Companion Twins

Buon giorno a tutti!!

Another week come and gone! I can't believe how fast they all go. The months go by even faster! Almost a month ago today I was picking up my companion, Sorella Hoffman in Milano to start her first trasfer in Italy. The time has really flown by, and it's because so many great things have happened! We are both determined to "keep the Collegno fire burning" as Sorella Hoffman likes to say. I can really tell that we are related on the Lyman side. One guy on the bus even asked us if we were twins! We don't really look alike, just the same eyes, but anyway it started a conversation!

Well, onto some miracles. This week we've been having to deal a lot with things pertaining to Sorella Hoffman's permesso, and on Friday we had to go back to Torino (we're there everyday, practically) to provide some more documentation. We went a little grudgingly, considering the circumstances, but as always the Lord was able to reveal a bigger, more important purpose for being there. As we were walking to the questura I saw three people who I was pretty sure were from Peru walking in front of us. I thought it would be so great if we could talk to them. As we were walking into the questura, they popped up in front of us again! Fancy that! After we sat down to wait for our number I noticed that they were sitting down directly behind us- I knew right then that we needed to talk to them. So we got up, made our way nonchalantly over to where they were and sat down next to them. Immediately they noticed our nametags and asked if we were mormon. It turns out one of them is a less active who was baptized in Peru many years ago, another is a non-member who's entire family is Mormon, and the other is an ex-investigator that the sisters had been teaching a year ago in Milano but he had to stop the lessons because he moved to Torino. But he had read the entire Book of Mormon and loved it. Needless to say, it was definitely not a coincidence that we had to go back to the questura on that day!! Even better, they all live in our zone! I will keep you updated on all of them. :)

Friday, the day we went to the questura, was probably the best day of the week, in fact. We got so many people's contact information, many of them for Torino, and it just seemed like everyone wanted to talk to us! As we were going to get lunch at a Kebap place (it's a really good Turkish food-they have it everywhere in Italy) we sat down at the table and Sorella Hoffman had laid out all of her pamphlets and things on the table to organize them better. A guy got up from the other table and asked if he could have one to read! A couple of minutes later, he got up and asked for another one! We will definitely be making our pamphlets more visible from now on. :) It was such a great day. We'd acutally like to attribute to the "elect detector", a Book of Mormon in our apartment without any title on the cover, but with all the words and everything still inside. Apparantly it works best for Torino.

 Another amazing, wonderful blessing right now is our investigator who we recently found through a less active pass-by that I told you about last week. It is a miracle how we found her, and it is a miracle to teach her. She is really, truly one of those elect people. If I'm here for anyone in collegno, it's her! I love it when I meet people in my mission that I knew I came here to Italy specifically to meet. This is definitely one of those experiences. As we hav begun to teach her, her less active son who she loves dearly has expressed so much excitement and enthusiasm about us coming and is now meeting with the missionaries in Torino, hopefully to become reactivated! Her other son has been a little more opposed to religion, and she has been praying so hard for his heart to be softened. In our last lesson she told us that her prayer had been answered. About a week ago her son was over at her house and started asking about the lessons she was having with us. Then he started reading the pamphlets that she had laying out on the table and the Book of Mormon. What a beautiful, and quick answer to a prayer from Heavenly Father. It has been one of the most amazing things for me to witness in my mission, seeing how the gospel can reunite a family and bring them closer together.

I love you all soooo much!! I am so so grateful for all that you do and for all the support you give me! Here's a little thought from Sister Beck, the former relief society president: "You're doing better than you think you are, but you can do better." That's so important to remember! It's comforting, but pushing at the same time! Vi voglio TANTO bene. Have a grrrreat week!!! :)

Love,

Sorella Lyman