It is better to look up!

HOLA! :)

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

 

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

 

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

 

Nephi 2:27:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

I went to see the Temple (Dallas Temple)

  

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

I Love to See the Temple

Family!

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

 -Sister Porter

 

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

LOTS OF LOVE.

 

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

 

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

First Baptism-----So Happy Happy Happy!

 

Family,

 

First of all I just want to start off by saying that I love ya'll so much. I am so thankful to have such a supportive family back home who are thinking about me. Second thing, I HAD MY FIRST BAPTISM ON SATURDAY!!!!:) :) :) :) oh my goodness it was such a wonderful day. I cant even begin to tell you how happy I am! It is one of the neatest experiences to see someone you had been teaching become a member of the church! The service went so awesome! I like....bawled that morning before we went! Everything went so well. Heidi Starr and Cory Carrol gave a talk. went really well. She was comfirmed yesterday and ah.....just so cool to see someone we had been teaching become a part of the true church:) and to think we only met her three weeks ago!! I guess if you know its true---- its true! :)

 

I got Sister Asay's package. It had candy in it! haha and a cute little picture that Paige drew of a book of mormon and two little sister missionaries  :) and I got yours! I love the shoes! :) I feel awesome running in the morning ;) I want to see that video of Kodi sooo bad! its probabaly too funny. How is everything else going? How do you like working at the new school? How is dad going? Kylee? So weird that she is going to be a Senior!! It is all boing by so fast! The babies are getting so big too! :) Stephine told me that avie was like come dus come dus! and then spanked him coming up the stairs! hahaha thats just too funny :)

 

We have District meeting every week! It's pretty fun to get with all the other missionaries :) there is actually a girl who just got here who is training that I went to High School with! She is serving in our old ward!  she was like "why does everyone know who you are already down in the ward I am at?" hahaha:)

 

Our apartment finally got sprayed and we finally got beds!! ah.... I have never slept so good in my life! I hope ya'll are doing good! MISS YOU LOTS! Love hearing from everyone. The gospel is such a blessing. I cant imagine my life without it. I hope to have the chance to bring many unto christ.

 

THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!

-Sister Porter
PS. dont mind how ugly my feet are but look at how funny this tan line is!

PSS. FUNNY STORY! so ....Kimberly took me and Sister Earl to Cheesecake Factory! (psh.....our investigator took us there!) and right as we were about to leave our waiter comes up to us and was like "the guy at the bar was wondering if he could buy you a smoothie!" hahahahah WHAT? apparently he was a return missionary so he knew who we were! :)

PSSS. Kimberly put me andSsister Earl picture in a picture frame and wrote "MY missionaries" that makes me so happy :)

Love Bishop Pepper

Holy moly you guys have been up to a lot of fun stuff lately!! So busy but so fun. You all saw Elder Holland in the temple???!!! I love Elder Holland!!! :) :)  That its so awesome! such a cool experience that you'll remember forever :) I heard ya'll went four wheeling on the 4th!! SO JEALOUS! from what dad told me it sounded like you guys had a good time. HAHAHA I told my roommate about that the other day actually. I said "when I get my package with my shoes I bet you a million dollars their will be candy in it!" haha thank you mommy :)

 

Is bay showing a little bump? :) I get letters from Dustin and Steph every week!! :) I love her.  She keeps me up to date on their lives over in Springville. She told me they are rocking bikes! That's so awesome! I'm happy to hear everyone is doing good though. I've seen so many people that have said "OH say hello to your parents for me!" I forget all who they are.  Lets see we had dinner at the Donavan's! hahaha .....don't worry we had regular food this time,,,,,,no snails.  Like EVERYONE knows Seth and Dustin. Joe Penock is actually the ward mission leader so that's funny.

 

I LOVE BISHOP PEPPER! :) he is such an awesome man! He has helped me and Sister Earl out so much how couldn't I do his dishes? haha  It was the least I could do for him and his sweet wife. Yes the bug people still haven't come and sprayed our house yet :( we have been sleeping on those darn air mattresses for two weeks! YUCK. But we should be getting our new beds today and the bug people should be coming today as well.

 

The work has been good. We have a baptism this week! its on Saturday (July 13th) and I've never been more excited!!!! :) and Bishop "approves" of her so that's good:) She totally a GOLDEN investigator. She comes to all the activities NEVER misses church and she already bought a quad online!! :) It makes me feel good to think that I was able to help her draw closer to her Savior and help her gain a testimony of the church. She is already in Alma of the Book of Mormon! The craziest thing is that she was a referral from Adrian Titera. It goes to show that missionary work is most affective when the ward members help out. Its such a blessing and rewarding experience to join in the work!

 

We met our new mission president last week! President Ames and his wife are SO AWESOME!! I'm excited for what counsel they have to offer:) He spoke to us about some stuff that was just so powerful!! He was in a meeting a couple weeks before with a couple of the general authorities and one of them proclaimed "The missionary work at THIS TIME and age is just as important and Joseph Smith's vision and the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon!!! When he told me that I got chills! That's so crazy!! But its true with how many missionaries are now going out this could changes everything!! This work will grow so big! :) I'm so excited to help bring the Lords children into this church!

 

I love ya'll!! :) Have a great week! xoxoxoxoxox -Sister Porter.

 

The Porter House

The Holts

BED BUGS........WHAT?

Hola! Somos las missionarias de la iglesia de jesu christo de los santos de los ultimos dias!! :)

 

Hello we are missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints! :)

 

We meet A LOT of Spanish people! I wish my Spanish was better than it is so I can kind of communicate. You would think that all those years of those painful classes from high school would have kicked in by now! Anyway, how are ya'll? Anything new???? :) IM SO JEALOUS THAT THE ASHTONS ARE THERE AND IM NOT!! :( But I bet you all are having so much fun:) Its so amazing the wonderful work we can do by taking names to the temple!! It brings me great joy to know my sweet family is doing such great work for our loved ones! :) that story made me cry! haha my companion always watches me cry when I do emails! How long are the cousins staying? How's Kylee? TELL her I finally got her letter!! It made me cry! I just miss her so much! But tell her I have a letter that I'm writing her right now:) Did ya'll get my package?

 

This past week has just been so wonderful!! Me and Sister Earl have truly witnessed the blessing of fasting and sincere prayer! The day we fasted we saw so many wonderful and amazing things happen! We were really stressed about a lot of things but its amazing what the Lord will help you with when you show him that you care and that your willing to give up something to receive something even greater! :)

 

1st story: okay.....Cory and Leslie probably already broke the horrible news to ya'll but ...... Me and sister Earl had BED BUGSSSSs!!!!! :( :( Transfers were last week so new missionaries were coming in and the Spanish sisters were getting an extra missionary who was waiting for her visa so they needed an extra mattress! And sister Earl had been sleeping on two so we told them that they could have it.  So when we were taking it off the bed we noticed bed bugs!!! I almost threw up it was so gross!!!!! So we had to throw away like everything! are beds, bed boards, couch, chairs and bags.  People are coming today to spray our house but we had to sleep on air mattress all week! haha it was like a little sleepover;) SO thankful for Cory and Leslie because they provided us with the air mattresses!

 

2nd Story: We went to Venus on Saturday!!!!!!!!  This was sooo crazy!! I was freaking out it was so weird to see the house!! So basically the people who live in grandma and grandpas house are coo coo kacho! They put up a fence around the house and put a speed limit sign on the street!! ...what? Way weird. But the house just looks so sad :( No one takes care of it. We knocked and tried to get this guy to come to church. haha didn't really work....But I saw Destine as well!! so WEIRD@!!! she's so old! AND Damen (her older brother) Lives in Arlington now and we met with him to catch up and WE ARE TEACHING HIM!!!!!! holy moly! There really is a reason I came back!!

 

3rd STORY!!! so there is this girl whose name is Kimberly!! and she is sooooooooooooooooooooooo cute! :) Adrian Titera called us up one day and was like hey! I know this girl who wants to be taught! So we met with her and she knows like everything about the church I swear she's already a member at the end of our first lesson she said "So when can I be baptized?" haha:) Next Saturday!! (July 13th) I'm so excited! WE finally have a baptism and its going to be so amazing :) The gospel is going to bring so much happiness into her life :)

 

I love you all!! and miss you like crazy! thank you for all the prayers they have been so much help:) Have an amazing forth of JULY!! :) Are ya'll doing anything fun?

 

THE GOSPEL IS TRUE! love you:)

xoxoxo -Sister Porter

 

ps. Can you send me more pictures? :) or email? I just want to see everyone and all the fun things ya'lll are doing!:)

pss. I still need the last four digits of my social so I can reactivate my card .... :)