Elder Porter in Chile

Hola Amigos I hope all is doing well with you!  I enjoyed seeing that I had 18 emails to read when I got on today.  This past week has been really good.  We were able to do a service project for the person that we baptized this past week.  We built her a roof on her house.  Because it never rains here, there a a lot of homes that don't have techos but because of the Sol (sun) she wanted one of the rooms covered up.  It took about 4 hours but it was worth it.  When we got back to the pension, my comp showered first.  We were pretty dirty and sweaty and so I was really looking foward to a shower, but literally within a minute of my comp leaving the bathroom, they shut off our water for who knows what reason.  So we had to ask a neighbor for some water and I took something akin to a bucket bath.  It was really cold water but I survived.  I am actually doing pretty good healthwise.  I was able to weigh myself for the first time since coming on the mission and I gained about 15lbs s

Hola todos! Ha sido un semana espectacular en Arica.  We did a lot, talked with a lot of people and most important, we baptized! To recap the week, we actually didn´t have anything particularly special.  We met with a lot of families and are getting ready for la conferencia del barrio esta semana (ward conference).  Here in Chile, it means that in addition to the difference in church meetings on Sunday, we are having an activity every night this week including but not limited to: Autosuficiencia  (self sufficiency)classes, movie night, devotional, Q&A session, and a church open house.  It is my first open house but I am looking forward to it.  It should be a really good opportunity to help people understand the church and our message.  Afterward we are going to have a baptism! I learned a lot about the importance of goal setting and sticking with the plans we made to accomplish them.  I had to really take a look at myself and see what I could improve.  On Saturday night I mad

HELLO! This week has been pretty typical like most weeks. Talking, teaching, BAPTIZING!  We did a lot of walking and a lot of talking.  The members have been starting to give us references and that has been helping us so much to find people to teach.  We We had a baptism this weekend of a matrimonio that I first contacted with our ward mission leader 7 weeks ago.  It  was pretty neat to see them come along.  They dont have great financial situation so they have to work a lot (Gregorio works 7 days on and 7 off)  and we couldnçt meet with them all at the same time, but we were able to set a day where they both could be baptized!  It was a good service and my companion Elder Campos even did a special musical number with a guitar. Afterwards we went out to eat a pichanga (mountain of meat and french fries) with our papito (the family who always gives us lunch)  Fue un dia bacan. We are preparing to baptize another investigator named Fabian.  He is a university student who did drug

Hey Guys,        Transfers were this week and I found out that I am going to .............................. .......stay.  Yup I am going remain here in Arica for another 6 weeks with Elder Campos.  I am actually pretty happy about it because the work is really picking up over here.  We were able to baptize a super awesome family of 4 this past  saturday  and we have another family of 3 to baptize  this Saturday .  The Lord is blessing the work over here and I get to be a part of it.  Sorry I don´t have a lot of time to write a whole lot, but I do want yall to know that the work is true and that families can be together forever.  One of our converts received the Priesthood this  Sunday and it was really cool for me because it is the next step for him to salvation and to be sealed with his family.  We also were able to find some new people and also the ward is becoming super supportive.  We just need more to attend the baptism services.  :)  We have a great week ahead of us.  The Lord