4/26/21

Hey y'all!

I hope everyone's week was good. Things in Texas have been doing really well. I got the second Covid vaccine shot and have been feeling a little sick the last few days. Hopefully I feel better and can get back to normal missionary work. 

We've have had lots of lessons this week with our investigators and taught 2 of them how to do family history. It was super fun. I also learned how to index. It’s so fun indexing so if you haven't tried it, do it! Me and Elder Sherman played a duet in church on Sunday. We played “Be Still My Soul.” It was pretty fun playing in church in front of everyone. I didn't even feel nervous Haha. Well sorry that's about it for this week. Hope you all have good one!  

1. Elder Sherman in the rain directing traffic at a service event. 

2. Me and Elder Sherman in rain 

3. Me.

 4/19/2021

Hey everyone! I hope you had a great week!

This week was pretty busy. We had a lot things happen. 

On Tuesday we had a few visits with some people that we are teaching. One of them is Dean and Mercedes. They are an older couple but super kind. Their house is decorated super cool and reminded me of a futuristic house mixed with a house from the 60s or something haha.

On Wednesday we had another service project and lesson with Vicki! It was super fun and we got to read more of the Book of Mormon with her. We had to go early but she said she would try reading on her own. We had mutual that night and we got a ride with one of our members in the ward. Their names are the Kimball’s and they are so amazing. Brother Kimball gave a ride in his porsche to the church. It was one of the funest rides ever! For a moment I felt like I was in a rollercoaster haha. We played spike ball with the Priest Quorum. 

On Thursday we had to move apartments sadly because the mission wants missionaries in their own apartments. Luckily our other apartment unit was really close. We have been cleaning and de-cluttering the new apartment a ton lately because the missionaries in the past didn't do a great job about keeping it clean. Good thing I like to be clean haha.

On Friday we had more lessons with our investigators.

On Saturday we had a miracle! Or at least we were the miracles. There were 2 baptisms that day and they were about an hour apart. The first baptism was super great and a wonderful experience. But someone unplugged the font so it started draining. About an hour later, me and Elder Sherman were finishing up some studies before the second baptism. We were in a room by ourselves and then suddenly bishop Clark burst open and blurted out "Elders we need a miracle" as he continued to explain that the baptismal font was empty and the baptism starts in 5 minutes, We got up immediately and scrambled over to kitchen to fill up buckets from the faucets to try to add water more quickly into the font. It would work but would take a very long time. I suddenly got the idea to use the custodians closest. It had a bigger faucet than the kitchen did and was even closer to the font. We grabbed giant 5 gallon Gatorade buckets and began filling them up with bishop and going back and forth to fill up the font. Eventually it was just me and Elder Sherman. We used a trash can and filled it up so we could carry a larger amount of water to the font. I had to go for a moment to give the opening prayer and then got back to work. Elder Sherman was drenched from water but we were having success. About 25 minutes later the font was almost full and we decided to let the font fill up on its own for the rest of the time. It was perfect timing for the baptism to take place. Everything turned out okay and we were so glad we were there to help. Bishop Clark was amazed and so grateful for our help and us being willing to do that. He took us out to lunch afterwards. It was definitely a miracle I felt as well. I'm so glad I was there to help and be part of that event. My testimony has grown a lot this week and I feel so much happiness knowing that I'm making a difference. 

That’s about it for me this week. I hit 18 months so I have 6 more to go! I'm very grateful for the work I'm able to help in. It's definitely rewarding and I'm so excited to keep helping others come closer to Christ.

I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you later!  

Pictures for the week:

1. Me and Elder Sherman found a grocery basket in our apartment complex.

2. We found an earthworm snake while doing service.

3. We were helping out with seminary on Wednesday and were playing a game called missionary tag. 

4&5. Me and Elder Sherman with Brother Kimball in his Porsche.

 

 4/12/2021

Hey Everyone! I hope you had a wonderful week. 

This week we are really busy with service projects and lessons and visits with members; it was fantastic!

On Tuesday we went to Emerald Oaks to help clean up an event that was challenging there. It was really fun and later that night we had a lesson with Erica. She is really great! We are helping learn more about the Bible and the church because she hasn’t really ever learned about it all before. Just when she was really little. 

On Wednesday we went to our new friend Vicki's house. We helped her rake up leaves and clean up her back yard a little. It was definitely a lot of work haha. We put leaves into like 13 different bags. After, me and Elder Sherman had a small lesson with her. She is super amazing! She is pretty interested in the church and wants to learn more about it. We gave her a Book of Mormon and we came back on Sunday and read some of it with her. She loves it and has lots of questions. We hope that she will come to church next week. We have another lesson with her this Wednesday. 

Another person we’re teaching is Margaret. She is awesome and is reading the Book of Mormon. We will have another visit this week with her. 

We did some other service helping clean another person's yard with the other missionaries and that was really fun. We also did some service at a food bank this week as well.

On Wednesday night we had our ward’s mutual youth activities. It was really fun and after we got to teach English class. So I got to practice some Spanish that night which was awesome. 

We are also helping a few different families in the ward. Some of their kids turned 9 and need the missionaries to teach them before they get baptized and so we have been meeting with them this week and that has been so much fun. 

Another weird thing that is happening in Texas right now is that there are a ton of Caterpillars. They are everywhere! If you aren't watching out they will fall on top of you because many of them are hanging from trees on little web things and will fall on you haha. The other missionaries don’t like them a ton because they get up to go run sometimes and come home with them all over them haha. 

We also got transfer news this week and me and Elder Sherman are staying the same so not much change haha. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Pictures from the week:

1. One of the services we went to we piled leaves into 9 bags. That same day at a different house we did like 13 more haha. 

2. Here is a picture of some of the Caterpillars. They are all over the place. 

 

 

 April 5, 2021

Hey Everyone! Happy Easter and General Conference! I hope you all had a wonderful spiritual and uplifting experience getting to watch General Conference this past weekend.

I learned so much this General Conference. I was so excited when I heard about how many more temples are going to be built. It's so exciting that we will have 20 more temples in process. That means that there are over 80 temples in process to be built or under construction.

I loved all of the talks that were given but one of the talks I liked a lot was from President Nelson on the Sunday morning session. He talked a lot about faith. I learned a lot about the importance of having faith especially in this time of our lives. I have felt so happy being able to grow my faith daily by studying in words of the Gospel and serving others. I can't wait until we can re-watch the conference again and read, study, and ponder the words that were spoken. 

This week was really good. We had zone conference again and so this week was full of meetings. We had lots of opportunities to practice principles of teaching and inviting and it was amazing. We were able to find 2 new people to teach which is awesome. We have been street contacting and visiting lots of people as well. It's so fun being a missionary. You really see the world differently and you’re always happy because you’re serving others and teaching amazing truths of the gospel. This week we also got to go and help with a Covid vaccination site. It was super fun and we got put right in front of the line to talk to everyone and get everyone signed in. We ended up getting the Covid shot too at the end. So in 3 weeks I can get my next shot.

This Saturday as well I got to help with the baptism of Bart. He is in the Alamo 1st YSA ward. He decided to get baptized this week and it was amazing. He has grown such a strong testimony. He was such an example for me and others around. 

Well that's about it for this week. I hope you all have a great week! 

-Elder Portlock 

Pictures for the Week:

1. Our zone from Zone conference. We got Chick-Fil-A cards from the mission so everyone went there after haha. 

2. On Thursday a bunch us Elders from our apartment complex met up at Buffalo wild wings for lunch. 

3. This is kinda what our job looked like at service as we talked to everyone.

4. This is where everyone was getting their shots and where we were helping out a lot.

5. Our apartment watching General Conference.