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!
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