"We had TEN investigators at church!"

Visiting Israel and his family with Elder Gomes this week! 

Hey everyone! 

How are you all doing?!I hope everyone is having a fantastic week. I hope you all had as good as a week as we did! I will try to hit all the highlights but it was a lot of stuff and we are crunched on time! We came down to Porto Seguro again last night because we are going to be doing some divisions or tradeoffs, or whatever you call it in English, with the Elders here on Tuesday. So we decided to take advantage and come see the sights today of Porto Seguro. This is the city where Brasil was discovered!!! So early this morning we headed off to the historical city here and it was super pretty with amazing ocean views and a lot of cool history stuff! I love ocean views and history so I was in heaven! The problem is that the companionship photographer (AKA Elder Hilton :-) forgot his camera adaptor that uploads the photos to the computer! It isn't his fault though, haha!  Last night we had to pack up real fast and grab a bus, so in the rush he forgot it. We are still trying to find a way to send them but as of now this week won't have any pics! I will just send double pics next week! Anyway, let's go back in time and start with the beginning of last wek! 

Last Monday was good. We had a fun night. We headed over to Israel place. When we got there it was a little weird because Israel seemed really tired and no one else was there. He told us that he had just accepted us that day because he didn't want to be rude, haha! He was working overtime at his workshop right next to his house and he stopped for a little bit to have us over and to eat a small dinner. We were kind of sad because we had wanted to teach the whole family and we didn't even really get to have a lesson but it was still good to talk with him and he even took us into his work. He makes these big signs and posters for shops and it was really cool. So that was the only thing with him on Monday but it was still a good little visit.

Tuesday night we had a really cool lesson. So I can't remember if I wrote about it but last week we had this man named Jailton at church. His son is the only priest in our branch and he brought his dad. His work schedule changed and now he can go to church. His stepdaughter just left on her mission a couple months ago but he is not a member. On Sunday we marked to go see him on Tuesday. We got there at 7 o'clock and had a wonderful lesson. When we showed up they were there waiting for us and we started out by asking Jailton about his religious beliefs. We found out that back a long time ago he had taken the missionary discussions with his kids but had never been interested to be baptized. He then said that he feels kind of the same way now but we were not discouraged! We went right into the first lesson and it was great. It was cool because we got to teach the Restoration in a different style that we were going to train on at the Zone conference later in the week. And it was also really cool because his son Lucas was with us. He stayed pretty quiet the whole time but it was great. At the end of the lesson we told Jailton that he needs to pray. We invited him to read and pray about our message. I said, "Irmão Jailton we know these things are true and if you find out that they are true too, it would change your life forever." He agreed and then said he would read and pray about our message. We are just praying now that he gets his answer and that his work doesn't go back to the old schedule! 

Wednesday was an interesting day. We just had to organize a bunch of stuff to get ready for the Zone Conference that was going to happen the next day. Then we got a bus that night and found Elder Gomes, one of the Assitants! He was in a different city with President Bangerter at a different zone conference and was now traveling down to Porto Seguro to come to our Zone Conference. The bus ride from Eunápolis to Porto Seguro is just an hour so it was easy. We got to bed around midnight at the elders house in Porto Centro and it was funny because we had to fit 5 guys into a small room because it has air conditioning!!!! 

Thursday was great! We had the Zone Conference and saw our small little zone of 14 missionaries! We had a great day! Elder Hilton and I got to give a training on this thing called MRV. In our mission it means "visitas de ministrar, resgatar, e verificar." That means "visits to minister, rescue, and verify." It is the program that President Bangerter introduced to our mission when he got here 3 years ago to visit less-active and inactive members. The program keeps evolving and changing for the better and we got to talk about it. It was great and at the end we talked about the Restoration and gave a quick little practice lesson using the pamphlet, in 5 minutes. It was super awesome. That night we got a bus to go back to our area with Elder Gomes because he came to do a division with us. That night we got home and then ran over to Israel's place. We had been planning on teaching them the Plan of Salvation for a few visits but we wanted the whole family there! We had never had a lesson with the whole family present. So we finally lucked out and the whole family was there!!! Quick note, when we got there and we were eating,(they always give us dinner!) Elder Gomes was introducing himself and asking a little about them. Israel started to talk and out of nowhere goes, "...I am also a pastor *looks over to us kind of laughing* and I totally forgot to tell you two that." Me and Elder Hilton were shocked haha! It kind of made sense because he seems like the type but then he started to explain that he is not a full-time pastor obviously. He is just a "help-pastor" and has been part of some groups to start different churches in Eunapolis. Needless we were pretty shocked. Then we started the lesson. We taught the Plan of Salvation and it was amazing. Elder Gomes is the man! He knows the scriptures so well and we were all so in sync. I shared some experiences with them about Gramma and then at the end we talked about how it is all possible because of Christ. We testified of the truthfulness and importance of the Atonement and it was so spiritual in the room. And then Elder Hilton just went for it, he invited them to be baptized!!! They have all been baptized in other churches already so we talked about how they invitation is to be baptized by the authority of the Priesthood and then we focused on the recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost and how they can receive that by the laying on of hands. It was awesome and they  really commit to the date but said they would continue to pray to know if it is true.  So it was a great lesson and they said they would come to church!! 

Friday was another full day! We finally found this man named Alefe! He was found by Elder Loureiro when he was here in Eunapolis like 2-3 transfers ago. He was so close to being baptized but then Elder Loureiro was transferred and he fell through. The elders worked with him last transfer but he was just different. So this transfer we had NOT been able to find him! But we finally lucked out and did! We taught him and it was super great. We watched the video of Peter walking on water and then falling and Christ reaching out to grab him. Then the video of Christ's baptism. We watched those to prepare him for the conversation because he seems afraid to get baptized then just go mess up and go inactive. We told him, if Peter started to lose faith and sink, imagine us! We surely will, but Jesus is there to reach out and grab us! It was awesome and he accepted a baptismal date for May 5th! 

Friday we also went by real quick to visit Branca and Iasmin. We didn't have a lot of time because Elder Gomes had to leave to grab his bus back to Salvador and we weren't on bikes. We don't have a 3rd one so we walked and wow I realized that I do not miss walking haha! I love the bikes! It makes things a lot more effecient. Anyways we just went and talked about the last lesson when we invited them to be baptized. They remembered and Elder Gomes asked if they are praying. Branca says she is and then we talked about how we need to put our faith in practice to get an answer! It was really great for the time we had! 

Saturday we had a busy day visiting and following up with people for them to go to church on Sunday. At the end of the night we had about 15 people confirmed to go to church! That is usually a common thing and usually ends with like 5 people at church. But man oh man, Sunday was a good one. 

We got up early and got to the church early to wait and greet people. First Jailton and Lucas showed up which was awesome! That was already 1 investigator at church. At around 8:50 no one else had shown up! Members or investigators. It was super weird. Then this dude on a motorcycle showed up and said that a member had invited him to come. He could only stay for an hour but we invited him in and he came, that was 2. Then it was like 9:05 and we had to go in to start the meeting. We walked in a little sad and then they asked us to bless the sacrament. When we were about to start Branca walked in with Iasmin and one other girl named Irana, (another daughter of hers that we didn't know existed haha). We got super happy and that was 5 investigators! So the meeting continued and we were happy but also a little sad because Israel and his family had said they would come and didn't show up. So we walked out and called them and they said they were coming! At about 9:45, during the last talk, Israel and his WHOLE family showed up! It was so awesome because the whole branch looked over and saw them walk in with us! We had saved a row in the front so everyone saw haha! It was so awesome! The last talk finished and the closing hymn was "Families can be Together Forever"!!! It was amazing! We had TEN investigators at church!!!!!!!!! We were so happy. The members here were amazing and immediately went and talked to all of them and treated them great and really fellowshipped. We were so pumped! They even stayed. So we will follow up with all of these people this week and see what they thought of church!!!!! It was an amazing Sunday that ended that night with a transmission from the Area Presidency for all of Brasil! 

So that was our week! I love the Savior and this work of His! It is a sacred work that brings sacred experiences! I love it more than anything! 

Love you all too! Have a great week! 

#Itsalltrue

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

Israel and his family a few weeks ago. They take pictures each time we visit and sent us a few this week.