Elders...

Selfie

Combis with...TV?

Chef Companion

KELVIN!

Me and D

Keith

Baptism

Aren't we cute?

SQUAD

Priesthood

Tonga

Me and Sister D

Aren't we cute?

08/28/17                                                                                                                                                                  

Hahahahah guys remember how I get lazy sometimes? TODAY IS ONE OF THOSE DAYS! Let me try to pull myself together, though! Here is a fun challenge: See if you can count HOW MANY TIMES Sister Lewis and Sister Dyantyisi had to go to the mission office this week! Just to let you know, the office is about 30 MINUTES DRIVE from our house. Pakaipa. 

This week was a powerful week. Sister Dyantyisi and I are just killing it as far as missionary work goes haha. Did I tell you guys that Sister D only has like 10 weeks left of mission? Crazy, huh? Looks like I am sending YET ANOTHER South African sister home! I am loving spending time with her. She is the absolute sweetest and pretty much just the definition of grace and elegance.

Monday: Powerful day, compared to the past 24 P-Days I have had haha. WE WENT SHOPPING and ate really good food so booyah. 

Tuesday: District Meeting! I gave the Doctrinal Study and it was fun! Right now, I am in a district of four, but I think I told you guys that already. I thought I would hate it, but I LOVE IT SO MUCH! Sister D, Elder Hanson, Elder Leneham and I just have so much fun at District Meeting. We always have snacks after DM. Are we the coolest district in the mission? TOTES! SHOUT OUT TO SEKE DISTRICT! #Tununs #Tichucks We had some good lessons, and then we had to drive to the office to pick up Sister Mzunga and Sister Plothow for exchanges. We made Tacos  for dinner and it was a fun night!

Wednesday: Exchanges! Y'alls prayers WORKED because I did not even get lost a single time with Sister Mzunga. She is such a powerful missionary and I learned SO much from her. We just laughed and joked all day. Do you guys remember Sister Park? And how I had to leave after being with her for only one transfer because she was training? Well, that trainee was Sister Mzunga! So I got to hang out with her all day, which felt like teaching with Sister Park again. So much fun. We met a lot of cool people. Sister Pamela (15) absolute KILLED the lesson we had with her. We went to go teach her about the Book of Mormon and she just knew everything all by herself because she is a champ. At the end of the day, we drove the sisters back to the office. 

Thursday: Weekly Planning! Also, we had interviews with our mission president, which meant driving to the office AGAIN ahahaha guys send help please. He was a little behind on the interviews, so pretty much our whole day we only got to teach two lessons, but it was a fun day anyway. President Mkhabela is the best!

Friday: DEVOTIONAL WITH SISTER OSCARSON, GENERAL YOUNG WOMEN'S PRESIDENT OF THE CHURCH! Drove to the mission office again hahahahaha. So, as it turns out, Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson is the most amazing human being ever. She is on the Missionary General Board of the church, so she came to speak to us. She was just telling us all of the things she has learned with her meetings with the Apostles of the church and it was awesome. So much revelation received! I got to hug her to so BE JEALOUS!

Saturday: We were supposed to have a baptism...but there was no water at the meetinghouse...pakaipa. So we pushed the baptism to Sunday and just taught a whole bunch of people instead!

Sunday: Church! Awesome as always. I taught about eternal marriage in our investigators class and I was just laughing the whole entire time because I was really just teaching my companion to PREPARE HER HAHAHA. Just imagine her next companion will be her eternal companion hahahahahaha. I love being someone's last companion honestly. So, after church we had a baptism! Brother Tawanda, Sister Makona, and Brother Makona! It was the hugest tender mercy ever to see Tawanda get baptized. He fractured his knee awhile ago and has not had the money to fix it, so he just walks really slowly around everywhere on crutches. It was the most amazing thing ever to see the Priesthood brethren lift him into the font and to watch him be baptized. Favorite baptism I have ever witnessed! SO incredible. 

This week was just powerful. Did I mention last week that I am now a year from home? So many thing have happened to me since I left home. Kendall and Keith learned how to talk, Michelle got baptized, Rylee and Sophia started school, Jason got a new job, Heather got into nursing school, Jesse and Lenzie moved, Jacob and Jaime are pregnant, Dad turned 60, Mom has been doing a whole bunch of humanitarian work, Abby got married, Andrew went on a mission, Alissa and Kaitlyn started school, Sam got his call to Franch, Maddie finished a whole year of school and is starting again, I have had SEVEN companions and FOUR AREAS, I turned 20, the list goes on and on. I think the most important, though, is that my relationship with my Savior has deepened more than I ever thought possible. I am so grateful for this past year which has changed my life more than I ever though possible. I can't wait to see what the last six months will bring. 

I love you all and I hope you know I pray for you all the time! I love my Book of Mormon SOOO much! 

Have a great week!

Sister Lewis

8/21/17
HEY FAM!

Oh my goodness gracious you guys! What a FABULOUS WEEK! It went by literally so fast and I adjusted so well to everything like beautifully, you would not even imagine. My whole mission I have never adjusted to a transfer change this well so go me for being good at change now!

Let me tell you about our week!

Monday: This was the craziest day ever. You guys already know that I left Bindura in the morning and came here to Harare. It was a sad day of saying goodbye to old friends that were going HOME from mission because they finished their time! but also a good day of saying hi to new friends! After emailing all of you guys, we had to sit around at the mission office for just a little bit, and then Sister Dyantyisi and I went to go shop. Guys...I forgot that there were like nice nice foods that existed. I was definitely coming from a small town. ALSO SOS BECAUSE I HATE DRIVING IN THE CITY HAHAHA. Sister D and I got home (CUTEST HOUSE!) and planned for the day ahead of us!

Tuesday: District Meeting! Man I haven't been transferred in so long it was so weird like having a whole new district at a whole new chapel haha. I now am in a four man district. Elder Hanson is my district leader (DAD he loves the Seahawks hahahaha imagine small world), and his companion is Elder Leneham. Elder Hanson is from America and Elder Leneham is from Australia. We had a great District Meeting, and we ate banana bread afterwards haha. After District Meeting, we hit the pavement! We saw some investigators and some recent converts. This area is FLIPPING HUGE and I am supposed to learn it all by like tomorrow because of exchanges hahahahahah. Pray for me guys. It was a great first day in the area!

Wednesday: Lessons on lessons on lessons. YOH! We just were trying to find people to teach all day long, and for sure we found a lot! 

Thursday: Weekly Planning! I was just trying so hard to remember everything that Sister Dyantyisi was telling me about all these people. After that we saw some cool people, as well. SHOUTOUT to one of our investigators who is named KEITH because that is literally my nephew's name haha.

Friday: HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY KEITH MATTHEW LEWIS! Can you guys imagine that my nephew barely turned two a few days before I left and now he can like talk fluent CHIRUNGU! (English). Pakaipa. FARAI-day (Farai means happy in Shona....coincidence? Definitely because they have their own word for Friday...) was a cool day of just teaching lessons. We also had a baptismal interview for TINO THE TINO. He passed. Shout out to him. 

Saturday: We taught some lessons in the morning, and then we had a baptism in the afternoon for Tino! Everything was just kind of crazy because at first we didn't have water in our meetinghouse, but then we did...but it was successful! I didn't know Tino that long before I came, but I was still so happy for him to get baptized! We had some powerful lessons in the evening, too. 

Sunday: FABULOUS day of just getting to know all of the members in our branch! I bore my testimony is Shona and everyone was so happy! They were surprised. 

THIS WAS A GREAT WEEK! I am so grateful to have a companion like Sister Dyantyisi! She is so amazing. She has had so much patience with me. I can't even say how cool she is, guys. She goes home in like 11 weeks, so we are thinking that maybe I will be her last companion. She was a little sick this week, so please just keep her in your prayers! I love you all so much, and I am so happy and doing well! 

HAHAHAHA BEING IN HARARE IS SO FUNNY because I was literally like in farms and the smallest town and now I am in the capital where you can find things like coconut oil and rice cakes. Also....so many white people around again?

LOVE YOU! 

Sister Lewis

Café Nush

Real Pizza

Café Nush

D the Chef

Tino the Tino

D being American

Me being African

Sister Talemwa and I!

Sister Dyantyis and I!

This is the cake that Jenna and Sister Tonga made for their last District Meeting last week.

08/14/17

Hey guys!

I am 100% scattered right now haha so let me try to gather myself together before I write this group email. I will tell you all my transfer news at the end of the email!

This week was like the best week Sister Tonga and I have had together for sure! EISH we had so much mission appropriate fun haha. 

Monday: Cleaned the house, washed the car, washed our clothes, emailed hahah. We also had a really good lesson with Sister Margaret in the evening! It was fun!

Tuesday: Last District Meeting of the transfer! Guess who gave the doctrinal study?! ME hahaha. Sister Tonga and I made this awesome Zebra cake for DM. We also had DUMPLINGS courtesy of Elder Lin. Wow I miss Chinese food guys it was HEAVEN ON EARTH. We took a lot of pictures and just had a fun time. After all that fun, we worked hard! We saw a bunch of people and had a really good lesson with Mai Tembo. A member also taught me how to bear my whole testimony in proper proper Shona so that was helpful haha. 

Wednesday: Lessons on lessons on lessons! We taught SO many people in Retreat it was just hectic. We saw all of my favorite people. Also....Sister Tonga and I did something really dumb haha. There is this one road in our area that we have to drive on to get to a lot of people, and it is pretty much terrible. SO it was 5 and the sun was going down and pretty much BLINDING ME so Sister Tonga decides to get out of the car and SIT ON THE HOOD to block the sun and try to direct me haha. I will send a picture so hopefully my mom puts it on eish it was so funny. I was driving like literally 1 km/h. We were LAUGHING SO HARD. But Jonathan made it safely without bottoming out so...crazy works? Guys pray for that car haha. 

Thursday: We did not even get to do weekly planning because Sister Tonga had to get certified to drive by Elder Carrell. She did a fabulous job, but she was so nervous haha. She forgot to put on her seat belt and I was laughing at her. We knew when she was getting certified that I would get transferred for sure haha. We had a few lessons on Thursday, but it was a crazy day.

Friday: Lessons, lessons, lessons AGAIN! We taught a ton of people in Retreat and it was so fun. We had no electricity, though, until like 10:30 at night haha. We just went home like at 9 when we were done teaching and just slept because we couldn't even do anything else haha. 

Saturday: TRANSFER NEWS! But before that...pakaipa. Eish so we were supposed to have a marriage/baptism this weekend, but pretty much everything went wrong so we didn't get to haha. The marriage officer called in the morning and told us he was in Harare, the chapel had no water or electricity, and the baptismal candidate got stuck in a town far away while she was visiting some family...we tried to overcome the odds but it did not work haha so Sister Tonga will baptize her this weekend. TRANSFER NEWS. It was so funny because I was driving when the Zone Leaders called to give us our transfer news. Sister Tonga picks up the phone and Elder Silotile goes, "Sister Tonga, you have a new companion." She didn't even wait to see who it was, she just throws the phone down on the ground and says, "FETCH!" Haha. I pulled off to the side of the road and Elder Silotile told me that Sister Tonga would be staying and I would be leaving. I am now serving in ZENGEZA which is in Harare with SISTER DYANTYISI! 

Saturday: I AM SO PUMPED TO BE WITH SISTER DYANTYISI SHE IS SO POWERFUL.

Sunday: Goodbyes like crazy eish I was sad.

Monday: ALL THE TEARS I CRIED YOU WOULD NOT EVEN BELIEVE.

Guys I literally have to get off like now now but I am so sad to leave Sister Tonga and Bindura I loved that area and that companion like crazy. This is a new chapter that I am excited for, though. I will update you next week! Pray for Sister Tonga!

LOVE YOU GUYS HAHAH I AM SO SCATTERED

Sister Lewis

YOH GUYS! 

8/7/17

Hahahahahahaha I am so tired it is not even funny so sorry I am not going to send a very long group email. Also the computer I am sitting at is having a hard time with pictures...but maybe I can try again. 

This week was just the craziest week pretty much because we had a WEDDING (again lol someone please send help) and SEVEN baptisms! The whole entire week revolved around getting everyone ready for their baptism! Here are some few highlights of the week!

Friday was baptismal interview day! We seriously were with our District Leader Elder Oliphant (South Africa), and his companion Elder Banks (Utah), all day! They were fun to be around, though. All seven of our candidates passed their interview, which was awesome!

Saturday was the wedding of Brother and Sister Tembo, which was honestly such a blessing because EISH there were so many obstacles put in their path, but we moved mountains and got them legally married! They were so excited to get baptized. They knew that there was a possibility that I would leave soon, so they were like, "WE HAVE TO DO THIS BEFORE SISTER LEWIS LEAVES!" It was seriously such an awesome day, though. Michelle and Rumbi CHIKWENYA also got baptized, which was awesome! We baptized their parents and brothers, but it was finally their turn! We also baptized Marvelous Panganai who is the son to some of the members in Retreat. 

Saturday we also got to attend the Agricultural Fair for Bindura for just like one hour to contact people, but it was SO FUN! Also I got to eat COTTON CANDY which is my LITERAL FAVORITE THING MAYBE EVER SO HALLELUJAH FOR TENDER MERCIES hahahahaha. 

Yeah guys honestly my mind is so blank, but this really was such a good week. There is a possibility that this is my last week in Bindura, so I am just going to go visit all of my favorite people and hope that I don't cry hahahahaha but that won't happen of course I will cry.

I LOVE SISTER TONGA hahaha she makes me laugh so hard. We know each other waaaayyyy too well and we are waaayyy to comfortable around each other haha. If we stayed together another transfer it would be a Christmas miracle haha. 

I LOVE YOU ALL and I hope you have a great week. Forgive me for being tired haha. 

Sister Lewis