Fire Sides, Devotionals, and Departures!

What a CRAZY WEEK!! It started off with my companion crashing his bike into another biker coming around a sharp corner. They both ended up okay and we ended up with his information so we can stop by and talk about the gospel with him, haha! One of our wards had a ward night at the "HUB" a game room at BYU-Hawaii. It was a lot of fun and lots of people were able to come. It was a fun time and we got to meet lots of people! We also were able to attend a Musical Fire Side put on at the Visitors Center where they performed many songs playing multiple instruments and singing. It was such a spiritual evening and after, we found a man who was a non-member that was touched and we shared some principles of the gospel and some of the other missionaries will continue to teach him. It was a beautiful night and the talents the sisters have are incredible! 

In Hawaii they celebrate everything, and today was another state holiday. I feel like there is one every other week! So time is short but I just wanted to share one last thing.

 We were asked by President Bekker to help at the Youth Conference. There were 6 companionship's that helped. This was a quad-stake youth conference.

There were over 800 youth and they had activities for 4 days in a row. We were asked to help on Friday. It was at Gun-Stock Ranch. It was where the youth would experience a reenactment of the first vision then go through this hike and have different stations to stop at. The theme this year is "Just ask" James 1:5-6. It was such a neat experience for me seeing these youth go through many different things and watching how every minute their understanding was growing. It was such a spiritual experience. One of the incredible things was 2 of our investigators attended for all the days and it answered many of their questions and helped them gain a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. That he, through the power of God, translated the Book of Mormon from the Gold Plates. That as we live the principles taught by the Prophets in the Bible, Book of Mormon, as well as modern day Prophets we will be directed towards Christ and will find more joy in our lives. 

This next week will be General Conference a time where we can hear from our living Prophet and Apostles. Let us all watch it with a question in our hearts. I promise that something that will be said that will be life changing if you let it. We all need help, we all need direction, and God has given us that through leaders. Let us all take this opportunity to listen and then discuss with our families afterwards and change our lives according to the direction they give. 

This is my last week with Elder Jipus. He returns to the Philippines Thursday after serving here for 2 years! Im gunna miss that LITTLE man!

Love you all, 

Elder Porter 

Honolulu, Hawaii

 Elder Jipus after his crash.. has a concussion and he passed out..

 No wonder missionaries gain so much weight! Haha

Our district even though they are looking at other camera!

Sisters at fire side devotional their song they did all together.

Wood carvings and the member that does them the marlin is $15,000

Elders in the zone missing Williams.

Fare Well Elder Jipus

We ran into a member from back home that now lives in Hawaii. He is good friends with my high school hockey coach. My coach sent my family this pic. 

 

The B words of the week..Blisters, Battle Ships, and Baptisms

This week was so awesome!! Lots of great things! 

Monday: Last week after emailing, we went and bought fabric and then made neck ties. It was so fun and they turned out sweet! Other than the fact I turned around and there was a hot iron and I totally burnt my arm on it. Just so everyone knows, I would not recommend that… It doesn't feel to great! 

Tuesday: Elder Jipus and I were asked to help put on a Mock MTC for one of the other wards in the stake! It was a Blast! From exercise to meal plans and budgeting and on to personal and comp study then to teaching! It was so cool to see all the youth participate! 12-18 year olds teaching the lessons to investigators that had stories created as if they were real! It was awesome to watch how hard they are working now to prepare!

Wednesday: Our Zone went to Pearl Harbor and did service there. It was a good time and we were able to do many different things to clean up and help them prepare for the coming week. It was fun to be there and see all the ships and go to a lot of places you wouldn't be able to go as a tourist. Haha We did the work on the Missouri, the ship that the war ended on.

Saturday: 3 Baptisms!!! The family we have been teaching, the Mother is a member and has come back to church for the past 4 weeks! Her 3 children accepted the gospel and were baptized on Saturday after 2 years of taking the lessons. They were baptized by their grandfather who has recently come back to church after many years of being away. It was such a spiritual and emotional day for everyone in attendance, especially the family. Many people attended and we were able to meet many of the people who began the lessons alongside the missionaries 2 years ago. There is a time and a place for everything, and it was amazing to see this family come and make covenants with the Lord and come as a family!! 

Later that evening we had a stake missionary meeting with the Ward Counsels from all 9 wards in the stake. President Bekker (our mission President), Elder Auna (area 70), our Zone Leaders, and our Stake President gave a beautiful and powerful training to everyone about how missionaries and members need to be equally yoked in the Lords work! 

Sunday: Lapaka, Leon, and Rebel were Confirmed. I was asked to confirm Leon. I was so honored for the opportunity and excited his name wasn’t too hard! Only 6 names and a total of 24 letters long hahaha! It was such a cool experience!!!

Such a wonderful week full of many activities and exciting events! It’s so hard to share the feelings, memories, and experiences that happen in a week over a short email. But I hope you all know that the Missionary work all over the world is lead and directed by God. His hand is in our lives every single day. Miracles happen and they happen every single day. Experience and logic is removed from the lessons and as they are taught by inspiration it is a life changing moment for everyone. The gospel is true. We are children of a Heavenly Father who loves us. As we follow his commandments given to us by his prophets we will be safe in this crazy world. Let us all smile and have spiritual experiences every day, because they will happen if we let them! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Mahalo Nui Loa

Elder Logan Porter

Honolulu, Hawaii

 A member posted:
These amazing Full time missionaries held a mini MTC activity with the YM/YW of our Ward (Laie 7th Ward, Laie Hawaii North Stake). It was an awesome activity.

Blister/burn irons are hot.

Pear Harbor Battle ships!

Baptisms!

Kids and grandfather

 Lapaka, Leon, and Rebel

Cute table at the baptism.

Hey mom I bought a ukulele.  Now I need to learn to play it. haha

Drove by the Dole plantation

 Puffer fish

Tongan ward Relief Society birthday dance party.

 

A nice member visiting Hawaii took this and send it to my mom. 

 

God has a need for air heads too

Story for the week: So the other day I was on exchanges with our Zone Leaders and while I was with them we got a call that caused a crazy rest of the day! Without going into too much detail there were 2 people from a ward in the zone that their Baptismal Records were lost somehow or another. This is Friday about 5pm we find this out. The sisters tell us the Bishop scheduled them to be Baptized Saturday at 8am. So there was no time to mess around! No one was quite sure the process for everything as it was kind of a unique situation with everything. So I watched as our Zone Leader had easy 40 calls in the next hour between the sisters, the Bishop, Stake President, and Mission President. I was so glad that was not my responsibility I definitely don’t envy that at all! Long, long story cut short, the 2 people were going to meet us and have their Baptismal interview and then they would be good. We exchanged back into our normal companionship's and as Elder Jipus and I were about to leave this guy asks us am I meeting you? We talked and he was one of the guys that needed interviewed he came to the wrong place but found us so we were able to get him to the Zone Leaders for the interview. So Elder Jipus and I bike to our dinner appointment about 10-15 minutes away. Right as we pull in the drive way we get a call and yupp.... I had the zone leader’s car keys in my pocket..... so we run up to the door and they were able to give us a ride back to the chapel. I’m like stressed because I was a total air head and got the Zone Leaders stuck in Kahuku when they were supposed to be In Laie 5 minutes ago to interview the other person. So I jumped outta the car and ran up and the lady was given different information than the Zone Leaders. She showed up to the Chapel the Zone leaders were stuck at due to me having the keys! It was such a relief! It was a witness to me that the Church is very much true. There is nooooo way that all would have worked out without the Lord guiding and fixing all the mistakes we were making. I’m so grateful Heavenly Father was able to use me and let me be an air head for a little to make sure the Zone Leaders were in the right place where they needed to be. I know that as we do our best, our best will not be good enough so God will help us and magnify our efforts to allow everything to work out. 

"God will guide your footsteps if you are willing to move your feet."

I hope everything is wonderful for you all. I know life can be hard and everyone has many trials and things to deal with, however I hope you all take the time every day to stop take a deep breath and smile(: Life is meant to be happy, if were not happy were doing something wrong! SMILE!!! Love you all have a wonderful week! 

Love you all,

Elder Porter

Honolulu, Hawaii 

My tan line from my watch.

 Main land kids get told not to play in the road. Hawaii... time for Pokémon. :)

The white car is parked there. No one in it... happens all the time!! parking in the middle of the road!!!

Someone dropped off a "Moctail" with our dinner. lol

We were walking home and this school bus pulled over, oppened the doors, picked us up and took us home lol. Missionary benefits in a LDS populated area! 

Elder Jipus and Elder Williams look good on the bike from the air conditioned car (Exchanges).