14 July 2014

Sister Santo and Sister Moser - Time do Amor (Team of love) a little weird but i thought it was cool haha

Dear Family,

So while all of my siblings are having lots of babies, I had my 8th daughter this week também ;) (8th time training in missionary terms.) This is my 19th companion. I think i could set a record with the most companions in a mission haha Her name is Sister Santos and she´s from Brasilia. She´s awesome. Just jumped right into the missionary lifestyle so natural I don´t even feel like I´m training. Plus I still have Sister Moser with me which is fun so I´m back to being in a trio. Best part is it always brings in new energy to have new missionaries! 

This week felt a little slow because there were tons of world cup games (finally ended thank goodness.) and unfortunately this ward doesn´t have a lot of really strong leadership so they´re having a hard time keeping up with lots of baptisms so we have to use a lot more time trying to get the members to integrate with our recent-converts and help them so that they will stay strong too. I gave a talk on Sunday and was able to lovingly remind them that as members of Christ´s church they aren´t just here to take care of themselves, and help others when it´s convenient. The last thing the Savior taught His disiciples was to feed His sheep and that the Lord told us we need to waste and wear out our lives giving our whole Heart, might, mind and strength. If we aren´t making time to help others we aren´t keeping our covenants. I think it got to some of the ward members because we had a couple of them afterwards come tell us that they were going to go do their visiting teaching this week or going to visit so and so (they probably got tired of how many times we´ve called and reminded them these past couple weeks to do their visiting and home teaching...) but it really is so important!

One of the saddest moments of my mission this week - I went to go visit a recent-convert that has been so strong. They got baptized a month ago and gave up smoking, coffee, and drinking and have been going solid for 2 months, we´ve been talking to them about the temple and everything and then last week a family member was sick so they went to go see him in the hospital and weren´t at church. And just that one week off made a huge difference. We went to go see them and had a great message prepared about getting them to the temple, but I felt like I needed to ask them how they were doing with living the commandments and ask them specifically how they were doing with smoking which seems strange because they had been doing so great for so long. But, they had fallen back into the old habits that week after not going to church. Doraci, the mom, was just so heart-broken and discouraged. She started crying and said, "I am reading the book of mormon everyday, we're praying everyday, going to church, so why hasn´t God done a miracle and taken this desire away from me? You see those pastors who just cure people on tv why can´t i have that miracle in Christ´s church?" It was rough, but we did our best to explain to her about God´s plan for us and learning from overcoming addictions and temptations of the natural man, and how she will be so much stronger and be able to help others overcome their difficulties as she overcomes it. We showed a video about the Savior and the atonement and how it wasn´t easy for Him. The spirit was really strong and I hope they can have the strength to let go of these addictions so they can truly have the fullness of the blessings that God wants for us! 

I hope all of you are answering the Savior´s call and feeding His sheep. Go visit those recent-converts and less actives! They need you!

Love you,

Sister Lewis

 the trio -- Sister Lewis, Sister Moser & Sister Santos (Lyn's 8th new missionary!)

Sorvette with a bunch of the Sisters in Ponta Grossa