Hello!
Well. I guess this is it. That's weird.
I went to the temple today with President and Sister Bubert. I love that temple. It's small and cute and pink.
Elder Colon and I are working hard. Our investigators aren't doing too great at keeping their commitments still. We have one investigator named Hugo who's doing good. He doesn't make a commitment he doesn't intend to keep. So he hasn't committed to a baptismal date yet and he hasn't agreed to come to church yet but he reads, prays, and is always there for our appointments. He's a very sincere man. He's a family man too. He's married and he loves his family.
On Sunday Elder Colon and I got to go see a couple baptsimal services for our zone. We saw an english baptism, a spanish baptism, and a samoan baptism. Sister Cordova and her daughter Thania were at one of the baptisms. We were excited to see each other again. Sister Cordova thanked me for helping to bring the gospel to her family. She started crying. The Cordovas are planning to come my ward this sunday to say goodbye.
My bike will get home. Don't worry. ;)
Well, the Church is true. I will see you in less than a week! Don't get too trunky!
Love,
Elder Lewis
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Note From Dad
Elder Lewis (Tyler) will be coming home on September 7th. We are really looking forward to having him home. His report will be on September 12th at 10am in the Park Street Chapel. Hannah is going to sing too. This is a different chapel than the one he spoke in when he left. If you need directions or more info, send me an email at jonclewis.@gmail.com
Aug. 24th, 2010 (Email)
Hello!
We're teaching some good people. None of our investigators are coming to church though. :( They all have different obstacles. Most of them are just working on getting a testimony. One man we're teaching named Guillermo hasn't been able to come to our ward because his daughter keeps taking him to her ward in Anaheim. Lame. Guillermo's all ready to be baptized and his member daughter's keeping him fr Yesterday we taught a really humble man named Hugo. He's awesome. He's got some great questions. Yesterday when we came to our appointment he had a table set up in his garage with his Book of Mormon sitting right on top of it, just waiting for us to come over to teach him. He's unemployed so he doesn't have much to do besides watch his kids and talk with us. We're still trying to help Antonio and Alma keep their commitments. They're coming along though. We started reading the Book of Mormon with them and we invited them to set a marriage goal.
Elder Colón and I gave talks in sacrament meeting. That's the first time I've given a talk in a spanish sacrament meeting since the MTC. So that was neat.
Elder Rodriguez e-mailed me last week. He said he's working at a chiropractic clinic as a therapist tech or something. I have his address in Provo so maybe I'll go visit him soon.
This transfer has been a transfer of many many meetings. As Zone Leaders we had 5 meetings with President Bubert at the beginning of the transfer. We've had 7 out of 8 Zone Meetings. This thursday we'll have a Mission Conference and then next week we'll have Zone Leader Council. Finally I'll have one last meeting with President Bubert the day before I go home. Oh, and next Tuesday I'll go to the temple with him. I think I'll have seen President Bubert just about as much as I saw President Sexton before I went to the office. It's been fun.
So for my bike what I'm going to do is go get a bike box from some store here in Long Beach and then somehow between now and Sept. 7th I'm going to pack my bike into that box and get it to Fed Ex to have it shipped home.
Well, I can't think of anything else. We're still working hard teaching the Lamanitish folk of Compton and Paramount. I love you and I'll talk with you all soon!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
We're teaching some good people. None of our investigators are coming to church though. :( They all have different obstacles. Most of them are just working on getting a testimony. One man we're teaching named Guillermo hasn't been able to come to our ward because his daughter keeps taking him to her ward in Anaheim. Lame. Guillermo's all ready to be baptized and his member daughter's keeping him fr Yesterday we taught a really humble man named Hugo. He's awesome. He's got some great questions. Yesterday when we came to our appointment he had a table set up in his garage with his Book of Mormon sitting right on top of it, just waiting for us to come over to teach him. He's unemployed so he doesn't have much to do besides watch his kids and talk with us. We're still trying to help Antonio and Alma keep their commitments. They're coming along though. We started reading the Book of Mormon with them and we invited them to set a marriage goal.
Elder Colón and I gave talks in sacrament meeting. That's the first time I've given a talk in a spanish sacrament meeting since the MTC. So that was neat.
Elder Rodriguez e-mailed me last week. He said he's working at a chiropractic clinic as a therapist tech or something. I have his address in Provo so maybe I'll go visit him soon.
This transfer has been a transfer of many many meetings. As Zone Leaders we had 5 meetings with President Bubert at the beginning of the transfer. We've had 7 out of 8 Zone Meetings. This thursday we'll have a Mission Conference and then next week we'll have Zone Leader Council. Finally I'll have one last meeting with President Bubert the day before I go home. Oh, and next Tuesday I'll go to the temple with him. I think I'll have seen President Bubert just about as much as I saw President Sexton before I went to the office. It's been fun.
So for my bike what I'm going to do is go get a bike box from some store here in Long Beach and then somehow between now and Sept. 7th I'm going to pack my bike into that box and get it to Fed Ex to have it shipped home.
Well, I can't think of anything else. We're still working hard teaching the Lamanitish folk of Compton and Paramount. I love you and I'll talk with you all soon!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Aug. 17th, 2010 (Email)
Good afternoon!
Last week was pretty good. We have a lot of investigators now, many of them with baptismal dates. I hope someone gets baptized. Sounds like a few of them aren't co-habitating. We're still teaching Alma and Antonio. They didn't go to church on Sunday but we had a really good visit with them a few days ago. We watched the Restoration DVD and then testified with all our hearts that they need to sincerely pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. Our invitation to people sounds easy enough: read, ponder, and pray about the Book of Mormon to know if it's the word of God. And then, when the Holy Ghost testifies that it is, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God? Sound simple but it's amazing how many people don't actually give it a try. It's as though once we leave the house everything we just taught goes out the door with us. Often when we run into people on the street that say they have a copy of the Book of Mormon but they don't believe any of it I ask them if they've sincerely prayed to know if it's true. I've never had anyone like that ever honestly tell me they have. I am convinced that as soon as a person sincerely follows Moroni's promise all they can do after that is either accept the truth or choose to reject it. There's a reason why we've been counseled not to move on to the second lesson until those we teach have kept their commitments to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Alma and Antonio seem to be sincere enough. They pay attention.
We're also teaching a man named Guillermo who wants to be baptized on the 29th, another man named Armando who committed to be baptized that same day, and we were just referred to a man named Javier who already accepted an invitation from some other elders to be baptized September 4th. So we're being blessed with many people that seem to have been prepared.
I think my Spanish is healing from my 6 months in the office. Elder Colón is helping me out a lot. When I slow down and teach simply I speak a lot better. I don't struggle much when it comes to understanding people.
I had a really good study the other day about doing what is right even when everyone around you is doing otherwise. I was pondering about the youth in our area. A lot of these kids are raised in an environment where crime, immorality, and drugs are as common as anything else. There are a lot of streets in Compton and Paramount where people can only park on one side of the street so that the cops can have more room for drug trafficking. I've already heard two of the members of the stake presidency here talk about staying out of gangs. A 17-yr-old in Long Beach just got sentenced to 255 years in prison (yes, 255). I believe that there are many people here that are capable of rising above the norm here. A lot of the Samoan people that I've met in the church used to be gangsters. I knew an ex-crypt member that got sealed in the temple last year. Anyway, I was reading in the Book of Mormon and I came across Mosiah 17:2 which says: "And there was one among them whose name was Alma..." Alma was an immoral priest of Noah before he believed in the words of Abinidi. There's also the example of Abish (Alma 19:16-). She and her father were probably the only Lamanites in their community that were already converted to the Lord before Ammon came around. There's also Aminadab (Helaman 5:35-41). He's an example of an inactive member finally finding the courage to do what he already knew to be right. And there's Nicodemus (John 3:1 and see footnote a). He was stuck with the Pharisees but he had enough courage to visit Christ in secret, to stand up for Him in court, and to bring myrrh to His sepulchre after His death. All these people were examples of people standing up for righteousness in a community of wickedness.
Elder Colón and I went to a meeting with the stake president here with President Bubert and the Assistants. That was interesting. We just discussed the missionary work going on in the wards here in the Long Beach Stake.
For my birthday I was on exchanges with and elder named Elder Sutton. We tracted a lot and we found a family named la familia Lara and we taught them. Elder Colón got me a cupcake and he lit it and the elders sang Happy Birthday. Thaks for the card the cash and the license! You sniff farts too Hannah. Funny thing is that I really don't look a day over 16. Or at least that's what everyone says when I tell them how old I actually am.
Here in the Long Beach Zone I have to privilege to see many black people get baptized. The Long Beach 7th ward is definitely the most diverse english ward I've ever been to. As zone leaders we try to go to every baptism the elders in the zone have.
I have not inquired about my bike yet, but I am planning to take care of that before my next e-mail. Fear not, it shall get home.
Love you and don't get trunky!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
Last week was pretty good. We have a lot of investigators now, many of them with baptismal dates. I hope someone gets baptized. Sounds like a few of them aren't co-habitating. We're still teaching Alma and Antonio. They didn't go to church on Sunday but we had a really good visit with them a few days ago. We watched the Restoration DVD and then testified with all our hearts that they need to sincerely pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. Our invitation to people sounds easy enough: read, ponder, and pray about the Book of Mormon to know if it's the word of God. And then, when the Holy Ghost testifies that it is, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God? Sound simple but it's amazing how many people don't actually give it a try. It's as though once we leave the house everything we just taught goes out the door with us. Often when we run into people on the street that say they have a copy of the Book of Mormon but they don't believe any of it I ask them if they've sincerely prayed to know if it's true. I've never had anyone like that ever honestly tell me they have. I am convinced that as soon as a person sincerely follows Moroni's promise all they can do after that is either accept the truth or choose to reject it. There's a reason why we've been counseled not to move on to the second lesson until those we teach have kept their commitments to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Alma and Antonio seem to be sincere enough. They pay attention.
We're also teaching a man named Guillermo who wants to be baptized on the 29th, another man named Armando who committed to be baptized that same day, and we were just referred to a man named Javier who already accepted an invitation from some other elders to be baptized September 4th. So we're being blessed with many people that seem to have been prepared.
I think my Spanish is healing from my 6 months in the office. Elder Colón is helping me out a lot. When I slow down and teach simply I speak a lot better. I don't struggle much when it comes to understanding people.
I had a really good study the other day about doing what is right even when everyone around you is doing otherwise. I was pondering about the youth in our area. A lot of these kids are raised in an environment where crime, immorality, and drugs are as common as anything else. There are a lot of streets in Compton and Paramount where people can only park on one side of the street so that the cops can have more room for drug trafficking. I've already heard two of the members of the stake presidency here talk about staying out of gangs. A 17-yr-old in Long Beach just got sentenced to 255 years in prison (yes, 255). I believe that there are many people here that are capable of rising above the norm here. A lot of the Samoan people that I've met in the church used to be gangsters. I knew an ex-crypt member that got sealed in the temple last year. Anyway, I was reading in the Book of Mormon and I came across Mosiah 17:2 which says: "And there was one among them whose name was Alma..." Alma was an immoral priest of Noah before he believed in the words of Abinidi. There's also the example of Abish (Alma 19:16-). She and her father were probably the only Lamanites in their community that were already converted to the Lord before Ammon came around. There's also Aminadab (Helaman 5:35-41). He's an example of an inactive member finally finding the courage to do what he already knew to be right. And there's Nicodemus (John 3:1 and see footnote a). He was stuck with the Pharisees but he had enough courage to visit Christ in secret, to stand up for Him in court, and to bring myrrh to His sepulchre after His death. All these people were examples of people standing up for righteousness in a community of wickedness.
Elder Colón and I went to a meeting with the stake president here with President Bubert and the Assistants. That was interesting. We just discussed the missionary work going on in the wards here in the Long Beach Stake.
For my birthday I was on exchanges with and elder named Elder Sutton. We tracted a lot and we found a family named la familia Lara and we taught them. Elder Colón got me a cupcake and he lit it and the elders sang Happy Birthday. Thaks for the card the cash and the license! You sniff farts too Hannah. Funny thing is that I really don't look a day over 16. Or at least that's what everyone says when I tell them how old I actually am.
Here in the Long Beach Zone I have to privilege to see many black people get baptized. The Long Beach 7th ward is definitely the most diverse english ward I've ever been to. As zone leaders we try to go to every baptism the elders in the zone have.
I have not inquired about my bike yet, but I am planning to take care of that before my next e-mail. Fear not, it shall get home.
Love you and don't get trunky!
Love,
Elder Tyler J. Lewis
August 10. 2010 (Email)
Hello!
As far as I know September 12th sounds like a fantastic day to give a homecoming talk!
We had some neat experiences last week. Wednesday night we weren't having much success finding people to teach and we ran out of plans by about 8:00 p.m. While we were driving I received a distinct impression that we should go to an apartment complex on a street called Vermont. I've rarely received impressions that specifically before. I told Elder Colón and we turned around and went to the complex I was thinking of. We knocked on the first door and right away a mexican man answered. After we invited him to learn he let us into his home. His name was Jose Saucedo. We had a powerful lesson with him. When we shared the message of the Restoration with him he felt the Spirit and he recognized it. He said that he felt peace and that it gave him goosebumps. When he gave the closing prayer he mentioned over and over again that he felt peaceful. Jose gave us his phone number, asked for the directions to the church, and even set a baptismal goal for later in the month. Unfortunately he's a truck driver and he's hard to catch. He should be home again tomorrow though.
We also found a couple people named Antonio and Alma. They're in their 20s and we had a great lesson with them too. Alma said that she's never been baptized and that it bothers her. Antonio hasn't been to any church since he was a kid. They didn't go to church on Sunday but that afternoon I felt like we should go and invite them to a baptism our ward would be having later that evening. They came! The baptism was their first exposure to the Church and it went well. We're going to see them again this evening.
I'm enjoying the Mexican food but I'm also running a couple miles every morning so I think I'm actually losing weight. I think I'm floating somewhere around 133.
Elder Colón does not go home the same day as me. He already knew Spanish so he was only in the MTC for three weeks. He goes home the transfer after me with Elder Collier.
Gracias por todo! Hope all's well! Sounds like you're all doing good and being good. I hope you had a happy birthday Mom! Good luck on your pending half-marathon Dad! And I hope you enjoy Young Woman life and all that implies Hannah! And how's my dog?
Love
Eder Tyler J. Lewis
As far as I know September 12th sounds like a fantastic day to give a homecoming talk!
We had some neat experiences last week. Wednesday night we weren't having much success finding people to teach and we ran out of plans by about 8:00 p.m. While we were driving I received a distinct impression that we should go to an apartment complex on a street called Vermont. I've rarely received impressions that specifically before. I told Elder Colón and we turned around and went to the complex I was thinking of. We knocked on the first door and right away a mexican man answered. After we invited him to learn he let us into his home. His name was Jose Saucedo. We had a powerful lesson with him. When we shared the message of the Restoration with him he felt the Spirit and he recognized it. He said that he felt peace and that it gave him goosebumps. When he gave the closing prayer he mentioned over and over again that he felt peaceful. Jose gave us his phone number, asked for the directions to the church, and even set a baptismal goal for later in the month. Unfortunately he's a truck driver and he's hard to catch. He should be home again tomorrow though.
We also found a couple people named Antonio and Alma. They're in their 20s and we had a great lesson with them too. Alma said that she's never been baptized and that it bothers her. Antonio hasn't been to any church since he was a kid. They didn't go to church on Sunday but that afternoon I felt like we should go and invite them to a baptism our ward would be having later that evening. They came! The baptism was their first exposure to the Church and it went well. We're going to see them again this evening.
I'm enjoying the Mexican food but I'm also running a couple miles every morning so I think I'm actually losing weight. I think I'm floating somewhere around 133.
Elder Colón does not go home the same day as me. He already knew Spanish so he was only in the MTC for three weeks. He goes home the transfer after me with Elder Collier.
Gracias por todo! Hope all's well! Sounds like you're all doing good and being good. I hope you had a happy birthday Mom! Good luck on your pending half-marathon Dad! And I hope you enjoy Young Woman life and all that implies Hannah! And how's my dog?
Love
Eder Tyler J. Lewis