day was surreal- First the airport, then the airplane, then seeing Sis. Orton from Layton at the Long Beach Airport- (her mission was ending while mine was beginning)- then going to the mission home with Pres. and Sis. Sexton and eating sweet sweet non-cafeteria lasagna, then meeting my new and awesome companion Elder Rodriguez from Ecuador, then going to Buena Park and getting settled in my new apartment, then later teaching people... it was fun. It wasn't really a stressful day at all. It was just strange and unfamiliar. President Sexton is awesome. He's uber-spiritual and very kind. Elder Rodriguez is also awesome. He isn't sarcastic or condescending- he's relaxed, he plans well and he's a great teacher. I couldn't have asked for a better trainer. He's learned most of his English in the field but he speaks very very well. Elder Rodriguez and I are serving English speaking in Buena Park. So my language study in the morning and my speaking Spanish with my companion are essential. I've met all sorts of interesting people this week. First there's Ralph. Ralph has been to prison and he's most likely killed at least one person. He's had a liver-transplant due to alcoholism and he's covered in tats. But he's turned his life around and now he's meeting with us! Que bueno! We set up a baptismal date with one of our investigators named David this week. He's 18 years old and we're crossing our fingers for the 23rd. He's a good young man and he's definitely received his witness that the church is true. I've met all sorts. I'll tell you more in my letters. I can't email anyone other than my family now so Mom/Dad if you could forward my emails to people that'd be great. I can't look up the addresses for Justin, Jackie and Launa right now cuz I don't want to risk the computer deleting my email again. This is my 2nd attempt. Well here's my address:
Elder Tyler James Lewis
8182 W 4th St #27
Buena Park CA 90621
my p-day's on tuesdays! i'll write some letters today sometime! all is well i love you!
-Elder Tyler Lewis
Friday, November 7, 2008
October 30th, 2008 Letter
Mom & Dad!
My MTC experience is coming to an end. I feel like I've been here for years yet at the same time I feel like you just dropped me off yesterday.
Sorry about my departure date mix-up. I hope it won't be a problem. You won't have to take an entire day off Tuesday cuz I should just call you sometime early in the morning.
The pictures are of my district. One's of Elder Kemp and I at the temple. Actually they're all at the temple. What do you think of the power ranger pic and my victorious pose pic? Yeah glorious I know. Okay now look at my district picture. Top row: me, E. Darbro, E. Tate, E. Jensen, E. Clark, Sis. Maughan. Bottom row: E. Kemp, Sis. Choi, Sis. Grahn, Sis. Biggs, Sis. Stratford.
Yeah Elder Kemp's going to Long Beach with me. Hermana Choi & Elder Clark will be in Long Beach with me too.
I'm way excited to hear Hannah's recording! Hey Dad, Jenny Lewis is the lead singer of Rilo Kiley so I do have one of her CD's with that band. We saw them in concert so I think it's kind of funny you're getting into her music now. Lucinda Williams is pretty amazing so that's great you've discovered her.
A fourth Canadian came into our zone and he's from Alberta! I think his names Elder Prunell or something else that starts with a P. One of the Canadian Elders named Elder Irvine has a really strong accent and I heard him say "hoser" the other day! That made me very very happy.
I'm not nervous about the airport. Ian Thorley got to go to San Francisco to get his visa cuz France is weird and he said the people in the SLC airport treat the missionaries like celebrities. He's probably over-exaggerating...[sorry but...did I spell that right? Every letter I re-evaluate the digression of my English skills...] but he said someone bought him lunch.
I've been running a lot still and doing lots of sit-ups. I almost have a 4-pack! Progress! And my weight seems to have found a happy spot at 130.
Mom I know you don't want to hear this but I'm excited to go somewhere where there's more time and less competition for ironing clothes. To put it briefly I haven't got to iron very much. But that's why someone somewhere invented "wrinkle-free" eh? And I'm excited to go to the store and buy bleach. Bleach that's actually meant for whites at least.
I met another guy at the TRC who just returned from Long Beach! Despite what he said about Compton I'm still excited to check out Compton. And apparently Lakewood's a fun place too!
Well next time I'll be sending you a letter from California! I'll call you on Tuesday!
I LOVE YOU!
Love
Elder Tyler Lewis
October 30th, 2008 Letter to Hannah
Hannah!
Hola hermana! Thanks for the bundle of letters! They made my day. It sounds like you're learning lots of cool stuff in school. I'm not sure what a dioram is but I'd love one! Sounds like you've got a lot of Zelda to play! And unfortunately missionaries can't chew gum but thanks anyway!
So you almost got another puppy? That'd be way cool! I sure miss Rosie. And you. And Mom. And Dad. BUT I am really happy to be a missionary. Are you excited to get a phone call from me on Tuesday> I'm leaving on Tuesday now, not Monday, cuz that's just when the rest of the Long Beach missionaries are leaving I guess.
The MTC is kind of boring sometimes. This week's been way busy because Elder Kemp and I have been teaching TONS of lessons.
Today's the 30th so I guess tomorrow's Halloween. Nothing special about Halloween when you're a missionary. I think I'll wear my new brown sweater if it's cold enough. Missionaries can't wear sweaters with really bright colors. They need to be "conservative".
This week another apostle spoke at the Devotional: L. Tom Perry. So I've heard from 3 apostles at the MTC. Cool, Huh?
I heard an old man fart in the temple today. That was awkward. But I guess you can get away with it when you're that old.
Well next time I write you I'll be in CALIFORNIA! And I'm sure I'll have a lot more to tell you about then.
I LOVE YOU!
Love
Elder Tyler Lewis
Hola hermana! Thanks for the bundle of letters! They made my day. It sounds like you're learning lots of cool stuff in school. I'm not sure what a dioram is but I'd love one! Sounds like you've got a lot of Zelda to play! And unfortunately missionaries can't chew gum but thanks anyway!
So you almost got another puppy? That'd be way cool! I sure miss Rosie. And you. And Mom. And Dad. BUT I am really happy to be a missionary. Are you excited to get a phone call from me on Tuesday> I'm leaving on Tuesday now, not Monday, cuz that's just when the rest of the Long Beach missionaries are leaving I guess.
The MTC is kind of boring sometimes. This week's been way busy because Elder Kemp and I have been teaching TONS of lessons.
Today's the 30th so I guess tomorrow's Halloween. Nothing special about Halloween when you're a missionary. I think I'll wear my new brown sweater if it's cold enough. Missionaries can't wear sweaters with really bright colors. They need to be "conservative".
This week another apostle spoke at the Devotional: L. Tom Perry. So I've heard from 3 apostles at the MTC. Cool, Huh?
I heard an old man fart in the temple today. That was awkward. But I guess you can get away with it when you're that old.
Well next time I write you I'll be in CALIFORNIA! And I'm sure I'll have a lot more to tell you about then.
I LOVE YOU!
Love
Elder Tyler Lewis
Sunday, November 2, 2008
October 30th, 2008 (Email)
Hey!
My plane leaves Tuesday November 4th at 8:20-ish in the morning! I'm almost out of here!
I'm way excited to associate with gangsters and not eat cafeteria food! This week Elder Kemp and I taught 32 lessons. The class goal was 50 lessons per companionship but that was causing frustrations and contention because it was getting in the way of people's studies so the Fifty has been shot down. Now we're just preparing to leave.
This morning I did a double session. 4 hours in the temple. And I didn't get to eat a celestial breakfast so if this email's short it's because 1. I'm starving and 2. this is my second attempt to write this email. I don't dig the MTC computers.
This week's Devotional featured L. Tom Perry! That's the 3rd apostle devotional! That'll be my last devotional so it definitely ended on a high note.
Well this is my last P-day here so I"ve got some laundry to do and some lunch to eat and some letters to write.
The Church is still true!
Love ya and Happy Halloween!
Elder Tyler Lewis
My plane leaves Tuesday November 4th at 8:20-ish in the morning! I'm almost out of here!
I'm way excited to associate with gangsters and not eat cafeteria food! This week Elder Kemp and I taught 32 lessons. The class goal was 50 lessons per companionship but that was causing frustrations and contention because it was getting in the way of people's studies so the Fifty has been shot down. Now we're just preparing to leave.
This morning I did a double session. 4 hours in the temple. And I didn't get to eat a celestial breakfast so if this email's short it's because 1. I'm starving and 2. this is my second attempt to write this email. I don't dig the MTC computers.
This week's Devotional featured L. Tom Perry! That's the 3rd apostle devotional! That'll be my last devotional so it definitely ended on a high note.
Well this is my last P-day here so I"ve got some laundry to do and some lunch to eat and some letters to write.
The Church is still true!
Love ya and Happy Halloween!
Elder Tyler Lewis
October 23rd, 2008 Letter
Dear Mom & Dad
Tendinitis?! Shitzu+Bulldog=?! Wow, those are two things I didn't know existed.
First off: 1. Money's all good. 2. Laundry's all good. 3. I don't think I need the face medicine stuff. But if I do I'll let you know.
So now that I can't have a beard I absolutely have to shave. What a joke. It's almost an every-day-deal now. I think it's cuz I'm around all this testosterone now. I do miss the ladies. At least the normal ones.
No there's not any mice inside the buildings...as far as I know. but they're defiantly all around the buildings.
That new teacher who served in Long Beach, Hermano Cat, said he got to serve on Catalina Island. He said he got to baptize people in the ocean! He said we'd be teaching 50/50 English/Spanish. That's way cool! Latin people have what missionaries call "believing blood" cuz they just kind of go with what you say with little need for explanation. And I 'm really excited to get immersed in the thug-life. I know I need to be really really careful but I'm still excited to have guardian angels in the form of gangsters. Compton's not supposed to be the most sketchy place. Hawaiian Gardens has that reputation now.
I got called to give a talk on Sunday about Hope. It was neat to give a Spanish talk for the first time.
This Sunday's devotional featured a member of the Seventy named Elder Mask. He gave a great talk about his grandfather who had to go serve a mission when he had a wife and a baby son. His grandma & grandpa loved Nephi because of his attitude: "I will go and do!"
Yeah I'm excited to leave before winter hits. I'm loving this Fall weather though. I'm wearing my fitted shirt today and I've had about 50 comments or something. It's like no one's seen plaid before. People did it because of the sweet buttons I guess.
Mom thanks for your thoughts on Elder Scott's talk. I definitely have a testimony that learning comes through trials too. Yours and Hannah's letter ended my mail-drought this week. And Dad I loved the blog entry. I hope your tendinitis heals.
Well now I'm going to write Brandon. Not much to say. Things are pretty...consistant...here at the MTC. I love being around more people who love Talmages Jesus the Christ. Did I tell you my district's the oldest for a couple of weeks now. Elders Tate & Jensen are Zone Leaders. I think I told you that already. Things should get more interesting in a couple of weeks. I get my flight plans TOMMORROW! Did I spell that right? Tomorrow? Tommorrow? Nope I spelled it wrong. English, why hast thou forsaken me?!
Love
Elder Tyler Lewis
Tendinitis?! Shitzu+Bulldog=?! Wow, those are two things I didn't know existed.
First off: 1. Money's all good. 2. Laundry's all good. 3. I don't think I need the face medicine stuff. But if I do I'll let you know.
So now that I can't have a beard I absolutely have to shave. What a joke. It's almost an every-day-deal now. I think it's cuz I'm around all this testosterone now. I do miss the ladies. At least the normal ones.
No there's not any mice inside the buildings...as far as I know. but they're defiantly all around the buildings.
That new teacher who served in Long Beach, Hermano Cat, said he got to serve on Catalina Island. He said he got to baptize people in the ocean! He said we'd be teaching 50/50 English/Spanish. That's way cool! Latin people have what missionaries call "believing blood" cuz they just kind of go with what you say with little need for explanation. And I 'm really excited to get immersed in the thug-life. I know I need to be really really careful but I'm still excited to have guardian angels in the form of gangsters. Compton's not supposed to be the most sketchy place. Hawaiian Gardens has that reputation now.
I got called to give a talk on Sunday about Hope. It was neat to give a Spanish talk for the first time.
This Sunday's devotional featured a member of the Seventy named Elder Mask. He gave a great talk about his grandfather who had to go serve a mission when he had a wife and a baby son. His grandma & grandpa loved Nephi because of his attitude: "I will go and do!"
Yeah I'm excited to leave before winter hits. I'm loving this Fall weather though. I'm wearing my fitted shirt today and I've had about 50 comments or something. It's like no one's seen plaid before. People did it because of the sweet buttons I guess.
Mom thanks for your thoughts on Elder Scott's talk. I definitely have a testimony that learning comes through trials too. Yours and Hannah's letter ended my mail-drought this week. And Dad I loved the blog entry. I hope your tendinitis heals.
Well now I'm going to write Brandon. Not much to say. Things are pretty...consistant...here at the MTC. I love being around more people who love Talmages Jesus the Christ. Did I tell you my district's the oldest for a couple of weeks now. Elders Tate & Jensen are Zone Leaders. I think I told you that already. Things should get more interesting in a couple of weeks. I get my flight plans TOMMORROW! Did I spell that right? Tomorrow? Tommorrow? Nope I spelled it wrong. English, why hast thou forsaken me?!
Love
Elder Tyler Lewis
October 23rd, 2008 Letter to Hannah
Dear Hannah,
That's so cool you're going to be a werewolf for Halloween! Here it sounds like my Zone's going to put the name Elder Lewis on their name tags since there's 4 Elder Lewis's now. Oh man that's sad a guy from Pink Floyd died, I hope it's not David Gilmour. I hope Rosie hasn't really forgotten me! That'd be so sad. I liked your song by the way! When you go to church on Sunday you should ask your teacher what Resurrection is.
Yes, I love rainbow chewy frogs! I used to eat them all the time in Jr. High. I just ate lots of rainbow chewy frogs and drank lots of Mountain Dew, and now I'm short.
A new teacher started working at the MTC named Hermano Cort. He just barely returned from his mission in Long Beach! He absolutely loved it there. Sounds like I'll be teaching lots of Spanish-speaking, English-speaking, and Gangster-speaking people. Do you know what the word Ghetto means? If you find out, that's pretty much where I'm going. It'll be SO MUCH FUN!
Well I'm still doing the same stuff. Class, Spanish, Cafeteria food, meetings, devotionals, laundry, temple, teaching. Nothing really changes here except for the people who come and go. My go-time is coming up real soon! Can't wait!
That's a "rip-off" your teacher doesn't do art! Oh well. Enjoy school as much as you can. School was fun.
I LOVE YOU HERMANA!
Love
Tyler
That's so cool you're going to be a werewolf for Halloween! Here it sounds like my Zone's going to put the name Elder Lewis on their name tags since there's 4 Elder Lewis's now. Oh man that's sad a guy from Pink Floyd died, I hope it's not David Gilmour. I hope Rosie hasn't really forgotten me! That'd be so sad. I liked your song by the way! When you go to church on Sunday you should ask your teacher what Resurrection is.
Yes, I love rainbow chewy frogs! I used to eat them all the time in Jr. High. I just ate lots of rainbow chewy frogs and drank lots of Mountain Dew, and now I'm short.
A new teacher started working at the MTC named Hermano Cort. He just barely returned from his mission in Long Beach! He absolutely loved it there. Sounds like I'll be teaching lots of Spanish-speaking, English-speaking, and Gangster-speaking people. Do you know what the word Ghetto means? If you find out, that's pretty much where I'm going. It'll be SO MUCH FUN!
Well I'm still doing the same stuff. Class, Spanish, Cafeteria food, meetings, devotionals, laundry, temple, teaching. Nothing really changes here except for the people who come and go. My go-time is coming up real soon! Can't wait!
That's a "rip-off" your teacher doesn't do art! Oh well. Enjoy school as much as you can. School was fun.
I LOVE YOU HERMANA!
Love
Tyler
Thursday, October 23, 2008
October 23rd, 2008 (Email)
Hey!
Another week down and two to go! Yesterday a new teacher came into our zone named Hermano Cat. Hermano Cat just returned from his mission a month ago. Guess where he served?!?!? California Long Beach! He's so enthused about his mission. He said Compton's actually one of the safer areas cuz the thugs protect the missionaries. When we asked him if Hawaiian Gardens is safe too he kind of beat around the bush and just told us we'd have fun. He said all the areas are safe enough that we get to proselyte after six o'clock at night. Elder Kemp, Elder Clark and Hermana Choi are the other three in my district going to Long Beach. We're the only four heading there in two weeks but in December there's this group of eight going. We met a couple of them in the computer lab. Hermano Cat said that President Sexton is the most amazing and spiritual man he's ever met in his life. He said he's 6'5'' tall and he used to be a drill sergeant (I probably slaughtered that word. My English is gradually digressing) but he said you'd never guess cuz he's so soft-spoken and kind. He also said that Pres. Sexton only calls his best Elders to be trainers so he said we're guaranteed to be paired with someone amazing when we arrive.
I've only had to have one haircut here. It was awkward cuz you get to be separated from your companion and have some BYU girl cut your hair. I'm very self-conscious about flirting now. I generally don't talk to girls outside of the hermanas in my district. So naturally I didn't say anything at all to the girl cutting my hair cuz it seemed so wrong. So I guess I'm already weird.
This Sunday Sheri Dew came and spoke at the Fireside. She's an incredible speaker. She told us about the market crash that I guess is happening outside these 8 ft. fences and she reviewed one of the talks Pres. Hinckley gave at General Conference in 1998 about how important it was to pay off any debts. Modern prophecy!
Now Elder Kemp and I can teach lessons 1 and 2 en espanol. Next week's the last full week here so we'll be teaching all sorts of lessons to all sorts of Elders all over the place. I think we're supposed to teach over 35 lessons. We won't have too much class with Hermanos Pack and Tidwell so we'll have plenty of time.
I just had celestial biscuits and gravy once again. This time I cleaned my plate much to Elder Kemp's astonishment. I'm maintaining my 130 pounds pretty consistently now. I've started running again with a newer Elder named Elder Wood. We run two laps, do at least 30 sit ups, run two more laps, at least 30 more sit ups, two more laps, 30 more sit ups.
Well I definitely feel ready to get out of here. Long Beach is around the corner and I'm so so so so excited to REALLY be a missionary.
Much Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
Another week down and two to go! Yesterday a new teacher came into our zone named Hermano Cat. Hermano Cat just returned from his mission a month ago. Guess where he served?!?!? California Long Beach! He's so enthused about his mission. He said Compton's actually one of the safer areas cuz the thugs protect the missionaries. When we asked him if Hawaiian Gardens is safe too he kind of beat around the bush and just told us we'd have fun. He said all the areas are safe enough that we get to proselyte after six o'clock at night. Elder Kemp, Elder Clark and Hermana Choi are the other three in my district going to Long Beach. We're the only four heading there in two weeks but in December there's this group of eight going. We met a couple of them in the computer lab. Hermano Cat said that President Sexton is the most amazing and spiritual man he's ever met in his life. He said he's 6'5'' tall and he used to be a drill sergeant (I probably slaughtered that word. My English is gradually digressing) but he said you'd never guess cuz he's so soft-spoken and kind. He also said that Pres. Sexton only calls his best Elders to be trainers so he said we're guaranteed to be paired with someone amazing when we arrive.
I've only had to have one haircut here. It was awkward cuz you get to be separated from your companion and have some BYU girl cut your hair. I'm very self-conscious about flirting now. I generally don't talk to girls outside of the hermanas in my district. So naturally I didn't say anything at all to the girl cutting my hair cuz it seemed so wrong. So I guess I'm already weird.
This Sunday Sheri Dew came and spoke at the Fireside. She's an incredible speaker. She told us about the market crash that I guess is happening outside these 8 ft. fences and she reviewed one of the talks Pres. Hinckley gave at General Conference in 1998 about how important it was to pay off any debts. Modern prophecy!
Now Elder Kemp and I can teach lessons 1 and 2 en espanol. Next week's the last full week here so we'll be teaching all sorts of lessons to all sorts of Elders all over the place. I think we're supposed to teach over 35 lessons. We won't have too much class with Hermanos Pack and Tidwell so we'll have plenty of time.
I just had celestial biscuits and gravy once again. This time I cleaned my plate much to Elder Kemp's astonishment. I'm maintaining my 130 pounds pretty consistently now. I've started running again with a newer Elder named Elder Wood. We run two laps, do at least 30 sit ups, run two more laps, at least 30 more sit ups, two more laps, 30 more sit ups.
Well I definitely feel ready to get out of here. Long Beach is around the corner and I'm so so so so excited to REALLY be a missionary.
Much Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
Monday, October 20, 2008
October 17, 2008 Letter
Dear Mom and Dad,
The Richard G. Scott devotional was such an incredible experience. Here is and excerpt from my journal Sunday night: "[Richard G. Scott] said "we all will have adversity, it is a part of life... we need it for growth and the forging of our righteous character" and that "the Lord protects a determined individual from Satan." He told us not to have fear. The most powerful part of his talk, to me was when he shared his testimony. He told us "if you're testimony isn't strong enough, lean on mine until it is." Here is a part of his testimony: "As an apostle of Jesus Christ, HE LIVES...He guides the church PERSONALLY." The Holy Ghost coming from Elder Scott electrified me...I had a reaffirmation of testimony. I know this church is true and I'm so thankful for the humble testimony of Elder Scott."
In addition to that he was hilarious. He had missionaries go up to microphones and answer questions he would ask. One guy gave a beat-around-the-bush answer to one of Elder Scott's questions, to which Elder Scott replied "you sound like a politician!" And before his talk President Boone read aloud Elder Scott's background information, and Elder Scott shouted "this is not a funeral!" So yeah, that was an incredible devotional.
Hey I need some addresses. I need addresses for Brandon Cox, Rachel Povey, Taeler Herr and Hannah Fitch. I know you can give me Brandons but all of the rest are at school so the only possible way to get hooked up with those is for them to write me... work some blog magic or something. idunno. I'm letter deprived today. It happens. But guess what?! Jon the Rose works in the cafeteria! I've seen him twice now.
Dad, I understand you're struggle with your calling. I've been overwhelmed a couple or so times here too. You've just gotta "Lift Where You Stand" as Elder Uchtdorf advised. That's the pits Brother Green isn't going to be able to help you now. But if you rely on the Lord and pray your mind out and read the scriptures prayerfully D&C 84:88 will happen.
Mom, how is Young Women's and work coming along? I've got an idea for an activity; Bake cookies and write letters and send them to the missionaries night! Just kidding. Kind of. :)
Last night Elder Kemp and I taught a guy in the TRC who was role-playing as a person who lost his faith in God. It was rough and I got frustrated, cuz I felt like we had 35 minutes to pound out one principle; "God is our Heavenly Father and He Loves Us" and one commitment; PRAY! I got frustrated with myself cuz my Spanish kind of blanked out last night, but I'm fine now. Esta todo bien!
2 weeks left. I'll hang in there. Hey am I supposed to pack toothpaste and stuff like that when I fly away or will the security attack me? I understand the airport's supposed to be weird about stuff like that, but I may just be making up stuff cuz I've never really been on a plane. Stuff that happened when I was 2 doesn't count cuz I can't remember it and back then the airports weren't super uptight. I'll update you when I get my flight plans so you can know when to expect my phone call. I'm pretty sure I get to call you at the airport. That's what everyone has told me.
How's Rosie? Oh how I miss my dog. And dogs in general. And any animal besides small birds and mice... but we won't go into the details there.
Hey Dad what part of Canada did you serve in? Alberta? Cuz we have all sorts of Canadians in our zone from the west-ish part of Canada, and I'm not really sure where Alberta is anyway, but I wasn't sure if I was recalling your mission correctly. Calgary? Your mission was huge anyways so it might be all of the above... idunno. Tell me some more of your cool mission stories! I dig those. Especially the ones involving bears.
Well, I love you so much Mom and Dad. I'm going to be alright with everything. I feel so excited about what is ahead. I pray for you every night and I love hearing from you.
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
P.S. - Here is the reimbursement form for a shot I got a couple weeks ago. I've just got to get one more next April or May.
The Richard G. Scott devotional was such an incredible experience. Here is and excerpt from my journal Sunday night: "[Richard G. Scott] said "we all will have adversity, it is a part of life... we need it for growth and the forging of our righteous character" and that "the Lord protects a determined individual from Satan." He told us not to have fear. The most powerful part of his talk, to me was when he shared his testimony. He told us "if you're testimony isn't strong enough, lean on mine until it is." Here is a part of his testimony: "As an apostle of Jesus Christ, HE LIVES...He guides the church PERSONALLY." The Holy Ghost coming from Elder Scott electrified me...I had a reaffirmation of testimony. I know this church is true and I'm so thankful for the humble testimony of Elder Scott."
In addition to that he was hilarious. He had missionaries go up to microphones and answer questions he would ask. One guy gave a beat-around-the-bush answer to one of Elder Scott's questions, to which Elder Scott replied "you sound like a politician!" And before his talk President Boone read aloud Elder Scott's background information, and Elder Scott shouted "this is not a funeral!" So yeah, that was an incredible devotional.
Hey I need some addresses. I need addresses for Brandon Cox, Rachel Povey, Taeler Herr and Hannah Fitch. I know you can give me Brandons but all of the rest are at school so the only possible way to get hooked up with those is for them to write me... work some blog magic or something. idunno. I'm letter deprived today. It happens. But guess what?! Jon the Rose works in the cafeteria! I've seen him twice now.
Dad, I understand you're struggle with your calling. I've been overwhelmed a couple or so times here too. You've just gotta "Lift Where You Stand" as Elder Uchtdorf advised. That's the pits Brother Green isn't going to be able to help you now. But if you rely on the Lord and pray your mind out and read the scriptures prayerfully D&C 84:88 will happen.
Mom, how is Young Women's and work coming along? I've got an idea for an activity; Bake cookies and write letters and send them to the missionaries night! Just kidding. Kind of. :)
Last night Elder Kemp and I taught a guy in the TRC who was role-playing as a person who lost his faith in God. It was rough and I got frustrated, cuz I felt like we had 35 minutes to pound out one principle; "God is our Heavenly Father and He Loves Us" and one commitment; PRAY! I got frustrated with myself cuz my Spanish kind of blanked out last night, but I'm fine now. Esta todo bien!
2 weeks left. I'll hang in there. Hey am I supposed to pack toothpaste and stuff like that when I fly away or will the security attack me? I understand the airport's supposed to be weird about stuff like that, but I may just be making up stuff cuz I've never really been on a plane. Stuff that happened when I was 2 doesn't count cuz I can't remember it and back then the airports weren't super uptight. I'll update you when I get my flight plans so you can know when to expect my phone call. I'm pretty sure I get to call you at the airport. That's what everyone has told me.
How's Rosie? Oh how I miss my dog. And dogs in general. And any animal besides small birds and mice... but we won't go into the details there.
Hey Dad what part of Canada did you serve in? Alberta? Cuz we have all sorts of Canadians in our zone from the west-ish part of Canada, and I'm not really sure where Alberta is anyway, but I wasn't sure if I was recalling your mission correctly. Calgary? Your mission was huge anyways so it might be all of the above... idunno. Tell me some more of your cool mission stories! I dig those. Especially the ones involving bears.
Well, I love you so much Mom and Dad. I'm going to be alright with everything. I feel so excited about what is ahead. I pray for you every night and I love hearing from you.
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
P.S. - Here is the reimbursement form for a shot I got a couple weeks ago. I've just got to get one more next April or May.
October 17, 2008 Letter to Hannah
Dear Hannah,
This Sunday one of the apostles came and spoke at the devotional. His name is Richard G. Scott. I got to shake his hand! His talk was amazing. I really felt the Holy Ghost when he bore his testimony.
I've definitely gained weight now. I weigh over 130 lbs, which really isn't a lot but it puts a little pudge in my tummy.
2 more weeks and I'll be in California!!! I've heard that lots of missionaries who go to places like Long Beach become friends with some of the gangsters. That's a good thing because the gangsters tell the missionaries where and when they shouldn't go somewhere. Most gangsters and Mexican people respect people who represent Jesus Christ, so I'll be OK.
I can't believe I've been in the MTC for a month and a half now! I'm going slightly nuts. The place just keeps getting smaller and smaller. But I'll survive! I'm almost a real missionary! Almost!
So how's life? How's my dog friend? How's School? What have you been doing? How's the 5th grade? Wow, by the time I'm back you will be in JUNIOR HIGH!! You will probably be taller than me by then too!
Hannah, I want you to know that this church is true. Joseph Smith was an actual prophet of our Heavenly Father. The Book of Mormon is true and because of it I have a testimony that Jesus Christ is our Savior and he loves us. I am so thankful for what the Savior did for us. The Atonement is the most amazing thing that's ever happened.
Hannah I absolutely love you and I pray for you and Mom and Dad every night.
This Church is true!!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
P.S. - Tell everybody to write me letters!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
October 16th, 2008 (Email)
Hey!
I've received letters from Garrett & fam, Dara Walker, Jackie, Launa and Brittany, several Dear Elders from Elder McBride, and Stake newsletter stuff, so those are the addresses I have.
I've taken all those pills and I'm still using the face stuff. I'm not alone in my war against acne. Everyone fights it in their own way here.
So I don't think the chat scheme via email will work here. I think that the Man watches that pretty closely. They're deadset on me not having contact with you all for 2 years. Oh yeah guess what!?!? When I go to the airport I get to call you! So stick around November 3rd so we can chat for a little bit.
This week's Devotional was AMAZING. Elder Richard G. Scott spoke for an entire hour and it was definitely one of the most amazing talks I've ever heard. And in addition to his amazing talk he shook the hands of over a thousand missionaries, including your's truly! It was a unique experience, shaking the hand of an apostle of God.
Wow I almost forgot about Bob Dylan's new album! Coolbeans! Jealous? Yeah. But hey I've got 2 years worth of hymns to listen to so take that! And John Schmidt and all sorts of cheesy Mormon pop and FM 100 Sunday Morning blah! Rock on!
The temple was refreshing as ever this morning. And the biscuits and gravy was divine.
So Rachel Povey's cousin, Elder Povey.... is in my zone now. He's pretty cool. He could probably crush me with his pinky toe. He's a farm-boy. And the fourth, I repeat the FOURTH Elder Lewis arrived in our zone yesterday.
Weight update: I have broken 130. Probably because I've been lazy with my running this week and I've given in the temptations of 4-Square. But it's all good!
The Spanish is getting better. I'm trying to figure out what "subjunctives" really are and how to remember to use them when actually talking. This week has been a week of almost constantly speaking in Spanish. It's been a week-long "English Fast."
There's at least 3 Canadians in our zone now. I dig Canadians. They all have this laid back attitude about everything and they watch Canadian Idol and Family Ties and the Canadian version of The Office. And I've caught them saying "eh" at least twice now. "Eh" always makes my day.
Yesterday Elder Kemp and I taught this teacher named Hermana (sister) Keller and it was amazing. We taught her the second half of the first lesson and it went well cuz the Spirit was there and we asked lots of questions and she was really responsive and gave us great feedback. She served in whatever part of L.A. is the scary part. East? I dunno, but she said "You're serving in Long Beach? That place is crazy!" She said we'll love it and described Compton to us. She said most of the parts will be like Little Mexico. I'm really excited to go now, but I definitely need to be careful when I'm there. 5'8'' in Compton. Good thing I've got God on my side.
Peace and I LOVE YOU!!!
Love, Tyler
I've received letters from Garrett & fam, Dara Walker, Jackie, Launa and Brittany, several Dear Elders from Elder McBride, and Stake newsletter stuff, so those are the addresses I have.
I've taken all those pills and I'm still using the face stuff. I'm not alone in my war against acne. Everyone fights it in their own way here.
So I don't think the chat scheme via email will work here. I think that the Man watches that pretty closely. They're deadset on me not having contact with you all for 2 years. Oh yeah guess what!?!? When I go to the airport I get to call you! So stick around November 3rd so we can chat for a little bit.
This week's Devotional was AMAZING. Elder Richard G. Scott spoke for an entire hour and it was definitely one of the most amazing talks I've ever heard. And in addition to his amazing talk he shook the hands of over a thousand missionaries, including your's truly! It was a unique experience, shaking the hand of an apostle of God.
Wow I almost forgot about Bob Dylan's new album! Coolbeans! Jealous? Yeah. But hey I've got 2 years worth of hymns to listen to so take that! And John Schmidt and all sorts of cheesy Mormon pop and FM 100 Sunday Morning blah! Rock on!
The temple was refreshing as ever this morning. And the biscuits and gravy was divine.
So Rachel Povey's cousin, Elder Povey.... is in my zone now. He's pretty cool. He could probably crush me with his pinky toe. He's a farm-boy. And the fourth, I repeat the FOURTH Elder Lewis arrived in our zone yesterday.
Weight update: I have broken 130. Probably because I've been lazy with my running this week and I've given in the temptations of 4-Square. But it's all good!
The Spanish is getting better. I'm trying to figure out what "subjunctives" really are and how to remember to use them when actually talking. This week has been a week of almost constantly speaking in Spanish. It's been a week-long "English Fast."
There's at least 3 Canadians in our zone now. I dig Canadians. They all have this laid back attitude about everything and they watch Canadian Idol and Family Ties and the Canadian version of The Office. And I've caught them saying "eh" at least twice now. "Eh" always makes my day.
Yesterday Elder Kemp and I taught this teacher named Hermana (sister) Keller and it was amazing. We taught her the second half of the first lesson and it went well cuz the Spirit was there and we asked lots of questions and she was really responsive and gave us great feedback. She served in whatever part of L.A. is the scary part. East? I dunno, but she said "You're serving in Long Beach? That place is crazy!" She said we'll love it and described Compton to us. She said most of the parts will be like Little Mexico. I'm really excited to go now, but I definitely need to be careful when I'm there. 5'8'' in Compton. Good thing I've got God on my side.
Peace and I LOVE YOU!!!
Love, Tyler
October 9th, 2008 Letter
Mom & Dad
Hey how's it going? Como estan?
I can officially roll my R's (not arse) now! Este es fantastico!
So General Conference was amazing, I loved Elder Hollands talk about angels, Pres. Monson's talk about finding joy in the journey NOW and Pres. Uchtdorf's talk about hope. It was a very optimistic G.C. I'm glad I don't have to put up with the political nonsense that's inevitably happening out there. I'm every excited to NOT vote! You can send me an absentee ballot if you want, but you know I'll just write in Bono or the Cookie Monster or someone I can relate with.
The Priesthood Session experience was incredible. I'll remember that for the rest of mi vida. I emailed you a description of how I ended up in that choir. I'm so thankful for Elder Tate's charity.
Thst's muy interesante that padre's supposed to home-teach with Dave. I don't see how this will work out. Tiene fe (have faith) I guess. Muy interesante.
Hey Mom guess what?! I run during gym. I dig running. And four square. I run on the elliptical machines most of the time cuz they tell me how far I run. I ran 2 miles once!
Hey thanks bunches for the donuts! Elder Memmott (went to school with me, was in Rhapsody, went to Davis, is now in my zone) was very excited cuz he used to work at Tasty's. I gave him and several others a donut. I made sure to kife the double blueberry. My teacher Hermano Pack kifed the other one.
Hermano Pack told me last night that my Spanish has come a long way. The Gift of Tongues is real. Es verdadero. Es muy importante tener el Espiritu Santo en el C. C. M. (It's very important to have the Holy Ghost in the MTC.)
Guess what? Yesterday in the RC I called a guy, lets say his first name is Juan, and here's what happened:
Me: Hi may I speak to Juan Hernandez?
Guy: Juan Hernandez is dead!
Me: um.....serious?
Guy: Yes Juan Hernandez died in June.
Me: Oh... well... uh... sorry... have a good day!
Yeah that was the most awkward phone call I've ever had. But I sent the missionaries to 2 people so esta todo bien!
My talk/lesson....yeah, my lesson on humility went pretty well last week. I used your favorite scripture Mom! Hermana Grahn told me she was thankful for my lesson and she told me she needed to hear it.
I'm very excited for my '09 version bike! I hope it didn't cost anymore than the '08 one. Everyone her just about died when I said my bike was $300 cuz each of them spent like $700 for their bikes. Sweetaction deal for us, eh?!
Well I hope every thing's going well for vosotros - [Spanish y'all ... sort of]. I hope you know how amazing this gospel is. I know you do. The gospel is hardcore amazing.
I know that Jesus Christ is our Redeemer and I know Joseph Smith was the prophet of this final Dispensation.
I LOVE YOU!
Love
Tyler
P.S. Hey so this Elder Lewis in my zone [now there's 3 of us...] well, he found a pocket-sized little BoM triple combo that's leather bound! I've always wanted one of those and he said they've started making them again. If you find one at the Distribution Center or Deseret Book or something and it isn't too expensive can you hook me up? I don't need a small bible, but a small BoM triple-combo'd & leather bound would be all sorts of awesome!
Hey how's it going? Como estan?
I can officially roll my R's (not arse) now! Este es fantastico!
So General Conference was amazing, I loved Elder Hollands talk about angels, Pres. Monson's talk about finding joy in the journey NOW and Pres. Uchtdorf's talk about hope. It was a very optimistic G.C. I'm glad I don't have to put up with the political nonsense that's inevitably happening out there. I'm every excited to NOT vote! You can send me an absentee ballot if you want, but you know I'll just write in Bono or the Cookie Monster or someone I can relate with.
The Priesthood Session experience was incredible. I'll remember that for the rest of mi vida. I emailed you a description of how I ended up in that choir. I'm so thankful for Elder Tate's charity.
Thst's muy interesante that padre's supposed to home-teach with Dave. I don't see how this will work out. Tiene fe (have faith) I guess. Muy interesante.
Hey Mom guess what?! I run during gym. I dig running. And four square. I run on the elliptical machines most of the time cuz they tell me how far I run. I ran 2 miles once!
Hey thanks bunches for the donuts! Elder Memmott (went to school with me, was in Rhapsody, went to Davis, is now in my zone) was very excited cuz he used to work at Tasty's. I gave him and several others a donut. I made sure to kife the double blueberry. My teacher Hermano Pack kifed the other one.
Hermano Pack told me last night that my Spanish has come a long way. The Gift of Tongues is real. Es verdadero. Es muy importante tener el Espiritu Santo en el C. C. M. (It's very important to have the Holy Ghost in the MTC.)
Guess what? Yesterday in the RC I called a guy, lets say his first name is Juan, and here's what happened:
Me: Hi may I speak to Juan Hernandez?
Guy: Juan Hernandez is dead!
Me: um.....serious?
Guy: Yes Juan Hernandez died in June.
Me: Oh... well... uh... sorry... have a good day!
Yeah that was the most awkward phone call I've ever had. But I sent the missionaries to 2 people so esta todo bien!
My talk/lesson....yeah, my lesson on humility went pretty well last week. I used your favorite scripture Mom! Hermana Grahn told me she was thankful for my lesson and she told me she needed to hear it.
I'm very excited for my '09 version bike! I hope it didn't cost anymore than the '08 one. Everyone her just about died when I said my bike was $300 cuz each of them spent like $700 for their bikes. Sweetaction deal for us, eh?!
Well I hope every thing's going well for vosotros - [Spanish y'all ... sort of]. I hope you know how amazing this gospel is. I know you do. The gospel is hardcore amazing.
I know that Jesus Christ is our Redeemer and I know Joseph Smith was the prophet of this final Dispensation.
I LOVE YOU!
Love
Tyler
P.S. Hey so this Elder Lewis in my zone [now there's 3 of us...] well, he found a pocket-sized little BoM triple combo that's leather bound! I've always wanted one of those and he said they've started making them again. If you find one at the Distribution Center or Deseret Book or something and it isn't too expensive can you hook me up? I don't need a small bible, but a small BoM triple-combo'd & leather bound would be all sorts of awesome!
October 9th, Letter to Hannah
Hannah!
thanks for the funny pictured! I showed them to some of the sisters in my district and they laughed. We have 5 sisters in our district now cuz a new one named Hermana Biggs was added last week. We have ALL the sisters in our zone in our district!
A zone is a large group of missionaries. It is made up of several districts.
A district has about 10 missionaries. There are 5 districts in my zone.
Well its too bad you couldn't see me sing for the Priesthood meeting of General Conference. I was on camera for about 3 whole seconds! It was so cool to be next to that HUGE organ!
Entonces, como esta? Como esta su perro? Yo estoy muy triste por que no peudo jugar con mi perro favorito. Pero esta toto bien.
So how are you? How is your dog? I am very sad because I cant play with my favorite dog. But its all good.
Yo se la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Himos dias es verdedero y jose Smith fur un de Dios. Yo estay muy animado estar un misionero.
I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true and Joseph Smith was a prophet of god. I am very excited to be a missionary.
Well, I LOVE you hermanita!
Love
Tyler
thanks for the funny pictured! I showed them to some of the sisters in my district and they laughed. We have 5 sisters in our district now cuz a new one named Hermana Biggs was added last week. We have ALL the sisters in our zone in our district!
A zone is a large group of missionaries. It is made up of several districts.
A district has about 10 missionaries. There are 5 districts in my zone.
Well its too bad you couldn't see me sing for the Priesthood meeting of General Conference. I was on camera for about 3 whole seconds! It was so cool to be next to that HUGE organ!
Entonces, como esta? Como esta su perro? Yo estoy muy triste por que no peudo jugar con mi perro favorito. Pero esta toto bien.
So how are you? How is your dog? I am very sad because I cant play with my favorite dog. But its all good.
Yo se la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Himos dias es verdedero y jose Smith fur un de Dios. Yo estay muy animado estar un misionero.
I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true and Joseph Smith was a prophet of god. I am very excited to be a missionary.
Well, I LOVE you hermanita!
Love
Tyler
Thursday, October 9, 2008
October 9th, 2008 (Email)
Hey! Priesthood session was an AMAZING experience. Here's how I managed to get into that choir: Elder Tate, who is now a zone leader along with Elder Jensen, already got to be in the choir for priesthood in April and he wanted to give someone else the opportunity. So one day he walked into class and asked "who wants to be in the choir?" and I jumped on the chance. Since there's so many Elders in the priesthood choir Bro. Brenchley (the choir director) probably didn't remember who I was when Elder Tate and I approached him with the unusual request to have me replace someone in the choir. He asked why Elder Tate was doing this and then he said something I found odd yet foreshadowing: "sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven, correct?" to which we agreed. So of course it turned out later that Bro. Brenchley decided to allow both of us to be in the choir. I definitely had enough experience to be in that choir. It turned out that they chose randomly so there were definitely several very tone-deaf Elders in that choir, but overall I think we sounded great. I TOUCHED THE ORGAN! Not the pipes cuz I was at the very front, but the actual legit organ. And I made eye contact with Elder Holland! It was very strange to watch conference from behind. I tried to find Dad and Grandpa amongst the mass of white shirts and ties and suits but it was impossible. It was like Where's Waldo? Extreme Edition. Well that was a once-in-a-lifetime-gig and I am VERY grateful that Elder Tate gave me the opportunity to experience that. We got to watch the tape of it on Tuesday. Yeah I had a pretty close-up face shot! I knew it would happen cuz the camera was RIGHT IN MY FACE and it made me very self-conscious and nervous. Some people didn't even spot themselves so I feel lucky that I got to have some spotlight. Hey Mom if you want to see it the DVD of Conference should hit distribution centers in a few months. Elder Tate told me it costs like four dollars.
Anyhow GUESS WHAT? I have received the gift of rolling my tongue! It truly is a miracle. My tongue-rolling skills still pale in comparison to others' but I am grateful for what I have. Elder Kemp and I taught lesson 1 en espanol to four little latina girls and an R.M. hermana last night. That was a great experience! I can truly testify that the gift of tongues is real. We've only been here for a month and a week and we can already do so much!
This morning I finally had another chance to go to the temple. I haven't gone for three weeks cuz I had to sacrifice a couple sessions for the choir. I had celestial biscuits and gravy at the temple after the session. It was so amazing. I've also had their celestial waffles and celestial omelettes. So beats the food at the MTC. The MTC food is still doing terrible things to me but I'm coping fine. I don't think I need those pill things cuz I discovered a different and highly effective...medicine...the MTC offers for free: Granola and Life cereal! It's magic! I've gained some weight I think. I'm not sure though cuz I fluctuate so much. Sometimes I'm 127, sometimes I'm 128, sometimes I'm 129... Gym's always after either lunch or dinner so that plus my shoes makes every weight completely inaccurate I'm sure. But still I think something's must've happened.
My district just got flooded with leadership positions. Elders Tate and Jensen are zone leaders, Hermana Choi's the leader of the hermanas(I don't know what that calling's called), and Elder Kemp's our new district leader. I'm senior companion now but that doesn't mean much cuz I've been here just as long as everyone else. It pretty much just means I'm more responsible for planning and making sure Elder Kemp and I are using all our time effectively.
Question: Do I need to have my call letter with me? Everyone else has their's but I don't know what we'd need it for. Do you think you could make a copy of my call and send that to me along with my line of authority? I'm not sure if I have that or not either. Do you remember if I took that with me? If I did I forgot where I put it. I don't have much time to look through my stuff in the room.
Well I'm still doing fine. I'm very very excited to get out of here though. Two months is a long time to be stuck in somewhere so small. It was great to go back to SLC Saturday night. A whole afternoon and evening out of Provo! Hooray! I hope everything's going well with work and school. I LOVE YOU!
Love, Tyler (Elder Lewis)
Anyhow GUESS WHAT? I have received the gift of rolling my tongue! It truly is a miracle. My tongue-rolling skills still pale in comparison to others' but I am grateful for what I have. Elder Kemp and I taught lesson 1 en espanol to four little latina girls and an R.M. hermana last night. That was a great experience! I can truly testify that the gift of tongues is real. We've only been here for a month and a week and we can already do so much!
This morning I finally had another chance to go to the temple. I haven't gone for three weeks cuz I had to sacrifice a couple sessions for the choir. I had celestial biscuits and gravy at the temple after the session. It was so amazing. I've also had their celestial waffles and celestial omelettes. So beats the food at the MTC. The MTC food is still doing terrible things to me but I'm coping fine. I don't think I need those pill things cuz I discovered a different and highly effective...medicine...the MTC offers for free: Granola and Life cereal! It's magic! I've gained some weight I think. I'm not sure though cuz I fluctuate so much. Sometimes I'm 127, sometimes I'm 128, sometimes I'm 129... Gym's always after either lunch or dinner so that plus my shoes makes every weight completely inaccurate I'm sure. But still I think something's must've happened.
My district just got flooded with leadership positions. Elders Tate and Jensen are zone leaders, Hermana Choi's the leader of the hermanas(I don't know what that calling's called), and Elder Kemp's our new district leader. I'm senior companion now but that doesn't mean much cuz I've been here just as long as everyone else. It pretty much just means I'm more responsible for planning and making sure Elder Kemp and I are using all our time effectively.
Question: Do I need to have my call letter with me? Everyone else has their's but I don't know what we'd need it for. Do you think you could make a copy of my call and send that to me along with my line of authority? I'm not sure if I have that or not either. Do you remember if I took that with me? If I did I forgot where I put it. I don't have much time to look through my stuff in the room.
Well I'm still doing fine. I'm very very excited to get out of here though. Two months is a long time to be stuck in somewhere so small. It was great to go back to SLC Saturday night. A whole afternoon and evening out of Provo! Hooray! I hope everything's going well with work and school. I LOVE YOU!
Love, Tyler (Elder Lewis)
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
October 2nd, 2008 Letter
Mom & Dad
Things are going great here at the MTC. Elder Kemp and I are getting along well. We have a unity when we teach and we always feel positive when we use our study time wisely.
There was a fireside on Sunday where this man named Bro. Allen spoke about not doing stupid stuff on your missions. He used examples of things missionaries decided to do the week before: "hey! let's make bombs!", "hey! lets drive 130 km/hr!", " hey! wait over there Elder while I go... do naughty things I don't really want to talk about!" Yeah, apparently Elders make some really dumb moves sometimes. It was an awesome Fireside. Bro. Allen was all hellfire & damnation Isaiah-style. He called out an Elder & a Sister in the audience, pointed at them and condemned them for flirting! So entertaining!
Hey thanks for the package! That was hilarious. I gave Elders Darbro, Clark & Kemp a cup of Flarp each. soon enough the room sounded... well, not much different. Don't be deceived, they all turned into 10-year-olds in a blink of an eye. But the percentage of fart-noises probably only increased by a decimal point. The candy was a hit too. There's probably only a quarter of it left. And of course the cookies are gone. Meanwhile I weight the same. thanks for my retainer/Skousen talk/pictures/ hilarious enveloped television news as well! Much appreciated. I was amused by the letters from my cousins as well. I don't think they comprehend what I'm doing.
At the moment I am drinking a pina-colada flavored Sobe cuz coconut's a natural laxative and I have high hopes it will help me with some personal dilemmas.
I've got to teach my district a lesson about Humility today. I'm going to use the example of the conversion of Saul. It'll be fun.
I only have about 36 pictures on my camera so far. It'll be a little while 'til I send you that SD card. No time, y'know?
I've sent missionaries to several people across the country via the R.C. I thoroughly enjoy the diverse people I get to talk to. Especially the ones from the South. Elder Kemp talked to a guy for 45 minutes! I'm pretty sure that's a record. He taught some Indian man the 1st lesson.
Oh how I miss working in the yard. some people mowed the lawns here this morning and it smelled amazing.
So I had 10 spare minutes when I emailed today, so I take it back; email all you want! I've go time plus Elder Jensen discovered a printer in one of the rooms.
Still working hard. Still doing good.
I Love You!
Love,
Tyler
Things are going great here at the MTC. Elder Kemp and I are getting along well. We have a unity when we teach and we always feel positive when we use our study time wisely.
There was a fireside on Sunday where this man named Bro. Allen spoke about not doing stupid stuff on your missions. He used examples of things missionaries decided to do the week before: "hey! let's make bombs!", "hey! lets drive 130 km/hr!", " hey! wait over there Elder while I go... do naughty things I don't really want to talk about!" Yeah, apparently Elders make some really dumb moves sometimes. It was an awesome Fireside. Bro. Allen was all hellfire & damnation Isaiah-style. He called out an Elder & a Sister in the audience, pointed at them and condemned them for flirting! So entertaining!
Hey thanks for the package! That was hilarious. I gave Elders Darbro, Clark & Kemp a cup of Flarp each. soon enough the room sounded... well, not much different. Don't be deceived, they all turned into 10-year-olds in a blink of an eye. But the percentage of fart-noises probably only increased by a decimal point. The candy was a hit too. There's probably only a quarter of it left. And of course the cookies are gone. Meanwhile I weight the same. thanks for my retainer/Skousen talk/pictures/ hilarious enveloped television news as well! Much appreciated. I was amused by the letters from my cousins as well. I don't think they comprehend what I'm doing.
At the moment I am drinking a pina-colada flavored Sobe cuz coconut's a natural laxative and I have high hopes it will help me with some personal dilemmas.
I've got to teach my district a lesson about Humility today. I'm going to use the example of the conversion of Saul. It'll be fun.
I only have about 36 pictures on my camera so far. It'll be a little while 'til I send you that SD card. No time, y'know?
I've sent missionaries to several people across the country via the R.C. I thoroughly enjoy the diverse people I get to talk to. Especially the ones from the South. Elder Kemp talked to a guy for 45 minutes! I'm pretty sure that's a record. He taught some Indian man the 1st lesson.
Oh how I miss working in the yard. some people mowed the lawns here this morning and it smelled amazing.
So I had 10 spare minutes when I emailed today, so I take it back; email all you want! I've go time plus Elder Jensen discovered a printer in one of the rooms.
Still working hard. Still doing good.
I Love You!
Love,
Tyler
October 2, 2008 Letter to Hannah
Hannah!
Hola hermanita! I heard you've learned how to sing "I Am A Child Of God" en espanol! That's so cool! I have to sing at least 2 Spanish Hymns a day. It's fun! I have a little green Spanish hymn book.
Mom told me Rosie's still being a stinker. I hope she goes back to normal soon. She can't be bad/sad for 2 years!
The MTC's really cool. Remember the huge mountains? I love seeing those every day. One of them looks like Pride Rock off of the Lion King.
So it's true. The food constipates you. I haven't drank any orange juice yet, but all the other food still does strange things to my body. I still weigh the same though. I exercise a lot. I mostly run, but sometimes I play basketball, volleyball and baseball.
There is this Hermana (sister Missionary) in my district named Hermana Choi and she speaks FOUR languages: Korean (she's from Korea), Mandarin (which is a Chinese language), English and Spanish. Isn't that amazing?
Well I'm still doing the same stuff: studying the gospel, practicing teaching the gospel, and learning how to teach the gospel en espanol.
I LOVE YOU!
Love
Tyler
Hola hermanita! I heard you've learned how to sing "I Am A Child Of God" en espanol! That's so cool! I have to sing at least 2 Spanish Hymns a day. It's fun! I have a little green Spanish hymn book.
Mom told me Rosie's still being a stinker. I hope she goes back to normal soon. She can't be bad/sad for 2 years!
The MTC's really cool. Remember the huge mountains? I love seeing those every day. One of them looks like Pride Rock off of the Lion King.
So it's true. The food constipates you. I haven't drank any orange juice yet, but all the other food still does strange things to my body. I still weigh the same though. I exercise a lot. I mostly run, but sometimes I play basketball, volleyball and baseball.
There is this Hermana (sister Missionary) in my district named Hermana Choi and she speaks FOUR languages: Korean (she's from Korea), Mandarin (which is a Chinese language), English and Spanish. Isn't that amazing?
Well I'm still doing the same stuff: studying the gospel, practicing teaching the gospel, and learning how to teach the gospel en espanol.
I LOVE YOU!
Love
Tyler
Thursday, October 2, 2008
October 2, 2008 (Email)
Hey!
Mom & Dad, Thanks for the amazing package! That made my day! The cookies were fantastic! I let one of my teachers, Hermano Pack, borrow "The Meaning of the Atonement" cuz I knew it would probably blow his mind just about as much as it blew mine. And the little updates about The Office and CSI were hilarious! I thought they'd be letters or something so I waited til the end of the day to open them. I showed them to a bunch of the Elders in my zone. Some of them celebrated, some of them scolded me for dropping the news, and some of them looked at me blankly and asked "are Jim and Pam an aunt and uncle or something?" Oh sheltered souls.
Well things are going great with Elder Kemp! We have this unity about us now when we study and when we teach. We've come a long way. We're "tight like unto a dish" now (Ether 2:17). We have the positude. I can't believe I've been here for a month now. It's crazy!! I feel like it's been an eternity yet at the same time I feel like I just got here yesterday. I'm way excited to sing at the Priesthood Session on Saturday. It'll be great to get out of Provo for an entire afternoon and evening. It's going to be weird sitting there knowing that Dad and Grandpa Lewis are in the same building looking at me. It'll be a unique and amazing experience I'm sure. The choir teacher's awesome. His name's Doug Brenchley and he's practically famous. He's been conducting for a couple of decades here I think.
Well my Spanish has definitely improved. I can almost teach the first lesson en espanol now. Last night Elder Kemp and I taught Lesson 2 in English at the TRC and we did pretty good I think. It was probably our smoothest TRC session thus far.
Yeah I'm eating more than salad I promise. This morning for example I had french toast and hard boiled eggs. One day we had stew in a bread bowl. That was awesome.
Well I've gotta wrap this up cuz we're way restriced on time for email but just know that I love you and the church is true!
Love, Tyler
Mom & Dad, Thanks for the amazing package! That made my day! The cookies were fantastic! I let one of my teachers, Hermano Pack, borrow "The Meaning of the Atonement" cuz I knew it would probably blow his mind just about as much as it blew mine. And the little updates about The Office and CSI were hilarious! I thought they'd be letters or something so I waited til the end of the day to open them. I showed them to a bunch of the Elders in my zone. Some of them celebrated, some of them scolded me for dropping the news, and some of them looked at me blankly and asked "are Jim and Pam an aunt and uncle or something?" Oh sheltered souls.
Well things are going great with Elder Kemp! We have this unity about us now when we study and when we teach. We've come a long way. We're "tight like unto a dish" now (Ether 2:17). We have the positude. I can't believe I've been here for a month now. It's crazy!! I feel like it's been an eternity yet at the same time I feel like I just got here yesterday. I'm way excited to sing at the Priesthood Session on Saturday. It'll be great to get out of Provo for an entire afternoon and evening. It's going to be weird sitting there knowing that Dad and Grandpa Lewis are in the same building looking at me. It'll be a unique and amazing experience I'm sure. The choir teacher's awesome. His name's Doug Brenchley and he's practically famous. He's been conducting for a couple of decades here I think.
Well my Spanish has definitely improved. I can almost teach the first lesson en espanol now. Last night Elder Kemp and I taught Lesson 2 in English at the TRC and we did pretty good I think. It was probably our smoothest TRC session thus far.
Yeah I'm eating more than salad I promise. This morning for example I had french toast and hard boiled eggs. One day we had stew in a bread bowl. That was awesome.
Well I've gotta wrap this up cuz we're way restriced on time for email but just know that I love you and the church is true!
Love, Tyler
