Faith, trust and an amazing companion!

Sister can wear pants now!!

Hola Everyone!

This has been a week full of laughing, crying, learning, loving, memories and so much more! Weeks like this are the kind that you are just going to remember!

I was able to start my week off right... with my family! It was so good to talk with you guys and to lift my up! Y'all have no idea of how much you have blessed my life! Thank you for all that you do! You are all a light in my life!

Christmas was amazing! Very relaxing and fun! We don't do regular missionary work and we were able to watch G rated moves which was the best! I miss movies haha!

On Wednesday I was able to go down to Idaho Falls for a meeting and honestly, I love meetings. A lot of people don't but I just get spiritually fed from them! A quote from my mission president during the meeting, "then everything is going to go heck in a handbasket". He was referring to if the General Authorities of the church didn't repeat things to us! He's too funny!

On Thursday we had Zone Conference and those are always amazing! They always help me refocus on the things I need to do! It was also great too because my chirstmas gifts got mixed up so the Assistants brought them to us that evening! Good guys! I also felt like I needed a priesthood blessing and they were able to do that for me! They were both my Zone Leaders the past couple of transfers so it's nice being friends with them! Also, the spirit was super strong and know the blessing was from God and it gave me the boost that I need to "sprint to the end"! ;) 

On Saturday we had a cool experience! So we were out finding a lot of the day and a name came to mind. We weren't sure at first if we should go see them but we decided that we should. We went there and guess what!? We got a return appointment to come and teach the kids who are not members! It was so cool! 

*side note, the roads here get a little crazy haha but it's a really good thing my companion is the designated driver and she is really good at driving in snow haha

Anyways, I wanted to tell y'all why I named my email this. This transfer, I want to work on having more trust in God and His plan for me and all of His children! We need to have faith and know He is in the little details of our lives! And the last part is because I've leaned that we are not meant to ever be alone and I know I could not have made it through my trials in my mission without my companions and especially Sister Rose! She is amazing! 

I love you all so much and I hope you have a great New Year's Day! God is good and make sure to set meaningful goals and plans! Love y'all! 

Love, 

Sister Lacey 

TRANSFERS!!!!!

Hey Y'all!!

So this might be a little shorter today just because it is transfers but I will hit on the highlights! 

So I bet all of y'all are wondering about transfers! So Sister Rose and I are staying in Rexburg and then Sister Barreto is going down to my old stomping grounds... Rigby!!! She is not going to my same area but the same city which is pretty cool! The trio is going to be no more :'(

So last Tuesday night, a cold hit me out of nowhere! I was feeling great the whole day and then we went to some lessons and it came out of nowhere haha! I rested most of Wednesday but it was good! 

Oh Thursday I went on exchanges and they were great! I saw Wolfgang Shultez on campus! It is always fun to see people you know! 

We had a super amazing lesson with someone we are teaching! We took them down to the Idaho Falls Vistor Center and at the end of the lesson, they said that they wanted to get baptized in a week!!! We were like what???? It was amazing! Super spiritual lesson! 

Well, again! I am sorry this is short! I will email next Christmas Eve and then I get to talk to yall on Christmas! So cool!! I love you all so much! if I can do anything for y'all, let me know! I love yall!

Love,

Sister Lacey

Temple!!

Add caption

Sister Gaston got married!!!

Hey Y'all!

So first thing is first, the reason why I am emailing today is because we switched our preparation days to go to the temple! We were able to go to the 6:45 am session and my goodness! I LOVE the temple! I received so much clarity and guidance and peace today! I feel so re-motivated!

So Christmas is just around the corner and I think Rexburg is finally getting that and it is deciding to snow... a lot! I love it though! I finally able to figure (kinda) of how to drive in the snow! The worst apart about snow is just cleaning it off your car, other than that, it's not too bad!

So lately things have kind of been kicking us in the butt with not being able to work and things like that but I think we are finally figuring things out. That is a blessing and a cursing from being in a trio is that if one of us does get sick, we just have to drop off the sick sister somewhere but with another sister, it seems like almost always, one of us is sick haha! But we are getting healthy haha! I was able to by-pass a full on sickness which was nice! Resting when the sickness is coming on does the trick!

That being said, God is blessing us tremendously! This transfer has just been full of miracles and I am so humbled to be able to witness them! We have been able to find new people to teach and I am so grateful for that! 

Speaking of gratitude! So our district leader came up with the idea that everyday after we are done proselyting, we put in the group chat something we are grateful for! I love doing that because then it's like Thanksgiving every day! Gratitude goes a long way!

So on Friday we were able to go down to the Idaho Falls temple visitor center and have a lesson with someone we are teaching! Man he is so amazing! He is from Pennsylvania and came over here for work. The spirit was so strong during the lesson too! And at the end he gave one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard! I am so lucky to be able to teach him!

Speaking of prayers. Prayers are everything! Lately I have been lazy and not putting a lot of effort into my prayers and I realized that I was quit sad but I was able to talk to my Heavenly Father and I realized that I just needed to pray more and that everything will be okay! So, if you are not praying sincerely... PRAY! 

So late last week we get a text from one of our Young Single Adult Ward Missionaries and he set up a visit with a non-member and we were able to teach him the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he committed to try and read the Book of Mormon! It was an amazing miracle! 

Heavenly Father is so good and this is His Son's church! I am so grateful for the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and for the opportunity I have to be a full-time missionary! If any of you are trying to decide if you should serve a mission... DO IT! I have loved every second of it!! I love you all and hope that you have the best week ever! Remember to #LightTheCommunity! Love y'all!

Love,

Sister Lacey

Sorry, this will be short

Hi!! 

Sorry this is going to be short but this week was amazing! Our P-Day got crazy haha! (Like usual)

So this week was great! I was able to go on exchanges with Sister Johnson and she is an amazing missionary! I was finally able to serve on BYU-I campus for a day and it is hoping! It is crazy being around so many people my age and having to go up to groups and talking with them... I think I was able to do it thought with God's help! Oh and tender mercy. We were eating on campus and I saw Hannah (Schlegel) Conner there and was able to eat lunch with her! It was great to see her and catch up!

So something so cute happened yesterday! So we are teaching this young man who is 9 years old. None of his family members are members and he is the only one interested in learning more. Anyways, he came to church with us and in the middle of Fast and Testimony meeting he whispered to us that we should bear our testimonies. Jokingly we told him that he should too! We told him that we would but that he doesn't have to unless he wants to. Well I went up there and sure enough, a few seconds later... guess who come marching up to the front... him! I leaned over and told him how to close a testimony and he said that he might just sit up there and not say anything. Well I went up and Sister Barreto went up and guess who got up after... That's right!! He did!!! He gave such a cute sweet testimony! I think that was one of my happiest times on the mission!! Oh I love that kid!

I went to a meeting this week and I was able to hear from my mission leaders and I am blessed to be in this mission! President Brent Nelson is such an inspired man! He show clips from Prophet Nelson and I am so glad I get to be apart of the Gathering of Israel! I was able to also talk to President Brent Nelson and he always has amazing advice!

Well, I think those are the main highlights! I love you all so much and hope that you have an amazing week and REMEMBER to Light the World!

Love,

Sister Lacey

Gratitude, Snow and Miracles!

Screenshot with 130 messages... referrals!

Hey Y'all!!

So sorry this is late but we played lazer tagging as a Zone so P-Day got moved around haha!

Happy Thanksgiving again!!! I hope y'all had a wonderful day and you ate lots of food! So I am going to cover about 2 weeks in this email! Sorry for not sending one last week! REXBURG IS ON FIRE Y'ALL!!! (Well not like Cali but like in a spiritual way haha it's too cold for that up here!)

We have seen so many miracles this transfer and it so humbling to witness! We have been able to find so many people to teach and I love them all so much! Maybe it's because God is able to work through 3 of us and not just 2... Haha I love being in a trio! Never a dull moment! 

So I will explain one of the pictures I sent! It is the one of the screenshot of the phone. So a few days before stake conference, we were able to meet with our stake president and talk with him and he proposed this idea that our mission president presented and we told him we were all for it! So since our family stake is so huge it is brodcasted to 3 other buildings besides the stake center. We just found out that our family stake consists of almost 4800 members! Cool huh! Anyways, we walk into stake conference and shake the stake presidents hand and go sit with someone we are teaching and the meeting starts. Well when the stake president gets up there he asks us to come to the front haha! Luckily the only thing he asks us to do is tell everyone our phone number! And sister Barreto pushed me to the front so I did it haha! But the stake president challenged everyone to text us a name that comes to mind during the meeting and I know the screenshot only says 130 but we got 150 texts and 118 referrals! Cool huh! So we have been trying to tackle that! members are supportive and help us a lot though!

So on Thanksgiving we had a dinner at 12, 1, 2, and 3... Let's just say saying I was full was an understatement... My comps and I survived though and lived to tell the tale!

Sister Rose was not feeling too good this week but she is so amazing! We were still able to work everyday and we saw so many miracles. I don't even know where to start with all of them. God has been blessing us so much these past weeks! Through the Holy Ghost we have been able to find people who are willing to listen to the message of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ! That is why Rexburg is on FIRE! THERE IS MISSIONARY WORK EVERYWHERE!! God was not lying when He said in Doctrine and Covenants 4:4, "For the field is white, already to harvest"!

I love y'all so much and hope that y'all have a great week! Something I was able to learn this week through prayer and scriptures is that God is ALWAYS there for us. Satan wants nothing more to "drag us down to the gulf of misery" and he sometimes does a pretty good job at it but if we reach to the Savior, Jesus Christ, we will always have help! Love yall!

Love,

Sister Lacey

First Snow!!

Hola Amigos!

I hope y'all are doing well! This past week has been wild! I hope I will be able to express to y'all all of the amazing miracles we were able to witness! I wish I could just tell y'all in person because then I can get into but... email will have to suffice haha!

SO!!!! An amazing miracle!!!!!! The Spanish elders gave us this referral for a few weeks ago and we were finally able to teach them last Friday and my goodness. I am not sure if I have meet a more prepared man! There are a few that are pretty similar but he is AMAZING!!!! We come in there and he just starts saying, "I know that is church is true! I feel like I am being hugged by the spirit when I walk in there. I want to be baptized and be temple worthy and be sealed to my family!" I was just floored! He is amazing! We are able to teach his wife as well and she is still not sure so we are mainly teaching her. The other HUGE miracle we had was connected to them. So we had the feeling that we should go to the ward that they should be attending so when we went there, we we're greeting people at the doors, and GUESS WHAT?!?!? THEY SHOWED UP!!! I thought I was going to cry. I was so happy. So that was a cool miracle. Oh and a funny story added onto that, when we went to go and teach them we we're walking up the stairs to go to their apartment and guess who fell... I did... and guess who heard it... They did... That was a good way to break the ice though. 

Another miracle that we got to see was teaching this one woman who has had a really had life. We had been trying to teach her and then everything just fell into place. It was also really cool because that was our first night in a trio and we taught in unity. We didn't even have time to comp study because we just got put together that day but God blessed! 

Another cool thing that happened this week was that at district council Sister Barreto and I we're able to bear our testimonies in Spanish. We just had a testimony meeting for district council and the spirit was so strong. The reason we bore our testimony in Spanish was to thank our district leader for all he did for the district before he left. It was fun!

Anyways, I think that is all for the week! I love being a trio! My companions our amazing and I learn so much from them! I know that this is God's church and that Jesus is the Christ! I love y'all and hope y'all have a great safe week!

Love,

Sister Lacey

Hey Y'all!!! It's Transfers!!!

Making pizza at a member of the Mission Presidency's house

Pizza oven :-0

Matching with President!

Add caption

Hello Everyone!!!

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!!  I love you so much!!!

Alright! So this is going to be short and sweet! P-day the week of transfers is crazy haha! You gotta say bye to everyone and everything!! But!!!!! I'm staying with Sister Barreto and we are adding more to the party!! We are becoming a trio with a sister named Sister Rose!!! Our district is getting spilt up though! I'm sad haha! But I am proud of the elders that are leaving! So Elder Lewis was our Zone Leader and he just became the new Assistant to the President and then our District Leader, Elder Estrada just became a Zone Leader down in the south part of our mission! I am sad that they are leaving but I am so proud of them!

This week was amazing! We saw so many miracles and God is blessing us so much! We were able to find two new people to teach this week and it was all through the Spirit!!! I am just lucky to be an instrument!

We were finally able to teach one of our people and he wants to be baptized this month!!!

Also, another person we are teaching came to a baptism this week! We texted him the night before to invite him and we didnt get a response back. Well the next morning we were trying to figure out what to do because we felt strongly that he needed to go. We prayed and we asked that he would respond within a half an hour. Well he did!! And he went! And it was amazing!!

God is so good!!! Missions are so hard but so amazing! The Priesthood is real! The Spirit testifies of truth! God has His hand in all things! I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!

Love,

Sister Lacey

P.S. Sorry for the picture overload! I hope it makes up for the short email!

Smile!

More service

Hey Y'all!

This week was AMAZING!!! I LOVE being a missionary so much! So y'all would be so proud of me! I'm doing a LOT better in writing in my journal so now I actually remember my week! I have some good stories for ya! 

So all of you know that I like food, and on my mission I have been able to eat a lot of food from around the world which is awesome! Sister Yun made me Korean food, sister Mena made me Ecuadorian food, sister Burgoc made me Brazilian food this week, we had Indian food from this family we ate with last night, and now I'm trying to get our district leader to make us Guatemalan food. When we asked him that, he just sent us a picture... I'll send you it!

One of the wards we serve in has a lot of people from around the world who are going to BYU I and last night we ate with a family from India and then we visited a family from Haiti! They are all amazing! The Haitian family said that they will cook us Haitian food which I'm excited for that! We started talking about languages and they know 6 languages together! I told them I wanted to learn Spanish so when we see then next time, they want me to pray in Spanish! Pray for me! (in whatever language you want haha) 

So something really embarrassing happened to me this week. So for some reason my brain doesn't work anymore...  and because of that I say some dumb stuff. Sister Barreto and I we're knocking on some doors in an apartment complex and we see this lady walking her dog. We started talking to her and we find out that she is not a member of our church. And it's always a blessing to find someone who is in a member of our church because it is rare and Rexburg haha. Anyways so she said that her neighbors don't like her very much and we asked her why. She said that usually her first and last conversation with them is "what ward are you in?" Well I wanted to ask her where she worked at but for some reason "what Ward are you in" came out... And she's just like "uhhh..." 🤦‍♀️Yeah that was awkward and embarrassing haha.

So something Sister Barreto and I are trying to do is meet with all of our bishops/ branch president and ask them what they want us to do in their wards. I think we have almost been able to meet with all 18 but we had a cool experience. So we went to go see one of the referrals that one of the Bishops gave us and it's a part member family. We'll we were able to get to know them well and the non member wife basically already considers herself a member! How cool is that! We will hopefully start teaching her next week! 

I feel like I can just keep going but I'll save some good stories for y'all later! I know that this church is true and that there is missionary work where ever you are! Even if you serve where there's majority members ;) God's work cannot be stopped! Love y'all! 

Love,

Sister Lacey 

Ps. I titled my email smile because we were able to talk to this really cute old man and he told us to always smile :)

"With all of your heart, might, mind, and strength!"

Sushi!!

Service project

Hey y'all!

I am so sorry if this is going to be a shorter email! I am so sorry to admit this but emailing gets tiring haha! And the more and more I am a missionary the more I get tired but also, I get more and more motivated as a missionary! So I love it! 

So yesterday we were able to hear from a missionary who is leaving for his missionary and he talked about Doctrine and Covenants 4:2 and I LOVE that scripture! Lately, I have been really trying to give my ALL to the Savior and I hope that I am getting there!  

Satan tries to get me down but luckily I think I am able to recognize it quicker and so I am able to block him out quicker! So that's good right?? Anyways, one of our people dropped us yesterday and that was tough but I cried for a little bit and now I am good! Thankfully I have an amazing companion who helped me when I was down. I watched a video about the Savior and then I was good to go! Haha everyone has their agency and we need to respect that. Now we can just spend more time finding the elect!  

Lately with the Prophet's invitation to read the Book of Mormon from Conference to the end of the year, I have been trying to read the Book of Mormon at any chance I can get and it is awesome! I love the Book of Mormon so much and I wish EVERYONE knew about it and would read it! I am glad that I get to share that with others!!

I know that this is God's church! I am so blessed and so humbled to be able to be a full time servant of the Lord! Thank you all for the love and support! If I can do anything for y'all, please let me know!! 

Love,

Sister Lacey

FAMILY!!!!

Sunday schedule :-0

Hey Y'all!

How are y'all doing?? I hope good!

Sooo... This week has had it's ups and downs but I have learned and grown from both of them so that's good! 

So not last week but the week before at District Council, Elder Woods (one of our Assistants to the President) was there and he shared a scripture about being bold. Then we were asked to read a talked called the "4th Missionary", I realized that I need to be bold as a servant of Christ. So last Monday we were bold with one of our people that we are teaching about the Word of Wisdom. So far she is still struggling with it but she is getting there... hopefully! 

We had Zone Conference this week and I learned that I need to give my WHOLE will to God! Saturday was a hard... hard day but thankfully I have an amazing companion and amazing people in my district! I am not even 100% sure why it was such a hard day, I think that Satan was just working hard on us, you know? Anyways, that night I was able to have a good talk with our Heavenly Father and I think I have officially given my will to God! And I feel AMAZING!! I hope I can hold nothing back from Him because He has given us everything. 

Okay, so funny story! Just to preface this... it is weird to serve around people my age haha!! My comp and I went to the gas station to get gas and some snacks and we just say hi to everyone okay... Anyways these guys were walking in while we were walking out and we said hi and one was all like, "hello there..." all creepy like... Yeah that was awko taco... Haha

So Sister Barreto and I were able to witness some pretty amazing miracles! So Thursday night we were getting ready to go on exchanges and so we went to the usual gas station where we meet at. Anyways, Sister Barretto and I saw that the other sisters were not there and Sister Barreto needed to go to the bathroom so we started to walk inside. Well on the way in there a man said hi to us and asked if we were missionaries and we told him, "Yes!" We then started to talk to him and it ends up that he lives in Rigby and I do not think he is a member of the church. We got his number and we gave it to the Spanish Sisters! They called him and they are meeting with him this week!! So cool right! Oh and what is amazing about this, is apparently the sisters we were going on exchanges with tried to text us that morning and tell us to meet somewhere else but the text didn't go through and I think it is because God needed us to meet him!

So I was able to go on Exchanges with Sister Bergoc and man she is an amazing sister! She is from Brazil and has been in the States for the past couple of years! She is one of the funniest people I have ever meet! I am so glad that I was able to learn from her this week! She has only been out for a few short months but she is a solid missionary!!

Another funny story.. well kinda. I am scared to become a mother! We have been around a few young mothers this week and I have no idea how they do it! I am pretty sure it is easier to wrestle alligators than to take care of 2 little children! But the crazy thing is!! All the mothers seem to be enjoying it!!!!! Good thing that right now, I don't need to worry about it right haha! To all the mothers, Thank You and I have no idea how y'all did it! 

Another miracle was with one of the people we are teaching. He is 8, almost 9 and we taught him a little bit about baptism (his family are not very religious at all and before the sisters started meeting with him he didn't really even know who God was) and the next day he expressed to us the desire that he has to be baptized! He is so cute! We are blessed to teach him!

Sunday was probably one of the most busiest days that I have every had! We had 2 Sacrament meetings, 2 ward councils, taught 2 Relief Society Lessons, had 7 meetings with our bishops and then we had a Stake Training for the YSA that the Stake Presidency invited us to! It was an AMAZING day! I LOVE being busy haha! 

I love y'all so much and I want y'all to know how happy I am! I do not fully understand why God has blessed me so much but I am so grateful for all that He has given me! God is good! I love y'all!

Love,

Sister Lacey

General Conference!!

She ran in to another one of her great friends from high school!

They couldn't get to this door :-)

Hey y'all!!! 

Man this week was an amazing week! I want to tell y'all a little bit about what I learned and this is basically what I have been learning my whole mission! 

It's all about our Savior, Jesus Christ! I am so grateful for General Conference and how Christ centered it always is. This week and actually for awhile now I have trying harder and harder to be more like my Savior. I am very VERY far from where I know I need to be but I am so glad that He is there for us every step of the way!

We are teaching this one lady and we are trying to help her overcome some addictions. It has been nice to tell her that we are called to be Jesus Christ's representatives and if He won't give up on her then we will not give up on her. She wants to follow His example so much and I know that she can do it with His help! 

So one funny thing/ miracle happened this week. So y'all know that I am an awkward person and do awkward things haha! So Sister Barreto and I were looking at our Area Book Planner App to see who we could contact to find new people to teach. Well we see this one lady and decide to go try and visit her. She lived in this apartment complex called "The Village". Anyways, we start walking to her house and this car drove by and I want to wave to the person... well the person didn't wave back and I was like, "well darn". Well this other guy saw this whole thing go down and chuckles a little and so I decide to talk to him instead! I asked him his name and if he knew where this apartment was and he said, "Yeah! I am actually going there right now". That guy was going over to his friends house and his friends girlfriend lived there and she was the one we were trying to get in contact with! We were able to talk with her for a little bit and she is out of town working for awhile but she said that we can come back when she is home! It is cool how God works! That is something I have learned on my mission, is that He works through awkward situations a lot of the time haha!  It was also cool because her boss is one of the bishops from Salmon! Small world! 

I was able to go on exchanges to Sugar City this week and that was a cool experience! So many amazingly kind people here! I was with Sister Latham and we did service for this lady and it was a lot of fun! Sister Latham and I were also able to get to know one another better and that was a blessing! 

Anyways, I loved this week so much! I am so blessed to be doing God's work in such an amazing part of His Vineyard! We are all privileged to be members of Jesus Christ's church! PLEASE! Do all that you can this week to be the Lord's hands here on Earth! We need to be His disciples! We need to give our will to Him! That is the only way we are going to be like Him! I love you all so much and hope y'all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Lacey