Elder Spencer Christofferson: "It was a privilege to hear the Prophet and Apostles speak"

Between Saturday General Conference Sessions when we went to get food at the store

Hey Everybody!!!

How are you all doing? I hope you all had a fantastic week! This week was a week of change here for me! But a great week none the less, and it was capped off by a FANTASTIC General Conference. I LOVE Conference, it was SOOO great! It seriously is like a whole different thing out here on the mission! I love it and I hope you all did too!

It’s is April! How crazy is that? I can't believe it! Time is flying faster than ever before. Also this week it was COLD here!!! Like actually cold and rainy. I was so happy. Probably overly happy just for some cold weather, haha. I got to use my sweaters even! I slept in the Christmas pajamas Nana sent for the first time too. J And the guys made fun of me but I didn't care. I wore them with pride and I was warm and cozy so they are the ones who lost out! LOL!

So being in this new area is great! I already like the members a lot. The area is kind of like Itabuna. We have to walk to get there and it is a little of a poorer area. Not poverty type poor but compared to Morada dos Passaros, my previous area, which is a wealthy area, it is poor. But I am liking it. Also Elder Bitencourt is great! We have already made some good memories and had a fun time. Like the other night we were in the grocery store and this rap song with a big bass came on and we started dancing like goofballs. It was pretty funny.

So I will start all the way back at last Monday night. I had known already about the transfer and everything and since I was already here I just switched bedrooms. But Elder Bitencourt told me that we had a lesson marked that night. The lesson was with the family of the lady who died in a car accident about a month ago. In her family, one of her daughters is a member but the other daughter, her son, and her husband are not members. The other Elders had already had a lesson with them earlier in the week and said it was WAY spiritual and that they wanted to learn more. Monday night we went to help them do that. They had an Aunt in town and another friend staying with them too. We taught the Restoration to them. Man it was awesome!! We wanted to put a focus on the Priesthood and really explain that it was restored. So we did that. One of the coolest parts during the lesson was when the friend, Ludimila, had a ton of questions. She wasn't really into what were teaching. She was pretty skeptical. After a good amount of questions for us, she started to ask another when Mercia, the non-member daughter stopped her and said, "Just listen. This is what they are saying! That this church was restored and only IT is the true church here on the Earth! God has one true church and this is it!" We sat in shock as she had been pretty quiet the whole time AND because she is a not a member but was already bearing a testimony about the Church! It was really cool. She is planned to be baptized the 15th! The other cool part of the night was when they asked us for blessings. Mercia, Ludimila, the Aunt, and the dad all asked us for Priesthood blessings of comfort. ALL of them had lost someone close to them in the last year and we had the opportunity to help them through the Priesthood. It was so cool. They gained their testimonies about the Priesthood, minutes after we had taught them about it. I love having the privilege of holding the Priesthood!

All of Tuesday I was with Elder Santana, my trainer! He had to stay with us because he was waiting for his new companion to get to our city. We were working in Morada dos Passaros still. That night I went to my last Ping Pong on Tuesday nights. :( But I was on FIRE. I beat everyone except for Cleber who never loses. It was so fun. There were some new investigators there and Kaique and Marcos too. I love those guys and I am so glad that I was able to share the Gospel with them. I am going to miss Tuesday night Ping Pong but at least I am still here in the area and I will be able to see everyone on Sundays. So that is good at least!

Wednesday at lunch we had another cool experience! Our lunch that day was at Irma Edna's. She is an older lady who has recently moved into the area. She is still getting used to everything around here. Her husband is not a member but supports her in the church. We had a great lunch with them and got to know them better. For our message we talked about faith and doing new things based on our faith. It was a great message aimed at the husband. Before we left, Irma Edna, who has been sick, asked for a Priesthood blessing and also asked if we could dedicate their house. We said yes and got to give her a blessing. After hers, her husband asked for a blessing too. It was really cool. Again the awesome part is he isn't even a member! He felt the Spirit and the power of the Priesthood and was prompted to ask for one. Then I got to dedicate the house. It was very cool. Again I love holding the Holy Priesthood!!!!

One weird thing this week was at one of our lunches. The lady made this "salad" which really is different here. We got there when she was finishing it and we helped. It consisted of mango, apples, oranges, limes, potatoes, onions, beets, a ton of other fruits and vegetables, and a ton of mayo. It is normal here I guess, but it wasn’t my favorite… but I ate it. I don't understand how onion and mango can go together. Haha!

So this weekend was General Conference!! And yet again it felt like Christmas to me! The overwhelming theme that seemed to touch me was about the Holy Ghost and to put our trust in God in these hard times. It was such a privilege to hear the Prophet and Apostles speak. And yes, I got to watch it in English again! This time it was in the same room with everyone and they had this cord we could put headphones into and listen in English. I did take off the headphones for a lot of it and listen in Portuguese and I understood it! Woohoo! Tell Uncle Todd that this time I listened to his talk in Portuguese and his Portuguese is awesome! I told some of the members there that I thought it was really him speaking and they didn't believe me!! They thought it was a Brasilian doing the translation. But from what I heard it sounded like Uncle Todd so I hope it was.

I love my mission, I love you guys, and I love the Savior!

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

2- Between Saturday General Conference Sessions when we went to get food at the store

3-Elder Santana, Sister Rodrigues and me (almost our full district from when I first arrived in the mission)