Elder Spencer Christofferson: #ITSALLTRUE

A DAY IN THE LIFE

Hi everyone!!!

How is everybody doing?! I hope you all had a great week! Things here in Salvador are going great! It is getting hotter which isn't the most fun but at least that means that I will get more tan! Haha! Our week was another full, great, and miracle filled one! We had a ton of stuff happen and a lot of cool experiences. I will hit on some of the highlights.

So Tuesday was a big day! A whole lot of stuff happened. Firstly, we had our Zone Conference! It was interesting because I am the only Zone Leader so I was going to have to give my training alone. But Sister Bernardo is the only Sister Leader Trainer in our zone so she helped me and we gave our training together! It was awesome! We talked about giving baptismal challenges and how we can do it better. It was great and I think the first time I have ever seen and Elder and Sister who aren't a senior couple give a training together! It usually doesn't happen. But the whole conference was great and I learned a lot and felt the Spirit strongly! I really love Zone Conferences because I get to see a lot of other missionaries and get to hear President and Sister Bangerter! But Tuesday was an extra special conference for us because after lunch we got to watch the special First Presidency transmission! It was so awesome to be able to watch it with other missionaries in the chapel and with President and Sister Bangerter! It was so wonderful to see President Nelson and the new First Presidency talk to all of us! I know that the process of calling a new First Presidency is a divine process. I am so grateful for that. After the transmission and news conference, President Bangerter stood up and shared with us his experiences and testimony about all the Presidents of the Church since he was born. It was really cool and everyone left full of the Spirit and excited to work harder!

Tuesday afternoon we had a miracle! I can't remember if I wrote about it last week but I think I did. Last Saturday we were walking by a building when Elder Machado stopped and knocked on an open door and we found a young woman who had just moved here from Fortaleza (Elder Machado's home). Her name is Ellen and now she is living with her grandparents and other extended family. Tuesday was the day we marked to go formally visit them. And man it was awesome!!!!! So we got there and started to get to know everyone. There were 4 youth there and some adults who unfortunately did not want to listen to our message. There was Ellen, her aunt Rita who's 14, their friend Amanda, and this guy named Gabriel. We started to talk to them and then we started the first lesson. It was very cool for many reasons. One, it was really cool to see Ellen hear the first lesson again. She was so happy and when we got to the part of the First Vision she got so happy and started to get emotional. She was so excited that her other family members were hearing the message! Reason two, Rita really liked the message. At the end of the message I asked her how she was feeling and she said, "I'm feeling this peace inside of me and I have the strong desire to cry." I was so surprised! It was like the perfect answer! I couldn't believe it! So we left the pamphlets with them and invited them all to read and pray about what we had taught. It was awesome!

Wednesday was another sweet day! We headed over to find another girl who had been taught by the missionaries a while ago. Last week I was organizing some things at our house when I found a baptismal record almost completely filled out. The interview had been done and even the parent had signed it but the baptism never happened! So of course we went to look for this girl. We found her and her name is Luiza. We found out that she got cold feet before the baptism and didn't really think she had to get baptized and backed out. Anyways, we taught her and her friend who was there the first lesson and they loved it. Especially the friend, Giselle. She is a very intelligent girl and was really interested in our message! They couldn't go to church this week but they seem to have potential!

Wednesday we also went back to visit Ellen and her family! Again our lesson was just with the youth but it was awesome! Rita again was the most interested and Ellen was loving the lessons. We talked about the Book of Mormon with them and they all got really excited to learn more about it! I love teaching about the Book of Mormon! It is the best! My testimony has been strengthened so much about the Book of Mormon from reading it every day. I love how every time I learn something new!

Wednesday we also went and visited Ricardo. He is a barber that we met last week and he is really interesting. He LOVES to talk though wow. It was funny to see Elder Machado trying to get him to focus on what we wanted to teach. But I have learned something from experience that we need to listen to the people first and then relate what they were talking about to our lesson so that it has something to do with them personally. Instead of just trying to do the same thing and plow through teaching we need to listen and teach to the needs of the investigator! We ended up having a long lesson with Ricardo and we talked about the Book of Mormon. He seemed interested and excited to read a little bit since he is also a very knowledgeable man. He had given us his word that he would come to church but ended up not coming. We called him Sunday afternoon to see what happened and he gave us his story and felt really bad that he didn't follow through. But it is all good! We will see if he progresses!

Thursday we had a nice visit with Rosalia! She is this lady that for a while we have been trying to visit. Her three daughters are inactive members. She is a good-hearted woman and finally on Thursday she said she wanted to change. This week we made a plan with her to go by and we will all be praying to help her make changes. We will see where it goes because she knows a lot already! If she really just decides to follow Jesus Christ and starts to change she will! So that is what we are hoping for!

Friday we went back to visit Rita and Ellen and it was amazing!!! So we asked Rita how her praying had gone. She said that the night before she had read 2 Nephi 31 that we had left her to read and that afterwards she said a prayer to God to ask if was true. She said that she felt a "warm feeling, followed by extreme happiness." I once again didn't know how to react. Then I asked what she thinks she needs to do after reading that chapter. She said, "Be baptized and follow Jesus for the rest of my life." In my head I was like, "WHAT?!?! SHE IS TOO PERFECT!!" Haha! It seemed to good to be true because every answer that she gave was like 100% perfect. But we taught the Plan of Salvation that day and they loved it. She said she felt comforted knowing that her family can be together forever. It was so cool. Then we challenged her to baptism! She accepted! Our goal that we made together is for February 3rd!! She is excited. The best was Ellen's face when she accepted the invitation. She looked at her and said, "wait, you're going to get baptized?!" She then started to cry and gave Rita a hug haha. It was so awesome. The best part was at the end of the lesson. Rita offered the prayer and she said more or less this, "Heavenly Father thank you for all the things I have learned this week. Help me learn more and stay strong so that I can for sure be baptized on the 3rd." She is seriously "eleita" or elect in English haha!

Saturday we had a nice lesson with a lady named Conceição! We found her last week and taught her once but she works during the week so we couldn't visit her until this week. She is really cool and we taught about the Book of Mormon. We asked her how her prayer had went to ask God if Joseph Smith was a prophet and she said that she felt really good after the prayer and that during the entire week she didn't feel tired or with pain and that she thinks that is her answer. It was awesome and she really loved our message. She is an active member of a different denomination here but we will see if she can visit church this week to see how the Church of Jesus Christ is!

Sunday was great! Elder Machado spoke in church and did a fantastic job. He was really nervous the entire week haha. But it went perfect! Rita and Ellen came to church and Ellen got to meet her new ward! Her mom and little brother are coming here in a week or so and they are both members too so that is great news for our ward!

Wow I think that is it! There was a lot of other awesome stuff from this week but this is all I can remember right now! I love all you guys! Have a great week!!!

#Itsalltrue

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson