2/20/17

The Adventures of Lewis and Park Part 5: The Egyptian Cobra

*Disclaimer* I really apologize for my terrible English in this letter. A lot happened this week and I am trying to fit it all in about 5 minutes. Also my English is really broken these days because Shona and Zimbabwe and stuff, so I can't English anymore. Don't judge me, just pray for me haha. Don't let any of my former English teachers read this.

Hey guys! Sister Park and I had another GREAT WEEK! This has been my best week on mission so far, I think! We worked our tags off! It was awesome. Hopefully I remember everything lol.

Monday: After emailing, all of us from our house went to this place called the Tanzania club! It was super yummy. I ate Matooke (bananas) and goat. I have eaten many different animals at this point in my life haha. I do love goat, though. 4/4 sisters would recommend!

Tuesday: No District Meeting! So our District Leader made an inspired decision to not hold DM this week since we had Zone Meeting on Friday last week. Sister Park and I took the time that we would have normally spent in DM walking to White Cliff South! We saw some of the boys, which was super fun. It started pouring rain while we were up there, though, so we had to wait for a little bit before we went back. We also worked with one of our members Elena on Tuesday, and she is one of my favorite people ever. Cutest human I know. We had a ton of good lessons on Tuesday. Such a productive day! The spirit was just THERE! ALL DAY! 

Wednesday: Lessons on lessons on lessons again! We were so busy. We started proselyting at 10 a.m. and we got back home at like 8:30. I LOVE IT when I come home absolutely exhausted from missionary work. It is the bomb. Favorite feeling ever! We got to see Henry on Wednesday, though, which was so nice. Henry is one of my favorite investigators. (Do I say that about everyone? Yes. Do I care? No. Can you guys deal with it? You will have to. MWAHA) (Sorry I am super hyper today) We taught Henry the Plan of Salvation and it was the easiest lesson ever because he just gets the gospel. 

Thursday: Interviews with President! So we weekly planned in the morning (always a party). Sister Park and I go a little crazy about 98% of the time with weekly planning. It is not possible for either of us to sit for 4 hours in a row (personal study, companion study, weekly planning), so we always end up doing something crazy or stupid about half way through. This week was not an exception haha. We went to town for lunch before our interviews with President, and we discovered SCHWARMA!! It is literally the love of my life. Google it please because I don't have time to explain it. It is a Jewish dish, I think? I don't know, but I am planning on eating at least 50 more before I leave Zim. After lunch, we got to the office at around 2. We were supposed to be interviewed at 2:20, but because President Mkhabela is a busy guy with a lot of his plate and some missionaries need more love and care, we weren't interviewed until around 5. It was really nice to talk with him one on one for a little bit! We hurried back to our area and had two quick lessons before we went home.

Friday: Just a whole bunch of lessons! 

Saturday: Okay so I think Saturday was the literal craziest day I have had on mission. So we started off our day around 10 am. We had a few lessons in White Cliff, which was awesome and nothing crazy happened. Then we walked to Granary and had a few more lessons, no big deal. Then we had to drive super far to DZ Extension, where we had a few other lessons, all went well. THEN we drive back to Snake Park for our lesson with Patrick. So here is innocent little me thinking that Snake Park is just a coincidental name. We walk through this corn field to get to Patrick's place. When we get there, everyone is freaking out and we can't figure out why. Patrick lives with a few other people alone in this big corn field. So we walk over to see why they are freaking out, and they are all like, "Snake, snake!" I was looking everywhere to see it, but I couldn't find it because I was trying to look at the ground for it. Eventually my companion is like, "No, look in the middle of the corn!" THIS HUGE SNAKE WAS LIKE SLITHERING ITS WAY UP THE CORN STALK. It was literally AS BIG AS A CORN STALK. I was like oh my gosh, this is the day that I die haha. Except it was nowhere even close to me and yeah. But all of the people were like, "It is an Egyptian Cobra!" So if you want to see what the snake looked like, google it. It literally had a cobra head though. I was like holy cow I did not sign up for that. So Sister Lewis is not a fan of Snake Park. THEN we went to go try and find this investigator who lives in Granary. We had no idea how to get there, so we decided just to ask people. Long story short because I am running out of time, we walked for about an hour and a half trying to find this guy, when his house is like FIVE MINUTES from where we parked our car. It was a nice work out, though! THEN I got home and found out that I almost burned our house down haha. I totally forgot in the morning that I was boiling some eggs and then we left. The oven was on from like 10 to like 7. I am so super blessed that our house didn't burn down haha. It smelled like burnt eggs for a solid day, though. Pakayipa for sure.

Sunday: Normal Sunday! We had ten people come to church, which was awesome! 3 of them should be getting baptized this week, unless anything goes awry. 

Guys I love you so much! I am out of time, so I have to go! Please forgive me for my terrible English today haha. I will be better next time! 

READ YOUR SCRIPTURES. SAY YOUR PRAYERS. BE HAPPY AND HEALTHY.

Sister Lewis

P.S. I am not sick anymore! But I did get Sister Park sick. Sister Park, when you read this in the future, I AM SO SORRY, but I LOVE YOU!

And P.S. .

"This may be the last week of The Adventures of Lewis and Park! Transfer news comes this Saturday, and we might be split up. I am PRAYING that we won't be, but we are both ready to do whatever the Lord wants us to do."

And one more P.S. One of my investigators said something so inspired the other day. He said, "Jesus is the answer to every situation if we accept him into our lives."

Just thought I would share that. It was so cool. 

Matooke and Goat!

Sister Park "tasting the rainbow"

Sister Park pointed out that the shadow of our car looks like Shrek haha #true

I put Sister Namugenyi (former comp) on my back like a giant baby!

I am totally carrying my babies like this!

I may have fallen asleep like this last night...

---

KL

2/13/17

Selfie if the week. I was looking really tired

Sister Walbeck and I! She is so cute

So...we had a snake in the house this week. We named him Gilbert. We didn't kill him, and we didn't keep him.

Me and Gilbert

Marimba Park/Harare South Zone!

This week we found a puppy!

Me and Spike

Add caption

Sunset

My companion wearing Sister Thomas's glasses. She was trying to look Super Asian haha

Sister Park and I

House Picture! Sister Thomas, Sister Namugenyi, Sister Park, Sister Lewis

So...yeah. WE took a lot of funny pictures haha

Smolder

Joshua 7:10 "And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?"

The Adventures of Lewis and Park Part 4: WORK!

Macadini! I hope you are all doing well! 

So...let me explain my scripture haha because it does have significance! This week, Sister Lewis got sick! BOO!  LUCKILY it was only like congestion and a cough. I wasn't sick to my stomach, which was a huge blessing. Everyday when I woke up this week, I couldn't talk for a solid ten minutes haha. My companion would always ask me if I needed to stay home to get better, and my response was always, "For what?!" We had way too much to do this week! There was no way I was staying inside. We had souls to save! So, instead of laying on my face all week, I worked! AND I GOT BETTER SO FAST! The Lord helped me out so much. I wasn't even tired or anything. It was awesome. #blessed I was bummed, though, because it was the first time on mission I have been sick. It was bound to happen, though, so I am glad it was just a tiny cold. 

Monday: After emailing, we went and shopped and stuff. I love spending preparation day with the sisters in my house. Sister Thomas is the best and obviously I love Sister Namugenyi because she used to be my literal companion. Oh, I forgot! Sister Park got pulled over on Monday for a totally nonsense reason haha. She was in the middle of the intersection when the light turned yellow, so she had to turn when the light was about to turn red. She got ticketed. Luckily it was only $10, but we were all not very excited about it haha. Now we laugh and joke about the light turning yellow whenever we drive. "What did you want me to do, officer?" We love Zim police haha. 

Tuesday: District Meeting! After DM, we ate lunch and then went to the area. Sister Park and I had a ton of lessons on Tuesday, which was good because the rest of the week was kind of crazy. We saw a ton of my favorite investigators this day, so I was in a good mood for sure! We had an awesome lesson about the Plan of Salvation with Lazarus, Alphios, and Alex. They are powerful guys. 

Wednesday: EXCHANGES! This day was literally so fun. Sister Park and I went to Chitunguiza to work with Sister Hopkins (Arizona) and Sister Walbeck (Utah). I got to work with Sister Walbeck, and I was so excited! We had an AWESOME day together! I would be so happy if she was my companion in the future. She is super awesome. It was so cool because all of the lessons we had were crazy spiritual. It was not even my area, but I got the feeling at the end of the day when I was praying that all of the people that I had met today were supposed to meet me. God works in mysterious ways! It was such a spiritually incredible day. I loved it. 

Thursday: So Thursday was a little bit challenging. We did weekly planning as usual, but then George (the guy who the church hired to fix our house) came over to fix this giant hole we had in our ceiling. He came at around 11, and didn't leave until 5 in the evening. Sister Thomas and Sister Namugenyi went to their area, so Sister Park and I had to stay home until George left. We didn't get to teach any lessons, which we were bummed about. We were super grateful that George fixed our house, though. It needed some work done. Sister Park and I worked from about 5 to 8 and just contacted, mainly. Our car also got stuck again haha. The only people around were a bunch of drunk guys, but they got it figured out which was awesome haha. They lifted our car and helped us get out! It was so nice of them.

Friday: Zone Meeting! On Friday we all got together as a zone to get some training from our Zone Leaders. It was supposed to go from 10-1, but it ended up going from 10-2. Sister Lewis doesn't do well these days sitting, so that was a challenge. It was really good, though! We enjoyed. After Zone Meeting, we grabbed lunch and then went to go teach. We only saw a handful of people, but it was a good day! We met this guy for the first time and he was like, "I want to be baptized! I prayed to know which church was the true church, and then someone gave me your number!" My companion and I were not even surprised. Heavenly Father can do anything! He prepares people for us, for sure. 

Saturday: Nothing on the schedule but TEACHING, which we were so excited about. We got to teach a ton of people, and it was a great day! We went to work for sure. 

Sunday: Church! I love church. Church is awesome. This week, Sister Park and I had 17 investigators attend church! We were so excited! The branch is really excited, too. Our goal is to turn the branch into a ward by the end of the year. Obviously Sister Park and I won't be there for that long, but we will try our best to help as much as possible! People in Kuwadzana are READY for the gospel! 

That was my week! I hope you guys had a great week! I did for sure. I am so happy! I never want to come home haha. I am still growing spiritually SO MUCH! Every week I have a different goal for myself. I have a lot of weaknesses, but I am slowly overcoming them through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It feels so good to progress. I am glad I get to change while my investigators are changing, too!

I love Kuwadzana and I LOVE Sister Park. We are best friends haha. Love you guys!

Sister Lewis

2/6/17

Jenna and Housemates

Caught in the rain

Jenna and Sister Park

Sister Park with a cute kitten

Jenna with kitten

Drenched from the rain!

Elder from Denmark

The Adventures of Lewis and Park Part 3: "Burned for the Lord"

Hey guys! I had YET ANOTHER fabulous week...as usual! 

Monday: After emailing, we went and ate lunch and shopped. Guys, I will give you 5 bond notes if you can guess where we ate...KFC! I know you are all thinking, "what?!" Same. I was so shocked. My companion was like, "Do you want KFC for lunch?" and I was like, "Heck yeah!" So we got KFC. It honestly is a lot better here in Zimbabwe than it is in America. They also have sadza as a part of their menu, which was cool.

Tuesday: District Meeting! We ate Nando's for lunch after DM, which is such an incredibly wonderful place. TOO BAD it isn't in America! So I won't be able to eat there once I get home. Sister Park and I saw Lazarus, who is one of my favorite investigators! I probably say that about everyone, but Lazarus is just a cool guy. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he was so excited to read it! 

Wednesday: This day was the literal craziest day, but it was good! So remember how last week we got Sacagawea stuck? Yeah so we really didn't want that to happen again. This time, we parked our car at one of our members houses and walked up to White Cliff South. Was it around a mile and a half walk? Yes. Did we enjoy it? Also yes. Did Sister Lewis wear sunscreen? NOPE. #regrets So we get up to White Cliff South, and ALL of our appointments fell through! We had about four appointments planned up there, but no one could see us! So we walked back down the mountain, and had our appointments in White Cliff. We saw a few people, and then made our way BACK to White Cliff South to see the boys. By the time we get back up there, I am pretty much fried. #oops So Tapiwa's mom said something SO POWERFUL as we were waiting for the boys. She only speaks broken English, but she was pointing out that I got burned. She looked at me in the eyes and said, "But you are burned for the Lord." I sat there in profound silence. I wasn't even mad that I got burned or anything, but I was like WOW this lady has awesome perspective. It was a great day!

Thursday: MISSION TOUR! So Elder Ellis from the Presidency of the Africa Southeast Area came and spoke to us. He was really inspired and gave us so much encouragement, and also things that we needed to work on. The most spiritual moment, though, was a talk that was given by one of the missionaries of our mission. I won't mention the name for privacy's sake, but they gave a beautiful talk about the Plan of Salvation. At the beginning of the talk, they told us that they had just found out the week before that their mom had passed away. I cannot even imagine the difficulty of losing your mom on mission. This missionary was so strong, though, and told us about their decision to stay on mission and finish until their time to go home. Please pray for this missionary! I am doing so. I really respect their strength and bravery.

Friday: Normal proselyting day, but we also got to do weekly planning on Friday since we didn't get to do it on Saturday! 

Saturday: Normal proselyting day! Nothing to report on. Lots of spiritual lessons! 

Sunday: Fast Sunday! These days are always my favorite. I love going to church every week! We had investigators keep their commitments of coming to church, which we were so happy about! Sister Park and I got to teach Young Women's because they didn't have a teacher! We also taught Gospel Principles. We just get to teach a whole lot haha. 

I had a great week! I am happy, healthy, and loving life! Have a great week!

Love, Sister Lewis