Halloween

Thank you so much for the mini bible and case, it is exactly what I needed! I don't like to put a ton of things in my back pack because my back always hurts by the end of the day, the mini's have made a huge difference already though!:) I use giant scriptures when I study, the real big print, to help my focus I guess hahah. One thing about Texas is that everyone knows their Bible! Its a little frustrating at times, but I am pumped about it too. I have had to learn a lot of Bible Scriptures and stories...way more than someone serving outside of the Bible-belt. I'm pleased with it! Fort Stockton changed Halloween to October 26 to "keep the children safe" I don't even know why changing the date would do anything. We had to stay inside after 6 though, so we didn't bug anyone too much I guess. At 6 pm we heard a real loud siren (I really have no Idea how to spell that) and another one at 9. We are pretty sure they were the signs for tricker treaters to know when to start and stop. We didn't see any trick or treaters though, they avoid our part of town because its dark, dirty, and dangerous at night hahah. Whatever though, we were prepared to give them pass-along cards! While we were inside I found a way sweet book that had a bunch of codes in it so now I'm re learning Morse Code! I bet you didn't know I learned it once...tehe. I have recently been studying about Caleb, in the Bible. He is so SICK! I really really love my name, so thanks mom and dad:) He had so much faith in what he could do with the Lord's help. In Numbers 13:30 he just power house's the people and says "We can overcome it" and then in 14:24 (the one Ben wrote on my tie) he just gets rewarded. I LOVE that kind of faith. Abby told me that Caleb means something about courage in hard times, or something like that. Its so cake to have courage when you know that Heavenly Father is on your side! Everything is easy. This week we met a sick black guy named Caleb. I asked if he knew about Caleb in the Bible, he didn't. As I told him I felt prompted to promise him a similar promise as in 14:24...that if he had faith, if he could get the different spirit and keep it with him (through talking to us and coming to church) he'd be able to overcome whatever trials he had at that time. It was a pretty powerful moment! He wants to meet with us and come to church, but he's under house arrest for the next month...hahahhaha. We keep in daily contact though, so we will see how that goes! WE GET TO GO TO THE TEMPLE!! None of the missionaries have ever been able to go to the temple before, there are just too many of us. But it is finally happening! Our district gets to head up to Lubbock on Wednesday night to go to the 6:00 PM session. I am so pumoed, I LOVE THE TEMPLE! I went at least once a week all summer long, but its been about 9 weeks since I've been last so I'm pumped. I can finally show off my tie!! That night we are gonna sleep in President Augustin's house and come back Thursday morning...I am so happy:) This week was Homecoming at the high school. No one would meet with us on Thursday night because there was a parade. So we went to the parade! It was HUGE! Every single person in the town was there. A real mad house. I loved it though. AND we talked to like 40 new people and set up 20 lessons. So it was a VERY fruitful night. Right after the parade they had a bon fire. I stack of pallets like 40 feet high covered in gassoline. It was a DREAM! I love fire haha. Anyway. I love all y'all so much and miss ya lots! I love to show off our giant family picture and I talk about y'all all the time! Be safe trick or treating. Have fun at school or work. That was the sickest costume ever Joe and Andy...unreal. Haha. I love you!!! Elder Cae

Chivitos

That is a pretty solid subject line.  It means little goats.  One of the less actives we have been meeting with a lot is a mexican farmer and his chivo had 3 babies on Thursday.  He called us and was super pumped about it, so of course that night we had to go look at them!  He named them Jorgina, Alexandria, and Nathan...Nathan is a white goat so he named it a white name haha.  Just a funny story from this week!

 

Every week before I write y'all I make an out line, so I can utilize my time effectivley.  I really had no idea what to say at first!  I thought of some stuff later on but it didn't make the outline.  So sorry if this is a little unorganized!!  I hope all is well at home, I'm sure they are.  Hannah is moving..boo.  I have a couple friends serving in North Carolina so invite the missionaries over and feed them :).  Dad, you said in your email that you try to have 30 lessons a week (as in your missionaries)?!?!  That would be a dream.  We have like 8 a week some weeks haha, goood stuff!  I guess member missionary work really does help things out!  We wouldn't know out here since we only have 1 member who will ever help us out with anything hahah.

 

The work is going well though, I'm still loving every second of it!  We are teaching a lady named Jennifer, she is a full blown Jehovah's Witness, the first one who didn't tell us we were just digging our own way down to Hell haha.  She knows so so so much about the Bible, but is surprisingly willing to learn about the BOM!  We teach her twice a week and she comes to church, but her mom is getting furious about it.  I guess that is what you get when you still live at home at 33.  We met a budding family this week and began teaching.  Brent and Adrian with their 4 kids.  The lesson we had went so so well, the Spirit was just bearing pure witness all day long.  This is what she texted us that night "Oh my gosh guys, that book you gave me is so AWESOME!  I have been reading it all day.  I also looked up some history about the Mormons, they went through some really hard stuff.  I started to pray and ask God how anyone could go through so much trouble and I knew the answer before I finished asking...its TRUE!"  So like....that is a pretty unheard of experience. 

 We spend a lot of time at this one Apartment, it is absolutely trash.  Everyone who lives there is in an out of jail or has CPS called on them every other day, but there is also a lot of humility, so we teach quite a bit there.  Every time I walk up to them I get stormed by little kids.  There are like 20 kids from 2-7 who just attack me because I always give them pass-along cards.  I really love it!  Haha.  Makes me miss y'all though.

 

When transfers come we have to stay up and wait for the AP's to call us and let us know.  The calls came at 12:48 on Saturday night..booo.  Elder Greenman and myself are staying here in FT. ST. but Elder Moyer got transferred to a little baby town called Mccamey. He's gonna be living in a trailer!!   I think that would be a dream.  This transfer went pretty well, I'll send mom a letter that has all my progress recorded.  I FINISHED 1 NEPHI IN SPANISH! hahaha.  It took me an entire transfer.  At this rate I'll be done in May so...that is pretty sweet!

 

Anyway, I better head.  I love you all A LOT.  And I miss you all a lot too.  For real.  But I'm surviving, hope you are too:)  LOVE YOU!

 

The Church Guy

 

P.S.  Mom...I have some requests:)  If you can find my mini scripture case (the brown one) and my mini bible (KJV)  I would really REALLY appreciate it if you could send me that.  Also I would love a picture of my back x-rays (since its almost been a year!).  I love love love you so much.

P-day adventures.

The usual.

It was freezing this week.

 

Love ya!

Columbus Day Made me Late!

Sorry I couldn't email you yesterday.  The Library was closed for Columbus Day! #americanmissionaryprobs.

It was my birthday!  I had such a great day, easily one of my favorite birthdays ever!  Thank you all so so much for the letters or emails!  It really made my whole week special since they were all coming at different times!:)  And Ab...that Pirate Telescope is a dream.  I read scriptures from across the room now!  I started off the day down in Alpine (I'll tell you more about that) and taught some sweet lessons with Elder Carlile, another Elder in the District.  We biked 7 miles in the heat to get to one of the lessons, it was so sick.  Then we (Elder Moyer and Greenman and I) headed back up to FT. St.  We had a lesson with a Less Active family, the Hernandez family.  They have 3 little kids who are SO cool and I just love talking to them!  After we had a short lesson about the Temple they turned off all the lights and brought out a big ol cake for me.  It was such a suprise haha.  It is a Mexican tradition to smash the person's face into the cake on their birthday.  Even though I am a missionary they didn't want to bread tradition...:)  Yesterday we went to the Michie's house.  They are Senior Missionaries here, acting as Branch President.  They cooked us Lobster and some other pretty ellegant stuff and then we played games!  It felt just like home with the family, except more quiet haha.  So all and all...it was an AMAZING birthweek!  AND I"M 19!  WOW.

We had "exchanges"  this week.  So I went up and spent a day with Elder Carlile in Alpine and his two companions took my place in Fort Stockton.  Alpine is actually kinda pretty!  It reminds me of that tiny town Grampa Zeigler lives in haha.  It has mountains and stuff, but they still are dry and ugly looking, and it is a tiny town as well!  There is a Texas State College out there, Sul Ross, the students there make up most of the population.  It was actually a really really nice looking college as well.  We spent most of our time out there knocking on people's doors!  We dont do that much in FT. St because every house has been knocked a million times.  I had a great time!  I think it is so fun to just talk to random people and maybe even getting to speak some Spanish!:)

This week, as far as numbers go, was the worst week EVER!  Haha.  We were working so so hard all week but we only taught 1 lesson, 0 member presents, and 2 less actives visited.  It was pretty bad and we were confused casue we were working like warhourses!  It all pays off though!  On Sunday we had 6 investigators at church and 2 less actives.  It was a dream.  And then that night we met a girl who accepted a challenge for baptism.  HARD WORK PAYS OFF!  I think that is easily something I have learned a lot of out here.  The Lord blesses us for our work.  It is found all over in the scriptures (I have been studying it a lot).  Whenever a new group breakes out in the BOM, like when Nephi seperates from his brothers after they get out here, the first thing they do is become "industrious".  I think it is pretty cool that so many blessings come just from working hard.

I love love love it out here still!  MY first transfer ends on Saturday and that is when we will see if anything is gonna change.  Since I'm still being trained I doubt anything will, but after the NEXT transfer (6 weeks)  it might! Thank you all so so much again for the birthday stuff and for just being my family!  I think about ya'll so much and I miss you a ton.  So I guess thanks for just being there.  You make me happy:)

I love you so much and will talk to you in ~6~ days:)

Love,

ELDER CALEB HYRUM PORTER

family pictures *(Sarah's gift for me was moustaches)

Cake face

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 

Love you mom!

I eat fruit too, Mom! Even though they are so expensive...

Hello All!!

 

How about that General Conference huh?!  So so SO good!  I have soem great news about that...it was my first GC ever watched where I actually stayed up for the whole thing!! Hahaha.  It was still so hard.  I doubt I'll ever make it through another one after my mission.  Of course every time the choir was singing I was looking for Tyler, cause I feel famous when I find him.  Usually it's pretty easy because he's the only bald one.  But this year...THERE ARE SO MANY BALD MEN!  I laughed to myself and wondered if Dad noticed the same thing haha.  Don't worry though, I did find him several times:)  Also I realized how much of a family event conference is to me!  It felt so weird not to be with ya'll!  I missed the Conference Salad after the Saturday morning session and I ABSOLUTLY missed going to Priesthood with Dad (even though they had ice cream after out here).  It's just not the same without family!

 

We teach all of our investigators to bring a question to conference and we promise that it will be answered.  I know this is true, it's a Prophet of God talking, how could he not answer your question?!  But I have never done it...duh.  So I decided to this time!  My question was "How can I be successful"  I was hoping for like a formula or something.  I've been studying about it a lot.  People say its hard work, but I don't believe it after seeing all the poor and sad oil workers out here.  So that was my question.  IT WAS ANSWERED!  Kinda.  I came away with a contract I wrote myself about putting my family first.  My mind is still being blown by all of my thoughts and stuff, but I decided that my family is way way WAY more important than success.  Obviously!!  So...yeah.  You are all #1!  Tell my wife and kids that too whenever that starts to happen...

 

NOW.  Here is the whole point of this letter.  But first.  Sorry mom and dad, I'm sure you dont want to hear about this story, but just know I am ok!  Hahah.  On Thursday we were biking around, as usual.  Elder Greenman's tire popped so we were walking home.  It was around 8:30 PM by this time.  We had had a way great day so I was pretty happy and excited.  Obviously all this excitement lead to us trying to do wheelies!!!  I started to get it down.  I had it to where I could go like 50 feet on just my back tire!  It was all good and I was pumped and then...I got hit by a car.  Hahahahhahahha.  Well, kinda.  I was going and a member saw us and was driving up to say hello,  she saw me on my back wheel and she was suprised, so she accelerated a little bit  (I guess that is what you do when you get supprised).  Our front tires crashed into eachother.  She stopped and I flew forward and slid across the car's hood.  It was the sickest thing I have ever done.  I'm sure that to anyone watching they would have though I was the next Jason Bourn.  All is good though, I wasn't hurt at all and her car is fine!  My front tire was a little bent, but luckily I have my brother;s and dad's blood in me!  I fixed it up real good.:)  I thought it was awesome though, so I told ya!

 

In other news: 

I have only used chop-sticks for the past week.  No spoons or forks.  It has been hilarous and I have loved it quite a bit.  My hand is getting stronger and pretty soon I'll be catching flys just like in Karate Kid. 

Today at walmart the cashier called my a smart shopper.  So..you raised me well mom.

Dad asked some questions, and I finally remembered to bring them, so I will answer.  I eat really good, despite what mom thinks.  I get the healthiest choise of everything there is and I eat a lot of fruit.  I get $135 a month and so far its been more than sufficient.  We can drive 1100 miles each month, but we only use around 500.  No iPads:(  We email at the library, yes.  I have pleanty in my bank account at home.  I think mom know my info but if not...I think I know it too haha.Spanish study every day for an hour!  Real missionary life is a bagiahkillion times better than the MTC.  And Mosiah14:24 is my favorite scripture!  I'm pretty sure that is all for now.

 

I love you so  much!

 

P.S. Hannah, those books you sent me?  Wow.  Pretty much changed my life haha.  I love them so much!  Exactly what I wanted (even though I didn't know it).  So thank you so much!

 

And I got the package from you mom, I don't know what's in it cause its in the car, but thanks for that too;)  I love it!  haha. 

 

I miss you and will talk to ya next week! 

 

~Elder (almost 19 year old) Porter

Me.  alive and eating with the sicks. 

The sky right before I got pinned by the car.