Last Week!!!!!!!!!!

Ciao di nuovo!

I just can't believe I am in my very last week in Italia. It's kind of hard to think about sometimes, but at the same time I am so excited to see all of you!!!! I'm just trying to live every moment to the fullest and be prepared to embrace the future with open arms! I am so happy to be here in Genova, Italy, and I will be so happy to be at home too! Espcially right in time for conference! Best welcome home party I could ever think of!! 

Well, let's talk about the week, shall we? Genova is just lovely. I feel like this is the first time in my mission that I've had a never-ending pool of work to do. It's probably a combination of the fact of me having learned how to use my resources and also that Genova is just booming with potential! We had a really fun experience this past Monday night. I don't remember if I told you all the story of when we were out searching for a less active and weren't able to find the address. We started going around asking people on the street how to get there, and finally one lady suggested that we go into a bar to ask for directions there. We went in, and there was a cute lady from Santo Domingo sitting at one of the tables. When she saw that we were lost she offered to help and went outside with us to try and point out the street. She ended up going all around the mulberry bush with us for about half an hour until we finally found the address, only to discover that the family didn't live there anymore. She was so concerned and asked if there was a number we could call or anything- she was so determined to help us! We ended up having a pretty good conversation with her as we walked back to where we had met up before. Before we parted ways she told us that she was so happy to have met us telling us how we were so friendly and cute, etc, and she basically insisted that we come to her house one day to talk more and share our message. She even pointed out where she lived to us! So anyway, we finally were able to get around to seeing her this past Monday. She has the funniest little Italian husband who makes great facial expressions and hand gestures, we got pizza together, talked about the restoration, and she told us to come back on Saturday when her daughter will be there along with her husband. She is set on coming to church on Sunday (when we invited them the husband said "Si, andiamo- tu! or, yes, we'll come, you! indicating his wife) using the excuse that he had to stay home to guard the house. hahaha, oh how I love Italians. As we were leaving she said she would love for us to come back with our parents some day to spend the whole day together to pray! Che brava! 

We were pretty excited this past Sunday because we had about four less active families in church, along with our investigator from Poland who came for the first time! She only stayed for sacrament meeting, but at least she came! This week is really just going super well. We have a lot of appointments lined up and have a super cool activity on Saturday where there's apparantly going to be about 90 non-members there! Wow! Genova's great, basically. As I've started to say to myself, it's like the cherry on top of my mission. What a great way to end- with a bang!

Vi voglio un sacco di bene... un baccione a tutti! 

Love,

Sorella Lyman

Pictures from Nervi- the shore of Genova. Me and my MTC comp, sorella Harward, and then sorella McCann!

Gelato and Sorella McCann, Genova!

Chocolates at 18 Months

Buongiorno a tutti!!

Crazy things have been happening in Genova this week. Sorella McCann and I have certainly had some fun and interesting experiences! 

Let me just start with Monday. So last week Sorella McCann and Seare were doing a scambio and got two new investigators from Equador who are devout Evangelists. They were actually trying to find a less active member who didn't live at the address anymore, and instead this young evangelist couple who now lives there let them in. We were a little nervous that all they wanted to do was bible bash with us and so we were definitely planning for our next lesson on Monday to explain our purpose to them. Well when we came into their house we found four other people all sitting around the room who were obviously expecting us (sidenote, they didn't tell us these people were going to be there). We weren't exactly sure what to do so we just sat down and started talking to all of them. It turns out that they're all from the same Evangelist church and had come to hear our message/share their message with us. Let me just say, they're part of the evening took about the entire time and involved lots and lots of prayers, praising the Lord, singing hymns (all standing up), and a very dramatic sermon. They asked us if we sang hymns in our church and so we sang "I am a child of God" for them. I was getting kind of nervous by the end because we weren't going to have any time to even have a little lesson. But then at the very end they asked us if we had a message to share. We decided to read a little scripture in 2 Nephi 31 which talks about the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost being one and they really like it. In fact, it was probably thanks to that verse that we were able to find some common ground and spark their interest in our message. So, we have a return appointment for the following monday and four new investigators! It was interesting because they were all genuinely interested in our message but it took an entire evangelist church service basically to gain their trust. I've definitely never had a more informative and cultural experience about another religious faith and it ended up turning out pretty well in the end. 

We didn't think that the night could get any weirder, but THEN on the way home from that appointment (we were already running late) we ran into one of our less actives from Russia who is a little interesting, we'll say. We had about 15 minute conversation/lesson with her and at the end she gave us two huge bouquets of flowers that she had picked from the ground to give to someone in our ward on Sunday. It was perfect cherry on top of a very weird evening to begin with. 

If there's one thing I've learned from this experience as well as from countless others on my mission, it's that you NEVER know what to expect!!! You ALWAYS have to be on your toes and ready to accept and embrace anything that comes your way. It's just like Forrest Gump would say- "Life is like a box of chocolates- you never know what you're gonna get." It is so true, ragazzi. I am so grateful for ALL of the experiences I've had on my mission, good and bad, and the best part is IT'S NOT EVEN OVER YET! I still have three more weeks to go, and they are going to be glorious!!! 

Non posso descrivere quanto che vi voglio bene... alla prossima!

Love,

Sorella Lyman

P.S. Today is my 18 month mark!!!!! WHAT?!!?!! Here's a picture with me and Sorella Harward to celebrate. :)

Mission Prep

Buongiorno!!

Well, here we are, almost two weeks in Genova down. So much has been happening! The highlight of the week actually probably happened while I was gone on a scambio in Savona. Sorella McCann was here with Sorella Hatch and they were planning to go see a potential investigator that we had been trying to see for ages. They were finally able to see her this past Friday. It turns out that since the time the the sisters gave her a book of mormon on the street a while back that she had already read the entire thing!! I have been able to meet her since then and she has such good questions and understands everything we say. She has been keeping all of the commitments, reading the things we assign, the next one we're committing her to is coming to church- she really wants to come!

On Sunday we were able to meet another lady from Brasil who lives way out in the mountains in a beautiful area by this huge bridge. We were able to take one of the young single adults with us who right now is thinking about serving a mission. She was so brava in the lesson! It had actually been a while that I'd had a lesson like that- cioè a mom, dad, little girl, in their home, teaching the restoration with a member. It felt so good to be in that situation again! It was a good thing we had the member with us because she is familiar with the are and we probably wouldn't have been able to find their house without her! 

Thus far in Genova we've had a pretty equal mix of rain and sun. The bad thing about the rain here though is that it is super fat and comes down in torrents. Not the same as Verona! At least we're not on bikes! :p But we actually had kind of an adventure on Monday getting to an FHE with one of our less actives. The family's palazzo was up a HUGE flight of stairs going of this big hill (that's one thing about Genova- there's palazzi basically like staircases going up the hills there isn't really much flat ground to work with!). So anyway, it took us about 15 minutes to get up the staircase with our less active who was just huffing and puffing and saying "non ce lo faccio!" but we managed to get to the top finally. This particular lady is quite a character- I don't think there was one instance where her mouth wasn't running a mile a minute about topics that I could barely keep track of. Una donna propria italiana! 

I'm just having a blast right now, especially with Sorella McCann! she is so funny. We especially like to talk in accents together- british, southern, filipino, african, indian, australian- Right now I'm working to perfect my filipino and she is trying to perfect her australian. Anyway, we just have so much fun together and I'm learning so much and loving every moment! 

Abbiate un sacco di divertente questa settimana... vi voglio bene!

Love,

Sorella Lyman

Two pictures of Sorella Lyman with chocolate foccacia, which she bought just a block away from her apartment:

Super Fancy Elevators

Hi Everyone,

So here I am in Genova! So far it's been really great and I love it! Sorella McCann is the best and we have so much fun together. She's from Orem UT, but has also lived in Texas and southern Virginia. She is so goofy and makes me laugh all the time. The other two people in our apartment are Sorella Harward (my MTC comp!!!!) and Sorella Carlock, who are both wonderful. We've had lots of good times so far! It's been fun to catch up with Sorella Harward since we haven't seen each other for practically the entire mission. 

Genova is so great! I haven't seen a lot of it yet but what I have seen is beautiful. It seems that each Italian city has it's own particular characteristics and flair. For Genova I've noticed that almost every palazzo has the same super fancy, old fashioned elevators that you'd typically imagine in Europe. I've also seen lots of laundry lines hanging above all the streets which I haven't really noticed much before in my other cities. Just one of those typical Italian things you would never see in America. :) Another thing that's kind of cool is that each city has differet foreign influences- in Milano I felt like I was in Peru, Verona felt like Africa\Romania, and now Genova feels like Equador! There are Equadorians everywhere here. Another thing that I love is that we have so many people to work with! Overall there are TONS of less actives, and so that's mainly what I've been doing since I've been here. I'm excited to meet all of our investigators- I've heard about all of them and planned for them but it will be so much better when I'll be able to put a name with face! That's going to be one of the challenges of this transfer- I have to get everyone straight, familiarize myself with the city, make friends with all the members, and be able to help all these people come closer unto Christ in just six weeks! Bring it on!

Another thing I'm super excited for is all the sisters I'm going to be able to work with as a sister training leader! The cities we are over Savona, San Remo, the ones here in Genova naturally, Alessandria, Torino and... COLLEGNO!! I am SO excited to go back to Collegno and see all those dear members and my new converts! It's such a blessing to be able to return right before I end my mission. I'm also super excited because my other baby, Sorella Hoffman, is in Alessandria!! Like I said last week, this new place has been the biggest blessing I never thought I would get at the end of my mission. It's really helping everything come full circle for me. 

Next week I'll try and send some pictures of the city and my companion, etc, and hopefully have some fun stories to share as well! 

Buona settimana a tutti e vi voglio bene!

Love,

Sorella Lyman

P.S. I forgot to say that I've also eaten some delicious chocolate focaccia in this past week. It's a Genovese specialty, along with pesto. I'll send along some pictures of that too. :)

The Wandering Sister

Buon dì!

Okay everyone. Are you all about ready to have your minds blown? Guess what? I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED!!!! I am going to GENOVA 2 to be a sister training leader again with Sorella McCann!! That means that I will be spending the last six weeks of my mission in an entirely new city. AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE IT MEANS?!! There will be two completely new sisters here in Verona (not sister training leaders anymore... I have no idea where they're moving them)- Sorella Alley, who will be training a new sister! It was actually kind of comical when the phone rang around lunch time on Monday. We had just gotten done cleaning the apartment and I was just so content to be staying in Verona for my last transfer, not worrying at all about what could possibly happen. I didn't even freak out when the phone rang because I thought they were just calling Sorella Willis to tell her all the details about going home on Friday. And THEN they asked to talk to me and I started to wonder a little bit. When they told me I was going to Genova I thought it was a joke! I guess that's what I get for being so comfortable with where I'm at. God certainly has His way! 

But really though, I am SO excited to go to Genova. I always speculated about going there but never thought it would actually happen, especially in the last six weeks of my mission!! I am so excited to be with Sorella McCann- I've gotten to know her a little bit throughout the mission and she is so fun and cute! She will be my very last companion! Mamma mia. I've also gotten to go to Genova a couple of times when I was with Sorella Stewart way back when, and it is BEAUTIFUL!! It is on the west side of Italy, sort of in the mountains, and right on the ocean. It is going to be such an adventure to go to a new city knowing that I only have a very short amount of time to be there. It makes me determined to discover why the Lord wants me there and to fulfill my purpose to the fullest extent as a missionary. I'm so excited for these new experiences, meeting all these new members and investigators, and just everything that's about to hit me! OH, one other bonus is that I will be living in the same apartment as Sorella Harward, my MTC companion!!! I haven't seen her in almost a YEAR. It will be such a blessing to start our missions together and also be able to end them together. Really, this whole thing is just a huge blessing from God that I wasn't expecting in the slightest! Isn't it amazing how he works sometimes?

I'm also thinking a lot these days about when I got transferred to Collegno with Sorella Haslem, when WE were both new to the city. Now I get to be on the other side of that spectrum, seeing what it's like to have both me and my companion leave and have two new people come in. The minute we found out on Monday we have been scrambling around getting everything in order for the new sorelle, saying goodbyes, and packing our suitcases. It's been sad to have to say goodbye to all these people, not thinking that I would have to do it so soon. I know that this is the right thing for Verona, having two new sorelle come in, because they will both have a new and different perspective about the people we have been working with and I think will really be able to turn the work around here. I saw it happen in Collegno and I know it can happen here! 

Well, this email is getting pretty long. I realized that I haven't really told you anything from this week as far as our work goes. The main highlight is that on Saturday we had an awesome music night at the church featuring all the missionaries from both wards in Verona. I got to play the violin for two numbers and there were a lot of other really cool things too. It's sure been fun for me to be in this ward that has so much talent and appreciation for music! 

Vi voglio bene!!!! Have an wonderful, amazing, awesome week and always look for the hand of God in your life! 

Love,

Sorella Lyman

Why We Love Miracles

Buon GIORNISSIMO!! (Yeah, I just heard the cashier guy say that... not sure if it's quite grammatically correct :P)

How are yall doin?! Staying warm, I hope- I hear it was -29 at one point in Rexburg?! I can't even imagine that!!! I hope you're all putting a gazillion layers on. If there's one thing I've picked up in Italy, it's that. And wearing scarves- it really works! 

Well, this week has been dandy! Aside from the rain, which is basically a given these days, we've seen lots of great miracles! By the way, Dad mentioned the fact that I always talk about miracles in my emails. That's because we really put an emphasis on that in this mission. We write about one every single week to president, and every night before we plan for the next day we think of a miracle that's happened that day. It helps keep you aware of how many there really are in this work! 

So yeah, I think my favorite miracle from the week happened on Sunday. The week was about to come to a close and we hadn't found ANY new investigators. Our plans for the day had sort of fallen through and we were left with an entire evening of finding. So we headed over to an area to do some casa (knocking on doors) and luckily got into a palazzo pretty quickly. One of the first doors we knocked on a woman from Sri Lanka opened up. As we were explaining who we were and about our message the number of people at the door slowly started to accumulate until there were about six people standing there. They all seemed very interested so we asked if we could come in and share a short message. And... they said YES!! So we walked in and before I knew it I was sitting in front of eight people from Sri Lanka talking about Jesus Christ and the restoration of the gospel. It was so cool! We ended up getting five new investigators (three of them had to leave for work) and it was really just a great experience. Afterwards I was just thinking to myself that experiences like that probably don't really happen outside of being of missionary and I want to treasure them up as much as I can! 

Another great miracle we're having right now is our investigator from Nigeria who has a baptismal date for the 2nd of March! We've actually had to move it a couple of times because she's had a hard time getting to church with her four-year-old and one-month-old baby, but yesterday we discovered that she really does have real intent- when we talked about having to move the date again at the end she sort of laughed and told us that she knew that was coming because she wasn't able to come to church again last week. This week she's really going to try and we're going to pray so much for her! 

Well, that's about it I think. I hope you all have a wonderful week filled with your own little miracles and that you STAY WARM!! Vi voglio un sacco di bene.

Love,

Sorella Lyman 

Che pioggia!!

Buon giorno, bella famiglia e amici!!

First of all I just have to warn you that there might be a lot of uncapitalized i's in this email because my shift key doesn't really work at all. I know most of you probably don't really care but i just wanted to let you know. :p

If there's one word i have to decribe this week it would be "wet". It started raining last Wednesday and hasn't stopped until yesterday evening. someone told me that tomorrow's supposed to clear up but then the day after it will go back to rain rain rain for the rest of the coming week. I might as well be in London! The cool thing (as Sorella Willis pointed out) is that this is probably the only time of my life that i will have the oppotunity to go outside in the cold rain on a bike where i'm guaranteed to get wet, so i might as well live it up! Really though, i just love riding around Verona with my bike, helment, and skirt, even in the rain, because it's one of those sensations that only a sister missionary can get! Plus, you get a really good view. :)

Reflecting back on the week, the thing that really made the biggest impression on me were the two scambios I got to have with sorella carter and sorella seare. I love scambios because they give me a new perspective on how i could be better in my own companionship and in my work. I love every single sorella in this mission, even if i don't know them all personally. Did you know that there's actually four sorella carters in this mission?!!? And two of them were actually together for a transfer. Carter 1 and Carter 2. :p Sorella Carter came here to verona and we had a great scambio where we saw our indian family and a couple of less actives. the indian family is doing well, but i don't really know how much they are going to progress. They aren't really interested in coming to church because it's just too much of an ordeal for them, and basically they told us that they're just interested in us coming to see them to talk about Jesus. i guess we'll see. It's interesting because i was just reading in jacob 5 this week and was making a bunch of crazy parallels to missionary work- investigators, x-investigators, senior companions, junior companions, and it just helped me realize that we need to be patient with our investigators. As we teach them about the gospel and help them to recognize these precious truths they will want to start making changes in their lives and "cast out the bad fruit." But that's only as we help them to grow the good fruit- there has to be a balance.

I also had a scambio with sorella seare in bergamo and it was so fun!! We are basically twins- we're both violin majors , both have really big, musical families that love to harmonize things in every possible way, and she knows jocelyn! She actually reminds me of her a lot- their smile is really similar! It was so fun to be able to do two scambios with her and just talk and learn from each other!

I'm so grateful to be a missionary and especially for the atonement of Jesus Christ which allows us to turn over a new page whenever we've made of mistake and just try again. It is unconditional. It gives me so much hope, especially as a missionary and i just want to spread it to everyone around me!

Vi voglio tanto tanto tanto bene... buona settimana a tutti!

Love,
Sorella Lyman

Post-Babel Has Its Good Points

Buon giorno a tutti! 

Another week come and gone. We just keep plugging away, going out and talking to new people every day, striving to maintain and help all our investigators progress, and help the work move forward here in Verona. You know, one thing I just love is how many people I am able to meet each day. We're doing a lot of finding work right now, hence we meet people from all over the spectrum. And it just always amazes me that there are new people everywhere you go with different experiences and different ways you can relate to them. It definitely keeps the days interesting. 

One thing we're really trying to do is help our investigators progress. We're kind of seeing a cycle where we teach them the first lesson and have a wonderful experience on the first meeting, but then the return appointment usually ends up falling through. One way we are trying to counter this is by simply passing by at random times, hoping and praying that they are at home so that we can teach them! It's actually worked out pretty well this past week. We were able to see two of our investigators from Romania who it turns out both read the pamphlet we left them with and are still really excited about coming to church! It was actually miracle because we were about to give up on them but decided to try one more time this past Sunday night and they were at home! Next time we're definitely going to try and get a member to come with us who can speak spanish because they're Italian is a little limited but they actually lived in Spain for about five years! By the way, another thing that amazes me is how many Romanians I have met in Verona. They are all so elect and prepared for the gospel! 

We were also able to pass by our Indian family this past Monday, and they are doing well. We were a little bummed on Friday when our appointment with them fell through, but thankfully they are still just as willing to learn as they were when we met them for the first time! The wife really wants a copy of the Book of Mormon in Hindi so that she can understand what we are talking about. If only we could all just speak the same language! Although I have to say, all these different languages are pretty cool- I don't know if I could pick just one for everyone to speak! 

Well, that's about it for this week. I guess my little thought for you all is just to pray- and more importantly to pray specifically. It shows your faith and that's when you are really able to see the blessings and the answers to your prayers, which will surely come! 

Vi voglio un sacco di bene... buone settimana!

Love,

Sorella Lyman

Lights in Tunnels

Ciaoooo tutti!!!

Wow, che settimana! We saw so much success this past week, we're basically on cloud 9 right now! The biggest thing is that we got six new investigators!!! Four of them are a beautiful family we found doing casa who are from INDIA and they are so cute!! There's actually five of them, but the dad wasn't able to be there the entire time. It was a miracle right from the start. We knocked on their door, the wife opened up who doesn't speak any Italian, so we started talking to the dad who basically invited us in right away. Everyone in the family came into the living room to listen to us and we had such a great lesson with them! It turns out that they actually already had a Book of Mormon in Hindi because the dad had met the missionaries before! They are very interested in Christianity and learning more about our message! They have three kids, all boys, ages about 10 to 24ish. I'm so excited to keep teaching them! Let me just say, I want to learn about three different languages right now- Hindi, Romanian, Spanish- I just want to be able to communicate with all these people! 

The other major success/miracle story happened this past Sunday in church. Do you all remember the story of the guy who we met by knocking on his door and he told us he had basically been waiting for us to show up and he had goosebumps all over his arms? Well, he's been coming to church for the past two weeks (he's being taught by the anziani) and this past week he brought his cousin who just got here from Romania a week ago. She is 23, just like me, and left her family (a husband and a four year old daughter) to come here to find work. It was a miracle to see her in church, after just a week of being in a foreign country, and even more of a miracle to see how all the members reached out to her and helped her feel welcome and happy. In fact, right after church, we got an invite from one of our members to have her, her cousin, and us over at their house for lunch and a lesson. Perfetto! The very next day we went to go see her again and had one of the most beautiful lessons I've had on my mission. It was so natural to just sit there with her and talk about the gospel, get to know her better, and promise amazing blessings specifically to her needs. We actually were even able to set a baptismal date with her for the 16th of February! Sorella Willis and I both love her so much- she was an answer to both of our prayers and I am so excited to see her progress towards baptism! 

I am loving the work right now in Verona. Well, I love it all the time, but right now it really just seems to be hopping. I'm so grateful that God has blessed me with all these beautiful people to teach. It's truly a wonder to think of all the people you meet and talk to in a year and a half span of time as a missionary. It never ceases to amaze me the blessings and people God has in store for each one of us! Just one other thing- don't forget that when you're facing a lot of opposition, having a bad day, whatever it is, that is when God is about to bless you the most if you remain faithful and keep doing what you're supposed to do. I've seen it too many times to count in the past year and a half. We can overcome anything when God is on our side! 

Ti voglio un sacco di bene, e buona settimana a tutti!

Love,

Sorella Lyman

(The pictures are from Castelvecchio, a beautiful castle/bridge in the center of Verona.)

Frozen Verona!

My two babies, Sorella Haslem and Sorella Hoffmann!

Buongiorno tutti!!

Well, the cold has finally hit in Verona. It's actually been pretty nice up until about two days ago when it rained and the temperature plummeted pretty dramatically. I'm just wondering if it will manage to snow this year- the last time I saw snow was last year in Milano! What I can't believe is that I am now in my 11th transfer, which means next transfer is my last. I'm not really sure what to think about that. Isn't it weird how time passes so quickly? I really realized that I'm an old missionary this week when I had both of my babies (my trainees... I call them my babies ) in Verona with me at the same time!! Sorella Hoffman had to come here because Sorella Acerson had to come back to Verona to get her permesso. I didn't even know they were coming until the day of! What really blows my mind is that Sorella Hoffman is in her 5th transfer! That was the transfer when I trained Sorella Haslem!! Mamma mia, my babies are all grown up. :o

This week we were able to see two people that we've been bending over backwards to try and see since before the holidays! It was truly a miracle. The first was a less active family who we went to see on Monday. The parents are members and they have two sons who are not. One of them was there to sit in on the lesson along with a family friend who is usually there when we go to see them. Both of them, the son and their friend are really trying to find the truth in their lives! There are just a couple of things that are inhibiting them. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and it was actually the first time in a while that I've taught that lesson. One of the things I like the most about the Plan of Salvation is that God gave us the choice to accept the plan, and everyone who is here on the earth made that choice. That means that everyone has the capacity to accept the gospel and return to God one day because they've already made the choice once before! I love agency! It gives so much more purpose to this life to think that we chose to come here and that we didn't just pop onto the earth happenstance. And I love it when I'm teaching and I can see that the message is resonating in the person through the way they listen and the look they have in their eyes. What made me so happy about this lesson is that at the end we asked them what they thought they could do more to return to God. We then talked about church and why we go, and they gave us a solid commitment that they would come in two weeks! Success! I don't think it would've happened if they hadn't have felt the spirit so strongly in the lesson.

We were also able to see an investigator yesterday who right now is taking her time to decide to get baptized. It was a miracle that we were able to finally see her and we were able to talk with her heart to heart about everything. She really reminds me of myself in a lot of ways
because she really wants a testimony but just doesn't want to make any moves until she's received a sure answer and has a true desire. Hmm, that sounds a lot like me deciding to go on a mission! But we also talked to her a lot about the plan of salvation, bascially just bearing our testimonies and telling her how much we love her. The relationships you have with people as a missionary aren't quite like anything else. There is a certain trust and a certain power that enables you reach out specifically to them in the way that they need. It's a feeling that I'll treasure forever!

I hope you all have a wonderful wonderful week. Remember who you are, where you came from, and the potential that you have! (to return to Heavenly Father and become like him!)

Love,

Sorella Lyman

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

Nov. 27th: Conceptions of God

Buon giorno!!

Hey everyone! Tomorrow's Thanksgiving!! Last year I celebrated thanksgiving Italian style at Fratelli la Bufola with Sorella Forbes. It was soooo good. This year I actually got to have a full out American thanksgiving thanks to the awesome senior couples in Verona! We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatos, green beans, fruit salad, cranberry sauce, and other delicious things that I can't remember. And then there was apple and pumpkin pie for desert and persimmon cheesecake! Has anyone ever heard of that? I never had until I got to Italy (it's called kaki here) but apparently it exists in America too. It was SO GOOD!!

Other things that happened this week... I don't know, I just think I've had some different realizations of how people actually conceive God. This past Monday we were having a lesson with a less active family in Bussolengo and a couple of their relatives were over. I was talking to one of them, testifying about how God knows and loves him personally. Right after I said that one of the ladies immediately disagreed with me saying that God doesn't love him personally because he hadn't done anything to show his love for Him. Well, that comment kind of shocked me. I couldn't really understand how someone could think that. I've grown up my whole life believing and knowing that God loves us personally, one, because there are plenty of scriptures to back it up (Alma 7:11-13), and two, because I've felt it for myself. So it kind of made me really sad to know that there are people who don't have that conception. It's now one of my goals to make sure I testify of that more often because that is the most fundamental principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! 

There's another less active that I really just love. Right now she is living in a special home and is having some health problems. Every time we go over to teach her I feel the spirit so strongly and the pure love of God. Part of it's because she has that love so strongly within herself. It's so special for me to be able to talk with people about the gospel and testify to them that God loves them! I left there on Sunday feeling pure joy because we were able to buoy her up through the gospel. It was a reminder to me that serving others will bring us more joy than anything else in this life! 

I hope you all have a deliciously wonderful thanksgiving and that you enjoy and share in all the love and goodness that's around you. :)

LOVE,

Sorella Lyman

My birthday with a sign that says 11-15!!!

Huge Christmas tree in Verona!

Fall greetings from Sorella Willis and Sorella Lyman! :)

Thanksgiving! I'm making a weird face. :P

Happy Birthday Sorella Lyman!!!!!

Buon Giorno a tutti!

Here we are again, another p-day, another email. They just keep coming and coming and I feel like I don't even know where all the days go. It's a good thing I got a journal because half the time I don't even remember what happened yesterday! But I'm happy to report that this last week has gone swimmingly (that's one of my favorite words, and I don't know why). 

First of all, Friday was my birthday! I woke up to Sorella Acerson making me banana pancakes with peanut butter, whipped cream, and Aunt Jemima syrupe. A little taste of home! Both Sorella Acerson and Sorella Gross made me a beautiful birthday crown out of a cereal box and there were two huge balloons that made the number 23. I'm a little sad not to be 22 anymore since I was on the mission for the entire time being that age! Best year of my life! I'm sure this one will be good too. :)

Sorella Willis and I have been busy this week helping out with two zone trainings here in Verona and in Bergamo. We were asked to give a presentation for each of the zones on a new little "adjusting to missionary life" booklet that they recently came out with. It went pretty well, I think. It was my first time, really, speaking in front of a large group of people (besides talks in sacrament meeting) and it went better than I thought. I actually rather enjoyed it! I'd better get used to it since I'll probably be doing it for the rest of my life. 

Also on Friday I had a scambio with Sorella Hallum from Bergamo. On that scambio we decided to pass by a less active who we had been going to pass by for quite some time. This is actually another person that Mom told me to track down from the list of people she knew here in Verona. Well, every time we had gone to this particular palazzo we rang the citofono twice but no one would ever answer. This time with Sorella Hallum we went through the same routine, rang it twice, and nothing. I wasn't sure what to do , and eventually we decided to write her a note and leave it in her mailbox. Meanwhile a postman guy came up and rang a citofono to deliver a package. I didn't pay attention to which one it was. Still nothing, so he pulled away to leave. But right as he was driving away an elderly lady walked out. He got pretty annoyed with her, saying she needed to answer the door when people rang it, gave her the package, and left. We were still standing there so she asked who she was looking for. I said the name and she said "that's me!" I was shocked! We talked with her for a little bit, got her number, and will hopefully going to see her again. For me it was a testimony that God answers prayers because right before going there I had said a little prayer in my heart that this time she would answer the door. And she did after about 10 minutes! :)

I love you all sooooo much. I hope you have a fantastic week and always count your blessings. :)

con tanto amore,

Sorella Lyman

Editor's Note: Sorella Lyman hasn't sent us pictures in awhile, so let's flashback to this one from January!