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