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