Crazy week and I don`t have a lot of time to write. My computer that is in the internet cafe is super slow and wasted a lot of my time :) so forgive me.
I got a new comp. He is Chilean and is 23 years old. Turns out my 2nd or 3rd or 4 cousin, no sé, but someone related to me was the hermana that converted him. We get along great and he really knows how to go about doing the Lord´s Errand.
Conference was super great! I hope you all had a chance to listen to it this weekend and if not, it's on lds.org. Just a few highlights that I picked upe was the need to focus more on Christ. All light comes from Christ and we really can´t develop any Christlike attribute or I guess improve at all unless we focus on Him and act out of our desire to become more like He is. I also learned a little bit about obedience to the commandments in my personal study this week. God gives us commandments because He loves us. His purpose for us is also to become like He is, entonces (then) if we are not living the commandments, we are in a very different place in the end result. Where God is, there is happiness, light, peace, and hope. To have those same things in our life will only come through exact obedience to the commandments that God has given us from our living prophets. So my invitation is review the talks given this past conference and pick out the invitations that are given to you, through inspiration of the Spirit and try a little harder to be a little better.
This week we were teaching a street vendor. As we were giving our lesson, a pigeon landed above us and pooped on my sleeve, then flew away. Que fome (lame) en serio. We had a pretty good laugh about that. We also had a baptism this past weekend! Gabriel is super great. His family lives in Bolivia and he lives here with his parents working to support all of them. His family in Bolivia are members but he had trouble with the Word of Wisdom up until recently. He was so happy to make that special covenant with our Heavenly Father. He had a lot of challenges to overcome including his job (works 13 hour days) but he had the biggest smile afterwards. Because the font wasn´t adequately filled, I had to kneel and he had to sit in the water.
Guys I have a testimony that Jesus Christ lives and if we come to Him with humility, He will do great things with us Just always be ready to learn and follow the promptings you receive. I am not qualified to even be out here. I find that to be more and more true, but because of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father, my efforts have been magnified and I see myself changing into something I hadn´t seen for myself. I am extremely grateful for the Atonement that Jesus Christ performed. He didn´t have to do it,, but He did, and we have so much to hope for in this life and in the life to come because of it.
Lots of love,
Elder Porter
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Photos of the Baptism, My shirt, and the sandwich I ate for lunch (yes I ate it all)
Also this week, I ate Alpaca (bueno) and Chicken feet (Those I did not like, but a member served us and there wasn´t much I could do about it ;)
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| Chicken foot |
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| My new companion |
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Excerpt from our family letter
Hey Family!
This week has been one of a lot of changes. Elder Yovera ended up getting transferred to Antofagasta and my new comp is Elder Campos. This man is a machine! Super patient super genial (likeable), just an all around great guy and great missionary. He has the vision to baptize weekly and knows how to teach. He is 23 and was converted when he was 19 years old. The hermana that taught him was Hermana Alyson Ray Porter de Morgan Utah. So that is really neat. How are we related to her?? This week, Private Eyes by Hall and Oats was playing in the micro(bus) and all I could think of was the Psych Commercial where they imitate the music video of that. It was really comforting and nostalgic and funny. Great stuff.
Conference was the BomB. En serio. At first I was prepared to listen in Spanish which didn`t seem so bad because the translator spoke so slow. I could actually understand 98% and the other 2 percent was just vocab. But they had a gringo room, so there were about 8 missionaries that got to listen to it in English. It was the freaking best. I felt that almost all the messages applied to me or to the sector. One of the themes that really stuck out to me was the necesidad to focus en Cristo. Something that is an example of that is how I wanted to develop Charity. but I think I was trying to hard to do it through myself and through prayer. It is more like I had replaced the idea of Christ with Charity, but in realidad, charity comes from Christ and all light comes from Him. I really loved that talk by President Uchtdorf. También was the talk by the one emeritus 70 that spoke about how hard is good. I would really like a conference issue to study if I could.
Another great theme I was thinking about was humility. Dad mentioned it in his email. I realize that a part of the process is humility. We can´t expect perfection now, but we can be humble enough to see chances to improve and grow. Elder Guayasamin was talking with me ( he only has 7 months but is pure fuego (fire)) how when he arrived, he was really proud and how the President told him that he should learn to be humble. He said some other stuff that I really related with and could see with myself and my attitudes. It is amazing to me how easily orgullo (pride) can creep into our lives with out us realizing because there are so many different facets of it. From asking people (baiting praise) to a downright attitude that we can do it all. I began reading Jesus the Christ yesterday ( Elder Holland spoke that people who are honestly trying to strive to know Christ are on the right path, even if we are walking it drunkenly ( I seriously loved that analogy)) and that book is puro fuego (pure fire)too! The Jewish people had pride because they placed the law and those that knew the law over the words of living prophets. We too sometimes do that too when we ignore the promptings of the Holy Ghost and make actions based on our own needs and necessities. One of my favorite exercises that I have done more since coming on the mission is to ask Heavenly Father what I am lacking or what I need to do. The answers that I have received are these *Trust me* *Get to Work* *haga lo bueno* it is a tender mercy to me how much the Lord´s hand is in our lives and if we can see that from day to day, our challenges become lightened. Repentance should be enobling. We should feel hope after and más claridad por nuestras vidas. (more clarity in our lives)
How is your health? Are you staying healthy? Any time to exercise?
My Health is good. We exercise on Pday and in the morning for 30 minutes. I stll have my six pack :), but I am worried that in about 8 months I am going to have a little belly. We eat a lot.
I took a picture of the sandwich I ate for lunch today. We don´t eat like that everyday, but 2x a week or so when there is a big meal. A lot of the food is eaten with mayonaise and potatoes so yeah..
What service projects do you guys work on during the week? I know last week was the beach but do you usually go find a service project or how does that work?
We usually just have the spontaneous service things that go on. We helped someone load some wood into their van last night and it is really just stuff like that.
( Mom edit--I added the translation to some of his Spanish )
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