I love my tapes and I love Blake!

OK, I just had to say God bless whoever invented a tape recorder because they are the best thing a waiting girl could have! Ha ha, I have gotten two tapes from Blake and a few letters but he doesn't seem to be a fan of writing too much which is another reason the tapes are so awesome because then I get to hear details and cool stories. Elder Tripp even says hi to me on it sometimes which is fun. 

And you know what else I love? This picture! (ha ha, I know it's not related to his mission but I think you will all like it too) It's on my computer desktop he he.

FW: hey sister

This is a short email I got from Blake, I also got one that said, please email old me is the worst thing you could do. Lol.

> Subject: hey sister
> From: blaketheoporter@myldsmail.net
> To: breesshar@msn.com
> Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:08:21 +0000
>
> That's a cool story about Michael, :D i'm proud of him. I love your emails i love laughing at the mispelling and just lots of good times. I may try to make cds or whatever but seriously... probably just mail stuff home even tho it seems like i maybe take pictures once a transfer from the looks of it lol. Our mission president is so strict, we are getting a new one in a couple weeks it'll be weird, i'm glad i've only been here a short while so i can easily adjust. President Rose is cool tho not like he's mean or anything. The computers at the library are so full wow i'd hate it if i had to come to a library all my life to use a computer lol. It's basically mexico meets north carolina here lol it's an interesting place that's for sure. P-days are so nice i think i'd lose my mind if i couldn't do normal things for one day, like shopping at a grocery store is the highlight of my life how weird is that? Give the kids lots of hugs and kisses for me, and mark too.
>
> love elder blake theo porter
>

---

The other season of giving begins 6/24/08. Check out the i'm Talkathon. Check it out!

So I feel so special

I just received another letter from Blake. I was pretty excited. Since I wasn't expecting it at all. But I guess it's because I sent him a package for his birthday. It was cute. Here it is.

6/10/08
Hi Sister,
Thank you all for the package :-) it arrived right on my birthday what a nice family I have. Now I don't need to go shopping for a couple of weeks. I won't lie I am looking forward to emailing more now I hope you got 1 email from. Like old mail is stressful cause I don't' know what letters everyone has gotten and stuff.

Mom sent me a 4 square ball lol I have no idea (that last 4 words where underlined) when I can use it ha ha. You may already know of course but she sent me this huge "greenie" (next word is un readable.) package it's cute. (Little does Blake know I "went" shopping with mom, I was on the phone while she was at the store.) They got me a camel back with which is cool too bad my bike isn't here yet, I cold barely fit my scriptures in it I haven't put water in it yet...

Well hopefully Ali didn't forget it was my birthday I'll be sad if I don't get a package from her. I really hope I get a letter from someone saying they got my memory card it's stressful to think about.
It is really fun out here we are getting to know the members and it's cool. If eel like an alien everyone just stares at my name tag everywhere i go. Lol Mom got me even more stationary and like weird greenish/blackish shorts lol like I was hoping for a tie. Someone better send me a tie. I am glad you sent me popcorn the had no selection here and i bought some really bad tasting kind, gross. This is the buckle of the bible belt, I've heard our mission is the lowest baptising mission in the U.S., it's hard to teach the people but we talk and testify at every doorstep cause they're too polite to slam the door lol.
Well my hand hurts and I have like 8 more letters. See you all give everyone hugs.
Love Elder Blake Theo Porter

Yay, a letter from Plainview :)

Ok, so last week I was all sad that I didn't get a letter lol I know I probably still hold the record but still, I was expecting one. So when I checked the mailbox today, not allowing myself to get my hopes up, I was very happy to see a pretty green envelope addressed to "Ali 'Cutie Pie' Monjar". It looks like he wrote it Friday which would explain why I didn't get it until today. He doesn't give any information that I haven't already read on the blog but it was still nice to hear from him personally. 

But holy cow, it was difficult to read. He said "In the MTC I realized I suck at cursive. So you get letters from me in cursive so I can practice!"  and  "I feel retarded, like this

 is my first time writing ever lol."  It looked like it :-P  If you think his print is hard to read, his cursive is next to impossible at times. Later in the letter he adds, "Ugh my letter looks like a fifth grader wrote it!" Sadly, he wasn't exaggerating. Lol, well with practice, I'm sure he will get better - at least I hope very much he does if my letters are doomed to be written in cursive. ;-)

I don't know if you can see it very well but here is a picture.

Directly from Blake's email.

The subject was Thank God for Baptist:

Lol i got kicked off the library computers but thankfully there's a baptist university here where we can use computers for a little bit.  I am still sending a circ. mail sorry i will try to email you guys personally when i have time.  So ya meat is gross i can't believe they kill that many cows everyday but i think our district is gonna try to have district meeting up here some week then we'll all go take a tour.  We have to drive for almost an hour to get to district meeting each week.  We have a car and i got my bike finally we do mostly drive tho, plainview isn't very big but we cover all of it and it's kinda sparse at the edges lol.
     I didn't give Joe Ortiz a blessing mom i gave Guillermo Guerrero a blessing, he's a member who just got active again and is trying to stop smoking.  We've given up on Joe the guy that got us manicures i just think he isn't gonna change anything he has girlfirends and he smokes and drinks, everyone does here.  Everyone believes in god tho, in christ, i haven't met a single person who doesn't go to church yet.  There's tons of churchs in this little town, like 2 or 3 catholic ones, cause there's tons of mexicans here, and a bunch of baptist too.  The Church of Christ is popular here too down south i guess and Texas especially.  Everyone says they'll "pray for us" like we're going to hell lol.  We met a crazy guy like 2 days ago he was like teaching our doctrine to us.  He wasn't part of a church i think cause he has such crazy ideas.  But he was like teaching us about Melchesidec and like i dunno it was funny he used scriptures we use lol.  We were just like agreeing with him and he kept going he was throwing stuff on the ground and like kinda yelling sometimes, totally a preacher kinda guy.  Very unusual, he thinks he can become perfect by reading scriptures in the mirror, he has some book i can't remember what it was but some guy wrote it and it's like really good stuff a lot of it.  But the weird part is ya he'll like read a scripture in the mirror and say "amen" then read another, like 3 scriptures everyday i guess.  Weird people here.
     Every kid lives with each other of course and there's like no fathers in the world i swear.  Being here i definitely understand why there's polygamy, there are definitely a lot more girls going to heaven than guys.  Ugh time running out... Must type faster... Elder Tripp and I spoke in church yesterday, it was a real blessing cause now the members love us lol we already have more dinner appointments for this week than we had the past two weeks combined (isn't hard to beat 1).
     I can't believe Sarah tried to get another dog that cracks me up.  I'd print out Melinda's book of suggestions but i'd be broke it cost 45 cents to print a page at this heathen university.  I guess i should be grateful i get to use their internet.  So ya texas, and plainview, is a very crazy place.  Really most the people are super nice, but occasionally you'll get the craziest person in the world.  Lol some elders in another town got a bible literally thrown at them while they were on their bikes, funny stuff i hope it happens to me.  You can tell most people have been taught false stuff about our church they just like look at our tags and are pissed.  And they think we re-wrote the bible and stuff.  No one has mentioned or asked me about polygamy but i bet it's in their minds a lot.  I heard the El Derado people are gonna settle again somewhere by plainview i dunno if that's true, total heresay, heard it at the nail salon lol.
    Well i have cramps in my wrists.  Please no more questions about how i'm getting pictures home i think that's the main topic in every letter i've received from mom and sharon lol.  What's the site for my blog? i think i can check it out if i have time like there's no rules against i don't think.  I know a lot of missionaries still use facebook and stuff, which is lame i wouldn't even want to, but i hear this blog page is revolutionizing the internet.  Guillermo is gonna teach us a little spanish since everyone speaks it here but me and Elder Tripp.  O ya ali's family sent me a huge package of Otter Pops lol so awesome it was expensive to ship.  Anyways... Sounds like everything is going awesome, i can't believe Dad's luck he does always find crazy situations, good thing he can handle them i'd freak out.  K my hands are falling off.

Love, Elder Blake Theo Porter


 

My old First Letter

So this is my first and only letter from Elder Porter dated May 22nd. It was when he was in the MTC. I just wanted to mention a few cute things. He first feels bad that he didn't get a letter to me for my birthday. He probably is remembering me complaining like a little princess about when Ryan was on his mission and he actually wrote a letter on my birthday but didn't mention it. I am over it, and it was so cute that he mentioned even feeling bad about it. He said it was way nice to see the newbies come in a week later when he was there. He said "the longest week of my career is finally over, I hope it picks up." As he mentioned in a recent letter, teaching is the best part and he's surprised how comfortable he feels while he's doing it. The sweetest part was this:
"You and Ryan are such awesome examples this is a weird life I have lots of respect for anyone that does."
He jokes about some nervouse sisters that practice taught them, and he said it must have been his gook looks lol. And my favorite was "give a hug to John for me." I just love him. Mom you did a good job picking some pics from the 136 just from the MTC! And he thought he wouldn't be taking pictures. He is never lacking in surprises.

Pictures from the MTC and arrival at Plainview