Letter Number 86 "Back to where it all began",,, Guadeloupe!

I chuckled to read how little Elder Lewis cares about his Birthday while in the Mission field...just something to be put up with..very funny how set apart from the world he seems. 

I don't have a lot to say, other than, I was touched to be able to read the letter he wrote to his Mission President..I hope it will full your spirit like it did mine.

So I got my birthday all passed and done. Also, I am being transfered to Gosier,  Guadeloupe,  the other side of the island that I served first upon.  It is oppisite of Morne à L'eau. I will be with a long time friend Elder Savage who was in Capesterre when i was in Basse Terre. Pretty cool eh? 

I am pretty sad to leave Fort de France, but I know it is in the Lords hands, and I will return one day. 

General Conferance blew my socks off.  What a wonderful opportunity to hear the will of the Lord be revealed and receive a testimony of livining prophets on the Earth. This computer has a French key board with english spell check. Weird. 

I wrote a pretty good letter to my Mission President and so i will just forward that along. 

A great P-day by the Waterfalls of Martinique

Hey President,

I would just like to start off by saying thank you. Thank you for sending me to Fort de France and entrusting me to be a Zone Leader for such a long time. It was truly a miracle what happened. The Lord really taught me many wonderful and important lessons. I learned how to rely on his infinite goodness and grace to, at the end of each day, get the job done. I remember when I was first with Elder Dayton. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, just like the primary song says about pioneer children. I have a pretty high arch on my feet and I had horrible pain in them for the most of my time here. I learned to tune it out, If we were always in motion always looking for the next thing to do the pain was less. I remember walking on a darkened highway at about 7:30 at night when passing a big looking guy. I still remember the shocked feeling I had when, as we passed him and he turned to us and immediately asked us for a Book of Mormon. Renaud would later quit smoking and be baptized with me and Elder Christensen. I remember feeling inspired after a mission leadership council on how to present the many instructions we had received. I remember sacred moments on exchanges giving training and council to different missionaries. I remember so many wonderful lessons about the Spirit and learning to walk in the small portion of the path that he illuminated before my feet, seemingly not more than a half a step ahead. This area is incredible. It has changed me and my mission and probably my whole life, yet it was as a small moment in it all. I am filled with thanks as I will be headed back to Guadeloupe where I started to finish my mission. What a sacred and beautiful experience that I have had here.  Again and again and again, I love this branch, I love these people, I love the Lord.

The joy of the Gospel is immense,

Elder Lewis

Letter Number 85

I had a great email from Elder Lewis that talked about how he has a testimony of Fasting and how  his French gets mangled when he bears his testimony...I wanted to tell him the same thing happens to me and I'm speaking in English.  This letter is short, but I am still inspired to try to fellowship the people who are investigating the Church.  His good friend Elder Roskelley said the same thing in his letter this week.  I will try harder to be aware of these people, and to be more welcoming and friendly.  

Sorry to not be very inspiring this week, I'm a little pressed for time,

The Vestrice family is back from their Cruise and they had so many questions about the gospel! They are reading and studying the Book of Mormon like crazy and are slowly coming to know the truth of it all! they are also integrating nicely into the Branch! We saw them with the Branch President on Saturday and it was wonderful.

I have a testimony of Fasting!

I love my mission!

I love you!

Elder Lewis

Elder Lewis and Elder Petersen treated to a Mexican dinner with Brother and Sister Turner

Letter Number 84...So Many Blessings!

Jake mentions their astonishing blessings, I feel that way about our family.  We have truly been blessed and I am eternally blessed to have Jake be such an example of faith and Thanksgiving on his mission. With every letter I read and then blog I remember to include the Lord in every part of my life.  I love that with each letter now Jake talks of how much more he has to accomplish on his mission before it is over. He has three months to go.  

Bonjour mes chers frères et sœurs,

I really feel like writing about a line and sending this, nevertheless, I will make an effort.

First read Helaman 3:25

SO MANY BLESSINGS THAT ELDER LEWIS AND ELDER PETERSON WERE ASTONISHED!

That pretty much describes my week.

The Vestrice family came to a family home evening put on by the Branch this last Tuesday, I have attached a photo of them at said activity. They look like such an eternal family. They came in a little late and we were in the spiritual portion and they were really kind of nervous and then we passed to the games and fun and the whole branch started to really surround them and have fun with them and their ten year old daughter played games and they started to laugh and it was a great moment. Later Viviane the wife,  said that they where sad they were leaving on a cruise for this week because she would miss the activity for the Relief Society. They are really a blessing that came down out of heaven. I really love them a lot. As well as Elder Peterson, I love him a lot too, he is a great friend of mine and we are really coming to a unity and power in our teaching that is incredible.

We also had a Zone Conference by Elder Cornish and his wife of the Sevety, it was broadcasted from Gwada Sunday, it was a bummer we didnt get to go to Gwada but it was incredibly edifying in all cases. I really love the power and assurance that General Authorities have when they speak, their words sink deep into your soul to the point where you just know that what they are saying is pure truth.

I really love my mission, I am trying to go faster and faster every day for the end is approaching and there is still plenty to do!

I love you all!

Elder Lewis

Elder Lewis and Elder Petersen at Zone Conference in Martinique

Letter Number 83

Jake's last two letters have been full of Faith and gratitude to Heavenly Father.  I had an experience last week very similar to this theme... a prayer was answered after many years of asking and pleading the of the Lord.  We need to remember to be Faithful and be patient.  I am so happy Jake loves Martinique so much.  We will see what transfers bring.

A quote from The Turners , And, as Rudyard Kipling says, “The tumult and the shouting dies”, and what do we find? Our faithful and honorable missionaries wending their way up the hill (and there are a LOT of hills here), to continue spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.

WOW,

This week has been off the charts fantastic . I could honestly stay in Fort de France for the rest of my mission and be the happiest person every alive ever. I love it here. It seems as thought there are unlimited opportunities at every corner to improve and be challenged and grow. It has really been a whirl-wind these last almost 8 months. I really love it here. This week the Lord has blessed me in ways that I can not even express with mere words. I know that this work is his work, and that no unhallowed hand shall stop it from progressing. I would like to thank you all for the many prayers that you have sent my way, I really do feel your love and the Lord has blessed me Immensely as much as I see him blessing you. I know that he answers our prayers, sometimes we do not see at first that they are being answered because we do not hear his voice as we do when our friend answers, we do  not see him yet he acts in our lives. This last week I made a few realizations of things the Lord was doing for me to answer my prayers and my fasts and to grant me with a great assurance of his love. I am full of thanks and of joy for the many tender mercies the Lord has given me and my family and my friends. These are a few of the truths that I am coming to know more and more every day.

The Spirit of God can communicate with our spirits, letting pure knowledge flow into us by the process of revelation.

The enabling power of the Atonement is just as real and powerful as the redeeming power, the two act together.

The Book of Mormon is true, and testifies perfectly of the mission of Jesus Christ in such a way that it writes it upon our souls by the Spirit.

This work is the Lords work, and he works through us more and more as we give ourselves to him more and more.

God answers prayers.

True conversion comes over time from trials that push us deep into the gospels soil.

Anyone, at any time can chose to change, the Lords arm is always extended in mercy towards us.

As president boyd K Packard says we cannot force spiritual growth, only invite it by obedience and study and prayer and dilligence.

This week we had a series of fortunate events, called miracles. One being this,

Back in december you might remember the fact that we found a Jew who wanted to believe in Christ but couldnt bring himself to do it becuse of certain contriditions in the Bible and in different religions. Mr Vestrice. For a long time we have tryed to call and set up rendez vous many times, we pass by, he was busy, we called he didnt have any time. I started to lose hope for him recently after many tries to see him. I always felt the push to go back. On Tuesday we called. On Wednesday, by  a miracle we saw him and his wife. We expounded upon the scriptures in the Book of Mormon and the Bible and the Spirit testified. He read late into the night, called us in the morning and asked us to come over again the afternoon. We were busy. He called us Friday morning, same thing. After we gave him an appointment for Monday he came to Church (on a Sunday at that). We are going back tonight. The Lord does his work in a way that we really cannot understand. He truely has foreknowledge and can lead us to be in the right places at the right time.

Let us be faithful to our Heavenly Father.

I love you all dearly,

ELder Lewis

P-Day Basketball

P-Day in Martinique

Letter Number 82

I just love Jake's theme of gratitude...our Family has so much to be grateful for this year.  Just so many many miracles.  Gratitude and Love, what could be better news from our Son on a mission.

Oh la la, La semaine était très bonne! Le Seigneur nous a béni.

There is always piles of things to be thankful for, even stituations to be thankful in on a mission. I love it here the connections that I am making here are eternal.

I told you about I guy we met named Gerome three Sundays ago just before going home. He is progressing incredilby fast he set up a schedual to read the Book of Mormon before the middle of April. I love those who are willing to act on our message, that is the best. He is also going through the most part of the references on bottom and looking them up. What a great guy.

Irena is doing well, she hasnt been to Church in a couple weeks and this last week progress was really slow, we are working on that, a little bit of longsuffering and persuation and sinsere love and the rest of those qualities will do a little more than a little good.

I love Fort de France,

I love Martinique

I love my Parents, they are incredible,

I love my sisters,

I love my nephew,

oh did I mention?

IM AN UNCLE:):):)

Have a great week,

ELder Lewis

Letter Number 81...Another Week in Paradise!

Carnival sounds interesting.  Missionaries in many parts of the world have to stay in for the week of "Carnival" in their country.  I like that Jake called that "ridiculous."  How silly to behave purposefully in a way you would have to then repent of.  I believe we all of these behaviors but the idea is for us to abandon them forever in our quest to become different and better people.  These missionaries are always looking for miracles and blessings, we need to model this behavior in our lives, I feel so blessed when I turn around my thoughts like this.  

An amazing view of Martinique...look closely at Jake's shoes, those are shoes of a real missionary! Im so proud of him, he's working so hard.

This week was a little destroyed by canival. It was pretty interesting. We tried working Monday night and had a little sucsess but soon found that even out of the main city area the roads were shut down and music was blaring everywhere. oh carnaval is lundi, mardi, and Mardi Gras, where everyone sins a whole lot and then "fasts" from the abominations they had just done for 40 days. Here it gets pretty bad, they close down the whole city, there is a giant parade and people get super drunk and pretty much party and get high and do bad things all day and night long for four or so days. It is probably the most ridiculous thing I have ever whitnessed. We had to leave our area.  We used the next two days to do a blitz and a double exchange. On the blitz( 4 missionaires in one area to find lots of people and have crazy miracles.) I was with Elder Galati who is going home this next week! We had a great day and found this old super wealthy Catholic woman who said that the Book of Mormon would either change the way she practiced her religion or would change it. It was super amazing. Also we were super guided by the Spirit of the Lord to go there. We had been contacting in Beausejour for a while and we started to feel weird so we said we need to go where the Spirit is, we immediatly left and started walking down a road through a bunch of sugar cane fields and felt much better, eventually we ended up at  this house and we realized the walk to the next city was too far so we rang the door bell on this mansion, the automatic gates opened and beconed us inside. It was a miracle. It was a great week! the Lord sent down many blessings and miracles. We were walking up this big hill that goes to our house last night after visiting a less active member and at about 21h05 a guy walks past us with tons of energy and keeps on walking but turns around and starts asking us about our work. We explained that we were missionaries and that we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said that he had been studying the bible in French and Spanish and he noticed lots of differences in very important scriptures, he exclaimed that he had been looking to be baptized that year (this was the second person that had said this to us during the same day). Taught the Book of Mormon, showed him how it taught the plan of Salvation and lost truths and clear doctrines. He was stoked to know that God had provided a plan that these precious truths would not be lost. It was a great cap to the week.

Irena is also doing well, she is progressing in her reading of the Book of Mormon which is giving here great understanding of the things which we have already taught. Everyone really will hear the gospel in their own language.

 I love you all,

ELder Lewis

Letter 80... "Life is Beautiful"

My feelings mimic Jake's completely. I am so grateful to Heavenly Father that he has had this time in The West Indies to serve and to really discover who he is and how strong and capable.  I am most grateful for his growing knowledge of depending on the Lord 

Dressed down for P-day fun...love to see the Missionaries chill'n

La vie est belle,

What more can truly be said than that? I am so thankful to the Lord for this time I have out here in the mission field. As I begin to realize that the end is nearing up, I have felt a Spirit of great urgency. Every breath is becoming so precious that I take out here. There is no time to be disobedient, there is no time to be distracted, there is no time to stop. Even the time for sleep should be used effectively. I have a testimony of self consecration and sanctification. Whereas I am anything but perfect, I know that in Christ I can be made perfect. This week was  full of wonderful thoughts inspired by the Spirit, I have felt edified and filled. 

This week we saw Irena some more. She hadn't really understood the importance of the Book of Mormon, so we had a great lesson talking about how these great feelings that she has been having are really just testimonies of the Spirit. We talked about how that grows inside of us and since then she has engaged herself to read daily. Another time we had a great miracle, we have been looking all over Fort de France, the capitol city of Martinique for a nice quiet spot that we could teach Irena, normally we are not able to go to her house so we teach her in a park next to the board walk. There are always lots of people and tourists and children there so it is difficult. Frere Maugran, who is her friend showed us a place in the upstairs of this new mall complex that is hidden in downtown. There was a nice closed off deck with not very many people on it, we taught the plan of salvation. The best was sunday. At 10 till her phone was still off and the member did not know how to get to her house. We prayed and felt desperate but trusting the Lord we continued to call her. A few minutes later we were able to call her and Frere Maugran went and picked her up! The joy of her coming into the room was incredible! She was so happy and she loved church! She has a date for the 21st of march! I hope I am here! Transfers are next week! 

I love you all so very much.

have a wonderful week

Elder Lewis

                                        A rhumerie in Saint Pierre

Elder Lewis and Elder Christensen

Elder Christensen just all worked out!