feliz navidad de nuevo york!

some fun christmas photos....

a little visit with santa

sweet, Jennie gave us perfume and matching scarfs!

this Christmas was definately one of the best i've ever had. to start, on Christmas Eve we had a mission wide get together with a musical program! the new york new york south mission is SO talented...i loved listening to all the pieces and feeling the spirit of Christmas.

zone 2--midwood monkeys

  



the gifts we got from president and sister calderwood

 

love these sisters

we had breakfast with the wonderful Cuevas family Christmas morning!

afterwards we headed to the church to facetime the family! i got to meet my two new nephews who are the cutest little guys ever! that was the best gift i recieved. I am so very grateful for each and every one of them. i even got to see my best friend in africa for about 30 seconds! 

then after we talked we went and played
basketball and had dinner with the Montoyas! I am so grateful for Christ and His birth and life. i am so thankful for the knowledge that i have that he his our savior.

a little bit of my letter from last week...
An elder that is serving in patchogue right now came up and said sister lewis you are a legend
out there...haha I was like oh good someone remembers me :) anyways
one of the ladies we tried to teach out there they are now teaching
again and her son is getting baptized in like a week!! Ahh I was so
happy! This week we were on Facebook and a kid from back home who is
waiting to go back out on his mission messaged me asking for advice
and help about his situation. I was very humbled and grateful for the
chance to talk to him! Yay for my first Facebook success!! I gave a
talk in sacrament yesterday, it was alright! I am just so so grateful
for Sundays, they really are the best day of the week. Even as a
missionary when all you do Is serve I NEED them. The sacrament
rejuvenates me and helps me feel like it's okay and I can do better
this week.

mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb... yes we ate lamb.

 

a fresh start & brain freezes

Hola mi familia!

I want to start by thanking you all for all your love and thoughts for me- thank you for all the christmas cards! I love christmas cards! And the wedding announcement ahhh so excited for you Jade and Riley :) mom thank you for the music, you are a lifesaver. and the ornaments=perfect! everyone we have given them to LOVE them!! :) Dad- that is the best poem i've ever read haha Sister Williams and i enjoyed it a lot! Smiths and Collettes, thank you SO much for the cards!! And to the best ward in the world...i love you all! Thank you so much for the sweet notecards, i loved them! And if i forgot anyone else...thank you too!

So this week was so great! On Tuesday i got my new companion-Sister Williams! She is from Spanish Fork, in the Crandalls ward, and i know her younger siblings! Small world! She is so wonderful i am so excited to work with her! We are going to be a golden companionship. :) Its such a blessing to be her companion! In transfer meeting President Calderwood talked a lot about obedience, and having a "fresh start". He said to forget the past, move on, work hard, and be obedient NOW. No matter what happened forget about it and make this transfer better! After thinking about that a lot I have also thought a lot about the sacrament and the significance of it. I am working on making the Sacrament more meaningful each week! It literally gives us a fresh start! Our new district is awesome, we have 4 elders and then us two sisters. I will send a picture of all of us and you can see all of us beauties. :)

 

 

We went a visited a family in our ward and showed them the mormon message, kids at christmas. Afterwards we talked about the reason we celebrate christmas and asked all the kids what they loved about Jesus. One of the little girls said, "Jesus is my brother because he is always by my side even though i can't see him." This was a testimony builder to me! He is ALWAYS by our sides. I love how little children can teach us out of pure love. We have seen so many little miracles whether its a member calling us and asking to teach his girlfriend, or people feeding us when we have no time to eat. Little tender mercies and miracles are all around us, we just have to recognize them! J, B, & E are doing so amazing! J and E came to church yesterday and loved it! She said that ever since we came over and started visiting her she has felt peace and comfort. She is so ready!  Pray for her!! She also told us that B (her husband) told her he has felt better spiritually lately. The Lord is truly guiding us to the pure in heart!

 

 

Funnies for the week-- you don't know what a brain freeze is or feels like until you come to NY. Holy freezing. My brain really does freeze. I now know what it feels like and its not my favorite feeling... :) but i'm very very thankful for beenies! Last night we were leaving our dinner appointment and the elders left right before us because we were setting up an appointment with a less active that was there. They called like 4 times and i just kept ignoring it cause i was using the phone. Finally i gave it to Sister Williams to answer, she gets off and says, "the elders are stuck in the elevator!!" So we all run down there and they have no way of getting out. They were stuck inbetween two floors and the elevator had just stopped completely. We were laughing so hard!! They were all freaking out inside and i couldn't help but laugh. They were in there for a solid 20 minutes! The firefighters came and had to use all their fancy tools to get the door open, and they all filed out. It was so funny. They learned their lesson the hard way- don't jump up and down in the elevators. Oh, Elders...

 

 

 

I love you all! I can't wait to see all your pretty faces soon!! :)

 

first snow fall in NY!

The news for this week is that Sister Franklin is getting transfered and i will get a new companion and stay in the area tomorrow! I am excited! Thank you so much for the cute christmas package!! I loved it so much and now our little apartment is all homey and christmasy! Thanks a ton! :) I just want to share a couple thoughts about this week...we went and visited Sandra, a recent convert who just loves missionary visits. I love how they pray so humbly, in her prayer she just thanked heavenly father for this church and told him that she knows it is true. I really believe that when we pray humbly and thank Him for what we have our testimonies can be strengthened. We had stake conference yesterday and it was at the Marriot in this huge room! It was super pretty and the messages were really good. (J) came with us and is progressing so well! I love her. She knows that this is something she will commit to for the rest of her life so she will know when she needs to be baptized. I had an exchange with Sister Freeze, man oh man did i need that exchange! She is seriously one of my dearest friends and i have only spent a day with her. She really made me feel comforted and helped me that day! I am so grateful for her example and love. And yes, it SNOWED yesterday! Not much but i enjoyed it while it lasted! i am so blessed to be doing this in my life right now!