WHEN YOU GOT BUGS IN YOUR HOUSE

WHO YA GUNNA CALL?!

ELDER LEWIS!!!

We've been fumigating houses all over the mission, and let me tell you, its not as fun as it sounds. 

It's fun for the first house, and then it gets really, REALLY boring. 

Welcome to the office life. :)

This week was good, nothing really too special. We were talking with a really nice woman in the street one day, and a seagull, sent from Satan, flew over head and dropped a nice wet surprise on the hand of the woman we were teaching. I never thought that a seagull could take away the Spirit so quickly. 

We've been on the hunt for new people to teach, and we've found some really good people to teach. Lots of Chileans, some Haitians, some Venezolanos and even some Colombianos. There is a good mix of nationalities here in Chile!

This week we had the opportunity to teach our friend Mario about fasting. We explained the importance of it, how to do it, and how powerful it really is. Mario was very intrigued with the idea, and when we asked him if he'd like to fast with us, he was all in! 

We explained to Mario that the fast is always done with a purpose. IN this case, we asked Mario if he'd like to fast with us so that we could get permission from his parents ot be baptized. Mario loved the idea, and we powered through the whole day without food or water. Mario came to church with us on Sunday, and we were able to finish our fast together after church. It was a very special experience and I'm sure we will see some very special miracles. 

Other than that, we've been working hard and doing all we can to help the chilean people. 

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving (we had some chicken with rice) and enjoy the Holiday seasons! 

Love you all, see ya next week!!!!

much love,

-Elder Grant Lewis

When a missionary comes into the office asking for something and you have no idea what to do!

Well, its been a good week with lots of crazy exchanges, good times, and spiritual experiences. 

LES CUENTO!

We started off this week with an exchange with my Day 1 buddy, Elder Gumm from the MTC! 

Elder Gumm was previously the missions financial secretary, and he has some connections to our good pal Elder Gibby, the new mission financial man (he trained him).

Elder Gibby invited us to a very special lunch in Centro! 

We were with Presidente and Hermana Catala, with President and Hermana Swenson, the temple presidents, and with 20 or so workers from the visa department!

We had some fine food, got to do trivia with the visa workers, and got to act very elegant and refined. Thanks Elder Gibby!

In our sector, there is a laguna that has been closed for about 2 years for construction. Just a few days ago, the Laguna had its grand opening! 

As we were heading to the house at night, we got caught up in a huge crowd of people, and as we made an escape to the house, they started with one of the longest fireworks shows I've ever seen! 

It was a good time to take a second and see some good old fireworks in the nighttime. 

Our good pal Mario is doing really well, he came to church this Sunday and loved it. 

We have a Family Home Evening planned for this afternoon with Mario and Hermano Del Rio. I'll update you next week on that!

Going back to the exchange with Elder Gumm, we were walking around the new laguna trying to find some people to teach. 

We stopped to look around, and I saw a man sitting alone in the park. I immediately felt that I should talk to him. I brushed it off, and we kept looking around, taking in the park and whatnot. I saw him, and I felt again that I should talk to him. I realized what was happening, and I said to Elder Gumm, 

"That guy, lets go talk to him"

We met Javier, a guy from Colombia that had been living here alone for 2 years. As we were talking to him, he got emotional and told us that he was looking to change his life. We shared the message of the restoration with him and invited him to church. We later learned that he's from the sector next to us, but yesterday, he came to church! 

We are very excited for Javier, even though he's not in our sector. 

The Spirit guided me to talk to Javier so that he could start that change that he had been looking for in his life. We are here as missionaries working for God, we don't work for ourselves. When God knows that somebody needs us, He gives us the way to help those people. The importance of listening to the Spirit is essential here on the mission, but its also extremly important for everybody. 

Listen to the Spirit, hear His warnings and His guidence, and we will recieve the help that God is trying to give us. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! Stay safe and keep going! 

11 months to go!

much love,

-Elder Grant Lewis 

After a long and crazy week, lets get into the new letter!

I started off this week on an exchange with my old MTC Companion Elder Gumms new missionary, Elder Boatright!! Elder Gumm is training him, and he just got here 2 weeks ago. I got to go on exchanges with Elder Boatright for a day and see whats its like to train a new missionary. It's hard stuff, but its a good time to know that you can help somebody new get used to the missionary life. He's a good missionary and is learning really fast! 

After that, we had a zone conference with President and Sister Catala, along with the old MTC Pals Elder Barney and Elder Gumm! We are all in neighboring zones, so we got to link up for the first time in a year! 

The conference was awesome, we are learning the importance of teaching by the Spirit. We dont teach the people, its the Spirit that teaches them. We just give them the information! :)

We had a nice few days of hard rain, and I had to whip out the goofy rain boots. My rain pants went mysteriously missing, so I worked with sopping wet church pants. 

Always a good time in TropiConce. 

It's been a week of trails of faith, with the rain, with the work, with everything. 

I studied a scripture this week that I've come to love,

Ether 12:6

6 And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

We will never recieve a testimony, until after the trial of our faith. The trails and tests will never end, but we know that we are on the right path, if its a hard path to follow. 

The only way of progression, is uphill! Hard is a constant, the way we react to that constant is how the outcome follows.,

I love you all, thank you for the letters and prayers, they're coming your way as well. 

Stay safe, see ya next week!

Much love,

-Elder Grant Lewis

Another Monster Week, another start to another transfer!

Welp, here we are for another transfer in the office, with Elder Ranck, in Lorenzo Arenas in Concepcion. But here's the deal,

IM TRAINING! 

I'm not really training a new missionary, I'm training another missionary, A guy from Brazil, to learn how to do my work here in the office so that I can take the place of Elder Ranck when he goes. 

It's a good time!

I don't have much to update for this week, it was just spent working in the office, setting up meetings, making up materials boxes to send to the zones, making face-cards in Photoshop (i never thought my tech skills would come in handy in the mission, I've been proved wrong), and being stressed. 

We met up with our buddy Mario a few times this week to teach him and help him find his answer in the church. He's doing well, and is very excited to be learning and growing in the gospel. We will keep working with him to get him to a baptism. 

As I said, its been a normal week with nothing too fun to share, but I snapped this foto in front of the new fountain in the lake in front of our house. Enjoying the view! 

*this photo didn't come through*

Hope you all have a great week, love and miss ya all! 

Until next week!

-Elder Grant Lewis