Another week already! Oct. 26th

Hi family and friends!

This last week was wonderful of course. I am starting to get pretty cold but luckily I have a long jacket to keep me nice and warm. I need to buy some boots or something though because it is supposed to snow tomorrow!

I wanted to focus my letter on the Love of God that I have felt and seen this week. There are many different types of people come to Temple Square every day. The people I have noticed have either:

1) Never known God or about him

2) Have a desire to know of Him, or

3) Think that they know him pretty well already

But in ALL situations they can FEEL God's power and love in their lives. Isn't that amazing? It is true what the Apostle Paul teaches that, "the love of God is shed abroad in our heart's through the Holy Ghost". As we testify to the people here they can feel that love in their hearts. As members of the church we have this love of God in our hearts and because of this we have a surety and peace that others don't have. There is "no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear...we love him because he loved us first" (1Jn 4:18). I have been trying to understand how I can share this LOVE of God that I feel in my heart everyday, not just when I am at Temple Square.

We met a wonderful man this last week from Switzerland. He was in his 20's and was biking around the country. His face lit up as we shared with him the doctrine of the Gospel and he was spouting off funny questions. He was intrigued by my surety in testifying to him. He kept asking "how are your so sure? how do you know?" he thought it was amazing that at such a young age I could be so sure of something. He had never felt that sure about anything in his life! When people see this surety in us, it sparks a curiosity in their hearts because they feel God's love for them. Amaaaaaazing! When I am talking to others I always remember the promise found in D&C 100:5-8 that if we declare with meekness, "the Holy Ghost shall be shed forth in bearing record unto all things whatsoever ye shall say". I strive to leave them with a feeling that no matter their circumstance, God loves and is aware of them. Hopefully it is something that they won't forget easily! I know that this principle applies to all of us in our lives. If we can truly feel and understand the pure love that Heavenly Father has for us, we will be filled with charity, love, humility, and a greater desire to serve those around us!

We taught a wonderful women this week, her name was Kim and she was here for a conference. She reminded me of an older female version of Jon Hopkins! haha every building we took her to she would just stare and say wow! amazing! she had tears in her eyes the whole tour and couldn't say enough good about it! She referred to everything as ... simply wonderful. That is like candy for us!

A question we get asked most often is, how do you elect your prophets? We also always get asked,.. if the temple is so important, why can't we go inside? It is tricky to answer these questions in a brief clear way, to bridge every funny question to something that relates to the Gospel is also difficult. It's fun though! I am so grateful that I have the foundation of Jesus Christ in my life. All of us are going through different trials, circumstances, and hardships. But we have one thing in common, and that is that we can all use the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We must use it in every aspect of our lives! I hope that we can let our trials root our faith and anchor our hope in Christ. Recognize the blessings of our trials, for do they not bring us close to Christ? We should not turn to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ only when all else fails, but recognize that they are ready and waiting with open arms!

I am doing well and am happy! I am so grateful for your support and prayers! I can feel them here every day on my mission. I hope that everyone is doing well at home and wherever you may be! Remember to always be missionary minded :) We have the most important message to offer the world, if they will only listen! Have a wonderful week!

oh funny story- A few days ago I was doing the pin drop in the tabernacle. The first thing that we do is welcome them and tell them our name and where we are from.. so I said "welcome to the Tabernacle! my name is carllll uhhh.... Sister Porter!" There were a lot of people in there it was so embarassing. My companion was cracking up. Ha I could barely get through the demonstration. Um ya.

Temple Square!!! - Oct. 19th

Hi!

It is beautiful here at Temple Square! I couldnt have asked for a more perfect weekend! I am so happy and excited to be here! You won't believe it but my companion is KOREAN! She is an absoulute princess. Seriously, she is incredible. I feel sooooooo blessed to have her as my trainer. Not to mention that she is hillarious! She learned English 6 months ago in the MTC so she has a really strong accent, but she is so smart and has great English! Everyone loves her.

The main portion of my days here at Temple Square are spent contacting people both members and non-members at the Square and talking with them. We always invite everyone to recieve a free gift from the church with the missionaries and I have been so surprised at how many referrals we receive! I have already taken about 15 tours and I love it! It is so incredible to see the light come on in their eyes as we tell them of Gospel Principles and the things that we believe!

A few cool stories........ yesterday I gave my first motor coach tour. We had 42 Korean people on the tour. None of them spoke English so I stood by my companion and smiled while she explained each site and the history of the church. It was the cutest thing ever, they were taking TONS of pictures of us and clapping randomly and just loving it. We finished the tour and then had another one immediately afterwards with 30 more Koreans! Amazing! My companion works miracles, not kidding. We got 46 referrals!!!! No one believed it! She said it is usually so hard to get Koreans to refer, I guess they don't like giving out their information. It really was a wonderful miracle, we were so happy.

Another story... we had an adorable couple take a tour from Alabama. They were so funny and outspoken. They had a million questions for us and somehow we always found a way to bridge their questions to simple Gospel truths. In the middle of the tour, he said "Dang I need to get me one of em Book of Mormons" hah we were laughing so hard. We talked with them for about an hour and had so much fun. The spirit was so strong and clear. They were understanding and were so excited. Roxanne, the woman, gave each of us a huge hug at the end with tears in her eyes. What a neat experience!

My first few days here were a little bit difficult, we are standing and walking all day long so my feet hurt really bad. Those brief moments in between tours when we are contacting are the hardest, but the moment I start talking to people they don't hurt anymore. We take many people through the movie presentation of God's Plan for Families. No matter how many times I see it I always get emotional. It is amazing to see people watch this for the first time and they are so touched to know that their family can be together forever. Seriously, it is the best! I have never ever been so happy in my life! Even sometimes when they do not prefer to see the missionaries, I KNOW that they felt something and that is what is important. I know that my mission here at Temple Square is going to be incredible. I have already seen so many miracles in just a few days. The sisters here all have different accents and are from different countries, but we all have the same purpose to forget about ourselves, and to bring others unto Christ. It is very humbling. I hope I can give myself completely to the Lord and be an instrument in his hands. My mission is an opportunity to let the Lord build me into the type of woman that I could not become on my own.

What a blessing. I love you all! Thank you so much for your support and prayers. Our mission president told us to not pray for ourselves because there are plenty of people already doing that.. haha. He said the Lord WILL take care of us. He wants us to focus all our attention on those people who need to hear this message. It's true!!!! With Love

Thoughts from the "Mom" :)

Just wanted to add a couple of facts and experiences of my own!
(Sorry Carly - that's what happens when you turn your blog over to your mom!)

So - Last week Steve and I had the opportunity to travel to Utah for Conference weekend. We helped Mark Mabry set up his 2nd Reflections of Christ exhibit in the JSMB - AND it gave us a good excuse to go to conference AND to go and meet Pres. & Sis. Holmes - Carly's mission president. Ohhh - what fun!! Next to some amazing conference talks - It was definitely the highlight of my weekend. We just wanted to briefly introduce ourselves - but they insisted that we sit and visit with them. We are so grateful for the time they gave us - telling us all about the in's and the out's and the up's and the down's of the Temple Square mission - I thought I would share.
- Temple Square has between 4.5 and 5 million visitors a year
- 200 Sister's serve at the Temple Square mission which includes - the Beehive House, Welfare Square and the Humanitarian Center. About 30 Couple missionaries serve also but that is on the decline because the overall couple missionaries in the church is on a decline.
- The sister's on temple square are usually on their feet from 9am to 9pm everyday, and giving 15-16 tour's a day.
- T. S. has a very high security system with camera's and security guards always watching the Sister missionaries.
- T. S. Sister's will also serve an "outbound" mission about half way through their mission. It is treated like their first call - going through the church's missionary committee. They serve for 2-3 transfers and can get called to anywhere in the U.S.
Their call comes just like any other transfer, but instead of moving to a different apartment they pack their bags and head out. They find out on a Monday and leave on Wednesday.
That is a taste of the information we were so lucky to receive. Pres. Holmes told us that these girls work so so hard - and Sis. Holmes told us that they are treated like royalty and have so much fun!!!
It was so fun - and I know so rare for us to meet our missionaries Mission Pres. before our missionary did! :) Carly will absolutely LOVE the Holmes and I know that they will LOVE Carly Jo! How lucky for her!!!
While visiting with the Holmes we did commit to them that if we visit T.S. again in the next 18 months that it would strictly be to spy :) and no official greetings to our missionary! They were happy to hear that committment!


THANKS Mikki for joining us! It was a treat to have you there!

News from the MTC - no one is even allowed to shake hands anymore due to flu and cold season!!

Carly's update as of Oct. 9th, it was entitled - Happy, Happy, Joy Joy!

Happy -

Hey family!This week was incredible! I have been fighting a really stupid cough but that hasn't at all kept been from staying happy and learning like crazy! I get these random coughing fits at the worst times, like when teaching or in the middle of class, hah but it's been ok. I have been asked to sing at the Relief Society meeting for the MTC on Sunday so I am praying that it will go away by then!

Happy -

So was conference not the most incredible thing ever! The power that I felt while sitting in there with 2400 missionaries was beyond explanation! It was seriously so overwhelmingly great. The spirit just filled my heart with so much gladness. I just kept thinking how in the world have I deserved to be so blessed? I loved many of the talks but Richard G. Scott's, Elder Bednars, and of COURSE Elder Hollands I think were my favorites! I loved that the message of God's love for his people was emphasized over and over again! How can we show love for his children in our lives every day? I know that sometimes it is very hard to love people who may not be on our good side, but if we ask for the Lord to help us love others, we can totally receive help and strength!

Joy -

Alright so visitor center training started a few days ago. It has been a lot of fun so far! Hah well atleast I think it is a lot of fun. Some of the other girls are really stressing out trying to figure out how in the world they are going to memorize everything and become like the best tour guides ever! haha I just keep laughing and thinking that hello we must rely completely upon the Lord. It is going to be really difficult to understand everything right away. But just like learning a language it will take us months to get it down. I am SOOOOOOOOOO excited to go to temple square! We had a practice teaching appointment last night and got a feel for what it is going to be like. It was a little bit hard trying to identify the persons' needs and teach them a good lesson in only about 15-20 minutes. That is going to be our challenge at temple square. We have to meet their needs and send them away with something they can change or help in their lives. I cannot wait to share my testimony with people from all over the world. What an incredible blessing that will be! I have felt the spirit witness to me several times while here at the MTC that there are people being prepared for me RIGHT NOW, that I will soon have the opportunity to teach. What a blessing. I know that I must rely completely on the Lord. MY knowledge of the doctrine and of the scriptures is not what will touch their hearts, it will be my pure and simple testimony.

Joy -

The Atonement is and should be the center of our lives. It is through the atonement that we can learn to love others, repent of our sins, overcome sadness, get through any sort of trial, come to know our savior, feel the spirit, and return to live with our Heavenly Father! It literally is everything. I KNOW that our Savior knows us specifically. When we are going through a difficult trial we must trust him in knowing that the trial is absoulutely necessary for our growth and that through it we will only become closer to him. I hope that you all know that trials are blessings, not burdens. WE have to have trials to help us continue to progress. Alma 7:11-14 are scriptures I have been referring to a lot while teaching. It is through our Saviors Atonement that we can and will find happiness!

Missionary Life -

MTC life is great! I have loved every minute here. We are going to Temple Square tomorrow to get put with sisters and exeperience what it is going to be like. We are all so excited to go and meet our mission President and all the sister's! I leave for Temple Square on Wednesday! YAY! I really cannont wait to go. This month here has gone by so fast and I have learned so much. The most stressful thing has been trying to learn and remember all of these scriptures that I love. They are great teaching tools so I am studying so hard so that I can use them while teaching. The church is true! After listening to Elder Hollands talk I don't feel that anyone of us could deny the power of the Book of Mormon and of this Gospel! SHARE your testimony! We are members of the church not only to progress ourselves but to bring our light unto others! I know that as you pray for missionary opportunities they WILL come! The Lord would not keep that blessing from us if we are seeking for it!

Love you all! smiles- Sister Carly Jo Porter

p.s. live every day to the fullest. live in the now, right now. The future will happen, but today is already happening :)

Sis. Porter & Sis. Ketterfeld

This is Carly's letter from last week - Oct. 1st -
We were at conference when it came and I am finally getting around to post it along with some fun pictures she mailed us - enjoy!

Funny Story -
Hi Friends and family!Alright funny story. Yesterday a ton of new missionaries came into the MTC. I was walking back from lunch and saw a ton of Elder's with luggage in a big long line. I looked down the line and yelled "Welcome Elder's!" Really loudly.. they yelled back, "We have been here for like 9 weeks!!!" Hahaha turns out they were the hosts just carrying the luggage. Ya. embarassing!
Spiritual thought -
Spiritual thought of the day. Prayer. why do we need prayer? Nephi teaches us that we must "not perform anything unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ" (2 Nephi 32:8-9). I love this scripture. I have been learning how much our Heavenly Father wants us to pray to him and how we should pray to him. Our AM prayers must be full of gratitude and joy! We have to ask for the Holy Ghost to be with us, until we ask for him, he is on the sidelines just waiting. I am learning how to tell the Lord exactly what it is that I need and want for the day. He is willing to help me out, if I ask him! Then at at night, we must return and report to him in how our day went. We are able to counsel with the Lord and commit to doing even better the next day. 3 Nephi 19 is a great chapter on prayer. I encourage you all to read and study it, and of course to always carry a prayer in your heart!
Tight Schedule & Devotional -
So this is what my schedule is like everyday. 6-630 workout630-7 get ready7- study730 eat breakfast8- study9-12 teaching appointments and companionship studyLUNCHGYM TIME- woo hoo! 2:30-5 class with districtDinner6-9 MDT time. Teaching, referral center, Meetings, evaluations, and more class! 9 planning9:30-10:30 ready for bed, read, and write in journal.
So it varies everyday but they keep us crazy busy . I love it though! The days are just flying by, it is so great! Every night I struggle to have enough time to write out the experiences that I have been having. The devotional this last Tuesday was amazing! Stephan Nadauld and his wife came and spoke to us. I took tons of notes. He mostly spoke about losing ourselves in the work, being bold and forward, and testifying always! He emphasized always having the spirit with us when we teach. That is the only way this message can be carried into the hearts of those who we are teaching. It was so cool though.. while I was listening to the devotional I noticed that I was writing down a lot of things that were not being said. The Holy Ghost was helping me to understand the exact things that I needed to hear, what a blessing! If we are living worthy of it the Spirit will always give us revelation on things that we can change and fix. Where would I be without the direction? Who knows.. probably lost or something :)
Study Journal - getting organized - loving my companion!
I started a study journal that I LOVE! It's a cute little black binder with tabs. I separate them into sections for personal study, class, notes, meetings, and others. It is so nice though to have everything organized and actually be able to use my notes later on. It is so important to take notes always! I hope you all take notes in your church meetings! That is how the Lord can speak to us! When we are willing and ready to write impressions down, of course he will help us and give us council!
YES! My companion and I are doing well. Sometimes it is difficult because she is still going through a culture shock. Sometimes she uses words or terms that are bad here but okay in Austrailia. I try to tell her as kindly as possible that she should probably not say those things. Then she thinks that she has offended me or something. haha it is just funny. She is a complete control person and always in charge when teaching. It's hard for me to give some input sometimes, but I am for sure learning how to be submissive. Luckily she is a great teacher and knows a ton about the scriptures, so it is ok for me to just let her take control I guess. If I try to change things then I have to deal with moodiness. But as long as I am patient we do just fine together. She really is a great girl with a HUGE testimony. We have a lot of fun together. I am learning how to be more quiet, and just follow along :) funny.
Temple Square -
I am used to the crazy schedule and trying to take everything in that I can. We leave for Temple Square 2 weeks from yesterday. So we start visitor center training next week, so exciting! There are 35 sisters in the visitor center group, some of them though are going to the San Diego Temple mission. I met a sister going to TS yesterday from Cambodia and one from Uganda! They are just so beautiful and I can't wait to get to the know them better. Alright everyone I LOVE you all! Keep being reading your scriptures and trying to be missionaries yourselves. Preach my Gospel is for EVERY member of the church. I encourage you all to study it when you get the chance. FEAST upon the words of Christ and your EYES will be opened! I love this work and I am so excited to be a missionary at Temple Square! Being at the MTC is so spiritual in many ways but I must admit that I am excited to go to another wonderfully spiritual place. Temple Square! YAY! -

Sister Carly Jo Porter
p.s. I receive dearelder letters the same day if they are sent before noon. I love getting them and it is so good to hear news and good things from home! loves!