JUNE 05, 2017

BRINGING US LOW TO TAKE US HIGHER

AMIGOS! FAMILIA! COMO ESTAN?!?! 

Just another week down. But not going to lie, this one was a little slower. We worked SO hard this week but just nothing seemed to be going our way. But we did see a lot of really cool miracles due to our "perseverance" in all things. Also, Hurricane season has REALLY begun. It has been pouring since June 1st, I have honestly hardly seen the sun! It DUMPS rain here. But it’s been actually really nice. 

This week was really interesting. Seriously ALL of our appointments fell through. ALL. We called before coming and confirmed and everything but without fail- they weren't there or didn't let us in. To be honest, I started to get a little frustrated. On Friday, after driving all the way up to the top of our area and having all three of our appointments for that night fall through, we had no other option but to knock all night. I felt like a mindless wander.  After knocking three whole streets in the pouring rain and still not really knowing what God wanted us to do, we knocked into this really shy older woman. After a little hesitation, she let us in. Inside was a family on 8 from Guatemala all living in a house the size of my living room. They were of very humble means and so ready for the gospel! We taught them the restoration and they are so excited for us to come tonight-- they even called US to confirm yesterday :) That happened to us two other times since Friday when the lord leads us to one place thinking that we were going to teach a lesson, it fell through, and then BOOM we met a cool new investigator. I have learned this past week that we are truly on the LORDS errand, he will mold us and shape us and help us do HIS will if we are ready and willing. 

Right now, we are also teaching our friend Edgar! He is really cool! We were just out one day knocking (usual) and these two Latin men yelled at us from across this busy street...that is also pretty typical. When we walked up to them speaking Spanish they were so shocked. We sat down and taught them the Resto on their door step. One of them, Edgar, was so interested and loved the missionaries back in Nicaragua also (shout out to Trent). We came back a few days later and he was SO eager to learn more! He has had a really hard life. When he was 14 he was enlisted in some war in Nicaragua and shot like three times. He has been battling with PTSD ever since. He tried drinking to "numb" it all but it didn’t work. He also came here from Nicaragua with only 100 dollars and entered the United states with still $40. He is so humble and ready to change. Teaching him is really so awesome too. We are excited to go back tonight!

My scripture this week is from 2 Nephi 23:2-3

2 Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.

3 I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones, for mine anger is not upon them that rejoice in my highness.

GO OUT AND BE A MISSIONARY---it’s really fun! I promise!

 I love you all! Thank you for all that you do for me! I pray for all of you all the time! XOXOX Have a great week!!!

MAY 30, 2017

FROG LEGS, ALLIGATOR NUGGETS AND CATFISH - YUM!

HOLA HOLA HOLA 

Another week down! Life is on super speed even though Sister Isham started driving this week so that slowed some things down (considering that she always goes 5 under the speed limit and checks 4 times before turning hahah she’s seriously my favorite). 

This past week I tried Alligator for the first time! It was actually pretty good!! It tasted a lot like chicken. Then we ate frog legs and catfish, which I probably would never do again, but hey- at least I can say I've done it :) Ill for sure sent some pictures! 

We did a lot of service this week! The English sisters met this woman named Liz who needed so much help moving out of one house and into another, so we did just that! The whole district pulled together and we seriously scrubbed and painted everything so hard and transformed her house. It was amazing. Liz had the coolest stories also so it was such a fun time.

We are teaching a lot of people right now and I am so thankful to be trusted with this opportunity. Everyone is progressing really well and we are so happy about it! We are just going to continue to work hard and give everything back to God because that seems to be the ONLY way to do it. 

OH! seriously the highlight of my week was the stake soccer tournament yesterday for Memorial Day. SO FUN! It made me miss playing really bad but still so awesome. And of course, BAHIA WON! WOOOO! Latins get so into soccer it’s the best! We won this trophy and everyone wanted a picture of it, Obispo was like running around the field with it on his head, and everyone was chanting BAHIA BAHIA BAHIA! It was seriously the best hahah I’ll send pictures! OH! and our ward and another ward got in a fight ahahahahah legit fists were thrown! But it’s all in the name of stake bonding- am I right? I love life! 

My scripture this week is in Isaiah 12:2, it reads "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation."

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK :) 

​1. Bahia Ward Missionaries (they begged us to take this picture)

2.​Sister Stevenson and I with the frog leg

​3. A frog leg, alligator and catfish "platter" ​

MAY 23, 2017

"FORGETTING A HAIR TIE IS LIKE A DIABETIC FORGETTING THEIR INSULIN  " Hna. Isham

HOLA HOLA HOLA 

Les quiero muchisimo

​This week flew by- but that is to be expected now I guess! It seems that there is just never enough time in the day! Its crazy! I just finished up transfer 5--ahhh! ​I have learned so much this past transfer though. Especially as a trainer. It’s been such a great experience and Hna.Isham and I get to continue that for this next transfer also :) She has become one of my best friends, it is always SO fun with her. We are still complete opposites but it works so well. I love her! 

This past p-day we went to the Naples Pier again. That place is honestly so amazing. I will try to send some pictures. Florida is summer all year long pretty much but right now it is in full force- it’s pretty great. It feels a lot like home.

This week we met a really cute Argentinian mommy. She was just the sweetest woman ever. She invited us right in and wanted to know everything. As soon as she found out who we were "mormones" she got so excited! Apparently, growing up in Buenos Aires (shout out to you Dad) she lived right next door to the elders and thought they were the coolest people ever. Turns out that she was watching "Meet the Mormons" on Netflix two days before we knocked on her door-- God is so good.  She also has the most interesting life. Ah! life is so good! 

CAMELOOOOOO. He put us through the ringer this past week. He just stopped answering our calls for 5 days. We went over there he was never home. He wouldn’t answer our texts and didn’t come to church. We were SO bummed. Sunday night we had about 10 minutes before we needed to go home and we just decided to try him one last time and sure enough he was there! Hna. Isham calls it "crazy ex-girlfriending" hahah --but hey, it works. Turns out he started going to another English class and was too scared to tell us that he switched over and won’t be doing it with us. But then he said like three times "it doesn’t have to be about the church though right, I still want to do the church thing!". He is crazy, but we still love him. 

OH! and we went to the temple this past Saturday with BLAS! BLAS IS STILL THE BEST! We got to go with him to do baptisms there and he was just so excited! He loved it so much! It was such an amazing experience to see someone that I legit taught EVERYTHING to, now doing the work of the lord in the temple. I love this work. I love being a missionary. 

My scripture this week is in 2 Nephi 8:7 it reads 

​"​

 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart I have written my law, fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.

​"

I love the phrase "the people in whose heart I have written my law". Is the lay written on our heart? Are we eager to be obedient and follow the lord?

I love you all! Thank you for all that you do for me! I pray for you continually! Have a great week!!

​

-- 

​Con Amor,​

Hermana Staffieri 

MAY 15, 2017

CUBA IS MY MOTHER COUNTRY

HELLO! ALL! I love Cuba and the people that live there!! All we do it teach Cubans and it’s the best, they are just so "hungry" for God. I don't know if I want to go visit, but I would for sure google it sometime - if I could. 

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! I would be lost without my mom. She is the hardest working and faithful woman. God truly blessed me with such an amazing example throughout my whole life. She is my absolute best friend. Go mom! Woo!

This email is going to be pretty short since I gave you guys a good scoop yesterday! But right now we are teaching Camelo who is seriously a mixture between Uncle Matt and Michael Scott, It’s so interesting. He is so great though. He just loves us so much and gets SO animated and excited about the gospel. We taught him about the Book of Mormon, his eyes got so wide, he started like flipping through all the pages reading all the names, and asking so many awesome questions. Right before we left his two friends walked up and he just started telling them all about the Book of Mormon and how true/amazing it is. He is so awesome! 

I love you guys so much but our Heavenly Father loves you so much more, that’s why he set his son, Jesus Christ, here to pay the price of our sins. My scripture this week is from Isaiah 49:16, I love especially the first part when is says " Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands". Imagine that for a second. His body is glorified and perfected with the marks on his hands. That’s what makes him perfect and what in turn, makes us perfected through him. 

I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves us perfectly. I am grateful every day that I get to wake up and share such a wonderful message with these amazing people. I love you all and pray for you every day. Have a great week :)

P.S. Write me a letter! They are my favorite things! 

5100 17th Ave SW 

Naples, FL 34116

MAY 08, 2017

THE 7:30 RULE AND ELVIA'S BAPTISM

HEY!!! I hope you all had a wonderful week! 

Life in the good-ole 34116 is going so well. I am so happy, this week especially. 

I have a rule with every single one of my companions. It’s called the 7:30 rule. I love the hours between 6:30-8:30 because that is when everybody is getting home from work (not drunk yet), they open their doors, the weather is so perfect and it all ends with an amazing sunset and usually a 8:30 lesson. So, the rule is that no one can be sad or complain from the hours of 6:30-8:30. But this week was so perfect that it felt like 7:30 every single day, all day long :) 

But anyways, this week was amazing! I don’t really have a whole lot of time to write about it, but I’ll try my best to highlight the key parts. 

-ELVIA IS BAPTIZED! She is so great guys. Teaching someone who is as old as me has been my favorite thing. We can be so real with her. She just has a pure testimony of everything. She was honestly the dream investigator, she did every single "commitment" that we extended to her and was never afraid to exercise her faith. The day of her baptism she was just so happy. Teaching her was so fun. She is the cutest! I love the people from Oaxaca, Mexico. Tonight, we are doing a FHE with her at the bishops house! 

-I went on a full day exchange with the STLs in their area of YSA. YSA is a totally different world! It’s so fun but just different, not sure if I love it but some day I’m sure ill serve YSA and then I will! I mean it was fun teaching Elvia because she was our same age but then again, she didn’t speak any English and she’s just Elvia SOOO it was different than knocking dorm rooms and talking to high 20yr old’s all day. 

-EDWARDO! He is progressing well, he worked a lot this past week so we had like no time to meet with him but he is still preparing for his baptism this weekend! We are just going to need to teach him like 5 lessons in one, which isn't my favorite thing but all is well, I've done it before, I can do it again :) 

-CAMELLO! He was a Saturday miracle! We met him outside of his house fixing his car and shared a prayer with him. We talked a lot with him after and he was telling us all about his family in Cuba and how he wants to be a good example to them...so we invited him to church to get his feet in the right direction! We called him Sunday morning to see if he was still "down" and he was already on his way! We stayed with him in chapel a little bit longer after everyone left and he turns to us and says "I want too scared to get up there at the microphone thing but I just want to bare you guys my testimony that I know God sent you to my door because I was a lost sheep and didn’t know where to turn but then I knew that you guys did....etc etc..." So now he is preparing for his baptism on the 20th of this month!!! He’s so awesome!!!! 

Thats all I have time for, I love you guys a lot! Thank you for all you do for me! I pray for you every single day! Have a great week!!! 

 1.Baptism

2.Shes happy i promise

3.Greenies like to take weird pictures like this