Elder Spencer Christofferson: "Focus on the positive"

Elder Tavares

Hey everybody!!!

How are you all doing? I hope all is going well! This week was a great one here in Salvador full of change. Well, not the most extreme change for me because I stayed in the same area, but it still was a change because I got a new companion! His name is Elder Tavares! We hit the ground running here and all is going well! We are both excited for the opportunities that this transfer will bring! Elder Tavares has around the same time on his mission as I do, so it is great being with a missionary who really knows what he is doing! He is from Pará, which is a state in the north of Brasil that is next to the Amazon. He is a chill, funny guy and a powerful teacher so we are having a great time and are excited to work here together! This week was a great one so I will try to explain all our adventures and miracles!

Tuesday morning we left early because my new companion was getting into town. He was actually the Elder that took my place when I left Conquista! So he got to know all those amazing people too. After we met up at the mission office and I grabbed my package (thanks mama:)), we headed to our area! Elder Pereira just got transferred to a different area in our zone so he didn't have far to go. He stayed with us, had lunch at one of the Irma's houses and then headed off to his area with his new companion who came to get him! It was sad to say goodbye to Elder Pereira as we became good buds. I learned a lot from him and we had some great moments together! That kid is going to do great things!

Tuesday night we headed over to the chapel to be a part of ward council and to introduce Elder Tavares to all of the ward leaders! He loves them and they already love him too! I love the ward here so much. One thing that I love about serving a mission is just to see how many amazing people this world has. As much sadness and evil this world can have, genuine people save it.

We also had an interesting experience with our house this week that started on Tuesday. I learned how to live without power. Like electricity haha. From Tuesday morning to Friday night we were without power. The secretary just hadn't paid our energy bill for 3 months and the company came and shut it down. When he finally paid it after I called and got angry it was the holiday here so we had to wait a day for the guy to come back and give us energy. It isn't the worst thing ever because we aren't home during the day, but getting home to darkness and taking cold showers was not very fun haha. We just got lucky it wasn't summer and not very hot right now. Because to sleep without a fan in the heat would be impossible! But it was for sure a very interesting experience

Anyway, Wednesday we had a great day too. We went to visit Suely and see how she was doing. She hadn't shown up at church the Sunday before and I was a little worried! But we found out that she had gotten really sick Saturday night which was such a bummer and the reason she wasn't able to come to church. Anyway, since we had left the challenge with her to start reading the Book of Mormon on her own, I wanted to see how she was doing. She has been reading and is doing great! I know I talk about this like every week but I LOVE to see how the Book of Mormon can change someone. I will get to that more later but it is just the best thing ever.

Wednesday night we also went to visit Thailane! She was doing great! We took one of the sisters who is in the Young Women's Presidency to visit her with us and we had an amazing visit! We went in planning to teach about the Plan of Salvation but ended up teaching a different lesson! We talked a lot about the Gospel of Jeus Christ. I love how that happens. How even though we plan to teach one thing, the Spirit guides us to start teaching about a different thing, really focusing on the needs of the investigator! The coolest part is how we don't have to say to our companion, "hey let's switch and teach this lesson." It just happens! It is so cool! Like the scriptures say, if we didn't have the Spirit with us, our teaching would be useless! It would just be a bunch of information that the person wouldn't feel anything special about. But during our lesson we talked a lot about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Thailane still said that she was all committed to the 16th for her baptism so that was a good sign! She is a great girl who really wants to do what is right! She is what we call here "os eleitos!"

Thursday here in the great country of Brasil was Independence day! I don't think that is what they really call it but that is what it is haha! We had the awesome opportunity to help a lady in our ward build an extension to her house. Yes, we practically are building a house haha. Of course us missionaries are just invited to do the heavy lifting, and the other men in the ward who know how to build this kind of stuff organize everything. But when I say we did the heavy lifting, we really did! We had to shovel dirt and rocks into a wheel barrow and run them up this very steep hill. We did that about 50 times, me and Elder Tavares switching off. Then we went and helped her neighbor real quick take barrels of sand, rocks, and cement up to his house. He lived on the 3rd floor. And we each had to do that 7 times with every material. It was insane haha but a lot of fun. Needless to say, we got home that afternoon pretty tired. And the couple days afterwards we were VERY sore! But I loved it! It felt good to do some heavy lifting. We are going back tomorrow to help finish.

Friday we had an awesome visit with Viviane and Anna Beatriz! They are doing great and Viviane is reading the Book of Mormon a ton! She is already in chapter 19 of 1 Nephi as of Friday! It is crazy! She says she reads at work in between surgeries since she is a doctor. She also said how a ton of people have been asking her about it and she gets to be a missionary too! It is so cool. We had a fun, spiritual lesson as we read a chapter where Anna had stopped. It was cool because Viviane said after, "I read this part a few days ago, but just reading it again, I learned something totally different from what I thought when I read it a few days ago!" It was so cool and both me and Elder Tavares got to bear our testimonies about how the Book of Mormon is true! I loved it! We also talked about General Conference with them that is coming up and they are really excited! We challenged them to do pray about some questions going into to Conference and promised they will get answered! I am excited to do that too. I did it last GC and it was really cool to see how ALL my questions were answered!

Friday night we had an AMAZING lesson with Thailane. This time we did teach the Plan of Salvation and it was so so so spiritual! We focused a lot on our purpose here on Earth and she loved it. The most spiritual part is always when we talk about Jesus Christ's sacrifice and suffering for us. It like you could physically feel the Spirit in that room. We all definitely learned and grew. At the end Thailane opened up a little and said she felt like she won't be ready for her baptism on the 16th and a whole bunch of her worries. We assured here that she is doing the right thing but to really pray about her baptism. So we are actually going there tonight to see if all will be good. We are hoping this Saturday she can get baptized but if not this week, the week after for sure! I love this work!

So Saturday night we stopped by Suely's real quick. That thing I talked about with the Book of Mormon having power to change lives is so true. Suely stopped drinking coffee out of nowhere! She did this a couple weeks ago and went 3 days without coffee then went back to drinking and we didn't say anything. As of Saturday she was 6 days without coffee and it was so amazing. Then Sunday at church she asked me to find the Bishop for her. I asked why and she said, "well I have to pay the tithings!" Hahaha! It was a miracle! We have literally said not a WORD about tithing but she felt she needed to pay it. I loved it.

So that was our week! I love you all so much! This world can be a little negative sometimes so focus on the positive and the world will change! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson