Family, and Friend:

So this week in Uruguay was AWESOME!!!!!

We had such an awesome week this week. We have just been working like crazy. We did some service this week too. Tuesday was our p-day so it was super low key. We mostly just caught up on sleep because we both hadn’t slept at all pretty much the past two days. We had some really good lessons that night too. 

Wednesday. On Wednesday we had a pretty good day. We had lessons with a few in active families and had lesson with the family Escobar. They are so awesome. We had such a powerful lesson. We first contacted the family when the mom was sweeping outside and we were just passing buy and we said hi and asked her how she was. She responded and started talking in English so we stopped and ran back to talk to her ha-ha. I have already told you this but it’s just a recap. She said that she wanted us to come back and just talk to her son in English, but not about the gospel because she "wasn’t interested". So we agreed. We have gone back a few times and just talked and talked about their life and the US and stuff. She started asking us about our missions and everything. But on Wednesday, she got super interested. We had left her with the articles of faith card because she had asked us what we believe a few times before. So this time she had a ton of questions. We didn’t even bring up the church and she went into how her husband was baptized and all of that. She asked us a ton of questions about families and being sealed in the temple and about the restoration and all of it. I swear she was just coming at us with questions. It was so awesome. Then we just went into the first lesson. It was one of those experiences where the spirit was just there, like whoa!! At the end of the lesson she told us that she wanted to go to church and feel these things. We came out of that lesson on cloud 9!! It was one of those lessons where you felt the Spirit so strong you couldn’t deny it and you knew everyone felt it in the room. It was so awesome!!!

Thursday. Thursday was good. We have a new district now because it’s a new transfer. Our district leader is Elder Lopez from Washington. He is a super nice guy and is excited to preach. I am way stoked to be in his district. After we had lunch as a district, we went about our day finding people. The lessons we had planned went well as others fell through. But we have come to realize we need to get pumped when our lessons cancel or fall through because that means the Lord is preparing someone else for us to teach. So we just went around contacting and we found Maria Eugenia and her brother. They are 19 and 15. They are super awesome and were super excited about the church. Their parents are members but way inactive. They were really eager to learn more. Awesome!! Then we had correlation with our ward mission leader and cleaned the church. It went really well. It’s a good way to bond with the church members. 

Friday. Friday was awesome. We did our studies in the morning and then went down to go do service for a convert, Nell. She is an older lady who got baptized a few months back. We tore down a shade structure that was in her front yard and pruned the trees over her house. I think next time we are going to build a new shade structure. It was a blast though. That night we had Yessica´s Baptismal Interview!!!

Saturday! AAAHHHH SATURDAY!! BEST DAY OF THE WEEK!! I couldn’t tell you what we did all day Saturday but we had a baptism! My first one in the water!! Ah it was such an awesome experience. All day I had been practicing the baptismal prayer in my head and with my comp. I was super nervous. We got to the baptism and she had a ton of family there to support her. It was so cool. A ton of her family has been members already so they were all there to support her. I was so happy to see them all there. Anyways. So a little bit about Yessica. She has been such an awesome investigator. She has been searching for the truth for such a long time. We have been teaching her for about the past month. I remember after the first lesson with her we asked her to pray about the Book of Mormon and about our message and she agreed. The next time we saw her she said that she thought she had her answer but didn’t know for sure. Over the next few weeks, it was so awesome seeing her testimony grow in the gospel and in Jesus Christ. She got to the point where she was reading way more than we gave her and she had so started applying the principles to her life. She was just so awesome!! 

Anyways. So Saturday she was baptized!! It was a beautiful baptism and I was so excited that when it got time to do the ordinance I fell into the font ha-ha. I caught myself on the rail but I slid down all of the stairs. Ha-ha. But the service went really well. She was crying before she got in the water and the smile on her face when she came out was indescribable. It was just so amazing!!

Oh and guess who came to the baptism!! JULIO!! He is the boyfriend of Jaclyn, whose kids got baptized a few weeks back, Soledad and Gonzalo. Anyways he said that he felt really good and that he was going to come to church the next day. 

This week just rocked. I cannot be more thankful for the blessing it is to be on the mission and to see the changes in these peoples live. There is no better place to be. I wish I could give everyone the same happiness that people feel each day as they live the gospel. I know that we are all children of our loving Heavenly Father. I know that he has a plan for us all. I know that all can know of the truthfulness of all things through the feelings of the Holy Spirit. There is no better work!!!

I love you all. 

Elder Staffieri

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