Letter Number 10..... Miracles Everywhere!

Letter Number 10

Oh that son of Mine....I love hearing of all the miracles he is seeing. I love hearing about the beauty of Guadeloupe. I love that he is falling in love with the people.  I know that he will become a more effective missionary if his heart is full of the love Christ felt for the people he taught.  I felt so disturbed by the physical abuse he witnessed and will pray the Mother's heart will soften, so she will know there are better ways to handle difficult situations.


Bienvenue to the best island in the Les Antilles!! (Note: Bienvenue means "welcome")

I love this place with all my heart, the people are great, the food is great, the heat is less great, and the work is progressing!

This week was just super full of cool stuff that in all honesty will forget to write about. First off, I would like to say that there was tons of things that fell in water this week and not much success happened. we orriginally planned for about 36 lessons total, like set times dates, we taught about 14 maybe a couple more. That was super demotivating, but we kept our heads up and looked for the miracles in each day. speaking of miracles, we had a huge miracle on thrusday. elder pavia who was elder tolmans last companion gave a blesssing of healing to our investigator roger. he has been having problems with his kidneys and was supposed to go in on this last thrusday to see if he had to have dialisis. elder pavia promised him in his blessing that that day he would be healed and recieve good reasults. the day came and after two months of his health getting worse and worse, he was healed. when he went in to the doctor, they were super surprised because all the priviously exsiting issues were gone. super cool:) but he didn't come to church, so that was a downer. 

I also became incredibly thankful for the family I grew up in this week. I watched one of our investigators beat her child with a surgar cane. He was four. I dont know if i have ever had that much anger well up in me at one time. It taught me how incredibly magnificent the love our heavenly father has for us. I could not even immagine how frustrating it would be to bless your children so much and have them sin so much. Lots of great things like that happen, every day.

Learned how to speak a bit of Creole, Haitian with a bit of Guadaloupian. that was sweet, but the Area Seventy said we can't use creole to teach unless the investigators don't understand French.

I had tons of awesome fresh fruits that our investigators have given us, like star fruit, which is called karenbull, or that is how it sounds. I ate a real French meal for Sorièe Famillia at Soeur Louisaints it was delicious. 

I'll try to send off a picture to everyone, most of my pictures are on my blog at jakelewiswestindies.blogspot.com I hear my mom is doing a great job with that:) 

Love you all, keep looking for the miracles in every day:)

Mom:

"Would Guadeloupe would be a good place to visit!"

Jake answers: 
"Guadeloupe it is a cool place, but you would have to speak French, very few people speak English more than yeah and how are you.. haha "

Elder Lewis

almost got stung by two centipides, which you can become really sick from. or die. but the Lords got my back;) 

Mom asks:

" how much is it raining there......... as it is hurricane season"?

Jake answers:

"When it rains it pours, you are soaked in seconds, and I can't use my sandals for prosiliting but they are great on p days!! "

Tell Brother Newby hi for me!!

Love ya*

Jake

Jake hiking to the Volcano in Guadaloupe,  Mt. Soufrieve

Jake's District earned their hike by meeting their teaching goal!  God hears and answers prayers!

I love the mist and the tropical wonderland of the Caribbean 

the nasty centipede that was stuck in Jake's shirt......I loved his caption "The Lord had my back!"

Just Liv'n the Life Dreaming the Dream

Letter Number 9

Settling in to mission Life

I feel Jake becoming a Missionary for Jesus Christ.  I can identify a few tender mercies of the Lord in this letter, and a few opportunities for Jake to discover and improve on his weaknesses.  It's hard to miss my Son when I see how happy he is in the mission field.  With every letter I see glimpses of the Man he will be when he returns in 2 years.

Welcome to Guadalope, the most beautiful island in all of the Caribbean, the people for 60 percent speak Parisian French, the rest speak that mixed with Haitian and Guadalopian Creole.

The baggets are always fresh, but what isnt? Almost all of your common groceries can be found on this island, even soaps... one of the only imoports is cheese and that is subsidized, gotta have that cheese.

This week was a little crazy, had alot of succses, had alot of fall- throughs as well.  I went on an exchange with an elder this week, taught me alot about pride,  but I got to be on bikes for a change that was nice:)  We found 8 new investigators, no one showed up to church, which is in our house, not sure if I mentioned that. Our goal as a zone here on Guadeloupe, was for everyone to have  5 lessons with a member. The reward was we could go to hike the volcano Mt Souffrier. 

Everyone last second was blessed with a miracle and voila we went and hiked it. Unfortunately there will be no pictures because i forgott my camera cable. but next week;)  the volcanon stands at 1456meters high, which is higher than Boise if i am correct. It was super cool, we hiked for about an hour or so to get to the top, through this little river bed trail. super misty and bassically inside of a cloud. The top was acctually cold!! and we all stank like sulfur because it is still active. was a super super cool day:) then we went and spent some money at a boulangerie and that was just great:)

The work is really hastening here in Guadeloupe, there are so many miracles taking place it is crazy.

Love you all,

Elder Lewis

Letter Number 8......Baguettes, Waterfalls, and aqua marine water! Is this a "real" mission?

Letter Number 8


I can't believe that Jake has already been in the Caribbean for 2 weeks.  He sounds so happy, and it seems as though he and Elder Tolman are a great companionship!  I need to work on his question answering capabilities, but he answered almost all of my questions.  I so wish I could be a fly on the wall in this wonderful adventure in the West Indies.  His companion is a little sick this week, so when you pray for Jake please include Elder Tolman. As a Mother you can't feel better about a letter than this one from Jake.  He's serving the Lord with all of his heart, he is getting along with his companion, and eating well......! I just love that Son of mine.


Salut tout le monde!!

This week was amazing here in guadalope! the key board is still weird but whatever!! We stared to get in a roll of things this week and work hard, lots of contacting, member work, and also a variety of other things!! We contacted 52 jpeople this week (contact counts as a name a number and maybe a return apointment)  it was super great. For the most part herer instead of knocking on doors the houses all have" gates or fences so you yell you bonjour tu tu tu (signifying knocking) or  bonjour est-ce que il y a un quelqun?? Tt is pretty great.

Also we have several progressing investigators at the moment;  Karine who had a desire to be babtized and then questioned herself to the point where she was wallowing in self pitty, it was really sad but then she had a dream that she was being babtized and everything was ok. needless to say she and her daughter came to church. I gave my first blessing, and it was in french, to a member we have" been working with. really cool experiance. the priestood is really to just bless the lives of others. 

On other news, we have been working with the members like crazy and it has really payed off in combination with our mission fast. We had Frère Chalcoolj come to church for the first time in a few years. we also worked in his field and weeded, getting our van stuck deep in the mud in the proccess?

The food here is just great! there is lots of creole influences and even more French influences. I could eat baguettes every day, fill them full of delicious meat and just mangos.

egggs for breakfast, pasta breads cheeses for lunch, eat dinner if offered, life of a missionary:) for eating at least

Love you all,

Elder Lewis

Jake arrives in the Caribbean 

Jake's first p-day hike

Guadalupe is known for beautiful waterfalls!

Jake and Elder Tolman

Letter number 7............Jakes goes to work in Guadalupe!

It was soo great to hear Jake sounding positive and happy, you try to trust the process, but it was so great to get that email on Monday confirming that he was safe and sound. We had two amazing conversations with Jake as he traveled to Trinidad.  He seems to be adapting to all of the changes quite well and now seems to love his new companion and the area.  Jake and I share a love of chocolate Croissants so I had to laugh at the part where he says he could pudge out a little.  I miss Jake but my heart is content knowing he is doing the work of the Lord and that he is being held in the Lord's hand while he is there.  His companion's story is amazing and I will get permission from his Mother before I share it, but it is very cool.  Please write to Jake on his LDS email listed below and keep my Son and all the missionaries in your prayers.

So my spelling might be terrible because the key board is allost 100 percent french. It is way different. My first week in Guadeloupe was awesome. I didnt really take photos becuase... i dont have a good reason.... but anyways....the work here is really increasing, there has been a baptism here everyweek for the last - weeks. Elder Tolan from Pocatello Idaho is my companion and also the zone leader. Super cool guy super chill, is going to make me fat because we have a car and eat the best food every day. The French was really hard to understand  because they speak super fast here and some mumble. We have three soon to be five progressing investigators who all came to church. The island is beautiful and the people are super nice.*

Love you all, and I cant find the exclamation point?? ! found it!!  

Other crazy things that happend this last aeek... 

Ate something called a kinet which is a little ball that you bite off the outer skin and this seed surounded by goo on the inside... super sweet, delicious!

The members here are the best!!! They are all super happy and church was awesome! 

Love you all,

Elder Lewis

P.S. you cant see my house maybe the top, my house is the Morne à leau church building, we dont even need the water filter here on Guadeloupe.. we have the nicest house because our living room doubles as a church for the members too far away from the building in Abeemes

I will send you my mail adress soon, 

Mission President and his wife Brother and Sister Meir with the incoming group of Missionaries