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
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