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!