Family!
Alright. Yes. Mhm. Missionary work. Yes.
It's been a pretty good week. A bit strange, though. For me, at least. A few weeks ago, President Campero visited our branch, and realized that none of the members know what they're doing in regards to the leadership of the church. Campero set out to fix that. How can he fix it? Through the missionaries, of course! So he called my companion to be the branch secretary. Now he has a bunch of branch leadership meetings to go to where he essentially is establishing a standard for the functioning of the Church out here in Lugansk. He knows how to go about all that, since he's served in branch presidencies back home and he's Russian and all. But it's not my calling, and I can't contribute a whole lot. So I have had a lot of alone time in the freezing cold church building to read or play piano. That's been a good chunk of my week. Not that I'm complaining- I do love having time to read the scriptures and everything. And I've been re-reading Jesus the Christ, so that's all good.
Oh, I think it was Bailey that mentioned President Uchtdorf's talk a few weeks ago where he was called to be the Elder's Quorum Teacher in Texas. Funny enough, we have a situation here that is very similar to that one. We have a Canadian named Lance in our branch who speaks essentially no Russian. And he was just called to be the Elder's Quorum Teacher. It's very interesting having a teacher that is trying to speak in Russian to a room full of Ukrainians and missionaries. We missionaries are the only ones that actually understand everything that goes on in those lessons, between Lance's broken Russian and the quorum members' comments. It's very interesting.
Lance is actually kind of a mission mystery. No one really knows why a Canadian self-proclaimed cowboy is out here in the boonies of Ukraine. He doesn't even seem to know. We have a lot of interesting exchanges with him. I'm sorry, but no amount of writing will do the situation justice. It's just interesting.
R and N are doing very well (that's the branch president's son). They've been through essentially every lesson that they need to hear before baptism and they are still very accepting and open. It's so refreshing teaching someone progressing so well! Every other one of our investigators is stuck in a point where we can't really help them a whole lot to do what they need to do. There's a point where the missionary lessons aren't enough to motivate further growth and the investigator has to take steps of his own. People we are teaching are having a hard time with this, in many different ways. We can only pray for them and continue meeting with them.
This Friday is Transfer Calls. That's when the AP's (Assistants to the President) call everyone that will be transferred to a new area and tell them they need to pack up and get ready to go to Transfer Meeting. We have been very interested in discussing possibilities of what will change. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be leaving Lugansk this transfer. I'll know next week! Oh, the anticipation.
Hmmm... I can't think of a whole lot else that I can share right now. My current district of missionaries is awesome. We have all become pretty close friends, and we have very good times together. I'm enjoying my mission, and consistently trying to make every minute count. I'm satisfied thus far- and it's already been 5 months! Since entering the MTC, at least. That is so weird to think about! Time flies when you're having fun.. or when you're working like crazy to bring about the kingdom of God on earth! Oh, missionary life.
Thanks for telling me all the news from back home! I really appreciate that more than I can say. I love having a picture in my mind of the goings on back home. It actually really helps me to focus on the work at hand, and not wonder about home life.
I love you! Love you, Dad! Love you, Mom! Love you, Bailey! Love you, Aubrey! Love you, Joseph! And if anyone else is reading this, I probably love you too. Just in a slightly different way. Короче, I love you, family!
Til next week!
Elder Brandon Porter
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
"Hyperboles are the best" - 10/17/11
Family,
I'm doing really well right now. I've hit a stride here with missionary work. I'm used to the area, my mission district, and the work itself. So, life is good. It's just now starting to get pretty cold here in Lugansk. We had a week of really cold weather before the heat turned on in our apartment (which happened yesterday), so in that week I often bundled up in a sea of blankets in order to do not freeze to death while studying the scriptures. That's a little bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea. Hyperboles are the best.
R and N are doing awesome! They are very willing to meet often and they pore over every reading assignment we give them. They are so ready for this gospel, it's unreal. We've had two lessons with both of them this week, as well as two lessons with just R. They are progressing very very well.
It's great to hear that Jeffrey is doing well, and that Taylor is doing well too. Taylor has some crazy days ahead of him, that I don't exactly envy him for. Any news on how he's doing with the language or anything? I'd love to have little updates. And it's good to know that Jeffrey got my letter! Also, I can relate to his struggles that you related in that excerpt from his letter. Missionaries of the world unite!
I actually just the other day rediscovered my pack of seasonings. We are very excited to find uses for them in the near future. I don't know yet which seasonings would be good to have more of, but thank you for what you've sent! And brown sugar and peanut butter would be fantastic here. I've been really craving some no-bake cookies lately and things of the like. Those are really good ideas. Also, we just discovered the soup recipes that you sent me, and since it's getting colder, we are going to start trying it. I'm excited! By the way, do you know any kind of substitution for chicken broth? Or a different name for it that I could find? In English, of course.
I'm doing pretty good on clothes right now. I can't really think of anything I need in the near future. In fact, I'm not using all of my clothes that I have now. I have a couple sets of socks and underwear and such in a type of shrine in my suitcase, because they've never been washed or worn in the Ukraine. They are a reminder of dryers of the past. Soft clothes. Mmmmm.
Tell Bailey I sympathize with her struggles with Hattan in Geometry. I absolutely hated Geometry. No, not all math was created equal. When God came to the creation of geometrical proofs, he grimaced and told man, "I'm sorry". I'm sure of it. I could gripe about it with her if she'd like. Koroche, I'm not a fan. (and I just realized that's not an english word.. we use it like one here. It means "basically", essentially)
In response to what you said about scriptures, Mom, scriptures definitely are awesome. Like you with your red pencil in D&C, I've gotten a lot of use out of my scripture marking crayon things. I love being able to look back through my scriptures and have previously marked scriptures pop out at me in multicolored goodness! But I've noticed that I tend to have a hard time reading things that were marked in red. So I've taken to marking things that are bad examples in red marks (i.e. Gadianton robbers in 3 Ne. 3:7). There's always so much to learn from the scriptures. Pretty intense reading, too.
As for specifics on this week, there's not a whole lot. I've taken to reading a lot, especially since Antamanov has been sick on and off for the last two weeks. I've read Articles of Faith, Lectures on Faith, John Bytheway's "What I wish I knew before my Mission", I'm rereading Jesus the Christ, and I'm still reading in the scriptures, of course. Missionaries often bring books out here and then leave them in apartments, so I have fun finding little surprises around the house.
My Russian reading speed has pretty well stabilized. I realized that my reading of the Kniga Mormona (for those of you not familiar with the Russian language, that's the Book of Mormon) is pretty consistent and I can finish a chapter in about the time that it takes me to read it in English at a thoughtful pace. I don't often understand every word, of course. It's Russian. But, I can read consistently, which is what counts. That means that my learning curve will skyrocket. Yes!
I can also learn words from listening now. That may sound trivial, but it's a pivotal moment. Up til recently, I could only catch words in conversation that I already knew. But now, I find that I can pick up new phrases that people say and add them to my vocabulary. I'm moving up in the world!
Speaking of learning words, I had a funny exchange with a member yesterday. Antamanov was talking on the phone and she and I were small talking a bit. I hate small talk, by the way. But that's beside the point. In this discussion she asked me if I had a "holiday" tomorrow, meaning P-day. But I didn't know the word for "holiday", so I was really confused. She just kept repeating the same word, expecting that to help me somehow. Finally Antamanov came over and told me what it meant. The sister then rebuked Antamanov saying something along the lines of "He's been here so long and he hasn't learned the word for holiday yet? What's wrong with you?" I realized after that exchange that most of my vocab involves action and motion. There's not a whole lot of time for me to learn words involved in relaxation. Interesting to think about.
So, I'm doing good out here on the opposite end of the globe. Just so you know. And I will be sending more updates in one week's time. So, stay tuned!
Love you, family!
-Elder Brandon Porter
PS. Could you send me Taylor's Denmark address? I realized once I got his MTC address that he was going to be gone too soon to get my letter.
I'm doing really well right now. I've hit a stride here with missionary work. I'm used to the area, my mission district, and the work itself. So, life is good. It's just now starting to get pretty cold here in Lugansk. We had a week of really cold weather before the heat turned on in our apartment (which happened yesterday), so in that week I often bundled up in a sea of blankets in order to do not freeze to death while studying the scriptures. That's a little bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea. Hyperboles are the best.
R and N are doing awesome! They are very willing to meet often and they pore over every reading assignment we give them. They are so ready for this gospel, it's unreal. We've had two lessons with both of them this week, as well as two lessons with just R. They are progressing very very well.
It's great to hear that Jeffrey is doing well, and that Taylor is doing well too. Taylor has some crazy days ahead of him, that I don't exactly envy him for. Any news on how he's doing with the language or anything? I'd love to have little updates. And it's good to know that Jeffrey got my letter! Also, I can relate to his struggles that you related in that excerpt from his letter. Missionaries of the world unite!
I actually just the other day rediscovered my pack of seasonings. We are very excited to find uses for them in the near future. I don't know yet which seasonings would be good to have more of, but thank you for what you've sent! And brown sugar and peanut butter would be fantastic here. I've been really craving some no-bake cookies lately and things of the like. Those are really good ideas. Also, we just discovered the soup recipes that you sent me, and since it's getting colder, we are going to start trying it. I'm excited! By the way, do you know any kind of substitution for chicken broth? Or a different name for it that I could find? In English, of course.
I'm doing pretty good on clothes right now. I can't really think of anything I need in the near future. In fact, I'm not using all of my clothes that I have now. I have a couple sets of socks and underwear and such in a type of shrine in my suitcase, because they've never been washed or worn in the Ukraine. They are a reminder of dryers of the past. Soft clothes. Mmmmm.
Tell Bailey I sympathize with her struggles with Hattan in Geometry. I absolutely hated Geometry. No, not all math was created equal. When God came to the creation of geometrical proofs, he grimaced and told man, "I'm sorry". I'm sure of it. I could gripe about it with her if she'd like. Koroche, I'm not a fan. (and I just realized that's not an english word.. we use it like one here. It means "basically", essentially)
In response to what you said about scriptures, Mom, scriptures definitely are awesome. Like you with your red pencil in D&C, I've gotten a lot of use out of my scripture marking crayon things. I love being able to look back through my scriptures and have previously marked scriptures pop out at me in multicolored goodness! But I've noticed that I tend to have a hard time reading things that were marked in red. So I've taken to marking things that are bad examples in red marks (i.e. Gadianton robbers in 3 Ne. 3:7). There's always so much to learn from the scriptures. Pretty intense reading, too.
As for specifics on this week, there's not a whole lot. I've taken to reading a lot, especially since Antamanov has been sick on and off for the last two weeks. I've read Articles of Faith, Lectures on Faith, John Bytheway's "What I wish I knew before my Mission", I'm rereading Jesus the Christ, and I'm still reading in the scriptures, of course. Missionaries often bring books out here and then leave them in apartments, so I have fun finding little surprises around the house.
My Russian reading speed has pretty well stabilized. I realized that my reading of the Kniga Mormona (for those of you not familiar with the Russian language, that's the Book of Mormon) is pretty consistent and I can finish a chapter in about the time that it takes me to read it in English at a thoughtful pace. I don't often understand every word, of course. It's Russian. But, I can read consistently, which is what counts. That means that my learning curve will skyrocket. Yes!
I can also learn words from listening now. That may sound trivial, but it's a pivotal moment. Up til recently, I could only catch words in conversation that I already knew. But now, I find that I can pick up new phrases that people say and add them to my vocabulary. I'm moving up in the world!
Speaking of learning words, I had a funny exchange with a member yesterday. Antamanov was talking on the phone and she and I were small talking a bit. I hate small talk, by the way. But that's beside the point. In this discussion she asked me if I had a "holiday" tomorrow, meaning P-day. But I didn't know the word for "holiday", so I was really confused. She just kept repeating the same word, expecting that to help me somehow. Finally Antamanov came over and told me what it meant. The sister then rebuked Antamanov saying something along the lines of "He's been here so long and he hasn't learned the word for holiday yet? What's wrong with you?" I realized after that exchange that most of my vocab involves action and motion. There's not a whole lot of time for me to learn words involved in relaxation. Interesting to think about.
So, I'm doing good out here on the opposite end of the globe. Just so you know. And I will be sending more updates in one week's time. So, stay tuned!
Love you, family!
-Elder Brandon Porter
PS. Could you send me Taylor's Denmark address? I realized once I got his MTC address that he was going to be gone too soon to get my letter.
"Referrals! Missionary hey-day!" - 10/10/11
Dear Family,
Alright. It's been another week. Yes. I made the realization the other day that next week marks my 5 month mark of being out on a mission. That's so weird! I feel very young in the mission still, yet I'm in the swing of things here and I know how things run. It's a strange stage to be in on the mission. But, going with what Elder Bennett (I think it was..) said in Conference about when he was climbing a mountain, I decided to look back on the journey I've already traveled. I have definitely come a long ways. Further than I had thought.
I looked through some old Russian notes from my first days in the MTC yesterday. At times lately I've felt slightly incapable with my language capabilities, sometimes feeling like I have been stagnant in my learning. It was good to look back and laugh at how little I knew in the MTC. I realized that I have learned a ton of Russian- I just hadn't seen it in the progression of things. It's great to have the capability to look back on where I've been. Now I am reading Russian at a fairly consistent rate, which is awesome. Have you ever realized that when you read, you don't actually sound out each letter? As we read, we fill in our previous knowledge of the words we're reading. Usually people only read the first and last letter of a word and get a glimpse of the middle, from which you make the assumption of what the word actually is based on that information and context clues. That's all nice and everything, but when you're starting from scratch with a language, it goes very slowly as you painfully sound out each individual letter. Luckily I'm beyond that stage and I can read words like "свидетельство" at a glimpse. That's a good feeling.
Mom asked what I do on P-Days. Well, you're reading the bulk of my P-Day activities right now. Most P-Days revolve around our internet time, because hearing from home is the biggest thing on our mind usually. But besides that, let's see.. We window shop sometimes to see what fun stuff they have in downtown Lugansk. Each P-Day is based around some other activity that we want to do. Like one time we made pizza at the other elders' apartment (since we don't have an oven), sometimes we go to one of our apartments and just hang out and talk, playing guitar. That's most usual. Don't get too excited about the guitar, it's a terrible guitar that some missionary left here months ago. Still fun to play a guitar though! There isn't a whole lot else I can tell you about P-Days in general, since they're just chill time with other missionaries.. Today we're going to go make shaurmas, which are like Ukrainian burritos, full of vegetables, cheese and sausages. I love them. And they're actually Armenian, I think.. Ah, well. They're too good for me to care about their nationality.
The highlight of this week was a miracle that we had. We were doing studies in the evening when Antamanov suddenly felt like he should call the branch president. He called and found out that his son and his girlfriend were over there right then and wanted to hear a message. We had met with them just earlier that week, last Sunday, and had placed a KM (Book of Mormon.. in Russian) with the girlfriend, N. We came, expecting to just have a very basic lesson with them. We found out that N had read through 1 Nephi 17 and was enthralled with our message. R, branch president's son, has taken missionary discussions before and has been filling her in on some details. They were committed to baptism right then and there. They are so sincere in their desire to know more of the Gospel! We've met with them once since then. They're keeping all their reading commitments and actually coming up with spiritual insights of their own! Those of you who have taught anyone anything Gospel related know that that is very unusual. At least it is in my experience. So, they are progressing perfectly and should be baptized within a month or so. I'm so excited for them! They're great. And they told us about how they have a bunch of friends who are interested in our message! Referrals!! Missionary hey-day!
Not a whole lot else happened this week. I love you, family! For some reason, I've felt really good this week. Kind of buoyed. Thank you for your prayers and your thoughts. I'm doing my best out here, and hoping to have some great success soon! Thanks for all the news from back home, I love hearing it.
Anyways, til next week,
-Elder Brandon Porter
Alright. It's been another week. Yes. I made the realization the other day that next week marks my 5 month mark of being out on a mission. That's so weird! I feel very young in the mission still, yet I'm in the swing of things here and I know how things run. It's a strange stage to be in on the mission. But, going with what Elder Bennett (I think it was..) said in Conference about when he was climbing a mountain, I decided to look back on the journey I've already traveled. I have definitely come a long ways. Further than I had thought.
I looked through some old Russian notes from my first days in the MTC yesterday. At times lately I've felt slightly incapable with my language capabilities, sometimes feeling like I have been stagnant in my learning. It was good to look back and laugh at how little I knew in the MTC. I realized that I have learned a ton of Russian- I just hadn't seen it in the progression of things. It's great to have the capability to look back on where I've been. Now I am reading Russian at a fairly consistent rate, which is awesome. Have you ever realized that when you read, you don't actually sound out each letter? As we read, we fill in our previous knowledge of the words we're reading. Usually people only read the first and last letter of a word and get a glimpse of the middle, from which you make the assumption of what the word actually is based on that information and context clues. That's all nice and everything, but when you're starting from scratch with a language, it goes very slowly as you painfully sound out each individual letter. Luckily I'm beyond that stage and I can read words like "свидетельство" at a glimpse. That's a good feeling.
Mom asked what I do on P-Days. Well, you're reading the bulk of my P-Day activities right now. Most P-Days revolve around our internet time, because hearing from home is the biggest thing on our mind usually. But besides that, let's see.. We window shop sometimes to see what fun stuff they have in downtown Lugansk. Each P-Day is based around some other activity that we want to do. Like one time we made pizza at the other elders' apartment (since we don't have an oven), sometimes we go to one of our apartments and just hang out and talk, playing guitar. That's most usual. Don't get too excited about the guitar, it's a terrible guitar that some missionary left here months ago. Still fun to play a guitar though! There isn't a whole lot else I can tell you about P-Days in general, since they're just chill time with other missionaries.. Today we're going to go make shaurmas, which are like Ukrainian burritos, full of vegetables, cheese and sausages. I love them. And they're actually Armenian, I think.. Ah, well. They're too good for me to care about their nationality.
The highlight of this week was a miracle that we had. We were doing studies in the evening when Antamanov suddenly felt like he should call the branch president. He called and found out that his son and his girlfriend were over there right then and wanted to hear a message. We had met with them just earlier that week, last Sunday, and had placed a KM (Book of Mormon.. in Russian) with the girlfriend, N. We came, expecting to just have a very basic lesson with them. We found out that N had read through 1 Nephi 17 and was enthralled with our message. R, branch president's son, has taken missionary discussions before and has been filling her in on some details. They were committed to baptism right then and there. They are so sincere in their desire to know more of the Gospel! We've met with them once since then. They're keeping all their reading commitments and actually coming up with spiritual insights of their own! Those of you who have taught anyone anything Gospel related know that that is very unusual. At least it is in my experience. So, they are progressing perfectly and should be baptized within a month or so. I'm so excited for them! They're great. And they told us about how they have a bunch of friends who are interested in our message! Referrals!! Missionary hey-day!
Not a whole lot else happened this week. I love you, family! For some reason, I've felt really good this week. Kind of buoyed. Thank you for your prayers and your thoughts. I'm doing my best out here, and hoping to have some great success soon! Thanks for all the news from back home, I love hearing it.
Anyways, til next week,
-Elder Brandon Porter
"In life we can always learn something" - 10/3/11
Family!
So, it's been another week. Yup. There it went. I can't believe how fast it goes sometimes. Each day feels really long, but the week is gone like that. You can't see it, but I snapped there, to illustrate how fast it actually went.
Dad asked me to tell a little bit about my daily routine, so I'll try here. Here it goes:
Wake up at 6:30, pray and shower. Slip in and out of consciousness, trying to motivate myself to exercise. Don't exercise. Around 8, have breakfast, then have 3 hours of studies. One hour is for personal scripture study, one for companionship study (discussing what we learned in conjunction with lessons we have that day) and one for language study. Lately for language study I have been reading as much as possible out of the Книга Мормона and making sure I understand what is said. Every day I'm getting tripped up on fewer words, so that's good.
Usually we have one or two lessons set up in a day. We meet them at the branch building and teach them there, because they don't trust us to come into their homes and teach them. That's just how Ukrainians are. As we wait for investigators to show I usually go to the sacrament hall (if you can call it that) and play piano. We usually have about 3 member lessons in a week, and those ones we can actually show up at their house and visit with them. We ride a marshutka when we have to go long distances (I think I've described those before. Tiny bus-type things with crazy drivers). Most people live in the city in a "dom" (Like "dome"). These are essentially apartments that are shoddily made and they fill up any possibly space in the back of and on top of buildings. That's probably confusing. Don't worry, it's communist. But some people live in "lichne dom"s, or "personal homes". These are all over the country side and are anything from a trailer to a nice home. It's pretty random.
Anyways, we get home around 8 and have dinner (yes, we make our own dinner) and do an extra hour of studies. For the first 12 weeks being trained, you have to do this extra hour of studies out of a training manual. Essentially we are just told to read and discuss Preach My Gospel a lot. Good stuff. After that we make calls to try and set up lessons with people, and we plan out the next day. Then we sleep.
I'm sure that you realize that there is a lot more that goes on in any given day. But that's about all I can say that really.. makes sense. Ukraine doesn't make a whole lot of sense when you try to describe it in words. It's weird that way.
So, I told you that Misha was getting baptized this Saturday. That was almost true. He was way excited for it and he passed his interview last Friday with flying colors. He wanted Antamanov to be the one to baptize him. We were obviously very excited for this. Then on Saturday he called out of the blue and told us that he never wants to talk to us ever again and the like. That was kind of a low blow. Antamanov was very depressed after this news, not wanting to do anything the rest of the day. But we had a lesson with Gabriel, a recent convert from Africa, and I forced him to go. Good thing, too. The moment that we started that lesson, the Spirit was so strong. Gabriel said exactly what we needed to hear to lift our spirits, and we were all able to learn something. The best thing about that for me was that I was able to feel the Spirit bring things to my mind to inspire others, and I realized that those things were already in me. I had been wondering that day whether I had anything of worth that I could personally share with people around here that some other person couldn't provide. The Spirit was able to show me that I can fill people's needs in my own way through His help. Basically, that was a very good lesson and each one of us heard what we needed at that moment.
I've been thinking a lot about the Gospel. Funny enough. And in my reading I found that the Spirit is a spirit of truth. It dawned on me that this isn't just some church that God gave us- it's eternal truth that God is sharing with us. Studying further, I found the principle that there must be opposition in all things. What begins must end. The conclusion that must be drawn from that is that anything eternal is and has been for all time; no beginning and no end. Truth found in the Gospel, in the arts, in sciences, it's all eternal truth that works together and it is all from God. That also led me to think about how charity is the only thing which "never faileth" (Moroni 7:47?). Charity is the Love of Christ. His love has no beginning and no end. We can share in that. I just love going deeper into these doctrines. It's so.. enriching.
I had a terrible lesson this week that got me thinking a bit about this more. It was with a sister in the ward. She thought that she knew everything that we were going to say, and kept finishing our sentences saying, "See? I already KNOW all this." The spirit of contention was very prevalent. It got me thinking about how I at times have thought that I know everything that a teacher is saying in Sunday School or things like that. But it's that very moment that you think that which is when there is something much deeper that the Lord could be teaching you. I've come to realize that there is something to be learned in every instance in life. No matter how cliche the lesson is or how much previous knowledge we have on the subject. In life we can always learn something.
Now you know a bunch of my recent spiritual thoughts. Take it for what it's worth. Not a whole lot else noteworthy happened this week, so I think I will end it there. Just letting you know I'm working hard and enjoying my mission. Now to just get some Ukrainians in the water!
Til next week!
Love,
Elder Brandon Porter
PS. Could you send me Taylor's mission mailing address? While you're at it, let anyone know that they can send me anything and that I promise that I will respond to everything I receive. Thank you!
So, it's been another week. Yup. There it went. I can't believe how fast it goes sometimes. Each day feels really long, but the week is gone like that. You can't see it, but I snapped there, to illustrate how fast it actually went.
Dad asked me to tell a little bit about my daily routine, so I'll try here. Here it goes:
Wake up at 6:30, pray and shower. Slip in and out of consciousness, trying to motivate myself to exercise. Don't exercise. Around 8, have breakfast, then have 3 hours of studies. One hour is for personal scripture study, one for companionship study (discussing what we learned in conjunction with lessons we have that day) and one for language study. Lately for language study I have been reading as much as possible out of the Книга Мормона and making sure I understand what is said. Every day I'm getting tripped up on fewer words, so that's good.
Usually we have one or two lessons set up in a day. We meet them at the branch building and teach them there, because they don't trust us to come into their homes and teach them. That's just how Ukrainians are. As we wait for investigators to show I usually go to the sacrament hall (if you can call it that) and play piano. We usually have about 3 member lessons in a week, and those ones we can actually show up at their house and visit with them. We ride a marshutka when we have to go long distances (I think I've described those before. Tiny bus-type things with crazy drivers). Most people live in the city in a "dom" (Like "dome"). These are essentially apartments that are shoddily made and they fill up any possibly space in the back of and on top of buildings. That's probably confusing. Don't worry, it's communist. But some people live in "lichne dom"s, or "personal homes". These are all over the country side and are anything from a trailer to a nice home. It's pretty random.
Anyways, we get home around 8 and have dinner (yes, we make our own dinner) and do an extra hour of studies. For the first 12 weeks being trained, you have to do this extra hour of studies out of a training manual. Essentially we are just told to read and discuss Preach My Gospel a lot. Good stuff. After that we make calls to try and set up lessons with people, and we plan out the next day. Then we sleep.
I'm sure that you realize that there is a lot more that goes on in any given day. But that's about all I can say that really.. makes sense. Ukraine doesn't make a whole lot of sense when you try to describe it in words. It's weird that way.
So, I told you that Misha was getting baptized this Saturday. That was almost true. He was way excited for it and he passed his interview last Friday with flying colors. He wanted Antamanov to be the one to baptize him. We were obviously very excited for this. Then on Saturday he called out of the blue and told us that he never wants to talk to us ever again and the like. That was kind of a low blow. Antamanov was very depressed after this news, not wanting to do anything the rest of the day. But we had a lesson with Gabriel, a recent convert from Africa, and I forced him to go. Good thing, too. The moment that we started that lesson, the Spirit was so strong. Gabriel said exactly what we needed to hear to lift our spirits, and we were all able to learn something. The best thing about that for me was that I was able to feel the Spirit bring things to my mind to inspire others, and I realized that those things were already in me. I had been wondering that day whether I had anything of worth that I could personally share with people around here that some other person couldn't provide. The Spirit was able to show me that I can fill people's needs in my own way through His help. Basically, that was a very good lesson and each one of us heard what we needed at that moment.
I've been thinking a lot about the Gospel. Funny enough. And in my reading I found that the Spirit is a spirit of truth. It dawned on me that this isn't just some church that God gave us- it's eternal truth that God is sharing with us. Studying further, I found the principle that there must be opposition in all things. What begins must end. The conclusion that must be drawn from that is that anything eternal is and has been for all time; no beginning and no end. Truth found in the Gospel, in the arts, in sciences, it's all eternal truth that works together and it is all from God. That also led me to think about how charity is the only thing which "never faileth" (Moroni 7:47?). Charity is the Love of Christ. His love has no beginning and no end. We can share in that. I just love going deeper into these doctrines. It's so.. enriching.
I had a terrible lesson this week that got me thinking a bit about this more. It was with a sister in the ward. She thought that she knew everything that we were going to say, and kept finishing our sentences saying, "See? I already KNOW all this." The spirit of contention was very prevalent. It got me thinking about how I at times have thought that I know everything that a teacher is saying in Sunday School or things like that. But it's that very moment that you think that which is when there is something much deeper that the Lord could be teaching you. I've come to realize that there is something to be learned in every instance in life. No matter how cliche the lesson is or how much previous knowledge we have on the subject. In life we can always learn something.
Now you know a bunch of my recent spiritual thoughts. Take it for what it's worth. Not a whole lot else noteworthy happened this week, so I think I will end it there. Just letting you know I'm working hard and enjoying my mission. Now to just get some Ukrainians in the water!
Til next week!
Love,
Elder Brandon Porter
PS. Could you send me Taylor's mission mailing address? While you're at it, let anyone know that they can send me anything and that I promise that I will respond to everything I receive. Thank you!
"I'm not the newbie" - 9/26/11
Fam!
I gave up on numbering the letter, if you hadn't noticed. I don't really know anymore.. Weeks are beginning to blur together.
First, thank you for all the pictures from your vacation! That was really cool to see. I especially enjoyed seeing the kids trying to read Russian/Ukrainian. Joseph's amazed face at seeing both books made me laugh. Also, you guys have already changed a bit. Aubrey and Joseph look older than when I left. Weird! Bailey looks like.. like she feels older. That's the best way I can describe it. Mom and Dad, you look the same as always. Keep it up! People have actually commented on how Mom looks very young when I share my picture album. And then they ask where my Dad is, because he isn't in hardly any pictures (since he took most of them). I have to point out some obscure picture for them and they're like "Oh, THERE he is!" So, send me more pictures of Dad!
This week a lot happened. First things first, we met with M and J a couple times. M is very ready for his baptism- October 8th! So exciting. And J is totally ready. We just need him to see that it's time for him to be baptized. We had one of the most spiritual lessons ever with him this last week, and he still left saying he needs to think about it. I'm praying very hard that he can be baptized on the 8th as well. Also, the other guy who was going to be baptized, A, ended up not wanting to learn the gospel and just wanted to access our welfare and unload his problems on us. That wasn't initially a problem, as we're willing to teach anyone, but it got so bad with him that we had to drop him. I hope he comes around at some point.
This week was Zone Conference also, on Thursday and Friday. Since Lugansk is about 3 hours away from Center Donetsk, we came in on Wednesday evening and stayed with local elders until Friday night. I really enjoyed seeing the other missionaries in my Zone. I had forgotten that there were more than 4 missionaries in the entire world! Lugansk is so out of the way that nothing/no one really makes it out to see us. I got to see Elder Harris again, which was awesome. We are pretty close now. I feel like I've known him for years now, yet it's only since being MTC companions in May... Weird mission time. Also, the new set of missionaries were in- I wasn't the newbie! I'm through with being the complete youngest missionary in the mission! Woot! I was actually able to give some language study advice to some friends that I already knew from the MTC who came in this transfer. I felt very good about that.
President and Sister Campero are awesome. President Campero gave us a ton of mission statistics in Zone Conference, but he always seems to make it interesting and fun. He's a very light hearted, loving man. And then the Camperos came up to Lugansk on Sunday for a bunch of interviews in our branch. Since we had the keys to the building, we had to wait around until he finished. I got to spend most of that time talking to Sister Campero. She has a very interesting life story. I have so much respect for her - she is learning English while serving in Ukraine! Her English really is very good, but she's self conscious about it. I was able to communicate a little bit in Spanish with her, but I realized that Russian has corrupted all of my foreign language vocabulary. I am able to understand most anything said in Spanish or German, but I can't respond very well because Russian words bubble up to the surface. Anyways, I had a good time talking to her and it was a great experience.
Today we don't have a whole lot of time at the Internet club, so I'm going to have to cut this a bit shorter than usual. I love and miss all of you! Thank you for keeping me updated on life back home, I appreciate it very much. You don't even know how much.
Til next Monday!
Love,
Elder Brandon Porter
I gave up on numbering the letter, if you hadn't noticed. I don't really know anymore.. Weeks are beginning to blur together.
First, thank you for all the pictures from your vacation! That was really cool to see. I especially enjoyed seeing the kids trying to read Russian/Ukrainian. Joseph's amazed face at seeing both books made me laugh. Also, you guys have already changed a bit. Aubrey and Joseph look older than when I left. Weird! Bailey looks like.. like she feels older. That's the best way I can describe it. Mom and Dad, you look the same as always. Keep it up! People have actually commented on how Mom looks very young when I share my picture album. And then they ask where my Dad is, because he isn't in hardly any pictures (since he took most of them). I have to point out some obscure picture for them and they're like "Oh, THERE he is!" So, send me more pictures of Dad!
This week a lot happened. First things first, we met with M and J a couple times. M is very ready for his baptism- October 8th! So exciting. And J is totally ready. We just need him to see that it's time for him to be baptized. We had one of the most spiritual lessons ever with him this last week, and he still left saying he needs to think about it. I'm praying very hard that he can be baptized on the 8th as well. Also, the other guy who was going to be baptized, A, ended up not wanting to learn the gospel and just wanted to access our welfare and unload his problems on us. That wasn't initially a problem, as we're willing to teach anyone, but it got so bad with him that we had to drop him. I hope he comes around at some point.
This week was Zone Conference also, on Thursday and Friday. Since Lugansk is about 3 hours away from Center Donetsk, we came in on Wednesday evening and stayed with local elders until Friday night. I really enjoyed seeing the other missionaries in my Zone. I had forgotten that there were more than 4 missionaries in the entire world! Lugansk is so out of the way that nothing/no one really makes it out to see us. I got to see Elder Harris again, which was awesome. We are pretty close now. I feel like I've known him for years now, yet it's only since being MTC companions in May... Weird mission time. Also, the new set of missionaries were in- I wasn't the newbie! I'm through with being the complete youngest missionary in the mission! Woot! I was actually able to give some language study advice to some friends that I already knew from the MTC who came in this transfer. I felt very good about that.
President and Sister Campero are awesome. President Campero gave us a ton of mission statistics in Zone Conference, but he always seems to make it interesting and fun. He's a very light hearted, loving man. And then the Camperos came up to Lugansk on Sunday for a bunch of interviews in our branch. Since we had the keys to the building, we had to wait around until he finished. I got to spend most of that time talking to Sister Campero. She has a very interesting life story. I have so much respect for her - she is learning English while serving in Ukraine! Her English really is very good, but she's self conscious about it. I was able to communicate a little bit in Spanish with her, but I realized that Russian has corrupted all of my foreign language vocabulary. I am able to understand most anything said in Spanish or German, but I can't respond very well because Russian words bubble up to the surface. Anyways, I had a good time talking to her and it was a great experience.
Today we don't have a whole lot of time at the Internet club, so I'm going to have to cut this a bit shorter than usual. I love and miss all of you! Thank you for keeping me updated on life back home, I appreciate it very much. You don't even know how much.
Til next Monday!
Love,
Elder Brandon Porter
"Interesting reflection point"- 9/19/11
Family!
How's it going? Ukraine has been treating me pretty well lately, so I'm doing pretty awesome. Good companion, good district, great area. . . it's all going pretty good.
With my first transfer finishing up this past week, it's been an interesting reflection point. It feels like I just got in country, still. I don't feel that much more prepared now than if I had just stepped off the plane. But then I look around at the things I'm doing and how much I am understanding, and I've realized that I actually have come a long ways. Sometimes I will speak to members that understand English and they will speak Russian as I respond in English. It is a strange, yet satisfying feeling to know that I can do that. And in Russian I can communicate a lot. It's just painful at times. Imagine squeezing your brain, trying to wring all the Russian you know out of it. That is what it feels like some days. But, again, it's gotten worlds better in the last transfer!
I've also realized that I've never really struggled with the missionary work itself. All the little spiritual thoughts and testifying and such have never been a problem for me. The only real barrier there has been the language itself. I count that as a huge blessing. In the MTC, at least, I talked with a lot of people who said that they didn't even really know how to lead a discussion about gospel principles or how to convey their message. I absolutely love teaching others what I know to be truth, and the Gospel is the ultimate truth that's out there.
This week I had one of my favorite lessons of the mission thus far. It was very literally a "Great Spirit" lesson, like that of Ammon teaching King Lamoni in the Book of Mormon. I was on split with Elder Arrington, who's been out for two transfers more than me, and we taught this awesome guy named A. It was primarily a discussion about the nature of God and the purpose of being obedient to Him. His idea of God was that He is just a conglomerate of all the spirits of every living thing in the world, and that by following good principles we stay "in grain" with this Great Spirit. We had a great discussion about this. In talking we got him to see how closely most of his views match up with that of our church, and we were able to lead him through a simple discussion about the Plan of Salvation as well. Oh, and I led this lesson. It was a great feeling to be able to be the primary means of bringing light and truth to someone else. A left very satisfied with the discussion, and agreeing to continue meeting with missionaries. The only thing that was sad for me is that A is in the other elders' area, and so I won't get to teach him more. But, it's not about me. It's about him finding truth and coming to a knowledge of God.
Speaking of, M (the first guy we had on date forever ago) is finally about to get baptized! There were complications in how we could get someone to give him the baptismal interview, but now that's all worked out and he's set to be baptized on October 8th. He has come so far spiritually. He is very excited to be baptized. I can't wait until the day he does get baptized. I just wish I could bottle up that excitement and give it to other people here. Some people are just THIS close, but they need to have time to think and they talk themselves out of it. Ukrainians are not the kind of people to make big life changes on a whim. This is why we missionaries are here.
About my life.. hmm. What has been going on in my life? I've just been missionary-ing, I guess. In my free time I find myself thinking a lot about music. I play piano when we wait for investigators and we come up with random songs as we walk around the city. Music always lifts spirits, I've found. Music is awesome. Music is life. God knew what He was doing when he created music for the enjoyment of man.
Well, there's not a whole lot else going on at the moment. Just trying to find more people to teach. I'm asking President Campero if we can bring back English Club in our mission. We get asked all the time by people on the streets when they can meet with us for some English practice. That's my latest idea for getting to find more people to bring to Christ. Serve the people by teaching them English. I think it could be very effective.
Anyways, I love you, family, and I look forward to your next letter!
-Elder Porter
Brandon usually sends an additional letter to me. Here are a few excerpts from that letter, as well.
I'm doing great here, thanks for asking, Mom. Yup, I get to stay with Antamanov for another transfer, at least. We get along very well, which is nice. Most people in the mission don't get along so well with others, and I've been told that I will be a very desirable companion because I'm so compatible with anyone.
Yes, Lugansk is the chosen land of the Donetsk Mission. It's a smaller town than other areas, and it's generally cleaner, the people are nicer, and every missionary's favorite fast food, Blinok, is based around here. The main reason that most missionaries jokingly call it Рай (heaven) is that there are tons more girls than guys living in this city. I have no idea how that works out, but it is very true. My favorite thing is that there are tons of med schools and the like around here, so I get to meet people from all over the world, primarily Africans. Africans are always so polite and happy to talk, I love it!
About Sundays. So, the only people who have keys to the church are the branch president and both sets of missionaries. Basically, if anything is going on at the church, missionaries know about it and usually have to be there. On Sundays we meet with the branch president to discuss the progress of our investigators. As for sacrament, we are lucky enough to have over 4 members holding the priesthood at any given time, so we don't have to pass or bless the sacrament usually. It's always more meaningful if members do stuff like that. Pretty much, missionaries are like an appendage to the branch presidency here. We act kind of as members with a duty to greet people, make people feel welcome, and help them integrate into the Mormon culture. It's interesting. And then there's other nights in the week, like FHE on Monday or Sports night on Saturday where we are in charge of leading the youth that come to the activities. Basically, there's a lot for us to do here.
Love your son,
Brandon
How's it going? Ukraine has been treating me pretty well lately, so I'm doing pretty awesome. Good companion, good district, great area. . . it's all going pretty good.
With my first transfer finishing up this past week, it's been an interesting reflection point. It feels like I just got in country, still. I don't feel that much more prepared now than if I had just stepped off the plane. But then I look around at the things I'm doing and how much I am understanding, and I've realized that I actually have come a long ways. Sometimes I will speak to members that understand English and they will speak Russian as I respond in English. It is a strange, yet satisfying feeling to know that I can do that. And in Russian I can communicate a lot. It's just painful at times. Imagine squeezing your brain, trying to wring all the Russian you know out of it. That is what it feels like some days. But, again, it's gotten worlds better in the last transfer!
I've also realized that I've never really struggled with the missionary work itself. All the little spiritual thoughts and testifying and such have never been a problem for me. The only real barrier there has been the language itself. I count that as a huge blessing. In the MTC, at least, I talked with a lot of people who said that they didn't even really know how to lead a discussion about gospel principles or how to convey their message. I absolutely love teaching others what I know to be truth, and the Gospel is the ultimate truth that's out there.
This week I had one of my favorite lessons of the mission thus far. It was very literally a "Great Spirit" lesson, like that of Ammon teaching King Lamoni in the Book of Mormon. I was on split with Elder Arrington, who's been out for two transfers more than me, and we taught this awesome guy named A. It was primarily a discussion about the nature of God and the purpose of being obedient to Him. His idea of God was that He is just a conglomerate of all the spirits of every living thing in the world, and that by following good principles we stay "in grain" with this Great Spirit. We had a great discussion about this. In talking we got him to see how closely most of his views match up with that of our church, and we were able to lead him through a simple discussion about the Plan of Salvation as well. Oh, and I led this lesson. It was a great feeling to be able to be the primary means of bringing light and truth to someone else. A left very satisfied with the discussion, and agreeing to continue meeting with missionaries. The only thing that was sad for me is that A is in the other elders' area, and so I won't get to teach him more. But, it's not about me. It's about him finding truth and coming to a knowledge of God.
Speaking of, M (the first guy we had on date forever ago) is finally about to get baptized! There were complications in how we could get someone to give him the baptismal interview, but now that's all worked out and he's set to be baptized on October 8th. He has come so far spiritually. He is very excited to be baptized. I can't wait until the day he does get baptized. I just wish I could bottle up that excitement and give it to other people here. Some people are just THIS close, but they need to have time to think and they talk themselves out of it. Ukrainians are not the kind of people to make big life changes on a whim. This is why we missionaries are here.
About my life.. hmm. What has been going on in my life? I've just been missionary-ing, I guess. In my free time I find myself thinking a lot about music. I play piano when we wait for investigators and we come up with random songs as we walk around the city. Music always lifts spirits, I've found. Music is awesome. Music is life. God knew what He was doing when he created music for the enjoyment of man.
Well, there's not a whole lot else going on at the moment. Just trying to find more people to teach. I'm asking President Campero if we can bring back English Club in our mission. We get asked all the time by people on the streets when they can meet with us for some English practice. That's my latest idea for getting to find more people to bring to Christ. Serve the people by teaching them English. I think it could be very effective.
Anyways, I love you, family, and I look forward to your next letter!
-Elder Porter
Brandon usually sends an additional letter to me. Here are a few excerpts from that letter, as well.
I'm doing great here, thanks for asking, Mom. Yup, I get to stay with Antamanov for another transfer, at least. We get along very well, which is nice. Most people in the mission don't get along so well with others, and I've been told that I will be a very desirable companion because I'm so compatible with anyone.
Yes, Lugansk is the chosen land of the Donetsk Mission. It's a smaller town than other areas, and it's generally cleaner, the people are nicer, and every missionary's favorite fast food, Blinok, is based around here. The main reason that most missionaries jokingly call it Рай (heaven) is that there are tons more girls than guys living in this city. I have no idea how that works out, but it is very true. My favorite thing is that there are tons of med schools and the like around here, so I get to meet people from all over the world, primarily Africans. Africans are always so polite and happy to talk, I love it!
About Sundays. So, the only people who have keys to the church are the branch president and both sets of missionaries. Basically, if anything is going on at the church, missionaries know about it and usually have to be there. On Sundays we meet with the branch president to discuss the progress of our investigators. As for sacrament, we are lucky enough to have over 4 members holding the priesthood at any given time, so we don't have to pass or bless the sacrament usually. It's always more meaningful if members do stuff like that. Pretty much, missionaries are like an appendage to the branch presidency here. We act kind of as members with a duty to greet people, make people feel welcome, and help them integrate into the Mormon culture. It's interesting. And then there's other nights in the week, like FHE on Monday or Sports night on Saturday where we are in charge of leading the youth that come to the activities. Basically, there's a lot for us to do here.
Love your son,
Brandon
"Lugansk - Ukraine starts here"- Week 6
Well, Family, it is the end of my first transfer. I've made it. Be proud of me. I'm still going to be trained by Antamanov for the next transfer, but it is definitely a milestone to be past the first transfer!
In our district of 4 elders, only Elder Calvert (our district leader) is leaving. Our district has grown pretty close, I love it. We're expecting to have another awesome transfer the next 6 weeks! (or 7 weeks. They might extend this transfer a bit.) Antamanov and I get along very well in all areas, and so I have thoroughly enjoyed serving with him so far. And Elder Arrington is cool, too. We discuss music a lot. He's a bassist and was in a band back home. It's very cool to find things in common with those you serve around.
This last week has been crazy, just in general. It's been the Dyen Rozhdyenia Goroda, which is essentially the birthday party for the city of Lugansk. They have shirts everywhere that say "Lugansk.. Ukraine starts here!" It's been interesting having all the festivities all week. And since I'm in the city center, we've been in the thick of all the celebrating. Concerts everywhere, little kids dancing and singing.. I never knew that a city could all come together and perform for one another as much as these people do. It's been pretty cool to be here for all that.
Unfortunately, because of all this celebrating, we haven't been able to get a ton of missionary work done. Most people that we called were out partying all week. And we couldn't contact on the streets because the streets were filled with drunk rubiata (Russian for "guys" and missionary slang for "guys that want to be a nuisance to missionaries"). So there hasn't been a whole lot we could do. We did get lessons in, though! We've got two people still on date, but we're having to push their dates back again since they have been too busy to meet with us and learn everything they need to know. You know, most churches don't have such a rigorous standard for baptism. That's one thing that has really impressed A, one of the guys on date. His major issue with the Adventist church was that they just did a mass baptism for him and like 200 other people. There was no real meaning to their baptism. That's why we work with people individually in the Church. Each soul is precious and needs to be handled with dignity. I hope that we can find more people to handle dignifiedly, though.. That'll be this next week.
So, not a whole lot has happened this last week, because of all the celebrating. I've just been enjoying life here in Ukraine and all. Doing missionary work to the best of my ability. Oh, in addition, I've been practicing a bit of piano. We have all of our lessons at the branch building, and we have to wait a while for each meeting, so I usually get to go mess around on the piano for a bit. That's been pretty fun. I thought that was probably noteworthy to include here.
It's no surprise that Aubrey's doing well over at VSAA. And I thoroughly enjoyed Bailey's letter about Skyview. And Joseph is in school all day now. Tell him not to worry about the length of school. It only gets longer. Or maybe don't tell him that. I don't want to depress him too much. College is awesome though, he has that to look forward to.. in 12 years.. hehe.
That's good about the scripture study. We've really been hammering with members lately the importance of consistent spiritual nourishment. It is living water, after all. The bread of life and all that. Keep up the good work!
Yeah, I remembered it was 9/11. And I do remember that day. Sitting in the 4th grade classroom, watching the news reports about planes crashing into towers, wondering if anyone I knew could possibly be on those planes. That was a strange experience. What was weird, too, is talking to Antamanov about it. Everyone all over the world watched 9/11 happen just as solemnly as we did. He saw it live at like 2 in the morning in Siberia. Isn't that strange to think about?
That's odd that it's so sunny over there. Has it been just this last week? That'd be pretty funny, because it has been extremely hot here until the last week, where I keep thinking that the grey sky makes it look like Washington.
My journal is filling up fine. I don't let myself go to sleep until I write a full page in the journal every night. It's a pretty good habit to be in, I think. And I think I'll be fine on journal paper at least for another year.
You asked if I am confident in speaking Russian... Yes and no. We have a couple of English speaking members here in Lugansk, one from Canada and another from Nigeria. They've been here for at least 2 years each, but I dominate them in language skills at this point. It's a firm testament to how quickly the Lord can work through us as missionaries, or anyone for that matter. So, yes, I am pretty confident. But, that said, I have such a long ways to go. There is no way I will get this without a lot more consistent work and a lot of the Lord's help. It's amazing how well learning a language parallels learning in the Gospel. You need constant growth, or else you're actually regressing. But, Russian is pretty cool, and I can communicate any spiritual thought pretty well, given the time to find the words. Steadily improving!
I am anxiously awaiting the written letters you said are coming. So far I've gotten mail from my MTC mission president and from Jeffrey. Mail is always a great thing, especially for missionaries.
So, I love you all! I'm glad that you seemed to have a good first week of school. I'm excited for Bailey starting Seminary today! That'll be great. Read those scriptures.
Til next week!
-Elder Brandon Porter
In our district of 4 elders, only Elder Calvert (our district leader) is leaving. Our district has grown pretty close, I love it. We're expecting to have another awesome transfer the next 6 weeks! (or 7 weeks. They might extend this transfer a bit.) Antamanov and I get along very well in all areas, and so I have thoroughly enjoyed serving with him so far. And Elder Arrington is cool, too. We discuss music a lot. He's a bassist and was in a band back home. It's very cool to find things in common with those you serve around.
This last week has been crazy, just in general. It's been the Dyen Rozhdyenia Goroda, which is essentially the birthday party for the city of Lugansk. They have shirts everywhere that say "Lugansk.. Ukraine starts here!" It's been interesting having all the festivities all week. And since I'm in the city center, we've been in the thick of all the celebrating. Concerts everywhere, little kids dancing and singing.. I never knew that a city could all come together and perform for one another as much as these people do. It's been pretty cool to be here for all that.
Unfortunately, because of all this celebrating, we haven't been able to get a ton of missionary work done. Most people that we called were out partying all week. And we couldn't contact on the streets because the streets were filled with drunk rubiata (Russian for "guys" and missionary slang for "guys that want to be a nuisance to missionaries"). So there hasn't been a whole lot we could do. We did get lessons in, though! We've got two people still on date, but we're having to push their dates back again since they have been too busy to meet with us and learn everything they need to know. You know, most churches don't have such a rigorous standard for baptism. That's one thing that has really impressed A, one of the guys on date. His major issue with the Adventist church was that they just did a mass baptism for him and like 200 other people. There was no real meaning to their baptism. That's why we work with people individually in the Church. Each soul is precious and needs to be handled with dignity. I hope that we can find more people to handle dignifiedly, though.. That'll be this next week.
So, not a whole lot has happened this last week, because of all the celebrating. I've just been enjoying life here in Ukraine and all. Doing missionary work to the best of my ability. Oh, in addition, I've been practicing a bit of piano. We have all of our lessons at the branch building, and we have to wait a while for each meeting, so I usually get to go mess around on the piano for a bit. That's been pretty fun. I thought that was probably noteworthy to include here.
It's no surprise that Aubrey's doing well over at VSAA. And I thoroughly enjoyed Bailey's letter about Skyview. And Joseph is in school all day now. Tell him not to worry about the length of school. It only gets longer. Or maybe don't tell him that. I don't want to depress him too much. College is awesome though, he has that to look forward to.. in 12 years.. hehe.
That's good about the scripture study. We've really been hammering with members lately the importance of consistent spiritual nourishment. It is living water, after all. The bread of life and all that. Keep up the good work!
Yeah, I remembered it was 9/11. And I do remember that day. Sitting in the 4th grade classroom, watching the news reports about planes crashing into towers, wondering if anyone I knew could possibly be on those planes. That was a strange experience. What was weird, too, is talking to Antamanov about it. Everyone all over the world watched 9/11 happen just as solemnly as we did. He saw it live at like 2 in the morning in Siberia. Isn't that strange to think about?
That's odd that it's so sunny over there. Has it been just this last week? That'd be pretty funny, because it has been extremely hot here until the last week, where I keep thinking that the grey sky makes it look like Washington.
My journal is filling up fine. I don't let myself go to sleep until I write a full page in the journal every night. It's a pretty good habit to be in, I think. And I think I'll be fine on journal paper at least for another year.
You asked if I am confident in speaking Russian... Yes and no. We have a couple of English speaking members here in Lugansk, one from Canada and another from Nigeria. They've been here for at least 2 years each, but I dominate them in language skills at this point. It's a firm testament to how quickly the Lord can work through us as missionaries, or anyone for that matter. So, yes, I am pretty confident. But, that said, I have such a long ways to go. There is no way I will get this without a lot more consistent work and a lot of the Lord's help. It's amazing how well learning a language parallels learning in the Gospel. You need constant growth, or else you're actually regressing. But, Russian is pretty cool, and I can communicate any spiritual thought pretty well, given the time to find the words. Steadily improving!
I am anxiously awaiting the written letters you said are coming. So far I've gotten mail from my MTC mission president and from Jeffrey. Mail is always a great thing, especially for missionaries.
So, I love you all! I'm glad that you seemed to have a good first week of school. I'm excited for Bailey starting Seminary today! That'll be great. Read those scriptures.
Til next week!
-Elder Brandon Porter
"I may or may not die, but that's okay. It's for a good cause" - Week 5
Family!
This week has actually gone by REALLY fast. I feel like just yesterday was P-Day.. It's strange how that works.
So, first off, this week is SYL week (Speak Your Language) in my zone. That means 100% Russian all week. I may or may not die, but that's okay. It's for a good cause. We started yesterday and we're continuing until Saturday. It is definitely a help, but thinking in only Russian gives me a bit of a headache. I'm working my best on it, but of course I still slip into English every once in a while. Or German, randomly. But, in trying my best to speak completely in Russian, I've surprised myself at times with how much I can actually communicate. Last night Antamanov and I were joking back and forth completely in Russian. My thoughts always takes a lot more time to get the point across, but still! I thought that was pretty cool.
I still have my moments where Russian fails me. Like when we talk to the branch president, who has a heavy Ukrainian accent. We meet with him every sunday night to teach an FHE type lesson. Last night Antamanov had to take a call at the beginning of the lesson and left me to introduce our topic. Unfortunately I didn't know much of the vocab that I needed, so I pantomimed a lot of what I wanted to say. Branch President and his wife eventually got it, but they were obviously pretty happy when Antamanov came back. And then whenever they respond to anything, they go off on random tangents that even Antamanov can't follow. So I zoned a lot. My life flashed before my eyes in slo-mo. When that finished, they were still talking, so I continued to think about my future. It was a pretty productive lesson.
We discovered at the end of August that the MSF (living money for missionaries) that they give us isn't enough. They give us 1200 greevan, and considering a greevan is about 8 to 1 dollar, that makes it the equivalent of about.. $170. That's for one month. Prices here are lots lower than in America by those standards, but we still had to dip into personal money for the last week or so in order to actually have food and stuff. I'm still very very frugal with my money, as always, but I can't help but spend some personal cash. I just figured that I should let you know.
We teach this one old couple that I wanted to tell you about. Their name is T. They are technically Less Active because they can't make it to church, but they're the most amazing people. He is blind and has been for the last 11 years or so. They have some struggles, but they are some the happiest people I've met here. The coolest thing about him is that after he went blind, he decided to pick up the accordian. He plays pretty professionally! I have some videos of him playing. We had a lesson where at the end we switched off and I would show them an American song on the guitar, then he would perform a traditional Ukrainian song on the accordian. Definitely my favorite people here. They remind me a lot of grandma and grandpa Porter in their mannerisms and how their house is set up.
This last Sunday a young member family from outside the city limits visited church. We actually had little kids running around the church! I hadn't realized how much I missed that. One kid reminded me a lot of Joseph at about 3 years old. He kept running around messing with anything he could find. When his mom went up to bear her testimony, this kid ran up and pulled himself up to the pulpit and started yelling a bit. She shushed him, so he started just gnawing on the wood. Crazy kids. They're awesome.
You asked about my apartment and living conditions last time. The apartment is pretty good.. I don't know how else to describe it. It's a normal dom in communist housing here with everything we need except for a dryer and an oven. As for cooking, I do definitely cook some good stuff. Antamanov has showed me how to make some somewhat traditional Russian stuff. College kid style. As in, with really cheap ingredients. It's pretty cool.
That's the main things from this week that I can think of. How about back home? Does school start this week? Are you excited? Because I'm excited for you all. It's weird how life goes on while I'm here. As it should, but still. Just keep updating me and it'll all be cool.
I love you! Talk to you next P-Day!
-Elder Brandon Porter
This week has actually gone by REALLY fast. I feel like just yesterday was P-Day.. It's strange how that works.
So, first off, this week is SYL week (Speak Your Language) in my zone. That means 100% Russian all week. I may or may not die, but that's okay. It's for a good cause. We started yesterday and we're continuing until Saturday. It is definitely a help, but thinking in only Russian gives me a bit of a headache. I'm working my best on it, but of course I still slip into English every once in a while. Or German, randomly. But, in trying my best to speak completely in Russian, I've surprised myself at times with how much I can actually communicate. Last night Antamanov and I were joking back and forth completely in Russian. My thoughts always takes a lot more time to get the point across, but still! I thought that was pretty cool.
I still have my moments where Russian fails me. Like when we talk to the branch president, who has a heavy Ukrainian accent. We meet with him every sunday night to teach an FHE type lesson. Last night Antamanov had to take a call at the beginning of the lesson and left me to introduce our topic. Unfortunately I didn't know much of the vocab that I needed, so I pantomimed a lot of what I wanted to say. Branch President and his wife eventually got it, but they were obviously pretty happy when Antamanov came back. And then whenever they respond to anything, they go off on random tangents that even Antamanov can't follow. So I zoned a lot. My life flashed before my eyes in slo-mo. When that finished, they were still talking, so I continued to think about my future. It was a pretty productive lesson.
We discovered at the end of August that the MSF (living money for missionaries) that they give us isn't enough. They give us 1200 greevan, and considering a greevan is about 8 to 1 dollar, that makes it the equivalent of about.. $170. That's for one month. Prices here are lots lower than in America by those standards, but we still had to dip into personal money for the last week or so in order to actually have food and stuff. I'm still very very frugal with my money, as always, but I can't help but spend some personal cash. I just figured that I should let you know.
We teach this one old couple that I wanted to tell you about. Their name is T. They are technically Less Active because they can't make it to church, but they're the most amazing people. He is blind and has been for the last 11 years or so. They have some struggles, but they are some the happiest people I've met here. The coolest thing about him is that after he went blind, he decided to pick up the accordian. He plays pretty professionally! I have some videos of him playing. We had a lesson where at the end we switched off and I would show them an American song on the guitar, then he would perform a traditional Ukrainian song on the accordian. Definitely my favorite people here. They remind me a lot of grandma and grandpa Porter in their mannerisms and how their house is set up.
This last Sunday a young member family from outside the city limits visited church. We actually had little kids running around the church! I hadn't realized how much I missed that. One kid reminded me a lot of Joseph at about 3 years old. He kept running around messing with anything he could find. When his mom went up to bear her testimony, this kid ran up and pulled himself up to the pulpit and started yelling a bit. She shushed him, so he started just gnawing on the wood. Crazy kids. They're awesome.
You asked about my apartment and living conditions last time. The apartment is pretty good.. I don't know how else to describe it. It's a normal dom in communist housing here with everything we need except for a dryer and an oven. As for cooking, I do definitely cook some good stuff. Antamanov has showed me how to make some somewhat traditional Russian stuff. College kid style. As in, with really cheap ingredients. It's pretty cool.
That's the main things from this week that I can think of. How about back home? Does school start this week? Are you excited? Because I'm excited for you all. It's weird how life goes on while I'm here. As it should, but still. Just keep updating me and it'll all be cool.
I love you! Talk to you next P-Day!
-Elder Brandon Porter
"Oh, babushki. Gotta love them" - Week 4
Привет, Семья!!
Alright, so it's been a pretty good week. We've been meeting with a bunch of people and we have 3 that are SO close to baptism. They've heard all the lessons, we just have to get them to the water and dunk them. M is on date, and we originally planned to have his baptism last Saturday. But things came up and he needs a little more prep time, so now his date is for Sept 17. Pray that everything goes well! We also have J and N. They both know it's true without a doubt. J just still feels like it's not the right time yet and N's mom is extremely anti.. But they're all amazing people! Even if they speak a language that I can't fully understand.
That aside, I've had some good experiences this week. On Sunday M came to church! Also, this other guy showed up that we met briefly once who is literally searching for truth and feels he may have something with us. Antamanov and some members spent the last two hours of church teaching him about the Restoration and such, which left me to lead M to classes and sit next to him. M is fantastic, but I have the hardest time understanding his Russian. He kept leaning in to me and whispering something during the sunday school lesson and laughing. I chuckled out of courtesy, but I had absolutely no idea what he was saying. I later realized that he was telling me how the teacher's desk was set up backwards. That just went over my puny little greenie head. M is always much happier when I'm around, and I think it's because he feels like he is way superior to me in the language. Hey, I'm fine with that. As long as it makes him happy, y'know?
I am making great strides in the language, though. We had some office elders staying with us for the weekend (they had to do an audit on our branch). One of them, Hardy, was in the MTC with me and left one transfer before me, so he's also still being trained. We ended up having to go on splits after church, so both of us greenies went to teach our weekly lesson to a family and give them the sacrament. When we left their house, Hardy turned to me and said I was worlds further than he was when he got in the country. That was good to hear. Sometimes it feels like I am going nowhere with the Russian language, but other times understanding just comes in a wave. I'm doing good.
Oh, so you may or may not have heard about Russian babushki. If not, you will from me. A babushka is an old Russian lady somewhere over 60. They are usually very sweet and lovable, but completely insane. They've all gone crazy one way or another. Like when we tracted into a dom (Communist housing) and a babushka answered one of the doors. She couldn't understand us whatsoever and kept babbling and saying "Shhhto? Shhhto?", meaning "What?". She kept asking why the police were at her door (the word for missionary and policeman, "militionary", are very similar) To be honest, I'm not sure if she understood herself half the time. Oh, babushki. Gotta love them.
There's one babushka in our branch named Sister L. She is a very kind lady, but pretty fanatical about the gospel. She invited us to her home one day, saying she had a referral. we got there, and she had essentially kidnapped her neighbor, who still had her groceries in her hands and seemed slightly annoyed. Sister L sat us down and started laying out every piece of doctrine she could think of. The lady left when she started going into how the sacrament represents the body and blood of Christ and why we use water instead of wine. Then when we were teaching her, at one point I asked her, "Do you know about the prophet Jonah?". She proceeded to give me a 15 minute lecture on how it's best to read the Book of Mormom many times over and how certain verses represent different things at different times in your life.. Never once getting close to answering my question. Oh, Sister L.
I had the chance to teach a recent convert here named G. He is from Nigeria and was baptized here in Lugansk back in April. He's an amazing guy. He considers things very deeply and has many questions for us. I had this funny realization at one point that we had three completely different forms of English in the room: American, Russian accent, and African style. At times G didn't understand MY accent. That was a really strange moment for me. Especially after people here have been telling me how clearly I speak Russian.
It's great to hear from you guys! And thank you so much for responding to questions that I ask. I've talked to lots of missionaries, and they say that their families don't ever respond to their questions, and that it gets really annoying. So.. keep up the good work!
I love you guys. I'm doing fantastic here in Ukraine, and I'm so grateful to have such wonderful support back home.
Until next P-Day!
Love,
Elder Brandon Porter
Alright, so it's been a pretty good week. We've been meeting with a bunch of people and we have 3 that are SO close to baptism. They've heard all the lessons, we just have to get them to the water and dunk them. M is on date, and we originally planned to have his baptism last Saturday. But things came up and he needs a little more prep time, so now his date is for Sept 17. Pray that everything goes well! We also have J and N. They both know it's true without a doubt. J just still feels like it's not the right time yet and N's mom is extremely anti.. But they're all amazing people! Even if they speak a language that I can't fully understand.
That aside, I've had some good experiences this week. On Sunday M came to church! Also, this other guy showed up that we met briefly once who is literally searching for truth and feels he may have something with us. Antamanov and some members spent the last two hours of church teaching him about the Restoration and such, which left me to lead M to classes and sit next to him. M is fantastic, but I have the hardest time understanding his Russian. He kept leaning in to me and whispering something during the sunday school lesson and laughing. I chuckled out of courtesy, but I had absolutely no idea what he was saying. I later realized that he was telling me how the teacher's desk was set up backwards. That just went over my puny little greenie head. M is always much happier when I'm around, and I think it's because he feels like he is way superior to me in the language. Hey, I'm fine with that. As long as it makes him happy, y'know?
I am making great strides in the language, though. We had some office elders staying with us for the weekend (they had to do an audit on our branch). One of them, Hardy, was in the MTC with me and left one transfer before me, so he's also still being trained. We ended up having to go on splits after church, so both of us greenies went to teach our weekly lesson to a family and give them the sacrament. When we left their house, Hardy turned to me and said I was worlds further than he was when he got in the country. That was good to hear. Sometimes it feels like I am going nowhere with the Russian language, but other times understanding just comes in a wave. I'm doing good.
Oh, so you may or may not have heard about Russian babushki. If not, you will from me. A babushka is an old Russian lady somewhere over 60. They are usually very sweet and lovable, but completely insane. They've all gone crazy one way or another. Like when we tracted into a dom (Communist housing) and a babushka answered one of the doors. She couldn't understand us whatsoever and kept babbling and saying "Shhhto? Shhhto?", meaning "What?". She kept asking why the police were at her door (the word for missionary and policeman, "militionary", are very similar) To be honest, I'm not sure if she understood herself half the time. Oh, babushki. Gotta love them.
There's one babushka in our branch named Sister L. She is a very kind lady, but pretty fanatical about the gospel. She invited us to her home one day, saying she had a referral. we got there, and she had essentially kidnapped her neighbor, who still had her groceries in her hands and seemed slightly annoyed. Sister L sat us down and started laying out every piece of doctrine she could think of. The lady left when she started going into how the sacrament represents the body and blood of Christ and why we use water instead of wine. Then when we were teaching her, at one point I asked her, "Do you know about the prophet Jonah?". She proceeded to give me a 15 minute lecture on how it's best to read the Book of Mormom many times over and how certain verses represent different things at different times in your life.. Never once getting close to answering my question. Oh, Sister L.
I had the chance to teach a recent convert here named G. He is from Nigeria and was baptized here in Lugansk back in April. He's an amazing guy. He considers things very deeply and has many questions for us. I had this funny realization at one point that we had three completely different forms of English in the room: American, Russian accent, and African style. At times G didn't understand MY accent. That was a really strange moment for me. Especially after people here have been telling me how clearly I speak Russian.
It's great to hear from you guys! And thank you so much for responding to questions that I ask. I've talked to lots of missionaries, and they say that their families don't ever respond to their questions, and that it gets really annoying. So.. keep up the good work!
I love you guys. I'm doing fantastic here in Ukraine, and I'm so grateful to have such wonderful support back home.
Until next P-Day!
Love,
Elder Brandon Porter
"Dryers are a gift from God. And black people are awesome." - Ukraine Week 3
Family,
First, some random thoughts. Dryers are a gift from God. And black people are awesome.
As you know, I don't get a dryer here. It's bittersweet to wash clothes, because, while on the one hand, they are now clean, they also get all crusty as they dry. Fun fun! And black people here are amazing. They're all from places like Nigeria and whatnot, and they are the nicest people ever. They speak English and are extremely open to hearing our message. They're here in Lugansk for Medical school. Just last night we were walking around and two black guys stopped us to give us their number because one of them has met with missionaries before and really likes us. So awesome!
Probably the best thing I've discovered here is Blinok. It's a fast food chain they have around here. Blin is Russian for pancake. They essentially take a pancake and roll together whatever you want in it. For meals you can put meat, sauce and cheese in, and for dessert it's great to get chocolate and strawberry. And the pancakes are more like crepes than american pancakes. It's hard to describe, but it's really good!
By the way, before I forget, I took out 1000 greevan from my account last week. Just thought I'd make you aware of that. I've bought a sweet black side bag to carry Book of Mormon and everything. The greevan conversion thing is interesting. It's about 8 greevan to an American dollar. Yet, with the budget that we have as missionaries, we end up scraping the bottom of that, so we scrimp and save wherever possible.
The other day we were walking to a member's home, and some really heavy rain came out of nowhere. Luckily I had an umbrella (thanks, Mom!) so we were fine. But as we walked, there was a blinding lightning strike, followed by thunder that was so powerful that it set off every car alarm in Lugansk! We just sat there laughing for a bit, lamenting the fact that we did not have our cameras out to take video recordings of it. Take my word for it, it was epic.
Russian sounds beautiful when it is spoken right. It can be so melodic, I love it. However, since I am around it so much I end up turning my brain off of Russian every once in a while. When I'm not listening for comprehension, it sounds a lot like the characters in those Sims games.
Speaking of Russian, I still get complimented a lot for my accent when speaking Russian. It's a great confidence booster! That doesn't, however, mean that I don't make mistakes. In Russian, it is crucial to get the accent in the word right. There's one accent per word.. it's hard to explain. I usually have a good sense for it, but I have those little stories of messing up the language. For example, I told my companion the other day that I wanted to "peet vah-DOO" (transliterated from Russian letters) and he started laughing really hard. What I meant to say was that I wanted to "drink water" or "peet VOH-doo". What I had said meant that I wanted to "drink in hell". I figure that would be a good phrase to know if I ever found myself there. I'd only be there for proselyting purposes, of course.
Also, I forgot to tell you my first ever mistake in country. On my first day, Antamanov asked if it'd be alright if we spoke only in Russian all day while on the streets. I responded with what I thought was "I'll try" ("Ya staraioos") But instead I said "Ya stradaioos". This phrase means "I will suffer". That did not bode well for my first day in country. But it's a good story!
Cooking has been going well. We are invited over to members houses to eat more often than I was led to believe, which is awesome (since I was told to expect none). Our apartment is the only one in the mission without a stove and oven, but we do have a hot plate. We've experimented with a bunch of different recipes and have found some good foods to make.
Me and Elder Antamanov get along really well. We have pretty similar personalities, plus we enjoy the same music and movies! We have great talks about all sorts of stuff.
Everything is going pretty well here overall. I don't have a lot of time on the computer today, because of plans bumping up against internet time today. But it is always great to hear from you all and I love sending you mail. You're great, family.
Enjoy New York this week and Happy Birthday, Mom!
Love,
Brandon
First, some random thoughts. Dryers are a gift from God. And black people are awesome.
As you know, I don't get a dryer here. It's bittersweet to wash clothes, because, while on the one hand, they are now clean, they also get all crusty as they dry. Fun fun! And black people here are amazing. They're all from places like Nigeria and whatnot, and they are the nicest people ever. They speak English and are extremely open to hearing our message. They're here in Lugansk for Medical school. Just last night we were walking around and two black guys stopped us to give us their number because one of them has met with missionaries before and really likes us. So awesome!
Probably the best thing I've discovered here is Blinok. It's a fast food chain they have around here. Blin is Russian for pancake. They essentially take a pancake and roll together whatever you want in it. For meals you can put meat, sauce and cheese in, and for dessert it's great to get chocolate and strawberry. And the pancakes are more like crepes than american pancakes. It's hard to describe, but it's really good!
By the way, before I forget, I took out 1000 greevan from my account last week. Just thought I'd make you aware of that. I've bought a sweet black side bag to carry Book of Mormon and everything. The greevan conversion thing is interesting. It's about 8 greevan to an American dollar. Yet, with the budget that we have as missionaries, we end up scraping the bottom of that, so we scrimp and save wherever possible.
The other day we were walking to a member's home, and some really heavy rain came out of nowhere. Luckily I had an umbrella (thanks, Mom!) so we were fine. But as we walked, there was a blinding lightning strike, followed by thunder that was so powerful that it set off every car alarm in Lugansk! We just sat there laughing for a bit, lamenting the fact that we did not have our cameras out to take video recordings of it. Take my word for it, it was epic.
Russian sounds beautiful when it is spoken right. It can be so melodic, I love it. However, since I am around it so much I end up turning my brain off of Russian every once in a while. When I'm not listening for comprehension, it sounds a lot like the characters in those Sims games.
Speaking of Russian, I still get complimented a lot for my accent when speaking Russian. It's a great confidence booster! That doesn't, however, mean that I don't make mistakes. In Russian, it is crucial to get the accent in the word right. There's one accent per word.. it's hard to explain. I usually have a good sense for it, but I have those little stories of messing up the language. For example, I told my companion the other day that I wanted to "peet vah-DOO" (transliterated from Russian letters) and he started laughing really hard. What I meant to say was that I wanted to "drink water" or "peet VOH-doo". What I had said meant that I wanted to "drink in hell". I figure that would be a good phrase to know if I ever found myself there. I'd only be there for proselyting purposes, of course.
Also, I forgot to tell you my first ever mistake in country. On my first day, Antamanov asked if it'd be alright if we spoke only in Russian all day while on the streets. I responded with what I thought was "I'll try" ("Ya staraioos") But instead I said "Ya stradaioos". This phrase means "I will suffer". That did not bode well for my first day in country. But it's a good story!
Cooking has been going well. We are invited over to members houses to eat more often than I was led to believe, which is awesome (since I was told to expect none). Our apartment is the only one in the mission without a stove and oven, but we do have a hot plate. We've experimented with a bunch of different recipes and have found some good foods to make.
Me and Elder Antamanov get along really well. We have pretty similar personalities, plus we enjoy the same music and movies! We have great talks about all sorts of stuff.
Everything is going pretty well here overall. I don't have a lot of time on the computer today, because of plans bumping up against internet time today. But it is always great to hear from you all and I love sending you mail. You're great, family.
Enjoy New York this week and Happy Birthday, Mom!
Love,
Brandon
First baptismal commitment! - Week 2
Family!
Okay, so here goes the marathon typing.. phew.. K ready!
First off, something cool; I got my first baptismal commitment the other day! His name is M, and his date is for Aug 27. We are very excited here that we have someone on track for baptism. And I was the one to extend the commitment in Russian, so I get to count it as my own. Yay! We have another investigator, J, who speaks pretty good English and he is ALMOST there on the baptism. He has taken all the discussions and believes it's all true, he just feels that "It's not quite time yet". Don't know why, but hopefully that time is soon.
The best way I can describe the Russian language right now is.. slippery. It's like my Russian retention is about a shot glass and they just pour water into it from the hose. I get the gist of what's being said usually. But sometimes I just get a massive headache from trying to think too much in Russian. Just last night we were at an FHE kind of thing with the Branch President, some members and Igor (our investigator). We talked about blessings that come from this gospel. I understood most of it, but then at the end Igor asked us a completely off-topic question and everyone started going off random tangents that I couldn't follow. All that I caught about the question was the words for "candy" and "communist". Needless to say, I was very confused. At the end of the lesson, the Branch President's wife came up to me and said "Всё будет.. okay" Basically meaning, everything's going to be okay. I guess I looked as hopelessly lost as I felt. Awesome.
There is a lot going on here. I understand what people mean when they say that every day of their mission was an adventure. It's all so different, even compared to the previous days. We don't do a whole lot of tracting here, though we do more than many missionaries. We're in a city center and we can only proselyte in so many different areas. Mostly we do calls to people who we already have contact numbers. That works pretty good, surprisingly. I wouldn't think that I would be too keen on setting up an appointment with random men on the phone, but I guess the Spirit can work across telephone lines too.
Also, Lugansk is apparently a big center for education. There are a lot of people here that are from other countries, here for medical school. Most of them are Africans. Africans are so nice! And it's always a plus that they speak English. At first it surprises them that men in white shirts are speaking English to them, and then they're usually pretty receptive to the message. It's pretty cool.
We have one guy who is from Nigeria. He speaks great Russian and English, as well as Arabic and any other language he may know. He is very intelligent, and can talk about nearly everything. Sadly, he's not too open to the message and mostly wants to discuss problems with the Bible (he's Muslim) and why it can't possibly be translated totally correctly. He's an awesome guy, though.
Almost everyone here speaks a little bit of English.. but usually it's about as much as people in America speak Spanish. People will use basic words with me like "okay" and "where do you live?" and then they'll look all pleased with themselves, but not understand my response. It leads to some interesting logos around the city. Like one in particular: There's this really popular teen shirt that just says "Say Me Yes". It makes no sense, unless you realize that it was translated directly from Russian. They mostly just think that English looks pretty cool.
A lot of people want to talk to us since we speak good English. We actually had someone call us the other day to ask if we still have an English club. That was discontinued a few months ago, but it might be reintroduced because of all the excitement it generates from people.
Since it's a branch here and not a stake, the missionaries are involved in pretty much everything church related. That's weird to me, since back home we hardly ever see the missionaries doing anything. They were always eating with members and contacting people. But here, we are in charge of Family night, as well as Sports night and any other youth function. It's pretty cool. It's a big deal for these people to have good missionaries around.
So, school is starting soon, right? That's cool! I don't remember if it's already started or not, but I'm excited for you guys. Is Bailey excited for Skyview? She should be. Also, she starts seminary this year, right? That's so awesome! My missionary advice: take the Scripture Mastery seriously. It has helped me so much to have memorized a bunch of scriptures. It helps me to know what to say in response to questions, and it also helps me understand the verses in Russian faster since I know the meaning. Not to say that I still can quote verbatim each of the verses. But they are all familiar, which is awesome. Also, I would suggest reading the chapter that the Scripture Masteries come from to better understand the context. Anyways, that's my obligatory missionary advice. Take it or leave it.
Oh, and how is Taylor doing in the MTC? He's got an experience ahead of him. Hehe.
So I'm doing well. Still adjusting, but I will be doing that my entire mission. I love you all! I love seeing what you've been up to, thanks for the pictures. And I bet Aubrey was amazing as a bird girl. She looked very convincing in the pictures! And Joseph.. I love that kid. Just tell him that.
Anyways, til next week!
Love,
Elder Brandon Porter
Okay, so here goes the marathon typing.. phew.. K ready!
First off, something cool; I got my first baptismal commitment the other day! His name is M, and his date is for Aug 27. We are very excited here that we have someone on track for baptism. And I was the one to extend the commitment in Russian, so I get to count it as my own. Yay! We have another investigator, J, who speaks pretty good English and he is ALMOST there on the baptism. He has taken all the discussions and believes it's all true, he just feels that "It's not quite time yet". Don't know why, but hopefully that time is soon.
The best way I can describe the Russian language right now is.. slippery. It's like my Russian retention is about a shot glass and they just pour water into it from the hose. I get the gist of what's being said usually. But sometimes I just get a massive headache from trying to think too much in Russian. Just last night we were at an FHE kind of thing with the Branch President, some members and Igor (our investigator). We talked about blessings that come from this gospel. I understood most of it, but then at the end Igor asked us a completely off-topic question and everyone started going off random tangents that I couldn't follow. All that I caught about the question was the words for "candy" and "communist". Needless to say, I was very confused. At the end of the lesson, the Branch President's wife came up to me and said "Всё будет.. okay" Basically meaning, everything's going to be okay. I guess I looked as hopelessly lost as I felt. Awesome.
There is a lot going on here. I understand what people mean when they say that every day of their mission was an adventure. It's all so different, even compared to the previous days. We don't do a whole lot of tracting here, though we do more than many missionaries. We're in a city center and we can only proselyte in so many different areas. Mostly we do calls to people who we already have contact numbers. That works pretty good, surprisingly. I wouldn't think that I would be too keen on setting up an appointment with random men on the phone, but I guess the Spirit can work across telephone lines too.
Also, Lugansk is apparently a big center for education. There are a lot of people here that are from other countries, here for medical school. Most of them are Africans. Africans are so nice! And it's always a plus that they speak English. At first it surprises them that men in white shirts are speaking English to them, and then they're usually pretty receptive to the message. It's pretty cool.
We have one guy who is from Nigeria. He speaks great Russian and English, as well as Arabic and any other language he may know. He is very intelligent, and can talk about nearly everything. Sadly, he's not too open to the message and mostly wants to discuss problems with the Bible (he's Muslim) and why it can't possibly be translated totally correctly. He's an awesome guy, though.
Almost everyone here speaks a little bit of English.. but usually it's about as much as people in America speak Spanish. People will use basic words with me like "okay" and "where do you live?" and then they'll look all pleased with themselves, but not understand my response. It leads to some interesting logos around the city. Like one in particular: There's this really popular teen shirt that just says "Say Me Yes". It makes no sense, unless you realize that it was translated directly from Russian. They mostly just think that English looks pretty cool.
A lot of people want to talk to us since we speak good English. We actually had someone call us the other day to ask if we still have an English club. That was discontinued a few months ago, but it might be reintroduced because of all the excitement it generates from people.
Since it's a branch here and not a stake, the missionaries are involved in pretty much everything church related. That's weird to me, since back home we hardly ever see the missionaries doing anything. They were always eating with members and contacting people. But here, we are in charge of Family night, as well as Sports night and any other youth function. It's pretty cool. It's a big deal for these people to have good missionaries around.
So, school is starting soon, right? That's cool! I don't remember if it's already started or not, but I'm excited for you guys. Is Bailey excited for Skyview? She should be. Also, she starts seminary this year, right? That's so awesome! My missionary advice: take the Scripture Mastery seriously. It has helped me so much to have memorized a bunch of scriptures. It helps me to know what to say in response to questions, and it also helps me understand the verses in Russian faster since I know the meaning. Not to say that I still can quote verbatim each of the verses. But they are all familiar, which is awesome. Also, I would suggest reading the chapter that the Scripture Masteries come from to better understand the context. Anyways, that's my obligatory missionary advice. Take it or leave it.
Oh, and how is Taylor doing in the MTC? He's got an experience ahead of him. Hehe.
So I'm doing well. Still adjusting, but I will be doing that my entire mission. I love you all! I love seeing what you've been up to, thanks for the pictures. And I bet Aubrey was amazing as a bird girl. She looked very convincing in the pictures! And Joseph.. I love that kid. Just tell him that.
Anyways, til next week!
Love,
Elder Brandon Porter
First Week in Ukraine!
I'M IN UKRAINE!!!!
In case you didn't already know. It's been probably some of the biggest days of my life! Every day is an adventure out here. I don't quite know where to begin, so this letter will probably be pretty scrambled.
First of all, my companion is a native Russian! His name is Elder Antamanov. He's a great guy from Siberia. He speaks nearly flawless English with just a slight Russian accent. I'm learning pretty fast under him.
So, funny thing- We've done service for a family, visited a member, played basketball with investigators and some other things. In each of these cases, the people have asked where I'm from. They're surprised to hear that I'm American! Apparently I have a good Russian accent, and they all assume that I'm from Russia somewhere. I think that's pretty funny, seeing as how I mostly just act like I understand people when a lot of times they're speaking too fast for me to understand it all. Hmm.. would I rather seem like a mute Russian or a learning American?.. Well, I'll take a compliment where I can get it!
I just haven't been able to get over that. Members have been very complimentary, saying I have no foreign accent whatsoever. What's funniest about the situation is that Antamanov gets flack all the time for having an American accent. Apparently his native Russian sounds more American than my little bit of Russian. What are the odds, right?
When we got to our apartment for the first time on Thursday night, we found out that electricity only worked on half the apartment. Then water turned off and started backing up in the sink. There's been all sorts of random little issues- but I've just been so amazed that I'm actually in Ukraine than I haven't been able to care! All of those things have been fixed now, so don't worry about it.
Speaking of Ukrainian things, there are some interesting cultural things that I've found here that I'd like to share. First off, they have REALLY good sauces. Apparently they're known for it. We ate at a member's house on my first full day (Friday). It was a burrito-like thing with tons of veggies and sausages and sauces in it. SO good! I can already tell that I'm going to miss their sauces.
I was also really surprised at how much English there is everywhere. Not everyone speaks English, but most brand names are referencing some English word (i.e. the Mandarin, Foxtrot, etc) and a lot of things are actually in English. I kind of expected to have absolutely no English around me, but there's plenty! It's cool. Hard in some ways, because I'm trying to learn Russian and all, but still cool.
No, what's weirder is that everything you look at has a fifty-fifty chance of being in Russian or Ukrainian. Most of the words are the same between the languages, but they're still plenty different. Plus, Ukrainian has a few different letters than Russian. All the time, as we're walking down streets, I'll ask Antamanov what a word means and he'll just shake his head and say, "That's Ukrainian, don't worry about it." It's pretty confusing. Ukrainian to Russian is like Portuguese to Spanish- anyone that knows one can understand the other, but it just sounds strange. As of yet, I don't hear a major difference between Russian and Ukrainian, but that'll come.
Everyone speaks a little bit of English here. They're usually excited to try it out on me. Not many of them are actually fluent, so they'll just spit out memorized phrases and grin- it's funny. It really surprises me when someone whips out flawless English on me. That's happened to me three time now, I think.
The people here are pretty cool. Oh, and the MTC LIED to me! They SO understand sarcasm. They live off of it! On the ride from the airport, one of the other new missionaries asked the driver (who happens to be the Donetsk branch president) when it gets cold here. He answered casually, ".. Winter". They're pretty blunt when they speak. It's awesome.
My area is called Lugansk. It's on the eastern most part of Ukraine. So basically, we're in Russia (if I get that confused, it's because most people here consider themselves Russians). There are two companionships for the entire city, and that constitutes our district. There used to be three in Lugansk, but it was consolidated for some reason. So, as it's P-Day, we've been partying today as a district. Making pizza and playing Risk! I won, thank you very much. Totally dominated.
A bunch of things have changed with the swapping of the mission presidents here. Under President Fry there was a "higher law" in place, which was a bunch of micromanaging rules set to keep missionaries in line. When Fry got here this mission was full of party missionaries, so he had to really crack down on them. But those party missionaries are all gone now and Prez Campero has free reign. He's changing all sorts of rules back to "just the white handbook" and changing the management here. Exciting times!
Campero is awesome. He's Bolivian, so he's fluent in Spanish, English, and Russian. He has all sorts of ideas on how to give missionaries creative liberties to spread the gospel in new ways. We might be having a music night sometime soon! That'd be so fun.
Well, I think I'll be on for a few more minutes, but I've about run out of things to say for today. I'm so exhausted! Mentally, physically, and yes, spiritually. I hope I've given you plenty of material to look over in this message.
I love you! Thanks for being an amazing family. Off to spread me some gospel!
Love,
Elder Brandon Porter
PS. From what I've gathered, the mail system isn't so much corrupt as the handling of packages is. Packages get stolen from all the time, but letters should get through okay. Just so you know!
In case you didn't already know. It's been probably some of the biggest days of my life! Every day is an adventure out here. I don't quite know where to begin, so this letter will probably be pretty scrambled.
First of all, my companion is a native Russian! His name is Elder Antamanov. He's a great guy from Siberia. He speaks nearly flawless English with just a slight Russian accent. I'm learning pretty fast under him.
So, funny thing- We've done service for a family, visited a member, played basketball with investigators and some other things. In each of these cases, the people have asked where I'm from. They're surprised to hear that I'm American! Apparently I have a good Russian accent, and they all assume that I'm from Russia somewhere. I think that's pretty funny, seeing as how I mostly just act like I understand people when a lot of times they're speaking too fast for me to understand it all. Hmm.. would I rather seem like a mute Russian or a learning American?.. Well, I'll take a compliment where I can get it!
I just haven't been able to get over that. Members have been very complimentary, saying I have no foreign accent whatsoever. What's funniest about the situation is that Antamanov gets flack all the time for having an American accent. Apparently his native Russian sounds more American than my little bit of Russian. What are the odds, right?
When we got to our apartment for the first time on Thursday night, we found out that electricity only worked on half the apartment. Then water turned off and started backing up in the sink. There's been all sorts of random little issues- but I've just been so amazed that I'm actually in Ukraine than I haven't been able to care! All of those things have been fixed now, so don't worry about it.
Speaking of Ukrainian things, there are some interesting cultural things that I've found here that I'd like to share. First off, they have REALLY good sauces. Apparently they're known for it. We ate at a member's house on my first full day (Friday). It was a burrito-like thing with tons of veggies and sausages and sauces in it. SO good! I can already tell that I'm going to miss their sauces.
I was also really surprised at how much English there is everywhere. Not everyone speaks English, but most brand names are referencing some English word (i.e. the Mandarin, Foxtrot, etc) and a lot of things are actually in English. I kind of expected to have absolutely no English around me, but there's plenty! It's cool. Hard in some ways, because I'm trying to learn Russian and all, but still cool.
No, what's weirder is that everything you look at has a fifty-fifty chance of being in Russian or Ukrainian. Most of the words are the same between the languages, but they're still plenty different. Plus, Ukrainian has a few different letters than Russian. All the time, as we're walking down streets, I'll ask Antamanov what a word means and he'll just shake his head and say, "That's Ukrainian, don't worry about it." It's pretty confusing. Ukrainian to Russian is like Portuguese to Spanish- anyone that knows one can understand the other, but it just sounds strange. As of yet, I don't hear a major difference between Russian and Ukrainian, but that'll come.
Everyone speaks a little bit of English here. They're usually excited to try it out on me. Not many of them are actually fluent, so they'll just spit out memorized phrases and grin- it's funny. It really surprises me when someone whips out flawless English on me. That's happened to me three time now, I think.
The people here are pretty cool. Oh, and the MTC LIED to me! They SO understand sarcasm. They live off of it! On the ride from the airport, one of the other new missionaries asked the driver (who happens to be the Donetsk branch president) when it gets cold here. He answered casually, ".. Winter". They're pretty blunt when they speak. It's awesome.
My area is called Lugansk. It's on the eastern most part of Ukraine. So basically, we're in Russia (if I get that confused, it's because most people here consider themselves Russians). There are two companionships for the entire city, and that constitutes our district. There used to be three in Lugansk, but it was consolidated for some reason. So, as it's P-Day, we've been partying today as a district. Making pizza and playing Risk! I won, thank you very much. Totally dominated.
A bunch of things have changed with the swapping of the mission presidents here. Under President Fry there was a "higher law" in place, which was a bunch of micromanaging rules set to keep missionaries in line. When Fry got here this mission was full of party missionaries, so he had to really crack down on them. But those party missionaries are all gone now and Prez Campero has free reign. He's changing all sorts of rules back to "just the white handbook" and changing the management here. Exciting times!
Campero is awesome. He's Bolivian, so he's fluent in Spanish, English, and Russian. He has all sorts of ideas on how to give missionaries creative liberties to spread the gospel in new ways. We might be having a music night sometime soon! That'd be so fun.
Well, I think I'll be on for a few more minutes, but I've about run out of things to say for today. I'm so exhausted! Mentally, physically, and yes, spiritually. I hope I've given you plenty of material to look over in this message.
I love you! Thanks for being an amazing family. Off to spread me some gospel!
Love,
Elder Brandon Porter
PS. From what I've gathered, the mail system isn't so much corrupt as the handling of packages is. Packages get stolen from all the time, but letters should get through okay. Just so you know!
"Getting ready to ship us out. Whee!" - Last week in the MTC
Hey, family!
This is my last email I'll be sending from the MTC. I am so excited to get out in the field! Here's my travel plans:
Check out of the MTC at 5 AM on August 2
Fly out of SLC at 8:31 AM; Arrive in New York, JFK Airport at 3:14 PM
Leave JFK at 5:40 PM; Land in Vienna, Austria on Aug 3 at 8:25 AM
Leave Vienna at 10:20 AM; Land in Donest'k at 1:50 PM
I'm flying Delta for the first flight and Austrian Air for the last two flights. I am allowed 2 checked bags, 1 carry-on bag limited to 17 lbs, and 1 small personal item. I'm working on packing today. I am pretty sure that most of my stuff will fit, but I will definitely be sending home a package of some things I don't need. I am going to include in that a bunch of pictures of the MTC experience (since I haven't been able to send anything home yet). Oh and out of curiosity, do you want me to ship home the extra towel that I brought? It's no big deal either way, but I definitely could leave it here.
Everyone is so excited to leave, it's awesome! Some are more freaked out than others, but that's mostly a healthy freak out. I know that we're all going to have a big slap in the face one way or another in adjusting to, not only in-field mission schedule, but also a new country and culture. I'm more excited than worried, though. In a way, I'm kind of excited for that struggle. It'll let me know that I'm actually out here doing something meaningful.
We had a really good devotional yesterday (last Tuesday devotional!!) about the importance of the Spirit and how the mission is a refiner's fire. He pointed out that the two-fold purpose of our mission is to 1- Invite others to come to Christ, and 2- Sanctify ourselves. Sanctification is the process that leads to repentance, which is a turning one's life towards Christ. He included lots of analogies about how the Lord puts us into a furnace of afflictions in order to shape us into worthy sons and daughters of God, but it doesn't work if we try to hide ourselves from the affliction. Sometimes we try to hold back that little piece of us, thinking "it's just part of who I am". But God knows best who we are and who we should be. The best piece of advice of the night was to ask God every day for insight into who you really are. I thought it was a really good talk.
I've made some really good, deep friendships here. I have definitely grown close to these guys in the district. We've had awesome conversations on everything from deeply spiritual to life plans. A few of the guys I am definitely going to look up after the mission. Like Elder Zach Brasier. He has come to be one of my best friends. He goes to BYU-I, and he's from Las Vegas. He's a goofball at times, but always has his head on straight when it comes to serious matters. We have a similar sense of humor, which is hard to find sometimes. You said in a previous letter that I had mentioned him, but never told you anything about him. So there you go; Brasier in a nutshell!
Thank you so much for the package! I loved the pictures you sent. It looks like you've been having a pretty full summer! The recipe book is perfect as well, thank you Mom! Much more intensely helpful and organized than I would have ever made it myself. Also, thank you so much for the CDs! I love them.
Dad mentioned wanting to be able to read some Russian words. The first step there would be to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. There are good lessons and examples in those books that I left behind, as well as good lessons online when you type in something like "learn russian beginner". Here's an example:
or just,
Brandon
This is my last email I'll be sending from the MTC. I am so excited to get out in the field! Here's my travel plans:
Check out of the MTC at 5 AM on August 2
Fly out of SLC at 8:31 AM; Arrive in New York, JFK Airport at 3:14 PM
Leave JFK at 5:40 PM; Land in Vienna, Austria on Aug 3 at 8:25 AM
Leave Vienna at 10:20 AM; Land in Donest'k at 1:50 PM
I'm flying Delta for the first flight and Austrian Air for the last two flights. I am allowed 2 checked bags, 1 carry-on bag limited to 17 lbs, and 1 small personal item. I'm working on packing today. I am pretty sure that most of my stuff will fit, but I will definitely be sending home a package of some things I don't need. I am going to include in that a bunch of pictures of the MTC experience (since I haven't been able to send anything home yet). Oh and out of curiosity, do you want me to ship home the extra towel that I brought? It's no big deal either way, but I definitely could leave it here.
Everyone is so excited to leave, it's awesome! Some are more freaked out than others, but that's mostly a healthy freak out. I know that we're all going to have a big slap in the face one way or another in adjusting to, not only in-field mission schedule, but also a new country and culture. I'm more excited than worried, though. In a way, I'm kind of excited for that struggle. It'll let me know that I'm actually out here doing something meaningful.
We had a really good devotional yesterday (last Tuesday devotional!!) about the importance of the Spirit and how the mission is a refiner's fire. He pointed out that the two-fold purpose of our mission is to 1- Invite others to come to Christ, and 2- Sanctify ourselves. Sanctification is the process that leads to repentance, which is a turning one's life towards Christ. He included lots of analogies about how the Lord puts us into a furnace of afflictions in order to shape us into worthy sons and daughters of God, but it doesn't work if we try to hide ourselves from the affliction. Sometimes we try to hold back that little piece of us, thinking "it's just part of who I am". But God knows best who we are and who we should be. The best piece of advice of the night was to ask God every day for insight into who you really are. I thought it was a really good talk.
I've made some really good, deep friendships here. I have definitely grown close to these guys in the district. We've had awesome conversations on everything from deeply spiritual to life plans. A few of the guys I am definitely going to look up after the mission. Like Elder Zach Brasier. He has come to be one of my best friends. He goes to BYU-I, and he's from Las Vegas. He's a goofball at times, but always has his head on straight when it comes to serious matters. We have a similar sense of humor, which is hard to find sometimes. You said in a previous letter that I had mentioned him, but never told you anything about him. So there you go; Brasier in a nutshell!
Thank you so much for the package! I loved the pictures you sent. It looks like you've been having a pretty full summer! The recipe book is perfect as well, thank you Mom! Much more intensely helpful and organized than I would have ever made it myself. Also, thank you so much for the CDs! I love them.
Dad mentioned wanting to be able to read some Russian words. The first step there would be to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. There are good lessons and examples in those books that I left behind, as well as good lessons online when you type in something like "learn russian beginner". Here's an example:
Семьи могут быть вместе навеки
(syem-EE mah-GOOT bweet FMYES-tye na-VYE-kee)
(syem-EE mah-GOOT bweet FMYES-tye na-VYE-kee)
That's the best transliteration I can come up with. the biggest things to remember there are that "ь" doesn't make a sound (it's a soft sign; it helps you speak the word correctly), and the Russian letter "е" isn't an "ee" sound, but a "yeh" sound, like in the word "yes". Russian really doesn't translate well into English. You have to hear it spoken before you really understand the structure of Russian and how it sounds. Oh and FYI, if you send me anything in Russian from Google Translate, I'm going just going to sit and scratch my head at it, because Google doesn't know how to formulate Russian sentances out of English ones. It tries to translate directly, word for word- which doesn't work. Fair warning. But, yeah, you should definitely learn a little Russian! That'd be awesome! If you remind me, I can include a small 'reading Russian' lesson in each of my letters.
Is Taylor getting pretty excited to head out? I'm plenty excited for him! My advice to him, if he's still trying to prepare for the mission and life isn't too crazy right now, is to not focus on the language too much. Focus instead on learning a bit about the culture, and start thinking about those people in your personal scripture study. I felt pretty well prepared on the scripture knowledge as I came in, but I'm constantly reading them with new eyes, thinking about how I could convey some eternal truth to the people of Ukraine using that passage. It really helps focus your study. Also, Taylor is probably going to want to play plenty of piano here, so I'd suggest bringing some sheet music. Just saying.
Dad, thanks for telling me a bit about your mission! I'd still like to hear more, but what you've said about your MTC experience was pretty cool. How was your first transfer in the field?
Hmm.. Things are going pretty good here. A week from today I'll be landing in Ukraine, which is such an awesome thought! Everything here is just wrapping up, getting ready to ship us out. Whee!
I love you all and I hope that my missionary service is blessing your lives. I know it's blessing mine. I'll keep you in my prayers if you keep me in yours! Well, I'll pray for you anyways, but still. Love y'all!
Love,
Старейшина Брандон Портэр
or just,
Brandon
"And thus it is" MTC Week #8
Familia!
Wrong language. I don't really care at the moment, though. So, hey, how's it going? I've loved getting your Dear Elders! It makes me feel like I was there with you doing all that fun stuff. Oh, and let Grandpa know that I've been getting his messages and I really appreciate those little notes too! Has there been any news lately on his health?
Is Joseph feeling better yet? I'm sorry, kid. I know how much that hurts. Did his eardrum end up bursting? Careful what you do with him while he's like that. I still can't watch the shows that I saw while my eardrum popped last time. Just thinking about it makes me shiver. Sorry, again.
Bailey! How was EFY! I want to hear all about it! Did you pig out on pizza? Did you have a crush of the week? What was his favorite candy? Was it Mike and Ikes? I expect an answer to all of these questions and more soon.
Hey, I have run into Spencer a couple times now! It was great to catch up. He looks like he could pass for being in his late twenties, he looks so mature, but he's still the same old Spencer when we talk. He's had some pretty cool experiences! Oh, and a bunch of his airforce buddies are new elders in my zone (four of them). I thought that was a cool connection. So yeah! I actually saw him right after I sent off my emails last Wednesday and had to wait until just now to tell you about it. Oh, and I've also seen Madsen's cousin, Michael Roberts around everywhere. He's on my floor in the residence halls. He's in a different zone, but still. The MTC is only so big, and there's only so many Russian elders.
You said we're getting missionary plaques? Awesome! I found out that I was the only missionary that didn't have one around here (I'm also one of few that's not born and raised Utahn, so.. yeah). As for what I'd put in it.. I think probably Ether 12, the verses about weak things becoming strong. I love that whole exchange with Moroni and the Lord, where Moroni says how terrible he is at writing, and the Lord tells him "Fools mock, but they shall mourn" continuing to explain how through Him we can have weak things made strong. So, take that however you want for the plaque. I debated over that for a while, because I love some other scriptures in Moroni (Moroni is my favorite prophet to read, btw) but I think that one fits best. So there you have it.
Nothing has really happened recently. This last week the members of the district have been getting on each other's nerves a lot more, which hasn't exactly been fun. I'm trying to keep the perspective that it's only for a short time that we'll be in such close quarters with these people. I want to salvage the friendships I've made here. I mean, they are all such great missionaries, and great people in general! It would be a shame to leave them on bad terms. And I can't wait until we get back and we can meet up and ACTUALLY speak Russian to each other! That'll be great.
I probably haven't told you this, but I end up teaching Russian to my district-mates. Whenever a concept is introduced, it just sticks with me. I'm sure that's no surprise to you, but I have definitely appreciated the opportunity to actually help some people while still in the MTC. Plus, teaching just really focuses me and motivates me to know my material. I think that applies to any teaching circumstance.
I am definitely ready to head to Ukraine. It's felt like forever here. And it's really interesting how everyone handles the idea of heading out differently. I'm all ready to go, and have been for the last while. I know that the language will come best out there, even though it'll be very difficult, and I know that the Lord is on my side. But most people are just plain freaked out to go. They really want to go, but they don't quite trust that everything will be okay. Maybe I should be more worried? Nah. Never. I had a long conversation with one of my companions about that last night, because he's developed insomnia ever since he realized how short a time we have left.
As of today I am officially not senior companion anymore. We take turns in our companionship of three. Yup, that was short lived. Time to crawl back into my shell of lack of responsibility. Actually, I don't really care about that, except for the fact that Tautkus is now senior, and he has gone crazy with power, telling us all sorts of stuff, "Thus decrees the senior companion". It's amazing how little power it takes to corrupt some people :P Even if it's in joking. So now they have no obligation to listen to me about when to head out or anything. Not that they did anyways while I did have that power. They are extreme type A stress levels, which is really funny considering how very not type A I am. But I digress.
Today I'm a little under the weather with a stomach issue, but it's not anything really terrible. It just makes it so no food sounds good, even though I'm pretty hungry. I thought you might like to be updated on that, because I know that if I don't include that kind of stuff then you'll worry that something bad is going on that I'm not telling you about. I know you, Mom. I'm fine :) See? I'm smiling!
Something random I haven't told you yet; the Dear Elder system isn't perfect. They keep mixing up my mail with an Elder Braedon Porter going to Korea. I don't really know how that works, but every once in a while I get a stack of Dear Elders and I'm like "YES" but then I start reading it and it really confuses me. I'd get a letter that says "Love Mom" at the end, but the contents are full of names and places that I have no idea what they are. The same happens the other way around, so sometimes I don't end up getting your messages for half a week while they re-sort the misdirected mail. Luckily he's leaving next week, so they can't get us mixed up anymore (I think..)
I love you all! Keep keeping me updated, you've done a fantastic job thus far. You're the best family I could have. Thanks!
And thus it is.
Love,
Brandon
"Ha, I speak Russian. Apparently" -MTC Week #7
Семья!!
For those of you back home that don't speak Russian, that means family. Ha, I speak Russian. Apparently.
It feels so surreal to still be in the MTC. We've been here so long and we're almost there.. The other day I woke up and had "David after the Dentist" run through my head: "Is this gonna be forever?.." Then I started wondering if the rest of my life was a lie, fabricated so that I would be content to live here forever with no real hope of escape. In case you haven't noticed, it gets really, really monotonous here. Don't get me wrong, I'm having fun and learning a lot, but I so wish I could be out in the field now. Less than a month left!
The fourth of July was weird here. I had a strange moment where I realized that it was my first Independence Day in forever where I didn't go to the Bickmore's party. That was a little sad, not gonna lie. But we had a special devotional where we sang American songs and talked about how amazing a work was able to come out of this country based around the ideal of freedom. Some foreigners complained about how it was too nationalistic and degrading, but I thought it was a great way to put the celebration of our country into a gospel perspective. We then were allowed to go out and have an ice cream bar while watching the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire (while on MTC grounds, of course). It was pretty fun. And Elder Brasier (who is now our DL, by the way) kept me sane through the whole thing, throwing out random references to movies and songs and acting epileptic. We've been here too long, we have to entertain ourselves somehow.
Oh! And we had one of the best devotionals on Sunday, in my opinion. Jenny Oaks Baker came and gave a fireside/violin performance, relating it all to our relationship to God. She played "Amazing Grace" and others, and I felt the Spirit so strongly. I have a really strong tie to music and feeling the Spirit, I've noticed. She also had her three daughters get up and perform a song together (I think it was "I Am a Child of God"). They're all between 5 and 11, and it was really good! That's probably my favorite devotional we've had.
Bailey's at EFY!! I can't wait to hear what she thought of it! I can't remember, is she at BYU for her session? If so, she's just three blocks from me. That's so weird! Three blocks and 2 years away.
To Joseph:
Hey, kid! I've been doing really well, thanks for asking! It sounds like you had a lot of exciting times this week with friends and costumes and parties. And you're going to start karate?? That's awesome! Thank you for taking the time to tell me about it. What have I learned here?.. I've learned everything. Absolutely everything. You know, someday you can come here and learn everything too. That's in thirteen years. Are you getting ready? Have you packed yet? Love you, Joe!
Other than that, I don't think a whole lot has happened here. I'm still learning Russian, in case you were wondering. So, yeah. Oh, I think you'd enjoy hearing that I have a little tradition here. Every night when we're going back to the residence hall, Elder Brasier and I sing "Do You Hear the People Sing?" the whole way, instrumentals and all. He enjoys Les Mis as much as I do, so it has been fun talking about all that with him.
Soon I'll find time to get a picture sent to you of my district. I think you'd like them all (whoever else is reading this.. you'd like them too).
Is there anything else you want from me? I can send anything from here, if you'd like.. Not that there's a whole lot here to begin with. Just throwing that out there.
Hey, if you see any of my friends, let them know how to contact me. I've loved hearing from everyone that has already sent me messages!
Love you lots,
BrandonPS. You said something about wanting to send packages. That's like handing a missionary a blank check. Not that I'm complaining, of course.
For those of you back home that don't speak Russian, that means family. Ha, I speak Russian. Apparently.
It feels so surreal to still be in the MTC. We've been here so long and we're almost there.. The other day I woke up and had "David after the Dentist" run through my head: "Is this gonna be forever?.." Then I started wondering if the rest of my life was a lie, fabricated so that I would be content to live here forever with no real hope of escape. In case you haven't noticed, it gets really, really monotonous here. Don't get me wrong, I'm having fun and learning a lot, but I so wish I could be out in the field now. Less than a month left!
The fourth of July was weird here. I had a strange moment where I realized that it was my first Independence Day in forever where I didn't go to the Bickmore's party. That was a little sad, not gonna lie. But we had a special devotional where we sang American songs and talked about how amazing a work was able to come out of this country based around the ideal of freedom. Some foreigners complained about how it was too nationalistic and degrading, but I thought it was a great way to put the celebration of our country into a gospel perspective. We then were allowed to go out and have an ice cream bar while watching the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire (while on MTC grounds, of course). It was pretty fun. And Elder Brasier (who is now our DL, by the way) kept me sane through the whole thing, throwing out random references to movies and songs and acting epileptic. We've been here too long, we have to entertain ourselves somehow.
Oh! And we had one of the best devotionals on Sunday, in my opinion. Jenny Oaks Baker came and gave a fireside/violin performance, relating it all to our relationship to God. She played "Amazing Grace" and others, and I felt the Spirit so strongly. I have a really strong tie to music and feeling the Spirit, I've noticed. She also had her three daughters get up and perform a song together (I think it was "I Am a Child of God"). They're all between 5 and 11, and it was really good! That's probably my favorite devotional we've had.
Bailey's at EFY!! I can't wait to hear what she thought of it! I can't remember, is she at BYU for her session? If so, she's just three blocks from me. That's so weird! Three blocks and 2 years away.
To Joseph:
Hey, kid! I've been doing really well, thanks for asking! It sounds like you had a lot of exciting times this week with friends and costumes and parties. And you're going to start karate?? That's awesome! Thank you for taking the time to tell me about it. What have I learned here?.. I've learned everything. Absolutely everything. You know, someday you can come here and learn everything too. That's in thirteen years. Are you getting ready? Have you packed yet? Love you, Joe!
Other than that, I don't think a whole lot has happened here. I'm still learning Russian, in case you were wondering. So, yeah. Oh, I think you'd enjoy hearing that I have a little tradition here. Every night when we're going back to the residence hall, Elder Brasier and I sing "Do You Hear the People Sing?" the whole way, instrumentals and all. He enjoys Les Mis as much as I do, so it has been fun talking about all that with him.
Soon I'll find time to get a picture sent to you of my district. I think you'd like them all (whoever else is reading this.. you'd like them too).
Is there anything else you want from me? I can send anything from here, if you'd like.. Not that there's a whole lot here to begin with. Just throwing that out there.
Hey, if you see any of my friends, let them know how to contact me. I've loved hearing from everyone that has already sent me messages!
Love you lots,
Brandon
"The language geek that I am" -MTC Week #6
(Pictures of the MTC at the bottom of this letter)
Hey family! Or more accurately, Dad, Joseph and Aubrey!
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Hey family! Or more accurately, Dad, Joseph and Aubrey!
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First off, computers here absolutely hate me. Every week I have a different issue. I think they are bent on making me stressed no matter what.
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So, I guess I should clarify, when I said that a bunch of elders left for Russian countries, I meant that the older districts left. My district is still exactly the same, but this last week there have been no older Russian elders here. Speaking of which, we have new Russian elders coming in today! They come in every 6 weeks, because that's how long it takes for Russian countries to let a wave of missionaries come in.
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The language is coming along pretty well! I can do plenty of things, such as pray, bear testimony, talk about family, and teach most of the first 4 lessons in Preach my Gospel. We definitely have an accelerated learning curve here at the MTC. I can read the Cyrrilic alphabet really easily now, too. All of your lessons with our "progressing investigators" have been in Russian for the last few weeks. That was extremely stressful at first, but now it's going pretty good! You would be proud.
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The language is coming along pretty well! I can do plenty of things, such as pray, bear testimony, talk about family, and teach most of the first 4 lessons in Preach my Gospel. We definitely have an accelerated learning curve here at the MTC. I can read the Cyrrilic alphabet really easily now, too. All of your lessons with our "progressing investigators" have been in Russian for the last few weeks. That was extremely stressful at first, but now it's going pretty good! You would be proud.
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You know, there are a lot more cognates (similar words) between Russian and English than you would think! For example, all the words for the months of the year are almost exactly the same as in English. Being the language geek that I am, I have been looking over all these similarities and differences (also with Spanish and German) and it is very interesting to see how all languages weave together in some way. Yup, I'm definitely a language geek.
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I guess I haven't mentioned the temple in previous letters. We've been going to the temple every Wednesday (P-Day). I've participated in it every week except for when I was really sick, and I always get something great out of the session. I sure hope that we'll be allowed to go to the Kiev temple while in Ukraine!
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Oh! I met my new mission president this week! At least, I think it was this week. They all run together. His name is President Campero, from Bolivia (I think you knew that). He and his wife are AWESOME! FIrst thing he did when they walked in was shake our hands and hug each of us. They are so grandparent-like, I can already tell I'm going to absolutely love them. And their first language is Spanish, which is a really interesting mix. In addition to my Russian, I am brushing up a little bit on my Spanish, just so that I can communicate with them more efficiently. Sister Campero has so much faith. She speaks very little English as it is, and she is willing to go to a country in which she doesn't speak the language there either. Such cool people!
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Oh! I met my new mission president this week! At least, I think it was this week. They all run together. His name is President Campero, from Bolivia (I think you knew that). He and his wife are AWESOME! FIrst thing he did when they walked in was shake our hands and hug each of us. They are so grandparent-like, I can already tell I'm going to absolutely love them. And their first language is Spanish, which is a really interesting mix. In addition to my Russian, I am brushing up a little bit on my Spanish, just so that I can communicate with them more efficiently. Sister Campero has so much faith. She speaks very little English as it is, and she is willing to go to a country in which she doesn't speak the language there either. Such cool people!
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I have been loving reading the scriptures every day. Since it's been every day, I have obviously been picking up some funny scriptures in addition to the super spiritual ones. My current favorite is in Alma 1:15, which describes Nehor's death as "ignominious". Elder Brasier and I just think that's hilarious. We sit in class and every once in a while we'll look at each other and say, "Man... that was pretty ignominious". I've also been marking every time there's an emoticon in the scriptures (like that little winking face Bailey likes ;) ).
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Oh, funny teaching moment. So we were teaching the Law of Chastity to our progressing investigator, Denise. I took the lead because I can speak the best usually. I wanted him to read Jacob 2:28 (the Lord delighteth in the chastity of women) to drive home the point of how sacred his marriage is to God. But in russian, the word for 8 and 7 are very close, so I accidentally directed him to verse 27. Read that, and just imagine the face he gave us, especially since we prefaced it by talking about how this directly applies to his life. Oh, I can't wait to be making those mistakes with REAL Russian/Ukrainian people!
Oh, funny teaching moment. So we were teaching the Law of Chastity to our progressing investigator, Denise. I took the lead because I can speak the best usually. I wanted him to read Jacob 2:28 (the Lord delighteth in the chastity of women) to drive home the point of how sacred his marriage is to God. But in russian, the word for 8 and 7 are very close, so I accidentally directed him to verse 27. Read that, and just imagine the face he gave us, especially since we prefaced it by talking about how this directly applies to his life. Oh, I can't wait to be making those mistakes with REAL Russian/Ukrainian people!
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It's really weird seeing people around here that I knew before. All the Utahns see their friends everywhere, but I am firmly Washingtonian now and I haven't seen too many people. It's especially weird to think that Dad was here as a Spanish elder. My branch president keeps making fun of them, saying that they have the easy, wimpy language (he's such a cool guy!). Sorry Dad. Russian is just better, I guess :P
It's really weird seeing people around here that I knew before. All the Utahns see their friends everywhere, but I am firmly Washingtonian now and I haven't seen too many people. It's especially weird to think that Dad was here as a Spanish elder. My branch president keeps making fun of them, saying that they have the easy, wimpy language (he's such a cool guy!). Sorry Dad. Russian is just better, I guess :P
Well, I don't have much else to say right now. I love you all, and I'm working hard here. I love this gospel and can't wait to share it. Have fun at girl's camp, mom and bailey!
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Love,
Brandon!
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| This picture was taken the first week at the MTC. And for some reason Brandon is pointing to the wrong location. ?? |
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| MTC District |
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| MTC District |
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| "Eyes closed. Thanks, Dad. I bet I'm going bald, too." |
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| "Our classroom at the MTC" |
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| "Our zone for the first transfer (6 weeks)" |
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| "Our first temple walk. Epic." |
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| "I'm so happy to be holding that flag! As are Elder Tautkus and Harris" |
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| Brandon's MTC companionship of 3. He says: "This sums up our companionship." ?? |
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| Brandon's good friend, Zach Brasier. |
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| Brandon, Sister Tenney, Elder Brasier, Sister Paletta |
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| "Elder Bean. Ninja" |
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| Elder Silver, Brandon, Elder Bean, Elder Harris |
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| Brandon, Sister Cheng, Elder Stegeby |
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| Brandon and Elder Stegeby (from Sweden) |
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| Brother Porter - MTC Teacher |
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| 7 week party! |
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