Happy Birthday Samantha

Dear Family,

 

I'm sitting in the library, just thinking about how to start this letter. There is just so much to say I don't even know where to begin! What a wonderful week for me and sister Nelson. The rest of our Christmas was truly great :) After I was done talking with yall (which was so awesome! I miss you guys like crazy.....) we made our way over to the Jacobsens to have Christmas dinner. LOTS of yummy food :) and they gave us cute scarfs and candy. After we ate and mingled for a little we spent the rest of the night at sister Riehers house (a less active) playing Joker and opening her gifts for her. haha The rest of that day was kind of hard for me because all I wanted was to be at home playing donkey kong with you guys! :) haha but I'm all better now so its okay.

 

The next day (my birthday) we had interviews with President Ames. He was really sweet to wish me a happy birthday :) But after our interviews and trainings at the church it was just like a regular missionary day! It was actually really nice to just continue serving the Lord!

 

On the weekend we picked up the elders and drove down the Mcgregor to help some members move!! It feels good to get out of the dress for a day and just do some work! :)

 

What did yall do when Seth and Bay got in? Have any fun plans for this week? Just relaxing? I'm SOO excited that Steph is pregnant!!! What wonderful news:) AND yes I got a birthday card from grandma B and M. and from yall! THANK YOU SO MUCH :) I love that card it made me laugh because its so true!! When a missionary gets mail it brightens their whole day!! its wonderful :)

Sorry this email is so short. Next week Ill bring my journal so I can tell you more details from the week :)

LOTS OF LOVE!

 

-Sister Porter

MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRRRRYYYY CCCHHHRRRIIISSTTMMMAASSS!!! :) What a wonderful time of the year!! :) Cant believe it's two days away!! Looks like y'all have already done all the fun stuff ;) We are doing a district meeting on Christmas this year and I am super excitied about so we can see all the other missionaries! Me and sister Nelson are singing a special musical number for it. We combined Oh Come All Ye Faithful and For the Beauty of the Earth. It should be really cool--I'm excitited :) After disrict meeting we are watching a christmas movie and doing a white elephant exchange! Then the Jacobsens are going to have us over for dinner and what not :) It should be a fun day.

 

 This year will be such a different celebration for me. Being away from family and friends is very different for anyone. This week will be very sacred. With not being involved with all the hustle and bustle of christmas I have been able to ponder and study the birth of the Savior. What a wonderful day!! Our Savior was brought into the world so he could teach his people, die for them, and live again so we could have the opportunity to inherit the Kingdom of God!! This is great tidings of joy to my soul! A child is born and his name shall be WONDERFUL, COUNSELOR, THE MIGHT GOD, THE ETERNAL FATHER AND PRINCE OF PEACE :) :) Have a Verry Merry Christmas my dear family. Let us remember the importance of this day and make it special.

 

LOVE Y'ALL! LOVE Sister Porter :)

 

PS. So durning the time that the missionaries will be watching the movie is when we can call. And that will be from NOON until TWO. probabaly around one ish is my guess but that will be when I call :) I am so very excited to hear from me sweet family love and miss you all so much. And no we don't get to skype :( Just a call from our cell phones.

 

That is just so sweet of Dorothy to send that to y'all!! She is the sweetest old lady ever!! We have been seeing her for a while. haha She calls me sweet pea and sister tuck jelly bean its so cute :) I guess she will have to come up with a nickname for sister nelson :)

 

 

 

An unexpected Christmas Card

This past week we received this letter  in a Christmas card from a Dorothy  Brown from Lorena, Texas:

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Porter,

My name is Dorothy Brown---I am a 69 year old great grandmother who lives in Lorena, Texas.  Over the years, as a parent, I have wondered how other adults perceived my children---if they remembered their manners--if they were respectful---things like that.  That is why I am writing.  I have met your daughter and she is a ray of sunshine!  She and her co-worker have been in my home several times.  They've had dinner with me once.  And hopefully will again.  She has been loving and very kind.  I also see an inner strength in her that she may not recognize yet.  I enjoy both the girls whenever they come and will do my best to help if she ever needs it.  I do have a confession--I have nicknamed your daughter Sweet Pea.  Thank you for sharing her with me.  Dorothy Brown.

December 16, 2013 New Companion

HELLO FAMILY!!

 

I wanted to start off this letter by just letting y'all know  how much I appreciate and love you guys! Just been thinking about all of you a lot these past week with Christmas coming up and what not. I sent a Christmas package so keep your eye out for it :) How have things been going at the porters resident?? My understanding is that Loir Gray and Kodi came up to drop Kodi off at the MTC? How fun. Are they staying after she leaves or going home?? So exciting for her :) OKAY so......I might have seen a commercial for a movie called FROZEN! OH goodness It looks so cute and wonderful!! Are y'all seeing that for Christmas eve?? Man do I wanna see it! looks so good :) you will have to tell me how it is. Ive heard its pretty dang good.

 

So I might have reunited with an old high school buddy!! My new companion, Sister Nelson, went to jr high and high school with me!! How crazy is that! And she was just serving in the Mansfield ward.....what a small world. But I love her so much we get along very well and the work has been great!!

 

One thing that me and sister nelson have set as some goals for this transfer was to whenever we became stressed or discouraged we would drop what we were doing and go find someone to help! "Forget ourselves and go to work" is this not something god wanted to do while here on this earth? He wanted us to serve our brothers and sister. With out one another I don't know if we could pass this test. Its like a volleyball game, with out the passer the ball wouldn't be given to the setter to set a spike, and without the setter there would be no set for the outside hitter or middle blocker to smash the ball on the other court. With out the server the game wouldn't start. We all need one another to full fill our purposes here on earth. And god is like the referee, he makes the calls and tells us weather we are doing something wrong or not. He keeps order and peace on the "court" or earth. SO even here on missions I think about how this concept is so important. Investigators not only need us to bring them the gospel but we NEED THEM to come help us. WE ALL NEED ONE ANOTHER to build up our fathers kingdom! So thank you for being apart of my progression in this life. I need my family to help build my testimony in this gospel and become the person I am today!!  So remember we may think that others need us to bring them the gospel but in reality we need them to help us return to live with god again. What a wonderful gift from god.

 

I had the opportunity to watch the Christmas devotional last Sunday and I loved \rose Mary Nixon's talk. She was telling the story of Christ's birth to some young boys at a boy scouts retreat. Then one of the boys with wide eyed curiosity looked at her and asked "what happened next?" She then went on to explain the saviors life and all the he did. He then again said "what happened next?" she talked about his great sacrifice for us and how he rose three days later and lived!  He then looked at her with tears in his eyes and asked once more "WHAT HAPPENS NEXT." .....What does happen next?? Our life here on earth. We are a gift from god and THAT is what happens next :) us wanting to return to live with him again :) what a wonderful message. let us keep the spirit of Christ in our heart this Christmas season.

LOTS OF LOVE!! :) sorry...no pics this week I forgot my camera :(

-Sister Porter

 

December 6, 2013 Babe it is cold outside

 

 

 

HAPPY 2nd WEEK OF DECEMBER! :) Y'all getting excited for Christmas yet?? Everything is happening so fast!! Kylee is half way through her senior year......she's rocking the basketball court!! (tell that girl I haven't heard from her in a while and that I miss her) Kodi goes into the MTC next week!! so so exciting :) Seth and Bay had a baby, And Christmas is right around the corner.......kind of makes me sad to think how fast the time is going :( Sounds like the missionary work in the ward is progressing like crazy!! That is some pretty great news! How's work? When do you get out for Christmas break?

 

Okay you probably already know BUT......It was freezing cold this past week!! Oh it was awful! the Texas cold is a lot worse than the Utah cold!! the humidity bits through your skin!! sssoooooo crazy!

So here is a more intense outline of me and sister tucks "typical" week of MISSIONARY adventure! :)

           MONDAY: this day is P day :) its a lovely day that we wake up and do the regular routine. Work out, get ready eat breakfast and study for two hours, One is personal where I get to study my scriptures and all that fun stuff. And one is companion where we get together and figure out different things that we will be teaching that day and what not. FUN STUFF! Then we get all of our laundry together and take it over to a members house to do. (super nice so we don't have to pay for it)  we have a car and I am currently designated driver. Then we pick up the elders and go to the library to email our president and our families and friends! :) After we wash the car and do some grocery shopping! Then we have the rest of the time (our p day is from 10-6) to do whatever. Clean the apartment, write letters, nap (I like that one) or sometimes we go to P-Day activity which involves all the missionaries in our area getting together and playing volleyball, basketball or card games. haha We love it. Then that night we shared some scriptures with a lady named Deloris. She is super sweet. Every Monday night at eight we go to sister Riehers house (a less active) to share a message and play Joker. its kind of like sorry. But I love it I'm actually pretty good! ;)

 

TUESDAY: This day we usually go to district meeting. We pick up the elders and drive to the stake center where all the missionaries in the area will meet for their district meeting. I love this meeting :) I learn so much and its fun to be with all of the elders! Then we all go to lunch afterwards. We had dinner with some members, knocked some doors and ended the night with an awesome lesson with our investigators Aylinn. She is so funny. She loves the show dr. who. Never have heard of it but it sounds like its pretty big. PS. it was around 80 degrees this day! Texas is really bipolar.

 

WEDNESDAY: An older lady named Mildred had us over for lunch today. She fed us a thanksgiving feast!! I was so full after I could barely walk back to our car. Then we drove out to Mcgregor (about 30 mins away) to help a member clean up her house. She's getting ready to move so they need to help getting things in order! Okay so....she has two baby kittens that are just too cute!! Maybe when I get home we can convince dad in getting another baby kitty.......we will see.

 

THURSDAY: Thursdays are kind of long for me. We are in the apartment for a long time planning everything for the next week. I love being outside working not in the apartment lounging around....feels weird. BUT it has to be done in order to have a successful week! There is a lot of planning and organizing that goes into missionary work. I would have never guessed....So when we finished planning, we got ready to go out and work. BUT once we stepped outside we ran right back in crying of pain because it was so cold!! Time to rack out the tights, boots, scarfs, and jackets!! Finally after we got all together we went out and knocked some doors. and MAN was it just so miserable! We would be out for about.... 15 mins and have to run back to the car and warm back up! Poor elders on bikes.....so thankful for the car.

 

FRIDAY: Today was when Sister Barton had to come rescue us! We had an appointment with Ricardo at the new church building at ten. And we asked her to come help teach and so we were planning on just meeting her there. BUT to our surprise, everything was totally iced over! We couldn't even get into our car. And we had nothing to scrap it all of with. SO......Sister Tuck grabbed a metal spoon and I grabbed one of our frying pans and we went to work!! Didn't get to far before Jill pulled up and saved us!! Love that women :) She offered her house to teach the lesson and it was wonderful :) After we did some less active work around the area and then headed to down town Waco to have dinner with Erica and Charels Bolden! We love them lots :) she is so funny makes me laugh so hard.  Anyway, then we headed to bruiseville to work for the night. We picked up Morgan a young women in the ward so that she could help us teach. John and his family are some people we are seeing. We taught the first lesson to them and it was sooo cool the way they interacted! There was a part though when sister tuck was telling them about joseph smith when me and morgan happen to see a mouse run across the room!! YUCK!! oh I was going to barf. We both looked at each other and started freaking out. haha.

 

SATURDAY: Today we went and helped Sister Rieher set up Christmas decorations. Makes me all excited for the holidays. After we went to the church and helped clean the nursery toys. Even inside the church it was freezing! There was this little piano toy that played a couple of songs.....so while we would clean we would listen to them over and over again haha :) we missionaries can entertain ourselves so easily.....

 

SUNDAY: CHURCH WAS CANCLED TODAY!! soooooo weird not to have church as a missionary. We were shocked ....didn't know what to do!! the roads were so bad we had to stay inside for most of the day. SO BORING!! but we didn't have time to make our ginger bread houses so that was fun! :) Every night after me and sister Tuck plan for the next day, we get in our pjs and read our Christmas story for the night! I love it :)

 

Transfers are this week!! Sister Tuck is leaving :( I understand though she has been here in Waco her whole mission! Crazy. My new comps name is Sister Nelson......Exciting! Hope everything goes well I will have to let you know how it goes!

 

Thank you for all the love! I feel it daily! I love you all more than you can imagine! Hope you have a wonderful week :)

 

-Sister Porter

 

December 2, 2013 The Work of Salvation

I hope this email finds my wonderful family doing awesome! :) Sounds like Thanksgiving was a good turn out this year. Makes me happy to hear y'all having good times! Thanksgiving here was just as any other normal missionary day!! The Jacobsens in our ward had us over which was very sweet of them. They had some family over and feed us lots of yummy food! It cool to see how other families celebrate their holidays together! After we finsihed they all went out to play volleyabll......We unfortentually couldn't play with :( Sad day for Sister Porter. BUT that is alright :) It was a wonderful day of missionary work! Actually my mission president said something to us in our zone conference that I really liked he stated that it is not missionary work, its the WORK OF SALVATION! I loved that :)

 

Let us give thanksgiving daily. We don't need to wait all year for thankgiving to roll around so that we can be thankful for what we have on that day. We should be thankful for what we have EVERY DAY :) We should seek for our blessing by doing good and then stepping back and looking at the bigger picture. What has Heavenly Father blessed me with today? How can I still seek his blessing and then being appreciative of them? Thank you, for being such an amazing family. Family truly is the most important social unit for time and all eternity and god has placed us in our families for a special reason. I know that reason I was placed in my family was because he knew that with us being together we could strengthen one another and come closer to him. Thankful we can all live together forever! I guess I love you guys that much that I would live with you forever ;)

 

I want to be a better cook! mother....me and you are gonna be doing a lot when I come home :) Me and Sister Tuck did a lot of cooking, helping a lot of the members get ready for Thanksgiving! ALSO we might have set up like .....5 trees this weekend haha. People love to get ready for christmas so soon!!!!

 

This past friday me and Sister Tuck had a lesson set up with one of our investigators. On our way there, she texted us and told us she wouldn't be able to meet that night. We became very sad and didn't understand why we couldnt just meet with her. BUT we decided that instead of dwelling on the negative of the night we decided to go to work. So we began knoking on doors. A young lady answered one of the doors, said she wasn't interested, but reffered us to a house up the street. With excitment we ran down the street and knocked on the door. To our surprise a man answered the door and immediatly let us in. Him and his wife sat us down and listened intently to the first lesson. How neat! We set up a return appoinment and told us they wanted to come to church! :)  Apparently they knew a lot of people from the ward and were really impressed with them. :)

 

When we said our goodbyes and went back to our car for the night we skipped for joy and thanked God for that awesome experience! We then realized that even though our plans did not work out the first time, he knew what needed to happen. His plan is much greater than ours and once we see that, we can find joy in the days to come. Trust in the Lord, he will guide us to where we should be. One door closes, another one is opened! :)

 

PICTURE ONE: This tree was in the moody library :)

PICTURE TWO: I just want y'all to know that I totally decorated this journal all by myself! I feel so crafty :) haha

 

Let Our Life Challenge Us to Great Heights

My address is still:
1700 Breezy Dr, #298
Waco, Texas 76712


Berklee Anne!! Oh that is just toooo cute :) I'm soooo happy for them! how precious! I wish I could be there to see her :( next year! haha I cant wait for the pictures!

 

I cant believe Kylee is already half way done with senior year!!! so crazy! She can't be that old already.....you and dad are gonna be all alone! I thought that story about dad was very awesome. The priesthood truly is power of god. So thankful for it.

 

How's work been? Dad getting better? Grandma wrote me. Super sweet of her. THANK YOU for the package! I might have cried a little bit when I saw you made me that little book with the Christmas stories :) Excited for the holidays! for sure will be missing my family. But it will all be worth it in the end :)

 

This week has been one of many that I have seen hard times. BUT through those weaknesses me and Sister Tuck have been able to see great things come to pass. We have done a lot of service. I truly love that we can help so many people by just simply serving them :) It makes me feel so happy in side! so great! Romans 8: 35 and 27 "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? .....NAY, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." Identifying and recognizing that through these hard ships and trials we become stronger! We can conqueror anything because Christ loves us. NOTHING can separate us from that love. It is freely ours. This is a magnificent truth that we can always treasure in our hearts :) I thought of my mother who always says "Let our life challenge us to great heights." I want my mission to be challenging so that I can grow and become perfect though my Savior's love :)

 

Miss and love y'all hope you have a fantastic THANKSGIVING :)

 

don't eat too much food ;)

 

love sister porter

 

ps. Braxton is going on a mission! crazy i know.

 

These mustache straws are a terrific invention! love it :)   

Thankful For Family Relationships

HOPE your having a WONDERFUL and fabulous and awesome and terrific and marvelous and rockin and spectacular and remarkable and outstanding and splendid and super duper day!! J

The blessing of the Priesthood. That is just so wonderful. I will have to print out your talk and read it. It was probably awesome :) Tell Seth and Bay that I wish I could be there but that I love them and are so happy for them! It  is kind of crazy that I won't see her ...or him for another year!! Tell Kylee that I miss her too! and love her like crazy. Thankful we have such a close relationship. Sister Tuck is not close with any of her famiily, not even her parents. It makes my heart so sad. But makes me greatful for the cloesness we all have.

 

I don't think we are doing anything fun for Thanksgiving! haha A family in the ward invited us over for dinner (so nice) but that about it! Is this like my christmas package? I think I should wait to open it so I have something on christmas!

 

Im excitied the work is progressing so much! Not just in texas but all over the world! Our stake President talked to us for a little bit on Friday and he was talking about all the wonderful things that are coming forth! The missionary work is so amazing. Truly inspiried by God. Love you guys!

 

-Sister Porter

 

ps. I heard about the sister missionaries in the phillipeans :( I cried. My roommate Meredith is serving therer right now! I pray that she is okay.

 

Reading the New Testament

Didn't get any updates from the family this week!! :( Hope everything is doing good at the Porters!

 

One of our investigators came to church yesterday. His name is Jr. and he is truly is ready for the gospel. The mission was challenged by the Mission President to read the New Testament before the end of the year. I am currently in Acts right now, BUT I have enjoyed so much reading from it. The Savior's earthly ministry was miraculous. He sets the perfect example for us to come unto him and follow in his footsteps.

 

I love you all so much! :) Hope you have a fabulous week!

 

-Sister Porter

How Great Is My Calling!

DADDYY!! I cant believe that this has happened to you :( My heart has ached! Im so so happy to hear that you are doing better though. My prayers have been more fervent than ever and I hope all is well. You have so much strength its unbelievable. Your example has made me strong and will carry me forward. Thank you for being so amazing! I love you so much!

 

So what have you been up to since you have been home for a while? I'm excited for Kylee and basketball! I can't believe it's that season already!! How's the weather? Is it snowing and all that? :) It's hotter than ever here!!! How do people live in this? I feel like I need a break from this heat! haha.

 

I LOVE the Barton family!! They are just so great. We helped them set up Christmas yesterday! haha she's so funny. She reminds me of mom getting so excited before Thanksgiving has already happened. This new transfer has been so wonderful! Me and Sister tuck are working harder than ever and are seeing a lot of success! I just love sharing the gospel. HOW GREAT IS MY CALLING :) We helped this lady paint her house on Saturday. It was some kind of sand paint so it took us a lot longer than we thought it would!! But I decided I'm not to bad at it ;) I love serving.

 

This past week I have realized what a blessing it truly is to be here serving a mission. I love my family so much. You don't see or appreciate what you have until you leave it for so long. MISS and LOVE y'all! Hope your having a great week! GET FEELING BETTER :) lots of love!

 

-Sister Porter  

 

Does anyone have time for Christ anymore?

THOSE BABIES ARE SO PRECIOUS!!! :) Oh they are so big!! Makes me so happy but so sad all at the same time! They are growing in a blink of an eye. So excited for Bay to have her baby :) Dad is deaf in one ear?? That breaks my heart for him. I can't believe that.

 

These week has been full of wonderful things! First I have to share this wild/funny story.  The other day me and Sister Tuck were knocking doors when a young girl probably in her teens answers the door. She is holding a young child in her hand and trying very hard for two giant dogs not to get out. But even with all her might, they squeezed through the door and began running as fast as they could down the street. With in two seconds they were gone! Out of site! She shrieks with fear, puts down the child and starts chasing after them! Me and Sister Tuck had no idea what to do. Probably realizing that she had left the child, she frantically ran back and asked if we could help her. She cried out "Those arent even my dogs, I'M BABYSITTING!" My heart dropped and I then realized we NEEDED to find those dogs. I can't imagine if I was a young girl babysitting and I had lost their (probably expensive) dogs. We began running up and down the streets calling out for the dogs to come. We suddenly stopped and offered a prayer. We knew we could find them with God's help. All while running I kept panting out loud "Heavenly Father PLEASE help us" We told the girl we would get in the car and try and find them that way. So we drove down the street trying to follow the promptings of the holy ghost, and made a left turn on the last street of the neighboorhood. And out of know where we see this lady trying to catch the dogs! We hurry, park the car, run out to try and help her. She asks if they were our dogs and we then explained what had happened. She ran into her house and grabbed us leashes so we could walk them back. I couldnt believe it. What an experience. I knew with out a doubt that god had answered our prayers. AND in the end we walked back to the ladies house to give her back her leash and set up a return appointment with her! amazing :)

 

I love when these things happen. Have I ever told y'all that I love being a missionary? Well...I DOOOO! :) hehe okay another story. So me and sister Tuck go once a week to help this lady in our ward take care of her sister-in- law. Her name is Oma and she lost her voice in January. Her mind also doesn't work the same way anymore so Sister Brown and her husband help her now and its practiacally a full time job for her. So to help her out we come and take care of her so she can go out and get stuff done. We do excercises, read flash cards and go for walks. This past week while we were on our walk Oma cried out in a tiny voice "TIred" She flipped her walker around and sat in it!! hahaha she made us push her back home in her walker. SO funny. 

 

The night before Holloween was the ward party. SO FUN! We get a call from Sister Barton that morning asking if she could get some help decorating! It took a good chunk of time BUT was totally worth it :) It looked great! GO big or GO home right? I love it. OOOHH also, The bartons where the ghost busters! hahaha it was so great.

 

We ended up not doing anything for Holloween. Our mission president wanted us to stay inside our apartments for the night so ....it was a little boring. The last couple of days were kind of hard for me. We did a lot of tracting and we got a lot of doors slammed in our face and rude things said. Finally when another person slammed a door in our face I cried out "doesn't anyone have time for Christ in their life???" I began to cry. This broke my heart. But then I thought about my life before the mission and thought "Did I make time for Christ in my life?" This concept is so important. We must set our priorities to the Lord. Being a disciple of Christ isn't just something we do here and there, its a life style. Its what we do at ALL times and in ALL things and in ALL places. 

 

This really is the icing to finding a future spouce huh! ;) haha that made me laugh. But its very true. I'm greatful that I have done this. It has changed me forever AND my wants and desires for the future are a lot different! The gospel is so important for me to teach my children. This will make such a stronger household! I love my Savior and my famiily :) 

 

MISS and LOVE you guys sooo much. Hope this email finds y'all doing well. 

 

Loves sister Porter :) 

Ps. Thank you again for all that you guys do for me :)  

 

pic 1: This is all the little candy packages we made for everyone :) they all loved it.

pic 2: GHOST BUSTERS!! soo sweet.

pic 3: this is oma in her walker and sister tuck :)

Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream

FAMILY! :) First I just wanted to say tttttthhhhaaannnkkkyyyooouuuu sooooooooooooooooooo much for the packages!! OH my goodness it felt like Christmas! haha I really appreciated it. The clothes were perfect and my new garments! yaya feels so nice. How long has dad been in the hospital?? :( tell him I love him with all my heart and I have been praying for him 24/7! AW! Senior night! That is so crazy I feel like that was just me! Your getting so big!;) I heard you got a blanket??? We are matchy matchy! :) You guys doing anything fun for Halloween??  When is bay due?? I cant believe Kodi got her mission call to Maryland!! How exciting! What a wonderful time for her and for her family to send her off to serve the Lord. What an example! :) who's next??...Kylee? ;)

 

OKAY so I don't even know where to begin this week has been SO amazing. Ricardo Ayala was baptized on Saturday and it was such a neat experience. I've never seen him so happy. Baptism is such a magnificent and wonderful act. He has "fulfilled all righteousness" :) and now he has the gift of the Holy Ghost. My testimony has grown and my heart is full. I know the Lord has been with me the whole way. I know Ricardo has found the true church and how cool to see that it will effect not only him but his future generation. Ricardo's family doesn't accept his choice in being baptized but its truly amazing to see that because he had gained a witness of its truth that not even that would stop him from making the right choice. I know one day his family will soften their hearts and see the great joy and everlasting joy that Ricardo NOW has in his life. THE WORK GOES ON! :)

 

Transfers are this week. We got a call this morning from our Zone leader telling us that sister Tuck will be staying in Hewitt one more transfer!! wooo hooo :) So very happy. She has been a fabulous companion and I'm honored and excited to be serving with her for another transfer. We have great goals in mind and we are excited to "Forget ourselves and go to work" :) Its been raining like crazy here the past couple of days! The lightning and thunder is awesome!!! I LOVE IT:) It kind of scary when your driving though because you literally can't see anything. Good thing I know where I'm going...right......The ward is having a Halloween party this week and we get to go and help out. So that will be fun. On Halloween were not allowed to be out working that night so all the missionaries in the area will meet at the church and be doing something....don't know what yet but we will see! Saturday the ward is helping clean up a park in Lorena so that will also be something fun to do. Our mission president has told us that he wants us to be doing 8 hours of service every week!! It kind of hard to find it sometimes because people are stubborn and wont let us help them!! So PLEASE when someone ask if they can help or serve you LET THEM! because I think, If I want people to let me serve them I have to let them serve me as well!

 Sister Tuck stated a quote (I don't remember who it is by) that says "If you don't have time to pray and read your scriptures everyday, than you are busier than god attended you to be." I LOVE THAT. because its true. It is SO important that we do this EVERYDAY! I have had the opportunity to study for two hours every morning for six months and I can honestly say that it has changed my life. I have learned so many things and have never felt so close to Christ. It makes a difference when you do these things daily. So I encourage you guys to always read and pray! LOTS OF BLESSINGS :)

 My heart is filled with JOY. I love my family. You all are the world to me. I miss you lots. Hope all is well. SEND me pictures of senior night and stuff.

pic 1: So for district meeting we dressed up like cowboys and Indians....

pic2: Ricardos Baptism!

pic 3: Ricardo and Brother Morley

PS. I will send more pictures to moms email because I cant remember if this is kylees phone?

PSS. me and sister Tuck got this pumpkin spice ice cream.....SO GOOD....ate it is 24 hours no joke!

Another email the same day:

HAHA this story was amazing. Its cool to have experiences such as this one. How truly amazing is the plan of salvation. This is one of the most powerful things we can share with others around us. God is a God of Miracles. He is the same yesterday today and forever. He is a merciful and loving father who has provided this plan of happiness. I KNOW the reason for my yearning and desire to return to him someday is because I was with him before this life. I was his spirit child :) And I loved him and promised him I would do everything I could during this life to make it back to him one day :) I began to cry when I read that the little kimberly would run up to kylee in heaven someday in her perfect form and thank her for all that she had done. :) what a blessing. what a gift. This sounds like a merciful God to me. Thank you for sharing this story with me. Touched my heart. 

 

How great of week has this been. Ricardo had his interview on Saturday!! He is already for his baptism this Saturday. What a fantastic way to end the transfer! So as you know I gave my talk yesterday it actually went a lot better than I thought ;) It was on "the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion" In the beginning of Alma he is testifying of Christ unto the people. But in verse 45 he says "And this is not all. Do ye not suppose that I know of these things myself? Behold I testify unto you that I do know that these things whereof I have spoken are true. And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety?  46: Behold I say unto you they are made known unto me by the holy spirit of god. Behold I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made the manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me." He did not know of these things by himself. And neither can we. If we want to have the truthfulness of things and a true conversion we must have the witness of the holy ghost tell us these things

.

 In Mosiah, Kind Benjamin was giving his address when he asked his people "what do you think of these things? do you believe the words which I speak? and they answered in verse 2 saying: "And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and aslo, we know of their surety and truth, because of the spirit of the Lord, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts that we have no more disposition to do evil, but do good continually" HOW POWERFUL! I love this :) They said they knew what he spoke was true becuase the spirit told them!! how wonderful that must have been to gain and know the truth because of the burning in their bosom!  Let me ask now, are we truly converted have WE seen that mighty change? Are we doing good continually? Let us have a "full" turning to christ and consecrate ourselves in the sight of God. :) 

 

Our district leader is in the hospital.......So scary. His appendix burst!! He had surgery yesterday morning and is doing good. But how crazy! If I was getting surgery I would want my mommy to be there!!! haha. Transfers are this week!! I pretty for sure I am staying here. BUT I dont know if Sister Tuck will! She has been here for four months now. I'll let you know what happens! 

KODI IS GOING TO MARYLAND!! That is so crazy! can you believe it! how amazing:) I'm so excited for her. How's everyone doing? doing anything fun for Halloween? 

LOVE YOU GUYS! :)  

 

-Sister Porter 

 

picture 1: This is our motivation for working out in the morning! 

Picture 2: Sister Tuck and I saw this awesome pumpkin patch on the way home from a teaching appointment and HAD to take a picture I like this one makes me smile :)  

Sister Missionaries to the Rescue!

HOLA! Sorry I wasn't able to get an email out to ya'll on Monday! The library was closed due to the holiday but because our mission president is amazing he let us come today! :) This past week was full of amazing things! We taught Young Womens last week. It was lots of fun! We took them through a typical day of a missionaries life. We printed of mission calls for each of them to open. The girls were so excited about that they loved it :) It was fun to see their excitement and joy to find out where they would be serving. Reminded me of when I opened my call. What a neat experience for me. In two months it will be whole year from when I did open it. CRAZY! and if my calculations are correct in two weeks from today I will hit my sixth month mark! which means I have a year left! I cannot believe how fast the time is going.

 

Friday night we were out and about when it started down pouring rain!! We booked it to our car but we didn't make it in time to stay dry.  We were soaked! head to toe. Then we got a frantic call from the bike elders in our ward, announcing that Elder Reynolds fell off his bike and thought that he broke his arm. SISTER MISSIONARIES TO THE RESCUE! :) After driving up and down a couple of streets we found them siting on the curb with their bikes. We strapped the bikes to the back of the car and tried to figure out if we should take the poor elder to the ER. It didn't look broken, and he seemed fine so we decided they would just have a member take them in the morning to check it out. Needless to say that next day we found out that he had broken it in two places!! I felt so bad because I didn't think he had broken it. But glad he is ok. And thankful I don't have a broken arm!

 

Yesterday morning we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Pino of the 70 and his wife. We had to be in Fort Worth by nine which meant we had to wake up at five! yay......I'm the driver so while everyone else took a nice little nap I drove for straight two and half hours! haha but that's okay I like driving. They shared some really neat stuff with us! Elder Pino doesn't speak very good English so one of the Elders in the mission translated for him! it was very cool. While he was addressing us he had one of the elders (Elder Foulcher who is my zone leader) come up to the stand to help him do something. He was talking about our missions and how we should live it to the fullest. Then he came to the end of his talk and said it was time to go home. He looked at Elder Foulcher and removed his name tag and set it on the stand. The elder looked down at his name tag trying to fight back the tears. The hairs on my back stood up and I had goose bumps on my arms. Me and sister Tuck began to cry. It made me realize how precious my time truly is. I must appreciate the time I have because it will be gone before I know it. " I am 100 % missionary RIGHT NOW. I will never ever have an experience like this again. Such an eye opener to me.  The mission is not easy. BUT indeed is rewarding. I love that.  It reminds me of the fall of Adam and Eve. They had to experience sorrow to know joy, and darkness to see the light. And same with missionary work, we have to go through the hard times so we can gain a better and more full appreciation for when things do work out. "Salvation is not a cheap experience!"  We must work hard for the good things to come to pass!! :) And I have learned that patience is required in order for this to happen in our investigators life. They have work for this conversion. We must pay a price to win the game.  But indeed this is all possible with our eyes single to the glory of God boasting only in him and no one else.

 

TTTTTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKK YYYYYYYOOOOOOUUUUUUUUU for the package! :) I love it!! soo soo fun. I love Halloween! Me and sister Tuck are gonna make those cupcakes on Halloween and bring them to district meeting. Are ya'll doing anything fun for Halloween? It just still continues to blow my mind that time is going so fast. I'm so grateful for my loving family. :) Ya'll are such a blessing to me. And I know with out a doubt that one of the main reasons why we are so close is because of the gospel. We are centered around Christ. The family is the best place to teach learn and apply the gospel in our lives. We help each other endure to the end by sharing our testimonies with one another and reaching out and helping. By being an example and serving one another. LOVE MY FAMILY!

 

Ayrikas moms name is SUE! :) haha When is bay due? Is it a boy or girl! I don't think ya'll ever told me..... Is Kodi getting her mission call this week? keep me updated. Today it was actually pretty cold outside it hit the 60s! Everyone has on their big jackets and stuff, pretty funny. Ya, its kind of hard to get stuff up here because my area only has Wal-Mart....crazy I know. I can get by with simple stuff like tights and what not but I honestly think it will be cheaper to send up just some of my stuff. I could probably just wait until you send me a Christmas package or what not. Just send up maybe another one of my jackets and some of my long sleeved stuff. And I have a pair of gray boots that I could probably wear. That's about it. I just don't have any warm clothing! haha But Dont worry about it for now I will figure out for sure what I should do. And you don't have to buy new stuff I have TONS of winter clothing. Okay I wear xs on both G's. bottom and top. Thank you so much for getting that for me. Oh and for buying me face stuff too! cause I know how expensive it is so ya. My face looks beautamous now! :)

 

WE are indeed part of our heavenly fathers plan. We help guide it along. Its amazing to think that we chose this plan. I can stand her now and say that "I am a follower of Christ" ...no one told me to be, no one made me be this way. But I chose it. Becuase I know its true and I have felt his love. I love you! missin ya! hope all is well. Have an amazing week!!

-Sister Porter

ps. remember when me you and Kylee would have pizza nights on Mondays? good times! :)

1st pic: This is my zone! lots more elders than sisters! haha crazy.

2nd pic: These are the elders being crazy!

3rd pic: me and sis Tuck getting McFlurries @ mickey D's pretty for sure I have chocolate on  my lip.....

 

 

 

 

Young Women------So much fun!

 

Pancakes For Breakfast Every Day

 

Dear Family,

 

I sit here and think..."How did I get so lucky?" This weekend was extraordinary. Our beloved prophet and other leaders were able to give us ten hours of loving advice and specific instruction on how we can better our lives as members of the church and people of this world. I love that our prophet is not a seer and revelator for just the members of the church but for everyone! His words were loving and kind and I KNOW with all my heart that he is a man of god.

 

All of the missionaries got to ride over to the stake center and watch all the sessions there. It was lots of fun "hangin" with all the elders. In between sessions we all went out to lunch and played card games. Ricardo was able to come to the Saturday afternoon session and with the amazing ability we have to watch on the internet he was able to tune in and watch at home all of the Sunday sessions. During Elder Holland's talk he began to cry. After it was over he looked at us with tears in his face and just smiled. I knew Heavenly Father had touched his heart:)

 

Apparently its pancakes for breakfast everyday this week. haha I guess we were just in the mood. We've been busy busy busy! I gave a training last week in district meeting, will be giving another one in Zone conference tomorrow, me and sister Tuck are teaching the young women about missionary work for mutual, AND I'm giving a talk in church!! PLUS we are just teaching the gospel like crazy. It really awesome.

 

Im so happy to hear that ayrika is doing good!! :) It so fun to see her go through and experience these amazing things. She is gonna do great things for the people in her mission :) Next is Kylee! has she thought about a mission? Sad that the volleyball team is having a hard time. But exhilarating that they won the whole tournament for basketball. Good group of girls. I will pray for you everyday until your surgery! that's so scary :( haha maybe now youll be able to hear huh?:)

 

I will have to share with ya'll some of my notes that I took from conference next Monday because I forgot my journal.

 

LOVE my Savior. LOVE this gospel. LOVE my family :) I pray continually that he will watch over ya'll. Send my love to everyone.

 

-Sister Porter  

PS. Okay, so I might need you guys to send over some winter stuff my way. It still in the 90's during the day but at night its pretty cold! Plus I think its gonna be getting cold soon and I didn't bring anything with me. So I need some of my long sleeve stuff sent over and maybe some tights and a pair of my boots? just let me know what you think? And Maybe an early Christmas present?  I need some more garments.

 

The Work is Progressing!

This is hard work. But anything is possible with Heavenly Father.(Luke) I'm so jealous that it beginning to look like fall up there! It is still in the 90's down here and looks like mid July! haha Apparently there is not too much of a fall here anyways. So that's a bummer because I love the fall! :) Its gonna be weird not being home for the holidays. BUT what a neat experience to be here on a mission right? :) This past week was absolutely amazing! The work is progressing so much. Me and Sister Tuck have found tons of new investigators and have been teaching a lot of lessons! We met a lady named Melissa on Thursday. We told her that we were missionaries and I asked her if we could share a message with her. She willingly said "sure!" I was shocked and became very excited! No slamming the door in our face or "I'm not interested" but instead a sweet desired "sure!"  We began to share the restoration with her, and when I cited the first vision she began to cry. She had felt the spirit during that powerful experience that Joseph Smith had. She said "God will answer my prayer huh?" YES let us not forget that we are daughters of our Heavenly Father and that he loves us. We are destined to achieve great things and he wants to help us by answering our prayers. 

 

Ricardo came to church again!! :) it was fast and testimony meeting and right as the first counselor was going to get up and end the meeting, Ricardo stood up and made his way up to the front. My heart was beating fast and I prayed that everything would go okay. He shared the most deep and powerful testimony I had ever heard.  As soon as he began to testify of Christ the room became silent and the spirit overtook us. I began to cry I was so happy! He looked over at us and thanked us for bringing the gospel into our lives. then he proclaimed that he was ready to become a member of the church and part of this family! I almost fell off my seat! He will be baptized on October 26!! :) It feels nice to see a happy ending to this story! 

So I will be giving a training tomorrow in our district meeting on "How can I benefit MOST from General Conference?" And I thought I would share with ya'll what I will be sharing. :) The first thing that came to my mind was 

 

1. Pick Questions: Specific Questions=Specific Answers! Why is this so important? "Picking out and seeking for questions that are specific for the needs of us and others will help us search more fully and abundantly for those specific answers." 

 

2. Recognize The Spirit: The Holy Ghost works in perfect harmony with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. He reveals and teaches us the "truth of all things" (Moroni 10) 

-All honest seekers of the truth can have this confirmation by the spirit. 2 Nephi 32:3 says "Angles speak by the power of the holy ghost, wherefore they speak the words of Christ" If we invite the spirit while we are listening, it will testify of truth! 

 

3. Excitement: Mosiah 18: 11 "And now when the people had heard these words, they clapped their hands for joy and exclaimed THESE ARE THE DESIRES OF OUR HEARTS!" :) These ARE the desire of our hearts! lets us rejoice and be "excited" for our beloved prophet and other leaders of the church speak to us. 

 

4. Pray for Inspiration: D&C 9: 7-9 Why should he tell us these things if we haven't asked of him first. "STUDY IN YOUR MIND"--then ask him--[your bosom shall burn] and you will feel that it is right. +shows our faith and yearning to know. 

 

5. Awesome Note Taking: On Page 18 of Preach My Gospel is says "As you [listen to conference] pay careful attention to the ideas that come to your mind and the feelings that come to your heart" --Write these ideas and feelings down!! They will come to great advantage to you in the future! (Plus we arent going to remember EVERYTHING) 

 

6. Render Yourself: In the fourth Missionary by: Lawerence E. Corbridge, he explains what he calls "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER" --"The fourth missionary gives his will to the Lord. He surrenders all of his desires, dreams, ambitions and his wishes to the Lord. In his heart and in his head, he lets go of what he wants to do. He wants to do the Lords will" ----Let us forget ourselves and open our hearts to the council of our leaders. AND thing "What does my Father In heaven want me to learn????" 

 

7. Evaluate and Apply: !! Let us Restudy our notes and take what we have learned and apply it to our work so that we can be effective servants of the Lord.

I know with all my heart that Thomas S. Monson is Gods True and loving prophet!

I dont think I need anything at the moment!! Still wondering what I should do about my pain in my uppper right back. I put Icey hot on it a lot ..... And take some meds to stop the pain. I LOVE MY FAMILY!! :) 

-Sister Porter 

 

  

New Address---------Blessed to have the Bartons in Waco

New Address:

Sister Samantha Porter

1700 Breezy Dr., #298

Waco, Texas 76712

 

FAMILY!!! :)

I cannot believe kylee got in a wreck! STAPLES in her head?! haha oh goodness that girl is crazy. BUT she had a cool little testimony experience. She would be such a good missionary! glad she is doing okay. what did ya'll get her for her birthday? Her and Mitch seem pretty cute if I might say! :)

 

I LOVE WACO!!!!:) :) love it! I am serving in the Hewitt Ward. My new companions name is Sister Tuck. She is super sweet and kind. I LOVE HER. We get along just great. Waco is just little counrty city. its tiny compared to arlington. But i really enjoy it here. My apartment it A LOT nicer than the one I was living in before. OH and Jill and Zack Barton are in my ward!!! haha how funny huh? I had no idea who she was until she had us over for dinner and she was like "I KNOW YOU!" small world! We got talking and she said that she loved you and dad. She said that when her and Zack were dating that dad bought him a Braums ice cream gift card and told him to go get her! :) haha sounds like dad to me. Shes so cute I love her. She is a ward missionary so she will be coming out teaching with us a lot.

 

I love the people here. Its so weird to teach older people and to be in a family ward. ITS so loud during Sacrament meeting. haha. They had a pot luck dinner at the church and a ward talent show on Saturday. It was a lot of fun and I was able to get to know the ward a little more too. Bishop Partin is a great man! So far Im just loving the change! Its good to change it up a bit. One of our investigators, Ricardo, came to church for the first time yesterday. After sacrament he told us that he felt good inside! SO awesome! and he texted us that night and said he was really excited to go to church next week! :)

 

How's work? how's seth and bay? steph and dustin? how's his leg? Stephanie writes me almost every week. haha Shes so sweet I love her. Anything new going on?

 

I would love some more stuff for my face! :) :) And I got a watch! No worries. Also my upper right shoulder has been in some serious pain the  past couple of days. ....What should I do? :(

 

I love ya'll! :) Hurrah for Isreal! I love being a missionary. I love serving my Savior and helping others come unto him. HOW GREAT IS MY CALLING!

 

Ps. What's Kodis email?

 

PSS. I already bought more of that deoderant :) but thank you for being a good mommy :)
 

The picture is  Jennifer Anderson and the other girl was marissa. she is one of our investigators.

 

A lady in our ward makes these bows!! so cute! :) they are all the disney princesses! I want to get one for avie!

Me and Sister Barton cookin' away!

Transferred to Waco!

 

 

HELLO! :)

 

Okay...I got a call this morning from my zone leaders and they told me I was being TRANSFERED TO WACO!!! holy moly!! WHAT! oh my goodness I have such mixed emotions right now. I'm so sad to be leaving Arlington, but SOOO excited to go serve somewhere else!! We called Bishop this morning and he freaked out haha. Him and Sister Pepper want to come say goodbye. Jennifer Andersen wants to take me out to lunch and Kimberly began to cry! so sad! And Leslie and Cory are driving me to the Hurst Stake Center so I can make the switch so I'll be able to say goodbye to them too! It's just so sad! And we have a couple of baptisms coming up! Sad that I wont be able to see them but so happy that they came to know these things to be true! :) Waco is about two and half hours from here apparently and its pretty getto. So ..... I'll let you know how it goes! My new companions name is Sister Tuck. And I will be the Senior companion! So excited! :) :)

 

Elder Anderson and Elder Callister from the 70 came and spoke with us on Wednesday! It was the most amazing thing ever. I couldn't contain my joy! My face hurt afterwards because I was smiling so much! Before he spoke to us we were able to all go up and shake his hand! and as he shook my hand I couldn't have been more proud to be a missionary! He looked into my eyes and said these very words "thank you for all that you do Sister Porter!" ahhhhhhhhhh!!!! :) I feel my Saviors love. He talked to us about trying to fully apply the atonement in our lives.  It was super spiritual and amazing. I'm so thankful for living prophets and apostles!

 

We helped a girl named Ashley from our ward move into a new apartment the other day. As I was moving very little of what she had into her new apartment I began to cry. Her apartment was so tiny and she shares it with her brother (who is against the church) and his girlfriend who has four children. Ashley sleeps on the floor some nights and only owns a couple of clothing items. How could I help my dear friend? Ashley my friend with so little gives so much. I know she loves her Savior, and is so thankful for the gospel. She said this to me "I was baptized a year ago. Before then I was lost. With all I had, I had nothing. But with the gospel I have the world."  She is such a great example to me and I really experienced a humbling time while helping her. I'm SOOO grateful for the life I have and the person I am. I truly feel my Saviors love.

 

The Carrols had us over for dinner on Friday and invited one of our investigators and her boy friend (who is a member) Her name is Madeline and she is so cute! But it was such a fun time to sit around the dinner table, having a home cooked meal, and laughing with everyone. haha Cory's dad said the funniest thing! Cory joked that he really like eating frosting all by itself. And I got excited and said "ME TOO!" Brother Carrol looked at me with a big smile and said " I knew I got married to early!!" hahahahahahahaha We died laughing I couldn't believe he said that!

 

KYLEE LOOKS SO BEAUTIFUL!!!! oh my goodness! I cant believe she already had homecoming. Time is flying by! I'm so happy they won their game too! It feels good to win. Do you think they will make it to state this year? how's work? I think its so fantastic that ya'll called Brother Cook to be the Ward Mission leader! He will do great things for the mission efforts! Where are the two missionaries that spoke on Sunday serving?

 

I love and miss ya'll! Hope you have a wonderful week I will let you know next week how everything goes with transfers! wish me luck!

 

-Sister Porter

Ps. The reason why no one ever post pictures from dinner and stuff and tag you is because we are in a YSA ward. And we only get fed like once a week. And when we do they usually take us out. so ya....but hopefully they will start doing that in Waco! Since its a family ward. OH I got the address for my new area ...... but its at my apartment and we don't have enough miles to go all the way back to get it so I will have to give it to you next week. Patience is a virtue! :) DID you get Kylee's birthday package?? Did ya'll get her anything fun for her birthday? can you believe she is already 18? so crazy!