Sept. 2, 2014

Hey Everyone!

Time is flying by pretty quick. I cant believe I’m already half there. It’s ridiculous. I honestly can’t believe it’s half over. I wish I knew at the beginning what I know now. I’m honestly excited about this next year. I know its going to go by so fast. I’ve definitely had some seriously hard times on my mission, but looking back I’m really glad I did. It’s easy to stay the same person you were before the mission if you just go through the motions. I’ve definitely grown up a ton this past year. There are still things I want to do better at and things to work on, but that will be my whole life. I’ve definitely loved being a missionary. I’ve come to understand that it’s not about the baptisms. It’s about how hard you work and how much you serve and what you do to help other people. I think we will have a baptism coming up this month and I really hope it all turns out well.

We had a real good week. We went out to a pow wow on the reserve all day on Saturday. It was crazy. It was huge!! There were tons of people there. I think Elder Nelson and I were the only white guys there! It was the best. I bought a beaded lanyard. It’s really nice.

We've still been helping our friend Patrick roof some houses. He’s starting to open up to us as we talk with him and we're able to mess around and have a lot of fun. I really enjoy doing the roofing. It’s a lot of fun.

My companion is good, but I have to kick him into gear or he will just sleep all day. I make him get up at 5:30 for the gym every day though. haha. We're doing pretty good. I love it here in Brandon so much!  

So we're still teaching David, and he's been coming to church. We set a baptism date with him for the middle of the month, and we’re really praying it works out. We have to teach him quite a bit still, so we will see if we can make it happen.

Well I was sick as a dog this past week. I had a real nasty cold. I couldn't eat or sleep and I started to go crazy! I kept working, but on Wednesday it got to me and I almost passed out!! I could barely walk straight. Anyways, I didn't eat for about 3 days and lost like 13 pounds. I’m feeling a lot better now though, and I gained it all back a few days later. It was a real tough week but I’m just glad I’m good and healthy now. 

We had a really fun ward tailgate party yesterday. I bbq'd some pork and we had a good time. We played soccer with all the latinos and had a lot of fun.

So lately we have been having these huge "dock spiders" around our patio. We have three of them and they are the size of a silver dollar, a little bigger. But anyways the zone leaders live right across the parking lot and every night we put a grasshopper or dragon fly in the web and watch them battle it out. Well we got this huge grasshopper, probably the biggest one I have ever seen, and my spider battled with it but ended up losing a leg. So it recovered and is back in action. So we caught a snake the other day, it’s pretty small but we're going to put it in the web tonight to see if they will battle. It’s pretty fun to watch. They have some crazy battles. haha

As district leader I am responsible for leading a meeting each week where I train them on how to better missionaries. I talk for like 45 min and then we practice doing stuff, like role playing different skills. I had a really spiritual district meeting today on testimony. It was really good. I think every one liked it. We read the talk by Pres. Uchtdorf about having a personal testimony. It was great!

It’s in the 60's and 70's now. The leaves are changing, falls about to set in. Winter will be here beginning of November! It’s rainy season, so we get these light prairie storms now and then few times a week. It’s nice!!

Things are going really good. I love being a missionary and I’m excited for this next year. I love you all!!

Elder Porter

We went to the Souri swinging bridge. I was sick as a dog that day, but still was cool!

After the pow wow, we went to this families animal rescue, it was so fun!!