Elder Spencer Christofferson: "It's all true!"

Our Zone with President and Sister Bangerter

Hey everybody!

How are you all doing?! I hope everyone is doing great and had a fun week and Halloween! Here in this part of Brasil, Halloween isn't a thing at all, so for us it was just another normal day but I was thinking about it all day! November is here which seems quite strange! And Christmas is almost here! I can't believe how fast time is passing by! We had a great week, saw lots of miracles and had many spiritual experiences!

I’ll start with Tuesday when we had a cool moment at our lunch that day! Remember that here in Brasil, we have lunch with the members, not dinner! Because lunch is the big meal of the day and dinner is smaller! It is the opposite of back home. Anyways we went to have lunch at a lady's house in our ward named Leide! She is really awesome! She has two boys, one who is 15 and the other who is 8. Her husband is named Anizio and he is not a member of the church! He is a really cool guy and really likes the missionaries so it was great to talk to him. We decided before we arrived that we would try to talk about the Church with him and find out where he is at with it. As we spoke we realized that he really doesn't know a lot at all about what our beliefs are. But he is a good man who believes in God. Anyway, he seemed pretty hesitant to get into the topic of religion but as we spoke to him we invited him to just take the discussions without any commitment, just for him to learn a little bit more about what his family believes! He accepted the invitation so we will keep stopping by to teach him!

Tuesday night we had a fun family night with the sisters and a family they are teaching! The investigator of the family is Jefferson and he is awesome! His wife is Ingrid who has been a member since her teens but fell away from the church later! They have recently come back to church and Jefferson is progressing to be baptized! The only thing is that they need to get married! That is also in the process of happening! But anyway they invited me and my companion to their family home evening! It was awesome! Jefferson, the non-member, conducted the meeting and gave the lesson! An INVESTIGATOR! It was so cool! He talked about the Word of Wisdom and we had a great discussion about it! The best part of the night was when we got there because the sisters had told us that Ingrid had invited her friend who lived in our area and that he was interested in the church! So when we got there Elder Estevam started talking to him while I was talking with Jefferson! I was a little hesitant about Lucas (the friend who wanted to know more about the church) because I had the strangest impression that I had seen him before. Long story short, my poor companion was tricked because Lucas is a member from a different ward! It was so funny and I totally figured it out! I had seen him before! It was a fun night and Jefferson and Ingrid and their 2 kids are getting closer to being an eternal family!

Thursday afternoon it was pouring rain which was a nice change from the heat lately! We went to visit Marlene and Evely! We got there and found out Evely wasn't there because Thursday was a holiday and she had gone out with her friends! But we stayed and taught Marlene. We had planned on talking about prophets with her but we wanted to see what SHE wanted to talk about! And sure enough she chose prophets! It was a great lesson and we were able to answer some of her questions and she said it helped a lot!

Friday we had a Zone Conference! It was great but I was really nervous because it was my first one as a Zone Leader! That doesn't really change much except that we had to give one of the trainings! I was pretty anxious the night before and we did a lot of planning! In the end it all went really well! We talked about how we should teach the lesson about commandments focusing on the principle of the commandment, then the promise or blessing received after obeying that commandment. President Bangerter had told us that he wanted our training to be about that but that we could take it any direction that we wanted. We decided to do lots of practicing with the other missionaries and it went perfectly! It is so funny to see the new missionaries doing practices because they seem so uncomfortable. But all the missionaries with a lot of time LOVE practices! It was a great training and I hope that the other missionaries felt the Spirit like I did!

Saturday night was the best of the week! We went to visit Marlene and Evely! When we got there a girl named Brenda was also there! Brenda is a neighbor of theirs who is also a member, but inactive. We always visit her family because her mom and little brother are almost 100% active and whenever we visit she doesn't listen to our messages! But Saturday at Evely's she stayed and participated! We talked about faith. Our lesson ended up being a discussion about the Creation! It was a great lesson but at the end I wanted to end with a spiritual note so I opened my Book of Mormon and we read a few verses from Ether 12. 6 And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witnessuntil after the trial of your faith.

7 For it was by faith that Christ showed himself unto our fathers, after he had risen from the dead; and he showed not himself unto them until after they had faith in him; wherefore, it must needs be that some had faith in him, for he showed himself not unto the world.8 But because of the faith of men he has shown himself unto the world, and glorified the name of the Father, and prepared a way that thereby others might be partakers of the heavenly gift, that they might hope for those things which they have not seen.9 Wherefore, ye may also have hope, and be partakers of the gift, if ye will but have faith.

In portuguese, the part about being "partakers of the heavenly gift" is written as "dom celestial" which means celestial gift! I liked that a lot. When we read these verses the Spirit became very strong and we all felt it. We ended with the invitation to go to church the next day. For Marlene to continue strong in coming back to church, for Brenda to start the process of coming back, and for Evely to be baptized. It was great! And the best part, all 3 were at church Sunday! Brenda hasn't been to church in months! We were so excited!

One quick fun thing that happened Sunday was that we got to church at 8:45 and were talking to members and waiting for Sacrament meeting to start when all of a sudden we look to the door and President Bangerter walks in! We were so surprised as he hadn't said anything to us about being there! The best part about him being there is that we we had investigators there so it was awesome! He only stayed for sacrament meeting but then had to leave. I love President Bangerter so much. I am SOOO blessed to have such an amazing mission president to help us and guide us to be the BEST missionaries we can possibly be!!

This Wednesday we have the mission leadership council here in Salvador. I have always heard so much about how awesome these councils/meetings are but have never actually been to one so I am so excited to finally go and spend Wednesday in the mission home! I think I will get to see Elder Santana again and since he goes home this month it will be the last time! Also Elder Bair!!! I miss that dude but I think I will get to see him Wednesday along with a lot of other old mission friends! I can't believe how old I am feeling out here haha!

Well that is all from me! I love you guys so much and hope everyone has a great week! It's all true!!

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

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