Hey guys! Well I'm all settled in here at Siracusa and I love it so much. It is seriously such a beautiful city, and we walked past old monuments by chance that date back all the way to ancient Greek time! Can you believe that?! For example there is a Temple of Apollo that is just ruins right now, but supposedly Paul came and taught the gospel there thousands of years ago when he did his journey to Rome! How cool is that, preaching the Gospel exactly where the great apostle Paul taught!?
Transfers were very easy compared to my voyage from Sassari to Trapani. We left Wednesday from Palermo and headed to Catania where we waited with other missionaries, got things figured out for where people needed to go and when they needed to take buses and trains, and then me and Anziano Hoover took off that night for Siracusa. We got in late but I love my new home. It's kind of an old, 80's style apartment, small, easy to keep clean, and we got two members that live in the same little neighborhood. The little girls from one of the families always make sure we come home on time and they wait out on the porch until we show up. It's so much fun and I'm glad we have the Zombra family there waiting to make sure we're all right!
There is a little bit of a negative to the new city, but I'm looking at it more as a positive. The work is very slow at the moment. The only investigator is a twelve year old kid from an inactive family that is living with his grandparents right now but they don't want him to see us so I haven't met him yet. Needless to say we have done almost nothing but finding work, and we have found pretty good success for the very short time we've been here. We found a new investigator on Sunday named Davide, and yesterday we taught the Restoration to another man, Giuseppe, in church that we found a few days earlier who is now a new investigator and we have another appointment set with him.
It is a neat feeling to see things grow as far as the work goes, and I know that we'll see miracles here in Siracusa. As a matter of fact we are already seeing miracles! One night we were walking home absolutely tired from a straight day of finding. Although we could have easily continued forward and headed home we kept talking to those in our path. We had little luck but the Lord blessed us for our diligence. Right before our house we stopped a young guy in his twenties, simply asked him if he had interest in a message about Christ, and he agreed! We got his number and we have an appointment with him in church tomorrow.
The church! The church here is fantastic! It is really different from other church designs like the normal one's we have in America and the one from Sassari. I'll send a picture soon, but I think it is a beautiful building perfect for the saints here. It is big, three stories, and is perfect to impress new investigators. Nearly everyone in the city knows about the 'Mormons' thanks to the beautiful church.
My first Sunday was great and the ward here is fantastic. I got to church a half an hour early so I could start making friendships with the members right away. It is so big compared to what I am used to, and the members have such strong testimonies and a huge love for our Father in Heaven. I look forward to doing anything I can to serve them.
On of these service opportunities happened that night when we brought the sacrament to a sister who has very severe health problems. She was so grateful for this little gesture, especially when we shared a spiritual thought about the importance of the sacrament from 3 Nephi 18. I would suggest to every young man who takes the sacrament to those in their wards that cannot make it to church to always leave them with a message and an invite. From this one experience I realize the power it has, and it helps those in need feel the love of the ward, and most of to feel the love of the Savior.
The new responsibilities as zone and district leader set in and I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve. Me and the other zone leader, Anziano Hansen in Catania (trained by Anziano Schwing) make sure everyone is home safe every night, and we report weekly on numbers every Sunday. In our Zone we have Siracusa, Siracusa sisters, Catania, Catania sisters, Messina, and Reggio Calabria. When we did numbers we found that even though it was a transfer week, our zone was on fire! We have a ton of baptismal dates in September, and everyone is really working hard. I am really learning a lot from Anziano Hansen.
We had our first district meeting with sisters Spicq and Hicks. We really collaborated and shared a ton of new ideas about how we can work together and help this beautiful city know more about the Gospel. We have a lot of crazy new ideas, but thinking out of the box helps a lot so we'll see how things go! I'll keep you informed on the progress.
That's the sum up of the week! I love it here so much and I am blessed to serve such a wonderful people in one of the most beautiful places in Sicily! I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures for next week; this week has been crazy! I love you Dad, I love you Mom, I love you Morgan, I love you Brooke, I love you Heather, I love you Greg. Mi mancate tanto! Vi voglio una galassia di bene! Buona settimana! Grazie di tutto!
Anziano Clay Lacey
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