Christmas

12-30-13

Dear Family,

It was so fun to get to talk to so many of you on Christmas! It left me in tears, but it was still the highlight of my Christmas day :) I’m so grateful all of you are doing so well! We tried to make our own little Christmas in our little casa here in Brazil. Christmas eve we had a big dinner with some members in the ward and got permission to stay up til 11:00 but I don’t know if that was really tried, because I was out at 10:00.

We had this huge box for our oven that we decorated and then put my tiny little tree mom sent on top with some lights the other American received from her family and we got each other presents. Christmas morning Sis. Smith and I taught our companions how to make crepes and we had crepes and presents in our PJs and sang Christmas songs together. We watched Mundo Feliz with a single less active sister that lives nearby us.

We found so many great people this week that I am really excited about. We were pretty disappointed that a lot of them didn´t come to church like we had hoped, but I have faith they will come around :) We have transfers next week but I really think for once I will stay in the same area and hopefully I’ll get to see the progress of these elect individuals! It was exciting to hear that my first baptism here in Brazil, Casseo, is preparing for a mission! He will be so awesome! I love seeing these recent-converts and their excitement for the work.

Sorry this is quick but 2 weeks of no email it adds up haha.  But it was so good to talk to you on Christmas and I hope you will all carry on the spirit of Christmas back to your homes, wards, neighborhoods, work, etc. because the whole world needs it so bad! More than they need anything else!!!

Love you so, so much!

Sister Lewis

Photos:

-I told a ward member it was your birthday the day after Christmas, Mom, so she made a cake and we sang you happy birthday in Portuguese. It won’t let me upload the video, so I just have a picture for you, but we sang you happy birthday and it was really funny to hear them try to say your name ;)

- Baptism of Anaclaudea last week. Possibly the most elect investigator I have ever found. She is going to be such dynamite!

Crazy... but crazy good

12-16-13

Dear Family,

I love hearing about all your fun plans for Christmas and I’m so excited to talk to you NEXT week! 

Yesterday we had the baptism of Hilda, the cutest 74 yr old I’ve ever met in my life. I can’t even understand 1/4 of what she says but she makes me laugh all the time :) But as is always the case in Brazil, the day of the baptism was absolutely nuts. We were up late the night before so that everything would be ready, but of course everything goes wrong the day of so we were still running like crazy. First off we got lost for an hour trying to find Almoço (Although getting lost really isn’t just a baptism day thing, it is almost a daily occurrence because the area is huge, the maps are wrong, and the numbers on houses are almost completely random. Half the time people don’t even know their own address.) We knew we were off when we ended up on some train tracks in a field of flowers :) But we eventually got there and had to eat in 15 min so we could get to the baptism, but then our member was super late in picking us up, so we had to smash all of us in this tiny car, literally just enough room for us to breathe, and Hilda sitting in the front seat trying to calm the crying toddler (that was hilarious) and I was fearing for my own life the whole time because everyone drives insane here, but to make it better the brakes of the car weren´t working very well so I was just praying that my 74 yr. old investigator would make it to the baptismal font alive. Thankfully we made it about the time sacrament meeting was about to start, so we did the quickest baptismal service I’ve ever had. Seeing Hilda´s face when she came out of that water is definitely a moment I will forever cherish :)

Another sweet blessing this week has been seeing Anaclaudea change so much. She is the most shy 18 yr. old girl I think I have ever met. She literally was hiding from us when we got to her door. The first lesson with her she told us she wasn’t sure if she really believed in God and you could just tell she was so sad because she is just at home alone on the computer all the time. But we visited her or had her at ward activities almost every day this week and the last time we taught her, she was teaching us all kinds of stuff she learned on Mormon.org and asking so many good questions. She has gone from not sure if she believes in God, to having a beautiful testimony that God is her loving Heavenly Father in such a short time. J  She just has a totally different light about her! I love it!

One scripture really quick that I have come to understand so much more on my mission is the Scripture Mastery in Matt 6 about how ye cannot serve God and Mammon. It is so sad how we teach some people who love to hear what we have to say, but they love their sins and don´t want to give them up. Even though they realize that their habits are short term happiness, they just don´t want to give it up. It reminded me a lot of what mom used to always say about how one of the greatest tragedies in life is when we give up what we want most (Eternal joy that is only available in living the gospel) for what we want in the moment. I see a lot of extreme examples in the mission, but I know the same applies to each of us. There are so many little things that sometimes we will do because we want immediate gratification even though we know better. I’m so grateful I was taught the gospel when I was young so I don’t have so many of these habits that so many people here are struggling to overcome.

I love you all! Keep sharing the Light of Christ this Christmas Season!

Love Sister Lewis

These are 2 pictures of the place that we ended up in when we got lost. Yesterday. We thought it was pretty so had to take a picture :)

the gospel of Jesus Christ CHANGES people

12-9-13

Dear Family,

It is crazy to hear about all the cold crazy weather you are having up in the states! It is super hot and humid here this week, but then randomly we will have a day where it will just be pouring rain and freezing cold and its super muddy because unlike Bacacheri it´s pretty much all dirt roads here in Piraquara. J So it definitely doesn´t feel too much like Christmas time here, but we do what we can with our little Christmas tree mom sent and singing Christmas carols for people almost every day. J

This week was Stake Conference which was so Good! They talked a lot about families and temple and had each of us 14 missionaries in the stake (a bit small compared to the 82 in Laura´s stake) stand and introduce ourselves. But the best part was that all 3 of our investigators that came to church had a really good experience!

Probably my favorite thing about being a missionary is seeing the changes that happen in the lives of others. We found this cute 74 yr old, Ilda on Friday and it has been incredible to see the change in her. When we met her she just went on and on forever about all the problems in her life and all the problems with every member of her family. We visited her Saturday as well and by Sunday morning, wow she had changed so much in just 2 days. She was at the gate waiting for us, ready to go, and when our ride was late she passed the time showing us pictures of her childhood and cried talking about how much she loved them. And when she left Stake Conference she just kept hugging us and saying how much she loved it. I was thinking, wow this is such a good example of the power of the atonement. We haven´t even taught her any commandments or taught her anything besides the restoration, but just feeling the spirit and the love that is present has changed her attitude

and outlook so much!

We´re also super excited for Henato. Henato is going thru a lot of hard things right now. Just lost his job, and his wife left him with the kids so he´s living with his parents right now. But he is another great example of how big of a difference the gospel makes. We’ve only been teaching him a couple of days too, but yesterday after church he was saying how much he loves this feeling and wants to have it with him all the time (perfect for us to teach him about baptism and the HG today and teach him that na verdade he CAN have the spirit with him ALL the time!) I know the gospel is going to continue to change His life too!) We are so blessed to have the gospel. It is so easy to sometimes forget how blessed we are. But seeing these people who don´t have it in their lives makes me appreciate it SO much more.

I love this time of year when we can remember who made it possible to have this happiness, not only after this life but HERE. That is one of the beauties of the gospel I’m realizing a lot of religious people don’t have. When I ask them why they choose to do good things they always say "So I can go to heaven", but it´s not just to go to heaven. The commandments make us happy here!

I love you all! Keep being wonderful examples and sharing the gospel!

Love you!

Sister Lewis

Week 1 in Piraquara!!

12-2-13

Dear Family,

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I am SO grateful for you! I actually forgot it was thanksgiving ‘til my Zone Leader mentioned it Thurs night, but I was feeling very grateful for you this week :)

Good news is: Gilmar got baptized yesterday! But I’m not in Bacacheri so I wasn’t there. I´ve been transferred to Piraquara to ‘whitewash’ (Elders Left Sisters enter) and finish the training of Sister Constantina. This area is awesome I am so excited. The ward is fantastic and I love the people here. They are so humble and friendly.

I´ve also discovered that whitewashing an area and training is a lot harder in another language, in a different country, without a GPS, car or cellphone. I was back to sleeping on the floor and cold showers the first few days as we tried to get a house together that was livable, and it’s difficult starting totally from scratch with no investigators or anything. But I have great expectations for this area and I know the Lord will help us to be able to help this ward. It was so fun because they are SOO excited to have sisters here.

One fun connection - I met the RS Pres. and her Sister in-law and they had already seen my picture and knew my name because they found us on fb or something, anyway when she saw me she said, “I’m from Paraguay and there was a sister that taught me who has your last name now. You don’t by chance know a Rachel Edwards?! “  Such a small world. J She said when she saw me she thought, “Wow she looks exactly like Hermana Edwards husband and she has the same last name! J

Also really cool this week was we had Elder Jono? (I don’t know how to spell his name). He came to speak to our whole mission which was really good. He spoke about having faith and being obedient. It was kind of difficult because I was translating for some other Americans, but 6 weeks of speaking Portuguese I’m still slow as well. I was so focused on trying to translate so it was difficult to get everything out of the message, but the spirit was very strong :) That is one crazy blessing for sure. Because I’m in a new area training, I have to be able to understand and speak pretty good and it’s amazing just in the couple days of getting here how the Lord has blessed me to be able to understand and speak a lot.

Quick funny moment this week: We came back to teach a new investigator the 2nd time. We were asking about what she remembered and she was talking about "oh and that prophet who had the vision... what was his name... justin.. justin bieber?" Haha. Oh no I guess we need to do a better job teaching the restoration ;)

Craziest story of the week - we met the son of a lady we are teaching and he was very intrigued and said we could come to his house the next day and teach his family. So obviously we were very excited. We get there and he had like "irmãs and irmãos" or pastors or something from his church there. We instantly had a bad feeling so we decided we would just share a scripture testify, pray and go. But during our prayer to leave they went crazy and were "speaking in tongues" and they tried to "cast devils out of us" so we literally had to run away out of the house. It was nuts, but oh my goodness it made me so grateful for the gospel and an understanding of what the Holy Ghost is. They believe that their screaming and crying and saying all kinds of crazy things is the holy spirit. I am grateful I can see and testify each day that the Holy Spirit is a feeling of peace and love and a still small voice.

I have been able to feel the comfort and guidance of the Holy Ghost on a daily basis. I felt especially grateful one day this week I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and thinking, man why is it that every time I start to have a success in an area I get sent somewhere new and start from scratch all over again? And as I was having these thoughts I felt a very overwhelming comfort of the Holy Ghost of how truly blessed I am. Blessed to have the restored gospel in my life, and to have the best family in the world, and to be spending my time doing the best thing I could possibly be doing right now! We are so, so blessed family! And when it’s hard we need to remember how blessed we are :) The gospel changes lives! And we are blessed beyond measure to have the FULLNESS of the RESTORED gospel in our lives!

I love you so, so much!

Sister Lewis

Casseo's Bucket Brigade Baptism

 Missionaries from the MTC district reunited in Brazil

the view of the city from the apartment

11-18-13

 Dear Family,

Biggest Miracle this week: Bacacheri Had a Baptism!!!! First time since this area opened!!! We had a referral from a member to teach Casseo, an 18 yr old. And he got baptized yesterday! But holy smokes it was the craziest day of the mission! We left at 8 am to go wake up 3 of our investigators for church. We got them up but in the process missed our bus, so started walking, then bispo called and said that the water wasn't working so we’d probably have to fill up the font by hand with buckets. So we needed to be at the church immediately but we were like 5 miles away so I grabbed my comps bags and was like ‘well we gotta run or we aren't gonna have a baptism today’! So we ran all the way to the church (My poor comp is a champ to put up with me. She is very sore today and all day yesterday was telling everyone about her crazy American companion who made her run to church) but we get there and then the water in the kitchen stopped working. It turns out a pipe broke so the whole street was without water.  In the process our 2 members who were picking up our investigators weren't answering their phones and we weren't able to get a hold of any of our investigators either so we were running around like crazy trying to help them get to church too. By several miracles we finally get water for the font and by the end of church it was full, but during the service, a child had gone in and pulled the plug from the font so when we got in there to baptize Casseo the water was to his knees. So he got baptized sitting down legs flat in the font, but he did get baptized :)

Other crazy story this week and huge tender mercy. Earlier this week we were tracting pretty late. My comp said she felt uncomfortable in the street we were on, but we literally had 2 min’ til we should head home and I thought, “Man 2 min”, but then I started to feel uncomfortable too, so we left anyway. On the next street I heard what I thought were "fireworks" because it was a holiday this weekend. Come to find out the next day… we left that street at 8:58 and at 9:00… there was a shooting on that street and one person died. So we were incredibly grateful that we left when we did.

We had conferencia do missão this week and it was awesome. I love hearing President speak! He talked a lot about how right now we are in the best school on earth for learning to become more like our Heavenly Father. So true.

Other exciting news: My other mission in SC is starting to use iPads and the stuff Elder Perry was talking about this week :)

And everyone always asks about the language so one exciting bit of news is that I started talking in my sleep in Portuguese this week J

Anyway I love yall! Go share the gospel!

Sister Lewis

Miracles through MEMBERS in Bacacheri

11-11-13

Dear Family,

We were SOO blessed this week! Ah so amazing to see the changes that are taking place here. My first couple weeks were so hard because there was Zero faith in Missionary work in this area. I can´t tell you how many times I heard missionaries and members alike say, “Oh good luck no one baptizes in Bacacheri and the members don’t have any desire to do missionary work”.

The last time missionaries were here there were problems with the ward so it got closed, and when they reopened it 3 transfers ago there wasn´t a ton of support and missionaries were having less than 10 lessons a week and never having anyone progress. It was so sad that as soon as we would talk about missionary work with members they would just close down. But my comp and I have been working really hard to change the attitude about this area and really working hard and leaving the rest to the Lord and guess what? Miracles! We had 18 new investigators this week!!!  We had like 3 times as many new investigators and lessons this week AND 6 investigators were at church yesterday! That´s like as many investigators as came to church all of last month!

The other part that was so cool was to see the change in the members over this past week! Instead of pushing them to find, we´ve started pushing to have them come teach with us and we’re talking to them about how missionary work is a call from the Lord thru the prophet, so it’s not us asking them to do the work. With 6 investigators at church they were all running around like crazy trying to meet our investigators and ask us about them and they started asking US what they can do to help! We got 2 new referrals from MEMBERS where we are going to have a lesson with their friends in their home! It was like once they saw us starting to have success and realized we were working for it they started to catch the wave -- and get this: One of our members was so excited he went out and started knocking doors last night so he could get addresses for us to visit :) So cool! Bacacheri really is the best: everyone just didn´t know it yet. J 

We also started doing something I did in SC just a little different: Rather than just go share a scripture at lunch-- ask for referrals and get denied, we´ve started talking to them about Elder Ballard´s talk from last conference (Elder Ballar's talk). But in Brazil I have 3 ways they can help rather than 5 because we don´t have all the resources we had in the states.

#1 - Just talking about the church. I really feel like if we are being good examples and not afraid to talk about our membership, others will see our examples and want to know about what we have. So we role play 2 examples with our members that they can easily do - When someone asks about your weekend, don´t forget to tell them you went to church. Share something you learned or tell them you work with the children or YW there or whatever it may be to let them know a little about the church. The other example is inviting a friend or neighbor to FHE. It’s a really easy way to invite them into your home and allow them to learn a little about the church. And be willing to invite them to activities (Like mom you inviting your friends to the RS luncheon is so awesome! That’s what we’re trying to get our members to do!)

#2 - Doing the 3 things elder Ballard asked EVERY member of the church to do. Pray for missionary experiences. Look for those experiences. And pray for your missionaries and their investigators by name. (It was cute, we ran into a member in the street today and he named off 6 of our investigators that he has started to pray for J ).

#3 - Help us with our investigators. When can you come teach with us? When we have new people at church, take the time to introduce yourself and be their friend! I think the number one thing I hear from investigators when we ask about church is "The people are so friendly there". It makes a difference!

Then we ask them who we can pray for that they feel like they should share the gospel with so we can pray for them in their efforts as well and help them know how to help their friends. We´ve asked them to share with us whenever they have missionary experiences even the little ones!

It was also really cool this week - we invited a LA (less active) to come teach an investigator with us that knew her. (I totally have a testimony of reactivating non-members thru missionary work even though at first my comps always think I’m crazy).  She bore such a powerful testimony of how much her life changed when she was baptized and she invited her friend to go to church with her thatSunday! So cool! J

The small bit of sad news is that we have 2 awesome young families progressing, but they aren't legally married and can´t afford to get married so it might be a while before they get baptized. Unfortunately a lot of ppl here get married in their church but aren’t legally married so they don’t see the problem with it. L But we will keep working with them and helping them and having faith that the Lord will provide a way!

Also the Lord is definitely blessing me in the language a lot. It’s crazy how when we are just chatting with members or something like that I understand probably about as much as I should understand, but in lessons I can understand everything I need to understand and most of our investigators don’t know I haven’t even been out a month because the Lord gives us the words at the times that we need them!

Anyway I love yall! The gospel is true and it blesses lives so share it with your friends!J 

Sister Lewis

week 2 in Brazil - "Onward, ever onward"

Dear Family,

This week was crazy!

So Monday I started feeling really sick, so I slept pretty much my whole Pday and then Tuesday we had a Zone Conference with President Monteiro. As we were leaving he called my comps and I back and explained to us that Sister Houston (my friend I was with in the MTC and SC) has been really sick and went to the hospital so I would be going to another area so another sister could stay with her at the hospital until she got better. (Turns out 9 of the missionaries I arrived with have been sick.) So I went to Barigui.

It turns out that Bacacheri is one of the wealthiest areas in the mission, but Barigui is the wealthiest area in the mission. My temporary companion was Sister Clark from Alaska who has one month in the mission. So it was 2 crazy Americans who don’t speak Portuguese and it was quite the adventure! I couldn’t even begin to tell you all the funny experiences we had :) A lot of people can’t understand me but Sister Clark has the thickest American accent I think I've ever heard so she is really hard for Brasillieros to understand! But we were SO Blessed! This is the other area in Curtiba that has really struggled and not had a baptism since it opened.

We went out tracting and one of the first doors we knocked was absolutely golden! We talked to this mom and she actually understood us (miracle #1) and we understood her (miracle #2) and she believed everything we said! She said she was looking for a church with high standards for her daughter. We met her daughter and she was awesome. And they said they wanted to go to church and even offered us a ride. When we came back 2 days later she had read over everything and prayed and talked with her husband (another miracle is that they are actually legally married! This never happens) and they loved it! So we are stoked for their family!  We met a couple other people that were awesome too and I was amazed at how suddenly you can speak so much better when you have to!

The other hard part was that I had the flu all week (not throwing up, but a fever and cold and stuff) so I was exhausted all the time but the Lord definitely gave me sufficient strength :) I got to go to their zone conference too which was good because it has really helped me gain a vision of what we want in this mission. Because of all the craziness I got to spend a lot of time talking 1 on 1 with my Mission President (Who also doesn´t speak English but he is very patient with my Portuguese.) He told me that the biggest problem he has had with my area is getting missionaries to really just put their whole heart might mind and strength into the work because it’s been harder to find success here, so I promised him I would change that.

On Friday, Salt Lake decided to send Sister Houston home because she wasn't getting better (This was especially sad for me. My 2 best friends from the MTC have had to go home from getting sick here.) But I returned to Bacacheri that night and Saturday morning in comp study I shared with my companions my goals and they have been very good to jump on board with me for some pretty grand goals we want to accomplish to change this area. 

I´ve gained a new appreciation for Ether 12:27. It has always been one of my favorite scriptures but like Moroni's frustrations in writing, it is very frustrating for me that I felt so confident in teaching in SC and was having a lot of success, and I feel like I struggle so much at teaching in Portuguese and understanding their needs because I always question whether I am understanding correctly what they are saying. But I know we have these experiences so we can be humble and if we have the faith we can make our weaknesses become strengths. Before I left SC I received a beautiful blessing from my district leader with some great promises and I know that they can be achieved through the Lord :)

Life is so good. We are so blessed to have the gospel! It is amazing to me what a difference it makes in the whole world!

I love y'all!

Sister Lewis

 Lynette & her companion Sis. Clark 

the Curitiba Temple

For more information about temples, click here --> Mormon temples

Lynette & Elder Nilsen (from Eugene)

First letter from BRAZIL

Dear Family,

I’m finally here in Brazil serving in the Bacacheri ward within the city. Everything is definitely different than Estados Unidos. J I had 3 companhieras my first week - Sister Gomez (my trainer) is 22 and she is a native Brazilian from Espirito Santo. Sister Eulogio is 27, she’s from Peru (we have tons of Latinos, quite a few Brasillieros and a few Americans in the mission. I think there are probably like 4 American sisters?) Laura or Corwin if you know the ward Residencial or the Stake El Olivar, that is where she is from in Lima. And then Sister Villavicencio is 25 and she is from Bolivia, but she got transferred to a different area today so I only had her for one week. None of them speak English so that has made life exciting. We have to play charades sometimes but thankfully for the most part we can understand each other: Definitely a tender mercy.

This mission is supposed to be one of the higher baptizing missions in the world which is super exciting, but this area has struggled a lot. They haven´t had a single baptism since it opened up earlier this year. It is a wealthier part of Curitiba (I think.. most of what I say is based on what I think my companions are saying but obviously it is all in Portuguese so who knows. ha-ha). So that’s kind of hard, but I’m excited because it just means an even greater challenge! They do things a lot different here in the way they teach and proselyte - for ex, in SC I would do tons of lessons and work with members and LAs a lot, but here they just knock, knock, knock ( and when I say knock I mean clap, because people don’t knock here.) We´re supposed to knock 80 doors/day. Last Saturday we knocked over 100 doors! We walk probably 7-10 miles/day. (At least I can lose all the weight I gained in the South!) and so my feet are calloused and I am sunburnt and I’m sick, but it seems like most good things are hard at first.

I think I lost all fear of speaking when I was in SC so I try to talk to pretty much everyone and it’s kinda funny because most people can’t understand me and immediately say “Oh Americana” and try to speak English to me which is also funny. And it seems like everyone loves Americans. I think Curitibans really don’t look different than Americans. Plenty of them have fairer skin and blonder hair than I do so they can’t tell I’m American until I talk and then it is a dead giveaway; J But I figure there is no better way to learn than to just start trying! It’s frustrating sometimes because it’s hard to express what I want to but I’m actually grateful I don’t have anyone to speak English with because it forces me to learn faster. And writing right now is difficult. I think I’m already forgetting some of my EnglishJ.

President called Sister Gomez this week and told her he needs me to learn Portuguese really fast. I don´t know why, but every 6 weeks has been something crazy since I started my mission so I’ve learned not to question anything and accept that often the Lord has more faith in us than we have in ourselves so we just have to trust him! 

My first day here was freezing cold and pouring rain and I was literally shaking when we finally got home, and my 2 min freezing cold shower was one of the most miserable moments I think of my life, but now it’s really hot which I definitely prefer and I just try to get enough water because the water here is pretty gross. I drink a lot of hot cocoa because everyone here just has coffee and soda and I don’t drink coffee for obvious reasons and I’m not a huge fan of soda but I’m learning to like it more. Oh and it’s funny that for the first time in my life people call me tall. ha-ha

Sacrament meeting was really cool for me. I loved seeing how everything is so much the same even tho this part of the world is SO different! The only thing that kind of made me chuckle is when we sang “Brightly Beams” for the Sacrament Hymn :)

I really think the 2 coolest things for me are 1: You REALLY have to rely on the Lord. It is amazing how there are times when I don’t understand a thing, but when I need to I can understand almost everything. So He is definitely guiding me and it has been humbling but wonderful to learn how to rely more on the spirit. 2: I love how similar things are. People have the exact same problems and concerns here as they do there and it is amazing how even though I can’t understand a lot of these people, I still just love them so much!

The gospel is true wherever you are! Love yall lots!

Com Amor, Sister Lewis

Carolina to Curitiba. She made it to BRAZIL!!!

The time has finally come. Lynette received her VISA so last week she said goodbye to her darling southerner friends in South Carolina...

And stepped into her new world -- BRAZIL!

Brazil, Here we come!

10-14-13

So I only have a quick min, but I wanted to try to give you an update before I'm off! I fly out this afternoon and for the first time in my life I was actually on top of packing and was able to have a little extra time this morning so we could stop at the library (Extra blessings from serving a mission ;) )

We had a great last week here in Lexington, although I can't tell you how sad it makes me to leave Lexington. We had Skye’s interview yesterday so she is getting baptized this Saturday and her whole family had such a good experience at church yesterday! I’m sad to miss her baptism but I’m so grateful I got to be a part of seeing the changes along the way. We also made a huge progress with Tammy, Tony and Anthony. Thank you for your prayers with them, we are so excited for them.

It seems like my companions and I have finally really started to teach by the spirit in unity and we had some really powerful lessons this week. I know they will continue to do great together! Pres. is having them stay here and finish their training by training each other :)

Another really special experience for me this week - On Tuesday we had exchanges and I got to go back to my first area! Gaston! I was only there for 6 weeks and we just had one baptism. My very last day there we were gone all day for trainers training and when we got back we went on splits with the sisters staying with us, so I took 2 sisters with me and my 2 comps went elsewhere. We realized we only would have time to have one lesson before we had to be back so we prayed and picked one house to knock on. The man we talked to wasn't super interested but we were able to carry a conversation long enough that he let us go in and talk to his wife (probably to hand us off to someone else but hey it works). We talked to her briefly and shared the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon and I set up a time for other missionaries to come back and see her. Then we left and I totally forgot about it. We came back and it turns out she ended up getting baptized and is one of the best missionaries in Gaston! Her sister got baptized after her example and now she is a ward missionary. It was such a sweet experience to come back to that last house that I saw before I got transferred and to see the difference in her life. She shared with me a poem she had written about "3 little angels" who had shared this message with her. Who knew the miracles that would come! The Lord is so good to us and I felt so blessed that I got to see the fruits of it. It was amazing to me because I was so close to the members there and it was fun to see them, but truly my favorite part was seeing those whose lives are changing from the gospel!

Member missionary work has picked up a lot in the last week too! We decided to have our members’ text us anytime they talk about the gospel, give out a pass-along card, etc. and it has been so fun to see them get excited to share it with others! I hope you will all take the fire from conference and go share this wonderful message with others! It is our responsibility to give them the opportunity to accept the gospel! Don’t keep this precious gift for yourself ;)

I am so, so grateful for the time that I got to spend here in SC (over 1/3 of my mission!) and I will definitely miss it. I was kind of hoping to stay one more transfer because we have an apostle coming next month and Sisters Conference next week, but I have learned never to question the lords timing or placement for anything so I am grateful and excited to be going to Brazil. I know there are plenty of people there who will also touch my life!

I love yall! (I suppose I will have to drop the y’all and start saying eu te amo)

Love, Sister Lewis