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Discoveries Monument

Baptism of Diolinda and Luisa

Baptism of Diolinda and Luisa

Baptism of Diolinda and Luisa

Discoveries Monument at sunrise

Discoveries Monument

Discoveries Monument

25 de Abril Bridge at Sunrise

Discoveries Monument

Belem

Belem

Belem

Like always, my time is a bit limited.

This week was a pretty good week! On Saturday, we were able to baptized Diolinda and Luisa! It was super awesome! Luisa is Diolinda’s daughter. We have baptized so many people from that family. 8 to be exact!

We had a little bit of a rougher week this week in our area. We weren’t able to get near as many people to church as we had planned. Both of the people we had marked for baptism this week weren’t able to make it either. So far this week, we don’t have anyone marked. It’s going to be a war for us this week! But we will baptize for sure!

Life has been good here. Just keeping extremely busy, and enjoying ourselves out here!

I love you all, and hope you are all well! Keep us in your prayers!

Elder Porter

Can you believe that it is already September? Because I can barely believe it.

We had an awesome week to start off our transfer here. Like I said last week, Iara and Luisa were both marked for baptism this week. Luisa had a bunch of doubts part way through the week, but we helped her clear up all her doubts. We had a lot of help from her boyfriend, Milton. Yes, the same Milton that was baptized a few weeks back. We are also working with her sister, Julietta, as well. They are super awesome.

To share a cool experience for the week. On Monday, Elder Rodrigues and I passed by some of our investigators homes… but nobody seemed to be home! We went by like 10 people, and nobody was home. We weren’t really sure what was going on. We said a prayer, and asked Heavenly Father for His help. As we were praying I felt that we needed to go visit Samara. Samara is a 16 year old girl, that was marked for baptism a couple months ago. The day before her baptism, she left for the Algarve and stayed there for over a month. We decided to go try and talk to Samara. To our surprise, she was home. We began to talk to her, and part way through the lesson we asked her about baptism. She said that she still felt good about it, and it was still something she wanted to do. She offered a prayer, to ask Heavenly Father when she needed to be baptized. All of us felt that she needed to be baptized that weekend. She was super excited. She invited over 50 people to her baptism! Not all those people came, but it was cool to see how excited she was. One of her friends that came, Patricia, also wants to be baptized now. We were very thankful for that blessing. Heavenly Father takes care of us very well over here :)

Neia was also baptized this weekend! I was right when I said that we thought she had smoked and she had felt embarrassed because of it. That’s exactly what happened. But she was able to quit smoking this weekend! I did a division with our Branch President, and he gave a powerful testimony. He also had to quit smoking in order to be baptized 11 years ago. He talked about the experience he went through, and it helped her a lot. We gave her a blessing as well. It was awesome! I had never seen her as happy as she was yesterday. What a great feeling.

We were privileged enough to baptize 4 people this week!

Yesterday I was able to attend sacrament meeting in Carregado. Carregado was the first area I served in. The elder who is serving there had to get surgery, and stay in the office for a week. So I helped his companion out in the area a little bit. It was awesome being there! 3 of my recent converts were at church! Lercio is now the secretary of the branch. Leonardo is the secretary of the Elders Quorum. And Pascoal was also there. It was a very joyous moment for me. It’s so awesome to see your recent converts strong in the church!

This week we have 3 people marked so far. Diolinda, Luisa, and Kija. Keep them in your prayers for us! They need your help!

That was our week pretty much. It has been crazy busy! I hope everyone is doing well! Love you all!

Elder Porter

I am super short on time. Summary of what happened this week:

Rosa and Debora were baptized yesterday! It was super awesome. We don’t know what happened to Neia, she wasn’t home when we went to do her baptismal interview. And she wasn’t home Sunday morning. She had recently quit smoking in order to get baptized, and we think that she smoked on Saturday and that’s why she wouldn’t talk to us. She was probably too embarrassed to tell us that she smoked. She will get baptized here soon for sure. We weren’t able to get permission for Jacira :( she is too cool to not baptize! We will still fight for her.

My new comp is Elder Rodrigues. So it will be Elder Rodrigues, Elder Crowther, and I in Sacavém now. Elder Rodrigues is Brazilian, but lived in Florida for a good part of his life. He is a cool kid.

Today is transfer day, and that is the reason I don’t have much time. I am doing well though. Keep Luisa, and Yara in your prayers for us! As well as the others that weren’t baptized this past week.

I love you all!

Elder Porter

The gash on my head from the air-conditioner.

Andrya and I eating my birthday cake.

Suzette and Silvia

Alicia's Baptism

Jeffery and his family

Catia, Andrya and I

Lucas

Luisa's baptism

Tamara's baptism

Diana and I. She is super cute.

Alexandre, and Leonardo

This week was quite the busy one.

We did a lot of traveling, because of the zone meeting’s that occurred. We started off with a meeting with all the Zone Leader’s on Monday. Tuesday we had a zone conference in Lisbon. Wednesday we had a zone conference in Miratejo. And Thursday we had a zone conference in Setúbal. Then on Saturday, Elder Crowther left for Madeira with President Torgan. They will be returning tomorrow. So, it was just Elder Fernandes and I in the area this weekend.

We did have a great week though, in spite of all the traveling we had to do. We baptized 2 people- Jeffery and Suzette. Jefferey had been marked for baptism in the past, but his mom didn’t give permission. He has quite a few family members that are members of the church here in Sacavém. His uncle, aunt, grandma, and a few others that don’t live here are all members. His family, however, are not members. We dropped Jeffery for a little while, because his mom was quite certain that he would not be baptized. Jefferey continued to come to church, though. Last week we started teaching him again. And early this week, his mom finally gave permission! She had noticed that he was changing, and taking the thought of baptism a little more seriously. She liked the change that she was seeing in him, and she finally allowed him to do so. Elder Fernandes and I were teaching him on Friday, and in his prayer he talked about how he wants to be an Elder some day. He is only 16 years old, so he still has a few years ahead of him. But he is going to start doing divisions with us, and he is super excited! Next week he will be receiving the Priesthood. Jeffery was baptized on Saturday, and confirmed on Sunday.

We found Suzette through Silvia (one of our recent converts). Silvia invited Suzette to her baptism, and we began teaching her after that. We later found out that Suzette’s dad was baptized about 18 years ago in Amadora (a city in Portugal). Her parents were both happy about the idea of their daughter being baptized. That had no problem giving permission. Suzette is 12 years old, but looks to be more like 15 years old. She likes to speak english with us, because she lived in Manchester for a year. It’s really basic english, but she doesn’t speak too badly. Her entire family came to the baptism, and her dad decided he wants to return to the church. He will be attending church this week. We are going to start teaching her brother and sister as well. It was a great baptism. She was baptized yesterday.

We have 5 people marked for this weekend. Their names are Neia, Rosa, Deborah, Cesaltina, and Jacira. This will be Elder Fernandes last week in the mission, so we want to end strong for him. This week we will be having transfer meetings and stuff, and next week will be transfers. So, if I don’t write much next week… you already know why. Transfer weeks are always crazy around here.

Jacira is Jeffery’s sister. We are expecting quite the war to get permission from their mom again. So, we need all your faith and prayers to help us out. Jacira is super awesome. We marked her last night, and she was super excited. She is 12 years old. We did a practice with her how she was going to tell her mom she wants to be baptized. She is super ready. Let’s hope it all works out smoothly! We are expecting quite the battle though, and we are ready for it!

I was able to pass by Moniz and Maria’s home this week, when we had a meeting in Miratejo. They are doing really well! It’s always great to see recent convert’s! Moniz is studying, and Maria is working in a hotel in Lisbon. I love that family so much!

So, that is basically how my week has been. I hope you all are doing well. According to my Mom, just about everyone I know is getting married. Congrats to all of you.

I love, and miss you all!

Elder Porter

First off, thank you all for the birthday wishes! My Mom sent me all the birthday wishes that were posted on Facebook. Thank you. I can’t believe I’m already 22 years old.

My birthday was amazing this year! I couldn’t of asked for a better birthday, to be quite honest. We were able to baptize Catia on my birthday. She is the mom of three of our recent converts- Daniel, Nuno, and Miguel. It had been quite a battle to get her to that point, but she finally felt that it was something that she needed to do. We were able to baptize her in the pool at the mission home. We are the first missionaries during President Torgan’s era, to baptize in his pool. It was super awesome. I think every missionary has dreamed of baptizing there, but we were lucky enough to do so. I will send home pictures next week, because my time is pretty limited today. But after the baptism, we were able to celebrate my birthday. The Torgan’s made me a cake, and everyone sang me happy birthday. Later that night, Catia invited us over to have dinner. There were quite a few people at her house, and they surprised me with another cake haha. It was an overall awesome day. Not to mention that my mom has amazing timing, and she sent a package that arrived on the day of my birthday.

This week was also awesome. We baptized Alicia on Tuesday. Her family was able to come to the baptism, and they loved it! They don’t live in our area, but they are now receiving missionary visits. Her sister already wants to be baptized. Thursday, we baptized Catia. And yesterday, we baptized a girl named Luisa. Luisa was quite the battle, haha. We actually marked her baptism on my birthday. We went to her home, because we had felt that she needed to be baptized this weekend. She wanted to be baptized and everything, but we were having a problem getting her parent’s permission. Her mom was leaving to São Tomé on Saturday, and wouldn’t be coming back until September. We weren’t there Friday night to get her signature, but she wasn’t a fan of the idea. She tried to give every excuse possible. Including, I have to talk to my husband because I don’t think he will accept. The husband isn’t the dad of Luisa. We talked to her husband and he said, “If she wants to get baptized she can, I have nothing against it.” Then she invented another excuse, and it continued that way. We weren’t going to give up that easily though. Finally, after about an hour, she accepted. I went to Luisa’s home on Sunday morning with a member, to pick her up for church. The war continued. Her sister said, “sorry she can’t come to church today, I need her help.” It was obvious by this point, that Satan was doing EVERYTHING to stop her baptism from happening this weekend. I was quite bold with her sister. Finally after quite the battle with the sister, she finally allowed Luisa to go to church. All in all, the battle was won…. and Luisa was baptized yesterday!

Things have been going great around here. We are still keeping as busy as ever. The work just never stops!

I have a good idea for everyone that reads this. Write me a letter. Yep, that’s my idea. I would love it so much though. There are so many people that I haven’t heard from in over a year.

Elder Porter
Apartado 40054
1500 Lisboa
Portugal

I hope everyone is doing well. Life here is great. Love and miss you all!

Just thought I’d give you a heads up on life-

Sunday afternoon during our baptism I was walking outside and looking at the pictures I took on my camera. I wasn’t really looking where I was walking and I smashed my head on an air conditioning unit that was on the wall. My head started bleeding (for the first time in my life) and I had quite the gash. I probably could have gotten stitches… but you know how I am, I don’t like the drama. It has already healed itself, so no problem. Oh, and it’s on the top of my head where my hair is… so the scar won’t be a problem either. But the headache didn’t go away… and on Monday when we were in the Azores, I was on a division teaching a lesson and my mind just kind of went blank for 10 seconds and I couldn’t even process my thoughts. It was weird. But I just kind of blew it off. Tuesday I was feeling ok during the day, but at night I started feeling really dizzy/sick. During these 3 days, my headache never went away. I called Sister Forbush, one of the couple missionaries that works in the office, who used to be a nurse and she told me I probably had a minor concussion. So, today I went to the hospital and had a cat scan. Everything is fine, I just had a minor concussion. But I’m just going to rest today and it should be fine in the next couple days. I have some pictures of the battle wound, and I will send them to you next week. Nothing to worry about, just a funny little accident that happened in the mission.

Love you guys!

Ty

Branch President Ike, Diana, Clementina, and Dionel

These guys are so awesome!

The Elders, President Ike, Clementina, Diana, and Dionel

Soraia, Diana, Luisa and Dionel

Clementina and her family

These guys are so awesome!

I really can’t believe that July has already flown by! I am losing track of time out here. We have now entered into the month of August… and my birthday is coming up in a little less than 2 weeks. I can’t believe that! It feels like yesterday when I was in Carregado, my first transfer in Portugal, celebrating my 21st birthday.
This week was amazing as well. Yesterday we had the privilege to baptize Clementina, and her 2 kids- Diana (8) and Dionel (8). They were all super excited. I think Diana is probably the smartest 8 year old I have met in my life. She always has awesome questions for us. It was a very spiritual baptism. Clementina’s sister, Jisinta, and her daughter, Silvia, are marked to be baptized this weekend. There are also others in the family that are wanting to be baptized as well. The work never ends! What a blessing it truly is.
Elder Fernandes and I went up to Porto for a couple of days (Tuesday, and Wednesday) and gave some training to the missionaries in the north, as well as did divisions with the zone leaders. Porto area is much prettier than Lisbon. We did a division up in Braga as well, which is just a little north of Porto, and that city was extremely beautiful. It was a good experience for sure! Next Monday, I won’t be writing… Elder Fernandes and I are going to the Azores (islands in our mission) to give some training. We fly out on Monday, and come back on Tuesday. We are going to the island of Terceira.
July was an amazing month for us! We had a goal to baptize 20 people in the month, and we ended up baptizing exactly 20 people! What a huge blessing that was. I absolutely love the people here! It is so amazing to see the changes in their lives. People over here are super ready for the gospel!
Luana, Soraia, Nuno, Leo, and Alexandre were all confirmed yesterday! We are trying to work things out with the parents now, so that they can also be baptized. They both want to be baptized, they just need to get married first. And they have some issues they need to work out before either one will agreed to be married. Kind of a complicated situation. Pray for them both. Their names are Anofre, and Sonya.
So far we have 3 people marked to be baptized this week. There names are: Tamara, Jisinta, and Silvia. Keep them all in your prayers as well, if you could!

Oh, another great thing that happened! Two of our recent converts, Kikas and Augusta, went to the temple in Madrid this weekend to do baptisms! How amazing is that?! They had an amazing time. It strengthened their testimony a ton! They are taking another trip in September. What a great feeling to see these people so strong in faith! I sure do miss the temple! It has been over a year since I have been!

Life continues to be amazing. I can’t believe I am down to 9 months in the mission. I still feel like I arrived here yesterday! It is going to pass by way too fast. Elder Fernandes is already becoming sad with the reality of him finishing his mission in 4 weeks. He in no way wants to go home. He served a mini mission for almost 5 months before he came on the mission, he already extended his mission 1 transfer, and tried to extend 1 more transfer on top of that but was not allowed because of church policies. He will have served 2 1/2 years when he goes home, haha. What a trooper!

I hope everyone is doing well. I love you and miss you all! Thanks for everything!

Elder Porter

Luana, Alexandre, Leonardo, Soraya, and Nuno

THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME!

We baptized a family! Well, not quite. We baptized the 5 children. The parents need to get married… but they will be baptized here eventually. Their names are Soraya, Luana, Nuno, Alexander, and Leonardo. It was super awesome! They are an amazing family. Elder Cá and I talked to the mom in the street one day, and she told us about how they used to receive missionary visits in the past. She said her husband (although, they are not legally married) really enjoyed having us over in the past. We started teaching them again, and we marked the kids for baptism in our second visit. The kids were all baptized yesterday!

We have three people marked for this week so far… Clementina and her daughter Diana, and Veronique. Pray for all of them for us! We need all the prayers we can receive.

The work continues to be amazing here. We have been super busy! Elder Fernandes and I are heading to Porto tomorrow, and will stay there until Wednesday. We have to do some training up there.

Also, pray for Tamara and Silas. They were both marked to be baptized last week… but due to some complications they were not. They both need your prayers!

We kept super busy this last week. There never seems to be a dull moment in my life now. We are always running around. We have baptized 93 people in the mission so far in the month of July. We are going to break 100 for sure! Quite the milestone for the mission! The work is moving quite along! We have baptized 17 people so far this month! I can’t believe how much things are moving along here.

I hope everyone is doing great! I love you all!

Elder Porter

Let me start with a miracle that happened to us this week.

We started the week with nobody marked for baptism. We knew that we would baptize, but we were just a bit nervous. Elder Dastrup and I were together on Tuesday. We went to mark a girl named Francisca (who wants to be baptized) but she had to receive permission from her parent’s in order to be baptized. Her dad is Angola, so we had to call him. Her mom just kept telling us that the dad wouldn’t give permission and what not, and that we just needed to wait until he came to Portugal in August. We went and bought a calling card so we could call the dad and talk to him. We did so… and the dad was completely cool with the baptism. When the mom heard him say that, she grabbed the phone and said…. I think we need to wait until you get back. So in the end it was the mom that had the doubts… and she just used the dad as an excuse. So the dad took the side of the mom after that… and we weren’t able to mark Francisca for baptism.

So we were a bit bummed out. Our faith was weak… but we went and said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father for help. We felt that we needed to go talk to 2 more kids named Delfim and Gina. They both wanted to be baptized as well… but we also had to get their parents permission. Both of the parents were super cool, and had no problem giving permission! We were super stoked! So, we marked both Gina and Delfim to be baptized on Sunday.

We had a dinner appointment for that night at a recent convert’s house. We really wanted to bring an investigator with us… but we couldn’t figure out who! As we were talking to Delfim outside, a girl named Gilda walked by. (Gilda is a 17 year old girl who has been investigating the church for a while. Her dad is an adventist, her step mom is evangelical, her sister is a Jehovah’s Witness, and her mom is an inactive member of our church. Needless to say, she was super confused about what church was true.) We stopped Gilda to ask her how she was doing and what not. Then Dastrup felt inspired to invite her to the dinner appointment with us that night. She gladly accepted. The recent convert was cool with it as well, because Gilda and her are friends. After dinner, we had a super spiritual lesson. The Spirit was so strong! She felt it really strong. She said she wanted to be baptized- she was just scared, and confused. We told her to pray that night and we marked an appointment to talk with her the next day.

The next day came, Elder Dastrup and Elder Cá went to go teach her. One of the first things she said is that she was ready to be baptized! Elder Fernandes, Elder Crowther (our new comp, who was one of the assistants in Porto) and I were in a meeting with President Torgan. Elder Dastrup called and said he had someone that wanted to talk to us. Gilda got on the phone and said she had news for us… we asked what… and she said, I’m going to be baptized this weekend! We all burst out in screams of joy! Ha-ha it was super funny. We were dancing around President Torgan’s office. And yes, President was there to witness this all. We were extremely happy. President just laughed, as he understood our extreme happiness.

It was an absolute miracle. We asked Heavenly Father to open a path for us. And he practically threw Gilda into it. We had pretty much dropped her for the meantime, because she wasn’t progressing. Heavenly Father is amazing! She was baptized on Friday!

Delfim and Gina, were baptized yesterday!

We had 15 investigators in church yesterday, and we have 7 marked for baptism this weekend. We have a goal to baptize 10. Miracles are happening in this area! We baptized 18 people in this last transfer! What a blessing! When I arrived in the mission, Presidente Torgan told us about how he baptized 12 weeks in a row on his mission. He gave us the challenge to break that record, and firmly stated that it was possible. Many people doubted. Saying things like, “He served in Brazil… we are in EUROPE.” About a year later, Elder Fernandes (my comp), decided it was possible here in Europe as well, and went 17 weeks in a row with baptism. That inspired me as well. My faith was weak up until that point. I said a sincere prayer, and asked Heavenly Father to make me an instrument in His hands. And that’s exactly what happened! It’s just about learning to follow the Spirit. I firmly believe every missionary out there can be doing the same thing. No matter the area they are in! I firmly believe that Heavenly Father is preparing His children in ALL parts of the world. We can make excuses our here like, “Oh, Europe is hard… the people are closed… everyone is Catholic.” But that’s just making an excuse for our lack of effort. And we all know which side excuses come from… definitely not the side of Heavenly Father. What a blessing it has been to be able to be part of this miracle! I feel closer to Heavenly Father than I have ever felt in my life! I have now baptized 11 weeks in a row, and I have no plans to stop! I am being extremely blessed in my life. And I am completely grateful for that. And I am in no way trying to brag, and I in no way take credit for it! I’ve tried to do things in my own way… and that’s when things didn’t work out too well. I’ve learned now to just trust in Heavenly Father and do it in HIS way.

The mission is amazing. I am learning so much out here. I hope everyone who has the opportunity to serve a mission, takes the opportunity. There is nothing better you can do for yourself. It will change your life, if you allow it to. The happiness you feel out here is indescribable.

I love you all, and hope you all are doing well! I would love to hear from you all!

Elder Porter

Once again, I don’t have much time… so I will give you a quick update about life so far.

Madeira was awesome! It is a super beautiful island! I did a division with the elders in Caniço. We had a cool experience with one of their investigators. She didn’t want to be baptized, but we felt that she really needed to be baptized this weekend. In our lesson Saturday night, the Spirit was super strong. We had her say a prayer to ask Heavenly Father if she needed to be baptized, and she almost wasn’t able to finish the prayer she was crying so much. She was overwhelmed by the Spirit, and was baptized the following day! The story is a little more complicated than that, but I just gave the watered down version of it haha.

We had 4 baptisms in our area this week. We baptized Kikas, Alander, Augusta, and Miguel. Elder Fernandes and I weren’t able to be at the baptism of Kikas, Augusta, and Miguel, because we were in Madeira… but Alander was baptized Sunday night and we made it back just in time to see his baptism. We had a zone conference yesterday, and that was the reason I was not able to e-mail and why I’m short on time today.

The six people we had marked for this week did not show up to church on Sunday… so they won’t be able to be baptized this weekend. However, we had 13 investigators in church.. so we will be marking some people here soon. We need your prayers for Delfin, Francisca, and Gina. They all want to be baptized this weekend, but their parents will have to give permission. So, we need all the prayers we can get!

Life has been good here. Transfers are next week, and we are going to be super busy! Next week is when the mission will be completely mixed, now that our mission covers the entire country of Portugal. It will be pretty crazy.

I hope everyone is great back at home. Happy birthday to Landon and Brittain!

Love,

Elder Porter