Week 7

This week has been a trying, tough week but I have had some great experiences these past few days.It has been tough mostly because of the experience we had on Saturday. We had a good 5 hours of rejection after regection after rejection, with one or two "ok" contacts. Our goal was 20, and we had less than 2 hours to get 18 more. We did exceed our goal but each contact was not very solid. Our lessons/citas fell through as they usually do, and we werent able to contact them. We did talk to Emilio but he was off to visit a friend in another city, so we were pretty discouraged which I think added to our no success before lunch. Sorry I dont have any really good stories this week, it just was one of those days and I´m sure I will get them alot after reading jakes letters and hearing about other missionary´s stories. Sunday was another great day, we had a great motivational talk from Elder Holland from a MTC devotional from earlier this year. He talked about missionary work, and asked the question "why are you serving a mission, and Who am I serving this mission for?" These questions made me think alot these past few days and I have been searching myself and the scriptures for answers. Ill write a bit more about this in my letters home since I dont have a whole lot of time. What I do want to say is we have been so blessed with the gospel in our lives, we often times dont see the specific blessings or the true light of this gospel. I have some Latino elder friends who are recent converts and I can truly see the Light in there lives and when they were dropped off last thursday I saw the light in their families. Entonces, I want to share this luz, this spirit of Christ with all those I come in contact with. It was tough on me on saturday for me to have this fantastic gift for people I dont even know but have them reject it and most of the time not even respond to me. Anywho thats all I have to say about that.This past week I have also seen a major growth in my ability to convey my thoughts, opinions in conversation with my companion, the other elders, my teachers and the Latinos. It is really cool and I recognize it as the gift of tongues. Thank you Sam, Steve, Sean for you pictures and for the emails from jake. I received them right after we went proselyting last saturday and they cheered me up quite a bit. :) I dont recieve the emails from kevin or jake through email, id love to get them if you could forward them, and forward my emails to them, that would be fantastic! thanks!Its crazy to think that I leave in 1 and a half weeks, Sept. 22nd. We are the big guys on campus right now! haha... I heard that Josh is leaving for romania on Sept 14! thats even crazier, I mean I have been in this country learning and ahve been no more than 2 hours away from where I am going to be serving, he has been halfway round the world.We get the liahona every month and in December we will be in the Liahona as part of the special SUD edition. SO when I get it Ill have to send it home or something, I´m not sure If you can get it online.We have been getting lots of rain these past 2 weeks. Today has been the first day that I havent seen a cloud in the sky. Its been really cold too, like soaked to the bone cold. It hasnt stopped us missionaries from getting our daily exercise on the Basketball court! hahaI heard about the BYU game! Thats so awesome! Almost all of the North americans here went to BYU so it was a pretty big thing here. Well im pretty much 2 months in, ive got 22 months left, Its gone by quick. Im hoping it slows down a bit more so I can come out of this crucible a pure, much better person than I started. Ill write more in a letter home. Also I think this week is the last time for you all to send dear elders to Argentina. Start sending them to the mission, bc they take 2 weeks to get down here.Miss and love you all. Thank you for your love and support and prayers.Love,Elder Stapley

Week 6

Hola mi familia!¿Como están? Sounds like all is well and normal there at home. Im glad to hear about school going well, and I hope Seth´s game went well. All is well here. Lots of rain and cold this past week except on saturday. Its really really inconsistent. Saturday was so hot!!! Anywho... on with the great stuff...First of all I´d like to tell you all about the power of El Libro de Mormon! It is my most treasured possesion here with me.(well its actually my triple combination) It is completely filled with markings, thoughts and scripture chains from ever since 9th grade, my first year of seminary. I treasure everything inside it and I have used it countless times. We teach that if the Book of Mormon, the keystone of our religion, is true, then José Smith is a profeta of God, and that this Church is true. I have a strong testimony of how it helps me so much in this mission, and has the fulness of the gospel. I challenge all of you to study it along with the other modernly translated and modern revelation ( Pearl of great price and DyC). It is absolutely amazing.Elder Carter and I have focused on getting scriptures ready for a lesson on Saturday that we hope will happen. An older man named Emilio Flores was our last contact of the day. We met him on the way back to the bus, he invited us over and told us quickly that he had something to show us and a question. It was about 15 mins till we had to get back to the bus but we decided we should stay and answer his question. he came back out with a Jesus the Christ by Elder Talmage. He said he had read it and wanted to return it to the missionaries who had given it to him back in March of 1997. We helped him with the address of the mission, and gave him a BOM and invited him to church. We hope we can visit with him again and teach him a little more bc he is one of the Lord´s elect.Also, Dad, it is a very small world! You know Peter Costa? One of your patients, the one that was in the band Scary kids Scaring Kids. Well we contacted him. He was in the area of the ward we were in. He got of of his mission in Resistencia Argentina, was a companion with one of the teachers here in the CCM and he met a down here and they were married 2 months ago in the temple here. Pretty crazy stuff, eh? Lets see that was about all of the excitement we had on saturday, it was a slow rejection filled day. During proselyting we quoted LOTR. 'weve been here before" "we are going in circles" haha funstuff for missionaries who have been out a month and a half.I was thinking about this the other day. Its hard to love the people here bc they all look like Manu Ginoboli from the Spurs. Haha jk, i actually have a very good teacher friend who looks like him and Hna Paradiso wants to marry him... haha2 good stories I have heard from President Wilson. One about the 17 points of the true church by Floyd Weston... it is a super good story, i reccomend it. The second is about God and Albert Einstein. (just type those keywords into google or something and you will find the stories).Seth, if u really want to learn Spanish. Read the BOM in Spanish. It is the best way to learn a language, according to Pres Hinckley.My time is running down, but I wanted to tell you a few things about the Latinos here. We got a new group today, but the last group was so funny! One of them, Elder Zorilla, sounded like George of the Jungle when he tried speakiing Ingles... It was so funny! the elders were teaching him english frases and stuff.Next, Elder Pratt is so awesome. He is a football and Baseball master.. He already has a college degree and he played football and baseball at Dixie State in St. George.Im really excited for Conference!!! its coming up!!! I dont think Ive ever been this excited for Conference!Welll I better get this sent.I miss you all,Love, Elder Stapley¡Use the Book of Mormon!