Sayonara Summerville

9-2-13

Dear Family,

So... psych! I'm still here in South Carolina... Online it says my visa came, but SCCM [South Carolina Columbia Mission] hasn't received it yet so I have another transfer here!

So the Lord definitely likes to make things exciting for me every transfer it seems like. I am leaving Summerville :( President asked me to open up another new area and train 2 new sisters... One English and one is going to be a Brazilian Visa Waiter!

I am a bit heartbroken about leaving Summerville 1st ward. You just put your whole heart and soul into a place for 12 weeks and I absolutely love the ward here. They are the best ever and I'm not going to be at Joan, Dalensa or John's baptisms, but I am excited for the chance to start from scratch once again and hopefully learn to love my next companions and next area as much as this one, because it's hard for me to believe right now it could get any better than this! We have been SO, SO blessed here! We had 7 investigators at church yesterday and a few other nonmembers we haven't started teaching yet, and several less-actives. It was an incredible experience to sit there and see all the people that weren't there before we came in and how incredible it is that the Lord lets us 20 year olds to be a part of so many peoples’ lives and make a difference in them!

One of the highlights definitely was Marcus' family cancelling their trip so they could come to his baptism Saturday and confirmation Sunday. His mom was crying through a lot of it and some of his other family and friends also had such a good experience. He had the biggest smile I have ever seen when he came up out of that water; it was amazing! It was also a great weekend because the ward had a temple trip. We were able to have some of our recent converts and less-actives go and I loved getting to hear their experiences and then we just had a very touching testimony meeting as well. 

Joan, who is hopefully getting baptized this upcoming weekend, was so awesome to try fasting even though she has some health problems. She came in and asked me right away where she could get a tithing envelope because she got a check this week and was excited to pay her tithing! I Love hearing that as a missionary! So it was a wonderful ‘last’ Sunday to end on, but hard to say goodbye to all the ward. They were so kind and appreciative of the changes we were able to help bring about in this ward, and I tried to just be okay with knowing that I did what I could here and now the Lord needs me somewhere else! 

It was also an interesting weekend because one of 3rd ward's sisters had to get an emergency transfer so we have been in a trio for the past 5 days and covering both 1st and 3rd ward. We have a pretty big teaching pool right now we're trying to keep track of so it was pretty crazy trying to cover both areas. It feels like we have been running around like crazy. But it has been a very nice problem to have to try to keep up with all the elect individuals we have been finding!; especially because this week I will probably be back to mostly the ‘finding stage’ and trying to get the area organized and getting the ward excited. I cannot tell you how much you learn to appreciate wonderful members as a missionary! We cannot succeed without members who are willing to be there to come teach with us, befriend those we are teaching, reach out to the less-actives, be a friend at church, make them feel comfortable, be willing to share your testimony, willing to invite people, give rides etc. It is so cool that in our church, we do just as Jesus Christ did-- and we are asked to serve! We are asked to act, not just to be acted upon, and it's amazing to me that we are so much happier that way too! If people would have enough faith to just try living the gospel, it's amazing to see how EVERY time without fail, they are guaranteed to be happier. It's just that part about having the faith to overcome the natural man and ‘act’ that seems to be the problem. 

Anyway South Carolina is wonderful and there are SO many good wonderful people here and the Lord has blessed me so much and life could not be better! Even better than being at the BYU v. UVA football game that both mine and my companion's families were at as well as some members from our ward ;) I love y'all so much and appreciate your prayers and your examples! You are wonderful!

Love, Sister Lewis

Here are some pictures from 1. Marcus' baptism 2. Me Sis D and Joan - one of my favorite investigators and 3. Me Sister Dougherty and the best relief society president ever Sister Gubler.