Two months. What?

FYI - We received a message from Lyndsay's mission president this morning letting us know that, even though they had experienced heavy rain, wind and some power outages in the area due to Sandy, all of the missionaries there were safe and accounted for.  Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts for Lyndsay's well being.

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Okay! Hi! 

Two months. What? How did that happen? Crazy. We are doing our best to stay safe and dry and warm here...as a matter of fact, I'm wearing my wellies right now :)

You had snow!? Man. How exciting. We're supposed to get some soon I think. We don't get to watch the weather or anything...we just know what people hear and pass on to us. haha. we have heard about Hurricane Sandy though...this will be an adventure! We're in the midst of preparations, so don't worry. They'll take good care of us :)

Okay. Questions/answers. The johnson farm is a separate assignment since it's about 45 minutes away--so if i ever get called there, i'll move to the apartment down in hiram and work there for the whole transfer. but right now, i live in a house on the grounds of the VC--so it's about 2 minutes to sites. we live with one other companionship, so there are 4 of us in the house. and it is so fun. Sister Gamble and Sister Goodman are the others who live with us, and they are so fun. we have companion study together every morning for the first part of the hour, and we always find something to laugh about. they are the best. :) Sister Gamble's favorite color is purple, and she has purple everything...purple, purple! haha :) Also, it's the perfect group for me, because they all like to sing/listen to Christmas music. That's definitely already been happening at our house. We even got a head start before Halloween! Aren't you proud? :) 

When we're at sites, we exercise til 7, shower and get ready, study from 8-10, and then go to sites for the day. At sites, we either give tours, make calls in the call center, or take a shift being on mormon.org for chat. When I first got here, i hated the idea of making calls to people i'd never met. But it's actually kind of fun. we get to talk to some really great people. As for tours, the full tour takes about 2 hours. we start at the Whitney store, take them through all the rooms there, then take them through the Whitney home, the Johnson Inn, and the Sawmill and Ashery. I wish I had time to go through everything we teach during tour--because it's all great! someday i'll write it down and send it to you. :) 

We're in our area about every other day and sites the rest. We're in the Chardon Branch, and we have President Draper--what's Tanner's uncle's name? I'll ask around and figure out which ward he's in. We do have dinner appointments a lot of the time. And the members always give us a lot of food to take home. Free food is the best, right? They are so generous to take care of us like that. And free is my favorite number! Smiley face. 

I did get to play my flute a few weeks ago...and hopefully i'll have time again today to play for a bit! I love it. AND we get to participate in an inter-faith choir that's doing a Christmas benefit concert in December. God is so good :) Our conductor kind of reminds me of the guy from our PHS NYC tour--what was his name? But still nothing like Coach--i'm so spoiled :) I love being able to sing again though! I am so grateful for the opportunity. Pray that we will have lots of missionary opportunities there!

There are 8 missionaries in my district, and...a lot more in my zone. I don't know how many exactly. Our district is the Perry District, and we have the Perry Elders, the Painsville Sisters, the West chardon Sisters, and the Chardon sisters (us). Elder Hansen is our district leader right now, and he is great. He is always so inspired and comes up with the perfect things to help us.

The jam is purrrrfect. :) I'm so glad to have it! And I ate up the last of the muffins the other day--they were so good! I'll have to find that recipe and make some more :) 

OH here's some exciting news. Turns out that I know about half of Fiona's family. Haha. I went to high school with her cousins Nate and Caitlyn Perkins--Caitlyn was in Jazz Band with me and played bass. remember? I think just my soph year. She was fabulous though. And of course I know Henry--Fiona is excited/sad for him to go the MTC tomorrow. Funny ol' world, isn't it. So many people, yet so small. but the exciting news is that we visited with Fiona yesterday, and she finally decided to try coming back to church with us on Sunday! SO excited. This is a big, big step for her. I love her so much and hope that by the time Sunday comes around, she still feels like going. Prayers please? Thanks much :)

President Dahneke is a counselor to our stake president, I believe. He's a cool guy. And he looks so much like Scott!

Ohh man. I wish I could have been there to hear the Gruppmans play!! [Igor and Vesna Gruppman, violinists] Tell them thank you so much for their kind words. I love them so much! I am so grateful for the chance I had to see them on tour and then to play with them and get to know them better at the Lyceum camp. I am so impressed and humbled by their own humility and faith--they are such incredibly gifted musicians who have put their whole lives into perfecting their music--and yet they always seek to use their talents to glorify and give thanks to and praise our Heavenly Father. I love them!

Some favorite quotes from the week:

"The secret to having it all is believing that you do."

"We are each of angels with only one wing and can only fly embracing each other." --Luciano de Crescenzo

I went on exchanges with my great grandma on Saturday (my trainer's trainer's trainer)--Sister Esser. She served in chardon last year, and we went back and visited a bunch of her former investigators. It was great, and we have a bunch of appointments from it. yay! One of those appointments is for thursday with a 13 year-old girl named Tierra and her younger siblings. We're trying to think of good object lessons to help us teach them the lessons from pmg--namely, the restoration and the plan of salvation. Any ideas? I'd love to hear any and all of them. 

We visited a member last week, Sister Eging, who has 8 kids at home at the moment. 4 are adopted and 4 are foster kids--and she's fostered something like 25 kids total in her life. What a wonder woman! I was so awed by her patience and love and cheerful outlook on life. she is so busy and has so much going on--and yet she's able to keep a smile on her face and laugh as the house is torn apart by all the little kids. She told us that it's no good to get worked up over the things you can't control--so she just laughs about it. i've heard that a million times before but this was the principle in action. She's incredible! We each want to be her when we grow up. :)

I'm going to end for now so I can try to send some pictures! Love you!!

Love,

Sister Lyndsay Wygant 

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Sister Wygant and her companion Sister Ellsworth

Things are good here

Hi mama,

Things are good here. …. I saw an announcement on mormon newsroom the other day that ALFIE BOE is doing the MoTab Christmas concert this year!!!!!! You have NO idea how jealous I am! (Alfie Boe is the one who sang the part of Jean Valjean in the 25th anniversary Les Mis concert). That is so so so so exciting. Maybe it's a good thing that i won't be around for it...else I would be sorely tempted to go and start camping out right now for tickets! If you get a chance, please go for me! I have no doubt that it will be a SPECTACULAR concert. Hopefully it will be posted to lds.org so that I can catch a bit of it eventually. And if a cd ever comes out, you know that I want the first one :) Also, I'm slightly-super-really jealous of all my friends playing in OTS this season. Best perk ever? I think definitely (that's you, Joshie! You lucky duck!)

Whaaaat. Yaaaaaaay Luke is finally engaged!!! Oh I am just so excited for him. I'd better get an announcement!! Tell him and all the Rowleys congrats for me :)

Oh man. I'm so bummed that fiona didn't come to church :( thank you for going to meet her and talk with her though! I'm sure you see just how wonderful she is and also how much her trials have affected her. It is so hard for her...but we will keep trying. Thank you for talking with her and for sharing those ideas. We will definitely keep visiting her.

Thanks for giving that letter to Andrew. I have his other address somewhere, but i didn't have it on me at the time and figured that sending it home would work too :) Thanks also for the recipes! Our p-days are always so busy but hopefully i will get to try some of them soon.

We are still doing a lot of finding in Chardon--no new investigators yet. it is a little frustrating that no one wants to listen to us, but as Brother Dopp told us in the MTC, "More people will tell you no than yes. If that's not the case, you aren't asking enough people." Ha. so we'll just keeping asking a lot of people and hopefully someone will be interested eventually :)

Our days at the VC are always fun but so busy. we give tours whenever someone comes in--which could be in the middle of lunch or study time or anything else. always on our toes, we are. :) If we're not on tour, we make calls or go on chat at assigned times. I can't wait for you guys to come and take a tour here. It is the best. I learn something new every time. :)

Also, I met Scott Dahneke's uncle yesterday (Scott and I went to phs together, he and Amy dated for a bit, and he is Sister Bell's relative--grandson? I think.) Small world.

Random request: on my old blog at some point I posted a poem that talks about "if thou couldst empty thyself of self". Could you look for it and send it to me? I'd like to use it. Thanks!

Favorite quotes/ideas from the week:

*From Malena's letter a bit ago: "Lucifer is our brother. who knows us better than our siblings? he knows how to get under our skin and push our buttons. he doesn't have the veil to make him forget us. when he uses the one thing that can make you falter, get on your knees and tattle on him! Just like growing up, tattle tale to daddy. He will protect you from the adversary." Isn't that great? and related to that, Elder Prince pointed out to me this week that the bible dictionary definition for "Abba" is "a familial and intimate name for our Father in Heaven"--like calling Him daddy. I love that so much. And I'll use it again in a minute.

*"These days, many young eyes are prematurely old from countless comprimises with conscience." --Paul Harvey, quoted in "The Light in Their Eyes" by James E. Faust GC 1995. Don't let this happen! make sure that there is always light shining from your eyes. Light is one of my favorite topics to study. I know that as we keep the commandments and honor our covenants, we will be able to radiate light because we will be filled with godly love and light. That which is of God is light. Anything that invites us to do good or become more like God is of Him. So do it. Related is Elder Bednar's talk on testimony and conversion. Testimony is great. Belief is great. But what are you going to do about it? it is only as we act on our beliefs that conversion comes. it is also only as we act on the light we are given that more light comes.

*"The difference between a christian and a worldly man is not that the worldly man has only likings and the Christian has only charity. the worldly man treats certain people kindly because he likes them. the christian, trying to treat everyone kindly, finds himself liking more and more people as he includes people he could not have imagined himself liking at the beginning." Amen. :)

*President Dahneke spoke at our fireside last night, and he shared the parable of the bicycle--a story written by Steven Robinson (leah's dad :) ). If you haven't heard it, it goes like this. A young girl comes to her dad and begs for a bicycle. She has a plan to do extra chores and save all her money and pay for it herself. Her father agrees to let her try that plan, and a few weeks later she comes to him, beaming, with a small jar of change. The father knows that it is not enough for a bicycle, but takes her to the bike shop to look for a bike anyway. Once there, she finds the perfect bicycle, and is so overjoyed with it until she looks at the price tag. "Oh Daddy," she sobs, "I'll never have enough for this bicycle. Never.'' She collapses into his arms and weeps at the though. Her father comforts her and then presents a new plan. "You give me your 61 cents, and a hug and a kiss, and the bicycle is yours," he says. "I'll make up the rest."

This story is adorable. What a good dad. I love it. But I also love the lesson behind the parable. As it was with the girl and her father, so it is with us and our Heavenly Father. We set our eyes on a prize--the kingdom of Heaven and eternal life. But as we work towards it, we encounter pitfalls and storms along the way. At times of great despair, we cry out, "Oh Abba. I'll never have enough patience (or charity, or faith, etc). I'll never be able to obtain the Kingdom." We fall down weeping at His feet. But then, in His infinite love and compassion, our elder brother steps in, scoops us up in His arms, and says "Alright. You give me everything you have, and seal it with a covenant of love, and I'll make up the rest."

We can't obtain eternal life on our own. We just can't. But that's okay. Our Savior will always make up the difference if we will give Him everything we have. Brad Wilcox's talk entitled "His Grace is Sufficient" --that I talked about last week--expands on this perfectly [here is the link http://byutv.org/watch/49475abb-10d4-4f45-a757-7000b9945468]. If you haven't read it, read it! It is so wonderful. Also read Elder Holland's talk "For Times of Trouble" from BYU devotional 1980. So good.

I'm just about out of time. sorry if i missed anything--I will hopefully be at a faster computer next week and be able to type faster and without so many errors. :) I love you all so much. thank you for all of your love, prayers, and support. This work is hard. but so was the Atonement. Salvation does not come at a cheap price. And the Lord will strengthen me and provide a way, I know. Don't worry about me :)

Love love love,

Sister Lyndsay Wygant

"Look haaaarder" (thank you Rafiki)

More coming in the middle of conversations - sorry for what seems like abruptness, its just the process of editing to pick parts of her letters to share!

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Well good morning :) Say hi to Purrcy for me and give him a big squeeze!

.... we're doing a lot of finding right now. It's kind of frustrating to work so hard and talk to so many people and not have anything to show for it--but my thought during my studies this morning echoed Rafiki's counsel to "look haaaarder"--but to "work haaarder" . We've been trying to discern whether we just need to keep working and keep being patient or if we're doing something wrong or need to be better/do something differently. Obviously we can always be better and we are always striving to do so...but I think that I just need to be patient and keep trying. This will be good for me :) I am thoroughly exhausted just about all of the time--which makes it harder to be patient and unselfish and have the Spirit, which in itself is frustrating. But I know that as i get used to this schedule and this work load, the Lord will make me stronger and more able to bear the load upon my back--and that I will be able to continue working and being positive/etc even when I am tired. That will be the day :)

Ooh! We met a less active woman the other day who has the most beautiful English sheepdog--straight out of the Little Mermaid. :) Loved it. She is so sweet and nice. Hopefully we will get to keep going back and invite her back to church. 

Hmm. This week has just been so packed. The weather at the moment is rainy/drizzling, but for the past few days we had blue skies and sunshine--it was wonderful! They keep telling me that it will snow by the end of October though. OH and speaking of October--it's marching band season! What? I realized the other day that I haven't seen a single score or set a single chart all season. What? Strange. How are my kids doing? How is the season going for everyone? I miss it just a bit. I hope that everyone in every band I know is doing well and having a great season. 

We've been studying charity and unity in relation to the Atonement this past week. My favorite would probably be in 1 John 4, which talks about being filled with God's love, which is perfect. It doesn't mention charity directly, but we know that charity is the pure love--or perfect love--of Christ. And according to 1 John 4, as we love others and serve them--and every time we repent and turn a little more towards God--we are filled with His love because we are becoming more like Him. Thus we become more charitable and loving because that is the nature of God. Maybe it's just me but I really love that idea.

I love you all so much. Thank you for your love and support and prayers. Sometimes I just want to sit down and give up...but then I remember that this is where the Lord wanted me, and He would not send me to fail. It is a balance to feel prepared and worthy and adequate and not prideful or content with no progress--but I am learning :)   I love you oodles. Please give my love to everyone back home. I think about you and pray for you daily. 

Love,
Lyndsay

General Conference week

Folks, 

The first part of Lyndsay's letter this week was some stuff addressed to Lisa and I, which I edited out for this blog post.  So if it seems like you're coming into the middle of a conversation ... well, you are.

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OH MY GOODNESS mission age change?! We were so close to jumping up and down in our seats when we heard that! Crazy exciting. I think/hope that we will get so many more missionaries, esp sisters, because of this! So great. And i loved ALL of conference. I almost didn't care what was said--I just loved the familiar and comforting presence of our prophet and apostles. I know that they are truly called of God. All week I just couldn't wait for conference so that I could drink in some light and knowledge and get a spiritual tune-up. I loved every single talk, and am so grateful that we got to watch all 4 sessions. … All of the questions i brought to it were answered in some way or another. I missed having conference casserole and having purrcy help me take notes though!  But it was wonderful to think that we were connected in some way because I knew we were doing the same thing at the same time (we watched it at 12 and 4 here so it was the same time as you). :) My favorite talks were probably Elder Holland, Pres Eyring, and Pres Uchtdorf. I just loved the way that Elder Holland made that story come alive and relate to us. I've read that story so many times and even have a special love for it from Savior of the World but i had never thought about it in that way.

One thing that stuck out to me was what he said about loyalty being the crowning characteristic of love. If we truly love the Savior, we will defend Him and be loyal to Him at all times, in all things, and in all places--and we will sacrifice whatever we need to in order to do so.  Also, the Savior knew that Peter loved Him...but Peter needed to know and realize just how much he loved Christ and how well he was following Him. I think that we can and should do a self-check on that every week as we take the sacrament. That is when we renew our covenant to follow Him and take His name upon us--but how well are we doing it?

Something that a music teacher once taught me is that if we get 1% better at something each week, in a month we will be 4% better and in a year we will be 52% better--and so on and so forth. It's gradual change but it all adds up. and that's better than practicing for 6 hours on a saturday and not touching your horn the rest of the week. I think that's perfectly applicable to anything else in life. if we can just become 1% better at being a disciple and example of Christ each day or each week, we will make so much more progress than trying to become 100% better all at once. Just like you always say, eat the elephant one bite at a time :) Will you all try to become just 1% better each day? Consistent baby steps make more progress than you think. I'm trying to become 1% better as a missionary each day. and every night when I kneel down to pray, I review my day with my Father in Heaven--what I did well, what I became 1% better at, and what i want to improve on for the next day. Thinking about being here in terms of 17 months or even 1 month is overwhelming...but I can always do just one more day :)  I also really loved what President Eyring had to say about not creating pavilions that obstruct our view of the Lord. He can always see us, and is always there to help and bless us--but if we feel that we can't see or feel Him, it is probably something on our side that we need to change. monitor and adjust, …

OH and speaking of other people. there's a sister here who's from the Isle of Man...and she knows luke Rowley! her name is Sister Cristian...Catrina Cristian I think. Small world :) She says hello to him! OH and one more person. josh hurst should be coming home this week ish. Crazy! You might not remember him but we went to europe together my 2nd uam tour and he and mary nelson and I (both from AF) were MB staff buddies that fall and had a grand time. I can't believe it's been 2 years already! I have a letter for him but now need his home address since he won't be in mexico anymore...would someone put mary in charge of that? Tell her it would the "foist time" I ever needed his home address. And I want hers too so I can write to her! :)

I'm glad that you got the pictures. The brick wall is just the wall of one of the houses we live in. but the yellow house is the Whitney Home. Where Newel K and Ann Whitney lived--right across from the Whitney store. So awesome :) I'll have to take some more some time soon so that y'all can see what it's like here. Keep reminding me :) Oh and i wish you could see all the fall colors! I just got dad's letter with pics from your fall colors...and i loved it so much. oh i just love fall! So favorite.

Love and hugs and snuggles and smiles,

sister lyndsay wygant

First week in Ohio - Chardon

Hi everyone,

Ohhhh boy. Ohio is beautiful. There are trees EVERYWHERE. I love it. Also, we're in AMISH country. That's right. When we're in our area, Chardon, we sometimes pass horse-and-buggies driving down the other side of the street. Pretty awesome. 

How it works here is that we split our weeks between sites and our area. We're at sites 3-4 days a week and in our area 3-4 days a week. When we're at sites, we give tours when needed, make calls at the referral center, and chat on mormon.org. It's great. I gave part of the tour my first day here (thanks, MTC and Sister Black's class!) and it was so good. There is sooo much here, but it's contained in a smaller area than I'd imagined. The Whitney Store is probably my favorite. The room where the School of the Prophets was held is tiny, but you can really feel the power of the spirit there. I love it. 

We live in older homes on the same property as the VC and sites. We have a Harry Potter bathroom in a cupboard under the stairs. No joke. It's ridiculously awesome. Sorry i don't have pictures of anything yet but I haven't had time! I will try to take some before next week. My companion/trainer/mom's name is Sister Ellsworth, and she's from Idaho. Her parents are serving as mission president/wife in Mesa AZ right now, and she studied at BYU before coming here. Both awesome things. She is great. I am learning so much from her. 

I got here Tuesday evening with 7 other elders (they joined our travel group on the second flight...not sure why we got split up in the beginning. Weird.) and we went straight to the mission home. President Vellinga and his wife are so wonderful. We had dinner and interviews and they took some pictures with all of us--hopefully they sent you one. 

On Wednesday, we got to tour the Kirtland temple (!!) and the sites at Kirtland with a man named Carl Anderson (sound familiar? Yep, the famous one. He is great). He is "Mr. Kirtland" and knows pretty much everything. It was a wonderful tour. Then we went to transfer meeting and got started on the work!

My poor feet hurt pretty much all the time...but oh well. I am trying to get some other inserts that will hopefully provide some more padding for them. It's tough because we are on our feet so much either walking around or standing up for most of the day. But hopefully I'll get used to it.

I have already learned so much here. I thought the MTC was a firehose...but comparatively it was like a dripping sink faucet. Ha. I love it though. There are so many things that I'm learning or traits/habits that I'm beginning to acquire that I know will not only help further this work but will help me in my future life when I get home. It's great. 

I'm really trying to step out of my comfort zone and immerse myself in the work. It's tough sometimes to not be homesick, especially when i'm facing an uncomfortable or difficult task--like tracting. Talking to complete strangers still makes me squeamish inside. Ha. So it's really easy in those times to think of the comfortable things I could be doing at home--but I have to remember that salvation isn't easy and that these people need what we're sharing. I'm trying to keep myself really busy so that I don't have time to be homesick or time to hesitate. *shrug*

I still wish that we had all day to study! There is so much that I'm learning but I wish I had more time. One thing we've decided to do is pick a Christlike attribute (PMG ch 6) each week and make it one of our study themes/focuses for the week. I am really excited about this. I have a ton to study as it is, so it's never that I'm without something to study...but having a specific focus helps me to get more out of my study time. This week we're studying humility. If anyone wants to join in and send me your thoughts/insights/etc, you're more than welcome to. I need all the ideas I can get! Smiley face.

It is already pretty cold here--for me at least haha. I'm already wearing the layers and coats that I brought...so if you could send my winter box soonest that would be so wonderful. Speaking of sending things, I'll always have the following address unless i'm out full pross:

Sister Lyndsay Wygant (use both first and last name always)

7800 Kirtland Chardon Road

Kirtland, Ohio 44094

You can send both letters and packages to that address. If you've already sent things to the mission office they will forward it to me, no worries...but it just takes longer. So send everything to this new address until I go out full proselyting--which won't happen for awhile. There are only 3 full pros sister right now--the rest of us (27 i think) split our time between an area and the VC. It's pretty great.

We did get to watch the Brigham City temple dedication and the RS broadcast. Both were sooo wonderful. I loved them so much. It is so wonderful to be a member of this church and have so many inspired men and women to lead, guide, and uplift us. In just the week that I've been here I've met so many people who don't have that in their lives. They don't know that they are children of God and their family/other relationships are not the kind that we enjoy. I am so much more grateful now for the upbringing I had, for the loving environment and relationships that I had with family and others, and the opportunities that I had growing up. The stories that some of these people tell just amaze me sometimes. Why would anyone mistreat or disrespect someone who is family or a loved one? It has always baffled me. We don't own each other. We have families and friends and relationships so that we can love and support and encourage each other. I'm grateful that I know that, and that I know that those family relationships are eternal. I dunno. Sometimes part of me just wants to high tail it back to Provo where everyone is nice and knows who they are. Ha. But that's why I'm here--to teach these people what more they can have and become. 

The RS broadcast was also wonderful. It was honestly just what I needed. This adjustment has been harder than I'd anticipated and although it's great here, I was overwhelmed in the first week. I needed to see familiar faces and hear familiar words--and songs. :) The choir conductor...how do I know her? I know/think her last name is Wadsworth, and I want to say that she helped with the youth program that i did at the conference center that one time. But do i/you/we know her besides that?

Speaking of familiar faces and words, I am excited beyond belief for conference this next week. I loved it before but I can't wait for it now. So excited. Hopefully we will be able to bring some of our investigators to watch it with us. I just want to tell the whole world to come and watch because I know it will be so wonderful and uplifting. Ha. Seriously though. Don't take Conference for granted! Write down questions, take notes, and look for answers or promptings that are specifically meant for you. It is such a blessing to have a prophet and counselors to speak to us in God's behalf--there are so many people who don't even know about or have that opportunity. Drink it in :)

Well I'm almost out of time. I love you all so much. I hope everything is well at home and that you are keeping Purrcy satisfied/well staffed :) Please tell everyone hello for me and thank you for their thoughts and prayers. I certainly need them and can certainly feel them. 

Love,

Sister Wygant