Grateful!

With President!

Jani at the temple

 

Elder Lacey lost some weight in Mexico!

This is my last weekly email which is so crazy!  These past two years have gone by so incredibly fast!

I was reading the last letters of all of my siblings and I loved seeing the common themes between Clay, Morgan, Brooke, Jason, and Heather; the common themes of how much they love the people, how grateful they are, their testimonies of the restored Gospel and the Book of Mormon, and especially their testimonies of Jesus Christ.  I absolutely loved reading their letters.

A recent convert, Jani, who I taught over a year ago, who got baptized, went through the temple to get endowed this week!  She is going on a mission next month.  I was able to go to the temple with her and it was such a special experience!  It is such an amazing opportunity to see someone learn about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and then now prepare to go teach it.  I am certain that the temple is the house of the Lord.  His presence is evident there! Being able to go through the temple with someone I taught was the best way to experience my last week as a full time missionary.

I would like to join my testimony with the testimony of my siblings.  I feel like my heart broke when I left my home and now I feel like it's going to break again leaving Oaxaca.  I'm not exactly sure where my heart came together again.  I love the people of Oaxaca I came here to teach them but they have taught me so much.  I feel like I'm leaving my family and best friends between missionaries, members, and people I taught.  

I am so truly grateful for these two years.  Something I have learned is that the Lord doesn't necessarily need our help to do his work.  He is God and has power to do all things.  But he lets us participate in this work so we can learn and grow and how grateful I am for it! 

Reflecting on the mission now it is so easy to see the Lord's hands at work, I feel like the adversary works so hard so we forget these moments that were once so clear.  But I know that we can protect ourselves thanks to the Book of Mormon, it is truly safety for the soul.  I have yet to meet a person who has truly read and studied the Book of Mormon and then asked God with a sincere heart who hasn't received an answer that it is the word of God.  I know the Book of Mormon is true, I have seen its witness of Jesus Christ change lives.  I know Joseph Smith translated it as he said he did and that he is the Prophet of the Restoration and the Russel M. Nelson is God's prophet today.

And finally I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, Redeemer, and Friend.  As missionaries we represent Jesus Christ and have the opportunity to feel a portion of the love He has for us.  I know he loves us and knows us.  He cries with us, and laughs with us.  I know he died and suffered for me.  Thanks to this I know I will live again and can have the same Joy he has.  I love Him!

¡Yo se que el Señor vive!  Yo se que esta es la iglesia de Jesucristo!  Yo se que las familias puden ser eternas!  ¡Les amo!

Pics

Pictures in the temple 

Pictures I found of me giving trainings that I thought were funny and of me sharing my testimony 

With President 

A picture of me when I first got here because I think it's funny how chubby I was

Elder Lacey comes home!!

Greg comes home!!

Nachoooo

 

Howdy!  These past two weeks have been great!  We have had more time to work in our area and that has been great!  Being able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ is something so special!  Not everyone let's us come in to share a message or sometimes they get mad at us but it always helps my own testimony grow.

I think one of the biggest things I have learned as a missionary is the we truly to have a Loving Heavenly Father.  That is usually the first principle we teach people, it's basic and most people belive something like it but I think it is so powerful.  God is all-powerful and all knowing but his glory and his purpose is that we can have joy like him.  How special is that?  Being here in the offices I've had the opportunity to work with President closely and see him act as a representative of Jesus Christ and help other missionaries and me come closer to Christ.  I am certain the God laughs with us and cries with us.  We truly have a loving Heavenly Father!

Last pday we went to play lazertag!  That was fun!  My team won

This week was also the tour all the missionaries go on before they go home.  I've gone a few times but this time it was actually for me and I was in the pictures instead of taking them hahaha.

We went to the street where the filmed a scene from Nacho Libre!!  It's the scene where he jumps on the guys back while he's eating tortilla chips jajajaa.  Photos below

I know that prayer is real!  If you haven't been praying recently or if your prayers haven't been as meaningful as you would like set goals to pray more often or study in the scriptures how you can make them more meaningful.  One of the secretaries here in the offices, Elder Flores is from the Domincan Republic and he has such powerful prayers!  His prayers are so genuine and it's like he's talking as if God was right un front of him and that's how it should be!  God truly answers are prayers!  I love this gospel!

Feliz Navidad

Howdy yall 

So this was a really good week!  We had time work in our area some so that was really nice!  It's a really amazing area and I'm glad we were able to work.

Today is Elder Gamez birthday so we just got back from lunch.  Tonight we are going to Presidents house to eat dinner and enjoy Christmas Eve with them!

This week 4000 books of Mormon showed up to the offices.  It took ahwile to move them all and I'll send a picture of all the boxes.  I absolutely love the Book of Mormon!  I know that it is the word of God!  I love how clearly it testifies of the Savior.  I love this scripture that explains the necessity of a Savior.  2 Nephi 9: 20-23 

20 O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it.

   21 And he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam.

   22 And he suffereth this that the resurrection might pass upon all men, that all might stand before him at the great and judgment day.

   23 And he commandeth all men that they must repent, and be baptized in his name, having perfect faith in the Holy One of Israel, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God.

These few scriptures teach us that our Salvation is possible thanks to him.  I love thinking about that during Christmas.  The Son of God came down from his throne in the heavens and came here has a little baby.  Usually a baby is so dependent on his parents and can't do much without help.  I love the contrast that without that baby who is Christ who was born 2000 years ago all of us would be completely helpless.  He was born to die for us.  One of the biggest things I have learned as a missionary is that Christ is the Savior of the world but he is also a personal Savior.  He suffered and died for each and everyone of us individually.  I am positive that he still would have came if it was only me that needed a Savior.  I truly do stand all amazed!

Merry Christmas!

Conferencias de Navidad

 

Ok so this week was pretty crazy but also a lot of fun and I learned a lot.

So this week we had two multi-zone conferences for the end of the year and for Christmas.

So we were busy getting presents ready for all the missionaries and the end of the year trainings.  Monday we took a six hour bus ride to Salina Cruz and the entire afternoon we were setting up the decorations in the Church.

Tuesday we had the conference the entire day and it went super well!  It was super spiritual and a lot of fun.  I shared my testimony at the end of the conference because I'm going home this transfer so that was pretty crazy.  After that though everyone acted like I was already going home.  They were like "bye Elder Lacey thanks for everything."  And I was like, "Hey I still have a month left!"  That night we were in a taxi and I felt pretty awful.  We got home and I ended up throwing up all night   

The next morning we had another 6 hour bus ride to go back to Oaxaca that I was not looking forward to at all.  But we went to the doctor so I could get medicine so I wouldn't throw up on the bus.  He gave me the prescription that would work faster so he injected me in my behind   Also I had to get injected for the next two days so let's just say Elder Gamez and I are very good buddies now 

Thursday afternoon we set up for the zone conference and got everything ready and Friday we had the other zone conference.  We were running around a lot and I definitely have more gray hair now but everything went well!  I am so grateful to be a missionary!  I learn so much everyday and I know that Jesus Christ lives!  He knows us and wants to help us.  His arms are always open.  I'm sure of it!

Transfers!

 

So this week was pretty crazy but it was also a lot of fun!

So last Saturday we had Karen's baptism and that was so awesome!!  I love baptisms!  The Spirit is always so strong and it is always so amazing to see the light in the person's eyes.  She said right after, wow I didn't know why I waited so long!

In the beginning of the week it was so crazy.  All of the new missionaries got here Monday in the morning and then we were with them all day and then transfers were the next day and let's just say we didn't sleep much this week and I definitely have more gray hair but everything turned out well!  Heavenly Father definitely helped us a ton hahah.  

Wednesday all of the missionaries that are finishing their missionaries went home and that was kinda crazy with a few delayed flights so they couldn't make their layover or someone lost their ID so they couldn't get on the plane.  But in the end everything always works out!  I think that is something I have learned a lot this week.  Everything always works out when we do what we should.  God knows we aren't perfect but he helps us because he loves us.  Sometimes when we are in a stressful moment we just get so worked up about what's happening but in a little but it won't even matter.  I think that's part of what makes God so joyful, he always looks at things from an eternal perspective!  I invite all of you to do the same!

This week I got to go to the temple!!  I know that the temple is the house of the Lord.  I have no doubt in my mind.  Evidence that God exists is evident in the temple.  He lives!

The rest of this week we have been working on getting everything ready for next week's Christmas Conferences.  We have to get all the logistics, presentations, and presents ready but everything is going well so far.  But please pray for us hahaha

Yesterday when we had time we went to go teach someone.  We taught her about the book of Mormon.  She was saying that their are a lot of voices in the world and she doesn't know who to believe.  The Book of Mormon is true and eliminates all confusion.  It's very interesting that for these past 2 years every single person that I've invited to read the book of Mormon and to pray about it has received their answer.  I don't know a single person who has prayed with a sincere heart who hasn't received their answer.  It's true!

Busy!

 

Ok so I haven't written in a while because I haven't had a P-day in a while so I've been super busy and it's been so much fun!

So Tuesday of last week we just had like a 13 hour bus ride because we were going back to the city.  13 hours seems like a really long time but it's really not that bad because we saw planet of the apes

Wednesday we went on the tour for the people who are going home so that was a lot of fun! 

Thursday we did office stuff in the morning and in the afternoon we had a Thanksgiving dinner with President and we set up a Christmas tree and stuff so that was really nice to experience that!

Friday morning we were working on transfers and President told my comp to go with Elder Shell to go check out an area they opened together for a few days.  So I got to go with Elder Shells companion Elder Bird!  Elder Bird and I got to the mission together and he is in independencia and I love that ward so much!  So I was there for like 5 days working with Elded Bird and I loved it!  It was nice to see people I taught and recent converts.  The last person who Elder Chavez and I taught and baptized is now Primary President!  And it happened to be the primary program when we went!  So that was really cool to see.

Also someone Elder Chavez and I taught a lot but never got baptized showed up to church.  I asked her when she was going to get baptized and she was like you're right I need to get baptized soon.  And then she asked me if I could baptize her the following Saturday!! So I'll be doing that later today and I'm really excited!

I didn't have pday because I went to Independencia last Saturday and their pdays are usually Mondays but they didn't have pday either that Monday because they went to the temple on Wednesday so I just didn't have one hahaha 

When I got back to my area we started finishing transfers.  And doing transfers is such a spiritual experience!!  It is so interesting how the Spirit speaks to us.  When we finished up everything ended up so differently then we expected that we knew it couldn't be us.  It was so cool! 

The last few days of this  I felt like my brain did like 500 push-ups because we started of doing transfers which is like a spiritual puzzle,  then we had a meeting with all the missionaries who got here a few weeks ago and I translated for President, then President had a meeting later that day with the parents of some missionaries so I also translated and wow let me tell ya translating is NOT easy.  But the Spirit definitely helped me so that's nice  then we also did all the logistics of the transfers so my brain is tired  but we did a big service project today in the morning and that was a lot of fun!

These past few weeks I have seen so many miracles that I cannot deny that God exists!  Everything is evidence that he lives!!  I know he lived and so does his Son Jesus Christ who is our Savior and Redeemer.