Missions are Great!

This is going to be short and to the point I have like 5 minutes haha.

We had an Earthquake this week and it was when my comp and I went home like 5 min early so I am pretty sure that was God telling me to never go home early again.

This old lady named sister rowland who is inactive is hilarious but we read scriptures with her and she told this 15 year old girl that she shouldn't be wearing 6 inch heels because her ovaries aren't developed yet!!! Haha I almost laughed in her face when she said that but she was being serious so I didn't.

We taught this 15 year old kid named Aiden this week he is AWESOME. He is really confused but he is seraching for truth so hopefully he will be able to find it.

We almost had a baptism of a family of 4 this week but they are having some doubts. But I have been wondering what my purpose here was and today after we talked with the Mom she said to me "I feel like I knew you before, I know you were sent here by God to tell me those things and I will work on them. Thank you" She is way cool. She has been investigating for over a year and we are hoping to help her overcome her doubts.

We have also taught other people but my time is up. Sorry this is really short next week will be longer.

Love ya all!

Random pic of Sister Lyman and her friend at the MTC...

First letter out in the field

Serving a mission is great! There is a lot of hard work and I got my first sunbrun tracting the other day! My ward is AWESOME and huge there are like 400-500 active members. We want to get to know as many members as possible so they can hopefully give us referrals so we asked to speak in sacrament and the soonest they can get us in is July 12 I think so we have a while to prepare. My comp is awesome she is 20 and she is from Idaho. She runs with me and I love it! She is really down to earth but gets stressed easily so we are working on staying calm. In my area we haven't had a baptims in 1 year so we set a goal to have 2 baptisms (besides a family of 4 that is being baptized) by June 30. It is really soon but we need a goal to motivate and encourage us to find people to teach. My mission president is really, realy nice! They take good care of us girls and I barley have to lift a finger if the elders are around it is great. The field is really different than the MTC, we actually have to find out investigators here, and it is really hard. I wish we had more referrals from our ward, if everyone gave us a referral in the ward we would have like 300 referrals and tons of people to teach and tons of baptisms! Going door to door is awful and people don't love gettting up from the couch to here from the crazy Jesus girls but its okay I know we will find people to teach. I challenge all of you to get referrals to the missionaries in your ward and go teach with them! My apartment is really nice, we have 2 bathrooms 2 bedrooms and granite countertops, it is ridiculous, all we do is sleep there but its nice. The work isn't moving as quickly as I would like, we don't have any progressing investigators but we have 5 potentials if  they would ever call us back to set up a lesson or answer their doors! But I love my area and I am excited to get to know the people even more. god is definetly aware of me, I meet people everyday from either Blandin g or Virginia it is crazy! I also met a girl that was friends with my favorite MTC teacher so that was cool. You should all write me! My address is below! Love ya!

Oh yeah we have the same dish drying rack in my apartment as I did in my apartment in Utah, its comforting to know that Walmart is the same everywhere... :)

Sister Melissa Lyman 
1151 Whitney Ranch Pkwy #236
Rocklin, CA 95765

"Week two down, whoop whoop!"

Okay the title of this email is inaccurate my time is going by so fast. I am not ready to leave the MTC! I have learned so much and I have so much more to learn. This email is going to be really short so sorry.

I have been struggling so much with my weaknesses lately and trying to overcome them and I am kind of hard on myself (as some of you have told me) but I have been feeling inadequate like I need to be better and do better and try to be the perfect missionary right now. Which is ridiculous of me to expect of myself but I was talking to my teacher about it and then he gave me a scripture to read Ether 12:27 so now everyone go look that up because I don't have time to type it out for you, sorry. It talks about how Christ gives us weaknesses to make them strengths. Then my other teacher expounded on this scripture and said that we know we are coming to Christ when are weaknesses are coming out. It was a really awesome insight to the scripture and it turned my whole week around. I don't know if this has made any sense because an Elder is talking to me while I am typing at this very moment and I can't stop talking to him because it is interesting but I can't stop typing either because I have limited time! So I apologize for any confusion.

Second cool thing of the week. I have been really nervous about inviting people to be baptized in the first lesson because thats intense, thats when stuff gets real ya'll! But I talked in church yesterday about baptism and while I was talking I came to a realization. Missionary work is Christ's work, not the work of men and he has asked me to invite others to be baptized on the first lesson so who am I to dismiss Christ's request? Also I am the only person, besides my companion, authorized to help people be baptized in my area, In order for someone to be baptized in my area  they HAVE TO talk to me and my companion first. How cool is that!? But in Mosiah 18:8-11 it talks about how people were so excited to be baptized they were filled with Joy! I can't wait to baptize some people or I guess watch some people get baptized since ya know I don't have the privilege to baptize... which is good because I am a girl :).

I love you all! Everyone go be member missionaries do something with your lives! Nothing is more important than sharing the gospel with those people who don't have it. I listened to a talk by Jeffery R Holland who throws down all the time and I love it and he said that I didn't leave real life to come to my mission, my mission is as close to real life as I will ever get and he is right! So I challenge all of you to get as close to real life as you can and share the gospel with some people, go teach lessons with the missionaries fellowship some people in your ward, be that person that helps someone recognize how much Jesus Christ loves them. I love my mission already and 18 months is so short!!! I will be home before I know it and I won't be ready to leave. I love you all! SHARE THE GOSPEL! Or if your own testimony is struggling, do something about it. Jeffery R Holland makes me feel bold for a day or two after I listen to him so thats were this is coming from. Get used to it thought ;) love you all!

Sister Lyman

Hey Hey Hey: Melissa's first letter!

I am officially a missionary with a name tag and everything!

 

This week has been crazy good. I thought I would struggle a lot with studying everyday and constantly reading the scriptures (because lets face it scriptures can get a little mundane, even though they are great) but I haven't at all. I really love being able to focus on the gospel and learn more about my Savior. Teaching is a little awkward, it is getting a lot better though. We taught this big black lady named Lawanna yesterday who had some attitude and she kept asking why she needed another book and we would tell her it would help her in her life, and grow closer to God and make her happier and she was like "UH huh, well ya'll can keep your book. I got my bible." My companion and I are COMPLETE OPPOSITES and sometimes I struggle with teaching because I feel really comfortable testifying and she is really comfortable giving information. So we balance each other out but it is still hard to get used to. Lawanna's lesson was rough but we got invited back for tomorrow so that is good. Some Elders in my district didn't even get in the door of their pretend investigator, so I am counting my blessings. My companion is really great she is really knowledgeable about the scriptures and I am not so I am relying on her a lot and she is helping me. I have awesome teachers, they encourage us to find the answers for ourselves a lot but they aren't too serious so we have a lot of fun. Brother Dayhuff (he served his mission in Tacoma WA) and my other teacher is Brother Blatter (he served in England). I get a lot of personal revelation here which is kind of overwhelming in a good way and I didn't realize that I could have so many prayers answered at one time. Thank you to those who have written me, especially Megan! You are the best and thank you for the food :) For those of you have not yet written me I suggest you start my address is on FB and I would love to hear from you, anything really. We have dinner at 4 so I am usually pretty hungry at night. My District is awesome and its cool because there are 6 sisters and 6 elders.I thought I would be annoyed with so many girls but its actually really nice. Kenny Aaron Bufton from High school is going to be in my district starting on Wednesday I saw his name on our list so that will be weird. I really like the MTC but I can't wait to get to California I just want to teach people because 18 months is such a short time to be set apart as a missionary with the authority to teach the gospel. Something that I have been struggling with a lot is being alone. I miss being alone so so so so so so so so so so much!!!! I don't even get to be alone in the bathroom! My companion always stands like right outside of my stall and its awkward as what! Would it be rude if I asked her to go away, probably but I think its weird she stands there because I wait outside the bathroom door in the hall when she is in there... TMI sorry. I just want to sit in a corner by myself for a while and not have to talk to anyone so that is going to be difficult to get used to, I take really long showers so I can have that time to myself, well as long as possible. Other than that I don't have any complaints about the MTC. I love it here. I miss you all tons though!! Go find some people to teach the gospel to and prepare them to meet the missionaries!!!! Nothing else matters (kind of) ;) Love you all!

Sister Lyman