"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