With Real Intent

Buooon Giornoooo!!!

Thank you so much for all the emails!! I love reading about what's going on in all of your lives. I am so excited for baby Carolyn!!! Are the three youngest gearing up for NC? Are Ceci and Sophie going to girls camp again? It sounds like another packed summer for everyone!

Things are going great in Collegno! We really feel like our prayers are being answered to find new people to teach. This week we have more appointments with new investigators than we've ever had before! Collegno has different challenges than Milano, being a smaller city, but we have seen so many miracles and run into so many elect people. Last Sunday walking home from a lunch appointment with a member, we walked past a nice looking Peruvian lady who seemed very friendly and smiled at us as we walked past. A little ways down the road we heard someone yelling after us and it was the same Peruvian lady that we saw. Apparently she has been inactive for about 15 years from the time she left Peru and when she saw us walking past, she recognized us and knew she had to talk to us. Yesterday we met up with her again in that same area and when she saw us she ran up and gave us a huge bacio (kiss) and hug. She is so eager to regain her spiritual life and to come back to church! She told us that her soul was hungry for something. I'm so glad that we ran into her!

This past week at zone conference, President Wolfgramm talked a lot about real intent. I feel like that's one of the most important things we can teach investigators, and also something we can put into practice ourselves. He used the example of Billy Peck, a veteran who had lost his left arm and leg in the war. Despite this loss, he was determined to live a happy, successful life and because he had overcome that experience he knew that he could accomplish any task he was given in life. He was determined, even if the task seemed silly at the time to follow through on his word. It is a perfect example of real intent. When we truly desire something we will do anything and everything we can to acheive it and we will never give up! It was the same real intent that Joseph Smith had when he decided to pray to God to obtain the wisdom that he was lacking. He knew he would receive an answer because he had read the promise in the bible. He went to God in prayer with a surety that it would be answered and it was in the most miraculous way! We can all believe in miracles if we have this same real intent and put our will in line with the will of God's. I have such a strong testimony of that!

Well, time's about up. I hope you all enjoy reading these emails. I sure enjoy all of yours! Siete tutti bravissimi! Vi vogli bene!

Love,

Sorella Lyman

Finding Miracles

Ciao tutti!!

Another week come and gone in Collegno! I feel like every single transfer goes faster and faster. I can't believe it's already halfway through! The weather has been unusually cold for this time of the year. It's just been raining and raining, and I'm still going outside with a light jacket. Hopefully though, that means that the summer won't be as miserably hot as I've heard it's prone to get!

The week thus far has consisted largely of pass-bys of less active members, former investigators that we find in the area book, and basically just a lot of finding! One of the people we are teaching right now, Umberto, is so sweet. Last week we went over the restoration with him and gave him the pamphlet to read over. At the end of the pamphlet it talks about proper church attendence and the attire you have to wear, etc. When Umberto read that men come dressed in suits, he went out and bought himself a £300 suit just to wear to church so he could show proper respect. Wow! He is so bravo. In our last lesson I asked if he believed the things the we have taught him, and he said he believes everything! I told him that believing is the first step and that he is on the right track. It made me think of one of my favorite sciptures in D&C 46:14 which says that "to others it is given to believe on their words that they also might have eternal life if they continue faithful." Belief is the first step, faith is the next!

The ward here is SUPER enthusiastic. Right now they are gearing us all up for a mostra (display) they want to do in a piazza in Collegno. The cool thing is that Sorella Haslem this past Friday was expressing to me how much she wanted to do a mostra to be able to find new investigators, and then in corellation on Monday it turned out that our second couselor was thinking the very same thing! It's definitely inspiration, if you ask me. I'm learning in a lot of ways how to think outside of the box here in Collegno. At this point in my mission I've noticed that I've gotten too caught into doing the same thing over and over again and that there are really so many other ways to do the Lord's work effectively. I am learning a lot from being in a new city, and from Sorella Halsem!

We had another cool experience with a lady we met in the park on the way to a pass-by we were going to make. Sorella Haslem got the impression to talk to her, so we walked up to her and started introducing ourselves. When she saw us she stood up and said she recognized Sorella Haslem from the bus and that she had given her a pass-along card. Afterwards Sorella Haslem told me that she didn't remember her at all, and I believe her because every person you meet and talk to in your first transfer is pretty engrained in your memory. But anyway, the lady was so open and nice and told us that she had tried to find our church from the pass-along card, but wasn't able to. We ended up sitting down with her, offering a prayer, and teaching her almost the entire restoration. She had to leave abruptly at the end, but the spirit was deiniftely there and we have faith that she'll want to learn more about the gospel!

Well, that's about it for this week. Missionary work is hard, but it is so rewarding at the same time. I have never been so hyper focused on one specific purpose in my entire life. In fact, it makes life a lot more simple when your one and only purpose is "inviting people to come unto Christ." It is the most simple and beautiful invite of all time, and it is extended to every single one of God's children who have lived or will ever live on the earth! (2 Nephi 26:25) Vi voglio un mondo di bene!!! Buona settimana!

con tanto amore,

Sorella Lyman

Learning the New Area

Buon Giorno!!!!

Come state? I guess you're all dying to hear about my new city, Collegno, and who my new companion is! My companion's name is Sorella Haslem. She is 19, from Vernal, Utah. She is amazing!! I've never seen someone so enthusiastic and ready to go out and convert the entire city. We have seen a lot of miracles so far with all the people we've met and talked to, and in the lessons we have taught.

I LOVE it here in Collegno. I have never seen such a friendly and welcoming ward, right from the minute we got to the station in Torino and got a ride from our wonderful ward mission leader and his wife. The ward here is doing a month of missionary work where they want a member to be with us every single day going to lessons, helping with proscelyting, etc. Plus, on the bulletin board in the church we are booked for the next four Sundays in a row with lunch appointments with members. It is so nice!!

Collegno as a city is beautiful. It is peaceful, small, and friendly. It is right next to Torino, so the cities bascially blend into one another. While the city is relatively small we have a HUGE proscelyting area stretching into many of the adjoining cities and towns, with a little bit of Torino included. Much of our time to this point has been devoted to trying to find out where we are since neither of us have ever been to this city before!

It's a bit challenging coming into a city where neither of us know anything and all we have to rely on is the area book and the ward. Thank goodness the ward here is amazing and has been helping us so much!! We have met almost all of the progressing investigators we have, and they are all so great! Well, gotta wrap things up. I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sorella Lyman

Discovering New Villages and Finding New Investigators

Ciao tutti!!

It was so fun to see all of you on Sunday and talk to you!! You all look so great! I'm sad I couldn't talk to Katherine though. :( Hope she's having fun in China!!

Well, what else can I update you on? Since Sunday we've been pretty busy with meetings and a full day of appointments on Monday. We went to see a less active in Rivoli which is an adorable little town right outside of collegno. It's what you would picture when you think of the streets in Italy. A historic little village nestled in a mountainside with a castle, cobble-stone streets, gelato, cute little chapels, the whole deal. The palazzo we went to is over 500 years old and inside the house there are tons of beautiful, intricate things that this lady has been collecting throughout the years. She loves making things with her hands and is always working on something. :) Our lesson with her on Monday was really great. It actually turned into a lesson with her non-member friend, along with her son and her husband. Who knew she would also be an awesome member missionary?!

Friday was also a pretty fun day. We were out and about making pass-bys of some less actives, and were doing casa in-between. As I was ringing the citofonos of one palazzo, a lady asnwered and I said we had a message of peace that we would like to share with her. I guess she mistook us for Catholic priests because she said she didn't have time to let us up, but that we could start saying a prayer right there. Then she started reciting a prayer about Ave Maria that lasted for about mintue right there at the citofono! I didn't really have time to respond before she said thank you, buona serata and peace be with you, and hung up. It was definitely one of the most interesting casa experiences I've had!

It has been a great adventure to white-wash with Sorella Haslem in Collegno. By now we have our feet on the ground a little better and have a better idea of what we need to do to really help the ward and the people here. It's going to be a great, and hopefully busy, week ahead! I have learned a lot this week the importance of diligence, especially in the example of Nephi in the Book of Mormon. He is the perfect example of being diligent to all the commandments of God even when it seemed impossible. And we have the promise that we WILL be have joy in our work and see the blessings of the Lord when we are diligent! I love you all so much, and have a GREAT week!!

Love,

Sorella Lyman

Training in Collegno

Ciao famiglia!!!!

Ok, I don't have much time today, but guess what? Transfer news is in!!!! There will be transfers again this Thursday and I am being transfered to a city called Collegno!! I will be whitewashing, which means me and my trainee will be taking the place of both the sisters who were there before. I am so excited and nervous at the same time! I am also super excited about the fact that I'll be training! There are seventeen new sorelle coming in this transfer, which means that almost every missionary who is able has been assigned to train someone. I don't know much about collegno, only that it is a small city that is pretty close to Torino (and also that it's a musical term!). I think it is about three hours away from Milan on the train. I have loved my time in Milan so much and will really miss all the peopler here. The ward is so great and so loving. I will always have very fond memories of Milano since it was my first city and I can really see how much I have learned and grown. These past few days have been packed with saying goodbye to people and filling our time with as many lessons as we can. Yesterday we got the opportunity to host a new sorella that just came in from the spain MTC. she is from Argentina and her name is Sorella Lemos. She is awesome!! She is bold and she knows what people need to make the steps towards baptism. She is going to be an outstanding missionary! We had a lot of miracles yesterday with her, especially with our part member family that I've been teaching since my first transfer here, the de Maris. We hadn't even planned to have a lesson with them yesterday but it just so happened that one of our other appointments cancelled so we had time to go pass by. We decided to read a passage with them from Mosiah 18 and afterwards the husband, Eliezer, especially felt the spirit very strongly. It was so awesome to have Sorella Lemos there who speaks spanish and was able to communicate with him really well and bear very powerful testimony. It was a very good last lesson for me. I will miss them so much!! Well, that's about all I have time for. We are going to meet all the new sorelle at the duomo for some proselyting on their first day!  I love you all so much and have a wonderful wonderful week!!

Love,

Sorella Lyman