I Can't Get Too Excited Yet!

Elder and Sister Dias (an Area Authority Seventy in Brazil and his wife.)

Hey Everybody! 

This week seemed to fly by for me! It is already Monday again what the heck? Today is also the 2 month mark of me out on my mission!! It is hard to believe I have already been gone for 2 months but at the same time it feels like it has been like a year. Difficult to explain!

Updates on some stuff:

Tuesday we could not find our investigator Natalia so we were sad. But then at the end of the day we had to walk to the church to get some stuff and all of a sudden she came running out of the church towards us! She had been with some friends and one of them was a member so they all decided to go check out the church! What a miracle. She came up to us and was so excited and talked about how pretty the church was and that she wanted to get married in it. HAHA! Just wait until she sees a temple! But we got to talk to her then and invite her to church. (Quick note to the members that missionaries LOVE when you can help them with the work.) I was so grateful for the member who took Natalia to the church. Later in the week we tried to go teach her but her Aunt who she lives with really does not like Mormons so we could not teach her. We are still trying though. Things slowly are progressing. 

Wednesday I had my first... interesting meal. It was traditional Bahian food (Bahia is the state that my mission is in). One of the tough things was this bread, fish casserole thing. I was a good missionary and ate all that I was given but man it was hard, haha!

Friday we had a mission tour. One of the members of a quorum of the 70 was traveling our mission so my whole zone and 2 other zones traveled to Ilheus to hear him and see President Bangerter. I saw other Americans for the first time in 3 weeks, so that was fun. And all the talks and training we got was fantastic. The Spirit is very strong when a large group of missionaries come together. 

Saturday we ran an activity with all the youth. It was so fun and they loved it. We did a bunch of games. Their favorite was water balloon volleyball. But the whole activity made me feel old! It was just yesterday I was one of the youth in the activity! But It was awesome. 

Yesterday, Sunday, I spoke in church! Preparing a talk and then giving it in a different language is a whole new experience. I started with the line, " I think it is interesting how I left my home in California and now I am serving in… California!" Everybody actually laughed! Hopefully because they liked my joke and not because I said something wrong. But I got to speak about the Priesthood. It truly is a blessing that we have the power of God on the earth today. 

For my weekly person comparison (I realized I do these a lot) the General Authority that was visiting, Elder Dias, looks like Uncle Pat!! I thought so at least. I will try and attach a picture that I took with him! Also in our ward there is a Brazilian Auntie Jenny! Looks, actions, everything! It’s awesome!

All the apartments here have speakers and these little DVD players. A lot of missionaries have flash drives with music, church movies, mormon messages etc! I would LOVE to have one. A Flash Drive with MoTab, just tons of church music and also instrumental movie music too. Star Wars, Avengers, Batman, Anything you can think of that I would like. We are allowed to listen to those on P-Days and stuff. Also!!! DISNEY MUSIC!! We are allowed to listen to that all the time and I would looooveee that. Maybe even throw in the soundtrack to the new Moana movie that comes out around Thanksgiving. But a ton of church and Disney music for sure. Part of the reason I want music so badly is because ALL DAY LONG EVERYDAY these cars drive around with speakers and these Brazilian songs campaigning for some person or another. They are loud and there are so many of them so when I hear church music it cleanses my ears. J

Ok, so the best part of the week happened last night. We went to our investigator, Marcelo's house. He had come to church for a second time yesterday and is progressing great. We extended an invitation for him to get baptized on Saturday. He said yes!!!! It is really exciting so hopefully next time I write you all I will have been able to baptize someone into the Kingdom of God! But I can't get too excited yet! I love this gospel and I love you all!

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Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

Elder Christofferson and Elder Ribeiro (another missionary Spencer met at the conference)

Elder Christofferson and Elder Hilton (another American in the mission...remember there aren't many of them)

Elder Christofferson and Elder High

Elder High has been out since October of 2015. When his mom posts things on Instagram she hashtags them #brazilsalvadorsouthmission just like I do. Shortly after Spencer got his call I wanted to see if there were other people hashtaging their missionaries and I found Elder High's mom. We direct messaged a few times on Instagram and then started emailing. It's crazy how you can bond with someone you've never even met simply because your children are going thru similar experiences. Anyway, I told Spencer to keep an eye out for Elder High when he got to his mission and sure enough, at his first Multi Zone meetings they found each other.  It's truly a small world!