From: Jenna Nicole Lewis <jenna.lewis@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2016 6:29 AM
To: Kathi Lewis; Jeff Lewis
Subject: Babies and Bulawayo

 

ODISEI SHAMWARIS (what's up friends)

Hey guys! Another Monday has crept up on me! I can't believe how quickly this week went by. I feel like I emailed you all yesterday haha.

This week was a party and a half! I know my blogs are always really disorganized, so I apologize. I always promise to do better in my group emails, but I don't haha. It seems like you are all enjoying them, though, so that is good!

Tuesday was pretty much a normal day, but we had district meeting in the morning. In district meeting we pretty much just go over all of the indicators for the week, like how many people we taught, baptized, contacted, etc.

Wednesday was a totally normal day, so there is not much to say about that haha.

Thursday we had weekly planning in the morning. We pretty much just take two hours and plan the whole upcoming week. We talk about all of our investigators and how to best help them that week. Then we were in our area only until four thirty because we had to leave for Bulawayo! This week our Sister Training Leaders, Sister Nafula (Uganda) and Sister Stegelmeier (Idaho Falls) brought us to their area to do exchanges with us! Bulawayo is two hours away from Gweru by bus. We left Gweru at six, and I was so sad to leave even just for the night. Gweru has really become my home! We got there at eight and pretty much just had a party with the sisters in Bulawayo haha. Not a real party, but we got to talk all night with Sisters Nafula, Stegelmeier, Anyango, and Burt. It was so fun talking to some different people!

Friday was exchanges! I left Sister Talemwa (I was so nervous and bummed to leave her haha) and I was a companion for the day with Sister Stegelmeier. We did all the same things that we do in our area, but with a Sister Training Leader so they can tell us how to improve our teaching skills. Bulawayo is HOT. Dang it was so hot that day haha. We taught a lot of people, though! And since it was us two murungu girls (white girls) walking down the street together, a lot of people stopped us and wanted to talk. It was the easiest contacting day I have ever had haha. Sister Steg said she really enjoyed teaching with me, and that I am a powerful missionary. AHH!! YAAS! I was so happy haha. She had a few little corrections for me, but she said I was doing really well! I was so excited.

Saturday we came home from Bulawayo in the morning and then went right to the town chapel to watch the Saturday sessions of General Conference with our "stake". HOLY COW GUYS CONFERENCE WAS POWERFUL! I was hanging onto every word that was said. I think my favorite talk came from D. Todd Christofferson about Divine Love. It was amazing! After watching the first session of conference, this lady came up to us holding the CUTEST BABY I have EVER SEEN. She is 8 months old and the absolute fattest baby ever. She is so fat. It makes me happy. So I was gushing to this lady about her baby forever. I miss babies in my life. I need my nieces and nephew to fly to Zimbabwe really fast.

Sunday was the Sunday sessions of conference and also the Women's General Session. Wow, those talks were amazing! Every single part of conference was SO GOOD. I was writing notes like crazy and adding my investigators names next to what I wanted to share with them. I was supposed to bring my notebook today so I could share some stuff with you guys, but I totally forgot it. Oops. Sorry guys!

Today is Monday! We spent this morning cleaning our house. Every Monday we clean our house sooo well. Sister Talemwa and I went to the salon together to get her hair done, and then we went to lunch. I ate sadza and beef! It was super yummy.

Well, there you are! That was my week! I can't think of anything else that I need to tell you guys, so I will just end with a spiritual thought:

One of the times that I felt the Spirit most in conference was when on Saturday afternoon the missionary choir sang, "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go". My favorite verse reads, "So trusting my all to Thy tender care, and knowing Thou lovest me, I'll do Thy will with a heart sincere, I'll be what You want me to be." Faith is essential in our lives. We need to trust in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ perfectly. They know what we need so much better than we do. They will take care of us. Never forget that we are loved by Heavenly Beings! I know that my Savior lives and loves me, and that is why I am able to serve in Zimbabwe. Forget the food, forget the culture differences, forget the language barrier, forget everything. I KNOW that I can be a good missionary because I trust in my Savior. I know that He loves me, and that is what gets me through every single day here. I am HAPPY because I know that I am loved. I feel joy every single day. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I love being a missionary. I'll be who my Savior wants me to be. I wouldn't want to be anybody else, and I hope you feel the same.

I love you all so much! I keep you in my prayers. Don't forget to read your scriptures and say your prayers!

Sister Lewis

Pictures from the South Africa MTC

 

 

Odisei, shamwaris! (What's up, friends?)

*Disclaimer - Anything I send to you in Shona in my emails is probably, definitely spelled wrong haha. I just guess*

My computer in the internet cafe is giving me a really hard time today, so sorry if this email isn't very long!

What a great week in the land of Zimbabwe! Everyday I am so grateful to be here! I can't believe it is already Monday again! I feel like I emailed you all yesterday haha. Today marks the beginning of my fourth week!

I am so glad that General Conference was amazing! I did not get to watch it live because of the nine hour time difference. We are watching it this week as a stake at our stake center. I am not sure that we are watching all of conference, but I will be able to read all of the talks once they are on lds.org. Hopefully my mom will mail me the General Conference magazine when it comes out ;) I have been reading the April 2016 General Conference magazine in preparation for whatever I get to watch this Saturday and Sunday. It is so important to regularly remind ourselves of the words of the prophet! We are incredibly blessed to have a living prophet with the Priesthood keys, so we need to remember what is said in conference!

This week was cool because we had Zone Conference! I got to see some of the missionaries I was in the MTC with, which was so fun! Zone Conference is pretty much where all of the missionaries in the surrounding areas come together and learn how to be better missionaries. Zimbabwe missionaries are crazy and fun! We had an absolute blast! It was cool to spend the whole day with them. We also got to hear from our Mission President. Man, that guy has the coolest testimony of Jesus Christ.

Things in my area are coming along well! Sister Talemwa and I are teaching a lot of investigators! We have some baptismal dates, but we keep running into problems with marriage here. So for a person to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they have to be married legally if they are living with another person. Law of Chastity and all that haha. Here, people get married customally, but not legally. We have a few investigators who had baptismal dates for this week, but then we figured out that they are not married legally haha. I will for sure let you know when my first baptism is, though! I love teaching lessons. People here are so incredible!

I am quickly developing relationships with the members of my branch and my investigators! My love for people has grown as I have been here. I have a few favorite people that I love visiting. One of them is this 40 year old guy we have been visiting a lot. He loves the gospel and has a huge desire to be baptized! He has a Word of Wisdom problem, though, so we are working on that with him. He has dreadlocks and rides a motorcycle haha. He's so cool. I am also teaching him Spanish. He came to church on Sunday! That has also been one of his biggest problems is making it to church, but he said that I really helped him want to come by how excited I was haha.

There are pros and cons to being white in Zimbabwe. On one hand, I get a lot of people talking to me about the gospel because they want to know why I came here from America. On the other hand, I get a lot of marriage proposals from random drunk guys because they want to go to America haha. It's crazy!! I love the people here. They make me laugh. There are groups of kids in a few different places in my area that know me. Whenever I come around, they yell "Sister Angie!" ( I have no idea why they call me that lol) and run up to me. Yesterday I had like twenty kids touching my hair, holding my arms, and yelling "HOW ARE YOU?" at me. I love them all so much haha. They love touching me and then looking at their skin to see if it has changed haha.

I need to go soon, but before I do I just want to leave you guys with a challenge. Share the gospel with at least one person this week. Members have a very significant role in missionary work! You guys can accomplish so much. Think about the joy that comes from knowing about the gospel. We know that we are children of a loving Heavenly Father. We know what our purpose is here on Earth, and where we will go after. Most important, however, we know that Jesus Christ died for our sins. The guilt we feel when we make mistakes can be washed away by the Atonement. I feel pure joy from living the principles of the gospel, and that is why I choose to share it with others. I hope you choose to share that joy with the people you know. If your neighbor is thirsty, would you deny him water? Don't deny anyone you know of the opportunity to know about the gospel.

I love you all! I love hearing from you. I hope that I can get pictures uploaded on this computer! Have a good week! I know I will!

Tonana! (Goodbye)
Sister Lewis

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

MACADI!! (General greeting in Shona)

This week has been absolutely, positively crazy, but I love it!! We flew from Joburg to Harare on Tuesday. All day Tuesday was just paperwork and stuff. Wednesday was a whole bunch of training. I HAVE A COMPANION!! Haha her name is Sister Talemwa from Uganda and she is a perfect human being. She is so sweet. She is such a good teacher. She is more quiet and serious than I am, but only in the morning. Once we get walking around our area we giggle and laugh all day long. 

My area is Gweru! It is like four hours outside of Harare by bus. My house is so cute! I can't wait to send you guys pictures. I can't today, but I will next week. It's a big house in comparison to the people I teach in. We have like four different gates, so no one will ever even get close to stealing from us haha. Sister Talemwa says Gweru is so safe, though. She has never had any problems. So Sister Cook (MTC companion) and I are living in the same house! We usually always live four in a house in Zimbabwe. We aren't companions, and we only see each other in the mornings and the evenings, but it has been so nice having her around! Even though everything in my world has changed, she is a constant! I LOVE LOVE LOVE my area! I am the only white person there, so all the kids follow me around and yell "Murungu!" which pretty much just means "white person". I love it. Everyone is so nice! No one will ever shut a door in our face because everyone in Zim is just so hospitable. My companion and I have a good list of investigators so far, and I love them all! I am so obsessed with missionary work haha. 

I am learning Shona really fast! It isn't required that we learn it, and we are supposed to teach in English, but the people love it that we try to speak. Sister Talemwa says I am picking it up really quickly. My favorite word is "Shamwari", which means friend. Sister Talemwa and I always just call each other shamwari. They roll all of their "r"s. There is a recent convert who walks around with us helping us teach lessons all the time and he makes fun of my pronunciation of Shona because apparently I say things with a Spanish accent. 

Guys I can never remember what to tell you haha. The food is cool! We ate a lot of interesting things this week, but nothing that I haven't liked. Probably the craziest thing was cow intestines. That was a little weird. We eat rice, beans, or sadza every meal, and it fills me up so quick! My companion complains that I don't eat enough, but I just can't make it all fit in my stomach! I love African people haha. 

I love teaching people the gospel! The coolest thing ever is when you are sitting on a bucket teaching somebody about the gospel and the Spirit is just there so strong. These people have the Light of Christ! 

I have to go because I have like two minutes before this computer shuts off. Next week I will have two hours to email, so I'll tell you more stuff then. I will send pictures, too, hopefully! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! I AM SO HAPPY! Thank you for all the emails this week haha my companion couldn't believe I had so many emails in my inbox. I FEEL YOUR LOVE!!

The church is true! If you need some uplifting this week, turn to the Book of Mormon! Say your prayers, guys! It helps so much! The biggest thing I have learned is that when we ask, Heavenly Father will answer.

LOVE YOU!!

Love, Sister Lewis 

Dear Brother and Sister Lewis,

We would like to inform you that Sister Lewis has arrived safely in Harare, Zimbabwe.  We will enjoy having her with us to share the gospel with the wonderful people of Zimbabwe.  We have attached a photo of Sister Lewis with President and Sister Mkhabela.

 

 

Sister Peterson

Mission Office Administrative Manager

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Zimbabwe Harare Mission

65 Enterprise Rd., Highlands Harare

Zimbabwe

Office +263 04 776 349

Cell 0772 152 481

 

 

 

 

Molo! (Hello! in Xhosa)

Hi guys! SO this will be the last email that you get from me in the MTC because next Tuesday we are traveling to Zim and then we don't have P-Day in Zim until Monday. The next time you hear from me personally is the 19th of September. I love you all! My mission president might send an email saying that I got there safe, so I hope that my mom will remember to put that email on my blog as well!

I fly to Zim the same day Andrew flies to Chile! Twinners! Andrew I hope your farewell went well! I was thinking and praying about you all day!

This week was fabulous! We have committed three out of our four "investigators" to baptism now! And we are committed our last one tonight! I love teaching. I am not even close to a perfect teacher, but the Spirit is! I love walking out of a lesson knowing that my investigator has felt the Spirit. 

I GET TO GO TO THE TEMPLE ON THURSDAY! I thought I might be able to go this past Thursday, but we got put in the group for this Thursday. I AM SO PUMPED! 

Our district changed this week! Now I have the two British Elders in my district, an Elder from Blanding, Utah, and and Elder from Spokane, Washington! I love the Elders in my district. I am learning how to perfect my British accent! 

I don't have a ton of time to email this week, so I pretty much just wanted to give you guys some advice. Life is tough. Really tough. Fortunately, we have a Savior, Jesus Christ, who loves us all SO MUCH. Every time Satan pushes us off of the wagon, and I promise he will, stand back up again. For every time you fall, get back up again. Never give up. Life is hard, but it is meant to be enjoyed. I have genuinely never been this happy in my whole life. I wish I had tried harder before my mission to be this close to the Spirit at all times. For those of you who are preparing for missions - READ YOUR SCRIPTURES EVERY DAY. That actually is advice for everybody haha. There is no point in staying miserable when you can open your scriptures and feel peace! 

I am so happy, so healthy! There is nowhere I would rather be than on a mission. "Because I have been given much, I too must give." I love you all and I promise to send a longer group email when I have more time to email on P-Days. I should have 1 hour instead of 30 minutes as soon as I get to Zim.

Love you! 

Sister Lewis

P.S. If you want to shoot me an email, don't forget that my email is jenna.lewis@myldsmail.net. I don't know what email my mom has set up with my blog, but don't email that one if you want me to be able to get back to you.