How have things been lately?
 
Things here are great as always. I do have a little bit of bummer news. I had to go talk to the MTC president earlier this week about my uke… and he said I can’t play it here. Which is lame, because I know of at least 5 other people that have uke’s here as well. There’s just a certain someone in my district who is a bit power hungry, and I think he has something against music as well ha. Elder Tanner and I were a bit bummed out about that one. So I’ll probably just send it home here eventually. But that’s alright. Thank you for sending it though! We did get a few good days of jamming in. So it was worth it. Now, all of us just meet up in the vending machine room and sing at night.There’s a bunch of Polynesian kids here, that join us as well. It’s a good time. It’s not possible to completely take music away from me :)
 
Did you get my package? I hope so. If not, tell dad happy birthday. But it should’ve gotten there by his birthday, I would imagine. I sent it last Saturday.
 
I had to give a talk on Sunday in Portuguese ha. It was weird, I woke up in the morning and all through breakfast and before our Sacrament meeting started (at 8am), I just had a feeling I was going to have to give a talk. I kept telling my companion that I was giving the talk that day…. he didn’t believe me. Needless to say, I was right. They don’t announce who is giving the talks until after we partake of the sacrament either. So everyone is usually on the edge of their seats haha. I’m glad I got mine out of the way though. Chances are slim that I will have to give another one. It went really well though. Afterwards, in Priesthood meeting, I had to demonstrate to everyone how to consecrate the oil. So it was quite the eventful Sunday.
 
My classes are now 100% Portuguese. We never speak English. It can be a bit tough/frustrating at times. Well more like most of the time. But it is definitely helping. It forces us to speak the language. The only way you can speak English is if you walk out of the classroom, and talk from the hallway ha. So far it hasn’t been too bad though. I can usually understand most of what is going on in class.
 
How has the weather been there this week? The weather here has been amazing. We played sand volleyball a couple times this week during our gym time. It was a lot of fun for sure! I miss the times when we would play sand volleyball in Florida though, and be able to just jump in the pool after-wards. Or play on the actual beach, and jump in the ocean after. But I’ll take what I can get! :)
  
That’s awesome to hear about Brian! I’m glad things are working out for him! I’ll keep him in my prayers for sure!
 
This week for our devotional, one of the second quorum of the seventy came to talk to us. His name was Elder Foster (can’t remember his first name). It was an awesome talk. It was really an eye opener. He started by showing some videos from NASA. It was talking about the universe and how much is out there. There is something like 10 billion galaxies out there that they know of! That is amazing, I had no clue. It was just amazing to see how much is out there, and how little we know about it. How small we are in this never ending universe. It talked about how everything about our earth just happens to be right. It spins at the exact speed it needs to, it is the perfect distance from the sun, etc. It just really makes you realize how there is no way everything just “happens” to be perfect for our planet to sustain life. We are so small in this universe, yet we are so big in our Heavenly Father’s eyes. He hears and answers everyone one of our prayers. He loves each and everyone of us individually. He knows us by name. He knows the problems we have, the pain we have, and the happiness we experience. He knows all. There is so much out there, but he cares about every single one of us. So truly, we aren’t as small as we seem to be. That is really amazing to me. After, we sang the hymn from the Children’s hymn book, Child’s Prayer. It was really cool and powerful. I never realized how rad that song truly is. It has some great lyrics. I love it.
 
32 more days until I leave for Portugal. That is so crazy! If we take the same route as my buddies who just left did (which more than likely we will), we will fly into Paris, and then into Lisbon. That will be way awesome!
 
After we go to the temple on P-Days, we do service work at the temple. We started doing this as a district last week. It is really cool, and the workers there really appreciate it. Today I just folded tons of towels for the baptistry. It was nothing major, but it really helps them out. I love doing service!
 
So tell me what has been going on in all of your lives. Is school out? I feel so out of the loop of everything. I don’t have a clue what is going on in the outside world. It is actually pretty refreshing ha,ha. It’s nice not to have any worries in the world. It’s so stress free here. I say it all the time, but I truly mean it. I have never been so happy in my life! I know I am making the right decision by serving the Lord for the next two years. It’s a great feeling. We owe Him so much, and will never be able to re-pay him. But we can definitely try. However, the more we serve Him- the more blessings we get- and the more in debt we are. So it’s a never ending cycle ha,ha.
 
How’s the new store? Has dad been super busy with that? I would imagine so.
 
Tell everyone thanks for the letters. I love reading them. Keep writing! I promise I will write you all back. It might not be super fast, but I will get it done! I have plenty of time just sitting in the laundry room to write letters ha,ha.
 
I love you all so much! I truly have the best family in the world. I miss you all! You are amazing! I’m doing great, and you have nothing to worry about!
 
Love you!
 
 
Elder Porter