Hello!
I don't know why, but I got emails from several different
people this week about my last letter, where I described what PEI is like! So
here's more of a description for those who wanted one:
When you go far enough south in Charlottetown, past
downtown, you come to a boardwalk. On one side of the boardwalk, there are
green hills, and on the other side, there are big red rocks for a few feet
until they hit the ocean, which is dark blue in the day and silvery-blue and
yellow in the evening. When you walk down the boardwalk in the evening, you
face the orange and purple sunset and a lighthouse (I'll have to take a picture
of it sometime). There's often fog and wind, but it's warm and sunny.
Downtown Charlottetown has an older style. There are lots of
stands on the side of the road--hot dogs, gourmet grilled cheese, ice cream,
etc. A few evenings ago, we were contacting downtown and as we walked, there
were a couple teenagers playing guitar and singing on one corner. We crossed
the street to the other corner and a man was playing a bagpipe (he often plays
in the middle of a flat, green park in the evenings). We kept walking and
farther down the same block, on Victoria Row (or "Vic Row") were the
groups that do the jazz improv all the time. As soon as they were out of sight,
we passed a man who often comes into the soup kitchen we volunteer at, playing
the violin with a huge crowd around him. On a lot of the buildings downtown,
there are little cartoon-style mouse statues (if you can call them
that--they're a few inches tall) attached to the building near the ground. I'll
have to take a picture sometime.
The church is located in a subdivision called Sherwood, and
there's a statue of one of Robin Hood's merry men across the street.
That's good enough for this week:)
This week was pretty full, as usual. We had exchanges with
the Sister Training Leaders (weird to say), and so I got to go spend a day in
Moncton! Haha. It was an interesting experience... Actually a lot of things
happened and some things were really serious, so the exchange was also
accompanied with a long talk with the mission president, and it affected the
rest of the week. When I got back to Charlottetown, I was really sick, but I
couldn't handle being in the apartment, so we've just been working. I'd like to
say that just because I pushed through and worked, I had all these great
experiences and really loved the work, but I'll be honest, I was pretty
miserable working through it all. The week was capped off with a really
powerful spiritual experience that answered a lot of prayers and questions I've
had for years. And then we had an evening of miracles last night while
contacting at the boardwalk--we found lots of young, single men who are
interested in learning more.... Who the elders will get to teach haha! We're
struggling to build a real teaching pool, but have been blessed with a lot of
tender mercies and small miracles as we've depended on the Lord to help us.
I am grateful for a living Church that encourages asking
questions because we are dependent on revelation. Because we know answers will
come. Because we're confident in our knowledge of God and the reality of the
doctrine taught in James 1:5. I've been faced with a lot of questions I don't
know the answers to in the last few weeks. But Heavenly Father is a loving and
patient Father, and He's been answering me despite my imperfect faith. I'm
grateful for the evidences He's given me of the truthfulness of this Church,
because I'm able to depend on my own testimony when I develop questions and get
a little weakened.
Last night as we were talking to people at the boardwalk, we
stopped man who knows a LOT about the Church. He doesn't believe that we're
true Christians and threw a lot of arguments at us (in fact, that's been a
pretty big pattern this week--people wanting to sway us from what we believe
and know). I ended up having to say, "I don't know the answer to all your
questions. But I do know that Christ is my Saviour, and He's yours as well. I
know that He died for us and that He lives today." He definitely has
doubts about our Church still, and has a lot of really negative feelings
towards it, but I hope that even if he doesn't believe we're Christians still,
he could at least feel the reality of my testimony. Because I know it. I am
completely convinced that Christ is my Saviour and that He lives, and I try to
live true to that.
Sister Lewis
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| Last summer, a 19-year-ol |
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