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. :)
