Warm!

Caleb Porter	2:47 PM (1 hour ago)
to me

This week was a BLESSING!!  It never got below 50, I think, and we had temperatures up to 90!  Oh my gosh, it felt SO good.  Finally after enduring all that crappy cold we get some warmth and some good finds!  Since it was so warm outside, everyone was out!  In each mission there are a set list of goals for, its call the Standard of Excellence.  The Standard amount of finds (talking to random people, not including knocking) is 70 people.  That is 70 souls touched and 70 souls given an opportunity to accept the Restored Gospel.  Before this last week the most I have ever had was 50, and that was an unreal week.  In Seminole the missionaries usually get 20 or so but....WE GOT 70!  IT was insane.  Since we don't have any investigators we were able to spend a lot of time just biking around, it was so nice!  The first 56 weren't really interested, and that was a little discouraging, but on Sunday we set the goal to get 14 for that day and we reached it AND at least 10 of them were actually interested!  Oh my gosh, it was so amazing.  I look forward to this next week to teach them all.  Obedience=Blessings.

I was thinking about some of the advice I got before I left on my mission, trying to decide what has helped me the most.  I decided it was Mom's advice to SMILE!  Attitude is a straight choice, every day.  We have been given an amazing gift of AGENCY.  We can choose every day to be happy and to smile.  I love that.  If we can be happy, then what else matters?  I'm talking true happiness here, none of that Satan's counterfeit crap.  Even though the mission is so hard...it is SO sweet.  I love it!  EASILY the happiest time of my life so far.  I am grateful for that choice I get to make everyday of whether or not I want to have a good day or a bad day.  So anyway...SMILE!

P-Day last week was a dream.  The internet was down in Lamesa, a small town 30 miles from Seminole, so the elders there got to come down to Seminole for the day.  This was the first time I've had more than just my companion on P-day.  So what did we do??  We played ball.  IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!  3 hours of basketball on some random court outside a school in the freezing cold and I was in heaven.  I am the worst basketball player in the universe, but I love it so much!!  Elder Ross, one of the elders from Lamesa, is from Morgan Utah and probably knows all our family out there...I don't know any of them so we aren't sure haha.  I miss sports a lot though!  man, it was sweet. 

Thank you so much Mom, for the Valentines package, I gained like 6 pounds from it!  Haha.  Thanks Ben's family and Joe's family for the Valentines stuff as well!  I am so blessed.  Love you all and have a good week:)

Elder Porter