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