October 26, 2015

 

**Selfie**

 

This week has been so crazy. It has been a big blur.

So, Tuesday we went to the New Missionary Meeting. All of us learned so much while being there and we were excited to apply it. Something I have been struggling with is knowing how much to force obedience on my companions. I have NO backbone and I just decided to lead by example and I did everything that I knew I should and I prayed they would catch on. At the meeting all the things I felt like I needed to address they said they wanted to fix on their own. I was so grateful for that. I didn't have to speak up! 

Thursday we had district meeting and we left feeling pretty lousy about ourselves. Our contacting needed to be better and we should have just been working harder. We felt pretty lousy even though we had improved a lot. On the way home I saw this crazy man and I felt like we should pull over and talk to him. We did and we didn't talk to him but the Lord showed us that we were there for another man. We didn't get to add him but we did get to talk to him and he took a restoration pamphlet with our number. Then after that we went to dinner and tried really hard to talk to them about spiritual things and the experiences they have been having. The Hna had gone out with the relief society counselor that day and we felt inspired to ask her to go visit less actives with us that evening. She said yes and it was amazing. The spirit was so strong in all of our lessons and we met a lot of people who weren't even on our radar.  That day a member called us and told us that her less active daughter was ready to come back to church and her children wanted to be baptized. We were reaping the blessings of trying our hardest to be exactly obedient.

Friday we had a horrible weekly planning session. We struggled through and I was getting angry and the Hnas could tell. We were there till 4 and didn't get anything accomplished. The next day we watched all The District segments on planning. We felt like we needed to work on our area book and go back to planning. We did and it was the best planning session I'd had my entire mission. I'm so grateful that we did that! We got so much done and we are so prepared for the week. 

Sunday was disastrous. The morning went well and all was good until we went to dinner. Hna Martinez started to feel sick and went to the bathroom. She was in there for a really long time and so I went to check on her. She opened the door and she was shaking hard core. Guess what, she was having a panic attack. That was crazy. We were there and she was throwing up and it was loco. We went home and then Hna Maya had a panic attack. I really needed to be in two places at once but I couldn't be. I called the STL and they came over asap and President called. Elders also came over to give them blessings. We think it was just a mixture of stress and homesickness. but ya know. WE didn't get to go out to work Sunday. We hope it gets better soon. 

That is how my week went. Also, all of you are slacking on writing me. I now have 20 weeks left but come on. Sisters still need love. 

Alright, love you all.

Love,

Hermana Porter.

Lucy got baptized!!

Cutest kid ever. (I can't decide)

 

Cutest kid ever. (I can't decide)

       

October 19, 2015

I don't know, too much pressure, I can't think! -Elder Graham. ‏

This week has been pretty uneventful! I got the flu. Apparently, when you are feeling a little ill to being with, you aren't suppose to get the flu shot. I didn't know that so according to President Palmer I "made an Elder decision." Monday, we went to dinner with our Branch President and his family and then afterwards I was feeling really sick and I was starting to get a bad cough. The sisters took me home and made me take my temperature, it was 101.5. I swear, I've never had a temperature before. They were freaking out because apparently that was "high" they took good care of me because my temperature kept climbing until about 12:00 that night. The next morning we woke up early to go to Zone Conference in Modesto. The assistants and President and Sister Palmer gave a really good training on the Sabbath day and also making sure we are talking to everyone. I got really motivated to talk to everyone. Unfortunately I was sick all week so I haven't got to apply anything that I've learned but I did learn a lot because I went on a district marathon and I watched basically all of the district multiple times. It made me super motivated.

To be honest, I was feeling a little down on my self this week because I was trapped in the house. I just started thinking about all the time I've wasted while on the mission and the stupid things that Satan puts into your head when you're sick and can't leave the house. As I was pondering the crappy job I've been doing at training and being a missionary and all the thought came to my head "Isn't that the beautiful thing about the atonement?" My despair turned into peace automatically and know that is one of the simple truths that I was forgetting in that moment. I started thinking about all the things I had learned from my past transfers and what that has done to make me the person I am today. I can honestly say, that if I had not been through those transfers I would not be who I am today and I would not know what I know. The great thing about the atonement is that I can do what President Uchtdorf said at conference and start where I'm at and get better. I know that the Lord loves me and that He is helping me learn all that I need to become a good sister, daughter, mother, and wife one day. I know everyday I can start over and I just pray the people around me can see that I'm striving to do my best. 

This week I've also been reading in Mosiah and I keep thinking, every time I read, how important it is that we follow the good examples in life. King Zeniff was such a good example to the people and they loved him and they followed the ways of righteous but then, as soon Kind Benjamin was in charged people saw wickedness as acceptable and they couldn't remember what had happened and good they had been taught just months or years previously. It was a testimony to me that we cannot stop doing to little things and the good things, because if we do, Satan creeps in and we start to loose those good habits that we had before. 

Sorry this is short, but I didn't have a lot go on since I was in for 5 of the 6 days this week. 

I love you all. Hope you have a great week. 

Love, 

Hermana Porter. 

October 12, 2015

Leaving my Samoan girl!!

Tengo un tos ‏

Well I got a cough yesterday. I guess that is what I get for not getting a flu shot yet. I'm going to day, so don't worry. This is the first time I've been sick sick in like a year and 2 months. That's crazy. Haha Beniciones from the Lord. So this is how this last week went.

Monday. 

We got a call from Sister Palmer we were moving stat. It took us all afternoon but I'm glad to be out of that garbage pit. It was so gross. Plus now we have a functioning shower! What a blessing, I can get clean now! I'm not a funky monkey anymore. Because we spent all day moving we missed out two appointments that we had that night. We were a little disappointed but we tried to see them anyways and we just got return appointments for different nights. We are now living with Sister Dimpter. Crazy story, her son Elder James Dimpter served in the Louisville Kentucky Mission and he served in the Madison Ward of the New Albany Indiana Stake. He also thinks Larry Porter, the Stake President, is the coolest guy in the world. Isn't that crazy? He knows dad. I'm sure we don't remember him but he remembers us. What a small world. Anyways, Sister Dimpter is single and she is amazing at doing missionary work. She works hard core with the less actives. She has over 35 people she has befriended in her missionary efforts. She keeps us motivated sometimes. 

Tuesday.

Was a day of eating. We had a few lesson that were in the morning but all of them fell through. We looked for some new investigators that we could add and also some less active members. I was pretty unsuccessful. Then we had to go grocery's shopping because we didn't get to do that on Monday because we were moving. Then we ran home and dropped our food off and then after that we went to an appointment in Newman. The lady is a returning less active and she was like "I made you food" Well the bad thing was that we were going to be having dinner in like 5 minutes. So we ate her food and then after that we went do dinner. We are teaching this ladies son who is 8 so he doesn't count as an investigator. But he just started coming to church recently and he is going to get baptized soon. His names is Moses and we are basically best friends. He loves Mario and I love Mario, only when it makes me his best friend. haha We taught him the restoration and it was really well. He loved it and thought we were cool and he actually know a lot for never going to primary. 

Wednesday. 

We went to dinner with Hna Rosas and we ate some spicy food. She didn't mean to make it spicy but she did. Even my native companions were dying so it wasn't just my weak sauce white genes. But we ate chicharron and it wasn't that good. Hna Ku always told me I'd love it and that she'd make it for me but she never did, and I'm glad she didn't. It is a super chewy pork dish and it was G-ROSS. After her we went to see a lady who is less active. She just had baby and he is SUPER cute. We asked her if we could start coming over to teach her family the lessons and she said YES! WE taught her the restoration that night and it was a little rocky. We need some practice in making sure we distribute the time equally between the three of us. Also, there were a LOT of awkward silence gaps. We are getting better though. I'm learning to be quite until one of them speaks...sometimes that's a few minutes...

Something else that has been happening is we are tying to seethe less actives and a lot of them say that they were never baptized. There was this lady who said the elders always stop by looking for her but she hasn't ever stepped foot into our church. That has happened twice. I'm not sure if the people here in Crows Landing are just a little crazy or if it is true. I guess we will find out.

Thursday. 

WE had the BEST dinner with our Branch President and his family. They are so amazing. Sister Martinez doesn't speak Spanish at all but she is learning because she is in the Relief Society Presidency. We walk into her house and she says "SISTER! I'm trying to be a good missionary and I think I'm going to be having someone come over for dinner who isn't a member. Hopefully it all works out right!" She invited her ex-son-in-law over for dinner. It was so kind and he wants to feed us at there house every time we come over. He wasn't going to stay around for the spiritual thought but he did and Sister Martinez was just crying she was so happy. We talked about prophets and the general conference. He was getting ready to leave and she was crying and he said "What's wrong" She said "Nothing, it's called the spirit. I'm just so happy you are here. If you ever want to meet with these ladies call me and I can set it up." It was a tender experience and I'm glad she felt the power of missionary work. 

Friday. 

We had a lesson with a lady named Silvia. She had forgotten about our appointment and had fallen asleep. The whole lesson she was nodding off. The good news is she accepted a baptism date. But we didn't count it because she had not clue what she was committing herself to. It was a really funny lesson. Then we got to know our Elders Quorum president. He is the sweetest man in the world. He is do sad that our ward is down to 20 members. He is going through dialysis and isn't able to what he used to. He said he wants to come out with us soon though. He is the only member in his family and he is so sweet. he always says "they'll come around in their own time. and the more I have you over, the more exposure they get." He is the cutest man. The sister training leaders decided to make a surprise exchanges with us. It was quite the fun night. I got to spend it with Hna Carpenter and we got to catch up with each other. It was quite a nice time. 

Saturday.

I realized that we need to spend more time outside the car and make an effort to talk to everyone. Hna Carpenter reminded me of that. 

Sunday. 

We went to church and then had a crazy long chat. It was quite the evening. We have some goals though that we will all be working on and hopefully that will help somethings to become better. There have just been a few things that were off and now we are back on again. I'm excited to see where this week takes us. 

I love you all so much. I hope you have a great week and you make good choices and read your scriptures and say your prayers. 

Love, 

Hermana Porter.

 

Ana's baptism!!!  She is Beatriz and Enrique's granddaughter.

Saying bye to Genny Garza!

Amelia Perkins, we look like twins in this picture.

 

Bye Bye Ellyn.  I miss my YSA friends.

Saying bye to Hermana Sellers.

Baby Maya is tired.  haha  She sleeps in the car all the time.

The District.

The lady we moved in with made us blueberry muffins.  She's the best!!!

What my area looks like.  Five towns of this dirt stuff.

We were together for a day!  Reunited with Hermana Carpenter!

The Trio!  Hermana Me, Hermana Martinez, and Hermana Maya!

 

October 5, 2015

This week has been crazy, seriously crazy. Here is a play by play. 

So Monday we went to dinner with the Gutierrez family. They are SO funny I love them so much. We had dinner twice with them this week so we have gotten to know them fairly well. Anyways, Hna Martinez has been suffering with this horrible cough for two weeks. Well, we were mid spiritual though and she got a coughing attack. She got up to go get a cough drop and then on her way there, barfed all over their floor. It was quite the traumatic experience, for all of us. Hna Gutierrez was so concerned that it was her food that had made her throw up but it was just the cough. Hna's kids thought the whole thing was quite comical as well as me and Hna Maya. Well, that night we had to go wait at home anyway for a plumber for come and fix our shower because we had been bathing with a cup for about 4 days and finally we called someone about it because we were tired of it. The plumber said he would be by sometime after 6 but we waited until 8:45 with no luck. Hna Martinez was so sick so we called Elder Graham and Elder Jarvis to give her a blessing. Bless their souls they took the 45 minute car drive out to our area and helped a sista out. 

Tuesday we had appointment after appointment, but guess what. Not a single one was there. WE spent most of the day walking around looking for people to teach. It came up with no luck.We had a lesson that night with a lady named Maria. She is really lonely and is mostly looking for someone to talk to. We were there way longer that we should have been listening to her talk about Catfish. Who knew someone could have a one sided conversation about Catfish for 45 minutes...we sure didn't.  

Wednesday looked a lot like Tuesday. We spend a lot of our days "finding" with almost not luck. We feel that this week is our week though. WE are getting maps of all of our areas and we are determined to talk to everyone and their dog about the message of the Restoration. I want these Hermanas to know what missionary work is, not wondering around aimless. We tried door after door with not a lot of success. 

Thursday we had to wake up early to take Hna Martinez to the doctor so we could get some medication for her cough. Turns out she had a upper respiratory infection so it was a good thing we went to the doctor. Right after the doctor we had to go to Turlock for a zone training. Elder Torres gave it was it was really good. He talked about making sure we follow the spirit. We watched quite a few videos on President Monson and his life experiences. I learned a lot. Elder Torres made sure he pointed out when we were feeling the spirit and that we were writing down the revelation that we were receiving. He asked us who we wanted our role model to be. I decided I wanted mine to be Jesus Christ. I can always count on Him to have the perfect example of whatever quality I want to emulate. That is why this week I started to study the New Testament. Let me tell you, I love that little book. Anyways, at the zone training, Sister Palmer was there and she wanted to come and look at our apartment. When she got there, she was appalled. She kept saying "This isn't safe" "This isn't clean" "WE have GOT to get you out of here." I don't know if it was lucky or not, but the land lady was happening to come that day to check if we actually needed a plumber to come and fix the apartment. Let me tell you, we actually did. Sister Palmer had words to say with here and there was a little bit of an argument. It ended with us having our 30 day notice and having a plumber come the next day. 

Friday, we spend all day shut into the apartment. The plumber was suppose to be there at one and didn't get there until 5. Say what? By 4:30 I was over it and I called Sister Palmer crying. She told me we were in luck cause we would be moving out on Monday. OH boy was I happy! We were all happy. During our companionship inventory we all said the thing that made us the most angry this week was the fact that we had to stay in the apartment so much. We were excited to get out of there. We were also suppose to have dinner with the Aldana family but we though she had called to cancel 5 minutes before the appointment. Turns out it was our 7:00 canceling so we didn't show up to dinner. WHoopsies. Hna Aldana called at 6:30 asking where we were. It was a big misunderstanding but we got it cleared up. Not a good way to make a first impression. Hopefully there is not hard feelings. 

Saturday and Sunday were conference filled days. This conference was so good! I LOVE conference so much. Sometimes I wish it was every weekend. I learned so much and I have so many things that I am excited to work on. Some of my favorite talks were President Monsons, President Eyryings and President Nelson, and Elder Holland. I learned so much from these men. I got to make sure I am doing what I know to be right and being a light to the world and a defender of the believers. This is not the time for us to sit on the sidelines and watch, we have GOT to ACT. What I am today will to be good enough for who I need to be next week. I've got to be continually trying and becoming better. I've got to have to the Holy Ghost as a constant companion. If not, I will not be strong enough to fight in the spiritual battles of the future. I'm so thankful for the Prophet and apostles and the guidance that God gives to us through them. I'm thankful for the growing I have to do in the next 6 months and for the rest of my life. 

This week in my studies I finished 2 Nephi and I'm almost done with Jacob. I actually understood quite a bit of 2 Nephi. I'm not sure if I should be proud or worried that I'm understanding the Isiah chapters of the Book of Mormon. I think I should be happy? 

Alright, I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Make good choices and write me a letter! 

Love,

Hermana Porter

September 28, 2015

Week One with a Newborn

This week has been so crazy and this p day has probably been the craziest day of the weeks thus far. SO news, my companions names are Hna Martinez and Hna Maya. They are the cutest things in the whole world. They both speak Spanish from birth but they were basically raised in the US so they speak perfect English. (thank goodness) We are opening a new area basically and so things here have been pretty stressful. We have some really high hopes for this next transfer and I'll tell you about some of those in a moment.

So we got together on Tuesday and we didn't get home that night until 10:35. IF you know anything about missionary life you know that we are suppose to be sleeping at 10:30 so we started off on a bad note. The zone leaders came and unloaded all of our stuff for us and we didn't get into bed until around 11:30. The bad news is that we moved into the grossest place ever. It is super dirty and almost none of the appliances work. Our shower, doesn't work. Hot water, doesn't work. Sinks, don't work. Luckily Hna Carpenter and Sheffer came over on Saturday and helped us clean quite a bit. We got one sink working (turned out it was just clogged with Elder hair...we all almost threw up.) The shower and kitchen sink are still broken though. We have a plumber who is coming to fix that this evening though. Also we don't have a place to do laundry so we are hoping to recruit one of our members to help us with that. (we can't find a laundry mat either)

We have had one super powerful lesson thus far this week. We went to see a drop (who Elder Perry actually taught) whose name is Olga. She is the nicest woman ever. The lesson was struggling. I was talking the entire time and I'd try to get the Hnas to talk but we'd just sit in awkward silence and then finally I was like "hnas, explain this scripture to her." as soon as they started talking the spirit came SO strong. Olga was feeling the spirit, I was feeling the spirit, they were feeling the spirit. it was an amazing experience. They explained to her Alma 7:11-13 and they did such an amazing job. 

Another spiritual experience we had is that Elder Graham (WE ARE BACK TOGETHER!) Challenged us to pray to know how many baptisms our area could have this next transfer. We gathered in our apartment last night and we started to pray to know how many people the Lord would have us find and help come unto baptism this transfer. WE started out thinking it was only 3, 5, 8. Then we prayed for the next hour and decided it was 8. The spirit testified to us hard core that that is what we needed to be doing. But here is thing. On Sunday we went to church and our branch is tiny. I thought Lodi was small, this is smaller x10. WE had about 27 members there. So we also set a goal for people we wanted to help reactivate as well. WE all came up with the same number which was 15. President Palmer came and talked to us. He said that he know we can make this ward 500x more populated than it is now in the 3 transfers that we are expected to be there. That means that we need to make our branch grow from 27 members to 147 members. WE are ready to work and find those who the Lord has prepared for us. 

I am struggling a little with training. I feel a little inadequacy and I'm not sure how much I should be saying or doing or what ever. Hna Hurley was such a good training and I'm not living up to her but I'm doing the best I can. She just always seemed so composed and that is not me. But I'm learning that I just need to make Christ my focus and I will do good enough. 

I'm sorry this week is a little short. We had to come to a library and we only get 45 minutes. Hopefully next week it will be better. I love you all! have a good week. 

Love, 

Hermana Porter

P.s. The library wont let me send pictures. You'll have to wait until next week!