Week something with email words (Week 30)

Hello people back in the United States I hope that you are happy and good and that the weather is warming you up and making your skin warm again haha. I really realized this week that my English is just level 46 retarded now so I really hope that these emails make sense because I read some of the things that I write in my journal and some of the things I say just don't make a lot of sense so we're just gonna send it YEWWWWWWW.

Alright so something that happened that just sucks is that Tiago found out it's a lot more expensive and takes way longer than he thought to get married so he won't be getting baptized this week. He was pretty flustered and so was I. It'll all work out how it should, but something I forgot to tell you guys last week that happened in Sacrament meeting with Tiago that was super funny is that this one lady in the ward got up and was giving a talk about how the Spirit affects our lives. Every time we go to Tiago's house he's always like "today I punched my punching bag for like 30 mins because I really was just wanting to punch someone today” ahah it's just the oddest thing, but this lady is giving her talk and I kid you not out of the blue she goes "you cannot feel the Spirit of God when you are wanting to punch someone” and I just looked at Tiago and he just started laughing so hard and then I just started to giggle hahah and then we both just started laughing so hard and I was just like "dude, God may or may not have just verbally slapped you in the face hahah” and then he was just like I think you might be right man” hahahaha!

So about José. Man I absolutely love the dude but he really is just old and doesn't have a lot of friends and so every time we show up he just complains about everything and like I really do love the dude but it is hard to just listen to an old guy rattle about the same problem over and over haha. Yesterday in church I was just chillin with him and we were talking and he was like "listen man this church is cool but I need way more time until I wanna be baptized” just out of the blue and I was like.... okay then hahaha. We wound up going to his house and chitty chatted with him a little bit and he was watching some good ol~soccer and so we watched like 20 minutes of soccer with him and then got him talking about soccer and then shared a message with him and he just like didn't complain at all it was such a miracle. We're getting toward the end of the lesson and I just go "so my man, why are you wanting to keep coming back to the church every Sunday, there has to be a difference you notice in your life” and then he just got so emotional and was like "listen I love the church and I love you guys and I really feel so loved by the people there in the church which is the best thing ever, but every time I go to the church I feel so incapable. I feel like I can't respond to any of the questions that are being asked and I feel like I'm just a deadweight to the church” and Thomspon and I just went full mom mode and were like "no dude you're so awesome you make everyone so happy” hahah you know all that cheesy goodness and he just wasn't havin it at all. In that moment I got a little prompteroonie from the Spirit and he was like "share this scripture with him” so I shared that scripture with him and it talked about how in the resurrection our bodies will be restored to its perfect state and then I bore my testimony about that and was like listen man, I know it's frustrating, but I know you like this church and I know that you feel loved here, and I also know that everything that you once had will be perfectly restored one day, but you can't let what you had in the past affect what you can have now, and we really feel and know that you are ready to get baptized and we really just wanna help you” and he got all emotional and thought for like 30 seconds and I just went into hyper speed prayer mode and launched up some quickies and was like help this dude just say yes, and then he responded and was like “I will really think about it” and so I was like SO THAT MEANS YES RIGHT?! and then he was like "yes I'll think about it” ahahah and so I freaking take that as a yes! Nothing that we would've been able to do in that lesson would've been accomplished without the Spirit's little promptings. The Spirit is essential folks and if you don't have Him in your life I promise you that the decision to get him back into your life will be one you will never regret. He's such a homie hahah!

I think the best unspiritually related thing that has happened to me out here in the mission happened this week. We left a lesson in this one neighborhood and I heard the song Sandstorm playing in one of the bars and looked over at the bar and there was just a dude dancing in the front of the bar and i just had to go meet this dude. We get over there and the dude stops dancing right when we show up so I went and talked to him and was like dude, will you dance again so I can film you haha and he didn't even say anything eh just launched into full dance mode and it was way to rad and then his homie came and started dancing and the urge to dance rushed into my Elder bones and so I handed my companion my camera and went and danced with these dudes and everyone was like yellin LET'S GO AMERICAN or like I FREAKING LOVE MORMONS or just a bunch of random stuff and then like 4 dudes came and stopped me and just like shook my hand and wanted to meet me and there were like 30 drunk people surrounding me and it was just the most incredibly interesting and exhilarating thing I've experienced in my few short months out here hahah.

Just to end things on a tender note... these last few weeks have been a tiny bit tough out here. I was having a ton of doubts and thoughts that were really challenging my testimony and it was making it really really hard for me to preach the gospel. I was being really put down by everything and I turned to some major prayer and studying to try to figure out how to ditch these doubts. This week we encountered a family super duper rad, but they really have so many questions and need things explained very clearly for them. On Saturday we had a lesson with them and they were just railing us with questions and somehow I just knew the answers to so many gnarly questions they were asking us. I felt the Spirit strengthening everything I was saying and as I was teaching I realized that a ton of the doubts and super tough things I was thinking really lead me to the studies and teachings that I needed to help these people out. It was incredibly humbling to me to see how the difficulties that were truly putting me way way down turned out so helpful. These doubts were in the end such a great blessing to me and my testimony, while in the moment seemed like the exact opposite of something a missionary should ever have. I know that God gives us weekness and doubts and questions and difficulties only to grow. I felt like as a missionary I was the one who needed to be raddest and have the strongest testimony, but I learned so quickly that missionary or not, there is always room for progressing, and we can't be the ones to decide in which areas God is to strengthen us and which areas are fine. Super humbling experience. 

So my brown shoes that i think are super rad were getting a little bit dirty and Elder Thompson asked me if he could shine my shoes for me and my shoes just soaked up his shoe shine and now my shoes are like 3 shades darker haha. It's good for a change every once in a while.

I hope you guys had as lovely of a St Patrick's Day as I did. (: Have the loveliest week ever. 
Elder Porter

I made the most lovely stack of hotcakes ever!

I was talking to this one dude on the side of the street and some other dude pulled up in his car and gave me this plastic hat.