Maracas Falls Pictures

Elder Soares comes to the Trinidad Port of Spain Mission!

Good afternoon everyone! Well, afternoon here. We just got back from our Zone Activity. This transfer we hiked up to Moracas Falls, which like a 150 foot waterfall maybe. Here in northern Trinidad are the only mountain range in the mission really, so there are some pretty cool hikes. So the 8 of us plus President and Sister Baird made the trek. The mountains are really beautiful and green kind of like a jungle. We didn't run into any alligators or snakes, though we saw some cool frogs. I will send some pictures. 

Samanthas' baptismal service was great, really felt the Spirit. She was really nervous about it like everything else, and the water was really cold which she didn't like. haha. She was baptized by her older brother who has pretty much baptized everyone in his family who has joined the church so far. We are going to start teaching some of the other ones now. 

Thursday there was a stake devotional presided by, no other than Elder Soares. The stake center was filled to the brim, and all of us missionaries had to give up our seats and stand in the back with like 50 other people who got there too late to find a seat. Elder and Sister Gonzales of the 70, were also there and spoke, followed by Elder and Sister Soares. 

I have been privileged to go to General Conference once, but I don't remember much about it. Certainly then I didn't understand the significance of living day prophets fully yet. Thus, at the Stake Devotional it was a wonderful opportunity to listen to Elder Soares speak, especially to hear him bear his testimony. I really really loved his talk about having faith in promises made and following the council that has been given us in the last year, but I especially felt the Spirit when he bore his testimony. It was the same thing that I felt when listening to President Nelson bear his testimony during the broadcast in the Salt Lake temple. It was as the scripture says "I will cause your bosom to burn within you." That perfectly describes what I was able to feel. I can say that I know that he is one of Gods Apostles, and I can definitely say that President Nelson is Gods chief Apostle and Prophet in these last days. 

The following day we, along with Elder and Sister Williams, Elder and Sister Weeks, and Sister Atkins (local service missionary) were priveliged to have a special missionary meeting with Elder and Sister Gonzales, Elder and Sister Soares, and President and Sister Baird, right before Zone Conference which started right after. Elder Soares spoke for about 20 minutes followed by about an hour of questions from us. Elder Soares would let President and Sister Baird and Elder and Sister Gonzales answer our questions first, and then he would add in the things that he wants after that. It was an amazing experience.The Spirit was very strong. Elder Soares shared some cool personal experiences from his mission about how the Lord blessed him for his diligent effort after 30 and 35 and 40 years down the road, meeting people which he didn't realize he had had such an effect on, and things like that. Afterwards we were able to shake his hand again and give him a big hug and sent them off to the airport. 

Zone Conference was shortened just a little bit because of this meeting but was also great. Something that Elder Soares talked about, and we proceeded to talk about in Zone Conference was what President Nelson had talked about in conference last Easter I think, about recieving personal revelation. Something Elder Christofferson had said was that God is not offended if we stop praying to write something down. I had always kind of seen prayer as like a payphone call. You can't put down the phone. But you can with prayer. Infact, God expects us to write down the ideas that come to our hearts and minds as we pray. That is something that I am going to try doing this week. 

This is the last week of the transfer. Things are flying by quickly. I love being a missionary.

Elder Porritt

Elder Soares in Trinidad

Samantha's Baptism

 Elder Riter and I found this cool sign right before we went to the Zone activity today

New Missionary Communication Policy

Good Morning everyone!

Some interesting changes have happened this week. Elder Riter and I were talking about the new communication policy, which he and I are in the same boat, where everybody is working at this time so it's not possible to do a chat or anything. haha thats ok. So I will probably continue to send an email every week with spiritual experiences and things like that.

This week some of our members gave us 2 cool referrals. Their two nieces Emma and Amy have been coming to church with them every other week when they stay with them over the weekend. They are 15 year old twins. They were interested in learning more so we went by and taught them about the Restoration and they want to be baptized. There is nothing better than member referrals honestly.

Samantha came to church yesterday with her cousin. Everything is going as planned for the baptism next week, she will be having her interview this Tuesday.

Well this letter is a little short, but it wasn't a bad week. We were really busy trying to find new people to teach. Next week Elder Soares will be coming in on Thursday and Zone Conference will be the next day, so it should be an interesting week.

Have a great week!
Elder Porritt

Another wonderful miracle this week!

The Lord has blessed us with another wonderful miracle this week. Last week we mentioned a member couple who gave us a really cool referral. Well, this week they gave us another referral. These guys are finding MACHINES. They referred us to a man that they met buying car parts. His name is Keeshor. This week Elder Riter and I went to teach him for the first time. He had come to church the past couple of weeks and had expressed to them that he desires to be baptized. We taught him about the Restoration and invited him to be baptized at the end of the month, which he was excited about. Before we had even started with the lesson he was wondering "can I be baptized tomorrow??" haha. We told him that we have some things to teach him first and hope to share with his three kids as well. Obviously, we want to make sure he has a testimony first, but it has truly been a miracle. Truly the Lord wasn't lying when he said: "For I will go before your face, I will be on your right hand and on your left." That applies to every one of us too. There are always people who are being put in our paths who are being prepared for the gospel. For this member couple, it was their air conditioning repairman and a man who sold them car parts.

Otherwise, we had a really great week and met some pretty cool new people contacting. We have been spending more time in Port of Spain this week since we don't get to make it out there too often other than seeing a recent convert. There are some really interesting people in Port of Spain, as there are in any major city.

Have a great week everyone!!!!
Elder Porritt

A cute little baby gator by an investigators house (Not sure where its mother was.....)

Teaching Rick & Samantha

This week Elder Riter and I have been spending a lot of time contacting and finding new people to teach. We met a couple of pretty interesting people and some who were pretty interested. We also started teaching this really cool guy that one of the members referred us to. His name is Rick. Rick is the AC repairman who came and fixed the air conditioner at this members house. (Just goes to show you how many people we can have an effect on). They told him a little bit about the church and how the missionaries come around to peoples houses to share the Gospel with them, and he was interested in having us over to speak with him. He has been a Muslim and a Catholic and a bunch of other things, and has some interesting beliefs, but believes that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can help him.

Samantha, the girl from Venezuela that we have been teaching, is progressing really well. The interesting thing is that her family is HUGE. She and her 3 siblings, her parents, and a countless number of cousins, aunts, and uncles live either here in Port of Spain or in Venezuela. She will be the 8th member of the family baptized into the church, and we are hoping to continue teaching members of the family that are here in Port of Spain because there are plenty. They are such a wonderful and humble family.

Well that's about all for this week. Hopefully next week will be a bit better.

Elder Porritt

This is at an investigators house. Pretty much its like a billion bamboo shoots that are all growing together like its one tree

 Perrty sweet ocean sunset