This week has been so awesome! I am not going to write much because I will talk to you on Sunday! whoop whoop! mother’s day is here already! I can’t believe that it has gone by that fast. It is insane. 

But this week was a great week for teaching and we have a lot of people that are making really good progress. One of which is named Hugo. I think I have already written about him but he has been surprising us a lot lately. He has been reading a lot more and has been praying, and has been even coming to church. He went from not progressing at all and we were going to stop visiting him to being really excited about the church. We are really excited to keep teaching him and see his progress as he grows closer to the Lord. 

Jose, the partner of Mariana, is such a stud. He loved the open house that we had in the stake center and has been participating a lot more in the lessons. He has been meditating while we teach and has been asking a lot of great questions. The last lesson we taught him was about repentance and everything we need to do to completely repent of all of our sins and be freed from the guilt and shame. We talked about baptism and we asked Mariana, who is menos activo, about her baptism. She remembered everything and testified about how great she felt, how excited she was. She said that she couldn’t describe how happy she was. We talked a little after that about all the blessings we receive as we follow the Lord. We are going over to teach Jose’s mom this coming week as well! 

Talia and Tamara have a baptismal date! They will be baptized the 24th of May. They are two sisters who have been coming to church since before I got here but their family has been against it. This past change, we have been visiting them a lot more in their house and we have started teaching their family. It’s a process that goes little by little but we are making progress. every time we go over there, we invite more and more to come and participate in the charlas. It started with Tamara and Talia, now we are teaching Adrian (her brother), their older sister and her sister’s husband, and we are working little by little to get to her mom. It’s been such a great experience seeing their progress and seeing the difference it is making in the household! 

Alex is doing so awesome! He was passing through some hard times this past week as there is little to no work cutting grass now as we are entering into winter and he has bills to pay to help his family out.  He called us an asked us to come over. He was really frustrated because he said that everything he was doing, it was like someone was stopping him for succeeding. Like, he tried to find more jobs cutting grass and he couldn’t so he asked his friend to borrow his horse and cart and went and cut a whole bunch of wood in a field and loaded it all up to sell. He said that he went around all day and didn’t sell a single piece. He was just really frustrated and didn’t understand. So we talked about trials and about prayer and faith, and about what it means to have real faith and to act. The next day, he found work in a mechanic shop. He called us so excited and so grateful for his Heavenly Father. Alex is such a stud! 

The work is going so great out here in Artigas barrio 4! We are loving every day and giving it out all! And the good news is that this week is change week and I get to stay another change here in this ward!!!! And i get the opportunity to TRAIN A NEW ELDER!!!! I AM SO STOKED! I cannot wait to get the chance to train an oro. President called us this past week. Elder Vargas is headed to barrio 6 en Artigas y me quedo con un nuevo elder! I am traveling down to Montevideo tonight to go and get him in the mission home and we well be traveling back up here tomorrow night and we will get to work Thursday morning a ful! 

Funny story of the week, actually kind of sad but here you go: we were teaching an inactive member this yesterday morning and it was going really good. He was telling us how he used to be ward mission leader and how he used to leave with the missionaries and how he worked so hard and burned through shoes working the elders and stuff. he really is a great guy he is just a little lost and as we were finishing up another menos activo walked in with a bottle of vodka to give to the man we were teaching. We all were just kinda like "nnnooooooo....." well we have some work to do with him. He says that he wants to come back so we are going to help him the best we can. It was just one of those awkward moments of the mission. haha. 

Well that’s all the time i have. I love you all so much! Have a great week! 

Try a little harder to be a little bit better!

Get out and share your testimony! 

Con cariño, 

ELder STaffieri