Some fun facts about this week before we get into the good
stuff is that we got an order of Books of Mormon, pamphlets and other
missionary supplies 5 times as large as our normal order. It was so much we
couldn’t fit it all in our huge van that we have and that we bottomed out over
every speed bump we went over and had to make 2 trips to get it all. It was so
awesome! We, Elder Bedke and I, got the assignment from president to call every
single contact we have in the mission to make sure they are okay and that we
have multiple emergency numbers for every missionary so that has been fun. We
are not even close to be being done. But we get to call all parts of the world
so that has been really cool. Making calls in Portuguese to the parents of our
Brazilian missionaries has proved to be more difficult than we thought, but
hey! We are learning a little Portuguese now so that is cool! Ha-ha. I went to
go get my Uruguayan I.D. this past week and I will hopefully get my license
next week. Things are going great in the offices.
Now to the good stuff, when we leave to work out in the
streets! Our investigators are progressing great but one bummer is that Daniel
is leaving to Argentina
this next week so he won’t be getting baptized this weekend, but next month.
But we have found some awesome people!!!
So I will write about two of the miracles we have seen this
past week that have made it especially so special to me. A week I will not
forget. The first came when we were working on Tuesday.
We had been trying to make contacts and we were going through all our plans
when we left one house and felt that we should go visit an elderly lady who had
been really sick a few weeks back. So we went. We knocked and the lady who
cares for her, a member, opened the door with tears in her eyes and said
"I knew you would come." She had explained that the elderly
lady was close to dying and her condition was worsening. She then told us that
she had been on her knees praying, pleading for comfort, and 20 minutes later
we showed up. We sat and talked with her and shared some scriptures and talked
about them with her. She was more at peace and we left, grateful that we had
decided to follow the Spirit and go to this home.
The second came super unexpectedly. We had been going
through our ward list trying to go visit some less active members and try to
help them. We had been going pretty much all day with this list having little
luck but working none the less. It was getting late and we were starting to
head back to the house but we were contacting all the way home. We got to one
name on our list of a lady in the ward who we didn’t know so we decided to go
give it a try. We got the address, but it was a passageway into an alley with
doors up and down on both sides: We didn’t have an apartment number so we just
went to work. We knocked the first 4 doors on the left side, having 1 answered
and said the lady we were looking for didn’t live in this alley, the others
just looked through the window and left and we got to the end of the alley and
the clouds looked super cool, so we stopped there and were looking at them for
a few minutes ha-ha. After we were about to go home, we heard this baby
crying from inside a house, so we thought FAMILY!!! We knocked this door and a
20 year old girl came out holding her son, we asked her if she knew who we were
looking for and she said no but we kept talking to her and she said that she
had family that were members of the church up in Artigas and that her mom was
actually a member. We saw her mom in the background and then she came out and
talked to us. She said that she had been a member but had gone inactive when
they moved a few years back. After that she said that she didn’t know how we
got in because the gate is always closed at the end of the alley because people
get robbed there all the time so its always locked. She said that she took us
on her doorstep as an answer that she needed to go back to church and she wants
her kids to be part of the church as well. Her children all had taken the
missionary lessons and were about to be baptized but then they had moved and
they had all lost interest. The expressed the desire that we need to teach her
children and her husband so that they could all go to church together. Now at
this point, Elder Bedke and I were smiling ear to ear in shock that this was
actually happening. We set up an
appointment for later in the week to come and teach them and she asked if we
could bring someone to the lesson so she could have a friend when she came back
to church. We never walked away from a contact so happy in our lives. We went
back and taught then and had an awesome lesson and actually went back today to
celebrate her son’s birthday with their family. They are such an amazing family
and we were so blessed to find them.
I am so excited to be out on the mission and to have the
chance to work with all of these wonderful people. I have been so blessed to be
part of the Uruguay Montevideo West Mission and to be out hear teaching the
gospel for two years. I cannot wait to see what the next 18 months have in
store. I wake up every day with a smile on my face, so excited to see what we
have in store for the day.
I know that the Lord answers prayers and that He is aware of
everything we are going through. Sometimes we may not know what is best for us,
but He always does. If we will put our trust in Him and actively seek to do His
will, we WILL see the blessings. I have such a strong testimony of this
principle of obedience and blessings. It has grown so much on the mission. I
love every minute of it. There is no better place than on the mission. I have
never been so happy in my life.
Anyways that is all the time I have for today but I love you
all and hope you are all doing great. Lets all try a little bit harder to be a
little bit better. KEEP THE FAITH AND A SMILE ON YOUR FACE!!! :)))
Con cariño,
Elder StaffieriSEE DAN'S MAILING ADDRESS AND EMAIL BELOW:
Elder Daniel Staffieri
La Mision Uruguay Montevideo Oeste
Enrique Martinez 1167
Montevideo, Uruguay 11.800
daniel.staffieri@myldsmail.net
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