Week 100!!

Well, this week was a solid week for sure in San Fernando. Today we are back up in Valsayn at the Williams apartment. We had our Zone Activity this morning and watched "The RM", and then Sister Williams made us some NICE enchiladas.

We had some great experiences this week. We were knocking on doors in the evening and saw this man walking down the street. We walked up to him and started talking to him. He had just gotten off work, and told us that he isn't normally here at this time of day. Normally he would be drinking, but literally that day he decided that his life wasn't going in the right direction and he decided to give up drinking and smoking, cold turkey. We also shouldn't have been there either, because we had just had a lesson fall through. Divine design.

Reinaldo is progressing very well. We finished teaching him all the lessons this week, and he is ready for his interview this week and his baptism this next Saturday. He is super cool. We are excited!

Saturday night we were coming back to the apartment for the night. We parked the car and there was somebody just outside our door lifting weights. We ended up talking to him and he told us about how he just got back from working at sea for 3 or 4 weeks. We asked us about the old missionaries who were here a while ago. He knows that there are things he needs to change in his life. He noticed how all the members of the church he meets are always happy and always "Look peaceful". That is what drew him to the church, the members and their examples of love and cheerfulness. We told him about the Book of Mormon and how it can help us find peace in Jesus Christ. He is really excited to read it. It just goes to show you, it doesn't matter if you are a full time missionary, you can be a missionary even in simple ways like having a good attitude and being positive and uplifting to others. It can change peoples lives.

Well, I know that this is Jesus Christs church, and that this is His work! I know that if we will be faithful to our covenants with God made at baptism and the temple, we can find TRUE peace and light. That is what people see in the members of the church that draws them closer.

Have a good week
Elder Porritt

 Found this gem at the church

Our good friends, Joshua and Jordan, they are a part member family in Point Fortin

 The sunsets in this place continue to amaze

Departing Testimony

We had a very short and last Zone Conference this past Wednesday. Elder Alonzo, the Area President, toured the mission with President and Sister Baird in 11 days, which in a normal mission wouldn't be that quick, but here with 6 different countries and unreliable air travel that is a miracle. President and Sister Baird instructed us about finding people, and I and two other missionaries gave our departing testimonies. Elder Alonzo also bore his powerful testimony at the end of conference. I am truly so grateful for what I have learned and come to know on my mission about my Savior Jesus Christ. This is His church and He is at the head of it. The Spirit was felt very deeply during Zone Conference.

We spent a lot of time finding new people this week. We this nice family over by one of our other investigators who were just like blown away when we told them about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. We are excited to go back and see some of these people.

Sonny came back to church again this week. Almost the whole hour during Elders Quorum he had his face buried in the Book of Mormon, reading it intently. Amazingly we still haven't been able to go see him yet, because he is SO busy. Reinaldo was there as well as 4 other people we are teaching.

July is almost over and my time is coming to a close. We are really excited about these last three weeks though!

Have a good week!

Elder Porritt

These are from on top of Sando Hill

We got some RALL rain!!

WOO! This week was pretty exciting. We got some RALL rain (Trini phrase) this week. It rained cats and dogs like 3 or 4 times for several hours of the day. I really really love rain, because it makes things a lot cooler, but we got WET. Wednesday morning it was raining harder than I have ever seen it rain on my whole mission. I had to unlock the gate outside so we could get the car out. Even though I was wearing a rain jacket I get completely drenched. We almost got struck by lightning that day too, it was pretty scary.

We met some really cool new people this week. There was a nice Indian man we met at these big apartment buildings that we shared the Restoration with. His name is Tony, he's cool.

We also had a cool divine design experience this week. On Wednesday morning we went to teach a lesson with Reinaldo at the church. It was raining cats and dogs, and so we decided to, instead of trying to run all the way up to the church (which is a long run) we would just drive to this covered parking garage nearby. We got there and climbed out of the car, and we saw a lady and her daughter climbing into their car a few feet away. She kinda paused as she saw us and didn't get in the car and kinda just stood there for a minute. We decided that we should maybe talk to her while she was standing there. Her name is Tarese, and it turns out she had met with the missionaries about three years ago, and they just stopped coming by her unexpectedly, though she still wanted to learn more. We set up and appointment and went by a few days later to share the Restoration with her. She really loves the Book of Mormon and is really excited to read it and pray about it. Her and her family have A LOT of potential. Divine design!

We didn't get to teach Sonny, and we have had a hard time getting a hold of Rennel or finding her at home, but we did contact her boyfriend this week, who has some pretty sincere interest!

This week we went to church at the Point Fortin branch for branch conference with the stake presidency. They meet in the downstairs half of a big house, with just enough room to get 30-40 chairs in., it's pretty cool. The meeting was GREAT. One of our investigators, Joshua was at church, he is 12. We got to meet a whole bunch of other non members, who are family members of some of the members down there. We are going to start teaching several of them this next week.

I am so grateful to be a missionary! I love the work of the Lord, and to know that we can all be a "servant in the vineyard" even if we aren't full time missionaries. We need to continue to be a light to others. Like President Nelson said "When we increase in personal purity, we increase in power" That goes for men and women, and President Nelson said we can and should all be part of the gathering of Israel, the most important work going on during this time period!

Elder Porritt

 E AWA TA KAI

San Fernando & Point Fortin

Hello everyone! This first week down here in San Fernando has been a good one. Good things have been happening in this area and the two units that we cover. There is a ward here in San Fernando, and a really small branch down in Point Fortin, which is about an hour away. There haven't been missionaries there in about 3 years, and just recently we started going down to Point Fortin to sacrament meeting and to contact people. We spend most of our time though, in San Fernando.

Elder Stott and I had a bunch of missionaries coming through on Tuesday and Wednesday, most of which were outgoing missionaries flying through to Curacao. There were about 10 of us, which was really difficult to fit into our apartment for the night, but it was a blast though. It was sad to say goodbye to those missionaries I have served with and around for so long. I'm grateful for what they have taught me. 

Thursday I went down to San Fernando and Friday we went out to Point Fortin. The drive is really cool, we get to drive through this one area that kind of looks like the Sacred Grove, and there's some other cool stuff we drive past. I send some pictures of it next week. Since there haven't been missionaries there for a while, there are some really cool people that the members have referred us to that we are teaching. Mostly part member families though, but there are going to be some baptisms down there here in the future, and the branch is growing. We saw two investigators named Stephan and Kia at this small farm, where Kia lives. They have a bunch of goats and sheep wandering around everywhere, and there was a mean dog that was chasing them around all throughout the lesson, it was pretty funny. 

This week in San Fernando we taught a lady named Rennel. She is the woman Elder Curtis and I contacted a few weeks ago. She is really cool and is progressing really well. She is on date to be baptized at the beginning of August. Yesterday we had a lesson with a young man named Reinaldo. He is really good friends with one of the returned missionaries here in the San Fernando ward. He is preparing himself to be baptized hopefully towards the end of this month. 

Yesterday at church there was a man who showed up named Sonny. He has a friend from Arizona who is a member of the church who has been inviting him to church for a long time. He finally found out where the church was and what time it started, and so he was at church yesterday. He really made friends with the members and definitely felt the Spirit. He told me that we will be seeing him back there in the future. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, told him a little bit about it, and are going to go by and teach him this week. Simple invitations make the difference!!!

Well there's some exciting missionary work here in San Fernando. Elder Morgan and I are having a great time. Excited for this next week!

Elder Porritt

This goat smiled for the picture

Is that tree......dabbing?

The Gospel Is True, I Know It!!

Today Elder Stott and I started our last transfer of the mission. "The Last Melon" as we say. This next transfer, Elder Stott will be staying here in Valsayn and I am being transferred to San Fernando, the southern tip of Trinidad. My new companion will be Elder Morgan. He has been out for about 10 months, and we are really excited about this next transfer.

Actually just this Wednesday, Elder Stott and I were in San Fernando having a teaching visit with the Elders. Elder Curtis (who is pretty much just switching me spots in Valsayn) and I had some really cool experiences contacting at an apartment complex. We met a bunch of interested people. There was this one lady who was cooking that we were able to talk to, pretty much just by yelling into her kitchen from the front door, because we couldn't go inside. She has been looking for a church to go to. It turns out, after the elders went back to teach her a couple of days later, she had met missionaries in Port of Spain before who had given her a copy of the Book of Mormon, which she had misplaced and had been searching for the Book in every library, but couldn't find it. When they pulled the book of of their bags she was just amazed. I am excited to go down there and teach some of these people that we were able to contact. At the end of the teaching visit we got some gyros from a famous gyro stand among missionaries called "Smileys Gyros", which were really good.

There's a man we met just walking down the street a couple of weeks ago named Ronald. Ronald has two twin sons named Ronaldo and Ronaldinio who are cricket champions pretty much. They are 8 years old. We started teaching them last week and this week they accepted the invitation to be baptized the second week of August. The three of them are really exiting. Hopefully the Elders will have success with him this next transfer.

Everything is going so fast. I am so grateful to be able to be a missionary and serve the Lord and my brothers and sisters. God's church and Kingdom are once again upon the earth! The Gospel is true, I know it!

Elder Porritt

1 Transfer Left

The weeks are starting to count down for us. The closer and closer it gets the more scary it gets. I'm glad I have one more transfer left in the field for sure. At the end of this week I will find out where I will go for the last transfer. I am grateful to be able to be in the service of the Lord and to serve some of Heavenly Fathers children. Sometimes I wish I could do it forever.

This week we didn't find much success. In fact we ran into some real opposition with some people we met. This last week we went to teach a man in Port of Spain we met at a shoe shop. They allowed us to tell them all about the Restoration and they seemingly listened really intently, but then at the end they just starting arguing with us and just wanted to bash. It was pretty disappointing.

We met some pretty cool new individuals though. One of the less active members from Port of Spain has started coming back to church, and this week invited us over to start teaching his kids. He has been a member of the church for a while, but most of his kids have not yet been baptized, so this week we invited his daughter to be baptized on the 27th of July. Her name is Samantha.

We had a spiritual experience last week when we went by to see a lady named Kimberly. She is a lady we found searching through old records for people who had been taught in the past. She lives in the same apartment complex as Sister Atkins, one of the locally called missionaries, so we taught her with Sister Atkins. Thankfully she read the chapter we gave her from 3 Nephi, and she told us what stuck out to her was baptism. The Spirit was in the lesson very strongly as we taught her about the Plan of Salvation. She accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 27th of July. She had been previously taught by two missionaries a couple of years back, but never really had the desire to act, but may have now had a change of heart. She has been kind of unsatisfied with the different religious ideas she has been associated with in the past, and has been looking for something new. I'm grateful for the Spirit and its role in conversion. That's always what makes the difference.

We are excited for this week. This week we are going to be doing a lot of finding, just like we did this week.

Have a great week!
Elder Porritt

Maracas Falls and Pizza!

Hello everyone! We just got back from our district activity going to Maracas Falls. This is the second time I have been there, but that waterfall is beautiful and so is the hike. Strangely, there wasn't as much water coming off of it as the time before, even though it has been raining constantly this whole week, even during the hike. We had some cool T-shirts made for the activity. I will send some pictures.

This week we had a special treat. President and Sister Baird were coming through Trinidad and had a layover. Kind of as celebration for how well this mission is doing. The Bairds came through to have pizza and watch a movie with all the areas of the mission. So on Tuesday we had the zone together at the Williams apartment and we watched Secondhand Lions. It was a blast.

Nobody showed up to church this week, which was pretty disappointing. We were expecting a bunch of different people at church. There was, however, a less active young man, who came to church again this week. His name is Jonathon. He lives out in the mountains of Port of Spain. Luckily we have an SUV, which was a good thing, because I don't think we would have been able to make it up there in a regular car. He just recently decided to start coming back to church, and we are hoping to start working with him to help him prepare for a mission.

We started teaching a couple of new individuals and families that we found these last 2 weeks. Most of the promising people that we find are either referrals or people we meet in random and unexpected ways. That's kinda how God does it. There are people all around us that pass us everywhere that we go, that might be searching for the truth. You never know where you will find them.

Nothing much else for the week. Kind of a slow one. We are going by to see Gopall today. We're going to have to move his baptismal date farther into the future.

Have a great week!
Elder Porritt

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Fathers day everyone!!! Our Fathers day week was a little bit slow, but not too bad. We are working hard and love the work though.

We weren't able to meet with most of our progressing investigators this week unfortunately. Many of them were busy with plans for Fathers day, and other stuff. Also, Carlos was sick this week, so we only got to see them once at the very beginning of the week.

We worked with Gopall on the commandments this week. He just loves learning about the Gospel. Unfortunately he is still having a lot of sickness, which kept him from coming to church again this Sunday. He is really excited about being baptized though, now he just needs to make a full recovery and become fully functional with his medication.

This week I finished reading the New Testament in personal study. After now having read the Book of Mormon several times over, it is a whole lot easier to understand what the Bible teaches and see how powerful the two of them are together. If I were to sum up what I have learned from reading the New Testament it would be that Jesus Christ is our perfect example in EVERYTHING, that he spoke to prophets and apostles back then, and he still continues to do so today. The church is true, and it is the same church as that of the Savior 2000 years ago. He is the Savior and Redeemer. I am so grateful that God has given us so much direction from the Standard Works, and through modern day prophet, even when that direction might run contrary to that which we might think. I know that God speaks today!!!

Have a great week!
Elder Porritt

RAIN!!

Outstanding Zone Conference!!

This week we had an OUTSTANDING Zone Conference. We talked a lot about loving the people and serving out of love for them and love for God. We also talked a lot about how our mission has now been selected to have smartphones. There was a lot of training and is still a lot of training that all the missionaries will have to go through, which I'm honestly not super excited for since that will all be happening next transfer, which will be my last. But I will say that smartphones and social media are going to GREATLY hasten the work here in the mission. I will just be getting used to that 6 weeks before going home. Elder Stott and I per usual were President and Sister Bairds' chauffeurs, and their hotel is all the way in Port of Spain, so we got a little bit less proselyting time this week.

Tuesday we called up Gopall to see how he was doing. Last week he had gone to the hospital because of this new medication that he has been given that is giving him a bunch of side effects, and this week he was very sick in bed. He wanted us to give him a blessing, so we went by Tuesday morning. We got there and he didn't have enough strength to sit up at all. He didn't look good at all. We gave him a blessing as he laid in bed and he asked us to read something from the Book of Mormon to him, which made him feel better. He told us to come back on Saturday. When we came by on Saturday he came out the door with a bounce in his step, looking a thousand times better than he did when we saw him on Tuesday. He then told us about how that night after we gave him the blessing he had a perfect nights sleep in contrast to the all the nights for the past week he hadn't been able to sleep well, and when he did he would have nightmares. Then he told us that the next morning he got right up out of bed almost as good as normal and had felt really good for the last 4 days straight even though he was still taking the medication. I've never seen anything quite like it before. It was a true miracle. Now he has decided to be baptized on the 29th of June. I am so thankful for a merciful Father in Heaven and His Son Jesus Christ who love us and want to heal us physically and spiritually. They are there! And Gods power and authority are on the earth today!

Carlos and Barbara are doing pretty well. This week they finally were able to finish up the Trinidad immigration stuff, and yesterday we talked about marriage and eternal families in preparation for baptism. They are making pretty good progress

This time around President Baird brought his two baseball gloves with him to Trinidad, so after our Zone Conference interviews we played a little bit of catch, which is the first time I have done that in 21 months. Unfortunately, my camera was dead so I didn't get any pictures. :(

Things are moving quickly here in Trindad, we are excited about the next couple of weeks!

Elder Porritt

Transfers..Means Airport Runs

This week was transfer week, which means that we had a lot of different Elders to pick up from and drop off at the airport. Monday morning we had Elder Weiss come in to stay for a day to catch his flight to Curacao. He was fortunate to be here, because that night Elder and Sister Williams fed us RIBS, and invited some less active members over as well so we could talk to them. The next morning we woke up at 5:30 and took him all the way to the airport to find out that his flight got delayed by 12 hours. We also had two Elders from Guyana that came through on their way back home. They came with us to teach Roger and several other investigators. The following day we got up at 3AM to take the two of them to the airport for their flight to Curacao. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep this week, but it was a blast.

Now I'm with my new companion Elder Stott finally. He is an awesome Elder, we are going to have a great transfer together, no doubt. Yesterday we had a funny experience at church. We were sitting in Sunday school with all the adults in the chapel, when this man walks in. He had long rasta dreads, and he sat down and started yelling. The teacher would ask a question and he would yell out the answers and ask funny questions. We went to sit by him to see what was up, and he had a lot of alcohol on his breath. We ended up going to another room and trying to talk to him, but he was too drunk and just kept yelling and saying funny things. It was a real adventure. Eventually he went outside, peed on the grass and left. haha

Saturday we had MLC which was great. We were at the Williams and skyped with all the other leaders in the mission, it's great to be able to see some of them again. Interestingly, our mission has been selected as a pilot mission for this new idea with smartphones. So either this next transfer, or the one after, all the companionships will be receiving smartphones. haha. This isn't going to hardly affect me at all, but that's ok, it's going to GREATLY help the missionaries behind me to be more effective and communicate more effectively with the members and investigators.

We had a cool experience that happened yesterday while we were in POS teaching Carlos and Barbara. They actually weren't at the house when we got there, so we just sat down with Gustavo, who was there, and taught him about how to use Preach My Gospel effectively, which we had given him a couple of weeks prior. He has that recent convert FIRE in his eyes, and asked us what he should study from it to become the most effective missionary he could. Then we read through part of 2 Nephi 9 and talked a little bit about the Atonement, and that was when Carlos and Barbara got back home. We just talked about how Jesus Christs' Atonement was an infinite one, and that without it we would never have any hope of being cleansed from sin. Then we talked about how baptism by immersion is symbolic of being cleansed from sin, and how we have to go all the way under the water in order for it to count, that was when Carlos realized that his former baptism, which was a sprinkling baptism, wasn't complete in that sense, and he said "I want to be baptized". The Spirit was really teaching him and helping him connect all the dots together in his head. I am so grateful for the Spirit in the work.

Gopall has been having some health problems this week with the new medication that he has been prescribed. We haven't been able to see him because of that, but we should be going to see him probably on Tuesday. Also, his sister is coming up from Guyana. She has been taking the missionary lessons for the last couple of weeks as well, and seems pretty interested, so we are excited!

Elder Porritt

Elder Porritt & Elder Stott!

Today is week one, and I will be staying here in Trinidad again. I will be staying here in Valsayn for another one. Elder Riter is going back down to Guyana for his last transfer. My new companion will be Elder Stott. I am really excited about this transfer. Elder Stott and I have been talking about being companions since the MTC. Oddly, of the four of us from the MTC group, the two of us are the first to be companions with one another.

Yesterday we drove out to POS to teach Carlos and Gustavo, and now Carlos wife, Barbara. We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and about baptism and the Holy Ghost. We weren't really sure what to expect with Barbara since we hadn't met her yet. We introduced the Book of Mormon to her briefly and shared some scriptures from it, and she was really into the lesson, and SUPER attentive. She just seemed amazed. Unfortunately, we thought we had some Spanish copies of the Book of Mormon in the back of the car, but we didn't. However, at the end of the lesson, we were talking with Carlos and he said "Please, when you come back, bring her a Book of Mormon, I want her to read it too" He really loves the Book of Mormon, and what we've taught him so far. We are SO excited about these two. They just need to officially get married, and then we can do it. The two of them are pretty elect.

Otherwise, this week was pretty much basic. We had a great teaching visit with the Elders from Arima. I spent a couple of hours with Elder Raymond again, and we got to do two hours of contacting in the rain. But I'm really grateful though because it hasn't rained hard here for like 3 months now.

We had our recent convert, Samantha, and her whole family come to church this week because her brother got ordained to be the ward executive secretary. That included one of her sisters that isn't a member, which we started teaching recently, named Yorianny.

There are a bunch of missionaries coming through the island headed to different countries. So this week we are going to be running a lot of people to and from the airport. Should be fun..

Have a great week!
Elder Porritt

Our "Zistrict" Volleyball Activity!

Well this week was a pretty good one. This morning we had our Zone activity, or rather, our Zistrict activity, since there are only 8 of us, we are like a small zone or a big district. After 5 transfers we finally decided to play volleyball. We found a portable net, that we tied down with strings and stakes, which didn't work too well, because anytime the ball went into the net hard enough, or someone ran into a string, the net fell down. But we had a whole lot of fun.

This week we started focusing more on Carlos. He told us on Tuesday that his wife and son and going to arrive in Trinidad this coming Thursday. Also he had a couple of pretty good friends that went missing, so we went by several times this week to share the Plan of Salvation, temples, and exaltation with him, and Gustavo. We had a GREAT lesson with him about the spirit world, the same day he found out his friends went missing. He had A LOT of questions about Adam and Eve and other aspects of the Plan of Salvation. After a good long discussion, he told us how much he loves learning these new things. This week we are going to invite him to be baptized, and hopefully his wife and son will make it here safely, and we will be able to start teaching them.

We had a spiritual experience that was a bit of a strange one, but a real heaven sent miracle. We taught some referrals that we received from two elders in Guyana, who are named Nalita and Gopaul. They are two very humble Guyanese people, who have been going through some tough trials. Nalita is Gopauls mother, and his sister is being taught by those two missionaries in Guyana This Saturday we went to see them and Nalita wasn't there, but we taught Gopaul. He is 23 and has been suffering from some difficult sickness. He told a strange dream that he had, where he was walking though a beautiful heavenly place with someone next to him. He said he had the image of a man and was very very bright, and said he knew that it was God. He was holding his hand and walking with him, and then he was holding him in his arms saying that everything will be ok. Then at the very end of the lesson before we said the closing prayer, he stopped us and said "I need to tell you something" He explained that 2 days before we called and met him and his mom, he was sitting on the bed one day. As he sad there, he said he had a vision, where God told him that he was going to send two guys, two angels as he later described, that would give him something that would give him hope. Gopaul thinks that we might be those two guys. Well, we are sure that that is true, and we did give him something that will give him hope, The Book of Mormon. I cannot even fathom really how much God loves each of us and is mindful of every single one of us, whether we are on the path, off the path, or cannot even see the path from where we are. God really is there. I know that this is His great work, which is a work of hope for repentance in a world that is moving away from hope.

This week we went down to have a teaching visit with the elders from Couva. Elder Stott and I proselyted together for the first time, since the MTC, it was great. We contacted some funny people, one of which asked us if we eat meat, and told us that we need to go back home and research veganism. haha. We did find some pretty interested hindu people though.

Next week the transfer will be over. Elder Riter will probably be going back to Guyana, since he has been in this area for 5 transfers now. We had some several individuals that were going to be baptized this week, but those are being moved a little bit farther into the future.

Have a great week!
Elder Porritt

Great Lessons with Carlos & Roger

This week went by in a flash, just like it does pretty much every week. Something that President Egbert once told me is that when you want it to go by fast it goes slow, but when you don't want it to go by fast, it goes by fast.

This week we had Zone Conference, with President and Sister Baird, who were only in Trinidad for about 2 days, because of a very sick elder in Suriname that they needed to go see. After what happened he recovered enough to take a commercial flight home to a hospital in the States, so he is doing well now. At Zone Conference, we talked about working with the leaders of the ward and stake, especially with the ward council. Recent converts are SO important to the church, and all of us have the responsibility to help and strengthen these individuals as they take their new journey in the Church, which is unfamiliar to them, for quite a while actually. Kind of like what Elder Soares talked about in Conference last year with the two rivers that flow together to make the Amazon River. My interview with President was really really good. It's strange to think that there will only be two more for me before the end of the mission.

I already told some of you this, but we had a great lesson with Carlos on Saturday. Finally, we answered all his questions about prophets and apostasy, and we shared the Restoration with him. He had been raised learning that nobody has seen God, so when we shared the First Vision with him he was just blown away. He was just captivated. When we shared more about the Book of Mormon and how it can help him know, he said: "How can I know if this is true?" Now he realizes the magnitude of the Book of Mormon he is determined to read and study it to know for himself. It was a spiritual experience.

We made some really good progress with Roger as well. There are some real roadblocks being thrown at him, and this week we went by to talk about the Atonement. We shared Tad R. Calisters' talk, another conference story, and the story of Enos, among others. We had talked a bit about repentance and the Atonement in Zone Conference and some ways that we can teach it better, which helped us out. I particularly felt the Spirit strongly as we testified to him of the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ to him. We could see his countenance change from what it normally is that day.

The rest of the week was a little bit tough though. We had to spend a lot of time doing non-proselyting missionary work and had to clear out an entire apartment and stuff it all into OUR apartment. Since there used to be about 70 missionaries in Trinidad, and there is only 8 now, there is A LOT of extra stuff that we have to store in the spare room in our apartment, and now we can barely walk into and around our apartment, so this week we are going to have to organize all that stuff.

Today we had a district activity and went to the Zoo in Port of Spain. There were some really cool monkeys that reached through the fence and grabbed our ties. Some of the elders fed the giraffes. Next week we will be having the Zone volleyball activity.

Happy Mothers Day everyone!!!
Elder Porritt

The Zoo!

 Elder Porritt Keeping up on the Piano

Delicious Lamb Gyros!

Things this week have been a little bit slow here in Valsayn. We did have an investigator that came to church this Sunday though. His name is Tony. Tony is a man in his 60s that we found scrolling through some old progress records. He used to come to church a while back, but has since stopped meeting with the missionaries. He is working on getting married and really enjoyed coming to church.

On Wednesday we drove down to San Fernando to do teaching visits, which in our mission is pretty much like an exchange, but not for a whole day. I spent a couple of hours with Elder Christensen, who is a fairly new missionary. We taught a woman named Ester who was baptized just on Saturday, and we were able to teach a Spanish investigator which was pretty much being taught by one of the members in the ward that speaks the language. Afterwards, we had some DELICIOUS gyros (which are a very popular thing here in Trinidad) They are made mostly by Middle East people and we don't pronounce it the same. These people make really good lamb gyros, which are my favorite believe it or not.

We had another great experience this week teaching Carlos. This week we talked more about the Restoration. One of the first questions that he asked us is "If there is just one truth, why are there so many different churches?" Then he told us that he feels like he needs to be part of a church, but he just doesn't know which one. Sounds EXACTLY like the same questions that Joseph Smith asked himself. These are the things that make missionary work so fun. His fellowshipper, who is a returned missionary, has done a tremendous job preparing this man since they work at the same factory and talk to each other all the time. I really love humble people.

There's a young woman from the Port of Spain area that we have been teaching named Tasquillia. We have been teaching her grandmother for a LONG time, but recently stopped and started teaching her. She actually lives in the part of Port of Spain that we aren't allowed to go, so we teach her at her grandmothers' clothing shop. She accepted the invitation to be baptized at the end of this month. She came to church and really really loved it.

The Gospel is true!!! Have a great week!
Elder Porritt

Here are a couple of interesting pictures we took this week:

Before and after apartment water filter

Who needs to go to the store for chicken, when you can just pick these ones up?

Cactus growing in someones roof gutter

Service Project for Steven and Teaching English to Carlos!

Greetings from Trinidad! This week we did a fun service project for a man we are teaching named Steven. We offered to help him pull off his zinc roof, which needs to be replaced. It is a 2 story house, so we didn't climb up on the roof, but they all started pulling wood and zinc off the roof and handing it down to us to toss in a pile. It was pretty fun. We will be going back next week too. Unfortunately didn't get any pictures.

Nobody came to church on Sunday sadly. We saw Ivan on Friday. Since he is pretty much the backup pastor for his church, his pastor came by this week and asked him to speak at church, so he wasn't able to come this Sunday. His baptismal date is probably going be the second week of May.

This week we went by to have the English lesson with Carlos. He lives at the same house as the Reyes family, a member family, and Gustavo. At the end of the lesson, we had a short Gospel lesson with all of them as well. Carlos is in a similar situation as most of the Venezuelans, and he is such a humble person. We taught him about prophets and the priesthood and he asked us a bunch of really great questions, and next time we come back, wants to know what will happen to people who died, never having a chance to accept Jesus Christ in their lifetime. We are looking forward to sharing more about the Restoration with him and hopefully his wife, who is coming from Venezuela. Brother Reyes, a recently married returned missionary, works at the same place as Carlos, and recently Carlos has been asking him a lot of questions about the church and the gospel. Brother Reyes has pretty much prepared Carlos to talk to us. I love member referrals. He is pretty confident about these two.

The rest of the week was kinda tough. We are still trying to find more people who are elect and teach more people who are progressing.

Elder Porritt

Wendy's Baptism:)

Happy Easter everyone!!! Now I am back in Valsayn again, with my same companion, Elder Riter. Things haven't really changed here much, we are still teaching some of the same people as when I was here. There's a man Elder Riter and I started teaching named Roger. Roger is supposed to be baptized this coming Saturday, but he didn't come to church yesterday sadly. For us, Easter was about an average day as ever. Elder Riter and I went to see Samantha and her family, who I haven't seen for 2 transfers. We also went back and talked to Roger. We're going to set his date back for the 11th of May to continue to prepare him for baptism.

Back in Arima, Wendy Huggins was baptized on Saturday. Unfortunately, Elder Riter and I weren't able to make it because of MLC, but it went really well. At the baptism her 8-year-old grandson Ishmael asked the Elders, "When do I get to be baptized." He and his mother, Elder Raymond and I started teaching about 3 weeks ago. They accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 11th of May also. In a couple of weeks, when one of Wendys' other daughters get back from vacation in Tobago, we are going to start teaching her family in Port of Spain. Elder Raymond and I have already taught her about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. She was really excited to get the book and has already read a bunch of it so far. We are really excited!!!

MLC on Saturday was really great. Since there are 6 different countries in the mission, only two of which border each other. We have MLC over Zoom with all the leaders from the different places. We always have a lot of meetings over the internet in this mission. We are really grateful for modern technology, without which, would make a mission like this IMPOSSIBLE. President Baird talked a lot about setting goals for companionships, districts, and zones. Something I've learned on my mission is that when we set goals, we always perform better in whatever we are trying to accomplish, whatever it may be. Though making, keeping, and tracking goals is difficult, it works!

There is a recent convert from Port of Spain named Gustavo. He got baptized right before I came to Valsayn for the first time, and I did his interview. He is from Venezuela, and he had another friend from Venezuela that came to Trinidad, who is now living with him and another member family from Port of Spain. His name is Carlos. We just started teaching him this last week. He has gone through a lot of trails and is searching for something more in his, and his family's' life. I think he has a lot of potentials. We are also doing English lessons for all the Venezuelans that live there.

An experience I had this week happened actually while Elder Riter was doing the baptismal interview for Wendy Huggins. While they were talking I saw her son scrapping paint off the wall preparing to paint over it. This is the one son that we haven't been able to talk to yet. He is the youngest and wasn't alive when his parents and older siblings had gone to the church many years ago. I went over to him and offered to help him, and we just started up a conversation. It was just so easy to be able to take a simple regular old conversation and turn it into a gospel conversation. I know for sure back at home, I NEVER would have been able to do that smoothly. I am grateful for my mission and having been able to learn how, really, to talk to people about the gospel. He has really been searching for God for his whole life, never really felt fulfilled, he had tried going to so many different churches, including the Muslim church, and wasn't sure if he should believe in Jesus Christ or not. Pretty much it just ended up turning into a Gospel Dispensations through Great Apostasy lesson just with the conversation. I really love the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Got to do some service for Sister Joseph, one of the long time members in Arima before I left. She had some gigantic vines growing over a fence, that were destroying it, so we removed them. See the pictures at the end.

Have a great week!
Elder Porritt

Wendy's Baptism

Doing Service for Sister Joseph

Scaret Ibis - Trinidad's National Bird!

The end of the transfer has come. I will be staying here in Trinidad for yet another transfer. I will be going back to Valsayn where I was last transfer to be companions with Elder Riter again, we will be the Zone Leaders. Leaving Arima is going to be a little difficult, there are some really exciting things going on there next transfer, but the work is also hastening well here in Valsayn.

Last week we had the privilege of boating out to the Caroni Bird Sanctuary just south of Port of Spain. The Scarlet Ibis, which is Trinidads' national bird, live all over in the swamp here. At the very end of the tour we stopped the boat by this small island to where there were hundreds of these birds flocking. For some reason they all flock to this one island and land here for the night to stay all together. It was pretty sweet. Unfortunately we didn't see any alligators or giant snakes, though there are a lot of them here in Trinidad.

Things are going really well with Wendy and her family. We haven't been able to see Rick much these days, he's really busy. We're going to have to move his date farther into the future, but Wendy should be getting baptised this next weekend. She and her grandson Ishmael came to church this Sunday at the Sangre Grande ward. Not only that, also on Saturday we went by her house and met and taught her two daughters, Sheena and Cindy, who are both pretty interested, as well as her youngest son we haven't met yet. Now we have pretty much began teaching all of her immediate family members including her sister and uncle. This week we also started teaching Wendys' daughter in law Cillia, her son Ishmael, and a friend from Venezuela. I'm really excited for this big, elect family. Elder Riter and I will be teaching Sheena and her family, who normally live in Port of Spain.

Stephan has made a lot of progress this week. He came to church yesterday and really felt the Spirit. He is feeling better and better about what he is learning. Yesterday after church we taught him about the first half of the Plan of Salvation and he was so happy about the things that he learned, things that he had never thought of before and never knew. He had always wondered where he came from before coming to earth. What we taught him really blew him away. He was just glowing. He prayed about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and got an answer. He felt joy and light as he prayed and felt the God was watching over him. He committed to be baptised, but needs to get his surgery first, hopefully towards the end of this month. I know that God is watching over us!!!

It's going to be another exciting six weeks in Valsayn with Elder Riter. Also, Elder Stott, who I served with in the MTC, is being transferred here from Guyana, so I'm finally going to see him after 15 months without seeing him. I'm excited!

Elder Porritt

The Caroni Bird Sanctuary

 The Scarlet Ibis

Pictures of Mt. Calvary

Here is a picture from Mt. Calvary, which is in Arima. 

General Conference was a Blast!!

Good day everyone! As they say in Trinidad. General Conference this week was, as always, a blast. I am increasingly beginning to feel an urgency from the brethren, ESPECIALLY President Nelson. His talk from the Sunday morning session was my favorite talk. It really hits home for each and every one of us in reality, because none of us are perfect. We felt so inspired coming out of that conference to go do some contacting. We were all but running up and down the streets talking to people, because TIME IS RUNNING OUT... Elder Hollands talk was also really really great. It really puts the importance of the sacrament in perspective. I also loved Elder Stevensons talk who gave a shout out to Bryce and some others. haha. I hope everyone was able to watch all the sessions, and then rewatch them again.

This week we met a couple of cool new people. There is an investigator we are teaching named Kimmie, we ran into her about a week ago. She had talked to the missionaries in the past, but didn't progress because they were too "passionate," which was kinda weird. However, she has been going through some trials and had been reading her copy of the Book of Mormon she already had. She has been praying to know of its truthfulness. We talked about it and shared the scripture with her from John 10 and 3 Nephi 15, and helped her understand that the people in the Americas were "the other sheep." She started to tear up, and we asked her what was wrong. She said when she had very first received the Book of Mormon, that same day this app she had that sends her a random bible scripture, gave her that SAME scripture from John 10. Completely randomly. She didn't understand its correlation with the Book of Mormon at the time however. When we taught her that the Savior was talking about the people from the Book of Mormon she realized what it meant, and felt the Spirit very strongly. I was glad that the Spirit prompted us to share that specific scripture with her to help her realize. What a wonderful gift the Spirit is for each of us.

We met a really cool man this week named Stephans. He likewise is going through some painful trials in life. He had come to church two weeks ago in the Curepe branch which is right east of Arima. One of the high councilors gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and gave him our number. This week we taught him about the Restoration and he came to both of the sessions of conference on Sunday. It was great!

No baptisms this week, as we were hoping, but Wendy and hopefully Ricky, watched General Conference from home. We recently have started teaching her about the commandments, and she referred us to two of her daughters and their families. One of them lives in Port of Spain, and the other one lives in Sangre Grande, who we are hoping to start teaching this week. We moved their baptismal dates to the 20th of April. Should be exciting!!!

The end of the transfer is coming up soon. I think its possible I will be going back up to the islands for the rest, but we'll see

Have a great week everyone!!!!
Elder Porritt

Oh and also we went to see Moracas Beach last Monday. here are some pictures from it. It's one of the popular tourist places.

Ups & Downs as a Missionary!

Well what a bipolar week this has been. Monday through Thursday we were just cruising and having so much success. Since we only have 8 missionaries in the zone and 4 in the district we just do teaching visits with the zone leaders, which we did on Wednesday. I was able to work with Elder Norton once more, it has been 17 months since we were companions in the CCM(MTC). We had a really good time. No doubt we had some tender mercies from the Lord despite how the rest of the week went. Theres a man named Robert who we haven't seen for a long time now. He is actually from Nigeria here working while his family is back home. We felt like we should pass by his house when one of our lessons fell through and miraculously he was there. He works very long hours and doesn't get many days off, but that day was one of his days off, but he had just barely returned from doing something else. We were able to have a Spirit filled lesson with him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon.

Starting Friday we kind of hit a brick wall. All of our lessons fell through, especially some of the new people we met last week, who were so interested. Many of them heard false rumours or rejected to Book of Mormon, or ignored us, stuff like that. It was a rough couple of days. But still more good things are coming in the near future, so we are keeping our heads up. Between us and the branch mission leader we planned a branch fireside about missionary work, which was this Saturday. Not as many people show up as we hoped, but it was a very inspiring fireside. We shared missionary experiences, heard talks from a newly returned missionary, the stake president, and a General Conference talk from President Oaks. The branch is hoping to start having firesides like this every month or two months from now on to get the members excited about things like missionary work.

Wendy didn't come to church, so her date is going to have to be moved from this week to another time. This week we taught her and Ricky about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Ricky accepted the invitation to be baptised on the 20th of April. We are very excited for that. Possibly both of them will be baptised on the same day. They introduced us to another Venezuelan family they are good friends with. The funny thing is that Wendy doesn't speak spanish so I don't know how she knows all these Venezuelan people, but, heck, they are all interested in learning about the Gospel. The problem is that they live FOREVER away from Sangre Grande which is already a half hour drive from the apartment.

We are also going to have to move Afeeshas' baptismal date to later, but things seem to be going well with her. We are hoping that maybe her husband will start sitting with us for the discussions soon, so he can learn also. They both should be coming to conference though.

Boy am I excited for conference. Theres just something about being a missionary and having general conference thats really exciting. I hope everyone is able to watch all the sessions and really think about what is taught and how we can apply it in directly into our lives.

Have a great week!
Elder Porritt

We Had A...."4th Floor, Last Door", Experience!

Hello everyone!!! Arima has done really well this week. Elder Raymond and I spent a good amount of time contacting and we've met some really cool new people. Yesterday we were out in Sangre Grande and we met a really interested Venezuelan family. It was pretty nice to be able to speak Spanish again! Thankfully there is a local service missionary here in Trinidad that is working in Sangre Grande, she is originally from Venezuela and will be able to help us teach them, since my companion is an English missionary.

Elder Raymond and I were contacting on Saturday at this apartment building in a pretty new part of town in Arima. As we were walking up the stairs we joked, "Maybe we will have a 4th floor last door experience today" considering these apartments were 4 stories high. I guess God heard what we said, because about 10 minutes before we were about to leave for the day, we knocked on a door of a single mom and her two children. She had been having a REALLY bad week, with a very difficult job, as we talked she told us that she had recently gone through some paralyzingly difficult trials, as well she was really concerned for her wayward son, and needed someone to help teach him what is right. She was captivated by the idea of the Restoration, and had been searching for something more in life for a while now. She works everyday from dawn until dusk except Saturday evenings, (Which normally we ALWAYS have appointments during that time), so it was a miracle we found her at home, RIGHT after she got home from work, which was right before we were about to leave for the day. It was a heaven sent miracle indeed. We are excited to go back and teach her family. There were about 8 other apartment buildings we could have tried contacting that day, but this was the one we needed to be at. God really is there and is guiding us if we are willing to let Him do so. This little village is FULL of families. We ran out of all the Family Proclamation pamphlets we had about halfway through the day. We also met an interesting lady named Joyce. Joyce is from Trinidad, but used to work at a hospital in New York City before she retired. She had gone to church in New York for a long time, but since moving back to Trinidad at retirement she stopped coming, because she didn't know the church was in Trinidad. We told her where the chapel is in Arima and she said she was going to come with a bunch of her friends.

On Thursday we were in Sangre Grande and were able to meet with Wendy. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation which really brought the Spirit. She has already recieved such comfort from the Plan of Salvation having learned about it from Mormon Channel over the last 3 years. She committed to be baptized on the 6th of April, in between sessions of General Conference. It's going to be really exciting.

In Arima we have a woman named Afeesha on date to be baptized the 13th. Her and her husband were coming to church this Sunday with one of their friends who drove them since they don't have their own car. But instead of taking them to the chapel he took them to HIS church instead. haha. This week we are going to have one of the members take them instead to say the least.

Zone Conference on Wednesday was wonderful. This transfer we had it at the Williams apartment, so we could Skype the senior couple in Tobago.

This coming week is looking really exciting. The work of the Lord is moving forward!

Have a great week!
Elder Porritt

President Baird

This is THE ARK OF TRINIDAD. haha. It right next to the old mission home, just don't try to steady it....

Most Members in Trinidad are 1st Generation Members

This was a really good week. We decided this week that we would start going out to Sangre Grande twice a week to see our investigators out there. Pretty much we have to drive out there as early as possible and stay there the entire day so that we don't have to spend so much time traveling. On Thursday we went to see Wendy and her family again. We brought the Bishop and his wife with us. Bishop and Sister Christoffer, from Sangre Grande. They helped us teach them the Restoration, and shared their testimony of the truthfulness of it. Pretty much all the members in Trinidad are 1st generation members of the church; converts. I always love hearing the stories of how they received answers and recognized the truth. This time Ricky and Justin weren't there, but before we started her daughter-in-law Cillia and grandson Ishmael showed up and sat with us for the whole lesson about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. We gave them all copies of the Book of Mormon and invited them to read it and pray about it. This next week Wendy is going to inviter her sister to come join us, so that will be a total of 6 people we have met at that house hold. Wendy accepted to invitation to be baptized, probably either General Conference weekend or the weekend after. We are hoping the many more of her family members will also make the decision to be baptized on that day. Things are going pretty great in Sangre Grande.

Back in Arima we have been working a lot more with the branch missionaries. There are actually 14 branch missionaries and we are on a mission to go find them all and unite us all together at the branch missionary coordination meeting every Wednesday. Along with the missionary fireside that is going to happen at the end of the month with the stake president, we are hoping to get everyone excited about missionary work.

This last Sunday was Stake Conference. We weren't able to get any investigators out to it, because it's kind of far away from Arima, in Port of Spain. The conference was really great though. We heard from the Stake Presidency, the Patriarch, and a 70 from the DR, who spoke to us in spanish with a translator.

That's about all that happened this week. Things are moving forward pretty well here in Arima. It's exciting.

Elder Porritt

Moving Back to Arima!

Moving back over to Arima, wasn't too hard this week. It didn't take long to feel at home again after having served here for 3 months. Things really have started off with a bang in the area. Just before I got here Elder Hoard and Elder Raymond contacted a woman named Wendy. Wendy is not a member, nor any of her family and have barely seen the missionaries before, but she has been watching videos on the Mormon Channel for YEARS now. Some of the videos there helped her and her family make it through some really tough times in the past. Her son Ricky was given a copy of the Book of Mormon back in 1995 by one of the members and he has been reading it ever since. He was quoting scriptures from the Book of Mormon like he's been a member for years (But they're not). It's pretty crazy. They want to be baptized either at the end of March or the beginning of April. Yesterday we taught her, her son, and grandson, and hopefully, we will get some more of them to join on Thursday when we go back because there are more people in the house. God is truly working miracles.

We live in Arima, but we have been working a lot more recently in Sangre Grande which is the other ward that we are over. It's about a 25-minute drive away, which kind of makes things difficult, but we are finding a lot more people there that are interested.

This week the members of the branch painted the house of Sister Budram, a lady from the branch. Since everyone in Trinidad is pretty short they made me climb up on the ladder with the roller to paint the very top of the wall. haha. Afterwards, we had some of Sister Budrams chicken roti, which was delicious.

Well the Lord is hastening the work and we are really excited about the next 5 weeks and what is to come. We are planning, also, a big missionary fireside for the Arima and Curepe units at the end of this month. The members are going to be really excited about missionary work and the work will move forward even faster

Have a great week!
Elder Porritt

Service for Sister Budram

It pays to Be Tall haha