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