27 Dec 2007

Christmas!!!

The highlight of mine was definitely... sleeping in! Haha just kidding... of course it was talking to the fam!! I got to talk to Mom, Dad, Tom, Andy, Ell, Paul, even little Cash (okay maybe I just heard him breath into the phone : ) , Marg, heard Nate speak some great Italian ; ) , and cute little Maura and Cameron! It was great to hear all of your voices! It always seems a little surreal the next day because now we are back to email... but thanks all and next time I talk to you will be face to face at the airport in April! Yikes!

Here's a quick update on the week...

Last week was great. We had an English class party on Thursday. We had our students watch Mr. Kruegers Christmas in English! haha. I really wish we could have watched a different one but, hey, we're missionaries and our movie collection is limited! People brought food and it was a lot of fun. Some students gave us some nice gifts... this one guys gave us a bottle each of olive oil that he made and that had been sitting since 2003! Yum... I'm currently thinking of a way I could possibly save it and bring it home with me! Vediamo...

Friday was had a couple inactive appointments and shared a nice Christmas message with them. Saturday morning we had another appointment with our golden investigator Maiken. We taught her the end of the second lesson and then also watched the restoration movie with her. At the end we left her with the invite to pray. We also asked her if she wanted to say the closing prayer to end the lesson. She was really shy about it and was scared. It's something I've noticed a lot on my mission!... that people don't just grow up like I did praying all the time and then when they see and hear the missionaries praying all the time they are kind of intimidated to pray in front of us. We explained to her how to pray and she finallydid! She got kinda stuck at the end and forgot how to end it so she looked at me I I just said... "good! now just end 'in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.'" So that was a little miracle. It's so neat to teach people how to pray! Something so simple that we sometimes overlook but also one of the most important things to do... pray and have a relationship with Heavenly Father!

Sunday we had great meetings! Maiken came to all 3 hours of church! She is so awesome and is sooo humble and teachable and WANTS to learn as much as she can. I taught the Gospel Principles class and talked about one of my favorite parts of the Book of Mormon... King Benjamin's address and how the people had a change of heart. Sacrament meeting consisted of all the members, including sister Harvey and I, bearing a testimony of Christmas and Christ. We also did a musical number! haha. Imagine me in a trio singing "angels we have heard on high!" Good times that only happen in Oristano! I love it! Sunday afternoon we headed down to Cagliari to sing carols with all the Cagliari missionaries. We spent the night with the sisters and then woke up and went to our Christmas Eve district meeting together. It was great fun. We had a lasagna lunch together and then had a fun little white elephant exchange. Harvey and I then headed back to Oristano for the night. We had to be in our appartments by 6. So we waited till 8:30 and then went to our Christmas Eve dinner apt with the Angius and their whole family!

We ate a ton of really really good food...tortellini with tartufa (some really expensive mushroom broth stuff....(i know the cooks are laughing) and veggies and meat...the whole italian deal. Half the family was drunk on wine so you can imagine when we tried to share our spiritual thought, which included playing a song on the cd player, the crazyness that arose! The mom and sister just started belting out "silent night" in Italian and so pretty much that was that and our thought fizzled! haha. It was actually pretty hilarious. Sister Angius was just rolling her eyes and laughing at her poor crazy family! We finally got out of there by 11:30. Chrismtas morning we woke up at 9:00 (president gave us to sleep in of course!) and then opened gifts. We got ready for the day, did some studies, and then headed over to the church for the phone calls home! We got to watch "the nativity story" as well. Fun day.

Yesterday was p-day and also a holiday here in Italy so everything was closed (ecco perche the mission is emailing today!). But it was also Sister Harvey's b-day. We spent the day up the coast in a city called Bosa. We went with Maiken and her friend Severina. They are so cool and so nice to us. They are about the skinniest people ever because they are really into physical activity. That's fun for me though because we talk all about running and they are training for a marathon! They ask for tips and all I tell them is that it's do-able but pain is required! We had a little picnic on the beach by the mare. It was a beautiful day, really warm and sunny! So that was a blast. While we were walking, I was talking to Maiken. She told me that she had read a little more of Mosiah (what I taught on Sunday) and that if she were to get baptized that she would want to get baptized in our church! I was like freakin out and and she kept talking and I said okay, you can get baptized here in Oristano! Then she was like, but I want to get baptized in YOUR church. I was like, what do you mean MY church. And she say, in Utah! And I was like, what? She has done a lot of research on Utah and really wants to go there. So, I told her she doesn't have to wait and that she can get baptized here. oh brother! We are just going to take things really slow with her... no rush whatsoever. So anyways, she's incredible and there is no doubt that she will get baptized soon. We'll try to set a date with her this week to be baptized in a couple months! It has been such a miracle to see this all unfold. While we have been so concentrated on finding a family, it has been crazy to notice the small things that have led up to Maiken meeting us sisters and being able to be taught. We still search for a family to bless this branch but that fact that sisters were sent here at this time, right when Maiken was starting english class is just incredible. This is Heavenly Father's work and he really leads those who are looking for the truth to us. Well, now starts the after holiday diet. I really think I've gained a couple pounds throughout the last week so I'm starting the "Harvey" diet and will be eating like her for the next while!

Hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you and thank you for your many prayers and great examples!

Love Always,

Sorella Boynton

Merry Christmas 2007

What a great week it has been...chuck full of incredible miracles... get ready...

Last Wednesday after we finished emailing you we went out to a historical site about 20 minutes away from here called San Giovanni. It's right on the coast. We went because we got invited by our English class friend who I told you about last week, Maiken. We were gone for about 2 hours and during that time we had the chance to talk a little bit about the church. Maiken had been to the church website and knew a lot about the church. She said she had read a story about an Italian who had come to know the church through English class and was eventually baptized. We talked about the word of wisdom, the law of chastity... she just seemed to have read it all. She also read that the missionaries go around teaching lessons to people who want to know more. We told her yep, that's what we are here for! So that was Wednesday. On Thursday we had English class. She came as always. After class she was asking us about the "those lessons" that the missionaries teach and wanted to know if she could hear them! We were like... um OF COURSE! It's not everyday that we have someone ASK US for an appointment. So that's how it's been going with her. Up until now we have taught her the first 2 lessons. She keeps all of her commitments, always reads the chapter we leave etc. She came to church for the second time on Sunday and even brought a friend. Church was amazing because the only talk that was given was by our branch President, President Angius. He said he had felt inspired to share the message out of the liahona....the one elder hales gave on faith in Jesus Christ. He gave an amazing talk and said many things that touched Maiken a lot, even to the point where tears were coming down her cheek. I don't know where it will end up...of course my hope is that she will decide to get baptized... but she is just incredible and definitely one that you could call "a golden investigator." I feel blessed because we have such a good friendship. She loves running and so we talk about that a lot! We'll continue teaching her and let you know how it goes. We joke that by the way things have worked out up until now... she will be the one asking us when she can get baptized!

Another miracle this week was getting down to Cagliari for our weekly district meeting. Due to bad weather the trains were all 2 hrs in ritardo (late) and all the sudden out of no where a miracle train showed up and we were able to go! Yay for tender mercies of the Lord. I've come to know more and more on my mission that these tender mercies happen every day... we just have to recognize them!

Going back in time now....Zone conference was on Friday and was really fun. President and Sorella Acerson gave some trainings and then the Cagliari members made us a good lunch. After that we had a little Christmas program where all of the missionaries did dumb skits or sang or something. Sister Harvey and I made our "Top 10 reasons why we are excited to be serving in Oristano for Christmas" and shared it with everyone.

So here it is....

10. Our Christmas eating appointment comes fully equipped not only with food that Sis. Harvey can eat, but also with slippers, sweaters, and an invite to take a nap on the branch president and his wife's king size bed....WITH his wife! (haha, yes that really happened!)

9. We are probably the only ones in the mission who can spend Christmas day weight lifting and then using the baptismal font in our back patio as a jacuzzi!

8. We don't have to be concerned about public transportation no running on Christmas...(What? Oristano has public transportation?)

7. Forget midnight mass at the Vatican in Rome, we can out-do any practicing catholic by attending part of the Christmas mass in all of the 17 catholic churches in Oristano in 1 night!

6. We don't have to fight over the the phones for Christmas because there's only 2 of us. We might have to beat each other up to see who gets to talk first!

5. Struggling to figure out how you're going to make Christmas Cards for your whole branch? No problem for us seeing as how our branch list fits on less than 1 page!

4. (not funny and I don't have time to write it)

3. Between the lack of dinner appointments and sister Harvery's food allergies, we are in no danger of gaining the holiday 5!

2. At least one time during the holiday our dream of filling the chapel with people will come true... at the English class Chrismtas party! Maybe we can even get a special performance by our branch choir which consists of Sister Boynton and Sister Angius singing and Sister Harvey playing the organ!

1. Perche Dio Ci AMA! (Because God loves us!)

I realize that this might not be funny to you guys but it's hilarious to us!

Okay, love you all and hope you have the best Christmas ever!

Love ya,

care

12 Dec 2007

Transfer number 9 starting right up and already flying by.

It's been a pretty busy week. We were let in doing house a couple more times this week. All very nice people I just hope we can go back and actually get some new investigators out of the visits. The people here are generally more open and willing to let you in... it's then just getting a return appointment and really teaching them that's the hard part!

We visited S.lla Medda this week again...I don't know if I've ever mentioned her yet. She's here from Firenze staying and taking care of her aging mother. She used to be the RS pres in Firenze and since there's really no one here we go and visit her and bring her a spiritual message because she isn't really able to make it to church either because of her mom. She's amazing though. She was one of the first members in Oristano...too bad she moved to Firenze because we need a good member like her here!

Saturday was probably the longest day of my entire mission. Despite our efforts to get any appointment, we did finding work the ENTIRE day. We knocked doors all morning in the freezing wind, came in for lunch and studies, and then took a giant suck-it-up pill and went back out and knocked until we finally had an appointment with an inative in the evening. We taught some people and hopefully can re-visit them.

Sunday was a rather busy day. I had been asked to teach the relief society lesson. No big deal because RS consists of my comp and I, Sorella Angius, and then the africans, Patricia and Zuma. So I taught that for the first hour... then I was also asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting. It went rather well, I talked about the importance of the sacrament. The cool thing is that there was one of our English class students there... Maiken (i might have mentioned her earlier.) She's probably like 30 something and is from Denmark. She seems pretty interested but we haven't actually began teaching her yet. After my talk that lasted prob like 15 minutes, one of the africans, Aminu, gave his talk... in English... so I had to get back up and as he gave his talk in English, I translated it into Italian! Kind of difficult and makes me realize that I still have a lot to learn in the language! Just takes some experiences like this to humble you a little!

Monday, like all mondays, we went to DDM in Cagliari. The Cagliari missionaries were all talking about things they had to do to get ready for branch christmas activities etc and me and sister harvery just looked at each other and tried not to cry! We are pretty darn isolated up here and we just have to not compare with what other missionaries around the mission are doing or else we get lost in self-pity!

We are excited for this new transfer and are hoping we can do lots of great work. Thanks for all of your prayers and support. They help tons!

Marg, your paperless card was adorable... loved it.

We'll have Zone Conference on Friday so that should be great fun.

Love ya all,

have a great week and keep warm!

Sorella Boynton

5 Dec 2007

Happy December everybody!

I love December and everyone is preparing for Christmas.....I realized that out of the last 4 Christmas's, 3 of them will have been spent in Italy! I'm lucky, I know. : ) Although there will be no skiing in the alps this year...I look forward to it! We sing Christmas songs every comp study, share christmas traditions and are slowly decorating the apartment! Heard you've got some snow there in Utah? It doesn't snow in Oristano but looks like we might be having a "white christmas" (haha) anyways because one of the africans, Useni, has set the goal to be baptized on the 22nd. He just needs to stop smoking still and then he'll be set!

So yeah, we had transfer calls on Monday. I talked to President Acerson and he said "how's it going sister Boynton? How's Oristano." I said, "great president, we're just keepin on keepin on!" Then he said, "okay, well I'm going to ask you to keep on keepin on then and have you stay in Oristano." Big surprise....next transfer starts next week and Sorella Harvery and I will continue to work here in Oristano! We're excited.

We had a great week. We meet with some inactives and had some really good lessons with them. We got to teach an inactives husband who is a non-member. He's pretty catholic. He's from Hungry and is huge! He also has longer hair and a beard and mustache. After the appointment both Sister Harvery and I agreed that he looked like Jesus! Haha! Pretty funny to look over and be teaching him about how Jesus Christ set up his church on the earth!

We had a Reflief Society night on Saturday. Sorella Angius (the pres.) invited her mother, sister, and her sister's friend to come. The topic she had chosen was "the second coming" yeah, not really the best topic to talk about with investigators. The discussion got pretty heated because we were talking about one of the signs being the restoration of the church and to explain that you have to explain the apostasy. So finally the friend made the connection that her baptism in the catholic church wasn't valid, which is always kind of a blow to people. Anyways, crazy times! We ended with a nice refreshment and all went happily on our way.

On monday I also heard some really great news. I don't know if you remember but when I was in Livorno we were working with an excommunicated women named Marlene. Sister Bruno and I were working with her and the other sister and I continued working with her always with the hope that she would be re-baptized. So on Monday at our district meeting, Sister Bruno and I freaked out with joy when we heard that Marlene in Livorno was going to be re-baptized in a week! That was the best news I heard all week! Marlene is getting baptized! I love that woman! I hope to hear more about how that goes!

Yesterday we saw some small miracles.....we finally were able to teach crazy inactive Maria Boeri. We've visited with her a number of times and she would never let us share anything spiritual. So this time we decided to bring the restoration video. She had been a little sick so I said great. "just stay on the couch and we'll tranquilly (whoa, that's italian coming out!) watch this video." So we did and it was great. The spirit was there and we were able to bare testimony of the restoration of the church through Joseph Smith. Awesome. We left subito after so she could just be left with the spirit.

We also were doing house yesterday and this women who must have had a stroke earlier in life, (one side of her body couldn't really move, including her mouth,) answered the door. She said she didn't want to hear our message but let us in anyway. We just talked and then she got curious and asked us what we made us different...of course a missionaries favorite question to answer! We were able to teach a whole first lesson. It was awsome and we left her with a Book of Mormon. She wasn't sure about a return visit but hopefully we can at least go check back with her.

Cool things are happening and I'm so grateful to be a missionary at this time in my life. I know that there's nothing better that I could be doing with my time during this short year and a half. I can't believe I only have 3 transfers left so that means I have to take it up a notch and really give it my all!

Here's a little shoutout to Mom... I was reading this talk this morning and read..."She was small in stature, yet I stand on her shoulders everyday. Her influence will ever be with me. I cannot honor her properly by what I say but only how I live." It was Richard Hinckley talking about his mom, sister hinckley! May 2006 ensign!

Love you all, you're the best.

Sorella Boynton

28 NOV 2007

Buon Giorno a Tutti!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! There are so many things to be grateful for and I realize how blessed I am to be able to be out here serving a full-mission for the church! I love it!

I quickly got pulled out of my "Thanksgiving blues" (as Dad called them), that night during English class. I totally did not want to teach class but had no choice! So at the end of class we had a little culture lesson... all the Italians knew it was Thanksgiving anyway. I told them all about Thanksgiving and what we normally eat and do. They asked a bunch of questions. Then I made everyone go around and say what they were grateful for... haha. I started and said simple things in English... family, friends etc. Then we went around the room and they all took turns saying what they were grateful for in English. One student who is from Denmark, about 26 years old, I'm becoming to be good friends with. She speaks English so well. She said she was grateful to be able to speak English and then grateful that she came to know the Mormons, through the missionaries! So... that made me happy and I'm maybe one day we'll be able to teach her. A little tender mercy from Heavenly Father to help me out of those blues (only of course after feeling like a dork that I had even complained about no thanksgiving!) The next day we even attempted to make a little thanksgiving meal. I ate some mashed potatoes (comp can't eat them) and some turkey we bought and some veggies. So there you go... "I Want a Porsche Girl" got what she wanted!

We've continued to do a lot of finding work here. We were out in a little city called Cabras last week. We totally missed the bus to go back to Oristano and the next one didn't come for an hour! So we decided to do some house. We said a little prayer and the 2nd house that we rang let us in (remember this doesn't happen very often!). We were able to teach this lady a quick first lesson. We didn't get a return appointment but it was nice to introduce her to the gospel. Along that same street we also taught another women for a good 15 minutes at the door. Then it was time to catch the bus. Little miracles happen every day if we just recognize them!

Saturday morning we got to go on an institute "field trip." It consisted of Sorella Harvey and I, the branch president, and then the two Africans... Zuma and Aminu. We went to this archealogical site typical to Sardenga... called Santa Cristina. If anyone wants to know a little more about Sardenga you can do a search on "Nuraghi." It was the early people of Sardenga who built little civilizations. They built these tower looking things and they are all over Sardegna. We had a guide and he was telling us all this cool stuff... which we then had to translate into English for the Africans! I learned some new vocabulary that's for sure!

Sunday was great... with a record number in church... 14 people because the sister of Sorella Angius came with her husband and kid. Also the inactive family Mulas came. It was a nice Sunday. Zuma gave her testimony of how her mom introduced her to the church in Nigeria. It was amazing. I had to stand up next to her at the pulpit and translate it into Italian.

Monday we had our district meeting in Cagliari as always. I was in charge of the whole meeting...and this week it was in Italian (we've been switching off every week..so that the italian sister can understand every other week!) I gave a training that went pretty well. Yesterday we did lots of finding and hopefully can pass back by some potentials tonight. We had a meeting with sister Angius and fixed all the relief society lessons for December... I'll be teaching twice a month seeing as I'm now a relief society teacher. Yikes... may the force be with me!

Tom's email reminded me, and I've been thinking lately of miracles that have happened in my other cities. I never told you but remember how we were teaching these other Africans in Prato? Adesowa and Petra,the mom and the daughter? Well they got baptized finally this summer so I was super excited to her that. And then I heard the one of our inactives in Livorno... Stella... has introduced a friend to the church and know the sisters, my old comps, are teaching her. Just cool to hear how everyone is progressing! Can't wait to her that about Oristano! It will happen!

It's the last week of the transfer... that means transfer calls next Monday. The scary thing is is that president has to close a city for the sisters. I'm pretty sure he won't close Oristano seeing as how he just opened it... at least we are praying that he won't because we need more time to get things rolling here!

Okay, I love you and thank you all again for everything. This work is amazing and I'm grateful to be out here working.

Love you,

Sorella Boynton

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

...may all of yours be better than mine! (let me tell you that won't be hard to do!)

What a long, weird, week and it's not over yet!

We had some weird experiences... like... we got let in doing house one night. The lady seemed normal at first but then we went into her house and she was sooo wierd...probably drunk. She had us sit down, her husband smoking away in the background. She started telling us that she had spoken with missionaries before. My companion, sister harvey then asked her if she had a book of mormon. Right after that question, the lady looked at her, slapped her hand down on the table and said...."non fare le domande a me!", or "don't ask me questions!" Whoa lady. Then
she looked sister harvey in the eyes and said, "look me in the eyes." And then she started looking her in the eyes and squinting like she was trying to read them. I was thinking "no sister harvery! she's going to hypnotize you or something!" I'm sure sister harvey was thinking that as well! But then the crazy lady finally came to the conclusion that sister harvey had the same eyes as her daughter. The lady offered us a drink and treat and we were thinking "heck no, it's probably poisened." But she insisted and gave us some water that tasted a little funny. Luckily the treat was only a Happy Hippo and it was wrapped so we were pretty safe with that one! We finally got out of there pretty freaked and just thanked heavenly father we were still alive! Crazy!

Sunday we had church like normal. Then we went and had lunch with the branch president and his wife. I love her, sorella angius, she made us come in and put on a fleece jacket and slippers... she said that she always likes people to feel right at home. So we helped her make some polenta. I also had the experience to try something really gross...TRIPE! It's not like I had to eat it but they asked me if I wanted to try it so I told her I would try one bite. I had to count to three and then I tried it. Luckily it was together with this good red sauce which hid the flavor a little but still, one bite was enough!

Monday we headed down to Cagliari for DDM. We had our district meeting. After the meeting we stayed with the cagliari sisters for the afternoon and did scambi with them...sister Bruno and sister La Roca, an italian sister (her sister was in your mission mom and dad!). They are awesome sisters. I did an exchange with sister Bruno, for those of you who remember she was my comp my first transfer in Livorno! It was so fun to be back with her again and reminisce about the good old times! Oh she's cool! Then by 6pm we were on the big old ship headed to Rome for sister harvey's 3 month conference. Luckily the water was calm and the trip went great. We got to the mission home that morning by 12. There I said hi to sister acerson quickly and then left with the rome sisters to be with them for the next day. We had a couple appointments were we had to eat a ridiculously huge amount of food (never fun). The next morning (wednesday) was p-day. The other 3 rome sisters went and did the shopping while Sister Mura (another italian sister who's brand new in the mission) and I went and some some stuff in rome. But it really wasn't fun at all because poor sister mura was so upset because the other sisters in the apartment always speak english together and she always feels left out. So she totally told me about all that and was just grumpy all morning. The whole time I just wish I could have been at the mission home. Anyway, we met up then for lunch and finally the 3 month conference got done and I met back up with my comp sister harvey and we headed back to the boat. The boat ride was forever long but I slept all through the night because I was so exhausted. We didn't get into cagliari until 1:00 today. So then we caught a train and finally got here to oristano at 4pm. What a long journey! At least we got permission to email today! So that pretty makes up my thanksgiving day! I just try not to think of all the Rome missionaries eating a feast together... try not to think of all the tuscany missionaries meeting at the American base in Pisa for their feast... and then I'm okay! Okay sorry to complain but really, Oristano is just not the funnest place to be for the holiday's (and I thought the MTC was bad last year!). So, before I complain anymore I'll just sign off and go get ready to teach english class tonight. It's a hard knocked life sometimes! But I'm thankful for this time to learn and grow and have my patience tested to the max. I love you all and am grateful for the bestest family and friends in the world! Please eat a bite of turkey and stuffing for me!

Alla prossima,

Sorella Boynton

14 NOV 2007

Holy cow, another week has come and gone!

Starting right up where I left off last week....

Being in Cagliari for P-day was so much fun. All the Sardegna missionaries were there (maybe like 20-24 missionaries, 6 sisters) and we played soccer and had a great time. It's always fun seeing other missionaries that I served with in Prato or saw at zone conferences in Florence.

The next day, Thursday was zone conference. It was the smallest ever. I'm so used to the Tuscany zone conferences where there are at least 30 missionaries all sitting in rows. But this one we were all just sitting in a big semi-circle! haha. It was great though. There were some great trainings. Sister Acerson and President always have good advice and I always learn so much. They are amazing people and I'm so grateful for their selfless service. One thing I always enjoy about at zone conference is the "dying testimonies," or the testimonies of those who are leaving. They are always so great and strong. It's incredible what a mission can do to someone if they let it!

I got your package at zone conference ell! Grazie mille!

Then we came back and taught English class. Friday was good. We did our programming for the week and then had an appointment with Sorella Angius, our good friend the RS pres and branch presidents wife. Zuma, the African member was there and we just helped her cut up these weird hard apples so she could make jam with them. Also they made brownies because Zuma loves them. I don't think I've heard people rave about brownies like they do here! They love them and always ask about them! haha. We left a spiritual thought with them and since we 4 practically are the relief society of Oristano, we talked about the blessings of the sorellanza mondiale!... the worldwide sisterhood that we have in the church! Anyway...

Saturday was pretty long... we pretty much did finding work until our appointment at 8pm. We are working with an inactive... Sorella Lai. I liked something she said... after we were done teaching her a first lesson, just to review the restoration with her, we were talking about her problems and how she doesn't really feel like her prayers get answered. Inactives know we are there to get them active. So she instead of dancing around that like sooo many do... she said... "I'm not just going to come back to church because Sister Boynton told me to come back to church." I think on the mission I've just come to like it when people are just blunt and honest. I've heard more excuses than you can imagine and so that honesty just made me happy. She's got a long way to go to come back but when she comes back, at least it's going to be for the right reason and not just because "Sister Boynton told me to come back."

Sunday was great this week. President Angius and his wife gave talks. I really liked her talk. She talked about the story of Mary and Martha and how Mary "chose the better part." (see Luke 10:38-42).

Sometimes it's hard to gauge ourselves on how we are doing but I think that if we are always trying to "choose the better part" or just trying to do our best we'll be blessed. A big, although not new, realization this week was that Father really does trust us so much and just how great and pivotal in the plan of salvation the gift of agency is.

Monday we were back in Cagliari for our district meeting. It was great. Yesterday we had another appointment with Natasha, the lady we met last week. She's good but just really busy with work and studying. So, we'll see were that goes. We've been running into this blind man who's about 50 years old. So we've come to know him pretty well. He knows the missionaries and we came to the conclusion that he is the key to this city. He knows everyone, including our branch president, and if we get him the whole city is going down! That's the plan anyways!

Today we're taking it easy and just getting caught up with letters etc, and maybe a little sleep!

Tomorrow we have interviews with President Acerson, he'll be coming here to Oristano. I'm way excited to talk with him! Next week we'll be boarding the boat again on Monday to go to Rome for sister Harvey's 3 month conference. That will be fun, I'll probably do exchanges with the Rome sisters! Wahoo.

Other than that, things are great. Hope you all are well.

Dad, a little paragraph for your question:

Oristano is an ugly little city and yes it is by the sea, however we are a little inland so we can't see it at all here. Population: 36,000. The people are nice and a little more open that the Livornese and Pratese people that I've been around before. They are known for their good Sard cookies and just little pastries. There's sheep and the land is flat. Um...what else... they don't have good foccacia here... um... I'll be thinking about other stuff.

Okay, love you all...

Sorella Boynton

7 NOVEMBER 2007

Hey all,

It's been a long but abbastanza good week. I'm pretty happy right now because we are in Cagliari for the day and are spending the night with the sassari and cagliari sisters and then we'll have Zone Conference tomorrow here in Cagliari. We also get to play soccer together tonight so I'm excited for that! I've been missing my soccer here because in Livorno we played every week! I'll have to blow the dust off and pull out all my sweet moves! haha....

We are a little bit more situated in Oristano now. The first week of overwhelmingness is passed and now it's just patience and hard work. This week we've done quite a bit of finding work... talking to people in centro or doing house. We've also been able to meet 3 inactive women who we want to start working with. I've been thinking a lot lately about inactives and what is it that gets them back and helps them realize the blessings of the gospel. I know everyone's different and there are a million and one reasons why people go inactive but I also know there's a common thread. I couldn't help but think of the re-activations of Ed and Patty Cross and also Mike and Cathy Ford. Any advice is welcome!

But that's what this branch needs is major reactivation! Sunday was good. Sorella Harvey and I always come home sunday feeling a little down just because the situation of the branch is so... just plain sad and pathetic... but that just gives us all the more drive to work hard. Sister Harvey, my comp, is cool and a really hard worker. I think we make a good team cause she's pretty intense and as you all know I'm pretty laid back and calm, so it works. It's interesting though because she is allergic to everything and can only eat fruits, veggies, rice and corn. No flour, wheat, glutin, dairy (except for goat and sheep)just pretty much nothing and that's why she's such a beanpole. If anybody had a special recipe for that type of allergy let me know! She's always so nice and making me french toast and stuff that she can't even eat and I can't even make her anything! She's also a swing dancer so I'm having fun learning that! haha. Oh the joys.

A really cool thing happened yesterday. We got a new investigator! I was looking through the area book and saw some pass-backs. So last week we went and set up an appointment with a lady. Then we went back yesterday and taught her a 1st lesson. It went really well and she agrees with a lot of our doctrine. So that's pretty much the exciting news of the week. We'll visit with her next week and hopefully she's still interested. We have some other potentials who we'll try to contact this weeks too. Little miracles are happening and we just have to remember to be patient here!

Things are good, thanks for your prayers! Love you all!

Alla prossima!

Care

p.s. Thanks for the letters everyone...especially for the package jenn and jack! You guys rock and I'm such a slacker but will write soon!
boo yeah maud squad.

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone has a fun halloween! I remember this time last year I was just days from going into the MTC! Tomorrow is my 1 year mark on the mission, November 1st! Crazy how fast time has flown... seems like just yesterday that Jourdan was putting curlers in my hair to make me the best lion anyone has ever seen! And then when Tom walked in the door and saw me!... haha, that was the best! Anyways... HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Wow, to tell the truth I don't really know where to start with this weeks email. Hope this comes out coherent...

I got all packed up last wednesday and left my beloved Livorno. Gosh that was a good city! My cool comps, Sister Olmstead and Sister Call took me to the train station and I boarded the train all by myself and headed to Rome. I finally got situated on the train in a compartment with just one other man. That's when it got hard and all my emotions started trippin me out! I cried a little because I was leaving one of the best transfers of my mission and was just overwhelmed of the situation that was ahead of me. Luckily I got to travel by myself so I had the whole 3 hour train ride to get it all out and think things through.

I got to Rome and met my new companion, Sister Harvey who had come from Firenze. She's amazing and full of faith and really hard working. We waited there for a while and then headed out with about 6 other missionaries who were also headed to the island, to a little city called Civitavecchia and got on the huge ship. We were on the boat from 7pm to about 10am the next morning. The boat was rocking all night and I didn't sleep well. I was glad to get off in the morning. We met the ZL's and headed up to my new little (big emphasis on little!) home of Oristano. Sardegna is a whole other world! I'm definitely not in Tuscany anymore! I think it's safe to say that I've served in about the three most ugly cities in the mission! Oristano takes the cake! Anyway, they showed us the apartment, which is really nice, and then they left and we unpacked a little and moved things around how we wanted it.

That same night, Friday night we met back up with the ZL's and had a meeting in the church with the branch president here, President Angius and his wife. They are amazing people and are about the only one's who haven't lost hope for the branch here in Oristano. They talked about the inactives and just the branch and what they hope we can do.

Church on sunday was so interesting and I couldn't tell whether I was so emotional because I felt sorry for these people or whether I was so impressed with they're faith and perserverance. Let me explain a little more... we showed up at church and found the relief society room. Refief society consisted of my companion and I, Sorella Angius, and then 2 africans... Patricia and her daugther who is my age, Zuma. Patricia was baptized a year and a half ago (she's lived here for 5 years about), and told her children who were still in Nigeria about the church. Zuma and her brother Aminu were baptized about 2 months ago in Nigeria and came here to Italy about 3 weeks ago. Allora, the 5 of us had relief society together, with us translating for Zuma. Then we had gospel principles... my companion sister Harvey taught the lesson on faith. This class consisted of the nigerians... Patricia, Zuma, Aminu, and their unbaptized brother Hussien. We are working with Hussien and his brother Asan because they have a baptisimal date of the 17th of November. In sacrament meeting there were 12 people, President and Sister Angius, the 1st counselor Fratello Ledda who's like 70 years old, the nigerians, and then one other couple who's sort of inactive, the Mulas. That's pretty much the branch of Oristano. Sister Harvery and I both gave about 10 minute testimonies, and then President Angius filled up the rest of the time. They are happy to have sisters here... they've said it's been about 10 or so years since there were sisters.

We have some people, inactives and other contacts that we have been trying to see this week and that we will continue to try to see. Everyday Sister Harvey and I just look at each other like, "holy cow, what the heck are we supposed to do!" We've already walked the whole city and are "racking our brains," (as Andy would say) trying to think of new approaches and ways that we can get inactives back and find new people to teach.

But we both really want to work hard and find a family to bring into the branch and get things rolling here. It's easy to be discouraged right now but somehow, probably through lots of faith and lots of prayer we'll begin to see some miracles... cause let me tell you they really need them here!

I hope this email doesn't seem like I'm down because I'm really not. I'm just a little overwhelmed and feel a lot of responsibility. But I'm so grateful for this opportunity. It's stretching me a lot and helping me to grow my faith. Any extra prayers are welcomed and know that I'm praying for all of you as well!

I love you all and am so greatful for this mission in my life. Big salute to cousin Katy who is finishing her mission soon!

Love ya,

Care

24 October 2007

Hey Fam,

Okay I know you are all dying to know about transfers! haha, probably not but I'll tell you anyways because it's pretty darn cool.

Monday morning we got transfer calls from President Acerson. My comp, Sister Olmstead answered the phone and he told her that her and Sister Call would be staying here in Livorno and that I'd be going. I got on the phone with President and he told me that he had a special assignment for me. He said that he wanted me to go to the island of Sardegna and serve in the city of Oristano (get out your maps! It's on the coast smack dab in the middle of Sassari and Cagliari).

(Click on the pictures to make them bigger.)

This past transfer there were 2 elders there, the zone leaders. But he's decided to switch it up and take the elders out and put sisters in; we'll be taking over their apartment. So... I'm headed to the island of Sardegna to open up the city of Oristano. CRAZY! As we call it in mission lingo... I'm getting "blown-in." My companion will be Sister Harvey who was serving in Florence who I don't really know at all; she's a young missionary and has been out only 2 transfers but is a good one. We'll be the first sister missionaries in Oristano in a long time, like 20 years or so!

So I was pretty much freaking out Monday thinking of the crazyness of the transfer! I was feeling a little overwhelmed thinking about opening the city but those feelings have subsided (i'm sure they'll be back when I get out there!) and now I'm just feeling really excited for this new adventure that the Lord is trusting me and blessing me with.

I have no clue what Oristano is like. The only thing I know is that when I ask people if they know anything about it, they get a funny face, look at me like "good luck, you're gonna need it," and say "all I know is that the branch is really, really small." "There's like, 6 members," was my favorite response! Oh, I've gotten some good reactions! Looks like we've got our work cut out for us!

I'm heading out tomorrow morning, going to Rome and then out from there. I'll take a big old boat all night and then travel on up and try to find out where in the world our apartment is, the church is etc. etc. I've always loved adventures!!

I'm sad to be leaving Livorno and the awesome people here. But it's been great, especially this last transfer in my awesome three-some. My two comps are staying here and will miss me (haha) but I'm sure they'll survive! : ) That's the big news for the week. I letter get going because I haven't even started packing yet.

Hope everything's going good back home and I'll try to write people letters as soon as possible!

Love you guys!

Love care

17 October 2007

Good times this week... but first, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL THE OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS!!! Tom, Andy, Milo, Jade and anybody else who's celebratin!

Yesterday we decided to have an adventure for p-day so today we headed out to Lucca...a cool little old Italian city. It was just our three-some Sorella Call, Sorella Olmstead, and I. We had a blast! We saw some old churches and went up onto a tower to see the view of the city and ate some good food. It was an absolutely gorgeous day!

The rest of the week was pretty normal and great. We're still working with all of our people who are just moving along slowly but surely. Piano piano.

Sunday there was another baptism here in Livorno of the coolest Romanian guys that the elder's have been teaching, named Giuliano. He's incredible and the baptism was really great. We had an Romanian investigator there and she liked it a lot. Also Jantina came to the baptism and she was so excited to be there she just had all of the good feelings of her baptism come back! I love that woman!

Monday we got word that President Acerson was coming to our apartment for interviews this time around! Usually we go up to Pisa and meet him in the church there but the zone leaders called and said he was coming around to apartments. Needless to say... we hurried and cleaned up the apartment and then had interviews in our apartment, sitting at our study desks with President Acerson! I love President Acerson! He's such a humble guy and just has a sincere desire to always do his best. Interviews were really good. He looked real tired so we sent him out with some snickerdoodles that we made for him! Hopefully that kept him awake for his drive to wherever he was headed next. It was funny because he totally reminded me of Dad because he was talking about how the sisters in the mission always have transfers figured out even before he does! haha. Remember that dad! He said he saw how they figure things out and said, that's not even how I do it!" Good thing none of my comps really get to into "transfer predictions." But speaking of transfers... they are coming up once again next week. I've been here in Livorno for 3 transfers now and would LOVE to be able to stay here. Livorno is great. The work is great, the members are amazing, and awesome companions like I have right now are a major bonus! But chances are I'm out so I'll let you all know next email if I get transferred and where I'll be headed if that's the case.

Life is good and I'm grateful for this amazing opportunity!

Love you all,

Sorella B.

10 Oct 2007

Allora,

It was a great week we had here in bella Italia. Thursday was a little rough with appointments falling through because people are getting sick due to the change in weather. It's turning into fall here! My favorite season is on the way! So we got to do some finding work which I've always liked doing anyways.

Friday was a great day full of programming for the week, a few appointments with cool members and some house, knocking doors.

Saturday and Sunday were filled with conference! A cool story...

So we have been trying to get Jantina to start her family history right? She was so excited and had her brother send down a bunch of papers and information about her family. At this same time, this weekend, we were trying to figure out how we were going to get her up to Pisa for general conference (we all have to go to pisa to receive the satellite broadcast). Either members were staying and watching it at home on their internets or they just didn't have room in the car. But, this brilliant inspiration came and we decided to ask the single lady who's in charge of family history work for the branch, if she could take Jantina on Saturday for the RS General Session. So... we called her and she said she just needed some help clearing out her car (cause she's in the middle of moving) and then there would be abbastanza space in the car for all of us to go together. Saturday morning we did a little service and helped her clean her car out and then had it all perfectly set up so that we'd drive together to Pisa (about a 25 minute ride from Livorno), and they could just talk about family history work together! And the miracle is, is that it happened just like that! We all drove together and I told them to talk about family history work and they did! haha. So Jantina and Elena (fam history lady) got talking and set up a time to meet in the church to start Jantina on her family history! Yesterday was the big day... We met at the church and Jantina got started on her family history! So cool to sit there and watch her do it! Anyway... Conference... so many wonderful talks given! So many goals I have made not only for now on the mission but also for after the mission as well. Sis. Beck was pretty bold and blunt about how the importance of mothers and families! Mamma mia! I really enjoyed them all. We have yet to see that last session of conference but hope to be able to soon.

Besides the conference days, yesterday was my favorite day of the week. Nothing really special happened but just tons of little things that made me so happy. For example... little things like talking to the old bar man about all of his soccer pictures that were hanging up all over the bar while one of my comps was in the bathroom... noticing an old Italian man making something in a little dark room on the side of the street (so cool! We went over and talked to him and he was making a big old fishing net! He showed us how to do it and showed us how it was used to catch the fish.)... having Jantina do family history... teaching English class to our huge class of like 20 people and having them actually have fun... me doing the little spiritual thought at the end of English class to 30+ people (preaching to the masses!) and introducing the Book of Mormon to them all... and then finding out at family night that one of our new investigators who's named Rita and from Peru and who we found in the park randomly, is actually related to Carla Gomero (the intactive we've been working with!) Crazy... just lots of cool little things!

The mission is incredible and filled with so many cool experiences. I'm grateful to be out here right now and I'm having one of the best times of my life! As always, thanks for everything.

Love you all,

Sorella Boynton

3 Oct 2007

Hey fam and friends!

What an awesome week it has been! We've been able to meet with tons of people and the Lord is blessing us so much with lots of good work here in Livorno, or Leghorn, as they say it in English! The threesome is alive and well! Thursday was such a miracle day. Out of all the days of the week, Thursday is the day where we don't have anything going on like weekly planning or English class. So they can be really long. But this week we had 5 appointments and non of them fell through, which is really pretty amazing. We met with some of our inactives...Marlene and Angela. They are both coming along. I have been so incredibly impressed with the inactives we have been working with because they have pretty much all been coming to church every week this past transfer and a half. It's amazing. The other three appointments were with investigators... Svieta the Russian, Miriam from Peru, and then one of our favorite Italians ever, Antonella. We continue to work with Svieta...I think she just needs a little time and she'll come around. Miriam is INCREDIBLE and the only thing that's stopping her from progressing is just being so busy that it's hard to meet with us. But we had a good appointment and were also able to set up another one with her for this Saturday so we're excited for that. Antonella is amazing but she told us as we were about to watch the restoration video that she really liked us and loves how we've helped her but she's just happy living her perfect catholic life and she said she'd never change. That was a little blow but we'll keep in contact with her so that when that time comes where the catholic church just doesn't cut it for her anymore, she'll have us to fall back on. So Thursday was really full and we came home happy and tired!

Friday we got to go to Firenze for zone conference. It was really great, as they always are. The things that were discussed were nothing new but I really learned a lot through putting the teachings of Elder Scott (those about writing down promptings and impressions) into practice. The spirit is amazing if we'll just let it work with us! Saturday we had an appointment with our other inactive Carla Gomero. She's a 24 year old Peruvian who we've been working with all summer. She's been busy studying so she wouldn't come to church. But the best was when she finally showed up to church on Sunday! Yay! Hopefully she'll fall back into the habit of coming every week. Sunday was CRAZYness. My head was spinning by the end of church. The Eubanks, and American couple who just moved here, came to church and so I had to translate for them, which always takes more concentration and brain power! Then, we don't have a gospel doctrine teacher right now, so I taught the gospel principles lesson. It was crazy because I had it all prepared in Italian. But at the beginning of the class the only people were us missionaries, the Eubanks, and an African investigator of the elders who spoke English. So I started in English, then Jantina came, the Carla Gomero, then Giuliano, a Romanian investigator of the elders who will be baptized in 2 weeks. So, one of the elders then translated the rest into Italian. It was crazy calling on people to read scriptures and having them read in English, then Italian etc. CRAZY. It all worked out though and the lesson went well. It was on prophets, their role, our role in sustaining them, and then I just tied it into how we'll have general conference and how we can prepare for that. The funniest part was that the ONLY Italian in the class was one of the elders who's from Catania. We had us Americans, Jantina from Holland, Carla from Peru, and Giuliano from Romania! Italy is truly a big old melting pot and I love it! Then we got to go home for lunch and celebrate Sor. Olmsteads birthday with the good eggplant lasagna and fruit tiramisu that I made! Yum! Monday and Tuesday were great with some appointments and then English class. We have so many students! In prato we only had about 5 students but here in Livorno, you say the word, "gratuito" (free) and the people come runnin! It's fun stuff.

We've got some cool people we are meeting with this week for the first time so hopefully we can make them into investigators and help em out.This work is incredible and I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world to be here in Italy, with awesome people, sharing the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Plus, it's all in Italian and that just smacks on an extra 10 gold stars!

Allora, vi saluto, vi ringrazio di tutto quello che fate per me! Grazie per le preghiere per conto mio. Buona settimana, specialmente durante questa grande opportunita di sentire dai nostri dirigenti della chiesa alla conferenza generale! Vi voglio un sacco di bene!

(Here's my limited translation: Well, thanks for all you do for me! Thanks for all the prayers on my behalf. Have a great week, especially during this great opportunity we have to learn from our church leaders during General Conference!)

Love ya,

Sorella Boynton

26 SEPT 2007

Hey all!

I don't have time really to write but just know that everything is going AWESOME here in Livorno!

We had a great week. Jantina received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday and now she's a full on member of the church! We had a really cool lesson with her yesterday and we're getting her started on family history work! She already called her brother that lives in Holland to get a bunch of names of ancestors and information! Jantina baby rocks!

We are having a full day of appointments tomorrow with all of our most promising investigators! So the email next week should be full of that news. We're going to Florence on Friday for zone conference, always something to look forward to.

What else... just know that I love you and think of you often and really am grateful for all of your wonderful examples and prayers! I love being a missionary and sharing this most wonderful message with whoever will lesson, be it Italians, Romanians, or Peruvians!

Love you all, tanti abracci!

Sorella Boynton

p.s. JENN AND JACK I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN ABOUT YOU! I WAS THINKING ABOUT YOU ALL DAY ON YOUR BIRTHDAY ON SUNDAY AND LOVE YOU AND HOPE YOUR DAYS WERE AMAZING! You guys ROCK!

19 SEPTEMBER 2007

Thanks to everyone for the birthday cards and emails! I can't believe I'm so old, 22! I feel like such a grandma! Mamma mia!

This past week has been crazy stressful but the best ever also. We had tons of appointments last week. We have so many promising contacts it's really just incredible how much potential there is here. We taught a Romanian family a first lesson and they seem so interested. They are going to be gone to Romania for the next couple weeks so that's really unfortunate! But maybe just a sign that they are ready to hear this message and someone's trying to take them away! We also met with this Antonella lady who is incredible. She just got back from her camping trip so we are hoping that this week we will finally be able to watch the restoration video with her!

The HIGHLIGHT of the week was the baptism of one of the coolest ladies I've met on my mission... Jantina Nachbar! I was pretty stressed trying to get everything all ready for the baptism, making millions of phone calls etc. But it took place last night and it was INCREDIBLE! It ended up not happening in the sea because we all just decided it would be better and more conducive to the spirit in the church. The meeting was beautiful and the spirit was thick the whole night. I feel incredibly blessed to have seen her baptism because there have been sister missionaries working with her for the past 3...that's 3, years!!! I've been able to see her receive permission to be baptized from her husband and actually go through with the baptism! My comps and I counted up how many sisters had taught her and it was something like, 26 sister missionaries! CRAZY! She was so happy afterword and the branch members were all so happy. It was probably one of the most happiest moments of my mission, just knowing the things she had dealt with in her life and finally getting the green light! This is such a miracle, a true example of how faith brings about miracles!

I love this work and have a testimony of it. I'm so blessed to share it everyday!

Thanks for everything!

Love ya, sorella b.

12 SEPT 2007

Transfer number six... already over and number 7 starting up next week.

It's been sort of a crazy week but awesome... first though... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DAD AND ALSO STEVE!!! Hope your days were/are awesome! Everyone is getting so old! Mamma mia!

There were rumors that Elder Scott of the quorum of the twelve was coming so we were all excited to see if he would stop to talk to us. Well he DID! Yesterday we woke up really early at about 4am and caught a train down to Rome. All the missionaries of our mission met and we had 4 hours with him. It was incredible and he talked a lot about learning by the spirit. You probably don't remember but when I was in the MTC he came and talked 2 times while I was there. So this was my 3rd time on my mission being able to listen to him. Every time I've heard from him he's started off by having us write " I will consistently seek to learn from what I hear, see, and feel. I will write down the important things that I learn and do them." He talked about the spirit and the importance of writing down impressions we receive and the most important part... doing them!!! He talked for about an hour, then President and Sister Acerson talked a little bit, then he talked again as well. I wish I had my notes with me but I'll try to bring them next time cause all of it was really awesome. The thing that always amazes me is his testimony that Jesus Christ lives. Incredibly powerful. After all, I guess he is a "special witness of Christ." So that was definitely the highlight of this week. Because the whole mission was down in Rome, we had transfers early. So the other highlight of the week is that we've had another sister added to our companionship! That means we are a threesome here in Livorno. Imagine that! Three of us on bikes now drivin' down the street in single file! haha. He name is Sister Olmstead and she's 2 transfers younger than me... Livorno is her second city. She's way awesome and we are practically twins. She loves running and outdoors and she's done triathlons and is just plain cool. She's way fun and it's going to be a fun transfer as a threesome.

The work is going good. We're working with the regulars and Jantina's baptism should be next week. If everything works out, she'd like to get baptized in the sea!! That would be the coolest thing ever so we'll see if it works out!

Life is good and I love the mission. Incredible things happen everyday.

I love you all and pray for you always. Thanks for your many prayers, I can feel the power!

Thats is all.

Love Sorella B.

ps. yes mom, thanks for the package, I got everything.

And I'm still working on writing people, sorry it takes so long! Ciao.

5 September 2007

Today was a beautiful P-day spent in the beautiful Cinque Terre! There were a bunch of missionaries in my district who hadn't been so they all wanted to go, including my trainee, Sister Call, so we spent the day there. It was absolutely gorgeous and the weather was perfect. Mamma mia we have had quite the transfer of P-days and I'm pretty much tired! I can't wait till next p-day when we can just have a normal day to get caught up writing letters! So those who have written don't loose hope, I'll respond soon!

So... starting with what happened since I last wrote... Last p-day while we were in Florence we at at this burrito place. I've eaten there about 3 times before back when I was serving in Prato when we would go to Florence all the time. This time, however, we got a bad batch. Wednesday night both sister Call and I woke up in the night feeling sick to our stomach's. We didn't sleep well and had to call president to stay in thursday morning. Come to find out that all the Florence missionaries who ate there that day were sick as well! So we all suffered a little bout of food poisoning! Boy do I hate being sick. We were able to make it 50 steps over to the church for an appointment we had with an inactive and then just rested after that so that we could work on Friday.

Friday morning we went out to Fabrizia's house. She's a lady (late 60's) who talks a lot and has been meeting with the missionaries since the beginning of the year. The elders had been teaching her but she just barely understood that she could say a specific prayer to find out whether the book of mormon and the church is true! So we were excited about that breakthrough and hope to see her next week.

Saturday we did lots of finding work and had an appointment with a member. Sunday was a great fast and testimony meeting. Always nice to fast for investigators and their needs, as well as for our own!

Monday we had a great district meeting and training on prayer and the power of it. We got to stop by and see the family that let us in a week ago, the stefanini family. They weren't able to come to church but hopefully we can get them there next week! We also had a great appointment with Svieta.... probably one of the most picture perfect appointments I've had on my mission. She is a talker but we just went in there, taught her the first principles in the 2nd lesson (the plan of salvation), and left while the spirit was still there after having invited her to read and pray and be baptized when she comes to the knowledge of the truthfulness. I remember being so tired that night and just asking Heavenly Father to help me and my comp teach well. We had just practiced teaching that exact lesson to our district leader for our once-a-transfer teaching evaluations, so we were prepared. It went so well and I know that we had Father's help in teaching her. She was the right person I needed to see at that time. I never realized how much energy training takes out of you. It seems like lots of weaknesses are magnified and it's easy to get discouraged because you want to be the best missionary example to the new missionary but you make mistakes. But Svieta was so complimentary (and believe me she's a really blunt person!). She told me how well I spoke Italian and at the end of the lesson she told me that I should be a teacher when I get back because I teach well. This sounds a little prideful, I realize, and this next part a little cheesy, but I know the pride and glory goes to Father because I can't do this on my own and he helped me that night and helps me every day.

Yesterday we had interviews in Pisa. They are good, definitely different than president Rhiens, but good nonetheless. They are more like mini trainings for us missionaries rather than asking about how the work is going. What did you do dad? He's an inspired man though and wants this work to blossom! Then we rushed home and I had to quickly put together an english class lesson and the family night lesson in less than 5 minutes! Mamma mia. Both turned out okay but I do like being more prepared! I can't believe I'm over half way done with my mission! Some days it feels like I was just in the MTC and other days it seems like I've been here quite a while! I remember when I was a new missionary in Prato I had A LOT of energy and I remember my trainer, Sister Roper telling me how she had turned into a tired grandma! I remember thinking, what, how can you be tired? Well, now I'm the grandma and I'm the tired one! But I guess it's a good sign because if I wasn't tired something would be wrong! Time to turn on the blasters and use my second wind! PEDAL TO THE METAL COMMANDER! haha (i know tom and andy will get a kick out of that!) Just to let you all know (and I'd be surprised if you don't already ) I love being a missionary. I realize that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and try to be my best and do what Father wants me to do.

I love this work and love this gospel. I love all of you and thank you again for always being there for me!

Love ya,

Sorella Boynton

29 Agosto 2007

Buon giorno a tutti!

Today I'm writing from good old Florence. My district has been spending the p-day here. Once again I've turned into the tour guide seeing as I'm the one that's been here the most times. We pretty much just walk around the duomo, go up to piazza michealangelo, and go to the open market. It's fun and I love Florence each time I come. But I do have to say that it was the funnest way back in February when I was in Prato because there were no tourists!

Comunque....

It's been another great week. It's been really hot and humid so we've been trying not to melt. I hope it cools down soon! I was a little fed up at the end of last week because we had two appointments set up, one with svieta and one with miriam. Friday we went to see svieta and she answered the door and was all dressed up to go somewhere and said she couldn't meet with us. URGH. Saturday morning 5 minutes before our appointment with miriam we got a text from her saying that she couldn't come. Managgia! So, we ended up doing a lot of finding work this weekend! I've been meaning to tell you dad, that we've been trying your street contacting method and choosing a certain characteristic and then talking to those people on the street! We love it and it's a lot less overwhelming. Instead of seeing waves of people and trying to talk to all of them we just focus on the people with strollers or people holding hands and talk to all of them! It's a great way to shake it up! Thanks for the idea! Saturday night however, we were walking down by the mare talking to people, and heard someone say, "Sisters." We stopped and found out that this member couple had just moved here to the military base. They are the Eubanks and will be here for 3 years and don't speak a word of italian! Anyways, we helped them get to church on sunday. They are going through quite the culture shock, especially because they are both as timid as mice times ten. But, just a cool little story of being in the right place at the right time.

We had a good experience on Monday. We passed back by a family who had let us in doing house. We were able to teach them a first lesson and are going to go back on saturday to teach more and then hopefully they can come to church on Sunday. They are pretty poor and there house is small and dirty. She's very open though and I'm so excited to countinue teaching them. Jantina is doing great. We had our weekly meeting with her yesterday. We are getting ready to start preparing her baptism, choosing hymns, prayers, who will talk and preform the baptism. I'm so excited for her, she's waited 3 years for this and she is so excited as well!

That's about it for me. I love being here and doing this work. I got some mail the other day so thanks everyone for writing me...namely....jenn...loved the code blue story..haha... if you know what I mean! hehe. I'll try to write you all soon! Love ya and thanks for your prayers and for being the most awesome people ever!

Un baccione!

Sorella Boynton

22 AUG 2007

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ELL AND ROD!!! Crazy to think that another year has come and gone and we've all turned and will be turning another year old this fall!

The Palio in Siena was one of the funnest cultural experiences ever! We were there all day last thursday. We got there and watched a procession of all of the teams. There were drums and flags and horses and they were all dressed up in ancient clothes etc. Then we all squeezed into the piazza. There were tons of people and after waiting for an hour, the race started and every second of the 2 minute race was worth the wait! When I get home in what, 8 months I'll let you see the little video I took with my camera! hehe. There's just so much tradition and history involved it's incredible and I'm sure I don't even know the half of it! Anyways, definitely a cool experience!


Things here in Livorno are going great, as always. I love this city and the people we work with. We continue to see Jantina every week in preparation for her baptism. We really trying to get an in with her husband, who is so against anything religious. We watched the Finding Faith in Christ video with her this morning and that really touched her. She's so sensible to the spirit it's quite incredible and she had us in tears by the end of the lesson! We gave her the video and hopefully she can watch it together with her husband.

Everyone else is doing good. We continue to see Marlene and our other inactives and also in the next couple days we'll see Svieta and Miriam, a few hopefull baptismal candidates!

We had a really good training from our Zone Leaders on Monday. We went to Pisa for our once a transfer "ZDM" and had an amazing training on faith and how we can attain more. Faith has and is and probably always will be something that's a little hard to understand. It's one of those simple but very deep doctrines! But I know that faith is key in the work and just for life in general. They talked about how sacrifice goes along with faith as well. So we'll be searching for that extra faith and hopefully we'll see some awesome outcomes!

Hope everyone is doing well! I love you all!

Sorella Boynton

16 Agosto 2007

Mamma mia!

There's so much to write about and just not enough time! I'm writing a day late because yesterday was the 15 of August and here in Italy that's a big holiday where everything is closed....so we as missionaries have to stay in our apartments pretty much all day and clean from ceiling to floor! We cleaned everything!! The Elders painted our apartment last week and so now our apartment is looking real nice and just feels clean and free of clutter! Now today, we get to take our p-day.....and we are so lucky because we get to go to Siena and watch the famous "palio"!!! Probably only Dad knows what that is....but it's just a traditional horse race that takes places 2 times a summer in Siena. So we are heading out to go there in half an hour! I'll tell you all about it next week!

This week has really been a great week...

Thursday we were able to meet with a couple of our inactives. Marlene, who I'm pretty sure I've talked about (an excommunicated member who's getting re-baptized in Dec), is coming along. We are trying to help her realize the importance of keeping the commandments. She's still smoking and we'll have to hop on that one pretty quick! She's really amazing though and just a smart lady. I really enjoy our visits with her because I can be bold with her and she can take it! We are taught as missionaries to be bold. I bet I would be safe to say that that's one thing that many missionaries struggle with. But I've found that that's why it's important to have such a good relationship with your contacts...so they can trust you...and it becomes more of a friend... friend relationship... and not an investigator... missionary relationship. I struggled with this at first with Marlene because we are both pretty stubborn people but who would have known it would be the right match! She's awesome and we'll keep working with her. We also met with Jantina. She still has her baptisimal date for the 18th of September. We are trying to figure out a way to confront her husband and somehow find an in with him so that he will be accepting to learn a little bit more about the church and what we are about.

Friday we did our weekly planning and then got to ride our bikes up the steep hill to service... playing bingo with the old folks. Always a laugh! Good times.

Saturday we passed by a contact that the sisters before me found. She turned out to be really awesome, maybe I told you about her already. Her name is Antonella. She's awesome and speaks english perfectly. We helped her with her english because she's working this week at UNICEF. In turn she offered to help us with our Italian. So I decided that we might as well just teach her about why we are here and what we teach. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and the basics of the restoration. She was focusing more on helping us with our Italian but hopefully she got something out of what we shared. I hope that we can continue to help her and eventually teach her.

I came down with a cold saturday and really wasn't feeling too hot. But we had a member coming from an outlying city to have an appointment with us and she was bringing her friend who's a non-member. So we had planned to watch the restoration video at the church and just kind of introduce him to the church. We met them and went to the church, where we'd watched DVD's before, and I went to put the dvd in but the player wasn't there! I was already feeling pretty crappy with my head all congested, barely being able to think clearly. So while Sis. Call amused them with her piano skills, I went in every room in the church to hunt down the dvd player! I said to Heavenly Father, please help me find this dvd player because I'm not in a state, with my cold, where I can just whip up a good lesson! So then, I searched a little more and found the player up on a cupboard, in it's original box! Wierd! Anyway, I was then able to set it up with all the many cords, and we were able to watch it! This members friend, who's an african man, was touched and we gave him a Book of Mormon. He called us this week and said he started reading it and that its "bellissimo." Truly an answer to a desperate prayer! I'm so grateful for a loving Heavely Father who answers our prayers! I've seen it in these past few weeks more than ever in my mission. The Lord knows that I need help as a trainer so he's truly helping me! After that lesson I was feeling so bad that I made the executive decision (of course guided by the spirit!) to go home at 8 so I could sleep for an hour. Hopefully my comp was okay with that but I really just wouldn't have been able to talk to anyone in a cohesive manner and better to rest and be able to work the next day than wear yourself out and not be able to work the rest.

Sigh....now...I'm pretty much over the cold. Sunday was full of church, correlation meeting, and then doing chalk down by the mare (sea). Monday and Tuesday were normal days. We had a good appointment with Svieta from russia. She's so busy with her work etc, but she promised she would read from the book of mormon this week. Yay! Well, I think that's probably one of the most detailed emails I've ever written! I better be going now...gotta catch the train to the horse race!

I love you all and know that I know this church is true! Keep on reading and praying and having your personal spiritual experiences because that is what keeps us going!

Love,
Sorella B.

8 August 2007

Hey all,

Everythings going great here in Livorno with my new trainee. Her name is Sister Call and she's from Idaho. She's really sweet and it's going to be great working with her for the next couple transfers. Even though I feel like I just got here, I'm quickly reminded by mom that I'm nearly half way through my mission! It's crazy to see my trainee going through the same feelings and battles that I went through as a new missionary...just with the language and getting used to missionary life! It's going to be great!

So last week, we headed down to Rome, my old comp Sorella Bruno and I. I had to say goodbye to her which was hard cause she was such an awesome companion! I headed over to the mission home with the other trainers and we had lunch and then had "golden transfers" where the new missionary's open an envelope that tells them their who their trainer will be and their first city. So that's was fun and then I headed back up to Livorno with Sis. Call. She's a good sport and happy to be on bikes with me here!

Yesterday we had Zone Conference in Firenze. The 3 other sisters that are training were all there, including my old comp, sister lederer, so it was fun to talk to all of them and talk about how training was going. The theme of the conference was Faith. Sister Acerson is great and gave a wonderfull talk and shared some personal experiences of how "the lord will provide" when we have faith and are doing all we can. President Acerson emphasized having fun in the work and really getting to know the Italians and building relationships of trust with them. Dad, I think I've found someone who has almost as much love for Italy and it's people! President Acerson loves these people so much and has so much faith and hope for this mission.

Now we are all excited to get back to doing the work again. Things are pretty much the same here. I find so much joy in just being able to talk to people and bare my testimony of the truthfullness of the gospel.

Thanks, as always, for your wonderful examples and prayers.
Love,
Sorella Boynton

PS... CONGRATS ON YOUR WEDDING THIS WEEKEND JACKIE AND KYLE! I WISH I COULD BE THERE! GODSPEED! : )

1 AUGUST 2007

WOW! Thanks for everyone who wrote to me! I just spent the last 20 minutes reading all the emails from just about all the siblings and mom and dad of course. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to hear from you all and especially to hear that you are all well and happy. I wish I could write you all individually this week but since you all wrote there just won't be time! Loved the pics marg! Loved to hear Mates are alive and well Ell! : ) Tom, keep me posted on the Alaska stuff....and that's crazy that it took dave so long to grade your stuff! No rush with the batteries and stuff mom, piano piano! I, too, am behind in the media world steve (go figure)! I didn't even know there was a 5th harry potter movie out and I just realized that the last book was already out! Anyways, I realize everyday how blessed I am to have to best family in the world! Comunque, GRAZIE MILLE!

This week has been full of miracles and craziness. First, the miracle, then the craziness.

We met with the long-time investigator, Jantina, yesterday. We've been waiting a couple weeks for her to receive this signed permission form from her husband so that she can be baptized. She came to church on Sunday and as usual we sat by her in sacrament meeting. She cried through every hymn and I just knew she was just struggling to hold on. Her situation would be incredibly hard; a bad relationship with her husband and daughters, and she just an incredible women with so much faith. Anyways, the happiest news came yesterday when she came to the church for our appointment and pulled out the permission form which had been signed by her husband! She was absolutely happy and we were all just in disbelief that he had finally given permission for her to be baptized.

She's been waiting for 3 years!!! She wants to be baptized on the 18th of September, the day of her mothers birthday! That's just one of the many miracles that happened this week. Incredible!
Now, the crazy news. It's week 6 of the transfer and that means we had transfer calls on Monday. Like I told you last week (i think), I was pretty sure that I would be staying here in Livorno with Sorella Bruno.

President called us on Monday during our weekly district meeting and told Sorella Bruno that she was getting transferred to the island of Sardegna, to Cagliari, and that he wanted me to be a TRAINER to one of the 4 new sister missionaries! Man, I thought going senior comp was hard and now after just one transfer in the city I have to train!!! Yikes! I'm really pretty nervous and feel a little young to be training but oh well, gotta roll with the punches I guess. This means that tomorrow I'll be heading down to Rome to the mission home to have a little training on how to be a trainer to a new missionary and then come back up to Livorno with a missionary that's fresh from the MTC! Oh man, I know I'm going to be learning a lot these next couple transfers. Sorella Bruno and I really wanted to stay together one more transfer but Heavenly Father knows whats best!

The work here in Livorno is incredible. We have lots of incredible people to work with and I'm excited to work with this new missionary because they come all faithful and energized from the MTC. Miracles will happen! I love being a missionary here, it really is a humbling and incredible work.

Thanks again for your amazing support. Shout out to my friends... hope your all doing well and Jack, man, I can't believe your gettin' hitched in like a week! Love ya man!

Vi voglio tantissimo bene!

Sorella Boynton

25 July 2007

Sounds like everyone had a great time celebrating the 24th! It's cool to be able to remember what those pioneers did for us! I've been reading this week in the book "our heritage" and it's a great little book recounting the history of the church. So many wonderful stories of faith and enduring to the end!

This week we had the chance to meet with this Russian woman again. We taught her an actual 1st lesson about the restoration etc. We have another appointment set up with her this week and we'll see where this goes. We are hoping that we can get her to come to church this sunday. That would be the best! She's such an awesome lady. She is so motherly and tells us to be safe on our bikes! hehe.

On sunday nights we usually go down on the walkway by the sea and do "gesso" or chalk where we draw the plan of salvation....i think I already explained that one time. Anyways...we wanted to teach lots of lessons so I decided that I was going to stop everyone and just talk to them all...the ones with peircings, the wierd men, everyone! Its easy to have mindsets and only talk to a few select people but I figured there's really nothing to lose! It was fun and ended up teaching about 5 lessons, which is pretty good for one night! I taught a really cool kid that was on some sort of naval field trip. He understood everything so well. Too bad he was just visiting! We also had an afternoon of just doing finding work. We went and did a bunch of knocking doors. We had about 2 and a half hours and we didn't even teach one lesson! It's crazy how the days differ with people listening one day and no one listening the next!

We had our first interview with the new mission president this week, President Acerson. He really is quite an amazing guy. He's got that "fresh missionary" spirit with so much faith and just that total desire to share the gospel. It's going to be really fun to get to know him more and to serve under him.

Things are going great as usual! This is the last week before transfers again. Of course I'll definitley be staying here in Livorno but who knows if I'll get a new companion or not. I'll let you know next week. Hope everyone is doing well and is enjoying the summer. Thanks for your wonderful examples and prayers.

Love you all,

Sorella Boynton

18 JULY 2007

Buon Giorno a tutti!

Well, nothing much has changed since last week to tell the truth.

We've been working with members and in-actives and been doing finding work in between! That's pretty much it in a nutshell!

We had a pretty cool experience talking to a lady who's living here from Russia. She's very open and smart and we had a nice time talking about different beliefs. A one point she was talking about baptism and how her brother had told her that baptism wasn't necessary. Then she turned to us and said... but what do you guys believe? That gave us the opportunity to say that baptism was necessary and how it needs to be done with the proper authority, which was given to Joseph Smith when the church was restored. It sounds cheesy but she said she had seen us walking before and could tell that we were different. She said she wanted to come talk to us but we were walking to fast. So for us to come back and talk to her made her very happy. We haven't heard from her yet but we've got her phone number and will call her this week!

I've heard that summer months, especially august in Italy (when everyone goes on vacaction) are a little slower for the work. But I'm determined to find an investigator to teach and I know it's possible! Our branch President said that the people who stay home during august are the ones who are ready to be taught! We've just got to find them!

Sounds like everyone is having a blast this summer! Sounds like the reunion was really fun with all of the Boynton's together. I wanted to wish MAURA, MARG, and SHIRLEY a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I think they're the only family birthdays this month... so have a good one you guys and know that I love you and am thinking about you!

Well, that about does it! Keep on keepin' on and I will too!

Love you all!

Care