"My LAST big letter as a Missionary!!!"

Elder Palma and I at my goodbye party thrown by the Ward!

Hey everybody!! 

Well well well.... I can't believe it, but this is my last big letter as a missionary!!!! I am still in shock and I don't think it has really hit me yet that I will back in the good ole' USA this week!! But I am also sad to have to leave my amazing Brasil!! But I will get to all those crazy details at the end of this email! For now I will just do the normal and talk about our week! Man it was a crazy one! And one full of miracles! We had a baptism on Saturday!!!!! Amazing right?! On my last Saturday as an Elder! But I will get to all that later too haha! Gotta start from the beginning of the week! 

So this week started kind of on Tuesday because that was the last day I wrote an email! Because of our zone conference last monday we had the first half of Tuesday as time to use email! That afternoon was normal work day! And man it was a busy one! We had Elder Gomes, one of the assistants, with us that day! It was crazy because we had to walk again! After the crash we got the bikes back on Sunday from the lady and took them home. We didn't use them at all on Monday. And Elder Gomes was here on Tuesday and we don't have a third bike so not tuesday either! So that meant we were on foot! It was so weird to work like that again! We had a blast the entire day doing fun contacts and teaching. We had a cool moment in the afternoon. We were looking for this one street and couldn't find it. So Elder Gomes walks up to a house, with its door open (that is super normal here) and asked the lady inside for info. She didn't really know how to inform us but we used that as an excuse to talk to her! She was an older lady and was washing dishes when we got there. We started talking to her about our message and asked if we could come in to share it with her! She accepted and we went in to teach her and her husband who was watching tv in the other room! We sat down and started talking to the husband. It was awesome because the people here are so friendly! The second we sat down they asked if we were okay and wanted water, fruit, anything to eat, etc. I kind of chuckled to myself because I just love it! We taught them the Restoration and it was great! The Spirit that we feel every time we talk about the restoration just strengthens my testimony more and more! The whole day Tuesday was just great! 

That night we headed over to visit with Branca! Irmã Branca is doing great but it had been a while since we had not seen her! She had been super busy and we just never seemed to connect. But we finally got a hold of her again Tuesday and went to visit her that night! It was actually Elder Gomes' second time there because the other time he was down here on a division, we visited her too. Tuesday night we had a great visit. We had originally planned on reading a chapter from the Book of Mormon with her but we started to talk and just kept going. We were using a technique that President trains us on. We asked her what could stop her from getting baptized this week. She started to talk about coffee and then some other stuff. But the cool thing about this is that we say, "okay so take that problem and pretend it doesn't exist. What else could stop you from getting baptized?" So we did this with Branca because we have gotten to that point with her that we just don't really know what else to do. But for some reason I have had the strong impression this whole time to not give up on her! Anyways, Tuesday night we had a great conversation and she pretty much bore her testimony about the Book of Mormon! She really believes that it is the word of God! That was so great to hear! But we finally discovered that there is still something that she has doubts about but hasn't told us yet and doesn't feel comfortable with yet. So that was nice to find out what was really going on. Something is still bugging her, the sad part is that she still doesn't feel comfortable sharing that with us so we can help. But she is an awesome lady and I have no doubt that she will be a member of the church one day! 

I don't really remember what happened on Wednesday but I did get my bike chain fixed first thing so the bike is all good now! And I may be walking on the hills now haha!

Thursday night was awesome because we had another noite de integração! It was kind of a last minute activity but the members wanted to do it still so we did. We played volleyball in the front garden of the chapel which was super fun and then we had a spiritual message from our ward mission leader, Lenini. And let me tell you, it was pretty funny for me. Lenini started out by talking about apostles and what that means and we read scriptures and all discussed it. Then we talked about how the apostles are special witnesses of Jesus Christ and are His special advocates on the Earth. Then Lenini showed a video, and who would've guessed it? He showed Elder D. Todd Christofferson's (uncle Todd) testimony video from the Sacred Grove! After the video he talked about how our testimonies are important and then said, "now can you imagine bearing your testimony to an Apostle of Christ? Well we are going to do that!" So he gave everyone paper and pencils and told us all to write our testimonies and that he would find a way to deliver it to Uncle Todd! I kind of raised my hand and said, "uhh... I know you were probably planning on me saying this but I can probably deliever it to him." Everyone laughed and accepted. It was super cool and actually the first time in two years that anyone has tried anything like that haha! So I got a super special envelope titled to Elder D. Todd Christofferson, with some very special testimonies and a picture of everyone there that night! It was awesome! 

So now for the baptism story! Friday morning we were having some trouble with confirming our lunch for the day so I called the branch president and asked him to help. After talking about that he said, "Oh Elder I need a favor from you guys." He went on to explain about a Sister Vilma from our branch. She lives in a small town about half an hour from Eunápolis but is a member and has just started coming back to church. Sometimes it is hard for her to come because it is far but she is trying to come as much as she can. She has a daughter named Emilly who is 9. And this Emilly wanted to be baptized! President Almir asked if we could help with that. Of course we said yes! We actually didn't know yet if it was going to be a baptism for the mission or count for the branch. After talking more and reading the church manual to confirm we found out that it would count as a mission baptism because Emilly is already 9 and was never registered as a child. 

So on Saturday we taught Emilly and then President Almir did the baptismal interview for her and then she got to be baptized! I was lucky enough to do it too! It was so awesome and she reminds me a lot of Avery and was so cute the whole day! She was SOO excited to get baptized it was awesome! It was a fantastic day and the baptism went perfectly. I got to do exactly what every mission dreams of, baptize on the last week! The Lord really did bless us though. He saw that we had like THREE baptisms this transfer that fell through and blessed us with Emilly! It was fantastic to see her so happy. That was our miracle baptism of the week! And it was amazing! 

Sunday was awesome too! Emilly got confirmed and I had to give an on the spot talk! I had blessed the sacrament and after I went and sat in my seat. The counselor announced the speakers and he said my name! I looked up in shock! So for the first time ever, I had to give an on the spot talk! It went great I think but it was funny because I was super nervous. Later that night the branch here did a "going away party" type of thing for me! It was awesome! I got emotional when I bore my testimony at the end. And I am going to finish this email doing the same.

I have grown in these two years more than I could have ever imagined. I have experienced the highest highs and lowest lows. And the entire time I have seen God's hand helping, and supporting me. I have grown to love this country and the wonderful people here with all my heart and soul. I have gotten to know so many amazing people that have blessed and will bless my life forever. I have seen miracles and been lucky enough to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord to bless the lives of others. I have seen so many tender mercies that show me that Heavenly Father knows me, personally. He knows all of us personally. It is almost impossible to comprehend, but it's true. He knows and loves us more than we can imagine. I have felt that love during two years preaching His word. I have come to love and appreicate the scriptures. I know that they are our iron rod in this life journey. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. The book has a power that is tangible. I know that Joseph Smith was and is the prophet of the Restoration, and that he really did see God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ that morning in a little town in New York. I know that today we have a living prophet, and that President Nelson is really lead by the head of the church, Jesus Christ. 

And that leads me to my last topic. I have gotten to know my Savior Jesus Christ during my time as his representative. I am going to miss having his name on my chest everyday, but I know that from our actions we can still have his name on our chests, even if there isn't a nametag. I know that He lives. I think my mission can be summed up by a scripture. 2 Nephi 25:26, "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."  In these two years I have talked, rejoiced, and taught about Christ more than ever. And I have really loved it. And I hope to continue it! I know that He suffered for our sins and because of His Atonement we have a way to get back to our Heavenly Father. I cannot thank God enough for everything that I have passed in these two years. Being a missionary is the best thing in the world, hands down. I will never forget this experience. I love you all, thanks for the support. I love Brasil and all the people here. And most importantly I love my Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ. See you all soon.

THE END

-- (for the last time)

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

#itsalltrue

Flag decorations if countries in the World Cup lining the streets and Elder Palma under the Mexico Flag!

Baptism Selfie

Emilly, the little girl I baptized! 

The cake the members made me for my goodbye party! 

"The Lord really did protect me"

A little Hotel I found in Porto Seguro. Had to take a picture! 

Hey everybody! 

How are you all doing?! I hope that everyone had a great week and served somebody! Our week was crazy!! As many of you may already know, thanks to modern techonology, I had a little bike accident this week but I am doing great now! I will tell the whole story a little later and fill you all in on the details but other than the bike fall, we had a great week! I will try to hit the highlights.

So, last Monday we had an awesome p-day. Later hat night we had been invited to go over to a member's house for a family night and birthday celebration for Agatha, one of the young women in our ward who turned 16. Her and her older sisters, along with their mom have been members forever. But the father of the family isn't a member! So any time we get the opportunity to go visit them, we take advantage! We had a great time that night with their family, some other members, and some non-member friends as well. I got to share the message at the family night and it was awesome! Afterwards we played a bunch of fun Basilian games. I will definitely teach them to everyone when I get home! 

Tuesday we had one of those days. It seemed like everything was going wrong! We had a ton of lessons marked and no one was home at the places we had marked. It used to bug me a lot when stuff like that happened but now I am totally fine about it! Of course I still get sad but have learned to see the opportunities that come as great blessings. Now as soon as my disappointment creeps in I change my attitude and start looking for what the Lord has prepared for us to accomplish. On this day we decided to head over to visit Elizia! The strike thing is ending so we knew that she was going to start going home soon. We needed to visit her. We got there and we could once again tell she was acting a little different. She wasn't completely shut off like that other day last week but she also wasn't her normal, happy self. This time, however, we were determined to help her! And we succeeded!! We just started talking to her about how she was doing and what was going on. She still was kind of quiet though. So we decided to start the lesson! We said a prayer and then started talking with her again. And it was like she totally changed. She started to open up to us about her struggles, and feelings and a ton of hard stuff. It was super sad, but we were happy we could be there to help her. We sat there for about 30 minutes, having a heart-to-heart talk with Elizia. We shared our thoughts, our testimonies, we shared scriptures, and comforted her. There was even a moment when she started crying as she was talking about her grandfather who died a few years ago. We testified again about the Plan of Salvation and she felt better. It was an awesome visit and we felt like we were able to take a step forward with her. 

Tuesday night we took a bus down to Porto Seguro and slept at the Elders house there. Because on Wednesday we had a division, or split, or whatever, with the elders down there. Wednesday morning we had a joint district meeting with our district, and the other district in Porto. It was great! Elder Palma gave the training about bearing our testimonies more in lessons and using the power that they have! And I got to take a fun picture haha! I will send it! I spent the day with Elder De Jesus and his companion Elder Marangoni in their area, while Elder Palma spent the day with the other elders (our district) in their area! It was an fun day! The area of the elders that I stayed with is a little tough because it is right in the center of Porto Seguro. Which means it is mainly a touristy place! Porto is the place where Brasil was discovered so a ton of people from all over the world go there! But we tried our best! The best part of the day was that night when the branch had an activity! It was SOO cool! It was an integration night thing again and it was awesome. The members there had set it all up and we had a fun activity about music. Everyone got divided into teams and then played name that song. The only bad part for me was that it was all Brasilian music hahahaha! So I didn't help my team that much. There were a ton of the elders investigators there too so we had a blast.

We got back to Eunapolis Wednesday night and then Thursday rolled around. Now Thursday was the day of the accident....so here goes the story. That morning we had a good planning session, then we headed off to lunch at João Pedro's. He is the district presidents' son. After lunch we stopped at home to grab some things we had forgotten and then went to go do visits. Around 4 o'clock we decided to go to a different part of our area. The funny thing about this city is that it is mostly flat. There are very few hills but a large valley runs through almost the middle of the city.  To get to the other side you go down, then immediatley back up a hill. To get to the area we wanted to go to we had to go down and then up a quick hill. It is normal and a route we take all the time! We started down the hill, gaining speed. The decline then turned into an incline and I stood up on my pedals so I could pedal hard to get up the hill faster. The fun part of the hills is going down, not going up haha! Anyways, I stood up on my pedals and started going up when my bike chain fell off. After that I don't remember anything... actually, don't remember the chain falling off either. I just remember starting up the hill. And the next thing I remember I woke up in the hospital!! Elder Palma then told me the rest of the story. My chain had fallen off and I fell forward and he heard the sound and turned around. He saw that I had fallen off my bike and wasn't geting back up so he flipped around real quick and jumped off his bike to help me. He said that I was kind of out of it, speaking english and trying to run away. He calmed me down and a bunch of people stopped to help him. They layed me down on the sidewalk and I fell asleep. (I don't remember any of this) One of the guys helping decided to call an ambluance and they waited for a while for it to show up. After waiting the ambluance showed up and took us to the hospital. The whole time I was unconsious. A nice lady who lived close to the hill stored our bikes in her house. So I woke up in the hospital and stayed there for a while getting some medicine and a docotor looking at me. They said I was fine, but to just take it easy for a few days. From what I've been told, I think what happened is that I fell forward and hit my right temple on the handlebars, which knocked me out, then I fell on the ground, which is why my face was a little scraped up and my knee and hand. Thursday night our Ward mission leader came and got us at the hospital and took us home. I had a nice goose egg on my head and other than that I was all good! 

An IV at the Hospital after the accident

Just a little scraped up!

Friday I woke up with headaches so we decided to go to the doctor again. The district president's wife took us around throughout the day to find the right doctor, trying to set up a tomography. I think that is what it is called in English (I did some research and that's basically a CT Scan-Marilee). We finally got one so I did it that afternoon.  I won't get the results until tomorrow. The rest of the day I took it kind of easy.

Saturday I was feeling better but not 100%. The bump on my head was smaller but I was still feeling weak. The hard part is that we needed to work so Elder Palma took one of the men from the ward with him, and I hung out at another ward member's house while Elder Palma went to go visit people! Resting on Saturday gave me time to think about all that had happened and I realized that I really got lucky in my crash. I could have totally scraped up my face and arm, or worse, but I didn't. I only got a small scratch on my face where I fell, and on my knee. It actually ripped a small hole in my pants over my knee. My glasses didn't even break!!! I realized that the Lord really did protect me. And I was blessed by all the people that stopped to help Elder Palma, the members who all helped us, and by Elder Palma who didn't freak out when I crashed and was able to take care of getting me the help I needed! I know that the Lord is watching over us and helping always! 

Sunday came and we had a great Sabbath day! President and Sister Bangerter where here and it was awesome. A ton of members brought non-member friends and it was great! Our attendance was 80 people! Which for here is a lot because it is usually 50. But that happens when we have Branch Conference. But it was a great church day. It was also funny to see all the members  react to my story of the crash. They were all messing with me saying things like, "Americans always got to be special, falling UP a hill!" or "Looks like the laws of physics don't apply to you Elder, you fell going up a hill!" It was pretty funny and now I will surely not be forgotten by the members here haha! We had lunch at a members house with President and Sister Bangerter and a TON of other people and it was great! Afterwards we went and picked up the bikes from the lady who was keeping them for us. It was super cool because the lady is awesome and we marked to go back and teach her and her daughter on Wednesday!!! You can find new people in all kinds of ways :-)! Sunday night we got a bus down to Porto Seguro because Monday we had Zone Conference! 

It was President and Sister Bangerter's last round of Zone Conferences and it was awesome! I also got to give my last training! It was crazy!! I love being a missionary!! We all felt the Spírit so strongly and I am sure that the mission will dearly miss President and Sister Bangerter! They are so strong and I am so grateful that I was blessed with a wonderful Mission President. The Lord truly answers our prayers. 

Our last Zone Conference with President and Sister Bangerter AND for ME!!!  

So that was our crazy week! Today (Tuesday) we are back in our city and Elder Gomes is with us for the day! I CANNOT believe that this is my last full week as a missionary. That is truly humbling and crazy and we are going to make the most of it!!! This church is true! I love you all! Have a great week!

#itsalltrue

-- 

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

Last District Meeting

I've been waiting a long time for this picture. I'm "dying" in the misson. 

Elder DeJesus is going home the same day as me. 

Me and Sister Egbert

Me and Elder Palma

"If you want to know, just go ask Him!"

Elder Palma ahead of me on his bike

Hey there everybody!! 

How are you all doing?! I hope you all had a fantastic week! We had a great one here in Eunápolis! I really love this city! It is a small town compared to what I am used to on my mission but man I really love it! It just has such a cool feeling and the members here are the best! Our week was another busy one with a few holidays here. Bahia, the state I am in here in Brasil, has soooooo many holidays it is hilarious! It makes working tough because most of the people are partying but we made the most of it! I'll hit the highlights of the week! 

Before I start, quick update on the whole truck drivers situation. As of now, I actually have no idea if it is still going on haha! We were told it was over earlier in the week and we believed it because the gas stations started to get gasoline again. Then other people told us that it actually had not ended but that they were just letting some people thru on the freeways they were blocking. So who knows haha! 

Tuesday we had a great lesson with Alefe! Even though he bailed last minute on the baptism last week, he told us pretty much not to give up on him, so we aren't! We decided with our awesome ward mission leader last week that we needed to get him more involved with the members and integrate him more into the branch. So we are taking more members with us now when we can to visit Alefe. So Tuesday we took Brother Cabuia, who is the 2nd counselor of the branch. It was good actually because Cabuia lives really close to Alefe and they already kind of know each other so it was perfect. Alefe was ready and waiting for us and we talked about tithing and fast offerings with him. But we focused more on the fasting part. Because this week was the first sunday of the month we wanted to challenge him to fast. So we explained about fasting and what it means and stuff and why we do it and he really liked it! Cabuia shared a cool story about fasting from his mission and then I talked about how my family used to fast all the time for my Grandma! I literally fasted almost every Sunday and I remember passing many, many Sundays watching all my buddies eat snacks during class that our teachers would give us! But because of that I gained my testimony of fasting! It really works and makes us spiritually stronger!

Wednesday we went to visit Elizia. So she still hasn't been able to go home because of the whole strike thing so that's good for us hahaha! But we were excited this week to see how she was doing because we had invited her to pray and ponder about the challenge we extended to get baptized on Saturday. We got there on Wednesday night and she was acting super strange. She wasn't all bubbly, and excited as usual. Right off the bat we could tell something was wrong but we continued with the lesson. She had read the chapter of the Book of Mormon that we had left with her but had not understood very well so we decided to read it with her to help her understand. We were reading and she really wasn't very into it. I felt like we needed to change what we were teaching. So I shut my book and said, "Let's change the subject." And we started to talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The rest of the lesson went pretty well I thought. She was still a little out of it but it was better. At the end we talked to her about the baptism on Saturday and she said she didn't know yet so we invited her to keep praying and to remember the feelings she has felt during the time she has been learning about all this. 

Thursday was the holiday. In the morning there was an Elders' Quorum activity. Guess what it was? Well if you happened to guess soccer, than congrats! You're right! Haha shocker right? Soccer activity here in Brasil. Anyways we had been invited since some non-members were going to be there. It was fun and I realized that I still am very bad at soccer. I play soccer like a football player haha. But we had a blast and I even took my mini-football to throw around. It is the funniest thing ever to see grown men not know how to throw a ball. I was dying of laughter. But it is just a cultural thing! They think it is hilarious that we can't juggle a soccer ball so I guess we are even. The member who organized it brought 4 of his friends and we got to talk to them a little about the church and it was great! 

Thursday night we had a "noite de integração". Which means like integration night. It is pretty much just an activity with members, and less-actives and investigators for them to get to know each other. We had organized it with our ward mission leader and it turned out pretty good! We had a better showing than I had thought we were going to get so that was good. We had the ping-pong table set up, and a couple tables with cards and games! It was fun, the only thing that was missing were investigators! We had invited a TON of people and the members did too and no one showed. We had a couple less-actives which was good but we are hoping next time for some investigators! 

Friday we had a fun time with Laura! She is a young woman in our branch who is awesome! She is only 16 but she is already a stud missionary! She came with us to visit a few people. The thing that was sad was that all of those appointments fell thru!! So we decided to knock some doors! Laura did the first one and got turned down, then Elder Palma knocked another door and also got rejected. I stepped up and said, "Let me show you guys how it's done." I was TOTALLY joking, but the man who answered let us in super fast hahahaha! It was awesome. His name is Juarez (that is where Elder Palma is from) and he is a good man. He is a little older and lives alone. We had a good first lesson with him and hope we can find him again this week! 

Friday we also went over to visit Elizia. Thankfully she was a LOT better on Friday and even said sorry that she had been so weird earlier in the week. She said sometimes she just gets sad and a little out of it. So friday we talked about fasting with her as well! We challenged her to fast this weekend. We did that because she had told us that she didn't want to get baptized this week because she still doesn't feel like she has gotten an answer. So we challenged her to fast and pray to get that answer! It was a great lesson and she accepted the challenge! 

Saturday was good but we didn't have a lot of action. We talked to Branca who had to go to take care of her mom in a different city. Branca is good and I just can't give up on her! I am hoping this week some big things happen with her! 

Sunday was a great sabbath! I offically gave my last testimony from the pulpit as a missionary! It was crazy. We had some meetings in the afternoon and then that night our awesome Ward mission leader, Lenini, invited us over to his house for dinner. He overheard me and Elder Palma saying we didn't have food in our house haha. We had not bought food Saturday night because we were fasting but we didn't think about Sunday. So we got to have a nice little dinner with Lenini and his family! They have helped this branch so much! 

So that was our week! We are hoping that we can have some miracles here and have a baptism before the end of the transfer! I KNOW that this is God's true church! And I am so grateful for that knowledge! And if you want to know, just go ask him!! Love you all! Have a great week! 

#itsalltrue

P.S. I will have P-day next week on Tuesday I think because we have our zone conference on Monday in Porto!

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

. A pic of Elder Palma on his bike. It's a good shot of the scenery we ride thru every day.

2. Us with Lenini's family Sunday night! 

Some of the people at the soccer activity Thursday morning!

Goofing around

With Lenini's family Sunday night! 

This week we were able to help a sister in the ward move! 

Hey everyone!!! 

How are all you guys doing?! I hope everyone had a great week! We had another busy one, full of rain, colder weather, and craziness here in Brasil. All of the truckers in Brasil are protesting because of the gas prices or something and they are all stopped on the freeways and not letting anyone through. Because of this there are no perishable foods in the markets and also there is no gas or diesel now in any of the gas stations! It has been going on since Wednesday I think! It is crazy and all anyone is talking about here but we are taking advantage because no one can go anywhere haha! The whole situation actually did end up helping us a little bit this week but I will get to that later! So we had a great week with a disappointing end because Alefe didn't get baptized!! Ugh! But I will explain! Other than that we had a great week! I'll hit the highlights!

So last monday night we headed over to visit Elízia again! She is the girl that one of the young women in our ward, Bia, brought to church last week! The tough thing with Elizia is that she lives super far away from the city but where she lives is still Eunápolis county. So she told us that she wasn't going to be going home until Tuesday so we headed over. She really liked the first message that we gave and told us that she felt really good about it. She read the whole pamphlet and prayed about our message! Monday we just decided to focus a little more on the Book of Mormon. It was a great lesson and the best part was at the end when Bia told us about her experience about the Book of Mormon. She said that when she was baptized a couple years ago she felt that the Book of Mormon was true but that she really got a testimony of it at a girls camp her first year as a member. She said that the entire day they had activities and classes about the Book of Mormon and at night when she got back to her room she was praying and felt the Spirit so strongly about the Book of Mormon that she didn't even sleep that night! It was so cool and we all felt the Spirit while she was telling the story! 

Tuesday we headed over to Alefe's in the afternoon to re-enforce the Word of Wisdom. We had already mentioned it before and he knows what it is but we needed to make sure he was all in the clear with it! So we started to talk about the 5 things that God warns us to not use. When we got to coffee Elder Palma did something that he always does when we teach that lesson and I love it! So he asks the person to go grab a packet of coffee and then two bags of normal food. He flips them over to the back side and asks, "what do these two have written (pointing to the normal food) that the coffee doesn't?" I don't know how it is in the United States but the coffee packets here don't have a nutricional table! Like not anyone of them!! And normal food always does. The people always see it and then we explain because coffee doesn't have anything that is good for us and that could help our bodies! It is so awesome haha. And we did it with Alefe and he committed to stop drinking the little bit of coffee that he still was drinking! 

Tuesday morning we were getting ready to leave and got a call form Elízia! She said that she wasn't going home Tuesday and asked us if we could come over and teach her again! Of course we could so we headed over there Tuesday night. We taught the Plan of Salvation. It was super cool when we asked her how her reading of the Book of Mormon had went. She replied, "It was great! I really liked it and it felt like all my problems went away when I was reading. I felt this inner peace that made me happy. Like the way you explained you feel when you read it." Our jaws dropped!!! HAHA! That was like too good of an answer! But she really loved reading it! After we had a fantastic lesson about the Plan of Salvation. I love teaching the Plan of Salvation!! It is just the best when we see the people connect it all in their heads! It is so awesome! I love teaching it too because I always feel the strongest Spirit when we talk about eternal families! I know that this doctrine is true!! 

Wednesday we went over to visit Sabrina and Raissa but we found a sad situation. Only Irmã Jazi was there and she told us that Sabrina had gotten the news the day before that her Grandpa had passed away. So she had gone up to the city where he lived for the funeral with her mom. Apparently she was really sad and confused. We wanted to try and comfort her and teach her the Plan of Salvation but we didn't find her the rest of the week so hopefully we can find her this week. 

Wednesday we also found Irana finally! She hadn't gone to church on that Sunday and we didn't know why and couldn't find her earlier in the week! So we found her and had a nice visit with her. She told us that she had talked to her husband a little bit about the marriage thing and he said that he doesn't want to get married yet. We were pretty discouraged to hear that but she was strangely optimistic. I asked why and she said, "I'll get to him, I just keep telling him everyday that we need to get married and eventually we will. That is how we have this couch, the nice television, and washing machine." It was hilarious haha! So we are praying and hoping that Samuel will have his heart softened and want to get married ASAP! We had a nice lesson with her afterwards about Ether 12! I love that chapter! 

Thursday we went over to Alefe's and went over the baptismal interview questions with him since his interview was going to be on Friday. He was super excited and knew everything! We had gone over everyday that week and he was all set for the baptism! 

Thursday we also we and visited Irmã Branca! We had to have what we call a "conversa franca", or frank conversation haha. We sat down with her and pretty much asked her what was happening. She had been progressing so well before and then out of nowhere that kind of stopped. She hadn't been to church in a while and she hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon. I said, "Irmã Branca, what is happening right now is exactly what happened last year when you first met the missionaries. You progressed well but then stopped. I am not going to let that happen again!" We went on to explain how we see that when people get close to finding the truth and being baptized, the enemy gets in the way to try and stop it. It happens all the time. We said, "Irmã Branca, don't let the devil win!! You were so close!" Then we made some goals with her. We invited her to start reading the Book of Mormon again, and to start praying to know if it is true, and to go to church! Then the last invitation we did was for her to join us in a fast this weekend! We have felt that we needed to fast with her to get her answer to her prayers! Flavia was with us too and she told of her experience fasting to get her answer and it was great! Now only time will tell! 

Friday we had Elder Gray and Saes here to do our district meeting and Alefe's interview! I went with Elder Gray to Alefe's for him to do the interview! It went perfectly and he passed super fast. We told him to get to the chapel Saturday around 6:30 and that the baptism would start at 7. It was all set and ready to go! 

So Saturday we had lunch at Irmã Branca's. Later, around 6pm, we headed over to the chapel to set some things up for the baptism. The small pool we use here had been set up by one of the members here and was all ready. Around 6:30 we tried to call Alefe and it went straight to voicemail. We were getting anxious and there were already a bunch of members there waiting. Around 7:15 he still hadn't shown up and in my head I just kept thinking, "No, no, no,". Our ward mission leader, Lenini, took us in his car over to Alefe's house. We knocked and his son answered the door. We asked if Alefe was there and he said that no and that he had left a little while ago. We hoped that he had gone to the chapel so we waited on his porch and kept calling the people at the chapel to see if he had shown up. And nothing. We then talked to his wife who said that he hadn't said anything about the baptism and had left a while ago. We had to end up going back to the church, devestated! We didn't really know what to do and to cheer us up Lenini called us in to do a little family night with all the people that were there. He invited us to give the first lesson and we did and it was good. But man it was pretty sad that Alefe was a no-show. This was the second time he has done this. He was almost baptized before I got here to the city and never showed at the baptism. So we were pretty sad. We had visited him every day that week and it was perfect. 

Sunday we woke up and tried to call him and he didn't answer. We headed over to church and had great meetings! Elízia showed up to church! She actually had not gone home during the week because of the whole stike thing! So that is how it helped us haha. She went to church and it was alone even! Bia was sick and didn't come so she came alone in the rain!! Then we had Irmã Branca show up for a little bit. She came from the hospital because she was super sick! But still came and it was awesome! So we had a great sunday meetings! After lunch we headed over to Alefe's and when we were standing on his doorstep he pulled up. He got out and we had another frank talk. We asked him what the heck happened. He told us that during all of Saturday he just was feeling like he wasn't ready and that he needed to wait more. He kept saying sorry to us and we told him thanks but this isn't a commitment with us and him, it is a commitment between him and God. He understood and we were a little hard on him for not telling us how he was feeling and then standing everyone up but he needed it. He said that now he just wants to keep going to church every sunday and having us come over a few times a week but not have a baptismal date. We told him that that was okay. It was sad to see though. But we did all we could and he made his choice! But we aren't giving up on him. He is a great guy and really sincere, just a little scared for some reason.

I was pretty bummed and frustrated about the whole thing! But I am also very grateful for all the people that have helped me feel better. The members here, Elder Palma, Sister Egbert and Sister Alves, and others have been so great. I was pretty sad the day it happened but afterwards I was feeling better. I was thinking that this is actually never happened to me my whole mission. Elder Palma has had it happend to him 4 times in the last 4 months so he is used to it sadly. But we are not losing our fire! We know this gospel is true and will bless peoples lives, they just need to trust in God and follow Him. Clearly that is easier said than done for some people. But I have faith and know that in the Lord's timing it will happen. 

So that was our week! We also visited Elizia in the afternoon on Sunday because she still can't go home. She loves the church and the Book of Mormon and back with the plan of salvation lesson we had challeneged her to get baptized on the 2nd, this Saturday. She accepted but is still a little apprehensive. So we will see if it all works out for her to get baptized on Saturday! 

I love being a missionary! I love having the opportunity every day to testify that Jesus is the Christ and that his Church is once again on the Earth. I know that that is true. I don't have a doubt in my mind. And because of His Atonement, we can all return to live with God! 

Love you all! Have a great week! 

#itsalltrue

Elder Spencer P. Christofferson

PICTURES-

Sorry I don't have more, I thought we would have a lot this week with the baptism but because it didn't happen I only have two. Sorry!

A selfie of me and Elder Palma this morning- pday!!