November 9, 2015

Wow Dear Mom, the family and friends (:

    This week was an amazing week! Wow! Well Lunes after I wrote home we went to an old family that Elder Gamboa and I baptized,  it was awesome to see them and they gave me a birthday cake(: after we visited some old families from Elder Fackrell’s old area here in Tuxtla. And in the offices we stayed with all the other zone leaders(: in the morning of my birthday we went to the church for our conference of all the zone leaders, wow we learned a ton of stuff about leadership! And then they all sang to me while I danced hahaha.  It was awesome!  After the conference we went to the temple(: after the temple we went out to eat at Chiles and during that I guess Elder Fackrell told the people that it was my birthday and I didn’t even know it, and they just randomly came out of nowhere and started to sing for me and they gave me a little brownie and some ice cream(: then we went back to the offices for another night.  On Wednesday in the morning, Elder Fackrell went to the migration to renew his green card, so I stayed in the offices with my old companion, Elder De Jesus! Then after that we headed home to Tonalà! And wow! I thought that Tuxtla was hot when I got here on the mission! And now visiting Tuxtla it feels cold! hahahahahahha.  I guess Tonalà really is an oven! On Thursday we started to plan for our zone conference, we made them an evaluation card that they can evaluate their lessons with their companion. It was awesome! and on Friday we had the zone conference, haha we did an object lesson and we had a cake, and for the lesson the cake represents the gospel, (it was all planned before) I asked elder Fackrell if he wants a piece of cake, so I started to cut it and then I shoved it in his face, then I asked another elder if he  wanted cake and so I cut out a piece of cake very carefully and put a cherry on top and I gave it to him(: then I asked the missionaries how are we giving the gospel to the people, are we shoving it into their face or are we giving it to them very nicely so they can enjoy it? It was great(: then after we went on interchanges and I went  to Puerta Rista with elder Gomez to help him out with his area, we were able to teach some lessons RIGHT ON THE BEACH! Wow it was amazing!(: in the night we got back home and boom!!!! we had AC! Ya, that’s right we kicked the hot heat butt and put AC in the house(: it’s so amazing(::::: :D on Saturday we had Brian’s and Lupita’s baptism(: Elder Fackrell baptized Brian and I confirmed him a member. And I baptized Lupita and the branch president confirmed her a member(: wow Brian has been an chosen son of god! He has really changed his life(: and Lupita has been waiting for a long time to be baptized so she can progress, her next goal is to enter the temple in one year with her husband(: she gave her testimony and cried and said, “I’m so happy that I got baptized because I want to have my family for all eternity.” (: it was really amazing(: and well that was my week(: for the changes this week Elder Fackrell and I will be staying the same as the zone leaders and ya(: were super exited (: oh! and my son in the mission Elder De Jesus is going to be the next AP woooo! I feel supèr happy(: I you all so mucho! have an amazing week(: P.s Good job Emily on your talk! your awesome! I’ll share it with the people here in Tonalà(:

 Con Amor! Elder Portlock

The Baptisms of Lupita

And Brian

 

My Birthday!  Eating a smoothie at Comeme

Being with my converts for my birthday cake

Eating at Chili's, for my birthday

I don't know if you can see me...but I'm up really high.....(:

My Birthday cake!

 

The Zone

Our new zone shirts

November 2, 2015

Well for this week I’m in Tuxtla for today until Wednesday... we are here for a conference and I’m super exited! I’ll be visiting a family that I baptized in my area Paraiso! And tomorrow for my birthday we’re going to Applebee’s...I think so hahahaha! And were gonna go to the temple(: woo! Best birthday ever! And this next Saturday we’re having the baptism for Bryan and another girl named Lupita! Wow! The work is going forward(: Ohhh! and I saw Elder Contreras in Tuxtla!!! Wow I was so happy to see him(: haha well thanks for everything (: I love you so very much!!!!!!!!!!!!! (: love Elder Portlock

The house of prayer in PIJIJIAPAN(: I did intercambios with them (:

This is a cool tree

I saw my good old companion in Tuxtla today(: Elder Contreras

This is brother Jared and now Elder Zuñiga! He has been a really good friend of mine(:I first met him in my first area and he taught me a lot of Spanish and now he's on his mission(:

This is Bryan! his awesome! He is gonna be baptized this Saturday! wow! He is amazing! And such a great friend(:

This is the pumkin that we ate for Halloween(: oh ya! its SUPER GOOD! its called pumpkin candy!

October 26, 2015

Wow, I just want to start out with that I love my family so much! my Sister Melissa and my Dad had their birthdays this week and I just want to congratulate them(: I wish I could be there with them and celebrate, but I’ll be here for a bit longer in the lords vineyard(: This week was a good week! We have several investigators that are progressing. The first one is the family. Bryan is the best! haha He is so excited about his baptism in 2 weeks! And he already wants to go on a mission!  He accepts everything!  For example, we teach him new commandments and he says “Okay I’ll follow that!” Or he says that he wants to buy us pizza on Sunday and we tell him that another day would be better because we don’t buy food on the Sabbath and he says, “Oh okay! Thanks for telling me.  I won’t buy food on Sundays.” haha (: and his family are great! There are 4 of them in total, but his dad is not listening, he doesn’t want to. Another person named Lupita! She will be getting baptized as well in 2 weeks.  She has been waiting a long time to get married and now is married and wants to get baptized.  She has had the missionary lessons for a long time and now we are just rephrasing everything to make sure she is ready and teaching her new stuff.  It’s so fun to teach her and her husband, who is reactivating. We ask her why she wants to get baptized and she says “I want to get baptized because I want eternal families,  I want to get sealed in the temple with my husband.”  Wow! And we have another investigator named Felicita. She is also amazing and says that she found what she was looking for. She loves listening, and reading the scriptures. She has cancer and is having a hard time with it, we have given her a blessing and she says that she is starting to feel better. But we will see how things go. We also have a Jew that we are teaching, he is awesome! And always gives us food to eat (: but we will see how things go with him haha (:

     This week we ate some weird oyster, I don’t know what it’s called but it’s like a weird clam or something that’s like a muscle or something and we just crack it open, put lime inside and some chili and slurp it down. It’s like eating a bloody worm..... But it actually tasted good hahahaha pictures are coming. (: I’m also sure that I’ve eaten a lot of weird meat that I don’t even know what it is but all I can say is that I eat weird meet here...(: Well I love you all(: nos vemos la proxima semana(: adios. con amor, Elder Portlock

   Oh! And one more thing, I’m ok hahaha the hurricane did not touch Tonalá, (:

This is just us being silly

This is the weird food that I ate

And, a baby turtle

October 19, 2015

Well for this week I first want to congratulate my good old friend Elder Hornberger.  Or should I say Bryce! hahahaha he completed his 2 year mission in Texas and I’m so happy for him. (: This week was pretty good!  Our family that we are teaching is doing great! They are so choice!  They are going to make a great family and fit into the branch, and Bryan says that he wants to serve a mission!  So were gonna be preparing him so he can be baptized and leave in a year!  We also found a couple that have been waiting a long time to get married so she could be baptized and they got married!  So we are preparing her to be baptized in November as well (: We are finding and teaching new people this week so we will see how it goes (: Thank you all for your support this week (: I love you all (:

This is like a GIANT garden pea!

and this is Bryan! I gave him one of my shirts and a tie! We're matching! (: