Week 34

Simone was baptized yesterday!

The baptism was so sweet. The Spirit was so strong and Simone was just glowing. She walked out in her baptismal dress and looked so beautiful!

We had a lesson with her before her baptism and went over the promises she was about to make with God, and talked about her feelings. She was determined to never sin again, and was excited to keep all the commandments, although she told us she still might J-walk every morning. It was so special. She was excited to be "re-born" and to be "Heavenly Father's little baby". 

The service was absolutely heart-melting. Brother and Sister Lee, who are also from Korea, took Simone under their wings and became such great friends with her. They sang a version of "Abide with Me" as a duet and the you could feel so much love in the room, more than there were people.

On Tuesday, it was Lucinda*'s birthday! She invited us to her birthday party, so we went for a little bit to say happy birthday. We showed up and there were all her friends from Taiwan and China, and then one from Romania, and then us. We got numbers for a lot of people to teach, and had a lot of Quality Gospel Conversations. The food they had was traditional Taiwanese food and it was so good. I'm pretty sure there were 500 different kinds of mushrooms. As one of the desserts, there was a box of cream puffs, just like you would buy at Costco.

Sister Cendreda [as she grabs one]: "Dairy." (Sisters Cs don't like eating dairy)

As we are leaving, Sister Cendreda grabs a cup full of the cream puffs. 

Sister Cendreda: "Mmmmmmm"

Monica walks us out as we are leaving, and while we are riding in the elevator

Sister Cendreda: "These are so good!!!! Are these from Taiwan?"

Hermana Cobb and I lost it.

We had an amazing lesson with Briana* on Tuesday night. She just got married 2 months ago to a life-long member, Matthew. We went with the plan on teaching one thing, but all of a sudden, we were teaching baptism and the spirit was not going to let us teach anything else. We were able to set a date with her for September 20th!

The Van South Elders, Elders Cedeno and Whitley, have run into a inactive member in our ward who we didn't know about. They gave us her number and I called her. At first she asked if I was from Coasta Rica. I told her I was from the states and she got all excited "I love states people!" We set up an appointment to see her the next day, and she told us why she wasn't coming to church... wow. We called to confirm her address because we couldn't find it anywhere.

Us: "Hola Hermana. Estamos en camino, pero no podemos encontrar la caille Heron."

Carla*: "Esta por S. Marine y Victoria".

Us: "Vemos Harrison..."

Carla: "Si! Eso es lo que dije! Haron, Harrison, la misma cosa".

Us: -_- what?

In the lesson we prayed, and we said we were grateful we could meet "Carla" and she shouted at us, "Carlita!!" in the middle of the prayer.

On Saturday we had a Zone Conference! Elder Daniel Johnson and Elder Mike Murray spoke to us! It was such an amazing conference! They are definitely men called of God! I've been doing my best to apply the things I learned! I took so many great notes, but I left them all in the car, along with study notes from this week, so you'll have to forgive me. But, they talked to us, the missionaries, and the members, about talking about the gospel in every conversation, but also getting to know who we are talking to. We need to be friends with everyone we are around. We should work up to the point where we can share the gospel with our neighbors, and said that if we don't know who are neighbors are, then there is a huge problem. They told a story where a ward had a ward leadership meeting and they decided they would do everything they could to have 20 baptisms in a year. By setting the goal and accounting throughout the year, by the end they had 30 baptisms, and the next year they had 50 more. We all have a special part in missionary work, and we covenanted to do it when we were baptized.

We taught Erin a couple times this week, and every time we go over, her kids all fight for an order to pray! It's so sweet! They say the cutest most sincere prayers!

We met with Jeanette a couple times this week! And we met her husband! Jeanette was able to teach us back the Plan of Salvation when we met with her a few days later, and taught it to her husband when we met him! Phillip is completely blind. They have been married for 25 years and treat each other so purely. When Phillip was 18, he had a harder time with some commandments, and then in 1982, he drove his 1966 Mustang down the road at 95 MPH, and hit a light pole and it fell and shocked him. He was in a coma for 3.5 weeks, and when he came out, he was completely blind. His family disowned him, too. He has had a really rough life, and it was so awesome to hear Jeanette talk to him about the Plan of Salvation, but more specifically the Resurrection! Sister Cendreda said, "When we are resurrected you will be able to see how beautiful your wife is" and Phillip got so excited! It was so sweet. We felt the spirit so strong when were teaching the resurrection because they both have physical problems, but God has promised us all perfect bodies, and we could really see the Atonement in action. Phillip loved learning about it, and we are working on getting him on date for baptism! We also moved Jeanette's date to this Sunday! She couldn't be more excited! She came early to Simone's baptism yesterday and offered to help out! She couldn't stop talking about how excited she was to join the family and be called Sister Jeanette!

We taught Val and her friend on Friday night, and Luis was there, too! We watched finding Faith in Christ. We also taught her last night after the baptism with Luis and TJ, another member of the ward. Val was asking such amazing questions about the Atonement and Christ's life. She is thinking a lot about baptism, and Luis's birthday is on September 2nd, and the plan for right now, is that if she feels ready, to surprise him with her date, or her baptism! We'll see how it all goes!

One of the young men in the English ward had a farewell party on Saturday, and I ate so many new foods and it was all so good! Filipino food! He had his farewell talk yesterday, and the whole meeting was so powerful! His mom also gave a talk and sang a song and you could see how much love they had for each other. It really made me think about Heavenly Father's point of view on having to send Jesus Christ into the world and watch him go through the Atonement, and knowing how hard it would be before hand, but that it was something he had to let Jesus Christ do. Church is amazing!

All for this week! Replace your fear with faith.

Love, 

Hermana Lewis

An hour before the baptism! Jeanette came early to help:)

Awkward family photo.

The Elders stole Hermana Cobb's camera, and then asked me to take their picture. (Whitley, Jang, Sarmiento, Cedeno, Salazar, Zamano)

Matthew and Briana took Jeanette and her walker home!