Elder Hyrum Portlock

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