May 26th, 2009 (Email)

Hello again!
Parents, y'know it's good that you're both cutting back on the "liquid candy." Now that I think of it I do feel a lot better now that I hardly ever drink any soda. I brought it up to Sister Chun that I didn't gain any weight until I stopped drinking Coke. But she responded by informing me that my body was reacting as it was trying to cleanse itself of all the bad chemicals. So either way I guess the weight gain can be traced back to Coke. A few days ago the Lesateles gave us dinner and they handed us each a Coke. I drank about a third of mine when I noticed that I was starting to have a stomach ache and I didn't really like what I was drinking anyway. Pretty odd but I guess I'm completely off the stuff now.
A lot happened this last week. Elder Anderson got a phone call from President Sexton last Thursday. He's going to be an Office Elder now. He'll be the Finance Secretary and his desk will be right across from Pres. Sexton's Office, which is hilariously ironic keeping in mind how many times Elder Anderson has complained about or tried to "bend" the rules. So that's right where he needs to be. I've enjoyed being Elder Anderson's companion though. We've had fun and we've worked hard.
Last Friday Elder Anderson went to the Mission Office to start training for his new assignment. His new companion is currently working in the Long Beach East zone, so I got to work there with that Elder's companion named Elder Newby. Long Beach is a pretty nice area. We visited a strange part of town called Leisure World where tons of old retired people go to live. We went to visit less-active members since it's against the rules to proselyte there. It was a strange little place. People drove around in golf carts and there were tons of rabbits running around everywhere nibbling on the grass.
Yesterday we went on splits with the Zone Leaders. Elder Anderson went with Elder Laughlin to the Mission Office (Elder Laughlin's going to be an Office Elder too) so guess where I got to be?-- I spent the day with Elder Rodriguez in his area! It was fun. He works in Spanish so we got to teach a bunch of lessons in Spanish yesterday. My Spanish has improved since my Greenie days with Elder Rodriguez. I understood a lot more and I could say a lot more. We taught the 10 Commandments to a homeless man named Mario who's going to be baptized this Sunday. He was really nice. He's had a rough past and still has a rough time getting by but he has a strong testimony and he's excited to be baptized. He committed to live all ten of the commandments and he also committed to live the Law of Tithing. Yesterday for lunch we ate at a member's home. They fed us Cerviche- which is this really good crunchy tortilla thing with mildly spicy seafood all over it. We had dinner at an investigator's home. Her name was Ana. Before we ate we taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Ana is going to be baptized in about two weeks. After our lesson we ate carne asada and fried platanas (a type of banana.) Ana had a little black chihuahua-like dog named Negrito that wanted everybody to scratch his butt. He'd sit right next to my shoe and would wait. It was pretty hilarious.
Sa' Lesatele was confirmed on Sunday. Her father-in-law did the blessing in Samoan. It was fun standing in a confirmation circle and not having any idea what the speaker was saying.
Hawwaiian Gardens had a huge police-raid last Thursday. Apparently about 1200 police people went through and raided just about every home in the entire city. One out of every fifteen people were arrested- which means at least one out of every fifteen people has ties to the local gang- the VHG. A recent convert named Christina Reyes lives in HG and we haven't had a chance to visit her yet since the raid. She already has two sons in prison so it would be a fair bet to say that she was affected in some way or another. We think she has more family living here and there in HG. So that part of town may be safer now. We'll see.
Hope you have fun at the Taylor Swift concert Mom and Hannah! And have fun mowing lawns Dad! And have fun in St. George everybody!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis