OCTOBER 19, 2016

LIFE IS SO GOOD!

I don’t have much time this week so it might just be some bueno bullet points.

Good stuff:

-Today our entire Zone decided to talk only in español por the entire day. Its actually been so fun! My spanish is really coming along and its making me so excited!

-This week we had TRC for the first time. TRC is when people come in from outside the walls and we teach them. We taught a 14 year old boy and he was like a mexican Bryce. He was soooo awesome! We taught him all about how it is important to follow Gods will, not our own. 

-Hermana Curtis y yo are on a roll when it comes to lessons with our current investigators. We have really got a ¨flow¨going on. This week our goal was just to completely rely on the spirit. It was the best week in lessons yet! 

-Im getting so ready and excited for Florida! One more WEEK! oh my!!!! I love the people already!! So stoked!!!!

Funny stuff: 

-#PrayforNuggets, the food is pretty rough lately. but all is well. I have NEVER craved chicken nuggets more in my life. I talk about them a lot. So much so that the biggest discussion my district had this week was if it is okay to pray for nuggets. It’s still kinda undecided. Some of the elders are really passionate about it. 

-Pizza Night, every Tuesday we have Costco pizza. It’s so rad. The entire CCM gets so stoked about pizza it’s kinda crazy. One of the elder in my district has gained 15 pounds.....yikes. I haven’t gained any actually so we are so good! I’ve been working out a lot which makes the days go by so much faster. 

-The Latino elders....so my teacher tells us every day to sit with Latinos at dinner or lunch. The elders in my district have become super good friends with these Latinos and they are super funny. Pero, one day i was sitting and speaking broken spanish with them and all of a sudden I hear ¨Cancun¨..¨spring break¨...¨novea¨... and then all the elders are looking at me like what the heck, Apparently one of the latino elders told me that after our missions he wants me to meet him in cancun on spring break to be his girlfriend. yeahhhh......so hard pass. 

The office

-I have officially been named as Pam. So, thats good. 

-DWIGHT FOR DL¨. So Dwight is officially our new district leader because our old district leader is now the Zone leader because he is so awesome! It’s a lot like the episode where Dwight becomes boss for the day. enough said. 

Spritual thought;

2 Nefi 22:2

¨behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song, he also has become my salvation¨

I love this scripture! When we put everything we are and are trying to be in the Lord. He will be our STRENGTH, There are some harder days out here but I testify that everyday when I put my trust in the lord and in his plan for me everything makes sense. I love this gospel and i love my savior Jesus Christ. I challenge you this week to strengthen your relationship with your heavenly father. Exercise your faith. It’s supposed to be an Exercise! 

I love you all and pray for you EVERY day!

Stay close to the Lord! 

OCTOBER 12, 2016

 LIFE IS BUENO!

Hola Familia y Amigos!

This week was a lot like previous weeks! But everyday gets more and more fun! Im about half way done with the CCM already...CRAZY! it’s amazing how much I’ve learned and grown in these past few weeks- its 100% a blessing from God. The hand of the lord is everywhere here in the CCM. I love this work and know that this is exactly where the lord needs me. Nothing has gotten "easier" but everything has gotten better. I’m not really sure how else to explain it. 

Anyways, Hermana Curtis is ALIVE AND WELL. The dream team is back in action. I say "dream team" pretty lightly porque esta semana we had the most hilarious humbling experience in a lesson. On Monday, we were teaching our "investigator" Mitzy. We had taught her once before and other time I taught her as a trio with Hermana Noftle and Wertz porque Hermana Curtis was in the hospital. As a trio, we taught her about the atonement and she got really into the lesson and even started crying. While she was crying and talking really fast, she was telling us this crazy story about how some people came up and shot and killed her cousin right in front of her. We heard about 65% of what she said and felt confident enough that we didn’t need to ask again. So going off of that, when me and Hermana Curtis taught on Monday we decided to talk about the Plan of Salvation, centered on the fact that she will see her cousin again. We taught her an awesome lesson and she asked really hard questions that we answered pretty dang well. We were feeling super awesome. At the end pur "investigator" (really our language teacher) told us that her cousin DIDNT DIE.... apparently we completely misunderstood. It was such a classic missionary moment. The whole lesson she kept smiling and I thought it was because she was so happy about the plan de salvación but apparently she was just trying not to laugh. like why didn’t she stop us in the middle of the lesson??? ha-ha all I can say though is that if her cousin was dead, it would’ve been an awesome lesson. 

Good new! we committed our other investigator to baptism (her cousin is alive too). She’s a lot easier/ more accepting and speaks pretty slow so I can understand 100% of what she says. Which is pretty nice.

Oh! my district keeps calling California "Cali". It’s SO annoying. Also, my companion hates In N Out. That was honestly the first fight/open argument we´ve had. It was a rough day. She even compared it to McDonalds....Yup. Utah kids, am I right??? But other than that, everything is awesome. I love watching the Latinos play soccer and have made a bunch of latino friends because of it. The only major bummer thing is that Hermanas aren’t allowed to play with Elders. I’m GOING CRAZY. I miss soccer SO much!!!! I haven’t met any Hermanas that play yet but I’m on the search. 

My district is still exactly like the office. Dwight (elder Turley/ Dating dr. Guy), continues to wear shorts that are tighter and shorter than any hermanas. Its always fun playing vball with that going on... Also! We have a TOTAL Creed. His name is Elder Singleton and constantly tells me how when he grows up he wants to be a "vegitable"...yup. He also hallucinates almost every night and tells me all about it. He’s my total bud though.

This week was filled with awesome spiritual experiences. My spiritual "thought" this week comes from John 17. If you have time, read this chapter. if you don’t have time, make time because it’s my favorite chapter in all scripture. I especially love verse 4. " I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Its so simple yet so beautiful. we have all been given a work on this earth, we all have our own unique purpose to fulfill. We should all strive to be able to say at the food of God ¨I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Our unique work should be centered in the goal to "Glorify thee on the earth". Everything we do should be in HIS name. I also love verse 21. It reads "that they all be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also maybe one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.¨This week I challenge you all to try to understand your purpose as a daughter and son of God on this earth. Glorify Him with you actions and words. 

I love you all and pray for you everyday!

Love, 

Hermana Staffieri 

OCTOBER 06, 2016 

I LOVE AMERICA, BUT MEXICO IS SWEET TOO!

Mom, Dad, Friends, Buds, 

This week was pretty awesome but ended not so awesome. The more that I’m here, the more I love it. I’m really starting to get a ¨flow¨ of everything. This sounds so cliché but ¨the days go by like weeks and the weeks go by like days. It’s crazy that there is now two knew ¨sets of missionaries (can’t wait for Tauna to get out here). First off, HAPPY BDAY MOM AND BRYCE. You guys are two of my very best friends (probably because sometimes you act exactly the same) and I love you so much!!! Keep being you!

This week was filled with General conference, hundreds of new vocab words, and lots of love for my companions and nuestro Padre Celestial. We taught two new investigators this week, Mitzy and Vanessa. and WOW, my spanish has improved so much! I felt the spirit SO strong when I was testifying in Spanish. Everyone says that your spanish is good enough if you can just feel the spirit. So I guess I’ve made it.... except I still can’t ask for directions soooo. I am learning so much and there is seriously no way that I could be learning this much without the help from a higher power. 

Wasn’t general conference so awesome??  Everyone here was SO excited for it and we basically got to watch it in a movie theater type of room. My favorite talk was Elder Yamashita´s and Elder Nelson´s. Elder Yamshita´s was directed to missionaries and I love the line he said to ¨Be ambitious for Christ. It’s so real. We need to not only be representatives of Christ but have JOY in this work and motivated, focused, and dedicated WITH JOYFULL HEARTS. Elder Nelson talked a lot about how much joy can be found in the Plan of Salvation. Everyone reading this just needs to go back and reread it because it was the best! I’m so thankful for the knowledge and testimony I have of the Plan of the Lord, The Plan of HAPPINESS. 

My district is so close and we just love each other so much. The Elders in my district just feel like Brothers and it’s the best! One of the elders, elder Geisler, wrote this huge thing in his journal about how everyone in our district is exactly like the office. It’s hilarious how true it is. Apparently I’m a mixture between Pam and Kelly. HAHAH and our Dwight is SO REAL. It’s hilarious!!! it’s the elder I wrote about in my last email who is the dating doctor. 

Gym time is the best time! Me and Hermana Wertz go for a run and then go to the Gym. It’s so fun! And pretty much every other day, we play ¨noncompetitive¨volleyball with another district in our Zone and they are so fun! We are having such a great time

Although, my companion really isn’t. On Tuesday night at 8:00pm we were sitting in a devotional and she just got up and walked out really fast holding her side. She had been feeling kind of sick all day but we didn’t really think anything of it and neither did the doctor. But we ran over to the doctor’s office in the CCM and got rushed off to the hospital. We went to the ER where NO ONE spoke English at all. A Doctor from the CCM got us all checked in and stayed for about an hour with us but when the ER doctor told us that we were going to need to stay the night because they think she might have appendicitis, he left us to go back home. I was the translator for the whole time and it was so stressful. I had them talk really slow and understood about 75% of what they said. I felt so responsible for my companion. We then continued to sit in the ER while they ran a whole bunch of tests and I had to sign a bunch of papers that I have no idea were (could have signed her life away). They gave me the hardest foldable chair to sit on and me and the wall next to me got pretty friendly as I used it as a pillow. Long story short, 5 hours later, we finally got up to our room where I slept on a hard bench. But its Bueno. They woke us up every hour to check her so I got about two hours of sleep. They brought another sister to switch me out in the morning but right when I got back to the CCM my district went to the temple so we just went nonstop all day. I was EXHAUSTED. 2 hours of sleep for 48 hours really gets to you.... but my district leader let us sleep in the morning. My companion is still in the hospital and no one really knows exactly what’s wrong so if you could keep her in your prayers that would be amazing! 

Anyways. THE CHURCH IS TRUE! SOOOO TRUE! these past few days were the most exhausting weeks of my life but all is well and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I LOVE YOU ALL. STAY TRUE.