Special Baptism!

Wow this week has been such an amazing week I don't even know how to describe it. Really the amazing days were Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Also some pretty big news is that I will be saying goodbye to this place of Techiman and I will be leaving Wednesday morning to go to a place called Agona which is about 2 hours north of Kumasi and from what i have heard from people, it is kinda just like a village, its really small. There is only one companionship of missionaries in the whole place of Agona and my new companion will be Elder Motloung from South Africa. (don't even try to pronounce his name because I know you can't. It has clicking noise in there and I can't even do it still soooo yeah...) But yeah i am pretty excited to be going to a new place. I love Techiman but I am ready to be somewhere else for sure! i cant wait to go! 

So Friday was amazing because we had Zone Conference. Although us missionaries in the northern part of the mission aren't too many, it was way way powerful. We had 30 missionaries between the Techiman and Sunyani Zones and also President and Sister Cosgrave, Elder and Sister Wardle, and the Assistants were there for Zone Conference. It was seriously so amazing. The Spirit was so strong and I was able to learn so many things that are already helping me become a better teacher and a better missionary in general. Also on Friday was the big huge festival day for some crazy festival thing the people of Techiman celebrate called the apoɔ festival and Friday was the main day and there was about a trillion and a half people there at the Chief's Palace right in the middle of town... So yeah that was cool hah. Then Friday night, the Wardles had me and Elder Khumalo, along with Elder Peterson and Elder Prior who are also in our apartment, over for dinner and Sister Wardle made hamburgers from ground beef that she was able to find in Kumasi. and WOW those were amazing to say the very least!!! The Wardles are so amazing!!

Anyway, Saturday was also way sweet because we already knew I was being transferred, plus we knew that Elder Peterson was being transferred, we did a bunch of laundry and started packing our big bags so that the Wardles could take them to Kumasi to the mission home on Sunday. Saturday was just a really sweet day doing stuff with all 4 Elders in our apartment and we were able to have a sweet day! 

Then Sunday.  Obviously Sunday was a very special day already with it being Easter, but it was also my last Sunday here in Techiman, and we were fortunate enough to have a baptism as well.  I was able to give a talk with it being my last week in the area and I talked about Jesus Christ, the whole Atonement, from the Suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane to the Resurrection and I really focused on the Resurrection just with it being Easter and all. But man I love studying about and talking about my Savior Jesus Christ. I absolutely love it. He literally went through everything for us. He suffered for our sins, He suffered for our sadness and sorrows, He suffered for our temptations, He literally suffered for everything in our lives. And the thing that is amazing is that He didn't have to, He could have stopped at any time and just quit, cause I'm sure that taking on every single pain that has ever been felt by every human being to ever walk this earth wasn't something that was fun or felt good, but it was something that hurt more than anything we could ever imagine. I know that Jesus Christ loved us so much that he laid down his own life so that we could be redeemed from sin and from Death. The really amazing part is that He really rose again and that today, He lives, and one day, because He lives, we will also live again. I love my Savior. 

With the baptism on Sunday, it was for sure amazing. We have been teaching Gifty for a long time and she has been ready and prepared for baptism for a long time, she has just been waiting for her two daughters to return from school for them to also be there at the baptism. And on Thursday, the twins returned and yesterday, Gifty was baptized by her Husband, Bro Andoh.  It was truly amazing to see our 2nd councilor help his blind wife go down the steps of the baptismal font, and then baptize her. That was seriously one of the most amazing things i have been able to witness on my mission so far, maybe in my whole life. The joy that comes from people coming into the Gospel is something that cannot be described and its something that doesn't come from anything else. Seeing people accept the Gospel, live it and then be able to receive the blessings from it is awesome. 

so yeah that was how my week went.  it was a really good one. I also hope everyone back home was able to have a great week as well. I love you all and I hope this week as you are able to watch General Conference, you have something you are trying to learn or be taught by our amazing General Authorities. 

Love Elder Porritt

 This is how Ghanaian people carry things....

 yep....

 oh my goodness... this was heavenly, ground beef!

This is like the happiest family on earth right now. The two twins are in yellow. Then Gifty and Bro Andoh.

Glorious Fufu!

Interesting Food This Week

Well hello there everyone. This week has been a great one for us here in Ghana, although the heat just keeps turning up more and more even with the rain coming back. The rain really just makes the humidity more intense and it makes it hotter most days. 

This week, 5 members of the Dwumoh Branch were able to travel to Accra to go to The House of The Lord. Our Branch President and Wife (Tony and Esther) were both able to be endowed and sealed together to their two daughters, Also our Branch clerk and wife (David and Vivian) were also able to be endowed and sealed to their two daughters, and also our 1st Councilor in the Branch Presidency (Bro Andoh) was endowed, and  his wife, Gifty will be baptized this coming Sunday so in a year or so, they will also be able to go to the Temple and be sealed together. 

It is truly amazing to see what a HUGE impact the Temple can have on someone. The Holy Ghost is so amazing and will really work wonders in our hearts if we are open to those whisperings that come. Those 5 people have all completely changed it seems like. They are so much more spiritual and they seem to have a much higher level of reverence now. I really think they will help this Branch to start to grow much quicker than it has been. Anyway that has surely been the highlight of the week for me! 

This week was full of interesting food as well. The three new things on the menu included a chicken spine, which was actually really really good!!! Then there was a fish head, that one was NASTY NASTY NASTY.... I thought i was gonna puke on that one... Then there was bush meat... And wow.. Bush meat is just any random animal that people will go kill out in the bush (forest) and yeah bush meat is nasty to say the least.  No doubt the worst thing I've eaten here in Ghana...Soooo yeah if you ever come to Ghana, DO NOT request bush meat with your fufu...

Anyway back to positive things, Another pretty cool thing that happened on Thursday was my 6 month mark... holy cow it really doesn't feel like i've been gone that long. it feels like i was in the SLC Airport like yesterday.  But 6 months have come and gone and i really feel that i have grown a lot Spiritually the last 6 months. I feel like i have come to know my Heavenly Father more and also my Savior more than I ever have been able to and I am so thankful for that. I really do love being a missionary and there is nothing better than sharing the Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ with people who don't know the truth. It brings the most amazing feelings to my life and I know it does that to the lives of the people we teach as well. I love it. And I hope you all will be able to have the same love for this Gospel and for our Savior that I have been able to come to have, cause it is amazing.

I hope all of you have a great week back in the good ol United States of America (except those who are on missions not in the US haha)

I love you all,

Elder Porritt

Well this was our Kitchen last night after three of us in our apartment went crazy on making Chapati,  that is a sweet food that they make a lot in Kenya and i know how to make it now... call me the new family chef?

RAIN---Finally!!

Hello there family!! 

This week has been good for teaching that is for sure. This week we taught the most lessons that I have taught in a single week so far on my mission so that was good. Nothing too exciting happened this week other than Sister Dora who was baptized last Sunday was able to be confirmed yesterday so that was for sure a good thing that happened!! 

This week we have also been teaching a guy named Francis, i think i told you about him last week but man this guy is so powerful and on Sunday he came up to us after Church and he was like hey why haven't you taught me about the Book of Mormon yet? and so right then we talked about it and he was so excited. He says that he has been praying that Heavenly Father show him the right path in life and I am sure that those prayers are being answered right now as we are teaching him. He even told us he wants to serve a mission, but unfortunately he is like 30 so his mission wouldn't be able to come still for a few years. He is learning fast and is progressing very well which is great but i don't think i will be here to see his baptism. I think i will probably be transferred in 2 weeks but we will have to see. 

Something that has been amazing that happened this week starts with R and has four letters.....

RAIN

It FINALLY rained again! it has been over 4 months since anything related to water fell from the sky and the last couple days it has sprinkled a few times but this morning it rained pretty hard for about an hour which is like the best thing ever!! And even the forecast for the next week is about 100-106 (haha not including the humidity factor... Ghana is hot) with rain every single day!!! WHOOOO i am excited about that!! The crazy thing is that it gets down to about 75-80 at night and wow it feels sooooo cold at night. It is crazy that 80 degrees feels freezing cold.... When i come home i think i might die with the weather in cold ol Utah.. 

A couple things that I learned/remembered this last week... Just think about the difference of praying vs saying a prayer. For me, the difference is that when we say a prayer, we don't really think about what we are praying for, but when we pray, we truly think about what we are praying for and we really mean it from the heart. It is more meaningful and it is more sincere. We need to always try and pray rather than say prayers if we want to receive answers from our Heavenly Father. 

The other comes from Doctrine and Covenants 82:10 Which says "I, the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." This for sure is one of my favorite scriptures that exists. Our Heavenly Father literally cannot break his promises with us. If we fulfill our end of the promise, He has to bless us.  I love that cause if we follow the Commandments, if we keep our covenants that we have made, He HAS TO bless us and he is willing and ready to pour out blessings on us. I love that scripture and i hope it helps you out. 

I love you all so much and hope all is going well for you!! You are all in my thoughts and prayers daily!! The members of the Dwumoh Branch along with Elder Khumalo and Elder Porritt all send our love and encouragement to the lovely people back home!!

Love Elder Porritt

We found this cute little guy just chillin in the shade and I had to take a picture with him haha! 

 FINALLY FOUND IT!!

Elder Whipple and I enjoying our pepsi today! 

This is called Ampesi. It is boiled yam(cassava- which is kinda like a potato but still way different)  and you eat it with the stew which contains onions, tomatoes, eggs, pepper, just lots of stuff. You all know this is not easy to eat... hahaha its not too bad though.

Ghanaian Wedding

Hello everyone!! Everything here in Ghana is going great!! I hope this
message goes through... the Internet isn't doing to swell here today,
sorry this is coming through at like 1 in the morning back home. The
Internet crashed last night and we weren't able to send everything.

This week was pretty good to be honest!! We had some great things that
happened this week!!

The first was Brother Matthias who we baptized two weeks ago, he just
got married on Saturday and he invited a bunch of the missionaries
here in Techiman so Saturday morning we went down to some village
about 20 minutes away and went to his wedding. Weirdly enough this was
actually the first wedding i have actually been to that I can
remember. But it was really weird. Ghanaians definitely do not do
things the same as people back home hahaha. But it was good to see our
new convert get married. He seemed way happy and we were for sure
happy for him!!

Another sweet thing that happened this week was the baptism of Dora!!!
Her and Gifty were both able to have their interviews with President
Cosgrave this weekend and Gifty told us that she wanted her twin girls
to be able to be at the baptism but they are currently at school right
now so she wants to wait a few weeks til they are able to come back on
vacation so they can be there for the baptism. We were super excited
for Dora though. And a really awesome part of it was that her
husband, Godwin, was able to baptize her!!  So that was an amazing
experience for everyone involved and it was surely a day that i will
never forget!! I was sooo happy yesterday!!

Anyway with teaching, we have these two guys who are coming along
really well right now, Francis and Michael. They are both super
excited about the Gospel and they both come to church and both want to
learn everything we are teaching and even Francis asked us if he could
go to the temple and serve a mission and we haven't even taught him
about any of that yet but we were like shocked when he asked us that
but we can tell how serious he is about the Gospel! Unfortunately he
is like almost 30 so he cant serve as a missionary right now but we
will teach him that someday he will be able to! Those two are both so
amazing and we love teaching them!!

Today our zone was able to go again to the Monkey Village which is the
same place we went my first few weeks here on mission and it was about
the same experience except i got clawed up pretty good by one monkey
who really wanted a banana really bad hahaha. But it was sweet! I'll
send some more pictures with it!!

I hope all is going well back home. I also hope that all of you know
that the Church is true. I know for sure that it is true. I know that
President Thomas S Monson is at the head of this Church and that he
receives revelation directly from our Father in Heaven on things that
we need in our life. I know that if we follow the prophet, we will not
go astray. I promise you that.

I love you all so much and our branch presidency 2nd councillor, Bro.
Andoh sends his greetings!!!

Love Elder Porritt

Matthias wedding!!!

Dora and Godwin on Sunday ready for the baptism!!!

This monkey was so sweet. He was just chilling on this branch and wouldn't move hahaha 

Same with this guy

 Biggest tree I have ever seen in my entire life

February 29th?

Well happy 29 of February.... That is a rare thing haha!

Not too much happened this week. Although it is getting HOT here... We weren't able to have the two baptisms because the two sisters were not able to get their interviews from President Cosgrave, but this week will be the week and I am super excited for the both of them and for both of their husbands!!! we have been teaching both of them for a long time and they are sooo prepared for this step that they are making in their lives!!

Teaching in general this week was alright but we didn't have anything extraordinary. Although i did find some kinda cool things in the Scriptures this week, for one, I think the largest battle to ever take place on this whole earth was in Ether chapter 15 where literally every single person on the face of the land died... that was interesting.. plus I found batman in Moroni... hahaha you will have to search for him!!

Unfortunately we don't have much time here this week and I gots to go!! I hope all of you are having such a great week!! I know that the Church is true and that the Book of Mormon is true. I am looking forward to talking to you all next week!!

Much Love,

Elder Hunter Kenneth Porritt

Selfie with 6 Elders jammed into a taxi hahahaha

Another Selfie

FATTEST BABY EVER ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. 5 MONTHS OLD