3,000 Views!!

Thank you for your continued interest in Sister Morgan Lacey's missionary service in Portugal.  The blog just went over 3,000 views!!

Turkey... so good but so bad

Ola Familía!!!

It was seriously so great talking to you all on Christmas. I literally loved it so much! I can't even describe how great it was. You guys are just amazing!

So on Friday Manuel and Catia got baptized! Manuels daughter is baptized and his wife and the rest of his family have been investigating ever since (for about 2 years now). Catia is 21 years old and she was actually a referral from Carmen (Manuels wife). Well, apparently a few weeks before I came, she was set to be baptized and then she just stopped meeting with the sisters. Well the day before I got here she came back to church again and said that she wanted to talk to the sisters. So we started teaching her. And she is amazing! She literally just loves the Book of Mormon and prayer and she is just amazing. She wrote us a Christmas card and said how thankful she is for us and that she knows the church is true. It was so great when she got baptized on Friday after she just said I feel so good! I cant describe it!

Soon after the baptism Sister Ventura said she wasn't feeling good and she threw up and actually ended up passing out. So at 11 pm we had member give us a ride to the ER. It was quite an experience.  Well, at about 3 in the morning I started to feel sick and I ended up throwing up too.  We left at around 4 and lets just say that I threw up about 15 times until Sunday afternoon. Turns out that the Elders were sick too and the whole house where we skyped at. It was the turkey. Not very fun but we are alive! Haha

One amazing thing that happened through all of this though was that Manuels wife and son got baptized on Saturday! Our zone leaders and Sister training leaders were amazing! They made sure everything was ready for the baptism, finished any lessons, interviews, I mean everything, it was awesome.

So ya it has been pretty crazy since I talked to you guys.  Sorry for all of the information. Haha In Portugal they have this saying, "É vida" meaning "its life". Haha You guys are so awesome! I seriously cannot get over how blessed I am to be in this family. I love you all so much!!!

Love, Sister Lacey

Clip from Christmas Skype!

Click the link below to see a short clip of Sister Lacey sharing a scripture in Portuguese during our Christmas Day Skype.

Short clip of Sister Lacey sharing a scripture in Portuguese

Ola!!! Quatro mais dias!!! Awe!!

Ola familia!!!

Hey guys I miss you all so much! I cannot wait to talk to you all! I hope you are having fun in St.George! You all should think of a question or something you want me to explain better when we Skype. Awe I cant wait!!

This week has flown by! I cannot believe it is already Monday and that I am almost to 6 months into my mission and already 4 months in Portugal, crazy!! This week we continued talking with everyone! And sharing the He is The Gift video. I just love Christmas! We also had a Christmas Conference with 3 Zones of Missionaries which is about 90 missionaries. Well It was pretty scary though because My zone leader called me on Tuesday and asked if I would recite the scripture of the month. Well anyways, I had it down I mean really and then I got up there and messed up, but then remembered. Haha It wasnt too bad... I hope not. Haha It was funny though because President Fluckiger came up tome after and said, "Bom tralho com a escritura de mez Sister Lacey!" ( Good work with the scripture of the month Sister Lacey) Haha I think he was just being really nice. :)

Well anyways the conference was great and I got to see a lot of missionaries that came in with me from the MTC so that was fun! And President said something that really stood out to me. When The angel Gabriel came to Mary and explained to her that she would be the mother of The Savior of the World this is how she responded in Luke:38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." That is why she was chosen to be the mother of Jesus Christ. She was humble and full of faith.
I am so grateful for this Christmas season! We are so blessed to be members of Christs Church! I love you all so much!!! I cant wait to talk to you all! LOVE YOU!!

Sister Lacey

Minha Família!!

Sisters Lacey and Ventura with members of the ward

Manuel and Carmen

Ola!!! Ta tude bem!!??

First of all I am so so sorry for not writing yesterday. We had an interesting couple of days. My companion is Sister Ventura.  She is from Utah and she is awesome! I love her. I still cant believe that I am finishing her training right now.

Okay So about the last couple weeks. My last Sunday in Gaia was amazing! Silvia and her daughter Bea bore their testimonies. The spirit was so strong. And I did as well. I just love that ward. Bishop got up and said how thankful he is for us missionaries and said he thinks of us as his kids and that we are truly angels for the people of Portugal. It was so cool. Sister Fuertes and I also set a goal at the beginning of the transfer to have 80 people in Sacrament meeting. Well, my last Sunday there we had 85 people! I was so happy. That ward is just amazing. That Sunday we went to see Silvia and Luis and and with Silvia we picked a date for her baptism. We had the feeling that she would choose the right date. Well she said the 27th of December. And that is what we were thinking before hand!  Well then we got down on our knees and prayed. She asked Heavenly Father if that was the right day for her to be baptized and she began to cry in the prayer.. I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who truly does hear and answer our prayers. Well, after that, we got the call that I was going to Setubal in the morning and that I would be training, well finishing the training of a Sister. Silvia and I cried and she just hugged me. And then I gave her daughter Bea a hug goodbye and she said Sister Lacey fique aqui! Which means stay here. Awe it was so hard to leave them.

Okay so now I am in Setubal! It is great here. I think it is the biggest ward in all of Portugal. We had our ward Party on Saturday and lets just say it was a party! Haha We started at 1 and it didn't end until around 8:30. They were all so fun dancing and just having a good time together. And just a side note there are a lot of Africans in the ward.  I love them so much... I was missing them. :)

On Thursday Sister Ventura and I had lunch with this elderly couple. Jose, was baptized recently and just got the Priesthood. And his wife is not a member yet. Well, they are just a true Portuguese couple. Their food, humor, hospitality. Awe I love them! We had so much fun with them I laughed so hard at all of their jokes. I just cant even explain how funny they are. I just love the people of Portugal. We had a lesson with them after lunch and the spirit was so strong. She is from another church and says she doesn't want to be just leave a church that she was born in and grew up in. And then we just testified to her that we are not there to take away her faith or the things she believes in but just to add to the things she already knows.

Our Zone leaders have asked us as companionships to contact 50 people a day and talk about the He is The Gift video and invite them to church. It is amazing how much more love I not only have for the people, but for this work as we literally stop and talk to everyone. We even have started to talk to people that have already gotten a pass along card. And they say I already have one and then I say well have you watched the video yet and then they laugh and say no and then I tell them to well here is another card... watch it.

I know this church is true. Today for personal study I studyied more about the atonement but also about Our Loving Heavenly Father. I am in awe everyday of his love for us. And that we have the oppurtuinity to pray and talk with him at any moment. I read a qoute from Elder Ballard and he talked about how singifcant it is that when Our Heavnly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove the first word Our Father said was, "Joseph." This is the same relationship he has with us. He knows us by name and he loves us with a love we cannot begin to comprehend. And his love for us is shown through the gift of his beloved son, our Savior, because through him through his help through is strength we will be happy in this life and return to our loving Heavenly Father again. 

I know this church is true. I love you all so much!!

Love Sister Lacey

Transferred and Training!

Sister Lacey was transferred to Setubal today.  Since she was traveling, she only had a few minutes to write and here is some of what she shared:

I am doing great! It is pretty crazy but I got transferred. I am in the south again in Setubal. I got the call last night that I was getting transferred and I went to say bye to Silvia and her family and we all cried. Goodbyes are not fun.  :( And the even crazier thing is that I am training. Well, I am finishing the training of a Sister. Anyways, crazy stuff. I am pretty excited though, this area is supposed to be one of the best in the mission. 

I love you so much!! Thank you for all of your prayers!

Gratidão!

Bea, Silvia's daughter.  She named a Barbie doll after Sister Lacey :-)

Porto, Portugal

She was sooo excited to find root beer!

Ola Familía!!

Hi guys. You all look great! I am so happy you all had a great thanksgiving!  We celebrated a little one here. We bought a little chicken and made apple crisp, salad and mashed potatoes. It was pretty funny because sour cream and whole turkeys do not exist here. So we used plain yogurt to make the mashed potatoes more creamy and it actually turned our pretty good. I will send pictures. 

This week flew by! I think it is because I was in Lisboa for 2 days. It was pretty fun to see friends from the MTC. And I stayed the night with two sisters from Brazil! They were so cool! I just love seeing missionaries from so many different countries serving. This work really is moving forward. Awe I just love it!

We had an amazing lesson with Silvia on Thursday; she is amazing! She is getting married on Friday!! I cant wait. Well anyways on Thursday we had the feeling that we needed to talk about prophets again with her and specifically Joseph Smith. I asked her, do you believe Joseph smith was a Prophet and she said yes because I know the Book of Mormon is true. I then told her that people will always try to say bad things about the Prophet and that our church leaders today have asked us to strengthen our testimonies of the Prophet Joseph Smith. So we asked her if she would pray right then and specifically ask Heavenly Father if Joseph Smith was a Prophet. So, we got down on our knees and she prayed. The spirit was so strong! She finished and pondered for a while and afterwords she said. Wow!  I feel a little something in my heart.  She said that there is no way she can deny that he is a prophet of God and that through him the Church of Jesus Christ was restored.

I am not going to lie these past weeks have been a little rough. I am so thankful that I have my Loving Heavenly Father to rely on. I also love this quote from President Monson, it says, " We know that there are times when we will experience heartbreaking sorrow, when we will grieve, and when we may be tested to our limits. However, such difficulties allow us to change for the better, to rebuild our lives in the way our Heavenly Father teaches us, and to become something different from what we are better than we were, more understanding than we were, more empathetic then we were, with stronger testimonies than we had before." I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve.

When I was in my last week in the MTC, I prayed to Heavenly Father to try me. To help make me stronger and really to push me to the edge. And I did this because I want to come back a different person because the better I become here the better wife and mother I will be later. I need to be better, more loving, more understanding, stronger, more like Christ. The other night when I was praying and feeling alone, the thought came to me, "Sister Lacey do you remember when you asked for this, to be tested to be pushed? Do you want to change?" It was one of the coolest experiences that ever happened to me. I know that God loves us and he hears and answers our prayers.  

I know this church is true. I am so thankful for it! We started young women's this week and we showed them "He is the Gift". The spirit was so strong. They are even going to send the missionaries specific pass along cards for "He is the Gift." And we are setting specific goals for how many new investigators we will have because we are using this video. I know this church is true it is Christ's church. 

I love you all so much! Thank you for all of your love and support. I LOVE YOU!!

Sister Lacey