Salt Lake City International Airport - March 26, 2020 3:45pm MST
I got to hug him FIRST!! :)
THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN - love having the brothers all together once again!
SOO HAPPY to be back in the SNOW! “Eu gosto da neve!!” 3.28.20
**From Mama Lynda. . . What a whirlwind of a week/weekend! Due to COVID-19 Porter was quarantined to his apartment in Cuiabá starting on Saturday March 21st. As many of you know, the Church announced over the weekend that all American missionaries serving in South America would be systematically sent home over the next two weeks. So we were gearing up, but certainly didn’t think it would happen THIS FAST! WOW!! Presidente Granja [Porter’s beloved Mission President] called him this afternoon and told him he needs to be at the Cuiabá airport this Wednesday March 25th at 3:00am to catch a flight to São Paulo. From there he will get on one of the Boeing 777 chartered flights going from Sâo Paulo non-stop to Salt Lake City, which means I get to put my arms around my Sunshine this Thursday morning!☀️🥳🎉🥰💗 Since Porter has less than 180 days remaining in his mission, he will be released from his missionary service, not re-assigned.
As I spoke with Porter this morning, and then again this afternoon I couldn’t help but feel tremendous joy. . . and peace! I take great comfort in knowing that Porter’s genuine excitement comes from knowing that he did not waste one minute of one day since he left for the Brazil Cuiaba Mission on August 21, 2018. He has no regrets and has learned & grown SO much! He reminded me that in the blessing he was given when he was set apart as a missionary, that he was to take this mission assignment seriously and to do everything he can to take advantage of every opportunity presented to him. In his mind that meant don't waste ANY time and stay anxiously engaged, his entire mission. I am humbled by his strength, and determination to seek Heavenly Father’s will in EVERYTHING that he does, and not his own will, which is certainly not always easy. My tender mama heart is filled with gratitude for his example of humility, testifying with boldness, compassion, hard work, obedience and Christlike love shown to every single person he comes in contact with. . . literally spreading sunshine everywhere he goes!☀️ Porter left home barely an 18 year old boy. . . and is returning a 19 year old MAN!❤️
Porter did not write a group email this week, but he gave me permission to share his final “mom letter” that he sent to me this morning. . .
“Hey mom how are you doing?! We called Sister Granja [Mission President’s wife] this morning to tell her that our washing machine was broken hahah and then she dropped the bomb that I already have to pack my bags today. Who the heck knows when I'll be coming home but it will be soon. I'm sitting here kind of emotional, not to the point of tears, but just thinking. Over these last couple days I have had many moments to reflect on what my mission has done for me. Who I wanna be in my life. What kind of person I want to marry. How hard it really is to stay on the covenant path. All of these things have really weighed on my mind and it has brought me to much prayer. I feel content with my mission. I feel like the Lord will continue to help me feel like my mission was more and more special the more I do my best to stay on the path and consecrate my life to Him. Everything is gonna be absolutely fine, I feel very content and certain about that. Over these last couple days I have thought a lot about how hard it is to live the life we live. To be true disciples of Christ. I discovered a scripture the other day in Hebrews 5:8 that says "Though he were the Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered." This scripture really touched me and gives me strength to overcome temptations because Jesus rose to Godhood step by step. I am still super far from being 100% obedient and of that I have no shame. I love you tons mom and am so grateful to have parents like you and pops. <3”
No photos this week.
Nuts this week was definitely a different one. We had very little success finding new people and 18 (almost all) of the appointments we had set for this entire week fell through… largely due to none other than... you guessed it - coronavirus. Even Sacrament meeting was cancelled hahah. There is no doubt in my mind that God takes care of and loves His missionaries. This week we saw small miracles every day and it kept us movin!
Thursday we were walking down the street to an appointment and the sun was just railing us. We finally get to the this lady's house and she told us to come back next week. We were feeling pretty dumpy. We decided to say a prayer on the sidewalk and we kind of just told Heavenly Father that we want so badly to find people who are ready, and we are willin to keep searching, but we asked Him to guide us. Right after we ended the prayer my comp had a feeling to call this one member who we had called like 6 times because she told us her neighbor wants a visit, but she never answers. We dial her up and she answers in like 3 seconds hahah and is like Elders come to my house right now! We end up meeting her friend Maria Tereza who just moved here from the state of Amazonas, and she just sits us down and goes "alright I need you guys to tell me all the guidelines of the Church of Jesus Christ and what I need to do to become a member" haha. While my companion was searching for the prank cams around the room I started talking to her about the Restoration. It really seemed too good to be true but I was just thinking if this is a prank it wouldn't even bother me. When my companion gained conscientiousness again we taught and finished teaching the Restoration, and sweet Maria was taking freaking notes during the lesson hahaha. After the lesson she was just so grateful and kept thanking us. I was just thinking there has gotta be some back story, but I couldn't let my curiosity snoop too much. We were chatting with her and she goes "one of my biggest dreams is to move to Europe to work as a caregiver but I need to learn English and Spanish first". I look over to my very Latin companion extremely puzzled and he just goes so... is it normal for you to just have ridiculous amounts of luck?! She just looked at us so confused and Elder Ciocia goes I'm an Argentine and speak a little bit of Spanish haha and my companion here is an American soooo we’ve got English covered too. She just started laughing and goes "God loves me so much hahaha"!! She proceeds to tell us how God always responds to her prayers! She said this morning while she was washing her clothes she was pleading to God to send her people to teach her the truth because she was feeling like she needed to join a church. Boggled and humbled, I left that lesson with certainty that Heavenly Father listens to our prayers, and puts us through hard times to strengthen us. I promise He listens to you!
Shout out to my mom for the package.🍀 Just what I needed. Also we had a service project and we cut down some trees with machetes. It was really renewing helping an old lady, and reminded me of home. T'was a tender nugget of mercy indeed. <3
The Zone
The weeks just keep passing holy smokes it's wild. I had some of the best times I've ever had on my mission so far this week. I think this week was officially one of the hottest weeks of my life. To give you fine ladies and gents an idea, the little plastic dividers that separate street lanes just melt here. There are just tiny little plastic puddles all over the street hahah. I frequently ask the members why do you guys live here and sometimes they just respond I don't know Elder hahahaha. The sun will do it to ya.
Saturday was one of the happiest days I've had on my mission. So many members, and family members came to support the kids and it was just a solid day. After the baptism I had a short moment to think while I was changing my clothes in the bathroom. One of the most peaceful feelings came over me and I just felt for a short moment that God was very proud of me. It is an incomparable feeling. Such content and peace cannot be brought by any worldly thing and I'm convinced of that. Alice, Miguel and Julia's dad got up at the baptism and goes I would have never ever imagined this day 16 years ago, and I am so grateful that my kids actively chose to take this path.
One of the happiest moments of my life happened on Friday. Doing divisions I got to meet this dude named Odisley, and he lives out in the middle of the boonies. He plants all kinds of fruits and veggies and has banana trees and coconut trees and just lives the most simple life. We sat out in front of his house surrounded by lovely greenery and taught him how to read and write. Odisley has about 75 years of age and has always wanted to read and write, and few times in my life have I seen such pure happiness in a human being as I saw in him that day. He was starting to connect words and phrases with pictures and his joy brought him to tears! I felt something so different that day sitting out among the beautiful greenery created by God helping a man learn how to read and write. I am certain that heartfelt service brings meaning into my life and helps me feel happy feelings faster than any other thing can.
Hasta luego mis hermanos.
Son of Titus it's already March and I don't believe it. My horses are held. This week went by faster than Patrick's pet rock in the snail race competition. Friday morning I woke up with some symptoms of your classic common cold, but when I woke up Sunday morning it had evolved into a rare cold and was really layin into me. Being sick sucks. But being a missionary doesn't so I'm chillin like a righteous villain.
Wow folks this week I felt like a million bucks. It's amazing what happens when we follow the counsel that the Prophet gives us. I've tried my very best to repent every single day and do the best I can and truly change the next day, become a better dude if you will. It's been incredible I just feel so happy and good words come out of my mouth when we teach people. Elder Ciocia and I are feelin the Spirit and it's just a celestial rodeo out here in Mato Grosso Brasil. On the real I can't put into words the gratitude I have for my Savior Jesus Christ. I do not know what I would do if every time I made a mistake my guilt just kept piling and piling. I have come to the realization that Jesus never did anything for his own self. As stated in the book of Alma He came to this earth to suffer temptation and afflictions and pains of every kind to know how to succor His people according to the flesh. I have a living testimony that my Savior knows me. That He knows you. Every single one of you. Even the ones sittin in the back row of this email reading list. He loves you. I beg you to feel of His love through sincere prayers, and promise you that you will feel true peace as you do your best to grow closer to Him.
There isn't anything radder than being a missionary, and I don't know if almost 19 months of doing it has just made it seem cool to me now because it's all I know how to do, but there are few campers in this world happier than me. I was listening to a talk by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf and a line he said struck my ears. He says "there is more to life than increasing its speed." I 100% agree the heck out of that. Nothing is better than taking a minute to slow down, help an old lady carry her groceries or talk to someone who looks lonely. Nothing cheers up my day faster than listening to old people's life stories. Showing love towards others fills us with love right to the brim! It's beautiful.
We had Stake Conference last week so Julia's baptism got pushed to this week and she's gonna get baptized with her younger brother and sister! It's gonna be a party!
I got some pictures this week.
p.s. My parents are the best ones on the planet.
Presidente Granja
Mother mercy this week everything just flooded. The city was attacked by a mob of mad clouds. Luckily for us in every single corner of our roof panels there are holes, so the water from outside could sneak into our house and take shelter from the angry cloud mob. Also our washing machine decided to take a vacation and so we've been paying our neighbor's machine overtime to wash our clothes too.
This week the work was so good we are seeing so many miracles! Julia, who is a less active member's daughter is gonna get baptized this week! We are so exited because her dad, Gledson, has been coming back to church and loving it. He's gonna be getting the Aaronic priesthood this week and so next week we're going to have 2 more baptisms of his younger two kids! It's been so amazing teaching them. His daughter, Alice, is such a special lil tot. We were teaching her and we asked her what she knew about Jesus and she goes "I don't really know anything my mom never took me to church or anything". Then I asked her if she thinks that Jesus loves her and she looked at me with the biggest smile and just goes “I don't think He does, I KNOW He does!" The Spirit was actually really really strong and it strengthened my testimony a ton about our Savior's love for children. Also it was amazing to see how she knew nothing about Jesus Christ but her 8 year old testimony of the Savior's love confirmed by the Spirit of God made it undeniable that she knew Jesus loves her. It was very special.
I have really been learning the importance of having good relationships with people and being a friend to the fine Brasilian folk. I've been trying to be really nice to the members for the last 8 weeks I've been here. I've washed cars, dogs, I even cleaned a whole house. There was this one Sister in the ward who got really mad at me for trying to wash her dishes haha. It's been really beautiful to see how service has opened up the members' hearts, and it has really accelerated the work here. I have come to really know that when I am serving those around me I feel God's presence way more in my life. I come to see the good in others because of service. It's lovely.Elder Ciocia and I have been really thinkin a lot these days about what we can do better. On Thursday we decided that we needed to get better at making Christ the center of our lives. As I tried my very best to put Christ at the center of what I do, I noticed how gnarly Satan's attacks became. Since Thursday temptations have flooded and it was really good to see how the enemy fears those who are fixed on Christ. I know that my Savior Jesus Christ lives, that He grew day by day and was strengthened through hardship and trial and temptation, and that He loves me. He's always willing to forgive and forget and accept you with open arms.
My camera still hasn't come back. The high road is a dangerous one to take. But my comp has some pics I think.
What it be Brethren and Sistren this week was freaking nutty. My new companion Elder Ciocia is just a stallion of a man. Holy freak I love the dude. He's such a hard worker and just has so many good ideas its been so insane here with him. We're taking care of the biggest Zone in the mission with 27 missionaries haahahah there are other zones with 16 kids so whoopdie doo. Also 16 of the missionaries are new here so there's a lot of lost fools. And like half of the Sisters are sick so we've got baskets full of worried young women haha. This week with transfers we spent a ton of time at he mission home helping the office dudes resolve some problems. But this week was one of the most productive weeks I've ever had and it was also probably the most tiring week I've ever had haha. I fell asleep in some of the most peculiar places I never thought it was possible to snooze. Our studies and lessons are just so productive and flow so nicely it's been incredible to see the Lord's hand so vividly in every tiny part of my life.
This week I have really focused on reading the Book of Mormon. Being on a mission has just really opened up my eyes, specificially about work. There is no substitute for hard, gnarly, acorns to the wall work. I think I truly found the importance of hard work, and the importance of work ethic, and just working to achieve your goals. Reading in "Jesus the Christ" I found a phrase that goes... “He garnered knowledge by study, and gained wisdom by prayer, thought, and effort.” That's talking about Jesus Christ. I thought that was a really cool line especially how it said "He gained wisdom through effort", or work. It then continues to say beyond question He was trained to labor, for idleness was abhorred then, as it is now... I then went to my study of the Book of Mormon and in ancient America when Alma was establishing the Church. He called Priests to care for the people. In Mosiah 18:24 it says that he commanded them to work, and depend on nobody for their support. Then in verse 26 my eyes were opened. It said that they were to labor so they could receive the grace of God, that they might wax strong in the Spirit, having knowledge of God, so they could teach with the Spirit and authority of God! It was incredibly eye opening to me to see how physical work could bring such spiritual benefit to them! There really is no substitute for good ol hard work!
It's been weird reflecting back on my mission. I go home in 5 months and this last year and a half went by just absurdly fast. I can't think of anything that I would have rather been doing than serving the Lord and I say that with the most sincere and serious tone. I truly Love my Savior Jesus Christ.
My camera decided to take the high road and leave me in the dust this week so minimal pictures were taken this week. But I hope you feel the love in the weekly letter.
A nice Várzea Grande city pic
My comp
Package of Love from home❤️
This week we finally got our furniture and it's a good week to be alive. I strained my back somewhere throughout the week and I woke up one morning and looked at myself in the mirror and my back was just crooked. I was like that is probably not correct hahah so I called Presidente Granja and he told me to go to the Pharmacy and get a shot. They decided to inject the shot right into the crest of my right bun and it was pretty tender these past couple days but now my back isn't crooked hahah!
Sadly enough my dear and lovely brother Elder Decker is getting transferred down to the area I just came from. Good ole Coopharadio near Campo Grande, and I'm really gonna miss the dood! We were gettin in a good flow here this week we saw a ton of miracles. Our dear Haitian friend Edeline came to church again! She's been praying about if she needs to get baptized or not. It's been awesome teaching her because she's just such a happy person! Makes me so happy seeing how much more light people gain through righteous living. Although Elder Decker is bailing I'm gonna get a nice Argentine companion named Elder Ciocia. I had a dream that Cynthia Gambill was stoked on that hahahah no joke.
My determination to work hard has really increased a ton since I've come on a mission. I see the value and the reward in hard grueling sometimes sucky work, and it has taught me to be diligent and constant. I have really come to know that our loving Heavenly Father blesses those with willing hands and open minds, and those who commit to doing His will, truly find happiness.
Peace comes through hard work. I testify that our Savior Jesus Christ is a hard worker, that He will work day in and day out to help any single individual find peace and meaning in this life.
Triple bunk bed
Finally got around to sewing my sock that got a hole in it, from that gnarly fence.
Sweet Moses this week it rained like you've never seen it on Friday then on Saturday it just turned into a sauna in the whole city. My whole entire wardrobe just turned one hint yellower after Saturday hahaha.
Our lovely new house is doing great she's a trooper. We're still waiting on beds and places to hang our clothes and just about everything you need to have a comfortable life hahah but patience is a virtue. I'm kind of worried God is trying to send me a sign because my patience has been tested many a time out here hahah. Tryin not to get too creative on my thinking haha.
This week was a little tougher than normal. Things have been a bit slow, I've kind of just been feeling like I'm in a tiny bit of a rut. I was praying and talking to Heavenly Father about how I could get out of this rut. I got up to shower and started thinking about what I was gonna write in my weekly email and the poor me ish kicked in and was like there's nothing cool to write about this week. For a second I decided to agree with that thought, but as I really thought and I remembered back on all the rad memories I had this week. We had a sweet barbeque 2 times with members, we've been making friends with the members and doing family nights. Humberto got a job interview and Elder Decker and I are just buds. As I took a sec to be really grateful it opened my eyes and brightened my soul! It was a really good reminder to stop being such a boob and always focus on the positive!
Reading the Book of Mormon has got me through some rough mental ish out here, as well has the reading of the New Testament. As I read about my Savior and His acts and love for everyone, it fills me with happiness and I feel that He exists and loves me. There is no replacement for reading the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon!
The trash basket
Some meat
This week I got absolutely rocketed by another trash basket sticking out of the side of a wall. I was strolling down the sidewalk after church and complete pulverization smashed the top of my poor head on this rusty freakin basket. I hit my head so hard it hurt my teeth. Also we moved this week! The giant glass board we had all our zone goals on exploded all over our new house and cut Elder Decker and I hahah frick. No need to worry though mom the wounds are already healed.
Humbertos baptism was so rad I'm so proud of the guy. We got our lovely friend Irmao Justino to baptize him and Justino walked in the font with his phone is his pocket and just wasn't even worried about it hahah. Humberto went through some tough ish this week. He lost his key, got really sick, couldn't find a job, cut his arm really bad, doesn't have a way to cook food, and has kidney stones! It was really humbling to see how much trust he puts in God. After the baptism the Ward gave him a minute to talk to everyone and he got up and goes "I was just praying here asking God to help me know what to say and the first word that came into my mind was obedience." He went on about how he's ready to just be obedient to God's commandments and he said he knows that God blesses those who obey his comandments and freedom and comfort come from obeying the commandments and as he spoke I felt the Spirit testifying these things to me. For me being obedient is really hard sometimes. In the mission, in life, to the commandments. It's just tough sometimes. But I have a firm testimony of the fact that obedience is the way to happiness! In the moments where I am the most obedient in my mission, I am the happiest, and I cannot deny that. I see more miracles in my life... things just seem to go smoother, and I have a greater love for those around me. I testify to you guys that obedience is happiness!
The members here are just 5 star bros with us. I'm lovin serving here in Cuiabá and Decker and I are gonna hit it hard these weeks. Many good things to follow.
Have a lovely rusty trash basket free week!
Love you guys! Here are some pictures.
Humberto!
Dead companion
I don't think I've ever had a hotter week in my life. Every single shirt that I wore this week just turned yellow. Mark my words, I will never live somewhere as hot as here... that is, unless my hot wife wants to.
Our dear friend Humberto, who has been prepping for baptism for the last couple weeks, is all geared up for this Saturday January 25th. He's been making some good friends in the ward and it's just been a pleasure to see how perfectly the gospel fits into his life. We had a Family Night last night with the Justino's and while we were eating Humberto just goes "you know the thing I think is most cool about this church is that I just feel like I'm with my family here. I feel like I'm surrounded by those who love me, surrounded by friends who really care about me." That really touched me how fast he picked up the true essence of our Savior Jesus Christ. Just some good ole fashioned love.
I thought a lot this week about something super dear and close to me. My freaking homies. I love all my friends so much and I'm so grateful for good friends. One of the raddest scriptures that really made me feel real good is John 15:13. Jesus is talking to the Apostles and he goes “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” I can say without hesitation that Jesus Christ is my friend. That we are absolute brethren. I love Him so much and I know that He lives! I know He died for me because we are buddies. I am so grateful for the people in my life that I can call friends.
Tomorrow marks the six months until I come home mark. That's freaking wack. Not complaining tho hahahah.
Had a nice reunion with the District Leaders
**Note from Mama Lynda. . . sadly the last part of Porter’s email didn’t get completely uploaded, and it cuts off at the BEST part. . . right at the end as he starts to testify. Darn! Hopefully he can re-send it next week. I decided to add (at the bottom) a really neat story that he shared with me in my weekly “mom letter". Enjoy!
This is Major Roskelley reporting to Ground Control. Can you hear me my Astro brethren. This week was a freakin blast. Freak we're finally gonna move tomorrow if we're lucky. Hopefully we can find an air conditioning unit thing to put in our new house, like we have in our current house, or I'm gonna turn into a hard boiled Elder. It's hot as you know who here...
This week I decided I do not want to return home fat. I'm coming home in about 6 months oddly enough, time flies when you're having fun. It's been 3 days since I've eaten last and I'm feeling great. Nah I'm just bustin your chops I still eat like a horse I just started doing exercises every morning! The good thing is that at 6:30am here it's normally about 157 degrees so I usually sweat some stuff.
Some good news this week, I gotta see good old buddy Nate Oldroyd and it was rad to catch up. The mission really is a special place. I freaking love this gospel so much. We had a nice leadership meeting with some other missionaries and talked about some of the problems in the mission and how we could make changes to better those things. Elder Decker and I went about thinking a lot, and one thing that we noticed is that creativity is really lacking here. Sadly I have noticed how a lot of people think that once you become a member of the Church your life has to be calm and you can't go bananas with your broskies if you want but that's all bogus. Some of the best moments in my life have been with the bros and I always feel like God was helping us have those solid times. God is not a boring God! He's happy and energetic and wants us to be the same way! He doesn't want us to be cookie cutter nerds he wants us to kick brass in whatever it is that we love! I have personally felt his presence in my life and I testify to you guys that He. . . (that’s where it cut off)🤷♀️
Mom letter excerpt: “Last week this Venezuelan named Humberto showed up at church! As you know the whole crisis in Venezuela is super bad, so Humberto moved here. He's super super smart, and he was very well off before the whole crisis. He also was receiving the mission discussions when he was still there and although he never visited the church there he recognized the chapel when he saw it here. It was something familiar for him so he decided to come pay a visit. He loved last weeks meeting and this week he came again and absolutely loved it. We went to his house yesterday afternoon and taught him the Restoration and it was insane Mom I understood everything he said in Spanish ahahha it was insane. He had so many questions for us and understood everything and the Spirit was so strong and it was just incredible. He wants to get baptized on the 25th so pray for him please! He is so incredibly humble I was shook at his humility. I have a lot to learn from him for reals. I have such a strong testimony that God hears our prayers and prepares people for us to receive! God doesn't want us to waste our time any more than we don't wanna waste time walking around all day hahaha."
Elder Oldroyd!
Leadership meeting
Now that’s HOT!
Sup my healthy crew. My little writing machine totally decided it wanted a day off after a year and a freaking half of writing, and erased my nice email I wrote to you dudes last night :( so this one is gonna be short and sweet because it takes forever to type ish.
This week as the new year started I was feeling a tiny bit crumby. I was thinking about what I could do to make things not be crumby and as I was thinking about it I went about praying and fasting and really trying to figure out what was wrong. Sunday I was thinking through some stuff, and I magically realized that what I was feeling was everything but crumby! I had realized what I was needing is to pray and fast more and get closer to my Heavenly Father and Savior! It was really a nice testimony builder of just acting with faith and just goin out on the grind and gettin stuff done. I realized I can't just wait around for things to work exactly how I desire them to do so.
I wish all of you, my dearest Comrades, a lovely Happy New Year, and a most uncrumby week. Get out and make the life you want to have, and pray a lot in the process. God is pretty smart He knows what He's doing.
My camera went WACK this week so I only have one picture from the entire week. Sorry. My whole MTC group is here in the Zone except for 2 dudes!
This week was just a total palooza. I freaking love Christmas time. On Christmas Eve I was feelin a bit bummy can't lie, woulda been sick to be with my family, but I was sick of sittin thinkin about it so I got up and washed so many freaking dishes at the members' house and ripped some mean Christmas goods from my vocal pipes and sooner than ever I was feelin a good Christmas spirit and felt some nice Christlike love flowin through my sudzy hands and it was Christmas.
Leaving areas always sucks unless the area sucks then it's chillin. My last area definitely didn't suck though I love those members so much. Nuts man I'm gonna miss them. I really learned how to just serve without needing a freaking reason at all in that area. There's nothing better than being a pen boy. There's something really special that happens when you do, just out of the goodness of your heart for other people, it's incredible. Nothing is better than doing a little taskaroony for your pals and just seeing them happy. It makes you happy as a clam then it's just a rad cycle.
I'm so stoked to be in this new area in Cuiabá, even though it’s as hot as Megan Fox in Transformers every single day. It's like 105 every day here yes mom I'm wearing sunscreen. I've for some reason never just been so willing and exited to get absolutely pulverized by an infernal amount of heat every day, but the drive to help people know that Jesus Christ lives and truly loves them is level 6000. There is something so plainly rad about being a missionary it's the raddest feeling ever. Freak. I wish I could explain it better. It's just rad. I feel so toasty inside and I feel the desire to help people more than blow stuff up, or jump my Jeep in Lambert Park it's just the most mind boggling thing, and it's a testament to me of how real these things are.
Many a brotherly Christmas love going out to y'all this week. If anyone has any questions feel free to shoot me a message.
Christmas presents
What's Christmas without a Lego
Irma Ana Paula will be missed
Cat
Snow
Great Scott this week was nothing but Christmas cheer and happiness and a lot of walking. I accidentally slipped as I was lowering myself down the other side of a very tall fence and there were some nice spikes so I got a huge hole in the bottom of my foot. I've heard that liver failure isn't super bad so we've been on the Advil this week.
I got a nice call from Presidente Granja yesterday and he told me I'm getting transferred today which is like 1 day before freaking Christmas and I was thinkin aight, then I got a call from the office dudes and they were like yea so you're gonna travel on the 26th so I just don't know when I'm leaving but I'm gonna go to Cuiaba to be a Zone Leader and I get to be companions with one of my buddies from the MTC Elder Decker it should be rad! Also there's this other stray cat that's been chillin with us and Elder Nye gave it a bath. It looks like Tom from Tom and Jerry.
The Ward hooked us up with some major treats and Christmas goodies this week and it made us all so happy. I am really grateful for this Ward and everything I learned here. I really learned how to just serve people without wanting anything back it's been rad. It's been a hassle runnin around doing stuff for people all day, but it"s the freaking bomb. I've been just a different kind of happy this Christmas season, a happiness that presents don't really bring, and I know its because our Savior Jesus Christ lives and loves us.
I wanna wish you dudes a Merry Christmas and tell you that I love every single one of you. I don't give a freak who you are, you're my broskie. Go give someone a big ol hug this Christmas season it will make you nice and warm.
.Photos1. Early Christmas dinner at the Jaques2. Foot hole3. Tom
Early Christmas dinner at the Jaques
Foot hole
Tom
Holy nuts this whole entire week was just a brawl against sleep hahaha. We have been walking so much to get to that other freaking area that we feel like we need to work in. One night we were up late, brain capacity decays at a surprising rate after 10:30pm on the mission. We ended up glueing elder Nye's shoes to the floor and he wasn't a super big fan of that hahah.
On my mission I have learned a super special lesson. Its been really special to see how being kind and loving just generates more kindness and love. There have been some insanely gnarly mind bogglingly annoying people that I have met on my mission haha and every time I have reacted in a way that was not kind or loving, it always comes back to bite me right in the tush. There isn't a better way to respond to any situation than just being a homie and trying to understand where the person on the other side is coming from. I have noticed that as I do this my life is just happier. I don't really have hard feelings toward anyone and I just wake up, really freaking tired hahaha, but nonetheless, happy. I can honestly say that I have gained a true testimony of my Savior through loving those around me.
This week we had 2 fatty miracles in the work. That one old lady member who used the umbrella because she's a racist has a friend who she has brought to church a couple times and we had a lesson with her and she said she wants to get baptized on the 28th! So gnarly hahah God is the coolest. Also Romeo said he's wanting to get baptized and were helping him find a nice date. Chahoooo!
This week was the Primary Program and there's nothing better than a bunch of little kids singing in a different language I loved it so much haha. The Spirit just was so abundant dang I love the little kids.
Much love my brethren.
Wholesome Christmas photo
Another wholesome Christmas photo
Elder Rodrigues is going home. You will be missed
Elder Nye's shoes glued to the floor haha
I learned how to solve a Rubik's Cube
Sup dudes this week was kind of poopy. I'm not about to sugar coat it and say it was freaking rad because it was just boring haha. We had some Sunday afternoon miracles though to top off the cake. One morning I woke up and it was cold as heck and so I just sat down and studied from 7-11am when we had to leave to lunch and I listened to the same Christmas CD 7 times hahaha. Merry Christmas you bums.
All of the super epicly rad mega bros that we found near the church just bailed on us basically the whole week which was a spiritual sacker. Sister Ana Paula is married to this super rad dude named Cesar, but he freaking hates the Church haha. I've been praying a ton to get a good ole opportunity to talk to him and we were walking by their house on Friday to go down by the church and we felt like we should go knock at their house. We show up and knock and when he realized it was us he just disappeared faster than the fruit flies in our apartment spawn.. spiritually sacked. Sunday night rolls around and we felt like we should go to their house once again so we pass by and they let us in and after we chatted with the rest of the family for a little bit he came out and we were stoked. We got talking just about motorcycles and hot chicks because all dudes like that, just kidding mom, and then asked if we could share a message. He was like if it's about your Church I don't wanna hear it hahaha and I was like whoa there dawgy dawg calm it, we're just gonna talk about Jesus. We talked about loving God, and loving your neighbor and I was just grinding some internal prayidge hoping that he would feel the Spirit. After the message he was really grateful and made us some juice! Also he wants to barbeque us up some meat so I'd consider that a Green means Go, Captain Crispy. If there's one thing I dislike more than tight cardigans, it's forcing people to like the Church, that's why I freaking love the Spirit so much. Love is meant to be felt, not forced.
This other insane occurrence that happened was we were walking all over this part of our area looking for a certain street to find some old investigators we had decided we were gonna try to contact. We walked around for like an hour looking for this street and everyone we asked told us a different way so we were pretty confused. We finally just find ourselves walking down a random street, and some dude in a Corolla pulls up and was like hey what is your purpose hahah and before my companion could robotically recite the Missionary purpose I was like we help people to come to know Jesus, and he was like well what are you doing right now and we were like looking for the street 24th of October (my dad’s birthday haha) and he was like well you're on that street! Let me take you down to the house you wanna go to hahah so we just got in and he took us down there and no one was home at the old investigator's house so he was like what are you guys gonna do now and we were like well we'd love to go to your house and teach you if we could! He was like for sure let's go so we just went to his house and taught him a super good Restoration lesson and he has so many questions and it was so rad. He told us that he was bored of just sitting at home and so he went for a drive and prayed and asked God to send him to some of His messengers and then he said right after that he felt to just drive up a certain street and then he found us ahhahh so freaking rad! His name is Romeo and it's gonna be great teaching him!
These past weeks I've been reading a lot in the book of Matthew which has filled my spiritual cup to the brim. It has made my love for my Savior grow so much. It's like spiritual bone meal. I love my Savior so much and I know without a doubt that He's such a cool dude and just wants everyone to be happy. That's my simple testimony I wanna leave with you fine folk back in the Motherland, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Shoutout to my mom, she makes everything better.
Family Night
Spidey
My companion Elder Abplanalp (his first name is Porter too) was given Elder Porter name tags when he hit the mission, for some reason. He doesn’t want to go by Elder Porter so he gave me one of his old name tags. My mom had Elder Craig (my middle name) name tags made for me last year for fun because NO ONE can say Roskelley right, here in Brasil😂, so now the name tag set is complete!🙌🏻
Howdy doody my Comrades, this week for some reason my desire to be a Cowboy has gone through the roof. Where we are here in Mato Grosso do Sul is like Brasilian Texas, and for some reason this week I started to notice everyone's Cowboy boots and hats. I have decided that I will be buying some cowboy boots to proselyte in.
This week we kind of prayed and fasted like 2 morons and decided we were going to completely start a new teaching group closer to our church building. It has required a lot of faith and action holy smokes we talk to everyone we see on the street and I would say 75% of the people just don't even wanna talk to us. It's pretty lame and a total doozy sometimes, but we have found some promising people. Only one of the families we talked to was actually home when we went back. I learned a valuable lesson though. Even though we were walking all day all week and it was hot as frick and I smelled like sweaty dog, I felt how happy God was with me for just trying. I wasn't sad, things were just happy.
So actually there was one time I was a bit bummed this week, and it was Saturday morning. I had no reason to be butt hurt, but I was. I didn't wanna be grumpy though haha, so I was praying a lot, just asking Heavenly Pops to lend me a hand. As we leave our house to walk to lunch, some dudes drove by and yelled at us which normally I love, but for some reason in my Saturday morning grump it just rattled my Elder bones. We kept walking and the same car came around the block and drifted up to us going like mach 67 and some drunk dude holds his finger gun out the window and just goes gimme ur money dirtbags hahaha. At this point I was ready to toss this sorry sap, but then out of nowhere I hear Roney's voice, the dude who gave us money to eat those cheeseburgers and had the rapper cousin. He just starts yelling my name and telling us how much he loves me and was obviously drinking and driving, but I just felt really happy talking to him. He was just like man you are one of my bros, you're never allowed to leave Campo Grande okay hahah. By no means do I support drinking and driving, nor did I think my answer would come in such fashion, but Roney has now been on multiple occasions an answer to my prayers. I have really learned that there is never a reason to judge anyone.
So the Church released a new video about The Nativity, and I definitely didn't watch it the first time just because I thought Mary was pretty. For every single lunch appointment we had this week we showed the members this video, and every single time without a doubt I felt the most marking and the warmest feeling in my tiny lil heart. I cannot deny the unceasing feelings of surety that I have felt this Christmas season that our Lord Jesus Christ was born in humble circumstances, and just went about being a good person. One of my favorite scriptures in Acts 10:38 just says “Jesus went about doing good.” That's one of the coolest things I've ever heard about Jesus, and it just seems so real to me. It makes me feel like I can really become more like my Savior by just doing good things. Whoever you may be, reader, I invite you to just try to do something good this season. I promise you, you will feel the love our Savior has for you.
Thanksgiving
Christmas package
Conjoman inspired this
There’s a new Sheriff in town!
Alright folks I gotta say, this week was preeeeeeeety goofy I cannot lie. Here in the area things have been going kind of slow. This week was particularly poopy because we had to cut a ton of people that we had been teaching for some time, which was an absolute doozy. Here in Brasil alcohol is literally 2 times cheaper than bottled water, so whenever we need a break from society we retreat to a field and collect a ton of beer bottles and take turns skeet shooting bottles with bottles. It's much of a relief.
On Saturday there was a Futball championship down here in South America and a Brasilian team won so everyone was absolutely bamboozled with Brasilian booze, and we were walking up the street and this one medium level drunk dude starts like yell talking to us so I just yell talked right back at him and we had like a 2 minute super loud conversation ahaha. I then come to find out that he only has a little nub for his thumb because we sawed it off accidentally, so as we were leaving I was like well my man it was nice meeting you champ, I gotta ask you a favor tho.... gimme a thumbs up HAHAHH and he just looked at me like what... and I was like dude come on don't be butthurt about it and then he just gave me the most enthusiastic thumbs up and yelled so loud hahaha and then I just yelled HUZAHHH so loud and it was pure comedy.
On Sunday we, the Elders, all gave talks and sang a musical number in Sacrament meeting. It actually went super well, and as we got up to sing the musical number I totally tripped and biffed it so hard and my name tag flew off at mach 12 and went like half way across the pulpit area. Like 150 people just started laughing at me hahaha and I got up and took a bow and it was so wack hahah. Moral of the story, the bow is a save face at any instance.
As this Christmas season swings in full tilt, I've realized how good it is to be out here as a missionary. I literally get to study about Jesus for 3 hours every morning, which one year and 4 months ago I probably would have laughed at anyone who said that to me. So go ahead and laugh, Jesus is still the raddest human who ever passed on this earth. I've been reading the New Testament a lot, and it's really just humbling. In John 14:18 Jesus says “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” I know there are a lot of people out there, maybe even you dudes reading this who are going through some major ish. I know life can be a total doozer at times, but I promise you dudes that if you are tired of feeling bummy, our Savior is ready with open arms to help you.
Wellington & Vanessa’s kids chatting with the Man.
Elder Farr wanted a paint brush to paint with, so we cut some of my hair off and made one out of a coconut branch.
Here's what Farr painted with the Porter brush.
We hung the Legos from the roof.
How's it be sirs and lady sirs this week was full of just a lot of very unique experiences. I got this freaking atomic level zit and Elder Farr, our local zit expert, was like bro stab a needle in it, and I was like you must be mad sir. I was then like hmmm what do I have to lose, and stabbed myself in the zit with a needle. It worked much better than I thought, and didn't even scab, so mom, be not weary.
There's this dude who we literally see all over the city and his name is Roney. He absolutely loves us for a very unknown reason and Friday night we stumbled upon him and he was like bros I need to know if you guys are hungry hahah and we were like yea we're going to eat right now wanna come with us. He was like no dudes I'm working right now but here's 40 Reais (like $10 US), and then just gave us money to go eat. We got like 2 huge hamburgers and some soda and boy was I happy. My companion told Roney that he's Macaulay Culkin's cousin, and so like 3 minutes later Roney's super grizzly lookin cousin just comes in and goes yo bro I heard your Macaulay Culkin's cousin hahahah then we got a picture with this kid and his crew. I'll add the pic at the bottom.
There's this rad member named Pedro who is so ridiculously rich and just loves us so we get to sacrament meeting and sit down right in from of him and he just taps on my shoulder and hands me this bag of like hot crispy waffles and I was baffled. It was the first waffle I've eaten in 16 months and I am at a loss of words with this situation. Marvelous.
We did a visit with this old lady in our ward named Tereza and she's just sweet as a pea. We leave her house to walk to the visit, and she opens her umbrella and looks at me and goes I'm a racist and don't wanna turn black and like right next to us on the sidewalk were some very lovely dark skinned brethren and I was just quite boggled at this occurrence. Old ladies give zero ph´s. Racism is not chillin.
There's a super cool quote from this cool book called the Book of Mormon that I would like to share with you fools. This kid named Nephi is the author of the quote, and he's talking about our Heavenly Father. In 1Nephi 11:17 he goes "I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless I do not know the meaning of all things.” I thought this line was so rad, because obviously here in life we go through some heft ish, and sometimes we feel like everyone has given up on us. But I just wanna add my firm belief to Nephi's that I know that God loves all of His children, no matter what, and that even though sometimes we have no clue why this thing or that thing happens in our lives, we can always go to God for help.
I ate so much this week and actually gained 6 pounds. So that’s kind of a bummer. Also my legs are so next level white I'll attach a photo haha.
Roney’s cousin
Tori <3
Yowza white