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