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