December 28, 2015

Dear mom and family, Well it was also super great to see and talk to you all on Christmas(: and for Mom if you can keep Luis and Nancy in your prayer, they are two young ones preparing for their baptism, but also Satan is working very strong with them and they have a ton of problems in their family. Please pray and fast for them.

      Well I also already told you all what happened this week, but I’ll try to say it again, on Christmas Eve we had 3 people invite us to eat and we were super full.  On Christmas we traveled to Comitan for our zone breakfast and zone devotional, after we traveled back to Comalapa and got home about 5 and we searched for about an hour looking for a laptop, and we finally found one and went to the church building, we first let a member use it to talk to his son, then after I was able to talk to my family (: it was such a great experience, I love them all so much(: it’s hard to believe that in about 5 months I’ll be talking again to my family.  Then I’ll be seeing them in person haha. Wow the mission truly flies by super-fast! Oh! and we have an investigator that looks like Bishop Burt hahahaha during the lesson I couldn’t focus because I kept thinking that Bishop Burt was acting like an investigator hahaha, other than that Elder Ramos and I are doing good here in Comalapa(: this Sunday we brought 7 investigators to church and it was great. I hope that they all progress and do what is right. (: Thanks for all I love you all so much 

Elder Portlock

Our zone

Tamali made of rice

Christmas morning

Christmas Eve dinner

December 21, 2015

Dear Mom and Family, and friends. This week here in Comalapa has been very great! I’ve had a bit of the cold but I’m doing fine(: haha.  So we got to Comalapa on Tuesday and started to work. Elder Ramos is amazing! He is a natural and really knows how to teach! He is from Tijuana and also knows a lot about San Diego. Well on Thursday we were planning in the morning and everything started to shake, but it wasn’t super hard. But we went outside just to be safe! Wow all the earthquakes that happen always pass in the night but this passed during the day it was interesting, but it was small so everything is ok(: we have a house of prayer in Comalapa with about 80 members and 28 active members. It’s very small and the house of prayer is super small with a few rooms haha. We got to church and of course I gave a talk (: it was great! I recorded it and I’ll try to send it(: (mostly for dad because it’s in Spanish haha) Wow! this place is so different then Tuxtla or Tonala! I thought Tuxtla was poor and I thought Tonala was poor, but Comalapa is even poorer, it’s sad to say it but there’s not much out here. The people are super poor and it’s a struggle for missionaries because hardly anyone is married because they don’t have money, so they can’t get baptized. And wow! About 80 or 90 percent of 15-19 year old girls are either pregnant, have babies, or are married. Its super weird! But the people down here are super kind and extremely humble! On Saturday we arrived to an investigators house to help her move some stuff into a new room. Wow she hardly had anything...I felt really blessed for what I have and for the safely I have, then after, she offered us some food and we gladly accepted, she didn’t have much. Only a little box of food that the government gives out to the people. She made us each an egg and a little bit of yogurt and some beans. We ate it and she was happy. I felt the love of Christ.  We also have two investigators named Luis and Nancy, they are brother and sister, and their mom got baptized about 2 months ago and we are preparing the kids to get baptized, they are great and we had a baptism date for the 2 of January. My house is actually pretty good! Its clean and it’s all I need. All my other houses had washing machines, but now I must learn how to clean them by hand hahahahaha. Also we only have about 3 members that give us food, and the other days we have to cook our own food, I’m gonna learn how to cook!!! wooo yaaa!!! haha  I was thinking that I might ¨¨die ¨¨here, like dad says hahaha every area I’ve had was 6 months, and now I have 6 months left, we will see what happens(: ooooooo and about talking on Christmas, well we still don’t know exactly how we’re gonna do it. But on Christmas day I guess I’ll call. We have internet in the house of prayer so we will be going there, we are trying to look for a camera to use so we can see you all but for now I guess we will just call by phone. But be ready on Christmas day, I’ll be sending an email to verify what time and when we will be communicating. But like you said around 11 and 1. I’m sure everything will work out ok(: whooo! the church is true, I love you all and have a wonderful Christmas(:

Elder Portlock

 

Wow!  I'm super far up on the board!

Sending packages (:

My new area in Comalapa

A house here

Elder Ramos and I

The House of Prayer

COMALAPA

A Cool Fruit

December 14, 2015

         CAMBIOS!!!!! So this week was a great week. I’ll start with the last Monday. Well like I said the last week we were in Tuxtla to get ready for the zone leader meeting. Well we had it on Tuesday and it turned out very well. President George was saying that the mission had about 700 baptisms this year, and we’re making a goal to have 1000 baptisms this year. Later that night we started to travel home, it took such a long time because there’s a strike going on about the teachers...I don’t really understand it, but they were like blocking the roads and it took forever to get home. But we finally got home about 8:50, ten minutes until 9 and we decided to go contacting, we started to contact and we passed an investigators house and decided to teach her for about 10 minutes, we taught her how to pray and we felt the spirit very strong! We got home at 9 and we were super happy that we decided to work the last 10 minutes of the day even though we have been in Tuxtla and traveling all day! On Wednesday we worked super hard and did everything that we could! Thursday was the same. And on Friday the assistants called and said that for the changes this week you need to come up on Saturday and you need to bring all your stuff because you won’t be returning home. Wow!!!! So I spent allllll day on Friday saying good bye to the members, converts and investigators. wow! I don’t like saying goodbye its suuuper hard! Then on Saturday in the morning we had our zone capacitacion and right after we all left to Tuxtla so we could watch the temple dedication of Tijuana because it was only being shown in Tuxtla. So we all got to go to Tuxlta as a zone and it was super fun! On Sunday we watched the dedication and I got to see a ton of members from the Paraiso ward and I was SUPER happy to see them! God must really love me because I’m super lucky!! hahaha Then our zone had to return to their area and I said goodbye to Elder Fackrell! I miss him so much! He was such a great companion! And I stayed with the assistants, (which is Elder De Jesus...my son in the mission :D ) and they told me where I’m going......my new area is Comalapa! hahahaha I’m super exited! It’s on the border of Guatemala. You should look it up, I’ll be traveling there tomorrow, can’t wait. My new companion is called Elder Ramos. He has about 3 months in the mission(:      ALSO today I was able to send 2 packages ! They should be getting home within 2 weeks .. or if we’re really lucky, for Christmas.  I’ll talk to ya soon(: Elder Portlock

It's called pozoli.

My generation:  I trained elder De Jesus, and he trained elder Flores and he trained Elder Moravec. and we all stared the mission in Aguilaa.

All the zone leaders

With President George

With Elder Fackrell

Whoooooo! Navidad!

The last few days in Tonala

The last time in Tonala, mi zona(:‏

Going to my new area

December 7, 2015

Wow I’m so happy to write to you! It’s really crazy to think that it’s almost Christmas!!!!! Wow! Elder Fackrell and I are singing Christmas hymns to all the people! Every day! I pretty much have all the Christmas hymns memorized in Spanish! hahaha and were having tons of fun!!! Wow! I can’t wait to talk to you all on Christmas, I don’t know if I’ll be in Tonala or in a new area, but I’m sure I’ll find a member that has Wi-Fi and a computer(: or an iPad or something, everything will turn out just fine!(: wow! I can’t believe that it’s so cold back at home! And its true mom! I’m really used to the Mexican heat here! Especially because Tonala is the hottest part in Chiapas, (that’s what the people say!!!) haha and yes! I would love to take a trip to Mexico with you all! Well I am pretty much telling everyone that I’ll be coming back the next summer , a year after I get home haha(: but we’ll see.

      Here in Tonalà has been really great! Wow there is a ton of wind!!! Which also is really great because it’s not as hot! It’s still hot!!! But we have wind to cool us off haha. This week I did intercambios with Elder Aguilar in his area and we found two men sitting on the sidewalk and we contacted them and we entered their house to teach them, the cool thing is that they are from the Altos or the part where they talk Tzotzil, the Mayan dialect. and elder Aguliar was is that area for about 1 year so he speaks the dialect so we have a nice lesson in Tzotzil haha, I felt like I was starting the mission over again(: but with more confidence ! I was still able to teach in Spanish because they do speak Spanish, but not very well. This week we had our mission program multi zona with our zone and the zone of Chauuites, it was really awesome and we had a cool sketch and it was super funny. It was good to see my good friends here(: Well we are now attending in a new salon instead of the chapel because they are renovating it for 3 months, bummer but it was a neat experience to be in a smaller place without air conditioning haha. but we will see how things go. 

     Well this week we have been sharing the Ha Nacido Un Salvador with everyone! We probably watch the video like 20 times a day ahaha but it’s great! And I had a neat experience the other day. We were walking down the road at time and there was someone sitting outside their house and we decided to contact him, we started to talk to him and asked if we could sing a Christmas song, so we started to sing and when we ended 3 other people came out and I thought ``lets sing more songs for them and talk to them.”  Then the lady that came out said. “I’m from another religion but I know that God sends angels to people in needs of time. Please pass in the house and give a blessing to someone. So we gladly said yes and entered the house to find someone lying on the bed really sick. I don’t really know exactly what she had but she didn’t look too good. We explained how we give blessings and shared James 5:14-15 that talks about if anyone is sick, call the elders to anoint them. And then we gave the blessing. The spirit filled the room and we then left and the people seemed very happy and accepted us to return and give them a lesson. (: well now Elder Fackrell and I are in Tuxtla. We traveled this morning (that’s why we weren’t able to write earlier) but we’re here for our zone leader conference that will be held tomorrow, then were gonna be heading back to Tonalà.  Well that’s my week for now! I love you all so much (: 

Elder Portlock

 

Having fun

Having fun

NAVIDAD!

Sitting in the new church

Haha!  We thought it was picture worthy  (:

The Catholic Church in Tonala

Having fun

This is a Mexican Shop