Elder Spencer 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