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
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