"Imagine how much our Heavenly Father loves us."

District Meeting

Hi everyone! 

How are you guys doing?! I am always so happy to read the emails every week and see that everyone is great! I love you guys! So this was the last week of the transfer and it was a great one! We had a lot of fun moments and I was so happy with my first transfer here in São Cristovão. And last night (Sunday) we got the transfer from the Assistents and I am staying here! That wasn't a big surprise but the cool part is that I will be staying with Elder Estevam!!! It will be the first time during my whole mission that I will be with a companion for more than one transfer! Crazy but I am so happy because Elder Estevam is the man and we have a blast together haha. This will be his last transfer so I will have the honor to be his last companion. That means that I will probably stay here in this area a third transfer. But thats is good because I love this area! 

So our week was great and I will hit on some highlights! 

Tuesday we went and taught Rosalvo! He is doing great and loved going to church the days before. I was a little worried because at church on Sunday he seemed bored haha! He just had this grumpy looking face and didn't talk a whole lot. He stayed the whole time but I was worried if he really liked it and felt the Spirit and understood everything that was said. Tuesday when we got there to teach him about the Book of Mormon he started out the visit by talking about how he loved church on Sunday! We didn't even ask him and he started to say that we didn't need to get worried because he loved church and understood everything even though he looked grumpy haha! He said that is just how he is so it was all good! It was an anwer to some prayers. Our lesson with him that day was about the Book of Mormon and it was a great lesson! I love teaching about the Book of Mormon and Rosalvo seemed to like it too! 

Wednesday night we had a cool experience with a family in our ward. There is a sister and her two sons who live in our area. They are members but the woman's husband isn't. I actually wrote about him a couple weeks ago I think. Anyway Leide (the name of the sister) and her two sons (Johnny-15 and Rodrigo-8) are just awesome. Lately both me and Elder Estevam have been feeling that they were struggling a litle bit so we decided to stop by and visit them. It was awesome! They were home and we just talked and had a great visit. We left a message at the end about Job. Elder Estevam talked about how Job was so trusted by the Lord and that because of that, he had trials. He made the point that sometimes when we have hard times and struggles we think "why me!?" But that we need to think that maybe it is because the Lord has confidence in us to stay strong! I loved that. He also quoted something his mom always says, in english it would be, "At the time of the test is when the teacher stays silent. But that doesn't mean he's not there." I thought that was so cool too and a great analogy for our lives and our trials! 

Thursday was an awesome day because I got to do a divison and be with Elder Tavares in Imbuí for the day! It was so great to go back to Imbuí and see some of the people that I love so much. Elder Tavares is doing great too and we had a fun day together. I got to interview a young woman that they baptized on Saturday! It was so great and I love doing baptismal interviews! I can feel the Spirit so strongly with all of the investigators that I have the opportunity to interview and it makes me so happy to see how the work of the Lord rolls forward and nothing can stop it! It was a quiet, but great Thanksgiving! Since Thanksgiving is a national holiday back in the States, here it was nothing haha. But they do have Black Friday here in Brasil. But Thursday I was extra grateful, but I'll get to that at the end of my email! 

Friday was great too as we went and taught Rosalvo again! He had a hard time understanding a few things in 3 Nephi 11 that we left with him to read, so we changed plans and decided to read it again with him. It was awesome! At the end we started to ask him about what he is thinking about all of this so far. It was amazing to see him talk about his desire to keep making his life better. He still hasn't drunk at all since we started to meet with him and we haven't even fully taught about the Word of Wisdom yet. We asked him what he thinks about baptism and he said that he still needs to know more and be better prepared. We agreed and HE made a goal of about 3-4 weeks to be baptized! It was great and we will see how he continues to progress. 

Saturday night we went to see Marlene and Evely! It was awesome and funny because on Thursday when I was in Imbuí, Elder Estevam stayed in our area and was with Elder Dos Santos. They went to visit Evely and Marlene that day too and played a joke on Evely and said that I got emergeny transferred. Apparently she actually believed and got sad! I thought it was funny so Saturday when we went to visit them she was happy to see it was a joke, but also a little mad at Elder Estevam hahaha! But we had a quick little visit with them and Marlene is doing a lot better than last week with respect to the stuff she was seeing on the internet about the church. So that was nice to hear! We had a great lesson and we are making goals to refocus even more with them and especially Evely so we can see if she is really going to be baptized. 

So Sunday was great! I loved church because it was the Primary Program. Now the Primary Program here is a lot different than at home because here there were about 15 kids. But it was so amazing! They all did so good! And this leads me into my final topic of the letter. The primary ended with singing "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" and the congregation joined in for the last two verses. Man the moment we stood up to sing I felt so much peace and love. I started to think about all the things I was grateful for in my life. The privilege I am having to be a full-time missionary, my testimony, the small building where we meet here, my friends, and especially my family. I thought of them and the love that I have for me parents and my siblings and all my family. It was an overwhelming feeling. Then I thought, "imagine how much our Heavenly Father loves us." I know that God loves us. Each and every one, and personally. I am so grateful to be here and so grateful that I know this Church is true. I am grateful for my family and the love that they have for me. And I am grateful that Jesus Christ is our Savior. Without him, we wouldn't have hope. 

I love this gospel and I love all you guys!

Have a great week! 

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

Sorry there aren't many pictures this week. I'll take more next week.