Ok... maybe I should write something one of these days

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 September 18, 2023

It's been a hot minute since I wrote to all of you, not a ton has happened, but a lot has changed. First off, I got a new companion his name is Elder Mitchell. He's from Idaho, loves roping, and is coming to the close of his time here in the mission. As a bonus we also have another companionship living with us and this is the most rambunctious group of elders I've ever been with. They are all a bunch of goobers. After 9:00 we are playing card games, bullying the new missionary (not really), and making fun of all the wacky people in Ashland.

With the new Elders living here we are able to focus a lot more on the YSA, so we have been visiting all the YSA aged members in the 2 stakes (areas) we cover it's been pretty good but not a lot of success yet, sadly most of them are away at college or enlisted. We will track them down eventually, I've gotten pretty good at Facebook stalking, thank you search bar.
Ok here's a couple of the crazy/funny events that have happened recently
Fig lady:
Ok so we were teaching this guy from Finland who just called us up and as we were sitting this crazy lady walked up talked for 15 minutes straight about some weird tree that came from the holy land and is now in possession of the Mormons. It made 0 sense, and then she just got up and walked away. The Finish guy was just like I couldn't understand any of that (English is his 5th language) and we were like neither did we. We had a good laugh about that.
The Apple Bag:
A big focus lately in the mission has been talking to people in public, recently the majority of the missionaries lost Facebook from their phones due to misuse. So we gotta try and teach the others how to talk to random people, it's terrifying. Anyway one of the first times I tried talking to someone he was not very kind, and I was just asking if there is anything we can do to offer free service and he eventually told us to go away and ask the homeless people across the road. As we drove away with nothing to help them with I had a bright idea of giving them our big bag of apples we had just picked. As we gave it to them, we engaged in combat just like the people in the old Pokémon games. One of the elders got a random dude who was pretty cool, he was just saying we need to love others more. For me this guy got up in my face and started ranting about the underground people and how they are lighting all the fires around here to smoke us out and steal our resources. Elder Scott got the lucky one, this lady tried to seduce him and then was saying a whole bunch of random wacky things about how she's had a relationship with our bishop in our church weird thing is it wasn't at our church and she was definitely high. We all just kinda backed away and the guy who talked about leave had to hold the guy that was ranting at me in a big bear hug to keep him from following us haha
The little girl:
We were at dinner last night and we were playing with their new puppy and all of the sudden this 5 year old comes up and puts her hand on my shoulder and said “do you want to come to my room with me?” I was shocked at that statement and the mom just starts laughing. The poor girl definitely didn't mean what we were all thinking, but it was definitely funny and awkward.

Spiritual thought:
To be honest, the mission is pretty rough. With the new mission President, working with multiple wards, managing all the other missionaries and helping them with their problems, and all the other little chores we have to do as Zone Leaders it's been really stressful. At times, I feel a bit burnt out. But I've talked with my companion a lot about what we do as missionaries and how crazy it is that we barely ever get a break. There is no way on earth that I could ever do this on my own, just go out talk to random people, answer some heavy questions, and find ways to build genuine relationships all day every day, no rest, no sleeping in, not even a full day off only a handful of hours. But I have been blessed by the Lord, I know he's in this work with me. He is giving the energy I need, the motivation to continue, and so many other blessings to keep our monotonous days fun and different. I am so thankful for all that you all do to support me as well, this is by far one of the greatest experiences I've had. I am learning so much and making so many really good friends.

I miss all of you, keep up the good work, it's amazing to see all of you heading on missions, going to school, or just moving on with life.

Elder Porter out 🫡

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