Week 25er email — Called to Serve in Cuiaba

Sweet heaven so much changed this week its crazy. Tranfers are pretty crazy, I'm not gonna lie it was a little hard to say bye to Kevin. Gonna miss that cute Peruano. My new comp is an American and his name is Elder Woodson and he has a super big fear of feet hahahah. When I showed up at the new house and pulled out my Legos to reconstruct them, I found out that he also likes Legos and has a Lego dinosaur hahahaah so now we put all our Legos together and it's pretty cute.

On Monday when I was saying goodbye to everyone in Primavera do Leste it was pretty sappy. Salete literally melted my tiny heart geez that lady. She hugged me and I just couldn't resist the love I was feeling from that lady so please call me a sinner, I hugged her. She told me that she will for sure get married and baptized and I told her I cannot wait til the day of her temple sealing, and that she can expect me there. Balbino literally nuked my feelings and so did Pedro. My sweet sensitive heart just took way too many blows for one day hahahah. I gave Balbino a $10 bill and he just started leakin and then I gave Pedro a tie with my name and his baptism date written on it and then he just took off the gold cross he always wears and gave it to me and then it just went full tear fest hahaha dude it was a brute. I freaking miss those guys so much. I feel so blessed God gave me the opportunity to encounter such influential people here on the mission that changed my life more than they will ever know. It's so crazy how my purpose as a missionary is to help people encounter true change through the love of Christ, but the more I try to help them encounter that love the more I feel that same love changing me.

This area is super duper flipping big. We live in the center of Campo Grande, the capital of Mato Grosso do Sul, and it's a super rich city. The thing that is a total doozy is that the areas that are possible to work in are either 1.5 hours walking to the north, or 1.5 hours on the bus to the east hahah so it's kind of a lot of walking. We have to work super close to the members' houses because the church is kind of far away so the members always give rides to the people who don't have a way to get to church. It's super different than Primavera, but it's super rad being in a new area meeting new people, having new experiences. my poor little heart still misses Frank tho. <;3

On Sunday we had lunch with this one member named Mauro and this dude just kills me haha he's so funny. So his son in law, Moroni is one of the raddest dudes I've ever met in my life, and we ate at his house a few days ago and he asked me after we ate "yo Elder, do you have room for dessert” and I was like "dude I've always got a nice dessert shelf saved” and he was like "then eat more” and I was like "that was a horribly tasteless joke” and he was just dying laughing haha. So when we were eating at Mauro's house he goes "hey Elder, do you have room for dessert” and I just looked at Moroni and then all the pieces came together and I thought I understood where he got the joke from so I just stood up and went "I'm not falling for that joke this time old man, I don't want your dessert” and he just got so confused and was like "alright then man whatever floats your boat” and then Moroni just exploded laughing and then his wife brought out this insane dessert and I just felt so freaking stupid hahahhaha. I was like you have got to be kidding me I am such a moron hahah. After I explained myself Mauro just started laughing so hard and then told me he forgives me and that I can eat dessert with them.

I'm not gonna lie its been pretty hard to change areas. It was kind of eye opening to see how hard change truly is. All day every day I am trying to help people change their hearts so that they are able to feel how much Jesus loves them, but I had forgotten how hard change truly is. I forgot how lonely it gets sometimes and how easy it is to retreat to what you know and how it's so uncomfortable to be undergoing changes and it really gave me a new perspective. I am still trying to figure out why the Lord needs me here in Campo Grande with an American comp who is 1.5 years in the mission and is kind of burned out, but I know the Lord can see things that I cannot, just like how I as a missionary can see the potential the love we feel in the Church of Jesus Christ has, to truly change people as long as they continue to move through changes with faith. It is very interesting to be the one in the middle of the changes for the first time in several months, but I have no doubt that my incredibly undeveloped brain cannot see the blessings that will come through this change. Just gotta keep movin.

So there's a few problems with this house here. 1. the clothes lines for drying clothes are out back of the house, and it rains a favorable amount here. 2. the sink doesn't drain water so we have to wash all of our dishes and everything in a different room in the house and 3. our toilet is leaking water hahahahaahh. I'm not stressin tho because the mattresses are bigger here so I'll take wet clothes and toilet floor anyday.

In closing, my friends, I'd like to talk about something. The old AP, Elder Dayton was such a homie to me, and he finished his mission this Tuesday. On Friday night he just showed up in the front of our house here and it was so rad. He was staying in the hotel across the street from our house visiting his areas with his parents and so on Saturday he came and did studies with us. He brought up a super rad topic, which is recognizing the Spirit. I feel like satan sends so much ish into our minds just to confuse us, and it's so freaking annoying. I feel like it gets super frustrating because it's hard to determine which thoughts are from the good side and which are from the bad side. As he was explaining stuff to us, he started to show us a few scriptures which were rad, and one that I loved was in Moroni 7:16 and it says something like "everything that makes you happy and feel warm and makes you want to believe in Christ is sent forth from Christ” which I thought was super cool. I know it's still hard to know what things are making you feel temporarily rad, and permanently rad, and that's why we have the ability to pray and ask God to help us discern between what's good and bad. I am really trying to better my ability to recognize when God is trying to help me out, and when Satan is just being laaaaaame. I find myself searching and analyzing the really strong feelings I feel from the Spirit, and when the not so strong feelings, more like whisperings come into my brain, I find it easier to know what's going on.

I know that in this life we all have changes, some more uncomfortable than others, but nonetheless they're all changes. I know that for some people a change may be losing a brother or a best friend, and for others it may be watching a loved one getting railed by addictions which all suck so bad. I know that these changes are so uncomfortable, and sometimes they just get you in the jimmy. Something that I also know is that there is a method to all this madness. There is a dude, named God, who is orchestrating all of these sounds and noises into something that is, at the moment incomprehensible to the human mind. Sometimes the only way to get used to these changes is to just get accustomed to missing your best friend who is up there with God, and that's just part of life, but the one thing that I have learned through every change in my life is that something good always comes from it, and that an infinite amount of love is waiting for you. Don't be mad at God for these changes, because you're gonna reach the day when all you're doing is thanking him for all you've learned from them.

That's it for this week. Sorry it's nothing special, I'm still trying to figure out my life here I'm a tiny bit disorientated. I didn't take a lot of pictures so here are some pictures haha
Love, Elder Porter

Pedro's cross, and the real silver Virgin Mary and Jesus my neighbor gave me before I left.