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Osvaldo and João Batist

Isabel and Patricia

Yesterday we made a trip down to the Algarve to have a zone conference in Faro. This is the reason I did not e-mail home yesterday, and the reason why my time is cut so short today. We had an awesome week in Sacavém. We baptized Osvaldo, João Batista, and Isabel. It was super cool. I will give you a brief story about each one of them.

Osvaldo is a 17 year old kid that stopped me on the street telling me that he wanted to be baptized. This happened about 3 weeks ago. We started teaching him, and marked him quickly for baptism. He is a super cool kid, and loves to play rugby. As we were teaching him he had a lot of doubts about the commandments. Saturday morning (the day before the baptism) he had told us that he didn’t think he would be getting baptized. We left him with the invite to pray even harder, and ask Heavenly Father for the help. We went back Saturday night, and he told us that he had received a really strong answer from God telling him that he needed to be baptized. He was baptized on Sunday after church!

Isabel is Patricia’s mom (Patricia was baptized last week). Isabel has always wanted to be baptized, but the problem is that she wasn’t married. We had prayed earlier in the week, and felt like we needed to go talk to her about marriage and her baptism. The Spirit was really strong. Unfortunately, there was no way that we could have the marriage that week. We finally got her boyfriend to agree to marriage, but it wasn’t going to be happening that week. However, Isabel wanted to be baptized so badly that she told us that she would just sleep at her sisters home (who lived near by) until they were able to get married. And so, that’s exactly what she did. She was baptized on Saturday, and stays the night every night at her sister’s home. We are working on marriage arrangements for them, and hope to get them married by the end of this week or early next week. The baptism was awesome! She was SUPER excited for it. She was so excited that in the car on the way to the baptism, she told everyone to be quiet because she wanted to say a prayer to thank Heavenly Father haha. She is amazing.

João Batista (translation= John the Baptist) is a friend of Patricia. He came to her baptism last week, and felt the Spirit really strong. He wanted to be baptized immediately. We began teaching him, and his mom was totally down for the idea as well. We had no problems with him at all. It was all smooth sailing. We brought about 15 of his friends/family to his baptism. Now, we have a lot more people to teach and baptize! It was super awesome, and the Spirit was strong. He was baptized with Osvaldo on Sunday. So yes, we baptized John the Baptist :) pretty cool, huh?

I forgot my camera today, so I will send home the pictures next week! Elder Crowther and I are heading to the Azores on Thursday. We are going to a different island this week though. Last time we went to Terceira, but this week we are going to São Miguel. It seems like our life never stops. We have a pretty crazy week ahead of us, that’s for sure.

We have 2 people marked for baptism this week, so far. They are named José Eduardo, and Elio. José Eduardo is a rasta man, with the dreads/beard and all. We are going to shave the beard before the baptism though. He was big into drinking, and smoking pot/cigarettes… but he is so determined to be baptized that he threw everything out last night, and said he will never touch any of it again. Haha, he is super cool. Elio is the brother of Leo and Catarina (recent converts from a while back). He has been involved with tons of gang stuff, tattoos all over, was big into drugs, etc. The other day he was walking down the road and we just had our typical small talk as we always do with him. But I felt really strongly at that moment to invite him to church. So, I did. He said, “I’ve been wanting to be a part of your guys church for a long time now! Why has it taken you guys so long to ask me?!” I asked for forgiveness, and he forgave me ha-ha. He came to church on Sunday and LOVED it. We marked him to be baptized this weekend. He is super awesome, and it’s awesome that he wants to change so much. Keep them both in your prayers! They are both going through drastic changes in their lives! They need all the help they can get.

I hope everyone enjoys conference this weekend! I am super stoked, for sure! I love you all!

Elder Porter

Elder Crowther

All of our prayers were heard this week.

We came in the week having nobody marked for baptism this weekend. We had enough faith in the Lord though, knowing that something would come through for us. Every Monday we have meetings with President Torgan to discuss how the mission is doing, and things that we need to change. We left the meeting this last week spiritually lifted and ready to take on the battle for the week. Elder Rodrigues and I went over to Silas home. Silas has been wanting to be baptized since July… but due to parent problems he has not been able to be baptized. He was marked for baptism last week, and his mom signed and gave approval for him to be baptized. We called Silas’s dad (he lives outside of the city), and he also gave approval. But part way through the week, her evil sisters came into the picture and changed her mind completely. It got to the point where she told us if that she saw us over at her house again, she would hit Silas in front of us. We were kind of at a stand still… and didn’t know what to do. They didn’t allow him to leave the house on Sunday, so he wasn’t able to come to church. But we left that meeting, and felt strongly that we needed to talk to Silas’s mom again. We went over there and decided to change how we approached her. She opened the door and just about slammed it in our face. Before she shut it though, we expressed the love that we have for her and her family, and how we are only doing this to make her family stronger, and make Silas a better person. She agreed to let us come in for 5 minutes. The Spirit was SUPER strong. She didn’t change… but we did. The Lord was with us, and that’s what made the difference. She agreed to let Silas be baptized this weekend. And he was! :)

That same night, we were able to mark Soraia for baptism. Soraia is part of the family of Jacinta, Silvia, Milton, Clementina, Diana, Dionel, Diolinda, and Luisa. Soraia’s parents weren’t letting her be baptized either, and the dad didn’t even want to talk to us. But once again, the Lord helped us out and they had a change of heart. They decided if Soraia truly wanted to be baptized, they would allow her to be. So she was marked, and baptized yesterday as well.

Bruno is the little brother of Luisa, who was baptized a couple weeks ago. We started teaching him a couple of weeks ago. He came to church with us, he liked church… and on Tuesday we went and marked him for baptism. His mom gave permission… but wanted to know why in the church we don’t drink juice or milk. We cleared that up real quick, assuring her that juice and milk are completely fine to drink. She had no problem letting Bruno be baptized. Bruno was also baptized yesterday.

We had a bit of a miracle happen Friday night. We prayed to see who else we could baptize that weekend. We felt a few different people, and we made plans to go pass by their homes. One of the people that we felt was a girl named Patrícia. Patrícia was marked a couple of months ago for baptism. The night before her baptism, she decided she didn’t want to be baptized any longer, yet alone talk to us anymore. We had seen her around a few times since the incident and had talked to her a little bit, but we just gave her the space she needed. We felt that we needed to go pass by her that day. Elder Crowther and Elder McLean (Elder Crowther is AP/training Elder McLean) went to pass by her home. They said the Spirit was super strong! She accepted to be baptized that Sunday! The next day Elder Rodrigues and I went to her home and invited a bunch of her friends to the baptism. We found some really cool people. She had quite a few people come to her baptism, and she was baptized yesterday! Her mom also really wants to be baptized. She just needs to get married first. We found out on Friday that her boyfriend, that she is living with, is a non active member that was baptized many years ago. They are planning on getting married here soon.

We ended up baptizing 4 people this weekend, when we had nobody marked to start off the weekend! Heavenly Father blessed up immensely. We are extremely grateful for that. We so far only have 1 person marked for this weekend, his name is Osvaldo. But we have plans to mark a lot more people over these next couple days. Keep praying for us! It is obviously working!

I love you all and hope you are all doing great!

Elder Porter

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