Pen Boy (Week 64)

Sup brutes and brutesses. This week was a stellar level 98 missionary party. The only not cool thing about this week was getting woken up at 3:30am from mosquito bites because we do not have fans to blow them away. Miraculously I still woke up on time and even did exercises. Trying to cut some of the extra gained mission love, if you know what I mean tehe.

This week I had a wonderful experience with my nice blue pen. We had just finished planning, were bailing out the door to make it to an appointment, and I felt like I should grab my blue pen. I thought to myself nahhh that's stupid, why would I need a basic common level 1 blue pen. We proceeded to our front gate, to realize we don't have our keys. Upon returning to find my keys right next to my blue pen, I decided it would be better just to grab it. We head down the street and talk to one of the nicest Sisters in the Ward, Ana Paula. As we are leaving her hair salon, she stops me and goes yo I need a pen really bad can I just borrow yours just until tomorrow I promise I'll give it right back. I pulled that basic chest blue pen right out and handed it to her and just go I am pretty sure God wants you to have this pen, he sent me here with it for you. She was just so touched and as I left this experience I reflected for a moment. I was absolutely boggled at the amount of love God has for us. God loved this Sister enough to send a pen boy to bring a lowly pen in time of need. I just have this ridiculous testimony of how much God loves us, and I am more than happy to be a pen boy for the rest of my life.

We went to Gustavos Jiu Jitsu fight this week and it was so rad. Although he freaking lost, it was really special to be there and see how happy he was when we showed up. He was just like "holy nuts you guys actually came” and I just realized how that right there is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Just loving and supporting one another.

In closing, I got 5 free Reais this week from Elder Farr which is about $1.15. This dude was laying down across his semi truck seats, and his feet were sticking out into the sidewalk, so Elder Farr bet me 5 Reais that I wouldn't tickle them hahahaha.

I gotta say, Jesus lives, and He freaking loves you. I'm just happy as a clam out here in Brasil.

Peace and blessings.

Jiu Jitsu KAPOW

Elder Farr drew me all loved up.😂

Carrots - Remember (Week 63)

Hello my fellow bromosapiens, this week was full of so many stunts and arts and crafts and hefty miracles it was rad. I must say, this week we accidentally broke 3 fans. Also we were dying to carve any sort of gourd on Halloween but we couldn't find any such thing. Gotta shout my mom out though... she found a way to send me pumpkin chocolate chip cookies [with Ryker’s friend Anne who just moved here from UT] and I'm just baffled at the level of deliciosity that these cookies contain. I love you mom.

This week I was just planted there in my church pew during Sacrament meeting and the Spirit was like psssssstttt bro, go bear your testimony. I was like uhhhhh but there's like 150 people here that's scary man, and He was like come on man please, so I was like okay. I got up there to bear my testimony and was like all nervous for some reason haha my worn out Elder knees were all shakey. I bore a super quick and super simple testimony about how happy I am and that I know it's because Jesus is helping me do things that truly make me happy. Like every time I hold the door for some old geezer, or bear my testimony or teach someone about Jesus or read the scriptures I just feel happy. I really just gotta tell you guys that God has one sole purpose, and that's so make sure that we are happy, truly happy. If you trust Him, He will make sure you feel like 10000000 bucks.

This week I really had so many thoughts and connections in my brain around the concept of remembering. I have really come to the realization that remembering is one of the most powerful demonstrations of humility one can show. God gives us good experiences and spiritual highs so that we can remember, and use these things to helps us power through crappy times and not bail out. It's so easy for us as humans with the carnalest of minds to forget what God does for us on a daily basis, and most of the time we don't even realize half the ish that we've being given. I really have been doing my 100% best to remember past good experiences that I've had, whether that be with the bros, alone, with a super hot chick in a fast car, or whatever it might be, and to read them again and/or write them down so that I can be better equipped and armed for crappy times. We cannot forget how good God has been to us, and must hope and pray for more of that goodness. It is essential.

So just to end, yes we broke 3 fans this week. Elder Rios broke one of them by throwing a full sized carrot at the one we have in our study room. We then proceeded to make various fan blades out of out pizza boxes to see which one possibly could do the best. After we realized that all of them were horrible we tried to mend the old blade with wire. That sort of worked but was really shakey so then we decided we were going to make a lathe for carrots out of our fan motor hahaha. We were up until like 2 am carving carrots into many different wand types.

Thats all folks!

Someone started a fire and left it unattended, my Eagle Scout blood could not refrain from tending.

Blade mach 1

Blade mach 2

Blade mach 3

Expecto carrotum

Dinner at Anne’s dad’s house in Campo Grande.

Buckets / Humility (Week 62)

Son of a peach the only thing I could ask Santa for this Christmas season is like some nice peach cobbler. But let me tell you guys this week was so peachy. We had the opportunity to meet some really special new people. Its been a super mega miracle fest out here for me with that anti-mormon ish. My testimony is just growing like the weeds did when I was a kid and my dad made me weed the front yard every week. I swear it's impossible for anything to grow faster than those suckers.

This week we had Lia's baptism! It was as good as my mom's pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and there are not many cooler things than seeing how much Jesus changes a willing heart and an open mind. Also this week we had Zone Conference and I gotta see my Brasilian brother Elder Prado again. I freaking miss this guy already he goes home next week and I'm sure you guys really wanted to know that. While I'm at it he also gets married in a couple months and then he's gonna move to Utah. He's fluent in English and weighs 77 kilograms. But another cool thing that happened this week is that we actually were passing by Cristains and I wanted to show Elder Abplanalp how crazy he is haha so we get to their house and the first thing Cristain does when he sees us is like this huge bent knee Japanese bow and it started things off just right. We met his younger brother who actually is one of the raddest kids ever. He explained us Cristain's whole story and its actually so messed up I'll spare you guys the trauma but it's wack.

We had a nice Zone Conference this week and it was quite pleasant. Presidente Granja is just too cool. Nobody has a better Mission President. But I learned some cool stuff in my study this week about being humble. For all you readers that just tune out when they hear any word that sounds churchy, gimme a second to explain. Humility is rad. I gotta be honest I do a lot of shiz wrong, and I realized something about a good scripture after I had read it for the 356th time. Ether 12:27 sprinkles us with some heavenly knowledge about how radical humility is. Here we have Jesus just talking to us and as always he plants some firm love on us. "I give unto men weakness that they may be humble, and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me, for if they humble themselves before Me and have faith in Me then will I make weak things strong unto them.” What I find next level rad about this scripture is that is literally tells me why I suck sometimes and do bad stuff. It's because big bro Jesus wants me to learn something, and if I'm not humble I'm not gonna learn anything and I'm gonna continue to have the same wack issues. We gotta be humble folks. It's the key to getting better daily! Repentance takes a significant amount of humility, but the giveback is always 157 times better.

Thats a wrap meus amores. Let me thank all of you for praying for the missionaries. You guys are the freakin bomb.

Joãozinho e Henriquezinho

We had to fill the font with buckets

Found Brigham Young ("Lion of the Lord”) on the side of the street.

Brasil

Flu (Week 61)

Hello Brethren and Sistren I literally have never worked harder in my life than I did this week. I feel like an actual zombie. I acquired a nice flu also, and it is taking my voice with it and so this whole weekend every time I would talk to someone I would have like level 67 voice cracks hahaa!

We met some of the most rad dudes ever this week. Among them is one named Adriano. He and his wife own this little Brasilian pastry place and we usually pass by and eat there like every couple days. One day we were out working and their whole family walks by, so we go and talk to them. They invite us over to their house, so we go back two days later and just have one of the best lessons I've ever had in the mission. As we were teaching, his pastor freaking walks in their house, right in the middle of our lesson AHAHAH and sits literally next to us but Adriano just did not take his attention off of us once! His pastor eventually just got up and walked out and the Spirit was just gnarly strong. The next time this pastor walks in I'm getting his address.

So Nilson is just a extra level 10 tough person to teach, it has been really tough and we are trying to be patient with him. BUT on the other hand, Lea. She's gonna get baptized this weekend and I could not be more stoked on it. When we met her she had heavy depression, had gotten work release because she was incapable on leaving home, and just was not cool. Nowadays she comes to church, interacts with the members, is working like a madwoman at the same job, and just so so happy. I have never seen so many miracles in the life of a single person in such a short time. I am just so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. I have truly come to know for myself how real He is. I have felt the crappiest of feelings be washed away in a second simply because I believed that they could be. It's so incredibly simple and I love this gospel.

I ask your pardon for not being that exited this week. This strain 9 Brasilian flu is really an energy sucker. Don't tell my mom I have the flu. Mom if you’re reading this I promise I'm taking my vitamins.

Elder Luke White on ROSKELLEY Street in the California Oakland mission (it’s even spelled right!)

Elder Abplanalp and I

The old sole.

My toe.

My Feet are Raw - I’m a Trainer! (Week 60)

What's up fools this week was just mayhem. My new companion actually IS Elder Porter hahahahaha I guess I'm definitely not even supposed to joke about coming home. But interestingly enough Elder Porter's first name is Porter, but the name that he has on his name tag is Elder Abplanalp and he's confused why everyone thought his name would be Elder Porter so just a lot of confusion. But he's such a solid kid and just so stoked to work and talk to everyone it's the raddest time being out working with him. Such a huge answer to my prayers!

So I'm pretty freakin tired this week we worked super hard and walked too much and my left foot is just throttle rocketed so I'm just gonna keep this email short and sweet. I was praying and fasting that my new companion I’m training would be someone super exited and full of energy and remind me what it was like to be at the beginning of my mission, and Elder Abplanalp is just that. One night we were walking home at like 9:25pm and he saw two kids smoking and was like I'm going to talk to them hahah. We got over there and he starts talking to them hahaha and they were just confused haha. I then proceeded to ask them how their night was going and they were like good! I was like that's rad, do you guys feel good when you do drugs: and they were like of course we do and I was like can you feel happy without doing drugs and then like they just stopped and kind of thought about it for a sec. They looked back at us and were like I mean kind of, not really and then just kind of sat there. I looked at them and was like listen, I know that God is real and that the only thing He wants is for you to be happy without this ish. We wanna go to your houses another day and talk to you guys more about how you can be happy without this stuff. At first they were pretty hesitant and then the kid named Kauan was like, I mean I really want you to come to my house but you have to promise me you won't tell my mom I smoke hahahahah. I promised him I wouldn't tell his mom and suprisingly enough the Spirit was really evident as we talked to them about how life is really meant to be enjoyed.

Pray for Nilson this week he's got a baptism date!

We taught an English class.

The new Zone.

Some yummy honey.

My shoes have huge holes in them so a ton of dirt gets in and just blackens my feet. (**Note from Mama Lynda. . . rest assured, extra money was put on his credit card to buy new shoes last week. . . he just neglected to take the time to actually BUY new shoes.🥴 Hopefully he finally got a new pair yesterday on Pday!)

I Will Train Elder Porter! (Week 59)

Good day good morn good eve to thine magistrates. This week I only actually got to do missionary work for 1 day, it was freaking wack. But I musn't lie, General Conference was divine. Also we found out that Elder West is getting transferred and I'm gonna miss the gooby. I'm gonna be training an American hahaah I'm so stoked. There's actually a new kid showing up here in the mission whose name is Elder Porter and if I don't train him I think I'll just come home.

So this week we did some nice splits with the Zone Leaders, and it was excellent. This one kind lady named Lea that we are teaching is wanting to get baptized! This week was pretty wack because I was only in my area for one day the whole week and I was really worried about the fine folks we are teaching but God pulled through big time and helped us out. On Wednesday Elder East and I went to Lea's house and she was just telling us how much she loved going to church and how good she felt. Elder North and I were like bro let's just see if she wants to get baptized, so we lobbed out the 25th of this month and she was like yea I'll definitely pray and think about it! Later in the week when we did splits Elder South stayed in our area with Elder Castro (KEVIN - my trainer!) and they went to Lea's house. After we ended the splits Elder Castro was like BROOOOOOO WE MARKED THE 25th FOR LEA TO GET BAPTIZED and I was like yeeeeeeeeeehooooooo we started talking a little bit more and he was bro the lesson was so spiritual and we were just feeling the Spirit in the ripest way and it was magnificent. I felt the Spirit prompt me to mark a date with her for the 25th and so I did and she just got so emotional and accepted it and it was so rad. I then asked him bro you didn't know that we challenged her to the same date with her 3 days ago?: he was like no bro I just listened to the Spirit and that was the date I felt I should mark. When he told me that I was just absolutely boggled just so humbled to see how God heard my prayers and everything worked out alright.

Just quickly in closing I gotta tell you guys how rad praying is. These days I have really been doing my best to just chat with Heavenly Father. I just tell him everything, like what was wack about my day, and what was super good. I do my best to say thank you for all sorts of stuff and it's been beautiful. I feel like He actually hears me, that He gives me some nice good feelings in return to let me know He's around, and that my days, and my studies, and my efforts to do what is right just seem to go creamier. I gotta invite you guys to do the same. To really talk to God as your Heavenly Father. He exists and is so freaking anxious to just rail you with happiness and goodness beyond what you can comprehend. He loves you guys so much.

Just gotta tell you guys too, that God speaks to us through Church leaders. I got some way too good responses to questions I had this weekend. It was so rad!

Ich freu mich auf den tempel (that’s German for “I’m looking forward to the temple.”)😊

Sippin the Doc Pepper

Elder Compass (West) will be missed.

You're Never Too Far Gone (Week 58)

What is good my young friends and friendesses. I hope this week didn't pass as fast for you as it passed for me. I don't really know how time passes so fast, or how old I am anymore. Every time I write in my journal it still seems more natural to write 2018. You think that I am kidding, but I am far from it kids. Time is passing faster than I spend Brasilian currency hahaha.

This week we met this dude named Cristain. He is hands down the nuttiest man I've ever met in my life. We were walking home from lunch, passed in front of his house, I yell good afternoon bro, and he just goes YOOOOOOOOO DO YOU GUYS WANT SOME WATER. Yes, it was a strange offer, but I was thirsty so I said yea. We start talking to him and he was just going nuts and for some reason I felt like I should give him a Book of Mormon. I did so, invited him to read it and pray about it, and we went on our jolly way. We get like 4 blocks from his house and I just had the most impressively large feeling to return and read some of the Book of Mormon with him. We go back, and sit down to start reading with him. He goes yo do you guys want a beer: I was like were chillin thanks tho man. Then he was like well I can roll a nice Blunt for you guys really quick if you guys want, do you guys smoke: and I was like no man we don't but thanks for the offer. Truly a charitable man. Then he goes man I'm all nervous now I gotta smoke, and starts smoking a nice cigarette. No big deal, everyone smokes here. Then he goes yea I'm a little special, I have to take this black tea medicine to help me out, you guys wanna see it: hahah he goes and gets his black tea medicine and shows us, and I was like dang that's cool hahah. I'm not kidding you tho, my companion was just terrified this whole time hahah, and for some reason I felt so safe and just felt God's love for this dude. We read the introduction with him and then we was like yo please come back tomorrow! We were like alright no worries. We leave and my companion was like no way in Davy Jones' locker am I going back there hahah. I was like okay no worries we don't have to, and progressively throughout the day I felt more and more strongly that I needed to go back there the next day. It got to the point where I was in the shower and this feeling was so real that I knelt down and prayed in the shower and was like God, do you really want me to go back there: I just got so overwhelmed by the Spirit and it brought me to tears, and I was like okay, I'll go back there. We go back the next day and this time I went back with Elder Rios. We get there and Cristain hadn't read, told us he doesn't really want to change his life, but thanked us for being his friends. The whole time we were there I was just thinking how am I supposed to help this dude, what do you need me to do God. We left and that kind of just sat with me for the rest of the day. “What am I suppossed to do with this, dude!” I get home, (it was a little late, and start reading the Book of Mormon. I was looking through the cross references of some things on the page I was reading and I started flipping through Doctrine and Covenants to find a scripture. For some reason my hands stopped a random page, and my eyes caught perfectly an unmarked verse (D&C 132:50) that reads "Behold, I have seen your sacrifices, and will forgive all your sins; I have seen your sacrifices in obedience to that which I have told you. Go, therefore, and I make a way for your escape, as I accepted the offering of Abraham of his son Isaac.” I just gotta say that I have no clue why I had to meet this guy, but God does. I have the strongest testimony that He loves freaking everyone. It doesn't matter how lost you are or how many times you think your mistakes have left you from His reach, He loves you. I feel the love that He has for you guys and I beg those of you who aren't feeling of His love to kneel down and ask Him to help you. You're never too far gone.

Just a final thought. I was super hungry on Saturday night, and believe it or not my mom sent me Apple Jacks haha so I sit down to enjoy a nice bowl of Apple Jacks. To my surprise we had no more milk. I decided to get cold water, mix it with Nesquik chocolate powder, and give it a try. The liquid was horrible, but the cereal still remained quite tasty.

My Apple Jacks

My companion getting a nice Pday nap in.

Half Robot Half Human Beings (Week 57)

What's good little flock hope everyone is chillin enjoying life. This week was excellent, we saw so many freaking miracles it was insane. Elder West and I are workin like half robot half human beings out here and it's really paying off. We've developed a new teaching tactic that I would highly unrecommend to other missionaries, I'll attach a picture below.

Miraculously we were able to put our Comrade Nilson on date. He believes that the earth is flat, that the moon has its proper glow, and has a family with 2 children! But he also feels the Spirit and knows Jesus loves him. Lessons are always interesting with him hahaha.

So just as mother nature would have it, in all her beauty, we were walking home from giving some lessons around 6pm Saturday night because we got invited to go to a wedding. We walk by this Uber driver parked on the side of the road and he just tosses a beer can out of his car and then pulls out into the road to go pick someone up. Such is life. We get home get all dressed up for a nice Brasilian wedding, and I couldn't resist the urge to wear my Nike's hahaha. We had a friend call an Uber for us and we bail out all exited and jump in the car and just as Saint Nick would have it we get the beer bro hahah. He actually drove super well I'm not gonna lie. But the wedding went well all I'm gonna say is that I've never had a group of 100 Evangelical brethren stare at me for so long without saying hi hahhaha. I went around and shook the hand of every single one of their pastors and their facial expressions put the biggest smile on my face hahaha.

Another quick story. It's hot as sin here in Brasil. One day we get home and it was like 105 degrees and I had to take care of some personal business in the bathroom, but it was too hot to close the door. Elder Rios yells from downstairs are you seriously visiting the John without closing the door? and I was like yea what's it to ya. Out of nowhere a tiny bomb (firework) just flies into the bathroom and so I jump up and hide in the shower box and then I literally thought i died for a second. This tiny bomb that looked super chillin literally obliterated Elder West's ears in the other room with FREAKING HEADPHONES ON. The explosion left a hole in the tile floor, caused the paint on the ceiling downstairs to literally, actually freaking peel off. I couldn't hear normal until 9 hours later when we were laying down to go to bed. This bomb was just chillin in a drawer inside our house, and Elder Rios thought it would be funny to toss it in the bathroom to give me a little scare. Never a dull moment!

Alright this week our buddy Bene just went off the charts. we visited him on Tuesday and taught him about the Restoration and it went so well. Thursday comes around and we got a little behind and ended up missing our lesson with him, so we called him and apologized and asked if we could go back another hour. He said that the rest of the day he was gonna be doing stuff with his girlfriend so it wouldn't work out. We were so bummed out. We go on with our day and had a ton of other appointments fall through, so we find ourselves sitting on the side of the road eating little pastries and drinking Coke haha. We're chatting and out of nowhere I get this feeling "get up and start walking before that lady gets to you guys” and I look to my sides all confused and see a lady down the road walking with a kid. Elder West and I pop up and go walking down the road and nothing fishy happened. We get to this other road and I remember this lady who we had contacted like 3 weeks ago, and I felt prompted to go knock on her door. We wait there for 5 mins and no one comes out so I was a tad confused and then I got the feeling to just bail out hahah so we leave this house and go walking down the street and find ourselves right in front of Benes house. I felt super strongly to just go and knock, so we did. After about 2 minutes he comes out and is like DUDES come on in I'm so glad that you guys are here. i just got done praying with my girlfriend and I'm feeling so crappy I need your help. He goes do you guys believe in blessings or like anointing people or is there anything you can do for me hahahaha… we were like uhhhhh yea. We gave him a super quick lesson about the Priesthood and then proceeded to give him a blessing. The Spirit was just radiating the whole entire blessing and he even told us right after the blessing was done that he was already feeling better. We go back on Saturday and he goes dudes you guys are so rad. After you guys left, my fever went away and I hadn't been able to eat for days and my appetite came back and I am just so grateful for you guys. Also he read until 2 Nephi this week alone which is like 80 pages and also he came to Church and he is just getting so much better. I just can't explain how useless we are in life without the Spirit. I have a very simple testimony that with a willing heart and an open mind we will be guided to those who need us, or they will be guided to us. I know that Heavenly Father loves every person so much it hurts my brain to think about it, but I feel it so strongly. If you guys every need anything you know I am here to help!

I don't know if you’ve seen the new Book of Mormon video that the Church released but they are gonna be releasing a new part every Friday! We watched the first part at Zone Conference and I actually recognized Nephi hahaha. He was in the MTC with me and I actually have a picture with him.

Much love. Shoutout to my brethren, especially Cal. Love you boo.

Quick quote. President Monson said "gratitude helps us feel God's love” so simple and so lovely. Be grateful.

Wedding attire

Had to get a pic with the bride and groom ahahah

The peeled paint

New teaching tactic "take a seat brother"

Nephi (far right)

Brasilian Brasa (Week 56)

What's up galaxy riders this week was another one for the books out here on the Brasilian Brasa. I have no clue how to say Brasa in English but like down here in Brasil everyone just eats a tank load of meat every week, and after they take the meat out of the grill thing they have these metal hot plates they cut the meat up and leave it on the Brasa so it doesn't get cold haha. This week it was hotter than Scarlett Johansson here every single day, like 100 degrees at the least, so yes, we were here chillin on the Brasa.

This whole week was a tiny bit tough on the little West and I. We just got our butts kicked again hahah like we just have no luck finding people. All of our lessons fall through with everyone. One day we were teaching this dude who we found from the area book and we were teaching him about the Plan of Salvation and we read 1 Corinthians 15:41 that said "there is one glory of the sun, and another the glory of the moon” and he stoped me after I read that about the moon he just goes wait a second... do you guys believe the moon shines: like everyone I talk to tells me no the moon just reflect the sun's light and I think they're just crazy. I was just boggled and explained to him about how the sun shines and why it shines and why the moon literally has moon cycles and sometimes it looks I don't know maybe like a crescent because who knows maybe the suns light is being blocked by the earth so... we finish explaining that and he just goes yea I have the Holy Spirit so I can understand things that normal people cannot. I was just like dude where can I get some of this Holy Spirit you're taking hahahaha sounds rad.

A couple of weeks ago we were trying to contact this lady who lives next door to this dude named Bene. We were clapping in the front of her house freaking loud as like thunder or something loud like that hahah and out of nowhere this dude Bene leaves his house just like what the nuts are these two white kids doing makin a ruckus outside my house. We went over and started talking to him and I felt like I should give him a Book of Mormon and just bear my testimony about how this book really makes me happy. He thanked us so much and was like listen I'm not super well these days. My dog is sick and my cat ran away and I really am not in an emotional state to receive a visit, so we got his number and he told us to call him another day. On Saturday we were sitting on the curb because another lesson fell through hahah nuts, and I was looking through the contacts in our planners we'd made on the street with people and I remembered Bene. We called him up and he was like what's up man, yea I'm actually way bummed because my dog died on Monday. Like I'm feelin like a bag of bricks bro. We asked him when we could go over and we marked a visit on Tuesday! He said he's reading the Book of Mormon and it's for some reason helping him feel happiness. When we were walking home Sunday night we walked passed him and his wife walking their other dog and we talked to them a little more and they just kept asking us to please pray for them. I could see the real need in the eyes of these 2 people. When I got home I was just sitting in a chair and I started praying for these two people. I was like please Heavenly Father help them, be with them, let them know it will be okay. I had a super special thought come into my head in this moment that went like this... “I want them to know that everything will be okay Porter, and that's why I'm sending you. I trust you to do what you should.” It really made me feel so relaxed. I know that every single time a lesson fell through Heavenly Father was just prepping us to encounter someone else close by who is needing to feel happier. I'm so glad I have this opportunity out here to care for those who are in need. To truly act as Jesus would.

I know that He lives, and that He simply loves you. You're never out of His reach.

Love, Elder Porter

District Sisters in Zion (Porter’s trainer KEVIN [back row, blue tie] is the Zone Leader - they are so happy to be serving near each other again!)

Someone let me name this cat Porter hahah

Met this crazy dooooood hahahah

Week of Awesomeness YEHOOOOOO (Week 55)

Sup yous. How's it goin. This week was an absolute blast off level ten party ahahah Elder West and I are ripping this area to pieces house by house. Some of the people that reject us I'm just not even worried about. We're chewing through the area book trying to find new people and sometimes it feels like we're eating a bowl of nails, may I add without any milk, but it's all part of the Celestial plan to enter into the heavenly salty splatoon.

We were walking to a service project one day that ended up falling through hahah and here in mother Brasil people have like these weird metal trash things where you put your trash in that like stick way out into the sidewalk. I'll attach a photo. But West and I were walking and I was like looking at him talking and all the sudden I get Samurai warrior saber chopped right in the middle of my left peck by this stupid metal thing and it hurt like Poseidon. It left me quite puzzled.

On Sunday at lunch I kid you not there was just a nice NFL game on and the last football game I watched was last freaking year's Super Bowl literally like 1 year and 8 months ago holy nuts. But I was trying to get the best bang for my buck so I ate 6 plates of food, and you think I'm kidding, as slow as I possibly could without looking like I was stalling hahah. I also drank 3 liters of water so after we left lunch a couple hours passed and I was peeing like every 10 minutes hahah. I posted up to take care of business by a tree and then Elder West was like bro I gotta pee too but I hate peeing in public hahah so I gave him a motivational speech and he starts peeing by this tree hahah then a car turns in right where we were and he peed all over his hands hahaha so we had to go home and he took a shower hahaah it was sooooo funny.

This week I really learned a special lesson about just hard work and being consistent. Everything that we had planned this week went wrong basically the whole entire week, but as we just kids to the wall the Lord blessed us with energy and happiness. On Friday afternoon we got a call and a member wanted us to give her friend's mom a blessing. We got there and I was just praying for help and the faith to help this lady be healed. We asked the lady if she had faith to be healed and she said yes and so we gave her a blessing and the Spirit was so so strong. I felt as we were leaving that a miracle had happened. Two days in the future we were coming back from lunch on Sunday and we randomly just passed in front of that specific family's house and I felt we should go visit them. We told the Uber driver he could just let us out there on the corner and we went back to the house and they were home so we went in and started talking to them. They were just so grateful to see us again and she started telling us how much better she has gotten these last 48 hours. I went to the bathroom to spring a leak and found myself begging God to help us with the lesson. To guide our words and help us take advantage of this miracle to bring the gospel to this family. As I left the bathroom their daughter showed up and was so so happy to see us. We started teaching the 3 of them about the Restoration and really focused on the priesthood and authority and power of God, and how that stuff is so freaking real. The Spirit testified of everything we said and I cannot explain how softened their hearts were through the entire lesson. As we finished up the lesson the daughter pointed out something that I hadn't even noticed. She pulled me aside and was like just look at my mom. Her whole self seems to be lighter. It was true, as I looked at this 80 year old woman, her eyes seemed to be opened brighter, her wrinkles seemed to be fewer, her smile seemed to be elevated, and the way she carried herself was completely different. It almost seemed as if her spirit was showing through her face with more vibrance. It was incredible. I just don't see a logical way to explain the things of God, nor will I even try. I just gotta bear my testimony that God's power to perform miracles is on this earth. That through our faith and through His will, miracles will and are happening daily. I know that Jesus lives, truly.

So this week I just took very few photos I'm sorry.

We had a nerf gun fight at District Counsel and a dart got caught up in the roof so I climbed into the roof and tried to dislodge it but it didn't work

Still stuck

The stupid trash nonsense

A lovely garden

Boo ya week 1800😂 (Week 54)

Sup dudes this week was full of a lot of things that I didn't think it would be full of haha but that's all part of the missionary shimmy you know. We got here to the area right in the middle of Pday which is always a blessing to spend half your Pday traveling haha. It was a holiday so all of the internet cafes were closed hahah what a joy. A lovely sister in the ward let us use her computer to send some emails which was a solid.

I'm not gonna lie it's been a bit goofy here with Elder West. He's my new comp, he's from Centerville, Utah and he's a total goober. We have very few people to teach here in the area the other dudes left nobody and we were just lost trying to find new people all week because our area is gargantuan. I'm feelin a tad bit funky but everything will work out chillin. Just gotta keep grindin.

So two feelings that I had this week that I can't really explain, which actually makes them cooler… here they are. Firstly, this dude and his wife got baptized this weekend in the ward, and it was super special because the dude was getting re-baptized into the Church. We were walking to the baptism and it had started to rain like nobody's buisness so we had to seek refuge inside the super market. After we ate some horrid super market food and waited for the rain to stop, we set out to the chapel once again. We stumbled upon this one lady midway to the chapel who was having some problems with her motorcycle. Her chain got like level 34 jammed and so we tried to help her for like 30 minutes and nothing happened. I said a prayer just like Heavenly Father, I need some help bro, please help us help this lady. With almost movie timing preciseness, a dude who works at the Chevrolet store right next to where we were at came out and asked us if we needed help. We said yes and he went back in the store and got some bigger wrenches and we were able to loosen the tire bolt and get the chain unstuck and this lady was able to go on her way. I was thinking "oh I need to invite them to church or ask them if they want a visit blah blah blah” when I heard a super chillin voice just tell me “you've done the work I intended for you to do with these 2 people.” After that I just felt so certain that our example and lending a hand and being just a good person is the most powerful thing we can do.

Also this week the Prophet President Russell M. Nelson came to Brasil and did a devotional for all of the members here. Before he started speaking I was praying to feel a nice warm feeling and feel that he truly is a prophet of God. He got up and started talking and he was like cracking jokes and in the middle of the laughs I just got the strongest feeling ever. Like it wasn't a voice, it wasn't something I could see, it just felt so good. I got all emotional and just felt so strongly like this man is really called from God to help me. That he feels a genuine love for me in specific. That he's in tune with Heavenly Father and he wants to help me. It didn't make any logical sense why in the middle of jokes I would get so emotional, but that's just the beauty of it. God loves us, He wants us to ask Him questions. He will respond to your questions.

Quick shout out to my brother Caleb Johnson. I love you bro, go kill it out there in England.
I love you dudes, if you ever need anything you can always shoot me an email. I'm always around to help.
Love, Elder Porter

My comp looks like Justin Bieber 2014 throwback

There's a nice lake by our house

Caught my comp snoooooooooozin ahhaha

Me & West

One Year Baby Boo (Week 53)

Sup goons this week was a bit nutty. I got transferred and I'm back down here in Matto Grosso do Sul close to the other area I served in. I'm super glad to be back down here because it was hot as pepper cakes in Rondonopolis. I woke up at like 1:30am the other night and the thermometer showed that it was 91 degrees. It will be nice to sleep in some “normal" weather once again hahaha.

I am a tiny bit short on time but I just am super grateful for the mission these days. I hit one year and it was hands the down gnarliest year of my life. I took some major emotional kidney punches these last 12 months out here, and I realize now how much it has done for my well being. I truly feel like a better person. The thing that I have tried to do the most is just learn and experience everything with an open mind. I feel like so many people close themselves off to the raddest happiness on earth that comes from our Savior Jesus Christ, because “they've already heard that before” or some lame shiz like that. Regardless of what my mind tells me as I go into a situation I do my best to just turn him off and focus on how I feel while I read this thing or go into that place. It's the best thing I've ever decided to do in my life. I find myself happier because of doing this. I invite all you goobers out there to try this out. Maybe if you're having a hard time feeling happy, say a prayer with an open mind and tell God how you are feeling. He loves you. Maybe if you have a friend or family member who bugs the sheitch out of you, try and love them and listen to them with love because nobody is born with anger inside of them. Experiences mark people and leave people messed up sometimes, and maybe that one friend who is always rude to you just needs a tad bit of love to erase the sorrow they feel from their past difficulties. Do your best to keep an open mind, my friends.

As always it was a throat kick to say goodbye to everyone in the old area. Wellington and Vanessa will be missed so much, don't even get me started about their kids. Our District there was the best District I've ever had, and the Zone was just chock full of the raddest missionaries ever. T'was good, but I've got a solid Comp now his name is Elder West and he's from Clearfield Utah. He's such a goober hahah it's gonna be way too funny with this guy. He was a janitor for 4 years.

I love you guys. Time flies when you're having fun!

We did a sweet Book of Mormon experience activity at the church. Here are some pics of the costumes

Also from the activity

Distrito 70

Fresh off the 10 hour bus ride. Soares you will be missed

LET'S GOOOOOO one year present. Love you mom

It Has Been ONE YEAR! (Week 52)

My friends and family, this week was an absolute boogie. I hit one year on Wednesday and I am forgetting how to like express myself in English ahahha it's such a sham. I tried to talk with one of the American Sisters in English and my English was just a doozy haha. I felt like a goober.

But Wellington and Vanessa holy smokes my Brethren and Sistren of God they are so rad. Their baptism was so good and just the level of pure happiness that is visible in their lives is such a beautiful thing to see. I am truly touched and seeing how useless I am without the Spirit in my life haha. I have seen changes in people's lives that literally don't freaking make sense hahah like 0% sense at all. There is something so physically different in a room or in a conversation when your emotions are elevated by the Spirit of God. It's so rad. But Wellington and Vanessa are now members of The Church hahahah sooooooo sick, when Wellington was entering the font he slipped and almost bailed to the Spirit World early hahah. They both just didn't stop smiling the whole night hahahha it was so sick. I'm gonna miss all of them so much I freaking love them and their 3 kids.

Something that made me extra happy inside my little missionary heart was to see how my problems have come to benefit my life, and the life of others in this last year. This week I had 3 missionaries who were feeling super crappy come to me and ask me for advice and magically they all were going through the same things I have gone through. I'm so freaking grateful Heavenly Father has given me these experiences, and also helped me overcome them, so that I can help other people with the knowledge I have gained. It made me feel so grateful for every hard time and just showed me how worth it every hardship really is. The crappy feelings are drowned out 10 fold by the feelings of joy and happiness from helping others. I am eternally grateful for the way God is prepping my life. He's a total bro.

Every Saturday we decided as a Zone that we were only gonna study about Jesus Christ. I gave a nice look at a rad story in the Book of Mormon that talks about when Jesus came to the Americas. In 3 Nephi 11 right after Jesus came down from the heavens everyone was like OH SNAP, that's Jesus, and everyone fell to the ground. 2 verses later in verse 14 after Jesus saw everyone in the group he says "arise and come forth unto me.” I just think that's the raddest ish on the planet. Everyone was all grounded and Jesus told them to come unto Him, and feel the marks in his side and hands and feet. He invited them to arise, and to come unto Him. I was super touched by this and I realized how that is constantly what Jesus is inviting us to do. To arise and come to Him. Every time we fall down, for whatever reason, we can expect the Savior to come and if we arise, if we go to Him, He will give us the comfort and the love we all truly need. I have the strongest testimony that He truly exists. That the man called Jesus Christ is real, and that He was resurrected, and that His love can fill us and make us feel so good when we get up and do what we are asked to do. My worldly brain cannot make sense of how all of this works, and for that I am incredibly grateful for the confirmations from the Spirit that these things are true. Prayer is real. It is how we receive answers to our most profound questions. Be honest as you talk with your Heavenly Father.

Coming to a close, a super cute cat was meowing at our door for like 10 minutes to we took her in and gave her a bath and milk hahaha and gave her the name of Elle. Elder Soares thought that was a good strong American girl name hahah, so now we have a cute cat living in the front of our house drinking our milk.

Here are pictures of this week.

With much love my friends,

Elder Porter

Wellington & Vanessa’s Baptism yewwww

All of the freaking houses are the freaking same in this one freaking neighborhood. Reminded me of Tentacles Acres hahaha that one community Squidward moved into.

Cat bath

Dry cat

Submitting to Heavenly Father's Will (Week 51)

Hey you guys! This week was just super duper good. It went by so fast and it was just calm and I just felt the Spirit and I am just so happy and relaxed and this is what the gospel of Jesus Christ is. I feel so good right now.

This whole week Elder Soares and I saw so many blessings in our work. We did our very best to just obey the rules and pray and stay close to our Heavenly Father and everything was just good. So for a couple of weeks I have been feeling super strongly that Soarino and I needed to leave the house right at 10:30 after we study in the morning and go do contacts and find people to teach. I'm not kidding something would always come up or we'd start studying late, so we never got around to leaving on time until Saturday came around. I got up, went for a run, and I was so freaking tired haha but was determined to have a good day. A drunk dude laughed in my face while I was running because who the cuss knows why, then I showered and we got studying. We ended our studies around like 10:20 and then got all ready to leave and met one of the coolest kids ever, before we had lunch. His name is Ildo and he normally isn't home because he likes to hangout in the streets and we happened to catch him leaving his house and he told us he'd go home around 6:00 to talk with us. We went to his house and we're talking to him about how God loves him as a son. He was telling us that his dad lives in another city and that he misses him a ton. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and when I pulled it out I go dude I promise you this book will help you overcome the challenges you are having right now, whatever they may be. God will give you the strength as you read this book. He just looks at us after and goes I was literally gonna ask you right now if this book could help me get out of the streets and make better decisions with my life. Every time I have the desire to go out and get jiggy with my friends I think I'll just chill a tiny and read this book. I really felt so lucky to have met this kid and I know that we met him because we chose to obey what God was telling us. Here in the mission I am painfully learning the importance of obedience. I am realizing how obedience really is what brings the blessings God has ready for us. It sure has been painful figuring out how to be obedient, but nothing is more comforting than knowing that as we are obedient, we are doing what God would want us to do. There is something so comforting in knowing you are choosing the right over just wandering around hoping you are boogying down the right path.

Wellington and Vanessa are way way too good these days. Everything is just an absolute beauty with them. On Friday Wellington lost his wallet and was mega bummed out haha. I told him a story about how I lost my wallet and prayed a frick ton and then found my wallet like 5 days later. I told him God is wanting to test him and that if he prayed to find his wallet he would find it. We left and he was like super uber bummed haha but many prayers were said after we left and nonetheless he found his wallet on Saturday! Prayer is way too rad folks. We had a super special lesson with just Wellington Sunday night because everyone was sleeping, and we taught him about family history. We explained it so simply and the Spirit spoke so strong to all of us there. Through teaching about this my testimony grew so much. I realized how legit it is that we have the opportunity to help people who have already died here on earth but are well livin on the other side of the veil. I truly know that life continues after death and that Gods plan is perfect for us. It's so sick we have the opportunity to seek out our bros and ladies on the other side and lend them a helping hand.

I feel so truly blessed to be serving a mission. At times I am getting absolutely railed and it can be such a bummer out here but that's all just part of the shim sham. I always end up realizing how vital for my spiritual growth the little tiny crappy A times are, and it makes me trust in God more and more every time. He just wants me to be super rad like Him one day, but He can't do anything unless I let him, you know. I know it's hard to fully submit yourself to our Heavenly Father but I haven't had a better 2 weeks in the mission only just trying to give my will to the Father. It's legit stuff dudes.

Just to end up really quick, on Sunday our lunch fell through so we made pancakes at home. I ate 4. We got hungry for dinner so we made more pancakes and I ate 3 more. I am running on 7 pancakes right now haha, but mom don't you even worry your little biscuits of course I'm taking my vitamins!

Love you guys!

Elder Pooter

We are gonna to an activity at the church that requires gold plates as a prop. We got this TV box and had to walk home 15 minutes with it. haha

Ivo and Marly moved... we talked to the Elders in their city and I know they'll be well taken care of. Here's the only ghetto photo we got with them.

I'm on a Mission (Week 50)

What's up dooooooods this week literally went by faster than a giant underwater Texan worm. So many insanely rad things happened this week and my testimony grew so so much it was so cool. If there was a salty splatoon in heaven my spirit would definitely be tough enough to enter after this week's occurrences.

This week we had Zone Conference and they told us to study a part of Preach My Gospel that talks about the Book or Mormon. I had one of the most eye opening experiences ever while studying, and I realized how important it is to read the Book of Mormon every flippin day. I realized that just like my body needs food, like a nice Panda Express meal or a Double Double, which would be so nice right now, also my spirit needs some nice food too. I realized that the days I didn't pray and read the Book of Mormon my spirit would be like dude I'm freaking hungry gimme something good to eat, and although my body had food, my spirit was toasted. I realized also that every time we read the Book of Mormon we should be in contact with God, and ask him to continually renew our testimonies of the truthfulness of this book. Testimonies, like they say, are like a plant, and if you stop watering the little dude he's gonna get all crispy and die. It's simple. Water your testimonies every day dudes.

Alright so the most bonkers thing happened on Sunday with Wellington and Vanessa. First off we show up at their house to go to church with them, and we see all 3 of there kids wearing white shirts hahah way too rad. Naua even had a little future missionary sticker on his shirt. Even better than that we look inside and see Wellington wearing a white shirt, who claims he hates white shirts. We get to church and during second hour we were reading in Acts 22 and I read like 3 verses and stopped at verse 14 then Wellington was like let me read bro and literally just stripped the Bible from my hands, and I was just so dumbfounded because the dude doesn't even like reading in front of us at his house. So he reads in front of the whole group at church, is wearing a white shirt, and here is where is gets even better. We get home after the meeting and go into their house to leave a message. We felt super prompted to invite them to get baptized and so we did, and Vanessa as always was like I'm in, and Wellington was like ehhhhhh, then out of freaking nowhere Vanessa was like dude, I don't really like to talk much about coincidences, things just happening randomly, but Wellington I want you to read the 2 verses that you read at church for us really quick. She pulled up Acts 22:15-16 and handed him the phone and he just starts reading “For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. And now why tarriest thou: arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord” and DUDE I LITERALLY HADN'T EVEN NOTICED IT THE FIRST TIME WHEN HE READ IT AT CHURCH HAHAHAHAH and when he read it he just like started laughing and looked up at us and was like welp, looks like I'm getting baptized hahahahahah it was freaking insanity. I am so so grateful for prayer and for the ability to Fast and to realize that when we truly pray and when we truly ask with faith, MIRACLES HAPPEN.

I love this gospel so much and I am so exited for Wellington and Vanessa to get baptized on Aug 17th!!!

So this week I wanna give a shoutout to Micah Bode, my Mom, and my older brother Drake. You three gave me exactly what I was needing, exactly when I needed it. Last Monday after we got back from emailing I knelt down at the side of my bed and offered one of the most difficult prayers I've ever offered. I painfully fought through my self pride, my impossible self centered desires, and told God that everything that I have is His. That I am ready to give myself to Him for as long as my days may be. This week I saw my love, and my desires change. I realized how much I have to change, and never had a single moment where I felt overwhelmed. I feel as if God is guiding me, and although I might have 1000000000 freaking things to change, 1000000000 things wrong with me, He doesn't give a freak. I know without a shadow of a doubt that as long as I do my best to get better every day, I will feel God’s presence.

Love you guys gotta bail already because I'm hungry as a horse, but until next week <3

An assortment of Zone Conference photos

This is called terere. It’s a mixture of herbs you drink with cold water. I love it

No keys - no phone! (Week 49)

What's up family and other dudes this week was definitely a one of a kind. It was actually a pretty stressful one hahah. On Thursday the Zone Leaders traveled to Primavera do Leste to do splits, and locked the lock on the front gate. Interestingly enough Elder Soares lost the keys somehow inside the house, so we had no way to leave the house. And to top things off I must remind you that Elder Decker lost our phone 2 weeks ago and the office still hasn't sent us a new one, so we had no way to leave home and no way to call anyone. We magically got a hold of some people at the bar across the street, so we called the Sisters and they walked to the key place and sent a guy to our house and he came and switched everything out ahhaha. We ended up losing all of our visits that night and had no way to call the people to tell them we couldn't make it to their house. Also Elder Soares got me sick so it has been a LONG week hahaah, but there are always little miracles in every day through all the other ish.

Saturday morning I was studying and feeling a little bit crumby so I said a meaningful sincere prayer asking God for some help. I then continued my studies and accidentally bumped into Doctrine and Covenants 76:6 which says "great shall be their reward, and eternal their glory” yea cool scripture I know, you're probably thinking it has nothing to do with anything when you take it out of context, but that's just the point. I was studying in Portuguese, and in Portuguese depending on the context the word “their" can also be singular, which is “your". So as I stumbled upon this scripture I read it out of context in Portuguese, and it read "great shall be YOUR reward and eternal YOUR glory” it really was exactly what I needed and it just reminded me how everything that we go through in this life is just to better ourselves. That God has a plan for every single one of us. I really am gaining a stronger and stronger testimony of prayer day after day out here and I have 100 percent certainty that a prayer of faith is stronger than nearly all other things. That humbling ourselves before God is not weakness.

Friday night we did a super rad activity and had a Karaoke night and it was so funny. There is this like middle aged woman in the area here who always tries to hit on the missionaries, it's the worst dude, and she kept trying to sing songs in English and it was soooo bad hahaha. On Saturday there was a huge party thing at the church and Wellington and Vanessa came and they loved it so much it made me so happy. We talked to Wellington and Vanessa... Wellington said he is so close to getting baptized which is such a miracle. The quantity of miracles we have seen in the last 2 weeks, without a phone and without keys, but with some solid faith have been miraculous.

Throughout this short almost year that I've been out here I have really seen how much God does for us. 90 percent of the time these things go unnoticed. In life we get so rushed and so nutty that we forget to just chill the pill and we miss so many things that Heavenly Father is doing for us. In the mission it has been specifically difficult for me to just chill on the stressage and just enjoy life even in the difficulties. It is something that I am learning to do better day after day, and I am incredibly grateful that I have this opportunity for another year to improve and be shaped by our perfect and Eternal Father.

Got some good photographs to recuperate from last weeks one picture pity.

The gate

My shoes are 3 shades lighter of brown from the dust in the streets I kid you not

Soares and I

This is Wellington and Vanessas youngest kid Pietro

Another friend

11 Months DOWN! (Week 48)

Sup dudes. So for reals, this week was just not cool at all. It was the most average week ever hahah. Elder Soares got sick, got a nice case of the little boy flu, so we had to go to the freaking hospital which I freaking HATE here. Hospitals are the worst here. We get there and they sent us to a different hospital to get an X-ray of Soares' chest, and while he was doin all that jazz I fell asleep in the check in room with my heck cocked back and my mouth just gaping open haha. When I woke up like an hour later I realized it was just me, and the 5 check-in desk ladies were all just looking at me because I was the only other person in the place haha. I was a tiny bit embarrassed. I sure hope I didn't snore.

But since Soares got sick we would leave after lunch to work and like 30 minutes would pass then he'd magically feel the most violent wave of flu you've ever witnessed in your life haha so we passed 3 days at home. It was pretty rough actually I hate sitting around it sucks. I got some good studies in but like reading gets kind of old. One day I was so tired I laid down on the tile floor with the intent to sleep for 10 minutes and woke up 2.5 hours later and I swear to you the back of my noggin was flat hahaha literally flat dude.

Something that I realized this week is that it's okay to have like super duper lame weeks in life, and in specific in the mission. We should always be striving to make every day super rad and do our best to be optimistic, but like we shouldn't get all butt hurt if a day or week just turns out kind of lame. Just gotta pick yourself up and keep going to the next week. Actually a super special quote that I read this week from a super great, unnamed cousin of mine goes like this. "In prison they tell you to not drop the soap, but to you I say don't drop the hope.” So that's about as clear as day my friends, don't ever drop the hope. Even when the soap and everything else in the week has been nothing but a huge bummer. hahahahha

So Wellington and Vanessa are doing super good this week. Actually being stuck in the house a little bit this week turned out to be a bigger blessing than I had realized until now because it gave me a lot of time to read in this super cool book called the Book of Mormon. Chances are you've already heard of it, but if not it's rad, the story is pretty cool if you read from the beginning. We decided to just start from 0 with Wellington and Vanessa and teach them about the Book of Mormon and the importance it has. I really feel like people don't understand truly how rad this book is, and that's why they don't read it. Sadly until this week I hadn't truly realized how freaking bad a this book is. As I read the introduction, the last paragraph talks about gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon, or in other words having a confirmation from God that this book is super awesome. It talked about how, by knowing that this book is super awesome, or in other words having a testimony of its truthfulness, we will also come to know Jesus Christ is our Savior. That was just so insanely and simply profound to me. I realized that as I read this book I truly feel as if I have someone who knows exactly what I'm feeling. Who came to earth literally just to feel my pains to be able to help me out. In other words all that jazz means that this dude who came to earth, Jesus Christ, is my Savior. And that means if I have a Savior, I am saved... but saved from what? Through every time we make a mistake, doing better the next time, we show Jesus that we don't wanna do that stuff anymore, we ask Him to forgive us for doing that, and, because he already suffered for that stuff He has the power to take the pain from us. So what He has saved us from is feeling all the pain of every mistake we've ever made, forever. I've made some hefty mistakes in my life, and I could count about 3 mistakes that, if I didn't have a Savior to take these pains, would probably melt my brain and I would die from spiritual distress and pain. Dudes, I can't explain how important the Book of Mormon is. I know I'm a full time missionary and I know I do this work every day and I know you can think of 10,000 excuses why it's easier for me to find time out here to read the Book of Mormon than you, but no one is forcing me to do any of this. No one is forcing me to wake up at 6:30am or study at 8:00am or go teach people all afternoon. I choose to spend my time in this manner. I promise each one of you that if you choose to take a teeny tiny quantity of minutes every week, and then work toward every day, you will find purpose in this life, you will feel that Jesus Christ isn't just a dude, but that He is THE dude, and that He lives and loves you more than your freaking brain will ever understand. I beg you to just read a tiny bit of this book because it will change your life. It was no easier for me, than it is for you, to just pick it up and give it a read, and I promise you that nothing has changed my life more than this book. I love my Savior and I feel His love for every single one of you. He will give you this same feeling.

I don't have many pictures from this week. I got a haircut tho. Didn't take pictures of it tho.

Love, Elder Porter

p.s. Sorry I just realized this email is the same size as a children's short story haha.

The new district

Inspired changes (Week 47)

On the real this week was full of some ish if you know what I'm sayin. Elder Soares and I are gonna stay here together for another transfer!! Its gonna be so so fun! A literal miracle happened this week. So after Elder Erik and Decker came back from the Leadership Conference they broke some super special news to us. There was an insanely inspired change that happened in our mission. Before this week we had a box load of just freaking crap that we had to keep track of, like so many numbers that just were so stupid. Like how many lessons we gave and how many addresses we got and just a bunch of nonsense like that. This week we got word that they are doing away with all that and just focusing of 4 principle things. They are starting to have a vision that this work should be truly motivated by love and not numbers. I just am so so grateful for the inspiration of our leaders it's just the most amazing thing. At the very moment this news was broken I nearly shed a tiny tear of joy, and ever since then my life has been a beauty. I've never had such a relaxing, spiritual weekend, and it just re-boosted my gas tank of love. I'm not gonna lie she's been runnin a little bit low lately for the last little bit I have been feelin a tad bit crumby. I have to say, now as I am coming out of my difficulties though I can see how many things God has taught me. I was talking with a Zone Leader at the beginning of this week about how I have really been feeling super clogged up. Like I'm just not progressing, I truly felt as if I was digressing. It was incredibly hard to feel that, especially out here you know. As I prayed and conversed with my Father in Heaven through all of these difficult times I see now how he was just beefin me up to be a better kid, and I literally was thinking the opposite. I bear testimony to you guys that every tiny freaking molecule of a problem that you have, or will ever have is being cared for by God. That He knows exactly what you need and that you will come out of it so much better. Even if you feel like freakin crap, or like a bag of bricks, or like a lump of clay, you will come out of it better. I promise. I have felt like such a giant bag of bricks sometimes out here and I've never had more certainty than I do now that every moment was to make me better. I promise every single one of you that everything will be okay. <3 If I could I would give all of you a tiny hug right now. haha

Sadly Vanessa's baptism didn't go through. Wellington was feeling a little left out you could say, and was like no I don't want her to get baptized with out me, so it was just kind of a complicated situation. I know that she has a testimony super strong though like she really does know these things are real. It's just gonna take a little longer than we thought (: no worries.

There's a super awesome family coming up on the rise. It's John the Baptist and his family hahah his wife Luziene and his kids John Kennedy, Crislaine, and Kailane and they are so rad. I got so stoked when this kid told me his name is John Kennedy it had me dying hahah. Freaking Brasilians. We were having a lesson with them about the Book of Mormon and I asked them what they were struggling with in their lives and Joao Batista was like dude I am really needing work. I felt the Spirit super strong tell me to promise him that if he read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it he would never ever have to look for work again and it really caught me off guard. I thought about it for a sec and then the Spirit was like stop thinking and spit it out bro, so I did and the Spirit was just insane in the moment. He was so shocked and felt the Spirit so strong and it was just a really tender moment with these dudes. Love em.

I don’t know if you remember Salete from Primavera do Leste (my greenie area) but she was here in Rondonopolis and just happened to be staying at her daughter-in-law's house in our freaking area 10 minutes from our house so we got to go and visit her! I kid you not, her testimony is so insane. I have never seen someone grow so firmly in the gospel, it's insane. I am so grateful for her she's such a blessing in my life. It was actually on the walk to her daughter-in-law's house that we met Joao Batista and his family.

Ivo and Marly are doing super good and the Branch offered to pay and plan their whole wedding and also like get a dress and a suit for them and Marly told us the other day that she woke up crying because she had a dream about their wedding and she woke up crying from happiness. So cute. Should be so good.

But I just wanna bear my testimony super rapid mode about the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. I need you guys to know that the Holy Spirit it real, that he leads and guides us in incredible ways. I have the strongest testimony that it is not by my own doing that people come to know this gospel, but through the Spirit of God. I love this gospel, and this mission. God helps me see the good in every single person through the Holy Spirit. The pure happiness that I truly feel out here, and in specific right now is something I never want to lose. I promise every single one of you reading this, that a greater peace and relaxation is prepared for you.

I love you guys! Have a solid week and make it better than the last one.

Prado and I. . . goodbye

Salete

One of the member's daughters has this doll. It was its birthday on Tuesday when we had lunch there so we got the pleasure of singing happy birthday to Lucas. He is 3 months old.

Ivo got a new do

We moved! (Week 46)

Sup fools this week was full of just some very interesting things. First off we moved houses which was super good. Our new house is way bigger and so much better, but we found a centipede and a lot of spiders in here over these last couple days so were gonna have to get some poison to drink so that they won't wanna bite us because we'll have poison in our system.

The other companionship that lives here with us had a baptism of this chick named Camila that they've been teaching for a couple weeks. She's super rad and is gonna be such a rad member of the Church. Every once in a while Elder Soares and I go to do visits at her family's house with the other companionship and it's always super solid. I was doing her baptismal interview and at the end I asked her who she wants to baptize her and she thought for a sec and was like well could you baptize me: and I was kind of just taken a tiny skootch by surprise and was like absolutely hahah. So I had the opportunity to baptize her and it's always just really special to be the first person to see someone after they get all purified. Reminds me every time how real these things truly are. I can absolutely bear an honest testimony that I know that this Church is true, that it is the Church of Jesus Christ. It's so much more than just a once a week 2 hour commitment on Sunday morning, it's the true and only way to find lasting peace and confidence in your life, and I testify of that.

We had lunch at the District President's house this week and he came and picked us up from the chapel and had to go withdraw some money from the bank and he parked in a super illegal spot and the got out of the car running and he was like don't let the police give me a ticket and we were like we'll try our best and then he was like use the priesthood if you really need to hahahahaha!

Last Monday we were sitting there in the internet cafe and I had just ended a nice chitty chat with my lovely mother dear and my father and this lady just taps me on my shoulder and goes hey dudes I really need your help... I really need you guys to give my daughter a blessing. She goes I used to be a member and I was sealed in the temple but then my husband and I got separated and I just haven't been super well lately, but I really need my daughter to feel better. Can you guys give her a blessing even if I'm not an active member, and I was like heck yes we would absolutely love to. I stopped typing on the computer and started to talk to her for a sec and then she told us that the night before she had prayed to find some Elders, and when she walked in the internet cafe and saw like 8 Elders all talking to their family she was just overwhelmed. I stood and just told her I want you to know that you are never alone. That God still loves you so much and He cares about what you are worried about and He still cares about your life. He hasn't, and won't ever forget about you. It was just a super tender moment there in the computer lab. We had the opportunity to go to her house later that night and give her kid a blessing. She was the cutest little kid on the earth. In their house lives this little girl, her mother, her grandma and also her great grandma. We had the opportunity to give great grandma, mom, whose name is Sicilia, and Geovana who is the daughter a blessing, and it was a super rad experience to see the priesthood bless these people's lives. It really really made me feel so special to help someone feel God's love, and in specific help Sicilia realize that God never ever gives up on His children no matter what, and is always doing everything He can to help us come back to Him. Experiences like this are what make this mission worth it!

Sadly Elder Prado is getting transferred. It's all good tho because he'll be moving to Utah right around when I get home, but this week we got sushi and it was so delectable.

Sushi

Happy 4th! Tehe

Camila’s baptism

Prado and I <3

Oops! (Week 45)

**Unfortunately Porter’s keyboard/word processor that he uses to type his weekly letters/updates on, was having technical difficulties yesterday and erased his entire weekly update.😩 He didn’t have time to try to type it all again, so he sent this quick note. . .

Hey so these are just pictures from my week. We got a lot of coconuts and also cut a coconut tree in half with an axe. Also Wellington and Vanessa are doing super well. Vanessa is gonna get baptized next weekend and we are so exited! I'll try to send an update about this week next week. Sorry I don't have time to write a full update about this week. Something that I really learned this week was how simple the gospel is. I realized the more simple and happy I teach it the more it affects those that we are around. The Lord's love for us is simple and he wants us to feel it. Don't complicate it. Sometimes it doesn't really matter how many swear words you've said or how many stop signs you have stopped at. As long as you are simply trying to be better the Lord will help you. It's simple. I know that these things are real and that they are so simple. Let the Lord help you simplify your life <3 Love you guys!