So this week has been awesome! Remember last week when I
talked about how that family was so awesome that we found? Well one of her
kids, Bruno; is getting baptized on the 12th of October!! He is super excited
and so is all of his family. He came to church with us this past week when the
rest of his family couldn’t and we took him to primary and asked him if he
wanted us to stay with him and he just shook his head and smiled and said,
"Nope, I’m good." The teacher said that he participated the whole
time and was a stud! He got a worksheet from class and finished it during sacrament
without our help. When we had lessons with him this week, he was the first to
answer questions and was super excited to read. He is progressing super well
and understands everything that we are teaching him and is applying the
scriptures to him as we read. He is such an incredible 11 year old kid. He is
such a good example for his family. And we are also teaching his sister who is
20. She has been opening up to us more this past week as their family has been
passing through some severe personal problems but she is doing great. The whole
family is super supportive of each other and just so awesome!! I cannot get
over how blessed we are to have the opportunity to teach them.
Daniel came back from Argentina this past weekend and we
had an awesome lesson with him about keeping the Sabbath day holy. We committed
him to come to sacrament meeting every Sunday with us and he said he was
going to start bringing his four year old daughter with him as well. We pray
for his wife everyday as we leave our apartment and she is starting to support
him more. He has stopped drinking wine with his dinner and has dropped coffee.
He has such a sincere testimony of the things of the gospel and has a deep
understanding of the importance of the things that make up this gospel. He will
be a powerful member of the church one day.
We also have been having real great success with teaching
less active members. We have been practicing our lessons a lot to be sure we
can teach them and have the spirit present. We have been doing practices
everyday during companion study and have been seeing the blessings. Last night
we had one of the most spiritual lessons of my mission with a less active whose
name is Juan Alvarez and his whole family came in and listened to us too! We
taught the restoration but related it all to personal prayer and the power in
personal prayer. We asked him to remember the night that the Savior came to
rescue him and he began to tell the experiences he had with the first
missionaries that came to his door and taught him and how it changed his life.
He started explaining how happy he was and how much of a difference he felt. He
then committed to be back in church by next month. The spirit was so strong and
he bore testimony for his family. So amazing.
Two days ago we had interviews with president and discussions
with the assistants. It was a super spiritual experience like always and we all
walked away feeling so amped up to go out and serve with all of our might. I
love those conferences and the opportunities that we have to sit one on one and
talk with president. He always has a way to help you improve and want to be
better than you already are, to push you to be a better missionary and give
more. I am so grateful for these opportunities.
And...GENERAL CONFERENCE IS IN ONE WEEK!!! Man I cannot wait
to go to conference. We are telling everyone we see about general conference
and are testifying like crazy about the blessings of going. General Conference
is the best 2 weekends of the year!! I am so excited to watch it in Spanish now
that I can understand everything. It’s going to be so awesome. I can’t wait for
the Spirit that is always felt and for the revelation we will receive. I can’t
wait to see the ways we can all improve and put our lives more in line with
that of God. It is such a great opportunity that we all have to listen to the
Prophet and the Apostles. I hope that you are all preparing for this
weekend :)
Anyways, this week I started reading the book of Mormon over
again in Spanish. I want to finish it by the end of the year and I think I can
do it. So my spiritual thought from this week comes from 1 Ne 4:6-7
6 "E iba guiado por el Espíritu, sin saber de antemano
lo que tendría que hacer"
7 "No obstante, seguí adelante..."
I love this. This is
when Nephi had to go back into Jerusalem
to go get the plates from Laban. Even though they had failed twice, he knew
that he was commanded of God to go and get the plates. He didn’t know what he
was going to do, but he went because he was prompted by the Spirit to do so. He
went on pure faith that things would work out. I think too often we do not act
on things because we do not know what will come from it. We live in the shadow
of fear because everything isn’t perfect in our vision of what will come to
fast. I think we need to learn from the experience of Nephi. Just go and do it.
We learn the chapter before that God will never ask us, or prompt us for that
matter, to do anything without preparing first the way we could do it. Have
confidence in the spirit and follow the promptings fearlessly. He will provide
a way for us. We will be blessed for our obedience to the promptings of the
Spirit. Always act on the Spirit. Go for it. Give it your best and leave the
rest up to the Lord. He will guide you.
Well that’s all I
have for this week but I want you all to know how much I love and appreciate
you. I know that the church is true! I know of the power of personal prayer and
the blessings that come as we follow the Spirit. I know that God is our
Heavenly Father.
Lets all try a little bit
harder to be a little bit better and strive every day to keep the faith and a
smile on your face!!
Have a great week!
I love you all,
Elder Staffieri
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