Half way through the CCM

This week has been good! The days are long, but the weeks fly by! I cant believe I am half way through the CCM!

My day is like this. Wake up, pray, study, pray, eat, gym,  pray, study, study, study, pray, eat, pray, study, study, teach, study, pray, eat, pray, study, study, sing a hymn with the zone, sleep. Repeat

One thing I am grateful for is stain remover, eating with a white shirt on is probably the hardest thing in the world!

One cool experience I had last week that I forgot to share is that I got to give a blessing to a Hermana in my district. She was really sick with the virus that went around and she asked me to give her a blessing. The power of the priesthood is so cool! I am so glad I can help others with the power of God here on this earth!

On the topic of the priesthood we had a very interesting lesson in priesthood meeting on Sunday. the topic was priesthood (very funny I know) but one good point that Pres. George (he is a counselor to the branch president) made is that women are born with the nature to nurture, which is the nature of Godliness, but when it comes to little boys it is all about destruction or competition. The reason that men are given the priesthood and commanded to go on missions is so they can learn to care and nurture others like women do naturally. So the purpose of the priesthood is to make men more like women. And on that note there was a study done at BYU testing the femininity or masculinity of people. and men at BYU leaned more towards the feminine side. The reason this was is because the questions were about how much you care for other people. Since BYU is predominately LDS and the men are returned missionaries, this makes sense. So props to you girls who already have the caring nature.

Spanish is interesting. I was talking to Elder Santana who was one of the Latinos in our dorm (pic included of the night before they left) and he was asking me about what I have learned and stuff. We got to the days of the week and I told him that I don't know those, or how to count past 39 or the alphabet, but that they stuck us directly into conjugating verbs and making sentences. He was so surprised that we didn't start at the beginning of the language. This is a testament to the power of the gift of tongues, we get thrown directly into the language without starting at the basics and we actually learn the language!

Also if I hadn't taken french in jr high, I would have been more lost because I knew a little about how to learn a language and about conjugating verbs (which sucks by the way) but for the first little bit it was hard because I could only think of french words. Sometimes I would say "moi" instead of the Spanish "me" in our lessons!

I had two really cool experiences this week. One really confidence boosting and one really humbling.

First one. We were in class and our teacher said that we were going split up and teach each other. Elder Burgon and I got to teach Elder Dalton. We didn't have a lesson plan or anything to help us with Spanish. We had to go in, figure out his problems (we have created our own investigators based off of someone we know) and then teach a lesson. We were able to get the message across in total Spanish and he said he felt the spirit! It was really nice to know that my Spanish is getting better so I can help others feel the spirit.

The other experience was on the same day. Elder Dalton and His companion Elder Kuhn were teaching our investigator Jose in front of the class. Elder Dalton has pretty good Spanish but Elder Kuhn stumbles over his words a lot. It was towards the end of the lesson and I wasn't thinking it was going very well because Elder Kuhn was speaking worse because he was getting stressed out. But then I looked up and I saw that Jose was crying. Boy was that a smack to the face because I had thought that it wasn't going very well. I learned the important lesson that day, that it isn't about what you can say out loud with words, but what you can say with your heart through the Holy Ghost. 

Also Elder Burgon and I are the new Zone Leaders. our previous Zone Leaders left this morning. It is a lot easier than you think it would be. Pretty much just coordinate meetings and report to the Branch pPresidency about the zone. I am grateful for the opportunity to set and example for others and to be a leader in the Army of God.

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Porter

To mom he sent: 

Thanks for the present! I’ve had a cold so I haven’t eaten any of it, but I loved the letters! [We sent him a few treats and letters when Scott Johnson delivered his tennis shoes.]

Yep we have the same teachers, companion, district, and investigators till I leave.

I bet you wont believe when I say this. I MISS YOUR CRAZY HEALTHY FOOD!!!!  I’m sick of cafeteria food and feeling like I’m eating but not getting nutrition. And I’m breaking out like none other from the food. It sucks!  I now have arm zits.

Me and the Latino elders who just left