Wednesday, March 12, 2014

This week has been amazing! It has been one of those weeks that just makes you sooo happy to be a missionary!

This week I went on divisions with Elder Lopez, one of my old district leaders in Salto who is now one of my zone leaders in Artigas! It was a blast and I learned a ton of things from him. We are blessed to have such great missionaries to learn from in the mission. We focused on being more of ourselves in the lessons. He taught me that God put us all here for a reason and we can’t become robots when we get into a lesson. We were put in the paths of people so that WE can help them as the missionary we are. We cant go in there and just sit down with a straight face and talk for 25 minutes, we need to show them how much it has blessed our lives and give them the lesson from our heart being who our Heavenly Father knows we are. I don’t know if this makes much sense, but it has made a big difference. I didn’t really think I was doing it before but he pointed some things out that I do change in lessons that he thought would be better if I didn’t. I have found that teaching has become a lot more fun and that the spirit has been more present in our lessons. I LOVE TEACHING THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST!! There is honestly nothing that brings so much joy to my life! The gospel is so awesome and when you see people accepting it, there is a literal change that takes place within the person and they become so much happier with a different light about them. I wish I could do this for the rest of my life in a full time capacity like it is in the mission! 

Something awesome that happened this week is finding Adriana. It was a longer day that we had and we were going from fallen appointment to fallen appointment wondering why that was happening. We were just walking on the street talking about it and then we just decided to make a contact on a door we say. We stopped, clapped, and the most adorable toddler runs out with the biggest smile on her face followed quickly by her mom. We just started a conversation with her mom talking about her family and about her life and then she asks us why we are her in Uruguay. Right in the middle as we start explaining, she goes "What are we doing talking through these bars? Do you guys want to come in and sit down and talk?" We accepted the invitation. We talked about how we are here because the gospel of Jesus Christ has been the one thing that has blessed our lives more than anything else and how much happiness it has brought to our families. She then goes into her family story and explains everything that has passed in her family life and it hasn’t been the happiest of stories we have heard. We go into the first lesson and the spirit was super strong! It was so awesome! We went back the next day to teach her about the Plan of Salvation and she jumps right in asking if she could offer the opening prayer. It was such a great lesson. She asks so many questions and, as the lesson progresses, finds her own answers. She is so well prepared. We are going to go back again to teach her and her family today. Elder Owen and I are super stoked for the chance we have to teach her! 

We had an awesome lunch with one of our investigators this past week. It is a family of 4, all the kids have been baptized, and now we are working with the dad. He shows up to this lunch with an older woman (70 years old, mas o menos) and introduces her to us as one of the best family friends that they have. She also happens to be an extremely faithful member of the church as well. We had a great lunch with them surrounded by family and friends. I honestly felt like it was a family reunion back at home with the craziness as more people showed up at the end with about 9 people in a tiny kitchen with a table right in the middle passing food and talking over each other. It sounds kind of hectic but it was awesome. We are continuing to work with Ernesto and we are really hopeful for him. 

Jorge left this past week to go to work in another department so it’s been kind of hard to find him in his house. Kind of a bummer but he should be getting off work sometime next week so we can find him again. 

Well I am just about out of time! Sorry it’s been kind of short but I love you all so much! Thank you for all the support that you always give me and for all the prayers you send my way! 

Get out there and share your testimony! 

Lets all try a little bit harder to be a little bit better! 

Con CariƱo, 
Elder Staffieri

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