Week 65

I love my Savior, Redeemer, Master, Captain, Best Friend, Support, Comforter, Motivator, Sculptor, Healer, and My All. He is so much more to me. He makes me laugh so much! He also amazes me constantly. The Atonement is infinite and it effects me all day long! I don't think I could ever tire from talking about it. If his Atonement is infinite, which it is, there is an infinite amount of ways He can bless us and heal us and strengthen us. Oh my goodness. I could get started, but I don't have time to even finish a single thought. I love Him so much! And I'm so grateful for Him.

This week was so long! And to add to the length, our preparation day was pushed to today so we could be proselyting on Easter Monday, which was extremely successful! We have a new companion in our companionship! I don't even know how many tris I have been in at this point, but this one is awesome! Sister Hoffman has joined us! We love her so much and she keeps us smiling! This is her third transfer out and she is amazing!

We were heading over to Stacy's house on Wednesday for a lesson. We were teaching Plan of Salvation, and before we could even get started, Rachel ran and in her room and grabbed her refugee bible. 

Rachel: Where are the 10 Commandments? Look! It says "Old" and "New Testimony"! What does this mean? 

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Me: We don't take the Lord's name in vain. So instead you can say "oh no" or "oh my goodness"...etc.

Rachel: I didn't know that!!!! So I can't say... oh my....God?

Me: No.

Rachel: I wont do it anymore!

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Rachel: So if you make a mistake and you repent, but you keep making the mistake again and again and you keep repenting, what happens? 

(I explained repentance and forgiveness)

Rachel: Wow! God really loves us!!!!!!!!

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As I went over the rest of the 10 commandments with her:

Rachel: Wow! I didn't know that!! I'll do that now!!!!

She is so sweet! We had the General Women's Broadcast this Saturday, which was also our park-the-car day, as you may recall. Stacy, Rachel, and Tiffany were all going to walk with us, but due to an emergency, only Rachel was able to. We walked to her house and then walked with her to the church. The whole way, we were talking and praying to people as we went, and she did it right with us. She told us later that she was excited to be able to serve a mission! We had a dinner with all the women in the stake and then went in for the Broadcast. It was really funny at first because there were some issues, and so for the opening remarks and half of the first talk, it was all in mandarin. But we explained to Vicky that if she had a question in mind, that Heavenly Father would answer it for her. She wrote down a question and took notes during the meeting. And they were beautiful notes! 

Stacy and Tiffany couldn't make it to church this week because of what had happened on Friday, but Rachel and Heidi did! We told Stacy we couldn't believe she had 8 kids, and Valerie*, her 18 year old daughter who we didn't know very well quickly said in response that she now has 10 (which was later changed to 11 once we got Sister Hoffman)!

Sunday night, we went and visited Stacy and Tiffany in the hospital. Long story short, and after a lot of confusion, we found out that Stacy's daughter, Valerie, had a baby! We didn't even know she was pregnant!   On Friday, she was walking around, someone hit her with something heavy and metal and the pain put her into labor at 30 weeks. So she got taken to the hospital and had a sweet baby girl named Anna*! All week we had been praying for an opportunity to get to know the older kids in the family because they were sometimes home, but didn't want to join in on the lessons. Valerie started warming up a lot to us during the week, and when we visited her, we sang "I am a Child of God". We talked to her and she loved what we said. She invited us to come back on Monday morning.  On Monday, we visited, and also set a date with her! She will be baptized with her family on the 16th of April! And she wants her sweet little girl to be blessed on the Sunday when she gets the Holy Ghost! We're seeing them tonight and we're so excited! They have such strong testimonies of Christ and it just blows us away! 

Stacy and Tiffany told us how sad they were that they missed the broadcast and church, and were excited to come with Susan this Sunday! They are the cutest family ever! 

We were out contacting people, and I met this man from Cuba, Ubaldo*! He came to church this Sunday, and then had Easter Dinner with some members, and is now meeting with the Elders!

We've seen lots of miracles and a lot has been happening! I love being a missionary! But that's all for now! 

Con amor,

Hermana Lewis

While on exchanges with Sister Hubert! Love her! And these cute kids! 

Dinner with at a members house...without the member.

Hot dog picture

Mom:  I wouldn't call it a hot dog picture, though.  I would call that an avacado picture with a side of hot dog.
Hermana Lewis:  That's the way we do it!  Chilean style!
Mom: Mi morenita chilena!

Rachel, Sister Hoffman, Sister Yonk, Me

I talked to THE COOLEST guys on Satruday night! Darryl and Brandon!

Bleached

Joined us in Relief Society<3

That Easter wind!

Visiting Maud

Doing missionary work

Surrey Zone Conference

Week 64

So much happened this week and I don't even have the words to explain it all! So crazy!

Last p-day, we danced with the Hermanas! It was such a good workout! Holy cow! We danced to EFY music and MOTAB. So that was super fun! 

After our p-day activities, we went and visited a former, Stacy*. She is from Kenya (which, by the way, is the same name and same country of origin as Stacy, our RC from Kelowna! What?!). We went there and she had some cute kids running around, but when we sat down, it was us and Stacy, as well as Stacy's oldest daughter. We did HTBT and she invited us back. We visited them on Wednesday, but this time, we invited the girls to meet with us. Just the youngest two girls listened, as well as Stacy's niece. Their names are Tiffany* (8), Heidi* (4), and Kiara* (5), the niece. We planned on teaching the Restoration, but because Stacy is learning English, and mainly speaks Arabic, Swahili, and Kiswahili, Sister Yonk helped her understand simpler words as I taught Restoration to the little girls. At the end, I invited Tiffany to be baptized and she said yes for April 16th! At the end of the lesson, we explained baptism to Stact and showed her a picture of Christ being baptized. We invited her to be baptized as well on the same day and she agreed! Her and her girls begged us to stay, and then to come back any time.

Later Stacy said, "I know God sent you here. We wanted to learn more about Jesus and no one came. But then you came and I know God sent you. You can come whenever you want!"

We ended up visiting them every day the rest of the week! We switch off every other day teaching a lesson, and teaching English, as well as how to read Kiswahili (there isn't a Book of Mormon in Swahili and as it turns out, Kiswahili isn't too hard to read for us Americans) so she can eventually read the Book of Mormon. We taught Stacy and her kids how to pray in English and they all love praying for us when we are there! It's going so well! In one of the lessons, we had Rachel* (14) come to help us translate, and she ended up asking a lot of questions about Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith. She is now on date for the 16th as well! They came to our baptism on Saturday, and stayed the whole day at church yesterday and loved it! 

We are spending p-day with them today:) 

Victoria and Tom got baptized on Saturday! It was a beautiful and simple service! Oh my goodness. Victoria was baptized first, and then ran out and around to see Tom be baptized right after. Right after they came up out of the water, they each had the most  beautiful smiles on! They were just glowing all day! And Irene was right there along side them, shining! 

We were heading to stop by a former after a lesson this week, and I looked at the map. I figured out where we were going and I directed Sister Yonk there. And then I realized I took us in the wrong direction, even though I was certain that was where it should have been. We looked up and saw a cute family of little kids running around outside. We had to go talk to the mom. We walked up to the porch as all the little kids stared at us. The mom answered the door. They were from South Sudan. We talked to her and asked if we could come visit them another day and they agreed!

A couple days later, we went back. She was there with her husband. We got to know them and did HTBT and taught a brief Restoration lesson. Her name is Hiba* and his name is Kamal*. They have 6 beautiful children! We are going back to teach them this week. 

As we were going through the area book that night after their lesson, we found a record for a family from Sudan, but it said she only had 2 kids and was pregnant, and her name was Hiba*. We felt like we should visit them and see if it was the same person or not. The next morning, we dropped by and we were let in to the apartment complex. We found the door and knocked. And Hiba, from Sudan, let us in! We talked with her and set up a return appointment and she is SO EXCITED to learn! She has 4 cute kids and a husband! We can't wait!

I went on exchanges with Sister Steele in White Rock! She is so amazing! We worked super hard that exchange. We did a lot of finding, and we had some really quality conversations in the funniest of places! 

I gave a talk in church yesterday about yielding our hearts to God. I love it. We just need to trust and let God take control. All throughout the scriptures, Jesus is saying , "fear not". He is the Master and we need to allow Him to do His work.

All for now! It was an amazing week!! Enjoy the pictures! 

Con amor, 

Hermana Lewis

Dancing!

Some of Grace's kids and grandkids after our first lesson

Getting her hair done!

Tiffany and Kiara!

She's so wonderful!

Sister Yonk says I look like a dude.

We're not sure.

After the water...

Before the fire!

Stacy and crew!

Praying!

Weekly planning with the Hermanas! Happy St. Patrick's day!!