January 17, 2015

Sorry I haven’t written in a while. We have been really busy and it’s been a blast!! Two weeks ago, we went on a tour of the mission with Pte Smith and Jerry! It was so much fun! It was a tooonnn of driving. We learned so much from president in the car and in all of the conferences. We also got to go out and work in our old areas for a while too. It was so great to be able to go and see all the people that we once taught. I was surprised that a lot of them remembered me in the areas where I started my mission. But it was such a fulfilling experience to go back and teach them again! I hope we get another chance to do it again! 

One fun experience: We were leaving Paysandú and we were following the GPS and it starts taking us far out close to the ruta. As we go, we see the road end and then this giant dirt and grass field that looks like its someone’s property and the GPS directs us to go through it. So we just confide in the GPS and start driving. Then as we get farther into the field, we can see the ruta where we need to go but there was a giant, deep mud pit in-between us and the easy way out and we only had a 2 wheel drive car. Pte sent elder huerta and I to go and check it out and it was obvious that we weren’t going to get through it. So we went to go find another way. The only other way was up a steep grass embankment that led up to the road. Pte smith looks at me and goes, "well let’s go behind those trees, get some speed, and hit it at a good angle and we can make it." okay! Let’s do it! We drove in-between some trees, got the car in position, went through a little depression, got the car up to speed, made it up the hill and onto the freeway. After we made it up, he fist bumps me and yells "llaves!!" hahaha. As in priesthood keys to give direction. We all got a good laugh. It was just one of those priceless moments where you just think what am I doing in the middle of some field in Uruguay with two North Americans and a Chilean trying to jump your way onto a freeway hahaha. Got to love the mission! We truly enjoyed every moment of that trip!

This past week flew by as well! We had changes in the mission and elder huerta finished his mission. I am going to miss him so much! He taught me so many things and I am so grateful for his influence on me. He was excited to see his family as his little sister was waiting for him to get home so that he could baptize her. My new companion is Elder Trucolo! He is an amazing teacher! He is from Cordoba Argentina, but played professional soccer in Italy and France. He has a love for the scriptures that is unmatched. I am really excited for the chance we have to work together!

This past change was awesome because I got to see Elder Pulsipher come down and train!! It’s such a blessing serving with someone from your own ward. It’s just a ton of fun. 

This past week we were knocking doors and in one contact a guy came out with a Bengal’s t-shirt. We started talking to him and i asked him if he liked football and if he likes the Bengal’s. And he responds “no not really" so we asked him what was his favorite team and he goes "the BYU cougars" wwwwhhhhaaaatttt?!! That has got to be the coolest contact ever. Well turns out he is a member but hasn’t gone in years. He lived in Provo for a while and went to BYU for a while. We had a great lesson with him yesterday. He just got married ten months ago and had a baby boy earlier this month. His wife isn’t a member....yet. But they are excited that we are going now to teach them! They are going to get sealed in a year....they just don’t know it yet! ;) 

Alright, that is all the time I have for this week! I love you all! Thank you for everything you are constantly doing for me and also for the missionaries that serve in your wards. 

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

UN abrazy fuerte, 

Elder Staffieri

The pictures are a lot from my trip. The family with the book of Mormon in their hands we are teaching here in Cerro, all the pictures in the car are from changes and dropping off missionaries in the airport and houses, etc. there is one where I am in front of a bull fighting ring in Colonia. etc. and with pulsipher when I slept over in his house. 

January 03,2015

Familia:

This week has been so awesome! Life just keeps getting better and better! We had an awesome new years eve. We took the table and chairs up on our roof, made a pizza, bought some drinks, and just sat there watching the whole night sky light up. We are basically the highest point in Montevideo, so all of the fireworks were blowing up right at eye level. It has to be the best New Years Eve ever! It was so awesome just to be with the elders in our house. We are such good buddies. I am so excited for this coming year! Especially to be a missionary! Some amazing things are going to be happening in the mission that is going to change the entire culture of missionary work! I feel so blessed to be a part of it!

This past week we had concilio with the leaders of the mission. It was the biggest concilio that the mission has ever had. We discussed what key indicators we are going to report to the mission and how they are going to help us achieve the two indicators that we will report to the church. The only two we will be reporting to salt lake are: 1. Baptisms. and 2. Church Attendance. It is going to help us really focus on baptizing, reactivating, and retaining. The mission is going to change so much this coming year and real growth of the church is going to EXPLODE down here!! This is seriously the best mission in the entire world!!

Also in concilio, we talked about using the informe of recent converts and members who have recently reactivated. It’s an informe with goals for the first month, in the first 6 months, the first year, and after a year. It’s such a great tool that has come as direction from the prophet and quorum of the twelve. Elder Huerta and I have been working so much with this informe the past two weeks and we have seen awesome results. The members get so excited when they receive the direction on what it is that they should do. This informe strengthens them and gives them specific goals to one day arrive at the temple to be sealed as a family!

Also, this week we have been working a lot with getting the members involved in family history! We have been sharing a lot the book called "my family” and have been helping everyone get started on their family history and to set the goal to take names to the temple. It’s also been a great tool to find people to teach. I never knew how much people loved to find out stuff about their ancestors. There is something so special when you start working to find out more about where you came from! It’s been so amazing!

The lessons we have had this week have been so incredible. We are seeing so much progress with one family in specific. Their names are Ana, Margot, and Blanca. Ana is 30, Margot 50, and Blanca 70. We are teaching more people every time we go to their house! The last time we found the boyfriend of Ana! It’s been great. Anyways, we first found Ana through the iniciative of "He is the Gift" about 3 weeks ago. We shared it with her and her mom and they agreed to another visit to come back and teach about the restoration of the gospel. The next week we got there, we started sharing about the restoration and they all kind of rejected the fact that it  happened and were really skeptical of it. Blanca got all upset and started trying to bible bash with us but we just kept calm and testified. We testified of the book of Mormon and that we were going to present the book of Mormon as evidence of the restoration the next time we visited them. The next visit, we brought them the book of Mormon and presented it to them with 2 Nephi 25:26 and then in moroni 10:3-5 and left them something to read. When we came back again, Ana had read everything we had left her and had also studied the bible passages that went with the chapter in the book of Mormon. She loved it! She still hasn’t received that testimony of the book of Mormon yet but she is working on it as well as Margot. The other day we were teaching in Alma 32 about the seed and the word of God. And all of a sudden, Blanca comes in, sits down, and starts to listen. Towards the end, she asks us for a book of Mormon and for something to read. The last time we went there, Blanca (the most skeptical at the beginning) was so excited about what she had learned. This whole family started to study the book of Mormon together and are beginning to gain their testimony as a family!! And there are so many more people in that house that we need to keep finding as well! It’s been such a powerful experience, teaching this family from the book of Mormon and seeing their testimonies grow. Tonight we have planned to go through the whole plan of salvation with them just from the scriptures! We are so excited!!

I am about out of time for this week. I love you all so much and hope you had the best new years and have put goals that bring you closer to Christ in 2015.

Lets all try a little bit harder to be a little bit better this week and THIS NEW YEAR!!!

UN abrazo gigante,

Elder Staffieri

December 27, 2014

Familia: 

This week has been so awesome! There is nothing like Christmas on the mission!! It was so great to see all of you on skype! It’s crazy to think that it was the last time!! aaahhh!! But this Christmas has been so special here. 

On Wednesday, Christmas eve, we were out doing visits in our area before our dinner we had planned at 8. Elder Huerta got a feeling that we needed to go and visit a menos activa that he had met a few changes ago. So we went. When we got there, she got so happy and started to cry. Her name is Maria. She is about 80 years old mas o menos and her familia has basically abandoned her. She is very poor and lives by herself in a very dirty humble home. When we got there, she explained how she was praying that the missionaries would come by and visit her for weeks now. I don’t think I have ever felt soo bad for someone in my entire life. She is an active member of the church but goes to another ward because there are buses that drop her off closer to the church. But the member’s don’t really visit her that often because she lives so far out of the ward boundaries. We asked her if she had eaten that day and she said that she had gone to the almacen to buy bread with a little bit of butter to eat for that day. We called the family we were going to eat dinner with and they were more than happy to have her come along. We called president and he gave us permission to go and take her in the van to dinner. When we showed up at her house, she was all dressed up and was so excited to go out to eat. We ate with the familia cabrera and it turns out that the hermana knew maria from when she used to go to barrio 1. We had an awesome dinner (ate an entire lamb) and after we dropped her off at her house. 

The next morning, Christmas Morning, we got together with 6 other missionaries and loaded us all up in the van and went over to her house to go do service for her to help her clean and get everything back in order a little bit. We worked there for 2 hours and it was so awesome!!! She was so happy!! And then she went to lunch with the same family that we ate with the night before. I don’t think I have ever been so happy on a Christmas morning than I was this past Christmas. It was so awesome looking to do service on Christmas and it really helped all of us understand the true meaning of Christmas. I will never forget this past Christmas season. I will never forget Maria.

Also, earlier this past week we had a baptism!! Maria got baptized!! Whoop whoop!!! But I am pretty sure I already wrote about that this past week because I wrote on Monday right? 

OH!! I am extending!! Pte Smith and I talked about it this past week I am going to get another 6 weeks in Uruguay!! whoop whoop!!! So now instead of going home on the 24th of Feb, I will be landing in San Diego the 14th of April!! I am so excited to have a whole change extra to work as a missionary!! I feel so blessed! 

I can’t really remember what I told you all on skype and I already feel like I am repeating a ton of stuff so I am going to send this all off! 

I love you all so much! Thank you for everything you do for me and for all the prayers in my behalf. They are felt in a big way! 

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

UN abrazo fuerte, 

Elder Staffieri

December 20, 2014

 Familia:

This week was sooo awesome!! We finished up all the training with the last 5 zones and elder huerta and I got to go to a whole day of conference with our zone. It was so special. We all came down and pte Smith taught about the importance of fasting and how we need to perfect this principal in the mission. I don’t think I have ever learned so much about fasting and how important it really is. He connected it with the importance to make "personal covenants" with the Lord. Ill talk about that a little later. After that, we had an awesome lunch and started our fast. Then Elder Huerta and I trained on the importance of finding people to teach in every moment, and then Elder Finnegan y Moffat (our zone leaders) taught us about the importance of planning and setting goals with the Spirit. I learned a ton from them. Elder Finnegan and Moffat are two of the best missionaries that I have ever known!

That night they gave us an hour to reflect on what everything and a chance to think about what personal covenant we were going to make with the Lord. At 9:30, we went up to go to bed.

The next morning we woke up early and went to the temple to do the work for a family name. I did the work from Halvor Lochen, who was born in 1720. We did everything from baptism to endowment. It was such a cool experience because Elder Huerta baptized me for my relative and I got to baptize him for his. Then we both had the chance to confirm one another as well. We spent the whole day basically in the temple. I have never been so grateful for the knowledge of the plan of God, to know that we can have an eternal family and to know that the Priesthood Power of God has been restored to the earth to give us the chance to bring it to pass. I learned so much during my experience in the temple with Elder Huerta.

Tonight, one of our investigators, Maria, got baptized!! She is an ex Jehovahs witness who has been searching for the truth for a long time. She was so excited to learn about the Plan of Salvation and understand her life from an eternal perspective. She has gone through soo much to get to where she is now. She has been taking the lessons for over 8 months, and tonight she finally entered into the waters of baptism!! She was so excited and all of her family came to support her who are all non members. The spirit was so strong. Elder Finnegan and Elder Moffat also had a baptism tonight, Mara se llama. IT WAS AN AWESOME NIGHT!!!

So I want to share with you a cool thing that I learned this week in all of the trainings with pte smith. One day he shared the verse in ether 12:27:

12 "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will i make weak things become strong unto them"

In this verse he called our attention to the word "weakness." Isn’t it interesting that the Lord says weakness and not weaknesses? I always thought that it always meant weaknesses. Like all of my personal weaknesses, like patience, or pride, or disobedience, etc but pte smith explained that it is just one weakness. The weakness is: The Flesh. o sea, el hombre natural. The natural man!! He is our weakness!! And then it hit me. That simple truth finally made sense. Well it always made sense but it never really got to me like it did then. So how do we humble ourselves before the Lord? How do we testify to Him that we will follow Him? Through covenants!!! Starting with baptism! Then those in the temple, partaking of the sacrament every Sunday to renew them. Then we started talking about the importance of personal covenants. o sea, covenants just between us and the Lord that are incredibly personal and intimate. We make little covenants with him to be better or to protect ourselves from the adversary.

Pte smith shared with us the covenant he has to never watch TV alone. He shared an experience that he had over 25 years ago when he was traveling in a hotel and all of the terrible things that they have on the television and how great the temptations of Satan was on him in a given night. Then he told us of the covenant he made before God to never watch TV alone in a hotel ever again. In these past 25 years, he has traveled over 4 million miles and has stayed in over a 1000 hotels in the entire world, and has never watched a single program on TV. The first thing he does when he gets in is puts his jacket over the TV and unplugs it. He explains that this little covenant he has made has protected him for the past 25 years. Its one of the defenses he puts up against the adversary. Then he spoke of the attack he puts on Satan by attending regularly the temple. He testified that if he had not made this personal covenant and had honored this covenant, he would not be in front of us as our president today. I can’t really explain it over email but it was powerful! He then explained that we need to fast a lot of times to make covenants and then fast sometimes even more to keep them. I wish I could write all I learned this past week but I am running short on time. But I testify that if we want to become better, we should covenant with the Lord to do it! Without covenants, we cannot and will not progress.

Alright I have to go! I love you all so much! Have a great week!

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

Share your testimony!!!

Con cariño,

Elder Staffieri

December 13, 2014

Familia:

This week has been pretty awesome! It’s been a blast! We have been giving trainings all week long over at the temple. It’s been great and we have learned a ton. Next week we will be doing the same thing. There are 10 zones in the mission and everyone comes down a different day.

This week we got to get out and work in our area more which has been awesome. I am slowly getting to know our area. I don’t think I have ever been in such a place where everyone is so prepared. I thought Argentina was Zion.....pppssshhhh...nada que ver! Cerro is sooo great!! I love it here soo much! This week I found one of the youth that was in one of my old wards that recently moved to Cerro in our area. And with him, we found the entire family that he is living with who are non members but super open!

I am learning tons every day. I feel extremely blessed to be with Elder Huerta. He is such an excellent missionary. He teaches me how I can constantly improve.

We have seen so much success sharing this initiative that the church has this Christmas of "He is the Gift." it is so easy to share yet so powerful. I would invite you all to take a moment and go and ask the missionaries that they come and teach it to you and your family. It will help to bring the Spirit even more into your home and help remind us of the true meaning of Christmas.

Sorry that this was so short. I have to run! I love you all so much! Thank you for all you do!

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

UN abrazo grande,

Elder Staffieri

December 06, 2014

Familia:

Sorry it has been so long but its been a busy week and a half. We have been working like crazy and enjoying every minute of it.

My last week in Argentina was soo awesome. Janet got baptized on the 29th. She was so excited and was soo happy. She even came to do service at the church with the branch a few hours before her baptism and worked all the way up till when we changed. And on Sunday, elder Minert, confirmed her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and gave her the gift of the Holy Ghost. There is no better way to leave an area. That area is going to explode. There are more with baptismal dates and the members are really excited!! I am going to miss that place a whole ton. Then on Sunday, there weren’t any buses so I took a taxi into Paysandú (an hour and a half ride in taxi) which cost a pretty penny. Got to Paysandú and then left at 4:30 in the morning on Monday. Got in at 9 and went to work! 

I have come to appreciate how much work the assistants in the past have done. I didn’t really quite understand how much it was until I got here. Ha-ha.  My new companion is Elder Huerta from Santiago, Chile. He is such a stud. We were buddies before I got here and I got to know him pretty well when we were doing the charla fogoneras in salto and Artigas. He is one of the best teachers I know and I am super excited to get the chance to learn with him. We didn’t get that much of a chance to work in our area this past week because we were in the mission home most of the week with the new missionaries and the missionaries that were going home. I don’t think I have ever gone to the airport so much in my entire mission. We went like 5 times in 3 days. But I feel so blessed because I have been learning sooo much from president Smith. From the trainings he gives to the new missionaries, to the counsel he gives to those who are going home, even in simple meetings we have, it is always such an enlightening experience. 

I had one of the coolest and most unique experiences of my mission on Thursday. President Smiths daughter left on her mission on Thursday and she was going to get set apart in their house that evening. Their stake president only speaks spanish so president Smith asked me to translate it and whisper it to her as she was getting set apart. It was so special for Elder Huerta and I to be able to share that moment with the Smith family. The Spirit was felt so strongly and I learned so much from their stake president. I am so grateful to have such great local leaders and to know that they are truly inspired and that they receive revelation for those who live within their stake. It made me reflect back on when President Ham set me apart and I was overcome with gratitude that there are men worthy to set young men and women apart as representatives of Jesus Christ to share His Restored Gospel.

Well, yesterday was the first real day when we got to work in our area and it was so awesome!! The people we are teaching are so prepared!! Cerro is Zion!! We are teaching a woman named Maria. Maria is 55 years old and has been searching for the true church for years. She has been with about every church that I have heard of but she told us that what she feels when she reads the Book of Mormon has been so different and she feels like what we teach is true. She is so smart and knows soo much. She is going to be a fantastic member of the church. Also we taught a man named Hector. Hector actually contacted the missionaries a few months back because he wanted to practice his english. He is about 65 and knows a ton of english. The lesson we had with him was kind of interesting. He brought brochures that he had in english and an envelope that he had with guitar strings and asked me to translate them into spanish so that he could learn. Ha-ha. Then after we talked a little bit about that we began to read the Book of Mormon in English. He didn’t really seem to interested because he believes that the Bible has all of the truth and that it is all we need to be saved. We began to testify, in both english and spanish, of the truthfulness and importance of the Book of Mormon. We explained what happened in the apostasy and how simple truths were removed and/or changed from the bible but that the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the Gospel. We taught of the ministry of Jesus Christ in the Americas and of the prophets that He called to testify of His coming. It was awesome!! Hector totally opened up!  He began to ask questions and to become really interested. It was kind of a long lesson, but it was worth it! 

Today we had a great pday. We woke up early to go and have personal study in this cool forest preserve that they have in Montevideo. Then went and explored Montevideo a little bit and bought a ton of fruit in the street market for super cheap. Took some awesome pictures. And tonight jerry (president’s son) is going to come out and work with us. So we have to get going right now. 

I love you all so much. Thank you for all you do and for all of your prayers in my behalf. They are felt in a huge way. 

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

Have a great week and share your testimony with all those you can!!

Un abrazo grande,

Elder Staffieri

November 24, 2014

Familia: 

This past week has been so awesome! We have had so many great experiences that are so powerful and personal that it’s so hard to write about. But it’s all in my journal so that’s a good thing. pte smith gave me some feedback this past week when I talked to him on the phone about keeping a good journal. I repented. And am now keeping an awesome journal. hahaha. 

I just want to share one experience we had this past week about a woman named Paula. We had just finished a lesson way far out in our area and we started walking over to another lesson we had set up. We were about 15 min away and the lesson was going to start in 5 minutes. Normally we would have just said "let’s walk. Well show up 10 minutes late. We don’t have money for a taxi" but we felt like we should take a taxi for some reason. So we did. We showed up to our next lesson right in time and knocked on the door....knocked again....and again....nobody. We all thought "wwwhhhaaatttt? We just wasted 25 pesos on a taxi!" (Because at the end of the month, everyone is short on money....hahah). So we decided we should pass by another investigator who lived close by. As we were walking, we passed a woman who was sitting down across the street from us with a bouquet of flowers in her hand. She looked kind of sad but she was waiting for a taxi or something out in front of her house. Just then we all had the slightest feeling that we needed to talk to her. But it was sooo small. So tiny, that the frustration of wasting money on a taxi and the desire to teach the other investigator over powered the small impression of the Spirit and we continued to walk. As we got about a block away, we all started to notice that we were walking slower, a walk that I like to describe as being weighed down by the spirit that was dragging us back to that woman. Everyone was feeling like it and elder Gonzalez stops and goes "hey. Should we go give her a folleto?" we all stopped, turned around, and started walking as fast as we could back to this woman we had seen. when we got there and introduced ourselves as missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ, she looked up at us and the first thing she says to us is "why did you come back?" we simply told her that we felt like we should and asked her how she was. She began to cry and she told us that when we passed her, she was going to call us over but didn’t have the courage to do it. She told us that she needed us to pray for her aunt. Her aunt is really sick and about to part from this life and had been asking that she go and visit her. We shared a little of the plan of salvation with her and set up a time to come back. she told us that she felt that we were sent from God and if she wasn’t there the day we set up, to come back the next day, or the next day after that, and to keep trying until we found her again. A minute later, the car she had been waiting for showed up to take her to the hospital. This all happened in about 7 minutes. 

When we got home to study in the middle of the day, the first thing we did when we walked in the house was kneel down and thank the Lord for the chance we had to get to know Paula. As we prayed, an overwhelming sense of joy came into the room and when we finished we all talked about how grateful we were for what just happened. Everything started to make sense. Why we felt we should take a taxi in the morning. Why the lesson wasn’t there. Why we felt like we should go visit an investigator that we hadn’t seen in weeks. Everything that happened, every impression and feeling, was just to lead us to her. The Lord wanted us to find Paula that day. 

I am so grateful for the Spirit. I regret not acting sooner but am so happy that God had patience with us and she was still there when we ran back. It seems like every time we begin to think we know better than to follow a little feeling, the Lord always humbles us. Words cannot express how grateful I am for this experience we had. 

I know that our Heavenly Father is aware of every one of His children. Paula needed to know of the plan of salvation. She was prepared in that moment to receive us. He paved the way for us that morning to be able to find her. There is no other way to do the Work of Salvation than through the Spirit. 

Do everything possible to be worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Follow every little feeling you get. Don’t second guess an impression to do good. 

Sorry I have to run! Time fly’s in the cyber! I love you all! Thanks for all you do!!

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

UN abrazo grande, 

Elder Staffieri