GUESS WHO WE HEARD FROM TODAY!!!!

YEP, we heard from ELDER LEWIS!

We ALSO heard from the Mission President!!!

Dear Brother and Sister Lewis,

Sister Catala and I had the great pleasure of welcoming  Elder Grant Christian Lewis to the Chile Concepción Mission.  After we met him at the airport when he arrived, we enjoyed lunch together with the other missionaries.  We held an orientation and testimony meeting and Elder Lewis met his new companion, Elder Patricio Giordano Alejandro Arismendiz, who will train him to be a missionary.  They will be laboring in the District of Linares 4 and located in the Zone of Linares.

A mission is a wonderful experience filled with challenges and successes that strengthens the testimony and spirituality of each missionary.  The greatest support you as a family can give your missionary during his service, is that of uplifting letters.  Missionaries look forward with great anticipation to each letter from home.  In addition to using email, you can send packages and letters to our address.  The U.S. Postal Service and the Correos de Chile do a good job of delivering packages.  Do not send packages or medicine by FedEx, DHL and UPS as it often results in delays, lost merchandise and extra costs because of duty at the customs office in Chile.  We do not have an agent who coordinates shipments arriving at the customs office in Santiago or Concepción to facilitate transactions nor the resources for duty payments.

Elder Grant Christian Lewis
Misión Chile Concepción
Castellon 1063  Oficina Norte
Casilla 2210
Concepción, Chile

We encourage each of our missionaries to write to their parents each week.  Please let me know if a reminder to him is needed.  You may contact us using e-mail at 2015528@ldschurch.org.

We invite you to look at our blog: chileconcepcionmission.blogspot.cl

It will be our privilege to work closely with Elder Lewis as he serves here in Chile.  We are blessed to have him join us in this mission and know that he will have many life changing experiences as he proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Thank you for your support and for sharing him with us.

Photos of your son and a map of the mission are attached.

Sincerely,
President and Hermana Catala.

"Good Day,

As Representatives of the Chile Concepción Mission, we write to inform you that Elder Lewis has arrived safely from his flight and now is in the mission office!"

Elder Lewis with his Mission President and Wife.

The week Elder GRANT Lewis was leaving the CCM in Mexico...he sent me an email and said, 

"I have a song for you to listen to, it feels to me like my mission anthem. Its called this must be the place by the talking heads. The songs starts "home, is where i want to be, but I guess Im already there!" 

THIS IS MY HOME NOW! AND IT WILL CHANGE AGAIN IN 4 DAYS!"

When I listened to the song, I realized I already knew it. This is a song Grant listened to, quite often, before he left.

I'm so glad he's embracing his new "home" and I hope Chile will be just as much home to him!

Lyrics

Home is where I want to be

Pick me up and turn me around

I feel numb, born with a weak heart

I guess I must be having fun

The less we say about it the better

Make it up as we go along

Feet on the ground, head in the sky

It's okay, I know nothing's wrong, nothing

Oh! I got plenty of time

Oh! You got light in your eyes

And you're standing here beside me

I love the passing of time

Never for money, always for love

Cover up and say goodnight, say goodnight

Home, is where I want to be

But I guess I'm already there

I come home, she lifted up her wings

I guess that this must be the place

I can't tell one from the other

I find you, or you find me?

There was a time before we were born

If someone asks, this is where I'll be, where I'll be oh!

We drift in and out

Oh! Sing into my mouth

Out of all those kinds of people

You got a face with a view

I'm just an animal looking for a home and

Share the same space for a minute or two

And you love me till my heart stops

Love me till I'm dead

Eyes that light up

Eyes look through you

Cover up the blank spots

Hit me on the head I got ooh!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!

We enjoyed a nice, whole hearted attempt at an American Thanksgiving dinner, and we could not be happier! 

Gracias, CCM Trabajadores!

My 6 week stay has run its course, and in a few days, 

THIS MEXIBIRD WILL FLY THE COOP!

I cannot believe that my CCM experience is already over! 

A lot of spanish learning, Arizonas, and interesting food has been crammed into me! and some come out, but thats not the point. 

The point is, I'M ALMOST A REAL MISSIONARY! 

We got the stickers on our name tags, which means we are on our final week. Pretty crazy stuff. I wish I could update on the Arizona wall today, but I forgot to get a new picture. I will update next week, when I'm in CHILE! 

Our Latino district has now since flown the coop themselves, and it sounds like they are thriving! We had our final mixed class with them, and then we sent them off to bigger and better investigators! 

This email is going to be a bit shorter than others, but I will let you know, the days are still busy as ever, and i'm still LOVING IT!

As I've been preparing, mentally and physically, for my swift kick in the rear out into the true spanish world called Chile, I've had lots of time to think about the things I've been thankful for here. 

It's easy to think of the basic stuff we are thankful for; 

our families, the food, the time that we get to spend with friends and families. But with a bit of a lack of these things in the CCM, I've been able to think much harder about the blessings that I recieve each day here in Mexico. 

I'm blessed every day with the strength to get up each morning, to study and learn spansih each day. Im blessed with wonderful teachers that make learning spanish possible, and for comps that make the learning fun. I'm blessed with a great district of wonderful people who help me strengthen my faith and testimony every day, and make the whole experience much less painful. I'm truly blessed to have family and friends that love me and support me, while I'm doing quite possibly the hardest thing I've ever done in my 18 years of life. And we are all blessed to have a Heavenly Father that loves each and every one of us, and to have a Brother, in Jesus Christ, that was willing to give His life, so that we might have eternal life. I know that through all the suffering and hard times that I've gone through here in the CCM, God has helped me make it through every second of it all. I know that if you're in a hard time, or need some help, God is ALWAYS willing to reach out His hand and give us the pull we sometimes need. 

I hope everybody can think extra hard today of some of the more important, deeper blessing in your lives. I love you all, and I thank each of your for reading and responding to these emails. I hope you all have a great Turkey Day and a great week! Next week, I will be emailing FROM CHILE! 

Wish me luck on my journey, I hope everybody stays safe and is doing well back home! Love you all and thanks again!

Until next time,

-Elder Lewis

Who can believe I only have 1 more P-Day in the CCM after this!? 
NOT ME! 

The time is FLYING by here, and my brain is getting jam-packed with Spanish and the Gospel! 

It's wild how much I've learned and grown over just a few weeks, I cant even imagine what 2 YEARS will bring! 

A little more about this week...

My district of 6 guys now have a whole casa to ourselves, since our Latinos moved out last week. HOW FUN! We have been diligently working on a masterpiece in our bathroom... Our Arizona Juice can Wall! 

Thankfully, we have a tienda (bookstore) on campus and we are given 100 pesos every week. Roughly 5 American dollars. And ´Zonas only cost 9 PESOS! Anyway, we stock up on drinks and continue to grow our wall. Its a real district effort, and every night we all glory in our days work.

 Also, our district, 6B has now been dissolved. 

We like to refer to this as "The Scattering of the Tribes of Zone6" and for those wondering, we are now officially know as District 11D! How fun. We also have begun planning and teaching lessons with assigned Latino comps! It's super challenging and tough, but the reward is so great. Besides, Elder Balboa and I make a KNOCKOUT companionship. 

A quick funny story from teaching this week with my American Comp, Elder Gumm. 

Picture this. 
We were chest deep in our lesson about the Sacrament, aka Santa Cena. Everything was going great, our investigator (our night teacher) was really understanding the meaning of the Sacrament, our message was getting through, and everybody was feeling the Spirit. Now comes the part where we explain the meaning of the Sacrament, the representation of the bread and the water. "El pan represente el cuerpo de Jesucristo," (the bread represents the body of Jesus Christ) "y la ague represente la... uhhh..." My comp and I look at eachother, stress in our eyes, trying to think of the spanish word for blood. 
After 3 panicked seconds of thinking, we went to plan B. I looked at my investigator with loving eyes, and gently say "La agua represente el rojo, cuerpo agua de Jesucristo, entiende?" 

I told my investigator, MY TEACHER, that the WATER REPRESENTS THE RED BODY WATER! THE RED BODY WATER OF JESUS CHRIST! 
Let me tell you, my comp and I will never forget sangre, aka blood in spanish. Anyway, our teacher could not keep her role as investigator and burst out laughing in the middle of our lesson and had to apologize for laughing later in class. That story has been circulating between our teachers and Latino comps and the Spanish people really love it. Sangre is the word. 

This week, I wanted to share one of my favorite scriptures that I've come to love out here in the CCM. In Matthew, chapter 16, verse 25, we read "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it". 
For those that wonder why I would ever want to give up my life for 2 years, to go learn a new language, live in a foreign country, and teach the word of God to people Ive never met before, this is why. 
I have decided to "lose my life for HIS sake" so that I might find my own life. I gave up my college opportunities, my previous personal interests, and 2 years of my life, for the Lords and for Jesus Christs sake, to help others come unto Christ, and so that they may find joy and happiness in their lives. I know that through doing this great work, and helping others find their lives, I will be able to truly find my life again, and be able to really find the spiritual life that God has wholeheartedly given to me. I know that this is the work I was meant to do, and that it needs to be done. 

I love you all, and I am so thankful for the support and words of love that everybody has given me so far in this difficult journey. I pray for each of you every day, and I want you to know that I'm doing great here, and I'm well loved and watched over. 

I love you all and I thank you for reading through my general letters. I hope everybody has a great time with your friends and family on Thanksgiving, I will write again then! Stay safe and make good choices, love y'all!

-Elder Lewis

Well well well, 3 weeks deep and I'm still alive! 

Its crazy to think that i'm halfway through my CCM experience!

This week was a great one! My district got to visit the Mexico City Temple, it is such an amazing place. 

Everything was in spanish, which was fun to try to decipher, it's great that the Spirit can manifest itself...even through a different language. 

Naps have become the currency here at the CCM. If you can take one, you will take one. The days are long and tough, so getting any extra sleep is a blessing! 

This week, my triad of companionship was split up! Another Elder Davis was put in our district, and now Elder Gumm and I are comps, and Elder Davis and Elder Barney are comps! Nothing has changed besides the name of the triad, so everything is well. 

Here's the real kicker for this week.... 

Elder Barney has been begging that we get "district buzzes" together...

Well his wishes came to fruitition! One of our district members brought clippers and we went to work. 

What a fun Saturday night, shaving your comps heads with beard trimmers in the shower. Im going to leave it at that. :) 

For your spiritual section of this email, we will now go to the scriptures! I was reading this week in 3rd Nephi, chapter 12. In verse 44, we read "But behold I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you;" 

When I read that, I remembered that thing they tell us all in elementary school: The Golden Rule. For those of you that cannot remember elementary school, this ancient doctrine goes something like this; "Treat others the way you want to be treated". 

There are always going to be people that do not like you, that will try to use you, will curse and persecute you, and even vice versa. We need to love everybody, no matter the circumstance. We are all in the same boat together, we are all brothers and sisters of God, and no parent likes it when your children fight and abuse one another. 

If you're struggling with these things, either for yourself, and from others, remember to love everyone. It may be tough, and it may seem counter intuitive, but in the long run, loving everybody is one of the most rewarding things that a human being can feel. God will bless you when you follow His words, and loving everybody is definitely something that He wants to see each and every one of us doing.

I love you all, and I thank you all for your support for me out here in Mexico. I pray for you all every day, and I hope you are all doing well.

Thats all for tonight folks, I hope you all have a great week and continue to love one another!

Until next time,

-Elder Lewis

This is Elder ?

To be honest, I don't know his name. I just know Grant LOVES him. And has lovingly named him Cream Biggums.

Grant said,

"gave CreamB a cut. thanks to you i have skills to line my boys up real good. love ya, peace

-elder Lewis"

In case any of you were wondering what stresses me as a Mexico MTC Missionary.... 

Well here you go. 

Guess who´s back, BACK AGAIN!

Hello again from your favorite missionary in Mexico!

What can I say, another week in paradise here in the CCM. 

Lots of class time, new food, and spiritual feastings!

So this Sunday, I had the pleasure of giving a 5 minute talk about the First Vision in sacrament meeting... COMPLETELY IN SPANISH! It might not seem all that bad at first, but when you can't copy and paste a talk from LDS.org, things get a little tougher. 

Luckily, it went well and everybody enjoyed it. 
One day at lunch, one of the CCM Presidency senior companionship came and talked with my district for a bit. They indroduced themselves as the Stapley's, the first counselors of the Presidency. 

As I was talking with them, Sister Stapley looks at me and says, "Elder Lewis, where are you from?" I told her Boston, but also added that I was born and somewhat grew up in Utah. She added, "I had a Lewis deliver one of my children in Utah, any chance you could be related?" I quickly blurted out, "David Lewis!? Thats my grandpa!" Low and behold, my grandfather delivered the First Couselors of the CCM Presidencies 4th child! 

This really is a small world we live in. 

My comps and I also decided to join the CCM Choir! We had our first choir gathering during our Tuesday devotional, we obviously killed it! 

Since Im a missionary now, I figured I should start adding some more spiritual stuff to my generals. 

And this week, I was truly blessed with a miracle that I´d love to share with you all.

Maybe a week before I left for my mission, me and my pals made our way to Providence to spend some time with a friend that was attending school there. 

We all came from different schools and places to meet in Providence. My buddy Sam, and I drove from Grafton together to meet our friends. We got there, spent some great time with each other, and then the time came that we needed to all start heading home. We walked to my friends dorm to say our final goodbyes and start to head off. 

Right as we were about to split, one of my friends asked me, "Grant, can we say a prayer with you before we go?" I was kind of shocked to hear from one of my non-member friends that he wanted to pray. So I looked at him and asked, "Really? You want me to pray?" And my other friends kind of looked at eachother, and looked at me, and all said "Yeah, will you?" 

On the side of the road, outside my friends dorm at 12:30 PM, my friends and I all joined in a circle with our arms folded and heads bowed in prayer, asking God to bless us with safety and peace as we all went our seperate ways to return home. I finished the prayer, and we all looked up at each other and felt a wonderful, overwhelming warmth and peace on the cold night in Providence. We said our goodbyes and started on our ways home. 

Fast forward half an hour, when Sam and I are driving home on the highway at 1 AM. As we drove through the dark, nearly empty highway, I heard a still, small voice from the back seat of my car. "Check behind you, make sure the left lane is clear," I heard that prompting, and immediately turned my head to check the road behind me, to see if the left lane was clear. I checked my mirrors and looked around, the road was completely clear behind me. I thought to myself, "Hmm, that was weird," and turned my head forward to continue driving. Right as I got my eyes back on the road, I locked eyes with a line of completely stopped cars directly in front of me, in the right lane. I quickly swerved over into the left lane, avoiding the pile up of cars in the road. As we continued on our way, I realized that that still, small voice, prompting me to check the lanes behind me, had in deed saved me from ramming into the back of the piled up cars in the lane in front of me. 

Fast forward 3 weeks, in the MTC. As I told this story of the Holy Ghosts promtings in my life, I realized that we had prayed as a group right before we left Providence. We had asked God to protect us and keep us safe on our way home. I was so blessed to have the Spirit with me to guide and protect us on our way home, and I know that God watched out for all of us on our trips home. 

I know that when we pray, God always listens, and when we need help, He will always be there to guide us in the ways that we need it. 

I love you guys so much, and I pray for all of you daily. I hope you can all work to pray to God with sincere intent and see His hand in your lives. I'm so grateful for all of you and your support, it meeans so much to me! I hope everybody has a good week and stay safe! Until next time!

-Elder Lewis