Amo la missione!‏

Hey guys!

Thank you all so much for the emails! I am glad you are all doing so good! Wow this has been a good week. It seems like things just keep going up and up! The investigators are doing great, and the work in general is moving forward.

Adhemar had been really sick for the majority of the week but we saw him on Tuesday with Fratello Murgia. We began teaching him the commandments, and we had a really good lesson. He was talking a lot about baptism on his own, and so when the Spirit was strongest and after we had borne our testimonies, I gave him the baptismal invite. We had a date in mind for the 28th of April, and so we invited him, and he said that he wants to study more, and pray more so he can know with a surety that these things are true. He said that this is going to be a huge knew step in his life that can't be taken lightly, so he wants to prepare more. I respect him a lot for that. Keep praying for him and who knows, maybe he'll be ready for the end of April!

Things are going great with the referrals he gave us! Monday night we went and tried a young couple that lives in the same apartment building as Adhemar. They work a ton, and are hardly ever home, so we hadn't been able to see them until then. We didn't meet the wife, but we did a lesson with Ronald, who is also from Bolivia, and he is very interested in the Gospel. We have another appointment with him next Wednesday, and I'm sure we'll have the lesson with his wife also. 

Another miracle, we contacted the other family he gave us, came a few times but there was only the young daughter, Margherita, home, so we fixed an appointment to meet with her when her family was home. We saw her Tuesday, but no one else in the family participated in the lesson unfortunately (the brother, the older sister, and the older sister's boyfriend). The lesson went well, she is awesome, and she is very interested in the gospel, but there's only one problem. Margherita is only thirteen years old! We had no idea until she told us because she looks way older and acts way older than she is! We have another appointment set but we don't want to teach her more until we can teach her with her mom who wasn't home at the time, or at least so we can get permission and teach her with Adhemar who is her uncle. Pray hard that this situation will work out because we need young women in the branch! The only young woman turned eighteen right when I came. 

We also found another new investigator named Michel. He is from Chad (I think that's how you spell it in English), and he is so awesome. He speaks French, Italian, Arabic, a little bit of English, and is studying for in some kind of masters program here in Sassari. We found him at a bus stop and we started a conversation until we talked about the gospel and got his number so we could meet with him. The cool thing is that the Christians are very low in number in Chad, because the country is mostly Muslim,  so it was a miracle altogether that our paths met!

Enoch is still doing great and making great progress. He came to church for the second time, and made some great friends. One of the little kids in the branch thought that he was a professional soccer player so he asked for his autograph- it was so funny! Since he's taken the missionary lessons he's noticed a new light that has come into his life and it's amazing to hear him share that testimony with us. 

Other than that we have been meeting with some less-actives and trying to get everyone excited for General Conference! 

Tuesday night the assistants, Anziano Gatchell and Anziano Wright (who served in Sassari), came to give us some supplies and to give a new car to Olbia. They are such studs and it is awesome to learn new things from experienced missionaries. They wanted me to say hi to you all, by the way! I guess on the mainland (since hardly anyone in the mission knows me because I've been on Sardegna the whole time) I'm starting to be known as the elder who looks like Leonardo DiCaprio. It's getting worse!

For p-day we went down to Olbia, found a nice beach, and played some soccer and football. We had a blast and even got some sun which was nice after being bundled up during winter. We then had an activity back in Sassari with the Elders quorum and watched the documentary on President Monson, "On the Lord's Errand." I've seen it before, but as I watched it I realized how grateful I am to have a living prophet on the earth today to lead and guide us. I want people to realize this truth for themselves! God loves us so much, and one sees this from what He does for us. 

I love you all so much! Thanks for all of your support and for your prayers. 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. Have a great week! I miss you all tons and I can't wait until May to see and talk to you guys! Vi voglio tanto bene!

Anziano Clay Lacey

Another Great Week!‏

Hey guys!

This has been another great week! We are continuing to receive a ton of blessings here in Sassari, and the work is definitely moving forward. Our investigators are doing great, and we are really excited as we come into April. The language is going good! We speak nearly only Italian on most days, and I felt good as my English class told me that I was starting to get a Sardo accent! That might not be a good thing though because I think the rest of Italia make fun of their accent!

As for the investigators, they are making great progress. We are really gaining the member's trust, and they are beginning to come with us to lessons with these investigators much more. For example we took this young guy named Gianluca with us to have a lesson with Enoch, and it went well. To us it was a huge, yet simple miracle- Enoch came to church and loved it. It was his first time, and people were very friendly with him. In fact, they think he has one of the most beautiful names ever! We have another member from Nigeria, but unfortunately she wasn't there because I think they'd hit it off well! It is so amazing to see the change in Enoch's life. 

We had an awesome lesson with Adhemar on Monday. Unfortunately he didn't come to church, but he is reading so much of the Book of Mormon. He just gets things instantly, and understands the principles so well. Definitely a 'golden investigator'. We taught the Plan of Salvation with a member named Fortunato Masala who is a stud. The Spirit was so strong as we discussed these topics and then after the lesson was done his wife came home from work and we talked with her and broke the ice a bit with her. 

One of the best parts about the lesson didn't happen until the end. Part of me is embarrassed to tell this, but it's a cool story. As missionaries we ask for referrals from everyone. When we contact people we don't know we always ask if they know someone who would be interested. Obviously we are supposed to do this with our investigators, but for some reason we always forgot with Adhemar. At the end of the lesson I felt so strong that I should ask him for friends, acquaintances, or whoever that could benefit from the things we are teaching him now. Right then and there without thought he gave us six people! It was amazing! It's amazing what the Spirit does to help us, even in reminding us of the simple things we are supposed to do. Tonight we have planned to contact these six people and I have faith that we will have new investigators.

Speaking of new investigators we found one Friday morning! When doing house contacts a few weeks ago we found this lady named Emanuela who had attended our English course years before, and then got married, had two kids, and didn't have time after that. When we met her she told us that we could come back and share our message with her. Well we tried for a few weeks and she was never home. We were in the area Friday morning and an appointment fell through, so we decided to try again. Luckily she was home! She told us that she didn't have much time because she was about to go to work, but she let us come in. We met her beautiful little family, and we had a lesson with her. We asked her about her spiritual desires, and she said that she wants to be closer to God, and she is searching for another faith in which she can express her love for Him. Perfect. We explained to her our purpose as missionaries, asked her if we could teach her these lessons, and she agreed. We are so excited for her! I'll keep you all posted on how things go with her. She is really busy with work, but no doubt she'll make the gospel a priority in her life!

Another miracle happened. We finally had a lesson with Maddalena! First off, it's hard to explain her personality, but she is a jokester, sometimes a bit stubborn, but always full of love. She has been extremely busy with her job, yet comes to church nearly every week because she works for this family in the branch and lives with them. Finally she was available to have a Family Home Evening with us and the Murgia family at their home. We had a great time, and we decided that we were going to talk about happiness. We watched the film 'Finding Happiness' and then got into a great discussion about that. Maddalena talked about how much she loves the church, and how grateful she is to the Murgia family for their example of showing their happiness on an everyday basis. We then started bearing testimony, and the Spirit was so strong, so I felt like we needed to talk to her about baptism. I expressed to her the love that we all have for her, and told her that we want to help prepare her for baptism, and in order to do that we would need to meet with her twice a week. I promised her that if she would do this, she would find more happiness in her life. She accepted! We are really excited for her and pretty soon we hope to set her a baptismal date. Joking about the lesson later on she says that when teaching lessons I'm dangerous, in a good way, whatever that means???

To share some funny stories we've had some moments that have really almost brought us to tears from laughing so much. We decided to do weekly planning in centro of the city one evening because we thought that going home to do it would take too much time before going to our next appointment. It turned out to be a bad idea. We got caught up holding back our laughter from this poor kid about Greg's age learning how to roller-skate. He was the most diligent little guy I've ever seen! He fell countless times, almost took out an old lady, and crashed into planters left and right. Later on we saw this drunk guy who almost fell as he walked in figure eights around the city square, and then he disappeared. We saw him again a few minutes later with a gelato in hand (Italian ice cream) and he was singing a song about how good his gelato was. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. This is all a bit random, but I am grateful to see funny things like this everyday. This isn't even the half of it! I'm excited for when I come home and can recount to you all the funny things I see!

Well that's about it for the week! Things are amazing here in Sassari! We are so lucky and blessed by the Lord. I know for a fact why He wants me here in Sassari, and I would do anything to stay longer. 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 an awesome week! Send my love to everyone! Vi voglio una galassia di bene!

Con amore, 

Anziano Clay Lacey

"...quale gioia è ciò per il mio cuore, sapere che vive il Redentore." (Hymn:I Know that My Redeemer Lives"

Cara famiglia mia!‏

Cara famiglia, 

Ciao! Hey guys! I miss you all so much! This has been an awesome week! We've had a pretty good start to the new transfer. Right now we are in Olbia for a p-day together before Anziano Vitali and Anziano Casillas leave the island. They stayed a little extra because Anziano Casillas had a baptism down in Oristano and Anziano Vitali had to get things done for his Permesso di Soggiorno. Therefore we are all together for a last hurrah! This is going to be the first time I'm going to be without my "babbo" in the mission field since Anziano Vitali will be gone!

The investigators are doing great. There are two that are making the most progress, Adhemar and Enoch. We've had a few really great lessons with Adhemar lately. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and then we even felt promted to talk to him about our purpose as missionaries is to invite others to be baptized. We invited him to pray about baptism so that he can begin preparing himself for that. Hopefully we can set a baptismal date here soon! He is so awesome. He is reading everyday and is already halfway through 2 Nephi! He has been praying about the Book of Mormon and said that he has dreams about the stories in it. Super powerful stuff! We are still hoping well for his family. 

Enoch is doing great too. Actually that might be an understatement! We have a baptismal date set for him for the fourteenth of April! We have had some great lessons with him and he has really expressed his desires to change and be closer to God. We told him that we can do that through making covenants with the Lord, that is, baptism. As a goal for him to begin this changing process we set this date. We taught him the Plan of Salvation recently and he really liked it and asked great questions. Speriamo bene!

Other than that we have been trying to get things rolling with the others, but no luck for now. We are afraid that one investigator thinks that we are only here to be friends and hang out. He invited us to go get a drink (soda) at a bar with him and his girlfriend (one second- Italian bars are a lot more different from a stereotypical American bar! They are family-friendly haha) and it was fun, but we aren't here to hang out every night, like he's been trying to do. He is awesome though, and his sister just had a baby and he was there holding her hand through it and he said it was the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to teach the Plan of Salvation so we have an appointment set with him for Thursday. That day he also wants to take us to meet his sister and his new niece named Aurora. Beautiful name, huh? It means 'dawn' it Italian. 

(Hey I gotta go but I'll be sure to get on and write more soon! I love you all so much! I'm so proud of all of you! I'll get back to you all later today hopefully!)

Sempre a Sassari!‏

Dear Family!

Mediterranean Snowman!

 

Service Project - cleaning up after a fire at someone's home - Good thing he got experience working for the Smithson's at Service Master

MTC friends reunited at conference in Rome

We got the transfer calls and we're doing another transfer together here in Sassari! I have a feeling I'm going to be here forever, but that's okay! The craziest part is that Anziano Vitali is being transferred to the same city he was in before Olbia! Lecce, the city he was born at! That's pretty much unheard of! He is way excited though. Right now I'm tied for 'king of the island' with Anziano Shaw down in Oristano because we've been here for the same amount of time. I think I might hit my year mark in Sassari! We'll see because president's transfers are completely unpredictable! I'm still the youngest elder in Sardegna, but I got my first leadership position as district leader and taught my first training in Olbia.

This week has been absolutely fantastic. As far as numbers go it has been the best of my mission. We taught many lessons, found new investigators, and even had them in church. We've been extremely blessed and I do not know why. 

My testimony of the Book of Mormon has really grown these past couple of days. Studying it and noticing the simplicity of how pure it is has really hit me, especially as we are exhorting Adhemar to gain a testimony of it for himself. We've had a few very good lessons with him, and you can already see the change in his life. He reads the Book of Mormon everyday, and tries to share it with his family. He came to church for the first time on Sunday, and it was absolutely amazing. He actually passed up an invite to go to this lunch thing with the J.W. members and his family, and instead he came to church with us. Apparently they aren't too happy. In fact, we had a lesson with him yesterday, and a few J.W.'s showed up and did a study session with his daughter in her bedroom. It was a very awkward situation but Adhemar laughed when they went away and said that they were very jealous that we have began teaching him instead of them. He really hit it off well with our members and they were all very friendly with him. I'm excited to see how things go. 

Speaking of how well church went, we had another investigator show up, Maurizio, the 21 year old guy. It was amazing, he came, talked to president like he wanted, and then stayed for Sacrament Meeting. He was asking good questions, was very attentive, and loved hearing every one's testimonies. The most random thing happened though, he stood up to bare his testimony! It was an awesome, heartfelt testimony that he knows that God lives, and that he was "excited to be a part of this new community"- talking about our branch. We talked to president after, and he said that even if nothing happens with him as far as him progressing in the gospel, we really saw a miracle that day. The members were so nice to him and he says he's going to start frequenting our church! 

I think we might start getting a ton of referrals now because the members love us. They joked with us that missionaries usually bring people to church that are a little strange, but to have two, absolutely awesome people in church was a huge accomplishment. I'm sure we'll have much better missionary member work now. 

We also picked up an ex-investigator Sunday night. His name is Enoch, and he is from Africa! He used to have a fixed baptismal date a few months ago, but then he wasn't progressing and didn't come to church so nothing happened. He expressed to us that he is ready to begin again, and he said that he's been reading the Book of Mormon- which is great! We have really been blessed with solid investigators.

Oh, I had the opportunity to do an unusual thing on my mission. We got a call from a less-active member that he had a service opportunity for us. It turns out that this service opportunity was to cut his hair. Kind of weird... but hey, we'll do it. We got to his house, and I noticed that his hair was already fairly short. He filled a bucket of water and then grabbed a razor and shaving cream. That's when I realized that he wanted us to shave him bald! Well, I had never used a razor in my life (because I use an electric one) so I thought I was going to luck out on it. My companion didn't feel comfortable doing it, so it fell on me to begin rubbing shaving cream on his head, and shaving him bald. It was... fun... I guess, and the member was very thankful and said that I did well. I'm just glad that there was no blood! 

When we went to Olbia on Monday I got to see the Tache family, and they are doing well! He is determined that I will baptize him and Anziano Vitali will baptize Iona when they are able, no matter where we are in the mission! Ignazio is doing so good and they are preparing to go to the temple in due time. 

That's the update! Things are going so well. I just hate how quick the mission is going by. I miss you guys and I can't wait to see you all, but sometimes I feel like two years isn't enough time. That's why I got to use it more wisely!!! 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. Have a great week! You all are awesome! Vi voglio benissimo! Alla prossima!

Con affetto, 

Anziano Clay Lacey

It's been too long!

I feel the same way! A week and a half feels like forever to write back!
Well I'm doing great and I'm glad that you are all well too. The trip to
Rome was a ton of fun, and I definitely learned a lot of useful things from
it.
 
I'll start off with how the conference went. After our p-day with Olbia we
took the train all the way down to Cagliari. Turns out that train ride was
more expensive and longer than our flight! Well after a stressful drive
from the train station to the airport (it was carnival week here in Italy
and lots of partying) we got to the airport and took about a 45 minute
plane ride into Rome. We got picked up by the assistants and stayed at the
Rome 2 apartment. It was so awesome meeting new missionaries. In the
morning we got up and took a bus to the mission office/Rome 2 Ward
building. There I saw a ton of missionaries I knew from the MTC, some I met
in the field, and we had an awesome time talking and catching up. I felt
very loved because being on the mainland my MTC group has seen each other
around, and they all greeted me and gave me hugs like a friend abandoned
and cast away on some far away island. Now I'm just kidding, but it was
great to see some friends, especially Anziano Decker who is now in a city
close to Napoli.
 
Elder Teixera was so awesome! He gave a great training and it really
inspired me to work harder. He was so full of love, and really stressed on
the need for us to find new investigators. Statistically our mission
average for finding new investigators isn't the greatest, and he promised
that if we worked harder and had more faith, we would see an improvement in
every aspect of our work. Well me and Anziano Hill have been putting that
to the test and we have been extremely blessed. Our numbers are already
twice as good as the week before, and we are only a two and a half days
in!
 
The Sardegnian guys were the last to leave the conference so I got to meet
a lot of people after. We got taken to the airport right away, so I didn't
see anything really that cool around Roma, but that's okay, I will
eventually. The flight back was good, and then we went to Cagliari, ate a
pizza, and went to bed. The next morning we hopped back on the train for
Sassari. Let's just say that all that traveling- bus, train, car, plane,
etc. was really tiring! We were dead by the time we got home.
 
The remaining course of the week was filled with us helping out some
members who's house had burnt up about two years ago. It's hard to describe
but I'll be sure to send pictures! It was basically very ashy, and messy.
You'll see.
 
Well we haven't been able to meet with any of our investigators for awhile.
Adhemar has been busy working for his driver's licence (getting the
driver's licence here in Italy is a nightmare it seems like), we had
to stop seeing one, and Maddalena is always hard to meet with because
she goes to Cagliari and works a ton. We do have an appointment set to
see Adhemar tomorrow so we are really excited for that. We saw him on
the bus the other night and had a good talk with him and he is doing
well. This next lesson should be great!
 
Well like I said before, this week has been amazing so far. Monday
morning we went to go pass back to a few people we found and one of
the ladies let us in. We taught her the first lesson and we got a
return appointment for next Monday! Her name is Marissa; she is an
older lady and super sweet and nice. Tuesday, while on the bus we were
talking to a man named Fabbio and when he saw the Book of Mormon in
our hands he said, "I need you guys to tell me about this book." We
got his address, gave him a copy, and tried to pass by his house. He
was busy then, so we set an appointment for him to meet us in church
this morning, but unfortunately he didn't show. We'll see how it goes.
He is a little particular. I mean, when we gave him the book he kissed
it so that was a bit interesting. But on a better note while we were
waiting for him this guy from English course showed up! It was totally
random but way awesome!
 
A little back story, this guy's name is Maurizio and he and his
girlfriend showed up to English course last night. He is 21, a singer,
and such a cool guy! After English course we do a spiritual thought
and his girlfriend got freaked out for some reason, so while Anziano
Hill taught the spiritual thought I talked with them out in the hall a
little bit about our church and everything went well. I was a little
worried that they wouldn't come back again, but seeing him this
morning was a huge surprise! He sat down with us, and started sharing
a few things about his past, and said that he wanted to talk to the
leader of our church here in Sassari...
 
Other than that we have been having good success with finding people.
I've been pretty bad at street contacting lately, but the confidence
is growing back up! Another cool thing, Anziano Hill and I have been
masters at speaking Italian with each other! We hardly speak English,
and our Italian speaking skills are definitely increasing!
 
A bit of a funny story real quick:
 
Yesterday morning I mentioned to my companion that it would probably
be a better idea to cross streets at cross walks. He said that I was
too American and that it doesn't matter in this country. Well, on the
same night, we got off the bus, and I headed for the crosswalk. He
walked behind the bus, and as the bus pulled away, the car behind it
started driving forward not paying attention, and hit Anziano Hill. It
wasn't way bad, but I witnessed my companion get hit by a car. To say
the least it was a perfect I told you so moment. I refer you to his
blog were you can get his side of the story. He jokes that it was my
fault because we usually take the number three bus, but I wanted to
take the number one, and then this happened. Just a little good laugh.
I will never let him live this one down!
 
Well this has been an amazing week so far, and I'm excited to see how
it's going to pan out. I'm so lucky to be here in Sassari and I hope I
do not get transferred, because I've never seen the work here more
better than this. Thank you all so much for your prayers! I definitely
feel them! 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! Have a great
week! Vi voglio benissimo!
 
Love,
 
Anziano Clay Lacey

Più Miracoli!!!

Hey guys!

Well I'm here in Olbia waiting to take the train down to Cagliari so we can take our flight tonight! Things are going good. I probably won't have a ton of time to write today because we are using the computer in the church and there is only one for four missionaries so we'll see. This hasn't been the most eventful week besides with our lesson with Adhemar on Saturday, so it will be quick. 

I'll start from Thursday: In the morning we did some finding work and then in the afternoon we met with some less-actives with one of our members. The whole situation was extremely comical because the member we brought was the fratello with the deep voice and he is very intimidating and also a "box breaker".  Well the father in the household that we went to visit had something wrong with his ear that he wasn't going to get fixed (because I'm guessing that not hearing served him better than hearing in a chaotic environment). Anyways, after us as missionaries taught our lesson (practically yelling) the fratello finished off with a lesson on the importance of coming to church. Hearing him speak on that subject, loud, and with his deep voice would have scared anyone to come back to church! It was way funny and you had to be there!

On Friday the Anziani da Olbia came because Anziano Vitali had to begin renewing his Permesso di Soggiorno to stay in the country for the remaining year of his mission. We did a split and I took him to his appointment and we had a great time together. After serving with each other for almost six months we truly consider ourselves brothers! He is doing a great job as Zone Leader. Well on our way back home Anziano Vitali and I were waiting on the bus and as we were talking Adhemar popped out right in front of us! It was so cool seeing him at random (or was it) and we had a great time talking to him. He said he was excited to meet with us the following day, and we parted ways after we rode the bus for a little while together.

Saturday was fantastic! The lesson we taught didn't go exactly as planned, but it went amazing anyways. The Spirit was definitely there! Well we came prepared to teach the first lesson to his family. When we showed up his family was out and about running errands, cooking, etc, so it was just us for the lesson, until his mother-in-law sat in and joined us later on. Well we didn't have anything planned to teach him right at the moment, or so I thought at first. We decided to just talk about the things we left him to read-which was a ton of stuff! He read everything, and asked great questions. Then his questions became more difficult. He said he had a bit of a problem about an interpretation of the scriptures. He took us to 1 Corinthians 13. When we opened there, I immediately knew that God had prepared me for that moment. At our last Zone Conference President talked a lot about charity. That has been my focus of study for the last while, and I spent about three days of study in this particular chapter, so I knew it pretty well. It says:

 8 Charity never ^afaileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whetherthere be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

 10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

He then shared that what he learned from the Jehovah Witness teachings is that they say Jesus Christ is the "perfect which shall come" and that when He does, all prophecies, tongues, and other gifts of the Spirit shall be gone away. Well we know that here Paul is only speaking about how important it is to have charity and that even if other things failed, charity would not. It's important to read the whole chapter to go in depth on this. It's really just a simple chapter about the beauty of charity, but it is misinterpreted to something completely different. After we explained this to him I shared that I have a testimony of the gifts of the Spirit. I told him that they were real, and that eight months ago I had never known a word in the Italian language, and now I'm here sitting with him and teaching him these things in that very language. After we shared these things with him he began to get teary-eyed. He told us that that was exactly what he needed to hear. He then proceeded  to share with us some personal stories. He said that he too has a gift through dreams. He told us a few of these experiences that he had when his dreams have helped him out some way in his life. One example of that was when he was back in Bolivia. His cow was lost (and it was very important for them to have it as a valuable source of produce and a way of survival) and that night, after a long day of searching for it, he had a dream of a location he was very familiar with, and saw in his dream that the cow was there. When he woke up in the morning he went to that spot and sure enough the cow was there. Things like this have happened to him several times and he knows they were all help from our Heavenly Father. Well when he began  studying with the Jehovah Witnesses, he shared these experience with them and they referred him to this misinterpretation, and said that since these dreams were only for his benefit they weren't from God, and possible from the devil and that he needed to be careful. He said that those words destroyed him spiritually, and shaked his faith. When we told him that he truly did have this gift, that these things are from God, and that he is literally a child of Him, I can only imagine how good that felt to him, and he gave us his thanks for enlightening him on that subject. He then said he now understands this verse:

11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

After we all felt the Spirit very powerfully, bore testimony, and closed the lesson, he introduced us to his family. They are all so cool! He invited us over to stay for lunch, and we had a great time making friendships. Their family reminds me so much of ours! They are so close and love each other a lot. We only met them that day but I felt as close to home as ever when I was there. I will tell you more about them as time goes along, but I have a very good feeling about this family. 

Well I am out of time! I love you all so much and I look forward to writing again soon! Take care and have an awesome week! 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 benissimo! 

Con amore, 

Anziano Clay Lacey

Hey guys!‏

Buon giorno!

I am glad everyone is doing good! This week has really flown by. Things are going really great and I'm hoping the snow will stop coming! Church was canceled on Sunday because of it (but the snow really wasn't that bad) so I was a little bummed that we missed a Sacrament meeting as missionaries. I was asked to give a talk and I got out of it so maybe it's a sign that I need to prepare better!

And news about going to Rome. Unfortunately, we are flying out of Cagliari (some missionaries had a very negative experience on the boat coming in and did some complaining I'm thinking). We will have our preparation day on Tuesday, so you guys can write me Monday night, and then we take the train to Cagliari that day where we'll fly to Rome that night. Our conference is on Wednesday in the morning and we fly out of Rome that night so I don't think there will be much site seeing! Elder Teixeira from the Seventy will be speaking to us. I guess he spoke a few months ago too before I came into the mission and according to some he's quite the strict guy, and as you say in the very popular Italian phrase; "he breaks boxes (rompere la scatola)". The only missionaries I've really heard say that though are the one's that need to have "their boxes broken!" So I'm really excited to hear from a general authority, and fun Rome stuff will have to wait for another time!

First, I want to give you guys a link. I've been on the Church website and I saw this video, and she came to the MTC and gave a talk/performed for us so I'd thought you guys would like to see: http://www.lds.org/church/news/grammy-nominated-artist-shares-testimony-through-music?lang=eng

Okay, I'll begin with details on the investigators like usual. Unfortunately they aren't making much progress. We try to meet with them, but they are always busy. A bit of good news though, when we called Maddalena Sunday night to set an appointment up with her she told us that some members in the ward got the OK from president to do a sacrament meeting in their home and Maddalena attended so we were pretty happy to hear that! 

We tried looking through past investigators to try to see if they would be interested again, and we found a man named Gianni. His progress record wasn't filled out all the way as to why he was dropped from being an investigator, so we called him up and he said we could stop by. He was super nice, we did a lesson with him, but the death of his wife destroyed all his faith. He said that he'd believe when he saw a sign. We tried explaining to him that we need to have faith and that signs aren't what converts people. In the end it helped strengthen my testimony in fact, but Gianni isn't interested in our missionary purpose unfortunately. 

Our time has still been filled with a lot of finding work. We have been getting a lot of potentials, but nothing has really stuck with our efforts with knocking on doors. I guess the Vatican has been doing a huge effort to reactivate less-actives in their church and they have sent missionaries out too, so nearly everyone thinks that we are them and it becomes extremely awkward when old ladies do the Sign of the Cross when they see us at the door! It was funny, I prayed hard Monday night that someone would let us into their house. I had this prayer in my heart for the duration of the evening, and then boom, this lady let us in! Well, we weren't able to do a lesson with her, there wasn't a man present, and she wasn't entirely interested, but hey, my prayer was answered! I joked with Anziano Hill that I should have been more specific! 

Well later that night a miracle happened. We were waiting for a bus to go home after a long day working, and then this young, clean cut guy came and was waiting with us. I had a feeling that we should talk to him, and in my mind I was thinking of something to do to initiate a conversation. Meanwhile, Anziano Hill was telling me a story, and didn't know how to say 'forest fire' in Italian. He went over and asked the man, explaining it in Italian. After he figured out what it was and told him, I made a joke and said that we were learning Italian, and he said that he also was. I asked where he was from and he told me from Bolivia. After that we just got to know each other. He is actually of Italian decent, and just moved here to Italy with his family about five years ago. His name is Adhamar (I think that's how you spell it, I call him Adi), he has a wife he's been married to for seventeen years, and they have four kids. He owned a huge ranch in Bolivia, and is a horse trainer! That's what he does for work right now in Italy. He has seen missionaries before in his home country because a relative of his was taking the lessons with the them. He was very interested in our message, and told us that we could come back to his house the next morning to teach him. Yesterday, we went and the lesson was fantastic. We had him give the prayer at the end, and he thanked our Father in Heaven that He sent us to him. He was very interested in it all and he wants us to return Saturday so we can meet and teach the rest of his family. We are so excited! A golden new investigator and a potential eternal family! There is only one thing we are a little nervous about. Right now his wife and two oldest children are studying with the Jehovah Witnesses, and I guess he used to also, so his vision of God was a lot like theirs, because they say that no man can see God, so he is just a spirit. Well we know that we were created in God's image (Genesis 1:26 and 27) and not in a cloudy spirit's. Also there are accounts of Enoch (Gen. 5:24) Jacob (Gen. 32:30) Ether (12:39) and many others who have seen Him. In the end, we have some work... and fixing to do, and we pray that his wife and children will also be as willing to listen and to pray as he was, or at least be supportive of him meeting with us. They are a really beautiful family, and have very high standards, as he explained to us. Pray hard for them!

Well that's about it for the week! Things are going great here! My testimony is really building, even in the negative experiences. I am so lucky to be here in Italy, and especially on Sardegna. I've got a feeling that I'm going to be able to say that I spent a whole year of my mission on this island, and I'm completely okay with that. 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. Mi mancate! State bene! Vi voglio un mondo di bene! Alla prossima!

Con amore, 

Anziano Clay Lacey