Leadership lessons 2/15/11

I know that I always rave about President Holmes and his leadership, but I just can't help it! We had a few meetings with him this week including one this morning that has once again strengthened my testimony that the Lord truly calls his elect to this work. President has completely done a 180 with this mission and it is not ending any time soon. He spoke to the zone leaders this morning about how almost every mission in the world is modeling their missionary work after what Temple Square is doing. We are literally pioneering so many incredible things that soon will be adapted into other missions. Much of it is trial and error, but because we do it first we are saving many thousands of missionaries tons of time. The brethren have been so impressed with our mission, currently we are one of the highest baptizing missions in the world. Because of our teaching program we can now track many of the people who are baptized after we have taught them. I just feel so blessed and priviledged to be here, to see the hand of God working in marvelous ways. As a leader my job has been to train 24/7 all of the sisters in our zone, as well as the whole mission. I know that I am far from perfect but I am grateful for this great opportunity to rely on the Lord, upon the promptings of the Spirit, to know what to teach and how to train. I never want to leave this place!

Temple Square has been full of people! Some days we walk out on the square and we just say, wow it seems like summer! Especially as the weather has been warming up we have been seeing many many miracles. Sister Kao and I are often split and we go in "trios" with other companionship to observe and teach with them. It has been amazing to me how much better we can resolve problems when we get to the root of it. Sometimes we just skim the surface of an issue and just talk our way around a solution. It takes much more effort to spend time searching for the root and then nourishing it! I am learning life lessons here! It is tiring, but incredibly rewarding. I wish I would have known these things sooner!

Okay, sorry for being so boring today. These are just some of my thoughts! But of course we had an incredible miracles! Irma was an inbound call, meaning she went to mormon.org and found the phone number. Her call came to Sister Kao who taught her and invited her to meet with the missionaries. This happened one week ago. We began teaching her every other night and committing her to prayer and study of the Book of Mormon online. She explained that her husband has been deployed to Iraq and will be leaving in 3 weeks. She is anxious to have the missionaries come and teach them together, because she doesn't want to begin something new while he is gone. Well... missionaries visited them both last night. Her husband was so filled with the spirit that he committed to being baptized in 2 weeks!

Just 2 days before his deployment. They want the missionaries over every night. She told us today that this morning he got up early and initiated a prayer with her before he went to work. She was so touched because he has never been a religious person. Irma and her husband were prepared by the Lord, so when the message was taught, they clearly understood what they must do. So incredible! I am still in awe and have been telling all of the sisters about it.MORMON.ORG IS AMAZING!

We also took a tour with Abram from Yuma Arizona. He was this teddy bear latino guy... haha. He was so cute as we shared basic truths and asked him lots of questions. He believes in God and has always prayed, but has never been a part of a religion. At the Christus after sharing a scripture about the Savior (2 Nephi 26:24) he replied, "It just isn't fair, why did he do that for me? I don't deserve it." We helped him understand the Lords love and how he needed it in his life. He was so humble and sweet and he was excited to make it all a part of his life. He actually is engaged and he looked out the window and said, "man, if I only I could be allowed in there". We told him of course he can go, he just has to prepare! Then he got so excited and said really? I want to be married there!! Cuteness..

I love you all. Happy Valentines Day yesterday :)

-Sister Porter

p.s. I was in the north visitor center and the phone rang. I went to answer it.. "North visitors center, Sister Porter speaking" then I heard, "Well hello Sister Porter, this is Elder Ballard.." no joke.