Nossa Natureza Divina

Relief Society President

Primary President 

Halloween Package!

Belem

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Ola minha Querida Família!! 

Ola tudo bem? Com vocês estão! Sento Saudades tuas. 

Hey Guys! This week was amazing! I am not going to lie I am a little tired. It is funny because I thought the mission would be so easy physically because of Cross-Country, but it is pretty tough sometimes. The amazing thing is though that I always have enough energy to finish the day. Sister Anaya and I were talking about this that it is amazing how tired and happy you can be at the same time. 

We started a cool thing in our branch. Sister Anaya and I had the strong impression during weekly planning to start something called ´´missionary minute´´. In this activity the Bishop/ Missionaries prays and picks a member of the ward who will have the responsibility of giving out a Book Of Mormon for the upcoming week. The Next Sunday at the beginning of Sacrament meeting they share for one minute their experience of sharing their testimony and of giving out The Book of Mormon and they choose another member (It can be any member, youth child or adult) who will have the responsibility of giving out The Book of Mormon for the next week and so forth. It is seriously so cool! The spirit is so strong and the members get so excited to see who will be chosen next. One of the members went on a walk everyday for a few days to find someone that the spirit said to give the Book of Mormon to ans another gave it to one of her best friends! It is so cool!  (Dad maybe you guys can start it. :) ) 

I was studying this week in Alma and I was reminded of the Divine nature we have because we are spirit children of a loving Heavenly Father. In Alma 41:10-11 it says, ´´10 Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be  restored from sin to happiness.Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness.

 11 And now, my son, all men that are in a state of nature,or I would say, in a carnal state, are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; they are without God in the world, and they have gone contrary to the nature of God;therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of  happiness.´´

I loved these verses. When we sin we are literally doing something that is contrary to our Fathers will and that makes us unhappy. And it is our Nature to be happy and we can only be happy when we have God with us and to have God with us we have to repent and be obedient. In the scriptures it defines obedience as ´´Walking with God!´´ How cool is that! I know that we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father and we have inherited some of his attributes. 

This week I had one pretty rough day when I just felt really alone. I am missing you guys a lot. Well I remember thinking I just wanted to talk to my family and my mom and dad. Well I remembered that I have  Father that I can talk to and I really am growing in my relationship with him. He is my Father and I love him! This is one of the hardest and my one of my favorite parts about the mission that I cant just talk to you guys when I want. I have to talk to him. I want to invite you guys to really talk to our Heavenly Father this week.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!

Estou tão feliz! Eu vos amo verdadeiramente! Nosso Pai Celestial e Seu filho Jesus Cristo nos amam perfeitamente! 

Com tanto amor, Sister Lacey 

LOVE YOU GUYS!!

With Sister Ventura (former companion) and others

Miratejo Zone

Belem, Portugal - 11/2/15

Belem Tower, Portugal - 11/2/15

Hey guys! 

Sorry this will be really short today. We went to Belém and got back late! It was seriously so beautiful though! 

I loved all the pictures from Halloween seriously so cute! 

I am doing great and I love this Ramo. They seriously love us soooo much! We were having a rough day last week. And our Branch President randomly called and said ´´Sisters where are you, we have dinner!´´ They are amazing! Another member saw us out in one of our areas at around 9 and he got worried we would make it home in time and went to the bus stop to make sure we got on the bus safely. It is so cute because he has a hard time walking and he still walked far to make sure we were fine. I LOVE IT HERE!! 

My ponderize last week was Alma 37:7 It actually reminds me a lot of Jason and Brooke. It may have seemed like something small but Jason is now on a mission and he will change the lives of so many people. God loves us so much! I am so thankful for his love! 

I love you all sooo much!! 

Com amor, Sister Lacey

O Casa Do Senhor!

A visit to Villa Franca de Xira for the baptisms!

Dora Gomes and her family

A typical little car you see in Portugal

Hey Guys!! 

So guess what!! They are starting the construction on the temple on the 5th of December!!!! I got the text and Sister Anaya and I cried and then screamed and then we started dancing. Haha We did get some funny looks. 

I will be quick today but this week was great! It kind of scares me how fast it is going. Antonio is doing really good. He is seriously so amazing! He is still aving family problems but he just said, ´´Sisters I cant sleep at night. All I do is think about baptism, baptsm is my first priority.´´ He said that if his family was supporting him he would have been baptized right after General Conference. :) He is amazing! 

The Baptism in Vila Franca was so cool! The Lord truly is preparing people. I think that is my favorite thing about the mission that Lord truly loves each one of us and he wants us to return to him. I get to be a special witness of the Great love he has for us. 

I love you all so much!! 

Com amor, Sister Lacey

O Plano Perfeito

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Ola Minha querida família!! 

Hey guys!! This week was amazing!! I seriously love the Branch! We have so much fun with them. We visited three families from the Branch last night and we seriosuly all laughed so hard! Tiago and Bianca are Irmão Sergios kids (The Mission leader). They are so funny! Tiago is really skinny and they were joking around with him and saying he is lucky because when it rains he cant even get wet because he is so small! Haha 

Our friend from Africa Antonio is doing great! It was amazing because Sister Anaya and I had the strongest impression to talk to him about his family and it turns out that is what is holding him back. He is going to be talking to his wife but the Church and that he knows it is Christs Church. She is still in Africa and so he wants her support.

We had another lesson with Jessica. She is seriously amazing! We taught the plan of salvation and tears came into her eyes as we talked about the spirit world and that the gospel will be preach there. She said,´´I never learned that before! Gods plan is so perfect!´´ The spirit was so strong! I testified that his plan is perfect and it was designed so that everyone of his children could have the chance to return to him. :) 

I loved my Ponderize this week!! Truly I am so happy! We are so blessed both spiritually and materially as we keep the commandments. They are not restrictions but steps to help guide us safely home!

I love you all so much!! 

Com tanto amor, Sister Lacey

Montijo!!

Ola Todos!! 

Hey guys! So I am staying here in Montijo with Sister Anaya! We are seriously so excited! I am loving it here. 

This week was amazing! We have been meeting more with Alfredo (the man who came to General Conference and loved it. :) ) and we had a lesson with him and it was amazing. He said, ´´Sisters I am sad, Christs Church does not exist where I am from.´´ He is only going to be in Portugal for a few months because of health problems and then he will go back to a little country in Africa. He said that he knows the Church is true but he would be the only member there. He is seriously amazing! We had a lesson with him and our Branch Presidente and he said that there only needs to be one person to start the church in another part of the world. :) 

We had another awesome experience. We have been looking through teaching records to try to find more people to teach and we went on a bus to an area about 20 minutes away and starting working there. We were not having much luck but on the last person we had on the list, a lady opened the door, who was not the lady we were looking for, well actually she was because she is so prepared. We left a Book of Mormon with her and then went back on Tuesday. She is amazing! She said,´´I have reach the point in my life were all I want to do is become closer to God.´´ We taught her about the Restoration of The Gospel of Jesus Christ and she literally had tears in her eyes! She has been sooo prepared by Heavenly Father!

I know this church is true. I am so thankful for the Commandments and the straight and narrow way we need to follow. My scripture to Ponderize this week is Mosiah 2:41,´´ 41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that 

there by they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.´´

I love you all so much! Keep on doing what is right and follow the promptings of the spirit!! 

Com tanto amor, Sister Lacey

O Casamento

Surprising Silvana at her wedding

They became very close while Sister Lacey was serving in Setubal 

What a sweet moment

Forever Friends

With the lovely couple

Other friends from Setubal

Other friends from Setubal

Lisbon

Their apartment! :-0 I didn't have any apartments like this
on my mission in Pennsylvania :-)

Another shot of the apartment

She found trail mix

Mission Leader and son

Boat ride to Lisbon

Ola minha querida família!! 

Hey guys!! This week was amazing! And lets just say fall finally arrived here in Portugal! It is raining so much!! I do kind of like it though. 

Well Saturday was seriously amazing!! I got permission to go to Silvana´s and Lucas wedding! She walked down the isle and he literally starting bawling and then everyone started crying! I didn't tell them I was going so they were completely surprised to see me. Lucas got so excited and almost gave me Beijinhos (A kiss on the cheek) We all laughed so hard! It was amazing just see how much they have changed! The gospel changes families. 

Her parents spoke at the wedding and her dad just cried saying how proud he is of her. The spirit was so strong there! It was amazing that I was able to be there and see all of that and to be able to see how much the Lord prepared them! They are so excited to go to the  temple to be sealed as a family next year! 

From all of this and conference I was just thinking about my mission and how blessed I am to see God working all of these miracles. I feel like Ammon in the Book of Mormon when he said, ´´ Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever... Yea, we have reason to praise him forever, for he is the Most High God...  Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.´´

My heart is so full! We had a wonderful lesson this week with a man from Africa and he is also so prepared. He bore is testimony about the love he has for our Heavenly Father and he said, ´´I just know that God is our Father!´´ We focused a lot on the Book of Mormon and he is reading and he believes it is true because he is feeling it. We explained that the way he feels when he is thinking about God that peace he feels is the spirit and he will feel that when he is reading The Book of Mormon. He went to Conference yesterday and said,´´Eu gostei bastante.´´ (I like that a lot)

I also just loved conference! We are so blessed! Christs church is all centered on families. That is the way it was established from the beginning. I am so thankful for prophets and apostles. I know they are men of God. The Gospel is simple and perfect it is Christs and The Church is Gods kingdom on the earth and it is growing and it will fill the whole Earth as prophesied! 

I love you all so much!!