October 21, 2014

Familia:

WOW!! I cannot believe that another week has ffllooowwwnnnnn by again. Spring is officially in full swing here in Argentina as the heat begins to climb with some pretty heavy humidity. We are enjoying these beautiful days and waiting for summer to get here to remind us how much we can really sweat. Ha-ha. 

Well there isn’t a whole lot to tell this week other than we are working HARD and being BLESSED!! Everyday here in Argentina we are seeing miracles. We have found a ton of people to teach this past week and have found even more less active families to work with. One great experience we had this past week was with the familia Sosa. We were looking for a reference that we had received from a member and we clapped outside their house. A man came out, looked at us, and invited us to come in. We got in and asked him who he was and if he knew the reference that we had received. Hno Sosa explained that it was his daughter that we were looking for but that she no longer lived there. So we started talking more and turns out that he was a member that hasn’t gone to church in over 8 years. He didn’t show too much interest in coming back tampoco. But we decided to teach the Doctrine of Christ. We testified (and testify) that a member of the church that understands the Doctrine of Christ, that come back to church that very sunday to partake of the sacrament will continue to do it for the rest of their lives. And that is the truth! We had such a special experience in that lesson and in the end, he committed to renew his covenants every Sunday and humbly asked the Lord to help him in fervent prayer. I wish I could describe the strength of the Spirit in that lesson but it would not do it justice. I have gained a testimony that the more direct we teach and the simpler it is, teaching directly from the scriptures, having charity for the person we are teaching, the Spirit 100% of the time testifies with power. There have been a lot of other experiences that we have had teaching this past week with the Spirit. I think this has come from the fact that we are studying a lot better and focusing more on preparing ourselves to teach instead of preparing lessons. I love it so much. 

Also this week, pte smith came up to visit Argentina. It was a good experience getting to meet with him and talk about what we can do to better help our branch and our areas.

This past Sunday was awesome because JANET came to church!! Whoop whoop!! Janet is a reference that the ptes wife gave us. She is one of her best friends and I guess that they have been working with her for a while (we met this past week) but has never gone to church. Well on Sunday, she finally came!!! Everyone was super excited and came up to her and welcomed her and gave her a really good experience. On Sunday I also gave a talk in church. It was one of those times where you see the bishop come off the stand and tap you on the shoulder to let you know that he needs another talk in 15 minutes because the hermana had to go. Ha-ha. I love being a missionary. So i got the chance to speak on Sunday and it was awesome. Being mother’s day here in Argentina, I taught about one of the most important lessons I have learned form my amazing mother, to confide totally in the Atonement. 

Today we all came into Paysandú for the talent show of the zone. It was a blast! 

So my plan today was to send home a ton of pictures because I haven’t done that in a long time but there isn’t a USB port available on this computer. So I apologize! Next week I will do it! 

Here is an awesome talk that I have been studying this past week and I would like to invite you all to do the same! http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=251

It is called "in the strength of the Lord." it talks a lot about the enabling power of the atonement, a side of the atonement that a lot of the time we don’t consider as much as we should! 

I love you all! Thank you all for your prayers and for all of your support! 

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

SHARE YOUR TESTIMONY!!!

UN abrazo, 

Elder Staffieri

October 13, 2014

Familia: 

This week has been so amazing!! I LOVE ARGENTINA!!! Well Concepcion del Uruguay por lo menos!! This place is the best!! Its a city of 80,000 people and there are only 4 missionaries: Elder Hansen, Elder Blair, Elder Gonzalez, y yo. The people here are sooo nice! Honestly, the nicest people ever!! The first contact we made, we got in and now we are teaching a family of 7. The first contact we made in Argentina!! This place is so ready. The missionaries before hadn’t worked in our area for over 6 months. People always tell us that they have never seen missionaries before. Its kind of like when Christopher Columbus showed up to America. I remember when we sat down in the plaza one day to study; it was like we were invisible. No teenagers were yelling stuff at us or calling us names or anything similar. It was the opposite. It is so awesome! 

My new companion is elder Gonzalez. He is such a stud!! He is from Chile. He has a year and 3 months in the mission and teaches extremely well! I have learned so much from him. We are best friends already. He is hilarious and we are always dying laughing. But is super focused a la vez. We have been working super hard together and have been enjoying every minute of serving the Lord with everything we have. Its been cool living in a house of 2 for the first time since I started my mission. Ha-ha. It’s a big difference going from a house of 8 elders in the middle of the city to a house of 2 elders in a suburb. We live in a tiny apartment and our neighbors are really close. Like almost too close. Ha-ha. Ill send some pictures next week. But they are all really nice. 

Its been really interesting being here in Argentina. Its kind of like we are all isolated from everyone else from the mission. Ha-ha. Nobody calls us out here because I don’t think they know how. And its hard to call into Uruguay and it kills all the minutes on our phones. I think we have had to put on more minutes like 7 times already. It just burns through plata. This week we have had to spend a lot of time helping the other missionaries get settled in and going to buy stuff that everyone needed. So we are really excited to hit the ground running this weekend just go to town. THERE IS SOO MUCH TO DO HERE!!! We have been talking to everyone!! From people on the street, taxi drivers, people on the bus, even the guy who works in the carniceria in the grocery store. Everyone!! And 80 percent of them accept visits. I love this place!!!

Yesterday I had one of the most inspirational experiences I have ever had I think in my entire mission during a fast and testimony meeting. We have a small branch of a little over 25 people here in Concepcion and every single one got up to bear their testimony!! Every single one!!! I thought that we were going to have a lot of time to get up and share our testimony and present ourselves and stuff but there wasn’t a gap in all the whole hour!! The members all got up and shared a pure testimony about the gospel and their desires to share it with everyone else. I don’t think I have ever felt the spirit so strong in sacrament meeting before!! I don’t have words to describe it all. Then after the meeting, the members came up to us and started giving us references. I have never seen anything like it before!! They are so excited to share the gospel. I feel like we are in a branch full of Lehi`s after he partook of the fruit in his dream!!! So awesome!! This branch is going to explode!!!

Alright, well that is all the time I have for this week. Sorry I couldn’t fill you in on too much! I love you all soo much!! Sharing the gospel is the best!! Everyone needs to go on full time missions!!!

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

UN abrazo grande, 

Elder Staffieri

October 06, 2014

Familia:

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BRYCE!!!! WWWWHHHHHOOOOOOOOPPP WHOOP!! I am so pumped for you man! 13 years old! You are getting soo huge!! Stop growing so fast!! You can’t be taller than me when I get home!! hahah. I hope that you had the best birthday ever! I love and miss you so much! 

This week was so great!! We have seen so many miracles! Starting with Joaquin!!! We went out with the stake president this past week, Pte Damiano, to make some visits. The first stop, Joaquin. We got there, he pulled out his Book of Mormon and was so stoked to start the lesson. As we started in, we shared with us that he had started over reading, but was already in 1 Nefi 20 for the second time!!! He showed us how he was using the Guide to the Scriptures in the back to know what words meant and to be able to understand (he explained to us the significance of Israel and Mana....wwwhhhaaatttt a stud!!!), he gave us a resume of what he read and learned and what he felt. He told us that he accepted the Book of Mormon as the Word of God!!! Ah it was so awesome. We shared a message in Alma 37 with him and he totally started going off on what the liahona was and how Lehi had found it and stuff, we were blown away!!! Then we taught a little bit about the doctrine of Christ and what he needed to do to follow it, and he is going to ask his wife to marry him to start their family and to follow Christ!!! Such a stud!!! I love that family!!! Then we went over to an ex bishops house with the stake president and it went so awesome!! We talked about the Doctrine of Christ and the stake president was teaching and testifying with us! Such a great lesson and the ex bishop committed to come back to renew his covenants!!! :) LA OBRA VA BUENAZO!!!!

Conference was so great! We loved every minute of it!!! (Even the 3 hours of priesthood session because every 5 minutes we had to wait for it to load ha-ha). I wish I had my notebook so I can give you a solid breakdown on everything I loved but that will be for next week. But on Saturday night after conference, we decided to go out and visit diva, who lives super far away, and in the middle of walking out there, it started pouring rain and we were in our suits. We had another fbi / missionary moment of sprinting 10 blocks in the pouring rain in our suits. It was a blast. We got their soaked to the bone but happy as can be. We taught about finding a testimony of Joseph Smith and diva and her family shared their feelings about him. It was awesome. 

After the lesson, pte smith called us and let us know that I will be leaving Paysandú and be opening up Argentina!!! Whoop whoop!!! My new companion will be elder Gonzalez de Chile. Elder Hansen and Elder Blair are going over to open up Concepcion de Uruguay with us!! Man it’s going to be such a blast!!! There is so much work to be done over there. 

Alright, I have to run! I love you all so much! Try to receive your own personal revelation every day! 

Let’s all try a little bit harder to be a little bit better!!

Un abrazo grande, 

Elder Staffieri

September 29, 2014

Familia:

¡¡¡¡Feliz cumpleaños mama!!! ¡¡¡TE AMO!!! I hope that you are going to have the best...36th birthday ever ;) sorry that this is a day early and I cant wish you one tomorrow but I will be thinking about you and wishing you the best! CORINNE AND BRYCE: do all the dishes, clean the whole house, do all your homework, and pórtense bien! 

This week has been so awesome! But I am sooo short on time. Man how time flies when you are in the cyber! hahaha. 

On Tuesday, I think I had one of the best district meetings in my entire mission! My district leader is Elder Pabon from Columbia and he taught sssuuuccchhhhhh a great lesson on the Doctrine of Christ!! I learned soo much and came with such an excitement to do so much better during my studies! He is such a stud! Taught the entire meeting from the scriptures sharing all that he had learned and how he is applying it in his daily teaching and helping us all to do the same! Such a stud!! 

On Jueves, we went down to concilio! IT WAS SO AWESOME!!!! We learned so much about the importance of studies and especially companionship study and how to make it so much better! we also talked a ton about family history and how we are all going to start to do family history and teach it to everyone and in December, the whole mission is going to go down to Montevideo to do the temple work for our ancestors! :) wwwhhhooopp whhhoooppp!! Blessings!!! we all filled out the booklets that the church gives out about family history where we start everything and write all the memories of our parents, siblings, and grandparents, etc. I was so overcome with such a gratitude for the amazing family with whom I have been blessed! Seriously! I was so grateful for the amazing parents I have and for their examples and for the best grandparents I could ever ask for and for all the things I have learned and all the love I have for my brothers and sisters. It was so awesome! Everyone needs to start their family history if you have not already done so! It is something soo special! 

This week we have been working a lot better with members. We are fully convinced that there is no other way to do missionary work. Pte Monson has said that ahora es el momento to work together with the members and missionaries and that means that we need to do it! We are seeing miracles in our area because of it! Diva, who we have been teaching for the past change who never came to church, came this past week because we were being more diligent in bringing over different members to fellowship. And that was another thing that was so great that happened this past week! DIVA FINALLY CAME TO CHURCH!!! WHOOP WHOOP!!! It was so awesome! She loved it! And she said that she is coming to both Saturday and Sunday sessions of general conference and she is going to bring her family too!! :) Aaaahh!!! Blessings!!! I love the mission! 

Other miracle that happened in the mission is that the church attendance from this past week was 5149!!!! That is unheard of for the mission! The wards and branches are getting stronger and stronger! There is real growth!! The church is being strengthened here in Uruguay!!!! The members are starting to catch fire! I can testify that I know that today is the day that the Lord is hastening His work!!! You can feel it all around!!! Its incredible!!! We are so blessed to be part of it! 

And also, pte smith told us that we might be headed over to Argentina to open it up!!! Whoop whoop! That would be so incredible! But we will know for sure by next week! 

And GENERAL CONFERENCE HAS ARRIVED!!!! YYYEESSSSS!!!! We are soooo excited!!! I cant believe that this is already my 4th conference of the mission! I hope that everyone is making plans to be in every session of conference! Its going to change your life! :) lleetttsssss gget it! 

A testimony I have gained this past week that I want to share with you is about working with the members. The purpose of this dispensation is the Work of Salvation!! This is the last time that the Lord is hastening his work! Its here! Can you feel it?!! I feel it every day and the members here in Uruguay are now starting to feel it! The members here in the Uruguay Montevideo west mission left to work with the missionaries 1190 hours this past week and as a mission, everything is looking up! there are more people coming to church for the first time, there are more people coming back to church to renew their covenants after years of inactivity, there are more people progressing towards eternal happiness!!! It’s so electric!! I have never felt anything like this before!! And it’s all because the members are going out to work with the missionaries!! I know that there is no other way to do the work! I invite you all to follow the direction of the prophet, just give it a try, and go out with the full time missionaries in your ward. Just go up and ask them what day you can go out with them! You will see miracles!!! 

Well that’s all I have time for this past week! I love you all so much! Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers!!!

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

UN abrazo grande, 

Elder Staffieri

September 22, 2014

Familia: 

This week has been soo awesome!! So much is happening!! It is so great to be on the front lines as the Lord is hastening His work! We are seeing it more and more every single day! 

Well the big news is that the Mission Uruguay Montevideo West has officially been expanded into Argentina!!! We took in two cities from the Rosario Mission. We took in Colon y Concepción de Uruguay. They are two strong branches! The city of Concepción has 80,000 people living there and only 2 elders!! So there is a lot of work to do in that city. We are so pumped to get the chance to go out there and work! In two weeks, our missionaries will be over there. This past week we went into Argentina 3 days. We went twice with Pte Smith to make some visits and talk to leaders, and then this Sunday with the stake presidency of Paysandú because they invited us to accompany them! Wow! We have seen such great things in Argentina already! We taught a family in Colon (flia castro) with Pte Smith and the branch president, Pte. Godoy, and they all committed to come back to church for the rest of their lives, accept callings, pay full tithing, and prepare to seal themselves in the temple in one year! Aaaahh!! It was so great! We are in contact with Pte Godoy and he tells us that they are attending even the meetings during the week not just Sundays!! :) There is so much potential in Argentina and we are so excited to have the chance to see the progress as these cities will be part of Paysandú! 

This past week we also had interviews with Pte Smith. They went great and we learned so much as usual. Elder Sifuentes and I had the chance to lead the study the Doctrine of Christ with the whole zone during interviews. We all learned so much and practiced how to teach it more effectively. 

Fun experience of the week. We got dropped off on the ruta in our suits like an hour and a little more away form Paysandú and had to walk back a few hours to our area because no buses passed. hahaha. We had a blast. We took some pictures and same some hymns as we walked. Then de repente, we walked passed these two gauchos (guayan cowboys) and they start yelling at us! We stopped and walked over to them and they were like "you guys aren’t from here huh?" we responded no and then he goes "well are you hungry? Want some asado?" hahaha. We gratefully accepted! So there we were on the side of the ruta in the middle of no where eating steak with two barefoot cowboys on a Thursday afternoon. Haha. We had a great talk over lunch and we will be visiting them here in the near future when we find the time to go way out there. 

We found some really great people to teach this past week. We were walking one day and then we just looked at each other and talked about how we needed to break our "routine" and branch out more. We took the next street we normally don’t walk down and contact the first house we see. A lady comes out and we talk to her for like 30 seconds in front of her house, and she invites us in!  We had a great lesson and set up to come back the next day. Well she wasn’t there because she went to the doctor but her 19 year old son was and he invited us to come and share the message with him! He loved it! I think this was one of those lessons when it just hit me of how grateful I am for the restoration of the gospel! We saw how happy it made him and how excited he got to pray. At the end of the lesson, HE ASKED US IF HE COULD PRAY DE RODILLAS!!! That never happens!!!! Aaaahh!! His name is Luis! He will be a future priesthood holder and missionary ;) 

Spiritual though of the week: 

Dyc 82:10 dice: I, the Lord, am bound when you do what i say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.

I have learned this past week that the blessing is really in the promise! We don’t know when we will receive the Lords blessings, today, tomorrow, next month, next year, or even in the next life. but its really not that important! We have the Lords promise!! The promise comes immediately. 

Other cool study I had this week. How many times does the word "tomorrow" appear in the book of mormon? Once! Who uses it? Satan! Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die (I think that’s how it goes in english) 2 nefi 28:7 . The Lord never talks about tomorrow! NEVER!! He always speaks of HOY!!! TODAY!!! Today is so important. What are we doing with today? Are we being obedient? Are we serving? Sharing the gospel? Living up to our full potential? Magnifying our priesthood? The only day we really know we have is today! There is no guarantee that we will have tomorrow! Satan always wants us to think that we have more time but the reality is we don’t! If we think we will just be better tomorrow and not do anything today, Satan has won and we have lost! Alma 34:31-34! We talked a lot this week with our investigators and menos activos and even miembros activos about the importantce of today! It has helped me so much to improve and give even more of myself. What are you doing to do today? What more can we do? This study was so small but it marked my mission!

Okay this was all the time I have for today! I love you all so much! Thank you for all of your prayers! They are truly felt out here! 

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

UN abrazo grande, 

Elder Staffieri

September 15, 2014

Familia:

Wow! I feel like every time I feel like I have had the best week ever and that there is no way it can get even better, it always gets better! Our area has been so blessed these past few weeks with just amazing people to teach, great leaders that support the work, and the chance to enjoy the company of the Spirit. We have seen and felt so much of the Lords guidance this past week, it has been incredible. 

Joaquin y Paula are doing so awesome!! We have been seeing a lot of progress with them. In the lessons this week, Paula told us that ever since we have been coming to her house and teaching her family, there has been a better feeling in the house and they have been a lot happier. We had a lesson with Joaquin this past week and at the end, he came with us to go play soccer. We didn’t have a moto, obvio, but the bishop did, so he rode over there with the bishop and the bishop gave him a tour of the church and was explaining everything to him as we walked over to his house. Then after soccer, Joaquin walked with us home and was talking about how he was going to ask Paula to marry him and all this stuff. We haven’t even talked about marriage with them yet! He just wants to do it! What a stud! And they drink cevada instead of coffee. NO ONE THAT ISNT MORMON DOES THAT!!! We were so pumped. They have been putting in their part to learn and they have been loving ever but of it. And Paula finally prayed the last visit we had with them. It was always a big deal for her because she always said that she was embarrassed but she just did it the last time we were there! These all seem like really small things, but they are so huge! They are slowly changing and they are seeing the blessings that have been coming into their life as they have been coming closer to Christ! Aaaahh!!!! So awesome! 

We also found another family to teach this past week! Bring the count up to 5 complete families that we are teaching! this has never before happened to me in the mission! It’s like all of a sudden finding has become easy! It seems like every week we have found a new family to teach as the rest of them still continue to progress! 

Also we had a huge step with working with the stake this past week too! President Smith came up to Paysandú this past week and we had this giant meeting with all the missionaries, all the high council, the stake presidency, and all the bishops with a few other people invited as well. In this meeting that we had, we talked and taught the doctrine of Christ to all the leaders and then practiced as missionaries with the leaders that pertain to our ward. It was so awesome! Then after elder sifuentes and I had a meeting with President Smith where we talked about a huge thing that is going to change in Paysandu. It’s going to be so great! 

This week it poured rain for about 3 days and it destroyed our church meetings. We only had 26 people attend our ward which is way less than half. We were kind of bummed but we are excited to go and visit all the people who didn’t come. 

Funny story of the week. We were working on the computer this past week, sending in the logros of the zone and stuff and I guess that the stake president didn’t know that we were still in the church and set the alarm. Well there is a motion sensor in the bishop’s office where we were and I guess that the alarm was blaring outside the church for about 20 minutes, but inside we didn’t hear anything. as we were walking out of the bishops office, we heard it faintly and as we go to turn it off, we see 2 security cars with all this security personnel, the stake president, and the police on their way (i guess its a rule that when the alarm has been tripped in various places, they cant enter without the police). You should have seen their face as we walked down the hall to turn off the alarm with them all standing outside the church gates. hahaha. It was priceless. We all got a good laugh. You got to love the mission! Ha-ha. 

Well that is all the time I have for this week! I love you all so much! I appreciate every single one of you and all that you do for me! You guys are the best! 

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

UN abrazo grande, 

Elder Staffieri