The hardest thing about being a missionary

Flan

Chilaquiles!

Hey everyone!  I hope you are all doing so well!

Yesterday Elder Cortés and I were talking that the hardest thing about being a missionary is the love we feel for people.  It is also one of the best things as well!  As missionaries we are Representatives of Jesus Christ.  I feel that something that comes with that is that we can feel a portion of the great love he has for all of us.  This week we were able to talk to families who are going through really difficult situations and I just wish I could do more to help them.  But these situations make me even more grateful for our Savior.  The Atonement covered everything.  Every pain, afliccion, and sin.  If we come unto him we will be filled with his love.  I love him!

Today I feel prompted to share a few things to people whos testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ may be on the edge.  You can find many negative things about the church online, this is only evidence of one thing.  That the adversary wants to destroy our lives.  For those who are struggling I implore you to remember the sacred and spiritual experiences you've had.  Hold on to those and seek to have more.  When we start having and believing doubts about the gospel of Jesus Christ it doesn't mean that those doubts are true, it just means we have stopped doing the little things that we know we should do to grow our testimony.  Also an amazing talk you should watch is "Stand Forever" by Lawrence E. Corbridge

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/lawrence-e-corbridge/stand-for-ever/

Something pretty cool that happened this week was we were walking through a park and some kids who are members stopped to talk to us.  The kids friends came over and started talking to us too.  One of them came to church and now wants to get baptized!  He's telling all of his friends that he's going to get baptized and now they all want too as well hahaha.  Also here in the mission we are striving that every area can have at least one baptism in the month of February!  Please help us by praying for this!  We would really appreciate it!

Love Elder Lacey!

We got lost in a forest?

Hey everyone!  This week was so great and I hope yours was too!

This week we started teaching such an amazing family!  They are so excited to learn and one day we passed by just to say hey and they invited us in turned off their TV and got all of their books of Mormon and they were like "teach us more!"  They are so amazing!  Please pray that everything will go well for the family Jarquin García!

We did a ton of service this week!  Including some this morning so I've been a little sore from all the digging and cutting we've been doing.  We tried taking out a tree that didn't look that big but it's roots were SO DEEP so we didn't have much success with that

Also we gave a ton of blessings this week!  Something else I realized is people ALWAYS ask me to give the blessing which I love doing but it's always me and I don't know why Yesterday we dedicated a sisters home because some weird stuff had been happening at night and it was me, my companion, and two other brothers from the ward and she still asked me to give the blessing haha.  Afterward she thanked me a lot because she felt the Spirit after the blessing so that's good!  I'm so grateful for the opportunity to use the Priesthood to serve!

Also a family taught us how to make some food and that was a ton of fun!  They also let us use their aprons and let's just say we looked pretty dang good in our traditional Oaxacan women aprons.

  

ANOTHER ANIMAL STORY

Ok ok so we were in our house getting ready in the morning when we heard something crying loud.  So we went to go check it out and it was a tiny little puppy all alone and abandoned.  So we petted it and it calmed down a little and then it really liked me and started following me.  It followed us all the way back to our house and so we called a couple of members from the ward to see if they wanted a puppy.  We sent a picture to one of the members and she said that her friend was looking for that same puppy.  So we were able to give the puppy back to it's home so that was a good day haha.

Also I can use Facebook as a missionary now!  I had some troubles getting into my account because Facebook thought I was a hacker because I'm in Mexico so it ended up locking my original account  so I had to make a new one.

Yesterday we had a Family Home Evening and we talked about the first vision.  I love talking about the first vision because we have absolutely so many blessings because of that moment!!  I would like to invite you all to read one your favorite scriptures, share or write down why you like it, then watch the "Ask of God" video about the First Vision and then share or write down how grateful you are for all that we have thanks to the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  I love our Savior and I know he loves us!  I know that once you do these things you will feel the spirit and and more happiness in your life!

Love Elder Lacey!

Cats and Dogs??

Guero

Guero's House

The neighbor's kitten

Hello Everyone!  

I have an update with that dog named Guero I mentioned last week.  In the beginning of the week he would catch us by surprise.  We would be walking in a place where he doesn't hang out and he would just run up to us and scare us.  The WORST part is that he is super influential.  Other dogs wont be doing anything and then he`ll get them riled up to come chase us.  BUT I think I may have figured Guero out.  I came to the conclusion that maybe Guero was just a bully for attention.  So we saw him and I told Elder Cortes that we were just going to act like he didn`t exist and see what happens.  Elder Cortes didn't want to risk it but I convinced him.  It was pretty terrifying trying to stay calm walking next to this demon dog BUT we did it and he didn't do anything besides give us a dirty look when we walked by.  So I hope that is the end of our problems with Guero.

But enough with dogs, let's talk about cats.  Cats are usually pretty chill here in Oaxaca and our downstairs neighbors have some pretty adorable kittens!  They were always pretty scared of us and would always run away if we tried to pet them.  But one day we gave them bologna and now they absolutely LOVE us.  Whenever we open our door they try to get in.  Sometimes we let them in and they chill in our house for a bit and it`s fun!  But now for an embarrassing story, we were about to leave the house and the cats were in our house.  There is an adult cat and a kitten.  The kitten is more timid and usually leaves on its own but the adult we have to chase it and then pick it up to get it out of the house.  So we went to get them out of the house and the kitten left on its own and we finally got the adult out of the house and we shut the door.  Elder Cortes and I shut the door and turn around and the kitten is right there behind us and meows at us.  It caught us so off guard because we thought it had left that we both yelled and jumped  I`ll send a picture of what the kitten looks like because it`s pretty embarrassing that it scared us so bad

This week we had our Zone Conference and it was so awesome!!  I learned so much and I am so extremely grateful for the opportunity to learn more about my savior.  I have the opportunity to teach people of the great love that their Heavenly Father has for them and it has changed my life!  I testify that your Savior Jesus Christ loves you!  Please never forget that!  He knows you personally and knows exactly how you feel!

Love Elder Lacey!

Guero the Dog!

Part of his package from Morgan!

Hola amigos!  I hope you all had a great week!  I did, besides for one thing.  That thing would be Guero the Dog.

Ok, a little back story.  Here, dogs are just everywhere! If you look anywhere you'll probably see a dog.  Most of them are pretty chill.  Some might bark at you but other than that you will usually be fine.  But whenever we go to our bishop's house on the way there is a dog that just hates us.  He will always sneak up on us and scare us.  One time we were going to the Bishop's house and we were passing very slowly because we didn't know where the dog was and then we saw him in his dog house sleeping.  His dog house had the name "Guero"  which side note Guero is what everyone calls me because I'm white, hahaha.  Anyway, we had to sneak right by Guero's dog house because he was sleeping.  It felt like a movie but we made it safely.  

BUT IT GETS WORSE SO GET READY.  

That night we were in the same area and we saw Guero.  He was laying down in the middle of the street watching us.  We were watching him too and he didn't do anything.  Once we had almost escaped and had our backs to him he got up and came at us.  So me and Guero are having a standoff in the moment.  Usually if you act like you are going to throw a rock or make yourself look bigger you can scare the dogs away.  So I was doing all that I could to get Guero to go away and I probably looked dumb flapping my arms and stuff  but it was working hahah.  BUT THEN GUERO CALLS HIS AMIGOS AND 8 OTHER DOGS START RUNNING UP.  I TURN AROUND AND ELDER CORTES STARTS RUNNING.  I feel like I could handle Guero on my own but not HIM AND 8 OF HIS AMIGOS.  So I started running for my life as well.  WE RAN LIKE 2 BLOCKS AND THEY WERE STILL RIGHT BEHIND US.  But some drunk guys on the street saw two guys in shirts and ties running away from a pack of dogs and had compassion in their hearts and helped us out hahah.  I'm not exactly sure how they stopped them because we were still running but I am very grateful for them.  We haven't been over there since but I'll let you know how the battle of Guero goes next week.

Another funny story is Elder Cortes and I were talking about the rain and how it hasn't rained in forever and that we wanted it to rain.  I KID YOU NOT 10 MINUTES LATER IT STARTED TO RAIN HARD.  So the power of faith is real   I'll send a video of us in the rain, at the end of the video some drunk guys start talking to us in English.

Also if you remember our friend Osiris who was going to get baptized, she doesn't want to get baptized anymore and we aren't exactly sure why.  Please keep her in your prayers that everything goes well for her!

Something I have seen throughout all my life and even here on the mission is the importance of doing the little things.  There is a lot we have to do in this life but I have seen when we do the little things like reading our scriptures, personal and family prayers, and going to church everything else always seems to work out and we will have the spirit with us.  So I invite you to be persistent and consistent with the little things and the Lord will bless you!

Love, Elder Lacey!

Feliz Año!!

 

Elder Cortes and Elder Lacey

Elder Cortes and Elder Lacey

Thickest tree in the world!

Hola amigos!  I hope you all had a great New year's!  

This week was great!  We had transfers and my new companion elder Cortes is awesome!! We have a ton of fun walking all around looking for people to teach!  Although we do seem to have bad luck with dogs 

I got to go to El Tule last week, the thickest tree in the world and I can confirm it is very

 thick.

We had a very interesting story this week.  We were talking to this one lady and she was saying some pretty crazy stuff.  One of my favorites was that Flys have faith and when they bother us they're serving us.  I'm not exactly sure why but it's a nice way to look at it I suppose  She said LOTS of other strange things that didn't make sense and when Elder Cortes and I walked out we were very very confused.  Later we found out she does drugs so in hindsight it made more sense hahahah.

Something I love about being a missionary is the miracles we get to see everyday!  Such as reading a scripture or a letter and you find something you really needed to hear.  This world is full of miracles because our Heavenly Father is a God of miracles!  I invite you at the end of your day to think about the times you saw God's hand in your life.  Share these experiences with a loved one or friend or write them down and I promise your relationship will grow with your Heavenly Father!