The Power of Porter

No. I’m not in Costa Rica. My parents took a trip and left me and Sawyer here in the snow. My sister, Emma, is here with us this week taking care of me. And Sawyer. And her baby. And her husband lol. Poor little Judson has a cough and a runny nose. Sick baby=no sleep. Getting little sleep doesn’t help as many of you moms know. Emma is amazing and I’m so grateful for her. It is the first time since I got hurt that my parents have been together without me. I’m happy for them because they needed this trip. We are figuring it all out and it’s been great. Every week, the service missionaries do a session or something else in the temple. We got a pretty cool pic on Tuesday there was like 14 of us there. They are always so nice to pick me up and help me out with whatever I need. We had a fun game night at my house this week. I got a new study companion this week from the mission! His name is Elder McLane. He’s so nice and I’m looking forward to that. My usual study companion, my grandpa, ...

This week was amazing. We hosted FHE for the service mission at my house. We played a game where a fact about someone would come up on the screen and we would have to try to guess who it was about. Then we had treats and hung out at my house all night. A couple of the missionaries even stayed until after we ate dinner. Right in front of them. Good times.   I attended my second zone conference on Wednesday. I love them. The spirit is always so strong and I always learn so much. The mission president encouraged the service missionaries to “raise the bar”. A more strict sleep schedule, specific study time, and reduced screen time were just a couple things he talked about. He encouraged us to continue to attend Institute. He also mentioned that we might be able to do some school through BYU Pathway while we are on our missions. More about this to come.  This week was stake conference. I can confidently say that for the first time in my life, I thoroughly enjoyed it. God is a God o...

Due to my spinal cord injury, I have a neurogenic bladder. Every six months, we drive down to Utah and I get Botox injections in my bladder. This relaxes the bladder and keeps it from spasming, which prevents incontinence and UTIs. We were able to meet my pathway companion, Elder Hurst, which was super fun. He’s so awesome and I’m excited to work with him. We also saw my siblings and little nieces that live down there, which I always love.   Every month, the service missionaries get speaking assignments in local wards. I spoke on Sunday in Chubbuck. The set up was really smooth and the meeting went well. People are always so gracious and nice to me after the meeting. I had a couple of notes on my phone, but for the first time, I basically gave the whole talk without reading. As we were leaving the meeting, my little brother said, “How can you not want to be a motivational speaker after that? Literally everyone coming up to you and saying how awesome and inspirational you are and ho...

My schedule is finally starting to get busy again!! Pathway and Elementary school started up again this week. I’m excited to work at the veterans home and possibly start helping at the family history center here. This week, we were watching Lord of the rings, and believe it or not, as a missionary, I was able to see many gospel principles. There are many obvious ones like good versus evil, greed, and the natural man, but there was one scene that really stuck out to me. During the final battle, the ring is destroyed, and so is the enemy leader, Sauron. The evil tower falls to ruin and the earth starts breaking apart. The whole army of orcs and trolls fall to their death, but not a single elf, dwarf, human, wizard, or hobbit. The king then returns to claim his place on the throne to rule. This reminded me of the second coming.   Chapter 44 of Gospel Principles says it perfectly: When Jesus Christ comes again to the earth, He will do the following things: He will cleanse the earth. Wh...

Happy new year! This time of year is always a party for me. I have Christmas, my birthday, and New Year’s Eve in the span of a week. On my birthday, we were able to do baptisms at the temple as a family. I love the temple. I feel so peaceful and happy when I’m there. It is one of the only places that we leave behind worldly distractions. No phones, no work, no drama, no stress. Regular temple attendance can change your life. I’m so lucky that I live so close to the temple.   Since my cousin gave his farewell talk on New Year’s Eve, and we were in Rexburg with some of my cousins, my mom thought it would be fun to celebrate New Year’s Eve with them. We ate dinner and partied together and all stayed in an Airbnb. It was a blast. I’m so grateful for my family and all the memories we have together.  My schedule is a little slow right now with the elementary school being on a break, pathway being on a break, and I don’t start at the veterans home for a little bit. I still work in th...