14th Weekly email

 see y'all next year aha ha

This week was a good one. It started off with a referral and she actually is interested in learning about the gospel! 


We went caroling and once again, it was successful although this time, we had some interesting interactions. This first one is an exact reenactment of what happened:


*older lady answers door*
"Hey we are going around caroling!"
"You guys are going around the neighborhood?
Oh you can came in if you want!
Well who are you guys? Are you... are..."
*looks at our tags*
"Uh never mind, he just had surgery"


She wasn't rude or anything I just thought it was really funny! Although not as funny as the house right after. I guy come out and looks at us, pretty intensely through the screen door for a few seconds, then opens the door and comes out. I thought he might have been on the spectrum or something because he introduced his dog to us two separate times and was just kinda strange. It wasn't until after the song that we realized he was drunk. Hammered, if you will. Sadly I was at the back of the pack and didn't get the pleasure to smell his wine breathe. Honestly, he was the highlight of the week. His speech was slurred and when we had finished, he (use your imagination to think of the most generic drunk voice) said "beauuutifulll, that was amazzziiingg". I'm actually very sad we didn't record it because he said some quality stuff. 


Oh Christmas eve, a family in the ward has a tradition to make cookies all day long then give them out. They asked us to do the giving out part! From about 6:30 to 8, we had the chance to give a big jumble of cookies and brownies to investigators and ward members and it was so fun! Getting presents is certainly fun but it's so amazing to give and see how happy it makes everyone. 


Yesterday, I got bashed for the first time in person. It was exhilarating. He was super nice but was talking absolute nonsense. We approached him and asked if he wanted to talk about Jesus. First red flag 🚩 he happily said yes. Second red flag 🚩 was that he didn't want to talk about the book of mormon. He went on for 10 minutes about the trinity. It's funny actually because after the ten minutes, I still didn't even know if he believed in it or not. We realized he had no intention of learning from us so third red flag 🚩 was that he kept us from leaving and pulled out notes on his phone. Apparently he was saving anti mormon notes just for this moment. Long story short, he told us we didn't need the book of mormon because the Bible isn't confusing if we look at it in context, THEN he took several verses out of context to prove his point. Bashing a basher is discouraged as a missionary I guess so we walked away🥴


Spiritual thought: I really like Alma 37:36. It says "Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord..." there is more in the verse but its long. A lady we are teaching had a tough life and it hadn't gotten much better since but she always says that it doesn't matter because she knows God has a plan for her. She takes all her problems to God. We can all learn something from her. 


Italian for the week: come nessun altro/a (like no other)


Ya favorite Kansas boy,
Anziano Lewis


Pics are: 

1. My favorite gal Rita 

 2. Legos for christmas 

 

3. Delivering good on christmas eve 

 4. ping pong getting a bit too intense 

 

5. POV im beating you 10-0 and its game point 

 6. Making pasta... again 

 7. POV youre in the car with a girl driving 

 8. Chicken tacitos in the car 

 9. Crying repentance to the sinners in Derby, Kansas 

 10. posted up infront of cool sunset

next time ill figure out how to up the text under the pics so its easier. For now... deal with it.

(I did it for him)

13th Weekly Email

pits! i lost another tag

Another week down. I think that's 13 since I've been a missionary! They seem to be going faster and faster each time. In no time, I'll be in college thinking about the times I was in Kansas😂 (maybe Italy soon!) No news yet but my thoughts are that I'll leave in the middle of January. Honestly, i need all the time I can get to keep studying the language before I'm immersed. I'm kind of terrible at Italian!


I wanted to share a word for word interaction that my companion and I had with a man and his wife at the *public* park. 


"Hey how's it going?"
"Good"
"Are you guys getting excited for Christmas?"
"Not interested"
"Oh, okay have a nice day!"
*walks away*


"We come here to get away from people like you"


Some people's children. It was pretty funny because we were at a park. A place with lots of people. I guess they just go to the park to get away from people...? Bruh moment. My companion and I were a bit confused so we just went on our way. I like to share the bad experiences my companion and I have but most of the people are pretty nice. 


One lady was really nice! But at what cost? She asked us to rake her yard and of course we were quick to say yes. On Wednesday, we pulled up to her house and she had a big yard but only a few leaves that were spread around. My companion said this should be easy. It was not. In fact, it took us until Friday to finish. 3 days. 8 hours. 42 bags. 10 frozen fingers. It was about 20 degrees on Friday and I didn't have gloves. Anyways, I worked my tail off and after we were done, we wanted to share a Christmas lesson but they had left. We texted them later and asked if they had time and they never responded. Verified bruh moment. Anways tough when things like that happened but we were a good example and hopefully a seed was planted for missionaries in the future😁


We went caroling this week and it was so fun. I'm not a huge fan of singing and I always thought the whole situation was awkward but I guess some people like it. It was amazing to see how happy it made them. It made one lady so happy she invited all 7 of us into her home to sit and have cookies. 


I forget to do a spiritual thought so here is one right now. I really like Ether 12:6 with the thought of faith brings miracles. Mircales don't/shouldn't bring faith. We have an investigator that wants a sign to grow her testimony but that won't work. Not until you show God you have faith in his plan. The second half of verse 6 says 
"faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."
I know that if we show God that we are willing to work for an answer, he will give it to us. But don't expect one if you don't have faith. 


Italian for the week: pazzo= lunatic, madman


Ti voglio bene,
Anziano Lewis
Pictures: 42 bags of leaves, getting baptism suit, dead bat in creepy basement, ward Christmas party, me (in a silly goofy mood), pretty sunset, helping my comp bear his testimony, last two are caroling with the district

12th Weekly Email

 Paqui chip challenge! gone wrong?

After transfers, we started this week off with zone conference. I absolutely love zone conference. The mission president and his wife basically spit straight facts right at you for 4 hours. They say it's a revelatory experience and they mean it. It's basically like general conference (specifically for missionaries in our zone)


Before each zone conference, president sends a subject to write a 4 minute talk about. I was confident in my last minute talk so I jokingly told my companion that I'd love to share it in front of the whole zone. I think God heard me say that because the next day, I got called on. During the middle of conference, the APs pick about 5 people to share their talk. The first 4 people were called. There was one more poor soul that had to get up there. "Elder Lewis". My heart didn't know how to feel. When everyone turned around and looked at me, I got pretty nervous. I felt like I was in the hunger games and I was just called to be a tribute. My life was surely over. My heart was racing once I got to the stand and I think the whole zone could tell. Anyways, I feel like I did good and it was pretty fun😅


My companion and I found out yesterday that a member in our ward was *at one point* ranked the number three Yugioh player (i think something like Pokémon) in Utah. He would have gone to national finals in Ohio but he was busy that weekend. Don't ask him about it. 


One crazy thing that happened this week. One sister in our district (in a trio) is going home in 2 weeks. We figured out that our whole district (the other 6 of us) have been out less combined transfers (11) than her (13). We are a young district but we will still baptize nations!🤠


After 9 pm one day, my district was at the church and decided to have fun. An elder that just went home left a paqui chip for us to eat. The paqui chip is the one that's black and it's super duper hot. Anyways, we had one and three of us wanted to try so we all got a third of the chip. Even a small piece and we were all struggling pretty bad. I think one elder almost threw up? Also my companion later that night took his contacts out and I guess didn't wash his hands well enough...😭


Italiano per la settimana: "Natale" - Christmas


Vi voglio benissimo,
Anziano Lewis


Pics: zone conference with the ugly sweaters, enough trash bags for a bed, cute pic with the district leader, I made three different kinds of pasta (none were good), chip we ate, comp and I love Facebook

11th Weekly Email

No pants? Party on!



Get hyped, this week is transfers! Not too hyped because I'm not getting transfered and neither is my trainer. Together we are a dream team😍 not really, we've actually been having a hard time. We get along super well but we are both new to the mission so we have no idea what we are doing. This transfer, we're gonna figure it out (with the help of Jesus)


One thing that motivates me to talk to people is when an an awkward or crazy situation happens, i can tell my family and group email. On Tuesday, I did just that. It wasn't awkward or crazy, mostly just hurtful. Anyways, we were at a park looking for people to talk to and we saw some young moms talking. I'm all for young moms so I sprang at the chance to talk to them. We went up and I asked them if they were interested in doing family history and as usual, we got an "I'm not interested maybe later" so I accept my losses and give them a restoration pamphlet with our names and number and walk away. THE SECOND we turn around to walk away I hear "hey honey can you go put this in the trash can". I would have turned around and yelled at them but I didn't want them to see the tears streaming down my face. I'm still trying to laugh it off.


Later that night, we had a lesson with Jon. He is an older guy that is slowly progressing. We got to his door and knocked. He opened the door but something was different. I looked at him and had to process for a second. OH! He doesn't have pants on. And he knew that. So he let us in and went back to arguing with the at&t guy. After about 10 minutes, he walks right up to us and tells us he's gonna put his pants on. "Okay Jon you go do that, we'll just be down here, hollar if you need help". Anyways, we had a bomb lesson (with all our pants on)


Later in the week, we were raking a members yard and a guy across the street jokingly says "how much for my yard?" So of course I tell him we'll do it for free. He didn't believe us so when I said weren't joking, he was a little taken back. He offered to let us use his leave vacuum. It's so sick let me tell you. Picture a leaf blower that goes in reverse and has a bag to catch the leaves. Anyways, we got both yards done in like 2 hours and when we're were done he gave us 20 dollars. I refused because we are missionaries and he goes "I know! And I'm a preacher". He talked for like 15 minutes about tithing, donations, and Jesus. He was super nice.


Figure this is more effective than individually so my address is 1500 tall tree road, derby Kansas 67037 apt 3205


Italian for the week: "sarebbe bello" is "it would be lovely/nice"


Vi voglio benissismo,
Anziano Lewis


Pics
Milking a cucumber, camera works now, labeling the whole hour with Italian, sista Marriott, We played golf last pday!