WHOO HOO A GREAT WEEK OF WORK!!!

Hey everyone, it is so good to hear from all of you.  Mom that is awesome that you got to go down to george again to hang out.  YOu deserve it for all your hard work, keep up the great work everyone.  But another awesome week .  We had another great week of work.  In the mission president tyler has set a week of excelence, or it is like some goals he has set for us and if we can complete all the goals that he has set , then we have completed a good week and we can feel good about ourselves practically.  And we did everything but we didnt have a baptism again.  Kinda a bummer but this saturday we have 3 so it will make up for the two weeks that I didnt have a baptism and i will be able to complete my goal of baptizing someone everyweek.  But I am excited also because we ended the month with 36 confrimations and that is more than anyone has every had in the mission, haha so that is a sweet number, but dont think that I am super man because there are alot more missionaries in each zone now than there used to be so that always helps when you have more missionaries, but still it is cool to be a part of how much the mission is growing.  Tomorrow to they are adding another stake our mission because we are doing so good, and they have so many missionaries here right now. But elder zea has a change so tomorrow I get a new companion and I have no Idea who it could be, just hope someone cool that wants to work.  Cause I am getting down in the 9 months left mark and it is started to put the flame under me, so I get up and going.  Just wanna work as hard as I can ...  We seriously had more success this week than any other week in my mission.  It just seemed like everything went good for us.  So mom your prayers worked.  The only thing awkward about the mission is bringing new people to church and then it is so un reverant and I always think , what could they be thinking right now about the mormons, haha because it is like choosing a song for all of you friends in the car and you hope that they like it, its like that so you want everything to be perfect and it never is here in sacrament meeting.  But that is okay because I taught the gospel principles class yesterday.  but this week we went to the temple with all of our converts, and of my baptisms only mayra and kathy went.  It was awesome, we couldnt baptize them but we got to sit there and be witnesses and that is amazing to be able to see two people that you helped to the gospel in the temple in white.  More than words can explain,,, thats why im here!!! so those are the pictures it was awesome.  And mary and camila are prepared for their baptism this week.  Man what else did I do, not a whole lot.  Just worked.  Thanks for all of your pictures and for keeping me informed, send me more and keep me updated on sports. 

Hey family, another good week this week :)  a really busy one for me, and alot of success even though we didnt have a baptism, we have two sisters so close, mayra´s mom carmen and then sherley.  Sherley had her interview for baptism but needs more time, or we would of had another baptism this week.  Man it is hard on me now when I dont baptize every week.  It is one of my goals, to baptize everyweek.  If i am here, I might as well baptize everyone.  And man the Lord has helped us out so much this week.  He gave us to amazing sisters this week.  They arent from Peru, they are from Colombia.  On wednsday we had our district meeting and everything in the morning, and then we decided ok today is our day to find new people to teach, and so we worked really hard, we were obedient and left exactly at 2 in the afternoon to start to work, and man we had no success for 2 hours, until 4.  We looked and looked for people and our investigators to teach, but no one was home, and no one wanted to hear us ,and man it was so hard for the 2 hours, and so I look at it as my trial of faith, it would have been so easy to give in.  And on top of that 2 elders had called me and told me that they just couldnt work together anymore, and that they needed an emergancy change from President tyler, they were at each others neck.  And so I had to talk to them for 15 min to get them calmed down, they still fight everyday but at least they are working a little. And then I was just thinking about them and we started to walk and I was walking and noticed that elder zea wasnt by me, so I looked back and he had stopped and was talking to two sisters, and so I went back.  And when I got there she was asking were our church was at and they she had went into the open house of the bogota colombia temple before it was dedicated and that it was absolutey beautiful, so we told her and then she started to talk a little more and her and her daughter just started bawling.  And we talked to them some more and told them that it really was for a reason that we were there in that same istant.  Their names are Mary and Camila.  Mary is a single mother that has one daughter, camila is 16 and they are amazing.  They came to church yesterday and that was awesome because it was ward conference and so the meeting was organized and awesome and so it felt finally more like a sacrament meeting there in Forest Ridge.  And on top of that , I had to sing yesterday in sacrament.  haha I think that is the first time that I have sung in sacrament other then primary songs.  It was me, elder zea, and elder timaná and macahuachi, they are the other elders in our ward, we have four elders in our ward.  and we sang really well.  We sang the army of helaman in spanish and man it turned out good.  but mary and camila loved the church and are gonna get baptized on the 4th of june, so two baptisms from our Heavenly Father.  It was an amazing experience.  Our pensionista is amazing and she is already best friends with mary, mary and camila just hang out in our pension now they are such good friends.  Mary went to the fireside last night,  It is a sweet story to be a part of.  She told me that I have to quit biting my nails, she told me "hey elder stauffer, you put a goal for me, to be baptized on the 4th, now I am gonna put a goal for you, that on the 4th of june you have to have nails for my baptism.... "  so I have to stop now to do that for her.  She is so awesome.  SO a really fun week even though no baptisms.  In the zone we have 30 baptisms until now and our goal is 40 baptisms, and so 10 more for this week or nothing.  I wanna hit fourty  baptisms here in the zone.  

But thanks so much for all the pictures.  SISTER HOPE THAT YOU LOVED YOUR BIRTHDAY, YOUR BDAY IS WRITTEN IN MY AGENDA SO I THOUGHT ABOUT YOU ALL DAY.   Thanks mom for the pictures, and I sent you pictures of the internet that we use, with all the computers.  haha this is a really nice internet cabin.  Thanks tamm for your email, cant wait to see your basement and cant wait to see what you name the little guy.  And dont worry I wont say anything hahahahhah  but it is true I can feel all of the blessings as well.  Some people could say that it is a coincedence but we know better. 

Love you all,dont worry I am doing awesome here.  Just gonna go play soccer now, boring, but whatever the zone wants to do so they are happy and baptize....  LOVE ALL OF YOU; SEND PICTURES ALWAYS; LOVE THEM:

THE FIELD IS WHITE ALREADY TO HARVEST!!! Another Week Down :-)

Hey family how are you all doin?  Im doing great!! Sister this is your birthday  We had a good week as a zone in the baptisms, we had 14 baptisms as a zone, we did a noche blanca, that is like a massive baptism, where we had all 14 baptisms together so that was pretty cool, but really stressful.  I would rather not to that anymore because It is to much to worry about, and it took forever to get all 14 baptized.  But elder zea and I had a baptism.  Briggite, she is 16 and already has a 2 month old baby, but her mom and dad were already members, and she wanted to get baptized.  But really slow, it was hard for her to understand anything that we taught her, that was hard but we finally got her to understand a little bit.  And now we are just working on two lawyers that we are teaching for this week, and we will see what happens.  They never have any time during the week so we can only teach them on saturday night, and they have been to church twice, and they are gonna have their interview this sunday before church for their baptism, and now we just gotta find more people to teach, we barely have time to work in our sector because of all the stuff we have had to do.  And today for p day i will be doing a move, helping el pino move into their room that we found them on tuesday. So that should be fun...............

But what else have I done this week, not really a whole lot.  The landlord put a new toilet in our room and so that was good, but now there is a bigger problem, there isnt any water now in our room, so it has been a joke to shower this week, and man kinda frustrating, the life in Peru, it has its ups and downs, but so so so grateful for an awesome house that is waiting for me when I get home... hahah hahah And did tanner get a change?  he didnt write me and tell me!! And where did Camila and her family move to? Thats awesome mom that you got to go to st george, im excited to go back down and cruise on my scoot.  and ya it is starting to get a little colder here, haha it is gettting hot for alll of you, and cold for me.  Wish it were the other way around hahah  it rained a little today when we got up. Ok I sent you the pictures of the noche blanca and of briggite and her family, briggite lives up on the hill, so everytime that we went to teach her, we had to go up 101 stairs, elder zea counted  haha but just trying to hang in there until the end of the change......  the zone seems to be doing good, we need to put more baptismal dates with our investigators but we will just keep working and see what happens.  We have 25 confirmations until now and we need to get 15 more to get our goal of 40 baptisms.  So just hoping to be able to do it.  And ya send me a t shirt that sounds great, and when is girls camp?  thanks for sending me a new tie, as you can see i didnt have one to baptize this week ahah.  and what else do i need?  um....  just maybe big wipes hahah.  Sorry that this email is pretty boring, I just dont know what else to tell ya....

Ok now I am sending you a picture of michell that I baptized.  I interviewed her and I asked her who she wanted to baptize her and she said that she wanted me to baptize her, so i baptized her.  But her story is pretty cool, one day elder zea and I were in the chapel and her and her mom got to the church and waited at the door because they saw us, and so I went and opened the door and they said, is there mass right now and we said no there isnt but if youd like you can see the church building, they said ok.  and so we showed them around. and then passed their reference to the other missionaries in san luis and she got baptized, and then the other lady is a old lady and all three of us had to baptize her, and man it was awesome.  When she came out of the water she was splashing around because water got in her nose, and then she raised her arms up and yelled , glory to God, hahah man I tried not to smile to much but it just made me so happy that there are people out there waiting for baptism, just gotta find people like her htat have the desire to do it.  It  was so funny at the same time, this lady with water in her nose and yelling glory to God in the font, haha it was pretty awesome.  But love all of you , thanks for your support hope that everything keeps going good for all of you, everything is good here.  Just gonna work hard this week, if my companion lets me, thats my challenge right now, is that I cant work How i would like to... but next change Ill kill it again..  Love you all very much..

AND THIS IS MY TESTIMONY!!!

Hey family, I also felt so blessed to be able to see all of you again and that was awesome, it was an answer to my prayers, and loved to see the house, man that is such a blessing that we just completely take for advantage, holy cow.  But thanks so much for talking with me, and ya it was hilarious because I was trying to tell you that I could hear you but you could not understand me, but then you finally read the paper.  Ya sister still a blonde.  And now you have to show me the new tv, downstairs, I couldnt stop thinking about it last night, what size of tv is it,  Send me pictures urgent.  And thats okay that the truck is dirty, haha not a big deal, ....  but i am sending you pictures of Mayra and Kathy and man two strong sisters..  They both were baptisms of the Lord , He did all the work.  But loved teaching them,  and now we are gonna try teaching their family.  But the other picture is what all the young men and woman did to me when I left san martin, they smashed eggs and threw
flour all over me.  So hope that you enjoy the fotos.  But ok love you all.  K mom I will write my testimony.So how is verything going up there?  Hey from Perú, hope that everyone is doing good...  Just really grateful for this chance that I have to be able to share my testimony with all of you.  A testimony that has taken me 20  years to form, something that just didnt  come over night but something that took alot of effort at doing, but everyday it keeps getting bigger as I can see how our Savior is working down here in Perú.  In July the church added a couple of missions here in Perú and it has been amazing to see how many more people have been able to get baptized down here, and my mission has already doubled the amount of baptisms that we have every month and so just know that the Lord is really working hard to help everyone have the truth.  But then again the mission has not been easy, when your testimony gets tried, when people tell you that you are crazy, when they tell you that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon and that this is all a lie, and all you can do is share a simple testimony with them, and Say I KNOW that Joseph Smith saw our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ, and that is how my testimony has grown.  Because being a missionary or even a member of the church, we have to KNOW that what we say is true.  So I want you all to have that strong testimony that you may look at all the people in the eyes and say Hey im not lying to you, I know that Christ lives.  And I know that He lives.  I dont remember if I ever shared my experience with my mom about how I knew that it was all true but I will share it with all of you.  I had a goal when I was 17 to read the whole book of mormon before I turned 18, from cover to cover, and the sunday before my 18th birthday I had 50 pages left, so I had the strongest desire to meet my goal, so I sat down in my room all day reading, and studying the Book of mormon, and when I read Moronis promise, I said well I´ve never asked asked before, so I gotta do it.  I knelt down in my room all alone and for the first time in my life, I wanted to know if it was true, and my answer was YOU ALREADY KNOW, WHY ARE YOU ASKING?  So that is how I knew from that day since, and I have read the book of mormon everyday since that day, and love it, i love feeling the Spirit.  So all of you already know that it is true, never doubt and keep all of the commandments and you will be happy.  I promise that the only way to be happy is do the things that you have learned so far from all of your parents and in church, miss all of you a lot and see you in 10 months.  From Elder Jesse Stauffer Perú Lima Central Mission 

A city that is set upon a hill cannot be hid

Hey family a another good week, and thanks for all of the emails, it was awesome to get all of your support this week.  ANd man this week I will be calling but it wont be skype, I dunno what happened but it seemed like they werent to excited about the missionaries calling on skype, so we will see what happens for christmas, haha but no baptisms this week, the first time for me in awhile, not having a baptism, so that was a bummer, I was on a role, but thats okay, this week we got one or maybe two, and they are both awesome girls, one is 23 and one is 17, kathy and mayra.  Man they are awesome, I will let you know when I call if they are getting baptized not but the pictures were awesome, looks like you had a ton of fun with the eggs, wish I would of been there, but hey next easter I will be, time is flying by here, I already have two weeks here, and still loving it.  THe area is awesome for the mission, you guys are gonna die when you see where I am at when you come to pick me up, haha a lot of hills just covered with houses, haha if you get a chance look up on google images, El cerro el pino, lima peru.  haha hope that a picture comes up of that hill.  man i have just been looking for rooms for all of the elders, and have been having success finding them. 

 Sister tyler called me so happy that I was doing a good job getting all of the rooms and that was pretty cool. She always tells me that she will give me some brownie points (as mom would say) hahah but we only have one more room to find and then I can just focus on the work rather than go to sectors and walk around looking for rooms, that is never that fun..  but really an uneventful week, sorry that this email is lame but I will be calling soon enough so i dont wanna tell you everything because I wont have anything to say.  Sorry havent had time to take pictures either but next week for sure.  mom I could be doing my phone call anytime this week, but I think that I will call on friday to get her all set up ....  k love you very much, I am just fine.  Love you all very much..  ps thanks sister for sending me pictures of paradise.......not........  how rude, haha jk, you will be getting some of my pictures of paradise next week.... haha love you all, thanks tor for the update on the draft, i was pretty curious. and toads congrats on the new fridge and dish washer.  and dad congrats on the new rotation let me know how it goes.