Do you like Hip Hop?

I just read Winston's email and holy crap.  That guy is amazing.  Everyone go read all of his emails he's ever sent out ever.  I look up to him more than almost any person ever.  I hope I can develop that kind of love for the gospel and for our Savior.  He truly is an example to me.

This week was real neat.  I love transfer week because we usually get a roommate for the night.  The way we do transfers here is all those leaving just load up on a bus and it comes and drops people off at the main city.  We always get a roommate because we live so close to the church and a lot of times people need to stay the night before they get their new companion or go to their new area.  This week one of my favorite missionaries ever, Elder Oler, stayed with us. I knew him from when I was in Fort Stockton, he was in Mcamey and lived in a tiny trailer about 30 minutes away from where I was.  We spent all day on Tuesday reminiscing on Fort Stockton and the branch over there.  I forgot how much I loved it. Without fail ever person that stays here with us absolutely loves Odessa Spanish and offer to trade me places.  I really am so lucky and so blessed to have been trusted by the Lord to cover this area for so long!    I hope I can stay here for the rest of my mission.  I probably wont now that I just said that haha.

We picked up a new investigator this week named Veronica.  Holy crap, Veronica is extremely prepared. We had a killer lesson with her and she said some crazy things.  "I just don't feel like my church has authority from God to do what they do."  "I was baptized, but I don't think it's valid in God's eyes."  "When y'all talk I can feel the Holy Ghost.  I feel like it's true.  I haven't felt this feeling before."  Elder Gillette and I basically just sat there with our jaws hanging down, peeing our pants the whole time from the combination of being pumped and feeling the spirit.  IT was so good.  We are real happy to be teaching here now!  I'm real happy that there are still people here who need to be taught and who really are ready and willing to accept the Gospel, they just got to hear it!!  I can wait to go find more people in the weeks to come. 

The Odessa Stake had Stake Conference this week.  It was so good.  We get to go to the adult session now, it was only my second time ever.  So far I like the adult session a thousand times better than the Sunday deal.  It was SO good. Ever since Bednar came and instructed us I have really been trying to be taught by the spirit rather than by the words spoken and it sure happened this time!  I basically just learned that my will is dumb and I just need to submit to God.  "I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord"  is a theme, or pattern, that I was instructed on quite a bit.  At one point President Vore (the stake president) invited all the recent converts up to the front of the stage and had them all participate!!  Can you believe that?!  I would crap my pants of fear!  Frank went up there and said some really really good stuff (I had to translate for him).  Real bold move, President Vore, but a real real good one.  It turned out awesome. 

Anyway.  I love y'all so so so much!  Stay strong this week and enjoy life!  Be happy and serve someone:)

Love,

Elder Porter 

PS (From Kathy)I am attaching Winston's e-mail. It is truly amazing.  His mom explains a few things at the beginning.

I love this kid, Mom.  I am so blessed to have him as my friend!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Miwako Farley <miwakof@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, Feb 1, 2015 at 11:10 PM
Subject: Back to Every Week email Schedule!!
To: Miwako Farley <farleymiwako@gmail.com>

Dear family & friends,

   Winston finally came back to the main island (Tarawa) on January 19 after being on Onotoa for 6 months. Last Sunday we got to have our late Christmas skype for about a hour. It was so great!! He said it was so hard to say goodbye to the people on Onotoa. He is a ZL now and gets to drive a stick shift car having a mini culture shock. Let me share a few things from the skype before you can read his latest email. Please bare with me...

1.For 3 months until the middle of December they couldn’t get food shipment on the island because of the rough ocean. They were getting low on food. Winston and his companion would just drink water with some sugar and go all day without eating until dinner. They also had a drought so they couldn’t use water filter because the water was so low and there wasn’t enough water pressure. They had to boil water to drink and it tasted really bad. He got my package on the day it finally started to rain. Needless to say, they went crazy to see all these American candies and snacks to eat….

2. Originally he said he was going to be back on the main island at the end of December. The reason why it took so long was….1st week - The people on the island had a big farewell party for him.  The next day Winston and his comp went to the airport but the new elder wasn’t on the plane. 2nd week….They even had a bigger farewell party for Winston. This time everyone came to the airport to say good by to Winston. They didn’t have a room on the plane for this new elder on the main island so he couldn’t come again. When they found out everyone cheered that Winston was staying another week. 3rd week….The new elder came but there wasn’t room for Winston to get on the plane. 3 elders stayed in the small stick made shack for another week. Winston had to sleep outside. 4th week….Winston was finally able to fly back to the main island….Things move a bit slower there.

3. Some funny conversation - 

Mom (after finding out he has a bike there) “That’s nice you guys have a bike there." Winston, “Yeah, except it doesn’t have a saddle…”

Mom (after finding out Winston finally got a hair cut on Onotoa after his hair'd gotten pretty long) “Wow, that’s so nice you found a barber there.” Winston, “I wouldn’t call her a barber. She is more like a next door neighbor with scissors…”  

Anyways, thank you so much for sending letters and packages to him. He appreciates you so much. We are excited now that we can hear from him every week at least for a few months. . Have a great week. 

Hey Mom! Hey Clayton, "I ate 3 jimmie johns in l hour so whats up dog?"  

So I really don't know what to say or where to start because it has been so long, but I guess I will try my best.  So I got back from Onotoa on the 20 of January, and things here on Tarawa seem so foreign to me, for the last 7 months we have been sleeping in our buia and trying to be a branch president, it was so weird coming back to tarawa drinking cold water and sitting in a car with aircon, yesterday at church it was so strange having a bishop and an actual ward.  To be honest the first few days here I felt kind of lost because I had been in onotoa so long, but I think I have adjusted.  I will never forget the things I have learned and the experiences I have experienced.  My time in Onotoa I will truly cherish forever because I don't think I will ever be the same because of it, I learned so much about who I am and what I want to be, but more importantly what God wants me to be and what He wants me to become.  I am forever grateful for the time in Onotoa.  I will quickly describe a few experiences, so to the new food list I have now eaten, dog, jellyfish, stingray, hammerhead shark, seaturtle, raw sea worm, eel, hermitcrab, a 6 inch long fish throat, and rice, also I ate some cereal that I got in a package once.  ( thank you so much for all the letters and packages, shout out to, C.H. porter for the letters, Sis rees for the awesome cereal package, sis obrien for the great packages, and to you mom, for the neat Quad squad package.) ( and to you jacob c.r.s Hougaard for the many kindness.)  ( and to Pep for top right corner)  ( and to everyone for the great kindness and I love you all)  ( and to you clayton for the moldy sundried crunchy mullet in a bag you sent me last fall)  

  In the mean time, back in September i got a kid named elder Whitehead, we had some good times for sure, we basically tracted the whole island and the work was going way good, then in October we got kicked out of an islet because they decided that only Catholics were allowed. So there is a little causeway bridge out to this islet and we decided to go check it out because me and Elder matiare had some investigators there before, we showed up and all the villagers were just staring at  us from their houses, we showed up at one guys house and he told us that we were forbidden to enter that village, so me and whitehead jumped on our bikes and just raged, it was a law of the land that just one religion was allowed.  Other than that part of the island, everything else was going good though.  ( sorry, my english and grammar are probably very poor, sorry for the missspellings or the 4th grade level vocabulary.)  One time me and elder whitehead taught the mayors son, and we got the mayor to sit in, after they forced us to eat like 3 feet of eel skin because the meat had to many bones they said.  I will try to send pictures of our stick canopy we slept in or the place we did church.

      If you have any questions about onotoa please ask, I am sorry i don't have much time and I don't know what kind of stuff you want to hear, but I just want you to know that God's plan is perfect, I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever, that onotoa was where I belonged and needed to serve, the things I learned and the people I met have changed me forever.  There was one investigator in particular that I want to talk about, his name was Bwarai, he was 22 years old and every time we went to the north village we stopped to talk to him ( in attempts to gain his trust so he would feel comfortable taking lessons)  after about 3 weeks one day we saw him on the road and he said, elder farley, I want to take lessons, I asked my dad and I am ready.  I was so pumped, we began teaching him but we couldn't teach him in his house because he lived next door to the kpc( kiribati protestant church).  So we taught him at my other recent converts house.  As we began teaching him, he was made fun of, and mocked, from his family and friends, but as we continued to teach i saw a great change in him, he wasn't afraid or shy of what others thought, he knew it was the truth.  A few weeks later he was baptized and confirmed a member.  This man bwarai was a great example to me, I think for all of us.  In life we sometimes are so worried about what others think, or where we stand in comparison to others, or sometimes we get so preoccupied by such little things that we forget the thing that is most important.  the most important thing is that we have a loving Heavenly Father that loved us enough to send His beloved son, who loved us so much He gave His life for us.  that is the most important thing we all need to focus on, continuously repenting and worthily taking the sacrament to always remember Christ, remember His life, His teachings, His death, but most importantly remember that He lives, and that only through Him we will return to God and receive everlasting peace and Joy.  I testify that Christ is our Savior, and that He gave His life that we may find ours.  I love the Lord, and I love my mission more than anything on earth.  I love Kiribati so much and the people are just the best ever.  It was the hardest thing ever to leave onotoa, I cried like a baby, they were litterally my family.  I love you all and I am sorry if my email was not adequate or long enough for you mom, but I just want you to know that I am in good hands, Kiribati hands and God's hands.  Much love to you all 

elder Farley.