12/21/2020

Hello everyone. I hope that this past week has gone really good for you all. I also hope that you all have a wonderful Merry Christmas. 

This week went by really good and we had some really fun experiences. On Tuesday we were invited to come to a Bible study with some other people and we spent about an hour with them reading and studying Ephesians. It was pretty interesting and there were lots of different ideas about things. We met a lot of good and kind people through that little activity we did. 

This week me and Elder Knight decided that we need to do more street contacting and so we made it a goal to take about an hour each day and dedicate it finding. We have had a lot of fun with that. We were able to get several peoples numbers and spend some time sharing some Christmas messages with people. This time of year is always so nice and fun because you can talk to almost anyone about Christ and Christmas and it's also a good conversation starter. 

On one night we were driving around and I felt prompted to drive to a place I had street contacted when I only had a bike with Elder Lemke. We parked our car and began to walk around. About 5 or so minutes later of walking we come by this house with a person who is about to leave to go drive somewhere and she stopped and asked us if we were from the Mormon Church. We began to talk to her and exchanged phone numbers. We set up a time to talk to her next Tuesday as well. It was really cool and a testimony to me that God knows us personally and that he puts us where we need to be at the right time. If we follow the prompting's of the Holy Ghost we will be led to those who need help or are ready. 

On Wednesday we had our mission Christmas Party. It was really fun because we got to see most of the mission. There was also really good food and barbecue that some members make for the missionaries each year. The mission had put together a Christmas program and so after eating we watched different missionaries sing songs and play instruments and such. It was really fun. We ate so much and were so full afterwards. Later that day we had a dinner at a member’s house and we were so full. They were feeding about 6 of us and they gave us some barbecue ribs and spaghetti. We were dying inside but the food was super delicious. After getting through that dinner appointment we were basically in a food coma haha. My stomach hated me so much haha. 

On Sunday our church was doing the Christmas program and we helped out with that. All the missionaries in our branch which is six of us got to help read parts of the program in Spanish and what we did was we read from the book of Luke when Jesus comes to the world. We sang lots of songs and it was really fun. I also got to see Rita Martinez which is one of the people that I helped get baptized back when I was with Elder Corry. It was a really cool tiny reunion and they said they might come to the branch more often because they live in our area. We helped wrap Book of Mormons and set up for a light the world activity we are doing today and Tuesday and Wednesday. We are basically showing the Christ child video in the church parking lot and handing out book of Mormons, popcorn and hot chocolate. It's going to be fun. 

I love this time of year because we get to remember the true meaning of Christmas which is Jesus Christ. I know as we focus our minds on Jesus Christ in our lives this Christmas we will be more happy and feel of the love He has for us. 

I hope that y’all have a wonderful Merry Christmas

-Elder Portlock

1.Our district decorating cookies. We handed them out to members in our branch.

2. Some of the food we got from the Mission Christmas conference.