Elder Porter Ellis

Aloha Minasan, Literally another insanely fast week. Once the days start blending together time just shoots by. It’s kinda hard remembering what even happened through the week and what day something even happened on. But that’s probably the only thing I have to worry about. Which is a good thing. Also this email is long, but they all are LOL.  This week was a lot of reflection on who I am as a person. Ever since I’ve gotten here one of the biggest things for me has been my thoughts vs. my actions. In the sense that I try my best to do the right, to be kind and loving to others but my thoughts are not always on the same page. It’s so easy for me to get annoyed and think of some unkind words in my head when I don’t like what someone else does or says something. I find myself wondering why I was even so mad in the first place and why I had such angry thoughts towards others. Reminding myself that there is no need to be so angry at others for things that are so small. It really is a st...

Aloha minasan, Today went by fast and before I knew it, pday was already over. That's a pretty good summary for this week. Super busy and fast paced. And by the time I sat down to reflect it was already over.  Something that I find super interesting is that without the bad things in life we can never enjoy the good things. If we didn't have an opposite to everything in life then the end goal would amount to nothing. Not only is that true for the gospel but it is for our life as a whole. Heavenly Father put us here on this earth to experience trials and tribulations so that we are able to grow and overcome them to eventually be there with him again. Recently a lot of trials and tribulations have occurred for me, my friends, and loved ones all around me. When things in your life go south it feels as though everything that you have worked for in your life comes crashing down. During my spring semester at BYU it certainly felt that way. And for some of the loved ones reading this e...

Aloha minasan! This week flew by and the longer I'm here at the MTC the more the days seem to blend together. It's kinda scary. But plenty stuff happened this week so probably a long email. Spiritual Thought: So Elder Gong came to the MTC for the Tuesday devotional. If you don't know who that is, he's a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. So small kine big deal. He had an amazing talk that really could apply to everyone everywhere. Although I feel like he made the talk for us missionaries I felt urged to share this with all of you. Elder Gong talked about a lot of different topics but the one that stood out to me was The World's Perfectionist Treadmill. Now if any of you have ever had the displeasure of running on a treadmill you'd know that it won't ever stop unless you willingly press stop or hop off of it. Elder Gong correlated a treadmill to the never ending cycle for the need for perfection that the world requires of us. Everywhere around the w...

Aloha Minasan! Okay I know I said last week felt like the longest week ever but I changed my mind. It was most definitely this week. But like in the sense where throughout the week it felt long but as I write this email it felt very very short.  Weekly thought: The worth of a singular soul. Over the course of this week through personal study and by chance I've been seeing a lot about the importance of sharing the gospel and the worth of a soul. More specifically the worth of our own souls. Throughout my time at the MTC I have seen a lot of missionaries with bad attitudes or thoughts about this mission. Basically seemingly being on the mission for the wrong reasons. Although making that choice to go on a mission was a big decision to make. The reasons we go on missions are just as important.  For example, during the Tuesday missionary devotional Emily Bell Freeman talked about the importance of one thing. For example when her family went to disneyland, what was the one ride the...