Friday, October 26, 2012

Oct. 25, 2012--New Italian missionaries!

I've had a great week! Lot's of fun and exciting things have happened. We have been pretty spoiled with our speakers lately. On Sunday Ann M. Dibb, the second counselor in the Young Women's presidency, came to speak to us for Relief Society! It was really cool! She was the one in conference who spoke about "I'm a Mormon- I know it, I live it, I love it." She gave a really great message, and at the end she opened it up for questions about President Monson. It was really cool to learn more about him from her perspective as his daughter! On Tuesday we had a really good devotional by Larry Echo Hawk of the Seventy. He was the one who spoke in conference about the Book of Mormon in the second session. He has such a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and told some amazing stories about his conversion to the gospel. He is a full-blooded native american so it was really cool to hear about how much the gospel has changed him and his family, and what a personal family connection he has with the Book of Mormon.

Yesterday was excited because we got new Italian missionaries! We've all been counting down to the day when we would have some new company again after three weeks! There is one sister named Sorella Ehorn from California. She is going to be in a threesome with me and Sorella Harward when we have personal time, but most of the time during the day she will just be with two Elders. Sorella Stewart is very happy because her brother came in with the new district! He's going to the Rome mission. Do you remember how I told you about Anziano Criscenti, the Elder that's from Milan? Well he got moved into our zone because all the Romanians left a week ago! He got assigned a new companion, Anziano Smith, and will be with us until he gets some new Romanians in about three weeks! It is so cool to have a native Italian to talk with all the time. We're all actually able to converse really well with him, and it's been great to have him in our district! I've been doing a lot of teaching this week. Yesterday we taught an "investigator" that we haven't seen in almost a month! Our teacher, Fratello Mortenson, was our substitute for the day and really just felt that we should teach Lorenzo again. So we had five minutes to prepare a lesson on the Plan of Salvation and just went in there and started teaching! It was such a great lesson, and we all felt the spirit a lot. It's so great to be teaching so many lessons. The main thing I'm focusing on is being able to teach by the spirit and have it be the main guide in the lesson. Sometimes the spirit is there so strongly, and other times we have to work more to feel it as we're teaching. There's definitely a lot more to learn, but I'm so excited to be in Italy in just under three weeks teaching actual Italians!

Well my computer time's about up unfortunately. I miss you and love you so much!

Love,
DaNece

October 18, 2012--"Il nativo" and Fictional Investigators

Thanks so much for your email! I got two others from Ceci and Sophie! It's so great to hear about what everyone's doing. That's so awesome that Ceci wants to be on the debate team! She would be so awesome! Congratulations on finishing your Schubert concert! I'm sure that was so fun. I miss playing the violin! I really hope it's okay when I get back. I'm not sure how good sitting in a case for a year and a half will be for it. :( Maybe you could get it out and play it sometime! Just to make sure it's not crumbling to dust.

I've had a great week so far! Sunday was really exciting because I got to meet Linda K. Burton, the new Relief Society president! She came to speak to us for relief society. It was so cool! Sorella Harward and I each got to hug her afterwards and told where we're from and where we're going. Did you know that she lived in New Zealand growing up, and I think her husband was the mission president in Seoul Korea for a while! She's a really awesome lady.

It's getting colder and colder down here too. The leaves and mountains are beautiful from what I can tell. You aren't able to see much from the MTC. I can't believe it's been five weeks already! I have just under four weeks now. I'm so excited! The new district is coming next week, including the brother of Sorella Stewart in our district. He is going to Rome, and she's going to Milan! I'm so excited for them to get here. It's a little lonesome with the older districts gone. :( We're playing a game in our district called "il nativo" where we all draw a piece of paper, and whoever has the green x is a native Italian speaker. The point is to guess who it is by who speaks the most Italian throughout the day! It's a great way to remember the speak the language. Everyone's doing so great and progressing so fast!

Right now we technically have three investigators. One's name is Geonatan, and the others are two of our anziani who are both playing people they know from back home. We lost one of our investigators, Giuseppe, because our teacher got promoted and isn't teaching us as much anymore. It was so sad to loose him! We had such a good lesson prepared for him. Geonatan is a great investigator! He has a baptismal date for October 26th and really loves everything we teach him. He has kind of a weird family situation- some of them live in Italy, some of them live in Spain, and his Mom lives in Equador. I can't wait to finally have real investigators! I'm hoping maybe I'll find the real Giuseppe and his family! Our teacher told us he lives a little out of Milan, and they ultimately had to drop him.

Another cool thing that happened this week is that Shayne M. Bowen from the seventy came to speak for devotional! He gave a talk in conference that I really enjoyed. It was such a good devotional! He addressed a lot of my concerns about knowing how to share the gospel and how to find people to teach. I'm kind of scared to death to just walk up to people and start talking to them about the gospel! But the way he put it is that everyone is going to notice us on the street because of our nametags, and might be offended if we don't talk to them because they think they're not good enough for our message. That put it in a very different perspective for me and made me realize how important it is to share it with everyone!

Well I better go. I'm so glad things are going well for all of you. Do you have my right address now? Here it is just in case:

DaNece Anne Lyman
MTC Mailbox #181
ITA-MIL 1113
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, UT 84604


Love you so much! I loved hearing from everyone! Keep those emails coming! :)

Love,
Sorella Lyman
October 11, 2012--General Conference

How was your week? Did you all enjoy conference? It was so awesome to watch it here at the MTC! Watching it as a missionary is a much different experience. Everything the speakers said was magnified and seemed to have much more pertinence to the work I'm doing. I loved the talks by Russell M. Nelson and Jeffrey R. Holland! They really fired me up. Russell M. Nelson's talked really emphasized to me the kind of mantel that I hold. I am working as a messenger of the Lord and have the responsibility to help people improve their lives through the gospel! And how about that announcement in the first session?! Elders can serve at 18 now, and sisters can serve at 19! I definitely didn't see that one coming. It was kind of sad because the place where I was watching was having problems with the sound and we didn't hear President Monson make the announcement! We saw everyone in the audience with their mouths hanging open and had no idea what was going on! Luckily we got to watch it later on a computer, and it was awesome! This is going to cause some major changes in missionary work. The comment I like best about it is when Elder Holland said in a press conference that this is evidence that the Lord is hastening his work. It's so exciting to be a missionary at a turning point like this! Missionary work is going to explode. Guess what other exciting thing happened this week? David A. Bednar came for devotional!! It was so cool to see him speak to us at the MTC when he had just spoke to the entire world two days before! He talked about how we can get more out of conference by taking effective notes that point out the doctrine, invitation, and promises of each talk. He used examples from conference of his own talk, M. Russell Ballard's, and President Eyring's. It was amazing to see how all three talks each have clear invitations for us to act on the doctrine, and the blessings that we will receive from being obedient. It was also a great lesson on missionary work, because that is exactly how we need to teach our investigators! We are all in a different place on the path to eternal life, but the way to get there is the same for everyone. We progress through acting on invitations that come from the Lord through his prophets and apostles, and then receiving the promised blessings! Another cool thing that happened this week is that there is a new elder who is from Italy going to Romania. He speaks barely any English, so it's been out pleasure as the Italian district to fellowship him as soon as we heard about him and speak to him as much as possible in Italian! He seems really happy to have people that speak his language, and he is an awesome Elder! He is from Milan. Things are going well in my district and with my companion. It's Sorella Harward's birthday today! Well, I believe I have exhausted my time on the computer. I'd love to hear what you all have been up to! Is it getting pretty cold up there? I'm so happy Fall is here! It's my favorite season. :) I hope everyone is having a great week and doing well in school! Love you so much!

Love,
Sorella Lyman

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Oct. 4, 2012

Hi Mom [and everyone else]!
Before I forget, I better give you my favorite scripture! Hm, that's a hard one. It's sort of a tie between three. I think I'll go with 2 Nephi 32:2-3. It's the one about angels speaking by the power of the Holy Ghost. I like how it uses the phrase "speaking with the tongue of angels." Even though I'll be speaking in Italian, that is the language that I really want to strive to speak. I think the gift of tongues has a lot to do with speaking with the tongue of angels. Thank you SO MUCH for the cupcakes!! That was such a pleasant surprise to go up to the front desk and see six cupcakes and a letter waiting for me! I didn't even know they had the cocoa bean here in Provo! Speaking of which, was Stephanie able to get a job there? How was your trip to California? It sounds like you're all having a nice spud harvest week. I'm sure it feels nice to sleep in late! I've had a good week. The older districts left on Tuesday for Italy, so we're a much smaller group now. There used to be about 40 of us, and now there are only 16. I can't wait until the new districts come in in about three weeks! It's a little lonesome with just the two districts. And when they get here, it will only be three more weeks until we leave! I'm really excited for conference this weekend! I think it will be a really nice change of pace from the usual schedule. I've heard that everything in conference is completely magnified when you're a missionary, so I'm really excited to hear what the prophets and apostles have to say, and apply it to what I'm doing! It's such a blessing to have continued revelation on the earth today. :) Something that the devotional speaker said this last Tuesday ( Elder Ellis from the 70) really struck a chord with me having to do with conference. He made a reference to the last supper when Jesus said that one of the apostles would betray him. Instead of thinking of others, all of the apostles reverted the question back to themselves saying "Lord, is it I?" I think that's the question we all need to have during conference so we can be willing to learn as much as the Holy Ghost can teach us. I think humility has a lot to do with it. Unfortunately we won't be singing for any of the sessions. I think that usually only happens for the April sessions. Well, I need to go. There's a line forming for the computers. :) One question: Do you have my proper address now for the camera? I really don't care what kind it is, as long as it's digital. OH, and did you get your credit card? I'm so sorry that I still had that! I sent it back in the mail last thursday. Well, I love you all! Have a great week! 

Love,
Sorella Lyman