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