I LOVE ARTIGAS!!! I never want to leave this place! Every
week just seems to get better and better up here.
This past Tuesday I went on divisions with Elder Merino in
Pintadito (a little town outside of artigas)! I have been waiting for so long
to go out there to see how it is. Elder Merino and his companion, Elder Segura,
are starting up a branch out there and we have been trying to set up divisions
to go out there to see how it is going. I guess I was so excited to go out
there my comp told me I was talking in my sleep about it. Saying things like,
"¡¡VIVA PINTADITO!!" and "BUENO, YA QUE ESTAMOS AQUI, VAMOS A
ENSEÑAR A TODO PINTADITO!" and then teaching some of the plan of
salvation. idk. I don’t really remember the dream but all the elders in my
house wont let me live it down. But it went awesome. We had some great lessons
and I learned a lot from Elder Merino. The members really support them as well.
It was a testimony to me of what happens when members and missionaries work
together.
Tuesday night, we headed down to Montevideo for some medical stuff. We left at
midnight and got in at 8 in the morning, went to some
appointments, and then helped out in the offices and went out to visit my old
area. It was a pretty good day. we got back on the bus at 630 at night and got
home at about 3 in the morning, took a 3 hour nap and got up to work Thursday
morning. I don’t think my eyes have ever felt so heavy haha. But we had a great
day Thursday.
Saturday, we had a stake soccer tournament for 30 and up. It
was an awesome activity for the whole family and investigators. Next week, two
of our investigators are going to play for our ward so we are super
pumped!
DOMINGO WAS AWESOME!! CLARA LEAL CAME TO CHURCH AGAIN!!!
WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP! aahh it was so awesome, we walked out of young men’s
and she comes walking out of relief society with the biggest smile on her face!
We were stoked out of this world! And now we are working even more with her
family as well!
This week we have been making a ton of contacts. Like
basically shifting into super contact mode. We have been trying to teach more
people so in order to do that, we have to talk to more people. We have loved
it. It’s been a little slow but it’s getting better. We have been getting more
references as well!
a cool thing that happened this week is we were teaching a
lesson with a recent convert on her patio in front of her house and a cobrador
( a bill collecter) shows up as we are teaching. He asks for the owner of the
house as we keep teaching and then the idea pops into our head....ask him so
questions. So we do. We asked him what it meant to have faith (as we were
talking about faith) and he responded what it meant to him. and we started
teaching him while he was standing out side the gate while we were teaching
Tamara and just involving him as much as we could in the time we had and after
he was paid he was about to get back on his moto and leave but we asked him if
he had 15 minutes and he said yeah so we invited him to come in and take a
seat. We talked about the restoration of the gospel and how it blesses the
family and the importance of prayer. He was really interested in the lesson and
turns out that he was baptized when he was 15 years old but went inactive soon
after. He expressed that he felt a peace like he hadn’t had in years and that
it brought back memories of his baptism. He explained that now he has two kids
a wife and said that he would like them to know about the gospel as well. And
then the kicker, he said that a missionary recently returned to his mother in
laws house about a month ago with his family, the missionary that baptized his
wife’s mom and grandma. We started asking a few questions about the missionary
and it turns out it was President Smith and his family. How awesome is that?! We
were bummed that they don’t live in our area but we are so stoked for elder Mar
and elder Chavez to be able to teach them and complete the family. aaahhh!
Miracles in the mission! So cool! This is just one example of the importance of
talking with everyone. Just sharing a simple testimony or asking a question can
have great results. If we just take a minute or two to talk to those around us,
a lot of times we can find those who are looking for truth, the truth that is
only found in the gospel. GET OUT THERE AND SHARE YOUR TESTIMONY!
I cannot say enough about this place. I love the Artigas. I
love the mission. I love these two years that I have been given to share the
gospel with the people of Uruguay.
Life honestly doesn’t get better than this.
But that’s all the time I have for this week. I will try to
send some pictures. I love you all!
Lets all try a little bit harder to be a little bit better
this week!
Go forward in faith! And share the happiness that the gospel
has given you!
UN abrazo grande,
Elder Staffieri
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