Elder Cole Brigham Porter: Jungle tracting, robbery & other fun stuff

Hey everyone,

So this week was pretty interesting. It was VERY hot and we did much walking. We have transfers next week and I'm pretty sure I'm being transferred but we'll see. We didn't have very good numbers but we worked really hard, And I'm very tired so I know we did the best we could.

So our area is progressing very well. "H", our convert from last week is doing awesome. She has really good support from her husband. She's already a missionary. She fought off an adventist neighbor who asked her a bunch of questions. He was super confused about why she got baptized into the Church, but she wouldn't even listen to his message. Uhhh, probably because we teach the true restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! I was very proud of her.

We are working right now towards finding new investigators so we can start teaching a lot of lessons. Saturday was a very interesting, difficult day. Just to start, we walked about 22 km or like 14 miles in total. We walked all day just to find some lessons but the problem was that no one was home and that everyone that WAS home was either drinking or smoking. We literally walked into neighborhoods where people told us to go away because they were too busy smoking paka (marijuana). Some drunk guys made fun of us and no one was receptive to the message. Its rare that we get made fun of or that people are mean like that. People usually have a lot of respect for the missionaries but not Saturday. We walked a lot! I don't know if I've ever told you, but most of the people live on the borders of the island and the middle of the island is all jungle. But....there are some people who venture into the jungle to make their homes. So Saturday was one of the days where we went up into the jungle to find some people to teach. You have to hike upwards, and there's usually just a dirt path (no roads), and it's wet, and hot!!! Imagine hiking up a mountain, wearing church clothes and sandals. And then imagine that you're also inside a 95 degree steam shower while you're hiking, with muddy dirt, and trees and branches and bushes to push through. Got that all in your mind? That's about how our day was, but, It still ended up being a fun day. I fell into mud at one point and sprained my knee which gave me a light chuckle.

Oh yeah, we also got robbed this week. Someone broke into our house and stole 60 bucks from Elder Barlow, Me and Elder Thia's shoes (this is the second time this month my shoes have been stolen!!! I'm super fiu (fiu means FED UP in Tahitian),

a necklace my mom sent me for investigators, and the weirdest thing of all, Shoe Shine, they stole shoe shine....? I guess they want to have shiny sandals?!?!

Anyway, Raurea, another investigator, is going to be baptized this Saturday. She might be going to Bora Bora to get baptized though, because her uncle is in the Bishopric there. She's very solid and I'm very happy for her.

We have a group of two couples who started the lessons this week. We watched the Joseph Smith movie with them and they all really liked it. They asked some really cool questions afterwards.

I would just like to finish with my testimony that I know the Church is true. I know that Jesus is the Christ. I know He loves us and that he's always there for us. He sometimes lets us struggle because He knows we can handle it and that it will make us stronger. I know He lives. I love you all!! Have a fantastic week!

Love,

Elder Cole Porter