Here again, your man from Chile, Elder Lewis!

It's your boy here from the depths of Chile with another update on life! 

Life has been good and busy here in Valle Hermosa! 

Elder Guachalla and I have been working hard, finding new people, and jumping puddles of faith, and rain. 

It rains A LOT here. Valle Hermoso is rain, and hills, and animals in the streets. We have made a lot of good cat friends, and the dogs are more annoying and smelly than anything. 

This week, after a long day of work, we made our way into the house. As i was setting my stuff down, I bumped heads with this little guy!

He may look little in the photo, but he was no little pal. 

Lets say that we checked about every corner of the house for any more lurking buddies. My comp and I have also teamed up with tackling meals, IN UNITY! We've been making french fries, chicken nuggets, pasta, pancakes, and a whole lot of juice here. We've been eating good!

This week, I studied a bit on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Something interesting that I learned, is that the Atonement is INFINITE. How? In the aspects of time, and forgiveness. 

Jesus suffered in the Garden for only a short period of time, more or less and hour. But the Atonement, what he suffered, still applies to us NOW. 2000 years later, and the Atonement still has purpose for us, and it always will. This brings us to the aspect of forgiveness. Christ suffered for every sin that has and we be commited. That means, no matter how many sins there will be, Jesus already suffered all of them for each one of us! For that reason, the Atonement of Christ pays for every single sin that will be commited, in whatever year that happens to be. The Atonement is what saves us, and it was all done out of love. 

Jesus Christ loves us so much, that he decided to suffer all the sins that we will commit, so that we can live with our Heavenly father again. I know that this love is true, and that it is INFINITE. I know that Christ is the only one that will save us, and that thru Him, we have the opportunity to repent, recieve forgiveness, and return to our Father in heaven.

I love you all and thank you for your support, keep it coming! Have a great week and keeping moving uphill! Until next week!

love,

-Elder Lewis

The City is not what I thought it would be...

It's BETTER!

It's been one week here in Valle Hermoso, new comp, new area, new fun! 

The area is great, its right on the coast, and super close to the city of Concepcion. 

It's really pretty here, and very interesting. It's all hills, which is new because Cauquenes is flat! 

It's time to grow my legs. 

My comp, Elder Guachalla, is from Bolivia, and trained my good friend, Elder Barney. 

We are already real good pals, and we are killing it out here! 

The ward is great here, the church is strong here in this part of Chile which is awesome. To say the least, transfers have treated me well so far.

This week, my comp and I taught a family night on FAITH. 

We teach that there are 5 levels of faith, starting with desire, action, testimony, miracles, and then power. We had a scripture describing each level, and how we go from level to level with our faith, like a staircase. 

If we have a desire to gain faith, we then must act to develop our faith. We can then gain a testimony from our actions, and then we can see the miracles come to fruitition. And when we can see the miracles, that is when we gain the power of faith. 

But it all starts with a good desire. 

I love you all and as always, thank you for your love and support, you guys keep me going! Grow that seed of faith and start with a good desire to improve always!

see you all next week!

much love,

-Elder Grant Lewis

A little over 5 months in Cauquenes and this little brown bird is flying the nest!

Cauquenes has been a great little place to be born and grow up, but its time for me to head out!

We have transfers tomorrow, and im headed out to Valle Hermoso, about 45 mins from the city of Concepcion! Im going from the country to the curbs! 
CITY BOY!

I will also have a new comp, a latino! Nows my chance to really learn some Spanish!

Other than that, my comp and I finished out a good 2 transfers together here in Cauquenes, working hard and with some great learning experiences. 

I've learned a lot and grown tons here, and I'm sure to learn even more in my new home. 

This week, we had our final zone conference, and got some good photos with some pals there! HA! 

I also got to skype my family for a bit yesterday for Mothers Day! 

Happy mothers day to all my mom friends out there! 

I had the chance to speak on mothers day in sacrament meeting, and what an experience that was. I shared the story of the 2000 stripling warriors and the testimonies that their mothers shared with them before they went out to battle. That with faith in God, all things are possible. And I want to give a shout out to my wonderful mom for her testimony, and for helping me get to where I am today. I'm out here, a young man in the raging war, fighting with a faith in God that my mom has taught me. Without that testimony or faith, I think its say to say that the adversary would have gotten me against a wall with his sword in my face. :) 

I know this church is true, that God is our loving Father, and that our mothers are really what makes us who we are today, after all, they did give us all life. :) 

I love you all, and hope you all had a great mothers day. Have a great week and keep doing good things! Stay safe, much love!

yours truly,

-Elder Grant Lewis

Coming in on the close of transfer 4 in good old Chile!

Elder Lewis here with another weekly update. 

Not much new, not much cool, but here we are and I hope you'll enjoy!

This week we had a zone conference with our President and the zone, which was fun. We had a good lunch, learned a lot, did some practices, and mingled with the other missionaries.

Then a few days later, we made the trek out to Chillán, a city about 2 hours away from us to get flu shots! GOOD TIMES! I got to see an old friend from the MTC, Elder Barney, and a few other friends from my old zone. One of my pals in the zone here ( a latino ), asked me where I'm from, and was SHOCKED to realize that I'm a white kid from the states! He thought I was latino, and was convinced that I was Chilean or something because of the way I speak, the way I look, and the way I dress. Im finally merging into full latino! 

Elder LUIZ Coming soon! (Ive got a good tan as well ;) )

Other than that, I've been working hard and making my way through Chile, learning as I go! 

A quick scripture I wanted to share with you guys. 

Alma 43:47 

47 And again, the Lord has said that: Ye shall ^adefend your families even unto ^bbloodshed. Therefore for this cause were the Nephites contending with the Lamanites, to defend themselves, and their families, and their lands, their country, and their rights, and their religion.

We live in a world of wars, contentions, and difficulties. Our war right now is a war against the adversary, against temptation. 

I love this scripture because it's so clear that we have to fight to first, defend our families (even unto bloodshed!), and then to defend our rights, lands, and most important, our religion. 

We live in this war, and it's our finest hour to defend our religion! As members, it's our duty to share our religion, and defend our rights to faith as humans. 

I know this church is true, I know this gospel blesses families, and I know that this is our fight, and our right, our duty, to fight for our beliefs.

I love you all and thank you all for your love and support. Have a great week and keep going forward!

much love,

-Elder Grant Lewis