August 3, 2020

Hi everyone.  I hope your week was super great. This week we got our transfer news and I'm going to be leaving the border and I'll be going back to San Antonio. My new area is called De Zavala and the cool part of it is I'm going to be a trainer. I'm so excited to begin teaching and helping our Heavenly Father’s children in De Zavala. It’s going to be a huge change and especially because I'll be training a brand new missionary so he will be looking up to me for answers and guidance. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to handle it Haha. De Zavala is also like on the other side of the mission so I'll have a pretty long drive ahead of me haha. 

 

This week was pretty amazing. We had many opportunities to serve the communities around us with helping out with food distributions. On Wednesday we traveled up to Brackettville which is about an hour drive north of us in Eagle Pass. We helped out with a food event and it was so fun. During the food Distribution there was a person who asked us why we don’t have any hats on because it was so hot and she took a hat sitting in her car and gave it to me. I told her I was okay but she insisted so I took it. It was a pretty cool hat too because it was their high school team football hat and it had an Adidas logo. I guess I have a new favorite hat. At the end of service there was a guy who was a member of a community and museum called Fort Clark. He told us he was grateful for our help and gave us passes to go up for free while we were up there. I'm glad we accepted it haha because it was soo cool. We went to this museum inside the fort that had old military guns and uniforms and stuff. It was super cool to learn a bit of the Texan history. We got lots of pictures.  We went to this really good BBQ restaurant called Ziggy's. I ordered a BBQ burger and that was the best burger I've had in a long time haha. We didn’t get back until around 3ish that day. 

 

On Thursday we had a devotional and the church historian Elder Curtis talked to us. It was so cool because we discussed about the history of the Book of Mormon and the manuscript for a little and he showed us on screen actual pieces of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon. He showed us a small history of the church and that was really cool as well. It was such a blessing getting to hear him and his wife give their testimonies. It was a really good boost for the week. 

 

On Friday we had another service opportunity in Eagle Pass and we helped hand milk and other food at a distribution. It was super fun and we did that for about an hour. The rest of the week went super well. We have been teaching and finding people. We Put Martha Chacon on baptismal date this week. It was super cool because we were teaching the plan of salvation and we were talking about things that our Heavenly Father wants us to do as a part of his plan. We talked about baptism and invited her to be baptized next month in September. She told us yes and would prepare. I'm so grateful to be able to teach the gospel and help other people. It’s such a blessing for me and I know the Lord needs me here in this time right now and that I will continue to bless many people’s lives. I hope you all have a super good week and I can't wait to let ya’ll know how everything goes next week!!

 -Elder Portlock.