Vienna Austria

My dear family and friends! 

Well, I guess this is the week where i'm supposed to send a long inspiring letter home to you all tell you how amazing my mission was. I will do my best I guess:) 

Well I can start by tell you all how GREAT the last week of my mission has been! We have spent a lot of time with members and people I have come close with in Vienna over the past 8 months. I am so grateful for all the amazing people that I have been able to meet on my mission. I know I will stay close to lots of them forever.

I must say, the highlight of this week was our Sunday night yesterday. Maybe I have already mentioned this, but to Mormon Tabernacle Choir is on tour in Europe and they preformed last night night in Vienna at the Musikverien! The Musikverein is one of the top three concert halls in the whole world so you can only imagine that is was quite good. All of the missionaries in the stake Vienna were able to go and enjoy the concert. I can really say that it was the best night of my mission. The choir was absolutely amazing and the concert hall was even more exquisit.  The music was really a powerful witness of the savior. The spirit must have touched every heart in that building. I must say it was the cherry on top of a great mission:) I also got to give a little talk in sacrament meeting which was nice. It was cool because there were members there at our ward who were visiting from Salzburg for the concert, and some of these members were in Salzburg as I gave my testimony my first sunday in the mission field. They were all happy to see me and inform me that they could actually understand what I was talking about unlike last time:)

I am so grateful for the last two years that I have had to be a full-time servant of the Lord. I can really say that these last two years have been the happiest years of my life. As I have studied the gospel of Jesus Christ and started to really live the teaching of Christ, I have seen myself grow and become more happy. Christ did not just come to earth to save us from sin, He came to teach us how we should live our lives. I know that living a Christlike life is the best way to be happy. When you trust your life over to our Heavenly Father and His son, they will make a better life out of our lives then we ever could. I know that is true. A scripture that has really become personal to me on my mission in D&C 123:12 talking about all the people being distracted in this life. "For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it". We have the truth people are looking for. It is up to us to find them and be the tool in the Lords hand.

That is about all I got! the rest we can talk about later this week in person. I love you all and can't wait to see you all real soon!

Alles Gute,

Elder Lyman

Vienna Austria

Hi friends and family!

Well a few weeks have gone by without me being able to give an update on what is going on with me so I thought I would take the time to write a little. The past few weeks have been really great! This past week was transfer week and out of the 12 companionships in our Zone, only two of them stayed together. That means that we had lots of people leave and lots of new people come to the zone! Two of which was Goldens so they are brand new to the mission! It is always funny/nice to see them so pure and innocent not yet being perverted by Babylon(Europe). Elder Hale and I are excited to stay together for my last transfer! I will be the third mission he's "killed" so he's good at it by now. It is only a five week transfer too so it will go by faster than the others. We just started week two this week so we need to be careful!

Well the work in our area has been tricky the past few weeks. A lot of the people we were meeting with have moved to other parts of the city so we had to give them to other missionaries, or they dropped us which is sad:( But, we are hear the find the find who are ready to except the gospel! We has been praying really hard to find out where we should go to find these people. Just talking with people on the street can be tricky. So this week a young member family invited us over for dinner and we decided to go Dooring where they live cause we had never been there before. We showed up and it is a really huge new development outside of the main city. It is full of huge apartment buildings with just young families! It was awesome! No old people! I love old people but sometimes they are not the most open. So basically we only got the door half of one of the buildings because we talked to

so many people! We met some way cool young families that want us to come back this week. We are really happy because we think that we can find more people at this place to teach. We will see!

We have some really cool events coming up this transfer. This week we are going to Munich again for a conference with President Kohler. It is always a great spiritual time to be taught by him! Plus it's fun to take the train 6 hours through beautiful Austrian/German mountains and country side. Wow I will miss that! Next week we have Zone conference is Salzburg too which is always fun! It will be a little weird cause I have to give my dying testimony! I'm sure other missions do this but at your last zone meeting they ask the missionaries that are going home to share their testimonies with everyone. Should be interesting:/ Also in less than a month the Mormon Tabernacle Choir will be in Vienna which should be awesome! Should be a fun way to spend my last Sunday night on the mission!

Well, that's my update! I'm really grateful to have a month left to serve the Lord. I hope that I can make this the best month of my mission! I have really learned so much about myself and the gospel

these past two years and I hope I can keep the same pace I have been going out for the past two years. Thank you for all your prayers and support. I love you all!

Best regards,

Elder Lyman

Vienna Austria

Hello friends and family!

I know I'm so bad at writing weekly letters but I have finally found the time. Well, to start I must say how great it was to Skype my family on mothers Day! It was weird a little but overall it was a

really enjoyable time.

Some really cool things have been happening with the people we are working with. Just two weeks ago, we were walking to our bishops house on a Sunday afternoon for dinner had we had a little extra time so we deciding to talk to people on the way. We stopped an older looking guy and asked him what it meant to find truth in this life. We had a great conversation and we gave us his phone number and told us to call. Since then, we have met twice and he came to church this last Sunday. He is a pretty religious guy and he seems to like everything we teach! He's cool!

Recently another one of our investigators has been making great progress. I don't know if I have talked too much about her. She is a mom of 6 kids and he husband is way cool. She got to know the church through friends a long time ago, but has been meeting with the Elders regularly for the past year I would say. At first, she did not really have a religious background besides being Catholic which means nothing to people here. She comes to church every week with her husband and her kids! She has now gotten to the point where she knows the church is true and she just needs to make the decision to get baptized. She even got all the church kid Manuals so she can teach her kids the gospel. Haha kind of funny.

Things are going really good with my new companion Elder Hale. He is a super nice guy and a hard worker. We are working hard to make progress in our area but to also help all the other missionaries in our zone to be motivated and to be happy! I know two months is not a very long time but I am trying to work my hardest and smartest. I'm very happy with where I'm at right now and the progress I've made over the past while.

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Lyman

Baptism!

Vienna Austria

Baptism In Vienna!

Vienna Austria

Hi friends and Family!

To answer all of your questions, I am doing great! Life is Vienna is

still going strong and we are enjoying every day! Some big events have

happened in the past so I will do my best to fill you all in!

Last Friday, our good friend Nikos got baptized! After 28 long years

of coming to church, he did it! It was really cool to see his son who

was on his mission in Greece baptize him. More people were at the

baptism than Easter Sunday! It was a great experience and I'm so

happy/grateful/lucky to be apart of it!

Yesterday was a great Easter Sunday! It was probably the best day of

the year so far. It was really warm, sunny, so the perfect day for

Allie to get baptized! Most of you probably remember, but we met Allie

about 3 months ago on Mariahilfer Strasse which is one of the biggest

and most popular shopping streets in Vienna. It was a total miracle

and we knew the Lord put her in our way. Since then, we have been

teaching her and three weeks into our teachings, we made Easter Sunday

as the goal for her to get baptized(we didn't realize it was Easter

Sunday when we made the goal). The weeks went by and she made tons of

progress and made more and more friends with the many YSA people in

Vienna. And yesterday it happened. We are so happy and proud of her

and we know she is going to be a great member.

After our two main investigators got baptized, we needed some new

people to teach! Needed to find new people because everyone else got

baptized is not the worst problem to have, but teaching is always the

best thing to be doing. We have been trying to work with ward members

to find some new people to teach through the ward. We also do a good

amount of Dooring of the many apartments around our house. I think the

best finding is done just on the street. There are enough people

around that we walk out side and there are people everywhere who we

have never talked too! It's fun!

The best part of this week for me was celebrating Easter. It is always

such a nice break to stop and rethink was the life of Christ means to

us personally. I find my self worrying about other people to much on

my mission, that I made it a goal to focus on how I can receive new

life everyday through Jesus Christ. At the end of the day, that is the

main point. Christ has given us all the chance to receive new life

everyday through his Atonement. We may not be able to see or describe

the "Atonement", but it's cleansing and healing/loving power is

something we can feel in our hearts. I have had a few experiences on

my mission where I have felt this infinite love and I know it comes

from Christ. I'm grateful for these experiences and hope you will all

continue to find new life in Christ.

Much Love,

Elder Lyman

Vienna, Austria Pictures

Vienna Austria Week 14

Vienna Austria Week 11

Grüß euch!

Well I have been wanting to write a group update letter for a while but I have not had my full email time in a while. 

VIENNA is still the coolest. The ward is awesome! Full of young cool people that love doing missionary work. We are able to work with them really well. For example, 12/20 lessons this last week were with "a member present" so basically with a member there for the lesson. I don't know is that's good in other missions, but it's pretty high here to have 12. For sure the most I have ever had. All the people we teach feel loved and welcome in the ward which is so important. 

So, after today we have 3 planned Baptisms in the month of March! I would love to explain a little about who there are and how they are doing.

Nikos Antonopoulos:

We are actually in the train right now to his house to teach him. We are just going through the lessons another time so he can be ready. Haha ok now I'm in the train coming home from the lesson. We meet each time at there house after we have dinner with them with his wife and our ward mission leader. His date is the 19th of March and we are confident that he is going to make it. He had to stop smoking to get baptized but is doing great. Has not smoked in 1 month after giving up cold turkey. 

Allie: 

Maybe you remember hearing about how we found her. We just stopped her on this really busy street and talked with her. Found out members of her family are members and that she had gone to church a few times. Ever since then we have been meeting with her and she has totally excepted the gospel. She has tons of friends in the ward and is scheduled to get baptized on the 27th or March! Yay! 

Katharina: 

This story is a long story. So Katharina is a 23 year old student who grew up in Vienna. She first got to know the church 1 year ago from a really famous blogger who is a member from New York City. She has been meeting with the Elders for the past 10 months or so but really made lots of progress right before I got to Vienna. Ever since I got to Wien, she kind of started slowing down. She stopped coming to church, reading, and things slowly went down hill. Her doubts overtook her faith. She dropped us hard core 4 weeks ago and told us it was not for her and that she would never join the church...yet here we are. A really awesome sister Missionary in Vienna who is a convert. She helped her spark her faith again. She started reading the Book of Mormon again and doing the small things. She got back from a trip in Rome Yesterday and asked if we could meet today. When we met with us she told us that she wanted to be baptized NEXT WEEK!  So ya she is getting baptized next Sunday. Pretty big miracle and we are soooo pumped for her. More info yet to come!

That's my life! Love you all! 

Elder Lyman 

Vienna Austria Week 10

Vienna Austria Week 9

Vienna Austria Week 8

Hey Family,

This week was full of cool things and miracles. I would love to share some with you!

Last Monday night, we had dinner with this couple in the ward. Brother and Sister Antanopolas. She has been a member for 24 years and the husband has known the church the whole time, but he never got baptized. For the past 24 years he has been a "eternal investigator".  He had heard all the missionary lessons hundreds of times, come to church for the past 24 years, and even had a calling. He asked us if we had prepared a spiritual thought after dinner. We said yes, then he mentioned that he had prepared something to share as well. We insisted that he go first, which he did. He said that we had been thinking about getting baptized for the  past 24 years, but that he had finally made the decision. He told us he already picked out s date in March with the Bishop, and that now he just needed us to go through everything one more time then we could get in the water! It was so crazy! We did not really except it, but we did not complain! It is really true that everyone has there own timing. The best part was to see the tears of incredible joy in his wife's eyes, who I'm sure was

waiting for this answer to her prayers for a long 24 years:)

2 weeks ago, Elder Mitchell and I went to a car show in Vienna. While we were there, we got to know a very nice young girl who was working there at the Mercedes Benz section. She was one of the info models in theory, (she was drop dead gorgeous if I dare add). She asked us what we were doing here and naturally we started talking about the church and The Book of Mormon came up. She invited to come to her families bible study hour the next week because she comes from a family of 7th day Adventist. We were beyond giddy as school boys to get her number, and of course to come to the study hour. We dropped by this past Friday, to meet her family, that included her Identical twin Sister! It was soooooo awesome! We had a great gospel discussion and talked slot about the Book of Mormon. They are going to start reading. We will see what comes from it.

Last night Elder Mitchell and I decided to go Dooring instead of doing studies after church even though our mission President told us we should do studies first. Call us "rebels". We just started walking around until we made it to a apartment building we both thought was the right one. We footed for 2 hours and got some potentials, but nothing crazy. Like always, we came to the Last door and a young mother answered the door with a cute young girl in her arms. We talked about the purpose of life as families with her on the door then she invited us in. We talked with her and her husband about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how it was restored to the earth. They could not have

agreed more, cause they feel like there current Christian faith is just not complete. We had a great first lesson and thy invited us back later in the week. At this point on my mission, I can tell when people are prepared to hear the gospel, and they are. It was such a testimony builder that I am truly a tool in the Lords hands and if we listen to the spirit, he will lead us to his prepared children.

I love you all and hope and pray that we can all continue to use this amazing gospel we were born with. We have no idea how lucky we are.

Much Love,

Elder Lyman

Vienna Austria Week 7

Vienna Austria Week 6

Vienna Austria Week 5

Vienna Austria Week 4