Christmas in Chuy

Christmas in Chuy, Uruguay

Mom sent a Christmas cookie mix

Baptism

This Christmas stocking has gone to every Elder in our family since Uncle Doug. That's 10 missionaries!!               North Carolina, Ireland, Canary Islands, Brazil, Brazil, Brazil, Texas, California, Mexico and now Uruguay.
The Moyle Park ward in Alpine sent the big poster in the background with letters from the Primary children

See what Santa gives good boys.

Elder Cowboy

Elder Lacey's Christmas Tree

House companions. Daniel's Companion, Elder Rae, is in the center

Elder Lacey's District in Chuy

December 30, 2013

Dear Family,

Long time no see! It was so good to talk to you guys on Christmas! You all are looking really good. It is sad that I am not able to talk to everybody but I hope that you were able to tell everyone that I love them. 

Anyway, not much has happened since we last talked. Andrea wasn't able to get baptized this week but she will get baptized soon.

I have been learning so much about Leadership and everything! I am loving it!

Yesterday, Elder Rae and I got caught outside in the rain without umbrellas! We got soaked but we actually had a good time. It was better then being soaking wet from sweat! 

Elder Rae is learning like a boss! He is doing so good! He always wants to help everyone and he is willing to work so I am excited for him. I am always blessed with such good comps.

I am going to end so I can send you all a ton of pictures but I love all of you so much. I am so grateful for this mission and everything that I have been able to see here. I understand why the mission is the best 2 years (so far).

Merry New Years!

Love 

Elder Lacey

PS Luke- You are looking like a Beast! Keep shooting baskets and doing your pushups and sit-ups.....and then go play some Age of Empires for me!

Tell Sam to send me that picture that he is supposed to send me!

10 Baptismal Dates

December 23, 2013

Dear Family,

Is it Christmas soon? I can't believe it! First off because it is super hot outside and second because time is going by so quickly! I can't wait to be able to talk to you guys on Christmas. I am going to call you guys at 6 o'clock our time and we get a whole hour to talk. I also got a whole boatload of packages this past Friday! Thank you so much for sending all of those. The only problem is that there were some thieves that stole some of the candy out of my package. They were really thoughtful though and left a note with some candy wrappers in a ZIPLOC bag. They must have gone through a lot of effort to find a ziploc bag so that they could leave me a note. Haha! I actually laughed pretty hard when I saw that. I have to admit that you did get me for a split second!  I opened a couple of the presents and then I left 2 so that I can open them up on Christmas. But I am wearing my canteen tie right now. I love it! No more dehydration! And Honey Farley sent me a package that is awesome! She is da best. Thank her a ton for me.

These past couple of days have been the busiest days of my mission. I have to make sure that everything is running smoothly in my district and there is barely enough time to make sure our area is organized. Usually the companion of the district leader can help a lot by doing the area book and planning things out and calling members and investigators but I haven't had time to teach Elder Rae all of that stuff yet so I when we get home from proselyting I am running around like a chicken with its legs cut off....(I thought maybe Doug would have liked that analogy) So basically it has been a lot of work, but God is definitely blessing us. Elder Rae is learning everything super quickly and in the past couple of days we have found a ton of new investigators. We now have 10 people with a baptismal date. It just shows that it doesn't matter how long you have been on the mission, Elder Rae has a ton of faith and that is what has been helping find so many people. Sometimes I think that the brand new missionaries have some of the best faith on the mission because they don't know what to do so they rely on the Lord. When missionaries get more experienced they tend to rely on their own knowledge. So, I am trying to always listen to the Spirit instead of doing what I think is best. But anyway, we are really excited for our investigators. We have a 34 year old woman and her 10 year old son that are going to get baptized this weekend. She is the best! She has accepted everything with ease. She has a boyfriend and before we even taught about the Law of Chastity she chose to live it! Right now she seems like one of the strongest members in our ward and she has only come to church twice! It is really cool to see how much her life is changing for the better.

My Mom is a Genius! Dang Mom! You are killin it up there at BYU. I know how hard it is to get a high score on your finals. You must have been studying really hard. 

Thanks for the packages! I also got a letter from Amy and from Grandpa Steinagel so thank them for me! Thank Honey Farley for the package as well. Thanks for all that you guys are doing. I am so excited to be out here on the mission helping others come to Christ. Its da Best! I luv it! Now..... go away! Read some scrips!-Nacho Libre

Love,

Elder Lacey

PS Talk to you guys on Wednesday! :)

Dear Dad,

Man, this week has been crazy. I never realized how much work the district leaders do. And I also respect my trainer a lot more. But I am so glad that I have a really good companion, Elder Rae likes to work hard and he learns really quick. He wants to help me with my District Leader responsibilities so I am really grateful for that. In about a week after he learns about all of the basics I think everything will be a lot easier. But I have actually enjoyed being really busy! I think I will lose some of this fat that I have gained because I don't have the chance to eat at nights now haha! So that is a blessing. But I have also felt that I have been able to help out my district a lot so I feel good about the work that I get to do.

That is so awesome that you and Luke are waking up and shooting hoops. I wish I could be there with you guys to show you how its done! haha! Anyway, I will talk with you guys on Wednesday! Have a Merry Christmas!

Love,

Elder Lacey

Changes!

December 19, 2013

Dear Family,

Well my space bar doesn't work very well so we will see how this goes.

Anyway, the past 3 days have been crazy. We got the change call on Monday night and then we were supposed to have P day on Tuesday but some things changed so I get to e mail right now. So for changes Elder Ochoa is leaving and I am staying.... I am training and I am also the District Leader......That is why these past 3 days have been a bit crazy. I had to take a bus early on Tuesday so that I could get to Montevideo to go through some training and meet my new companion. It was weird because I had to take the bus by myself, so that was kind of weird haha! 

My new comp is Elder Rae. He is such a good guy! He is from Seattle Washington. We have kind of been through a lot of hard stuff in the past couple days but he is taking it like a champ. We had the Christmas conference on Wednesday and that was awesome because we ate like a couple of kings. I also got to see all of the friends that I have made on the mission because every single missionary was there. So it was really good to catch up with everybody. But the bad thing was that because we had this Christmas conference the bus didn't leave until 6 o'clock which means we didn't get home until 3 a.m. in Chuy. And then we woke up at 6:30. So basically my companion is a Boss!! (that means he is awesome!) I am really excited to work with him. I am also really excited to be able to serve him and everybody in my district. I am really looking forward to this change. I am a little bit sad that Elder Ochoa left and that Elder Tolman finished his mission.  They both helped me a ton!

But sorry that I wasn't able to email on Tuesday. Hopefully you guys weren't to worried. 

It is crazy that you are almost done with all of your classes!I wish you luck with your finals. I also wish BYU luck in Basketball... it sounds like they need it.

I have no idea how the Skype thing is working. We will find out soon and I will tell you on Monday. But I do know that we can Skype whenever is best for you guys.

It has been blazin hot down here. Sometimes we come home and our shirts are completely drenched because it is so humid. But it actually isn't too bad... I'm getting a nice tan. Especially right where my watch is haha! I will have to send you  a picture of my tan line. I will try to send some of our weather up your way.

So I don't know where those packages are. There is a really good possibility that I get them tomorrow in the morning. it is kind of hard when you are in Chuy to get everything. 

But I agree with everything you say about the family. It is so obvious to see down here just how important the family really is. It is interesting that one of the very first things that we teach is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families. Now that is a true statement if I have ever seen one. I am so glad that I was raised in a home where the gospel was taught because now I can testify to these people that I have seen how much this message helps the family live in happiness.

I am so glad to hear that Luke is doing so well. I love hearing that he wears his future missionary badge every Sunday! I can't wait to come home and see him when he is 6 feet tall! haha Is he in 5th grade right now????

I love you guys! I will email you more on Monday. I am really excited for this opportunity that I have to serve my fellow elders and tambien my fellow 

Urugua(sh)ans. I love my family so much! I hope everyone has a holly jolly Christmas. Drink some eggnog for me.

Love,

Elder Lacey

Dear Dad,

How did you know that I was talking about Rugby? Haha!

I am still so excited for the Scorps. Did they do any big festivities or anything?

Sorry that I didn't get to email you last week. I ran out of time super fast for some reason. But I hoped you liked the letter! There should be a couple more on the way.

But Chuy is the best. You can buy all sorts of American stuff and then you  can cross over to Brazil and get a bunch of food for really cheap. I am loving this no tax stuff. Maybe anarchy is the way to go. (chiste)

I'm glad my spanish was alright. I will have to rely on my spanish even more now that I am training. I forgot how much spanish you don't know when you first get into the mission. But my comp is a hard worker so I think he will learn fast. We will also be able to learn the language together. I am still waiting for a Latino comp! haha

Good luck to BYU in the Bowl Game! Hey, I heard that some young guy won the Heisman from Florida State. Thats crazy! How did Johny Manziel do this year?

Well I love you Dad. I am excited to be able to talk to you on Christmas. Maybe we will ahve to speak a little bit of voz to each other haha

Love,

Elder Lacey

I LOVE THE WORLD

December 9, 2013

Dear Family,

STATE CHAMPS! I am the happiest little camper right now. I could just imagine how awesome that game must have been! I am so pumped for all of my boys down there!!! 5th ward comin in BIG! It takes a ton of work to go through a whole football season so it must be even more rewarding for those guys. Next time you see any of the guys on the team tackle them for me! Congratulate all of them. I wish I could hug everybody!! I just don't know what to say. I think I am going to go buy myself some ice cream and then cry in it because I am so happy. I still have dreams of dang football. That is so cool that they get to end their season with such a cool experience! 

Anyway, that is some really good news. Some other good news is that Cleberson got baptized without any problem. It was a really cool experience to hear his wife bare her testimony about how long she has been praying for this and how now she and her family can be an eternal family when they get sealed in the temple. She was also really appreciative for us. It was a really good experience. I will send you a picture of them. I am just so glad that we could be in the right place at the right time to help this husband and father make the choice to follow Jesus Christ. I have learned a lot about the role of the family in the Plan of Salvation since I have been here. The place that we can have the most joy is with our family in a gospel centered home. I am so thankful for the family that I have!

I got Sam and Annie’s wedding invitation and the BYU medical thing. Thanks! We didn't get to watch the Christmas conference though :( 

I am diggin my mission though. Our area is really taking off now. We have a few more people that have baptismal dates and we keep finding new investigators so we are really excited. I love my Savior!

I am going to try and send some pics now so I will talk to you next week. I am looking forward to talking with you guys on Christmas too! I will keep in touch with you about that.

Love,

Elder Lacey

(this is Daniel's email response to the Farley's email about winning State)

I LOVE THE WORLD!

I am so happy for you guys! Tackle Brian for me. He is the man.com. When I get back I want to watch the video of the whole game. I am so pumped right now. I just don't even know what to say......You guys should go on a parade through Aztec haha! 

STATE CHAMPS! :,)

Baptism of Cleberson with Elder Lacey and Elder Ochoa. What a wonderful family!

This is how Daniel and his companion had to fill the baptismal font....heat water on the stove and siphon it from a tube to the font.  It took 8 hours. Do we appreciate the conveniences we have?

Elder Lacey finally got his Halloween Candy by mid November. Packages take 6 to 8 weeks to get to him.

Baptism of Nikolas with Elder Lacey and Elder Ochoa.  Daniel looks like a giant!

Another Miracle

December 2, 2013

Dear Family,

First off... STATE CHAMPIONSHIP BABY!!!!

If you can't tell, I am PUMPED. I bleed green 4 Life.

This week has been awesome! Things are finally starting to come together. We are getting some good investigators that I think are going to go the distance. The biggest miracle that we saw this week was with Cleverson. He is the husband of a member in our ward but he is not a member. His wife and family have been trying to convert him for a very long time now but they haven't had any success. Recently we asked if we could go and have lunch with them. We have never had lunch with them because they live pretty far away in Brazil. (Cleverson is a Brazilian and all he speaks is Portuguese so it is a little hard to understand him sometimes) But we went and ate with them and then we shared a scripture. The next time that we saw his wife she told us that after we left Cleverson talked with her and told her that he wanted to get baptized! So we went over there and had a really good Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) with them and he agreed to get baptized this Saturday! He has already received all of the lessons a couple of times and he went to church for 3 straight years so he is totally prepared. He used to drink wine but he quit and now his only problem is coffee which he is going to quit as well. So this Saturday we are going to have a baptism. It makes me so happy to see the joy that this family has! This family has been praying and hoping for years and years and if all goes well they will be able to get sealed in the temple in a year! I am so happy for them.

Recently I have born my testimony a lot on the Plan of Salvacion. It is awesome to tie everything into this plan. Everything that we do here on this Earth is to help us prepare to live with God and our family. That is why we get baptized, go to church, read our scriptures and obey all of the commandments. I love it when people accept His plan and choose to be baptized. 

I love what you said about doctrine and application though. That is why I love teaching the Plan of Salvacion so much because it helps you realize why everything is important. 

I also like what you said about our to-do list. Sometimes we lose perspective on what really is important. When we say "I can't" to something it really just means that something else is more important. If we say I can't go to church because I have work we are saying that work is more important to us than church. We always need to have the right perspective on what really is important in this life.

So everyone gets to Skype here in Uruguay! I just don't know the details of where and how. But I am looking forward to it! I can't believe that it is already December. I was jealous that you guys all got to go to Cali! I received all of the pictures so don't worry.

But I love all of you so much. I always pray for everyone up there! Keep up the good work in everything.

Love,

Elder Lacey

Dear Dad,

FHS IS IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP! That is the coolest thing that I have ever heard! I wish I could be up there to see it but there are some better things to do down here. You are going to go watch the game right? 

I really like that line that you emailed me. How can we emulate the Savior if we don´t even know who He is? we can´t! I am totally going to use that in our street contacts because everyone down here believes in God and Jesus Christ but they don't see a need for a church. We go to church to learn more about how we can become more like Jesus Christ.

Who did you sell our home too? That house was the best! But what you said is true. A home isn't just wood and nails. 

Thanks Dad for all that you do. I am so grateful for this family that I have. You are an inspiration for me and I try to share this message because I want to help people to have a family like mine. Keep doing what you are doing and make sure FHS wins this week! 

Love!

Elder Lacey