1 year

Holy CRAP!!  One year ago on Thursday I entered into the MTC (for the first time)!  I can NOT even believe that it has been one entire year since all this started!  Time flies by real quick.  Time on the mission is pretty weird.  When I was in the MTC the days went by long and the weeks went by long.  In training and a little bit after that the days went by long but the weeks went by fast.  Now the days are short and the weeks are short!  I've already been in Odessa for five weeks (well, this is week 5)  That is SO insane.  I'm pumped time is going fast, cause I miss all y'all, but I'm even more pumped that I still have a year, cause I don't want to be done!  Weird concept haha.  I still have a year full of so much good stuff, so I'm pumped. 

We talked to a Jew this week, the first non messianic-Jew I've talked to.  He's full on orthodox.  I had a ton of questions about what they believe and how they worshiped and stuff so we spent a good 10 minutes talking about all that.  It made me sick.  I felt so sad for the guy.  Orthodox Jew means he's hardcore, same as the Pharisees, that means he doesn't believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  Everything inside me wanted to give him the testimony I have of the Savior and his Atonement, but nothing I said did anything. He started to get kinda rude so I just asked him if before we left if I could share my testimony about what I know to be true.  He allowed it.  I quoted the Living Christ to him.  I memorized it at Christmas and I was so grateful I was able to use it at that moment.  The guy is still a Jew and still not interested, but I think that experience made my testimony a little bit stronger. Now I understand why The Living Christ was even written, it really is a great testimony and document of TRUTH!!

Church in a Spanish Branch is really funny.  Sunday is always interesting.  Half the time the assigned speakers don't show up, but it's no big deal because it's expected to happen!  The Branch President always has a back up assigned hahah.  A lot of the people, when they give their talks or testimonies, have to ask the congregation how to say certain words in Spanish!!  This last week a woman was talking about Girls Camp and couldn't figure out how to say what she wanted to say, so she just said the sentence in English and the congregation as a whole yelled back the phrase in Spanish!  It's priceless.  There are only a few members who don't speak English at all, for the most part its just Mexican who want to stick with their culture.  I hear some of the most fluent Spanglish ever during church.  "Y sabia que my prayer was answered y que Dios loves us."  "Uno tiene que wantar salvacion (wantar isn't a word.  It's just want with a Spanish ar at the end haha)"  It is so cool.  I don't even care how well I learn Spanish, as long as I can speak some good Spanglish. 

We saw miracles this week after our real dry week last week.  We taught quite a few lessons and have 4 new investigators.  We will keep working hard and the Milagros will keep coming!!  I am so grateful for this work and I know that God is in charge. We really are just tools  in his hands.  I hope I can always be counted on to get the job done when I am needed. I love you all so so much and I'll talk to ya later!

LOVE,  CALEB!

Week

We had Zone Conference this last week, the last one ever for President Augustin.  Man, that guy is one amazing guy and I am so grateful for his service here!  He has no doubt changed my life and my thought process. His big thing throughout his time here was teaching us to always face the Lord.  He gives an analogy of standing on the stand at church and looking out to the congregation, the world. As a leader or just a member we often times want to do the "popular" thing, we want the approval of those that we are facing!  But, the then explains that as we turn around from the congregation, the Lord and the Prophets and Apostles are sitting on the choir seats.  We need to decide which way we are gonna face, the world, or the Lord.  I didn't explain it really well in my rushed emailing, but it had helped me grow a whole lot!  Popularity<Integrity.

In church we heard a Hermana give her testimony about her conversion, it was really cool so I want to share it with y'all as well.   She is from Mexico, duh, but had lived a lot of her life in El Paso, so she could speak English real well/  She made her living by being a private tutor for those who wanted to learn Spanish.  She talked about a couple who had just moved down to her city and wanted to learn Spanish, so she told them to pick a book to study, just a normal book to read.  She did this with all her students, she just read with them and helped them talk or whatever.  This new family picked to study the book of Mormon.  After a few months, this woman stopped the lesson and asked the family about the book.  She began to weep as she explained that the moment she started to read it with them she felt her life light up and she saw a light in the family and she wanted to learn more!  She was baptized and now is our relief society president.  The book of Mormon really is such a powerful book  I am really grateful that we have that evidence of the message of the restored gospel and of God's love.  I definitely can feel the spirit every time I read it.  Whenever my day had been bad or sad or whatever, I just take time to read a chapter and it just makes everything ok.  It's like the Atonement on paper! Anyway, read the book of Mormon!

We didn't teach a single lesson this week!  There was nothing going on.  Ever lesson we had set up canceled or punched, so we didn't teach once.  I definitely didn't feel like it though!  We really are working so so hard, so every day I feel so good about the work we did.  I never once felt down about not  teaching, I didn't even realize till last night.  I am confident that the blessings will come soon enough, well I guess the blessings are already here!  I feel so happy and am growing a lot, so I guess that is good enough:)

Love you all so much!!

Elder Porter

the work is true

We have seen miracles this week!  I love every second of my missionary work right now.  On Friday we decided our efforts for finding people, which consisted of mainly morning finding, wasn't as effective as we had hoped and we decided to move our efforts in another direction.  Our Area Book is huge because it has so many former investigators, but it is EXTREMELLY unorganized.  We spent virtually the entire day on Friday taking it apart, going through the formers and organizing it, throwing away people who had moved or placing them in a pile according to their area of the city.  After we had 4 piles, for the 4 English area's of Odessa, we went to work calling them!  I called probably more than 100 numbers.  Most of the numbers were incorrect, didn't exist or had since changed, but SO many amazing things happened from this effort!

I called a guy, Juan, who had investigated the church 9 YEARS AGO.  When he answered the phone I asked him if he remembered talking with missionaries so long ago, his voice lit up and sounded real excited when he asked me if we were from the Catholic Church.  I assumed he was hoping we were, but when I told him "no, we're the Mormons" (I had previously stated the true name for the Church) he got even more excited!  It turns out that 9 years ago, when he met with missionaries he loved what he heard, but for some reason he had lost contact with the missionaries.  Now here we are!!  We set up a lesson to go bytomorrow night and we have real high hopes for the lesson.

Another miracle that happened is just now beginning to unfold,  literally, as we speak we have a text from this kid!  One of the very first numbers I called, looking for a 60 year old woman named Maria, a kid named Andy answered.  I was a little confused so I kinda awkwardly announced that I was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and that we were looking for service to do.  He told me that because he was young enough, he could do all that his family needs, but he was curious about what kind of service I answered because he knew some people who could use some help.  I told him that as a missionary, my main purpose was to teach about Jesus Christ, in hopes to bring a few people to the level of knowledge and happiness that I have, but that we also offer all kinds of services.  He was so pumped!!  He wasn't interested, but he said he had a whole lot of friends who could use our help and that he would call us if some people to try by.  This morning we got a text at 9:00 asking for me.  He just told us, 20 minutes ago, that ever since Friday he has been thinking about his situation in life, he said that as he's thought, he's realized that he needs Jesus now, more than ever before in his life.  He is begging to hang out with the wrong crowd and is becoming worried for the salvation of his soul.  He told us that he thinks the call on Friday, the wrong number call, was a sign from God that he needs to take!  I am so so happy to be a tool in God's hands in this missionary work!!!!  I won't be able to teach Andy, because he is English, but I am confident that he will accept this Gospel and make the appropriate changes in his life.

I still love the crap out of Odessa, it is a great place full of great people.  It is becoming easier and easier for me to love the people and therefore we are becoming more and more effective missionaries.

We have Zone Conference this week and I don't have to do anything for it!!  That is real nice:)  I do get to see Elder Nelson, though!  If you don't remember, he's the missionary I trained.  Anyway.  I love y'all to bits.  Have a real great week and I love you so much!!

Love,

Elder Porter

                                                        Caleb and Thomas,

                                                                    Elder Heaps

                                                      Streets of Odessa

                                                             More streets (rivers) of Odessa

Odessa

Odessa is a dream!!  I love it so so so much!  This past week has been the best week of my mission.  I have so much fun.  Elder Heaps, my comp, is the funniest guy around.  He and I would be real good friends back in high school, if he didn't live in Toole. He reminds me A LOT of Kendell (I have no idea if I spelled it right.  My Brother In Law.)  He's like 6 3 and drinks out of giant cups and tells a ton of funny stories.  We work real well together.  There is a ton of Spanish here in Odessa, but the city is HUGE!!  I don't know if I'll ever learn the streets, haha.  The Oil field is booming though, so the Spanish is way up.  It is gonna be a great transfer.

We live with a member named Brother Kelly.  This guy is the funniest/weirdest/coolest guy ever.  He buys us a ton of stuff and is just so nice.  We aren't separated from him at all, like we eat dinner with him and things like that.  He has only been a member for 12 years or so, but his testimony is astounding.  He usually just sits there and pretends we aren't there, apparently most of the missionaries in the past have never really talked to him much, but that is no so with me!  I ask him questions constantly.  He showed me his giant stamp collection and got me pumped to look forward to the new stamps next month, haha.  He is a passionate scouter...I don't have the heart to tell him I detest scouting, I'm pretty good at faking interest in that though.  Two nights in a row we have stayed up till about 11:30 have a real good doctrinal discussion.  I have already learned SO much.  I am absolutely blessed to have made this new friend.

ELDER TOM WHATCOTT is here in Odessa!  Every morning at 6:15 we play some kind of sport because there are so many companionships here, so I get to see him EVERYDAY!!!  It is so nice.  I love that kid so much.  He's a killer missionary.  Gah, I am just excited about this transfer.

PS.  My address is:  4215 E. Everglade.  Odessa, TX 79762.

It rained a ton this last week and Odessa has TERRIBLE streets, especially the one we live on.  It created a river in almost every street.  It is was real fun to walk though, haha. 

We have 0 investigators right now, so I get to apply what I know best!  Finding.  Elder Heaps is down to go hard finding, so that's about all we do.  We set specific goals for each day and each hour and report them to our DL.  So far it has improved our effectiveness ten fold and we are already beginning to see miracles.  The work here will explode shortly, it always does:)

I am so happy about this new change.  I hope y'all are doing well and having fun.  I love you so so so so much!! 

Love,

Caleb Porter

(This is Kathy.  There are pictures but I can't figure out hoe to post them with my iPad from Maine so I will add them to next weeks post.  Sorry)

New

I am being transferred!!  I'm released as a Zone Leader and going to Odessa to serve in the Spanish Branch there with Elder Heaps!  YAY!  I'm so excited.  I don't want to leave though, things just finally started to pick up!  Odessa will be fun though:)

 

This week we taught a depressed 13 year old kid.  His whole family hates him, basically, and that is why he's depressed.  His parents and g-parents are Less Active members, but they didn't talk to us at all, just him.  It was such a sweet lesson!  We just read Enos 1, the first few verses, he was pretty confused about what it meant so I just explained it in my own words and asked some questions and got him PUMPED about prayer.  He didn't really understand why prayer is important, but now he does!  He asked us what to pray for and we told him to pray to ask God to show him a special gift or talent that he has, then to open up the scriptures and read a page.  We promised him that if he did that every day for a week he would know for sure that he is a son of God and that he has a special, God-given gift.  It was a really fun lesson to teach/

 

We get referrals from time to time from some of the other missionaries in Hobbs, just people who don't speak English, but seem eager to learn.  The sisters sent us to some lady named Lorena.  When we went to contact her we couldn't find the house because of faulty directions, of course, but after a few calls we figured it out.  We went up and contacted this lady and it turns out that she is SUPER PREPARED!  She's just been searching her face off to find truth. At first she though we were JW and she still talked to us...you know it must be an honest search if they are willin to talk to JWs.  After all was said and done it turned out to be the WRONG HOUSE AND THE WRONG WOMAN!!  That is a testimony to me that God has a real perfect plan.  No coincidence.  She'll be baptized soon enough, no doubt.

 

Our branch president called us on Tuesday and asked us to prepare a talk for sunday.  It was just gonna be back up, in case the members didn't show up. That is Spanish culture for ya, members don't show up the day of a talk, it happens all the time.  So anyway, we didn't prepare one....  Come Sunday and the member WASN'T THERE!  We had 3 minutes while the youth speaker spoke to prepare.  We each gave 15 minute talks, with 3 minutes to prepare, IN SPANISH!  Man, it was a miracle.

 

We are teaching a Part Member family right now, well 3 families actually.  One of them is this life long member named Denisse and her husband.  They have been married for only like 2 years, but he has never shown interest.  Finally he agreed to meet with us.  The lesson was killer and then on sunday she basically sprinted up to us and told us that he had been reading and seemed real interested.  She is SO happy and SO excited.  Easily that is one of the most rewarding things I have done on my mission.  We've only taught him once, but already she has so much joy and hope!  We truly are workers of salvation!:) 

 

Anyway, I love y'all so much!  I hope this week goes real good and that y'all are happy:)

 

Love,

Elder Caleb Porter

Hindsight is 20/20

Wow!  It was really really good to see y'all and talk to you for a little bit yesterday!  Easily the fastest 45 minutes of my entire life.  I love you all so much!!!   In the excitement of things I forgot to write a rough draft for this email, so it's gonna be a short and messy one:)

 

On Monday we had big plans to go to the racquetball court and play a few hours of some good ball.  I got excited and remembered when me and my buddies got up at 5:30 every Tuesday before my surgery to play, that was good times.  There were no computers available in the computer lab and then the other Elders needed a haircut, so it didn't happen....maybe today. I got a hair cut as well, I cut it myself, as always. It looks real good, I imagine Adolf Hitler would be proud of it.  I don't know if you could tell via facetime, but I was reppin Nazi style:)

 

On Tuesday we went down to Carlsbad to move the east elders.  Their new apartment is AMAZING!  It has two stories, like ours, but is a lot bigger.  That isn't even the best part though.  They are RIGHT on the Pecos River.  Now, in Ft. Stockton the Pecos was just a dirt place, but that is not so in Carlsbad.  IT looked like Lake Powell.  Huge.  All I wanted to do was jump in!  It's a good think I don't live there. I guess it's truth when we're told that we wont be tempted above what we can handle, cause if I lived there I would swim so...   The move went real good though, it felt good to do physical labor.  Carlsbad is a beautiful place.  They even have 2 wards and a Spanish Branch!!

 

Wednesday was a surprise Zone Training.  I taught about the Power and Authority of the priesthood.  I used 22 scriptures and all 4 standard works.  It was so sweet!  I felt the Spirit guide my words and thoughts, no doubt.  I focused on how each of us, especially as missionaries, even the sisters, have so much divine potential with the Priesthood power we have access to.  We can do all the Savior did, as far as miracles, and even more. It just takes faith and diligence and a bunch of other stuff, I guess.  We had a really good discussion about it all and each companionship has commented about the excitement it gave them for the work.  Excitement is what I was hoping to instill, it's something that is so crucial in missionary work, yet it is something that it so hard to maintain!!  It went well though, got me pumped, that's for sure.

 

Thursday was Temple day and boy, was that amazing.  Go to the temple all the time, it's the best thing ever. 

 

Friday was normal and so was Saturday.  Then on Sunday I talked to y'all!

I don't really have much else to say for this week, sorry!  I love you all so much and I really was so happy to see you.  I cant believe how different things are in just a year!  It's exciting to think about what one more year will bring:) 

 

LOVE YOU!

 

P.S. Good work Ab!  Congrats:)  Redd is real neat.  I'm his favorite uncle.

 Elder England (I think)(Kinda Looks like the FBI.. Moms comment)

Elder Martin

Pecos River behind the Elders' house in Carlsbad

Wildeyed at training meeting

Darkies are Gay

I had to say that ^ in honor of the Kentucky Derby.  I didn't win:(  I picked Dance With Fate, who got third, so I'm told. I didn't get to watch it, which is probably a good thing.  But I had a member tell me the second the race was over.  I was so excited all day!!

 

Picture this:  You're a young Donny Osmond, 14 or so.  You walk out on stage, microphone in hand, and the ladies begin to SCREAM!  "We love you Donny!!!" You reach into your back pocket and grab a comb, brush through your hair a couple times and the ladies go even more wild.  Then the music starts, you take a big breath in and begin to sing.  "and they call it.....PUPPY CHOW"

 

That was the end of that visual.  Elder Martin made puppy chow this last week and that was all I could think of.  I know the real words are puppy love, but that isn't fun at all.  Elder Martin's puppy chow sucks compared to ours.  He uses half the amount of everything, except for Chex.  There aren't any goopy clumps and you don't even feel sick after eating a few.  Oh well, I'll take what I can get:)

 

Did you know Brian Urlacher grew up in Lovington NM?!  That is 20 minutes away from hobbs and we do a lot of work up there...pretty cool!

 

We had MLC again this past week and it was a lot better than last time.  We had some pretty sweet instruction, it was President's second to last time in MLC, so it was tender for him.  He taught about the Priesthood and Humility, it was killer, real strong spirit.  Then we learned how to find people using FAMILY HISTORY.  It is so fun!  So far it works pretty well too.  Everyone loves their family, so duh!!  Anyway, now I get to teach Zone Training again, second time this transfer, on Wednesday.  I am real excited.  I've been shining my shoes up real good recently too, so I'm always happy to show them off hahahah.

 

My watch broke, well the battery died, early on in the week.  I cherish the tan-line I have on my wrist though, so I didn't take it off.  I've just had a blank watch for a week and it is so frustrating sometimes hahaha.  I'll buy a battery today though:)

 

I got to go on exchanges with the Elder who trained Tom Whattcot.  The kid is real quiet, but a powerful teacher.  I enjoyed talking about all the funny things Tom does too.  At the end of the night we listed off all 151 original Pokémon. IT was hard, but a real fun night haha.

 

We taught a couple killer lessons this week too.  We found this guy named Carlos who calls us his homies, even during his prayers.  When we taught him the spirit was powerful and at the end of the lesson he gave us the last of his marijuana...he wants the gospel a lot more than he wants to be high!!  It was a cool experience. We even set a Bap Date!!  We had to pass him off to the other elders though, cause he doesn't speak Spanish. It's ok though, I am still really happy to have got to teach him that one time!  He'll do great. 

 

I finished El Libro De Mormon this week!!  It felt so good!!  Now I need to read it again and actually try to understand it all hahaha.

 

This next week is jam packed.  We are going down to move some Carlsbad Elders on Tuesday.  On Wednesday we have Zone Training.  Then on Thursdaywe get to go to the TEMPLE!! YAY!  THen to top it off I get to Skype home on SUNDAY!  Yippeee!!

 

Anyway,  I love you so much.  Keep doing good work and be happy!:)

 

Love,

Elder Porter