A patriotic week 12

Hello earthlings. I wonder how it is out there in the... REAL WORLD

Anyway this week started out in a delightful Brasilian hospital haha. Kevin’s sores came back and he was literally exploding with pain so President told us to go to the hospital. At the hospital they had Kevin and I sit in a room and they gave Kevin like 3 shots and then made him sit in a chair while a little thingy injected this gel goo stuff into his blood for 2 hours. One of the shots had to be in Kevin’s butt so in the room we were sitting in the lady made Kevin pull his cheek out and she just gave him the shot right there hahaha we made eye contact and both almost imploded. After she left we were laughing so hard hahah. But when we were sitting there the goo stuff was making Kevin super tired but at the same time super anxious so he was freaking out, but doesn’t remember any of it. It was sooo funny and sad haha. I was trying to get him to just chill for like 10 minutes and finally I tossed up a couple quick prayers and felt prompted to give him a blessing, so I did. I asked him if he remembers me giving him that blessing like 2 hours later when we got back to the house and he literally has no recollection. I pondered that for a little bit and a cute thought came to my head. Just like that blessing I gave Kevin, God is giving us blessings, and half the time we don’t even realize it. Half the time we’re half awake half asleep just crawling through life because of the pain were experiencing. What’s always important to remember is that we really only see like 17% of what God is actually doing for us. There is so much that goes unnoticed, and we have way more to be grateful for than we think.

On Wednesday night I have no clue what happened but the sky was like bright orange at 11:20 pm and it was wild. Kevin and i were absolutely baffled it was so freaking rad. 

On Thursday night we had a cute lil activity in the Church and before the activity Kevin and I literally walked all over creation inviting every one of our investigators haha. By the time 7 pm rolled around every one of our investigators either told us they couldn’t come, or didn’t answer the phone. I was pretty torn up over that. We had worked so hard and weren’t getting flippin anything in return. I asked God why this was happening and then started talking to Kevin. He told me something that was very inspired. He said bro, you gotta remember that there has to be opposition in every little thing. But we must remember that after the trials of opposition come the blessing of that same opposition. I really loved that. We really, like really need to always remember that our trials will always serve a purpose. They always have a deeper meaning than we think. Try to learn from them always. They aren’t just little worthless pieces of nothingness that can’t be used for anything. Later that night and after many a prayer we ended up with 3 families at the activity and it was such a sweet little night.

I’m not gonna lie this week got a little lonely. Monday Tuesday and Wednesday Kevin was super sick so I kinda just hung out alone haha.

This week we finally found William and Lazaro together, both awake, moving, breathing, eating, talking, and happy. We just started talking about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon with them, the same old speal, but I felt like I needed to talk to them about something that wasn’t the Book of Mormon, which was interesting. I opened up to them and started talking to them about their day and just everything with them. I talked to them about how they were feeling and just talked about normal life. I really tried to let them know that our purpose wasn’t to just jam a book down their throats, but that our purpose truly is to just help them. Literally the very second after I did that they really opened up to us. William hadn’t been reading the Book of Mormon at all, and right before he left I was talking to him just by myself and he was like "you bet your bottom dollar I’m gonna start reading the book"...no that isn’t the direct translation, but seriously that is IT. The key to it all. Just freaking loving people. I’ll be honest I got so caught up with the idea of just baptizing people I almost forgot why I came out here to do this mission thing. It’s to just love people as the Savior does, to show them I care, to invite the Spirit through genuine love and interest, and let Him do the rest. We can’t do it all by ourselves dudes. We gotta have the Spirit as our companion, and like I’ve said a whole load of times, the fastest way to invite the Spirit is by loving. Just love.

I had a pretty rad experience with a hippie in the park. Now, before you jump to any sudden conclusions let me explain. We started talking to this dude and he was super rad, just the chillest dude you’ve ever met in your life, but for real was super nice. Randomly he goes yo I wanna make you a present, so I was like cool, and then he was like so why the freak are you in Brasil and I was like to teach people about this Church that I love with my whole heart, and he was like dope. Then after that he goes so who are you out here representing and I go Jesus Christ sir, any more questions sir, and he goes yes... If you could describe Jesus in one word, what would it be. I thought for like 5 seconds and then said love. Literally at the same moment I started saying love he held up this tiny bronze rod he bent into a half heart as we were talking and started spinning it, and when he spun it, it made a whole heart. I hope y’all can imagine that in your coconuts. I was literally dumbfounded. Absolutely baffled. Completely taken by surpise, and utterly taken off my feet. It was so crazy haha I don’t know what this hippie is out here doing but he absolutely boggled my brain. It was super chill.

We’re gonna get a little soft for a second. On Sunday I felt like a piece of hud. I was just dying. I was trying so hard to just be happy but satan was full on roundhouse kicking me in the face the whole entire week, and Sunday was just the worst of them all. We went over to the house of one of our people whose name is Natalia and she is so awesome. I went into the bathroom of her house and poured my whole entire heart to God. I begged him to relieve me. I couldn’t continue in the state I was in. It was horrid. After that I had a feeling to just go and watch the Joseph Smith Restoration film with her and Kevin so we did that. After the film ended, and the Spirit was clearly with us, I opened up the floor to a nice discussion. She started to get really sad and she told us she read some freaking trash on the internet so we talked to her and she started crying and told us she was so afraid to continue on this path with us. I literally started balling my face of when i started talking HAHA like full on just lost it. The dam retaining Lake Porter completely broke and the water came rushing with incredible force. I told her that I was literally afraid out of my brain before I came out here on this mission, but I knew it was right and that’s why I am doing this. I literally said to her i know that you know this Church is true, and the closer you come to the Savior and to us, the harder satan will attack you. I told her that we can always expect satan to attack us as we are getting close to accomplishing something incredibly grand, or directly after we have an incredibly spiritual experience (thank you President Bentley.) I told her that these last 3 months of my life have been the hardest, most painful 3 months of my life but I will never regret it because I know this Church is true, and I have a burning desire to spread this gospel no matter how low satans blows get. We were both just chillin there bawling and it was truly a beautiful experience. She is progressing very nicely in the gospel and we are going to invite her this week (hopefully) to be baptized. But for real after all of that happened I realized literally, that right there is going to be my relief for the next 2 years. Spreading the love of God to these super beautiful people turned my frown upside down. I sure don’t expect these 2 years to be easy, but I already know it will be worth it.

Last thing haha, on Tuesday we were walking down the street to lunch at a members house and some homeless dude grabbed me and goes hey American I hate Donald Trump hahahahaha I was dying laughing and so he just jammed his middle finger in my face haha it was way too good. ahahaha. I have had very few instances in my life where I was more proud to be an American than that moment. I love you dudes. God bless America.

Love, the Elder Porter

email: proskelley@myldsmail.net