Jake's mailing address!

Mailing Address:

Elder Jake Lewis

Elder and Soeur Bennion

Residence Les Paletuviers

Bat A Appt. 17

Moudong Sud

97122 Baie Mahault

Guadeloupe

West Indies

 Sr. Bennion

The Postage is $1.10

Email Address:

lewis.jake@mylds.net

Letter number 14

I personally love and feel uplifted by the letters where Jake involves us in his Mission experiences.  As a Family we are praying for missionary experiences and I hope you will do this as well.  It's hard to believe that we are approaching the Christmas season without Jake, but how amazing it will be for him to be serving the Savior during the Holiday season; no focus whatsoever on the things of this world.  Enjoy this letter......he's on fire.


Wow,  this place is just beyond beautiful. if it is not concrete it is green, or some other bizzare tropical color. This week was just full of great things, that I will probably forget to write about. The important thing is we had 15 people at church sunday! the sad thing is.... none of them were investigators...

Working with the members is different. there are lots of times where you work with them and these crazy awesome spirituel expiriances happen, but contacting gives you so much more of a good feeling. The Lord is really showing us how to work better with the members, how to call them, how to take care of them and their spirituel needs  and how to help them help their friends find the peace and joy of the gosple in their lives. It is kind of weird how much we see each member here. because there are only about 20 maximum in all of Morne à L'eau Moule Vieulle borg and Anse Bretrand so you can see them once or twice a week. The great thing is they are super helpful at teaching others and helping others keep commitments. 

So on sunday we had a pretty cool expiriance. we went to this old contact of ours who whas a temoin de jehova  and taught him the restoration. First wierd thing, he was from Dominica and we spoke in english. second wierd thing, we spoke boldly simply and with the spirit, there was no contention in the room. (that never happens with temoins, they really like to fight) we explained each scripture percisely and spoke very poilitely. at every corner we could have had an oppertunity for contention to enter the room but we just kept on teaching simply. they have these books called, what the Bible really teaches, and this other small yellow one. they use these often to try and disprove  and argue with all sorts of different religions. as we taught the restoration and as elder tolman was reciting the first vision, i  felt the spirit super strong and thought to myself "there is no way that this isn't true". in that moment, i knew with out doubt that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. that he spoke with Heavenly father and Jesus Christ face to face and he was called by them to be a prophet. I know that the book of mormon is the word of god.  It was a really cool expiriance for me. walking away from that lesson there was a bit of sadness for the people we had just taught they had been taught so much false doctrine that in their hearts they could not accept that anything else was true. 

Also we stopped by one of our old investegators house, (name of investigator) and she was like "hey were have you been? i thought you were coming three Fridays ago?" It turns out we some how missed and appointment with her and she had lost our number along the way. she showed that she has a desire to act now and i think she will keep her engagement to pray about the restoration.

Sometimes it is really funny seeing the looks people give you when you first teach the loi de chastité.  because some of them have no idea what the word chastity even means. one guy was like "what do you mean you have never slept with your girlfriend?" his name is (name of investigator), and we are also teaching his brother. 

I found out that i am really not very good at basket ball not to my suprise. and soccor im maybe a little bit good. but we play it every Saturday now so i imagine that i will become better. 

had an oppertunity to attened with a member, the last of the 9 day in home death prayers for Catholics. it was probably the weirdest thing i have ever done or listened too. compacted by the fact that it was two hours of all sorts of french and Guadaloupian Creole. they opened up the floor for us  at one point and we stood and taught out of alma 40 about the state of the body between death and resurection. no one questioned us and we got a few investigators out of it. it gave them all a little peace i think.

Welp. the work here is good. the Lord is truly hastening it. I see miracles everyday and if you look for them they are always there. 

Love you all,

Elder Lewis 

Questions from Mom

Did you get my letter and package?

Yes,  i did get your letter! i got it right after i sent my letter last tuesday! sorry aobut that, we were moving in a group of missionaries in saint rose and it took way to long! 

I set tons of pictures!! sorry i didn't do it for a couple weeks but i will do better!!! 

Are you working out?
 we are kind of making a new workout plan. i think we are going to sart running a bit. and sat. we play basketball most Mondays we play soccer.

How big Guadeloupe?

No,  there are many cities,  it is the second biggest island in the west indies. second to gigantor trinidad. it takes 3 or 4 hours to drive across guadalope. there are 450000 people who live here!! 

Is it raining a lot?

We just got out of the rainy season so it rained all day yesterday for the first time in like 3 weeks.

How are the sheets working out, and do you need a new pillow.

Sheets work great, the pillows are just left at appartments and they suffice no need to send one. I

sleep like a rock no matter what. 

Love you tons!!

Au Revoir,

Son Jake

Lucky Number 13

I feel blessed to read how amazingly well Jake is doing in the Mission field.  I really believe that when you serve you are happy.  Happy missionaries make happy missionary Moms.


Bonjour à tous,

What an amazing week of missionary work. This week was a week full of seeing the lord guide us as we tried to work more with the members. even though transfer weeks suffer a little bit because all of the errands we have to run on the island, this week was really blessed.  

Looking back on the days we see the way that the Lord guided us in very simple ways. First off, we had bassically no success in contacting or working without members, this was a blessing. now that the Lord has made a proclamation that member missionary work is the most productive and effective work (world wide broadcast in june) he really expects for us to step up and use the members. For instance, we went contacting on sunday for two hours, we had one new investigator that will probably become less interested. then we went to teach a member family, and right before we left the mother turned to us and said, you know, i think some of my neighbors are ready for the gosple, boom we had to recieved cordenées and we went with her to go and make contact with them.

On saturday we had alot of unplanned appointments, we knew they would probably fall through but, we went to a members house, had a good lesson, then elder tolman forgot his nametag, so we drove back though town. on the way back though town we recieved a phone call from a inactive who we were trying to get ahold of. she saw us pass by her and then guided us to her house in the grande fonds, which is like a maze of crazy unmaked roads in these huge rain forest covered hills. then after giving her a blessing we got a call from the senior couples saying they needed help transporting all of the new appliances  to the new sector in sainte rose. which side note: has the nicest house in the mission. we filled up our creepy stalker van full of appliances. after that we went and did a missionary council with soeur louisaint about the five Cordonées that she gave us. 

Also we set up two baptismal dates with the pilial brothers johnathan and garry. They read their scriptures and pray but they still haven't made the step of coming to church. 

All of our days were blessed tremedously this week.

In other news, one of the transfering missionaries was able to bring me a package from trinnidad from my aunt sheryl who was there for some kind of nurse humanitarian thing? it was somthing like that:) but thank you for all the letters that i was abgle to receive from that.

In other news, if you want to send me a package or letter, send it to guadalope the senior couple address. it is on my blog at jakelewiswestindies.blogspot.com

if you send it to trinnidad it can take up to 12 weeks to come here, and if it is too large may never come... so send it to guadalope, or wherever i am on french side, the mail here is very reliable.

Je vous aime,

Elder Lewis

Questions from Mom:

Have you been playing the Piano for the Branch?

we acctually dont have a piano for our little group in mourne a leau but it is good anyways. i am super dissapointed in myself for quitting the piano...

What are you doing for P-day?

yesterday for pday we played socccor and frisbee and stuff but then the rest of the day we had to go move in sainte rose to their appartment and then pick up people for a mission wide emergency transfer. 

Send More Pictures!!!

sorry for the pictures... i will sent more next week!

Do You Ever Miss Us?

it is weird to think how much you can miss me because there is not to many moments i can think of you during the week. a little at night and lots on pdays. emailing makes me a little longing for home but it is not bad. 

How is the Language coming?

language is going really well, when i need more the lord blesses me with the gift of tounges and i speak very fluidly. i am understanding and in turn speaking alot more:) 

Love you bunches!!

Letter Number 12.............Blessings All Around Us!

I am always happy to hear from Jake, and as a note to the reader of this blog, Jake writes like he talks.......Sooo, don't be expecting great grammar........he apparently doesn't feel like grammar is necessary in the mission field. I actually enjoy this about his letters, they make me smile and it's like having a conversation with him.  From the time he was born, Jake woke happy, was happy during the day, and went to bed happy. I hope he is sharing his inner light with his companion and all the people of the West Indies.  He is awesome to be around because of this attitude for life.

Bonjour!

Every day is a good day here in the mission field, there is always hard times with lessons to be learned, and people who reject you, but in the end there is always that peace of the restored gospel in our lives. 

This week was packed full of just awesome times!! We had the opportunity to be truly blessed by the Lord and find and teach people with more efficacy. starting with Tuesday, Tuesday was a really chill day, we went and saw this investigator named Michell who is the legal father of a bunch of illegal Haitian children of one of the ladies in our group. As he told us his story he expressed his true desire to be babtized, but he also does not have the means to get to church...... saying that he lives in Moule and the chruch is in just out of Mourne a l'eau in Rishevalle. Then latter that day we found a 23 year old lady from France who was totally prepared, she was super interested and expressed sincere desires to hear more. We gave her a book of Mormon and set up an appointment for Thursday.  On Thursday she told us she couldnt see us and would have to recieve the missionaries in France because her sister wouldnt let us over to their house. We were in the sector talking to someone else and I decided to just go look into her house. I made this super awkward face as i stared into this empty house,  and then she poped out! She let usin and we taught an amazing lesson.  She was able to let us in because her sister was out doing something!

General conference was amazing needless to say! But I am out of time!! 

Till the next,

Elder Lewis

Questions Asked by Mom:

1. Are you being transferred?

I am just doing great as always and for the next transfer will be staying with Elder Tolman. I am super glad to hear all the different things you do for the missionaires. although the cookins made me jealous!!

2. Did you receive the little package I sent? Did you think about writing a hand written letter to your Mother?

 I have not recieved your letter yet, but i wrote you a letter two weeks ago and have not yet sent it. 

3. Where did you watch General Conference?

we watched conferance at the chruch in a side room with no air contiditioning. was hott, and the spirit was just super strong the whole time!! loved it needless to say! learned a lot of different lessons. 

4. Did you take good care of Elder Tolman after his Toenail surgery, and how is he doing?

It was just super chill with his toes, we stayed inside studied and cooked. Cooking is like our thing, when we want to do something, we cook! we make some dang good hashbrowns!!

5. How are the Sister Missionaries?

Yeah the sister missionaries are alright, there will be more in two transfers on guadalope. 

Saint rose is opening up to missionary work, that makes a total of 16 missionaries and a senior couple, who leave in a month.

6. I told Jake they were looking for couple missionaries, and to expect us soon! ha ha 

heads up, wim is one of the most expensive missions. i bet it would take 40000 to do a mission hear. probably more...

All is well here in the promise land!!

love ya! 

son

Letter number 11...........Patience and Compassion!

I have been so worried about  Jake's companion, Elder Tolman, who had to have his toenails removed! To hear Elder Tolman talk of it , you would have thought he was going for a walk.  His courage and faith were very inspiring to me.  Mission life has ups and downs, but all of these wonderful young men and women sound positive, happy, and are learning to dedicate their lives to the Lord. They are forgetting themselves and going to work.  A life lesson we can all learn from.

Sooo,

This week I litterally did nothing for the most part. That is because Elder Tolman has had ingrown toenails for 6 months and got an infection so he had to get them removed... so he had to stay in Tuesday-Friday.

On tuesday I was with my district leader Elder Pratt in  Point a Pitre. He is a super awesome guy and a great missionary. Point a Pitre is on foot, and man  did we sweat a lot.  That is ok because even the locals sweat a lot!  We met this man who was inactive and paralyzed, we helped him mop his floor and shared with him a brief message from Ether 12.

Also later in the day we had a ton of things fall through, and so we walked to the grand camp which is like. probably 50 giant 8 story appartment buildings. Some are super pôor and some are nicer,  still super crazy. Taught a lesson in there to a member and then made the long trek home.

the next three days went like this:

arise

eat

study

stare at the wall

play uno

and repeat...

But all is well because  we still had some really good lessons with our most progressing (he didnt come to chruch) investigator Gary Pilia,  his mom is  a member and he is really progressing. He speaks alot of Creole so it is hard for me to understand his responses to my questions but the Creole (Hatian and Guadalupian) will come. His mother has to have dialisis right now, as do tons of people we meet, Kidney failure is just a super common thing here.

One note: people here live to be rediculously old. I have met more 80 and 90 year olds than people under 30. just crazy.

Ate a gigantic fresh avacado. that's what i'm talking about. Also it is the end of guava season so i have had beaucoup of those as well.  Fresh guava juice is about 100 times better than the artificial stuff in the states. 

We also taught on Sunday this old Catholic lady and her daughter, who likes to go off on tangents and didnt pray. but the older lady prayed.  You could tell that she definitely knows Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I think she is going to love the plan of salvation, she talked very longingly about her deseased husband.

24 hour no food or WATER fasts here are insane. but the spirit is good and next week is general conferance. super excited!! 

Alsooo, for p day we played soccor, and then an intense game of ultimate frisbee! Thanks mom for that!! also found a 30 or 40 year old ship wrecked oil tanker. needless to say... we explored it...

Love you all, try your hardest to work with the missionaries!! It makes the work so much more effective!! 

Elder Lewis

Questions asked by Moi.......me, his Mother!

What are the Members feeding you?

1.  The members feed us all sorts of things, but we dont eat with them too often saying there is only 13 in our branch who are active. but we eat lots of duck. we had a super french meal from soeur louisaint who is an accupucturist. it was delish. we eat at bakeries at least once every couple of days baggetts and patiseries!! that is where it is at:)

What was your p-day activity last week?

2 We didnt really have a big activity. sometimes you do one sometimes you dont. 

3 the language is going really well and i am really starting to comprehend the most part of what people say. im also learning a bit of creole (haitian and guadaloupian) here and ther. talking is not to big of a problem. teaching is hard sometimes because you are not very flexible in the way i can talk right now.

How are your allergies?

no alergies! 

Super happy about isabelle and all of her acomplisments!! 

I loved the pictures of your yoga stuffs!! in the park!! 

Thanks for sending me Shayla Shaners thing. that is super cool!!

Hey one thing about packages, unless I cant get it here, dont send it, because it is super expensive for us on this side. Just put money in my account and tell me what you want me to get!!

Love you so much,

Elder Lewis