Things are still great here in Italy! Thanks for all of your emails and it's really nice to hear that everyone is doing good! This has been a pretty average weeks, nothing too exciting going on, so we'll see what I can come up with to write!
The Tache's are doing great! They are so nice to us! Twice this week they've had us over for dinner (and it was a very interesting dinner to say the least). We ate fish straight off the bone! I even tried the little eyes! All of my deepest fears of eating food on the mission are being conquered! We have now taught them all of the lessons and they are keeping up on all commitments. The district president of Sardegna met them on Sunday and loved them! He told the branch president to give them calling in the church even though they aren't members yet. Ionel got a suit donated to him from the local Catholic church and he looks pretty slick when he wears it to church! They are trying to do all they can to get the baptisms going, and even talking about moving out until they can get their marriage deal taken care of. It's amazing to hear them pray!
This week we have been doing a lot of finding work. We have worked in Calangianus a few more times but have found very little success. One lady got me hopeful, but we'll see. We knocked on her door and she was very happy to see us. She invited us in and she kept starring at me! She said that she had met me before but she couldn't remember where. So in my mind I thought, perfect! We met before in the premortal existence, now I'm going to baptize her! Well... It didn't turn out that way. She was a bit on the crazy side and after giving us some pear juice she attempted to read our minds. She couldn't read mine because I guess I was closed off, but her predictions about my companion were pretty funny and almost dead on. We got out of that house ASAP! Remember that old lady that I told you we met and she was a bit creepy? She calls us everyday from different numbers saying she is praying for us and that she wants us to stay at her house. Ya, we are freaked out! We saved all of her numbers and we ignore them now. She calls us her "little hearts". Creepy!
We have found some neat people though. We have done a ton of finding work in the rich areas of Olbia, with some success! We met this nice young lady named Marissa who has a husband and two kids. We gave her a Book of Mormon and made another appointment to see her this coming week. She seemed really interested in religion, and we are praying that she will be prepared to hear our message! Another night we were in the same part of town and we walked next to a Catholic church. We kept walking forward until we saw a huge house right next door. We decided to knock on it. The man who owned it named Salvatore came out and began talked to us. He invited us into his house and we met his wife and daughter. They are very active in the church next door, but he's always been curious with our church but never knew that the church was here on Sardegna. He's read the Book of Mormon before and liked it and the things it taught about Christ. He wants to come to church so we'll see how it goes! I'm pretty hopeful about him and his family!
One Sunday a member brought one of her friends to church and he loved it! He agreed to see us again so I'm excited to begin teaching him too. We haven't had a chance to see the Tache's daughter Roberta yet (we need to take a bus so that the Tache's can show us where she lives) but she is excited to see us again. We plan to teach her a "lesson zero" and get her committed to baptism right off the bat like her parents.
Nothing much has happened with our other investigators unfortunately. We are bummed that Gabriella won't return our phone calls, and we dropped Roberto because he is ignoring us also. We still have to see Ritta this week, but she likes to bible bash more than being taught a lesson, so we will bring Alessio next time and figure out if there is still potential. Vediamo! (We will see!)
The language is going good, some of our English course students say they want to help me with my Italian since we're helping them with English. I am now down to reading only in Italian, and I'm working on finishing the Book of Mormon in Italian but it's going a little slow because I'm reading the whole thing out loud for practice with the language and getting the accent down. I'm almost done with 2nd Nephi! Our English course students love the class so much that they want to do it twice a week now. We have fun and laugh a lot as we learn together, so it's great! I'm still trying to look for a good opening to introduce the Gospel to Giovanni, and I think he would be an awesome member if he were baptized!
We have a new Branch president! President Branca got released and his son, Ignazio has taken the calling. I am really excited for this because his wife is not a member, and this opens up a great opportunity for her to join the church. She comes to church every week, but leaves during sacrament meeting to take care of their 10 month old baby, Valentina. This week she stayed the whole time! Piano, piano! She is way cool and I would love for their family to be sealed together! I know it will happen someday!
I am really looking forward to Saturday and Sunday! We have district conference and then zone conference also. I think it will be great and I know it will be just as inspiring as the "expect a miracle" conference we had last transfer. We will be down in Cagliari the whole time so I'm stoked to see the big city again!
Well I'm sorry this email is so short. Lets pray that the next one is full of stories with new investigators and baptismal dates! I know it will be! I love you all so much! I miss you a lot, but I look forward to hearing your voices in a few months! I think we can even do a little bit of Skype. I love you Dad, I love you Mom, I love you Morgan, I love you Brooke, I love you Heather, and I love you Greg! Send my love to everyone. My companion shared a scripture that I like a lot. 1 John 4:18: "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."
Have a great week! Vi Voglio un sacco di bene!
Anziano Clay Lacey
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