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