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

Keep the Sabbath Day Holy

November 25, 2013

Dear Family,

Congratulations Sam and Annie! I am so happy for them. I sent them a letter last week but since I am in Chuy it takes a little bit longer to get to the States. Hopefully they will get it soon though. I am excited for the future for them.

Rock on Mom! You are killin your studies! You better slow down or they might want you to become a doctor or something. I am really happy that you are doing so well though. I have a testimony that when we put God first in our lives he will help with the rest. He can even help us in things like our school work or are relations with our family. That is a thing that a lot of people don't understand down here. One of the biggest commandments that is broken is the Sabbath Day. There are very few people that live this commandment and you can see how much they are blessed for living it. There is a Brazilian man that has been a member for about 5 years or so. Anyway, he shared with us that he had work on Sunday but when he got baptized he quit his job so that he wouldn't work on Sunday. He didn't have work for 3 months but he finally found a really good job and he knows that God has blessed him immensely in his life because of his decision to keep the Sabbath day holy. He is now the 2nd counselor in the Bishopric.

This week was another tough week! We are working really hard to find these people here but so far we are still struggling to find some really firm investigators. In the past 2 weeks we have found 31 new investigators but it has been so hard to get a 2nd charla with them. Satan lame. We had a family that was super excited to get baptized and to baptize all of there children that were of age but when we passed by to teach them the 2nd lesson they said that they didn't want anymore. We were so confused because just 2 days before they were really happy about it all. Anyways, we are going to keep working and praying to find those people that are ready to hear our message.

It is tough to know if young women are really interested in the message or if they are just "snakes". It helps when you work with the members to teach them. That way you can kind of see if they are interested in the message or not. You always have to keep your distance from snakes!

That is sweet that you are all going to Cali. Sometimes I feel like I am in Hawaii down here. It gets pretty hot and humid and there are parts with a lot of vegetation... so I think I will just stay down here instead of going on vacation to California. Tell everybody hi for me! Maybe I will cook up some panchos for Thanksgiving and have a feast! 

Hey, I have been out for 6 months! That is crazy. I have seen so many things here in Uruguay it is crazy. I have so many awesome experiences and I am excited for the time that I still have left to do some work. Just this week we have had some interesting experiences. we have an investigator who believes TO MUCH in Joseph Smith! He says that we need to be disciples of Joseph Smith. He doesn't want to be baptized though... it doesn't make sense. We are working with him. And this other guy completely believes that we are spies from America.  Then there are mini horses everywhere! Chuy is an awesome place. There is a little bit of everything here. We talked to a guy yesterday who speaks 4 languages including English so we taught him in English. It was hard! haha

Anyway, I am having a blast. I hope you guys are having a blast too. Life is good. Give hugs to everybody and eat a lot of food for me!

Love,

Elder Lacey

PS I keep trying to send pictures.  I have some awesome pictures for you but these computers are lame :(

I know that what I am doing is the will of God

November 18, 2013

Dear Family,

It sounds like it has been a really crazy week for you guys. I can't believe that there were 3 deaths in a short time period. It seemed like Todd was in pretty good health when I met him. That is really sad for all of those families, but like you said we are so very grateful that we have the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. I love teaching the Plan of Salvation because it addresses so many topics that blow people’s minds. So many people don't have any idea why we are here on this earth or where we are going....(Nobody here even thinks about where we came from). But it really is a huge blessing that we know that everything works out in the end IF we perseverar hasta el fin. 

Sounds like Luke had a pretty sweet B-day! Its good to see how much he is growing! I wish I could have been there to give him his birthday spankings. I guess Sam or Mikey will have to fill in for me. haha  I wish I could have gone on your space mission with you! Make sure you take care of R2D2 and Chewbaca for me ;)

Sam's wedding is this week! I am so excited for them! I hope everything goes well with that. I was trying to write a letter for the wedding but I didn't get it off in time but I will send it as soon as I can. It is kind of hard out here in Chuy because we are so far away from everybody. But give hugs to everyone for me at the wedding! Make sure to welcome Annie in to the family for me as well! She has Elder Lacey's approval. Make sure Sam takes good care of her. I am bummed that I can't be there but I will be there in spìrit. :)

Is this week Thanksgiving? That is crazy! Tell the brothers to go play some Turkey Bowl for me.

This week was crazy for us down here tambien. Elder Ochoa and I really did work this whole week. It is funny because in every area that I have been we pretty much ¨wipe slate¨. We just start over everything. When I got here to Chuy we had that one baptism but after that there was nobody. We had a lot of names to pass by for but we quickly realized that none of them were interested. So, this whole week we were out finding new investigators. We walked a ton! But we are starting to see the fruits of our efforts. We don't have a lot of firm investigators but we are getting there. We did the same thing when I was in San Carlos and we had to do that in Aeroparque as well. But to answer your question, yes, I am sleeping really well. haha That is the good thing about walking around all day. You are super tired afterwards. But I am really excited for the future here. Elder Ochoa is a good teacher and we have been working really hard to find these people who are ready to hear our message.

This past Saturday I had a really cool experience. We were looking desperately everywhere for new investigators and we were having some pretty good success. But we had a charla with a Menos Activo family at 7. At 7:30 the other missionaries had a baptism so we weren't planning on spending a ton of time with this family. We got to this family’s house and we were talking with the mom when suddenly out of the blue her daughter came up to the house with her 2 friends. It really surprised me that her 2 friends came in and sat down and wanted to listen to us. So we ended up having a really good lesson with them! One of the friends was atheist and the other one didn't have a religion. But after we finished teaching them about the restoration I invited them to come to the baptism and they agreed! We were a little late but we all got there before the service started. Everything went really well and I noticed that the atheist girl was actually really interested in it all. After the guy was baptized the other elders didn't have anything planned to do while everyone waited for them to get dressed so I went up and directed a hymn. During the hymn I felt impressed to bare my testimony. So after we finished singing I bore it. There were a few non members there and the menos activo family was there and so I really wanted them to feel the spirit and know that this baptism that we saw was an important step in this life. I felt the spirit really strong and needless to say I ended up crying a good bit. I know that everyone there felt the spirit. I am excited to see if these 2 girls who are about 20 will continue to investigate our church and if this menos activo family will start coming again. We have a charla with them all in a few days so we will see how it goes.

I have always wondered why I cry so much when I bare my testimony but I think I finally learned why. It is not a curse but a blessing. Through my tears I feel like the spirit can testify to these people. They can really see that I know without a doubt that this message is true. I was so grateful for this experience that I had. I know that what I am doing is the will of God.

I am loving Chuy! We don't eat a ton but we are eating more healthy so I am excited about it. We eat a lot of beans and rice haha And I am learning a little bit of Portuguese!

Good luck with schoolwork Mom and Luke. Just remember one of my favorite phrases from Coach Jackson.....Dig Dig Dig Dig Dig!!!!!! Keep working hard and keep praying. :)

I love everyone so much. My family is the best. I feel so bad that I don't have enough time to talk to everyone. I have been meaning to send some emails to everyone but this hour goes by soooo fast. Send my love to everybody. I keep everyone in my prayers every night.

I love this work i love this gospel I LOVE EVERYTHING :)

Love,

Elder Lacey