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
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