Elder Spencer Christofferson: Rely 100% on the Guidance of the Spirit

Weekly Selfie, after Zone Conference with some of the missionaries

Hello everyone!!

How are you all doing!? Another week has flown by and the last week of April is upon us! Craziness, right?!

One quick funny thing before I get into the main part of the email. My companion Elder Bitencourt has been studying English recently. He asks me a TON of questions and as I responded to them this week I realized how weird the English language is, haha!! Teaching it made me realize that! I thought it was pretty funny, but then again all languages are strange!

Tuesday night we had a lesson with Andreza that was rather strange. We went to teach her about baptism and the Holy Ghost but Andreza just seemed off! Not her normal, talkative, happy, self. The Spirit wasn't the best and we left pretty discouraged despite our best efforts. She just seemed like she didn't want to learn more by her attitude. And her mom was getting in her ear a lot about how she has to be serious about this. Her mom isn't opposed to us at all which is cool, and she is just telling Andreza that she thinks she isn't taking this seriously. We think she is taking this seriously, just had an off day.

I cannot even begin to describe how AMAZING the Zone Conference with Elder Costa was. Elder Costa is the President of the Brasil Area. He has been a General Authority (leader) in our church for 23 years. Everyone had been saying and telling us how he was going to burn everybody and be super tough and harsh and we were all scared! We were all SO wrong. He was NOT harsh at all!! He is the BEST!!! SOOOOO AWESOME!!!!!!

One cool thing was that Elder Bitencourt and I were the door ushers when President and Sister Bangerter, and Elder and Sister Costa arrived. It was really cool. Elder Costa talked to us first. He got there and shook our hands and asked where we were from and everything. I told him I was from Cali and he started to speak in English with me haha. He saw my name and said, "Elder Christofferson! I know that name." Haha it was funny!

Elder Costa gave an incredible training to us. He told some FANTASTIC experiences and stories and the Spirit was so strong! Elder Costa was seriously my favorite part of the week! He was so funny and helpful and uplifting. He made everyone excited! A couple of things I remember; he talked a lot about how our success comes from planning effectively, and he showed us how. Another was to not mix the social stuff with the spritiual! That was a big one. His whole deal was just to listen and rely 100% on the guidance of the Spirit. Man I wish you all could of been there! It was unbelievable!!!

So Wednesday night, on a spiritual high after the conference with Elder Costa, we headed to Andreza's. We got there and right off the bat she apologized to us about the day before. That brought the Spirit into our meeting which was awesome. She had read the chapter of the Book of Mormon that we left with her, like she usually does. Elder Bitencourt and I were talking and teaching but it wasn't us. Everything we said came from the guidance of the Spirit. We were all feeling it so strongly. It was so cool. We used all of the things we had learned earlier that day and it was just so great. Andreza is progressing great and will be baptized soon! We are planning for this Saturday, the 29th! Pray for her please!!

Thursday night we went to teach Ronaldo and Simone. The lesson was about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The lesson wasn’t going very smoothly because their little two year old, Alice, was really fussy and we were all distracted and couldn't focus. Towards the end of our lesson I got the prompting, "talk about Eternal Families,". I immediately followed the prompting and the mood changed entirely! They got all quiet and interested and listened to what we were teach. As soon as we finished talking about Eternal Families I got the impression, "Leave now." In my head I was like, "uhh what?! It just got good!" But I decided to listen. Plus we had already been there a while so we left, promising to return Saturday and talk about the eternal families thing!

True to our promise we went back Saturday. We taught the Plan of Salvation. I realized that I think the Plan of Salvation is my favorite lesson to teach now! Which is crazy because at the beginning of my mission it was my least favorite because it was so difficult to teach. Now it is my favorite! The lesson was really cool and they had never heard any of that stuff about life before Earth and life after death. They are such a great family!

A funny little story… So almost every chapel here has a piano that is electric and can play automatically. In our ward the pianist is one of the two priests. So the first week I had in the ward we sang without the piano for the Sacrament hymn because the guy who plays was blessing the sacrament! After I asked Bishop, "umm why does no one play the piano for the sacrament?! It is really easy you just push a button at the start of every verse?" He was like, "oh I don't know, nobody knows how." Haha! So I yolf him “I'll do it”. So these last two weeks just before the sacrament hymn, I go up and just touch the play button at the beginning of every verse. The funny thing is that I think a majority of the members think it is actually me playing!! This week a lady even mentioned something about it! It is pretty funny.

Last night, Sunday, the ward was having a family night at a member's house. It was really fun! I just love to feel the love of the ward and members here. It helps me feel like I'm back home in the SR ward!! It really is special.

Anyways, I think that's all for this week! I feel your guys' love and prayers! Thank you! I love my mission! I love you guys! Have a great week!

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson