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
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
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