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