Shocking Story!

August 26, 2014

Dear Family,

Changes! .............I´m staying with Elder Contreras! We are both really excited. We have so many investigators that are right there ready to get baptized. But every single one of them has some big last obstacle to get over. There are 4 of our investigators that would get baptized if they were just married! I hope that we can get everything figured out so that they can get married and baptized before I leave. Here in Uruguay it is such a hassle to get people married. If everything works out perfect the fastest that someone can get married is 3 weeks. Our strongest investigator right now is Alexandra. She is 26 years old and a daughter of a really strong recent convert. We have had some really spiritual charlas with her and she believes in everything....The only problem is that she is not married....and her boyfriend is still not divorced with his ex wife. I don't know exactly how long everything will take to get him divorced and then get them married but we are doing everything we can to help them out. They are so awesome! Another one of our really strong investigators was Tito. He loved everything and felt so good but his girlfriend is really against the church and we think she has been telling him a bunch of nonsense because now he is scared of us. He thinks we are from the FBI. I guess a while back he went to prison and so he is really scared about it all. We haven't seen him in a week :(  But there are a ton more that we are working with so we are looking forward to some good things this change.

This last Sunday we had a multi-stake conference. We received a satellite broadcast for all of Uruguay and Paraguay. Elder Bednar spoke and it was legit! He addressed the specific problems of Uruguay and Paraguay. He said that the leaders here were worried about the members who aren't fully converted to the Gospel, those that aren't doing their visits or paying their tithing. His whole talk was about repentance. I loved it. The only way we can become fully converted is through repenting and changing our will to the will of God's. I have been able to see why pride is the root of all sins. I talk to many people that say that God is always with them, that God lives with them and that they don't need a church or the bible. They say that God is with them but they do nothing to demonstrate their love for him. It happens with members, non-members, in-actives, recent converts, and even missionaries. They think that all is well, and that nothing more is needed of them. They are already baptized or they have already served a year in their mission. We can never be complacent and think that "All is well in Zion". In order to progress everyday we need to apply the doctrine of repentance in our lives. Elder Bednar said that repenting is not just a change of behavior. To repent you not only need to change what you do but you need to change your heart. Repentance is such a key factor in God's plan.

It is crazy that you guys are going to have a brutal winter because we had such a wimpy one haha! Last winter I wore my big huge coat almost everyday. This winter I think I used it 4 times. I have another smaller jacket that I used everyday. It really wan't cold at all. In fact this past week we were burning up! I already got a sun burn haha! 

In the mission I have learned quite a few activities to share during FHE or to help teach families about the Gospel but it is always good to have a few more under the belt. Do you guys have any easy activities to use to help teach gospel principals or I guess you could call them object lessons? Thanks!

So, funny story. I straight got shocked this morning! I was taking a shower and our lights went out and when I went to turn off the water I got shocked pretty good haha! It was like a movie. Both of my arms shook a ton. It reminded me of when I was using that TENS machine to do muscle stimulation therapy on my leg and that one night I turned it up to much and the muscles in my leg suddenly grabbed real hard and my leg shot straight out haha!....I probably shouldn't tell you that story but I am fine. I just won't take a shower when we don't have lights anymore. :)

Well I am ready to start a new change! Lets get this work rollin!

Love

Elder Lacey

LUKE!

You are a monster out there on the field! Keep up the good work! I will have to see that video when I get home. I love all of the pictures that I get. You are huge out there! Go tackle some guys for me alright! I will be down here tackling guys into the baptismal font haha! 

Love!

Elder Lacey