Que benção que eu estou servir em PORTUGAL!!

Lisbon, Portugal - 5/25/15

Lisbon, Portugal - 5/25/15

District P-Day - Lisbon, Portugal - 5/25/15

Lisbon, Portugal - 5/25/15

Lisbon, Portugal - 5/25/15

Lisbon, Portugal - 5/25/15

She found carpet!

Vanda and Jose

Young Women's President

Benevente, Portugal

Ola minha querida família!´

Hey guys!! This week has been so awesome I just love Portugal! Sorry I sent so many pictures. Haha I felt bad for last week.

Today was so much fun for P-day! We went to Lisboa as a district! It was just so nice. When we were on our way to Lisbon we were on the metro and this man was playing a fardo, which is basically folk music of Portugal. It was so fun people were slow dancing on the metro. Awe I love it here. When we got to Lisbon we walked along the pier, got ice cream, and even met some members of the church who were on vacation. It was so fun! I love Portugal!

So for some awesome news, Silvana and I have been emailing and her and Lucas are getting married! She is not 18 yet so they have been waiting to get her dads permission and she told me that after all the prayers her dad finally said that they could. I am seriously so happy for them. So before they found the church they were living together and they have a daughter named Evanline together. I am seriously just so happy!

This week we found some pretty elect people. We met this one guy and he is so cool. It is just amazing how much the Lord is really preparing people. He had so many questions and we taught so many things just on the street. When we met with him the next day we taught him about the first lesson and can I just say that you cannot not feel the spirit when you recite the first vision and talk about The Restoration of the Gospel. When Elder Cook came in November he told us that everything goes back to the Restoration he said make the restoration the central part of your teaching. And let me just say it works.

I am just so happy. I love this gospel so much. The more and more I bare my testimony the more I feel how true this is. I am so happy! And I just don't have a problem telling people what God's commandments are. I know they are blessings. We are so blessed!

Eu amo voces tanto!! Tenham uma boa semena!!

Com muito amor Sister Lacey 

Beavente até Salvaterra

Ola minha querida família!!

Hey Guys!! Man this week has flown bye! You guys all sound like you are doing great! I sure do miss you guys!!

So to start out something really funny happened last P-day. Sister Elliott and I were walking around and window shopping. Well there was some construction going on and so there was that orange plastic netting stuff to block people from walking were they were redoing the road. Well people were staring at us but this one particular man walked by looking at us and he ran into the plastic fence got stuck and said, ´´Fogo, eu fiquei aprisionado.´´ (I have been imprisoned) Meaning he got stuck. It was seriously so funny!  I just thought you guys would enjoy that. :) 

I have been studying a lot about the gift of The Holy Ghost this week and I realized something in my studies. In 2 Nephi 32:12 it says, ´´And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do.´´ So I realized something. The Holy Ghost really is a gift we have been given when we are baptized that gives us the ability to really follow our Savior's example or in other words do the things which we have seen him do. That is why the sacrament his so important because we are promised to always have his spirit to be with us. 

I had  one of the coolest experiences this week. On Friday night we called this recent covert couple in our branch to see how they were doing. At the end of the phone call I asked if we could do anything  for them and they said oh it can wait until later and I said we can go out to your house tomorrow to help. So they live in a town called Benavente (about a 30 minute bus ride out of Vila Franca). And this couple happens to both be blind. Sister Elliott and I didn't exactly know where we were going so we missed the stop and ended up going to a town called Salvaterra about 10 minutes in a car outside of Benavente. It was quite the adventure. Haha 

Well anyways we had the best afternoon with this couple. We just laughed so much and talked about how they found the church. They actually were married and then got divorced and Jose said that is when he started talking to the Elders. He then began praying and he said that his when he realized that the church was true and that God really does speak to his children. He then was baptized and began to really miss Vanda and they ended up getting remarried and she was baptized in September. He said, ´´God works in mysterious ways. I was at my lowest point when I found God's church and that is when I realized how much I really loved Vanda. And do you guys want to know why they needed our help? We helped them organize their clothes based on colors so they could have outfits to wear for church. They are seriously amazing! 

When we were on our way to Benavente we passed by a lot of Pine trees and I thought wow this looks like Big Bear and then de repente (suddenly) I saw a vineyard and an old Portuguese House with a flower garden. Haha I love Portugal! 

I have been redoing my lesson plans for the restoration and I had the feeling to share with you guys what I wrote down about our loving Heavenly Father. ´´God loves you more than you can comprehend. Do you believe that? You are his child. In Matthew 5:48 it says Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.´´ He is perfect and he gave us this gospel the gospel of Jesus Christ so that we can grown day by day and become as he is.´´ I am so thankful for our loving Heavenly Father this gospel is his perfect plan that if we follow we can return to live with him again. Somos abençoados!! 

I love you all so much!! 

Com tanto amor, Sister Lacey 

Dia de Mae!! Foi tão boa!!

Oat mill face masks

Sister Lacey and Sister Elliott

View from apartment in Vila Franca de Xira

Sister Elliott did a sneak picture while Sister Lacey was writing
in her journal

This is when Sister Lacey realized Sister Elliott was taking the
picture :-)

Steep cobblestone walkway up to apartment

Looking out the window talked about in the email
below

Study area in Vila Franca de Xira

Ola minha querida Família!!

Hey Guys!! Okay that was so awesome talking to you all! I hope it was as awesome for you guys as it was for me. Haha I was pretty emotional. I seriously love you all so much!!

This week was awesome! I have realized after talking to you all that I need to love the experience of living in Portugal! It is seriously so much fun! So in my emails from now on I want to write cool little things that I love about Portugal each week. One thing that I love about Portugal is that everyone just looks out their window. There are no screens here so people just kind of hang out the window and talk to everyone. At first it was kind of weird to me because you would be walking around looking for someone's house and then you hear someone yell, ´´Minhas estão buscar por quem?´´ (Girls who are you looking for) Haha I love it so much! Well, anyways, last night I was just hanging out our kitchen window and I saw our neighbor who happens to be in our Branch and I said, ´´oi Irma´´ (Hello Sister) She looked up and then we had a nice little conversation about you guys and how it was talking to you guys. I felt so Portuguese just talking through my window to my neighbors. Seriously love it here!

On Wednesday night we had a branch activity and it was seriously so fun. It was basically a family home evening because the members here are so new, so we are teaching them how you have family nights. Well, for our game, we played Gostas de teu vizinho? (Do you love your neighbor?). Well you guys know how I can get pretty competitive sometimes... Well, lets just say I booty bumped a member out of a chair and when I looked at who it was I almost died. Haha She is an elderly woman in our branch we are all crying we were laughing so hard! Just imagine me almost tackling this sweet little lady in our branch. Haha So funny!

So I read a talk in the last Liahona and it was seriously so good! It talked about the difference between weakness and sin and I learned a lot. I realized that I have been asking forgiveness for things that are weakness of mine and not sin. Sin is willful rebellion against God and weakness is a natural human flaw. And do you know who also had weakness? Christ. He was without sin but he experienced human pain, emotions, weakness. That is why I find it so interesting that it is through his grace that we can overcome our weaknesses. I love in The Book of Mormon in Ether 12:27 it says, ´´And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.´´ I love this scripture! Notice that it doesn't say that we have to repent of our weakness but we need to come to the Lord with humility and his grace will strengthen us.

I love this gospel so much! I am so thankful for you all! Have a great week!! Eu amo vocês tanto!

Com, amor, Sister Lacey

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Vila Franca de Xira!! Week 2!

Ola minha família!! 

Hey guys!! I am seriously so excited to talk to you guys!! Awe I cant wait! I am loving Vila Franca de Xira.  It is so pretty here. 

One of my favorite things about missionary work is inviting someone to pray for the first time. I am not going to lie Satan works hard on them but as soon as they say Pai Clestial I just want to cry. I know that Our Father in Heaven Loves us and he is just waiting to here from his children... so cool! 

So the Elders Quorum President Irmao Lopes who is a Recent Convert happens to be a Shepherd. Cool Huh!? Hey also named a lamb that is only 2 days old Sister Lacey. I will need to take a picture with it. Haha Well It is really cool talking to him about sheep and how much they really do follow him and know one else. I just love it when we think of the Savior In Alma 39 it talks about this.  

37 O ye workers of iniquity; ye that are puffed up in the vain things of the world, ye that have professed to have known the ways of righteousness nevertheless have gone astray, as sheep having no shepherd, notwithstanding a shepherd hath called after you and is still calling after you, but ye will not hearken unto his voice!

 38 Behold, I say unto you, that the good shepherd doth call you; yea, and in his own name he doth call you, which is the name of Christ; and if ye will not hearken unto the voice of the good shepherd, to the name by which ye are called, behold, ye are not the sheep of the good shepherd.

I know that Christ is calling after us and we just need to follow him and rely on him. 

I love this gospel so much I know this is Christ Church!!! I cant wait to talk to you guys!!! Eu amo vocês!!

Com Amor, Sister Lacey