A Cuban is in the Water!

HI HI HI!!!

Guess what's happening this weekend?! It involves a Cuban named William, a font full of water and a recent convert named Josue who has the Priesthood.

That's right! A BAPTISM!!!! :D

Lots of miracles have happened this last week -- actually, this last transfer! William gave up drinking, and now he moved out of his ex-girlfriend's house into a members' apartment! We have been praying all week that he would find a place, and yesterday we ran into him a few hours after Church packing stuff into his car and moving out. We were so happy! His baptism is a go!!! Josue is going to baptize him.

Speaking of Josue! Josue is doing GREAT! He has been blessing the sacrament since he received the Priesthood 3 Sundays ago, and now he'll be receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood in Stake Conference this month! It's because he's going to be receiving a calling in a couple weeks! I'm so proud and happy! He's taking all this very seriously and is doing a great job of staying active! I'm just so happy to see him staying strong. Seeing your converts endure and stay active really makes missionary work all worth it.

Alright as for this week, I have lots of stories to share with you. It involves getting locked out, playing volleyball until I got bruises, and going to a car dealership.

Ok. So. My companion and I have decided that we need to go outside to walk every morning for exercise because we get too warm and cozy in our apartment and don't work out. So Tuesday morning we left the apartment, walked for 20 minutes, then returned.... but the door was locked, and my companion left the key in the house. I had the phone, but nobody in the office was answering, so we ran up to the office to see if it was open, but it wasn't. Then lo and behold, guess who drives by?

The same tow truck guy that rescued us from the mud.

You can imagine the look of embarrassment on my face as I told him we locked ourselves out of the apartment. He called me bad luck then offered to help. So he tried picking our lock, but after 15 minutes, nothing was happening. Then we remembered we had a spare in the car. He opened the car, we got the key, and all was well. This guy is a heaven-sent tow truck man! He made sure we had his card in case of any other emergencies. Then we saw him again at O'Charley's the other night when we went to dinner. So embarrassing.

There are just some good people in this world!

We had to go to a car dealership this week because there was some big recall on 2013 Chevy Cruzes. We were there for an hour and a half getting our axle checked. They also changed our oil, which was bad. I checked it a month ago and we were just a 1/2 quart low, but when the dealership changed it they put in 5 quarts!!! I was on the phone with our mission car specialist man, Elder Halverson, and he said I need to keep an eye on it because we shouldn't be losing that much oil in such a short amount of time. Yikes.

Saturday night we had a branch activity again. They play volleyball as a branch every two weeks during the summer and invite tons of people from the factory. We had a ton of people there, and this time we brought pants so we could play! I have so many bruises on my arms, and one gnarly one on my thumb. I didn't win a single game. :( We got to present a nice spiritual thought, which was great because we had tons of nonmembers there (8 or 9 I think). Then the kids wanted to play soccer, so we played for a bit. Then we ate food (that was rough. We didn't have any utensils, so we ate chicken and rice with our hands...) and then the kids wanted us to push them on the merry-go-round. I AM SO SORE. I have never been more sore in my LIFE. Usually in the morning, as soon as the alarm goes off, I roll right out of bed on the floor, praying. But this morning I couldn't move my legs. Sooooo painful. I guess this means I need to exercise more....

One last thing. Church yesterday was really special. Our Branch President's son bore his testimony. He was going wayward for a while, and then something happened to him about 5 weeks ago that landed him in the hospital. And since then he's been coming to Church every week, and finally he bore his testimony yesterday. I was a special day in Church for their family! It was just neat to see the change in him and that he's turning his life around. Our Branch President cried. I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!!!!

Transfers are next week. I think I might be getting transferred. You can all send mail to the mission home (1325 Eastern Pkwy, Louisville, KY 40204) until I get my new address.

One thing I learned this week is that people can change. I've seen it in Josue. I'm seeing it in William. I saw it yesterday in our branch president's son. I hear about the changes all of our members have made over the years, some of them more drastic than others, but all still amazing. Never give up on people! They can change. I think it was President Monson who quoted someone who said, "A man told me, 'Don't you know that leopards can't change their spots?' And the man replied, 'You should know that I don't work with leopards. I work with men. And men change every day.'" It's so true! We are all changing every day, trying to be better and to reach our potential. Help your brothers and sisters out in any way you can. And most importantly, don't give up on anyone. They can change. Don't judge them. You never know what they're capable of doing.

Love you!

Hermana Porter