3 More Days!!!

Hello everyone!!!!

This past week has been so exciting, but also SO stressful at the same time!!  Two days ago we had to move from our building and move into a new one, because it was being renovated.  So that was a ton of fun!! (not really) ;)  But the good news is that I am already packed for Slovenia: "Waahooo!!" :D

Then yesterday we had In-Field orientation and when I was at breakfast I got really sick all of the sudden and by the time I went to personal study I had a huge Migrane (don't think that's how you spell it)  And got really sick and lost all of my breakfast (if you know what I mean) and then I went back to the room and had the chance to sleep for 3 hours more!!!   I can't really decide if the sickness was bad or good, because I had the chance to finally catch up on some precious sleep. :)  After I woke up I felt so much better and then went back to In-Field orientation, but I missed the first half so it was kind of confusing and then my head was still foggy, but it was still really good! :)  And now I am feeling much better!!!  Basically In-Field orientation is what it sounds like.  It is a last minute prep. to fill you in on the things you will need to know when you get there and how the first few weeks are going to be like.  From what I was able to go to it was a lot about working with the Members, so I learned a lot from that. :)

I am so excited to get out to Slovenia finally!!  I have loved the MTC, but it is definitely time to leave, haha! :)  I know that I really won't be able to communicate and that I will be speaking like a child, but nonetheless - I'm so excited!! :)

Other than that there isn't a whole much I have to talk about, but the next time I will be writing I will be in Slovenia!! :)  Monday I will fly out around11:30 to Chicago then to Paris then to Zagreb, Croatia and then I will take a train to Slovenia!!

I love you all and miss you all so much!! :)

- Elder Lyman

September 20, 2013 - 10 more days!!!!

Hey everyone!!

Everything is going very well here at the MTC!  I only have 10 more days and I am so excited!!  The MTC is amazing, but now I really understand why everyone gets so excited to leave it, haha!  It's amazing, but.... you get so excited to actually go out and preach the gospel, so I'm kinda ready to go! :)  I get my travels plans today, but I think I already know where I am going, because we have a German elder in our zone and international elders get there plans early and he is going to Chicago to Paris to Croatia!  So I will be going the same route as him because he is going to my mission and then I will be taking a train from Croatia to Slovenia and you don't know how excited I am to take a train and see the countryside of my mission!!  I will get my travel papers today and then will know for sure today! :)

The travel day is pretty much a missionaries vacation, haha!! There will be A LOT of sleeping and that is just amazing by itself, haha!! :)  I don't think I have mentioned this yet, but I think my zone here is definitely the most diverse zone here at the MTC.  We have 4 different missions and we have 8 different languages (Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Slovak, Czech, and Polish).  Usually a zone at the MTC only has one mission and one language, but we all have such unique missions there aren't enough people going there so they put us all into one zone.  It is really a cool experience and I love my whole zone so much!! It is kinda weird to think that I didn't know any of them 8 weeks ago, it feels like I've known them my whole life! :)  Another think that is really cool that I found  last week is: I will be the first 18 year old missionary to Slovenia!! So that's a pretty amazing opportunity!

I have to get going pretty soon, but I'll talk a little bit about some spiritual stuff right now, because I am a missionary ya know. ;)  

Something that I have realized a lot these past few weeks and it is something that my teacher says a lot is:  "This gospel is a transforming gospel".  And I didn't realize how true that was until now here at the MTC.  Being here my view of the gospel has changed so much and it really is the most important thing in our lives.  And I really like the scripture Mosiah 27:25 and it talks about how in this life we are suppose to change.  And that is why we were sent to this Earth, to learn and experience things that cause us to change into something better; becoming true sons and daughters of God and becoming: God-like.  And we only become that by changing our hearts through the Atonement and changing into a state of righteousness.

  Being here at the MTC I can already see how much I have changed and this gospel is truly a "transforming gospel".  It changes everything and especially how we view our lives.  Being a Mormon isn't just a religion, it's a way of life, and I am proud to say: "I am a Mormon". :)

I also finally found my missionary plaque scripture and it is: Jacob 4:6, and it is such a great scripture! :)  We have so many amazing experiences in this church and if I was to put one word to my MTC it would be: "Faith".  If you read the scripture you will find that Faith is one of the most important things to the gospel and with it we can do anything!  And we are meant to be on this Earth to "walk by faith rather than sight".  And sometimes I feel like we all want to see things and we want proof, and I am even guilty of that.  But we have so many "proofs" of the gospel through the spirit and if we just listen and look, we will feel that spirit and that is all we need for our answer. :)

Well that is it for right now, but I miss you all so much!  I'll talk to you all next week and then after that I will finally be in Slovenia! :)

Se Vidimo!!

- Elder Lyman 

September 13, 2013 - 18 Days left until SLOVENIA!!

Hey everyone!!! I'm going to have to make this one quick, because I only have 15 minutes left of time.  That's something I have realized here at the MTC; You NEVER have enough time for anything!! :)  But that's what it takes when you are giving your life to the Lord and I am alright with that. :)

This week has been so great and I love it here at the MTC!!  But I am so excited to get out and go and I should be getting my travel plans next week!  Here at the MTC that is such an exciting event that it is pretty much like we are getting our mission calls all over again!  And it's when you realize all over again that "this is really happening!" 

It's still hard for me to believe that I am actually here and being on a mission has been by far the most amazing thing!  Sure there are hard times, but I can already see that it has already changed me!  My perspective of the gospel has completely changed in these past 6 weeks! :)

Something that I have started doing this week is I bought a small pocket book dedicated to scriptures and I would suggest that you all should do it! :)  Whenever you find a scripture that you really like, write it down and write something about it.  It's really great and for me it's always a source that I could see where I have found past inspiration and it's something that I can always keep on me! :)

Well I have to get going now so....

Nasvidenje!! (Till we meet again!)

:)

18 Days left until SLOVENIA!! :D

Hey everyone!!! I'm going to have to make this one quick, because I only have 15 minutes left of time.  That's something I have realized here at the MTC; You NEVER have enough time for anything!! :)  But that's what it takes when you are giving your life to the Lord and I am alright with that. :)

This week has been so great and I love it here at the MTC!!  But I am so excited to get out and go and I should be getting my travel plans next week!  Here at the MTC that is such an exciting event that it is pretty much like we are getting our mission calls all over again!  And it's when you realize all over again that "this is really happening!" 

It's still hard for me to believe that I am actually here and being on a mission has been by far the most amazing thing!  Sure there are hard times, but I can already see that it has already changed me!  My perspective of the gospel has completely changed in these past 6 weeks! :)

Something that I have started doing this week is I bought a small pocket book dedicated to scriptures and I would suggest that you all should do it! :)  Whenever you find a scripture that you really like, write it down and write something about it.  It's really great and for me it's always a source that I could see where I have found past inspiration and it's something that I can always keep on me! :)

Well I have to get going now so....

Nasvidenje!! (Till we meet again!)

:)

Week 6!!

Hey everyone!!

This week has been amazing and I love it here! :)  I can't believe that it is already P-Day!!!  This morning me, Elder Frederick (one of my companions) and Elder Ward (A friend I made here) went and did initiatories at the temple this morning instead of going to a session and it was awesome!!  We got out an a hour earlier than usual and so we went and ate breakfast at the Temple and it was aMaZiNg!!! It was nice to finally have some real bacon again! :)

This past week has been really fun and me and Elder Frederick have started a little game with each other.  I don't know how it started, all I know is that Elder Frederick started it. ;)  We are now having a war with lemon heads and we just put lemon heads in the most random places like in the other persons shoes, their pant pockets, their drawers, or in their bed!  It's kind of weird, but SO fun!! :)  Just a little something to be goofy and have some laughs here at the MTC.

Something that has been spiritually uplifting for me this week is how everywhere around us there are "little miracles".  Sometimes we get so caught up in the world that we forget to look, recognize, or appreciate these "little miracles".  And sometimes they are just as simple as accidentally leaving a bookmark in your scriptures and then during a lesson with an "investigator", that investigator asks a question and that bookmark miraculously marked the perfect scripture to that investigator's question.  :)  That was one of the many "little miracles" that I had this week and I can testify that Heavenly Father loves us so much and blesses us with so much and I was just thinking of the song: "Count Your Many Blessing" and the phrase: "count your many blessings and you'll see what God hath done."  These miracles, no matter how small they are, are all around us and if we just take the time to look, we'll notice.

Another thing that was extremely powerful this week is that Heavenly Father does truly answer our prayers.  This week I had a question in my mind and asked Heavenly Father to bless me with an answer.  The very next day at one of the devotionals, a member of the quorum of the Seventy was speaking and right when he was about to end his talk he went off on a different direction from what he was speaking about (even though we were already 10 minutes over) and perfectly addressed the question I had and answered it.  I know that our church leaders are inspired and so are the speakers and teachers here at the MTC.  And I challenge you to try to find a question that you haven't been able to quite figure out and pray and ask to receive an answer or that this Sunday, someone will be inspired or prompted to talk about it and answer your question.  I know that if you do this and if you are diligently looking and searching, you will see a "little miracle". - (1 Nephi 10:19) :) 

I love you all and I miss everything single one of you!  I hope you all will have a great week!!

Se Vidimo!

- Starešina Lyman :)