Letter Number 34 and a new leadership opportunity and great pictures!

I just sent Jake his Birthday box today.  So much gratitude for all of the Family and friends who sent me video clips for his special Birthday Movie.  So much gratitude for Isabelle who put the movie together...In her message to her brother she expressed that because of his example she definitely plans on serving a mission.  I hope he realizes how much his example has meant to all of us at home.  Every day I try to be a little better than the one before...a lot of repenting, but I am always trying to improve.

Well,  i'm staying here, pretty excited, but lots of things are changing. On the 13th we hopê to open up the new group in Basse Terre and that will be great, but also this transfer I will be training.. his name is elder S, I have no information on him but I hope it will be good. Enough of this hope word, it is going to be good! Also I was called to be the District Leader of the Capes Terre  Branch Missionaries, there are six of us, the Sisters in Guayave, Elders in Capesterre, and us in Basse Terre.

In other news we met some new inactive members and have been working with the young to help them get to institute and seminary. 

umm, i acctually dont have much time today... soo yeah.

Elder T is going home today. We are going to celebrate with him and send him off really early in the morning. It is pretty weird and sad for me and elder C are both really good friends of him so it is really werid from us.

In other news, French is great, Creole is great, Basseterre is beautiful, and... that is about it

Love it here

Love you,

Elder Lewis

Letter 33........Wow Time is Flying!

For those that don't know Jake that well, he is a pretty big fan of food.  He loves to cook and is really quite good at cooking....but adding a little heat to his dishes is his specialty.  The one thing I don't have to worry about is if he is getting good nutritional food.  I think we are good on that point.  I am so excited for the Saints in Basse Terre, what an exciting event to open a group in your own community.  


Rebonjour,

Surprisingly that works.

French is weird.

The work is great, things are progressing just fine! We have been working more and more with members and we are starting to see the results.  We finnally got a local Church group here in Basse Terre! It starts the 13th of April. I am super excited, we have started doing some of the work inside to help renovate it for the group and future branch and that is going great. These people really deserve this group, you can see it in the way they work together all of the sacrafices they have made while the church has been in Capesterre for the last 4 years. but it is back, and ready to rumble!! 

I ate Swordfish the other day, fantastic if i do say so myself, also they have this Pumpkin dish that is super good, also augratin bread fruit can either be delish or really bland. I had two this last week that were fantastic! 

They have this stuff here called piment, it is bassically a Habenero Pepper that is full of super heat.

People eat it like it is nothing, lots of sauces  can be made; definately a fan:)

Je vous aime tous,

Elder Lewis

Letter Number 32

I was really inspired and love the reminder to memorize scripture and how they will bless our lives and teach us what the Lord is trying to tell us.

I am proud of the boys and the hard work they are doing for the new building.  I pray it will all work out for them and the ward they are trying to take care of.


Soooo, it is just a wonderful life down here in Basse Terre, also WE GOT THE LOCAL BUILDING FOR THE BASSE TERRES THE CHRUCH IS COMING HERE! For the people there this is some pretty great news if you are askin me, we are going to try to do some quick construction and move into it this week if possible, buttttt who knows! It is just super great! I'm pretty sure I'm staying here but there is only two weeks left in the transfer, weirdddddd.  Today is my 8 month mark, it is starting to feel like it has been a long time since I left, it has felt like one reaaaaally long summer.

We found some great families this week, always exciting, working to find more. 

Just a little thought, I have been thinking a lot about D&C 84: 85 talking about treasuring up the words of life. I love that. Memorize a little scripture, ponder it, think it out and receive revelation. That is the way that we receive revelation, in pondering, praying, applying. I love it, the scriptures are like a best friend you can always go to for the best advice. 

Love you all, hope you are all doing well:)

Elder Lewis

Letter number 31

An exciting adventure on P-day.  These missionaries are so cute and obedient, I was excited to see them get a reward.


Bonjour,

Sending greetings from the ever beautiful Gwada. I really do love it here, pretty sure we have the best mission ever here in the West Indies.  This last week we did a lot of less active work working and fasting with them, helping involve them in the missionary work here. I have found that in volving them in the missionary work is one of the most effective ways to truely have them come back and refind their conversions.  All in all it was a great week, we found this guy named R

The Breakfast of Champions....chocolate bread!

who said he would be very curious and want to know more if we said we had a new prophet. so he is curious and wants to know more. also after fasting with one of our strongest members here in basse terre we felt prom^ted to ask hime if he new the guy. turns out they have been best friends since birth and are bassically attachted at the hip; i love fasting miricles! also, things are really starting to move here in basse terre, i hope i stay here for a long time, we are about at the half way point for the transfer so we will see. last week i hit my six months in the feild point and in a week i hit my 8th month mark. time flys when you are in the service of the Lord, i wish it would slow down a little bit. or alot abit. 

I love you all and hope you are all doing well.

Elder Lewis

The missionaries back porch!

Jake's companion and their favorite snack!

Letter Number 30...First Baptism and Mom's rights about cleaning....ha ha.

What an amazing email.  I was so excited to hear about the baptism.  It was also very rewarding to hear Jake actually say how grateful that Jake now sees the benefit to my household cleaning tips....ha ha, mom is always right. love it.  


Bonjour from Gwada,

This week was totally sweet!  There was lots of great things that happened so i am going to try to touch them all. First off I had my first baptism of a lady who lives in Bouillant,  the farthest reach of my area, she was a member referral from the afoy family who lives in my old area. 

I loved seeing the change she has made over the last few weeks. It was quite fantastic to think that she would be making the greatest decision of her life.

She was super nervous the whole week before, but the interviews went well and she was well prepared.

Also, I dont think i have ever been as giddy as i was that day, just super happy and smiling the whole day long:):):)

Then, sunday, we went over to the abidos familys house. super poor. but at the same time the government helps the poor in crazy ways. it is almost imposible to live on the streets here the government will give you that much money. i found out i could get 600 euros a month maximum and i am not even a citizen. crazy. anyways we were over there with the frere duflo and after we asked if there was anything we could do. 

"bad idea."

She said "I guess you could do a little dishes." and I said lets go!! So we sarted, at first it wasn't so bad, the three of us in a tub of water washing and then rinsing with a kid who was helping putting them away. After about 20 minutes of speed dishes, we started realizing that these dishes just kept on coming.... we looked under the two stainless steel sinks to our horror to see that she had put a board there, behind the board was probably 3 weeks of filthy dishes... not even bugs were on them that is how gross this was. She had continuously bought more and more dishes to keep from doing them. it took us an hour and twenty minutes to do them all going as fast as we could.   Never have I been more thankful for the mother that I have who taught her kids to never leave dishes undone in the sink or for that matter filth aroung the house! it was absolutly nasty. but afterwords everything about here kitchen was clean, the house was still dirty but at least a large portion of filth was cleared.

The next day, yesterday, p-day, was awesome. there is a chain of islands called les saints off the coast of my area. The zone leaders got permission to take a boat there and go for all day.

I WENT ON A BOAT FOR 40 MINUTES EACH WAY WITH WATER SPRAYING IN MY FACE!!!!IT WAS SOOOOOO REFRESSING!!!

I will not lie, it was the most touristy thing ever, but so relaxing and i had the time of my life. we went to a fort and the beach played football and frisbee. going there and back we stood up in the front open part of the boat and let water hit our faces as we went up and doWn on teh waves. It was totally epic.

All in all,

This week was awesomoe, a baptism!!!! lots of dishes, and taking a boat to Les Saints

aints. 

I hope you week is wonderful as well,

Elder Lewis

Letter Number 29

No transfer for Jake for another six weeks. He is so excited to see some of the investigators through until the end. The work is becoming so important to him now...much more than the adventure.

I would like to travel to Guadeloupe to see this beautiful country Jake keeps describing.  Lance and I have seen some amazing sunsets in the Caribbean, Hawaii, and Costa Rica but perhaps Guadeloupe takes the cake. 

I'm soo glad Jake is exercising...I truly believe that if the Missionaries exercise they will be able to focus and battle to a better degree any depression or anxiety that may come their way. Movement is God's gift to us through our bodies.  


WELCOME TO BASSETERRE? SECOND BEST SUNSETS IN THE WORLD. In other news  I
will be staying in basse terre gwada for another month and a half at the very least. but i hope that  can stay here for a long time, several more transfers at least. to tell you, we live on the side of a volcano, we are about 200 metters above sea level top story of three with a all around balcony.life is good:) working out in the mornings for upper body on the balcony, or running next to the ocean the other three mornings of the week......boss. 

In other news, Elder C and I have been doing work down here in Basse Terre. Tons of things are changing..... from reactivating families, to helping the group find a building here in basees terre now that we have approval from The Seventy. 

This last week there was a huge strike on gass that lasted 8 days.now the church is 30 minutes away. so we had to save our gas just for going to church and walk our area. we have the biggest area in all of gwada and probably in alot of our mission. also, like i said earlier we livce on a volcano here. so everything is steep uphill. but it was good, just burned about a billion calloriiies and contacted about every living soul while heaving for air and emptying out the sweat bucket.... haha but life is good. i love these people. sometimes they are crazy, sometimes they drive you crazy, but i love them.

This place puts the Bible Belt to shame. a mixture of Seventh Day Adventists, J- wittnesses, Catholics, Evangelists screaming at the top ot their lungs, and rastas (both real rasttas after the order and guys who want to call them selves rastas with dreads and weed, weed is actually against their order, also rastas belive they live after nazarite law, if you mention malchezidek they will go on an hour or two rant(also to to service for them they have to do service for you) and about billion other religions I am probably forgetting. . these people breath the Bible and eat spirituality for breakfast. 

Avoiding Bible bashing is probably the first lesson you learn out here, some people will not see sense, all you can do is bear solemn testimony of these things and be exactly obedient with hopes to have enough light to illuminate the darkness in their lives. 

Anyone who isn't part of one of these religions comes from France and is beyond atheist or agnostic or whatever you want to call it. Those people one time told me when her and her husband get to an old enough age they are going to go to a little retreat in switzerland and commit suicide togeather... i found that very disturbing. But here you also have to remember that people have their own agency and you have to let them chose for themselves. For me, my favorite message is the joy the gospel brings. The blessings of the commandments. repentance. baptism. holy ghost.  perseverance to the end.

Also, there is a type of green banana that is not plantain but you use it to make fries and it doesnt absorb the oil so they are healthy and delicious.

The chruch is true, it is lead by Jesus Christ through a living prophet. The Attonement is infinate and always there for us.

The blessings are waiting for our obedience, 

je vous aime mes amis et ma famille,

Elder Lewis 

Letter Number 28...Wonderful Week in Paradise

It was so exciting to hear about all of the physical and spiritual service Jake and his companion were able to offer the people of Guadeloupe this week. What an amazing way to spend two years...talking of Christ and taking the time to serve as much as possible.  I am so happy he made the choice to go on a mission.  

Hi Everyone,

This was another wonderful week in paradise, there are a lot of inactive here in Basse Terre, some that refuse to see the missionaries and others that are just too stuubborn to go to church because there was someone who offeneded them forever ago. Pretty sad, but we found out the problems of several members and are working with other members to help them come back and receive the blessings that are waiting for them. I think that is my favorite phrase I use, the blessings are waiting for you, so what is holding you back? 

We did quite a bit of service this week, wether it be for members or investigators,  we were a helping hand. One of our investigators who has a baptismal date for the 15th after we had a sweet lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ and also word of wisdom, she asked us if we could drill these seeds that look like those.... well they are called soap berries and they are used for earings... was cool. also we built a retaining wall. It was pretty sweet! Then the super inactive husband of sr. n came to church for the first time in forever.It was awesome. We were stoaked out of our minds. The work here in Basse Terre is starting to move faster and faster as we move towards having a group here in Basse Terre, and hopefully a branch again. 

Welp! that is my week! 

Elder Lewis

Questions from Mom

How Much are you walking?

Jake: We walk about 2 hours a day, but we have a car because our house is at the top of a huge hill.

What are you doing to exercise currently?

We are running 3 miles at lease 3 times a week.  We also work out on this huge deck we have outside.

Do you still go to the bakeries?

Yes all the time, and we also eat the barbecue chicken they sell on the side of the road.  It is cheap like $14 for a leg and a thigh.