The Lost Files!!

(This is Amber's mom.)

While she was in the MTC, Sister Lewis lost her camera!  :(  She looked everywhere for it and submitted a report about her lost camera, but it was not found before she left the MTC.  I checked back with the MTC for the first couple of weeks after she left and we sent her a new camera.  But we were all devastated by the loss of the photos that had been on the old one.  There were videos of her and her sister before she left plus all of her photos from the MTC.  And she felt just awful about losing the camera and the expense of it all.

But a little over a month ago, I got a call from the MTC.  They had found the camera!  It had fallen behind one of the lost and found drawers and when they finally decided to fix the drawer to see why it couldn't shut, there was her camera!  I copied all her photos to my computer and sent the camera and SD card on to her so she could see and have those pictures, too.  Not to mention the camera, because it was a much better camera than the one we replaced it with.  And I have permission to post any and all of the photos on it!

This batch of photos were taken at her goodbye party, the night before she gave her final talk in church.

With Matt and Quinn.

Cousins!

Grandparents!  (who are now serving their own mission in New Zealand!)

Happy Remembrance Day!!!

Quote of the Week:

Sister Sandberg: "Sister Lewis, what song were we singing the other day? It was a Christmas song."

Me: (appalled) "We were singing a Christmas song?!"

Elder Hendrickson: "Was it 'I'll Be Home for Christmas'? Oh wait..."

Ouch!!!!!

Yesterday was a really special day for us!! Our investigator George* walked an hour in the snow to get to church. We were so happy. He's getting it. We've been teaching him and his two kids, Darren* (12) and Isaiah* (10). He's Born Again Christian, which is tough because every single one of his beliefs are different from ours.... It was a rocky beginning picking him up as an investigator. But since then, he's gone through a huge change of heart and he's a completely different person. He's excited to come to church again next week, so we'll see how it goes.

Also, almost every less active we're working with came to church yesterday. That was huge for us as well. There's a special spirit in sacrament meeting when you watch people you adore make the right, difficult choice like that.I was proud of them and felt blessed to be able to work so hard with them.

The Sunday school lesson was on missionary work--my favourite! The class got really involved, which was touching to see. I've been pretty aware since my mission began that a lot of members feel stressed and overwhelmed about doing missionary work. They've expressed that they feel guilty whenever we ask them about how it's going. I don't blame them--missionary work, on top of everything else that's busy about life, can be really hard. But I loved watching them get it a little bit yesterday. I mean, I know (first-hand!) how hard missionary work is! I get it! And when it wasn't 100% of my life, I wasn't the greatest member-missionary. I didn't understand my role and didn't have much of a desire to be involved in it. So at the end of this fantastic lesson, the teacher asked for last comments and I raised my hand. And this is sort of what I said.

One thing that was surprising to me when I first became a missionary was that it's rude to talk about when another missionary's going home. If you hate your companion, you remind them of how much longer they have on their missions. Seriously. It's a really touchy subject. No one wants to go home, and no one wants to be reminded of it. It's like a big tragedy. And I've seen so many RMs come home who do not want to be home. They miss their missions and they feel depressed because they wish they could be back. And it's like that for a reason. And it's not because we love getting up at 6:30 every morning. It's not because we enjoy talking to strangers about things they don't want to discuss. It's not because we love being rejected. It's not because we like not having any personal time. That's all really hard. The reason we love serving the Lord in this way is because we are promised "great joy" for doing this work.

It is more than a responsibility to do missionary work, as members of Christ's Church. It is a complete privilege. I remember so well the day that they made the age-change announcement, and I was so incredibly grateful that God would allow me to serve a mission, to serve Him and His children. It is a complete privilege to receive the blessings that come from missionary work. I feel honoured to be Christ's representative. I love being a missionary, but I also just love the work. I love being a missionary. I love the "great joy" that I receive from doing it, even though it's my responsibility. It is a privilege to offer my brothers and sisters something so eternally special.

I love you all. Have a great week.

Love,

Sister Lewis

Matching tights, matching boots

The St. John River

Elders havin fun with my camera while I slaved away yesterday....

Matching coats, matching tights (same patterns and brand), matching pencil skirts, matching little brown boots... Awkward

Matching cardigans, matching flower shirts, matching belts. We lose.

A Canadian Halloween!

Hey family and everyone else!

Today marks one year until my release date. I'm starting to freak out. I don't want this to end!!!!!

This week was a crazy one. It was kind of rough. But really great. I guess I haven't done the quote of the week for a while!

1. A man we stopped downtown one night: "Would you two ladies maybe want to get a drink with me?"

Sister Sandberg: (laughing) "We don't drink!"

Man: (looking sad) "I know. I just prowl the streets trying to corrupt religious preachers like you."

Then we stopped the next guy on the street...

2. Me: (blah blah blah, laughing, small talk) "So have you seen missionaries like us before?"

Guy: "Yes, but none as pretty!"

Sister Sandberg and I were kinda done with that street that night haha.

So Halloween was crazy this year! Missionaries can throw some pretty serious parties when they're locked up in their apartments on Halloween night.... not. Haha we had a glow stick dance party while blasting MoTab, worked in the area book, got prank called twice, pigged out on carameled popcorn that we made, and took ugly pictures. And the highlight of the night was cutting open glow sticks, pouring the contents into the back of the toilet, then flushing the toilet with the lights out and watching the water glow haha...... #bored.

We had the New Brunswick Zone Conference on Tuesday in Moncton. It was really great to be back in Moncton for a morning! I loved actually being oriented again. It was a spiritual conference and I left enriched. It was great to see all the missionaries again.

Also, just so everyone knows, I love my companion. Today is her 20th birthday. Happy birthday, Shishter Shandberg:)))

So I'm going to tell you that plantar fasciitis is the worst. I hate it. It's really been bothering me lately since I'm now in a walking area, which is fine. It's just hard to realize you have limits that you didn't have before. But I was reading an old journal entry last night that will be part of my spiritual thought for this e-mail. I had just written about how exhausted I was in every way--spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally. We had just had a really rough, tiring week (this was in September) and I was just done. But then I wrote about my the determination I felt despite all that, and I wrote "I've been running hard this week to serve God." I wrote about how when I wasn't able to run anymore, I would honestly crawl to do the work. And when I couldn't, I'd beg for God to give me the strength to continue to be His servant, because I love the work and I don't want to stop doing it.

So as I was reading this yesterday, I realized the horrible irony in it that I said I'd crawl if I couldn't run anymore.... Hahaha little did I know that I'd resort to crawling soon after that;) Dumb feet.

But I really do feel that way about the work. When I came out on my mission, I was by no means a "workaholic". I did the work I was asked to do, and I usually wasn't excited about it. I did it, and that was about it. And now I'm looking back at my entire mission so far. In a year, I will be home again. Less than two transfers and I'll be half-way done. And already I can see how much I have changed. I feel blessed that God has changed me from a girl with an okay-work ethic to a missionary with a deep determination to do His work the way He wants it done. I'm not an amazing missionary. I'm not this super-person who's good at everything. But He has changed me, and I have this deep, strong desire to do His will no matter what. I'm not going to lie, it's hard to ride my bike in the pitch dark while freezing rain and wind drench me, while my feet feel like they're going to fall off, and while no one wants to talk to me or hear me out. It's tough. And yet I'd rather be doing that than sitting in my apartment giving my feet a break.

And maybe I should give them a break someday soon haha, but I love that I don't want to. I love that I want to be out in the freezing cold, having doors slammed in my face, being made fun of, being rejected. I want to be walking around after the city's shut down and no one will answer the doors because it's "too late". I want to be going way out of my comfort zone talking to complete strangers about things they don't want to talk about. Because it's what God wants me to be doing, and I actually love it. I now see "Forget yourself and go to work" in a completely different way. I'm lost in it, and I want it to stay exactly this way for exactly another year. How great is my calling.

Love you all! Sorry if this sounded like I was complaining or something.... I swear I'm not, I have absolutely nothing to complain about. I am completely happy.

Love,

Sister Lewis

Don't have a lot of time to send the big e-mail today, so the pictures with long captions will have to suffice!

Last P-day.

 Elder Evanson behind me and Elder Campbell behind Sister Sandberg.

I was feeling dead sick, and sister Sandberg thought it would be funny to take a picture of me on the couch. Haha.

toe-warmers!

ISABELLE IS THE GREATEST RECENT CONVERT IN THE WORLD.

We had Stake Conference for the New Brunswick Stake over the weekend (which includes part of Maine). This sweet girl, Stephanie* (8), worships sister missionaries and wants to serve a mission so badly, so she asked for a picture with us:) Did we feel like celebrities? Why yes, yes we did.

I look a little scary in this one. But during the adult session of Stake Conference  on Friday night, we were having a REALLY spiritual, powerful, (and missionary-themed!) meeting. There were about 24 missionaries there total. President Spragg got up towards the end of this powerful conference and said, "Well, the First Presidency for this Stake Conference specifically asked for missionaries to attend, so I asked President Leavitt which missionaries we could hear from tonight, and he chose for us to hear from some sisters, so we'll be happy to have Sister Lewis and Sister Sandberg come up and bear their testimonies now." UMMM OK THANKS PRESIDENT LEAVITT. So we walked up and each bore our testimonies on missionary work. After we sat down, President Spragg spoke and we closed the session. Immediately afterwards, tons of members from across the stake came to us and thanked us for our testimonies, hugging us and telling us that hearing from us was the highlight of the meeting. Let me just say that it was incredibly humbling to have at least 10 families from Maine ask if the two of us could come be their sister missionaries (Maine only has elders right now). This couple has a particularly touching story, and he took us aside and told us his incredible conversion story which was so powerful. At the end he said, "You sisters keep being faithful. You keep being faithful. Because of 2 faithful missionaries, I know about my Saviour. Because of 2 faithful missionaries, I am sealed to my sweetheart forever." We all were touched and crying because I think at that moment, we were all reminded of the "divinity of this great and marvelous latter-day work." How great is my calling!

Hahahahaha trying on costumes at the Wilsons' * house last night for our ward Halloween party this Wednesday night. They thought I'd make a good Cleopatra.

Hahahahaaaaaaaa too funny too funny.

We checked the meal calendar where members sign up to feed us and saw that the elders signed us up for lunch with them today! Haha they've been preparing it for a long time, and we think it's mac and cheese with hotdogs.... Hahaha we're a little nervous.

C'est la vie.

I honestly don't even know what happened this week! Sister Sandberg and I can't remember anything. So this will be a great e-mail.

Isn't it weird that it's been more than a year since the age-change announcement that changed my life?! And now I'm 6 months into my mission in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Life is good.

Ready for an embarrassing story?

Last week after we e-mailed, Sister Sandberg and I walked home to grab some lunch. She was in the kitchen and I sat down on the couch and we were talking about how are families were doing. Then I saw an ab wheel sitting on the floor, so I thought I'd give it a shot since the last time I tried it was several months ago. I was rolling back on forth on it and realized that I was way better at it than last time I tried it! So I got really excited and started acting like an idiot on it, rolling back and forth as fast as I could, and then BAM face-planted it right into the ab wheel. I immediately jumped up and didn't say anything because Sister Sandberg was in the other room and didn't see me biff it. So I ran to the bathroom because I could taste the blood and saw that my tooth went through my lip! Not all the way through, but it was bad. So I was just going to wipe it off because dang it was embarrassing that I fell on an ab wheel because I was being a loser on it! So I felt with the blood, and it was still bleeding a little bit, but it was fine. And Sister Sandberg still didn't know. And then it started swelling and I had a fat lip all through Thanksgiving and had to tell everyone what happened. So I'll send a picture of it, although it is after the swelling went down a ton haha. I embarrass myself.

Recently Sister Sandberg and I have been asking ourselves why we're companions. We've been wondering why God wants the two of us serving in Fredericton together at this specific time--what it is He expects of us. I read this scripture in Helaman 10. In the scriptures, the prophet/missionary Nephi has just been falsely accused of murder, and has shown the people signs that he is a true prophet of God. He's walking home after he's been thrown into prison, after all the people in his city just tried to arrest him. And God tells him this:

"Blessed art thou, [Sister Lewis], for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.

"And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will."

After this, he stops walking home and immediately returns to teach some more. I love the word "unwearyingness" here. The most fulfilling days on my mission are the ones that I work unwearyingly, when I work when my feet hurt, my body's tired, I'm hungry, and people won't even listen. Those days are the most important, because they're the ones that determine my faith. Either I move closer to God and work through the discouragement, or I choose to wrap up the day early and go give my body a break, because hey, I worked hard anyway, right?

We had one of those days this last week. Here, the hour between 8 and 9 PM is the hardest. It's already dark out, and the city shuts down. You can't knock because people are either asleep, won't answer the door because it feels later than it is, or will answer and be really grouchy that we're "knocking on the door at near midnight!" So Sister Sandberg and I found ourselves at the church at 8PM on aSunday night. The city was completely shut down, our plans and back-up plans had all fallen through, and we had absolutely no more ideas. It was at the point where if we just went home, we would only get there half an hour before curfew, so we wouldn't really be wasting time. It would've been so easy to go home and call it a night and get in bed a little earlier. And anyway, it would be good to get in bed a little earlier because we're always so exhausted from riding our bikes anyway.

But instead, we dropped to our knees and prayed. We told our Heavenly Father that we couldn't do our plans anymore, and that we still had an hour to work and had no idea what to do for it. We told Him that we weren't going to go home early, that we were going to work until the end. We asked Him for help knowing what could be effective at that time of day. Then we got up and got going, not knowing beforehand the things that we should do.

It would be nice to say we went out and happened to find someone who really needed the gospel who we would never have found if we hadn't been out working. It would be nice to say it was in that last hour that we were able to pull out a lot of numbers. But actually, we went out, and we did the most effective things we could, and we talked to about two people in that entire hour. That was the best we could do. We got to our apartment at 9 and prayed again to start planning.

But we worked with unwearyingness. And I know that we were blessed because of it. I went to sleep that night feeling "mighty in word and in deed".

I love you all. Have a great week.

Sister L

Ma lip.  I couldn't even close my lips all the way!

Thanksgiving--no proselyting allowed say what?!

Isabelle's Wall!  Isn't she the best Mormon?!

Bikin in the rain....No shame as a sister missionary.

We theorize that an Elder kissed the glass.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!

It's been quite the week. 

Started out the week with 0 investigators, and ended it with 4. 

Gave a talk on the Book of Mormon in sacrament meeting.

Got rejected at door after door.

Loved my new ward.

Biked till I thought I'd die.

Taught a FAMILY(!).

Received a sweet, sweet letter from the Moncton bishop.

Continued to study General Conference talks.

Sent off family on their missions.

Elder S. Gifford Nielson's talk was one of my very favorites. He said, "This work is NOT going to move forward in the Lord's intended way without the members!" Exclamation point! So, what are YOU going to do? One thing we're encouraging ward members to do is to set a family mission plan. He gives three steps:

1) Pray to bring someone closer to Christ.

2) Pray for missionaries and investigators in the area by name.

3) Invite a friend to an activity, in or out of the home.

This work is exciting! It is remarkable! Go out of your comfort zone and be the Lord's servant.

That's all for this week. Happy Thanksgiving, eh?

Love,

Sister Lewis

240 Parkside Dr. #3

Fredericton, NB E3B 5V7

We couldn't find our former. This giant hole was in place of his house.... "Where did Peter go???"

Look, Ma!  No hands!

General Conference and Transfers

After I last e-mailed last Monday, we worked hard that night and went all the way out to Browns Yard, NB to visit an active family in our ward--the Johnsons*. They're the ones who know Baba. They were so excited that we saved up our Ks all month to see them, and it was a really great visit. Sister Nelson and I made the long, dark, scary, moose-y drive home and it was terrifying and exciting. The next morning, we had personal study at 8, companion study at 9, French study at 10, and lunch at 11. At about 11:10, we got a call from President Leavitt. You know you should just hang up immediately when the first words he says are, "Are you at your apartment? Is the phone on speaker? Is your companion there?" Never answer yes to any of those questions or he'll tell you one of you is getting transferred!

The circumstances are these: Sisters in this mission really serve for about 19 months rather than 18, because people hit 18 months mid-transfer. Sister K got hit by a car and that was kind of the end of it for her. So she'll be serving for 17.5 months instead of 19. She's going home at the end of this transfer (October 27) with Sister Hart. She's finishing up the last 3 weeks of her mission living in the mission home.

So Sister K will be going to Dartmouth. To take her spot in Charlottetown, Sister Rust left Fredericton. I am now taking Sister Rust's spot in Fredericton with Sister Sandberg (who is 19 and has been out just a transfer longer than me). Sister Doherty left Halifax to be with Sister Nelson in Riverview. To make things work, one companionship in Halifax is covering two areas. It's a little crazy right now.

I was really upset to be leaving Riverview, but excited. As soon as President broke the news to us, Sister Nelson got upset and I started crying haha, even though I was excited. Then President asked, "Sister Lewis, how do you feel about this?" And I said, "I'm excited!" even though I was crying at the same time. And he sighed and said, "Of course you are, Sister Lewis. We could tell Sister Lewis she was being transferred to a tent in the forest, there to be eaten by the wild bears, and she'd be excited. Well, thanks for being willing anyway." And hung up. Haha as a side note, whenever he asks how I'm doing, in response to my answer he says, "Now Sister Lewis, are you really doing great, or are you just saying that because you're an optimistic person?" Haha.

So that was Tuesday morning. We called the Elders to tell them and that was horrible, then we called the Calls, and they invited us over to say bye to them since they were about to go out of town until after I'd leave for Fredericton. We had sad goodbyes there--it was REALLY hard to say goodbye to them. I said bye to the Bishop too, which was very hard. He started crying. Then we just continued our missionary work that night. Wednesday we had several lessons planned and I had to say goodbye to the majority of our investigators. Thursday was my last day in Riverview and by then, most of the ward knew I was getting transferred, and a lot of them swung by the church or called to say goodbye. We don't really know what's going to happen with the primary program now. Lots of tears from me and ward members! Sister Nelson was very stressed because she doesn't feel like she knows the area or the members well enough yet, and lots of people have threatened to send hate mail to President for this haha. But Thursday night, we had a dinner appointment with the four Elders with some members (the only time that has happened and will ever happen--so ineffective to take all the missionaries out in an area for an hour). It was a really good appointment and I shared the spiritual thought, which was on prayer (2 Nephi 32), and it was very spiritual as Sister Nelson and I taught our last "lesson" together. It was a great experience. After that we had our YSA bible study at the church with the Elders and our two YSA reps. I lead that as well, and it was also a very spiritual experience. We made carameled apples for the activity afterwards, then we took last pictures as a district, everyone signed my goodbye book, and then we said goodbye one last time. It was a really hard day. Oh yeah, and that morning I was throwing up for a few hours, so it was fun to run to the bathroom all through district meeting.

Early Friday morning we transferred. Sister Sandberg and I are a SUPER motivated companionship. President is excited for the 19-year-old Sisters because they actively chose to come, because they WANTED to serve missions.  I've never been able to put so much into this work before this companionship. She feels the same way. Both of us are on fire. The Hendricksons are FANTASTIC and helped me not feel so homesick for Riverview. Our Elders in this area are the ZLs--Elders Evanson and Campbell. They're great. This is a biking area. In the winter, it'll be walking and bus. I love the bikes, but hate them in skirts. It's really annoying and embarrassing and difficult to ride in skirts. There is a lot of work to do here--we have 0 investigators. Time to get this area on its feet!

General Conference was sad without my family:( I missed you guys a lot. And I've hardly eaten anything the last few days because we have almost no food in our apartment, so I've been starving! So I was daydreaming about your breakfast during the Sunday morning session:) Did you guys set up the tent? I can't believe yesterday marked 1 year since the age-change announcement! Incredible.

Here, for General Conference, people usually watch from home on their computers. But a few members came out for a session or two. I didn't get to meet very many members. Morning sessions are from 1-3PM, afternoon sessions are from 5-7PM (messes with dinner), and the priesthood session is from 9-11PM. So the whole day is kind of thrown off, but it's fun. The Elders bought $50 worth of candy (are any of us really surprised by that?:)), and I'd say that I miss playing Conference Bingo with you guys, but let's be honest, we all know I never played, I just ate all the candy immediately anyway.

In between Sunday sessions, we had a chili lunch with the YSA here. There are real YSA here!!! It's exciting. Most of them are recent converts too. Including ISABELLE PHILLIPS! She came here to UNB for university at the end of August, and I haven't seen her since then. Since she left, she stopped going to church. She met with the Sisters here once, then missed other appointments. Sister Hart was able to get a hold of her from Newfoundland and asked her to start meeting with the Elders here, and she's been doing that, but has not gone to church or anything. So my first day here, she met with the Elders, who told her I just got transferred here, and she sent us a text that said, "Ok, I want to meet again." And since then, she's asked us for a scripture study plan, she's been studying for an hour everyday, she attended all 4 sessions of conference, she's made YSA friends, she's felt the Spirit and recognized it on her own, she's asked for a blessing of counsel from the Elders, and even called her mom after the last session last night and testified to her about General Conference and the Church and she and her mom both felt the Spirit. She's preparing for a mission again. Sometimes Heavenly Father knows what He's doing when He sends you away from the area you love.

I love you, family. I'll get my address to you soon.

Sister L (FREDERICTON Sister!)

Saying goodbye to the Calls.  I don't know why I look so happy.  I was crying a lot that morning.

Casual, romantic swings as a missionary means having one with yourself

I miss Riverview.

Not sure...

Saying goodbye to our investigator, Anna*.  I LOVE HER!

Saying goodbye to Eustace.  :(  We had a special friendship.

Saying goodbye to our French investigator, Edith and her baby, Paul.  This was a hard goodbye.

Saying goodbye to Evangeline, Amelie and Charles.  They are adorable.  Amelie and Charles were my joy!!!

Saying Goodbye to the Pratt* family.  Laughing over an awkward moment that had just happened.

MY MISSION FAMILY :)

Making "the elephant face" with Soeur Nelfils when we said goodbye.  She was laughing and couldn't really do it.

Sister Sandberg!!!  Our first day together.

I broke a door while knocking.