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
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