Elder Porter Ellis

  Aloha 皆さん、 Brahhhhh this week was stressful. One of the various responsibilities I received as first counselor is to conduct sacrament meetings. Which is something I never thought I'd have to do, much less in Japanese. It would have been fine but I also had the “opportunity” to give a talk. I usually don't mind giving talks but since I'm on the branch presidency I get the lovely “opportunity” to be the last speaker. And in Miyako there's only 2 speakers. And the sacrament portion only takes 15 minutes. Which leaves 45 minutes for talks and closing hymns. So I got to fill up the remaining time. But regardless, everytime I get the opportunity to give a talk it gives me some actual time where I have to sit down and reflect on the topic I'm talking about.  As I reflected, one of the things I thought about was trusting In God's timing and the love of Jesus Christ. In a lot of points in my life and my time as a missionary my lack of trust in God's timing and ove...

  Aloha 皆さん、 So we just had transfers this past Thursday. I moved away from Kumamoto all the way to Miyako Island! As much of a pain being Zone Leader was, I really did love both of my ZL areas so so much. Honestly I could've finished off my mission in Kumamoto and stayed for 5 transfers and I would've been so happy. It was especially hard to say goodbye to all the college students and my 愛する companion.  I'm super stoked about Miyakojima though! It's a part of the Okinawa zone but realistically we are just on our own out here. The nearest pair of young missionaries are about 100 miles away on another island and both of the islands are closer to Taiwan than to Okinawa. Other than the beach there's not much here and my companion is Japanese so I won't be speaking much English at all. I also became the first counselor and clerk for the branch😅, my companion is the second counsler and the senior missionary Oba 長老 is the branch president. It's pretty interesting...

  Aloha 皆さん、 Wassuppp my fault I have been pretty bad with emails (its been almost a month). I made sure to write one this time because if I didn't I definitely would get an earful from some people. Anyways a lot of stuff has happened and somehow my 100 days left mark passed without me even realizing it. It's crazy but there's not that much longer. (Now 90 days*) My biggest enemy and a lesson I've had to learn my entire life is nostalgia, and anticipation. I swear all my life I've always thought “when I finally (blank) life is gonna be so sick” or “bro I wish I could go back to (blank), I miss those times.” In middle school I wanted to go to high school so bad, in high school I could wait to go to college. In college I just wanted to get a job or go back to high school. On my mission though, I've looked towards ending my mission, wanting to go back to college, past areas, high-school. I couldn't wait till I became DL, Trainer, ZL. Then I wanted to go back to...