6-10-13
Dear Family,
It sounds like there are so many wonderful things going on right now! Besides the birthday every day of the month (I write it at the top of my planner every day who's birthday it is so I do get to think about each of you on your birthday even if I can't talk to you!) and Hunter's graduation and Corwin and Katie and Laura and Wilfried moving. It sounds like there is a lot going on. It is great!
I finished up my first 6 weeks here in Gaston and I assumed I would stay here until I left, and finish my training, but I got a bit of a surprise this past week. President called me and asked if I would finish my training by training a brand new sister and open up a new area. I'll just be reading 1 Nephi 3:7 a lot over the next couple days! I am definitely nervous because I feel like I still have SO much to learn, but I am really excited for the challenge! And I am 100% confident at this point that the Lord blesses His missionaries A LOT and gives us the ability to do things we never would be able to do on our own, so I know this will be such a wonderful opportunity!
I am really sad to be leaving this ward though. We have become so close to them and come to the point where we have members asking us if they can come help us every week. We have awesome ward leadership and just overall I will miss them a ton! And I will miss my companions. We spent most of our day yesterday going around to members and our investigators singing to them because we've become pretty good at singing together as a trio and we have requests to sing at most of our lessons now-- it seems like. So we're sad to be split up. I have just loved learning and growing from them. Sister Walker is going to be the only one staying in Gaston and I will especially miss her. She has become one of my best friends in the short 6 weeks we were companions!
We have also been blessed (at least ‘I’ think it's a blessing, not everyone else does) with lots of rain this week! I love summer tropical storms! I guess there was a hurricane in Florida or something so we got the aftermath of it and have had lots of pounding rain and thunder and lightning. It is my favorite! I also feel a bit more southern this week because one of the member families let us come try out some southern fried food. They seriously fry EVERYTHING here! The fried cookie dough was addicting I'm in love with it :)
We're working with most of the same investigators and they're doing well so far. We have 5 on date to be baptized the end of this month. We're just hoping they can put forth the effort to get to church (it's kind of a drive about 20-30 min but mostly people are just kind of lazy) and we have to get them to quit smoking and not go back to it! It's a huge problem here, but once they can get over that they are awesome and the ward is great at making everyone feel welcome and really fellowshipping them in. I had no idea how incredibly crucial the ward members were until I became a missionary. One of the biggest hurdles for getting investigators to progress toward baptism is they're scared of coming to church--not knowing anyone. So talk to new people and be their friend, it could change them for the eternities! Sometimes that's all they need!
I love y'all and appreciate all the wonderful support! Oh and I've had a lot of people ask about my visa - I got a letter finally today and basically it told me that they're still working on it. I'm not sure what will happen if it comes in the next 2 weeks since it will just be myself and a trainee in the area so I wouldn't be surprised if I still have a while. One of my friends from the MTC got her visa last week through the same consulate, so I really have no idea when it will be here.
Love,
Sister Lewis
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