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		<title>uma semana de madness.</title>
		<link>http://tylerdouglasporter.com/2012/02/06/uma-semana-de-madness/</link>
		<comments>http://tylerdouglasporter.com/2012/02/06/uma-semana-de-madness/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:27:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tylerdouglasporter</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Hello everyone. This week was nuts! We had the craziest things happen this week. So let me explain the situation. There are 3 main people involved in the confusion. Their names are Tito, Natérica, and Gina. Gina is one of our recent converts, and Tito/Natércia are investigators. Gina was living in Natércia&#8217;s home. Because of [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=tylerdouglasporter.com&amp;blog=10590421&amp;post=858&amp;subd=tylerdouglasporter&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hello everyone.</p>
<p>This week was nuts! We had the craziest things happen this week. So let me explain the situation. There are 3 main people involved in the confusion. Their names are Tito, Natérica, and Gina. Gina is one of our recent converts, and Tito/Natércia are investigators. Gina was living in Natércia&#8217;s home. Because of some confusion between the two, Natércia kicked Gina out of her home this week. However, Gina wasn&#8217;t too happy about that. Tito is in love with Natércia, however Natérica just treats Tito like a slave (and he does everything she says). Tito was over at Natércia&#8217;s house one morning, when Gina showed up with her &#8220;crew&#8221;. One of the guys that was with Gina started talking bad about Natércia, and Tito wasn&#8217;t too fond of that. They began fighting, and the man tried to throw Tito over the balcony (the apartment is on the 4th floor). The man didn&#8217;t succeed in throwing Tito over the balcony. However, he said that he would be waiting for Tito the next time Tito left the house&#8230;and that when he saw him he was going to shoot him in the head. When we showed up that day, Tito was freaking out. He was scared out of his mind. He didn&#8217;t want to leave the house or anything (obviously). He told us that someone in the house was going to die. He had a feeling either him, or the man who threatened him, would end up dead. He was practically in tears as he told us this. We decided it probably wasn&#8217;t best to stay in that house, in case a war broke out. The problem was that Natércia locked Gina&#8217;s clothes away, and was not about to allow her to take her stuff. Gina was not too happy about it. She said she would be returning that night with her &#8220;security&#8221;, and that she would be getting her stuff. Natérica said she could come with whoever she wanted, but she would not give her back her stuff. We were positive that something bad was going to go down that night. We gave Tito a blessing, so that he would do the right thing. He was full of anger, but also very scared. We gave him a blessing of comfort, and left. Luckily, the blessing helped him calm down&#8230; and he made the right decision and gave Gina back the clothes without a fight. Because of this, everyone left that night unharmed. We were grateful for that. We didn&#8217;t want anyone to die that night. Tito is now marked to be baptized on Saturday&#8230; haha :)</p>
<p>So, we had been dealing with crazy drama throughout the week. Crazy things with investigators, and missionaries here in our zone. Many things that I probably shouldn&#8217;t right. Just know that there was a lot of drama going on. The people we were trying to help get baptized that weeked, didn&#8217;t want to talk to us. To the point where one of them started cursing up a storm on the phone, and told us to leave her alone. All we did was ask what time we could call her in order to set up an appointment&#8230; haha. We were getting a little bit down, because everything just seemed to be going wrong. We were praying that a miracle would happen. Thursday night, after getting home, we were doing our daily planning. Out of nowhere, I had a strong impression that I needed to call one of our investigators who had been avoiding us for a long time. I (half jokingly) told my companions that I received revelation&#8230; and I picked up the phone and called Patrick. He, accidentally, answered the phone (he was sending someone a text message right when were calling). However, he said &#8220;elders&#8230; I really need to talk to you guys, can set up an appointment for tomorrow?&#8221; Patrick had been marked a few times for baptism, but always ran away afterwards. We set up the lesson for Friday at 2pm. He showed up almost 2 hours late on Friday. We kept calling, and he kept saying he was close. However, his idea of &#8220;close&#8221; is a little different than ours haha. We were kind of frustrated because we had to call and cancel an appointment because he was running so late. He finally showed up, and we began talking to him. A few minutes into the lesson he said, &#8220;Elders can I ask you guys a question? Can I be baptized today?&#8221; We were a bit shocked by this question&#8230; haha. Elder Silva responded, &#8220;uhhh&#8230; yes?&#8221; Patrick then stood up and said, &#8220;alright then, let&#8217;s do it&#8221;. He was ready to be baptized on the spot. He said he has been having tons of difficulties in his life lately, and he knew he needed to change. We talked to him a little bit longer about some of the things that had to be done before he could be baptized, and finished teaching a few things that we had not yet taught him. Patrick ended up being baptized at 11:30 am on Saturday morning. Heavenly Father truly blessed us. After a week of trials, our patience paid off. It was truly a miracle for us. We are extremely grateful :)</p>
<p>Also, today is one of the happiest days of my life :) I received a phone call this morning. It was my recent convert, Júlio, from Portimão that called. I found out that he is the branch secretary there in Portimão now. He then told me he had something he wanted to tell me. He sent his mission papers in last week!!!!!!!! How amazing is that!?! I was super happy for him. He is super excited. He is dating a returned missionary right now, as well. He says he wants to marry her in the temple when he gets back from his mission. It&#8217;s amazing to see the people you love doing so well. :)</p>
<p>That&#8217;s basically how our week went this week. Haha, the mission is always full of surprises&#8230; that&#8217;s for sure!</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t know if this week will be quite as eventful&#8230; but we are planning on having a good week :) keep Tito in your prayers! We also want to mark a couple of other people for this weekend. This is the last week in the transfer! This transfer flew by! I hit my 21 month mark yesterday as well. Crazy stuff.</p>
<p>I hope everyone is doing well! I love and miss you all!</p>
<p>Ty</p>
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		<title>30 de Janeiro</title>
		<link>http://tylerdouglasporter.com/2012/01/30/30-de-janeiro/</link>
		<comments>http://tylerdouglasporter.com/2012/01/30/30-de-janeiro/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:33:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tylerdouglasporter</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tylerdouglasporter.wordpress.com/?p=855</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hello family and friends. Everything is going well over here in Braga. We have had a lot of good things happening lately, so that has been really good. This week we were finally able to do things the right way! We were extremely blessed, and Janaína was baptized on Saturday. After many lessons, and an [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=tylerdouglasporter.com&amp;blog=10590421&amp;post=855&amp;subd=tylerdouglasporter&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_861" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 235px"><a href="http://tylerdouglasporter.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/img_0117.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-861" title="Janaina's Baptism" src="http://tylerdouglasporter.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/img_0117.jpg?w=225&#038;h=300" alt="" width="225" height="300" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Janaina&#039;s Baptism</p></div>
<p style="text-align:center;">Hello family and friends.</p>
<p>Everything is going well over here in Braga. We have had a lot of good things happening lately, so that has been really good.</p>
<p>This week we were finally able to do things the right way! We were extremely blessed, and Janaína was baptized on Saturday. After many lessons, and an awesome family night at our stake president&#8217;s home, she gained enough courage and felt the Spirit so strongly that she accepted baptism. We had a really long lesson with her on Thursday, and she opened up to us a lot. We figured out that the baptism fell through due to some things that her brother had said to her. She felt really upset about it, and didn&#8217;t want to be baptized feeling the way she felt. The baptism went really well though, and the Spirit was really strong! She was super happy! We are working with her sister, Nanda, as well. She will be baptized in no time :) she will be a little bit harder though, because she works almost every Sunday. We need to find a solution to that problem. Janaína was confirmed yesterday! She is going to be an awesome member!</p>
<p>We had some crazy experiences throughout the week. We ended the week pretty exhausted! But we are ready to start a new week, and do even better did last week. I can&#8217;t believe we are already entering into a new month! Where did January go? Other than that, there isn&#8217;t really much to report around here. The weather is warming up a bit. It is still super cold at night and in the morning, but during the day it has warmed up a lot. We have a lot of people that we are teaching that really need help! Keep us in your prayers, as well as all the people we are teaching. Your prayers really do help us out here. Things have been going well. I am doing well. I&#8217;m loving this area, and the people in this area. Hopefully I will be able to finish my mission out here!</p>
<div id="attachment_862" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://tylerdouglasporter.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/img_0113.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-862" title="Baptism of Janaína. Elder Porter, Nanda, Janaína, Elder Silva, and Elder Lee" src="http://tylerdouglasporter.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/img_0113.jpg?w=300&#038;h=225" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Baptism of Janaína. Elder Porter, Nanda, Janaína, Elder Silva, and Elder Lee</p></div>
<p style="text-align:center;">I wish everyone an amazing week! I love you all so much!</p>
<p>Elder Porter</p>
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			<media:title type="html">Janaina&#039;s Baptism</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">Baptism of Janaína. Elder Porter, Nanda, Janaína, Elder Silva, and Elder Lee</media:title>
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		<title>23 of January</title>
		<link>http://tylerdouglasporter.com/2012/01/23/23-of-january/</link>
		<comments>http://tylerdouglasporter.com/2012/01/23/23-of-january/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:28:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tylerdouglasporter</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[This week was definitely a rough one! It was one of those weeks, that everything that could possibly go wrong&#8230; went wrong. We marked Janaína to be marked on Monday. Things were going awesome with her. She felt super good, she was receiving answers to her prayers, and things were looking awesome for her baptism [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=tylerdouglasporter.com&amp;blog=10590421&amp;post=851&amp;subd=tylerdouglasporter&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This week was definitely a rough one!</p>
<p>It was one of those weeks, that everything that could possibly go wrong&#8230; went wrong.</p>
<p>We marked Janaína to be marked on Monday. Things were going awesome with her. She felt super good, she was receiving answers to her prayers, and things were looking awesome for her baptism this week. On Friday, she had a lot of doubts coming up&#8230; and was feeling a bit nervous. We had a 3 hour lesson with her, just to help her with all of her doubts! The Spirit was super strong, and she left excited for her baptism. On Saturday she had her baptismal interview&#8230; and she passed&#8230; and was still excited. She came to church yesterday morning, and she was doubting once again. Some of the members talked to her and encouraged her, and after church we had a good conversation with her and she was excited again. However, a little bit after that she sent a text to one of the members saying that she no longer wanted to be baptized. We rushed over there to see what was going on. She didn&#8217;t look or act like herself really. She told us that she came to a decision and she no longer wanted to be baptized. What happened, is that she talked to some people in her family&#8230; and they had filled her head with doubts. She knew in her heart what she needed to do (she told us these exact words) but what was in her head was more powerful than what was in her heart. It was really tough. There were many tears shed&#8230;. and we tried hard. But we came up short. It&#8217;s hard when you aren&#8217;t able to help someone you love so much! All you want to do is help them feel the joy that comes from the gospel. After a long battle, we lost. Satan did one heck of a job. It was sad though, because we could tell deep down inside, she wanted to be baptized. We were pretty down ourselves the rest of the night. There were a lot of problems that we had to deal with in the zone as well, and it just felt like Satan was mocking us. Please pray for Janaína. She really needs this help in her life.</p>
<p>We were able to get 6 investigators at church, so that was good. There are 2 of them that we are going to try to mark to be baptized this weekend. Their names are Anthony, and Dany. Pray for them as well! They are both going to be battles.</p>
<p>So, it was a bit of a rough week. A lot of things fell through, and there were a lot of disappointments. All we can do is move up from here. We are happy, and ready to start a new week now. We have a lot of work ahead of us this week! It will be a week of miracles though. Heavenly Father is going to help us out :)</p>
<p>I love you all, and hope you are all doing well!</p>
<p>Elder Porter</p>
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		<title>Braga is Amazing!</title>
		<link>http://tylerdouglasporter.com/2012/01/16/braga-is-amazing/</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:26:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tylerdouglasporter</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://tylerdouglasporter.com/?p=848</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[esta semana passada foi bem suave! We had a good week here in Braga! I&#8217;m loving this city. The people here are super awesome. The church, the youth, and everything about it. Well, the cold isn&#8217;t my favorite thing&#8230; nor all the walking we do. But besides that, it&#8217;s super amazing here. We found some [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=tylerdouglasporter.com&amp;blog=10590421&amp;post=848&amp;subd=tylerdouglasporter&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>esta semana passada foi bem suave!</p>
<p>We had a good week here in Braga! I&#8217;m loving this city. The people here are super awesome. The church, the youth, and everything about it. Well, the cold isn&#8217;t my favorite thing&#8230; nor all the walking we do. But besides that, it&#8217;s super amazing here. We found some really cool people this week! We were able to get 8 people in sacrament meeting yesterday! Which is pretty good considering Sacrament meeting starts at 9am.</p>
<p>Yesterday both Ana and Gina were baptized! The baptismal service went super well! The Spirit was really strong. It has been a while since I have had a baptismal service run so smoothly. It&#8217;s nice having a chapel with a baptismal fonte haha. Ana was in tears because the Spirit was so strong! Gina was super happy as well. She brought a ton of friends to her baptism! They all really liked it. We had quite a few investigators at the baptismal service. They both have pretty cool stories behind them. Ana was someone they had started teaching right before I came into the area. A few days before I came to Braga, she had called Elder Silva and said that she already has a church and she doesn&#8217;t want us to teach her anymore. But when I came into the area, Elder Silva told me about her&#8230; and also said that he felt like we still needed to help her. We decided to pray about her, and see what the Lord though. We all had a really strong feeling that she needed to be baptized yesterday. We went there to teach her for the first time (we used Elder Lee and I as an excuse to be able to teach her, saying that we wanted to get to know her) but she was still saying that the same thing. It was a good lesson, and the Spirit was clearly there&#8230; but she just didn&#8217;t want to accept. She prayed with us though, and she felt something different. However, she still didn&#8217;t want to budge. We told her to pray that night alone, and that we would come back the next day to see how it went. When we went back the next day, she said she felt really well when she prayed! She received an answer! Part way into the lesson, we were able to mark her baptism for the following week. On Monday, we had a family night over at the Stake President&#8217;s home. His family did a really good job at helping her feel welcome. She loved it! She was super happy at her baptism yesterday, it was super cool!</p>
<p>Gina was a surprise as well! The first time the elders went to her home, she was super depressed and bitter about life. They went there to teach one of her friends, and she happened to be there at the same time. They invited them both to church, and to their surprise she showed up to church the next day. They kind of lost contact with her after that, though. We called her up last week, to mark a lesson with her. We were able to mark one, and we began teaching her. As we taught her, we were able to see a real change taking place. We marked her baptism in our second visit, and she gave up smoking, alcohol, and coffee to be baptized. It was definitely super hard for her. She had been smoking for the past 15 years. But she gave it up completely in a matter of days. She was super happy as well yesterday! It&#8217;s so cool to see the gospel changing the lives of these people. It was really cool to be able to help them all out!</p>
<p>This morning we had a lesson with one of the people who went to church yesterday. Her name is Jenaína. She is super cool! We marked her to be baptized this weekend. So if you could pray to help her out, we would really appreciate it! We have plans to mark a few more people for baptism as well! Things are really picking up here!</p>
<p>So, as you can tell, things are going well. I&#8217;m really loving the work out here. This city is ready to explode! The members have such a big vision as well, and are super supportive.</p>
<p>I hope everything is well back at home. I love you all and miss you all.</p>
<p>Elder Porter</p>
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		<title>Hello from Braga!!!</title>
		<link>http://tylerdouglasporter.com/2012/01/09/hello-from-braga/</link>
		<comments>http://tylerdouglasporter.com/2012/01/09/hello-from-braga/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:56:28 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[Hello all! I am all settled in Braga now. We didn&#8217;t get here until Friday unfortunately, but we are up and running now. My comp&#8217;s names are Elder Silva, and Elder Lee. Elder Lee just started his mission, and I am training him. He is my &#8220;son&#8221;. He is from California. Elder Silva is Brazilian, [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=tylerdouglasporter.com&amp;blog=10590421&amp;post=846&amp;subd=tylerdouglasporter&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hello all!</p>
<p>I am all settled in Braga now. We didn&#8217;t get here until Friday unfortunately, but we are up and running now. My comp&#8217;s names are Elder Silva, and Elder Lee. Elder Lee just started his mission, and I am training him. He is my &#8220;son&#8221;. He is from California. Elder Silva is Brazilian, but has lived most of his life here in Portugal. They are both cool kids, and we have been getting some good work done here. Braga is a beautiful city! I love it here. We are pretty far up in northern Portugal. It is a lot greener up here! It is a very peaceful city. The part I like the best, is there are 2 major universities here meaning there are a lot of college age students. We have a lot of young adults in our ward, it&#8217;s way cool. We walk a ton though. It has been over a year since I&#8217;ve had to walk. I have been blessed with a car for the past year of my mission. Oh well, I don&#8217;t mind it too much. It has just taken a little bit of getting used to!</p>
<p>We weren&#8217;t able to baptize this week unfortunately. We fought hard, but came up a little short. We had a person marked named Patrick. He had to go to Lisboa to take care of some documents, and did not make it back yesterday. He just got here this morning. We are going to try to get him baptized early on this week though. We also have 2 more people marked for this weekend named Gina and Ana. Pray for them all, they all need your help! I am really liking the people here though, and the city!</p>
<p>It&#8217;s weird being away from Lisbon. I spent the last year in Lisbon. It&#8217;s much colder up here as well. Our apartment is freezing in the mornings. We live on the 14th floor, which makes for a pretty cool view! It has been super cool so far though. I am really liking this place. There is a good chance that I will &#8220;die&#8221; in this area. Or in other words, I will end my mission in this area. That&#8217;s not a for sure thing, but I&#8217;m guessing there is a pretty good chance.</p>
<p>Things are going really well though. I felt like I had a little bit of stress lifted off my shoulders after leaving Sacavém, but the stress definitely isn&#8217;t over yet. I&#8217;m pretty sure Heavenly Father is preparing me for a stressful life. I think this will help me handle stress a little more. I have definitely learned a good deal of patience. It has been good.</p>
<p>So, that&#8217;s really all for now. Just been keeping busy as always. I hope everyone back at home is doing well! I am praying for all of you.</p>
<p>Take care!</p>
<p>Elder Porter</p>
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		<title>2012</title>
		<link>http://tylerdouglasporter.com/2012/01/02/2012/</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:24:59 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[Olá Família e Amigos! First off, I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years! Both of which were awesome here in Lisbon. We spent both holidays at the Torgan home. They were both a lot of fun, and super well spent. On Christmas eve we baptized 2 people, Edney and Fátima. They were [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=tylerdouglasporter.com&amp;blog=10590421&amp;post=840&amp;subd=tylerdouglasporter&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Olá Família e Amigos!</p>
<p>First off, I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years! Both of which were awesome here in Lisbon. We spent both holidays at the Torgan home. They were both a lot of fun, and super well spent.</p>
<p>On Christmas eve we baptized 2 people, Edney and Fátima. They were both super awesome baptisms! They have some cool stories behind them both, but due to a lack of time (today being transfer day) I will be unable to write. I will put some pictures up though.</p>
<p>On New Years Day, we were able to baptize 4 people. Cilio (who is a big name DJ here in Lisbon), Sara, Luis, and Telma. It was super awesome. The baptism was full of people! We had 21 investigators at the baptism as well. It was super awesome. The baptism was super spiritual as well. All 4 of these people have very cool stories as well, but like I said&#8230; time doesn&#8217;t permit.</p>
<p>As I mentioned before, today is transfer day. And Elder Porter is being transferred. I am being transferred up to Braga (up in the north of the country). I am pretty excited! I can&#8217;t believe I am leaving Lisbon. I have been here for over a year now! Crazy stuff! I am a bit sad to leave Sacavém. I feel like it is my home now. But Braga is an amazing area as well. There is a big university up there, so the city is full of college age students. I actually have a recent convert, João Felipe, who lives up in Braga now. It will be cool to see him up there. So, it will be a new adventure. My companion is named Elder Silva (he is Portuguese), and I will be training a new missionary as well. So we will be in a triple.</p>
<p>My address in Braga is:<br />
Elder Porter<br />
Rua Luis Soares Barbosa<br />
Nº3 Porta 109, 14ºAndar<br />
4710-403 Braga</p>
<p>So you can all send mail to that address now.</p>
<p>Things here are going great. I am excited to see what the future has in store. I can&#8217;t believe 2011 has passed by. 2012 is going to be a great year! I love you all, and miss you all.</p>
<p>Elder Porter</p>
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		<title>Merry Christmas! Feliz Natal!</title>
		<link>http://tylerdouglasporter.com/2011/12/19/merry-christmas-feliz-natal/</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:31:28 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[Merry Christmas everyone! I can&#8217;t believe that it is Christmas week already. I guess you don&#8217;t really have a sense of time on the mission. Weird how that works. But cool that Christmas is coming up! I&#8217;m not really to sure to as what are plans are this year. There are a few recent converts [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=tylerdouglasporter.com&amp;blog=10590421&amp;post=830&amp;subd=tylerdouglasporter&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Merry Christmas everyone!</p>
<p>I can&#8217;t believe that it is Christmas week already. I guess you don&#8217;t really have a sense of time on the mission. Weird how that works. But cool that Christmas is coming up! I&#8217;m not really to sure to as what are plans are this year. There are a few recent converts and members that would like us to come by on Christmas, so I&#8217;m sure we will stop by some of their homes. I guess we will just have to see. We are for sure going to be baptizing this weekend as well. Speaking of which, I will share a cool story with you all later on.</p>
<p>This weekend we baptized 4 people. They are an amazing family. There names are Márcia, Luzia, Ana, and David. They have been coming to church for the past few weeks. The only problem is that the dad is not too fond of us. He said we weren&#8217;t allowed to teach them in their home or anything. So, we began teaching them in the church. They are like one of the happiest families I have ever met. They are always smiling and happy. They are super cool. We marked them to be baptized early on this week. We were a bit nervous though, thinking that the dad wouldn&#8217;t allow them to be baptized. The mom (Maria) also comes to church and accepted them being baptized. After we marked them for baptism, we talked to Maria and told her to talk to her husband about the baptism. We prayed many times that night. We couldn&#8217;t wait too long to hear how the husband responded&#8230; so we called at like 9:30 in the morning to ask her. She responded by saying, &#8220;ele não vai&#8221; (he is not going..) all of our hearts kind of sunk for a moment. We then reaffirmed by asking her if he said no&#8230; and then she said, that he didn&#8217;t want to go to the baptism, but they can get baptized. Right when we hung up the phone we started dancing and screaming. We were super excited. It was a gift from Heavenly Father, that&#8217;s for sure. The baptism went really well. They are all happy. They have one more sister named Tatiana, that went to church yesterday. We will try to baptize her soon. The mom, Maria, also wants to get baptized. But she isn&#8217;t married to her &#8220;husband&#8221; so we need to figure that out.<a href="http://tylerdouglasporter.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/dscn9600.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-842" title="DSCN9600" src="http://tylerdouglasporter.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/dscn9600.jpg?w=300&#038;h=225" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a><a href="http://tylerdouglasporter.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/dscn9603.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-841" title="DSCN9603" src="http://tylerdouglasporter.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/dscn9603.jpg?w=300&#038;h=225" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a></p>
<p>So, about the cool story. Elder Rodrigues and I were walking down the street on Saturday when a lady called us from her window. We went upstairs to see what she wanted. She (Celina) told us that she was a member from Cape Verde, and had just arrived here last week. We found out that her mom (Fátima) and her dad (whose home she was at) are not members of the church. However, they have many family members that are members of the church. The parents had been taught by various missionaries, and have been to church numerous times. However, they had a daughter that died 8 months back and Fátima was going through a really hard time because of it. We talked a little bit about the Plan of Salvation, and invited them to come to church with us the following day. They showed up to church, and they really enjoyed it. We went back to their home later that night. We prayed before we went and felt really strongly that she needs to be baptized on the 24th. We showed up, and watched a segment from a DVD called Together Forever. It talks about a couple that had lost their daughter at a young age. Fátima really related to it, and she was crying through the whole thing. It brought the Spirit super strong. We then taught about the Plan of Salvation. The Spirit was intense throughout the entire lesson. You could just see the hope that it brought her, knowing that she could see her daughter again. She knew she needed to be baptized. And we explained to her that baptism would be her first step to seeing her daughter again. We then prayed with her to ask Heavenly Father about the 24th. She felt it so strongly! She accepted right away. Her daughter, Celina, began crying with joy. She has been wanting her mom to be baptized for so many years now. She then talked about how her dream is for Fátima and her husband to go the temple and to be sealed with all the family that are already members. It was a very touching moment. We still haven&#8217;t met Fatima&#8217;s husband yet, because he has been gone for work. He will be home tonight though. Fátima told us that she talked to him, and he wants to be baptized with her. So we will be baptizing them both on the 24th. Heavenly Father is amazing. He gives us way too many blessings over here. I don&#8217;t think we deserve even half of them.</p>
<p>So things are going well. I love you all. Eu desejo a todos um feliz natal. Merry Christmas to everyone! Let&#8217;s all be happy, and remember the true meaning of Christmas. The Savior and His loving sacrifice for each and every one of us.</p>
<p>Elder Porter</p>
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		<title>December 13, 2011</title>
		<link>http://tylerdouglasporter.com/2011/12/13/december-13-2011/</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:47:10 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[Hello Family and Friends, It was a good week this week. My time is very limited as well, so please forgive me. This week we baptized an 11 year boy named Loyd. Loyd is the brother of Catarina, Leo, and Hélio (all recent converts). He was marked to be baptized back in June, but was [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=tylerdouglasporter.com&amp;blog=10590421&amp;post=838&amp;subd=tylerdouglasporter&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hello Family and Friends,</p>
<p>It was a good week this week. My time is very limited as well, so please forgive me.</p>
<p>This week we baptized an 11 year boy named Loyd. Loyd is the brother of Catarina, Leo, and Hélio (all recent converts). He was marked to be baptized back in June, but was never baptized because of some commandment issues. However, the Lord continued preparing him&#8230; and he was finally baptized this week. It was really cool! The sad part is that none of his family really came. His sister Leo was the only family member that came to his baptism. He was a little bummed about that&#8230; but he was happy to be baptized.</p>
<p>Yesterday we had Christmas conference in the mission. Elder Texeira and Sister Texeira (from the seventy) came and spoke to us. It was a really good conference! The Spirit was really strong, and we all had a lot of fun. It seems like yesterday that we had last year&#8217;s Christmas conference. This will be my last Christmas here in Portugal. How crazy. It&#8217;s really not too cold here. The weather hasn&#8217;t been too bad. It kind of feels like Christmas, but not too much. I guess they used to decorate a lot more&#8230; but due to the economic conditions they have cut back a ton. It will be a fun Christmas though, I am excited.</p>
<p>I hope you are all doing well! I love you and miss you all. Keep us in your prayers.</p>
<p>Elder Porter</p>
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		<title>December Time Is Here!</title>
		<link>http://tylerdouglasporter.com/2011/12/06/december-time-is-here/</link>
		<comments>http://tylerdouglasporter.com/2011/12/06/december-time-is-here/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:43:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>tylerdouglasporter</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[December has already arrived? Today actually marks my 19 month mark here in the mission. Crazy how quickly time is rushing by. We had a good week this week. And we kept quite busy, that&#8217;s for sure! This week we were able to baptize two people. The first person is named Adélcia. Adélcia is the [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=tylerdouglasporter.com&amp;blog=10590421&amp;post=831&amp;subd=tylerdouglasporter&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>December has already arrived? Today actually marks my 19 month mark here in the mission. Crazy how quickly time is rushing by.</p>
<p>We had a good week this week. And we kept quite busy, that&#8217;s for sure!</p>
<p>This week we were able to baptize two people.</p>
<div id="attachment_834" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://tylerdouglasporter.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/img_1732.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-834" title="IMG_1732" src="http://tylerdouglasporter.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/img_1732.jpg?w=300&#038;h=225" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Adélcia</p></div>
<p style="text-align:center;">The first person is named Adélcia. Adélcia is the daughter of one of our recent converts, Angela. Her best friend, Leo, is also one of our recent converts. So, it was definitely time for her to be baptized as well. At first she didn&#8217;t want to be baptized until May (because her birthday is in May), but after praying with her and everything we marked her for this past week. She is as stereotypical of a teenager as you can imagine (16 years old), with attitude and everything. Haha she faked like she had an attitude, at least. We had fun teaching her though, she is a really cool girl. She was baptized on Saturday.</p>
<p>The other person that we baptized this week is named Ilidio. Ilidio is actually the son of a member who lives in England now. She was an active member in Sacavém, so all the members knew his mom and were excited to see that he was going to be baptized. We passed by his house one day, and felt like we needed to knock on his door&#8230; so we did, and we began teaching him after that. He pretty much knew everything that we were teaching him. He talked about the prophecies in the Book of Mormon about Joseph Smith&#8230; when he began to talk about that, Elder Rodrigues and I looked at each other and asked him if he really hadn&#8217;t been baptized before. He said he was marked once to be baptized, but due to some certain events he never was. He was super excited about his baptism this time around. He had been caught up in a lot of gang related activity, and had lived a rough life. He was looking for a way out, and he found out. Haha the baptism was quite interesting too. He invited a bunch of friends to his baptism, and a bunch of them came. The funny part? They were all gangstas. It was quite the site. A lot of them enjoyed the baptism though, and maybe some of them will follow Ilidio&#8217;s example and be baptized down the road. We will have to see. They beat boxed and rapped in the van as we took them home.</p>
<div id="attachment_833" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://tylerdouglasporter.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/img_0005.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-833" title="IMG_0005" src="http://tylerdouglasporter.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/img_0005.jpg?w=300&#038;h=225" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Ilidio and his crew</p></div>
<p style="text-align:center;">It was a good week though. So far for this week we have a kid named Loyd marked for baptism. We have plans to mark a few more people though, so it should be good! Next Monday we are going to be having our Christmas conference here in the mission. So just as a warning- there is a 99.9% chance I will not be writing home next Monday. I will try to write at some point next week though. I can&#8217;t believe Christmas time is so near! We are going to buy a little Christmas tree and put it in our home. We have been listening to Christmas music as well. Christmas in the mission is quite enjoyable! It will be a good time for sure.</p>
<p>Things are going well over here. We met Michael Jackson&#8217;s biggest fan this week. He was a bit crazy. I&#8217;ve never seen someone with so much Michael Jackson memorabilia in my life. He even went as far as comparing Michael Jackson to God. haha. Funny man.</p>
<p>I hope you are doing well. I love you all!</p>
<p>com amor,</p>
<p>Elder Porter</p>
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		<title>28th of November- Another Amazing Week</title>
		<link>http://tylerdouglasporter.com/2011/11/28/28th-of-november-another-amazing-week/</link>
		<comments>http://tylerdouglasporter.com/2011/11/28/28th-of-november-another-amazing-week/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:38:48 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[This week was amazing! A great start to the transfer, that&#8217;s for sure! We were super busy this week, dealing with transfers and everything. We have a &#8220;son&#8221; now. His name is Elder Brown. He is from Utah. He is a really cool kid. I remember that whole first transfer shock. It is a weird [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=tylerdouglasporter.com&amp;blog=10590421&amp;post=828&amp;subd=tylerdouglasporter&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This week was amazing! A great start to the transfer, that&#8217;s for sure!</p>
<p>We were super busy this week, dealing with transfers and everything. We have a &#8220;son&#8221; now. His name is Elder Brown. He is from Utah. He is a really cool kid. I remember that whole first transfer shock. It is a weird feeling being a different country and not being able to understand or speak the language. He is adapting well though. He was able to baptize his first person this week, so that was cool for him.</p>
<p>We baptized 6 people this week! It was an awesome week. I will give you a quick story about each person.</p>
<p>We baptized Cintia this week (she was supposed to get baptized last week). This time, we followed the Spirit a lot better&#8230; and did things in the Lord&#8217;s way instead of our own. She felt a lot better about things, and we helped to clear up all of her doubts. Her family is super amazing as well! They all really like us. They helped us a lot with Cintia. Unfortunately her brother Célio, will have to wait a little bit before he can be baptized. He really wants to be baptized&#8230; but due to some trouble with the law, he will have to finish out his penalty. He will go to see the judge in January or February. So hopefully by then he can get baptized as well. His girlfriend, Jandida, who lives with him also wants to get baptized. We are going to get them married and baptized. Cintia&#8217;s mom also wants to get baptized, her only problem is that she works every Sunday. We will have to see what we will do with that situation. But they are an amazing family.</p>
<p>We also baptized a girl named Liliana. We found her last Thursday. We had felt really strong that we needed to talk to someone in a building as we walked by. We knocked some doors in the building, and found Liliana. She kind of knew the missionaries in Cape Verde, but never went to church or anything. She has been going through some difficult times in her life, and it was obvious that she needed some help in her life. When we marked her for baptism last week, it was super powerful. The lesson was super spiritual. When we invited her to be baptized, she paused for a good 30 seconds before she responded&#8230; then she just smiled and shook her head yes. It was super cool. She is an amazing girl, with a bright future ahead. She is loving church. She is going to the temple this week as well! How cool is that?! She was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday.</p>
<p>We also baptized 4 children from the most amazing family ever! A few weeks ago a member gave us the reference of an inactive member that he talked to on the street. We tried calling her a couple of times, but she never answered&#8230; so we just kind of gave up. But one day I felt super strongly that we needed to call her&#8230; so I did, and she answered this time. We set up an appointment. The day of the appointment we plugged her address into the GPS&#8230; and came to find out there are about thirty roads with the name of &#8217;25 de Abril&#8217; in that city. We had no clue which one was hers. We went to a few of them, and had no luck. We spent three hours trying to find her place! And we had no luck. We were just about to give up, and as we were driving down the road I noticed a street sign that said: &#8217;25 de Abril&#8217;. We hurried and flipped a U-Turn and went to the street, in hopes that it was the one we were looking for. We got there, and found building 11. We rang her doorbell, and Natacha answered! We were pretty happy. She invited us in, and we noticed that she had 5 children (4 with the age of baptism). Natacha was baptized 20 years ago, but kind of fell away from the church. She was considered herself a member, and always told people that her church was the LDS church. Her kids however, had never really known about the church&#8230; and had never met the missionaries or anything. We began teaching them, and fell in love with the family. They are super amazing. They are basically our brothers and sisters. They opened up so much to us. They love church. Yesterday they told us that they wished every day was Sunday so they could go to church every week. We taught them all, and marked them all for baptism. Natacha is now back in church, and is feeling great about it as well. We baptized the 4 kids yesterday. They are named Liliana (14), Catia (13), Diogo (13), and Martim (9). She has one more daughter named Inés (6). They are the coolest family ever. We were super blessed by Heavenly Father to get to know them.</p>
<p>That was our week for you. It was amazing. What a huge blessing. The mission is the most amazing thing ever. We get to know some of the coolest people, and be able to experience such an amazing change in their lives as well.</p>
<p>This week we have 2 people marked for baptism so far. Their names are Adélcia, and Ilidio. Pray for them both if you could! They are both excited for their baptisms.</p>
<p>I love you all. I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving. We didn&#8217;t do anything for Thanksgiving, but that&#8217;s alright. We did eat pizza&#8230; exciting, right? haha.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Elder Porter</p>
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