Merry Christmas everyone! We hope you had a fun and safe holiday. We got the privilege of talking with Elder Lewis for quite some time on Christmas day. He is happy, healthy, and safe and loving the work of the gospel. He sends his love to all of his family and friends that read the blog. Here is some of what he had to say about it, and below are some pictures that he sent:
About talking to the family on Christmas: I really enjoyed talking to you all, It seems like everything is going well. I am praying for you, Dad, for your surgery on Tuesday, but I have confidence in Dr. Murphy. I am not worried about it. Cici and Carson have sure grown up. Carson is a big chunk of man! He’s a big kid! He also has a lot of hair too. I also really enjoyed talking with Conrad in Spanish. That was a real treat for me. I was super excited about that. Also, Andy and Carol it was good seeing you guys and your kids. You seem like you are doing great. You deserve that! Thank you all for singing O Holy Night for me last night for two reasons, One, Colombians don’t really have a sense of pitch whatsoever at all. Great rhythm, just no pitch haha so it was really nice to hear your voices. That sounds really conceited…. But one thing is that when they sing here they sure mean it. The other thing was the message of the song. I sure do appreciate that message more than I ever have as I come to know my Savior.
Elder Lewis talking in Spanish with his brother in law, Conrad on Christmas Day.
(Jared's Spanish is getting very good, and very fast!)
Details about P-Day and the pictures included in the blog today: Today we went out for our p-day on a really old bus. There was an old lady who didn’t know how to drive it. A couple missionaries wanted to kick her out of the seat and drive it, but we aren’t allowed. So we had to push it at least 85 times. Then it stalled going up a hill. Eventually we made it up the hill to where we were going. In the picture you see a house, that’s the house of the people that own the land that all the waterfalls are on. You go up to the house and ring the doorbell, and they were home, but they didn’t want to come to the door. So after about a half an hour we went back down to the bus, where the lady that was driving the bus was using her brakes so much that they started smoking. Some of my mechanic knowledge kicked in and the people thought the engine was blowing up, and I thought “No, its just the brakes, you’re just not sure how to use the bus.” So we pulled off to the side of the road and just leave it for a minute to cool off. While that was happening, by the side of the road there were some little falls, and that’s where all the pictures were from. The other missionaries were too lazy to climb all the rocks haha. But Zuniga and I did. The water, where it pools, is pretty deep and it has a blue tinge to it. Its so green. I don’t know if you consider it jungle, but its so green. Then we came back down and we were tired. We went back to the house for lunch and crashed for awhile and then here I am writing you!
The house described in Elder Lewis' writing
Waterfall
Elder Lewis and the guides and missionaries (blurry but you get the idea)
Elder Lewis
His New Year’s Message: My message to you all today is this:
This time of year is a great time to establish some things that we can do a little
better. One thing that I have learned here is that we shouldn’t expect
perfection of ourselves. Just try to do a little better every day. A lot of the
time I would stress about being a perfect missionary. Elder Zuniga has helped
me realize that that isn’t reasonable. That I need to set more reasonable
goals. So as you set your New Years resolutions, just do the small things this
year. Not this week but in the next month or so, as you start to take down the
Christmas decorations, its always a little depressing, but I hope that we never
forget Christmas and what it means, and how it brings people together. If we
can accomplish being as generous and thoughtful as we tend to be in this season
all year around, then we can accomplish great things. Well, I think that’s enough
preaching. Love you all and I will talk to you soon!
-Elder Lewis
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