6 MONTHS!!!!

A rough week of being sick and having a sick companion. Thankfully everyone is better now! 

Hi Everybody! 

So wow. This week was a roller-coaster to say the least. Sadly most of it was not the fun parts but yesterday, Sunday, saved the week. It made up for ALL the other bad stuff during the week. I'll explain. 

I'll start last p-day. After emailing in the morning we headed off to the chapel. A ton of missionaries from the area were at the chapel and we all hung out, played games, and had Brasilian BBQ. It was way fun. We even played this Brasilian street so-called baseball thing called "taco." It wasn't anything like baseball though, haha. The problems started that night when I wasn't feeling so good. I had a pretty bad fever that night as I went to bed. I woke up Tuesday morning feeling only slightly better, still feeling pretty bad. And the other 3 Elders all woke up really sick too. So Tuesday was not fun. All 4 of us were sick. It must have been something we ate, or being in the hot sun all p-day. I have made the conclusion that being sick on a mission is worse than being sick at home. At home when you're sick you can relax, watch movies, and have chicken noodle soup. Here you can't do that stuff. But, the one good thing about being sick on a mission is that you get a lot of time to study since that is pretty much all you can do. 

In my studies I have especially been into reading the book "Jesus the Christ” recently.  It is a monster because it’s such a big book but I have been SUPER into it. I am learning SO much from it and it has really helped me. This week I  was even able to use some of the things I learned from reading that book in a our discussion we had with a pastor and it was great. I am feeling like I know Christ better and it is amazing. When I got here to Conquista I had read about 50 pages. And now I am at almost 400! 

The rest of the week slowly got better, but was still pretty hard because Elder Freitas was sick for a lot of it. But I'm going to focus on the good stuff of the week now, because where is the fun in reading an email about a bunch of negative stuff?! 

Thursday I hit 6 months on the mission. 6 MONTHS?!?! WHAT?! That is 25%, one-fourth, half of a whole year! This is insanity! I can't believe how fast it is going. All I have left is the length of a sister’s mission, haha, 18 months! 

Thursday we made a contact and it made me think about some things. We were walking on the sidewalk that afternoon and on the other side of the road this guy called us over. We crossed the street and started to talk to him. He had a lot of questions about the Church and had heard a lot of untrue things. We cleared up his doubts and taught a mini-Restoration lesson. He was really nice but at the end declined our offer to visit him further. That was it. But it made me think about how everybody has their own time to learn and accept the Gospel.  It also made me think how every time we share our beliefs, the person doesn't have to accept it all. And that it doesn't have to be a huge, miraculous experience. Just by sharing a little, whether they accept it or not, we are doing our duty. 

Another cool thing that happened this week was on Saturday. We met with a man named Cleison. I had never formally had a lesson with him but Elder Freitas already had. Saturday he was finally free again so we got to meet with him. Now Cleison is a pastor and he has his own church. He really likes learning about our beliefs and in our discussion doesn't attack or fight with us over differences.  It was really cool because this week we actually met with him in his church.  Now we had a great long discussion with him about the Church. We focused on the Book of Mormon. He said he would read it for sure and pray to know if it was true. I loved to see how our message to the world is the same for everyone. Whether Pastor or poor man we preach the same thing. How awesome that the Gospel is for everyone?

Now for the thing that saved the week, Sunday. We had 5 investigators at church, which shocked me given the fact that we didn't get to visit a lot this week. That was already a good sign. One of those 5 was Kaique, which is pronounced Kai-e-key. Kaique is 17 turning 18 this week. One of his friends is a member who was inactive but now is starting to come back. Sunday was already Kaique's second time at church. Our plan this past week was to visit him but because of our sicknesses and his busy schedule it never worked out. Earlier we had decided with our leaders here to focus on 3 investigators in particular, Kaique being one of them. At church during the second hour I was sitting in class when an impression came into my mind. "Teach Kaique the first lesson today, ASAP." I was surprised at the thought because we had already made plans to go visit him this coming Tuesday but I decided to follow the prompting. What time is better than a Sunday, in the church, where the Spirit is already there. I told Elder Freitas and he was all for it. So after the second hour we grabbed Kaique, and our ward mission leader and headed to an empty classroom. That lesson was one of the best I have been a part of my whole mission. We taught with power and clarity, thanks to the Spirit guiding our thoughts and words. Kaique understood perfectly and loved the message. When Elder Freitas challenged him to baptism, Kaique, with tears in his eyes, accepted. Then we did another thing that was awesome. We needed a date. We asked Kaique to pray and ask Heavenly Father for a specific day. So right then and there we kneeled down and he prayed. Afterwards we asked, “So what are you feeling?" He responded, "I don't know... I turn 18 on Thursday so maybe a couple days after." Exactly what we were thinking. Kaique is going to be baptized this Saturday the 28th. Now that is what I'm talking about. Everybody please pray for him this week! 

Our new Ward Mission Leader, Cleber, is amazing. We had a meeting with him on Friday night and it was sweet. We planned like 4 family nights and a bunch of divisions with the branch. We will definitely teach and baptize with him helping us. He is actually one of the people helping with Kaique and everything. It is awesome to see. I wish that every area had a LMA (ward mission leader) like him. I will definitely  take advantage of him while I’m here. 

Anyways, that is all! I love you all and have a great week!!

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

Pics-Drawing to bide the time during sick days