Elder Hyrum Portlock

February 29, 2016

wow Dear Family(: I love you all so very much(: wow thanks for telling me that this day is special hahaha. I would not have even thought it(: wow that’s so interesting hearing all of the changes in the ward, people moving out, getting ready for their missions! And the girls getting married! wow(: life will be so weird and changed soon(: The second coming is one of my favorite topics, and I love listening and reading and teaching about the 10 virgins. I don’t see the second coming as being scary, I’m actually happy that it will come. But yes for some it would be scary, so that’s why we need to change our lives. It’s like the commandments. They are the standards that God has given us to train us to become gods (: if we keep them we will be fine (:

hahaha ok the questions, I like these(:1. what is different where you are compared to where you have been? well , if I understood your question right, Comalapa is completely different from Tonala haha, there are no hammocks here in Comalapa because is a lot colder than Tonala. I’m now in a small city and the people are more poorer. We don’t eat a lot of fancy food, most like beans, rice and chicken haha(: its yummy(: 2. What do the people do for transportation? We have buses, but van buses. We use them ALL the time (: they are super organized with them and they goooo super-fast hahaha(: sometimes I think I’m gonna die. but now I’m used to it haha. oh! and they have moto taxis, they’re just little taxis or bikes with seats. 3. What do the people do there for work? Well, 80 percent of the people have worked in the United States for several years in farming to send money home, annnnnnnnd the all work in the market . There’s not a lot of education here, which is really needed, OH! and there tons of taxis, we use taxis a lot (: 4.What is a typical day like for you? wake up at 5:40 and run and go to the gym. at 7 I shower and eat breakfast. at 8-11 we study and at 11 we start working and visit people and at 2 we eat with the members or at home, and at 9 we go to the house and at 1030 we sleep (: its awesome (. 5. Do you have hot running water, or do you have to fetch your water yourself? No, I have not felt hot running water for some time now.......hahaha no here in Chiapas we use cold water and its super freezing in the mornings, but I’m use to it now! I’ve learned how to just throw my body in the water (; hahaha 6.How are things going with your companion? Do you work well together? Well, we don’t work the best together, and we have a lot of differences, but it’s also part of the mission, he’s great. haha 7.What is church like? Church is church haaha, well normally we help with everything. We bless the sacrament and pass it. And normally we give talks...we teach the gospel principles and sometimes we teach priesthood. We have an attendance of about 30 people. The work is growing (: and the members are great (:

And about my week (: wow! full of tender mercies!!! on Thursday we traveled to Comitan for our district meeting and after we had inter cambios with the zone leaders, so we went to a small town about an hour from Comitan called Rodolfo Figaroa and a brother called brother Soto took us in his car. On the way down the police stopped us and said that we were going really fast, and we had two sister missionaries with us too, so there were four of us in the back so we thought he was gonna give us a really big ticket... He asked us who we were and he said. Oh! Do you know Jeff Jones??? And Elder Jones said! ya!!! That’s my uncle!! And the police said so you’re from Chihuahua! And Elder Jones said ya I’m from there (the really amazing thing is that it’s all true!!!) and then the police said oh wow! That’s fine, have a nice day. Wow... we were ALL in aww and started to pray and thank God for the miracle, we knew that God needed us in the small city. We finally got there and worked for about 2 hours, and literally the spirit of God was in the town, we had several powerful lessons with many tears, and tons of references, and we were trying to leave but tons of people were contacting us asking who we are and when we will be coming back, and some even told us to write their names down! wow the whole night I was thinking about how great God is(: On Friday, we had our and my 4th last activity of the mission, It was great and we went to 2 places, Teram Puente (full of Mayan pyramids(: and to Chiflon, a huge waterfall and cascades, with the most clearest bluest water I have EVER seen in my life(: wow! I HAVE to take you all here(: and the other thing that happened on Saturday, we were looking for an old investigator called Ana, that we found her registro in the house. So we found her house and a 15 year old girl let us in and said, Ana will be home in about 10 minutes, she let us in the wait and gave us water to drink, about 2 min. later an old man came into the room and asked us ...¨ who gave you permission to enter my house¨¨.....I told him that the girl let me in and he then said. Get out of my house right now!¨and I didn’t even hesitate, I told him ok, that’s fine, don’t worry we’re leaving and left the water on the table and we ran out.!!!! wow I couldn’t believe that he ran us out of his house. So that was interesting(: haha That’s my week for now(: I love you all so very much(: Love Elder Portlock