Week #37

Hello Everyone!!

Transfers were on Wednesday so I am with Elder Hunt this whole week and man he is awesome!!! We are just having the best of time and he's teaching me how to be cleaner. We had an awesome week. We have finally been able to see a spark in the eyes of the less active members we have been teaching. That has just been so so so so cool. Three of them came to church so that has been super rewarding! We had 90 people in church on Sunday which was super awesome. It's been fun to watch the branch grow over these last 7 or 8 months...I have lost count how many but it's been so much fun! We have had fun sharing the scripture Enos 1:27 about how there is a place prepared for us all in the kingdom of heaven if we just do what we are supposed to do. People have really seemed to like that. My ponderize scripture for the week is Mosiah 3:19 about putting off the natural man and becoming a saint through the Atonement of Christ. This scripture is the theme of my transfer as I strive to inherit the attributes described in that verse. Meek, humble and submissiveness and willingness to submit to everything the Lord sees fit to inflict on me. I know that as we strive to become saints we will see these attributes becoming a part of us and we can permanently change our nature and not just our behaviors. I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Lewis

Peeling something...???

District Photo

Last photo with Elder Hardy

Israelia, the cutest little girl in Suriname

My favorite fruit that I have no idea what it's called

Week #36

Hello Everyone!

This week was a fantastic one! We received transfer calls this week and I am staying in my area for a 6th transfer and getting my 4th companion in this area! I am also staying a District Leader! I am super excited to stay in this area, because there is obviously a reason why I am still here and I am determined to find that person that is waiting for the Gospel! This week I was able to work a little farther on obtaining my Visa for Suriname so that was super fun. The miracle for the week was with our investigator Kalof. He is so prepared and getting baptized on March 26th so I am super excited for that. He came to church this last week and I think loved it. That was by far the best part of the week. This week we got our hands on a Branch list and are currently going through and trying to find all the less active members. We have found like 25 people already with more to go. We are excited to continue that work. But everything is going really well and just happy as ever. 

My Ponderize scripture for the week is Alma 46:22 cross referenced with Alma 5:19. The thought for the week is over covenants. The people of the church have sworn to make a covenant unto death and that if they transgress they shall be trampled under feet just like their brethren. In this time of war among the Nephites and the Lamanites the people of the church have risen up and promised to be faithful. It makes me think of a quote that Elder Renlund shared when he came to out mission. He said, "You pledge your entire identity when you covenant." We as Latter-Day Saints must treat it as so. We have all made a covenant. Whether that be at baptism or those who have gone through the temple. It does not mater. They must be honored and cared for just like the people in the scriptures. I love all of you! Thank you so much for the emails and prayers on my behalf.

Lobi, Elder Lewis

Week #35

Hello Everyone!

This week was a good one. We saw a lot of miracles this last week.We were able to visit with one of our less actives who hasn't been to church in a really long time. We had a really good lesson with her about the Book of Mormon. She was super excited to spend more time reading in the Book of Mormon. She came to church on Sunday as well!! That was super cool! We have taught a lot of less actives here this last week, there is so much of that to do. We have this one guy who we are helping learn how to read who has been a member for some time now --he just can't read. I am also learning a lot of Sranan Tango from him so that's been super fun! Our investigator, Kolif, came to church which was so awesome! He was only gong to stay for Sacrament Meeting but the members wouldn't let him leave! It was so great to see! We are hoping to meet with him more often so we can make his baptismal date on March 27th! Transfer calls are coming up and I have mixed feelings about it because I could see me getting transferred. I have been in this area for a really long time but I wouldn't mind staying. I think I am either leaving or getting a new companion --who knows. I know one of the elders is coming back from Bonaire so maybe I could be going there.  It's all speculation because nobody knows. One of the biggest miracles this week is this last week I had fasted for a new progressing investigator and that same day we were teaching our new found less active, Greg, and his wife, (who is not yet a member) walks in and was so excited and interested! We are excited to start teaching her and their whole family!! I gave a baptismal interview this last week so that was fun! The sisters had a baptism this last week so that was fun to see. It's been super cool to see our branch grow. When I first got here we were getting an average of about 50 people and now we are up to 85-100 every week! The work is going fast here and it's been so fun to be a part of! Anyway, I hope ya'll have a great week. Yu habi wan sweeti lebi!

Lobi, Elder Lewis

Week #34

This week was good, although I have got some sort of mosquito strain inside of me making things difficult, but it's okay.  I am surviving. I guess Zach Walton got called to the Trindad Port of Spain Mission which will be pretty cool! He's speaking Spanish so I will probably never see him but that is so cool!  Now we just need to get a Dutch speaker here! Anyway, this week was super successful. We have had success with our investigator Kolif! We had a solid lesson with him about why we come (missionaries). He loves to talk but basically it got to a point where he was like, "Elders if I didn't think this was a good thing I wouldn't even answer your phone calls. I love the Word of God and will do whatever it says." So, I turned to 2 Nephi 31:5 about how we have the need to be baptized and then he was like, "I gotta start coming to church!" Then I invited him to be baptized and he responded, almost as if that was a dumb thing to ask, and said (in sranan tango), "Sa'ede mi go a kerki als mi no dopu?" (why would I go to church if I didn't want to get baptized) then he continued on and said how He doesn't want people to be looking at him wondering why he wasn't baptized. It was cool!  He came to church and it was just great! We are really excited about that! That as for sure the highlight. America, the key to over coming the Zieke virus is this: everyone just needs to get it and then everyone will be immune to it, problem solved! This work is super great and I love Suriname! Today we went to a sort of beach of the Suriname river and played sand volleyball. It was a blast!
-Elder Lewis

Week #33

Hello People of America,

This week was pretty good. Those darn mosquitoes just love me, can't get enough of my blood lol. But I am dong good! Nothing can keep me down. We made some pretty sweet progress with Johnathan this week. He keeps all of his commitments and is just doing awesome. We had a really cool experience with one of our investigators this week. His name is Ravi and he had not kept his commitment to pray about the Book of Mormon so we, at the end of the lesson, kneeled down with him and prayed together that he would get his answer and he did. It was so so so so cool. That next day since Elder Hardy had to go to Trinidad for a couple days I was with Elder Hood and Elder Burr in their area. It was fun to learn and grow from them. I gave my first baptismal interview on Friday and that was a scary cool experience. But one thing that was super funny is when I asked him about the Word of Wisdom. He said "Elder, I am so serious about that. I was addicted to smoking...quit that. Even my bunnies are following the Word of Wisdom." And I was like uhh your bunnies? Yes Elder my bunnies were addicted to Cola as well, that's all I gave them and they refused to drink anything else but I am slowly leaning them off of it so don't worry it's under control. I just thought that was so funny. Feeding his bunnies coke lol. But it was just such a sweet thing to experience. I asked him if he was prepared to endure to the end and he said "Elder, if you, the prophet or the scriptures say it, I will do it. My goal is to be perfect." I had to sit back for a second and think boy, are we all that converted? I sure as heck wasn't when I was home. And that leads me to my next experience this week. It was fast and testimony meeting for us this last Sunday and a long time member gets up to bear his testimony on the temple and how his only desire is to go back to the temple before he turns 60. I really have come to appreciate the temple here on my mission. Ya know these people here in Suriname don't have too much....and their number one priorities are not to have a nice house, or the newest technology, the newest car (or to even have a car) or have the best clothes... no, their number one desire, that I have seen, is the desire to go to the temple. How many of us take that for granted? There are couple here waiting to have children just so their kids can be born into the covenant. How inspiring is that? We truly are blessed to be in a place (in the United States) where the church is popular enough to be able to have a temple within 15-20 minute drive from us. That just inspired me so much. I hope ya'll had a great week, I did and I am excited for the upcoming week!

Lobi, Elder Lewis

This was a special Baptism for me. Edmondf Weerwind (the short one) I was not i the area when he was baptized but Elder Hood and I found this guy. He had been smoking for 15 years and decided to change his life and has quit cold turkey and stopped smoking completely and hasn't smoking since January 1st... Just nuts. Very cool to see.

Week #32

Hello Everyone! I am emailing on a Tuesday because all of the Suriname stores are run by the Chinese and since it was Chinese New Year, everything was closed! We had a very good week. We had Zone Conference and Member District Conference. That was super fun! We had a huge miracle this week with a few of our investigators. One of them, last Monday, committed to be baptized after saying he had no interest in it at all. It has been so fun to watch him grow! I have a goal this next week to put more thought into my weekly emails but I am sorry, I am human and forgetful, and also Monday just comes so fast. Oh boy! Also I may have caught another mosquito virus... whoo hoo.  But it's okay. It's not putting me out for two weeks again! Until next week!

-Elder Lewis

Week #31

Hello!

This week was super good and successful! We just found and found and found! We got 5 new investigators this last week! We had a really good time although it was a super long week but we were able to accomplish a lot, teaching 20 lessons this last week! We were able to also do two service projects for a less active lady named Zr. Cornelli. We cleaned up her yard (raking her dirt). Surinamers are so funny. They like their dirt all nice and raked. I mean I can appreciate that. Seeing a nice, clean, dragged baseball field always brought joy to my soul. We also were able to do service for The Braumuller family. We painted their fence for them and it was super awesome! I love love love that family more than anything!
 One of our crazy run in's this week is we went to go visit an investigator and her Jehovah's Witness sister was there....needless to say that was a lot of fun.. I found myself starting to get a little mad so we got out of there as soon as possible. Gotta love the results of the Great Apostasy. We found great success in teaching new investigators and are hoping to go farther with all of them. We are in the beginning stages with all of them because we basically dropped all of the old people we were working with because they just were not progressing. We showed our faith and found a lot of people and are hoping to find more this upcoming week. Zone Conference is this week and we are all so pumped because we will be talking about the Atonement (my favorite subject). It's going to be a blast. Anyways, that was basically our week! Love all of you so much!

-Elder Lewis

 

Shandon Braumuller and I