October 21, 2013

Hey Everyone,

So yep it snowed here today and has a 60 percent chance for today and tomorrow. It’s already cold haha. Well this week was interesting, we did a lot of service. We buried a dead dog. A members dog here got nailed really bad by a car on the highway. Bro Archembault called us asking if we could go bury their dog because he’s a trucker and wasn’t home at the time, so we went out in the freezing weather and buried the dog. It was cold. We’ve been building a horse shed for the Archembaults and working hard on it. It’s pretty great. Their son is trying to lose weight to go on a mission and he was helping us. He was on the roof part of the time with me and I was so scared the roof was going to break. It was bending and I was like uhhh, he’s like 400 lbs and I was pretty scared. The Lord protected me though, haha

Working on the Archembaults shed

We did a lot of service at the senior center and served food for a German party. It was fun and we met a lot of really great senior citizens. One lady named Joan was talking with us and she asked what we do. We told her we teach a message centered on Jesus Christ and serve people physically and spiritually. I offered her our services and we’re going to go and clean out her eaves on the roof and teach her (hopefully). We also did some service at the Shavers house and cleaned out his shed and harvested his garden. Everyone here has huge gardens and they do really well here. We eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The food here is so expensive. Dairy products and eggs are more than 2X the cost than in the states. No exaggeration, everything is so expensive. That’s why we eat all the fish we catch. We blew half of our monthly allotment on fishing supplies and rods so we had very little food this month and have been eating fish way too much, its great. The only seasoning we have at the apartment is italian herb. no butter, barely any flour, and salt. It’s actually pretty good though. All our members feed us too. The members love us so much. We serve them and have gained their trust. Our stake conference was also focused all on missionary work and member missionary work and hastening the work of salvation and the members in our branch are really stepping it up. It’s beautiful. Our Mission Pres. and his wife spoke and it was so great. They’re very powerful speakers.

We sat with the Emers family in our branch. They have 4 daughters and the second to youngest (Kira) has a slight form of autism. She is really good at talking and has never forgot my name. But she loves me and Elder Johnson. She was sooo excited to sit by me and she covered me in stickers. haha the Emers loved how she was pretty quiet when she was sitting by us, but anyways she covered me in stickers and this was right before Elder Johnson and I had to go and sing in the choir! so it was a mad dash for Elder Johnson and I to get all the stickers off of me before I got on stage. It was really hilarious. We helped the Emers rake leaves this week. Everyone here burns their leaves so we had a big leaf bonfire. It was fun and I smelt like smoke pretty bad.

yeah I get to drive. I drive on our exchanges and I’m getting to know the town of Selkirk pretty well. I find out transfer calls on friday. I’m pretty nervous! I have mixed feelings about it here. It’s really grown on me and I love all the members so much. Elder Johnson and I get along so well and we work well together. So I’ll keep you posted.

We’ve been going fishing in a place called Lockport. You pull out 25 fish in about 45 minutes so we love it there. The people at Lockport are so friendly. At the Gordon Howard Senior Center we did the service there and like 20 people were like "hey! we saw you fishing at Lockport in your shirt and ties! What are you doing there? You fish?" and it’s like yep that was us haha the only people in all of Manitoba who go fishing in white shirt and ties. It starts really good conversation and people are more open to us. People know us there now and think we are so funny looking, it’s great

 So Elder Johnson freaked me out so bad this morning, I had a surprise when I went to turn the shower on.

I’m barely getting over my cold and it has been pretty miserable this week. I don’t have any money at all so I’ve just been dealing with it. I’ve used apple cider vinegar as my medicine. 

I hope that if I get transferred before Christmas that it will be next week because if I get transferred the week of Christmas it will be upsetting because I’ll go to a new area and not know any of the members. The members are all I have here and their my second family. I would be disappointed to get transferred right before Christmas but if I do I do, no worries.

Our fish didn't make it!!!!!

Thats great that Ivy can ride a bike! I think its really funny to hear our new young women’s Pres. Sis Holmes, talk about how stressed she is being the president. its like, theres 2 young women in our branch.. rough. Try being my mom haha. Obviously I don’t say these things, but offer my service to her. She and her husband have been coming to our bible study and its been great. We got invited to a sports night with some guys and their really excited for us to come and ball it up with them.

Reid Apartment, we are on the 3rd floor

Well I love you all and love hearing from everyone. I’m working hard and continually building my faith praying for miracles day by day. Thanks for the prayers and support. Elder Porter

My super warm Parka, sometimes too warm that I have to take it off.

My -60 degree boots, they are awesome!!!