September 09, 2014

Familia:

Changes are here again! I honestly cannot believe how fast that this change has gone by. Hands down, the fastest change of the mission so far! Wow! But there is good news! I AM STAYING IN PAYSANDÚ!!! Whoop whoop! We have been seeing the hand of the Lord lately in our area! I am feeling so blessed! We are kinda bummed though because Elder Marín is getting transferred. He is heading out to Tacuarembó. He is really excited though and it’s going to be a great experience for him! My new companion calls himself Elder Sifuentes! He is from Peru! He is from my group! Whoop whoop! He actually was my district leader in oeste when I was working in the offices and now is come up as ZL and is so excited! I seriously can’t put into words how excited I am for this change! We are going to work soooo hard! I cannot wait!!! Aaaahh!! The mission is the best!! 

Like I said earlier, we have truly seen the Hand of the Lord in our area this past week. I don’t want to talk about it too much, but wow, this has to have been one of the best weeks of my mission. We have been working a ful with the stake and ward leaders, we are finding really prepared people, the people we have are progressing, and the zone is climbing, the members and missionaries are really feeling that today really is the day! HOY ES EL DÍA!!! And idk, I have just been overcome with this feeling of gratitude this past week. I am so grateful for these two years I have been given to serve and for the chance to make the most of every day. Everyday is a new chance to be better! To improve on what you did yesterday and to become a better servant of the Lord. I have got such an itch to get better! Aaaahh! Its been so awesome how much I have learned this past week! 

This past week we had the chance to go out with Pte Barate from our stake presidency. He is such a stud!! He is a convert of 5 years. Got baptized at 26, went out on his mission at 27, got back at 29, and now 3 years later has his family and work and everything. But what most impressed me about getting to know him is that he has such a love for the gospel. He is so converted to the gospel and it shows in his life. When we went out to teach he was so excited and taught with power and conviction. I remember coming home after finishing the night and just studying my scriptures and preach my gospel with more diligence than I think I ever have. Marked my mission getting the chance to go out and work with him. 

This past week we had the chance to be in the place where we needed to be at the right time. Man, there is nothing better than that.

Also, we had such a great lesson with Lucia this past week. She is the mom of a family we found the past week. We had a lesson with her before but it wasn’t too strong but this past week I went over to her house with Elder Gomez in divisions. He is such a stud. He is still in his training and has really learned a lot from his trainer, Elder Pabon, who is one of the best missionaries that I know. But anyways, we taught about the restoration and she actually realized that she was in her own apostasy. I don’t know if you understand what I mean when I say that but she realized that she was in the dark. And she had been for so long that she stopped looking. She told us that she went to a lot of churches before looking for the truth but just gave up because she never felt like it was right (but she did tell us that when she went to her daughters confirmation in the Mormon Church was the only time she really felt peace in a church ;) ). When we explained about how Christ established His Church and then it was taken from the earth and how the world was during the apostasy, she goes "that is how I feel!" she totally got it!! It clicked! The Spirit taught her that! And then when we talked about Joseph Smith and his experience, she told us that she didn’t have the faith to pray like he did. So we started talking about faith and she realized that she did have faith! I could not have been happier at the end of the lesson. She finally prayed! And at the end she told us "Elders, next time you come to my house, bring a Book of Mormon, I want to read it!" and she asked us to pray for her so that she had enough faith to receive and recognize her answer!! ooohhhh my gosh! I thought I was dreaming! I was on cloud 9 walking out of that house! I never knew that lessons like that existed. I have never been so excited to write in my journal in my life I don’t think. 

Also we found Joaquin and Paula. We saw him teaching his daughter, Francesca, how to walk on the sidewalk and we felt like we should talk to him. Turns out that he had just moved there that day and he invited us to meet his pareja paula and her sister. We taught a little bit about the plan of salvation and set up to come back another day. We went back on Friday and taught about the restoration and it was so great. They are really prepared. Joaquin doesn’t know a lot about religion but he got so excited and was really anxious for us to come back! They are going to progress really fast! 

We had the chance to teach Diva and her family as well as Santiago and his family and a menos activo we have been teaching for a while finally came back to church! Aaaahh!! I could go on and on and on about this past week! I love the mission sooo much! I wish I had time to keep writing about what happened but we have to go to ward council in 15 minutes! 

I love you all! Ill send pictures next week! 

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

UN abrazo grande, 

Elder Staffieri