November 20, 2017

 Milk Explosion

From Sister Porter (Megan's Companion) :) Nov 20th

HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEK!

Story Time:

• So S. Stokes and I are out tracting as usual. No biggie. We knock on this door and this guy slips out and shuts the door really quick. And then he says "Sorry, they are in there trying to get an evil spirit out of the room and I didn't want to scare them" I was totally terrified and didn't really know what to say lol. He then asked what we needed and we said "Well were just sharing a message about Jesus Christ" It was kind of the most hilarious awkward moment of my life. 

Miracles on Miracles on Miracles 

• TERESA SET A DATE! Teresa is the most golden investigator there has ever been. She knows everything is true and knows she will get baptized but wouldn't set a date. She just kept saying in December or January. A member was holding a friendsgiving and invited us for dinner and Teresa was there. I was talking to her and she finally said "Sister Porter, I did a study for the first time today with the question of baptism in mind and I'm thinking December 9th" I was trying so hard to play it cool lol. She is amazing. 
• Our investigator Montana told us that she still has a desire to be baptized and for the first time she is really putting in the effort to read the Book of Mormon to know if it is true. 
• Baby miracle but we finally got a new Ward Mission Leader. Hallelujah. I think I already scared him away though.  After he got sustained in sacrament meeting I learned back and whispered "welcome to the club" then afterwards we had a thankyou card for him because he fed us dinner this week and I handed it to him and he said "what is this" and i said "initiation instructions"

The struggles of S. Porter and S. Stokes:

• This week we were driving home from dinner when S. Stokes hit a curb. There was no where to pull over so we decided to just drive home. When we got home we realized the hub cap was gone. Rough. So we drove back picked it up and then had to call the car coordinators cause we didn't know how to put it back on lol. 
• Then yesterday we were driving home from church and there was this terrible dragging sound. I was convinced we had a flat tire. So we pulled into the median and our tires were fine so I looked underneath the car and there was the most giant branch stuck under there lol. It was pouring rain and there was like 30mph wind and I was pulling on this brand so hard but couldn't get it out lol. Finally a really nice man pulled over and came over and was able to get it out for us. SO EMBARRASSING. 
• In other news, this week S. Stokes fell down a giant hill, I woke up with a black eye, and we randomly decided to buy t-shirts from an ice cream shop. But the cool part is they still smell like ice cream. Its amazing. 

What I've learned:

• This week I have almost finished reading Jesus the Christ. As I have read this I have continued to read in the Book of Mormon as well as the New Testament. And I know that as we continually learn about Christ our faith in him will strengthen. As we strive to apply his teachings and attributes in our own lives we will increase in happiness and feel closer to our Heavenly Father. I love my Savior and I know that He lives! 

Pictures:

• Last week we had a tragic accident where our brand new gallon of milk slid off the top of the car and exploded in the parking lot. We had milk all over our just washed car. If you look closely you can see the jug from S. Stokes trying to carry it inside. But as she tried milk was spraying EVERYWHERE in the wind. Tragedy. 
• I still don't really like weekly planning. 
• This would be S. Stokes running across the street to collect the hub cap. 
• Our t-shirts that smell like ice cream! 

Love you all! Have your best week so far!

Sister Porter

November 20, 2017

This week has been so much fun! last p-day, after we went shopping, we came to the church to put our groceries in the fridge, so I put the milk on the roof of the car and when I shut the door, the milk slid off the back window, off the trunk, and exploded on the ground! it splattered everywhere, not to mention we just got back from the car wash and the milk was all over the car. I tried to pick it up so it would stop leaking, but there were two large holes in it and the milk started spraying everywhere because it was super windy! I was covered in milk and the car was covered in milk. I was so cold my hands felt like they were going to freeze off! The bad thing was when it happened we couldn't stop laughing so I was just holding the milk letting it spray everywhere lol. But it was a great memory, I was so sad that we didn't have milk for half the week though, but I made my companion let me buy another one when we had time that week.

Another thing that happened to me on Tuesday was we were walking down a really steep hill at night and it was raining on us. So i'm putting all my weight in each step I take because the hill was so steep, and I step on this medal plate that all sidewalks have, and my foot slid out from under me and I went face first down a steep hill and my companion looks back and see's me rolling down the hill Bahaha! it was not fun, I was soaking wet and bruised my knees lol. 

So many things happened to me this week! so I was driving at night, and I turn this corner to sharp and hit a curb, it sounded really bad and I wanted to pull over, but there was no where to, so my companion just said just go home and we'll look at it later, so she got out with her flashlight thinking I hit the side of the car not the tire, and she's like it looks fine, but I look at the tire and go, "the hub caps gone!" So we had to drive back to find it, luckily it pooped back on, only scrapped up. Also, Yesterday, the weather was insane! The wind was probably 50 MPH and the rain was just pelting down, so I was driving back from church and we here a really awful scratching sound the car was making, we couldn't figure out what it was. The sound kept getting louder and louder and so we had to pull over on this hill in a "Median" but we were blocking traffic. We thought that the tire had popped because the sound it was making was so loud. So Sister Porter gets out of the car and the wind and the rain was blowing so hard. She looks under the car and there is a huge tree branch wedged under that we could not pull out! A very nice man pulled over and asked us if were okay, and we told him we couldn't get this branch out from under the car. So he started yanking on the branch it it would not budge. He had to pull so hard for it to come out, but luckily it did come out. Sorry all of this is not relevant to missionary work, but this week has been super funny.

Something awesome we had this week was interviews with President and Sister Wilding! They are so amazing, I love them so much. He asked us to come with our favorite scripture in mind, and I recently read over Alma 37:37 and felt like this was my favorite scripture in that moment in time. It was a really good interview, he is so caring and loves to here how things are going. I'm so sad so many in our district are going home! Missionaries are seriously the best, they are so much fun. 

So we drove out to Lynden where we don't go very often because it is 30 minutes from bellingham and only contact people that have been referred to us to visit since we are YSA. I don't think I mentioned this, but our boundaries are the whole zone! So we aren't restricted to much which is way nice. But Lynden apparently has the most churches per capita in the U.S. but doesn't have an LDS church. There was probably a different church on every corner there, it was insane! But everyone we tried to contact wasn't home, but we did go to this famous ice cream place for lunch called Edaleen Dairy and made a custom sandwich and amazing ice cream! We even bought these funny cow shirts that smell like ice cream.  

We had the opportunity to watch the Face To Face with Elder Ballard and Elder Oaks at the Institute and Teresa one of our investigators came with one of her friends! It was so exciting, we went to this Friends-giving thing with two of our recent converts and Teresa and a couple others and Teresa told us that she was reading in Matthew and had the question when should she get baptized in mind and she said she got an answer and said she thinks she wants to be baptized on December 9th! We are so excited for her, she is so ready and pretty much calls herself Mormon already. 

Our other investigator Natalie is progressing extremely well for not having any background in religion. She has been praying on her own and is reading, we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she is way excited to know she can repent and be forgiven of things that she has not been proud of in the past. She goes to Seattle every weekend to visit her Fiance, but she brought up on her own that she wants to go to church, and asked if we have other meeting houses she can go to. We were ecstatic! She is so amazing and I am so grateful for her and her sweet spirit.

We teach 6 recent converts each week, and 5 investigators each week, they are all amazing, We teach some less actives as well, so we are always on the go.

So our p-day is only until 12 today, and then we go back to missionary schedual because President has given us the whole day of thanksgiving off! so we have "P-Day" starting from 8 AM to 7 PM so we are super excited for that. We have a place to go on thanksgiving and we are also doing something with the entire zone. This week is going to be great!

I hope you all have an amazing week, this gospel is such a joy and gives me so much peace and comfort to know that we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father, who knows us perfectly and wants us to reach out to him in all that we do. Going back to my favorite scripture, Alma 37:37, it reads,

 "Councel with the Lord in all they doings, and he will direct thee for good; and when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, the he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day."

I know that God wants us to include him in all that we do and the things that matter most to us. Just like any father, He wants to hear from us, to know how were doing, He wants to bless us and give us strength. And I know that as we reach out to Him everyday and in everything that we do, you will feel His love for you, and will bless you according to His will.

Love, 

Sister Stokes