jews, jdubs, and now the ruskies...!

I hope you all had a happy new year!! We had to be in at six so we just caught up on our journals, made some new years resolutions and just hung out! Then we went to the Cuevas' for breakfast the next morning. I love this family so much! I'll send a picture! We had district meeting and one of the elders gave a workshop and related it to a sports analogy. All pre-season we practice for the real season but we can't just stop there and hope it lasts for the rest of the season (or our lives) we have to keep going hard, pre-season (mission) is not enough! I love this! Applying it as a missionary is really cool..afterwards i don't just want to stop, i'm looking forward to continue progressing! The same thing applies to every day life. Don't ever think you can't stop "practicing". Endure to the End!! :) He also shared the stick to your task poem, it reminded me of mom and how she always use to recite it! I'm realizing more and more every day how smart parents really are, not matter how much you don't want to believe it growing up, ITS TRUE. Listen to them, i promise they aren't crazy! We had another meeting this week with the english district on fearlessing (talking to people on the streets), it was super cool and very spiritual. Our district leaders took us back to the "pre-mortal" life and told each of us our "story". It was super spiritual! I have been struggling wondering why i am here, is it to grow myself? to help that ONE person? I have just been praying to make it known to me when i meet that person or when i figure out my purpose. It may not come for another week, year, or month. I don't know. But i know i am here for a special purpose whatever it is. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. One of my new favorite chapters in the book of mormon is Alma 26. Study it!

I'm pretty sure i got frost bite this week..holy moly it gets COLD!! We FINALLY got to have a lesson with (S) again! Oh my goodness i love her...she is so ready! She commited to baptism, and she understood me! It was the happiest thing. She is going back to the Dominican Republic for like 20 days but said she would go to church there. She is already sharing the book of mormon with her friend! We are praying hard for her!

 

Our Jew friend...he's long gone...we had a lesson with him and he just is not willing to listen or accept anything but the torra. So we gave him a book of mormon and told him to read it when he is ready! There are so many religions here...a Jehovah Witness tried to just bash me the other day...but all i could do was testify! This gospel is true and no one can take it away from me! Welp, Sister Williams and I are the problem companionship in the mission...not in a bad way but we seriously get hit on so much. Every day. Its hilarious. People literally just STARE. And they don't even care! For example, we were waiting for a bus and this guy was trying to get past and as he walks by he stops and says. "wow. your eyes are beautiful! woah, yours too! who's are prettier? oooh, its a toss up." we just kinda laughed and then he walks away and says, "you two are the prettiest girls i've seen all day." haha they aren't afraid. THEN, seriously a mission story i will remember forever. We were DYING! We were on our way home waiting for a bus in the freezing cold about ready to just walk home but we decided to wait. We see a little man coming and we were like, sweet! He looks spanish! Then he got closer...we said hello and found out very quickly he only speaks a little bit of english and is Russian. So we are trying to talk to him in broken english...talking about the weather and such. He asks if i'm cold. I say yes. Next thing i know he has his hands on my cheeks, pulling my face down, on his tippy toes, goin in for a kiss!!! My eyes got the size of Texas and i pulled back! He was literally a centimeter away from kissing me! We were like what in the world!? Sister Williams was dying laughing! And the little russian says, oh..no? no? I was like no! Then he grabs my checks again and starts rubbing them trying to warm them up saying, hot!? hot?. Oh my gosh i about died. I was trying so hard not to burst into laughter!! Then he whips out a piece of russian candy and gives it to us. haha. Then Sister Williams sees the bus coming and says, Oh look! Its coming! The little Russian grabs her and starts hugging/shaking her saying, Good! Good!! We get on the bus sit down, put our scarfs over our face and just lost it! We were laughing SO hard. We were crying. It was so dang funny. I will never forget it! So funny.

I hope you all are healthy & happy! I love you guys so much! :)

resolutions--happy 2014!

 

I can't believe a year has come and gone. Last year a this time I was preparing to enter the temple for the first time and receive my endowment. 2013 was filled spiritually, I learned so much about myself and my purpose. I will be forever grateful for one of the best years of my life, the year I made new covenants with my father in heaven and left everything behind to serve The Lord for 18 months. This year 2014 I have become very excited for. I have so much I want to learn, do, and become! So I made myself some New Years resolutions (I still need to add more). Achieving them will be the challenge! Like President uchdorft said in an article in the January 2014 ensign," Of course, making resolutions is easy--keeping them is a different thing altogether." There are a lot of things I need to improve on, want to change and want to accomplish. But I have learned that yes, I can do it, I believe in myself, I can do hard things." With every new day, a new dawn comes--not only for the earth but also for us. And with a new day comes a new start--a chance to begin again....You don’t need an invitation before you start moving in the direction of your righteous goals. You don’t need to wait for permission to become the person you were designed to be." How cool is that? A fresh new start every morning when we wake up. I love the gift of repentance and the atonement that makes that possible! "Even though we might fall short of our finish line, just continuing the journey will make us greater than we were before." This is something I need to apply more and I am continuing learning to do so. I can't expect myself to be perfect, if I do how am I to become better? If anything else you get from reading this post... Remember the word 'ahora'  or in English, now.

"An old proverb says, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.”There is something wonderful and hopeful about the word now. There is something empowering about the fact that if we choose to decide now, we can move forward at this very moment.Now is the best time to start becoming the person we eventually want to be--not only 20 years from now but also for all eternity."

There is power in making resolutions! Do it NOW. :)

our new years celebration consisted of sparkling cider

love these sisters

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.