Tired and either starving or stuffed!

Missions are hard. I am tired ALL THE TIME. Walking, standing, running, teaching, reading, talking etc. I AM TIRED. Also people are rejecting us all the time and that sucks, I am pretty good at getting rejected now so that's cool. Also, I am either starving or stuffed, like last night we had 2 dinners because we are over 2 wards and everyone wants to feed the missionarieson Sunday. It was rough but I am not complaining because I am so blessed to be getting food. I have never been more happy in my entire life. Seriously, I am so happy. Nothing can get me down (well maybe after someone yells at us for knocking on their door after dark gets me down for like a second, but it doesn't keep me down) because missionary work, sharing the Gospel with people and helping them realized that they have a loving Heavenly Father and a brother who literally died for them is amazing. 

We taught this guy Mark the Plan of Salvation this week (if you don't know what that is, ask some missionaries and pretend I am telling you). Mark is a recovering addict and has a 10 month old daughter named Skyla, both of his parents were addicts and he has had a really hard life and he is great and I love teaching him because he is so humble and prepared. The elders also teach him. We text him scriptures through out the week and sometimes stop by to read with him. We got a text from him the other day that said, "3 Nephi 11:3" and we asked, "Do you want us to read that?" and he said, "I just experienced it" 3 Nephi 11:3 is talking about how it feels when the spirit talks to you. So he had a lesson with the Elders and they told us that he said his first prayer out loud. While he was praying he just stopped in the middle and was silent for a while and then he said, "wow". After he finished his prayer he asked, "What is this feeling? This is new, I haven't ever felt this before" Mark was finally feeling all the love that God has for him and the hope that comes from knowing that their is a way out of his addiction and that their is a better life for Skyla. He is so motivated by his love for his daughter and it is amazing to be able to witness the changes in him. He has a baptism date for November 2nd! We also taught Jane this week and committed her to baptism. She is going to get baptized in November but we aren't sure on exactly what date because of Thanksgiving stuff. She is golden! 

The relief Society Broadcast was pretty incredible. We had 3 investigators there and I think 4 less actives maybe 3 I can't remember but it was exactly what they needed to hear and we are really excited to see how conference will help them progress in their knowledge and learning of the Gospel. 

I have learned this week that ANYONE can change. I learn so much more from all of the people we are teaching than I teach them. I am so blessed to be able to be here and to be a part of this work. I love the Gospel. I love seeing people come to church in Jeans and a Tshirt! We had a guy come to the singles ward for the first time in Jeans and a Tshirt this week, it made my day. I love being a missionary. I love serving my Heavenly Father and developing a better relationship with Christ. That is what this life is all about coming to know him and helping others do the same regardless of their circumstances or beliefs. So often I see someone and I think they won't accept the gospel because of how they look but that is so judgmental! Everyone on the Earth at one point in time accepted Christ as their Savior before this life and I am just here to help them remember that. I love being a missionary. 

I love and miss you all! Have a great week!

Do like the Hindu and do all you can do (motto of the week)

WARNING this letter might not make sense all of my thoughts aren't very organized

CHICO!!! I love Chico! I miss Rocklin a lot and I miss the people there. I didn't realize how much I loved the people there until I had to leave. But Chico is great! It is completely different from Rocklin. There are trailer parks here, trailer parks! Full of humble people who are looking for something more in their life!!!! We found 3 new investigators this week and it was awesome. There is an apartment complex here where recovering addicts go to live. You have to qualify to live there, be interviewed, and all that good stuff. But we have a less active lady we visit there named Dawn. So we went to visit her one day and we were riding bikes, so we had to carry them up to her apartment (she lives on the 2nd floor) on our way up this guys door was open and so we said hi to him and then we went upstairs. We went inside and started talking to Dawn. 5 minutes later Mark (the guy we said hi to) comes walking in with his 10 month old daughter Skyla. He played with Dawns kids for a little bit and then he asked us, "so what do you guys do?" we told him and he said "oh okay" then played with Dawn's kids a little bit more. I asked him if he was religious at all and then he laughed and said, "I guess I should have expected that" then we started talking a little bit and we invited him to church, we also gave him a Book of Mormon. He came to church this week and is taking lessons with the elders (we have elders and sisters in our ward so males with males and females with females) but we also were able to teach this girl named Jane a lesson this week. She is the singles ward and she is awesome! She has a lot of mormon friends and is really wanting to find out who she is. We invited her to be baptized and she said she wants to come to church first haha it was funny I think she thought we wanted to baptize her right then but she is so prepared and the whole time we were teaching her she just looked happy. She looked so excited to be learning about the Gospel. I love humble people and I love serving in Chico! However, there are some challenges here that I didn't face in Rocklin. Such as, people smoke here a lot, and drink, and do drugs. BUT I love it! Although being in a singles ward is incredibly weird. 6 hours of church with like 3 hours of meetings is also a bit tiring but it is also very spiritually uplifting. I love being a missionary.

This week I have been thinking a lot about prayer and how I need to have more meaningful prayer. Sometimes if it seems like I don't get an answer to prayer I think, "Oh well I just need to keep praying because God can't answer my prayer yet" that idea is false. God who is a perfect parent and all knowing and all loving is not going to make us wait for an answer. This week I have just felt his love so much and he has been blessing me so much with boldness, courage, and a very strong desire to serve the Gospel. I can't explain how much I love serving a mission, words just can't explain the happiness that comes from helping someone realize they are a child of God and there is more purpose in this life than trying to get by, that there is hope in this life, and in the life to come. We also teach this lady named Yvonne who is really open but also very inquisitive and logical so teaching her is really different. She has a daughter that is 5 and her daughter didn't know anything about God because her daughters father and Yvonne agreed to not bring her up in any type of religion except his native American culture. So one day Yvonne's daughter said, "Mom aren't you glad God put me in your belly?" so Yvonne was really confused about how her daughter knew who God was so she asked her daughter, "How do you know who God is?" and her daughter said, "He talks to me and he told me that I need to keep you and my dad safe and that I wished you would be my parents so he let me come to you." (I am paraphrasing so this is not an exact quote but it is basically what she said) how amazing is that? I know that God is real, I know that He is our loving Father, and He wants us to so badly return to him. I am so extremely grateful to be able to share this knowledge with other people. Especially the knowledge of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I don't deserve even an eighth of the things that he gives to me but I am so grateful that he loves me enough to allow me to grow and progress.

I have realized this week how awkward I am going to be when I get home hahaha I am always going to be trying to bring up the Gospel, and I am going to be trying to teach you all about the Restoration and how Joseph Smith saw Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father because that is my life now! I wasted so much time at home not sharing the Gospel and I am so happy that I get to do that now and that is my only care in the world is to get people to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sorry this is long. I love you all! I can't wait for conference!!!!!!!!

Sister Lyman

355 E Lassen Ave 

Apt #4
Chico CA 95973

My comp sis Paul is like my clone we are SO MUCH ALIKE! It is crazy but cool. Write me! Love ya!

Transfer Week!!!!

This week has been another crazy one I cried 4 TIMES and in front of people!!!! One of my goals on a mission was to get in touch with my feelings and I guess it is working. I will probably cry a few more times today saying goodbye to people because I am getting transferred. Last week on Monday my companion and I didn't have time to go shopping so we were a little short supplied on food and it was a little disappointing but I realized something I am so BLESSED to have food. I am so grateful for the Gospel, for a bed, for a shower, for a car, for my family, for my friends, for the scriptures, for all of the experiences I have had in my life--even the hard ones. I am just so incredibly blessed and this week I was so incredibly ungrateful. I was wondering why it doesn't seem like much is happening in my area, I was short tempered, critical, and frustrated. But I realized something, it doesn't matter if I don't baptize one person while I am here--I am not saying I don't want to help someone come closer to Christ by helping them learn about baptism and develop that desire to get baptized--but in the large scheme of things it doesn't matter AS LONG AS I am doing God's will. Sometimes we don't see the outward results of our labors immediately but we do eventually see them, sometimes not in this life but in the next, nevertheless they do come. After I was done throwing a fit this week and I humbled myself and recommitted myself to work harder and be diligent in doing whatever it is God see's fit for me to do I was blessed to know that my work in this area has not been in vain. One of our less active members daughter broke both of her legs, it was awful she had to have 2 surgery's and was in the hospital all week. We were able to go visit her which was really great she enjoyed the company. She is 11 and can't go to school for 8 weeks! She is really sad, but their families hearts have been softened so much! Her dad who is a proclaimed atheist loves our bishop now and appreciates how much the ward has done for them its amazing the change that has taken place in him. Then this week Savannah text us and told us she knows the church is true and she knows the Book of Mormon is true. We challenged her to pray out loud and ask God if it is true and she did and she said she received her answer that it is. God really does answer prayers. She is an amazing example to me she doesn't want to get baptized yet but she will get there, it needs to be in her time and in the Lord's time but she has such great faith. 

There is a girl in our ward who is leaving on a mission to Portugal and she is going to be the BEST missionary because she unconditionally loves people and she shared an experience in her talk yesterday at church. She was driving with her parents and they stopped at a red light and there was a skinny homeless man on the corner with a sign that said "Anything will help" or something like that and her dad rolled down his window and gave him a few dollars and asked him his name, the man said his name is Jim and the light turned green and they left. As they were driving away Bethany's dad said, "I can't worry about what he does with the money, all I know is that I had to shake his hand, learn his name, and help him in anyway that I could." I of course related it immediately to missionary work, being a missionary that's pretty much the only thing that occupies your thoughts. What Jim needs is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He needs to know that regardless of how many times he has messed up in this life, regardless of what he has done in his life to get to the point he was at, he has a loving Heavenly Father who so badly wants to see him again, he has a brother, our Savior Jesus Christ, who died for him so that in the afterlife he can experience true joy and love in Christ's presence, and no matter what we do in this life those 2 things will NEVER change. Regardless of what you or I might have done in this life that will NEVER change, God our Father and our Brother Jesus Christ will ALWAYS love us. They will ALWAYS accept us and most importantly they WANT us to return to them. I read a talk by President Uctdorf this morning called, "Four Titles" and he says, "We have all seen a toddler learn to walk. He takes a small step and totters. He falls. Do we scold such an attempt? Of course not. What father would punish a toddler for stumbling? WE encourage, we applaud, and we praise because with every small step the child is becoming more like his parents." Isn't that so true!!! I know that God would never scold us for trying, for experiencing, and for messing up. That is what he sent us here to do. I have been there, I know what it feels like to think that no one cares, that you aren't good enough to use the Atonement of our Savior, to think that Heavenly Father doesn't love you because you have messed up so many times, I promise there is a way out. It isn't easy and it sometimes seems like it might not be worth it. There is nothing better than the joy that comes from repenting. Brad Wilcox (I think) said, "repentance makes the most glorious morning of the darkest night" or something like that.I need to repent daily I make mistakes daily and I sometimes think. "How will I ever be good enough?" and then I pray and I feel the love that our Heavenly Father has for me, or I testify to someone of how much Heavenly Father loves them and I know he loves me. Weaknesses and all. I am just a toddler trying to learn how to walk in this world that is so full of pain, sorrow, and confusion. But He is always there to catch us when we fall. He is always there to put bandaids on our knees and to pleadingly say, "please don't give up, please keep trying, I want to see you succeed I don't want to only see you walk but I want to see you skip and run and dance. I want you to be happy. So please keep trying and know that I love you." Whenever I see a person I am going to try to think of the homeless man Jim standing on the corner with a sign saying, "anything will help" but the sign will say, "please I am so lost, this world is so confusing, I need to know I belong somewhere I need to know that I am loved by someone and that there is hope after this life." We have so much knowledge and we are so blessed. We need to share this with others. God has forgiven me for so much so how could I not share the happiness that I have in my life with His other children who he loves just as much as he loves me?

In his talk President Uctdorf continues to explain how we are all different, "But while the Atonement is meant to help us all become more like Christ, it is not meant to make us all the same. Sometimes we confuse differences in personality with sin. We can even make the mistake of thinking that because someone is different from us, it must mean they are not pleasing to God. This line of thinking leads to some to believe that the Church wants to create every member from a single mold--that each one should look, feel, think, and behave like every other. This would contradict the genius of God, who created every man different from his brother." Why are we all so critical of each other? Why do we tend to assume that we are better than someone else because they are different? we need to be more tolerant of others and their differences. Also allow yourself to be different. I always try to fit myself into the missionary mold that I think exists but doesn't haha and whenever I do that I am unhappy I feel inadequate but when I am myself I am happy, I feel confident and people notice. Be yourself, be the person that God created you to be and knew you could be when you came to the earth. He loves you! 

Oh and I am getting transferred to Chico to serve in a singles ward and I think a family ward and I am a sister training leader. I am really baffled as to why God is allowing me to help guide other missionaries in bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the love that our Savior has for other people but I am so happy He is allowing me this opportunity to learn and grow. Sorry this is a little all over the place I just have a lot running through my mind right now. But I love you all. Get on LDS.org and look up introduction to Mormons and share it with someone. Love you! Have a great week! 

You aren't really a missionary until you bike like a missionary

Being a missionary is great. We started a car fast in our mission. So on Thursday we are supposed to use the car as little as possible. Sister Hanninen and I thought it would be a good idea to use bikes on this day and so we have been doing that and I have to say biking in a skirt is pretty exciting. I love being outside all day though and having the opportunity to talk to everyone, even though I am not very good at that all the time. I have also found a new respect for the elders that bike all day everyday. It is hard, especially when it is hot. It has been like 100 degrees here lately. this is the last week of my third transfer and I am probably going to be leaving. I don't want to though a lot is starting to happen we are teaching a lot of people and they are all pretty promising. I have also really connected with April and I am going to miss her so much. Yesterday at church she told me that if I leave this will be the first transfer that she has cried when missionaries have left. I probably will too she is awesome and I love her so much. The other day we were at her house and they have Gecko's and Sister Hanninen hates them so I thought I would just put one on her shoulder when she wasn't looking. She just sat there and told me to take him off and that she hated me and  it was pretty hilarious but then I think God was telling me that I need to be nice to my companion because once I took the Gecko off of her it peed and pooped on me. I freaked out and it was really nasty but April got a good laugh. 

This week I have been thinking a lot about how blessed I am to be here on this mission even though a lot of the times I don't feel as if I am the most effective instrument Heavenly Father could have picked. But I know that he has a purpose for me here and I know that the more I have come to rely on Him and trust Him the happier I have become. At the beginning of my mission I was just constantly thinking about how much I sucked at how much I needed to improve and I felt like I was constantly trying to be the perfect missionary. But now I realize that I am nothing without Christ and as long as I am obedient, and I work hard He will take care of the rest. There is nothing more that I can do. How great is that!? I can't do anything other than my best and God accepts that. I think that is pretty cool. 

So Facebook! We get to start using Facebook probably this week I think.... But I will be using the Facebook that I had at home and I am going to be using it for proselyting purposes only so please don't try to message me or write me on there. I will not respond. Not because I don't want to but because I want to be obedient because God is my boss and I don't want to break His rules, and you shouldn't want me to either :) haha.  We are really excited about it though because we know we will be able to connect with so many more people and it is a huge privilege that the First Presidency has trusted us with. There are only 12 missions out of 405 that are being pilot missions for this and we are one of them. Sorry this email isn't the best I accidentally unplugged my computer while I was emailing and now I am a bit lost with where I was haha but I love you all and I know that God does too! Go share the Gospel with someone and change their lives. Oh also don't mail me this week after Wednesday because if I get transferred it will not get to me.

Sorry this is so short

We don't really have time to email this week. Since its labor day all of the missionaries in my Zone are emailing at the church and we are just basically letting our family know we are fine and nothing happened to us and emailing the mission president. 

Something I have been realizing a lot though is that being here is a huge blessing and one of the reasons is because I am gaining an eternal perspective. It is pretty great. Also I have been hacked so if you get some weird emails from me. It is not me. I love you all next week will be better. Oh Savannah is going to seminary! She wakes up at 5AM to go to seminary! And she isn't even a member she is such an amazing example to me of having a desire to follow Christ. 

The Gospel is restored, the church is true, I can't wait for conference :) oh yeah! We are using facebook in our mission soon! We will probably get it in like 2 weeks. More info to come. 

Love you! 1 nephi 10:19