Thursday, September 24, 2009

I love being here at the MTC!

Carly writes: "It is so wonderful in so many ways. My first few days here were exhausting to say the least. We get up at 6 every morning and we don't get back to our rooms until 9:30 at night. But, being so busy and productive is my favorite thing ever, so I feel right at home! When I first got here a sister took me on a short tour, I went and got my nametag and my books, then I went to meet my companion and my district. I am with three other amazing sisters in my district. Sister Kinikini, Sister Brett, and my companion Sister Katterfeld who is from Austrailia! They are so wonderful and we get along really really well! They will all be going to the Temple Square mission with me. There are about 9 American girls going to temple square in my transfer and about 16 international sisters. I LOVE all of the sisters! They have already humbled and helped me to realize that I have a long ways to go and I still have so so so much to learn! The elders in our district are so fun! They just seem so young, a mission adds like 10 years to boys. Missions make them MEN! oh ya.

Everything about the MTC is uplifting. The firesides, devotionals, classes, prayers, hymns, personal study, companionship study, practice teaching time, everything! It seriously is like heavens little magic workshop on earth. I LOVE studying my scriptures so intently everyday for several hours. I am feasting upon the words of Christ and I still can't get enough. Luckily I will be doing this for the rest of my life! My companion and I memorize a scripture together every day so hopefully I can keep that up my whole mission. Our Sunday meetings were incredible. They broadcast music and the spoken word for us and then immediately afterwards we have Relief Society. Relief Society was amazing. A sister shared her incredible conversion story that had everyone there in tears by the end, she was so awesome. This last sunday our branch President had each of us write a talk on Charity and Love, then he called 3 elders randomly to come up and give their talks. I sang "Consider the Lillies" for the meeting. I am so grateful for my talents and that through them I can bring the spirit into the hearts of those listening! I am really looking forward to sharing my musical gift throughout my mission, what a blessing music is! On Sunday night at the Fireside we all stood and sang "Called to Serve" with all the Elders and Sisters. The spirit was so strong! I could barely sing as I felt a confirming witness to me that we are called of God and we have a strong purpose and mission to share the Gospel with the people all over the world. The Lord is constantly blessing me with confirmations that a mission is exactly where I need to be right now.

My companion is amazing! She says the funniest things all the time. She always says reckon, like all the time. It cracks me up! Yesterday she said, " I'm feeling so flat! I just want to Cark it!" She was really saying, I feel so tired I just want to pass out. Man, she is so adorable. We love each other so much and really feel that the Lord put us together for a reason!

I am learning the I must rely on the Lord every second of ever day. I have always felt that I need to rely on him, but now I know that it is absoulutely necessary. I wish I could tell you all about my different experiences that I have had this last week. I have found some incredible passages in the scriptures that have boomed my testimony. hah boomed, ya! It is easy to get distracted here or think about things from home, but then the Lord blesses me with more inspiration! Wow, I am so blessed!

I am so happy to be here on my mission. Every single night when I write in my journal I just feel so wonderful about how my day went and everything that I am learning. I hope that I can continue to give myself completely to the Lord. I know that as I try my hardest that he will continue to teach me amazing and wonderful things that I will use for the rest of my life! I am so happy! We are so freakin' blessed to have the Gospel in our lives! Please don't take it for granted even for one minute. The Lord will humble us if we don't express our gratitude to him every day, and seek opportunites to share the good news."

Carly also reports that she loves seeing people she know - MJ Roberts, Robert Skousen, Jaes Jones, Sis. Talbot and Sis. Sargent :)

She also gave us a reading assignment - Hebrews 11 - Carly says "It is truly incredible"

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Carly's first letter home -
"I made it!!! The MTC is wonderful and of course the spirit here is so strong! When I first got here a cute sister going to Latvia gave me a tour and showed me to my room. She then took me to meet my companion and district! My companions name is Sister Ketterfeld and she is from Australia. She is so cute and sweet. We are with 2 other sisters in our district who are from Washington & Hawaii. All 4 of us are going to Temple Square and we met around 10 other Sisters going to Temple Square, and 3 are from Hong Kong!!!! I kind of freaked out!
I'm super drained and a little overwhelmed! I don't have much time to write but I wanted to let you know I'm doing so well! I can tell that I am going to learn and grow so much in incredible ways! As I was reading through some scriptures in a meeting today, I had a very powerful witness that this is exactly what I need to be doing. WOO I'm a missionary!"

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

. . . . and they're off!

Sis. Porter & Elder Roberts



And she's off!

So off she goes! We left this morning at 5:45 to take Carly to the airport. As you can imagine she was so so excited! I'm not sure she slept much. It was beautiful outside and smooth sailing on our way there. To our surprise (I'm not sure why we were surprised :) there were about 8-9 other Elder's hugging parents and siblings waiting and ready to walk past that line of security. Carly was the only Sister. Included in those Elder's was our very own M.J. Robert's one of Tara's best friends since Junior High! Carly and MJ planned on sitting next to each other on the plane which only made the trip that much more fun.
Carly's cute "China girls" as she calls them - picked her up at the airport in Salt Lake and had fun visiting with them before two of them drove her down to Provo, where she met up with her best friends ever - Emily Freeman and Clarissa (Ferrin) Ragar who had lunch with her and then did the curb drop-off at the MTC! I was pretty jealous that they got to be the ones - but what a fun day for Carly seeing all of those girls who she loves the most! I got word from Emily that she made it safely into the MTC with a smile plastered across her face! You are going to be an awesome missionary Carly!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Sister Porter's Mission Blog!!

Welcome to my mission blog! I leave for my mission on Wednesday morning and I could not be more excited! While I am on my mission my mom is going to post on this blog my letters and some pictures. I think that this will be a great way for everyone to stay informed on how I am doing. My address will always be on here as well for those of you that would like to let me know how you are doing!