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