9/27/2021

1. And it came to pass that I, Elder Orson Portlock, having seen much success during my ministry in San Antonio and having grown in wisdom and strength, write my final epistle to my brethren.

2. Wherefore I have witnessed the power of the gospel and of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has come and will come again and know in my heart that He lives and for a surety will come again in these days.

3. In my travels through the Land of San Antonio, I found much to be grateful for and would like to present mine testimony. 

4. My dear companion Elder Larsen and I, have taught many of the people of San Antonio and have brought many to know the love of our dear Lord and Savior, who is Christ Jesus, and had much success in bringing many to the fold of God.

5. Shall we not go on in so great a cause? The work which our lord Jesus Christ has commanded us to preach, is a great work, and will continue to be preached until the end of the world. 

6. And now my brethren, I end my epistle, and I would that ye should know that I know that the words of the prophets are true, and that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ, I know that God is our Father and that we can return to live with Him one day. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Okay! Enough of that Haha. This week was super good. We found 9 new people to teach! I'm super excited to see everyone but super sad to leave San Antonio. I will never forget the experiences I had and the people I've met.

I have learned so much on my mission and have grown such a great love for the people here. I know for myself that each person is a Child of God.

I had an experience on my mission where my companion and I were teaching this family about the plan of salvation. The spirit was so strong when we talked about how families could be together forever. The family we were teaching really wanted this and continued to meet with the missionaries. The son is now baptized and the mom is getting baptized this weekend. I have never felt so much joy in my life than when I was teaching that families could be together forever. I think of our family, each member of our family and all the wonderful times we have had and I always want to remember those times. I want to be with my family forever one day. I know that we can if we do our best and follow Gods plan. This time in our lives is a time for us to prepare to come home. And though I'm coming home this week, we are all preparing to come home one day. 

I love you all so much and can't wait to talk later this week.  I'll talk to everyone soon! Bye! Have a great day!

Here is one more scripture I really like that I'll share with y'all!

Moroni 10:34 

 "And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Amen." 

Pictures:

1. The Sanchez Family and I

2. Elder Brough and I on exchanges this week.

3. The Stake President, his wife and I. (The Vandenburgs)

 

 9/22/2021

 Hey Y'all! Is this it? 

It's basically my last full week in the mission. It's been so amazing to serve as missionary here in Texas. 

This last week was really good. We had our zone conferences and it was really cool. Elder Teh and Elder Gilbert of the 70 came and talked to us in person. They first talked to us over Zoom on Tuesday,  again on Thursday in person, and then on Friday over zoom again. I learned so much from them. 

One of the things that stood out to me the most from Elder Gilbert was when he talked about personal revelation. He mentioned several times how there are patterns in our lives and revelation is one of them. He promised that as we work diligently to receive personal revelation in our lives we will be blessed personally and in our families.

I also really liked it when Elder Teh spoke. He talked about how the Holy Ghost helps us have a deeper conversion. He talked a lot about the enabling power of the atonement. One of the things that I really liked that he said was "Bloom where the Lord plants you". Basically what he was saying is wherever you are in the world or are called to serve, the Lord has you there to bless others around you and help you grow as well. As we put our full effort to follow him wherever we are, we will grow and "Bloom where he plants us" 

We are also teaching our friend Joe Bishop and yesterday we got her to pray out loud for the first time. It was awesome! She has grown so much since we have started meeting with her. I can't wait to see where she progresses.

Well I just wanted to leave with my testimony.

I have learned so much as I've served as one of the Lord’s missionaries. I have such an increased understanding of the Gospel and especially the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know for myself the power that the Atonement can have on a person and a family and the change that takes place. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father and that He has a plan for all of us. That plan is called the Plan of Happiness. I know all of us will live again one day and can be with our families forever. 

One of the scriptures I would like to share is from D&C 123:17.

"17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed"

I know that as we are cheerful and do all we can to follow our Heavenly Father we can find true and everlasting happiness.

I love this work so much! It is never "it". We are all missionaries in this great work that our Heavenly Father has for us. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

I hope you all a have a super good week! See you soon!

-Elder Portlock

Pictures for this week:

1. The Hadden Family and I

2. Brother Ramsey and I. He is our ward mission leader as well. 

3. The 4 of us riding in the car 

4-5. Elder Johnson had a bleach spot on his pants so I was coloring it out with a Sharpie.

 9/13/2021

Hey y’all! 

I'll keep this short. Not a whole lot happened this week but it was still super great!

On Tuesday we had interviews with President Tveten and that went super good. Later that evening our friend Jason Castillo got baptized. It was so amazing to have the opportunity to attend his baptism. He had the biggest smile as well after he got baptized. He was baptized in the SA 10th ward. 

On Thursday we met a less active member and talked to him for a little. He hasn't been to church for a really long time because of his health and also because his wife isn't a member of the church. We talked about the scriptures with him and his conversion story. 

We got to help out with a giant Food bank distribution on Friday morning. We traveled over across San Antonio to my old area in Valley Hi to a place called “Traiders Village.” After the event we did exchanges with the zone leaders and I went with Elder Vogel. It was such a fun day and we learned so much. 

On Saturday we got a flat tire on our car. We changed it to our spare tire and by Monday that was flat as well. We went and got it fixed and it turns out that there was a giant bolt nail that punctured the first tire. Luckily we were able to make it to Monday to get it fixed. 

Well that's about it for the week. I hope everyone is doing good. 

-Elder Portlock 

Pictures:

1. Someone's car after putting food into it at the Food Bank event. (Just about each car was like that.)

2. A funny picture of Jesus playing ball against Satan. We thought it was pretty funny. 

3. Jason at his baptism.

4. Jason and I after his baptism.

 9/6/2021

Hey everyone! Happy Labor Day!

This week went by so fast. We had our zone conferences this week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. It was a great experience! 

One of the biggest things I learned from zone conference was teaching clearly and testifying briefly and strongly. Our mission President had us do an exercise where we had to teach a topic in 3 sentences. For example you would have to explain what a prophet was in 3 sentences. Than after he had us do the same thing but you have to testify of prophets. He taught us so much about the importance of teaching simply but powerfully and he gave us the invitation to practice our testimonies in the mirror each day. To practice our personal testimony of what we really believe and he promised that if we did so that we would have stronger testimonies and become master teachers. I felt super inspired from that so this past week I've been really focusing on that invitation and so far it’s been amazing. 

On Wednesday right after Zone Conference Elder Larsen and I as well as the other Elders that cover our ward got permission to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead. There was a member in the ward who had about 59 ancestors who needed to get their work done and so he had originally planned for the ward to help but only a recent convert could come. He asked if we could help him and we replied quickly with a yes. Our mission President approved as well. It was one of the coolest experiences going and doing baptisms in the San Antonio Texas Temple. The spirit was so strong and I am just so grateful for that opportunity. I felt so happy and especially felt that the people we had helped on the other side of the veil were eternally happy and grateful as well. On Sunday the member who had needed our help named Brother Vaughn stood up and bore such a powerful testimony on the temple. The spirit was so strong. My testimony increased and strengthened so much with that experience.

Some other things we have been up to lately have been a lot of reactivation work. We had a dinner on Thursday with a family named the Whitingtons. We had such an inspired lesson on gratitude and spiritual gifts. We did an activity where the family told one spiritual gift about each other person in the family and then we lead that into a discussion of why God gives us spiritual gifts and how we can use those to serve and bless others. It was amazing! The family actually came back to church this Sunday. We have had lots of smaller experiences this week as well. 

We are teaching some; a few people are progressing pretty well too. Jesus and Jennifer are awesome and we are planning to put them on date hopefully this next week when we meet with them again. 

Our friend Jason who I was teaching in Valley Hi is getting baptized this week. I'm so excited! We get to watch his baptism so that's going to be awesome.

Well I hope y'all are doing good. Let me know if I can do anything for you. Have a great week! 

-Elder Portlock  

1. We stopped by the original church building in San Antonio that I mentioned in my last email. It's been turned into a house. Built in 1942.

2. Me at the temple.

3-4. Temple photos.