Wednesday, August 1, 2012

L'inizio di Agosto a Trapani

Ciao!

Hey guys! I'm so glad everything is going well! Things are going great here in Sicily and it is still hotter than ever! I don't have much time so this email might be quick!

The investigators are doing great! Our two Nigerians should be getting a baptism date here soon if all goes to plan! They are really enjoying the Book of Mormon and Michael has even been blessed with finding more work! For the Italian course we wanted to teach unfortunately only one person came, but that's all good! We've been working harder on publicity so we are hoping that there will be more people tomorrow!

We went down to another city called Marsala where we visited a recent convert who just moved into the area. His name is Cristian and he is from Ecuador. He found the church in Rome, moved to Spain for work and was baptized there, and then followed his family to Sicily. Marsala is pretty far from Trapani, and he has no way of getting to church. There is a less active man from there that could give him a ride, and it would be a great motive to help him get active again if he could give Cristian a ride. We have been praying for some kind of miracle so that he can come to church and we found that miracle at church on Sunday! There is a family visiting from up north and they drive through Marsala on their way to church, so until September when they go home they can give him a ride! This gives us some good time to work and to create a friendship with this less active member. Cristian is 26 and the rest of his family aren't members but possibly have interest in the gospel so we'll hope that we can start teaching them.

I'm really loving the English course students we have here! They are a ton of fun and the lessons are such a great place to share the gospel. I gave a spiritual thought after the course last night and they all listened so intently and asked great questions. Afterward we had a little chess tournament and a member even brought snacks and drinks.

This week has been a little hectic because I'm working on the renewal of my Permesso di Soggiorno which allows me to live in the country. Luckily it has all been going smoothly, and I'm blessed to be in areas where the systems work well. I've heard horror stories from other Anziani about waiting for hours and things getting lost.

Sunday wasn't too eventful because me and my companion were a little sick for some reason, but we got over it fast and were ready for the day on Monday. We have been doing a lot of finding and have found a lot of success. Nearly one whole apartment block asked if we could come back! We also have set a few appointments and we found this stud guy named Benni. It was definitely one of those spiritual prompting moments when the Spirit whispers to you that you do to go out of your way to talk to this person. We got his number and should meet with him next week.

With another family that we are teaching we had a fun lesson where we made paper airplanes and launched them off the balcony and we compared it with scripture. It was a miracle because one of the sons, Salvatore, prayed for the first time with us! We taught him how and he gave an awesome prayer and was all smiles after. It is amazing to see when people make that close connection with our Heavenly Father and render it possible to receive the spiritual promptings they desire.

Our investigator Silvana who comes to English course shared something beautiful with us. Many years ago she had a dream where there were people singing a beautiful hymn outside of a temple that looked like a castle. I showed her a picture of the Salt Lake temple and she said that she doesn't remember if that was it, but when she saw that image after I handed it to her, something was familiar about it. She can't come to church because of work, but we decided for all of us three to put our faith to the test and pray hard so that her boss will give her Sundays off. He's done it in the past so lets expect some miracles!

That's about it for the week. Things are going great and we are excited about the work. We are staying busy and productive which gives you the best satisfaction at the end of the day. 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, and I love you Greg... And HAPPY BIRTHDAY for tomorrow! BUON COMPLEANNO!!! I can't believe you are 10!!! Wow... it seems like yesterday that I wrote that birthday card in the MTC to you with the wrong age!!! Have a great day buddy, you're the best brother ever!

I love you all!!! Vi voglio tanto bene! Abbiate una bellissima settimana!

Con affetto,

Anziano Clay Lacey

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