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Lots of funny things happen to me all the time,  I forget most of the funny stories even before I get to my journal at night, but I want to share a few that happened this past week that have stuck with me.  So Elder Martin and I stopped to talk to this guy who was playing basketball with his 8 year old nephew, the guy was trashy and drunk, but the kid was loving it.  As the conversation began to unfold we found out that he hated Catholics, but he worships Saint Michael, and he believes in Greek Mythology...and he's furious that no movie ever shows the Old Testament guy, Samson, as black.  I decided to tune out and bounce the ball around with the little kid.  We were playing around an all of a sudden he came up to me and showed me that the throw I just did made it land in some goat heads and it popped the ball.... -_-.  I ruined his day.  I felt terrible and as soon as I got to the truck I grabbed 10 dollars and ran back and gave it to him, trying to make some kind of restitution hahaha. 

Second story:  We stopped to get some gas before heading out to Carlsbad and we see this guy pull up in the stall thing right next to us.  As he pulled up he was grinning real big and shaking his head as if to say "heck yeah!" at us.  When he stopped he jumped out of his car and he was wearing a suit.  He came up and gave us a high 5 and yelled "Suits for life man!  I thought I would be the only one in the world wearing a suit today.  I'm so happy I saw y'all."  hahahahahahha..  What a good guy.  We didn't have the hear to tell him that that's all we wear!

 

My studies this week have been out of this world.  It is easily my favorite part of the day!  I wish I could study for 18 hours a day, but I only get one:(  Once again...prison sounds pretty nice for that aspect only;)  I have been in love with the scriptures recently and learning all about everything.  I've been doing some pretty deep studies from ALL of the standard works, its a dream.  I have even dedicated all me extra time (lunch hour, dinner hour, 7-8 AM, and calls at night) to studying haha.  It's only like 2hrs extra in total, but still. I love it!!  I have defiantly erence in the spirit since I've been doing it.  READ YOUR SCRIPTURES!

 

We had Zone Training this past week and I had to instruct again.   We were assigned a topic to teach and it was really hard this time, about cutting out casualness.  Correcting and enforcing have been the hardest part about leadership for me, cause I just want to be everyone's friend.  I figured out a way to teach that made a lot of sense to me, about the difference between a friend and a brother.  I got to tell lots of stories about all my buddies, my "brothers".  It went pretty well and the spirit was pretty strong.  Afterwards one of the APs raged on some of the missionaries for joking around, it kinda ruined everything, but it's whatever!  It was still good to teach:)

 

Anyway, I love you all so much!!  Enjoy the Kentucky Derby this week!!!!!! 

Love,

Elder Porter

Luke 7:41-43

This week we had interviews with President Augustin again!  IT was real nice.  Strange, though, cause it was over 6 months between the last two interviews and now we've had one this transfer and last.  It was real good talking to President, I learn so much every time I come in contact with him.  This time I decided to ask him a question that has been destroying me for forever.  In Luke 7:41-43 the Savior gives a real short, but pretty neat parable.  I've always been confused by the answer Peter gave, so I decided to ask president to help me out!  He told me to study some more and then ask the new mission president in 2 transfers..-_-..gah!!  I studied it a little and I think I am beginning to understand it more.  So the scripture compares 2 men who owe a master money, one 500 and the other 50.  The master forgives them both and the Lord and Peter say that the guy who owed 500 loved the master more.  That always seemed wrong to me.  I applied it to the Atonement and I always kinda took the view of "well, just because I don't sin as much so I don't need to use the Atonement as much makes me not love the Lord as much?"  then I would think "maybe that is why good people have so many trials, they need to have the equal chance to love the Lord."  Neither answer is acceptable to me.  So this is what I have come up with:  Christ suffered for all of us and for everything, no matter what the price.  We don't need to suffer or sin, though, to take advantage of the Atonement.  We can apply it every day and in everything.  It's as if the master in the parable had told the servants they could take as much as they wanted to, but he would only give it to them 10 at a time.  The 50 guy decided he only wanted 50 and went to the master 5 times, to get the money.  Each time he went he got to know the master a little better, they became more acquainted, but it only happened 5 times.  The 500 guy too more advantage by taking the 500, he went to the master 50 times to receive the money.  He got to know the master a lot more and therefor he loved him more. 
I know none of that is doctrine, but it makes sense to me.  We all have the equal chance to take advantage of the Atonement, to apply it each and every day.  The more acquainted we become with the Lord, through his Atonement, the more we will love him.  It doesn't matter how much we sin or how many trial we have because it is an infinite and eternal Atonement.  All we have to do is apply it!!  That's my conclusion.  I'm excited to find out what president thinks about it and even more excited to see what President Heap has to say about it!!!

Elder Martin and I have been going hard in the morning with the exercise.  We wake up at 6:15 and end at 6:45, that way I have time to take a nap before studies start...I can not make it through all 3 hours of studies without that nap!  haha.  We did a whole lot of running and cardio crap, it is pretty fun working out hard again, it's been a long time!!  We went on Saturday morning (6:00) and played football with the other elders.  IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!  It felt so good to be on a football field early in the morning, it made me miss football a whole bunch.  It rained like crazy on us as we played, it was a dream and a half. 

Easter was sweet.  Really, it was my first time spending a majority of my day actually focused on the Savior and the Resurrection, it was pretty nice!  There was a special spirit at church, even though I couldn't understand it haha.   Elder Martin's mom sent us some eggs to hide from each other, we hid them in the morning and we didn't find the last ones until late at night hahah.  IT was a lot of fun.  A real good holiday. 

WE bought pinewood derby kits from Hobby Lobby and have been carving a car with pocket knifes....I'll let you know how that goes when the story unfolds a little more. 

 

I love you all so much and miss you a ton!  Be safe and smooth and whatever:)

 

Love,

Elder Porter

Transfer Week

Transfer week as a zone leader is a whole new world. Even though I got to stay I still had to deal with everybody else leaving and coming and making sure things went smoothly.  They did:)  On Tuesday night we had 5 other missionaries staying at our apartment waiting to leave on the bus the next day.  That was real fun getting to know them better, there are a lot of good people out here.  The best part about this transfer though is that we got TWO trainees in the Zone now and they are BOTH IN HOBBS!  I love to be around the new missionaries, it is so cool to see them grow and to help them out and stuff.  I remember my first zone leaders, they were the coolest/best missionaries in the world as far as I was concerned, so I hope I can be that for the new ones here!  One is being trained in the Hobbs English area, he and his trainer white washed in.  That's what they call it when both missionaries are replaced.  He's poly, so its a dream. 

Also with transfers it means a lot of driving, at least this time it did. We drove just under 800 miles last week!  A member never showed up to take some new Carlsbad Elders out there, so we had to make the unexpected trip.  It was all good though because I got to go to BLAKES LOTABURGER!  We also had to drive out to Dexter (a little baby town in the middle of nowhere) to clean out an apartment cause we just closed the area.  Then we had to drive to Artesia to do a baptismal interview.  Those trips plus various trips to Eunice, Lovington, and Seminole made for a lot of tome on the road!  The highlight of those trips is when Elder Martin locked the keys in the car in Artesia at 8:00 at night.  Thank heavens there was a member there who had some tools to help us out.  We were late that night haha.

 

I had some real real good food this week.  I was pumped I got to go to Blake's. It was my first time there and it just made me feel like I was visiting Sarah.  It was pretty good, but I have a few suggestions, Scott:  I was pretty disappointed that breakfast ends at 11:00.  What is this?!  I just wanted to eat a burrito so I could compare it to Betos.  The green chili was DELICIOUS, though.   Some of the best I've had.  A perfect blend of spicy and flavor.  It was pretty cheap too, so that was pretty nice. I guess just the breakfast thing.  Get on that?  Thanks:) hahah/ 

 

I also ate at a place called Gator J's.  Now that was good.  It's just a little bitty trailer by our church that closes every weekend to go to Louisiana.  We heard it had pretty good onion rings, so we went to try.  I got a sampler plate that had catfish, gator, shrimp, jalapeno cornbread, fries, and onion rings.  All things were cooked Cajun style and holy crap it was tasty.  I was so full.  I think the best part was the catfish probably, who woulda thought?!

 

The work is still progressing.  It's slower, but still going on.  I don't have any stories or anything like that to share for this week, but we'll see for next week:)

 

I love you all so so so much!! 

 

Elder Caleb Porter

ps watch this video.  Mormon.org/becauseofhim 

 

Will you put this on my facebook, abby?  Thanks

Conference

First off, I want to apologize because I didn't make an outline for this email, so in other words it will probably suck haha.  I stayed up real late last night reporting numbers and then making sure all the area's in the zone got their transfer doctrine!  I'm staying in Hobbs with Elder Martin, so not much change for me.  I was hoping Stu or Tom would get transferred into my zone, but they aren't.  Boooo.  I just bought stake last week and my neighbor is teaching me how to BBQ real well, so I'm glad I'm not leaving!  

 

We had MLC again up in Lubbock this Friday, president hit me hard on my pride.  Then in conference I learned a lot about pride as well.  I have got a real problem with pride!!!  Not the kind of pride where I think I'm better than everybody(obviously I KNOW that is true), but where I don't accept the teachings and rules of those who are over me.  I thought I leaned this lesson with Bishop Brown already, that I just need to submit and accept that he is called of God, but I guess not!  I have a lot of problems with a lot of the rules that are being made here in the TLM.  I now realize that I'm just an idiot and I don't matter. I just need to follow them because they came from a man called of and inspired by God!  So that was a real good lesson. 

 

I started reading the Old Testament.  That is some good stuff.

 

Working with Elder Johnson in the trio has been pretty fun.  He has always hated the zone leaders, but now he understands what happens or'there in real life and he now respects us.  We worked extremely hard this week, mostly on his area since it's been kinda neglected for a while.  I got to speak a lot of English, it was nice!  We set a few bap dates and stuff, so he got to leave his area going strong.  He's a real good guy.

 

I got to watch most of conference in English, but there was one session where we had an investigator come, so we had to be in the Spanish translation place.  Luckily the chuch has little hearing aids that are hooked up to the main room, so I just slipped a couple of those babies in my ears and got to watch English anyway!!  Yippee.

 

....I think that's it...

 

 

I love y'all so much!!  Have an amazing week.

 

Love,

Elder Tatabug

Guess what!  Isa got her mission call!!  She's going to Cleveland, Ohio in the Kirkland visitors center.  How cool is that?! 

Good News?

I don't actually have much good news...I don't have bad news either, just normal news:)  I just still struggle with coming up with a subject hahah. 

 

One missionary out here that I have really enjoyed getting to know and that I respect a lot is a guy named Elder Wells.  He is an animal.  Easily one of the nicest, most sincere guys I have ever met.  He made me feel so appreciated!  I love Elder Wells.  He went home for a knee problem about a year ago and came back out, which is rare, working hard.  The only thing is that he hurt his back pretty bad at home!  He didn't tell anyone and just worked though the pain.  This last transfer it has been KILLING him.  He had to spend most of the day inside, everyday.  I felt so bad for him, but it was really nice for me.  It helped me just get over my crap!!! Haha.  Anyway, he ended up going home on Wednesday this week, just 2 transfers early.  So now Elder Martin and I have a new companion for the last week of the transfer!  Elder Johnson!  He's a huge guy, real lovable. He loves to cook and to learn, so he is really fun to talk to!  We cover his area now, too.  That means that we cover Hobbs Spanish (he doesn't speak Spanish at all haha) and Hobbs South!  I get to teach English lessons again!!:) I love English things.  I love Spanish too, don't get me wrong, but sometimes English is real nice. 

 

In other news... I got some new cowboy boots!!  Man, they are sooooooo SICK. I love them with my whole heart. I got them for cheap.  We aren't allowed to wear boots anywhere outside in our mission though, so I just wear them when I am inside.  Easily the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn.  No doubt I'll rep them everywhere at home:)  Transfers are next week, so that is exciting!  I think I'll probably stay here, I hope so at least!!  Also, I peed over one and a half gallons in one day.....don't ask how I know or why I decided to find out. It was a funny weekly planning session, lets just say that.

 

GENERAL CONFERENCE IS COMING UP!!  I am so excited!  The best time of my life!  Haha I am so excited to receive instruction directly from the modern day prophet!!  THAT IS SO COOL!  DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW COOL THAT IS?!  No one else knows about that...gah!  I hope I get to watch it in English though....  Enjoy it ok?  I sure will. 

 

Love ya!!

 

Elder Porter