Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Last week of 1st Transfer!

Dear Family,

I'm sorry it's taken me awhile to write! We had a crazy fun P-day. One of our members took us on a hike. The area was about 3 hours south, almost to Cagliari. The hike was beautiful and we finished at this beautiful, rocky beach. It was a great day!


It's been a pretty good week! Nothing too exciting has happened, except that we got the call from the assistants that Anziano Vitali and I will be serving another transfer together in Olbia! I'm excited, and I know we can get a lot done this next transfer. While on the phone with one of the assistants, he told us that they shared the story of us getting two baptismal dates on the first lesson with our Area Seventy, Anziano Gérald Caussé, and he loved the story and apparently was joking about taking me and Anziano Vitali on a tour around Europe to teach missionaries how to teach a lesson zero. So that was pretty cool that a General Authority knows about us!!! 

As far as an update on Investigators: The Tache family is making great progress. They are really trying hard to be ready for their baptismal date (which is now October 8th). We taught them the Word of Wisdom and they are trying their best to stop smoking. A funny story to go along with it, not long after we taught them the lesson, Ionel was walking to go buy some cigarettes, but he ran into us on the street so he didn't. When he went again to go buy some, every bar near their house was out of cigarettes (nearly everyone in Italy smokes). It was funny as he told us the story and he said that God is really helping him out! Also something cool, it looks like we might be baptizing them in the Sea! :) 

We were supposed to have a lesson with Gabriella but she called us and said that something else came up, but she wants to meet with us again soon, but we don't have a set time. We will probably call her tonight to make an appointment. 

We had a lesson with Ritta, the older lady that me and Anziano Reed found on our split, and it went terrible. We had to bring a member with us since she was alone, and at first the lesson was going good, but the member kept bringing up profound principles that need to be discussed in a later lesson. It pretty much turned into a Bible bash between him and her after that, so needless to say, we didn't get a return appointment. We will visit her again and try to fix things and bring a member who is a returned missionary! 

Lately Anziano Vitali and I have been working on bringing less actives back to church, especially since a lot of them have part member families. For example, Giuseppe, who we went hiking with, has been out of the church for years because of a bad experience in the past, but during that time he got married and has two kids, one who is at baptism age. They are a great family, and hopefully we will know what to do to get him, and then his family, interested in the Gospel. It will happen soon!

I guess before I came into the Olbia there was a huge fight in the branch, and one family went kind of inactive. The family still goes to church off and on, but the dad is not active at all. He left the church years ago, and used to even be a branch president in Nuoro. We went and visited them a few days ago, and I loved their family! They have three little kids, and they are so much fun! Me and the dad became instant friends because of our love for movies (my knowledge of movies is working well with my missionary tasks), and his favorite movie is also Forrest Gump! After the visit Anziano Vitali said that he had never been this way with the missionaries before, so I hope that this could be a start to his journey back to the Church. And also a start to the mending of whatever damage was caused by this fight. 

Oh! Cool story, we had a sweet yet back breaking service opportunity this past week. This old man asked us to work in his vineyard! It was really interesting. The Anziani from Sassari came with us, and it was only supposed to be for two hours, but for some reason Anziano Harris wanted to stretch it out to six. Of course the old man was way for it since he was getting free labor from us! It was a long day, and my back was way sore from bending over and cutting vine after vine, but it was fun and reminded me of the parable of the laborers in the vineyard found in the Bible. He gave us a ton of grapes, but I don't really like Italian grapes too much because even the smallest grape has about 2-3 seeds in it. They are nice and sweet though! I'll email you some pictures once I get them off of Anziano Vitali's camera. 

Another cool story, my very first day in Olbia we stopped this guy on the street named Giovanni, he told us to come by his house, but in the weeks after we could never find his house. We ran into him at a bus stop, and he was way excited to see us! It turns out that he lives in a city just outside of Olbia, so we plan on calling him and visiting him soon. This is perfect because our branch needs priesthood holders! 

Oh, it looks like I won't have to worry about a jacket! My companion is really big on fashion, and his parents bought him this super nice, expensive jacket that he thinks looks way too big on him, so he gave it to me! It is one of those two jackets in one deals that has the rain coat part on the outside, and this warm, pea-coat looking jacket on the inside. It also works perfect for wearing a suit coat underneath. Since I didn't need to buy one, I think I'm just going to save up all the money I would have spent and buy a nice, expensive, tailored Italian suit at the end of my mission!  

Well, this is the update for the week! Things are going great, and I'm happy to have another transfer in Olbia! Amazing things are going to happen this next transfer, I can feel it! Thank you all so much for all your support and prayers. I love you all so much! I love you Dad, I love you Mom, I love you Morgan, I love you Brooke, I love you Heather, I love you Greg. Take care and have a fantastic week!

Con Amore, 

Anziano Clay Lacey

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