Week #20

Well, this week was rather interesting. I spent 3 days in Guyana because I was about to be illegal in Suriname so I had to go to Guyana to purchase another tourist card, or so I thought. So I get to the Airport and check in. I go to immigration and this very large Suriname lady (who looks like she hasn't had a good day since 'Nam) takes one look at my passport and goes,"Je bent illigal" (You're illegal) and she was like 'you get a red stamp in your passport and are not allowed to fly in the Caribbean for 3 years... I was like....oh no!!! My faith was dwindling but luckily Elder Christiansen and Elder Hardy both were there and their faith saved me.  (They were going through the same process as I was). He (Elder Christiansen) said a prayer asking for a miracle and by the hand of God the lady let us go this one time.....no red stamp. I was so thankful! So we fly there in, literally, the smallest plane I have ever seen and we spent three days in Guyana when we should have only spent one.....we all had one pair of clothes and got put in the mission office to sleep in which had bed bugs.....45 bites. So fun. So I get back to Suriname on Friday and I have never been so happy!! Suriname is a wonderful place. Also Elder Hood has dengy fever... so I have literally not left the apartment this whole week. Fun stuff, but I have had some awesome studies and watched a lot of general conference and also ate a lot. I officially gave up on trying not to get fat....I'm just gonna let it happen hahaha.  He's (Elder Hood) finally starting to get better and I hope and pray I don't get it. I have a few symptoms but I am hoping I don't get it LOL!! Anyway, hopefully we can leave the house soon this week!

-Elder Lewis

Flying to Guyana

Flat Guyana

Cleaning up a burnt down house in Guyana

Cleaning the Apartment

Our District

More district photos

Love this guy...ex-rastafarian, now our branch mission leader

"Helping Hands" service project

"Helping Hands" service project

"Elder Hood is the best! Love this guy!"

Week #19

Hi All,

Nothing really super exciting happened this week other than it was super long. We had a rough week as far as teaching and everything. But,  guess what?   I have to go to Guyana for a couple days to get a new tourist card. So that will be fun. I leave tomorrow and have no idea how long I will be there but I think it will be a nice change of scenery for a short while. This week we participated in the helping hands and that was fun! We painted a playground with our branch which was super fun and also hot haha. The people here are freaking out because rainy season hasn't started yet. This last week, President Egbert  had to get surgery on his eye and has been stuck in Santo Domingo. Hopefully he will make it back for zone conference tomorrow! I gave a talk in church this last Sunday and that was a super interesting experience but I was able to stumble through it! All in all, the week was good. I need to do a better job at writing down certain things to write about becasue cool things really do happen during the week.  I just can't ever remember them when I get to the emailing portion, but yeah. This week Elder Hood and I were trying to contact this one refferal we recieved and all of a sudden this 'I love Jesus parade' starts coming down the street and it was just so funny!! We just sat there and watched,  and people were pointing to us and saying "Jesus Loves You". It was pretty funny! 

-Elder Lewis

Week #18

 We had a super successful week with 5 investigators in church. It's been so much fun Elder Hood and I are killing it. I get to serve another transfer with Elder Hood in Paramaribo South which I am super glad about. I am learning so much from Elder Hood and am so grateful for him and his example. So yes I am officially done with training so now I am a normal missionary but still have no idea what i'm doing lol. But the language is getting a lot better. I have had quite a few people from the ward and people I have met on the street tell me that I am speaking fluently I still don't believe it because asa soon as I start getting prideful the Lord humbles me right away. It's fun though. Also bad news, I think I am getting fat.. I don't really know how.. I am not getting any larger in like shape but I am gaining weight like crazy. Probably because all we eat is rice and more rice and beans and then bread and eggs because we basically get like $47 US a week to survive lol. It's super fun but it's ok I have started exercising in the mornings (kind of) (5 sit ups). Onesimus got the aaronic priesthood on sunday which was so fun to be apart of. This next transfer if everything goes good, we should get like 5baptisms. We have found some amazing people.

One miracle for this week was with one of our investigators Ron. Ron is the boyfriend of a less active named cindy. We have been working very hard with them to get married but one of his other struggles is with smoking. We taught him about faith in christ and about how he can over come his addiction through that faith then we gave him a blessing the get over that addiction so he can stop and it was just such an amazing exprience. The spirit was so strong. It's so funny because Coke is a very beloved drink here among missionaries and I have currently got three more missionaries to stop drinking caffine with me to help Ron stop smoking. He came to church this last sunday with Cindy and their cute little baby and everyone just welcomed them in with loving arms. It was so good to see. That was for sure the highlight of the week. 

It's so crazy to think that on Christmas Eve I will have been out for 6 months. The time has just flown by and I am just learning so much. I invite you all to be ponderizing a scripture every week. It really helps out during the week. I am sorry I don't have any pictures this week. I should be getting a camera soon! Have a good week this week!!

-Elder Lewis

Week #17

This last week was super good! I honestly can't say anything extremely crazy happened but it was just a good week. We had a ton of success with working with members and gaining referrals. We taught two members this last week and in turn received 21 referrals... That is like literally unheard of...Pretty Crazy. Except like more than half of them were for other areas and we were left with 6 of them for us so we are just going to assume that the 6 that we have are the elect. One of the stories of the week happened actually last night. So one of our investigators, Ron, is addicted to smoking, along with a lot of other problems, but we are focusing first on this mountain. So we were thinking of ways to help him and we couldn't really think of anything.  So, we go into the lesson and teach the word of wisdom and I get the idea that I am going to tell him I am going to give up caffeine and he will give up smoking. He loved it and we compromised to him cutting down little by little. We left the appointment feeling pretty good but I had quickly realized the magnitude of my mistake and realized that my coca-cola everyday at 3 o'clock (because the cola here is so flipping good) and weekly Code Red Mountain dew before district meeting were all gone. I was depressed and began to justify my decision but now I can't go back so I am currently fasting from caffeinated beverages for life...or at least until I leave Suriname or we stop teaching Ron. Anyways that was basically the most exciting story I can come up with. Elder Hood and I contacted this lady who had a pet sloth, it was funny!   haha Anyway, that was basically our week!

-Elder Lewis

Week #16!! Four Months This Week!!

This week was pretty good. I had my first baptism this last week which was super cool. I didn't perform the ordinance because members are supposed to do them now and it was just so much better that way. Two of my favorite people in Suriname were able to participate. Onesimus, of course, and Suradj was able to baptize him and it was such a powerful experience. Suradj is going to the temple for the first time in less than a month and it was ssoooooo cool to watch him baptize someone before he goes to the temple. I just have never been so happy. Onesimus has been investigating the church for like a year and finally he got baptized. His mother is also showing a lot of interest and his dad, who is a long time less active, is now coming back to church. Being able to be in the circle when he got confirmed  was just the coolest experience. It was so much fun to be a part of that. And also we had like 5 investigators at the baptism. It was just so awesome. Good good good weekend. Church was so good!  We had like 5 of our less actives we have been working with and then  4 investigators in church. It was a super successful week as far as missionary work. On Tuesday of last week our mission president came for a few days so it was so fun. We had interviews with him and those are my favorite. I love interviews with the mission president. Our mission president and his wife are just so awesome! You can really tell they are called of God. So there was these investigators who we've been working with and, we had no idea but, it turns out that the wife was already baptized!!! She said that and Elder Hood and I looked at each other and we were like, what?!?! Since when?!?! And I was like well, that makes sense why you have been so open to our message. That happened last night so that was pretty cool. It was a very good week!

--Elder Lewis

Week #15

My week was super good! We have a baptism on Saturday and I am so excited! Onesimus has asked me to baptize him so it looks like I will be baptizing him which I think will be super cool. I am really more excited for him, he's an awesome kid and I am just so excited for him. And also surprisingly his whole family came to church on Sunday. We were so surprised. His step dad is a very long time less active who just has shown no desire in coming back to church but he showed up and was different than I have ever seen him. He even participated in Gospel Doctrine. His wife (Onesimus' mom) isn't baptized either but she is now going to be taking the lessons as well. It's looking super good. We also put this guy we met named Prince on date for November 7th to be baptized. He is super cool as well. It was a good week. We re-activated two less actives and are working on more. 

This week was pretty good though. I have no complaints just livin' life here in Suriname. Rainy Season is about to start lol.

--Elder Lewis

Week #14

This week was pretty great though. Conference was great as always. We spend the whole weekend in Temmenga church, watching conference. One of our investigators showed up to conference with his family which was super awesome. He is committed to baptism but needs to get married first and then stop smoking as well but he's on fire and will be baptized in the following month. Onesimus is getting baptized on the 17th of this month so I am super excited about that. I got yelled at by his Dad for accidentally calling him again lol. Oopps sorry your son just wants to take upon him self the name of Christ and receive the Holy Ghost. I am sorry that you're so lazy and grumpy and have forgotten about the covenants you made when you were baptized. His dad is super inactive and just so so so lazy. I feel bad because he's trying to make these good choices in his life and has no support at home. But yeah. I am finally settled in to my new apartment I think and everything is rolling. Our area is huge and I have biked a total of 717 miles so far on my mission. It's an adventure. It's so weird I feel like I am turning into a "Surianmer" a little more every day. Also I am sad that most of you will never taste a Wholly Burger. Best Burger I have ever eaten, hands down....not better than In-N-Out but yeah you know what I mean. Conference takes on a whole new meaning when you're on a mission and it was just great, but one thing that really stuck out to me was "Ponderize" Where you pick a scripture every week and write it down where you can see it all week. I invite you all to do that with me as I have made a commitment to do it for the rest of my mission. It allows your thoughts to go to a higher place in times of temptations. I also encourage you to do member missionary work!!!! It's so important! But yeah that was more or less my week. It was a good one and I am looking forward to the upcoming week. We are hoping to put the rest of our investigators on baptismal dates so we can have one every Saturday starting on the 17th!! Super exciting!

--Elder Lewis