Week 16 letter — Called to Serve in Cuiaba

Wut the eggs. It’s almost the end of 2018

On Monday after Pday ended we ran over to Branco and Vanias house to say hi. When we walked through their gate I saw their kid, Kassio, sitting there naked in a bucket and I involuntaraly yelled "that is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life” and then he started dying laughing and I literally almost fell over. I got absolutely nuclear punched by the level 84 cuteness I was experiencing hahah. After we gave the lesson I gave Branco a white shirt and tie and taught him how to tie a tie and I straight up felt like his father hahahah. Every time he messed up I was like "now now buddy lets restart” haha but after a couple tries he had it down to a science and I got my first feelings of the happiness you feel as a father hahaha.

So on Thursday we went to Rondonopolis for the zone confrence and it was so freaking rad. Castro and I hadn’t seen other missionaries in 2 months hahah it was so so wack. We were out here feeling like dried meat every day hahah. But when we were in Rondonopolis I had a super rad experience I wanna share. We had splits with the ZLs and I was with Elder Wilson and he’s like the most proud American on the planet it was so freaking patriotic. We went and visited this lady who has this gnarly problem with smoking. She smokes like 30 sticks a day haha. We sat down and I started talking to her about just her life and all that stuff and then I went full on brute mode and was kind of firm with this lady. I was just like dude you know smoking is wrecking your life for real, like what’s the motive and she was like I have a ton of family problems right now and it’s like the only relief I catch now a days. Then I got all soft and was like listen, I’m pretty sure that hands down, without a doubt, the most incredibly annoying thing on the earth is when someone walks in your life and starts telling you that you need to change, so that’s the last thing I’m gonna do, all I’m gonna do is invite you to change. I told her the most powerful thing in this entire universe is love, and that through love she could overcome all the problems she’s getting flamed with. I told her, listen my dear, I promise this fake relief you get from smoking that you think is the bomb will get absolutely slaughtered by the love that our Heavenly Father and Jesus have to offer. I told her the relief she will feel from having that love in her heart will literally RKO every feeling she gets from puffin every day. I promised her that if she knelt down and told Heavenly Father "listen dude, today is the day I am gonna start trying to quick smoking” she’s gonna feel of that boost the love of Christ brings into our lives, and that’s what’s gonna lead to the change. Not the 43 other missionaries that told her in a freakin stereotypical missionary voice "listen you need to listen to us and follow the word of wisdom because that’s what we believe so yea quit smoking you old hag” because nobody likes to be told what to do. I challenged her to just try smoking one less cigarette every 3 days, and pray to God every day for the stength to overcome this, and I promised her as a representative of Jesus Christ that if she did that she would overcome her addiction. I truly felt the love of God and Jesus Christ already changing this lady, and that was so freaking rewarding. Like I’ve said 10394 times before, love will cure a person faster than anything else. Just try it.

So, my mom is officially the best mom on the whole entire planet. She sent Kevin and I some goodies and boy did we enjoy. I have to say the thing that was hands down Kevin’s favorite was the freaking dehydrated pototoes AHHAAH. Dude this kid railed this package of powder potatoes and was like "bro I am moving to the USA and I am gonna eat this stuff every single day” and I was like pal, if you think this goop here is good then your gonna get your brain cells absolutely clobbered by food in the States haha. But if we’re being real the dehydrated potato is pretty underrated. I don’t know if I’m just absolutely deprived off my mind out here, or if they’re actually super tasty, but I must say that pack of Idahoan potatos was pretty enjoyed by me and my Peruano amigo here in Primavera do Leste.

On Wednseday Kevin and I went weird on the service projects. We did 2 service projects that day and it added up to like 5 hours haha. I have a burn line from my necklace, from my white shirts, and also from the normal shirt I used to do the service in haha. We cut Edson and Dianna's grass for the first project and then they gave us food and it was rad, and then the second one was in the house of one of the members and we just moved a freaking small backyard moutain of dirt into another location in the same 20 foot radius, but hey what needs to be done needs to be done haha.

Last tender story. Our guy Homualdo and his wife literally, like literally get in a fight every day. It sucks so bad. On Tuesday we went to visit Branco and Vania but they were out doing Branco and Vania things with thier kid, so we just headed to the next people’s house we had marked and when we started walking I got fully evaporated by the Spirit and He told me "go teach Homualdo about the Atonement” so I was like yea I’m gonna do that because I don’t wanna get struck by a bolt of lightning haha. So we went back and clapped our hands in the front of Homualdos house and he took like 5 minutes to come out. The dude was just absolutely pummeled. He was so freaking sad. He said he and his wife got in a gnarly fight and he just felt like a rock. We sat down and we shared Alma 7:11-12 with him and we just talked about how the Lord suffered for literally every microfiber of pain that we feel. Every teeny tiny toe stub was already suffered. We talked about how the Lord is the only dude who knows EXACTLY what he’s feeling, and that without a doubt if he went to the Lord, he’d feel Him take all the pains he’s feeling, and have the courage to start healing his realtionship with his boo. It was incredibly strong, and I fully didn’t feel like Porter was talking, all I was, was a hose, letting the Spirit talk through me. After we closed the lesson he just sat there shook and was like "dudes, that lesson brought a peace into my heart that I haven’t felt in a long long time. I really need this stuff in my life. Thank you guys so much.” and I almost broke down man. Sheesh. The power of the Savior's love, and His church, truly is something so special.

This week my chest got burned through my white shirt hahahaha

Love you guys!

Go help someone feel that love this week.

**note from mama Lynda. . . Porter FINALLY just received 3 packages that have been sitting in the mission office for over a month now. . . including a Thanksgiving package that pretty much had everything for a Thanksgiving dinner but a turkey hehe. Hopefully that helps explain the story about dehydrated potatoes ;)

The rad tree Lovely Lynda sent Kevin and I - love you mama