Happy New Year and Laurel's Baptism!

Happy New Year everyone! Boy has 2018 gone by very quickly indeed. The year really ended with a bang for us though.

Saturday, Sister Laurel was baptized at the chapel. The baptismal service was stellar, one of the best I have been to. The Spirit was very strong for all who were in attendance. Bishop Ali, the man in the picture did the ordinance. At the end of the service there was kind of an unplanned testimony meeting where a bunch of the members stood up and bore their testimonies of the Gospel. It was really great. Laurel and her kids were there, with her boyfriend and sister as well, who are starting to kind of show interest. I know that they felt the Spirit at the service for sure.

One of the spiritual experiences I had was during the baptismal service, well actually, back at home while I was preparing lunch. As I was cutting something, I remembered something Laurel had said at the end of the service. We asked her if there was anything that we could do for her, and she told us "pray for my boyfriend that he will change" She was glad that he was fully supporting her with her decision to be baptized, but she wanted him to change, and to accept the Gospel himself too. I didn't realize it until I was thinking about it during lunch. When the scripture came to mind in 1 Nephi 8:12 where Lehi partook of the fruit of the tree and immediately cast his eyes round about looking for his family, because he desired them to partake of the fruit of the tree. Even though he technically isn't her family (yet), hopefully they ar she instantly after baptism desired him to partake of the fruit of the Gospel too. It was like one of those "Today is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" kinds of moments. I love to see the scriptures fulfilled, for truly it is a fruit whereby we can know its truthfulness. I know this church is true and the Restored Gospel also. I know the Book of Mormon is true!!!

I went on an exchange with Elder Garner on Friday, and they asked me to do a baptismal interview in Spanish for a man named Gustavo who will be baptized in the Port of Spain ward. After not having spoken Spanish for like 2 months now, it took some adjustment for a second, but the interview went really well. He lives with a returned missionary from Venezuela and his family, so afterwards we had some delicious Venezuelan food.

Christmas was wonderful. We went to Elder and Sister Williams apartment to do skype calls and to watch "It's a wonderful life" which President Baird allowed us to watch. The Williams made us Christmas dinner, ham and funeral potatoes. It was just like home. The Williams are the best. Unfortunately we had to be back in the apartment by 6 Christmas eve, Christmas, New Years Eve and New years, because of the much eating drinking and being merry here in the Carribean. haha

Yesterday Elder Hoard and I started teaching a very nice Venezuelan family, who are here working to try to support their families. As well, an investigator we have had for forever, Kizzy, has finally decided to be baptized in January. The situation with her and her boyfriend has been hindering progress for a long time now, and this week he moved out, so that Kizzy and her kids can be baptized. This coming week will be "Aunty Pearl"s baptism. She is a relative of the Relief Society President. Since she lives outside our area the Valsayn Elders have been teaching her after we started teaching her, but since she is going to move her records over to the Arima branch, her baptism will be happening here this next Saturday. We are excited for that too

Have a happy New Year,
Elder Porritt

Laurel's Baptism

Jesus Christ is the Joy of the World!

Merry Christmas everyone!!! Hopefully, All of you back at home are having a snowy white Christmas. One of my favorite things is waking up on Christmas morning to some fresh white snow. Here, I'm hoping for maybe some rain. haha. It has actually been a pretty rainy week for us here, even though we are heading into the dry season, so it's been a blessing. Since we have a car, the rain doesn't really bother us.

Saturday we had another branch Christmas activity for the other Elders branch. We sang Christmas songs and did another Samuel the Lamanite skit to entertain everyone. I have really enjoyed all the Christmas food that has been everywhere we go these last couple of weeks. Some of my favorites are pastels, which are pretty much the same thing as tamales. They only make them around Christmas time though. Around Christmas everybody makes sorrel juice, which is also very delicious.

Larel came to church yesterday and is doing very well. She will be having the interview this week and the baptism should be this Saturday.

Just yesterday we had a spiritual experience. We were teaching a wonderful lady we met a week or so ago on the street. Her name is Dale. She was just walking past the two of us pretty quickly and we felt that we should just kind of yell out to her, after she had kind of already walked past. Before we had even shared anything about the Restoration she was telling us that she wants us to come by her house and talk to her. She is such a humble woman, who has trouble reading since she never went to school when she was younger. Yesterday, the second time that we taught her she told us that she doesn't EVER tell anybody about her reading issue because she's a little embarrassed about it, but she said she felt to trust us. Just two weird American guys that she's talked to for about an hour of total time. How can one have such trust in two strange guys they barely know, unless they are servants of God? She hasn't recognized us as just anybody but as messengers of the truth. She really opened up to us and told us that she has always known that God has something more in store for her, but she is waiting for and praying for it. We testified that this is what she is looking for and that the Restoration is what God has sent her. I'm so thankful that God loves us enough to give us weaknesses so that we can be humble as she is. Humble enough to see our complete dependence on God, It makes me so sad to see so many people that aren't so humble, who shrug off the Restoration, or even revile it. Every day we meet people like that, unfortunately, and so I'm so grateful for the humbling work of weaknesses and equally grateful for the power the Savior has to strengthen those weaknesses if we are willing to not be lifted up in the pride of our hearts. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that he can heal us if we will be humble enough to seek Him. That's what Christmas is about, as well as giving and sharing that knowledge and love with everyone we can.

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas full of joy. Yesterday we had a mission-wide Christmas devotional, so to say. Sister Baird shared some thoughts with us about Joy, which is not the same thing as fun, which is what is often confused in today's world. Jesus Christ is the Joy of the world.

Elder Porritt

I Was Samuel the Lamanite:)

Well Christmas is almost upon us. This Christmas season has been going by really fast. We have a branch and a ward in our gigantic area, so this week we had two Christmas parties back to back on Saturday. The two of us and Elder Garner and Elder Riter, the two other missionaries in our district performed a Christmas skit as part of the programs at both of the activities. We sang 2 songs from the Childrens songbook and talked about the birth of the Savior. When we were talking about Samuel the Lamanite, I stood up on a chair as Samuel as the other missionaries threw things at me. It was a pretty great program. The food was GREAT. After two activities we felt like we were going to explode. In Arima the turnout was really great. There were probably more less-active members than active members that came, and Larel, her boyfriend, and the kids were able to make it, as well as a few other investigators. So it was a pretty great experience. It's amazing to see the unifying effect of having activities in the church.

The start of the transfer has been pretty good so far. We have been trying out some different areas to find new people in, and we've had some pretty good experiences. Two days ago, we were contacting at like 8:30 after a lesson fell through (which is the worst time to contact unfortunately), We were able to catch this guy and his family right as they got home. They were Muslims, and they were very nice, and open to hear more about the Restoration. We were about to leave, but they wouldn't let us leave without giving us some pizza that they had just ordered. So we each left with two pieces of pizza in hand, which took care of having dinner.

While we were testing out a few different areas that we wanted to contact, we found ourselves in Greenville, one of the areas that got like 6 feet of water in the flood 2 months ago here in Trinidad. That was actually pretty fortunate, because some areas nearby got up to 12 feet of water. There were people in those areas sleeping on their roofs for the night. We actually decided not to contact this area, because most everybody was working on putting in new tiles and fixing their houses otherwise, and so nobody had time for us. However we tried a few houses as we walked the streets. As we walked we felt like we should approach this one house with an open door. We hadn't tried any other houses on this street, and this would be the only one. We called in and met this young couple with a newborn child. We shared a little bit about the Restoration and they were instantly interested. They told us they would love for us to come back, even though there house is a mess and they are trying to install tile. It was pretty much the last street that we were going to go down before we left the area to go try somewhere else. Even though we decided that this was the wrong area, I thought, maybe this was the whole reason that we had been lead here to look around in this area. We should be going back this coming week, so we will see how it goes.

Anyone who will be involved with the Skype call will want to prepare questions beforehand if they have any, because I will have exactly 45 minutes.

Have a jolly week!
Elder Porritt

Laurel is Progressing Really Well

We got our transfer calls this last Saturday. Elder Hoard and I will be staying together here in Arima for the next 6 weeks. It should be a really good transfer. We are really excited for Christmas this year.

The best thing that happened this week was a referral we received from a less-active member. She referred us to her cousin who lives right next door. We went over and taught her and her husband and their 4 young children. They are a wonderful family, who are religious people. We have good hopes for them. Her nephew, actually, is a returned missionary from the branch, who we are hoping will be able to teach them with us.

Laruel is still progressing really well and preparing herself for the 29th. This week we taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which went great. We were really sad when she didn't make it to sacrament meeting yesterday, but we were sitting in Sunday school when she and her kids walked in. She seems to be making friends really fast with the Relief Society women.

There isn't much else to say about this week. It was really short. Transfers weren't super eventful. There's only one missionary who changed areas here in Trinidad. However the missionary that will be coming up from Guyana is my MTC companion who I haven't seen for 15 months now. We are hoping that in the next couple of transfers we will get a whole bunch of new missionaries so that we can open up some new areas here, since all the areas are HUGE. There was once about 50 missionaries in Trinidad and now there are 8.

Have a great week!

Elder Porritt

Praying as a mission for a "White Christmas"

Wow, it is already December. Christmas is now only 22 days away. This coming month is going to be exciting. We have been praying as a mission to be able to have a white Christmas. Obviously not snow haha, but some rain would suffice, but rather a Christmas with some people dressed in white. I can't think of any better time to make the decision to follow Jesus Christ than during the Christmas season when we celebrate His birth.

This week was better than last week, although we have been struggling to find new investigators. At the start of the transfer, we contacted a woman named Larell, Who we have been teaching on and off. This week she had a spiritual experience reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it, and she accepted a date for the 29th of December, so we are praying that she will be part of the white Christmas this year. That was such a spiritual lesson, talking about our purpose here on earth, which is something that she has wondered her whole life and never really felt that it had been answered before.

One of my spiritual experiences this week happened this week during contacting. We passed this house that looked like it was going to be difficult to contact. Big huge fence, house set back really far, really big mean dogs, but we called in and were able to talk to a lady who had some kids.I would say for sure that one of my favorite parts about missionary work is meeting people who ask us those "questions of the soul", who just are searching for them, but they don't know where to look. We all have them, and there are certain things that we all naturally want to have answered in our lives, but it's difficult to discern those questions every time we contact someone. She told us right off the bat, when we asked her if she is a religious person; "I don't really know what God expects of me" I always have to restrain myself from not shouting out WE HAVE THE ANSWERS or something like that haha, because I know that if they will listen to us and read from the Book of Mormon that they WILL find those answers. That's why it is so exciting for me to talk to people like this. They are humble and open that they don't have all the answers to the questions in their lives and they are searching diligently for them. We left her with a Book of Mormon and to read Alma 34. We haven't gotten in contact again with her yet, but we will this week, and I'm excited how reading that chapter went for her. I know that the Book of Mormon contains the answers to the questions of our souls, it has answered so many of the questions that I have had in the exact moments that I have studied it. I know those people are out there, even though they are difficult to find sometimes haha.

Everyone have a great week!
Elder Porritt

Well this has got to be one of the most extravagent things I've ever seen so far on the mission. This man has a baby monkey in a diaper on a golden chain.

ABC Islands District Conference

We are already starting week 3 of this transfer today, and it felt like I just starting serving with my companion yesterday. Pretty soon he is going to be done with training and ready to take over the area. This week was pretty regular, nothing too exciting happened. The most exciting part of this week is that NEXT week we will be having Zone Conference on Friday, and then General Conference on Saturday and Sunday. Everyone please prayerfully make a list of questions, and listen to Conference, and God will surely answer the questions you have, "whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same"

Yesterday we had district conference, which was held in Aruba. Our district is the ABC District, which is the Curacao branch, the Boniare branch, and two branches in Aruba. President and Sister Baird spoke at district conference. They shared a few paragraphs from when President Hinckley came to Aruba 15 years ago. He looked out upon the island and said that he could see many stakes and a temple, there as well as on Curacao. The promise is that if all the members and missionaries put in the effort that one day there will be temples here. currently we have a lot of work ahead of us in order to have stakes and temples, but a prophet proclaimed it and according to our faith, it will happen. It was an amazing promise from a prophet of the Lord. President Baird mentioned that we can't rely on others to put in the work to move the Kingdom forward, but we have to do our part, Its going to take more than a faithful branch president, more than a consecrated missionary, more than a mission president, and more than a wonderful living day prophet and apostles, for this work to move forward. All the members have to be involved and we have to have member missionary work. As Elder Bednar said it, addressing members of the church, "The missionaries are full time teachers, and we are full time finders." That applies to all areas of the world, yes, even in those places where the church is already established and maybe we already have a temple less than an hour away, as well as those parts of the world that don't have stakes and temples yet. As President Baird has taught us, Build the Kingdom!!! I really loved their talks, and it was a great spiritual experience, something that we can all apply in our lives.

We had another great lesson with Magnolia this week about the plan of salvation, and she is just taking it all in, at this time in her life, with so much tragedy in her life. She told us again that she's so glad to be a member (even though, she's technically not a member yet,) of the true church. I also know that this is Jesus Christ's true church on the earth, and that these are His truths, and that he has called a living day prophet to guide us in this world. What a wonderful opportunity it is to be able to listen to him, his counselors, and the 12 Apostles. 

Have a great week!

Elder Porritt

Blessed with Lots of Clouds

Happy Monday everyone!!! We have been really blessed this week with lots and lots clouds, which has taken it from boilingly hot to not so bad. We don't have smartphones or computer access to see the temperature, but it is HOT. We really had a very great week though, full of spiritual experiences and miracles.

In Carawara this week we had a miracle with our new investigator Magnolia, who had just randomly shown up at church a few weeks ago, (divinely designed) and we had the opportunity to begin teaching her. She has been so prepared by the Lord from past things that have happened in her past life. This week she had an amazing spiritual experience in the Book of Mormon and accepted a date to be baptized on the 27th of October. We had just given her the Book of Mormon less than a week ago, but didn't have a whole lot of time to talk about it, so we left her to read the introduction before we came back. A few days later we returned to teach her about the Book more in depth. She told us that she had read the whole introduction and the testimony of the three and the eight witnesses, and had a very spiritual experience. She said that as she read through the introduction that she "felt full of the Spirit" and that she felt that the Book "had life." She was just amazed at the testimony of the 11 witnesses as well, and she just felt for herself that the Book was true. We felt strongly that we should invite her to be baptized, and she accepted a date for the 27th of October. Just yesterday we another lesson with her, and she proceeded to tell us that just that day, after arriving home from church she received the news of a tragedy that happened in her family. We were going to teach her about the plan of salvation that day starting from the pre-earth life, but we decided to skip to what happens after we die. She mentioned about 3 times during the lesson, "I'm so glad that I'm a part of the true church." She expressed so much in comfort in what we taught her about the afterlife, and was so grateful to have this knowledge from the restored gospel.  Even after only having met with us for about two weeks now, and having received the Book of Mormon less than a week ago, she already believes that this is the true church, and is already telling all of her friends and family about it. Teaching her about the plan of salvation made a visible difference with her, and when we were reading from Alma 40 about the Spirit world, she was starting to tear up. As we were about to leave she told us that that lesson had really made a difference. It was an amazing spiritual experience for me in many different ways. It was no coincidence that God has sent her to us at this time in her life. I thought at the beginning of the lesson that we should just try to teach the whole plan of salvation in order, but then I felt that we should focus on what happens after we die, and we decided to do stray from the original plan to do so. So many things have been happening in her life, and I fell that God sent her to us just at the right time. That was definitely my spiritual experience for this week, seeing how God has prepared her in so many different small ways, and how the Spirit has worked through her and has testified to her of the truthfulness of the church and the Book of Mormon. It's been such a wonderful experience, probably one of the best experiences on the mission so far, among others. I'm so grateful for the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and for all the blessings of it, including the Plan of Salvation, and the knowledge we have of where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going after we die. 

Other than our adventures with Sister Magnolia, there have been some other good experiences. We had the pleasure of meeting with President and Sister Baird this past week at the new mission home for lunch, which they are almost done moving all the furniture and stuff into it. It's a blessing to be able to serve on the island and branch where the mission home and mission president are for sure.\

Well thats about all for this week. Have a great week!

Elder Porritt

I'm staying in Curacao with Elder Bigelow

Hello everyone! Well this coming transfer I will be staying in Curacao to finish training Elder Bigelow, and I am really excited to do so. This has been a really fun transfer, and a really fast one too. Not a whole lot is even changing in our whole zone. We will be getting one new Spanish elder, and a couple new Spanish Sisters, and very few of the areas are being changed. I am excited to be here in this area for another transfer, and am hoping that we will have much success these next 6 weeks. 

We had some really cool experiences this week. We had two really great lessons with our new investigator named Magnolia, During the week we taught her about the Restoration through the prophet Joseph Smith. After reciting the first vision to her we asked her "What do you learn about God and Jesus Christ from this experience?" She responded "He wants us to be baptized and be born again." It wasn't quite the answer we were expecting, but it was an AWESOME answer. During these first couple of weeks, she has just shown a really great understanding of the importance of the Restoration, and pretty much every answer she gives to our questions is an inspired answer haha. I just feel like all the events in her life have been a preparation for this time that we are teaching her about the Gospel, and I know that what she said was given to her by the Spirit, and we definitely felt the Spirit. We are excited for what God has in store for her in the future. We are going to invite her to be baptized this week, hopefully at the end of October. 

We have this old lady named Theodora that we have been teaching for a long time. She has been having eye issues and has been waiting to have an eye surgery for like 4 months now, and finally about two weeks ago she got the surgery, and will be able to finally start reading in the next couple of days. We have pretty much taught her all the lessons, and have just been reading a little bit from the Book of Mormon every time we go over there, since she isn't able to read it herself. We had invited her to pray earlier this week about being baptized, which she really wants to follow Jesus Christ, but she wanted to know for sure if this was the right church that she needs to be baptized into. She prayed and felt peace, tranquility, and just really happy while she prayed. At first she didn't really understand what that meant, but we talked about the Spirit and how it communicates with us, and she understood that that was an answer straight from God. We put her on date to be baptized on the 6th of October. Matthew 7:7: Ask, and ye shall receive, seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you. I know that if we want to know something, we just need to ask God, who will give to us freely, and if we have faith we WILL receive. 

I hope you all have a great week! Keep working hard!

Elder Porritt

Another Beautiful Sunset

All in the Lord's Timing

Well, it's really hard to top what happened last week for sure and this week was going pretty great, until Friday night something happened. We have been teaching Nelson since I got to this area like 3 months ago, and boy had that man been prepared. He has such a solid understanding of the Gospel and a desire to follow Jesus Christ. We had a lesson with him that night with one of the branches recent converts who just bore his awesome new convert-like testimony and it was a great lesson, but that night we got a text from him telling us that he doesn't want to be baptized anymore, or come to church. We still aren't sure, really, what happened to cause this, but luckily he is still willing to have us over and talk to him whenever we want. He also expressed to us that he still loves the Book of Mormon, and when we taught him yesterday we bore our testimonies of it, and invited him to read, ponder, and pray from the Book of Mormon to know what he should do. We're still working with him and are hoping to we can help him to have the desire again, to follow Jesus Christ. 

On the brighter side of things, we met some really cool new people this week. There's this lady from the Dominican Republic, that came to church last week out of the blue. The relief society president told us that she would like us to come visit her. We bike out to her house, which was way out towards the uninhabited side of our area, and taught her, and then again this Sunday she came to church. She told us about how in the DR she had seen the temple and was always intrigued about it, and the church, she had a few friends that were members and had invited her from time to time to go to church, or some small Gospel invitation, and so many little things added up in her life and she decided to talk to us, and come to church. Truly God is placing people in each and every one of our paths to share the Gospel with. Even if some people may at first reject the invitation to come to church or something, many of those small invitations build up over time and bring someone to that "Curiosity" about the Gospel.

Well the transfer is almost over, and we will be getting our transfer calls some time this week. I don't really know whats going to happen, but I hope to be able to stay here and finish Elder Bigelows training. 

That's about all for this week. Everyone have a great week!

Elder Porritt

Hump Day!!

Well time is flying towards my one year mark now. On the sixth of September I will have been out for one year technically, even though I left on the 12th because of Hurricane Irma. haha. It's crazy to think that it's halfway over soon. It all goes by so quick. 

Things with Nelson are pretty good. Unfortunately we weren't able to meet with him, and he wasn't able to come to church on Sunday, because he was really sick, but we had another stellar lesson with him yesterday. He told us that "If we truly want to follow Jesus Christ, we have to be baptized." He understands the Gospel so well.

This week was really special indeed. President Nelson visited the Dominican Republic this week, and spoke to all the people of the Caribbean Area. It was amazing, because only a week or so ago, he woke up in the middle of the night and felt a strong spiritual expression "Go to the Dominican Republic," and, being exactly obedient, he made time in his schedule to do so. He and Elder Renlund, and all the members of the Area Presidency were there, and Saturday morning there was a missionary broadcast for all the missionaries in the Caribbean, which was AWESOME. Among so many things I learned, was something I loved that President Nelson said, that as far as he can see, the Lord is less concerned about the numerical size of his church, as he is concerned that all of the members have made and are KEEPING all of the covenants that they are able to make. And that really struck me, and was something I had never really thought of before. That the Lord wants, so bad, for us to become, be, and stay worthy to make covenants with him, and KEEP them always. It doesn't matter if everyone in the whole world is a member of Gods church, if they aren't keeping their covenants, God can bring to pass the immortality,  but not the eternal life, of man, which is most important. After the missionary broadcast, we had a baptismal service, and then in the afternoon the prophet spoke to all the members. Some of the members of the area presidency and their wives spoke, and then Elder Renlund and his wife, and then President Nelson stood up and gave his talk IN SPANISH... Best thing I've ever seen. Something I liked that he said from the talk was "Our covenants are far more important than any other promise or commitment we have or ever will make in our lives." That was kind of the pattern that I saw from the talks that were given. Making and keeping covenants. I would say, if the Lord prompted His prophet to immediately go to the Carribean Area to teach the people about their covenants, that they are of the utmost importance, more than we can describe. I know that President Nelson is Gods living prophet on the earth, and that this truly is the church of Jesus Christ on the earth today.

In other news, we had a really cool district activity this morning. We went to some pretty cool caves that are here on Curacao, and took a tour around in them. I will send some pictures of the activity. Some iguanas were caught in the process. haha

Have a great week

Elder Porritt 

Beauty of the Island Skys

Hello everyone! The transfer is already halfway over now, and it doesn't feel like I have been with my companion for all that long. We are doing great, and having a lot of fun. 

This was actually a pretty great week. We met probably like 3-4 new families this week contacting in this new area who were interested in us coming back and sharing our message. We haven't been able to go back and teach any of them yet, but we are excited to. One of the families is a big huge family of 7th day adventists, which is a pretty big church, here in the Caribbean, but the are like pretty much pastor and wife. haha They have Bible studies at their house every week, but they wanted to hear what we had to share with them, so it should be interesting when we are able to sit down with them.

We had teaching visits with the APs this last Saturday, I taught with Elder Marks who is from Idaho. But we had 3 awesome lessons, one of them being Nelson. We went over and taught him about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end, and he understood it just PERFECTLY. There were so many inspired things that he said, and the Spirit was really guiding him when he answered our questions. We asked him what are some of the blessings of enduring to the end, and he said that ultimately it is to "have eternal life, in the Celestial Kingdom." It was really cool to see him put the Plan of Salvation, which we had taught him already, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, together in his mind, so that it all made sense to him. I would say that was the second best lesson I've ever had with him so far. We also talked a lot about his baptismal date, which he is very excited for. He knows that this is the path that God wants him to follow, and asks God to "Let me know" if this is the wrong path as he follows it, which shows how much faith he has. He also came to church for the second time yesterday. 

One of our other investigators, Theodora, who we have been visiting for a while now, is doing great. She is supposed to have an eye surgery tomorrow. She has told us like a million times now that she wants to get baptized, but not until after she has had this surgery, so that she can read the Book of Mormon. She promised us that she would set a baptismal date after she gets this surgery, which we are hoping to set somewhere at the end of September since we have already taught her a bunch. 

Otherwise, this week, again, has gone by very very fast.

Have a great week!

Elder Porritt

Everyday I'm amazed by the beauty of the sky on these islands.

Chocolate Birthday Cake!

Ya my birthday was pretty alright here. I really enjoyed the chocolate cake that Sister Parr made. It was pretty great.

This week was just another average week, not a whole lot of extraordinary things happened. We are doing good and feeling good. To be honest I haven't really ever gotten sick on my whole mission so far. It's been pretty nice. Knock on wood. Other than a few coughs and upset stomachs. 

Well have a great week!

Love,

Elder Porritt

Service for Nelson

Well this week was a little bit slow. Not a bad week, but a kind of uneventful one. 

Things are still going really good with Nelson this week. We are going to go do some service for him in his yard this coming week, so that he won't have to do that on SUNDAY, because he has a bunch of things to get done in his yard. He is progressing really well, and we just started talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ this week. He is still excited for his baptism coming up in the near future as well. 

On Saturday we had an Elders Quorum activity for the branch. Sometimes its kind of tough to schedule activities like this because of everyone's work, but a bunch of people showed up and it was pretty sweet. We even brought Nelson along with us, even though he has only been to church once, he was excited to come with us and get to know more of the members of the branch. We watched the sunrise over Curacao from the top of a hill, had a nice breakfast and we got to introduce Nelson to a bunch of the members. Afterwards we went and cleaned the church as well. Unfortunately Nelson wasn't able to come to church yesterday, but he was able to make friends with some of the members of the elders quorum, and will be coming to church next week!

Otherwise than than that, the time really flew by this week. Elder Bigelow is doing great. He is learning the language and he is participating well in the lessons, and is having a great time. He has a hard working attitude. Especially looking back at when I very first got to the mission and had to learn 2 languages and it was hard to find the drive sometimes to work as hard as you can. We are doing great having success, and having a lot of fun doing it.

Elder Porritt

Training my New Son & My 20th Birthday!!

Good afternoon everyone! 

Well my new companion is here safe and sound. Elder Bigelow is a brand new missionary just out of the DR MTC, so he speaks Spanish somewhat already, but he has much to learn, including Papiamento. haha. I've never taught someone a language before, but I guess we will see how it goes. He is from Syracuse Utah, and went Nuames High School in Layton. 

Our week was pretty great. It's been pretty interesting. In this area we teach about 50/50 Papiamento and Spanish, so its been tough for my companion, but he is catching on really fast to the language. He's a really hardworking missionary and is really excited to go out the door everyday.

We had two just awesome lessons with Nelson this week, and he came to church on Sunday!!! He had a really great experience, and the members here are really good at fellowshipping investigators that come to church, so he already has made friends with a bunch of members.    

A spiritual experience we had this week was when we taught Nelson about the Plan of Salvation. He understood already pretty well, and openly accepted what we taught him about what happens to us after we die, We asked him what he needs to do to return to live with God again. He said "We have to do more than we are now, to reach there." I thought it was a very inspired answer, where most people would give what we sometimes call "Primary answers" like "keep the commandments" or "read your scriptures" which is what you get from a lo of investigators. He realized, however, that exaltation requires CHANGE. It requires progression and becoming more like the Savior through learning from mistakes, and repenting and partaking of the Sacrament, and exercising the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives. This reminds me of a devotional given once by Brad Wilcox I believe. I think it was a BYU devotional. He talked about grace and its power to "save us after all we can do", and also its ability to help us in our day to day lives. But he referenced 3 Nephi 27:19 that says "No unclean thing can enter the presence of God", and he added, no "unchanged" thing can enter into His presence either. And that is so true. We have to constantly change our lives to align them with the will of God, and "Never stop becoming" as President Egbert would always say. 

We didn't email yesterday because we had Zone Conference. There are too many things that I learned to mention, but we studied Chapter 4 of Preach my Gospel, and talked about the role of the Spirit in missionary work, which is the MOST important thing. Without the Spirit there is no such thing as conversion. No matter the passion or conviction of any mans words, there cannot be true conversion and a "Change of heart" without the Spirit. We listened to a small broadcast, where Elder Bednar taught a small group of missionaries about the importance of the Spirit in missionary work, and holy cow Elder Bednar is a MASTER teacher. I learned a whole host of things just observing his teaching skills, aside from what he even taught about. But it was an awesome Zone Conference and I wish I had more time to talk about it. 

Well have a great week!!!

Elder Porritt

Mom,

Well now I'm 20 and I feel really weird about it. That sounds kind of old to me. haha. I had a pretty good birthday. I opened my package a few days before, because it came in last Monday. I really had some good laughs with all the stuff that was in there. On Saturday we got to go proselyting and that's about all that happened. haha, but it was a good day. Thanks for the package and everything

Well I don't have a lot of time, but thank you for everything that you do, and for all the updates of stuff back at home. I hope it cools down a little bit back at home, unfortunately August is also the hottest month of the year down here to, so it has been steamy.

Have a great week!

From Sister Baird

Parents of Elders Bigelow, Porritt, Jackson, Weis, Richards and Marks

We had a zone conference today and so P-Day has been changed until tomorrow.  I just wanted to let you know so that you didn't worry.  Being a mom of missionaries I know it can be a concern when you don't hear from them.  Attached find a few pictures, we had a wonderful day with them.

Love,

Sister Baird

Headed to Curacao

Well on this last Wednesday I found out I will be getting transferred to Curacao. The area is Carawara, Curacao, and my new companion will be Elder Garcia, who I have only met once, back in Guyana. I don't know a whole lot about him yet. I will be leaving the island tomorrow early in the morning, so today is my last day in Aruba. It's kind of been hard to say goodbye to some of these people. I have met a lot of really awesome people here in Aruba, and some of the very elect. While many of them haven't been able to get baptized yet, I hope that in the near future some of them will, and be able to fully accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have learned a lot of things here in my 5 &1/2 months on Aruba that I will never forget. Still have never been to a beach though. hahaha. Just seen them from afar. 

Well this last week here in Aruba has been an interesting one. We still have been having trouble getting in contact with some of our progressing investigators including Gene, who may or may not have already left for her vacation she has been planning to go to Jamaica. We met some really cool people though. We ran into some people unexpectedly, especially one lady that told us her cousin was one of the members in the branch, and she seemed really interested. Contacts like that are pretty much like getting a referral. 

This last Sunday the branch president asked me to speak in sacrament meeting for my last week here in the San Nicolas branch. Of course I felt prompted to talk about THE BOOK OF MORMON. I love talking about the Book of Mormon, I could talk about it all day. Just like we learned from President Monson and President Nelson, I invite all of us to if we do not have a testimony of the Book of Mormon to do what is necessary to obtain one, and to read from it EVERY DAY. President Nelson told us "We need to feel unequivocally that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, so deeply that we wouldn't want to live, even one day, without it." I know if you prayerfully feast upon the Book of Mormon, that you will have spiritual experiences and learn something new from it every day. 

Well that is pretty much our week. If anything else noteworthy happened I can't remember it right now. haha. I don't have my journal... Everything just blends together now, all the days and weeks and experiences we have. It's important that we write down our experiences or we will forget them!!!

Elder Porritt

Sweet Arubian sunset. I am going to miss these...

Jesus Christ has the Power to Strengthen our Weaknesses

Hello everyone!!!! The transfer is already almost coming to a close. This week I had an exchange with Elder Galke the zone leader, and this coming week will be zone conference again and the transfer will be over not long after that. 

This week we had two more lesson with Jose and his wife Librada from the DR. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and gave them both one and left them to read 3 Nephi 11. We came over about two days, they had both read, and Librada had read about 4 more chapters apart from that and understood all of them perfectly, it was crazy. We talked about the Atonement, and about how Jesus Christ has the power to strengthen our weaknesses and the power to ease our burdens, and they made us pastechi, which is soooo delicious. This time we just taught the two of them but we were supposed to teach 4 more of their friends, but because of a miscommunication we didn't teach them.  Today we are going over to teach them and extend a baptismal date, so hopefully everything goes well and they accept. They want to be baptized, but people are always scared to set a date.

Today we had our district activity. We were supposed to climb this huge mountain that is in Oranjestad, (Maybe I would call it a huge hill compared to the Rockies), but we weren't able to do that because one of the sisters had a foot problem. So instead we went to this rock formation a little bit farther north on the island. It wasn't really anything too special, but from the top of it you could almost see the shore on both sides of the island, if that tells you anything about how small this island is. Actually from the chapel in San Nicolas, which is on a hill, if there is no fog or clouds sometimes you can see Venezuela. I think we are only like 8 miles away from Venezuela or something like that. 

Otherwise this week was very average in every way. We were supposed to extend another baptismal date yesterday to a sister named Angela, who has been investigating the church for a long time, but unfortunately she didn't show up for her appointment. We had a member there to teach with us and everything. This lady wants to be baptized, but has a hard time meeting with us often and coming to church because of work. 

Well everyone have a good week!!!

Elder Porritt

The Crew

The District

We Found a New Family

Wow this week has gone by really really fast, as it seems to do every week. This week we haven't had a lot of success unfortunately. The one good thing that happened was we found a new family in our contacting area or I should say a man and his wife and some of their friends. His name is Jose. They all used to meet with the sisters a long time ago, and they were actually going to get baptized, but right before their baptismal date the sisters were pulled out of the area, and it never ended up happening. The good thing is they all still believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the church is true, so we just have to teach them all the lessons and hopefully they will decide to get baptized. We went over there yesterday to have a lesson, and it was Jose and his wife, and two of their friends that live close by and I think one of his sisters or nieces or something. We had an awesome lesson about the First Vision and Joseph Smith, and they made us some delicious food afterwards.

The bad news this week is that we aren't going to be able to teach Sarry any more. This week we were supposed to have a lesson with her, but she called us and told us we would have to move it. And to make a very long story short, we got a call from her boyfriend who threatened us, and so we won't be going back. So our number one investigator is not going to be able to continue having lessons with us, even though she has already decided to get baptized. Sometimes I wish we could control peoples agency, but unfortunately its all part of the work. Hopefully one day everything will work out and we will be able to teach her again. 

Well I've run out of time, but I hope you all have a great week!

Unfortunately for some reason I can't attach any pictures. I think there is something wrong with this computer, maybe I will be able to send some next week.

Elder Porritt

I've Been Out For 6 Months!

Well tomorrow I have officially been out for 6 months! It really feels like I just got here, and already I'm at 6 months. And I'm sure the next 18 are going to be even faster. 

We had a really interesting week that's for sure. Our investigators haven't necessarily been progressing by any means, in fact this week we were supposed to have a baptismal interview with one of our LONG TIME investigators to finally get baptized, and we were reviewing the baptismal questions with him. The missionaries have known this guy for AGES, and he had some issues. So needless to say he's not going to get baptized this week. haha

Well we finally found Sarry again. We hadn't spoken to her in about 2 weeks, and we had no idea why. We finally were able to talk to her and go over and have a lesson with her. She told her boyfriend that she wanted to go to our church and get baptized, and he didn't take that too well. We haven't talked to her the last two weeks because he was angry and didn't want us to come over and finally he just packed up all his stuff and left the house. The biggest issue though was that her boyfriend is good friends with her boss, so she was about to get her paycheck from work this week, and her boyfriend went by and told her boss to give him the money instead, and not give it to her. Sarry already doesn't have a whole lot, so they are kind of starving, but she is looking for another job, so that her boyfriend can't steal her money anymore. She already told us that there is nothing that is going to stop her from getting baptized and that includes her boyfriend or any of her family and her job. I really really admire this lady's faith. 99.9 percent of our investigators in this same situation would eventually break, and wouldn't let us come over anymore, and we would be the last people on their minds. However she told us that "Salvation is individual," and she is confident that this is what God wants her to do in her life, and he will provide a way to feed her kids and provide a way that she can be baptized. She has so much faith, and I'm sure this week there will be miracles in her life because of it. 

I'm glad to hear everything back at home is great, and that little Hadley was able to have her baby blessing this week. Everyone have a great week!!!

Elder Porritt

Taking Time to Feel the Spirit

Hello everyone! We have been having transfers here on the island and we had a lot of people going in and out. So Tuesday we picked up Elder Galke and he has been with us this whole week, which has been really interesting to say the least. There has been three of us living in our apartment, which is the smallest apartment in the whole mission by the way, and it has been really really cramped, but this week was a lot of fun.

This week we did A LOT of contacting, and found some really great people. We also taught some really great lessons, but unfortunately again didn't have anybody show up to church on Sunday. This week we literally did EVERYTHING we could to make sure our investigators would come, but nothing. It is frustrating to see people that we teach who know this is the true church, they know Joseph Smith is a prophet, they know the Book of Mormon is true, and they know they need to live the gospel, but they just won't come to church. Despite not having much success getting investigators to church, I really felt the Spirit very strongly during sacrament meeting. This week we had a brand new deacon ordained, so I didn't have to pass the sacrament, so I was able to sit down and really think about the Savior and the Atonement during the Sacrament. I can't say how important it is the come to church 5-10 minutes early and spiritually prepare to receive the sacrament. I think a lot of times its easy to just go through the motions every week partaking of the sacrament, because it happens every week, For me when I am able to really think about the Atonement, and all the things that I feel everyday that Jesus Christ felt, and to reflect on all the things that he has done for me just in these last 7 days, I am able to feel the Saviors love and the Spirit so strong, and it's truly amazing.

Otherwise, we haven't had any lessons with Sarry this whole week, because she has been sick for a while now, but today we will be having one with her, and this week she will hopefully come to church. 

Elder Porritt

Everything Happens For a Reason!

Well the news this week is that I am staying here in San Nicolas and my companion as well. This is actually the first time I have had a companion for longer than one transfer haha. Both of the other Elders in Oranjestad are being transferred and we have both of the next elders coming in at different times, so we are going to be in a threesome for a while. Elder Galke will be with us for a week before his new companion makes it in, and when he does, Elder Galke will have to fly out for MLC in Trinidad, so we will be with Elder Garner for another couple of days. So we will be in a threesome for a while haha.

Well my spiritual experience this week was the 3 lessons we had with one of our new investigators. Her name is Sarry. She was no doubt a miracle investigator. She was the very last contact we made in our last contacting area. We had never been able to reach her house before because of dogs, but we were finally able to get to it the last day we would be in the contact area. And to be honest as a first impression she didn't seem like someone with any promise, but we gave her a pamphlet, left, and about an hour later she called us and thanked us for the pamphlet and told us that she knows its all true. To be honest she is the most prepared investigator I've ever had. She already knows the gospel is true, the Church is true, and Joseph Smith is a prophet. This week we gave her the Book of Mormon, and left her to read 3 Nephi 11. That day she was reading the Book ALL DAY and reading it out loud. Her husband was trying to watch tv, and got mad because she was reading it out loud to her kids and she wouldn't stop. Her baptismal date is the 17th of March, and she said there is NOTHING that is going to stop her from being baptized, including her husband. To say the least, my testimony has grown that God is always preparing people for the Gospel. He puts people in our path who need the Gospel in their lives and are ready for it. Elder Rasband wasn't kidding when he said that EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON. There is no such thing as a coincidence for God, because he is always directing people into our path.

Tomorrow our good friend Ralph leaves on his mission. He is a member here in San Nicolas, and he's so funny. He was called to serve in the Vanuatu mission, and he flies out tomorrow to the New Zealand MTC. He has been going out to teach with us pretty much every day this last transfer because he was preparing to leave, and his departure date kept getting pushed back.

Well that's the main points from this week. I hope everyone is had a great week this week, and also this coming week.

Elder Porritt

Here is Ralph taking a nap outside our apartment, waiting to use the washer haha

Carnival In Aruba!

Hey everybody! Sorry I wasn't able to email yesterday because it was a holiday here in Aruba. So here in Aruba, there is this thing called Carnival. Pretty much it's just the whole country throwing a gigantic party with parades and activities every night for like 6 weeks (It started at the beginning of the year and ended yesterday) Carnival is absolutely ridiculous with drunkenness and wild partying. I'm sure this was something that prophets like Nephi saw in the future and described as "Wicked traditions of their fathers" and things like that. So this week was especially crazy and there was a parade that went right in front of our house so my companion and I were evacuated to Oranjestad for 3 days and served in the Oranjestad elders area for a while. But so yesterday was pretty much a hangover holiday for the whole island, so our Internet shop wasn't open.

This week we received some bad news from Kevin. He lives with his mom, because he is a poor college student, and she told him this week that we cannot come over and teach him anymore, and that it's not ok with her for him to go to church on Sunday. He wants to be baptized and knows the church is true, but his mom is directly against anything that has to do with this church. He doesn't need his moms permission because he is like 22, but as long as he is living with his mom he can't have anything to do with us. Kevin has made so much sacrifice to align his life with the commandments, and he quit his job so that he could come to church every Sunday and be baptized. He has so much faith, but he just cannot do it in the situation he is in right now. So until he able to move out or something, we cannot go see him anymore. We were devastated when we called him and he told us this, but hopefully one day he will enter the waters of baptism.

In better news Zone Conference this week was AWESOME as usual. What especially stuck out for me,and what I learned most was how important the Spirit is. It is super super important that we WRITE whenever we hear and feel the Spirit. When we have spiritual experiences and we write them down we are showing the Lord that we cherish what he has given us and we are more likely to receive more spiritual light. Elder Richard G Scott I think it was said something like this. "Knowledge carefully recorded is knowledge available in time of need." And we will at some point in our life need to draw from spiritual experiences we have had in the past, and if we don't write them down we won't likely remember them in the future.

Transfers are coming up at the end of this week, but I don't know anything yet, so we will see what happens next week.

I can't send any pictures this week because I am writing this on an iPad at the senior couples house, so next week I can send some.

I hope everyone has a great week

Elder Porritt