Letter number 25.....Jake has a new area and companion!

Jake has been transferred and has a new wonderful companion.  He has enjoyed all of his companions and has learned so much about life, the Lord, and how to improve himself.  As his Mother hearing him say he is happier than ever in his life makes me so excited for him.  I am reminded that service brings happiness.




Bonjour,

Life here in Basse Terre is the best, kind of secluded, in fact very secluded,and the most beautiful area there is. I'm convinced that everything is a plant. 

We just got approval from the 70 that we are going to have a group here in Basseterre.  There used to be a branch but it fell away. 

Ps  who live 30 min away from Basseterre can now come. also the missionaries here in the capesterre branch 
had the sweetest day of missionary spirit ever. That is going to reactivate and help the work here so much in Basseterre.  There is many inactives(over60) who are excited for the new group and some of the people who live very far away willl be able to come too, for example the (blank family)

Lots of great things happened this week. Not really sure what to write or say about them, but we have found that we need to find more families to strengthen the already existing families here in Basseterre. So we have been avoiding apartments because that is mostly all single mothers who are running off government money, to neighborhoods with actually houses and cars and things like that. So far, we have actually found a couple who are interested, and we are also trying calling super old investigators who came to church, we had some great success there. 

Also this last week we had some very powerful lessons, one of our investigators we found out had a problem with the law of chastity, actually more like two or all of them. but we found as we focused on showing forth real love for these people expressing how great the blessings are and testifying of the joy coming from repentance has really worked.  Elder C and I are really working hard to have more charity for some of these people who it seems are super hard in the head. had some great member refferals come to church on Sunday and we had a very good start to a seemingly strong investigator. 

I'm so happy it is not even funny. 

I love you all dearly, keep the comandments,

Elder Lewis

Letter number 24

Letter number 24.........
The best Christmas ever to skype with Jake.  He sounds and looks amazing.  He seem utterly content and very happy to be serving the Lord at this time.  I can see the pure love of Christ in his eyes.  I am so happy to be the Mother to this wonderful Son.  He's a great person.

And a happy new year!

So, being Christmas this week, it was a pretty awesome week. The week started off kind of like normal, a little weird because p-day was on tuesday, But Chirstmas eve was fun, had a really good time all day eating and just chillin'. 

Then the next day we woke up rediculously early, opened things from family and each other, and then went to Point De Chateaux, the farthest most Eastern point on Guadeloupe, which extends far out into the ocean with super jagged rocks. It was too cloudy to see the sunrise but it was still good! 

Christmas we had a couple back to back dinner appointments... it was alot of food... people here feed you like nobodies business,  and it is all super good food to. We had a super French 5 course meal in the night time, very nice, very nice!

But the rest of the week turned out to be pretty normal, we were trying this new way of teaching very simple doctrines and then asking inspired questions to help the investigators teach themselves twards baptism. we found lots of succses. it was quite incredible to watch the way that people guided themselves to baptism. It happened super powerfully in several lessons, many commited to be baptised and also one committed to a date. 

Sunday night we had a sweet miracle. The whole week we had had 8 very well set up appoinments for member lessons, and at the last second the all fell through one by one. We told oursleves, we can't go a week without at least one member lesson, that is rediculous! So we pondered as to who we could go see for the night to make it a member lesson, talked with a few members, set up some appointments for the week but still none for that night. After a while we prayed and decided to walk our way across town to a members house to share a message with them. On our way, we were walking through this big square  and we heard clapping and someone yelling at us. Turns out the family we were about to go see was sitting in the square, and the mom had one of her friends with her. we started a good convesation that soon became a lesson, and a baptismal date. 

Love you all, and hope you have a wonderful new year! 

Elder Lewis

Jake and Elder T after opening Jake's Christmas box!!! Pretty Cute Santas

Guadeloupe is known for it's beautiful waterfalls

Point De Chateaux

Where's Jake....look hard! What a way to spend Christmas Eve Morning

letter number 23

Letter number 23
A wonderful gift of a letter to receive right before Christmas.  Our lives should be gifts of charity, everything we do should be a testament to our beliefs.


This week was a great week.  Actually Elder T was pretty sick for most of it. We used it as an oppertunity to go out and get tons of suff done that we needed to do for the zone. Bills to be paid, poorly written checks, broken phones, and immigration! Immigration was good because me and three others got out vinets to make us legal! I'm now legal for one year! Pretty exciting stuff if you ask me. The miricle this week was even though we had alot of time that was taken away from prosyliting time and were always busy through it all! but, some how, the Lord blessed us and gave us eight very good member lessons, and a few others. Did an exchange Tuesday with Elder B and we walked with our member into down town and saw some of our investigators and helped them with good member support. 

BUT, that all is not the best part of this week. 

The best part is that on Friday we had the chance to teach with Elder G( he lives here,  he's an area  70 for the Caribbean, and was the old mission pres here)  two of our investigators. It was amazing. We walked into the home of one and she was closed to the gosple before but as he began to speak the love became almost tangible in the air. It was incredible, the way that elder gamiette spoke wasnt too different, but the charity he had for our investigator was incredible. me and elder  T were getting almost on the verge of tears, it was very powerful. and then we walked down the street and met this guy who we had met four months earlier. We began to talk. This man has been prepared for a very long time. When we started to talk about the Book of Mormon he asked us "what tribe does this book come from?"all of our jaws dropped when he said that. we explained about the two sticks and at the end he said pointing to the bible "stick of juda" then pointing to the book of mormon "stick of joseph". He said he must read this book. he knows the Bible very well and was super receptive. Young guy, married to an american, rather weathy, desire to learn more, and next branch president? only time will tell:)

I'm not sure what the future has in hold, but this is probably the happiest I have ever been in all of my life.  Yet, there is so much to improve on, we all fall so short of the line. What a great time of year to make new goals to become More Christ- like, choose an attribute and work on it, and to remember that we have the atonement of Jesus Christ to help us and make it possible. For me it is Charity, the pure love of Christ, I strive to have that in my life, so that others can feel that, and come into the true fold of Christ and start their journey twards salvation. I know that Christ lives, that he loves us, that through him we can become like our Father in Heaven. 

I love you all,

Elder Lewis

Letter number 22

Letter number 22

Exchanges seem to make Jake quite happy, I believe it's the variation that he likes and these days are probably good for both companions.  

SO THIS WEEK.....

This week we had bassically one giant exchange.  Elder T left for a conference for zone leaders in Trinidad and Iwas left alone with the Gosier Eders elder Pratt and Petersen, who are super good friends. We had a great week doing missionary work on the whole island of Grand Terre (there is basse terre and GrandeTerre I live on Grand Terre and the two are connected by bridges!)

This was like a week long exchange! It was kind of cool. I was with elder P and P inGosier, which made my prosiliting area the whole island of Grand Terre. it was a really good week, we did not have very many opportunities to work in my area, but the Lord blessed us in the end and we had some good numbers for member lessons and our investigators are doing good.

I also had the opportunity to go on an exchange with Elder C on saturday and that was pretty great too. We had a good moment to go and see some investigators and even go find some new ones. 

We are really excited for this next week here in Morne a Leau and we are ready to try out all of the things that Elder T learned at this last conference. it will be a good week i believe:)

We also we went up to this huge water fall  called Moreau Chute! It was sweet we  had to cross the river and mud pitts!  I got some good usage out of my keens:D

Also my mom sent me the 12 days of Chistmas and it is day 3!! crazy awesome!! 

Love you all! 

Elder Lewis

letter number 21.........Jake has a new motto!

I think Jakes "new" motto sounds more like him than the beat down kid from last week.  To notice your blessings......well, it brings happiness and a sense of peace.  I was so happy to hear that he was able to get out on foot  AND enjoy some time at the beach on P-day. Jake received his Christmas package and devoured his Chocolate chip cookies.  Brown sugar is a rarity in the Caribbean, so even if he could duplicate my cookies, the ingredients would be hard to find. The humidity makes it almost impossible to get or store. He was soo incredibly thankful for all of the goodies in his box, it was all very worth my time.....and it filled my heart with joy!

Hey There Everybody,

The sun is always shinning even when it is rainning. I think I adopted that motto this last week while the heavens were opened and blessings and rain fell upon us. To tell you first about the rain. When it starts to rain here, get under something as soon as possible, soon after a bucket or 10 will fall on your head and you will be super soaked to the bone.  We got lots and lots of rain this last week. It was actually really nice to have a change from just the heat. Even got down to like 70 degrees for a moment in the night. It almost felt like it was the christmas season. But now it is back to mid summer weather. haha crazy Caribbean. We did have a great day at the northern most point in Guadeloupe, Anse Bertrand. At the beach and  this
giant rock that gets hit by waves we stood on it, and the waves came, and we got 100 percent soaked to the bone by the spray. It was incredible, and a nice release from a long time without a p-day activity.

But that all is besides the point,

Some highlights from this week were..... an exchange with Elder Peterson from the Gosier area, taking a day on foot in down town Morne A L'eau and contacting, seeing members, trying to get into upstairs appartments to talk with people. Which can be very hard, they have the shops down below and secret passages that lead to the doors above, super entertaining, and also was very productive. We have had an investigator at chruch for 5 weeks now in a row and she is moving twards baptism. Also, my mom sent me a christmas tree and I am very happy about it:)

Other than that, probably a lot of stuff happened that i forgot!

That"s what journals are for I guess,

Love you all,

Elder Lewis

Basically a Caribbean Cemetery!

My Handsome Missionary Son! Love him

Great Fun!

If you haven't been to the Caribbean...it doesn't get much better!

Missionary Santas........I couldn't resist!

Out Preaching the gospel!

Letter 20.....Hard Week in the West Indies!

This was a hard letter to read, but rejection goes with the territory and I know that Jake will be fine.  He has an excellent Senior Companion and I'm sure next week he will be up again. I was so glad that he went to the scriptures for comfort and understanding.  These missionaries are amazing!  

So it still feels like august? 

But this is what went down this week,

This week was super great until the weekend. We wern't able to accomplish any more than last week, but there was not a moment we were resting. This week we had alot of progress with our investigators who were moving toward baptism this next week.  At the same time we were running around all of Guadeloupe trying to figure out how to pay bills and use routing number and help others with cars, and file reports. We can now say that we are very good at all of this..... at least to our understanding.... we really wanted to have a week where we were like go go go all the day long,  and we got it. 

Then Saturday hit. The whole week we had been pretty bashed on our faith, people calling us liars, polygamists, worshipers of Joseph Smith, but Saturday was really a hard day. It started off with a great session of studies, but immidiatly after we had a lesson with two atheists one who is a physics professor (or was 20 years ago) and dean of a French university, the other is a proffessional artist. They basically told us that we were young and believing and that we couldn't tell them we know that it is true because we have no solid evidence. We tried to explain, we tried to use scriptures, but they couldn't allow themselves to believe in the slightest what we were saying. She is even 200 pages into the book of mormon after a week and he read up to jacob and stopped. It was a long lesson that was very battering.

Then our investigator who was getting baptized this next week on the 7th, who had prayed and received multiple responses that yes our church is true, Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a true prophet, but her evangelist pastor called her. He told he that we were just polygamists, and we worshiped Joseph Smith and all these super terrible lies. At first she didnt believe him because we talked and we showed her that we don't do these things but she decided ultimately to stop coming to our church because she had responsibilities in hers. we talked it out in a really good lesson, and she said she would come one more time. Latter that day, we went to her neighbors house and we saw her walking away, she told us that she didnt mind if we came over once and a while but she wasnt coming to church.  She told her neighbor and now she told us she never wants to see us again. 

We were feeling pretty beat down, and then we found a sweet appartment so we can move out of the church. So that was like the cherry on top of a bad day. We also had an amazing lesson with another member referral.  she came to chruch for the 5th time, but she says she isnt ready to accept baptism.

So the whole Helaman 5:12, "... devil will send forth his mighty winds, yea his shafts in the whirl winds, yea when when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, he shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and woe, because of the rock upon which you are build which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

The hail and the storm will come, satan wants to have power over you but he can't till we give him it by sinning. Stay strong, trust in the Lord, and know that these things are true, know that the Book of Mormon is true, know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, know that Jesus Christ lives, and that he sits at the head of this chruch. Know these things because they are true. 

Psalms 27:14 (or maybe 13)

Whew! long week, but I went to bed absolutely exhausted every night, so nevertheless, it was good:)

Also happy thanksgiving!

Love,

Elder Lewis

Letter 19

Thanksgiving without Jake.....not as much fun as with! So happy he and Elder Tolman like to cook.

Hey Guys,

This week was also great. We continued to try our best to be obedient and also be super diligent. we have seen lots of miracles this week that came from a couple of fasts we did with members. First off,  we fasted with the Mother of the(   ) familly. This family is  all non- members except for her and she was really dicouraged about her 6 sons and them not being in the gospel. So we fasted with her and she was super excited.... well she had to do dialysis (for whatever reason tons of people have to do dialysis here, probably because it is one of the capitals of rum in the world) so we fasted for her not with. We fasted and we had a couple weeks of down time, but then all of a sudden, she gave us a family referral who lived just up the street. the mother has a baptismal date for the 7th and has allready come to church twice now. Also her kids are preparing to be baptized on the 24th of this month. Great miracle. 

Also, one of the sisters in the ward who has given us pages of referals, we finnally started making lots of progress with two of her friends. The one is atheist and she said she would  read the Book of Mormon in a couple of weeks (entirely) . Also, the other friend who was a Jehovah Witness, but then left the church because they left her and didnt support her in the time she needed it, we had a super powerful lesson with her about the holy ghost. She listened very intently and it was really great. 

Also all of the people who we taught with a member this week came to church and one other, for a total of five a l'élgise on sunday. The work is progressing here in Morne à L'eau.  

 We had the experience  to teach in english just the other day! We are teaching this lady from Saint Martin and she prayed about Joseph Smith. She discribed the expeirance as a joy that filled her heart, and was with her though out the day, but she said she thinks she is too young to be baptized so she wants to wait till she is 40 so she can go to carnival(it is mardi graw but Caribbean style, probably just the biggest sinning fest in the world, not to bad here but in Trinnidad the missionaries dont go out for three days) . We are working with her.

People always are expecting the prophet to look like moses with a gigantic staff, robe and beard. 

We had a Thanks giving dinner on monday, me and elder tolman stayed up super late making it. I think I perfected my mothers potatoes. delish.

Welp, that is basically everything!! 

Love you all bunches! Happy Thanksgiving!

Elder Lewis

Jake in the back of their van ready to take all of the food he and Elder Tolman prepared for Thanksgiving

Breakfast of Champions!  Jake is a pretty healthy eater.....and a great cook.

Deep in spiritual contemplation!