Elder Hyrum Portlock

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