Munich Germany Week 5

The twins!!

Hi every one!

This has been a crazy week!

So this week has been really, really busy. The thing that is going on in my mission right now that is making it really busy are all of the zone conferences.  Normally that is not a problem but because this week we have to hand out all of the iPads to all of the missionaries my other two companions Elder Plumb and Elder Pingel had to go with President Kohler to help distribute all of them. They are kind of the iPad gurus. They have been on the road all week in Austria and Switzerland so that leaves me and Elder Evans behind in the office to do our job and their jobs as well.  They handle all of the

transportation with cars and bikes and stuff like that.  I know that it is not the most interesting thing to talk about in my weekly letter but that is basically my life right now. This week was also busy for

Elder Evans and I because we got the transfer plan for next transfer.  Basically what that is is a list of all of the current missionaries in their current areas and a new list of where all of the missionaries

that are being transferred are going to. Basically we use these papers to create a transfer map of the whole mission. Once we have done that we have to figure out all of the train times and bus times for all of the missionaries from their old area to their new area for about 250 missionaries. That takes a lot of time and work for us. That is probably the hardest part of our job is organizing all of the

transfers. Well I know how interesting it is to read about my office work but I can probably find something else to talk about.

As for investigators the main people that we are focusing on right now are Andrew and Rebecca who are getting baptized on July 5. They are still making really incredible progress and are more excited than ever to be baptized! Something cool this week is when we showed up to our appointment and they told us they had finished the book of Mormon!  I have never seen anybody read the book of Mormon so fast on my mission.  Not only are they reading the book of Mormon incredibly fast but they are really learning a lot from it and understanding the principles that are taught in it.  It has really been a testimony builder to me that the book of Mormon is true and because the book of Mormon is true, the rest of the church is true as well.  It really is the cornerstone of our religion that holds all the other pieces together and I don't know if I have seen other people that I have taught figure that out yet on my mission so this has been a really great experience for me.

One sad thing I found our this week when we got our transfer calls if that Elder Plumb who is one of my best friends on the mission and has been serving with me in the office, is being transferred after only been here for one transfer. The cool part is that he's actually going to Linz Austria which was my last area! He will get to go around my old stomping grounds and work with some of the people that I was working with before I left! We are really excited for that. Our new companion that is coming is named Elder Samuelson. I have never met him before but I'm sure he will be a great addition to the office staff.

Well family that is about it! I really do love working here in the Mission Office especially Munich because it is such a great City!

Alles Gute aus München!

Schöne Woche,

Elder Lyman

Munich Germany Week 4

Hallo my sweet friends and family!

We had an amazing week this week!

Well as far as the highlights of the week go, we started to plan the baptism for Andrew and Rebecca! It is going to be on Saturday the 27 of this month! We are all so excited for them! They love the church so much and are so excited to get baptized! It has been so amazing to see the light of the gospel enter into there family's life and change them! I have really not seen it with too many people on my mission so I am really excited for them! I still love working in the office and especially in Munich. It has taken some getting used to but now I feel like I have learned a lot and I am ready to go! For a while it felt like I was a brand new missionary having to re-learn everything! We have been really busy this week too with the iPads! Basically we have to get them all ready to get handed out to all the missionaries! We take them out of the box and put the screen protector on and them put them bake in the box! It is not the most entertaining thing but I guess somebody has got to do it! 

Pday- We had a pretty cool pday today! Every saturday a bunch of people from the ward meet at this really big park in the morning and play American Football which is really fun! I think today there were 10 people that are not members of the church who came which was really cool! It is fun to get out and play with people in the ward! After that we went to this really famous concentration camp called Dachau. It is actually the fist camp ever to be made.  It was very interesting but sad at the same time. It was for sure a great experience to learn more about the History of that stuff. There was just a huge museum and stuff like that. I will try to send some pics home that I took!

Well that is about all from me this week! I am really enjoying my mission right now and I'm so happy to be hear doing the Lords work! It can be hard but I have never been this happy before! I love and miss you all and hope you have a great week!

Schöne Woche,

Elder Lyman 

Munich Germany Week 3

Hi friends and family who read my letters!

This week has been full of great things! I will try to divide it up a little so that it is a little more clear!

Highlights- Probably one of the biggest highlights of the week is that our mission finally got our iPads in the mail! We have been anxiously waiting for the past month or so and they finally came! Since I'm working in the office I am one of the first missionaries to use them! Well I'm one of 6 Elders in the whole mission that can use them. The other missionaries will get them within the next few weeks at Zone Conferences and stuff so right now the Office Elders and AP´s are kind of the testers! They are really cool and nice to have! 

We had Stake Conference this week in the stake Munich which was really cool! The best part was that President Kearon the area president was there! He is the greatest guy ever! He gave some amazing talks but the coolest was how he just loves to be a total bro with the missionaries! He is just a way cool guy!

Investigators - Right now we have some really cool investigators! The main ones are a family of 6 from Nigeria! Andrew and Rebecca and they have four daughter all under the age of four! We have been teaching them for the past 3 weeks or so and they are progressing so fast! They are super ready to hear the gospel and become members! They are going to be baptized in about 3 weeks! We are really excited for them! We are actually teaching a bunch of people from Africa right now! They are very spiritual people and all speak english which is important because we go to the international ward here in Munich! So we are pretty busy teaching as well!

PDay - Today we have a great Pday! We started with kind of shopping around Marien Platz which is a really famous street in Munich with all these stores!  There for like 5 H&Ms so its pretty great. I usually give my wallet to my comp so I don't spend all my money. We then went to the BMW World here in Munich! That was way cool! There are a ton of amazing cars and motorcycles so that was amazing! Then we went to the Olympain stadium where they had the Olympics a few years ago which was really cool! Munich is a pretty amazing place and there is a lot to do! We are trying to do as much cool stuff as we can!

Well I hope that everyone at home is doing well and has a great week! I hope to hear from you all soon!

Love,

Elder Lyman 

Munich Germany Week 2

Hallo!!

This has been a crazy week to be an office Elder! So we have been really busy making the transfer plans for all of the missionaries that are going to a new area. That involved a lot of train times and tickets and stuff like that. After we had worked on it all week and had it finished we got news the day before transfers that the German train company Deutsche Bahn was striking! That means that none of the trains were going to be running! That was the worst thing that could have happened! We scrambled to put together a new plan using buses and not trains which is really hard just because our mission is so big! After many hours we finally got a plan but together that would work. Then come transfer day some of the bus companies would not let us use their buses because the missionaries had to much luggage! It was very stressful but we somehow made it all work! I'm glad the next transfer is not for another five weeks!

As far as teaching goes, we are teaching a lot of cool people right now! The highlight family of our investigators are this couple named Andrew and Rebecca! They are a really cool family from Nigeria! They have four daughters that are all under the age of four! They have come to church twice now as a family! They are really amazing people! We met with them today and they decided that they want to be baptized! They will be baptized in about a month! We are really excited for them! I hope everything continues to go well with them! Put them in your prayers!

One other cool thing that happended this week is that one of by best friends Elder Plumb got transfered to work in the office! it has been so fun getting to work with him! We are two peas in a pod! 

Im loving the Muncih international ward! It is full of cool people from all over the world! We have had tons of A&W root beet at appointments which is sooo cool! it is always a taste of America! 

Well that is about it. Im really happy with things right now for sure! I hope this next week is as cool as this one was!

Much love,

Elder Lyman

Munich Germany Week 1

Hi everyone!

Well this week has been a great first week in my new area! I really love working in Munich I must say! It is a really amazing city! I must also say that I'm really enjoying working in the office! I did not think that I would like it as much as I do! 

So as far as office work goes, Elder Evans my comp and I are in charge of the money and travel tickets for all of the missionaries! We have some other responsibility but those are the big ones! Our mission has a lot of missionaries and is HUGE so it can be a lot of work! We are been really busy this week especially because it is transfer week next week! That means that we have to make this huge transfer map with all the missionaries that are getting transfered to a new area. We then have to plan all the travel for them like which train to take, time and all that stuff. There are 250 missionaries in the mission right now so it is a lot of work! that had taken most of the time from us this week! That being said, we have a good amount of time to go outside and do normal missionary work! We have some really cool investigators right now that we are working with so we are busy with that as well!

Our ward is super cool as well! We serve in the international ward which is awesome! There are a lot of Americans and people from all over the world that are here with there families for work. That makes up most of the people. there are also a lot of new members that live here that are from African and speak only English that come to our ward. it is really different but really cool! I get to give my first talk in church tomorrow so that should be fun! I will let you know how it goes!

i have not seen toooo much of Munich yet but we are going to go look around the city right now and go shopping and stuff like that! i will take some cool pics and send them home tonight when we get back!

Have a great week everyone! I hope to hear from you all soon!

Elder Lyman

Happy Mothers Day!!

Linz Austria Week 16

Well . . . HOLY COW is about all that I can say to sum up this week!

Well I'll start with the big stuff first. Instead of being in Linz right now I'm in MUNICH!!!! Yep I'm serving in Munich as of now! You might be wondering why, but I got a call from one of the APs on Thursday telling me that I was going to be emergency transferred to the office in Munich! So I had one day to pack up all of my stuff and say goodbye to as many people in the ward as possible! It was so crazy! I spent all day yesterday packing and I got on a train this morning and came here! It has been really crazy! I am working in the office and will probably stay here for a while. There was once an office Elder that stayed here for almost a whole year.  My new comp is Elder Evans. We know each other already because we were in the same district in Salzburg for two transfers! He is a really cool guy! He is training me to be the new office guy so we have lots to do! 

Well to be honest I really can't remember what I did earlier this week! I had a exchange with an elder in my district on Wednesday and that is when I found out I was getting emergency transferred! After I found out that I was getting transferred I called the ward mission leader in our ward to say goodbye. We met up yesterday and he took us around Linz and showed us some really cool stuff I had never seen! I will say that Linz was a lot cooler than I thought.  It was really fun! Last night we got to say goodbye to one of my favorite members Brother Ivanoski! He is the less active that we do service for at his house! We had dinner with him and his wife and they gave me a bunch of gifts! They are really cool! Other than that this week has been basically a blur! 

Well I'm not sure what else to say. I'm happy to be here in Munich and in the office! It will take some serious getting used to, but I am going to do my best.  Hopefully next week I will be able to give you a better report on things here in Munich!

Have a great week everyone! Oh and my Pday is now on Saturday so email me before then!

Love,

Elder Lyman