¡¡¡¡THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME!!!

We had changes this past week and I am training! So I got on a bus Tuesday night at 12:30 to head down to Montevideo to go pick up the new elder. We got down there and went straight over to the mission home from the bus station. We got there, got a little bit of capacitación and then went over in front of the temple to go meet our new companions. We all lined up behind our companions and sang called to serve and then our comps turned around and we all go nuts so excited to meet our new companions. My companion is named Elder Vasquez. He is from Chiclayo Peru and has 20 years. He played professional fútbol in Peru and gave it up to come out here on the mission.  He is the only member of his family and has been a member for 5 years. He actually moved from his house for a few reasons and is now living with another member family. He is such a great missionary. He has such a unique experience as a member and a powerful testimony that he loves to share with everyone. It is so exciting to see him get out there and share it with everyone. He is a really tranquilo guy but when he starts teaching he starts lighting up. As we have been practicing, he has been getting more and more confident and has been participating a lot more in the lessons. But anyways, back to Wednesday. After we met our companions, we took pictures with president and his wife and then got the chance to go through the temple together. It was a great experience. After the temple, we left to go eat lunch in the mission home and then we got on a bus to go to tres cruces to catch our bus out to Artigas. Our bus left at 6 pm and we got into Artigas at 3am. Got a taxi home, took a 2 and a half hour nap, and got up the next morning to get to work and had a great first day! 

It’s really such a great blessing to be working with Elder Vasquez. He has learned so much in the past few days that we have had together and I have learned a ton from him as well. I honestly don’t know who is learning more, elder Vasquez or me. haha. It’s been kinda funny too because there are words in Peru that they use all the time that are really bad here. So we will be in a lesson and he will be talking and will say something that is totally innocent in Peru and is super bad here and we have had some pretty interesting reactions. But little by little it is getting better. He has such a motivation to work. And he loves to go running in the morning too! So we have been getting a long so great. He is so willing to keep learning. We are so pumped for these next two changes we have together! WHOOP WHOOP!!

I got called as district leader again this change too which is always a great responsibility and a blessing to be able to serve the other missionaries. My district consists of 4 companionships, and they are all such studs! 

This week has also been full of miracles! Tamara and Taliha, the girls that are getting baptized the 24th, are doing awesome. We were teaching them this past week, and their mom (who has always rejected talking to us) was there and we invited her to sit in and listen to us and she actually came and participated. As the lesson started she was really reserved, but as the spirit touched her heart, she opened up and started to tell us her life story of how she got to where she is now and everything. IT WAS SO AWESOME!!!! I have never seen anything like that from her and I don’t think her daughters have either. And now we are teaching her mom a long with her daughters. 

After that, we left the lesson and went to go contact some references that we had received and on the way we contacted a lady walking in the street and she invited us into her house to talk to her daughter and husband. It turns out that they were investigators from another ward but they gave us some other references for their siblings and we set up another time to come back and visit their mom. Then we went to Alex. I think I have talked about Alex before. He is such a stud. I can’t write enough about this kid. But we went into to their house to teach him. As we sat down, you could kind of tell that they all had been fighting, Alex and his family. And we decided to teach the restoration and talk about the families. We invited his mom into the lesson and her friends as well and after that we had everyone in the house sitting in on the lesson. As we started, Elder Vasquez shared his testimony on how the gospel has blessed his family. It was so powerful. At the end of the lesson, after the Jose Smith experience, one of her friends asked how we knew that it was the only true church and he we could say it so confidently. We testified about the only way to know is through prayer and shared our personal testimony and story of how we got our testimonies of the church! At the end of the lesson, Alex prayed so that his family could know as he does. IT WAS SO POWERFUL!! And all of this happened in a day. Our week has been full of experiences like this! New missionaries bring blessings! aaahhhh the mission is so awesome!!!! 

Sábado we had a ward activity of cakes and pizzas. It was so great. So many people came and almost all of our investigators as well! We are really seeing some great growth in our ward. Sabado de mañana we went to do service to build a septic tank for some members. It was pretty cool. We were mainly just mixing concrete and passing it in buckets to the guys that were working in the tank. And after we had a meeting with our stake president to talk about the goals and game plan for our ward. 

And Sunday!!! MOTHERS DAYYYYY!!!!! AAAAAHHHHHH!!! It was a great day. Elder Espinoza and I taught gospel doctrine and then the bishop asked me in the middle of sacrament meeting to give a talk. So I shared a little bit about the stripling warriors and what they learned from their moms and then what I learned from mom and ended with the importance of scripture study. It went pretty well. After we went to lunch, and then went out to work. And the best part....TALKING TO THE FAMILY!!!! I was so excited to talk to you all on mother’s day. You all looked so awesome. I can’t believe that my 3rd call has already passed in the mission. But it felt soo good to see all of your faces again! 

This week has been so awesome and I can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for this change. It’s going to be so awesome. 

Sorry but that is all the time I have for this week and I have to get going! But I love you all so much! I hope that you are all making the most of every opportunity that God has given you to make a difference. 

I know that this church is true. I know that Christ is at the head of the Church, guiding and leading it. I know that the priesthood power has been restored to the earth and that Thomas S. Monson holds all the priesthood keys of this dispensation. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families and that the ONLY WAY TO BE HAPPY is by living its principles. I love you all so much. I know you all have a testimony of what you know to be true and I encourage each and every single one of you to not fear and to get out there and share it! 

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

Until next week! :)

CON CARIÑO

Elder Staffieri

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 

AAHH this week was so awesome!! I love Artigas! I love the mission! It is honestly the best 2 years! 

I will start off with some funny stuff that started this past week. On Tuesday, after district meeting, I went out on divisions with Elder Bulloch, one of our zone leaders. He came to my area and we had a great day, I learned so much from him, like how to ask better inspired questions and being more direct with the people we teach. He is such a stud. We talked a lot about the way we teach and everything. We even taught a lesson sharing the same chair to invite more people into the lesson, and it worked! They filled up all the empty seats. If you prepare the setting, they will come. It was great. and we had a great planning when we got home and we stayed up talking for a while, and then right in the middle of the night, we heard our companions phone go off. We thought to ourselves, "what the heck? who is he texting right how?" so we got up to go check, and right as we walk into his room, elder Espinoza gets up, flips on the light, and gets on his knees and starts praying. We were super confused for a minute and then realized that he thought the text tone was the alarm and that it was morning, and started cracking up. We asked him if he was ready to get working out after he finished his prayer and went into our front room and started setting up p90x. He got dressed, came out, looked at his watch, and looks at us, back at his watch, back at us and just turns off all the lights and goes back to bed. ha-ha. We started busting up laughing. The little things make life so much better haha. He was a good sport about it though. 

Another thing that happened was elder Vargas and I were teaching a lesson this past week with a menos activo family, the familia rodriguez. we were teaching Brian, and the lesson was going great, the spirit was strong, we were teaching super well, he was into it and then his little sister comes out and goes "hey, i can finish here, you can go get started on your homework" and he gets up and goes inside and she sits down in his place. Elder Vargas and i looked at each other and then back at his sister and just started laughing so hard. It was funny how she thought we were there for us. We obviously have to start changing things up with this family so we can change that belief they have. It’s a work in progress I guess. But we started a new lesson and taught her. 

Oh and I met someone up here this past week during a contact and he said that he had a buddy that moved to the states to a town called Temecula. And then I told him that that is where I was from and then he asks me if I knew a man, member of the church, named Juan Sanders. And I couldn’t remember if I did or not but it sounds pretty familiar. So if you guys know a man named Juan sanders, your friends in artigas mandan saludos. Small world... 

So this week we had an awesome actividad in the stake center. It was a type of open house tour of the stake center with all of the organizations talking about their function. It was super awesome. We had a few investigators who came. One of which is named Jose. Jose is the spouse of a menos activo, Mariana. They came with their two baby boys. One is 18 months and the other is 6 months.  They walked over 20 blocks to get to the stake center in the cold with their two sons in different strollers. They were one of the first people at the activity. Even though their older son was running around crazy, they both really enjoyed it. Jose said that he felt really good in the church and even gave us references to go and visit his mom and others. Mariana also loved the activity and was talking all the books and folletos that she could. I think that it really helped them understand what it is to be a member of the church and how the gospel blesses the family. They were really excited as they left. Also, later in the night, we had a giant blessing. Hugo came to the activity as well. Hugo is the spouse of the family Vasquez. His entire family moved to Montevideo to find more work and it left him in Artigas alone. And he has been a whole lot more receptive to the gospel now. He has been reading, praying, and on Saturday night, it was the first time that he stepped into a church. He felt the spirit super strong and had a lot of questions at the end. He missed church on Sunday and was really bummed about it.

But the activity was really great. At the end, when we were all cleaning up, the zone sang happy birthday to me. It was pretty awesome. I can’t believe that I am 20 already. Time is flying. But then at the end of the night, we all took a picture doing the "elder Staffieri pose" ha-ha. I will send it next week. It’s pretty hilarious. But my birthday was awesome. We saw some miracles and got out to work. It was an awesome day. 

Also on Saturday, one of our investigators, Alex, asked us what he had to do to get baptized. It was one of the few times anyone has ever asked me that ha-ha. We were so shocked. We were riding our bikes down the route and he was cutting lawns and he stopped us and that was the first thing he asked us. He is such a stud! His only problems is he has a hard time getting to church. He plays soccer and all of his games are on Sunday. But we pray that the season will come to an end soon and he will look into other teams. But we are working with him.

And there goes all my time to write. I love you all so much! I hope that you all have a great week! Sorry that this is getting wrapped up so fast but we have got to run! 

I love you all! 

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

Con cariño, 

Elder Staffieri      

This week was amazing! Working hard and loving every minute of it! 

Elder Vargas, my new companion got in to artigas on Monday night. We almost went to the wrong terminal to go and get him though. We were on our way to the terminal to pick him up in artigas and then we realized that he was coming from Rivera and was going to be coming into Brazil. We called a taxi and got over there with a few minutes to spare. We came home, dropped his stuff, and went out to work for the last hour of the day. Elder Vargas is a stud. We came here to Uruguay together a year ago. It’s been awesome to talk about what we have seen this past year in the mission and everything we have learned and how we can aprovechar of the time we have together. We have been teaching some awesome lessons. Elder Vargas is from Chile!! whoop whoop! We have 3 Latinos in my house now! I am the only gringo! yyyyeeeesssss! This is the first time in like a week that I have spoken English hahah. But he is a stud. We have been having so much fun together. 

The first lunch we had with Elder Vargas, the members planned a prank on him. The hermano invited us in as we pretended to contact his house and then tried to rob us. I am just going to leave it at that. It was pretty good. Elder Vargas got a kick out of it. 

This week has been awesome teaching wise. With bikes we are a lot more efficient but at the same time, we aren’t finding as much because we are flying to and from lessons. I think we are going to go back to walking or maybe do half and half because we need to keep talking to everyone to keep finding people to teach. And now we have acquired 6 bikes in our house hha. So we are going to start returning some. 

So happy Easter a few days late! Easter Sunday was really good in artigas. Super tranquilo. They celebrate it just the same basically as in the states. But it’s not as big. Like they do the whole Easter bunny thing with all that stuff but it’s not a huge deal. The have what they call the "semana santa" o "holy week" en ingles. It’s super sad though because the younger generation just knows it as "turismo" when they get a week vacation and they all go travel everywhere and don’t really know what happened this week or what it is important, we kind of got hit hard in the church because everyone was out traveling or visiting with family. There were only 49 people there. But the reuniones were really good anyways. After church, we went out on divisions with some youth.

I went out with Santiago. He is 16 and is a little autistic, nothing too severe but he can’t read, doesn’t really think straight, he has a hard time speaking and just kind of says whatever comes to his mind first, but he is such a stud!! I loved going out with him so much and learned a ton from him. Every time we went into a house and sat down, the first thing he did was ask who all was there and invited them all to come into the lesson. He was just so open and frank with them. The people loved having him there because he bore such a pure testimony of what he knew to be the truth and he shared it with such excitement for the work. We had an awesome time. While were were riding our bikes going to lessons he would always say "elder staffieri, hoy es el dia!" o "elder staffieri, today is the day!." it was just so awesome to be with someone that has that much excitement about the work all the time and just lives so purely. I honestly want to go out with him again next week. And after divisions we left with the relief society president to go out and visit some people. We had a super full day of teaching and had a lot of success. So it was an Easter full of sharing the message that our Savior aun vive, that Christ lives. ahh i love it so much! And some members gave us some chocolate too :)

On Saturday night we had an awesome ward activity! We all sang karaoke, danced, did the limbo, played a whole bunch of games, ping pong, etc. everyone loved it. We made some tortas fritas and just had a great time. There were members there who hadn’t come to church in months. They were making friends with the active members the investigators that came were well received. I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to see our ward coming together like it is. We may not be the biggest ward in artigas, but we are building on firm foundations, and I know that the ward is going to grow stronger and stronger. 

Well that’s all the time I have for this week. I love you guys so much! And congrats to Carter on his marriage! I am super pumped for you! 

Get out there and share your testimony! And let’s all try a little bit harder to be a little bit better this week! 

¡que pasen bien! 

Elder Staffieri

This week has been so awesome. It’s been a little crazy but it makes it that much more fun. We have been working in 3 since elder Owen left to go to Montevideo. My comp still hasn’t gotten here yet so we have been working both areas. Thank goodness that we have bikes. We have been going back and forth the entire week depending on the lessons that we set up. Its been a blast! Its also been a great learning experience for everyone. I have been learning a ton from elder Espinoza about asking for references. That is something he really excels in. and we got a ton of references this past week. And the majority of them were in my area, así que, we are going to have a ton of work to do this week!

We have been trying to get better on our exercises too. Just do more cardio.  Every morning, we leave to go running or play soccer. We have been having a blast so far. We usually play with all the elders in my house, and the elders in the zone leader’s house and then Finnegan and pulsipher. Its an awesome way to start the day. 

This week we had a ward activity. We were sitting in planning last week and decided that we needed to start doing them more frequently. We threw one together really quick. We talked to a few members, got some speakers, got some music, a TV, a computer, and had a blast! After karaoke we started playing other games. Towards the end, the bishop showed up (he lives 2 hours away in campaña), and everyone got so pumped! The bishop was so grateful for the activity and is committed to doing more with us. Also as a result of the activity, member’s menos activos came to church. One is preparing to go to the temple now. Blessings! The mission is so awesome! We were so stoked how the members responded. Now everyone is so excited to invite everyone to other activities and even to the Sunday meetings. 

Funny story of the week. So the bikes we have are kind of...not the best. So we took them over to a shop to get them looked at. They fixed up the brakes as none of them had any. so we were riding down the street after lunch one day and elder Espinoza was talking to me and he goes "he watch this!" he was going to try to do a slide using the back break but he forgot what one it was and he jams on the front break and flips over the handle bars and takes the bike with him doing a front flip type deal and sprawls on the asphalt. The funniest part was seeing how his face changed from like "man this is going to be so awesome" to complete horror. hahahaha. Its only funny because he didn’t get hurt. All the people in the street got a good laugh at it too. We all picked him up and went on our way busting up laughing, all 3 of us. 

Last night I got to go on divisions with hermano Duarte, from the high council. After ward council he offered to go out with and teach with me so we went out for a few hours and had a great time teaching together. He was a missionary here about 23 years ago. He is a stud and still has the missionary spirit. 

Sorry but this is all the time I have for this week! I love you all so much! Have a great week and take some time to go out on visits with the missionaries in your ward and stake! Share a testimony with a neighbor.

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

Con cariño, 

Elder Staffieri

CONFERENCE WAS AWESOME!!! I wish I could have time to write up all my notes but I am sure you all have your own. But i cant believe that conference already came and went. Some of my favorite talks were by Richard G. Scott, David A. Bednar, M. Russell Ballard, and of course, President Monson. I cannot wait to continue studying the conference addresses and sharing them with everyone here in Artigas! Who is pumped to start studying preach my gospel?? I know all of you are! WHOOP WHOOP!!! Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to the work of salvation!

This week was great apart from the conference as well! We had some really interesting charlas this past week, from the really spiritual to a youth that was in tears in fear of going to war with Korea...for no apparent reason...pobrecito. 

This past week we also had interviews! Interviews are a great chance to learn directly from president. We talked about focusing on teaching real doctrine. We read a lot in 2 nefi 31 as well as 3 nefi. We studied a lot together about what it means to really follow Christ. We also talked a lot about how to give feedback to our companions, leaders, districts, other missionaries, etc. Elder Owen and I taught in front of the zone and got a lot of really good feedback on how we can teach better. We had to leave in the middle of interviews after a call from one of the members to go give a blessing and president let us take his car ;) blessings of working in the office and getting a guayan license I guess. The blessing went extremely well for how serious the situation was. The zone leaders and assistants went with us. After, we went out to grab some lunch and then went back to finish the capacitation. Interviews were great! 

This week we also went to the extreme limits of our area, well our area doesn’t really have a southern limit so we have a giant area to work out in the campo. A member fixed up some bikes and let us take them out. We have never had so much fun in a long time. Also, I cannot remember sweating so much in my mission. But her son was showing us ex investigators and menos activos that live way out there. It was really good. We found some new people to teach and had some great lessons. We are going to have to start going out there more to teach them more consistently but it is worth it. 

I WENT TO THE DENTIST!!! I had a tooth that was bothering me so I talked to my stake president and he set me up with an appointment for this morning. We showed up and it was a small office behind her house. I was a little scared everything went good. She was a super nice lady and did a great job. We might be going back to teach her. 

So that would have been it for this week if I would have written about an hour ago...but there is more! so in the middle of catching up in my journal and writing some letters while elder Owen was taking a nap, we get a phone call from president. He told us that there were some problems in other parts of the mission and that Elder Owen would be leaving tonight or tomorrow morning. He is going down to Montevideo to go work in Oeste 10. I am going to be staying up here with Elder Vargas, who will be coming in from Rivera, for 4 more weeks and then next change, I am going to train. BBOOOOOMMMMM! haha what seemed to be a tranquilo day just turned into a lot of last minute running around. But its awesome. I am bummed that we aren’t going to have another change together and work here but I am stoked for Elder Owen. He is going up to senior comp in an area that is having a lot of success. He is going to tear it up. And I was in the ccm with Elder Vargas if I remember correctly. So it will be a blast working with him again. And now our house is: Un español, Un peruano, Un Chileno, y Un californiano. jaja. Its going to be a blast. All spanish from now on out. Got to love it! I am excited for this though. It’s going to be a fun challenge to get to learn from and teach with Elder Vargas and get to work here in Artigas for 2 changes more after this change. It’s the mission! Got to love it! 

Life doesn’t get any better than when you are in the service of the Lord. I am so grateful for this chance that i have to serve the Lord in Uruguay for these short two years. I have learned so much and hope to have helped at least some of Gods children. Everyone should go on a mission. 

Well I am out of time for this week. We have to go run some errands but I love all of you so much! Thank you so much for all the support that you always so willingly give. Get out there and share your testimony!

Try a little bit harder to be a little bit better! 

Con cariño, 

Elder Staffieri

P.S. Don’t forget to study your Preach My Gospel ;) 

This week has been awesome! But lets be honest, EVERY WEEK IS AWESOME OUT HERE!  I am so pumped to be in this ward again serving with Elder Owen. Last change we were getting to know the area, the members, the bishop and hiscounselors, the stake, etc, and now this change we are going on all cylinders. We have been a lot more organized in planning, diligent in the streets, and effective teaching.

The families we are still teaching are doing well. They are still having a hard time getting to church. It seems like Sunday is the day where everything begins to break down in the lives of our investigators. Claudia, the mom in the familia Machado, went into convulsions and lost part of her memory Sunday morning. Her husband said that it happens about once a month, sometimes more, sometimes less. She is just really sick and life is really difficult sometimes. But she and her family are doing so awesome. They are reading everyday, praying everyday, they have accepted the Word of Wisdom and are now living free of alcohol and coffee. They fully accepted the law of chastity and had a great testimony of things that have happened in their past lives that have helped them to embrace that law. 

Adriana is still doing well. She is really busy with her baby and has trouble feeling the Spirit in the lessons because she is constantly worried about her daughter running around in the house. We are bringing over the primary president and relief society president now every time we go so that they can help with that. We have been focusing a ton on the Book of Mormon lately with her. Every time we go, we try to read short passages and really meditate on what it says and how we can apply it in our lives. It’s so hard when you know that this book has the power to change her life, and she could be so much happier and feel the Spirit so much stronger as she reads and applies what she is learning, and she wont do it. I wish we could just go over there everyday to read 5 minutes with her but we can’t. We have been praying for a way we can help her. We feel really strongly about General Conference that is coming up! So we are going to do everything we can this week to get her there, a long with everyone else! I can’t believe that it is already here! Whoop Whoop! 

Alex is a stud. He reads everyday and is doing great with his prayers. The last time we went over to his house he had some friends over but he still invited us in. He turned off the TV and we sat down and had a great lesson. At the end of the lesson we go to say the closing prayer and he looks at us and asks "is it alright if we kneel?" MAN THIS KID IS SUCH A STUD! he gave the closing prayer, kneeling and praying for what he really needed in his life. He is such a great example for his family and for his friends. 

We were a little bit frustrated this week when they didn’t come to church but that just means we have to work a little harder to help them understand the importance of the Sabbath Day. And with conference this week, we are going to be working even harder. It’s like the Super Bowl for the missionaries jaja. We are going to be pushing so hard so that they are all there so that they can partake of the instruction we are going to receive and the Spirit will be felt there. It will bless each and every one of them as I know it will bless each and every once of us who go. There is nothing more important this Saturday and Sunday than Conference. 

This week i would just like to invite you to begin preparing to listen to the prophets and apostles, men called of God to speak His words, give His counsel, men called to be special witnesses of the Savior and of His loving Heavenly Father and to bless the lives of all who listen with a spirit of prayer and fasting. I encourage you to dig into your scriptures, read past conference talks, get spiritually ready to learn what God would have us do in these last days. 

I know that we have a living prophet on the earth today, Thomas S. Monson. I know that he holds all the keys to the priesthood power of God. I know that there are 12 men called of God to be His witness. I know that this church is true. I know that prayers are answered. I know that there is power in a testimony, no importa how small or simple it may be. Yo se' que hoy es el día!

I love you all so much! Thank you for all the support that you constantly give me. 

Lets all try a little bit harder to be a little bit better this week! Go out and share your testimony with at least one person this week!

With all the love in my heart, 

Elder Staffieri