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

JULY 11th 2007

Hey all,

This week has been pretty great.

I guess I'll start where I left off last week. We had a really fun time at the church last Wednesday celebrating the 4th! It was pure American with hamburgers, hotdogs, baseball, football, and well, I guess not pure american because we played soccor as well! There were a bunch of us missionaries and it was a blast.

Thursday and Friday were normal days. We had some appointments. We've been meeting with a women named Fabrizia. Her situation is an interesting one, along with everyone else we are teaching! She's not married and has been living with her boyfriend for like 20 years I guess. The elders started teaching them a few months back and turned her over to us because her man is gone to africa for his work for 3 months. So we started teaching her a little bit. She's wonderful and really with it but the situation is nearly impossible because her husband was married to another women and never did all the documentation to get a divorce. That means that either they'd have to quit living together or he' d have to get a divorce and they'd have to get married before a baptism would happen! Crazy.

On Sunday we talked with Jantina and she came up to us so happy and said that her husband had given her permission to be baptized! We were so happy! But she said he ripped up the first permission form and so she needed another one so he could sign it. We were supposed to meet with her yesterday but she called and said she couldn't make it, so we'll see her on thursday. I hope the husband hasn't changed his mind! But we've got faith that we can go through with this! Also on sunday we got to go down by the walkway along the sea to do chalk. It's where we set out a sheet and draw on it with chalk things like the plan of salvation. It's another means of finding work. A couple missionaries draw while the others stop people and talk to them! It's really fun and a good way to contact people. I was able to teach 5 lessons doing it! The coolest of which was when 6 nuns came walking by and everyone was saying... go talk to them sister boynton! So I went over and taught them about the restoration! Cool experience. The other missionaries snapped some pictures of the event so I'll try to send them soon!

Monday was Zone Conference in Firenze. It was great as always. It was the first time we were able to meet the new mission president, wife, and family. Their called the Acerson's and they are going to be awesome. They gave a couple of great talks. I can't wait to get to know them better. It was fun seeing all the missionaries as usual, especially hearing the "dying testimony" of my trainer, Sorella Roper, and all of the testimonies of departing missionaries. I made me realize that one day the mission will come to an end and I have to work so hard everyday so that I have no regrets!

Yesterday we had our district meeting. I gave a training on helping people find the perfect plan through reading the book of mormon and coming to know our Savior Jesus Christ. I talked about how there are people searching for all of the "perfect things"...vacations...etc, but that there is only ONE perfect plan which consists of the perfect book, the book of mormon, and the perfect man, Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for the Book of Mormon and want to challenge you all to make it a priority to read it EVERYDAY! Even if it's just a verse. There's just such a power that comes from the book!

Thanks for everything everyone!

Love ya,

Sorella B.

p.s. THANKS for all the letters and especially the package Casey and Rebecca!

jen and jack: do you remember a Scott ? Palmer that was you're neighboor down at SUU? We made that connection and he's totally in my district right now! CRAZY!

July 4th 2007

HAPPY 4th of JULY everyone!!!

Especially to MOM, DAD, and ANDY who are now back in the country!!! I really can't believe that 3 years has come and gone and now the next chapter in Mom and Dad's lives start. I hope you are all having a grand time welcoming them back to America. I WISH I could be there for all the parties. I have to admit I looked quickly at Ell's blog and saw some pictures of the gang at the airport. FUN! Was that Tom in the picture with crazy long hair! If it was I don't believe it and someone will have to send me a picture of a close-up! Anyways, everyone looks so good and happy now that grammy and grandpa and andy are back! Don't have too much fun without me! Send pics!!!

As for me, I'm just having the time of my life being a missionary here in Livorno. I'm still getting used to the city and haven't met all of our contacts and people we are working with but all in due time! We've been doing our 10 bonus Dad! We took on the challenge after you left and have been going crazy just talking to people on the street. It's hard but we've found some cool people. Keep the good advice coming.

We have an investigator from Holland named Jantina. She's probably 55 and has been meeting with the missionaries for about 3 years now. She comes to church regularly, keeps all the commandments, but just cant receive permission from her husband to be baptized. We've been praying a lot for her and had a really good lesson yesterday where we invited her to try again to ask her husband for permission to be baptized. Her husband is somewhat abusive and they just don't have a regular relationship. She's AMAZING with AMAZING faith. Hopefully she can receive permission and she can then be baptized and get the Holy Ghost. Other than that we've been doing lots of finding work. At times it's tedious of course but then someone listens and lets you in their house and it makes it all worth it. I'm loving Livorno. The members here are awesome and I'm just plain enjoying myself.

Today we are having a big bbq at the church here. The missionaries in our zone are coming and we'll celebrate the 4th together. We bought a huge watermelon! Should be fun!

I love you all and miss you, especially when I know you're all together! NO FAIR! But oh well, if there wasn't some member of the Boynton family in Italy something just wouldn't be right, right?

Love ya,

care