Elder Spencer Christofferson: Staying in Imbui

Last District Conference of the Transfer

Hi everybody!

How are you all doing?! I hope everyone had a great week! This last week of the transfer here was great for us and now we are going to get some changes. So actually I am not being transferred! I am staying a third transfer here in Imbuí! Elder Pereira is being transferred! He was one and done here but is actually just being transferred to a different area in this zone so I will see him at zone meetings and stuff! I will be getting Elder Tavares (I think that is how it is spelt haha). I have never met him but he took my place in Conquista when I left there! I am excited for the change but sad Elder Pereira is leaving! We had a great transfer together that FLEW by! It was a memorable one!

So our week was great! I will try to give a good run down!

Tuesday morning we got a cool surprise call from Viviane! Last week she had told us that she wouldn't be able to meet with us at all this week because she was going to a work seminar thing. She got the date wrong and it didn't start til Wednesday! So Tuesday she asked us if we could visit with her, and of course we said we could! That afternoon we went over. It was a great visit! Both her and Anna Beatriz are starting to read the Book of Mormon from the beginning! Of course they both had already read like 7 chapters in less than 5 days! They had some questions and we were able to answer them which I felt was great! I love talking about the Book of Mormon with people! There is always such a strong feeling of love when we talk about the Book of Mormon! It makes me so happy and I hope the people we are talking to about it, feel that happiness too!

Wednesday was another sweet day! We had a great last District meeting! It was sad because our district has gotten pretty close and we all have a ton of fun together! I talked about bearing testimony for the training. It was great but the coolest part came later. I'll get there. Wednesday night we went to visit this man named Francisco. He is a member who was inactive for years but just started to come back to church! Our Ward mission leader told us that he had a granddaughter who lives with him who isn't a member! So we went to visit them and had a GREAT lesson. Brother Francisco's granddaughter is named Thailane. She is 13 and just the best! She had actually been to church once and we didn't even see her! But we had a great lesson. We talked about the Restoration. It was cool for me to see Elder Pereira teach with so much confidence and Spirit and it made me think how much he has grown this transfer! The best part of the lesson was at the end! We asked Thailane how she was feeling about everything we had been talking about. She said, "I have the same feeling I had the time I went to your church, it's a good feeling. It just feels right!" We testified that that was the Holy Ghost. Then we challenged her to baptism for the 16th of September and she accepted! Woo! We are excited and she was at church Sunday too!

Thursday was a really cool day. I had a very cool experience Thursday night. We went on a split with our Elders' Quorum President and one of his counselors! I went with the counselor, who's name is Jose Alesho. We were going to visit some less-actives. Just to give a little backround on Alesho, he has had a tough life! But he has a AMAZING spirit with him. He learned how to read and write when he was already an adult, and the way he talks to people is a little different. But when he has the Spirit that doesn't matter. The cool experience happened when we were actually on the street walking to our next appointment! We were about to go up this street when Alesho saw another man standing next to a car. The man saw him and said "Alesho! He man!" Then they started to talk and I was confused. I found out they were friends from work years ago. Then Alesho did the coolest thing. He said, "So I have talked to you about my church before but never in detail. I want to bear my testimony to you that this church is the fountain of my joy..." He then proceeded to give one of the most powerful testimonies I have ever heard on that street to that friend! The reason I said I would come back to the subject of the training I gave Wednesday is because what Alesho did was exactly what I talked about at our district meeting. He had no idea that is what I talked about but he bore a simple, pure testimony that touched our hearts! It was truly amazing! We all felt the Spirit very strong in that moment! Testimonies are powerful tools!

Friday night we had another lesson with Thailane! We went and explained better for her about the Book of Mormon and invited her to read it! She accepted and was really happy to get her own Book of Mormon! She thought it was so cool that it was for her! Like her own book! It was really cool to see her happy. She even said the closing prayer and asked God to help her read and find the truth in what we are teaching. It was a really spiritual experience too!

Saturday we went to visit with Suely! We issued her with the challenge to start to read the Book of Mormon from the beginning to the end! She is nervous but excited to start! It is crazy to me how much that that woman has changed spiritually and just all-around. It is easy to see. She just has a better feeling and is always happy now. And all that happened just because she has been reading the Book of Mormon. It is amazing.

Sunday was great! It was raining like crazy and kind of cold! Well for here that is, haha! We had a smaller number of people at church because of the rain. It was funny because I was kind of saying bye to people becuase we thought I would get transferred! Then Sunday night we got the transfer and it wasn't me! Craziness!

Well that was our week! I loved this transfer and am excited for this next one too! Can't wait to serve the Lord even harder!

Love you all! Have a great week!