Miracoli ci sono!‏

Buon giorno famiglia!

Hey guys! Thanks for the awesome emails! It was really nice hearing from you all. And I finally got the package! Thank you so much, the candy was great, the note was cute and I loved the little pictures! Dad, you look like a stud in that wake boarding picture! Grazie mille! This has been such an awesome week! I've loved every minute of it. 

The investigators are doing great! We are now up to five progressing investigators which isn't too shabby! Step by step. The Tache's had an interesting experience. In the house they live in there are some people from Pakistan and they said on November 11 that the world was going to end at 11:11 o'clock at night, so Iona called us and frantically said that she was freaked out and didn't know what to do. To say the least they want to move to a different home and she said that from that experience she was so sad that she wasn't baptized so shes going to do everything she can to get baptized. She might go live by herself in Sassari so we'll see! They are doing great though. 

We haven't been able to visit our investigators in Calangianus since last week, but they are reading and praying. We just have to get them to church now! We officially picked up a new investigator on Sunday. Drum roll please... Ignazio Mazzone agreed to take the lessons! We talked to him about it after church and he said he would love to take them and that he needs them. A few days before Sunday we went to talk to his wife to see if he was ready for the lessons and she gave us the thumbs up to ask! She also shared some tender stories about some of the reasons why he might have had this sudden change and this want to be closer to God. His sister has a tumor in her intestines that the doctors found recently. I guess it's been there for about two years so it's really serious. Because of this experience he's got down on his knees to talk with his Heavenly Father. On Sunday his wife asked him to bear his testimony in Gospel Principles class. He used to be atheist, but know he knows that God exists. Che bello! He's in Cagliari right now, but when he gets back we will have the first lesson with him. So either tomorrow or Friday. I can't wait to tell you all how it goes! Now is where faith, hope, and a ton of prayer come in handy!

Well, yesterday I had one of the coolest experiences that has ever happened to me so far on my mission happen. We did a split with the Sassari Anziani and I was in Olbia with Anziano Harris. We went to do a few pass backs in this one zone where we found a few potential investigators a few days earlier but we didn't have any success finding them and some were home but didn't answer the door. We were stopping nearly everyone the we saw on the streets (I'm so grateful that the car is gone, I'm starting to become a pro at street contacting and getting numbers - it's a huge testimony builder that the Lord strengthens our  weaknesses). In the end, we were not having too much success. We went to a few palazzi to do some house to house and the last door we knocked on a man told us to wait a second. When he opened the door Anziano Harris said that we were missionaries and that we were bringing a message about Christ and that we wanted to share it with him. He said alright and invited us inside. As we were walking in he changed his mind and said to come back another time. I was a little bummed, and as Anziano Harris started walking away I used my Sherlock Holmes skills to find clues. I looked inside his house and saw two newborn twins in car seats on the coach. I learned how to be very persistent from the assistants when we had our split, so I decided to put into practice.  Pretty much everything I said after this was completely lead by the Spirit. I first told him that we weren't Jehovah Witnesses, and that immediately took the weirdness away (it works well to say that) and right away I began teaching him truths about the family at the door and how we can live with our families forever, etc. He was really listening intently and again (knowing that we weren't J.W.'s, invited us in his home. We sat at the table and began getting to know him a little bit. He is a really young guy named Leonardo, married, with two new babies. It was also quite the coincidence because he has a really good friend living in California (where I'm from obviously), and a friend in Idaho (where Anziano Harris is from). We asked if we could began with a prayer and he was down for it. After that we taught completely relying on the Spirit. We didn't teach him the entire first lesson, just the parts that seemed to be the best for him at this time without overloading him with a ton of new stuff. We taught him a lot about the Book of Mormon and it all seemed to make sense to him. During the lesson he talked about an experience he had. He is a very religious guy, and of the Catholic faith. He took his two babies to be baptized, but while the ceremony was taking place he said he didn't have a good feeling about it and didn't like how the Catholic church worked. He said that their priests and other leaders shouldn't be men of God and wear gold, silver, and other expensive and flashy clothing. He also said more but I don't want to get into too much detail but to say the least he felt that the Catholic church didn't have all the truth. He said something that was perfect: "Today in the world it's hard to find all the truth." Immediately I opened the Book of Mormon to the most commonly used missionary scripture in Moroni 10. I asked him to read it and when he finished I bore my testimony to him. It seemed to really hit him. We asked if we could meet with him again and he said of course. He wasn't sure at what time he was free but we got his number and once we fix another appointment he will officially be a new investigator. It was such a cool experience with being led by the Spirit and listening to it's promptings. I have a lot of faith in Leonardo and he seems to be one of the elite! I've been prayer to find and baptize families! I think this is the answer. 

Last Thursday wasn't anything way special. We went to a recent converts home and helped him build this huge cabinet/closet/bed frame thing, so that was kind of fun. I love eating with him because he went to school to become a cook, therefore he makes good food. The only problem is that he has this huge, fat, stinky, old dog that likes to breathe on my food waiting for me to give him some food that I will never give. 

Friday was awesome. We did a full day of splits with the assistants! I was with Anziano Banks and it went so well. He was a week away from finishing his mission, so he knows missionary work in Italia! He taught me so much about how to get new investigators and it was amazing to see how much people you can find in one day. He also had a lot of little tricks he liked to do that actually worked and altogether I learned so much. During some finding work we actually found one of our investigator, Agostina's, nieces named Martina who agreed to meet with us! I wish the assistants could have stayed longer, but I'm grateful for their decision to work with us for a little while. 

Sunday was a bit crazy! All of the youth on Sardegna was doing a youth activity at the Branca house, and we had all of them and some parents in church. The Olbia chapel isn't a church building, kind of a little shop turned into a church. It's way small. Well we had about 50 people in this little broom cupboard, and some of us had to sit on primary chairs one foot off the ground. It was awesome to see that many people, but it was so crowded! After church we had a big lunch altogether and we all had fun together. 

On Monday we went to Sassari for a little district meeting and Anziano Harris and I came back to Olbia (about four hours of train riding). It was kind of cool, on our way to a teaching appointment these boys were playing soccer and one kid kicked it hard and it flew past one kid straight towards us. They yelled for me to kick the ball back to them, and I was super nervous, afraid that I wouldn't kick it well enough and ruin our good missionary name based on my lack of skill with soccer. Luckily, I kicked it and it flew right back to the kid. He was impressed and ran up to give me a handshake. He said something about how he didn't know J.W.'s could play soccer and we quickly cleared that up that we weren't them. It was way funny and I'm glad I didn't mess up!

That night we had FHE with the Mazzone's agian, and it was a blast, as usual. I was a little nervous though because it was all a mess of seafood dishes. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it and I'm excited to go try Bubba Gump Shrimp and Red Lobster back in the States.

Well that's the awesome week! Other than that I taught the beginning English course class for the first time and it was pretty difficult but I had fun! Things are going really good over here in Olbia. Are mission goal for the next few weeks is to find a bunch of new investigators before the holidays when it's hard to find new ones when they are all busy. We are working hard and we'll see baptisms soon! 

Thank you all so much for your prayers and your support! I couldn't do it without you all! 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. Take care and have a fantastic week! I love you and miss you so much! Vi voglio benissimo! 

Con grande affetto, 

Anziano Clay Lacey

Cinque mese nella missione!‏

Cari, 

Buona sera! We had a great p-day! We went to a beautiful island called La Madalena, just off the coast of Sardegna. The assistants spent the day with us and on Friday they want to do splits with us, so I'm very excited because I know I'm going to learn a lot from them. We took a bus around the island, and then decided that we wanted to go hiking in the rocks. We went to a Chinese store (they have sweet deals and they are kind of like thrift shops) and we got some sweet 'hook ups' because Anziano Banks speaks Chinese. We bought new outfits since we came to the island in our suits, and we had a blast and even played a little bit of two on two soccer in a mini soccer field. It was such a fun day!

Well I might have to keep this letter a little short. Our usual Internet point that we go to is closed for a little while and we get a deal from the Pakistani men who own it, and this other spot we are in is pretty pricey, so we'll see! This week was great! I'm trying to remember details because I usually prepare points to write about when I come to the Internet point, but I haven't prepared anything today! So here it goes:

Our investigators are doing great! The Tache family is doing a lot better. They came to church this week so we were very excited to have them their. They have also been a fountain of referrals, especially since here daughter and son-in-law seem really interested to hear about the gospel. It's still been a pain trying to get out their to see them, but we finally met the husband and he greeted us with big hugs, so that was cool. The Tache's have been seeing a lot of blessings and they are very grateful for them. We haven't been able to see Marissa yet. We had an appointment with her, and we walked an hour and twenty minutes to get there, but her daughter said she wasn't home, so that was a little disappointing. But the most disappointing thing was as we were writing her a little note to leave in the mailbox to say that we stopped by, we saw a window open and it was her. So we don't know what to think about that. We get our car back on Monday I think, so we will try to see her again. It's been impossible to see Agostina and her family since they live in Calangianus, but we have the assistants with us on Friday for splits so we will see her again then.

Ignazio Mazzone is doing well! He came to church again this Sunday and it was great to see him all dressed up in a suit. We stopped by their house to drop off some dishes that they gave us and we talked to his family a bit while he was getting dressed in the bedroom. His wife said that he has already stopped drinking and that they do scripture study everyday together as a couple. We are just trying to figure out what to do to start getting him to listen to the lessons! His wife said that she will talk to him about it so we are just waiting for that now. After he came out we taught their whole family a lesson and it went well. I'm still praying hard for him! All he needs to do is listen to the missionary lessons and he can be baptized! It was really cool, his wife, Sorella Mazzone just got called to be the Gospel Principles teacher so it was really cool listening to her teach to her husband mostly. We'll see some big miracles here soon!

Monday was a little crazy. We wanted to do district meeting, but didn't want the Sassari Anziani to come to Olbia because they had been traveling for days, so we took the train to Sassari. During the ride we had to make a switch onto another train, and in the process of that the phone slipped out of my pocket and I didn't realize it. On this other train a police officer came up to where we were sitting, and asked me to take out my phone. I thought that was extremely strange and right away that movie, Source Code, that we saw before I left popped into my head. I was scarred to death when I didn't have it and then he said that we left it on the other train, but that it will be in Sassari in a few hours to pick up. So we were phone-less for a bit.

We then met up with the Sassari Anziani at the train station and I met Anziano Hill from the same city that Six Flags is at. I think it's Valencia..?  Anyways, we had a great time traveling through SassariSassari (since he's not from Olbia). It was a fun day!

After we got back from Sassari we had an appointment to have family home evening with some members of the branch, and of course, they fed us, but while we were on the train we got a call from the Mazzone familgia that they wanted to have us over for their FHE also (and of course we couldn't pass that up since Ignazio was going to be there). In the end, we had two very huge dinners. I thought I was going to explode! It was so much fun being with the Mazzone's! Like usual. It's now a habit that every time we come over, their six year old daughter Laura, gives me a little lesson in Italian grammar of the things she is learning in school. She is so funny! And brutally honest when I make a mistake.

Yesterday we did a lot of finding work. We went to visit a former investigator from other Anziani in the past named Angela who is from Brazil. Her whole family is members of the church there, and she was very excited to see us. Her brother is coming to visit her soon, and said that they will be going to church together this week, so we are excited about that. We also knocked on a few houses and found some people that might be interested, but hopefully for the right reason. It was an apartment full of young women in their twenties, and they told us to come back, so it's a little sketchy. We will have to bring a member for sure! But one lady said she was really interested so we'll see!

English course is alright, we're just hoping to get an investigator from it soon. The numbers are dwindling, but there are a few people that might be interested in the Gospel, so we are keeping our fingers crossed!

Well that was basically the week! We are trying to be more productive, and overcome one of our biggest weaknesses, which is street contacting. It just gets so awkward at times, but it's what you're supposed to do, so it's my goal to overcome my fear of it during this transfer. So far so good! Besides people shrugging you off, but that's life as a missionary at times! Oh well!

I want to share a cool scripture that really hit me this week. It's Helaman 3:29-30:

-29 Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked—  -30 And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out.
I love this little passage of scripture. It uses some very detailed imagery and wording to express how important and significant it is to study the scriptures, and to "lay hold upon the word of God." This promises to us that if we study the scriptures, we will be protected against the adversary, and that we will LAND our souls in the kingdom of heaven. How powerful is that!? Of course these are things that you already know, but it's always good to get a little bit of reinforcement to back us up!

As far as the language goes, it's coming along! I'm working my butt off so that I have it down this transfer. I'm still having troubling speaking it a little bit, but "piano, piano" it's getting better. I'm excited for when you all get to hear me speak it next month!

Well to wrap this up I love you all tons! 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. Vi voglio bene! State bravi! Un abraccio! Take care and have a great week!
A presto,
Anziano Clay Lacey

Trasferimento #3: Un'altro a Olbia!!!‏

Buon Giorno la mia famiglia!!!

Tutto - Castle at Posado

Castle at Posado

We got the transfer calls, and Anziano Vitali and I are doing another one together in Olbia! We are both really excited and have set some high goals so that we WILL see baptisms this transfer. I can't believe that towards the end of this next transfer I will have six months down! I don't want to think about time... I might have to extend it to three years just FYI.

Things are going great here! We've had an interesting week with a few troubles but it always turned out good in the end. The heavenly virtue of patience has been needed! 

To kick this one off with the progress of our investigators. The Tache's have had a bit of a set back. They didn't come to church this week, and they have not wanted to see us very often. We've seen Iona more, but Ionel hardly at all because of his new job.

 The family that we found from Calangianus is doing great! They are called the Savigni family. We stopped by their house and met Agostina's husband for the first time, and he seemed great! He was also excited to see us and it sounded like Agostina had been talking a lot about us to him. We set up an appointment to see them this Friday, and we are trying to get her to read the Book of Mormon! We are really excited to see them again and we have high hopes for their awesome family! As far as Marissa goes, we will see her tomorrow, and we are really praying hard and preparing for this next lesson. Hopefully we can start seeing her more often than once a week about. 

On Saturday we went to Sassari for the Halloween party. It was a ton of fun, but Anziano Vitali and I were nervous the whole time as we waited for transfer calls that didn't come until 10 o'clock that night! As you have seen from Alessio's facebook, and according to your emails, yes, we were smurfs. Smurfs are really popular here in Italy apparently, and we decided it would be funny to be them. Also, in Italian, smurfs are called puffi, so we thought it was even funnier according to our little sense of humor! We had a ton of fun and ate some interesting food! Halloween in Italy is definitely not the same though. For example, nothing really happens on the 31st, but on November 1st everyone goes to the cemeteries to visit their dead relatives. It's definitely a national holiday because nearly everyone was off work. We went the cemetery just to see what it was like and it was packed! We then went to see one of our potential investigators named Giuseppe who was selling flowers near the cemetery for the mad rush. Then, on the 2nd of this month, the children (in the morning) do their trick-or-treating. It's weird because they don't dress up and it's clear daylight out. 

Sunday was a bit of a nightmare for me. Church was great, we went to Calangianus to do more work which was great, but we ran into some interesting people. While walking to Agostina's house, this woman with her two dogs came up to us and asked if she could talk to us for a minute. We said of course and then she then began to express her frustration because somebody forgot to close a gate and now there was a cow on the loose and she was afraid for her dogs safety. After about five minutes of venting she asked who we were. We gave her the spill, and she asked a very interesting question that I had never heard before, and that I thought I would never be asked on my mission. She asked if animals will be in heaven after we die. She then expressed her frustration again because the catholic priests told her that animals are damned because they can't be baptized and saved. We told her that even animals have spirits and that heaven wouldn't be heaven if we didn't have the people we love, even the pets we love also. I should have referred her to the movie, "All Dogs Go to Heaven." It would probably explain it more clearly. Well, we got into a classic gospel discussion, and she invited us to her house which was close by. We walked there and met her parents. Now, I want to be completely honest and descriptive as possible. I was a beyond a little nervous to go there, mainly because the lady wasn't entirely on the normal side. I couldn't imagine her home life too. Well her mom was 82 years old, and her dad was 93 and missing all of his teeth. I couldn't understand a word he said. The lady and her mom would yell back and forth about everything because they were having a bit of a communication problem. The dogs were running all over the house, it smelled funny, the old man was doing something funny with his lip, and the t.v. was on the highest volume possible yet, the yells of the two women surpassed the talk show on the t.v. until their voices broke the sound barrier and permanently scarred my eardrums. It was miserable. We managed to reach a calmer setting and get the yelling stopped with the t.v. turned down a bit and taught them a little lesson. Don't get me wrong, they were super nice, but it was just a comical setting. After we closed with a prayer and barely escaped from staying for dinner, I saw the old lady kiss Anziano Vitali. Now, I noticed the younger lady, that she had somewhat of a mustache that was thicker than uncle Lance's, but I didn't notice the old lady until she was pulling me in to embrace me for the kisses. Her face was covered in long, white hairs that poked and rubbed against my cheeks. Ewww. And then her daughter came in with the mustache, and her lips that had just smoked three cigarettes in the duration of the time we were there touched my cheeks too. It was a nightmare! After we left the house we sprinted to a bar and washed our cheeks in the bathroom. I tell you this so that my sufferings can give you a little laugh. 

After that we had a bit of bad luck for the next 24 hours. On our way home from Calangianus, Anziano Vitali turned the car and the power steering was acting funny, so he pulled over (at a spot that was extremely unsafe with traffic). He turned off the car for some reason, but it wouldn't turn back on. Great. We were broke down. Luckily, Claudio Branca was on his way back from Olbia dropping off his girlfriend, and after an hour of waiting for him he tried to see what was the problem. He couldn't figure it out so we at least pushed the car to a safer location and he gave us a ride home. President Branca is a mechanic so he's taking care of the car, but he says it won't be done until the end of this week. So we are car-less. When we woke up on Monday morning we didn't have any water, so we worked with the landlord for about an hour to fix it and to see what was wrong. After we figured that out our power was out, and had to figure that out and lost another hour. Things were a little crazy and stressful but we managed to get through it. It wasn't turning out to be the greatest Halloween! 

A member of the branch called us and needed some help at her store, so we went and worked there picking up refrigerators and other heavy devices until we were flat out exhausted. Neither Anziano Vitali nor I were in the greatest of moods. Well we received a call from sister Mazzone in our ward and she invited us over for dinner and family home evening. Now she is the one who's husband is a non-member but has just started going to church. We had an amazing night with them, and I have never felt closer to the feeling of being with you guys than I have when I'm with them. We played games, laughed at funny stories, and were taught an amazing lesson about trust. Her husband is such a great man, and I know he's going to join the church. I'm praying that he is my first baptism on the mission. Heavenly Father is definitely preparing his family to be together forever! It's such a beautiful thing, and I would ask that you all to include the Mazzone family in your prayers so that we can see them enter the temple and be sealed for eternity! Che bella!!! Miracoli ci sono! 

Well this was the week! It's going so good and I'm loving it. I'm having the biggest spiritual journey of my life, I'm having way too much fun, and I'm making some eternal friends. Who wouldn't want to serve a mission? Ya, you give a few things up for a little while, but you gain so much more! I'm too lucky to be serving here at this time. Wow. Well, I wish you all the best! Grazie per i vostri esempi per me! Vi voglio bene! Vi amo! Prego per voi ogni giorno! Alla prossima!

Con amore, 

Anziano Clay Lacey

Sono quasi finito con il mio secondo trasferimento!‏

Hey!!!

Happy Halloween!!! Yes, they celebrate Halloween here in Italy, but it's a little different and not as big as it is in America. Saturday night we are going to an activity in Sassari so I'm excited for that!

This has been an awesome week! Things have been going very well. To start off we have found two new investigators that have a lot of potential! We are really excited for them! The Tache's are doing well. They are still searching for a better house and Iona is finding work almost every day which is good. They still love coming to church and the members really like them, so all is well! We have finally been having more teaching opportunities, and a bit less of finding work, which is nice. It's hard to not get frustrated when going from house to house!

On Friday night we went to a town called Posada to visit some of our members that have the cutest family! Our main reason for going there first was to see a potential investigator we met in Olbia but lived in a tiny town close to Posada called Siniscola. We had a tough time finding his house, but he directed us there on the phone. When we got to the door his mother answered and shooed us away! We tried calling him back but he never answered. So we went and saw this family. We had so much fun and the nine-year-old girl named Sara had me help her with English homework and then I read a story about Rapunzel to the other little girl named Alice. It was a lot of fun and I love their family! They also made us a very good homemade pizza. We want to go visit a castle today for p-day which is close to their house so we'll see them again tonight. 

Posada

Castle on top of rocks

On Saturday, Alessio came to Olbia to help us out with teaching. We went to see Ritta again, but she still just wants to Bible bash. Alessio used to be Catholic, and so she is very interested to know the reasons why he left. We haven't made much progress with her, so we'll see what we'll do. I think the main thing she doesn't like about our church is that our priesthood authorities have families. I say that is something beautiful about our church! We also met with Iona and had a really good lesson with her regarding the First Vision. We wanted to build her testimony the God and Jesus Christ did in fact appear to Joseph Smith, and it was amazing to hear here bear testimony about it after we watched the Restoration video. We also went and visited on of our members who is very poor. His health is not the greatest, and he can't work. His daughter left for Madrid for work, but came home because she is having mental problems where she has little episodes and forgets her memory. It was very sad because when we went to his house she had an episode while we were there. After he calmed her down he began crying and we comforted him and shared with him some encouraging scriptures. It was a really sad and touching moment. 

Sunday was great! We had a lot of non-members in church. We saw a true miracle when one of our members brought her husband to church! Before, he didn't want anything to do with the church and utterly avoided it, but he finally came! We also were invited to their house for family home evening and it was amazing. This sister was so happy to have her husband there and be a part of the activity. We are praying hard that he will one day be baptized so that their family can be sealed in the Rome temple one day! He is a very great man and treats his wife with a lot of respect, which I really admire. Especially because just before we went to their house we were at our landlord's house (we are going to move church locations eventually and he tries to persuade us not to move) and he ordered his wife around like a slave!

After church on Sunday the Alessio invited us over for lunch so we decided to do some finding work in Calangianus. We worked for hours, and I was beginning to get frustrated, not going to lie. We hadn't found any true success at Calangianus before, therefore my 'hope tank' was running real low. Somebody called us and Anziano Vitali was talking to them on the phone. I sat down on the curb and said a little prayer for help. We were getting ready to head back to the Branca's house for dinner as we approached the last house on the street. We knocked on the door, waited for awhile, and then began walking away. As we were walking away a woman answered the door so we ran back up the stairs to greet her. We began talking, and she was a little hesitant at first. As we were "breaking the ice" she realized that we were normal, and invited us in the house. We asked if there was a man in the house (as a rule) and her twenty-year-old son and his friend were there. She was also very impressed and honored that we had that rule. She grabbed the two young men from the bedroom and brought them out to talk to us. We all hit it off right away! One of the guys was really into art and loved the fact that I made movies. The other was into economics like Anziano Vitali. We had a lot of fun talking and getting to know each other. After we all became best friends (the mom absolutely loved us), we taught them the first lesson. It went really well and we gave her a Book of Mormon. She said for us to come back again the next time we were in Calangianus, and she seems really interested in the gospel. We gave her some reading assignments, so we pray that she will feel the Spirit! We look forward to seeing them again soon. That would be amazing if the young men got baptized and served missions! I'll let my imagination go wild. 

I think the highlight of my week happened yesterday. We found this very nice woman named Marissa, but she kept postponing the time in which we would meet, but finally we had a set date for Tuesday. We went in the morning and she was very happy to see us. We sat a table on her front porch and began to get to know her a bit. She said that when she saw us for the first time she felt like she needed to meet with us and that we could bring a light into her life. It was so cool to here that! She then said that her daughter has been extremely ill lately, and has been going to the doctors to have tests to see if she has a problem with allergies to foods (something like that, I'm 100% perfect at understanding Italian yet) and she noted that things have been difficult. We told her how the Gospel blesses families and began to teach her the first lesson. She really enjoyed it and had a lot of questions. The only problem was that she seemed a little displeased with the fact that we don't pray to Mary or to the Saints. We will have to be very careful with what we say and how we teach her, but I feel that she is ready. We have another appointment to see her again and we hope that she comes to church. I don't know if I've talked about it yet, but in Italy they have a greeting they use by kissing each other on the left, then right cheeks. Of course as missionaries we aren't supposed to do it, but if somebody doesn't know we aren't supposed to deny it in order to not be rude. Well, Marissa gave us each the "baci" (pronounced ba-ch-e), which means that she really cares about us! It was hilarious, Anziano Vitali accidentally went for the right cheek while she was going for the left so they almost made lip contact! Hahaha. So far in Italy I've been "baci"-ed four times. Yes, I'm counting. 

Other than that we had English course again. We met a man named Fernando earlier that day wanted to know about English course, but then it got into a discussion about the Gospel. We the turned the conversation into a lesson as we opened up the church and taught him about the Restoration. He was literally blown away and left in awe. I wish you could have seen his face! He was really interested in the Book of Mormon and said he would start to read it. The thing that he was mostly blown away about was how well we spoke Italian. He told us that we were liars and that we couldn't have learned Italian this well, that fast. It was hilarious! He is a funny man who is a lawyer and we hope that he comes to English course often and becomes interested in the church! Giovanni gave me a book as a gift to help my Italian, so I was very grateful for that! The people here are so nice! 

Well that sums up the week! I am literally enjoying every minute of the mission. I love the people of Italy with all my heart. In just over a week I will be finished with my second transfer. I can hardly believe it because it seems like I haven't been her for that long at all. I don't want it to go by as fast as it has been so far! Too quick!!! This Saturday we'll se if I'm getting transfered out or not! I have a feeling I'll be here through Christmas. So we'll see! I'm scared though because I can't predict anything! President does have a reputation for sending elders from Olbia to Lecce on the mainland, so we'll see! 

To finish off, I love you Dad, I love you Mom, I love you Morgan, I love you Brooke, I love you Heather, I love you Greg! I miss you all tons! Have a happy and safe Halloween! No cavaties! Take care! Vi voglio un galassia di bene! Abbracci per tutti! Avete una settimana con miracoli e benedizione! Ricordatevi il Signore ogni giorno! Grazie a Dio possiamo vivere insieme per sempre! Sono molto grato per quello! A lo prossimo! Voi siete bravissimi!   

Con amore,

Anziano Clay Lacey

Sorridete sempre! :)

Buon Giorno!‏

Dear Family,

Ciao! Thanks for the awesome emails! It was really nice hearing from you all!

Things are great here in Europe! The weather on Sardegna can't decide whether it wants to stay hot or get cold but it's really nice! I'm looking forward to winter! We have been all over Sardegna this week and I'm pretty sure we've hit every major city. I've been exhausted! 

First, a little update on the investigators. The Tache's had a great blessing in their lives recently. Ionel found a full time job! It's a great job too and I think he works on boats or something like that. They are saving up so that they can buy a house to stay. It is starting to get very cold at night so this is a huge blessing. Iona has been finding a bit of work cleaning a lady's house so things are looking good for them! The only problem is that it looks like they can't get baptized unless they separate. So we'll see what happens. There are a few part member families that we are really working with to get their non member family members close to the gospel. We started teaching this one man who has a testimony of the church and most of all of the Book of Mormon. The only problem is he doesn't want to give up smoking to get baptized. It was really funny as he was telling us how mad he was at Emma Smith for the whole tobacco thing! He really doesn't like her. Another member who has a husband who is not a member set something up so that we could do a family home evening at her house. Her husband is slowly getting closer to the church as he is coming to more and more activities. We'll see! We also had a less active member come to the district conference with his family and he has been making a lot of progress. Other than that we are really trying hard to find new investigators. Our goal is two new ones each week as the standards of excellence. We really want to fill our time with teaching rather than finding, and we've been doing a ton of finding lately. But it's all fun!

Thursday was Anziano Vitali's birthday. The Anziani in Oristano have a baptismal date and they are both the zone leader and district leader so Anziano Vitali who is the other district leader had to do the baptismal interview. We drove all the way to Oristano, and then after the interview we went to McDonald's to celebrate his birthday. The young man that they baptized is so awesome! He is named Francesco and he is definitely one of the elect. He wants to serve a mission and it has been a lot of fun speaking with him at the conferences. It looks like the rest of his family might get baptized too! Miracle island of Sardegna!

On Saturday the Anziani from Sassari came into Olbia by bus and we drove to Cagliari. It was my turn to drive and I got stuck with the longest journey we had, but it's all good, I love seeing the beautiful Sard countryside! We made it to Cagliari and we went straight to the church building where the first session of district conference was to be held. President and Sister Kelly were already there, so it was fun to finally see them again! Conference was awesome. I sat next to this recent convert named Walter and it was fun speaking with him after the conference. Fratello Moro is another member that I really love from Sassari. I showed him my photo album and he loves our family! I need to take a picture with him and send it to you guys. He's got the deepest voice ever and it's so funny when he messes with the Sassari Anziani.  Anyways, right after the conference we had a Priesthood meeting where Alessio gave an awesome training. President Kelly (who is excellent at Italian) gave talks at every session of conference. 

It was fun being with all the Anziani at the Cagliari apartment. Anziano Green was transferred out and Anziano Longhurst who was a friend of mine in the MTC from the older zone was transferred in. We had a lot of fun catching up and he was telling me all about his first two transfers in Sicily. He saw some crazy things! I also talked to Anziano Larsen who is our zone leader and he only has two transfers left. He really gave me good tips on improving the language.

On Sunday we had one more session and then a lunch with the members. During the lunch President pulled me aside for my interview! It went good and from his hints I think I'll be on Sardegna for awhile! But who knows, people say that he is unpredictable! After that we finally had our zone conference and it was great. President really inspired us to work hard to find investigators. It had to be cut a little short because President and Sister Kelly had to catch their plane back to Rome. It was a great conference altogether, and I love being in Cagliari! Maybe I'll get to serve there!

That night we said goodbye and went to Sassari. We stayed the night there and decided to do splits and have both companionships work there. I was with Anziano Harris, and we did a lot of house work. I did have a really cool experience though, both with listening to the promptings of the Spirit, and with the Gift of Tongues. We were walking to go hit up another Palazzo when I saw to our right three mothers and their children. I felt like I should go talk to them. I told Anziano Harris and we walked over there. Two of the ladies rolled their eyes, but I walked up to them and said, "My name is Anziano Lacey, me and my companion are sharing a message for the family and how we can live together forever." While the ladies ignored me one was really interested. We talked for a while and we went over the Plan of Salvation pamphlet. She said she liked it all, but she had doubts. I told her that all doubt could be taken away through faith. She liked what I said a lot, and said that she wanted to come to church to see what it was like. It was an awesome experience! And a cool part was Anziano Harris didn't have to help me with the language at all! Too bad she's in Sassari... Just kidding!

I had a few more interesting experiences in Sassari. One young lady we stopped said that I looked like Leonardo DiCaprio... but more beautiful. I was like... Thanks..? It was funny, and a nice compliment, I'm not going to lie! Another time we were on a bus and this teen aged girl kept touching my leg! Weird stuff!

The past couple of days haven't been too exciting besides English course. I tried to introduce the Gospel to Giovanni... But I'm afraid I offended him a little because he is Buddhist and doesn't believe in Christ at all. I had no idea and I hope he comes back. At least I tried...

Other than that we are really trying to find new investigators. It's hard, but with a little prayer and hard work, it's definitely possible! Things are going good, and I appreciate all your prayers and support. 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. Vi voglio bene!!!!

Anziano Clay Lacey

4 Months in!

Hey guys!

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

Dear Family!

Dear Family,

Ciao!!! Come state? Tutto bene qua! It's so nice to finally write back again! This has been another great week!

I guess I'll start with chronological order. We have been doing a bunch of finding work this week. Besides the Tache's and Ritta we have not been able to make contact with our other investigators. We see the Tache's almost everyday, and Ritta can only meet once a week, therefore, we need to do a lot of finding to get more investigators! So far we haven't found much luck, but it'll come! Every person who is not interested in the Gospel is closer to another who is interested. On Thursday we met somebody who is quite the character! We came to a gate and rung the bell. This older lady came out and she was so happy to see us! Her name was Anna and she let us into her home. Her husband was there but he didn't feel like coming out to greet us. She kind of freaked me and Anziano Vitali out! She was extremely nice, almost freakishly nice, and her eyes were opened wide like a bush baby (the world's smallest monkey I think), and she would never blink. She loved us and as she gave us this weird tasting pastry with eggplant inside she told us that she met with the missionaries with the past - but it didn't go anywhere. She was also very blatantly Catholic because she had statues of a bunch of the saints and the virgin Mary decorated in her home. She was super nice, but she kept insisting that we come and stay at their house whenever we felt lonely and told us to come over for every holiday and offered us money and stuff. It was all way nice, especially since she pulled out a little prayer book and had us write down our names and a little paragraph of our troubles so she can pray for us whenever she goes to church. She calls us ALL the time to update us on what she prays for. Funny stuff so we'll see her here and there and hopefully she doesn't kidnap us!

Conference was an interesting experience. We drove all the way to Sassari to see it. Sassari has a nice chapel, and we were expecting to watch it on the overhead projector, but no one could figure out how to work it so we gathered around a laptop to watch it. Saturday night we watched the Saturday morning session, and wow was it hard to understand! The translators were speaking fast in order to keep up with the talks, and some of the grammar was difficult since the Brethren speak very profoundly in English, and the translators were trying to do the same in Italian. I did manage to get a lot out of it and I loved Presidente Uchtdorf's talk on the worth of souls in the site of God. I came into General Conference with a personal question, and his talk sure answered it. I'm not sure if this is what the talk said in English, but in Italian I got a phrase out of it that I liked a lot. He said that man is nothing (since there are several scriptures that point out to that) but souls are everything to our Heavenly Father. I think it's important to remember that God is literally our Father in Heaven and there are no words and no earthly examples that can compare to his love for us. At times it is hard for our minds to encompass the fact that we, every person on the earth, every person who has lived on the earth, and all that will live, are, in reality, his children and he knows us with a very deep personal relationship that we don't have with anyone else. All we need to do is trust him and have a testimony that he did the ultimate sacrifice of love for us by giving his Only Begotten Son. Ya this is all stuff I already knew of course, but it was nice to have a strong reconfirmation to fortify my testimony. I love how the Gospel works.

We then went on a little giro (walk around) around Sassari with the Anziani and went to a pizzeria. It was a fun night and I really enjoy the stares you get from others being a 19 year old in a suit, tie, and name tag! 

It was awesome, the Tache's came for one of the sessions on Sunday! They were so excited to see the Prophet talk, and they were there for the Sunday morning session (which was at 6 p.m. our time). I was so happy to see them there, and they sacrificed a lot in order to be there. It is one of the most tender and sweetest things in the world to watch, over time, people gain a testimony. I saw the testimony of a living prophet grow in Iona as she listened to the Prophet speak about temples, and she cried when he bore his testimony. It was a beautiful thing. Ionel loved it also, and got a kick of President Monson's story about the money he lost. All the members of Sassari were extremely nice to them and very welcoming. To say the least, it was an amazing step for the Tache family! They are continuing to make great progress, staying true to commitments, and they are looking forward to baptism. It looks like they are doing all they can for the divorce and remarry situation. He thinks he can get the divorce in a week or two! Lets pray it happens!      

Going home from Sassari to OlbiaSassari. Well, there was a little mistake and the Tache's missed their train, which was the last one that night until 7 o'clock the next morning. So, we had to call President to get permission to drive them home since there was no other way for them to get home. It was a long night, and driving around a large city, in Italy, at night, was crazy when you don't know where you're going. We didn't get to Olbia until about 11 that night and it was a miserable night but we had a nice talk with the Tache's in the car. 

Remember that seventeen year old from Brazil that we found who was a member? He's been tough to contact lately, and he works a bunch so he hasn't come to church. Well we stopped by two nights ago and we finally got to talk to his mom! She is also Brazilian and married an Italian so that's why she's here now. She was way cool and she told Igu to invite us to play soccer with him and his friends, so I look forward to that soon! Hopefully we can get him and her to church!

Last night we started a free English course at church! We had about 15 people show up, and it looks like they had a blast! We are praying to find an investigator through this program. One man, Giovanni, lived in England for about 4 years, and came to do some conversation since he hasn't spoken English for awhile. We talked for about an hour, and I feel confident that he could be ready to hear the message, so I'll work my way to fit something in with our conversation the next week!

The Italian is coming along, and I think I'm going to try to do a whole week in all Italian so that I can force myself to start thinking in Italian. I want to have the language down this transfer so that I can keep building up from there. Alessio is helping me a lot with the language. Whenever we go to his house for ward council I will read a page of the Book of Mormon out loud so that he can help me with the word and my accent. I want so bad to have somewhat of an Italian accent when I speak! Some people say it's impossible, but I think if I immerse myself in it I can pick something up!

Well that's the week. Things are going great! The mission is awesome, and it's the best thing in the world! 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. Thanks for all of your support! I love you all so much! Vi voglio un saco di bene! 

Anziano Clay Lacey