April 21, 2009 (Email)

A lot just happened.
I am now serving in Cerritos with Elder Anderson. I'm in some really nice library right next to my new church, sitting next to Elder Rodriguez. Yep! Elder Rodriguez is one of my Zone Leaders. My new area includes two of the most ghetto areas in the mission. There's Hawaiian Gardens, which in degrees of Ghettotude is 2nd only to Compton, and then there's "the One-Ways," which I don't know a whole lo about but apparently it's pretty fun too. I'm really really excited to be serving here now! My District Leader in Buena Park, Elder Thompson, just got transferred to Compton today. Compton is his Greenie Area, and now he gets to be a Zone Leader there. He was way excited.
I was pretty sad actually when I found out Saturday night that I was moving. But I'm all better now. Michael Carbajal didn't get baptized on Sunday because "something came up" or something like that. So his new goal is next Sunday. But he didn't come to church this Sunday so... we'll see if that happens. I hope so. I'll miss serving with Elder Bliss. I'll miss living in the calle cuatro apartment with Elder Salmon and Elder Huffaker. They're all really great Elders and we had a lot of fun. But I'm stoked about serving with Elder Anderson here in da hood. I can already tell he's a great Elder. He seems like a hard worker. We live with a member named Sister Chun in a really nice area. I'm going to be spoiled for the next few months it looks like. Sis Chun lives alone and it looks like she pretty much takes care of us. She gets some of our groceries, there's a washer and dryer in the house... Yeah, I can't complain. I'm really excited for this transfer.
I don't really know anything about the investigators over here yet... Hey parents I got that package last week! I had to hassle Fed-Ex about it. They were having a hard time getting through the gate so I got the code from the manager and gave it to them. Thanks for everything! I've listened to the CDs and they're great! I especially love Cherie Call. A lot of the songs on the "Not Your Mom's" CDs don't exactly fit the white handbook standard but some of them do so I think I'll sift through them and pick and choose what works. Josh Groban is great. Jenny Phillips is the master of Young Women themesongs and she's great. And thanks for the candy and random stuff and the hilarious card and thanks Hannah for the flower picture. Hey did the Pummells visit you? I hope so. I was pretty excited about that.
The Elders Quorum President, President Knecht, came with us for our appointment with [edited by Jon] and that lesson went well. [edited by Jon] didn't come to church on Sunday, but he called and explained and he still wants to meet with the Elders. I'll pray that Elders Bliss and Caldwell will be able to help him along back to the waters of baptism.
I read something really interesting in the Book of Mormon this morning. 1Nephi Chapter 2 contains a verse that reads: "And my father dwelt in a tent." Okay, first off here's what President Sexton told the Zone Leaders during their conference last week about Jacob. Jacob received a new name (Israel) when he went to a place called Bethel. If you take the word "Bethel" apart you get "Beth" and "el." In Hebrew or Greek, not sure but one or the other, Beth means "house" and el is short for "Elohim." Put them together and it means "House of Elohim" or in other words "House of God." So Jacob recieved the new name Israel in the temple. Now, go back to that verse "And my father dwelt in a tent" in 1Nephi chapter 2 and follow the very first cross-reference, which will take you somewhere in Genesis and you'll see something pretty amazing. Also keep in mind what the Bible Dictionary says about temples- in cases of extreme poverty or emergency (both being the case of Lehi and his family) temple ordinances may be performed on a mountaintop.
Alrighty that's all I've got for you today. I'm anxious to do my best here in Cerritos. I'm serving English speaking again and that's just dandy. Oh, Elder Kemp will be returning next transfer!

Talk to you all soon!

Remember, I love you!

Love,Elder Tyler Lewis