Be Not Afraid

 

HOWDY! :)

First of all! I LOVE YOU! and missin ya'll alot! Sounds like everything is going well up in Spanish Fork! I want to see Kylee's Dress! She probably looks so beautiful! I can't believe she is a Senior.  I remember when she was just a little sophomore. How time flies. GO BYU! haha:)

 

Transfers are next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhh oh my goodness. I have a strong feeling that I will be leaving Arlington. Sad to leave this awesome ward and all the friendships I have made BUT ready to serve the Lord elsewhere! It gets harder the longer you are in an area. Any guesses on where I'll go? :) EXCITING NEWS: We get the opportunity to have Elder Anderson come speak to us this week! :) :) :) I am just so excited!! I have been preparing myself for this day for a while! I have a feeling that he is going to announce the usage of internet! That would be so amazing! SO many new changes and things that would have to happen.

 

Last night the Andersons had us over for dinner. I love Jennifer she is so sweet! She comes out with us sometimes to help us teach. I asked her if she was thinking about going on a mission and she said "NO! Im serving enough of a mission by going out with ya'll!" haha shes too funny. Me and her were talking about how we used to leave recess early to go eat with Kylee the girl who had cancer in 5th grade.  We talked about that for a minute and for some reason the spirit just overcame us. We both began to cry! The Lord confirmed to us that he was thankful for the kindness we showed to Kylee. She was a daughter of god and she was our sister. SO awesome.

 

Kimberly is doing so great!! :) She and Adrian Titera are dating!! WHAT! that is so weird for me because I know him and I taught her. haha small world. She got her temple recommend and attended the temple last Tuesday! I was just too happy! It feels good to see her come so far from when we first met her. I made a difference in her life and her future generation! Well the Lord did! I couldn't have done any of this with out the Lord!

 

John 14: 24 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let your heart not be trouble, neither let it be afraid!"

 

I love this. LET US NOT BE AFRAID! the lord has promised us peace. So let us continue in faith to pray unto our father and diligently study our scriptures. Let us not forget these amazing tools he has given us! Let us set our eyes single to the glory of God so that we can qualify ourselves for the work! President Hinckley said "The best antidote for stress is WORK. The best cure for Sorrow is Service and the best medicine for weariness is helping someone else out whom is more tired than you." THIS IS SO TRUE! We must work hard and serve our brothers and sisters! Let us not forget that when we are in the service of our fellow beings we are in the service of our god:) Im so grateful for the gospel in my life. Being on this mission has opened my eyes up to so many opportunities and blessing that I had never seen before. Christ LIVES! he is my Savior my Lord and my Master! he is my friend :)

 

HUGS AND KISSES! :)

-Sister Porter

Ps. Thank you sooo much for the support and example you are to me! And thank you for helping me out with money and such. It takes off a whole lot of stress!
Pss. This is a picture of my district. and the other one is of the Elders who split the YSA with us. Elder Bowthorpe is on the left, he is our district leader. and Elder Semideni is on the left and he is 18! so crazy!! And the girl with the blue shirt in the district picture her name is sister Nelson! she went to high school with me! :)

 

Watches----please!

Hey!

Soounds like ya'll are having some fun times! Makes me sad that I'm not there but so happy at the same time. Makes me grateful to have such a family as I do that loves and cares for one another. The babies are getting so big its killing me!! haha How's work for you? You will have to send me pictures of Kylee's room when it is finished! So I bought Kylee a cute birthday gift so I will have to send it next Monday and hopefully it gets there in time for that day!! (by the way....how much money do I have in my account?) I have a sick feeling that its dwindling away.......yuck. I think of all that hard work at the cafe and its all gone! I'm going to be broke when I get home.

 

When is homecoming? Thats so cute! I'm so excited for her:) more pictures for you to send me! woo! Has she had a home volleyball game yet? I still cant believe she is a senior....

 

I got an wedding invitation from my roommate Alex! They look so beautiful! I'm so happy for them.  They got married this past weekend in the Manti Temple! So weird that everyone is getting married.

 

Last week was a pretty good week! We go every week to read the Book of Mormon with this lady named Dorothy. She pretty old so she has a hard time reading so we help her. She had a cat named Homie who she just loves so much. (Sister Edwards doesn't like cats) It reminds me of meow meow! When I told Sister Edwards that our cats name was that she died laughing. She thought it was pretty funny.

 

 We had a really cool lesson with an investigator named Marissa. She is attending UTA up here and its her first year. She walked in last Sunday and was like "hi, I'm investigating the church!" haha Pretty awesome. So we had our first lesson with her last week and it was probably one of the coolest lessons I have ever had on my mission. We were going about teaching her the principles of the first lesson. But when I quoted the first vision, the whole room became silent and the spirit was sooooo strong. I got goose bumps and began to cry. What Joseph Smith saw that day became so real to me. At that moment I knew with out a doubt that I could not deny what I had felt.  It's true. ..... Joseph Smith was a prophet of God who restored such precious truths back together. SO AWESOME! Then after we invited Marissa to pray.  She was a little hesitant at first but when she finally gave in it was so spiritual.  That prayer was from her heart. And when she finished she proclaimed "wow!" me and Sister Edwards looked at one another and just smiled really big. then she said "I have never felt like this before." It so awesome how the Holy Ghost can reach out and touch people's hearts like that. I'm so thankful for the Holy Ghost in my life. Its moments like that when I know that this is where my Heavenly Father wants me. As a missionary, a servant, a disciple. I love serving the Lord. He is my master. I want him to smile at me and say "good and faithful servant".   HOW GREAT IS MY CALLING! :)

 I love ya'll so much. I'm thankful for the support and prayers. I feel them in my work. Thank you for the great example and the love. I just encourage you guys to continue to read your scriptures and pray with and open heart and real intent. Reach out to others in need and act on the promptings god gives you. Another thing that I think would be cool is if you guys started going through the lessons that missionaries teach! It might be a really cool experience and (might get Kylee excited to serve a mission!)

 

Next week Elder Anderson is coming to speak to the Fort Worth and Dallas missions! I;m sooooo excited! I've never met a general authority before so I'm pretty stoked! :) :)

Hugs and Kisses!

-Sister Porter

 

Ps. Remember that watch that Stacey gave me? the black one? Could you maybe find that....and send it to me? Mine has broken.  I can go get it fixed but I need another watch! and All the missionaries have lots of watches.  Sorry if it is a burden on you. 

 

PSS. We were doing less active work the other day and we went to go see this guy named Marshall Kelly. When we walked up to the door I got this weird feeling and I turned to my companion and said "I've been here before!" we walked in and sure enough it was that lady that had all those bears in her house!!!! so funny that I remembered that!  (Sister Baldwin)

 

 

Sister Day and I.  She is soooo good to the missionaries!

 

Love this place!

Score----health food and pedicures!

Family!

Oh my goodness.....I can't believe Bishop Pepper called ya'll last night!!!! Sister Pepper was like
.....who are you calling??? (because it was on speaker.) and then dad answers!! They began talking while I began crying!! I couldn't help but just tear up. Not hearing his voice for four months and then to just spontaneously hear him was so emotionally crazy! I'm glad Dustin liked his shirt! When I saw it I was like I HAVE TO GET THAT FOR D! haha It also made me cry when dad told me that you guys miss "Your Missionary" it feels good that I am ya'lls missionary :) and that there is so much support back home. LOVE YOU GUYS.

 

Texas is wonderful! the work has been .....a bit slow. Being in the YSA for three transfers (four and half months) is kind of a long time. We saw a day of blessing yesterday though. It was a bit of a frustrating week this week.  We didn't have a whole lot of people to work with, no referrals and no one feeding us. During my personal study one morning I read a scripture in D&C that talked about having patience during hard times and remembering that the Lord is on our side. I suddenly dropped to my knees and asked the Lord to give me the patience I needed at that time. As I ended a warm reassurance confirmed to me that everything was going to be okay. I proclaimed to Sister Edwards "The Lord is with us until the very end!" She was excited about my enthusiasm and we began to make goals on how we can be more patient. Yesterday the blessings poured over us from heaven. We arrived at church and bumped into 2 girls who were investigating the church. SCORE. We got involved in our search and rescue committee and are trying to get the priests and laurels that attend the missionary prep class to come out and help us work with less actives. CHECK. And two people gave us referrals of people we can go see. GOLDEN :) The Lords tender mercies are not random. That which is important to me is important to the Lord. I love him and he loves me and knew what I was in need of.

 

I love Sister Edwards! :) She is awesome! We get along just great! I think I have convinced her into coming up to BYU-I haha. 

 

I love the power in the restoration to help fully see our potential. The restoration gives such clarity to the purpose of life and our need for a Savior. It helps us see our true nature which gives us a vision of who we can be and who God wants us to become. He wants us to be "joint-heirs with Christ" and to be "glorified together" with Him and our Savior. (Romans 8:16-17).

What better message to share with the world than this. That God lives, Jesus is the Christ and all truth of the gospel have been restored to the earth. Missionary life rocks! Love and miss ya'll! 

 

-Sister Porter

Ps. Taylor Jensen remember him my friend? he is coming home from his mission because he is sick :( keep him in your prayers.

 

Pss. Look at how much fruit and veggies we got! haha rocking the healthy life style:)

Psss. Sister Day is taking us out to get pedicures today! :) super excited!

 

 

Bishop and Sister Pepper.  Love these guys!

It is better to look up!

HOLA! :)

I'm sooo happy that Kylee did volleyball. She wont regret it. It will make things so different and she won't look back thinking "man, I wish I would have done volleyball."

 

I can't believe she is going to be a Senior! that makes me so excited for her. But so sad because time is flying!!  Makes me feel old...haha

 

How is work? Still the same? The work here is awesome!! I feel bad because nothing really new or too exciting has happened.....Im loving Sister Edwards. We are getting along a lot more know that we have gotten to know one another. We actaully have a lot in common. So our teaching has been really great. The spirit is so strong and so amazing.

 

Nephi 2:27:

"Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself."

I think sometimes we read  this scripture and quickly conclude that it is only talking about choosing righteousness over sin. It is true that this scripture is teaching that principle but if we look at a fuller meaning of this scipture we see that it is also teaching us that when we choose to listen to the dark thoughts of the adversary, such as discuragement, fear, self doubt..... we are choosing "captivity" over "freedom" which makes us miserable like the father of all lies.

In times of discouragement we must look to God and live! I love the personal experience shared by Elder Carl B. Cook of the Quorum of the Seventy. This experience states perfectly how I feel about this subject. Quoting from his October 2011 conference address:

"At the end of a particularly tiring day toward the end of my first week as a General Authority, my briefcase was overloaded and my mind was preoccupied with the question “How can I possibly do this?” I left the office of the Seventy and entered the elevator of the Church Administration Building. As the elevator descended, my head was down and I stared blankly at the floor.

The door opened and someone entered, but I didn’t look up. As the door closed, I heard someone ask, “What are you looking at down there?” I recognized that voice—it was President Thomas S. Monson.

I quickly looked up and responded, “Oh, nothing.” (I’m sure that clever response inspired confidence in my abilities!)

But he had seen my subdued countenance and my heavy briefcase. He smiled and lovingly suggested, while pointing heavenward, “It is better to look up!” As we traveled down one more level, he cheerfully explained that he was on his way to the temple. When he bid me farewell, his parting glance spoke again to my heart, “Now, remember, it is better to look up.”

As we parted, the words of a scripture came to mind: “Believe in God; believe that he is … ; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth.” As I thought of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ’s power, my heart found the comfort I had sought in vain from the floor of that descending elevator."

New Companion--------New Boots!

 

JENNY IS ENGAGED!!! ahhh oh my goodness I'm soo very happy for her :):)  That's sooo exciting! She better send me an announcement! ;) I got Hannah's announcement!!  So nice that they thought about sending me one. I LOVE getting pictures so keep sending me some of all of you doing stuff because I love it. The babies are getting so big! How's Bailee doing? She getting big? and YES I got their package. soo cute loved it. lots of fun stickers on it. I will send them a letter telling them thank you!

 

The babies are wearing the t-shirts I gave them!! awwww:) soo cute. Jealous that you guys are doing lots of four wheeling! that was the one things I really wanted to do before I left!! ha! But it sounds like ya'll are having fun. I'm so excited for Kylee to be starting her senior year! what a blast!! Tell her to keep up the hard work! I'm so proud of her.

 

Thank you for all the talks you have sent me! and the face wash stuff it really has been helping! You are such a good mommy taking care of me :) I wasn't allowed to go to Logan's wedding! :( ah it killed me because their reception was down the street from where we were working! haha But everyone told me it was good! so I'm happy for them!

 

My new companion is great! Her name is sister Edwards .She is from Farmington, Utah! She was serving in Kileen (where sister Earl is now) before she came here.  Kileen is like tiny town down by Austin-----so Arlington is a lot different for her! The last couple of days have been a little hard just because our missionary work is a lot different from each other. But we have been praying together and working hard to work in harmony! I'm excited because I know she was sent here for a reason and I think shes just the missionary to give us the push we need because the work has been a little slow lately.

 

We have a baptism this week! :) Her name is Emily Williams. She is so darn cute and I'm sooo excited for her. Her boyfriend is a member and her referred us to her about two months ago. So we have been working with her for a while. She had a really hard time with accepting the fact that only men could have the priesthood. But she knows that the church is true and that accepting that will come in time. Especially when she receives the gift of the holy ghost.

 

Their is a talent show tonight for FHE. There is another set of missionaries in the YSA ward who are elders and all of us are going to be doing something.....we don't know what yet but I will let you know how it goes. haha

 

I gave a training in Zone Conference this past Friday on how to have effective study. So I came up with things for each letter of STUDY to talk about.

S: Spiritual knowledge. If we don't know our stuff how are we going to teach our investigators? In D&C 11: 21 its says that we must seek not to declare his word but first seek to obtain his word. And it so important that we study so that when we are teaching someone that we can teach by the spirit and not by what we are trying to put together in our head.

T: Time bound. We have to I mean HAVE TO use our time wisely. If we take all of our time just reading the scriptures we will forget the importance of the spirit. But if We STOP and LISTEN we will be able to listen to the spirit more. It will testify of the truthfulness unto us and we may be inspired to read something that will help us with a situation.

U: Understand and Apply. If we understand what we are reading and studying, we will more easily be able to apply it into our lives. And once we have applied it into our lives we can be passionate when we share the gospel with others around us. We will understand more fully gods plan for us and help others follow that plan as well.

D: Desire of our hearts: I cant remember off the top of my head what scripture I used for this but it talks about if this be the desires of our heart then the mysteries of god will be unfolded unto us. If we desire to work hard and study we will know the truth of all things!! and we will be able to become the very best missionaries that god would want us to be :)

Y: YOLO! You only live your mission once so don't miss out on the blessing! work hard EVERYDAY and the lord will bless you :)

 

I love y'all a lot! Pray for you every night. I know that our Savior lives and that he loves us. He sacrificed so much for us so that we could all return to our Father in Heaven. I know how much we all want that so its our responsibility to be disciples of Christ and serve him with all our heart might mind and strength!! :)

 

-Sister Porter
Ps. Aren't my boots just sooo cute! :) Sister Edwards is a little jealous ;) haha

I went to see the Temple (Dallas Temple)

  

 

Hello! okay so my P days are on Mondays. Our new mission president is now letting us attend the temple if we are 45 minutes away. But if that week we do attend the temple we have to change our P day (on Mondays) to a different day. So last week we switched it to Tuesday and that's why I emailed you that day :)  The Dallas temple was so wonderful!!! :) and they have a new video! Have you seen it yet?  Its so ..updated haha  Its kind of weird! But I really liked eve's role in it! They made her seem so courageous and awesome it was cool:)

 

P days are fun! I love them:) We wake up, do our laundry, clean the apartment, do studies until ten. Come and email our families! ;) Then we can do whatever! we go play volleyball and basketball with all the other missionaries sometimes, sometimes we go play tennis (I'm not very good) with Brother Carrol and his wife. ( we love them they are so awesome!) We go shopping at the mall ....except Im so poor :( we nap, write letters all of the above. It fun I like it :)

 

We exercise every morning. We go for a run around our apartment complex for thirty minutes. The sister missionaries get $125 dollars a month I think. But I have had to use my money from my savings a lot because we have to stop to get food sometimes or I need more socks or just random stuff like that. OH I'm buying some boots! :) haha I figured I had to get some real cow boy boots in Texas! And all the missionaries get them while they are here! I should get them today so I'll take a picture and send it to you next week! haha   MOTHER:) I love my mission. I wouldn't ever take this back. I do miss y'all sometimes but other than that I love it. I know the Lord is on my side and that he and the ward are taking good care of me! No more bed bugs! Super happy about that.

 

That makes me really sad inside that family was that way towards dad :( Tell him that I love him again for that day when he stood by my side. That was a hard day for me and when dad knelt down and offered a prayer I felt the spirit so strongly. He was such an example to me and I realized how important it was to turn to the Lord. In John 15:13 it says "greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."   The  Savior loves me so much that he was willing to pay the price. He knew I was going to make that mistake and that I needed his help. I'm so thankful for the atonement in my life. I love my heavenly father and my earthly one too :)

 

This past week was great! :) The coolest thing happened!!! So one of our investigators, Emily Williams, texted us one night and was like "Hello?" haha so we replied "Hello?, what's up?" Sister Earl joked around and was like, she's gonna text us and say I WANNA BE BAPTIZED! So finally when she texted back I opened up the message and just start laughing! she said "maybe I can be baptized next Saturday?" ...WHAT! We start jumping up and down! So happy:) we met her two weeks after I got here so we have been working with her for a while. She so ready its awesome:)

 

TRANSFER CALLS!!! Sister Earl is going to Kileen!!!! That like three hours south from here! She going to the middle of no where! hahah :) But I'm so excited for her she has been here in Arlington for six months! I'm getting a new companion on Wednesday! Her name is Sister Edwards! She has been on a mission for about six months....and that's all I know about her. haha Super Excited I'll let you know how she is! :)

 

I love you guys a lot! Hope ya'll are having a good summer! can you believe its already August? KYLEE is going to be a senior! wooo! So crazy! SO.......Logan and Margret are getting married on Saturday! its so weird. But I'm so excited for them! They were like so.....can we sign up to feed you Saturday night and you can come get some food at the reception? haha......so funny. Is Seth coming down to the wedding? How's Emily Chen doing? I think about her ALL THE TIME! I'm sooo very happy for her. That's just such a cool story. So Kylee's not doing volleyball then? That's really cool that she is like head person at the day care. Tell her she needs to write me back! Courtney wrote me! Happy day. I hope my testimony will spark a light inside of her. Now that I'm out her on a mission it makes me sad that I didn't do anything to help my best friend out :( The gospel could bless her life more than anything in this world! And I told Amanda that when I get back I'm going to convert Andy when I get home! haha :)

 

How work for you? for dad? are you ready for school to start again? I told sister Earl that I missed playing DK with you and she thought that was funny :)

 

Love the gospel. Just feel so blessed to have it in my life. On Thursday we were teaching this guy about the restoration and his parents came out and started bashing with us. We just sat there while they said all these horrible and rude things about the church in front of our face! Once we got in the car and left I just started crying. I felt so hurt. I couldn't believe that someone would say that about who I was in front of my face. I cried and cried and Sister Earl pointed out something that really opened up my eyes. she was like "this was probably how Christ felt all the time. People spit in his face and mocked him for the things he taught. I love my Savior. He did so much for me. Heavenly Father loves his children so much its beyond what I can comprehend. Sharing the gospel is something we must do. God wants us to be in his service and the instruments in his hands. Share the word!

 

Love you! :) with all my heart. -Sister Porter

I Love to See the Temple

Family!

Sorry I didn't have the chance to really email you last week! I didn't have much time! But now I have twenty minutes so we will see how much I can write ;)

 

The sun has bleached the top of my head red and blonde! It is so funny. Everyone keeps calling me the little mermaid. We went to lunch with Sarah a couple of days ago. me and her got to catch up on life! It was really nice to see her. She said the funniest thing! I asked her if when we were younger if she knew I was Mormon.  She said one time she went home and was like "MOM, Samantha Porter's family has so much food! hahahaha they have the biggest pantry I have ever seen with everything in bulk." Me and Sister Earl died laying. Her mom said "Yes its because they are Mormon." haha 

 

I got cute little letters from some of the primary kids! I love them:) For district meeting Elder Daniel ( our district leader) had a deers head sitting on a chair and for an activity we had to rope it! AND I won! I roped it the most. Everyone kept saying that's not fair she is from Texas! ....psh. I don't even know how to hold the rope properly. 

 

I went on exchanges this weekend! I got put in Keller for two days serving with Sister Earl's trainer Sister Tullis. Keller is BEAUTIFUL! There is no such thing as little there.  Every single house was HUGE! I guess everything in Texas really is bigger ;) It was fun to work with different people. I think I am allergic to fish...... like seriously! We had some at this family's house when I was on exchange and I felt SOOOO sick after I ate it!

 

LOGAN IS GETTING MARRIED NEXXT WEEK! oh my goodness that is soo weird.  The whole ward is super excited for him and Margaret:) He calls me mafus every time he sees me and I just love it :) MISSING YA"LL

 

I cant believe that Emily wants to be baptized! When I read that, I got the chills!! I want to teach her! :) haha That's just so amazing. What a blessing to see her faith. Missionary work is so crucial! I invite you all to reach out to others who are in need of the gospel!  It doesn't hurt to share and you never know! I think about all the blessing in my life and how that could be apart of someone else's as well. And when Emily meets with the missionaries her testimony will grow! She will feel her Savior's love increase and she will gain a more understanding of Heavenly Father's plan for her.

 

I love to see the temple. I'm going there TODAY.  To feel the holy spirit, to listen and to pray!

We switched our P-Day to today because we will be attending the Dallas Temple today! Our new mission president changed the rules about the temple and now if your with in 45 minutes of the temple and you can find a ward member to take you, you can go every three months! :) I'm so excited. The Carols are taking us (LOVE THEM) I can't wait.

 

Love ya'll lots! keep me updated on life in Spanish Fark! Is anyone coming down for Logan's wedding?

 

 -Sister Porter

 

PS. That is Jessie.  He is 6'7"!! We are working with him right now. He got baptized in New york when he was 12 years old but has not been to church since. He is so funny. He thought I was 27!! .....Do I look 27????........

LOTS OF LOVE.

 

PSS. This is the last week of transfers! I can't believe I have already been here for three months....so crazy.  Me and Sister Earl have a feeling that she is going to be leaving :( So I probably will get a new companion next week so I'll keep you posted! I might be training too!!

 

PSSS. I LOVE YOU mommy for being so concerned about me. I'm doing great though! If I need anything I will let you know :) But I'm just so thankful to have such a supportive family back home. its so amazing. Oh and you know  Sister Alverez (last name)? She knew you when I was just a little baby! She is a sweet heart! she has sent me two care packages with tons of stuff in them!!! I sent her a thank you letter but give her my thanks again!