Week 73

It's been an eventful week!

After emailing last week, Erika Taylor (an RM from the Manchester Mission) took us to the Sea to Sky Highway for P-day and we got all the way to Squamish! It was beautiful! It was so fun! And she also gave us so many tips from her mission, which we have been applying this week, and it's been amazing! We are so blessed!

We came back and had FHE with the Rosales family and ate tacos. It was so great! And then we got to visit a LA and we tried to help her out with some issues, but it wasn't wanted. 

Tuesday was holy. In the morning, we went and got Sister Hoffman her BC license and prepared to do some service projects for the members. Then we split off. Sister Hoffman and I were going to see a former from a couple different areas in the hospital, while Sister Grant went to teach Illiana* with Tita Mangabat. As Sister Hoffman and I were walking to the hospital, I was calling Stacy to see if she could come to a lesson with us. She said she had been hit by a car just before and didn't feel too good. And then her daughter, Valerie, took the phone and started talking to us (yes! The Valerie who had a baptismal date but then had to be moved to Burnaby)! She was home but was only going to be there for another hour! But we were on our way to another lesson and only had 25 minutes before Valerie would leave! We told her we would figure something out. Right after we got off the phone, our lesson cancelled with the former, Eileen*, and we ran back to the car as fast as we could and drove to Stacy's house.

Stacy was walking home from her English class and a man in a car hit her and drove off. She had a really bad headache and didn't look very good at all. But she was there spending special time with her granddaughter, Anna. We got Valerie on date again and set expectations. She had a friend over as well, who was interested in coming to church. We got to have a lesson with them and also set up a time for Stacy to get a priesthood blessing. In the mean time, Sister Grant went with Sister Mangabat to teach Andrea and Isabel. Andrea was drug free! And then she went to teach Irene and get her a priesthood blessing with Elder and Sister Johnson and Brother Rosales. Sister Hoffman and I went to teach a referral from a member in another ward, named Blair*. She cancelled on us when we got there, but we headed right back to Irene's to pick up Sister Grant, and we headed to Dinner at the Sloan's house! They fed us delicious Greek food and we had a really nice visit!

We left their house running and went to Sister Saenz's house. She also fed us dinner (it was supposed to be just a visit, but she always feeds us)! Steak and rice with watermelon and a drink. We had a good visit with her and were exercising when she wasn't looking to make room for more food. We laughed a lot! 

Then we ran to the church and gave a new investigator a church tour. Her name is Vanessa*! She's now being taught by the Langley YSA Elders, but she enjoyed herself! And then our next church tour started with Star!! During that tour, Sister Hoffman and I left and grabbed another member to finish off splits with Sister Grant while she stayed with a Young Women's leader in the tour. We took the member to the church and then we realized we forgot to find someone to give Stacy a blessing! There were some Elders in the parking lot and we asked them if they could do it. They said they could, so we just had to find a male to be in the house. But at this point it's 8:45  and no one was going to be available. But Stacy's neighbors are potentials we met that she referred to us, and we called them and asked if they could help us out. They were more than willing. So three of them, Robert*, Isaiah*, and John*, came over and we explained what was happening, and then Stacy got a blessing. We asked the three guys what they thought and they said they could feel something intense but peaceful and they could see a change in her countenance after the blessing. 

And that ended our night! It was so crazy but we kept to it! 

On Wednesday, we did some service for some members and then visited one of our favorite people, Maud Robinson! It was such a sweet visit! We have grown to love her a ton! 

On Thursday, we got to eat delicious Korean food from Helen Lee, a ward member. It was so good and she is an amazing woman! We had dinner with the Bandong family. Then we had scripture study and Suzie led the discussion. We focused on light this week. It was really cool! 

On Friday, we had a day full of lessons and finding and getting prepared for Irene's baptism! I got to go over to dinner on splits with Sister Taylor to teach Patricia* (from Brazil) and eat dinner with her, Carlo*, and Dmitri*! Roberto made us homemade calzones, and then we had guava cake for dessert! While I was there, Sister Grant and Sister Hoffman picked up our two mini missionaries for the weekend, Sister Harvey and Sister Milad! 

The rest of the weekend was a crazy blur of fun and miracles and hard work. We had double plans all day. We taught lessons and went finding and if we had time, ate food. We did a social media blitz, like last year. This one was a lot smaller, but it's #minimissions2016

Irene had a sweet baptism on Saturday morning, which was mostly just missionaries and mini missionaries. 

Sunday was fantastic as well, and then we dropped off our mini missionaries. Sister Grant and I went on a crazy adventure to an addiction recovery home and had an experience of a life time. I'll just say that the topic of conversation was stuck on spiritual gardens for a while. 

And yesterday was Victoria Day. Happy Victoria day! We saw so many miracles! And got to teach Chris* from the other week, as well as his brother Alex*, and their cousin, Vi*. 

If you didn't read that all, I don't blame you. In summary, this week was fantastic. We saw so many miracles! We are working hard and loving every second! God is so merciful! Christ is the Master! 

On Saturday night, we were knocking doors and knocked into George*. He had recently overcome cancer on his vocal chords, but was only left with one. He was so cool. He told us right up front that he didn't believe in God, but as we kept talking, he started talking more and more about God and his nature. It was a really cool conversation, but a couple things really stood out to me that I wanted to share!

One day we will come to a knowledge of what reality really is. We will have a perfect knowledge of everything, and we will know exactly what things were really important. What really was important in this life, and what wasn't. Are the things we are doing each day the things that matter most? 

He told us he was scared of the dark. He is a scuba diver and dives all over, especially in Honduras where there is the second largest reef in the world. When he first started, everyone asked him if he was scared of sharks and other creatures in the water, but it never bothered. Him. What bothered him was the dark. He hated not knowing what was in the dark. But his favorite thing in the world was nighttime diving. Naturally, we asked him why, and he told us that it was his favorite because he's in the water and all he can see is the small circle of light that his lamp creates. And whatever is in that light is his world.

That hit me pretty hard. We live in a world of darkness and we each have been given light and tools to increase our light. But no matter the size of our light or how bright it is, we just need to focus on what is in our light and make that our world. We can't spend time fearing what could be in the dark, but if we focus on the light, we will be ok! Everything will turn out! We just have to trust. 

Anyway, everything is good! This work is the best! I love it! Hurrah for Israel! 

Con amor,

Hermana Lewis

Sorry for no pictures this week! I was super excited to send some, but I left my chord at home. Next week!

(These photos were taken from the Canada Vancouver Mission Facebook Page)