"today's forecast - Jesus reigns forever"
Hello!
That subject heading is a direct quote from the billboard of some church just around the corner from our apartment. I laughed pretty hard at that one. The last one said "if there's no God then there wouldn't be any atheists."
Jessica Maulion's doing better now. She prayed and she says she's at peace now. We've taught her all the lessons and now she just needs to be interviewed and be baptized and confirmed. But here's the thing- she was on vacation this weekend so now she's missed church three times in a row. She's been to church twice but Elder Harris and I feel that she should come one more time before her baptism. So we're trying to decide on what we'll switch the date to when we talk with her tomorrow. Our District Leader, Elder Choi, thinks we should baptize her on the 27th (this Sunday) but that would leave a 2 week gap between her baptism and her confirmation due to General Conference (converts get confirmed during sacrament meetings.) So I'm not sure what to do yet. We've been praying for direction a lot on this one.
Things aren't going too well with that spanish family we've been teaching. They're still interested to learn and they're still there for our appointments BUT they never go to church and the mom and the dad aren't married. We taught the family the law of chastity (the 14-yr-old daughter has a 2-yr-old daughter!!) and we invited them to keep that commandment but none of them said they're willing to live it. :( The mom and the dad aren't willing to get married yet, so... well, they can't get baptized yet that's for sure. We invited the daughter to be baptized with the parents a couple appointments ago before we knew their whole situation but she didn't want to commit to anything. We're having another appointment with them tomorrow and if things keep going as they are we're going to have to drop them. I've enjoyed teaching that family though. We've been teaching them in Spanish because their English is very limited and we've received a lot of help from a sister from the Spanish ward named Hermana Rubio.
The mother of one of the less-active families we've worked with ever since I've been here is going through the temple this Saturday! She's been through a lot. She's cuaght three different kinds of cancer and last night she shared an amazing experience with us about one of the times she died. I believe she said that was the third time she's technically died. I love that family- we're focusing on helping the 14-yr-old son and daughter be more active in the church. The son hasn't received the priesthood yet. And last night Elder Harris and I felt a strong impression that we need to try to invite the non-member husband to take the lessons again. Elder Anderson, Elder Rada and I have all invited the husband to learn and be baptized but we didn't see any progress. It's been a while since we've tried again so that's what we'll do.
Last night I had to report our weekly numbers to our district leader as is usual on Sunday evenings. Elder Harris and I tend to find a lot of new investigators because we follow what Preach My Gospel says to do to count new investigators: we teach a lesson and set up a return appointment. I've been taught from the beginning of my mission that to count someone as a new investigator you need to teach a principle or two, set up a return appointment, and leave them a commitment. Anyway last week we found 12 new investigators and our district leader sounded like he and the zone leaders think I'm being dishonest about how many people we find since we only have one investigator with a baptismal date. It's true that about a week ago we had four people with a baptismal date but that didn't work out but no one took that into account. I'm willing to cut back on the actual number of people we count when we find just to avoid unwanted attention but when it comes down to it we honestly found 12 new investigators. I'm not sure if they're concerned about how we count them or if we're inviting people to be baptized during the first lesson but either way I thought I was doing what I was supposed to. I could be wrong though. The district leader did give me some good advice, which was to invite more people to be baptized when we invite them to learn. I'll follow that. We invite during the 1st lesson when we get to actually sit down with people and teach them the full 1st lesson.
So there's some missionary drama for you. I'm going to ask President what I should do because 1.I don't want attention and 2.I don't want to teach Elder Harris false doctrine if I've been doing this wrong. And if you've got some advice I'd appreciate that too.
And that's the week as far as I remember it. I haven't heard from David Ramos or David and Dixie since I left and I don't need any medicine but thanks. I'm suspicious about whether or not I'm still allergic to poultry because I have definitely been fed chicken by accident at least once. So I wouldn't worry about the shots but I'll still be careful. That's funny about Karsten and that's scary about Hannah! Just kidding. But seriously am I going to recognize my little sister anymore in a year??
Have a good day out there in bufoo!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
September 15th, 2009 (Email)
(Subject: "if you're in bufoo you're probably poppin' prairie dogs")
Hello!
The subject heading is a direct quote from Elder Harris. I'm learning all sorts of Wyoming vocabulary such as "bufoo" which I guess means "way out in the boonies" and "the popo" which means "the police."
Just so you know my next P-Day is on Monday due to the Mission Tour happening on Tuesday. Elder Craig C. Christensen of the Seventy will be coming to the mission that day. So expect my e-mail on Monday.
This week was a rollercoaster week. We invited Ana and Ramiro Rodriguez to be baptized on the 26th of this month and they said they'd prepare themselves. We had a member with us for the lesson named Hermana (Sister) Rubio and she's an amazing member missionary. She's deadset on helping us teach the Rodriguez family. However, the family didn't come to Stake Conference on Sunday so we're going to have to push their baptismal date back to October 10th (Dad's B-Dizzle.) We're planning on inviting their daughter, Erandi(?) to be baptized that day as well. I've never helped baptize someone into a spanish ward before so I'm excited.
Jessica Maulion got anti'd last week. Which means she received an e-mail from a stranger with a link to some anti-mormon clip on YouTube. It confused her and discouraged her a little so she decided she doesn't want to be baptized this weekend. She left us a note on her door that explained the whole thing. She said she's glad we gave her some direction and that she'd keep living the things we taught her but until she gets some answers she wants to hold back a little. So we stopped by her house and persuaded her to keep taking the lessons and then yesterday we set a goal with her for her to prepare herself to be baptized on the 26th. So we're just about back on track with her. We shared some things Elder David F. Evans of the Seventy shared during Stake Conference about testing Moroni's Promise and finding your testimony through obedience.
I got into a slight car accident last week. My first one hooray! There's this crazy freeway intersection next to an Asian Buffet we went to for dinner and I didn't see the long line of cars suddenly backed up at the red light until it was too late. Nothing happened to either of the cars and the men in the other car ended up being really nice. Our license plate was bent just a little. I called President Sexton and asked what I was supposed to do and he said "well if the other people don't want to call the police or anything I'd say that you don't need to do anything." So that was that. I gave the other driver $10 for gas and apologized and he was really happy about that. My bad! So now in accordance with the rules I can't drive until the beginning part of October. So now I'm on cell phone duty again!
I've decided that I really like sushi. The more I've had it the more I've liked it. I had some eel sushi a few days ago. It's just so simple: some fish, some tofu or some sort of veggie, rice and seaweed. So good!
So that was my week in a nutshell. We're still doing pretty good. We have some great investigators and we enjoy every opportunity we get to teach. I'm sure this second year will be just as amazing as the first. Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
P.S.- could you do me a favor and tell someone in the stake presidency that the mission office address is 6500 E. Atherton St. Long Beach CA 90815? They keep sending my letters to the Signal Hill address and we're not there anymore. Gracias!
Hello!
The subject heading is a direct quote from Elder Harris. I'm learning all sorts of Wyoming vocabulary such as "bufoo" which I guess means "way out in the boonies" and "the popo" which means "the police."
Just so you know my next P-Day is on Monday due to the Mission Tour happening on Tuesday. Elder Craig C. Christensen of the Seventy will be coming to the mission that day. So expect my e-mail on Monday.
This week was a rollercoaster week. We invited Ana and Ramiro Rodriguez to be baptized on the 26th of this month and they said they'd prepare themselves. We had a member with us for the lesson named Hermana (Sister) Rubio and she's an amazing member missionary. She's deadset on helping us teach the Rodriguez family. However, the family didn't come to Stake Conference on Sunday so we're going to have to push their baptismal date back to October 10th (Dad's B-Dizzle.) We're planning on inviting their daughter, Erandi(?) to be baptized that day as well. I've never helped baptize someone into a spanish ward before so I'm excited.
Jessica Maulion got anti'd last week. Which means she received an e-mail from a stranger with a link to some anti-mormon clip on YouTube. It confused her and discouraged her a little so she decided she doesn't want to be baptized this weekend. She left us a note on her door that explained the whole thing. She said she's glad we gave her some direction and that she'd keep living the things we taught her but until she gets some answers she wants to hold back a little. So we stopped by her house and persuaded her to keep taking the lessons and then yesterday we set a goal with her for her to prepare herself to be baptized on the 26th. So we're just about back on track with her. We shared some things Elder David F. Evans of the Seventy shared during Stake Conference about testing Moroni's Promise and finding your testimony through obedience.
I got into a slight car accident last week. My first one hooray! There's this crazy freeway intersection next to an Asian Buffet we went to for dinner and I didn't see the long line of cars suddenly backed up at the red light until it was too late. Nothing happened to either of the cars and the men in the other car ended up being really nice. Our license plate was bent just a little. I called President Sexton and asked what I was supposed to do and he said "well if the other people don't want to call the police or anything I'd say that you don't need to do anything." So that was that. I gave the other driver $10 for gas and apologized and he was really happy about that. My bad! So now in accordance with the rules I can't drive until the beginning part of October. So now I'm on cell phone duty again!
I've decided that I really like sushi. The more I've had it the more I've liked it. I had some eel sushi a few days ago. It's just so simple: some fish, some tofu or some sort of veggie, rice and seaweed. So good!
So that was my week in a nutshell. We're still doing pretty good. We have some great investigators and we enjoy every opportunity we get to teach. I'm sure this second year will be just as amazing as the first. Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
P.S.- could you do me a favor and tell someone in the stake presidency that the mission office address is 6500 E. Atherton St. Long Beach CA 90815? They keep sending my letters to the Signal Hill address and we're not there anymore. Gracias!
September 8th, 2009 (Email)
Howdy!
Elder Harris and I are still working hard just trying to find, teach and baptize people. It's been a good couple of weeks. Jessica is still progressing just fine. She committed to keep the laws of tithing and fasting last time we visited her. I asked her if she felt a difference since she started meeting with us and she said she really has. She told us that when she moved here from Las Vegas she was feeling lost and wasn't sure what she needed to do and then Elder Rada and I came and knocked on her door just two weeks later! She has a lot of faith.
We committed another investigator to a baptismal date. His name's Charles Cole. He's an african-american brother who lives in the same neighborhood as Jessica. Now, we don't think he really understands what committing to being baptized really means quite yet, so we're real anxious for our next visit with him so that we can explain a little bit more and invite his mother to be baptized as well. Neither of them have come to church yet (partly due to Labor Day weekend) so it may take a little longer for us to work with them. I've noticed that Heavenly Father really prepared a lot of people for us to teach in that particular neighborhood. There are at least two other investigators we're working with there as well. There are actually fish in the sea of Cerritos!
So remember Hyemi Choi? She was a Korean girl that Elder Rada and I taught for a few weeks and then she decided she just wanted to go to institute because we kept inviting her to be baptized and she didn't think she was ready. Well, as soon as we heard Elder Choi was taking over the other half of the area Elder Rada and I and the ward all knew that if a Korean Elder started teaching Hyemi the possibilities were pretty bright. And it's true! Even though Hyemi lives in my area we set Elder Choi and his companion up to start visiting her and now, just about a week later, she's committed to be baptized on the 19th! So I'm happy about that.
Elder Harris and I have been teaching a lot of people in Spanish as of late. We found this one spanish-speaking couple named Ana and Ramiro one day by tracting in a park. Ana had met with missionaries before in Mexico and Ramiro knew a little bit about the church already. As soon as Ramiro figured out that the Book of Mormon has to do with a branch from the House of Israel he got really excited. They're sincerely interested to learn more and we have a return appointment with them tomorrow.
Yesterday we met with a man from the Pentecostal Church named Ralph. I guess Pentecostals believe that the gift of tongues is evidence that you've received the Spirit. The gift of tongues is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. If you read Acts chapter 2 it's clear that the gift of tongues is a gift of the spirit with a specific purpose: to preach the gospel. Not everbody receives that gift. The doctrine of the gift of tongues was really messed up by the Great Apostasy. But anyway, Ralph is sincerely interested to learn more and we have a return appointment with him tomorrow too. We didn't get to invite him to be baptized during our first appointment because he likes to talk a lot and he kept sidetracking us from the lesson though it really was our intention to invite him to be baptized. We're going to take care of that early on in the lesson tomorrow.
During one of our lessons with a spanish speaking person I noticed that I truly felt like my tongue had been "loosed." It was pretty neat. Elder Harris' spanish is coming along great too. He's lucky he gets to start his mission in an area where we get to teach in spanish a lot. And I'm lucky I was trained by an Ecuadorian.
Wow Dad 218 pounds!? That's amazing! Keep it up! 175 pounds eh? Good goal. I'm not sure how much I weigh right now but I think I'm still sitting at 140. Elder Harris and I run every morning for 25 to 30 minutes. I should definitely be able to run the loop with you and mom when I get home next year!
I had Elder Harris hand someone a pamphlet from the car a few days ago. When we invite someone to learn while tracting we call it an "I.T.L." (an invite to learn) so we were driving with the windows down and we pulled up to someone else with their windows down at a red light and I handed Elder Harris a pamphlet and just started yelling "Car-T.L.! Car-T.L.!" and he actually did it! It was hilarious.
Well that's what's happening. Hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
P.S. my inconsistancy with the time I e-mail is due to the inconsistancy of my P-day schedule. Sometimes we grocery shop first, sometimes not. I can't make any promises with that but for the most part I'll be e-mailing around this time.
Elder Harris and I are still working hard just trying to find, teach and baptize people. It's been a good couple of weeks. Jessica is still progressing just fine. She committed to keep the laws of tithing and fasting last time we visited her. I asked her if she felt a difference since she started meeting with us and she said she really has. She told us that when she moved here from Las Vegas she was feeling lost and wasn't sure what she needed to do and then Elder Rada and I came and knocked on her door just two weeks later! She has a lot of faith.
We committed another investigator to a baptismal date. His name's Charles Cole. He's an african-american brother who lives in the same neighborhood as Jessica. Now, we don't think he really understands what committing to being baptized really means quite yet, so we're real anxious for our next visit with him so that we can explain a little bit more and invite his mother to be baptized as well. Neither of them have come to church yet (partly due to Labor Day weekend) so it may take a little longer for us to work with them. I've noticed that Heavenly Father really prepared a lot of people for us to teach in that particular neighborhood. There are at least two other investigators we're working with there as well. There are actually fish in the sea of Cerritos!
So remember Hyemi Choi? She was a Korean girl that Elder Rada and I taught for a few weeks and then she decided she just wanted to go to institute because we kept inviting her to be baptized and she didn't think she was ready. Well, as soon as we heard Elder Choi was taking over the other half of the area Elder Rada and I and the ward all knew that if a Korean Elder started teaching Hyemi the possibilities were pretty bright. And it's true! Even though Hyemi lives in my area we set Elder Choi and his companion up to start visiting her and now, just about a week later, she's committed to be baptized on the 19th! So I'm happy about that.
Elder Harris and I have been teaching a lot of people in Spanish as of late. We found this one spanish-speaking couple named Ana and Ramiro one day by tracting in a park. Ana had met with missionaries before in Mexico and Ramiro knew a little bit about the church already. As soon as Ramiro figured out that the Book of Mormon has to do with a branch from the House of Israel he got really excited. They're sincerely interested to learn more and we have a return appointment with them tomorrow.
Yesterday we met with a man from the Pentecostal Church named Ralph. I guess Pentecostals believe that the gift of tongues is evidence that you've received the Spirit. The gift of tongues is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. If you read Acts chapter 2 it's clear that the gift of tongues is a gift of the spirit with a specific purpose: to preach the gospel. Not everbody receives that gift. The doctrine of the gift of tongues was really messed up by the Great Apostasy. But anyway, Ralph is sincerely interested to learn more and we have a return appointment with him tomorrow too. We didn't get to invite him to be baptized during our first appointment because he likes to talk a lot and he kept sidetracking us from the lesson though it really was our intention to invite him to be baptized. We're going to take care of that early on in the lesson tomorrow.
During one of our lessons with a spanish speaking person I noticed that I truly felt like my tongue had been "loosed." It was pretty neat. Elder Harris' spanish is coming along great too. He's lucky he gets to start his mission in an area where we get to teach in spanish a lot. And I'm lucky I was trained by an Ecuadorian.
Wow Dad 218 pounds!? That's amazing! Keep it up! 175 pounds eh? Good goal. I'm not sure how much I weigh right now but I think I'm still sitting at 140. Elder Harris and I run every morning for 25 to 30 minutes. I should definitely be able to run the loop with you and mom when I get home next year!
I had Elder Harris hand someone a pamphlet from the car a few days ago. When we invite someone to learn while tracting we call it an "I.T.L." (an invite to learn) so we were driving with the windows down and we pulled up to someone else with their windows down at a red light and I handed Elder Harris a pamphlet and just started yelling "Car-T.L.! Car-T.L.!" and he actually did it! It was hilarious.
Well that's what's happening. Hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
P.S. my inconsistancy with the time I e-mail is due to the inconsistancy of my P-day schedule. Sometimes we grocery shop first, sometimes not. I can't make any promises with that but for the most part I'll be e-mailing around this time.
September 1st, 2009 (Bonus Email)
Oh yeah i want to tell you about this thing that just happened to us at Target. While we were shopping I suddenly decided I really needed butter. So we walked to the butter place and ran into a member from the ward who wanted to talk to us about some people she wanted us to visit. Somewhere along the conversation it dawned on me that I didn't need butter at all and that it would have actually been absurd for me to buy butter and leave it in the car for as long as I'd have had to. So the Spirit works in many ways. Just wanted to share that with you. Gotta go now love you bye!
September 1st, 2009 (Email)
Okay so I have to re-type this whole e-mail now because the computer erased my last one. It was a good one too. Oh well.
Things are going good now that I'm pretty much all situated. My new companion is Elder Harris. He's from Casper Wyoming and he's a great missionary. He is really enthusiastic about the work and he's diligently trying to learn spanish. I worry about grammar and he worries about vocabulary so together we're learning lots of spanish. I now realize that my spanish has come a long ways. I can actually hold a conversation with someone. It's pretty neat. Elder Harris is a little taller than I am (go figure) and his hair is the same color as Hannah's. We'll have a good time working together. Training is pretty fun. The key is to help the new missionary work towards independance so he has to be involved in every phase of the work.
Jessica, our investigator who's being baptized September 19th, is doing fantastic. She's come to church twice now and she has a lot of fellowship from the ward. Yesterday we had a lesson with a member present named Sister Fulcher and we taught Jessica about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sister Fulcher shared her testimony a few times and it was amazing.
The apartment is a lot better than the apartment I had in Buena Park. It doesn't smell like vomit and it's a lot cleaner. Elder Harris loves to clean and I have my OCD tendencies back from living at Sister Chun's so the apartment will become even cleaner. Our apartment decided we're living the law of consecration with food and that's working out great. Each of us only have to spend $20 each so that comes down to $80 of food every week! We've got grains, fruits, veggies - everything we need. And I used some of my birthday money to buy a 7-piece cooking set today.
I've really got to figure out why all these small dogs keep running up to me and biting my ankles. It's driving me nuts!
So that's an abridgment of my last e-mail (R.I.P.) Hopefully the computer won't eat next week's slightly longer e-mail. Sounds like fun changes are happening back home too. Gracias for everything and talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
Things are going good now that I'm pretty much all situated. My new companion is Elder Harris. He's from Casper Wyoming and he's a great missionary. He is really enthusiastic about the work and he's diligently trying to learn spanish. I worry about grammar and he worries about vocabulary so together we're learning lots of spanish. I now realize that my spanish has come a long ways. I can actually hold a conversation with someone. It's pretty neat. Elder Harris is a little taller than I am (go figure) and his hair is the same color as Hannah's. We'll have a good time working together. Training is pretty fun. The key is to help the new missionary work towards independance so he has to be involved in every phase of the work.
Jessica, our investigator who's being baptized September 19th, is doing fantastic. She's come to church twice now and she has a lot of fellowship from the ward. Yesterday we had a lesson with a member present named Sister Fulcher and we taught Jessica about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sister Fulcher shared her testimony a few times and it was amazing.
The apartment is a lot better than the apartment I had in Buena Park. It doesn't smell like vomit and it's a lot cleaner. Elder Harris loves to clean and I have my OCD tendencies back from living at Sister Chun's so the apartment will become even cleaner. Our apartment decided we're living the law of consecration with food and that's working out great. Each of us only have to spend $20 each so that comes down to $80 of food every week! We've got grains, fruits, veggies - everything we need. And I used some of my birthday money to buy a 7-piece cooking set today.
I've really got to figure out why all these small dogs keep running up to me and biting my ankles. It's driving me nuts!
So that's an abridgment of my last e-mail (R.I.P.) Hopefully the computer won't eat next week's slightly longer e-mail. Sounds like fun changes are happening back home too. Gracias for everything and talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis
