Week 80

This week was incredible and filled with miracles and tender mercies, like always. Susan and Leah came to church for Sacrament Meeting for the first time and loved it. 

On Monday, we were tracting a street, and we talked to this lady from Greece. She wasn't interested in us teaching her about the gospel, and we offered to do service. She declined, but we gave her our card with our number and told her to call us if she needed anything. As we walked away, her two little kids kept waving to us. And she was just staring at us from her door. We continued to knock for about 10 minutes, when we got a call. "Hi...uh Sister Lewis and Sister Miller. Hi. This is Leda who you met at my house a few minutes ago? Do you want to come back and talk?". We went back and we did some HTBT and taught her the Restoration. Then later on in the week we did some service for her, and she invited us over for lunch yesterday after church before I leave. We had delicious Greek food and got to know the husband a little better. They are an incredible family! 

We met a man named Shane* on the streets and had an awesome conversation about the Restoration! And gave him a Book of Mormon! 

Last night as we were contacting, we met so many amazing people. My favorite group was a husband and wife from Sri Lanka, Kasun* and Bhagya. We gave them a Book of Mormon and prayed with them! They are excited to come to church! 

Lindsay, from last week, has seen so many miracles as she prepared and had surgery, and is now recovering well! God is blessing her in so many ways!

I had my exit interview with President Burt on Friday after Zone Meeting. I am so grateful for such an amazing Mission President. I have learned so much from him and his wife. I'm so grateful for the priesthood leadership he gave as I served under his direction for the Lord Jesus Christ.

I got permission to go to Patricia's baptism in Surrey on Saturday. The service was all in Portuguese. Patricia is just incredible! She was glowing and was ready to make those covenants with our Father!

We had 2 dinners yesterday and one more offer for dinner. Our fridge is full of panset, spring rolls, chili sauce, watermelon, cherries, blueberries, and raspberries, all from yesterday. 

We got to spend some time with the Rauma's. They are fantastic. And so selfless. I am so grateful for them and their example! 

What an incredible experience my mission has been! I wouldn't trade it for the world. 

I have grown and changed and become more of the person I know Heavenly Father wants me to become. But becoming is a process! "Shall we not go on in so great a cause?" (Doctrine and Covenants 128:22). 

I've got a lot of drive for the next part of Heavenly Father's plan for me, and the road has missionary work painted all over it!

And from this point, I'll "go forward and not backward"!!

And for the last time,

Hermana Lewis

Crazy picture with the babies at Zone Meeting on Friday!

I got to see this awesome family again!

Pat got baptized!!

Valerie and Anna

Week 79

Buenos dias! Y feliz dia de independencia! Go America!! I think this is one of my favorite days of the year. And is being well celebrated by me.

"We have obtained a land of promise, a land which is choice above all other lands; a land which the Lord God hath covenanted with me should be a land for the inheritance of my seed. Yea, the Lord hath covenanted this land unto me,and to my children forever, and also all those who should be led out of other countries by the hand of the Lord" (2 Nephi 1: 5, and the whole chapter is great if you want to read it).

On Monday night, we had the ward FHE potluck. It was fantastic. We got to get to know a lot more members! 

The rest of the week was a pretty great week. We taught Anh*'s daughter! It was really good! Her name is Dana* and she is 14 years old. 

In gospel principles yesterday, the lesson was on gifts of the spirit. We had to go around the room and say what gifts we wanted to develop. At the end, the teacher asked what gifts we have seen in others. Anh said that Sister Miller and I have the gift of working miracles because we were able to get his daughter to church!

We passed out a lot of Book of Mormons, too! Which is awesome! I love that book!

Ok. So this is where our week started getting crazy. 

We had our huge Canada Day ward picnic on Friday afternoon. It is top attended event by members, non-members, less actives, part members, etc, for our ward! Naturally that coupled with missionary work and free food meant I was super excited to go. 

We got to the picnic early and they were already set up, and I felt like we should go knock a couple doors before we went. We prayed and picked a street and started tracting. The first door was actually a home for nuns. Hahahahaaha Then the next door, no one answered, The next door, a nice guy named Shea* answered. He said some things to keep us going, and then we knocked on the 4th door. This lady answered and this is what happened:

S. Miller (in an excited voice): Hi! We're your Sister Missionaries in the area and we just wanted to come by and introduce ourselves! I'm Sister Miller!

Me: And I'm Sister Lewis! We share a message about Jesus Christ! The same ch--

Lady (mocking our enthusiasm): Hi! What's your message. Wait you want to share a message?! Fine. Come in. Come and share your message. What is it?!

Sister Miller and I prepared ourselves for whatever was about to come. 

We go in and she starts telling us to make ourselves comfortable because she can't. We helped her get a wedding gift ready and started talking about Christ. She told us right off the bat she wasn't going to convert, but she just needed Jesus Christ in her life more at that point. She calmed down a little after we were there, and she told us about a lot of things. She has cancer, and her mom has a heart problem. On Monday, she would have to go to the hospital to prep for her surgeries because she has 4 blood clots in her lungs because of her cancer. And 2 weeks after her surgery, her mom goes in for her procedures for her heart. She was extremely stressed and scared. She put "pray" on her calendar every day before her surgery, but had put it off and thought that maybe we were a gift from God. So she asked us to pray with her. 

We said a prayer with her and she was so grateful. We told her a little about what we do as missionaries, and we also offered to do service for her. She asked if we could stay for an hour and we told her we could. 

We stayed with her and talked with her and let her talk to us mostly as we helped her pack her bag for the hospital. She had a lot on her mind. We then also helped her clean her basement and do a couple other things around the house. At the end, I felt an impression to ask her if she wanted a priesthood blessing and she accepted! She told us that God had just been telling her, "I'm trying to give you gifts" and then we knocked on the door.

We went to the ward party with only 30 minutes left. We tried to talk to as many of our investigators and members as we could, eat, and find someone who could give our friend, Lindsay*, a blessing. 

In the middle of all of that, something horrible happened, which I can't write about, but it made me really defensive. Oh my goodness. It was lame. 

But then we got the Elders and the Silvas to come. 

They gave Lindsay a blessing and they were all grateful!

The awesome part about all of that, besides the fact that we had the experience, was that it was an answer to my prayers! We had been studying about finding a lot this past week as part of 12 weeks, and I had been praying for an unplanned opportunity to do service. This was it!

We also got accused of attacking someone, and someone we loved was attacked. But all is well. 

Love you!

Hna Lewis

Farewell to the Silvas

Carlo!!

Leftover cake=next few meals. Thank you, Burnaby ward!

Park-your-car Saturday!

Get it. Read it. Study it. Live it. 

Ok. So this here sounds crazy. But it tastes great! You make a grilled cheese. And you put jam on one side and then hot sauce on top! I'm going to make you all try it! 

12 Semanas (yesterday)

Happy 4th!

And don't mind me or my companion, but look at the guy in the middle! He's here at the library! He dresses like this every week.

Early on in the week, we had an FHE potluck to say bye to members of the ward who were leaving over the summer. Our WML and his wife, the Silvas, are leaving, and they were friends with Carlo (yes, the one from Surrey). He came to the party because it was the ward he was baptized in and saw me there! I hadn't had time to say bye to him, Dmitri, or Patricia, but he said he would come with them to our Canada Day BBQ. I love them!!!

Week 78

Hola! 

Zone Conference was this week and it was the best! I had been preparing and had a list of questions I had been praying about. We went to Zone Conference, and one by one, all my questions were answered. Heavenly Father is so good and knows us too well! 

Suggested readings for the week:

1. Of Regrets and Resolutions 

2. Safety for the Soul

3. The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent

It was another one of those weeks. I just can't get enough of these talks! I was just shouting it all week! Go and study them! My natural man just drowns in truth! 

Highlights: 

"I am not speaking here of climbing the ladder of success in our various professions. That ladder, no matter how lofty it may appear on this earth, barely amounts to a single step in the great eternal journey awaiting us.

Rather, I am speaking of becoming the person God, our Heavenly Father, intended us to be" (1).

I had actually been thinking about something along these lines a lot recently. Even before I read the talk and it totally confirms the revelation I received. 

"Wishing to be more faithful to our covenants is good; actually being faithful to sacred covenants-- including living a virtuous life, paying our tithes and offerings, keeping the Word of Wisdom,and serving those in need-- is much better."

"Discipleship is the pursuit of holiness and happiness. It is the path to our best and happiest self. 

Let us resolve to follow the Savior and work with diligence to become the person we were designed to become. Let us listen to and obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit. As we do so, Heavenly Father will reveal to us things we never knew about ourselves."

"The older we get, the more we look back and realize that external circumstances don't really matter or determine our happiness."

Ok, so yes. I'm freaking out about all 3 of those talks. 

We had a really powerful lesson with Lila*, Sierra*, and Brielle* on Saturday night! They are progressing! They also fed us dinner, which we lack in this neck of the woods (everywhere). 

We had a member visit with the Rauma family. They are fantastic. Their testimonies literally are just shouting out of them! We ate healthy food for dinner and taught them the Restoration, and they gave us a family referral! They are so amazing! They offered their home for us to teach in!

Cindy* is really progressing quite nicely! She came to church yesterday and is really comfortable there! We taught Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom and things are going smoothly! Keep her in your prayers!

Love you all! Sorry for the strange email! 

Hermana Lewis

With Sierra and their 6 kittens!

Week 77

I loved this week! It wasn't anything unheard of, but it was nice. We tracted a lot and didn't teach too much. But we loved doing what we did!

Valerie moved back to Burnaby and we are teaching her again! 

We saw a lot of small miracles this week! 

We had dinner scheduled with a member family one day this week. We got a text in the afternoon from the member explaining that her and her husband just found out their temple recommends expired a month ago, but they needed to renew them to help clean the temple the next night, and the only time the bishop and stake president could meet with them was during our dinner appointment time, but we told them that their recommends were more important than feeding us dinner (we are such saints ;)). We had to change our plans to save Ks because all our back-ups were in the part of town where the members would be. We were driving and I had a really strong prompting to tract a certain street. We went there and started knocking on doors. A lot of people weren't interested, but we found 6 people who were! 6 people! We passed out pamphlets and set up return appointments. 

We knocked on one door, and Joni* answered. We asked her about her religious background and she told us she reads the bible, but doesn't go to church. We talked about the bible for a bit, and then I whipped out the Book of Mormon and invited her to read from it! She was so excited!! She had been waiting to read from the Book of Mormon for years but had never had one! We explained a little about it and she was so grateful! And we ended with a prayer. We're seeing her next week to follow up when she gets back in town!

From Robin!

And before we were finished, we saw a lady mowing her lawn. Her name was Robin*. We asked if we could help, but she didn't need it. She said we could ask her landlord if she needed help, though. We knocked the door and asked, but she didn't. We went back and talked to her a little longer and gave her our number just in case she needed more help. We walked to go to the next door when it hit me that we didn't even tell her our purpose! We went back and we told her that we are sharing a message about Jesus Christ... and at the end of the conversation, she cut us a bouquet of flowers from her garden. 

We ran into Eduardo (former investigator from 1st transfer) a couple times this week! Maybe he is more prepared now! 

Kiersten came to church yesterday and is back on date for July 19th! She has been reading from the Book of Mormon over the past week and felt the Spirit so strongly, and knew that she needed to continue learning more. She made really good friends with some of the members. 

And a great member missionary in Utah named Gary told his friend Marilyn*, who lives in Seattle, to go to church. She was here visiting her aunt, Missy*, and they came to church yesterday! We're going to be meeting with them soon to teach them more, but they stayed all day and asked great questions! 

A couple days ago, we were heading to have a lesson with Chloe*, the potential we found, and we got lost in the rain for 40 minutes beforehand. We were soaked. We didn't have our raincoats and were drenched. Completely. One lady stopped and gave us directions, and then offered to drive us to the main road. She was an angel! We spent the rest of the day in wet clothes. It was fun!! Really, it was such an adventure! How often can you say you did that? 

Well, that's all for now! Love you!

Hermana Lewis

I think that's all for this week!

We LOVE Maryam. She tells the best stories. She acts out the best stories!

Car battery died and no one helped for an hour! We tracted to ask for help and we waved people down on the side of the road, but no one stopped. We called ward members, but no one answered. We remembered a member lived somewhat nearby, walked to her place, and she called another member to help us out.

Valerie and Anna moved to Burnaby!

Deer Lake, once again. In the far right back corner, they were getting ready to film a bonfire for some Canadian netflix show. 

We took away two vaporizers after teaching the Word of Wisdom! 

Week 76

Ok. I'm just going to get to it as fast as I can. 

Last Monday, we met with a potential we found on Saturday, William*, from Uganda. We taught him the Restoration, he loved it. We invited him to be baptized, and he was so grateful because he had never been given the opportunity before. He's on date for July 9th! We had daily contact with him this week and he loves the Book of Mormon! We taught him the Plan of Salvation yesterday, and you could just tell he was so prepared by the Lord. The Spirit was so strong and he taught us back parts of the lesson. But we also had to pass him to the Surrey Elders. But we have no doubt he will be baptized!

We met with Chastity and Adam a couple times. Adam (the 10 year old boy) is showing so much desire and commitment! It just blows me away! He gets it! And he reads his Book of Mormon to us in french and his accent is to die for. Chastity doesn't quite understand why any of it is important. She knows it's good, but is having a hard time acting in faith on the knowledge she does have. But she is showing a little more commitment after this morning. 

Kiersten is focusing a little more on other things at the moment so we are most likely going to drop her date for July 19th, and give her some time to thing and figure some things out.

We stopped by a former, Arletta*, and she was in the middle of teaching piano lessons. She told us she couldn't talk, but asked us to contact her later. I made a comment about how they kids sounded playing the piano, and then she had us come in and had her students play the songs they were playing. They were 3 brothers there, ages 11, 12, and 14. They played 3 songs, including Fur Elise and Clair de lune. And they were beautiful. And they had only been playing for less than a year! We are going to find that family and teach them because they recognize it's a gift from God! 

We were in the church after District Meeting and Bishop Iwaasa was there and found us. He told us a woman was on the phone who wanted to be taught! It was Mae, from Vancouver with the 6 kids, who we used to teach! She had moved to New West and wanted to meet with missionaries again. We haven't been able to meet with her yet, nor does she know it's me, but we're hoping to this week!

We knocked lots and lots of doors this week. We also talked to a lot of people on the streets. We were let into a home by a woman named, Aarev*, from India, and she talked to us about our purpose and fed us Mango juice. We also got a free slice of pizza from a man from Afghanistan who owns a pizza store and has seen us talking to people and helping people on the streets and wanted to know more about what we do. We have planted so many seeds, and one day, they will be reaped. And we're just enjoying every minute of the season!

I am just so blessed to be a missionary! We're going to make this week awesome! Can't wait to tell you about it!

Hermana Lewis

I almost forgot! We were getting gas the other day, and we were walking in to pay, and this guy says "hi sisters!", which never happens. So I ran after him and asked if he was a member and he was! Devon, from the Coquitlam ward. We talked to him and he told us how much he appreciated our service. He then gave us $20 for lunch and told us about his mission in Anaheim, and how nice it was when people would say hi and help out. We were so grateful. Huge tender mercy!

Week 75

Everyone! Get ready... 

My new companion is Sister Miller from Columbus, Ohio! She is the best! We knew we were going to be companions from the first time we met! We like a lot of the same things! For example:

1. Loves food (like pizza)

2. We both love to dance

3. Everyone thinks we're twins..

4. We both always say "remember that one time" when it recently happened

5. We have the same camera

6. We love being adventurous

7. Dogs are our world!

8. We fought each other in the national MMA championships 4 years ago.

That last one was a lie, but the rest were all true!

It's been a crazy week! We said goodbye to Sister Yonk on Tuesday morning, and then spent almost the rest of the day driving around new missionaries for transfers! I was exhausted by the end. And then I went to be companions with Sister Wilson. Wednesday, we worked all day, and then Thursday morning, we headed to Richmond for transfer meeting!  

We were waiting around, eating breakfast, and all the new missionaries walked in. I met all the Sisters and knew Sister Miller would be my companion! President met with all of the trainers before, and then we went in to where the new missionaries were. He said who the different companionships would be and I was right! Then we had a couple trainings given, and then finished with a late lunch. Because we were opening an area, we had to grab some supplies. We didn't know how much or what we were going to need, and so we didn't grab too much. Which was good because we had all of our luggage and 3 lamps in a little Subaru. We drove out to our area, and eventually arrived at our apartment. We walked in and realized we really had nothing. Haha we had 2 Book of Mormons, 15 pamphlets, a leftover pizza from transfer meeting, a bag of salad, and one bed. In our area book we had about 15 formers, all of which were pretty much ones and dones.

We got things figured out miraculously, and then we went to the store and bought some food and supplies we would need. It was a super long day and we finished it with talking to everyone on the streets. We ran into some inactive members who were waiting for Sisters in the ward again! We're meeting with them tonight! We are prepared to help answer questions and concerns with the Book of Mormon!

Friday was a good day and we saw so many miracles! We walked and tracted a lot. This is the first day people kept asking if we were twins. We met Kiersten*, an investigator, outside Metrotown mall, and it was an interesting lesson! She came to church the Sunday before, and we met with her to get to know her and see where she was. She keeps us entertained, for sure! She couldn't make it to church yesterday because the buses don't go as far as the church, but we're seeing her on Tuesday!

Saturday was so long! It was so hot and hot and hot! If you were wondering, New Westminster is all hills. We walked around 8 miles by the time we came home for dinner, and it was all up-hill. Both ways. Which seems impossible, but it's not. We ate dinner and finished off the night talking to people at parks and at the pier, and contacting the few former investigators we had. By the end of the day, we had 5 committed to church!

Sunday, we went to church and it was good! No one we had committed came, but we did have a member bring a friend, Stella*. We got to church early and were able to teach her part of the Restoration as well as answer a bunch of questions she had. We had a really good testimony meeting, a fantastic Gospel principles lesson, and a wonderful Relief Society lesson. 

After church, we tracted in the hot 90+ degree weather and found a lot of miracles! We finally came home for dinner and broke our fasts on rice and left-over pizza (haha the same meal we have eaten since Thursday). 

We went to meet with a former, Cheri*, but she wasn't able to make it. Instead, we taught about the Book of Mormon to Vladimir*, a man on the street, and helped two deaf men, Charles* and Samuel*! We felt like we were really able to fulfill our purpose during the time we had planned for Cheri*. 

We met with Chastity and her son, Adam, and went hard core about authority. And it worked! They both have baptismal dates for July 23! They are really excited and so are we!

Sister Miller and I are both so excited to continue to see all of these miracles! Heavenly Father has an awesome plan for us! We love it! 

And once more, hurrah for Israel!

Hermana Lewis

Helping Valerie move back with Sister Blaikie!

Valerie!

Tracting for miracles in the rain!

Jeremiah's* baptism!

Goodbyes with Valerie and Rachel

New desks and chairs...

Jajaja

Meet Sister Miller!