Well I'm not dead yet

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 January 16, 2023

Well well well. It has been quite a while since I've written one of these things. I'm doing amazing though, the work is going amazingly, I love my companion, and my Spanish is still improving (albeit slowly). OK so so much has happened I'll try and keep this quick so here's the Elder Porter Highlight reel. 

BAPTISM:
One of my friends got baptized 2 weeks ago, his name is Chris. So cool, he is a Boxer, and he has a strong spirit. He has struggled with a lot over the years but he proudly got baptized without an issue. The baptism was a little last minute but we had a lot of members that came in clutch for us. 

MLC:
We had an amazing MLC (mission leadership conference), I was able to meet with some of my friends from Medford and that was a lot of fun. Most of all the main topic of our meeting was this; for those of you who don't know, in the temple we do a couple of things. In one of those things we make a few promises with God to be obedient to his commandments and sacrifice for His cause. For MLC, President Weekes talked about how being obedient to the standards we have to follow as missionaries and working with diligence is fulfilling that promise and brings the power of God more readily into our lives. So cool. 

New Friends:
We made a lot of new friends over the past few weeks. One of them said he wants to serve a mission and agreed to be baptized. It turns out he has been learning from missionaries for a while but after he moved here from Utah he stopped. After he found us it was smooth sailing. So he agreed to get baptized next week on Saturday! 

HIKES:
Elder Johnson is in love with hiking, every moment we are not doing work he is looking up the next hike we will do on P-Day. Being from Texas this is a little rough haha. I am not the best with uphill, or mountains in general haha. But it has been fun, we've hiked a few mountains, and it has always been cold but satisfying. Sadly, I was not very smart last time and decided not to bring a jacket. My pictures will tell you how smart that was. 

Thought:
Lately the thought of personal conversion has been a hot topic in my mind as I work to help the missionaries in my zone to get that conversion and receive that desire for the work that I have. Honestly, I'm not quite sure what to do. All I know is that your personal conversion depends on how much and how willing you are to do the necessary things. CPR of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Are you going to church, taking the sacrament, and upholding the covenants and standards you have agreed to follow? If so the power of God will be readily available in your life and the miracles will become easy to notice and more plentiful. ARE YOU PRAYING!!?? I've come to know prayer is important, I do say like 50,000 a day or something so you can trust me on that. It is how we are able to talk directly to our Heavenly Father and increase our personal relationship to Him. He already loves us and knows us but when we talk we are showing our love and our trust in Him. He has promised that all we have to do is ask for blessings, and we will get them. Lastly, are you feasting upon the words of Christ? Do you study the scriptures, listen to the living prophets, and apply what you learn into your life and make it personal? 
I promise as you act on your faith and strive to do CPR you can increase your testimonies and find joy in the great work of “[bringing] to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1: 39). 

Keep up the smiles, messages, and prayers. Sorry I'm pretty bad at responding, I usually forget about who messaged me by Monday :( But I love all of you and super powerful (but still very normal) missionary prayers often come your way. Until next time, Adios!
Elder Porter signing out















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