Wednesday, January 12, 2011

New Year!! 1/4/11

We have had some wonderful leadership training that has really motivated me for this New Year. I set some goals for my mission that I really hope will help me stretch and grow as a missionary and also as a leader. We had motor time on New Years day but we took all of our zone out for about 30 minutes to have a brief reminder of why we are here on missions. Sister Doggett and I shared scriptures and a few quotes from Preach My Gospel. A few of the sisters shared what their expectations were for themselves in coming on a mission. Then I asked them to write down how they can better fulfill their personal expectation as a missionary. The spirit was very strong, it was a great reminder for all of us of our true purpose and why we are here on missions.
Sunday night was the last night of the Christmas lights! I was a little bit sad, but also very grateful for the wonderful Christmas season we had here. President told us that each of the 700,000 lights were reminders of Christ. It really did feel that each night on the square, the special feelings of Christmas were so real! It really is about Jesus Christ, his birth, life, and resurrection. It was Christmas that I will always remember. Christmas as a missionary is the best!
Our online teaching is going well. I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but we are actually able to send text messages to our investigators now through email. It's amazing! I know... we used to be so old school. Even when I was outbound we couldn't text so this is great. A few of our people have been referred to local missionaries so we aren't teaching them on the phone anymore, but we are so happy for them. We were on the Square Friday night and I saw Chad! We met him 3 weeks ago on Temple Square and have been teaching him. We ran after him and got to talk for a bit. He is going through an extremely hard time. He just sat and cried in front of the Christus statue. He is trying to find a job, he lives in Provo but it is just really hard for him. We taught him again today and we hope hope hope that the Elders can go teach him soon. There just isn't much more that we can do over the phone, because our teaching limit is 10 minutes. We are teaching a new girl. Her name is Dia, she is 19 and lives in LA. We found her through the Chat program. Yesterday we had our first appointment with her and she was incredible! We asked her why she came to Mormon.org, she explained that she was going through a really hard time in life, she is scared that she doesn't believe in God anymore. She said she was sitting in front of her computer and a soft voice told her to go to Mormon.org, so she went and found us! GOLDEN. We had her read Alma 32 last night and she emailed us that she had read it 5 times and just can't wait to talk to us again. Ya.... just so neat.
My companion Sister Doggett is amazing. She is going home in about two weeks so I am trying to help her keep focused. She is a hard worker but she feels like her time is over. NO it's not yet! Haha so ya.. we are having fun :) She has served a good mission and I am learning a lot from her. Especially about good leadership and humility. How was I blessed with such great companions?
Love you all
Sister Carly Jo Porter
p.s. If you haven't watched the Mormon profiles yet on Mormon.org you have to! Right now! They are my favorite. Also take the opportunity to create your own profile with your testimony. They are really helpful for the missionaries and for the millions of people going onto mormon.org. One of the sisters here came running up to me because she found Zach Brough's profile, she thought that girl with him looked familiar! His profile was perfect for their investigator.

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