The Wrestle

First off in this email I feel the need to explain to y'all some mission lingo.  I don't know if you have ever heard it before so I will teach you as if you only have 4 years of age (sorry I sounded like an idiot when I said that, I just read Winston's letter and he always makes me lose a few IQ points).

When a missionary first starts his mission he is "born" in an area and his trainer is his "dad".  At the end of the mission and you think about home you are "trunky", hopefully y'all already knew that.  If a missionary is disobedient he is "apostate" and if something is against the rules it is "un-legit".  Lastly, and perhaps the most important one for this email, when a missionary finishes his mission he "dies" and his last companions "killed him".  So...now I believe you are ready for the rest of this email.

I'm gonna die in Hobbs!  We got our transfer calls and the Lord has called me to finish it out in Hobbs, that isn't the exciting news, though. Both Elder Whitesides and Bradshaw are leaving me, which isn't the exciting part either, and I'm getting....Elder HEAPS!! Do y'all remember Elder Heaps?  I served with him in Odessa exactly one year ago. I love the kid so much. He's easily one of my favorite companions ever.  It almost never happens that you get to serve with one of your old companions again OR that you serve in one of your old areas again and I'm doing BOTH!!  Yay.  I will still be in a trio. Our other companion's name is Elder Farley.  Now, y'all know that my title on my mission has basically been "babysitter"  (sorry, that's another lingo I forgot to mention. "Babysitter" means that you have an apostate companion or you have a companion that is struggling a lot with his mission and you need to help him out)  most of my companion since I left Hobbs last year have had troubles with their mission and President and God assigned me to serve with them to help out a lot.  I used to be so bugged by it, I always would dream of having a hard working, experienced, and obedient companion, but that just hasn't happened.   This transfer it hit me though that it is SUCH a huge sign of trust from both President Heap and also from God.  They are trusting another person's mission, which means the salvation of many souls, to me for 6 weeks.  Babysitting changed from a chore to an honor.  Well.  Elder Farley has been having a rough go on his mission. I  don't know any details, but I do know that my assignment for these next 6 weeks is to "save this boy". As soon as the AP told me that it all just clicked to an even deeper level.  I remember that when I was set apart as a missionary the first time President Hughes said that the mission president would trust me after a short time to take on sensitive or fragile assignments. I have seen that.  He also talked a lot about how he feels one of the purposes on his mission was to bless the life of one of his companions. I think if I look back on it I feel that way too. I think the whole timing thing with me not being able to come out, then getting a call anyway, then going home, then coming back after just one transfer, was so I could serve with who I have served with, not as much as so I could teach certain people in my areas. I feel like God has used me as a tool mostly for my companions.  That's not to say that I am the perfect companion at all, I'm sure a few of them have had problems for sure, but I know that I have some God given gifts that has helped me connect with my companions and help them make the changes they need to in their lives and in their missionary work.  Sorry this paragraph is a little crazy...I got most of that revelation as I was writing it, haha. Anyway.  I am pumped out of my mind for the next 6 weeks of my life and the last 6 weeks of my mission.

We also went to the Temple this week.  It was gnarly. We went with Josh Gandy, the recent convert from Lovington I told y'all about a few weeks ago. I met a guy there at the temple who is a professor at Texas Tech.  He knows Dad cause he used to work at BYU, but I forgot his name, sorry!  Anyway, we had a nice little chat and he taught me how to be a student again.  Pretty much he just told me to keep doing all my missionary stuff minus proselyting. It was sweet. I like the Temple, and I love Josh, and I like talking to random guys.

You know, that is about it.  I was gonna write y'all about Enos 1 and his "wrestle" that he has with God and then compare it to some of the things our investigators have been doing recently, but I ran out of time and ganas.  Sorry!!  SO anyway. Just know that the church is true and our investigators are progressing.

I love y'all a bazillion.  Have a really good and happy week!

Love,

Elder Porter

Glade Wars

This weeks was a really good week.  Every week is a really good week.  Life is really great as a missionary! 

We had exchanges go down this week.  It was gnarly.  Elder Bradshaw and I  stayed in Hobbs Spanish and Elder Checketts, our DL came with us for a day.  It was SO FUN.  Easily the most fun and funniest exchange of my whole life.  Elder Checketts goes home with me, so we are both pretty advancada in the mission, he was an AP for like 7 months or something like that, so he is a killer missionary and a way hard worker.  It was so fun just to go hard and do it well, ya know?  Right now he is training a missionary, Elder Banner.  Elder Banner is easily the most prepared kid I have ever met.  He works so hard. I would never guess that it is only his second transfer if it weren't for how skinny his cheeks are (because all missionaries get bigger cheeks).  They work real hard together, but Checketts wanted a break of sorts, to where he could talk about home and discuss plans for after the mission without making his greeny feel trunky.  That's why he came with us!  As I had previously stated, we went so hard, but had so much fun.  That is how missionary work should always be!!!  Sorry that paragraph was all misconstrued...Just know that it was fun.

For the past few weeks we have been doing service at Salvation Army for a few hours each week.  It has been a blast.  We do pretty much anything, from sort food, to building boxes, to mopping floors, to playing on fork lifts.  It is always a good time.  This week the lady who is in charge of it (who loves us to death) asked us if we could meet her at some random bakery here in town. We met her there and our job was to go through the bakery and find all the bread that was about to expire and then chuck it into her van.  I don't know if y'all have ever just chucked a loaf of bread as hard as you can before...but I would suggest it.  There is no explanation that I can tell, but it is way more fun to throw than a ball. Anyway, we spent about an hour and filled up her van so much that the shocks began to compress, it was a whole lot of bread! Then we went and helped her unload it all back at the Salvation Army building and this time we chucked it at each other.  If you haven't been hit in the face with hot dog buns...I plead with you...do so now. At the end of the day she gave us a box of food!  We told her "no ma'am, we can't take this" and then she said some Mexican profanities and made us take it, so we were grateful!  She even had thrown in a few bags of Fruit Smileys, those walmart brand fruit snacks!! I was and am a happy camper:)

Back in the day, when I was 17ish I was assigned several times to take the sacrament to various viejos in the ward. At the time I thought of it as somewhat of a chore, but as I pondered back on it this past week I realized that it was a huge blessing.  Even then I always loved to take it to Brother Cole, a man in the ward who was real close to death and couldn't come to church.  He made sacrament a special thing.  Each time we would bring the bread and water he would ask us to start of with a prayer, then he would ask us to bear our testimony or to tell him about what we learned at church that day, or to share our favorite scripture, or something like that, and then when he took the sacrament he would always put it in his mouth and stop and close his eyes and just think for a second.  Some of the strongest times I have felt the spirit has been in the Cole's living room.  I never really understood why it was such a big deal to him, or why he asked us to do those things, but I sure know that it helped my understanding of the importance of the Sacrament grow and it kinda built a foundation for me that I could build upon.

This Saturday I was thinking about the Sacrament and about what I could do to make it a more spiritual experience for me.  I studied it out that day and on Sunday and I had some really neat personal realizations of things I can do to make it more special but also a little bit more about the meaning and significance of it.  I realized that when I prepare the sacrament I am preparing the means by which people can renew their covenants and become clean again. I realized that when I pass the Sacrament I am giving them that opportunity to repent and be clean, that is cool.  I realized that "nadie viene al Padre sino por mi" (sorry I don't know what that scripture says exactly in English), but also that no one can come to the Son but by the Sacrament and no one could come to the Sacrament but by me (if I were the one to prepare or pass it).  I though that was neat.  On Sunday I was blessed because they asked me if I would bless.  As I read the prayer my heart was filled with the Spirit and I felt like a really truly was making steps towards God, renewing and repromising. The Church is so true!  I know that the Sacrament is so important.  I know that as we take the sacrament worthily, and do our best to keep our covenants each week, to remember Christ always and to take His name as our own, we will never be beat by the adversary.  We will always have the strength necessary to do good and to stay good.

I love y'all a lot!  HAve a good week.  Be safe.  Read your scriptures.  SMILE!

Love,

Elder Porter

Black Box

This week we had a Zone Conference up in Lubbock.  It was a really really good one.  Pretty much ever meeting that Preident Heap participates in is really good. That guy is a powy how (that's just how you say Power House in shortened words...duh). He started his instruction by saying "Alright Elders and Sisters, ask me...what do you want to know" and then for the next hour he just answered our questions about the Gospel.  It was so powerful!  He sure knows his scriptures. One of the APs gave a really really good instruction as well. He taught about how to teach powerfully, something I am always looking to improve. He talked specifically about using short power statements to explain each point of the Restoration in 3 or 4 sentences each.  He stressed the importance of knowing the docterin so well that we can explain it simply, just like my boy Hyrum Smith talks about in PMG. It was a killer lesson and we have already seen a sweet change in our teaching, at least I have.  We also had a guy from the mission department in Salt Lake come up to talk to us.  He was specifically in charge of the Church's fleet of cars. They installed what we call "The Black Box" in each of our cars.  It monitors our speed, acceleration, turning, stops, seatbelts, and pretty much everthing else. It is the most annoying thing ever.  Whenever you have a violation it yells at you and you get a mark on your record.  I don't really get any marks except for speeding.  It is so frustrating when you're driving on a real wide, country road with no one on it in either direction going 25 miles per hour cause you have a stupid machine that will rip your face off if you go any faster. I mean, come on!!  You should be allowed to go at least like 80 on those roads!!  Am I right, or what!?!?  Nah, don't worry, y'all.  I don't actually get too many violations.  I certainly have slowed down a lot since they installed it, but it's whatever.  Still a good Zone Conference.

On Saturday we did some way fun service and cut down a tree. Do y'all remember Hector and Denise I told y'all about last year? They are the ones that Martin and I baptized, well it turns out that this whole time their next door neighbor was a member of the English ward and had been talking to them for forever about the Church! Good for her! Anyway, she is a really old lady and cant do much, so Hector and us cut down her tree for her. We got there at 6 in the morning on Saturday, so we could have time to finish and then go watch conference.  Hector had a great idea to just tie a rope to the top and the other part of the rope to his truck and then drive away to break off a few of the pesky branches right away. So we got it all hooked up and stuff and he drove off with his truck and....The ENTIRE tree fell to the ground hahah. It was so awesome. It was just a really really dry tree, I guess, cause it just crashed hard. Y me quedE...wow. So we just chopped it up on the ground and moved it into a trailer.  It ended up being a lot easier than we had intended.  Easily one of my favorite service projects I have done in my mission!

Holy crap y'all, HOW WAS GENERAL CONFERENCE?!!? I thought it was so good.  I don't really have a favorite talk, at least not that I remember, because every talk was so good and inspired. I went with the question of "what things can I do at home to help me remember and apply all these good lesson I have learned on my mission and to be able to continue to grow into the man God needs me to be".  God sure answered my prayer because in almost every talk I was touched by the spirit and I learned something I can do to remember and grow.  It was so good. I love conference. I always get one of the warmest feelings ever whenever Thomas S Monson speaks.  I really do know that that man is called of God.

Also, Easter is the best time to be a missionary ever. It is so neat to be able to testify of Christ and his Atonement and life and stuff every day, but it is especially cool to testify of that stuff on Easter. Church is true.

Anyway, I love y'all a whole lot! Have a good and happy week!

Love,

Elder Porter  

He is Here

Welp!  I'm back already.  This is the beginning of week 4 of this transfer already, how nuts is that?  That means that I only have 9 weeks left on my mission, how even MORE NUTS is that?!  Time flies way too fast. I hope and pray I can stay focused and go as hard as ever in these last months.

Elder Bradshaw got here last Monday just after we emailed. I hate his guts.  Easily my least favorite companion I have ever had, ever.  Just kidding, haha, I only said that cause he was reading over my shoulder.  I actually love the kid. Elder Bradshaw, also known as lactate-face, is like the perfect medium between me and Elder Whitesides. He grew up in a puny town in Washington, so he get's Whiteside's obsession with small town crap, but he also didn't grow up on a dairy, so he is normal, haha.  He loves trucks, so now Elder Whitesides can talk to someone who cares, but he also loves sports so now I don't feel like I'm in my own world! It's the best. We all get along so well and had a really fun week. He's really good at Spanish, so he's been teaching me all the swear words and slang, haha just kidding, but he really has been helping me a lot. We speak Spanish to each other a lot, it's helping me a ton. Needless to say, I am a happy camper!

This week we started to teach a couple named Felix and Elisabet.  They are actually some people that I taught last year.  We were driving down the road, on out way to somewhere else and I felt real strongly that we should fill up the gas on our truck...which is a really random prompting, but I rolled with it and when I got out to pump the gas I looked across the street and saw their house and remembered them!  Elisabet was outside so we ran over and talked to her a little bit and they are both still way down to learn about the Gospel.  Apparently the missionaries who replaced me and Martin last year never went and visited them.  They were bummed because they still wanted to learn more. How sweet is that!!  We were so pumped. She was real pregnant when I left last year and now they have a 1 year old boy, it's nuts to me how fast time flies like that!!  Missionary work is a dream, I heart it real good.

Do y'all remember last years sweet Easter Video and the He is the Gift Video that the church did? Well the Church is way true and super awesome, so they did another video this year for Easter and it is a power house. Have y'all seen it?  If not then GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW!! IT IS SO GOOD!! This is my favorite time of year to be a missionary.  This whole week and the few weeks to come we are just focusing so hard on testifying of Jesus Christ and His Atonement.  I feel the Spirit so strong each day as I stop random druggies walking on the street to tell them what I know about their Savior and how what I teach them about Him will change their lives forever. My favorite part of the video is when it says you can reach out, call out, cry out and He is here.  At first I was all mad cause it was poor grammar.  I thought it should have said "you can call out...and He will be there" like in the future tense, but then I realized that I am an idiot.  He is already here.  He always has been and always will be.  He is always here, just waiting for us to come to him.  All we gotta do is reach out.  We just need to take His hand.  He is here.  I love that.  The thing I have learned about more than anything else here on my mission is the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  I know He loves us.  I know that He died for us.  I know that because of His death and His sufferings we can do ANYTHING. "I can do all things though Christ, which strengtheneth me."  I too, glorly in mine infirmities because I know that because I am weak, He is strong, and because He is strong, I can be stronger than ever.  I love that.  I know that He lives today.  I know that He is here.

I love y'all so much!  Don't forget to say your prayers this week and do all you can to remember Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. Be happy and share the gift and light of the knowledge of our Savior and His Gospel with someone else, ok?! 

Love,

Elder Porter 

I hope I catch this...

Wowzers! Hobbs America is a good place to be!  I love love love it here! It's the ugliest place I have ever been too, but the work is booming.  The branch has changed a lot in the past year, too. The best part, to me at least, is that we have a new Branch President, President Reber. Last year he was the Stake President of the Roswell Stake, but they rearranged the Stake boundaries and so now we are in the Lubbock Stake and he was calling-less for a few months. He served his mission in Argentina, so that's why he speaks spanish.  Last year he made a really big impression on me because of how effectivley and powerfully he loved the Saints in this part of the world.  He's just a walking heart...if that makes any sense at all, haha.  He's just powerful. When he shakes hands he hold your hand for like 2 seconds longer than the average person and he makes killer eye contact and you can just know with out a doubt that he loves you. Power house.  Anyway, so now he's the branch president and he has made a lot of really needed changes to the area!  Also, our Branch Mission Leader is a guy named Hector Lopez.  Last year Elder Martin and I taught him the restoration a week before we got transferred and then the missionaries that replaced us baptized him 2 weeks later!!! How neat is that!?  It's cool to see someone I taught be an active, faithful member of the branch.  All the branch remembers me, which is really surprising to me, but they do!  I am happy and they are all happy as well. I cant wait to go hard as ever these next 3 months.

My new companion's name is Elder Austin Whitesides, or as the branch calls him, LadosBlancos.  He's from the booming city of Rupert Idaho!!  Just kidding, it's not booming, it's a puny town.  BUT its really close to Burley (where Grandma Taylor lives) so I wasn't too clueless about it. He grew up on a dairy farm.  How random is that?!  A freaking dairy farm.  He gets a long better with cows than with humans!!  Hahaha, nah for real though he is way sweet.  I am loving working with him so far.  We don't really connect really well on our interest which is ok cause now I get to learn a lot about cows and trucks and jeeping and stuff and he gets to learn about math and sports!  YAY!  He talks and smiles and laughs and everything so I can not complain!  Not to mention he is a way hard worker!  Good stuff.  I am pleased.

For reals though, family, let me tell you, the work here in Hobbs is out of control!! There are so many people out side all the time, so we talk to like 10 a day, at least.  The branch loves missionary work (I'm not sure when that started to happen) so they were getting like 11 member present lessons a week. People come to church, people invite us in, they read their book of mormon and everything. It is so strange to me! I have never had this many things happening at once in my whole mission!!  Elder Whitesides is just 2 transfers out, so it's the only thing he knows, he is lucky cause I've had like 14 transfers without that kind of stuff!!  It is really hard work, but I love it to death!!

We have this one Investigator named Jose Francisco, he's about as legit as they come. He has already read the entire book of Mormon and most of the Gospel Principles book and comes to church every week.  We just need to help him feel like he is ready to be baptized. Every Saturday he sells Carnitas which is just deep fried pork.  He invited is over so I could try some. He gave me the ear of the pig...ew. Even worse than menudo!  Never deep fry a pig ear, ok?

That's the happenings of this week though!  IT was a good one.  I hope y'all can have a real good one this next week as well!  God bless y'all!  Be safe and have fun!

Love,

Elder Porter 

The Comeback Kid

Well.  We got transfer calls on Saturday and I was informed that it is finally time for me to leave Odessa.  My heart dropped so hard when they told me.  I love Odessa SO MUCH!!  I am very grateful that God has given me the chance to be here for so long. I have a real big and awesome Mexican family here in Odessa. I have been here for 10.5 months!  I only lack 10 weeks from being here for a whole year.  How nuts is that?!  Oh well.  All good things must come to an end. I am getting transferred to Hobbs Spanish! "Oh.  I must be reading the wrong email.  Caleb was in Hobbs Spanish last year." No no no, do not fret, this is the right email!  I'm going BACK to Hobbs Spanish!  I am real excited.  It's not a Zone Leader area any more, but I will still have the same truck and apartment and stuff. Hobbs is my second favorite area, so I am REEALL content. I will probably finish my mission there!   The address is:

509 W Kiowa Dr. #D

Hobbs, New Mexico 88230

This week we got a call from some random number asking us if we would go give a blessing to a baby that was born pre-maturely in the Nicu (i don't know how to spell that).  Because we are the only missionaries with a car in the city other than the ZLs we always get calls to go give blessings at the hospitals.  We were a little bummed because we had to change a lesson we had planned, but we hustled over to the hospital to give a blessing.  We got there and called the number and they told us they would meet us in the Lobby.  We sat there and out from one of the hallways comes Manuel Zambrano.  Now, you don't know him because you haven't been with me on my mission this whole time. But he's a Less Active member I worked with a lot in Fort Stockton!!  I was so pumped to see them. They are the ones who we ate Thanksgiving dinner with last year.  They both recognized me right off.  I havent seen them for over a year. It was their baby that I gave a blessing to.  Anyway.  I gave the kid a blessing and it was a really special experience for me.  I really really REALLY felt guided in that blessing. I felt like I was watching a movie and just explaining what was happening.  Way cool experience. Church is true and so is the Priesthood!!

ANyway.  I am really really sorry, but I already got to go!  This was a really short email.  Please forgive me, but know that I am doing well and I'm happy. 

Y'alll be happy and stay safe!  God bless you! 

Love,
Elder Caleb

 
                                                          Fuentes

        
                                               Cody, Yocelyn and Junior

Se porten bien

This week was a TREAT! Aka it was the same as every week, haha.  Do I say that every week, too? Gah. I 've been writing weekly letters for so long I'm running out of original content.  Sorry, y'all.

Do y'all remember Joe?  Not my brother, but the guy who I said was living with us at Brother Kelly's house?  Well after 4 months he finally left this week.  He had a really hard time here in Odessa and is probably one of the most unlucky guys that I have ever met in my entire life. He moved back to Utah, so I'm sure y'all will meet him someday, like maybe at my Homecoming.  Joe was a real interesting guy.  I love him to death, but he wasn't the easiest guy to live with.  He was really high maintenance and stuff, which makes sense givin his past, but still, it wasn't too easy. Anyway, the point is that I was really genuinely sad when he left!  That made me real scared for transfers this week.  The chances are pretty high that I will be leaving, fingers crossed that I wont, but I probably will. I realized that if I was that sad about saying goodbye to a guy I didn't even really enjoy being around then how much harder is it gonna be to say goodbye to Brother Kelly and the entire ODessa 3rd Branch!! Gah. I'm not looking forward to that at all!!  I love these people so so so so so much.  I mean, when I said goodbye to y'all it was sad, but I knew I'd see you again for 100% sure, but that's not the case here!  I guess it's a good thing facebook exists and ODessa is in the USA so I can come visit real easy.

It was freezing butt cold this week, real bad, and we dropped all of our investigators again, so we had nothing to do.  Elder Gillette was too cold to go street contacting (that's where we just walk around the streets and talk to people who are already outside) for too long so we decided to go knocking for a while!  We went to the mexicanyiest area and started our journey.  We talked to one pot head who really wasn't interested, but he told us that his neighbor was a devil worshiper and sacrificed dogs and stuff...so we went and knocked that house to see what's up!!  IT ended up being the pot head's parents and they were really nice Christians.  They invited us right in and were quick to offer us some nice warm coffee (tehe..no no no). We talked to them for about an hour and let me tell you...they were SO DUMB!!  The lady was adamant that Baptism is not a commandment. She loved the Bible so much and she claimed that it never said that a person must be baptized...WOW!  So I used her own bible and showed her John 3:5 and explained the doctrine.  She totally just dismissed it, haha. I like tried to bash with here a little, I was pulling out all kinds of scriptures from her own bible, but every scriptural proof just rolled off of her haha, oh well. IT was still good practice for me!  I am very very grateful for their warm house!

Gillette and I decided to try by a few former investigators form our area book.  We prayed that we would be guided to people who would be ready to accept the message the just picked some names, neither of us felt extremely guided or anything.  We decided to go try by a guy named Ezekiel. So we drove up to the house and it was one I recognized. I had talked to the owner of that house 6 months ago, and it wasn't Ezekiel  AKA he had moved.  But we thought "hey why not try by the guy who does live here?" We knocked on the door and some other random guy answered!  He invited us right in, though.  He was real nice, Teo is his name. It turns out that he had just moved to ODessa from Denver and was taking missionary lessons over there! He was excited and happy to find us here in Texas as well and we had a really really good lesson about the Book of Mormon with him! I know that that house we went to visit wasn't Eziekel, but I do know that we were still guided by the spirit to pick that name and that house so we could find Teo!  The spirit of the lord works in mysterious ways!

Anyway, I think that's all I got to tell y'all! I love you so so much. Thanks a million for all your prayers and love. I pray for y'all each day.  Stay strong and have fun.  SMile!

Love,

Elder Porter