Pictures!!!

The baptism of William Peters

up 40lbs

Colored Pencil FX
Christmas Eve

Some videos a member gave Elder Rodriguez and I. We didn't know what to do with them.

Some cool magnets a member gave me.

My Christmas tree.

La calle cuatro

La Pelota Sagrada
The Sacred Ball

January 6th, 2009 Letter

Hey Fam!
Here's a bunch of pictures. I'll take a picture with David & Dixie and fam soon. We'll probably get a good one at George's baptism.
You know, it's odd, but I felt a lot more homesick in the MTC than I have in the field. Christmas was different but it wasn't bad at all. It was one of the best Christmases I've ever had, right up there with the Christmas where my aunt gave me those pink bunny suit pajamas. I got to go caroling in Spanish. I got to eat tamales, I got to make a Christmas tree out of a lamp. Best of all I got to call and talk to you. It was a lot less weird than when I called you in the airport. I was freaking out a little that morning. It still stands out in my mind as one of the most surreal days of my life.
New Years Day was awesome because of William Peters baptism. So now I have baptized someone, I've ordained someone to the Aaronic Priesthood, and I've confirmed the Gift of the Holy Ghost to someone. It's been a really productive couple of months and things are just getting started.
There's a scripture in Isaiah that describes kind of how I feel about this work, the Gathering of Israel. It's Isa. 49:18. I feel like most of the people we've taught have just gathered themselves together and come to us to be baptized. It's getting etched into my mind that the Lord does his own work. I say it again and again because it's so so so true. Israel is being gathered. We're being prepared for the Millennium. The ensign of standard has been lifted to prepare us to be worthy for the Millennium and it's awesome!
Hey by the way can you do me a favor? Can you sell all my rated R movies? I don't think I'm going to watch them anymore.
In three weeks Elder Rodriguez is most likely going to be transferred. It makes me kinda sad. Elder Esterholdt has always told me that I'm extremely lucky to have Elder Rodriguez as my trainer. He said "Basically he's teaching you how to baptize people."
So is it back to school time now? The most wonderful time of the year? I hope the snow's treating you okay. The constant sunshine isn't too bad once you get used to it.
I Love You Mom!
I Love You Dad!
I Love You Hannah!
And You Too Rosie!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis

January 6th, 2009 (Email)

Hey!
William Peters was baptized January 1st 2009! Elder Rodriguez baptized him and I confirmed him. That was a great experience. I felt the Spirit so strong when we were in the circle giving him his confimation blessing. William moved to Victorville a couple days later but he was so happy to finally be baptized. He wanted us to be involved with it so everything worked out great. And that was definitely the highlight of New Years. I think I heard fireworks in my dreams at midnight but I'm not entirely positive. Apparently I slept through a bunch of phone calls that night from some Spanish investigators. I'm a deep sleeper now but I still manage to wake up at 6:30.
So Mom it's interesting that you'd bring up David and Dixie's son George because I have an amazing story for you. I have a few good stories this time so I hope I have time to write them all. We visited David and Dixie about a week ago and we started teaching them about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We'd planned this particular lesson out a little while ago so we knew what we needed to do and we just went through with it. We told them what a blessing it is to have the Gift of the Holy Ghost and the Priesthood in the home. The wheels started turning in David and Dixie's heads ("I am able to do mine own work" -2Nephi 27:20) and before we knew it George commited to be baptized January 17th!
Friday I went on splits with another Greenie named Elder Mckinney. I know the area pretty well now that I've driven a few times. Elder McKinney and I visited Mayra and I decided to commit her to be baptized on the 11th since she's moving soon and she thought it sounded like a great idea. But after we left she talked with her mom and changed her mind. We're still meeting with her though. The mom asked us a bunch of questions yesterday and now we're going to visit with her too. That day we also visited this new lady from Tahiti named Jenny. Jenny is having difficulties with life but she likes meeting with us. She's going back to Tahiti in less than a month and she's interested in getting baptized before she returns. I took Elder McKinney to visit Jason Patterson later Friday night. We walked in to see that Jason was watching the new Emma Smith movie on BluRay on his giant flatscreen TV. Oh Jason. He's so cool. Elder McKinney was blown away at how Mormon Jason is. He just needs to be baptized.
Saturday I went on splits with Elder Esterholdt. I was really tired after 2 straight days of splits. Elder Esterholdt and I took a member named Scott to visit Sam Sakely. It was probably the most spiritually intense lesson I've ever been involved in. We talked about Mosiah 24 and likened it to her situation. Elder Esterholdt was bold like always and it was great. The Holy Ghost was telling us what to say. Sam cried. I cried a little. Scott cried a little. It was great. The Holy Ghost truly has a still small voice and on Saturday I had the rare priviledge to have him speak to me with actual words. He told me to challenge Sam to bear her testimony to her Mom again. She'd tried this before so I wasn't sure, but then I was prompted again so I went through with it. The Spirit was really really strong and we knew that Heavenly Father was giving Sam a promise. Sam went through with it and talked to her Mom that night. We called her later and Sam said her mom wants to bring friends and family to the baptism. It should happen soon.
Bro. Stelly just got released from prison! Have I told you about the Stellys? They're a really cool family. They've been less-active since Bro. Stelly went to prison but on Sunday they were all at church. Bro. Stelly read all the standard scriptures in prison. He read the Book of Mormon twice. He has a testimony and he wants to be baptized too. And to top it all off he loves Jimi Hendrix and he plays the guitar left-handed. We're going to start teaching him this week.
We haven't seen Roxy for a while but we're seeing her tonight. I hope she'll go through with her baptism. We've been preparing this lesson for a while. She's had some doubts because she thinks she's too young to be baptized (doubts courtesy of her mother. Mom & Dad, thank you for letting me make my own decisions with my life.) but we're going to tell her otherwise! She's so ready! Hopefully some Alma 19:6 will happen.
I'm almost done with Isaiah now. I'm on chapter fifty something. It's been great. My testimony of the Book of Mormon has strengthened a lot from it. After I finish I'm going to pick up where I left off toward the end of Alma with my Book of Mormon reading. Above all things its essential for a missionary to study the BoM.
Things are still great in Buena Park! I'm going to send some pictures home today so look forward to some Christmas pics and etc.!
I love you!
-Elder Tyler Lewis
P.S.- I'm starting a missionary binder now so could you send me a couple pictures- 1 of Nicoles' baptism and 1 of David Ramos' baptism? Thanks!

Sabrina Sanchez's Baptism (December 2008)

(Elder Lewis, Sabrina Sanchez, Sabrina Sanchez's Father, Elder Rodriguez)

December 30th, 2008 (Email)

Hey fam,
I forgot to tell you on the phone that President and Sister Sexton say "Merry Christmas!" Pres. Sexton commited me to say that, but I was so excited to get to call home that I just forgot.
Well Christmas was pretty good. I ate tomales for the first time in my life Christmas Eve. I had four dinners that night. It was nuts. We went caroling to the Spanish-Speaking people and they just kept feeding us and feeding us... No wonder I've gained weight so exponentially! I had six tomales that night. They're really good! I thought they'd just be like burritos but there's all sorts of types of tomales. Some of them were pinapple cake, some were spicy, some had beef, some just have cheese. But in any case they're all really good. And they take all day for the people to cook.
Well William Peters told us last night that he's moving to Victorville this Saturday. So we may not be able to baptize him. We'll see though. And Roxy told us that she's not sure if she's ready to be baptized yet. Her Mom's not entirely supportive. We're going to talk to both of them tonight. January's supposed to be our month of miracles! Well, this month was supposed to be our month of miracles too. But all sorts of things seem to be going wrong. Cold feet. Sandy foundations. Opposition and random happenstances. But it'll all turn out for the best. Esta todo bien! (It's all good!)
So before the phone died I was starting to tell you about how I'm studying Isaiah now. I've found that one of the big messages in the Book of Mormon is to read Isaiah. Even Jesus Christ himself flat out said "great are the words of Isaiah." In the New Testament the prophent Jesus quotes the most is Isaiah. In the Book of Mormon Nephi and Jacob and Jesus again quote Isaiah a ton. So now I'm figuring out why. Truly the words of Isaiah are great and they are helping me understand the Book of Mormon and its purpose to a much deeper degree. Isaiah has greatly increased my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and this church. He has even helped me understand the Temple ordinances better. Of course I won't delve into any explanations over this email, but I highly suggest you check out Isa. 22:20-25. I had to read it again and again, and if I had a celestial room available I'm sure I'd understand it even more, but during one of my studies that scripture absolutely knocked me over.
So why am I studying Isaiah? Because the Spirit randomly advised me to during one of my studies a couple weeks ago. I wasn't even studying anything related to Isaiah. The thought just popped into my head: "You NEED to read Isaiah." So I followed through and now my testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown even more solid. I can't wait to read the second half. Nephi says that only those filled with the spirit of prophecy can understand Isaiah. I learned what the spirit of prophecy is last zone conference: It's a strong testimony of Jesus Christ. -"...but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah, for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning." 1Nephi 19:23. So anybody with a testimony of Jesus Christ can learn to understand the words of Isaiah.
Well I'll get off that subject before I get carried away. I'm pretty obsessed with it during my study time. So yesterday we visited David and Dixie and they fed us a pomegranite. Is that how you spell that? I don't know. But it was really really really good. They also gave us legit quesadias. Then we taught them about baptism. They really want to be baptized and they said that they even want to be married in the temple. They're full of questions now of course. It's great meeting with that wonderful family every week. We have a new investigator named Mayra and she came to church the day after our first lesson with her! Yeah she's pretty awesome.
Things are still going good! I'm loving the sunshine! Short sleeved shirts are where it's at! Sorry to rub that in! I'm sure you're enjoying the snow so it doesn't matter, right? ;)
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis