October 20th, 2009 (Email)

Hello again!
I just got back from Los Angeles a couple hours ago. We went to the L.A. temple and it was pretty amazing. It's a 5-room session there: Creation, Garden, Telestial, Terrestrial & Celestial. I've heard that it's the biggest temple in the world. We woke up at 4:30 this morning so we could make the 6:30 session, so I feel kind of tired. It was nice to finally go to the temple again though. Now I just have to wait 6 more months until I go back... :(
Elder Harris and I read something in Preach My Gospel last week that we've started focusing on and it really works! Sometimes we receive Media Referrals from Church Headquarters by text message and we're supposed to contact those referrals as soon as we possibly can. Oftentimes the referral people either aren't home or aren't really interested but we read in Preach My Gospel that when we receive one of those referrals it means that the Lord has prepared someone in that area-- either a family member, a neighbor, or someone just passing by. So we're encouraged to knock all around the homes of the media referrals. We've started applying that more and it's been fantastic. Yesterday we went to the home of an old referral that we couldn't teach because they were Korean speaking and we knocked their street. No one living on that street wanted to learn but when we were at the very last house someone from the street called at us and asked "why don't you guys ever come knock on my door?!" It was an african-american man with three young kids. His name was Daniel and he talked with us for a few minutes and set up an appointment with us for this evening. Cool!
We've started receiving referrals from church members! Yay! We received more referrals last week than I've ever received on my mission! We got 5 referrals: 1 from church headquarters and 4 from members. So far one of the referrals looks really promising. His name's Christian and we're teaching him the 1st lesson tonight.
I'm glad to hear we're going back to the old church building. And 10:00 church is perfecto. Justin's coming home next week? Wow. That is weird.
So that's all I've got this week. Sorry it's a short one. We're still working hard and I'll tell you when someone commits to a baptismal date again. We still commit every 1st lesson but our people keep declining or coming up with excuses. Someday we'll find another one who's prepared.
I hope everything goes well with Grandpa's surgery. Have a great week! Love you!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
Mom: Socks would be great. I need socks that aren't too hot. Garments would be great too. Can I get briefs for the bottoms this time? Yeah I wrote Jared but receiving mail is like finding a unicorn. All's good in the apartment. Elder Harris is still awesome. Yeah I've been driving for a couple weeks now.
Dad: Nice poem. ;)