Well Done, Thou Good and Faithful Servant

Hello Everyone!

Thank you so much for following Elder Lewis' mission for the past 2 years. He arrived home on Utah soil at 8:30 last night. He is happy to be home, yet part of Colombia still holds his heart. In case you were wondering: Yes, he does have quite the awesome accent. Yes, he actually is taller than when he left. (He and Michael are about even!) and his homecoming is scheduled for September 23rd at 12:30 pm at the Riverview Ward, Deweyville chapel on Highway 38. Thank you for all the love, prayers, and support.

Love,
Elder Lewis and his family

"I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy."
                                                                                                                                    -Alma 29:9

Week 102: Grateful for the Past, Preparing for the Future: Homeward Bound.

Hey!
   I´ve been kinda hanging out since yesterday here in Bogotá. I´m with Elder Watts and Elder Torres and we have some free time here in Bogotá before I come home on Thursday. I said goodbye to Engativá and all of the wonderful people there and went to the mission home for an interview with Presidente Valladares yesterday. He told me that I need to honor three commandments specifically: 1. Honor thy father and thy mother. 2. Keep the sabbath day holy, and 3: Pay my tithing and my fast offerings for as long as I live.
   You guys need to ask me about a few things when I get home, in addition to what i wrote last week:
    1. La familia Sanchez Rojas
    2. La calba loca
    3. My last few days in the mission in general.
    Well... I´ll see you in three days, no? It doesn´t feel real yet. As far as school goes, I´m going to work in the shop until January. I´ve already got it deferred and everything, so don´t worry about it:)
   And as far as what we´re going to do when I get home? It´d be cool to go do something, but I´m happy with whatever:D
   Well, I guess the song sums up my feelings for this week:
   "The hardest thing I´ve ever loved to do
     is getting on this plane and coming home to you.
    In a milion ways completely torn apart,
     As a land so far away still owns my heart!
    In the most sincere prayer I´ve ever prayed,
     I thank my God for each and every day!
    For the blessing of this man I´ve come to be
     as I walk up and kiss my mama´s cheek."
   Te amo mamá. Manda saludos a todos por allá, y nos vemos el Jueves a las 7 mas o menos:)
   Tú hijo,
   Élder J. Lewis

Week 101: El Momento de Ir Vino Ya: The Time to Go Has Come Already.

Well, I normally don´t send a group email, but this time I will. Partly because it is the last one. I am going home next thursday, and it really hits me hard, but I can echo the words of Ammon when he said:
   11 But Ammon said unto him: I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.

12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.
  I´m grateful to my God for all the things I´ve seen and experienced in these two years. I know God lives. I´ve come to know Him in Colombia. He´s showed me my weaknesses, and I have firm faith that if I continue in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, obeying His voice through prophets both ancient and modern, that all these things will be made strong for me.
   I´m grateful for the people of Colombia and Venezuela. I will always love them and continue to work for their salvation to the best of my abilities.
 
Sincerely,
  Élder J. Lewis

Mis Zapatos! 

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!"

-Isaiah 52:7 

Guatavita

Mas Guatavita

Week 100: Dreams and Decisions

Buenas Tardes Familia!

Vamos hacer otra grabación des de Colombia, porque ya no vamos hacer muchos mas. Asi que vamos a utilisar el tiempo que tengo por que solo me falta una mas, listo? Bueno. Chao! 

 JUST KIDDING! Haha well this week has been very good. We have been working hard, we have received a lot of referrals this week, which has been good. We have an investigator whose name is Sebastian, that has made some strides towards being baptized this week. It’s funny because we were walking out of an apartment building where we were teaching a family and we ran into Sebastian, and he said: “hey, Elders!” We spun around like “wait, who knows who we are?!” and he was like: “Hey, ya my family used to listen to you guys.” And so we set an appointment and now a month later, he’s got a baptismal date. We took him to a baptism there in the neighboring ward called Borrado, and he really liked it. He felt the spirit a lot. I got to be the testigos, the witnesses, and that was really a special thing. It was a mom in a family that got baptized. Very Spiritual. But anyway, I think the greatest day of the week so far has been Sunday. Sunday we got up like normal and prepared to go to church, and at 8:00 we were in Ward Counsel and then after Ward Counsel we went to pick up some investigators that didn’t come, surprise surprise, and then we went to church. We were in Sacrament Meeting and the familia Sanchez, who are very dear friends of ours, they had a son whose name is Eduardo who came back right now from the mission. He is from Venezuela, and in Venezuela right now all the missionaries that go from Venezuela usually serve there in their country because they cant send any foreigners at all. BUT this Elder, Eduardo, went to Italy. Crazy no? But he came back talking in Sacrament meeting with kind of an Italian accent and it was really good to talk with him. His Spanish is a little choppy, but his English and his Italian are REALLY good. Well I know his English, but not his Italian. Haha. Even though I do understand a little bit of what he says, I understand Spanish perfectly, Italian a little bit, and a little bit of Portuguese, the 3 languages are really similar. Anyway, so I got to talk with him. I guess his plans are to go to Utah where he has got an aunt. So we might see him there, he speaks perfect English.

Then, in the middle of Sacrament Meeting, a little girl named Chantal came up to me and she like tugged at my sleeve, I was sitting at the end of the bench, and I kind of leaned over and she whispered “Hey, we have a friend that’s in the bus stop right now. But my mom cant walk very well. So go meet him.” She’s really funny this little girl, so we got up and we went to the bus stop really fast, in the middle of Sacrament Meeting, and we met Patrick. The reference of a member named JD. And Patrick actually speaks English, because he’s from Nigeria. He speaks really choppy, kinda weird English, but it was good to talk to him. He’s living here in Colombia for a few years, and he also speaks Spanish. But ya we brought him to the church (he actually doesn’t live in our area) and it was a lot of fun to talk to him and explain everything that was going on in the church. I taught about the restoration, for the first time in English, that was rough. Anyway, I have never done that before. It was like I was a new missionary again trying to learn the language haha. But anyway, so after church we went to the house of Mauricio and Alma, who you guys know. He made us some rice with some seafood in it. It had oysters, squid, all these weird things that you get from the coast of Colombia. They introduced us to a friend of theirs, but she didn’t want to listen to the gospel so we just had a good time and shared a little message and we went. Then our leaders sent us a text message. “Hey, challenge of the day. Go to your Bishop and ask for a Priesthood Blessing to know where to go and what to do to better your relationship with the members.” So we called the Bishop right then, and our Bishop was a little busy and he was also going to Boyaca in Duitama because his Dad is dying. But ya. So we went to the house of the Bishop “Bishop could you give us a blessing because we feel like we need to know where to go this week and who to talk with and how to better our relationship with the members.” He was surprised but he said “Absolutely Elders.” So we went in their house, and this was a very spiritual experience, and we got there and we were just so full from lunch with Alma and Mauricio, but Sister Maria Ojeña, the wife of the Bishop, she served us food. It was rice with meat and avocados. They just treated us so well. So when we were done eating he got up and said: “Alright Elders, I’ll give you your blessing now,” He blessed us and we just felt the spirit so strongly. He blessed me that in the last week of my mission that I will find people to baptize and that I will be able to help people come back to the church. That was very important, and I will tell you why here in just a second. But ya. Afterwards we got up and gave him a big hug, and I looked at the wife of the Bishop… their daughter is about to go to a mission in Mexico, and she is very nervous. I have talked to her about it before. She is just very very nervous, it’s her first daughter and everything like that. As she talked about it she started to get emotional about her daughter going to the mission and I felt the spirit very very strongly, well the two of us did. I felt the prompting to tell her something. So I opened up my mouth and I looked her in the eyes and I said “Sister, as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ I promise you that even as you have treated us today, will the people of Mexico treat your daughter.” The spirit filled the room and she just started to cry. I added: “you have treated us very well. So trust in God.” It was just a very sweet moment. The Bishop said: “that’s exactly what I have felt. That’s what I wanted you guys to say.” Haha.

Then we went out, and as we passed by the church we remembered about a less active family and my companion said “Let’s go visit Consuelo.” So we went by, it was like 7:00 at night, and we didn’t have an appointment or anything, but we didn’t have anything really either to do. We had another appointment that fell. But we started to talk with the family and they have had a lot of rough bumps. 3 weeks ago she was so fed up with some of the things that happened with members of the ward that she was going to take her name off of the records of the church. He son is addicted to drugs, her 17 year old son William, we have tried to help and… well… it’s just been rough. But then, something amazing happened. One day, about 3 weeks ago, this sister, I was helping the younger son of this family learn English and I was helping his to read and pronounce and things like that and while I was doing that my companion was talking with Sister Consuelo, and she voiced all of her concerns. But after that, as we shared a message really fast. She said: “You know, I have a co-worker that said something really interesting to me…” She said that she had a dream that her grandmother appeared to her in a place, and off into the distance there was a beautiful place and her grandmother looked at her and said: “I can’t go there without your help.” This woman, this co-worker of Consuelo was very confused about what that meant. Consuelo was just in awe. She said: “I know what that meant!” Even in this moment Consuelo was considering taking her name off the records of the church. So the day after, we get to her house and she says: “what does that mean Elders?” and we were like “Wow. You need to share the gospel with her!” So we pulled out a Book of Mormon and put a pass along card that has a picture of the Salt Lake Temple with questions on the back and we marked Alma 40, where it talks about the spirit world, and we said: “Give this to her and say this.” And we hadn’t heard anything more for a couple of weeks. But then Consuelo called me the other day and she said: “Elders, something incredible happened!” She told me there but she told us again last night. She said that she was waiting for the perfect moment to share the Book of Mormon with her because she saw that her co-worker was always busy. She works in the battalion in front of the US Embassy. I am not sure what she does, she is like a secretary. Her co-worker is always busy with groups of people and so one day, she found her alone. So she said: “Ok, it’s now or never!” So she gave it to her and started to talk. But she didn’t tell her what we told her to say, but she felt like the words just filled her mouth. Remember, Consuelo was considering just 3 weeks ago taking her name off the records of the church. And the woman looked very intrigued. She opened up the Book of Mormon, and Consuelo said: “you need to read this to help your grandma.” Or something like that. So she opened up the Book and saw the card. She said: “I dreamed a dream last night. I dreamed that I inherited a castle. It looks like this one.” You can imagine… wow. I inherited a castle. Is it that important, the promises of the temple? Absolutely. So Consuelo said: “You need to read this book!” and Consuelo told her where the church was close to her and the lady knew where it was and everything. So we left our number on the back, but maybe she doesn’t need it, she hasn’t called us yet. She lives in the South of Bogota. We are in the North. But as she walked away, Consuelo said that she just got this amazing feeling, and she said that she felt a voice say “good Job Consuelo, you did it. You did it right.” She said it was just this incredible feeling. As she told us this last night, she cried. We weren’t there to preach to them, we just listened. Then as she started to talk about these things, her and her husband both said “You know, I think it’s time that we come back to church. Because we were doing things right and I hope that the members of the ward knew that we were doing things right. “ The irony of that experience was that I shared that experience with the Ward Counsel as they talked about Consuelo. About their reactivation efforts for her. I shared that story. “Even though we are still trying to live the gospel the best we can, we are forgetting things.” They both mentioned that they think it’s time that they both come back to church and we take the Sacrament. All had tears in their eyes and it was just a great moment. Then I shared with them the scripture that is from Joseph Smith: “Let know man consider these things to be small things, for there are many things that pertain to the saints in the future.” Talking about the missionary efforts of the members in that period. We just felt that that was true. Just goes to show you that God works in amazing ways and that like it says in Alma, The Lord works in small in simple ways so that great things may come to pass. And he uses small things to bring to pass the salvation of many. So that was the story for the week I think. It was amazing. Just so so good. I just cant even describe the feeling that we had coming back to the house last night. Wow. That’s a family that came back to Christ and how God must love them!

Also, amazing thing that happened, that paved the way for this moment, was that yesterday the young kids from faith in God, the class that they have every other Saturday, the little kids suggested to the teacher, Sister Laqueiro, that they wanted to go visit the children that weren’t coming. They wanted to know what happened to them. That touched her deeply. So they went to visit the son of this family. They had the class, Faith in God, in their house and Consuelo was able to share that experience with them during the class. There are many forces that have been working here. Consuelo being able to share the gospel in her work, Ricardo, the father, passes by the temple every day and sometimes stops to pray in front of the temple on his way to work, the children came by and visited Santiago, their son, and all these things. Then we were able to come and help them recognize these blessings and be able to provide a Book of Mormon to this woman. All these things just worked together for their salvation. How God must love them. So never be tired in reactivation efforts. It’s never too late. The Lord will work through you and will work through the family that is being reactivated to give salvation to many. I promise that. That’s what I wanted to leave with you guys today. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

-Elder Lewis

Weeks 98 & 99: Challenge Accepted

Hey Family,

It’s Friday night, and normally I don’t make recordings until Monday, but I just had a lot on my mind tonight that I wanted to tell you guys about. Today we went to the mission home where we had a Multi-Zone meeting. It was a great experience to be trained by the new Mission President, President Valladares. It was really interesting, and what I took out of it was that he has got really high expectations of all of us. That’s really good for me as I am ending my mission, it’ll just keep me going. We talked a lot today about wanting to have good numbers, but putting our heart in the right place first. I dunno, it just made a lot more sense to me than a lot of the things that I learned before. I always knew that we should have good numbers and that we should have good numbers because we love the people, but I didn’t really see the relation inbetween the two. I understood today that when we are looking to just at the numbers because it’s a good number, really we are lying to ourselves. We are trying to make our numbers look better than they really are. That really stops our progress instead of pushing us forward. As we are completely honest with ourselves about our progress, and the progress of our area and our investigators, it really does help us to be able to help them a lot better and helps us to progress a lot more. In our daily lives it could be like, for example, if I am not reading the scriptures every day, they I say Ah well, I read a verse or two, or some other substitute, or I read a good book that was church related. I think we are lying to ourselves. That really just impedes our progress. If we are completely honest with ourselves, that opens the door to progress. It’s something that I really understood.

I also understood the amount of love that we need to develop for people. The Assistants came up with a great thing to help us increase our faith in Jesus Christ, and it’s called “Get out of your comfort zone” and during 14 days they are going to be sending us on challenges. For example, day 1 was “Pray for inspiration to go to another part of your area where you have never been.” We did that, I was on exchanges with Elder Carrillo from Barranquilla, and we went and had a good experience doing that. We met a good family and then day 2 was “Go find someone that has rejected you in the past, and give them another chance to accept the church.” We actually did that yesterday, and we got a referral out of it. From a former investigator. It looks like she might be listening to us again, even though she said that she didn’t want anything, she said that a couple of weeks ago. Then today was “get on public transportation and contact the whole bus.” That was crazy because when we got on the public transport to come back from the Multi-Zone conference and they are big buses, it would be like riding TRAX in Salt Lake City. There are like 3 cars and it articulates in the middle. It has 2 cars with articulating parts. So what we did was that we got on the bus and were like “ok how are we going to do this?” and we were really feeling out of our comfort zone. But then I remembered that a lot of times when you get on public transmillenio, they start to sing or they start to rap or they collect money from the people. I really enjoyed that because tons of people got on. But I figured that music might be a way to help them open up just a little bit more. So Elder Carrillo, when he introduced us all, there were about 6 missionaries, 4 Elders, 2 Sisters on the bus and Elder Carrillo introduced us all “We are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, good afternoon! We are here in Colombia for 2 years, but to share our message with you we would like to do it through music today. For that we have our companion Elder Lewis.” So they gave it to me and I started to sing on the bus. I would sing “Nearer my God to Thee” or “Savior Redeemer of my Soul” in English and in Spanish and it was actually pretty good, we got some good contacts out of that. But afterwards I just gave my testimony, I said “These songs help me to feel like I want to be closer to God. I feel like we all want to be closer to God because it helps our families. We have this great message about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” It was a hard challenge for me to do that because sometimes you see the faces of the people when people get on to rap or play an instrument on the bus, they just kinda look down. But there are always people that look down or put their headphones in and there are people that look up. There were some people that accepted the invitation to learn more about Jesus Christ. It was through music that we could do that in a more natural, non-threatening way. SO I was very grateful for that challenge today. We will see what the next 11 days hold, but it was a great idea by the Assistants and I felt afterwards when we got off, we felt peace. Then we got on several other buses to do the same thing. It was a lot of fun and it was great to go and bear our testimonies in a special kind of way. There are just things like that that they are going to be sending to get us out of our comfort zone. It has really been good for me because I feel like I have just kinda been getting in a rut. Doing the same thing everyday. Just crazy things like, “Stop a car in the street and contact them.” Or “contact a whole bus”. Crazy things like that, just helps you. It’s good to get out of your comfort zone a lot.

The past week, we did the CCM activity, which was the Elders and Sisters from the CCM here in Bogota got to go out with missionaries that are in the field right now for a day. I got to participate in that, and I realized that MacKenzie Woodruff is actually in the CCM right now. But imagine that there were so many missionaries in the MTC that they did this activity in 2 parts. One in Alhambra which is more to the East of Bogota, and one in Bonanza, which is closer to my area. Closer to the airport. Which means I didn’t get to see her, but I did call Elder Heninger who is a good friend of mine who is an assistant and I am going to be bringing home some letters or something that she wrote to her family. I have had a lot of people that have been willing to do that for me, and so I called Elder Heninger and said “Hey, look for Sister Woodruff, and if she wants to write a note to her family, I will take it home.” And so I get to pay the favor forward I guess! So I have got that letter in my bag so that I can get it to her family upon getting home.

So I went out with a lot of Elders, which was really great. It was a lot of fun to go out with the Elders from the MTC because they are so energetic. I envied them a lot because they have their whole mission ahead of them. It’s just such a great adventure. Youll learn so much and you are tried so hard and stretched so thin, but it really is the best 2 years of your life up to this point anyway.

So this week has been great, Arturo Penuela who is one of our investigators, is progressing. Truth is, I forgot what I was talking about. There was somebody from the apartment complex that came to the door. But…. Hmmmm….. Well what else happened this week. OH YEAH! I was talking about Arturo. Arturo is coming along well, as well as the Miranda family. So Henry, who just got baptized a couple of weeks ago, is doing really well. He’s got plans to go to the temple as soon as it opens up again at the end of August, I hope to be here to go with him and do baptisms for the dead. But ya, it has been really special as the last lesson that we gave him, we talked about the temple. Everybody was crying, it was really spiritual. Today, as we went to talk about baptisms for the dead, they just said “you know, this brought so much joy to our lives after we got baptized, and now we are excited to do the same for our ancestors who have been waiting for who knows how long.” It’s just great because they just understand so quickly.

For P-day this last week, we went to the house of a member in Alejandria, and there is a dish in Peru that is called Seviche. It’s raw fish, but it’s fish that you put in lemon juice. The lemon juice actually cooks the fish. Imagine that. It’s almost raw. It’s served in lemon juice, so it’s super sour, but really good. It leaves you with almost a sore throat just because it’s so acidy. But ya, we went and made that. That was why I was so late getting to the internet. Mom, the other Monday, I tried to make your famous cookies and they turned out more like really sweet biscuits. HAHA I think it was for the lack of shortening. I just used butter in place of shortening. I think that was a big mistake. I just really didn’t look into seeing what the translation was for shortening and going to panaderia to see if there was shortening. But ya, I made it with the family of Mauricio and Alma. Hahaha We invited some investigators over. But ya, it turned out ok, it looked like the dough was perfect. It even tasted perfect. It just didn’t cook right. But whatever, now I know how to make biscuits. But ya, what else is there to tell you…..

We had companionship exchanges the other day, not much to report there. Just that I didn’t really get along with our District Leader, he’s got kind of an interesting personality, but to be able to have exchanges with him really helped me to talk with him and express to him what I didn’t like, and also for me to be able to understand him more. The rule of thumb always says: “Seek to understand and be understood.” So ya. There was an investigator named Consuelo, and she is a reference from a returned missionary, it’s his sister, she is like 40 years old and we went and it was really interesting because we got to the house and I was ready to pull out lesson 1, which is the restoration, which is the normally the first thing that we teach to people. But my companion pulled out the pamphlet for the Plan of Salvation. I didn’t really know why, but I just kind of followed him. Turns out that was exactly what she needed. We spent a little bit longer than usual trying to help her to understand that plan, but it was so perfect for her in that moment that she was crying, we were both crying, just because we understood the spirit that was there. God does love us, and really he does have a plan and before this life, during, and after. There is a reason for everything.

My companion’s foot is infected! He has a hangnail that is really bad. I think he is going to have to have surgery on that. He just procrastinated it too long and now during the Multi-Zone conference today Sister Valladares made him take his shoe off and she looked at it and said “Yep. That’s pretty bad. We are going to find a foot doctor.” She took a picture of it. He has just been limping along today. Sister Valladares is like the mission Mom. A little bit different than Sister Laney, Sister Laney had her style and the style of Sister Valladares is a bit different, it’s more grandmotherly. It was funny. She made him take his shoe off after lunch. That’s pretty bad! Haha.

Well, I have to show you guys, that President showed us a video of Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin where he was giving a talk on the pure love of Christ in General Women’s Session. He started to tremble and shake because he couldn’t stand. Then as he talked about pure love, not the kind of love the Shakespeare talks about in Romeo and Juliet or poets, but really pure love that drives us to serve other people. As he was talking about that he started to tremble and shake and we all looked and were like “whoa, what’s going on?” then in the background comes Russell M. Nelson, and he just looked really just firm. He held him up. That just really impacted me especially as the night before I was reading the new edition of the Liahona, which has the insert about Russell M. Nelson. And I felt that night when I read that that he was the prophet of God. When we saw that video, it was like “Wow. That is the pure love of Christ.” And Joseph B. Wirthlin with a lot of valor gave the rest of the message even though he was hardly able to stand.

Well this message has been long enough I think. Like I said, I just felt like making this recording tonight instead of waiting. I just feel renewed today and remotivated. I am very grateful to the Lord for not forgetting me. Even though I felt like I was having just a bit of a hard time keeping going until the end. He really just gave me a big boost today. He really made me want to go out and share with everyone. I know that he knows that about me because he suffered for my sins. He suffered all of my pain, even as weak as it is. Ok I am off my soap box now. It is never my intention to preach to you guys, I hope you don’t feel like I am preaching to you it’s just the things that really… I really share with you guys the most important things and the things that just stand out as the most important. I will talk to you guys later. Have a good night. Chao!

-Elder Lewis


RECORDING 2

Ok this is going to be super fast but, I just wanted to add a little to the recording that I made last, there is a little bit of news from the side of Viviana y Juan Gabriel! So the plot thickened I guess haha. It was weird because a couple of weeks ago like I told you guys, out of the blue where 3 days before that they had been telling us how much they loved us and how much they appreciated us, one Friday Viviana called my companion and said “Look Elder, you’ve been pushing your way into our family, I don’t like it, so don’t come back.” That really just threw us for a whirlwind. We were like “WHAT THE....” So the past couple of weeks we have been wondering if we have been pushing too hard to help them get married, we probably were, truth be known. But we learned a lot from that, we were humbled very much. We found out yesterday maybe the other cause for that, maybe the bigger cause. Also, the brother of Viviana, Leonardo, was going to be baptized. I told you gusy about that miracle. His baptism fell through because we lost contact with him. We couldn’t find him anywhere! We were really confused as to why this was happening with this family. So these were 5 baptisms that we were going to have and they just went away because of something that we did. It really shook us hard. Then after fasting yesterday, we went over to the house of Viviana and Juan Gabriel, and we found Leonardo there in front with his wife. They aren’t yet married, but we found them and they didn’t really…. They weren’t talkative. As we stood there, we just expressed that we loved them and that we wanted to do anything for them that they needed. Javier, the son of Viviana, who is the only member of the church in the family up till right now, said that there is some family issues that are going on right now that are pretty bad. And then he said to Leonardo: “Leonardo, you need to meet with them to help you get away from all of that.” Leonardo just looked down to the ground and I thought that maybe we were bugging him so I said: “well, we’ll be seeing you around. We want to meet with you on Tuesday if that’s alright.” I went ot shake his hand and I saw that there was a tear, or there was water on his hand. I looked up at his face and below his hat I could see tears falling. We just stood there in silence for awhile there in the street. It dawned on us both that the problem wasn’t as much us as it was his mother. The Mother of Viviana and Leonardo, the Mother-in-law of Juan Gabriel. She feels like we have been forcing our way into her family, especially because she is Pentecostal. Which is a church that definitely has a tight grip on its members. There’s a church called La Iglesia de Pentecostal de Colombia. They are just the toughest people…. But ya she is Pentecostal and she supposedly has a diploma in Theology from this church. But there is one thing that is interesting. She doesn’t sleep in her house. She goes to sleep with her boyfriend. The Mom, she is like 60 years old. While we are teaching Juan Gabriel and Viviana, and Karen and Leonardo, those two couples that they should get married and they have plans to get married, the mom hasn’t liked that. One, we are taking control of her family away from her, which the truth is that she hasn’t been responsible with, and we are helping them to become better. We are trying to help them get married and live God’s law, but it’s just tough for her to get to grips with. So she has been putting pressure on them and telling them and putting thoughts in their heads about how bad we are, about how we are causing all these problems for her family, that we are the source of all these problems and that they shouldn’t be listening to us. What’s interesting is that Viviana, on top of trying to get married, she is also studying nursing and working in a hospital which has her really busy. Her mom just jumped on that and said “You don’t have time for that.” Thus, being overloaded, she called us and told us “We cant receive you anymore. Sorry.” It didn’t really mesh, because Viviana called us back last week and she wanted to meet with us. Also, Leonardo wants to meet with us. It was a moment of revelation there in front of the house that dawned on us that there is something more that is going on here. It reminded me of the words of the Savior that he didn’t come with peace, but with a sword to divide mothers from sons and fathers from their daughters, and that anyone who loves their mothers or their fathers more than me is not worthy of God. Now, we’re the church of happy endings, we are the church of eternal families, but God has got to come first. Especially when your family is not pushing you in the right direction, when your family more for pride is pushing you towards something that is not right. Like continuing to live in free union, I guess that’s what it’s called, living with your spouse without being married. We are trying to find a way to move forward, but it just makes a lot more sense now. So please pray for Juan Gabriel and Viviana, for Leonardo and Karen, and also for Miriam, that’s the name of the mom, that she will be able to soften her heart and that we can come back and start teaching again, because these families should be baptized.

I love the Lord. I hope to be able to serve him all the days of my life. I hope to be able to work hard so that I can serve him, like my parents have done before me. I love you all, I hope the Lord is blessing you. He blesses us as we are obedient. I know that’s true. I love you all, I will talk to you next week. Chao!

-Elder Lewis

 We've been doing a lot of service this week :) 

Did you know that in Latino america, it´s not uncommon to have a joint garage/living room?

 This is the famous Peruvian "Seviche!" It´s fish cooked not with oil, or with heat! It´s cooked by simply putting it in pure lemon juice. I squeezed 15 lemons with a fork to help make this dish... :)

 I even taught some members how to play Sax! The first time I´ve played in a little over two years!

I hear it is dry there in Utah?..... here no. :) 

Week 97: A Baptism, An Unexpected Visit, and Sugar Cookies.

Hey Family!

This week has been alright, we ended it with a baptism and a confirmation, so that was really great. Henry Villarraga got baptized. It was a very spiritual experience. We organized the baptism and everything, it went off almost without a hitch. But anyway, we got all that organized. It was really great because after the baptism he and his wife gave their testimonies. Alisa, his wife, is already a member. She gave a strong testimony that it was the best day of her life that he husband was now baptized in the church. And Henry, who is a complete… I don’t know how you would say it… jokester I guess? I mean he doesn’t take anything seriously. But he got up there and bore a powerful testimony and ended up shedding a few tears. I am very grateful for the opportunity of getting to teach him for the past month or so. But ya, they have actually turned into a great help for us with all of our other investigators. He is going to receive the Priesthood this week or next week. I am looking forward to that.

Well this week, on Tuesday I just remembered that we had a good day. It was incredible. We focused in on trying to follow the spirit that day. So in the morning we really tried to get everything and to get to everything on time. We ended our studies on time and asked the Lord where he would have us go out and contact that morning. The Lord told us to go to the north of our area. To an area that we haven’t contacted before. Feeling the same impression, both of us, we went. We didn’t make a lot of contacts, but the contacts that we made were great! Actually, it was inspiration completely because we went there and all the people that we contacted rejected us. But then we had 3 people, on 3 different occasions over the course of an hour that contacted us, that walked up to us and started talking to us and asked us who we were and what we were doing and it was actually next to a really pretty, (I didn’t know this existed in Bogota) a really pretty extension of green grass. It looked like a bunch of field, I didn’t know it existed, it was just so GREEN! I will have to take pictures. It looks like Sogamoso. On one side you have Bogota that is the urban jungle, and on the other side you have this farmer kind of feeling. It was really weird but it was a good spot to go contacting. We are looking to see the fruit of that this week. We really felt the spirit, and as we came back I will never forget this feeling that we had, the feeling was this peace. In that moment I didn’t want to do anything, or think anything or say anything that would interrupt that feeling. It just came back with this feeling of peace. Later that day that peaceful feeling followed me as we went to contact again. After lunch we went and about 4 o’clock we were contacting and again everybody was just turning us down. “we don’t want to listen to anything”. Shutting doors and windows in our faces and…well we got to a building with 5 floors. We rang the first doorbell, and nobody came out. Normally in Bogota all the houses have 3 floors and they are all stuck one to another. All of your view is concrete. It’s a really narrow street with 3 floored houses, all different colors in the street. We normally try to just hit the first floor because when you start, when you look up and you start saying “Hey! We are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ! We have a lesson to teach you about Jesus Christ and how much he loves you!” They just slam the window right in your face. So we were just hitting the first floors. So that building of 5 floors, we started to walk away and I stopped. My companion said “The Spirit?” and I said “Ya.” I just felt this burning in my chest. I have learned this lesson: That in any moment, when I just feel peace, when I just feel my chest start to burn, when something fills my chest, in that moment I know I have to listen. It’s like a warning signal. It’s like “Hey. Listen.”. I stopped and I listened. The Lord told me through the Spirit that we had to hit all 5 floors. That’s really tough because you yell up at a 5th floor and they are going to shut the window right in your face. BUT.. my companion did it and I stood out in the street…. And…. Nobody came out. So we were like: “alright, what was that impression for?” and then a woman came walking up right as we were about to go and accepted the invitation to have us come back. Then we understood. SO that was the great spiritual experience and the spirit followed us throughout the day. Later that night we went to Henry’s house, the same that got baptized this week, and taught him a very spiritual lesson. We read 3 Nephi 11, which talks about Jesus coming to the Americas. And man… that was a great lesson. I felt the spirit for sure. It was just great to help him to firm up his testimony to be able to be baptized that Saturday. We left the house with such a peaceful feeling. We have been trying to replicate it ever since. But it’s the same feeling that I feel right now. When we look for guidance from the Lord, he will give it to us. What I have learned is that… I used to think “Well, I’m not going to ask the Lord where to go to contact” for example, because that’s something that I can do on my own because Doctrine and Covenants says that if the Lord has to direct you in everything that that servant is a slothful servant. BUT…. I think that now we should ask the Lord what he would have us do at the beginning of every day. We should promise him to do it, and then we should do it. Then when we have done it, we should ask him what we should do next. It takes a lot of faith to be able to trust in the Lord that way but it’s the only way to do his work. I would even say that he can direct us in our day to day affairs. But I have never experienced such a peaceful feeling than that which I experienced that day and the truth is, I haven’t felt it the same way since. Up till right now actually. So it’s interesting that as I say this to you, how the spirit is… I don’t want to make this sound like I a righteous or a great missionary or anything because I listen because the Lord talks to me and my companion through the Spirit because he will talk to you anytime, anywhere, no matter what. It’s not something that’s just exclusive to missionaries. But even now I feel the spirit. Things come to my mind that I need to do. Most of the time they are not crazy things, sometimes they are just very simple things that we can do. Other times, they are kind of crazy things. But you can always know if you are following the spirit by the way that you feel. If you feel good with what you are doing, Well, shut out the nervousness first and then.. I don’t know. If ti’s a good feeling, it’s from the Lord. That’s what I have learned. I guess this recording has been long enough, but I appreciate you guys listening to my rambling about this. This is what I have learned this week. However, I have learned equally in my mission that if we don’t do the things to be able to feel peaceful, for example, if I am not on time for my studies in the morning; if I take too long doing other things, shining my shoes or if I have to pull my shirt out of the washer and iron it so that it dries because dryers doing exist here, then a lot of times I wont have such a spiritual experience and the Lord wont direct me. Not because he doesn’t want to, but because I am not in a place to receive his direction. So there was also something interesting, we started to experience these things after last week. We had a really rough week. Just a bad, bad week. It has kind of been bad this week except for the baptism of Henry. But It caused us to really repent of the little things that we were doing wrong and that was when we were able to listen. The voice of the spirit has become clear. I don’t know, it just becomes so obvious when you feel it. It’s like “OOHH that’s something different.” If you pay attention, actually, you feel it all the time. I don’t know, it’s just something that I have been meditating about.

Thanks for listening to my rambling, I am not trying to preach. Haha. If you want to know what’s going on in the world of Elder Lewis, that’s it. That’s what occupies our thoughts all the time and when I think about the things that I want to share, the things that have been the best things for me, that’s what comes to my mind. So sorry if it sounds preachy, but ya. Well I think that’s it for today. I hope you have all had a good week. AH YA! Well I have to tell you about Mauricio and Alma! They told me about 2 weeks ago that they were going to the United States and that they were gonna go up through Utah, that they were going to Orem is what they said. And so I thought I would try to send something with them. The shirt and the horns were some things that I sent through them. They said they would go up and “Try to call your sister or your parents and get those things to them.” I didn’t hear anything from them for a little while UNTIL… on Friday they called me and they said “Hey, can you come over to the house at 3? We’ve got something for you from your family. And I was like “WOW! YA WE CAN COME OVER!” haha. So we went over and they showed me the pictures of them in the house. And at Crystal Hot Springs. And I was just floored. I was SO excited that they got to do that! (Note from Jessica; Mauricio and Alma made a stop last Tuesday in Deweyville at Elder Lewis' parents home! It was an amazing visit and they are amazing people!) I 

talked with them and Conrad, a compliment for you, they said your Spanish is really good! Alma told me that you hardly even speak with an accent. So a big compliment to you! They said that your cookies were delicious, mom. They said that Mom, you were very excited and Alma said that she gave me such a big hug and I almost suffocated! But your mom is beautiful! SO take that compliment, Mom. I have a beautiful Mom. What more… they really enjoyed Utah. They said that when they went through St. George that they saw the temple and when they got close they didn’t see the angel Moroni. They saw what looks like a cross on top. They thought that it was just a Catholic church, dang it. But then they got closer and saw the “Holiness to the Lord, the House of the Lord” and knew it was the temple. They didn’t know that not all temples have the angel Moroni. Same thing when they went to the Logan temple. But ya, they really enjoyed the house, they enjoyed Crystal Hot Springs, they enjoyed… the thing that people from here who have been to Utah say is that it’s so organized. That everything is so clean. And it’s true! So count your blessings. Anyway, I got your cookies, and your sugar cookies were a hit with me and with my companion.

ELDER LEWIS’ COMPANION, ELDER ARREDIA: “Your cookies, Sister Lewis, are so good! I love it! I never have tasted a cookie like yours. I like it. You need to send me your recipe because it is so good. In Ecuador we don’t do cookies but I love that cookies. You are the best with the cookies!”

There you have it! A message from Elder Arredia de Ecuador, but ya we will have to swap recipes (I got your recipe as well) because he made us soup the other day that was AMAZING. Our lunch with our cocinista…. She was in another place so we cooked lunch that day. My companion cooked us soup that was really good. We were doing a little bit of service in.. how do you say… a place that they ship out ribs. We took 70 boxes of ribs and dumped them in water. afterwards he gave us some and my companion cooked them up and it was really good. So ya we will have to swap recipes there. But ya. This recording has now gone over 21 minutes, so I better shut it down. I love you guys so much, thank you for all the candy, and all your love. We celebrated the baptism of Henry with Root Beer, and with Cookies, and with Reeses and it was the best. I didn’t even know how much I missed those cookies. They got to us all soft and everything. The cookie was soft and the icing was just a little bit hard and it was perfect. Actually Mauricio has a video of us eating them and I was on his couch and I just had to sit back and they all laughed at me. But I don’t care! Love you all so much. Talk to you guys next week, alright? Bueno. Chao!

-Elder Lewis

Elder Layton... what are you doing???

OK now you're just being ridiculous.... jajaja

Conrad translating for Mauricio and Alma and their family! 

Mauricio on the far right, and their 2 sons

Alma on the left and their cousin from Brigham City UT on the right

The Lewis family and Mauricio and Alma and family at the Lewis home, Deweyville UT

Week 96: "...Cry REPENTANCE Unto This People...."

Hey Family, Buenas Tardes!

It’s been kind of a rough week, truth is, a few of our things that we had going for us fell through. But the Lord is opening other doors, so we are gonna roll with it. So this week we found quite a few new investigators just by hitting the streets and checking out all of our contacts and everything. It was a really good time, truth is the best day was Tuesday. Tuesday we really did a lot of good. We did a lot of contacts, we got some new investigators, also, Henry Viaraga is going to be baptized this week. He has been an investigator for awhile, and the missionaries before us kind of paved the way so that they got married and all we had to do was finished the lessons and invite him to be baptized. He overcame some stuff with his wife who is a member, and he is going to be baptized on Saturday at 6:00. So pray for Henry. Looking through my planner…. So Friday night we had exchanges with our District Leader. Sorry, Tuesday night we did splits with some members of the ward, which was really fun. It was fun to go out with just members of the ward and teach the gospel. Then on Friday night we had intercambios, we had exchanges with the District Leader. It was Elder McFadden from Washington. We had a pretty good time. We have an investigator named Arturo, I don’t know if I have told you about him yet. But he is really good. He is really coming along. They just gotta separate because he is married but just hasn’t done the paperwork to get divorced yet even though he is living with another woman and they have been separated for quite a long time now. So we are gonna see what happens there. But he has a testimony and everything so going strong with him. He also presented us to a roommate… or how do you say it…. Someone who is renting a room in their apartment. Her name is Kendris. She is really awesome as well.

This week I have been really trying to focus in on teaching the simple things of the Gospel. Like Joseph Smith taught; I was reading some of the teachings of Joseph Smith in Preach my Gospel and he said “Just preach the simple principles of the gospel. Faith to Repentance and Repentance leading to Baptism.” He said to a group one time, on a mission to New York, he said simply: “Repent and be Baptized and as a servant of God I promise you that you will receive the Holy Ghost.” It was just something that impacted me. The simple things of the gospel are really so important. I am very grateful to have 2 years to dedicate just to those simple principles. As a missionary, you are to go out and teach repentance and baptize converts, and that is it. You aren’t supposed to go out and fight with people about politics or about the Book of Revelation or the mysteries. You are just supposed to preach repentance. It’s a real blessing to me. I have learned the value of repentance this week. As all missionaries, we have made mistakes this week. We actually pushed a couple of investigators a little too hard to get married and now they are kind of iffy. That hurts. We just felt so strong that they were ready and they are ready but we are just going to kinda take a step back and try to guide them more than push them along. It’s something you learn as a missionary. Missionaries aren’t perfect, but I know that repentance is there so that we can get better. I know that conversion is a process that cant be pushed and cant be rushed. It’s all the time of the Lord. The Lord actually warned us to take it easy, and we didn’t really listen. It blew up in our faces. It reminds me of Doctrine and Covenants chapter 3 where the Lord rebukes Joseph Smith for not listening to him, and I felt rebuked this week. But I take comfort in what it says there, it says “My servant Joseph, remember that God is merciful, and you are again called to the work.” I know that every time that we repent, we are again called to the work. What other way could I ever bear testimony, any moving, lasting, testimony of the Atonement if I have never experienced it? And how could I experience it if I didn’t stumble and fall? But thanks to the fact that God allows us to stumble and fall, he gives us the opportunity to repent and get to know the power of the Atonement. That is my testimony that I have gained this week, and that I am going to continue to gain because it’s not over. Just know that repentance is always positive. Repentance doesn’t really necessarily need to be for big things, it can be for small things too. Big or small, it’s always positive.

Well, that’s what I wanted to share with you this week. It’s how I feel. It’s really been a positive experience in my life this week. I love you all and I will talk to you later! Chao!


-Elder Lewis

Week 95: Short and Sweet

Sorry I didn't get to make a recording, or send pictures. It's because we went to the center of Bogotá today and got back late. It was super cool though!

   But basically what happened this week is that Leonardo called us on monday night and told us he wanted to be baptized! We were so excited! He talked to his girlfriend and she wanted to too. But, she has been slowing him down, and now I don´t know if he is still so motivated. It was really a dissapointment this week, but that´s how it goes sometimes, no? But I´ll tell you what happens next week.

   On the brightside, Juan Gabriel and Viviana were able to get 400.000 of the 700.000 pesos that they need to get married! It was  a HUGE answer to prayers, and fasting. We´re now selling some cookies that I learned how to make from Elder Goncalves to make up the rest. Who knows if God won´t extend His hand again to help us. I know He will.

  Love you so much

   Élder Lewis

Week 94: One Door Closes, and Another One Opens.

Hi Family!

So I just got back from the Bogota Temple like an hour ago, back here to the apartment. We decided to go for p-day. We decided to delay our fast a little bit so that we could go fasting to the Temple. So we did. And the reason for that was for Viviana and Juan Gabriel who are still progressing in that we have seen miracles with them. But ya, I will tell you about that a little later on.

So this week has all kinda been a blur. I don’t know where it all went, but I guess I will read you what I have from my journal: 27 June 2018. Last night was very special. We contacted a referral that we received from the Zone Leaders and set an appointment with them for that very day. We got there and met Arturo, a shorter man, bald on top and round in the middle. Also, his Venezuelan girlfriend, who is a member, but hadn’t attended since coming to Colombia about 7 months ago. We went in, got to know them more, and started the lesson. We learned that Jocelin, the Venezuelan, was looking for the church but she hadn’t been able to locate one close. That’s when Arturo happened upon Elder Robinson, the same Elder I worked with In Bucaramanga, and Elder Olivera while they were contacting. They then passed the reference to us and so forth. I asked Arturo, “what is your interest as far as religion?” he responded to me that he didn’t understand why so many churches. He said that they taught that a sinner goes to hell and a saint to heaven but then what? That was a great question. We taught about the restoration and he was very attentive. Then afterwards we invited him to pray. Then he said with some emotion: “Elders, many times I feel my prayers don’t get heard. I feel like I am talking to a wall.” I saw tears in his eyes in that moment. I thought for a moment then remembered something that Hermano Villalobos in the CCM showed us, he showed us something one time that I wanted to try. I found myself saying: “Arturo, if you want to know, get on your knees and ask God: ‘God, are you there? Can you hear me?’” he agreed, and we then got on our knees. Arturo offered a short, but beautiful, heartfelt prayer. He said: “God, are you here with us tonight?” We then stayed on our knees in silence. He began to cry. We stayed for 5 minutes in silence. He then told us that he felt a peace and a tranquility and a tingling feeling on his back. He said that he had only felt it once before in his life when he took his dying wife to a Christian church and when he prayed out of desperation for her. We all felt the spirit. What a beautiful experience.

1st of July, 2018. Wow it’s now July. Crazy to think that I go home next month. But then again, I have still got 2 months to go. So I am going to settle in here and really put the pedal to the metal. I saw pictures from Hermano Laquiero, a member in our area, of President and Sister Laney getting home to their family in the airport. It still doesn’t feel real to me. I love and respect them so much. I often think of the time that I was on exchanges with Elder Picuasi some 8 months ago and we were taking Elder Reyes to the mission house, for he had some problems and was going to go home that next day. President invited all 3 of us in for Ice Cream from Crepes and Waffles (Not cheap) and Hermana Laney’s famous brownies. I will never forget the feeling of love that I felt that night. The love that they have for every missionary. Really, I felt the love of the Savior. We now have Presidente Valladares from Honduras.

That concludes my journal entries from this week. So as you heard, President Laney has finished about a week ago, I got a picture with President and Sister Laney, they finished their mission the 30th of June. The day after, I saw pictures of them in the airport, I was talking to Sister Laney the other day at a multi-zone conference and I asked her how she felt. You have to get to know Sister Laney, she is really funny. But she is very much a lover of her own culture. It was kind of hard for her to come to another culture. But she told me with tears in her eyes, and I never thought that this would happen, she told me “I am really gonna miss Colombia. You know we have lived here for a long time.” And I said “ya I know” and she said “Well, the bright side is that I have got 3 grandkids that I have never met and a son in law that I have hardly met” so she was looking forward to going and meeting them. Then I saw pictures with her with her new grandkids and President Laney hugging his family for the first time in who knows how long. Even though your family is allowed to come visit you when you are a mission president, it’s still… ooof…. It’d be really hard to go away for 3 years. But President and Sister Laney have truly made an impact on my life. They have been a great example, and as the apostle, Elder Stevenson, told us, that we should try to pattern our lives like President and Sister Laney have. President Laney is a powerful man that has the love of Christ, that has an incredible amount of charity and patience. That just resonates from him. I hope one day to be a man like President Laney. I think it goes for the same as what Mormon wrote about Captain Moroni. That is that if all men had been, were, and ever would be, like President Laney, then Satan wouldn’t have any power over the hearts of the children of men and the very powers of hell would be shaken forever. SO that was really sad to see them go. But as I looked at the picture of President Valladares and his wife from Honduras, originally we were supposed to get President Valim from Brazil but like 2 weeks before they came they switched it. President Valim is now going to Costa Rica, and President Valladares is coming here. I am going to have relatively short time with President Valladares but I really do feel the spirit when I saw their picture. We are praying for them. He is already here, I haven’t met him though. I hope to meet him soon. But it was kinda just a big chapter in my mission that closed. It’s hard for me to think of the mission without President Laney. But he is resting now for a little while and he deserves it. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear him getting a calling that’s elevated, that’s higher than a mission president. Maybe a 70 or Patriarch or something like that. He’s already been Stake President, Bishop, Young Mens President, but ya.

Well, today we went fasting to the temple, fasting for Juan Gabriel and Viviana as well as some other investigators, but mainly for them to receive revelation as to what we should do. We just kinda hit a wall with them. We have kinda felt frustrated with their marriage where it is so expensive. BUT… I told you guys about a miracle that happened the last week where we fasted and found, and God led us to a brother that would help them. NOW we went to the temple and me and my companion both received the inspiration that we should, as It says in Exodus, “stand still and the Lord Jehovah will fight your battles.” That’s the inspiration that we received. We actually called them that day and said “Hey, come to the temple and we will give you a tour, and then we will pay you to bring us back” because he drives Uber. So we would pay you the trip back. So they came and we walked around the temple, we got into reception and everything like that and they felt peace. Then when we got in the car, it turns out that Alejandro, this member that we found, sent them a message. He said Hey I was looking around for another legal office (here it’s called a notary or notaria) We found a notaria in a place called Fontibon that some friends of mine have more kids than you guys outside of their current relationship (which is what makes it so expensive) this family that had more kids outside of their relationship got married there for 300,000 pesos which is a big difference from the proposed 700,000 pesos that they want for the marriage of Viviana y Juan Gabriel. We were just ecstatic! So we might be able to get it chopped down to like 200,000 pesos which is roughly like 60 dollars. But we really felt humbled about that. The Lord just told us “look, sons, have patience.” It’s like what Joseph Smith said: “dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do everything within our power and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance to see the salvation of God, for his arm to be revealed.” We felt that in a powerful way. God does give us revelation. He does fight our battles. We must trust in him. I do trust in him. I have gotten to know him by these experiences, having to trust him.

Well, that’s about it for this week. I love you all, I hope you feel the Savior’s love this week. Chao!

-Elder Lewis

Meeting Elder Stevenson in Bucaramanga. Elder Lewis is on the back row, 8 in. 

Week 93: Going Gangster to Gospel: Leonardo's Story (plus World Cup insanity!)

Aaaaalllllrrriiiiiggghhhtttt Family, Good afternoon!

I hope that you are all having a good day! It’s been a pretty good week here in Engativa, well, I guess I will start by telling you guys about what happened this week….

So this week went by INCREDIBLY fast, I don’t even know where it went! But we had some good things happen. We started out helping out Viviana y Juan Gabriel trying to get them married despite their financial problems and the high cost of getting married here. We were making little keychains out of plastic and then you draw on it with Sharpie. You drew like, I dunno, Winnie the Pooh or something like that and then you could put them in an oven and they formed like a hard keychain. But that didn’t really pan out because it’s a lot of time for little results. So I suggested that we make Brigadero which is a Brazilian cookie that I learned how to make from Elder Goncalves. I will have to make it for you guys when I get home. But I made it for them and we settled on doing that. However, on Friday night we were praying, and we have been praying for them nonstop and as we both went to our personal prayer, well I had the impression to fast for them. I finished my prayer and I said: “Hey, Elder, I think we need to fast for Viviana y Juan Gabriel.” And he was like: “Really? I had that impression too.” And so were we’re like, Alright we have to do it. That’s inspiration.

But anyway, so we decided to do that and we fasted. Then the next day we went to go pick up people to come to church; we went across our area to a family and she wasn’t there… story of my life. Then we decided alright, well we are going to go pick up Leonardo. I’m going to tell you a little more about Leonardo a little later on. But we went and he wasn’t there either. Alright, whatever. So we are going to the church and a taxi stops right in front of us and it’s a member. He says: “Get in. I’m on my way to church.” So we got in and we showed him the way to the chapel. We had like 10 minutes so we decided to go run and try to pick up another investigator. But we didn’t think anything of it really, his name was Alejandro, and so we went and picked up this investigator and we came back and well, Bishop told me on Saturday that I was going to be giving a talk, didn’t end up giving the talk, I don’t know what happened haha. But I am going to give it in 2 weeks. Anyway, so we go through the meetings and everything, everything is good, and then afterwards later that night at like 7:30 we went to go visit Viviana y Juan Gabriel. After the visit they took us home, last night. She said: “Hey, Elder, I wanted to tell you that Alejandro told me that he could put us in contact with a friend of his that could get our matrimony, our marriage cheaper if not free. And that he would do that for us because he thought that we were members, but when we told him that we were investigators I guess that moved him.” Because they really do just look like members, they are always coming to church and everything. So I looked at my companion in the back of the car and I was like: “OH MY GOODNESS. THAT WAS INCREDIBLE.”  The Lord prompted us to fast, and maybe that was so that we could be sensitive enough to the spirit when he told us to go to Leonardo’s house and to pick him up, and we did, and he helped Alejandro get to the church, and the moment that he needed the help, if it wasn’t for that maybe he wouldn’t have gotten to church and maybe he wouldn’t have gotten a ride with Viviana and Juan Gabriel afterwards and maybe they wouldn’t have received that offer. So that was a real miracle that we saw there.

Another miracle that we saw was Viviana’s brother, Leonardo, who is 19 and has a little girl that is about a year and a half old. He has a history of being irresponsible, but we have really been trying to work with him the last few weeks. We have really hit it off really well with him until… he said: “Elders, I want to accompany you guys. Can I do that?” and we said: “yeah”. You should understand that he is what they call in Colombia a Ñero. A Ñero is like gangster. They are just the trashy gangsters there are around here. He normally dresses like one of those. So when we got to his house it floored us that he was in a shirt and tie to come and accompany us. So we were like: “Leonardo, what happened?!” we were in shock. We were like: “Wait. Is that you?” He looked super professional, super responsible, and he accompanied us. We first taught him and his soon to be wife and then we went to some other appointments. But during that appointment he shared with us that he received an answer about the Book of Mormon. He said that when the missionaries asked him to read the introduction, and he did, and he picked out out of the last two paragraphs of the introduction where it tells you to read, ponder, and pray. So that’s what he did. He read the introduction and he sat there in his room and thought about it one night, and he went and turned out the light and it was totally dark in the room and he prayed. He got down on his knees in the dark by the side of his bed and he prayed. And he said that in that moment he felt his whole body just become cold. Then he opened his eyes and the whole room was illuminated. Completely. He could see everything. He said: “wow!” he got up and turned the light on and he was like: “wow I just felt this peace. Just this tranquility that was so deep. It kind of scared me. So I didn’t read the book again.” We were like WHAT?!?!?! Really? But we helped him to try and recognize that that was certainly a message from our Heavenly Father, and that certainly he had answered his prayer. I am sure that he recognizes that because he went with us, well dressed and everything. It really shocked us. AND he shared his testimony with all of our investigators. It was the first time, I think, that I have brought an investigator to participate in a lesson like a member. It was just not something that we expected from Leonardo. He was just such a gangster! But he is having a change of heart. That’s what’s really rewarding to me.

In other news, Colombia won the game with Polonia (Poland) this week. ha HA! So they are advancing. They won 3-nothing and we could not be in the street during the game. If you don’t know, it’s the World Cup right now and everybody is losing their minds here. So we are in the apartment in our 6th floor, and we have our window open to hear when there’s a goal, and you HEAR when there’s a goal. The whole city turns into a stadium. People screaming, people honking their horns, they have like these plastic trumpets that they sell in the street that are as loud as a car horn that you blow on and it just turns into a nuthouse. Especially when they won the game. I actually got video of it. It was crazy. Then we went out in the streets and everybody was in the streets, and everybody has the jersey of Colombia, everybody is wrapped in Colombian flags, you have people running out in the streets yelling. There were a couple of people covered in Corn Flour… they throw Corn Flour at each other… it was a party! But we couldn’t go out during the game because of that. That and literally EVERYBODY in the city watches that game. So there wouldn’t be anybody that would receive us I don’t think. But President said stay in the house, so that was a lot of fun.

Well, I think that’s the end of my recording for this week. it has been a week of miracles, and I hope that you have had a good week as well. I love you so much, see you later, Chao!

-Elder Lewis

Week 92: "Lord I Believe....Help Thou Mine Unbelief"

Hey Family!

So, it’s been another week here in Colombia, it’s been a great week actually, I can’t wait to tell you about it.

I am sitting here with my journal right in front of me, so I am going to be looking at this to see what happened this week. It has been a lot. It says that June 12th, that was actually Michael’s birthday, kind of a cool thing happened; it’s almost 11 o’clock at night. Juan Gabriel just came up to the apartment to give us a cake from Sarah’s (his daughter’s) birthday. Yes it was the 12th of June, same as Michael’s. We went to their house today to teach Viviana’s brother, Leonardo, and just so you know, Juan y Viviana are a couple that we are teaching that are just about to get married. We are just jumping a few hurdles with them on that. But anyway, we were gonna teach her brother Leonardo, but we found them running out of the house to a class that Viviana had. In light of Sarah’s 8th birthday, we did service instead. We cleaned the house with Leonardo, who is 19 years old, and left cake that we bought for Sarah. I guess they wanted to repay us for the favor. Coming here, so late at night, we couldn’t refuse them. So they came to the door, and we live in an apartment complex and so there are bars at the front and a little office that you have to talk to to get in. They came all the way and we hear our phone ring inside the house and we were just doing companionship prayer when we heard it. I had just finished my personal prayer actually when it rang. We were like: “what the heck?’ and it wasn’t even our choice, but Juan Gabriel came up and gave us part of the cake that we bought for Sarah. Sure was nice of them. They actually have a car, which is one of few people that have them. Juan drives Uber with his Dad’s car. So it was really nice of them. I sure love that family a lot. We’ve talked to them just about every day this week. I believe that’s one of the reasons that I feel privileged to be here in this area. I know that you guys have all told me that you are waiting to hear “why the transfer?” I think that was part of the reason. Anyway, I am going to go back to reading:

Anyway, we are teaching Miriam, Viviana’s mother, and others of her family. I just feel privileged to be here. It was a cool thing to do, birthday service, also to commemorate the birthday of my own brother and best friend Michael. Sure do love and miss him.

15th of June- and just like that, I am back in Bucaramanga. Not to stay though, unfortunately. We are here to go to Diamante to see Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the 12. It will be my first time meeting an apostle of the Lord and I am very excited. We arrived here last night at 6:30 and me and my companion booked it over to Floridablanca and up to my beloved first area. Memories of my first days of the mission flooded over me. We went up to the 7th and surprised Cristian and Miladys. I can truly say that it was one of the most special moments of my life to see them again. As Alma said in Alma 17… you know what, I don’t know the scripture in English. So, Alma said “what cemented my joy even more was to see that they were still my brothers in Christ.” They are still my brother and sister in Christ. They are doing excellent and have plans to get married and sealed in Barranquilla. I hope that I can come back to Colombia to see them sealed. When I said that scripture… we went over to Bucarica, I wanted to go see Cristian and Miladys, but they had no idea I was coming. So, we just came in and I opened the gate really slow so that they didn’t hear anything and when the aunt of Cristian opened the door, she screamed. Haha. We walked in and they were so excited! I gave Cristian a big hug and if you don’t remember, they were my first… I baptized them more than a year ago. It was the first time I was able to baptize someone in the mission. Up to right now, they are two of my best converts in the mission. So, it was sure great to go back and see them. There’s a chapter in Alma, Alma 17, and he is walking (I imagine through the jungle) and lo and behold, here come the Sons of Mosiah. They are coming back from their 14-year mission among the Lamanites. They all get so excited and it fills them with joy and Ammon gets so excited that he falls to the ground just because his joy is so full. Alma says that what made my joy even more full was to see that they were still my brothers in Christ. That was really what I felt because Cristian and Miladys are still going really strong. They have callings, they are teaching the Valiant class and Cristian is a Stake Family History Consultant. He is going for his 8th generation in his family tree. For economic reasons, they haven’t been able to make it back to the temple this year. They went one time, but ya. They are looking to get married in Barranquilla. Also, funny thing, my companion, Elder Arredia, was in the area right next to Bucarica, right after I left. I left and like a month later, he got to that area that is right by Bucarica. In that area, in that time, lived the Mom of Miladys. He baptized the mother of Miladys. It sure was great because my companion knew Cristian and Miladys also. So that was… there are not coincidences. But oh, that was such a great experience to go back and visit them. I sure miss Bucaramanga. And actually, that brings me to the next thing that happened….

16th of June, 2018- yesterday was an incredible day. We went from the house of Elder Ostino, to the church in Puente de Provenza. I was again filled with old memories from the first days of my mission. In between visiting my old area, and looking at all of the beautiful views, the mountains covered in green and the people that I loved so much and the perfect weather, I was really sad when I thought about going back to dreary and cold Bogotá. I guess I was feeling a little bit sorry for myself, but I felt God had forgotten about me. I felt that he remembered me when I had a calling as a Zone Leader. Or when I opened an Area and Trained. But now, just as a Senior Companion, without much responsibility at all, I felt useless. I felt that I had somehow failed as a trainer, as a zone leader, or whatever and that now I am here to wait to finish. I felt that President had just put me here because it was convenient for the time that I had left and there was an opening here in Engativá. I felt that my experience as a Zone Leader, executing the transfers and talking so much about leadership strategies, that it was nothing more than that. I felt that the transfer here was nothing more than a leadership strategy that was just an open area that President wanted to put me in just because I only have 3 months left and just because he has to put me somewhere. I doubted my Mission President, a man who I loved and respected. Well… Gary E. Stevenson got to the church in Puente de Provenza at 9:15, and we were all waiting in line on the stairs by the futból court. We were singing hymns when he got there, and he came in a van. From the instant that he stepped off the van it felt different. He got out and he took a photo with his cell phone of all of us there lined up singing hymns. He then called Hermana Sato, who is from Japan, down and started talking with her in Japanese. He served as a missionary and later as a mission president in Japan. She said to me later that night that he speaks very well. Well Elder Stevenson then went with his wife, Elder Montoya (a general authority area 70) and his wife, and President and Sister Laney, to the doorway. He shook all of our hands as we entered in. I felt a peaceful feeling from the moment I shook his hand until the moment when we parted for Bogotá again. But it comes back when I think about the experience. The meeting then started at 10 am on point. Sister Montoya was the first to speak. She gave a stirring talk on Optimism. Then was Elder Montoya. After Elder Montoya was Sister Stevenson. She seemed like a very happy person and I enjoyed her message on Diligence. Then Elder Stevenson spoke. I have better notes on his talk in my Preach my Gospel. He spoke on returning missionaries needing to read their scriptures 60 days without fail, and it will become a lifelong habit. I am determined to do so. He also spoke about needing to keep “finding” after the mission. Finding a wife, that is. Haha. He said: “Elders, this whole time in your mission, your Mission President has taught you how to find. I want you to know that you need to keep finding after the mission. You need to find a woman like Sister Laney to marry. You need to be a man like President Laney is.” That just really struck me. He then said that we should Learn, Earn, and Serve. He said that we should study, then get a good enough job to retire and be able to serve the Lord full time. Then he stopped and said… this is the part that really got to me… He stopped and said: “ I am inspired by the Spirit of the Lord to tell you that your area and companion assignments are inspired of God.” He went on to talk about it and I was just stupefied that God could answer my question in such a direct way. I wont ever doubt revelation ever again. I learned that God knows me. He knew that I suffered when I went from Cucuta. He knows that I miss that place and he cares. He knew that it broke my heart to leave Cucuta but I now know, that it was for something. When Elder Stevenson gave his final testimony, I saw a visible light around him, that wasn’t with anyone else that was on the stand. He then blessed us as an apostle of Jesus Christ and our families with whatsoever thing we should need. What a blessing! That’s my journal entry on that.

So there were just a couple of things I wanted to tell you; first of all, I wanted to tell you about how Elder Stevenson, he literally looked over to the general direction that I was at, and he thought, and you know that the apostles don’t prepare messages when they go to speak to people other than General Conference of Stake Conferences or things, they don’t prepare anything. He stopped and I thought that maybe it was just that he ran out of things to say. But then he said “I am inspired by the Spirit of the Lord to tell you about how your area and companion assignments are inspired of God.” That was kind of a WOW. I felt like he literally read my mind. I was actually feeling really bad that day because I was just looking out at the green mountains, the perfect weather, going to see my old area, and then comparing it with where I am at in Bogotá. Bogotá is special, but it’s ugly. It’s sure as urban as you can get. It just feels cold sometimes. But I received a person testimony right then and there from an apostle of the Lord that that assignment is from God. It has really provided me with a great window to see why I am here. Also, Elder Stevenson talked about getting a testimony. He said that we should teach and then we should finish, and let them know “alright, we have finished, this is our testimony of what we have talked about.” And then give a testimony. That’s exactly what he did. He demonstrated it for us, and when he gave his testimony, I swear, that there was a light that came around him. As I looked at the rest of the people on the stand, it wasn’t around them. It was around him. Then he blessed us. He said: “as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I bless you with whatever thing you should stand in need of. I bless your families with whatsoever things they should stand in need of.” So know, family, that you have been blessed by an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have a special testimony that I already had a special testimony about Russell M. Nelson as a Prophet of God, and I don’t know if you remember my story about that, but I will share it with you when I get home. But now I have a special testimony that Jesus Christ has called his Apostles. The church is restored just like it was before. In beautiful simplicity, it has all been restored. You know, I have seen that. Coming back to my area, having left without glasses and coming back with glasses, I can see everything now clearer, why God has sent me here. I am grateful for revelation. I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t believe that it was revelation. But that is when I need to say to the Lord “Help Thou mine unbelief” you know? I will never doubt it again.

Well, I felt as he gave us that blessing that with that blessing, when he said “I bless you and your families with everything that you should need.” That family, if you need something, ask the Lord this week. Not that he wouldn’t already give it to you, but knowing that an Apostle of the Lord in these Latter days has asked that blessing upon you, ask for it with confidence. If you believe, if you can be more believing than I was, you will receive it. I know that is true. Now I am finished, and I want to give you my testimony that I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that because he has called Prophets and Apostles on the earth. I know in a special way, and with a special witness that that is true. I know that he lives because I have seen the men that he has called and have received a witness. I have also received a witness through the Book of Mormon. Through the Book of Mormon I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet. I know that Apostles continue to walk the earth today, never to be taken from the earth again. That is my testimony. I leave it with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

-Elder Lewis

My original MTC group, reunited for the first time in 21 months! We started out with ten, now six remaining, but going strong!

Me, Elder Varillas (one of my favorite companions) and Elder Villarroel, whom I trained a year ago! First time I´ve seen him since then!

The beautiful Church house in "Puente de Provenza!"

I got to surprise two of the very best people in the world this week! We went to visit Christian and Miladys, the first people that I baptized here in the mission! It was a short visit, but so good!

Close to Bucaramanga. Colombia is really beautiful!

A beautiful little town called San Gil, close to Bucaramanga.