First off felicitaciones to the Livingston family, especially to Peter and Seth. I am so happy for you guys!! There is nothing better than living the gospel as a family!! and to Noah tambien! I am so stoked that you got ordained to the office of a Priest! You will be so blessed in your life as you seek to bless others. My testimony of this has gone through the roof during the mission thus far.

Anyways this week has been super awesome!! There isn't a whole lot to write about but it was just really good.

This past Tuesday, it was me and Elder Kemps job to cook for the district so we made chili!! and a whhhoooollllleeee ton of it ! we put 1.5 kilos of ground beef, a medio kilo of chorizo, 3 onions, tons of beans, tons of tomatoes, spices i dont even know the name of, and a whole bunch of other stuff. We made 2 gigantic pots of it. soo good. and sooo worth the p'day spent making it. I have been blessed with a comp that knows how to cook so hopefully a little of it can rub off on me hah.

This past Wednesday, we met our new mission president! PRESIDENT SMITH!! We had interviews and they told us all about themselves. I was so stoked to see them and they were equally stoked to see me. Hermana Smith said that she was going to call you mom so stay by your phone. It was nice to see someone familiar again. We have been truey blessed to have him as our president. He has a great vision and amazing enthusiasm and passion for the work. He said something interesting that I want to share. Elder Perry, in the MTC with all the mission presidents said that "2013 is the year the Lord has chosen to hasten his work."  That was basically the overall theme of what he had to say to us- just get excited and have this craving to work and work and work and serve to the best of your ability. I have never come out of a meeting so amped up to work in my life!! I can’t wait for these next 20 months of my life!! I wish I had more time to be honest but we will work with what we have.

We have found some really good families this past week and some really good people in general. I can’t wait to get to know them more and see the changes in their lives as they live the gospel. It has been a challenge being in the streets so much but it has paid off big time!!

My spiritual thought this week comes from a conference address by President Uchtdorf in the May 2011 conference. It was given in priesthood session but we can all apply these principles in our lives. He said "The words written in the scriptures and spoken in general conference are for us to “liken them unto [ourselves],” not for reading or hearing only. Too often we attend meetings and nod our heads; we might even smile knowingly and agree. We jot down some action points, and we may say to ourselves, “That is something I will do.” But somewhere between the hearing, the writing of a reminder on our smartphone, and the actual doing, our “do it” switch gets rotated to the “later” position. Brethren, let’s make sure to set our “do it” switch always to the “now” position!

As you read the scriptures and listen to the words of the prophets with all your heart and mind, the Lord will tell you how to live up to your priesthood privileges. Don’t let a day go by without doing something to act on the promptings of the Spirit."

I know that if we learn to apply what we learn in the scriptures and in conference in our daily lives we can draw closer to the spirit. I have seen this working in my life the past 4 months and I have never been happier.

Well that is about it for this week. Sorry it has been so short but there wasn’t that much to write about and I am out of time . I hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!! it was super cold and rainy down here but it was good!

I love you all!!

Let’s all try a little bit harder to be a little bit better!!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

Elder Staffieri