The MTC (week 2)

Hi mom,
I'm doing great. I love it here. I really miss you guys, especially the girls (Ren's sisters) and Alice, Kate and Mila (ren's nieces).

So this week President Dallin H. Oaks came to the MTC to give us a talk about Thanksgiving. The sprirt was so strong I almost cried. (pretty much every time i feel the spirit it always ends with me almost crying). Me "almost crying" happens a lot in this email. I feel the spirit a lot here and I've come to realize more and more that God really does lead this church by inspiration. All the people in my zone are so cool and I feel like I've known them forever already, even though it's only been a week. There's an elder here who acts and looks like cole so much! It's a little freaky but its kind of cool too. Me and my comp are great together. I feel like we could have been really good friends back in AZ. 

Everyone here is still super freaked out by our super tall zone, but we play it off cool. 

There is an unfortunate amount of pretty girls here, but I won't talk about that because I'm a missionary!! 

I had a lot of great experiences this week but not enough time to tell you all of them so I'll tell you just one... I had been trying to work on my prayers to Heavenly Father and I really want to build a strong relationship with Him, but in my prayers I always had trouble clearing my thoughts and feeling the spirit, so one night I tried doing a "pre-prayer". I prayed to Heavenly Father and asked that He would clear my thoughts for my prayer. After that, I said "in the name of Jesus Christ I command my thoughts to be clear" and then I said my prayer. I felt the spirit so strong I almost cried (haha)  it was a GREAT prayer but I can't remember all that much from it, I kind of just let the spirit guide the prayer. Afterwards I was in class and I realized I hadn't waited and pondered what God wanted me to do, so I said another quick prayer asking God what He wanted me to do and I had a thought to "read your Scriptures" and I was like...okay. Then I as thinking I don't know where to read so I asked God where? I saw Enos 1 in my mind so I flipped there and I read about Enos's prayer of faith. I felt so happy at that moment because this was the scripture I needed to read at that moment because it was about faith and that was something I had been trying to work on since coming into the MTC. I almost cried because I was happy I had heard the spirit and followed the prompting. I know the Spirit guides us when we ask and that God loves us and wants to bless us now.  yo se que el espiritu santo nos ayuda cuando oramos con fe. 

By the way, while I was emailing my mom today she sent me pictures from our family photo session two weeks ago AND she told me how grandpa Villont (my best friend, Bridger's, grandpa) had blessed me while saying the prayer at their families thanksgiving dinner and he had started to cry, which made other people cry. And as I read that today I cried!!!!! It's great to know I have people who love and support and pray for me. Thank you!

i love you guys. 
-Elder Porter

Me and my comp Elder Udall

My "tall" zone!! I know you can't tell from the picture but I'm almost 6'4. In this picture we're all about the same height!!

More pics....

Me....on my way to do my laundry. Notice the snow? When I left Arizona, a week ago, it was almost 90 degrees!!

The MTC (week 1)

Hey mom, 

I am doing good here. Everything is awesome. I almost cried when I was saying goodbye to everyone at the airport but I was able to be strong. Are the raya and jacy okay?

There are nine guys just in my zone that are going to buenos aires west and they are all awesome guys. My comp is from gilbert arizona and we sat next to eachother on the flight!!!! Crazy. His name is Bromley Udall. He went to Gilbert high school. And we figured out that we went to the same jr high together but we barely recognize each other. He's a great guy. We have the same sense of humor so we get along well. I'm getting along with everyone because everyone here is so nice and easy to get along with and because no one here really knows what's going on, haha. I feel really comfortable with all the people here.

Its very tiring stuff here. Before, when I read Cole and other peoples emails from the MTC, I thought that everyone was just being a baby about it, but they were serious, haha, it's non-stop hard work at the MTC. 3 years of high school Spanish was pretty much useless but I'm doing my best and its coming along. I learned a lot yesterday. I taught my first lesson yesterday in Spanish and I was sweating a lot afterwards. I haven't heard my teachers speak one word of english yet but I'm determined to catch them if they slip. 

I haven't taken any pictures yet but I'm on it. Also the average height in my zone is 6 foot 2. There's 3 guys that are 6'5, and the rest are between 6'2 and 6'4, then we have two shorter guys and the sister missionaries. My zone was joking around that it's because people don't want to rob super tall guys because we might scare them, plus we can run away quickly!! 

It's really spiritual here. You can't help but feel happy with all the people here with the same attitude and feelings and desires to serve the Lord.

That's it. I'll try to send pictures next week.

Love you, 

Elder Ren Porter

Leaving for the MTC on November 18, 2015

Me and part of my family

Me and my parents.

Me and my mom

Me and my sister jacy

Me and my best friend Bridger.

One year ago my brother Cole left for his mission to Tahiti. Here's my parents with him at the airport and a picture of Cole. The following year they're dropping me off at the airport!!