This week was so great. We came home every day completely
exhausted. We worked so so hard. Our zone conference was fantastic and I felt
the Spirit so strong -- especially about the sacrament and how we can draw
power from it to change ourselves and become reborn every week. Little by
little every week we take out the natural man in us and replace it with good
and new more perfect spiritual qualities. Every piece of bread we take
represents the unique and individual needs that we need that Christ suffered for
to refine us, cleanse us from our sins, and give us power to overcome our
weaknesses. I felt the Spirit so strong and felt the power of the Atonement
changing me. I've felt so inadequate and unsure what to do or how to improve,
but through the sacrament I'm learning to rely on Christ and his power to
change me. I am feeling like that I'm born of God, that I have no desire to do
evil but to do good, that I love my Savior more and more, and I feel converted
and basically all I want to do with the rest of my life is share the gospel for
the rest of my life. Is there such thing as a lifetime extension?? I truly do
wish with all my heart to spend my days here sharing the gospel. Lives are
changed. I've seen an alcoholic change into a humble man glowing with the light
of Christ. He just had his baptismal interview on Sunday and our district
leader said that his countenance is truly glowing. It's so obvious to me that
the gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives, changes souls, changes the world. I
feel enlisted in the most important cause to change the world. I LOVE IT!
Basically I am probably the happiest I've been on my whole
mission. We worked so hard finding part member families and meeting their
families in their compounds. We found a lot of promising investigators that we
are going to back to this week. We taught quite a few referrals of members, one
from Brother Nuevo who is now giving out the Book of Mormon to his friends that
he knows can change too (WOW!), one is the husband of a member who desperately
wants to be married in the temple, and another from our efforts in asking
members to give a Book of Mormon. Basically I just love the members and I love
the people of Naguilian -- I honestly wish I could just be here forever. I feel
that there is SOOOO much work for me to do, and sometimes I feel bad that it
took me so long to figure out how to do missionary work more effectively. It
was really hard when I was training, but I'm trusting that there was a reason
my first year was hard and things didn't go the way I planned. I'm hoping that
I will be able to serve the Lord with what I'm doing for the rest of my life.
My companion and I are doing great. We eat super healthy and
eat all kinds of pure vegetable dishes and rice, like kare-kare or ginataang
gulay. We exercise every day and study the Book of Mormon first thing in the
morning. Our apartment is filled with the Spirit. We are feeling filled with
the Spirit. Yesterday we were confused about where to go and what to do but
everything worked out perfect because we followed the peaceful feeling that we
needed to go to Tuddingan, even though we weren't sure if it was going to work
out. We were able to teach in unity and power. We are excited to work. Even
though it does feel like an overwhelming task before us and we know we can't do
everything and we aren't perfect, we trust that the Lord will guide us to use
our time wisely. Sister Umpad is one of the best companions I've ever had. We
teach repentance and are bold. This has been the happiest transfer I've had,
even though sometimes there have been hard times to. I'm grateful that I've
learned so much. I'm praying so so hard that the Lord will help us bring many
souls to Christ, because I've learned that I absolutely cannot do it on my own
and it has been hard to get over my self-doubt and being hard on myself.
I talked at a funeral service about the Resurrection and
that Jesus is the Life of the World. I never thought I would do that. I also
got to speak in church and I felt the Spirit as I testified of the importance
of missionary work. I don't know if anyone else felt it but I did.
I love missionary work. I love being obedient. I LOVE
NAGUILIAN. I love my companion. I love working. I know I'm not a perfect
missionary and we have hard times too -- I'm especially hard on myself because
I want to bring souls unto Christ and I feel that because of my imperfections
and capabilities that I have missed opportunities. But I'm trying hard and I
know I have to trust in God that they will come if I follow Alma 26:22 --
repent, exercise faith, do good works, and pray without ceasing.
Sister Porter
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