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.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
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
