Hello everyone!!

Sister Lacey and Hermana Bishop

Sister Lacey and Sister Hulme 

Hi!! I hope you guys have had a wonderful week! Things are going amazing up here in good ol' Idaho!! 

This week has been amazing and I have learned so much! 

So on Tusday, some members took us out to Elk Bend (it's like 30 min from town and it's in the Salmon ward boundries) to visit some people out there. One really amazing thing that happened while we were out there was teaching this lady and her husband. So like a month ago, Sister Gaston and I were driving around town visiting people and Sister Gaston saw this lady walking to her car and she said, "We need to go talk to her!" So we pulled over and ran to catch up with her. We talked with her and her husband for a little while and got their address. Anyways, they live out towards Elk Bend so we were able to see and teach them part of the first Lesson! You could tell that they are both hesitant about religion and because of this we thought they would not want to meet again but at the end of the lesson the wife asked, "Hey when can we meet again?" So we were able to meet with her on Thursday and teach the first lesson again. The lesson went great and we all felt the Spirit!

During the week, we were driving around and we felt like we should stop at this one house and the guy that lived there was just leaving when we pulled up but he told us to come back. Well when Sister Grosdidier and I were in Idaho Falls, Sister Bishop and Sister Hulme were able to teach him the first Lesson! It is so important to listen to the quiet promotings of the Holy Ghost or we would have never found these people!

The next few miracles comes from asking EVERYONE for referrals! We are trying to get more in the habit of asking all those we come in contact with for referrals and even after lessons. We were able to find 3 new investigators this week from doing this. One of our recent converts has a friend who asked him why he joined the Church and he just replied, "It just felt right." Our recent convert then told him that he was going to send the missionaries over to his house. We went over there and they let us in and let us teach them! They agreed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and they are letting us come next week! 

I want to end by sharing one of my new favorite quotes from my studies this week. This is from President Spencer W. Kimball, he served as the prophet from 1973–1985.

“Now is the moment in the timetable of the Lord to carry the gospel farther than it has ever been carried before. … Many a person in this world is crying, knowingly and unknowingly, ‘Come over … and help us.’ He might be your neighbor. She might be your friend. He might be a relative. She might be someone you met only yesterday. But we have what they need. Let us take new courage from our studies and pray, as did Peter, ‘And now, Lord, … grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word’ (Acts 4:29)” (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball [1982], 546).

Remember to share the gospel with everyone so all of God's children can receive the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ!

Love,

Sister Lacey 

"They just Jack-Rabbited out of there"

Saying goodbye to Sister Gaston :-(

Modeling by an outhouse??

Hello Everyone!

I hope you have had a  wonderful week! Mine has been great!

So I want to explain my caption because if I dont then I'll forget! So it is more Idaho lingo! We were at Bishop's house for dinner and he used the phrase, "They just Jack-Rabbited out of there" and it just means that they took off haha! So I have decided to use this phrase whenever someone bails out on us :) Made up example: "Man we knocked on this one persons door and we could just see them jack-rabbit it out the back porch as soon as they saw that it was the missionaries at their door! 

So church was a tender mercy! A few weeks ago a brother in our ward was not able to speak in Sacrament because of time and because of that he spoke yesterday and it was exactly what I needed!! And really the whole church service is what I needed! Even the chapter that we read all together helped me a lot. What I got out of all of it was that I needed to just trust God and everything will workout! I also was reminded that I need to forget myself and go to work and I know that work is the best antidote for not feeling like a good missionary!

On Tuesday night, Sister Gaston and I were able to have a lesson with this 11 year old. He is the cutest! After we taught him the first lesson we asked him how he felt and he said, "I feel like I felt God's touch tonight". It was so amazing and he is a special little boy!

It was pretty amazing because right before Sister Gaston and I left to go to Idaho Falls on Wednesday we had a lesson with a lady we have been trying to meet with for like a month. We were finally able to meet with her at the church and it such a spiritual last lesson together. She is so prepared and everything we taught she just agreed with and I can tell what we shared helped her with things she is struggling with! Missionary work is the best!!

So on Friday Sister Hulme and I were having a rough day because we could not find anyone to teach and we kept praying and looking at our potentials and nothing was working. It was getting close to dinner time and we saw this young man sitting outside smoking and we just had the thought, "Talk to everyone". So that is what we did. We pulled over and went up to him to say hi and ask him if we could share a message with him and he said yes!! We shared the first lesson with him and he said that when he was younger religion was forced on him so he pushed away from it but now he feels like he wants to know what he believes in! I am excited to see where things go with him!

So we saw some pretty amazing miracles this week! Some of our investigators are doing well and both of them came to all three hours of church was is a big step for them! Also, we met her mom and we could see that there is potential there and we were just waiting for our next visit to ask our investigator about it. Anyways, like 2 weeks ago Sister Gaston and I were driving and she felt like we should knock on this one house and we did but there was no answer. She told me that I should remember that house and go back. Well on Saturday night Sister Hulme and I were driving around and that house popped into my head so we went there and it ended up being our investigators moms house!! I love it when things like that happen! We are going to go visit her and try and teach her!

Sister Hulme is amazing! She is just so ready to work and learn everyday! It was so cool because when we would go up to doors I was thinking in my head that I would do the first few times and then have her start to do it but after like the first one she was ready to go! I am excited to be serving and learning with her! 

I know that this is God's only true church on the earth and that Prophet Russel M. Nelson is called by God to help lead us and guide us in these last days! It was amazing being able to witness President Nelson being called to be the Prophet. As soon as he started talking, I just knew that he is a Prophet of God!

Love,

Sister Lacey

"You just Shamu-ed out of the car"

Hello Everyone!!

So I bet you are all wonder what is going on with transfers.....

I am staying in Salmon!! It is actually very bitter sweet because I am losing my best friend. Sister Gaston is getting transferred to Arco and I am getting a companion from the MTC!!! I am so excited to meet her! I am a little nervous though but I know that with God's help, all things are possible!

This week was amazing though! We were able to witness so many miracles!

Before I get started with the stuff that matters I want to explain my subject... So something that I learned here in Idaho is that when it snows and then it rains it turns into an ice skating rink everywhere!! Because of that we have been super careful of how we walk and drive but last week it started to snow and snow and snow. Well we ended up wanting to knock on this one house and we parked and we went to get out of the car. Well since snow was covering the ice, we forgot about how slippery it was and we both slipped and Sister Gaston caught herself but I did not.... She said that it looked like I Shamu-ed out of the car. Somehow I think I ended up on my stomach when fell. I know you had to be there but trust me it looked funny and I am happy to say that I am not hurt!

Sister Gaston and I have been trying to rely more on prayer and have it help us to find people who are ready to hear about the gospel. One night we decided to pray and ask Heavenly Father where we need to go and we had a few names pop into our heads. We went to go see this one family who we have been trying to teach, and as we were driving by we did not see any cars there so we decided to keep driving. A few seconds later Sister Gaston said that we should turn around and knock on the door. We did and we found out that someone else lives there and she said that she is willing to have us come back! It was really amazing! Always listen to the quite promptings of the Holy Ghost! Sister Gaston is an awesome example of that!

So on Wednesday we went on exchanges and something really cool happened! When we were doing daily planning, Sister Grosdidier (the sister I was on exchanges with) said that we should go knock on this yellow house at night. We ended up going there and they let us in with ease and we started talking to the husband and he asked, "who sent you here?" and we told him that no one did. Anyways, he is a less-active and we ended up talking with him for about 30 mins. It wasn't until we came home that night that we realized what a miracle it was! So the other Sisters felt like they should ask this one couple for referrals and when they got there the wife, joking around, pointed to her son who was a less-active. The other sisters started talking to him and were saying that they were going to go visit him and his family but they did not get around to it. What is amazing though is that we did!! Her son was the guy we talked to for 30 mins! It just builds my testimony that God is mindful of our day and directs our path!

Sister Gaston had the thought of asking this one member for referrals so we did and she gave us this family. They did not know exactly where they lived but she know that they lived up this one creek. We planned on going up that creek on Saturday and in the middle of the day we decided to go there instead of waiting for when we had originally said. It ended up working out perfectly and we caught the referral at home! And she let us in! She told us that she normally does not let missionaries in but she did this time! We have a return appointment with them and I am so excited!

I am excited but also nervous for this next transfer. I am going to miss Sister Gaston and the light and enthusiasm that she has for life and missionary work! She has been such a blessing to me! I know that God qualifies those He calls though and no matter how inadequate I am, as long as I lean on Him I can do all things. I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ! I know that this is Jesus Christ restored gospel on the earth today! I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Lacey

Hello from Salmon!

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great week! 

It is crazy to think that this transfer is almost up! Time on a mission is weird! It sometimes seems long but then you look up again and you are like what the in heck it's Thursday already??

So I wanted to start off by sharing my testimony about our beloved Prophet Thomas Monson who passed away this past week! He was the perfect example losing you life in serving the Lord! He has being serving the Lord for basically his whole life and he has been an amazing Prophet of God! I love him and sustain him! We thank thee oh God for a Prophet!

So this week Sister Gaston and I had the most tiring days yet on our missions this week. We just worked for about 10 hours straight (except for dinner) and we did not have really any appointments so it was a lot of referral contacting and knocking on doors that the spirit tells us to knock on. Needless to say, when we got home we were dead! It was a good feeling though in that we know that we worked hard to try and find new investigators. It was hard though because all we wanted to do was get in someone's door and teach them but it did not happen that day, but it was amazing because the miracle came the next morning!

So the next morning we went to go see this girl. We had been looking for her for the past few weeks and finally were able to find her. When we first got there she said that she was busy and that we could maybe come back another time and teach her. On thing that I love about Sister Gaston is that she follows the spirit and she is persistent when we need to be persistent. She told her that it would be a short lesson and that she would not regret in and she let us in to teach her!! It was amazing! At first she told us that she is Christian but she also is not too sure about God because she feels like she believes in Science. By the end of the lesson she told us that she is willing to put in effort to find out for herself if there is a God and she will read the Book of Mormon! It is amazing how Heavenly Father blesses us!

So a few weeks back we were able to meet and teach this part member family and this week we came back to see how they were doing. We went in there and read part of 3 Nephi 11 with them and got to know them better. Sister Gaston was amazing again to ask inspired questions and both of them opened up to us about their beliefs and where they are in their life. The wife, who is the non-member, even told us that she feels that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true! We then asked her if she could ever see herself getting baptized into our church and she said yes! It was an amazing lesson! 

So one of our recent converts who is 12 invites over his friends sometimes when we have new member lessons with him. Well one of his friends has been there for 2 of them and at the first one he did not seem very interested but the second one he was more interested! An amazing miracle too was that he was even at church with him!

One thing that was pretty amazing this week was teaching lessons on following the prophet. We had a lesson with a recent convert names on following the prophet the day we found out that President Monson passed away and it was amazing! We watched the video, "Dare to Stand Alone" by President Monson and I think it helped our Arron because his friends are not being very nice about him being Mormon. It is hard for him because he does not really have a family and his family is his friends. After that video Arron says, "Wow that is amazing! It makes me almost want to cry!" I love the words of the Prophets!

I love you all! 

Love,

Sister Lacey

Happy New Year!!

Eating wild game sausage... she said she liked it but she didn't tell her face that :-)

Happy New Year! 

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season! This past week has been amazing!! Being on a mission during the holiday season is definitely different but it is so worth it! I love being able to spend this time of year with the new people I am able to meet as a missionary and the people I am able to serve!

This week I have been working on memorizing scriptures more so that I can answers people's questions with scriptures. I forgot when it was but I was reading in Preach my Gospel on chapter 10 and the first page states, 

"21 Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men."-D&C 11:21

Since then I have been more motivated to really know the scriptures and then my mission president's wife asked us to memorize scriptures so it was perfect! Well one morning I was memorizing some scripture references and I memorized D&C 1:37-38 which talks about how if its from God's voice or the voice of His servants it is the same. Anyways, that night we had hurry and switch a lesson plan at the last second and it was amazing because that scripture popped into my head during the lesson and it went with the lesson well! That was a cool experience and that experience is part of the reason why one of my New Year Resolutions is to memorize all the scripture references in Preach my Gospel and the scripture mastery cards! Let's see how I do!

The biggest miracle we were able to witness this week had to do with a family. A couple weeks back the father expressed to us that he wants to get baptized on the 30th. Well we went over to their house on Wednesday to finalize everything and we took a member of the Bishopbrick with us. We could tell that something was up with Matt and at the end of the lesson he said that he wanted to wait to be baptized. The member of the bishopbrick shared somethings and Sister Gaston wrote down some scriptures for them to read. We then asked if they would pray and ask God if they should be baptized on Saturday and told them that we would come back the next day and see their answer. We decided to fast for them that morning and then went to their house that afternoon and he said that they wanted to be baptized on Saturday!!! It was such a miracle! He said that some things that the member of the bishopbrick said really helped! I know that we are suppose to have members with us at lessons!

Their baptism was small and simple but so beautiful. They did not want very many people there so we did not invite very many. When they got the Gift of the Holy Ghost it was also so special! Each blessing talked about their different roles in their family and you could just tell that the blessings were from Heavenly Father. Their two oldest children were able to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost and their two younger children were also blessed with a name and a blessing! It was so spiritual!

Yesterday was a little bit of a different kind of missionary day so we were able to make cookies and then bring them to recent converts and investigators! We were not allowed to teach people so we decided to serve them the best we could. My momma had sent me a cute little package where we could make ninjabread cookies ( I will send pics). It was a lot of fun and we were able to set up some appointments so it was a win win situation!

I am so excited for this coming year and all that it will bring! I cannot believe that I will be able to be a full-time missionary for this whole year! I am so blessed! I would like to encourage you all to really pray and ask God how you can learn and grow and improve this year to become more like our Savior Jesus Christ! I love you all and hope that you have a great week! Happy New Years!

Love,

Sister Lacey