True Happiness

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all have had an amazing week. And HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

As you all know a mission has its ups and downs. There are hard moments and great moments! 

This week had a mixture of both. Adjusting of the transfer has been a little harder because we cover two areas and are crazy busy!

We had to go to Taipei this week because of MLC (mission leadership council) and when we got there both my companion and I were a little stressed with everything on our to do list. During the council we talked a lot about becoming a disciple of Christ and how we do that. As our meeting continued I felt very peace and questions answered. It was as if a rock on my shoulder had gotten a little lighter. 

Later this week we had interviews with President and we talked a lot about everything going on and what we are doing to be able to accomplish everything. At one point President asked me one simple question that I've pondered a lot since then. "Are your relying on the Lord or yourself?"

This really made me think about how I'm doing the work. I've tried really hard in every situation to think what would the Savior do and then do that. It hasn't been perfect and there are still moments where its really hard. But I always remember that the Savior will lift me up and consecrate everything I do. 

I know that as we rely on the Lord than we will be able to carry the load we've been called to carry. We will be able to find true happiness in every step of the way.

Love, Sister Porter 

Pictures from the week!

New Chapters

Hello everyone!

I hope you all have had an amazing week! I can't believe its already November, the times flies by so fast. Its starting to get a little cold here, and by that I mean in the 70°s🤣 

This week has been BUSY!!! We had our transfers this week, so I went from living with 3 other sisters to just my companion and I, and from covering half of Hualian to all of it. Everyday we have ran around like crazy trying to get everything done. I honestly have been loving it! I love being busy and the feeling you get when you go home and are exhausted from constantly going. 

This Sunday was our Primary program which was absolutely adorable! Then what made it even more perfect was our cute Filipina friend Judy came and loved it! Afterwards she told us how excited she was to learn about this gospel so she can teach her kids and have them have the same happiness. It really made my heart happy!

What was amazing as the kids shared their short and simple testimonies the spirit was so strong! I know that no matter where our testimonies are at the spirit will always be present. We don't need a grand experience to have a testimony, it all starts with this small hope and faith that it's true. 

I hope you have a great week! 我愛你們

 包姐妹

Here are a bunch of pictures from this last week! Enjoy

Its November but feels like June

大家早安!

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season!

This week has been crazy because of prepping for the end of the transfer. We are combining our area with other sisters so we've been busy. And its Sister Valencia and Sister DeLong's last pday so we are making today count!

I love you all!

Enjoy some pictures! 

Love, Sister Porter 

Pictures 11-3-2019

Our Halloween Costumes

English Class making Mud

Our new friends; Emma, Miss Li and Judy

Our Primary Missionary activity!

Children and their love for the Savior

大家早安!
I hope you all have had an amazing Halloween Week! We certainly have, in our English class we talked about costumes and made some delicious icecream/oreo/gummy worm mud. And than we had a ward party where the Elders dressed up as Taiwanese flavored milk (papaya, watermelon, apple, etc.) And we dressed up as the Elders! We originally told them we were going to be the different Hogwart houses and asked if we could borrow ties so you can bet they were a little surprised when we came in with big fake nametags with their names on it. Definitely a party!

This week we have multiple opportunities to work with children and I would love to share two experiences with you.
1. Our Primary had an activity this week about being a missionary. We were asked to attend and to bring one of our extra name tags. After discussing what missionaries do all day we had the opportunity to let one of the primary kids where wear one of our nametags while they shared with us what part of the gospel made them happy.
Side story, while discussing about how missionaries share their testimonies one of the girls (10yrs. Old) told us she didn't think she had a testimony and didn't know how to share something she didn't have. I ended up being paired with this little girl, and while she told me about her feelings of when she was baptized I got this warm feeling inside. This little girl had a testimony and she didn't even know it. When she finished I told her that was her testimony and she looked me and loudly said "Really?!?!? Mom! I have a testimony!" It really just made my heart happy.
2. One of our friends brought her two kids (girl 9yrs old & boy 7yrs old) to our lesson with her on Saturday. We gave them a chapel tour and talked about all the pictures of Jesus on the wall. After walking around, having a race in the gym (where I lost sadly), we went back into a classroom to talk about it. It was the first time the kids had ever heard of Jesus, and so we were curious what they thought. We asked the daughter what she thought and she quietly responded "I like Jesus. I don't know why, I just like Him." I showed her more pictures of Him on my phone while my companion talked to her mom. She was so interested in Him, especially if it was picture with Him and children. We asked her if she wanted to learn more Jesus and she told us! We are now teaching all three of them and we are beyond excited.
The daughter helped us say the closing prayer, and it really hit me as she was praying how happy Heavenly Father must have been in that moment. Here was one of his precious daughters who hadn't spoken with him for 9 years and she was saying her first prayer. That just made me so happy! It really testified to me of how much God really loves us and wants to the best for all of us.

This experiences with God's precious children helped me really know God loves us all, no matter where we are or what we are going through. He loves us!

I hope you all have an amazing week and are able to feel God's love for you.
我愛你們. 神愛你們.
Love，包姐妹

Spiritual Power

Hello Everyone! 

I can't believe it's the end of October already! On Halloween I'll have hit one year in Taiwan, I can't believe time has gone so fast!

This week has been so good in a lot of different ways. It was a little frustrating because we weren't able to meet with any of our friends, either they were out of town, didn't have time, or they forgot about our appointment and didn't show up. I'm praying that we can meet with all of them this week.

We had Zone Conference this week which was so good! We talked about how to work with our members, becoming more consecrated, the Covenant path, and becoming Christ-like.

Our mission President invited us to repent every night we come home, to see what we can do better and than afterwards rejoice! Wow, what a difference I have seen. Its helped me know how I need to do better but also be happy knowing I can be better. 

Our mission President's wife invited us all to Study and work on an attribute of Savior for the next month or so until our Christmas Zone Conference. It was so hard to pick one so I picked two! 

1. Faith

2. Diligence 

So I will keep Studying and working on it and let you know how it goes afterwards. 

I went on a two amazing exchanges this last week, with Sister Dalton & Sister Wang. They are both absolutely amazing! Something I found so amazing about both of them was their diligence in serving. No matter where we were or what we were doing they did everything in their power to share the gospel. I absolutely love them and their example.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve my mission! I love this gospel and love the people of Taiwan!

Love, 包姐妹

Picture 10-27-2019

Lunch with our amazing member Grace

Our cool fireside after English class

Zone Conference 

 Exchanges with sister Dalton 

The morning of Stake Conference we had all of our sisters in our apartment! We made French toast! Party!

Pictures 10-20-2019

Haha I'm sorry this week I have a couple things I need to get done today so it will just be some pictures!

Exchanges with Sister DeLong!!!

Family History

New Friends

A returning member (Sister Li 李姐妹) we are starting to work with!

An adorable member (Sister Jiang 江姐妹) and her fat cat

The beautiful hike we went on this morning! TAIWAN IS THE BEST 

Pday last week we went to a park and a slide that consisted of us needing to wearing helmets

English class teachers!!!

So Wednesday's my comp and I dont teach English class but are the door people of helping people find classrooms. However, the other sisters were teaching about describing people by their physical attributes, well both of them a dark haired and dark eye colored. So they came and got me so the kids could describe my hair & eye color. This picture is the kids trying to guess my eye color (the problems of Hazel eyes and they aren't a clear color)