Happy Easter! Hope everyone has a good one!
As bad as it is, I don't really feel an obligation to write because I'm not hearing much from anyone else these days! I guess we all just figure we can talk in about 3 weeks!
Anyways, for those interested...
We had a great week with some great appointments.
We continue to visit Nancy, the recent convert, every other week. She hasn't been to church the whole time I've been here in Rome because she works everyday until late and is just so tired. Her faith is incredible though and we're praying that she'll find new work that isn't so taxing. These poor stranieri here just work to live and barely get by. The other week we met this woman on the street named Elisabetta. She had spoken with missionaries before but wanted us to come talk about the Book of Mormon with her. We did and it was a really neat lesson all about likening the scriptures to us and finding out where the real power from the Book of Mormon comes. She told us she doesn't want to get baptized or anything but we'll see what we can do! We finally got to meet with Zohra again. We hadn't been back to see her since the first time she let us in the house. We met with her and her daughter that is our age and watched the Restoration video together. It was really neat and they still seem pretty interested. They keep telling us they'll come to church but haven't yet.
On sunday we had this huge family from america in church visiting and so all of us missionaries took a row and translated for them. We also had a lunch invite that went far too long but we were kind of stuck because the only way out was a ride home from the member who fed us. I think I've probably gained 5 pounds here in Rome. We get fed more often then I ever have on my mission. Yesterday we had an appointment and I don't think I've ever eaten so much in my life! A HUGE plate of pasta, then potatoes and just a plain old hambuger pattie, bread, and then a couple oranges! I still haven't eaten anything since yesterday! One thing I can't wait for is to get back in shape that's for sure. I took a funny picture after the appointment with my stomach stuck out to capacity so I'll have to send that out! It's pretty funny.
The highlight of the week was our appointment with Yana. Remember last week how she wouldn't pray? Well, we got there and as we were starting the lesson, she told us that she was going to say the closing prayer! We had an awesome lesson on the plan of salvation. Yana was so happy to learn about it and gain all this new knowledge. Then at the end, she said the prayer perfectly! It was so awesome and we both got up and hugged her after the prayer! She's progressing slowly but surely. We really want to set a baptismal date with her soon so we're hoping for that!
Everythings great and the weather is warming up. We're going to go play soccer in the park today so I'm excited about that! Alla prossima!
Love Sorella Boynton
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
12 MARCH 2008
Ciao tutti,
Nothing too out of the ordinary to talk about this week. It's been a pretty normal, great week.
Probably the craziest thing that happened is that Monday was my last zone conference in the mission! I can hardly believe that! The departing missionaries always stand and give their "dying testimony" so I had the opportunity to do that along with 3 other elders in the zone who are going home the same time I am. It was hard to stand and try to express all my feelings about my mission to everyone. But it was a good experience to stand and bear my testimony to the other missionaries. Zone conference was really good. The assistants always do an amazing training and this time they talked all about testimony and how important it is that we are able to express our conviction of the truthfulness of the gospel with power so that investigators are able to feel the spirit and make commitments. I learned a lot and am working hard to be able to do this with the people we work with. I also really liked President and Sister Acerson's trainings. Sister Acerson walked us through the Book of Mormon and we read together many of the "dying testimonies" of fathers in the Book of Mormon to their sons. Really powerful testimonies and a good study for all of us to do. It was an inspiring conference!
We are still doing lots of finding work in hope to find new investigators. Saturday we did an exchange with two girls in the ward. I went with a member my age from Thailand, her name's Shane. She's been a member for a couple years and is planning on going on a mission sometime soon. So I went with her and we did some park and house. It was fun. My comp went with another girl and they did finding work in another part of Rome. It's awesome to work with members and be able to set up these exchanges! Each companionship took about 15 pamphlets on Joseph Smith, the family proc. and English class fliers, and then a Book of Mormon and we challenged ourselves to give it all away in the hour and a half that we had. We were able to give it all away and to teach some good lessons. Also on sunday we got to go sing in piazza del popolo. It was so fun to see my "kid" again, Sister Call. I trained her up in Livorno and now she's down here in Rome. It was cool to hear all the updates of people back in Livorno, like about how Jantina is doing so great and visiting teaching etc. (If any of you remember her!) I also got to talk to lots of neat people. I got a phone number so hopefully that will turn into something.
We had an appointment last night with Yana and her mom. We focused the whole thing on prayer with our invite to have her pray with us on the spot. We planned out a really good lesson on why we pray and how we pray, trying to put into practice everything we learned at zone conference. We bore testimony of the power of prayer and then at the end, after having explained how we pray, handed her a paper with a few examples of what to thank heavenly father for and what to ask him for, knelt down and asked her to say the closing prayer. She totally got so scared and we kept encouraging her and telling her she could do it! But in the end she just wouldn't do it! Anyways, we invited her and her mom to pray together that night and she said she would pray the next time. Mamma mia, it's like pulling teeth here!
Anyways, things are awesome and I love this work.
Love ya,
Sorella Boynton
Nothing too out of the ordinary to talk about this week. It's been a pretty normal, great week.
Probably the craziest thing that happened is that Monday was my last zone conference in the mission! I can hardly believe that! The departing missionaries always stand and give their "dying testimony" so I had the opportunity to do that along with 3 other elders in the zone who are going home the same time I am. It was hard to stand and try to express all my feelings about my mission to everyone. But it was a good experience to stand and bear my testimony to the other missionaries. Zone conference was really good. The assistants always do an amazing training and this time they talked all about testimony and how important it is that we are able to express our conviction of the truthfulness of the gospel with power so that investigators are able to feel the spirit and make commitments. I learned a lot and am working hard to be able to do this with the people we work with. I also really liked President and Sister Acerson's trainings. Sister Acerson walked us through the Book of Mormon and we read together many of the "dying testimonies" of fathers in the Book of Mormon to their sons. Really powerful testimonies and a good study for all of us to do. It was an inspiring conference!
We are still doing lots of finding work in hope to find new investigators. Saturday we did an exchange with two girls in the ward. I went with a member my age from Thailand, her name's Shane. She's been a member for a couple years and is planning on going on a mission sometime soon. So I went with her and we did some park and house. It was fun. My comp went with another girl and they did finding work in another part of Rome. It's awesome to work with members and be able to set up these exchanges! Each companionship took about 15 pamphlets on Joseph Smith, the family proc. and English class fliers, and then a Book of Mormon and we challenged ourselves to give it all away in the hour and a half that we had. We were able to give it all away and to teach some good lessons. Also on sunday we got to go sing in piazza del popolo. It was so fun to see my "kid" again, Sister Call. I trained her up in Livorno and now she's down here in Rome. It was cool to hear all the updates of people back in Livorno, like about how Jantina is doing so great and visiting teaching etc. (If any of you remember her!) I also got to talk to lots of neat people. I got a phone number so hopefully that will turn into something.
We had an appointment last night with Yana and her mom. We focused the whole thing on prayer with our invite to have her pray with us on the spot. We planned out a really good lesson on why we pray and how we pray, trying to put into practice everything we learned at zone conference. We bore testimony of the power of prayer and then at the end, after having explained how we pray, handed her a paper with a few examples of what to thank heavenly father for and what to ask him for, knelt down and asked her to say the closing prayer. She totally got so scared and we kept encouraging her and telling her she could do it! But in the end she just wouldn't do it! Anyways, we invited her and her mom to pray together that night and she said she would pray the next time. Mamma mia, it's like pulling teeth here!
Anyways, things are awesome and I love this work.
Love ya,
Sorella Boynton
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
5 MAR 2008
Happy March!
It has been warming up here in Rome and we've been able to leave the apartment without wearing coats! Spring is coming! It's the first week of the new transfer and I'm soo excited for this transfer, it's going to be the best! We had our district meeting on Monday, as usual, and made some good goals as a district that are really going to make us work hard, better ourselves, and baptize! We have a really awesome district leader and we're excited to see what happens. We set a district goal of 4 baptisms so we'll see what we can do with our efforts and help from Heavenly Father!
We met with a woman from Mexico this week for the first time named Lorena. She is from Mexico and is working here. We taught her a first lesson and it went really well. Hopefully she can be one of the baptisms this transfer! She's the only one here from her family and I know the gospel would help her so much and also her family back home. As far as other investigators go....we met again this week with Yana. We are hoping that she will set a baptismal date as well. She came to church again with her mom. There's probably a little bit of nudging on the part of the mom but maybe that's what she needs! She still has lots to learn and needs to understand the significance of the restoration so we're going to keep working with her.
We had a couple neat lessons with members this week. It's been one of the highlights of my mission to be able to work with the members here in Italy. I've learned a lot from them. We met with an older sister, this week who just got released as the RS pres. She lived in New Jersey when she was 30 for 6 years and has a pretty funny accent when she speaks in English! We had a nice lesson with her and her Russian daughter-in-law who's also a member. Last night we went a little bit outside of Rome and had an appointment with another member who hasn't been coming to church. But she's amazing and has a strong testimony. She told us stories of her mission in the Dominican Republic, it was a fun appointment. Okay, hope you all have a great week.
Love Sorella Boynton
It has been warming up here in Rome and we've been able to leave the apartment without wearing coats! Spring is coming! It's the first week of the new transfer and I'm soo excited for this transfer, it's going to be the best! We had our district meeting on Monday, as usual, and made some good goals as a district that are really going to make us work hard, better ourselves, and baptize! We have a really awesome district leader and we're excited to see what happens. We set a district goal of 4 baptisms so we'll see what we can do with our efforts and help from Heavenly Father!
We met with a woman from Mexico this week for the first time named Lorena. She is from Mexico and is working here. We taught her a first lesson and it went really well. Hopefully she can be one of the baptisms this transfer! She's the only one here from her family and I know the gospel would help her so much and also her family back home. As far as other investigators go....we met again this week with Yana. We are hoping that she will set a baptismal date as well. She came to church again with her mom. There's probably a little bit of nudging on the part of the mom but maybe that's what she needs! She still has lots to learn and needs to understand the significance of the restoration so we're going to keep working with her.
We had a couple neat lessons with members this week. It's been one of the highlights of my mission to be able to work with the members here in Italy. I've learned a lot from them. We met with an older sister, this week who just got released as the RS pres. She lived in New Jersey when she was 30 for 6 years and has a pretty funny accent when she speaks in English! We had a nice lesson with her and her Russian daughter-in-law who's also a member. Last night we went a little bit outside of Rome and had an appointment with another member who hasn't been coming to church. But she's amazing and has a strong testimony. She told us stories of her mission in the Dominican Republic, it was a fun appointment. Okay, hope you all have a great week.
Love Sorella Boynton
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