Macadi, Shamwaris!! (Hello, friends!)

AHH GUYS HI. I always get so excited to email haha. SO since I have a FULL TWO HOURS to email today, I get to send a legit group email! So a lot of the people who read my blog are members of the church, but some of you aren't! Today I wanted to explain what I do as a missionary and just kind of how my days go!

A Day in the Life of Sister Lewis
6:30 - Wake up, say morning prayers, get in twenty minutes of exercise.
7:00 - Breakfast, get ready for the day. We take BUCKET SHOWERS here, which are my favorite haha. We pretty much just stand in a tub and use a bucket full of water to shower. It's a real adventure. Don't even ask me how I wash my hair these days haha.
8:00 - Personal Study! We get an hour to ourselves to study whatever. Right now I am making my way through the Book of Mormon.
9:00 - Companionship Study. Sister Talemwa and I get an hour to figure out how to best teach our investigators according to the lessons we have planned for them that day. She teaches me so much about missionary work!
10:00 - 12 Week Training. Since I am a new missionary, we have to study how to be a good missionary for an hour every day haha.
11:00 - Lunch!
12:00 - Leave for our area. So this is one of my favorite parts of the day haha. We take 2 "Combis" (Pretty much a taxi) to get to our areas. A combi can be a car of any kind. Usually we are in a small, five person car on the way into town and then a huge van on the way to our area. It is fifty cents per person. It makes me laugh though because they try to shove as many people in a car as possible. We always have seven people in our five person car and like twenty two in our fifteen person van. I love it! IT always gives me the opportunity to talk to people.
1:00-6:00 - Teach and preach! I walk around for about five hours in the day. We have lessons with investigators, contact people on the street, and do service! Usually we have a recent convert with us, and he has become one of my best friends! He, Sister Talemwa, and I get along so well. This is the fastest five hours of my day! I feel like I teach for twenty minutes and then leave haha. I love, love, love teaching people! I am the only white person in the area we are in, so little kids love to come up and touch me haha. I love kids, so it doesn't annoy me. I hear the word, "Murungu!" (white person) like twenty times a day. Men also ask me to marry them haha. They love white people here! It's so easy to find someone to talk to about the gospel because they all start the conversation anyway haha.

6:00 - Travel Home. Usually we'll stop by the grocery store on the way home and buy things we forgot haha.

7:00 - Planning for the next day and recording lessons taught

8:00 - Dinner. As far as food goes, we eat a lot of beans, rice, and sadza. Sometimes we will eat out at fast food places. They still eat so much meat here haha. I swear I've eaten chicken almost every day that I have been here!

9:00 - Sister Lewis always passes out before everybody else! I am so tired at the end of the day, but the girls in my house are training me to make it to 10:30!

So that's what I do all day every day! Obviously some days are a little different. Sunday we go to church before we teach. Monday is our Preparation Day, so we have the day off, and Tuesdays we have District Meetings. Every day is so different even though I am doing the same thing. I love preaching the gospel! I have come so much closer to my Savior because I am telling people about Christ all day!

I hope everybody at home is doing well! I keep you guys in my prayers. Just remember that you have a Father in Heaven who loves you so much! There is something so incredible about this gospel: wherever you go, you are home. I am 11,000 miles away from my house, but I still feel like I am home. This gospel gives us something to have in common with everybody that we meet. We are all children of God. Jesus Christ died for ALL of our sins. I hope you remember that as you go throughout your days. Be slow to judge, and quick to love. I have changed so much. Being this close to the gospel has made me such a better person.

Have a great week, shamwaris! I will see you next week. Don't forget to pray!!

Love, Sister Lewis