Week 54: The Spirit Makes A Changed Man

Buenas Tardes Familia!

I am sending you another recording from here in Sogamoso, this week has been pretty darn good. I don’t know, it’s been kind of a hard week. So, this week I have a couple of things that I wanted to tell you guys about: the first of them is that I found a really awesome talk on BYU speeches by… crap what’s his name… he’s from the presidency of the seventy, crap I will remember In a minute. But it’s called 100% responsibility, and this week it has changed my life. If you guys have time, go on BYU speeches and look it up. It’s from August, and it talks about the relationship with agency and responsibility and how we are 100% free to choose, but that also makes us 100% responsible. It has really changed the way that I see the work, and has eliminated from my life, forever, making excuses. I have found that I am able to get a lot more done If I am not making excuses. I really, really, enjoy that talk. I am still listening to it almost daily. I just wanted to tell you about that because It has really made a difference in my life, and also a talk by David A. Bednar that was also recent at BYU.

But… what I want to tell you guys about this week is my experience with following the spirit. We went to a house Thursday night, named familia Polito, and it’s a family of 5 people and we went in and we were going to teach a lesson about the Plan of Salvation, but we got the prompting that it wasn’t what we were supposed to do. But as we were absorbed in doing our own thing, we ignored the prompting and we went ahead and it was just long and it didn’t feel right. There was something missing and obviously it was the spirit. Just couldn’t feel it. Just wasn’t any power there. There just wasn’t anything. That made us really sad as we walked out of that lesson. It was also very long because of the member that we brought.. went off on a monologue… but the bad thing was that the spirit was offended because we didn’t listen and it withdrew itself. If you know what it’s like to teach without the spirit, it’s like being tied hands and feet and being thrown into the deep end of a pool. You cant do anything. And so we left that night and as it was 9 o’clock we went back to the house just wondering what happened. Neither me or my companion felt anything. So we went back to the house and we agreed that we had a prompting and we didn’t follow it. That being said, we went to bed that night being very humbled, very trying to repent for that. But the next day we went to a lesson with a part-member family, his name is Miguel Angelo, and he is… the husband is not a member, the rest of the family is, very very active, he is from the army and he was home resting on vacation these past 2 weeks. This was the last time we were going to be able to meet with him. We have met with him 3 times now and this time was the last time we were going to be able to meet with him for 7 weeks. So we went in planning to teach lesson 3, which is the doctrine of Christ, which talks about faith, repentance, baptism, confirmation, and endure to end. But as we went in and I started to speak, and as I was humble from that experience the night before, I felt that we were not to teach that, that we were to read the Book of Mormon with him. I wasn’t about to ignore it again, so we went with it. I told my companion, because there was an interruption in the lesson, it was perfect, I said “we’ve gotta read the Book of Mormon.” So we read 2 Nephi 32, which talks about prayer. Something happened. There was so much power in that lesson. As we read that chapter of 9 verses, it was just amazing. As we ended, me and my companion were just working as a team. It was awesome! We told him that he needed to take the Book of Mormon with him and read it while he was in his training that he was going to do for special forces. That he was to take the Book of Mormon and read it while he was there and pray about it. He is usually not very interested, but he was very attentive in that moment, he just had a look about him, the spirit was teaching him. Then my companion said something that I will never forget, it’s something that I have never heard him say before, and it was this: “Miguel, I know that if you take the Book of Mormon and you read it every night, you will come home a changed man. You will come home a different man.” At that moment, he literally sat back and thought about it, and I bore witness to my companion’s words and we left a Book of Mormon with him to take. We thought that the true test would be if he took it. The next day at church his wife came up to us and told us “Elders, he took the Book of Mormon with him.” And I knew in that moment that it was because we were humbled that we were able to listen to that prompting of the Spirit, that the spirit was there in such rich abundance. Just a testament to me that nothing can be done without the Spirit. I was listening to a talk by Elder Bednar and he said that when Brigham Young gave the charge to start Brigham Young University he said: “I would that you would remember that you should not teach even the alphabet or the multiplication tables without the Spirit.” I know that’s true. I pray that from here on out I will never have that experience of teaching without the spirit. I have learned so much. The spirit is a vehicle. It is the vehicle by which the Savior talks with his children. I am learning little by little how to recognize it and how to use it. The only way to recognize the spirit, or to learn to recognize the spirit, is by experience. You study about it and then you go out and look for feelings that you have, and the spirit every time will give you good feelings that tell you what you are supposed to do. For example, we were out of a lesson on Sunday night, last night, to end the cambios, to end the.. what do you call it… we ended the transfer last week. And the last day of the transfer at 8:30 at night, and were about ready to go home to receive the cambios for our zone, but we stopped at one more door because we felt like we should. We found a family of 4 that let us in and let us teach a lesson. I hope I never lose this feeling. It’s really something very special.

Well, I realize this recording is a bit short and it maybe doesn’t contain as much content as it should, but it sufficeth me to say that this week has humbled me and builded me in wonderful ways. I love you guys, and by the way thank you for the package! I was so happy. The blanket was amazing, the candy was incredible, and even though the shoes haven’t quite worked out yet, I am hoping to get them to, but thank you so much for that. I really do feel loved. Thank you so much. Thank you for all your support and all your prayers. As I have been humbled I have realized how many prayers are said on my behalf every day. Well, I love you guys and I will be talking with you later. Chao Chao!

-Elder Lewis

Week 53: More Show, Less Tell.... Mission Life in Pictures!

Note from Jessica: Hello All! Elder Lewis wasnt able to send us his usual recording this week, but he did send a ton more pictures with some captions, so this week will be a glimpse into his mission through the camera vs. the written words. Enjoy! 

Bautismo de Alverson. We gave him a shirt

 and a tie! you may recognize the tie :) 

Bautismo de Alverson, he was baptized by his 

brother in-law, Jhonny. The one in red is Mayi,

the sister of Alverson. And of course Jackie, 

who bumped her head against the floor. All better! 

Thank you for your prayers! 

Year mark with Elder Mooney (who was in the Mexico 

CCM with me) from Utah and Elder Gomez from 

Guatemala. I told them to say "Congrejos!" and I 

think it's the best picture of Elder Mooney I have ever seen!

ONE YEAR! we made a pizza....

La Pizza Mexicana... who knew that tomatoes 

would go so well on a pizza? 

Mucho Apoyo! there was a great turnout at the baptism.

it was a fine service.

Pday in Pueblito Boyacense! It's a cool little tourist 

town right outside of Duitama, forty five minutes from 

Sogamoso. Elder Coop was having an intellectual

dialogue with a parrot.

Graffiti in Duitama.... 

Week 52: The Best First Year: Elder Lewis hits his 1 year mark!

Hola Familia!

So, this week, completing a year! Crazy how fast that went by, thinking about it right now, today, it was a year ago that was my farewell. Wow, where did that time go? Well, I just wanted to share with you guys the things that I have learned in the past year, and there have been a lot of things:

I believe that the first thing that I have learned is to have faith that is unbreakable in Jesus Christ. My faith has grown so much until even as I talk about it right now, my heart burns within me because I know that he is my Savior. I have had many experiences that have testified to me of the truth of that and I feel like I am on the road to a close relationship with him. The other thing that I have learned, is in Spanish Todavia falto mucho. I still have a long way to go. So that’s another thing that I have learned is humility. I still struggle trying to keep my temper sometimes, but I know that I can do it if I remain humble. If I just keep in mind that I have a lot of faults and that I am not always right, and if I can just put a smile on my face, just no matter what, then I will be ok. Something that I have learned especially this week. Those two things have really been what I have learned, along with a host of other things. I now speak Spanish, for one thing. I am still trying to improve that, but as you can tell, I am starting to think a lot in Spanish, makes it so that I cant speak English, that I cant switch between the two very often, or I cant switch between them very fluently. If I am speaking English for a long time, maybe on a P-Day with another gringo, then I am thinking in English, but then during the whole week I am thinking in Spanish, so when I am speaking English it’s a little rocky. Lets see… this year I have read the Book of Mormon, I believe, I have read it twice. 2 ½ times. One time in English at the beginning of my mission, and one time, almost two times in Spanish. I have also read the whole missionary library, including Jesus the Christ, which I enjoyed thoroughly. I have just enjoyed so much having this time to learn about my Savior. My views have become clear on many things, including how many things that I still have to learn. But this year, I have a big year ahead of me. I think this is where it really gets going from here on out. I am ready. I am ready to just make it a good year. Teach repentance and baptize converts and go out there and I guess I could say change lives, but the life that is going to change most is mine.

So this week has been really crazy. On Monday, I kinda told you guys but we went to Playa Blanca, it was a Zone activity, I will be sending pictures of that next week. On Tuesday, we went to Multi-Zone conference, in a city nearby called Duitama. It’s about ½ an hour away by bus, ½ hour, 45 minutes. So we went over there, came back worked in the area for the rest of the night, for another 2 hours. We got back, and in our Zone we have Yopal, which is 5 hours from Sogamoso. And they got to the station in Sogamoso and found out that their bus had already left for Yopal, and that the next one would be leaving at 1:30 in the morning. And on top of that, a bridge had fallen inbetween here and Yopal, and so what they would have to do is do like a layover where they would get down to the bridge, they would have to walk across with all their bags and boxes and stuff they were hauling from Multi-Zone and get on a bus on the other side back to Yopal. We don’t want them doing that at like 3:00 in the morning, so we had them come back to our house. Which is something that we didn’t expect. So we had to put our plans that night on hold, that was about 7:00. Then on Wednesday, we went and had interviews with President, again in Duitama. By the time we got back, we had to pack our bags and go to Bogotá where we stayed in an area called Salitre with some Zone Leaders over there. That was a lot of fun.

This week, the Pope has come to Colombia as you have all heard. It has been a BIG BIG deal. Dad says that suddenly everybody would be Catholic, and that’s true. They are saying stuff like “what a blessing it was to have the Pope here and to enlighten us and to train us”. Actually, I think it was a good thing, it’s just that everybody is going on the Catholic thing now, so our work is going to be interesting for the next couple of weeks.

Alright, so Wednesday we went to Bogotá,  Thursday we were in a leadership council in Bogotá that lasted the whole day, that was really great. It was a meeting from 9:00 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon, and it just filled us up to the brim. Got to talk about what was going on in our mission, what’s happening, what we need to do better. So, that night we went from the chapel in Alhambra to the temple. There’s a McDonald’s right by the temple so we went to McDonald’s and then we went and did a session in the temple with all of the missionary leaders and that was really great to be able to go to the temple. I had a good experience there. I think that’s the strongest that I have ever felt the Spirit in the temple. I just felt so calmed. Such a peaceful feeing. Especially because it has been a crazy week. I have been so stressed out this week, and it’s tough on your companionship and it’s tough on everything and we didn’t have that much time to work on our area and there’s that stress too. Sometimes you just feel like you are failing. I just felt a really peaceful feeling in the temple. I know that it is a house of God. So we left the temple at about 10:30 at night and we went over to the what do you call it… the porta? The bus station, and we took a taxi to the bus station, and went from the bus station and it was really interesting, while I was buying the tickets, they usually give us the tickets from here to Sogamoso for 20,000 Colombian Pesos, but he wanted to jack it up to 25, and I was fighting him about it and while I was fighting about it a Grandma pushed me out of the way and bought the last tickets, so we had to wait until 11:30 to get on the bus and then we got back to Sogamoso really fast actually probably 2:30-3:00 in the morning. But that was irritating. But ya. Then Friday we had the opportunity, we got back at 3:00 in the morning but we still had to get up at 6:30, so it was kind of a heavy day. We got out and worked, we found a couple of good people, we caught up with a couple of our investigators. This week, Lord willing, Alverson will be baptized. He really means a lot to me, when me and Elder Coop went to teach him the Word of Wisdom on an intercambio, we went there and we had suggested to them that they watch the testaments, and they were watching the testaments right as we walked in so we watched the last 15 minutes of the Testaments with them. And we all ended up crying. It was just amazing. Alverson is a big guy, he was in the army, he is 22, big big guy, but we just watched as tears rolled down his face and the Spirit testified to him that those things are true. Also, as we taught the Word of Wisdom, which normally isn’t the most emotional of all lessons, but he shared with us that his Dad had died for failing to live that commandment. Of course he didn’t know about it, but he had lung cancer because he smoked so much. So that really hit his heart hard. So he received his answer through prayer, and now he is going to be baptized on Saturday and I am very grateful for that. Just one thing, he is a referral from his sister, who he is living with, and his sister and her family are members. The thing is that her little daughter, Jackie, fell off of a chair and smacked her head on the ground, on the tile, and was throwing up and a bunch of stuff. So if you guys could pray for Jackie, that’s really hard for them right now. I am hoping that Jackie will pull through, and that Alverson will be baptized this Saturday. So if you guys could include Jackie, Jackie Niño, in your prayers I would appreciate it. On Saturday we worked some more in the area, we had an activity, a blood drive that we went and helped do, Sunday, we went and met with some of the members, nothing really big to report there. One thing, we went to visit, on Sunday night, Carlos Huerta, who is actually a new investigator that we found a couple weeks back knocking doors. He let us in, taught him a lesson, and gave him a Book of Mormon. He called me on Tuesday saying that he had read a ¼ of it and said that he wanted to read more. The unfortunate thing is that we haven’t been able to catch him since then, so we are hoping to be able to do that TONIGHT.

Well you guys, this has been a long recording, but a lot has happened this week. I am very grateful to the Lord and for his blessings. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission and I am so grateful for the things that I have learned this year. I am hoping to push forward to make this the best year of my life. So far, I could probably say that this has been the best year of my life. I am hoping to make this next one even better. My testimony is this: I know that God lives. I know that he has restored his Church through Joseph Smith. I know the Book of Mormon is true and that it was translated by a Prophet of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is the evidence of the Restoration and if anyone will read it they will come closer to God by that book than by any other. I know that really, God works miracles through that book. I have seen it. I have seen a single verse put somebody to tears and change their life. Most of all I know that Jesus is the Christ. I know that he is my Savior and Redeemer. I love him. I am getting to know him. The more I know him, the more I love him. I worship and adore my Savior for what he did and what he does and what he will always do. He is magnificent. I testify of these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

-Elder Lewis

Elder Lewis' year mark package from the family. 

A very HUGE and special thank you to 

our friend Kaylee Stevenson, 

who is packing this in her luggage and 

will deliver it to the mission home in person

while she is in Colombia. Thanks Kaylee! 

Interviews with President

Leadership Conference

Week 51: "...Them Also I Must Bring"

Hello Familia!

Just got done with the coolest P-Day. We went down to a place called Playa Blanca. It’s a lake, smaller than Bear Lake I think. But we went out and there’s a sand beach out there. Playa Blanca means White Beach. So we went out on the beach, we played soccer and stuff. I had a ball. Man, just couldn’t swim. It was kinda sad. It was cold up there anyway, so I don’t know that you would want to. But the water was super clear. But it was nice to get out of the wave of things and take a hike a bit. The sister missionaries brought up stuff to make hot dogs and we helped them out and we paid for it, and so that was pretty fun. It was a good zone activity. We went up there and played…. I will have to teach you guys some games when I get back, because we played some pretty fun games that I would like to show you guys.

So we got back really late, and so I wont be online for very long, but I saw that you guys went horseback riding…. What the heck? Haha. Wow. Crazy. But this week has been really really crazy. It was all normal up until Thursday. Thursday at 5:00 we got on a bus to go to Bogotá to do intercambios with the assistants. We got there at about 9:00 Thursday night and stayed there overnight, and we started intercambios, and what happens is the assistants always have to do a lot of errands so what happened was that we were in the offices for awhile while they went and picked up a missionary that had to go home for health reasons. So we were in the offices for about 3 hours while they went to the airport. I had a good chance to catch up with some friends, some Elders that I know that are in the offices. That was a lot of fun. To see what it is exactamente what it is they do exactly. Then after that I left with an Elder named Elder Picuasi. Picuasi is very interesting, because he has a ponytail. He is from a part of Ecuador where they are indigenous, and so he is serving a full time mission with a ponytail down to the middle of his back. That was really cool, he is a great teacher and I learned a lot from him. A funny thing that happened, he called Domino’s on Thursday night because we ordered Domino’s because they live in the really really rich part of Bogotá. It literally doesn’t even look like Colombia. But there was Domino’s, so we called them and he said “so, you’re going to put BBQ sauce on that right?” and they said “NO, for extra.” And he said “How is that extra? We always ask for it and we always get it free.” And the guy said “we cant” and he said “Hey, we are the missionaries, we keep Domino’s in business.” He was just saying that over the phone. It was super funny. Then he said “We’ll see you here in 15 minutes right?” he said 30. “Ok I will be waiting in 10.” And he was just smiling at us the whole time. Elder Picuasi. Hijo de madre. Haha. But ya, that was a lot of fun, to go there and spend some time in Bogotá. Ya the house of the assistants is super rich, or as we say here in Colombia, super poopy. Because it’s got 2 bathrooms, its got a study room and a living room with 2 nice sofas, and it’s got a freaking dryer. But also in the night on Friday, we went to take this missionary that had health problems ot the mission home where he would stay the night and go to the airport with President the next day. So Elder Picuasi and me took him to that, and President invited us 3, him and Hermana Laney, or Sister Laney, and we went in and Sister Laney had actually baked a cake. And President Laney had gone down to Crepes and Waffles, which there is also that here in this part of Bogotá, he had gone down to Crepes and Waffles and got American Ice-Cream, which is super expensive, I just about died. I was so happy.

That being said, Mom, Sister Laney told me that you messaged her, I actually got there right after you messaged her, and I was trying to think about someone I know that would be going to Colombia, but ya it’s interesting. What I would like, is ya the shoes. I am gonna wear these shoes until they get destroyed. The stitching is starting to fall out. So I would like those shoes maybe in that package. Also a bit of Peanut Butter if it doesn’t weigh too much. Dulces Americanos, American Candy, is always great. Whatever you want to send. As of right now, I am doing well on the oils. I am determined to learn to use them better because I have learned to appreciate them. Especially like helping me focus and things. There are just so many things that I do, especially this week, it was crazy.

With our investigators this week: Alverson is still progressing, so is Jefredy. We did a fast with Jefredy to help him find his testimony. He has a lot of support, I am sure he will be baptized. I am so excited guys, this week is gonna be nuts! I have to go to Bogotá again this week, and just to give you an idea, today was the zone activity in Playa Blanca, tomorrow is multi-zone conference in Duitama, which is a pueblo about 15 minutes away from here. Then we have on Wednesday we have interviews again in Duitama at 12:00. We have to travel again. Then on Thursday I have to go back to Bogotá for leadership council, it’s called Concilio. Then Friday and Saturday will be our normal days. It’s gonna be crazy, I will have a lot to tell, I am excited about leadership council because a lot of my buddies from the mission will be there.

I am very grateful this week for my Father in Heaven. I love him. I wanna share with you guys one experience: We were at the house of the Relief Society President, and her mom is devout, devout Christian Evangelica,  or Born Again Christian, like speaking in tongues and everything. We were talking to her during lunch, and just came up with the Book of Mormon and felt the Spirit. We actually gave a lesson to one of their hijas, who is going to be baptized here really soon, she is 8. That kind of set up the spiritual tone, for after that, the mom started to question about the Book of Mormon. She is actually a preacher, which is crazy. But she had questions about it.  Her daughter is the Relief Society President in our ward, her son is the Bishop. She asked about it and we actually started to talk about it, and brought up the fact that Jesus Christ appeared to people in the America’s. Which is actually something REALLY REALLY important to people down here. We shared with her the scripture in 3 Nephi 14, where Jesus Christ says You are those of who I spoke, saying that I have other sheep that are not of this fold. As she read that she started to weep, she just bawled. We couldn’t understand why. I asked her: “Why did that impact you so much?” and she said “I don’t know, I didn’t expect it.” So we are gonna come back to teach her. But I wanted to share my testimony with you guys of the Book of Mormon. I know it’s true. I know that it testifies of my Savior. I know that he came to the America’s. I know that its’ an instrument most powerful in the conversion of a person. It’s essential that we read it every day. That’s what I wanted to share with you guys this week, and I will talk to you next week. Chao Chao!

-Elder Lewis