"HOWS IT"... 'CHERRY BRAHH"

Hey everyone! How’s everything at home!? This week was another amazing week here in Kohala! I am more impressed each and every day with the members and how the Lord truly directs the work in the mission! We have been meeting with John an investigator and he’s been like shutting everything out and it’s been hard. But, Thursday we met with him and the wall that was between him and the church totally got knocked down. He opened up so much and told us everything and with his past experiences with missionaries and why he had a wall up. He broke down as we taught and truly felt the spirit for the first time in a very long time. The lesson went amazing and we were able to actually see what he understood and what he was lacking. By the end of the Restoration lesson he was so eager to get baptized that he asked "can we just do it now?" LOL it was awesome. He’s such a good guy. It was the second coolest thing ever! The only thing better I have seen since being here was when he walked into the chapel on Sunday and went and sat in the very front row! Not just him but his inactive parents, girlfriend, nephew, niece, and brother. It was truly amazing! Best part of my mission this far! Man it was such a good day when that happened!! 

We went tracting for a while on Saturday I believe and we were getting rejected over and over and over and our last house was this 15 year old boy named Joe and he asked to hear all the lessons and know more. He asked this before we even said anything about church or anything!! He’s a stud I’m excited to work with him. We taught the restoration!! He looks forward to baptism. I don’t know much about him cuz we only met him once so there will be more about him in weeks to come I’m sure! But the Lord truly does prepare people for the gospel!

I had raw fish (poke) oh man that was gross stuff... not looking forward to eating it again... but I got it all down so that was good. Before dinners they always ask us what we want and being here for 2 weeks now I’m not even sure the options so we just say surprise us but it always makes you think... what am I actually going to have.. Tonight is with a Filipino family. So first time with that we will see how it goes! 

The houses here are really weird. They are so small, but like it’s just open garage, like no garage doors so people can just go take anything. It’s sooo different! THERE IS NO AIR CONDITIONING! There are bugs all over in the houses and no one cares!! Man I kinda miss my bug free house back home, but this is how it is for a while. Haha. Speaking of this my pad I stay at hasn’t had missionaries there in 6 weeks so when we got there it was disgusting! Bugs everywhere spiders and webs strung through the entire place. It was the grossest house I had been in but it’s getting better and getting cleaner! 

A topic of study this week has been families. Growing up I kinda thought every family was like mine. Now I’m finding out that I have the best family ever! Not to bash on anyone else but mine is the best. Since being here I have seen so many broken families, kids disrespecting parents, parents disrespecting kids. So I started to ask myself "How did I get blessed with such a great family" and let me tell you the reason is because one thing that has been hanging on the wall at home as long as I can remember. The Family Proclamation to the World. Everyone read this!! Live by these principles. They are what create a foundation for a great relationship. I know most of us think "our family is the best" but every family has work to do. As a family I would challenge you to read this, set goals, and grow your relationship with your family and in your home. Many prophets have said the home is the most sacred place outside the temple. So think about this... Are our homes sacred, can you feel God’s presence, are they over run with worldly things that distract or even hinder our families relationship? 

The hardest part of a mission I have found in these 2 weeks has been getting rejected. Now it’s not the physically getting rejected part, I can deal with that and in all reality I don't care. But it’s knowing the joys I get from the gospel, it’s knowing the blessing received, the opportunities we have to do more than we could ever imagine and them turning it away like it’s something so bad. I understand it. I do looking at where they come from and how they possibly view religion. Being on the other side it’s hard knowing what they are missing out on. However, on the other side of rejection is exception, and that's the beautiful part of a mission. It’s watching and seeing people completely change their lives. They turn back from addictions, drugs, gangs, etc. and totally take faithful steps towards Christ. It is only through our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we can even try yet be successful at changing.


Elder Porter
Honolulu, Hawaii