Saved by a Baptist..

Hey! How are you all?! I am so glad to hear about all of your adventures in California. Thanks for the pictures! You all look smashing. So, this week was fun! A little crazy, but that's just how things go I suppose. Mostly, one thing in particular happened. 

We were "Saved"! By a Baptist. It was nuts. we were teaching a Less Active, and her friend that I guess used to be a member but will "Be Baptist till the day she dies". So I thought, "It's okay, we'll just teach about Jesus." So we share this nice little message, and she just says, "Can I ask you one question? Where is your soul going if you die right now?" All this is in English mind you. So I pull out a Plan of Salvation Pamphlet, and just decide to give it to her and leave. Well, she wouldn't have any of that. We start to say something about the Spirit World, and she says, "I am NOT asking about your SPIRIT, I am not asking about your RELIGION, I AM ASKING ABOUT YOUR SOUL." Jeepers. So, we got this whole lesson, and man, it was scary. We didn't really know what to do, so we just sat there. But let me tell you, there was NO Spirit there. It felt so gross inside. She eventually asks us to say the Sinner's Prayer to get automatic salvation, and we just said that she could say it. So, she said this Baptist prayer, and was sweating since she got into it so much. Wowzers. Well, we're saved I guess. woo! It was even thanksgiving! Which, by the way, was great. We had broccoli cheese soup, stuffing, idaho mashed potatoes, and jello! One of the Sister's mom's sent it. It was so good! Also, random fact, Sister Storey called me on President's phone and said that President's wife wants her to dance ballet in the Christmas Conference, but she doesn't want to do it alone, so now I'm doing a ballet number with Sister Storey too. ha! Love life. 

Anyway, I love you all! Thanks for everything. :) Masayang Pasco!!! 

The latest weather report from the Laoag Mission..

Just so that you all know, we had no ill effects from the Super Typhoon that came through the Philippines the other day. All is well up here, and life goes on as normal. I, however, have gained a new perspective. I remember when I was at home, and I'd hear about something like this happening, I would think about how cool it sounded, and how crazy it must have been to see. Now, serving here with these amazing people, all I can think of is if the people I'm teaching were affected, how would I react? I am amazed at how much love I feel for the people that were affected, rather than if it looked cool or what. Anyway, we're fine, but that's my testimony. :) We are all children of God! He has control over everything, and if we trust Him, we will be fine. 

A very safe and very dry Sister Missionary, 

Sister Porter

WOW MY LIFE IS CRAZY.

Alright, this week. Has been insane. And I will try to tell you about it in the little amount of time I have left! :) 

We got SLAMMED by a typhoon. I don't know if any of you keep up with the weather here, but it was pretty crazy. We couldn't go out all thursday, and thursday night it got really crazy. The wind was screaming through the windows and under the doors, and just ripping everything apart. It was so loud we couldn't sleep. I probably slept for maybe three hours. The power was out for about 12 hours, and wow, it was just bizarre. So scary. BUT SO COOL! But I'm grateful the wind has died down. It didn't really affect much here since it's just city, but it was still way intense. I guess there might be another one on it's way? Pray for us!

This experience was a first and hopefully a last- We were proselyting and met this man who was interested to talk to us. We talked for a bit, invited him to church, and exchanged numbers so we could set up an appointment. Nothing super different. But, we get a couple texts from him later that night, asking how old we were and stuff. He called twice in the middle of the night. We get more texts the next morning with him telling us how he was sorry, he was just "fallin in love with sis. porter". uh... yikes. He said he wanted me for his wife before I go back to America, and in all his looking for an American wife, I was the best he's found so far. So, we obviously tell president, and he just says to ignore him. But, then we get a text from this guy saying that he's definitely coming to church. AAAAAAHHHHH... I have never been so scared to go to church in my life. luckily.. he didn't show up. But wow, I was so scared. Still kind of am a bit. But... 

I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED! so it doesn't matter, haha. Totally a surprise! I mean, I've only been here for one transfer with Sister Diamond. And I LOVE it, and am way sad to leave. Luckily, i'm only being transferred to the Laoag 3rd ward instead of the 1st. haha. I move apartments, about 5 minutes away, and my new companion, Sis. Copeland, is currently the companion of my MTC companion, Sis. Hansen. And.. Sister Diamond is our new Sister Training leader! So, I'm transferring from the second nicest apartment to the nicest (they call it the missionary mansion), I'm still in the same district, and I get to see/go on exchanges with Sis. Diamond!! It's pretty great. :) though, I still have to pack and say goodbye to people, which is way sad, but I'm still close enough to see them. Yay, blessings!! 

Anyway, that's about where we're at with things. :) I love this work! I love this country, especially during the "Christmas season", haha. This place is great. :) I love you all!! 

Love, 

Sister Amy Porter

Transfers! Livin' it up in Laoag

Hello all! Gotta love how CRAZY life gets during transfer week! I can't even describe it, like, really. It's so frustrating! I just want to say everything that I have experienced but there really isn't even words. I'll try, haha, but wow, it's such a weird transition. So here are some of the things I actually remember from the past few days: 

• Our apartment. Is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. It is brand new, never been lived in (not counting the bugs of course) and is huge! Two stories, complete with a balcony on the second floor that would be PERFECT for yoga.There is a stained glass window of Japanese cherry blossoms and blue birds in the bathroom door. I don't think I will ever live in as nice of an apartment in my life. Granted, we don't get running water until about noon, there are frequent brown outs, and the bugs are massive, but hey. Can't really complain. Plus, it's just Sister Diamond and I, so it's just great! There are five units in the building, and four of them are rented by sister missionaries. I think there are.. 14 of us that live in the building. and out of that, I think there are 4 Filipinos. So crazy!! So many Americans in one spot! It is so different from my last area. 
• So our area is about 6 streets wide, and not very big at all. I think there are 5 barangays when in my last area we had about 30. We are also in the very heart of the biggest city in the mission, so we have everything we could want in our area. Pizza places, McDonalds, KFC, Huge grocery stores, literally everything that you can think of. Well, maybe not EVERYTHING, but just about. We walk everywhere, of course, since it's so close. We don't even live in our area! Also, the church is right down street from the apartment complex. It's a shorter walk than it was going to church at BYU! 
• The members here are so wonderful!! They literally walk up to us and ask when they can come work with us. They are so excited about missionary work! The Ward Mission Leader is an RM, and his wife is too. They met on the mission actually, I guess that's sort of common out here. There are 8 missionaries in the ward, us, and the 2 pairs of office elders and the AP's. As well as President and his wife! We see them every week! So weird. But great! I love them so much. 
• Tracting here is so great! Everyone is so open, and since it's a rich area, they aren't really weirded out to see Americans. We still get treated kind of funny, but it's a totally different atmosphere. We had one older man wave us over and told us all about the time he and his wife vacationed in Utah. He said they went to some place called Angel's Rest? I think that's real. Anyway, he had pictures and everything! It was a bit surreal. We are not having a very hard talking to people at all. I can anticipate some problems with where they live though, there are a lot of people who visit Laoag or who commute everyday. We will probably get a lot of referrals for other areas, especially since there are about 20 to 25 areas just in the city itself. 
• We met this one member, she has two children. One named Anti-Nephi-Lehi, and the other named Diati De Dieticus. I know I spelled that horribly, but it's the Greek translation of Doctrine and Covenants. That threw me for a loop. All I could think of was that poor child in kindergarten learning how to spell her name. Cute kid though. 
• We even got a brand new refrigerator. So nice! But.. well, I don't even know how to describe what happened. I was rinsing something off or something and went to put it in the freezer. Well, my finger brushed the bottom of the freezer and totally stuck. IT HURT SO BAD. I have this little circle of frostbite on my finger tip now, and it is unbelievably painful. I don't really know what to do about it though.. But I have such a deeper appreciation for the pioneers now. Thinking of crossing the plains with frostbitten extremities sounds so much worse than it ever did before. Kind of a stupid experience, but it resulted in a stronger testimony. Kind of cool. haha, no pun intended. 
• Our landlady has a pet eagle. It's so scary. It's a crested serpent eagle I think? We accidentally locked ourselves out, and went to ask for keys, and it just stared at us from it's cage. I guess it was a gift to her? So weird and just.. terrifying. 

I know that's not it, but that's all I can put into words. Really, it's the weirdest feeling. I am having such a good time here! Our lessons have been really good from the start, and it is a good feeling to feel the Spirit testifying of truth everywhere you go. I am so excited to be here working with Sis. Diamond! Wow, this mission. So fun. 

I love you all! Thanks for everything. :) 

Love, 

Sister Amy Porter

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Merry Christmas!!

Well, in rolls September, and with it, the official Christmas season! Masayang Pasco to you all! 

Here are a few highlights of the week: 

• Exchanges! We had them 2 days in a row, one for our companionship and the next for the other companionship in our apartment. Both days we couldn't go out and work because of the monsoon rains. So much rain! May mga baha kahit saan! (floods everywhere!) We had to get pretty creative while sitting in our apartment. So much language study, my poor Tagalog brain is fried. 
• Bats, bats and more bats! Except this time, they were about as big as seagulls. WHAT. so scary, and they just fly super low and you can hear their wings flap and it's GROSS. I guess there's this superstition here about witches that split themselves in two and become two bats or something? Way creepy. 
• Ward activity! SO FUN!! We had a talent show, and the missionaries were supposed to put something together. I taught the other sisters the Hawaiian chant that Mom and I learned in choir, and we sang that. Then, I played Song of the Ocean by Jon Schmidt. It was way hard since the piano was so out of tune, and little kids kept running back to the piano and watching super close, but I did it! And, we won the most unique award for our Hawaiian chant! Yeah! haha. Our prize was some snacks wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper. :) 
• Christmas! Yesterday, a woman brought her dog to church dressed as Santa Clause. Haha, I'm excited to see how much celebrating actually starts. How you can celebrate one day for 4 months is beyond me. I'd run out of things to do! 
• Speaking of dogs, we hit one while in a tricycle the other day. Just bumped it since it wouldn't move, but I still felt WAY bad. :/ It was sad but a little funny at the same time because it looked SO confused, haha. 

I think that's about it for now. Sorry this is short! I love you all, and am so grateful for all the support! We're going to go shopping in Laoag now, we're allowed to go on the first week of the month. Yay, field trip! They have some American food there, which I am grateful for! 3 cheers for Special K and Nesquik strawberry milk! haha. :) Ingat kayo! 

Love, 

Sister Porter

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From trainee to trainer..

I'm sorry I haven't kept this as updated as I should! I wish we had more computer time than we actually do. Ah! Time goes so fast! But here are some of the highlights of the past few weeks: 

One of the Nanay's in our ward (Nanay = mom, but you use it sort of like Mrs. here as well) invited us to her house for lunch. Of course we agree, so after church we head to her house. Here are the things we learned about her. 

• • Her name is Lucia Valdez. 
  • She is 95 years old, still comes to church every week and is quite a spitfire. 
  • She is an internationally acclaimed artist. 
  • She has traveled the world many times, with her husband, who was the Philippines ambassador to about 20 different countries. 
  • She usually stays in Manila under the personal care of Fidel Ramos, a former President of the Philippines, who is also her cousin. 
  • She is related to the famed Ferdinand Marcos and is close friends with his equally famous wife, Imelda. 
  • She has a wonderful garden, some of which she donated to the Manila Temple grounds after she was converted (30 years ago)
  • at age 75 she served a mission in New Zealand, just because she could. 
  • She is currently writing a couple of books, because she stopped painting 5 years ago. 

  Um, WHAT?! All the Sisters here studied about this woman in their History classes! She is so amazing! She has a book about her life and her work, entitled "Colors of Light: Life Story and Paintings of Lucia Najera Mangapit Valdez" or something very similar. You should definitely look it up. She's a rockstar. And she took us out to lunch! To a restaurant. On Sunday. Haha, it was bizarre, but we couldn't see a way out! This woman is all alone, can't cook, and needs food. Wow, that was an experience. 

  
  

  
  

  WOW TRAINING IS HARD BUT GREAT. This past week has been insane. For the first few days, Sis. Lopez and I worked together in both areas, which was so hard because there were so many people to talk to and to teach! Plus, I definitely didn't know the way to half of the places we were going. So.. I can officially that I've gotten lost in the Philippines. We all knew it was going to happen though, so it's probably not that much of a surprise. :) Anyway, Thursday rolls around and we have a District meeting with our new district! We sang America the Beautiful and The Star Spangled Banner since there were two Americans and it was July 4th. :) Nobody else knew the words or the tune, haha. But us two sang loud and proud! In summary, here is what happened after. Sis. Lopez and I went to Laoag! We met with the other trainers in the stake center and had our trainers training. I was scared to death. Then, all the new missionaries came in, and we were told that we were to go proselyting in the city of Laoag for an hour and a half with a new missionary. So, this sister named Sis. Ellis picked me, and we go walking around Laoag. I WAS SO SCARED. I don't know Laoag very well, and we didn't go proselyting when I came!! But, we placed a pamphlet and two copies of the BoM  because as we were talking to one man about it, another came up and said, "Ma'am, can I have a copy of that book?" um, YES. But he took it and just walked off so we didn't get a name or anything. :/ still pretty cool. We go back to the stake center, and have dinner! It was catered, and absolutely wonderful. it's still weird to see entire cooked animals on the table though, I couldn't really look at the table because of the pig face looking back at me. then, we go into the chapel and get our trainees!! My trainee is Sis. Dollete (like dolyete), and she is from Roxas City in the Philippines. She is so wonderful! She served a short term mission a while ago, like two weeks I think, so she's pretty pro at updating and teaching already. We are working well together! It's real crazy to be in charge though.
  

  
  

  Here are a few of what I like to call OITP's, or Only In The Philippines: 

  
  

  1- IcyHot translates into LukewarmHeatofpurgatory. 

  2- Two minutes is the recommended teeth brushing time, but may be extended to three if a mosquito flies in your mouth while brushing. 

  3-Roosters do NOT only crow in the morning. 

  4- Applying nutrition facts to your diet can be mildly hard when they are measured by Thai Recommended Daily Intake. 

  6- When the power goes out, it is called a Brown-out, not a Black-out. I will let you interpret that as you will.

  7- All of my 'Hand wash cold, line dry' clothes are lovin' life! 

  
  

  I just want to say thank you for all of the prayers and support! I can really feel it over here. I've heard that before from many people, that they can 'feel your prayers', but I always thought, "no way, that's so weird." haha, joke! It's true. Based off of what I have experienced so far, I want to say a couple of things. 1) GO TO THE TEMPLE. I don't get to here, and I miss it so bad. You have no idea how blessed we are to have access to a temple. 2) Read your scriptures. Enjoy them! They are so funny and great! Also, study about Gideon. He doesn't get mentioned as much, but he's officially my Book of Mormon hero. 3) talk about the gospel. All the time. It is THE ONLY THING in our lives that is important. Let people know that. 

  
  

  Thank you all again, wish you were here!! 

  
  

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From the Philippines!

Sorry it's taken so long! Emailing time goes so fast! Here are some things from the past couple of weeks: 

• We had this super crazy rainstorm, complete with a blackout in the ENTIRE city. I guess that's pretty normal, but for me, I was essentially freaking out. It was pretty cool though, except for the fact that no power means no electric fans! haha. But it was cool. The blackout didn't last very long, but I was very grateful for my flashlight that converts into a "candle"! 
• We had an earthquake!! It was the COOLEST thing ever. I guess it was pretty strong, a 5.4, but it was a lot less dramatic than they make it seem like it's going to be in elementary school. Mostly, we just sat in our apartment not entirely sure what to do while everything shook for about 30 seconds. It was a pretty weird feeling, but mostly it was awesome. :) President told us though that next time, we should probably leave the apartment since it's not very structurally sound. oops! 
• Haha, this is funny. We were tracting, and a tricy driver stops us and asks us where we're tracting. Well, that's not a very common question, so we ask if he's a member. he said he is, and points to his tricy. Sure enough, in the middle of two gangster looking gothic dragon decals is a giant decal of the Angel Moroni. HAH! So hilarious. Good for him. :)
  
• Um, we were teaching a lesson, and a couple of lizards just fell from the ceiling to the middle of the floor. Um, okay. Let it be known that the sound of a lizard hitting the floor is one of the funniest sounds there is. 
• Speaking of crazy sounds, there are so many bullfrogs here! And the big ones sound like cows mooing. no joke. 
• They love families here. This week, we went to a "Happy 7th Month" party for this little girl, and they went all out! Catering, giant cake, party favors, wow it was cool. I guess it's common to do that every month for a baby's first year. Wow!
• I. FIXED. OUR. SHOWER. yayyyy!!! I finally just took a few minutes one day and cranked the handle REALLY hard, and lo and behold, the shower works! Oh man, I just about started to cry tears of joy. I told the other sisters, but it's not a big deal for them since they're all used to the bucket method. One sister said "oh, I knew it worked. I didn't know you wanted a shower." um, WHAT. aaahh! I could have had a shower the whole time!! Anyway, it is now functional. and I love it. 
• We went on exchanges!! I worked with Sis. Boekweg for a day, and Sis. Iraola worked with her companion, Sis. Quiles. Sis. Boekweg has been out over a year, is from Utah, and is the most humble, shy, wonderful person ever. We worked in her area, and the other sisters in the city are Sis. Storey and her companion! So I got to be with them for a day! It was wonderful to be around more Americans. I love my Batac Sisters, but it's not quite the same. Plus, Sis. Boekweg has American food from her mom! We had Alfredo, and it was delicious. 

Essentially, the Philippines is beautiful, hot, and very different from Utah, but that's what I signed up for! I am learning a lot from my trainer, and I hope that I'm becoming the missionary I'm supposed to be! 

Oh! My address for my ENTIRE mission will be the mission home address that's on this blog. Please use it, haha! Mail is so wonderful. :) I love you all, and keep the faith! 

Sister Porter

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