8/30/2021

Hey Yall! 

This week was really amazing! 

To start out the email I wanted to share a really cool miracle. So sometimes God puts us in the right place at the right time. Elder Larsen and I got this referral for this person who lives at this apartment. We went over and knocked on their door and someone else answered and he said that they didn't live there. His name is Jesus and he was actually really interested in what we do as missionaries. We were able to set up an appointment for him the next day and brought a member with us. It went super well and so now Jesus and his wife is are being taught. They are planning to come to church this next week. So even though we didn't find the referral we originally got, our Heavenly Father knows us perfectly and will put us where we need to be at the right time to talk to the right people. 

This past week we also had dinner with our stake President (President Vandenburg). They made us some really good food.

On Wednesday we had our district council and it was really awesome. We had trainings on ways we can better find and be more effective. We all came up with a vision of what we want our district to be like this transfer. We did a Q&A at mutual with the younger primary kids. It was pretty fun. 

On Thursday I did a baptismal interview for a person name Howard in the Woodlake Elders area. He is so awesome and so ready. He actually got baptized on Saturday. We also had dinner at a member’s home and they only spoke Spanish. Luckily I speak Spanish because none of the Elders could speak Spanish. 

We've been doing lots of finding and teaching and it’s been super awesome. 

A member in our ward named Brother Dreher gave me and Elder Larsen paper with a history of the Mission and church in Texas. It was super cool to read.

Well I hope y'all are doing great and that everyone has a great week! 

-Elder Portlock 

Spiritual thought:

A thought that has been on my mind lately is Diligence. Diligence is such an important thing to have in our lives. When we were diligent we can feel much better about ourselves especially when it's been a hard day. In Psalms 119:4 our Heavenly Father commands us to "keep his precepts diligently". I know that if we put forth our best effort always and endure to the end we will become faithful and valiant disciples of Jesus Christ. 

Pictures of the week:

1. A replica of a plaque of the first LDS Church in San Antonio. The original is actually in the knights Cross building by Stone Oak. 

2. A picture of the original Program of the dedication of the First Ward in SA in 1942.

3. Elder Larsen and I doing some Facebook finding. 

4. Elder Larsen and street contacting on Bikes. 

 8/23/2021

Hey everyone!

This week was fantastic. I got transferred over to the Pecan Valley zone this last Thursday which is basically on the East side of town. It's super cool because I'm basically in a part of my first area which was in Buena Vista. We triple cover the San Antonio  1st ward. It's a huge area and has so much potential. 

Funny story: So we got transferred into the old Mission Creek apartments and in these apartments it seemed like the missionaries before had never cleaned. Because of that, there was a mega cockroach problem. It was pretty disgusting and kinda is still. We had to clean our entire kitchen out and only accomplished in getting rid of most of them. We cleaned the apartment up and got rid of a lot of trash and now it looks pretty nice. So if you ever live in San Antonio, make sure you clean up after yourselves or else you will have some little friends. 

Elder Larsen and I have been doing super good together. We have found about 5 new people to teach since Thursday. We are so excited for this transfer. We don't have whole lot of solid people yet but we are working with a few that have a lot of potential. The area can be a little sketchy at night but during the day it’s amazing and we talk to so many people. I've also used so much Spanish in this area so far. 

I definitely feel that I was meant to be here because none of the other elders know Spanish except me and we have found 2 inactive Spanish ward members. The members here in the ward are also super awesome! 

I've been studying the Atonement recently and it's been amazing. My testimony has grown so much. One of my favorite chapters to read about the Atonement is Mosiah 3 and 4. 

Well I hope everyone has a super good week! 

-Elder Portlock.

Pictures:

1. Our new Apartment decided to get Caines. 

2. On Transfer day we had so much stuff in our car we had to move that we were squished haha. 

3. This is Jason who is on Date for September. 

4. This is the Perez family in the Valley Hi ward. They are awesome!

 

 8/16/2021

Transfer Trashed? Yes it’s true! I'm getting transferred to my last area this next week so I better make the best of it for these next 6 weeks. It's honestly been so amazing serving in the Valley Hi area. The people here are so elect. We have one on date for next month and hope to put a few more on date soon. 

This past week was really interesting. On Tuesday we had our zone conference and that was really fun. We learned a lot about how to work with the members to find and teach. We also got to learn how to give a temple tour from President Tveten. 

On Wednesday I started feeling a little sick and so we were told to stay indoors for a few days. It turns out that it was just a small cold. A few days later we found out that there was an Elder who tested positive for Covid who was at zone conference so the whole zone had to go into quarantine. We found all of this out on Saturday. The 4 of us in our apartment went to go get tested for Covid but all our tests came back negative so that was super great. We still have to quarantine until Wednesday though.

On Sunday we were able to get 6 people to church. Some of our friends we are teaching right now are Terry and Jet, Jason and Jacky, Katt and A.J. We have been having some awesome lessons the last few days as well. We've been teaching a lot of the Restoration lately and it's been super fun.

That's about it for its week. I hope everyone has a great week!   

Pictures for the week:

1. THINK GOD sign.

2. Elder Larson and I being funny. 

3. Our apartment is so strong! 

4. Our apartment waiting to get tested for Covid. 

 

 8/9/2021

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a really amazing week! 

This past week flew by so fast that I couldn't believe it. Time just flies when you are having so much fun. 

On Monday and Tuesday we had a few different lessons mixed with street contacting. We had another lesson with Terry and Jet on Tuesday as well. We got them started with family history and they were really excited. They weren't able to come to church this past week. But they still plan to come and learn. 

We also had a lesson with Janine. We showed her the Gospel library app and showed her some really great ways to study the scriptures. She was super excited to start using it and learning more. We will be having another lesson today. 

We also started teaching a person named Jason. He is really interested and would like to be baptized. We put him on date for the 11th of September and he is super excited. He came to church with his girlfriend on Sunday and we had a lesson with him at the church. We are going to try to meet with him some more this week. 

I've been using my Spanish pretty often this week. It's so much fun when you can have a conversation with someone in a different language. It can be really hard to learn another language and even getting to the point of speaking it good. I know it’s definitely the Gift of Tongues that's allowed me to learn so quickly and understand others. It's really amazing.

On Saturday many of the missionaries in the zone got to participate in the Stake Ward Conference. We got to be a part of a class that talked about missionaries. They asked us lots of questions and it was so much fun. We got free shirts too.

This week has been super great and went by so fast like I said. 

A spiritual thought I wanted to add was in this past week’s Come Follow Me.

In Doctrine & Covenants 87:8 it says...

"Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen."

When we stand in Holy Places we will be protected from all the crazy and evil things around us. Our Heavenly Father has a lot of blessings that he wants to give us and that can include knowledge, feelings of love and peace and more. Some Holy places we can stand in are the temple or our own homes. We can cause our own atmosphere of holiness. I have a testimony of the importance of standing in Holy Places and "being not moved". I know my Heavenly Father is there for us and loves us very much. 

Well I hope you enjoyed my email this week. Let me know what you would like to know and I'll try to put it in my next email.

Have a great week! 

-Elder Portlock  

Pictures for the week.

1. Elder Larson and I went to B-Dubs on Thursday for weekly planning.

2. We ran out of dishes so I used what I could find at the apartment.