Hey everybody!
Things are starting to get busier now that our teaching pool has sky-rocketed. We found 13 new investigators last week and three people said they'd prepare themselves to be baptized. We received a referral to go visit a guy named Jessie Rodriguez. He called the MTC Referral Center to receive the Finding Faith In Christ DVD so we delivered that to him. He was really excited to meet with us and he absorbed the Restoration lesson pretty well. He said he'd prepare himself to be baptized July 11th. That happened on Thursday.
On Friday we taught a new investigator named Shinelle Bosse. We brought a member with us to that appointment and we taught her about the Restoration too. Her "husband" is a member who was a gangbanger not too long ago. Shinelle said she'd prepare herself to be baptized August 1st. The reason we pushed that date back that long is because she and her "husband" need to get married first. There's also some Word of Wisdom stuff to work out. But we had another lesson with the Bosses yesterday and we brought Bishop Jensen, our Ward Mission Leader with us and they committed to live the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom so who knows? Maybe Shinelle will be prepared earlier than August.
On Saturday we were knocking and we found a new spanish-speaking investigator named Jesus (Spanish name- pronounced "Hey-Seuss") while we were knocking in Hawaiian Gardens and he let us into his house immediately and we tuaght him the Restoration lesson. We invited him to be baptized July 18th and he said he'd prepare himself for that date!
So as you can see Elder Rada and I are seeing a LOT of success here. Yesterday we had 8 appointments scheduled and only 2 of them didn't happen! So a good portion of these investigators we're finding are turning out to be pretty solid. But there's one thing we need to see improvement with- and that has to do with our investigators' chuch attendance. None of them are keeping the Sabbath Day holy! If this keeps up we're going to have to push back their baptismal dates and possibly even drop some of them. You can't be baptized if you don't come to church needless to say.
Since we've been knocking a lot in the One-Ways and Hawwaiian Gardens we've had to face a lot of dogs lately. If they're mean we obviously don't open the gate and waltz onto the property. We're not that dumb. But if they sniff our hands and seem harmless we go on ahead. One dog in particular was surprisingly harmless. He was a big Rotweiller(?) named Tiny. At first I didn't want to take any chances because there was a sign on the garage that warned that he was a gaurd dog but he sniffed our hands and didn't do anything and lazily went back to his corner in the shade. So we went through the gate and knocked on the door. Then Tiny decided he wanted to come see us. He just walked slowly over to us and sniffed us and licked our hands a little. The owner answered the door and was shocked. She asked us "Didn't you see the sign? Didn't you see THE DOG? I'm afraid for you!" She was actually pretty amused that we knocked her door but she wasn't interested in our message so we left at that.
I wrote Elder Jordan Call a letter last P-Day and he wrote me back pretty fast. Sounds like he's having a good time in the MTC. He says there are highs and lows. As is the truth. He's serving spanish speaking in New York. Elder Rada told me that the temple in New York is in a building and there's a coffee shop right below it. The people that go to that temple in the mornings say that it smells like coffee.
That's cool Hannah gets to be on a WCF commercial! And I'm glad you liked my Darth Vader picture. I'm really enjoying the work over here now that we have a lot of people to visit. Hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
June 16th, 2009 (Email)
Hello everybody!
Darn I wish I could see those pictures you e-mailed me. Myldsmail seems to be censoring me from everything that isn't words. So please please make me some prints! Por favor!
This week was a little bit slower than last week and we had some days of trial. It all started when Carlos, our spanish speaking investigitaor with a baptismal date, decided to drop us. We called him to confirm an appointment and he told us he didn't want to meet with us anymore. We went to visit him to see what the problem was and it sounds like he got into an argument with his wife about the Church and he lost. We let him know that we were disappointed and that he was making a bad move. He loved church, he loved what he read and what we taught him-- but when the first wave of opposition came his way he gave up. Pretty sad.
After that disaster we had a few slow days where a bunch of appointments fell through and we spent a lot of time tracting. We did find ten more new investigators last week. Remember though, a "new investigator" is different than a "progressing investigator." A new investigator is a person that we teach, set up with a return appointment, and leave a commitment to. A lot of new investigators tend to not be there for their return appointments, but some of them are.
Things are looking up though. Yesterday alone we found 6 new investigators, and most of them seemed pretty solid. We've been sifting through our "dropped-files," which are the teaching records of old investigators, and we found one in particular that caught our attention. It was a man named Vicor Munez who was going to be baptized 3 years ago and even had his baptismal interview. He had to be interviewed by the mission president at the time and it turned out that he was on probation and needed to wait 3 years until his probation was lifted. Obviously 3 years has passed, so we visited him briefly yesterday and he said he's interested in talking to us again.
Siser Chun took out her old guitar a few days ago and she lets us play it now whenever we find time. I can play at least 2 hymns on the guitar now- "I Believe In Christ" and "If You Could Hie To Kolob." I turned "If You Could Hie To Kolob" into a country-folk song. Elder Rada likes it.
Elder Rada sure can cook. He's teaching me how to cook a bunch of amazing things. He's made egg sandwiches, lintels (?), and this morning he made an AMAZING potato-egg-onion soup. My diet is healthier than ever now. I have tons of fruits and vegetables every day. I drink very little soda and I seem to only drink caffeine either by accident or whenever a member just hands me a coke- which happens very very rarely. It happened yesterday though, and I gulped it down happily.
Sounds like you had fun on your trip! I'm still having fun down here. I love the work and I'm working hard. Happy Father's Day on Sunday Dad!
Love you!
Love,Elder Tyler Lewis
Darn I wish I could see those pictures you e-mailed me. Myldsmail seems to be censoring me from everything that isn't words. So please please make me some prints! Por favor!
This week was a little bit slower than last week and we had some days of trial. It all started when Carlos, our spanish speaking investigitaor with a baptismal date, decided to drop us. We called him to confirm an appointment and he told us he didn't want to meet with us anymore. We went to visit him to see what the problem was and it sounds like he got into an argument with his wife about the Church and he lost. We let him know that we were disappointed and that he was making a bad move. He loved church, he loved what he read and what we taught him-- but when the first wave of opposition came his way he gave up. Pretty sad.
After that disaster we had a few slow days where a bunch of appointments fell through and we spent a lot of time tracting. We did find ten more new investigators last week. Remember though, a "new investigator" is different than a "progressing investigator." A new investigator is a person that we teach, set up with a return appointment, and leave a commitment to. A lot of new investigators tend to not be there for their return appointments, but some of them are.
Things are looking up though. Yesterday alone we found 6 new investigators, and most of them seemed pretty solid. We've been sifting through our "dropped-files," which are the teaching records of old investigators, and we found one in particular that caught our attention. It was a man named Vicor Munez who was going to be baptized 3 years ago and even had his baptismal interview. He had to be interviewed by the mission president at the time and it turned out that he was on probation and needed to wait 3 years until his probation was lifted. Obviously 3 years has passed, so we visited him briefly yesterday and he said he's interested in talking to us again.
Siser Chun took out her old guitar a few days ago and she lets us play it now whenever we find time. I can play at least 2 hymns on the guitar now- "I Believe In Christ" and "If You Could Hie To Kolob." I turned "If You Could Hie To Kolob" into a country-folk song. Elder Rada likes it.
Elder Rada sure can cook. He's teaching me how to cook a bunch of amazing things. He's made egg sandwiches, lintels (?), and this morning he made an AMAZING potato-egg-onion soup. My diet is healthier than ever now. I have tons of fruits and vegetables every day. I drink very little soda and I seem to only drink caffeine either by accident or whenever a member just hands me a coke- which happens very very rarely. It happened yesterday though, and I gulped it down happily.
Sounds like you had fun on your trip! I'm still having fun down here. I love the work and I'm working hard. Happy Father's Day on Sunday Dad!
Love you!
Love,Elder Tyler Lewis
Thursday, June 11, 2009
June 9th, 2009 (Email)
hello!
It's been a really really busy week. Elder Rada is a really hard worker and he's helping me get this area in shape. Hopefully I'll be able to remember all the stuff that happened this week.
First of all, Sister Chun Facebooks a lot. You should add her as a friend. Her name is Chitose Chun. Maybe I'll just have her add you guys. So if you get a friend invite from some Asian lady from Cerritos California named Chi Chun just remember I live with her and she's really cool.
Well we've been doing a lot of work. Last week we found TWELVE new investigators. Not all of them are solid and not all of them were really there for their return appointments, but then again a good portion of them were. The Lord truly blessed us this week. The week before was a little alarming because we didn't find anybody so I prayed a lot and I even fasted a couple of times and then Elder Rada came with his 18 months of missionary experience and we found tons of people.
We had Zone Conference on Friday. This time we had our meeting in the mission home! That was neat. I haven't been there since November 4th 2008. We had a training on how to use our time more wisely. We were instructed to stop visiting people that we don't need to visit. Immediately a name and a face popped into my mind- Bro. Swanson. Hopefully he doesn't get offended. President Sexton told us that there around 3 million people in this mission. Then he asked us "Who's going to teach all those people?" Then he told us "You don't have time to teach ALL of those people. You only have time to teach those that will prepare themselves to be baptized." Last transfer we had 48 baptisms as a mission. For the first time in years we exceeded our goal- which was 47 baptisms. So we're definitely supposed to keep inviting people to be baptized during the first lesson.
Since I got here we've been teaching this less-active family named the Gonzalez family. They have an eight-year-old girl named Samantha and we've been preparing her to be baptized. She was baptized on Saturday by a member of the ward named Bro. Kau. She asked me to confirm her. I'll send you a picture of Samantha after I print it today.
We have a new Spanish investigator named Carlos. In this area we're supposed to find, teach and baptize in English and Spanish so we don't really have limits on who we get to teach (unless they speak a language other than English or Spanish of course.) Anyway, Carlos is so prepared. He's 87 years old and he called the MTC to have missionaries come visit him. We get referrals from the MTC via text message so we received his information and then went to his house to meet him. During our first lesson we invited Carlos to be baptized June 27th and he said he'll prepare himself for that date. He came to Church on Sunday and we spent an hour at that Spanish ward to make sure he was fellowshipped. He loved church.
Yesterday we taught our investigator named Lorraine and we had a member named Sis. Jensen come to the appointment to meet her and invite her to church. Lorraine will be coming to church this Sunday. Last night we taught another new investigator named Fred and we brought a member named Logan Ruru to the appointment to meet Fred. We invited Fred to prepare himself to be baptized July 11th and he accepted. As you can see we're working on bringing more members with us to lessons. During Ward Council on Sunday we gave out assignments to the presidents of each auxilary to find people to come to the appointments we specified to them. Elder Rada says that teaching lessons with members present is the secret to having a lot of people choose to be baptized. This new companion is teaching me a lot of useful stuff.
Hey thanks for the package! Thanks for the Ensigns and the Gospel Art Book. That'll be handy. Elder Rodriguez actually went and bought a copy of that right before my package arrived. Hannah that notebook of drawings is awesome! Thanks! It's cool to see how you're art skills have become better and better over the months. Thanks for the Bob Dylan T-shirt! I'll be able to listen to good music again... someday.
This morning Elder Rada cooked a huge breakfast. He knows how to cook really well. He made Sister Chun and I these huge breakfast burritos. It was really good and I'm already really full.
Well, it's been a productive week. I'm happy about that. We'll be having some baptisms this transfer I'm sure. So Lynsi's finally engaged eh? Tell her to send me an invite :) Glad to hear you made it to St. George alright (eventually)! Talk to you again next week!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
It's been a really really busy week. Elder Rada is a really hard worker and he's helping me get this area in shape. Hopefully I'll be able to remember all the stuff that happened this week.
First of all, Sister Chun Facebooks a lot. You should add her as a friend. Her name is Chitose Chun. Maybe I'll just have her add you guys. So if you get a friend invite from some Asian lady from Cerritos California named Chi Chun just remember I live with her and she's really cool.
Well we've been doing a lot of work. Last week we found TWELVE new investigators. Not all of them are solid and not all of them were really there for their return appointments, but then again a good portion of them were. The Lord truly blessed us this week. The week before was a little alarming because we didn't find anybody so I prayed a lot and I even fasted a couple of times and then Elder Rada came with his 18 months of missionary experience and we found tons of people.
We had Zone Conference on Friday. This time we had our meeting in the mission home! That was neat. I haven't been there since November 4th 2008. We had a training on how to use our time more wisely. We were instructed to stop visiting people that we don't need to visit. Immediately a name and a face popped into my mind- Bro. Swanson. Hopefully he doesn't get offended. President Sexton told us that there around 3 million people in this mission. Then he asked us "Who's going to teach all those people?" Then he told us "You don't have time to teach ALL of those people. You only have time to teach those that will prepare themselves to be baptized." Last transfer we had 48 baptisms as a mission. For the first time in years we exceeded our goal- which was 47 baptisms. So we're definitely supposed to keep inviting people to be baptized during the first lesson.
Since I got here we've been teaching this less-active family named the Gonzalez family. They have an eight-year-old girl named Samantha and we've been preparing her to be baptized. She was baptized on Saturday by a member of the ward named Bro. Kau. She asked me to confirm her. I'll send you a picture of Samantha after I print it today.
We have a new Spanish investigator named Carlos. In this area we're supposed to find, teach and baptize in English and Spanish so we don't really have limits on who we get to teach (unless they speak a language other than English or Spanish of course.) Anyway, Carlos is so prepared. He's 87 years old and he called the MTC to have missionaries come visit him. We get referrals from the MTC via text message so we received his information and then went to his house to meet him. During our first lesson we invited Carlos to be baptized June 27th and he said he'll prepare himself for that date. He came to Church on Sunday and we spent an hour at that Spanish ward to make sure he was fellowshipped. He loved church.
Yesterday we taught our investigator named Lorraine and we had a member named Sis. Jensen come to the appointment to meet her and invite her to church. Lorraine will be coming to church this Sunday. Last night we taught another new investigator named Fred and we brought a member named Logan Ruru to the appointment to meet Fred. We invited Fred to prepare himself to be baptized July 11th and he accepted. As you can see we're working on bringing more members with us to lessons. During Ward Council on Sunday we gave out assignments to the presidents of each auxilary to find people to come to the appointments we specified to them. Elder Rada says that teaching lessons with members present is the secret to having a lot of people choose to be baptized. This new companion is teaching me a lot of useful stuff.
Hey thanks for the package! Thanks for the Ensigns and the Gospel Art Book. That'll be handy. Elder Rodriguez actually went and bought a copy of that right before my package arrived. Hannah that notebook of drawings is awesome! Thanks! It's cool to see how you're art skills have become better and better over the months. Thanks for the Bob Dylan T-shirt! I'll be able to listen to good music again... someday.
This morning Elder Rada cooked a huge breakfast. He knows how to cook really well. He made Sister Chun and I these huge breakfast burritos. It was really good and I'm already really full.
Well, it's been a productive week. I'm happy about that. We'll be having some baptisms this transfer I'm sure. So Lynsi's finally engaged eh? Tell her to send me an invite :) Glad to hear you made it to St. George alright (eventually)! Talk to you again next week!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
Thursday, June 4, 2009
June 4th, 2009 (Email)
Hello again!
Wow I got a lot of e-mails today. I let Launa know that I can receive e-mails and today I got e-mails from her, Jackie and Hannah Fitch. That was cool! Sounds like lots is happening!
I didn't know Jordan got his mission call until today! That's great! New York New York South! I'm going to write him soon. And I didn't hear anything about the swine flu in the MTC either! They just have to drop them off at the curb now? That's awful!
My new companion is Elder Rada. He is from Columbia. He said he lived in New York once too. He has a strong accent -- even stronger than Elder Rodriguez's accent. So hopefully I'll get used to it soon so I don't have to make him repeat himself too much. He's in awe at how awesome this area is. He came from apartment in Long Beach so he's still in shock at how pampered we are at Sister Chun's place. Elder Anderson was pretty darn sad about having to leave. He's known he was leaving for 6 weeks now but it started to really sink in last night. He said it was like leaving home again.
Last Friday we went on splits with the District Leader and his companion. I went with the companion, Elder Hawkins, in their area in Bellflower/Lakewood. They don't have a car, so I had my first taste of what it's like to be a bike Elder. I'll tell you what hurt: mis nalgas y mis otras cosas. We rode around for about 20 miles talking to all sorts of people both Spanish and English, making many abrupt stops to talk to people on the sidewalk. And those Elders don't know how to eat! I don't know where they get all the energy they need to ride around like that all day every day. It was fun though.
Hannah got to shake Taylor Swift's hand? Wow! I guess I'll read about that in the letter in the en route package today (fingers crossed!)
We had a slow week last week. I was gone for two days out of the week for splits but it sounds like it was slow while I was gone too. We didn't find any new investigators! :( But things are picking up. Yesterday morning we received a bunch of referrals and we found a new family as a result of that. We also went to teach our newest progressing investigator Lorraine and she had a lot of great questions about the Book of Mormon and its purpose. She said she'd be baptized if she receives a witness that the Book is true.
Well, I have faith that Transfer 6 will be a good transfer. We will see miracles as we strive for obedience and as we diligently do all that we can to follow those promptings we have been promised.
Hope you have a great week! Sorry this e-mail's short I'll have a longer one next week.
Love
Elder Tyler Lewis
Wow I got a lot of e-mails today. I let Launa know that I can receive e-mails and today I got e-mails from her, Jackie and Hannah Fitch. That was cool! Sounds like lots is happening!
I didn't know Jordan got his mission call until today! That's great! New York New York South! I'm going to write him soon. And I didn't hear anything about the swine flu in the MTC either! They just have to drop them off at the curb now? That's awful!
My new companion is Elder Rada. He is from Columbia. He said he lived in New York once too. He has a strong accent -- even stronger than Elder Rodriguez's accent. So hopefully I'll get used to it soon so I don't have to make him repeat himself too much. He's in awe at how awesome this area is. He came from apartment in Long Beach so he's still in shock at how pampered we are at Sister Chun's place. Elder Anderson was pretty darn sad about having to leave. He's known he was leaving for 6 weeks now but it started to really sink in last night. He said it was like leaving home again.
Last Friday we went on splits with the District Leader and his companion. I went with the companion, Elder Hawkins, in their area in Bellflower/Lakewood. They don't have a car, so I had my first taste of what it's like to be a bike Elder. I'll tell you what hurt: mis nalgas y mis otras cosas. We rode around for about 20 miles talking to all sorts of people both Spanish and English, making many abrupt stops to talk to people on the sidewalk. And those Elders don't know how to eat! I don't know where they get all the energy they need to ride around like that all day every day. It was fun though.
Hannah got to shake Taylor Swift's hand? Wow! I guess I'll read about that in the letter in the en route package today (fingers crossed!)
We had a slow week last week. I was gone for two days out of the week for splits but it sounds like it was slow while I was gone too. We didn't find any new investigators! :( But things are picking up. Yesterday morning we received a bunch of referrals and we found a new family as a result of that. We also went to teach our newest progressing investigator Lorraine and she had a lot of great questions about the Book of Mormon and its purpose. She said she'd be baptized if she receives a witness that the Book is true.
Well, I have faith that Transfer 6 will be a good transfer. We will see miracles as we strive for obedience and as we diligently do all that we can to follow those promptings we have been promised.
Hope you have a great week! Sorry this e-mail's short I'll have a longer one next week.
Love
Elder Tyler Lewis
