Monday, January 15, 2018

Headed to Aruba & Speaking Papiamento

Hello everyone! This week has been super hectic with the transfer and everything. Monday night Elder Correia and I left Parika.. So Monday through Wednesday I got to be companions with Elder White, he was the old Teaching Assistant, soon to be the new AP. Pretty much I went with him to say goodbye to his investigators and helped him pack up his things and clean his apartment and such haha. We went to eat at this burger place in Georgetown, and boy do I miss nice juicy beef in between two patties haha. That's the first burger I've had here on my mission so far.

Thursday we flew to Trinidad, then to Curacao. I had a 7 hour layover, so I went and taught a few lessons with the elders there, and then I flew to Aruba by myself and got picked up at the airport by my new companion, Elder Richards, and the Aruba senior couple, Elder and Sister Lindley, they are awesome.

My new area is pretty sweet. It's actually kind of weird, it is a desert on this island. It feels like being in Texas or something, there are cactus' EVERYWHERE. It's really hot and dry and it doesn't rain that often. So I guess it's a little bit like home, during the spring and fall I guess haha. There are 8 missionaries on Aruba, 4 sisters and 4 elders. The 4 sisters and the other 2 elders are all in the Orangestad branch in the city. My companion and I have basically the southern half of the island, or the San Nicolas branch. So our area is huge. We typically get about 30-40 people at church every Sunday, so our branch is still pretty small. We have some really great investigators who have dates to be baptized so the work is going really well here. I'm excited to start working here.

So far we have taught about 40% of our lessons in English, 30% in Spanish, and 30% in Papiamento. I have been able to contribute to our Spanish lessons a little bit, but as of now, I just sit and listen to my companion teach in Papiamento haha. My companion is from San Clemente, California. He has been out for 5 transfers, all of which were in the islands, so he is fluent now in Spanish and Papiamento. These coming weeks I will be learning both languages, so this transfer could be somewhat interesting. But I have already seen the Gift of Tongues at work. There is no way I could teach without the help of the Spirit.

Well, everyone have a good week!!!

Elder Porritt 

Elder Richards and I outside our apartment. This apartment is TINY, and its the smallest apartment in the mission haha. 

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