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

Teaching About the Word of Wisdom

Wow this week was another really fast one. Honestly this was a pretty uneventful week unfortunately. Not a whole lot of interesting things happened.

More news with Kevin. He was supposed to be baptized this coming Saturday, but we met with him Friday night and now he doesn't have a date. So this week he was supposed to give up coffee which he amazingly just stopped all at once the day we taught him the Word of Wisdom, so he has been adjusting physically without having coffee every day, but he is going to be fine. He also talked to his mom about his decision to be baptized. She is a hardcore evangelist and raised him in the evangelist church, but he just never really liked going to that church he said because it didn't feel right. So she didn't respond very good. He told us she was mad because he would never come to her church, so why is he all the sudden going to go to the Mormon church. So Kevin told us he wanted a little bit more time to think things over and see how he's going to move forward from this point. He doesn't need his moms permission to get baptized, because he's like 20 or 21, but he just doesn't want her to hate him, and he still lives in her house. So he's not going to get baptized this week, but I don't think it should be longer than maybe two or three weeks more before it will happen.

On Wednesday we had a dinner appointment with the Branch President, President Elliot. It was my companion and I and Elder and Sister Lindley and President Elliot's wife and 2 kids. He is the Branch President and she is the Relief Society President if that tells you anything about how small our branch is. President Elliot is such a cool guy, he is from JAMAICA, and he is a chef at some big restaurants in Oranjestad, so to say that the food that he made us was good would be an understatement. He cooked us Parmesan chicken pasta with some garlic bread, and it was about like eating at Olive Garden, maybe better. We had a short lesson about faith and repentance as well, but they already pretty much know everything, they are awesome.

Well I hope everyone is having a great week. Continue to work hard a never miss an opportunity to share the gospel with anyone you can. That is how we have success in a missionary work, is with the help of members finding and fellowshipping.

Elder Porritt