Dobry Den and Do videnia!

It's my very last p-day here in the MTC! Wow, it's gone by so fast. This week has been a lot busier (and that's saying something) with having to prepare for departure on top of my regular study and teaching packed days. It's been so much fun, our zone is doing a lot of little closing activities and saying many goodbyes. We would do zone volleyball every week (which kind of changed to "zone volleyball whenever we felt like it"-- we loved it so much!) and we all had our last game together on Wednesday. The MTC doesn't allow us to have a gym time during that last few days here due to the liability and risks it creates. We had three volleyball nets up in the sand and were just having a blast like we usually do. We did Slovaks against Czechs and it was so much fun! I didn't learn until later but I guess I sprained one of the Czechs index fingers on one of my serves; I felt so bad.

We had In-Filed Orientation almost the whole day yesterday. What it is is that it's like a really big seminar where you bring all of the skills that you have learned here at the MTC and put them together in basically an 8 hour review. They do this for everyone on the Thursday before you leave. I learned a lot and it was such a great practice. It was a ton of fun (I feel like I'm using the word "fun" way too much in this email. Well, I'm a missionary so I cannot hide the truth; it's been a lot of fun here... but also still hard at times.) too! It started at 8:30 am and ended at around 5:30 pm. Afterwards, we all went back to class and prepared for TRC. Starsi Garlick and I taught our last lesson at TRC. We taught a girl named Natalia who is a native to Slovakia! Her mother is the one who primarily translated and finished the Book of Mormon in Slovak. It was a great lesson about "How Can We Receive Inspiration Through the Book of Mormon." She is so cool to talk to and we felt the spirit a lot during that meeting (40 minutes). It was awesome to see the contrast of how well I could communicate and understand this time compared to my first time. I've grown a lot here.

I left my departure schedule back at my room (or I lost it and will have to get another copy... not sure, haha) so I'll try to give a mildly accurate idea of what my day will be on Monday.

-I report to the travel office with my Slovak district (minus two because they are going to Leeds England to speak Slovak: crazy!) and the Czech district at 3:35 am Monday morning. I love everyone that will be traveling with us (I love my entire zone!) and it's going to be such a blast! There are six Czech's and four Slovaks that will be in our travel party. It's really sad because our whole zone will be splitting up into smaller and smaller pieces. Our zone is amazing (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Turkey, Poland, and Croatia) and we have all grown so close these past nine weeks. I was completely wrong with my last email on how I thought Josh and I would be able to travel together (He's going with the Croatians).

Anyways, so from the travel office we will take a bus over to the UTA Tracks in Salt Lake City and ride them into the Salt Lake City airport from there.

-I believe my plane is leaving at about 8:30 (Haha I'm so sorry! I really should have went over my travel plans a lot more!) and I fly into Dallas. I am flying on British Airways the entire trip. In Dallas, we have a really big layover. I have some English Books of Mormon ready and some other things to hopefully give away, I'm so excited!

-From Dallas, I fly all the way over to London! 

-From London, I will fly to Prague and most likely stay there that night. We are all (Us new missionaries) going to take a big tour of Prague for a few hours and then will finish by contacting for our first times in a famous square somewhere in the city. Holy cow! I'll be contacting in Prague in three days! Haha, Slovak is really close to Czech but... that doesn't mean anything at this stage of my language capabilities. I'm really so excited to contact and to begin helping the world and it doesn't matter if I can't necessarily speak the language. The people I will see will realize the joy and faith I have in this gospel through the spirit that is about me, my smile and happy face, and the genuine love I have for them and the deep wish that I have to share the gospel. I'll let you all know how it goes in a week.

-From Prague, I will take a train to Slovakia and to the city that I will be assigned.

The scriptures I have memorized this week are...

-1 Samuel 16:7

-Isaiah 40:10

-Alma 32:27 (I've always loved this scripture)

-Alma 26:8

-Mosiah 27:28-29

-Mark 5:36

-Alma 26:14-17

I don't have any homework for all you this time but I hope and pray that these emails I send to you brighten up your day. Many of you I will be calling on Monday from the airports so watch out for that :)! Well, I need to go once more y'all. I love each of you so much and am so grateful to have you in my life. The next time you will hear from me via email I will be in Slovakia!

Sincerely,

Starsi Lyman

Dobry Den!

I have loved this week so much and it has, as usual, gone by in a blink of an eye. I have 10 days left here at the MTC! I'm going to be in Slovakia in no time and I am SO excited! I can't wait! It's basically five days because two of those will be Sundays, two will be p-days (including today), and one will be a full day of traveling... so only five full study and class days! I know that the first month is going to be so much harder than anything I've probably been experiencing here at the MTC. I just can't wait to start blessing the lives of real people and showing them the love that really do have for them. I can't wait to preach the gospel in the airports and planes that I will be in in 10 days! Haha I'm already preparing the Books of Mormon that I hope to place out there. It'll be the last time I can preach in English so I'm going to hopefully make the best of those 18 hours. I think we get our travel plans this evening as well! One of the people Josh is traveling, an Elder from Germany, got his travel plans early (so basically Josh and 6 other missionaries that will be traveling with him did as well) this week! They fly from Salt Lake to Chicago, from Chicago to Paris (!!!), Paris to Croatia, and then go by train to wherever they need to be. That's so awesome! Most of our zone have basically followed the same routes so this means that I will probably do the same thing except from Paris to Prague, sleep a night in Prague, and then take a train to Slovakia! 

I've been keeping the goal of memorizing a scripture and it's reference every day this week. I missed a few days and actually decided to change my goal. Right now I'm pushing my hardest to learn the language so I don't have all day to memorize a scripture. I never will recite it in English (and I don't want to memorize them in Slovak yet) when I'm in Slovakia so I memorize the reference and one or two really powerful sentences out of it if I don't have time for the whole verse that day. The scriptures that I memorized this week are...

-Mosiah 2:21-22

-Deuteronomy 31:6

-1 Corinthians 10:13

-2 Nephi 31:20

-Alma 26:12

Last night I held my first District meeting. Our District is so close and we hold a district meeting every Thursday night. It's not asked of us but it's just something that we have always done for the past 8 weeks. We share spiritual insights, discuss how we can do better as individuals and a district, go over goals, and anything that is necessary at the time. They are always fantastic and very spiritual to us. This district is a great group of young men and I'm so grateful to be called as their District leader and to be able to serve them 

We talked about a lot of things last night but one of the topics I really stressed was the question, "What do YOU really want to do with these next 10 days?" We have 10 days left here, it is crucial to have goals and to push yourself at this time. This was a hard question to answer but I think I really got them thinking and will be able to follow up tonight during Senior companion interviews. Another thing that I stressed on is "What is YOUR 100%?" This obviously involves diligence and hard work and I wanted us all to know exactly what it is we have to do this week, be better at, and how hard we have to push. Everyone progresses, learns, and works in different manners and paces so this one is really personal. The Lord only requires our best effort and doesn't ask any more from us so it is also crucial to know "What is YOUR 100%?" I've thought a lot about this and I know that this district is going to do some miracles and fantastic things this next week and especially out in the field.

I really want to ask each one of you, that receive this email, these two questions: "What do YOU really want to do with these next 10 days?" and "What is YOUR 100%?". You don't have a deadline like the six of us might have but I ask you to take this challenge with us, make some goals, and be your very best these 10 days in what ever way you choose.

I have one more homework assignment for all of you again (haha). I watched a mormon message this week on lds.org that really touched and hit me. Seriouslly, I had to fight back my tears the whole time while watching it (I'm happy that I can say that I didn't cry and that I prevailed!). If any of you are struggling in life or just need some hope or a helping hand, please watch the video made from Henry B. Eyring's talk, titled, "Mountains To Climb." It will bless your life.

Well, it is time for me to go again. I'll be sending a few letters to many of you this week, so watch out! You have only ten more days to write your lovable Elder before you have to send one internationally so you better act fast! I wanted to let all of you know that I love all of you very much and that I pray for you each day. Sometimes I get busy here at the MTC and lose track of things so if I haven't written back to you after you wrote me a letter, please let me know! I will always write a letter back to someone if they take the time to do so for me. Let me know if it's been awhile since you have personally heard from me and I will quickly fix that. Usually, I don't forget about responding so either the letter didn't make it to you... or I actually did forget, haha!

Sincerely,

Starsi Lyman

Vsetci! (Slovak translation of "Everyone" without the accents)

Ahoj everyone! I hope that you all are safe and sound back home and throughout the world :)!

This week has been fantastic and I really have grown so much. I know I say this almost every time but I can't deny the truth. When you are being blessed and uplifted in so many ways by the Lord it's impossible not to grow exponentially. I'm so grateful for this and I'm so indebted to my Heavenly father and my Savior.

I'm working really hard here, just like every other missionary around me. Starsi Garlick and I have set the goal to SYL (Speak Your Language) for an entire week, except for certain meetings and times where English is necessary. I've also been studying my language, for the past two weeks, during gym time. After weight lifting for about 15 minutes on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays,  I'll hop on a stationary bicycle machine (oh my goodness, I'm so embarrassed that I don't know the specific name) and study one of the Slovak textbooks I have for about 35 minutes as I go. It's helping a lot! I wish that all everybody was doing this but I hope that it will start to catch on. I got a few people from my zone to start doing it as well. 

For the past week I've set the goal to memorize a scripture everyday here at the MTC (17 days left!) and it's been such a cool experience. The scriptures that I have memorized this week...

• 2 Nephi 4:28 
• John 14:15
• 1 Nephi 4:6 
• John 7:17
• 2 Nephi 25:26 (I love this one)
• Alma 37:6-7
• Alma 32:21

Some of them are really short but all of them hold great power in their words. As I was thinking about this, I thought, "Why don't I memorize a scripture a day my entire mission?" It seems crazy, I know, but I'm totally going to go for it! I need/want to be much better with using the scriptures as a tool and inexpensible resource wherever I am at all times. There is great power in memorizing the words of the Lord and even just a simple phrase with the corresponding reference. My companion described it as having "little pockets of light" for when you are in need. So that's a commitment from me to you today, memorize a scripture... maybe not as extensive as to one each day but maybe one every week? 

A crazy thing has happened this week with my companion and I. Probably, on this past Wednesday, we learned that our grandfathers (Jay Garlick and Jay Lyman) served together on the missions in Holland! I can't believe this! Our District really is one of the coolest and hard working here and we've been noticing a LOT of these "little coincidences" throughout these past weeks. Grandparents know each other, parents have been friends, 2nd cousins, grandparents baptizing other grandparents, and I won't really going into it much further... but there's a lot. It's really interesting and I'm so grateful to have been called to this mission and to serve at this time. I KNOW without a doubt that this is where I am suppose to be. Speaking about my district, I've been called to be the District Leader for the remaining days here in the MTC! I was in an interview with President Jones and I had no idea he was going to ask if I would be the District Leader. I'll be called this Sunday and I'm so excited. I'm grateful that I've been given this privilege (though it is just the MTC) and I just hope that I will be able to help progress my fellow missionaries in any way I can.

Another cool thing with my companion and is our first names. His name is Joseph and my name is Jacob (Of course you know that). If you ever have some spare time, look at the chapter heading of Jacob 1.

I had a lot more to tell you about this week but am now out of time again. I'll leave you off with some homework I guess ;). If you have the time, look through and read/sing the hymns 140, 142, 144, and 145... I'll leave the names for you to find out later.

I love you all so much,

Starsi Lyman

K Vsetco! ("To Everybody" in Slovak)

This week has definitely been wonderful and a great blessing. I've learned a lot and the language is starting to click in my mind. I can't believe the amount of progress I've been able to have in just 37 days, both mentally and spiritually. There are so many things that I wish I had the time to tell all of you... but I guess most of you can read about it or talk to me about it in two years ;).

The twins created another prank this past week. On wednesday we got nine new Polish missionaries. Josh and I decided that we wanted to keep the fact that we were twins a secret for as long as we could (Muhaha!). It was so fun/ny! We got our whole zone in on it and it worked great the first day. We wore the same tie (a.k.a. the ones Mark gave us for his wedding, thanks Mark!), black suits, and never were seen together in front of the new Polish. At the end of the day we changed into regular clothes for the night but had the same flip-flops, shorts, and almost the exact same shirts (One was Slovak and the other Sloven). It's so fun being a twin right now hah. We continued to switch back and forth as to who would talk with them and then we'd exchange information as to what the other learned about them in order to not get caught. It wasn't mean but I felt kind of mean when I went to bed that night. We decided that we would just let things happen the next day and see how long it would take for them to make the connection. Haha it wasn't until the middle of the day when they all had figured it out! Next week we have about five more Bulgarian's coming and one Sloven... let the games begin (Muhaha!).

I've been study A LOT of questions that I've had/came across in the Book of Mormon and Bible this week. I watched a talk by Elder Bednar on my first week here and he suggested that everytime you start the Book of Mormon again to start it with a question in mind. Focus on that question the entire time you read it, annotating it pertaining to the question along the way, and by the time you are finished you will have your answer. I've been doing this while I've been here and am about half way finished with Book of Mormon again. I'm probably study about ten questions all together and it's such an amazing experience. I'm loving studying the scriptures each day and I suggest that all of you go to the scriptures with questions in mind as well. Never be content with what you DO know. It's really fun! I've started reading Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage and that for sure raises a TON of questions. This book is fantastic and brings you so much closer to our Savior, I highly recommend it. James E. Talmage was a genius.

Well, pretty soon I will be in Slovakia! I have exactly 24 more days here in the MTC! I'm so excited to get out there and to, most likely, have one of the hardest weeks of my life. Honestly, I'm so excited for this! I can't wait to share the gospel and show my love to those I will teach. I know the Lord will be carrying me the whole way and that these two years will truly be the best two years of my life.

The scripture this week is Mosiah 24:14. Our Heavenly Father loves us and is always with us.

I love all of you so much and love hearing from you! Have a great Week.

Starsi Lyman