Ciao tutti,
This week has flown by, I feel like I was just here writing you all last week! After email last week we headed off and saw some of the famous sights of Rome, the Colosseum, the ruins by it, and then the pantheon! So fun to see all the history!
Thursday and Friday, my companion had her 3 month conference. This is my 3rd companion who has had 3 month conference! So we went to the villa (mission home) and dropped her off. Then for the afternoon I did an exchange with one of the other Rome sisters. We did some finding work and then had English class that night. Friday morning we went to an appointment that took 2 hours to get to. It was with this cool lady from Moldovia who lives a bit out in the country. We ate with her and then gave her a Book of Mormon. She seems like a really good investigator for the Rome 2 sisters. Then we headed back to the villa to pick up my comp and headed back to our apartment. Oh yeah, for the first time since I've been here someone tried to take something out of my backpack!
I was walking quickly down some stairs in the metro and felt someone totally un-zip my bag! So I swung my bag around and saw it open and saw these two little gypsy girls, one of them quickly taking their hand away. I said, "scusate eh!," excuse me! They totally acted like they didn't do anything. Oh brother. You have to be careful here!
Saturday we did our weekly programming and then did some finding work and searched for a couple inactive ladies. Sunday we had church and then that night we got to go to Piazza Navona with our zone and sing in the piazza. It was a ton of fun and we were able to teach of lot of lessons and introduce a lot of people to the church. We taught a good number of toursits but the majority are Italians who stop to hear our singing.
Monday we had zone conference. It was incredible as always. At the beginning Sister Acerson got up and gave a little tribute to president Hinckley. She shared with us a little of his talk that he gave a couple conferences ago titled, "the things I know." I remembered loving that talk when he gave it because it was so simple yet covered all of the most important truths of the restored gospel. His death is something we all knew would happen but I was still quite sad to hear the news. I'm so grateful for everything he did for the church. One of my favorite one-liners of his comes from a conference talk he gave maybe a year ago. He said, " I will continue to give my best to the task at hand." I don't know why that has always stuck with me but it has. To me it shows that he really gave everything he had and served with all his heart all the way to the very end! What an incredible friend and example. He'll be greatly missed!
The mission is really putting an emphasis on baptism. The assistants gave an incredible training on baptism and how we need to have faith, let go of mind-sets, and focus on finding and teaching with baptism in mind. It was great and we are all really excited to put their council into practice. President and Sister Acerson always give really good talks. President talked about self-mastery and Sister Acerson about obedience. It was a great conference.
In the past two days we've had two dinner appointments. Monday night with a less-active family, the Ramos family. They are amazing and it was fun getting to meet them. Yesterday we stopped by the African girl who let us in last week. We brought her an English Book of Mormon and she was so happy to have it. She didn't have time for us to teach her right then but we are going back on Thursday and hope to be able to teach her a more thorough first lesson. That evening we had a member appointment with one of the sisters in the ward, Sorella Capuano. She's way cool and made us some good food. She's been a member for a while but is the only member in her immediate family. Her sister is a member though and lives in Arizona. We shared a spiritual thought with her and talked a little bit about the blessing of having a living prophet on the earth. She was also sad about president Hinckley but we are all excited to support and sustain the new prophet. I love meeting with and getting to know the wonderful members here.
Today we are meeting up with the Rome 2 sisters and going to see some stuff. We aren't exactly sure but I'm sure it'll be fun. We have quite a few appointments in the next couple days so the work is going on here!
Thanks for everything as always and I'll try to get a couple letters written here soon!
Love you all,
Sorella Boynton
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
23 JAN 2008
Buon giorno a tutti!
I realized yesterday as I was writing in my journal for the 5th time, or however long it has been since I've been here, that they have all started off the same way. They all start of with, "I LOVE ROME!" I've waited my whole mission for this chance to serve in Rome and I'm counting my lucky stars and many blessings to be able to finish in Rome!
I'm still trying to adjust to the shock of going from probably the smallest city in the mission, Oristano, to the huge, monsterous Rome! It's enormous! I was used to being able to walk from one side of Oristano to the other in 30 minutes and now it takes at least 30 minutes to get anywhere here! Crazy! I love just being in Rome and walking around the streets and seeing old ruins just sitting there. So much history! I can't really explain how much I love it! I don't remember if I explained but I'm serving in Rome 3....which covers the "ghetto" part of Rome. I'll be kind of specific for those of you who are interested and might look it up on google earth or something....our area covers pretty much everything south-east of the termini train station. The three main streets that go through our area are the Tuscolana, the Casilina, and the Prenestina. We live right by the street Viale Alessandrino. This area is pretty much just lots of palazzi (apartment buildings). We get around on bus and by metro. It just reminds me of being in Milano again and London..Yay!!!
So, a little about the rest of the week. I got here on Thursday and we did a lot of finding work along big streets and in parks. I would say that the people here, the Romans, are generally more open and friendly, especially than those in tuscany. It's fun being back able to teach more. In Oristano I feel like my teaching skills went down because hardly anybody would stop for more than 2 seconds to listen to us. But here we are able to talk to people they at least listen and have a conversation with us. I also love the fact that we are using pub. transportation because you can talk to more people on the buses and metro. We were taking the metro the other day and I got to talk to this lady. She was so nice and I left her with a family proc. She probably won't call us but, man, I just missed this in Oristano cause we were just walking all the time!
Sunday was great. I got to meet all the members and introduced myself and bore my testimony. Whenever I do that, someone always comes up to me afterword and says, "oh, the daughter of Pres. Boynton?" So this time it was someone named Fratello Conforte, he said he knows you dad, so he says hi! To answer your question mom, the Milano 3 ward is a lot bigger than the Rome 3 ward. There are probably about 70 to 80 active members, so this ward is bigger than the branch I was in in Prato and maybe around the same size as the branch in Livorno, (obviously bigger than the 7 member branch in Oristano!). Can't wait to work more with the members and get to know them.
We've had only a couple appointments since I've been here. One with a recent convert, Nancy, from peru. She's awesome and has a little son. Then we had quite the adventure yesterday morning because we were asked by the anziani to bring a book of mormon in english to this lady they met on the street. We called her and set up an appointment with her. She is from canada but has lived all over the world and finally settled in Rome and has lived here for 30 years now! She's a socialogist and a little quirky but she invited us in and we got to have a visit with her and introduce her to the Book of Mormon. She doesn't want to take the lessons but she decided that if there's a mormon running for president she wants to know what the mormon's are all about. So she's not really an investigator but who knows if she'll get hooked... we hope so! We've set a goal this transfer to get many new nvestigators and little miracles have been happening all week...there's about 4 potential investigators that we have to check back on! We were walking down the street and only had about 20 minutes until we had to catch the bus home. We saw a lady standing on the street, probably moms age, and we talked to her. She was listening intently and we were able to leave a book of mormon and also to get her number so that we can call and set up an appointment! We also were doing house this week and this girl from nigeria let us in. We were able to teach her a brief 1st lesson and we'll go back to give her an english book of mormon later this week. Miracles!
My new companion is awesome. Her name is Sorella Steensen and we are having lots of fun together. She's from Oregon. She's in her 3rd transfer and these next few days will be going to her 3 month conference at the Villa (mission home) so I'll be doing some activity with the other missionaries.
If you can't tell, I'm loving life as a missionary in Rome and I'm so excited to work hard and finish the mission off strong! We are going to go see some sights today with the elders so that should be fun. For those who have been to rome, I'm open to suggestions on what I need to see and do here on p-days! (besides the obvious stuff like the vatican, trevi fountains etc.).
I pray for all of you always and know that your prayers help me out a ton. Lots of love,
Sorella Boynton
I realized yesterday as I was writing in my journal for the 5th time, or however long it has been since I've been here, that they have all started off the same way. They all start of with, "I LOVE ROME!" I've waited my whole mission for this chance to serve in Rome and I'm counting my lucky stars and many blessings to be able to finish in Rome!
I'm still trying to adjust to the shock of going from probably the smallest city in the mission, Oristano, to the huge, monsterous Rome! It's enormous! I was used to being able to walk from one side of Oristano to the other in 30 minutes and now it takes at least 30 minutes to get anywhere here! Crazy! I love just being in Rome and walking around the streets and seeing old ruins just sitting there. So much history! I can't really explain how much I love it! I don't remember if I explained but I'm serving in Rome 3....which covers the "ghetto" part of Rome. I'll be kind of specific for those of you who are interested and might look it up on google earth or something....our area covers pretty much everything south-east of the termini train station. The three main streets that go through our area are the Tuscolana, the Casilina, and the Prenestina. We live right by the street Viale Alessandrino. This area is pretty much just lots of palazzi (apartment buildings). We get around on bus and by metro. It just reminds me of being in Milano again and London..Yay!!!
So, a little about the rest of the week. I got here on Thursday and we did a lot of finding work along big streets and in parks. I would say that the people here, the Romans, are generally more open and friendly, especially than those in tuscany. It's fun being back able to teach more. In Oristano I feel like my teaching skills went down because hardly anybody would stop for more than 2 seconds to listen to us. But here we are able to talk to people they at least listen and have a conversation with us. I also love the fact that we are using pub. transportation because you can talk to more people on the buses and metro. We were taking the metro the other day and I got to talk to this lady. She was so nice and I left her with a family proc. She probably won't call us but, man, I just missed this in Oristano cause we were just walking all the time!
Sunday was great. I got to meet all the members and introduced myself and bore my testimony. Whenever I do that, someone always comes up to me afterword and says, "oh, the daughter of Pres. Boynton?" So this time it was someone named Fratello Conforte, he said he knows you dad, so he says hi! To answer your question mom, the Milano 3 ward is a lot bigger than the Rome 3 ward. There are probably about 70 to 80 active members, so this ward is bigger than the branch I was in in Prato and maybe around the same size as the branch in Livorno, (obviously bigger than the 7 member branch in Oristano!). Can't wait to work more with the members and get to know them.
We've had only a couple appointments since I've been here. One with a recent convert, Nancy, from peru. She's awesome and has a little son. Then we had quite the adventure yesterday morning because we were asked by the anziani to bring a book of mormon in english to this lady they met on the street. We called her and set up an appointment with her. She is from canada but has lived all over the world and finally settled in Rome and has lived here for 30 years now! She's a socialogist and a little quirky but she invited us in and we got to have a visit with her and introduce her to the Book of Mormon. She doesn't want to take the lessons but she decided that if there's a mormon running for president she wants to know what the mormon's are all about. So she's not really an investigator but who knows if she'll get hooked... we hope so! We've set a goal this transfer to get many new nvestigators and little miracles have been happening all week...there's about 4 potential investigators that we have to check back on! We were walking down the street and only had about 20 minutes until we had to catch the bus home. We saw a lady standing on the street, probably moms age, and we talked to her. She was listening intently and we were able to leave a book of mormon and also to get her number so that we can call and set up an appointment! We also were doing house this week and this girl from nigeria let us in. We were able to teach her a brief 1st lesson and we'll go back to give her an english book of mormon later this week. Miracles!
My new companion is awesome. Her name is Sorella Steensen and we are having lots of fun together. She's from Oregon. She's in her 3rd transfer and these next few days will be going to her 3 month conference at the Villa (mission home) so I'll be doing some activity with the other missionaries.
If you can't tell, I'm loving life as a missionary in Rome and I'm so excited to work hard and finish the mission off strong! We are going to go see some sights today with the elders so that should be fun. For those who have been to rome, I'm open to suggestions on what I need to see and do here on p-days! (besides the obvious stuff like the vatican, trevi fountains etc.).
I pray for all of you always and know that your prayers help me out a ton. Lots of love,
Sorella Boynton
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
16 JAN 2008
Hahahahha,
I just have to start of the email laughing because I know everyone (especially Ell, Marg, and Mom) are going to tell me that I really am the "I wanna Porshe girl." I don't know what I do to be so lucky but I'll hey, I'll take it and run. I'M GOING TO ROME to finish my mission!!! Transfer calls came from President Acerson on Monday and he said that I'm being transferred and will serve in Rome 3! Man, I could have jumped out of my seat on to the table and done a tarzan yell and beat my chest, but decided to restrain myself and maybe will do that as I take the boat tonight back to the mainland! Am I surprised? Not really... Sorella Harvey and I knew that it was really likely for one of us to be transferred. So she's going to hold down the fort here in Oristano while I go to Rome and follow-up train a newer missionary.
I have very mixed feelings about going. The past couple transfers here in Oristano have been some of the hardest of my mission. Our faith, patience, charity, and just about every other thing has been tried. I will ALWAYS be ever grateful for Pres. Acerson and Heavenly Father for giving me the opportunity to serve in this city. We came in thinking with high hopes and talked about how we wanted to help grow this branch. We got many emails from friends and family with stories of how other branches around the world grew within months. They inspired us and helped us to do our best here to help people return to church and find new people who wanted to learn more. The branch is pretty much the same now as when I left.
On the outside it can seem like not much was done but this morning as Sister Harvey and I listed the small miracles that we've seen during these past two transfers... it really is amazing how involved the Lord is in this most important work. I think a big part of being here was to refine me. On the way I got to meet and help some incredible people. The inactive women are at least starting to read their Books of Mormon and re-discover their testimonies. It was fun seeing them all yesterday and saying goodbye. I'm convinced that we, as sisters, were sent here at this time especially for Maiken. She has been golden the whole time. We taught her last night for the last time. She's beginning to read the Book of Mormon and has read up until 1 Nephi 7. I asked her how she liked it and expressed my excitment that she's starting and understanding my favorite book on earth! About 5 minutes after the appointment she called and asked me if she had to wait until April when I finish my mission to communicate with me... haha... she also asked if she had to wait till April to know my first name! haha. She's definitely a person I'll keep in touch with and she'll probably come out to visit in Utah before long! I think it's a good thing for me to be leaving her because she's a little attached and it'll be good for her to recognize that the good feelings of the spirit that she's felt with us come from the spirit and learning about the gospel and not me! Phew....that's a lot of detail from Sis. Boynton I know! Whoa! Imagine that.
Anyway, this last week in Oristano has been great. We had interviews with President Acerson. He's the best as always and always helps me a lot. Also got a lot of mail so thanks for writing everybody! With it brought more news of yet ANOTHER wedding of my bosom bud Jennie Proctor!! Now when I get home, both my twins will be married and I'll have to beg their husbands to let us have a girls night out when I get home! Crazy!
I said goodbye to all the people who I've come to know and love yesterday. We pretty much saw everyone in one day! That's little Oristano for ya!
I had a cold over the weekend but that kind of hit it's climax on sunday and has been getting better. I should be able to get some more rest as we take the boat tonight. I'm all packed up and I leave Oristano today around 3 and will travel with some other sisters and we'll get to Rome on Thursday morning to start the next adventure! Until next week..when I'll have more info on life in Rome!
If you haven't heard it enough... I LOVE being a missionary and I'm so blessed thanks to all of your prayers. Thanks everyone!
Love,
Sorella Boynton
I just have to start of the email laughing because I know everyone (especially Ell, Marg, and Mom) are going to tell me that I really am the "I wanna Porshe girl." I don't know what I do to be so lucky but I'll hey, I'll take it and run. I'M GOING TO ROME to finish my mission!!! Transfer calls came from President Acerson on Monday and he said that I'm being transferred and will serve in Rome 3! Man, I could have jumped out of my seat on to the table and done a tarzan yell and beat my chest, but decided to restrain myself and maybe will do that as I take the boat tonight back to the mainland! Am I surprised? Not really... Sorella Harvey and I knew that it was really likely for one of us to be transferred. So she's going to hold down the fort here in Oristano while I go to Rome and follow-up train a newer missionary.
I have very mixed feelings about going. The past couple transfers here in Oristano have been some of the hardest of my mission. Our faith, patience, charity, and just about every other thing has been tried. I will ALWAYS be ever grateful for Pres. Acerson and Heavenly Father for giving me the opportunity to serve in this city. We came in thinking with high hopes and talked about how we wanted to help grow this branch. We got many emails from friends and family with stories of how other branches around the world grew within months. They inspired us and helped us to do our best here to help people return to church and find new people who wanted to learn more. The branch is pretty much the same now as when I left.
On the outside it can seem like not much was done but this morning as Sister Harvey and I listed the small miracles that we've seen during these past two transfers... it really is amazing how involved the Lord is in this most important work. I think a big part of being here was to refine me. On the way I got to meet and help some incredible people. The inactive women are at least starting to read their Books of Mormon and re-discover their testimonies. It was fun seeing them all yesterday and saying goodbye. I'm convinced that we, as sisters, were sent here at this time especially for Maiken. She has been golden the whole time. We taught her last night for the last time. She's beginning to read the Book of Mormon and has read up until 1 Nephi 7. I asked her how she liked it and expressed my excitment that she's starting and understanding my favorite book on earth! About 5 minutes after the appointment she called and asked me if she had to wait until April when I finish my mission to communicate with me... haha... she also asked if she had to wait till April to know my first name! haha. She's definitely a person I'll keep in touch with and she'll probably come out to visit in Utah before long! I think it's a good thing for me to be leaving her because she's a little attached and it'll be good for her to recognize that the good feelings of the spirit that she's felt with us come from the spirit and learning about the gospel and not me! Phew....that's a lot of detail from Sis. Boynton I know! Whoa! Imagine that.
Anyway, this last week in Oristano has been great. We had interviews with President Acerson. He's the best as always and always helps me a lot. Also got a lot of mail so thanks for writing everybody! With it brought more news of yet ANOTHER wedding of my bosom bud Jennie Proctor!! Now when I get home, both my twins will be married and I'll have to beg their husbands to let us have a girls night out when I get home! Crazy!
I said goodbye to all the people who I've come to know and love yesterday. We pretty much saw everyone in one day! That's little Oristano for ya!
I had a cold over the weekend but that kind of hit it's climax on sunday and has been getting better. I should be able to get some more rest as we take the boat tonight. I'm all packed up and I leave Oristano today around 3 and will travel with some other sisters and we'll get to Rome on Thursday morning to start the next adventure! Until next week..when I'll have more info on life in Rome!
If you haven't heard it enough... I LOVE being a missionary and I'm so blessed thanks to all of your prayers. Thanks everyone!
Love,
Sorella Boynton
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
JAN 9 2008
Hey all,
Good week... in a nutshell...
Thursday we had a record number of appointments for Oristano... 3! We met with a couple inactives and then with Useni, one of the Africans who has set his baptismal date as the 2 of Feb. This will be about the 3rd baptismal date that we've set with him so we are hoping 3rd time's the charm. His only problem is that he smokes and he told us yesterday that he's slowly decreasing the number of sticks he smokes so we are excited for him. We continue teaching our English class every Thursday as well although there have not been as many students during the holiday season...they should start coming back though... we'll see tomorrow I guess.
Saturday we had another appointment with Maiken and taught some more commandments. She understands everything, as always. We asked her about setting a baptismal date, if she had thought about it anymore. So here's the summary of what she said... she said that she wants to get baptized on a special day. She doesn't want to get baptized in January or February because they are the "sad" months. Her beloved grandmother's birthday is on the 4th of april and that's when she wants to get baptized. Whoa, that's kind of a long time but we said, okay, we can set it for the 4th of april. I don't really know what's going to happen with that but we'll see. We are meeting with her again today.
Monday we had our district meeting in Cagliari like always. We had transfer predictions. Everybody thinks that I'm going to be leaving Oristano, seeing as I have only 2 transfers left and seeing also as Sister Harvey only spent 2 transfers in her first city. But who knows what in the world will happen. I could spend the rest of my mission in Oristano! Next Monday we get calls from President so I'll let you know next email if I'm going or staying!
Yesterday we tried to find some old investigators. We found a couple of them that were really nice and invited us back but don't have any interest in the church. We also took a train in the afternoon to a little city called Marrubiu just a little south of Oristano to find this referral from the elders. We went and found the street and house but the name was different. We talked to practically everyone on the tiny street and they all had never heard of the name before. We decided to do some house with the little extra time we had before taking the train back to Oristano. Sorella Harvey and I both really liked spending an afternoon oustide of Oristano!
Today we came down here to Cagliari (we're doing email in cagliari). We did this hour long hike with the sisters down here. It was really beautiful and overlooked the coast and Cagliari! So beautiful and refreshing! Now we'll head back up to Oristano and continue on with the work!
I love this work and am so grateful everyday for this choice opportunity to be a missionary. I realized the other day that the year 2007 for me will always be one of the best because I spent that whole year as a missionary!
Thanks for everything and I love you all! Alla prossima!
Amore,
Sorella Boynton
Good week... in a nutshell...
Thursday we had a record number of appointments for Oristano... 3! We met with a couple inactives and then with Useni, one of the Africans who has set his baptismal date as the 2 of Feb. This will be about the 3rd baptismal date that we've set with him so we are hoping 3rd time's the charm. His only problem is that he smokes and he told us yesterday that he's slowly decreasing the number of sticks he smokes so we are excited for him. We continue teaching our English class every Thursday as well although there have not been as many students during the holiday season...they should start coming back though... we'll see tomorrow I guess.
Saturday we had another appointment with Maiken and taught some more commandments. She understands everything, as always. We asked her about setting a baptismal date, if she had thought about it anymore. So here's the summary of what she said... she said that she wants to get baptized on a special day. She doesn't want to get baptized in January or February because they are the "sad" months. Her beloved grandmother's birthday is on the 4th of april and that's when she wants to get baptized. Whoa, that's kind of a long time but we said, okay, we can set it for the 4th of april. I don't really know what's going to happen with that but we'll see. We are meeting with her again today.
Monday we had our district meeting in Cagliari like always. We had transfer predictions. Everybody thinks that I'm going to be leaving Oristano, seeing as I have only 2 transfers left and seeing also as Sister Harvey only spent 2 transfers in her first city. But who knows what in the world will happen. I could spend the rest of my mission in Oristano! Next Monday we get calls from President so I'll let you know next email if I'm going or staying!
Yesterday we tried to find some old investigators. We found a couple of them that were really nice and invited us back but don't have any interest in the church. We also took a train in the afternoon to a little city called Marrubiu just a little south of Oristano to find this referral from the elders. We went and found the street and house but the name was different. We talked to practically everyone on the tiny street and they all had never heard of the name before. We decided to do some house with the little extra time we had before taking the train back to Oristano. Sorella Harvey and I both really liked spending an afternoon oustide of Oristano!
Today we came down here to Cagliari (we're doing email in cagliari). We did this hour long hike with the sisters down here. It was really beautiful and overlooked the coast and Cagliari! So beautiful and refreshing! Now we'll head back up to Oristano and continue on with the work!
I love this work and am so grateful everyday for this choice opportunity to be a missionary. I realized the other day that the year 2007 for me will always be one of the best because I spent that whole year as a missionary!
Thanks for everything and I love you all! Alla prossima!
Amore,
Sorella Boynton
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!
Happy New Year everyone!
It's 2008! Exactly one year ago today, the 2nd of January, I arrived as a new little missionary in Italy! I can't believe how fast time is flying!
Since I last wrote we have had 2 lessons with Maiken. On Saturday we taught her a 3rd lesson and invited her to be baptized. She looked a little scared and in fact she told us that she was a little scared. We told her that there is no rush and that we could set a date and work towards that date. She agreed to that and so we are still waiting for her to pick a specific date. She told us that she feels good in this church but that she just wants to continue to learn more about what becoming a member of the church entails. She wants to be baptized before either Sister Harvey or I leave (which could be possible, or we both might stay another transfer) which would be within the next couple weeks. We met with her again on New Years Eve and taught her about two commandments that she already knew and follows... the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. She's awesome and just understand everything so well. She came to church on Sunday again....4th time in a row! Incredible!
Also on Sunday there were two visitors in church... always a pleasure! It was a young married couple from the states who are currently living in Norway for a year while he goes to school. They decided to come to the island just to visit for a week and happened to be in Oristano for sunday so they came to church. We translated for them and they were amazed at how small the branch is. They invited us to come and eat with them after church so we did and had a fun time talking. Oh yeah, there was also this creepy guy that came to church on sunday. We had been out doing house earlier in the week and he stopped us from his car and said that he knew the mormons. He said "you are sent from heaven, especially you (pointing to me.)" and then told us he was going to come to church Sunday. Yikes. We found his scheda in the area book and he was a past investigator of the elders. So he showed up at sacrament meeting and I tried to stay as far away from him as I could. Yikes, scary Italian men... hope we don't see him again!
Monday we were in Cagliari like usual for our district meeting... that means an hour or more on the train down and the same for the ride back. We had to be in our houses by 6pm. Sorella Harvey and I made a nacho dip that was really good and invited in the new year that way! haha. Tuesday...new years day we had to stay in all day and deep clean our whole apartment, the mission calls it "festa di lavoro." We can't proselyte on this holiday so we started in the morning and finished by 3 or 4 cleaning from ceiling to floor in our apartment. Now it is spick and span.
And that brings me to today...p-day...we'll just do our regular shopping and letter writing.
Have a great week!
Amore,
Sorella Boynton
It's 2008! Exactly one year ago today, the 2nd of January, I arrived as a new little missionary in Italy! I can't believe how fast time is flying!
Since I last wrote we have had 2 lessons with Maiken. On Saturday we taught her a 3rd lesson and invited her to be baptized. She looked a little scared and in fact she told us that she was a little scared. We told her that there is no rush and that we could set a date and work towards that date. She agreed to that and so we are still waiting for her to pick a specific date. She told us that she feels good in this church but that she just wants to continue to learn more about what becoming a member of the church entails. She wants to be baptized before either Sister Harvey or I leave (which could be possible, or we both might stay another transfer) which would be within the next couple weeks. We met with her again on New Years Eve and taught her about two commandments that she already knew and follows... the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. She's awesome and just understand everything so well. She came to church on Sunday again....4th time in a row! Incredible!
Also on Sunday there were two visitors in church... always a pleasure! It was a young married couple from the states who are currently living in Norway for a year while he goes to school. They decided to come to the island just to visit for a week and happened to be in Oristano for sunday so they came to church. We translated for them and they were amazed at how small the branch is. They invited us to come and eat with them after church so we did and had a fun time talking. Oh yeah, there was also this creepy guy that came to church on sunday. We had been out doing house earlier in the week and he stopped us from his car and said that he knew the mormons. He said "you are sent from heaven, especially you (pointing to me.)" and then told us he was going to come to church Sunday. Yikes. We found his scheda in the area book and he was a past investigator of the elders. So he showed up at sacrament meeting and I tried to stay as far away from him as I could. Yikes, scary Italian men... hope we don't see him again!
Monday we were in Cagliari like usual for our district meeting... that means an hour or more on the train down and the same for the ride back. We had to be in our houses by 6pm. Sorella Harvey and I made a nacho dip that was really good and invited in the new year that way! haha. Tuesday...new years day we had to stay in all day and deep clean our whole apartment, the mission calls it "festa di lavoro." We can't proselyte on this holiday so we started in the morning and finished by 3 or 4 cleaning from ceiling to floor in our apartment. Now it is spick and span.
And that brings me to today...p-day...we'll just do our regular shopping and letter writing.
Have a great week!
Amore,
Sorella Boynton
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