Elder Spencer Christofferson: "Everybody go out and serve someone!"

Elder Palma

Hey everybody!

How are you all doing?! I hope you guys all had a fantastic week and a wonderful Mothers Day! Mothers Day here in Brasil happens to fall on the same day as it is in the United States! But I will get more to that later. We had a fantastic first week of the new transfer here in Eunápolis, with lots of exciting things happening! So I will try to get all the adventures and details into this email!

Monday night Elder Hilton finished packing and I got ready to go down to Porto Seguro for the night. Here in Eunápolis there are no young men who can come stay with me and we are the only missionaries and since Elder Hilton was leaving and I can't be alone, I headed down to Porto Seguro to stay with Elder de Jesus for the night before my new companion Elder Palma got here. Funny side note, we almost missed Elder Hilton's bus! It was at 7:35 or something and I grabbed the phone and went to call the taxi at 7 o'clock and the worst thing possible happened! Our phone ran out of minutes!! But I could still call other missionaries but no one else, super weird. So after asking the neighbor, (who also didn't have minutes), standing out front of our house trying our luck to see if a taxi would go by, and calling a bunch of missionaries like a crazy person to do a conference call with the taxi here, we finally got one and raced to the bus station. We got there at like 7:30. It was crazy but Elder Hilton got his bus and I grabbed one a few minutes later to Porto and spent the night there with Elder de Jesus, who is also in his last transfer! It was a crazy but fun last day with Elder Hilton, who is probably at some beach right now haha!

Tuesday morning I got up and got a bus back to Eunápolis and got to the bus station at about 11:30. Elder Palma arrived from his last area just about that time as well so we headed home. The majority of the day was filled with organizing and unpacking but that night we had a cool experience. A member of the branch presidency had called us and asked if we could go over to the home of a less-active member and give her a priesthood blessing. We went over and met Renata. She is a young woman who is about 25 and she lives with her dad. She is the sister of one of the active members of our branch, Flavia, who is going on a mission soon. It was just a cool little experience because every time that I have the privilege of giving priesthood blessings I always remember the stories of the Savior. I love all the stories of how He healed and cured those who needed it. We gave a blessing to Renata and then to her non-member father, who already knows the church pretty well. It was a humbling experience as we are ministering as the Savior would. Having that opportunity is very special!

Wednesday was an AWESOME day. Everything that we planned happened as we had planned it! First during the day we found Alefe! He is that guy that has been an investigator for a good few months now and has just kept flaking out. So we went there with the purpose of seeing if he is really sincere and wants to follow Christ or not. We actually found him at home, which never happens, and had a good talk with him and his wife Gisele. We read 2 Nephi 31 which has become one of my favorite chapters of the Book of Mormon as a missionary. I LOVE it!! Everything that we want and need to say is all just there, but written by an inspiried prophet of God. At the end of the lesson we asked Alefe what he needs to do. He pointed to the scripture that says, "can we follow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?" and said, "I think I have been going in circles long enough and need to start really following Jesus." It was awesome! We challenged him to baptism and he accepted so now time will really tell if he really wants to follow the Savior.

Another awesome lesson from Wednesday was from when we found a girl named Tais. She was a referill from some other missionaries in our zone that had talked to her in the bus station last transfer. Me and Elder Hilton had tried to schedule to meet her a bunch of times and had never gotten too. Wednesday we decided to just show up at her house and see if she was there and she was! Tais is the best! She is such a happy person and already just seems like a member of the church. We taught her about the Restoration and she loved it. In her prayer at the end she asked God to "help me find the truth and know if this is all true." As a missionary we can't ask for much more than that!

ALSO on Wednesday we went and met with Branca! She is doing super well and she got to meet Elder Palma. We read with her Alma 32 and WOW I forgot how AMAZING that chapter is! It was like perfect for her! It was funny because at the end of the lesson we asked what she thought and she said, kind of ironically, "I know, I know! I have the seed of the Gospel in me and I have to let it grow and get baptized." It was funny because she knew exactly what we were trying to say to her even though we didn't say anything haha! Branca just needs her answer and she will get baptized! She is a great lady.

Thursday we had a fun afternoon as we met with Irana! Irana is Branca's daughter that she had brought to church once and that me and Elder Hilton had taught once and it went really well. During the last week with Elder Hilton we couldn't seem to find her and we didn't know what to do. Once again on Thursday me and Elder Palma just decided to try our luck and go by there and we found her. We had an awesome lesson with her about the Book of Mormon and she really loved it. She committed to praying more and going to church.

Thursday afternoon we got a bus to go up to Salvador because we had the mission leadership council once again! We had once again 12 hours to go to Salvador and it was not fun haha. We slept very little. But the council on Friday was fantastic! We learned a lot and the focus was on the Book of Mormon! We talked a lot about how we can use it more in our teaching and how we can help our investigators understand why it is so special and essential to knowing if the church is true. The Book of Mormon really does hold it all together and we have to understand that. I love the power that I feel when I read the Book of Mormon. And we have to read it everyday like the Prophet says!!

After another long 12 hour bus ride Thursday night we got home Saturday morning super tired. But that didn't stop us! We headed over to visit Irana again! We had a plan. One of our worries with her is that she wasn't legally married to her husband! She is only 17 but already lives with Samuel, who is 21. We had thought they were legally married but then some of the girls from the ward had told us that they weren't. On Thursday we had found out that they ARE legally married and we were really excited! So Saturday when we headed over we were planning on challenging her to get baptized! We read with her 3 Nephi 11 and it was a really spiritual lesson. When we got towards the end of the chapter there are two verses in a row where the Savior tells us to become as a little child and be baptized. After we read those two verses, Elder Palma asked, "Irana, will you follow what the Lord is telling us to do and be baptized to become pure like a little child?" She smiled and said, "I would love to!" So we gave her the goal for Saturday the 19th! She has already been to church twice, and would go again on Sunday and is just really elect. She believes everything we say and knows it is all true! So Irana is planning on getting baptized on Saturday! Pray that all will go well for her!

Sunday was great and we had a few people at church! Irana came as promised and loved it! It is so cool because all of the members took her in so well! When the young women and the children went up to sing the mothers day hymn, they grabbed her to go up too haha! It was funny and she loved it! There was also this other kid named Kaique that one of the ladies in our ward took for the first time and he was super cool so we are hoping to be able to visit him this week!

After church our buddy Flavia opened her mission call that we had picked up from Salvador for her! Whenever people receive their mission calls here the church sends them to the Mission Home and they stay their until someone picks it up or until someone is traveling to/from the area. Her call had been at the mission home for a week or 2 and she was so excited for us to pick it up for her. She is going to Argentina! It was super cool because no one was expecting it! There are currently 4 missionaries from our small little branch who are out serving! Flavia will be the fifth and she is the first to go out of the country! I love our good little branch here in Eunápolis!

Flavia after she opened her mission call and William, a counselor in the Branch Presidency

Sunday night we got to talk to our families! It was AWESOME! It was super weird this time because it was my last skype and I wasn't sad at the end because I will see my wonderful family kind of soonish! I love them all!