"Well I think we might be the answer..."

Zone Meeting this week. 

Hey everyone! 

How are you all doing?! This was a crazy week as it was the first week of the transfer but it was a great week of change! For me the change wasn't that big since I stayed here in São Cristovão. But now I got a new companion so that is always a change! My new companion is named Elder Loureiro! He is from Rio Grande do Sul, which is the southern most state in Brasil. He has almost exactly 3 more weeks on his mission than I do and he is actually part of the group that is going home with me! I have now been companions with 3 of the 4 that will be going home with me! Crazy right?! The other two were Elder Bitencourt and Elder Tavares. Anyway Elder Loureiro is awesome and we are getting along great! It is really a blessing to have someone with a lot of experience again! We realized that we have the opportunity to change this area and our zone because if we combine our strengths, we can make miracles happen. So we are focusing a lot on being in-sync with one another. I am excited for what this transfer has to hold! 

So last Monday I took Elder Machado to the bus station for him to go to Vitoria da Conquista and I met up with the Secretaries! Elder Machado left around 10! I was sad to see him go but i know that he has a very bright future in front of him! He is a great missionary and I learned so much as his companion! It was truly a blessing! That night I hung with the secretaries. It was tough because with the transfer they are super busy so we got to bed late and then had to wake up early the next morning! But it was a fun adventure. 

Tuesday morning Elder Loureiro got to Salvador and we headed home. We had a busy work day, organizing things at our house and trying to get a map for the house as well. A map really helps us in the areas where you serve and here we still haven't found a place that makes one. It has been tough but it looks like soon we will be able to get a map! I am excited because it is going to help us a lot, mainly when we try to find less-active members from the ward list. 

Wednesday was a great day too. After lunch we went to try and find some people who we had contacted. The person we were looking for wasn't home so we started knocking some doors on the houses close. We knocked on this one door and this lady, Cida, answered. Elder Loureiro said, "Hello, we are representatives of Jesus Christ, can we come in and leave a message?" It was funny because we were trying to see how we could use the smallest amount of words and still get in and Cida let us in! We ended up teaching her and her whole family! It was awesome! They are so cool and at the end I felt prompted to ask them a question. As we were finishing the first lesson I asked, "In these last few months, have you guys prayed to God to ask him to guide you in your lives?" They seemed a little surprised by the question but they responded yes. I replied, "Well I think that we might be the answer that God sent." It was really cool and the Spirit was very strong. They really enjoyed the lesson, now we just have to find a good time to start visiting them regularly because they all have crazy schedules! 

Thursday we had a cool experience with Marcos. He is the atheist that we have been visiting. The crazy part is that he is like one of the most sincere people ever. He really thinks about what we tell him and has great questions. Sometimes he is a little tough and frustrating because he doesn't belive in anything, but he is awesome. We went and taught him the first lesson. The other times that we have visited him we had just been answering his questions and reading the Book of Mormon. It was a great lesson and he really was interested in Joseph Smith but it was just a little weird because we were trying to teach differently. All the people we teach here believe in God so we don't have to focus on that part too much. But with Marcos it is different, it is a challenge. And I am loving it haha. And I think we might have done a little progress with Marcos. At least I hope so. We had another cool experience with him later in the week. 

Friday was a very interesting day. We were in the middle of a lesson at about 3pm and our phone rang. I looked and it was a member and then silenced the call and continued with the lesson. Then it rang again right after, I looked and it was the same person and the investigator said I could take it. So I did. The 2nd counselor of the Bishopric called and said that he needed us. He was with William. William is the young man in our ward who had left on his mission about 2 weeks ago. I was shocked and asked who he was with because I thought that I had heard wrong. But unfortunately I heard right. William had to come home form the MTC because he has some health problems that he had been told were not going to be a problem, but they started to manifest more in the MTC and for now the leaders thought it was better for him to come home to figure out what is wrong. So we left the lesson and met up with William! He was pretty sad but didn't really show it and he walked around with us during the day. That night we took him to the chapel and the Stake President showed up and talked to him. We were all really sad for him because he was so excited but it seems like he is doing good. He will get back out there soon! 

Saturday was the other cool experience with Marcos. We showed up to teach him and he was doing great. But he seemed a little off. We asked him what was up and he said that he had looked up some stuff on the internet about the church and found some stuff he did not like. We answered all his questions and had a really spiritual conversation. We kind of straight up asked him what he was wanting to get out of our visits. He said,' I don't really know. I just really like these meetings and have a curiousity to know more." Then I asked him what percent he thinks that God doesn't exist. He said "I am 99% sure that God doesn't exist." I then said, "and that extra 1%? What does it mean?" He said that he left 1 percent just to see if God really is real. SO WE GOT A CHANCE with Marcos. It is only 1%, but it's better than 0%. Haha, I don't know why but me and my companion both had a good feeling about Marcos so we will see where it goes! 

Sunday was great and church was awesome! I love Sundays! 

Well that is it! I love this work and am so happy and excited to see what the future holds! I love you all! Have an amazing week! 

#itsalltrue

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

There are 4 Americans in my zone now. Elder Archuleta,
Sister Bourdeau (her family is orignally from Haiti and my grandparents
know them from when they served their mission there), me and Elder Davis! 

My new companion Elder Loureiro

"Yeah, I am building my house."

Digging Holes! 

Hi Everybody!

How are you all doing?! I hope everyone is doing great! I am pretty sure this last week in the States was Valentine's day so I am sure you all had a great week! We had a great last week of the transfer! And last night (Sunday) we got the transfer! So in a shocking turn of events, I am staying in São Cristovão!!! That is right folks, after all is said and done I will have 6 months in this ward. Crazy right? I am in the same zone (Imbuí) since June!!!! I will watch 2 General Conferences in the same place! I can't wait to see the faces of the other members of the stake when they see me once again during General Conference at the end of next month! Anyways, I am sad to report that my companion Elder Machado is being trasnferred! He will be going to Vitoria da Conquista and be companions with another American! He was sad because that city is a little cold haha! But I will be getting as my new companion Elder Loureiro! He is actually part of the group that I am going home with! I don't really know him but I am excited to see what this next transfer holds! 

So this week was another great one! And it ended with a fantastic Sunday but I will get to that later. I'll start at the beginning of the week! So Tuesday was the offical Carnaval holiday. We were anxious about what the day would hold. We got invited to do a service project with Jefferson in the morning so we went. Wow it made us tired haha. He is planning on building a house on some land next to his parents house. He has just started and is digging these huge holes to be the foundation. I thought it was funny how in the United States when someone says, "yeah, I am building my house." That usually means that they designed the house and the construction guys are building. Here, when someone says they are building their house it means that THEY are the ones actually building it hahaha. So we went and helped Jefferson for 5 hours Tuesday morning, digging holes. He was already in one that he had been doing on different days and me and Elder Machado took over a different one. It was a lot of fun and great for Jefferson to be with us since he still isn't married to Ingrid and still investigating the church. Afterwards we headed over to lunch at his house with the Sisters and the rest of his family. It was Sister Bernardo's birthday so it was fun! 

Tuesday night we did get to go visit Claudio! He is doing great and felt bad that he didn't get to go to church with us! But we got to teach him about the Book of Mormon. It was a great lesson but the coolest part was at the end when we finally gave him the book. He was so surprised that we would give him a present! He was so happy and was holding the book with such care and love and it made me reflect on that talk that President Nelson gave about the Book of Mormon and if we value it more than diamonds and rubies. It definitely seemed like Claudio was valuing it more than anything. He said he would read and was very thankful! It was a great lesson and he seems to be progressing great! 

Wednesday was another great day! We had a fantastic last district meeting of the transfer and during the day we had Felipe go out with us. He has gone out with us a ton of time because he is 18 and planning on going a mission this year. He is awesome. Anyways one of the highlights of the day was when we went to visit Marcos. (He is the atheist) So we had gone in with the plan to teach him the first lesson but when we got there it didn't work out that way. He had done research and found some stuff on the Church and wanted to ask us about it. It is crazy how confident I feel now when people ask about that type of stuff, I really don't have anything that I can't answer anymore. But the best part was at the end. Felipe had been quiet the whole time but at the end he spoke up and said he wanted to share his testimony. He has this deep, narrorator type voice, so when he talks everyone pays attention haha. But he started to talk and the Spirit came in to the room so strongly. He spoke about his struggles when he was younger with believing if God existed. It was so great. After Felipe spoke I bore my testimony about the feelings of the Spirit. The whole thing with Marcos is that he thinks it is crazy that we can belive in things we don't see. So I tried to explain to him the feelings of the Spirit. But it is kind of hard haha. The Spirit feels different for all and I explained that for me I just kind of know that it is true. I get this feeling that helps me doubts go away. It was a great lesson and Marcos seemed to really listen and ponder for the first time the things we were saying! 

Thursday we went to visit Ellen and her mom and little brother that finally got here from Fortalza! We were so excited and found out that her mom, Erika, was baptized in September! So she is pretty new in the church. She had been going to church for a while but had to get some things resolved before she could get baptized but now she is and is looking forward to learn more! We read with them 1 Nephi 8. I love that chapter! It is so great! Go read it again! The vision is so amazing for our day! Anyways, we focused on verse 12 that talks about how Lehi wanted to share the fruit with his family. Ellen and her family are living here with tons of their family that was already living here! So we challenged them to share the gospel with their family! It was awesome and we are hoping it goes well! 

Friday we had an interesting lesson with Lucas. He is that young man we found who is 13 and he is great! But the whole time we have been working with him he hasn't gone to church and it is irritating us! So we wanted to know why. He told us that his mom is the one that doesn't want him to go! So we were like "Ohhhh that makes sense." Friday when we went to visit him we called his mom to come participate in the message too! We re-taught the first lesson and it was fantastic! His mom loved it and asked a bunch of questions and it was great! She said she would see if she could go to church but said that regardless Lucas could go! So we were pretty excited! 

Saturday was insane! Lately in the mission, President Bangerter has been really focusing on getting people to church. So as of Saturday we had about 15 people who had told us that they could go to church this week. Saturday we decided to go talk to all of them and see if they really would go! We ran around our area, visiting people for only about 15 minutes and the Lord blessed us! We got to talk to all of them! At the end of the day we had 7 yeses, 7 nos, and 3 maybes. We called Felipe and Johnny and asked them to help us Sunday morning. They showed up at our house about 8 and we split up to go get those who said they would go! And it worked well! We had 6 investigators at church! It was fantastic. 

So yeah that was my week! I am hoping that this next week is fantastic! Pray that this new transfer will be great! Love you all!! 

#itsalltrue

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

PICS

1,2- Helping Jefferson dig holes for his house that he is building himself

3-cool sign i saw with my initials on it LOL! 

Jefferson and Elder Machado digging the holes! 

Jefferson down in the deepest hole 

Starting a new hole

My initials!!! 

The Official Start of Carnival Week

Elder Prince and I

Hey everyone! 

How is everybody doing?!  I am really shocked how fast this week went! It literally flew by!! Our week was great and HOT again, haha! That is February below the equator! 

This week is the offical start of Carnival but the end of this last week we already started to see some effects. (From Marilee- I looked up what, exactly Carnival is and found this online: A week-long party characterizes Brazil’s Carnival, the Mardi Gras of the southern hemisphere. Celebrations and parades are held throughout the country, most notably in the city of Rio de Janeiro and the Brazilian states of Bahia and Pernambuco. Carnival celebrations vary in length and content, depending on the area.- USA TODAY) Luckily in our area there aren't any of the crazy parties that go on during Carnival. That is more towards the center of the city. There are missionaries who can't even work during these days, which is pretty tough. The only thing here is that everyone leaves haha. Our area seems deserted! Everyone goes to the party or to the beach! So these next couple of days will be interesting! 

Last monday night we headed over to visit Daniel and Tatiane. They are that couple that we found a couple weeks ago who are not from here. We went by to teach them about the Book of Mormon! We had actually planned on teaching the Plan of Salvation but when we got there we felt that we needed to teach the Book of Mormon! So that is what we did! And it was awesome! Daniel is the one who seems less interested and talks less during the lessons but he is the one who read the pamphlet we left and he said that he is praying to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. And he was really interested in the Book of Mormon. Tatiane is great but seemed a little less excited about what we were teaching. At the end of our visit we challenged them to baptism and then got some sad news! They both accepted the invitation but when we started to talk about a date they explained to us that they were going out of town. We were confused and said "that's fine... when do you guys come back?" Tatiane said, "Well I won't be coming back. We are going to my hometown and I will stay there." Daniel will be there for a few weeks but then will come back to finish working on the metro train that is being installed here in Salvador. So that was kind of a bummer but it is okay because when Daniel gets back we are goin to try and teach him still and we can send word to the missionaries where they live to continue teaching them. 

Tuesday we had a really cool lesson with a man we found named Claudio! We had done a contact with him on the street a few weeks ago and we went to try and find his house. It was frustrating as the streets here are crazy! There are no numbers on a lot of houses and when they do have numbers the numbers don't have an order. So there is like number 15 and then number 875, and then number 121. It's craziness, haha! After a lot of searching and almost giving up we found Claudio. How? He was walking up the street and saw us! It was a miracle and we then went to his house and had a great lesson. He is about 40 and is living alone in one of the smallest places I have ever seen. Us three barely fit in his house. But he is so humble and believes everything we are teaching him. At the end of the lesson we challenged him to bet baptized and he accepted! It was awesome! We invited him to church and he said he would go. I love how the Lord places people in our path and today it was literal! 

Wednesday I got to go to the mission council meeting! It was great. It was only the Zone Leaders and it was a great day! We learned a lot and I got to see a lot of old friends! And I finally got to take a picture with Elder Prince so now my mom can stop asking for a picture of us! (From Marilee- Elder Prince's mother and I have become friends on facebook from a page for Missionary moms of missionaries serving in the Brazil Salvador South Mission. Our boys have served around each other for almost a year and we finally just got a picture of them together. YAY!)

Thursday we taught Claudio again and it was a great lesson. The best part was his prayer at the end of the lesson. We asked him to pray and he got a little embarrassed but said he would do. Then he gave an amazing prayer. He asked God to help him be baptized and keep going on this path that he is on right now. It was so spiritual and one of the coolest things I've experienced as a missionary. To hear his simple humility was so cool. It was one of those prayers where the whole time in my head I was like, "WHAT? This is awesome! I'm so happy!!" 

Friday we went to visit Lucas and he is doing great! He didn't go to church AGAIN this week and I was pretty bummed but it is because of Carnaval. Even the kids have school off during Carnival and he went out of town. But the good news is he is still progressing and we are hoping he'll be at church next week so he can be baptized the following week. 

Saturday we met with this dude named Marcos! He is an atheist! Wow! We had an interesting conversation with him. Marcos doesn't believe in anything. At all. He said that he only believes in what he sees and in science. He asked us all these questions and we just kept answering and bearing our testimony to him because that is all we could do! It was a great lesson despite how much he doesn't already believe in.  We realized we have to adapt our teaching a little though because he doesn't believe in a lot of stuff that normally the people we talk to already believe in. LIke most people already believe in God and Jesus Christ or some kind of higher power before we start teaching them but Marcos doesn't believe a thing. We're starting from scratch with him and I'm excited for this challenge. 

Sunday was another great day. Our area felt deserted so it was tough but we did a lot of good contacting and found some people we plan to go visit this week.

So sorry for the short email! I am using the internet here at Vivane and Anna Beatriz's place because the normal places we use the internet were closed today and I need to go. I love all you guys! Have a great week! 

#itsalltrue

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

A visit to PELOURINHO

Hi everybody!! 

How is everyone doing?! I can't believe it is already February! It has been pretty hot here and this is the prime heat time so if I can make it through this month without burning too much I am doing great! 

Our week was very tiring because we were working like crazy but that is what makes it great. It flew by too and I can't believe it is p-day already! You definitely sleep better at night the harder you work and I slept great this week! :-) Again there was a lot of stuff and a lot of lessons this week so I will try to hit the highlights and explain all that happened! 

Monday was a fun day! After emailing in the morning we headed over to Pelourinho! It is one of the biggest tourist spots in Salvador and it was really cool! It was the place where the slaves first arrived here and was the first part of the city way back when it was founded! So we saw a bunch of historical buildings and stuff and since I love history it was awesome! I was scared because I had heard that the place was crazy with a bunch of people trying to get you to buy stuff and huge crowds and pick-pocketers and stuff. So I was nervous because I don't like to look like a tourist but in a white shirt and tie, and being American, all I look like is a tourist, haha! But it was totally the opposite of what I had heard! So I was so happy and I will definitely need to go back when I am going home and buy souveniors and stuff! I will send pictures! Elder Machado was really excited to see the place where Michael Jackson filmed his music video "They Don't Care About Us". We took lots of pictures! It was a fun p-day! 

Tuesday was a busy day and I think we taught 5 lessons! One of the coolest ones was with this girl named Adrielle, her finaceé Lucas, and her little brother Juan. Adrielle and Juan are inactive members and were baptized a couple years ago and we found them last week. Lucas is really cool and interested. During the lesson he seemed like he wasn't very interested and didn't seem to into it but when we started to talk about Joseph he started to perk up. I think it is because so many people have the same question as young Joseph did about which church to join. Especially here because every street has like 4 churches with every one teaching differently. After we bore our testimonies about Joseph we invited them to pray to know if he was a prophet and they all accepted. Normally after the first lesson we give the first pamphlet for people to read and pray about. It isn't very big and it is easy to understand. But I realized Lucas really liked the story about Joseph so I pulled out the bigger blue pamphlet that tells all of his story and gave it to Lucas!! He was so happy and said he would read! 

Wednesday night we had a cool little miracle! So we had a tiring day, and at night all of our appointments were falling thru! But we had one that we were excited for which was Crislania and Joilson, the couple we found Sunday night! So we get there and no one was home. I was like come on man! So I look at Elder Machado and I said, "Well, we got some bad luck today." So we started to walk up the street and we knocked on the door like 2 up from the other couple we were supposed to visit. And this woman answered! She was super nice and we were doing our door approach and from inside we hear, "Invite them in!" So we went in and met another great couple. The lady who answered the door was named Tatiani and she is 29. Her husband is named Daniel and is 25 I think. They aren't from here so they have funny accents. They are from Brasil but just a different part! Anyways we entered into their little house and gave a lesson. There was no where to sit so we stood. It was so spiritual as we talked about the Restoration and how Jesus gave the blueprints when he was on the earth. The coolest part was at the end when Tatiani looked at us with tears in our eyes and said, "Could this really be the true church?" We bore our testimonies that it is! And then invited her to pray about it! It was so amazing! 

Thursday we visited Lucas. It is not the Lucas I talked about earlier, it is the Lucas who is 13. He is awesome. He has a baptismal date for the 17th. This whole week he wanted us to visit because he is really liking our visits. We taught him the whole week and he loved it. He is a funny kid and really seems to be growing spiritually! We have to hope he stays that way!  

Friday night we had another funny and cool experience with a man we taught named Reinan. We found him doing contacts last week and we finally got to teach him Friday night. It was a great first lesson and he really enjoyed everything that we were talking about. Towards the end of the lesson I said to him, "So we have a few invitations that we want to extend to you." And before I could start to talk he asks, "Are you going to ask me to be a missionary too? I know I am 24 but I don't think I can do that." It was so funny hahah. We were like no! We just were going to invite you to read, pray, and go to church. He laughed and accepted then we challenged him to be baptized and he also accepted! He couldn't go to church this week because he was working but I think this week he will go with us! It was a fun lesson and Reinan is a cool guy! 

So about the whole Rita situation. We have been pretty confused and in the dark as to why out of nowhere she just stopped talking to us. We were told it was because she was sick but then the excuse changed and we were just confused. We have been going there still to visit Ellen because she is new here and a recent convert. This week we went there a few times and one time we got there at night and we usually don't go at night and the minute she saw us she booked it inside and wouldn't talk to us. So we have been pretty bummed out because she was like the most elect person I had ever seen. What we have figured out is that she probably has a difficulty with one of the commandments because since that lesson she hasn't talked to us. We have been using Ellen to tell her stuff and that repentance can heal and forgive and stuff. We hope it will work and we are praying like crazy for her. Only time will tell! 

Saturday night we had a great lesson! Maybe my favorite all week! We finally got a hold of Joilson and Crislania! We went to visit them Saturday night and had an amazing lesson. We had been planning on teaching them about the Book of Mormon but when we got there and were talking to them before the lesson started I started to feel that we needed to teach them about the Plan of Salvation. So right as we were about to start the lesson I looked over at Elder Machado to say that we would teach the Plan of Salvation. Before I could say anything he goes, "Plan of Salvation!" I just laughed and thought it was so cool how the Spirit told us both the same thing. We had a great lesson with them afterwards. It is very interesting to teach them because they don't really have a religious background. But they loved the lesson and both said that the goal is to make it to the Celesial Kingdom! They also accepted the baptismal invitation but they will take a little more time I think. They will need to adjust some stuff in their lives haha. But it was awesome! 

I think that is all I got! Our Sunday was a good one! These next few weeks here will be interesting because Carnaval starts and everyone will be our drinking and partying. Also doesn't help that one of the biggest Carnaval places in all of Brasil is Salvador haha. But we are excited for the challenge and things will go well! 

Love you all! Have a great week! 

#itsalltrue

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson