Teaching with spirit...

So this week has been a little laid back. We had a bunch of lessons on Tuesday and It rained a lot!! There was supposed to be a giant cyclone last week but luckily it changed directions. A cyclone is just a hurricane or tropical storm. Wednesday was a giant Zone meeting with President and his wife. They are super cool. Thursday, we were very busy again. Friday we had district meeting and we taught two lessons that day! Saturday we had a giant service project at Mahina where we went to town on someones yard! And yesterday we just went to church and taught class and then had a FHE night with a super awesome family. The parents are both excommunicated but they want to get baptized and they are extremely nice and strong.

So my mom will be happy to know that I'm basically a testimony bearing machine now. Before my mission, my strength was being able to explain things well and being able to express all my ideas, but now that I can't speak French or Tahitian perfectly, my only weapon is a heartfelt testimony! So, that's usually what I do during most lessons. It's really cool to see the special spirit that enters the room when you bear a simple testimony.

One of my favorite quotes is a section from PMG. It's a quote by Ezra Taft Benson and he basically just says that all questions about the truthfulness of gospel doctrines (abortion, word of wisdom, chastity, etc.) lie upon the Book of Mormon, because if it's true then everything else is true about this gospel. You only need an answer to one question...Is the book true?

Anyways, I love you all!!! Everything's awesome here in Tahiti!!! Im loving being a missionary!!! thanks or all you do!!!

     Elder Porter

Me and Elder Langlois. Just hangin at this natural water spring.

Did I mention I live in paradise???

That is a giant water snake!! They can be found everywhere. No fun to play with, but DELICIOUS to eat!!!

One of my favorite people on the island. I call him "frangine" which means "bro". And the giant cucumber he grew.

My favorite flower in Tahiti. Not sure what it's called. Everything here has really long Tahitian names!

Turtles...Yum!

So where to begin for this week! We were amazingly busy this week.
We had 22 lessons overall. Most of them were with new converts, inactives, and excommunicated members. We also have a new investigator. His name is Michael and him and his wife, who's a recent convert, want to go to the temple. Its awesome! They were really excited to learn. I also taught an inactive member named Rarani, sort of by myself, we had too many lessons so I went with the elders quorum president and I taught her about things she can do to stop smoking. It was the first time I felt I was fluent in French. I understood everything she said and I could express everything I wanted to say. I felt the Spirit so strong there! Then I went on ZL splits on Friday with Elder Tematahotoa. I taught my first lesson in Tahitian with him! Its one of the Zone leaders investigators and he's a man that only speaks Tahitian...he only speaks a little French. So I tried teaching about Prayer and Obedience. Everyone there was really surprised by my Tahitian because not of lot of people speak it. I didn't say a lot but I tried to speak simply and from the heart. I for sure felt the help of the Spirit. The investigator asked me to pray at the beginning and the end of the lesson. Afterwards, he told Elder Tematahotoa that he felt something (the spirit)  as I tried to speak in Tahitian. It was such a cool experience!!

Now I want to talk about food...fruit is amazing here! Everything is fresh and delicious. My favorite fruit so far is mangoes or pears....pears are so good here.
I eat a lot of raw fish. And its delicious. It's usually soaked in lime juice and coconut milk. I love it so much. I also love PuaaToro!! It's canned corned beef and its the scariest thing to look at when you first eat it but you grow to love it! It's really good with breadfruit. Mom, puaatoro would scare you! The Weirdest thing I've eaten so far is turtle. I had it after I taught that guy in Tahitian and it was pretty good. It's highly illegal here but its the food that a lot of elders try to eat because its rare! 
I also ate this thing called Einai...its a bunch of little tadpole fish things that are thrown into batter whole and then fried. It's so good!!

Also I biked a lot this week…in the rain…up a mountain…with a sort of broken bike…it was awesome!! (I can tell my kids that story someday).


Anyways, love you all!!!! Thanks for the support!!! 

Faaitoito e faaipoipo

Me and Elder Langlois. At the ocean, but Not in the ocean!!!

Ahhhh yeah!!!!! And thanks for the sweet bear shirt mom!

I put the things that matter most to me above my bed. Temple. My family. Christ. Bear.

Me and Kevin. He's a guy that lives in our area.

Rahi roa Papa'iraa (Many Big Writings)

Hey Everyone!!! 

So where to begin!? This week has been pretty uneventful. We had a lot of lessons with in-actives and excommunicates. It's really cool to teach people like this. They are so willing to except the gospel and when you teach them something they've forgotten…it's like a light comes on and they can feel the truthfulness of it again. There's a quote in PMG (preach my gospel) from Elder Boyd K. Packer that says, and I'm quoting from memory but I think it says " when you're teaching someone the gospel…you're not introducing something new or foreign, you're telling their spirits something they knew before but now they've forgotten. You're talking to the light of Christ that's already in them" and it's so true. It's honestly like a light going on!! We teach an excommunicated member named Yanki and he is so awesome. The other day I taught him about the Atonement of Christ and afterwards he bore really powerful testimony about it and it was super cool to see that! We also found a lot of potential new investigators and this week is packed with lessons!! Im super excited to find someone new and teach them from the beginning!! I love you ALL!! Thanks for all you do !!!!

Love, 

Elder Cole Porter

Our zone with President and sister Bize..

Papa Noel qui danse...

NCordial Salutations from Faaripo Toute la Monde! Well this week has been fun and interesting.  So where to begin.  I'm going to start with Christmas Eve! We had a giant party with all the missionaries from Tahiti and Moorea. ( One of the prettiest sights in Tahiti is the distant mountains of Moorea. It looks really cool! However the mountains of moorea should not be confused with the Mines of Moria!) Anyway we had a giant party and each zone had to perform a christmas sketch. So our zone sang the twelve days of christmas. Unfortunately, I was given the first day. My line to sing was "a papa noel qui danse" which means a santa clause that dances! So in front of over a 100 missionaries (and the mission president) I had to sing by myself and dance...12 Dang times...dressed as santa clause! Needless to say I am now known as "Papa noel" to the entire mission! I have talked to President Bize three times since the party, and every time he talks about my dancing abilities! So thats cool!

 We didn't have a whole lot of lessons this week because of Christmas. But we did have a baptism on Saturday. Her name is Maite, she is extremly nice and has been patient with me as I have tried to teach her in French. The baptism was awesome, and the spirit was super strong as she bore her testimony after the baptism. It was amazing.

 I have one last story. So Saturday night/ sunday morning, I woke up and puked my face off..Serveral times. It was alot of fun! However, I woke up sunday morning and felt good enough to go to church. We had the confirmation for Maite, so I really wanted to go. So, I get up to stand in the circle for the confirmation, and halfway during the blessing, I felt a disturbance in the force and I realized that I was going to puke, and nothing was going to stop that. So, like a boss, I handled the situation beautifully. I pulled my hand out of the middle of the pile, grabbed the arm of the bro next to me, placed it on the shoulder of the brother next to me, and ran out of the chapel and puked my face off....again.  I will admit.... I pooped my pants a little bit also! What a fun day!

 So I officially have Chikungunya!

I puked 8 times yesterday, but today I feel Tony the Tiger grreeeeat! For those of you who have never heard of Chikungunya, it's a mosquito born virus that's going around. A lot of the missionaries have been really sick with it. I thought I'd escape it because the mosquitoes don't seem to bite me as much as other people, but I was wrong.

 So that's about all that has happened! I love you all! Thanks for all the support and love! Talk to you all next week!

Elder Cole Porter

I just found this video on President and Sister Bize facebook page. It's Cole (as "papa Noel") and the other sisters/elders in his mission.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=809259969135391             

Mountains of Moorea

New Years Eve and Chikungunya

Hey Everybody!! Happy  New Years! Ia oaoa i te matahiti api! Bonne Annee! Alright, this week has been really slow. I'm still recovering from Chikungunya and I probably slept for most of the week...but I'm feeling good now. We didn't have any lessons this week because of "Le Fete" which just means the party. Everyone pretty much closes down shop for two weeks and does nothing. It was a good week to be sick. For new years eve we went to Team Feelings house and had a big Faatamaaraa...the food was super good! "Team Feeling" is this really popular musician in Tahiti. And "Faatamaaraa" is kind of like a missionary feeding calendar, when members sign up to feed us. Afterwards we went back to the house and my comp had bought some fireworks (unbeknownst to me)and so they shot some fireworks off. New years day we had a faatamaaraa at this house in the middle of the jungle and they fed me Fafaru again...yum...it wasn't as bad this time but it's still rotten sewer fish!! Afterwards we rode our bikes down this mountain road for like 20 minutes! It was so cool!! We had to cross a stream and it was seriously in the middle of the jungle. So cool!!! 

Alright, so Saturday night I woke up to dogs barking at like midnight. Then I heard the doors slam at the chapel and then someone was banging on our door! My comp woke up and told me to be quiet and then we woke the other elders. It turns out someone broke into the chapel next to our house and then knocked on our door for some reason...weird. It's all good now though because there's nothing of worth in the chapel or our house.

Yesterday I taught the gospel priciples class by myself. My comp left in the middle of it and so I just kind of taught about faith for like 30-40 min, by myself, in a language I don't really speak, but it was good!! I really felt the gift of tongues yesterday, especially when someone in the class talked or asked a question.

Alright well thats all for this week! Love you all!! Thanks for all you do!!

-- Elder Cole Porter

Team Feeling...