Mamma mia!

Buon giorno la mia cara famiglia e amici!!

I am so happy that Katherine's going to Harvard!! That is so exciting. And Carolyn looks sooo darling. You all just look so happy and beautiful!

What a wonderful week it has been! We ventured a little farther out of our city this week to go make some stops in Pinerolo, a city about 40 minutes away on the train. We had lunch with a member family who the dad is actually from Idaho and served his mission here in Italy, and they made us sloppy joes! It was so fun, and a little strange to be talking in English and eating American food! Later in the day we actually ran into a family at the train station who were visiting from Utah and were there in the Pinerolo area doing geneology! It was so crazy to run into them since that was our first time really ever being in that area. I basically just felt like I was in America all day long! The other part to that story is that the anziani in our distrect ran into the same family the very next day in the metro in Torino! What a crazy coincedence!

That whole day was really just a miracle because everything worked exactly according to plan and we taught some really great lessons. It's so wonderful when things actually work out the way you planned for them to! I had another "I'm in Italy" moment this weekend as we were in Rivoli teaching one of our investigators. She is basically the most Italian you can get. The first thing that happened was that she looked down and noticed the shoes I was wearing (the sole is pretty much halfway off). She would have none of that and had me try on two of her pairs of shoes, both of which fit perfectly and she insisted that I keep them. Afterwards she fed us a humungous meal because she also insisted that we each fatten up and sent us home with a pandoro from easter time and leftovers from the meal. Mamma mia! How I love Italians.

Something that I've been learning a lot about this week is being sincere with people. Sometimes I feel like I sound like a broken record and the words aren't always coming from the heart. I was able to notice this contrast in a lesson we had on Saturday with a member, to a lesson we were having the next day with a new investigator. The second lesson went so much better than the first, not because we had prepared better or anything like that but because we had really focused on his needs and the committment we wanted to leave him with- that of helping him have the desire to read the Book of Mormon. It was a little different than any first lesson I've had with an investigator because we made sure to take a step back and address his needs. And in so doing we were able to bear powerful testimony that came staight from the heart!

Well about time to sign off. I love you all so much! If you want a really good pick me up, go read Dieter F. Uchdorf's talk to the general relief society from the November 2011 conference entitled "Forget me not." It's amazing!! Vi voglio tanto tanto tanto bene!

Love,

Sorella Lyman

P.S. A picture of the elect detector- a nameless book of mormon in our house that helps us find all the elect people!