June 6, 2011

We were finally able to solidify and help a family follow through with the baptism of their two young sons! Keon and Tynan, 9 and 8 year old brothers were baptized yesterday by the Bishop of the ward. What a great experience to see the spiritual strength of a baptism lift a family and help them feel the spirit of the Lord again. I was blessed with the privilege of confirming and blessing both of them. It was a special experience, and the first time I have had that opportunity.

The TRIpanionship is still rolling forth with much power. The area we are serving in is the highest performing area in the mission since I had the privilege of coming here, and with 3 Elders, the power and intensity is still maintaining. We counseled with the ward and the Lord, and we are set on helping 5 of God's children enter the waters of baptism this month (converts), with 3+ dates (converts) set for next month. We are killing average numbers and standards simply because they don't exist. They are all limitations placed on situations by people of little faith and understanding. The 1st of 5 was baptized last night.

Elder Hancock and I have been working with an inactive member of the ward since my 2nd or 3rd day here in Brampton. In the short month or so we've been able to act as his guide in helping him come back into full activity, and he bore his testimony at church yesterday! A special moment for Elder Hancock and myself. In my book a re-activation is just as joyful as a baptism.

We're doing our best to keep faith levels high and expect success. It’s tough a lot of times, but we're doing the best we know how.

As of today, we have 3 baptisms scheduled for June 26 - Part of a Hindu family, and an investigator who has been investigating for 6 or 7 months now. It will be my last Sunday with Elder Hancock, and we'll be pushing to help those people take those steps and finish out our time here STRONG.

Something I have learned more of and understood at a deeper level is the spirit's role of guidance and reassurance. It’s a humbling process to learn how to feel the spirit of the Lord help you make correct decisions, and confirm those decisions with the same feelings. When you read the Holy Scriptures, and you realize the responsibility you have to preach and teach the word of God, you begin to understand the duty you have to do all within your power. Reading scriptures like Jacob 1:19, and Jacob 2:2-3 do a lot to help you feel the weight of your calling. But working in diligence, truly feeling and wanting to complete and finish your role, causes a change in your nature over time. You start to feel the work more, you start to love strangers, you start to see everybody how they really are - children, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters of us and of Father. You strive to do more not because it is a duty, but because you WANT to. You WANT to help people, you WANT to fulfill your calling and do all you can because you love Father. You will begin to have the deep-rooted, strong, and real yearning that Enos had...."And I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer; for I know that in him I shall rest. And I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me, 'Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father.'"

May we all strive to fulfill our duty. Not out of obligation, but out of love. Weather your duty is working with diligence as a full-time missionary, serving as a Bishop, being a younger brother, a ward clerk, a primary teacher...it doesn't matter. Serve with love. Look at people the way the Savior would, and your Christ-like actions will naturally follow.

Serve God and your fellow-man TODAY, and "elevate the standard"

-E. PORTER

PS!! We just heard there is a DUAL-MISSION-WIDE conference Saturday. All the West mission, and all the East mission will be meeting at the Stake Center ( in my area!  Ha) on Saturday. Elder Ballard will be presiding, and we'll all get to meet him. I will also get to meet Nick Sorensen’s cousin who is serving there as well as Elder Wheadon- a friend from high school. I’ll write more about it next week.

May 30, 2011

The weeks are counting down to the time when the Toronto missions will combine! We're all very excited for the new areas to be opened up. The amount of missionaries in our mission will probably dip just below 100 this coming transfer, but then we'll shoot up to 200. Everybody is excited for the merge. It is creating a lot of excitement and motivation amongst the missionaries. With all the good excitement, motivation, anticipation, and added measure of urgency the coming months bring, Satan is always right behind us and the Lord, undoing anything and everything that he can. The adversary is really drilling and nailing lots of missionaries. He works so hard to work into the cracks in companionships, destroy spiritual experiences for investigators, and make members of the Lord's church feel complaisant and indifferent. With all the amazing good and miracles we've seen and been seeing lately, there has got to be some adversity. The past week wasn't bad by any means. We just saw a lot less visible success than is normal. It is a little discouraging sometimes. The baptism of the less-active family's son was delayed one more week. We're doing all we can, but people still have their agency.

The past 7 weeks I've been serving in Brampton have been awesome. So much success, so many miracles, and lots of growth in certain areas for myself, and even my companion. Things are harder some weeks than others, but you just keep pushing forward, focusing on the small and simple things of the gospel, and work in faith. Missionary success is heavily built off the foundation of diligence. It is a hard lesson to learn, but it’s coming. Our area has a lot of good stuff set up to see some serious success in the coming month or so.

Doing missionary work in a TRIpanionship is a little different...lots of splitting up (within sight and sound of course) and talking to people on our own. We're just sorting through 100,000's of people as fast as we can trying to find the prepared and the elect. Faith is what leads us to them.

I'm actually out of time, but this week will be a good one!

E. PORTER

May 24, 2011

May 24, 2011

This week has been a good one! Just a few days ago on Sunday we were able to fulfill our missionary purpose and confirm Taryn a member of Christ's church, and give her the gift of the Holy Ghost. Her conversion has been such a special one to be a part of. Such a good experience. During the past week of work we were still riding off the high of the baptism. She is doing awesome, and the ward is doing an amazing job supporting her and solidifying her decision to be baptized.

During the past week we worked really hard, we both feel good about how we worked. Our area is doing awesome. We've been blessed with 5 new baptismal dates over the past week! 3 of those dates belong to a Hindi family who have accepted a baptismal date of June 12! There is still a lot of work to do to help them be prepared, but they can be ready by then if they do all they should be doing. We've had many special spiritual experiences with them over the past few weeks. The power of Jesus Christ is real. It can help anybody no matter where you are from, how old you are, or what situation you find yourself in. I'm so glad I get to share this every single day. 1 of those dates is from an investigator who has been taught for 6 or 7 months. Missionaries have tried forever to help him work towards a date, and it’s just never happened. Following the direction of the spirit, we have been able to help him see why acting and committing to a baptismal date is important. He is scheduled to be baptized this coming Sunday. We are seeing him tonight to do our best to solidify the big step he's committed to make. The last date isn't really new, but it’s a date for a child of a less-active family missionaries have been working with forever. It’s pretty solid, but anything can happen as we've seen in the past. Our goal is for this ward to have 7 baptisms before the end of June. When we complete our goal, we will have beaten the missions "expected standard" by 7 times. It's unheard of, but Elder Hancock and I have truly discovered the very REAL power of faith. Why can't we baptize that many people? There isn't ANY reason. So, we'll go out, work hard, have faith, and make things happen. We will do all that is required of us to make our goals come to pass.

Transfers are actually today, and the transfer calls were on Sunday night. Elder Hancock has been here for 6 months already...and staying in an area for longer than that is pretty rare. BUT, we made such an amazing team that the Lord is blessing us to be together for another transfer. We were both extremely happy we were together for some more precious time. There WILL be a change however, a rare change-we are now a tripanionship! We've been blessed with another missionary in our companionship. His name is Elder Roberts. He has been on his mission the same amount of time as Elder Hancock. The 3 of us will do our best to finish things out and exceed the goals we have set.

The next few transfers in preparation for the merge with the Toronto East mission will be a little bit different. This transfer will be 5 weeks instead of 6, and the next transfer will be 4 weeks instead of 6. After the merge the transfer cycles will go back to the normal 6 week rotation.

I left my camera cord at home, or I would send some pictures...I'll make sure to do it next week.

Love you all! Keep doing your best, and never let up on making correct choices!

E. PORTER

May 16, 2011

 Taryn Barnes, baptized!

Well, the past 6 months have shot by pretty quick, EH?! I'd say they have. I didn't realize it was my 6 month mark tomorrow until dad reminded me in the email this morning. I'm lost in the great and amazing service. There is no more compelling or rewarding work than this in all the world. How blessed I am to be a part of it.

I have a lot to write this week. I'm not sure I will be able to get it all down.

To start off, I had my first baptism last night. The magnitude of strong feelings of love brought by the spirit make it impossible to give justice to the service by writing to you all through an email. Sorry, but you had to be there.

Taryn Barnes was baptized last night. I was blessed with the honor by her to be the one to perform the ordinance. It was the most special, sacred experience I've ever had. The spirit was so strong. The service started out with the hymn "There is sunshine in my soul today". When we found Taryn, it was a very cold, wet, foggy rainy day. We had the same weather last night and the day of the baptism as well. The spirit instantly came into the room with the hymn and the support and love of many ward members, missionaries across the city, and friends and loved ones of Taryn. We had some excellent talks on Baptism, and on the Holy Ghost by a senior missionary, and a good friend who is a ward member. There was a fantastic musical number by a family who has 4 girls. They sang beautifully, and it invited the spirit even more. Then I was able to baptize Taryn. It was a special moment for the two of us. I was able to find her, teach her, and finish opening the gate to salvation with performing her baptism. What a special experience. Words can't describe what all happened-but it was very special for the both of us. After we were changed, Taryn stood and bore her testimony and conversion story that she had written the day previous. She was so sincere. She understands the gospel and the spirit and what it can do to change lives. It brings such peace, happiness, love, and a culture of gentleness into your heart that nothing can compare with. It truly is true. Her testimony was so powerful. The room was on fire and every single person could feel it. In fact, the leaders of the ward are so impressed with her, that she will be speaking in sacrament meeting next week, and she will be speaking at the next stake conference. She's that good. She is a TRUE KINGDOM BUILDER. I was able to fulfill my purpose as a missionary by helping her progress towards the waters of baptism. The last 6 months of walking through waist deep snow in -25F degree weather, sharing the gospel despite a constant bruised heart and constant rejection, the feelings of missing family and loved ones, and always striving to "elevate the standard" have finally paid off. I feel like I don't deserve the blessing I've seen in the past 5 weeks while serving in Brampton. I'm so blessed to be a part of this GREAT latter-day work.

When people keep commitments, progress towards baptism, and decide to actually make that commitment, they change. They change forever. There isn't much more I can actually write to explain the amazing experience. Words simply can't describe. Seeing the change in somebody, and realizing it is such a REAL thing strengthens your testimony so much. I'm grateful to have been blessed with this unforgettable journey and experience with Taryn.

Now regarding earlier that day! There was a TON of small opposition just before the baptism. It’s honestly a miracle we made it and had it happen yesterday. Taryn was totally ready and prepared, but a few things went a little crazy yesterday.

Taryn has a really bad back. She requested that we fill the font extra full, all the way to the overflow drain so we could actually baptize her, because otherwise she didn't think it would be physically possible. So we give the font 4.5 hours to fill, rather than the regularly required 3. We come to the church to start setting up for the baptism an hour and a half early, we check the font.....and the water in only 6 inches deep. The drain was messed up and had been draining the whole time. Not good. So we get lots of people in the stake center and we start filling up the gray garbage cans with water from sinks, and bathroom, and any faucet we can find. We are all going crazy filling the font with buckets and everything! It is pretty funny now, but we were all stressed out of our minds. We realize 20 minutes before the baptism starts that I don't have any of my baptismal clothes, because we got stuck at the church filling the font. It is a 15 minute drive from the church to our apartment. So we get in the car and drive really fast to the apartment. We grab my stuff, and we start driving back. There was a bunch of traffic, so we parked the car and started running. So we're running through the streets and mud in baptismal clothes, with bare feet, rushing to our baptism. Pretty funny. We got to the church, and there were a bunch of Sikh guys (Indian religion-they all wear turbans) right outside the temple and church gates. So obviously, our job is to share the gospel-we talk to them and invite 5 or 6 of these non English speaking Indian men wearing turbans into the church for the baptism. They stayed and watched respectfully the whole time, and you could tell they felt the spirit. Pretty funny-they took up a whole row in the Relief Society room. The TV wasn't working either, but we got it working 30 seconds before the baptism started.

So it was the most crazy, dramatic, stressful scramble of my life, but it turned out to be the most spiritual, peaceful, edifying, memorable experience I've ever been a part of. Such a blessing.

Almost out of time. LOVE YOU ALL

Keep striving to do more and do better. The spirit will guide you to make right choices!

E. PORTER

Pictures

Here are a few recent pictures Matt has sent home.  This is his companion, Elder John Hancock II, from Phoenix, AZ.  He has been out three or four months longer than Matt.  Matt says they get along super well, and he loves him like a brother.  He says they really think alike.

Tanner Wheadon's aunt is serving in Matt's mission with her husband.  She is now in his district and met Matt and made the connection.  She took this picture and sent to to Tanner's mom, who forwarded it to me.  Thanks, Jana!

P-day internet time -- Elder Hanckock, Matt's companion.

 

 The temple is just barely outside the ward Matt is assigned to (within a block).  He is assigned to the Heart Lake ward in Brampton.  The mission office is also in his area.

 Matt finally got a car, now that winter is over!

 Matt said the car was previously in northern Canada.  He said they seriously have polar bears there.

This is Taryn, an investigator who has committed to baptism.  Matt and Elder Hanckock tracted her the first week Matt was in Brampton.

Brother and Sister Hofstetter

Brother and Sister Hofstetter are a lovely couple Matt grew to love from his last area in London.  He wrote to me that they are among his favorite people he has ever known.  I received a letter from the Hofstetter's today.  It says, in part, "Elder Porter has been in our home many times during his assignment while serving here in the London Second Ward.  He has in every way honoured you and his calling.  He has worked hard and it has been an honour and a blessing for us to have had the opportunity to get to know and love your son.  It is so clear that Elder Porter understands his calling and the reason he is here in the mission field.  We have felt the spirit so many times as he has been in our home and shared some of his missionary moments with us.  Elder Porter is a missionary of the very finest quality and we deeply miss him already."

I'm so grateful to them for writing to me, especially this Mother's Day week!

May 2, 2011

Week 3 of transfer 4 of area 2 has been great! Elder Hancock is continuing to be a stud. He's amazing. Everything-teaching, finding, studies, being a great person. I love him to death. We have no contention, we're working as one, and we're seeing miracles every single day.

Last Tuesday, Elder Hancock and I found a wonderful Indian family. They are inactive in the Hindu faith. Brampton is close to half Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or Sikh. So actually finding someone from the East that will listen to you is a great treat. The family consists of a mother, father, a 12 year old girl, and a 5 year old son. They are all amazing, and they recognized that they felt "different and happy" when we come over. We are slowly teaching them about Jesus Christ and all that He can do for us in our lives. We gave them a chapel tour, and they loved it. They definitely felt the spirit, and want to continue learning and meeting with us. They'll be coming to church next week. Pray for them! They are amazing, and it’s great to be teaching a FAMILY!

The second day I was in Brampton, I knocked on a door and we found a wonderful woman named Taryn. Taryn is amazing. Active catholic-but she realized that church wasn't doing anything for her, and she felt the spiritual fulfillment with the things we share with people. We committed her to be baptized in the first lesson. We've met with her loads of times now, she has us over for dinner a decent amount, and we've grown very close to her. The gospel is SO amazing with its power to heal wounds of the past. The Atonement of Christ can fix anything! She has felt the power in her life as she changes from her past lifestyle, gains a testimony of Joseph Smith, partakes of the spirit of the Book of Mormon, and prepares herself for baptism. She will be baptized this coming Sunday, straight before I call home for Mothers Day. So it should be a pretty good day!

We are seeing miracles, reaching most of our goals, and gaining stronger testimonies of the principle of faith in Jesus Christ. The gospel is the power that drives the universe, even if most people in the world don't know about it or won't acknowledge it. It’s so amazing to be a part of this glorious and AMAZING work. It’s such a privilege. I am humbled to be here in this great and amazing time.