Elder Spencer Christofferson: Nothin' Like A Mission!

Irmao Santos (Brother Santos, Spencer's CTM Instructor)

Hello Everybody!!

I have been on my mission now for about a month... That is just crazy. It does not even feel close to that long for me so I wonder how fast it is going all for you back home?

I know I write this every week but I love the people here at the CTM. Americans and Brazilians. I am seriously going to miss all of my district and the one group that leaves Tuesday. I have become close with all of them. I love how Heavenly Father puts people in our path who change us. We have all already talked about reunions after the mish at BYU and stuff. I am really excited.

So today we went to the Campinas temple again!! I hope you got the pics and all that stuff was all good because I knew you would like the pics from last week. Going to the temple this week was so awesome! The missionaries in my district decided to do some of the session in Portuguese. It was super hard but really cool. I love going to the temple every week. I am seriously going to miss it for the next 2 years since there isn’t a temple in my mission boundaries.

This week has been pretty normal. We taught a lot of practice lessons, continue learning more Portuguese everyday, and are meeting new missionaries when they get here! My district is the second oldest ones here now which is also really weird. I do not feel like that at all! But you can tell by our Portuguese compared to the newbies! It really is crazy to see how far we have come. And to see how much more we will improve!

Some cool stuff that happened this week:

We found out that our instructor Irmão Santos got cancer while he was on his mission and had to come home. His testimony and desire to serve the Lord was so strong and he wanted to get back out so badly that he fought back and got over his lymphoma in 8 months! And he got to go back out on his mission! My respect and love for him shot through the roof when I heard the story. I hope and pray everyday to have that kind of desire and faith in God like Santos.

Another sweet thing that happened this week was we got new Brazilian companions for splits! I got Elder Silva. He is a tall, really buff, scary looking Brazilian guy but is the nicest, most service oriented person I have ever met. He is amazing. In our lessons we go back and forth in Portuguese very well and it is so enlightening to hear a new view on ways to teach. It makes me so excited for the field and to have Brazilian companions!

On Wednesday this week me and Elder Brown, one of my companions, got to be the missionaries that the new Americans watch as an example on their first day. But the catch is that we got to teach in English!! That was very exciting but weird! I messed up and said some Portuguese words because I am so used to saying it in Portuguese, haha!

I love this gospel. I love studying the scriptures and everything about the gospel. It’s weird because before the mission I could never just sit and study for hours but now I love it. Everyday I look forward to studying and immersing myself into the teachings of Jesus Christ. I love already seeing a change in my life and my testimony has never been stronger! Nothin like a mission!

Love you all!!

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson