ALL NEW WITH A NEWBIE! LOVE IT!!

Guess who gets to speak with you on Sunday?! Ahhh! 

I am so excited to see you all. I can't believe how fast the time flies! I feel like I just talked to you all on Christmas. But this time, it will be way special for me to Skype you all. It will be on Mother's Day, on my mother's birthday, and it will be the last time I will be Skype-ing on the mission. The next time I see you, I will be at the airport. So crazy. But what a special day it will be on Sunday! I loved hearing all about your trip to Florida, mom and dad! What a fun way to spend time with the family. I laughed hard knowing that you were with a bunch of Brazilians speaking Portuguese. Mom, it's not French ;-) but, it has similarities. Portuguese is a strange language because it's almost like Spanish, French, and Italian mixed. We can understand what all of these languages are saying. That is so cool that you got to meet some of my people there :-). Brazilians are so amazing. 

This week was absolutely amazing. I'm learning that training a newbie and opening an area at the same time, wasn't as easy as I thought. 

I wanted to have a challenge these next two transfers and Heavenly Father granted my wish! Ha ha. 

It's been tough, but so much fun with so much work to do. We have been finding many people that I know Heavenly Father has been preparing for us. 
My companion is so sweet. 

We have so much fun together. It's so cute how she gets all nervous talking to people and how she freaks out when it's her turn to challenge someone to something. I love her so much, and I'm loving teaching her and helping her. She has such a strong testimony. We are seeing miracles together and learning so much. The Lord has really been guiding our actions and words. 

Gave her skittles for her 1 month mark of the mission

One night we were out of plans and everything fell through. We try talking to people on the street and we clapped so many doors, but no one wanted to listen to us. We were freezing cold and had no idea what we should do. I remembered that we made a list of people that previous missionaries had contacted in the street along with their names and addresses from the area book. I pulled it out and immediately was drawn to the first name. I saw the address and number, and to our surprise, we were stopped in the middle of the street right in front of this house. We clapped the door and a woman answered. She said he wasn't home but that we could come in. We were shocked at how welcoming she was and how accepting she was of us. She began to say that normally she leaves in the evenings to visit people but that she felt she needed to stay home. So she sat on her couch and was just thinking. She said that she knows it was because we were going to arrive. We were so shocked. She told us that missionaries have talked with her before, but she never felt so moved before when they came. She expressed doubts she has about her church and how she knows ours is true. She listened as we talked to her about Joseph Smith and the restoration of the church. The spirit was SO STRONG. She accepted to be baptized on the 28 May. It was an amazing experience for us. We could see how perfectly the Spirit led us there. He knew we would stop there in that moment in the middle of the road. He knew he could count on us to find her. He knew she would be at home at the moment. He knew the time she would accept the Gospel. We hugged each other with tears in our eyes and with so much joy in our hearts after that lesson. Heavenly Father truly is using his spirit to guide us and we can feel it and see it. That woman never accepted to be baptized before after years of missionary lessons. But because the spirit prepared us all to meet each other that night, she couldn't deny that the message was true. I love teaching people and bearing testimony to them of the restored gospel. This is the truth! 

The elders had a baptism! Yay!

I love the quote the president Marian G. Romney said, "I always know when I am speaking under the influence of the Holy Ghost, because I always learn something from what I have said." It is so true. He gives us the words we need. We laugh after lessons sometimes because we don't remember anything we said because the spirit was so strong. He is essential in the work of God. I'm so grateful for the special gift we have as members. The Holy Ghost can always guide us and help us when we are living worthily and allow him to do His work. I love being a representative of my Savior. I know the church really is His because he still is the same. Always serving, and teaching, and blessing through his called missionaries. He is so perfect. I love Him. I'm so excited to see you all soon! Have an amazing week and be examples at all times! Love, Sister Porter :-)