BYU vs BYU Idaho? Do Be or Not To Be. That is the question

Okay.... thank you for calling the schools and getting that information for me. The last thing is if I do end up going back up to Idaho I need to let them know that I'm a return missionary so that they will switch my track to winter spring so that I can do straight school for that year. But ah...what do you think I should do?? I just really cant decide. I know heavenly father wants me to go to BYU Provo ...I know that for sure. But I just don't know when. I know its the smartest thing to get my associates finished at BYU-Idaho so that whole year doesn't go to waste. I guess here are my reasons for both

BYU-Idaho                                                               BYU-Provo

Already familiar with the school                         be closer to family

love how small it is                                   easier job lined up with dad or pizza

Love the online program that we use                 Lots of friends are in utah

can play volleyball                                       Feel like I need to be there...

Have friends up there                                Can go to sport games

Smart to finish up there

haha I guess I just need some advice.

OKAY enough about school. This week was awesome I loved it :)  we went on exchanges with our sisters in Fort Worth. I went to Fort Worth and Sister Heap stayed here. The sister that I was with does photography so it was fun to talk to her about it for a little bit. I miss it so much! can't wait to pick up that camera again and snap some pictures!

We had zone training this past week as well and I lead the missionaries in a role play where we practiced testifying of each other and better transitions within teaching. it was fun.

We are helping a lady in our ward teach the temple prep class to a recent convert. Its amazing to watch him learn and prepare himself to enter the temple! he is soooo excited! He is 70 years old and lives on a beautiful lake. haha while I was teaching him and helped him connect the dots between the work we do in the temple and the work being done in the spirit world and was like "I CANT THINK ABOUT ANYTHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN THIS! most important work in the world!" haha it was too funny. But so neat to see him get so excited about this work. If only everyone saw it like he did! :)

Last night we were driving home from a mission president fireside in Hurst with one of our members and the sky was just bursting into light with all the lightning. Right when we got home a thunder storm began. Oh I love it! :) made me think of when we were little.

I have a little paper star glued on the back of my name tag that says "Great and Noble one."  I just love that phrase. We truly are great and noble ones. We as members of the church have an important work to do. Many are called and few are chosen. why are they chosen? In D&C 121 it says we are chosen because of our righteous desires.  36 That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness. And it says we must have love unfeigned. Wdoes that mean? well....feigned means fake so to have love unfeigned it to have true or real love. Do we have real love for those we serve? do we have real love for our Savior?

oh ps I cant believe steph had the baby!!  She is so precious!! oh I just wanna hold her! so cute that they are calling her penny :) tell her congrats!!

 

Pictures wouldn't be saved properly----Sorry

Just Do IT!

Family

 

Lindsay Heap is my companion! :) She did mention that she had lots of family is Arizona...that's too funny. Do you remember who it was?
 

Sounds like Kylee has experienced some crazy stuff while Ive been out on my mission.....four wheeler accident, dads surgery, Watched a man die at the derby, and now this......poor girl. haha she has seen a lot. It truly is amazing that we have the gospel. what would we do with out it? Life would be purposeless. 
 

Found out that one of my roommates came home early from her mission due to medical issues. Makes me so sad :( Im am soooo lucky to have been so blessed with good health. I know .....with out a doubt that the Lord is with me. He will always keep us strong.
 

This week was just FULL of meetings!! Me, sister heap, and the Zone leaders had to plan out our Zone conference for Thursday ...which ended up being pretty good I might say ;) and then Friday we had to drive up to colleyville for the leadership meeting with President Ames SO for zone conference I gave a training on Finding faith to FIND. My theme was the Niki logo, JUST DO IT! :) I talked about how God promises us power if we have faith in Christ. And faith is in action word ....so we have to do something about it! The definition of insanity is Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.  Sometimes we have to step outside of our comfort zone and be willing to act upon our faith. STEP away from our "thrones" that we sit upon.
 

After my training me, sister Heap, and sister Alldrege did a special musical number. It was really cool though. We brought a table a chairs to the front and did the "cup song" (If you don't know what that is ask kylee) with a unique version of there is a green hill far away. It was sooo pretty and so different everyone loved it! President Ames stood up and said give them a round of applause! everyone was cheering haha it was awesome.  Sister Ames I think recorded it and put it on our facebook page. You should check it out. I don't have the link...but just try searching fort worth Texas...I bet you'll find it. I think you would enjoy the page she puts a lot of pictures and writes about what we are doing as a mission.
 

Then at the end of the other meeting I went to President Ames told everyone that was leaving in two weeks to stand up. After they all were standing he began to cry and told us to clap for all the hard work that they have given to the mission. We began to clap so loud it was amazing we all were just crying and crying. Its amazing the work that we render. The sacrifice we offer as missionaries. We truly are doing the greatest work of all!! there was so much power in that. AH its just so amazing I cant explain the feelings of it. I love being a missionary.
 

Me and Sister Heap bore our testimonies yesterday....we both felt inspired to talk about eternal families. I talked about an experience I had a couple weeks ago in a meeting where I could have sworn I saw y'all sitting there in front of me. I began to cry and reach out for y'all. A mission is bitter sweet. You dont realize how much you love something until its gone. And then I talked about how it will be like that when we loose a loved one. BUT as I know right now that I will see you again so soon, we will all reunite once more in heaven dressed in white ready and called to the work. Do you feel the reality of Eternal families? ......It is SO real. I know that i will be with my family again. The spirit has pressed that into my soul and has witnessed to me. LOVE YOU>
 

love Sister Porter
 

ps. okay....so I'm freaking out a little about whats going to happen when I get home. So for some reason I keep feeling like I need to go to BYU provo......I have prayed about it a lot. Don't think I have gotten an answer yet.....But I don't know what to do....But ...is it too late to apply for the BYU? I think I might have waited too long to act! What do I do? I just....wish I could talk to you about it on the phone. Tell you all the reasons why I want to go to Idaho and all the reasons why I want to go to Provo. My biggest concern is that I need to figure it out soon because I need to start registering and putting money down on an apartment!  Oh it really just makes me sick thinking about it. I feel like I waited too long to start talking about it. WHAT DO I DO?

Faith is a Principle of Power

Family,

 

I want to start this letter with something I found the other night in my journal. This is so amazing touched my heart. As you know I just finished training Sister Nielsen. And before I left her she wrote this in my journal.  

 

Three months ago 

A gardener I know 

Chose a servant and gave her a seed

she felt unprepared

But the gardener knows all things indeed

 

Samantha, he said

Please go to the bed

And bury this deep in the ground

With patience and love 

With guidance above

Please help the seed grow all around

 

Its special, he said

Its got a hard head

But your patience is what it will take

 and sammy I know 

That this seed a great servant will make

 

With small seed in hand 

The garden spot planned

The servant worked all day and night

But the seed didn't nudge

The shell wouldn't budge

And the servant just couldn't find light

 

"What do I do?" 

The servant withdrew

She hung her head low and cried

Her tears met the dirt

The seed gave a spurt

Its shell with her tears had died

 

"Sister" it said 

Stop hanging your head

And look how much you have done

my roots are real strong 

My stem is so long

I cant wait to see what I become. 

 

      She then put a picture of a rose in the crack of my journal and wrote on the back of it 

"This is what I plan to become. Gonna be great all thanks to you!" 

 

When I read and saw this I just began to bawl. I love the gospel. I have seen it take affect in so many peoples lives. I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to train sister Nielsen. She is such a beautiful and strong missionary. 

 

This week was awesome!! :) We set a baptism date for august 30th with one of our recent converts sisters Kathy. She said her baptism date was inspired because her birthday is on August 31st! She now goes around to all the ward and tells them that she is getting the best gift on her birthday! THE HOLY GHOST! :) how special. God really prepared her to receive the gospel with an open heart. 

 

We fed a baby goat!! hahahaha. We were eating dinner with a lady in her ward and she seemed really stressed out so we asked what we could do for her so she would be able to relax a little. She thought for a second and then with a big smile told us that we could feed the baby goats!! It was crazy! But know I can say that I have feed a baby goat. The one I fed was nine years old!! I gave it a bottle of juice and then a bottle of milk! It was too funny! loved it :) Sister Heap got goat milk all over her shirt. And we didn't have time to go home and change before out next appointment so....she just had goat milk on her all night. it was pretty funny 

 

We went on exchange with the cleburn sisters this weekend! Sister Heap went there and I brought back to our area sister Vaha'i! so....Sister vahai has been on the mission three weeks ....and she is from Tonga! so she is learning English!! Its was nuts! I didn't realize how hard it would be to explain to someone how to teach the gospel ...in English! BUT what really inspired me was her dedication. Even though it has been really hard for her she really trusted in the Lord and wanted to work hard. And man....her testimony is SO real and strong. She had everyone crying by the end of one of our lessons. LOVE HER :) 

 

I love the gospel with all my heart. This life is nothing compared to what are heavenly father has in store for us. The time to prepare is now. I am giving a training on faith to find in our Zone conference this week and will be talking a lot about how faith is an action word. I found something in PMG that I really liked it said "Faith is a principal of power. God uses his power in response to faith"  We truly can do all things with Faith in Jesus Christ. Then us act! What are some ways we can strengthen our faith? My heart felt warm when I saw the picture of you and mom at the temple. 

 

LOVE YA LOTS! :) 

 

 

 

Peach Festival

 July 21, 2014

Family

Me and Sister Heap were just listening to a talk by Jeffery R. Holland in the car ride here to the library. He was talking to the missionaries in Germany in the year 2002. His words were powerful and exciting! One of my favorite stories that he shared was of one taking place in a gospel essentials class during church. The instructor was teaching them about Christ earthly ministry and atonement. He asked one of the girls who was recently baptized about....a year ago, to stand up from her seat. He then asked her "Who do we know that lived on this earth who is was absolutely perfect?" There was a long pause as she stopped to think. The class looked around waiting for her to reply. Then, with tears in her eyes and a soft voice she says "The missionaries who brought me into the Church." 
The response from this young convert really touched my heart. She recognized these missionaries as true servants and representatives of the Lord. As missionaries we are asked to be consecrated. The will of the Father becomes the will of the missionary. If we are wasting and wearing our lives in the quest of bringing his children unto him we will be seen as a true disciple. 

haha there really is no such things as pioneer day here in texas. But here in Weatherford there is this thing called the Peach Festival. It was nuts! tons of people were there selling random things and of course ....peaches! SO....me and Sister Heap got our truky calls!! and in a couple of weeks we will be getting out truky packages with all of our plane information and stuff. :( I cant believe that time has already come. 
I was able to go on my first exchange as a Sister Trainer Leader this past week! :) It was such an amazing experience! Its exciting to see the miracles that can happen when you have faith! I was able to spend 24 hours in Azle with Sister Powell. Right from the get go we were able to sit down to lay out our goals and expectations for the exchange. It made such a difference to work with those in mind. True purpose. Sister Powell is doing AMAZING. She has such a sweet spirit and a desire to make a change in Sister Larsen's life. 

THANK YOU FOR THE TICKLE ME PICK PACKAGE it really was too cute :) I loved it soo much. And yes you got the right shirt :) thank you. 
I guess ill end with a neat experience! :) While Sister Heap and Sister Larsen were making their way back to Weatherford, they saw a young man, about 19, holding a suitcase and map making his way down the road. Sister Heap got a feeling that she should pull over. They talked with him for a bit and found out that he was going to walk all the way back to Fort Worth!! With immediate shock they called the senior couple, the Algers, in the Azle ward to come get him. They picked him up and invited him to have dinner with them that night before they would give him a ride home. AND it just so happened that they had signed up to have us over for dinner that night as well. We were able to share the restoration with him. He listened with awe as we invited him to learn more. YES YES! please I would love to learn more! :) And it just so happened that he lives in my old area so I was able to give him all the information for the missionaries and the Church. The Lords tender mercies are NOT random! This was no coincidence. The Lord provided a way for the safety and the salvation of this young man! THE GOSPEL IS TRUE! :) :)

 

Love sister Porter 

Sorry sister heap is really fast at emailing and I feel bad making her wait so the emails have been kind of short :/ I will send you pictures next week! love ya

Exact Obedience

July 14, 2014

Howdy

Has there been any good movies that have come out lately? Every time you send me new pictures of those babies they just look bigger and bigger! I seriously cant believe that The roach girl got baptized! I didn't realize she was already that old!

I feel like we are going to have a lot of fun conversations about the mission when we get home :) Yee im excited!

Reading my scriptures everyday has been such a blessing! Literally has changed my life. Me and sister Heap were having a conversation in our beds last night, She asked me what I was most thankful for that I have learned on my mission. It was a hard one....I have truly learned so much......but I told her that it was the gospel. I didn't realize how much of the gospel I really didn't understand before my mission. I have felt so much closer to my savior as I have felt and experience his life as I study the scriptures.

SO I LOVE weather ford sooooo much! :) It is amazing. A lot different than down town fort worth that's for sure....and The work is a bit slower BUT the people are amazing. I love our bishop (bishop bix) It really impressed me when he pulled me and sister Heap aside and said "the only thing I expect from my missionaries is Exact Obedience" I love his dedication and excitement about missionary work! Our ward mission leader and his wife picked me up from transfers. they are just the sweetest :) Something cool that we are doing with a couple of the ward members is making cards each month for a group of less actives in the ward and just writing them little notes telling them how we miss them and care about them. Its been really neat.

We have a couple of potential people that we are working with. Part member families are just perfect. The fruit really is so low! Me and sister Heap get a long really well! We both came out together so its fun to see how far we have come. One night we were talking and we found out that we both have the exact birthday!! :) haha December 26 1993! We like....couldn't sleep for the next hour we were so excited haha. The leadership has been good we go on our first exchange with our sisters this week. Ill be going to the other area though because I don't know our area well enough yet. We go out with the Cleburn, Azle, Chapel Creek and fort worth sisters. I'm excited....Ill let you know how they go. Last night President Ames held a fireside for all of our recent converts, less actives, and investigators. Oh it was soooo good. There is true power when you testify in the name of Jesus Christ.

Sorry that this email is so short im feeling really tired today cant really think straight. But I sure do love my family. Grateful for all that you have done for me.

Love samesa

 

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings!

Family ---July 7, 2014

I cant believe they saw that man die!! that is crazy! :( Did you and dad do anything on the fourth?? haha. its was kind of a sacred day for me this year. Thinking about how significant this day was in order for the Restoration to happen! something to think about. what color did you paint your room? Has it been pretty hot lately? Its getting bad over here! hitting hundreds now! Hello summer :)

I think you and dad cry when you read my letters because you are getting old ;) The spirit touches us it special ways. It is really weird to think I only have four months. It doesn't feel real. I think I'm at that point in my mission where it feels like I hardly have any time left but at the same time it feels forever away!

This last week me and Sister Nielsen weren't able to get a lot of work done because I had so many meetings!! MLC's is the one that all the leaders attend. Oh I loved it! it was for sure my favorite meeting my whole mission :) It was inspiring to see all of us have deep discussions together. This mission is growing and the work is accelerating with speed! :) Its wonderful. It also was really to fun to see all the missionaries that I have served around all my mission be together in a meeting :) The mission is more fun the longer you have been out because your more experienced and you know more missionaries! Sister Earl is going home next transfer! and sister Edwards! :( I cant believe it. Time doesn't exist on the mission.

SO Thursday night we were getting ready for bed when some sisters called us and informed us that they had no where to sleep that night! They drove all the way up for a training meeting that morning and were going to stay in town because the other sister had MLC's the next day. They were going to stay the night with a senior couple in our ward but found out they wouldn't be coming home that night due to some busy work down in killeen. haha SO the AP's had to drive all the way over to our apartment to give them air mattresses to sleep on for the night. It was like a little sleep over :) pretty crazy night.

I got an invitation to stephys baby shower. Where is she having it? oh I'm so excited for her :)

Sorry this email is so short Sister Nielsen finished really fast and I don't want to keep her waiting! here is my new address. 2115 Holly Oaks Ln. Apt # 266 Weatherford Tx, 76087

Im so excited! :) ill let you know how it goes!!

I love you with all my heart! hope you have a great week.

-Sister porter 

Tranferred to Weatherford!

So your probably wondering why I didn't email you on Monday. I totally forgot to email you last week to let you know. We changed our P-day for today  so that we could go to the temple with the senior couple in our ward.  oh, how I love the temple I always learn something new when I go. Its amazing. The gospel is true!

So I have some exciting news!! President Ames called me on Monday and told me I was getting transferred to Weatherford! I don’t have the address because he called me a week early. But the exciting part is that he asked me to be a Sister Trainer Leader!! Ahh im so excited and honored! So me and my new companion, Sister Heap, will help a couple of sister companionships with training and supervising the work. We go on exchanges with them and help president with other kinds of work. Yahoo! And he invited me to the Missionary leadership council on Friday. This is an intense meeting. Im pretty excited. Sad to be leaving my trainee and River Trails but ready to work my very hardest. I told president that I couldn’t promise him that I would be perfect but that I would do my very best! He laughed and told me that Heavenly Father knew I would make a great leader. So ill be transferred next Wednesday.

 Mommy :) SO, my back side is totally fine I promise. Those meds helped it feel sooo much better! IT still oozes but doesn’t hurt to sit on it anymore. I keep it as clean as I can. I shower and clean it good every day and i bought disinfectant wipes to use.  My back has just been hurting me lately because I think I pulled a muscle of something. haha silly me. AND I think I might be allergic to bananas….. maybe? Ive been making myself these smoothie drink in the morning and they made me SO sick. I think it might have been the bananas? I have no idea. Ill have to start eating yogurt every day, see if that helps me.

I’m really excited for Uncle Wyatt. This will be SO great for him. Heavenly father shows us he loves us in the strangest ways sometimes doesn’t he? His tender mercies are not random.  Sad for Sadie. I cant even imagine. I feel like a lot of the girls going out on missions are coming home early. It’s a lot harder than you think. Im so grateful that I have been able to be strong enough to endure!  I didn’t even know Dustin was getting surgery until dad told me it happened last week! Awwww haha poor dusty. What's their new address? I would like to send him a get better card. Hows the summer been? Are y'all doing anything fun for the fourth this week? A member was going to have us over for dinner on the fourth but then they canceled …..so I guess we are spending it alone haha. That’s okay though. Plus the ward social on Saturday is a pool part so we cant go.

 

Nothing too exciting happened this last week. Just a lot of teaching! :) Ill tell you a funny story. So me and sister Nielsen ran out of toilet paper yesterday and today was our p-day so we had to wait until today to get more. So I had to go to the bathroom in between a teaching appointment so we stopped at a gas station. so while I was in the stall I yelled out to sister Nielsen "You better use the bathroom now because it actually has toilet paper!" and we just started laughing because it totally sounded like something someone in the area would say. haha I couldn't believe I said something like that.

I sure do love my family!! I hope that yall have a wonderful week :)

 

love sister porter

pic 1: temple with the watts

pic 2: Little kids we are teaching :) said they wanted to be missionaries

pic 3: We clean this ladies house every week and she LOVE pillow pets (if you dont know what that is ask kylee) So one week we walked in to share a message with her and she had two of them sitting on her lap and told us she wanted to get some for us! it was so sweet of her. I love her with all my heart