Thanks for the awesome emails and I'm glad that everyone is doing well!
This
has been a great and busy week. Although we had to hurry things up,
especially in preparation for the trainings, zone conference went well.
President is such an inspired man and he knows everything we as
missionaries need to hear in order to be more prepared and overcome our
challenges. Little things I've heard in this conference, sacrament
meeting, and other things people have been saying have really been
helping me realize things we can do for our investigators and it's
wonderful to see how the Spirit really helps inspire our thoughts.
We've been finding recent success with two families
through genealogy work. They have been so impressed with the
organization of the church that we've set some more appointments for
this week to talk about our beliefs so we are hoping that they become
new investigators.
Unfortunately we haven't yet met with Sabrina and
Christian because of zone conference and the Scamporrino family went out
of town and are visiting family in Venice. We are still really excited
to see them and help them grow closer to God.
Oscar Reali is a ward member here who has been such a
huge support and help with missionary work. Like I said before he
received his mission call to Manchester, England, and we've had a great
week with him and the members as we've said goodbye. It has helped me to
remember the same emotions and excitement that I felt as I prepared to
leave. We had a family home evening with a good half of the ward there
where we said 'goodbye' all together and then this morning we came here
early to church where we said goodbye after he was set apart. He has
been such a great friend and I'm going to miss him but I know that the
fact that he is serving will be a huge blessing for the ward and most of
all for his family.
On Saturday we had a great lesson with Giovanna from
English course. She is such a great person and was very open to hear
the message of the Restoration. The Spirit was very strong in the
lesson and we could tell that she felt it. We finished the lesson with a
kneeling prayer that she offered that was very powerful. She works in
humanitarian aid and goes around the world with her work and is
seriously one of the coolest people I've ever met. She is one of my best
of friends here in Siracusa. There was an Ensign or Liahona article
that spoke of sharing the Gospel by sharing yourself which really stuck
out to me. It also came up in a great talk that a member gave in
sacrament meeting. One thing that I am loving so much about the mission
are the friendships I'm making. For example, Giovanna with her family
and friends took me and Anziano Smit out to see a piano concert which
was great! These friendships I'm making all over the country are one of
my greatest treasures of the mission. I still hear from friends in
Sardegna which makes me grateful that Italy is now officially a big part
of my life.
Speaking of the piano concert, I am either really
deprived in entertainment, or I just discovered that I absolutely love
the piano. During the mission I've been learning the piano a bit and can
somewhat play a few hymns.
We have been visiting a lot of member families and
we received a random invite from a brother who is the only member in his
family. We had a great lunch with him, his wife, and their nineteen
year old son, and they all really enjoyed the spiritual thought at the
end. Who knows, maybe something will spark like is did with Ignazio
Mazzone back in Olbia!
Okay, funny story real quick: Giuseppe, one of our
investigators who is making slow, yet important progress invited us out
to eat pizza at a fancy restaurant in the middle of Ortigia close to the
Duomo. As we were walking back there was a group of three guys with
their dirty, shaggy dogs that are homeless playing a drum and guitar.
Giuseppe knows one of them because he helped him get to rehab a few
weeks ago (they get drunk, play, and wait for people to give them
money). Anyways, as Giuseppe was talking to them, one of the dogs peed
on the slope of the sidewalk they were sitting on and it started flowing
down towards us... like a river. We dogged the incoming liquid, it went
past us and then formed into a large puddle a few feet away from us
(there was a lot and it was a big dog). By this time we had joined the
conversation and we turned around later to find a group of loud, vulgar
young ladies gathered in that very puddle, jumping around, joking and
goofing around, probably waiting for their boyfriends. I turned to my
companion and said, "Should we tell them?" Just then a girl realized
that her feet were wet, looked at the puddle, and then followed it all
the way up to where the dog was. When things 'clicked' she screamed in
disgust. It was a real mess when all the girls found out and me and
Anziano Smit couldn't help but die of laughter when they had ran off.
I love the mission! It makes you laugh hard, along
with all those spiritual moments too! 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. Have a great week! I love you all so much!
Con amore,
Anziano Clay Lacey
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