Feliz Ano Nuevo

From: Krisina Lewis [krisina.lewis@myldsmail.net]


Sent: 1/3/2011 9:49:15 AM

Wow, 2011! That is so weird! It's cool to think this whole coming year I get to dedicate to the lord and have all the time to think and work only for him. Sorry I couldn't write more last week. Mom, how was your birthday? I was thinking of you and it was so weird to think you were watching the ball drop in the same state as me yet I was sleeping even though it was just a train ride away. lol. Sounds like you had a blast. Did the davies come over? Anyone else? P.S. Family/best mother in the whole world- I got my christmas package this week and it seriously rocked! I LOVED it and that tee ring was absolutely delicious! I loved it so much! My Padmates and I ate it for breakfast. They thought it was delicious and commented on how lucky I am to have such a wonderful mother. Which is true. And those recipes/box is the cutest thing I've seen in a long time. I loved it and it will go to very good use. Boots are perfect! Work so good! Loved the letters and pictures. Tell the rest of the fam how much I appreciate them, Especially Cheryl. I really am so blessed with you guys and the great family that love and keep me in their prayers thanks. It was a wonderful christmas/new year. I hope you all are doing well and feel of my love for you.

Mom, I need John & Joelyn's address their mail keeps getting forwarded back to me and I have a Christmas card for them. Did you like those I sent? :) Oh and guess who else came in with the new batch of missionaries and is in my zone out of all the places he could have been sent in the mission? Elder Story. Elder story happens to be the elder that is the nephew of Paul and Jonie. Oh my he looks and acts a lot like Jason Wells and it is halarious every time I see him and almost call him Jason. I just think its funny that we have the same family and we are in the same zone for our first transfers together and out of all the missions that we could have gone we go to the exact same place.

That snow storm was something else but I really like the snow. The Elders fort ended up having a 3 foot tunnel in the entrance and then opened up into a big igloo room fitting 5 or 6 people inside. It was super cool and we had lots of people come by and admire their work. We ended up helping people shovel walks and getting return appointments to share a bit more about our message. Like I said, Christmas and the New Year ended up being really awesome. Members are super awesome and its fun to be a part of their families for the holidays. We also had a reallyl neat concert with the Hoopes children a few weeks back. I don't remember if I wrote about it but Chad hoopes and his 2 sisters that study at Julliard came and did a big concert for the mission. It was so good! It makes me miss the violin and I really enjoyed and felt the spirit. Makes me think of us sista's and when we play in our little quartet around the holidays. I'll look forward to that in a couple of years.

I feel as if there is so much to tell. The work is definitely progressing through with the help and hand of the Lord. We have some super awesome investigators right now and some really neat things that could happen as long as these peoples hearts remain strong and the spirit is able to penetrate their hearts. We have 4 baptismal commits right now and still working on some big hurdles to overcome in order to make those happen. We have these 2 other investigators that are randomly showing up to church and because they are so open and golden it almost makes us wary with cautiousness lol. But at the same time it rocks! Napoleon y Orlando are the two investigators and we have set up appointments with both of them for this week so i'm excited to see what happens with them. I hope that their hearts may be receptive and that we can be in tune to say what the spirit would have us say.

I had such an awesome thing happen at church yesterday and you wouldn't believe how much it lifted my spirits/ the excitement. I had this cute young spanish couple walk up to me yesterday at church. I didn't recognize them so I was surprised when they approached me and told me in English that they had a message for me. Caught me off guard and I said "for me?, or sister stephens?" Well Your Hermana Lewis are you not? "Yes..." So our note is for you.... then they handed me this orange little sticky note that I didn't even have to read to recognize the handwriting. It was a note from Hermana Jaclyn Cowley! I looked up at the both of them in such excitement and just was so happy. I told them I wanted to talk to them after the block because of course right at that moment I was getting pulled away to teach the last hour so the had to run and sit down. But my note was just a quick little hey how ya dooing and know that when you get this I send my love. It is that same family Sister Cowley talked about that is in her ward in Virginia and they visit NY sometimes and will be moving back in probably march. So cool how we are in different states yet in one way or another meet some of the same people. Hermana Cowley rocks and from what I can tell/hear from awesome people she rocks as a missionary and is changing lives. Great things come to pass in small and simple things.

But like I said, the missionaries taught 3rd hour yesterday to all the members. We are trying to plan a really neat Super Sunday in Febrero for the Ward. The idea came from our district leader (Elder Bonham) who had a brother serve in Brazil. The story of his brother is that the missionaries in his area had every member invite a person to church. They had just over 50 new people show up to church with their member friends. Those members sat with their friend during the different classes and then they had a special gospel principles class to help the investigators understand the importance of the foundation of the church/restoration. Before the friends of the members left they left their information and the missionaries went to every single referral within the next 2 or 3 weeks. Of those 50 people 20-30 of those people were baptized and became member s of the church within the next couple of months. So we are going to try to go for something similar for the coming month. I think its a super awesome idea and will be successful dependent on the effort of the members and how many people we are able to get to church. Isn't that cool? I think it should be rad. I think about how the role of missionaries has changed over the decades and how more effective methods are coming for missionary work. In the MTC they talked about how 1/1000 door knocking 1/10 referrals 1/3 for friends taught in a members home end up in baptism. Teach when you find, find when you teach. The message is powerful and has changed the world and will forever change my perspective of how I choose to view life. Yet the work of members with the missionaries makes the success rate sore as far as people accepting the gospel and helping them establish roots that will help them sustain a solid testimony in the gospel. I think about when I get home and how I could be such a better member missionary. As members of the church, our responsibility is to look for ways to bless the lives of others by sharing the gospel with those who are looking for it. As members, we are able to pray for missionary opportunities to bless our lives.

For example, There is this really awesome member Jonathan, who is a great member missionary. He gives a book of mormon away probably once a week to people he meets on the train. He has a cute wife named carla and they are both converts to the church. He has a really awesome testimony of the gospel and his conversion through the book of mormon. there is a really cute old couple that lives in the apartment above hime that he helps carry groceries for and such. They have a library and are very well read. they have studied philosophy, reglion, and sceinece. The husband is an engineer. They are form Argentina. We went up to their apartment with Jonathan to present them with a book of mormon. The wife wasn't letting us in but because jonathan was there the husband let us in. We ended up talking with them for the next hour. They had so many questions and the gospel totally has the answers. They are so well read when they read the book i know they will recognize it as truth. Anyway i'll keep you posted. I g2g love you!

Hermana Lewis