So this week in Uruguay was really good. Kind of crazy but really good! I never really understood what was in the job description of the mission secretaries but it’s a lot ha-ha. We are just working working working and there never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything done but we always have everything done at the end of the week that we needed to get done.

So first, my companion is Elder Bedke. He is a STUD!!! We hung out with the same people up at BYU so that has been kind of cool talking to him about it. We have a ton in common and we are working really well together and have a blast every day. He is helping me out a ton with what we are doing in the offices and we work crazy hard when we get out in the streets. We teach really well together and we feel the Spirit super strong in our lessons. It’s just an all around good time with him.  I LOVE MY COMPANION!! HE IS A STUD!! We also live with the other office elders in an apartment a few blocks from our office. They are Elder Gudmonson and Elder Running. They are awesome and we never have any dull moments in our apartment.

So on a daily basis what I do is put in baptismal records, look up and send our references, answer phones and talk to missionaries and get them what they need, do all things mail, drive around and run errands with the other office elders, send emails to parents, incoming missionaries, update church websites, and other things. We have more stuff we do weekly and monthly as well. We had concilio this past week so I had to compile all of the numbers from the mission and make graphs for President, the APs and the other zone leaders that came down to Montevideo to get trained. We go and buy bus tickets for everyone when they have to come down. Basically, whatever needs to be done, we do it ha-ha. But it’s good. We always have something to do and our area is awesome!

We love our area. We are in the zone of Oeste and our area is Capurro (barrio 5). It’s an awesome area with some really good people. Working in Montevideo is different than other parts of Uruguay but the work is good! I can’t wait to get out at 5 and go teach!! La obra va bien!! I love teaching so much. We have some really solid investigators too. For example, right now it is pouring rain and thunder and lightening out side and we just had 3 young investigators ride their bikes to church because there was supposed to be an activity. They were all soaking wet but loving life. Even though the event was canceled they just said well we will see you tomorrow in church!! When we came in me and Elder Bedke just smiled and talked about how awesome those kids are. I love being a missionary!!!

The mission has been way too much fun this past week. Lots of adventures. We pulled a bed up four stories outside of our apartment building off the edge of our balcony at 11pm with a garden hose. Yeah, I am not going to put much detail into that one....use your imagination. We had to sprint 5 blocks to our offices at 9 50 one night because a set of missionaries lost their tickets only to get there and have them call us saying that they were already on the bus and not to worry about it. Everyone thinks we are spies for the US so when they ask us we always tell them no...But if we were, we wouldn’t tell them. Ha-ha. It’s just been way to fun this past week but we have been working crazy hard and have been seeing the fruits of our labors. We have had an awesome week. 

My spiritual thought this week comes from 3 Nephi 12:6- 

Y bienaventurados son todos los que padecen ^ahambre y ^bsedde ^crectitud, porque ellos serán llenos del Espíritu Santo.

(And blessed are all they who do ^ahunger and ^bthirst after^crighteousness, for they shall be ^dfilled with the Holy Ghost.)

I have really learned a lot about this in the mission and I know it to be true. As we constantly try to better ourselves and seek after righteousness, we will have the Spirit to be with us. It doesn’t matter what may happen in our lives, we need to keep focus on what is important. We need to literally hunger and thirst like the scripture says. If we do that, we will have the Spirit to be with us and we will be happier than we could ever be. I think this is why the mission is the best 2 years of your life. You are constantly trying to get closer to the Spirit and you are blessed for doing it. Sorry I am out of time....

I know the church is true. I know that we are blessed when we keep the commandments that God has given us. I know that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church on the faith of the earth. This I know with all I am!!

I love you all so much.

Let’s try a little harder to be a little better. 

Keep the faith and a smile on your face!!

Until next time, 

Elder Staffieri 

PICTURES BELOW

Family and friends:

This week has been so awesome, a little bit bittersweet, but sssooo awesome. So much fun!!

Last Monday, we took a trip with some missionaries and a few people in our ward to go visit the termas (hot springs) to eat lunch, play games, shop around (well just window shop due to the lack of money as missionaries jaja) , and take pictures. It was so much fun! I will send pictures. 

This past week, one of the missionaries that served here came back with his family so it was really cool. And it turns out that they know Dad and Grandma and Grandpa. It is the family McCraney? I am sure I spelled that wrong but they grew up in the same ward as dad. Jeff McCraney and Karen. They wrote me a note to send home but I forgot it on my desk so I will send it next time I get the chance. We got together and had an asado. 

This week has been a week of asado. We have eaten asado almost every day. I’m not complaining!!

Also, this past Sunday was the independence day of Uruguay. WHICH MEANT MORE ASADO!!! WHHHOOOPPP WHOOP!!

So we had a really cool experience this past week with Juan Carlos, Sandra, and Benjamin, one of the families we are currently teaching. We were sitting in planning one day this past week talking about them and could not figure out what we were going to teach them so we just said "Well, let’s just follow the Spirit." we get in the lesson and start talking and we felt like reading this scripture in the book of mormon. After we shared it and talked about it for about 10 minutes and how we can apply it in our life, Juan Carlos asks us if we had planned to share that before. We explained that we had been thinking before but couldn’t figure out what to talk about but we felt we should share this. He then told us that that is what he needed to hear and we just got the biggest smile on our faces and the whole family too. He went to church this past Sunday for all three hours and they are progressing so amazingly. I am so grateful for the Spirit and for the opportunities we have every day to follow the His influence. It was a testimony builder for sure. 

This week I also had the chance to perform a baptism for Yuliana Rosario Acosta Zamora, the sister of the girl I baptized a few weeks back. She is ten years old and has such a strong testimony. She walked to the church all by herself for her baptism because her family couldn’t come. Her parents aren’t members and I don’t know if they support her too much and her sister was in school. Luckily her sister got out in time for the ordinance. She is such an amazing little girl and has such a strong testimony. I am excited for her future in the church. She is going to do great things. 

So my spiritual thought this week comes from gospel principles. We teach gospel principles every so often and this is from a lesson we taught a few weeks back that has stuck with me. We know that in the pre earth life we lived with our Heavenly Father and His plan was presented before us. If we accepted this plan, we would have the opportunity to come to earth to obtain our bodies and be able to learn and grow and become more like Him. We knew what it entailed and chose to come here. We know this because, well, we are on earth. We have our body. We are all learning every day. The point I want to emphasize is the fact that WE HAVE ALREADY CHOSEN!! We already chose to follow Christ! We know that already!  Our responsibility now is to press on with our choice. Live worthy of our calling. The day of our salvation is today. The choices we make today will either bring us closer to our Father or take us farther away. We have the responsibility to live up to our divine potential. This has impacted me so much knowing that we have already chosen. It makes making choices so much easier knowing that we have already chosen to follow Christ. Now the question is: Is this in line with the choice I have already made? Will this bring me closer to God? I love this so much!

I know that this gospel is true. I know that we have a Heavenly Father that loves us. I know that the only way to true, eternal happiness is living the principles of the gospel. I know that we have chosen to follow Christ and will be blessed as we press forward in our divine calling to be disciples of Christ. 

Well my time in Salto has come to a close. We got our transfers Sunday morning before church, my companion is staying here in Salto to train and I am leaving to go to Montevideo to be the new mission secretary. This means that I will have less time in the streets which means we will have to hit it even harder when we leave to proselyte. It will be a new experience. I have been called to serve and will serve where I have been called. I will miss Salto so much and all of the relationships I have built here in these past 4 and a half months. I love the people here. I am excited to start a new experience in the offices. 

Thank you all for your prayers and for your letters every week. They mean so much to me. 

OH MY NEW PDAY IS SATURDAY NOW!!! SO PLEASE EMAIL ME FRIDAY NIGHT IF YOU HAVE TIME. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

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

Always remember to KEEP THE FAITH AND A SMILE ON YOUR FACE!!

LIFE IS SO AWESOME!!!

Con cariño, 

Elder Staffieri

HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY TO DAD (#49) AND CORINNE (#16)!! I HOPE THAT YOU HAVE THE BEST BIRTHDAY YOU HAVE EVER HAD! I wish I could be there to celebrate it with you. I hope you guys have a blast!!

So this week has been so awesome!!! Last p-day I ate carpincho!! After i wrote my email we went over to the apartment of the elders that work in Centro to have a little asado. Ha-ha. Carpincho is known as the largest rodent in the world. It is illegal to kill here in Uruguay but somehow a member got a hold of one and gave us some meat. It was soo good! The most flavorful meat I have ever eaten in my life. Not bad for a gigantic rat. Carpinchos have little to no fat in the meat so it was awesome. We just went to town! SSSOOOO GOOD!!

This week we had zone conference! It was buenazo!! Zone conference is always a spiritual boost as well as an animo boost. You come out of zone conference ready to conquer the world!! You talk to every person you see even if they don’t want to talk to you. It was soo good!! They talked about a ton of stuff. I forgot my notebook at the house today so I don’t have all of my notes! Aaaahh. But I will try to remember some stuff. They just teach you how to be a good missionary. Its full of practices and spiritual messages. Our new motto for our mission is "HOY ES EL DÍA!" (TODAY IS THE DAY!)We have new goals as a mission as well. 1. Double the church attendance (in 6 months). 2. 100 baptisms every month as a mission, and 3, 100 percent retention of new converts (men to be confirmed to the office of priest within two weeks). We have been working really hard with these goals and have been seeing the increase in church already. We have been working more with church leaders to excite the ward and it has been paying off. The work is taking off! It is such a blessing to be out on the mission in the day where the Lord is hastening His work!!!

We had an awesome find this week through the spirit. We were walking in between lessons and almost running because we were late. Ha-ha. But as we passed this guy I kind of felt like we should talk to him but we had no time so we just kept going. But then my comp stops and looks at me and says "Elder, We need to talk to that guy we just passed" "Let’s do it!" so we ran back and started talking to him. His name is José Luis and he is 80 years old but looks like he only has 50. It is crazy. Anyways we started talking to him just normal and he invited us to his house to talk the following day. We left him with a book of mormon and a section to read. He said that he was going to read. The following day we went to his house and had an awesome lesson with him and he committed to go to church at 9, which rarely happens because it is so early. Saturday we went back again for a lesson and committed him to a baptismal date in September. He was super pumped about it and willingly accepted. He came to church on Sunday and was there for all 3 hours. He is progressing greatly. I cant wait to continue working with him. I am embarrassed that I would have missed that chance to talk to him because I didn’t act on the prompting I received. I learned to act on the smallest prompting that you get, it doesn’t matter if we are late. Just do it. Don’t hesitate. I am grateful for my companion stopping us and for us going back. 

My spiritual thought this past week comes from Mosiah 18:9. It is a well known scripture that we use often but it is powerful and I want you to take some time and really analyze it and see how you can apply it to your life. I have been doing this a lot lately with scriptures and have seen the blessing in my life. se dice: 

sí, y estáis dispuestos a llorar con los que lloran; sí, y a consolar a los que necesitan de consuelo, y ser atestigos de Dios en todo tiempo, y en todas las cosas y en todo lugar en que estuvieseis, aun hasta la muerte, para que seáis redimidos por Dios, y seáis contados con los de la bprimera resurrección, para que tengáis cvida eterna; (Yea, and are ^awilling to mourn with those that ^bmourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as^cwitnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the ^dfirst resurrection, that ye may have eternal life)

This as we all know is talking about the covenant we made at baptism to support all of our brothers and sisters and stand as a witness in all times, in all things, and in all places until we pass through to the next life. What things can we do so that when people look at us or how we are acting they can say that we are disciples of Christ. How can we do better? How can we reach out to help those around us? What can we do to be sure we are numbered with those of the first resurrection? How can we serve to our best ability? Who can we share our testimony with? Who is in need around us? 

I know that if we prayerfully ask and look for opportunities to serve and share our testimony, if we pray for opportunities to develop Christ like attributes, we will be given opportunities to do so. We have to be active in developing these things in our lives. I know that we can do it. At times it won’t be easy, but IT WILL BE WORTH IT!! 

I love you all. I know the church is true. I have never been so happy in my entire life. There is no greater work than missionary work. We all can partake of the happiness that comes from sharing your testimony with a neighbor, friend, coworker, family member, stranger, just anyone!

KEEP THE FAITH AND A SMILE ON YOUR FACE!!!

lets all try a little bit harder to be a little bit better. 

i love you all. 

Con cariño, 

Elder Staffieri

PICTURES BELOW 

Family and Friends:

This week has been so awesome!! I could not have asked for a better week. The weather was awesome, we found a lot of people to teach, our investigators are progressing, and we had 4 in church!!! Whoop whoop!! 

I don’t have much time so this is going to be kind of short, sorry. 

So this week has been really good. We found a family that truly has been prepared to receive the gospel. We had received a reference for a kid that the elders in Centro had contacted about a week ago his name is Benjamin. So we went to go find him and try to contact him because the elders in Centro said that he was a stud! So we go and no one comes out to answer. we were kind of bummed but saw these kids playing soccer across the street so we go and start playing a little bit and then sat down to talk to them. They were super interested about the life of a missionary and what we do and everything. They couldn’t believe that we actually pay to be here ha-ha. But they were awesome. We are going back to teach them this coming week, but anyways back to Benjamin. As we left the other kids, we saw a youth from our ward walking with a friend so we went to talk to him. His friend turned out to be Benjamin! We were so stoked! 

We walked back to his house and started to talk to him. He is a good kid. About 5 minutes into the lesson, his mom wakes up and comes and sits in with us. She had talked to the missionaries before about 3 years ago and actually went to church for a while! So we continued to teach and about 10 minutes later, his dad shows up on a moto. He walks in and greets us and then leaves for the kitchen. He stayed in the kitchen for a while as we were teaching. After about ten more minutes he comes in and sits down and begins asking questions. He went on to explain that he feels that we had been sent from God. He said that he never comes home at this time. He works Sunday to Sunday basically all day and all night for the police depending on his shift. He said that he never comes home this early in the day but his chief had let him off early for some reason so he came home. He then went on to say that we always pass his house but never come to his house. He then told us about all of these things that were happening in his life. He has been searching for answers. He told us that we were his answer and that he wants to learn more!!! HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!!! 

They all came to church yesterday; during the only hours he has off Sundays, and are reading. I am so grateful for these experiences that let us know that the Lord truly has his hand in His work. This wasn’t an coincidence. The Lord has prepared this family in various ways. I am so grateful for the opportunity we have as missionaries to find and teach these people. 

So my spiritual thought this week comes to you from Alma 34:31 y 32. Se dice:

 31  Sí, quisiera que vinieseis y no endurecieseis más vuestros corazones; porque he aquí, hoy es el tiempo y el ^adía de vuestra salvación; y por tanto, si os arrepentís y no endurecéis vuestros corazones, inmediatamente obrará para vosotros el gran plan de redención. 32  Porque he aquí, esta vida es cuando el hombre debe^aprepararse para comparecer ante Dios; sí, el día de esta vida es el día en que el hombre debe ejecutar su obra. ( 31 Yea, I would that ye would come forth and ^aharden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the ^bday of your^csalvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and ^dharden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you. 32 For behold, this ^alife is the time for men to ^bprepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of ^cthis life is the day for men to perform their ^dlabors.)

HOY ES EL DÍA!!! TODAY IS THE DAY! I love this so much. We talked about this a little bit in our district meeting this past week. Today is the day. The things we do today will affect our tomorrow. In reality, the things we do today have eternal consequences or blessings. This life is so short and we need to all we can to be ready to meet God. TODAY we make the decisions that shape who we are. TODAY we need to do the things that we should. TODAY we become disciples of Christ. TODAY IS THE DAY OF YOUR SALVATION! Gosh I love this so much!! It is weird because I feel like I can explain this so much better in Spanish now and it sounds weird trying to explain this in English. But there is a saying that goes; TOMORROW IS THE ENEMY OF TODAY! This is so true. We cannot wait to change who we are, we cannot wait to repent, and we cannot wait to follow the promptings of the spirit. DO THEM NOW! Make the change and don’t look back. Follow those promptings and don’t question them. Do not hesitate. Just do it! HOY ES EL DÍA!!!!!

I love you all so much and hope that you have a great week. 

KEEP THE FAITH AND A SMILE ON YOUR FACE!!!

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

Con cariño, 

Elder Staffieri

Family and Friends:

First off, congrats to Andy Livingston on his baptism! I am so proud of you bud! I can’t believe that everyone is growing up so fast!! Before we know it you are going to be out on your mission!

So this week has been so awesome! We have been working really hard and have been receiving blessings for our work. We have been finding a lot through part member families and inactive members. We have found some really interesting investigators this past week and the work has been progressing here in Salto. I have never been so busy but so happy in my life!! The work is so awesome!!! 

Spanish is coming along great as I speak it 24/7. But I went to get a haircut this week and i guess my Spanish wasn’t as good as I thought because I walked out with a bowl cut. I guess it got lost in translation? ha-ha. But I only had it for a few days before I had to go get it fixed ha-ha. That was my funny moment for the week. 

Also this week I had splits with Elder Wakely from Utah. it was his 12th day in Uruguay so it was like I had a kid for a day!! It was so awesome. He spoke little Spanish so I had to teach the lessons and plan our day really well so we could be successful. He is such a stud though. He knew more Spanish than me at that point and he has such a strong testimony and isn’t afraid to share it. I am so grateful that my comp is district leader because that means that we get to do splits every week. We get to meet a ton of elders and get different experiences. It’s so awesome!! 

This week we helped a member of the ward move houses. It was so fun. We used this old farm truck to pile all their stuff in and we all hung off the back when we rode to their new house and back a few times. Got to love it here. It is so tranquil and everyone is so laid back about everything. I never thought I would be driving down the road in Uruguay on a truck, so old I never thought would run,  piled full of stuff to the point where there is no room inside the back so we have to hang off the back. YOU HAVE TO LOVE THE MISSION!!! 

So we have been seeing great progress in one of the families that we have been teaching. la familia ribeiro gomez. Jacaline is the mother of Soledad and Gonzalo, our converts from a few months back and we have been working with her trying to get her married to her boyfriend because she wants to join the church too. Anyways, her boyfriend, Julio, works out in campo and is only in town for a few days every month so it has been really difficult. And in the past, every time he would come into town, none of them would ever go to church because he didn’t want to. He has been super closed off to us but guess what happened Sunday. THEY CAME TO CHURCH!! ALL OF THEM!! FOR ALL 3 HOURS!!! it was soooooo awesome!!! Aaaahh i have never been so stoked. It started and none of them were there and about 10 minutes later they all walked in!! This was huge!!! It means that they can actually progress and that they are taking the gospel seriously!! aaaahhhhhhh!!! So awesome!! I love being a missionary!!!!

Also, i got to perform a baptism this past week! Her name is Ana Laura Acosta Zamora. She was an investigator of the sister missionaries in our ward and she asked me to perform the ordinance. So I was super stoked. She is such a nice girl and she has such a strong testimony. The baptism went awesome and we participated in the confirmation the following day.  I am so happy that she is a member of the church and am stoked to continue to see her growth! THE GOSPEL IS SO AWESOME!! 

Anyways that is all the time I have for today. I love you all so much. Life is so awesome!! Wake up every day with a smile on your face because you know it is going to be an amazing day!! Find every reason to smile! 

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

KEEP THE FAITH AND A SMILE ON YOUR FACE!!!

Con cariño, 

Elder Staffieri

PICTURES BELOW

This past week has been so awesome!!! 

But first off, HAPPY 25^th ANNIVERSARY TO MY MOM AND DAD!!! You guys are so awesome and I have been so blessed to have such great examples in my life. I love you so much and hope you had an amazing time in San Francisco. 

AND CONGRATS TO ADDIBABY PULSIPHER!!! aaahhh I am so pumped that you got your mission call to the best mission in the world!! You are so blessed and I am so stoked that you are coming over here to the Uruguay Montevideo West Mission!!! aaahhhh stoked out of my mind. Start preparing now because we are going to do work when we are comps!! I love you brotha! Can’t wait to see you out here. 

This week has been a normal week in terms of events. We didn’t have any ward activities or anything like that so it was work as usual.  

So this week has been awesome. We have been working a lot with the members these past two weeks to try to gain their trust so we can work better with them. It has been going really well and we working nonstop lately. IT IS THE BEST EVER!!! There is no better feeling than coming home at the end of the day and knowing that you did all you could. We found 12 new people to teach this week just through contacting and two of them are potential priesthood holders. We are teaching more than I have ever taught before right now and we find more people to teach every day! 

This week for service we did more pruning of trees but this time in the house of Silvia. She had this tree that was growing through and over power lines so that was a little interesting hah. The guy that came with the chainsaw didn’t really care to much that there were power lines there and I will just leave it at that. But it went really well and no one got hurt so that is always a plus.

During soccer this Friday with the youth I pulled off a bicycle kick for the first time in my life. Or I think that’s what we call it in English? No se. it was legit though because every morning for part of our exercises Elder Calderón and I play soccer for a little bit and he has been helping me learn some new soccer skills. It’s been so legit. Me and Elder Calderóm are best buds. We talk nonstop all day so that has been helping me with my Spanish a ton. Spanish is coming along great and his English is getting better. It helps so much to learn a language when you are teaching someone of that language your own. I don’t know if that made sense but I hope so. I have finally put away my English scriptures and have been studying in Spanish in everything now. If I don’t understand how something is developing I will go back to English to review but now it’s just all Spanish. It’s been so awesome!!! 

This month that is coming we have two potential baptisms set up. We gave Carolina Garcia baptismal date for the 17^th of August and are hoping her older sister Tamara will follow in the following week. Work has been going really good and we are looking to challenge others to baptism this coming week too!!! 

My spiritual thought this week comes from Mosiah. It is one of my favorite scriptures that I use all the time in lessons. Here King Benjamin is addressing his people and this is the last verse in the chapter.  It is found in Mosiah, chapter 2, verse 41.  Se dice: 

 41  Y además, quisiera que consideraseis el bendito y ^afeliz estado de aquellos que guardan los mandamientos de Dios. Porque he aquí, ellos son ^bbendecidos en todas las cosas, tanto temporales como espirituales; y si continúan ^cfieles hasta el fin, son recibidos en el ^dcielo, para que así moren con Dios en un estado de interminable felicidad. ¡Oh recordad, recordad que estas cosas son verdaderas!, porque el Señor Dios lo ha declarado (And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and ^ahappy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are ^bblessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out ^cfaithful to the end they are received into ^dheaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it)

I love this scripture so much because it is so simple. He explains the blessed and happy state of those who keep the commandments of the Lord and goes on to say that they will be blessed in all things, spiritual and temporal. I use this one a lot because people often view the commandments that God has given us as restrictions, pointless rules, or this that limit their happiness. They are those who look in happiness only for the moment. They are looking for momentary joy. When we read this to them we explain that it is actually the keeping of commandments that makes us happy. When we do those things that are pleasing unto the lord, we are going to have His Spirit to be with us in all things. He will give us the blessings that he has prepared for us. These commandments help us to be free and to feel the love of our Heavenly Father more in our life. The commandments are such a blessing to those who keep them. I testify that the only way to achieve peace in this life and lasting happiness is through the commandments of God. This is the only way. I have seen the difference it has made in my own life and in so many of the lives of the people we have taught and are currently teaching. 

Keep the commandments. Endure to the end. Receive the blessings. Be happy. 

It is so simple.

I know that this church is true. I know that we have a Heavenly Father that knows each and every one of us and loves us more than we can even imagine. We are all sons and daughters of our Eternal Father. Have faith in his plan. Seguir  adelante! 

I love you all so much. I can feel your prayers. Thank you for taking the time to write me! I have never been so happy in my life. The mission is so awesome. 

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

Have a great week, 

Elder Staffieri

PICTURES BELOW

FRÍO FRÍO FRÍO!!!!!

This week has probably been one of the coldest weeks of my life ha-ha. I never thought it could be so cold in South America. The humidity makes it so freezing down here. Every morning in my studies I wear 3 pairs of pants, two shirts, a sweater, a sweatshirt, and my huge jacket with a beanie and a scarf ha-ha. It is soo cold!!! But besides that...

This week has been so awesome!!! Ah I love the mission sooo much! 

This past week i got a new companion. Elder Calderón!! He is such a stud. He is from Peru and loves to work. We have been getting along so great. We have just been going going going, trabajando a full!! I have been learning so much from him and it has only been 5 days. My Spanish is improving like crazy. I have been speaking without having to think that much so that is a good sign. We are really good friends already so we are talking all day long. I can’t wait to see what we do in these next 6 weeks together. And to see where my Spanish is at after this change. 

So this week we had a ward activity. Noche de Barrio: La Mejor Torta. It was about missionary work and was super fun. We had so many non members come that we had found in the streets the past week so it was awesome. Elder Calderón and I did two skits and then we had a few games, had a video, and shared some scriptures at the end. Everyone brought a cake so it was pretty awesome. 

We have found so many new people this week so these next few weeks are looking promising. It is so much easier getting into doors with Elder Calderón because people always want to know why a gringo American is doing with a Latino ha-ha. So that is a plus. But our lessons go super well now because now that I am speaking Spanish all day I can understand a whole lot more of what people are saying. We teach with really good unity too. This week has just been going awesome so far!!

We did service this week at the house of the patriarch. We pruned his trees and then chopped it all up to make fire wood for him. 

This week we have been having new foods. While we were doing service, the milk man came by and to deliver his milk (down here they deliver it in old 2 liter bottles that they have) straight from the campo. We have never used that because, Well I don’t really know why, but we always by the stuff in the bags. Anyways, the guy liked that we were doing service so he gave us a bottle of strawberry yogurt. Hah it is kind of sketchy but it tastes all right. We just have to drink it pretty fast to avoid the after taste. 

The other funny experience we had this past week was at lunch. We were eating lunch with one of my favorite families in the ward. They are so awesome. Anyways, we were eating the normal, a stew and bread because it is really cold. The stew was really good. It had mondongo (cow stomach), chorizo, and a whole bunch of rice and veggies. But in the middle of lunch, the dad gets up and starts tying the bread bag and I think what the heck, that’s kind of random, why is he doing that? Then he turns the bag and I see this rat in the bag ha-ha. He just ties it, sets it on another table, and then comes back and keeps eating with us like no biggy. Ha-ha. Hilarious.  I hope it wasn’t the same bread that we were eating. Ha-ha i just love being a missionary and having the promise that no matter what we eat, its going to be for our good. 

Anyways, on a more spiritual note, I was reading in 3 Nephi this past week and came across a scripture that I love. It is found is 3 Nephi 5 verse 13. Se dice:

He aquí, soy discípulo de Jesucristo, el Hijo de Dios. He sido llamado por él para declarar su palabra entre los de su pueblo, a fin de que alcancen la vida eterna. (Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been ^acalled of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.)

I just love this scripture so much. it describes the purpose of a missionary. We are called to be Disciples of Christ. But not only missionaries have this same charge. Every one of us at baptism made this promise, to be a disciple of Christ. I believe it was Joseph Smith who said at baptism we stepped out of neutral territory. We covenanted with God to be a disciple in all times, things, and places. We should want to share the knowledge that we have with others. A simple testimony to a friend or coworker, simple acts of service, just being the person that He expects us to be. Through these actions, we testify of Christ. People notice the difference and will often want to know more. Just this past week, a member bore his testimony with a friend, and now we are teaching him. It is so simple but powerful. So this is my challenge for you this week. Find opportunities to serve and share your testimony with people. I know that if you do that you will be pleasantly surprised at the response. Your testimony grows every time you share it. You never know what can happen. 

That is all the time I have for this week but I love you all so much. Thank you for all of the letters and emails. I hope you all have a great week!!

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

Con cariño, 

Elder Staffieri

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