Hello!
Well. I guess this is it. That's weird.
I went to the temple today with President and Sister Bubert. I love that temple. It's small and cute and pink.
Elder Colon and I are working hard. Our investigators aren't doing too great at keeping their commitments still. We have one investigator named Hugo who's doing good. He doesn't make a commitment he doesn't intend to keep. So he hasn't committed to a baptismal date yet and he hasn't agreed to come to church yet but he reads, prays, and is always there for our appointments. He's a very sincere man. He's a family man too. He's married and he loves his family.
On Sunday Elder Colon and I got to go see a couple baptsimal services for our zone. We saw an english baptism, a spanish baptism, and a samoan baptism. Sister Cordova and her daughter Thania were at one of the baptisms. We were excited to see each other again. Sister Cordova thanked me for helping to bring the gospel to her family. She started crying. The Cordovas are planning to come my ward this sunday to say goodbye.
My bike will get home. Don't worry. ;)
Well, the Church is true. I will see you in less than a week! Don't get too trunky!
Love,
Elder Lewis
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Note From Dad
Elder Lewis (Tyler) will be coming home on September 7th. We are really looking forward to having him home. His report will be on September 12th at 10am in the Park Street Chapel. Hannah is going to sing too. This is a different chapel than the one he spoke in when he left. If you need directions or more info, send me an email at jonclewis.@gmail.com
Aug. 24th, 2010 (Email)
Hello!
We're teaching some good people. None of our investigators are coming to church though. :( They all have different obstacles. Most of them are just working on getting a testimony. One man we're teaching named Guillermo hasn't been able to come to our ward because his daughter keeps taking him to her ward in Anaheim. Lame. Guillermo's all ready to be baptized and his member daughter's keeping him fr Yesterday we taught a really humble man named Hugo. He's awesome. He's got some great questions. Yesterday when we came to our appointment he had a table set up in his garage with his Book of Mormon sitting right on top of it, just waiting for us to come over to teach him. He's unemployed so he doesn't have much to do besides watch his kids and talk with us. We're still trying to help Antonio and Alma keep their commitments. They're coming along though. We started reading the Book of Mormon with them and we invited them to set a marriage goal.
Elder Colón and I gave talks in sacrament meeting. That's the first time I've given a talk in a spanish sacrament meeting since the MTC. So that was neat.
Elder Rodriguez e-mailed me last week. He said he's working at a chiropractic clinic as a therapist tech or something. I have his address in Provo so maybe I'll go visit him soon.
This transfer has been a transfer of many many meetings. As Zone Leaders we had 5 meetings with President Bubert at the beginning of the transfer. We've had 7 out of 8 Zone Meetings. This thursday we'll have a Mission Conference and then next week we'll have Zone Leader Council. Finally I'll have one last meeting with President Bubert the day before I go home. Oh, and next Tuesday I'll go to the temple with him. I think I'll have seen President Bubert just about as much as I saw President Sexton before I went to the office. It's been fun.
So for my bike what I'm going to do is go get a bike box from some store here in Long Beach and then somehow between now and Sept. 7th I'm going to pack my bike into that box and get it to Fed Ex to have it shipped home.
Well, I can't think of anything else. We're still working hard teaching the Lamanitish folk of Compton and Paramount. I love you and I'll talk with you all soon!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
We're teaching some good people. None of our investigators are coming to church though. :( They all have different obstacles. Most of them are just working on getting a testimony. One man we're teaching named Guillermo hasn't been able to come to our ward because his daughter keeps taking him to her ward in Anaheim. Lame. Guillermo's all ready to be baptized and his member daughter's keeping him fr Yesterday we taught a really humble man named Hugo. He's awesome. He's got some great questions. Yesterday when we came to our appointment he had a table set up in his garage with his Book of Mormon sitting right on top of it, just waiting for us to come over to teach him. He's unemployed so he doesn't have much to do besides watch his kids and talk with us. We're still trying to help Antonio and Alma keep their commitments. They're coming along though. We started reading the Book of Mormon with them and we invited them to set a marriage goal.
Elder Colón and I gave talks in sacrament meeting. That's the first time I've given a talk in a spanish sacrament meeting since the MTC. So that was neat.
Elder Rodriguez e-mailed me last week. He said he's working at a chiropractic clinic as a therapist tech or something. I have his address in Provo so maybe I'll go visit him soon.
This transfer has been a transfer of many many meetings. As Zone Leaders we had 5 meetings with President Bubert at the beginning of the transfer. We've had 7 out of 8 Zone Meetings. This thursday we'll have a Mission Conference and then next week we'll have Zone Leader Council. Finally I'll have one last meeting with President Bubert the day before I go home. Oh, and next Tuesday I'll go to the temple with him. I think I'll have seen President Bubert just about as much as I saw President Sexton before I went to the office. It's been fun.
So for my bike what I'm going to do is go get a bike box from some store here in Long Beach and then somehow between now and Sept. 7th I'm going to pack my bike into that box and get it to Fed Ex to have it shipped home.
Well, I can't think of anything else. We're still working hard teaching the Lamanitish folk of Compton and Paramount. I love you and I'll talk with you all soon!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Aug. 17th, 2010 (Email)
Good afternoon!
Last week was pretty good. We have a lot of investigators now, many of them with baptismal dates. I hope someone gets baptized. Sounds like a few of them aren't co-habitating. We're still teaching Alma and Antonio. They didn't go to church on Sunday but we had a really good visit with them a few days ago. We watched the Restoration DVD and then testified with all our hearts that they need to sincerely pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. Our invitation to people sounds easy enough: read, ponder, and pray about the Book of Mormon to know if it's the word of God. And then, when the Holy Ghost testifies that it is, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God? Sound simple but it's amazing how many people don't actually give it a try. It's as though once we leave the house everything we just taught goes out the door with us. Often when we run into people on the street that say they have a copy of the Book of Mormon but they don't believe any of it I ask them if they've sincerely prayed to know if it's true. I've never had anyone like that ever honestly tell me they have. I am convinced that as soon as a person sincerely follows Moroni's promise all they can do after that is either accept the truth or choose to reject it. There's a reason why we've been counseled not to move on to the second lesson until those we teach have kept their commitments to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Alma and Antonio seem to be sincere enough. They pay attention.
We're also teaching a man named Guillermo who wants to be baptized on the 29th, another man named Armando who committed to be baptized that same day, and we were just referred to a man named Javier who already accepted an invitation from some other elders to be baptized September 4th. So we're being blessed with many people that seem to have been prepared.
I think my Spanish is healing from my 6 months in the office. Elder Colón is helping me out a lot. When I slow down and teach simply I speak a lot better. I don't struggle much when it comes to understanding people.
I had a really good study the other day about doing what is right even when everyone around you is doing otherwise. I was pondering about the youth in our area. A lot of these kids are raised in an environment where crime, immorality, and drugs are as common as anything else. There are a lot of streets in Compton and Paramount where people can only park on one side of the street so that the cops can have more room for drug trafficking. I've already heard two of the members of the stake presidency here talk about staying out of gangs. A 17-yr-old in Long Beach just got sentenced to 255 years in prison (yes, 255). I believe that there are many people here that are capable of rising above the norm here. A lot of the Samoan people that I've met in the church used to be gangsters. I knew an ex-crypt member that got sealed in the temple last year. Anyway, I was reading in the Book of Mormon and I came across Mosiah 17:2 which says: "And there was one among them whose name was Alma..." Alma was an immoral priest of Noah before he believed in the words of Abinidi. There's also the example of Abish (Alma 19:16-). She and her father were probably the only Lamanites in their community that were already converted to the Lord before Ammon came around. There's also Aminadab (Helaman 5:35-41). He's an example of an inactive member finally finding the courage to do what he already knew to be right. And there's Nicodemus (John 3:1 and see footnote a). He was stuck with the Pharisees but he had enough courage to visit Christ in secret, to stand up for Him in court, and to bring myrrh to His sepulchre after His death. All these people were examples of people standing up for righteousness in a community of wickedness.
Elder Colón and I went to a meeting with the stake president here with President Bubert and the Assistants. That was interesting. We just discussed the missionary work going on in the wards here in the Long Beach Stake.
For my birthday I was on exchanges with and elder named Elder Sutton. We tracted a lot and we found a family named la familia Lara and we taught them. Elder Colón got me a cupcake and he lit it and the elders sang Happy Birthday. Thaks for the card the cash and the license! You sniff farts too Hannah. Funny thing is that I really don't look a day over 16. Or at least that's what everyone says when I tell them how old I actually am.
Here in the Long Beach Zone I have to privilege to see many black people get baptized. The Long Beach 7th ward is definitely the most diverse english ward I've ever been to. As zone leaders we try to go to every baptism the elders in the zone have.
I have not inquired about my bike yet, but I am planning to take care of that before my next e-mail. Fear not, it shall get home.
Love you and don't get trunky!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Last week was pretty good. We have a lot of investigators now, many of them with baptismal dates. I hope someone gets baptized. Sounds like a few of them aren't co-habitating. We're still teaching Alma and Antonio. They didn't go to church on Sunday but we had a really good visit with them a few days ago. We watched the Restoration DVD and then testified with all our hearts that they need to sincerely pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. Our invitation to people sounds easy enough: read, ponder, and pray about the Book of Mormon to know if it's the word of God. And then, when the Holy Ghost testifies that it is, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God? Sound simple but it's amazing how many people don't actually give it a try. It's as though once we leave the house everything we just taught goes out the door with us. Often when we run into people on the street that say they have a copy of the Book of Mormon but they don't believe any of it I ask them if they've sincerely prayed to know if it's true. I've never had anyone like that ever honestly tell me they have. I am convinced that as soon as a person sincerely follows Moroni's promise all they can do after that is either accept the truth or choose to reject it. There's a reason why we've been counseled not to move on to the second lesson until those we teach have kept their commitments to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Alma and Antonio seem to be sincere enough. They pay attention.
We're also teaching a man named Guillermo who wants to be baptized on the 29th, another man named Armando who committed to be baptized that same day, and we were just referred to a man named Javier who already accepted an invitation from some other elders to be baptized September 4th. So we're being blessed with many people that seem to have been prepared.
I think my Spanish is healing from my 6 months in the office. Elder Colón is helping me out a lot. When I slow down and teach simply I speak a lot better. I don't struggle much when it comes to understanding people.
I had a really good study the other day about doing what is right even when everyone around you is doing otherwise. I was pondering about the youth in our area. A lot of these kids are raised in an environment where crime, immorality, and drugs are as common as anything else. There are a lot of streets in Compton and Paramount where people can only park on one side of the street so that the cops can have more room for drug trafficking. I've already heard two of the members of the stake presidency here talk about staying out of gangs. A 17-yr-old in Long Beach just got sentenced to 255 years in prison (yes, 255). I believe that there are many people here that are capable of rising above the norm here. A lot of the Samoan people that I've met in the church used to be gangsters. I knew an ex-crypt member that got sealed in the temple last year. Anyway, I was reading in the Book of Mormon and I came across Mosiah 17:2 which says: "And there was one among them whose name was Alma..." Alma was an immoral priest of Noah before he believed in the words of Abinidi. There's also the example of Abish (Alma 19:16-). She and her father were probably the only Lamanites in their community that were already converted to the Lord before Ammon came around. There's also Aminadab (Helaman 5:35-41). He's an example of an inactive member finally finding the courage to do what he already knew to be right. And there's Nicodemus (John 3:1 and see footnote a). He was stuck with the Pharisees but he had enough courage to visit Christ in secret, to stand up for Him in court, and to bring myrrh to His sepulchre after His death. All these people were examples of people standing up for righteousness in a community of wickedness.
Elder Colón and I went to a meeting with the stake president here with President Bubert and the Assistants. That was interesting. We just discussed the missionary work going on in the wards here in the Long Beach Stake.
For my birthday I was on exchanges with and elder named Elder Sutton. We tracted a lot and we found a family named la familia Lara and we taught them. Elder Colón got me a cupcake and he lit it and the elders sang Happy Birthday. Thaks for the card the cash and the license! You sniff farts too Hannah. Funny thing is that I really don't look a day over 16. Or at least that's what everyone says when I tell them how old I actually am.
Here in the Long Beach Zone I have to privilege to see many black people get baptized. The Long Beach 7th ward is definitely the most diverse english ward I've ever been to. As zone leaders we try to go to every baptism the elders in the zone have.
I have not inquired about my bike yet, but I am planning to take care of that before my next e-mail. Fear not, it shall get home.
Love you and don't get trunky!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
August 10. 2010 (Email)
Hello!
As far as I know September 12th sounds like a fantastic day to give a homecoming talk!
We had some neat experiences last week. Wednesday night we weren't having much success finding people to teach and we ran out of plans by about 8:00 p.m. While we were driving I received a distinct impression that we should go to an apartment complex on a street called Vermont. I've rarely received impressions that specifically before. I told Elder Colón and we turned around and went to the complex I was thinking of. We knocked on the first door and right away a mexican man answered. After we invited him to learn he let us into his home. His name was Jose Saucedo. We had a powerful lesson with him. When we shared the message of the Restoration with him he felt the Spirit and he recognized it. He said that he felt peace and that it gave him goosebumps. When he gave the closing prayer he mentioned over and over again that he felt peaceful. Jose gave us his phone number, asked for the directions to the church, and even set a baptismal goal for later in the month. Unfortunately he's a truck driver and he's hard to catch. He should be home again tomorrow though.
We also found a couple people named Antonio and Alma. They're in their 20s and we had a great lesson with them too. Alma said that she's never been baptized and that it bothers her. Antonio hasn't been to any church since he was a kid. They didn't go to church on Sunday but that afternoon I felt like we should go and invite them to a baptism our ward would be having later that evening. They came! The baptism was their first exposure to the Church and it went well. We're going to see them again this evening.
I'm enjoying the Mexican food but I'm also running a couple miles every morning so I think I'm actually losing weight. I think I'm floating somewhere around 133.
Elder Colón does not go home the same day as me. He already knew Spanish so he was only in the MTC for three weeks. He goes home the transfer after me with Elder Collier.
Gracias por todo! Hope all's well! Sounds like you're all doing good and being good. I hope you had a happy birthday Mom! Good luck on your pending half-marathon Dad! And I hope you enjoy Young Woman life and all that implies Hannah! And how's my dog?
Love
Eder Tyler J. Lewis
As far as I know September 12th sounds like a fantastic day to give a homecoming talk!
We had some neat experiences last week. Wednesday night we weren't having much success finding people to teach and we ran out of plans by about 8:00 p.m. While we were driving I received a distinct impression that we should go to an apartment complex on a street called Vermont. I've rarely received impressions that specifically before. I told Elder Colón and we turned around and went to the complex I was thinking of. We knocked on the first door and right away a mexican man answered. After we invited him to learn he let us into his home. His name was Jose Saucedo. We had a powerful lesson with him. When we shared the message of the Restoration with him he felt the Spirit and he recognized it. He said that he felt peace and that it gave him goosebumps. When he gave the closing prayer he mentioned over and over again that he felt peaceful. Jose gave us his phone number, asked for the directions to the church, and even set a baptismal goal for later in the month. Unfortunately he's a truck driver and he's hard to catch. He should be home again tomorrow though.
We also found a couple people named Antonio and Alma. They're in their 20s and we had a great lesson with them too. Alma said that she's never been baptized and that it bothers her. Antonio hasn't been to any church since he was a kid. They didn't go to church on Sunday but that afternoon I felt like we should go and invite them to a baptism our ward would be having later that evening. They came! The baptism was their first exposure to the Church and it went well. We're going to see them again this evening.
I'm enjoying the Mexican food but I'm also running a couple miles every morning so I think I'm actually losing weight. I think I'm floating somewhere around 133.
Elder Colón does not go home the same day as me. He already knew Spanish so he was only in the MTC for three weeks. He goes home the transfer after me with Elder Collier.
Gracias por todo! Hope all's well! Sounds like you're all doing good and being good. I hope you had a happy birthday Mom! Good luck on your pending half-marathon Dad! And I hope you enjoy Young Woman life and all that implies Hannah! And how's my dog?
Love
Eder Tyler J. Lewis
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
August 3rd, 2009 (Email)
Hello!
Sounds like you all had a lot of fun in Flaming Gorge!
Things are going good over here in Long Beach. Last week Elder Colón and I went to 4 Zone Leader Training meetings with all the zone leaders in the mission, the Assistants and President Bubert. The Church has put out a bunch of new material for all of the missions worldwide to start focusing on. They're trying to hammer a bunch of stuff into our heads from Preach My Gospel such as the Doctrine of Christ, the role of the Spirit in conversion, seeking personal revelation from prayer, the Book of Mormon, and church attendance-- and a bunch of other stuff. Each meeting was about 6 hours long. It was like an amazing mini MTC experience. It was fun getting to hear from President Bubert so many times. I feel like I've already had 6 Zone Conferences with him. I pretty much have. So even though my time working with him will be short I already feel very familiar with him and how he does things.
Elder Colón and I are working with a couple people in Compton that are preparing for baptism. I almost forgot how big of an issue co-habitation is with the spanish-speaking community. Everybody's living with their novios and novias. So we're trying to help some people become esposos and esposas. Did you know that "esposa", the spanish word for wife, also means handcuff? (same with husband.) So that gives you somewhat of an idea about how some people view marriage here. So we're helping a couple people learn how to live the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom so they can get baptized.
I'm going to get fat again. I've had a lot of rice, orchata, carne asada, jamaica, tortillas-- all that good mexican food. So good!
Hey, next time you go to the temple I challenge you to study King Benjamin's address in Mosiah chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5. Over one hundred elements of the temple can be found in those scriptures. At the very beginning of Mosiah chapter 2 the verses direct your attention to the temple. Everyone's gathered around the temple to listen to King Benjamin, with their families and their tents pointed toward the temple. So what the Book of Mormon's trying to do is say "Hey! Now start thinking about the temple!"
Well, I hope things are going well up there. I'm glad to hear Mom's leg is getting better. Sorry you can't run the half-marathon. Good luck Dad! And I hope you had a happy 12th birthday Hannah!
I'm planning on shipping my bike home. I don't have a car so I'll definitely need that. The office has some sort of a system set up-- I think it'll cost me about $50 to ship home. Right now my bike's still in the Assistants' apartment and it will probably stay there until I call the office to figure out how to ship it home. And yes, September 7th's the day. See you then!
Love,
Elder Lewis
Oh, a couple more things I was supposed to tell you. (Mom's questions)
My apartment is fine-- no cockroaches. We're in car and we get 1250 miles a month as Zone Leaders. And Elder Colón is an awesome Elder. His Puerto Rican accent is a lot of fun.
I have to go now-- there's other elders waiting to use this computer.
Cuídense!
Love,
Tyler
Sounds like you all had a lot of fun in Flaming Gorge!
Things are going good over here in Long Beach. Last week Elder Colón and I went to 4 Zone Leader Training meetings with all the zone leaders in the mission, the Assistants and President Bubert. The Church has put out a bunch of new material for all of the missions worldwide to start focusing on. They're trying to hammer a bunch of stuff into our heads from Preach My Gospel such as the Doctrine of Christ, the role of the Spirit in conversion, seeking personal revelation from prayer, the Book of Mormon, and church attendance-- and a bunch of other stuff. Each meeting was about 6 hours long. It was like an amazing mini MTC experience. It was fun getting to hear from President Bubert so many times. I feel like I've already had 6 Zone Conferences with him. I pretty much have. So even though my time working with him will be short I already feel very familiar with him and how he does things.
Elder Colón and I are working with a couple people in Compton that are preparing for baptism. I almost forgot how big of an issue co-habitation is with the spanish-speaking community. Everybody's living with their novios and novias. So we're trying to help some people become esposos and esposas. Did you know that "esposa", the spanish word for wife, also means handcuff? (same with husband.) So that gives you somewhat of an idea about how some people view marriage here. So we're helping a couple people learn how to live the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom so they can get baptized.
I'm going to get fat again. I've had a lot of rice, orchata, carne asada, jamaica, tortillas-- all that good mexican food. So good!
Hey, next time you go to the temple I challenge you to study King Benjamin's address in Mosiah chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5. Over one hundred elements of the temple can be found in those scriptures. At the very beginning of Mosiah chapter 2 the verses direct your attention to the temple. Everyone's gathered around the temple to listen to King Benjamin, with their families and their tents pointed toward the temple. So what the Book of Mormon's trying to do is say "Hey! Now start thinking about the temple!"
Well, I hope things are going well up there. I'm glad to hear Mom's leg is getting better. Sorry you can't run the half-marathon. Good luck Dad! And I hope you had a happy 12th birthday Hannah!
I'm planning on shipping my bike home. I don't have a car so I'll definitely need that. The office has some sort of a system set up-- I think it'll cost me about $50 to ship home. Right now my bike's still in the Assistants' apartment and it will probably stay there until I call the office to figure out how to ship it home. And yes, September 7th's the day. See you then!
Love,
Elder Lewis
Oh, a couple more things I was supposed to tell you. (Mom's questions)
My apartment is fine-- no cockroaches. We're in car and we get 1250 miles a month as Zone Leaders. And Elder Colón is an awesome Elder. His Puerto Rican accent is a lot of fun.
I have to go now-- there's other elders waiting to use this computer.
Cuídense!
Love,
Tyler
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
July 27th, 2010 (Email)
Hello!
I've been transferred. Now I'm serving in the Long Beach 16th Ward as a Zone Leader with Elder Colón. Our area covers all of Compton and Paramount and part of North Long Beach. I'm so excited! Elder Colón is from Puerto Rico. We flew to the mission from the MTC together.
Last week was a great week. Elder Cluff and I had some really good experiences. First off, Richard Conrad got baptized on Sunday. On Sunday morning we went to escort him to his ride. He invited us into his apartment and told us that he wanted to show us something. He pulled out his giant Book of Mormon and turned to 2 Nephi chapter 31 and said, "This whole chapter is all about baptism. It's really good. I understand that when you're baptized you've got to behave yourself-- you've gotta keep your covenants." At that moment the Spirit bore witness to me that he was ready to make those covenants. He came to church and enjoyed it. His baptism was a spiritual experience. I baptized him and Elder Cluff helped him in and out of the water. Bro. Conrad's countenance changed after he was baptized. He seemed happy and excited. After the ordinance he turned to Elder Cluff and I and asked, "So am I a Mormon now?" We told him, "Almost! You're halfway there! Now you just have to receive the Holy Ghost."
Elder Cluff and I also had a good finding experience last week. One night while planning a couple weeks ago I received an impression that we needed to go visit Alex. I thought it was odd because we weren't teaching anyone by that name. So I opened the Area Book and found three people in the potentials section named Alex. Then we went to go contact them. One of them lived on 4th street in Seal Beach. We went and knocked on the door and someone came from the backyard. He was a 20-ish year old guy and he asked if we were Mormon missionaries. When we said yes he got excited and invited us into his home and offered us some water. He said his name was Jamie. We told him that we came to visit someone named Alex. He asked if we meant Alice, his mom. We said yes and then he went and got his mom. When she saw us she wasn't pleased and she kicked us out of her house. But Jamie still wanted to talk with us. He said that his mom was a Quaker, his dad was a Jew, and that most of his family were atheists. Jamie really wanted to hear what we had to say. We shared the message of the Restoration with him and he received it really well. The Spirit was there and Jamie gratefully accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon. He said if he found out it was true he'd be baptized. But he also said that he was going to Hawaii for a couple weeks and so we'd have to wait until then to visit him again. So that was my first and last lesson with Jamie. I feel that he's been prepared for our message.
On Friday I went on exchanges on bike in the Long Beach 10th ward. I like being one bike. I've never served in a real bike area my entire mission. Weird.
Well, that's all I have time to tell you. I have a ton of stuff to do today and too little time to do it all. I'm going to miss the office and I'm thankful that I got to serve there as the Mission Secretary, but I'm also very excited to serve as a Zone Leader here in the Long Beach Zone.
Have a great week! I'm going to send Hannah a birthday card today so you might not get it before you go camping. And Mom I hope you start feeling better soon. I love you all!
Love
Elder Tyler Lewis
I've been transferred. Now I'm serving in the Long Beach 16th Ward as a Zone Leader with Elder Colón. Our area covers all of Compton and Paramount and part of North Long Beach. I'm so excited! Elder Colón is from Puerto Rico. We flew to the mission from the MTC together.
Last week was a great week. Elder Cluff and I had some really good experiences. First off, Richard Conrad got baptized on Sunday. On Sunday morning we went to escort him to his ride. He invited us into his apartment and told us that he wanted to show us something. He pulled out his giant Book of Mormon and turned to 2 Nephi chapter 31 and said, "This whole chapter is all about baptism. It's really good. I understand that when you're baptized you've got to behave yourself-- you've gotta keep your covenants." At that moment the Spirit bore witness to me that he was ready to make those covenants. He came to church and enjoyed it. His baptism was a spiritual experience. I baptized him and Elder Cluff helped him in and out of the water. Bro. Conrad's countenance changed after he was baptized. He seemed happy and excited. After the ordinance he turned to Elder Cluff and I and asked, "So am I a Mormon now?" We told him, "Almost! You're halfway there! Now you just have to receive the Holy Ghost."
Elder Cluff and I also had a good finding experience last week. One night while planning a couple weeks ago I received an impression that we needed to go visit Alex. I thought it was odd because we weren't teaching anyone by that name. So I opened the Area Book and found three people in the potentials section named Alex. Then we went to go contact them. One of them lived on 4th street in Seal Beach. We went and knocked on the door and someone came from the backyard. He was a 20-ish year old guy and he asked if we were Mormon missionaries. When we said yes he got excited and invited us into his home and offered us some water. He said his name was Jamie. We told him that we came to visit someone named Alex. He asked if we meant Alice, his mom. We said yes and then he went and got his mom. When she saw us she wasn't pleased and she kicked us out of her house. But Jamie still wanted to talk with us. He said that his mom was a Quaker, his dad was a Jew, and that most of his family were atheists. Jamie really wanted to hear what we had to say. We shared the message of the Restoration with him and he received it really well. The Spirit was there and Jamie gratefully accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon. He said if he found out it was true he'd be baptized. But he also said that he was going to Hawaii for a couple weeks and so we'd have to wait until then to visit him again. So that was my first and last lesson with Jamie. I feel that he's been prepared for our message.
On Friday I went on exchanges on bike in the Long Beach 10th ward. I like being one bike. I've never served in a real bike area my entire mission. Weird.
Well, that's all I have time to tell you. I have a ton of stuff to do today and too little time to do it all. I'm going to miss the office and I'm thankful that I got to serve there as the Mission Secretary, but I'm also very excited to serve as a Zone Leader here in the Long Beach Zone.
Have a great week! I'm going to send Hannah a birthday card today so you might not get it before you go camping. And Mom I hope you start feeling better soon. I love you all!
Love
Elder Tyler Lewis
Monday, July 26, 2010
July 20th, 2010 (Email)
Hello!
Well, Richard Conrad didn't get baptized on Saturday because he said he didn't feel well. So we've postponed his baptism to next Sunday. I hope he gets baptized then because I'm getting transferred a week from today. I already saw the transfer facts so unless it gets changed this week I already know where I'm going. I'll surprise you next week with that info. It's a spanish ward! :) And it includes some areas where I've already served...
I've studied a lot about the Book of Mormon lately. I read a great talk by Elder L. Tom Perry about the blessings that come from reading the Book of Mormon. President Hinckley promised that if you will prayerfully read the Book of Mormon, regardless of how many times you've previously read it, there will come into your life 1. an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, 2. a greater resolve to be obedient to God's commandments, and 3. a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God. An additional blessing that Elder Perry identified had to do with Moroni 10:32-- that if you will consistently and prayerfully read the Book of Mormon and abide by its precepts you will eventually be perfected in Christ. A few days ago while knocking down in Seal Beach we came across a guy that questioned our belief in the Book of Mormon. He refused to see its purpose and merely cast it aside as an attempt to add on to an "insufficient" Bible. I mentioned to him that Brigham Young once pointed out that all the docrines of salvation taught in the Book of Mormon can also be found in the Bible, so really that's beyond the point. The Book of Mormon clearly has a different purpose than the Bible. Yes the Book of Mormon teaches the doctrine of Christ clearly and plainly so as to avoid any misunderstanding, and yes the Book of Mormon establishes the truths taught in the Bible so as to lay down contention and avoid falsehood, but when it comes down to it the Book of Mormon is here to serve as tangible evidence of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Further, it is supposed to be used as a springboard for testimony and personal revelation. Yep, it's all about faith and all about the Spirit. There you go! That's it! No proof, no reliable archaelogical finds and no gold plates for you to handle. That's the idea! Theologians such as the one we happened upon object and always draw back to their dead sea scrolls and archaelogical evidence, but when it comes down to it none of that can truly convince a soul that Jesus Christ is the resurrected Lord and Savior of all mankind. That witness comes from the Holy Ghost. Eventually we're all backed up to the wall of faith. The Book of Mormon just happens to push us there faster. Sister Julie B. Beck said in the last General Conference that "the ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life." So naturally that's also what the Book of Mormon aims at.
Did I ramble? Yep.
Well, not too much is happening with our investigators. We were focusing so much on getting Richard Conrad prepared for his baptism that we didn't have too much time to go knocking or any fun stuff like that. Richard Conrad did at least pass his baptismal interview last week so he's all set there.
President Bubert is doing interviews everywhere. He interviewed me yesterday and it was good. He told me that he wants me to expire before my temple recommend expires. He said that your temple recommend indicates that you're worthy to receive guidance from the Spirit. He shared his testimony with me. He's an inspired man. I felt impressed yesterday that he is who God wants to lead this mission now and that he'll do exactly as the Lord directs.
Elder Cluff and I have spent a lot of time in Leisure World. Yesterday we taught an old Alaskan fisherman and his 94-yr-old mom. We gave some priesthood blessings. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to serve in that strange place. I've had the chance to visit some lonely people that really have needed us.
Here's one of my favorite scriptures. I was reading a talk by Elder Quentin Cook this morning called "Our Father's Plan-- Big Enough for All His Children" and it reminded me of a passage of scripture found in Helaman 3:27-30. "The gate of heaven is open unto all." More specifically, it is open unto "whosoever will." Agency is the key. Whoever really wants to be saved will be saved, because whoever really wants to be saved will come unto Christ and obey God's commandments according to His will.
Things are going well in the office. President Bubert is learning how things work here and Elder Lynn is as well. I'll miss the office. I've enjoyed working alongside my Mission Presidents, the Assistants, the Blakes, Elder Collier, Elder Cluff and the many missionaries I've got to serve. It's been a sacred experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
That's amazing that Grandpa Cox went skydiving. Maybe I'll go and do that with Mom someday. Glad to hear Grandpa Lewis is doing well. Thanks for helping me with my DL. I already have my flight itinerary so I'm getting on that plane either way. And I'm not trunky. I still have a lot of work to do here.
Have a fantabulistic week!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Well, Richard Conrad didn't get baptized on Saturday because he said he didn't feel well. So we've postponed his baptism to next Sunday. I hope he gets baptized then because I'm getting transferred a week from today. I already saw the transfer facts so unless it gets changed this week I already know where I'm going. I'll surprise you next week with that info. It's a spanish ward! :) And it includes some areas where I've already served...
I've studied a lot about the Book of Mormon lately. I read a great talk by Elder L. Tom Perry about the blessings that come from reading the Book of Mormon. President Hinckley promised that if you will prayerfully read the Book of Mormon, regardless of how many times you've previously read it, there will come into your life 1. an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, 2. a greater resolve to be obedient to God's commandments, and 3. a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God. An additional blessing that Elder Perry identified had to do with Moroni 10:32-- that if you will consistently and prayerfully read the Book of Mormon and abide by its precepts you will eventually be perfected in Christ. A few days ago while knocking down in Seal Beach we came across a guy that questioned our belief in the Book of Mormon. He refused to see its purpose and merely cast it aside as an attempt to add on to an "insufficient" Bible. I mentioned to him that Brigham Young once pointed out that all the docrines of salvation taught in the Book of Mormon can also be found in the Bible, so really that's beyond the point. The Book of Mormon clearly has a different purpose than the Bible. Yes the Book of Mormon teaches the doctrine of Christ clearly and plainly so as to avoid any misunderstanding, and yes the Book of Mormon establishes the truths taught in the Bible so as to lay down contention and avoid falsehood, but when it comes down to it the Book of Mormon is here to serve as tangible evidence of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Further, it is supposed to be used as a springboard for testimony and personal revelation. Yep, it's all about faith and all about the Spirit. There you go! That's it! No proof, no reliable archaelogical finds and no gold plates for you to handle. That's the idea! Theologians such as the one we happened upon object and always draw back to their dead sea scrolls and archaelogical evidence, but when it comes down to it none of that can truly convince a soul that Jesus Christ is the resurrected Lord and Savior of all mankind. That witness comes from the Holy Ghost. Eventually we're all backed up to the wall of faith. The Book of Mormon just happens to push us there faster. Sister Julie B. Beck said in the last General Conference that "the ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life." So naturally that's also what the Book of Mormon aims at.
Did I ramble? Yep.
Well, not too much is happening with our investigators. We were focusing so much on getting Richard Conrad prepared for his baptism that we didn't have too much time to go knocking or any fun stuff like that. Richard Conrad did at least pass his baptismal interview last week so he's all set there.
President Bubert is doing interviews everywhere. He interviewed me yesterday and it was good. He told me that he wants me to expire before my temple recommend expires. He said that your temple recommend indicates that you're worthy to receive guidance from the Spirit. He shared his testimony with me. He's an inspired man. I felt impressed yesterday that he is who God wants to lead this mission now and that he'll do exactly as the Lord directs.
Elder Cluff and I have spent a lot of time in Leisure World. Yesterday we taught an old Alaskan fisherman and his 94-yr-old mom. We gave some priesthood blessings. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to serve in that strange place. I've had the chance to visit some lonely people that really have needed us.
Here's one of my favorite scriptures. I was reading a talk by Elder Quentin Cook this morning called "Our Father's Plan-- Big Enough for All His Children" and it reminded me of a passage of scripture found in Helaman 3:27-30. "The gate of heaven is open unto all." More specifically, it is open unto "whosoever will." Agency is the key. Whoever really wants to be saved will be saved, because whoever really wants to be saved will come unto Christ and obey God's commandments according to His will.
Things are going well in the office. President Bubert is learning how things work here and Elder Lynn is as well. I'll miss the office. I've enjoyed working alongside my Mission Presidents, the Assistants, the Blakes, Elder Collier, Elder Cluff and the many missionaries I've got to serve. It's been a sacred experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
That's amazing that Grandpa Cox went skydiving. Maybe I'll go and do that with Mom someday. Glad to hear Grandpa Lewis is doing well. Thanks for helping me with my DL. I already have my flight itinerary so I'm getting on that plane either way. And I'm not trunky. I still have a lot of work to do here.
Have a fantabulistic week!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
July 13th, 2010 (Email)
Hello!
I hope Grandpa's doing alright. I'm planning on him still being here when I get back so tell him to stick around. The older brother of one of the elders here just got killed in a plane crash a couple of days ago. President Bubert visited him and said he's handling it well and that the elder intends to stay and finish his mission despite the loss.
On Friday I went on exchanges with my District Leader from Paraguay, Elder Zelaya. He started his mission in the Buena Park Ward so we talked about all the amazing people we served over there. He's the elder that gave my phone number to David and Dixie. He said they're still planning on going through the temple within the next couple months. Elder Zelaya and I had some good experiences while working together. On Friday we found two new investigators. One of them's named David. A couple of weeks ago while praying to know where to go find people I felt like Elder Cluff and I should go knock a street called Espanita. We did so and we met David. He told us that his wife is a member of the Church and that they'd just barely moved into the area. He didn't seem all that receptive at the time but we still felt like we should go back. So on Friday Elder Zelaya went and visited him again. He seemed happy enough to see us so we asked if we could come in and share a short message with him. He though for a second and then agreed. We had a really good discussion. We all felt the Spirit and we set up an appointment to go back tomorrow. This time his wife should be there too. We also found another investigator in Leisure World. He's the husband of an active member of our ward named Sister Fulghum. The Fulghums are both blind and have been all their lives-- they actually met in a school for the blind. Ironically enough Bro. Fulghum is more of a seeing-is-believing type of person when it comes to spiritual matters. They're going to feed us dinner tomorrow.
Richard Conrad is doing well I believe. He came to the Leisure World sacrament meeting on Sunday. Once a month our ward holds a sacrament service in one of the clubhouses in Leisure World for those that have a difficult time coming to the Atherton building. Old people are funny to work with sometimes. The lady that referred us to Bro. Conrad was supposed to provide a ride for him to come to our normal meeting on Sunday but she slept in or something. So after church we went by Richard to see if he wanted to go to the Leisure world meeting that afternoon and he said he'd like to. So we called up another Leisure World denizen to see if she could give him a ride and she agreed but said that she'd already offered him a ride and that he'd declined. So we asked Bro. Conrad if that was true and he said no. So the lady came and gave him a ride. Bro. Conrad left his walker in her car during the meeting and apparently half way through the service the lady left and drove off with his walker without even knowing. So we made some phone calls and in the end Bro. Conrad got his walker back and everyone was happy. We're planning on baptizing Bro. Conrad on Saturday.
Yesterday we had dinner with the Kovacs family. Bishop barbequed a massive 5-lb steak for us all to split between ourselves. I've never seen a steak that big before in my life. It was really rare too. Pretty good.
We taught a less-active lady in Leisure World named Jane Austin. And we keep trying to catch Paul Williams but he never seems to be home.
Things are going well in the office. I caught up again yesterday. I'm training my replacement. His name's Elder Lynn and he's currently serving in a Zone Leader threesome with Elder Collier and Elder Clegg. Elder Collier actually trained Elder Lynn. Well, Elder Lynn and Elder Cluff and I have been making copies of the new missionary training DVD. It's called The District 2. You see, while we were in the MTC we'd often watch the movie The District. It's like a missionary themed reality TV show. Out in the field we frequently watch segments of the The District on Thursdays during District Meeting. We love watching The District but elders like me have seen the same clips from it about a thousand times now. So here on my desk right now I have The District 2. That's like having a copy of the new Batman movie before it even hits theaters. We've heard about the development of this DVD over the past several months and all the elders have been waiting in subtle suspense for its dispensation. We've watched a lot of it here in the office (for quality assurance) ;)
President Bubert is getting into the flow of things. Yesterday he was talking about writing in our journals and he turned to me and said "You know who's the best at writing in his journal? Roger Lewis! You could ask that guy what he was doing on Sept. 7th of 2007 or any other given day and he could just flip back in one of his journals and tell you."
Well have a great week! I hope that Grandpa recovers and that Mom's leg gets better and that Hannah has a good time at girl's camp and that Tim's chemo therapy does what it's supposed to. I'll just keep doing what I do down here. It looks like the heat decided to really turn on yesterday. Well, ¡hasta ver!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
I hope Grandpa's doing alright. I'm planning on him still being here when I get back so tell him to stick around. The older brother of one of the elders here just got killed in a plane crash a couple of days ago. President Bubert visited him and said he's handling it well and that the elder intends to stay and finish his mission despite the loss.
On Friday I went on exchanges with my District Leader from Paraguay, Elder Zelaya. He started his mission in the Buena Park Ward so we talked about all the amazing people we served over there. He's the elder that gave my phone number to David and Dixie. He said they're still planning on going through the temple within the next couple months. Elder Zelaya and I had some good experiences while working together. On Friday we found two new investigators. One of them's named David. A couple of weeks ago while praying to know where to go find people I felt like Elder Cluff and I should go knock a street called Espanita. We did so and we met David. He told us that his wife is a member of the Church and that they'd just barely moved into the area. He didn't seem all that receptive at the time but we still felt like we should go back. So on Friday Elder Zelaya went and visited him again. He seemed happy enough to see us so we asked if we could come in and share a short message with him. He though for a second and then agreed. We had a really good discussion. We all felt the Spirit and we set up an appointment to go back tomorrow. This time his wife should be there too. We also found another investigator in Leisure World. He's the husband of an active member of our ward named Sister Fulghum. The Fulghums are both blind and have been all their lives-- they actually met in a school for the blind. Ironically enough Bro. Fulghum is more of a seeing-is-believing type of person when it comes to spiritual matters. They're going to feed us dinner tomorrow.
Richard Conrad is doing well I believe. He came to the Leisure World sacrament meeting on Sunday. Once a month our ward holds a sacrament service in one of the clubhouses in Leisure World for those that have a difficult time coming to the Atherton building. Old people are funny to work with sometimes. The lady that referred us to Bro. Conrad was supposed to provide a ride for him to come to our normal meeting on Sunday but she slept in or something. So after church we went by Richard to see if he wanted to go to the Leisure world meeting that afternoon and he said he'd like to. So we called up another Leisure World denizen to see if she could give him a ride and she agreed but said that she'd already offered him a ride and that he'd declined. So we asked Bro. Conrad if that was true and he said no. So the lady came and gave him a ride. Bro. Conrad left his walker in her car during the meeting and apparently half way through the service the lady left and drove off with his walker without even knowing. So we made some phone calls and in the end Bro. Conrad got his walker back and everyone was happy. We're planning on baptizing Bro. Conrad on Saturday.
Yesterday we had dinner with the Kovacs family. Bishop barbequed a massive 5-lb steak for us all to split between ourselves. I've never seen a steak that big before in my life. It was really rare too. Pretty good.
We taught a less-active lady in Leisure World named Jane Austin. And we keep trying to catch Paul Williams but he never seems to be home.
Things are going well in the office. I caught up again yesterday. I'm training my replacement. His name's Elder Lynn and he's currently serving in a Zone Leader threesome with Elder Collier and Elder Clegg. Elder Collier actually trained Elder Lynn. Well, Elder Lynn and Elder Cluff and I have been making copies of the new missionary training DVD. It's called The District 2. You see, while we were in the MTC we'd often watch the movie The District. It's like a missionary themed reality TV show. Out in the field we frequently watch segments of the The District on Thursdays during District Meeting. We love watching The District but elders like me have seen the same clips from it about a thousand times now. So here on my desk right now I have The District 2. That's like having a copy of the new Batman movie before it even hits theaters. We've heard about the development of this DVD over the past several months and all the elders have been waiting in subtle suspense for its dispensation. We've watched a lot of it here in the office (for quality assurance) ;)
President Bubert is getting into the flow of things. Yesterday he was talking about writing in our journals and he turned to me and said "You know who's the best at writing in his journal? Roger Lewis! You could ask that guy what he was doing on Sept. 7th of 2007 or any other given day and he could just flip back in one of his journals and tell you."
Well have a great week! I hope that Grandpa recovers and that Mom's leg gets better and that Hannah has a good time at girl's camp and that Tim's chemo therapy does what it's supposed to. I'll just keep doing what I do down here. It looks like the heat decided to really turn on yesterday. Well, ¡hasta ver!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
July 6th, 2010 (Email)
Hello!
President Bubert is now my Mission President. The switch happened on Wednesday. It was pretty weird. I was in the office when it happened. President and Sister Sexton arrived with President and Sister Bubert and their two 14-yr-old kids at 12:00 noon. The Sextons' flight was scheduled for 12:30p.m. So they just came in, introduced us to the Buberts real quick, gave us hugs and left. It was really abrupt. President Sexton had time to show President Bubert how to work the sprinklers in the Mission Home, give him some directions around Long Beach, and simple things like that. They only had a few hours together. Then the mission just fell into President Bubert's hands. President Bubert's neat. He has a good sense of humor and he seems less stern than what I've been used to. President Sexton was lovingly stern and very General Authority-esque. It was hard to say goodbye. President Bubert's has more of a goofy side to him. Both my mission presidents are converts. President Sexton joined the Church when he was a young teenager and President Bubert joined the Church when he was about 20.
When the Buberts came into the office Sister Bubert shook my hand and said "Elder Lewis! You look like a Lewis." Then President Bubert shook my hand and said "Elder Lewis! I know your parents." Then Sister Bubert pointed me out to her daughter Mari and said "That elder is Jacque's cousin." Then she told me that Jacque was Mari's orthodontis's assistant. President Bubert had Elder Cluff and I go to the Mission Home for a few hours to set up his and his family's computers. So now he sees Elder Cluff and I as kind of his technical support buddies. On his first day here President Bubert called me and asked how to contact the mission's tech support. I told him I didn't know we had tech support. So I told him that Elder Cluff majored in computer engineering so we could fill-in as his tech support. It's been fun watching President Bubert figure things out here. We had our first Zone Conference with him yesterday and he told the whole zone "We're the Greenie-est ones here!" I realized yesterday that I'm the oldest one in my zone (in terms of how long I've been serving in the mission.) That bothers me. Well, President Bubert taught us during the conference about the tactics of the adversary and how he's going to keep trying to overpower our testimonies as it says in D&C 10:33. He told us that the devil wants us to just be "okay" missionaries-- to be mediocre. He's going to be a great President-- he still expects the best from us.
Richard Conrad's baptism may have to be postponed for a week. He didn't come to church on Sunday and we feel like he needs to be taught a little more to help comprehend better. He's 82 so we don't expect him to be a gospel scholar but we do expect him to have a basic understanding and a testimony. We visited him yesterday and he for sure still has the desire to be baptized. He's a very lonely man. There are so many lonesome people in Leisure World.
Last week we had dinner with a newlywed couple that just moved into our ward-- Bro. and Sis. Poe. They were married just a few weeks ago. Newlyweds are hilarious. They're so super-happy and peppy. Anyway, they live with Grandma Poe who lives in Naples. Grandma Poe isn't a member of the Church. She told us that she's actually related to Emma Smith. Grandma Poe's maiden name is Hale and her great-grandfather was Emma's brother. Grandma Poe has already read the Book of Mormon along with several other books about the Church because she sees it as family history. She's 90-yrs-old and admits that she's stubborn about joining the Church. She reminds me of Shirley (not the 90-yr-old part just the attitude.)
Our investigators are ridiculously old here.
That was the most lame 4th of July ever! I didn't see 1 firework! Not a single one! I heard plenty of them but somehow I didn't see any all day. The Atherton Ward had a flag raising ceremony right after sacrament though so that was cool. Long Beach and Seal Beach are super-lamesauce when it comes to explosives. Fireworks were prohibited in both cities. Lame lame lame.
Yesterday Bishop Kovacs told us that our new ward mission leader is Brother Harris. Bro. and Sis. Shane and Sally Harris are way cool. They're a young couple that used to be in a band called Love You Long Time (check them out!). They won the game show called Wipe Out a couple of months ago. And they have a great missionary spirit.
Well that's all I can think of. I got a letter from Raquel Piceno and her sister last week. They're way active still! That's always good to here. Raquel was the girl I baptized in Hawaiian Gardens.
Sorry to hear about Tim. I've prayed for him and his family. There's a reason for everything-- often beyond what we're supposed to understand right now. And sorry to hear about your leg Mom. That's awesome that you're all still gung-ho about running! I think Elder Harris and I are the only missionaries in this whole mission who love to run in the morning.
Have a splendid week!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
President Bubert is now my Mission President. The switch happened on Wednesday. It was pretty weird. I was in the office when it happened. President and Sister Sexton arrived with President and Sister Bubert and their two 14-yr-old kids at 12:00 noon. The Sextons' flight was scheduled for 12:30p.m. So they just came in, introduced us to the Buberts real quick, gave us hugs and left. It was really abrupt. President Sexton had time to show President Bubert how to work the sprinklers in the Mission Home, give him some directions around Long Beach, and simple things like that. They only had a few hours together. Then the mission just fell into President Bubert's hands. President Bubert's neat. He has a good sense of humor and he seems less stern than what I've been used to. President Sexton was lovingly stern and very General Authority-esque. It was hard to say goodbye. President Bubert's has more of a goofy side to him. Both my mission presidents are converts. President Sexton joined the Church when he was a young teenager and President Bubert joined the Church when he was about 20.
When the Buberts came into the office Sister Bubert shook my hand and said "Elder Lewis! You look like a Lewis." Then President Bubert shook my hand and said "Elder Lewis! I know your parents." Then Sister Bubert pointed me out to her daughter Mari and said "That elder is Jacque's cousin." Then she told me that Jacque was Mari's orthodontis's assistant. President Bubert had Elder Cluff and I go to the Mission Home for a few hours to set up his and his family's computers. So now he sees Elder Cluff and I as kind of his technical support buddies. On his first day here President Bubert called me and asked how to contact the mission's tech support. I told him I didn't know we had tech support. So I told him that Elder Cluff majored in computer engineering so we could fill-in as his tech support. It's been fun watching President Bubert figure things out here. We had our first Zone Conference with him yesterday and he told the whole zone "We're the Greenie-est ones here!" I realized yesterday that I'm the oldest one in my zone (in terms of how long I've been serving in the mission.) That bothers me. Well, President Bubert taught us during the conference about the tactics of the adversary and how he's going to keep trying to overpower our testimonies as it says in D&C 10:33. He told us that the devil wants us to just be "okay" missionaries-- to be mediocre. He's going to be a great President-- he still expects the best from us.
Richard Conrad's baptism may have to be postponed for a week. He didn't come to church on Sunday and we feel like he needs to be taught a little more to help comprehend better. He's 82 so we don't expect him to be a gospel scholar but we do expect him to have a basic understanding and a testimony. We visited him yesterday and he for sure still has the desire to be baptized. He's a very lonely man. There are so many lonesome people in Leisure World.
Last week we had dinner with a newlywed couple that just moved into our ward-- Bro. and Sis. Poe. They were married just a few weeks ago. Newlyweds are hilarious. They're so super-happy and peppy. Anyway, they live with Grandma Poe who lives in Naples. Grandma Poe isn't a member of the Church. She told us that she's actually related to Emma Smith. Grandma Poe's maiden name is Hale and her great-grandfather was Emma's brother. Grandma Poe has already read the Book of Mormon along with several other books about the Church because she sees it as family history. She's 90-yrs-old and admits that she's stubborn about joining the Church. She reminds me of Shirley (not the 90-yr-old part just the attitude.)
Our investigators are ridiculously old here.
That was the most lame 4th of July ever! I didn't see 1 firework! Not a single one! I heard plenty of them but somehow I didn't see any all day. The Atherton Ward had a flag raising ceremony right after sacrament though so that was cool. Long Beach and Seal Beach are super-lamesauce when it comes to explosives. Fireworks were prohibited in both cities. Lame lame lame.
Yesterday Bishop Kovacs told us that our new ward mission leader is Brother Harris. Bro. and Sis. Shane and Sally Harris are way cool. They're a young couple that used to be in a band called Love You Long Time (check them out!). They won the game show called Wipe Out a couple of months ago. And they have a great missionary spirit.
Well that's all I can think of. I got a letter from Raquel Piceno and her sister last week. They're way active still! That's always good to here. Raquel was the girl I baptized in Hawaiian Gardens.
Sorry to hear about Tim. I've prayed for him and his family. There's a reason for everything-- often beyond what we're supposed to understand right now. And sorry to hear about your leg Mom. That's awesome that you're all still gung-ho about running! I think Elder Harris and I are the only missionaries in this whole mission who love to run in the morning.
Have a splendid week!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
June 29th, 2010 (Email)
Hi!
President Bubert arrives to preside over the California Long Beach Mission tomorrow sometime in the morning. He'll have a couple hours to talk with President Sexton and that's it. We've been preparing the office for the change-- cleaning it and organizing it as needed. Elder Cluff and I went and washed a couple of the office vehicles yesterday.
Richard Conrad came to church on Sunday with his member friend from Leisure World. Brother Conrad is 82 years old. He came to church with his walker wearing a red SCU sweater and a matching baseball cap. We felt bad because he seems to have little to no bladder control so... well, he needs a caretaker. But he enjoyed church. Last week Brother Conrad said he needed a large print copy of the Book of Mormon because his eyesight's so bad. We didn't have one in the office and Sister Blake told us that church distribution has them on back order. We didn't know what to do but we knew that he needed to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon so we just started reading it to him. A couple hours after we read the first chapter of Nephi to him we felt that we should visit a less-active member named Bro. Newman. We stopped by and decided we'd read the Book of Mormon with him too. Bro. Newman went to another room to get his book and then he came out with a giant larg-print hardcover Triple Combo! We said "Hey we're looking for one of those for one of our investigators in Leisure World!" Bro. Newman responded "Really? You can give this one to him because I already have a Quad!" So before we knew it the Lord had led us to a large-print Book of Mormon for Bro. Conrad. Now he needs a magnifying glass...
Our other investigators seem to be put "on hold." Allen is getting some opposition from his Adventist wife and he said he'd like to talk with us again when he gets back from Australia. That will be in like August. And Diana didn't go to church so we're not sure what's going on with her. We want her to come to Richard Conrad's baptism so she'll feel a little more familiar and comfortable with how a baptismal service works. Bro. Conrad's still set to be baptized July 11th.
I finished my Book of Mormon 87-day-a-thon last week. It is pretty amazing how fast that book was translated. Reading it in that amount of time gave me a good macro understanding of the Book of Mormon. I decided yesterday while I was studying that I'm more of a micro learner when it comes to studying the scriptures. I tend to spend a lot of time dissecting individual verses of scripture. For example, yesterday I spent most of my personal study ponderin Alma 23:6. From that verse I learned that I need three things to be an effective missionary:
1. The spirit of revelation. I need to live worthy of and follow the Holy Ghost, who will tell me in my mind and in my heart what I should do. (D&C 8:2-3)
2. The spirit of prophecy. "The testimony of Jesus is teh spirit of prophecy." (Rev. 19:10)
3. Faith! Faith precedes miracles (Eth. 12:12, 29-20) and it's only the power of God that can work miracles in people for their conversion.
Yesterday during our companionship study Elder Cluff and I received some inspiration regarding something we're going to apply while tracting. We're going to ask people "If you could ask God just one question, what would you ask Him?" We decided that we'll receive several responses, among them being "I'm catholic," [door slams], "I'm not interested", etc. But among the responses we're looking for are these:
1. The person responds with a legitimate question for us to respond to using the Book of Mormon under the influence of the Spirit.
2. The person says "God already answers my questions! I pray to Him every day", to which we'll agree and then share with them what Joseph Smith asked God when he realized he had the opportunity-- "Which church should I join?" And then the Lord's response-- "None of them."
3. The person says something silly. Then we'll share with them what the scriptures teach may be the best question you could possible ask God: "WHAT SHALL I DO?" (Alma 22:15). And then we'll share the answer-- "Repent and be baptized!" (Acts 2: 37-39)
We'll see how it goes.
Well, the Long Beach Police Department just posted my bail and it says "The amount due is $212 plus a e-Public Access service fee of $10.00 will be added to this amount." Ouch.They're pretty ruthless here in California. I figured if a parking violation costs $47 then their traffic violations were bound to be pretty scary. Probably because they're in so much debt. Anyway, how much do I have in savings again? I don't think I have enough on my debit card to pay for that but I can use my savings. There's no America First banks here though so what should I do?
Sounds like things are busy for you up there in Utah. Remember, if you get stressed you have like a bajillion temples all around you! Love you!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
President Bubert arrives to preside over the California Long Beach Mission tomorrow sometime in the morning. He'll have a couple hours to talk with President Sexton and that's it. We've been preparing the office for the change-- cleaning it and organizing it as needed. Elder Cluff and I went and washed a couple of the office vehicles yesterday.
Richard Conrad came to church on Sunday with his member friend from Leisure World. Brother Conrad is 82 years old. He came to church with his walker wearing a red SCU sweater and a matching baseball cap. We felt bad because he seems to have little to no bladder control so... well, he needs a caretaker. But he enjoyed church. Last week Brother Conrad said he needed a large print copy of the Book of Mormon because his eyesight's so bad. We didn't have one in the office and Sister Blake told us that church distribution has them on back order. We didn't know what to do but we knew that he needed to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon so we just started reading it to him. A couple hours after we read the first chapter of Nephi to him we felt that we should visit a less-active member named Bro. Newman. We stopped by and decided we'd read the Book of Mormon with him too. Bro. Newman went to another room to get his book and then he came out with a giant larg-print hardcover Triple Combo! We said "Hey we're looking for one of those for one of our investigators in Leisure World!" Bro. Newman responded "Really? You can give this one to him because I already have a Quad!" So before we knew it the Lord had led us to a large-print Book of Mormon for Bro. Conrad. Now he needs a magnifying glass...
Our other investigators seem to be put "on hold." Allen is getting some opposition from his Adventist wife and he said he'd like to talk with us again when he gets back from Australia. That will be in like August. And Diana didn't go to church so we're not sure what's going on with her. We want her to come to Richard Conrad's baptism so she'll feel a little more familiar and comfortable with how a baptismal service works. Bro. Conrad's still set to be baptized July 11th.
I finished my Book of Mormon 87-day-a-thon last week. It is pretty amazing how fast that book was translated. Reading it in that amount of time gave me a good macro understanding of the Book of Mormon. I decided yesterday while I was studying that I'm more of a micro learner when it comes to studying the scriptures. I tend to spend a lot of time dissecting individual verses of scripture. For example, yesterday I spent most of my personal study ponderin Alma 23:6. From that verse I learned that I need three things to be an effective missionary:
1. The spirit of revelation. I need to live worthy of and follow the Holy Ghost, who will tell me in my mind and in my heart what I should do. (D&C 8:2-3)
2. The spirit of prophecy. "The testimony of Jesus is teh spirit of prophecy." (Rev. 19:10)
3. Faith! Faith precedes miracles (Eth. 12:12, 29-20) and it's only the power of God that can work miracles in people for their conversion.
Yesterday during our companionship study Elder Cluff and I received some inspiration regarding something we're going to apply while tracting. We're going to ask people "If you could ask God just one question, what would you ask Him?" We decided that we'll receive several responses, among them being "I'm catholic," [door slams], "I'm not interested", etc. But among the responses we're looking for are these:
1. The person responds with a legitimate question for us to respond to using the Book of Mormon under the influence of the Spirit.
2. The person says "God already answers my questions! I pray to Him every day", to which we'll agree and then share with them what Joseph Smith asked God when he realized he had the opportunity-- "Which church should I join?" And then the Lord's response-- "None of them."
3. The person says something silly. Then we'll share with them what the scriptures teach may be the best question you could possible ask God: "WHAT SHALL I DO?" (Alma 22:15). And then we'll share the answer-- "Repent and be baptized!" (Acts 2: 37-39)
We'll see how it goes.
Well, the Long Beach Police Department just posted my bail and it says "The amount due is $212 plus a e-Public Access service fee of $10.00 will be added to this amount." Ouch.They're pretty ruthless here in California. I figured if a parking violation costs $47 then their traffic violations were bound to be pretty scary. Probably because they're in so much debt. Anyway, how much do I have in savings again? I don't think I have enough on my debit card to pay for that but I can use my savings. There's no America First banks here though so what should I do?
Sounds like things are busy for you up there in Utah. Remember, if you get stressed you have like a bajillion temples all around you! Love you!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
June 22nd, 2010 (Email)
Good morning!
We had a pretty good week. We've been working hard and the Lord has been blessing us quite a bit. We now have many people to teach.
We had our last Zone Conference with President Sexton last week. That made me pretty depressed. He talked about the importance of having a sacred mission. He shared some statistics with us: out of every 12 male members of the Church that are blessed as babies only 10 get baptized, only 6 become deacons, only 4 become elders, only 2 serve missions and only 1 stays active after his mission. President explained that that's why he's emphasized obedience and sacred studies so much here. He doesn't want there to be any "missing chairs" for the California Long Beach Mission. He doesn't want any of us to fall away. He's done his best to help us have a sacred mission so that we'll stay faithful in Christ afterwards. Well, that's the plan. ;) Anyway President wanted to end where he began by reminding us that we have to BE something before we can DO something. As missionaries we need to be sanctified. We sanctify ourselves by being obedient and by obtaining the word through sacred studies every day.
On Sunday Allen came to church for the first time. It may have been an odd day for someone to get their first exposure to a Mormon sacrament service. Everything was themed around Father's Day and the primary kids all went up and sang their Father's Day songs and Allen just isn't a father so maybe he felt out of place. I hope not. I wish he'd have stayed for the Sunday school classes afterwards. We talked about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and the Atonement so perhaps he would have been doctrinally edified had he stayed.
Also during church one of the elderly ladies from Leisure world gave us a referral. She gave us a note with the name and address of her next door neighbor written on it. She said his name's Richard Conrad and he's depressed and lonely and would like to take the missionary lessons and he even mentioned that he'd like to be baptized. So Sunday afternoon we went and visited him and taught him the message of the Restoration. Bro. Conrad is probably in his 80s and he does seem very lonely. He needs the Church. We invited him to be baptized July 11th and he committed! He'll need a large print Book of Mormon and he'll probably need someone to drive him to church. Yesterday we visited him again and taught him the Plan of Salvation. He seemed a little happier yesterday. He's probably thankful to have some company. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." James 1:27.
Diana didn't come to church on Sunday. She's still doing about the same. She's turning into an eternal investigator. Our plan is to quickly finish up teaching her the commandments so that when we're done we can look at her and say "Well, that's it! We've taught you all the missionary lessons we teach people prior to their being baptized. Now what should we do?"
David and Dixie haven't called me yet. One of the missionaries that's been serving in Buena Park is now my district leader and he gave me a paper rabbit that Kazandra made me. She's their 8-yr-old that was baptized a few weeks ago I believe. Another elder named Elder Black is now serving in Buena Park told me that the Buena Park ward members still remember me as the elder that's allergic to chicken. Elder Black is my grandson as tradition puts it. I trained Elder Harris who trained Elder Black... We missionaries are a big happy family.
I haven't starting training Elder Lynn yet. I don't think I'll have to train him too much. I only got a couple days' worth of training and that was more than enough. And I don't know what Elder Rada's up to these days.
That's cool that you got to meet President Bubert and his familia. I'll meet him next Wednesday I suppose. That'll be different.
Have a great week! Hey have you seen Toy Story 3 yet? The posters and billboards have been everywhere down here since we're so close to Disneyland. Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
P.S. -- by the way I fear lest my traffic ticket may be heading your way. The officer that pulled me over just wrote down my Utah address. I've checked the lasuperiorcourt website several times now to see what my bail is but the slackers still haven't posted it yet. Their 21 days is up! So anyhoo if you get a scary letter in the mail from the Long Beach Police Department just let me know.
We had a pretty good week. We've been working hard and the Lord has been blessing us quite a bit. We now have many people to teach.
We had our last Zone Conference with President Sexton last week. That made me pretty depressed. He talked about the importance of having a sacred mission. He shared some statistics with us: out of every 12 male members of the Church that are blessed as babies only 10 get baptized, only 6 become deacons, only 4 become elders, only 2 serve missions and only 1 stays active after his mission. President explained that that's why he's emphasized obedience and sacred studies so much here. He doesn't want there to be any "missing chairs" for the California Long Beach Mission. He doesn't want any of us to fall away. He's done his best to help us have a sacred mission so that we'll stay faithful in Christ afterwards. Well, that's the plan. ;) Anyway President wanted to end where he began by reminding us that we have to BE something before we can DO something. As missionaries we need to be sanctified. We sanctify ourselves by being obedient and by obtaining the word through sacred studies every day.
On Sunday Allen came to church for the first time. It may have been an odd day for someone to get their first exposure to a Mormon sacrament service. Everything was themed around Father's Day and the primary kids all went up and sang their Father's Day songs and Allen just isn't a father so maybe he felt out of place. I hope not. I wish he'd have stayed for the Sunday school classes afterwards. We talked about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and the Atonement so perhaps he would have been doctrinally edified had he stayed.
Also during church one of the elderly ladies from Leisure world gave us a referral. She gave us a note with the name and address of her next door neighbor written on it. She said his name's Richard Conrad and he's depressed and lonely and would like to take the missionary lessons and he even mentioned that he'd like to be baptized. So Sunday afternoon we went and visited him and taught him the message of the Restoration. Bro. Conrad is probably in his 80s and he does seem very lonely. He needs the Church. We invited him to be baptized July 11th and he committed! He'll need a large print Book of Mormon and he'll probably need someone to drive him to church. Yesterday we visited him again and taught him the Plan of Salvation. He seemed a little happier yesterday. He's probably thankful to have some company. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." James 1:27.
Diana didn't come to church on Sunday. She's still doing about the same. She's turning into an eternal investigator. Our plan is to quickly finish up teaching her the commandments so that when we're done we can look at her and say "Well, that's it! We've taught you all the missionary lessons we teach people prior to their being baptized. Now what should we do?"
David and Dixie haven't called me yet. One of the missionaries that's been serving in Buena Park is now my district leader and he gave me a paper rabbit that Kazandra made me. She's their 8-yr-old that was baptized a few weeks ago I believe. Another elder named Elder Black is now serving in Buena Park told me that the Buena Park ward members still remember me as the elder that's allergic to chicken. Elder Black is my grandson as tradition puts it. I trained Elder Harris who trained Elder Black... We missionaries are a big happy family.
I haven't starting training Elder Lynn yet. I don't think I'll have to train him too much. I only got a couple days' worth of training and that was more than enough. And I don't know what Elder Rada's up to these days.
That's cool that you got to meet President Bubert and his familia. I'll meet him next Wednesday I suppose. That'll be different.
Have a great week! Hey have you seen Toy Story 3 yet? The posters and billboards have been everywhere down here since we're so close to Disneyland. Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
P.S. -- by the way I fear lest my traffic ticket may be heading your way. The officer that pulled me over just wrote down my Utah address. I've checked the lasuperiorcourt website several times now to see what my bail is but the slackers still haven't posted it yet. Their 21 days is up! So anyhoo if you get a scary letter in the mail from the Long Beach Police Department just let me know.
June 15th, 2010 (Email)
Hello!
Brother and Sister Minus live up on the hill by In-N-Out Burgers. Their house is huge (they are rich.) Brother Minus was actually down here for the weekend so you wouldn't have seen him. I'm not sure what Sister Minus has been up to. They go all over the place.
That's cool that you're running into all these people from your mission Dad. I got a letter from Elder Jordan Call yesterday. Enclosed was a picture of Jordan in his missionary attire standing next to the man formerly known as Elder Rada, (currently known as Jaime, pronounced "High-may"), one of my favorite companions who served with me in Cerritos 1st Ward. Jordan was serving in Elder Rada's ward up there in Queens New York. I told Elder Rada that if he ever came across an Elder Call to say "¡Que Onda Guero!" for me. And he did just that. So Jordan wrote me a letter and said that made him happy. He's doing well up there in NY.
Elder Cluff and I had a great week. We've really been working diligently trying to find people to teach these past several weeks and we've received several blessings.
First let's talk about Allen. A couple months back while I was serving with Elder Collier I had an impression that we needed to go knock doors down around 1st Street in Seal Beach. We came across a trailer park there and we started knocking. We didn't have very much success. Later on Elder Cluff and I decided to finish knocking the little neighborhood. On the last side of the last street in that trailer park we knocked on the door of Allen. He was really friendly and seemed pleased to see us. He invited us to come back to his home to teach him and his wife. We attempted to visit him over the next couple weeks but he never let us in because we always caught him home alone and he really wanted us to teach his wife as well. Anyway, finally he gave in and let us teach him last week despite his wife not being home again. Allen is Australian and he considers himself to be a Christian-Buddhist. We taught him the message of the Restoration and answered some of his questions. Allen is really sincere-- he really wants to know if what we share is true. His wife is a less-active 7th Day Adventist and he's concerned for the welfare of her soul. That's why he wanted us to teach her too, but turns out she doesn't want to talk with us. Allen mentioned that he's never before been baptized. He told us that it bothers him that he hasn't been baptized yet and he knows that the Bible teaches that we all need to be baptized. I started extending the baptismal invite-- "So if you were to come to the knowledge that the Book of Mormon is true" and then he interrupted me and answered "Then I'd join your church!" We came by for another visit and we brought a member with us named Bro. Gravley and we taught Allen most of the Plan of Salvation. Many of Allen's beliefs are similar to our's. He even believes in a sort of pre-existence. Allen is planning on coming to church on Sunday. If everything goes right we'll have him be baptized either this month or at the beginning of July. He's going on a trip to Australia mid-July so we need to baptize him muy rapido.
Last week we also found a couple up here in Long Beach. We were led to knock a small cul-de-sac. A lady answered one of the doors with a smile on her face and she said "Elders! About time you knocked on my door! I've lived here for about a year now and the Elders have never knocked my door. This street gets neglected by you guys!" Her name's Denise and some members of her family are Mormons. Her husband is a Shaman, (yes, like an Indian medicine man or something like that.) His name is Mushroom. Yep. A few days later we came back and met Mushroom. He's quite an interesting fellow. He doesn't wear a shirt-- just shorts and sandals. He has a gray beard and a ponytail and a dark Indian-ish complexion. He fought in Vietnam and he said that he used to sell Deseret News as a kid. Elder Cluff and I don't think he's as ready or open to embrace the gospel as his wife is, but who knows?! A couple days ago we were passing by their neighborhood again and they saw us and came out to talk with us again. They both seem to like talking with us Elders a lot. Somewhere in our short conversation Mushroom told us a story about when he had a conversation with a mosquito that landed in his ear. He spoke with the mosquito's spirit and made a deal with it. He told the mosquito that he'd let it take some of his blood if the mosquito would go tell the other mosquitos not the bother him. I guess the mosquito accepted the bargain and followed through with its commitment. I love all the people I meet out here.
Diana's progressing the same. She came to church again with her kid. She still pretty much thinks that she needs to be perfect before she gets baptized. She's way more prepared than most of the people I've ever taught. She just needs more confidence! She's committed and she's prepared-- she has a testimony of the Restored Gospel-- she just needs to believe in herself. She can do it!
Transfers are today. Elder Cluff and I are moving. We have been living in an apartment in the Long Beach 10th Ward boundaries. We've lived on the same street as the Assistants, the Zone Leaders, and the Blakes and the same neighborhood and President and Sister Sexton. Now we're moving into our own ward boundaries. We're going to live right behind my favorite grocery store-- Trader Joe's! I'm happy about that. We're going to have 4 sister missionaries in our district now. And Elder Collier is being put in a trio with two other Zone Leaders. That's the first time I've ever heard of 3 Zone Leaders leading a zone. The reason for it is because on of the Zone Leaders is my replacement. His name is Elder Lynn. Elder Collier trained him. President wants Elder Lynn to have plenty of training time with me. So he'll replace me in 6 weeks. He'll spend several afternoons learning about Mission Secretary stuff.
Hey thanks for the package! Elder Cluff and I have listened to the Saturday's Warrior soundtrack a couple times now. Good stuff. That photage is really classy Dad. And gracias for the aftershave, T-shirt and toothpaste. My face, teeth and torso are all happy. On the same day I received your package I got a package from the Cordova family in Paramount. They sent me a card and a gift. In the card they told me how grateful they are for the Gospel. Alejandro said that he'll never forget that Sunday night Elder Beverley and I knocked on their door. They thanked me for bringing the Restored Gospel to their home. They said that their daughter Thania is going to institute now and that Alejandro and Beatriz are learning how to say prayers in English. It was the best letter a missionary could receive. The gift was a pen and a mechanical pencil-- a couple really nice ones too. They came in a box with my name on it. Both the pen and the mechanical pencil have "Elder Lewis" engraved on them. That was super nice. They must have remembered that when I left I said that I was going to go be a secretary.
Well, I'd say this is a pretty thorough e-mail. Hope you had fun and had a chance to relax in St. Jorge! Happy Dad's Day soon !
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Brother and Sister Minus live up on the hill by In-N-Out Burgers. Their house is huge (they are rich.) Brother Minus was actually down here for the weekend so you wouldn't have seen him. I'm not sure what Sister Minus has been up to. They go all over the place.
That's cool that you're running into all these people from your mission Dad. I got a letter from Elder Jordan Call yesterday. Enclosed was a picture of Jordan in his missionary attire standing next to the man formerly known as Elder Rada, (currently known as Jaime, pronounced "High-may"), one of my favorite companions who served with me in Cerritos 1st Ward. Jordan was serving in Elder Rada's ward up there in Queens New York. I told Elder Rada that if he ever came across an Elder Call to say "¡Que Onda Guero!" for me. And he did just that. So Jordan wrote me a letter and said that made him happy. He's doing well up there in NY.
Elder Cluff and I had a great week. We've really been working diligently trying to find people to teach these past several weeks and we've received several blessings.
First let's talk about Allen. A couple months back while I was serving with Elder Collier I had an impression that we needed to go knock doors down around 1st Street in Seal Beach. We came across a trailer park there and we started knocking. We didn't have very much success. Later on Elder Cluff and I decided to finish knocking the little neighborhood. On the last side of the last street in that trailer park we knocked on the door of Allen. He was really friendly and seemed pleased to see us. He invited us to come back to his home to teach him and his wife. We attempted to visit him over the next couple weeks but he never let us in because we always caught him home alone and he really wanted us to teach his wife as well. Anyway, finally he gave in and let us teach him last week despite his wife not being home again. Allen is Australian and he considers himself to be a Christian-Buddhist. We taught him the message of the Restoration and answered some of his questions. Allen is really sincere-- he really wants to know if what we share is true. His wife is a less-active 7th Day Adventist and he's concerned for the welfare of her soul. That's why he wanted us to teach her too, but turns out she doesn't want to talk with us. Allen mentioned that he's never before been baptized. He told us that it bothers him that he hasn't been baptized yet and he knows that the Bible teaches that we all need to be baptized. I started extending the baptismal invite-- "So if you were to come to the knowledge that the Book of Mormon is true" and then he interrupted me and answered "Then I'd join your church!" We came by for another visit and we brought a member with us named Bro. Gravley and we taught Allen most of the Plan of Salvation. Many of Allen's beliefs are similar to our's. He even believes in a sort of pre-existence. Allen is planning on coming to church on Sunday. If everything goes right we'll have him be baptized either this month or at the beginning of July. He's going on a trip to Australia mid-July so we need to baptize him muy rapido.
Last week we also found a couple up here in Long Beach. We were led to knock a small cul-de-sac. A lady answered one of the doors with a smile on her face and she said "Elders! About time you knocked on my door! I've lived here for about a year now and the Elders have never knocked my door. This street gets neglected by you guys!" Her name's Denise and some members of her family are Mormons. Her husband is a Shaman, (yes, like an Indian medicine man or something like that.) His name is Mushroom. Yep. A few days later we came back and met Mushroom. He's quite an interesting fellow. He doesn't wear a shirt-- just shorts and sandals. He has a gray beard and a ponytail and a dark Indian-ish complexion. He fought in Vietnam and he said that he used to sell Deseret News as a kid. Elder Cluff and I don't think he's as ready or open to embrace the gospel as his wife is, but who knows?! A couple days ago we were passing by their neighborhood again and they saw us and came out to talk with us again. They both seem to like talking with us Elders a lot. Somewhere in our short conversation Mushroom told us a story about when he had a conversation with a mosquito that landed in his ear. He spoke with the mosquito's spirit and made a deal with it. He told the mosquito that he'd let it take some of his blood if the mosquito would go tell the other mosquitos not the bother him. I guess the mosquito accepted the bargain and followed through with its commitment. I love all the people I meet out here.
Diana's progressing the same. She came to church again with her kid. She still pretty much thinks that she needs to be perfect before she gets baptized. She's way more prepared than most of the people I've ever taught. She just needs more confidence! She's committed and she's prepared-- she has a testimony of the Restored Gospel-- she just needs to believe in herself. She can do it!
Transfers are today. Elder Cluff and I are moving. We have been living in an apartment in the Long Beach 10th Ward boundaries. We've lived on the same street as the Assistants, the Zone Leaders, and the Blakes and the same neighborhood and President and Sister Sexton. Now we're moving into our own ward boundaries. We're going to live right behind my favorite grocery store-- Trader Joe's! I'm happy about that. We're going to have 4 sister missionaries in our district now. And Elder Collier is being put in a trio with two other Zone Leaders. That's the first time I've ever heard of 3 Zone Leaders leading a zone. The reason for it is because on of the Zone Leaders is my replacement. His name is Elder Lynn. Elder Collier trained him. President wants Elder Lynn to have plenty of training time with me. So he'll replace me in 6 weeks. He'll spend several afternoons learning about Mission Secretary stuff.
Hey thanks for the package! Elder Cluff and I have listened to the Saturday's Warrior soundtrack a couple times now. Good stuff. That photage is really classy Dad. And gracias for the aftershave, T-shirt and toothpaste. My face, teeth and torso are all happy. On the same day I received your package I got a package from the Cordova family in Paramount. They sent me a card and a gift. In the card they told me how grateful they are for the Gospel. Alejandro said that he'll never forget that Sunday night Elder Beverley and I knocked on their door. They thanked me for bringing the Restored Gospel to their home. They said that their daughter Thania is going to institute now and that Alejandro and Beatriz are learning how to say prayers in English. It was the best letter a missionary could receive. The gift was a pen and a mechanical pencil-- a couple really nice ones too. They came in a box with my name on it. Both the pen and the mechanical pencil have "Elder Lewis" engraved on them. That was super nice. They must have remembered that when I left I said that I was going to go be a secretary.
Well, I'd say this is a pretty thorough e-mail. Hope you had fun and had a chance to relax in St. Jorge! Happy Dad's Day soon !
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
June 8th, 2010 (Email)
Hello!
That'd be awesome if you could go to President Bubert's farewell! Yeah I'll still be in the office when he comes. He'll arrive June 30th and I'll be in the office until July 27th. It's Church policy that I can't end my mission in the office. I would if they needed me to though.
That must have been neat to see your old mission president Dad. President Sexton keeps records for all of the missionaries that have served here with him and he said he's going to contact each one of us every year for the rest of his life either by phone, e-mail, letter or in person. So I'll get to hear from him quite a bit.
The work is going slow here in the Atherton Ward. But that gives Elder Cluff and I plenty of opportunity to struggle and to try new things. So that's what we've been doing. A couple days ago Elder Cluff and I attempted something that Elder Blake in the office said that he did back when he served his first mission. He said that he did something to the effect of "phone proselyting." So we took our list of less-active people and we spent some time "phone proselyting." Less-active people are sometimes great sources for finding people to teach. Unfortunately we didn't have any success with that activity. But tonight we're trying something else. Since tracting at 8:00 p.m. usually yields poor results we decided to go by the ward missionaries and help them get excited about missionary work again. We're going to try and sneak them into giving us referrals. They're supposed to be working on finding people for us to teach so we're going to go teach them about "praying with faith." We're going to make a list of people for us all to pray for. We'll present the people we're currently teaching (like Diana) and then we're going to ask them to add the names of the people they're working on. And then perhaps we'll just go ahead and ask where those people live! And hey, maybe we'll just speed up the process for them by going and visiting them! Maybe it will work. In any case we need some more people to teach.
I decided that one of the reasons my mission is the best is because of the wide range of diversity I'm exposed to down here. I've seen it all now. Of course I've become very familiar with spanish culture. I've grown to love the polynesian people-- both Samoans and Tongans alike. I lived with one Asian among many in Cerritos. I served around Little India for 7 months. A couple of weeks ago Elder Cluff and I went to Cambodia Town. We went into one of their art stores and we greeted the store owner in Cambodian (you say "Jom Rip Sua!" or something crazy like that). And then there's all my friends up in the Compton district. The Gospel is preached among all natians, kindreds, tongues and people here in the California Long Beach Mission.
Bishop Kovacs' daughter just turned 12. She graduated from primary and was welcomed into Young Women. I thought to myself, "oh my goodness that's happening to Hannah in a couple of months." 12-year-olds are way different from 10-year-olds. Speaking of 10-yr-olds the Activity-Day Girls cooked us dinner one day last week. Thay made chicken enchiladas. So I had cheese enchiladas. Out of all the wards I've served in this one tends to forget about my crazy allergies the most. That's okay though. I don't blame them. I just put the chicken to the side. I think I'm more allergic to it now after I did my little experiment with it last year when I was with Elder Harris. Last week I just ate some pasta that touched chicken and I had a little reaction. So I guess I shouldn't even do that now. Don't worry-- I'm not going to die. I'm careful.
How's Tim doing?
Tell G&G Lewis happy 60th for me!
Well that's what's been happening here. I'm just going to keep knocking, praying and working hard. Things will pick up. Have a dandy day!
Love
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
California Long Beach Mission
Mission Secretary
P.S.- Brother and Sister Minus are moving to St. George today! Maybe you'll see them. Maybe they'll see you. And maybe neither of you will know either way.
P.S.S.- A potential investigator referred to us from Bishop Kovacs named Sister Robertson said that she has a friend that is moving to Layton soon and they were wondering if you knew of any places that are up for rent.
P.S.S.S.- Thanks for the package! I'll watch for it.
That'd be awesome if you could go to President Bubert's farewell! Yeah I'll still be in the office when he comes. He'll arrive June 30th and I'll be in the office until July 27th. It's Church policy that I can't end my mission in the office. I would if they needed me to though.
That must have been neat to see your old mission president Dad. President Sexton keeps records for all of the missionaries that have served here with him and he said he's going to contact each one of us every year for the rest of his life either by phone, e-mail, letter or in person. So I'll get to hear from him quite a bit.
The work is going slow here in the Atherton Ward. But that gives Elder Cluff and I plenty of opportunity to struggle and to try new things. So that's what we've been doing. A couple days ago Elder Cluff and I attempted something that Elder Blake in the office said that he did back when he served his first mission. He said that he did something to the effect of "phone proselyting." So we took our list of less-active people and we spent some time "phone proselyting." Less-active people are sometimes great sources for finding people to teach. Unfortunately we didn't have any success with that activity. But tonight we're trying something else. Since tracting at 8:00 p.m. usually yields poor results we decided to go by the ward missionaries and help them get excited about missionary work again. We're going to try and sneak them into giving us referrals. They're supposed to be working on finding people for us to teach so we're going to go teach them about "praying with faith." We're going to make a list of people for us all to pray for. We'll present the people we're currently teaching (like Diana) and then we're going to ask them to add the names of the people they're working on. And then perhaps we'll just go ahead and ask where those people live! And hey, maybe we'll just speed up the process for them by going and visiting them! Maybe it will work. In any case we need some more people to teach.
I decided that one of the reasons my mission is the best is because of the wide range of diversity I'm exposed to down here. I've seen it all now. Of course I've become very familiar with spanish culture. I've grown to love the polynesian people-- both Samoans and Tongans alike. I lived with one Asian among many in Cerritos. I served around Little India for 7 months. A couple of weeks ago Elder Cluff and I went to Cambodia Town. We went into one of their art stores and we greeted the store owner in Cambodian (you say "Jom Rip Sua!" or something crazy like that). And then there's all my friends up in the Compton district. The Gospel is preached among all natians, kindreds, tongues and people here in the California Long Beach Mission.
Bishop Kovacs' daughter just turned 12. She graduated from primary and was welcomed into Young Women. I thought to myself, "oh my goodness that's happening to Hannah in a couple of months." 12-year-olds are way different from 10-year-olds. Speaking of 10-yr-olds the Activity-Day Girls cooked us dinner one day last week. Thay made chicken enchiladas. So I had cheese enchiladas. Out of all the wards I've served in this one tends to forget about my crazy allergies the most. That's okay though. I don't blame them. I just put the chicken to the side. I think I'm more allergic to it now after I did my little experiment with it last year when I was with Elder Harris. Last week I just ate some pasta that touched chicken and I had a little reaction. So I guess I shouldn't even do that now. Don't worry-- I'm not going to die. I'm careful.
How's Tim doing?
Tell G&G Lewis happy 60th for me!
Well that's what's been happening here. I'm just going to keep knocking, praying and working hard. Things will pick up. Have a dandy day!
Love
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
California Long Beach Mission
Mission Secretary
P.S.- Brother and Sister Minus are moving to St. George today! Maybe you'll see them. Maybe they'll see you. And maybe neither of you will know either way.
P.S.S.- A potential investigator referred to us from Bishop Kovacs named Sister Robertson said that she has a friend that is moving to Layton soon and they were wondering if you knew of any places that are up for rent.
P.S.S.S.- Thanks for the package! I'll watch for it.
June 1st, 2010 (Bonus)
hey, actually i have one other request besides toothpaste. could you get me some aftershave? like some old spice stuff or something fancy like that? i just went and got a really good haircut from a barber and he shaved my neck with a razor and he used some aftershave and i thought, "hey, i haven't used aftershave for like over a year now! i used to like that stuff!" anyway, we just had a zone activity here at the office. we played missionary jeopardy. i knew the book of mormon and preach my gospel stuff cuz for the most part that's all i really read. well, gotta go! love you and see you soon!
Love
Tyler
Love
Tyler
June 1st, 2010 (Email)
Hello
Bummer! No e-mails today!
This week Elder Cluff and I started running really low on our miles in our Malibu. We get 1050 miles a month and we went over the 1000 miles mark right before the weekend. So we walked a lot. Good news is that today's the beginning of another month so we have 1050 miles again. Our area's pretty big so we tend to drive a lot between Seal Beach and Long Beach.
Well, while we're on the subject of cars-- I got pulled over last week! Almost everything bad that's happened to me when it comes to driving has happened to me on my mission. Here's what I did wrong: we live right next to the Pacific Coast Highway and apparently I'm not supposed to turn right on red off of PCH onto Clark. I've done that many times without even thinking about it and one morning there just happened to be a biker cop waiting for a victim so he could reach his quota at the end of the month. So he got me. He didn't tell me how much it's going to cost though. And I've waited for several days and they still haven't posted it on the lasuperiorcourt website. So... maybe he forgot! Anyway, when I got to the office Elder Blake and President and the Assistants and the Zone Leaders all said they weren't aware of the illegality either so I guess I just had to be the vicitm so everyone else would know to be cautious on that turn. But lame! So I'll take care of that issue once they post the price. No worries.
I got some new slacks from Ross a couple weeks ago. They were real cheap and they fit real good. It looks like I'm back to being a 30/30, as long as the slacks have a capacity to stretch a little (for when I eat.) With my regular exercise schedule and comparably healthy diet I manage to stay between 130 and 135 pounds.
I went on exchanges on Friday/Saturday with my district leader Elder Young in his area which covers the gayest part of the mission. Literally, it is the gayest place I have ever been probably. It was strange. Half of his area was pretty ghetto though so I loved working there. I feel more comfortable doing missionary work in less well-to-do areas for sure. The other half of his area was really rich and very liberal. There were rainbow flags, NO on 8 stickers, aids assistance centers and gay rights facilities scattered abroad. While stopping by one of Elder Young's investigators we were approached by a transvestite who said hello, shook our hands and then went back to his/her own business. Down there in that part of Long Beach they hold the Gay Parade one month and then they have some sort of Aids Awareness Thing the following month. So sad.
There's not much going on with our investigators. Diana Giminez ALMOST seemed like she was going to set a baptismal date last week. This much we know: she has a testimony. She said that she believes the church is true. We helped her see that we look at baptism as being an act of initiation-- "the gate by which ye should enter" (2Ne 31:17). She understands that a little better now. We have found some good potentials while we've been walking around tracting and knocking doors out under the clear blue sky and the heat of the sun with the cool sea breeze blowing through our hair. Jealous?
Our mission had over 50 baptisms for two months in a row: April and May. We didn't reach our goal of 90 baptisms but today President sent us out an e-mail saying that we should renew that goal for June. He's really happy because we've never had over 50 baptisms two months in a row.
Hey I was wondering how things were going with my Driver's Licence renewal thing. Do you know if they'll have to put my old 16-yr-old picture onto it or can they get something more up to date? I hate that picture!
Well, you owe me letters now!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Bummer! No e-mails today!
This week Elder Cluff and I started running really low on our miles in our Malibu. We get 1050 miles a month and we went over the 1000 miles mark right before the weekend. So we walked a lot. Good news is that today's the beginning of another month so we have 1050 miles again. Our area's pretty big so we tend to drive a lot between Seal Beach and Long Beach.
Well, while we're on the subject of cars-- I got pulled over last week! Almost everything bad that's happened to me when it comes to driving has happened to me on my mission. Here's what I did wrong: we live right next to the Pacific Coast Highway and apparently I'm not supposed to turn right on red off of PCH onto Clark. I've done that many times without even thinking about it and one morning there just happened to be a biker cop waiting for a victim so he could reach his quota at the end of the month. So he got me. He didn't tell me how much it's going to cost though. And I've waited for several days and they still haven't posted it on the lasuperiorcourt website. So... maybe he forgot! Anyway, when I got to the office Elder Blake and President and the Assistants and the Zone Leaders all said they weren't aware of the illegality either so I guess I just had to be the vicitm so everyone else would know to be cautious on that turn. But lame! So I'll take care of that issue once they post the price. No worries.
I got some new slacks from Ross a couple weeks ago. They were real cheap and they fit real good. It looks like I'm back to being a 30/30, as long as the slacks have a capacity to stretch a little (for when I eat.) With my regular exercise schedule and comparably healthy diet I manage to stay between 130 and 135 pounds.
I went on exchanges on Friday/Saturday with my district leader Elder Young in his area which covers the gayest part of the mission. Literally, it is the gayest place I have ever been probably. It was strange. Half of his area was pretty ghetto though so I loved working there. I feel more comfortable doing missionary work in less well-to-do areas for sure. The other half of his area was really rich and very liberal. There were rainbow flags, NO on 8 stickers, aids assistance centers and gay rights facilities scattered abroad. While stopping by one of Elder Young's investigators we were approached by a transvestite who said hello, shook our hands and then went back to his/her own business. Down there in that part of Long Beach they hold the Gay Parade one month and then they have some sort of Aids Awareness Thing the following month. So sad.
There's not much going on with our investigators. Diana Giminez ALMOST seemed like she was going to set a baptismal date last week. This much we know: she has a testimony. She said that she believes the church is true. We helped her see that we look at baptism as being an act of initiation-- "the gate by which ye should enter" (2Ne 31:17). She understands that a little better now. We have found some good potentials while we've been walking around tracting and knocking doors out under the clear blue sky and the heat of the sun with the cool sea breeze blowing through our hair. Jealous?
Our mission had over 50 baptisms for two months in a row: April and May. We didn't reach our goal of 90 baptisms but today President sent us out an e-mail saying that we should renew that goal for June. He's really happy because we've never had over 50 baptisms two months in a row.
Hey I was wondering how things were going with my Driver's Licence renewal thing. Do you know if they'll have to put my old 16-yr-old picture onto it or can they get something more up to date? I hate that picture!
Well, you owe me letters now!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
May 25th, 2010 (Email)
Hello!
Well we're working hard down here though there's not too much progress happening with our investigators this week. Diana didn't make it to church. She was going to take both of her sons this time but her "disorganization problems" got the best of her. That's okay though. She knows where she needs to be so she's hard enough on herself that we hardly need to re-commit her. She said that she's starting to feel more like our Church is the place she needs to be. We didn't get to teach her a lesson last week but we're scheduled to teach her on Wednesday. She's still has the most potential when it comes to baptismal candidates in our area.
I'm almost caught up again in the office. I started my own travel itinerary a couple weeks ago. I'm scheduled to submit my travel request tomorrow. Scary. I have the most terrifying job in the mission I think. I think that out of all the missionaries here I'm probably the most aware that the mission actually ends. Yesterday I printed out six more release certificates, six more release letters to parents and six more release letters to stake presidents for six elders that I've known pretty well throughout most of my mission.
So the elders that work with the Cordovas asked them if they really had been baptized back in 1988. They were apparently confused and said that they hadn't. So I guess we're supposed to take their word for it now. I was surprised myself when the Church sent the e-mail. The Cordovas didn't seem like people that'd do something crazy like that.
Hey, parents that know more stuff about computers than I do-- President accidentally set up some sort of program called Content Watch on his laptop and now it won't let him log onto the internet unless he has a password and he doesn't know nor has ever set up any sort of password. Neither I nor my companion nor the assistants are computer savvy enough to help him. He was originally trying to figure out how to re-activate the gadget on his laptop that scans his fingerprint to log on but we couldn't figure that out either. Do you know how to fix either of those things?
So I'm almost done reading the Book of Mormon again. I finished Ether today. I noticed that part of either teaches about the plan of salvation. In chapter two we learn about the Brother of Jared and the barges that the Lord commanded him to build. The little group of Jaredites are going to head on over the the promised land. In Ether 2:24-25 the Lord tells the brother of Jared that they'll be "as a whale in the midst of the sea" and that "the mountain waves will dash upon [them]." While reading that I remembered something that the General Authortiy named Bishop Edgley taught during the Southern California Multi-Stake Conference Broadcast last year. He said that before we came to earth the Lord let us know that this life wasn't going to be nor was supposed to be easy. We would be subject to all sorts of challenges and sorrow. So with that in mind, back to Ether. The Lord continues by saying "Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea." He also says, "And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross the great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come." Then the Lord asks the brother of Jared, "Therefore what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?" And what is the brother of Jared's response? He goes to the mount and moltens out of a rock sixteen stones, and they are prepared by the Lord to provide light for the Jaredites during their journey. Even so, Heavenly Father prepared for us a Savior (the Rock) to redeem us from the challenges we face during our separation from Him. If you keep reading the brother of Jared sees the Lord and He says in Ether 3:14 "Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people." And in Ether 4:12 "I am the LIGHT..." While studying those chapters I also learned taht the 16 stones probably represent the Gentiles. The stones were made clear and white when they were molten out of the mount to provide light for the Jaredites. Even so the Gentiles are supposed to "become sanctified in [Christ]" (Ether 4:7) and restore the house of Israel to the knowledge of the Gospel and the covenants of the Lord. That's the most I've ever learned from reading Ether I think.
Here's something interesting. President said that in the oldest copies of the Doctrine and Covenants a lot of the revelations changed people's names and had code-names in their stead. Some of the section headings in our books mention that the code-names were dropped in later publications. Well anyway, Joseph Smith's code-name was Gazelem. Now open your copies of the Book of Mormon and read Alma 37:23.
Now questions to answer. I may not remember them all. Diana has prayed and so far she said that she "thinks it's a good practice." I don't think she's got any definite answers yet because she hasn't prayed specifically enough yet nor with the amount of real intent necessary. Don't know about David and Dixie's plans just yet. I finished all the HAM Radio maps and President thought I did good. I'll only have to change a couple things due to a couple apartments getting closed. My apartment is clean. Mrs. Lowe is kind of old so I suppose she just fell. No she's not paralyzed. Oh by the way the Morgans (the member-neighbors) set us up with another appointment with them for last Friday and it went pretty well. We started reading the Book of Mormon with them. They don't really understand the purpose of the Book of Mormon yet so we'll keep trying to help them get it. It looks like we're going to go on over to Leisure World every Friday to teach them. Elder Cluff is great. We get along just fine and he's got positude.
I will pray for Tim. Hope he's alright.
Have yourselves a good week!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Well we're working hard down here though there's not too much progress happening with our investigators this week. Diana didn't make it to church. She was going to take both of her sons this time but her "disorganization problems" got the best of her. That's okay though. She knows where she needs to be so she's hard enough on herself that we hardly need to re-commit her. She said that she's starting to feel more like our Church is the place she needs to be. We didn't get to teach her a lesson last week but we're scheduled to teach her on Wednesday. She's still has the most potential when it comes to baptismal candidates in our area.
I'm almost caught up again in the office. I started my own travel itinerary a couple weeks ago. I'm scheduled to submit my travel request tomorrow. Scary. I have the most terrifying job in the mission I think. I think that out of all the missionaries here I'm probably the most aware that the mission actually ends. Yesterday I printed out six more release certificates, six more release letters to parents and six more release letters to stake presidents for six elders that I've known pretty well throughout most of my mission.
So the elders that work with the Cordovas asked them if they really had been baptized back in 1988. They were apparently confused and said that they hadn't. So I guess we're supposed to take their word for it now. I was surprised myself when the Church sent the e-mail. The Cordovas didn't seem like people that'd do something crazy like that.
Hey, parents that know more stuff about computers than I do-- President accidentally set up some sort of program called Content Watch on his laptop and now it won't let him log onto the internet unless he has a password and he doesn't know nor has ever set up any sort of password. Neither I nor my companion nor the assistants are computer savvy enough to help him. He was originally trying to figure out how to re-activate the gadget on his laptop that scans his fingerprint to log on but we couldn't figure that out either. Do you know how to fix either of those things?
So I'm almost done reading the Book of Mormon again. I finished Ether today. I noticed that part of either teaches about the plan of salvation. In chapter two we learn about the Brother of Jared and the barges that the Lord commanded him to build. The little group of Jaredites are going to head on over the the promised land. In Ether 2:24-25 the Lord tells the brother of Jared that they'll be "as a whale in the midst of the sea" and that "the mountain waves will dash upon [them]." While reading that I remembered something that the General Authortiy named Bishop Edgley taught during the Southern California Multi-Stake Conference Broadcast last year. He said that before we came to earth the Lord let us know that this life wasn't going to be nor was supposed to be easy. We would be subject to all sorts of challenges and sorrow. So with that in mind, back to Ether. The Lord continues by saying "Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea." He also says, "And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross the great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come." Then the Lord asks the brother of Jared, "Therefore what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?" And what is the brother of Jared's response? He goes to the mount and moltens out of a rock sixteen stones, and they are prepared by the Lord to provide light for the Jaredites during their journey. Even so, Heavenly Father prepared for us a Savior (the Rock) to redeem us from the challenges we face during our separation from Him. If you keep reading the brother of Jared sees the Lord and He says in Ether 3:14 "Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people." And in Ether 4:12 "I am the LIGHT..." While studying those chapters I also learned taht the 16 stones probably represent the Gentiles. The stones were made clear and white when they were molten out of the mount to provide light for the Jaredites. Even so the Gentiles are supposed to "become sanctified in [Christ]" (Ether 4:7) and restore the house of Israel to the knowledge of the Gospel and the covenants of the Lord. That's the most I've ever learned from reading Ether I think.
Here's something interesting. President said that in the oldest copies of the Doctrine and Covenants a lot of the revelations changed people's names and had code-names in their stead. Some of the section headings in our books mention that the code-names were dropped in later publications. Well anyway, Joseph Smith's code-name was Gazelem. Now open your copies of the Book of Mormon and read Alma 37:23.
Now questions to answer. I may not remember them all. Diana has prayed and so far she said that she "thinks it's a good practice." I don't think she's got any definite answers yet because she hasn't prayed specifically enough yet nor with the amount of real intent necessary. Don't know about David and Dixie's plans just yet. I finished all the HAM Radio maps and President thought I did good. I'll only have to change a couple things due to a couple apartments getting closed. My apartment is clean. Mrs. Lowe is kind of old so I suppose she just fell. No she's not paralyzed. Oh by the way the Morgans (the member-neighbors) set us up with another appointment with them for last Friday and it went pretty well. We started reading the Book of Mormon with them. They don't really understand the purpose of the Book of Mormon yet so we'll keep trying to help them get it. It looks like we're going to go on over to Leisure World every Friday to teach them. Elder Cluff is great. We get along just fine and he's got positude.
I will pray for Tim. Hope he's alright.
Have yourselves a good week!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
May 18th, 2010 (Email)
Hello!
Diana Giminez came to church for the fourth time. She's starting to feel more comfortable there now. She bonded with Sister Minus during Relief Society. She was telling her that she feels like she belongs in our Church more than the Catholic church. She'll be baptized. We'll keep inviting her to do so during every lesson of course. She thinks that she needs to take her time because she's talked with too many eternal investigator converts in the ward who encourage her to go slow. But there's only 4 lessons and we're starting the 4th one tomorrow! Time's a-wastin'!
On Friday we were having dinner (sweet 'n sour meatballs with pineapples) in Leisure World with an elderly member couple. At the end of our appointment we asked them if they knew anyone we could visit in Leisure World. They suggested their neighbors 3 or 4 doors down and then went ahead and gave them a call and asked if we could all go over and visit them right then. And they said sure! So we all went over and met the Lowes. We taught them the first lesson and they were open to us coming back another time. The Morgans said we should visit the Lowes every Friday and they'd come with us to help us teach them. Mrs. Lowe has a broken neck so I'm not sure how we'd baptize her right now.
I had my last interview with President Sexton on Saturday. He came over with the Assistants to inspect our apartment. So my next interview will be with President Bubert. That's pretty weird.
We got an e-mail from Church Headquarters yesterday about Alejandro and Beatriz Cordova (the Spanish couple in Paramount.) Turns out that they were already members when they were baptized! The Church has records of them both being baptized on the 30th of May, 1988! I remember them telling Elder Beverley and me that they used to meet with Sister missionaries in Mexico a long time ago but they said that they didn't join the Church then. I called the elders in Paramount and told them about it and they couldn't believe it. The elder I talked to said "Well, at least we re-activated them and baptized their daughter and grandson, right?"
I've noticed that there are a lot of bitter less-active members in the richer parts of our area-- particularly down in Naples. We tried to visit a bunch of them and most of them didn't even open the door. They'd just look through their window and say "NO!" and walk away.
Elder Cluff and I met Elder Christofferson the Apostle's nephew yesterday, Brother Dan Christofferson. Take the Apostle, make his hair brown, take away the glasses, throw on a T-shirt and jeans and subtract a couple decades and there you go.
Well, that's all that's going on down here. That and a bunch of office work. I have plenty to do here. I finished translating the Stake Relief Society booklet last week. Now I'm trying to finish up the HAM Radio maps for each stake. I've made three so far and I have four to go.
Have a grand day!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Diana Giminez came to church for the fourth time. She's starting to feel more comfortable there now. She bonded with Sister Minus during Relief Society. She was telling her that she feels like she belongs in our Church more than the Catholic church. She'll be baptized. We'll keep inviting her to do so during every lesson of course. She thinks that she needs to take her time because she's talked with too many eternal investigator converts in the ward who encourage her to go slow. But there's only 4 lessons and we're starting the 4th one tomorrow! Time's a-wastin'!
On Friday we were having dinner (sweet 'n sour meatballs with pineapples) in Leisure World with an elderly member couple. At the end of our appointment we asked them if they knew anyone we could visit in Leisure World. They suggested their neighbors 3 or 4 doors down and then went ahead and gave them a call and asked if we could all go over and visit them right then. And they said sure! So we all went over and met the Lowes. We taught them the first lesson and they were open to us coming back another time. The Morgans said we should visit the Lowes every Friday and they'd come with us to help us teach them. Mrs. Lowe has a broken neck so I'm not sure how we'd baptize her right now.
I had my last interview with President Sexton on Saturday. He came over with the Assistants to inspect our apartment. So my next interview will be with President Bubert. That's pretty weird.
We got an e-mail from Church Headquarters yesterday about Alejandro and Beatriz Cordova (the Spanish couple in Paramount.) Turns out that they were already members when they were baptized! The Church has records of them both being baptized on the 30th of May, 1988! I remember them telling Elder Beverley and me that they used to meet with Sister missionaries in Mexico a long time ago but they said that they didn't join the Church then. I called the elders in Paramount and told them about it and they couldn't believe it. The elder I talked to said "Well, at least we re-activated them and baptized their daughter and grandson, right?"
I've noticed that there are a lot of bitter less-active members in the richer parts of our area-- particularly down in Naples. We tried to visit a bunch of them and most of them didn't even open the door. They'd just look through their window and say "NO!" and walk away.
Elder Cluff and I met Elder Christofferson the Apostle's nephew yesterday, Brother Dan Christofferson. Take the Apostle, make his hair brown, take away the glasses, throw on a T-shirt and jeans and subtract a couple decades and there you go.
Well, that's all that's going on down here. That and a bunch of office work. I have plenty to do here. I finished translating the Stake Relief Society booklet last week. Now I'm trying to finish up the HAM Radio maps for each stake. I've made three so far and I have four to go.
Have a grand day!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
May 12th, 2010 (Email)
Hello!
It was great talking with you on Sunday, although 40 minutes isn't a very long time. That phone call just kind of blended in with all the other phone calls and it already feels like it was a long time ago. Weird.
Speaking of phone calls, I got a phone call from Dixie (David's Dixie) the other day. She heard that David called me so she wanted to talk with me too. She said that they're preparing to go through the temple within the next couple of months and they were wondering if I could be David's escort. So I asked President and he said yes. (!) She also asked if she could get Elder Rodriguez's address. So I asked President and he said that I could call Elder Rodriguez and ask for permission. (!) I've tried to call him a few times but he hasn't picked up yet. But pretty cool huh?
We had zone conference yesterday. It was really good. President and the Assistants and the Zone Leaders trained us for a while. President taught us how to help people keep their commitments to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He said that it's very unlikely that a person will get baptized if they don't seriously keep that commitment. So he said that we shouldn't move on to the 2nd Lesson if our investigators don't read and pray about the Book of Mormon after the 1st Lesson. Rather, if they neglect to read and pray, we are to read from the Book of Mormon with them during our following visit. He said that the Brethren want us to invite people to read the Book of Mormon in its entirety from the very beginning. President ended zone conference by giving us some post-mission advice. He shared some of the stuff he shares with missionaries during their departing interviews, since he won't get to have that interview with most of us. This basically sums up what he told us: "Happy wife = happy life." Good counsel. He told us a lot of stuff about marrying the right girl at the right place and stuff like that. He said we should tuck all that information away until after the mission. My next interview with President Sexton will be my last.
Bro. Doug Tice received the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday. Elder Cluff and I got to stand in the circle when he was ordained. He'll be passing the sacrament next Sunday.
Elder Cluff and I have been working pretty hard both in and out of the office. We're trying to do our part to find people that can be baptized. We've set goals and we're trying to teach as many people as we can within the time we have.
I don't know if I told you but a family from the Cerritos 1st Ward just moved into the Atherton Ward boundaries recently. They're the Norris family. I visited them just about every week during the seven months I served in Cerritos. Sister Norris was just endowed last fall. She's married to a non-member named Leonard. She has three kids that are semi-active. They were on our "15 families" list. I'm excited to work with them again. Maybe Leonard will decide to get baptized now.
Hey I just got a call back from Elder Rodriguez! Awesome. He's doing good. He's going to BYU like I said and he's taking about 5 classes. He was excited to hear about all that's going on here in the mission. I gave him David & Dixie's address and phone number so he'll be able to contact them now.
Diana came to church again on Sunday. She's under the impression that she needs to take her time before getting baptized. She's talked with a couple converts in our ward and asked them how long they took to get baptized (no! not that question!) and they said "oh, 8 months" or "oh, a year and a half." Blast. You see, there's technically only 4 lessons that proceed baptism. If she takes forever we'll just end up teaching her those 4 lessons over and over and over and over... She just needs to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true NOW and as soon as she'll accept an answer she'll get the right one! Oh well. We're teaching her again tonight so we'll so how it goes.
I'm hungry and I need to e-mail President now! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
It was great talking with you on Sunday, although 40 minutes isn't a very long time. That phone call just kind of blended in with all the other phone calls and it already feels like it was a long time ago. Weird.
Speaking of phone calls, I got a phone call from Dixie (David's Dixie) the other day. She heard that David called me so she wanted to talk with me too. She said that they're preparing to go through the temple within the next couple of months and they were wondering if I could be David's escort. So I asked President and he said yes. (!) She also asked if she could get Elder Rodriguez's address. So I asked President and he said that I could call Elder Rodriguez and ask for permission. (!) I've tried to call him a few times but he hasn't picked up yet. But pretty cool huh?
We had zone conference yesterday. It was really good. President and the Assistants and the Zone Leaders trained us for a while. President taught us how to help people keep their commitments to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He said that it's very unlikely that a person will get baptized if they don't seriously keep that commitment. So he said that we shouldn't move on to the 2nd Lesson if our investigators don't read and pray about the Book of Mormon after the 1st Lesson. Rather, if they neglect to read and pray, we are to read from the Book of Mormon with them during our following visit. He said that the Brethren want us to invite people to read the Book of Mormon in its entirety from the very beginning. President ended zone conference by giving us some post-mission advice. He shared some of the stuff he shares with missionaries during their departing interviews, since he won't get to have that interview with most of us. This basically sums up what he told us: "Happy wife = happy life." Good counsel. He told us a lot of stuff about marrying the right girl at the right place and stuff like that. He said we should tuck all that information away until after the mission. My next interview with President Sexton will be my last.
Bro. Doug Tice received the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday. Elder Cluff and I got to stand in the circle when he was ordained. He'll be passing the sacrament next Sunday.
Elder Cluff and I have been working pretty hard both in and out of the office. We're trying to do our part to find people that can be baptized. We've set goals and we're trying to teach as many people as we can within the time we have.
I don't know if I told you but a family from the Cerritos 1st Ward just moved into the Atherton Ward boundaries recently. They're the Norris family. I visited them just about every week during the seven months I served in Cerritos. Sister Norris was just endowed last fall. She's married to a non-member named Leonard. She has three kids that are semi-active. They were on our "15 families" list. I'm excited to work with them again. Maybe Leonard will decide to get baptized now.
Hey I just got a call back from Elder Rodriguez! Awesome. He's doing good. He's going to BYU like I said and he's taking about 5 classes. He was excited to hear about all that's going on here in the mission. I gave him David & Dixie's address and phone number so he'll be able to contact them now.
Diana came to church again on Sunday. She's under the impression that she needs to take her time before getting baptized. She's talked with a couple converts in our ward and asked them how long they took to get baptized (no! not that question!) and they said "oh, 8 months" or "oh, a year and a half." Blast. You see, there's technically only 4 lessons that proceed baptism. If she takes forever we'll just end up teaching her those 4 lessons over and over and over and over... She just needs to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true NOW and as soon as she'll accept an answer she'll get the right one! Oh well. We're teaching her again tonight so we'll so how it goes.
I'm hungry and I need to e-mail President now! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
May 4th, 2010 (Email)
Hello!
Hey I get to talk to you on Sunday! Happy Mother's Day! Here's what we'll do I think. I will call you at 3:00 p.m. your time. That's 2:00 p.m. my time. It'll be fun! Don't get me trunky!
My new companion is Elder Cluff from SLC Utah! Elder Collier was called to be one of the zone leaders for this zone now. He just moved down the street a little bit. So I'll still see him just about every day. He was a great companion. We worked hard, saw some miracles and had fun.
Diana Giminez made it to church again on Sunday. So she's been there twice now. We think that she'll be baptized this month. She hasn't committed to a baptismal date yet but she probably will soon. Our mission has set a goal to have 90 baptisms this month so we need a lot of miracles to happen. Last month we had the most baptisms this mission has ever had: 53. So as you can see 90 is quite a lofty goal. But President said that the Lord revealed that goal to him at the beginning of his mission. We can do it!
The office is still going well. I have plenty of work to do here. I have lots of baptismal records to submit, plenty of letters to write, half of a Relief Society pamphlet to translate, 7 HAM radio maps to create, several Recent Convert reports to update, and probably more. President had me go with another missionary yesterday to take the truck and the giant van through a tiny gas station car wash. Sometimes I just get random things to do like that.
Elder Collier said that I should tell you that we touched the doorknob that touched the hand of the nephew of Elder Christofferson of the Twelve. Apparently Elder Christofferson's nephew attends the Atherton Ward. He's semi-active. We tried to visit him but he wasn't home.
Doug Tice got interviewed by Bishop Kovacs yesterday and he's going to receive the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday! He's just moving forward.
Brother and Sister Minus are moving to St. George to start their own business. They just felt like that's what they're supposed to go do. Bro. Minus is the vice president of some big shipping company down here so he knows a lot about business stuff.
I haven't heard from Elder Rodriguez or David & Dixie lately. I did talk with the institute teacher of David Ramos the other day. He said that David's still talking about going on a mission. And Elder Harris is still the District Leader of the Compton District. He's training for the third time in a row! So he just kind of followed me and did what I did somehow. He's even the District Leader of the same district.
Well I love you all and I look forward to talking with you on Sunday! Until then
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Hey I get to talk to you on Sunday! Happy Mother's Day! Here's what we'll do I think. I will call you at 3:00 p.m. your time. That's 2:00 p.m. my time. It'll be fun! Don't get me trunky!
My new companion is Elder Cluff from SLC Utah! Elder Collier was called to be one of the zone leaders for this zone now. He just moved down the street a little bit. So I'll still see him just about every day. He was a great companion. We worked hard, saw some miracles and had fun.
Diana Giminez made it to church again on Sunday. So she's been there twice now. We think that she'll be baptized this month. She hasn't committed to a baptismal date yet but she probably will soon. Our mission has set a goal to have 90 baptisms this month so we need a lot of miracles to happen. Last month we had the most baptisms this mission has ever had: 53. So as you can see 90 is quite a lofty goal. But President said that the Lord revealed that goal to him at the beginning of his mission. We can do it!
The office is still going well. I have plenty of work to do here. I have lots of baptismal records to submit, plenty of letters to write, half of a Relief Society pamphlet to translate, 7 HAM radio maps to create, several Recent Convert reports to update, and probably more. President had me go with another missionary yesterday to take the truck and the giant van through a tiny gas station car wash. Sometimes I just get random things to do like that.
Elder Collier said that I should tell you that we touched the doorknob that touched the hand of the nephew of Elder Christofferson of the Twelve. Apparently Elder Christofferson's nephew attends the Atherton Ward. He's semi-active. We tried to visit him but he wasn't home.
Doug Tice got interviewed by Bishop Kovacs yesterday and he's going to receive the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday! He's just moving forward.
Brother and Sister Minus are moving to St. George to start their own business. They just felt like that's what they're supposed to go do. Bro. Minus is the vice president of some big shipping company down here so he knows a lot about business stuff.
I haven't heard from Elder Rodriguez or David & Dixie lately. I did talk with the institute teacher of David Ramos the other day. He said that David's still talking about going on a mission. And Elder Harris is still the District Leader of the Compton District. He's training for the third time in a row! So he just kind of followed me and did what I did somehow. He's even the District Leader of the same district.
Well I love you all and I look forward to talking with you on Sunday! Until then
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Monday, May 3, 2010
April 27th, 2010 (Email)
Hi!
Doug Tice was baptized and confirmed this weekend! It was a miracle. About 50 or so people came to the baptism. I gave a talk about, well, baptism. Bro. Tice's home teacher, Bishop Thompson, baptized him on Saturday and then Elder Collier confirmed him on Sunday. They've both been working with Bro. Tice for a long time. I came into this ward at just the right time. I got to see a good chunk of the spectrum of Bro. Tice's conversion-- from cynical to stagnant to unsure to "probably" to faithful to baptized! It was a great experience teaching him and watching him decide to take, as he put it, "the plunge." Elder Collier said that this experience has been the highlight of his mission.
Bro. Tice's baptism wasn't the only miracle of the weekend. Do you remember me telling you about the Cordova family that Elder Beverley and I found and taught in Paramount? Alejandro, Beatriz, Tanya and Alejandro (Jr.) Cordova. They're from Mexico and when we found them they said that they'd met with missionaries over there. Well, last week I was pondering about them and reviewing how Elder Beverley and I found them. I concluded that we were definitely led by the Spirit. They live in a random alley on the edge of one of the more well-to-do neighborhoods in Paramount. I remember feeling impressed that we were supposed to find someone along the strip of streets that they happened to live on. They were between some of the last streets that we knocked there. We started teaching them in spanish and they ended up coming to church the first week we invited them. They didn't commit to be baptized right from the start because they said that once they committed they'd really go through with it. We were pleased with that response-- it's the attitude found in more dedicated converts. They enjoyed their first experience at church even though the majority of the ward is english. We taught them for a few weeks and then I got transferred out of the area. Well, this weekend Elder Dunn (former mission secretary) and Elder Haskell baptized THE WHOLE FAMILY! That's a miracle. I'm so happy about that! Out of all the areas I've served in I kind of felt that my work in Paramount seemed the most incomplete. I felt like most of my work was directed towards serving the other missionaries. But now with the baptisms of Helen Seabolt and the Cordova family I can more clearly see what the Lord sent me and Elder Twiss and Elder Beverley to do in Paramount.
Diana Giminez tried to go to Bro. Tice's baptism but she was late and she felt embarrassed so she didn't walk in. She also tried to go to church but she was running late that morning too. She called and apologized to us and explained that she hates being tardy. She said that she wasn't rejecting us and that she still wants to keep learning. She's awesome.
Michelle also didn't make it to church again. She explained some personal stuff that's holding her back. We still have faith that if we keep being persistent she'll make it.
This is Elder Collier's last week here. He's finishing his 5th transfer as the Financial Secretary. He'll get to go back to full-time field work next week. President Sexton called his replacement last night. My new companion, whoever he is, will start getting trained here tomorrow.
Wow! You're going to a lot of concerts this summer! Fun. That's awesome that you all keep running. Keep it up! I'm starting to get cramps in my side while running in the morning. I think I'm trying to run too fast. I was just thinking about my SD card the other day. I don't need it yet but I'm relieved you have it. I forgot all about it and was wondering whether I'd lost it or something.
I'm reading the war chapters in the Book of Mormon now. In the past I struggled with the war chapters. I still do to a degree but I'm starting to understand their purpose more clearly. I relate it to the spiritual warfare going on today. I liken captain Moroni to Christ, the Captain of our salvation, and the Lamanites to the adversary. Here's something edifying to study: read Alma 43:15-21 and compare it with 1Nephi 14:12-14.
Here's the majority of the talk I gave at Bro. Tice's baptism: Mosiah 21:30-35. I focused on priesthood authority. Here's something interesting I learned- in verse 30 it says the word "strength." In D&C 113 the Lord clarifies that the word strength refers to the priesthood.
Well, I'm off to lunch. Love you!
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Bonus Email
Okay, so we just went and had lunch with Brother and Sister Minus again. This time we went to a restaurant in the Queen Mary. I haven't been over there since the summer of 2008! Elder Collier and I had fish and chips. Anyway, if we're going to St. George in October we've gotta go visit Bro. & Sis. Minus. They'll be moving up there in July. They're going to live up on the hill by the In-N-Out Burger.
Hey could you tell Justin that if I don't write him a letter today I'll write him one next week. I haven't forgotten about him! He's e-mailed me a few times now but I just haven't found time these past couple weeks to sit down and write a bunch of letters.
Hasta luego!
Love,
Tyler
Doug Tice was baptized and confirmed this weekend! It was a miracle. About 50 or so people came to the baptism. I gave a talk about, well, baptism. Bro. Tice's home teacher, Bishop Thompson, baptized him on Saturday and then Elder Collier confirmed him on Sunday. They've both been working with Bro. Tice for a long time. I came into this ward at just the right time. I got to see a good chunk of the spectrum of Bro. Tice's conversion-- from cynical to stagnant to unsure to "probably" to faithful to baptized! It was a great experience teaching him and watching him decide to take, as he put it, "the plunge." Elder Collier said that this experience has been the highlight of his mission.
Bro. Tice's baptism wasn't the only miracle of the weekend. Do you remember me telling you about the Cordova family that Elder Beverley and I found and taught in Paramount? Alejandro, Beatriz, Tanya and Alejandro (Jr.) Cordova. They're from Mexico and when we found them they said that they'd met with missionaries over there. Well, last week I was pondering about them and reviewing how Elder Beverley and I found them. I concluded that we were definitely led by the Spirit. They live in a random alley on the edge of one of the more well-to-do neighborhoods in Paramount. I remember feeling impressed that we were supposed to find someone along the strip of streets that they happened to live on. They were between some of the last streets that we knocked there. We started teaching them in spanish and they ended up coming to church the first week we invited them. They didn't commit to be baptized right from the start because they said that once they committed they'd really go through with it. We were pleased with that response-- it's the attitude found in more dedicated converts. They enjoyed their first experience at church even though the majority of the ward is english. We taught them for a few weeks and then I got transferred out of the area. Well, this weekend Elder Dunn (former mission secretary) and Elder Haskell baptized THE WHOLE FAMILY! That's a miracle. I'm so happy about that! Out of all the areas I've served in I kind of felt that my work in Paramount seemed the most incomplete. I felt like most of my work was directed towards serving the other missionaries. But now with the baptisms of Helen Seabolt and the Cordova family I can more clearly see what the Lord sent me and Elder Twiss and Elder Beverley to do in Paramount.
Diana Giminez tried to go to Bro. Tice's baptism but she was late and she felt embarrassed so she didn't walk in. She also tried to go to church but she was running late that morning too. She called and apologized to us and explained that she hates being tardy. She said that she wasn't rejecting us and that she still wants to keep learning. She's awesome.
Michelle also didn't make it to church again. She explained some personal stuff that's holding her back. We still have faith that if we keep being persistent she'll make it.
This is Elder Collier's last week here. He's finishing his 5th transfer as the Financial Secretary. He'll get to go back to full-time field work next week. President Sexton called his replacement last night. My new companion, whoever he is, will start getting trained here tomorrow.
Wow! You're going to a lot of concerts this summer! Fun. That's awesome that you all keep running. Keep it up! I'm starting to get cramps in my side while running in the morning. I think I'm trying to run too fast. I was just thinking about my SD card the other day. I don't need it yet but I'm relieved you have it. I forgot all about it and was wondering whether I'd lost it or something.
I'm reading the war chapters in the Book of Mormon now. In the past I struggled with the war chapters. I still do to a degree but I'm starting to understand their purpose more clearly. I relate it to the spiritual warfare going on today. I liken captain Moroni to Christ, the Captain of our salvation, and the Lamanites to the adversary. Here's something edifying to study: read Alma 43:15-21 and compare it with 1Nephi 14:12-14.
Here's the majority of the talk I gave at Bro. Tice's baptism: Mosiah 21:30-35. I focused on priesthood authority. Here's something interesting I learned- in verse 30 it says the word "strength." In D&C 113 the Lord clarifies that the word strength refers to the priesthood.
Well, I'm off to lunch. Love you!
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Bonus Email
Okay, so we just went and had lunch with Brother and Sister Minus again. This time we went to a restaurant in the Queen Mary. I haven't been over there since the summer of 2008! Elder Collier and I had fish and chips. Anyway, if we're going to St. George in October we've gotta go visit Bro. & Sis. Minus. They'll be moving up there in July. They're going to live up on the hill by the In-N-Out Burger.
Hey could you tell Justin that if I don't write him a letter today I'll write him one next week. I haven't forgotten about him! He's e-mailed me a few times now but I just haven't found time these past couple weeks to sit down and write a bunch of letters.
Hasta luego!
Love,
Tyler
April 20th, 2010 (Email)
Hello!
I just got back from the temple! We went to the Newport Beach Temple again. It's been a whole year since the last time I went there. Last year I went with President Davis from the Buena Park Ward. I saw Pres. Davis working at the veil this morning-- he was my veil worker. This time we went with Brother and Sister Minus (ward mission leaders). This was Bro. Minus' second time going through the temple. He just got endowed last month so it was a special experience with him. He went through for his dad, Sister Minus went through for his mom, and Elder Collier and I went through for his two brothers. We did initiatories, the endowment session, and the sealing for his family. It was a sacred experience to be able to help Brother Minus do the work for his family. The blessings of the temple are awesome. I paid close attention to the blessings pronounced in each ordinance.
Doug Tice is going to be interviewed by President Sexton tonight. His baptism will happen this Saturday. That's a miracle. I believe that all of the elders that have worked with Bro. Tice these past couple years are aware and excited about his baptism-- Elder Rada, Elder Nielson, Elder Anderson, and so on and so forth.
One of our new investigators named Diana Giminez came to church on Sunday. She was referred to us from Church Headquarters. She's amazing. She's really sincere and honest. When she accepts a commitment she keeps it. When we asked her to read the introduction to the Book of Mormon she went ahead and read the introduction, the testimonies of the witnesses, and most of the excerpt of the Joseph Smith History. And all we'd asked her to read was the little intro page. She was right on time for our first appointment with her a couple weeks ago. And when we invited her to church last week she told us she'd come with her 5 year old son and that she'd be there a little early because she didn't want to be late. And she did just that. She hasn't accepted our invitation to be baptized quite yet (wants to learn more first) but we know that when she does she'll go through with it.
Michelle Luper didn't go to church again. :( She's going at a slower pace than we thought she would. She'll come around though. We just need to be persistent.
I caught up again in the office. The first half of the transfer is way busier than the second for me. President Sexton gave me another odd job yesterday to keep me busy. I need to track down all the HAM Radios for each stake in the mission and then make maps of where those radios are in relation to the missionaries' apartments. It's an emergency plan thing just in case we have a natural disaster or something. Probably earthquake preparation.
Well, we're going to go have lunch with Brother and Sister Minus somewhere down by Seal Beach. Hope you all have a delightful day and a wonderful week!
ba-bye!
Love
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
I just got back from the temple! We went to the Newport Beach Temple again. It's been a whole year since the last time I went there. Last year I went with President Davis from the Buena Park Ward. I saw Pres. Davis working at the veil this morning-- he was my veil worker. This time we went with Brother and Sister Minus (ward mission leaders). This was Bro. Minus' second time going through the temple. He just got endowed last month so it was a special experience with him. He went through for his dad, Sister Minus went through for his mom, and Elder Collier and I went through for his two brothers. We did initiatories, the endowment session, and the sealing for his family. It was a sacred experience to be able to help Brother Minus do the work for his family. The blessings of the temple are awesome. I paid close attention to the blessings pronounced in each ordinance.
Doug Tice is going to be interviewed by President Sexton tonight. His baptism will happen this Saturday. That's a miracle. I believe that all of the elders that have worked with Bro. Tice these past couple years are aware and excited about his baptism-- Elder Rada, Elder Nielson, Elder Anderson, and so on and so forth.
One of our new investigators named Diana Giminez came to church on Sunday. She was referred to us from Church Headquarters. She's amazing. She's really sincere and honest. When she accepts a commitment she keeps it. When we asked her to read the introduction to the Book of Mormon she went ahead and read the introduction, the testimonies of the witnesses, and most of the excerpt of the Joseph Smith History. And all we'd asked her to read was the little intro page. She was right on time for our first appointment with her a couple weeks ago. And when we invited her to church last week she told us she'd come with her 5 year old son and that she'd be there a little early because she didn't want to be late. And she did just that. She hasn't accepted our invitation to be baptized quite yet (wants to learn more first) but we know that when she does she'll go through with it.
Michelle Luper didn't go to church again. :( She's going at a slower pace than we thought she would. She'll come around though. We just need to be persistent.
I caught up again in the office. The first half of the transfer is way busier than the second for me. President Sexton gave me another odd job yesterday to keep me busy. I need to track down all the HAM Radios for each stake in the mission and then make maps of where those radios are in relation to the missionaries' apartments. It's an emergency plan thing just in case we have a natural disaster or something. Probably earthquake preparation.
Well, we're going to go have lunch with Brother and Sister Minus somewhere down by Seal Beach. Hope you all have a delightful day and a wonderful week!
ba-bye!
Love
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
April 13th, 2010 (Bonus)
Hm... it looks like I have more time. Elder Collier takes longer to e-mail than I do. So I'll extend my e-mail.
Well, Michelle Luper is struggling with coming to church. I was studying the Book of Mormon a few days ago and I came across this verse: Alma 21:23. While reading that I received a strong impression that we need to contact Michelle daily and exhort her, "with all diligence", to keep her commitments. I have faith that she'll start progressing if we keep encouraging her and teaching her "concerning things pertaining to righteousness."
Gee I'm hungry now.
Have a dandy afternoon!
Love,
Tyler
Well, Michelle Luper is struggling with coming to church. I was studying the Book of Mormon a few days ago and I came across this verse: Alma 21:23. While reading that I received a strong impression that we need to contact Michelle daily and exhort her, "with all diligence", to keep her commitments. I have faith that she'll start progressing if we keep encouraging her and teaching her "concerning things pertaining to righteousness."
Gee I'm hungry now.
Have a dandy afternoon!
Love,
Tyler
April 13th, 2010 (Email)
Hello all!
Well let's see. It was a pretty normal week I'd say. Not too much happened out of the ordinary. President Sexton did come with us to our appointment with Bro. Tice. That went well. Bro. Tice was fine with the Law of Chastity and he committed to live the Law of Tithing. His interview with President will happen next week. Bro. Tice liked President Sexton and said he'd be more comfortable being interviewed by him than by a zone leader he'd never met.
That's cool that Cory Carling is going to El Salvador for his mission. That's where President Sexton served.
Things have been going good in the office. I've finished Mapquest-ing the stake centers for President Bubert's little mission tour during his first week in July. President is having me prepare a binder for Pres. Bubert full of phone numbers and information he'll need. I have Elder D. Todd Christofferson's phone number and fax number sitting on my desk right now.
I'm plowing through the Book of Mormon pretty fast. I started up around Mosia 27 the day after zone conference and now I'm on Alma 29. I really like the story about the conversion of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies. They are examples of what it means to be a covenant-keeping people: Alma 24:19- "and thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin." Today I found a triple-precept-combo in Alma 27:13-14. The first principle taught here is that the adversary is diligent (see also Jacob 7:3) and that he devises plans "to ensnare the hearts of men." (see 2Nephi 28:20-22) Then we are taught another precept-- "and thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord." If the adversary is diligently working to bring to pass his purposes, how much more need have we to be diligent in our labors! The third precept taught here is that during this life we are to experience, as Dad used to tell me, "the highest of highs and the lowest of lows."
Yes I'd love for Hannah to sing at my homecoming! Let's see, I like these hymns: "lead kindly light"(97), "my redeemer lives"(135), "let the holy spirit guide" (143). Those are good ones.
That's all I've got this week. Sorry, short e-mail I know. I'll send you another one next week though!
Love you!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
California Long Beach Mission
Mission Secretary
Well let's see. It was a pretty normal week I'd say. Not too much happened out of the ordinary. President Sexton did come with us to our appointment with Bro. Tice. That went well. Bro. Tice was fine with the Law of Chastity and he committed to live the Law of Tithing. His interview with President will happen next week. Bro. Tice liked President Sexton and said he'd be more comfortable being interviewed by him than by a zone leader he'd never met.
That's cool that Cory Carling is going to El Salvador for his mission. That's where President Sexton served.
Things have been going good in the office. I've finished Mapquest-ing the stake centers for President Bubert's little mission tour during his first week in July. President is having me prepare a binder for Pres. Bubert full of phone numbers and information he'll need. I have Elder D. Todd Christofferson's phone number and fax number sitting on my desk right now.
I'm plowing through the Book of Mormon pretty fast. I started up around Mosia 27 the day after zone conference and now I'm on Alma 29. I really like the story about the conversion of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies. They are examples of what it means to be a covenant-keeping people: Alma 24:19- "and thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin." Today I found a triple-precept-combo in Alma 27:13-14. The first principle taught here is that the adversary is diligent (see also Jacob 7:3) and that he devises plans "to ensnare the hearts of men." (see 2Nephi 28:20-22) Then we are taught another precept-- "and thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord." If the adversary is diligently working to bring to pass his purposes, how much more need have we to be diligent in our labors! The third precept taught here is that during this life we are to experience, as Dad used to tell me, "the highest of highs and the lowest of lows."
Yes I'd love for Hannah to sing at my homecoming! Let's see, I like these hymns: "lead kindly light"(97), "my redeemer lives"(135), "let the holy spirit guide" (143). Those are good ones.
That's all I've got this week. Sorry, short e-mail I know. I'll send you another one next week though!
Love you!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
California Long Beach Mission
Mission Secretary
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
April 6th, 2010 (Email)
Hi!
WOW that's so cool that you met Elder Perry and Elder Cook!!! You've already met more Apostles than I have! And Taylor Swift too! Bishop Kovacs, the bishop of the Atherton Ward, loves to imitate Elder L. Tom Perry. "I saw the deacons, shirts neatly pressed. My heart swelled with pride!" Did he speak out of the side of his mouth like he usually does? I remember when Elder Perry came and spoke at the MTC while I was there. He is really tall.
General Conference was so good! I received many impressions. I'm thankful that I grew up in a home where the Spirit could reside and with a family that taught me the gospel. Thank you so much. I liked Elder Bednar's talk about early warning signals. It's something I can apply as a missionary--- discuss doctrines taught from the Book of Mormon with others so as to identify their needs, bear testimony spontaneously, and invite others to act. It was amazing how all of the talks harmonized-- I felt a strong impression that the leaders of this Church are prophets, seers and revelators and they know exactly what the world needs to hear and know because the Lord reveals it to them. I was especially amazed when Elder Andersen of the Twelve said that the speakers aren't assigned topics-- they don't collaborate or anything-- yet somehow it was very apparent that the central message the Lord wanted His people to hear was to fortify the home and to fortify our families.
Brother Doug Tice is firmly committed to be baptized April 24th. He's told his home teachers, the bishop, and even the stake president! He's come a long way-- from not even having a testimony that Jesus Christ is the Savior to believing that being baptized into His Church is the right thing to do. Elder Collier and I are pretty excited for him. It's been a while since either of us have seen someone we're currently teaching get baptized. It's a great blessing. President Sexton is going to come with us to our lesson with Bro. Tice tomorrow when we teach him the Law of Chastity and the Law of Tithing.
We're still working with Michelle Luper too. She still wants to be baptized but she's struggling with coming to church so we're going to have to push back her baptismal date. Hopefully she'll be baptized on the same day as Bro. Tice. We contact Michelle daily and teach her short lessons. She's reading and praying about the Book of Mormon and doing other things neccessary for her to be baptized. She's met the Relief Society President and another sister from the ward so she has fellowship. She just needs to come to church a couple times to show that commitment!
These Nike socks are wonderful. Elder Collier and I have listened to all the good music you sent. I love Cherie Call's "he gives flowers to everyone" CD. I like the song about moving mountains. The cover of her "ocean in me" CD is funny because the "ocean" she's standing next to is very obviously the Great Salt Lake. Antelope Island can be spotted on the back cover. And of course the Johnny Cash music is great. Elder Collier's from the south so he loves it.
So we're on for IHOP next GC right?
Love y'all!
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
California Long Beach Mission
Mission Secretary
WOW that's so cool that you met Elder Perry and Elder Cook!!! You've already met more Apostles than I have! And Taylor Swift too! Bishop Kovacs, the bishop of the Atherton Ward, loves to imitate Elder L. Tom Perry. "I saw the deacons, shirts neatly pressed. My heart swelled with pride!" Did he speak out of the side of his mouth like he usually does? I remember when Elder Perry came and spoke at the MTC while I was there. He is really tall.
General Conference was so good! I received many impressions. I'm thankful that I grew up in a home where the Spirit could reside and with a family that taught me the gospel. Thank you so much. I liked Elder Bednar's talk about early warning signals. It's something I can apply as a missionary--- discuss doctrines taught from the Book of Mormon with others so as to identify their needs, bear testimony spontaneously, and invite others to act. It was amazing how all of the talks harmonized-- I felt a strong impression that the leaders of this Church are prophets, seers and revelators and they know exactly what the world needs to hear and know because the Lord reveals it to them. I was especially amazed when Elder Andersen of the Twelve said that the speakers aren't assigned topics-- they don't collaborate or anything-- yet somehow it was very apparent that the central message the Lord wanted His people to hear was to fortify the home and to fortify our families.
Brother Doug Tice is firmly committed to be baptized April 24th. He's told his home teachers, the bishop, and even the stake president! He's come a long way-- from not even having a testimony that Jesus Christ is the Savior to believing that being baptized into His Church is the right thing to do. Elder Collier and I are pretty excited for him. It's been a while since either of us have seen someone we're currently teaching get baptized. It's a great blessing. President Sexton is going to come with us to our lesson with Bro. Tice tomorrow when we teach him the Law of Chastity and the Law of Tithing.
We're still working with Michelle Luper too. She still wants to be baptized but she's struggling with coming to church so we're going to have to push back her baptismal date. Hopefully she'll be baptized on the same day as Bro. Tice. We contact Michelle daily and teach her short lessons. She's reading and praying about the Book of Mormon and doing other things neccessary for her to be baptized. She's met the Relief Society President and another sister from the ward so she has fellowship. She just needs to come to church a couple times to show that commitment!
These Nike socks are wonderful. Elder Collier and I have listened to all the good music you sent. I love Cherie Call's "he gives flowers to everyone" CD. I like the song about moving mountains. The cover of her "ocean in me" CD is funny because the "ocean" she's standing next to is very obviously the Great Salt Lake. Antelope Island can be spotted on the back cover. And of course the Johnny Cash music is great. Elder Collier's from the south so he loves it.
So we're on for IHOP next GC right?
Love y'all!
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
California Long Beach Mission
Mission Secretary
March 31st, 2010 (Bonus Email)
Hey!
I couldn't wait so I already opened the package. Thank you so much! I am so excited to wear those socks. Had I waited a couple more weeks and my current socks would reach a sanctified state-- (holy.) I am going to make Elder Collier a Cherie Call fan. So far I think I've only met one missionary who may think Cherie Call's nearly as cool as I do. He's Elder Lefevor, the one who has the Saturday's Warrier soundtrack. And those ties are shnazzy! The candy shall be shared with mine friends in the office. Thank you dearly. I haven't sifted through the whole package but that's what I've found. Muchas gracias mi familia amada!
I still have some time so I'll write you some more words. Last week was the first time in quite a while we taught over 20 lessons. We taught 21 lessons, which is great, especially since we're in the office four days out of the week. The Lord has blessed us abundantly.
I was pondering about Alma 40:12 last week during one of my studies and I received an impression about what Alma teaches there. It may seem obvious and simple but I just kind of realized a little bit more why we need to know about the Spirit World. Remember that the same spirit that you have right now will pass on and carry with it your personality, the knowledge you've gained, and the consequences of the choices you've made in this life whether good or bad (Alma 34:34). In Preach My Gospel if you read about the Spirit World you may notice that the words "paradise" and "prison" aren't mentioned. These are just words used to describe the state of happiness of the righteous and the state of misery and bondage of the wicked. Well, the Spirit testified to me that the paradisiacal state of the righteous in the spirit world is something that we need to achieve in our mortal probation. In fact the only people who are "received into a state of happiness" are those that reach a state of happiness in this life. It only makes perfect sense. No one should leave this life unsure of what kind of a state they'll find themself in the spirit world. How one lives the day they die is who they'll be on the other side.
I'm so excited for General Conference! It's a missionary holiday. General Conference is by far the most quoted movie in the mission field. Our Bishop said he baptized one of the people that's probably going to be called as a Seventy this weekend. That's pretty amazing.
Happy Easter!
love,
Tyler
I couldn't wait so I already opened the package. Thank you so much! I am so excited to wear those socks. Had I waited a couple more weeks and my current socks would reach a sanctified state-- (holy.) I am going to make Elder Collier a Cherie Call fan. So far I think I've only met one missionary who may think Cherie Call's nearly as cool as I do. He's Elder Lefevor, the one who has the Saturday's Warrier soundtrack. And those ties are shnazzy! The candy shall be shared with mine friends in the office. Thank you dearly. I haven't sifted through the whole package but that's what I've found. Muchas gracias mi familia amada!
I still have some time so I'll write you some more words. Last week was the first time in quite a while we taught over 20 lessons. We taught 21 lessons, which is great, especially since we're in the office four days out of the week. The Lord has blessed us abundantly.
I was pondering about Alma 40:12 last week during one of my studies and I received an impression about what Alma teaches there. It may seem obvious and simple but I just kind of realized a little bit more why we need to know about the Spirit World. Remember that the same spirit that you have right now will pass on and carry with it your personality, the knowledge you've gained, and the consequences of the choices you've made in this life whether good or bad (Alma 34:34). In Preach My Gospel if you read about the Spirit World you may notice that the words "paradise" and "prison" aren't mentioned. These are just words used to describe the state of happiness of the righteous and the state of misery and bondage of the wicked. Well, the Spirit testified to me that the paradisiacal state of the righteous in the spirit world is something that we need to achieve in our mortal probation. In fact the only people who are "received into a state of happiness" are those that reach a state of happiness in this life. It only makes perfect sense. No one should leave this life unsure of what kind of a state they'll find themself in the spirit world. How one lives the day they die is who they'll be on the other side.
I'm so excited for General Conference! It's a missionary holiday. General Conference is by far the most quoted movie in the mission field. Our Bishop said he baptized one of the people that's probably going to be called as a Seventy this weekend. That's pretty amazing.
Happy Easter!
love,
Tyler
March 31st, 2010 (Email)
Hello again!
Hm... So it seems as though I forgot to tell you that this was Zone Conference week. Sorry about that! Don't worry, I'll always e-mail you every week. The first week of every transfer I have zone conference on Tuesday over here so on those weeks I'll be e-mailing you on Wednesday. Such is the case today.
The Fed-Ex guy JUST walked into the office and handed me your package almost immediately after I read that you'd sent it off. Good timing!
We had another miracle happen yesterday. Bro. Doug Tice is the husband of a re-activated member of our ward. The missionaries have been teaching him since Elder Rada was serving here and even before that. He's what we call an "eternal investigator." Anyway, we visit him every week and he comes to church every Sunday for all three hours. He's read the Book of Mormon twice and he's currently half-way through the D&C. Yesterday we really focused our lesson on baptism. We usually bring it up but this time we were really bold. He's finally set a goal to be baptized. April 24th is what we're working towards. If he wants to be baptized sooner we'll baptize him sooner. But for now that's the goal. It's a really big deal that he's even set a baptismal goal. We told the Bishop Kovacs and Brother Minus and they were enthralled.
Michelle is still doing good. We still have a goal set for her to be baptized April 17th. She didn't come to church on Sunday because of an issue with her kids but she's made arrangements to come to church to see General Conference next Sunday.
Nick Katanjent came to church for the third time. He's the 16-year-old surfer kid. He's made good friends with the priest quorum. Hopefully he'll commit to be baptized when we visit him tonight. He likes church and he likes it when we visit him but he's kind of intimidated by the rules aka the commandments. He's a good kid and he really needs good influences in his life.
Zone Conference was good yesterday. We were instructed on some of the things we must do in order to have 88 baptisms in May. We focused quite a bit on teaching-- how to begin teaching and how to focus our lessons around baptism. President focused a lot on the Book of Mormon and he invited us to read the Book of Mormon within the next 87 days. Joseph Smith translated it in 87 days so I should be able to read it in 87 days. President emphasized that the Book of Mormon truly is the keystone of our religion. He shared a story about a convert couple that he met when he was teaching at the MTC. They seemed to know a lot about the church, especially for recent converts. President found out that they used to be members of the Re-organized LDS Church. They said that they started noticing that their church wasn't teaching from the Book of Mormon anymore. The Book of Mormon and the First Vision really wasn't emphasized anymore in that religion, and they were alarmed. They called up a family member who was a patriarch in their church and he said "There is only one church you can go to that teaches from the Book of Mormon anymore. I would follow you if I weren't so old." So they called our missionaries and were baptized into our church in a week. I've heard that the R-LDS Church hardly exists anymore-- it rapidly started dissolving when they started ignoring the Book of Mormon and when they allowed women to have the priesthood. President Sexton also taught us to search for the precepts found in the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon would help us draw nearer to God than any other book "by abiding by its precepts." Many precepts in the Book of Mormon start with the phrase "and thus we see." For example: Helaman 3:27-30, Alma 30:60, Alma 24:19. They're all over the place. President also taught us that an important purpose of the Book of Mormon is to testify of the reality of Christ's resurrection. He said that all around us Christian Churches are changing their beliefs about this fundamental truth. He said that a Baptist once told him that the biggest difference between the beliefs of our Church and the Baptist beliefs is that we take the resurrection of Jesus Christ too literally. It's true. Our belief about the Lord's Resurrection opposes the Trinity.
So in case you haven't noticed yet the subject headers for my e-mails are lines from Saturday's Warrier songs. An elder I went on exchanges with a couple weeks ago had the soundtrack and we listened to it all the way through. It was classic.
Let me list some of the excuses our investigators have given us lately for not coming to church: "My pants don't fit." "I have hemorrhoids." "Our dog jumped out of the window!" (I lie not, these are legit.)
Well I can't think of anything else that happened. Yep Sister Choi has been honorably released. Hope you're all feeling better! And don't worry about the weight loss Dad. "Courage take! For goodness sake!"
Love y'all!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
Hm... So it seems as though I forgot to tell you that this was Zone Conference week. Sorry about that! Don't worry, I'll always e-mail you every week. The first week of every transfer I have zone conference on Tuesday over here so on those weeks I'll be e-mailing you on Wednesday. Such is the case today.
The Fed-Ex guy JUST walked into the office and handed me your package almost immediately after I read that you'd sent it off. Good timing!
We had another miracle happen yesterday. Bro. Doug Tice is the husband of a re-activated member of our ward. The missionaries have been teaching him since Elder Rada was serving here and even before that. He's what we call an "eternal investigator." Anyway, we visit him every week and he comes to church every Sunday for all three hours. He's read the Book of Mormon twice and he's currently half-way through the D&C. Yesterday we really focused our lesson on baptism. We usually bring it up but this time we were really bold. He's finally set a goal to be baptized. April 24th is what we're working towards. If he wants to be baptized sooner we'll baptize him sooner. But for now that's the goal. It's a really big deal that he's even set a baptismal goal. We told the Bishop Kovacs and Brother Minus and they were enthralled.
Michelle is still doing good. We still have a goal set for her to be baptized April 17th. She didn't come to church on Sunday because of an issue with her kids but she's made arrangements to come to church to see General Conference next Sunday.
Nick Katanjent came to church for the third time. He's the 16-year-old surfer kid. He's made good friends with the priest quorum. Hopefully he'll commit to be baptized when we visit him tonight. He likes church and he likes it when we visit him but he's kind of intimidated by the rules aka the commandments. He's a good kid and he really needs good influences in his life.
Zone Conference was good yesterday. We were instructed on some of the things we must do in order to have 88 baptisms in May. We focused quite a bit on teaching-- how to begin teaching and how to focus our lessons around baptism. President focused a lot on the Book of Mormon and he invited us to read the Book of Mormon within the next 87 days. Joseph Smith translated it in 87 days so I should be able to read it in 87 days. President emphasized that the Book of Mormon truly is the keystone of our religion. He shared a story about a convert couple that he met when he was teaching at the MTC. They seemed to know a lot about the church, especially for recent converts. President found out that they used to be members of the Re-organized LDS Church. They said that they started noticing that their church wasn't teaching from the Book of Mormon anymore. The Book of Mormon and the First Vision really wasn't emphasized anymore in that religion, and they were alarmed. They called up a family member who was a patriarch in their church and he said "There is only one church you can go to that teaches from the Book of Mormon anymore. I would follow you if I weren't so old." So they called our missionaries and were baptized into our church in a week. I've heard that the R-LDS Church hardly exists anymore-- it rapidly started dissolving when they started ignoring the Book of Mormon and when they allowed women to have the priesthood. President Sexton also taught us to search for the precepts found in the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon would help us draw nearer to God than any other book "by abiding by its precepts." Many precepts in the Book of Mormon start with the phrase "and thus we see." For example: Helaman 3:27-30, Alma 30:60, Alma 24:19. They're all over the place. President also taught us that an important purpose of the Book of Mormon is to testify of the reality of Christ's resurrection. He said that all around us Christian Churches are changing their beliefs about this fundamental truth. He said that a Baptist once told him that the biggest difference between the beliefs of our Church and the Baptist beliefs is that we take the resurrection of Jesus Christ too literally. It's true. Our belief about the Lord's Resurrection opposes the Trinity.
So in case you haven't noticed yet the subject headers for my e-mails are lines from Saturday's Warrier songs. An elder I went on exchanges with a couple weeks ago had the soundtrack and we listened to it all the way through. It was classic.
Let me list some of the excuses our investigators have given us lately for not coming to church: "My pants don't fit." "I have hemorrhoids." "Our dog jumped out of the window!" (I lie not, these are legit.)
Well I can't think of anything else that happened. Yep Sister Choi has been honorably released. Hope you're all feeling better! And don't worry about the weight loss Dad. "Courage take! For goodness sake!"
Love y'all!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
Saturday, March 27, 2010
March 23rd, 2010 (Email)
Hello!
This e-mail may or may not end up being shorter because Elder Collier and I are helping with transfers. 21 new missionaries arrived today and we're going to have to help them do their driving tests and we're also going to have to help drive them to the mission home. Only 4 missionaries are departing so there are now 135 missionaries in the mission. It's the biggest transfer President Sexton has ever had to organize. He had to open a new zone-- he split Long Beach into North Long Beach and South Long Beach. My zone is the Long Beach East zone. Anyway, Sister Choi is officially gone now. Elder Beverley is going to be in my district so that'll be fun. Elder Harris is going to train again as District Leader of my old Compton district.
Helen Seabolt was baptized by Elders Dunn and Beverley on Sunday! Remember her? She's the 92 year old lady in a wheelchair who was afraid of the water. I'm glad that Elder Beverley and I started teaching her. It's about time she got baptized!
Yesterday a miracle happened. We had an appointment with a new investigator named Michelle. We taught her the 1st Lesson and invited her to be baptized and she committed to be baptized April 17th! She sounded pretty committed when she said yes. She'd actually met with the missionaries about a year ago and she was almost baptized then but some things weren't right in her life and kept her from being baptized at the time. She went to church a few times when she was taking the lessons the first go around. We're really excited for her. We've also received some good referrals from the members lately. We think we could baptized at least 2 people next month. I believe Michelle and Nick will be baptized. Nick came to church again and he liked it again. We should be seeing even more success in this area soon. President has told us that his vision from the beginning of his mission was for us to baptize 88 people one of the months before he leaves. When he and Sister Sexton started out here they had 22 baptisms that month. They set a goal to double that with 44 and we've reached that goal several times. Now we have a goal to double that.
Hey, next time you go to the Olive Garden by the Layton Hills Mall request to have a waitress named Heather Silva serve you. She's Elder Collier's sister. You should go there within the next six weeks so that you can say that I'm currently companions with her brother.
When we drove through the mission in July of 2008 did we drive around in Seal Beach for a little bit? Was that where the Olympic Volleyball team practiced? One of the roads we often drive down near the beach looks really familiar.
Okay so this is part 2 of my e-mail. I just got back from doing driving tests with the new elders. That was fun. They're way funny when they're fresh from the MTC. One of them saw a man jogging by the road and he said "where's his companion?!" And there are two new elders with funny names: Elder Overy and Elder Egbert. I hope they're companions.
I got the pictures! Muchas gracias for la photage! You're all so cute.
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
P.S.--If you're taking requests for an easter package I do have a few: I need more socks, preferably black and blue. I hear that Nike makes really nice black socks. Also, one of the Assistants asked President Sexton if skinny ties were okay to wear and President said "Yeah. They're coming back into style so I suppose everyone will have skinnier ties in the near future." My ties are getting old and some of them are stained so I was wondering if you could get me some skinny ties. I have a skinny pink tie in my drawer back home. It's too pink to wear out here but it's just the right size. And maybe some new music? Do you have any more Cherie Call? I only have the one you sent but I know that "He Gives Flowers"(?) and "The Ocean In Me"(?) are good too. So far all the stuff I've heard from her is appropriate. So if you have any more of her stuff you could burn me some if you want. Thanks!
This e-mail may or may not end up being shorter because Elder Collier and I are helping with transfers. 21 new missionaries arrived today and we're going to have to help them do their driving tests and we're also going to have to help drive them to the mission home. Only 4 missionaries are departing so there are now 135 missionaries in the mission. It's the biggest transfer President Sexton has ever had to organize. He had to open a new zone-- he split Long Beach into North Long Beach and South Long Beach. My zone is the Long Beach East zone. Anyway, Sister Choi is officially gone now. Elder Beverley is going to be in my district so that'll be fun. Elder Harris is going to train again as District Leader of my old Compton district.
Helen Seabolt was baptized by Elders Dunn and Beverley on Sunday! Remember her? She's the 92 year old lady in a wheelchair who was afraid of the water. I'm glad that Elder Beverley and I started teaching her. It's about time she got baptized!
Yesterday a miracle happened. We had an appointment with a new investigator named Michelle. We taught her the 1st Lesson and invited her to be baptized and she committed to be baptized April 17th! She sounded pretty committed when she said yes. She'd actually met with the missionaries about a year ago and she was almost baptized then but some things weren't right in her life and kept her from being baptized at the time. She went to church a few times when she was taking the lessons the first go around. We're really excited for her. We've also received some good referrals from the members lately. We think we could baptized at least 2 people next month. I believe Michelle and Nick will be baptized. Nick came to church again and he liked it again. We should be seeing even more success in this area soon. President has told us that his vision from the beginning of his mission was for us to baptize 88 people one of the months before he leaves. When he and Sister Sexton started out here they had 22 baptisms that month. They set a goal to double that with 44 and we've reached that goal several times. Now we have a goal to double that.
Hey, next time you go to the Olive Garden by the Layton Hills Mall request to have a waitress named Heather Silva serve you. She's Elder Collier's sister. You should go there within the next six weeks so that you can say that I'm currently companions with her brother.
When we drove through the mission in July of 2008 did we drive around in Seal Beach for a little bit? Was that where the Olympic Volleyball team practiced? One of the roads we often drive down near the beach looks really familiar.
Okay so this is part 2 of my e-mail. I just got back from doing driving tests with the new elders. That was fun. They're way funny when they're fresh from the MTC. One of them saw a man jogging by the road and he said "where's his companion?!" And there are two new elders with funny names: Elder Overy and Elder Egbert. I hope they're companions.
I got the pictures! Muchas gracias for la photage! You're all so cute.
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
P.S.--If you're taking requests for an easter package I do have a few: I need more socks, preferably black and blue. I hear that Nike makes really nice black socks. Also, one of the Assistants asked President Sexton if skinny ties were okay to wear and President said "Yeah. They're coming back into style so I suppose everyone will have skinnier ties in the near future." My ties are getting old and some of them are stained so I was wondering if you could get me some skinny ties. I have a skinny pink tie in my drawer back home. It's too pink to wear out here but it's just the right size. And maybe some new music? Do you have any more Cherie Call? I only have the one you sent but I know that "He Gives Flowers"(?) and "The Ocean In Me"(?) are good too. So far all the stuff I've heard from her is appropriate. So if you have any more of her stuff you could burn me some if you want. Thanks!
