Linz Austria Week 6

Hello friends and family! Its me again. Another great week in the mission field. We had transfer calls this week and found out that Elder Spencer and I will be staying together for another transfer! He only has one more after this one so maybe I will "kill him" here in Linz! I do not really want to because I got really "trunky" when Elder Kingery went home, but who knows what will happen? I was actually sick most of this week with a cold so that was a bummer. We had to stay in the flat for one full day. I am feeling much better now, which is good! 

I would like to tell a story this week just to spice things up a little and add some length to my "short, dry" weekly letter -- whatever that means?  A funny thing happened this week which pretty much reflects how my mission has been going so far.  We got a call from a guy who joined the church here in Linz back in 2012.  He then left the church  a year later to become a Muslim (kind of weird i know).  Anyway, he called us and told us that he heard a voice telling him to go back to the Church. He said he wanted to meet with us so that he could be re-baptized because he had his membership removed.  Of course we went over and had a great lesson with him.  We were super excited for him to come back to the Church!  He described the feelings he had as we met with him as "coming home” — so he sounded pretty golden to us!  We were really happy and excited!  This is when the story gets interesting.....The next day we woke up and we had a voicemail from him saying basically he had NO INTEREST in coming back to the Church and he wanted NO CONTACT with us for the rest of his life!  He literally said, "I never want to see you again!" Anyway we were obviously sad — but got over it.  The mission will definitely throw you a curve ball every once in a while!

Well there it is. A story. Take it for what it’s worth. We have a few solid appointments this week with some new people. Hopefully I will be able to report next week our progress with these new investigators!

For P-day today, we rode this little train up to this really sick old church on a mountain here in Linz. It was super cool!  Pöstling Berd is what it is called. Maybe you can google it. Anyway we went up there with some people in the district and it was awesome. It has a great view over all of Linz, so that was cool.

Well, that is it people. We are enjoying ourselves here and working hard. I hope everyone back home has a great week!

Shöne Woche und viel Spaß!

Elder Lyman

Linz Austria Week 5

Hi friends and family! This week has been just great here in Linz! 

First, we had a super cool mission conference in Munichl!   We all piled into a rail jet train and headed to Germany.  About 60% of the mission was there.  Elder Kearon from the Seventy was our presiding authority and spoke to us. It was amazing!  He is a really great guy.  It was also nice to see a lot of the missionary friends that I have not seen in a while.  It seems that when you first come on a mission, you obviously don't know anybody -- but as time goes by, you leave with so many cool friends! It is kind of amazing to see that! Anyway, that was the big highlight from the week.

Today we had a cool district P-day as well.  We all went to Wels, Austria which is only about a 15 minute train ride from Linz -- and we went bowling! It was really fun! It reminded of all the times I went bowling with all my pals back home! We have district meeting tomorrow back in Wels and we are going to this really good schnitzel place.  We’re celebrating that an Elder in our district is dying this transfer.  (That just means he is going home.)  Somehow I got roped into paying for it because I have some extra money for the month. I guess that is what I get for having a big mouth about how much money I have.

We did not do to much teaching this week. We have a lot of investigators but it is just hard for them to find time to meet with us. We just need to keep working hard to find new people to teach. Actually one cool thing happened today — on our way back from Wels, the guy next to me was wearing a jacket and it had a patch on it that said something about the Rocky Mountains and SLC. I asked him if he had ever been to SLC and he didn’t even know where it was.   Anyway, I ended up giving him some stuff about the Church in Linz, so maybe something will come from that?   It was just nice to talk with someone.

Other than that, it is just same old!  We are just going to keep plugging along -- working hard!   Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers for me!   Love you all!

Shöne Woche,

Elder Lyman 

Linz Austria Week 4

I love this little fire place!

We are getting so much snow!!

Gettin my Harry Potter on!!

Cool new ties for 3 euros each!!

Hallo everyone! I 'm afraid this weekly letter will be rather short because my family had taken most of my time to email.  Anyway this was however a fantastic week here in Linz!  It is snowing like crazy here and has been all week!  It can be really pretty at times,but I'm ready for it to be warm again! 

This week we found some new cool people to teach!  One little thing that happened was this really cool young guy just showed up to church wanting to learn more about the Mormons!  Normally when that happens they are homeless or really drunk and he was neither!  He was normal!  He came to the investigator class after sacrament meeting and then we talked about the restoration with him 3rd hour!  It was really cool!  It kind of shows that the Lord will send the people he had prepared right to you!  We are going to meet with him again later this week so that should be really great!  His name is Andreas if you want to pray for him!

We also did some more service for a less active man in the ward which was fun!  Same person as last week.  We are taking out these really tough steel door frames with a jack hammer which is really fun! I'm really sore though.  He has been coming to church as well which is really great!  He even said we could come over and talk to his non-member wife about the church! 

Well that is about all this week folks.  I'm living the dream here in Austria!  God bless you all!

Shöne Woche,

Elder Lyman

Linz Austria Week 3

H&M Selfies

Our Bahn Stop

Hallo friends and family!

Another great week in Linz down!  This week went by really fast for me.  It have been snowing a lot this week which has been nice.  It is really pretty here when it snows but I am ready for an early spring so I can break out the short sleeve shirts for sure! 

Something cool that we did this week was help a less active member of the ward with a house that he is fixing up!  It is a classic swiss looking house up in the mountains and it is so pretty up there!  He is basically tearing up the whole house and and making it brand new.  We broke up a lot of the cement floors and removed it all!  We also moved a lot of fire wood that he had and stuff like that.  It was really fun!  We were there for almost a whole day so I am kind of sore but he actually came to church yesterday so it was a win win! 

Something that will be great this week is that I get to go back to Salzburg for the day! We have interviews with President Kohler so that will be fun!  It will be nice to get back to my home base for a day and see some old friends! 

The work is going better in Linz every week!  The Elders had a really cool African investigator from Ghana before I got here but we have not been able to get in contact with so I have been fasting to have contact with all of our investigators this week.  It was really cool because he just randomly showed up at church on Sunday!  It was just a little tender mercy reminding me that the Lord has my back when I need Him!  That was nice to see!

Well hopefully this next week brings some new adventures to share!  Have a great week everyone!

Elder Lyman

Linz Austria Week 2

Dear Family,

Well . . . I'm just about settled into my new area of Linz Austria and I really do love it here!  It has taken some getting used too but I think that I am really going to enjoy my time here.  This week has consisted of nothing too out of the ordinary.  My friends keep asking me if I have had any bad food experiences and I had not . . . until this week.  Long story short, there is a "friend of the church" here and he invited us over to his house for lunch - which made me a little nervous.  When we showed up, things were not smelling too good.  We sat down and I could see him putting something onto our plates in the kitchen that looked like wet dirt.  When he brought it to us he said that we would be having blütworst or blood worst and it is exactly what it sounds like.  Sausage with blood in it.  Like its 80% blood!!  You will need to look it up and put a picture on the blog to fully understand it.  It was so gross!!  Then . . . he pulled some pickled fish fillets out of a jar and I will admit that I'm not very proud of what I did next.  That being said, I don't regret it at all!  I politely told him that I have a fish allergy (which is not true) and that I wish I could try it - but I couldn't.  So . . . he gave it all to my companion who was able to enjoy a "double portion"!!  Anyway . . . that is my gross food story.

We have found a lot of new investigators this week which has been nice!  The work is going really well here in Linz and the ward does a great job of supporting the missionaries.  Other that that it is really just same old same old!  I really love Linz and my mission as a whole!  This week is kind of crazy for me because I will hit my six month mark!  Time is really starting to fly by!  That being said it feels like it has been a while since I have seen all my loved ones.  I have learned more about myself these last six months than any other time in my whole life.  I have also learned more about our Savior Jesus Christ.  If there is one thing I know for sure it is that He is our Savior and His plan is perfect and he is the WAY THE TRUTH AND THE LIGHT!

I love you all and God bless you!

Shöne Woche,

Elder Lyman

Hello Linz! Week 1

Hallo from Linz Austria!

Well these first few days in Linz have been very . . . interesting!  It feels so strange to not be in Salzburg anymore!  It is weird be in a city that I don't know, with a new companion that I don't know and it's just the two of us.  It is going to take some getting used to.  I am used to living with an apartment full of missionaries.  

From what I have seen so far, Linz is a great city.  There are some cool old churches and stuff like that.  I didn't get to take very many pictures this week but I promise to take some next week.

The ward here in Linz is great.  It is the largest ward in Austria which will hopefully have some advantages.  The members of the local ward are very important to missionary work so I'm lucky to have another good one.  My companion and I are getting along great.  Elder Spencer is from . . .  Lehi Utah! He is really chill and easy to get a long with.  We are teaching a couple of people right now but I haven't met them yet.   Hopefully I will get the chance this week.  

I'll be honest that leaving my first golden area and trainer is really hard but I'm glad to be here in Linz for a new adventure!  Whenever the work is hard or I get discouraged I know that I can turn to the Lord for help!  That is always constant!  I love you all back home and hope to hear from you all soon!

Shöne Woche,

Elder Lyman

My new address is:

Elder Matthew Lyman
Hasner Strasse 36/6/21

Linz, Austria

Last Week in Salzburg!

Sometimes I wear lederhosen in my room . . . 

just for fun. 

Hello friends and family! 

I hope that everyone is doing well back home.  Let's start with the big news that I have!  On Saturday I got the transfer call and they said that I will need to pack my bags and head up to Linz Austria! WaHoo!!  So Linz is a pretty big town in the northern part of Austria.  It is not as big as Salzburg but thats ok!  I have actually been there once for a Stake Priesthood Meeting.  I am really excited to serve there! They have the biggest ward in Austria which will be great.  I will be working with my new companion named Elder Spencer.  He is from Lehi Utah!  Linz is in the same Zone that I'm in right now so I have actually met him before at Zone training.  He is a great guy and it will be great to work with him.  I will send lots of pictures home next week of the new area.

Because I'm getting transferred and Elder Kingery is going home, the Salzburg two area is CLOSED! The Zone Leaders will start teaching our investigators which will be great because we know they will take good care of them.  We had our last lesson with a lot of them this week to say goodbye.  It was hard but I know that they are in good hands.  It will be a good test to see if they are really investigating the church for the right reasons or just hanging out with us because I'm extremely good looking and personable.  It will be good for them! (hehe)

My district also had a surprise birthday party for me on my birthday which was quit nice.  I will make sure to include pictures of the gang on my B-day!

This week will be one of goodbyes and packing.  It looks like this is GOODBYE SALZBURG!  Until zone conference in one month . . . . I am happy I will get to come back and visit.  I have loved it here!

Shöne Woche!!

Elder Lyman