Week 22: 5 1/2 months down
Hello people who I care about.
Firstly I wanna say thank you to all of you who told me to put on sunscreen.
This week was so freaking rad. I learned a truckload of things. First things first we had some freaking gnarly lessons on Sunday. I'm talking some real stuff alright. Alright first lesson, one of the members has a step grandson who is 13 and he's so rad. His grandpa is like hardcore Catholic, like pile-drive in the face Catholic. Like dunking babies and stuff. We had a huge conversation with him and his grandpa because his gpa wants him to get baptized in the Catholic church but he doesn't want to. This grandpa started to go on a random tangent about free agency and right when he finished talking about how important free agency is I asked him "so if your grandson Iago wanted to get baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ would you let him exercise his free agency and do so; and then he just knew he was in a pickle hahah. Castro then swooped in with a flying punch and goes "alright Iago, what do you think about getting baptized this Saturday January 26... and Iago was like ye. So yea. That was rad haha. Also we had a super good lesson with Salete and José and they agreed to start prepping to get married! Ye. Also we had a lesson with Balbino and his family with Lazaro and Fabianna's family and we talked about eternal families and all the goods and they told us they would start getting the show on the road with their marriage. I got so sappy when I bore my testimony about my family. Nothing is better than having my old folks sealed for eternity in the temple. The happiness and joy that I feel as a kid from knowing my family can be together forever is something that gets me so emotional every time I think about it. I love this gospel and I know that this gospel is the gospel of happiness. Nothing is more important to God than our eternal happiness with our families.
This week I had a super rad tender mercy happen every day. Without a doubt when we would leave the house I would see like 4 yellow butterflies while we were walking around doin work. I know my buddy Beau Richey is lookin out for me! <3
On Friday when we were talking with Pedro and Balbino, Castro and I felt prompted to ask Pedro if he wanted to be baptized this week and he was like are you kidding me I totally wanna so we moved his date up to the 26th which was super happy. Also during the same lesson Balbino said something that literally almost murdered me hahaahah. We were sitting there and after we invited Pedro to get baptized and Balbino was like hold the phone Mr Roskelley, how come you didn't ask me to be baptized too and I was like bro do you remember how we talked to you about the law of chastity and marriage and all that jazz 3 times, and he was like ye, and then we were like well you gotta be obeying that ish before you can be baptized, and then he just looked me right in the face and was like "Elder Roskelley, you're telling me I have to be married before I get baptized” and I was like "yes old sport, I hate to say it" and after that he just got silent for I kid you freaking not 25 seconds haha. I just sat there waiting and then he looks me right in the eyes and yells "BARACK OBAMA” so loud hahah and I just lost my marbles hahah. I literally peed in my pants a lil I was laughing so hard. Like I'm sitting in the middle of this random house in a city 250 miles from the nearest McDonalds, and a man named Balbino with 4 dogs and 2 children chose to yell the name of the first U.S. black president above every other 2 word combination possible. ahhahaahhahahah.
My toothbrush cap fell in the toilet on Tuesday and I really didn't want my toothbrush head to get dirty to I fished it out and washed it off and slapped that puppy back on... nah haha I'm just bustin your chops hahha I ain't ever touchin that cap again. He's got a new home in the bottom of the toilet here in Primavera do Leste.
Quick last thought for you guys. I found this super rad scripture in First Nephi that nobody has heard of before and it goes like... I will go and do the stuff the Lord asks me to do because I know that he will always provide a way for the things he commands us. The reference is 1 Nephi 3:7. When I read that verse again at the beginning of the week I really realized something. Every single one of us has some major difficulty in our lives. Maybe this difficulty is literally eating you alive and you feel so dead inside every day. Maybe you feel as if God himself has abandoned you. I stand as a witness to you guys that our Heavenly Father NEVER forgets about us. He is literally in control of everything. I know without a single doubt in my body, even down to my little pinky toes, that literally every difficulty has a way out, a light at the end of the tunnel, and if we are willing to trust in that, then nothing the evil dude can do will ever be enough to get us to quit. Sure he might get REALLY freaking close, but it will never be enough because he's a loser and thinks he's a playa but he's not. I bear testimony to you guys that every day out here on the mission is not easy, and the rest of my life sure as freak isn't gonna be easy, but as I take it one step at a time and trust that my Heavenly Father has laid a way for me to make it through today, I never have a worry. Nothing is more rewarding than serving the Lord and giving what I have to Him every day. I know that you guys may be struggling, and may be wanting to give up so badly, and I'm sorry for your struggles. Remember that I love you, and your families love you, but more importantly your Heavenly Father and Jesus love you more than anyone. There is a trail laid down for you to succeed. The Creator himself is surrounding you with angels, and you will look back on every difficult time you've ever had in your life and thank God for everything that you learned from them, only if you choose to continue.
I love you guys so much and miss you too, but we still got a year and a half or so to go. Keep it focused and enjoy what you have a little more for me this week. (:
Love, Elder Porter
Elder Castro’s (Kevin - far right) birthday is tomorrow 1.22.19!
Here's a picture of Elder Nye's burn line.
Our neighbor's Bday was Sunday so we made him a cake. Here is the cake.
Balbino got a pitbull and when he showed up with the dog he handed it to me and goes "give this dog the most American name you can think of” so I shouted “Frank”, and now his name is Frank. Here's a picture of him.