April 27, 2015
Hey family and friends, this week has been such a great week! We have a little girl we are teaching named Estrella , she has 9 years and she is exited to get baptized, she goes to church with a friend of her mom, her mom is not a member and doesn't want to talk to us but she said if Estrella wants to get baptized she can, also we have a family of 3, the Basquez family, she has a son on a mission but never wanted to get baptized, she started visiting the missionaries and they started to teach her and her family the lessons, they are awesome and I love them so much! We should be have a baptism in about one month(:also this week we were teaching Uvenzo and Maria De Jesus, we were reading Alma 32 and learning about faith, they loved that chapter and they have so much faith! We were also teaching them about missionary work and that they can help other people and invite them to listen to us, Sister Maria De Jesus told us that she was talking to her neighbor the other day and invited her to listen to us! Her neighbor said that she is a member but inactive, but she would like to talk to us. So right after the lesson we went to visit her. As we started to talk she broke out in tears and said that 3 members of her family died recently and she has also made covenants in the temple and she felt bad that she had been inactive. She told us that a few days ago she had been thinking a lot about the church and  about returning to church and then we showed up! She was very grateful that we showed up and the next day she was at church and cried and she took the sacrament. I feel really blessed to be able  to help people. My testimony has strengthened a lot the 10 months that I have here in Mexico(: I hope every one else is doing well(: I love you  all  Elder Portlock 

Eating smoothies

Eating Pizza

My district

The chili I ate.  It was amazing! 

Ha ha!  This is classic!

Woooo!  The clouds

A weird bug

April 20, 2015
Hello family and friends! this week we had transfers, Elder Gonzalez finished his mission and is now home. My New companion is........Elder Gamboa! He is really tall haha! He is from the state of Chiuaua in Mexico. He has 1 year in the mission and he is exited to be here in Tuxtla, this is his 4th area and his 1st area in Tuxtla. His last companion that he has was Elder De Leon. (who is a friend form Riverton High!) haha I thought that was awesome that Elder Gamboa now has two companions from the same city. This week nothing really exiting passed, just lots of work and lots of contacts. We're raising our goal of contacts to 140 every week. I know with the dedication that we renew every day we will be able to reach our goals. Also this week we had a referral from a member, she has a son on his mission in the same mission as the members son. And he wanted that his family to meet and talk with the missionaries. So we are now teaching his family and they accepted to be taught. I hope that everything will go well.  I hope everyone back at home is doing well (: Con amor Elder Portlock

My last day with Elder Gonzalez

Elder Gamboa

April 13, 2015
Well family and friends another week has passed and I'm glad to be able to write home again(: well this week I want to start with the mission changes! well Elder Gonzalez is going home(: he completed his mission and is very happy, I'm also very happy for him. I'm going to be zone leader number 1 here and Elder Gamboa is going to be my new companion, I don't know him at all. haha  He will come tomorrow so I will have to let you know about him the next week. I hope things will be good(: I learned a lot of things with Elder Gonzalez and I'm going to  miss him a lot!!! Also this week Maria de Jesus got baptized and she is very happy! I too am very happy! I feel very blessed to have helped a family come into the church and be faithful haha, I will always remember this time and will always keep in touch with them(: I want to write more but I have a busy day today and tomorrow helping all the missionaries with there changes(: I love you all take care(:

                                                    Elder Portlock

Planning for our training meeting

Trust Fall

My zone

 

Haha!  Ya...

The bird is watching Spongebob

My District

A really hot day.  We are sweating!

Haha.  His name is Rango.

Finding Nemo!

 

April 6, 2015

Dear family and friends, Well this week was great! We started it off with a big conference of all the zone leaders in the mission. We learned alot of things and made a lot of great plans(: I love the big meetings because I get to see alot of missionaries in the other parts of the mission(: on Wednesday we had our meeting with the zone, it went very well and we also made some great plans that we will be carrying out this month. On Thursday we had the baptism of Luis Angel (Chiki) haha he was SO happy this day haha also the water was really low so when he went under the water he hit his butt on the ground hahaha(: but he is fine. On Friday we had splits with  the assistants. I went with the legendary Elder Ibarra haha and we had a good day of doing a lot of stuff in the offices, at 6 we left the office to work.  Later in the night we passed a girl crying on the side of the street. We started to talk to her and she wasn't very nice to us, but we sat down to her so we could talk to her. I'm not gonna say much about her but she has a TON of problems. After we gave her our number and told her that we would like to talk to her again. She said thank you and we left. Wow there's a lot of sad things in the world. And I can testify that the Gospel of Jesus Christ that has been restored brings a lot of happiness and joy!. Annnnd on Saturday and Sunday was General conference! WHOOOOO I love it so much!  I also enjoyed seeing people that I know singing in the choir(: I also enjoyed President Monson's talk in the priesthood session, he talked about the mission manual. haha it really does come in handy when you need to give a blessing! haha (: I always have it in my pocket at all times! I hope that all of you at home enjoyed this week(: I love you all(: Elder Portlock

President George

Elder Gonzalez's broken shoe

Where I hang my clothes  haha

The church plaque

The baptism of Luis Angle (Chiki)

Mangos  (:

Making Tortillas  WHOOO  (: