A Prayer on the Train

Ciao tutti!

So if you're wondering why you all just got two emails from me it's because last week I didn't even have time to finish writing my christmas email because our p-day was combined with christmas and it made everything kind of crazy! And now I'm writing rather prematurely for this week because Wednesday is New Years and our day got filled with lots of member appointments where we'll be eating, getting referrals, and teaching investigators! So basically we're doing all of our p-day stuff today instead. 

First of all, it was so great to get to talk to all of you on Wednesday!! It doesn't seem like that long ago and there's not actually a lot to update you on since then. The day ended up great. We had an Italian Christmas eve, a Brazilian Christmas day, and a Peruvian Christmas evening. I'm getting my share of cultural experiences! This Wednesday we're adding African into the mix! I'm excited about that one- I haven't had real African food before in the mission!

So besides all of the fun christmasy stuff we were able to have two scambios (exchanges) this week with the sorelle of Bergamo 1 and the sorelle of Verona 1. Both went super well. I've figured out that I've done a total of six scambios in Bergamo and will probably be doing more (if I don't get transferred!!). I feel like I practically serve there! On the way to the scambio we talked to this awesome guy on the train- well actually, I was sort of sitting across from him and noticed him eyeing me. I wasn't sure if he was doing it creepily or if he acutally wanted to talk about religion so to play it safe I pulled out a restoration pamphlet and started reading it. A few seconds later he spoke up and asked "Siete di Gesù?" (Are you from Jesus?) I told him who we were, that we were mormons, and then guess what? He pulled a Book of Mormon right out of his backpack! It looked like he had been carrying it around everywhere he went because it was all bendy and water-damaged, but hey, at least that meant that he had probably been reading it! It turns out he is one of the anziani's investigators in Bergamo and that he's known the church for about seven months now. We had a really good conversation where we read half of Alma 34 (rather, he read it to us), he told us he wanted to be baptized, and then at the end we said a prayer. I love saying prayers with random people because it helps you make a connection with them through the spirit and then that's usually what they remember most about the whole conversation. It's brought us a lot of success in our finding work! 

Speaking of finding work, we've been doing a lot of that lately. I feel like this transfer has been one of those transfers where we just find, find, and find some more. But the cool thing is I've been seeing just as many fruits from it and have been feeling about just as busy as any other point in my mission. I think it all has to do with the attitude- that you keep yourself busy because you want to have success and you make every activity a meaningful one. We may not always see the fruits but I do know that God is blessing us and answering our prayers in very real ways. That's what happens when you show faith and have a good attitude! 

Well, I hope you all have a very happy new year, and don't forget to make those new years resolutions! Vi voglio tanto tanto bene.

Love,

Sorella Lyman

Christmas #2

BUON NATALE!!!!!!

Hi everyone! I know I'll be talking with a lot of you all later, but that won't stop me from still sending out an email! This week has just been a blast! I am having so much fun in Verona. I can honestly say this is one of the best Christmases I've ever had- so full of happiness, Italian food (specifically pandoro), singing, violin playing, and wonderful Italian people!! Today we are headed over to two members' houses- one for Christmas lunch and the other later on this evening to do google chat and probably dinner too. And THEN last night all the missionaries got invited over to our ward mission leader's house with his wife and adorable baby girl for Christmas eve with their family. We had a delicious turkey dinner complete with pandoro and grilled pineapple and then sang songs together afterwards. Just like home! Sunday was pretty great too. Our ward did an awesome Christmas program where practically everyone in each of the auxiliaries was involved in a musical number. All the missionaries, including our senior couple, sang an a capella version of Joy to the world, which went pretty well. My favorite was Far, Far away on Judea's plain sung by the priesthood. They had half the men blasting out the walking bass line so that you could hardly hear anything else and they were singing it with such gusto! I was so pleased. And then on Friday we had an AMAZING Christmas ward activity which was basically a musical talent night. They asked me to play a number on the violin so I played O Holy Night with Sorella Reichert, and there was a lot of other great musical numbers done by missionaries and ward members alike. (It was Verona 1 and 2 combined) What was even better is that one of our investigators, the one that Mom also taught, came with her nephew!! She loved every minute of it. My favorite part was when they did a reenactment of La Befana with one of our cute ward members playing the part of La Befana along with a whole cast of characters. They even had the three kings with very elaborate costumes and a really cool soundtrack! It was definitely a cultural experience. 

Well, that's about all I'm going to right because I'll talk to most of yall later and I don't have much time at the computer this week! Vi voglio un sacco di bene e buone feste!

Love,

Sorella Lyman

Lake Garda, Christmas Caroling, and a Scambio with Sorella Reni

Ciao a tutti!!

Well, today I am kinda crunched for time because we went to lake garda and the bus going back to Verona was later than we thought it would be. So I'll try to condense an amazing week into poche parole. 

So yeah, this week was just so great! First of all, on Sunday we went Christmas caroling with out ward to a retirement home and it was SO FUN!!! Italians sure know how to party it up and celebrate Christmas. There was even a super cool acapella version of Jingle bell rock sung by a family in our ward who is basically thebomb.com, and it was SO GOOD!!! this ward is so musically talented. And then people started dancing around during all the songs and it was just one of those "I love being in Italy" moments. Espescially at Christmas time in this awesome ward in Verona!!! 

The next day I had a scambio with Sorella Reni who is a new sister in the mission. We saw so many miracles and it was one of the best scambios I've had. She and Sorella Seare (my fellow violinist in the mission who also knows Jocelyn!!) came here to Verona, and we were able to have the entire day as opposed to just a limited amount of time which is unfortunately what tends to happen a lot on scambios. But anyway, later on in the evening we were out doing casa. We were getting towards the end when we knocked on this one door. A lady opened up and asked us if we had been out and about all day long doing this. We responded in the affirmative and then she said a missionary's favorite words: "Come in!" She made us herbal tea and set up a cute little table with biscotti, and we were able to talk to her and her son and have a beautiful lesson filled with the spirit. I'm so happy there are still people in the world who are openly generous care for everyone. She is true christian, and she's gonna get baptized! 

I love you SO much!! Have a very merry Christmas and I can't wait to see and talk to you next week!!

Love,

Sorella Lyman

Goosebumps

Buon giorno a tutti!!!!!

Wow, I am in awe at all the awesome things yall are doing. Especially the fact that Katherine is on the MIT Indian Dance team??! THAT IS SO COOL!!!! Indian dance is so fun. I'm very happy here in Italy because there's lots of Indian culture that pops up everywhere- to the extent where sometimes I feel like I'm in the Indian/the middle east instead of in Italy. I love it!

Well, this p-day has been super fun and interesting. First of all, this morning I was able to play the violin which was loaned to one of the senior couples by a member for me to use, which I'll be playing on for zone conference and the sacrament meeting before christmas. I found a pretty good arrangement of O Holy Night with the piano, and it was so fun to whip out the old instrument and play on it this morning! It's actually a pretty good violin too. I'm so grateful and excited to share my talents! I've been able to do it a lot more than I was ever expecting to. Later on, we got to go into the arena here in Verona, which is basically like the Colosseo in Rome. It was SO COOL!!!! I took a million pictures. We were able to get a really good view of the city including the beautiful piazza below with all the stands they have up for the christmas market going on right now. Speaking of the market, we spent about an hour and a half there just wandering around and found a lot of really cool Italian things! Verona is just so awesome and diverse. 

Besides all the wonderful sights and cultural experiences, we've also had a great week of missionary work! :) We saw some really cool miracles. Last Saturday, I think it was, we were doing some finding work in an area where we go pretty often. But this time we shook it up a little bit by carrying around a white board that had the question "What makes you happy at Christmastime?" on it. We got some pretty good results out of it and met people on all different sides of the spectrum. One experience in particular stood out among all the others. We were walking along on the sidewalk and decided to stop a lady who was walking past. We asked her the question that was on the board and her response was a little unexpected. She said that Christmas always makes her cry. It was never really clear why exactly that was, but we did discover that this woman had recently gone through a very trying physical experience and was really seeking the comfort of God in her life. We asked if we could offer a prayer with her and she readily agreed. As I was praying that she would be able to recover completely, regain her memory and her strength, etc. she continued to say "Amen" after every phrase. At the end she was in tears and we each gave her a huge hug. It was an experience never to forget. We were able to go see her again at her home yesterday, and I can say that I really feel true charity for her. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to offer my love and the love of God to people who are in need!  

Verona is just full of Christmas cheer. I say it at the beginning of all my journal entries and I'll say it again here. I feel pretty dang lucky to be able to spend two Christmases in Italy!! That experience that I related was one of many this week where we were able to come in contact with someone who is truly prepared for the gospel. On another occasion we were knocking on doors and a man opened up who, when we said we were missionaries, he stopped us, pointed to his arm which had goosebumps all over it, and basically said he had been waiting for us. All these experiences have reinforced to me that God answers prayers because at the beginning of last week I was praying so earnestly that we would be able to find someone in this city who needed the gospel in their lives and was prepared to receive it. And we found a sackful of them! (un sacco!) 

Vi voglio un SACCO di bene, tutti quanti. Continue finding the joy in life, especially during this Christmas season. :)

Buona settimana!

Love,

Sorella Lyman

 

 

Merry Christmas Italy!

Ciao tuttiiii!!!!

Merry Christmas!! I know it's early, but I just can't contain myself! I'm so excited to see all the miracles that will come from spreading Christmas cheer and remembering the true reason why we celebrate. We've already seen one this past week! 

So last Sunday we were out knocking on doors and getting lots of rejections. Halfway through ringing all the citofonos I remembered that it was December 1st, hence we could start talking about Christmas with everyone! I started saying we have a message about Christ and Christmas, and pretty soon someone opened up the gate for us. We weren't sure if they did it by accident because we couldn't really understand what they were saying through the speaker, but we went inside and managed to find their door. Up opened a beautiful couple- an older woman with blonde hair from Croatia and her husband who's Italian. We asked if we could share a Christmas message with them and they invited us right in! They had one of the most beautiful houses I've ever seen with elaborate paintings everywhere and even offered us some chocolate cake! We taught them a beautiful lesson about the restoration, gifted them a Book of Mormon at the end, and will be going back to see them this Sunday! The wife was smiling at us the entire time and both were so happy to hear our message and are genuinely curious to learn more. They are both widowers who married each other later in life and are so happy and optimistic about the future and life in general. I love them so much! I'm so grateful we were able to meet them, thanks to this wonderful time of year and sharing the Christmas spirit!

We were also able to have not one, but TWO thanksgiving dinners this week. First we had a lovely meal prepared for us by the senior couples in Verona, and then on the actual day of thanksgiving one of our investigators invited us over to her house to have a full out american thanksgiving with two other families from the ward. It was pretty impressive, seeing as how Italians don't really eat turkey like we do, nor pumpkin or apple pie. But they made it all, and it was delicious!! 

Verona's just so great, and I'm so excited to be here for the holiday season! Buon inizio di Dicembre e vi voglio bene! 

Love,

Sorella Lyman