03/16/18
Thank each of you that has followed Sister Lewis on her blog. She truly felt the love and support and prayers from each one of you. Jeff and I are so happy to have our daughter home! She has grown and matured so much in her testimony and in every other way! Her mission added to her life! She loves Africa and the people of Zimbabwe. She loves her Mission President and his wife. She loved every companion and the list goes on and on. As her mother, I am so proud of her! I am grateful for inspiration that led her to where she was supposed to serve. Zimbabwe is very safe. Safer than she fells in Utah sometimes she said. She never worried about her safety. She always had what she needed, inspite of her mother worrying about her.

Jenna's homecoming is this Sunday, March 18th at 1:00 PM. It will be at the Canyon View Stake Center at 2110 North Main Centerville.

Our address is 2143 Park Hills Dr if you would like to come visit with Jenna afterwards.

Love, Jeff and Kathi Lewis

03/12/18

Subject: The Last Group Email

 

I can't believe I am writing this email right now. I am actually literally in denial haha, but that will change when I land in Utah and see my family again.

I don't have the proper words to say because I am feeling so many different emotions right now. There is a song by the Nashville Tribute Band that pretty much sums up exactly how I feel.

"The hardest thing I've ever loved to do is getting on this plane and coming home to you; in a million ways completely torn apart, as a land so far away still holds my heart. And the most sincere prayer I've ever prayed is thanking God for each and every day, for the blessing of the man I've come to be, as I walk up and kiss my mama's cheek." 

As my last email to you, my family, my friends, my loved ones, I would like to close my mission with my testimony. 

I testify with every fibre of my being that God lives. I have seen Him in every detail of my life. I know that He loves me personally, as a Father does His child. I have come to know that my Father in Heaven knows me more than I know myself, and I have found comfort in realizing that He knows exactly who I can become if I simply trust in Him. I testify that our Heavenly Father sent His Only Begotten Son, even Jesus Christ, into the world to die for our sins. I know that Christ did truly walk on the earth. I have felt closer to Him than I ever have in my life by reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon everyday. I testify of the reality of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. As I have made mistakes on my mission that caused feelings of guilt, those feelings were completely wiped away as I sincerely repented through prayer. The Book of Mormon is the Word of God. I have no doubts about that. No man could write a book that would make me feel the Spirit of the Lord as strongly as the Book of Mormon does, only God Himself. I know that I am happy because of this gospel. I am filled with joy and peace solely because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

I thank my Father in Heaven, my Savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit for being with me every step of the way. 

I leave this things, including these 18 months, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

For the last time, 

Love,

Sister Lewis

Plastics haha

FAM

Mai Dumi

BABY JENNA

FAM

Naomie

Hazel

Last exchange done

3/6/18

Hello...It's Me...

GUYS. I have LITERALLY NO IDEA what is happening this transfer hahah. I seriously cannot handle all the CRAZY THINGS that have gone on these past 5 weeks! I could write a whole novel about this transfer alone. I feel so bad because you guys haven't even been able to hear about it, but let me just fill you in on at least this week.

Monday: My last MLC dinner! It was super good! Sister Kayembe and I were running around like chickens with our heads cut off (I GOT TO SEE THAT THIS WEEK SOS) in the afternoon trying to get everything done that we wanted to get done. Let's just say that I hope you guys aren't disappointed that I am not bringing home souvenirs for anyone because #notime #sorry #Istillloveyouall #missiontoservetheLord After dinner, we talked with the sisters until like 2 in the morning or something like that haha. Sister Diing was SO excited to see me, and I was excited to see her, too!

Tuesday: MLC. It was super good, just full of fire. We recently have received smartphones in our mission for family history work, so we were receiving training about that. Everyone was sad that it was my last MLC. They asked me to say the closing prayer, and it was so hard. I felt like I was leaving my last prayer for my family! I didn't cry tho because these days I am strong hahaha. 

Wednesday: OH MY HECK. We had exchanges with my FAV PERSON SISTER JEPPSON. She is a star and I am obsessed with her lol. We just had the best day ever, but on our way home with Sister Kayembe and Sister Nelson, THERE WAS A CHANGE OF EVENTS. So the road we take home every night is called R5. There was an accident in the round about, and instead of everyone cooperating well so they could move the car, people just CLOGGED UP THE ROAD like nonsense and so we were literally stuck for a solid 40 minutes in traffic not moving AT ALL. So we just have no idea what is going on, but we continue sitting and talking. A police officer came up to my window when we had been there for an hour and suggested that we go take Acturus Road, which is the only other way home. We flip a u-turn in the middle of this giant mess and make our way back to Mabvuku. We get to Acturus Road...AND THAT ROAD WAS CLOSED TOO. UGH. So everyone who saw that R5 was clogged up tried to take Acturus, so there we were stuck in traffic again. Another hour was spent trying to move just like 100 feet. I was frustrated out of my mind haha, but we were all just laughing and making jokes with everyone on the road. Sister Jeppson really had to use the bathroom, and I tried to convince her to go in the bush, but she is super scared of snakes and didn't want to run that risk. I knew by the third hour that we were just not going to get home, so I decided we were just going to sleep at the sisters house in Mabvuku. Another set of sisters live there. PROBLEM IS, I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO GET THERE FROM WHERE WE WERE. To make the story oh so much funnier and nonsense. all of the sudden, two DRUNK white guys come up to our car and ask where we are going. There are white people in Zim for sure, but not in Mabvuku. I was hecka confused to see them there haha. They were asking us where we were trying to go, and they were trying to get to the same place as them. They told us to follow them, so I just did because I felt like the Spirit was telling me to. As we are following them, they stopped to talk to other people and I felt like we should just go forward without them. We left and continued on. I stopped to ask a few people for directions to get back to Mabvuku, and they directed me the right way. All of the sudden, we can just hear singing behind our car. THE DRUNK GUYS FOLLOWED US AND WERE BOTH HANGING OUT THE WINDOWS OF THEIR CAR SINGING. Even the guy that was driving was sitting on the window haha crazy guy. So they are just casually following us thinking that we are going to Highlands. Jokes on them. They are singing at the top of their lungs Shona music haha we were just laughing. So we got to the place where we were going and we told them we weren't going to Highlands anymore. They were like, "Okay guys! Have a great night!" and just sped off singing again! So it is like 10, we finally get to the other sisters house. THEY HAVE NO POWER. Or extra beds. So we laid down two tiny mattresses, and slept all four of us together on the floor. In the morning we got up and went home without a problem haha. WHAT EVEN IS MISSION THESE DAYS BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW. 

Thursday: After dropping the sisters off in the morning, we had to go to a Dentist for Sister Kayembe. She had to get a root canal pakaipa. She was pretty much out for the rest of the day after that, so I just updated the area book and cleaned our house while she slept for a little bit haha

Friday: Normal day for the most part haha

Saturday: Normal day just so many lessons

Sunday: Church and lessons! My Bishop's wife just had a baby girl and they LITERALLY NAMED HER AFTER ME.

Monday: Mission tour with Elder Hamilton! I will tell you about it next week gotta go! I will email for sure one last time!

Love, Sister Lewis

Mission Tour

Sis. Natochol

SLAY

Study Study

Tired as heck

Hour 3 of Traffic

Hour 2 of Traffic

Hour 1 of Traffic

Fav Elders

MLC

OmondiO

Don't ask

Translating

The District

RC letters

Zimbo

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02/26/2018

Hey fam!

Can I just tell you how much I miss writing to you guys? I am SO DONE with Mondays now haha super stressful.

SO this week we had a baptism! 6 people were baptized! The youngest was 8 and the oldest was 78 hahaha it was incredible I will tell you about it next week. We had 21 people at church last week and 16 this week it was LEGIT. Mission is the bomb!

Love you! See you next week!

Sister Lewis

2/19/18
(Sister Lewis not being able to answer your emails was my fault--there are some scholarships she may qualify for and I asked her to apply before the 03/01/18 deadline.)

Sorry Fam I didn't reply to any of you, I was working on my scholarship stuff for THE WHOLE THREE HOURS and I am not even done hahahah imagine. Pray for me because next Monday I will be doing the same thing.

Love you guys! Pray for my companion, she has a tooth infection and it is PAINFUL! 

02/12/18

Hey Fam!

Turns out...I took like no pictures this week ahaha sorry. So you get three pictures chete! Next week I will do better!

Monday: Sister Diing and I just had the most chill morning last week it was awesome haha. I don't know if I mentioned it last week, but after we had done our studies, our exercising, our cleaning, chichichi, we took a NAP. It was just like a 45 minute one, but it was awesome. I enjoyed so much! We shopped, we had good food, and then we went to pick up the sisters for MLC dinner! It was super yummy. Sister Mkhabela cooks such nice food. We had a lot of new additions to the council, so it was a fun dinner. 

Tuesday: Missionary Leadership Council! Yoh this one was awesome. We were on fire. Except for the fact that me and my companion were the only sisters making comments haha that was a little awkward...but it was fun! We talked about the things the mission is struggling with and how we can fix it. Then, we got some really great counsel from President about how to use the Book of Mormon more in our teaching. The Book of Mormon, along with the Spirit, are the most powerful tools in conversion! I was even so cool because on Sunday last week, Brother Eric (aka my miracle investigator) got up in Testimony meeting and BORE A POWERFUL TESTIMONY ABOUT THE BOOK OF MORMON. This guy is not even baptized yet. He was telling us how much he could feel the Spirit after he bore his testimony. 

Wednesday: Full, hectic, busy day full of teaching! We started off by helping a recent convert, Brother Edson, so set up his Family Search account! He is preparing to go to the temple for his family soon. He is super pumped! I am so excited to do family history when I get home! We had some cool new investigators on Wednesday, too. We are teaching a lot of couples these days, which is my favorite. It means marriages, though, and heaven knows I am tired of marriages haha. I have one more coming up this month before I go home. It is for Eric and Lois, and I love them too much, so I am excited to get them married haha. Also, there is this sekuru (grandfather) who has been taking lessons from us. The past two weeks in a row, he came to church. When his son came to visit his father, he saw us and was like SHOCKED that we had gotten his dad to come to church. The son is a pastor and he was telling us that he has been trying for YEARS to get his dad to come to church, but he always refuses. We asked Sekuru why he hasn't gone to church for more than 20 years, and he said, "I can tell that none of these churches are true, and I can't be a hypocrite before God. When I find a church that is true, I will go there." HE HAS BEEN COMING TO OURS FAM AND HE LOVES THE BOOK OF MORMON. So...something funny happened Wednesday night haha. We got a call from the Assistants...Sister Diing got emergency transferred to Bindura! My old area! Sister KAYEMBE is now my companion! Do you guys remember her? She and I were being trained in the same house back in GWERU! She is from DRC (congo). She speaks French 😍. We didn't do anything bad to get transferred, but all of the Sister Training Leaders got shifted around, and a bunch of the zone leaders, too. I think President was just preparing for the split that is happening in our mission soon. Sister Kayembe and I go home AT THE SAME TIME, so we are 'TRANSLATING' each other. We are super pumped because we are pretty much best friends. She is going to help me learn how to say, "Where is the toilet" in French so that when I fly through Paris on my way home I won't die lol.

Thursday: Weekly Planning! Sister Diing and I went to the area for the last time together, and then we went to pick up Sister Kayembe from Bravo (bus that travels across Zim). Sister Kayembe was serving in Mbizo, Kwekwe, which is like a four hour ride from Harare. She is excited to be in Harare again. 

Friday: Day full of lessons! It was a good day! Taught a whole bunch of people, so it was good.

Saturday: IT RAINED CATS AND DOGS, but we still proselyted the whole day. We taught a whole bunch of lessons and just got absolutely soaked. I took a hot shower when I got home haha because I think my feet were about to fall off from the cold. I am so in trouble when winter comes because I am so aclimated to Zimbabwe. Luckily, I have some time before winter comes. Did I ever tell you guys apparently the humidity level here is 93%? I am not sure how far true that is...I mean it has to be true because that is what the weather reports say...but yoh. It does not even feel like that much. 

Sunday: #thetimeisfarspent hahahaha we sang that hymn in sacrament meeting and Sister Kayembe and I were just laughing our heads off because we are both finishing up mission. The lyrics go like this, "The time is far spent, there is little remaining to publish glad tidings by sea and by land. Then hasten ye heralds go forward proclaiming repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" We enjoyed yesterday too much. Sunday is my favorite day on mission. Teaching lessons and church all in one day is just the bomb! We didn't have 17 people at church this week, but we did have 11! We had a bunch of less actives come, too. Reactivating is fun lol. 

Well, I don't know what else to tell you! It seems like everyone is ready for me to come home. I don't feel ready yet, really. I don't think I will be ready ever. I am excited to see my family again, though. I realized 18 months is a long time not to see your family. 

Keep me in your prayers! This is the end of the race! I am SPRINTING. You guys would not believe how hard I am working. I am also writing more letters than I have ever written in my life haha because I am writing to all of my recent converts and member friends that I have made in Zimbabwe. I have more than 100 letters guys...my hand is tired. 

LOVE YOU!

Sister Lewis

Chillin at the office

Me and Comp

 

Glasses Squad

 (From Jenna's Mom)  Sister Lewis comes home on March 14th!  Just wanted to let everyone know that her homecoming will be on Sunday, March 18th at 1:00 pm. Jenna's family attends the Canyon View Stake Center located at 2110 N Main in Centerville. UT. 

02/05/18
Hey Fam!

Wow I feel like it has been such a long time since I have written like a nice group email. We have been on so many exchanges and had a super awesome activity with all of the sisters in Harare and all this great stuff has been happening. Have I even told you guys about it at all? Pakaipa haha. I seriously am so busy all the time. 

Even this week I am supposed to leave for MLC now now...but let me try to give you an update. 

LITERALLY THIS WEEK WAS INSANE. Sunday night we had Sister Namugenyi sleep at our house, Monday night we had Sister Namugenyi and Sister Hutchings, Tuesday night we had Sister Hutchings, Sister Olsen, and Sister Jeppson, Wednesday night we had Sister Nkohla, Sister Sariah, Sister Natocho, Sister Mukendi, and Sister Sauter, and Thursday night we had Sister Sauter, Sister Mukendi, Sister Sariah, and Sister Natocho. LITERALLY THIS WEEK WAS INSANE.

It was just transfer stuff and training stuff. It was fun, though. Not much else happened this week other than so many mission miracles as always. A grown man cried this week during our lesson with him. It was super spiritual. We were talking about the Word of Wisdom and he just felt like he needed to quit doing the things he was doing so badly. We had like 17 investigators at church, which was super cool. Our gospel principles class was FULL. I have to go for MLC dinner I am so sorry yall. 

BYE LOVE YOU!

During this morning I just had the most awkward thought pop into my head...Do you guys know the APPARENTLY kid? Well, my family is obsessed with him....so today I was just cleaning the house and this thought popped into my head exactly like this...

"APPARENTLY...I only have 5 weeks left of mission."

LOVE, Sister Lewis

New Car

Ephraim's baptism

Hazel 

Diing

Fresh outta bed

Beyonce

Activity

Heros Acre

Hutchings!

COMPA

Sisterhood

Tanlines

Goals

The District

Thirsty?

Drive Thru Days