You've Gotta Dance Like There's Nobody Watching

Howdy! :)

This week is transfers. I can’t believe another one has come and gone. I have six weeks left training Sister Nielsen and then Ill probably be transferred to my last area! Still cant believe Kylee, little baby kylee is graduating tomorrow! Sad to be mission it. Sounds like it will be a fun day. Any fun plans for the summer? Our your hours at byu still the same during summer? What the weather like right now? it actually so beautiful over here! Trying to enjoy it as much as possible before the heat hits! Nothing too exciting happened this past week. Thursday we had a follow up training meeting. All the trainers, new trainers, district leaders and sister trainer leaders attend this meeting. There were a lot there this time!! I think we have a lot of new missionaries coming in this round. Lots of new changes.

They are moving the mission office into our church building in Hurst!! they are knocking out some of the classrooms and building the office. Kind of crazy. The wards aren’t too happy about it....haha. Saturday we had one of the youth come out with us all day. I think it was a neat experience for her to work all day with us. When we were driving her back home she said "phew! man....am I tired! how do yall do this all day everyday?" haha i laughed. Then Saturday night our district had 3 baptisms that we were able to attend :) pretty amazing. Sunday was graduation for all the seniors in our ward so half of our chapel was empty!

This week I have come to more fully understand that making mistakes is part of life, and that its okay to have mess ups! There is a quote by an unknown author, “You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth.” This quote is redeeming because it encourages us to live life without the pressure of seeking the approval of those around us.

We don’t need anyone other than our Father in Heaven to tell us that we are doing what we should. In the end, what others think of us just does not matter. It only matters what God thinks of us

I have made a lot of mistakes on my mission and have had a lot of hard days, but I truly have learned that it is OK. We need not sweat the little things. Because god has blessed us with each new day that we can learn and grow. I have not been sent to Texas to fail or to be judged of others. I have been sent to Texas to succeed and to be judged by God for the works that I do. He sees all our works and all our efforts. He will help us heal from every mistake and help us learn from every mistake. I would say that not only is it okay to make mistakes, it is necessary. We cannot learn and grow unless we make some mistakes along the way. We always learn more from our failures than we do from our successes.

I’m grateful for my merciful Father in Heaven. He has provided away for me to be with him again through the sacrifice of his beloved son, Jesus Christ. Not only will he forgive me of my mistakes but he will help me keep pressing forward. Don’t let mistakes keep you from living up to your highest potential! We can achieve most anything with our Lord and Savior!

I love yall soooo much. Grateful for your example to me. I hope you find much joy in this week!

 

05/26/2014

Howdy! :)

This week is transfers. I can’t believe another one has come and gone. I have six weeks left training Sister Nielsen and then 'Ill probably be transferred to my last area! Still cant believe Kylee, little baby kylee is graduating tomorrow! Sad to be mission it. Sounds like it will be a fun day. Any fun plans for the summer? Our your hours at byu still the same during summer? What the weather like right now? it actually so beautiful over here! Trying to enjoy it as much as possible before the heat hits! Nothing too exciting happened this past week. Thursday we had a follow up training meeting. All the trainers, new trainers, district leaders and sister trainer leaders attend this meeting. There were a lot there this time!! I think we have a lot of new missionaries coming in this round. Lots of new changes.

They are moving the mission office into our church building in Hurst!! they are knocking out some of the classrooms and building the office. Kind of crazy. The wards aren’t too happy about it....haha. Saturday we had one of the youth come out with us all day. I think it was a neat experience for her to work all day with us. When we were driving her back home she said "phew! man....am I tired! how do yall do this all day everyday?" haha i laughed. Then Saturday night our district had 3 baptisms that we were able to attend :) pretty amazing. Sunday was graduation for all the seniors in our ward so half of our chapel was empty!

This week I have come to more fully understand that making mistakes is part of life, and that its okay to have mess ups! There is a quote by an unknown author, “You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth.” This quote is redeeming because it encourages us to live life without the pressure of seeking the approval of those around us.

We don’t need anyone other than our Father in Heaven to tell us that we are doing what we should. In the end, what others think of us just does not matter. It only matters what God thinks of us

I have made a lot of mistakes on my mission and have had a lot of hard days, but I truly have learned that it is OK. We need not sweat the little things. Because god has blessed us with each new day that we can learn and grow. I have not been sent to Texas to fail or to be judged of others. I have been sent to Texas to succeed and to be judged by God for the works that I do. He sees all our works and all our efforts. He will help us heal from every mistake and help us learn from every mistake. I would say that not only is it okay to make mistakes, it is necessary. We cannot learn and grow unless we make some mistakes along the way. We always learn more from our failures than we do from our successes.

I’m grateful for my merciful Father in Heaven. He has provided away for me to be with him again through the sacrifice of his beloved son, Jesus Christ. Not only will he forgive me of my mistakes but he will help me keep pressing forward. Don’t let mistakes keep you from living up to your highest potential! We can achieve most anything with our Lord and Savior!

I love yall soooo much. Grateful for your example to me. I hope you find much joy in this week!

Nothing Too Exciting

Wow your garden is beautiful! :) good job dad! hahaha I cant believe your staying at BYU. I had a feeling inside that you weren't going to like that drive....What a crazy experience though. haha I'm glad you feel good about it now though. eeeeeh! I can't believe next week kylee is graduating! :( makes me a bit sad that I'm not going to be there. I truly was so good to hear yalls voices too. I just bawled after I hung up. I just love my family soooo much. SO SO grateful for that. And that we can live together forever!

Are yall planning any fun trips for the summer? Nothing too exciting happened this week. Tuesday we were teaching a lesson to one of our investigators and out of no where some guy pounds the door down, runs into the middle of the room, and starts yelling at us telling we are crazy and what not. so...that was fun. Had to hurry and get out of there. I guess we were on their "TERRITORY?" haha....Wednesday we had a zone conference. This is with the mission president and all the missionaries in our stake. Golly do I love that man! He is sooo amazing. He is just so powerful when he speaks. it was a seven hour long meeting. woo! On Saturday there were some members in the ward who needed help doing some moving so that was an all day event! Then that night was a ward social. We had it at some park in Hurst. LOTs of fun. Good opportunity for us as missionaries to make sure we meet at the members and their non member friends! :)

Sorry that this letter is so short we are running a little behind on our errands today. I am beyond grateful to be out here serving the lord everyday. We talked a lot about keeping out eyes single to the glory of god. We cant turn away from the Lord. So important that we endure towards him. And i love the phrase, "waste and wear our lives in the service of God." I want to say that I did that. Its soo worth it :) My mission, the experiences that I have had, The gospel, has truly changed my life. And that indeed is possible because of our Savior. I love him with all my heart.

LOVE Y'ALL! :)

PIC: us at the super getto laundry mat

Good to Hear All of Your Voices

Mother :)

 It truly was so good to hear all of your voices. I bawled too after we hung up. Sister Nielsen thinks I'm super emotional haha. I just miss yall so much. How amazing when we see each other again. Did you get my mothers day letter? Yesterday in church when all of the little children got up to sing their song, there was a young girl that we know that began to cry when she looked down at her mother. What a tender moment for me to see how much love this young girl had for her mom. Me and Sister Nielsen looked at each other and started to cry. Again.....emotional. Made me really miss you mommy and think about all that you do for me. I love you :)

It was just a bitter sweet moment for me to hear those babies voices. I cant believe they are talking! Too cute :) Are you pretty excited for dads new job? Do you think he is going to like it? What are his hours like? Man.....I can't believe how many jobs dad has had! It's pretty great. This past week some funny things happened! First on Wednesday we met with our friend that we are teaching (I cant say her name.....so ya)  at the church to have her baptism interview with one of President's helpers. During the interview it starts down pouring outside! When its over and were all ready to go President Petersen notices that his back tire is flat! Its pouring rain and he has a flat........PEACHY :) haha. Right before he calls triple A a couple of Elders come running into the building and ask what was going on. Once he tells them about his car they throw down there stuff and run out into the rain to switch the tire! It was so funny. We just kept laughing and laughing. President then said "I don't need triple A I just needed Triple Elders" hahaha I loved it :)

So we have a recent convert who does carpentering. And so after we taught him a lesson he asked if we wanted to make something!! ....Well of course! :) haha So Sister Nielsen is making a little box and I'm making shelf holder ..thingys. I'm pretty stocked that I made them look pretty good. I'm not quite done but I will send you a picture when I'm finished. Another thing I didn't think I would do on my mission......

We had a baptism on Saturday :) It was just wonderful! When she came out of the water she yelped for joy! and asked if she could do it again. haha. it was funny. I LOVE THIS WORK! And what's amazing is I can do it for the rest of my life. 

I love yall!

Sister Porter

ps. Mom, I really am doing okay I promise :) you know me I'm a cry baby so if it was really bad I would have told you by now. And yes I have lots of mommies in the ward that are taking gooooood care of me :) That's one thing I really love about the church is that there is always someone there to look out for you and take care of you. It's part of the covenants we make! For example a couple of weeks ago I got bitten all up my arm and it got all swollen and some lady in the ward drove all the way over to just give me itch cream. Looking out for me :) 

Happy May 5th!

Family! :)

HAPPY 5th of MAY! :) I remember in school here we would celebrate BIG! Mexican dancers would come perform for us and we would have little parties with chips and salsa :) Me and sister Nielsen are going to bring some for everyone at P-Day activity :)

What a week! they go by so fast I have to really think about what we did! We finally got our car back! ......but the AC is broken so ....we probably need to go get that fixed. Summer is sneaking up on us. Its already in the 90s! haha yay summer :) Sister Nielsen is freaking out a little.

We had stake conference this weekend. Its was just wonderful :) President Ames, and his wife spoke on Sunday and then we had Elder Stodder from the 70 come a speak. He was awesome! Made me laugh. He talked A LOT about missionary work. How the members are the finders and the missionaries are the teachers. That is the Work of Salvation. who are y'all working with to share the gospel with?

We have a baptism this weekend! :) IM SO HAPPY! she is sooo excited. She keeps telling everyone she meets that shes going to be a Mormon! haha I love it. I hope we can all have this Joy in being a members of Christ true church. So much Joy that we want to stand on our roof tops and shout it out loud for all to hear! I just ....cant even explain to you MY personal Joy that I have being a part of this gospel. Being in this area, I have seen so many broken families and homes. Breaks my heart. Everyone deserves to have this. The longer Ive been on my mission the easier it has been for me to look at everyone at God's children. Doesn't matter where they came from, who they were, or what they are doing, what matters is where they and who they are willing to become. To not believe in Change, is to deny the nature of God. I tend to do this sometimes. "Thats just the way I am." No....thats not. I chose that. I can change. Everyone can change and everyone deserves to be looked at as a child of God :) I love that simple truth.

So.........guess what!! :) I get to call y'all on mothers day!! this Sunday! is six thirty okay?? That would work best for me and sister Nielsen but..let us know if that doesn't work. I'm so excited to hear from all of you again! Last time before i come home. Oh happy year mark last week by the way! :)

I got my camera cord and contacts! THANKKKK YYYOOOUUU :) :) lots of love!

Do I plan of doing photography when I get home???? you betcha!!! I miss it so much its crazy.

I sure do miss yall. 

HAHAH yes I got my eyeballs. Did you get my email? so...I get to call you on Sunday! :) we were thinking six thirty? Who all will be there? Sounds like lots of fun stuff is going on. Missin yall sooo much!

pic one: me and sister Earl finally reunited! she is serving in the same stake as me so we saw each other at stake conference. SOOO good to see her love that girl :) she goes home in two transfers!! crazy.

Pic two: Sister Nielsen and I crossing the freeway! 

Contacts.....Please

Dear Family,

Thank you for your email. Very tender for me to know y'all are always thinking and praying for me. Your love is felt. Thank you. Sounds like your keeping pretty busy. I still can't believe the ward lost some awesome members! makes me so sad :( The church is just growing! Its amazing.

This week was SO HARD! haha. We went out to our car Wednesday morning to find that someone had wrecked into it! It made me so sad to think no one tried to fess up to what they did. So we took it to a collision center and they said it would take a week to repair!! I can't even tell you how hard it has been to do this work without it. haha I was very humbled. Was able to see the little blessings :) I feel like such a burden on the ward when we ask them for rides all the time. Sister Nielsen has cousins in the Hurst First Ward so she was able to run us around to get our errands done today. Thursday it took us almost two hours to walk to one of our appointments. hahah it's crazy! But we will be getting a car back on Wednesday so no worries :) Yesterday was amazing for me. We had five investigators at church! :) Its amazing to see our investigators keep their commitments.

So there is a new rule in the mission. We aren't allowed to use our investigators names in our emails. So I wont be able to tell you the names of who we are working with :( But don't worry I will tell you more stories when I come home :) Next week the lady who I told you about last week ( the tithing story) she is getting baptized!! :) so excited.

Training is still pretty hard. Sister Nielsen is VERY quiet so its hard to get her to talk in lessons, BUT she is very sweet and obedient which is good with me. I can help her with teaching. It would be hard if she wanted to rebel all the time!

Sorry the email is short today, our ride is waiting for us..

I love yalll SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo much! Hope you have a fabulous week:)

-love sister samesa!

Ps. I'm all out of contacts! so....when you get a chance would you be willing to send me some more? :) The ones I have right now will last me about two more weeks. But I do have my glasses so no rush!

pss. I met two people that I thought I would tell you about. First one was John Saunders?  He said he worked for you and used to do stuff with Seth. He is living in Hurst now and has a couple of kids. (can't remember how many) and then I met Mary-Joe Shipples daughter, Tony and Monica! They just moved into a house close to our apartment! We went to welcome them in and come to find out we know each other! haha love it :)