Family,
This has been kind of a crazy week. I'm still not quite sure what to think of it. I'll just start with the harder news first. This week we had a lesson with a less active man named M. He's this awesome English translator that is way funny and weighs like 350 pounds. On Thursday we had a lesson set up with him at his home. When we got to his apartment it was very strange, because he wasn't answering the domaphone (like a doorbell that lets people into the apartment), so we had to call his neighbor and have them let us in. When we got up to his door, M was at the door, with droopy eyes and snoring heavily. He immediately staggered into the apartment and collapsed on the couch, snoring even more loudly. Looking around, we realized that something was way wrong: There was a pile of used cigarettes, a large pot of black tea, and then 5 bottles of heart medication spread throughout the apartment. We realized pretty soon that he had overdosed on heart medication, probably after having raised his heart rate from the tea and junk. It was so sad. There was vomit all over the floor, and this grown man was just laying there, unable to form a coherent sentence through his snores. We called an ambulance for him and waited.
Luckily, we had a member with us who was able to speak freely with the nurses that showed up. It was way sketchy how they treated M. That's a different story in itself. Basically, in the end they told us that the stuff they had injected into him was going to make him better and there was no need to take him to the hospital, so they left. We left that night, weirded out enough as it was. Then the next afternoon we found out that he had died in the night. I had absolutely no idea what to think about that. I still don't really. We were the last people that M saw before passing on. That scene is burned into my memory forever. So that was pretty definitely the low point of the week. Don't worry, I'm fine now. It was just one of those moments.
Oddly enough, the rest of the week has been fantastic. Just after we found out that news, we had a couple small miracles. First, someone stopped us and asked us if he could come to church with us, then someone called us from a brochure that we had handed out (which never happens), and we also had some fantastically spiritual lessons that we had with investigators.
Two of these lessons especially stand out; S and Z. S is a Ukrainian that is fluent in English, Spanish and probably a bunch more languages. We immediately hit it off, conversing a little bit in Spanish (even though mine is heavily tainted with Russian), and had some good discussion on books and stuff. In the past she apparently hasn't been extremely interested in our message, mostly just wanting English practice from us. But this time, after the pleasantries, we delved deep into a spiritual discussion about how the Apostasy happened and the importance of a living prophet today. She couldn't deny it and we could tell that she knew it was true, but she is still at the point where she is scared that it really could be true, so she is going to need some time to let it sink in. But she is very ready for this, and she will be an awesome member, I can see it.
The other one was Z. He's Nigerian, which instantly makes him awesome. We watched Tad R. Callister's talk from last conference about the Book of Mormon (GREAT talk!) and he drank it all in. His questions were very well considered and betrayed a definite spiritual depth there. A good amount of the discussion was about how the Bible says that no one may add or take away from these words (Rev. 22-ish), which is always interesting to talk about. He totally blew us out of the water when we asked him what he thought about all of this, and he said, "Hold on, I need to first study this book and pray to God to find if it's true. And if it's true, then of course I'll have no choice but to follow the Lord's path for me"... You may have to be a missionary to appreciate just how unusual and jawdroppingly amazing that answer is. So, he's cool. Sidenote, his language, Igbo, sounds way cool! General Conference is translated into it on LDS.org. I'd suggest looking it up if you have time.
Well, that's the bulk of my news from this week. And yes, in case you're all wondering, it has been pretty cold. I've only seen one dead body in the street, but that was closer to Christmas, so it doesn't count. But, yeah, wind chill will getcha. Don't worry, we stay plenty warm. I'm wearing a scarf for the first time in my life, so that's sweet.
Anyways, I love you all! I'm doing well, health-wise, office-wise and.. whatever-else-wise I could say here. Talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Brandon Porter
We asked Brandon lots of questions about the cold - which has been so extreme that many people have died on the streets in Ukraine. Dan asked Brandon if the mission president has given them new guidelines for staying warm/not being outside too much. This is what Brandon replied:
Don't worry about me, I'm fine with warmth. Being in the Office, I've heard a lot about the whole thing with the weather killing a bunch of people. It is pretty dang cold. But I'm able to dress warm, protect against the wind and such. President Campero hasn't come right out and said what weather we can't go out in, but he did come out this last week and say that we are allowed to come inside when we get cold. Kind of vague and seems like it's common sense, but plenty of missionaries don't really have common sense anymore. They're all like, "We're supposed to be outside contacting in any weather, any time we don't have a lesson!" Don't worry, I have common sense. And we just bought a space heater for our apartment, so we're nice and toasty.
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