Week 14 yeet mode — Called to Serve in Cuiaba

Hello my American friends and family!

I got a haircut this week. Pretty cool. That’s about it. Love you guys.

Nah I’m teasin, we got something.

So literally everything makes so much sense now. Every freaking little thing makes sense now. I have been teaching families here for 2 months, and literally almost every one of them has a really crazy annoying kid haha. Like literally level 13 annoying you have no clue hahahah. I cannot express in words the mastery they have in the art of being annoying. Let’s be real tho, when I was a little kid i was such a moron. For real. I was always always getting toasted for everything and it sucked ahaha. Having said that, I wanna relate all that jazz to something spiritual (yea what’s new.) During my time out here I've realized Heavenly Father is always toasting us with trials, and during our trials its always such a doozy haha. Now looking back on every time my parents crisped me as a kid, I realize that like 85% of the time it was out of love (; nah just kidding we’ll bump it up to 87% haha. But the reason they were layin the lumber on me is because they loved me.They didn’t want me to grow up to be a dirt bag, they were trying to shape me into a decent lad. It really wasn’t punishment at all (also like 87% of the time tehehe) but literally it is the same thing with Heavenly Father. Although we sometimes view our trials as punishments, they are nothing shy of pure love. They are truly only to shape us into the dudes we’re made to be. Being out here on the mission it feels like your trials will never ever freaking ever end, and you know what I realized, they literally won’t ever end. For the rest of your life your going to be getting throttled by stuff that is everything but cool beans. Every day your gonna get absolutely hurled off an emotional cliff, but something that is beautiful is that we have the power to change our trials. We have the power to change our attitude and accept that God is only giving us trials to help our sorry keesters. I am still going through trial after trial out here on the mission, but I am the happiest sap on the planet. I just hated being sad and feeling like a absolute bag of flesh every day, so I just changed my outlook on everything and that made all the difference in the world. Accept Gods help and have the faith that He knows what he is doing. He’s just molding your cute little spirit into something radical.

We popped into Branco and Vania’s house on Tuesday to confirm everything with them and they were literally on the verge of exploding. It was the raddest thing. They were truly just beaming. Branco looked me straight in the face and told me, "you know what, I am so amped to get baptized and I feel so ready dude” and literally I freaking lost it again haha I literally did a tripple fist bumb in the air and just whispered “yessssssssss” and it literally was the most unrefined goodness I’ve felt in my life. We might be doin it out here fellas.

So yea, we got the address of this little 12 year old kid named Deylon from the old branch Pres Eric, and when he gave us this kids address he goes "învite this kid to be baptized the first lesson you give” so we were like aye aye captain will do sir. On Wednesday we found out this kid lived waaay on the other side of town so we freaking walked an hour and 10 minutes to his house and right when we showed up Kev dawg jokingly goes "so buddy, you ready to get baptized this Saturday haha” and this little grom goes “ et's do it fellas” in this sarcastic tone ahaha so we all had a good laugh about it and sit down to give him a nice lesson about the gospel and he goes "so what to we have to do to get baptized on Saturday” and literally in that moment Kevin and I looked at each other and I’m thinkin "what the dew just happened” ahahah. This kid had already taken all the lessons from the sisters that were here like 3 years ago hahahahah he literally had everything he needed to be baptized and I was so happy I almost leaked my pan. We ran a quick 25 minute refresher of everything we could think of that he needed and then went over the baptismal interview questions with him. For some reason he felt like right now was the time he wanted to get baptized. HAHAH WHAT THE YAM IS THAT hahaha we showed up on this kid’s porch and literally he might as well have already been zipped up in the white jumpsuit hahaha. So yea. I really still don’t know what happened. I have a feeling that’s not really normal out here, but I accept all things with open arms... except hugs from Brasilian chicks for the next 2 years...

And I think were really doin it. On Saturday we spent like 3 hours cleaning the font because it’s outside and it was dirty as sin. After we cleaned everything and filled the thing with some clean Brasilian tap water the Branch President showed up with a ton of people. He was assigning people different things for the baptismal program and he didn’t have anyone for the spiritual message and for some strange reason he looked me right in the face and goes "man I really wish we had more people here because there’s no one left to give the spiritual message” so I freaking took it personally and looked that old sack of bones right back in the face and said "you know you never asked me if I wanted to give the message, and you know what, I'd be happy to.” hahha with all respect. I was super nervous like 10 seconds before I gave the message and had no clue what I was gonna say so I shot up a speedround prayer and hopped up and started talking about the Holy Ghost, and of course before I knew it I was sobbing my eye sockets out again haha. The boost I always feel through praying, and coupling that prayer with action is one of the most powerful forces I’ve felt in my life. When I finished the message the Branch President got up and goes "âs we can all see Elder Roskelley’s Portuguese is better than we thought, and were very grateful for the spirit he brought.” Thanks old man. After that we boogied to the baptismal font. Here they call it a baptismal sink, thought you’d like to know that. But honestly I got tripple knuckle throttled by the Spirit, specifically when Vania was getting baptized. Literally this work is the most beautiful work on the planet. I have never felt so full of love in my life. After everyone got baptized the sense of comfort and happiness nearly put me into a coma of love. I am still absolutely confused to the core how I developed such a insane love for these people in such a short time. Missionary work is the most beautifully fulfilling thing.

Last thought. I feel like when people hear the words "missionary work” they feel like they have to have like some name tag and a shirt and tie on 24/7 to be a missionary or something crazy like that, but like I’ve said 1000 times all missionary work is, is love. Love through sharing a smile with someone, or telling them you like the color of their shoelaces, or trading Pokémon cards or something like that. Literally I cannot put a definition on what love is to you, but whatever it is go share it with someone this week. It will make your life so much brighter. I can promise you with all that I have and hold that your life will immediately improve. Your mind will be opened to the incredible amount of things you have to be grateful for, your love for yourself, and the Lord will grow exponentially, and you will literally, physically notice a change in yourself through loving. It still blows me away how humongous of a physical impact something so deeply emotional can have on a human being.

I love you guys. Every one of you.

Go show God you’re grateful for what you have through love.

Elder Porter <3

Email: proskelley@myldsmail.net

PHOTOS

1. Hanging out on the apartment

2. Reppin the white meat and cleanin the sink (font)

3. Baptism (: (I promise their spirits were smiling)

Baptism of Vania, Branco and Deylon - Primavera do Leste 11.24.18