Pouring Rain and No Power

District meeting with Elder Loureiro and Elder Pereira. We were all wearing ties with that type of pattern.

Hi everybody!! 

How are you all doing?! I hope you all had an amazing week! Our week here in Salvador was FULL of adventures. Crazy is another word to describe this week. Always a lot going on so I will try to remember everything that happened. 

Last Monday we headed over to a part of my old area in Imbuí, called Parque de Pituaçu. It is this huge park next to the beach. It is like what I imagine Central Park is like, just smaller. But there is a bunch of fun stuff to do there. We met up with some of the other missionaries and went to do the bike trail! It was long, but a lot of fun because I remembered how cool it is to ride bikes, haha. Our mission isn't really a bike riding mission. I think that there are only 2 areas in the whole mission that use bikes and I've never been in either of them so being on a bike was fun. We had a blast riding through the jungle! I will try to get the photos that were taken by some of the other missionaries since I forgot my camera. I will send them once I get them. 

Tuesday was a cool day too. A couple weeks ago we had found this girl named Janet. Well actually she found us. We were walking home and we were almost home and right in front of our house is this big town square type of thing and it is always packed with people because there are two huge churches there. But this girl walked over to us as we passed by and asked us who we were. Long story short, her name is Janet and she is awesome. That day we marked a lesson with her. But when we went to find her house, we couldn't find it! We got confused and ended up lost and disappointed. So that brings us to Tuesday. We were walking on the street again and someone yelled, "I waited for you guys!". We look and it was her! It was a miracle to find her again. Once again we set an appointment with her and she explained how to get to her house. Tuesday night we went to find it and after a while of searching we found it.  She has a twin sister that we met too. We had the first lesson with her and she loved it! The Spirit of the Lord is present when we talk about the wonderfrul truths of the Restoration. There is not a doubt in my mind that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth. What a blessing we have to live in this time! Janet loved the lesson and she has a lot of potential! 

Wednesday was craziness. First off we headed over to an area in our zone called Itinga for the district meeting there because our district leader had to do a surgery this week and wasn't able to have a meeting. That was fun to see the other missionaries there and I always love district meetings! Then we came back to our area and were working normally, "preaching the word", as people say here, when about 3 o´clock we realized that the power in the neighborhood we were in had gone out. That isn't a rare thing and the power always comes back pretty quickly so we just went about normal business. But the power wasn't coming back on....! We then got a call from Elder Prince, the secretary, saying that the power in the whole city had gone out!! We were pretty shocked so we grabbed our little phone that is a radio too and turned on the FM radio. We soon discovered that the power outage wasn't just Salvador, it was the WHOLE COUNTRY OF BRASIL!!! Like everything was turned off. It was insane. And there was no time estimate for when it would come back in our city. They got it back pretty quickly in the main cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, but for us they didn't know how long it would take. Soon after the news started to spread the people started to get crazy. Everyone was making crazy preparations and the traffic was insane. It looked like a movie scene. I decided that we should go buy candles to have some sort of light throughout the night. About 6:15 we went to the store to buy them. I bought some and about 5 minutes later what happened? The power came back on. Elder Loureiro laughed so hard at me! haha. Just my luck. But it was a fun adventure. To add to the adventure of the power being out, it was also POURING RAIN. So combine the rain with the power being out for so long and we had a lot of opportunities to serve.  We saw one man whose car and slid off the road because of all the rain. He was stuck in the mud so we headed over to help get him out. Then we saw a lady taking some of her things in to the house and trying to keep them from getting soaked so we ran over to help her which she was so appreciative of. I love finding the little ways to help others and even if it doesn't turn in to someone hearing our message and being baptized, serving others always makes me love my Savior more because it brings us closer to him. It reminds me of the scripture in Mosiah 2:17 that says " and behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God". I love to serve! 

Thursday was a less crazy day. Our bff member here named Ingrid, had a tough week with some stuff and was struggling so we went over with the sisters on Thursday night to help her feel better. We got her to laugh a lot and we had a fun time. I love how as a missionary, or not, we can help people smile and feel better. I think it is so awesome that we have that power! God gave us the agency to choose how we feel. And when people need help to feel happy, we can help. And anyone can do it! So go out and make someone smile today! 

Friday was another crazy adventure. In the morning we headed over to Itinga, a part of our zone, to do a baptismal interview. Elder Loureiro got to do the interview with the lady named Jessica and it went perfectly! Jessica had been struggling a lot with a young son and she was out of a job. One day she walked by the chapel and felt the impression to go in, but she ignored it. So for months every time she walked by she felt the same impression and always said no. But after months of her life getting worse, she decided one day to go in. It was a Sunday morning. The first person who saw her was President Gunça, one of the counselors in the stake presidency who just got called to be the first mission president ever in a new mission that will open in Rio de Janeiro. (So he is the man.) He saw her and said, "Welcome! Come sit with me and my family." Jessica said that no one had ever been that nice to her. She immediately felt a warm feeling. A few short weeks later she was ready to be baptized! And she was on Saturday and it went perfectly. The coolest part of the situation is that when she started investigating the church she had no house or job. Now she has a full-time job and will move into a small apartment with a low rent. In about 3 weeks that all happened and her life completely turned around. It is amazing how God blesses us when we do what is right! 

Friday afternoon I got sick. I think I had eaten something bad and got some food poisoning that was not fun. Being sick killed the rest of our Friday and I spent the rest of the day in bed. 

Saturday I was feeling better but then my companion started to feel sick. He was good enough to work and we had a good day despite him not feeling well. That night we had a family night marked with the sisters and our investigators at Ingrid's house. All of the investigators ended up bailing last minute which was lame but turned out a blessing because while we were there Elder Loureiro started to have a lot of stomach pain. He was so sick that he asked me to give him a blessing.  I love the privilge of having Heavenly Father's holy power to help others when they are in need.  We ended up taking Elder Loureiro to a 24hr clinic in our area. It was pouring rain and when we got there it was packed. After waiting about 10 minutes Elder Loureiro started to throw up and was just not doing so hot. It was about 10 o'clock. We (the sisters were with us) decided it would be better to take him to a real hospital that was a private one. It was far away but would be worth it. Irmã Leide was with us and called her cousin to come get us. To summarize the rest of the story, we left the emergency room at 2AM and Elder Loureiro has a stomach virus that is strong. 

So leading into that our Sunday was tough too. We didn't go to church because Elder Loureiro was still not doing so hot but we got the medicine that the doctor told him to get and he started to get better. He is currently doing a lot better as of this morning and is looks like things will go back to normal soon! President Bangerter was in the area yesterday and stopped by to visit us and make sure we were doing better. It was nice to have him at our apartment to visit with for a bit. I love President Bangerter. 

So that was my crazy week! But through it all I was feeling really happy. The Spirit really helped me this week stay positive through some tough times to help some people. This is the last week of the transfer and I'm pretty sure next week I'll be transferred since I've been here for FOUR transfers and in this area for SIX. I have loved my time here but I'm ready to move on. I feel so bleessed by the Lord and I have had the chance to meet and teach some pretty incredible people. Through all of the things I have gone through so far on my mission, I have learned, without doubt, that this is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ! I'm so grateful that this week it's going to be Easter AND General Conference giving us the opportunity to hear from our NEW Prophet and the Apostles to help us remember Him even more. I am so grateful to be a missionary and be a representative of Him. What a blessing!!!

Love you all! Have an amazing week! 

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

#itsalltrue

#HeLives

"I know that Christ lives!"

A little sight seeing around Salvador last P-day! 

Hi Everyone! 

How are you all doing?! I hope everyone is doing great! We had kind of a slow week around here it seemed like but it was overall another good one! I will try to get everything interesting and fun that happened into the email! 

Last Monday afternoon we headed over to Pelourinho again! It is that super touristy place here in Salvador. We met up with some of the other Elders in the city, Elder Costa and Elder Vander Werff. Elder Costa was trained by Elder Estevam so I had heard a lot about him and he is awesome. And Elder Vander Werff got here one transfer after me so he has a lot of time and I know him pretty well already. He is so funny and crazy. We had a fun time and we walked to a new place that I hadn't seen called Farol da Barra, which is a sweet old lighthouse fort thing! It was such a cool place on the coast and we had a great time! I will send pics!  

So Tuesday wasn't the best day ever because I was sick. I felt a sore throat coming on Sunday night and kind of limped along Monday using a bunch of medicine but Tuesday it kind of hit me full on! I don't really understand how someone can get a cold in a place like this but I did haha! I had a runny nose, sore throat, and headache! We did a couple visits Tuesday but I was suffering so we decided it would be better for me to rest to get better faster. And it worked! By Wednesday afternoon I was totally feeling better and back to normal! 

Wednesday we had a cool conversation with Raissa. She is the girl who has a neighbor who is a member who took her to church last week! So Raissa used to be an investigator a year or so ago and we went to visit her on Wednesday afternoon. She is awesome! She said that she realized that her life wasn't really going the way that she had planned and that she felt like she needed to change. She said that after she was thinking about that one day, she remembered our church! So she went and talked to her neighbor and decided to come to church. So we were pretty excited to hear all that stuff. But it is not going to be easy to help her follow Christ. She lived in a pretty tough place that has a lot of bad influences around her. It seems like she is going to have to change her friends and some habits. But the desire to be better is what is the first step and she has that. I know that when we really want to change, God will bless us with his Holy Spirit to guide and help us in that endeavor. So we are excited for Raissa and are hoping that she progresses well! 

Thursday we went to visit Rosalia! She is one tough cookie that Rosalia haha. She read the pamphlet we left for her though, which has never really happened before so we were pretty excited about that! Rosalia really just needs to decide to change her life and she will be perfect. But one of the things I learned when Elder Bednar was here is that we as missionaries take the message and the Spirit to the heart of the person, but the person has to open her heart to accept the message. So as hard as that can be for us, we have to be okay with just doing our part, which is the case with Rosalia it seems! 

Friday we went to talk with Rita! Remember her? She was that totally elect girl who almost got baptized but then some stuff happened and she like dropped off the map and we never got to teach her again. Well these last couple weeks as we pass by her house we have stopped by just to see how she is doing and talk to her. She is doing a lot better and seems like she is back to normal and wanting to hear more about our message again. We marked to go by on Friday afternoon. When we got there she said that something else came up and that she had to leave with her family but that she had a few minutes. So we still got to visit with her for about 15 minutes. It was awesome and we reminded her of the first lesson and of the Restoration of the Gospel! It was great! I love how everytime that we talk about the Restoration the same feelings of joy and happiness come into my heart! It is a testimony to me every single time that all that we teach is truly the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Rita loved our quick message and we are also hoping for progress with her! 

Saturday was my favorite day of the week by far. So remember Imbui? The last area that I served in? Well I don't know if I ever mentioned but that ward has been meeting in a small rented building for almost 2 years. The chapel that they had was old and needed to be reformed. The predicted time it would take was a little less than under a year. But a ton of problems kept coming up so the chapel wasn't ready for almost 2 years! But now it is!!!! So the stake president wanted a few companionships at the open house on Saturday to help the ward. Of course I was going to go! It was my old ward, and I was blessed enough to still be here to see the chapel that I so badly wanted to see! We showed up Saturday morning and I got to see all my old friends from that ward! I heard many, "What are you still doing here?!"s. It was funny but I was loving every moment. We stayed in the front doing contacts on the street and inviting people in to see the chapel. Inside the chapel the members were doing some other services for free. Medical exams, haircuts, etc. It was awesome and I think I did around 150 contacts just during the 4 hours in the morning! I also got ridiculously sunburned, as did my companion and Elder Davis (one of the APs who was there) but we had a great time! I love being a missionary and talking to people without fear! We have the best message that exists!! 

To end my email for the week I wanted to share an experience that happened on Sunday. So I was asked to give the class in Gospel Principles on Sunday and I accepted. I thought it was going to super chill and normal and during the week I studied the lesson. It was on the Life of Jesus Christ. It might be the biggest chapter in the Gospel Principles manual! Anyways I was prepared and excited. Our class Sunday had about 10 people including the missionaries. Anyways from the second we started the class I was overwhelmed by the Spirit. It was the strongest feeling that Jesus is the Christ. As we studied the life of Jesus I was so touched, and grateful for all that He did for us. We got to the last two sections of the chapter at the end of the class and I invited the class to read the last two sections alone and think about all the blessings that we have recieved because of what Christ did for us. The last two sections were about the Atonement and the Ressurection. It was so cool to see everyone get quiet and start to read about Gethsemane, and how Jesus suffered. Then to read about the Ressurection and how Christ rose and so will we. It was amazing. I know that Christ lives. I am so grateful for this Easter season and the opportunity we have to remember the Ressurection and life of Christ. He lives. I don't have a doubt. 

I love you all! Have a great week! 

#itsalltrue

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

"I love this gospel and I love being a missionary and I love all of you!"

ELDER WILDE- A good friend that I know from the BRAZIL CTM (MTC). We haven't seen each other Since we both left the mission. He's in the Salvador Mission so it was awesome to be able to see him. 

Hey Everybody! 

How are you all doing?! I hope you guys had an amazing week like we had here in Salvador Brasil! It was full of a lot of meetings so for us it was a little hard to actually be in our area teaching, but we managed to get some nice lessons in there as well. We had some amazing experiences at our leadership council and then with Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles later in the week! I will try to hit all the highlights! 

So Tuesday we had a cool experience with someone who we always seem to, for some reason, keep trying to visit haha. We went to visit Rosalia! I don't know if you guys remember who she is. I first met her my first week here I think and she is hilarious. She is the mother of three members who are now inactive but they are awwesome too. Rosalia has heard the missionary lessons a ton of times and she knows a lot. Her problem is that she just can't seem to make the decision to get up and change her life! When we visit her she always talks about how she needs to repent and change and that she needs to go to church, and be baptized and all that stuff. So that gets us all excited but then she never does any of those things she says. And it seems like she wants to try and do it! So we are just trying to help her do that. So Tuesday we went and taught her and just kind of laid everything out on the table and told her what we thought about the whole situation. She seemed like she has decided to really try and change so we are hopeful for the future. She read the little part of the pamphlet that we left with her and I think it was like the first time ever she has read the thing we left with her so that is exciting! I will keep updating! 

Wednesday was exciting because it was the council meeting! I love council meetings for many reasons. Some of them include, seeing all my friends, fantastic food from Dalva (she is the member who practically lives in the mission home and has been taking care of and working in the mission home for the last like 5 mission presidents here) sitting in air conditioning all day (a rarity given the fact that like nothing here has AC), and lastly because I get to see and hear from President and Sister Bangerter and feel the Spirit! So Council is always awesome. This month was great because we talked about the new ward mission plan for our mission. So yes as of recently, very few wards and branches in our mission had ward mission plans! (I thought that all wards had it because in my home ward we have one and it is always a big focus of the ward! So shoutout to the best ward ever SR!!!!! Miss you guys!) Anyways, President realized that a ton of the mission is without a ward mission plan so he created one! It is awesome and helps the ward and us missionaries be more united in all parts of the work! The missionary work in the world always will go better when the missionaries and members work together! So I am hoping that this plan can get put into place in the mission. It is going to take time and patience, but if it works, it will help SOOO much! 

Thursday was a fun day too! Some of the Sisters were staying in Mussurunga after our meeting on Wednesday because they are Sister Leaders and President let the council stay in Salvador until Friday to see Elder Bednar, instead of having to go back to their areas and watch via transmission. Because Ingrid and Jefferson knew them from when they served in our area, on Thursday night they invited all of us over for a family night! There were 6 of us missionaries, Ingrid, Jefferson, and their kids! So it was a fun night. I had another one of those "whoa, I'm on a mission moments" again! Kinda funny that I am still having these moments even though I have been here for over a year and a half haha! Anyways at one point I looked out the window and saw the jungles of Salvador and then looked around the room with a bunch of people who I didn't know at all a few months ago, everyone speaking a different language, and I thought, "How crazy in this?!" It was awesome and it made me truly grateful to be a missionary in the best mission ever! 

Friday was the big day! Elder Bednar was in town!!! So we got up early and headed over to the chapel in Amaralina! It is in the Salvador zone in our mission and is a historic chapel as it was the first built in the entire state of Bahia! So we got there early and saw the other mission as well! From our mission, there were all the missionaries from the 2 zones in Salvador and the leaders from the mission who got to stay in town. From the other mission were 4 zones from in and around Salvador. One of the best parts was when I saw my buddy Elder Wilde! We were in the MTC together and my district and his disrict there were always together! He left the MTC a week before us and I was always hoping that I would be able to meet up with him at some time during the mission! So my wish was granted. He showed up after me and when he walked in he saw me and was like, "NO WAY!" haha it was awesome and we stuck together like the whole day! I loved it! I will send pictures! 

Elder Bednar is the man. Wow it was so much more than I was expecting it was going to be. He was with his wife, and Elder Parrella of the 70 and his wife! It was cool because Elder Parrella was JUST in my home Stake a few months ago and is a good friend of my Grandparents. So cool to think he was JUST talking to my whole family in person not too long ago! Anyway, they all spoke and the translator for the Bednars was Elder Grohl, previously known as President Grohl the São Paulo MTC President when I was there! He is already done in that calling but he is doing great and it was so fun for all the misisonaries to see him! Elder Bednar was the last one to speak, but he did it so differently! He stood up and said "Elders and Sisters I know you are all waiting for a talk but that is not happening today!" What he did was ask us questions about what we learned reading the talks that he assigned the missions to read before hand. So he just asked us what we learned and responded to our comments and then towards the end opened it up for us to ask him questions! He was so funny and not hard on us at all!  He definitely says things the way they should be but it was so awesome. We all felt the Spirit and learned so much. And his wife is so amazing and is so positive and honest and talked a lot about that. And Elder Parrella is awesome too! I loved every second! 

Saturday was fun because we got to get up at 5 AM to go help a member build his house. Yep, we helped him put a roof on and build some walls. There were like 15 other people helping too and it was awesome. I got to shovel concrete into buckets and then take them up stairs for hours but it was actually a blast. Haha! It is definitly a service project that you wont't find in any other place in the world! 

Saturday afternoon we went to visit Marcos and it was kind of sad. So he had previously told us that he had a bunch of questions of stuff that he had found on the internet again so we showed up prepared. He asked us a ton of stuff about the Book of Mormon, (all of which we answered), and then at the end he just started asking us some deep questions about God and his existence. It was sad because he just can't understand and told us that he thinks it best for us to stop visiting him for lessons. We also decided that was best. It was really sad because we saw potential in him but he is just a little closed off to really trying to see if God exists. So it was sad but we will still pass by his place to see how he is doing.

Sunday was a great day and we had a ray of hope!! Raissa came to church. Raissa is the neighbor of a member and she is 15 I think. She was an investigator of the Elders last year and had gone to church a bunch of times. But never got baptized. When I first got to the area, me and Elder Estevam tried to visit her but it never really worked out because she didn't seem to interested anymore. But she came to church sunday with the member! After church I went to talk to her and set up an appointment for this week! She told me that she wants to change and that she is going to start coming to church every week again! So we are excited! 

I am a little sick today. I started to feel a sore throat come on last night and I am a little hoarse! I really don't understand how I can get a cold in this hot and humid place but it's all good hahaI I have an entire pharmacy that is still functioning that mom sent with me! 

I can't believe how fast time is flying though! General Conference is in a few weeks! That is crazy! After that I start into my last two transfers! Craziness. This week Elder Loureiro seemed quiet for a few days and that is not like him. Afterwards he told me that it had kind of hit him that we are finishing our missions. He was sad a little bit and I told him that just staying positive always helps and it seemed to help. Remember that we are going home in the same group haha. But he is the man and we are good friends! 

Wow! So I think that it is! To finish off the email I wanted ot share something from our meeting with Elder Bednar. So at the end he bore his testimony and WOW, it was POWERFUL. He testified that Christ lives, that the tomb is empty and that Jesus is Risen. That Jesus Christ guides this church and that He is aware of each and every one of us. It was so powerful and I have no doubt in my mind that what he said is true. I know that Jesus is risen and that in this Easter season we can remember that more and more. I love this gospel and I love being a missionary and i love all of you! Have a great week! 

#itsalltrue

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

So great to see my good friend Elder Castlemain

ELDER NORMAN- He's from Highland Utah and knows my cousin Jackson. He played baseball for Lone Peak High School. Cool to make the connection.

ELDER PAGE- Small world here too. Elder Page is from Lockhart Texas and knows my grandparents from when they lived there! 

Fun to see Sister Alves and Sister Skahill. They are Sister Training Leaders. 

Elder Bednar is coming on FRIDAY!!!!

Look at all those chairs piled on that truck behind me. Very typical Brazil! LOL! 

Hey everybody!

How are you all doing?! I hope everyone is doing great and had a fantastic week! Our week was really awesome and is going to be followed by one that's even better.! This week that is starting now is going to be crazy! Wednesday we have council meeting which I am pumped for because the leadership councils are always so awesome and we learn so much and I get to see all my old mission friends! And then the big news is that on Friday we have a meeting with ELDER DAVID A. BEDNAR, one of the Twelve Apostles!!! He is traveling through some parts of Brasil and will be stopping by Salvador! Last time an Apostle visited our mission was about 3 years ago so everyone is pretty excited. The sad thing is that the rest of the mission won't get to see him in person. We are going to be joining with the other mission too, all the missionaries in both missions won't get to actually be here in Salvador. So the missionaries who aren't in Salvador will watch via satelitte trasmission in their areas! But where am I? SALVADOR!!! WOOHOO! I will get to see Elder Bednar in person with all the other missionaries in Salvador. We are so excited and I know I am going to learn a lot. 

Tuesday we had a great day. One of the highlights was our lesson with Marcos! Marcos is the man! He is so sincere and just asks us a bunch of questions and isn't embarrassed to ask. So on Tuesday we got there and he started asking a bunch of questions about life after death and heaven and hell and all that stuff. We decided to not teach the full plan of salvation but just to read Alma chapter 40. It is a really great chapter. It talks a lot about the spirit world and the ressurrection. The best part was when we talked about the ressurrection. Marcos was so intrigued by the fact that everyone will ressurrect. We explained to him that because of Jesus Christ, all of us will ressurrect. He asked us why and we explained that because we all chose before this life to follow God's plan. I said to him, "Marcos, you already chose this plan once. You have heard these teachings! You just need to have faith and follow it again." He really thought about that one!! It was awesome but he just doesn't get why he had to forget all of it when he came to here to the earth. All in all we had a great conversation with him! 

Wednesday was another full day for us. In the morning we had interviews with President Bangerter and then we had our district meeting. The interviews were awesome. President Bangerter is the best! He was a little hard on me this time because our Zone hasn't had any baptisms in awhile, but he really helped me learn what I can do to improve and help my zone improve in our efforts. I got to see how I can be a better missionary myself and a better leader. At the end of the interview he asked if I was okay because he felt like he was a little harsh. I said, "President, you weren't harsh! And any interview we have just makes me excited." It is crazy. Anytime we have a district, zone, or council meeting too, I just get all pumped up afterwards to get out there and put into practice what I have learned at the meeting. It is the same thing as the interviews! It was awesome and it was followed by a great district meeting. 

Wednesday night we went and visited Marlene! She is an amazing woman. It is so humbling for me to see someone who has so little and is so happy at the same time. It is awesome to see. AND every time we go to visit her and her family she makes us a small dinner. So Wednesday we went and talked about how she was doing. She now has a calling at church and it is so awesome to see how much she has grown and changed in my time here. I remember way back when I got to this area and she was an "investigator" and had not told us that she was already a member haha. Her daughters are doing great too. They aren't very interested in the church right now it seems like which is sad. Especially because Evely got so close to being baptized in my first transfer here. But it was an awesome visit with Marlene and she is a wonderful example for me. 

Thursday we had another lesson with Marcos. We had decided to teach him the whole Plan of Salvation this time. It was an awesome lesson. Marcos was so quiet the whole time. It was so weird. It seemed like he was really thinking about all that we were teaching him. At the end of the lesson he asked us about how the Spirit communicates with us, or how we feel the spirit. We told him of our experiences. I shared the story about the beginning of my mission when I was in Itabuna and me and Elder Santana talked with that guy Jonathan, which ended up in us finding Patrick, who was a large part of my first area. I also shared about the story that Mom tells about how when she was driving in a storm and started to drift and went to put her foot on the brake but felt a strong impression not to press the brake. It was cool and then Elder Loureiro shared about how he didn't listen to the Spirit and the result was him getting robbed! It was cool and Marcos seems to be understanding little by little.

Friday was a fun day because it was Elder Loureiro's birthday. He was getting calls throughout the day from people wishing him happy birthday! It was really cool to see him so happy. Birthdays on your mission are interesting days but for Elder Loureiro it went great! Friday afternoon we headed over to another area in the zone to do a baptismal interview. I was the one who did it. The interview was with this man named Samuel. He is 20 and a great guy. The interview was going great and he knew everything and seemed ready for baptism. But when we got to the last question, to ask him if he felt ready to make this sacred convenant with God, he said "And that's where I get stuck." So we talked and he explained how he doesn't feel ready and says that all this process has been happening to fast. He said he felt that he hadn't gotten his answer yet. So I did everything I could think of to try and help him get his answer. We read scriptures, we prayed, and I was so certain he would get his answer! BUT, he still felt unprepared. I left pretty sad because I felt like I couldn't help him get his answer and afterwards I was talking to Elder Loureiro about it and he helped me feel better. He said, "Elder you did all you could. You brought the Spirit to the doorstep at his heart, but you can't open the door for him, he has to open it." I thought that was so cool because we had been studying about that during the week and I had forgotten so that helped me feel better!

Saturday was a great day and at night we had a little surprise party for Elder Loureiro at Ingrid's house. It was a lot of fun and he was happy. It made me remember my birthday and the surprise party that the members and Elder Estevam did here for me! 

So that was my week! It was a great one and flew by but I felt the Spirit of God so strongly during the week and I know that God lives now more than any other time in my life. Jesus is the Christ and because of Him we can all live with God again! 

Love you all! Have a great week! 

Elder Spencer Christofferson

#itsalltrue