Loved my Mission 2/28/11

Sister Porter arrives home this Wed. March 2nd!!

3:40 pm on Delta

We are having a party all evening for anyone that would like to come

by and see Carly and celebrate with us!!!

Thanks again to all who have prayed and supported and loved

Carly while she has served!

What an incredible 18 months it has been!!!

I am so happy right now and full of lots of wierd emotions. It is
really strange. Last night I began writing a list of things I have
learned on my mission and it just kept going and going and going. I
was going to share a few of them on this email but I couldn't choose!
I just had my departing interview with President Holmes. He is a man
of God and I am so grateful to have had the chance of serving with him
for this time, precious time.

I know that this is the greatest work on the earth. My life has been
completely changed because of it. I may not appear different to anyone
(because really I look exactly the same) but I feel like a new person,
totally different. I think the main thing that I want to continue is
consistancy in living the Gospel. When we become inconsistant is when
Satan is able to sneak in. It is hard to grasp the fact that I am
leaving on Wednesday. We had our last few hours on Temple Square this
morning and it didn't feel like it at all! I'm just so full of
gratitude for the all that I have learned. I cannot imagine what my
life would be like without this mission experience. What if I didn't
follow that small sudden prompting that one Sunday morning! Anyone
thinking about a mission whether male or female, young or old, should
go! It is something that you will never regret and it will change
countless lives. The Savior gave everything that we might live, it is
a small price to pay to serve as a full time missionary.

Thank you for your love and support during these last 18 months. I
have felt the prayers of many of my family and friends and will always
be grateful to the strength I received because of them. I want to
thank especially Mom and Dad. President asked me today, "What are you
going home to?" With tears in my eyes I replied, "The most loving
parents I could ever ask for". Thank you Mom and Dad, thank you thank
you thank you. I know that it has also been a great sacrifice for you
to allow me to serve. But I know that the blessings from the Lord will
continue to come as you continue serving him in all the ways that you
do! And there are many! Thank you Denver, Drew, Tara, Catie, and Haley
and Zach as well. I have missed you each more than you will ever know.
But I always prayed for you and thought of you often. Missing out on
Tara's wedding was difficult for both Tara and I (and for our entire
family). She is my best friend! But, I knew that doing the Lord's work
required my full heart and complete dedication. And because of it, I
feel that we were both blessed. Thank you also to Grandma's and
Grandpa's!! You have written me, prayed for me, and served with me! I
have missed you but am very grateful for your love and kind words of
advice... so amazing. And to all of my friends, I saw many of you at
Temple Square and have kept in touch through letters. I love you and
am also very grateful for your words of support and advice!

This church is true!

Just two of my favorite scriptures :)

"He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he
loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may
draw call men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall
not partake of his salvation." 2 Nephi 26:24

"I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do
not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded
me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in
the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my
joy." Alma 29:9

LOVE- Sister Carly Jo Porter

Still a missionary!!! 2/26/11

I hate the word trunky... hate it hate it hate it. Why do people assume that your last few weeks you should be trunky? So lame! I am a missionary until the very moment I am released. The senior couples and other missionaries seem to be counting days for us and I just want to throw them out the.... nevermind. I love them, charity and love :) Really though, I think that the word trunky should be band from any missions vocabulary.

That beings said...

Good week! We had so many miracles, I couldn't be more happy. Sister Kao and I LOVE being missionaries. We have been blessed with meeting wonderful people who are truly interested in learning more. Yesterday we took two men from India on a tour. They didn't have any belief in Christ at all so we focused our teaching on Him and how following Christ will bless their families. We feel that we followed the spirit and we left our own agenda behind, that is when the miracles truly do happen!

Last Thursday Jess from Texas came on chat. He told us that he was 62 and that he was not happy with his current religion and was very interested in sitting down with some mormon members. We taught him for just a few minutes and gave him the number for the Bishop. He said he would really like to sit down with him so he can learn everything about what we believe. We sent him the information for church and then we called him Sunday night. Turns out he went to all three meetings and the members just embraced him! He said that the paired him with a young couple who actually lives across the street from him. He was amazed that someone so close to him were members and said they were an answer to his prayers. He was most impressed with all of the families at church. They were so united and he could see how much they loved each other. So he will be learning more from the missionaries and taken care of. Oh so good!

Irma and her husband are doing well. They went to church on Sunday and Irma was excited to tell us that she is halfway through 1st Nephi. She couldn't thank us enough for aiding her through the process (even though she was clearly led to mormon.org by God), she is just so happy! Her husband is doing well and they are getting baptized next week. Dia our investigator from last transfer is getting baptized this Sunday! We spoke with her yesterday and we could just hear that she was beaming with joy! She is loving all the things she is learning and once again was most impressed by the emphasis on the family, something that she hasn't really known before.

The sisters in the zone are doing great, some of them are still struggling with motivation though. It has become apparent to me that it is directly linked with the gift of agency. We are each free to choose whether to humbly follow counsel, or leave it behind and do it all on our own. When we come to a crossroad we must choose whether to follow God's will, or our own. Too many times we learn from sad experience that our will is usually not the Lords. As members of the church though, we know that our path must lead to Christ. This is actually what my talk was about last Sunday. I spoke about our CTR rings and how really they teach us to remember Him, Jesus Christ. To choose not just a good way, but the way that will lead to Jesus Christ. I then linked it to our missionary work all of the people we come in contact with, don't know what path to take. The path we choose depends upon our destination, but the people we meet don't have a destination!! Anyway, I enjoyed finding scriptures and quotes that remind us of the urgency to "make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth". We also had the privilege of driving to Park City to speak and sing in a ward there, the spirit was so strong! I love Temple Square sisters.

I love being a missionary, I still have a few more days to preach the Gospel! Nothing will stop me! Sister Kao and I really just never think or talk about next week because we both start crying... it is really difficult. So... one more email next Monday... and then bye bye.

LOVE- Sister Carly Jo Porter

p.s. I just cried when I read Jodi's email from Boston! Nikia is getting baptized! I was thinking about her all week and just praying for her. Sister Stevens had wrote me and said she has been MIA for so long. I am so happy! I knew it all along. Best news I have ever heard. So amazing!!! Love you Nikia!

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.

Spirit 2/8/11

Wow, I am so filled right now! We had zone conference these last few days and I feel as Joseph did after he saw the angel Moroni... exhausted!! It was so incredible to listen to our mission president bring the spirit so powerfully once again. It reminded me of my purpose once again and gave me the determination to finish strong! My companion and I taught a class one of the days that was all about setting a keeping goals. I learned so much! I just laughed when we were assigned that topic because it is something that I have struggled with my whole life and am still figuring out. We both are just so excited to apply this divine principle to our lives after our missions. The main thing that I learned was that we must have a vision of what we want to become. When we set a goal we have to have a way to have daily reminders of what we are working towards! We shared the analogy of trying to complete a puzzle without a picture of what you are creating! It is impossible! It also relates to the Savior. We have so many scriptures and stories of his perfect example, these are given to us so we may have a vision of what we could become. BUT if we don't have daily study and prayer then we no doubt will loose sight of that vision and step off of the path. So many awakening moments for me and for many other sisters. Blessing!

Well, more miracles this week. We took a group of 17 people from China on a tour on Sunday. They were actually all relatives so it was extra special. They were so interested an eager to learn, especially about the temple. The just swarmed around the temple display and could not believe it. Oh and my favorite part! One of the men asked Sister Kao to look at her Book of Mormon (in Chinese) and he just takes it and starts reading it. He followed along at the very back of the tour because he couldn't stop reading it. At one point he apologized and said, "I'm sorry, just one more page, I will ask them later about what you said..." hah she just laughed and told him no no you can have it! He was so happy!! He wasn't just skimming, he was reading. My heart was so touched.

Kate in Austria is meeting with the missionaries!! She also went to church this last Sunday and made some good friends! Oh we are sooooooo happy for her. She is excited and she knows that the book of Mormon is true. Also Dustin was another incredible referral who even amid finals has made time to truly read and pray about the Book of Mormon. I sent him a text message the other day and asked, "Dustin, how do you feel as you pray each day to your father in heaven??" He responded, "The most incredible thing ever, I constantly feel the Holy Ghost by my side.. I love it". The spirit!!! It is so real!! All of the sisters have truly incredible stories from people that they are finding and are getting them to church. When we get them to church then they for sure will meet the missionaries and be fellow shipped. Some sisters were teaching a man in Africa in an area that we were unsure had missionaries, they were calling him one last time to apologize and tell him they were sorry but couldn't continue teaching, because the church was not in his area. When they called he told them, "Hey!! I was walking down the street in the village over and I saw to of your elders! We are going to start another church in my area, and I get to help them lead it!" He was so excited. We have felt God answer our prayers in many of these countries where missionaries are very few. Prayer really works! It is so amazing!

I love the Gospel, I love missionary work, and I know that every single person must hear about the message...

.0007% of the world's population are serving as full time missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. ELECT

-Sister Carly Jo Porter

Another Week! 2/1/11

Wow, so amazing. These weeks are going by so quickly. I don't know what to think! Well, this week was wonderful also. We are continueing to find very elect people through finding on Temple Square, and in our call center. I am amazed at the endless amount of people that are prepared to hear the message of the restoration. As one of our district leaders put it in our meeting last night, "I'm addicted".. we are addicted to helping others come closer to Christ and I will never stop!

Rebecca and Syam in India are still doing well. It is difficult to teach them because we are unsure if missionaries will be able to contact them. Tears ran down my face as the orphan children sang songs to us a few days ago and each of them introduced themselves. They called us Auntie and my heart was so happy! When Tara, Catie, and I were in India a few years ago the children always called us auntie and it brought back so many wonderful memories. I really pray that the Gospel will find them soon and that they will receive the resources for the orphanage that they desperately need. Kate in Austria is doing well. A few of our conversations have been trying to help her steer away from false information. Satan is really trying to confuse her with anti literature, but she completely agrees with everything that the Book of mormon says. She is meeting with the missionaries today hopefully for the first time! Great! Shanita in Georgia can't get to church because her husband won't allow it. We knelt in prayer with her today as she pleaded with the Lord to soften his heart, that he to can join her at church this Sunday. It was a very powerful lesson. Two of Sister Kaos referrals in Taiwan got baptized this week and one that is in St. George is getting baptized next week! She is so happy! It is so neat that our mission has baptisms now... We are all very happy.

A few nights ago Sister Kao and I had a very moving experience. Every Saturday night we are in the North Visitors Center making sure everything is running ok. We were at the map of Jerusalem when I turned around and saw a man probably in his 50s walking in with a walking stick, I realized he was completely blind. He came to the map and I asked how we could help him and he happily told us he came to see the Christus. We slowly led him up the ramp in the empty visitors center to see the beautiful statue. We sat him down and walked over to play the narration for him. We watched in tears as this humble man looked up at the Christus but couldn't see. I just was so humbled. This man didn't come to see, but to feel the presence of the Savior. I closed my eyes so I too could feel the love that Jesus Christ has for me. We went over to talk to him and found out he had only lost his vision about 14 years ago from a rare disease. His wife had divorced him so he was regularly dating and had just gotten back from a date! He was so positive, and it was as if his condition had no effect at all upon his life. We led him back downstairs and he made his way out to go and catch the bus. I don't know if he knows how many lives he has changed but he definately impacted mine. I am so grateful.

The sisters in our zone our great. They are seeing many miracles and weekly we are bringing more and more people to Christ. Our main concern is their productivity while finding people on Temple Square. They have a very hard time contacting people and creating a normal conversation. In their minds it is difficult to go from the phones and investigators to people that they are just meeting. I just told them to get over it!! These people came to see the Temple and you are going to show them!! It is so much easier then walking down the streets with people all around you in the middle of the city and trying to stop people who will listen... so get over it.. Of course I said it in a very kind and loving way :) Hopefully things go better this week.

Love, Sister Porter

India 1/25/11

OK, I have had the most incredible week. First of all, I am obsessed with my companion. She is so adorable and just has the cutest Chinese accent. It is really funny because sometimes her grammar in chats are just hilarious and we laugh together because sometimes people don't understand what she is trying to say, but the point gets across.. "The Book of Mormon is change you life!" Love it.

Update on Kate in Austria. We taught her this morning and she is doing really well. When we called her she was driving on her way to the sound of Music location for her day off... I was so jealous. She had a job interview this week that just popped up on her. She wouldn't have to work on Sunday's! We taught her about how God blesses us when we keep the commandments (Mosiah 2:20-22). She agreed. The missionaries are in contact with her and trying to find a time to meet with her. So good! She said the sweetest prayer while driving and prayed the God would guide her life down the path her wants her to be on. We had 5 IRCs this last week, a lot of people that we have been working with who have come in contact with the local missionaries. Best feeling ever!

Sunday night we were chatting and this girl Rebbecca gets online. She said, "Hello, I'm Rebbecca I'm 25, I'm in India. I am a minister for my 25 orphan children, God brought me to this Mormon website." NO JOKE! We taught her about the restoration and she referred immediately to have the missionaries visit. About 15 minutes later we get another chat and it says, "Hi I'm Syam, I am Rebecca's husband in India. We are so happy to meet with you and learn more about your church." We couldn't even believe it! They are so prepared. This morning we called them and had the best lesson. Syam was driving home when we called and was on his motorcycle, I could hear India in the background! Ah my heart wanted to be there so badly. He put us on speaker phone when he got home with Rebbecca and we shared with them some scriptures. They were laughing and were saying how happy they were! Rebbecca said, "I told all my children and the orphans about you and they are excited to meet you so you can play with them. We can't wait for you to come to India! When are you coming to see us??" Sister Kao and I were dieing on the phone. We are praying so hard that the missionaries can meet them soon. I guess that they run this orphanage for children whose parents have died because of HIV/AIDS. They love it but they don't have enough resources so they work really hard. They are only 25 years old and sounded so young on the phone. So... maybe President will send me to India in 5 weeks instead of Arizona? I'll have to request that.

Our zone is wonderful, all of the sisters are working hard. We have sisters in our zone from Sweden, Samoa, Uruguay, Mexico, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Ukraine, New Zealand, and Peru. They are teaching people all over the world. Sister Kao and I get along great AND we are both musicians. We were asked to do a musical number last Sunday so I arranged a version of "Joseph Smiths First Prayer" and "We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet". It was amazing how I felt the spirit help me know what to play. She has written songs for the church in Taiwan and is really popular in her country. After our missions we want to write together. Interesting how Heavenly Father works, matching us up like that. We are so grateful and amazed with the blessing he keeps giving us!

That church is true!

-Sister Carly Jo Porter

Transfers!!! 1/18/11

Well I'm not begin transferred to any crazy place like Boston this time, but I am getting a new companion! Sister Kao is from Taiwan and the best part..... she speaks mandarin!!!! I have been praying and praying and praying my whole mission for Heavenly Father to bless me with a Chinese speaking sister, after Koreans and Japanese I was about to lose hope. But I am so happy that I will get to be with her for my last transfer here at Temple Square. So exciting! It is also such a blessing because we are both in our last transfer. We will be able to really work hard and finish as strong as ever. Plus... we will have many many Chinese tours. I will have to learn to speak more zhong when (chinese)! We are zone leaders together over the North 3 zone. There are a few changes that we feel will help us to be more effective during our motor time, but most things will be the same. Tomorrow morning we have our first VIP tour with a few college professors from Hong Kong, Poland, Russia, and Cambodia. Fun fun fun!

Teaching went well this week! SO MANY MIRACLES!!! I can't even describe how happy and excited I am to be teaching such prepared people from all over the world. All I have to say is ELECT. We have a new investigator, her name is Kate, she is 27, single, and lives in Austria. She came on to Mormon.org and after asking her what interested her in learning about the church she replied, "Honestly I have no idea, I'm not sure why I'm here". We taught her a bit and called her on Sunday. She is GOLD. She used to live next door to the missionaries about four years ago, they had given her a Book of Mormon. She has since moved to a different city and is at least an hour drive from the church house. We just taught her a few minutes ago since today was her day off. She told us, "I called the Bishops number you gave me and he didn't answer, so I just decided to go to the church house! I went, it was locked, but I got a really good feeling inside that I was at the right place!". My companion and I just looked at each other with our jaws wide open. So please pray that the missionaries in Austria can contact her ASAP, we have her reading, studying, and praying about the Book of Mormon, and so far she loves it. Oh my my my she is my favorite. Her accent is really funny and I kept laughing because I was thinking of Denvers german accent he would always do, just like her! Oh and Dia finally went to church and is meeting with the missionaries! She went to the visitors center last week with her Mom in LA and they are both excited about the gospel. She loved church and was so excited to tell us all about it. Chad is also now meeting with the missionaries and going to church, he will be getting baptized in a few weeks. Another one of our new investigators was Wayne from Mississippi. We found him on chat when he came out of curiosity. We spoke with him last Saturday on the phone and he had many doubts. We called him again yesterday and his mind was completely changed. He explained how he felt about the restoration pamphlet and how it made him feel. As he gave the closing prayer he began crying and pleaded with the Lord to help him find the way for him and his wife. He prayed that he would make new friends and that his family would accept him. He has been having a lot of opposition with his children and grandchildren, they have told Wayne and his wife that they don't want to have anything to do with them if they meet with the missionaries. So sad! But we called Wayne again today and he met with the Elders last night!! They are going back to teach him on Friday and he has committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon....... MIRACLES!

I could go on and on about all of our miracles. I am just so happy with the new direction of our mission. The sisters are happier and the work is incredible. As a mission we had a total of 390 IRCs. Which means the we found and taught 390 people/families who are now currently meeting with missionaries in their local areas, all in 6 weeks. President Holmes wants us to double that for next transfer which I feel is totally possible.

I love this work!!! The church is true true true.

Love- Sister Carly Jo Porter

p.s. Have you all made a mormon profile yet???

Almost Home!!!

Not that we are counting or anything - BUT

We are excited for Sis. Porter to come home on March 2nd!!!

I'm sure she will have an awesome last 7 weeks!

FIND!!!! 1/11/11

Konichiwa!

So... we are a finding mission! Yes yes yes we are. I am so proud of the sisters in our zone this week who have been finding so diligently on the square and also during our time on the computers. Last night we had an RC pump up hour! I was having crazy flashbacks to last summer when that was what I did all the time. We set up a really neat role play where they each called another sister in the zone and were given scenarios to role play. It really helped. In the next hour of real calling we had 8 people refer... miracles! woo!

We are still teaching wonderful people. Dia is reading the scriptures and praying everyday. She will be going to the LA visitors center soon to meet her local missionaries. We are also now teaching Shanita in Georgia. She has a Book of Mormon she was given a long time ago. I ask her to read Alma 7 a few nights ago. When we called back this morning she was all the way to chapter 10! So impressed with her. We mentioned baptism and she immediately responded.. yes I'm really looking forward to that! She is 31 and has been married for just a few years and she has started to pray and read with her husband also. Amazing. Three of our investigators our now meeting with their local missionaries! Two of them emailed us and shared with us their experiences from going to church for the first time... sweetest thing ever.

We continue to see miracles every day. All of the sisters on the square are doing really well. I have been surprised with the amount of guests that we have been having. When we are on the square finding we usually take tour after tour after tour. Many of the people that come are in town for skiing, usually in Park City. Such wonderful prepared families that are coming. We also have taken some time to train the sisters and that has also been a great experience. This is the last week of the transfer and we are really encouraging them to increase their productivity.. sometimes during this last week of the transfer, numbers decrease which is just so odd! We don't want them to become distracted with all of the coming changes. So we will keep working!!

I love this work... in case you didn't know already :)

-Sister Carly Jo Porter

p.s. My companion and I will be playing and directing the music for a meeting in the Joseph Smith memorial building tonight.. we were told it is for some general authorities :) I get to play prelude for 20 minutes... dream come true. hah!

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.

Pictures - Pictures - Pictures from Boston back to SLC

Christmas! 12/28/10

Hello everyone,

Christmas was beautiful here at Temple Square! Christmas Eve we all went to Heritage Park into the big lodge. We had an amazing dinner and musical program. I played my own rendition of "What Child is This". The spirit was so strong, I was even getting emotional as I played it... I don't think that has ever happened to me before. Just before I played they read the Christmas story in Luke II, so I think that really brought the spirit. I was very grateful to share my musical talent! What a great mission! Christmas Day we were on the square all afternoon. Sister Doggett and I took two miracle tours, oh it was so amazing. Mike was from Colorado Springs but had previously lived in Utah. His respect and admiration for members of the church had continued as he traveled all around the world with the Air Force. We ended with him at the Christus (on Christmas day!) and I felt prompted to tell him that God had prepared him specifically for this time in his life that he could meet with missionaries, be baptized, and become a part of this wonderful faith. He couldn't agree more! So.. we are excited to begin teaching him on the phone. Our second tour was with Ayanna from Georgia. She was here for a work interview and just kept saying how she didn't want to leave the city! She felt so peaceful and so excepted by all of the people she was meeting. She was intrigued by the history and pioneers so we really enjoyed sharing stories with her. OH and Christmas night we watched, "The Chronicles of Narnia"!!! So amazing, I found more symbolisms that time than I have had before. vonderful.

Our online teaching is going well. Many of the sisters have a hard time "sifting" through people. They spend a lot of time with people who they think are sincere, but really aren't. So we are doing our best to train them when possible. It has been extremely hard to do any training with the holidays, but we are hoping that when it slows down next week we will have more time! I really do love the sisters in our zone though, they are positive and happy and always willing to try these new things. My concern is that, it is extremely hard to let the purpose of missionary work, drive missionary work. Sometimes missionaries have other motivations, when really what better motivation could we have then bringing souls unto Christ? So... I am praying, studying, and fasting, to know how in the world to get this through to the missionaries. I hope we see some miracles soon!

I am excited for the New Year! I am excited for these last 9 weeks of my mission to make it the best time of my mission. There are so many life lessons that I have learned which I will be eternally grateful for. BUT, I know that there is so much more to learn. Mom Porter gave me the best advice. Last preparation day she asked me to read through my first few weeks on my mission. She wanted me to feel the excitement and fire that I had when I first got here and then apply that to my mission now. Not that I am not excited now, but reading my journal really motivated me!! I felt so much peace in what I have accomplished so far, but also such a renewed energy to give the Lord everything that I have. She also told me to not think about anything that will happen when I get home. Well, I can think about it, but not worry about it. (Those who know me well, know that I like to worry, plan, and change everything... haha) So that was also great advice! Thank you so much mom!!!

So we will keep praying, planning, finding, teaching, testifying, and inviting... and teaching some more.

Until next week, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

With Love- Sister Carly Jo Porter

"After all has been said, the greatest and most important duy is to preach the Gospel." - Joseph Smith

brilliant I tell you, genius I say 12/14/10

Are you kidding me?! Temple Square has to be the most phenomenal mission in the entire world... I'm so serious right now. President Holmes is the most inspired man I have ever known or ever even heard of.. seriously. So I flew into Salt Lake on Wednesday morning and was greeted by two of my favorite sisters. They handed me a slip with my new assignment and I found out I was companions with Sister Doggett and that we are zone leaders together. So fun! I love Sister Doggett and I was roommates with her in the past. So the first few days were pretty much a blur. It was exciting to see all 26 sisters return from their own outbound assignments and to hear of their experiences during our outbound testimony meeting. Afterwards we promised not to talk about it anymore so that we would not distract other missionaries. No prob.

So the mission is completely different! There are around 52 new sisters that I don't even know yet.. craziness. There are now 8 zones when before there were only 5. Each zone is teaching which means that we can teach people who we find on Temple Square, Chat, or in the RC. The mission now has 60 motors (computer+phone unit) when before I left there were only around 30. So our time on the square has been cut in half. So we switch off days where one day we will be on motors from 10-3 and square from 3-9 and then the next day our schedules switch. This way there are always sisters finding on the square but also we are utilizing the motor stations. I am praising President and the assistants for this idea. We were trying so hard to come up with a way to make the best use of our time on and off of the square. We are happy also because now there are never too many sisters on the square which was a huge problem that we had last winter.

During our "motor time" we have chat time, rc time, and teaching time.

CHAT- I love chatting!! So on Mormon.org there is a link that says "chat with a missionary" and it comes either to the MTC or to our mission. We will be chatting with about 3-5 people pretty consistently during that time. We answer their questions the best we can, quickly bridge to the restoration, and invite them to have missionaries teach them more. Many many many many people try to waste our time, we call them "trollers" probably about 70% of those on chat are trollers.... lame people. But what is cool is that many times we soften their hearts and have a legit conversation with them. Yesterday a guy in Cape Town South Africa got online. We chatted with him for a while and we will be calling him on Friday to teach him a little bit more! He was so sincere and is really searching for truth. Amazing.

RC- Now when we call non-members on the phone in the referral center when they refer to meet missionaries we offer to call them back and to continue teaching them until missionaries come in contact with them in their local area. We call this an IRC (investigator referral confirmation). Our goal is to have these IRC's and help these people to get baptized!!! I cannot even describe how much this has changed the attitude and perspective of the mission. The sisters are so excited because now we find but we can also teach them! We have area book and everything to keep track of our progressing investigators. Just in a few days we have already found wonderful people to teach on the phone.

Temple Square- Teaching on the square has also changed quite a bit for the mission. Before we could only find people on certain parts of the square depending upon which zone you were in. Now we can find anywhere and take our guests anywhere. Huge change! We can also call and teach them on the phone after they refer at Temple Square. We met Chad a few days ago and took him on a tour. He was so amazing, recently moved here from Georgia just to get a new life and ended up moving one block away from BYU. So we taught him again yesterday on the phone!

I am sorry that this is all technical stuff but you can probably tell how excited I am. We had zone leader council yesterday morning and I was once again humbled by our mission President. He explained that this is the most important transfer in Temple Square history. He mentioned that this is one of President Monsons' top three interests right now, with over one hundred sisters teaching over the phone. He testified to us that this is exactly what the Lord has been preparing the work for, electronic missionary work. He talked to each one of the sisters in leadership and explained how we had each been prepared our whole missions for this defining transfer. I am very humbled and I hope I can carry out the work as Heavenly Father would have me do!

I love the Gospel. I know that it is true. The spirit is so strong here at Temple Square and I am happy to be back once again to testify on such holy ground.

Love- Sister Carly Jo Porter

p.s. The christmas lights are beautiful also! We have thousands of members every night and we love talking with them. If you come to the square make note that I am only on the square Mon,Wed,Fri, and Sun nights. The other nights I will be on the motors.

I heart Boston 12/6/10/10

How blessed am I? The Lord loves me so much that he sent me to my favorite city, during my mission! I have honestly loved being here in Boston! I can't believe that my time here is over! I learned so much here and cannot describe in words how much my love for this city has grown.

In many aspects this was the hardest time during my mission. Previous to my mission I learned that the singles wards here are among the best in the world. There are students here from around the country that are pursuing very rigorous degrees and are ambitious in so many ways. The ward helped me to work harder and to see my potential as a young adult, prior to my mission. I feel that coming here as a missionary multiplied that experience by 1,000. Trying to handle the identity crisis and akward peer interactions while being bold and humble about missionary work was incredibly difficult. I have never felt so stretched and pulled in my entire life. At times I would think, really Heavenly Father? You really want me here? It was hard to understand why I was here when I could have been sent to any mission in the country. There were many times when I felt that I something wasn't right or I could have handled situations very differently. So in short it was like the New York, New York roller coaster in Las Vegas. Awesome right? Heck yes! I recognize that being here was exactly what the Lord wanted for me to learn what I needed. I still know that I am learning and that I will never be a perfect missionary, but I am so grateful and feel so privileged that the Lord has given me such great trials. I tried my hardest to make the most of the experiences that were given to me. My love for the members in the wards here is incredible. I have visited with them on many occasions about the difficulties of missionary work in this city, and prayed with them for the courage to just do it! I have reflected upon my missionary experiences here before my mission, what I had done well, but mostly how I can achieve the work when I return.

My love for the Elders and Sisters in this mission grew also over time. You may remember my first few emails when I spoke of the disobedience that I had seen and ineffectiveness that really made me so sad. While there was no excuse there, I have also seen how wonderful and truly hardworking these missionaries are. They are working at their own pace on a schedule that the Lord has marked for them... not me :) Last Thursday I was able to participate in the departing testimony meeting for the Elders and Sisters leaving the mission. Sister Cheng and I were also asked to share our testimonies. The chapel was full of members and investigators who had come to love these Elders these last two years. I just observed in tears during the meeting as humble testimonies were born of their missionary experiences. It was kind of a pre-departure for me, since I still have 3 months left :) OH I was so overcome with the spirit to be a part of that meeting!!! Watching these elders say their farewells to people whom they have grown to love so much was so touching! We then went to the mission home for dinner and I reflected upon my own brother, Elder Denver Porter in this same home about 8 years ago also finishing his mission here in Boston. I imagined my parents coming to pick him up and what an incredible time that must have been for them. Oh so many thoughts that I am so grateful for.

There is so much that I could say about this experience!!! But I don't have enough time! Words cannot describe how I feel about missionary work and the love I have for my Savior Jesus Christ. I know that He lives. He is the center of all human history. The joy that came to my heart as I shared my simple testimony with countless people on the street, at school campuses, parking lots, trains and buses, in homes, and in church houses is beyond words! My eternal perspective also grew as I attended the temple with missionaries and felt the peace of Boston in a special way. I know that our lives may be empty without missionary work and our joy only momentary, but by making the Lord and his work a part of our everyday life, our joy will be full! We can follow Alma's example who watched his sons go forth to preach the word and he to "could not rest and he also went forth" (Alma 43:1) I hope we can all not just try to be better member missionaries, but just do it :)

I love this work and I love the Lord. I can't wait to be back at Temple Square in two days and continue the work there!

-Sister Carly Jo Porter

Bostoness 12/1/10

Hello once again!
It is coooooooold and rainy here in Boston :) Some are saying we might be getting some snow this weekend. Yay! We had a zone activity today at the chapel and played this insane version of dodge ball, I was scared for my life. The elders had no mercy!! It was fun even though my arm is way sore, I really can't throw very well.
This week was good! We have a few new potential investigators that we are super excited about. We were finally able to get in touch with a referral, this girl named Allie on Sunday. We went to her house and taught her the first lesson and she loved it. She told us of how she had really been searching and talking to a lot of people about religions she could go to. She saw some elders on her street a stopped them a few weeks ago, they gave her a Book of Mormon and she already had started reading it. She loved hearing about Joseph Smith and our belief in prophets. So we are teaching her again tomorrow and she really wants to come to church on Sunday! We taught another girl, Elaine from China on Monday night. She was soooooo sweet! She probably said thank you 1,000 times after our lesson. She was a referral from a member and she just LOVED our lesson. She works on Sunday- so kind of tricky, but we will make it work! Nikia was out of town for a whole week, but she would update us everyday while she was gone. We will be seeing her soon also. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and really wants to be baptized.
Tomorrow we have transfers. Sister Heywood is being transferred but I will still be with Sister Stevens for my last week here. We will most likely be getting another 3rd companion tomorrow, so we shall see who it is! It has been fun working with Sister Heywood. She is a sweetheart and I have really learned humility from her. Her family has been through a LOT and she is solid as rock. I will really miss her but I am excited for her to go to a new area since she has been in the singles wards her whole mission. Tomorrow I get to join the group of departing missionaries for a temple trip, dinner, and testimony meeting. It will be fun to be with these missionaries during their last day events. I feel very lucky! I am mostly excited to go to the temple, I have missed going every week!
So I have a week to go. I fly back to Temple Square on December 8th. I'm really trying not to think about it too much because it seems that this time went by wayyyyyy too fast. I am happy to serve where the Lord wants me to serve though. I have LOVED serving here and have been changed in many ways. More on that next week.
LOVE YOU ALL
-Sister Carly Porter

Find 11/15/10

(Sorry that these last 4 posts were delayed - Carly's dad and I have been out of town for a month and of course the computer went down as soon as we left so Denver or Catie couldn't post for me. So now we are up to date again! Carly is having a great time in Boston - she will be sad to leave next week, but also very happy to heading back to Salt Lake to finish things up! :)

Find find find find find... That's what we do!

My time in Boston is running low... sadness. But everything is going really well and I am very very happy :) We went on many splits this last week with some members and had some great experiences. Erica Glenn and I went walking down to the Boston Public gardens on Saturday afternoon and it was beautiful outside! There were so many people out everywhere.I told her we have to use our gift of discernment and then we found some really great people! We talked to a woman from Iran who doesn't believe in God, but does believe in a higher power. She had been through so much in life and was happy to be back in Boston reflecting on her many blessings. She wasn't ready for the Gospel but she did tell us that she was grateful to meet us and spend some time with us. On our way back we met a woman from Ukraine where Erica had served her mission! Ya.. so that was cool too.

Last night Sister Stevens and I went out with Alison Minor a member in the LP1 ward. She served her mission in Tennessee a few years ago. I cannot say how grateful I am for our time with her. She talked to EVERYONE. We were walking and there were 2 girls probably 15 feet in front of us walking towards us, she waves and says " Hi hi how are you! I am here with my 2 friends and they have a message to share with you!" They got to us and kind of laughed but said sure they would listen. Together we taught them the restoration and first vision. We asked them a lot of questions about their own lives and belief in God. The spirit was so strong as we testified to them that Christ's church had been restored. it was the COOLEST conversation. They told of us of how they were looking for a church to go to and not quite sure about things in their lives. Wahhh the spirit was so strong! I was so happy! We got their information and asked them to pray that night to know that the things we had taught them were true. We closed with a prayer and gave them hugs... soooooo wonderful. cool.

Nikia and Alice both didn't show up to church yesterday which equals buuuuummer. We were a little bit happy though because relief society was a little on the strange side and would have thrown them off. We are hoping to see them sometime soon this week. Please pray for them and that they will continue meeting with us! I think both of them are little bit nervous about change and commitment. People need to just chillax and get baptized. We are teaching another girl Jessica who has been coming to church for 2 years! Her dad just joined the church last year and it took him 15 years to get baptized. ya... weird. We hope to help figure it out with Jessica also. Alice is scheduled to be baptized on Dec. 5. I think that it will happen as long as she keeps meeting with us and praying. Common Alice!!! I'm not so sure about Nikia. She feels the spirit so strong and just cries every time we meet with her. She is so beautiful and knows that the church has everything she has ever wanted or needed. I think she is just scared of change. She admires us a lot and feels like she can never get to our point. We are praying the she will feel the love of Heavenly Father and realize that getting baptized is the right thing to do.

We are happy though and continue meeting with other people throughout the week! We have had many first lessons, it is just difficult getting people to church because they all work on Sundays. It will happen though in the Lord's timing. We just do all that we can and then let the Lord take over :)

The church is true

With Love- Sister Porter

Investigators 11/8/10

The Lord really blessed us this week! We had brought our dear friend Alice to church last week and she seemed to like it. Because of health problems we had lost contact with her since I first got to Boston. We set up a time and met with her last Friday. She was struggling to understand that God could really love her, because she has grown up with an abusive father. Her idea of a "Heavenly Father" is hard for her to comprehend, she relates better to a motherly figure. But after our lesson she seemed to feel better about the idea and felt the spirit very strongly. We invited her to be baptized December 5th and she said YES! She came to church again yesterday and we will be meeting with her this week. I just cried Friday night as I realized how much I love Alice and am feeling God's love for her. If anyone has ideas on how we could help her know that God loves her, suggestions are greatly appreciated! :)

Okay Nikia is back in the picture! You may remember that I emailed about her about a month ago. She came from a member friend of hers and we had a great lesson with her. Well I called her early last week and let her know about some dinners we would be going to at members' home and she was welcome to come. She ended up coming with us to dinner at Jodi Cantrell's on Sat. night and it was so perfect. Jodi was so kind in helping her feel welcome and normal. We ate pizza and then Nikia just opened up and told us pretty much her life story about finding God. She has always sought to be christian but has had so many bad experiences in other churches, she always admired the Mormon's for actually living what we believe. She got emotional as she bore powerful witness of how the Lord has helped her life since that first Sunday she came to church. She finally got a job, she felt healthier happier and stronger, and her house is clean! She was just beaming with joy and knew this was where the Lord needed her. Anyway, I could go on and on about her. She is so appreciative of us in how we have helped her gain more confidence, I'm just like... umm I don't know who your talking about.. haha. She is so sweet though! She came to dinner with us last night as well. LOVE HER!!!

So yes.. missionary life is good. We had our zone conference last week in beautiful New Hampshire. It was fun to meet more missionaries. I was given the opportunity to sing "Face to Face" during a meeting and was so grateful! It is so fun for me to be a missionary here in Boston, I know that I say this all the time, but it is!! This last week we went on exchanges with Rori Glover and Katie Winder. Katie and I were walking down the streets talking to everyone, and went to visit our less active but wonderful friend Mary. Heavenly Father is really blessing me. I hope that we all recognize our blessings during whatever time of our lives it may be. I reminds me of Elder Hollands conference talk about gratitude. I think living a grateful life will bring us humility and the greatest joy.

Alright, I love you all. Thank you for your prayers. When I get tired, or even sometimes sick on the trains or buses, I remind myself of the many people praying for me and then I am revived!! haha I know... amazing.

-Sister Porter

oh and we also have another girl Kay who we will be teaching more this week. more about her later. :)

B is for Boston! 11/1/10

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this city? So much! My two companions and I are having a blast running around the city and talking to as many people as we can. I have a few experiences to share.

On Saturday morning a ward from Vermont came down with their Young Woman to do an exchange with the sisters. We split up the Laurel class and each went out for a few hours with them. I was paired with Molly and we went out to visit some less actives in Cambridge. She was so adorable and had a million questions about missionary work, and she is obsessed with learning Chinese.. odd! The first home we went to was actually a wrong address but we had a wonderful conversation with another guy that lives there and he took the "Living Christ" and said he would read it. We were heading to the next house and passed two ladies probably in their 40s. I said Hi good morning pretty quickly and then felt I should stop and talk. I turned around and asked how their day was going. One of the ladies turned and said "We are gay, you don't like us, have a nice day" I quickly responded "no no no we would love to talk to you!" The conversation that followed was one like I had never had before! They had a few issues with the church and the spirit quickly prompted me to relate everything back to God's pure love for us as his daughters. I shared with them how we as missionaries simply seek to strengthen others' faith in Christ. Their faces began to brighten and we were able to share the Restoration with them. They were very grateful and said they were sorry for misunderstanding our belief. It was an incredible experience. Even though they are on a completely opposite path as I am, I felt SO much Christlike love for them and that God truly does know them.

We went downtown to meet with Katie Winder, a good friend of mine and a member in our ward. Our bus was late so we ended up just walking with her to her class at Boston Conservatory. While we were walking 2 guys stopped us, "Hey hey hey wait do you have a Book of Mormon we could have!?" My companion was holding one in her hand and said, "YES here!" We talked to these guys for a minute and they had been looking for a Book of Mormon all day and calling all these different numbers. One of them was going on a trip and he had promised his friend that he would read one! They were excited, we exchanged phone numbers and will follow up with them soon. It was so cool to see how they were literally placed in our path!

Just after dropping Katie off at school we were walking right by the school I attended before my mission, Berklee College of Music, and the sisters had to use the restroom. We went inside and I ran into one of my favorite teachers! The class I took from her was over 2 years ago and I was so happy that she remembered me. I explained that I'm a missionary now and that I would be back at school next summer. She said that she always knew there was something special about me and that now I looked very peaceful. Hah I told her that I probably was just exhausted...hah. It was a neat experience though to share with her how much my mission means to me!!! She is very anxious for me to come back to school as well, cool!

So everything is going well. We don't have too many people we are teaching right now. We have a few referrals that are taking some time to get a hold of, a lot of people just never call us back and it can be discouraging. Please pray that people will make time to meet with us! They just don't understand that their personal salvation is one the line :)

Love you all! Happy November! Woo!

-Sister Carly Jo Porter

"We can share the Gospel only to the extent we live it"

Changes and Members 10/25/10

Transfers happened last Thursday and I am now living in Brighton with Sister Stevens and Sister Heywood. We are serving over 2 singles wards now. I cannot even say how excited I am for this transfer. At first I was a little bit nervous about being in a trio, I think any missionary would be. But I must say that I have been extremely humbled by Sister Heywood. She has admitted that she was not so obedient the last few transfers and she really wants to change. So all together we are helping to uplift and strengthen one another. We have SO MUCH FUN. It is just so entertaining to have 3 of us talking to people and taking over the trains and buses. Really hilarious. Love it! It also is helpful because we can multi-task a lot of our work. We are able to split and go with members to appointments if we need to so we can get more work done!

We taught another lesson to Cierra and it went really well. She has been reading and praying and was saying that she doesn't feel that she gets any answers. We went over a few verses of Alma 32 with her and then we started to play "The Restoration" movie. The movie was going along and then about 30 seconds before the first vision the movie just shuts off! We tried starting it over and it wouldn't work. I was smiling but in my mind I was yelling at Satan for ruining such a spiritual moment, but it actually turned out really good! In the closing prayer she thanked Heavenly Father for allowing her to see a portion of this great movie and expressed her desire to finish watching it later. So she watched it online by herself that night and had a really good experience. Satan's plan backfired! Hah!

During our church meetings yesterday we split and I went with Jodi Cantrell to the Charles River ward and the other sisters went to LP1 because they meet at the same time in different buildings (I know so convenient right?). It was so great though because both meetings were so uplifting and we were able to share our experiences when we came back together.

MEMBER CHALLENGE!

We have been meeting with as many members as possible to get to know them, uplift them, and give them our 10 Day challenge. This is the challenge;

10 Day Missionary Challenge

1) Pray daily for specific opportunities

2) Pass out all 6 pass along cards ( included in the bag each w/ the missionaries' phone number on it)

3) Choose or find 3 people to invite to church and/or have the missionaries call

YOU CAN DO IT

"...perfect love casteth out all fear" Moroni 8:16

And YES we will follow up with you in 10 days '

Some members were excited and ready while many others were nervous and skeptical that they could commit to this challenge. We would just remind them that they covenanted with the Lord at baptism to share the Gospel and always be a witness of Jesus Christ. So YES they could do it. At church yesterday during relief society they had a missionary moment and many of the sisters stood to share of the amazing experiences they had been having! We are soooooooo happy about this! The members expressed that they didn't know they could do it and then they just tried, the opened their mouths. So many miracles all because of FAITH to ACT! We are not expecting every member to complete the challenge or invite everyone they know to church, (although one girl invited 8 of her coworkers:) but we just wanted them to stretch. When we set our goals HIGH.. then we can get somewhere.

So we will keep working with the members and finding along the way! We have been talking to lots of people, a few of which come to activities and to church, but we know that the members are the greatest source for the missionaries, the ones who will bring long lasting conversion to their friends and loved onces.

The church is TRUE!

With love Sister Porter